Because God is gracious and affirmatively answered our prayers to be closer to our families, we were able to spend Christmas with Mark's side of the family. This is the first time in six years that we were able to be here at this time of the year! Mark had an extra long break this year - so we were in PA for two and a half weeks!
We got to celebrate Matthew's birthday(a little late) in PA this year along with Grandma E. and her brother. Matthew even got his very own cake - his favorite part was the frosting - of course!
Matthew had a wonderful time playing with aunt Cathy and all of her collected rings!
And, yes, we did bring our cats - and we all survived - for the most part. Mackey and Moe enjoyed watching for squirrels. We also think that there might have been a love connection between Moe and Precious(G'ma and G'pa E.'s cat). Not to worry - no chance for offspring there.
Uncle Matt was lots of fun to play with - he was often ready to play with trains or with balloons - which made Matthew very happy.
Grandpop recording.
Matthew with his first Viewmaster.
Keeping it low key.
Mark's parents' town has a really nice children's museum! We plan on going there in future visits.
We had our own New Year's party(at 6pm). We took "out with the old and in with the new" very seriously, as you can see!
Matthew LOVED seeing the big rigs that uncle Brad's family's business own and lease. As per usual, Matthew is quite the stoic while we're there - but, talking to him about it afterwards - it's clear that he loved it all!
We had to get a picture of the king and queen/princess(I think aunt Cathy prefers to be the princess instead of the queen).
Matthew was so kind to share his Ellie - especially with the cats!
He's become quite the puzzle king now! Matthew is loving puzzles and completes them within 5-10 minutes without any assistance from anyone - despite the crossed eyes ;o)!
Uncle Brad invited us out to his sister's farm. Matthew really loved seeing the goats, horses, dogs, chickens and guineas. There would have been more pictures - but I was "filming" the outing - or so I thought. Oops!
After two and a half weeks - it was time to come home. We packed pretty lightly coming out - knowing Mark's very parents would be very generous - as always. I did require a little help from Matthew to zip up one of our suitcases!
And, I can't forget to thank the grandparents for letting Mark and me go out for dates. It's always so nice to have free babysitting!! Both sets of grandparents should really move to Michigan - for Matthew's sake - of course!! ;o)
2 comments:
Ahhhh, the long awaited pictures. What fun! We got another DVD today, too! Whitey and Gerry are fantastic!
Love to all
such sweet pics! I love the new years one with his grandpa! glad you had fun! see you for the BIG DAY in a couple of weeks!
Post a Comment