Emmy Grace

I thought I would write about our "middle child" Emery Grace today and some quirks that make her different than her sisters. She doesn't really have qualities of a middle child, and is a leader in many ways. I tend to call her Emmy Grace sometimes...not sure why, but it just fits her. Her color for sippie cups is green and she knows her color (as do Addison and Harper). She has a cute little smile that she shifts her bottom jaw to the side so it looks like a crooked smile and shows all her teeth. When I am sitting she loves to stand on my legs. When I try to have her sit in my lap, she won't let me and wants to stand up so she is higher than my head. She thinks it is funny if I am wearing a hair clip to take it out and mess up my hair. She looks on the top of my head to see if I am wearing one. She calls Addison "Addis" and has been saying Harper very well for a few months now. She was the first and only (so far) to climb out of her crib. When she wakes up in the morning of after her nap she calls for her sisters and wants to see them right away. If something isn't going her way she usually pushes or sometimes bites and leaves the other sister crying. She doesn't bite that often anymore. She loves for me to carry her down the stairs in the morning even though she can go down faster (on her belly)than me walking. She loves to sit by her brother in the car, but all the girls do so we are on a rotation chart system created by Caden. She knows that her names starts with "E". I was making the car seat chart and talking aloud I said, "A for Addison, H for Harper and then Emery piped up and said "E". It was amazing! Greg and I just looked at each other and couldn't believe it. I asked her if she knew Emery stared with an E and she nodded and said "E". Addison and Harper cannot say Emery but they point to her and know her name, so it must be harder to say. Maybe they'll end up calling her E. Most people, including some of our family and best friends cannot tell Addison and Emery apart. I still wonder if they are identical because they have the same blood type. Greg and I still get them mixed up occasionally when we aren't paying attention. This has happened a few times- example- Greg might be changing Addison's diaper and will be talking to calling her "Emery" and I am changing Emery's diaper and I know it is Emery and so we have to convience each other who we have. Most of the time it is by looking at the other girl then we say- oh yeah, you aren't "Emery" or "Addison" you are the other one. It is still funny that we do this even when we are the parent's and should know better. Some days they look very much alike and some days they look totally different. Emery is so special and unique and I love her very much. I think she has a future in interior design. For weeks now, she has insisted that the kids table benches be moved to the heads of the rectangle table. The two benches are made to of course fit on the long sides of the table, but she keeps moving them to the short ends. It has been frustrating me every day because I have to move them back. I have been thinking about this and wondering if she is doing this because she wants to sit at the head of the table and be in control somehow. Two days ago, I let her move the benches like she wanted but I fliped table one turn and so the benches look right with the table, and she hasn't moved them since. We'll see how long it stays that way and if that is all she wanted. Our girls have been all enjoying sitting at the big table and not using their high chairs that much anymore. Emery likes to carry her bowl around, so we are working on keeping food and plates and bowls on the table and not on the floor. Oakley likes the food on the floor and hangs out with the kids ready for the drop. Sometimes if they leave their food at the table and walk off, their food disappears and they stand there crying because Oakley ate their lunch. I stand there crying because I have to make another lunch and don't have time to eat.

They grow up so fast

I wish I was one of those moms who posted photos online for the world to see everyday, but I am just not. I am just now downloading photos off my camera from Christmas. Hopefully this year I will do better. I am so proud of Caden I am about to burst with pride! He is really learning to read and it is so exciting to watch. He can easily read the "at" words posted on our fridge- pat, mat, sat, rat, bat. In January his preschool started reading groups and his teachers have told me how bright he is and they think he should skip elementary and go straight to high school. Just kidding. He is not skipping elementary school because it is just too much fun. We've decided to put Caden in private school and will be attending the same school Greg attended preschool through high school. It is just so special that the legacy continues and of course we have a very tender place in our hearts for Northland Christian School. Greg joined the board of NCS this year and the youngest by far, so I think we'll be need to spray paint his hair gray so he will fit in better. Anyway- back to bragging about Caden. He is so into science projects! I made him a science kit with food coloring, baking soda, and little cups and spoons. He picked out a volcano project about two weeks ago and this morning shot a rocket in the backyard before school started. He is my little rocket scientist! (with Daddy's supervision)

One little monkey jumping out of bed

Our little Emery decided she didn't want to be a baby anymore and wants to be a little monkey climbing out of her crib. I got a crib tent from a twin mom and two days later after trying to put it together, figured out it was missing two poles, so she gave me a different one that works great. Horray for the Crib Tent II. I just lay her in her bed and zip her inside her crib so she can't escape. Now she can't take all the folded pajamas out of the dresser drawer and baby wipes out of the container during naptime. Is she excited about the crib tent, no, but she only cries about 2 minutes then is quite so I don't feel too bad. She is much safer this way.

Addison and Emery must have had a meeting to decide what would drive mommy crazy. The final vote came to taking off all their clothes off (including their diaper/pull-up) even during nap time. Harper wants to sleep during naptime, so she leaves her clothes on and only takes them off if she sees Addison or Emery take their clothes off during playtime. This little phase has been going on for about a month. WHEN IS IT GOING TO END? We've tried time out and spankings, but it doesn't seem to help. During naptime today, I put all three girls in footie pajamas with zippers and backwards so they can't unzip it themselves. The footie part wasn't right of course, but they aren't going to be sleep walking so it should be okay.
It is a bit exhausting fighting with them to keep their clothes on. Why do they do this when it is winter and freezing outside? One thing that has helped if I say, "If you want your snack (or play outside), then you have to wear clothes first". They actually seem to understand and most of the time agree to get dressed again.
I don't want to safty pin their shirt to their pants because I'm afraid they would figure out how to work the pin in their frustration and get hurt.
I know this stage will pass, but I'd like to see in the future and see how much longer this is going to go on so I can deal with it.... two weeks, six months? If we only knew.

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.