Prayers of a Five-Year-Old

I went to pick up Caden today and his teacher, Mrs. Armstrong, greets me as usual then says, "I just love having Caden in my class because he makes me laugh."
My first reaction, "Uh oh...what happened today?"
Well, Caden happily volunteered to say the prayer today before eating lunch and it went something like...

Dear God, thank you for this day, thank you for our school, thank you for our lunch, and please help us all to grow up nice so that we don't go to jail. Amen.

I told Mrs. Armstrong that was probably every preschool teacher's dream that her kids in her class don't ever go to jail.

Here is another prayer Caden had two nights ago before going to bed.

Dear God, please help Oakley (our dog) not to frown anymore. Amen.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We've already had our white Christmas in Colorado during our early December vacation. The flights both ways to and from Colorado were from hell (that's another story), but the entire trip while we were in snow land Vail and Steamboat were like a lovely dream and we weren't quite ready to come home.
It was fun to hang out with Steve and Meredith and Greg's parent's all together in Vail since we won't all be together for Christmas. We had so many people we ended up getting a house and the Arabelle condo. The Arabelle at Vail Square was right by the gondola and made skiing the easiest ever to hop right on the mountain. The ski school center was literally next door to our elevator. Starbucks was also across the elevator and I enjoyed my Carmel Apple Spice drink every day after skiing. Yum.

It was so amazing to see Caden on snow skis for the first time. Greg and I both had been waiting for this moment and dreaming about it since he was a baby, that we could hardly believe it when we were watching him during ski lessons. I really was so proud of him that he was out there just trying because I know it is so much to ask of a five year old to wear the long underwear, puffy ski coat and pants, helmet, gloves, hat, goggles, ski boots in the freezing cold and NOT an EASY sport to learn. Especially when you are from Houston and only wear shorts and sandles then run out the door.

The girls stayed indoors most of our vacation because it was so cold and they were just getting over runny noses. Plus, we skiied so much that by the time we got back to the house it was starting to get dark. We did get them out on sleds once we got to the house in Steamboat. They looks so darn cute in their hot pink snowsuits and Harper could have sat on the sled another hour just content as could be. They liked snowballs being thrown at them by everyone and laughed. Caden had fun making his own sledding trail up the hill. The hardest part is always making your own sled trail going up, but the ride is worth going down so you just want to do it again. We had to bribe him to come inside because we were getting cold and were ready to eat lunch.

We just had Christmas weekend with my parent's and brother's family this past weekend and it was fun and wonderful to host. With 14 people in the house, it was nice to have our big backyard and playground for the kids to run around. The weather was so nice and perfect and in the 70's. Sunday we got a weather shift and today it was in the 40's.

We are happy to not be traveling any more this year and be home for Christmas. We don't know where 2009 will take us, but I am for sure many adventures await The Mathews Family.

Caden is FIVE!

I can hardly believe my baby boy is five years old. We had a great birthday party at The Little Gym. Since we went to Disney World twice this year and Caden talks about it all the time, I found a place that did a cute Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake and cupcakes for the kids. The girl's loved playing with the big kids and trying to keep up running around everywhere. Harper even was trying to do the crab walk and was scooting on the floor. It was so funny and AMAZING to watch them take directions at one years old!

People keep asking me about Caden going to kindergarden next year and if we have decided where he will go. I get a bit nervous every time I think of him going to kindergarden next year. It really is making me a bit teary to think we won't have our Monday's and Friday's (days not in Pre-K) to spend together going to lunch and fun activity or play dates. We are still trying to decide on private or public school for next year. It is a tough choice and the price of private school is something to consider as well. I am thinking of going on a tour of the elementary school he would go to next year and just see how I feel about it. Sometimes a mommy's gut feeling makes the decisions along with a lot of prayer! If any of you reading this would mind praying for us, I feel we could use some peace about this decision. THANKS!

Serenity Now

Not sure if I have mentioned our little motto stolen from Seinfeld. Serenity Now... Insanity Later. We'll we were in need of a bit of Serenity Now, so we packed up the kids and Oakley and headed for the lake house. We took off the boat cover and headed out to Captain Jack's. The restaurant is actually called Eldorado Jack's, but Captain Jack's sounds so much better so we re-named it. They have docks to pull up your boat and eat outside with a perfect lake view. It is just so much fun and really makes us feel like we are on vacation, plus Caden's favorite part is they have a really cool life size pirate outside and give you free ice cream cones. That will cheer anyone up from a stressful week. The weather was PERFECT.... like a Colorado summer day in the mountains.
We were surprised to see additional restaurants and tons of docks being built near Captain Jack's - including Sam's Boat restaurant, a BBQ place not open yet, Starbucks, CVS pharmacy, and Double Dave's pizza. This summer should be even more fun with more options of where to eat lunch or dinner.

I think the girls liked being back in one room together at the lake house. It was like a sleepover party. They talked and talked for a LONG time during their morning nap time and were laughing so finally we gave up and let them come out and play and put them down a bit early for their afternoon nap. By then, it was sweet dreams and Greg and I took turns playing with Caden so we each got an hour nap. Ahhhh... It made me think of college days and how lovely it was to take an afternoon nap on the weekend and there was no time limit.
Caden is getting such an amazing imagination with Lincoln Logs. I was getting him a snack and I went in to the living room and he had them all lined up and was making train tracks with a train station and had it all figured out. He said, "It was a lot of hard work and took me a very very very long time." I was very proud of him for not building a log cabin like the picture. I love that he uses his brain to build the non-traditional out of traditional toys. It is so much fun to watch him when he doesn't see me.

Apples to Apples

We play a game at our house. We ask the girls to point out people in our family. We'll say, "Where is Caden?" and they point and say "Daden". "Where is Oakley?" and they say "Doggie". "Where is Mommy, Daddy" and they are really good at this game. This weekend, when we asked "Where is Addison?" Greg noticed that Emery has decided to call Addison, Apple. We say, "Where is Addison" and she points to Addison and says "Abble" which is what they say when they see an apple. So much of their babbling sounds like nothing, but Emery is for sure saying Abble for Addison. I guess Gwyneth Paltrow and I both have a baby girl named Apple!

Family Photo Shoot in The Woodlands

My good friend Tanya for Cozy Impressions Photography out of Austin took these amazing family photos of our crazy family running in all different directions! She had her twin boys when she and hubby Rick lived in The Woodlands and I always thought- wow, there is no way I could never do that. I learned I can do that and handle one more baby and an older boy running around.
I remember Greg and I learned how to give a baby a bath by watching and helping them give their boys a bath. They were the first babies we had held when I was pregnant with Caden. Funny how life works out and never would have imagined me with four kids and Tanya with baby 5 on the way. These pics will only be online until Nov. 11 (I think), so enjoy while you can.

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/Mathews/

Action Packed Halloween Weekend!

This weekend for Halloween, Caden had three costumes. Our friends The Marsh's and friend Ling hosted a fun Halloween party out at their new property, so Caden wanted to be a skeleton mummy. For his soccer game, they asked the kids to wear a superhero costume under their jersey so Caden work Spiderman. That afternoon he went to a Halloween birthday party and work his knight costume.

Emery went as Snow White, Addison was Cinderella, and Harper was Ariel. About ten minutes before the Halloween party I told Greg he should wear his pirate costume. So we looked everywhere and finally found it in a box of sweaters up high in the closet. We found my pirate costume too, so I figured I would get into the spirit too.
Caden had his last soccer game and soccer trophy ceremony and party. The season went by so fast that we are thinking of signing Caden up for Spring soccer too. We went to two of Caden's classmates birthday parties and then had cake at our house for Fran/Gran before they left for Las Vegas.
We are partied out for now... resting up for Caden's 5th birthday in two weeks!