No Go

Last night on the way home from the General Relief Society Broadcast our car started dying on me. It seemed when I pushed on the gas it was slow down more but when I let off the gas, I would have a little more oomph. I almost went to a complete stop and figured I was just going to have to walk home in the dark in my church clothes. For some reason the car went back to normal and I was able to make it home. When I got home, I got Chris to go drive with me and it didn't act up at all. This morning we were running late to get to church and sure enough our car had problems starting. We got it out of the garage but not much farther then that so now it just looks like we have a permanent visitor. Since we were already running late (which surprisingly isn't very usual for us) we couldn't call anyone to come pick us up for church. My professional opinion is that something is wrong with a fuel injector or fuel pump or something but I guess we will see. We have to get it towed tomorrow to get it fixed. Car troubles, not fun at all. Needless to say it was a long day, not being able to go anywhere, including outside since it is still so hot, or being able to do a whole lot since it still is Sunday.

Yard work

We have had a lawn to mow now for three years and Chris always says how much he hates yard work. Since I don't hate yard work, most of the time I am the one that mows. On Saturday as I was mowing Chris stayed inside and cleaned up the house and then Matthew wanted to come outside so Chris came out to watch him. I have never realized that the reason why he hates yard work so much is because he is so allergic to outside. He was sneezing the rest of the day. Poor guy. I guess there is a bigger reason why I usually mow the lawn. Like I have said before, Matthew always wants to help. The reason why you have children is so you don't have the mow the lawn anymore right? Matthew is learning from an early age.

Birthday Party

My really good friend, Jami, just turned a special number so a friend, Amy, and I decided to have a little get-together/party for her since it was a special number. So we went to the park again tonight and Matthew got to play on the slide. He was having a really good time. It is really fun to sit back and watch Chris play with Matthew. He is such a good dad, I absolutely love it.

Darn sun got in the way of this picture but if you look closely he is REALLY smiling.

I am getting really sick of my camera because it takes so long for it to actually take the picture. As you can tell, Matthew didn't want to wait that long but I think Chris looks good in this picture so I had to post it. I need to have Matthew "accidentally" brake my camera so I can get a new(better) one like my friend. (Good idea Aubrey)

Home Photo Shoots

A year ago I did a home photo shoot so I thought that I could do it again but the key word is "thought". Matthew has definitely grown and can move around a whole lot more now so it is harder to keep him in one spot. He also wouldn't smile for me today. I think that was the most frustrating thing. I used to be able to get him to smile at least sometimes and as you can tell in these pictures, he wasn't a smiler today.

This is one of the pictures I took a year ago when I did the home photo shoot so I was sort of trying to duplicate the picture at least with the bears in it.

5 Months Old

17 Months Old

Friends/Frog

After we went to the park this morning, we went to Music Makers at our stake center. I had some picture of Matthew at music makers but they were any different from the previous weeks so I decided not to post them. However, this cute little family was having a fun time so I had to get a picture of them. A few of you know this family. Her name is Jessica and she and I are Visiting Teaching companions, and the reason why I post her picture is because I think she is the worlds greatest mom. As you can tell she has three little boys and she is just full of love for each individual one. She is the most patient mom I have ever met. I have been around her a lot and have never seen her get frustrated with children. I don't know how she does it but she truly is amazing. She will be the first to admit that her children aren't perfect but they are very good children because they truly have amazing parenting skills. This pictures the little baby was pulling the oldest one's hair and they were all just laughing. Maybe I just post this picture of Jess to help me be a better mom since I look at our blog so much.One Outstanding MOM!!

After music makers, Matthew and I were just enjoying the weather with our friends and Jess found a frog. It was the tiniest little frog I had ever seen so I had to take pictures of it but it was so tiny that I couldn't even get a good picture. It was probably the size of a dime.

Matthew was helping his friends find wood for a "fire" they were building. He got a little sidetracked in the dirt. It was pretty fun watching him go exploring with his friends and just being a little boy, ready to get dirty, because after all he tried to be good but he got bored.

Swinging

This morning some friends and I took our kids to the park and let them swing. Matthew really likes swinging most of the time. These pictures are pretty much all the same but cute none the less.

Since he is swinging, it almost looks like it is raining it the background but it isn't.

I love what his shirt says "I tried to be good but I got bored."

Bath Time

I was glad that Chris was home to give Matthew his bath tonight. As I looked at Matthew I just thought he was a cute boy so I ran to get my camera and so we have these pictures.

Oh, so tired.
[He grabs his ear(s) when he is tired.]

We went to toddler story time at our local library and today's theme was Teddy Bear Picnic. Afterwards, they had teddy grahams and little juice boxes for all the kids so they could feel like they were really on a teddy bear picnic. It was really cute, you will have to trust me on this one because I didn't even take the diaper bag so I didn't get any pictures.

Congratulations Mike!!!

I wanted to let you all know how very proud I am of my brother, Mike. He is going to graduate school in Georgia and he just passed his Comprehensive Exams!!!!! YEAH!!!! He has been studying so hard for so long I am sure his family is very glad to have that part over. So a hip-hip-hooray sent out to Mike!! Congratulations Mike!!!!

Thank You!

I just have to say thank you to those of you that actually leave feedback or send feedback through email. I wonder quite a bit if anyone (especially family) looks at our blog except me and bubba. (Matthew loves looking at pictures of himself and especially loves watching the videos of bubba.) I just got a lovely email from Nana (Chris' mom's mom), that expressed that she looks at our blog all the time and said very nice things about it. I was so pleased. It makes me want to keep it up. Our family is so far away like Nana in Canada it is nice to hear they are a little more connected/updated on our family. Thanks Nana!!!

Ward Ice Cream Social

We had our annual Ward Ice Cream Social on Friday night. I believe the first year they started having an ice cream social was in 2004 which was our first year here. They always have it shortly after school starts so we can get to know the new people in our ward since our ward is SO transient every year. This year they had a band, Under Construction, come and play for us to dance to. I would classify their music as mostly country so it was right up my ally.

A little family picture

Under Construction
It seemed really weird to me to see a band in our church building.
Granted it was just in the gym but it was still just odd for me.

Chris and Matthew clapping to the music.
(Oh, how Chris was loving listening to country:-)

As Matthew was out on the dance floor this little girl came up and started dancing with him. They actually danced for quite a while, which I was surprised. I think the girl had more fun then Matthew.

Matthew was very interested in this little baby.

Matthew and I dancing and having a wonderful time.

This other cute little boy is named Joseph Hansen. I have to tell you a little about him.
He had a huge fascination with me all day long it was really cute. He is our best friend's little boy and we picked up Jami and Joseph for Music Makers earlier that day. While at music makers, he would come and sit on my lap or come and give me a hug, and he even gave me a kiss once. It was really cute. Most of the time Matthew didn't mind but every once and awhile he would notice Joseph on my lap so he would have to come back and claim his mommy.
That night at the ice cream social he still had this fascination with me. He came over to our table and just sat on my lap for a really long time. Then I went and started dancing with Matthew and he would come over and want me to pick him up also. I felt so loved by little Joseph. It is one thing when your own child always wants to be around you but when someone else's child always wants you to hold them, it really made me feel good. So I got to dance with both Matthew and Joseph. Joseph looks like he is crying in this picture but he is actually laughing really hard. He was having a good time dancing.

Even though we didn't get any pictures of it, I got to dance with Chris. I absolutely loved it. I just had a huge smile on my face the whole time we were dancing. I felt like we were on a date. We haven't been on a date for over 4 months. We definitely need to go on more dates. I loved dancing with Chris but we think it would be fun to go take dance lessons sometime or at least get some kind of DVD or something that shows like the two-step, and foxtrot and anything else we may want to learn. Maybe when Matthew is old enough to watch himself we can do that.

This is Elaina Trousdale, you have seen a picture of her before. It was really cute because she has a fascination with Matthew. While we were eating our ice cream before the dance started she was literally chasing Matthew around the gym. Matthew was running and she was close behind him with her arms out trying to reach him. It was so cute and funny. We tried to get them to dance together and Matthew didn't really want to.

This isn't a good picture of Matthew but I thought I looked ok in it so I had to post it to redeem myself from the last picture I didn't really like.

I had such a fun time at the dance. I loved the music and I love dancing (even though I wish I knew more). However, the point of this social was to get to know new people but I didn't talk to many people. I was just enjoying the music and watching Matthew. Chris is a trooper to stay there so long and listen to the country music which he does not like but he could tell how much fun I was having so he dealt with it so I could enjoy myself.

Chris' Episode

I post this entry to keep Chris' parents updated on this situation.
Some of you are aware of Chris' "episodes". He gets these extremely, excruciating pains in his abdomen and we have no idea what causes it or what makes it go away. He used to have them about every 6 weeks and they would last anywhere from 1-3 days. We thought he was done with them because he hadn't had an "episode" since November of 2005 when we started driving to Georgia to spend Thanksgiving with my brother and his family. When we lived in Arizona he had them all the time and we went to many specialists to see if they could tell us what it was. At one point we were in the G.I.'s office when he was having one and the Dr. couldn't find anything wrong so he just prescribed Chris some heavy duty pain medication. Unfortunately, Chris had another episode last night about 3am. I feel so bad for him because there isn't anything I can do for him. He just has to wait it out. Luckily, it didn't get as bad as it normally does so he just took some pain medication and was able to go back to sleep once it started kicking in.

Music Makers

On Fridays we go to Music Makers in the morning. There are some welcoming songs and then we split into singing time and circle time (which is basically the same thing) and then we go in the gym and do marching time. They have little instruments the kids can use. Last week Matthew wasn't a big fan of marching time because it was SO loud but this week there weren't nearly as many kids so it wasn't as traumatic. He still hasn't got the concept of shaking the tambourine so that it makes noise but I sure he is thinking there is enough noise already, he doesn't need to add to it. It seems like it is getting harder and harder to have him smile for the camera. So these are the pictures I get these days.

My friend noticed that Matthew and I were dressed similarly so we had to get a picture.
(Not my favorite picture of myself, but what can I do)

Playgroup

We got to have playgroup at our house again today. Matthew enjoys having all of his friends come over to play. After they all left, Matthew had lunch and was still in a good mood so I postponed his nap for a little while and Matthew and I walked the 5-10 minutes to Blinn College where Chris is working today and we got to visit daddy for a little while. I think we all enjoyed it. I love that Chris works so close to home on Tuesday and Thursdays.
Chris and I have come to a consensus that Matthew is so very cute and he needs to have more grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins come visit. You are all welcome to visit at anytime. Yesterday, as we were walking to the pool, Matthew fell and hit his

head on the sidewalk and got a little scratch. Poor little guy:-(

"Mom, they are playing with my toys!"

Look at me!

What a mess!!

Baba (Bubba)

Matthew was playing with his balloons so I went to get the video camera. He saw the camera and stopped playing with the balloons and came over to me. I was recording but Matthew wanted to see so I flipped the little view screen around so then he saw himself. He was so cute watching himself. He started pointing to himself and the camera and saying Baba or Bubba (you decide). I was hoping that I actually caught him on tape since I couldn't see what I was filming. We obviously thought it was pretty cute so we had to post it.

The KAT Walk

Matthew was anxious to get out of the house this afternoon so I decided to take him to the park to play on the playground while Chris stayed home to get some work done. I just took him to the closest one but when we got closer I saw a whole bunch of balloons (notice them in the picture). We got out of the car and heard music going but figured it was just someone's birthday party or something. The playground was occupied nor was it in the way so we continued to walk towards the playground when I heard a guy start speaking and it sounded like a community event. We went to find out what it was and it was the annual 2007 The KAT Walk (Kidney Awareness Time). I decided it was something we could help out with so I went and registered and Matthew and I walked the mile they wanted us to (well, I did the walking Matthew just stayed in my arms). It was a hot day as you can tell by how red my face is.
After we walked, I let Matthew play in the air mattress house thingy they had there. He didn't really like not having anything sturdy to stand on but he did smile a couple times. They also had a huge air slide. I took him down it once, but he didn't seem too thrilled and I skinned my heels coming down so fast so I didn't take him down it anymore.

At the end Matthew got to take one of the balloons home. He absolutely LOVES balloons. He has so much fun with them and is sad when he doesn't get to play with them anymore.

Once we finally got done with The KAT walk entertainment I let Matthew play on the playground. It is fun watching him grow and learn different things. I feel like an over protective mom and never want to leave him alone on the playground but he is learning how to do things without getting hurt. Like this tunnel, he used to climb out face first and the distance between was pretty big to go out face first but now he is coming out feet first. Yeah!!! How can you tell I am a first time mom.

Chicken Dog Show

Today we went to the Chicken Dog Show at our local library. Apparently this guy was on the David Letterman Show. He played the accordion, juggled, had a talking parrot, and he also had two dogs that did tricks, one of which was named Chicken Dog. We had a fun time going as a family.

A little video of him juggling five balls.

More Swimming

My friend invited Matthew and I over to go swimming at her apartment complex. It was a really cool pool because they have an area that is only 1 foot deep so the little ones can just run around.

Do you see his new tooth on the bottom on the right side?

Splashing!!!

Vacuum

I keep saying how much Matthew wants to get in my way.....I mean how much he wants to help me. This picture is just one more proof that he really does like to help. I hope to train him to do household duties from an early age so he can grow up and be a helpful husband just like his daddy.
I feel like I haven't posted anything in way too long but I sort of feel like not a whole lot has happened. We have been staying busy but I just haven't taken pictures of it. On Tuesday we went to Lunch Bunch which we do once a month and it is for everyone and their children. We meet at someone's house and have lunch. It is really good for the moms I think. Yesterday I started taking Matthew to toddler storytime at our library which is every Wednesday. It is just a 25 min event but it gets us out of the house. I think Matthew will enjoy it more the older he gets. On Thursdays we have playgroup and this month it is at our house for two hours. I love that Matthew gets to spend time with his friends and I get to have adult conversations. On Fridays we get to go to Music Makers which is a fun hour long event which is held in our church building.
I am starting to really enjoy cooking good meals and Chris really likes it also. However the meals that I enjoy preparing the most are the ones that I can do ahead of time. I really enjoy preparing a good meal while Matthew is sleeping and then just putting it in the fridge so that I can put it in the oven whenever I want depending on when Chris gets home.
Chris is getting into a routine for this semester. The first week was really hard for him because he was so nervous about teaching but now he has started to feel a lot more confident. His first class is in the morning and he says that he isn't completely awake and doesn't feel like he knows his lecture completely. He stumbles over his words and has to look at his notes a lot. The second class he is more awake and he knows his lecture better. He says he feels like he has already taught this once and he has to teach another one? By his third class he feels like he is a pro at his lecture, doesn't have to look at his notes hardly at all and actually enjoys teaching (which is good because that is what he wants to do for the rest of his career.) He feels like he is getting things accomplished and that makes him a happy camper.