Happy Birthday Matthew

Only a day old

2 weeks

One year old

Two years old

Handsome buddy!

"That my name"......T.R.O.U.B.L.E!

Last Saturday I went shopping while Brian "watched" the kids (aka took a nap). Matthew was supposed to be taking a nap in his crib and Brinley was watching a movie. Well, during that time Matthew learned how to crawl out of his crib...he's only 1 (almost two though)! He got out and came downstairs, crawled on my desk, knocked my computer off and grabbed a thick juicy black PERMANENT marker from the top of my desk and had a party.

Brian woke up to him saying "No, No" as he was drawing on our sheets. Brian immediately got up and surveyed the damage which included: the carpet, the walls, more walls, our brand new bathroom counter top, our sheets, coffee table, banister, and Brinley!

On the positive side, Matthew was really proud of his work. He showed Brian a drawing on the wall that looked like an "N" and said, "That my name. Write my name."

So yeah, Matthew now has a lock on his door. After we put him to bed he crawls out and checks to make sure we really did lock the door but when we check on him he is always back in his crib.

Brinley NEVER learned to crawl out of her bed so I am not prepared for this!
I was thinking though....Matthew was 5-6 months old when he first crawled out of his mini crib and onto our bed.
I think he is a born climber!

This is what Matthew calls his name...

Brinley...I don't know how she let him get that close!

The proud artist!

I think it started out as innocent fun just drawing on paper...

The carpet.

Busted!

Just this past week I feel like the "terrible two's" have really hit hard. I seriously can't let Matthew out of my sight in my own house! He is notorious for pushing the chair over to the cabinets and climbing on the counter to get gum, cookies or "ola bars" (granola bars) while I am in the shower or even when I just go to the bathroom...he is seriously fast!

But sooooo cute!

He was climbing on my dresser to get a piece of candy and slipped and hit his mouth on the edge. Blood was pouring out of his mouth and thankfully he just cut the inside of his mouth and no teeth were broken. I am pretty much planning on several ER trips with this boy!

He and Brinley can play so well and other times well......
He scratched Brinley's face and bit both her arms and gave her 2 bruises. We keep trying to teach Brinley to run away! Maybe he was figuring out how to crawl out his crib during all those hours in time out!

:)

Matthew was helping us clean up and squirted 409 in his eye. Poor kid.

What?

The other day Brinley said to me, "Mom did you know that dogs can lick cows bums?"

I said, "Really, where did you learn that."

She then went on to tell me that she saw it in the movie 101 Dalmatians. I thankfully realized that she was referring to the part where the puppies drink milk from the cows utters and explained to her that they were NOT licking the cows bum but rather the utter because they were thirsty and wanted some milk.

I think she understood.

Brinley's Haircut

While Melanie was here she gave Brinley a haircut. It looks so cute! Now if she will just let me do it!Before

During

After

I had to bribe her with a popsicle to get her haircut and by the end of it she was pretty pouty but she still looked darling!

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we ate with a family in our ward who was kind enough to let us join them. We had a lot of fun and the food was delicious! I made my Grandma's famous rolls and I was actually pretty excited that they turned out almost as good as hers.

On our way to dinner we went to the wrong house. We knocked on the door with all our food and kids in tow and a bunch of people with their wine glasses in hand opened the door as surprised to see us and we were them. So embarrassing!

The day after Thanksgiving our good friends the Vernon's came to visit for a couple of days. It was so much fun to hang out with them. Our kids are the same ages and and played so well together.

Brinley and Brindy

Tate brushing Matthew's teeth.

Brinley 3, Brindy 3, and Tate 2

Brinley and Brindy dressed up all weekend in princess dresses and nightgowns. All girl!

Brian calls it neglect...I call it weight loss....

Twilight

After we went and saw the movie Twilight I decided I wanted to read the books. I kept hearing how good they were but never stated reading because I know what happens once I start....I can't stop. I read all 4 books plus Midnight Sun in less than two weeks. I get "sucked" into the books and the only thing I can think about or do is read. My house was a disaster and Brian spent many nights alone in bed. One good thing is that I really did lose about 4 pounds because I was too busy reading to eat! I loved all the books and wish there were more to read but I guess I have to get back to reality.

Finally!

On November 20th Brian graduated with his Masters in Real Estate and Construction Management from the University of Denver. We are so proud of him and all his hard work (he got a 3.97 GPA and top of his class) and I am especially excited to have him home at night to help with the kids!

Brian with his parents Karen and Stanton

Brian showing off his hood. :)

Brian's parents drove out from Utah to help celebrate with us. It was so fun to have them here. The kids had so much fun playing the guitar and singing with Papa Stanton. We also went bowling, took Brian's parents on a long bike ride (the trails here in Colorado are one of the reasons we love it so much), went out to dinner, Christmas shopping and to see Twilight.

Stanton said that Brinley is a natural when is comes to singing....must have got that from the McDonald side. She was making up words while Stanton played the guitar. Some of the things she said were hilarious!

Bowling Fun...The kids had a blast!Brinley had a bowling ball drop on her finger and got an owie.

Where All Your Dreams Come True....

A couple weeks ago Brinley and I went to Orlando, Florida with my parents and little sister McKenzie. It was sooooo much fun! Fun to be with family, fun to see the excitement in Brinley's eyes, and fun to not cook or clean for a whole week! We were doing something every minute and the time just flew by. Brinley had a blast and still talks about it everyday. She was such a good girl and I was so thankful I was not one of those parents whose child was flipping out because they didn't get what they wanted. :)
Getting there was probably the hardest part. We got up early and took the bus in an attempt to be green (even though gas prices are less that $2). I talked to my Mom who was stuck in a snow storm in Utah and jokingly warned her not to miss her plane. We made it to the airport with 45 minutes to spare and went to check our bags (I already had our boarding passes) and to my surprise we couldn't check our bags because we were two minutes past the 45 minute baggage check deadline that I didn't know about and we had to be "rerouted."

I felt like I was in a dream and that they were joking and anytime they were going to tell me just kidding..let me take your bags. So ironically Brinley and I missed our flight, even though I would have made it to the plane if they would have just checked my stupid luggage! I thought about breaking down my luggage and just running for the gate but I was pretty hysterical by this point because I found out I wouldn't get to Orlando until midnight (was supposed to be there at 5:00pm), we had a 4 hour lay over in JFK airport and they were going to charge me $100! I was pretty upset especially when the Delta manager told me that I should be able to afford it because I was going to Disneyworld (wrong- my husband is a student and my parents used their sky miles) and that I needed to stop making a scene because I was scaring the children!

I pretty much cried until we got on the plane and people gave me weird looks all through security and into the terminal. Poor Brinley had no idea what was going on with her Mother. She didn't make a peep and stayed right by my side until we got on the airplane. Then she kept asking me, "Are you still sad Mommy? You happy Mom?" It was pretty much one of the worst days on my life. During my spare time (which I had plenty of) I read the conference talk titled, "Come what may, and love it." That helped to slow the tears.

Brinley awkwardly asleep in the plane after a VERY long day!

Once we got to New York I wondered if maybe we could make good use of our 4 hour lay over there but everyone told me it was not a good idea to go out because it was the ghetto and rush hour. So me and Brin tried out the Air Train. Pretty boring but it killed time for awhile.

Brinley LOVED all the yellow taxi's. When we left the terminal there was about 10 lined up in a row. She kept asking, "what you call those things?"

We finally made it to Orlando and took this picture for our little buddy who loves Spiderman.

The first park we went to was Animal Kingdom.
McKenzie and me.

Crocodiles.
On the animal safari we saw lots of cool animals.

Elephants.

Gorillas.

Here is my little trooper eating chicken nuggets in her stroller. The stroller was a life saver!

We went to a production of Finding Nemo. It was AMAZING!

Brinley was able to pet a snake and brush the fur on lots of goats.

McKenzie and Brinley had a blast getting soaked by these fountains.

Brinley waiting to get sprayed.

Brinley, me and Kenzie with a big tree in the backgroud. Interestingly, it was called
The Tree of Life.

The next day we went to Magic Kingdom.
My Mom, Brinley and Kenzie in front of Cinderella's castle. A classic!

One of Brinley's favorite rides was Small World. She waved to all the dolls the entire time. It was so cute and she was so excited. This was the best picture I could get.

Brinley LOVED the princesses. There was a big parade with all the princesses and Brinley was in heaven waving to them.

Brinley and Papa

My Mom, Kenzie and Brinley on the magic carpet ride. I can't do the dizzy rides or the roller coaster rides anymore because they make me soooo sick!

Kenzie, Brinley and me in front of the magic castle.

At the front gated of Magic Kingdom....where all your dreams come true....

We went to Blizzard Beach which was a lot of fun, especially because there were hardly any lines. There was also a ski lift that took you to the top of the "mountain."

The Orlando Temple.

My Dad served his mission in Florida and this was his first house he lived in on his mission.

It was on Murray St.

BFF's...
The two turquoise twins.

Me and Brin at Daytona Beach. The sand was amazing. It was a little chilly for being at the beach in Florida..I guess it was November.

Mom, Brinley, Dad, Me and Kenzie

Brinley and Dora

Kenzie and Me at Universal Studios.
Universal Studios was amazing. The National Association of Realtors rented it out after hours so the lines were 10 minutes instead of 2 hours! We also got 10 Universal Dollars to spend which was an added bonus.

Most of the time Brinley and Kenzie slept together. Brinley would snuggle up to her all night until Kenzie was almost off the bed.

Hollywood Studios
This is what Brinley would do for the scary or loud rides....along with screaming, "Get me outta here!" This was at the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. She ended up liking it a lot especially the part where a truck caught on fire.

Brinley and Mary Poppins horse.

Me and Brinley.

Kenzie came head on with a giant dog nose! They had so much fun in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Playground

Brinley in the "spider web."

Thanks Mom and Dad for a GREAT time and a dream come true!

*In case anyone wonders..my Mom rocks. I sent in a formal complaint to Delta and received a big fat NO but my Mom went ahead and called the Delta Headquarters and told them what happened. The lady apologized profusely for the way we were treated and refunded my $100.*