Christmas 2009

Where to begin? Let's start with Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve is HUGE in my family. It always has been. Now that we all have children and live so close it has just gotten even bigger! We all went to my mom's house and had the AMAZING spread of food that we do every year and had the nativity scene played by the grand kids. There are recipes on that table that have been there every year and if anyone threatened to take them away, there would be an uprising! :) The nativity we just started last year since the grand kids are getting old enough to understand the true meaning of Christmas. Here are some fun pictures from the Christmas Eve Extravaganza!!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE I GOT ALL 7 GRAND KIDS TO LOOK AT THE CAMERA FOR A PICTURE!!!! CHRISTMAS MIRACLES DO EXIST!!!! :)

This is the picture of the "cast" of the nativity backstage. This is the behind the scenes look before they were called onto stage while my dad read the Christmas Story from the Scriptures.

This is Linkin being the naughtiest Shepherd boy I ever did see! All of the other kids did exactly what they were instructed to do, even Codan who is younger than Linkin! Link just kept running across the stage screaming and occasionally stripping off his costume. The kid was out of control! Too many treats from Nana's yummy dinner table I think! ;)

Grandma and Grandpa Matson out by the fire. After the Nativity was over we went outside to roast marshmallows and eat smores by the fire. We love having Grandma and Grandpa so close!

Linkin has this dance he likes to do when he gets really excited. Montorey likes to do it and get Linkin all wound up to play. The dance somehow got turned into the Shepherd Shuffle and all the kids joined in the fun. Linkin's original dance is a little different, so as you can see he is trying to do the updated version. I stopped tapping a couple seconds too soon. After this they all dog piled on Brody! Poor kiddo! :)

When all was said and done Doug and I took Linkin home to our house to put him to bed so that Santa could come. Santa came and set up all of Linkin's goodies, but than a couple hours later Linkin woke up! He woke up at 2 o'clock in the morning and kept saying he wanted to go sit on the couch and watch a show! There was no way we could do that because Santa came and there was a bike waiting for Linkin. If he saw it, he's never go back to sleep! He was freaking out and wouldn't let us touch him, so Doug was sitting in the recliner and I was laying on the floor when finally Linkin stopped crying, layed on the floor and fell asleep! haha! He slept on the floor until about 6 when he woke up and started staring at Doug until he woke up too. I had left and went into my bed once I knew Link was asleep. I first locked them both in Linkin's room so Link wouldn't wake up without Doug knowing and go do Christmas with out us! :) It was a crazy night and very exhausting!

Christmas day was a lot of fun! Linkin was so excited to get his bike and loves his little Cars couch too! His favorite toy (other than the bike) would have to be the golf set! We have a protege in the making! jk. Good call on the clubs Doug!!! Christmas morning ended in several time outs, and it was time to put LInkin down for a nap. We woke him up an hour later and took him to the Carter's house for Christmas morning there too! We did our traditional Secret Santa and had yummy Mexican food. Phil is in Isreal on work, so he was SKYPEd in to watch all the Christmas fun. All he wanted to do was watch Linkin play with his toys. I couldn't help but being emotional because I know how much Linkin means to Phil and it would have to be hard to be so far away. I got choked up several times and started crying. WE love you Phil and want you back ASAP!!! Linkin got some fun toys from "Maema" and "Papa". He had a fun morning! I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! Ours was wonderful!!!

If I look ridiculously tired in this picture, it's because I AM!!!! The night before killed me! I think I had taken a few wackes in the face by this point too... haha. He's got a good swing to him! :)

The Carter-Hall Crew! We miss you Phil!!!!

The Polar Express (not so "express")

(Nana and Popa with Jaydn, Codan, Linkin, and Alexandra)

Me and my man!

My dad with Codan and Linkin on the train. (Linkin pretty much had a scared face the whole time. poor kid!)

Here comes Santa Clause!!! Linkin got his bell but was very shy. Who knew Link had a shy bone in his body?! ;)

The Hall family posing for a picture in the FREEZING cold weather!

Over the weekend our entire Matson family got together to go to the Polar Express up in Williams, Arizona. The Polar Express is the train that takes the kids to the North Pole to see Santa. When you get on the train they bring around cookies and hot chocolate like they do in the book. After that, they read the book and get everyone excited to go to the North Pole. This is followed by lots and lots and lots and lots of Christmas carols. My niece Karlee got bored off all the carols and lead a revolt chanting "we want Santa." This caught on and the whole train of kids was screaming at the workers to get Santa! It was hilarious!!! Well done Karlee! Santa boarded the train at the North Pole and gave every kid a bell. (Linkin got one, but I think it got snatched by a cousin :) Than you go back to the train station. This usually is a quick trip and very fun. Our train was all messed up and broke down 3 times on us. We sat on the tracks for 45 minutes at one break down. It was crazy!! Little kids around us even started crying because they wanted to get off the train. (Linkin was freaked out by the whole thing and tried everything to get off. He tried cuddling up saying "night night" and he even started telling me he had poo when he didn't because he wanted off! He was pretty overwhelmed by the whole thing but he loved seeing Santa.) The train station was one of my favorite parts because it was lit up so beautifully! It was a way fun trip though so thanks everyone for all of the memories!

*my picture upload thing is being weird so I only got to post these pics. It wont let me do all the others and it wont let me move the pics around either. WEIRD!

Is that Melmo??? It is Melmo!!!

Desert Ridge has been doing a cute activity on Wednesday nights and Linkin and I decided to give it a whirl this week with our friends the Wilde's. PBS does story time, music and dancing, hot chocolate, cookies, and this weeks special guest was.......MELMO!!!!! (you may officially know him as Elmo. Linkin thinks it's melmo and I think that's too cute to correct. jk :) You may notice from the picture that Linkin is not in it, but the line was waaaaaaay to long to stand in, so we just walked around the ropes and snuck a picture. haha. I made sure the little girl wasn't in it though cuz I wouldn't want my kid having their pic taken by a random stranger. Linkin didn't last long for the dancing and singing part because he was way to focused on getting back to Melmo, so we went to Barnes and Nobles to play with trains and did other random things to pass time until the snow!!!!!!!!!!

Here is Linkin during the "snow" (okay, it was bubbles! It's Scottsdale, Arizona people! That's the best we got! :) Anyways, He decided the snow was kinda lame but did remember that the fountains were fun to play in during summer. Here he is eyeing his gettaway and before I could grab him this happened.....

My kid playing in the fountains IN DECEMBER!!!!!!!! Why they had them on, I don't know but all the other kids listened to their mommies and daddies when they said the water is cold don't go in! Mine made a run for it and had a hay day! I figured he was wet so I might as well get a few pictures before I took him out. I was getting the dirtiest looks from parents. It was kinda funny. I than stripped him down, changed him into Jackson's extra clothes, and RAN (in heels!!!) to the car! The whole time I kept thinking, "you better not get sick cuz of this kiddo!" All in all it was a pretty fun night. Thanks Dani, Seth, and Jackson for coming and playing with us.The boys before all the crazy fun began! (Jackson and Linkin) Notice the 3 bouncy balls. At the end there was only 1. Link ditched the other 2 when I wasn't looking. Little goober!

Imagination Avenue

We went to the funnest place the other day! It's one of my new favorite places to take Linkin. I could seriously spend the entire day there. It's called Imagination Avenue. My friend Tiffany found it and set up a fun play day for all of us to go to and enjoy. It's ran by a family and the mom actually brings her kids to play while she works. I think it's a genius idea for her and a great business idea as well. I totally want one now in my back yard! jk. It was set up like a town for little kids. Each shop was set up to the entirely to the specific building it was suppose to be. The fire station had dress ups, ride in cars, and a gas tank to fill up the cars. The market had all sorts of foods and carts and all sorts of things. It was so stinkin cute I can't wait to go back!

The first picture is the play area for the kids. That is the little town. Each of those rooms is the little shop I was talking about. This is LInkin and Jackson playing with the fire truck. They would not look at me for anything in the world no matter what I said! Little stinkers! ;)

Let me know whenever you guys wanna go back because that place is awesome!

Family Pictures

My friend did our family pictures for us and I think they turned out pretty great. Linkin is definitely not the kind of kid that will sit still and smile at a camera. It is definitely tricky to get his picture taken. Add in two adults and the whole thing gets kinda crazy. For the first shoot Linkin was more interested in playing than he was doing the shoot so we rescheduled and for the second one he was pretty much worse so a lot of the pics are action shots. (which I love because it's more him anyways.) Here are some of our favorites!

"Ketchup"

You know that joke about the mommy tomato who keeps getting mad at her little tomato for lagging behind so she finally goes back and steps on her and says, "Ketchup!" (you know you heard that joke in like 3rd grade and thought it was funny! give me a break! ;) Anyways, this is my time to "catchup" on what has been going on. As I have mentioned before I have been busy messing around on facebook and my blog has severely suffered. Here we go......

How could I have possibly forgot to post about the New Moon Premiere??? lol! Last year I did a whole spread on the midnight show. This year we went on Friday night at 7:20. Man, we are getting old! jk In the pic is me, Britany, Vanessa, Tiffany, Christina, above is Dani and Megan. Between them you will notice a cameo by the one and only JACOB!!!!!! (okay, Taylor Laughtner) Edward is on the other side in case you're wondering :)

I think this is hilarious because Doug and Linkin both wore sweater vests to church one Sunday! It was awesome! I had to take a picture! Like father like son, right?

They FINALLY opened an H&M in Arizona! It just so happens to be 5 minutes down the street from my house! We thought it would be fun to go to the grand opening. So did 10,000 other people!!!!! We took a picture and left! ;) The first 500 people got gift cards, but we were no way near making that mark. The line wrapped around 2 buildings before it got to us. Oh well. We will live to shop another day!

This was yet another one of our Culture Pass experiences. This was another fun day we got to have for FREE!!! This was at the Mesa Youth Recreation Center or something random like that. It was really cute and really fun! Some of the games were designed for the older crowd, but the kids had a blast on the slide! The funny thing was though was they had this lady that was the walking Nazi. She was seriously following Linkin around and telling him to walk. I told her if she could get him to walk she could have him! There is no way to slow this kid down or any of the other kids we were with. They are two lady, deal with it! It was way fun though, and I'd totally go back, maybe when the crazy lady isn't working though. :)

Linkin has been absolutely obsessed with Christmas lights! Everywhere we go he freaks out over the lights. In the car, at peoples houses, it doesn't matter. I haven't been feeling very well the past few weeks, so while Doug was at Walmart he saw a cheap pre lit tree that was 3 feet tall. He thought this would be perfect for Linkin and that we wouldn't have to put up a tree. He got it home and out of the box and this is what happened. Linkin would not stop hugging it. It was sooooo cute!!!! He would say "nice" and pet his tree and give it loves. It was too cute. After that I had to get out all of the Christmas decorations and put them up no matter how junkie I felt! But this will always be Linkin's tree! =)

I think that's it. I think you have been caught up. ;)

Dear Blog~

Dear Blog~
I apologise for neglecting you for so long. I have been addicted to Facebook and will soon make my way back to you, my one true love.
Until then,

Your slacker author