Happy Birthday Anders!

While we were in Schenectady, Anders had his first birthday. For those of you who didn't know, I am a Great Aunt. At least to one little son of my nephew I am.



Peter invited us over for a little birthday party for Anders. Here are Grandpa Mark, Aunt Alicia, Great Aunt Noel, and Matthew all watching how cute Anders is while eating pizza.

Here is the birthday boy with his cake.

He wasn't a big fan of the ice cream. It was just too cold!

Karen is not grandma. It is Mimi.

Ron and Dolores are Great Grandparents now. Isn't that unbelievable? They have always been great to our boys. I love this picture of Ron helping Matthew eat his cake. So cute.

Thanksgiving

I love that we have a national holiday set aside to remember how blessed we all are. Our family has been blessed in so many ways this year. Here is a few of our favorites. Matthew is thankful for Elmo. Holden is thankful for Jesus. Nicholas is thankful for the house and computer. I am thankful for my four wonderful boys. (I counted Joe of course.) And Joe is thankful for sandals.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We always do. It was smaller than usual because the Scotts weren't there. But the food was amazing and the company even better. Aren't David and Leah cute?

Grandma made a special birthday cake for Matthew and we all sang Happy Birthday to him again.

He got a new Elmo. Look how excited he was.

Here is the evidence that it was a great Thanksgiving, Holden's very dirty face.

Ice Skating

Nicholas and Holden are taking ice skating lessons.
They are both doing very well.







Holden has passed off Tot 1 & 2 levels. Nicholas passed off alpha.
(Those levels don't mean anything to me either, but the boys were excited to get their certificates.)
They only have a few more skills to master before they can start to play hockey and they are very excited about that.

Matthew is 2!

How is it possible that my baby turned 2 on November 14th? When did this happen?We celebrated with just our family and it was very nice.
Earlier, Melisa had brought over an Elmo balloon which he loved. The Butters kids and the Ackermans also gave him presents. They are so thoughtful.
See that lopsided cake in front of him? I spent HOURS making that stupid thing. I picked out this really fancy recipe and it did not turn out. What a waste of time. Matthew would have been happy with a cupcake and a candle. Someday, I will be wise with my time.

Matthew's Two Year Old Pictures

Since Joe has expanded to doing a lot of portrait work, I decided I would let him take Matthew's yearly picture.

Storytime

We love the Springfield library system. They always have such wonderful programs going on FOR FREE! We've been going to storytime for many years now. First with Nicholas and then with Holden. Now it is Matthew's turn. He did pretty well, considering he is one. The librarian, Miss Sharon, was really good with all the little ones.

They started off by rolling the ball back and forth. Of course this was Matthew's favorite part. (The boy loves any and all balls.)

Then they passed out cheese crackers to keep the kids quiet while she read a few books.

And finally they all did a craft. Matthew made a cute little bear that he was very proud of. He carried it around and when Joe got home ran up to show it to him. My baby is so cute!

Nicholas and Holden waited very patiently playing on the computers and looking at books until Matthew was done. What good supportive big brothers they are.

Joe Is Getting Old!

Joe's birthday was on November 2nd. He loves his birthday and we love to celebrate it with him. Joe's parents, Linda, Dave, and Olivia all spent the night in Springfield after the art show so they could spend Joe's birthday with him. Linda even made Joe's cake while I was still at church.

Joe is an amazing husband and father. Nicholas says his dad is the world's best story teller. Holden likes that his dad lets him sleep in. Matthew always walks around the house asking, "Where's Daddy?" We are very lucky to have him in our lives. WE LOVE YOU!

The Art Show

We have been in our place for 2 1/2 years. In that time we haven't hung anything on the walls. One day Joe and I are sitting at the table discussing this. He tells me he wants to turn our house into a gallery and hang a lot of his pieces on the walls. And from there the idea of the art show was born. On November 1st we had the first Josepeh Metzger art show at our house. We moved all the furniture out of the downstairs. He showed paintings and photographs.
A lot of our friends and families came and Joe got the audience he craved. Thanks for being so supportive of him. We really appreciate it.

This is a picture of all Joe's stuff lying on the floor before he hung it on the wall.

Olivia and Ron looking at one of Joe's paintings.

One of Joe's photographs that he displayed.

This painting is called Woman Bathed In Light. The idea came to him while he was drawing on some post it notes at work.

Halloween

I got back from my trip 2 days before Halloween. By the time Trick or Treat Day was here I was all Halloweened out, but not my boys. They were very excited. Joe took the day off to prep for his art show the next day. First the boys and I went over to the Ackerman's neighborhood. It a tradition to go with them for a while every year. Of course we had to take the annual picture in front of the door.

Matthew really loved trick or treating. Aunt Linda (with the assistance of John) mailed the boys these adorable black bags for their candy. Matthew's dragged the ground, but he would not let anyone help him carry it. He loved going up to the house and he sounded so sweet when saying, "trick or treat" and "thank you." (He is the cutest thing ever!) He did get a little frightened by all the scary costumes.

After going around with the Ackermans for a little. We came home and the boys went out with Joe while I passed out candy. Some people are so generous with the candy, the boys came home with entire Tolberone Chocolate bars. (Funny how some things just disappear from their bags.)

While the boys were waiting to go out with Joe, they helped me pass out candy. We were all on the porch and this cute little fairy came up with a group of other kids. We gave them their candy and they started to walk away. Nicholas (who is dressed as Darth Vader) followed the group down the walk a little and then told the fairy, "You don't know the power of the dark side!" The poor little girl just stared at him for a while and then hurried off.

These are our pumpkins. I obviously took the picture. There is a reason Joe takes all the family pictures.

Stephen

My nephew Stephen is serving his mission in Las Vegas. While I was there I got to take him and his companion to breakfast. (Don't worry he said he cleared with his mission president and it was P-day.)

The boys really liked visiting with him. It was great to see him in his official role, name tag and everything. We are very proud of you Stephen. My boys look up to you and pray for you at night.

Final Halloween Party

On Saturday night everyone got together and went to the Halloween Carnival for mom's ward. There was......

A costume parade (both Nicholas and Ethan were Darth Vader)

A candy bar walk (Matthew loved this so much. He would just walk around the circle and dance to the music, completely oblivious to the point of the activity.)

Face Painting (Sarah had nothing to do with Brigg's choice. It was totally his idea.)

Pony rides (Yes that is Matthew in his costume. After 11 days of trying he finally decided it was OK to wear it.)

And other games.

The kids all had fun and it was great to be all together one last time.

Jeremy Is Famous

Ok, he's not really famous. YET. While I was in Las Vegas, one of the Youth Orchestras in town performed some pieces that Jeremy had been commissioned to compose for them. They were really neat. Nicholas and Jacob told me they were the best pieces of the whole concert, and I have to agree.

Jeremy was introduced and took a bow. It was all so exciting.

Nathan, Liesa, Jeremy (of course), Taryn and all our kids sat in a row.

The kids were all pretty well behaved. Tyler and Matthew did have a little trouble sitting still.

The concert was at an outdoor arena in Green Valley. After

Jeremy's pieces the kids got more and more restless. So finally I took them up to the grassy hill behind the chairs to listen to the rest of the concert. It wasn't too much of a surprise when the kids decided to roll down the hill instead of listen. I'm so glad I was there for the concert. Jeremy is very talented. Some day he'll be a household word among the Jr High Orchestra crowd.

Jacob and Brandon's Birthday Party

Since their birthdays are both in October, Nate and Liesa always do a joint party for the boys. They did a whole Halloween theme and the kids all wore their costumes. (Except Matthew, I didn't even try this time.) They really know how to throw a party. It was a lot of fun for everyone.

The decorations were so cute. Here all the kids are around the tables.

They played all kinds of games. Here the kids are digging for worms in dirt. (Don't worry, they are gummy worms and chocolate cake mix.)

Look how excited Samantha is about her candy in pumpkin during the candy corn toss.

Grandma with Ava and Tyler. Aren't they cute?