Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!
We went and saw Santa a few weeks ago and much to our surprise Mataya just sat right on his lap and happily accepted a candy cane:)

Fast forward to Christmas Eve. We went to my parents this year and it's been a long standing tradition to have crab. My Dad is a pro at cooking them just right. My two favorite people to watch eat them were my Dad and Parker:) And I love Mataya's "cheese" face. My cute parents with the empty crab shell pile. I love my Dad's buttery chin.
Parker, the boy with the hollow leg...lol!

Christmas morning was fun. Santa gave us lots of great stuff:) This was the best pic I could get of Mataya she was such a busy butt. She was loving all her baby stuff.

I think she was wanting me to take off her pants so she could try on some of her new clothes. That's quite the face and hair!

Spencer and Parker in their matching p.j.'s from Grandma and Grandpa Blackwell. Spencer woke up and he wasn't very excited and didn't seem like himself. He was opening presents and discovered a poptart holder with a poptart in it and he quickly ate it.

But then he sort of sat there and started to look pale. I told him to go close to the bathroom in case he needed to throw up. Well he did throw up in the hallway going towards the bathroom. And once we got that cleaned up he was back to his old self. He just sort of came alive and was talking and got really excited about his presents. I guess he just needed to throw up his Christmas poptart and then it was all good after that...lol!

"Inner peace"

Parker with his Kung Zhu pets resting on his knees.

Once all the gifts were open the boys got down to business of playing with their stuff while topless.

Grandpa and Parker playing gladiator on the Playstation Move. Parker kicked every one's butt.

My sister and her family stopped by on Monday and we finally got to meet our cute little niece Zoe. She is such a doll and you can't see in the pic, but Mataya is standing below me having a panic attack over me holding someone other than her.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the fun Christmas. And, Mom, especially for the carmel AND chocolate covered pretzels....lol!

dress-ups.

I have to share these even though the second one is embarrassing for Parker, but that kid only wears clothes when we leave the house. Otherwise it's underwear! When I pull out the camera this is Mataya trying really hard to give me a good smile. I hope she doesn't hurt herself:)

The kids got into the dress-ups and even Mataya joined in on the action. She had a Shrek head around her neck and a "How to Train your Dragon" helmet that is on sideways so it looks more like a rhino horn than a viking helmet:) Spencer is cute in his cape. And then there's Parker!! And notice the wall behind them is no longer red...wahoo...progress!

lunchtime with Mataya.

I love those little crossed ankles under the table!

She took Spencer's dog from him and is giving him a look that says...."you're not getting this back and don't even try!"

The "trying too hard" smile....love it!

Mataya Lou Who?!

All dolled up and ready for church. Someone said she looked like Cindy Lou Who from How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

I think they might be right:)

I love December.

I love December for all the fun times and food. I'll start with the good stuff here...the food.

I made these little beauties for young women's one night. We had game night and treats.I made this dessert for Cor and I on Sunday night once the kids were in bed. It was a pear poached in a liquid of different juices and sugar. Then there's a sorbet on top with almonds and drizzled with white and semi-sweet chocolate. It was very easy and tasted great! Thank you Taste of Home!We painted on Saturday and just decided to do so on Friday night. And thankfully child labor is really cheap so we lucked out:) We are going to eventually paint our whole house so we started with the red wall that I painted when I was pregnant with Spencer and here we have Spencer painting over it. I guess we've come full circle..lol!

Spencer had a field trip to the Christmas village in downtown Ogden. It was really fun, but it was so cold. And after about 15 minutes we had 2 homeless guys start following our preschool group on our tour with Mrs. Claus. It got a little sketchy, but it's a rough part of town so it's to be expected. Spencer got to visit with Mrs. Claus at the end and she gave him a little bag full of treats.Cory calls me on Monday night as he's leaving work at 6 and says someone just handed him 2 tickets to the Jazz game that night that starts at 7 p.m. They were on the 7th row so I said hurry home and you and Parker can go. They always have to get a churro when they go:)So here is Parker harassing the Jazz Bear he grabbed his tail and then ran and sat by Cory and the Bear came and sprayed them down with some silly string. Parker was loving it!

nursery girl!

Mataya got to eat a candy cane while I put sponge rollers in her hair on Sunday. It was her first day going to nursery so we had to dress to impress.

She looks so big in this pic. She is such a doll and I cannot believe she is so big. It seemed like with the boys I couldn't wait for them to go to nursery and with Mataya is came so fast I don't know if I'm ready for it.

This picture isn't great and I didn't even get her whole head, but when you are running late this is as good as it gets! She loved nursery! We knew she would, she's not very shy:) Sometimes you worry that your kid will get picked on or hurt by another kid, but Mataya stands up for herself. If she's threatened she will bite and head-butt....just ask her brothers!

thanksgiving.

After the "Blizzard of 2010" we barely survived and made our way to South Dakota for Thanksgiving....haha! It snowed for an hour and a half on Tuesday and we left on Wednesday and the drive there was smooth sailing. I can say that because I only drove for about 90 minutes of the 11 hour drive:) What a great husband I have. Sledding with Uncle Brandon's 4 wheeler. Not much snow, but lots of fun.
Mataya was a busy little butt at Grandma's house. She loved the play kitchen with the food. I think Santa might have to bring her one of those.

Here is Mataya saying "CHEESE!" What a cute little face.

She loved Uncle Brandon. She such is not shy around people she doesn't know very well and she was so tired and went to him and crashed out with her Cindy Lou Who hair!

And then moments later Brandon fell asleep....haha!

The boys enjoying the snow and such.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving they have a lights parade in downtown Rapid City to kick off the Christmas season.

This was was really cool from the air force.

Mataya snuggled in with Grandma to watch the parade and try to stay warm.