Daddy's Home

Yesterday when Chris came walking home, Matthew and I happen to be playing outside. I saw Chris coming so I pointed for Matthew to look for Daddy. Matthew pointed but I could tell he didn't know what he was pointing at. Then a great big smile came on his face and he did his excited inhale and then started running towards daddy. It was really cute and totally made Chris' day.
Then we came in the house and Matthew was in a playing mood. He did this once and we just laughed and thought we should get this on video. I went and got the video camera but we really didn't think he would do it again but he did it one more time. I guess he is trying to be an upside down inchworm or something but we thought it was kind of funny so enjoy.

Back To School

I can't believe school started today. I remember thinking how long the summer was going to be with Chris being gone for eight weeks. However, despite the heat I am so glad I went to Montana to be with my parents for four weeks of it. It was good to be back in my own house and it was even better to have Chris home. When he is home, I sort of feel like a slacker because he helps so much with Matthew and with the household chores. It is really nice but now that school is in, we get to be busy again.
Chris found a way to get out of his calling as the seminary teacher. It was a bitter sweet calling for him. He loves teaching but he had a hard semester in the spring. He had night class Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so he didn't get home until 10 and usually didn't get to sleep until 11 or later and had to get up before 6 to go and teach seminary. He is a guy that needs his eight hours of sleep so it was really hard for him. This semester he has classes in the mornings, so MWF he has to leave by 6:45 and TR he has to leave by 7:15. So he got out of being the seminary teacher except they still haven't found a replacement for him and seminary is suppose to start on Wednesday and Chris still has all of the teaching manuals. Fortunately, Chris only has one night class which is on Monday nights. I am glad he doesn't have as many night classes but it is still sad that on Mondays Matthew doesn't get to see his daddy at all since Chris leaves before Matthew gets up and comes home after he goes to bed. I may have to make a picnic on Mondays and pick Chris up for lunch. Chris is a little worried about what they are going to call him to do next.
We have a little book club in our ward which I have been attending however the sad news is that they meet on Monday nights after Family Home Evenings but since Chris now has class that night I don't get to attend this semester but I am hoping to have the dedication to still read the books even though I don't get to go attend the discussion. Hopefully I will be able to attend next semester.
A couple other things to keep us busy now that school is starting is I am a leader of Achievement days so we meet two Wednesday nights a month. I also just got a job at night. Well I wouldn't really call it a job, more then an excuse to get out of the house and let Chris spend along time with Matthew. It is only Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6-8pm so like I said not really a job. It is at the Bryan Adult Learning Center which is where adults learn English and where people go to get their GED. I will be tester and working in the office once I get trained. I just started last Thursday night. I am excited for it though, it also gives me an excuse to wear the clothes I used to wear to work. In the workforce, I love learning new things but I don't like starting a new job. I love to have the basics down and add to instead of EVERYTHING being new. Anyways, we will see how that goes.
Now that school is in I have to buckle down and get things done. One thing I have been saying I was going to start doing again once school started was exercising. Since school started today I actually have to do it. It was so hard for me to work up the motivation to do it. This year I started with a goal to loose 30 pounds and so I worked hard earlier in the year to achieve that goal and now that I am at my goal weight exercising isn't as big of a priority but I know I need to do it so after convincing myself that I needed to just do it I finally did and after a few minutes I got into the groove. Now I am glad that it is done but I am sure I am going to have to talk myself into it for awhile.
One of the things on my list today was doing laundry and I have been trying to get Matthew involved in a lot of things that I am doing so I tried to tell him to bring his laundry basket out to the living room but no luck. However he did help me push the basket full of laundry into the living room and then he would pull the clothes out of the dryer and put them in the basket and push the basket into the living room. What a big helper he is. He was having fun playing in the basket and standing on top of the basket.

Matthew also got to color a little bit today. He still likes to eat the crayons so I am trying to teach him not to eat the crayons because I am sure nursery won't appreciate my son eating all their crayons.While Matthew was coloring it started to rain so I let Matthew go outside and play in it. He had a fun time especially when I showed him the puddle. He loved stomping in the puddle. I let him play until it started thundering and that was the sign to come inside.

Too Cute

Yesteday at church Matthew and I were waiting for Chris and Matthew started exploring. He went into this one classroom and there was a lady in there that asked me how I could stand to have the cutest little boy. Of course I didn't disagree with her and I told her it is really hard to have such a cute boy. I actually worry about our other children, I sure hope they are as cute as Matthew or we might have problems. So, it is proven he is the cutest boy there is (at least until we have another one). Now go to the poll on the right side of this page and cast your vote.

My Little Buddy

Now that Matthew walks I feel like he is my little buddy. He understands so much I am amazed and he probably knows and understands so much more then I think he does. It is really fun to be able to take somewhere and share a smoothie (which we did many times while Chris was gone). He is really cute and fun to be around.
This morning as Matthew was reaching onto the table to get something down I was amazed at how much he can reach. He is definitely growing taller and he can even get stuff off of the kitchen counter which makes me worry sometimes. I hope I remember to not leave breakable or sharp objects too close to the edge. I can't believe he is growing up. The months are just flying by, pretty soon he will be going off to college. (Just kidding :)

Made My Day

This actually happened a few weeks ago but I just thought about it and I thought it was cute so I decided to share. I was sitting on the couch reading something and Matthew was playing then he came to the couch and wanted me to pick him up. I figured he just wanted to get up on the couch and sit by me. I picked him up and he grab my head with both his little hands and turned my head and kissed my cheek and then turned my head again and kissed the other cheek and then wanted down. I could not believe it. I just sat there stunned but with a really big smile on my face. He made my day. Those are the times when you just love being a parent. Other times are questionable but not that time.

Just Keep Swimming

Southern hospitality is very true here in the Texas. Our neighbor a couple houses down has a swimming pool that they let the whole neighborhood use. They told us just use it whenever you like please don't ask so we get to enjoy swimming in the hot Texas summers. We wanted to make the most of today since it was the last day to do things before Chris goes back to school on Monday. Matthew has definitely enjoyed having his daddy around all day for the past two weeks (and needless to say I have enjoyed having him home as well). We spent a little while in the pool today and of course got some pictures and a video.

Too Cool

Come on Daddy, catch up.

Cool Dude

Storytime

Matthew doesn't necessarily love reading books. In fact he likes to chew on them more then read them, but today for some reason he had a fascination with books and he actually stayed on Chris' lap for more then one story. After awhile he wanted to get down and then I found him on the floor reading. I hope that is a good sign.

Dancing

Matthew loves listening to music. We are trying to teach him about rhythm and beats from an early age so whenever I listen to music I snap my fingers to the beat so now he refers to music by snapping his fingers. When he wants us to turn on music he snaps his fingers and points to the stereo. Just recently he has been swaying to the music instead of snapping so we caught him actually doing his little dance.

Banana Chair

Now that we have a blog I am trying to take more pictures of Matthew so I can add to the blog many times. So when Chris says, Hey hon come here, I grab the camera and run in.
We got this banana chair from some friends that moved to China for a year (wow) and we have enjoyed it ever since. Matthew is enjoying it as well as you can tell. He likes to rock in it with us and also likes us to rock him in it.

We had been trying to get Matthew to fold his arms for months and he just would not do it on his own and then when we (my mom and I) were traveling back from Wyoming to Montana we stopped at a church in Lovell and he was sitting on the pew by himself and when the opening prayer was about to be said I told him to fold his arms (like we always did) and he actually did it that time. I was so amazed and so he folds his arms whenever prayer is said, at least at the beginning and when you say amen if they weren't folded he folds them. I guess he doesn't want to get caught when we open our eyes. Also if we are sitting and relaxing or finished with our meal we (Chris and I) we subconsciousesly fold our arms and wait until we are all done and we don't realize we do it until Matthew folds his arms. We then have to tell him that he doesn't have to and he can finish eating. Silly boy.

Carwash Help

We wanted to get some fresh air so we decided to wash the car and get a little wet in the hot summer of Texas so we washed the car and tried to get Matthew to help us spray the car and wash it but the thing that he liked the most was using the squeagy. He played with that thing for a long time especially once we showed him to put it in the bucket. He just had a wonderful time. We finally had to help him poor out the bucket to come inside for dinner.

Soccer

One thing that Chris wanted to get when he went to Germany was a soccer jersey. He was looking for one for himself and saw small ones and thought that would be so cute to get Matthew a little soccer uniform and soccer ball. Matthew's uniform actually came in a box so Chris didn't know what it looked like until he opened it up to put on Matthew.I thought it was so cute that daddy and son both had the same soccer jerseys. I had to take pictures of them together.
Chris thought that since he and Matthew had soccer jerseys he should get one for me as well.
I wanted to get a family picture of us in our soccer jerseys but we didn't have anyone to take the picture and I couldn't find the timer for our camera so this was as close as we got.

Aren't they so cute sitting there together watching Baby Einstein. Matthew doesn't enjoy Baby Einstein quite as much as he used to so if we watch with him he tends to watch it a little longer.

This video is of Matthew having fun with his new soccer ball.

Having Fun

Matthew has fun playing in his room but he also likes to crawl underneath his crib and hang out sometimes. We would think that it would hurt him hitting his head so many times but he keeps doing it so it must not hurt.
We were playing in his room yesterday and just happen to get this really cute picture.
If you are wondering, yes we actually did paint Matthew's room green. Our house has been all white for the past three years so we decided to make it feel more homey we would paint our house. We wanted the living room to be a tan but when we put the paint on the wall it was so light you could barley see we painted it. It is just an off white but since we had 3 gallons of paint and couldn't take it back we painted anyways. It didn't really take us all that long just one afternoon and evening from 2pm-2am to have it completely done from start to finish so we decided the next day to get the paint for Matthew's room and paint his. We wanted it green but not that green. We overcompensated since our first was too light this color ended up being so bold it almost makes your eyes hurt. We were really worried Matthew wouldn't be able to sleep in there because it was such a contrast to his white walls but he did just fine. When you walk done the hall and Matthew's door is open, it actually glows. A little too much for us but we have gotten used to it. We stopped at that room so far. We fear that any other rooms we paint won't turn out how we want them to.
We had some friends over for dinner so Matthew and Joseph got to play. For some reason they really liked this pillow. It almost looks like they are having a slumber party but maybe they are still too young for that.
They had a fun time wrestling each other and stealing toys from each other.
They gave hugs to each other before they left and actually in this picture Joseph was giving the hug and Matthew was trying to give him a kiss.
Yesterday, Matthew hit me in the face with a toy (grr) but then he gave me a kiss right away! So I was upset that he hit me but it was so cute that he gave me a kiss. Maybe that was his way of saying "oops that was an accident mommy", but then again it could also be him thinkin if I give you a kiss they you can't get mad at me. Oh the joys or parenting.

Fun Toy

Matthew just recently discovered what this toy is really suppose to be used for. He loves pulling it around but he likes to watch it getting pulled so he has to walk backwards. It was really cute to see him first discover it. He has a toy phone that he can also pull so it is fun to watch him pull both of them at the same time.

Independent

Matthew has started wanting to eat all by himself. He has been learning how to use a spoon and fork. He gets frustrated sometimes when he isn't able to do it. When we don't want quite as big of a mess we usually fill the spoon or fork up for him and then help him put it in his mouth but today I let him do it all by himself. Needless to say that there were many noodles in his chair when I got him out. However, sometimes his bid did catch some of the noodles so he would take his bid and lift it up over his face so he could eat the noodles off or he would pick the noodles off of this bid and put them back in the bowl.

Cowboy and Cowgirl

We went to Montana for a month while Chris was in Germany. We had fun playing Cowboy.

Grandpa McNiven taking Matthew on his first horseback ride.

Master Thomas

I now refer to Chris as Master Thomas since he got his Master's degree in History in May of this year. Ok, so maybe I don't actually call him that but I am very proud of him for getting his degree. He had planned on only taking 2 years to get it done but last summer when he was suppose to be writing his thesis a certain little boy that weighed about 10 pounds at the time always interrupted him. I went back to work after 5 weeks of maternity leave and Chris stayed home with Matthew since it was the summer but Chris thought he would get more then just a paragraph done in a week. It made for a long summer for Chris taking care of Matthew while I worked. He understands why more often then not the mom stays home with the kids and not the dad. I was lucky enough to have an understanding boss that let me bring Matthew in to work with me towards the end of summer to give Chris more time to work. Matthew was a hard newborn and so it was not easy for Chris to get much work done while he was home with Matthew. Chris has been able to take his classes needed for his PhD in the meantime so as he has been finishing his Master's Thesis he was taking his classes for his PhD. He is glad to have gotten the Thesis done and especially the defense and then to actually have the diploma in his hand is another success. So Way To Go to Master Thomas :)

Matthew: 15 Months

Matthew's 15 month check-up measurements were:
Weight: 24 lbs. 13 oz.
(gained 1 lb from 12 mo.)
Length: 32 1/2 inches
(grew 1 inch from 12 mo.)
Head: 19 1/4 inches
(grew 1 inch from 12 mo.)
Matthew is now 85% in height and 55% in weight.

Making Faces

This is our favorite video of Matthew. We didn't teach him any of this, he did it all by himself. Matthew is 10 months old in this video.

We Are Bloggers!!

I can't believe we are actually blogging. My mom who is an English teacher would probably have a hard time considering blogging as a verb. I can just imagine her saying right now, "stand up and blog for me". This is kind of a weird thing for me to be doing but I have looked at some of my friends blogs and learned so much about how they were doing even when I talk to them every day. I hope that our family and friends will enjoy our words and pictures on this blog and that is will keep y'all updated on our little family. I am worried our lives won't be very eventful so I won't have many posts but we will see what happens.