Easter 2012

Wrestling

I love watching Matthew and Chris play. As a mom knowing that my children have a Daddy who loves them and plays with them is a great feeling. 

I love that Matthew asks for his Daddy during the day,

I love that Chris genuinely seems to enjoy being a Dad, he looks for opportunities to bond with Matthew.

Here are some pictures of my boys playing tonight.

These make my heart happy!

 

I Love...

Being this boys Mom!

He makes my world bright and happy.

Pictures

So I was getting a Christmas present ready for Chris' Mom which was lots of fun for me. She wanted lots of pictures of Matthew and us for her digital picture frames and hopefully to show off how cute he is. I am very sad that she doesn't get to see him very often, hopefully once Chris is done with Optometry school we can fix that. So I got to go through all my pictures from the last year, which was a great reminder of all the fun we have had! Matthew has grown and changed so much this year. I will not put to many pictures up right now because I am using Chris's computer and all our pictures are on mine. However I do have our family pictures and Matthew's one year pictures so I wanted to share some of those tonight! He is such a sweet boy, we love him, and we have had a great year together as a family. It has been rather stressful at times and I feel like we are barely hanging on at some points, but it has really been a great year and we have been blessed more than I see at the time of course, but looking back I can see the blessings much clearer.

**** photos all taken by Melissa Kilner Photography in July 2011

Finals Week

It is finals week for Chris which apparently equates to me being super stressed out with him. It has been a rough week between finals and Matthew teething with all the other kids here. Anyways that is sorta what I am going to write about but mostly that is just venting.

Ever since I got pregnant I have been exhausted and moody. I don't remember it being this bad with Matthew, I feel like I was in the beginning and then the end of my pregnancy with him, but this time it has been constant. I really don't like feeling this way all the time! I am so excited to have our baby girl, and everyday I just get more excited, sometimes I think it is because I want to start feeling like myself again. I want my patience back, I want to feel good again, I want to not feel tired all the time (I know that will be awhile, but at least once she comes I will be closer to sleeping normal again).

Now don't get me wrong as far as being pregnant goes I have it easier than a lot of people. It just drains me of energy, kills my back (I get pregnancy sciatica), steals my patience, and makes me grouchy. That's all :) At least I am not sick all the time, or on bed rest, or have high blood pressure, or countless other things that can truly make pregnancy miserable.

I guess I know in many ways I am lucky that this is all I have to deal with, but it is still no fun.

On another note: I love my little Matthew, he is such a great kid and he just gets better everyday. He is learning so much now, we are still adding signs to his vocabulary and he is trying to use more verbal words. He is super grumpy right now because of all the new teeth, but the thought of molars coming in doesn't sound like it would be pleasant, so we understand. He is going to be a super big brother, I just wish he understood what was happening so that we could prepare him, oh well he will adjust. He has always taken to transitions easily, sometimes amazingly easy. 2012 is going to bring lots of changes to his little world, I just hope that he handles them all okay. We will be having a baby, a couple months later closing the daycare (meaning he will loose his friends), and then moving somewhere completely new. That is a lot of changes in a few short months for our little guy!

First Hair Cut

Matthew went and had his hair cut for the first time tonight. I had been debating about doing it myself or taking him somewhere, but with Christmas coming up I really didn't want to ruin his hair. So we took him over to Super Cuts to see what they could do. He sat in my lap while she was cutting his hair, she was really good with him too. He was even a trooper he started to get upset at first with the trimmer but then she started saying "tickle tickle" whenever she would put the trimmer up to his head. So we came out of it with no tears and much shorter hair, we might not cut it the same way every time, but we didn't know how else to do it this time. I brought my camera but didn't take pictures... so here are some after pictures.

"CHEESE!"

Signing Time

I went to the library the other day and found a movie for kids called "Signing Time" and it is great! Matthew loves it and each time he watches it he picks up another sign which is wonderful, hopefully we will get more spoken words soon, but for now this will help us communicate a little better.

So far he has learned:

Milk

Food

Ball

Dog

We have watched it about 3 times so that is pretty good I think. Now he knows those signs plus:

More

Please

Love it and totally recommend it to everyone with toddlers, especially those lacking spoken language like mine :) We will be moving on to volume 2 here at the end of the week I think.

Bed Time

I need to go to bed but I am still up and on blogger again.

I just thought maybe if I do a post about all the things running through my head I might be able to fall asleep.

I don't really think it is going to work, but it's worth a shot!

We're having a girl!

I have been saying this all day long

and jumping for joy inside.

I didn't know how much I really wanted this baby to be a girl,

but I am just so excited.

I am excited for Matthew to be a big brother,

I am excited to see Chris be the daddy of a girl,

I am excited to have a daughter to dress in cute clothes,

and put pig tails in her hair,

I am excited to help her grow into a wonderful person,

I am excited to find out if she will have red hair,

I am excited to see if she is a girly girl or a tom boy,

I am excited to see it all I guess.

Don't get me wrong

most of those things also apply to Matthew.

I assure you I was just as excited 

when I found out Matthew was a boy,

but now,

now we will have one of each gender.

I have been blessed with the amazing opportunity

to raise a son and a daughter!

We bought her two outfits today and I love that my husband asked me to wait until he could come. He is an amazing father and husband.

I just keep looking at the clothes over and over,

and at the ultrasound pictures over and over,

and tomorrow I will be cleaning out some drawers in a dresser,

just for her.

Now we also just for hand-me downs and good deals to fill those drawers, 

because with out them Matthew wouldn't have many clothes either.

I could keep making this list all night

Maybe I'm crazy

but I'm happy and crazy 

so it works!

***Good Night All***

Tomorrows the Day!

My ultrasound is tomorrow morning!! I am excited and nervous but mostly excited, I think the nervous comes from the possibility that they will find something wrong. 

I try to push that to the back of my mind and remember that no matter what we will get through it, and this is the baby Heavenly Father gave to us, we just pray he or she was given a sound and strong body and mind. 

I am really super excited to find out boy or girl so that I can figure out names and start looking for clothes especially if it is a girl! I could have so much fun dressing a little girl, but we will love either of course.

I am also excited because then we can start talking about baby brother or baby sister with Matthew, maybe prepare him a little for the changes coming up, I'm just not sure if he will understand what we are trying to tell him.

Oobleck!

Cornstarch and water are really fun to play with, especially on the table!

Writing in the Oobleck

"Thanks for letting me make a BIG mess Mom!"

All done

This was painting on a different day, but isn't he the cutest!

First Time Playing in the SNOW!!

He walked back and forth over and over, I'm not sure he knew what else to do.

He found a leaf

Trying to ride his giraffe

Smiles :) He is so cute!

Found some ice

"Yummm"

All Done! Look at those red fingers.

I'm sorry about the sideways pictures, I changed them in my picture editing software and saved it, but for some reason they didn't upload that way. 

It was so much fun to watch him explore and play in the snow. He was apprehensive at first, but really started smiling and having fun as he got used to it. 

 

I think it helped him to have a friend here who loves to play in the snow, he showed him how it was done. He even tried to teach him about snowball fights (Matthew was not liking that though). At the end I think he figured out how cold he was and then it was all over, but it was fun while it lasted!

Not Alone After all

It was great, Matthew was asleep, Chris is in the room studying, and I sat down and thought "Yay! some time for myself with no one to worry about!"

Ha! I was forgetting about someone because all of a sudden I start feeling tiny little baby kicks and punches. I then silently laughed to myself and thought I'm not really ever alone :)

Not really a sad thought though. In fact I love being surrounded by people I love, even if I do get tired sometimes. It is still the best and I am lucky to have so many people to worry about!

Funny Story

I just have to blog about this, one of the many times I wished I had a video camera happened last night. I just think this would be a great video to show at someones graduation party or wedding reception (yup, I'm a nice Mom).

Matthew was playing with his toys on the floor while Chris and I were talking. Well I look down and Matthew has a hot-wheels sized tricycle, he was just pushing it across the floor, well he decided that it would be more fun to ride.

So Chris and I watch as Matthew tries over and over to sit on this tiny little tricycle. It was hilarious and oh so cute. After a few minutes he gave up and resumed pushing it across the floor.

The story may not be funny to you all, but trust me it was the cutest and most funny thing I have seen in a long time! We love watching our little boy grow and explore :)

His Favorite

So I had a doctors appointment earlier this week, and I came home to Matthew laughing away. Well it turns out Chris had found Shaun the Sheep on Netflix, and Matthew loved it. This is the first TV show that he has even shown an interest in, so we have turned it on for him a few more times and we get the same reaction. I am not really into pushing TV on toddlers, however it is nice to have a show that he is interested in. It is pretty funny so Chris and I don't mind watching it with him. It is by no means educational, but I don't see a harm in it every once in awhile :)

 

Hungry Boy!

This kid of mine must be going through a growth spurt because he has eaten more food than I can believe in the last couple of days. He just always seems hungry! This morning he ate a huge bowl of Cherrios, some peanut butter toast, a good portion of my eggs, some of Chris's toast. Then not even 45 minutes after finishing breakfast he started whining for milk and a banana! Oh my!

By Leaps and Bounds

Here is my little guy and his finished pumpkin, I realized I never posted a picture of him with his pumpkin completed. He stuck the face on himself, I was impressed that he managed to get the eye's, nose, and mouth in the correct order.
This little boy is learning new things like crazy lately, he is starting to talk more, I think only Chris and I can understand most of the words at this point, but it is still one step closer. I asked the doctor about that and he said jumbled is okay as long as we are understanding what he is saying, it will get clearer soon. Not only is he talking more but he has learned to use his mega blocks, shape sorter, and more. He is learning his body parts and loves to find his belly button and nose, he loves to comb his hair while Mommy brushes hers (sometimes even brings the comb to Chris so he can help).
He is also playing pretend. He pretends to feed the baby dolls with the bottle. He also will grab a bag (sometimes a doctor bag, sometimes a play dog purse) and come up to Chris and I making kissy noises, so we give him a kiss and he says "bye" and then he walks down the hall or out of the room we are in. Super cute!
We love our little boy, he makes everyday amazing :)

Lets go to the park!

Pullman has some great parks, one day after work we ate dinner quickly and took Matthew to one of the parks close to our house. It has been a long winter and it was a nice warm day finally. The following pictures document his reaction to the slide and swing at the park, a week or so later we took him to the park again between sessions of general conference and he loved watching the ducks (we don't have pictures of that trip).

He has no idea what is about to happen

Daddy started letting him slide down, you notice he is holding on tightly to the side of the slide, Chris then pried his hand free to continue down the slide slowly.

At the bottom of the slide - Poor kid

The swing went much better, he was smiling and laughing the whole time.

It is a little blurry, but he is just so stinkin' cute!

I love this picture drool and all, he is teething right now so he is drooling all the time.

Matthew is 3 months! (on Friday the 15th)

I'm a little early but Chris and I were able to get some fun pictures of Matthew over the past week or so. He has really started to like being on his tummy, he also likes this funny toy well he likes chewing on the antennas.
3 month stats:
24 inches
12 pounds 5 ounces

 This is the funny toy, it is like an alien or something. He loves to put that antenna in his mouth (notice the blue ball in his mouth).

 Matthew really likes to chew on his arm (this is how he gave himself the hickey before).

 Tummy time for Chris and Matthew! 

 I think the flash startled him. He is getting really strong and can hold himself up for a long time!