Oh somebody had a birthday....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!!!!!

This lil kiddo turned two...a week ago already?! Wow am I behind. But his birthday has kind of been drawn out through the week, as I think all birthdays should be!

Matthew got spoiled, and we are so appreciative of all of those who celebrated Matthew's 2 year mark with us.

The birthday cake was to die for! My good friend and neighbor (and now cakster) made this for the little monkey himself. I knew she was good at cakes, but I NEVER would have guessed that Matthew's cake would have been this elaborate! It is (oops, I mean was. It was gobbled at the party and I have been eating three pieces a day at least since then of the leftovers..it won't last for long at this rate!) so adorable!!!

My sister, Vicky, and her family happened to be up on Matthew's real birthday and they weren't going to be able to come to his party later, so we had a mini celebration. I think it is hilarious that on his actual birthday we had the mini celebration and on a day that had nothing to do with his birthday we celebrated his birthday.

The kids (and others....eh hem, guilty again. I LOVE CAKE) ate up some yummy cupcakes, and I mean they (I) really ate them up!

We all headed on over to the spray (or is it splash? I can never remember the name of this place. anyway, the WATER park) after getting full on cake. It took the entire summer last year to get matthew to not scream every time we put him in cold water. We are starting all over again this year. Hey, if I were as skinny as this kid I'd hate cold water just as much!

And this is the look of surprise as he opened the first present and realized that there was more in that bag than just tissue paper! YES!
Matthew got a ton of other fun things too!

This is what he looks like when he says "heyyyyy"

Excuse me, eating here?!

We sang happy birthday and Matthew just glowed with all of the attention! I was afraid he'd get shy and start crying like he did for his 1st birthday, but apparently he's decided he likes being the center of attention.

My big kid even blew out his very own candle!!!! No help whatsoever although all of us were making blowing faces just to be sure he knew what to do. I saw all of your kissy faces.

Here's some other things that Matthew has been doing the past year:

started walking and then running and jumping

talks a million miles an hour. I pride myself in being just about the only person that understands 50% of what he says

He actually does know a lot of words

Matthew is so smart and he shows it all the time

Maybe he's just a smart alec....

Bosses other kids around, but he's so cute when he does it you can hardly ever get mad at him. Well, I have to because I'm mom, but it sure takes a strong will on my part to keep from smiling. None of the kids ever listen to him anyway :)

Colors like a 4 year old (he has artist genes from both sides of the family, it was inevitable)

puzzles like a maniac

Knows the abc's

can count to 18 (even though 15-17 sound the exact same...I know he knows what he's saying!)

Loves to see the temple

loves to "hold" his mommy

loves to rough house with daddy

hates getting his picture taken

has gone through Elmo, Spongebob, Curious George and...yes, Barney phases (all you Barney haters, take that! I watched it every day in Kindergarted and I turned out FINE!). I thought he'd like one and then get over it and move on to another, but nope, he just keeps building his list of favorites and things he CAN'T live without.

Matthew is an incredibly picky eater. Right now his favorites are hot pockets, torillas and chocolate milk.

He is so sweet and so considerate. He is always soft with babies and loves giving them kisses, especially if they're girls (he already likes giving girls smooches, ESPECIALLY his little friend Brooke! Good luck to me with his dating future!)

He is very persuasive. It usually goes

Matthew: chocolate milk?

Me: You want chocolate milk?

Matthew: Okay

Like it was my idea in the first place!

Matthew always knows how to make me laugh, even when I am in the worst mood. We love Matthew so very much and we are so lucky that he came to our family.

LOVE YOU LITTLE MONKEY

Bookcase!!!

Anyone who knows my dad knows that he's a do it all himself kind of guy. He can fix or build anything (or so he thinks. just kidding. He really is amazing at it) So naturally that was a requirement in the man that I was going to marry.

Thus:

Bookcase made by

Curt Coates

I absolutely love it! and this picture does not do it justice. It is so big and beautiful! I have now filled it with books and albums. I am so glad that I married Curt, because being so amazing at everything he does is only ONE of his many many talents!!!!

Yes, another picture of Matthew at Porter Park. He is now getting much better about the heights issue. I had hoped that it wouldn't last long!
My sister, Vicky, and her cute family came up this weekend for Memorial Day. It is a ritual when they come up to go to the elementary school that mom is the secretary at and have lunch. This time we were invited to come too!!! Lunch was a bust (all Matthew would do was pop a grape in his mouth, squish it, and spit it back out), but Matthew LOVED the train ride we got to go on. The school kids earned this treat by reaching their reading goal and we got to enjoy it too! Hey, I read to Matthew!

At first Matthew wasn't sure of the ride.....Ok, so most of the time he was looking at me like "Why did you put me on this deathride?!" But when we got done he hopped down and gave the driver a thumbs up and said "goob bob" anyway.

But he couldn't stop talking about it the rest of the day. And when we got home he had to tell daddy all about it.

Ahh little boy, stop growing.

The other day I had Matthew on my lap while I was putting his shoes on. I stopped to smell his sweet hair. Moments like that just hit me sometimes. I said, "Matthew, are you going to be cute like this forever?"

Matthew: "Yeah"

Me: "really?"

Matthew: "fuhfevvvar"

Porter Park

We took Matthew and a friend to the park yesterday. It was so hot! We loved it. Matthew is such a cautious boy, but he is always more outgoing when he's with a friend. I took Matthew to the park by myself one day last week while Curt was gone to Montana helping his brother redo his dad's roof. It was the first time I've taken Matthew to the park this year. It was sad, but hilarious to watch him shakily make his way up the stairs, and when he got to the top he wouldn't stand up because he could see through the holes to the ground. So he bear crawled everywhere! He must be afraid of heights. It's interesting how everyone is born with different fears. I am sure that they are affected by the way we live, plus other factors like how Matthew has bad balance due to his hearing loss. We're working on that though, and yesterday was great progress for the little guy! He really had fun, and I just let him go at his own pace, but I do push him just to where he's uncomfortable but knows I'll save him if he plummets down the stairs or something! My dad always laughs at how Matthew goes around kind of like a little old man. My Grandpa Mel has a characteristic run we call the Grandpa Mel skeeter where he just kind of scoot shuffles across his horse pasture. What's funny is that Matthew has inherited that very same run. Sometimes Matthew does seem old for his age. He's so wise at times, and I am always learning from him. Thanks for being my teacher Matthew!

Trip to Utah

I went to Brigham City, Utah for a couple of nights at my sister's house. We had a lot of laughs, and even though their faces look so straight (who knew that telling them to say cheese would get such serious looks from all three of them at once!) I think the kids had fun too... minus the stab to the nose with a fork on Adessa's part. Matthew really loves playing with his cousins!

Thanks again Vicky for letting us come and play!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

I just wanted to wish all of the mothers out there a WONDERFUL mother's day (even though it's the end of the day). I hope that you were able to relax, and that even if you didn't get everything that you hoped you would or get to rest as much as you had planned on (rest, what's that?!) that you were happy and feel appreciated because MOTHERS ARE AMAZING! I am especially thankful for my mom. She is so incredible and is such a great example for me. I hope I can follow in her footsteps and be a good mom like she has been/is/and always will be. I'd also like to mention that I have some amazing friends that are great motherly examples as well, and I can't forget to talk about my GREAT sister and sister-in-laws (on BOTH sides). Sometimes I feel inadequate being surrounded by so many amazing women/mothers, but I know that I'm trying my best. I'm awfully glad that Matthew is my qualifying factor to deem me a mother, because he makes motherhood great. Thanks Matthew for always putting up with my crazy ideas and being patient with me when I don't understand what you're signing to me! And last but not least I want to let Curt know how much I appreciate him working so hard in school so that he will be able to provide for us to give me the opportunity to be an at home mom. That is very important to me, and I am so glad that he is my husband!

Happy Mother's Day all you mothers (even just at heart)

Love you mom

When You're the Best of Friends

Whenever I see these two playing together so happily, I think of The Fox and the Hound and the song about being the best of friends and how they're not even aware they're such a funny pair. I could not have asked for a better situation than what we're in! I know that we moved in the apartment we did for more reasons than just the cheap rent. We were supposed to meet our neighbors! Brooke and Matthew have a lot in common, and they seem to like each other so much! It's not every day that you get next door neighbors with a child that your child really enjoys being with and have them get along too!

Not to mention the fact that we like Brooke's parents too!!!!

Thanks for the pictures Brittany.

Curt went antler hunting again yesterday, and he brought back a few surprises! He was pretty proud of his bugs. :) They ARE kinda cool!

We had some great friends watch Matthew so Curt could take me out to dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. Or start celebrating it early :)

Curt's just one of the kids. He's hilarious.
Another part of my mother's day is a book shelf that Curt's making me. I've wanted a nice big one for a really long time (like, 3 years) and now I'm finally getting one!!! I'm excited to get to paint it myself. I like doing that stuff. Remember when I painted Matthew's bed blue? These projects take a really long time, but I LOVE it because it has part of us in it.

While Curt worked on the book case Matthew and I took a walk and did some swinging.

It is so hard to get this kid to hold still or pose for a picture. I need a faster camera.

Horserides and Counting

This was our Mother's day Picture we sent to Curt's Mom.

A couple of days ago we took some friends on a horse ride at my parent's place. By the way, I'm planning on selling my horse. She's the one in these next pictures. She's a 4 year old registered quarter horse. Been on Trails in the mountains, does pretty much all of the basics but just needs more time than I have to get her "good". So if you know of anyone looking for a horse! Maybe I'll put more pictures up. She's a gem.

Matthew loves going out to see the animals. He spent so long going back and forth giving handfuls of hay to the horses. I have a video I'll put on at the bottom.

Here he is helping Grandma water her freshly planted pots. Matthew is such a helper. I know he'll be there to help me out in the future when more kiddies come!

When you're helping you're happy and you sing la la la

This video is of matthew counting cards with my mom.

Sorry this video is kind of long

Little Artist

The other day Matthew was on a coloring kick (even more than usual). I was trying really hard to get dinner going, but he kept bringing me paper and crayons and saying "Colors? ABC with me?" Which means he wants me to write down the ABC's and sing it while I'm writing. So I pulled down our little note board on the fridge and told him to sing ME the ABC's. He had so much fun! I would do it more often because the marker just wipes off of the fridge where he misses...but it doesn't WIPE off his skin so easy...or rub...or scrub.

But he had so much fun and he was so happy. At least he was just in a diaper so I didn't have to worry about it all over his clothes.

Patience

Uh oh, this always happen to me. I think I'm a pretty layed back person most of the time, but I have a big flaw..........I am IMPATIENT!! Sorry all of you who have to deal with it. I decided that I am going to move up my date of making the blog private. It is now on May 10. You have 4 days people anyone who would like to still be a part of this dealio. Remember, I want you to leave your email! I don't even care if we haven't spoken for years upon years. I have loved so very much this blogging. It's important to me to get to see your lives, and I am happy to share our stories with you too. But it is relieving to know WHO you're sharing your life with. So shoot me your email, and be happy! and by the way, anyone who has a private blog that I know, I wouldn't mind being invited. and05051@byui.edu. ....if you want.

THANKS!!!!!!!!!

Time for Privacy

DEAR FRIENDS:

Sadly, it is time for us to be sure we are keeping our family safe. This means we have to make our blog private. We've had our blog public for a year now. I would LOVE for you to be invited, so don't be afraid to request it! Just leave a comment with your email address. You can request until the end of the month. June 1st we'll go private.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

I love the way that children respond to music. We had Brooke over for a little bit, so we turned on some tunes and danced our hearts out! Matthew LOVED spending time with his friend!!!

In-laws

I consider myself lucky to have such fun inlaws! We love it when they come visit us. Matthew absolutely adores them. He calls them mama and papa totes (for coates). They came down for a visit a couple of days ago. We were able to go to the temple and get Venice's brother (who died at birth) sealed to her parents. It was really special. This picture is of Matthew sitting on grandpa Maurice's lap drinking his rootbeer. Maurice made the mistake of giving Matthew a sip and the next thing he knew little matthew was up on his lap chugging his drink! They thought it was so funny because Matthew just sat there with his face in the cup for 5 minutes drinking and drinking!

I dealt with the sugar rush later

Tanna and Grandma Janet's Birthday party!

Last weekend we went down to my ol' hometown (Tremonton, Ut) for a little birthday shindig for my neice Tanna and my mom who happen to have a birthday on the same day! How lucky. It was a great party! And Matthew LOVED playing with his cousins. This first picture is of Matthew (left) and Isaac (right). I have to designate which is which because I think that they look so alike from behind! The sad thing is that Isaac is almost a year younger than Matthew!!! They had a ton of fun though. Tanna got a swingset for her birthday, and it was a HUGE hit!

This slide was amazing. Matthew shot down it so fast! The first time I didn't know it would be so fast, so I just let him go down, and he went rolling out on the grass. So we caught him after that, except for once. He went down and flew off the end and bounced off his buns. Then he quickly stood up and said, "OUCH that hurt!" I asked him if he wanted to go again but that was the end of it.

Thanks Lance and Kara for the fun party and for letting Matthew and me sleep over!

Cakes

Take a look at my friend's amazing cakes! (this is the blog I was telling you about Brittany!)http://cakesbywhitney.blogspot.com/