Happy Birthday Mattie!

Today is Mattie's birthday. She is two years old and I cannot believe it.

I still remember when I had Mattie, every little detail. That day, my parents and I had gone to Freestone Park with Riley. We also went to Costco and I remember that Riley threw a huge fit and I had to carry him out of the store. Mattie was due March 21 and I was scheduled for a c-section March 17. Mattie didn't want to wait and came March 1. I had been laying in Riley's bed with him and was having contractions (I had braxton hicks contractions through out both my pregnancies) so I didn't think it was anything. Then, I felt myself get wet like a had peed (I know gross and tmi) but I knew that I hadn't peed. I got up and told Vern that I thought my water had broken and then we rushed out to the car to go to the hospital. Poor Riley didn't even have shoes on. Mattie was born at 7:20 a.m. She wanted to eat all the time, seriously there was no stopping. She still loves to eat all the time.

Mattie's Favorites

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Babies (real or dolls)

Her binkies and blankets

Pickles

Looking at books

Playing with Riley

Ranch dressing

Mattie is such a strong, independent little girl. Vern and I always joke about her being 1 going on 13. She thinks she can do whatever she wants to do, without any help or interference. I can't imagine our lives without her. It seems like she has always been here even though she is just turning two. Happy Birthday Mattie!

Disneyland or bust

We are preparing for our trip to Disneyland. Riley has completed his food chart. We are flying to California Thursday night and are going to Disneyland Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We are so excited but it seems like there is so much to do to prepare! I am sure I will have tons to post when we get back :)

Yesterday I sprayed on my new perfume. I really like it. I don't usually wear perfume but I made an exception for this perfume. I sprayed it on and then right after that Riley walked into my bedroom. He goes, "Mom what is that smell? Is it poop?" Thanks Riley. So much for my new perfume.

Last night we were driving home and Riley said he had to go to the bathroom right away. He couldn't wait until we got home. So we pulled over and got him out. Mattie started to flip out and kept saying pee pee and was pulling at her buckles. She wanted to get out and pee too. She still wears a diaper though so that really wouldn't work. Vern ended up getting her out for just a second, but not to pee.

Zoo

It has been crazy busy the past few weeks for some reason. We had two baby blessings last Sunday and this is my sharing time month. Also, I've been working on our business taxes which aren't so fun and time consuming. Needless to say the blog takes a backseat to everything else going on here.

My birthday is tomorrow :) Yes I am a Valentines baby. What I really wanted for my birthday was to go to the Wildlife Zoo in Phoenix. So, on Saturday we went to the Wildlife Zoo. It was so much fun. The kids loved it. First we went to the aquarium part. Mattie loved this fish and kept saying fish. We also went to the petting zoo and pet/fed some goats, llamas and deer. The deer kept trying to eat Riley's and my shirt. It kind of freaked Riley out. It was great and I am so glad we finally got to go!

Me, Mattie and Riley in front of some fish

Riley and me in the petting zoo

Mattie did not want to touch any animal

Riley petting a deer

Riley and a tortoise

Mattie not wanting to touch it

Me feeding a giraffe, no one else would do it!

Vern, Riley and Mattie

Vern has a big test on Tuesday and Wednesday so he will be studying tomorrow (since he was so nice and gave me his ENTIRE Saturday). I am hoping we can celebrate for Valentines/my birthday Thursday night.

I just want to say, I have the most considerate, sweet husband in the whole world! He is always thinking about other people (mostly me and the kids) but always about what others need. This morning I asked him if he could cut out my sharing time stuff while I showered. I came back downstairs and everything was cut out and he had put magnets on everything so that I wouldn't be scrambling for magnets when it was time. He always does stuff like this for me. Always thinking ahead about what I might need. I love him so much and am so thankful he's mine :) Me and the kids are so lucky we have him.

Kids Say Silly Things

We were eating at a Mexican food place with my parents. Mattie was standing up in the booth and playing with the menus and salt shaker. Riley said, "Maybe Mattie's brain tells her to do bad stuff. My brain tells me to do good stuff."

When we were driving to Vern's parents house Riley was really upset that his cousins, Verlynne's boys weren't going to be there. They had gone to their other Grandma's house, their Hincha grandma. I guess it was the first time Riley realized that Verlynne's boys had a different last name. He flipped out. Granted, he was tired and needed a nap, he was beside himself that they were not his cousins anymore because they were "Hincha's". He was yelling and screaming. We explained to him that most of his cousins have different last names but are still related. Vern and I were trying not to laugh or have him see us laughing. Vern looked at me and said where did that come from? Who knows. I sure don't know. Luckily Riley got over it and the Hincha's are still his cousins and his buddies.

Mattie is saying so many words now. It's hard to keep track of all the words she can say. Tonight I heard her saying "Butt"and I thought oh no, now I have to be careful what I say with her too! I keep trying to tell her we say bottom, but she points to her bottom and says "butt". She can aslo say candy and pocket. Its really cute to hear her say pocket.

Tonight Vern was eating an ice cream and both the kids wanted some. Mattie said bite but she wanted to hold the cone herself and Vern didn't let her. She ran off stomping her feet and got on the coaster (its a little coaster with a car the kids got for Christmas), we were all sitting kind of at the foot of the coaster and it looked like she wanted to ram us. We all scrambled out of the way. Don't mess with Mattie and her food.

Dog

We have a dog in our house now. Well, not an actual dog, but my little girl who likes to play like she's a dog. My mom watched Riley and Mattie on Sunday because they both had cold/coughs and Vern and I both had to be in church. When we got home from church Mattie was crawling around the floor panting. And then she said "bone" and my mom put a bowl of animal crackers on the floor and she ate them like a dog. At first it was pretty cute to see her pretended to be a dog and hearing her say bone. But then the rest of the day at meal times she didn't want to eat at the table with us, she wanted to eat on the floor like a dog. I think she's kind of forgotten about it now thank goodness. My mom said that Riley was the one who started it, and he wanted Mattie to be a mouse and him to be a dog. But Mattie didn't want to be a mouse and acted like a dog. My kids sure are entertaining :)

The Riley Factor

I can't believe how many people I know that are sick. As of right now, knock on wood- no one in my family is sick. Well Mattie might have a cold but nothing too serious. I think Vern and Mattie had some sort of the flu when they were sick a few weeks ago. Last week Riley got the stomach bug that was going around and then I had it for days after him. I will be glad when all this sickness goes away. I am scared to send Mattie to nursery.

Riley has been quite busy lately. Vern and I decided he needed a chore chart or something to that affect. Vern found this really cool website online and we started a chart for Riley. It is awesome. Riley has morning jobs and night jobs. He gets points for each job he completes. After he completes a job, he gets on the computer and checks it off and it calculates the points. The points go towards whatever the parent comes up with. Right now we have stuff like Wii time, computer time, spending money, Disneyland fund, etc... He is so excited about it. He keeps telling his friends and Mattie that he has a job now. He is actually excited about doing his chores. His chores are basic simple stuff like brushing his teeth, making his bed, taking a bath, cleaning his room etc... Here's the website if you're interested: http://www.myjobchart.com

Last night Riley was playing with these little notebooks I found at the Target dollar section. He said that we was a scientist and was doing a lot of "speriments". He was writing down scratch marks (he recently saw an episode of Curious George, where George has a notebook and writes down scratch marks, trying to figure what was making a certain scratch mark). Riley said he was writing down Mattie's scratch marks.

Yesterday for dinner Vern and I made some boneless buffalo popcorn chicken with Frank's Red Hot Sauce. It was really strong and you could smell it through out our whole house. So we sat down at the table for dinner (Riley and Mattie were eating the chicken without the sauce) and Riley says, "What's that freaking smell?" I'm not sure why he decides to use words that are not that great and that I rarely say to repeat? I guess I am going to have to really monitor my language lol. I hardly ever say freaking.

I can't really leave Mattie out of this blog post. She has been on one the past few days. Defiant and will not listen to me. She's also suddenly gotten really attached to her blanket and wants to take it everywhere. She refused to go to bed tonight and was screaming at the top of her lungs and jumping in her crib. I had to get her back up because Vern had to get up at midnight and she was making way too much noise. When I would say it's time for bed Mattie she puts here lips together kind of like a pout/pucker and says, "No." Its so cute its hard to resist and very hard to put her in crib with her saying, "No". Here's a video of her saying "No".

The Farmer in the Hell

It was nice to get back into the routine of things this week. Riley had school and karate, I had my primary meeting, and Vern worked and went to Toastmasters. Wednesday night Vern came down with something. I think it was the same thing that Mattie had because he was shaking the first night just like she was. He is finally better and was able to go to church with us today.

Riley is still loving his Lego's. He plays with them a lot. Mattie tries to play with/destroy them too.

Riley's Lego creations

The other day Riley was playing with his Lego's and Vern and I were at the computer listening to him. He started singing the song the farmer in the dell, only he was saying, "The farmer in the hell, the farmer in the hell, I O the merry O the farmer in the hell." Vern and I looked at each other and Vern asked him to sing it again to make sure we had heard him correctly. Yep. He was singing, "the farmer in the hell". We told him that words should be the farmer in the dell. I hope he hasn't been singing his version of the song anywhere else.