December and Christmas

December started out with that horrible windstorm and then life just kind of continued to feel like a windstorm throughout the rest of the month (isn't that how December always feels?). I have to admit that I was pretty happy when Christmas day came, just so I could sit around the house and not have to do anything for a while.

One of the first things we did in December was make a Graham Cracker house.

 I was surprised how well the kids did at not eating all of the candy for decorating the house. They had so much fun and loved helping me decorate it. I think we will try it again next year, but maybe we will try using real gingerbread instead. I bet it would hold together better than graham crackers.

Next I got to go on Beckett's first field trip with his Kindergarten class. We went to the Treehouse museum. I drove Beckett and two boys from his class in our car. Beckett was so excited and proud to have them ride with us. We watched a play that the kids participated in. Only one of the children was not afraid to say their lines in front of everybody. It was super cute. The kids also got to do a Chinese Dragon Dance. It was so cool. Each child got to hold one of the poles that held up the dragon and dance throughout the museum, while the adults made lots of noise with drums and cymbals. I think that might have been the favorite thing that we did that day. We also got to do a craft and then run free in the museum. It was a lot of fun.

After months and months of threatening to cut Anabelle's hair if she kept on sucking on it, I finally followed through.

On December 10th, I cut Belle's hair for the very first time, ever. It was difficult to do it, and not just for me, as you can see by the pictures, she wasn't too thrilled about it either. When it was all over though, I think she felt better about it, like she had passed a milestone and was a little more grown up.

I am a little sad that her long hair is gone. She had the cutest curls in the back of her head, just like me when I was her age. And just like me, once the hair was cut, the curls were gone too. But now her hair doesn't look all clumpy and gross. My mom didn't go for a styled cut, we just pulled her hair towards her mouth, and snipped it where it was just out of reach for her to get it in her mouth. Unfortunately, now it has grown just long enough that she can get it in her mouth again and she is starting to take full advantage of it. Urgh!! Why can't I get this child to understand how disgusting that is?! We have even told her that Paul (Matt's friend that Anabelle has quite the crush on, and yes, I am worried about that) doesn't like girls that suck on their hair, but apparently that hasn't fazed her. I guess she is just going to have to have short hair the rest of her life.

Also in December, I went on a date with my mom and aunt to see "A Christmas Carol." Two of my nieces and a nephew were in it and they did a fantastic job. "A Christmas Carol" is such a wonderful way to get you into the Christmas spirit. No wonder President Monson reads that every year.

I also got to go on a date with Matt to his company Christmas party, sans children. It was nice dress too. It has been a long time since Matt and I got dressed up to go out for a nice dinner alone (yeah. there were 400 other people there, but no children). We even got a nice picture taken, but I think Matt might have lost the link to our picture, so that was a bust. The food was really good and we sat with some fun people too. Despite the big let down of no gifts from the company, we had a really good time and were grateful to have had some time to ourselves.

That same weekend we also got to have a family sleepover with Matt's sister, Ana, and her wonderful family. We had a lot of fun having them stay with us. The kids had all kinds of fun together and Belle got to go shopping with Ana's family, so she had the time of her life. We adults made and ate way too much junk food and loved every minute of it. Isn't that what the holidays are all about anyways? I mean, really? One more bonus to having them stay with us, they put Netflix on our Wii, and have left it on there for us to use. It has been awesome! Ana and Scott, you are the best!!

The week of Christmas, both Anabelle and Beckett had parties at their schools. Beckett's was your standard school party. He came home with all kinds of gifts from his teacher and special ED teachers. Lucky duck. I don't remember getting presents from my teachers, let alone 3 teachers.

Anabelle's was a pajama party. She had a blast. Mrs. Claus came and so did the missing Gingerbread boy and girl (They went missing earlier in the month and sent them postcards from their travels all month long). Anabelle still talks about finding the Gingerbread girl. That must have been much more exciting than the big guy's wife.

Christmas Eve was spent at Ana's house, having dinner, painting ornaments, and busting open a pinata. This is two years in a row we have done this, so I think we might start calling it a tradition. The kids did much better at painting their ornaments this year.

 You could actually see the different colors that they used, instead of mixing them all together until the ornament was unrecognizable, like last year. The pinata was also a big success. This year, they actually understood what they were doing, so it was a little more exciting. Ana found some super cute felt bags for them to put their booty into.

 We parents also got to play games, while the kids ate some candy and watched a movie. A great Christmas Eve, if I do say so myself.

My sister Christa, stayed with us over the Christmas weekend. It was fun to have someone else there to celebrate with us. She is always so good at helping the kids get excited about stuff and have lots of fun. Isn't that what Aunts are for? It was really nice for me because I had someone to talk to at night when Matt was playing with his Christmas gift, the Xbox.

Christmas was super exciting this year. Beckett remembered a lot from last year and so he was really into it. He wrote letters to Santa this year. The first one said,

Pretty direct and to the point. No messing around with that note. I think he started learning about sentences soon after he wrote that first note, because the next one said, "Beckett is the train." And then the final draft that he actually put in an envelope said, "Beckett, I want the train." Santa had no way of messing up that order. Anabelle also wrote her own letter:

I asked her what it said, and she said it told Santa she wanted a princess doll. I'm glad Santa could decipher that letter, because I never would have figured that one out.

The kids really wanted to leave out cookies for Santa, but we forgot to bake some. I don't think Santa minded because he wrote a very sweet note to the kids anyways, which they thought was pretty cool. Santa obviously got the message because Beckett got two trains and more tracks to go with them. Anabelle did get her princess doll (actually, she orginally wanted a set of all of the Disney Princesses, 7 in total, but Santa decided that was a little much), a Cinderella Barbie doll that she loves and Strawberry Shortcake with a bakery as a bonus. They got lots of other toys and wonderful presents that were loved just as much, but I don't want to bore you all with telling you about each individual gift, so I just went with the highlights.Thank you so much to those that gave us gifts this last Christmas. We loved and appreciated them all.

After Sacrament meeting that morning, Christmas day was spent at my brother Ben's house, eating more good food and playing more fun games. This is becoming a tradition as well. I guess we started all kinds of traditions this last year. We had such a good time, except that I started to get sick. The day after Christmas was spent mostly in bed, resting. I was able to actually take a sick day thanks to Christa. She took my kids home with her and brought them back the next day. That never happens for a mom. I appreciated it so much.

New Years Eve was a lot of fun. We spent it at our friends, James and Shana's place. We ate yummy pizza and snacks, and finally watched Captain America. We must be getting old though, because it felt like it took forever to get to midnight. We all kept saying to each other, "It's only 9?!", "It's only 10:30?!" Beckett and Anabelle, on the other hand, had no problem staying up that late. They could have watched stuff on Netfix all night long. They were mad when it was time to go.

Beckett enjoyed having a break from school, a little too much. I tried very hard to get him to understand that he was going to have to go back to school eventually, but I guess it didn't sink in because he put up a big fight when it was time to go back to school. It was worse than when he started school in some ways. I almost don't want to have Spring break if it is going to be like it was in January. Do you think they would give me a key to the school?

Omaha

We drove out to Omaha, NE at the end of May. We decided it would be best to drive overnight so that the trip wouldn't seem so long to the youngens. It wasn't too bad, except that around 2am, we stopped for all of us to sleep, unfortunately, Anabelle decided to wake up and sat there crying until we started driving again. The little stinker. Luckily I had gotten some sleep before we stopped, so it was my turn to drive. We arrived at Grandma Jill's apartment early Saturday afternoon. Some of Matt's brothers and a wife came over and we had a fun time catching up and playing scrabble with each other on smartphones. Mom and I were totally excluded because we don't have smartphones. We had one of Matt's favorite meals that his mom makes, for dinner that night, Italian sandwiches. So yummy! It will kill you, but you will die happy.

The kids were so excited to be with their Grandma Jill. They had so much fun with her. One of Matt's sisters, Heather, brought over a bunch of toys for Mom to keep at her house, since she got rid of all of them when she left on her mission. One of the toys was this foot high, remote controlled T-Rex that walked, roared, and did all kinds of stuff. Beckett was so funny with this toy. At first he was really nervous about it. He would just watch it from a distance. Then he realized it wasn't real and that he could play with it and after that, it was his favorite toy. He had a hard time sharing it with other cousins that came over while we were there. I personally, am very glad that we don't have one of those. That thing would move all by itself without anyone touching the remote and it kind of freaked me out.

Belle's favorite thing at Grandma Jill's was her deck she loved it. I think she was out there every chance she got.

Matt left Saturday night to start his Brothers Baseball Trip. They did one two years ago, and decided they had so much fun, they wanted to do it again. This time they stayed at their sister, Tris's house. She lives in Ohio, so they went to Cleveland and Pittsburgh. They had a blast on this trip too. Tris made shirts for all the boys.

Matt's family loves Balderdash, a game about making up stuff and getting people to believe what you wrote is the right answer. On their last baseball trip, the boys played the game and they got the name George Dawes one round. He has since become a huge inside joke for all of the guys and at our family reunion, the joke only continued. Tris remembered it all and made a T-shirt for them. Isn't she so cool?

While they were on their trip, they also went to Cedar Point, the roller coaster capital.

It looks like so much fun. Someday I will get to go too. I love roller coasters. Hopefully turning 30 and having kids hasn't ruined that for me.

Back to Omaha. We had a lot of fun of our own. Monday was pretty tame most of the day. We went to a park and had a picnic with another one of the wives and children left behind.

All I have to say is the humidity is killer. I am seriously considering NOT moving to Omaha, just because of the humidity. I moved into the shade and it was literally no different than in the sunshine. I was melting. And Anabelle just wanted to swing the whole time, in the sunshine. I had to talk her out of swinging and going and playing on the playground with her cousins and brother because I couldn't stand it another second longer.

That night, after making pizza for dinner, the fire alarm went off in the apartment above Mom's. Mom immediately grabbed the kids and told them to get their shoes on. I grabbed my camera and phone and then left. As we were going down the stairs, the girl in the apartment on fire came out and said it was a cooking fire and they had put out and that we didn't need to leave. Mom and I left anyways because the alarm was still going. We walked across the street and watched the fire trucks come and then played at the park at the elementary. After a little bit, Mom's neighbor came running towards us and told us the fire fighters needed the keys to the apartment. I ran back to open the door for them to find them already inside and pots and pans everywhere. Apparently those sprinklers are crazy. They spray about 55 gallons of water per minute, so there was a few inches of water in the apartment above, and it was all coming down into Mom's place. We had to pack up and go sleep at my sister-in-law, Erica's house that night. It was crazy.

After a nights sleep, we felt better. Erica and I decided it would be a good day to take all our kids to the children's museum. As we were leaving it started to rain, then it turned into a downpour. It was lightening like crazy. I saw lightening strike a radio tower like a mile or less in front of me. Kind of scary. The streets were flooded. When we arrived at the museum, we got drenched running from our cars to the museum, and I am really not exaggerating. Here are some pictures of the kids at the museum after we had been there a half hour and you can still see the water in Belle's hair:

It was a really fun place. It is a lot like the Discovery Gateway. There was a YMCA children's group there so it was super crowded, but the kids had a blast anyways. There was this ball area that had all kinds of machines that moved the balls in all kinds of ways. Beckett loved that area. They also had an area for putting on stage make-up. Belle really liked that area as well as the grocery store. It was so fun. And it was free to boot. She had a year pass that lets in 2 adults, and 4 kids. It was perfect!

When we got back, Mom and I thought we would be able to go back to the apartment. Nope. We had to go back and get clothes for another night. I hadn't planned on living out of a suitcase, living out of a suitcase, if that makes any sense. Beckett and Anabelle were fine with it. They were having so much fun playing with their cousins that they never get to see, Beckett especially.

Wednesday, we thought for sure we would be able to go back to the apartment. We went back to only find big huge fans blowing. There was no way we would be able to stay the day there. So we went to the visitor's center by the Winter Quarters Temple. It was fun. They had all kinds of neat stuff and things to look at, even dress ups.

I highly recommend going there if you are ever in the area. The temple is just gorgeous as well. The visitor's center has a beautiful view of the temple and the graveyard right next to it. (In case you didn't know, the temple was built right next to the cemetery for the saints that died there before they could begin their trek out west. It actually is really beautiful and even more peaceful than most temple grounds)

Well, when we got back to the apartment, it was still blowing. So we went shopping! We went to Joann's, where Jill works, and she helped me pick out some fabric for curtains to put in Anabelle's room.

Didn't they just turn out adorable? I just love them. I like how they match her blanket as well.

Just a reminder of what it looks like

The only problem is, that as soon as we came home, Anabelle started insisting on sleeping in Beckett's room. So, now those cute curtains are up with no blanket to match. Oh well, they look cute anyways.

After our purchases, we decided we couldn't sleep at the apartment that night, and trespassed on another sister-in-law, Taffy. Luckily, we arrived just as she was finishing up making chicken pot pie, so we got to have a delicious dinner and a place to stay. Beckett and Anabelle got acquainted with more cousins that they never see and had a lot of fun. Everyone that we stayed with was so hospitable. They were so kind and gracious.

Well, now we are up to Thursday, and that was the day we went to the Omaha Zoo. Which is huge! I have never been and it was so cool. At least 3 or 4 times bigger than our wonderful Hoogle Zoo. They have the 2nd largest indoor rainforest in the world. How cool is that?! We didn't go in though. There was just too much to look at and two little kids and two adults that got a little weary of walking everywhere (oh wait, the kids were in the wagon that I rented, so they really had no excuse for being tired).

We did go in the desert dome, which didn't feel very new to me, but they did have an exhibit in the basement that was so cool. It is called Creatures of the Night. It is dark down there and they have all these nocturnal creatures on display, even bats in open cages that are netted off, but you can see and hear them flying around. It was really cool.

All the boys thought it was so fun to be down there and that they were so tough, even though they are only 4 and 5. Then we got to the end, which is where they have a bayou, complete with alligators. You walk through on a wooden platform that is maybe a foot off the water with thin metal netting on the sides, hanging from the railing.

At first I thought, "Those alligators are fake. There is no way they would have them so close to the public." Then I asked Taffy if they were real and yes they were. Beckett was scared to go in, but once he got in he wasn't scared. Once I got in and found that out, I was a bit nervous. Those gators could easily chomp through and eat somebody. I did calm down after she told me that they are really lazy and well feed. They better be! They had an albino alligator in there and that was really cool. It was maybe 3 feet from the walkway, so I didn't stay too long to gawk.

After that, we went to the aquarium. That was so fun. They had all kinds of ocean creatures. I think the kids liked this place the most.

I didn't get a picture of it, but they had a big column filled with water and Jelly fish. It was so amazing and beautiful. It was just like on Finding Nemo.

Due to Beckett's insistence, after seeing the cat house, we went and saw the giraffes, but I didn't take any pictures there either. I am terrible. I did get a picture of the next thing we went and saw though:

That was definitely the best thing there for Beckett. After that, we were all spent and went home. I got an amazing parking spot, in the shade, real close to the entrance. I was so lucky and so happy when we were able to just pull right out of there. That was a highlight for me.

After that, Mom and I decided that we had had enough of sleeping at other people's houses and went back, loud fans and all. They had now added dehumidifiers, so it was even noisier, but we didn't care. It was nice to be settled finally and not putting anyone out. Plus, we made up our own recipe for chicken salad that had just what we wanted in it and it turned out great. I am craving it now just thinking about it.

Friday was the day the boys got back, so we decided to not do much. I sewed my curtains and that was about it. Saturday we spent at Matt's brother's house helping him with yard work, and then had Chinese for dinner (you should know by now that the meals were just as much apart of the trip for me, as everything else was). Sunday we had a big picnic with almost all of the family in Omaha, plus some from Utah, and the kids just had a blast playing with all of their cousins. Here is a picture of Anabelle chasing a squirrel with her cousin Ally (also from Utah):

After the picnic, Matt and I decided we would leave as soon as we could, instead of the next day, so we could drive while the kids slept. I think it took Matt's mom by surprise because she started crying when we said it. It was hard for us to leave as well. I think Beckett knew it we were leaving too because this is what he did when we got back to Mom's apartment:

Then Anabelle couldn't be left out, only she didn't look quite so melancholy.

We had so much fun with family and especially with Mom. One of our best trips out there.

And now for October





So October was a big month. The most exciting thing that happened was that I finally decided it was time to potty train Beckett whether he liked it or not and it is done. I am calling it official. He made it through church last Sunday in his underwear without an accident, so I am calling it. We are still having a problem with poop, but that will come with time (I hope). How it happened was this - one day I was at the grocery store all by myself and I saw all this Halloween candy. I was looking at and thought that they would make great potty treats, so I bought a few bags and went home. The next day, I told the kids that if they sat on the potty for 2 whole minutes (with a timer going) they could have a potty treat. Anabelle was all over that idea. She already loved to sit on the potty, so the treats made it all the more sweeter (literally). Beckett was much more willing to sit on the potty, but he wasn't too thrilled with the rule that he had to do it sans diaper, but he got over it real fast when he saw the Nerds packages. I did that for about 4 or 5 days, with zero accidental pees or poops in the potty.  I was about to give up on my plan, when I talked with my counselor about it, and she told me that really it was me that had to be "potty trained". She said it is really the parents getting so tired of changing diaprers that they finally buckle down and get serious about potty training. I thought about what she had said and it made sense, but I was still a little affraid of the accidents that I knew would follow after I made that decision.

As it turned out, a few days after that conversation with my counselor, we were about to be completely out of diapers for Beckett and I was on the fence about going to buy more. Matt basically replied, "Nope. Let's just do this." With hesitation coming from me, we went forward and just put him in underwear after we changed his last diaper. Beckett wasn't too thrilled, but he got used it, probably because they were Thomas underwear. Matt gave him lots of juice and then promtly left to do something at a friends house (what a guy), taking Anabelle with him (thank goodness). Beckett was playing on the computer (big surprise) with a towel underneith him (I believe in being prepared for these kinds of things) and of course, he started peeing. He kind of freaked out and quickly stopped. I put him in the bath to clean him up. Of course, he thought this meant that he was free to pee as much as he liked. He did have enough smarts to try to get his feet out of the water as he did this. Oi! Naturally I promptly took him out of the tub and put him in clean underwear and sent him back to the computer with a fresh towel under him. Not too long after that he started to pee again. This time I got wise. I immediately took him to the potty and set him on there. He was okay with it, until he accidentally started peeing again, and this time he had no control of stopping it. He didn't know what he was doing and it kind of got on his foot, which really freaked him out. This experience really didn't seem encouraging to me because he seemed really upset about the whole experience. We told him we would go get a toy for peeing in the potty. After he picked out his new toy (a dinosaur train, his new favorite show) he started to see that this might actually be an okay thing to do.

We did the sticker thing for him to earn his next toy, a motorized Thomas. Unfortunately after he got his toy, he stopped going potty. That is mostly my fault because I put him in Pullups instead of underwear. So on Monday I hit the potty training hard and he has been doing ever since, with of course an accident or two. Now I need to start thinking about when I am going to potty train Anabelle. I think I will wait till next year. Give myself a little break before I start the whole process all over again.

Beckett modeling his new underwear

Now on to the rest of the month.  We had a sleepover with some cousins. My sister-in-law Marcey and her girls came over for a visit one Friday afternoon and they ended up staying the night. We had a blast. I think we should have people sleepover more often.

L-R: Julia, Jessica, Beckett, Anabelle, Josie

 My sister and I were making a red velvet cake one day and Anabelle wanted to like the bowl (she is just like her mother).  



I bet you didn't know Anabelle was a vampire



Another big thing that happened in October is Matt turned 30. We celebrating by going on a date to a murder mystery party. It was a disco themed one and it was extremely unpredictable. I was a hussy that slept with a lot of guys and would kill them when I was done with them. I was also a martial arts expert and a member of Chuck's Angels (reference to Charlie's Angels). Matt's name was hilarious - Knight Feva. He was a bar tender and a gigolo. He also turned out to be the bionic man because he had a run-in with a shark. I couldn't believe all of the twists they fit into that storyline. They all gave us some really good laughs. Thanks Shana and Sharice for putting it together. I think Matt really enjoyed his birthday. I am kind of mad I didn't take pictures. Oh well. Maybe we can recreate them and take a picture.

The next morning we went out to breakfast with my parents to the Segolily Cafe in Bountiful. The only way to describe their food is good old home cooked food, done gourmet style. They make all of their food and sauces there. We wanted to have their sweet ricotta cheese spread so that is why we went for breakfast. It is so good. I had their cashew french toast. Unbelievably good. I don't remember what Matt had, but I know he enjoyed it. I highly recommend that place. The place itself is really cool too. It is an old victorian home redone to make it a restaurant. I love it.

One present from my Dad was to come up and help Matt do some handyman stuff around the house on the 30th. I guess this gift was more for me than Matt. Matt's friend Kevin came over also and helped them work on our furnace and ducts. I really appreciated both Kevin and my dad coming and helping out. I know Matt couldn't have done all that work all by himself.

Later that day, I got the kids all ready for Trick-or-Treating that night. My little sister helped with Anabelle's makeup.

Anabelle is a ladybug. That costume was worn by my little sister when she was about the same age. Her nickname was Bug and so the costume was perfect. It was kind of surreal to have Anabelle wear it 15 years after my little sister did and she looks just as cute, maybe more, but don't tell Sara I said that. Here is proof:


Here is Sara in the costume

  Beckett is a Jack-O-Lantern in that picture. Right after that picture was taken, Beckett immediately stripped down to his underwear so I couldn't get a full shot of him. He wouldn't put it back on and then wanted to be a lion. I didn't get a picture of him in that because as soon as we got to my brother's house to go Trick-or-Treating with cousins, he freaked out when one of his cousins came in dressed as a clown, face painted and all. That did it for him. He refused to go out and just stayed downstairs playing with the train set. So just Matt and Anabelle went out. She didn't last long. Matt said she just stood their with her bucket and wouldn't say anything. She would say it when he practiced with her, but I guess she had stage fright when it came time to perform. Also she came back with only like 10 or 12 candies. Beckett promptly took half of it. Oi!

After the kids had been back for a while, they were all downstairs playing. They sounded like they were having tons of fun. Suddenly, Matt came upstairs with Anabelle in his arms and her head was bleeding. She had fallen off of a chair playing with one of those basketball, arcade games. She somehow gashed her head open. Luckily it stopped bleeding quickly, which surprised me, because head wounds are known for bleeding terribly. Once it was all cleaned up, you could see how wide and deep the gash was. Another lucky things was that we were at my brother's house, who is a doctor. He looked at and said it wasn't bad enough to go to the ER, thank goodness. He had some small butterfly bandages (I highly recommend you have a stash at your house) and got it on. Then we iced the goose egg. I couldn't believe how brave Belle was the whole time. She was obviously crying when Matt brought her up, she stopped while we were cleaning it up and that was it. She totally let me put the ice on her wound and didn't fight Matt pushing the wound together to put on the butterfly bandage. (That is how they work by the way. I have never used one and didn't know what they did, but they work to pull the wound back together and leave a minimal scar on deep wounds. You do have to give it some help though by squeezing the skin together and then putting the bandage on. Kind of a cool thing.) She was such a trooper.

Well, I think that about wraps it up for October. I am all caught up now and hopefully stay current on here from now on.

March Update

Hey everybody. Sorry it has taken so long to update you all. Things have been crazy since we dropped Mom Jacob off at the airport. Anabelle had her first birthday last week. I can't believe it has already been one year. She is such a fun baby. She loves to cuddle all the time. I love to cuddle, but she seems to only want to do it when I have to make dinner or some other household chore. She is also a walking nut. She loves to walk. The first time we took her outside to walk, she loved it. And now whenever the door is open, she tries to go outside. She thinks it is a blast and that she is such a big girl. For her birthday, she got her first pair of shoes. The first time she wore them was at a park. It was also her second time walking on grass. She didn't move. She was really freaked out by the shoes and then by the uneven ground. It was really funny. She wouldn't even move when we held her hand. Here are some pictures of her eating her cake. I guess she didn't really eat her cake, she mostly smooshed it.

Beckett has grown up a little this past month. He is starting to enjoy books now. My mother lent us "One Fish, Two Fish" by Dr. Seuss and this book is what did it. He wants to read it almost every day before his naps and before going to bed. It is great. I was worried that he was never going to like books, but I have high hopes now. He has also started to become more mischievous. One day I was at my mother's house and I noticed that the kids weren't around and that it was kind of quiet. I started to search for them and started to hear giggling in the basement. I went down there thinking they were just playing in the little toy room under the stairs. No, they were in the bathroom splashing away in the toilet bowl. I thought I was going to die. YUCK! So gross. He also loves his new independence. He loves that he can get into the cupboards all by himself. He will get the cereal out or the crackers, and then after he has gotten his spoils, he will leave it on the floor. Belle will then proceed to dump them all out on the floor. I guess they have become partners in crime.

Matt got fired a little over a month ago for being an honest guy, and then last week got a better job that fits him perfectly. He takes pictures of cars for dealerships and then puts them on the Internet with the facts on each car. So it all turned out for the better. I just want to say thank you to everyone that helped us stretch our finances and for all of the prayers. We have been truly blessed.

So, during the month that Matt was out of work, we had a camping trip in our living room. We set up our tent in the living room, put in the mattress that goes on our hide-a-bed and some camping chairs, got out our camping lamp, and made smores bars (made from Golden Grahams). Christa, my sister, came up and spent the night with us. We watched "Kung Fu Panda", one of our family's new favorite movies. Then Matt, Beckett, and I slept in the tent that night. It wasn't that bad. I think Beckett only woke up once. It was really fun. A nice way to shake it up.

There hasn't been much new going on with me. I am reading the Chronicles of Narnia and am really enjoying the series so far. A friend's blog has inspired me to do something special this month. I have decided to blog each day this month about something I am grateful for. It is the month of Easter and I want to honor what our Savior did by showing my gratitude. Today I am grateful that Matt has a job. I already started talking about it, I just want to expound a little bit more on it. I am grateful for it because now we don't have to sell our home and move back in with my parents (which is what Matt and I had started talking about if Matt didn't get a job by the first part of April). I am grateful for it because I can go to the store and buy some non-necessities and not feel guilty. I can cook whatever I want because we now have an in-come, not just an out-go (pun). I can now go to the Treehouse Museum with my kids and feel okay spending the $5 it takes to get us in. I can pay our bills with confidence. It is amazing how easily I can breathe now that we have money coming in. What a blessing work can be! The children and I will miss having Matt around more, but as soon as school is out, we will see him more again. Plus he now has something we haven't had for a long time with Matt's jobs - paid vacation - so we can take advantage of that too. I am grateful for Matt's job.

A Brand new week!

Hello all. Here is my, Alissa's, first attempt at blogging. I am not as eloquent as Matt, but I will do my best. It took me a while to find the time to finally sit down and do this. We have been doing something every weekend it seems like. First there was Peach Days with Ana & Scott. I was amazed. It was almost as big as the fair, except all the animals were replaced with peaches. They had all the rides and food though. Beckett made some imaginary friends there (they also could have been his ghosts friends too). The next weekend we had a fun picnic with my old roommates and then had Eric and Julia over so they could watch Becktt & Belle while Matt & I spoke in church. They almost missed their job because they thought it started an hour later than it did. But they made it, much to our relief, in the nick of time. Thanks Eric & Julia for your help! Then this last weekend, my dad slept over to help Matt finish putting up our rain gutters, but unfortunately, it looks like proffessionals need to finish the job. I give them an A for effort though. After he left, my little sister came up and slept over. Us girls watched "Little Women" (Belle included). Matt came out of the bedroom every so often to put in his two mocking cents about the movie though. But we had fun anyway (at least I did, I hope Sara wasn't bored stiff).



Well, it is a brand new week and hopefully it will not be filled with the runny noses that last week was filled with. I almost got sick, but thankfully, my superior immune system saved me. Anabelle has been sleeping through the night and so I feel like a brand new woman. As Pam from our favorite TV show said, "Never underestimate the power of a good night's sleep." I am busy trying to keep up on regular house work and clean up the messes that Beckett keeps making. I have been trying to start our food storage. I went to a case lot sale on Saturday and I had a very hard time letting myself pay for it. I had to keep reminding myself that it was okay and it was going to save money in the end. Buying all that food at once was kind of scary though.


Both Beckett and Anabelle have grown up a lot in the last week. Anabelle is now sitting up all by herself and has started to make the repetitive "babababa" noises. We go to the doctor next week and then we start solids. I can't believe it has already been 6 months. Time has really flown by with Anabelle. She also has her first tooth. She is very good at picking things up and playing with them now. It looks like she has to really concentrate to do grasp the toys. I love watching her face as she does it. She loves to watch Beckett play. She laughs at everything he does. He on the other hand, is starting to get a little jealous of her and doesn't like to have her touch him. Ahhhh toddlers!



Beckett is learning how to say new words left and right. For the last month or so, all elephants have been called "Dumbo", and all fish have been called "Nemo" (even my dad's stuffed parana is called nemo, but he says "Ouch" afterwards so show that it has sharp teeth and is scary looking). *Interesting side note, when he says both "Dumbo" and "Nemo", they sound exactly the same. The only way you could tell which one he was talking about was to look for which one was in his field of vision (which can be hard to spot, that kid has eyes like a hawk).* But this weekend he figured out how to say the right words for elephant and fish. Fish sounds perfect. He is so excited that he knows this word that he now says it as he walks around the house, fish or no fish to look at. He also can say elephant now, but it sounds a lot like he is saying "a fish". We will have to keep working on that one. Here are a couple of fun videos of Beckett just being Beckett. They were taken at Peach Days. Sorry about the camera work (I blame Matt completely on this one). Note - on the second video tilt your held to the right about half way through and you will be able to watch the rest just fine.

Matt's schooling is going well. He is super busy with both school and work. We luckily get him all weekend. He works so hard to take care of us. We love him lots and appreciate all that he is doing. He has also started an apprenticeship to my father to become a "Mr. Fix-it". I think this has been on of Matt's greatest decisions. I am sure that this will take him far. Thank you to my dad for accepting him into the program. Matt & I are both anxiously awaiting the season premier of "The Office" this Thusday. We are really excited to see what happens this season.



Well that is us so far. I am hoping that having a blog will encourage me to document our family more. So until next time, Peace out!