I've been spotted!

We're Half Way There!

2012-01-15T14:19:00.000-08:00

For some strange reason, I seem to be humming Bon Jovi's "Living On a Prayer," I just can't figure out why :). I am now 20 weeks along in the pregnancy. I have been feeling pretty good, other than needing to take a short nap most days. I just love feeling the baby move, it has got to be one of the most amazing feelings and it feels like my own little secret every time I feel it. (BTW - everytime I see a picture of a pregnant model I always laugh at the way they seem to be arching their back. Now look at me, I certainly wasn't trying to, how funny).

"Cause You Got Personality

2012-01-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

’cause you got personality,Walk, personality
Talk, Personality
Smile, Personality
Charm, personality
Love, personality
(anyone remember this song by Lloyd Price from 1959?)
I think of this song whenever I look at my girls who each have such different personalities that just seem to be bursting from their beautiful bodies.

Clarissa has been helping Chris work on the cars the past couple of weeks (yes, it's been cold). After helping with one set of brakes, she came home looking like this and telling us how much fun it was. I am taking notes now that if I'm ever caught in the snow with a flat tire, this is the kid I want to have with me. She is so tough and talented, but still a little girly, she just started dance classes back up again and loved her first day back.

On the other hand, Krystal is all girl. One evening she was busily playing in the basement when Chris tried to go down the stairs and found this scene. Apparently her Barbies were dining at a posh restaurant with many levels. Maybe she'll design upscale restaurants in her future or at least cook the food for them, she's a great cook. In the meantime, I hope she remembers to put those Barbies away or we might have a repeat of my all time favorite comedy act (dangerous toys Part 2, it's not politically correct, but it's funny).

New Year's Eve Bash

2012-01-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

We love that the kids are getting older, they are so much fun. For the past two years, we have actually stayed up until midnight for New Year's Eve with Jared and Clarissa and this year we decided they were old enough for a party. We invited three families over for a total of 20 kids. The evening included...

Dancing to the Wii Just Dance

Lots of board games and food

Some crazy tower building

Some even crazier dress-up

More Wii dancing

Sparklers at midnight!

It was fun for the ones who made it to midnight...

...and the ones that didn't.

Amber is 5!

2011-12-30T16:11:00.000-08:00

I just love this little girl! This year Amber wanted a Princess party.

First item on the agenda was dress up and playing in the cardboard castle in the basement.

After about an hour of that the kids came upstairs to play "kiss the toad." Thanks to big brother for the artwork.
Next Amber opened her gifts and wasn't she surprised to get the Disney Princess Barbies!

Finally, the cake!

Happy Birthday big girl!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T19:19:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve Chris's parents arrived along with his brother, Eric. We enjoyed our traditional Bethlehem dinner of fish, grapes, olives, pita, hummus, eggs etc. and then acted out the account of the birth of Christ.

Some Christmas highlights this year were: New pajamas on Christmas Eve and homemade necklaces from Grandma Hansen on Christmas morning.
The gift with the biggest reaction was when I realized that the kids had given me a clarinet. After 18 years of not having a clarinet to play and wishing that I did so many times, my emotions got the better of me. It was probably a good 5 min. before I could even open it up. As soon as I saw the case I knew what it was and just started crying. Way to go kids, best gift ever!

Amber is modeling her homemade ballerina skirt from Aunt Michelle and Aunt Jolene as well as princess tiara, jewelry and shoes. Some other favorite gifts were the marble run that Chris made for Jared, a huge color-me cardboard castle for Krystal, a lap desk with notebooks and art supplies for Clarissa, a new luggage set and pots and pans plus silverware for the family.But, the biggest surprise was when the kids opened the Wii gaming console. I have always said that we would never get a gaming system, but with some restrictions am actually looking forward to having a Wii. We have been enjoying family friendly games like Just Dance and Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader.

After opening gifts, the kids got dressed in their new duds and we all went to church, then took pictures afterward. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner (if I do say so myself) and then Chris' Dad had to go back to West Virginia for work.
On Monday, Grandma and I took the little girls to see a movie while the big kids (Eric and Chris included) went bike riding and had a Nerf war in the basement.
What a wonderful holiday, now it's time to take down the decorations and plan Amber's birthday party followed by a rocking New Year's Eve party to ring in the new year!

Spy Girls and Spy Cat?

2011-12-23T20:06:00.000-08:00

We recently watched one of the Spy Kids movies for family movie night and the girls picked up on the theme of the film and created their own spy game, which included using the kitty. I'm not sure what the kitty thought of that, but it's just a regular day in the Mattson household as far as everyone else is concerned.

Expecting #5 at age 36

2011-12-16T18:34:00.000-08:00

Chris took this picture after a long day of shopping on my 36th birthday as an attempt to show my baby belly. At 16 weeks pregnant, most of the time my belly just looks like I had a big dinner and with all the holidays parties we've been too, that is mostly true. At 16 weeks, I have been feeling the baby move for a few days now and that's been real exciting.

Halloween - Greek Style

2011-10-31T19:31:00.000-07:00

The kids have been so into the Percy Jackson series this year that we decided to have a Greek theme to our Halloween. Jared is Perseus, I am Medusa, Chris is Poseidon, Amber is Pegasus, Krystal is Aphrodite and Clarissa is Athena.Scary Mommy!

Amber with her friend.

Jared and his friend ran the cookie walk at our church Trunk or Treat, they are busy dancing to the music.

These are the eyeball cookies that we made for the cookie walk.

The kids decided that they wanted our trunk to have the theme of Rock n Roll. Clarissa made the poster that says "Mattsons Rock Van." We had fun dance music playing and several people gathered at our van to dance when the candy was all gone.

Krystal, Delaney, and Janet stayed together to get candy.

Family Time

2011-10-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

While my dad and Chris's parents were here visiting, his sister Kara and her husband Dan came to visit with their little boy Jimmy. We had a great time playing with Jimmy and took a walk at the park by the river. We took the opportunity to get some family photos too.

Five of the Mattson cousins.

Shoot Out

2011-10-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

We read about Native American boys who have to pass a sort of right of passage test to achieve manhood as they reach a certain age. I guess for Jared you could say that age is 12 and that right of passage is that Mom finally let him shoot a real gun. Each year the guys at church get together and have a shoot out and now that Jared is 12 I just couldn't keep him from going. So, with Dad and his two grandfathers, he headed out to try his hand at several different weapons.

I would put more captions about each gun, but of course, I have no idea what they are.

Here is Grandpa Hansen shooting.

Grandpa Mattson looks on as Jared tries another gun. I think he had a lot of fun and his shoulder and arms were only sore for a few days after the experience.

Jared is 12!

2011-10-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

What do 12 year old boys want for their birthday? A NERF gun fight! Jared invited his friends over on this beautiful Fall day for a capture the flag NERF fight. The boys had a blast.

Jared designed his own cake and helped me decorate it.

Earlier in the day Jared had a soccer game. They played against a really tough team so he thought he would intimidate them by having black under his eyes. The team played really well.

Here's he is in action.

On Sunday the 23rd, Grandpa and Grandma Mattson and Grandpa Hansen went to church with us to see Jared receive the Aaronic Priesthood.

The Adventure Begins...Again.

2011-09-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

Summer came and summer went in a whirlwind of summer camps, home improvement projects, canning pickles and tomatoes and homeschool planning. So, here we are again, another year of school. With a 6th grader, 4th grader, 1st grader and Preschooler, I'm pretty sure I won't have time for anything other than school, which is why I have created a new blog, one devoted solely to homeschooling. It's purpose is to track what we have done so that we can see progress at the end of the year, with the added bonus of being able to look back the next time we study Medieval history (we do unit studies) and not have to reinvent the wheel. If any of my readers choose to read this blog, I apologize beforehand that it is full of our daily school tasks in great detail, sprinkled with a few photos that may be of interest. Feel free to look at the pictures and disregard the rest.

Who's Cute?

2011-05-13T19:58:00.000-07:00

Yeah, and they know it too!

A Countryfied Easter (Part 2)

2011-04-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Buchinsky's
Looking at the new baby goats.
Clarissa and Cailin are ready for the hay ride.

So are the younger kids.

Off they go!

Amber hunting,

Krystal hunting,

Even Jared's not too old for the fun (yet).
Precious! Who knew that pure joy could be found in a plastic egg.

A Countryfied Easter

2011-04-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

This year some new friends, the Pohligs, invited us out to their farm for some Easter fun. We started the day off with a hayride with the Easter Bunny.

Next came hunting for Easter Eggs followed by a delicious cookout.
While the adults talked, the kids enjoyed sack races,
playing on the playset,
and some good old-fashioned tug-of-war. The girls had a great time. Jared and Chris were busy at a service project in downtown Pulaski clearing wood and debris from the tornado.

Isn't Hiking in the Rain as Good as Singing in the Rain?

2011-04-21T19:42:00.000-07:00

Chris had Friday off of work for Good Friday so we decided to go for a little hike, never mind that it was raining. We went to the New River Trail and started at the Shot Tower. The Shot Tower was built in the 1800's and was used during the Civil War to make bullets for muskets. The tower is 75 feet tall and has a shaft that goes another 75 feet below the ground. The lead was poured from the top and would fall 150 ft. to be formed and then land in a pot of water to be retrieved for use.
A little ways down the trail is this bridge which replaced the Jackson Ferry that was in operation in the late 1700s and 1800s to ferry people across the New River.
Part of the New River Trail crosses on top of this old Trestle.
The kids enjoyed stopping to climb on slippery rocks along the path.
The girls kept calling these umbrella flowers, which was pretty appropriate for the rainy weather. In fact, they are May flowers, not yet in bloom (they bloom in May, go figure). There were plenty of other wildflowers along the path that were in bloom.
We came to the area called Foster Falls, and yes, those are the falls. I guess when the rest of the river in this area is like glass, a little white water is considered a waterfall. The kids enjoyed throwing rocks into the river, looking at the geese and finding their tracks, collecting horse chestnuts and finding the horse chestnut trees as well as petting some real horses.
Clarissa is ever the adventurer, we couldn't keep her from climbing the rocks. We really enjoyed ourselves, even though it never got warmer than 51 degrees and our fingers were a little cold, it was still nice to get out and see a little history.

Everybody Wants to Be a Cat!

2011-04-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

After two months of rehersals, the opening night for Disney's Aristocats, presented by Pulaski County High School and performed by community children of the New River Valley was on Thursday, April 7, 2011. The actors and actresses were full of energy and the show was a huge success! Here are the kids with their friends Cailin Hale, Delaney Hale and Janet Brame.
After some costume alterations and a day of learning what not to do with Rit dye (I had complications with changing Clarissa's costume from white to calico, but in the end it worked out great!), the kids returned on Friday night looking fabulous and ready for their speaking parts.
Jared was Berlioz, one of the Aristokittens. Here he is singing with some of the Aristocat family.

Clarissa was Slickcat, the Alleycat. Crazy man, Crazy! Her part had a lot of singing and dancing and she loved it!

Amber was Agnes Gabble, one of the gabbling country geese. Yeah, she's the adorable little one.

Krystal was a mouse named Brie, she's the fancy one in the pink skirt.

This is a photo of the director, Jeff McCoy giving a donation from the proceeds of the show to the Red Cross to help aid the tornado victims from the town of Pulaski which was hit by a tornado during Friday night's performance. It was touching how everyone in the show came together to help the community during this time of need. We are so proud of each of the kids and all the hard work they put into doing this show. Each of them grew so much as they had to get out of their comfort zones and work together with new people to memorize lines, songs, and choreography and to make memories that will last forever.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

2011-03-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

Where do they come up with these amazing creations? I mean, don't miss the cowboy boots paired with the Minnie Mouse dress or the fairy wings paired with the leather jacket!

Unfortunately this picture does not show that she's wearing one of Dad's old t-shirts, has bare legs and kitty galoshes on.

Dressing up in some of Miss Hannah's old costumes at dance class.

All dudded up for church, complete with panda backpack.

What do a cheerleader fairy, an East Indian woman, and a tourist all have in common? Their mother adores them and doesn't ever want them to grow out of this stage in life.

Congaree National Park

2011-02-19T14:44:00.000-08:00

We decided to get away from the cold Virginia weather for a day and headed south to S. Carolina for a family trip to the temple in Columbia, to visit some friends, and for a field trip to the Congaree National Park.
Clarissa and Krystal can't contain their excitement about our boardwalk adventure.
Congaree is most known for being one of the largest old-growth flood plain forests in the U.S. It is full of trees like the tupelo and cypress that are flood tolerant. The cypress trees are among the largest in deciduous forests and their bases can be as wide as 6 feet. This tree shows the cypress "knees" that are part of the root system, but stick up out of the forest floor. It is not known if they are only acting as anchors or if they also function as snorkels for the tree.
This pictures shows how silly Chris can be, as well as how high the flooding can get, see the line of dark coloring on the trees in the background? That is how high the flood waters rise, about 6 feet or so from the ground.
The trees in the Congaree are deciduous, losing their leaves in the winter. Although the trees look mostly dead near the base, they are teeming with the life of spanish moss growing in the tops of the trees.
This part of the forest reminded us of all the movies with swamps in them that we've seen like The Princess and the Frog or The Rescuers. We were glad that we chose to visit this swamp in the winter when the Skeeter Meter was at it's lowest. We enjoyed our visit so much that it prompted a unit study at home on the different types of forests and the life that lives in them.

Happy Valentine's to Me!

2011-02-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

The kitchen is my domain. Really, I love to be in my element, cooking in the kitchen. But, I have never liked the vines on the walls of my dining room and everyone who knows me knows that I do not like white walls. So, finally, after 4 years...I am getting my kitchen painted.
Step 1: Prime over the green vines and green paint under the chair rail. We did this one weekend.
Step 2: Cut in Toasted Coconut above the chair rail. This was my job.
Step 3: Roll Toasted Coconut onto walls, all the kids helped Chris with the rolling.
Step 4: Original hand-painted artwork on outlet and light covers done by the girls.
Step 5: Cutting in and rolling of Red Delicious below the chair rail. (To be done over two weekends as it took 8 coats!! of red to cover the primer.)
Voila! The kitchen/dining room of my dreams. Reminiscent of warmer days and many Mexican dinners of the past and many to come in the future.
This picture shows the colors as they really look, the red matches my Kitchen Aid perfectly, Thank you Chris for your many tireless hours of painting red on red on red. I love it!!

Why I love my family

2011-02-14T13:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!! Amber, I love you because when you decided to stop sucking your thumb, all it took was the simple childlike faith in Jesus to help you and the promise of a pillow pet for you to stop. So now, after 2 years of sucking, you are thumb free and have a new friend to keep you company at nights. Oh, and I love you because you randomly wear stickers on your forehead.
Krystal, I love you because of your new found sense of style. You are growing up and trying to be independent and part of that independence is picking out your own outfits. I love what you chose to wear to the Valentine's party (and yes, that is a slip with pretty lace at the bottom).
Although it's not pictured, Clarissa, I love that you helped Dad make breakfast for me on Valentine's morning complete with flowers and a card and then made breakfast for your sisters; eggs and toast with fairy sugar sprinkles.
Jared, I love that while we were all making Valentine's cards you turned on the Primary songs and sang along with them. I really appreciate your sensitive and loving personality and hearing your beautiful voice. And then to top it off, you graciously helped your sisters to finish their cards. They are so lucky to have you as a big brother.
Chris, I love that after all these years, you still love to get out and boogie with me on the dance floor. I love that you came up with the idea to be the only couple dressed up like the 70s at the stake Valentine's dance and that we could have so much fun together just being crazy. I truly am blessed with a wonderful family!

A Winter Treat

2011-02-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

There isn't much I like about winter in Virginia, but occasionally Mother Nature gets out paints other than drab gray and white to provide us with a beautiful display of her talents. This is the view from our backyard on one of those occasions.

Crafting and Creating

2011-02-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

Amber's hair is getting long. She likes to refer to herself as having Rapunzel hair, thank you Disney. I enjoy creating pretty hairdos, but she doesn't let me do it very often, so I was lucky to capture this fleeting moment.
Jared with his Ninja training center Lego creation. Much cooler close up, but he's too cute to leave out of the pic.
On a whim, Jared decided to build the London Bridge out of K'Nex. Any guesses as to what profession he is most likely to choose. By the way, I should be getting paid for all this name brand advertising.
A friend of ours was collecting blankets for birth mothers of adopted babies so we decided to make it a family service project to make a couple and donate them. Jared wanted to do a fleece tie blanket like the one his Aunt Michelle gave him years ago (in the background on the chair). He picked out the fleece and did it all by himself, including adding ties to the middle. I didn't get a picture of the one the girls made. They picked out some coordinating flannel and Clarissa sewed it together on the sewing machine. They both came out really good.
A friend taught me how to make these hair bows and a couple nights later, the girls and I made a bunch more. They enjoyed picking out the fabric and embellishments and even did some of the twisting.
Here's Krystal wearing one of the hairbows on a headband.
I have been working on printing many of our photos to decorate the house with. I got this collage frame on sale and couldn't wait to fill it with family pictures of famous or interesting places we have visited. It is hanging in our hallway.
This is a one-of-a-kind creation by Amber. She collected scrap wood from Chris's workshop and glued a broken necklace and beads to it. I love how she came up with this idea all by herself. What a budding artist, modern art, that is.

Closet Make-over

2011-01-29T12:31:00.000-08:00

My New Year's Resolution had to do with getting some things around the house organized. The first place I tackled was the junk drawer in the kitchen. For less than $10 I bought several plastic bins and now everything has a spot. I love it. But, as you can see from these pictures, our closet was in need of a total make-over and it was going to cost more than $10. Handy husband to the rescue.

Before

After

Chris designed (according to my specific instructions) and built custom fit shoe bins and clothing shelves for both his side and mine. Now, not only does everything have it's own place, but with added shelving, we have a lot more room.
Isn't it beautiful! And yes, it will stay this organized with the clothes in color order. That's one of those crazy things about me that I don't want to change.

Recipe for Pizza and a Fun Friday

2011-01-28T13:57:00.000-08:00

1 Tablespoon yeast
and a Teddy Bear on skates.

Add 1 Cup Warm Water (not hot)
and take turns hand grinding wheat.

Add 1 teaspoon sugar into yeast and water
and teach the kids to roll out the dough.

Add 1 teaspoon salt
and let the kids help with assembly.

Add 2 Tablespoons oil (I use olive) and stir.
Admire your work, pesto with turkey and marinara with pepperoni.

Add 2 1/2 Cups flour (I put wheat and white in mine) and knead.
Dig in!

Roll out dough and move to pizza stone, no rising necessary, then add sauce, cheese and toppings.
Dance in the kitchen.

Bake at 415 degrees for 15 min.
and top off the evening with a face full of chocolate ice cream.

Revolutions, Hamlet and MSG

2010-12-28T19:00:00.001-08:00

This winter break has been a lot of fun. I mean, the kids were fun when they were babies and all, but nothing beats being able to test my athletic abilities against the children while sledding in subzero weather (guess who crashed every time), or test my patience against theirs while doing a 1000 piece puzzle (which is actually a 998 piece puzzle now) or test their spelling skills against mine in a good game of scrabble (imagine my surprise when Jared beat me with a word he didn't even know was real!). And in all this fun, I've learned some interesting things about our kids as well; for instance, they have nicknamed many of the rooms in our house - the school room is called "the goo room" (Thanks to Amber's mispronunciation), the living room is called "the lizarding room" (Thanks to Clarissa's mispronunciation), and the bathroom in called "the poo room" (no explanation needed I hope).

But not all the funny word usages come from the girls; when Jared and Chris were out sledding yesterday, Jared informed Chris that the snow must be full of MSG because he just couldn't get enough of it. Then, tonight while we were tucking him into bed he started talking about what he wants to do for his New Years Revolution. We got a good laugh while we teased him about revolting against chores, schoolwork, his sisters and of course MSG, then let him explain that for his New Years Resolution he would like to resolve, not revolt, to make his room look like a space shuttle. We told him to go ahead and design it which was followed by a query as to whether or not we had a Hamlet down in the basement. We had to explain that although we have a stage for performing Hamlet in the basement, we are not in the habit of keeping Shakespearean characters in our basement. We finally figured out that he meant a hammock, not Hamlet and that he wanted it for his space shuttle bedroom.

I wish that every day could be this perfect and I wish our kids would never grow up. I will be sad when the days of "goo rooms", "lizarding rooms", revolutions and Hamlets are gone and my children will always beat me at games of athleticism, patience, and spelling. But until then, I will try to enjoy every moment. I sure do love these kids.

A Few of My Favorite Things

2010-12-14T16:51:00.000-08:00

Handmade Christmas cards, and yes, I'm obsessed with Polka Dots. If it's a phase, it's been going on for several years now so I'm not sure when I'll grow out of it.
I have so many favorite homemade Christmas ornaments, but this is definitely one of my favs. I mean, it's hard to beat Jared's 3-eyed snowman made when he was about 3 yrs. old.
I just love this nesting Nativity set that my mom made for me before I got married. It has held up through many years of play from the children. Our favorite story about this set is when we were doing school one day and Amber was off playing, we suddenly saw baby Jesus go flying through the air. Amber had discovered that if she put him on top of her flip top toy and then opened it, Jesus became airborne. We had a good laugh about it, then encouraged her to use a plastic bear instead.
Also handmade by my mom is this Nativity quilt. This is the first quilt that she hand-quilted. I love the colors and sometimes leave it up year round. This also has a story. One day when Clarissa was probably about 5 yrs. old, she felt she had been unjustly corrected by Mom and Dad and went up to this quilt and started talking to Jesus, something to the effect of, "Jesus, my Mommy and Daddy are being mean to me, but I know that you love me."
I love my Victorian decorations for the tree. The rose lights, the gold beads and ribbons, and especially this red snowflake given to us by our friends, the Stewarts. It reminds me of our cold Christmases up in Wisconsin filled with the warmth of good friends.
Speaking of Wisconsin and cold, I bought this snowman from a neighbor in Wisconsin from her annual craft sale. I fell in love with it and so have my girls. Most of the time, it is not to be found where I put it, but wandering around the house as the star of their latest make-believe play.
I can't remember where we got our gold angel from, but she has been the pinnacle of our Christmas tree decorations for years and will be for years to come.
I love our mismatched stockings. They might not match, but they represent each of our individual personalities and our family in all it's quirkiness.
I made both of these plaques with friends. The wise man tile picture was made with friends in El Paso and reminds me of them and the Joy was made with friends here in Virginia.
As much as I love our mismatched stockings, I also appreciate some funky coordinating wrapping paper.
All these things are just a few reasons why I love Christmas.

A Busy Weekend

2010-12-13T18:24:00.000-08:00

Making gingerbread houses with the Hales and Brames

Amber creating

Krystal's masterpiece

Jared's house complete with garage, car, slide, and swimming pool

Clarissa, the interior decorator

Friday 10th - Gingerbread Houses
Took kids to Sonic for ice cream reward for reading charts
Jared went caroling with Central United Methodists

Saturday 11th - Church Primary activity, wrapping gifts for Social Services and a visit with Santa
Attended Snow White dance performance
Jared had Rank Advancement/Playing Risk with the Scouts night
Invited Lindsey over to watch "Dear John"

Sunday 12th - Drove out to church in Floyd, church cancelled because of weather
Drove to church in Blacksburg, attended church there
Drove to airport in Roanoke to pick up Chris, coming home from India
Attended Jared and Clarissa's piano recital

Chris is having a hard time adjusting to being back in the States. He still has jet lag and comes home from work to just crash. Amber tucked him in on the couch and gave him her stuffed animal. This picture was taken on Tuesday evening.
He brought us gifts from India. All the girls got pretty scarves. He also brought some spices to cook with and some Chocolate from Switzerland.
Jared's one request was some Indian art. Chris couldn't find any at the market, so one of the guy's sons let him have a piece from his personal collection. It's in 3D too!

Monday 13th - Homeschool Christmas party
Dance class for Clarissa and Krystal
Couponing at Kroger (yes, it's a verb!)
Watched "Amazing Grace" and had Egg Nog flavored ice cream for Family Night

Jared and his friends are having a blast playing "Apples to Apples"

Bird feeders

Clarissa is getting ready to shop at the Christmas store

What a great turnout this year, it was cold, but the snow held off long enough for us to enjoy a really nice Christmas party.

Look at us Daddy!

2010-12-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

Since Chris is in India, the kids wanted to show him some pictures of them in the snow. This one is just Krystal being silly, nothing new, but way cute!
Amber is resting after several sleds down the hill. Apparently snow kept landing on my lense, making for some fuzzy spots in the pictures.

Here I come!

Head first

Snow angels

Angels We Have Heard on High

2010-12-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

On Monday night, Clarissa and Krystal had their Christmas dance recital. They danced a little ballet mixed with modern number to Angels We Have Heard on High.
Clarissa just loves being the center of attention.

The girls with Miss Hannah, their instructor. We just love Miss Hannah, she is so talented. Not only does she dance, she also sews, she made the costumes too.
After the dances, we had a surprise visit from none other than Santa! Clarissa is all smiles, but Amber is not sure what to think of Santa.
He did not even hesitate to pick her right up and cuddle her. I agree with Santa, she's irresistible.
Jared gave each of his sisters a bouquet of handmade flowers. Isn't he sweet?

First Snow

2010-12-04T17:08:00.000-08:00

Yum!

Cold and wet, but happy!

Beautiful.

November Nothings

2010-11-27T15:57:00.000-08:00

One sunny Sunday morning we were all getting ready for church when we noticed that by chance we were all wearing matching/coordinating clothes. What a perfect opportunity for a photo shoot.

In an effort to keep the house clean we came up with a new incentive system. For every thing that the kids clean up or put away, they get to pick an M&M or a skittle out of a jar. At the end of the week if the house has been kept clean, we will have a fun family activity. The week of Thanksgiving was the first week we tried this system. It worked beautifully so on Friday night we went bowling. We had a great time.
Math with Skittles. We did sorting, counting by 10's, 5's, and 2's. Adding, graphing, dividing, etc. It was fun and worked for all ages, plus was yummy too.
Our history group is studying Ancient Civilizations. This unit was about Ancient Asia. Since we knew that Chris would soon be going to India for work, we chose Ancient India to study. Jared did his project about the Indian art. The colorful piece on the bottom right is his own creation based on the Indian techniques. Clarissa made an ancient dwelling from clay and Krystal made a bracelet to present to her brother as part of an Indian celebration.

It wouldn't be November without the annual playing and jumping in the leaves!

My calling in the youth program at church keeps me busy with meetings and activities. Chris is always so good about being home with the kids while I'm gone and having fun with them. The above two pictures were taken on two different nights while I was gone. One was with friends over and the other spaghetti night (Yes, he cooks and babysits other people's children while I'm gone.)
The first weekend in November we went to Charleston, West Virginia to visit Grandma Mattson, Chris's sister, her husband and their baby, James. Little Jimmy is just adorable and the kids just love their chubby little cousin.

Halloween...the extended version

2010-11-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

This year, Halloween began on Monday the 25th with a trip to get pumpkins and even though it was just at Wal-mart, Amber thought it was just great to climb all over the pumpkins. We brought them home to gut them out and roasted the seeds. Clarissa loved the messiness of course.

We didn't have time for carving yet, but we finished off the evening with making caramel apples. YUM!!
Thursday, Amber had a Halloween party at Preschool, so I made mummy cookies for the kids.

Amber dressed up for Preschool as a cheerleader.

The kids finally got their pumpkins carved and painted. This is Krystal's pretty pumpkin.

Friday night the whole family got dressed up for Trunk or Treat at church. Our theme this year was a sports theme. Amber, the cheerleader, Krystal the dancer, Clarissa is a soccer player, Jared, a Notre Dame baseball player, Jen, a hockey player and Chris our coach.

Chris passed out candy from the back of the van. Jared's Frankenstein pumpkin is in the background.
Our county voted to do Trick or Treating on Monday since Halloween was on a Sunday. So, Monday we went to our friends house to meet with all our friends for a party and some Trick or Treating.
Also on Monday, our little dancer lost her second top tooth. So, now that Halloween is over she can start thinking about Christmas...all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...

On Bangs and Birthday Parties

2010-10-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

As I was decorating the cake for Jared's 11th Birthday Party, my thoughts drifted back to 1987 when I was in middle school and my mornings were spent in trying to tame my bangs into that perfect 80's wave. You know, curl bangs with curling iron, style the top half of bangs up and back, spray with aquanet until a stiff wall forms, form the bottom half of bangs into a perfect curl going down toward forehead, spray with aquanet, put every stray hair in it's place, more aquanet, when sure that bangs are perfect, spray more aquanet. After years of early morning frustration, some time in High School, I stumbled upon the concept that my hair actually looked a lot better if I would just let it do what it wanted to do. I distinctly remember getting compliments for how my hair looked with friends asking what I was doing different and I would reply that I just let my hair do it's natural thing. So, other than reflecting on my personal responsibility for the deterioration of the ozone layer, what does this have to do with birthday parties you might ask.

I used to try to create what in my mind was the perfect birthday party experience for my children. You know, a theme with decorations, games, goodie bags and cake all based on the theme. But, somewhere between the volcano cake and the Barbie dress cake, I lost my love for cake decorating and actually shed tears as I threw the Barbie cake in the sink and started over. Since then, the cake part of the birthday party has been very stressful and I usually have a friend come over, if not to help make the cake, just for moral support. Then it happened...on the day that I made the worst cake of my career as a mother, Jared, after seeing the cake for the first time said, "Mom, you did it again!" And I thought, "What, ruined another cake?" But upon further questioning, he said something to the effect that I was the best cake decorator ever. In that moment I realized that to make the perfect birthday party experience for my children I could really lower my expectations considerably. So, ever since that day, I have let the cake decorating happen naturally, just like my bangs. However, although not aerosol, a can is still my favorite creative tool. I know many people will cringe when they read this, but I just love frosting in a can, not for the taste, but for the ease in which I can create what my kids deem as the perfect cake.

Happy Birthday Jared! I hope the $1 foam swords and frosting-in-a-can-cake really made you as happy as you looked. As for me, I was much happier than in past years and really enjoyed the no stress party.

Back to School

2010-10-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

Krystal is presenting her history report about the mummification process. Her project includes a "stone" sarcophagus, a "wooden" coffin, a "gold" coffin, the Barbie mummy she made, canopic jars with organs made from clay, and plenty of furniture, food, and jewels to last for Barbie in the afterlife.
Jared's presentation was about the Great Pyramid at Giza built during the reign of the Egyptian king Khufu also known as Cheops. Jared was interested in the architecture of the tunnels and chambers of the inside of the pyramid. He did a great job researching online and presenting what he learned.
Clarissa talked about the games and toys of the Ancient Egyptians. Chris helped her make the wooden horse with wooden wheels. She told everyone that two of the games the Egyptians used to play were leap frog and tug-of-war, which was followed by a tug-of-war game outside, boys against girls of course. Much to everyone's surprise, (and heavily debated afterward) the girls won. There were about 9 girls and 7 boys, but the boys were older and bigger. Those girls are tough.
To make learning how to count change fun, we played candy store and Clarissa was the store clerk.
Krystal's mummy during mummification process. These are the jewels and amulets that were put inside her wrappings.
After using math to make some homemade playdough, the girls learned or practiced new words by forming the words out of playdough and making a figure of what the word represented.
Amber started Preschool this year. She absolutely loves it. Preschool is taught by the mothers in the group, each of us trading off weeks. There are four other kids from church in her Preschool. So far they've learned All About Me and about Fall. Amber is learning to write her name and loves doing her schoolwork (workbooks that she picks out).

Happy for 13 years

2010-07-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

Chris and I have been married for 13 years now. On the day that he asked me to marry him, I made him promise that he would make me laugh every day of our lives. He has definitely kept that promise.
The other morning I walked into the kitchen to find this tomato amongst the others on our windowsill. It's the little things like this that keep us happy.

Close Encounters

2010-06-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

I have been learning how to use the macro setting on my camera. As a result I've captured some neat things. Some are good pictures, others not as good.
This is one of my irises just after a light rain.
These are three baby birds that we fed for one evening and morning for my friend so she could go out with her husband. The birds eat every hour (but not at night thank goodness). We don't know what kind of birds they are, but their mouths are HUGE when open waiting for food (that's what that orange flower-looking thing is). I never did get a good pic of them, they kept moving and hiding under the flap of the box and the camera focused on the grass in the foreground.
Freshly washed tomatoes. This shot was difficult because I had to hold the tomatoes in one hand to get the right light while trying to hold the camera and zoom in with the other hand.
This is a nest of bumblebees that we came across in our compost. I didn't actually use the macro on this, but zoomed in a lot! I didn't want to get too close. I have never seen a bumblebee nest and thought their large marble sized eggs were rather interesting.
I found this eastern box turtle one morning while walking. I brought him home and eventually gave him to a friend to use for a boy scout merit badge. The kids enjoyed watching him try to get out of the box.

And finally, my favorite subject to shoot...our kids. This is Amber sucking her thumb while napping. I love that I could capture every detail from her eyelashes down to the freckle on her thumb. Hmmm, what camera feature should I play with next?

Our Dancing Princesses

2010-05-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

I got the inspiration from a book I found at the library to photograph the girls as they were dancing. We had a lot of fun and got some good poses too.

Clarissa and Krystal are so happy when they're dancing. They've been taking dance class from Miss Hannah for this whole school year and have loved every minute of it. I was out of town during their recital and Chris forgot to bring the camera, but he took pictures of their costumes once he got home.
They did a dance from The Nutcracker Ballet. Clarissa is the sugar-plum fairy queen and Krystal is a flower.
Both girls did a wonderful job and I got to see their performance when I got home because Chris did remember to bring the video camera.
Clarissa even had a solo and she did great.

Amber wanted to get in on the action too. She loves to dress in tutus and pretend that she is going to dance class. She already knows some of the positions as well.

A Photo Tour of Downtown Radford

2010-05-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago some friends and I got together with our cameras and walked around downtown Radford to take pictures of anything that we found to be interesting. I learned a lot, but I also had a lot of fun. My family doesn't understand why I took so many pictures of strange things, but this is a sampling of the pictures I think are interesting.

Continuous Fun

2010-05-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

One spring day with nothing better to do, the kids and I decided to play with the continuous shooting mode on the camera. We quickly discovered that jumping pictures were really funny. The first four pictures are of Clarissa and Krystal jumping in succession. The others are just some funny shots taken while in the midst of jumping.

This pictures of the four kids is the one that Chris chose for his desktop on his computer at work. We're kinda crazy like that.

The Food We Love

2010-05-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

Inspired by my friend's food blog http://love2cooksweets.blogspot.com/, I thought I would include some of our traditional Mattson foods and the events they celebrate in this post.Pretzel Jell-O. We love pretzels, especially when they are coupled with something sweet like yogurt, frosting, peanut butter, or Jell-O. This Jell-O casserole has a crust of crushed pretzels and butter, topped with a layer of cream cheese and cool whip, followed by the jiggly stuff with berries in it. We like Pretzel Jell-O any time of the year, but always have it with our Christmas dinner. The layers of red and white just seem so festive. I got the recipe from my friend Kerrie in Illinois.

Cinnamon Rolls. Who doesn't love cinnamon rolls? Well, we are no different. Although we would love to eat them every day, we keep it to only two times a year. Our tradition is that every six months when we watch General Conference for church, we have this sticky treat for breakfast on Saturday. This way, we hold off the calories and keep the kids excited about watching conference.

Cheesecake. Chris loves cheescake. So on his birthday I will usually make a cheesecake from scratch. When we were first married I made my very first cheesecake and it came out just perfect. We joke that I have been trying ever since then to repeat that culinary feat and have never achieved it since. But, in reality, cheesecake it just really yummy no matter what.

Mexican fiesta food. I make Mexican food every year on Cinco de Mayo. I also make it every Monday...and any other day I feel like it so that we usually end up eating Mexican at least twice a week. Still, it is a tradition. I do change it up each time though. Sometimes it's more authentic than others, but seeming as how Cinco de Mayo is not a Mexican holiday anyway, but a Mexican/American holiday, I don't feel too bad throwing in some black olives every now and then (which are not authentic Mexican). This year's big bang was the fresh pineapple, Yum!

Pizza. Years ago Chris gave me a pizza stone for Christmas (the one on top) and I have made homemade pizza every Friday since. The first pizza fell onto the oven door before I could cook it. Many others stuck to the stone or dripped toppings onto the oven floor, but I never gave up. Now, I can make a pizza quicker than what it takes to order one and have it delivered, I have the crust recipe memorized, and I know the perfect brands to use for all the ingredients. Our tradition is pizza and a movie as a family every Friday night. One of the things I love best about pizza is the ability to make each pizza a new and different creation, like the taco pizza on top (see, I sneak Mexican in everywhere). Another thing I love is that I usually have at least one child helping to put on toppings.

There are many other foods that we love and are a part of our traditions that are not included in this post, like coconut shrimp for Chris's birthday, my favorite coleslaw for potlucks and picnics, my Dad's green Jell-O for Thanksgiving, and my friend Kammie's brownies for any pick me up occassion, but I sadly do not have pictures of them because we eat them too fast.

The 10 things I love the most about Spring in Virginia

2010-05-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

1. Yellow forsythia and daffodils. These two yellow plants are always the first sign of Spring. I wait all winter long through the grays and whites for that first spot of yellow. I've always wanted a forsythia bush ever since we lived in Wisconsin and my neighbor had one. If you haven't lived in a cold climate you just can't imagine how much of a relief it is to see those yellow flowers start to bud. This year, I finally got my forsythia, it's a little thin, but it will grow!

2. Eastern Redbud trees. Chris says they must have been named by a color-blind botonist because as you can see they are purple, not red. The first spring after we moved to our house I had the most wonderful surprise as I was driving down our road that follows the river. It was full of these Redbuds. At the time I didn't know what they were, but quickly found out and was especially pleased to find that we have one on our property. An added bonus is that when the purple buds are gone, heart-shaped leaves form and stay all summer. These trees are especially beautiful in the light of the setting sun. I just can't drive around enough when they are in bloom.

3. Pink Dogwoods. The Dogwood is the Virginia state tree. They bloom shortly after the redbuds and come in both pink and white. I am particularly partial to the pink. I just love the shape of the flower. Unfortunately, although we have several white dogwoods on our property, we do not have any pink ones, so I have to take lots of pictures.

4. Yardwork. Some people don't like work. I am not one of those people. One of my favorite passtimes is pulling weeds. And there is nothing I find more relaxing than a 2-hour spin of uninterupted time on the riding lawnmower. However, Chris feels the same way and usually gets to mow the lawn while I weedeat, garden, turn compost, pull out dead vines, etc. But, as long as I'm in the sun with the fresh spring breeze, I'm happy.

5. Planting annuals. This tradition started when we lived in Wisconsin on a block full of retired couples. All the women spent hours every day tending to their annuals, I remember my neighbors window boxes were always full of red geraniums. That was where I learned the difference between an annual (die off each fall) and a perennial (last from year to year) and most of their names. Each Mother's Day Chris would buy me a bunch of annuals to plant in my hanging planters on the porch and around my hosta beds. Now days, I don't wait around for Mother's Day, I usually buy whatever comes out first. Incidently, those orange pansies are actually from last Fall. They survived a very cold winter.

6. Finding Black Rat Snakes. Most people who know me know that I love snakes. Ever since I was a little girl and my Dad would take us into the hills around Bakersfield to find snakes, (usually gopher snakes, but sometimes we were lucky and found California Kings) I have loved to catch them. I was so excited when we moved to this house and our neighbor told us that the Black snakes usually come out in the spring. I have never been disappointed. Every time I find one, I pick it up, let the kids touch it and then let it go again. There is one snake in particular that I believe I have found several times. He is very calm and the last time I found him he actually came into my hands without me having to pick him up first.

7. Planting Spring Veggies. In this bed I have planted a mix of lettuces, some swiss chard, several rows of spinach, some nasturtium and radishes. The bed with the lattice has sugar snap peas. But, the best surprise of this spring is that my cilantro came back in droves after sitting under the snow for months. Tacos anyone?

8. The smell of honeysuckle vines. There might be no better smell than the sweet aroma of honeysuckle growing in the wild. I will never forget the vacation when we went to The Poconos Mountians in Pennsylvania. The Poconos are supposed to be one of the best honeymoon spots in the East. It was a great vacation, the mountains were pretty and we had a lot of fun together...but when we got home and got out of the car...the honeysuckle was overwhelmingly wonderful and I said outloud, "I love the smell of Virginia!"

9. Rec League Soccer. I know, I can't believe I'm saying this. As I set my camping chair down on the grass at the first practice I said very loudly, "I hate soccer!" And here I am now saying that it's one of my favorite things. The truth is...I changed my mind. I'm still not sure that I love soccer practices, but the games are actually fun. Jared is playing soccer for the first time. Not that he didn't want to earlier, but somehow I never got him signed up in time. I still haven't decided if it's something we will continue to do, but for now...we're having fun. I think it helps that Chris' schedule at work isn't so bad right now so he's made it to every game and we just make a family night out of it.

10. Campfires at our firepit. All winter long we collect our mixed paper that can't be recycled for the purpose of burning it. After the paper has been burned we put the ashes into the compost to be used later on the garden. We think it's an ingenious idea of recycling. But more than that, we just enjoy campfires. I have often said that I think they should bottle the smell of campfires to be used as perfume. Maybe it just brings back memories of camping at Lake Isabella every summer as a child or maybe it's the new memories that we're creating in our family of having smores, telling stories, singing songs and most of all...inviting friends over. Mattson family campfires are not indigenous to the spring alone, but that is when they can start up again after a long winter.

The blooms are falling off the trees, it's almost warm enough to turn on the air conditioning, it's almost time to plant summer vegetables, spring is nearing the end, but it's been great. I won't mourn it's passing, but will hold on to these fleeting moments and look forward to the many springs to come and the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes they bring.

Something is fishy!

2010-04-09T06:07:00.000-07:00

In conjunction with our trip to the Washington D.C. temple, we took a day to go into Baltimore to visit the aquarium. One of their displays was the Jellyfish Invasion. It was really cool!

Amber, "Taking on the jellies, you've got serious thrill issues, Dude." - Finding Nemo

We also enjoyed the dolphin show.

Clarissa, Amber and Jared looking at what we dubbed - the Nemo tank (yeah, we're a little obsessed).

Funny looking little guy.

Clarissa, look out!

Man vs. Ray

Pig-nosed turtle

"An annnneneme, an annnemmmen, an anemooone, an anemone!" "Okay, don't hurt yourself."

Finding Nemo

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

2010-04-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

Chris took a couple days off of work and we headed up to Washington D.C. On Thursday we drove up and went to the Udvar-Hazy Center to see hundreds of actual aircraft housed in a Boeing Aviation Hangar. The first thing we saw as we walked in was this huge jet. This is the Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird, the world's fastest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird was used for 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War. On its last flight, March 6, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 2,124 miles per hour. At the flight's conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian. Yeah, it's that cool.

This World War II aircraft was pretty mean looking. It was neat to see some of the WWII bombers that we had just studied about for history, including some German and Japanese.

The girls liked this airliner because it was so shiny. This museum housed artifacts and aircraft beginning with Pre-1920 Aviation, to Korean and Vietnam, to Aerobic Aviation, to Human Spaceflight.

This place is so huge that it actually has a full size space shuttle, the Enterprise. The Enterprise is a full scale test vehicle. It was never actually equipped for space, but was used in 1976 and 1977 for testing within the earth's atmosphere. Some other items on display in the space area were Apollo 11 flotation devices, John Glenn's training couch, missiles, satellites, Gemini heat shields, a space lab...what a way to introduce our next history theme: The Space Race.

We finished up the evening with a visit to our dear friends, the Coiners. Here are all the kids winding down with a movie.

Clarissa just loving on Baby M, who's not quite a baby anymore, although still teeny tiny and cute as can be.

Baptism Day

2010-03-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

Children who attend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints learn from a very early age that the age of accountability as set by the Lord is 8 years old. Meaning that any time after a child turns 8 they may choose to be baptized into the church, but not before as we believe they are innocent and not accountable for their choices until after that time. Obviously each person is at a different stage of life and understanding when they are 8 years old, but most children who are raised in the church look forward to their 8th birthday so that they may be baptized like their parents, teachers, and siblings before them. Clarissa was no different, she has been looking forward to this special birthday all year and the day finally came. Preceding this day, we have spent many an evening talking about what baptism means and what kind of a commitment it is. I am happy that Clarissa has made this choice to further explore what religion means to her. This is only the first step in many choices that she will have the opportunity to make throughout her life. Clarissa in her baptism dress. We took this picture for her invitations and she wore it after she was baptized.

Clarissa and Chris ready to go into the waters of baptism.

Clarissa and Krystal and their friends sang a song about when Jesus Christ was baptized.

Grandma and Poppa Mattson flew to Virginia to be here for Clarissa's birthday and baptism. Poppa gave a talk about baptism and the Holy Ghost. Grandma wrote this poem for Clarissa to keep in her journal:

On this your baptismal day

You have chosen your way

Of truth and right

To lead your life

With the Spirit to guide yoiu

How to walk in the light.

Valor, Fidelity, and Sacrifice

2010-03-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Our next period of study in our history group is that of World War I and II. To kick off our studies, our group took a field trip to the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia. We have often passed the signs for this memorial and wondered why it was so far inland of Virginia and not closer to Washington D.C. The first part of our tour was to gather in a WWII tent to see some military items and talk about D-Day. Some things we learned in this tent were: The "D" in D-Day stands for...drum roll please...day. That's right, in World War I, the military started referring to the day a battle was to take place as D-day and the hour...any guesses? H-hour. Obviously this was to keep all plans as a secret from the enemy. Another question that was answered was why the memorial was in Bedford, but I'll get to that later. To help the kids remember who was involved on D-day, the tour guide had the kids act it out. Clarissa and her two friends are the Allied forces. Thus, they are looking strong. Jared and a friend got to be the English Channel which was wild and crazy as a result of bad weather. Two other boys were Germany, weak and sick.

Then one of the boys got to be a model as we discussed the soldiers equipment and supplies.

Everything about the memorial is symbolic. This view shows a garden. The cement structure is in the shape of a sword. Behind that is a display of flowers representing the different nations of the Allied forces. Next comes the water that is the English channel, then the beaches of Normandy (shown later). In the background the tall structure represents the operation and is surrounded by flags from each of the twelve Allied nations.

This statue of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allied Commander-in-Chief, is covered with a veranda that has a map of the D-day operation overhead. The frightening part was that each of the Germans underwater mines are marked with a white tile, and there were a lot of them.

At this wall, we learned a little about each of the American companies who went into action on June 6, 1944. We also listened to a voice recording of the speech that Eisenhower gave to the troops before they left England to cross the English Channel into France.

This large cement area represents the English Channel. This is our group listening to the tour guide as he explained how many men were lost that day. On either side are the names of those soldiers who lost their lives from all of the Allied troops. One side had the names of those from all the other countries other than American, the other side was full of American soldiers names. More than half of the lives lost that day were American.

This part of the Memorial represents the valor of these men as they were brought in on boats and set of the sandy beaches. The cross thing in the back were put into the water to tear up any boats that tried to cross the channel. The sand on the ground is actually sand brought in from the beaches of Normandy.

This is an actual airplane from D-Day. There were 1100 airplanes in the air that day. They say the sky was totally black for the planes were wing to wing as they flew in parachuters and dropped bombs. The day before D-day each of the 1100 airplanes were painted with the three white stripes so that they could be identified at Allied airplanes.

This part of the memorial represents the fallen and their sacrifice. There wasn't time to give proper burial to the dead. Each fallen soldier's gun was put into the ground with his helmet on top and identification tag hung around the gun. This is where I talk about why the monument is in Bedford. The company that was made up of boys from Bedford Virginia sent in 177 soldiers on D-day. Only 15 of those boys survived that day. The company of Bedford boys sustained more loss than any other company on D-day.

This statue represents fidelity. The artist made sure to include wedding rings on both soldiers. The bravery of these men must have been driven by the love they had for their families and their country.

The monument behind our family represents Operation Overlord. Overlord was the code name given to the whole operation. The white stripes represent the stripes on the airplanes and the shape of the top represents the shape of the roof lines of the homes in Normandy. Finally, the monument itself is 44 feet 6 inches high to commemorate the date of June 1944. And, as if that isn't symbolism enough there is another statue further down that has a plaque made of special marble that actually turns red when it rains.

We enjoyed that Grandma and Poppa Mattson were able to join us on this educational field trip. It was a beautiful spring day, we all felt the reverence as we pondered on those who have sacrificed for us so that we may live in this free country.

Statue of Liberty

2010-03-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

An adorable and spontaneous 3-year old moment. What else do you do with a big rock in the yard, but pretend to be the statue of liberty? And yes, she actually stayed that way while I ran inside to get the camera. In true statuesque form, she hadn't moved a muscle.

Woof woof, Moo moo, Quack quack, Meow meow!

2010-03-13T17:54:00.000-08:00

For weeks now, Clarissa had been planning her 8th birthday party. She won't be 8 until Thursday, but because of scheduling, we decided to have the party early. Finally, the day came! She wanted a Pet birthday party. I had a meeting in the morning so I got up early and decorated this cute doggy cake. The party wasn't until 3:00 and it just about killed Clarissa to have to wait that long, but finally - her friends arrived.

The first activity they did was to color Littlest Pet Shop coloring pages. It was fun to listen to their conversations as they sat still coloring.

While they colored, they had snacks like animals cookies, goldfish crackers, and gummy bears in these adorable little doggy dishes, which they took home with them.

My favorite part of the party is that Clarissa planned the games. She made this donkey for 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' and her friends didn't even mind that she spelled Donkey "creatively."

The next game was animal charades. Can you tell what animal she's acting out?

Finally it was time for presents! Clarissa got several Littlest Pet Shop sets to add to her collection and some other fun gifts that she enjoyed.

Two more things that I loved about this day:

- 1 Clarissa had set aside an outfit for her party weeks ago and I just assumed that it would be one of her really pretty, flashy, girly outfits - but was much surprised when she came out wearing this old T-shirt. Of course, it has horses on it, what was I thinking?

- 2 When it was time to blow out the candles, Clarissa gingerly blew them the first time (on purpose) and then said to all her friends, "Come on everyone, let's all do it together!"

Where O where has my little eye gone, O where O where can it be? Chris asked Clarissa what part of the cake she wanted and she said the eye, so Chris cut it out of the center for her. Poor doggy!

Well, Clarissa said that it was the BEST birthday party she's ever had. I'm so glad that it met all her expectations. Now she can begin planning for next year.

We love Miss Hannah!

2010-03-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

Clarissa and Krystal take dance class from an adorable college student named Miss Hannah. We love what she does with the girls. Each day she teaches them a little dance and they do it for the parents when we pick them up. Because of all the snow days we've had, Saturday was a make-up day where both the little girls and the big girls danced together for 2 hours then did a show for the parents. Miss Hannah brought her old costumes and let the girls dress up. They did a ballet dance from the Nutcracker. Each of the older girls were partnered with a younger girl. Clarissa is spinning C in this picture.

Krystal and L are bowing in front of the big mirrors.

Clarissa and Krystal doing pase in their practice leotards.

My Pay it Forward project

2010-03-03T11:20:00.000-08:00

A year ago today we got the news that my sister-in-law's mother passed away. Brooke's mother, Judy, was lovingly known by many as Grandma "J." Grandma J was one of those rare individuals who always thinks of others before themselves and she loved to craft. Having those two qualities meant that Grandma J was always making things for other people. My first experience with this was for Shane and Brooke's wedding when Judy sewed my bridesmaid dress, along with Brooke's dress and all the other dresses for the wedding party. The first time I met her was when I showed up to try on the dress and she made a comment about how she thought I was supposed to be 5 months pregnant and I looked so skinny, I loved her immediately (incedentally, the dress was gorgeous and fit just fine). I think I only saw Grandma J two more times after that, but each time she made me feel like a million bucks and she loved my children as if they were her own grandchildren. So, when Brooke invited me to join her in a Pay it Forward day for her mom, I said of course. The Pay it Forward day consisted of making something homemade and giving it to someone, as these are the two things Grandma J loved the most. I had a busy day planned on Wednesday, but figured I could probably make some cookies and deliver them to a friend or something easy like that. Then...I got a phone call from a friend who was supposed to make a cake for our Young Women's program that night and she told me that she couldn't do it because her kids were sick with the flu. I thought to myself, "I HATE making cakes, but I'd really like to help out my friend and this could be my Pay it Forward project. So, after school for the day and a trip to the store for eggs, I started the cake at 4pm (the program was at 7pm). Rarely do I have a cake come out of the pan on the first try, but this one came out beautifully and I figured that Grandma J must be watching out for me from heaven. Then came the time to dye all the fondant for the "Olympic" rings (yes, I know they're not like the Olympics, these rings correspond with value colors in the Young Women's program). I like using fondant, it fun like playdough, but edible. However, on a time crunch, working the dye into seven different clumps of fondant was getting to be frustrating. I made it through the work by thinking to myself, "this is for you Grandma J, this is for you." I also had to remind myself that Grandma J would have done the project with a smile, not begrudgingly, so I put on a smile, finished the cake and made it on time for the program. It's nothing fancy really, but I got sooo many complements on the cake for both presentation and flavor. I told everyone my story and I just have to say, "I owe it all to you Grandma J - We love you and miss you, but you're memory lives on in all the homemade projects we make and the service we give."

A Trip to Holland

2010-02-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

Our most recent read-aloud was Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge. It was a long read, but a welcome distraction to the dreary weather outside. We all enjoyed the two intertwined story lines, but would have preferred a little less Dutch history. We especially liked the characters of Hans Brinker, Peter Van Mounen, and Jacob Poot. This book is full of heroic values as Hans is faced with many difficult decisions of moral magnitude.

Jared gave a presentation on one of the chapters from the book at our Book Group on Friday. For his persentation he researched three different items from the chapter. The first item was a foot stove. He drew a picture of the foot stove and explained that it was a wooden box that would have hot coals placed inside and warm air would come out of holes in the top. The next item was a Meerschaum smoking pipe that he carved out of soap. Meerschaum is a mineral that is skimmed off the top of some seas (like sea foam) and was used to make pipes because it doesn't burn or give off a flavor. So many Dutchmen smoked pipes that the distance a boat could travel was measured by how many pipes it would take the captain to smoke. The last item Jared presented was an ice boat. The picture above is the ice boat that he made from Legos. The ice boat had a sail to catch the wind and had runners under the boat with two triangles on either side, with runners, for balance. Jared did a great job with his presentation!

After a short activity about Dutch words and how many of our English words are of Dutch origin, we made some ice boats out of cardstock and paper clips and raced them on ice. Jared and his friend provide the wind for their boats.

While the boys were racing their ice boats, the girls made pinwheels to remind them of the Dutch windmills.

We finished the day off by making (and eating) wafels and windmill-shaped cookies. The Dutch were the first ones to introduce wafels to America. We also learned that the word easel is of Dutch origin and means donkey. Therefore an art easel is literally a painters donkey, which makes sense being that it carries the supplies just as a donkey would carry a person's baggage. So, with our minds full of ice skating, windmills, tulips, painters, guilders, and gold watches - we bid goodbye to the world of Hans Brinker and his sister Gretel...until the next looong, cold winter?

Vulture Feast?

2010-02-21T17:37:00.001-08:00

You don't have to be in Radford long to notice that there are lots of vultures. In fact, Radford is home to more than 300 turkey and black vultures, the largest roost in Virginia and possibly the entire East Coast. So, it should come as no surprise that Radford holds an annual Vulture Festival to celebrate this oftentimes misunderstood scavenger. Still, Jared was surprised when he looked at our calendar for Saturday where I had written in "Vulture Fest" and he read "Vulture Feast." I had to explain to him that Fest is short for the word Festival and No we were not going to feast on Vultures, just going to learn about them. Three little buzzaaaaaaards, sitting in a tree. Actually, we learned that buzzard is the British name for hawk and Americans just adapted the name to label vultures. The festival was held at the Elementary school and inside we found many fun activities about vultures and other birds.

Clarissa was a little hesitant at first about dissecting owl pellets until I told her it was one of the things that I loved to do as a kid. Then, she jumped right in (that's my girl). She found two whole deer mice skulls and many other tiny bones. Apparently vultures also regurgitate pellets, but theirs aren't as "clean" for sake of a better word.

Amber stuck to a little more familiar territory, coloring.

Krystal is sponge-painting with vulture shaped sponges.

After the crafts and some free popcorn, we went outside to meet Buttercup. Buttercup is a vulture that was rescued from the wild when her wing was damaged by a passing motorist. She weighs about 3 and a half pounds and has a wingspan of over 5 feet.

I waited patiently for my turn to hold Buttercup. Yes, I'm actually talking to her. Up close she had quite a bit of personality and I even told Chris later that she was kind of cute. He added, "In an ugly sort of way."

Vultures weren't the only form of entertainment. The Chickenman showed up and gave the kids quite a show, Jerry Lewis style. Yes, that's a chicken on his head, and No, it wasn't always on straight.

In this photo, "Larry" (all of the Chickenman's helpers were called Larry) helps the Chickenman with his giant Yo-Yo. Jared was pretty sure he wasn't going to have any fun at this festival, it's a good thing he's not enjoying himself :).

And finally..., the crowning event of the day was that I won the Photo Contest with this photograph of a local turkey vulture sitting on our neighbors rooftop last summer. It was a warm August morning when the kids and I looked outside to see this vulture in full glory. We watched it for a while and finally I grabbed my camera and started snapping, never knowing what I would do with this picture, but we wanted to show Chris our mornings nature observations. Little did I know that in February there would be a photo contest of Radford's vultures. When I found out about the contest on Friday I was like, "Hey, I have a picture of a vulture." I promptly e-mailed the photo and informed my family that we were going to the festival to vote for Mommy's photo. I was pleasantly surprised when the director announced that I was the winner and even more surprised when she said that my photo won by a long shot, that meant more people voted for it than just my family. So...I won a T-shirt and the photo is going to be framed and hung in the Radford City Visitor's Center. I guess my quirky habit of loving all of nature's creatures is paying off. Here's to nature's clean-up crew - the vulture!

Mother/Daughter Date

2010-02-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, Clarissa and I went to the hair salon to get our haircut together. This was Clarissa's second time to get her hair cut at a salon, but she probably doesn't remember the first time. She got a really cute cut with layers that curves around her face and she loves it. My hair had gotten way too long so I got about 3 inches cut off and lots of layers put into it. This picture is of us dressed up for church on Sunday.

Civil Rights Projects

2010-02-14T20:49:00.000-08:00

Friday was a busy day. Before the Valentine's party, we got together with our history group for presentations. The theme this month was Civil Rights. Jared presented his project first which was a very thorough timeline of the Civil Rights beginning with 1808 when slave trading was made illegal and ending with 2006 when Coretta Scott King (widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) died. This was Krystal's first project. She wanted to talk about Helen Keller, who although she didn't participate in the Civil Rights Movement as we typically see it, did in her later years work for the rights of the blind and deaf in our nation and in Japan. For her project, Krystal dictated the story of Helen Keller to me as she remembered it. I then made a book out of it, which she illustrated and read for her presentation. She did a great job reading and even showed us how to spell doll in sign language.

Clarissa's project was about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott. She really liked the story of Rosa Parks and how strong she was to stand up for what she knew was right.

While doing some research about the bus boycott I found that in order to make money for gas and station wagons for those who were not able to walk, many women baked pies and cakes in their kitchens and sold them in beauty salons. I also found an original recipe for Baked Fudge from one of these courageous women and baked it for our history group. It was very delicious!

Some other projects presented were about Ruby Bridges, Jackie Robinson, Mohanndes Ghandi, and Harriet Tubman. We are grateful to all the amazing men and women who have fought peacefully for the rights of all. We know that we all have differences and that is what makes this life fun and interesting. We appreciate each individual for their differences whether it be in age, skin color, religion, political view, physical abilities, language, financial circumstances, or any other variety of traits.

A Crafty Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

The theme for our family this Valentine's season seemed to be crafts. First, we spent most of the day on Thursday creating some cute Valentine's using punches. This is a sample of some the girls made, Jared actually wrote a little poem, typed it up and put that on heart shaped paper that he cut out (all his own idea).

The first part of the Valentine's party on Friday was some ice breaker games. This was a cute game where each person is given one side of a heart and they have to find the person who has the other side of their heart. Amber's heart matched with one of the other Moms. Next it was time to eat all the yummy food.

After the kids were done eating they passed out their Valentine's. Krystal watches as Amber gives her friend a Valentine.

Another craft were these cute boxes that we made for Krystal and Amber for collecting their Valentine's (Jared and Clarissa used theirs from several years ago).

I also made this Conversation Heart Bingo game, it was a hit.

Unfortunately, the party was at Amber's naptime so she crashed while I was running the Bingo game.

The last crafty thing I made was this collage on Picasa of all the kids sorting through their Valentine spoils when we got home. Check out those sugar-laced smiles!

One Day in the Desert

2010-02-09T13:26:00.001-08:00

After 5 degree temps yesterday and more snow today, I decided to rebel. We spent the afternoon reading this book by Jean Craighead George called One Day in the Desert. We also acted out the book as we were reading it, drew pictures of characters we didn't have props for, and turned our living room into a Sonoran desert.

This was our paloverde (a type of tree) area where the peccaries (pigs), tortoise, cactus wren, and ringtailed cat hung out by the saguaro, teddy-bear, and prickly pear cacti.

These are the other characters to our story. The rattlesnake (or old bike tire), the Papago Indian hut, Clarissa as Bird Wing, the mountain lion, Diesel the coyote, Jared the sound effects man, the red Scorpion Mountain and Krystal's drawing of a kangaroo rat (but she refused to be in the picture). It was fun and we even did some math, science, and writing along with the art and acting. But, the best part was that whether it was just in my mind or not, I was actually warm the whole 2 hours. Also, it brought back fond memories of the three (Mojave, Great Basin, and Chihuahuan) different deserts that I've lived in.

Swimming in the Snow?

2010-02-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, in spite of some pretty icy weather and one weather induced cancellation already, we went with some friends to an indoor swimming center for some family fun. A bunch of us got together and rented the whole place for two hours. This is what it looked like outside.

Inside, we had a blast. Amber is loving the kiddy pool with several water features like the mushroom, mist spraying arch, and streams of water.

Krystal was actually brave enough to go under the mushroom and eventually down the waterslide. Although after her first time down the slide we asked if it was fun and she said, "No!" She did go down it several more times.

I barely saw Jared and Clarissa as they were swimming all over the place, going down the slide as often as possible and hanging with their friends.

I for one, enjoyed the "therapy pool" which was warm and the hot tub, which was HOT! About the only time I went in the cold water was to race Chris. Thank goodness no one got a picture of me when I about drowned myself by breathing in water during the race and Chris was nice enough not to rub in that he won.

This may have been one of the best water experiences ever. It had everything necessary for a sucessful family pool time: clean, close bathrooms, water at every depth, water at every temperature, good friends, soothing quiet pools, fun exciting pools, no hoards of people for your child to drown in and never be noticed, and finally...a definate ending time which meant that I didn't have to be the meany by saying it was time to go. Awesome!

Snowed In!

2010-02-07T12:58:00.001-08:00

After getting a foot a snow last weekend, the kids spent every afternoon this week sledding and playing outside in the snow. So, when the forecast called for another 6-12 inches this weekend, we decided we needed a project to keep us busy while mother nature laid her white blanket. This is the view into our backyard while it was snowing. I didn't measure this time, but it looked like it was another 8-10 inches when all was said and done. Now, on to our project - Moving Amber into a big-girl bed (and out of her brother's room). I realize that Amber is the only 3-year old in the world who has ever slept in a crip for this long (Ha Ha), but the truth is that with no baby to push her out of it and a set of seasoned parents who have learned that big-kid beds only mean having a child who can get out of their bed and come into yours in the middle of the night, we felt no urgent need to rush her into this stage of childhood. However, a friend had a set of bunk beds that she was getting rid of, so we took this opportunity to rearrange.

Before: The "toy" side of the room

Before: Chris made this loft bed for Clarissa and this twin bed for Krystal that we put under the loft bed.

After: The dressing side of the room

After: With the bunk bed in place, we put what was Krystal's bed next to the bunk bed. Krystal is now sleeping on top of the bunk bed, Clarissa chose the bottom because it is actually a double size bed and Amber is in Krystal's old bed. With three beds, even this large room is a little cramped, but we still had room for the Barbie house and a bookcase along with the two dressers. Now to decide what to do with all the extra space in Jared's room. And no, Amber did not stay in her bed all night, but she does love it!

Go Legoman! Go!

2010-02-01T07:15:00.000-08:00

Jared's Cub Scout Pack had their Pinewood Derby last Saturday. Previous to the event, Jared spend hours researching and designing his car. He and Chris looked on-line for ideas, but ultimately Jared settled on making a rule-compliant car made out of Legos. The wheels and axles are from the kit and fit into a thin slice of the wood from the kit. Then, he made a Lego shell to go around the thin peice of wood. Chris helped one of the boys make his car, it's on the left and Jared's is on the right.

Here are all scouts getting ready to race their cars.

And patiently waiting for their awards. Jared won the best engineered award for his ingenuity and design.

Good job Legoman!

MLK Day

2010-01-31T19:03:00.001-08:00

What did we do to celebrate the birthday of the great Civil Rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? We had a party! of sorts. We had already spent Friday reading books and doing activities pages about Martin Luther King Jr. so on Monday we invited some friends over. Amber and Clara enjoy mauling Diesel. Don't let him fool ya', he loves it.

Clarissa, Sadie, and Maggie put on a little production on the stage.

Then, after a long meeting for church and a short Family Night lesson about scripture study, we had cake. Marbled cake with marbled frosting of course, to celebrate Martin Luther King's dream that all people will someday live together in peace regardless of the color of their skin.

What a beautiful (and tasty) dream!

Looking into the mind of a three-year old...

2010-01-29T06:04:00.000-08:00

Amber: (at the dinner table before we eat) I pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ. Amen.

Apparently confusing two family "rituals" of The Pledge of Allegiance and prayer. So funny.

Prepare to be Amazed!

2010-01-19T14:24:00.000-08:00

This past Friday we went to Lynchburg for a fieldtrip to a place called Amazement square. It is basically a four story warehouse full of fun and learning for kids. It has exhibits that cover everything from art to history to science, all hands on. It also has a climbing structure that spans all four stories. We began the day with a tour that was all about disabilities and the tools used to help those with disabilities adapt to the world around them. Here Clarissa and Krystal try on goggles to help them see what it would look like if they had eye disabilities like glaucoma or tunnel vision.

In this picture Jared is playing a game of wheelchair basketball with a friend.

Next we had a little tour about the Voices of Virginia. This was basically learning about different people from Virginia who have played an important role in the history of our country. Jared is helping hold items to demonstrate the Civil War period. This tour also dealt with the Reconstruction period after the Civil War and some famous African-Americans which helps to lead us into our next area of history that we are studying which is the Civil Rights Movement.

All the kids really enjoyed playing with model boats on the replica of the James River with water flowing through locks and dams and real rain falling over the city. Here, Krystal is pushing a bateaux down the James River while her friends sit and enjoy the ride.

With four floors to explore, we found ourselves going up and down the stairs quite often, which were fun in and of themselves because the stairs light up with different colors as you walk on them.

Clarissa and Cailin explore motion and timing with golf balls on a track. The idea was to get them to roll into holes that were constantly spinning.

After a break for lunch, we headed to the bottom floor and found Rock Band!! The girls loved playing the guitar while Ryan sang to a Rascal Flatts song.

After some more time on the tower (the play structure) it was time for some art. This is an all glass room where the kids can go in and paint on the walls. Then the staff come through and just wash it all down and it goes through a drain in the floor. It was fun to watch the kids create through the glass.

We finally pulled everyone out after four hours of continuous play. As we headed to our cars which were parked right by the James River we saw this awesome fountain shooting up with a rainbow at the bottom in the mist.

This place truly was Amazing!

Fun in the Tundra

2010-01-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

The first two weeks of the new year have been really COLD in Virginia. I figured with all this cold and the snow still outside it was a good time to study the Tundra. We did several fun activities to learn about the Tundra and the animals that live there. One experiment we did was to put shortening in a plastic bag, then put our hands in a plastic bag. First we put our hand in ice cold water to feel how cold it was, then put our hands in the shortening bag and feel the water. The shortening represented the blubber on an animal and we were so surprised to see that we really couldn't feel the cold water through the shortening. Another activity we did was to make trading cards of 16 different animals that live in the Tundra. We also did this little experiment that has a tasty result at the end. This is a bowl layered with jell-o, chocolate ice cream, and vanilla ice cream. The jell-o represents the permafrost layer of soil, the chocolate ice cream represents the soil, and the vanilla represents the snow.

As we let the "snow" melt, we saw that the melted snow mixed with the "soil" to create mud, but it did not penetrate the layer of jell-o that represented permafrost.

Then, we each enjoyed our own layered treat, complete with animals in the snow.

Also for this unit, we read the book "Stone Fox" by John Reynolds Gardiner and made our own sled dogs out of construction paper, buttons for eyes, and yarn for fur. It was a great book and the kids have really enjoyed learning about all the different animals of the Tundra and how they adapt to the extremes in weather.

Lost Tooth!

2010-01-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

After days of worrying that she was going to swallow it while eating, Krystal finally lost her first tooth while she was brushing her teeth.

New Year's Eve Party!

2010-01-17T13:12:00.000-08:00

This year we decided that the kids were getting to be old enough to stay up for the midnight countdown for New Year's Eve. We traded kids with our friends the Hales who had a new baby, meaning we took their older two kids to come enjoy a party at our house and we sent Krystal over to their house for a quiet evening and much earlier bedtime. The only plan for the evening was to play Monopoly and eat goodies until midnight, but the kids made their own fun. The 11,10,9 and 7 year-old spent most of the evening planning, writing, practicing and performing their own play complete with sound effects, background music, mood lighting and an original song written and performed by Cailin. Here are Cailin and Clarissa acting out one of the scenes. The jist of the story is that they are two rock stars who are on an adventure to discover the true meaning of happiness.

Although Jared and Connor did have some supporting roles, they also did all the backstage work, music, sound and lighting. It was all quite impressive.

Finally, it's time for Monopoly (and little hot dogs!)

Chris was the banker of course. The kids did enjoy the game, but even with all the sugar from M&M's and hot chocolate, they eventually started to get tired.

They were happy when the radio station started the countdown and they could gather in front of the clock in the kitchen to blow their noisemakers.

We had been listening to disco music the whole night and the first song they played for 2010 was YMCA, we couldn't resist a little dancing. Although Jared is actively participating in this picture, it didn't take long before he started to get a little embarrassed that his Mom and Dad were dancing in front of his friends.

In the morning, the kids made and perfomed a second act to their play. This time, it was even more impressive. Life is so much fun as the kids are getting older. I can't wait to see what 2010 brings us.

A Tinkerbell party fit for a 3-year old!

2010-01-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

This is the first birthday that Amber has actually understood what a birthday party is and she was so excited to have a party, a Tinkerbell party. She picked out the banner in the background when we went to the store, then the girls and I made some more decorations by coloring pages printed from the computer. She even insisted on dressing up as Tinkerbell.

I made a lemon cake with green frosting to stay true to Tinkerbell colors.

When I asked her what kind of food she wanted she said, "Hamburgers and cheese." So we had mini cheeseurgers (I used hot dog buns and cut them into three), goldfish crackers, and fruit snacks for lunch. LaLa (Alyson), LiLi (Liam), and Ladaline (Adaline) came for the party too. After lunch, they played with playdough which was a huge hit, then Amber unwrapped her presents.

Next it was time for cake and Ice Cream. Amber loves to sing the Happy Birthday song so she sang loud and clear, "Happy Birthday to me!"

Blowing out the candles. She loves to blow out candles and her sister got mad when she blew her candles out last September so she was so excited that this time it was her turn.

Our two blonde pixies.

Our beautiful little Tinkerbell. If the purpose of pixie dust is to make one smile, then Amber must truly be a fairy. She is full of smiles and has always brought laughter into our home. Happy 3rd Birthday Amber, We love you!!

Phun with Photos

2010-01-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

As previously mentioned, I got a new camera for my birthday. These are some shots from playing around. I went out one day when the sun was making the snow sparkle and tried out the Circular Polarizer filter. I didn't have much luck with the snow, but got this shot of the sun that I love. Only I can't remember if this is with the filter or without. It will be hard to try to get this shot again as the sun rarely shines so brightly in Virginia.

An attempt to get a plate of the cookies that we delivered to friends and neighbors this year. No flash, good light from the window, but the shadows were causing problems.

Mother nature must have known that I got a new camera because we rarely see sunsets like this.

Chris took this one of Amber in the portrait mode which blurs the background.

No flash, low aperature. I've discovered the lighting in our living room is difficult to shoot in.

I don't like the way the flash washes out the colors, but without the flash the images are blurred or have deep shadows. I took this one with the flash, but used a 812 warming filter to warm up the colors. I like this combo the best so far for indoor pictures, but it still leaves the image without any depth.

Outdoor lighting is so much easier to work with. This is using the macro mode which also blurs the background.

This was actually the fourth picture I took with the camera, it was in full auto mode, but I love the colors and clarity. This was sticky rolls that a friend made for a breakfast we had with our Young Women.

So much fun!

A Very Merry Christmas!

2010-01-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

After a long night of wrapping and helping Santa's elves assemble some special gifts, Christmas morning finally came. These are the gifts from Mom and Dad to the kids, all wrapped in coordinating paper, I couldn't resist the photo opp.

Krystal was pleased to get an Easy-Bake Oven from Santa.

Clarissa opening her Barbie clock/radio from Santa.

With a faster camera I actually caught the moment when Jared realized that Santa had brought him the Lego set that he had been hoping for.

After opening the family gift that was a Karaoke machine, a note told the kids to go to the basement and there they found the stage that Santa brought (and Dad helped assemble).

Also in the basement was Amber's train table that Santa brought and Jared's train set that he gave to Amber this Christmas.

I love this camera! I captured the moment when she gave her brother a thank you hug for giving her the train set. (I didn't get the tears of joy that Jared shed after the hug).

All the kids got these portable microphones in their stockings to aid in their performances on the stage. Krystal is all dressed up in her feety pajamas and purple accessories (too bad you can't see the purple heels from her Aunt Kara).

Amber wearing her bling and putting on lipgloss. She's in almost-three-year-old heaven.

While the kids played with their toys and Chris napped, I spent the day cooking all our favorite holiday meals. Chris got this picture of me cutting the ham with one of my new knives (and sampling the ham :)).

Ham, sweet potatoes, cheesy scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, cranberry sauce, pretzel jello, and cranberry sprite is what we had for dinner. Jared asked me why I was cooking so much food. I tried to explain something about traditions and smells and family togetherness and Chris was like, "Because Americans are obsessed with eating." Aww, leave it to a man to crush the romantic ideals of a woman who just spent all day making sure that every sense of the human body was tickled by this holiday feast. Oh well, in reality he was the first one to grab the camera and start taking pictures of the food and the first one to dig into the savory bites of his favorite dishes. We polished off the night with pumpkin pie and egg nog and rolled into bed happy, tired and very full.

For Unto us a Child is Born

2009-12-31T10:19:00.001-08:00

One of our Christmas traditions is to act out the Nativity Story on Christmas Eve. While planning the Christmas menu, I got stuck as to what to cook for Christmas Eve and since we have friends who do the Bethlehem dinner thing, I thought we'd give it a try this year and see how we liked it. This is our dinner array. Grapes, fish, shrimp, hummus, olives, pita bread, and fig newtons. I'm not sure how authentic it is, but we enjoyed putting on costumes, trying new foods and eating with our hands.

Here are the kids all dressed up for the Nativity Story.

The family in Bethlem gear. I think this will be more fun and meaningful as the kids get a little older and we don't have to deal with tired little girls who although we finally got them to smile for the picture, were having a hard time.

P.S. - These pictures were taken with my new camera that I got for my birthday, a Canon Rebel XSi. I love the difference in color!

Snow Wars

2009-12-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

Friday afternoon it started snowing. We were at the homeschool Christmas party, so we packed up and headed home. We slid a lot on the roads, especially trying to get up our hill. With a couple inches of snow on the ground already we put on our gear and went in the backyard to sled. One nice thing about all the hills in Virginia is that we don't have to go very far for sledding. When we went to bed Friday night there was 11 inches on snow. Saturday morning we woke up to find our car looking like this.

I measured 13 1/2 inches in our backyard. This is one of our cedar trees. Chris can usually fit under the tree while on the riding lawn mower.

Amber is licking the snow off of our patio table.

Diesel acting like a puppy again. He loves the snow.

We found that it was pretty hard to walk in the snow, it was up to the girl's knees. So we decided to stay close to the house to play. Here the girls are painting in the snow with colored water in water bottles.

Jared made several sledding tracks going down the hill by our driveway. Later we made a big long one in the backyard.

Krystal actually got too warm and decided to take her coat off.

We also made snow cones. The snow was powdery soft and yummy!

Amber's ankles kept getting snow on them so I pulled out a chair for her to sit on. She sat and ate her snowcone while watching the others sled.

As the day got a little warmer the snow finally started packing. We made a Princess Leia snowwoman.

And a Darth Vader snowman, he's huge! We started on Luke, but got tired and cold so we went in the house for some hot chocolate. There's still plenty more snow out there to be enjoyed and although we got the Suburban out of the driveway, we can't get it back up, so it's parked at the bottom of our drive. Oh well, it's worth it, it's so pretty outside and I'm sure the kids will be busy sledding every day until it's gone.

On the Road Again...

2009-12-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

Three weeks after our last road trip, we loaded up again. This time, we headed for Florida to visit my brother Shane and his family. We stopped at a nature center in Chatanooga, Tennessee. This is Amber posing with a red wolf statue. After driving through Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, we made it to Panama City, Florida late Saturday night. We stayed in a hotel, so the kids didn't get to see their cousins until we met them for church on Sunday, they were all so excited.

On Monday after school the kids played until dinner while Chris and Shane went golfing. After a lesson about the true meaning of Christmas, we made graham cracker nativity scenes. Here are Andrew, Clarissa, and Emily working on theirs.

Jared loved that aside from Emily, the Hansens have all boys. He spent all his time playing with Alex.

Although the weather wasn't warm and sunny, it was still much warmer than it had been in Virginia so we took every opportunity to go to the beach and just walk, play wave tag, collect seashells or play in the sand. Amber usually chose playing in the sand or chasing seagulls.

Clarissa, Krystal and Me playing wave tag. It's a very fun game when you're fully clothed. The somewhat stormy weather made for some great waves!

Clarissa loves babies, she especially loves to make them laugh and Jaden was always smiling and laughing. I held him often and enjoyed every minute of it, he's just delightful.

We discovered that it was pretty crazy and loud with eight kids running around the house all the time, but that if we gave them a creative task to do, they quieted down and usually stayed put. Thursday night we dipped pretzels in chocolate and butterscotch and decorated them with sprinkles. Unlike the nativity scenes, we made sure the ants didn't get these so that we could eat them. Yummy!

Another creative task was decorating the Christmas tree. Everyone helped. Here are Krystal, Andrew, Clarissa, and Emily watching Shane put on the finishing touch.

Thursday was cooler but sunny so we went to the beach again. This time we went to St. Andrew's State Park. It was beautiful. It was even warm enough to take our shoes off for this walk on the beach.

Andrew, Krystal, Clarissa, and Jared playing wave tag. They got soaked!

We didn't see any alligators at the alligator lake, but Chris found this really cool star fish on the beach.

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures from Friday, we were all in the hotel room sick with a stomach bug, NOT FUN! We still managed to have the Hansens over on Friday evening for swimming in the "hot pool" and pizza at the hotel. After sad goodbyes, we tried to get some sleep and headed back home on Saturday, still feeling a little under the weather.

On the way home we stopped in Columbus, Georgia at an art museum that had an awesome children's center. The girls put on dress up and did a little show for us on the stage. So, in spite of getting sick, we still had a great vacation, enjoyed a break from the cold, but mostly we are really glad that we got to spend some time with Shane and Brooke and their wonderful kids. We love you guys!

Little changes

2009-12-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

Since Chris' "promotion" at work, he's been there A LOT. In the past when he has had to travel, I have always worked on and completed a small project around the house to keep myself busy until he returned. I figured that this might also be a good way to keep myself busy while he's gone for 6 days a week from 6am to 7pm at work, until things slow down.

My first little project was to reupholster our dining room chairs. With the help of my friend, thanks Heather, we transformed this-

into this! I love paisley and love bright colors so I was so excited when I found this red and green paisley fabric on sale and am thrilled that it is now adorning our dining room chairs.

My next little project was inspired by the drab gray weather we've been having. With the help of another friend, thanks Vicki, we painted the kids' bathroom a bright aqua color. I don't have all the accessories and pictures that I want to make it complete yet, but the color already adds a lot of happiness to my life, especially since this is the bathroom where I take my long, warm, winter baths.

This is the view looking from the living room (yellow) through the closet/dog room (green) into the bathroom. In this photo I've added the red valance as there will be other red accessories to tie in all the bright colors.

Forget the Turkey, Bring on the Pie!

2009-11-29T11:25:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving with our friends, the Smiths, as we've done for the past two years as well. We always divide up the food assignments into what I like to think of as colored and non-colored. Meaning I bring the colorful foods like the cranberry sauce, the green bean casserole, the sweet potato casserole, the pumpkin pie, and the lime jell-o. I remember my assignment like this: one red, two oranges, two greens. (I'm a color person, what can I say?) My friend on the other hand does the non-colors: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, and apple pie. So, Wednesday as I was getting ready to start the pie, Jared asked if he could make a pie this year. Now I have always had visions of the kids helping me with the pies for the holidays, but never thought them old enough to help just yet, so when I saw his interest, I jumped at the opportunity. I said, "Sure, you could make something easy like a blackberry pie, we have plenty of frozen blackberries." And he promptly got out the recipe book to find his own idea and settled on a vanilla cream pie. I explained that it would take a lot of time and stirring to make it from scratch, but that is what he wanted to do. Here he is stirring the pudding for his pie. He did a great job and stuck with it.

Here is the finished product on Thanksgiving day.

Krystal may not be ready for rolling out pie crust and stirring pudding, but she did help me scoop out the pumpkin puree for the pumpkin pie.

We had a good day complete with turkey and pie, colors and non-colors, good friends and fun. After dinner the girls enjoyed playing with the thirteen year old's dollhouse and Polly Pockets.

Amber showing off a Polly Pocket.

And the boys enjoyed learning a computer car racing game. We do miss our families during the holidays, but are greatful for good friends to share the fun with.

A Trip Back in Time

2009-11-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

On Friday, November 6th, we packed up the Suburban for another family road trip. With snacks, toys and coloring pages of each state we were to travel through, the kids loaded up full of anticipation. We left in the early evening and made our first stop in Culpeper, Virginia to visit some friends from Radford that had moved. We had a great time seeing our friends again, but had to be on our way Saturday morning as we still had another 11 hours to drive and we hadn't even left Virginia yet. On we drove to Maryland and made our first stop back in time. Fort McHenry in Baltimore Maryland is the fort from the War of 1812 where Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star Spangled Banner". We enjoyed the nice walk by the sea and were amazed at the size of the canon. This one that the kids are posing in front of is not even the biggest one. We continued on our journey passing through Delaware, New Jersey and into New York. We were all so excited to see the Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building, The World Trade Center Site and Yankee Stadium. What we didn't enjoy was the traffic jams and confusing road signs that resulted in a four hour drive through Manhattan. Thank goodness it was night and there were lights everywhere, Amber summed up the view with her repeated "It's soo butiful!" Most everyone slept through Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts and woke up when we rolled into the resort on Cape Cod a little past midnight.

On Sunday we went to church then spent the afternoon walking on the beach, collecting seashells and taking pictures of each other. The weather was pretty warm for November in Massachusetts and we were delighted to see that there was still beautiful fall foliage on all the trees.

Jared took this picture of Chris and I just as the sun was setting.

Monday morning we found ourselves back at the beach, a different one this time. Again, the weather was really nice and there were so many beaches to explore we just couldn't resist. Amber was quite interested in the noisy song these two seagulls were singing to each other. Around 11am we met up with a local Lawyer that we had met at church for a little tour. He took us to an old Quaker church and cemetery. The Quaker meetings had begun in 1659 and the building was built in 1809.

Next he took us to an old windmill that was originally built in 1791, but has since been restored. We then went to the Yacht club to see all the boats and finally ended at another beach where the kids really enjoyed feeding the huge seagulls.

After our friend returned to work, we decided to continue exploring Cape Cod on our own and headed over to Chatham to see a lighthouse and yet another beach. The highlight of the day was when we went to the fishing pier and watched the fishermen bringing in their catch. The seals and seagulls follow the boats to get their scraps, so we got to see several seals up close. It was pretty smelly and slimy watching the fish being loaded on the chute, but real interesting. Finally, we ended the day with swimming at the pool (the kids had been asking ALL day).

Tuesday morning we drove the almost 2 hours to Boston. As with New York, the traffic was crazy, but after a couple wrong turns we finally made our way to Boston Common which is a huge park in the middle of the city. From there we walked the Freedom Trail to visit many of Boston's historical sights from the days of the American Revolution. Above are Krystal and Amber at Paul Revere's grave site. We also saw some very old churches and the meeting houses where the Revolution was born.

As we continued on the trail we passed the Green Dragon Tavern. This tavern is mentioned in many books about the Revolution so I just had to get a picture of the kids in front of the British Soldier posted in front (Jared is trying to fight him - a true revolutionary). We continued on to find the spot in the street where the Boston Massacre took place, Paul Revere's home, and the Old North Church where two lanterns were hung to warn that the British were coming. After some warm New England Clam "Chowda" we crossed the river into the beautiful and much more quaint Charlestown to see the Battle of Bunker Hill monument and the USS Constitution as well as the WWII ship the Cassin Young. After touring the ship, we took a boat across Boston Harbor back to Boston.

We finished off our time in Boston at the City Garden where we found the statues of Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings from the children's book "Make Way for Ducklings". We couldn't resist this photo op as I often feel like a mother duck with my ducklings following behind.

Wednesday morning we headed back up North, this time to Plymouth. Our first stop in Plymouth was the Wampanog Natives village. It was really cold this day, so we enjoyed crawling under the little doors and entering into the native longhouses to get warm by their fires as they answered questions and talked about the way life would have been for the Wampanog before and after the settlers arrived in America. The kids were interested in the native toys that were on display, Krystal even found a doll. It might not be a Barbie, but she still liked it.

As the day grew colder we walked over to Plimoth Plantation. Very similar to Jamestown in Virginia, this reproduction of Plimoth was most interesting because each of the workers actually play period characters. I was excited to meet William Bradford and talk with him about his influence on the colony.

We finished off this day by going to Plimoth Rock and seeing the place where the Pilgrims first came to Massachusetts. We were interested to find out that this was not actually the first place where they came to land in America, but just where they settled. We also toured the Mayflower II, a working replica of the Mayflower.

On Thursday we found ourselves back at the beach. We decided to spend the day driving to the tip of the Cape. There was a tropical storm out at sea that brought in some great waves for playing wave tag (a game the kids think they made up). Apparently wave tag is even more fun when the water is freezing and you are bundled up in your winter gear, because we all had a blast! Only Krystal and Chris got caught and had wet feet the rest of the day, the rest of us stayed dry.

Part of our agenda for the day was to stop at as many lighthouses as we could find. We took this picture at the Highland lighthouse. President George Washington had 10 acres purchased to build this lighthouse in 1796. The lighthouse was originally 500 ft. away from the 125 ft. drop off cliffs. Due to erosion, in 1990 it was only 100 ft. away from the cliff and had to be moved back to where it now stands 450 ft. away from the cliff. This family picture is taken at the edge of the cliff. It was a pretty awesome sight. We continued to the tip of the Cape to Provincetown which is actually where the Mayflower first landed in America and bought a copy of The Mayflower Compact and some saltwater taffy. What a day!

On Friday, we headed in the other direction to finish off our tour of Cape Cod. Our first stop was a glass factory where we watched glass blowing. That was neat. Then we went down to Falmouth to an aquarium where the kids enjoyed seeing the big fish and touching starfish and horseshoe crabs. Finally we stopped at the Nobska lighthouse (pictured above). All in all, we saw five lighthouses, at least three windmills, hundreds of quaint little shops, several beaches and quite a few cranberry bogs. Compared to the bustle of the big cities we really enjoyed the nostalgia of Cape Cod.

Saturday morning we said our sad goodbyes to the beach and drove back through the big cities. We stopped in Edison, New Jersey to see the Thomas Edison Museum where we saw hundreds of Edisons patented inventions, not all 1093, but it was still cool. We spent the night at our friends house in Frederick, Maryland and after going to church with them we headed back home.

So, from the Mayflower in 1620 to Thomas Edison in 1931 we enjoyed our trip back in time. If I were to ever imagine time traveling I think it would end the way our trip did, with a huge dose of reality. We hadn't been home for 15 minutes when I had to start making phone calls for my calling at church. But when life gets a little hectic and too 21st century, at least I have these pictures (and many more) to look back at and remember the quiet calm of Cape Cod.

Use the force!

2009-11-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

For the past several months, we have been watching all the Star Wars movies, one by one (I know there are only six of them, but we're kind of slow). Add in the fact that Lego has a whole series of Star Wars kits and the result is that Jared has become obsessed with Star Wars. So it was no surprise that when I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday party he said "Lego Star Wars." On Friday night, Oct. 16th, Jared had his friend, Connor, over for a sleepover. We watched Star Wars Episode 5 and the boys stayed up late playing Legos. For breakfast in the morning, I made Star Wars shaped pancakes. Here are Connor and Jared with their Tie Fighter and X-wing pancakes.

Rather than planning games for the party, we just had Jared's friends bring their Legos and build Star Wars spaceships. Then, they played a game in the basement with their creations.

Krystal and Amber set up a popcorn picnic to watch the show as the big kids flew their spacecraft back and forth.

Jared was so pleased with his spoils, lots and lots of Star Wars Legos.

Finally, pizza and chocolate cake to finish off the party. It was possibly one of the easiest birthday parties ever and the boys had a blast!

But, as usual, when our family gets into something, it doesn't stop there. The kids collectively decided that for Halloween this year we should dress up as characters from the movie Star Wars. So with a few borrowed pieces of costumes, a trip to goodwill, a little bit of sewing, some permanent markers, and a yard sale find - we are the Star Wars family.

Chris is Anakin Skywalker (whom later becomes Darth Vader), I am Padme Amadala (married to Anakin and mother to Luke and Leia). Clarissa is Princess Leia, Jared is Luke Skywalker, Amber is R2-D2 and Krystal is C-3Po. On Wednesday night, the 28th we went to our church Trunk or Treat party and on Halloween night we went to a party at a friend's house with Trick or Treating afterward.

Here are Princess Leia and C-3Po all ready to go get some candy.

Earlier in the week, we had painted pumpkins. This is Krystal hard at work on her masterpiece.

These are Clarissa, Jared, and Amber's pumpkins. We did carve the pumpkins eventually, but don't have pictures of the carved side. All in all, it was a fun Halloween. Personally, I think Halloween gets more fun each year the kids get older. I can't wait until next year!

Happy 10th Birthday Jared!

2009-10-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

Jared at his Aunt Kara's wedding in 2004.

Jared has really grown. Still, it's hard to believe 10 years have gone by. We love Jared's huge smile with dimples. Jared is really into Legos right now, especially Star Wars Legos. He will spend hours building star ships with details like escape hatches and lights. He also still enjoys art in any form and has recently created a whole nature series with oil pastels. Lately he has spent a lot of time talking about what he wants to be when he grows up and he can't decide between a Lego designer, an architect, an artist, or illustrator. He has been making up his own comic books, usually involving Legos somehow. Jared also enjoys anything funny, especially Bill Cosby and Abbot and Costello. He can recite most of their acts word for word. We love that Jared still thrives on hugs from Mom and Dad, is a huge help with his sisters, and loves to spend time with his many friends at Cub Scouts and workshops.

Humanitarian Yard Sale

2009-10-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

After confiscating many clothing and toy items from the kid's bedroom floors, we had a family meeting to discuss what we should do about this problem. Part of the discussion was that there are many children in the world who do not have nice toys and clothes and after the recent disasters overseas, there are many children who do not have anything. While trying to decide how we could give some of our things to those children who have nothing, Chris suggested that we could have a yard sale and give the money to them instead. What a great idea. Our church's humanitarian services are known world wide and the church always responds to give aide after natural disasters, so we decided that we would give the proceeds from the sale to the LDS Humanitarian Fund. We made that decision on Sunday night. Monday, I set out to find a location for our sale as our home is off the beaten path. On Tuesday, we still didn't have a location so I sent an e-mail out to several of our friends inviting them to join us and asking for ideas for a location. Someone suggested the church and on Wednesday I got permission from the Bishop to use the church. Thursday and Friday were spent going through all our clothes, toys and household items to see what we could sell as well as hanging up fliers at local businesses. Saturday morning we woke up before the sun was up, packed the Suburban and headed to the church. The event was well attended by the community even though rain threatened the whole day. Several families from the church also donated items to sell, brought baked goods to sell, or helped to run the sale. We are so grateful to all those who helped and happy to say that we made $171.80 that will all be donated to the humanitarian fund.

The kids helped to set out all the donated items and then stuck around all day to help with clean-up too.

Finally, a Monarch!

2009-10-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

Two years ago for Christmas Aunt Kara gave the kids a butterfly house. With the house, which is a net-like cylinder, came a card and instructions to fill out and send in the card to receive monarch caterpillars and the food with which to feed them. Shortly after having received this wonderful gift, I discovered that one of the girls had eaten the card (Yes, our girls eat paper). No sweat I decided, we have plenty of milkweed in our yard, we will just collect the caterpillars off the milkweed in the summer, feed them milkweed and voila! monarchs, right? Wrong. I searched and searched, but to no avail. Not a monarch caterpillar in sight. While digging for the garden in the spring we discovered several moth pupa and put them in the house. We did enjoy watching them wiggle and hatch. In the fall, we came across many wooly worms which we also put in the house and enjoyed as they metamorphed into cocoons and then moths. But still no butterflies. So this summer I was determined to find a monarch in some form or another. As it so happens, while we were down in Florida visiting Aunt Kara, there were monarch caterpillars devouring her milkweed plant. Would you believe, we actually put two of them in a plastic container and drove them all the way from Fort Lauderdale back to Virginia. When we arrived home there was only one left, but that's better than none. Now, I would have loved to have put the little guy straight into the butterfly house, but over the last year and a half, the house had developed a hole in it (thanks to our cat). I had to settle for putting the caterpillar outside on our milkweed in hopes to find his crysallis later. Periodically, I searched, but with no luck until finally one day when I was working in the yard I found this... Isn't it beautiful! And not three feet away was a second one. Naturally I collected them both and carefully moved them to the butterfly house. We weren't sure how long it would take, but a couple weeks later the first butterfly hatched. About a week later, so did the second one.

Here is one of the monarchs in the butterfly house, drying his wings.

We didn't get to see either of them come out of their crysallis, but we thoroughly enjoyed it just the same. We let them go as soon as their wings were dry and we love to watch for monarchs flying in the yard and wonder if they are ours.

A Smarty Party

2009-10-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

Krystal turned 5 on September 27th. On Saturday, (the 26th) she had a birthday party. Inspired by the candy (Smarties) and the abundance of school supplies that I bought on sale, what a better party for a budding Kindergartner than a Smarty Party! The first item of business was getting all pretty for the party. Krystal did her own hair, she's really into that right now, and had me paint her nails.

Amber was not to be left out of all the fun, with pretty nails and wearing her sissy's sunglasses.

Once the four students arrived, they were directed to chairs that had the first letter in their name and they each decorated their letter and then cut it out. We found out that for Pre-K and Kindergartners, some letters were easier than others to cut out, but they all did a great job.

Jared wanted to be the teacher's aide for the party so I gladly put him in charge of the games. He came up with three games. The first of which is Musical Apples, like Musical Chairs but with apple pads on the floor instead.

The next game was Pin the Glasses on the Teacher. Jared drew the teacher and the babysitter helped the girls make the glasses. Here is Clarissa trying to peek while putting her glasses on the teacher. Silly girl.

The last game was Teacher Says, like Simon Says, but well...Jared was a teacher instead and made the girls do all kinds of funny actions. They loved it.

Finally it was time to open presents. Krystal loved all her cards and gifts. This is a game that one of her friends gave her that went along with the school theme of the party. It is pretend school and the kids absolutely love it. I think I might retire as their teacher and just let them teach each other. Just kidding.

Krystal wanted chocolate cake, which turned out to be brownie cake because I got the wrong mix, but she loved it anyway. This picture is actually of her blowing out the candles the second time because the first time Amber got so excited she blew them out before Krystal had the chance. We thought it was funny, but Krystal didn't. After cake, the girls all went to Krystal's room and played Barbies for the last 30 minutes of the party while Chris and I enjoyed a blissful moment of looking through the ads in the newspaper. Then, we sent them home with goody bags full of school supplies and Smarties and I give each of the students an A+ for perfect party behavior, including my four teacher's aides.

A Civil War Tale

2009-09-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

We started this school year with a Unit Study on the Civil War. First off, we studied slavery and the Underground Railroad. The kids really enjoyed reading about real life heroes like Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. They especially enjoyed reading the book "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and making their own star maps and drinking gourds (made out of some over-sized squash from the garden). On Friday, the 11th we drove for 3 hours up to the New Market Battlefield for a field trip with our history group. The girls loved Miss Stacey's (our tour guide) period dress. The first thing Miss Stacey did was to organize the troops into battle formation and make them stand at attention while she explained the rules for the museum. Notice how straight Krystal is standing.

Once in the museum, Miss Stacey organized the groups by dividing families and age groups up so that everyone was with a new family. She then sent them on a scavenger hunt to find things in the museum that would answer the questions on the sheet. The kids really enjoyed this approach to looking at a museum. Jared and Krystal ended up in the same group, but are working with another Mom.

Next, Miss Stacey talked to the kids about what equipment was needed for soldiers before they could enter into battle. Some of the kids got to try on uniforms as we discussed the different types of unifoms and their fabric.

Next we took a tour of the battlefield and the Bushong farm on which it took place. Luckily, the farmhouse and outbuildings were not damaged in the battle. However one of the rooms had been used as a hospital for the wounded. This room was set up as a replica, complete with blood splattered on the walls.

Here is Krystal in the kitchen building (separate from the house), the kids were excited to find an actual drinking gourd hanging by the hearth.

After a picnic lunch and watching the film about the battle, we made the kids pose for a picture in front of the battlefield. The Bushong farm is in the background and the "field of shoes" is just to the left. Apparently, the day of the battle was rainy and the freshly plowed wheat field turned into thick mud and many of the soldiers lost their shoes. The most touching part of this battle was that a troop of 250 cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington (about 90 miles away) got called away from their studies to come help the Confederates in battle. They fought bravely, but 10 of them lost their lives in this battle. Jared was touched by this story and as we talked about how young the cadets were, we were reminded of the story in the Book of Mormon of the 2,000 stripling warriors. Jared wrote a compare and contrast between the two and presented it for Family Night on Monday. He also wrote a verse of song about the cadets to the tune of one of the Primary songs from church and he played it for us on the piano.

This is the verse he wrote (to the tune of Book of Mormon Stories):

Once there were some young cadets who fought for slavery.

They were asked to march and fight with lots of bravery.

Rains did fall into the field which made a lot of mud.

They fought hard, lost their shoes, but they won.

After the lesson we reenacted the battle through a game of tug of war.

On the 18th, I woke up with an itch for another field trip, so we packed a lunch and drove for 15 minutes to a little spot just outside of Dublin where another Civil War battle took place. There is no museum here, just a little wayside with a sign and a single grave. A Captian Cleburne was killed in this battle and buried here.

Jared is making a crayon rubbing of the engravings on the tombstone.

This is the sign that tells a little about the battle. Apparently there is also a farmhouse and barn nearby that is privately owned, but where you can still see the bullet holes and blood on the floor. I love that our nation's history runs so rich in Virginia.

After some time talking about the events that took place, we enjoyed our lunch and some play time on the lawn. Here is Amber enjoying the day with two of her friends.

A Busy Day for Old Bluebell

2009-09-08T12:55:00.001-07:00

Our 16 year old Suburban, named Bluebell for the cow-like sound it makes when the ABS kicks in, has seen some action in it's life. This car's favorite thing to do is to take long road trips, filled to the brim with family, animals, and luggage. Although we did not go on a road trip today, Bluebell performed grandly in the face of 12 different passengers. See if you can follow me on this mathematical adventure. The day began when I loaded up the kids into the car (1 adult + 4 kids + 3 car seats = 5 passengers and 3 carseats). Then we picked up a friend and the one year old she babysits (+1 adult + 1 child + 1 carseat = 7 passengers and 4 carseats). Then we dropped Jared and Clarissa off for piano (- 2 children = 5 passengers and 4 carseats). Next, the remaining crew went to the library for storytime (- 2 adults -3 children = 0 passengers and 4 (empty) carseats). After storytime, Krystal and I went to pick up Jared and Clarissa from piano, leaving the others at the library (+1 adult +1 child = 2 passengers and 4 carseats). We picked the kids up from piano (+ 2 children = 4 passengers and 4 carseats). We drove one street over to drop off Clarissa and Krystal for writing workshop, threw two carseats in the back to make room and picked up four more children to take them to writing workshop for the older children (-2 children + 4 children - 2 carseats = 6 passengers and 2 (empty) carseats). After dropping off all the children for workshop, I drove back to the library (- 5 children = 1 passenger and 2 (empty) carseats). I picked up my friend, the boy she babysits, and Amber (+1 adult, +2 children = 4 passengers and 2 carseats), then dropped my friend and the boy off at his house (-1 adult -1 child -1 carseat = 2 passengers and 1 carseat). Amber and I then ran errands until it was time to pick up kids from workshop, the older kids first (+5 children = 7 passengers and 1 carseat). Then, we dropped off four of the children at the younger kid's workshop and picked up Clarissa and Krystal who had to re-install their carseats and (-4 children + 2 children + 2 carseats = 5 passengers and three carseats). Next, we drove one street over to pick up Connor and Jared who were dropping off Delaney for piano (+2 children = 7 passengers and 3 carseats). Then, we crossed the street and got out of the car to go walk on a trail while we waited for Delaney to finish piano (-1 adult - 6 children = 0 passengers and 3 (empty) carseats). Once our walk was through, we got back into the car (+1 adult + 6 children = 7 passengers and 3 carseats). Then, we picked Delaney up from piano (+1 child = 8 passengers and 3 carseats). Finally, 6 hours later, we drove back to my house and unloaded the Suburban (-1 adult -7 children -3 piano books -3 grandparents day cards made at workshop -1 bin of legos -20 or so library books -1 bag of chips -2 pair of shoes = 0 passengers, 3 empty carseats, and a crust of bread from someone's pb&j sandwhich). Whew! What a day.
But, the best part is that the kitchen fairy came while we were gone (probably on his lunch break) and cleaned the kitchen (which still had dirty dishes from the night before) and dinner was already cooking in the crockpot (that one was a result of my own genius) so that's why I had time to sit down and write this post, which is a good thing because I know by tonight I wouldn't have remembered it all.

Character Building

2009-09-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

If someone where to ask me or Chris if we like to camp, we would answer with a resounding "Yes." However, we realized the other day that ever since Krystal was born, the one Mattson who was born minus the over-sized adventure bone that the rest of us posses, we have not gone camping. That's right, it's been over 5 years since we've gone camping as a family which means that the youngest two girls have never been! We decided that Labor Day weekend would be a good time to break them in and build some character. As usual, we waited until the last minute to make our plans, so Friday morning I got on the phone to find a campground nearby that wasn't already booked. Then, the kids and I dusted the cobwebs off of the camping equipment, bought some food and packed up. Once Chris got home, we rolled out headed for the Deer Trail Campground in Wytheville, VA. So far so good.
The first order of operation was making foil dinners. The kids had no idea what foil dinners where, but loved the idea of making their individual packets.

While the dinners cooked we headed over to the playground for some fun.

Dinner was fabulous, in fact, we've decided that foil dinners are the best food ever!

That is, after S'mores of course. Amber really enjoyed getting all marshmallowy.

After S'mores the kids were begging to go to bed (I think they were just excited to get into the tents). But, as all good parents should do, we told them No and made them stay up. We sang some campfire songs and I told them a story about the Man in the Moon, but the fun couldn't last forever and we finally tucked them into their sleeping bags. This is where things start to go from all fun to character building. First of all, we don't actually have sleeping bags for everyone so some people had to share. After playing a game of musical tents during the middle of the night, some people finally got some sleep, the rest of us froze. Those that were sleeping were then awakened by an earth shattering sound also known as, a Rooster. (By the way, roosters do not only crow when the sun comes up, they also do it all through the night.)

So, cold, tired, and dirty we drug ourselves out of bed and started a fire to keep warm and cook breakfast. Pretty soon the sense of warm bacon and eggs in our bellies had us lulled into thinking we were ready for more adventure. In our sleep deprived state we made the decision to go hiking. We do love to hike so we headed for a trail called "The Seven Sisters," named such because it takes you over the top of seven mountain ranges. At the trailhead the sign read 4.8 miles and we were like, "Well, we'll just go a little ways and then come back."

Things started out okay, there were lots of neat things to see, especially the cool fungi.

The weather was perfect, not to hot, not to cold, so we kept going up and up.

Amber fell asleep, but that was okay because she was just being carried anyway. We stopped for a snack and decided to keep going. There were orange blazes on the trees to mark the trail, but no markers to tell us how far we'd gone, so we kept going. We climbed one of the "sisters" that we named Killer because it was about a 45 degree angle up, then stopped for lunch (and a nap for me). By this time everyone was pretty tired, but we had gone far enough that we figured we were about half-way done and might as well go the rest of the way to the top to see the view and down the other side (this was not a unanimous decision, but an executive one). Krystal started to get really tired so we tried to distract her with comedy acts that will forever remind us of this trip ("What's he doing? He's eatin' a bush, that's what he's doing").

Finally after a couple more "sisters" we made it to this sign. It reads, "Highest point on trail 3310 ft." and showed that there were still 2 more miles if we kept going in the direction we were headed and 3 miles if we went back the way we came. We were proud to know we had ascended about 800 ft., but disappointed to find that there was no view, it being blocked by trees all around and this hike was taking a lot longer than we had anticipated. This was the point when tears were shed and we learned a great lesson - once you get to the top of a mountain, there's only one way to get off, keep going. So that's what we did. Needless to say, we made it. We sang songs, we gave piggyback rides, we had some scraped up knees, but all in all, we are in tact and can live with the satisfaction of knowing that we conquered "The Seven Sisters." We talked about all the things we learned about ourselves on this hike, about how we learned to persevere, to rely on our family, that things were easier when we kept a good attitude, and that we could do anything we set our minds to. I hope that once all our sore muscles have healed we can look back on this experience and be happy for the character that we've built and that those traits will help us with the challenges that we will face in this life.

Anyone want to go camping next weekend?

Modest is hottest

2009-09-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

Recently Grandma Mattson sent the girls some new Barbie clothes. The girls are always dressing up their Barbies and then saying things like, "This dress is so pretty, but it's not modest." The new clothes they received prompted Krystal to design some new fashions. Every time I see her Barbies, they are now layered in very creative combinations of clothes. This is Krystal's solution for a strapless dress and a belly shirt. Wouldn't it be great if in the future we would hear coming from the catwalk in Paris, "And here is Pinky Pie (Barbie's name) sporting the latest fashion of modesty from famous designer, Krystal Rose. She starts this combination with a long sleeve shirt with small stripes of olive green and hot pink, followed by a turquiose tafeta dress which is then covered with a wide-striped belly shirt that breaks all the rules in matching colors. To top off the outfit Pinkie Pie is wearing her knee length riding boots, lest her evening dress catch a breeze and show a little skin." Well, maybe these designs won't ever hit the runways, but I think it's adorable and wouldn't mind at all if my girls decided to express themselves by donning such outfits as teens rather than the scanty styles that are so prevalent today.

Stickers, Smiles, and Sassiness

2009-08-23T14:11:00.001-07:00

Life is never dull with three girls in the house. Sticker Girls! While cleaning out the school room the girls found a sheet of stickers and decided to decorate themselves. The picture really needs audio to hear the way they were walking around talking and calling themselves "Sticker Girls."

I took the kids to the creek with some friends of ours and when we said that it was time for lunch, I looked over and saw all these beautiful smiles just sitting and waiting to be fed.

Amber at the creek. I love how the August humidity makes her hair curly.

Clarissa got a new dress and couldn't wait to show it off, with a little attitude.

Never to be left out, here is Krystal in her new dress sporting some sassiness too.

We sure do love these girls! But it's great that we have Jared to balance things out a little.