At the Carousel

For the Matthews family Christmas, we like to do a two-day celebration. It has become a tradition that we always take the kids to the carousel, so this year, we kicked things off there. The kids love going, and it’s fun for us adults, too. It’s amazing how many times the Matthews boys end up running into old friends there. This year, it was the Heder family. The guys all had a good time catching up and introducing their children.

I always try to get pictures of the kids, but I have to say the photos turned out the best this year. (Not perfect, but better than any other time.) I’ll start with the cousins. One family didn’t make it [insert guilt trip], so we’re missing two of the grandkids in the pictures.

Carter

Adelynn

Isaac

Daniel

Caleb (As far as I can tell, that’s how he smiles.)

Gabriel

Then there’s Eleanor. She was having an off year as far as riding the horses. As soon as Grandma put her on a big horse, she changed her mind. I don’t think she was feeling too well because of late nights and her cold, but she seemed to enjoy herself. She was excited to ride again even if she just sat on the wagon each time.

Phaedra was a similar story. I took her the first time, and she made it through most of the ride before she started reaching for me. I took her off, and we finished the ride on the wagon with Eleanor. Then, Daddy took Phaedra for a ride, and this is what happened:

They started out together before the ride began. She seemed content enough.

Then, Daddy got scolded for trying to ride with two (Seriously? With such a little pipsqueak? The rules need to change!). Phaedra’s bottom lip started to quiver the second she couldn’t feel his legs behind her, and her eyes welled up with tears. Daddy managed to calm her down before she started wailing. See how forlorn she looks in the picture? The ride began.

It didn’t take long at all before she was reaching for Daddy. Daddy tried to hold out and tell her she was okay.

But that didn’t last.

And she went to sit by her sister. Look at that face! She almost looks ashamed of herself. (Oh, and sorry about the tail in your face, Daddy.)

Afterwards, we went outside to pose (in front of my new tripod!) for a family photo (minus one family [another guilt trip]).

See what I mean about Caleb’s smile? (snicker, snicker)

My new lens that is so great at capturing light captured a little too much light on this one, and I’m not so savvy as to know how I should have adjusted the aperture. Oh well, I’m a beginner. Besides, we had to rush to get what we could before we lost the kids’ attention span.

More to come!

First Snowfall

We had our first snow (and maybe last, you never know in Oregon) today. Eleanor has been telling us all winter that she wants it to snow. She was so excited. We enjoyed watching the big, fluffy flakes fall out our windows most of the afternoon before Eleanor started begging to go out and play in it. I was hesitant to let her since we are all still battling colds, but I couldn’t stand to make her miss it. You never know if it will snow again around here. So, I had to scurry around the house and search the car for all our warm gear as fast as I could since it was about 4:30 and getting dark outside –humph! I can’t wait for our days to get a little longer.

I couldn’t find one of Phae’s boots, so I put some of Eleanor’s old galoshes on her. She usually wears a size 3, and they are size 5. Plus, I could only find one of her mittens, so I put one of Eleanor’s on her even though it was too big. It kept falling off, and she could hardly walk without falling down or losing a boot. The difficulty walking might also have been because of the fleece pants I put on her over her pair of jeans. But at least she stayed dry and warm for the most part. At first, she was excited to explore the snow, no doubt soaking up some of Eleanor’s exuberance. After a short time, she decided she didn’t really like how difficult it was to play with the yard toys in her mittens, so she took off the one. But then, she got mad when she touched things and found that they were ice cold.

Eleanor loved every moment. Doesn’t she look like a cute little Eskimo? She went out while I was still bundling Phaedra, and she was shouting to me, “Look Mommy! I’m making footprints!” She scooped snow off her turtle sandbox and put it into her bucket. Then I helped her dump her bucket into a basket so she could fill her bucket again. She would have stayed out there playing all night if I had let her! I eventually made her come in because it was not only dark, it was raining on us just a little bit.

I got a new camera lens for my birthday, and it is so good at capturing light (sometimes too good –I’m still learning to manage all that stuff. I can’t wait to learn more during the photography class I’m going to take this term!). I couldn’t believe how light these pictures turned out even though it was so dark outside. No flash needed! Hooray for my cool new lens!

Eleanor

 

 

We’ve been sick around here. The girls caught it about a week ago, and I caught it during the weekend. I decided we would do indoor pictures this time, even if I didn’t do it during the right time of day, and the lighting is terrible, and she looks yellow. At least I’m getting it done, right?

Eleanor gave the scripture in primary this month. She loves to talk into the microphone. She didn’t have it completely memorized, mostly because it has been so busy that we’ve forgotten to practice it with her. She said Job 19:25, but she changed it a bit. She said, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand by the ladder day upon the earth.” Pretty cute.

Eleanor was actually excited about Santa this year. She was rather scared of him when she was younger. Last year, we didn’t even try to have her sit on Santa’s lap. My mom took her to have her picture taken with Santa and her dog at a feed store at the beginning of the month. She didn’t want to sit on his lap, but she was fine talking to him. Then, she sat on Santa’s lap at our ward Christmas party. A few nights later, she told me she couldn’t sleep because she was listening for Santa’s reindeer. I had to explain to her that he only came Christmas Eve, and she had to be asleep. We didn’t have any trouble getting her to sleep Christmas Eve, but she was pretty worn out from an exciting day.

I learned the story of why she asked Santa for a rake for Christmas. Apparently, while they were at the feed store, my mom asked her what she was going to ask Santa to bring her for Christmas. She didn’t know what to ask him for, so they walked around the store a while for her to think about it. As they were walking around the store, Eleanor saw a rake she liked and decided to ask Santa for that rake. When Eleanor got done with Santa, Grandma asked her if she had fun. Eleanor said, “Yeah, but he didn’t give me my rake.” Ha ha! She didn’t realize it wasn’t going to be instant gratification. I had already purchased a rake when my mom told me the story and luckily, she had gone back and bought that specific rake for her. I had no idea she had a specific one in mind, so it was good that my mom covered for me.

I checked out a bunch of Christmas books from the library this month to help Eleanor get into the season. Some of them were duds, but the others were fun to read together.

She really enjoyed Christmas this year. She spent less time playing with new gifts because she was eager to open the next one and the next one. Plus, Phaedra was at a great age for Eleanor to take advantage of her new toys, too.

Eleanor’s favorite foods this month (besides candy canes and candy) have been ramen noodles (“noodle soup”) and fresh mandarin oranges (“little minis”).

One of Eleanor’s little quirks is that she rarely lets me put her top sheet on her when I tuck her into bed. I don’t know why I even put it on when I make her bed. I just end up shoving it down under the covers and putting the blankets over her.

Eleanor discovered Fraggle Rock on Netflix streaming this month. I used to watch it when I was a kid, and I was excited to share it with her. She likes pretending to be fraggles now. Probably her favorite show this month was when we rented Shaun the Sheep: Off the Baa. She also liked the Charlie Brown Christmas (but I’m not sure I like some of the “stupid” vocabulary it taught her) and Disney’s Prep and Landing.

She is such a good big sister, sharing well with Phaedra most of the time. She also lets us know when Phaedra is getting into trouble, and often volunteers, “I’ll get her!” She just loves to pick Phaedra up and move her around. I think it makes her feel big. Phaedra usually tolerates it pretty happily unless she’s really intent on something and Eleanor gets in the way.

Merry Matthews’ Christmas

We’ve been enjoying our Christmas celebration with the Matthews family yesterday and today, and we actually got a family photo with everyone!

Christmas at our House

This year was Christmas with my mother and family. We invited everyone over to our house for dinner Christmas Eve, and Grant made prime rib for the first time. It was delicious. After that, Grant built a fire in the living room, and we sang Christmas songs and read the Christmas story from the scriptures before playing our traditional present game.

My mother explaining the rules to Eleanor. I love the anticipation on Eleanor’s face.

Here’s our  group. Uncle Father Bill is in the corner, my mother, the girls, Mike, and Grandpa Gary (Grant is sitting by the fire).

We had a good time. Eleanor didn’t even mind the “stealing” part of the present game. She did end up trading Grandpa once the presents were opened. She thought his fishing game (the one from the dollar store that we intended for her in the first place) looked better than her lilac scented body soap.

We spent Christmas morning at home. I woke up at 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep, but we didn’t wake the girls up early this year since they were both sick. I eventually was able to doze off again around 6 or 7, and the girls woke up between 7:30 and 8.  Grant had us wait in our bedroom until he could get a fire going and breakfast started. Eleanor was about to come unglued, but we read Christmas books and watched Charlie Brown Christmas on the laptop. We let the girls open their stockings and Santa presents before we had breakfast. Eleanor got her rake from Santa, and Phaedra got a shopping cart.

All Phaedra really cared about were the treats in her stocking. You can see how sore her nose was from having been wiped so many times. The skin actually cracked in one place. Poor girl.

We called Laughing Grandma as soon as the girls got up, and she came over to watch the girls open presents. This is the first year we’ve done this, and it was really special to me because we used to have my grandparents and my aunt come watch us on Christmas morning. I think it was probably nice for her, too, since she got to see how excited the kids were.

Phaedra has her cheeks stuffed with crackers from her stocking.

I love the excitement of Phaedra’s audience in this one. She was opening the pink stuffed dog Eleanor got her. It was a hit. Phaedra has always coveted Eleanor’s dog, Spot, and she loves this one.

Mommy and Daddy gave Eleanor her own digital camera, and it could have been a hit, but it turned out to be a miss. She was really excited, but when we opened it and she tried to use it, we found out that it was such poor quality it just wasn’t even worth it. We’re going to take it back. We let her choose if she wants a different camera, a Shaun the Sheep movie, or a different toy. She’ll probably end up with the movie. The camera was a disappointment.

We gave Phaedra twin babies, her first baby dolls of her very own. Upon seeing them, she hollered, “Babies! Babies!” and tried to yank them out of the box (which was, of course, impossible due to all the packaging these days).

She decided she needed to sit in the baby spot.

The next few pictures were taken on the same day, same lighting, same camera . . . new lens! I got a tripod for Christmas, and Grant had me open my birthday present before the official party –a new 35mm lens. It takes in so much light! I rarely have to use flash indoors anymore. Hooray!

Christmas evening, we went to my mother’s for dinner and some more presents. The girls got cute tutus.

Uncle Father Bill gave them these way cute stuffed animals. As soon as Phaedra opened her panda, she immediately gave it a kiss.

As soon as Eleanor opened her lion, she thrust it at us with a great big “Roar!” Needless to say, they were a hit.

Even more fun, the animals flatten out to serve as pillows. Eleanor slept on top of her lion in her bed last night.

And here is my very first use of my tripod for our group shot. Practice makes perfect, and as I said, this was my first. At least I will know what I looked like the day I turned 29.