Happy Birthday Emma & Austin

Today is Emma's 11th birthday! Hard to believe that in one short year she will be a Beehive. Wow...where has the time gone? This is our families "off" year for birthdays which means that we just have a family party. I LOVE off years :) No crazy birthday parties to plan, just a good dinner with the family. We actually had her dinner last night because it was a day that everyone (well almost everyone) could make it. Logistically it is becoming difficult to get everyone together, but we do what we can. Emma requested her favorite meal of chili slaw dogs, which is definitely NOT my favorite meal. And because I was the cook, I added an extra meal to the menu of marinated pork chops with rice and tomatoes, rolls and salad-much better. Austin's birthday is February 10th, so we celebrated his big day as well. He was grateful for the meal alternative to chili slaw dogs ;)

After dinner we played a vigorous version of "The Candy Bar Game". It always amazes me the competitive sides that show themselves at these kind of things. Greg was determined to end up with his beloved Grape Heads. Sadly, he failed but I did not. They are safely stashed away and perhaps if he is good I will share. Perhaps. Everyone was out for blood and nobody was off limits. We certainly had a great time and laughed way too much. The pictures I took of Emma and Austin blowing the candles on their cakes did not turn out. Not sure how that happened. Oh well...

Jenni and Cordell could not make it. They were in Kaysville attending a baptism of one of Cordell's good friends. However, they did make a phone call to Emma that we put on speaker phone. They sang their version of "Happy Birthday" to her and it was pretty darn cute. One of the pictures below shows the phone ;)

Another picture show Christopher trying to give Josh a hug. Josh was having no part of that. He actually turned the tables on Christopher and pinned him to the floor. Who would have thought that Josh would have that in him? I guess there is a reason that Greg lovingly refers to Josh as his "Bouncing Baby Badger"-ha!

The top picture is from early today when I took Emma one of her favorite meals-Chinese food from Whistle Wok. I met her in the lunch room with all her friends and we all sang to her once again. Happy Birthday Emma and Austin! We love you!!!