Mathison 2008 Christmas Letter

?What it's Christmas Already?

Where does all the time go, can you believe it is here?
Things creep up on us so fast, hard to really make things last.
Thanksgiving seemed like it was yesterday,
And now it's come and gone away.
Hooray for Christmas Trees, Candy Canes, and Time to Play.
I hope that Christmas won't just be like another day.
This is such a special time of year.
I'm sure of which we all hold so dear.

So much has happened, where to begin.....

Montey is now 7months old, and crawling about.
He is so cute from his toes to his snout.
His siblings love to carry him around.
Even as they fall to the ground.
How many teeth could there be?
Inside his mouth there are 3 times 3.

Tamara who is currently 4, actually seems more like Fourteen.
Mostly because she likes looking and being treated like a queen.
Her personality shines through, in every way;
Whether playing with her dolls, or styling her hair for the day.
It never fails,
Almost every week she has to paint her nails.
We keep thinking how did we get a girl like this?
By any chance, was it Tanya's teenage wish?


And Liahona well, being six, is still quite a good helper.
She loves doing chores; including setting things up for supper.
Where does she like to be most of all?
In our school room working on her artistic wall.
She still loves to draw and paint in every way.
She could just do this everyday.
Her happy and cheerful face,
Always seems to help keep everyone in their place.


Caleb has doubled the fact of him being an all sports fan.
Not knowing any names he would probably call them all Dan.
However he knows the names and mascots from watching almost every game.
He likes to choose and guess which team will win all the big fame.
Whatever sport his Father is watching,
Caleb will run there, without even stopping.
He would like to play football someday,
In spite of us telling telling him, no way!


Tanya is still doing quite well with schooling the kids.
We are all finding it to be super fun, no matter all the bids.
We pull through just like everyone else,
Through hard days, or bad days in spite of ourselves.
Life has been full, life has been fun,
Even if our time in Nebraska is not quite done.
We have adjusted to life in the Mid-West,
This has been an interesting family Test.

Eric keeps plugging through school work day after day,
Still wishing for more time to play.
He is enjoying the program of Nurse Anesthesia, even though we stand out in a flash.
With us being the only ones NOT from Nebraska, we really truly clash.
There were so many things we did not know,
Like why in the heck do people wear red...it just seemed to grow?
Why it was for the Corn Huskers of course,
I mean do people really look good in red, that's just gross.
Fan or not, living here it just wouldn't seem right,
To not have a family portrait with a nice Husker sight.

From our Family to yours, We would like to wish you a Happy Husker Holiday.
Merry Christmas to you, we often think of you.

With Much Love,
The Mathison Family:Eric. Tanya. Caleb. Liahona. Tamara. Montey.
(P.S
I did not get this Eric approved,
because he may think that I was a little rude.
I'm just being a little tease,
so no one needs to be upset, Please! =)

Our Thanksgiving

The kids Thanksgiving creations that they made with our friends that came over for Thanksgiving. We had a great time visiting, chatting and eating away. Nothing beats food, fun and friends at Thanksgiving Time!!!!

Our Family Getaway. We drove to Omaha the day after Thanksgiving and stayed at a hotel, and had a PARTY! The kids of course had a blast, they LOVE the hotel family getaways. This was a two bedroom room, in a nice Hilton Hotel, thanks to our family hook-ups. It was the perfect set up to have the kids watch their cartoons in one room in their wet swim suits, while Eric and I stayed dry and warm watching our Gonzaga Ball game... YOU GO ZAGS!! by the way I placed a picture of me being all nice and sick for you, so viewers beware. It was a bummer that I have been sick for all the fun Thanksgiving festivities.

Our Fall ..Falling... Breaking down Season

Our cute little boy now sitting all on his own. I could resist a quick snap shot. I love babies little bottoms..... I know call me weird, but they are just TOO CUTE!!!

Four Little Mokeys in the Tub....but no one bonked their heads, and no doctors were called. (All in their swim trunks aka Underwear, except for Montey obviously.) So we have been very preoccupied with our following

Fall Fun-ness.....

1. Our Van of only 8months which we just bought Late February of this year, gave us a run for our money. With the wonderful surprise of a dying- to died transmission all within 45mins. Which just so happened to transpire while on a fun Home school outing, on the way home from an Air and Space Museum. Prayers sure work that's all I have to say. A week and a half later and not to mention 2500 dollar later we got our van back.
2. Our computer was turned off for an evening rest, with no avail to turn back on. Thinking that all our photos back as far as Monety's birth in April were all gone, our hearts sank. All those memories lost for good. However, we were in luck that it was not the motherboard that had crashed as Best Buy had said. We got a second opinion (It pays to take time to look around). We found a simple computer store nearby, and told us that it was just the power supply. 24 hours later we were cruising on the Internet, with 200 more dollars out of our pockets.
3. Then thinking great? Trials come in threes right? We thought perhaps that means we are pregnant, seeing that we have had 2 kids close together before, why not again? Yet thankfully that was not the case seeing that I am personally not physically nor mentally ready for another child after just having one 6months ago. We were in fact given our 3rd blow. Our Neon, Eric's car, decided after all these years of having it to break down as well. Eric wanted to try to figure out what was wrong and fix it, to help save us money, but with no free time it was at no go. So we took our 2nd broken down car in. 24 hours later Eric had his car back, and with 500 more dollars out of our pockets............

You are probably thinking wow they must have a lot of money to be able to pay for these things to get fixed, right? Two words for you guys "Students Loans" and boy do they come in handy!!!
We will be killing ourselves later in paying them off but a man’s got to do what a man's got to do.

Our Halloween

(Too lazy, and tired to write about our Halloween. I'll write more about that later, it's just been those kind of months if you know what I mean???.....)

Plump Pumpkins= Montey & best bud Lance

Sassy Tinkerbell= Tamara

Likable Lion= Liahona

Stringy Spiderman= Caleb

Happy Fall To you All!

And there is no better way to say it, than a picture of Fall flowers covered in Nebraska bugs....nice!

We had a great, fun, family outing to a local pumpkin patch last weekend. The kids got to go through their 1st couple of haunted houses. Of course they were scared out of their minds at first, but once we said after two hours of being there, that it was time to go, they stated that they wanted to go through them one more time. So of course we took them, and this time they had a great time. It seemed like they just didn't know what to expect, which made it scarey, but once they made it through and knew what it was like they wanted to go again and again and again. So Eric an I switched off taking the kids, minus Montey. (On a Side note: we tried to take him through one, so a note to everyone, haunted houses might not be good for 5month old babies?! Weird I know. They seem to just cry for some unknown reason!?!? =)

Yup, huanted houses = not for babies! That would mean for me too, I am such a baby when it comes to these things. I love them, but it makes me have too pee my pants at the same time. There is no better feeling than getting a nice, good, scare every once in awhile. Gosh I sure love this Fall Halloween Time! It's my favorite holiday of the year.

HAPPY HALLOWS EVE................

Our Real Live Baby Doll

Playing with Montey our baby Doll:
So I couldn't help but laugh and take pictures of the kids taking turns pushing Montey in Tamara's baby doll stroller...it was way too cute and funny. He just sat there enjoying the ride without a single complaint. He sure was a good sport about all this. He even lets the girls put things in his hair and on him when they play dressup. We will soon find out how long that will fly with Montey Boy, but so far they have a great Real Live Baby Doll to play with. =)

Montey Now:
Montey is a playing, rolling around kind of guy these days. If you are not watching him he will disappear from the place you left him on the floor, making you look really hard around the room becasue he will not only move across the whole floor but will somehow mange to get under things and inside things.....he sure is a good hid 'n' seek player. He has his two front bottom teeth in, they actually came in last month, and yet I am still nursing is that amazing or what for me??? He is really starting to want more than milk too, so we have started giving him oatmeal and carrots....even though he isn't too sure about soilds, he still opens his mouth for each bite. The big kids really enjoy taking turns with the feedings.

Indian Caves...bummer trip

Our 1st Camping Experience here in Nebraska:
Was at Indian Caves for Labor Day. We had planned for a 3 night, fun, family getaway together. Something we have not done since we have moved here over a year ago. And camping was one of our most favorite things to do together back in Oregon. So we decided to give Nebraska camping a try. And last year we noticed that you can pretty much only go camping in the Fall. It's too cold in the winter; spring is the Tornado season..best to stay near home, summer way too humid...and well that leaves, Fall being just right!

Cooking and Roasting:

Here was our fabulous cook, getting breakfast ready for us all. The children’s' favorite part of the whole camping experience was our evenings by the campfire roasting smores. They looked forward to it every day we were there.

Hiking and Biking:

We went on family hikes, brought our bikes and had family bike rides, at and around the campground. We also viewed a special firework display for Labor Day, put on by the campground, which was a huge hit for the kids, but they were super tired from the days activities that halfway through it they wanted to go back to our camp site and go to bed. And the terrible parents that we are made them stay up to watch it; (the whole thing was only 45mins long.)

Playing at the Missoura Riva:

From the distance it is a very pretty River, but up close it is a rather gross view, very mudding and kind of smelly. I was worried that one of the kids would fall in, so I told Eric if that happened he would be the one that would have to jump in, not me...yuck!

The Indian Caves:

We sadly discovered that it is not like the caves in the NW that you can actually walk through, but it is more like an over hang of a side of a small mountain, yet the biggest one you'll see in Nebraska.
Summing up:

So, pretty much it was kind-of fun, we had to leave a whole day and a half early do to unfun visitors that we were all exposed too....TICKS!! Yup, you know it, those terrible Nebraska buggies. I have grown up camping all my life on the West coast and never did I ever see or know about ticks, other than they were on dogs. It was just not a worry. I suppose you can call me the Queen of all tick knowledge now...I know just about everything and anything there is to know about them...so if you have a question about them feel free to ask me. We left with an average all together of about 200 ticks all over us. And they weren't the big ones that we have gotten here and there earlier when we first moved here, those are Wood Ticks. We got the incredibly small ticks that look like little brown freckles; those are the Deer Ticks that just so happen to carry Lime Disease. So I get to take all my kids in now to get check for Lime Disease...so much fun! Yippy, I can't wait. Some how the kids have forgotten all about these terrible buggies, as they watched the family video that I taped of them camping. Because they all said that they wanted to go back, and how much they miss that camp site. I guess what it all comes down too, is that I was the only one that was greatly disturbed by this "FUN" camping trip. Most likely we won't be going camping again here in Nebraska; we will probably have to save those kinds of things for the West Coast when we move back in less than 2 years.