Jordan and Erin's Wedding

We have been up in Washington celebrating Jordan and Erin's wedding. We had such a fantastic week!

We drove up to the Tri Cities in Eastern Washington on Monday for the sealing on Tuesday. Monday night we went to Red Robin with people who had come into town for the wedding. The wedding was on Tuesday in the Columbia River Temple. We remembered about an hour outside of WA that we had forgotten our temple recommends! Now they can just look up your records so it wasn't a big deal but we had a little scare for a few minutes!

The sealing was so nice and was done by Brandon's Uncle. Erin looked so beautiful and they were so happy and excited to be married!

After the sealing and pictures the Mathews' Aunts put on the most amazing luncheon ever! Those ladies are seriously amazing. Who am I kidding, that whole family is just incredible!

After the luncheon we drove over to Seattle to spend a few days at Brandon's parents house. We went to the mall (of course the one with the Nordstrom Rack in it) and let the kids plan and jump on the bungee thingy.

The next day we went to the Olympic Game Farm.  It was an amazing experience!  You drive through the farm and there are zebras, bears, llamas, tigers, buffalo, peacocks, llamas, wolves, prarie dogs and little furry bunny rabbits all just roaming at their leisure.  They come run to your car and you feed them through your window.  It is crazy!  The kids loved being able to feed these huge animals and being so close to them.  Ok, the kids actually freaked out at first but the experience of feeding them from their hands grew on them.  

We left Seattle on Friday and drove to Richland for Jordan and Erin's reception.  Is was such a cute reception with most adorable decor and style.  Loved it!  

We had a great trip to Washington and enjoyed seeing extended family that we never get to see in the Tri Cities and spending time with Brandon's family as well.

Easter 2012

Easter kind of snuck up on us this year because we've been so preoccupied with getting ready for Jordan's wedding that was the week after Easter. We still had a great time though. The kids all got lego sets in their baskets. We had a fun little scavenger hunt that led the kids to their baskets and an easter egg hunt in the back yard before getting ready for church.

After church we went to Deb and Wayne's for Easter dinner and another egg hunt for the kiddo's. Jessie and Cory were there with all their kids so my kids loved being able to run and play with a bunch of other kids.

We had such a fun Easter but had to hurry home to get ready to head to Washington for the wedding the next morning!

We really tried to remind the kids why we celebrate Easter. We tried to help them remember that it's not about the eggs or the legos. It's about Jesus, his life and the Resurrection. We want them to know that we will also be resurrected because He was and that we need to always be thankful for Him. We hope you all know that as well!

Aubrey's First Hair cut

All the kids got to go to Stacy to get their hair cut this week in preparation for Jordan's wedding next week. Aubrey's hair cut was her very first! She has gorgeous hair but some is straight and some is curly so Stacy kind of evened it out.

Brynley wanted to keep her hair the "same size" so she just reshaped it for her.

Caleb is going for the long hair look so she thinned it out a bit (he has a TON of hair!) so it wouldn't get too poofy as it grew.

My kids are so cute, don'tcha think?!

Pine Wood Derby

Caleb had his first pine wood derby this year. Or should I say, Brandon had his first PWD as a dad this year? He was stressed beyond belief over that little car! It ended up all working out and Caleb and Brandon made a fantastic car that looked so cool! After MUCH deliberation he went with the "Batmobile" theme. He won the "Judge's Choice Award" (this pleased Brandon very much to have the approval of his peers ;-) ) and he also won 5th place! Both boys had a great experience and so much fun!

Change your little girl's earrings, for crying out loud.

The most horrible thing just happened. I'm still shaking. Brynley got these cute minnie mouse earrings from disneyland. She's been wearing them for about a week and a half but we've made sure to twist them every day to make sure her ears don't scab around the posts. Tonight she wanted to change them. One of them was kind of stuck. This has happened once before where it bled a little and scabbed around the post but I just soaked it and it came out with a little pulling. Well tonight we could NOT get this earring out. She got the back off but the earring was STUCK in her ear. I was soaking it and twisting it. It was weird because it twisted around very easily but it wouldn't come OUT. She was screaming in pain so I went to get some ice to numb it a little bit. Brandon ended up getting it out while I was in the kitchen. She was just balling.

We didn't really want the ear to close up so we got out her really good earrings that were used to pierce her ears. I was trying to put it in and it wasn't going in. I was so confused. I looked at the back of her ear to see if it was coming through on the other side and I saw a little metal. I pushed it in thinking it was coming through and it wouldn't come. The BACK of her minnie mouse earring was stuck IN her ear!! I thought she had taken the back off because I didn't see it when I was taking off her earring. The WHOLE back was IN her ear. I almost threw up. I had to walk out of the bathroom and tell Brandon and my mom (who had just finished babysitting). I couldn't look at it. (It was the kind of back that is kind of cone shaped not wide with holes and shaped like a pretzel.) I was sick.

We didn't know what to do. Should we take her to a doctor? We got some numbing neosporin and the ice and numbed it for a while. I have some really sharp tweezers and Brandon kind of pushed on it until the back poked out through the hole. He used the tweezers to pull. He got it about half way out but couldn't get the big end out. She was just screaming in pain. It was bleeding. I was holding her and sobbing because, really this is my fault since I didn't have her change her earrings sooner. Meanwhile Caleb is downstairs with Grandma just praying their little hearts out. We held ice on it and tried to decide if we should take her in somewhere and where and when etc. He thought he'd try one more time because Brynley didn't want to go to the Dr and get a shot. He pulled and was able to get it out. She was still screaming. I was still sobbing. It was still bleeding. We put the ice back on there and just held it there for a while.

She ended up calming down (as did I) and we got the bleeding stopped. We cleaned it all out. We asked her if she wanted to let the holes close up and heel or if she wanted to put back in her original earrings for a while and we'd really watch it to make sure it didn't get infected. She wanted to put the piercing earrings back in. So we did and it didn't hurt her at all. Probably because her hole was so stretched out. No skin tore or anything and it actually looked pretty ok just a little swollen afterwards.

Anyway, that's my story. I'm still shaking. So, lesson. Change the earrings. Don't rely on just twisting them and assume everything is ok. And if you get cheap-o earrings change them even more often. (Deep breathes...)

Top ten (or more) reasons why I loved our Disneyland trip and one reason (or a few) why I didn't (plus pics)

1. The excitement before going into the park is so... exciting!

2. Who doesn't want to eat as much sugary goodness for breakfast made by Goofy himself?




3. There are movie stars around every corner!








4. Minnie gives really long hugs.

5. Going on The Little Mermaid Ride and The Monsters Inc ride with Aubrey 8 times each is my idea of a really good time.
6. Absolutely nothing beats watching your kids watch a Disney Parade.
7. Splash Mountain on a warm sunny day is the epitome of happiness.
8. Aubrey did get used to the rides and was a good sport after the first day (this is her being a good sport)

9. Because of Brynley's tall snow boots she was able to ride and LOVED Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones and tried Screamin' but didn't love it. I loved watching her and Caleb so excited about the rides.
10. Because I can do pull ups anywhere! And Disneyland is the BEST place to do them!

11. It was hilarious sneaking Aubrey onto "Soarin over CA" by stuffing borrowed cowboy boots with socks and wash cloths to make her 3 inches taller. She could barely walk and loved that she was playing a "trick".
12. Loved seeing old friends Kent and Nellie Sommer and baby Win and talking with Win on the car ride home.






DID NOT LOVE:
1. The torrential rain on the first day that left all of us soaked and Aubrey quite unhappy.


2. Caleb's barfing all night long the first night.
3. That my phone didn't automatically update to CA time so I was up and ready to go the first morning at 5:45am. After being up with a barfing Caleb.

All things considered, it was a fabulous trip and I'd go back tomorrow if I could.