So cute!

I walked into the family room at my parents house the other day and I saw Linkin watching Montorey and imitating everything she did. He wants so bad to be one of the big kids, it's adorable! I had to snap a picture of him trying to cozy up next to her and pretend to watch a show he would never watch on his own EVER! So stinkin' cute!

Family Party

My dad's brother and sister came into town last weekend with their spouses and we had a way fun family get together. It was my grandma and grandpa's wedding anniversary, and a bunch of people birthday right around the same time, so we made it a "catch all" party. Part of that "catch all" was Linkin's 2nd birthday. We had such a fun time catching up with the aunts and uncles we don't get to see very much and celebrating with each other. Thanks everyone for coming! We had a great time!

Linkin blowing out the candle on the cake. You may notice the candle is a number 4. We had an number 2 somewhere but we couldn't find it. Luckily Alexandra turned 4 a few weeks ago so we just used her candle. Linkin didn't know the difference he was just excited to blow out the "fi-ow."

The piece of cake he thought was still on his fork had actually fallen and is sitting on the edge of his plate. He is keeping his mouth open wide just in case there's more cake somewhere on that fork!

All of the cousins at Linkin's birthday party. This is them posing and being adorable. The second this picture was over, this happened.....

DOG PILE ON DOUG!!!!! They had a good time doing that and Doug was stuck for a while. 7 kids on you is pretty heavy!

This is a picture of my dad's side of the family. Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Suzie, Dad, Mom, Aunt Neta, Uncle Arnie, and Uncle Dennis.

Mr. Rodgers

One of my favorite things to do is dress Linkin up for church on Sunday. It just cracks me up to see him in these cute little dressy outfits. I think it is hilarious and he looks freaking adorable! I have also been addicted to bargain shopping lately. I get this crazy thrill when I get something for ridiculously cheap. This outfit would be one of my amazing conquests to find adorable clothing for cheap. I think he looks a little bit like Mr. Rodgers in his button up sweater, but it is cute regardless!

Girls Night Out

Last weekend we had one of the funnest girl nights ever! We went to Sapporo's for some amazing food, sushi, and a lot of laughs. After that we left and went for some yummy yogurt to continue with our funny story telling and laughter. Such a fun girls night ladies. Lets do another one again soon! Thanks to our husbands who are so awesome about watching the kids while we get to go out and have some fun grown up style! (and by that I mean being out and about with out our children =) In the picture is Brittany, Vanessa, Tiffany, Dani, Me, Krissie, and Stephanie. Funnest girl group ever!

Here birdie, birdie, birdie

Today Linkin and I met our friends Stephanie and Taylor at Barnes n' Nobles for story time. I figured Linkin wouldn't even last so we just started over at the Thomas the Train set where I knew we would inevitably end up. After the trains we went to go eat our lunch by the fountain and Linkin discovered a real fun game! He ate a ton of lunch like a good boy, but than when he was done he was throwing his crumbs down on the floor and watching the birds eat it. He accidentally dropped stuff the first few times and than loved watching the birds all run around and get the food so he started throwing it. We were surrounded by at least 40 birds! They were on the ground, up in the trees, on lamp posts, you name it they were waiting for Linkin to feed them their next big meal. He was say, "bite" and throw them their treats and squeal in delight. He than realized that he could climb down out of his chair and chase the birds around for a while. His adorable behavior had me and everyone around cracking up laughing and just staring at how darn cute he was! There was something so pure and innocent in that moment I can't describe that was true joy. I didn't have my camera with me, but I grabbed a few shots on my phone. He was in no way finished when it was time to leave, but we had to go home for nap time. We will for sure do that again! Fun day with my little man! I LOVE HIM AND I LOVE BEING A MOM!!!!

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!