Resting

My poor Donaven got really sick in sacrament today. Brandon was kind and took him home and let me stay at church with Emerson. This is how I found them later in the afternoon.

Brandon is such a great father. We are all truly blessed to have him in our life.

Staycation : Day 4

Tuesday morning we slept in and had a lazy morning. No schedule, no rushing about. It was so nice! Our first outing for the day was fishing at Grammy's pond.

Surprisingly, I was the first to catch a bite. Take a look...


It was a small Perch so we just threw it back.
Brandon later caught one too.



The boys both loved being out side watching the fire flies, fish jump, and turtles sunning.

After fishing we stopped off at the house to clean up a bit then headed out to the movies. Our dollar theater does time warp Tuesdays and the tickets are only 75 cents. We let Donaven chose, he picked Rio. It was a cute show.

We were starving after the movie and we let everyone chose there favorite place to eat. I got a Newks Favorite salad to go. Brandon got hot wings from Pizza Hut and a Burger from Burger King. The boys wanted french fries.

With our tummies full we went home and enjoyed our evening together playing games.

It was a really great vacation on a budget. We had spent 96 hours together straight. I didn't have to do dishes or laundry at all. Brandon got to spend some real quality time with his boys. I now have a better understanding on why the General Authorities say that, "Successful families are established and maintained on principals of ....love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities"

Let's all remember that and take a break from work occasionally and work on our relationships with the people that matter the most!

Staycation : Day 3

Monday morning came, we were well rested and ready to go out on the town and have a little fun.

First stop, the Donut Shop!










Donaven insisted on taking a few pictures...







He is pretty talented, right?

Sufficiently sugared up we then headed to the mall.

Donaven saying hello to his pal Arthur.



Here the boys are showing Brandon the ropes at the new Bouncy House.



Ready for a snack we then stopped by the Great American Cookie place. They did not disappoint!




I finally got up the nerve to try out Sky Jump. It was a lot scarier than it looked. I did one flip and was ready to get down.



Brandon was up next and schooled me by doing about 20 flips!





(Donaven took those last two shots. I was trying to console Emerson.
He didn't like us jumping at all!)

It was starting to get late in the after noon when we realized we had only had donuts and cookies to eat the entire day. After going down one more slide at Donavens request we said goodbye to the mall and had an early dinner at Jalapeno Tree. The food was great. We topped off dinner with some ice cream it being vacation and all and then headed on home with our sleepy boys!

It was so nice splurging a little and doing a few nice things we don't normally allow ourselves to do. But mostly the time spent together was the best part of all!

Staycation : Day 2

Sunday Morning we overslept and missed Stake Conf. Oops! So we had our own little family devotional. Donaven picked out the hymn. Brandon and I each chose a General Conf. talk to listen to and we ended with a family prayer.
(The talks were on joy through trials and employment-self reliance)

Donaven then suggested that we take a walk. We did a little exploring around the property and found a big pear tree that we never knew was there. We picked a whole box full and brought them home. We later processed them, and canned them. It was a lot of work but we enjoyed each others company along the way.

Here is our first batch...


The rest of the day was spent resting.

More to come, stay tuned!

Staycation : Day 1

A few weekends ago Brandon was able to take a couple of days off. With four straight days together we decided to have a little family staycation. Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to one of our favorite parks to ride bikes. It was a lot of fun despite the heat.







I was a little worried about Donaven keeping up with us but he was so great pedaling as fast as his little legs would go. We all decided its time to upgrade him to a bigger bike. Emerson really enjoyed it when I went fast and the wind was blowing his hair. He would start to laugh so cutely!

After a few miles we took a little break.



Brandon found a nice climbing tree.


Of-course this little man wanted to join him...



Luckily his Daddy lent him a helping hand to get to a mommy approved height.



After catching our breath we were off to check out the playground.









Aren't they just too sweet!

We decided to go the local trade days that was going on pretty close by the park.
Here are the treasures we got...



A blow up fish that jingles for the boys.



A fancy 50 cent ring for myself.
Brandon picked a matchbox jeep but we didn't get a picture.
Hot, and tired we returned home and watched movies for the rest of the evening.

It was a fantastic ending to a fantastic day!!!

Stay tuned for days 2 & 3...

7th Anniversary

Earlier this month Brandon and I celebrated our seventh anniversary. 7th!! Wow, can it really have been seven years ago. I look back at us on our wedding day and smile because we look so young. We celebrated the best way we knew how. We went to the Temple and did sealings for others who didn't have the opportunity in their own life. It was really special being in the Temple holding my Brandon's hand and looking into his eyes remembering that spinning filling I had seven years ago. I also felt the same if not more so now the strong overwhelming feeling of gratitude, to be so blessed, to have such a man in my life. We have been through a lot over the past seven years. Job changes, moves, difficult pregnancies, surgeries, the list could go on and on. More importantly we have been so richly blessed with two amazing boys, a house all our own, health, laughter, and many great memories. These seven years have been magical and we are ready to take on the coming years hand-in-hand, come what may.



"I love you Brandon Loring Mathis!"
Thank you for choosing me.


"I still can't take my eyes off of you after seven years. Your still a looker!"
-Brandon
(I asked for Brandon's input... )



Through thick and thin its good to take a break and not always be so serious.
Just for fun here are a few

Pass Time

My boy's new favorite pass time...

Donaven get's so anxious when he see's his Daddy driving up the driveway he trys with all his might to pull out the case. Brandon barely gets in the door and Donaven asks "Daddy can we play Ca-Tar?" Brandon tired from work and starving doesn't hesitate for a moment. Indulging his sons with a little daddy time. He is such an amazing Father.

Donaven can now "play" and sing Twinkle Twinkle, and I am a Child of God.
Emerson loves music and happily shakes his little bum along to the beat.

Grammy's Pool Party

Brandon's mother Susan, affectionately known as Grammy, closed on her new house today. She celebrated by inviting friends and family over for a pool party. When we drove up Donaven was so excited he exclaimed, "Mommy look a new house, a new playground, (gasp for air) A NEW POOL!!!"

Needless to say, it was a bit difficult getting him to wait until we had his life jacket safely on before jumping in.

Her pool has a nice attached sitting area just right for getting little ones acclimated to the water. It didn't take Donaven long to get really brave and try swimming out all on his own. He was all over the pool loving every minute.



Emerson enjoyed it as well, riding on floats with Daddy, and trying out his new racer with Mommy.



Coty and Grammy cooling off in the water.


It was really nice having something the whole family could enjoy together. Thanks for having us Grammy. I'm sure we will back for much more fun in the sun!

Library Surprise

The boys and I were at the library for our weekly visit. Enjoying this wonderful free resource of entertainment. Emerson normally can be found strolling around amongst the books.


Donaven's favorite place is playing in the "no play" reading zone, to the librarians chagrin.


Occasionally there are special guests. Today the Artsview Children's Theater was there with their show choir. After the performance, we were about to leave when the Children's Director came in and surprised us all with after show treats...


As you can see they thoroughly enjoyed it!

Play-school : Collage

Every morning I try to incorporate a few educational activities in the routine, we like to call it play-school time. Today was art day. I got my inspiration for this activity from one of my favorite blogs called, "Made by Joel." He is a really talented artist with 3 young children. He specializes in kids crafts and activities. We decided to try one of his collage ideas, taking scraps of scrapbook paper and cutting them into fun shapes and gluing them down to make really fun abstract collages. This was right up Donavens ally. No rules, just pure creative expression.

We discussed the different colors and shapes. His favorite part was me letting him be in charge of the glue like a "big boy." It also was a good exercise to help Donaven with his focus. He normally can sit still a whole 3 minutes in a chair. He amazingly enjoyed this activity so much he didn't want to stop with just one, we made three. We sat at the kitchen table for a good 35 minutes. Impressive, I know!

I like his pieces so much I might frame them and hang them on my wall. It was really nice to spend some quality one-on-one time with Donaven.



Here is a closer look.