"...What is Christmas with NO SNOW..."

"...Where it's snowing
All winter through
That's where I want to be
Snowball throwing
That's what I'll do
How I'm longing to ski
Through the snow-oh-oh-oh-oh..."
-Snow, From White Christmas

Ok, I can't seem to get it out of italics... so just deal. We got our first REAL snow. Since Grant was too small to play in it last year, we took him out on his first real snow day. I thought he would shy away from it, but not so! He loved it, and was a bit sad when we took him inside (mainly because I was freezing!).

Ok, again, I keep forgetting that it is loads these backwards... does anyone else have this problem? Here is Grant after we began stripping the layers off of him! If you look closely, Grant is taking the snow off Ben's jacket! haha
Crawling in the snow. SO HAPPY!
More of the same.
Grant and Dad! I think Ben was doing a snow angel, but Grant just wanted to drum on Ben's stomach!
Me and Grant. He FIRST STEP INTO THE SNOW!! Man, do we know how to capture "firsts" or what!? haha

1 year down, 18 more to go :)

Grant turned 1 yesterday. YEAH. He had such a fun day, though the pictures don't show it. This is a combination of last week's cupcakes and this weeks real thing!

Birthday #2 (sorry- the pictures always get put into reverse order... maybe I should add them in a reverse order!). Grant got a cool jacket, some little cars, a saxophone, and our friend, Jesie, made this cute zebra (in the bottom corner). I think Ben and Nate (arms off to the side) had more fun playing with the cars!Grant opening up a car!
All the gifts for him to open!
Okay, this is from Birthday #1. Grant is opening his gift from Grandma Worthen (Old lady). Don't worry... it's in a grocery bad due to lack of wrapping paper!
Grant enjoying a cream puff (they were frozen so he only had some of the puff).

Thanksgiving, FOR REAL!

Our REAL Thanksgiving feast was a feast of food AND friends. Randi, Leighton, Logan, Mindy, Nathaneal, and Todd were all there to eat with us. I think all we did the entire days were EAT EAT EAT and play board games! We had SOOOO much fun, and it was SO hard to see our dear (old and new) friends leave.

Randi and Grant... such the cute couple!
Nathaneal, Leighton and Grant. SO much fun!
Logan and Mindy. I fell in love with them both! They are so much fun!
OK... I know this looks strange, but this was my Turkey. I don't like turkey, so I did rolled up breast and stuffing, and I LOVED IT! It was really good. Hooray for me!
And all our food... it was so good, and we still have left overs!

Thanksgiving Rehearsal Dinner

Cherilyn decided to come visit early so she could get the best airfare! So, we had a "rehearsal dinner" for Thanksgiving. My mom mostly did the cooking. Here are the pics from the eveing!

Laurel (Scoobs), Hilary and Cherilyn. SO BEAUTIFUL!
My dad... wishing he were at Texas Road House, and probably thinking that Ben needs a haircut :)
Ben and the hairy beast he has become (though he has shaved the beard since last week!)
And the TURKEY!! My mom made it... doesn't it look beautiful?!?! mmmmm (oh wait, I don't like Turkey!)

Garage: TAKE 2

Guess what we have 95% finished?! That's right... we can pull our car into the garage!

How does it look? We had a surprise package from Ben's parents the day before Thanksgiving, and lo and behold, it was SHELVES!! Thanks Louise and Barry! The shelves are not pictured!!

And Now- Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for...

LAUGHING... by Grant T. Mathews

GARAGE!!!!!!!

So we have this Garage... It's only big enough to fit the Camry and the motorcycle. However, we have never been able to use it! Today I decided to be CRAZY productive. I started by doing the dishes, then I worked on some laundry (oh- that reminds me- I need to switch it!), then I cleaned the upstairs bathroom, and then I thought that it was time to clean out the garage. It's not that the garage is "messy," it's just full of boxes that Ben and I haven't unpacked (if anyone has helped us move ever, you know- WE OWN SO MUCH STUFF!). I worked for maybe 3 or 4 hours (by the way- Ben didn't help- I did it on my own. But that's not to say he was refusing, he was just busy). Here are the pictures of it so far. It's still a work in progress. I still have about 1/4 left to do. We need to get shelves, but they are too pricey... grrr. Enjoy our "cleanER" garage.

Crazy Child and Good Eats

Hi everyone. I hope we are all recovered from the "historic election." I have discovered that taking pictures of Grant isn't exactly boring, but that Grant makes the same face in all the pictures. He loves the camera, so he smiles/opens his mouth as wide as he can. I also have resolved to making more dinners at home. Enjoy my latest creation!

My pictures are starting to load in reverse order... so here is the final product of my awesome dinner... look good? It was!
This was the main dish- Mexican Chicken Slow Cook. First I put half a package of taco seasoning in and mixed that with a tablespoon of flour. Then I tossed the strips of chicken in that. So top it off, I added on diced green bell pepper, about a cup of salsa and a cup of frozen corn. Cook on slow for about 5-8 hours. SO GOOD!
This was the side dish. I sliced up potatoes and then tossed them with Italian Dressing. Then I laid them out on a greased baking sheet and sprinkled with Parmesan Cheese. Then I baked for 10ish min on one side, turned them over and baked another 10ish min on the other side. Again... SO GOOD.
So we went for a walk to this park yesterday with my friend, Megan and her daughter, Maggie. My other friend, Jesie, is making Grant a hat, mittens, and a coat. So while we were at Old Navy this weekend, this cute hat and mittens set was only $2. Here is my little elf. Nice- eh?
HELLO WORLD!!! He's so funny.
So cute. Grant woke up in the middle of the night (well, a few hours after going to sleep) and this is Dad and son falling asleep on the couch. It's been SO long since they've done this. CUTE!
I LOVE these PJs. What a stud.

Sad Day in American History

I woke up this morning to my son crying. I made him a bottle, grabbed him out of the crib, and gave him the biggest hug in the world. I told him that I would never stop fighting for freedoms in this country.

As the numbers came in last night, I cried. They were NOT tears of joy as everyone else in Grant Park shed. Not only did America put in someone who is not qualified to be the President of the United States, they also gave up our congress as well. There is also the fact that if someone in the Supreme Court dies or leaves, then our new President will be appointing our new judge. Scary world.

But like it or not, he will be the new President. I do not have to like him, but I will only support him as long as he does what is right. Ben and I have already written our Indiana Senators. They will know who we are, and though we alone can not get something done, we pray everyone will have the desire to get involved, to make sure we don't have to tell our children or grandchildren that "Once Upon A Time, we had FREEDOMS."

I will just pray that Mr. Obama proves me wrong. I hope he can do good for the country. I hope congress will get good things done. But if not, they will hear from me. This is OUR country, and I refuse to sit by and let it go to pot.

We've NEVER been asked to do anything huge or sacrifice our lives the way the pioneers or founding fathers did, but now is the time to choose what you stand for. Even in the Church. I think these next few years will be telling of those who are willing to follow the prophets, and those who are either willingly or blindly caught up living OF the world. But it is also wrong just to follow blindly. There is WISDOM in KNOWLEDGE. I have seen good people get sucked up into thinking KEY issues are what they shouldn't be and I can only imagine it's going to get worse. If it weren't for my testimony, I don't know where I would be. I am going to work extra hard to make sure I never loose it. It is going to be tested, and there is a chance that it may even shake. But we know that with the Lord's help, GOOD WILL CONQUER! Fear is the opposite of faith, and faith is an action word. Sitting idly by will only make us move back because if you are not rolling UP a hill, you are rolling down.

Please don't just let things happen. I have been so moved to DO something. I hope everyone else will do the same.

-Rochelle

EvenFlow & I Got You Babe

Halloween last year was a lot of fun. But now that we have a child, we obviously have one more person to dress. I am not a fan of "cute" costumes for kids. Some are just cheaply made, while others try to hard to be "cute." So Ben and I have decided that our children are going to be unique for Halloween. So- anyone remember Pearl Jam? Anyone remember the lead singer? Well, Grant was Eddie Vedder. He totally ruined his outfit before we took pictures, but imagine our cute kid with his black rock and roll t-shirt, a red flannel shirt on top, jean shorts, high socks and black converse. He was pretty awesome... only the cool people figured out who he was!! Ben and I decided to go with Sonny and Cher. I found some awesome heals that ended up hurting my feet- so not pictured. Ben sported a Jet Black hair job... nice. All in all, we had a fun Halloween doing a Trunk or Treat, and then answering the door maybe 3 times. Enjoy our pictures!!

Here is Sonny with the former Eddie Vedder. I think we'll just call Grant "In Rehab Eddie"

Haha.. here is Cher with Rehab Eddie

And the lovely family. Rehab Eddie's face is the best. (No- I am not prego... just an awful pic)

We have seen this ghost a few times on our porch, and we finally have documentation that he exists!! hmm... looks a lot like Ben!

Cross Stitch!!

I had made up my mind that I needed to get a hobby. So off to the store I went to see what I would be OK at doing. I found some string, needles, and a canvas bag. Earlier I found a pattern online for this cute little bird done by cross stitch. Here is my work!

This is the little book bag/tote that I worked on. Very first of many projects that I will be working on now (seeing that I did an OK job!).
This is the bird close up. It's not great, but I got the hang after a while. I need to figure a way to make the pattern easier to follow other than dots.
And what is a post without pictures of GRANT!? Here is our skinny little man- drool and all... maybe that's why he's so skinny- he just drools all his weight away!
I love this picture! Ben and Grant love to play together. This was after church yesterday. What studs I have in my little family!!

October Fests

It's been a while since my last post- and lots has gone on. Too bad our batteries died and we were not in picture mode for most of it. Grant and Jesie and I went to the Parke County, IN Covered Bridge Fest. There were WAY more people there than anticipated, and we were glad that ALL those people were there to NOT see the bridges, but rather the tents full of sales! Then our little family took a nice trip to Chicago to go see Laurel's Homecoming! She did a great job cheering and baning that base drum (the drum was the same size as her!). Here are a few pics from the bridges we saw. I'll be better at picture taking this week!
It was so HOT at this fesitival. This is just before we left to go see some bridges!
If you look close enough, you'll notice that this bridge was built in 1861!!! Amazing.
I just thought this was so beautiful. The day was spent ooing and ahhing at all the pretty colors.
You win if you can figure out WHY it says "cross this bridge at a walk?" Anyone??
This bridge is actually over 300 feet long! It was beautiful. Unfortunately, this was the last picture before the batteries.

Just south of Indy, there is this cool apple orchard. I took Grant, and a new friend, Jesie (who's husband is the other guitar player with Ben) with me, and we had a blast! First, we picked apples, then we found the Red Raspberry bushes... I collected them while Jesie and Grant ate them! He now likes raspberries. This orchard also had the coolest things for sale, so I bought some pumpkin spread. I will tell you how I like it when I try it.

This is down the Granny Smith Apple aisle... we hardly found any :(Grant got mad when we took it away from him, of course. He loves sour things! So funny.

These Golden Delicious Apples were only on the very top of the tree, so up I went.

I had to make sure there were no worms.

Perfect.

Now it was Grant's turn to pick some Fugi Apples... he had fun!

Getting closer...

GOT IT! Now that he's got 4 teeth, he loves what he can do with them!

I love how it looks like he's checking Jesie out! Nice.

The End.