The End :(

It was so outstanding having my mom come visit and get to spend time with Matthew and Allison but also Chris and I. We tried to pack so much into the week that we did have with her. There were so many things that I wanted to show her and do but we only could do so much. I wanted to take her to Brenham and do an BlueBell Factory tour but I stayed up too later the night before and we were spending too much time in the car already doing other things. Like I said in a previous post, I took my mom to Caldwell since that is where lunch bunch was held that day and got to show her off to some friends. It was really windy but we still had a great turn out. That afternoon I had homework to do so my mom let me go to the school while she watched the kids and Chris didn't even have to go home in order for me to leave. It was so wonderful!!
I think Matthew liked it a whole lot better when Grandma was in charge of quiet time instead of me. She would let him lay on her air mattress with her and he would just do things quietly right next to Grandma rather then all by himself.
Chris and I also went out on a couple dates while my mom was here. Ahhhh, it really was so nice. I think I may be more envious now of those people that have their moms really close and can just drop them off whenever. Of course there are some that live close to their mom and they still can't just drop their kids off, but if that is an option, wow it is so nice. My mom loved being with the kids and we loved being on dates so it worked out very nicely.
I got to talk to my mom so much, I got to give her as many hugs and kisses that I wanted. I got to tell her how much I love her whenever I wanted, and I got to hold her hand. She even humored me by looking at ALL of my scrapbooks. Being an English teacher, I got told what I misspelled, but even with all the misspellings, she was very proud of me for doing all the hard work that I have put into my scrapbooks. My scrapbooks consist mostly of pictures and journaling so she had A LOT to read.
I got to give my son a 4th birthday party with all the help of my mom. (Pictures and post to come of that soon.) I also got to be with my mom on her birthday. We walked downtown Bryan, which I had never done before, and then we went to Arsenic Lake. For some reason the turtles could not get to us. I don't know what it was but we saw a lot of heads coming for the bread but they just couldn't make it. We got to sing happy birthday to her, give her a present, and have a birthday cake with trick candles on it. It was so much fun celebrating her birthday with her.
If you can't tell, I absolutely LOVE my mom, and she means so much to me. It made me feel so good that she would actually take the time to come visit my family and I, and use her vacation days to do that.


While she was here, I also wanted Matthew to make Easter sugar cookies with grandma.

Matthew helping grandma.
I tried to get my mom to look for the picture but her reply was,
"I don't need a picture for everything that I do."
Ha ha. She obviously hasn't been around me in a long time. She may not...but I sure so:)

The day that my mom left, I realized that I hadn't gotten any pictures of just she and I so before Chris left for work I had him take a picture of us, but my mom didn't have her makeup on. (Which she still looks good without it, but she always says, "A barn always looks better painted." It is funny as I wrote that I realized that Chris always tell me I don't need makeup, though I still look good with it, I don't need it, which I never agree. Now it makes sense)
Anyways, after my mom, "painted the barn", our only other photographer was Matthew. I don't let him touch my camera so he was SUPER happy to take pictures with my camera. The next three pictures are taken by photographer Matthew.

Waiting for mom to get ready.

My wonderful mom and I.

The girls. Three generations.
Sadly this is the only picture we did of the three female generations.
Mom, next time you come we will have to get more pictures together;) HINT HINT

I held the camera out on this one.


The drive to the airport was so fun. We sang a bunch of different songs together and in rounds. We were trying to think of some that we could use for our family reunion this year. It was so great. We sang them so much that Matthew could sing them when we were done.
She also told me in the car,
"Well, I have been treated like a queen for the past week, now I have to go back to my real life." If makes me happy that she felt that way because I wanted her to enjoy it, and not be exhausted when she left, though I did keep her up every night past her bedtime, but then we let her sleep in, in the mornings so hopefully that made up for it.

Allison, Grandma, and Matthew, in the airport parking garage.
Of course, I cried and made her cry when I finally had to let her go at the security checkpoint.

I LOVE YOU MOM!!!
THANK YOU FOR COMING!!!

Waco Zoo

Matthew's preschool class went to the Waco Zoo in March but we were all sick and weren't able to make it. I figured it would be ok because we could just go when my mom came. I didn't think she had ever been to a zoo before because the first time I had ever been to a zoo was two years ago in Phoenix, AZ. (BTW - I was blown away when I went) Anyways, I thought it would be fun to go with Grandma.

I really didn't want to drive over an hour again just to go to the zoo and then the drive back but I knew that I wouldn't ever take the kids anytime soon if we didn't go then. Also, Matthew would be turning 4 in a couple weeks and we would have to start paying for him.
We made the drive and then had a little picnic lunch on the grass before we went in.

There were some bluebonnets so we had to time pictures with them.

Allison with the bluebonnets

Grandma, Matthew and Allison with bluebonnets in the background.

Matthew and his extra large shirt.
This shirt is too big for him but I didn't know how much until after he already had it on. He really wanted to wear it so I let him wear it even though it drove me crazy all day.
I do like what it says though: "I'm cute just like my daddy"
Needless to say, after I washed it, I put it away until he is bigger.

I think this is so cute when brothers and sisters hold hands.
(Especially older brothers and younger sisters because I feel like the older brother is there to protect his little sister)

Allison looking at the fish down below the monkeys.

Allison was really intrigued by the new exhibit of the Komodo Dragon.
Here hair looks really orange in this picture, almost like Matthew's but it really isn't quite as red/orange as Matthew's. More of just a strawberry blonde.

Matthew and Allison on the Komodo Dragon statue.
Matthew absolutely loves his baby sister.



This was a very cool thing. I don't know what it is called but these things were bells. You stepped on one of the nine and it would have a different tone. It was really fun to play on. I was really trying to come up with a song but I couldn't figure out what notes they actually were. I finally played Hot Cross Buns. It was really fun. I could have spent so much more time playing on them but there were others that wanted a turn too, including my kids:)

Matthew and Allison on the floor bells


We saw some really big monkeys about 5 feet away. They were actually pretty ugly though. I was surprised that they walk on the side of their feet rather then the bottoms.
Matthew said, "Mommy, those monkeys look like people."
Oh, my little evolutionist. We will get him straight:)

Matthew and Allison sitting on the Gorilla.



I have come to think that Lions are lazy. It seems as though every time I see them, they are always sleeping.

Matthew, Allison and Grandma standing in front of the lions den.

Allison sitting on the fence in front of an elephant.

The otter slide:

Matthew going down the otter slide

The kids just love going down the slide that is right with the otters. I have to say that is really cool to just sit and watch the otters as the kids just go up and down and up and down the slide.
Obviously they were having a great time.


The end of our day.

Matthew, Grandma and Allison before we left.

I think Matthew and Allison were done with pictures. They didn't really want to look anymore....I can't imagine why:)

Just for clarification, she had in fact been to a zoo when she worked at Senior High School. She went on a field trip with some students to the Montana Zoo. She said Waco zoo had so many more exotic animals and it was bigger so I am glad we took her.

When we drove home it felt like it was a lot closer then going that morning. The kids took a nap in the car. We got home and picked up Chris and then we went and took my mom out for an early Birthday dinner. (We hardly ever celebrate things on the right day, or at least completely celebrate it on one day). We went to Texas Roadhouse to let me mom experience the whole atmosphere. The loud country music, hot delicious cinnamon butter rolls and endless amounts of throwing peanut shells on the floor, oh yeah and the main food.

Easter

The district that my mom works in doesn't get Spring break. They only get the Friday before and after Easter off and that is their Easter/Spring Break. She she at least had these two days off, that is when she came to visit. Unfortunately, Easter fell on General Conference this year so I wasn't able to take my mom to church and show her off:( I did try to have her meet as many of my friends as I could by taking her to Girls Night Out at Allison's house (Thanks Allison) and also to lunch bunch in Caldwell.
Here in our ward at church, we always start church at 9 am unlike most other wards where they alternate all the time. Anyways, having all the Easter bunny festivities on Sunday morning before going to church, I feel is really hard to do so we decided that Saturday would be the morning that the kids would wake up and see that the Easter Bunny came. (I had to get special permission from the Easter Bunny but he has go to some houses Friday night and some Saturday night because he doesn't have a sleigh like Santa and only hops so he can get to all the children in one night:) Also doing it this way I feel like we can focus more on the real reason for Easter on Sunday. However, the Easter Bunny always came Saturday night when I was growing up and I don't think it detoured the real reason for Easter and was great, but as an adult I like the Friday night Easter Bunny.
Anyways, we had a great Saturday full of Easter Festivities and enjoyed having Grandma here to help with everything. The Easter Bunny even found Grandma so far away from her house. We of course did egg hunt, and dyed eggs and then had our Easter feast with Ham on Sunday night.

My Mom VISITS!!!!!!

I can't even put into words how thrilled I was when my mom agreed to come down and visit. The last time I had seen her was when I went to Montana while Chris was in Germany in July of 2007. Matthew was 15 months old then. The last time she has been here was when Matthew was born she was able to be here for a week. Though my mom is a teacher, she isn't ever able to come visit during the summer because she is helping my dad with his cowboy company: Western Romance Company. I obviously have wanted my mom to visit for a very long time. I was finally thinking about what time of year it was last time she came to visit and it was April. I really pleaded with her to come visit, not only to see us but to meet Allison for the first time. We figured out the logistics and I booked her plane ticket right away.
I was so excited to actually be take her around and see a little bit around this area. I was also happy to show her living my life as a mother and wife in my own house, with the kids sleeping in their own beds, and having her join our routine.
Matthew kept asking when Grandma McNiven was going to be here so we made a paper chain to help him understand how much longer it would be. The day of April 2, finally came and we drove to Houston to pick up my mom. Since she had never seen the Houston Temple and we were in Houston anyways, I decided to make the detour to go show her the Temple. The flowers were so pretty and the grass was so green. She loved smelling all the flowers. Of course, I had to take pictures.

My mom, Matthew, Allison and I

My mom, Matthew, and Allison in front of the Houston Temple.

My sweet children. I love that Matthew puts his arm around her waste for pictures.

I absolutely love this picture.
This is my favorite picture.
Their smiles are so both genuine. Of course my mom always has a wonderful smile but Matthew's genuine smiles are hard to come by these days.

This picture is my second favorite picture. Matthew loved having the attention of his grandma and I can just tell the love my mom has for my babies.
So Sweet!

Before I left to Houston I made Lasagna and put it in the fridge so that all it needed was to cook. Once we were done walking around the Temple I called Chris and he put it in so that when we got home, lasagna was ready for us to eat.

On Saturday I made my mom's recipe of Chinese Egg Rolls. I figured she probably hadn't made them in a very long time (which in fact she said she hadn't made them since I was home, at least 9 years ago). They are time consuming but I wanted to make them for her so she could enjoy them and she wasn't the one that had to do it. It was so fun cooking and serving her for a change:)

Primary Spotlight Night

In our ward we have a ward Primary Spotlight Night when the primary children can show off their different talents either by performing them on stage or by bringing something to show it off and have it on display. I don't really think Matthew has very many talents yet.
Last summer when we went to my brother Mike's house, we were there for a Family Home Evening. I was very impressed when he had his little jar of candy and his four year old and then three year old went up and said one of their Articles of Faith and got a little piece of candy. The three year is a couple months younger then Matthew and she knew her Articles of Faith. I was so impressed and surprised that a three year old could memorize the Articles of Faith. We decided that we were going to start doing that in our Family Home Evenings as well. Each week at FHE we help Matthew learn an Article of Faith starting at one and of course help him different times throughout the week. Once we thought that he had it down we went to the next one. It just so happened that about a month ago we heard about this Spotlight Night that was going to happen. At that point Matthew only knew 12 of his Articles of Faith. I didn't know what kind of talent Matthew could do either on stage or displayed. Chris suggested that he recites his Articles of Faith but I felt like that would be showing off and I didn't want to do that. However, thinking about it and not being able to come up with anything else I figure, oh why not, I guess that could be a talent that a three year old knows all 13 Articles of Faith. So we started working with Matthew on 13 hoping that he would learn it before Spotlight Night. I love the song that goes with 13 and love singing it all the time. I think that has definitely helped Matthew learn it very quickly. I think he actually had it down in two weeks tops. Chris was very surprised when I had him say it at FHE and Matthew didn't need any help. We sing the Article of Faith song a lot in our house and in the car, thankfully they are on our Primary cd that the Primary Presidency handed out at the beginning of the year.
Instead of taking all the time for him to go through all 13 Articles of Faith, I decided that I would have a card for 1-12. I had a girl come up and pick two cards that had which numbers he was going to say. Then I had him recite the 13th. It went by really quickly I guess I could have had him do more but it is done and over with now. He did a good job, though I had to convince him to say 13 since I didn't have a card for him.
I wanted Chris to video tape him doing it but it wasn't working at the time so I video taped Matthew doing his Articles of Faith today. If he isn't shy like he was with the Home Teachers yesterday, you can tell him a number of Article of Faith to say and sometimes he has to think about it for a little bit but he will tell you that number. Like most of the members of our church we have all memorized these at one point or another in our lives but you sort of forget them. This has definitely helped me refresh my memory and now I know them pretty well also.
I am very proud of my little boy for being so brave and going up on the stage in front of all those people.

After the girl picked the numbers Mommy told Matthew which Article of Faith to say.

Matthew saying his Articles of Faith

Here is the video I took of him this morning.
Sometimes when he is saying them he bursts into song. He sometimes goes back and forth between just saying them and singing them.
I think he is cute either way:)

Preschool Easter Party

Matthew had his Easter party the Thursday before Easter. Preschool was at my friend Janine's house so the moms and siblings were invited to join the Egg Hunt fun. The kids got to do Easter crafts and dye eggs and then they got to go outside and play games and have races in the backyard. For the Easter Egg Hunt, Janine and Amy came up with the idea to give each preschool child their own color of egg that they had to look for and they had to look for the regular egg size one. The younger siblings also got their own color of egg to look for except it was the mini egg. It was such a brilliant idea. As you all know, Egg hunts are over in a matter of seconds when it is just everybody running to get as many eggs as they can. This was truly an egg hunt. It was so fun that they were all helping each other out. The other tremendous thing she did was they each had 12 eggs, so they all had the same amount but also so they knew if they were missing any. It was so much fun and worked out perfectly. Then Janine made an AMAZING Tortellini salad that was SO delicious and let us all stay for lunch. Matthew didn't even want to go play with all the kids until he ate all of his salad. Man, he must have REALLY liked it:) It was so good though. We got to hang out together as friends which we don't normally get to do this year for preschool so it was SO wonderful.
Thank you Janine for all your hard work:)

Preschool group and siblings with their baskets full of eggs.