January 9th is my brother's birthday. We so wish we could have celebrated it with him this year, but Heavenly Father had other plans. In honor of him, I bought him a "Matilda Cake." For those of you who are familiar with the show Matilda, there is a part in the movie where one of the kids has to eat a gigantic chocolate cake and the whole student body cheers him on. Brian always wanted a Matilda Cake for his birthday, so this year we got him one. We sang Happy Birthday to him and hope he had a great day. He would have been 37.

Mom and Dad blew out the candles for him.

We love and miss you TONS!

Merry Christmas

Well Christmas has come and gone and I am finally posting some pictures of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Since I am so late posting these, you can probably guess that my trees are still up too! Hope you enjoy sharing with us.

Our family's custom (like everyone else's) is to open jammies on Christmas Eve. This year we were given strict instructions to open my sister's presents on Christmas Eve. So, we did and we all had matching "Grinch and Max" jammies and a new, bigger tradition has begun.

Last year my brother and sister and their spouses got matching jammies for Christmas. That night my parents were in a car accident and everyone went to the hospital. Both Brian and Nancy had not changed their clothes and were at the hospital in their matching jammies. Everyone thought that they were married, but no...just crazy siblings.

Before Brian passed away, Nancy promised him that on Christmas Eve all of us (12 of us) would have matching jammies. She kept her promise.

Nancy and Vance, Grandma and Grandpa Denkers

Tanner, Austin and Rita

Christmas morning....Santa has arrived!

On Christmas morning, someone (I won't say who so they get in trouble with the Bishop) slipped Lottery tickets into our stockings....unfortunately no one won. We were hoping to pay for Christmas! Jason got a gatorade because he is not 18 yet. Check out those jammies!

Josh isn't surprised at this gift...pillows. Among other things, he got things for his new apartment at BYU.

Jeremy gets loaded down with white shirts and ties....getting prepared for that mission!

Jason was the only one who sent Santa a list. He got a bunch of Nike and Jordan stuff.

Cassie enjoys Christmas as well. Santa left a toy and two packages of kitty treats in her stocking.

Jeremy gave Josh the Joseph Smith Papers book....the first of many volumes.

A Jordan shirt.....notice the logo Mama Rhoades?

A sweatshirt with the country and flag of the Czech Republic.

Something besides apartment stuff....YEA!

Jeremy gave Jason a TF 1000....Jason was really excited...even if it doesn't look like it!

Santa left Jeremy a Czech Book of Mormon.....click on the picture and see if you can read it.

Mark gets a camcorder!

After we have our Christmas morning, we head over to Grandma and Grandpa Matson's house and have freshly squeezed orange juice and open the presents from Grandma and Grandpa.

Jason got a gift card attached to some Sour Patch Kids from Aunt Jenn and Uncle Steve and some slippers, sweats and an I-Tunes card from Grandma and Grandpa.

Jeremy got new LaBron shoes and his temple clothes.

Josh got more bedding and a book from his favorite apostle...Jeffrey R. Holland.

Our niece Abby and her "twin".

We think Garry liked his Texas shirt...hey they won the Fiesta Bowl last night!

I wanted an oven mit and got two - thanks Jenn and Steve!

Grandpa was happy with his camera.

We hope your Christmas was very special too!

Mission Call Arrives

Well it finally came! Jeremy received his mission call today and he will be going to the Czech Republic. He will be serving in the Prague Mission and he enters the MTC on April 8th. We wish we could send the video of him opening up the call, but it is too large. He was very surprised and shocked to say the least. I think we were all expecting him to stay in the states, boy were we WRONG! We are excited for him!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends! It is hard to believe the day has come and gone and now we are into the Christmas Season. Boy, where does the time go?


This year Thanksgiving was at our home and we had a great time with the Matson side of the family. There was 23 of us here for dinner. We were missing Kirk's family as they live in California and our two missionaries, John (Argentina) and Matt (Arkansas).

The day was one of happiness and sorrow for me. I was happy that Josh was home and back around for the holidays. Sad because it will be another four years before we will have "our" small family together again for the holiday. Jeremy will be leaving in a few months and before he returns home Jason will be out on his mission.

Another sadness filled my heart as this was the first Thanksgiving without my brother. I thought alot about him during the day and especially while we enjoyed some of his favorite foods, namely the fruit coctail (a recipe that my great grandma used to make). I thought alot of what we were doing one year ago at Thanksgiving. We were still mourning the loss of my Grandma and Grandpa Killian and Brian was struggling with pain as he sat and ate his meal. I was hoping that Brian would still be here this year to enjoy another Thanksgiving....I was wrong.

The year has been a hard one to say the least, but as I sat at the table, I reflected on my many blessings, a couple of them are...I am thankful that the gospel gives me hope that my loved ones are okay on the other side of the veil, that they are watching over us and still a huge part of our lives. I am also thankful for the love of family and friends and the strength that we gain from one another as we all "endure to the end."

We hope your day was filled with love and your tummies were full of food as you celebrated all that you have been blessed with. Here are some pictures from our day.......

This is Abbie, our niece. She came dressed for the occasion. How cute!

This was our Thanksgiving table. All 23 of us gathered around it.

If you know me at all, you know that I am a "detail" person. Here are some pictures of my "personality" coming out. I was hoping for a beautiful table, I think we got it. Thanks to Holli and her talents on the centerpiece!

The table setting, yes, I even learned how to fold napkins!


This was our name place cards. I tried for over three hours to figure out how to make that end turn up on those stupid cones and it still didn't happen. I was giving up, but thanks to Julie and Martha Stewart, we figured it out. They are incredibly easy....now I can say that!

The whole Matson clan ready to eat!!

Josh waiting his turn at the buffet table. I think he was just taking it all in. He was thankful that he wasn't eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as he was on Thanksgiving two years ago.

Brenda and little Tanner. (Sorry some of these are a little dark, my flash was not working.)

Jennifer and Tyler and Abbie.

Jason and Devin.

Dinner is over and Jason pulled out Rock Band and the whole family joined in. This is Josh helping Abbie with the words.

The real drummer in Jason comes out.

Richard is giving tips to Katie.

Josh and Garry playing the guitars.

Scott, Jenn and Devin all try their voice at singing.

Jeremy at the drums with Josh, Brenda and Tanner looking on.

Steve, Garry and Richard all watch as Ben and Jason are rocking out.

Now it's Ben and Katie's turn. Debbie and Brenda are catching that Kodak moment.

Grandma and Grandpa are just trying to figure out the whole thing.

Ryan gets away from all the noise and watches a movie in the bedroom.

The little ones, Tanner and Tyler, take a break from wrestling!

Jeremy and Abbie looking at the Black Friday ads....find anything worth getting up at 3 AM?

Oh, I am exhausted.....Scott and Jenn did get up at 3 AM!

Steve and Jeremy are still going strong...playing a game of football!

We had a great couple of days full of food and games, food and movies and food and fun!