2/20

He woke up at 6:15 this morning and fell asleep on the way home from preschool at 12:10. He often falls asleep in the car and I am sooooo grateful that he always transfers to his crib without waking up--the only one of my children who has ever done that!

Good things so far today:

1) Neil got home at 4:30 am last night from work after leaving for work at 5 am (yes, on President's Day) and then took Luke to the dentist at 7 am while I got the other kids off to school--then he came home and went to bed and I haven't seen him since. I am so dang grateful that he was able to take a day to sleep after that craziness.

2) Nathan, Matthew, and I went on a gorgeous hour-long walk this morning. I can't believe this weather! In February!

3) I remembered to make treats for Activity Days tonight well ahead of my older kids getting home from school. Huzzah.

4) Yesterday we found the COOLEST park and I can't wait to go back and zoom around the 4 miles of running trails through the woods. Be still my heart.

5) I have 90 minutes to myself this afternoon while Matty naps and Nate is at preschool-my big plans are to knock out a bunch of grading/laundry/housework. I'm doing it in rotation while racing the timer. It's fun. :-)

2/19

Well, I took more than a little break thanks to influenza! Yikes. It was not fun there for awhile.

Matty has another few days on Tamiflu, and then it is (way past) time for him to leave behind the bottle. He has a cup at meals, but mostly he just shakes it all over his food and then has a bottle before his nap and before bed...but he will be 17 months old next week and that bottle has reeaaally got to go.

So I took some blurry photos last week while I gave him his naptime bottle because I love this time so much. One of the best parts of my day cuddling this dude and his beloved stuffed kitties. 

(Looking pretty tired here with the flu...but man I love this boy!)

Other good things:

1) The kids are home today for President's Day. I love having a free day to just chill in our pajamas, especially after how run down I've been the last week or two!

2) I really love ordering my groceries online. Makes my life so much easier! I've been doing it for a month now and I will never go back. (Probably.)

3) I am so looking forward to all the planting this year--we have big dreams for this backyard!

4) I am more than halfway done with my biggest project grading of the semester--yay!

5) I really love my bed so much. Every night when I snuggle down I am super grateful for that haven of delicious softness and snuggliness. We've had this mattress for 11 years and I know it's probably time to replace it but what if our next bed isn't this dreamy and wonderful?!!!

2/7

1) I love the sunshine in our family room in the morning--we have ten windows on two sides that let in so much light and it is just the best way to start the day!

2) This morning Neil & his boss were carpooling to a meeting a few hours away; his boss was delayed a bit and so Neil and I had a quiet ten minutes to chat after the older kids went off to school and before the younger ones were up. We NEVER have time like that in the morning and it felt so luxurious!

3) Jules stayed home from school today and she and Nathan had such a good time playing Great British Bake Off with play-dough. Loved seeing them have an hour to connect.

4) I started making plans for spring break today--hurray! Really looking forward to a fun few days with our little crew before Neil is gone for awhile on work stuff.

5) Yesterday Matthew and I installed new outlet covers in the basement. We previously had stainless steel ones down there and we made an exciting discovery when we were re-installing them after painting--if a phone charger is plugged in to a bare outlet and you accidentally drop a stainless steel outlet cover on the charger prongs, you get plasma sparks, smoke, ash, and a popped circuit! (And a dead charger with melted prongs.) We had a couple very terrified little boys (who we'd given the supposedly easy/fun job of replacing outlet covers). No permanent harm done, but goodbye to those outlet covers and apologies to whoever previously shelled out the $8/pop for 20 of them...anyway, replacing those was a relief. ;-)

Mattycakes is 16 months old!

 Oh how we love this little boy! He brings so much light and joy to our family. He is absolutely delightful in every way.

At 16 months old, Matthew VERY STRONGLY prefers me (which is a first! Everyone has always liked Neil best!). Despite this, he always calls for "Dada" when he needs something, which is also kind of awesome. ;-) He loves clementines more than any other food, excels at feeding himself with a fork, has crazy good gross & fine motor skills (I routinely find him on top of the piano or in the garage--he's learned how to open doors much more quickly than our older children, and he loves to try to disassemble everything in the world with screwdrivers). He loves stuffed animals and somehow keeps losing his best lovies in places that we have NEVER found them again (so far we've lost his dragon and his hedgehog; fortunately he's reasonably adaptable and is currently toting around two stuffed cats). He babbles a lot and we're starting to understand more and more, but he's pretty darn good with gestures (as Abigail noted yesterday, it's hard to mistake what he wants when he gets a cup out, walks over to the water dispenser at the fridge, and reaches his cup up while frantically saying, "uh uh uh!")

Matthew loves cars, books, snuggling, and basically getting into anything his older siblings are doing. He loves breakfast but is a tough sell on dinner; his golden curls have disappeared now that we finally cut the baby mullet (tears!!). He looks SO MUCH like baby Abigail that sometimes it really throws me!


Just an adorable sunshine loveykins and we're so happy we have him around to brighten our lives!

2/6

One of the things I am most grateful for these days--the cubbies that Neil built in our laundry room! I told him what I wanted, he built it, and then I did all the painting/staining. Right now we are working on the cabinet doors and I'm super excited to have it all done! Other things we've done in the laundry room: removed one wall of cabinets/counters, rewired the wall so that each of the 6 cubbies has a USB charging station outlet, changed out the fridge, painted all the trim, painted the door, changed the light fixture.

(At some point I will blog about everything we have done to the house so far, but I don't have time today. Okay actually I probably never will so here are some before and after pics of the basement.

Before (listing picture):

And after. The basement has flooded twice which is NO FUN AT ALL and the second time I decided I would paint everything while the carpets were up. I painted the office too but didn't take pictures; I still have to paint the guest room. But the main spaces got done/carpet tacked back down before we had a bunch of friends over Friday night, so that was such a relief! We've also switched out the lights in the basement and hard-wired for ethernet. Maybe other things that I forget?  

 

We've done SO MUCH work on this house so far and there is still so much to do! Lots and lots and lots of paint (my friend texted me today to tell me that Nathan had told her "My mom bought paint and anywhere she sees brown she's going to paint it!" which is pretty much 100% true! Basically I'm just trying to do a room at a time. So in November I wanted to get the dining room done before Thanksgiving, in January I worked on the laundry room, and I guess February will be the basement? And I have to figure out my plan for the kitchen so I can start ordering things (we put in a new fridge and dishwasher but I still have to replace the double ovens, cooktop, and sink before we put in new counters). Fun decisions to be making.

So maybe not really a five for February post, but I have to run Jules to the doctor (we all just got over strep and I think now she has it again, ARGH!) and kids are trickling home from school. Hopefully at some point I will take pictures of stuff--like the four couches I've bought in the last few months. Yowzas!

Five for February is back!

I will never ever catch up on the last few months, but at least I can continue this series for another year! Not sure how this will end up with formatting, since this is the first time I’ve tried to post from my phone, but I’m already in bed so...

Today I’m thankful for
1) Our move. I am so so so so so much happier here.
2) My beautiful house even though it has flooded twice (!!!) since we moved in. Such a huge stress but oh my goodness, I love this house SO much.
3) Neil’s amazing job. It feels so crazy to be able to buy new furniture or a Costco membership. We never took out student loans, but gosh, being students for our entire marriage has been a very different world than the one we are in now. I was so excited today that we actually OWED taxes this year! (Only $39 so nothing painful, but exciting to be making enough that it wasn’t an automatic giant refund!)
4) Amazing and wonderful friends here. I am so incredibly grateful for this and the women I’ve met here and the friendships I am building.
5) My calling. I love being in Primary every week and I absolutely adore the other women in our presidency. I’m so grateful I get to work with them!