Matthew's Birthday!

        In January we officially became the parents of a teenager. Can you believe that? I certainly can't. I promise, I just blinked... for real this time.

       Matt's birthday, as always, was super fun to celebrate. We kicked off the celebration by meeting Nana for dinner. Matt chose Red Robin because he had a hankering for a big burger. Got it. :)

             Matt and cute Nana.

     His birthday was a school day and he also had jazz band practice after school, so it felt like we waited all day long for the "birthday man" (as Bailey called him all week). I decorated his room the night before with a whole lot of balloons and birthday confetti, so he'd be surprised when he woke up. Apparently it was still so dark when he woke up and without his glasses (and in his tired stupor) he couldn't see well and the balloons kind of freaked him out for a minute. Tee hee.
    I had asked him what he wanted for dinner on his day -- whether he wanted to choose something special for me to make or we could go out. He thought for a few minutes then presented the plan. Since it was a school night he opted for homemade tiny spicy chicken, THEN he figured we could go out to dinner the next night since it would be Friday night. Now, that's my kind of thinking. We're total suckers, so that's what we did.

  This year Rachel bought Matt a birthday gift with her own money. It was very sweet. She took her little baggie of change and tooth fairy money to the store with her. We had a close call because she set it down at one point, but thanks to an honest and kind mom who was in the store, Rachel and her baggie were reunited.   She picked the gift all by herself - she chose a Webkinz 'Mazing hamster. :) Matt was very sweet and almost over-appreciative of her gift.

   So here's the 13 year old and his homemade chocolate birthday cake of choice. He sure is a great kid. I've spent about 13 years being a little apprehensive of this whole teenage thing, but I think we're going to be okay.

  I really can't fathom how the last 13 years have passed so quickly, but I do know one thing - and that's that I sure love being this kid's mom. Matthew is a fantastic boy. He was such a sweet baby and a blast as a little boy. I love that his favorite toy as a one year old was a shopping cart that he put EVERYTHING in - like a homeless man. I love that as a two year old his favorite outfit was shorts, cowboy boots, and a tool belt. I love that at four he opened his own America First Credit Union in his bedroom. No joke, he had "coming soon" countdown signs and everything. When we realized he was totally serious, Steve brought home balloons on that day and a toy ATM machine. I love that he could count to 100 forward and backward before he went into Kindergarten - because he loved counting money. I love that he was so strong and brave during a frightening year and a half of a blood disorder. He became a favorite patient of the lab workers at the hospital. They knew our boy so well, that they had special jobs for him and sent him home with bags of goodies.  I love that he prayed for over 4 years for a sibling. He never once doubted nor wondered why it was taking so long for his prayers to be answered. I love that he proved to be such a kind and tender brother to both of his baby sisters. I love that he is such a good student and loves to learn. I love that he has a sharp mind and an awesome sense of humor. I love that he is such a whiz on the computer and is always willing to help his mom catch up to speed. I love that he is a kind, smart, fun, friendly, strong, and good kid.
   Happy Birthday, Matthew! I am so proud of who you are and who you are becoming. I am so grateful you are ours!

Christmas

First item of business on Christmas morning was making sure that Santa got his milk and cookies. He sure did, and he must have liked them because he sure left these kids some nice gifts. They were a tad worried since they knew that the Elf had been watching all month long... :)

Every year the kids love it when I take them shopping to get gifts for each other. It's usually pretty cute, because they pick the most random things for each other. This year Rachel got a stuffed monkey from Bailey and really liked it. :)

Bailey and Rachel both asked for a Baby Alive this year, and happily, they both got one. Who doesn't love feeding a baby doll and changing its greeny poop diapers?? The good thing is that the "food" only lasts so long and then it's just bottles of water.

I am also happy to report that Matt got yet another version of Monopoly this year. He's been the world's biggest Monopoly fan since he was seriously like 4 years old.

The ONE good thing about having 1:30 Church time last year was that we had a fun, full Christmas morning before we had to get ready for Church. It was actually a perfect way to spend Christmas afternoon. Our ward had a nice program and we were so happy to have Grandpa with us.

What a perfect Christmas!!

Holidays

Perhaps this post should really be called, "A quick recap of Christmas stuff in a few pictures."

As always, the holiday came and went far too quickly. We had a fantastic Christmas filled with friends and family.

We made our annual trek down to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. Always amazing.

We also had our Family Christmas party at my brother's house. So much fun!

My brother in law read a Cajun version of the Night Before Christmas.

I really don't know how much Bailey understood with the Cajun words and accent :), but she was seriously laughing her head off!

My cute dad would not be too pleased if he knew I took this picture -- and then posted it! You've got to check out his drink, though. It's kind of hard to see, but there is ice in his punch and it's shaped like dentures. Awesome, huh?! I'm not really certain how it all started, but years ago someone started a tradition? No, more like a friendly competition? Not sure what to call it, but we try to find the most unusual gifts we can and then regift them to each other. We often forget who has which gift, and then they pop back up when you least expect it. There is a humming bird figurine, a plastic mold to make a trout-shaped ice centerpiece, etc. (Shhhhh, don't tell, but I think I still have the Hotdogger hiding in the garage waiting to surprise the next birthday girl or boy..)
So, my sister totally won some notariety this year when she found an ice mold that makes denture shaped ice and gave it to my brother for his b-day. Sweet find!

A few days before Christmas, we met Steve's brother and his cute family for dinner. Buffet with awesome cousins -- my kids were in heaven!

Steve's dad had come from Arizona to visit us all for Christmas (yay!), so both of Steve's folks joined us for dinner.

Rachel's Kindergarten class did a super fun activity in the month of December to help them learn basic mapping skills. They made a big Gingerbread man in class one day for a treat, but when they sent him to the cafeteria to be baked, he escaped and ran away. During the whole month they tracked his travels and adventures. (All of us families had been informed ahead of time and had requested help from our family and friends from all over the globe. They sent postcards detailing their "Gingerbread Man sightings.") It was so cool. Right before the holiday break, they received some postcards saying he'd been seen locally, so they set a gingerbread man trap and caught him right back in their classroom.
This is a picture of the map and postcards that had been sent from literally all over the world.

On Christmas Eve my sister and her family came here to join us for our traditional Christmas Eve fiesta. We stuffed ourselves with amazing Mexican food and played all evening.

I'm not sure what they were scheming, but I love this cute little jammied cousin huddle. :)

Rachel and Bailey put our the magic reindeer food and all of the kids put our cookies and milk for Santa.

Elf on the Shelf

We started a fun new tradition this year - Elf on the Shelf. We put in a special order and this super cute guy came to us from the North Pole... by way of Amazon.com.  Every morning when the kids woke up, they got to search for where our elf had hidden during the night.  Sometimes they found him on a shelf or perched high on top of furniture, but other times the girls found that he'd been a little michevous during the night.

One morning he was hanging from the ceiling fan and had made snow angels out of flour.

Another day they found him on top of the refrigerator having a marshmellow snowball fight with some other Christmas friends.

One night he had been busy making paper snowflakes.

The girls laughed their little heads off  (Bailey was even a little freaked out, to be honest) when they found that the elf had gotten into the clean laundry basket and decorated the tree with unmentionables.

 Another night he enjoyed a little entertainment.

This was another gut-buster. Funny little guy. :)

We made play-doh one evening and he helped himself after we all went to bed.

Our little elf had to return back to the North Pole to report to Santa on Christmas Eve day.  When we woke up on his last morning, we found his Nice and Naughty list.

It was a fun month having our visitor from the North Pole and the kids are really excited about looking for him again next year.

Finishing up Fall

 The week before Halloween, our cousins came for a visit and we made our annual visit to the Pumpkin Walk.

We love looking at the pumpkin scenes and the kids love the picture cutouts.

Ended the evening with Pumpkin face pizza.

Kids all ready for the ward Halloween party. (Bailey is in her cooler version of her butterfly costume.)

On Halloween day our cousins came back up for a day of fun and evening trick-or-treating. (My sister makes those amazing costumes!)

Rachel's school Halloween costume parade.

Making oreo spiders.

Getting ready for an evening of trick of treating.