A Cook in the Making!

I completely forgot about this video until I was looking at pictures tonight with Kaley. I forget how sometimes how much Kaley watches everything! She had been asking for waffles a couple of mornings and so I would pick her up and have her push the button on the toaster for fun. Well, this morning there was a chair next to the counter and this is what she did! P.S. When I realized what she was doing, I actually gave the bread to her again just to get it on video)

Happy Birthday Jason and Erica!

Once again I have missed doing birthday wishes on their actual birthdays:-( Maybe one day I will be early for a change! My brother and my sister-in-law had their birthdays at the end of November and we were actually there to celebrate both of them! We went out for dinner with the whole family and were able to give them an actual present to open in person:-)

Our family was blessed to have Erica become a part of the Matters clan almost ten years ago in January. Erica has quickly become a close friend and one whom I am blessed to have in my life. I couldn't have imagined someone better for Jason to share his life with. She is an amazing mother who pours her time and energy into her family and creating a loving and caring home. She is very thoughtful, sincere, compassionate and giving towards those around her. I can always count on Erica to have great parenting advice and willing to lend a listening ear. Erica - you bring a lightheartedness, joy and laughter to our family and we are thankful that you are part of our family. Happy birthday:)

What can I say about my older brother? Well, he is the best! Being only a year and a half younger than him, my childhood memories and up until college have been spent with Jason being a major influence on my life. Jason has a heart of gold and loves God with everything that he is. He is wicked smart and can make anything into a business venture and have it be successful. He is passionate about what he believes in and is willing to stand up for what is right. It is very evident that Jason loves his wife, his children and his family. I love hearing Jason preach and seeing him doing what he loves. He is a great dad who loves his little girl and little boy. Jason, we love you very much and are proud of who you are! Happy birthday:-)







Kaley sure loves her aunt and uncle!

Day #10 Bon Voyage!

Friday was Jason's birthday and unfortunately our day to leave home. Mark took Jason out to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and had a great time chatting it up with whatever pastors talk about:-) I finally got everything packed and ready to go. Erica and I went to Sonic for their Happy Hour drinks and I got my most favourite drink - the Cherry Limeade. As soon as we got back, it was time to go to the airport. We had a fantastic vacation together and a great time was had by all. A huge thanks to Jason, Erica, Olivia and Easton for being such great hosts. We really appreciate and are thankful for all of the work that you put into this past week to make our vacation a great one! It was great being with you all.

My mom sent out an email on Thanksgiving that sums up our time together perfectly:

"Good morning everyone and Happy Thanksgiving. We hope you all have a good day with family & friends. We are down with our family at Jason & Erica's and having a great time with the grandbabies. We realize how old we are when we try to keep up with them. Olivia & Kaley are getting along real good, but they have their times.

We have been busy. One day Joel & I took the girls to an inside play area for a couple of hours, then took them to lunch. We had a family picture taken, did fondue one night and went to an Italian buffet last night. We toured the Nazarene headquarters, went to checkout the college where the kids attended, Joel, Mark & Brenda went to a bar-b-cue for lunch, Brenda, Erica & I went out for lunch, the guys went out for lunch, we opened Christmas presents and had Thanksgiving dinner today. Jason is in the kitchen making pumpkin pies right now. He offered a free pie on his Facebook for the person that sent him the funniest joke. He makes the pies from fresh pumpkin, not from the can. They are so good.

The girls seem to think that my cosmetic case is a treasure case. Everyday they have to inspect and try the different items. Sometimes they end up looking like a clown, oh well, I can always buy new items.

Mark, Brenda & Kaley fly out tomorrow for home. It will seem very quite around here.

We are thankful to God for his faithfulness to us even when we are not faithful to Him, for our families and friends. Have a good day and don't eat too much.

Love Joel & Grace"

Day #9 - Thanksgiving

On Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving! Jason, Erica and mom worked hard to prepare a wonderful and delicious turkey feast for us. Kaley decided to sleep through it so she had her own special feast when she got up.

We have many things to be thankful for, but one of the things I am most thankful for is my family. It fills my heart with much joy to be able to visit with each other, to have a family who loves each other and looks forward to being together, for Kaley to get to know her uncle, aunt and cousins, and to be able to be together during the holidays. We are so blessed!!!

Jason making his famous homemade pumpkin pie! Yummy:-)

The Clean Up Crew!

Kaley playing Guitar Hero with Jason on her 'tar'


Kaley and Jason focusing hard on their notes!

Day #8 - Matters Family Christmas!!!!

On Wednesday, we celebrated Christmas together. For lunch, Mark, dad, Kaley and I went to Mark's favourite restaurant in KC- Arthur Bryan's BBQ. We went to the original restaurant and were pleased to see that nothing has changed. The food was amazing and the company was great. This was Kaley's first authentic BBQ experience and all she ate was the pickles, go figure! We did say a bit of a prayer considering that the restaurant is in some of the worst neighborhoods in Kansas City.




While we were gone, Jason, Erica, Olivia and mom stayed home to put up the Christmas tree and decorate the house for Christmas. We came home to a beautiful lit tree and Christmas music playing in the background. It was simply perfect! After the girls woke up from their nap, we opened presents and joy was had by all. It was really fun watching Olivia and Kaley enjoying all of their presents and getting into the whole experience. Easton got his own personal Christmas when he woke up. Just by the look on his face you could tell that he thoroughly enjoyed his presents!!! We all ended up getting him a train of some sorts from toys to books, so hopefully he will grow up to like trains.





That evening dad and mom took us all out to celebrate Jason and Erica's birthdays. Erica's was on the 16th and Jason's is on the 27th. They picked Cinzetti's for dinner which was an Italian buffet and it was amazing. The food was delicious and the assortment left you wanting to try everything. It was the perfect place to go and I even found a new salad that I can't wait to make. Happy birthday Jason and Erica! We love you both very much and are glad that we were able to celebrate it with you in person:-)

Day #7 - Picture Day and a Family Tradition!!!

On Tuesday we all got dressed up and ready to get our pictures taken. The last time we had a family picture was the December before Kaley was born, so by now it is really out dated! What I think was the most impressive was getting 6 adults showered, dressed up, 2 children under 5 dressed up and looking pretty AND a 4 month old fed, dressed and ready to go all by 9:15 a.m.! As always, pictures with children are always an interesting experience. They did really good and we were able to get some good pictures of the whole family, the cousins, our family, Jason and Erica's family and a grandparents picture.

After that, the boys took the kids for lunch and then to home for nap time. Erica, mom and I stayed at the mall and went shopping and then mom treated us to lunch at Red Robins! We had a really nice afternoon with just the ladies which was relaxing and fun to just be able to chat together. Erica and I found some really cute tree skirts and stockings for Christmas and mom found some art supplies for the grandkids.

When the girls had woken up from their nap, Mark, Jason, dad and I took them to the community center for some swimming. If there is anything that the girls really love to do, it is anything involved with water. They had a great children's pool that we all enjoyed and even a sauna for Mark.

That night the kids went down to bed early and we did our New Years tradition which is to fondue!!! We haven't done it for awhile, so it was quite a treat to fondue with all of us there. As always, it was delicious! We had the tried and true chicken, pork, beef and potatoes and added zucchini and won tons to the experience. It was a fun filled day for all (okay maybe all minus the guys with the picture taking);-)

Day #6 A Whole Bunch of Fun

On Monday, Kaley and I went into Olathe where we met my good friend Desma from college and had a play date with her girls. The three of them played together while Desma and I had a chance to catch up on what has happened since college. Who would have thought that over 7 years ago we would be moms of wonderful kids and wives to great husbands! We had a great time sharing our parenting stories and where we've been, what we've been doing and how much we love what we are doing. It seemed as if these last couple of years just melted away!

Then in the afternoon the whole family went to the new Nazarene Headquarters and luckily were able to have a tour of the facility before they closed. I had never seen it before, so it was neat to see the whole operation all in one place. It was a beautiful building!

For dinner, Mark and Kaley and I went to have dinner with the Waddle family. Curt was and is a very special friend to Mark. He was influencial to Mark and an important time in his life and has remained very close to him. We hadn't seen Curt's children for a LONG time, so it so neat to see them all grown up. We had a great time sharing stories, laughing together and again catching up on these last few years.

All in all, it was a great time spent with those that mean the most to us. God is so good to us! To think of all of the family and friends that he has blessed us with makes us feel extremely thankful and blessed beyond measure.

Kaley and I in our new Pioneers clothes from MNU

Kaley sporting her new shirt

Mark and Kaley at the Nazarene Headquarters by a picture of George Coulter.
He is Mark's great uncle who was a General Superintendent in the Nazarene Church.

Dad and mom in front of the huge globe. We all got our picture taken here which also is their visitor archive. We will forever be remembered as having been there:-)


Dinner with the Waddle Family