Haunted train ride

Last night we went on the Haunted Canyon Train ride. I was a little nervous about this because I was not sure how Mathias would react. They tell you a scary story while on the train ride then you look out the windows to see scenes from the story. Also every once in a while they would have people in costumes walk up and down the train and hand out candy. It was pretty cute. They had red and yellow and green lights on the train instead of the regular ones and they had spider webs through out. Mathias did alright until close to the end when more and more scary guys walked up and down the isles. We asked him when we got back in the car if it was fun or scary and he said fun. He keeps saying "mom I ride in the train". He was seriously so excited we had to hold him back so A) he would not go right up to the train and B) so he would not cut to the front of the line. Mathias loves trains and has been asking to go on one since we went and saw Thomas earlier this year. Tickets are kinda spendy but if you went last night and told them that you heard about it on Good Things Utah you got $5 off each adult ticket and a few dollars off of kid tickets. Mathias was free (2 and under). So since this was such a good deal I begged Dev to let us do it. I will say this, it is a pretty short ride, 35 minutes. The weather was perfect and the trains are heated (a little too well heated since we sat right next to the heater). I think it was an all around fun family outing that Mathias will remember for a while.

our many attempts

I absolutely love fall. I love the cool crisp air. I love the comfy clothes. I love the new snugly kid clothes. I love the colors. I love the mountains. I love the fall leaves. I love getting to drink hot chocolate. I love taking Mathias up in the mountains and attempting to get some fall pictures of him. We have tried this every year since he was born and every year poses new challenges. This year all he wanted to do was run and check out the leaves and pick up every rock that he saw. Also, apparently 2 1/2 is a very defiant age, not 2 but 2 1/2. Trust me it is so much fun (can you sense my sarcasm?). Every time I would try to get him to look at the camera he would deliberately look some where else and if he did look at the camera he would do it with his head tilted down but his eyes looking up. Yeah, that made for some interesting pictures. We tried to get good pictures like 3 or 4 different times and finally just gave up. I still think we got some good ones even if he is not looking at the camera most of the time. Candid ones are the best anyways, right? There are like 80 pictures in this slide show and I have it on the fastest setting so if you get bored or are not sure if you have seen all of them you can click on view all images and look through them that way. I will also understand if you really don't want to look at them because they are all just of Mathias but hey I am a very proud first time mommy and right now he is my only child so he gets to be photographed a million times.

oh my

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

did you know....

Did you know that when Noah was done building the ark he drove off in the Jeep Hurricane Concept?

finally...

I finally got Mathias' room painted. What a project! You will have to see it in person to truly see the colors. The top color is a really light blue. The strips are kind of a bright orange and the bottom looks pretty good in these pic, a brighter blue. I will have to put up pictures later of it all completed once I find things to put on his walls.

Nighttime routine

OK so this blog is mostly for me. I will use it as a scrapbook and our journal/continuation of Mathias' baby book. So you will have to bear with me for posts like these. I just want to document it so that I will always be able to remember it. This is and has been Mathias' nighttime routine for as long as I can remember. We start this at about 7:45 because bedtime is at 8:00.

(this picture is from last year, I forgot to take one when I took the rest of these)

First we read 2 books. Lately they have been Curious George ABC's and Curious George and the Bunny. We read these books so much that Mathias can quote them word for word. (video to come)

Then we say our family prayers. Mom and dad take turns every other day and when we say them Mathias just repeats everything we say. Sometimes he even tries to get the kitty to fold her arms.

Then we go into his room sit on the floor and sing two songs. We let him pick out what songs we sing and for months, without fail, we sing "family's forever" which is Family's Can Be Together Forever.


We then sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider while doing the motions. We always have to sing them in that order for some reason.

Then it is time for loves. He gives each of us a hug and a kiss and then he has to climb into bed all by himself. If you put him in bed he will climb down just so that he can climb in.

Oh, he also has to have his frog family (dad, mom, and baby stuffed animal frogs) in bed with him and they also have to be covered up. Lately he will not let me put his quilt on him just his sheets. I wonder if this is because in his toddler bed he only had a quilt and no sheets so he is used to only having one thing on him.

play date at the park

Mathias and I met my friend Betsy at a park today in Orem for a little play date. Mathias was so excited to play with her son "quiet" (Wyatt). For some reason he can not say his name right. Betsy is also tending her niece. I love having playdates with Bets because our kids play so well together and we get to catch up.

Speaking of catching up while Bets and I were chatting at the picnic tables we suddenly hear Mathias start busting up with his great big deep laugh. So we look over and Mathias is giving the dog the water bottle and then the dog will hold it in his mouth for a minute and then spit it out. He just thought this was the funniest thing ever and would do it over and over again.

Mathias thought it was pretty funny to play hide and seek in this tunnel. I love that you can tell he is smiling in this picture just by looking at his eyes.

Mathias going down the baby slide. For some reason he refuses to go down the big slides anymore, he used to love them.

Sleepy Boy

So the other day I was up pretty late. I was not able to sleep so I got online for a little bit. When I left the office to go to bed, I went to shut the door which squeaks kinda loud and woke Mathias up. He said in a very cute, tired voice, "Mom, mom!" so I opened the door and went into his room and as soon as I opened the door he said in the same cute, tired voice "sing songs" so I started "itsy bitsy spider" because it is a pretty short song and he said "no mom, family's forever" which means "Families Can Be Together Forever," which is his favorite song right now. So I started to sing that one and with his eyes closed, laying in bed half asleep, he would chime in a couple words here and there throughout the entire song. He is such a sweet heart and just completely melted my heart that night. So I just had to share.

Mr. Fix It

(sorry, my photoshop skills are not the best, but I decided I should probably take out my license plate)

I feel so lucky to have a husband that knows a lot about cars and is willing to learn more and fix my car. Last fall, my car died on us one day on our way home. We replaced the battery and it happened again so he got a rebuilt alternator at Auto Zone. It worked fine for a few months, but lately, about once a month, the car would either die on us or give us signs that is was about to. For example, the radio would turn itself off or the lights would gradually get more dim (dimmer?). Well, this month it happened more than once so we got it checked out and it looks like the alternator would sporadically stop working. Since it was under warranty (good thing!) he got a new one and switched them out for me this Saturday while Mathias and I played in the rain.

Dev' note: why do women insist on taking pictures of people who obviously don't want to be photographed?!

Rain, Rain, Rain

This Saturday it rained almost the entire day. Mathias was going stir crazy just sitting inside, if you can imagine, so we decided to go out and play in the puddles. It started sprinkling a bit more so we just got the rain coat out. This little guy loves to be outside no matter what the weather is like. Oh, to be a kid again.

Circus

A few weekends ago, my mom took us to the circus. We were on the very first row (minus the vip row) and had center arena seats. They were awesome! There was so much going on at once, Mathais was not sure what to watch at times. His favorite parts where the motorcycles in the big ball and on the high wire, the tigers, elephants, and the goats that were standing on the mini-horses backs. I do not have any pictures because we learned that the only type of camera you can bring is the kind that does not have detachable lenses, and mine does. So this is the only picture I got. Mathias loved his elephant that Mema got him and fell asleep holding him on the way home. He still asks to go back and see the animals (circus).

Nothing sweeter

There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping little one!

(Love those little pouty lips and long thick eyelashes)

This is how.....

I have had a few people ask how Mathias knows his ABC's so well already. Mathias starting singing the ABC's the whole way through when he was around 26 months. He was a bit fussy around nap time one day and I could not think of any nursery rhymes that day for some reason so I just sang the ABC's over and over a few times and put him down. Then he would request it. Mathias LOVES to sing and picks up songs really fast, so that was a pretty easy thing for him to learn.


I was chatting with a friend online and she told me about these AWESOME leepfrog videos. Seriously, I LOVE them. You can sit your child in front of the TV for a half hour, get something done around the house, and not feel guilty about it because the video is educational. Best of all, the kids love it and are learning something all at the same time. What the video does is set the scene, or rather, a room, for every letter and the letters themselves are learning their sounds. So it is like a classroom for every letter. For instance, they walk into the "A" room and the "A" students are there and then a monster opens the door and they all say "Ahh!" Then they sing, to the tune of "Farmer in the Dell"...

The "A" says "ahh"
The "A" says "ahh"
Every letter makes a sound
The "A" says "ahh"

I hope that all made sense. Just trust me, it is worth the $9 or so it cost.They also have math, words (how to sound out and spell simple words such as cat etc.), and a few others. Mathias learned all his sounds within a couple of weeks by just watching it a couple times a week.


This is a magnet that most people stick on their fridge, ours is on our vent in the hallway (don't want to scratch up the stainless fridge). Mathias played with this a bit at first then lost interest quickly. He will instead point out a letter when passing through the hall and say, "Mom, that is a "Y"" or "Mom, I want the "Q." This toy is kind of annoying because it only has two settings, loud and over the top loud. But still educational.


I just got similar bath letters and numbers a few weeks ago because A. He needed new bath toys, B. I thought they would be fun, and C. I mostly just wanted him to be able to recognize his numbers since he already recognizes his letters. So far they have been mostly just toys and I have not tried to teach him to recognize his numbers yet.


We also have a few ABC books. Mathias is very into his Curious George one right now.

Best Buds

Mathias warmed up and remembered Dustin really fast. I was a bit worried of this since it had been almost a year since they had seen each other. Mathias actually really loved having Dustin around, as did the rest of us. Dustin would play with him, rough house with him and could actually keep up with him, which let me tell you is getting pretty difficult. One day when Dustin tried to leave, Mathias ran to the door and locked the dead bolt and the handle then put his back against the door, arms spread out, and told Dustin that the door was stuck. He really did not want him to go anywhere! Every day he would ask to "see Mema and Unc Dustin." Mathias was sad when we told him that Dustin was going back on the plane and told us, "Mathias go on plane." Too cute.
Love you bud. Hope you had a good time while you were out here. We miss you.

Picking up "unc Dustin"

My brother Dustin is here for the week. We are all excited to see him and spend some time with him. We have not seen him for almost a year.

We told Mathias that Uncle Dustin was coming here on an air plane and that is all he talked about for a couple of days.When the day came to finally pick him up at the airport, Mathias was excited to see him come off a plane. Well, since they don't really let you go in and wait for them anymore, we waited at the place where you can park your cars and read the flights to see when they came in. This was pretty good though cuz Mathias could get out and move around a bit and watch the airplanes as they came and went. Then Dustin called us when his plane was here and he had gotten in luggage.

It was about dinner time when he got here so we went up to the gate way and had lunch at Tai Foons (Tai Foons is a pretty nice Chinese food place, kinda like P.F. Changs, that I got gift cards to through work). We really did not plan on this but figured what the heck since we were up here anyways. Mom was still in Orem so we walked around for 45 minutes until she got here and then went to eat.

Dustin has this pretty cool phone that you can watch tv on . You can watch live tv or they have a bunch of stuff recorded that you can watch. I tell you, this is the best invention ever if you have a very active child that does not like to sit still and wait for your food to arrive at restaurants. We were able to pull up his favorite show, Little Einsteins, on the phone and he sat there quietly watching it till the food came. It was the best thing ever . I am not sure if they have anything similar through T-Mobile but I think it is something worth looking into just for that.


Anyways, we were not really expecting to be gone long. After all, we were just gonna pick up Dustin then go straight home. So because that was the plan I only brought one diaper. Well, while we were walking around waiting for mom to come, Mathias had a stinky and required a bum change. I had obviously forgotten about the entire Powerade he drank while we were waiting to pick up Uncle Dustin and thought that we would be fine. While we were waiting for our dinner to arrive, mom looked over at me and said, "I think he is wet." I did not think much of it because A. we had just changed him like 45 minutes ago and B. she will change him if he is the slightest bit wet. So our dinner came and Mathias was sitting next to me and said, "Wet," and I looked own and it looked like he spilled something on his chair except he was not holding a drink or anything. Yup, you guessed it, he was soaked. And I am not talking about his shorts being a little wet, I am talking they were soaked and it looked like he spilled something on the seat. I felt so bad. We had no more diapers and I had no idea what we were going to do! I did not even know if there was a grocery store near by and all the cloths stores were closed. Mom asked the front desk lady if they had any diapers that were left behind or anything, they didn't. Again I felt like the worst mom. So we hurried up, paid, and left. Luckily we had a blanket and towel in the car so we put the blanket on his car seat then wrapped the towel around him and buckled him in and hoped for the best. It worked and I learned a lesson, big time, but hey at least it took me 2 1/2 years to learn that one. I will always bring extra diapers!

Happy Birthday Dev

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday to the best daddy in the world. To the most wonderful and handsome husband ever. We Love you so much and appreciate all that you do for us. Hope you had a great day... you old fart.

Happy 29th!

My Smart Little Guy

Warning: this post is from a very proud mommy and may include some bragging.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So I may be a little biased, but I think I have the smartest 2 year old out there. He has been able to sing his alphabet since around the time he turned two and for a couple months now he can not only sing it but he can tell you what sound every letter makes (except the D, for some reason he gets it mixed up with B) and he can point out all the letters when he sees them. He really does know what the G says and knows what the Q says and what the V looks like. I am not sure why he was not saying them, I guess he was just playing around.
Since he pretty much has his letters down, we are working on colors. He has quite a few of these down. His favorites are blue, orange, yellow, green, red and white. Sometimes he will get purple.
We are also kinda working on numbers. He can count to 10 by himself and occasionally he will count 16 by himself only leaving out one or two numbers. We have not done numbers for a while though because we have been focusing on the colors.
Anyways I Just love this little guy so much and being the proud mommy that I am I had to brag about how smart he is. After all, that is what this blog is all about anyways, right?

Park City

Since it was regional conference today (a freebie day, in our opinions) we went up to Park City with our friends Joe, Jeri, and their two kids, Darcy and Parker. They were having some kind of farmers market of sorts. It is always interesting in Park City, you will never now what you will see (crazy tree-huggin' hippies everywhere!).

We came across a guy doing puppet shows, so of course we had to stop and let the kids watch. I don't think Mathias thought too much of it. He watched it for a bit then got a little restless.

This was one of the better puppets bits he did. He had western music playing along with it and acted as the singer.

I just love this picture. As soon as Dev put Mathias up there, Mathias put his hands on Dev's head and rested his chin and watched the show like that.

This was the other best part of the puppet show, in my opinion. He actually acted like he was playing the violin. I just don't know how all those strings did not get tangled.

All in all it was a beautiful day to get out and walk around. Thanks for the fun time you guys.

Eureka

Yesterday we went with some friends to their place out in Eureka for a few hours to ride their 4 wheelers. I was not sure if Mathias would like it because he was afraid of power wheels for a while but he absolutely loved it.

My sexy husband!

Getting ready to go. Good thing all the little boys are around the same age and size because we didn't even think to bring helmets, luckily everyone else was smarter than us and let use theirs.

Little D and Mathias.
One of the four wheelers broke on the way up the trail so I took the opportunity to get a cute pics of the kids while the guys tried to fix the problem.

Getting ready to go again once we got the wheeler working enough to take it back down.

The view at the top of the trail.

Me, Jeri, and Jami at the top.

Here is cute Jami and her son Little Davy.