The Matusek Family

Traditions of Christmas

On a bummer note, Brandon and Zachary and I came down with a cold bug right around Thanksgiving... preventing us from traveling to Idaho Falls on Black Friday for one of my favorite occasions, Gingerbread Decorating at Grandma Moore's

On a positive note, the 6 gingerbread houses that I had prepared for my favorite occasion did not go to waste. We headed to my mom's house, armed with loads of candy from the dollar store, to decorate said houses.

Kimball was so proud of his creation

Nice touch there Brandon with the tongue:)

On the Sunday after Christmas, we decided it would be a good time to pull our decorations out and set them up. Zach didn't like that idea though, so I wasn't enjoying the evening until he was happily fed and comfortably sleeping in his crib for the night. At that point everything was all set up, and we decided it was time to slow down and remember the real reason for Christmas. We turned all the lights off, turned the tree's Christmas lights on and sat down in front of our tree as we sang "Away in a Manger" with the kids and talked about why we celebrate Christmas. It was a beautiful family moment, and hopefully we can keep our focus off the glitter and tinsel of Christmas and center our thoughts and hearts on our Savior.

My favorite tree decorations are the ornaments that are centered in Christ. We have a nativity carved out of wood, a beautiful ornament, as well as an ornament with the new star and a scripture printed on it. Another ornament we have says "His Greatest Gift" and it has a painting of the Hand of God holding the Christ child. Perhaps my favorite of these is a mirror, which we place at the top, that is to remind us that we should be living in such a way as to have His image in our countenance.

With all the traditions that we have at Christmas time, with all the hustle and bustle, I hope that I can, with my husband, focus our family on our Savior and celebrating His birth, life, and atonement.

A very Matusek Thanksgiving

We spent our Thanksgiving very quietly and peacefully nestled at home. Mike's parents joined us for a full on Thanksgiving feast, prepared by yours truly. It was a lovely day, I don't think I would change a thing... Ok I would change one thing:) I wish my pumpkin cheesecake would have turned out, but I can't be blamed entirely because I was nursing Zachary and wasn't there to pull it out of the oven, and it was pulled out a tad too early. Hence we ended up with pumpkin cheesecake mush, instead of the masterpiece it should have been. Luckily the Sour Cream Apple Pie was delish!

Best part of the day?? Holding hands around the table (cheesy I know, but it added to the spirit of the occasion) and taking turns expressing our deepest gratitude for blessings received. I was deeply touched by my husband, who expressed gratitude for me in his life, as was I moved as well (to tears) by Marty's and Marge's expressions of gratitude. Marty spoke of gratitude for being a husband and father and Marge of gratitude for her role as a wife and mother. Especially poignant was listening to her talk about Alyssa, her daughter, who is currently serving a mission in St. George. I will never forget those precious moments.

This is just plain nasty, Mike actually tried the
heart of the turkey, DISGUSTING!

Marty made his famous Yers Egg Nog

While the turkey was cooking we waited patiently
for the feast to begin by playing games

Our masterpiece turkey... its a beauty!

While Mike, Marty and I were preparing the finishing
touches to our feast, Marge read the boys a few books

A table set for a feast, complete with the BEST
centerpieces ever:)

Playing the Wii together

The Great Brandino turns 3

The last three years with you have brought our family so much love and enjoyment, all because you were born. My how you have grown and developed into an energetic and fun loving boy. I miss my baby Brandon, but you are growing up and we are enjoying every moment with you. Keep that smile, it is infectious. Keep your imagination, it is priceless (and it makes every day oh so interesting). And keep giving your mommy and daddy lots of hugs and kisses. Love you little boy... I mean big boy!!

Spent Brandon's b-day afternoon
at Outer Limits Fun Zone playing

Grammy, Grampy, Mor-mor and Uncle Nate came over
and celebrated his 3rd Birthday. Brandon had a blast
opening presents... and Kimball evengot a little gift
so he could be a super-hero with Kimball

After opening presents it was time to eat a delicious
chocolate Transformers cake. The frosting was intensely
colored, leaving everyone's mouth grey or blue, depending
on which slice of cake you got

Zach Attack

Visiting Idaho Falls

I was so excited when Mike told me at the beginning of the semester that he was teaching a physics lab in Idaho Falls on Monday evenings from 7pm to 10pm. This is the reason for the excitement:

The kids and I hitched a ride to Idaho Falls with Mike twice this semester to visit my grandparents. The first time was at the end of September, or beginning of October and my cousins Sarah and Rebekah came to my Grandma's as well. We let all our kids play while we played a card game with my Grandma.

The second time that we went to I.F. was on November 7th. It was an enjoyable visit, despite a temper tantrum from Brandon and Zachy being kinda grumpy towards the end. I love visiting with my Grandparents, it is like my home away from home. I can always count on feeling loved and special when I go there. I have so many special memories there, and they all come flooding back when I pull up in their driveway and step through the door. I hope that I have many more special visits to 766 Melrose Drive...

The first snow (Nov 5th)

How do Zach and Mommy spend the first snow day? Warm and cozy inside....

How do Mike, Kimball, and Brandon spend the first snowfall of the season? Bundled up....

and sledding down the hill!

Halloween take 4... the finale

Mike really wants to spend a Halloween at our own house, and have trick or treaters come to our door, have spooky music playing, strobe lights going, the pumpkins lit, etc. However, we decided we'd much rather spend Halloween in Rexburg and let the boys spend time with their cousins.

We left on Sunday morning, Oct 30th, following the Primary program at church. On Saturday we had made sugar cookies to take to the Burg. If it is messy, the boys love it. Flour was everywhere, but it was worth it!

So cookies and costumes in tow we picked Mor-mor up and headed to Rexburg. We spent the night and on Monday Kimball and Elena went to Kelvin's school with Daymi and Mor-mor for a party (mor-mor was of course dressed in her clown get up and prepared with 30 balloon animals). I got to stay at their house and spend time with Zach, Brandon, and Abby.

Decorating the cookies was enjoyable for the kids.

Ready to go trick-or-treating and trunk-or-treating

Knocking on doors, ready for a treat

And I just had to share this pic, I love Zach's
smile as Mike plays with him!

So, farewell until next October Halloween!

Halloween take 3

Trunk-or treat anyone? Heck yes, get loads of candy without knocking on a million doors, count us in! Zach dressed up in the traditional pumpkin costume, worn by his brothers. I followed suit with a pumpkin costume of my mom's.

Brandon wanted to be a skeleton for the trunk-or-treat.
Him and makeup don't mix, or else he would have been
a pirate like Kimball

Mike as a mob boss

And last our Kimball pirate

Did you know that pumpkins can smile? At least
this cutie pie can

Mike worked really hard on our halloween decorations
out front, he even cut down a small dead tree that was
in the back yard for a spooky effect in his graveyard scene

Now for some reason the pictures that I took of our carved pumpkins is missing, very suspicious. Mike bought special tools for his pumpkin, so he could do a 3D effect, shaving away pumpkin skin. It was pretty awesome. As for me, there was no creativity involved. I had to carve my own and Zach's and help the boys with their pumpkins so we kept it simple... simple faces.

Halloween take 2

I was in charge of planning and hosting the Halloween party for Joy School, quite the task but it turned out so well. The kids had a blast! Their favorite part, ironically, was playing in the leaves which took the least amount of planning and preparation.

Meieli was there to help with the party,
and she brought an activity to share with the kids.

We made two big piles of leaves. When they came
inside afterwards, they had leaves everywhere
in their coats, costumes, and clothing:)

The whole Joy School crew. The two Thomas trains
are twin brothers and dressed the same and my boys
dressed in their old skeleton costumes.

My boys still talk about that party, so I'll call the party a success.

Halloween... take 1

Halloween came in four parts this year:
1. Grandma Moore's annual Halloween party
2. The Joy School Halloween Party at my house
3. Trunk-or-treat and pumpkin carving and decorating our humble abode
4. A celebration on Halloween in Rexburg with Corey's family

Starting with the Moore party... I can't comment much because I spent the majority of the time with a fussy Zachary in the other room (he had his 4 month shots earlier that morning and was not a happy camper). However, my mom took charge of my camera while I was otherwise occupied and caught some good shots of the fun activities that my Grandma had planned for everyone.

The whole crew of kiddos. The silly clown in the
middle is my mom... gotta love her! She was the only
adult who dressed up, and on top of that she even
made balloon animals for all the wee ones