Birthday presents

We got Matthew on video playing with a couple of his birthday presents. Here it is:

He (we) SURVIVED Two Years!!!!!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!!!!

Those of you that really know us, surviving TWO years with this little boy and still being alive and in our house is a HUGE accomplishment. I am sure this next year will bring more difficulties for us as well but we had to celebrate this milestone of him turning two.
One of Matthew's little friends was going out of town so we decided to have a small birthday party for Matthew on Friday instead of today which is his actual birthday. Since the choo-choo train that I made only had 4 windows in it we could only invite 3 friends over. I am sure that sounds silly but I wanted the kids in the windows to look like Matthew and his friends. So Matthew is the driver (obviously with the bright orange hair) and then it goes Joseph, Kyle, and then Elaina. It was kind of fun to have make the little kids on the cake resemble Matthew and his friends. I didn't remember Elaina was going out of town until 3 days before we needed to have the party and I hadn't prepared at all since my plan was to have his party 2 weeks later. I hurried and started shopping, planning and preparing. It was fun using my cake decorating skills to decorate Matthew's cake but I wished that I didn't have to wait until after I put him to bed and after work to start working on it. I stayed up until 3:30am the night before Matthew's party to decorate his cake and I couldn't sleep in the next morning because I was too anxious to show Chris and Matthew how it turned out. It isn't the best, I can definitely see where I should have done better or done things differently but I think it turned out ok. When Matthew's friends came over for the party, they got train horns to blow and I tried to do a little train with them but it didn't work quite as well as I had hoped. We went in the driveway and wrote on it with sidewalk chalk and then we blew bubbles. We went inside and had cake and ice cream and then opened presents. Overall I think it was a success and everybody had fun. I hope Matthew enjoyed his party. He has been talking about all of his friends ever since they left and actually it is starting to get annoying because he just says their names over, and over, and over, and over, and cries saying their names over and over, and over. (You get the idea)
Singing Happy Birthday!!


Some pictures from Matthew's Birthday Party!

2 Years Old

Words of a 4 year old

Yesterday, I was talking to my sister on the phone and her little four year old daughter, Jennifer, wanted to talk to me. As I was talking to her she mentioned something about her house and this is what she said:
Jennifer: "This is my daddy's house. He bought it for a dollar.... um.... (yelling to her mom) how much did Daddy buy this house for? (back to me) oh yeah, he bought it for three dollars, yeah pretty amazing huh?"
I just busted out laughing.
You have got to love what children say.

Texas Bluebonnet Festival

I had heard on the radio that the Texas Bluebonnet Festival in Chapel Hill was coming up and it sounded like fun. I had no idea where Chapel Hill was but thought it would be fun for my friend Jami and I to take our boys on a road trip and go to the festival. I looked up how far away Chapel Hill was on mapquest and it said 3 hours. I was shocked but still thought it would be fun. Jami and I decided to go and make a day of it. Luckily it only ended up taking us about an hour but it didn't even seem that long. I don't know where mapquest was going to take us in order for it to take 3 hours. The boys laughed a lot in the car especially when we gave them their juice cups and they started using them as swords and hitting each other's cup. They thought that was SO funny. When we got there we learned quickly that it was for people that wanted to spend lots of money on crafty type things. There wasn't a whole lot for the boys to do but it didn't seem to matter because they were pretty content just being around each other in the fresh air. We did finally find an area for kids but unfortunately neither Jami nor I came prepared with cash. I didn't even think about bringing cash because everybody takes cards these days right? Well, obviously not because as much as we wanted Joseph and Matthew to have a train ride, a pony ride and pet all the animals, they only took cash. However, Joseph and Matthew didn't seem phased that they didn't get to go on the rides or pet the animals. They were happy just making each other laugh. Jami and I felt so bad and have realized that we need to make sure we take cash next time we do something like that. We brought our lunches and a blanket and had a little picnic which was fun. The boys ate their lunches and then ran around and spun. After that they were ready to get back into the strollers. We went down the rest of the street looking at the crafts and their were so many people on the street we had a hard time getting through with our strollers. Luckily we didn't have the wide double strollers. One thing that definitely surprised me was their were chickens and ducks just loose so they could have come on the street but since their were so many people they just stayed on the sidewalk and would got back to the pen and then come back to the sidewalk. I couldn't believe they were just loose and not in a chicken coop. Oh the joys of a very small town. Right before we left their were some old(er) ladies all dressed alike getting ready to do a little dance. They had come from Houston and perform many different places. They were clogging to some songs. I actually really enjoyed it because I don't normally see people clogging. I remember seeing my brother, Spencer, sort of learning how to clog before I got married and that was the first time I had heard of clogging so it was fun to see professionals doing it to a country song.
Just outside of the festival grounds there was a big field with Bluebonnets. Since Jami hadn't gotten pictures of Joseph in the Bluebonnets yet this year we decided to stop. There were lots of others stopped on the side of the road as well doing the same thing. I took some pictures of Matthew and it was kind of fun having a red barn in the background in some of the pictures but it was also fun to get pictures of Matthew and Joseph together. They are so fun together and get so excited when they see each other it is very cute. I even got some pictures of Matthew and I in the Bluebonnets and then a nice lady asked if we would like her to take a picture of all of us together. It was so fun to have a friend picture with Jami and I and our boys.
After our photo shoot we started driving home but decided it would be fun to give the boys a fun snack. We stopped in Brenham which is were the Bluebell creamery is. We got some ice cream and enjoyed the yummy ice cream in the nice weather surrounded by the pretty grounds at Bluebell. The boys had fun and enjoyed their ice cream and freedom. We then got in the car and headed home. Joseph fell asleep pretty quickly and got a nice nap but I think Matthew was a little sad because his friend was sleeping. Matthew doesn't sleep in cars very often. If he does, it is usually because he is sick so I wasn't surprised when he didn't sleep. Every once in awhile he would call out Joseph's name to try to get him to wake up but we tried to help him understand Joseph was sleeping and he needed to be quiet. Overall, we had a great day and I loved that Matthew got to spend so much time with his friend and got a lot of fresh air. Jami and I will have to do more of these little road trips and be better prepared next time. Here is a slideshow of our day trip.

Thomas Look-alike Meter

My friend, Amy, had this on her blog and I loved it. It was fun to see what the computer came out with because so many people say that he looks so much like one or the other. I wonder if that ever changes with age....Well, I decided to answer my own question and did one when Matthew was 2 months old and it said he was exactly equal. I guess in two years he is changing to look more like me...uh, oh.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Lineage - Pedigree

Thomas Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

McNiven Look-alike Meter

As I was trying to do one for me and my parents I came to the realization that I don't take enough pictures of my dad. I spent over an hour trying to find a good picture of my dad with his cowboy hat on and I never could find a good one that you could actually see his face as well. I will need to take more pictures the next time I see him. I had to resort to the family picture CD my brother, Spencer, made us all a few years ago and find the picture of my mom and dad together but then this meter didn't pick up my mom's face so I had to upload another picture of my mom but I have plenty of those so that wasn't a problem. So Dad (if you ever read this) beware of the camera the next time we visit).

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

The Day Has Arrived

So the day I have been looking forward to has finally arrived. April 9th, 2008 at 10:00am we went to the Radiology department to (hopefully) find out what we were having. Since this pregnancy has been completely different we thought we were going to have a girl. With Matthew's pregnancy I had very few "pregnancy" symptoms. I had a big belly, only threw up 3 times and that was because I would be eating something and then towards the end it wouldn't taste good anymore so instead of throwing it away I would just finish it and then that would make me throw up. I finally learned it was better to leave a couple bites left on the plate then the throw everything I had just eaten up. I also had really swollen feet at the end. However, as most of you know, though I had a easy pregnancy we paid for it big time when our bundle of joy arrived.
With this pregnancy I have had the morning sickness, nausea (I am still throwing up) the cravings, the acne, the headaches, and the lack of appetite. I finally realized that these things really do exist in pregnancy. So we have been set on this baby being a girl. But then again pregnancies can always be different even if it is the same gender. However, we were so set on it being a girl that the surprise was going to be if it actually turned out to be a boy. Well, ya'll, we weren't surprised. We are having a GIRL! Yeah, one of each, now we can be done. Chris is not excited for the fluff and frills, and is definitely not excited for all the drama that comes with girls but he is still happy we were right and we are having a girl. He is a little weary though just because he didn't have any sisters so will just have to see what all happens. I am super duper happy to have one of each. Today, I am 20 weeks and our due date was right on with what the radiologist says: August 27, 2008!! That will be my next day I am looking forward to.

Favorite Room

We finally decided last spring, after living in our house for three years, that painted walls look nicer then white walls. The first room we did was the living room and we wanted to make it a nice neutral color so we went with tan but didn't want it too dark. Well we definitely achieved on not getting it too dark. After putting it on the wall you can barely tell that the room is painted. It is more of an off-white. If you look closely to the trim and the wall you can tell a slight difference.
Then we decided to paint Matthew's room green. Since we didn't want the same color situation again we overcompensated with the green and it came out a very bold florescent green. We didn't really like it but we had put all that work and money into painting it so it stayed. It glows down the hallway. We were very grateful that Matthew didn't seem to mind the color differences in his room. We have gotten used to the color after about a year but we still sort of think we are going to have to repaint it before we sell our house so it will sell easier. We have always had plans to paint the other rooms but we were done for the time being.
Since I have plans in my head to move some things around, I decided that it was time to paint our room before I continued on with my plans. So we got the paint and pained our room. Surprisingly, Matthew was very good. He probably loved it actually. He got to watch "WoodyBuzz" which is Toy Story and he just sat in his chair with his snacks and juice on the table next to him. We did keep the door shut so the fumes wouldn't go throughout the whole house but not once did he come to the door. He watched the WHOLE movie and then it happened to be time for his lunch and then nap. We still can't believe he watched the whole movie without trying to come get us and watch with him. He has started to watch that movie many times but would only watch it for about 20 minutes and then he would do something else or come get us. When I put him down for his nap I went back to painting. I heard him screaming and I said once I get down painting this window I will go see what his problem is. He obviously figured his problem out because I had forgotten about it since he stopped crying. He slept for 4 hours! We were so happy to be able to get our room painted without having Matthew constantly bug us. It was so nice and we were so happy with him.
I figured with the blue we like almost any shape of blue and since we were too light and too bold on the other two rooms it would be our time to get a color we liked. We (especially me) really like this blue. It is pretty bold but with the white trim I think it looks good. I love looking at the blue so our room has become my new favorite room. I love being in there and seeing the blue.

Living/Family Room, notice not a lot of difference (if any).

Matthew's room

Our room

Texas Bluebonnets

I have always wanted to take pictures of Matthew in the Texas Bluebonnets since the bluebonnet is the state flower. I thought since they were wild flowers they would be around forever, it seemed that wildflowers never went away but last year when we went out to take pictures they were all gone. I was very bummed, but more determined then ever to get pictures of Matthew with the bluebonnets this year.
I took Matthew to the corner of Harvey Rd. and the feeder road and there is a nice hill that has a lot of bluebonnets. I just parked in the mall parking lot, walked across the feeder road and down. It seemed like a nice little spot and I could tell others had been there as well. Matthew wasn't all that cooperative with looking at me and/or smiling but I think I got a few ok ones. I at least got pictures of him with the bluebonnets.
A couple weeks ago Chris showed Matthew how if you blow on a dandelion it will go all over so now all flowers he picks up he tries to blow on them. Obviously, this one must be broken.

This is Matthew telling me that he is all done. I kept trying to tell him that if he would look at me and smile we would get done sooner but I don't think he understood what I was saying.

Luckily we only found one ant hill. As I was trying to take the pictures these darn weeds kept bothering my foot. Finally I looked down and my foot was black. I had to take a couple minute break from the photo shoot to get rid of these fireants on my feet. Surprisingly, Matthew did move so I was able to resume the photo shoot. I only ended up with one bite and that was because I didn't see it and put my sandal back on and shortly after that little fireant let me know it was still there and fighting. I am glad that is my me that found the any hill and that I didn't have Matthew sit of stand in one.

Hansel Park

We had an hour or so before we had to pick up Chris from school so I decided to take Matthew to the park close to campus, Hansel Park. I knew there was a playground there but we had never taken Matthew so I wasn't completely sure if the playground was designed for older kids or not. There are trees everywhere in this park and it actually reminded me of a camping sight because of all the benches, podium, big grill, wide open space for the tents, volleyball net and then the playground with benches all around so the parents could sit and talk while watching their children. Anyways, with there being so many trees, there was a lot of pollen everywhere. Matthew was covered in a tint of green and his hands were all green when we were done.
I has a climbing wall for little ones and Matthew loved being such a big boy and climbing up it. When he got to the top he had 3 slides or a tunnel (then slide) to go down. He had lots of fun climbing on and deciding which way to go down and then climbing back up again.



However, that night he started getting a stuffy nose and had a hard time breathing because he was so stuffed up. Since Chris has allergies and his had been really bad that day to we figured that it was allergies especially since he had been around all the pollen earlier that day. After a couple days it getting worse and the allergy medicine didn't work we realized that is wasn't just allergies, he had caught a cold. Since we are a house that likes we share, Chris and I both caught it a couple days later. We were glad that it was General Conference this weekend so we didn't have to keep Matthew out of nursery. I am scared to take him to primary with us again and since we were both sick we weren't up to dealing with any other children.
The second day of Matthew's sickness he was very clingy and like I said earlier he had a hard time breathing. It seemed it was worse when he was laying down and better laying against me. So I decided for his nap that he needed to be propped up. Once I did that it seemed to have helped a little bit. It was hard for him to suck on his binki, but he found a way and managed to keep it in his mouth. It helped that he was propped up but the way he looks I felt so sad because it made me think of him being sick in a hospital with the propped up pillows and I felt so sad for him. My poor little boy was sick. However, notice that he is sleeping in his bed. He is doing a little better but for a couple nights I got to "try" to sleep with him in our spare bed and he didn't sleep a whole lot (any). The good news was that he would take a longer nap during the day and actually be in his own bed so yeah for that.
There are others that have have this same cold and we will be glad when we are healthy again.

Positive

Since I was so negative in my previous post(s) I decided I should post something positive about our little boy.

10 Positive Things about Matthew

1. He gives excellent kisses. (Even with the mwah sound.)
2. He gives tight squeezes (sqeeeze)
3. Chris loves when he says the words bus, house, mouse, and lettuce. He loves the ssss sound on the end that Matthew does.
4. He has just learned how to say cookie monster and it is really cute.
5. I love when he holds my hand and we just walk somewhere.
6. I love when he imitates the way Chris holds his hands, together, on the head, behind the back, etc.
7. It is cute when he asks for something and I repeat to make sure that is what he wants and he says "ok" (like, well since you mentioned it).
8. I love that he is repeating so many words. He will normally repeat every last word that we say. Especially when I am asking if he is going to have a brother or a sister he says "sister", when this first happened I thought, oh he has some insight but then I asked if he was going to have a sister or a brother and he said "brother", so much for that insight.
9. He knows some of the actions to some songs and I love when he does them i.e. wheels on the bus, slippery fish, tiny turtle, black birds, "noman" (once there was a snowman), there may be more but I can't think of more right now.
10. Matthew loves pockets and loves sticking his hands in his pockets and telling us, "pockets, pockets".

He was very focused on the tv so I snuck a picture but the flash made him look.

Ok, so actually I only came up with 6 right off the bat. I really had to think about 4 more, but I did finally end up with 10.

SOLD!!!!

Well, I sold Matthew to the highest bidder. Who could be his highest bidder then his mommy. Also, his grandparents told us that we couldn't sell him so I guess he is stuck with us...I mean I guess we are the lucky ones that get to keep him around...that's what I am suppose to say right?
Anyways, I am learning that he is just a typical two year old and he is not the only one that does these things and drives us crazy. Thank you for your comments, advice, love, support and phone calls. I guess the good thing about posting a for sale ad is that you find out who actually reads our blog and are concerned. My father-in-law called and told me that his X-Ray technician has a two year old and it going through the exact same situation and that it is Matthew's twin two states away however, Matthew's twin is biting as well as everything else. Luckily Matthew hasn't started biting yet but I have heard that is another phase they go through. (oh goody:)
I am trying to get through each day, hour, and minute the best I can and sometimes that is a lot easier then others. Right this very minute it is easy because it is quiet and Matthew is asleep but you never know when that will change. Thanks again for all you advice, love and support.