Parade of Lights!

We love to go to the parade of lights in Howell. They have it every year on Black Friday as a way of kicking off the Christmas season. This year we watched it with our friend Jenna. Her parent's house is right on the parade route so they had a great spot roped off for us to watch the parade. Afterwards we came in and had a huge assortment of delicious cookies, along with hot chocolate, hot cider, and coffee. We also got to see some friends from the church I grew up at. I hadn't seen them in 13 years! We had a great time!

All bundled up for the parade with Jenna! Josh was camera man that night and got some neat shots of the floats.

This is kind of dark, but here is a pic of Addie watching the parade. She absolutely loved all the lights!

Round #2! Bring on the bird!

Friday we made the rounds in Howell for the Frazier Thanksgiving. It was a lot smaller this year because Tomesia and Joe were just up this month for my mom's birthday, and Jason and Shanna made other plans. We had fun though. Yummy food, and fun family. It was a really relaxing weekend.

I had to add this picture of Addie so you know she was there. I guess because of the times we ate both Thanksgiving meals, she was napping. :)

Thanksgiving: Round #1

This year, the Mathew family spend Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's. They had a beautiful dinner in their basement. It was really nice to be together. We all missed Emily and Ben very much, but it sounds like they had a good Thanksgiving together. To read more about that, go to:

www.bemilymathew.blogspot.com

I will tell you that I am really bummed that I didn't get that many pictures. Sometimes you just want to enjoy the moment instead of running off to get the camera so you can "capture" it. We had a good day though. :)

Here are some turkey cookies that Chris and I made for the kids.

The lovely place settings. I think Sarah set this up. This is Josh's great-grandmother's china. WOW!

Here is one of the only pictures of people I have! Chris and Sarah working on bracelets with the older girls.

Can't forget the food! This is just some of the spread.

Visit to Charlotte

Sunday we were able to get to Charlotte to visit some great friends of ours. We also were able to see Grandpa and Grandma again. It is so crazy how close we can be, and not visit nearly enough. We all had a great time, and we are really looking forward to being there again Thursday. There will be sixteen of us there on Thanksgiving though!

Here are the girls loving on their grandparents. Don't worry about little Addie. She got plenty of love, I just forgot to bring out the camera until we were leaving! :)

A hunting we will go...

Josh was able to go up north with my dad and our friend Lucas to go hunting for the first time. He did great! Josh got a deer on opening day! We are all so proud of him, and can't wait to eat some yummy venison. Here are some pictures he took. I made him take the camera so I could post about his trip. :)

Here is Josh standing with the deer that the three of them got.

Josh on the ride home. Looks pretty scruffy to me!

This is a picture of the cut river bridge somewhere in the U.P. He has so many great shots of bridges! :)

Here is one of the Mackinac Bridge.

Here is a closer view.

SURPRISE!

After many months of planning and secrets, we actually pulled off a surprise party for my mom's 60th birthday. She thought she was going out to dinner and a movie with my dad. He got a call saying they needed his help with the sound at church as they were on their way, and we were all waiting. :)

This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom. She was so extremely surprised. You can just see it on her face!

Let's eat some fried chicken!

We got all the grand kids to serenade her in the birthday song for a second time.

Cute pic of Addie just chillin with my Aunt Sue.

A picture of the family. Not perfect, but you try and get a picture with 16 people! :)

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I can't believe it has been almost two weeks since I've posted! CRAZINESS! We Addie is finally better, and we are so thankful Emma and Josie did not get it.

Joe and Tomesia came up with their kids and stayed over. We were so blessed to get (FREE!) babysitters for our six kids to go out for an evening. We haven't done that with them in...ever?

We had a surprise party for my mom's 60th birthday. That was a lot of work, but a whole lot of fun.

Josh was also able to go hunting for the first time with my dad and a very good friend of ours named Lucas. All three of them got a deer on opening day!

I am going to post a bunch of pictures of it all to share. Thanks for reading!

More sickness

Addie is sick again. She now has strep throat. My poor baby seems to be getting every bug there is! We got to spend the whole morning together playing though, so I guess that is a bonus. Please pray that she will get over it, and that the rest of the family will not get it.

Thanks!

Emma, Josie and Addie watching "Little Einsteins"

Punk Rock Addie

Addie is getting lessons on how to be a hard core rocker from her dorm brother, David. I think Addie's mohawk is more impressive than Davids! Ha!

Littlest rock star

Rock on!

All Dressed Up...

For three years now we have been able to take the family to Rives Baptist Church's trunk-or-treat party. It is a fun time for the kids to go to the church and dress up. They have pony rides, big blow up games, hay rides, donuts and cider and car trunks full of candy...and everything is free! Our dear friends Brad and Rachel went with us, and we had so much fun with them. We went for an hour, and then the rain came, so it was a perfect time to go home.

Josie was a rooster. She kept saying "cock-a-doo-doo!" :)

Addie was a goldfish. I am not sure what she was thinking, but this was her expression all night!

Cowgirl Emma got to ride a real pony! Nana made the costume for her. Thanks Nana!

Here I am torturing Brad and Rachel with a picture. This was about the sixth try getting everyone to look and smile at the same time. :)

After the girls were in bed, the real party started! :) I promise, there was PLENTY of candy left over for them.