We're gonna miss them!!!

Oh man...I am having a hard time leaving them this time...

But I think, more than any other vacations we have taken...we NEED this one!!!

I am happy to know that they will be well taken care of by Aunt Emmy...and they are so excited to have her here!!!

Thanks Emily...SO MUCH!!!

Em took this picture for us after church...look at Porter...if he blinked he would be asleep...He was SO TIRED!

Em has promised to take pictures of my kids everyday...so I will be able to post pictures of what we did as well as what they got to do!!!

She's here!!!

We are all so excited to have Emmy here!!!

My sister Emily has put aside her life for a week to be with our little kiddos...

And they couldn't be more happy about it!!!

I hope she still loves us after this week!!!

I need advice...

Here is the deal...

I am trying to decide if I should take my good camera to Cancun or just take my point and shoot.

Help me out...

Reasons not to take my good camera...

1. The camera cost more than twice that our trip costs.

2. I don't want to have to babysit my camera the whole time...like when we are on the beach and stuff like that.

3. Really don't want it to be stolen...or broken...or sandy...

Reasons to take my good camera...

1. We are going to Mayan ruins and would love to take some majorly cool pictures there...

2. I would love to take beautiful pictures at the beach...sunset/sunrise...silouettes...

3. I think I would really regret not taking it...

BUT

I don't regret not taking a good camera when we went to Hawaii or on our cruise...but at that time I didn't have as good of a camera that I have now...

So here are a couple pictures I just took to compare...keep in mind both cameras were used with flash...so it isn't the best example for the quality of pictures each individual camera can do...more to just see the difference in the two...

So if you wouldn't mind...please give me your input...

What would you do???

A little help....

Madi has had a harder year this year in school.

A mixture of things, I guess.

Third grade is a hard year...I keep hearing that it is the year that you change from "learning to read, to reading to learn."

And she hasn't done bad...but she is so afraid of making mistakes that she second guesses herself...which is bad when her first guess was right.

Brent has been so good to work with her...sometimes more than she wants to.

But in the end, I know she enjoys this time with her Dad....and she is doing better and better in school.

Ready...Set...GO!!!!!

Mario Cart ain't got nothing on us!!!

Who needs video games when you can do the real thing!!!

The kids had some races tonight...

Having a little boy around has helped us build up our car-you-can-fit-in collection!

Madi started out on the one Cassi is on...but felt silly when I got the camera out so Cassi switched with her.

Silly kids.

********************************
While we were at my sisters house for Christmas vacation , Porter found anew favorite toy.
Thanks to his cousin Sean who is the same age, Porter has found the fun that goes along with carrying a broom around where ever you go.
Porter called it "Fffvvvv."
I am not sure where that came from...but he says it the same every time he sees it.
The kid cracks me up!

(p.s. these pictures were taken in the garage...my house carpet is much cleaner that this!)

***************************************************

And Brent and I have been working together this week to get the house really clean before we leave for our trip...it is so nice to have a clean house. Why is it so hard for me to keep it clean??? I am going to work on that this year!

Getting big!

I was thinking today how funny it is that even after posting something every day for SO LONG...

I am still so behind and have a lot of stuff that I want to get on the blog so it can make it into the book!

Oh, maybe after our trip life will calm down and I can do some of that catching up...right?

So Elsie decided she didn't want to sit in her booster seat anymore.

So we decided to put Porter in it.

He loves it.

I know it is hard to believe, but this kid is not a big eater...AT ALL.

For real, I'm not joking.

But since we have been putting him in the booster seat, he must feel like a big boy or something, 'cause he has been eating like a champ.

He works the fork like a pro!

Go big boy!

While we were getting food put together and the kids were setting the table I realized that our table in completely full.

Brent at the head...

Each chair filled with our wonderful little family.

Call me corny...but that just filled my heart with joy.

I am gonna miss these little bugs next week!

***************************************

Also...Cassi made lunch for herself again today.

We were all out of bread...so she made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a tortilla...which is totally great...we actually do that sometimes...

But what I loved was the heaping mound of jelly that filled the tortilla.

Seriously, that little girl cracks me up on a daily basis.

I have realized that it is much more fun to let loose and relax.

She definitely does some very frustrating things...but she is just herself.

I want her to be the best HERSELF she can be...so I am gonna make more of an effort to still teach and be a Mom...but to also let loose and not let things make me so angry.

Cause you know what...kids are pretty fun.

Tonight Brent was working with Madi on her Rocket Math...which she has been struggling with, only because she feels like she can't do it and she hates to mess up.

So he has been trying real hard to help her not get so frustrated and flustered about it.

So they would go over the rocket math problems...then all of us would do a set of sit-ups.

Man those girls can go...especially Cassi.

I had to leave and go running...but he said that there were a few 'fights' and high emotions running...but she calmed down and she was very excited about working her brain muscles along with her body muscles.

"Even the journey with a thousand miles must start with one step."

That quote can fit into so many areas in our life right now.

Madi in school...

Elsie with her physical limitations...

Me with my organizational problems...

Each of us have our own little or big issues that all start with the first step.

Big game!!!

We are cheering for you here, BRONCOS!!!

Tonight is the big night!

We are all dressed in our orange and blue...

Elsie has been running around the house yelling "GO BRONCOS, GO BRONCOS!!!"

She is a pretty great little cheerleader.

*********************************

UPDATE

*********************************

WE WON...WE WON...WE WON!!!!

Painting...

I love when we take the time to paint and draw together.

I used to do so much drawing and sketching...not so much anymore with kids.

I would love to start doing it more.

It brings me so much joy to sit down with my girls and see how much they love it, like I do...and also, it makes me happy that I have things I can teach them...and it makes me happy that there is actually some talent that I passed down to them.

But as far as talent goes...I used to be much better.
When you don't continue with something it goes away, right...

So I am going to try to do this more with my kids.

That way we can all benefit, right!

And I just had to include a funny little thing from Cassi.

At our family white elephant exchange party last week Madi got a set of sundae dishes...for ice cream.

She was very excited about them.

The last few days Cassi has been asking, "Can I have some water in those church glasses?" and "When are we gonna use those church bowls."

It took me a little while to figure out what in the world she was talking about!

Tonight after dinner I told them they could have ice cream if they kept the house clean and didn't fight.

They weren't too bad.

So they got ice cream.

In Madi's sundae bowls.

Cassi was so happy that we were finally using the church glasses.

(Get it...sundae, sunday, church...)

Silly kid.

In hind-sight...this is the kind of thing that is much funnier when you are there in person.

Goodbye Christmas

We took the tree down today...and all things Christmas...

Kinda sad...but also nice to be back to normal.

The kids were of course very helpful...mostly...

but we got it all put away...and we ended up needing more tubs to put it all in.

Brent kept asking why our supply keeps growing!

I guess you can never have enough Christmas, right???

Elsie was sad at first to see the tree go and she kept trying to hug it...

Then we told her that we get to get it all out again next year and that made her happy.

Madi threw a bit of a fit, so she isn't it very many pictures.

She calmed down a little later...man...can't wait for the teen years!

Porter was sleeping...which was very helpful!

And Cassi looks a little homeless with her uncombed hair...but hey....memories, right?

And here is a sweet little smile to end the post with!

New Years Resolutions...

Tonight we sat down together as a family and wrote down some Matthews Family resolutions.

The kids picked some for the parents...the parents picked some for the kids...we came up with some together...

Brent came up with a new family goal of filling piggy banks.

The relationships you have with people are like piggy banks...when you are nice, you are filling the banks...when you are mean...you are taking money away...and if you keep doing it that way...pretty soon they won't have any money in their piggy banks...and you won't have a relationship with them anymore.

The kids are excited about this idea...I am too.

I am glad we sat together and did this as a family...I need to sit down and make some for myself as well!

Afterwards Brent pulled out some bubbly for us to seal the deal...

We said something about making a "cheer"...

So Cassi started cheering like she was at a football game!

This is of course a reenactment...but it was pretty dang funny!
The real "Cheers"

Porter was loving the bubbly!!!

******************************

I hope every body's New Year was off to as good of a start as ours!