It's been quite a while and sooo much has happened. Let me get you updated.

We adopted a beagle in February from an animal shelter in Virginia. We named him "Ray", which was (in a round about way) the name Patty chose for him. Here is a picture of him:

He is a good dog, and while he doesn't replace my Lexi-pooh, it is nice to have a companion and he fits in very well with our family (As I type this he is laying at my feet sleeping).

Patty started Sunbeams at church this year. The first couple of weeks were crazy and she wouldn't sit still, however, she has calmed down quite a bit. We realized (actually, Ashley did) that when he takes her to Primary, she does a lot better than when I take her, so he now officially has the job of taking her to Primary each Sunday, while mama heads straight for Sunday School.

A couple weeks ago Ashley had a work trip he had to take to Boston. We decided to make a family event out of it. All of us went, Ashley took Friday off, and we explored Boston together (Patty and mama had been out exploring the previous day, but it was wet and rainy so we didn't get to far) Boston is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL city with lots and lots of old architecture in their buildings. The ONLY thing I can say bad about Boston is the parking. It is either ATROCIOUS to find a parking spot or you pay up the wazoo for it. Here are some pictures from our trip:

We stayed at the Westin Hotel in downtown Boston. We were on the top floor (35th story) of the hotel. This was my first view of Boston (we arrived after 10:00 p.m. - we were delayed leaving so that we could wait for the mail and my camera that was in the mail to arrive.)

I didn't realize until morning when I could see what the view was that we actually had. We were overlooking Boston Harbor.

The morning of the tour started off VVEEERRRYYYY COLD!!! Patty had lost her mittens somewhere on the way up so we had to stop at a CVS and buy her some (oversized) mittens!

This is the view from the Trolley as we crossed the Charles River from Boston into Cambridge (where Harvard is located).

I actually took this picture of the Fire Station the day before the trolley tour and found out some neat trivia on it during the tour. It is a historic landmark and cannot be changed, unfortunately, the doors for the fire station are not big enough to fit a fire truck so the fire trucks have to be modified to fit in the doors.

Beautiful Fenway Park. A wonderful gentleman there who was working on some construction project took this picture for us (after he graciously allowed us inside to see Fenway Park). This was Ashley's favorite stop on the tour. Followed (very closely by):

The USS Constitution is actually a commissionable ship (can be called up to go to war). It is the oldest still working ship. It was very interesting seeing the insides where the navy men slept and ate and worked.

And, of course, I had to get a picture of the government taking our money (all told we spent about $70 in tolls):

Love and miss you all!!
The Matteson's

Wow, okay, sorry... I haven't posted in a while... quite a while! Just wanted to give everyone a quick (probably) update on us and what we have going on.

Patty and myself visited Arizona for 3 weeks in October. It was a spur of the moment, fly out there to try and get the house fixed up and hopefully refinanced. Unfortunately, while we were approved, the market has dropped so much that we were going to have to come up with thousands more dollars than we had originally planned on. Anyway, *GASP* I can't believe I'm going to do this (those of you who know me, know why I say that), but I'm going to put up some SOOC (Straight out of the Camera) pictures. I hate doing this. I always know how much more I can do to make them look better before sending them out, but I just don't have the gumption right now to do that.

Here is Patty and a cutie patootie little girl named Alecia (pronounced Uh lee see a). It was sooo fun to watch the two of them color and share crackers back and forth! :)

I swear, on the plane, my daughter's "good twin" came out. She was nice and polite and just enjoyed coloring and eating crackers. I am not sure where it came from... fortunately the good twin returned for the flight home (but has yet to be seen again!)

We visited with Grandma and Patty got to ride on Grandma's scooter with her and go on the "bumpy umps" as Grandma calls them (and Patty now calls them). Here's a picture of the two of them:

Patty is still talking about going on bumpy umps every time we go out. :) (I think she had a little bit of fun, don't you?)

Awesome Auntie Laurie took Patty to the Zoo on the Friday before we left. She even got to ride the camel with Auntie Wowrie. Here are a few pictures from the zoo:

Auntie Wowrie spoiled her favoritest adopted niece, because, as she put it "how often do I get to see her... uhmmm.... like, never!" okay, so maybe that wasn't a perfect quote, but it was darned close! (LOVE YOU LAURIE!!! TOTALLY MISS YOU!!! AND YOU TOO BECKY!!!) (Sorry, just had to put that in!)

Unfortunately, I didn't get all the pictures copied from Auntie Wowrie's computer to mine before we left, so there are a lot of pictures out there that I don't have (but she promised to bring them to me when she comes out in December! YEAH!)

Life since we've been back has been pretty uneventful. Ashley, Patty and I have been passing around some sort of virus since Patty and I returned to Maryland. We are hoping it is almost gone. We had a laid back Thanksgiving. Just the three of us. It was really weird. I am so used to being around bunches of people at someone's house for Thanksgiving. I made my first turkey ever, and Ashley pretty much did everything else! :) I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before because I was determined to make it to CVS for there Thanksgiving Day sales! :) After there many free with store bucks items combined with the coupons I had, they ended up paying me to shop with them! :) How fun was that! (And I got a LOT of good free stuff - Aussie Shampoo and Conditioner's; cool lip glosses; Garnier Cleansing Towelettes; and 5 things of Gilette Clinical Strength Deodorant!). Gotta love a great deal! :)

Oops, before I close (and I almost forgot to post these, lol) here are the family pictures we had taken at Wal-mart (we bought the CD so posting these is totally legal!) -

With love and hope for a wonderful Christmas Season for all -

The Matteson's

Papa and Patty's Big Date

I hope you are sitting down! I don't know what the shock of seeing two blog posts from me in one week might do to you! :)

Patty and Ashley had a "Big Date" on September 13th. Patty had been looking forward to it as soon as mama and papa started talking about it. What was her big date with papa, you ask? Well... what gets Patty excited?

A. Elmo
B. Big Bird
C. Cookie Monster
D. Grover
E. All of the Above.


If you guessed "E" you would be totally correct (all the rest you'd just be 25% correct, lol!) Yep, Patty and Papa went to see the Sesame Street Live Performance of "Elmo's Green Thumb" at the 1st Mariner Arena and Baltimore.











Patty had an absolute blast! :) Papa really treated her while they were there! :) She got Dippin Dots -


and french fries. Papa even let her pick out ONE thing from the "Elmo Store". She chose a ball (what could be better for Patty than a ball with the entire Sesame Street gang on it? Not much!)
You can see it in this picture:


It's at Patty's eye level off to the right. She just loves that ball.

On the way home, Patty fell asleep. Ashley called me and said, wanna go for a drive? I said sure! :) Just let me get dressed! (HAHA - It was a lazy day for me since Patty was gone!) I went downstairs and joined them in the car. We ended up driving to D.C. and walked the National Mall. I, of course, left the camera in the car (which was at the Park and Ride as we took the Metro in to save on parking headaches!) Once out of the Smithsonian Metro Exit we sat on the National Mall and ate our Sub Sandwiches (which we had brought with us). Patty had devoured all the Potato chips on the Metro, and so, being full she decided to run around and explore! That definitely made for a quick lunch! From there we went to the Capital and back. We stopped at the Capital Gardens. A beautiful sight to behold. As we continued on to the Capital, what passed us but a group of tourists on Segway's (the scooter that you stand up and ride on!) I hadn't seen any group like that before and thought "how lazy", however, after walking up and up and up to the Capital Building, I started thinking how smart, lol! :) On the way back from the Capital Building we started passing some of the Smithsonian Buildings (we decided to walk down the opposite side of the National Mall). And, remember when I couldn't find the Museum of Natural History? Yep, there it was - in plain sight! :) How silly am I? VERY! :) We only had a few minutes before it closed, but Patty loved the massive elephant in the main entry and the dinosaurs off to the right. Of course, I loved the ice cold water I forced Ashley to go buy (Yes, we had brought water bottles with us, but who knew 3 bottles of water weren't going to be enough to ward off our thirst?!?!) (darn humidity and heat!!)

Well, I'm gonna go now - things to do and couches to rest on! :)

Love you all and miss you all very much!! :) Take Care!!

Another day, another adventure!
Thanks for reading!
The Matteson's

Well, here we are in September. The air is crisp and cool at night and the days are beautiful (getting into the mid 70's during the day). I am so waiting for the colors to start changing. Ever since living in Illinois Fall has been my favorite season (followed closely by my least favorite season - winter) Patty and mama are getting lots of walking time in while we still can. We've had lots of fun this month so far (papa, too!). I love living within walking distance of so many shopping centers. We are 100 yards from our village center (it's an East Coast thing). About 3/4 of a mile from the Target shopping center (which also has a Toys 'R Us among many different shopping options) and another 1/2 mile further is the Wal Mart Shopping Center (again with many other shopping options)

Ashley was working for a week in Virginia (in one of the cities that is considered a D.C. suburb) a couple weeks ago. On the first day, he took Patty and myself to tour the afternoon in D.C. while he was working. We had a blast!! And, for once, Patty was worn out!! YEAH!!! :)

Patty had her first "Metro" ride. That is the train that runs metro D.C. (all us insiders, call it the Metro! lol) Here she is "holding on" to the railing.

She loved the ride there, the ride back, well THAT was entirely another story (more about that later!) Our first stop was quite unexpected. As we got off at our stop, I turned the wrong way and instead of heading for the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, we ended up heading towards the Washington Monument. On our way there, I spotted the United States Holocaust Museum. We (actually, I) decided to go in and see what there was to see. No pictures are allowed, and honestly, it is something you have to see for yourself to understand the immensity of it. One of the exhibit was thousands of SHOES that had survived one of the incinerators. The museum was laid out from beginning to end of the entire holocaust. What an extremely moving museum. Next time, though, Patty isn't going with me (yes, there will be a next time! Even in the 1 1/2 I spent there I didn't get to take in NEARLY what there was to see). Before you enter the elevators to go to the exhibit, you are given a "passport". Inside you read about someone who went through the holocaust. Some of them survived, others didn't. It makes the whole museum more meaningful.

After the Holocaust museum Patty and I kept wandering towards the Washington Monument. Instead of stopping there, I just snapped a couple of pictures:

Our next stop was the World War II Memorial. It is located just west of the Washington Monument. It was quite amazing. There were even some WWII Vets there telling about their experiences. Absolutely loved it.

Our next stop was the Jefferson Memorial. It is probably about a 3/4 of a mile walk from the WWII Memorial. Before we'd even crossed one street, Patty was asleep. She had been fighting it for awhile, so I was glad she finally succombed. I remembered why I don't like umbrella strollers. Patty's head was in a forward position for most of the time. I even tried making her a make shift pillow to help, but it kept falling out of place with every jostle of the stroller, so she finally ended up like this:

Of course, we had a great view from where I propped her up to sleep. The Potomac and Jefferson Memorial. :) Loved it. After Patty's hour long nap, we finished our trip to the Jefferson Memorial. However, she was having none of having to sit in the stroller anymore, so she ended up pushing the stroller!

I think Patty's favorite part of the day was the Jefferson Memorial. And, no, she doesn't know anything about Jefferson, but boy did she have fun at his memorial. This was her favorite part:

Yep, you guessed it. The stairs. And, when I say stairs, I don't mean a piddly 10 or 12 stairs. There are probably a total of 60 steps. Imagine having a toddler who ONLY wants to go up and down these steps while the adult gets stuck carrying the stroller and tote up and down each time. Fun stuff!! NOT!!! :) All in all I think we went up and down the steps probably a half dozen times. Her next favorite thing were the benches, but Patty, she took the benches to a whole new level, jumping up, walking across, and jumping down than running (faster than mama could get to her) to the next one and starting all over! ARGH!! Toddlers!!

Of course, by the time we got on the Metro to go back to Virginia (where Ash was picking us up at) It was the "commuting hour". The Metro was sooo packed that Patty had to sit on my lap, because everyone was crammed in like sardines with no place to move. Talk about an interesting ride (especially with a toddler who was sooooo cranky! I ended up singing to her just so she would calm down!)

As you can (hopefully) tell from the pictures both Patty and myself had a blast and can't wait to go back again and visit more places (who knew there was SO MUCH FREE stuff to do in D.C.!) Our next stop will likely be an extended visit to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum (which we ended up finding on our last trip to D.C. which we took with Papa).

Have a Great Night Everyone! :) We Miss and Love you all out there!! :) :) :)

Don't forget to let us know what is going on in all of your lives!! :)

Another day, another adventure!
Thanks for reading!
The Matteson's

Properly Chastised and Patty's Haircut

Well, I have been properly chastised by both Becky and Laurie for not having blogged in awhile, so I am taking care of that by blogging. I promised over 2 weeks ago to post the pictures of Patty's first hair cut, and never got around to it (or, as my dad would say - I didn't choose to get around to it).

We were at the mall that night because Ashley had taken off his glasses while he was in the shower and Patty thought it would be great fun to try them on (by bending them any which way she could until they broke). We went to LensCrafters to have them fixed. The Mall here is owned by the same people who own the Sierra Vista Mall (and they were just as clever in naming it. It is called "The Mall at Columbia") It is quite a bit bigger (about the size of the Tucson Mall) and so is much more enjoyable to browse and see all there is to see. After we were done getting his glasses fixed, we just started wandering around. It has quite a few smaller shops along with the normal anchor stores. Towards the end of Patty's patience, what did my eye spy? A KIDS haircutting place (aptly named Cartoon Cuts). PERFECT! I hadn't taken Patty to get her much needed hair cut, because I wasn't sure how she would react in a normal place. This place was just the ticket I was looking for. SCORE!!!!

We walked in and were immediately impressed - Television's at every hair cutting station. All you had to do was tell them what video to put on, and WALLAH! magic! (LOL... at least that's what I think!!) Patty was immediately mesmerized watching a "My Little Pony" Video. YEAH!

This picture shows perfectly where her attention was the entire time her hair was getting cut -

right at the t.v. :) And she was definitely NOT happy when the lady cutting her hair got in front of her and the television:

Anyway, all of this typing to say that she has now had her very first hair cut, and all went well.

Hope everyone is having a great night/evening (depending on your time zone!)

Take Care!

The Matteson's

Well, here for less than a week and Ashley drug (actually I drug him, lol) on a road trip. We went to visit his awesome Sister, Chris and her family before they left the D.C. area for Hungary!! (They are leaving today!!) They lived in Falls Church, Virginia on the sixth story of an apartment building (and I thought I was gonna die... lol... the images that went through my head concerning falling off the balcony or the floors falling out from underneath me... yikes...). Despite my racing mind, I had a wonderful time with them. Jacqui showed me her Sims 2 expansion packs (which I like totally need now, lol.. thanks Jacqui!!) Here are a few of the pictures of Patty and Aunt Chris in the swimming pool...

Here she's trying to get back in... lol... (She's over here saying "look Patty Swimming" She even said "Aunt Chrissy" once). She had an absolute blast with Aunt Chris!Here's a fun video of the two of them in the pool -

Wish they were staying in D.C. longer, but very glad we got to meet them before they left! Here is everyone (minus Jacob - he was with friends and the one picture I snapped of him is blurry.... blech!) -

You all enjoy Hungary! We will miss you!! :) :) :)

And now, just for Becky - we took a "driving" tour of D.C. - here are some of the pictures I took:

Something fun happened on our way out of town. We saw the motorcade with the guy who lives in this building in it pass in front of us. -

Okay, almost done, lol ;) A few facts about the D.C. Temple. It's not actually in Washington D.C. It's actually in Maryland! The church had to dim the lights at night because it was causing too many accidents (it appears out of nowhere!) and when there is an accident or a slow down near the temple the news people say "It's slow going from (where ever the slow down starts) to the Mormon Temple." And Here's one last video.

Thanks for sticking in with me during this long post! All you Collett's out there have fun at reunion this weekend!!

Another day, another adventure!
Thanks for reading!
The Matteson's