Squishy Hugs

Me and Matthew play a game called squishy hugs. We hug each other really tight. Heather took a great pic unknown to me when she was here visiting (blog here) and I scrapped it tonight. Kris-I took the layout idea from the BH book, so thanks for letting me borrow it.



We are all doing GREAT! We love long weekends although we usually are messed up the rest of the week on what day it is. I even thought a couple of times today that it was Saturday. Matthew is recovered from his illnesses except for a slight runny nose (no ear infections-yeah) and we're just trying to finish up the yard before my parents get here next week to celebrate Matthew's birthday. I sure can't believe he'll be turning 2 a week from Saturday.

We had the rare experience of actually going on a date on Friday ALONE. We went and saw the Indiana Jones movie - which for the most part was exciting and fun. I wouldn't say I was blown away by the plot, but wow I still can remember seeing the 3rd one 19 years ago in this huge theatre in Ogden, so it was fun to see a continuance of the series. Afterwards we finally used a GC to Cheesecake Factory that I got back in December from a vendor. Between a babysitter, movie tickets, and dinner it easily would have been over $100 so it was nice to save a bit with the GC and boy was dinner yummy! Matthew didn't even cry when I left, he was said bye and waved me off, so it was even better knowing he was having fun and wasn't sad.

I'm super busy getting ready for our annual convention ~ working on logistical details with the hotel, getting all of our new merchandise ordered (over 40 new items), helping to organize all the details that are involved w/our store at the event, and getting a huge project finished that will be revealed at convention so I can't mention it yet. Things are exciting at work and I love getting to go into the office twice a week and then working from home 3 days a week. It's perfect for our family for now.

Jordan is busy, busy at work, but hopefully will die down a bit. He was working crazy hours there for awhile ~ all day at the office and then until 11 or so at night after he got home. He'll be traveling to Oregon for a 2 day trip at the end of the month so that's always a bit fun for him.

Hope everyone has a great short week. I've also included a layout that I did this weekend of Matthew's birthday party in Utah last year. It's crazy how much he's changed.

Matthew's Cousins

Matthew has two cousins on Jordan's side of the family that are really close in age to him. We are going to all get together soon so it will be interesting to see how 3 - 2 yr olds, plus 3 other older kids do together. Thanksgiving was a bit crazy but the kids always have a blast together. I did two layouts tonight of his cousins that are Jay's kids (Jordan's brother just younger than him). Jordan's dad took these pics of them in these cool rocks and they are so cute! Just thought I'd share. I got to use flowers on a layout - yeah! With all boy stuff I don't get to do that too often.

American Idol Finale

So who watched the finale last night? If you haven't then don't read below!!! You've been warned. :)

We didn't get to watch it live as we were at a book signing for one of our friends Paul. He has been working on a fantasy series for several years and Jordan helped him get his website up and running and helped edit some early versions of the book. It was so great to see Paul's dream fulfilled and to see his book printed and finished. I know it's been a long journey for him and if anyone is persistent Paul definitely is.

We got home about 9 and got Matthew changed and into bed (he fell asleep in the car ride home) and then watched the Finale. I was really impressed with the line up of artists/bands that played last night along with the Final 12. I think it's the best finale they've had so far. I did fast forward some parts, but watched most of it.

Towards the end we only had 1 minute of taping left and I was worried it was going to cut-off before they announced the winner. I was really surprised by the outcome and a little bummed. I've been both of their fans for awhile, but really wanted our young Mormon boy to win! :)

He'll be fine though and boy does he have such an amazing voice. When he was singing with the guy ont he piano I thought he actually sang the song better and easily could have sold that song as his own. I just hope he hooks up with good writers and doesn't come out with a cheesy album.

Carrie Underwood looked amazing and wow is she so talented. I commented to Jordan that the great thing about this show is that is has produced some really talented artists. I'm sure both Davids will find their niche and be successful.

That's all for now! Let me know what you thought about AI last night.

Not much is new here!

I worked at an event this past weekend and Jordan took great care of Matthew like usual. He got the yard looking spiffy as we had some weeds and dead plants in our front rock yard that needed pulling. Who knew weeds could grow in rocks? We've just been working and getting ready to enjoy the long weekend soon!

So who watched American Idol? I did!! This was one of the only times this season that I watched it on the actual night it played. David Archuleta was amazing! I did my part and voted as much as I could. I think I got less than 10 votes in for DA so hopefully that's a good sign. He was on point tonight and all of his performances were perfect and really moved me. I SO hope he wins! Guess we'll see tomorrow.

Just a few layouts I've been working on lately. I was up until 1:30 on Monday night and I'm still up at almost 1 am on Wednesday morning. I'm crazy! The only time I can create is after Matthew goes to bed, so I'm usually in here at my computer late.

Matthew with us at the park last May. We have a little park across the street, but this is the big community park not too far from here. Maybe we'll take an adventure there this weekend!

This was the Sunday that Matthew got stitches. We took pictures of his eye so he could prove he had them at 18 months! :). Life is always an adventure with Matthew~that's for sure!

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

We went to this beautiful beach in Costa Rica called Manuel Antonio (view blog here). They have two sections, a public beach and a state park side. We opted to pay to go into the state park as no vendors are allowed over there and the beach is cleaner. It was so beautiful. The water was warm and beautiful, the beach was so nice, and we got to see critters such as monkeys and raccoons TRY to steal our food. So fun! Anyways, we took this pic as we were leaving the park and I decided to scrap it last night. I'm not scrapping in any order and just what suits my fancy or if I want to do certain pics or use certain elements.

Happy Mother's Day...and Matthew's favs

Happy Mother's Day to Karin's Mom and Jordan's Mom. We definitely wouldn't be who we are and the kind of parents that we are without your influence. We hope you've had a great day! Love you tons!

I decided to make a layout of all of Matthew's current favorite things since he's less than a month away from turning 2. I thought we would have a few things on our list and ended up with a huge list. It's so fun to see kids grow and change. We are so blessed to have him in our lives and I feel lucky that I get to be his mom. He's definitely showing his independence right now and wants to do things his way so he gets his way when it's no big deal, sometimes it has to be our way, and other times we compromise. The one thing I do try and do is make sure that he knows why we are telling him no to something.



In case you can't read the text:
-Favorite foods: chicken nuggets, gold fish, figs (thanks mom-seriously), protein shakes, peanut butter, milk, water
-Movies and Shows: Meemo (Nemo), Monsters (monsters inc.), monkey (curious george), mickey mouse clubhouse
-Comforts: beebee (binky), lion chair, bankie (blankie), beebo (belly button, which he loves to play with and loves his tummy)
-Playing: outside, puzzles, ball, blocks, chase, car
-Books: goodnight moon, goodnight gorilla, sandra boynton books, who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
-Songs: ABCs (w/leapfrong fridge magnets), Here come the 1,2,3s CD, Down on the Banks of the Hanky Panky, 5 Little Monkeys

I also decided to create a little ABC book for Matthew to have at church to try and help us through sacrament meeting. I downloaded the little characters in a kit and created the pages. I printed 4x6 pics and slid them into a cheap photo holder. We'll see how it works in about an hour and a half.

Little Buds

My friend Heather who I grew up with in Kaysville, UT has a boy about 10.5 months younger than Matthew. They came to visit in March and suprisingly Matthew was really great with James and let him play with his toys and even cried when I dropped them off at the airport. You can read about my blog here. Anyways, I scrapped a pic today of the two of them together when James was about a month and a half old and it was the morning of Matthew's first birthday.

Matthew has always had this great smile of his since he was a baby and great big shining eyes that light up. I love this pic of them together. Heather, let me know if you want this page and I'll email it to you or I can upload to Costco and you can get it printed.


BTW-I did not create the look of this layout on my own. I was doing a tutorial and this is pretty much the page they planned and I created while doing the tutorial. I added my own elements like the little round tags that say M (for Matthew) and J (for James), the snaps, the photo corner, and decided to do little buds for my title instead of whatever their title was.

We've really tried to get our house more organized and clean this weekend as it's gone a bit to pot since we've been fighting sickness and Jordan has been working insane hours. Matthew was getting ready to take a shower w/Jordan yesterday and so he was naked. He ran away and then squatted and peed on the floor. A first in our house and once again so thankful we have a green bissell that can clean up the mess super quick. It has saved our lives more than once and one of the best tools we've purchased since Matthew was born.

On another note he did tell Jordan that he needed to go pee pee this morning while in the tub and then promptly peed again. I'm hoping he's starting to understand what that feeling means. One can be hopeful right? Who knows when the best time to start potty training is, but I'm hoping it's sooner rather than later! I really need to go get him his own potty.

Matthew update part deux...and another layout

Matthew's doing much better and the nebulizer seems to be doing the trick. Just don't try and share (ie take) any of his food now a days. He tells you "back" and points at your mouth. When you can't produce said food back there is much crying and nashing of teeth.

My re-root canal went great as can be. The Ondontist was superb and found that the problem was the guy who did the original root canal (10 years ago) missed a root-what an idiot. No wonder my tooth was killing me. I just love how they make you wait FOREVER in a cold room with no TV (seriously what tooth doctor does not have one of these?) and I also loved that they stretched my mouth out with a thick wire w/a rubber contraption connected. I think most of my soreness today is from that thing. Let's just hope this feels better real soon. Advil is a good friend to me.

I can't resist sharing my new passion of digital scrapbooking. I scrapped an old pic of Matthew today. He was seriously such a cute baby. Maybe because he didn't want to come down and out the shoot and get squished so he was lifted out of the old oven.

Anyways, cute pic from the hospital almost 2 years ago!

Matthew Update and layout of the day

Matthew Sick Update...

I took Matthew into the pediatrician this morning and they discovered he has an infection in his lungs. He also had another ear infection in one of his ears. They prescribed us more antibiotics and a nebulizer that we need to do 3-4 times a day. You can't even pick up a nebulizer one has to be delivered and it was delivered 2 hrs after I left the Dr's office. You put this liquid medicine in it and Matthew has to put a mask on to basically breathe this medicine that is getting pumped in by a machine blowing air. This is helping to open his lungs so the mucus can get out. We did two treatments today and already he isn't coughing as much tonight so hopefully that is a good sign that it's going to work. He didn't like the mask much and kept fighting me and I kept telling him it was going to make him feel better and not cough. He finally settled down both times and was really good. Hopefully he feels the benefits of the treatments and won't fight me as much tomorrow.

I just feel so bad for the kid. Who would think all this would happen at almost the beginning of May w/90+ degree weather. Maybe it's the change in weather and more crap is blowing around. We are going back in two weeks to check his lungs and his ears and if his ears haven't cleared up then we'll probably go see a ENT doctor. Fun, fun!

I've been playing around with the new PSE 6 last night and tonight and am learning some cool new things. It's a sweet program and I'm loving what I can do. I've created more layouts in the last 3 nights than I have the last year. Pathetic! I just think it's easier to create on the computer since you can undo instead of getting through a paper layout and hating what you've done.

Anyways, here are two more that I did last night and tonight. Off to bed...we keep going to bed late every night and it's killing me.

You can click on the layouts to see them better.

We had this styrofoam cube thing that came with a pkg of mine and Matthew thought it was hilarious to sit in. He's wearing his new summer hat.


Matthew loves to hide from me behind things or run away from me so I got this really great picture one day of him underneath our dining room table. I just love that happy smile and the fun games we play. The poor thing hasn't been his happy fun self lately. :(