The Matthews family: 2010

Flying South for the Winter

We headed down south for Christmas. It was hot! We (I) stupidly packed according to the DFW weather. Therefore, Taylor was stripped down to a mere diaper most of the time.
First, we went to my aunt and uncle's house:

The gingerbread house

Cute little boy with icing on his nose

About to give up and just eat the icing...

...or have an icing fight.

Bentley will call his grandpa "Rocky". haha!

Aunt Terry

Bentley took Tay's bottle

Tay was completely infatuated with Uncle Adam's (aka Fudd) beard

Still infatuated...

Maybe obessessed...

The next day we went to my grandma's house. We didn't get too many pictures because we were busy playing Wii Dance 2 the whole time.

*Luckily, my cousin took pics at my grandma's house, so I am just waiting on her to send them to me.

I think I can, I think I can...

Taylor is trying to walk. She can get one, maybe two, steps in before she falls. I am sure it won't be long until she can keep up with Christian.

She got a chocolate covered pretzel for her efforts.

Hey dude, party at my house!

On Wednesday, we had Christmas with my mom, Mike, and brother. Ryan and I exchanged gifts and we gave the kids their presents. We got great loot this year! My mom gave us some nice gift cards. She also gave me a really cool wall hook from Pier 1. Is there anything not cool at that store? Mike gave us all a pretty generous gift. My mom got CK a pogo stick, moon shoes (awesome!), and a real karaoke machine that has the lyrics on the screen and everything! She got Taylor a really cute V-Tech monkey game, a little Roxy outfit, and made her a whole bunch of awesome hair bows.

Ryan got me a way nice lambskin motorcycle jacket. Love it! He also got me the Ke$ha cd's (since the girls are going to her show in April, I need to memorize the lyrics), Dance 2 for Wii (Fun!), and Dance Dance Revolution for Wii (Hard!). I got him a trip to Vegas/Grand Canyon, a better wedding ring, and a bunch of shoes. The kids got pillow pets, a few pairs of shoes, some other small toys, and a huge fully enclosed trampoline. Way fun! CK also got an iPhone, but only because I got a newer one.
We all ended up playing my dance game for the majority of the night. We broke out the pogo stick a few times and then ended up on the trampoline. Way fun! Tristan and I actually stayed up until 3:30 playing Wii Dance. What a workout!

Christian's other sister, her mom, and grandparents made a very special trip to the party. We had such a great time with them and are so happy that Christian and Brailyn are going to be in eachother's lives.

Brailyn

Christmas with the Hugheseseses

We had Christmas at my dad's house that began with a very yummo dinner. My dad smoked brisket and tenderloin all day long. It was fall-off-the-bone tender. Wow!

After we all stuffed ourselves full, we opened up gifts. Christian's presents to everyone were a big hit again this year. He made all of the grandparents a birdhouse. Shane got a chili pepper car freshener. Kelli got a pumice stone for her feet and hair conditioner. Kyle got a screwdriver set. Nikki got some really bright headbands. Mark got a set of reindeer antlers. And Eric? Well, Eric got a bag of egg noodles. Perfect.

Ryan and I both got some UnderArmour Coldgear for our trip to Colorado. The kids also got some warm clothes. Notice Taylor's striped fleece hoodie? Thanks, Kelli! CK got a Leapster and a bunch of games that he wanted so, so, soo bad.

Spreading Holiday Cheer All Across Texas!

Our Christmas break was ca-rrrazy. It usually is. We hop, skip, and jump all over Texas to try and make as many family/friends gatherings as we possibly can.

On Saturday, we had the girls wine party. Sunday we had my dad's Christmas dinner and presents. Monday and Tuesday were spent getting ready for my own little party. Wednesday was Christmas with my mom, then a family/friends dinner and party at our house. Thursday we headed down to San Antonio. Thursday night was a little celebration for my cousin's birthday. Friday (Christmas Eve) we spent the day with my grandma and mom's side of the family. Friday night we had my aunt's annual party at her house in Boerne. Saturday morning we rushed back to DFW to attend Ryan's family Christmas party. Sunday morning we headed to North Richland Hills for breakfast with most of the Matthews' family. Then Sunday afternoon was spent trying to find an emergency clinic that was not a hospital.

We had a little ordeal Saturday night after we got home. Christian grabbed a hold of Ryan's little Winchester knife and cut the holy moly out of his thumb. There was blood EVERYWHERE. I ran him to the bathroom to save the carpet and rinsed it off to see the damage. It looked pretty deep. Ryan and I discussed who our game plan (I.E. who was going to make a trip to the hospital at 9:30 on Christmas day). As soon as he heard "hospital" he freaked out. He has had staples in his scalp before and had a very bad experience with that. I ended up just wrapping it with gauze, medical tape, and a cute animal bandaid - just to make it friendly. On Sunday, we tried to get up to Care Now or something akin. Nothing at all was open. We sealed it up with butterfly bandages and another covering of gauze. We had the doctor look at it on Monday. He said what we were doing was fine, so no need for stitches. Awesome.