Ashton's Birthday Celebration #8

 My boy is EIGHT!  Ashton is my witty little buddy.  So quick minded and high intesity in everything about him. He's all boy.  Loves sports, loves video games, computers, getting dirty outside, and pestering his sisters.  He also loves drawing little cartoon characters from games he plays or shows he likes.  He's pretty good at it too!  He is my first child to enjoy singing the hymns in church.  I'm sure Lainey will too but she can't read them yet.  Brielle wont, I can't make her >:(    Ashton makes up for her by belting them out.  He is still taking piano lessons and doing well at that with his aunt teaching him.  He has a handful of very good friends at school, most especially his bud down the road that he wants to be playing with every waking hour allowed.  Aside from all his talents and wit, Ashton is so loving and easy to love.  We love him very much. 

We actually celebrated Ashton's Birthay a few days early since his big day would be spent boarding a cruise.  Todd's dad and step-mom joined us for dinner and cake to help us celebrate.

We let Ashton open an Xbox game to hint to the Xbox wrapped beside him.  It wasn't his gift, really, it was for the whole family for Christmas.  But we couldn't let anyone open it on Christmas because all of Ashton's birthday presents were games for it.  So we let him open the console and let the girls each open a belated Christmas gift, a game for each of them.

Todd explaining the Xbox situation.

The day after we celebrated Ashton's birthday, a bunch of his friends came over while their moms did CrossFit (being Christmas break with no school) and they played Just Dance on the Xbox.  So cute to watch!

And a video of it:

Ashton, at his Birthday celebration in school.
(Boise State football cupcakes)

Christmas

Pictures from the gift exchange and lunch at Todd's mom's house on Christmas Eve.  Forgot my good camera.  Arg!!

My sister-in-law, Jenny has been teaching the kids piano lessons this year- we switched to her as a teacher in the Spring.  It's been so great with her.  She's so good for them.  The kids love her tons for one, she expects a lot more effort out of them for two, and lastly she teaches via several methods all of the critical ins and outs of piano like rhythm- something that had been skipped over in their previous piano lessons.  It was a tough adjustment for them all at first, but so worth it.  Jenny arranged for the kids to do a piano recital at Todd's mom's house on Christmas Eve.  All three kids worked hard on piano pieces to play at it and they did an excellent job! Taylor and Grace also played as they are taking piano lessons.

They even introduced themselves like they would at any other recital.  It was so great for them to practice playing in front of an audience.  And to have that pressure to really prepare well on their songs before hand.

Brielle played The First Noel.

Ashton played We Three Kings.

Lainey played Jolly 'Ol St. Nicholas.

Dani had to give it a whirl too.

Back home in the evening of Christmas Eve with their p.j. gifts opened and put on.

Tried a few techniques with shooting the tree this year.  Here are two of them: a regular shot on the left and one with the lights sparkling in star-like shapes on the right.  Hard to tell unless you pull them up bigger.

Ashton, turning 8 in a week meant he had come of age for destruction.  He got a bee bee gun and a bow and arrow from different grandparents.

Ollie got a toy and a vest.

I got the macro lens I'd been drooling over!  Here's one taken with it:

Todd got a more suitable popcorn popper.  The little one he'd been using had to be ran 3-4 times to get a full bucket of popcorn!  This one gets it done the first time.

Lainey got lots of art stuff and an art caddy to keep it all in.

Ashton's Santa gift was Lego Mindstorm, which I think is super cool.  It's Lego robot building.  You computer program them to do what you want and build them to look how you want.  It's meant for ages 10+, but Ashton is very computer literate and hasn't missed a beat with this gift.  It's fun to see what he comes up with.

Brielle didn't ask for any one big thing but a lot of smaller things like clothes and earrings and a lap desk which she got but nothing really to play with on Christmas.  So she played with Ollie :).

 A sucker from their stockings.

This sleepy little guy desperately needs a hair cut!  Just a few more days 'till he's had all his shots and then he can get a trim.

It's been so hard to get a shot of his face!  I've tried many times over the last two months.  So I took a lot of pictures while the light made it possible to see his dark face and while he sat there in that light holding still for long enough.

Gift exchange and dinner at Todd's dad's house (Christmas Day).