Dan's Graduation!

Can you believe it? Pre-K Graduation! wow....

Snowy outside!

The past two weekends have been cold and snowy. It has been so nice to sit inside after playing in the snow.
Eric has been living with us for two weeks now and going to a local private Christian school. The house seems much smaller with all of the pre-teen boys in the neighborhood running up and down the stairs to Woobie's room!

The boys have been coming over a few nights a week to play after Eric finishes his homework. I think I'm going to have to invest in some stock in those Tyson appetizer things....

the boys having a snowball fight. notice little dan in the red coat in the middle of it.

Catching Up

As you know, it has been an abnormally long absence since our last post. A lot has been happening in our home these past few months that has kept up from focusing on things like updating the blog. However, we are back in the swing of things now. Good thing too because things here move fast.

Some highlights from the past few months.

Cindy-Lou-Who and Darth Vadar at Halloween.


The Matthews Law Group, PLLC (www.thematthewslawgroup.com) got an awesome office and another new attorney for a total of three!



Dan got a new big boy bed for his birthday. And I built the WHOLE thing! Papa helped me put it together and Mark was very patient of all my very late nights in the garage for a month and a half after we put the kids to bed.Soph started sleeping in her own bed. She is definitely a tom-boy. Notice the Snow White AND Lightsaber...
Fun stuff at Christmas!

Dan was a wise man in the Christmas play at church. He only agreed to do it because it made him think of the "Return of the King" (he loves the cartoon version)

Putting out cookies for Santa.
Happy New Years Eve!




The awesome t-shirt Fi got from Aunt Lisa!








Making gingerbread houses at Ms. Josie's house.

Fi-Fi had her second birthday!
This is her first party at school:


Then her second party at home!
/>Nana and Pop come to visit!


Fi-Fi's THIRD birthday celebration with Nana and Pop and Aunt Ashley and Jake and Eric and Ms. Erin and Ms. Linda.









There has been a lot of dancing around our house. Sophia's teachers made her a CD of music for Christmas and everyone has been getting in on the act.



Blob fights!


and then there has been the snow....

Happy Birthday Daniel Bear /Watching the leaves change

Fall means that I slow down a little bit. Well, not really, but I let more photos and videos SLOWLY accumulate before I find the time to sit down and post them!

Chronologically and most important in this post, Dan turned four! Who can believe it?
Grammy and Grumpy were able to share his birthday by Skype. Their voices you hear in the video were while they were watching Dan and Fi on webcam. Too cool!

Some classic birthday pictures.

Then Grammy and Grumpy came to visit for Dan's birthday party - well, I actually recruited them to come. They got to share in his new favorite birthday present: the Lightsaber!


Eric got to play lightsaber too. I think he is being easy on Dan and pretending to be Yoda here...



Eric brought his new guitar with him and Grammy helped him pick some tunes.

Someone got the bright idea to invite 12 children to Daniel's birthday party. TWELVE children approximately 2-5 years of age. Jiminy Christmas!
We had a camping theme birthday party, but it rained outside, so we set up the tent in the living room.

We had a campfire birthday cake (I really did make this!)

Eric was a "camp counselor" and tried to corral all the kids. It was a tough job. Children were running and screaming, parents were clutching their hair, and then... Grammy went and got Eric's guitar.


And all was well....

It's like she's done this before.

We went to a Junior League fundraiser called Touch-a-Truck. Lots of large trucks to climb and play on. I don't know who was more excited... Eric or Mark?

This is Eric doing his: "OF course I'm small enough to fit in the ball filled bounce house!" But, the moms guarding the bounce house weren't buying it...
We haven't had cable for three months now (something wrong with the line apparently). we don't watch that much tv anyway, but it has let us be a little more creative. The boys made a boat...

we've gone to the park.

we went to the pumpkin farm.

we tried soccer. there's a lot of standing around in soccer. wandering to the next field. laying on the ground. I don't remember my soccer games being that way, but I do remember some of Woobie's games at this age being very similar.

There was stimulating dinner conversation.

Time for creative art

And then there is the dancing. I would like to note, that all of these moves come from their father!




All the dancing wiped Dan out...
The fall is when Fi's fashion sense can shine!

One of Fi's teachers at school likes to do up her hair every day. We never quite know what she'll look like when we pick her up!

Here is the beret Aunt Lynne knitted for newborn Sophia. She loves it now and wears it all over town in her jaunty fashion.