One Year!

Okay, Joshua is actually 13 months now. But wow! The last year just flew. We had a fun little birthday get together. I made a cake for Josh-of which I am very proud! I am not a creative person, but it was a lot of fun making it! Matt and I had our families over to celebrate, and it turned out to be a great day!

It is amazing how time flies so fast! Its been a very difficult year for my family. In one year we lost one of my best friends-my grandma, my aunt passed away, my nephew, and I lost my unborn baby. I like to think all of this tragedy has brought us closer together as a family. These losses help remind me how important family is, and how grateful I am to have an eternal perspective on life after death. I'm so blessed to have such an amazing husband and a cute little boy. I'm so grateful for my parents, my brothers and their wives, and my sister. I'm also one of the lucky few that has wonderful in-laws. Matt's parents and siblings remind me a lot of my own.

I don't want everyone thinking this whole year was just awful. It's been good in ways. My brother was sealed in the temple to his wife, and the sealer did an incredible job! I have 4 nieces and/or nephews that will be born by the end of this year. My little boy is walking and talking, and just being cute all the time:) Matt and I were sitting on the couch, and Josh was in the window crawling along the back of the couch above us. All of a sudden he started giggling like crazy. A second later he rolled off the back of the couch on top of us. I am loving being a mom!
And hopefully before too long I can join my throngs of pregnant sisters-in-law:) I'll end with just a few pic's from recent months.

Josh loves feeding his daddy.

Showing off his newly acquired walking skills.

My cute little brother, Justin, and his beautiful wife, Stephanie. They were sealed at Mt. Timpanogos Temple March 20, 2010. My parents are next to them.

Hanging out at the temple for pictures. My cute little sis, Alyse, watched Josh while we were at the temple.

Josh discovered the paper shredder. To his delight, we hadn't emptied the paper yet!

This is Josh's favorite place to play while I do my hair and put on make-up.

Matt and I discovered a delicious new late night snack. French bread dipped in oil and vinegar. We now are usually stocked on french bread!

I ran upstairs for a bathroom break, and Josh discovered I forgot to tie the pantry shut!

My cute husbands 34th birthday. I think our smoke detector batteries may be dead, because it didn't go off:)

Family Fun:)

Overall, it has been a great couple of months. We had a nice Christmas. Matt and I spent way too much on Christmas. I rationalize it because we scrimped and saved the whole rest of the year, so we blew every dime of Matt's Christmas bonus on presents. And, to my delight, I was called off on Christmas Day:) It was difficult, this being the first year without Grandma, but Matt was so sweet and drove me to the cemetery to visit her grave. I know she isn't there, that it is just her body, but I felt close to her being there anyway. I had a nice little chat while Matt and Josh waited in the car. As I was about to leave, a pinwheel that decorated her grave began to spin. I like to think it was my Grandma just saying "Hi."
Josh is still just the sweetest little boy, but into everything. I love watching him shake his toys at the dog to try and get Gizmo to chase them. He loves the sesame street music cd I bought him. He starts to dance whenever it comes on. Josh also likes to climb on and under the elliptical. When he climbs on I take him of and he cries. When he climbs under he gets stuck and cries. My favorite thing he says now is, "Hi, Giz." He also likes to reach up and play the piano. He can barely reach the keys when he stretches as tall as he can, and it sure is cute.
Last, but not not least, Zumba starts again tonight! So I'll finish by just posting some family pics.

Josh opening pajamas on Christmas Eve

Matt and Josh all tuckered out.

Josh LOVED helping make chocolate cake!

My 3 cute boys.

Me, Josh, and Grandpa Wood on New Year's Eve.

Matt and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary with dinner at The Garden Restaurant in Salt Lake. It was very romantic, and the dozen pink roses Matt bought me didn't hurt!!!

Josh, Matt, and I at the lights at Temple Square

Josh and I had fun on my brother's four wheeler.

April 1st-Close Key Bank Account!!!

So we opened a new account a couple months ago with key bank. Matt changed his direct deposit to them and that was that. So we were low on money New Years Eve, $27 to be exact. We looked to see if Matt got paid that day. If it's a holiday then a weekend, sometimes his work will pay him early. To our sheer delight, we saw his company had direct deposited his paycheck. Yay! We celebrated by buying Panda Express. A whopping $8.00 meal. The next day we did some grocery shopping spending $70 at Walmart and bought Subway to eat while out and about-a New Years Day splurge. A week later we went online to check our banking, and we discovered we had $101 in overdraft charges! The bank didn't process the paycheck until 1/4/10!!! Not only that, they first processed the Walmart purchase we made on 1/1/10, then the Subway purchase from 1/1/10, then the Panda Express purchase on 12/31/09, and after that the paycheck Matt got on 12/31/09!!! The only answer we got was something to the effect of "That's just the way we do it." So we went that night to cancel our checking and savings accounts. Matt signed to cancel one, and was doing the next when he noticed it showed a fee. He asked about it, and the teller informed us that because we had the account less than 6 months, we would be charged a $25 fee for EACH account closed, so checking AND savings, etc. So we said never mind, we just wanted to withdraw all but one penny from our accounts. He said it was too late, we already closed the one checking and processed the $25 charge, and there was no way they could reverse it. Matt was able to talk to another customer service rep and they said to come the next day and they would reactivate the account and refund our $25. Now, we can withdraw all but our penny in each account (of course, we first have to make sure there are no other hidden fees from doing this). And the first thing I did when I got home was mark on my calendar on April 1st (after the 6 months have passed since opening the account) Close Key Bank Account!!!

Long Time No Blog

It has been so long since my last post, I don't really know what to write. We officially have a cute little crawling boy. It has been so fun watching him learn and grow! I still love to snuggle with him during his naps. He goes to bed alone in his crib at night without much fuss. It took a couple of weeks for him to realize we weren't going to cuddle him to sleep at night anymore. It has been really nice for Matt and I! We put him to bed, work out, then eat ice cream and watch movies. We keep saying we'll start going to bed earlier, but we can't seem to get to bed much before midnight. It isn't so bad for me because Josh doesn't get up until 9:00 or so. I do feel really bad for Matt. I don't know how he keeps up his energy! If I had half his energy, I can't even imagine all the things I would accomplish! I am very jealous! We have decided to start working out in the morning instead of the evening. We're hoping it will give us energy to last through the day. Now, we just have to see if we can drag ourselves out of bed earlier in the morning! I did start a Zumba class on Tuesday nights. It is a dance workout, and involves Latin and Indian dancing. It is by far the funnest workout I have ever had in my life, and also the hardest!!! If anyone ever has the opportunity to take a Zumba class, I highly recommend it! Now, I'll just post some pics of what we've been up to lately.

Matt and I drove Nebo Loop on my birthday. The leaves were amazing!

Josh's 6 month pictures came out a little blurry, but I love his smile!

Grandma and Grandpa got to babysit when we went up the canyon.

Our cute little Gizmo decided to hide under my legs.

Our poor little dog got neutered. He had to wear the cone for a week.

Josh loves drinking from a glass. I was too lazy to turn the picture, though.

Super Cute according to his grandma. And she is an expert:)

Josh's first football game. He spent most of it with me away from the loud crowd.

Finally, at the end of the game, Josh stopped crying with the cheers, so we got to join the rest of the family in the stands.

We took a trip to Island Park. Giz loved looking out the window of the cabin, and Matt liked to go outside the window to tease the dog.

Matt and I went to Idaho to see Matt's old college day stomping grounds. We stopped to take a picture of the Idaho Falls Temple.

We also stopped at the temple in Rexburg. Matt got a kick out of doing silly things to make Josh laugh.

Big Springs in Island Park.

Matt rowing the canoe until he found a spot to fish (he got skunked).

It got a little chilly towards the end of the day on the river. When Matt would stop to fish, I would read. I'm more of a lake fishing person anyway:)

Blessings and Vacations

Blessing Day!
August 16, 2009

So Joshua has finally been blessed. It was a nice day. The blessing went great! By that, I mean Josh didn't scream. I was worried about that. I heard he was a bit of a wiggle worm, but with Matt's bro's and my bro's, there were plenty to hold him. After, everyone came to our house for snacks. It was pretty crowded, but most of the kids went outside to play, so it went well. The picture above is Josh on the blanket I crocheted for him. I finished just 2 weeks prior, but I'm so glad I was able to do this for him!

This is our family later that day. Kelli took this in our backyard. Josh refused to smile or look at the camera, but he's adorable anyway!

We also fed Josh his first rice cereal that day. He LOVED it! He cried if I didn't spoon it into his mouth fast enough. It was so cute!

On the 24th of July we decided to go camping. We decided earlier that week, so we didn't have time to make reservations. We thought about going Thursday night, but in the end we got up early Friday. It is a good thing! All the camp sites were full. We got there as some one was packing up to leave, so we were so lucky to get a place to camp! This is Matt putting up our tent for the first time since we got it. I think he enjoyed showing off his skills. Since he was so excited to do it, I just sat and watched-okay I watched Josh and Gizmo, but I was able to get off a couple of pics while I did so.

Gizmo had a blast!!! He was no longer black by the time we left. He dug in the dirt so much, he was brown!

We are all about roughing it, as you can see by Josh in his swing. We were hoping Josh would sleep well if we brought this, but he woke up every half hour. To make matters worse, he didn't just cry when he would wake up, he would scream!!!

Like father, like son! I'm sorry if you can't see the similarities, but I sure can!!!

Gizmo and I were able to enjoy a little quiet reading time together.

Matt was able to get a little fishing in while Josh napped, then we took a walk around the lake. After, we were going to take Josh with us fishing. Unfortunately, a storm came in and we retreated to our tent.

We took Josh up to Bear Lake to visit with Matt's sister. Josh's ever prepared mother forgot a swimsuit and suntan lotion. Figures. Fortunately, his little cousin Kyle had both of these items, plus a hat! Thank goodness for Michelle letting me borrow them!!! Josh had a blast sitting in the water. He only got one mouthful of dirt. He tried to eat it from his right hand, so as I was washing this hand, he grabbed a handful with his left hand before I noticed, and it went straight to the mouth!

Sorry, I didn't turn this picture and am too lazy to fix it. On our way home from Bear Lake, Josh and Kyle had a nice little visit in their matching "Daddy's Little Hero" outfits. It's funny watching them babble to each other!

Matt and Josh wearing matching blue shirts! I'm sure once BYU football starts up on Saturday, Matt will make certain to have Josh in his BYU blue!

If you look with the pic zoomed in, you can see his teeth! He thinks it's so funny when we go into the bathroom. I knew he'd give a good grin for the camera if I went in there to take it.

Matt's breaks went out, so he got to spend hours working on the car. The break pads didn't take long, but he had to take off the rotor, and it was screwed in tight. Then, our friendly neighbor came over to "help" and stripped one of the screws. But it was sure sweet of him to offer his help! And he helped get the screw out after he stripped it!

Matt's brother, Kevin, works at a place that sells play equipment. When their sister came down, all the kids went to Kevin's work to play, and they all had a blast!!!

Joshua loved the swing the best. The higher the better! I'll update more soon, cause I didn't download pictures of our zoo trip yet. That will be next time!