| 1995-2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | Maggie had her first holiday concert, and like the boys, she did all the motions, but rarely moved her mouth. I think her favorite part was waving to us. Tim & Peter we're on the same basketball team this year - they had a good season going undefeated. Jen and I took a Saturday (without the kids) to go see Uncle Dan get his 1st degree Black Belt in Iowa City. It was a lot of fun. Then it was off to G & G Fisher's house for Christmas #1. Lots of cookies and old beer. Lots of spoiled grandkids, too. Christmas at the Matthews house was crazy (again), and included a progressive dinner that night. Snow related activities were a big hit this month due to the abundance of powder. Good ol' fashioned snowball fights, and some sledding & snowboarding. Finished off the month with a Cyclone bowl party! Clones won! Dancing and pig piling ensued. Holiday concerts. Winter basketball. Snowball fight! Holiday baking. Dan's Black Belt test. Xmas at Fisher's. Christmas day. Big hill sledding. Cyclone bowl party. December fun. Finally remembered to bring a camera to Sunday school, so we could watch Mom keeping little ones (including Maggie) engaged with really neat Bible stories. Tim turned 12 this month, and got a lot of music related gifts including a guitar stand, guitar music books, and an iPod stereo. Then the holidays began...starting off with a visit from G&G Matthews. Grampa tried to force feed us stinky fish, so we had to keep him busy playing games and admiring trophies. Then it was over to Fisher's on Thanksgiving Day. We had a cute "Fisher Grandkids" photo session followed by a not as cute "Guerilla Warfare" photo session. The next day was the Matthews Thanksgiving that only involved about 20 people (not the usual 50 or more). Weather was nice enough to play some T-giving football. Grampa stepped in for QB a few times, and Mommy, for the first time EVER, came out and played with us. She was a little sore the next day (ok, more than a little). Sunday school. Tim's 12th birthday. G&G Matthews visit. Fisher Thanksgiving. Matthews Thanksgiving. T-giving football. November fun. Maggie made it to Brown Belt...and now she's ready for a break from Tae Kwon Do. We figured she needed one after she got in "trouble" during her test and was told to do push ups. This was her version of a pushup. Then it was off to the Stoll's for a chili cookout. Tractor rides, chili, and a big bonfire. Halftime entertainment of a Cyclone game was the debut of the Matthews Family Living Room Band. Nick played lots of soccer this month and Dad had a blast taking pics of him with his new camera. Uncle Jim got the boys going on a some fun backyard games. And in case you didn't see it, the 4 times that it appeared in a newspaper or on bulletin boards all over the county, Mom won a big 1st place trophy at a Tae Kwon Do tournament in women's sparring. We're super proud of her, although Peter had to tell Mom that the trophy was plastic, and not gold. Thanks Peewee :). Another halloween came and went with lots of cool costumes and some neat pumpkins, including Maggie own "pukin' pumpkin". Maggie's TKD test. Chili cookout. Gameday get together. Soccer. Visit to G&G Fishers. Golfball games. Tae Kwon Do tourney. Halloween 2009. October fun. Had a nice long relaxing Labor Day weekend at Lake Panorama this month. There were a few tense moments, like when Maggie lost a tooth and bled all over an apple, or a freak wakeboarding accident that left our nephew's lip swollen (sorry Josh!). Nathan turned 13... and we have nothing more to say about this. In addition to turning 13, Nathan also played football (wearing number 6). He was relieved that his Dad didn't play when he was younger so he didn't have to listen to any advice. Big news for Dad this month! He finally got his digital SLR - or "fancy camera" as the family likes to call it. Many cool photos have already been taken with it (here, here, and here). Saved the best for last...in addition to taking care of 5 children and driving a school bus, Mom has added breaking concrete to her resumé. Very impressive. Labor Day at Panora. Nathan's 13th birthday. Football & soccer. New camera - the park. September fun. Many visits to Lake Panorama this month. Jen's friends from Tae Kwon Do classes came to visit for one weekend. Also had a visit from a mink that the boys trained by feeding it little sunfish. Eventually, the boys could just slap the patio, and the mink would come looking for fish! Maggie enjoyed telling everyone she could that she caught a bass this month. Nathan and Tim also spent some time waterskiing. Then something very exciting happened...ALL 5 kids went off to school. The fist time we haven't had at least 1 kid at home in 13 years! It's eerily quiet in the mornings after they all leave. Finished the month with Prariefest, that included a very cool hot air ballons at night demonstration on Friday. And Saturday, there was the parade and TK demo. The kids spent most of the time on the inflatable amusements. We enjoyed watching the kids crawl in a big purple dragon's mouth, and eventually crawl out the dragon's butt. Lake visit. Lake visitors. More at the Lake. Prairie Fest - Day 1. Prairie Fest - Day 2. August fun. Started off this month with an Independence Day weekend at Lake Panorama. The cabin is reaching maximum capacity with 8 adults and 11 grand kids (and #12 is on the way!). The weather was cool, but that didn't stop us from swimming. Our yearly trip to Adventureland included Maggie for the first time. There were lots of kiddie rides for her (and Dad) while she watched her big brothers go of big-kid rides. Also had a fun swim meet this month called the "Pineapple Pentathalon". Nick (Pineapple), Nathan (Grapes), and Tim (Banana) all won fruit for their efforts... I don't get it either. Our littlest boy turned 9 and finally got the Nintendo DS that he'd been saving and working for all Spring and Summer. His brother's were a little jealous, which is just how he likes them. And finally, our big summer vacation was finally here - the Matthews Family Reunion at Kamp Kenwood, Wisconsin. We spent a whole week at a campground with over 50 family members doing the following...eating, over-eating, swimming, diving, conjuring, kicking, pouring, roasting, jumping, breaking, leaping, playing, catching, gaming, ponging, canoeing, cross-dressing, digging, glowing, painting, running, biting and smiling. You can see why we only do it every 3 years. July 4th weekend. Adventureland! Ballard Sharks meet. Nick's 9th b-day. Family reunion Part 1. Family reunion Part 2. Family reunion Part 3. July fun. June was just the beginning of a wild and crazy summer. The biggest news this month was that Jen started a swim team! After months and months of planning and organizing, the Ballard Sharks Swim Team was formed. The boys were SO excited to be having practice at 7 in the morning! Two exciting trips were on the schedule for this month. Peter rode a train on his 10yr old trip with G & G Fisher to Glacier National Park. Peter had a lot of fun, and even got to catch a fish that he'd never caught before. Then Nathan and his Mom traveled to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado for a week of hiking and camping with the Boy Scouts. Mom liked it so much that the whole family is going next summer. Finished off the month with a trip into Ames for Josh's birthday party. Maggie's TK test. Ballard swim team! Bike ride. Peter's 10yr old trip. Scout trip to Colorado. Josh's b-day party. June fun. Weather was finally warming up this month so we could get outside for backyard soccer and tea parties. Peter ran track this Spring and competed in a couple of track meets. He said he likes practicing, but that meets weren't as fun because "you spend most of the time just sitting around waiting for your event to start." Peter's not a fan of sitting still. Nick and Nathan did soccer this season. Nathan even had a soccer game in Panora, so we made a lake trip out of it. Some nice weekend trips to Lake Panorama involving some big catfish for the fall catfish fry, long walks, and swimming in frigid water. Grandpa Fisher had a momentary lapse in judgment as he gave boat driving lessons. He seems a little too calm in this picture. Our little nephew, Luka, turned 1 and had his first birthday party. The party was a lot of fun, and was highlighted by the rising water in uncle Jeff's toilet as the sewer backed up into his house. Here's how he deals with the stress.Tim had an exciting new purchase this month - an electric guitar! So in addition to piano lessons, now our Mr. Musical is taking guitar lessons, too. Spring outdoors. Track meet. Spring soccer. At the Lake. Back to the Lake. Luka's b-day party. May fun. Nick was the latest Black Belt addition to the Tae Kwon Do family this month.We were all very proud to see him make it so far for such a little guy. Easter excitement was at an all-time high for Maggie and our Easter pic of the kids was a mild failure. At least maggie smiled. Easter at the Fisher's included guitar hero and an outdoor hike in search of animal bones. Later in the month was Grandpa Fisher's 60th birthday party and little baby Ryan's baptism. The photos of the month goes to Jen - she took some pics of Maggie and her doll getting promoted to a new belt in TK class. Makes us smile every time we look at them. Nick's Black Belt test. Easter 2009. Easter at Fisher's. Jim's 60th b-day party. April fun. Annual Pinewood Derby with Peter's army tank car (big surprise) and Nick's slick rocket car. Both of them did well and had fun. Then we forced Nathan to have a "Scouts" picture taken of him and his brothers - he tells us that he thinks he was adopted. The Matthews house took on another 10 year old this month. Top 3 gifts for Peter's birthday included a giant tackle box, a swiss army knife, and an airsoft pellet gun. In hindsight, I think we had a serious case of temporary insanity here. Then it was time for our little Princess to be in the spotlight - not are rare place for her. Maggie turned 5, and routinely reminds us that she's not our baby anymore (sniff). She got to have 2 parties (a princess needs at least 2), and loves to crack us up with her fancy words. "A fancy word for stupid is unintelligent!". Our big spring break trip was a day at the Mall of America. We had to take Maggie to the doll store for a wardrobe update. And the boys had a blast at the lego store. Exciting news - we got a trampoline!! The boys saved their paper route money and even sold some of their video games to pay for it. It's been a huge hit so far. Finally, we should point out that Nathan had his first clarinet solo recital. G&G Matthews were there to see him get a 1+! Scouts stuff. Peter's 10th birthday. Maggie's bday - Part 1. Backyard basketball. Maggie's bday - Part 2. Mall of America. New trampoline! March fun. Gracie turned 3 at the beginning of this month. She's very cute! We even took the time to assemble all the Fisher grandkids for a photo at the party. The results we're mixed, but with 11 of them (ages 0-12), our smile rate was over 60%. Pretty good. Then, the BIG event for the month took place. Our little Peewee became a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. He impressed us all with his strength, stamina, and board-breaking. But most of all, we were impressed with his focus....it's not his strongest suit. Mommy's upgrade from temporary black belt to 1st degree also happened. It was an exciting day for both of them (and the rest of us, too). Board breaking fundraiser at a Des Moines mall was fun The boys were in heaven having an unlimited number of boards to break. G&G Matthews came over for a visit on their way home from a 2 month trip down south. They came back tan and refreshed. We were pale and jealous. Grace's birthday. Black Belt tests. Mall board breaking. February fun. Our New Year's-Bowl Game party was a lot of fun. Highlighted by the boys smashing Peter's pinata with plastic lightsabers. Our little nephew, Christopher, turned 2 and got a bunch of G.I. Joe toys. A trip down memory lane for his Dad and for his Uncle Pete. The Stoll's were nice enough to let us sled down their big hill. The boys were in heaven. However, Maggie got snow on her face the first trip down the hill and that was the end of that. Tim had his first concert playing the trombone. He's really enjoying it. New Year's Day. Christopher's Bday. Big hill sledding. Snow days. January fun.