Snow Day!

Michael's 2.5 pix

I took Michael to get his two and a half year pix this morning at Wal Mart. The proofs are online here. They turned out really cute. I also did one with me in it. I have one of Mallory and me when she was much younger and thought it was now or never although I hadn't planned to do it. We certainly don't match. I have on jeans and a grey shirt and he is in his Christmas duds!

this year's gingerbread house

Mallory and her little helper Michael made another Wilton gingerbread house this past Christmas. I looked back at the blog post on this from last Christmas and she was wearing the exact same clothes!

Old fashioned...sort of

Paul wanted to get the kids a real popcorn popper for Christmas, sort of a family present. He said one of his favorite childhood memories was watching the popcorn pop and then eating it out of the bowl. He looked everywhere but finally found this Mickey popper on ebay and since Michael is a big Mickey fan he got it. That's what I meant by sort of old fashioned. It's an old concept but the Mickey twist is a little more modern. Paul brought out the gift and started out telling the story with, "When I was a kid we didn't have microwaves." and then went on to explain how popcorn hasn't always been cooked in the microwave, etc. It was really sweet. He was a little disappointed that they weren't more thrilled with the popping aspect but I told him they didn't know what to expect and they would get more excited next time.

Breakfast with Santa

I took these pictures at a Breakfast with Santa a couple of weeks ago. The kids wore their 09 Christmas pjs and I didn't even brush their hair a bit. Just let it look like they just woke up. The event was held at the elementary school where Mallory will attend next year!

Happy New Year from the Mattes!

'Twas the night before Christmas...

My aunt Carole had a Christmas Eve party for years and my dad always read the Night before Christmas to the children who were there. This was long before I had Mallory and Michael and now the party is no more. But thankfully Daddy has spent Christmas with us in Kentucky for the past three years and can now read to his own grandchildren. He always puts a lot in to it and makes it extra fun!