Wednesday Nights

Matthew is lucky enough to have two parents working with the youth. This means that every Wednesday he gets to go hang out at the church. This Wednesday was a combined activity in which Nick planned Broom Hockey.

 

One look at the action, and Matthew and his friend Jessie dove under the chairs for safety!

P.S. I still hate blogger. This post took 3 times as long as it should have.

Did you miss us?

I get so tired of constant change. Especially online.
Facebook forced to timeline. I took that as my initiative to leave. And I thought I'd go back to blogging.
Now Blogger is forcing a change.
The problem is I tried those new ways. I hated them. There has always been something that doesn't work right, and usually doesn't work nearly as well as what came before.

I know change is inevitable, but if it's not broke, why fix it?
Here's a picture to tide you over while I decide if I'm just going to go back to writing emails instead of blogging and facebooking, and whathaveyou.


Or no picture. If I have to spend more than 5 minutes figuring out how to load a picture, it's not worth it to me.

You got lucky. It only took 4 minutes.

Artist on the Walls

I was vacuuming and turned around to find this masterpiece:

Apparently, he figured out it was wrong, because he tried to help:

Thank goodness for washable crayons, and Mr. Clean erasers. It took literally no time to turn the wall back to this:

Ready to GO GO GO GO

Matthew likes to wear other peoples shoes. Mostly, because he can get them on. It was a surprise when he came up to me and said "Go Go Go Go" (Thanks PBS and Cat in the Hat):

He put his own shoes on, and on the right feet! It may not be perfect, but it's awesome for a toddler. And I'm happy my little boy still needs my help.

Spit Milk

I know I'm not supposed to cry over spilled milk, but how about spit milk?

I'm not sure where he learned it, but Matthew thinks one of the funniest things in the world is to take a huge sip of his drink, and then spit it at the animals. The animals have caught on, and run away, but usually too late for my appliances.

Chloe found a nice high place where he can't get to her.

It's Hard Being Little

It's been a long time since this little one has fallen asleep in his highchair.

Normally, he runs all day until I insist on a nap and shut him in his room.

Animals

They bark and hiss at each other during the day. But come bedtime:

as long as it's on my bed they are peaceful.

Until I kick them out so we can get some sleep!

Scriptures

We had the opportunity to "babysit" for a friend of mine. Since her children are all older, it was more of "make sure the house doesn't burn down, and that they eat something for dinner". One of the things they do nightly is to read a chapter of scriptures, alternating 3 verses per family member round robin until the chapter is over.


We had tried reading scriptures before as a family, but we were bad at sticking with it. Plus, with the former hotel life, there was no consistency to our schedule. Matthew latched onto seeing the other kids read, and having a book to hold.

We are proud to say, we have kept this going! We have missed one night, but Matthew and I read together while Nick was on his scout trip. We are feeling much more confident about keeping the momentum going. It was also fun to start in Ether (where the family was), rather than in 1 Nephi like normal.

Moisturizer

Per Wikipedia: Moisturizers prevent and treat dry skin, protect sensitive skin, improve skin tone and texture, and mask imperfections.

Per Matthew: Moisturizers are great fun to spread on the carpet and bed.

Breadcrumbs

Matthew loves to start the day between 5:00-6:00am. When he gets up, the first thing he wants is a piece of bread. Somedays, he wants multiple pieces of bread.

The Carpet and the couch.

I'll have to make sure I don't read Hansel and Gretel to him.

Mismatched

Matthew picked his own pajamas tonight:

We rolled with it.

Moments

Matthew and his friend cuddle up to watch a movie.

Matthew and his daddy cuddle up to watch a movie.




I promise we don't watch that much tv. These pictures are actually a week apart.

Children's Museum

What do you do when there's no snow, it's frigid outside and you need to run off energy?

You head to the Children's Museum! Matthew's first visit was fun. This visit was FUN! Matthew figured out how to run between the different exhibits.

He was fascinated by the rooms. And the under 3 room held his attention for about an hour. He loved the train, slide, and sitting and watching the fish tank. He pulled up the chair so he could sit and watch. He had a train building "contest": The rules were whoever has the longest train wins. In order to add more cars, you had to wait for the other participating child to walk away and then sneak their train cars over to yours. The adults enjoyed watching the trains stay the same length as the kids were just trading back and forth.

He concentrated on the sand, but didn't care much for the water.

Mom got a big old bruise helping him in and out of the Bobcat.

The highlight for him was the tennis ball shooter. Using air, you pull a weight down and shoot a tennis ball up almost to the third story ceiling. Matthew cheered. "wow"ed and pointed for every kid shooting the ball. He would take a turn, but had more fun clapping for the other children.

Snow Day!

They have been far and few between this winter. But when it snows, the whole family hurries out to enjoy it. After all, it usually only lasts about 24 hours.

Matthew was unimpressed when I put his winter coat, hat and mittens on. He cried.
Once he was outside, he had to stop and stare at all the white stuff.

He was quickly running around in the snow, making snowballs, and throwing them to Stitch. Sadly, by Monday, we were back to bare ground:

Good Morning

This is how we do mornings.

Or at least the other morning.

Organization = Space to Play

This month one of my big fat goals was to organize and clean my kitchen - which included the cupboards. I'm proud to say I'm done early.

What this purging meant to Matthew was room to play:

And since he had to see how much room was there...