Christmas 2009

Since I have been so bad at keeping up with my blog this year, I'm going to try to cover Christmas and the events leading up to it.  Sorry, it's a long post with lots of pictures.  

So, this year we ventured out to buy a Christmas tree from a tree "patch".  Nathan called it that because they were selling trees in the same place they had a pumpkin patch a couple months ago.  It was freezing cold that night, so we bundled up to go across the street to buy our first "store bought" tree.  

It smelled soooo good and was so pretty.  We usually have a Panaca "bush", but this one was nicely shaped and "bushy" in all the right places.

Nathan had lots of fun helping to set it up and decorate it.  

The finished product

One night we went with a friend to see some lights in town at a place called Opportunity Village.  It was really cold again, but Nathan got to ride a little train and as you can tell, the cold didn't bother the kids much!

Jackson started crawling the day before Christmas Eve.  It's so cute!!  He makes the cutest faces in the world and gets so excited about stuff.  I can tell that he just can't wait to keep up with his older brother.  

Nathan was being a "ham" for the camera one night

I've been in the Mathews family for 5 years and this was my first Christmas in Panaca.  This is the majority of the cousins that acted out the Nativity scene on Christmas Eve.  Nathan was a cute little shepherd boy.  

Jackson loved all the excitement of Christmas- the kids, lights, and wrapping paper.

Nathan and Jackson each opened presents from each other on Christmas Eve.  We took Nathan shopping to pick out a present for Jackson and he picked out these cute wooden trains from the Dollar Spot at Target and used his own money to buy them.  Too bad he wanted to play with them more than Jackson.  Jackson was also more interested in Nathan's Legos we got him!  

Oh-well.  

Doesn't Jackson make the cutest Santa Baby?  Nathan wore this on his first Christmas too.  Chris thinks I torture our kids!  I think it's fun!

Nathan got some more tools and a tool belt and hard hat from Grandma and Grandpa Mathews.  It's perfect for him and something I've been looking for forever!  The tape measure is his favorite part.

Our attempt at a Christmas picture of the whole family.  Nathan is so cooperative when we want him to be.  I had the boys in matching shirts for church, a first and maybe only attempt at matching for these boys!

The day after we got home we had a couple more presents to open.  Nathan was happy because he is still waking up asking if there are going to be more presents under the tree.

Jackson got a Leap Frog table and Nathan got a Thomas tent and tunnel.  It's HUGE and take up our whole living room!  He loves it though.  

We had a memorable Christmas and it was fun to spend it with most of Chris' family.  I really missed my family in CO, but we will survive.  I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

One of my New Year's Resolutions: to be better at keeping up with the blog and keeping a better record of our family.

Just a little preview

Since I cannot seem to get it together since we got back from vacation, here is just a preview of what's to come.  I need to write down everything we did on our trip to Disney World before I forget.  I guess I took enough pictures (over 200) to help me remember.  Anyways, it was fun, exhausting, and quite the adventure.  Enjoy some pictures and I'll blog more as soon as I get around to it.  

FINALLY, an update!

For those of you who don't see us very often, I'm sorry, I have not fallen off the face of the earth!  Life has just been a little hectic and I don't get much time to myself, and when I do, blogging is not on the list of priorities.  I just feel so behind and don't know where to begin to catch up, but here it goes.

Jackson is 6 months old now, yep, you heard right!   He's still a very happy baby, as long as he's fed and gets some sleep.  He has been rolling all over the place for almost two months already.

He loves to chew on just about anything, especially these sweet little biter biscuits.  He gets so mad when he chews it down to nothing and can't hold the little slimey thing in his fingers anymore.  He eats rice cereal 2-3 times a day now and likes just about every kind of food we've fed him so far.  

I took this picture when Nathan was actually playing with Jackson in the swing.  He was tickling his feet and Jackson was just so happy.  Jackson LOVES his big brother and just watches everything he does.  Nathan is finally starting to pay a little more attention to him which is very nice.  

Jackson started sitting up on his own around 5  1/2 months.  He loves to sit and play with toys on the floor.  With all the changes he's been going through in the last couple months, I decided it was time he start sleeping through the night too.  He's been crying it out for about a week now, and last night he slept about 10 hours and I only heard him once and not for very long!!  We're finally making progress I think.  He's still sleeping in the pack'n'play in our room, but I'm ready to move him in with Nathan as soon as he sleeps a little better on a consistent basis.

My Mom came to visit and brought my Grandma and it was wonderful!  She helped us can pears, tomatoes and applesauce and it was so much fun to have her and Granny all to myself!  We went shopping and took the boys to the Shark Reef (which Nathan LOVED).  We hope they make this trip again ASAP!!

Nathan started a little preschool program 6 weeks ago.  I, along with 5 other Moms, are taking turns teaching our 3 year-olds at our homes.  We have a great little curriculum and the kids are really enjoying it and each other.  There are 4 little boys and 2 girls and Nathan comes home every day with a couple projects that he has colored, pasted or painted and we proudly display all of them on our fridge!  I get to teach during the month of November, so that should be interesting.  I hope Nathan behaves as good for me and the other Moms say he does for them.

One of the main reasons I haven't sat down to blog in awhile is because I've been potty training Nathan for the past 5 months!!  Off and on, we have tried every trick and treat in the book.  Right around the same time he started school, we got serious again and starting rewarding him with dinosaurs when he went all day with no accidents.  Well, he started quite the collection of dinos and is now pretty much obsessed with anything Dinosaur.  Another incentive we used was saving up to go to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur exhibit there.  He did great and was treated to a day at the museum and he LOVED it.   Below is a picture of him building his own Natural History Museum with his blocks and dinosaurs.  He has a GREAT imagination!

Nathan has also been taking a little gymnastics class for the past 6 weeks.  It's so much fun to watch him learn to do stuff with his body.  He loves to run around and try anything they ask him to do.  He can do sommersaults, back bends, walk on the balance beam, hand stands against the wall, swing from the bars, roll, and his favorite thing is jumping on the trampoline.  We signed him up for another session, so we'll see how he can improve and keep up with all the little girls in his class!  

You gotta watch this video from his class.  It's a little long, but it's so funny to watch him try to figure out what he's supposed to do and which way he's supposed to roll.  Enjoy!  

One Year Older

We celebrated Nathan's 3rd birthday while we were camping in the beautiful mountains of Colorado.  Nathan was in hog heaven with the dirt, 4-wheelers and all of my family to spoil him rotten!  My grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin came up to our camp that day to help us celebrate along with my parents and brothers and their wife/girlfriends, and his new baby cousin Mackenzie.  We had a yummy lunch and then brownies and ice cream.  Nathan got to open presents and he was spoiled with new sand toys and tractors and candy and a piggy bank full of money!  All he wanted to do was go for rides on the 4-wheelers and play in the dirt, which was really on old fire pit.  He was filthy dirty but happy in that dirt from sun-up till sun-down.  

I'll list some things about Nathan that I love:

*He can play all day and never seem to run out of energy or get grouchy

*He can name pretty much any piece of construction or farm equipment and wants to drive all of them

*He has an amazing vocabulary and memory and repeats everything he hears

*He loves to play with "kids" or friends and is a social butterfly

*He's a good eater and is growing up so fast

*He makes me laugh and tells me he loves me

*He's really a good kid, most of the time:)

3... almost 4 months old!

I am so behind with blogging.  We've been out of town quite a bit this last month and I'm just starting to feel caught up with things.  Jackson is growing like a weed, babbling up a storm, drooling all over the place and smiling from ear to ear.  He's so sweet, all you have to do is look at him and he beams!  It makes me so happy to see him so happy.  He has traveled to Panaca twice and to CO in the last 6 weeks and he's done pretty well.  He flew on an airplane for the first time and went camping.  Overall, he was great!  At three months he weighed 13 lbs 11 oz and I don't know how long he was.  We'll find out more stats at his 4 month well-check in about a week.  Enjoy the pictures of my handsome boy!  

Two Months

Well, Jackson is already two months old and to me, growing like a weed.  I thought he was getting so big, and then I took him to the DR this week for his check-up and shots.  He weighs 11 lbs 6 oz and is 22 inches long.   He's gained 4 pounds and grown 4 inches since birth.  That sounds pretty good right.  Well, compared to other kids his age, he's in the 40th% for his weight and 10th% for height- not something I'm used to hearing with Nathan.  I looked in his baby book and at 2 months he weighed more than 2 pounds more than Jackson does now, and was taller as well.  Maybe Jackson is going to be a little guy, or maybe he's just waiting to hit a growth spurt.  Either way, he's still my sweet, snuggle bug!
Isn't he so cute in his little church outfit?
And YES, that's a smile!  He's smiling at me when I talk to him and he tries to talk to me and tell me that he loves me too!
Here he is sitting in the Bumbo chair- SO CUTE!!  He's so strong and was pretty happy sitting up in this like a big boy!

Jackson's Blessing Day

We blessed Jackson in our church on May 24th and it was a really nice day for our family.  We were happy to have most of the Mathews family here with us (25 of the grandkids of Rob and Carol and 6 of Chris' brothers and sister and their spouses).  We took over our ward that day and it was so fun to see everyone again.  We missed James, Brent and Maria and their families.

Most of the kids (except Jackson and Tyler)

My parents were able to come out from CO and it was so nice to have them here as well.  It was the first time for my Dad to meet Jackson and they took to each other pretty well- Jackson pooped on him as soon as he started holding him!

These are the first pictures we have taken of the four of us.  Nathan was pretty cooperative and actually allowed us to sit Jackson on his lap for a couple pictures.

Two of my very best friends from home also came and I am so lucky to have such good girlfriends as these two!  Hilary and Holly have been there for me and are such great examples and support to me.  Every girl needs good girlfriends and I am so glad they came (and that their husbands stayed home with their kids)!!