A Visit with Family

My sister and her family were able to visit us the end of December. They arrived in time for dinner on Matthew's birthday. We celebrated Andrew's 7th birthday the next day, went on a trip to the zoo, played games, Legos and cars, went to the park and celebrated New Years. In addition, my sister and her husband went on a date and U and Me went on a date. It was definitely a fun time for all.

One favorite memory is of Benjamin, who is 2 1/2. He slept in the loft with Luke. One night when we were getting the older kids to bed, Benjamin was snoring in his pack n play. Then he opened his eyes and smiled--yup! He was totally fake snoring. Pretty funny!

Here are some pictures from their trip:

My kids all loved to be with Elizabeth.

Sarah was super cute with her cousin. You can't tell from this picture, but Elizabeth actually liked Sarah quite well.

Cheese!

Fun at the park.

It's a bit difficult to see, but Matthew is there with his fireman jacket on--it's what he brought to help him stay warm. (Note: it's not that type of jacket!)

Andrew and Matthew making cars with the kit Andrew received for his birthday.

Feeding the crew.

We are glad they came! Come again soon :)

Phoenix Zoo

While my sister and her family were here, we went on a trek to the zoo. We saw lots of animals and had a great time. Here are some picture highlights.

Sarah enjoyed taking pictures of the animals. Here's a cool one of the tiger.

The kids enjoyed testing out their balancing skills.

They were super excited to see Jengo the Talking Giraffe. However, all the late nights at ZooLights made it so she was sleeping during the day.

How many kids fit in a clamshell???

The kids enjoyed petting the goats.

(Note: Megan was there--I just missed taking a picture of her somehow.)

This goat smiled when people were close to it.

This goat liked scavenging for food.

Ride 'em cowboys (or girls, as the case may be).

While we were in the farm area, Megan was very excited to see "her cows."

It was definitely a fun day for all!

Christmas Sunday outfits

Here are the kids in the outfits Grandma and Grandpa A gave them. They love them so much!

All About Matthew

Matthew is such a happy, fun-loving boy. He has a huge smile and loves to make people laugh. He can be a little jokester and enjoys answering questions in a funny (often meaning obviously not true) way.

Matthew LOVES fireman. To say he is obsessed with them is probably a gross understatement! He plays fireman, reads books about firemen, wants to meet firemen and go to fire stations, plans on being a fireman when he grows up, etc, etc, etc. When we went to the library book sale, he had a mission: to find books on firemen. He is often rushing "off to the rescue" to help someone or something. "Weeeee wooooo weeeeee woooooo" (hear the fire truck sirens here). 

Matthew plans on marrying Megan. It's cute to hear him and her talk about their plans for when they are grown! He definitely plans on living in a fire station when he grows up and has told Megan that if she wants to live with him, she will need to be a firegirl since he will be at the fire station.  (Megan usually agrees with this plan, saying that she will be Firegirl Penny, who is the sidekick to Fireman Sam in the Fireman Sam shows they sometimes watch.)

Matthew also loves Legos. He enjoys playing with his Legos and creating/building new things with his Legos. I always like seeing his new creations and having him explain to me what they are. He does have a lot of firemen Legos (and wants to earn more!) so Legos are often used in his fire play. He also has a few police Legos and some diggerman Legos.

Matthew also enjoys construction things. He pretends to be Bob the Builder (and Megan is Wendy, his side kick) and together they build (and destroy) many things. Just this weekend, they were cutting and then fixing daddy!

Matthew likes reading books.  He is often the first kid up (and sometimes the first person up), so he and I will often snuggle in bed and read some stories. He also likes doing "activities" (crafts, coloring, play-doh, cutting up paper with scissors and the like). He doesn't feel that preschool is complete without an activity of some sort. 

Matthew can still be a really big helper. After we'd done a lot of cooking this weekend, U asked the kids if they'd come help with clean up and Mathew immediately came down and spent quite awhile rinsing dishes and putting them away. 

If Matthew had his way, our whole family would always be together. He is a big proponent of family unity and is always a bit sad whenever anyone is leaving.

A few favorites:

• color: blue
• food: oatmeal (this was a surprise to me--I would have guessed noodles or bread with butter)
• dessert: carrot cupcakes
• candy: trick-or-treat candy
• restaurant: McDonalds, In N Out
• toy: Legos
• movie: Planes Fire and Rescue, Fireman Sam
• activity: playing with Play-doh
• outside activity: climbing a tree
• park: park with pole to slide down
• book: Book of Mormon stories, firemen books
• puzzle: Fireman puzzle
• game: Lego Race car
• letter: X
• socks: my boots
• song: "When he hears that fire alarm, Sam is always cool and calm. Wee-oo, Wee-oo" (Fireman Sam theme song)
• Primary song: "Once there was a cactus" (instead of "once there was a snowman." Fitting for here, I suppose)
• Other random facts that must be included: "I like talking to Andrew." "I like people rocking me."

As I was asking Matthew these questions, he answered all of them as complete sentences. So fun! He's definitely getting bigger!

4 year stats:

Weight: 28 lbs (1%)

Height: 38 inches (9%)

Happy Birthday Matthew!

Matthew celebrated his 4th birthday in grand style! He'd been looking forward to it for a long time and knew that it came right after Christmas. He also knew his cousins would be coming, which was super exciting!

Showing off the dessert and dinner plates he choose.

With his presents.

Opening gifts.

He was super excited to get a fireman outfit. He had to put it on before he finished opening gifts.

With his gifts. Lots of fireman and Lego things including two sets of fireman Legos! He also received some hot wheels cars and a track and a couple of books. Does he look pleased with his gifts?

Can't forget the birthday balloon.

He wanted cupcakes for his birthday. He decided on carrot cupcakes with the stipulation that they must have walnuts in them. I love that my 4 year old wants walnuts in his dessert!!!

Matthew is certainly a joy to have in our family. We love you Matthew!!!

Christmas

Matthew was up by 5:30 on Christmas morning, but the girls slept in until 7. (Sarah claims she was up multiple times during the night, but we didn't see her until around 7.) We headed down a bit after 7 to open our stockings.

Our stockings.

The kids' stockings. Sarah's big gift is a detective kit. Megan got Cinderella's carriage Legos and Matthew got a Lego city set with a firetruck, ambulance and police motorcycle.

What a pretty tree!

As he's done in past years, Matthew focused in on his big Santa gift, wanting daddy to help him put his Lego firetruck together, effectively ignoring his stocking for quite awhile. We had to prod him a bit to get him to open it. The girls, on the other hand, while excited about their big gifts, were also eager to open all the little packages that came in their stockings and were excitedly opening them and comparing what they got.

After opening our stockings, we had a yummy waffle. By "we," I mean U and Me. The kids hardly ate any. Must be because they were munching on all the goodies Santa left in their stockings.

We then opened the gifts under our tree. We sure got a lot of nice presents. How blessed we are!

Matthew with his gifts. He was so excited to get his very own belt. He's taken to putting on mom's or dad's lately and this one fits much better! He also got a lot of Legos (fire chief and motorcycle fire guy plus his big set), Play-doh, a recycle truck, a pressed penny book, Click magazine, Little Bear book, an astronaut shirt and a red church outfit. His picture also shows the Magic Kit and My First Carcassonne game the kids received.

Megan with her gifts. She was excited to get a "Nemo" game (Spot It Jr). She also got lots of Legos (Merida, Emma's car plus Cinderella's carriage), a nightgown with a matching one for baby, a dress with a matching one for baby, My Little Pony, Ping, pressed penny book and Ladybug magazine.

Sarah with her gifts. She was glad Matthew gave her some Legos since her siblings got so many! She also received a detective kit, a skirt and sweater, a sparkly hoodie, two Frozen posters, Owl pillows to sew, The Penderwicks, pressed penny book and Cricket magazine. Her picture also shows the books the kids received from their grandparents.

U with his gifts. He got a really old version of Risk as well as a head massager, Red 7, Pandemic the Cure, The Road to Oz, a nice white shirt, Thunder Wing Legos, Train Legos, socks and chocolate.

Me with my gifts. The CD I'm holding is a Piano Guys CD that is signed and personalized. I also received soft socks and summer socks, a soft, warm robe, a shirt, puzzle books, a bird's nest ornament, Jane Austen's Matchmaker game and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with a weekend day trip planned by U. I'm also holding a Noah's Ark puzzle our family received.

We got popcorn from Emily and Caleb and movie tickets from the Kramps. Yeah!

We didn't get any pictures from the rest of the day. It went something like this: assembling lots of Legos, playing with Legos and evenly dispersing Legos throughout the house (easier to step on that way). Yes, we got a ton of Legos! I think around 1600 or so. We also talked to family on the phone and enjoyed a yummy ham dinner.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Our LEGO family

This year for Christmas, everyone got a LEGO mini figure in their stocking. It makes a fun family portrait.

L-R: Matthew, Megan, Me, U, Sarah

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a bit hectic this year as we had just arrived home from Disneyland late the night before. The morning and afternoon found us furiously unpacking, doing laundry and shopping. By evening, we were ready to sit back and enjoy our time together.

We brought back some Gingerbread Cookie Mix with a Mickey cookie cutter that we used to make our cookies.

Sarah decorating. This cookie is her "daddy" cookie. It even has glasses, just like daddy.

Megan liked putting lots of different kinds of sprinkles on her cookies.

Matthew often placed sprinkles on his cookies one at a time. Here he is pouring a few of the little ones.

U enjoys decorating cookies as well.

Here U is eating the daddy cookie Sarah made.

After cookies, we had our Christmas program with the telling of the Christmas story. The kids knew it well and Megan and Matthew were quick to point out if we forgot any detail.

They then opened their Christmas pajamas. They were super excited to wear them to bed.

I have to say that they all went to bed pretty quickly. Probably it was because we were tracking Santa and they knew he was on his way to our house.....