Matthew's New Thing

Matthew is certainly a character, and I think he has the makings of the class clown. He loves to make his brothers and sister laugh. His newest thing is to go cross-eyed. He does it at the dinner table all the time and the other kids just can't keep from laughing. It gives me the willies, so I'm trying to get them to stop laughing at him, but they just can't. So, I decided to capture it (and encourage him some more, I'm sure) for all of you to see. The funniest part is that the other kids can't really do it.

And, I asked my friend, the nurse, if the burst blood vessels could come from crossing his eyes, and she said, "no". Unrelated, I guess.

Rachel's Acting Debut

Rachel LOVES acting. She always talks about wanting to go to Hollywood, and she is always putting together little plays with her friends or brothers. So, I signed her up for a 6-week course at a local place. They learned acting techniques and studied their parts to put together a play at the end for all the parents. The play was an interesting version of Rumplestilskin, written by her teacher. It was a little above their level because it was full of subtleties that the kids didn't really get, but they did a great job. Rachel played Lauria, the girl that has to turn the straw into gold. I think she loved this part because this was the beautiful girl that got to be queen - right up her alley!

Here are two snippets of the play. Rachel and the boy that played the king were by far the most animated and loud. You can't really hear and understand Rumplestilskin in the first video, but Rachel shows off her dramatic acting. She even handled it pretty well when he missed his cue to come in, although I think she is supposed to be crying. I was impressed with her. She gets kind of shy and embarrassed sometimes, so I was glad to see her come to life on stage.

Flag picture

Alice asked for a flag picture.


Here's the finished flag. Not my favorite, but...

I will definitely take into consideration the meaning of a name if we have another child. Making these flags is quite a challenge.

Snowtubing

Grammy came up to visit for the weekend since Papa was playing golf all weekend. We decided to take advantage of the kids' half day off and go snow tubing. It was very cold, but there was no one there at the slopes. It was a lot of fun! Grammy was apparently very nervous the first time, but she was quickly pointing out the awesomeness of the fast runs. Last year, Alex was a little scared on the tubes, but this year, he just took off. Even Matthew wanted to go down by himself. Here we have Zack and Matthew going down by themselves in a race.

Dave gets a rare turn by himself.

Grammy was very bundled up. It was quite cold!

Zack had a ball. He had a little trouble on the moving walkway that gets you back up the slope. He can't really stand still for that long, so he kept falling off or dropping his tube. That definitely provided a challenge for us to balance the tubes, Matthew and catch Zack or his tube as we headed up.

Mommy and Alex enjoying a fast run! As the day wore on and the shadows covered the slopes, the runs got a little icy. We were all running into the barriers at the end. It was fun!


Rachel and Matthew early on enjoying the double tubes. We ended up trading these in for all singles because the doubles were harder to manipulate up the mountain.

Afterwards, we headed to IHOP for a yummy birthday dinner!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Matthew!

Little Matthew turned 3 on Friday. I just can't believe my baby is 3. I've never had a 3 year old without another baby as well, so he is pretty lucky to have a little more of my attention at this age.

I made Matthew's flag for his birthday. Matthew means "gift from God." I wasn't sure how to make that into a flag, so I had to get creative. The apostle Matthew has an angel as one of his symbols, and Paul (his middle name) has a sword as a symbol because he was beheaded. So, the flag has a sword with angel wings. I wasn't sure about this combination, but Dave commented that it was perfect for Matthew because he does have his sweet, wonderful side and then his little devil side.

Matthew has been a wonderful addition to our family. He fits in perfectly. He loves sports and may one day show up his brothers on the soccer field. He's never seen himself as the baby. He thinks that he should be able to do everything that his brothers and sister do - play board games, do puzzles, play football outside or play video games.

We love you, sweet Matthew!

WAHOOWA!!

We took the kids to another UVA women's basketball team this weekend, and this time I remembered my camera. Matthew being very silly

We really love sporting events. My kids like to fight and wrestle all the time. They've even gotten Rachel involved. Inevitably, though, this ends in at least one kid crying. It's beginning to get really old, so I've contemplated eliminating that kind of play. Problem is...all they like to do right now is play on the computer or wii, play football outside (which often results in crying as well) and wrestle. And, they will all go upstairs in the boys room and play together - until someone gets hurt. But, those precious moments could be just what I need to get dinner done or finish our workout.

So, where I was going was this - sports is a good activity that interests everyone (even Rachel, although to a much lesser degree) and results in fewer injuries. It was an absolutely wonderful and peaceful 2 hours where we were all happy and just enjoying being together. I wish we could go everyday.

Is this what I sound like?

Matthew LOVES the book "No, David!". It's appropriate because that's pretty much what our day is like as well because he gets into everything. I feel like I say, "No" to him all day long. He cracks me up when he reads it, though, because he puts so much intensity into it. It does make me wonder if I sound like this to him all day...

Mt. Vernon Trip

Rachel's Brownie Troop headed to Mount Vernon on Saturday. After a VERY cold week, we were blessed with beautiful weather since we needed to be outside for much of the day. It was a pretty good day. The girls had a lot of fun touring the mansion, walking the grounds, and learning about George Washington in the Education Center. I'm posting the pictures here for the Brownie Troop parents.

In front of the mansion

The girls placed a wreath that they had made on George Washington's tomb.

Eirian and Capria were chosen to place the wreath.