Christmas Concert

Trey had his first band concert this year. He is playing the Trumpet and surprisingly, picked it up rather quickly.

Funny story...Trey told me the concert started at 10 a.m. So I dropped the kids off at school and headed home to do a couple of things before I went back to the school. I planned to leave at 9:30 so I would get there in good time to get a good seat. Well my phone rang at 9:20 and it was the school secretary asking if i was coming to the concert. I told her "yes" and she told me that they were just waiting for me to come!! I was mortified! I jumped in the car and raced to the school feeling like the worst mother ev-er! I guess they had announced that they were going to start as soon as the last 'mom' arrived. So of course, when I come running in, all the parents know that it is ME who is the 'last one' to arrive. Oh well, Trey was getting a little worried that I wasn't coming, but in my defense, I was told the wrong time!

Look at his concentration!

Great job Trey, keep up the good work!

It's Christmas!!

Christmas morning 2010 was just wonderful! The kids were all excited, of course! Santa did a great job this, if I do say so myself!

Treys highlight was his Madden 11 game for Wii; Emma was excited for her American Girl doll. All Leah kept asking for were Twinkle Toes. Do you all know what they are? They are shoes. Bright, sparkly shoes. Chase's big gift was a Thomas the Tank Engine Train set with the 'Shake, Shake Bridge'

Don and I love seeing the faces of our sweet children on Christmas morning! It definitely makes all the running around during the month of December worth it.

Trey opening his new shoes

Emma was so cute in her new jammies

Leah opening her Twinkle Toes (don't mind my dorky face!)

Chase got a lot of Wonder Pet toys
(they are so hard to find, but he loves them!)

We head down to Don's parents house on Christmas Day in the afternoon. The presents were a lot better this year. I don't like having all the cousins just ripping through their gifts and not seeing what people are getting. Mostly because then I don't know what my kids got and then I have no idea whose stuff is whose when we get ready to leave and I am trying to pack up the car! I know, silly, but it's due to my OCD. haha!

This is my niece, Hailey. Emma had her name this year and got her this awesome hat

This is my nephew, Hunter

And this is my nephew, Gavin. Isn't he cute??

We all had a wonderful Christmas! Don and I usually just fill each others stockings. This year Don got me the sweetest card. It was a Thomas Kincade card. When you pushed a button on the front, the windows on the house lit up. It was so beautiful. But what was more beautiful, was the message that Don left for me. He related the lights on the house to the way I light up his life and the light that I have given to him to be a better person. It was so sweet and probably one of the best presents he has ever given me.

A Christmas Carol

Trey is in the Accelerated Enrichment Program (AEP) at school. They put on the play, A Christmas Carol. Trey was Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge and managed to memorize all his parts. I think he has the acting bug now and is looking forward to trying out for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at our local playhouse in Cumberland this Spring.

Here are some pictures from his little school play:

The whole cast at the end of the play
The AEP Teacher is Mrs. Watson and she is just great!

At the end they had everyone take a turn to tell everyone their name and what part they played
Trey said his name and then "Ebenezer Scrooge" and then he let out a BIG "Bah Humbug!"

Trey and Aaron(his BF)
Aaron played Mr. Scrooges worker??I can't think of his name right now, darn-it.

Great Job Trey, and we look forward to seeing more of your acting abilities, your awesome!

Family Christmas Party

It was our year to host the Bishop Family Christmas Party! Don and I love to host dinner parties and we had a lot of fun planning this one.

Our Menu:
Prime Rib with homemade Au Jus sauce
Broccoli & cheese casserole (Stephanie's yummy recipe)
Bob Evans Mashed Potatoes
Meatballs
Homemade rolls
White grape and ginger ale punch

We also had some appetizers for our family to munch on while we waited for everyone to arrive.

Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip
Chips & homemade dip
Cheese tray
Little Smokies w/ bbq sauce

Here are some pictures of the day:

Dave and Stephanie(Don's sister)

Mary-Kate & Jason (Don's brother)

Don and I

Hunter and Trey playing Madden 11
(Do you think they are close enough to the TV?)

My sweet Nephew Gavin!

I had a picture of Don's parents but it was too blurry and didn't look good. Sorry!

Washington DC Temple Lights!

We have wanted to take the kids to see the lights at the Temple for many years, but each year things would always come up and we would miss the lights. So this year, we decided to go the first weekend in December before things got too crazy!

I'm so glad we did, the kids loved it and the spirit that we felt was wonderful. We met our good friends Ray and Laurel at the Temple with their kids and Laurel brought hot chocolate and donuts for us to have afterwards. It was really cold and the hot chocolate was great!

Thanksgiving

We traveled to my sister Jessica's in North Carolina for Thanksgiving. It is a 7 hour drive and on the way down it took us about 9 hours because the traffic was crazy!! But we made it there and it was a really great trip.

I was determined to get a family picture taken by my niece Katie for our Christmas card. She is a really talented photographer and it was a nice fall day at the park.
We stayed at the park and played for a little while too.

Chase

My niece Katie

Leah

Emma

Dinner was awesome! I have said it before, but she is a wonderful cook. So I was surprised that she bought Bob Evans mashed potatoes and didn't make her own. They were great, I don't think I will ever make homemade mashed potatoes again.

The kids table

This is what happens after you eat Turkey (haha)

The spread! (Trey looks a little worried)

We also went to see the movie 'Tangled' when we were there. If you haven't seen this one, go see it!!

The drive home was much nicer than the drive there. Thanks for having us Otto Family!

Halloween pumpkin carving and Trick-O-Treating

So here is the mandatory pumpkin carving and trick or treating post. We always have the missionaries from our church over for dinner and then to carve pumpkins. It's always interesting to see how competitive the missionaries get when carving a pumpkin.

Elder Davis is making plans for their pumpkin and Elder Hill is carving it.

I don't think Don or I were really into the carving thing this year, we decided to make homemade pizza for dinner and it was alot more work then we had anticipated, so we let the kids just do their own thing, with supervision of course.(man that was a long sentence!) So what we got was the simple triangle eyes and nose with a jagged mouth, but the kids loved doing it themselves.

Emma is always so goofy

I just realized that I didn't get a picture of Treys finished pumpkin!! Oh well, this one is pretty good.

So on to Halloween.

To relay the same sentiments my sister Sarah had, "This was the week that never ended!" We had 3 Halloween parties, the school party and parade, the Cumberland parade that Emma and Trey were in for football. They had a float in the parade for the Cumberland Raiders. Trunk or Treat Friday night and then trick or treating in our neighborhood on Saturday night. So we had several days of getting dressed up. Here are the pics of the kids:

Emma as a 50's/poodle skirt girl

Leah as a flapper

Chase was a gorilla

So Trey came up with his own costume this year and he said he was a vampire/goth guy?? Not so sure, but he looked scary.

So I do love comments, so maybe tell me what your kids dressed up as. Also, do you dress up? I have never really gotten into that, but I think next year I will. I think my kids would really love it.

Happy Halloween!