Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas morning this year. The kids are the perfect age to be really excited about waking up to see what Santa has brought. In fact, Jackson woke up at 9:30 Christmas Eve, convinced that it should be morning already. He was pretty disappointed to go back to bed. But all the waiting and painful anticipation was worth it--Santa came through for them again. Claire spent most of her first Christmas rolling around in the wreckage. At one point she had backed herself into the corner with all the wrapping paper and packaging. We just heard her squawking underneath everything.

Dallin had a "Cars" Christmas, scoring the few character cars he is missing from his collection. Santa also brought a few shake-n-go cars, much to Mom's chagrin. (You shake them, and then the engine revs, and the cars say things in the character's voices. Let's just say they are NOT quiet!)

Lauren spent more time playing with her stocking stuffers this year, than her toys! She loved the princess jewelry, and various accessories that Santa brought for her. She also loved her new Dora toys, and the Princess Barbie and horse that she got.

Jackson's favorite gift was the DS he had been hoping for. He hasn't come up for air since Christmas morning, and is already a pro at Cooking Mama, and Mario Olympics. Santa also brought him a skate board. Both Mom and Dad tried to teach him how to use it later that afternoon. It's a lot harder than we remembered! Jackson ended up teaching us a few things.

Dad spent Christmas morning trying to figure out all the new fangled packaging. Those toys are in there good and tight. A lot of blood, sweat, tears, and cursing (Just Kidding) went into getting those toys out. Luckily the kids had plenty of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to occupy them while they waited. Mom is sure that she was there Christmas morning, although there are no pictures to prove it. She was the photographer as usual. It was a really fun morning for everyone, especially Mom, who loves to have us all together.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

The Christmas Story -- Intro

This year, I had the brilliant idea to try to act out the Nativity with the kids on Christmas Eve. All week we had talked about it, and that morning I practiced with the kids, talking them through the whole thing. I had this vision of an amazing, memorable teaching moment, where all the kids would understand the true meaning of Christmas. (Yes, I realize that my kids are 6, 3, 2, and 6 months. A girl can dream, right?) They did GREAT in practice, everyone cooperated, nobody smacked anybody else, pulled hair, or tried to run off with the baby Jesus (aka: Claire.) The real performance was both amazing and memorable, just not in the way I was hoping. Dallin took some artistic liberties with his role of the shepherd. You may not remember the verses in Luke 2 where the shepherd terrorizes the baby Jesus, attacks Joseph, or makes Mary cry. Ahh, memories.

The Christmas Story--Mattingley style

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New matching jammies?? Must be Christmas Eve!

Growing up, my family always got to open one present on Christmas Eve. Year after year, I always hoped to find that cool new toy I'd asked for--and year after year, I opened the gift to find new pajamas. Well, the tradition lives on at the Mattingley house. New, cute, stain-free jammies are a must for Christmas morning. This year, the kids were actually pretty excited about their new pj's. Christmas Eve 2008 found Jackson sporting Star Wars pajamas, Dallin, Cars, and Lauren and Claire with matching pink, flannel, monkey pj's.

Despite the photographic evidence to the contrary, Dallin really was excited about his Lightning McQueen pj's...

... turns out he just wanted to hold the baby in the picture.

Lola and Claire are pretty in pink!

Everyone is ready for Santa to come!

Christmas Cookin'

Every Christmas our family looks forward to a sometimes crazy, always messy, Family Night dipping chocolates, and making goodies to share with our friends. (Note to our friends: In case you're feeling nervous, I never give out the pieces that you see being mauled by Dallin. Those go into his own "special" collection. Although I may use that as a bargaining chip in the future...you better be nice to me, or else!!)

Dallin eats more than he makes!

Jackson is very serious about his chocolate dipped pretzels.

Lauren loves to ham it up for the camera!
This year the kids were really excited to get decked out in their own Christmas apron and chef's hat. We had a great time making and tasting our delicious Christmas creations. You may notice Dad is nowhere to be seen--he continued his official job as quality control.

Fall 2008

One A-Mazing Day!

Outside of the caves is a maze made out of 7-ft tall hedges. The goal was to find 4 different check-in spots to get your "passport" stamped. It seemed like a good idea at the time...

After an hour of racing around in circles, (I know we've passed that bush before...) we surrendered our passports, and headed to the park for a much needed snack.

Fall Fun

This year we took the kids to see Luray Caverns in Virginia. Jackson and Lauren loved seeing the beautiful rock formations, and learning about stalagmites and stalactites. Joel's favorite was the natural organ--some scientist attached an actual organ to the rocks, with little hammers that play notes on the rocks. Mom loved the Lake of Dreams, which Jackson pointed out looked exactly like a scene from Star Wars, (of course!)

We all had a great time. Especially Dallin, who shared his enthusiasm with the entire tour by squealing with delight, or disgust, depending on the moment. You can imagine the amplification that the cave provided--at times it sounded like we were being chased by a pack of crazy two year olds.

Look Who's Two!!

At our house, your second birthday brings more than just cake. This is a day when you graduate to a real bed. Dallin was more than happy to pass along the crib to Claire. He was so excited to sleep on his Cars pillow, and snuggle in for his first night in a big boy bed. Now if we can only get him to stay in it!

School Daze

Both Jackson and Lauren were excited for school to start this year. Ahh, the innocence of youth! First grade found Jackson armed with a new Transformers back pack, a Spiderman lunch box, and a Star Wars T-shirt. He's equal opportunity I guess. As for Lauren, it was all about the Princess "Pack Pack," as she calls it. No preschool experience would be complete without a 2-ft hard plastic princess, right?