Christmas 2008

We had Christmas with Grammy and Papa this year(we just barely moved into their house with them for the time being). We had a great christmas. The BIG present of the year from Santa was you both got brand new bikes. Ashlyn also got some littlest pet shop toys and a bunk bed for her babies. Ryker also got a new Corvette to play with and some Power Ranger toys.

December

It has been a month since the last post and a lot has gone on. We finally got all moved into the house and two days after we moved we turned around and packed up for a fun vacation to Utah. We had a great time in Utah with family and friends as we celebrated Thanksgiving, my birthday, Ashlyn's birthday and my little nephew Jackson's birthday, not to mention the best day ever for shopping(the day after Thanksgiving) which me and my sister Katie had a blast doing, unfortunately we do not have many pictures of our vacation, but we are very thankful that we got to go. After vacation Ashlyn had her first Christmas program with her school, I know I am a little partial but the Kindergarteners were the highlight of the night. We have also wrote our letters to Santa. And just this last Friday the 19th we celebrated Ashlyn's 5th birthday with a party which included 15 five and six year olds(a little crazy but it went better than expected).

Ashlyn's Christmas Program

This is Ashlyn saying her part.

I made myself a snowball as perfect as can be,

I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me,

I made it some pajamas and a pillow for it's head

then last night it ran away,

but first it wet the bed.

After they said their poems they sang Let it snow and Jingle bell rock. Jingle Bell Rock was the hit of the night, they got to wear their Santa hats and put on their sunglasses and they danced as they sang. I have to admit I loved every minute of it.

Santa Letters

This is Peter and the kids writing their letters to Santa a couple of weeks ago. It was so cute, they were so excited. You can clearly tell by Ashlyn's pictures exactly what she wants, Ryker's however is a little harder to tell but I am sure that Santa still understands it. After we wrote the letters we burned them in the fire so that the smoke from the letters would burn up the chimney and travel to the North Pole so that Santa could read them.

Utah Birthday Celebration

Friday Dec. 19th-Happy Birthday Ashlyn!

We had quite the party for our 5 year old! We invited all 17 kids from her Kindergarten class and a few kids from our old ward. First we ate some pizza. Next we played a little game of horseshoes and played until everyone could win a prize and last we played pin the tail on the donkey. After that we opened presents, sang Happy Birthday, and ate some cake. Overall it was a great time and it couldn't have gone any better considering the amount of kids we had here. We were also lucky to have her teacher Ms. Shasta come celebrate with us-she was a real tropper and stayed the whole time. She was spoiled by her friends and we are so thankful for all our friends and family who helped us celebrate.

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Finally Halloween pictures!

It has only been a week and a half since Halloween and I feel like it has been a whole month! For those of you in Utah who didn't know we were moving-I am staying here in AZ, sorry! We are only moving about 10 minutes down the road but are excited and look forward to meeting even more new people and we are excited to see what our next callings in the church will be.

Our Halloween week was filled with activities. First off was pumpkin carving for FHE, followed by a party for Ryker at his preschool in which the kids got to dress up (I am a bad mom, I didn't take any pictures!) Next was a Trunk or Treat with our friends the Parkers, then Ashlyn had a Fall Festival party at her school and last but not least a fun Halloween night with the Wilsteads. For those of you who don't know the Wilsteads and had some what of a boring Halloween night-I suggest you get to know them before next years Halloween! Amy's parents neighborhood put on this great little fair (they shut down a street in their neighborhood) with tons of games with prizes, cotton candy, snow cones, homemade root beer, and hot dogs. Here are some pictures of the events, enjoy because with moving and going to Utah I probably won't have any more posts for a couple of weeks.

Pumpkin Carving

Ashlyn was so cute, she had drawn a picture of a pumpkin on a piece of paper of what she wanted her pumpkin to look like-so that is what daddy carved. Ryker didn't really care he just wanted his to be scary. Ashlyn had fun pulling the pumpkin guts out-Ryker didn't want to get dirty, but they both had fun popping out the eyes, nose, and mouth.

Trunk or treating
The kids fishing at the fishing pond. Ashlyn caught a real goldfish which she named Goldie. (Unfortunately Goldie swam down the toilet to swim with Nemo the next day).

Ryker, Ashyln, & Zach

Cupcakes from the cake walk

Fall Festival at Ashlyn's school

One of the games was throwing a wet sponge to try and hit another person-(I am glad I wasn't the other person!)

Halloween Night

(Unfortunately by the night of Halloween the kids were tired of getting pictures taken and I think we had worn them out by dressing them up too many times before the big night. They don't realize how lucky they are. When I was little it was one night of Halloween, not a whole month of it!)

Zak, Kinzy, and Ashlyn out Trick or Treating



These are pictures from a really cool house that kind of went all out on the decorating. As you can tell Ashlyn loved it and will pose for any picture by anything you want-on the other hand Ryker was scared and didn't want to be up there!