Day #2 of Vacation with the Matters

We are down in Missouri with Jason, Erica, Olivia, Easton, dad and mom for American Thanksgiving for a week and a half and having a really good time. You can just imagine what it is like with 6 adults and three kids under 5....a ton of fun!!!

Grandpa and Kaley playing in the yard

Olivia has forever loved to tease dad and he in turn enjoys playing with her and making her laugh. Kaley has since then picked up on the teasing of grandpa and is just as ruthless as Olivia is. There is a running joke between Olivia and dad that has lasted 2 years now with these mice that she teases him with and now it has expanded to a rubber centipede-another creature that dad hates. Now dad has two granddaughters that wake up in the morning and can't wait to wake grandma and grandpa up to start the teasing!

Kaley with the centipede ready for fire!

A Great Start to Monday Morning

I saw this video on Erica's facebook the other day and finally got around to looking at it today. Not only do I love this song, but it brought a smile to my face on this beautiful Monday morning. Take a watch and hopefully it will do the same for you!

Home Improvements

Earlier this week, I pull up into our driveway after coming home from work and Mark is in the garage with all of his wood working things out. I get out and come to see what he is working on and he tells me, "You may not want to look in the kitchen quite yet, there is a bit of a mess." So, I walk into the kitchen and there is this hole in the bottom cupboard to the right of the stove. The first thing I thought of was that something broke somewhere and the only way to fix it was to cut a hole in the cupboards! Nope, not even close. He comes in and tells me that he had bought a cutting board earlier that day but then found out that there wasn't a place to store it......so he created one!!!! What once was some unused space, now has become a place for the cutting boards:-) Why not? Luckily, he is so skilled at what he does and is quite talented, that it looks great, and something else in our house now has a home of its own. Yeah!

Clergy Appreciation

This past Sunday was clergy appreciation at our church. Our church is always so very thoughtful and generous! This year was so different. We received a beautiful card, these amazing flowers and a gift for a great family outing for the three of us. We are regularly reminded of how truly blessed we are to have a loving, supportive and caring church family. Thank you to each of you who mean so much!

Happy Halloween!!!

Our little monkey and her banana sidekick!

Chili-lympics

On Saturday, our church had the Chili-lympics and it was a great time! Mark started working on his chili the night before and once again found perfection in his creation. It was absolutely delicious! This year they added a category for a fall fruit bake off, so not only did we get to taste some great chili, but we also got to sample some amazing desserts.

I think that out of all of us, Kaley had the best time. The church was able to get a bouncy castle and a huge obstacle course with a slide for free- the company that owns these needed a gym to air them out and asked if they could use ours. Krista and her quick thinking was able to work a deal and get them for free. The great thing is that Kaley was the perfect age to enjoy both, although she required some help for the obstacle course. Let's just say mommy got a great work out going through a blow up obstacle course, trying to hold onto her while climbing up "stairs" and then jumping in the castle with her. It was great fun. Although, we added daddy into that mix a couple of times going through the obstacle course, and daddy just takes "fun" to a whole new level! Kaley LOVED it and laughed and giggled her way through. She even found time to relax a little and paint a pumpkin. Lovely afternoon spent with a great church community and friends.

Kaley and mommy in the jumping castle

Kaley in the obstacle course determined to find a way up the stairs!

She was actually able to get up to the second step, and then that was it.

We had to figure out a way for her to try the slide, so Tracey and I teamed up to get it done. Tracey was such a trooper and climbed up to the top and I climbed in and lifted her up to Tracey (which by the way-neither of these things is easy to do on a giant balloon with a toddler!) But, as you can see-it was well worth the effort to see the smile of Kaley's face...thanks Tracey:-) You are the best!

Last but not least, a little fun with the three of us (and Megan)!

Learning new things every day

We have been learning the Head & Shoulders song for the past few months, and in true Kaley form, she would just stare at us as we sang the song and bob her head back and forth. And then, one day as we were driving in the car (to distract her from thinking she was uncomfortable and unhappy) I asked her where her head was...and she pointed to it! So I asked her where her eyes, nose and mouth were, and she pointed to them :-)

She now knows all of the parts except for her shoulders and knees! We thought this was pretty cute the other night after supper and pulled out the video camera to capture it. Enjoy!