Dear Matthew

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....

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

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

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?

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

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

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.