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.