It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Ever since we got back from our trip to Panaca for Thanksgiving, I have been dying to get this beautiful tree up and decorated! I finally finished it and I am so happy with it. I scored big time on this baby. My friend's sister got a new one since the lights on this one didn't work anymore. So, I bought two new strands of lights, strung them on the tree myself and WhaLaaaa!! Isn't she pretty? It's 12 feet tall and fits oh so perfectly in my living room right in front of the window. LOVE it!

Last weekend we went to the Cactus Gardens to see the lights with our friends, the Rogers. These boys are so cute together! Jackson acts like he's just one of the boys around them.

Our attempt to get a family pic- Jackson looks like he's in a daze.

Nathan and Easton- best friends forever!

We still had to carry on our tradition of cutting down a real tree in Panaca, so we cut a small one for the kids to decorate and we put it up in the loft. Nathan calls it "his tree" and the big one is "Mom's tree". I still get the nice smell of a fresh tree and the tall, beauty of a fake one.

These are the only pictures I took in Panaca. My sister-in-laws Lindsay and Maria and I took the kids to Cathedral Gorge on a little hike and picnic the day after Thanksgiving. It was actually a nice day and felt warm in the sun, even though there was a skiff of snow in the shadows of the rocks.

Nathan had to make a snow angel

Jackson was in heaven running around, falling on his face about 5 times. He couldn't lift his arms in his puffy coat, so he kept tripping and falling flat on his face. He would just cry until we picked him up, brushed him off and wiped his nose. Then he was on his way again. He came home with about 5 skid marks on his nose, but he didn't mind too much.

The kids had lots of fun climbing around and exploring the caves.

Playing with cousins is Nathan's favorite thing to do.

Boys like to play dress-up too!

Jackson is always dragging shoes out of our closet and walking around the house in them. He's even pretty good at walking in my heels.

He won't wear a hat when I want him to, but playing with Nathan's hat and posing for a picture, SURE- why not!

Nathan in his cowboy attire- a favorite dress-up for all boys that come to our house!

Jackson- the pirate

Nathan got to use this pirate costume for a birthday party today and he LOVED it!

This was our Halloween "Trunk-or-Treat" night. Nathan decided to be a builder that night. Our good buddy Easton- The Conductor joined us for the night. Here they are showing off all their loot!

Jackson pretty much made the cutest giraffe I've EVER seen! I just want to squeeze him!

Nathan dressed up as his favorite dinosaur for his Preschool party. In every picture I took of him, he had to "ROAR", very loud and very scary!

I got a good deal on this costume and thought since he is so into dinosaurs that we'd get some good use out of it. I really only have bought about 3 Halloween costumes in 4 years. They get good use and then we get to play dress-ups with them all year long!

Jackson turns 18 months

They are starting to like each other!

My cute little cowboy after his first day of Nursery at church. It didn't go so well, but Sunday school and Relief Society were much quieter without him running wild!

Jackson loves to go down the slide at the park. He sits at the top of the slide and says, "set" and then I say "GO"! It's pretty cute!

He loves to run wild at Nathan's soccer games. He runs onto the field in the middle of games all the time. Last week he got ran over by a few kids. He just wants to play! Too bad he's going to have to wait 3 more years!

This kid loves to be outside, playing in the dirt and mud! We have this spot in the backyard with no grass and the boys both love to dig out there and make mud pies. Boys will be boys I guess!

Today was Jackson's 18 month well-check. He got tubes put in his ears 2 months ago and he's the healthiest he's ever been, until this last week. He got a runny nose and guess what- he's got another ear infection!!! Ughh, I thought we wouldn't have to deal with this anymore, but I guess I was wrong. It's not too bad I guess, he's doing fine otherwise. He's growing steadily and starting to learn so much. He can understand just about everything we tell him. He loves to go get his shoes out of the drawer when it's time to go somewhere. He cleans up and makes messes very well. He's starting to love to read books. And I can tell he's trying to say more words everyday. He's still my sweet baby and we love him to pieces!

Here's his stats: 23 lbs 10 oz- 25th percentile- he's slowly growing. He's getting about 8 teeth right now, all his molars and eye teeth- poor kid! I just looked at Nathan's baby book to compare notes- he was 30 pounds at 18 months! They are so different!

Soccer

Nathan started playing soccer a couple weeks ago. He's part of a fun little program where the parents are involved in teaching skills and practicing them with their kids. There's a Master coach who leads us in drills with the kids and she has some people helping her. After about 45 minutes of practice, the kids are divided into teams of 3 and they scrimmage 3-on-3 for about 45 minutes. That's when the parents just stand back and watch, laugh, and shout directions from the sidelines. It's pretty hilarious! The kids have no idea which direction to go and there's no such thing as out-of-bounds. But the kids have fun and that's what matters right?

Aren't they so cute in their little huddle after the game?

Nathan was quite the hustler but didn't score any goals himself. He wanted to, but his teammates did a good job scoring several.

I'm so excited to be a "soccer mom"!

It's kind of a circus act trying to keep track of Jackson on the field at the same time we're helping Nathan with the drills and watching him. Jackson loves running around in the middle of the field, in the middle of everything and playing with the balls and cones.

After a long hard day of playing soccer, this is how Nathan likes to cool off and relax. He pretty much sat there and had us waiting on him hand and foot. He had a drink, lunch and a snack all from the comfort of his chair with his feet soaking in the water. It's so tough to be a 4-year old athlete!

The Cowboy State

Chris' family reunion was hosted by his brother James and his wife Katrina. They live in Sheridan, WY and have a pretty sweet piece of property there that was plenty big enough for Chris' whole family (about 50 people). We camped in their backyard and were there for there for 5 days during Sheridan Rodeo Days. Our days were filled with activities for the kids and adults and we spent evenings under the stars, at the rodeo, swimming, eating dutch oven dinners and campfire programs. It was a great time and once again I'm dreading the year we 'get' to host the reunion (2012). It's a LOT of work and we appreciated all you guys did James and Katrina!

One way to keep Jackson happy during a 3+ hour rodeo: let him suck on a can of Sprite!

Chris playing horseshoes with the guys. Chris and his brothers were constantly competing with each other on this trip. They made up obstacle courses at parks, played golf, pool, fishing, arm wrestling, horseshoes, I can't even remember what else!

Uncle James helped the kids make their own rockets and launch them in the backyard. They loved it! The kids played on the trampoline, slip-n-slide, water balloons, and caught turtles and snakes in the creek. Never a dull moment when you have 30 cousins to play with!

Jackson and the little kids loved this little slide.

This is Chris' Dad leading the girls in some campfire music! We had a very enjoyable evening around the campfire our last night. Each of Chris' brothers and sisters shared memories of their childhood and stories that I always enjoy hearing (mostly of all the trouble Chris and Brent got into all the time)! They all have different versions of the same story and we have to decide who's story is true! Chris' Mom shared stories about her Rodeo days and his Dad shared stories of lessons he learned from his dad, Grandpa Lester. We really enjoyed all his stories and look forward to reading the book "Lester" that Chris' Aunt Neva wrote.

I had to snap this picture of Nathan in the middle of the Center boys (some real cowboy cousins). He just loves these boys.

Aunt Heather showing Nathan how to tie-down a calf. Too bad her knot couldn't hold him down during the whole rodeo!

Chris' parents with all 10 of their children. Love this family!

The Black Hills of South Dakota

When we found out the Mathews' reunion was in Wyoming this year, my SIL encouraged us to go to Rapid City, SD for a little sightseeing. I wasn't expecting it to be so beautiful and mountainous. I thought SD was nothing but plains and buffalos. The above picture was our home for 4 days- isn't she pretty? We traveled there with Chris' brothers Brent, Scott and his sister Maria. There were 12 of us in the cabin and we fit comfortably in it's 4 rooms. We cooked most of our meals together and enjoyed the pool table, hot tub, and beautiful veiws from the deck.

We drove around quite a bit before we found this buffalo, standing right by the road. I thought it was a statue or something, cause you couldn't see it move for the longest time.

We drove through Bear Country wildlife park and saw everything from bears and wolves to elk and mountain lions. We even witnessed a dumb wolf trying to steal food from a bear- he got smacked pretty good by the bear! They walked right in front of our car. A reindeer almost knocked on our window with its antlers too.

Mt. Rushmore was a highlight for everyone I think. It's amazing how they carved those faces with such amazing detail on the side of the mountain. We did a little hike around the monument so you could see it closer and from all different angles.

Nathan was getting a closer look at Theodore Rosevelt's glasses

Chris' older brother Paul and his family of 9 met up with us there too. This was our whole group at Mt. Rushmore (half of Chris' family). I was pretty proud of myself to get this picture!

Brent and Lindsay have 4 kids and Nathan enjoyed playing outside the cabin with them. They collected scavenger hunt items, had stick fights and played games. We had a couple BBQ's out on the deck and enjoyed the cool mountain air!

So much fun playing with cousins!

These boys are all within two years of each other. We met up with Paul and his family again at Reptile Gardens- picture Sea World, but with reptiles. There were bird, snake and alligator shows and lots of reptiles to look at. These boys touched a baby alligator and snakes along with giant tortoises.

We went down into one of the country's longest caves, Jewel Cave. Jackson was happy for awhile and then he was not so much fun down there anymore. It was pretty cool to see the different formations inside the cave.

You can't go to the Black Hills and not check out the dinosaur museum. There were lots of fossils and bones found in the Black Hills. Meet Stan: one of the largest and most complete skeleton of a T-Rex found in South Dakota. Nathan, as you could imagine, thought this was pretty cool. They also had many other dinosaur bones and a skull of a mammoth.

Jackson being a cute little gold miner at Tunderhead Falls

We did a dinky little hike into an old gold mine to see an underground waterfall. It was a little less than spectacular, but I got a good group shot anyway.

This little train was the highlight of the gold mine. We could have let the kids play here all day!

Well, I'll end for now, but I still have pictures from the second half of our trip. The actual Mathews' Reunion and all we did in the Cowboy State!