She turns the great eight!

My little C turned eight this year. I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast. Here she is eating a mint oreo doughnut- Lucky that her birthday is close to St. Patrick's day.

She requested Red Robin's that night-mostly because she knows that she will get sung too while there and get free ice cream.

Her birthday party was the next day at a pottery studio. The birthday room was decorated really cute.

The theme of the party was "Bank on a good time". So they each picked out a bank to paint. They each had to paint three coats on, so we were doing this for awhile. They all did great.

All finished with her horse bank.

The birthday cake.

Mmmm.....cake!

The whole group-messy faces and all.

And the snow keeps coming..

This winter has been a hard one. It has been bitterly cold and has brought lots of snow along with it. We had church and school canceled more times then any other. We tried to make the best of it by building snow tunnels, and snowmen.

Little C was determined to make a snow tunnel...

And she finally succeeded.

Swimming in the New Year

We decided to go to a big water park to ring in the New Year. We booked a room in the hotel that the water park was attached to. The girls got to sleep in their own bunk beds so that made everyone happy.

Even KP got a little relaxing in before we swam our little hearts out.

Here is lots of swimming pictures of the family...

We got to swim until late and then do it again the next day before we headed out. Over the midnight hour we had a few activities to keep the girls awake-but didn't take too much brain power.

We did our annual puzzle over New Year's-this one we picked because it was simple and it glowed in the dark.

The next day we went back to the water park for more fun-but first we had to energize with some breakfast

They had some really fun slides that kept the girls going and going back for more. They had slides just right for little C to be adventurous, but not a baby slide. She loved them.

B liked all the slides you could use with the inner-tubes.

Big A was a good sport when a girl asked her to go down the slides with her. The girls mom did not want to go down the slides, but this girl was determined to find someone to go with her. Big A obliged, and the girl hung out with us for about an hour or more going down different slides. I was so proud of Big A giving up what she wanted to help this girl out.

Back to the Caves!

This year we went back to Morengo cave for our annual cave visit since it was on our way down to our New Year's Eve activity that we planned.

This really is a beautiful cave on the inside.

My attempt at a selfie in the cave. I seem to always be taking the pictures but never end up in them.

And another attempt of the family-just came out blurry.

December Happenings

Little C was decorating her room for Christmas and made a manger for her Natvity set. I liked the books she used for the sides. I thought they summed up the feelings of the Christ Child perfectly.

Little C had a speaking part in their holiday program. They were stating the whole "twas the night before Christmas" story. She did a great job.

KP and I had our birthdays in December.
Big A had a flute concert on KP's birthday. It was fun to hear the kids in their first band concert.

A few days before Christmas we made some gingerbread houses.

The traditional opening of the Pajamas on Christmas Eve-including the American Girl Doll of Caroline this year.