Family Christmas Parties

This year, we had four christmas parties on the same day. We had to choose what was most important and family always wins. So, we went to Reed's family party at lunch time and then to the Millett's Christmas party that evening. It worked out great!

The Durrant Family Christmas party was fun as usual. We were able to get a picture with Reeds grandmother. This is spunky grandma Durrant and we just love her! 

The kids did a "cake" walk where they received a present from great-grandma durrant when their number was called. 

Kids doing the cake walk. 

Kaden received Super Samurai guys and he loved them. 

Abbie and her present. 

The "cousins" are always interested in a rousing game of Chess. I wonder where Isaac gets his love of chess from? (James is holding his daughters hula hoop...what a great dad!) 

There was some intense games played. Chess is always a favorite! 

The Millett Christmas party started in Layton this year and we first went to tour the Layton City Lights. They were awesome! 

The kids kept pointing to the figure that they liked the best and then wanted me to take a picture of it. 

The kids really love Christmas lights! 

Every year there is a program. Of course, only after a deliciously, yummy dinner, provided by all. The program started with the oldest (my dad) and he entertained us with a really funny huntin' dog story about p-h-y-d-i-o-u-x (FIDO). We were all laughing! 

For the rest of the program, there were musical numbers and other funny skits. We always have a good time when we are together. My grandma played a duet with aunt Vicki....and her love of music shows through to all of the grandkids. There was a lot of musical talents shared! The evening ended with everyone wanting pictures with Grandma Millett. We love her and enjoy getting to spend time with her! Love you Grandma! 

We finally built a Snowman, Snowman, Snowman

The kids have been asking since the first snowfall to build a snowman. We didn't have time to build one with the very first snow and then it was gone before we were able to make one. The kids have been watching every day for more snow. We finally got enough snow, that if we rolled the snowball across the entire front yard, using all the snow, we had enough snow to make a snowman. 

The kids added all the snowman parts from our snowman kit, even the "bubble blower" (as they call it). 

The snowman melted a little bit that day but when it got really cold that night, it froze and stayed for over a week. 

The kids were SO proud of their snowman. 

We had SO much fun building our snowman. 

You can see that it took almost all the snow in the front yard to build our snowman. 

The kids LOVED on their snowman. 

Everyone that helped build out snowman for 2010! (Isaac was still in school but, we didn't want the snow to melt this time before we were able to build our snowman)

Abbie and Kaden playing in the snow, making tiny snowballs.  

These two are such good little buddies! 

Our little dancer!

Last week Abbie had a little dance recital. It was the last twenty minutes of class before winter break started. Abbie and her classmates showed us what they have been learning. 

Showing us their turns and spins. 

I feel bad I took this picture just before she straightened her leg. She did such a great job! 

Abbie loves her dance class and all she is learning! I can't wait to see their whole performances! It will be really fun to watch! Great job, Abbie! You are quite the little dancer!!

Isaac is 8 and it's a Chess Themed Party!

I can't believe Isaac is 8 already! It seems like time has just flown by and he's grown up so fast!  

After I had the cupcakes all set up and done Isaac wanted to move the "chess" cupcakes to make it look like a real game was being played. If you haven't guessed...chess was the theme of the party. 

With Isaac's birthday being so close to christmas we've always just had a family party. I've always promised the kids that they can have a friend party when they turn 8! So, we chose chess as the theme for the party because it's Isaac's favorite game and went with it! We borrowed my friend's HUGE chess board for the party! It was a huge hit!

Dad and Abbie blew up a few balloons but, with all the christmas decorations we kept the birthday party decorations to a minimum. 

We played guess who and chess at the same time. While the boys were learning the moves of each chess peice they got to play another game with it. When a chess peice was captured, the team got to take a guess to figure out the other's guess-who person. It was perfect because the boys learned the general rules of chess without having to get someone in check mate!(might have taken them a little too long) Then we played don't eat pete! Each of the boys took three turns! They were having such a fun time playing this game. 

The boy's expression when they tried to eat "pete" was so hilarious! I had only planned to play one, maybe two rounds but, the boys wanted to play more, so we played three rounds of "Don't eat Pete!" 

Then we played the chocolate, oven-mitt, dice game. If you got doubles, you put on the oven mitts and tried to eat the candy bar out of the wrapper. I was surprised that everyone got at least one chance at the chocolate bar since it's all by chance of "doubles" on the dice! 

Isaac was excited about the last activity which was to create your own chess peice. The boy's imaginations of a what they thought a cool chess peice looked like was endless....they had everything they needed to create a marshmallow, chess peice with all the fixin's! 

It was fun to see the boy's creativity! 

Some boy's had extra "eyes" to see other opponents moves or special cannons to blast the other peices when they were captured. So creative! 

This was Isaac's mythical chess peice. 

Some boy's chess peices had all sorts of powers to take other chess peices! 

Isaac blowing out his candles on his "chess" cupcake board. 

Opening presents...the boy's knew him well...he loved all of his presents! 

Abbie asked Daddy to re-lite her cupcake...she chose the "queen" for her cupcake. 

Of course, when Abbie had her re-lit, Isaac wanted to blow out a candle again! Too funny! 

The boy's each took their chess peice creations home with them to enjoy later! 

This cake is from the family party! We had this on his acutual birthday! Grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins were able to come celebrate! We had dinner...Isaac's favorite..PIZZA! We had it with an assortment of his favorite fruits: mangos, bananas, clementine oranges, raspberries and a fresh fruit dip. YUM! 

Then we opened presents and had cake and ice cream! Isaac got a new suit from mom and dad for his upcoming baptism! He's going to look sharp! 

Isaac, we love you so much! You bring such happiness, excitement and pure joy to our home! We love you and you are the best big brother! Happy 8th birthday!