27

Matt turned 27 just a few days after he graduated (May 4th). What a great present! We celebrated his birthday the Saturday before his birthday so we could also celebrate him graduating. We had the usual BBQ with Family and our friends the Halladay's joined us. He got some fun gifts but this one by far was the best one :). We can't wait for football season to start! Just a few more months!

He Did It!

A day that he(we) thought would never come finally did! Matt gradutated with his Bachlor Degree in Information Systems at Utah Valley University on April 29, 2011.

I'm so proud of Matt because this was not easy. I feel like I graduated myself in a way. The boys and myself love having him home more in the evenings.
Such a happy day for us!!

Proud Dad!

Happy Easter!

I know this is late but as always I want to write out our Easter so we can look back and see what we did. Let's start with Easter weekend on Friday night. We had some family togetherness fun.
Our Stake put on a Easter Extravaganza and Friday night was the Battle of the Bulge, A.K.A Basketball game with the Stake Presidency and High Councilmen vs. Bishoprics in the Stake.


We invited all of Matt's family to join me and watching Matt play.

We enjoyed hot dogs, popcorn and tang while watching the Bishoprics beat the Stake.


I can't remember the score but it was about 41-29. Last year the Stake beat us in triple over time so it was nice to win this year :). Austin was playing against Matt again. It's always fun watching them rival it out.




It was a lot of fun!




After the game we hung out at our place for a little bit before heading into Orem to watch Laura play a softball game. The Blue Team won(Both teams were blue):).
Saturday we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny left the boys baskets.




We then had our traditional Saturday morning waffle breakfast as a family. We usually have a big breakfast and Easter egg hunt but since the Stake had more fun things planned we didn't want to stop people from going. We just went to their Easter Egg hunt. They had other things like a 5k going. No pictures but Alex got his first egg. Evan was content enough to just play the playground.
After putting Alex down for his late morning nap, Evan and I colored Easter Eggs.

Later that evening we had our own Easter Egg hunt and Matt's Family, Ericka & Luiz and the Smith's came to join us.





It did sprinkle on us but still had fun.

We then went out to eat. So much better then cooking :). The rest of my family did stop by and visited with us for a bit.
Easter Sunday was great as usual. We're so grateful for the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior. Because of him we are able to live again with our Father in Heaven. It also enables us to live with our families forever. We are grateful knowing that we'll be with Mom(Elaine) again.
Before church I took some pictures of the boys in their new ties from the Bunny. I tried getting them together but this is as good as it got.


We love our boys!



Pictures with Mommy!


We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!
Stay tuned for more stuff!

Finally!

Finally on two things....

We finally gave Alex his first hair cut! I didn't want to do it this early but his hair was rather stringy and he was sporting what looked like a stacked a-line style in the back.


Matt has been telling me to cut it for some time now but I finally gave in because it was starting to bug me. I knew if I cut it he will look more grown up, his hair wouldn't fly up going down the slide or with wind and he would possibly lose his red hair because It looked like it was growing in blond. He gets so many compliments on his red hair.

Come on mom, lay off the hair!

Last look of what he looked like before :*(
I haven't gotten any good ones of the hair dry but he looks so handsome. I was right with his hair being less red but it's still red and cute!



And finally, my cross-stitch of Christ is completely finished!

It only took me close to 3 1/2 years (Nov 2006- April 2010). I finished it just before Alex was born with a few missing squares here and there but that didn't take me too long to do. I got it custom framed at Provo Art and Frame and got it back today. It was an amazing feeling seeing it completely done! It's already hanging proudly on our wall surrounded by our family photos.

The time it took putting in the work was well worth it!

Laughter

I think the best sound in the world is hearing my boys laugh and playing together.

Nine, Five and More

It's amazing how time flies, we're almost in March! It also seems like time has slowed down as well. We've kept ourselves busy but allowed us to slow down and just relax. It's been needed and I'm yet again a little behind on our blog.

Evan seems to have grown up a lot. His mind amazes us and its so fun to talk with him now that he's talking so well. I'm happy to say that he's potty training himself. I tried just about everything to train him but he wouldn't do it. His pediatrician just said I have to wait for him to make it his decision so I basically gave up and let him tell me. Sometime in December he started asking me to buy him this Lightning McQueen potty but I kept turning him down because I didn't want to buy something he wouldn't use. A month later I gave in and bought just the seat to put on the big toilet. It was on sale and sooner or later he would use it. When we got home with it he's been going potty on it ever since. There has been little to no accidents with him so I'm very proud of him. I can't really say he's potty trained completely because he still wears a diaper at night and he wont go #2 in the potty. I don't feel confident enough to let him wear underwear to bed because he still wakes up really wet. He still loves his sippy's before bed. Does anyone have any ideas to get him to stop? I don't think I can really get him to go #2 in the toilet till the diapers are gone because he just waits.
Evan is now a Sunbeam. He misses nursery so the transition has been a little tough on him but every Sunday gets a little better. He asks to go to the nursery every time we enter a church and at one point he even asked us if he can go to the Nursery at the Salt Lake Temple :). He still loves the Temple. He also loves the Gospel. He says a prayer at every meal and doesn't need help with them anymore. I loved listening to him saying the opening prayer in Primary for the first time two Sunday's ago.
The other day Matt was talking to Evan about baptism.
Dad- Evan, do you know anyone that's baptized?
Evan- Yes, Jesus!
Dad- Was Mommy baptized?
Evan- No
Dad- Am I baptized?
Evan- No
Dad- Yes I am. I got baptized when I was 8 years old.
Evan- Oh, are you 9?
Dad- No I'm 26!
Another Conversation...
Evan- I want to be baptized!
Mom- You have to wait till you're 8.
Evan- No, 3!

Alex is now 9 Months old! He's been out longer then in :). He had his 9 month check up this past week.

Weight: 18.61 18.09%
Length: 29.25 80.02%
Head Circumference: 17.25 11.69%

Evan at 9 Months

Weight: 15.52 .52%
Length: 28.25 50.29%
Head Circumference: 17.6 32.1%

Alex is so much bigger then Evan was but I think it's interesting seeing that Alex's head is bigger but is in the smaller percentile. His doctor's office must be seeing more babies.
Alex is cruising and crawling everywhere. He's working on standing all by himself and can do it for a few mins. Evan was walking with help at this point and fully walking on his own and almost running at 10 months. I don't see Alex walking for a long time. I'm fine with that but looking forward to him walking. I'm loving my new found freedom as much as Alex loves his. He's such a mommas boy but now that he can get around on his own I'm not always holding him. Him being a mommas boy makes things a little tough on other people, including Dad.

I created a monster in some ways. It's one of the big reasons why he didn't sleep well at night but we finally broke it!!!

He went from literally waking every hour to sleeping 10 + hours with training. We've been training him this past weekend and each night gets better. He wakes up less and less but he'll go to sleep on his own without me every time. It's nice having my nights back with Matt and not having to worry about when he'll wake up. Matt loves not worrying about rolling on top of him as well if I fall asleep feeding him so we're all getting sleep!

We finally got him to take solids as well. He loves it when Evan feeds him and Evan loves it as well. He loves sweet potatoes the best so anything with those and he eats it up!


We had a play date with Aaron and his Mommy Aubrey at Pizza Pie. They are literally the same size in everything so it's so fun. We're due for another play date Aubrey!
Alex loves the tub so don't let the above picture fool you.





We love our boys!!

Matt and I celebrated our big 5 year Anniversary on February 18th :).

Where has the time gone? I had no idea that at the age 26 I will be married to my best friend for 5 years and have 2 adorable boys.

It's been a dream come true and I'm so blessed finding Matt and marrying him only 6 months later.

Matt made all the special plans for the big day and kept it a secret from me and I'm proud to say I kept it a surprise. I love surprises but I have a hard time waiting. Matt made all arrangements so I didn't have to do anything but wait and be exited. That evening Grandpa Thompson came over to take Evan but watched both boys till Laura got off work to take Alex. Leanna came later. Matt made some last minute arrangements and we were off. He wanted me to guess what was happening and all I knew was dinner and he wouldn't go till I guessed the place. After a few tries I got it and he headed in that direction but confused me and went the opposite direction. He's so sneaky! He ended up pulling into the parking lot of the Marriot Hotel where we spent our wedding night. I was still confused and he said they have a great Prime Rib dinner. It was the same place we had Michael and Julie's pre-wedding dinner so I believed him but instead of going towards the restaurant we were heading to the elevators. Matt booked the same room we stayed in 5 years ago.

Dinner was waiting for us in the room. The same food we had when he proposed to me.

And the room was just as I remembered it 5 years ago.

A white rose for every year we've been married.

It was an awesome surprise and the greatest gift he could give me. A night without kids and a full nights sleep since I haven't had one for almost 2 years!
I love you Matt! Happy Anniversary and I'm looking forward to many more!