Happy Birthday Sweets

the best birthday present ever!!!! a "Larry SOLD another one!" sign on our front lawn. That means we'll be home for Christmas, for good. I know what everyone's thinking, "a festivous miracle!" and it's true. you can all bear your testimonies next fast sunday on the reality of miracles happening every day.

but onto a funner topic. matt's 33rd b-day. whoa! in lew of getting your present in the mail and to you on time--this'll have to do- at least until friday.

some of our all-time favorite pictures of matty
his blessing day

Matt is the toe-head in the middle, go figure. this is his first stint in germany.

Honey, you still are a pepper.

Matt wil have to explain this one. We just love the mustache and the NFL belt.

A Matt's birthday tradition. A Christmas cake from Backers. no matter where they were stationed, matt was always in SL for his birthday.

Matt's baptism at the Tabernacle with 3 of his cousins, david cockayne, brandon brown, matt, and yes, his cousin, the other matt mcqueen

Jr. High graduation. Matt's pants are now his temple pants. ok not quite, but close. come on honey, please let me get you a new pair of temple pants!
Jr. in high school in germany again
living with Ardes (matt's 97 yr old grandma) and going to the U right before we met.

law student turned secret service agent turned banker= a wonderful husband and dad.

i love you sweets. hope your big day is great even without us. maybe if malee sees this she can make you your favorite cake, her german chocolate cake special.

X O x O x o O X x

...and we missed you at the ward party

well, matt's missing a lot this holiday season. chuck e. cheese's, ward parties (where eli fell into the front of the chair in these pictures giving himself a bloody nose and a cut lip. that always makes for christmas fun at any ward party), amazing jakes on friday, annual open house at the duncan's on sunday, his birthday next week... the list goes on. and while i think that he's missing out on a lot, it seems like we are missing out on a lot too. not getting to be there to hug him after his first day at a new job, not getting to share mealtimes together, not getting a good night sleep because eli loves to get a visit from dad at 2am or so. missing his cute face walk in the door after a long day and know that he'll take all four kids for the rest of the evening.

it's all the harder as it seems the holidays are make-believe this year. we didn't put up lights, a tree, or decorations (except for stockings) and it's heartbreaking to see every one's homes so beautiful and festive and ours with a for sale sign on the front lawn. we'll make it to matt's parents in time to decorate their tree but it doesn't feel the same to not have "our tree" and "our homemade decorations" that we've had forever, it seems. this christmas will be the christmas that we were floaters. the christmas of spending all our time cleaning instead of making fun christmas messes, cookie decorating, gingerbread houses, giant spice drop balls, red and green paper chains, pine needles all over the living room, wrapping paper and ribbon scattered throughout, christmas books out and always open. yes, we're missing out on a lot this year. but years like these will make the next all the more sweet. we can't wait to get to where ever it is we're going. excited for this transition, just tired of it already :)

we missed you at chuck e. cheese

catch you next time, honey. we know how much you love the pizza at upchuck e. cheese!

matt's last day

well, matt headed back to utah today for the last time as a colorado resident. his new job with zions bankco starts tomorrow and our life of being separated until our house sells begins. hooray! makes for a fabulous holiday season :( although we're sad to split for a bit--we'll come through. i think we've been sufficiently prepared on how to function as a family while we're living apart. matt is excited for this new challenge. he's working in a position that we didn't think would cross our path for a few years so we're feeling really blessed. the kids and i will head over for christmas and, depending on the house, will come back if we need to, which is looking more and more likely as our house, cute as it is (wink, wink), hasn't sped off the market like we'd anticipated (again, wink, wink). so those of you out there expecting your own personal holiday greetings from the mcqueens, expect a card in February (or march). hopefully by then we'll have a new address to announce (keep those fingers crossed)

on to a thanksgiving flashback.

we did go home for thanksgiving to have a look around at neighborhoods and areas. we still have no idea what part of the valley we'll call home but were encouraged that maybe we'll be able to afford something.

we had thanksgiving at jus and lucy's with my side of the family with everyone there except shem and luisa. my kids were in 7th heaven surrounded by so many cousins. we've missed so many family events that they can't wait to get back into the mix.

grandma and grandpa the creators of these chaotic children :) love you m&d. was fun to see you and reconnect a bit before we come back and take over
the four first graders--spencer, sam, jackson, and isaac. oh boy. look out for these four. they're crazy--isaac loved every minute of wrestling, tackling, teasing the girls, jumping, sword fighting, the list could go on.
mallory, in her second of four outfits that graced the thanksgiving table. i think these are viv's pjs. what's wrong with tiger stripes and china?

megan and maren. have been bestest buds since the womb. 5 weeks apart and only separated by 600 miles--not for long. sleepovers await

the post dinner mess. many hands means a huge cleanup. fortunately everyone does their part and who cares if your doing dishes if your gabbing with the gals right?

the newest hawes. sarah ann hawes. just a week old--ok maybe 2 but still the cutest little peanut with the most well defined features for a newborn that i've ever seen. jared and dana can't be done when they produce such beauty. right guys?

Isaac's first turkey bowl. because of his innate love for tackling, this is the sport for him. much to mom's dismay. football drives me crazy. (sorry rachie) but the boys and the dads got a chance to release all their wiggles.

eli, who slept through the whole of dinner, enjoyed his own thanksgiving meal.

thanks everyone for the great food and great time. i fear this is my last family function where i will be allowed to show up empty handed while my mom, sister, and sisters-in-law do all the prep and bring all the fabulous food. i somewhat enjoy the role i've played for the last four years as visitor and guest instead of hired hand but all unfair things must come to an end...or what ever a good saying is to sum up this entry.

anyone interested?

Last week at this time, we were planning on being in Colorado forever. This week, poof... our house is up for sale and we're headed back to Salt Lake. just like that. Our time here is up and we're moving on to new and great adventures back in the motherland.

On Friday morning, Matt accepted a job he didn't apply for with Zion's Bank. And in two days, we have this red, white, and blue sign magically appear on our front lawn. Now if someone will magically buy the house attached to this lawn. Matt starts in SL in 3 weeks and we're in the one of the worst housing market slumps in history. This doesn't bode well for the McQueens and their attempts to be moved by Christmas. So tell your friends, tell your neighbors. Come have a looksy. We're desperate and we've only had our house up for a day and a half.

ps Megan is very irked about jump rope team--probably not a good subject :)

The new Megs

After asking for weeks, Mom finally granted Megan's wish and cut bangs. The reason all my children and husband have one haircut for boys and one for girls is because that's all Mom knows how to cut. Bangs have always been a little too complicated for my amateur self. This week for enrichment one of the sisters in our ward (who is the hairstylist for half of denver) taught a little class on haircutting. Megs begged me to ask her about bangs so i did and with a few of her tips under my belt, we gave it a shot. She couldn't be happier. I'm sure when Angela sees her on Sunday, she may have a few more tips. I hope she just doesn't look too close :) Also this week Megan found out she made the jump rope team at school. She wasn't even going to try out because she was nervous competing against all the older kids but she did great and has her first practice tonight. I'm so excited and proud of her. She's just so smart, talented, beautiful, athletic, and compassionate--just like her mother :)

halloween fun

well, october has come and gone and its last week held all sorts of activities. i'll give you the highlights. first, pumpkin picking at nick's. mallory was intent on pulling eli and the wagon. she only ran him into a couple of tables. she's wanting more and more to be a legitimate big sister and "help" eli whenever she can. her newest things are taking him out of his highchair and his seat belt. unfortunatly, he's not really into having any "big sister love" at this time in his short life.

megs and isaac in the hay bale maze. isaac found his time in the maze cut short because he kept on climbing over the walls. boys!!
just had to add this one. mallory was doing her workbook one morning while i was doing dishes and everytime she would draw a letter or complete a problem, she'd raise her hands like this and say "yes!!!" under her breath to herself. so cute. you can also see her new haircut. "just like megan's", we had to tell her so we could get all the ratty ends off. she keeps letting us know that it will grow long again.
eli, the frog at the pumping carving contest (we didn't have an entry, just fun to look and see everyone elses creativity) we borrowed the costume from a friend, it just so happened to be the same costume we borrowed from a different friend for mallory last year. all my friends must have the same taste! eli was elated to find out that candy was getting put into his orange bag at every stop. boy, he's a sugar-a-holic. baby #4 syndrome strikes again.

after halloween last year i found this skirt for .75 at good will for dress ups and my heart skipped a beat when megs wanted to wear it this year. we found everything else in her closet and topped it off with a pair of cateye glasses from the costume store. at the end of the day, she told us that none of her friends knew what she was dressed as--only the adults did. she was excited to be unique.
isaac got the sole homemade costume this year. he wanted to be something scary and we're not really down with all the gruesome stuff out for kids these days. i copied this cute costume from the pottery barn magazine. it was the first year isaac really had his face painted to make him look different. he loved every minute of it. mallory, our pink care bear, was so stinkin cute (and warm!). every year we expect our first snow on halloween. when mal asked to be a princess i flinched with the thought of heaps of chiffon, bare arms, and dressup shoes as we trekked up and down the streets in the snow. luckily, we found this at kid to kid a few weeks ago and we haven't heard any princess talk since. when she puts it on she runs around the house giggling like a loon. fortunately, we had a clear night, just a little chilly and cheerbear was toasty as could be. (Whew!)
our annual pumpkin dig went well. this was the first year we used a book of patterns and the older two were stoked their masterpieces were recognizeable. this year we were short an adult as matt was nursing a 24 hour bug. he moaned his support from his cocoon on the couch.

preschool was successful as we went trick or treating at a rest home. the elderly there had more fun giving out candy to these little munchkins then they had getting it.

on to november, thankful turkey's and the annual turkey bowl.

family hike and miller farm

last weekend we thought, ok, i thought, we should go experience the colorado rockies in the fall, seeing as we've been here four falls and have yet to make the trek. we decided to head up to rocky mountain national park but found a trailhead about 10 miles out and saved ourselves the $20 entrance fee. The kids had a great time rock climbing, running ahead, and talking scouting stuff with dad (matt has been forced to convert and even bought himself a scout a shirt. too bad neither of us have any idea where the patches go!)

eli conked out on the last stretch but was a trooper packed up in the kelty for an hour and a half. we headed out of the mountains just as a storm was coming in. on the way up we passed a little pumpkin patch/fall festival and told the kids we'd stop on the way home. as we passed it, everyone was taking cover as hail had now started falling. the kids were sad for a few minutes until we realized we were close to miller farm, a working farm just 5 miles from where we were that megan had been to on field trips before. the storm was headed north and us east and miller farm was dry, cold, but dry and we couldn't resist all the fun things they had to offer.Yes, liz is taking these pictures from inside her 50 gallon drum

we spent a couple of hours playing in the corn maze, hay bale maze, huge jump castle, hay bale pyramid, old fire truck, car, and airplane, and petting zoo. but i think the winners were the 50 gallon drum tractor pull and the pedal tractors. i'm sure grandma j turned over in her grave as the whole place was dirty. the van needed a good washing when we got home but a saturday well worth the $10 the whole day full of fun cost. we got home just in time to shower and head over to a neighbor's for dinner. mom's favorite part of the day--someone else cooked dinner;)

the newest rockies fan

to see what matt has been up to lately, check out my friend's blog, mindyyork.blogspot.com or just click on the york family link to the right. you'll have to scroll down a couple of entries to catch his cute face. while he was at the game, i was at women's conference with the wife. and no, i didn't see eliza. well, i maybe saw her chin. i'm almost positive it was her chin. how could you mistake a brinton chin? i'm related to someone who sang in the choir at women's conference and her chin is now famous!! where was dana in all this south jordan hoopla?

new pics of the kids

Eli is 15 months old and i just got his one year pictures done. he's definitely not an oldest child, or even second oldest, or even third oldest. he has it rough. i thought i was being so good--only getting pictures of my kids every six months for the first 2 years of their life, knowing that if i went hog wild with baby #1 (when you have all the time in the world) getting monthly photos and such that i wouldn't be able to maintain the picture mania. as a 22 year old, i had such wisdom and foresight. i thought every six months was reasonable. i thought wrong. by the time 4 babies come along, 6 months seems like a week and a half. and you can't even remember when your babies were babies.

well, enough is enough. onto little eli. to describe him in one word right now, i'd have to pin it down to "jabbermouth", or maybe, "must be in the same room as mom" (fortunately he just learned to turn his big can around and go down the stairs backwards. i swear, it took forever!! until then, he would just stand at the top of the stairs and moan until someone helped him down. uuhhh, i'm glad that's over). but really, he's so cute when he "talks". he has so much to say, and can carry on a one-sided conversation with the best of 'em. he gets this serious look on his face like he expects you to answer in whatever language he speaks (we still haven't figured it out). so cute. love his big brown eyes and so happy that his runt tooth finally caught up with the others :).

mallory. where do i begin? where to i end? this girl knows all the right buttons to push on everyone in the house. She can send megan through the roof with the wiggle of her little button nose. It's a good thing she's so stinkin' cute or she might have to find herself a new home. She truly is my hardest in preschool. she refuses to stand during the pledge and only will "accept" her weekly job (by putting her little guy in the correct job pocket) if it is line leader. (yes, we've been in school for 7 weeks now and she's only been line leader once). There is also a little girl in my class that i think she is in competition with or is threatened by. but mal follows her around during free time and sabotages any game or toy she picks up. she has spent a few play sessions on the stairs. when she's not driving us crazy, she's so sweet. she is big into doing the dishes and bathrooms. whenever she completes a job or is extra helpful she reminds us all that she is becoming a mom--because she's almost four. sugar and spice is definitely right!!!! (extra spice on this one:))

Isaac is loving first grade. his teacher, mrs. hensler, has a bulletin board in her room that is titled "climbing hensler peak" to help the kids visualize the connection between first grade and college and what they are doing right now will help them get to college some day. on a family walk the other day, isaac was climbing a hill by the path we were on and as he reached the top he informed us he made it to the top of hensler peak! i'm glad something is sinking in. he's doing well and frequently comes home with a b.u.g (being unusually good) award (this also drives megan crazy as it much more difficult to get bug awards in 3rd grade than 1st). it's still a struggle to get him to sit down and read at night as he would rather defend the universe with his power ranger moves. he is so funny making all the combat noises as he disarms his unaware siblings. we go through the same ritual each day after school: drag backpack in the door and ask whine, "why can't you come drive us home from school? it is way too far to walk!" (um, a block and a half). sit on the computer absorbing every crazy, power ranger tidbit possible. begin accosting sisters. when everyone has had enough, sit in time out while eating a red apple. sent outside to read on the grass. end up fighting something. back on the chair until mom needs my help with eli or dinner. i swear, it's daily.

Megan. there isn't anything i can say about her that isn't great. she loves school, church, activity days, has great friends, is uberwilling and ever helpful, i can't stop her from reading (she just finished hp #4) (i wish some of that would rub off on isaac), and she still idolizes her parents ;) If i had to pinpoint a fault, or maybe just a little quirk of hers that drives me nuts, it is that she loves to listen to the ladies. whenever there are adults around her in any conversation, she plants herself right next to matt or i to listen in. i could just be chatting with a friend at the door, she's there. just dropping a baby present or meal off at some one's door, she gets out of the car to "walk" me up. families come for dinner and all the other kids are playing after the meal, she's in the living room, gabbing with the grownups. she's 8 going on 28. some day she won't find us all that interesting, but for now, she lives for company and their conversation. it would be cute if it didn't drive me crazy.

love 'em all to death, if i could just keep on top of the laundry.