Black Friday

I think I have started a bad tradition. I have never gone out of my house on Black Friday but somehow I came across the ads for Black Friday and I got hooked. There were such good deals I could not just let them pass by so Matthew, Chris, and I went out among the crowds and snagged some cheap items. One of those items was a train. I have always wanted a train to go around the tree and so it was a good deal, we just had to get it. Growing up the tradition was putting the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving and we were going to do that this year since we actually stayed home but we were out and about too long. We put the tree up on Saturday and put the train around it. It seems really big compared to other remote controlled trains I have seen. Matthew loves watching it but we have been trying to express to him that he can't touch the train. After watching it for a long time we turned it off. I was in the kitchen and Matthew came in with the caboose in his hand. I was not very happy that he wasn't obeying his parents and so he got in a little bit of trouble for touching the train. Now instead of just saying choo-choo, he says choo-choo na-no. I think he has finally got it into his head that the choo-choo is a no-no.

Choo-choo, na-no

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Some friends, The Trousdales, weren't going anywhere for Thanksgiving so we decided to have Thanksgiving together. They have a 2 year old girl, Elaina and a 4 month old girl Erin. Allison and I came up with a plan, Chris and Matthew went over to their house in the morning and Allison brought Erin over here and we cooked dinner without the toddlers around. Chris took his XBox with him and he and Mike tried to play while Matthew and Elaina played together. It was wonderful. Allison and I had a wonderful time talking all day. It was so nice to just be able to cook without constantly having to get Matthew out of cupboards or hold him. We ate later then we wanted but it was pretty good. It wasn't as wonderful as my mom's Thanksgiving dinners but then again she has many more years of experience on me. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing but it turned out pretty well, thanks to Allison's help. However, I did not achieve my main goal which was to not have the white meat dry on my turkey. So if anybody had juicy white meat, please share your secret with me.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

First Mess

You know when you start hearing something that you shouldn't be hearing and you just think, oh no! Yep that is what happened. Matthew is tall enough and smart enough that he has learned how to open doors now. I am not very excited that he knows how to do that. I am really glad that our front door is really hard to open. Even adults can't get out our front door sometimes. Matthew gets into the pantry on a regular basis now and it doesn't always make me happy. We need to go get those childproof (adult proof) door handles. Matthew just got done eating 2 big pancakes, two sausage links and a good sized bowl and yogurt for breakfast and he was apparently hungry within 30 minutes of eating breakfast because he went to find more food. I was in the other room and just heard a noise I shouldn't hear and knew exactly what was happening. So I jumped up, grabbed the camera and went to assess the damages. I am so glad it was only Kix and not like sugar or something worse. Chris said he was glad he wasn't the one that was here because be probably would have freaked out but I just had to laugh. It could have been worse and I know there will be a lot bigger messes then this in the future. Once he poured them out and I got my pictures, I didn't want him to move because every time he did, he stepped on some and smashed them. I am glad I got pictures of his "first mess". It is something we just have to laugh about.

Oh, NO!!

"Now I can eat what I want!"

Beautiful Weather

I wrote this a couple weeks ago but just never posted it. The weather right now is only in the 40s and it has been raining a lot the last couple days.
I took the garbage out and Matthew followed me and then he didn't really want to come inside and so I decided it was such a beautiful day then it would be good for us to spend some time outside. It has gotten so nice here. Now it is only in the 70s during the day. It is WONDERFUL. However that means that we do get in the 40s at night and I don't necessarily like it that cold. Yes, I am originally from MT but I have been in the heat of AZ and TX for the last 6 years and I am acclimated to the warm weather. I am a wimp when it comes to cold weather. The sad part is 40s isn't even all that cold compared to MT but when you are used to 100+ weather it is cold. The days are beautiful though. We spent many hours outside. Matthew found some sticks that kept him occupied for a very long time and I got some yard work done. I weeded and trimmed trees. We now have a big pile of branches for bulk pickup. When Chris came home he asked if I felt like a beaver and I was completely lost as to what he was talking about. He said there were so many branches and twigs I could build my own damn. The back yard looks a little better though. There are trees in our back yard and two of them actually have hooks for a hammock. Normally I don't like to be outside here in Texas because of all the bugs and everything but I really enjoyed it yesterday being in the shade of all the trees and feeling the cool weather. I wished I had a hammock to lay in so badly. Maybe someday we will get one for these nice fall days. I only saw two wasps the whole day and only one spider which was in the mailbox. The insects must be hibernating since it gets so cold at night but that is ok with me.He thought this metal box was fun to drum on since it made noise. He would use his hands and also his sticks. He was having fun using his sticks as a broom, sort of. He would try to sweep away all the leaves and little berries that had fallen on the back porch.

Ready For My Date

Chris and I actually get to go out on a date tonight. I am so excited about it and I even got all prettied up for it. Not very often do I think I look sort of cute so I had to make sure I took a picture because this doesn't happen very often.

Stake Conference

Today we had stake conference. It wasn't just any ordinary stake conference though. We had to go to Reed Arena on Texas A&M University campus to attend conference. It has been about ten years since we (well not us but the stake) sustained a new Stake President. We were told that Elder Holland was going to be at our stake conference so we knew we were getting a new stake presidency. As we first drove up to Reed Arena I felt like I was going to General Conference because there were a bunch of Mormons dressed in their Sunday best walking into a big building. Not to mention, an apostle was going to be there speaking to us. Elder Holland released the old Stake Presidency and called the new Stake Presidency. We do actually know the 2nd Counselor so that was pretty cool. I am sure the new Presidency will do an awesome job.
When Elder Holland spoke at the end, I almost didn't feel like it was real. To actually be listening to an apostle talk specifically to our stake was so incredible. I loved how he talked about President Hinckley. To someone that has never physically been to General Conference and just watch it on television, the apostles including President Hinckley seem so distant from me. But to actually have Elder Holland there talking to us about seeing President Hinckley everyday made me feel like church headquarters wasn't so far away. It was a really good experience to get to go to Stake Conference today and listen to an apostle speak.

18 Month Check-up

We just went to Matthew's eighteen month check-up and the overall conclusion is that he is a healthy boy. I love when the doctor tells me that I am doing a good job. It makes me feel so good. All moms need to hear that they are doing a good job every once in awhile. Matthew's measurements are:

Weight: 25 pounds 11 ounces
Height: 34 inches
Head: 19 1/4 inches

He is around 50% for his weight but around 90% for his height. He is a tall boy. Many people guess that he is at least 2 years old because he is so tall.

Matthew still sits in his highchair when we eat but occasionally for snack time I put him in his big boy chair and give him a big boy cup to try and help him use those types of cups so it isn't so new when he is in nursery. It is funny, some days he just loves sitting in his chair and drinking out of his cup and other times he doesn't really care. This particular day he was having fun being a big boy.




Eighteen months means nursery!!!!! Chris has been going in with him for the last month to get him "used to it" and it is nice to be able to go to class and actually listen for a change. Since Chris wasn't able to go to church with me, I was glad that Matthew was "officially" nursery age and I didn't have to go in with him. I thought it was going to be dramatic when I left because he is such a mommy's boy but he pushed the door right open and I didn't even go in with him. They have toy time first so it is a big distraction for them leaving their parents. I checked on him occasionally and seemed to do fine until I had to go in the last 20 minutes to do the singing time. As soon as I walked in, it was like his mood changed or something but he wanted my full attention when I was trying to do singing time. He needs to get used to me being the teacher and not mommy for a whole 20 minutes. We have about 30 nursery kids and that is a lot trying to keep them sitting on the floor on their little rugs. I believe we have more coming in before the end of the year and we are only losing 6 to Sunbeams next year. We have had so many new families move in, I feel like I am visiting the ward because I don't know many anymore. All the "student" families that were here when we got here, have all left. There are the core families that work for the University so they are not going anywhere but other then that I don't know many. It is quite crazy.

OH!!!

Recently Matthew has been making this face. I am not sure what it means but it is funny and cute. It looks like he is saying oh but he doesn't actually say anything when he does it and then after he does it he laughs, probably because we are laughing.

Another "oh" face

Halloween

We weren't going to take Matthew trick-or-treating since he can't even say trick-or-treat yet but then right as we put Matthew's pajamas on our friends came trick-or-treating to our door. I had wanted to see Joseph's costume and so they convinced me that Joseph needed a trick-or-treating buddy to go around our neighborhood with. I put Matthew in his costume and out the door we went. The boys had so much fun knocking on the doors. That was the best part. They were really sad if nobody answered though. It was the cutest thing watching them knock on the door. We were having so much fun watching them knock that we went down a couple more streets. Since we live in a retirement community it wasn't very successful but the boys still had fun.

Knock, Knock

Halloween Family Home Evening

Our friends, The Martins, had us over for a Halloween Family Home Evening. Dressing up was optional. Since we think Matthew is too young to go trick-or-treating we didn't find a costume for him this year but then my other friend had an extra costume so Matthew got to borrow a lion costume that I had him wear to FHE. It was so much fun. There were 5 other families there and lots of laughing going on. The lesson was on teamwork and how if we work together we can get things accomplished. She read/sang a book called The Big Pumpkin and the witch wanted this big pumpkin but couldn't get it off the vine. Along came the ghost, mummy, vampire, and bat and helped her. It was a really fun cute book that a good theme to it. Then we sang songs and she did a little skit/poem about the Five Little Pumpkins sitting on the gate. Then we played Halloween bingo, decorated cookies, ate pumpkin chocolate chip bread (which was SO good), ate caramel apples, drank apple juice/cider, and had a donut eating contest in which the donut hung from a string and you couldn't use your hands to eat it. It is a lot harder then it looks. Matthew was a little too young for things but he really enjoyed playing with Kyle's toys, especially all the balls he has. Matthew LOVES balls, any size, any color. If you have writing on your shirt and it has an o in it he points to it and says ball. He is cute. Chris unfortunately wasn't able to come with us since he has class Monday nights but we still had a really fun time.

Witch's Brew......Ok, not really, it was the apple cider juice mix with dry ice. A cool affect though.What a surprise, Matthew found a ball.

Amy reading/singing the Big Pumpkin and her son Kyle.

This costume got a little hot with all these bodies around.