The BIG 4-0!

Matt turned 40 and like Forest Gump said, 'that's all I have to say about that.'
I did have fun making cherry chip cakes in my new mini bundt pans though :)

Madeline playing basketball

Madeline made the JV basketball team at school this year. She had fun and improved her skills. Here's a little clip where she rebounds and scores. She's so tall already! She is officially 1/4" taller than me now!

Grandpa Smith

My Grandpa Smith, who is 89, was on his way to South Africa with my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Val and had a 5 hour layover at the Seattle airport, so we went and met them there for a little visit. It was great to see him! He is going blind, but still so sprightly and energetic. It's neat that the kids have a Great-grandpa that they can know in their lifetime. Grandpa has had such an interesting life. I am anxiously awaiting his written accounts of some of the battles he was a part of in WWII. Too bad we couldn't see him play his bagpipes on this trip!

Zoe at Port of Tacoma

Zoe had a field trip to the Port of Tacoma. It was really cool to see them unloading container ships and all the specialized machinery. Those longshoremen make like $300K a year! It was a really interesting field trip.

Happy New Year

We had fun ringing in the New Year with our friends the Flanigans. The kids made noisemakers, the boys lit off a few bottle rockets, and we all made it to midnight! Hope 2009 is a good year for everyone!

Christmas

We had an entertaining Christmas Eve over at Matt's parent's house this year. Grandma Barbara was in rare form trying to get us all to participate in her 'Christmas play' about a Ho-ho Boogie Santa, or something or other... it was pretty funny. The kids had a good time with their cousins Lindsey and Keaton.
Christmas morning at our house was nice. The boys hammed it up for the photo by pulling their new pjs up as high as they could go, and Carson was thrilled with his new Spy Goggles from Santa!

Snow much fun!

We've had a fun cold winter so far! We recently had snow on the ground for over 2 weeks. The kids had so much fun playing in it. They rode quads, sledded down our 'hill', made giant snowmen, and had snowball fights. Check out the video of Hayden pulling Cole with the quad and the waterski rope!