a fancy party

Get ready for picture overload!  Ellery turned five and I threw her the fanciest Fancy Nancy party I could come up with.  

 Me and my girl before the festivities began.  She was so excited all day!

Savannah, Avery, Ashlyn, Ellery, Maddie, Camryn, Layla 

The table was of course the most fancy part of the party- it was, after all, where the real tea party was taking place.  My sweet mom let me borrow her real, English, collectable cups and saucers for the tea party.  She was sweet to let them go into the hands of five year olds, but I told them how fancy and fragile they were and the girls were super careful with them.  

For games we played Musical Jewels (like musical chairs) and Lady, Lady Where's Your Jewel?  Funny thing about games at birthday parties- they go super fast.  I was worried we would run out of things to do.

But we still had the Boa Limbo, and of course they had to learn how to sit fancy, and walk like a fancy model.  This was serious stuff, in preparation for the big fashion show.  

They got to go to our dress up store and put together any outfit they wanted.  Some of these girls really knew how to accessorize!  Some were a little shy coming down the blue carpet, but I think all of them had fun.  What five year old girl doesn't like dressing up?  What two year old girl doesn't like dressing up?  Layla was probably more into it than any of them!

After the show, we danced to Taylor Swift and Call Me Maybe for awhile, and then it was time for tea.

Next up, photos of the beautiful, fancy girls!

I think it was a success and my fancy little five year old sure was happy about it!  I sure love her!

thoughts on a sunday

• This is one of those creepy Halloween toys that makes noises.  It's a brain with a scary mouth.  Layla is obsessed with it and for the first day we had it spent the whole day studying it then declaring, "He has a sore bottom!" Then studying some more, then repeating her observation.   Kinda think she got the mouth confused with something else..

• I had a horrible, no-good very bad day on Thursday.  I started off the morning sliding down the snow-covered streets of our neighborhood, and landed in the side of someone's yard.  It was like slow motion.  I lost control and I knew I had two choices.  a:  keep going towards my destination (downhill) and run into oncoming traffic.  Or b: turn, and try to slow down going uphill.  I choose b.  This was clearly the better choice, but it did result in my car going up over the sidewalk, narrowly missing an Aspen tree and stopping on the lawn, eight feet from someone's house.  My kids were traumatized.  I didn't know if I could get out, but tried some reversing maneuver and luckily made it.  I thought about letting the owners know what had happened, but McKay was about to be late for school and Ellery had an appointment in Salt Lake, so there was no time and no damage, so I just left.  I did go back later and tell them what I did and who I was in case they wanted to know.  They were nice.

• My immediate thought was Um. . .we have to move!  It was the FIRST SNOW for us living on this mountain, and I blew it.  How am I going to survive up here?

• It's funny, because I am a very paranoid snow driver- like I'm the annoying person in front of you going way too slow for conditions.  

• I can't stop talking about this.

• Okay.  I'm done.

• After my "accident", I dropped off my crazy  haired son, and the girls and I went up to Salt Lake to meet with a pediatric GI specialist.  This is the next step on Ellery's vomiting journey.  Basically, the doctor discussed some things it could be, most of which I can't spell, so I can't really tell you, but we decided to call it reflux for now and treat it as such and see what happens.  This is treated with a mild medication twice a day (don't like her being on a medication) and we'll meet again in a month.  I hope it's reflux because the medication is less scary than other meds used for the other possibilities.  We shall see. . .

• The kids had a blast playing in Grandma and Granddad's leaves.  They have the best leaves and I'm sad I didn't get better pictures, but it was getting dark.  They had so much fun diving, jumping, getting thrown and buried in them.  

• We are really loving our fireplace.  Like I love it so much I want it to be on all the time now that it's cold.  

• McKay had sort of a bad day too.  For the last several days he's been coming home with a little stamp on his hand indicating that his lunch money is out.  Brian and I both separately tried to pay it online, but ran into some glitches, so we kept forgetting to send him with a check.  Well,  he got in the car after school and told me, with tears spilling out, that the lunch lady told him if he didn't pay for his lunch tomorrow that he would only get white milk and a roll to eat.  White milk!  It's enough to make anyone cry.  No really, I did feel awful and I made a personal trip to the cafeteria the next morning to pay that bill!  Poor boy.

• McKay had his last flag football game of the season on Tuesday.  Brian was working and so it was up to me to brave the weather alone and take the kids to the game.  It was freezing on Tuesday and we almost didn't survive, but we got hot chocolate on the way home and we thawed out.  He got a medal/necklace-type thing and was super pleased with himself.

• I can't remember if I've said this or not, but Mack was on the same team as Josh, who is the son of another CRNA that Brian works with.  They were also randomly put on the same baseball team in the summer.  We think it is crazy that they ended up on the same team again for football, but I was so glad.  It was nice having someone to sit by and talk to during the games, plus good for us/Brian to build relationships with work people outside of work.  I really like Brian and Shauna and our kids get a long great.  It was a very happy coincidence.

• Somehow Layla has inherited about a million pairs of shoes.  She seriously has almost twenty pairs.  Her favorite thing is to change shoes throughout the day.  She has very specific ideas when it comes to which ones to put on.  Most of them are a bit too big too, but this doesn't slow her down at all.  She's also really into wearing skirts.  Pants will not do anymore.  It has to be a dress or a skirt.  Sometimes I can trick her into wearing leggings with a longer shirt if I call it a dress.  Most of the time I can't.  She is related to Ellery, I think.

• Ellery's really into Veggie Tales right now.  For a whole day this week she was stuck on this line, "Oh no, what we gonna do?  The king likes Daniel more than me and yoo-u!"  

• One of the girls favorite books is the Veggie Tales alphabet.  They both have it memorized.  Layla also really loves the Llama Llama books.  Her favorite part is when the Mama says, "Llama, Llama that's enough!"  I love reading to the girls at bedtime or during the day.  Reading is still one of those things that can calm all of us right down and bring the Spirit back into our home, even if it is Llama Llama.  

Crazy hair for red ribbon week

• Speaking of readers, our boy is getting to be quite the reader.  It's coming very naturally to him now and he's reading things around him without thinking about it too much. It's fun to do homework with him at night and to spend that one on one time with him.  

• He got his first real song in piano this week.  It's a Halloween song.  At first it was hard for him, and Brian had to sit down with him and help him through it.  Then he kept practicing and practiving, even when we didn't ask him to, and now he has it memorized and is proudly playing it for fun.  I'm glad he's so into it, and I hope it lasts for a long time.  It's a great physical experience at how practice makes perfect.  What a great lesson to learn over and over.  

• I am not much help when it comes to piano.  I can kind of follow along a little bit right now, but soon I will be totally lost and helpless.  Good thing Brian knows whats going on.

• McKay lost his fourth tooth last night.  One on the bottom.  It had been bothering him for a couple days, and after many attempts at removing it (pliers, fingers, wiggling) he let Brian have a really good go at it while I was in the store and they were waiting in the car.  I came out to find a big surprise!  He was extremely excited, and relieved that it was out.

• We bought a big bag of mini candy bars for Halloween.  I had planned on getting more, but McKay said to me today, "Mom, all we have is chocolate to give out for Halloween!  We can't just give out chocolate."  Oh the horror!

• Brian and I went out on a real, live date on Friday  night.  We got  a babysitter.  Like we hired someone to watch our kids.  This was extremely exciting for the kids, and they loved it.  Even Layla did good- she only got mad at Kallie once for not letting her color with markers (it's against the rules to give Layla markers-she eats them).  But I thought she might care that we left, but she didn't at all.  

• Brian and I are pretty bad at dating.  We went to The Bombay House and had a delicious meal, but other than that we didn't really know what to do.  So we ran some errands we had to get done, and got hot chocolate for dessert, then headed home.  It was still fun.  I hope we get lots of practice to get better at it.  We are trying to make it a bigger priority in our family.  

Happy Sunday!

pumpkins of 2012

This years carvings:

A scary guy.  Designed by McKay, carved by Dad.

A pretty girl with beautiful lips.  Designed by Ellery, carved by Dad.  

On the left, a baby.  Designed by mom, carved by mom.  Layla was completely disinterested.  

thoughts on a sunday

• Got to be quick tonight, it's time for bed.

• This week my little Ellie girl turned five!  She was so excited and can't even believe how big she is.  We had a Fancy Nancy themed party. . .I may have tried to sway her towards this a bit.  I just didn't think throwing a Muppets party or Dinosaur Train party was the right thing to do.  I just didn't.

• However, I will admit when I am wrong and say that Fancy Nancy might have been a lot more fun for an older age.  But Dinosaur Train?  I just couldn't do it.

• Of course Ellery had no idea that the party was a little premature.  She loved it and had so much fun and really, for a kid, if you throw them a party that is pretty much all you have to do for them to love it.  

• She looked really cute and happy on her birthday.

• I love her.  All week she has been saying to me, "Mom, I used to be like this (bending her knees a bit) and now I'm like this!" (standing up as tall as can be)  

• A couple things I heard in the car tonight on the way to Grammy and Poppy's:  From McKay "Mom, I'm going to marry a girl who loves video games, and we're going to name our kids all video game names. . .like Mario and Bowser."

• Layla got wind of the hot new catchphrase that all the kids are saying these days.  She was screaming, "That's so epic!" all the way there.

• Speaking of what the kids are saying, have we talked about the abbreviating that is going on?  I am all for a good abbreviation, really I am.  But I cannot get used to the "tot awk" phrase that is being thrown around.  It's just totally awkward, in my opinion.  

• Yes, McKay says this from time to time.  When he's not saying epic.

• This was Brian's first weekend on call.  McKay was very confused about this and was quite shocked that dad was working on Sunday.  He was actually very judgmental about the whole thing.  We had to explain about the medical field and Sundays, but I still don't think he got it.  Maybe that's why he threw the hugest ever fit about not playing nintendo at Grammy's tonight.  Break one Sunday rule, might as well break them all.  

• Speaking of McKay, I am noticing a change in him lately.  He is getting older.  He is getting way more sensitive.  I didn't expect this at this age from a boy.  His feelings are more tender and I'm finding that when we raise our voices at him (it hardly ever happens, hehe) what once was kind of ignored/accepted is now taken right to his broken heart and I can just see it on his face.  Our words and tones are noticed and felt by him and that has made me try to be more sensitive to him and that way I say things to him.  But this is really hard because I am not one of those moms who can say everything sweetly and the kids obey and are all nice to happy.  Sometimes I have to raise my voice and sometimes I have to call them out on their ridiculous behavior.  Basically, what I'm saying is that I don't know what I'm doing and sad for McKay.

• He is still playing flag football and now that their coaching situation is improving, so is the team. Brian has been helping when he can, and I think McKay does much better when Brian is out on the field with him.  He's having fun though, and that's all I care about.

• Okay, I forgot I was talking about Brian being on call this weekend.  We have gotten a small taste of the uncertain, up-in-the-air, plan-shifting life of being in the call group.  I know it will take some adjusting for us.  I missed him when Layla stuck her hand in her diaper (again) and again when McKay was throwing a fit about the Nintendo, and it would have been nice to have him around when I was trying to wrestle Layla into a pair of footed pajamas due to the poo incident.  But, we survived, and I've done much worse than a weekend, so I can do this.  It's just kind of blah to know that it will always be this way- a weekend a month, indefinitely.

• So Layla.  She is so naughty with her diapers lately.  I have never had to deal with this before and I don't know what to do with her.  I really hope I think of something brilliant or that she quickly grows out of this phase.

• Ellery got a cash register for her birthday and I have to say it was a big hit for all three of the kids.  

• We spent Saturday helping Brian's family make apple juice.  I remember being sad last Fall when we were in Oregon, knowing about all the delicious apples we were missing out on.  It was fun to be part of the apple-fest this year.  We have lots of apples.

• I think that's all I've got.  Too late to add pics.  I'll do it another time.

Happy Sunday!

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ellery's birthday interview

Ellery's Birthday Interview ~ Five  ellery

Elle's answers in purple.  Notes from the editor in orange.

• Favorite thing to do:  Chuck E. Cheese (color)

• Favorite sport?  Rollerskating (dancing)   

• Favorite thing to do at home?  Clean (follow mom around)

• Favorite food?  Punch, that's my favorite drink.  Grilled cheese sandwiches.  Tortillas and oranges and apples. (grilled cheese, fruit)

• Least-favorite foods?  Milk and celery.   (yep, and anything with sauce)

• Favorite thing to wear?  The orange and white dress that mom sewed for me.  

• Favorite color?  Purple.  
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• Favorite toy?  Barbies
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• Favorite song?    We Will Rock You  

• Favorite place to go?  Thunder Mountain and Goblin Valley 

• What things make you happy?  Playing with my brother and sister

• What makes you sad?  Not playing with them.  

• What do you do when you are sad?   Cry.  
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• What do you do when you are mad?  Stomp around and make a mean face.

• Favorite friends?  Avery and Savannah, from school and  Ashlyn.

• Favorite TV show?   Super Why 

• Favorite movie?    The Lorax  

• Favorite book?  Princess books

• What do you want to be when you grow up?  An artist

• If you were an animal, what one would you be?  A caterpillar, because I love them.

• Who is your hero?  McKay  Layla
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• Who is your teacher?  Miss Melva and Sister Holladay

thoughts on a sunday

• Got to start again somewhere.  Just jumping in to right now and I probably won't ever go back, so the last month is lost, but that's okay.  The kids are in bed and it's 7:08 pm so I really have no excuses.  I'm blogging tonight.

• Brian and I were talking about turning my blog into books.  I have had this plan all along and it's one of the reasons I am trying to keep going.  Anyone had any experience with doing this?  Anybody still reading this?

• Brian and his dad ran the St. George marathon last week.  I missed him, but was glad he got to run one of his favorite races.  He never has time to run anymore, so I am impressed that he took on a marathon.  He says if he didn't have races he would get fat.  

• We enjoyed general conference last weekend.  I can't wait to read the talks again because lets face it, I probably got about 70% with my three kids in the room with me.  I'm still trying to figure out if I want them to watch with us, or if it's better to just have them off playing so that we can really listen.  I am leaning towards having them play. . .

• On Sunday, between sessions, the whole Matthews family drove the Alpine Loop and had a picnic lunch up the canyon.  It was a beautiful drive- I haven't done it in like fifteen years.  

• This happened a couple of weeks ago, but it's become quite the family joke, so I better record it.  While watching the BYU game at Krista's we discovered that an extra cuddly Layla was really hot and had a fever.  We talked about how she had a fever, and must have mentioned it several times because she knew it.  As we were walking out to the car, she turned to Brian who was holding her, and said with a souci stuck in her mouth, "I got the fevah."  And she said it like an old Bostonian man, which was what made it so funny.

• She threw up on the way home, due to the fever, I guess.  It was gross, but I have definitely dealt with worse in the car.  

• This reminds me that I might not have written about the time that Layla had eaten chicken nuggets for lunch, threw up during her nap, and then told me, "I spilled chicken" when I got her out of bed.  

• Brian and I are still continually amazed at this little two year old we have.  Today we counted nine word sentences coming out of this girl.  She is smart.

• Yesterday while running errands with the girls, Ellery was absentmindedly singing a song about BYU.  My favorite line:  "Go Utes. . .no.  Go BYU.  Boo Utes.  Go BYU.  The cougars are really fun and they don't smoke!  That's why I like them!"

• We went to the Homecoming parade down at BYU yesterday.  I had never been before, and I have to say, it was a great parade.  Plenty of candy (even chocolate!), no crowds, short and sweet, and we even scored four tee shirts between the whole group.  That's a pretty good parade if I do say so myself.

• Brian took McKay to the BYU vs. Oregon State game after the parade.  I know they enjoyed it, even if their favorite team didn't win.  

• While they were at the game, I had a plan in mind for me and the girls.  I was going to put Layla down for an early nap, then we were going to go to Build-A-Bear and get Ellery an early birthday present (I had coupons that were going to expire).  It was a great plan, and Layla made it her personal mission to spoil it.  After awhile I noticed that she still hadn't fallen asleep.  This usually means one thing:  she pooped.  Sure enough, I opened the door and could smell that I was right.  What I didn't anticipate was what I would see.  Someone had gotten bored. . .and I guess creative.  There was poo all over.  It was caked on her hands so much that I couldn't even wash it off at the sink.  It was smeared on her sheet, flicked on her blankets and painted, quite seriously, on her bumper.  Her souci (one she was not using) was covered.  Of course, Layla went right into the bath, and I took apart her whole crib, well the bedding anyway.  It was really gross and really annoying.

• So back to my plans, I tried to put that naughty girl back in her bed and she just wasn't falling asleep.  So we went to the store anyway.  Ellery had asked for a stuffed golden retriever dog for her birthday.  I was trying to find one and had not had any luck.  Then I thought of Build-A-Bear and knew that she would love doing that.  I must admit, I had a lot of fun doing it with her.  I can't count the number of times we have window shopped in that store.  Many, many times.  Of course they always want to go in when we pass one, and of course they wish so much that they could buy one, and of course we never let them.  So this was a real treat.  She picked the least expensive bear (nice!) and we had so much fun picking out some outfits and accessories to go with the bear that is officially named Annie Jane, but has since been changed to Jolie, then Penelope, and now to Cookies.  

• After that, we had a quick dinner and headed up to Gardner Village with the Allreds and Botts for the witch night.  Bri and Mack met us there.  I had never been, but by the way Lisa described it to me it sounded really fun.  Wow.  There were a lot of women there.  Like SO many women.  And most of them were dressed as witches.  And although my kids had so much fun, it was a little too crowded for me.  We decided we went a bit too late in the evening for kids, because the crowds made it hard to go anywhere and it's always stressful to have multiple kids to keep track of in gigantic crowds.  

• Today we enjoyed going to baby Afton's blessing.  We had totally forgotten about it, until at about 8:30 this morning when we were all snuggling in our bed I remembered.  We were a bit panicked while Brian checked for the email telling the time of the blessing, hoping quite desperately that it wasn't at nine.  It was eleven.  Phew!

• Lets see. . .what else.  Ah, I know.  Ellery has been learning the song  Simple Gifts in preschool. I can't even describe how much I love hearing her sing "Tis a gift to be simple.  Tis a gift to be free.    Tis a gift to come down where you want to be..."  I love it so much.

• The other day Brian was off so I walked McKay to school by myself, without the girls in the stroller.  We held hands the whole way there and he was a chatterbox, as usual.  I really loved it and thought to myself that that time of him not wanting to hold my hand is probably near. 

• After I dropped McKay off I went on a walk/hike on some of the trails on the mountain behind our house.  Although I love walking with my girls (actually I don't really like it) it felt so great to not have the stroller and just be free to take my body anywhere I wanted.  

• Cheese and crackers for lunch one day.  Layla's interpretation:  Cheese and crappers.  Repeated many times.

• This happened a couple weeks ago, but after Ellery threw up two mornings in one week, we finally decided to take her in to the doctor for her vomiting problem.  I talked with the doctor for almost an hour about her, and he decided he wanted to make sure we rule out everything else it could be before we call it cyclic vomiting syndrome.  The next day we took her to have her blood drawn to test for common food allergies.  Those results were normal.  He had said that he wants her to see an allergist, maybe have a head scan (morning vomiting can be a sign of a brain tumor- I think this is very unlikely) and maybe see a pediatric GI specialist.  So I don't really know what the next step will be- it was kind of unclear in the appointment.  I hope that it's some obscure allergy like mango or something.  That would be pretty easy to handle.  She is a trooper though.  She was really scared to give blood, and screamed pretty loud before they poked her.  Once it was in, she was fine.  

• I have been a busy little bee lately and am up to my neck in "projects".  Many, various projects.  Most pressing, however, are Halloween costumes and Elle's birthday party on Thursday.  I can't wait until the costumes are done- I am very excited about them!  But I really feel like I need to finish up all these projects I have piled up before I start thinking about, hmmm. . .I don't know. . .Christmas projects!  This pic above is the sweet loot we scored at DI for Mack's costume.  When you go in to DI looking for a white tunic, an old, rustic belt and some brown stretchy pants you really never think you're going to find them.  But we did!  All in one shot!  It was really awesome.  

Okay, done for tonight!  Hopefully I won't wait so long next time.  This took me forever!!!

Happy Sunday!

the rest of september

Flag football started.

Cute babe fresh out of the bath.

Flowers from her man, Adam.

I love when she gets really into playing, especially when she's being a mom.  I could watch it all day- she takes good care of those babies.

mack jack