Boring Mama

Is this an olympic sport?

2010-02-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't watched the Olympics that much, but the little that I have watched typically gets me a little choked up. Not because I want to ski down a hill at 98 MPH, no definitely not. I get choked up whenever they show the parents in the stands cheering on their grown child, whenever they show the parents of the gold medalist crying for joy when their child wins. I cannot imagine the sacrifices those parents must have made for their child to be where they are. And I can identify with them. I make huge sacrifices for my son.
Let me tell you about one of the biggest sacrifices I make. Whenever I am in the kitchen Matty always wants to get out some bowls or cups to play with. This is a huge sacrifice when I really need to use one of the bowls he wants. But being the good mother I am, I sacrifice the bowl in hopes it will one day pay off.

Let me tell you, my sacrifices paid off the other day when I turned around and found this amazing creation.

This is a sign, a sign that my child is well on his way to doing great things. I mean look at the artistic merit of this piece, look at the skills my child had to have to get all these things to balance. He is very close to a gold medal, I just know it.

What a big boy!!

2010-02-21T17:43:00.000-08:00

My son has become a boy. No, I am not saying he was a puppet and magic turned him into a "real boy!" What I am saying is he is offically, I mean really offically, not a baby anymore. Not only does he have his bookshelf in which he selects his own books to read before bed time.

He really is a scholar, isn't he?

But he also....are you ready for this.....? Really, are you ready for it? Because I am not ready for it. I feel my little baby slipping away from me, Ahhhh!!!!

He is now sleeping in his big boy bed!!

I told Steve, "He is not ready for it. Let's keep him in his crib!! Please!!" Steve, knowing that I have issues with letting my child grow up, insisted on taking the side off the crib. So, I reluctantly let it happen. And you know what, he slept great in it. No issues at all. And he was very excited about it, too!!
Meaning he is excited about becoming a big boy.

Please help me, my baby is gone!!

He wear sunglasses at night

2010-02-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

For a long time Matthew has been very irritated by the sun shining in his eyes when we are driving. I have been trying to get him to wear sunglasses to help, but he was not understanding the relationship between the sun shining in his eyes and his sunglasses. Most of the time I could not get him to wear his sunglasses.
When we drive home from the babysitter's house almost every afternoon the sun gets in his eyes. When this happens he lets out a little squeal, closes his eyes, and then says, "Sun!! Sun!!! Go away!!!" For some weird reason, the sun does not listen and does not go away.

Finally he is understanding that his sunglasses help the sun stay out of his eyes. I found that making sunglasses "cool" and constantly telling him how "cool" his sunglasses makes him want to wear them. Now, when the sun hits his eyes and he doesn't have his sunglasses on he says, "Mommy!! Glasses, glasses!!!"

Now if only I could get him to figure out the relationship between him and the potty. We are working on that....

I am sorry.

2010-02-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

I want to start this post by saying I am sorry.

As recently as a few days ago I never understood how kids could draw on the wall or ruin a piece of furniture with paint or a marker. I never gave my child markers or paint unless I was watching him like a hawk. I figured I was a wonderfully observant, organized mother with a very well disciplined child. I would never be one of those mothers with marker on my walls or child ruined furniture.

The above paragraph is why I would like to humbly apologize. I am sorry I was so arrogant to think that my child would never deface something in my house.

Let me show you the "beautiful" art my son drew with a permanent marker on my stone coffee table. I am so proud of my little artist.....or not.

By the way....I do not know where he got the sharpie, or where it was in our house. Because I am the "perfect" mother I would never leave a marker within reach of a 2 year old, therefore I blame Steve for this. Just thought you might want to know.

He is so mature

2010-02-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

This little guy is so mature. Really he is... Lately he has been saying 2 phrases almost constantly.

He has been asking, "What that?" This question comes out of his mouth approximately 64 times a day. He points to something and asks, "Mommy, what that?" Usually I can answer and I appreciate his curiosity and his desire to learn. Although by the 52nd time he asks that question I am a little tired of telling him what everything is. This is expecially hard when we are driving and I cannot see what he is pointing at and he insists on me doing everything I possibly can to see what he is pointing at, even if that means getting in a car accident.

The second phrase he has been saying a lot lately is "Oh, I see." Usually this comes after I tell him what something is. Like last night I was making a lemon meringue pie to bring to work. When he heard the mixer going at a high speed he ran in to the kitchen, asked to sit on the counter and then pointed at the meringue in the mixer and asked, "What that?" I said to him, "Those are egg whites that are being whipped in to meringue." He looked at me and very seriously said, "Oh, I see."

I laughed pretty hard when he said this, does he have any idea what meringue is? No, I am pretty sure he doesn't. But he just sounds so mature and so adult when he says, "Oh, I see." He really makes me believe he completely understands what meringue is.

Really I think he was just sucking up to me, he knew I would let him lick the mixer when I was done. See.... isn' t he mature?

He is like a little human!!!

2010-01-26T09:17:00.000-08:00

The other day one of our friends came over and started talking to Matty, they had a real conversation. It was really cute to watch. A lot of the time you cannot understand exactly what Matt says, but you can get a general idea of what he is trying to say and he absolutely seems to be listening and processing everything that you say to him.

After the conversation our friend said, "Wow!! I just had a conversation with your son!" And I just shook my head and said, "Crazy, right? He is like a little human!" This sounds funny to say, because of course my son is a human... duh! But I think a milestone for parents is actually coming to terms with the fact that your child is in fact a human, just like you are.

I have had several moments where I am amazed by the fact that my son is acting like a human being. And all of them are exciting, but at the same time sad. This "becoming a human" thing makes him less and less my baby. Excuse me as I let out a loud *sigh*.....

Matthew's favorite restaurant

2010-01-21T06:55:00.000-08:00

It is amazing to me how good my 2 year old's memory already is at this age.

We have a Red Robin really close to our house and we get coupons a lot for it, so we end up going there 2-3 times a month. Usually, even when Matty was a little baby who could barely hold his head up, the Red Robin employees would give him a balloon. He has always loved looking at balloons and now he loves chasing them around the house and watching them float above his head.

The last several times we have pulled in to Red Robin's parking lot Matty instantly recognizes where we are and says "Boon!!!" This is how he pronounces balloon. He recognizes that he always gets a balloon when he comes to this restaurant and he recognizes that we are at that restaurant before we even get out of the car. I seriously underestimate his ability to retain things, because this amazes me.

I am not bragging about my child, believe me, I think this ability to put things and places together is a very common skill for kids this age. However, I am still amazed by how much a child grows and changes in such a short amount of time. I wish I could learn at that capacity and speed. Unfortunately, that will not happen, yesterday it took me 30 minutes to figure out that the DVD Steve had recorded for me didn't have sound because, it just didn't have sound. This was discovered after I unplugged and plugged in 86 different wires and after I cursed at the TV numerous times. Then I put a different DVD in and discovered nothing was wrong with the sound to begin with....brilliant, I know.

Thank God, my child seems to have much more advanced skills than I do when it comes to figuring things out. And thank God, my child loves Red Robin, because I love their grilled salmon sandwich... Yummy!!!

Say Hello to My Little Friend...

2010-01-18T05:05:00.000-08:00

Say hello to my father in law's beautiful plane:

Yes, it is tiny and only holds 2 people, but I think it is pretty darn cute and my father in law is quite the pilot, he can do a lot of flying with this cute plane.
Matthew was really enthralled with this life size plane...

He LOVES airplanes. What a thrill it was for him to sit in his grandpa's plane.

Check out www.itsneverevertoolate.com to learn about The Flight for the Human Spirit and what this plane is up to.

Matty does not look very happy in this photo, but seeing not only his grandpa's plane close up, but also many others was a great day in this little 2 year old's life.

Compassion

2010-01-14T10:37:00.000-08:00

You know what I did yesterday morning? I was so upset when my alarm went off I hit the alarm clock so hard my hand hurt.
You know what I did yesterday when I reached for my car door? I complained about how dirty my car was.
You know what I did this morning when I made coffee? I complained about my coffee machine because it is leaking water.
You know what I did this morning when a co worker asked me how I was? I told them I was "ok" and really didn't want to work today.

You know what I DIDN'T do yesterday or today or ever?

-Use my bare hands to dig through the remains of my house trying to find my child in the rubble.
-Cry out in the street for help only to find everyone else in my street needing the same help I did.
-Try to call my family and friends over and over just to find out if they are alive.
-Stare at a pile of blocks, cement, and dirt that used to be my house.
-Wonder if my husband was going to make it after being pinned beneath rubble for hours.
-Walk through the city I live in and see piles of houses and buildings and people crying out for their loved ones.

Please pray for the people of Haiti. And remember there are thousands of people in Haiti who would LOVE to have an alarm clock to wake up to, a bed to lay in, a coffee machine to make coffee, a car to drive, and a building to work in.

What could be better?

2010-01-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Is there anything better than playing on the swing set with Grandpa?

Yes....finding someone to rake up all the leaves around the swingset.

Anyone???

Sweet Dreams

2010-01-07T04:27:00.000-08:00

What is it about taking pictures of sleeping babies and children?

Really what is it about taking pictures of anything sleeping? Why is it so fun? I have taken pictures of Steve sleeping may times and every time I do, I chuckle. Why??? Hmmm...

While you ponder that, I will share with you a few pictures of Matty napping.
Lately he has been putting his hands behind his head to sleep, which I think is hilarious.

Can't you just eat him up!!!!

I cannot wait to show him these when he is a teenager. He will say, "Why would you take pictures of me sleeping?" And I will say, "I don't know. I think it is cute."

To which he will roll his eyes and wonder why he has such a crazy mother.

I can't wait!!

Go Broncos!!! Or not

2010-01-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

New Years weekend was filled with a lot of relaxation and getting things done. Except for Sunday, Sunday was a day we will surely never forget.

Steve got the thrill of his life and got a field pass from our realtor and good friend for the Broncos game. That means he was on the field for 1 hour before the game watching the players practice. He spoke with one of our best defensive players, Dawkins, for about 30 seconds and he got some high fives from some other players. Steve will definitely never forget this once in a life time opportunity, being right next to his favorite team while they were getting ready to play a game. After that thrill Steve settled in to his seats and watched the awful game the Broncos played. Apparently, Steve's presence did not help the Broncos at all. But, I can't say much, I was at the game also.

Several of our friends and myself went to the game as well and sat separate from Steve. Not only did we not get field passes, but we also were about 20 rows from being in the last row, furthest from the field. Never the less, it was a fantastic time, even with the embarrassing loss.

In case you are wondering, Matthew stayed home, he has yet to experience his first Broncos game. Though I know it will happen soon and will be just the beginning of his life filled with Denver Broncos football.

Sunday was bittersweet. It was more fun that I could handle, yet was very sad because the Broncos season is now over.

Thank God for a new fresh year. I am very excited and optimistic to see what will happen this year. Even if I know the Broncos will NOT win the super bowl this year.

What is up with the lower lip?

2010-01-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is not a good picture of either of us, but I am trying to explain to you all what is going on with my son's lower lip. Lately, he has been using for 2 reasons:

1. To make the goofy face like the one above when I am trying to take a picture of him or when I smile at him.

2. To get his way and make me feel guilty.

The 2nd reason is the one that is troubling me the most. He has discovered that when he is upset, sad, or not getting his way he can stick out his quivering little lower lip and make mommy (that's me) melt in to a puddle on the floor.

I wish I could get a picture of this thing he does, because it is so absolutely adorable and so funny!!

Where he learned to do this, I do not know. I stopped doing that when I was 8 years old. It must be an innate talent that all children have- to pout using your lower lip and get your way.

Now before you all think I am an awful mother, know that the lower lip did not work for long. He has done it too much for me to melt in a puddle everytime and once I figure out his "little game" I make sure I win everytime. But it still has become very hard to discipline him or ever be mad at him when he sticks out that lower lip. Oh geez... this kid is smarter than I thought!!!

Dear Matthew

2009-12-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Matthew,

I am thrilled that we were blessed with many, many fun Christmas toys for you to play with. I will always remember the joy in your face when you were opening and playing with all your new toys.

However I would like for you to realize the sacrifice I am making with all these toys. I have been losing sleep and chewing my nails more than ever in the last few days as I think about and stare at the toys taking over my house. I am running out of room and my clean, orderly house has turned in to a disorderly Toys R Us.

You will understand as you grow up that mommy enjoys order and cleanliness. And since having you, mommy has had to bite her lip, take a deep breath, and "just let it be" on numerous occasions because of you and your toys. So...with that said, You are welcome, Matthew.

Oh... and I should also mention; thank you, Matthew, for teaching me patience I never knew I had and for showing me that spending time playing with you, laughing with you, and cuddling with you is more important than my house being clean.

Love,

Mommy

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-12-28T05:08:00.001-08:00

What makes a Christmas morning perfect?

Husband and son in their jammies, sitting around the Christmas tree eating breakfast,

Opening a present and finding a toy train,

Having a fire going in your fireplace,

Opening presents sent from your great grandma,

Opening books and immediately reading them,

Opening a present and finding Hulk Hands,

Snow on the mountains,

Being so exhausted from Christmas morning that you fall asleep on your way to Grandma and Grandpa's, with your new toy train in your hand, of course.

Merry Christmas!! I hope your Christmas was all you ever dreamed of.

Santa

2009-12-22T09:36:00.001-08:00

It has been a long time since I blogged. I took a little break. Nothing exciting going on or any real reason for the break, I just didn't really feel like blogging :)

I wanted to share my thoughts on Santa Claus. I never thought about Santa Claus so much in my life as I have in the past month or 2. Because I have a child, I began thinking about what my exact position on Santa Claus was, I wanted to find out the exact origin of Santa Claus and as it turned out, there are MANY, MANY stories about the origin. Each website claiming the origin of this jolly, round man was different, some drastically different.

Most all agreed that he was a patron saint who was a very good saint and did good things for children. This was the only common thread. Many different parts of the world claim him and all claim he did different good things. All in all, he wasn't a bad man and his origins are not evil or bad in any way.

The problem that I have with Santa Claus is that he has been so commercialized and so saturated in to the American culture that Christmas has become all about Santa Claus. In reality the origin of Christmas has absolutely nothing to do with Santa Claus. This is what bothers me. Christmas is Jesus' birthday- end of story. Bringing Santa in to the picture clouds the TRUE meaning of Christmas and makes Christmas all about presents even further, which should not happen.

Also, has anyone truly thought about the fact that parents are flat out lying to their kids? Why is this huge lie, a lie that forces parents to make up fantastic stories about a fake man, so ingrained in to our culture?

I am not putting parents who do the whole "Santa Claus thing" down. Please don't think that, I definitely think the "Santa Claus thing" is kind of fun and exciting and does bring a certain amount of magic to the season. I just think it is a very interesting tradition that Americans have come up with, so interesting that it has caused me to think about it in depth for the last month.

Also, I wanted to apologize in advance to any parents whose kids may be around my son. I am so sorry if he tells them that Santa doesn't exist. I truly don't want to shatter your kids innocence or destroy their Christmas magic. But I am going to do my best to instill that innocence and that magic in to my son using another person named Jesus.

I will get off my soapbox now.

Thank you for listening.

Dear Matthew

2009-12-04T08:47:00.001-08:00

Dear Matthew,

I was completely surprised last night by your politeness.

I sneezed and you immediately looked at me, smiled, and said, "Bwess you."

It made me smile.

Thank you for always being there to make me smile and thank you for being so polite.

Love,

Mommy

1, 2, 3....

2009-12-04T05:25:00.000-08:00

Does my child know how to count? I always thought he didn't, although I do work on it with him. Counting things when I give them to him and counting to 3 before I let him jump on the couch. I guess I never really thought any of it would stick for a long time. Then something happened yesterday night.

I was cutting Matty's nails, counting each finger as I did it. The first hand, "One finger, (then I would clip the nail) two fingers, (clip the nail) three finger, (clip the nail)...." Then I was about to move on to the fourth finger when he said, "four" clear as can be, no mistaking it....he said the word "four" after I said the word "three"!!

I was shocked and instantly looked over at Steve, to which he said "What?" Obviously he wasn't paying any attention.

Now, I know it could just be a fluke or a coincidence. But it could also mean that he listens to me when I try to teach him something and sometimes what I am teaching him actually seeps in to his brain!!!!

It is so unbelievably fun to watch a little human grow, change, and learn right before your very eyes. What a blessing this little guy is.

I will say, he isn't a complete genius. Last night at 8:00 he whined and cried for 30 minutes because he wanted to go play outside. It was 5 degrees outside, snow was on the ground, and it was dark. Hmmmm.....

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2009-12-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

This year Christmas seems to have more magic than any other year. For the first time I can see excitement and joy for Christmas in my son's eyes.

When we put up our Christmas tree he was genuinely excited and jumps up and down and claps whenever I turn on the Christmas tree lights.

His favorite part of Christmas so far has been the train around the tree. Steve and I got this train many years ago, before we had Matty. Steve always loved trains, for his family always put one around their tree. Now that Steve has a son to share in the train tradition and to delight in the train as much as he does; Christmas has a whole new meaning to Steve also.
They lay under that Christmas tree every night playing with that train. It is almost too much for my heart to take :)

Matthew says, "Dadda Twain!!" And they both go to the tree, lay on their stomachs, and watch the train.

Enjoy all the magic leading up to the Christmas season. There is so much of it, all you have to do is look for it.

Colorado Fried Turkey

2009-11-30T05:21:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a fried turkey???

Until Thursday I never had.

Now that I have tried a fried turkey I would like to apologize to all the turkeys I have ate through the years that were not fried.
"I am sorry baked turkeys. I am sorry I did not cook you to your fullest potential. That I did not let you fry in a big pot of oil. "

This was our beautiful Thanksgiving turkey. In case you haven't figured it out yet, we fried our turkey this year and it was delicious!!!!

Steve and Landon watched over the pot of oil. And a wonderfully cooked turkey emerged.

This is the contraption. It really is simple. Just some propane and a large pot of oil. Nothing fancy.

This on the other hand is fancy. Have you ever bought 3 gallons of oil? I haven't. I didn't even know you could buy that much at a time.

I am so thankful that we can buy oil in 3 gallon jugs.

I am also thankful for this little guy. I like him more than fried turkey.

Too early?

2009-11-24T04:23:00.000-08:00

What did we do on Sunday? I will give you some hints. Steve was mad because "it is way too early" and it "is not even Thanksgiving yet!" Although it looked like he had a little fun with his son.

Sean and Steve both thought it was quite lame, so we took them out for Margaritas after wards.

Matt and Alaina loved it!!

I loved it also, because.....well because we went for margaritas afterwards. (shh, don't tell)

There were huge horses that Matt thought were pretty amazing.

Did you guess yet???

We saw Santa!!!

Santa took us all for a ride in a carriage that was pulled by horse instead of his reindeer. His reindeer need to rest for Christmas, so horses fill in for them.

Matt did not like Santa very much. He was freaked out by his beard and was leaning away from him when we sat next to him and did not want to touch him. We did buy some pictures of him with Santa, but I didn't take any. Here is Alaina with Santa, she did not think much of him either. She didn't even want to look at him.

At what age will these kids beg to go see Santa and then sit on his lap for an hour telling him about all the toys they want for Christmas? I am thinking that will probably happen in a couple years. So, for now I will just enjoy this fear of Santa, then he won't care too much if Santa just gets him a pair of socks for Christmas.

Real Thanksgiving

2009-11-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

I will share a post about our weekend soon with pictures and all the usual stuff, but I felt led to share this instead. I love to write and have not written much in the last several years. Recently I have been writing short little essays (I am not sure I would call them essays, but I am not sure what else to call them) and I wanted to share one I wrote about being thankful. It was inspired by another writer I follow that wrote a similar post about being thankful. If you are not in the mood for some talk about God and thankfulness, than go ahead and skip it. I will have another less serious post soon :)

"Put him in time out. He needs to learn not to do that." My husband says immediately after our son throws a truck across the room. I quickly tell my son, "No!" and put him in his time out chair. Amidst crying and screaming I watch the clock until his 2 minutes of time out are up.

As a mother, hearing and seeing your child cry is not easy, no matter the circumstances. But I know discipline is necessary. I discipline him because I love him and it is needed to make him in to the person I want him to be. Does my son ever say, "Thank you Mommy for teaching me a lesson. That certainly will help sculpt me in to a well behaved boy."?

Ummmm.....No- definitely not. But he does say thank you when I give him a cup of juice.

It is so easy to be thankful for good things. I often close my eyes and thank God for the sunny weather, the wonderful dinner I had with my family, the perfect afternoon at the playground with my son, the delicious dinner we had with our friends, the shiny new car in our driveway. Those things are easy to be grateful for, they are comfortable, beautiful, and fun.

What has truly shaped me into the woman, wife, and mother that I am? Not those comfortable things. The days that have shaped me and taught me the most are the days when my foundation has been rocked. The days when I close my eyes at night and pray to God for help, strength, and faith. I don't usually thank God on those days.

Thank you God for the argument I had with my husband.

Thank you for the horrible review my manager gave me.

Thank you that we don't have enough money to pay the mortgage.

Thank you for my child's temper tantrum in the middle of Target.

Thank you for the death of my dog.

Thank you God for the fact that I don't fit in to my favorite jeans anymore.

Thank you God for the conflict I am having with my friend.

These are not prayers that God has ever heard from me. Yet as I reflect on my life, times like these were when God put his hands on me and sculpted me. My prayer should be:

Thank you God for continually molding me and for loving me enough to want to make me that woman you always intended me to be.

His priority is your peace, your wholeness, and your character. His purposes are good. His plan is perfect.

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." Colossians 2:6-7

The Curse

2009-11-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

My poor, poor child.

He has inherited a lot from me. One of them being my curly hair. Since he is a boy and can always have his hair cut very short, the curly hair really doesn't matter too much. In fact I think many women think men with curly hair are adorable, so I may have to beat some of those women off with a stick when Matty gets older. The curly hair may end up being a good thing, rather than a curse.

The other thing he inherited from me is a sweet tooth. When I say sweet tooth, I don't mean I like a piece of chocolate every now and then and enjoy an occasional scoop of ice cream. No, that is normal. My sweet tooth is very abnormal and should probably be studied by some sweet tooth scientist, not that there is such a thing, but if there was, let me tell you....they would definetly want to talk to me.

I have a problem. I love sweets. I love them so much I often ask Steve to hide them from me. Yes, that is right, Steve hides food from me for 2 reasons:

1. If he doesn't, he will not get any for himself.

2. I am trying to keep my butt to a size that is smaller than a school bus, and if sweets are just laying around I will literally eat them all.

Matthew has inherited this unhealthy obsession with sweets. The other night we were out to dinner with some friends and we all ordered a dessert to share. When Matthew saw the plate of cake and ice cream he literally squealed with delight, grabbed a spoon, and started digging in before the waiter had even put the plate on the table. 5 minutes later I took the picture above. My poor little boy, hopefully he will find a woman who will be nice enough to hide sweets from him.

I'm exhausted

2009-11-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I last wrote. I have been very busy and then was exhausted from being busy. Well, I have recovered and can now collect my thoughts. Really, the weekend wasn't too crazy, I have had crazier, it was just really full and also really great.

On Friday was our friends wedding. I was the Maid of Honor and Steve was the Best Man. It was a fantastic, beautiful wedding.

Steve's sister, Cyndi came in to town from Texas to photograph the wedding, so we got to spend the whole weekend with her. She got this picture of Steve and I at the wedding. Steve was wanting to throw me in the snow.

On Saturday we got a pretty good amount of snow, so we locked Matty and Cyndi outside. Not really, but they probably would have liked it if we did. Matty had a great time with his Auntie.

And Steve used the snow blower while wearing shorts and sandals, of course.

Sunday was my birthday. Which was horrible because the Broncos decided to lose to a really bad team, the Washington Redskins, which ruined my entire birthday. No, not really, but almost.

I did realize that being 28 sounds a lot older than being 27, because I am really, really close to being 30, and I have always thought that once you reach 30 you are not cool anymore. So, I might have a "more than a quarter way through life crisis" soon....just thought I should warn you.

At least I have done a couple good things in my 28 years of life, the best one by far has to be this handsome little creature.

Mommy...Tiga!!!

2009-11-12T05:12:00.000-08:00

When Matthew was born some good friends of ours brought this gigantic tiger to the hospital as a gift for Matty. This life size tiger was about 88 times larger than my newborn baby and I thought to myself, "Cool, but what am I supposed to do with that?"
Well, fast forward 2 years later and Matty has discovered this larger than life tiger and has decided it is better than a bowl of ice cream. I guess these friends of ours knew exactly what they were doing when they decided to purchase an enormous tiger for a baby that could not even hold his head up, they were thinking, "He is going to love this when he is 2 years old."

Matthew incessantly tells me about his tiger, or as he calls it "Tiga". He is constantly pointing out his tiger to me, "Mommy....tiga!!"

The other night I asked him if he wanted me to take a picture of his tiger and he very enthusiastically tried holding the tiger up for the camera.

For a 2 year old this tiger is quite heavy, he has a heck of a time moving it around, but he loves his tiger so much he grunts and groans until he moves it to where he wants it.

Usually though he just throws it on the ground and pounces.

This kid is so tough he can wrestle a tiger to the floor!!

A little boy and his tiger....it is a beautiful thing.

Never Forget

2009-11-11T07:04:00.000-08:00

Today is Veteran's Day.

All the veterans alive and gone are the reason I can write whatever I want on this blog.
Veterans are the reason I can go to work, sit at my desk and earn a living.
Veterans are the reason I can go to sleep at night and sleep soundly.
Veterans are the reason I can put my son to sleep and close his door.
Veterans are the reason I can go to the grocery store, spend my money and talk with the cashier about the beautiful weather.
Veterans are the reason I was able to marry the man I wanted to marry.
Veterans are the reason I was happy to bring my son in to the world.
Veterans are the reason I can sit on my couch and watch the Denver Broncos play football.
Veterans are the reason I can get on a plane and fly to go see my family or friends.
Veterans are the reason I can plan a Thanksgiving dinner with my family.
Veterans are the reason I can make a meal every night for my family.
Veterans are the reason I can sit on my back porch with my girlfriends, sip red wine and giggle about whatever we want to giggle about.
Veterans are the reason I have a house over my head and car to drive.
Veterans are the reason I can live comfortably without worrying for my safety.

American Veterans past, present, and future are the reason we all can live the way we do.
Please thank a veteran today, pray for our veterans today, and remember the selfless sacrifices they have made and continue to make for our freedoms and safety.

Thank you Grandpa Dinkel for your life and your sacrfices. I wish my son could have met his Great Grandpa Dinkel and could have thanked him for his service.

Thank you to all the veterans that have touched my life.

I am in awe of your service.

Tough Guy

2009-11-09T05:00:00.001-08:00

On Sunday Matty got in a fight with another baby, the baby punched him in the mouth and he now has a fat lip....

If you think that looks bad you should see the other baby....

Just kidding! Did you really think he got in a fist fight with another baby? Seriously? It is kind of funny when you picture 2 babies in a fist fight, isn't it?

Actually Matty hit his chin on a table and his bottom teeth went in to his top lip and gave him a nice fat lip. It is his first fat lip, but I am sure it won't be his last. He is an adventurous boy after all.

Poor little guy, it really makes it hard to drink out of a sippy cup. He tries to drink out of the cup and then looks at me with a whiny face and says, "Mommy ouchy" Very cute, but very sad too. It is giving us a good opportunity to teach him to drink out of a regular cup, which he is getting extremely good at.

When I brought him to day care this morning his babysitter said, "The fat lip really suits him. It doesn't look too unusual on him." I thought this was pretty funny, Matty really is a tough guy.

So easy a 2 year old can do it...

2009-11-04T20:11:00.000-08:00

Steve has an I Phone and it is impossibly cool. I usually make fun of the latest and greatest technology that is available because it only magnifies the laziness of people. The I Phone is probably loved by lazy people, but it also makes Steve's life easier and helps his business run smoothly....also it is so darn fun to play with!
Several months ago Matthew started being extremely curious about the I Phone. He has always liked playing with phones, but he became smart enough to realize that the I Phone is way better than any other phones. After playing off and on with Steve's I Phone and other people's I Phones he became very good with the phone.

Now all Matthew has to do is go up to his dad and say "Phone Dadda?" and if Steve is willing he gives him the phone and Matthew is then entertained for a good 30 minutes.
Our 2 year old child knows how to turn it on, turn it off, unlock it, select an App, get out of an App he doesn't like and knows exactly how to play the children friendly Apps that Steve downloaded for him. Matthew also knows when the phone rings, Steve gets an email or a text that he needs to not touch anything and bring the phone to Dadda.
It is actually really amazing to watch how well he knows how to use this phone, either he is a genius or the I Phone is the easiest phone to use on the planet.

If anyone knows someone who works at Apple and can get Matthew on a commercial I am totally willing to exploit my child. Just let me know :)

NO!!!

2009-11-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Seriously, how often can one 2 year old say the word "no"?

On Sunday I tried to count and forgot what number I was on very quickly. Seriously, this boy is having a love affair with the word "no". It is unhealthy and very frustrating. Many other mothers have looked at me with compassion when they see me roll my eyes with frustration after the 56th time Matty has said "no" and they always say, "That is normal. That is exactly what all 2 year olds do" But it still doesn't help, every mother always thinks their child will be different. Their child will not say the word "no" like all other toddlers do, right? Well, unfortunanely my child is no exception.

On our way to day care I always talk to him and say things like, "I am going to miss you today, buddy" and "Are you going to have fun today at Tina's?" and "I will see you shortly after your nap today and we will go home and have fun tonight!"

Anyways, you get the idea. This morning I was trying to talk to him and after everything I said he would yell, "No!" or "No, no, no!" Even if I wasn't even asking him a question he would respond with, "No!"

I guess he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something, but geez, it was brutal.

Then there are times with he doesn't respond with the word "no".

On Monday he was awake particularly early, I guess he didn't get the memo about the time change, and he was yelling for me in his room.

"Mommy! Mommy!" I didn't open his door. I was awake and had gotten out of the shower, but I needed some intimate time with a cup of coffee. So I just yelled back at him, "Not yet, buddy, I will come in there soon. Just wait."

Instead of being an awful little toddler like he could have been, he simply yelled, "Okay!" and quietly played in his crib for 20 minutes.

Just when I think I am going to tape his mouth shut if he says the word "no" one more time he goes and acts like the sweet boy I know he really is. What a guy he is!!!

Shaken not stirred

2009-11-01T06:37:00.000-08:00

What did the Combs' household do on Halloween?
We had some friends over, we all dressed in a James Bond theme, drank martinis and watched James Bond, of course!!

Superman was there, we were thinking a James Bond movie with James Bond and Superman fighting the bad guys would be totally cool. (And no, that is a play gun Steve is holding...calm down!)

Superman had a lot of candy, was very hyper and then crashed in his bed and slept all night so he could get more energy to fight more bad guys.

Fear

2009-10-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Last night Matty was sitting on the arm rest of one of our couches thinking about jumping over to the arm rest of the other couch. I noticed this active thought process and let him sit and negotiate whether he should jump or not, as I watched. He began reaching out for the other couch with his hand and started leaning with his body over to the other couch, then he would get scared and lean back on to the couch he was sitting on. He continued to lean back and forth, reaching his hand out and then changing his mind over and over again. Finally he looked at me and said, "Mommy, hand" so I reached out my hand, he grabbed it and jumped over to the couch using the assistance of my hand.
I let him do this many times. Each time he would get back on the couch and think about jumping without my assistance, but then he would get scared and ask for my help.

I had the opportunity to go to a seminar my work sent me to a couple weeks ago. There were many speakers and they were all there to motivate us to work hard and be successful. One of the speakers was Rudy Giuliani. He talked a lot about courage, the point that stuck out to me the most was this; "Courage isn't the absence of fear. It is the management of fear."

Matthew was scared to cross that chasm between the 2 couches, he was afraid he might hurt himself. After thinking about the potential of falling and the potential of making it to the other couch with a sense of accomplishment, Matthew decided he was indeed scared, but that he would still cross that chasm. He decided to cross it with the help of someone else.

Matthew wasn't being a wimp. He was being courageous; he managed his fear, negotiated his fear and decided the best way to manipulate that fear would be to ask for help. This little 2 year old is a pretty good teacher, who would have thought?

P.S. Thanks Cyndi for the beautiful picture of Matthew, as always you are so talented!!

Model?

2009-10-26T05:11:00.000-07:00

Bored at home on Sunday with snow coming down outside I started taking pictures of Matty. I decided I should work on his picture taking skills. How awesome would it be if he would just automatically give me a cute smile whenever he saw the camera? I figured this would not be a hard skill to teach, let's see how it went...

First I explained that everytime I point the camera at him he has to smile. So lets try it, give me a smile.

Apparently his smile consists of showing his bottom teeth. So we worked on smiling. I showed him how to smile, by ridiculously smiling at him and telling him to "smile like Mommy."
Then I said, "Let's try to take another picture with a nice smile. Smile for me, buddy, come on, give me a good smile!"

Okay so then his smile turned in to sticking his tongue out. Great! Let's try this again. Give me a good smile!!

Again with the tongue!!! What the heck is with this kid? He will not smile for me!!

After many pictures of Matthew with his tongue sticking out, I told him to show off for the camera. And this is what he did...

He wanted to show me his hand?? hmmmm, interesting....

Then I discovered something. He loves showing things to the camera. He gets the whole camera concept, but doesn't quite understand why I would want a picture of him. But he does think that I should want a picture of his food or his toys. Let me show you what I mean...

Maybe he could become one of those models on The Price is Right? You know those girls who show off the stuff that the contestants can win. I think Matthew would be really good at that. Or maybe we need to work on his modeling skills a little bit more. I'll let you know how that goes :)

Warm and Cozy

2009-10-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

What do we do when it is cold and snowy outside?

We cuddle with our little Matty in front of a fire, of course...

What is Matty's favorite new word? Fire!!!
And after we built this fire he said the word about 87 times.

I pray we get many more warm, cuddly nights by the fire.

While I was painting my nails...

2009-10-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

Matty and his Dadda were outside playing with remote control trucks. What a manly thing for a father and son to do, right? Steve would drive the truck so crazy that it would sometimes flip over. This would leave Steve with a problem, he would have to walk, sometimes a long distance, to the truck to turn it back over. Now comes the part where we had a child.... Steve doesn't have to walk to turn the truck over, Matt will!!!

Now comes the best part for Matt; Dadda let him drive the truck all himself. This led to Momma (that's me, in case you are confused) coming outside to take pictures and having the truck slammed in to her shins. And me giving Steve a dirty look and Steve saying, "What?? It was Matt, not me!"

What a great afternoon for the boys. Trucks, boys and sunshine-

This guy is so cool!!

2009-10-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

This guy is soooo cool..... He has his own motorcycle that his aunt and uncle got him for his birthday.

This guy is sooo cool.....He gets all kinds of chicks to ride on the back of his motorcycle.

This guy is sooo cool....He thinks going to jail is nothing to cry about.

In fact he thinks going to jail is quite funny!

He is so totally cool, isn't he?

Photography, if only I had some talent...

2009-10-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

Katie Smith and I were inseparable. We were always together at school, at her house, at my house, in the car, at the mall, at the movie...you name it Katie and I did it together. In high school Katie was a great friend. Sure we had our fights, but most of the time we were together laughing and talking. Katie understood me like no one else did and I understood her. I remember there was this boy in high school that essentially dumped me and I felt embarrassed and stupid. The next day Katie gave me a sympathy card. It was so hysterical, it made me laugh and instantly changed my mood, she always knew exactly what to do to lift my spirit.

After high school we kept in touch, but slowly drifted apart. We lived hundreds of miles away from each other which proved to make it hard to be friends. But we always contacted each other from time to time to check in. Our connection proved to be unchanged when we both found out we were pregnant with boys that were due 3 days apart. God has a crazy way of bringing people together, doesn't he?

Katie and I all got to see each other the other night. Rhiannon, another great friend from High School and I drove to Conifer to see Katie. It was a fabulous time. Katie is an extremely talented photographer and it was such a blessing to see our boys together and for Katie to take some pictures of Matthew.

This is Thaddeus, Katie's little boy. What are they looking at? Hmmmm....

Now let me explain this next picture. Katie is working on building her photography portfolio, particularly her bridal pictures. So, she talked me in to putting on my 5 year old wedding dress and she took some pictures of me. I told her these pictures might ruin her portfolio, for I have NEVER been called photogenic, however I learned a good photographer can make anyone look good.

Mr. Potato Head

2009-10-15T05:28:00.000-07:00

Matty got a Mr. Potato Head for his 2nd birthday from the Combs' family down in Texas. He was not so sure what to do with it at first. He just kind of stared at it and pointed at it. Then I started taking the pieces off for him and he got the point of Mr. Potato Head quite quickly.

He loves Mr. Potato Head and has even demanded that he sleep with him a few nights.

Here is the first night he played with Mr. Potato Head. He inspected him thoroughly, even his booty opening (which a little disturbing- the toy making people crack me up!)

Check out that forehead of his...Unfortunately he gets that forehead from his mom. Poor guy!!

Now where does this go??? Hmmmmm....

This was the finished product. For some reason he got every body part correct except he mixed up the mouth and the eyes. We have played with Mr. Potato Head many times since and Matthew always does the same thing, the mouth and eyes are always reverse. Can a psychologist please tell me what this means? My son will be a dentist? My son is psychic? My son can read lips? My son thinks I talk too much? My son is trying to tell me my teeth are yellow??? Hmmmm......

What a weekend!!!

2009-10-12T05:16:00.000-07:00

I wish all weekends could be like this weekend. Of course if that was the case, I would probably not enjoy the weekends as much because this great weekend would become the norm and "a great weekend" would then have to entail a getaway to Tahiti- which I guess wouldn't be bad, but it would get a little pricey.

Anyways, Steve, Matty and I all took a short car ride to Colorado Springs. We stayed at the Embassy Suites and enjoyed a fun, relaxing weekend. We had planned to go to the Zoo on Saturday and frolic in the park (not really frolic, I mean who does that anyway) but then our plans were changed when we woke up to this:

Saturday's high was 32 degrees. The roads were icy, the trees were plastered in frost and I was freezing!! So, we decided to go to The Cave of the Winds. It is well.... a cave. No matter what the weather is like outside it is always around 60 degrees in the cave. The best part is, there are no bats in the cave. Thank goodness, because I don't have my rabies vaccine up to date.

Here is Matt and I in the cave, doesn't Matt look like he'd rather have gone to the cave then the zoo? He is so excited.

Steve took a lot of pictures in the cave, but they turned out dark and really don't do the cave justice. There were a lot of cool things that I do not know the name of and lots of knowledge passed on by the tour guide that I did not absorb- none the less it was a good time and Matthew did phenomenally well.

This is right outside the cave. Really beautiful and really cold.

The highlight of the weekend for Matthew was the hotel lobby. There is a waterfall and a little river inside with fish in it. This kept him entertained for hours!! Steve and I would just sit and have a drink while Matthew would almost fall in the river about 50 times. Thankfully he never actually fell in, but he did put his foot in it once and track water all over the lobby floor, I don't think anyone noticed until we had already left....shhh, don't tell.

It was a weekend full of excellent food and good family time.

Even with all the adventure on Friday and Saturday, the highlight of the weekend actually came on Sunday. The Denver Broncos beat the New England Patriots to make us 5-0 for the season. It was a great game, Denver played their hearts out and our quarterback, Orton, outplayed Tom Brady. I am still pinching myself. Thank God for weekends full of things to celebrate!

How many years? Are you kidding me? Really?

2009-10-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

Guess what today is? I'll give you a hint, on this day 5 years ago Steve wore a tux. This is a big hint because he has only worn a tux twice in his life. Once was for my brother's wedding and the other time was......

Our Wedding!!!

5 years ago on October 9th 2004, Steve and I pledged to stay together forever.

We have endured a lot in these 5 years together. Steve has not always been a perfect husband and I have not always been a perfect wife. But we have grace on our side and we are committed to each other.

Happy 5 year Anniversary!!

Someone asked me once, what do you think is the key to a good marriage? I answered very quickly with, "A sense of humor."
Sometimes when everything else fails all you can do is laugh and remember not to take everything so seriously.

“My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.”-Rodney Dangerfield

The Ya Ya Sisterhood

2009-10-07T07:49:00.000-07:00

Women can be very dramatic, very petty and very psycho. I know this because I am one. (Sorry to throw us under the bus women!) With that said, women can also be supportive, loving, and tons of fun. The lateral is how I would describe all of my girlfriends. I am extremely blessed to have phenomenal women in my life. Thank you to all my girlfriends, including the ones who will get 2 margaritas at once,

the ones who will put a face mask on half their face and let me take a picture,

and the girlfriends who think it is funny, as I do, to switch name tags and make everyone at the event think we have a different name.

To those girlfriends and all my girlfriends out there. Thank you for making me laugh, keeping me grounded, showing me compassion, and giving me a part of yourselves. I am forever grateful.

What do we do on Monday Nights?

2009-10-06T04:45:00.000-07:00

Monday nights, this time of the year are a very busy, productive time for us. We run for 15 miles, then go to a soup kitchen and serve the homeless, then we organize our pantry, then we make a meal of tabouli with a nice spring salad.

Wait...maybe I am exaggerating a little bit. We actually don't always organize the pantry, sometimes we organize the coat closet.

Wait...you know what? I cannot lie any longer. We are a very typical American family and I am not ashamed!!!
On Monday nights we sit on the couch and watch Monday Night Football!!!
Last night was definitely no exception, I mean who could not watch Brett Favre play his old stomping ground, Green Bay? It was a great game and a lovely night, even though we ate pizza instead of Tabouli and spring salad.

Shorty, our dog, like usual sat on the couch with us. He gets irritated when we yell at the TV while watching football, as you has no trouble hearing.
Peter came over with his crutches and he forced me to serve him beer and pizza since he still cannot walk. I then in turn made him hop on one leg to the kitchen before he left and put all the glasses in the sink. Not sure if he will ever come over again.

As you can see, Matty gets a little irritated with the camera flash.

Peter brought over his dogs, 2 big yellow dogs that weigh about 40 pounds each. Usually these large dogs are continually growled at and beat up by our 2 dogs that weigh about 6 pounds each. Hmmmm....

Steve saw that I was trying to take a cute picture of all the boys taking a drink while watching football and he quickly tried to ruin it. He thinks he is so funny- whatever.

Matthew is really starting to watch football, kind of. He definitely knows when football is on the TV and he knows that he should react when the people on the screen are moving. He often will throw his arms up in the air and yell, "Ohhhhhhh!!!" or "Yay!!!" He just is not so sure when to react, he will often yell "Yay!!" when the team we are routing against scores or when there is an instant replay. None the less, Steve and I are very proud of him for trying to be a part of something Steve and I like so much, football. I pray someday he will spend his fall and winter Monday nights sitting on the couch watching the age old tradition of Monday Night football and will fondly remember the days he did it with his mom and dad.

Casa Bonita....again!!

2009-10-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went to Casa Bonita, again. That's right, we went to the pink restaurant with a waterfall inside, a fountain out front, cheese enchiladas made out of Velveeta and bathrooms that smell like the rest area's on the side of the interstate. Steve and Matthew loved it!!!

We went there to celebrate our friend, Sean's birthday. You are probably picturing Sean as a little boy, since Casa Bonita is a place that most children request on their birthday. You are wrong, Sean is the same age as Steve and I. Steve and Sean are very good friends, they have a ton in common, one of them being they both love Casa Bonita.

Many of our friends went, even Peter, who is still on crutches.

Alaina even sang her daddy, Sean, Happy Birthday.

Alaina and Matthew stuck together like they usually do and bugged Peter and Alissa, who are total suckers and always play along with them and pay more attention to them than anyone else.

Matt and Alaina are entertained so easily.

Now, for the bad part. Half way through our Casa Bonita adventure I fell ill. All of a sudden I felt like a Greyhound bus hit me and I could barely function. After a long drive home with me holding my head out the window, I got home and proceeded to "get sick" about 5 times that night. The first time was the loveliest because I got to see this lovely food all over again.

And, yes, you are welcome for giving you that picture in your head. I know you wanted to know all the details.

After I had a rough night, Steve then "got sick" Saturday morning and proceeded to have a raging fever all day Saturday. So, Steve and I got to take care of Matthew on Saturday from our couch. We tried putting in Finding Nemo and the movie Cars to entertain him while we tried to keep from falling in the coma, we so desperately wanted to fall in to. All in all Matty did very well and Steve and I managed to get well rather quickly and some how we managed to keep from getting Matthew sick which was our main concern.

This weekend I was reminded of something that I have been told numerous times from other parents and that is that being sick while trying to take care of your kids is like a blind person trying to thread a needle. It is extremely hard and not very fun. This week, I am getting my flu shot and increasing my Vitamin C dose, let's pray for a healthy rest of the winter!! :)

If you build it, they will come...

2009-09-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

Matthew built something out of his blocks and all the other little things that ended up in the box we throw his blocks in at the end of the day.

He used EVERYTHING that was in the box and made a special place for all of it in his little creation. He worked very hard at it, placing something in this place, then moving it to another place when it didn't quite fit in that first place.

I have never seen him be so meticulous and careful. It was really amazing to watch. Several times he would find a place for something and then step back, look at it and clap and say "Yay!!" It was hysterical.
Once he had used everything he stepped backed, clapped, and said, "Yay!" and then forced me to clap also.

After he made it I told him, "Don't destroy it yet, I am going to take a picture." He immediately seemed to like the idea and helped me look for my camera and then stood back as I took pictures of his beautiful creation. Every time I took a picture he wanted to see it on the camera screen to make sure it looked nice.

Then he just laid there and stared at it for a couple minutes. He was so proud of himself.

He saw what he made, and saw that it was good. :)

Baby Boy Kisses

2009-09-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

I never thought I was much of a mushy person. I have never been the type who likes people to fawn over me or to show a large amount of affection. I don't need any of that mushy stuff to know that a person loves me. However, it sure does make you feel good. Especially once my one and only son starts doing it.

Recently when I say to Matty, "Can I have a kiss?" One of 3 things will happen:

1. He will say "No!" and smile and walk away.

2. He will say "No!", smile, lean his head toward mine, give me a kiss, and then walk away.

3. He will say "okay!", smile, give me a kiss and then walk away.

It makes me melt every time, even when he just says "no" because it makes it easy to picture him as a teenager and that makes me laugh.

I wanted to share this series of pictures that were taken by my friend, Lindsay- her fiance, Matt and of course my son, Matt- are best buds- Sooo cute!!

Gotta' Have More Cowbell

2009-09-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

I was a bad mother this weekend...I took no pictures of my child and all the cute things he did. Go ahead, slap me on the wrist with a ruler like the nuns used to do in Catholic school, only I didn't go to Catholic school. Since I have no pictures to share I wanted to share a couple of other things.
On Sunday night we went to a friends house for their housewarming party and we all were playing volleyball in their yard. Matty was so cute, he HAD to be a part of the volleyball. He pretended he was a part of the teams and was mimicking what everyone was doing. Chasing after the ball and pretending to hit it and giving high fives when everyone else was. It was adorable to watch. I love that he always wants to be around people and wants to be a part of everything. He is not shy at all and is becoming quite the social butterfly. Times like these remind Steve and I that he is ALWAYS watching us and wants to be like us and mimic what we do...so we better be mindful of everything we do and say.
Secondly, I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning and needed a little pick me up once I got to work. I read something that reminded me of this skit, so I went looking for it, watched it, and it instantly gave me the "little pick me up" that I needed. This is one of my all time favorite SNL skits. I love Will Ferrell and when I say love I mean, I would leave Steve, run away with him, and marry him. Sorry Steve. Anyways, for anyone who needs a good laugh on this Monday morning. Here is a link....Enjoy!

http://www.funnyhub.com/videos/pages/snl-more-cowbell.html

Do you have a question?

2009-09-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

Why did I take a picture of Matty standing on crutches?

Actually....Why were there crutches at our house at all?

Because that is what the emergency room gave Peter when he checked out of the hospital on Matthew's birthday.

Why did Peter go to the ER on Matthew's birthday?

To get 11 stitches in the bottom of his foot, of course.

How did Peter get a disgustingly, huge gash on the bottom of his foot while he was at a 2 year olds birthday party?

Because he jumped our fence to go in to the neighbor's yard to fetch a gigantic bouncy ball that we were playing "volleyball" with- Duh. And because when a 2 year old's birthday party ends in an ER visit, that 2 year old will forever be totally cool.

Are you sure we are allowed to go in there?

2009-09-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday night we had a little surprise from some of our friends. They told us they had some extra tickets to the Avalanche preseason game and they wanted us to go with them. I will be honest I was not too thrilled to go, I was feeling quite lazy that day and the thought of sitting in tiny, hard seats with Matt in my lap while trying to keep Matt entertained to minimize the amount of mean looks from the people sitting around us; just did not sound like fun. Well....Steve convinced me to "chill" (He says that a lot to me, I can't imagine why?) and off we went to meet them for the game.

Well, the surprise comes now....they handed us the tickets and they were tickets for a suite. That's right a suite at the Colorado Avalanche game. A little private room. The whole wing of suites (pretty sure 'wing' is not the correct terminology) has a separate escalator that has people at the bottom of it in suits that check to make sure you are the elite and you have a suite ticket. I wasn't sure if they would let me in, since I had left my designer handbag, designer clothing, Gucci sunglasses and fur coat at home, but they actually did! And the door to the suite is locked and only our fancy tickets will unlock the door. I thought for sure my ticket was a fraud and it wouldn't unlock the door, but it actually did!

We had a suite view (get it! Play on words!! I am so clever)

I guess Steve thought we were going to a Broncos game because he wore his Broncos jersey.

I am pretty sure Matty will never be the same again. If we take him to a game in the regular seats he will scoff at the hard plastic. These seats were soft, padded, plush black leather.

And the Avalanche won. I am not much of a hockey fan, but I really do like going to sporting events, especially is they are in a suite. I can definitely get used to this. Although I won't get used to it, because it will never happen again, but I can dream.

What Happens....?

2009-09-21T05:02:00.000-07:00

What happens when we are running late to dinner with friends, trying to get out of the house fast?

We get out to the driveway about to get in the car when I realize I forgot the diaper bag. So I run back inside, Steve is saying goodbye to his employees....no one is paying attention to Matty.

I get back outside say to Steve, "Let's go, we have to go!!"
He says, "Alright, get in the car. Let's go!"
We both turn to get in the car....
We both say, "Wait... where is Matt?"
We hear him giggle and come around the other side of the car looking like this...

So what do we do? We put him in the car seat, take a picture, and go out to dinner. Thank God for baby wipes, they took the car grease right off his face and hands.

He thinks he is sooo funny...

Happy Birthday Dear Matthew, Happy Birthday to You!

2009-09-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

Matthew was born on September 19th, 2007. Exactly 2 years later we celebrated his birth on a beautiful Saturday.

So many friends and family came out to celebrate, we felt very blessed. We played a lot of badminton and created a volleyball game involving a really big volleyball.

The only 2 kids at the party, Alaina and Matty had a great time.

Matt even tried to play Badminton.

He was very spoiled by everyone and got more presents than he could handle. Including a truck, what little boy's birthday party would be complete without a truck?

A tricycle from his grandma and grandpa.

A glove and ball to fulfill Steve's dream of him being in the Major Leagues someday.

And of course an airplane cake. Grandma made it for him, it turned out awesome- not sure how I will top this cake next year. I better start working on it now :)

Happy Birthday to my little baby, Matthew, who is not a baby anymore....tear.

2 years ago...

2009-09-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

2 years ago today....

I was packing to go to the hospital. I was supposed to check in to the hospital at 6:00pm on September 18th for my induction to begin. They were going to give me some medicine to prepare me for induction that night and let me sleep, and then officially start the pitocin at 6:00 am on September 19th. And this is exactly the way it all started.

2 years ago....

-I weighed almost as much as Steve

-I waddled and had a slight limp when I walked

-Every morning I would go in to work and at least 3 people would look at me and say, "Oh darn, you are here again. No labor, huh?" I wanted to cry every time someone would say it.

-My pelvis throbbed when I would sit in certain positions and every time I would stand up it would feel like a brick was being pounded in to by hips.

-I had heartburn approximately 37 times a day and ingested 48 Tums a day.

-I had a hard time taking a deep breath and had a hard time breathing in general, something was pressed up against my lungs :)

-I was doing everything possible to induce labor. Eating spicy food, drinking raspberry leaf tea and Steve and I were walking about 2 miles every night.

-I had to pee every 30 minutes (that is no exaggeration)

-Every time I called Steve he would say, "Is it time?"

-I would have sawed off all my fingers and then poured alcohol in the wounds if it meant I wouldn't have to be pregnant any more. (that is maybe a slight exaggeration)

-I had dreams every night about labor; giving birth to a dog, bleeding all over the hospital room, having 500 people in the birthing room, etc.- Those dreams were really beneficial to my mental health- Not!

-My ribs ached from being kicked so often.

-I was very short tempered and was not the most pleasant person to be around. (Sorry about that!)

Do you think it was all worth it?

P.S. Both pictures were taken with Steve's phone. The first one was taken right after we checked in to the hospital on September 18th, 2007 and the last one was taken 10 minutes after Matty was born.

He is so green!

2009-09-15T08:13:00.000-07:00

I am really sick of all the "Go Green" stuff. The media has definitely out done the green movement. I understand trying to save our resources, but the saturation of the word green has been too much for me to take. And "nobody puts baby in a corner"- okay that made very little sense, but I adored Swayze in Dirty Dancing and I am obviously thinking of him today.

On that note let me tell you a story about my "green son".

Last night he reminded me 3 separate times to turn off the kitchen light while I was leaving the kitchen. He would follow me in to the kitchen, hang out with me while I was in there, and then I would walk out of the kitchen and Matty would stand right below the light switch and say "light". He would continue to say the word "light" until I would go over there and turn out the light. It was so adorable, but so annoying at the same time. I think Steve secretly taught Matt to do this because he is quietly annoyed with my wasting electricity disease which I have always been plagued with (just ask my parents).

My son is so trendy. Soon he will be asking us for a Prius, demanding solar panels on our roof and will start to bathe every other week. He is totally cool.

What do we do now?

2009-09-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

What do you do after the Broncos win their first game of the season in the last 30 seconds of the game?

Eat orange cupcakes, of course!!

Laugh at the fact that you can see each other through a window!! Wow!!

Jump from the coffee table in to Dadda's arms.

Make Dadda toss you through the air on to the couch.

Try to jump from the coffee table to the couch using Dadda as a spring board.

And last but not least, laugh at how much fun it is when the Broncos win because it might not happen very often this year.

Rock Band?

2009-09-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

You're never too old to start a rock band right? Well, that's what we think, so that is exactly what we did along with our friends on Friday night.

Mark was lead guitar

Steve was on vocals, he wanted the ear piece with the microphone, he said it made him feel like Britney Spears.

Matty tried to play Bass, Alissa gave him a quick lesson.

Alissa and Steve traded lead vocals back and forth and even did many duets. Peter and Landon tried to play guitar, but Matty kept interrupting, I guess he didn't realize how important our rock band is and how serious we are about becoming rock stars.

Matt and Alaina helped Sean with his drumming skills. We are all going to hit it big some day!!

Apparently Matty thinks it is hysterical that we all think we are going to be bigger than the Rolling Stones.

Alaina is trying to stay positive and encourage us to never give up on our rock star dreams.

Pool Party!!

2009-09-10T05:23:00.000-07:00

For the majority of the summer I thought to myself, I really should get Matty to a pool a couple times this summer just to get him used to it and keep him from freaking out about swimming later in life. Well, I know it is hard to believe, but it is now September and I never brought him to a pool. Every time I thought about it I would be driving by one of our local pools and see 6,000 children in the pool and think that shoving shrapnel in my eye would be more fun than venturing to the crowded pool.
Yesterday a friend that Steve plays softball with had a pool party and my motherly guilt melted away as I introduced Matty to a swimming pool.

At first, he was very interested in it, but was quite apprehensive and cautious.

He slowly got more and more confident and even started letting go of his dad and our friend, also named Matt.

Towards the end of the night, Matty even jumped off the diving board in to Matt's arms. (the picture turned out way too dark)

He really seemed to enjoy being in the pool, when it was time to get out of the pool he was very, very upset- which I would call a success. Next time we will just have to see if he will let us put the second Spiderman arm floatie on him.

For Better or Worse

2009-09-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

How gorgeous is this picture? This is Steve's brother and our new sister in law on their wedding day this last Saturday. Cyndi, my other sister in law, took all these pictures, she is amazing.

She was a vision, absolutely gorgeous- in a beautiful setting. Don't you love Colorado?

Their adorable daughter was running around making the day even more complete.

And of course Steve HAD to be the jokster, even to the poor bride.

And I had to be a part of the wedding cake eating. I always get in to this part of a wedding. This is the only time you can get away with smashing cake in your beloved's face. So why not do it??!!! I just don't understand why people nicely and gently feed each other wedding cake. Steve and I practically punched each other in the face with our cake. Believe me, there will be times in your marriage that you will think back at the time you smashed cake in your spouse's face and think...you totally deserved that.

So in this picture I restrained my brother in law who was running away from his new wife, because I knew he needed that cake in his face. Your welcome, Mandy.

Long Weekend

2009-09-08T05:10:00.001-07:00

Our long Labor Day weekend was a long weekend we will surely never forget. Steve's brother, Jim got married to his long time sweetheart, Mandy, on Saturday. All of Steve's family was in town for the big day and the rehearsal dinner was at our house. It was such an exhausting, full weekend, that I didn't even have time to take any pictures. Hopefully in the near future I will be able to share some pictures from the wedding from someone else's camera. It was a beautiful wedding. All I can say is Matty and Steve both wore a tie, for that reason alone, this weekend was momentous!!

Monday was a wonderful day...it was our recovery day. After all the fun we had this weekend, we needed a day in which we mostly sat on the couch and did nothing, but laundry and the occasional cleaning. Matty worked on his couch jumping skills, something that Steve thinks is hilarious and I think is not.

Here he is winding up...

And then he just jumps on to the couch and laughs his head off! He did this approximately 49 times yesterday.

During this wedding weekend, my mind turned to the day my baby will get married, while I don't believe there will ever be a woman who will be worthy of my son, I still thought about the possibility of it.

And when I think about the day my son will marry, I love that I have pictures like this to show to his fiance one day.

Don't you just love baby bath time pictures??

Hope you all had a great long weekend!! By the way, did you know Labor Day originated in Canada? It isn't even an American holiday, America just liked the idea of it and decided to copy Canada. There is your trivia for the day...your welcome.

Boys will be Boys

2009-09-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Steve was so proud. His flesh and blood, his only son, his strapping boy.....

Wanted to immediately put on Alaina's ruby red slippers the instant she opened the box on her birthday.

And he was more excited than Alaina to sit in her new pink princess chair.

Steve got upset about all the pictures being taken of his son sitting in a pink chair, so he made him hold an empty beer bottle.

What's that you say??? You think Steve has some issues about making sure his son is a tough manly man.... why would you say that?

What???

2009-09-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right. That is Jay Cutler. The whiny, cry baby Jay Cutler, who was traded to the Bears by the Broncos because his feelings were hurt by the new head coach of the Broncos.

Let me tell you why I am so utterly confused-

When the Broncos signed Jay Cutler a couple years ago I said to Steve, "Why can't we get a good looking quarterback?!!" Because isn't that what is most important for the team, that the quarterback be good looking?

Now, I am not going to go over all the quarterbacks we have had since John Elway (who, let's face it ladies, was not the all American gorgeous quarterback we all dreamed off when we were 15) and tell you why they were unattractive, because that would just be mean. But I will say they have all been either unattractive or major wusses with attitude problems, and Jay Cutler was no exception to that, he encompassed both.

That is until he was traded to Chicago and they took this picture of him. What???!!! I have to admit it, he looks VERY good in this picture. This picture makes me want to run to him and live out my fantasy of being a quarterback's wife. Then I am brought down to reality and realize, this is what he looks like with no makeup and no computer touch up and I quickly run away from him.

"The Terrible Twos"

2009-09-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

If you think this is going to be a post about the fact that my child is almost 2 and is getting to be "terrible" just like all other 2 year olds....you are absolutely incorrect.

If you think this is going to be a post about my "angel" child who is almost 2, and is not terrible like all the other "terrible 2 year olds"....you are completely off track and how dare you think I would be so huge headed that I would think such a thing!!

This post is about my disdain for the term "terrible two". I absolutely loathe this label. It is almost as bad as the term "big boned", sorry to tell all of you... but if you are called "big boned" you are being called overweight.

(Sorry to break it to you!! I know this is a little disheartening, as I have been called "big boned" a few times in my life.)

And if someone comments about your child being in the "terrible two" stage, they are most likely calling your child a misbehaving brat.

Giving a stage of a child's life the label of "terrible" is like giving the child and the parents an excuse to allow their child to be "terrible".

I know this year of Matty being a 2 year old will be hard. I know I will often be at my wits end, I know my child will often get a dirty look from a stranger for misbehaving and I know my friends and family will gasp approximately 146 times this year because of something absolutely appalling that he will do.

BUT...I will tell you one thing I will NOT do; I will not allow him to misbehave and be a brat simply because he is 2. I will discipline him and teach him to behave correctly regardless of his age. I will NOT use the "terrible 2" excuse at all this year. Mark my words people, I will not use his age as an excuse for bad behavior.

I will tell you one thing I cannot promise...I cannot promise that I will not use the "big boned" excuse as to why my jeans do not fit like they did last winter. That excuse never gets old, and people totally believe it, right? Right?

Speaking of fitting in to jeans (or not), isn't this picture funny? Matt and Alaina are staring each other down while they drink out of their sippy cups. What are they thinking?

My juice is totally better than your juice.

I bet I can drink this entire thing without taking a breath.

I can drink you under the table.

Casa Bonita

2009-08-31T07:30:00.000-07:00

Most of you who know us, know that Steve is like a big child. Don't get me wrong he is very responsible, very smart and takes care of his family. However when it comes to enjoying certain things he is very much a child at heart. He loves remote control cars and planes. He can spend an hour in the toy aisles of Target going over all the toys he wants and he likes to watch cartoons. Steve's brother, Jim is very similar to Steve in this respect, so when Jim and his fiance and their daughter came to visit us this weekend, it was no surprise- Steve and Jim wanted to go to Casa Bonita.

For those of you who don't know, Casa Bonita is a restaurant that has a waterfall inside complete with divers, a puppet show stage, a "scary, haunted" cave to walk through, a mariachi band, a gift shop, an arcade...well you are getting the idea. It is a restaurant that kids beg to go to. Begging is exactly what Steve and Jim were doing on Sunday... "Please can we go to Casa Bonita!!! Please!!" So Mandy (Jim's fiance) and I finally agreed, simply because we were tired of hearing them whining.

Steve and Jim thoroughly enjoyed Casa Bonita, so did Matty. He instantly fell in love with the large fountain outside.

You should have seen his excitement when he say the huge waterfall inside. He was enamored and added the word "waterfall" to his vocabulary.

Here is Jim and Mandy's adorable daughter, Caley. Like most women she enjoyed shopping in the gift shop, but her parents wouldn't buy her this hat...poor Caley!!

Mandy and I with the kids- And yes, the restaurant is painted pink. I have been asking myself "Why is Casa Bonita painted pink?" since I was a child and have yet to come up with an answer.

I wish you could see the sparkle in their eyes and the quivering excitement these boys felt. They were so excited to go to Casa Bonita!! If only they had this kind of excitement when we asked them to change a diaper.

Thinking about Motherhood...

2009-08-28T07:02:00.001-07:00

I was thinking this morning about motherhood. I have a confession to make, it really isn't as hard as I thought it would be. Well, maybe that is not completely true, only partially true. It is amazing how Steve and I have adapted to having a child in our lives, we just make it work and most of the time it works very smoothly. Let me share with you some things about being a mother- One list will be things that are harder than I had imagined and one list will be things that are easier than I had imagined.

Things that have been harder than I ever imagined.

-Keeping a clean house. I used to be quite clean, people would comment about how clean my house was. Don't get me wrong, my house is still clean, most of the time. But with a child it doesn't stay clean for very long and sometimes I just don't want to clean, I have a million other things to do.

-Leaving Matty with anyone. I thought for sure I would always be relieved when I would leave him and get some time away from him. But now I just plain don't want to leave him, I like being with him and I miss him when I am not with him.

-Recovering from being pregnant and having a baby. Although this was quite awhile ago, it feels like just yesterday. It took about 6 months for me to feel "normal" again. Your body and mental health goes to hell and back when you have a baby!! Whew!!

-Discipline. I knew that I would have to discipline my child, but you just have no idea how hard it is going to be and how often you are going to have to do it until your child reaches "that age". Teaching your child good behavior and discipling bad behavior is not for the lazy, laid back parent. It is hard and always will be hard, but you have to do it or you will have a bratty child.

-Losing the baby weight. I easily lost most of it. But the last 10 pounds are still sticking to me- 2 years later. Oh well!!

Things that have been easier than I ever imagined.

-Changing diapers. Piece of cake. I had that down after the first day.

-Integrating a baby in to our life. Like I said before, it just works, it isn't that hard.

-Bringing him out and about. If I need to go to the store, go to a friends house, etc etc, I do it. It isn't hard to transport him and he behaves very well most of the time.

-Sleeping. He has always been a pretty good sleeper, we have had our moments, but all in all I have not ever been extremely sleep deprived.

These lists can potentially go on and on and they can change with time. Being a mother is very fluid it is always changing and moving because that is what your child is doing. This list would probably be very different next year. All in all I believe God gave women an inate ability to be a mother and when us women become mothers we fit right in to that role and it comes to us easier than we thought it would. I am so thankful for being giving the gift of motherhood.

Because it is Friday-

I wanted to share with you this picture that has nothing to do with my post. Isn't it cool??? It is Steve and our friend, Matt, with the fish they caught in Fairplay. I absolutely love this picture.

Buffalo Wings

2009-08-26T07:04:00.000-07:00

Steve loves buffalo wings, I mean loves them. They are his favorite food, he begs me to have them for dinner every night, to which I exclaim, "No!" most of the time.
He loves them so much that he actually has two t-shirts that say '12 wings. 3 minutes' and it has a picture of a flame on it- apparently it was some sort of contest at a wings restaurant and he did it twice and has his picture on their wall. I am so proud.

Last night I was out and about while Steve was at home with Matty and I was very close to a local wings shop called Wingin' It, clever right? Anyways, I thought I would be nice and bring a bunch of buffalo wings home to him. Well, actually the real story is, I called him to tell him I was on my way home. He then asked where I was, to which he immediately exclaimed, "You are really close to the wings place!! Will you bring home some wings, please??!!!" I was a sucker and I didn't feel like making dinner, so I caved in. Not surprisingly, he was filled with glee.

Being the deep thinker that I am I started contemplating men's love for buffalo wings. I came up with some ideas as to why Steve and a lot of other men prefer buffalo wings over....well everything:
-Men think they really are wings from a buffalo, not chicken wings.
-Men are reverting back to their innate animalistic instinct to rip meat off bones with their teeth.
-All Men are fans of Buffalo Bill Cody, and think he got his name from the fact that he ate a lot of buffalo wings.
-Men have some sort of super power that can only be powered by eating buffalo wings.
-Men think eating buffalo wings will make them manly men.
-They think everyone is impressed by the fact that they can eat buffalo wings with the spiciest sauce on them and not even break a sweat, when in fact no one even notices and everyone else is doing the same thing.
-All men have bought stock in buffalo wings, every time they eat one their stock goes up 1/4%.
-Men think women love it when they see their man with buffalo wing sauce all over their fingers, lips, chin and tip of their nose when in fact most women hide in the bathroom while their man is eating buffalo wings.

Hmmmmm..... People always say that women are complex, but seriously men are too. What is up with the buffalo wing eating???

odds and ends

2009-08-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

I took A LOT of pictures on Saturday at the Air Show. I am noting this because it is very unusual for me. I have a friend that takes pictures of her adorable son all the time, I mean like several a day no matter what they are doing, and they are gorgeous pictures. Someday her son will thank his mother for all the beautiful pictures he has chronicling his childhood and someday my son will give me a noogey for the handful of crappy pictures I took of his childhood.

So everyone give me a hand, I took a lot of pictures on Saturday... I had to share some more.

Seriously, someone is willing to fly in this thing?? I would go 60 feet above ground in it, but that is it, thank you very much!

Matty loved the propellers, he was constantly inspecting them and trying to turn them, isn't he cute in his Hawaiian shorts?

This is the little plane we bought for him. He loved it so much he would drive it along the ground on his hands and knees instead of walking. And let me tell you the pavement was hot, but he didn't care he loved playing with his plane.

Doesn't he look groovy in his sunglasses?

When I first walked up to this plane I had this inner dialogue- this is the same model of plane that Tom Cruise flew in Top Gun and I will mention it to Steve and he will be so impressed I recognized that and he will instantly be reminded of how cool his wife it.

So, I said to Steve, "This is the Top Gun plane, right?"

This was Steve's response to my question, "Nooooo, it absolutely is not, come on Erica!"

Oh well, I tried.

I just love this kid in his sunglasses, he looks so cool! I have the coolest kid on the block!! If only his mom was equally as cool.

Leaving on a Jet Plane... but not really.

2009-08-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Matty loves airplanes. One of his first words was the word airplane. Most people don't believe me when I say that because the word airplane is not an easy word to say, but I kid you not, behind the word Mamma and Dadda and No, it was his first word.

Steve loves airplanes, so he instilled a love for them in to Matty. Steve used to fly airplanes before he started getting very ill when he would fly them. So just to fill the void, Steve got in to remote controlled airplanes. He has approximately 15 airplanes mounted on the ceiling of the garage. (they used to be in the house, until I complained enough to force Steve to ban them to the garage.) From birth Matty was around these remote controlled airplanes. I would take him outside bundled in a blanket and I would hold him in my arms and let him watch the remote controlled airplanes in the sky. To this day, Matt's favorite thing to do is fly these airplanes with his Dadda. And whenever he sees a remote controlled or real airplane in the sky he yells out, "Airplane!" On Saturday Matthew said the word airplane, about 67 times. We went to a local air show- Steve and Matty were in heaven.

We let Matt pick out a toy airplane to take home. I swear to you he has hardly put the thing down since Saturday. Here he is inspecting it after first buying it.

Did you know? The stars that are painted on a fighter jet are the number of planes that fighter has shot down? Here is a picture of the stars on an old World War II plane, inside the stars is the type of plane that was shot down. I did not know this little piece of trivia and thought it was very interesting. Your welcome.

Matt and his Dadda inspecting a plane.

Steve told me to pick out a plane to buy. He was kidding of course, but I made it my mission to find the most deluxe, expensive plane I could find and ask Steve if we could buy it. This was one of them. It was super fancy and swanky on the inside, leather seats, a bed to lay down on, fancy lights, a TV- I could totally travel in one of these small planes without having an aneurysm. Steve wouldn't buy it for me-whatever!

Here is Matt inspecting a plane that is just like his grandpa's plane. It is tiny and really cute, but would surely give me an aneurysm if I rode in it.

This little man loves airplanes, don't get me wrong, I love them too, they are totally cool!! However, I will admit, I will have a very hard time if he decides to fly airplanes sometime in the future. I have nightmares of being in a plane crash and I have fears of people I love being in a plane crash. I also have fears of people I love being in a car crash, being run over by a tractor, stubbing their toes, eating poison, choking on a fish bone, breaking a leg, stepping on a land mine, being shot, getting hit by a car, getting attacked by a pack of dogs, getting a paper cut, being abducted by aliens- I could go on and on. Do I have a worrying problem? No absolutely not, why do you ask? :)

Where did we go Saturday Night?

2009-08-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we got to go somewhere we have been wanting to go all summer. We tried to go a little while ago and failed miserably. See how happy our friend, Mark, and Matty were to finally be there!!
Matty was watching the field intently.

Us girls were enjoying a night outside with some nachos, ice cream and beer.

Have you figured it out yet???

We went to Coors Field to watch a Colorado Rockies game!!!

It was an awesome night, Matthew really enjoyed it and behaved almost perfectly. I love summertime in the rockies.

What did YOU do last night?

2009-08-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a lot of cooking/baking lately. And last night was no exception. I would like to say that my cooking lately has been because I am trying to save money and eat out less often, I have been wanting to cook for my husband because he likes my cooking, or my inner housewife has been emerging. All of these are partially true, but the real reason for my cooking obsession has been because of the internet. By the way... How did we ever live without the internet??

Anyways, let me introduce you to my friend, the Pioneer Woman. I am slightly obsessed with her. Seriously, I love her, I want to go live with her. Don't tell anyone, okay? Please check out her website, she is an amazing writer and an amazing cook. I have tried many of her recipes and I have loved all of them. http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/

One of the concoctions I made last night was hers. I made her corn avocado salsa. And let me tell you it was nothing short of amazing. Delicious and fresh tasting, I highly recommend it. Here is a horrible picture of it. The flash on my camera is broken, please some help me!!

Then I ventured over to Pioneer Woman's other website http://www.tastykitchen.com/ and found this recipe for peanut butter cupcakes. It was a very easy recipe that sounded decadent. The cupcakes have peanut butter in them and the frosting does also- oh my!! I brought some to Matty's day care, some to work and ate one for breakfast this morning. I would recommend not making these unless you have some self control (unlike me), because they are yummy!!

These cupcakes remind me of something Bakerella would make. Check out http://www.bakerella.com/

She is an amazing baker and takes amazing pictures. I haven't made much of her stuff because I am incredibly intimidated by her recipes, but maybe someday I will work up enough courage.

The internet can be used for many, many bad things. Lately I have come across many ways that the internet is being used for good and it makes me all warm inside!!

By the way, these websites I just told you about are in the category of "bad things on the internet". Why you ask? Because they are making my bottom and thighs bigger! Ahhh!!!

Isn't he lovely?

2009-08-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

When I was pregnant, like most pregnant women, I had many worries and fears. I was worried about the health of my baby and myself, the pain of labor, the expense of a child, breastfeeding...I can go on and on. There was another fear that would keep my up at night, it is shameful to admit, but I am not too scared to admit it because I believe every mom has the same fear regardless of her vanity. My fear was that my baby would be ugly.

As you can see my baby did not turn out ugly.

Or did he?

Seriously, I think my child is the cutest child in the entire universe. There is absolutely no child in the world that is as cute as my child. Don't laugh... I honestly believe this.

Look at those chunky legs, don't you just want to take a bite out of them? No.... that is weird?... oh okay, sorry.

I am not so dilusional that I think everyone in the world thinks that my child is the cutest kid in the universe. I am aware that I am one of the few that thinks he is the cutest kid in the galaxy (or any galaxy for that matter).

I will admit, sometimes I wonder; "Is he not as cute as I think he is? Is he actually ugly, and I just cannot see it?"

Whatever the case, I think it is such an awesome gift that mother's and father's get. Every mother and father gets the cutest baby in the world. God made every child perfect looking in their parents eyes. Thank you, God, for giving me the cutest baby in the world :)

Does this nursery have a garage?

2009-08-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

When we were making Matty's nursery there were certain things that were a priority. I wanted a nice chair to sit in so I could nurse him and read stories to him, I wanted a changing table for changing diapers, a crib for him to sleep in, I needed a nice big closet with lots of shelves and drawers to store my baby's stuff in, and of course it had to look cute. All of these things were very important when we were putting Matty's nursery together. It never occured to me that one day I would wish one of my priorities would have been making a garage for my baby. Well, that is a mistake I am paying for. Look at what I have to deal with when I walk out on to my back porch...

Matty's many vehicles!!!

He got all of these for his 1st birthday and he still plays every one of them. You would think I could maybe store one of them away, right? No way!! Matt would never allow me to do this, some days he loves one of them and others days he loves a different one and the next day he will love 2 other ones.

Yesterday he loved his airplane. He gets his loves of airplanes from his daddy and his grandpa.

Look at all the things he can do with his airplane...

He can sit on it.

He can stand on it.

He can even work under the hood.

This little boy of mine, is such a little man. He already loves his cars and spends more time with them than he does his own mother!!! Now if only we could get a little minature garage to park them in.

Pathetic

2009-08-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the summer I decided to try to grow some herbs. I planted Parsley, Cilantro, Basil and Chives. The above picture was taken after about 2 months of growth. In case you can't tell I have a very small amount of Cilantro and Chives coming up and no Basil and no Parsley.

.....At least I tried.

Not Me Monday!!

2009-08-17T06:57:00.001-07:00

It is Monday again... That means it is time for some confessions. Well, not really confessions, I will say I didn't do the following things, but I really did do the following things. It makes me sleep better at night if I don't completely admit to things. Here we go...

-I definitely did not allow my family and myself to eat at Taco Bell for lunch on Saturday and then eat at Country Buffet for dinner the same day. Not me, I would never eat food so high in lard content twice in the same day. And I would never go to Country Buffet, that would be weird, only people over the age of 70 eat at Country Buffet.

-I did not let my child drink chocolate milk while we were at Country Buffet just to keep him quiet. Not me, I would never use food to quiet my child and I would never allow him to drink chocolate milk for fear that he would never want plain milk again.

-I did not injure my neck this morning by sneezing. No, that would be really strange and embarrassing. I did not sneeze and then cry out in pain because I pulled a muscle in my neck and I haven't been almost in tears all morning because my neck hurts so bad. Not me, I would never do such a weird thing and openly admit it!!

Now I feel much better. Thank you for listening. And seriously I really did hurt my neck while sneezing this morning. It hurts really bad and Advil didn't even help. I will warn you-please be careful when you sneeze it can be very hazardous to your health.

Flushing the toliet and what we did this weekend

2009-08-16T10:51:00.001-07:00

Steve and I try to really enjoy our weekends. During the week he is working, I am working, Matty is at day care, etc, etc. we try to have fun and relax, but it is mostly full of stuff that we HAVE to do rather than stuff that we WANT to do. So when the weekends come around our goal is to do things that we WANT to do. This weekend was no exception.

On Friday night my friend, Jackie, organized a girl's night. This was a welcome night for me, I left the little boy with Steve, drove to Jackie's; ate some good food, drank an excellent drink (I will have to share this drink recipe soon, it is my new favorite!!) and had a great time with the ladies!!

Let me tell you a little something about Jackie, she is a modern Martha Stewart. She's an interior decrorator and a wedding planner. So she plans an event like nobody I have ever seen and she has an ability to make anything look beautiful. I make fun of her all the time for her attention to detail, of course I only make fun of her because I am jealous. :) Here is a picture of the girls with their place cards that Jackie made for the night. Of course I made fun of her for the place cards, but in reality they were such a cute touch to her beautifully set table.

On Saturday morning, Steve and I, and some friends went to the Western Welcoming Parade in Littleton. This was the first time we had been to the parade and I am certain it will not be our last. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday morning and a nice change of pace for us. Matthew loved sitting on his daddy's shoulders to watch the parade.

Katie, Alaina, and Jackie loved the parade....

We were all laughing pretty hard at the sign that was posted on one of the trucks in the parade, they were encouraging people to save water. The theme of the parade was "Being Green" Ummm..... I think I will go ahead and waste water, that is gross.

This reminds me of Matty's new favorite thing to do. Flush the toliet. He definetly is not "green". Wasting water by flushing the toliet is totally cool!! Right Matt.....

My Men

2009-08-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

When I was pregnant, before we knew he was a boy, I thought for sure the baby was a girl. I believe God has a sense of humor and I thought God would bring Steve and I a little girl, simply because watching a little girl and Steve interact would be hysterical.

My husband is the most manly man you will ever meet, he scoffs at anything feminine. He immediately exits the room when he notices I am watching a movie that would be considered a "chick flick". He would never pluck his eyebrows, get a manicure (he did get a pedicure once, but that is a long story), wear lotion, or worry about what to wear to an event. With all this in mind I thought it would be entertaining to have a little girl for Steve to have tea parties with and hold her dolls for. God obviously had different plans and as much as I would have loved to see Steve interact with a daughter, I would never wish my little man was a girl.

Don't get me wrong, watching Steve and Matt interact warms my heart more than a hot cup of coffee does on a cold, snowy morning. However, sometimes it also causes all the blood in my head to drain to my feet, my mouth to go dry, and me to run away screaming. Let me explain...

On Saturday morning, I was downstairs while the boys were upstairs in our bedroom. I heard a lot of laughing and yelling so I went upstairs to see what was going on. I walked in the room and caught my sweet, tender child standing on the very top of the headboard of our bed (it is approximately 3 feet high), he then hurled his tiny, delicate body on to the bed. I stood there in horror, immediately picturing my child breaking one of his limbs. I gave Steve a dirty look, which only made him laugh harder. I simply stated, "I cannot watch this!" and exited the room.

Yesterday, I was doing some stuff around the house when I entered the living room and found my baby boy standing on the armrest of the couch, he then jumped off the arm rest on to the floor, with Steve sitting near by laughing and telling him, "Good job!" I gave Steve another nasty look and told him, "He is going to break his leg!" To which, Steve rolled his eyes and said, "He is a boy and he is having fun- relax!"

I absolutely love the bond that my 2 men share, however, it pains me that this bond is made stronger with dangerous activities. I am not sure how long I can put up with these "boy activities" without having to be committed to a psych ward.

I know without a doubt; God really does have a sense of humor, but rather than laughing at Steve as I had planned, He is laughing at me.

Weddings!!

2009-08-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

The theme of this summer/fall is weddings. My life is full of weddings right now and has been for most of the summer, and it looks like there is no end in sight.

In July my hubby, and 2 of our friends ventured to North Carolina to visit a friend who was getting married. I had never been that far East/South in my boring life so it was rather exciting for me. It was a great small town wedding. My favorite part was the fact that the beautiful bride, Carolyn, wore a tea length dress. It was so unexpected and so sickeningly cute, I loved it!!

The weekend after our visit to North Carolina we went to yet another wedding. It was at this gorgeous ranch in Loveland. I was a little shocked when I learned that the reception would be held in a barn, but I have to say it was one of the most fun weddings I have been to, in fact I had a little too much fun as you can see here....

and here....

This is what happens when you give me a night away from my child, put all my friends and I in a room (or barn) and give us an open bar... I love weddings!!

These 2 weddings are not the end, I have more to go. My hubby's brother is getting married in September. They live in Texas and they are getting married here in Colorado. So, I have been on the phone with them, emailing them, texting them, trying to help them with all the wedding plans- it is not easy for them to plan a wedding that will be held in another state, but it is going to be another great wedding. My favorite part of planning this wedding is the bride. She is the most laid back bride in the history of the world. Seriously, if there was an award for the bride that is the least bridezilla ever, Mandy would get the award. She actually kind of freaks me out.. come on Mandy, show me your bridezilla side, I know it is hiding there somewhere.

There is another wedding that will happen in November. Our good friends are getting married and I am the maid of honor and Steve is the best man. Without sounding too cliche, I would like to say that Steve and I are truly honored to be standing up with this couple, they are the most caring, faithful friends and I am so happy they are finally getting married!!

My favorite part about this wedding, so far, is the trick the bride played on her fiance. She had him believing the dress she wanted to buy encompassed the entire wedding budget and "she just had to have it". This pic was his reaction, well not really but it could be! I just love it when the brides don't take their wedding planning too seriously.

And there is one more wedding worth mentioning. It is not until next summer, but it is going to include our wonderful friends getting married in the mountains and my cute little son will be the ring bearer. So from now until next summer I will be living in constant fear of my child ruining their ceremony :). So far my favorite part about this wedding is the engagement ring. Whenever I am around the bride I stare at her finger and drool, she thinks I have some sort of hyper salivating problem. I am not usually a materialistic girl, but this ring is so beautiful and sparkly and the diamond is so big- I cannot help myself!

Can you tell I love weddings? They represent the start of a new partnership and a new chapter. They are so beautiful, exciting, and full of hope and love. I will admit, I also love weddings because of the free food and drinks, but don't tell anybody I said that.

I wuv ewww, momma

2009-08-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

I have never been a real emotional person, I do not wear my heart on my sleeve at all. Usually when I get emotional I do so in the privacy of the bathroom, all by myself and that doesn't happen very often. At least this was true before I had a child.

Since I became a mom I have definetly become more emotional. Just the thought of my child sometimes brings tears to my eyes. I cannot read or watch the news like I used to. When I hear about a child being hurt, killed or even a mother or father being hurt or killed, I often have to go in to the bathroom and cry.

No one warned me that my heart would soften to this degree and I am quite upset about it!! Why does no one tell you about the pain you will feel because of your child? The pain that you feel when you have to leave him, the pain you feel when you stand over his crib after he has fallen asleep, the pain you feel when he climbs in your lap and gives you a kiss, the pain you feel when he yells "momma", the pain you feel when you worry about losing him. It is so painful sometimes that my heart literally aches.

Last week I felt this pain, I felt it so bad, I took a vicodin. (No not really, I'm just kidding about the Vicodin) I was dropping my son off at day care and like usual I said "Bye buddy, I love you." gave him a hug and started walking to the door. This time (for the first time) while I was walking away he said "Bye. I wuv ewww Momma." I gave him a smile and walked out the door. I stood at the door for awhile trying to keep myself from scooping him up, taking him home and never going to work again. I finally got in the car and drove to work. My heart ached all day that day.

This is a Public Service Announcement: Anyone who is childless.... please pay attention....this is a warning so you are not taken by surprise like I was. Having a child will cause your heart to ache on a regular basis. It will cause great pain and grief. It will cause every organ in your body to contort and throb. It will cause nausea, cold sweats, and tears. And no, I am not talking about labor.

I will also caution you... all of this agony and anguish is 225% worth it.

Your welcome.

Not Me Monday!!!

2009-08-10T07:18:00.000-07:00

A blog that I read (http://www.mycharmingkids.net/) has "Not me" Mondays every, you guessed it, Monday!! So, since I have my own blog now I have decided to join in. It is a therapeutic way to admit to my shortcomings as a mother, wife, and American citizen, but at the same time I try to convince my readers that I really did not do such a thing, nor would I even think about doing such a thing. Let's get started....

-On Friday I definitely did not allow my child to run around in a diaper that was so wet that it had soaken through to his shorts simply because I wanted to finish serving and eating my dinner. No I absolutely would not do such a thing, that would be terribly selfish, not to mention disgusting.

-On Sunday Steve and I did not sit on the couch most of the day watching movies and playing old school video games and allow Matty to sit with us and play some video games as well. No, we would definitely not have allowed our child to be so dormant and we would never be so darn lazy for an entire day, that would be disgraceful!

-I most certainly did not serve Chef Boyardee Ravioli for lunch yesterday, that would be so unhealthy and so nutritionally inadequate, I would never allow my family to eat canned ravioli!!

-I would never, and I mean never eat approximately 30 Hershey's chocolate kisses this weekend! I mean who would do that? Who would have such little self control?? Definitely not me!!

See how it works? Just confess to your shortcomings and you will feel much better, but at the same time, don't confess, pretend like you would never do such a thing. It is so much fun, I highly recommend it!! Have a great week!!

Take me out to the ballgame...

2009-08-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

This was supposed to be a post about our wonderful Saturday night at Coors Field, when we watched a game between the Rockies and the Chicago Cubs. But it is not, well it is, sort of, but not really. Let me explain....

A few of our friends and us planned on going down to Coors Field before the game to buy Rockpile tickets, the cheapest, easiest seats to get.

Saturday evening we drive 30 minutes to get downtown, pay $15 for parking, walk 10 blocks to the field, go to the ticket window and Steve asks the ticket guy, "Can we get some rockpile tickets, please?" He gives him a weird look and says, "Are you from Colorado?" The native Coloradoan, Steve, is speechless for a minute and lies, "Nooooo." The ticket guy nods his head, gives us a pitied look and says, "Well that explains a lot, rockpile tickets go on sale 2 1/2 hours before the game and usually sell out within 1/2 hour, especially for games against teams like the Cubs."

We walk away with our heads down low, feeling quite stupid. How could we have not known this? We have all lived here most, if not all our lives and we had no idea they ever even sold out.

After trying to find reasonably priced tickets from scalpers and failing at that as well, we decide to go get some beer. I mean we weren't going to go back home after paying $15 for parking!!

Here we are watching the Rockies game, so much better than being there in person.

Or not.

Matty was enjoying the restaurant, he decided to clean the place with a baby wipe. Have I mentioned his latest obsession... cleaning? He really enjoys picking things off the floor and bringing them to me and cleaning the tables he is sitting at. Not that there is ever dirt on my floors or on my tables.

Here he is cleaning the floor of the restaurant.

Cleaning the chairs, as well.

They really should have given us a discount on our check, I mean Matthew cleaned for them!

Regardless of missing the game, it was a fun night. The good news is, we now know exactly what to do next time we want rockpile tickets; and for those of you who didn't know how to either (all 5 of you), your welcome.

My little Gentleman

2009-08-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pictures to share, sorry, but I had to share a cute little story about my cute child.
Last night he was sitting at the table eating a plate of fruit. I had a napkin in my hand ready to wipe his sticky face when he was done. He reached for the napkin and put it very gently in his lap. Took 2 more bites of fruit and picked up the napkin from his lap and casually wiped his mouth, then placed it back in his lap.
Now for those of you who think this is simply a coincidence, let me go on with the story. He continued to wipe his mouth every bite or 2 then place the napkin back in his lap. When the plate was empty he wiped his mouth a final time, placed the napkin on top of the empty plate, and moved the plate to the side of the table. Then he looked at me and said "all done".

Who taught him these table manners? I have no idea??? His babysitter says she has never worked on this in particular and Steve and I have not either. It is amazing to me how much he learns simply by watching people. I better watch everything I do and say, otherwise he might pick up one of my BAD habits....not that I have any :)

Are you Ready for Some Football?

2009-08-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

I am sooo ready for football season. I LOVE football season, it is my favorite time of year. I know you all are anxiously wanting to know WHY I Love football season, right? Alright, alright, I will tell you:

1. I love the sport of football. I believe it is the most physically demanding sport out there, it takes amazing athletic ability and hard core training (maybe some steroids as well, but lets not go there) to be a football player.

2. It is the most exciting sport. Name me any other sport and I will tell you why it is not as exciting as football. Football does not have ANY "downtime" everything you do, every play, every throw, every hand off can make or break the game.

3. They play in ANY type of weather. It can be 30 below zero with snow blowing across the field and the players will still be out there playing as hard as ever, some of them in short sleeves, none the less. There are no stupid rain delays, weather postponed games- this is a real sport!!

4. The tight pants they wear that show off their bulging muscles. (Don't tell anyone I said that)

5. Most of the games are played on Sunday's, so I have an excuse to sit on the couch for 1 full day.

6. The greasy, salty food that traditionally goes with watching a football game is so yummy!! (Not that I ever eat "that type" of food. I just make it for other people and then sit in the corner and munch on carrot sticks)

7. One of the first 10 words that my son said was the word "football" so how could I not love the sport of football?

P.S. The above picture was taken when Matty was about 3 months old and his shirt was made by my friends and family at my baby shower, isn't he cute?

Tell me what you want, what you really, really want!

2009-08-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

Just like the Spice Girls sang many years ago, I have been begging Matty to tell me what he wants. You see he is talking, slightly, he can say about 25 words and understands very well what we are saying to him. But he still whines and cries when he wants something. In the last several months we have been working feverishly to get him to communicate what he wants using words.

He is very excellent at asking for milk, juice, his blanket, and he usually communicates pretty well when he is hungry. But it is still a struggle half the time because he whines and cries rather than tries to talk to us. He has really made some big strides with his communicating in the last few weeks and last night was no exception. I was so excited about what he did!!

He went in to the kitchen and started whining. So I went in with him and asked him, "What do you want?" He then said, "Eat" and went over to his chair. So I put him in his chair and said, "Good job, you want to eat. What do you want to eat?" I have always asked him this question even when he was only 6 months old, it was simply a hypothetical question, I never really expected him to answer it. I usually give him a list of choices and he says "yes" to one of them, well actually he doesn't really say "yes" he says "yeah"- he is really polite and formal.

This time I asked him what he wanted to eat and then I gave him a list, "Yogurt?" He said, "no". Then I asked him if he wanted grapes and he said "no.... apple." I said, "You want an apple?" He then said, "Yeah, apple." As soon as I picked my chin off the floor, I got him an apple and cut it up for him and he happily ate it.

For the first time he told me specifically what he wanted to eat. It was amazing!! I can really get used to this communication thing...it made my life so easy!! It was a very small accomplishment, but it was an accomplishment none the less and I was so proud of him for it.

Challenge

2009-08-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

What is a toddler thinking when they first wake up on a Monday morning?

-'Man, I hate Mondays!'

-'A whole week ahead of me...this really bites'

-'Nooooo!!! Say it isn't so, Mondays are horrible!'

Which one do you think it is? I will tell you what I think, none of the above.

Look at the joy that baby boy is taking from simply eating a piece of cake.... do you really think he hates Mondays? I think toddlers love Mondays. I think they love every day. I think they wake up and think to themselves- 'Yippeee!!! Another day, I am so excited to see what happens today.'

I am challenging myself to think more like a toddler. I don't mean I am going to start thinking it is okay to poop in my pants, draw on walls and eat crayons. I am challenging myself to not look at each new day, or week, or month, or year with apprehension, fear, and negativity. I am trying to look at each day as an opportunity. Toddlers know that everyday is filled with so many opportunities to learn something new, see something new, meet people, eat something especially good, and just generally have fun. This morning is a new week and a new month. I am looking at the new week and new month with excitement. What does God have in store for me? I can hardly wait to find out!!

Thank God for Playgrounds

2009-08-01T11:04:00.001-07:00

The cute little guy shown above was driving me crazy Saturday morning. He woke up at 6am and was ready to start the day, this immediately made me want to put him up for adoption. I decided to reconsidered the adoption once I realized a cup of coffee was waiting for me. So I ventured in to the kitchen picturing a wonderful fresh, fragrant cup of wonderful coffee only to discover that I was COMPLETELY out of coffee. There were approximately 12 grounds of coffee left in the bottom of the can. I almost cried.

As I was holding back my caffeine addiction induced tears, my dear son starts whining and crying for milk, breakfast, his blanket, you name it he was demanding it all morning long. At one point he was quite and was not hanging all over me...so I suspected he was drinking the cleaners under the sink. Instead I found him with the fish food jar in his hand and half the jar all over the floor. As I was researching whether it was legal to drop him off at the local fire department. My phone rings, my friend, Katie wanted to take the kids to the playground. I decided the adoption could wait until the afternoon and agreed.

As you can see my almost "terrible two" son had a fabulous time at the playground with his girlfriend, Alaina. They went down a huge assortment of slides about 16 times each.

Then they discovered the amplifiers. (Is that what they would be called?) Matty was on one end and Alaina and Katie were on the other end. I am not sure Matt ever figured out why he could hear Katie and Alaina through it.

"Helloooooo Matt.... are you there?"

'Laina are you in there?'

Matty especially loved the tunnel slide. He went down that one about 34 times.

It ended up being a great Saturday morning even without a cup of coffee.

And in case you were wondering, I decided to keep him. I mean look at him... how could I give that up?

I cannot believe I am doing this....

2009-07-31T10:22:00.000-07:00

A blog, seriously, this is lame.

For a long time I thought blogs were really self indulgent. I mean seriously... these people with blogs honestly think that people want to read about their lives on a regular basis? They seriously think that people want to see pictures of their children doing funny things?

Then I became addicted, addicted to other people's blogs. I have them in my favorites and I check them on a daily basis if not more often. I love reading about other people's lives and adventures. So, I have been enjoying these blogs for quite some time and then I got the idea to have my own blog. Then I thought about it some more and thought about all the people that would make fun of me and I decided not to. Then I started an account for my own blog and again thought about all the people that will make fun of me and deleted it. Then I thought about it again, and again, and again. Then I finally said.... I am going to do it, who cares what everyone will think.

The reasons I decided to do a blog:

1. I love writing and always have. I am mediocre at best when it comes to writing, but I love doing it and I miss doing it. I write emails and the occasional letters at work and then go home and write grocery lists and occasional notes telling my hubby to do something. So regardless of who reads this blog, it will be good for me to write.

2. I am horrible at taking pictures, even of my adorable son. I hardly take pictures of my son, I really should be arrested for being a bad mother, it is quite embarrassing how little pictures I have of him. So I am hoping this will force me to take pictures and post them.

3. I have never been described as "an open book" in fact most people would probably say that I am hard to figure out. This may force me to open up a little bit and not be such a hard a**.

So here ya go people.... Here is my blog complete with information about my life and pictures of my child doing funny things.

I apologize ahead of time for everything that I post :)