Santa

We went to our ward Christmas party and saw Santa. Katie Belle was sooo excited she didn't even know what to do with herself. She was shrieking and jumping up and down and then when she got to him she just froze (and stood there in awe) so we had to get in line again to sit on his lap! Maia was the one who I had to drag to Santa. She still has nothing to do with strangers and that includes Santa! Anyway, they're all really excited for Christmas and who can blame them? They've been good this year so there's plenty to be excited about! Merry Christmas everyone!!! Hope you've all been good, too! =)

Maia's Birthday

Maia is 4 years old! It's hard to believe she's getting so big.

You're so pretty, Maia. We love you. Happy Birthday!

A Cutie!

Sadie got her haircut on Saturday and since the haridresser didn't have time to do it, I curled it when we got home. She looks sooo cute! It's kind of scary to watch your daughter grow up into a beauty!

Getting Metal Teeth

Katie Belle has been terrible about letting the dentist fix her teeth so she had to go in and get knocked out to have her teeth done. She'd actually been looking forward to going to the hospital. So here is a before shot of her:

And here she is waking up. She has crowns on her bottom molars so when she woke up the nurse gave her a mirror and showed her her new metal teeth and she's very proud of them!

Decorating for Christmas

Katie Belle wanted to decorate for Christmas the day after Halloween. Luckily, I held her off until the day after Thanksgiving, and, no, it wasn't easy. But, as promised, we took out the little Christmas tree and started decorating. The kids put all the ornaments on. It certainly has character and, even better, the decor changes EVERYDAY! No need to be bored with the same old thing around here! We keep things exciting and even hide ornaments for mom to find now and then. Yes, let it be known, we LOVE our tree!!!! =) (And if you see the video, you'll find that there are even a couple ornaments that are best friends!)

Luke's Christmas Concert

Luke had a Christmas concert at school Thursday night. We were so proud of him. He really knew his songs and did a great job and then, just to be Luke, he started making the Star Trek "Live Long and Prosper" sign to his dad from the bleachers. =) Gotta love that boy!

He's on the very right-hand side in the white shirt and black pants holding a drum.

Here he is with his best friend Parker. Nerds.

A New Post!!!

I know. I know. It's been literally forever since I've posted anything and I apologize to all my fans out there. =) Between the sick kids I've had around here for the last two months (really!) and the fact that the memory card in my camera was full and I had no place to empty it to take more pictures, blogging became something I just thought about doing...and then didn't. There, you have the truth! Anyway, since now I have to beg pictures from everyone else and who knows when I'll get them, I decided to just start from recent events and add a random post about the last few months whenever I get a picture! Sound good? Good! There, Mom, are you happy? =)

Fresh Eggs!

Yes!!! Our chickens started laying eggs! Can I tell you how excited the kids have been? (Okay, me too!) We get 1-2 a day and the kids love checking for them. I'm thinking it's like Easter only everyday. Luke and Sadie even added "get eggs" to their chore chart themselves!

Soccer Season!

Luke and Katie Belle had their first soccer games of the season on Saturday! My camera died before Luke's game so no pictures of him this week. =( He did get one of only two goals their team made! They get goalies this year so that made things fun too! Katie Belle was pretty much just running around kicking the ball in whatever direction she happened to be heading at the time. Hopefully once she catches on to the point of the game she'll do better. The high screeches in the video were Katie Belle. She thought the kids falling down were soooo funny that she told us all about it when she got to take a break!

First day of School

I know I'm behind in posting but things finally seem to be slowing down. Hopefully I'll get caught up! Here are pictures of the kids' first day of school. Katie Belle got to go to kindergarten this year and she's been so excited to be able to ride the bus! Here are all my school kids. Can you see how excited she is?
Here is her teacher!

Once she sat down and eyed the puzzle we didn't matter anymore, she was happy!

THEN I picked her up from school. I had to post the video because it just made me laugh. Her first day...

Katie Belle is 5!!

Okay folks, this was the birthday we'd all been waiting for...Katie Belle is now five years old! This meant that she could go to school and she has been SOOOO excited to go to school. We spent the day having fun. We decorated for a party and went swimming and then came home to make a birthday cake. Now Katie Belle had seen a wedding cake at a store and wanted that for her birthday cake...but she still wanted chocolate, that's my girl! So that explains the layers of cake. =)

The girls then decorated their own wands. I was surprised how good Maia was at glueing her sequins on! You can see the concentration. All in all we had fun! Happy Birthday Katie Belle, we love you!

The Hawkes in Idaho!!!

Yup, it's been awhile but Casey's brother and his family came to visit last month. It was so nice to see them and now our kids know their cousins from California! They brought their little dog Roxie with them and you should've seen Maia. She spent every possible moment with the dog. She loves dogs and that's why Roxie had to be in the pictures too. What a neat thing to be able to talk and get to know them better. We were surprised to find out that they have chickens too! It's always comforting to know that one is not alone in such craziness. =) They just stayed overnight and we were all sad to see them go. Katie Belle was in tears and didn't even want to say goodbye because she didn't want them to go. I think that's how we all felt. I hope you know how much we love you and hope we'll see you again soon!

10 year Anniversary

My mom kindly offered to watch the kids so we could go on a vacation for our anniversary. Can I even begin to relate how excited I was? We planned a trip to the Oregon coast. It was beautiful! We stayed at Seaside and drove down the coast and visited the Tillamook cheese factory (YUM!), one of the lighthouses, the Oregon Coast Aquarium and Ripley's Believe It or Not. Not to mention, we spent alot of time at the beach. =) We also stopped at OMSI in Portland on the way home. We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves without kids around.

The stairs at the lighthouse.

This was just really weird from the Ripley's museum.

The kids on vacation

While we were on vacation, the kids were on a vacation of their own. They hung around home for a little while and then went to grandmas' house. Grandma and Grandpa took them everywhere. They went to the park, a birthday party and took a trip to Salt Lake City to see the temple. They LOVED it.

They learned how to go on an escalator. Grandpa let them do it for at least an hour! Now that's patience.

They told me they got to play in EVERY fountain. Now that's something I can't say I've done at Temple Square. =)

And they got to see the temple close up. Sadie was mad that they wouldn't let them inside but was still happy she got to see it.

They were so busy that they hardly missed us! Thanks grandma and grandpa!

Happy Birthday....Kitty?

Who knew that our cat had a birthday? Yeah, me neither. My kids just woke up one day and decided it was the kitty's birthday. So, I guess her new birthday is officially July 23rd. We did have a party for her and we all got cupcakes with candles to blow out since kitty couldn't do that herself. We also opened her presents for her....I think my kids are smarter than I give them credit for! Anyway, I guess we have a new family tradition...a summer birthday party for the kitty!

One month...the highlights

Since I fell off the radar, we've been really busy around here! The decline in blogging came mostly because of girls camp. I was a wreck trying to get everything planned and ready! I'm thinking I prefer not being in charge. =) We had alot of fun, though. Here I am hiding in the back since no one really wants to see me even attempt a dance. It was an army theme but we were bees, if that explains anything. I made some blue camo hats for our ward to wear that I was pretty proud of!I got home, slept one night in my own bed and then packed back up and we all headed to Pocatello for the 4th of July. All the cousins were together! Now, trying to get them all to look was impossible, but this one was close.Here we are lighting and watching the fireworks.The girls then had two weeks of swimming lessons. We had grandma and grandpa visit, caught butterflies, made flower crowns, celebrated our anniversary, Casey took his comprehensive exam (which he passed...yay!!), and signed his teaching contract (YAY!!!!!). Then we went camping at Elks Flat for a night. Here are a couple videos. Luke loved keeping the fire going! And Maia was just so cute winding up to throw the frisbees.

There was a hand pump for the water. Everyone had to take a turn...even dad. =)

Here we are at the hot springs right next to the river. Casey and Maia are in the really warm water and the kids are in the cooler water. On the other side of the line of rocks though, is the REALLY hot water! It was crazy! This is also where Maia got a leech on her leg...a big one. It covered a scratch she had perfectly. The kids were done swimming after that but we've since learned that leeches are good eventhough they're kind of weird looking and Sadie was even drawing leeches in church the next day. =)

The butterflies liked the hot springs, too, and Maia really liked the butterflies. I loved this picture.

Huh?

Overheard tonight:
Casey to Katie Belle:"Get Dora in your mouth now!!!" (Huh?) "......and brush." (OOooh.)

Fun with Chickens

We finally finished our chicken coop!!! That is amazing considering all the other things we have going on! But there's a funny story that goes along with this. While Casey and I were working on it, Maia scraped her knee so I came in to get her a bandaid. Once we were done, she told me to get my gloves. I asked why. "To help daddy." "With what?", I asked. "To finish making the chicken jail!" So, it has officially been dubbed the Chicken Jail around here! We designed it ourselves and eventhough it's a jail, I think we have a group of happy chickens. =) We still let them out to wander occasionally so the kids can "hold" them. Katie Belle said it was like the zoo! (They feed them bread through the screen.)

What's funny, though, is that the one member of the family most against having chickens is beginning to warm up to them. Who knew there was a chicken farmer in him deep down?

Archery Class

Luke didn't want to take swimming lessons this summer so I enrolled him in an archery class. I can't even begin to tell you all how much he loves it! He has the enthusiasm of an olympic champion. =) Now you won't be surprised when he starts asking for bows and arrows for his birthday! I posted this picture because you can (barely) see that he actually hit the bulls-eye! He was quite proud.

Sadie...on to 1st grade!

Sadie had her Kindergarten Graduation this week! She is so excited to be moving on! Already she considers herself to be a 1st grader. Here she is in the first row in the bright pink skirt with all of the morning kindergarten students. And here she's receiving her award from her principal, Mr. Cano, and her teacher, Mrs. Montoya.
The kids attend a bilingual school so they sang songs in both English and Spanish. If I can get to it, I'll post a video, but that may not happen. =) I really just wanted to let my Sadie know how proud I am of all the work she's done this year and just how sweet and wonderful she is. Way to go, Sadie!!!

A baby!!!

So much news in the Mattox Family! I introduce the newest Mattox...Connor! (It may or may not be spelled like that, but you get the idea!) Another baby boy for Tina and Ryan! Isn't he beautiful?! And the happy family! Congratulations!!! We love you all!