Buds

A little while ago we went to this girl's birthday party (isn't she so cute). This is Brooke and she turned TWO! Hurray! She's pretty much the smartest kid I've ever met. She and Matthew are such good friends.

We partied at a really fun place in Idaho Falls called Blast Off. I would recommend it to anyone with children. So fun and not as dirty as most people think of these places as. In fact, I crawled through the longest tunnel there (20 yardsish) in khaki capris and I came out clean. Wow. I was even surprised. It was a well taken care of place.

You want proof?

We ate yummy pizza and Elmo cupcakes (huge hit).

But the best part was the big slide! I was a little nervous when Matthew went sailing down on his own and came out backwards.

That is until I saw THIS face.

He loved it and clapped and cheered for himself and raised his arms in the air and said TADAA!

Thanks again for the great party neighbors!! We'll be sure to frequent that place more often now! Matthew only got bowled over by bigger kids once!

Jackson Hole

We had a really fun time yesterday going to Jackson Hole with Cody, Tricia, Wesley and my parents. It was snowing, and kind of cold, but still a blast! I remember going there when I was a young teenager and thinking it was pretty dull, but I must have just been moody then or something, because it was so much fun looking in all of the shops!

Can you believe that Big Foot lived in this area?! :)

The four antler arches were incredible. Curt and I had a fun time examining them and trying to find the biggest Elk antlers.

Matthew had fun in all of the furniture shops trying out every chair (that he could of course. Some of them we weren't allowed to sit on)

This was a cute little fountain that Matthew and Wesley had fun watching for a while. They both kept signing water and looking at us like "right?" And I would nod my head and they would both nod after me. They're so funny!
I had a hard time getting Matthew to leave this cute little Teepee (is that how you spell it?) When we were leaving this store I told matthew that we were going and he ignored me. So I said "see ya" and I walked away where he couldn't see me but I could see him thinking he'd get scared and come looking for me, but he just sat down with some stuffed animal he'd brought in there and started singing and talking. So I figured that wasn't working and I just went back and grabbed his hand and we left. Independent sucker.

This was heaven for Curt.

Do we look full and content? We ate at Bubba's BBQ. It was really good, but I didn't exactly get to eat a WHOLE lot because matthew shocked me and ate half of my chicken strips, 3/4 of my huge piece of toast, and drank a bunch of my drink. He ate a couple of fries too, but mostly he just liked dipping them in things and sucking the fry sauce/ranch/whatever was on there (BBQ beans I think?) off of the fry and handing it back to me.

Thanks Cody and Trish for driving, mom and dad for entertaining the kiddos so well, and Curt for canceling your antler hunting trip to come with your SWEET WIFEY!!!! (We'll just forget how hard I begged and pleaded and threatened and just say that you came because you wanted to. love you dream boy)

Museum and MORE!

Yesterday we went to the Titanic exhibition at the Museum of Idaho with my parents and Cody, Tricia and Wesley for family night. It turned out really great! I had so much fun. They don't allow pictures in the museum, so I don't really have a lot of that escapade, but we've been doing great and we're happy, healthy and BURNED OUT from school!!! We are really excited for summer to get here. Matthew especially. Every day he begs and begs to go outside.

On the way to the museum

These two were so cute. They held hands for a long time. They're such good friends and we'll be sad when Cody and Tricia move! Matthew is going to miss his cousin Wowly!
Is it just me, or does my mom seem like she doesn't age to you either?! I don't know what her secret is. She must either be an alien or an angel, and I'm thinking it's more of the latter!!!!!

I'm obsessed with taking pictures of Matthew when he's sleeping. He's just so dang cute asleep. Ooops, I mean he's just so dang cute...PERIOD. But it is when he's asleep that he's my "baby" again. Any other time he's such a big boy. He fell asleep here after taking a bath to wash off the sticky syrup from a french toast lunch! He didn't want me to take the towl off to dress him because he was cold. So I hurried and put a diaper on him, wrapped him up and turned on a counting movie. He loves to learn. At the museum yesterday Matthew spent most of his time in the children's play area doing puzzles. There was an alphabet puzzle that he especially liked (no surprise there). Over and over different people kept watching him and saying how amazing it was to see such a little person that knows so much. I guess that's all I really know, since he's my only child, so I don't see how awesome it is. I mean, I know he's smart, but he's just my sweet little Matthew and I never expected anything different anyway. He's always been bright.

See sleep obsession. I came home from school to this one day. Curt said Matthew had been playing so hard Curt finally got him to settle down on his lap for a minute and he knocked right out. So cute! (Do I say cute too much?)
More to come when I get pictures from some of the other stuff we've been doing lately!

This game is a favorite. Strange child.

IT HAS HAPPENED

Being the mom, I spent all day every single day of Matthew's first year of life with Matthew (except for of course the occasional dates Curt and I had). As can be expected we built a certain special bond. Obviously. It used to bother Curt a little bit that Matthew would get so clingy to me when I started school again. Whenever I left, Matthew would just cry and cry and he rarely wanted daddy to put him to bed or get up with him at night. I always told Curt not to worry about it, because I had to soak up this short time because it wouldn't be long at all before Curt would be the center of Matthew's world. Well, it has happened. Today Curt left to take a test and Matthew just threw a fit and cried for daddy for a very long time! Out with the old, in with the new I guess. Well, I can't blame Matthew, Daddy really is the funnest person in the world! (At least I think so!) He plays the best games and he always has time to spend with us no matter how stressful school gets. I love you Curt. You are the best daddy ever! And the best hubby of course.

I heard from a good friend that as long as your picky eater gets at least one meal a day and snacks too then you shouldn't stress yourself to death. So maybe I can relax. Matthew loves his breakfast and cartoons! He even licks the bowl clean!

And sometimes if I don't give him enough he tries to EAT the bowl. Matthew loves doing silly things for me whenever I get the camera out.

Oh life

We have been so busy lately. But hey, we made it through midterms! We're on the downhill side now. Our internet is finally back up (who knows the true story as to why it was down in the first place) so here's some pictures. Matthew's such a sweet boy these days. I just love to see his little personality grow.

Okay, don't laugh. I experimented and made green chocolate chip cookies. St. Patrick's day coming up and all....they still tasted good. Matthew enjoyed dipping them in milk!


Thanks for coming and playing tonight Wesley while your mommy and daddy had a date! Matthew had a lot of fun!

One of Matthew's new ways of entertaining himself is to pretend he's asleep. He is so funny!

Valentines and other things

This year I got very very spoiled for Valentine's day. We celebrated our day of love on Friday the 13th because we went down to Utah on Saturday for Isaac's one year old birthday party. Besdies, who can find a babysitter on valentine's day? everyone else wants to go out too!! We had so much fun in Utah! It was nice to see my family. We got to visit all of the grandparents while we were down there too.

Here's the gorgeous flowers Curt gave me. He said he hand selected each lovely blossom :) I also got pampered with a massage from Sage Day Spa, I got to purchase a new swimsuit for the upcoming swimming season (can't come quick enough!), and I got 5 new workouts from Tae Bo! I am so lucky to have such a sweetie husband. Oh, and I can't forget to mention the bag (big bag) of sweet heart conversation hearts Curt gave me. Those were all I asked for!

Curt spoiled me rotten, and all that I did for him was bake him this cake and give him a card. Well, he picked himself out a couple of pair of pants and said that was good enough. He also got some workout stuff.

While we were in Utah we went to Logan. We played in the mall for a little while and then we ate out at Sizzler. thank you Mom and Dad again for treating us! Matthew had a blast at the little play area in the mall.

Matthew also had a lot of fun at Isaac's birthday party. Here he is eating the cake. Yummy! Kara did a great job on the party. It was so much fun!

Matthew wanted to "help" Isaac open up all of his presents. Luckily Isaac didn't care.

Last week we watched a couple of little girls for our friends. Terri and Taylor are so cute! Matthew really liked running around screaming with them, but most of all he loved sitting in the chair next to terri watching thumbelina!

Here's Matthew's rendition of Tae Bo. Last night he was trying to do all of the moves with us. It was so stinking cute. Somehow I convinced Curt to do Tae Bo with me, and it is so much fun! I couldn't think of any better way of working out than with your hubby.

Here's just a funny little movie of matthew playing at the mall. He loved this game a lot, and wanted me to keep playing forever!!

He spells?

Here's the face Matthew makes when he wants candy and I tell him no. Oh believe me, it is so much better in person when you have the surround sound effect going on! His screams just bounce off of the walls! Sorry to all of my neighbors. Poor kid. All he wants is some candy! Why do momma and daddy have to be so mean!

No, my son is not growing a beard. This is his look of relief after finally getting his chocolate fix.
What? We eat food? Oh....I thought we just lived with it.

Turn off my music and turn the volume up on this movie! Matthew always amazes me.

Matthew knows 17 letters! I know, he didn't get his brains from me! He knows many different combinations of the letters, but Elmo is his favorite...of course. Except for maybe mommy :)

Daddy and Matthew having fun after bathtime.

Oh Matthew

This little kid just cracks me up. He has a little photo album that he has just shredded apart. The other day he pulled out this piece and was walking around looking through it and laughing hysterically at everything.

Sometimes, after matthew goes to bed, Curt and I like to take pictures of ourselves doing funny things. It's surprisingly entertaining.
I just love Matthew's big brown eyes.

Matthew loves to color! And we love so much spending that time with him. It is so sweet to watch Curt color and play with Matthew. They have some of the funnest games!

A while ago I promised pictures of matthew being a daddy. This picture's all I've got right now. He wrapped up a teddy bear and was trying to put it to sleep on his bed. Just after I took this picture he told me to shhh. He was really tired too. Lately we've had some strange nights. A few nights ago Matthew was acting incredibly groggy and strange so we thought he was maybe sick. He went to sleep around 6:30 (big mistake) and then he woke up at 1am and stayed up until 5 am!! Ugh!!! That was a hard night. Needless to say I missed my first class the next morning! Since then he's had a couple of nights of waking up almost every hour. He had ONE night where he slept most of the night. He went to bed at 8, woke up at 1 for a diaper change, and didn't wake up again until 7 am. That was nice. I've tried the crying it out thing, but Matthew just cries so hard he makes himself throw up and then it's an even bigger problem than it was in the first place. So we'll probably just have to tough it out. He's usually pretty good about going right back to sleep when he wakes up, but it usually takes a swig of milk and momma or daddy to hold him and sing to him. A nice foot rub always puts him to sleep quick too. Maybe when he turns two he'll decide to sleep through the night. Kind of like very shortly after he turned one he just one day decided he didn't want a bottle or his binky any more. AT ALL. Sounds nice. I can hope I guess :) But believe me, I'm not complaining about his sleeping habits. In a way I enjoy getting up with him (besides the lack of sleep). When I hold him and get him back to sleep is the only time he's my "baby" again. When he's awake and it's daytime he's my big boy! Spending time with Matthew is just precious.

Matthew's Friend

I thought this was so cute, I just had to post these.

Maybe I just can't remember the first time I found my shadow, but it doesn't seem like I noticed or even cared until I was 4 or 5. I love how curious Matthew is.

Growing Growing Growing

It is incredible how fast kids grow. I just wanted to post a couple of things that Matthew is doing now. Turn on the sound, pause my playlist, it's so much better with sound!

Matthew walks up stairs now. He walks down too, but I couldn't get him to do it for the camera, as usual.

He has been practicing his hopping. He says "2, 3 HOP!"

Matthew runs! But he doesn't just run, he yells AS he runs. Multitasker!

And he loves wearing hats!

There are other things that Matthew has learned to do, I just couldn't get pictures of everything. But a couple are; walking backwards, drawing pictures of Elmo ("Elbow" is what matthew calls him), Cookie Monster (geekie), Big Bird (bur), and Pooh Bear (poo bah) all day long! And they are always with the color Puuh pah (purple). As you can see, it is hard for me to decide if matthew is saying pooh bear or purple, but at least he's trying to talk! And it's usually easy enough for me to tell because he signs with almost everything. I just think that it is so amazing how fast kids grow and learn. Most of the time it feels like Matthew is still a baby, and then I see him do something so big.

Play Date

Today some of my neighbors and I got together at Brittany's house (my next door neighbor) for a playdate with our kids. Can I just say SOO FUN!!! It is so nice to get to spend some time with the girls and chit chat our hearts out while our kids run around fighting over toys yet being the best of friends! I think that the plan is to make this a weekly ritual, which I am all for. Being a mother is the best thing in the world, but it is sometimes a necessity to have interaction with other adults, especially ones that you can share common experiences or attitudes with. I have the best neighbors and ward in the world! We are so blessed to have come here at this time and have the friends that we do. Matthew is so cute with other kids too. Most of the kids his age in our ward are girls. Luckily two other boys are coming into the nursery this sunday, so it won't just be Matthew and six or seven girls. Today he spent most of his time reffing the squabbles between a couple of the girls. They would start to fight over something and matthew would be right there telling them "No No, Naughny!" ......................................................................................................................................................................................................




Here's a question though, what do you think about Matthew playing with baby dolls....a lot? I think that since it is mostly girls that he is around he's starting to observe their motherly attributes. His new favorite thing is to get a babydoll, elmo, teddybear or pretty much anything he can and wrap it up in a blanket. Then he throws it on the floor or the couch or something and says "shhh!" and signs sleep. Then he'll pick it back up and burp it. Today he even gave a babydoll a bottle at brittany's house. I think it's cute. Curt thinks it's kind of strange. I've heard that it develops good fathering skills too (they have to learn some time, right?).

I'll post pictures of Matthew's fathering skills later

Hike in Heise

Today we dropped Matthew off with the parents (thanks again Mom and Dad for watching our baby!) and Curt took me up Kelly Canyon to hike around the Heise area searching for dropped antler sheds. We didn't find any, unfortunately, but we sure did see some beautiful scenery, and we saw a lot of mule deer. There was only one buck with antlers, so we think that they've dropped, we just think that they shed them in the agricultural fields below because on the way home we saw about a hundred mule deer in one large alfalfa field. Sooooo....this means that they are pretty much unavailable to us. Bummer. But we did have a lot of fun. Maybe next time we'll wear snow shoes though. By the time we were done my legs were numb up to the knee from falling through the snow so much. When we first started hiking I mentioned something about how it will be nice to fall though the snow less than Curt because I weigh less, but I forgot to take into consideration the fact that my feet are much much smaller so my weight isn't dispersed as well as Curt's was.....so I fell through more. My pants were soaked almost to the hip. It was crazy! But I had so much fun honey! Thanks for taking me love.



This picture is kind of blurry because we were a long ways away, but the one on the far right is the buck we saw. Little guy. He probably hasn't shed his antlers yet because they are so light.

Busy Days

Back to school....again

Don't ask me why, but Curt and I both registered for full credit semesters again. You'd think we'd learn something. Last semester was so hard! We're just not those people that can have all the classes, homework and parenting responsibilities too! Yet we force ourselves. "Well we survived last semester" I thought, "so I bet we can do it again. maybe it will be even easier this time because we'll know what to expect." Possible. all I know is that all things are possible with the Lord. And we have been asked to learn as much as we can in this life. Even if I never graduate, I think that all of the things that I learn will have a benefit, if not in this life then in the eternities. At least Matthew is supportive. He is such a good boy. But I will never get accustomed to leaving him with a babysitter. Every time I get done with my classes I get home as fast as I can and all that I can think about is how much I miss matthew! He is such a gem and he adds so much to my life. I wish everyone could spend as much time with him as I get to. He's such a crack up! He keeps life light and entertaining. Just when I think that I couldn't get any more stressed out Matthew will do something so incredibly silly I just have to laugh. It makes me step back and realize how fun and wonderful life really is. Simple discoveries make every day so interesting.

Matthew learning how to tie a tie.....or multiple ties at once.
I never could get him to look at me for a picture. My camera is just too slow. He was having so much fun though.
Ultimately what I hope I leave you with is not me complaining about school or how much I have to do in a day, I hope you can realize like I have that simple pleasures are underestimated.

a little late?

A couple of days after christmas all of the decorations were on sale, so I finally bought some after going all season without ornaments. Ok, well I had 4. Three little snowmen from my mom and a little mitten thing from the ward. It was nice to put them up, even though it was only for a couple of days, and after christmas. When I put them up matthew said "WOW" at every ornament. Good thing we didn't have them up for all of Christmas though, he couldn't keep his fingers off of them! At least they were the shatterproof kind (cheap plastic)

Curt went Ice Fishing New years day with our neighbor Brian and some of his friends. Curt said it was fun, but really cold! I guess that could be expected.

I was taking pictures of our tree and matthew kept trying to get in all of them, so I told him to go stand by the tv and say cheese, and he DID!! I thought it was pretty good instruction following for a 19 month old! He is so cute and fun to be around.

• Last night my mom asked me, "What would you do without Matthew" when he was hamming it up at their house. I said "I really don't know. I can't remember what we did before we had him. we must have been really bored because now with a lot of our free time we just sit around watching Matthew goof off." He really is a funny character. He loves it when people laugh, even if he has no idea why (which is most of the time) and he loves joining in with the laughing. He's so hilarious, but always sweet and considerate.

• This morning matthew came into our room to wake us up as usual. my phone was sitting on the nightstand. Matthew has always been fascinated with phones. He grabbed my phone and I reached to take it away from him. He turned from me and said "No! Baby" I said "No, Mommy's" He gave it to me and cried a little bit and said "naughny" That's what he says for naughty. He likes to tell Curt and I that we are naughny.

• Lately he has been calling himself baby. And since he has been calling himself baby I noticed that I do call him baby a lot of the time. I say things like "come here stinky baby" or "I love you baby" or "Funny baby!" And so now he has picked up that his name must be baby. We tried to get him to say Matthew, which he thought was hilarious. He knows his name is Matthew, but the closest he came to saying it was Mowee. I guess he prefers being called baby.

We love matthew so very much are are so glad that he is a part of our family. He brightens our world!