My sleeping beauty

My little guy loves to sleep. I think he is so peaceful when he sleeps and I love stand over his crib and watch him. He is a snuggle bug at night. He loves to sleep on his frog pillow and hug his jaguar and bear stuffed animals.

Matthew wincing to the flash.

Thanksgiving Point Animal Farm

We took Matthew to Thanksgiving point on a cold stormy Saturday afternoon and had a great time. Matthew loves animals and really enjoys riding the ponies. This was not exception. I loved watching him explore the world and be so excited about learning new things.

I'm a rock star!

Matthew has discovered that Mommy's shoes are fun to to walk in. Whenever he finds a pair of my shoes he either tries to put them on my feet or wear them himself. This time he decided to put his sun glasses on also which of course are better up side down.

Dog Bite

Matthew was playing outside one evening while Jamie was in the house preparing dinner. Jamie had accidentally locked the dogs out of the garage where their food was all day so the dogs were really hungry. He was getting into their food and really bothering the dogs when one of them bit his face. I was at the time traveling home from work stuck in a really bad traffic jam when Jamie called me. I was really worried. I made an apointment at my Doctor's office for that night and we ended up bringing him in to get the largest of the lacerations glued shut. Matthew was a really tough kid about it. The worst part of it for him was holding him down so they could glue it shut.

Matthew before the doctor visit. The largest laceration was right by his right eyebrow. The others were just scrapes. There was a pretty deep bruise on his forehead/temple above his left eye too.

After the doctor visit. You can see the glue by the right eye.

Happy 2nd Birthday Matthew!

I can't believe my baby is already 2 years old. Time has passed so quickly. It seems like yesterday that I was pregnant with him. I am so greatful that God entrusted me with him.

We had a birthday party for him with his local family. We couldn't decide which theme we wanted so we did a bunch of things Matthew likes. Nemo, Cars, Dinosaurs, Toy Story, and Kungfu Panda. We had hambergers and hot dogs for dinner. We had a pinata with loads of candy. We played a Cars search game and finally had cake and opened presents. Matthew had a blast with all of his cousins and was definitely ready to go to sleep when everyone left.

Look how big my little guy is. I think he is so cute but I am a little biased.

We had a big group attend in addition to Matthew, Mommy and Daddy. Nana, Aunt Amy, Cousins Dylan, Isabel, Alexa, and Noah, Uncle Dave and Aunt Jackie, cousins Sam, Ben, Jacob, and Eden, Aunt Amber, cousins Jarred, Zach, and Isaac, Aunt Meagan and cousin Sage.

Matthew had a hard time blowing out his candle however he gave it a good try. He let out a good FFFFFFFF sound and spit all over the cake when we told him to blow out the candle.

He wasn't very interested in eating the cake. All he really wanted to do was play with the fish from the cake.

Jamie spent the day preparing for the party and didn't have time to change. We both really enjoyed the party.

I like this picture. It looks like Nemo knows what is about to happen.

The kids hit the pinata in age order. By the time we got to the older kids the plastic attachment to hold the pinata up had broken off but Nemo hadn't spilt his loot. We played "baseball" with Nemo and once the oldest got a chance to hit him he finally let loose his candy loot. It worked out really great.

Matthew didn't care for opening the presents. He was very tired at that point. We didn't end up opening all the presents that night because he was really overwhelmed.

This was about the only present he really opened. The others his cousins opened for him.

Nana got him a neat car "slide" or "weeee" as Matthew calls it.

Amy got him one of his favorite presents. Disney Cars characters.

Nana's presents finally set up the next day.

The present from Mommy and Daddy. It is a car track on the bottom and a train track above it. he loves it. When we first got it going he sat and stared at it for about 15 minutes just amassed by it.

Cooking with Daddy

Matthew wants to be just like his Daddy. The other day he sat on a stool next to the stove and watched Jamie cook dinner. I know he will be just as good as his Daddy is at cooking one day.

Yum Daddy, that's good!

Whirlwind trip through Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin and back

Jamie got a call on a Monday saying that his new custom made catering trailer was completed. On Wednesday we left spontaneously to pick it up in Indiana. We drove through 7 states and back in 7 days going about 55mph. It was exhausting, especially with a toddler. The good part about it was that we took a 3 hr detour and stayed at Jamie's mom's house a couple days and got to go to his step brother Chris' wedding to YoungChi. Sadly I don't have any pictures of the wedding because my battery was dead. Matthew had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Gums house. Their house is a wonderland for little boys.

4 wheelers and waterworks

More 4 wheeler tricks

Sand boxes and tractors

Ducks and ducklings

Ponds with ducks, turtles, and jumping frogs

Big trucks to climb on

The pond has so many frogs and they blend in so well. This picture alone has at least 6 frogs in it.

We took a trip to a rumage sale and fair in a nearby town with Jamie's sister Jessica, Dan, and her 3 girls. It was a lot of fun. I am so glad Matthew has been able to hang out with every one of his cousins in the last month. That is not something that happens very often. I hope we can do it again soon.
Payton is so funny. She was trying to put on a face for the cameras here.

Jamie said that when he was a little boy his parents had a cub cadet tractor just like this one he would ride around on as a kid. Jamie wanted to buy it and throw it on the trailer but he had self control. Who knows, this may be the actual trailer.