One Last Blog

OK, one last blog for tonight.

Last Sunday I went over to Mom's house. I needed to make cookies to take them to someone who let me borrow his book. I ended up having it for longer than anticipated so I thought I owed him. I had a little helper to help me make them.

He wanted to help dump the ingredients. Stir. Perhaps he will be a chef. Who knows!!!

So later, once the chocolate was set, I gave a cookie to Spencer and Lincoln. Lincoln came over and showed me how he looked. Keep in mind, he was only halfway through his cookie and he already looked like this...

See the tongue? He is trying to get all he can.

I asked him if he was done and he said no. He went back over and ate the rest of his cookie. This was after the cookie. I think he was happy.

 However, it took me three wipes to get him cleaned up. He was so chocolatey. Awesome!!!

August Family Party

So on August 14th we had our monthly party. Unfortunately Brian and his family, Brett, and Joni were not there. We missed them. But I did manage to snap these shots as we were there.

Look at some of the younger cousins together with Tenille.

Isn't Micah so cute. This was as she and Becky were getting ready to leave. Micah was starting kindergarten the next day. I can't believe she is in school already. Where did those 5 years go? She was so excited. I haven't heard yet how it was so I hope she liked it.

I brought some beanbags...well technically rice bags...and Kevin and the boys started throwing them back and forth at, toward, over, each other. They were having a great time. I think I left there with less beanbags than I headed over there with.

Janine and Tenille have been putting Lucas and Kambry together to mark their growth. Eventually though Spencer and Lincoln end up laying next to them. They look so huge compared to the littler two!

Lincoln was having a hard time not picking the scabs on the corners of his mouth.

Check out Neeners with her littlest boy!

Kambry and Tenille...so cute together.

Once everyone left and right before I left, Lincoln grabbed his play phone. He was rolling around on the floor, walking around, all the time talking with Joni. Janine looked at me and said that he always does this. It as fun to watch.

I always enjoy these family parties! They have been fun little mini reunions throughout the year. Thanks family for making these parties a priority!

Lincoln Post-surgery

So poor little Lincoln had his tonsils and adenoids removed. He was one unhappy, miserable kid. I went over later that week and brought a surprise. I took some ice cream but also a couple of bunches of balloons.

No, I didn't forget Spencer. I got him a little bunch. He seemed happy to have is own set.

I hope the balloons brought a little joy to Lincoln. This was an actual smile. It was great! Mom said it was the first smile she had seen since before his surgery.

He was trying. Poor kid. I just wanted to hold him and love on him.

Spencer tied his balloons to the container of bubbles. At one point he put the container down on the ground and Lucas played with them.

Later in the evening, Janine brought out a bubble machine. Lincoln and Lucas loved it. (Spencer was in the other room watching "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.")

At one point, Lincoln put his face down so he was looking into the machine. Then the balloons would come up and pop on his face. Go figure!! It was fun to watch.

Look at Lucas...it looks like he is blowing that bubble. Just happened to be right in front when I snapped the picture. (This was another one that turned after uploading it. Don't understand. Sorry.)

After the bubbles it was time to go to bed. But as soon as I got there Spencer wanted to play Disney Yahtzee and we hadn't yet done it. So we decided to play really quick. Lincoln has a way of throwing the dice. He puts the cup in one hand, raises it high, and then puts the cup in the other hand and raises it high. Then he drops the dice. It was fun to watch because by this point in the evening he was done talking, done interacting really. He was starting to shut down.

Spencer was having a blast!

Look at this cute photo! Such a cute mother-son moment.

I am so glad that Lincoln is starting to feel better. It is a great blessing!

"Up" House

After the reunion we drove past the house that had been built like the house from Disney/Pixar's "Up". It was so cute! I think once the Parade of Homes is done, that the house has to be repainted but it was cute. Out front of the home, there was a man that looked like the older guy. It was fun. We didn't go in. Just looked at it from outside.

It was so cute!!!

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Uncle Tom and Aunt Larena planned a scavenger hunt for the families. There were rules. We could only use one camera. We worked as a family. We could stay near the cabin or adventure out. We were given a list and 5 minutes to get a game plan. Then we were off. Kevin stayed behind with two sleeping kids: Kambry and Lucas. Off we went. Here are the pictures of the some of the items on the list.

Six people on one rock (check out Zachary's pose-wanna be model? Just kidding!):

An animal in a tree:

Six people standing on a tree stump:

A star:

A mushroom:

A rock that looks like an animal (I think the consensus was that it looked like a camel...or was that a dinosaur. I will let you be the judge.)

A funny face: (Thanks Cory!!! The flower in the hair is really what set it off. The picture had to be memorialized.)

Bigfoot: (Had to get Brian involved.)

Six people in the front seat of a vehicle (only 2 could be little kids. That's why we immediately went to one of the trucks. Now way could we have fit 6 in the front of my car.)

Three people hugging a tree (aren't the three brothers so cute doing this):

An adult in water (Janine volunteered for this. I believe that she needed to wash her feet. Perhaps a shower would work from time to time. Just kiddin' Neeners!!)

Something Red:

A sign with a moose on it (we took it literally. Joni wrote out this sign and we put it on a tree.)

We had a blast. Our family was the only one that went out in a car to see what we could find. We had a great time just touring around in the back of Kevin and Tenille's truck. Tenille drove and had about 15 backseat drivers. It was so much fun!! Here is the group gather to watch the slide show from each family as to how they gathered the pictures.

That was a great activity. Thanks Uncle Tom and Aunt Larena!!!

Time to Catch-up

OK, so I have been camera-less for bit of time and extremely busy. WARNING: There are a lot of things to catch up on as my sisters continue to tell me. They have been requesting, quite incessantly, that I update my blog. So, Janine and Joni...I hope you are happy now!!!

First Section: Matthews' Family Reunion - Uncle Tom's cabin is so wonderful and it is fun for me every year to see the currently updates. This year, there were some wonderful new lights in the eating area. They fit the feel of the cabin so well! The setting of the cabin is beautiful. I could spend a lot of time up there just reading out on the front porch in the log rocker. It is so peaceful up there. Perhaps sometime I'll have to see if I can arrange something with Uncle Tom. A week up there would do more to recharge my batteries than anything else. What is it about being up in the mountains? So peaceful. So serene. So wonderful!!

This year was a little different. It was supposed to be Susan's year but with Chris's wedding a week later and Amanda due, Susan knew her stress limits and opted out this year. Because of this, each of the remaining 3 families just picked up a meal and an activity. Here are some random pictures from our fun time up there.

As my contribution each year, I make cookies. There was an abundance of cookies this year so for the most part mine were left uneaten. Janine, however, found that I had made the Andes mint cookies. She grabbed one and ate it all, including licking her fingers free of the chocolate.

Lucas was hungry so Jason fed him. Janine wanted pictorial proof of this happening so I took a couple of pictures. Lucas's hands were going crazy. He loves the rice cereal.

Lincoln found the snickerdoodles. He sat there eating while dancing in his seat. It was so cute. He bounced back and forth, huge smile, savoring every bite.

There were a couple of scrapbooks that Grandma had that we all looked through. The next three pictures were little things she saved in these books.

This one we found to be so funny. My grandpa got a Certificate of Award for neither being tardy nor absent for the month of October. If he got it for one month, how was he the rest of the months. Kind of makes you go hmmmm... We all giggled over it.

This is Spencer after eating his brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce. See it all around his mouth?

Lincoln loved his as well:

Look and Janine's "Lil Blue Eyes". His eyes are so blue. I hope they stay this blue when he is older. He will melt some girl's heart.

OK, let me explain the next photo. Janine was holding Lincoln and rocking back and forth with him. Eventually she ended up laying down between the benches. Lincoln moved up onto her belly and was pretending he was a cowboy. Then he said, "Oh, I don't have my hat. Oh...here's my hat!" Then he put that foam bat on the top of his head. It was so funny that he came up with "his hat."

Lincoln has the funniest expressions. He can go from this...

To this...This is his "Who broke my window?" face. His angry face...Isn't it funny? 

So Friday morning, after getting Lincoln ready, he came out to where I was talking with Janine and Jason. He sat down on the mattress, pulled his hat all the way down to his nose, and then laid back like he was out of it. However, ever so slightly, we saw a smile.

Larena planned a pinata for the kids. Every kid got a chance to have a few swings at the pinata. I think Uncle Tom was enjoying pulling the pinata up or letting it drop and watching the kids marvel at missing it.

Check out Lincoln's tongue. Reminds me of Kevin who as a child seemed to have his tongue out no matter what he was doing.

Here was the final haul of candy...minus one that had somehow already made it into Lincoln's mouth.

Saturday morning Lincoln and Spencer came down earlier than most. Lincoln and Spencer stayed under their blankets for awhile. Once they woke up a bit, I wrapped Lincoln up in his blanket. I told him I was making him into a "Lincoln canolli". Of course when he said what he was, he said "nanoli."

Before Jason left Saturday morning we grabbed a few family pictures.

Look how cute these three boys are. No wonder they melt my heart and make me smile!

This is a great picture of Janine and Jason.

I got a lot of cuddle time with Lucas during the reunion...at my request of course. Look how limp he is. He was so close to falling asleep. Too many distractions.

Kevin, Tenille, and Kambry came up later Friday night. Look at this ADORABLE picture of Mommy and Daughter. It is so much fun to watch Kevin and Tenille with Kambry. It is as I always imagined. I would love to see them with more kids. I guess time will tell.

Kev loves his time with Kambry. He is such an awesome father...just as I knew he always would be.

Janine brought up things to make candy necklaces. The kids (of all ages) had a great time.

Here are the end results.

In addition, Mom brought up wood crafts for everyone to paint. It actually took two painting sessions. Here's Tena and Zachary working on a couple. Bri, Tena, Cory, and Zachary came up late Friday night. It was so good to have them there. They took off shortly after her crafts were done. She had a bridal shower in Evanston that they were all going to head over for and then overnight there. It's always fun to see the boys. They are growing so fast and are such great YM. They're a lot of fun!

Here's our family photo. We decided to take it on the front porch. Great place to take it however no way of getting level with the group. But, it's kind of fun to see both the cabin and the reflection of trees in the windows. It really is such a serene place.

After the family picture, I snapped this one of Janine and her boys. Unfortunately, it was the only one I could get. Little Lincoln wasn't in much of a picture taking mood by this point.

 Not exactly sure why this picture is side-ways. It's not saved out on my computer that way but for some reason when I uploaded it for the blog it flipped it. Sorry Kevin and Tenille. Look at Tenille looking at Kambry. Aren't they so cute?

By the time Kevin and Tenille left, Kambry was done. She was out. Look at the hand on the forehead. It looks like she is saying, "Oh this reunion wore me out!!!" Joni loved that she was holding her when she fell asleep. She really misses out on niece and nephew time being in St. George. I think this is one of the only pictures I have of Joni. She tends to dodge out of them. Good thing Kambry was asleep so I could get it. Don't they both look cute?

The reunion was fun! It was great seeing the family and catching up. I have a lot more pictures and will post some of them in the future but for now, there it is.