First of many busy weekends

This year, like the last 4 years we were invited to spend Thanksgiving with our friends out at their fishing lodge.  Silverking lodge for Thanksgiving is one of our favorite weekends of the year.  It is a quick weekend of eating, shooting guns, and playing games.  Traditions we enjoy at Silverking are eating chili cheese dip, watching Joe Dirt (although I never make it far into that one), playing warewolf and the sign game, and of course the trap shooting contest.  This year Reid and I won both divisions of the tournament.  Reid spent most of the time throwing clay pigeons so I thought I would show you a picture of that.  It was such a nice day and we were out there for hours, as is tradition.  Reid didn't think through the whole throwing clay pigens for three hours thing and the consequences he might face the next day as he was playing in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament.  He was pretty sore, but they still managed to win the tournament.  He has won the tournament every year that he has played in it.  After the tournament, which ended at 1am Reid and I ran home and got a few hours of sleep before church the next morning.  After church we went for a Christmas tree with our buddy Carter and while trying to use the self-timer Reid got this accidental shot.  It was too funny not to post, so here it is!  Enjoy! 

Can't wait to see you guys in a few days!  WAHOOO!

I Believe in Santa

I would like to see if I can make shirts again for all the kids but I will need sizing very soon if I'm going to pull it off in time for them to have them early.  Post their sizes as a comment to this message please!  Thanks
Mishel

Thanksgiving with the Cahoon's

Thanks to Mom and Dad who showed up on our door at 8:00 am Thanksgiving day!  Mom helped me make a super Thanksgiving Dinner, and Dad fought over watching sports and Westerns with James.  Then we went and got our Christmas tree.

Reid and Carter

This is Reid's little buddy Carter.  He just loves Reid and thinks he is pretty cool because he likes to hunt and fish.  We spent the weekend with Carter's family at Silverking Lodge and on Friday morning we went on a quest to find some geese.  It was snowing like crazy and all we found was one duck, but Carter and Reid got it!  Carter was pretty proud and was a real trooper on the hunt.

 

We had Carter over to cook and eat his duck today after church and while he was here we went for a Christmas tree.  Last year we had a cedar Christmas tree and this year we have a western hemlock. 

Matthews christmas wishes

the matthews family would like the following...

DATE NIGHTS:
gift certificate to a theatre (fandango.com)
gift certificate to a restaurant
we like olive garden, chiles, applebees, cheesecake factory...
games that we can play together
anything that jordan and i can do as a date.

Black Friday is Over! Time to Shop!

What does everyone want for Christmas?  Now that we have our "secret" (OOOooo!) names, lets see what everyone wants...
Post a comment on what you want, so you can have a Merry Merry Christmas!

Reid 'n Daves Deer Adventure

I took last Friday off for a Friday/Saturday deer hunt.  Dave Mitchel and I took our boat and motored out to a hot spot where luck was on our side.  We called in these three deer Friday and saw three others.  Then on Saturday, we didn't see a single deer.  Guess that's hunting.

This is the 3rd deer I've "harvested" this year.  No wall hangers, but it is all fun hunting!

This was Dave's second deer of the day.  A nice 3 point.  This is a very nice deer by Alaska's standard.

This was Dave's other deer, which happens to be a 3 pointer.  Since last time we went out, I shot the only deer we saw, this trip Dave got to shoot first.  So he got the first and third deer we saw, I shot the second.  His two deer just happened to be bigger.  Next time the rules might be a little different.

Caroline cut her hair

So, this last week i chopped all of my hair off:)

10 inches off the bottom

this is my sassy face

This is just a reminder of how long it WAS...

Jett absolutely loves it!!!

Ashley's Visit to Seattle

Ashley wanted to see what we have done with the room and all the cute outfits we have for baby Esme.

We went and did some shopping so Ashley can be comfy cozy at the hospital.  We found some cute cupcake pajamas with some other little things to make her stay a little nicer.  We also ate a lot of food that we like, here we had a Red Mango stop so that we could have enough energy to continue after our shopping spree.

No trip to Seattle is complete without a visit to the Space Needle!

Also Ashley visited the restrooms all the time so James thought it would be funny to get her coming out of one of her stops to the restroom at the Space Needle.

When Ashley chose us, she watched a segment on the Food Network Channel about this little shop called "Top Pot Doughnuts"  So we got a doughnut too.  We ate a lot of food while she was here.

Ashley's Pie Crust Lesson

Ashley taught me how to make a pie crust.  That made me so happy, I was just about to lose my mind with all the pie crust dough I have unsuccessfully made.  So now I know how to make a pie crust!!! Thanks Ashley!  The little things James is holding are little pie crust cookies that we made out of the left over dough.  We ate them before Ashley could get a taste of them...We gobbled them right up.

Reid and Mishel stay with the Cahoon's

When Reid and Mishel fly anywhere, they generally have to stop in Seattle on their way.  Lucky for us they extend their layovers so we can spend some time with them.  We are so happy that Seattle is a layover for them!!!  It was fun to have them on their way back from Mexico to Alaska.  Thanks for spending time with us, We love you!!!

Pikes Market at a pasta booth.

Reid and Mishel checking out the price on all the fish and crab they catch, to make sure its worth the gas money for the boat.

We went to this Italian delicatessen and checked out the nutella.

matthews halloween

Charlee was a princess and Jett was a frog

we reaaaallllly tried to get a pic of all three smiling... not so much

dad and son:)

Charlee really enjoyed the donuts on a string...

Charlee with our "carved" pumpkins...

actually gramma brought these pumpkins with her when she came to visit and helped us decorate them too:)

Charlee's birthday

Charlee turns two!!!

Charlee got a new kitchen set for her birthday so we had a "chef" party.

this is charlee in her homeade chef hat. (she was very eager to get on with the eating)

gramma stovall helped the little chefs put their personal pizzas together.

Chef Charlee at your service

Hadyn, Damon, Jillian (she's hidden), and Charlee

TADAA... the beautiful pumpkin looking chocolate tasting birthday cake...

(isnt mom sooo creative:)

Jett's baby blessing

baby Jett was due on October 25th, but since he came three weeks early we decided to bless him on his due date:)  just as handsome as can be!!!

a pretty good mix of us both,  but i tend to think hes  got a bit more of the stovall look in him.

the pumpkin patch

While mom was here visiting we were able to go to a pumpkin patch.  they had sooo many fun things for us all to do.  this is me and charlee in a pool of corn kernels...

I absolutely LOVE this picture!!!  it didnt take long for charlee to warm up to gramma, especially when they had so much fun in EVERYTHING they did!!!

Charlee as Mary who had a little lamb.

They had the three little pigs houses set up... this is the straw house.  Charlee spent a good half an hour just coming in and out of those little houses... who can blame her though, they were just her size!!!

We actually got a picture of the whole family!!!  YAY... although you cant see him, Jett is in that little carseat in front... he slept through the whole thing!!!

Charlee was such a doll:)  she had sooo much fun, and when charlee is happy we are all happy!!!

this is jordan and charlee sitting on the side of a giant corn kernel pool.