December so far...

We all liked Santa this year! This might be the first year that's happened... HE also liked US so much that he sent us an Elf on the Shelf the next day!



Brandon and I went on a fun date for our 11th anniversary. We had a discount at the Tree Room so went up to Sundance and had a great meal out and then walked around Riverwoods which looked so beautiful all lit up! I'm so happy I married my best friend 11 years ago. Time flies! With the way marriages go these days I'm so lucky and blessed that we are still happier than ever!

The kids have been participated in an anti bullying program at school called Verbal Judo. At the graduation the kids got to break a board with their bare hands! Amazing, I know! Brynley didn't want to do it, but Caleb sure did!

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We went up to Jeremy and Angie's house and Jordan and Brandon's parents came into town. Angie always does such fun things. The kids had a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving feast while we were waiting for everyone to get there and for dinner to be ready. After dinner we went on a little walk and she had scavenger hunt sheets where the kids had to look for things on the walk and check things off that they found. It was so cute!

The food was amazing and the company was fantastic! Thanks for a great holiday Mathews' family!





The day after Thanksgiving we went to the Spanish Fork Light Parade this year. It was really cute! It was very small town but it was a fun way to kick off the Christmas season.

Halloween 2011

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Caleb dressed up like Harry Potter. Brynley was a witch. And Aubrey was Minnie Mouse. Brynley wore a witch costume that I wore when I was younger but we jazzed it up with a sash and some tights. We had a Trunk or Treat, a ward party and went trick or treating around the neighborhood.

Las Vegas Ragnar

A few weeks ago I ran the Las Vegas Ragnar. For those of you who know me you know how much I love my sleep and don’t really enjoy running. A Ragnar relay was close to the top of my list of things I don’t really care to ever do. But a friend from high school messaged me a couple weeks before asking if I wanted to join the team because they needed a couple spots filled. Saundra and I ended up working out our schedules so we could go down for the weekend. We ended up having a great time!
I was in van 2 and runner 11. I was in a van with Saundra (my bff), Kent (my good friend from high school) and Nellie (his wife) so it was a lot of fun to chat with them and the new friends I met.

Since we were in van 2 we didn’t run at first. The runners from van 1 took their turns running through the Vegas heat from about 10am to about 3pm. We leap frogged with van 1 and cheered on our runner, gave them water and whatever else they needed. At each exchange one runner passed the “baton” which was a slap bracelet to the next runner and off they went.
Our van started in the late afternoon on Friday. Our first couple runners had the worst of the heat. By the time it was my turn it was close to sunset. My first leg of the run was about 3.7 miles. It was at sunset and by the end of my run it was dark. The run was on a paved path through the hills. It was really pretty and really uphill most of the time. I was feeling good though and pushed it up the hills.

Our van finished around 9 pm or so and we were starving so we passed off to the other van and went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. It was nice to eat a good meal and just relax and sit there and talk to other adults without being interrupted. 
Sooner than we expected (around midnight?) we got the call that we needed to go meet van 1 at the next van exchange. We finished dinner, changed our clothes and headed off to meet them. Our 2nd leg of the race was in the middle of the night. I tried to sleep while our other runners ran but I couldn’t. It was cold and I was tired so I told my teammates I might be a little slow for this leg. This leg was 3.9 miles for me. I started running around 2:30am. I felt GREAT! The weather was cold at first but it felt good for running and my leg was slightly downhill. It felt awesome. It was a little scary at times when there was no one in front of me or behind me and no vans driving by and it was pitch black out but those times didn’t last long. I finished about 5 minutes earlier than I thought so Nellie wasn’t quite ready for me. But the other team mates saw me and Nellie ran over to me, I slapped the bracelet on her and off she went! It was almost time for us to go sleep!
When she finished her leg it was about 3:30am and we headed to Kent’s sister’s house to sleep for a few hours. We woke up somewhat refreshed after 3 hours of sleep and left to go do our last leg of the relay! This was the longest part for our van with our legs totaling 39 miles.
We started about 9 am, I think. There were some crazy hard runs during this one. One runner in our van had a ten miler, mostly up a steep hill in the Vegas heat. I was second to last in our van and even though it was super hot, my leg was mostly down hill so I felt great running it. It was such a great feeling to finish my last leg. I handed off to Nellie, we cheered her on and then headed to the finish line where we would cross together as a team. Even though my legs were short (all around 4 miles) I had such a feeling of accomplishment. I did surprisingly well on the lack of sleep. The energy was great and it was fun to see all the vans and runners and everything. I am so glad I did it, even though it was on my “hope I never do in my life” list. That’s the opposite of a bucket list… I hope to do another one someday!

Fall Happenings

We have done a few fun things this fall. We went on a "Halloween Cruise" on Provo river. This was kind of silly but the kids loved it. We rode a big raft like boat on the river and the guide told a scary story and we saw a lot of jack o laterns. We even almost got taken over by pirates!



We got our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch and there was a petting zoo with the biggest pig I've ever seen. There is also a big pit with dried corn to play in. It was fun and surprisingly clean and cool feeling.








Brynley got her ears pierced:

My new favorite seasoning - Giveaway!!

My sister is doing a giveaway for my new favorite seasoning! Go to the link below to see the details! It's super yummy!!!

GIVEAWAY LINK!!!

Caleb's Baptism Day

Caleb's baptism was probably one of the most special days of my entire life. Seeing Brandon and Caleb together in the font was something I want to memorize and keep in my heart forever. My heart was so full of love for both of them it could have exploded. I don't really know how to explain my feelings. If you are a mom who has had a child baptized, you probably know what I mean.

This wonderful day started bright and early with everyone arriving at our house at 9am for the 9:30 baptism. Everyone (except Roger-we missed you Rog!) from both sides of the family was there! This hasn't happened since Aubrey's blessing day almost three years ago.



The baptism was wonderful. Kelly sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus", both grandma's gave talks and the Mathews' cousins sang "I like to look for rainbows" for the closing song. The spirit was so strong through the baptism and confirmation. It was amazing.

Afterwards, we all went to the park and had a brunch.


Afterwards the Mathews' side stuck around and we took our raft out on Salem Pond.

Honestly, is this not the most beautiful thing you've seen in a long time?

It was so relaxing there with the mountains, the crystal pond, the shade, the park, it was wonderful after an emotional morning.

Of course it was followed by Cafe Rio and BYU football in the early evening.

Caleb got new scriptures, a case and a journal from his grandparents. He is so excited about his scriptures and we "scripture chased" for about the next 24 hours. He's gotten pretty good and finding the references!

Caleb is such a wonderful boy. I hope his excitement for the gospel and the scriptures only grows as he gets older. We love you Caleb!

First day of school!

This summer FLEW by! We were so busy and out of town quite a bit that the first day really snuck up on me. But here they are. As cute and excited as ever! Brynley is in 1st grade this year and Caleb's in 3rd grade. Yep. Two in all day school. Whatever will I do with myself?!

Caleb's Harry Potter Party

Last Saturday Caleb had a Harry Potter birthday Party. I had so much fun planning it!

When the boys got there they sat under the Sorting Hat and I choose a house badge out from a big bowl at random. They were assigned to houses and then got their wands which were bamboo sticks from my in law's house in Seattle. They were perfect wands!

We first had a divination class where I typed up Harry Potter style fortunes and put them in balloons. They had to pop the balloons by sitting on them and then read everyone their fortune. They all laughed at the silly fortunes.

Next was a Transfiguration class which was a magic show by my nephew Collin. He did a great job and the boys thought it was so cool!

Potions class was next. We started with "leech juice" (green kool aid) and they could choose from scorpion stingers (sprinkles), hippogriff eggs (big black jelly beans), dried skin flakes (oats), unicorn droppings (marshmallows), and many other yucky things to add to their potion. The final step was adding a fizzinator tablet (Airborne tablet). They watched their concoction fizz and I dared them to drink it! Most of them took a few sips and didn't want to finish it. But a few brave souls drank the whole potion!

We ate pizza and cake at the 3 Broomsticks and then the owls came and brought presents. We had Quidditch practice (freeze tag on brooms) until parents came. As each boy left he got a goody bag from Honeydukes Sweet Shoppe.

We had so much fun at our party and Caleb was on a high all day long!

I can't believe Caleb is turning 8 and will be baptized in a few short weeks. It doesn't seem that long ago that he was born. Caleb is such a responsible boy. He is a lot of fun to be with and is getting really funny. He loves reading and read the first Harry Potter book this summer and is working on Book 2. He is a great swimmer and has a collection of ribbons from swim team meets this summer. Caleb is very friendly and has a lot of friends. Kids seem to like him and so do we. :)

Happy birthday Caleb!

Brynley's water party

For Brynley's 6th birthday she wanted a water party. I was happy to throw it because water parties are the easiest birthday parties in the world! We played some water games in the back yard, had cupcakes, a pinata, opened presents, ran in the sprinklers and before I knew it, it was over!




Brynley is turning 6 and starting first grade this year! I can't believe it. She has turned into such a nice little girl. She used to be a little mean. :) She loves playing with Aubrey and Aubrey loves her too. She loves playing "mom and dad", playing with the chickens, going swimming and watching Harry Potter. She loves rainbows and LOVED that she got to ride a horse on her birthday! She is really nice and fun if she's in a good mood. But if she's not in a good mood... Watch out!

We love you Brynley! Happy Birthday!

To Grandmother's House We Go!

We had the most eventful trip Seattle this year!

It started on a Saturday morning when we drove up to Jeremy and Angie's for Abby's baptism. Caleb and Abby are really close in age so it was fun to watch her get baptized.

We stayed at their house that night and then left for Washington on Sunday morning. Sunday we drove part way and stayed in a hotel and then drove to Ensign Ranch on Monday morning.

We stayed in a Cabin at Ensign Ranch Monday night. They have so much to do there! The kids played for hours on the big slip n slide. Then we had a cook out and went on a hay ride, just our family! It was fun to take a hay ride when you weren't snuggled up against a bunch of strangers!



After a whole bunch of smore's we retired for the night in the cabin. The cabin was great! It was basically just a place to sleep since it didn't have bathrooms or anything so it was pretty much like camping. That's my favorite type of camping. :-) And the kids went to the bathroom about every 10 minutes because they thought the (clean) outhouses were so cool.

The next morning we took the kids on parent-led horse back rides. This was Brynley's birthday and she thought it was so awesome to go horse back riding on her birthday!


We also went canoeing that morning and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house near Seattle.

On Wednesday we took a (very expensive) ferry ride over to a Children's Museum. They have totally hiked up those ferry prices in the last few years, holy moly! The kids liked the museum and they had something for all of my kids to enjoy.

On Thursday we went to the Museum of Flight. This was awesome! We got to walk through a Concord and Air Force One from when Kennedy was President. They also had areas of the museum that showed things from WWI and WWII. It was cool.


Friday we took the raft to a lake and relaxed with it. It was so fun. We love the raft. Mary and Stan actually gave it to us and we are excited to use it here in Utah. Caleb jumped into the lake and swam around for a long time. Brynley wanted to go in to so I said, "Sure, hop in" and she slid right in like a wet fish. It was cute. She only stayed in for about 30 seconds before she was done though.


That night we went to Red Robin to celebrate Caleb and Brynley's birthday. When the waiters brought out ice cream for B and C's birthday Aubrey stands up and yells, "I want one! I want one!" Poor girl!

Saturday we packed up all day and then headed to the zoo for a couple hours before going to a Tacoma Ranier's game (minor league). The kids had a lot of fun and Caleb got way into the game. I would ask him questions and he'd "shh" me saying "I'm watching the game!"


We left after the game and drove part way home and the rest of the way Sunday. We had such a great trip! Thank you Stan and Mary for taking us to do all those fun things! Lots of memories were made!