The Maughans

The story of Amelia!

2011-05-28T10:18:00.001-07:00

So it all started Sunday morning at 9:00 am we went to the hospital for our induction. The IV was nice with only one stick but, after 5 min of trying to figure out why the fluids weren't flowing the nurse realized the clamp was still clamped. So we waited and waited for the contractions to start. There were a few but, not many and not consistent at all.

At about noon we started being suspicous about what was happening with me not reacting to the pitocin at all. We then decided we would break my water but, before that I went to the restroom coming back we noticed a puddle of water(pitocin) on the floor. The Pit wasn't even hooked into the IV. We then hooked it up and started seeing what we should have been seeing all along.

Shortly after we got a call from Anne who had the boys at church. She said she was outside and Porter was doubled over with pain and had thrown up. I remembered he swallowed a dime a couple days earlier. So she brought him to the ER to get x-rays to make sure it wasn't a blockage. For 3 hours we waited and had x-rays and came out with no explanation of why the pain episode and Porter feeling much better.

Now at 5:30 we could start my labor! Hooray, it was about that simple I got my epidurral, Lori broke my water and voila at 6:56 she was here! :) Now if that all could have just happened at 9:00 am but, everything happens for a reason! I'm really glad that Porter is okay! Now for pictures!

Here is me with my pregnant belly!

Baby Amelia minutes old!
The 3 of us!
Proud Daddy!
Happy Mommy with my girl!
Sweet baby Amelia!

Visitors! I loved this shot of the boys and Grandma holding the baby.
Porter's baby! He said She looks just like me... she has my eyes and ears! :) So cute!
Emmett's kisses are best! He is such a sweet heart and loves his baby sister. But, he keeps calling her Ava! And refuses to call her Amelia

Big Brother Tim is so proud!
Anne and her girls! I just love his shot!
Grandma Hawkes with sweet baby!
Going home sporting a Kim Bode hat! Thanks Kim love it!
Mom and baby going home! Yay
Our little family!
Daddy and baby asleep on the couch I think that I have a picture of him in this exact position with each baby! I think that will be my next post!

Tim holding Amelia!
Emmett sharing his horses with Amelia, he sure loves her!
First trip to Grandma Hawkes!

Spring Activities!

2011-05-28T10:07:00.001-07:00

This Spring we have had really crazy weather it's been a roller coaster of wet and cold with a warm day every here and there. Before the baby we did manage to do some fun activities!

Porter at the petting zoo

Emmett at the petting zoo! He really loves animals. His favorite song is Old McDonald and you can often here him singing it. His favorite animal is a pig. If he can't find his toy pigs then his horses will do!

Aubrey and Ava came with us! It was so much fun :)

We love to go outside when it is nice~ I found Emmett riding Tim's scooter. he did a good job with all his safety gear.
Matt has a fun pond by his building we went and ate lunch with him one day it was really fun!
This is our leprechaun trap we made for St. Patricks Day!
And the trip that started our Spring and that was so much fun! Our Florida trip to see Tim and Kate and our cousins. Mom and I drove to Florida for a week. It was such a highlight of our year so far!

Our new place!

2011-05-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

With the move and the new baby we decided to get a temporary place in between where we were and where we are headed. It has been nice not to worry about showing a house and adjusting to a new baby all at the same time! Here are the boys outside the complex.

Anne's 40th Birthday

2011-02-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

On January 30th Anne turned 40! A lot of us were sick so our bash was a quiet family party where we spread more bugs. But, it was fun to get together and celebrate! It is so much fun to live close to Anne and her family! We absolutely love her so much!
Happy Birthday Anna Banana!

Sick Days and Snow Days What Happens at Our House!

2011-02-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

The past couple of weeks have been a blast! We are better from being sick and hopefully with the weather warming up the bugs are gone for good! With it now being in the 20's we can play outside longer than a couple of minutes! Last Saturday Matt had a snow day with the boys. Emmett fell asleep in the bumble bee swing and Porter built a snow man and named him Porter!

We had a painting activity last week during the blizzard! It was a lot of fun! Emmett sure loved it. Don't look to close even now you will still find blue paint in his ear!

We finally can go out to Lake of the Woods go for our family Saturday Hikes!

And at the end of the day we crash! We hope you all are doing well too!

Christmas Card

2011-01-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

I forgot I was going to post our Christmas card because when I printed it, it looked horrible so sorry about the no Christmas card this year but next year we will have one!

Welcome 2011

2011-01-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

Here we are 2011! We have been back in Illinois a week. We haven't done much because we get sick easy luckily we have a doctor in the house to help us out!

and what would we do with out Macaroni and Cheese!

Matt has been working hard on his writing and networking for jobs! He is so awesome! Tim took this picture of him the otherday, I was pretty impressed.When we aren't sick the boys love to play in the snow and go sledding with dad!

Emmett

Porter

Tim

Here is our baby girl!! She weighs 14 oz already yay! She will be here in May now for names. Should we name her Evelyn Rose, Amelia Christine or Ila Mae?

Catch Up!

2010-07-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

We have had a whirlwind of a summer so far. I cannot believe how fast it is going! Tims t-ball games are already over! We sure had a lot of fun going and supporting him. He loved his first team sport. Porter sure loved going to the games too! Here is a picture of Porter at one of Tims games.

Look at that swing!

This is our baby. Although he does not look so much like a baby sitting on the big couch like a big boy!
or in the backyard eating his lunch at the picnic table. Emmett is the biggest sweetheart ever, such a blessing in our family!

Here is Matt laid out after his First surgery! Yes, I said first because he just had an emergency second surgery on Friday night after his knee became infected :( So he has been in the hospital all weekend. Not a great 4th of July. But, he has been such a good sport and done really well. My moms cousin was called on a service mission here with her husband. They were lifesavers, coming and staying with the boys while I would go and help Matt at the hospital. I even got to stay with him 2 nights. It was so nice so have the boys taken care of a watched over. They are such awesome and sweet people.

Porter is our Porter Bear. Such a cuddle bug and always willing to give cuddles, hugs and kisses when you need them! I sure love this little guy! He sure loves his daddy :)Here is Matt and one of our best friends out here. He has an amputated leg and Matt with his gimpy leg thought is was pretty cool that they both had crutches and it as both of their left leg!

This is a picture of me at school wrapping an awesome perm, with my friend Nick! I can't wait to be done, it will be so nice to be me again and have balance to my life!

We're Back :)

2010-04-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to finally be blogging again! I decided that this is a perfect acitvity for me to do at night while I'm catching up on my tv shows. We have had a great spring and a great Easter. We have some new pets.... DUCKLINGS

We bought the boys some ducklings for Easter we had 6,

now we have 5! But they are growing up so fast we will take them to the pond behind our house in the next month or so.

Here are some pictures of the boys with the ducks!

Porter loves the ducks and he tells us all the time that the ducks like Porter!

Emmett and his new glasses! They are so cute and he is doing a much better job at keeping them on!
and here is a picture of us!
An update on some of our craziness!

Matt has torn both sides of his miniscus and his ACL so he will be having surgery on May 19.
And am officially more than half way done with school! Thanks to everyone who has helped us through the past couple of days! We are so blessed with such great family and friends!

Porter

2009-09-08T12:30:00.001-07:00

So here are some pictures of Porter! The same friend, she is so sweet, took these of Porter today. Again, my boys are so goodlooking and handsome! I just love them to pieces. I don't know what it is about Porters look. The eyes and the smile. He is such a heartbreaker! All you with little 2 year old girls watch out!

Emmett

2009-08-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

My friend took this picture of Emmett today and I just had to show it off. I think he is such a beautiful and handsome boy! I can't believe that he is 5 months already. Time flies... sometimes I wish it would slow down so I can enjoy these sweet moments and stages of life for just a little bit longer.

May Was Here and Now It's Gone

2009-06-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

May was such a busy month for us. I can't believe it came and in a blink of an eye it is gone. It's started with a bang and left with a bang. Since Matt finished his crazy semester we (he and Tim) were finially able to get the garden in. Here Matt is teaching Timmy how to use the hose to water our strawberries. Matt, my mom and I were talking in the house and noticed that Porter wasn't around. So we frantically started searching for him. This is where we found him. All cozied up in the dog igloo. Silly Porter! :) He is such a character I don't know what we would do without him. We love him so much!

Matt took Porter and Tim on the Father and son's campout this year. They had a blast! My boys love love love to go camping!

I think Tim wanted to carry Porter in the backpack.

We had Emmett's blessing. I think he just looks like an angel. He is the sweetest baby, he is such a blessing to our family. We are so grateful for him and the wonderful baby he is!

He is the cutest baby ever!!

We have loved having Matt for summer break he so much more relaxed! These are my boys having fun before bedtime!

Tim loves Emmett! He always tells me Emmett is his favorite! :)

For the last 3 weeks in May Porter was cutting his canine teeth or eye teeth. Here is a picture of them. It was so sad. He had fevers and diarrhea. And was so onry. But, now that it's over he is back to being Porter again!

We found a slug early one morning! It was Tim's first time seeing a slug. He loved it!

The park district here does an event called Touch a Truck. It was so fun! We got to go as a family! Yay!! We got free coldstone ice cream and got to see some really cool trucks. My favorite is the Raminator. It is so cool!

It's softball season agian. Which means all summer we go to softball games on Thursday night to support Matt and his Team. They have been playing together for 3 years now and have won a total of 6 games now. We still love to go and get treats and cheer on dad! This is a picture of a sunset I took while driving to one of the softball games.

For Memorial Day weekend we went camping in the Wisconsin Dells. We met my brother Noah and his family. My mom came with us! It was a blast. This is a picture of our packed truck on the way up. We stopped for dinner at the fun little local rootbeer stop.

Eli celebrated his 2 year birthday! It was so fun to be a part of it.

This is our campfire on Sunday night. We met some fun friends at church and invited them to come to our campsite and have dinner with us. It was a blast. It was funny because they are the MONS. So same last name spelled differently!

We went swinging on Sunday night at the park it was so much fun. This is such a cute picture of my mom! I love it! :)

Here we are: Matt and Porter, Timmy and I, Mom, and Noah.

Porter had an issue running into the road. No matter what we did or said we would constantly be running into the road. So finially on Sunday I said we are going to tie him up. So we did! This is him almost getting loose :)! Timmy swimming at the indoor water park. He is such a fish! Watch out Lake Powell here we come!

Noah's Family

Noah and Eli

Matt and Porter on the lazy river I think we went around 5 or 6 times!

Thanks for the fun trip Noah and Ashley we had a blast! Hopefully it will be a tradition!

Abby and Austin joined the Taylor family 2 weeks ago. They are so fun. It's so great to have them here. They are such a wonderful family!

Matt has been working hard on his research plots. It so great to see his farmer tan come back and he is so happy! I love it when he is happy. We went out to meet him a few nights ago and take him dinner. The boys were able to get on the tractor and get a taste of the farm! It's so sad we live so far from Montana. I took this picture and I love it. It makes my heart melt. Seeing him ride his tractor! I just love it!!

The boys sitting on the car so they don't get run over by the tractor. All the boys (except Emmett) got buzzes for the summer! They are so cute!

Matts corn!

This is Emmett tonight. Can you believe how big he is? He is growing up way to fast.

When Matt was working with Tim in the back yard he taught him how to drink out of the hose. Well, Matt turned off the water before Timmy got a chance to take a drink so he went to go turn it back on and this is what Timmy was doing with the hose. I'm taping this from inside the house! I'm so glad I caught it on film!

So this is my marathon post. I also got a chance to go up to Chicago to visit my friend Jill who came into town. It was such a fun day on the town. We stopped in at Dave's place an hung out with him and Jess for a while it was really fun. I don't have any pictures because she took them all and hasn't updated her blog yet. But, when she does I will post them on here.

Well I'm off to Utah on Tuesday! Maybe I will post while I'm there but, if not you can expect another marathon post at the end of June! We have lots of fun plans with Utah and Lake Powell!

Illinois' got Talent!

2009-05-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

This is my nephew! He has such an amazing voice and we were lucky enough to catch it on video. So I wanted to share is with all of you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0IqOvSbeE0

Indy 500 Mini Marathon

2009-05-06T08:48:00.001-07:00

So I finished my first 1/2 marathon it was such a great experience! I can't wait to run it again next year! We left on Friday and stayed the night. The boys sure had a blast swimming

Then we back to the room to have baths and eat room service. I needed some pasta for energy in the morning! This is me about 30 min after the race. It took Matt and I awhile to find eachother! Timmy, Emmett and I Our little family!

Got Milk!

2009-05-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Recipe for big huge Porter messes as Tim likes to call them.
First Tim gets a sippy cup
Then he gets the milk out of the fridge
Then teaches Porter (who is 18 months) how to pour his own sippy cup
Last Tim runs to mommy and tells me that "Porter has made a big huge mess" (with his arms stretched out really big)

So then I come down and this is what I find....

notice the little milk footprints! Merry is very happy...

So I start to clean up and the fist thing I do is take of the milk drenched clothes.....Then he decides to lay down and drink the milk on his tummy... Yuck and Gross! He's all done and ready for his shower. I thought it was funny to see the milk dripping off of him... It's amazing how much can happen while I'm feeding Emmett or going to the bathroom or talking on the phone. I guess if I do anything other than stay and play and supervise then I get a big huge Porter mess.

Of course Tim thinks he's perfect and never has any part in the big huge Porter mess. But we all remember the first and second steps Tim got the sippy cup and the milk out! I'm so glad they have eachother!

Good Weather and Quality Dad Time!

2009-05-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

While I've been excercising/training at night Matt gets to spend some great quality time with the boys! I just found this picture he took last Tuesday. So cute to see all the boys together! Emmett is so funny anytime Matt holds him this is what he does. He leans back and just stares at his dad. I can just tell he is thinking my dad is the most awesome dad ever!

Emmett's smile! So sweet... he is such a great little baby!

For those of you who know Tim know that he loves swimsuits and shorts. So as the weather has been getting nicer he is always outside in his shorts. He takes his shirt off as soon as he's outside and says "Super Timmy" it's so hilarious! It's not even that warm maybe the 60's but, he doesn't care it's not freezing, windy or snowy!

Porter with his goaloshes and sand bucket! He loves to take pictures, he says "Cheese" and they turn out so cute! He is growing up so fast.

Silly Porter!

2009-04-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

3 Little Boys!

2009-04-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

I know everyone loves the posts where we compare pictures so here we go. I just wish that I had been a better photographer so that I took more of the same poses with each so they would be more comparable. Emmett the night he was born
Porter the night he was born

Tim the night he was born

Emmett one week old

Porter one week old
Tim one week old

Emmett 3 weeks old

Porter 4 weeks old

Tim 4 weeks old

Emmett 6 weeks old

Porter 6 weeks old

Tim 6 weeks old

It's so fun to see how fast they change. Emmett is my baby who has gained weight the fastest and is my heaviest at 8 weeks. We love our boys so much!

The Past 7 Weeks

2009-04-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hey there ya'll! It's been a while but, things are going, going and always going! :) This picture was taken today. So we are going to go backwards through the 7 weeks and you can see the changes in Emmett. He is growing so fast. I can't believe how much they change in such a little time. He smiled and talked to me today, We just love him so much! Timmy always tells me that Daddy and Emmett are his favorites! I love it when kids start talking, they say the most hilarious things!

Week 7

We did some yard work on Saturday and we found Tim around 3:30 past out on this chair! He played and work his little heart out. He and Porter love to work and be outside with Matt!

Week 6

This is week 6! Easter weekend this cute outfit is from David and Jessica I'm sad to say it was the first time and the last time he will wear it because he has already out grown it! :( Isn't he so cute!

My mom crocheted the beautiful blue blanket! I love it, it is so cuddly and soft!

Our family picture taken ourselves! We desperatley need Ashley's professional help!

Timmy in his Easter outfit!

Porter in his Easter Outfit!

This was taken on Eater egg hunting day (Saturday). I thought the stripes were appropriate for Eater egg hunting!

So we lost a couple of weeks because our camera was full and no computer so now we go to week 3.

My mom and Emmett at Key Lime Cove. We went to this nice indoor wate resort for Spring Break it was so nice!

Matt and Porter! Porter loved the water, he was so excited the whole time and so cute.

Timmy is our little fish! Thank goodness for these life jacket swimsuits!

Here is Emmett at 3 weeks.

Here is Emmett at 2 weeks.

Matt's Birthday party! 1 week!

Tim loves the i touch that Grandma brought!

Porter playing around getting ready to go outside! He keeps me smiling and laughing all day!

Tim holding Emmet in the hospital

Emmett 1 day old!

I'm Sorry!

2009-03-11T13:49:00.001-07:00

I'm so sorry that I haven't posted sooner! Our computer crashed while I was in the hospital last week so we haven't had a computer to post from. Luckily my mom brought her laptop with here so that is how I'm making this post. I think I should be getting a computer soon so I will post as soon as I do! We are doing great! Emmett is growing so fast and is already past his birthweight we are so proud of him. He does such a great job eating and sleeping! He is a little sweet heart we all just adore him so much!

Matt just celebrated his 27th birthday on Monday! I can't believe he is 27 forever in my mind I will remember the first birthday that we celebrated together when he was turning 22. We thought we were so old and grown up. I'm so grateful for Matt and all that he does for our family. He works so hard to always do his best! He is so wonderful. I love you honey and happy birthday!

Well, until I get a computer no pictures sorry! But, hopefully soon! Love to you all, have a great day!

He's Here!

2009-03-04T08:17:00.000-08:00

Our little family is so excited to announce the birth of our new addition! Emmett Wayne Maughan was born last night. March 3rd @ 9:56 pm! He is 6 lbs. 7 oz and 18 inches long. He has lots of blonde hair and dark eyes. Such a beautiful little boy!I know he is crying in this picture but, he is the best baby. He has hardly cried at all. Maybe 5 min. tops. He is just so bright eyed and taking in his new surroundings! He has some big hands ... you can see them in this next picture!

Epidurrals are amazing! It took a while to get my IV in. They had to stick me 5 times, it wasn't very fun so I really wanted no pain and that is what I got! It was a painless delivery! I loved every minute of it. It was so nice not to have to concentrate on breathing and pain relief. We just laughed and talked the whole way!
It was so fun because we had the same room that I delivered Porter in. it was nice to have surroundings that were familiar.
Matt, my mom and Anne were there with me. Lori is one of best friends and the midwife... she delivered Emmett. It really was a party! Lori thanks so much!
Here are some pre-hospital belly shots from the morning. I was scheduled to come in the moring but, they needed to move some ladies out of delivery so they had me call at 10. I called and it was the same story so they told me to call at 12. So I called at 12 and it was the same story and so they told me to call at 2! Luckily they called us at 2 and told me to come in! Mom and I had gone to Target to go shopping because it was so boring to wait. I love target it really made the time pass by fast!
We will keep you updated! We will get to go home on Thursday night or Friday morning. The boys get to come in this afternoon to see him. I'm so excited and I'll make sure to take pictures so that you can see the boys with him. I'm sure it will be so much fun! We love you all and wish you a happy day!

Birthday Party Under The Sea!

2009-02-23T08:31:00.000-08:00

We had Tim's 3rd birthday on Saturday and boy was it a day of festivities! It started bright and early with Tim jumping out of bed and waking us up to tell us it was time to get ready for the party! We told him that the party wasn't until after nap time but, that we needed to eat breakfast and get ready to go the store to pick out a fish!

It was a nice morning we had our traditional pancake breakfast! He loved the money the birthday fairy left. It was so cute because he actually gave Matt and I each one of his dollars. It was so sweet for him to share. So after we cleaned up we hurried into town to get some last minute things and his birthday fish!

He picked out a Beta fish, his name is Blue! Tim was so excited he held him all through the store. He and Porter actually got so excited that they started fighting and crying all through the store so we quickly grabbed our things and left! We were the embarrassing cart that you can hear throughout the whole store. But, little did I know that they were so tired that I would have to wake Tim up for his party. So those of you who know how fun it is to wake up your child, know how he acted through his party! He was good for most of it, just really sensitive! All in All I would say it was a success. Last year he sat in time-out 5 times during his party and this year no time-outs! Just lots of tears. But, when he wasn't crying he was having a blast and that's all that counts! So here are the pictures:

This is the party pre-kids! We had about 13 age 4 and under! It was so much fun. A little chaotic at first but, a lot of fun!

Opening presents

Porter hitting the pinata! This is the fishing game we played!

Here is the underwater treasure cakeThis is Blue. You can't see him sorry! But, He is in there! :)

We shout out a big Thank You to all our friends and family! This day was so fun and so special. We are so glad that so many friends were able to come and we missed those that weren't able to make it. Tim received so many wonderful gifts and has loved all of them! Thank You :)

I love Nap Time!

2009-02-17T20:12:00.001-08:00

It's times like this.....

That make these moments so nice!

I love to watch my boys sleep!

Valentine Fun!

2009-02-17T19:18:00.000-08:00

We had a blast last week! It was so much fun and it went by so fast. There are a lot of pictures in this post and we are going to start backwards from Saturday to Wednesday when all the fun Started!

Our Family Valentine Party!

Matt and I had a really fun romantic dinner together after we put the boys to bed! Actually I think they were watching a movie up in our room.

We have some fun traditions for Valentine's Day. The boys get me flowers and I make them each a candy grahm. It's so much fun! I love to be creative and they really like it. The boys favorite part were the fruit by the foot.

Then we get cute matching pj's! Just like Christmas!
In years past they have said something like Captain Heartbreaker or something like that but,this year they said Handsome Just Like Daddy! I thought they were cute!

Friend Valentine Party
My friends threw a cute Valentine Party for the kids. They decorated sugar cookies, played games, ate treats, gave out valentines and had a complete blast! My boys loved it. Thanks so much Monica and Julie for such a fun party!

Laney and Porter ( I think this is Zach's arm) loved dumping the nerds on the floor and eating them!

Tim and Porter eating their Valentine treats!

Monica and Julie made these cute mail boxes for the the Valentine's! Here is Tim with his!

Decorating Sugar cookies!

Annalei

Emma

Eliza, Zach and Max

and Porter! He couldn't wait to decorate he just started eating it right away!

This is our fun musical hot balloon game we tried to play with 3 year olds! It was a blast, I'm so glad that we were able to have such a fun little party!

Valentine's from Mama Hawkes
Mama sent us Valentine's! They were these cute chocolate boxes. We were so excited!

Tim wouldn't let go of it to take a picture of it. See all the hands grabbing after it!
Porter was super excited! He sure has a sweet tooth! I think we all do in this house! We started eating them one at a time like this!

Then we were hooked...Then we couldn't eat them fast enough!

It was a great 5 minutes! We love chocolate!
Mama thank you so much! We love you!

I hope that each of you had a great Valentine's week. It is one of my most very favorite holidays! I just love, LOVE! Everyone deserves to be loved and have the chance of loving someone! I'm so grateful for my family. I love my Valentine's so much! They mean so much to me, I don't know what I would do with out them!

He's Turning 3!!

2009-02-11T08:30:00.001-08:00

Timmy is turning 3 next Saturday we are so excited! I wanted to invite all of our close friends and family to our fun under the sea party! I omitted the address off the invitation because I thought that would be scary with our blog not being private! So if you are feeling up to it come on over to our party! Just let me know so I have enough treats, cake and party favors for everyone!:)

We found it!

2009-02-09T20:35:00.000-08:00

Our Beautiful Day! We spent so much time outside and loved every minute of it. It was so nice to get some fresh air. He are my cute boys!

I love to bundle! I think I do a pretty good job at it too!

This is me today with 25 days left. Can you believe that it has gone by so fast. Sorry about the not ready no make-up just having fun with my boys look. The nice thing about my boys is they always make me feel loved whether I'm all fixed up or not!

This is Timmy with Merry Moon. Isn't he the cutest! I just love him so much!

Basking in the beautiful sunlight!

When we got home the boys hadn't had enough of the outdoors so they went outside to play. Where did they go first? The garden. I'm sorry to say that this is not chocolate all over their hands and mouths it's dirt. And they aren't wearing pants because they are on the back porch!
I love my boys! Don't you think this picture of Timmy looks a lot like Matt? Porter was posing for the camera! He loves pictures!

Well, Matt found it! Our camera is back and I'm so happy. Okay so that is just going to top the list of what a great day it was. So this is why today was such a great day!

1. It was 64 degrees outside. Such a nice break from the single digits and such! Timmy is so excited to where his shorts and t-shirts outside!

2. I got to take the boys for a walk. I love to go the the forest preserve that we have here in town. It's so peaceful and motivates me so much! I always leave smiling. Especially when I'm with my cute family. Timmy ran .6 miles with Merry it was so cute to see him holding her leash and running to get exercise!

3. I don't have to go grocery shopping for 2 weeks!

4. I have 6 meals that are super yummy in my freezer! All I have to do is heat and serve..... Thanks so much Aubrey for the help!

5. I was able to have FHE and take care of visiting teaching at the same time! :) Love it! For those of you that don't know I am the worlds worst visiting teacher. So it feels good when I actually do it!

6. I made some super yummy peanut butter kiss cookies! I ate 3 with out feeling guilty at all because I walked this morning at lake of the woods!

7. I am editing my blog and checking facebook!

8. Matt found our camera.

9. I didn't have to pay a balance on our credit card!

10. I only have 25 days left! OH, I'm not ready... I have so much to do!

So you see it is a beautiful day!

I'm Back!

2009-01-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I shouldn't lie because I'm not really going to be that faithful at blogging. I will be lucky if it is every 2 weeks and then when the baby comes. Maybe every month. I will try though! It has been so much fun and time has just gone by so fast since we have come home from Utah. Here is a little recap--

We went to the Allstate Sugarbowl in New Orleans, LA. That was a blast and of course we all know the outcome of the AMAZING game!

Then we have just stayed in. I guess "Nesting" has finally hit. I just lay awake some nights thinking of all the projects I want to do. I think of the all the dirty things that need cleaned. So I do them and then I'm down for a couple of days because I'm so tired from laying awake in the middle of the night and cleaning all day.

The boys are growing up so fast. Timmy's new favorite thing to do is sled. He hikes up to the top of the hill himself with his sled and lays on his tummy and there he goes! It's so cute. I can't believe he is so big. Everyday he says more things and speaks clearer. He has some really great stories. He and Porter love to play together and I don't know what they would do with out eachother! He also is working on potty training, almost but still not quite there.

Porter is talking pretty well. He has surprised us and uses about 7 words regularly. Ball, mom, dad, bye, head, uh-oh, and please! He is getting so tall and so big. We love him so much!

Matt is started back to school so we will see him around summertime! I feel bad I was pouting all weekend dreading Tuesday when classes start. But, he ended up staying home for the first 1/2 of the day and taking us sledding. It was so much fun. He is such a wonderful dad! We love him so much!

The baby is definitely growing fast. I only have 44 more days left. I can't complain, this pregnancy has been the best yet. I feel really good and haven't had any problems so far! Usually at this point I'm so ready to have the baby because I'm sick of being pregnant. But, now I just can't wait to have the baby to see how cute he is! I sure love my boys!

Well, hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon! Sorry for the long drought! Have a great day!

Good Times with Good Friends

2008-12-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

Some of my old high school friends and I went out to dinner to P.F. Changs. It was so yummy! The baby told me all night that I definatley at to much! It was so fun to see everyone and catch up. Aubree brought her cute little one year old. He and Porter are only a few weeks apart. He is such a cutie. It made me miss my cute boys. It was really nice of Grandma to watch and play with them. Here are some pictures!

Jill, Me, Cassia, and Morgan

Morgan and I

Aubree and I

Aubree and Spence, Me, Mel, Morgan, Jill and Cassia

Utah Fun

2008-12-14T06:45:00.001-08:00

We (Timmy, Porter and I) arrived safely in Utah on Wednesday night. It was a pretty good flight. I was excited because it was a non-stop flight but, I realized that 3 hours in a seat with two children is a long time. Everything went as planned. Matt dropped us of at 7:25 for our shuttle. We arrived at the airport 2 1/2 hours early and had plenty of time to burn off some energy for our 3 hour flight. We got on our plane and the boys fell asleep right as the plane left the ground. I was so excited that it was going to be this easy. Well, 1/2 hour into the flight a little boy in front of us was having a tickling war with his mom and woke the boys up. This is when I realized that happy noises are just as disturbing as sad noises. So I had to come up with games and things to do for 2 1/2 hours. The boys were really good and we made it fine!

As soon as we got in we started to drive to mom's new home in Eagle Mountain. We got about 10 min from home and Timmy started throwing up. What a great way to start a trip. Luckily I had my mom to help with the throw-up in the car. He threw-up about 6 times but, wasn't acting sick. He wanted to eat and drink so I let him. I thought it was going to be a long night with him but, the throw-up ended just as fast as it came on. We have been fine and healthy since! Here are some pictures of Grandma Hawkes beautiful house. I love all her Christmas decorations. The tree is my favorite. Timmy and I will cuddle on the couch as we look at all the beautiful lights and Porter can't keep his hands off it. She has a really fun bell garland that he likes to shake. Porter loves Grandmas he sleeps better here than he does at home. It's crazy! Grandma is also watching a cute little puppy until Christams! Porter loves her so much. They are little pals already.

This is Lily the cute little puppy!
This is Grandma's Family Room

The boys love watching movies at Grandmas!

Porter loves Grandma and the camera!

Timmy his usual look at the camera and then away before it takes the picture. It's so hard to get a picture of him looking at the camera.

Daddy we love you and miss you and can't wait for you to come on Thursday morning! It's going to be so much fun! Good luck with your homework and finals!

Florida Thanksgiving!

2008-12-04T07:53:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun with Tim, Kate and Camden in Florida! It will be a trip to remember! We had a blast driving down through the night on the 18th and arrived at Seaside, FL for lunch. Seaside was beautiful, I hope we can go there again soon! Then we traveled through the long drive of Florida. We didn't know we were only 1/2 way when we were at Seaside. So we didn't get to Fort Lauderdale until 1:30 at night. Tim waited up for us it was exciting to see him. After that we crashed and played and ate! It was so much fun. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner, it was so yummy! Tim and Matt had fun frying the turkey and Matt put the final touches on our honey baked ham (which was awesome). It really was a trip to remember! Thanks Tim and Katelin for such a fun trip we loved it!

Trip Plans

2008-11-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

Utah Here We Come!! We are so excited for the Holidays and can't hardly wait. We are starting them off with Thanksgiving in Florida and then on the 10th Porter, Timmy and I are flying to Utah. We come in at 4:10 pm to be exact! Then Matt will drive or fly out on the 17th and we are going to stay until all the parties are done! We have a wedding to go to, CHRISTMAS, a lot of family to see, a farm to visit, and lots of friends we haven't seen for years, skiing, cabin trips and much more is on our list! We hope we get to see you! If Matt flies we will leave on the 31st to spend New Years in Chicago and if we drive we will leave the West around the 3rd of January. I hope you have a great day!

Halloween and Birthdays!

2008-11-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry it usually doesn't take me this long to post but, with the camera lost and the cord missing it just didn't happen. So I hope you are up for posts from now on! Hopefully we will be weekly from now on! First we have our Halloween pictures and then I finish off with Porters birthday!

Timmy in his Red Dragon Costume. I love the wings and tail! Also, I don't know whose trick or treat jack-o-lantern he found!

Porter Loved Halloween this is at our neighbors house he was such a big boy trick or treating! I think this finding Nemo costume is my favorite costume we own! I love to watch Porter walk in it because it moves the fins and tail and it looks like it is swimming!

Matt and Porter

After he went to 2 houses he was happy he had candy in each hand! It doesn't get much better than that for him!

This is after our ward trunk or treat. Tim and his friend Zack were sharing their treats on the stage. I thought it was pretty cute!

Matt and I dressed up for the ward party as Wesley and Buttercup. It was really fun and Matt looked Awesome!

Happy Birthday Porter! We Love You!

He is 1! We love him so much! He is such a happy boy!

We had the stomach flu and it was Sunday so it wasn't very eventful! We had fun together at home ! It was a beautiful day so we played outside in the morning while Dad and Grandma went to church! Then when they got home we opened presents! Thanks Grandma Hawkes for the awesome toys!

And ate Birthday Cake! He was amazed by the candle!

The little princess is Porter's friend Reese they were born on the same day! So we had a joint party where he was the prince and she was the princess. It was so much and fun! Thanks Lori for such a fun birthday party!

He had chocolate cake for this party and it made just as good of a mess!

It has been such a good month and gone by so fast. I can't believe that it is already November! I hope you have a great day! Thanks for visiting with us!

3 Simple Words!

2008-10-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

IT'S A BOY!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!

September Happenings

2008-09-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have been really busy lately but, when I look at my calendar I guess I have been busy! We started off the month with a trip to Michigan to support our Utes! We are so excited that they are still undefeated. Then the rest of the month just happened. I do have to apologized for the 3 week delay in a post because I've lost our camera. I don't know where it is. I feel like my posts aren't as fun with out pictures so I put it off until I have cute pictures. Well, with no camera I haven't had any pictures so I'm sorry. We have had a lot of fun this fall so far. The weather has been beautiful and I have loved every moment of it. This past weekend we went to Minnesota to visit my wonderful brother and sister-in-law! It was so much fun to see them and spend time with their cute little boy Eli. They have this most amazing park about 1/4 mile away from their house with a biking trail. I love to go their because it's this cute little town that is so pretty! These pictures are of us at the park!

Porter
Timothy
Just the 3 of us!
Eli or Weeli (Timmy's Eli)

Some updates:

Matt -- is teaching and loving school he is very busy so when he is home we love it and try to do as many fun and exciting things we can because it seems like we get about 10 hours during the week with him. He has some exciting projects and loves what he is doing. Last night for FHE he planned a fun campout in the backyard we roasted marshmellows and had our lesson by campfire. Then we got to sleep in the tent. The boys love to be with their dad! He is such a wonderful person!

Me -- I'm pregnant, busy and love every moment of it. I love spending time with the boys! They sure keep me running. I will be 17 weeks on Thursday so I guess the baby is the size of an avacado! If you don't know I'm due on March 7th. Everything is going great we find out the gender on Oct 9. So if you have a guess leave a comment. My little hobby right now is my running group I'm in. We go 3 days a week. But, I think I'm going to have to stop in 3 weeks. Today was kind of hard, I'm tired!

Timmy -- Is talking like crazy! He is such a wonderful big brother! He loves to play with Porter it's so nice for me! I just love him so much he is such a good boy. So sweet loves to clean up and he sings the song "clean-up clean-up". I just love the age that he is at! I wish he could stay like this for a little while! But, I'm excited for him to be potty trained I think we have a while on that one.

Porter -- Is walking! He started taking some steps at 9 1/2 months but was still mostley crawling but, now he walks like crazy and our weekend with Eli just made him a stronger walker. He loves to tag along with Timmy play with him outside eat dirt, whatever! He is pretty easy going and loves dogs!

So that's my update! Hopefully I'll get one up a little sooner next time!

I've been Tagged

2008-08-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I was tagged a couple of weeks ago by my friend Natty but, I hadn't gotten around to posting it yet. So it's 6 random facts about me~ I have no clue where to start

1. I laugh a lot ( I guess that's not random but, it's an easy one) it's probably my first reaction to anything spontaneous that happens good or bad.
2. This is the first year that we haven't moved since we've been married! :)
3. I have been to 42 of the States and after this weekend it will be 43. We are going to Michigan to see my brother.
4.The farthest I've ever ran is 5 miles. Matt and I ran a 5k on Sat. He was awesome! By the way he ran it in 19:17 and won the gold medal for the 25-29. That was without any training. He finished 7th overall and I finished 111th. What a slow poke I am!
5. My favorite fruit for right now is a fresh peach or a cameo apple!
6. I have either been pregnant or breastfeeding for 3 years and 2 months.

So I thought about dishing up some facts from my wild days but, decided I've moved on and nobody cares about 7th grade!

The last of Summer

2008-08-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

With school starting back up on Monday I thought that I should update you on the fun that we have had so far into August. I can't believe that it is almost over. It's been a lot of celebrating birthdays and hanging out with family and friends. Matt has been gone a little bit of each week to do some sampling for research, so the boys and I have had some quality time together! I also have probably read the most in the last 2 weeks than I have in my whole life. I've been trying to finish the Twilight series! It's good so far I'm finally to the last book!

This is my pancake bar breakfast for my birthday! It was amazing I loved it!

This is Porter practicing for his birthday in October. He did a really good job!

Boy does he love cake!

Matt's sampling! Those are baby plants just planted this year.

My birthday party! My mom made the most amzing boston cream pie!

Timmy and Zack sure loved it the next day. They both had a spoon and dug in!

It's been a really nice summer! We have had a lot of fun but, we are so looking forward to the fun holidays to spend time with family we haven't seen for awhile!

Little Family on the Prairie

2008-07-31T10:21:00.000-07:00

We got our family pictures taken last Friday! This is just a little sneak peak. I love them and I can't wait to see more! I also have one of Timmy that Ashley took that I really like but, I can't upload it. I am so lucky to be close to two really amazing photographers. Linda who took our family photos works with me in the primary presidency and she does some amazing work. She has just recently went on her own to start being a professional photographer. I like her to experiment with our family! You can see more of her work at www.throughherlensonline.com

Ashley my sister-in-law has started a hobby business and she is amazing with her photography I just love her pictures. You can see her work on her business blog http://hawkeyephoto.blogspot.com/ I wish she lived closer so that she could experiment with us. I'm hoping in the fall when we see her she can get some amazing photos with the leaves changing!

I just love looking at pictures of my family! When I do I am filled with joy and love. I couldn't be happier. I just love life, even though it has it's rough spots! I find so much happiness in my family! Thanks to all of you for being a part of my family I love you all!

What do you do?

2008-07-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

So we ran out of dishwashing soap yesterday. Me being lazy right now loaded the dishwasher anyway and just let the rest of the dishes pile up. Last night my wonderful husband went to the store and got some soap and started the dishwasher. So I got up this morning and unloaded it, so I could load the 2 sinkfuls of dishes. I finished loading and I went to put the soap in and there was soap already in there. I was wondering why the dishes weren't very clean! Some of them looked good so I put them away but, some I left in there. I just thought sometimes dishwashers have a hard time. So now what do I do because I can't remember what was in there that didn't get clean? Do I clean ALL the dishes? Do I just leave them in the cupboard and let them cycle their way through? Oh, I get tired just thinking about it! Somtimes I just wish I could play with my boys all day and not worry about the housework!

Last Week

2008-07-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

So last week was a blast and a flash! We started it out with our Anniversary then we went to Nauvoo and this weekend we had a visit from Batman! It was so amazing I wish you all could have been here to be with us!

For our anniversary we have a tradition of doing a fun activity like on our honeymoon we took a 12 mile hike (It was Crazy!) So this year we decided to bike 20 miles. It was so much fun! We went and did the Lincoln Pilgrimage trail from New Salem to Springfield except we went from halfway from Springfield to New Salem. It was the more country route and we saw some amazing things!

This is my wonderful Mr. Fix it husband fixing the bike rack! It came loose while we were driving!
This is at the New Salem Lincoln statue at this point we had gone 10 miles and up 1 hill! by the end we had gone up 3! How does that work when we only went up 1. Long story short, I took a wrong turn. Matt being the nice husband he is was helping me feel like I was right by just following me!
A Spainish Long horn it even has a nose ring! It was pretty intimadating. We coulnd't get to close. This is as close as Matt got! And for the record he ran over a snake too!
My hot date to Olive Garden! It was 100% yumolicious!

Now our Nauvoo and Carthage pictures. My brother Noah and his wife Ashley came and met us it was so much fun!

This is Carthage! It was a really wonderful neat place. I'm so grateful for the Gospel and I'm so thankful for those that have and that do sacrifice and serve the Lord so willingly to bless us with the wonderful blessings of the Gospel!

This is in Nauvoo! We were camping don't look to closely!

He is giving the look! You don't know who I am? Don't mess with me!

I am BATMAN

Non na non na non na non na BATMAN!

We bought this at a garage sale! Thanks Jennifer for the cool dress up costumes for boys. Timmy loves them and loves to run around in them! Thanks all for being a part of wonderful blog life!

Memory Game

2008-07-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends have put this on their blogs! I love memories and I think I have a pretty good memory! So Let's Play the Memory Game!

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

4 is not our number :)

2008-07-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would post that we have some surprisingly exciting news! Sure enough anyone that knows me I always am full of surprises (or randomness). So 4 won't be our number for long because next year we will be 5!!!!!

Yes sometime next spring we will be having another baby!!!! How much fun!!! We can't wait!!!

2008-07-12T20:20:00.001-07:00

4 is our Number!

2008-07-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

4 nights a week we wake up with someone in our bed

4 hours before 5:00 pm I start counting down until Matt comes home

4 is the number of people in our family

This picture was taken 4 weeks before we got engaged

4 times I saw Matt while we were engaged

4 wonderful years we've been married

I love you honey Happy Anniversary!

The Last 2 Weeks

2008-07-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

So the last 2 weeks has been like fireworks --- one thing right after the other! It all started when Matt went on the high adventure with the scout for a week. He took the camera so I posted the picture from High School.

Then he got back and we were so excited to have him back! It's not easy to go that long with our dad! So the next week Matt got caught up on work so we could have a really fun 4th of July!

This was the fun 4th of July parade we went to. It was 2 hours long! But it was fun to go with friends! It's nice to have such good friends to do things with. We were going to go with Anne's family to a really fun parade but, we missed it. Oh well, there is always next year!
This is how Porter did in the 2 hour parade!
This is Timmy at the end of the night after all of the fun of the 4th of July! It was a blast and that's where Mom and Anne's family left us for a week. Oh it's been boring and fun and exciting all at the same time!
We have played a lot in our backyard. The weather has been so beautiful here not to hot or humid. We have a really fun sandbox and playground that the boys love to play in.

We got a trampoline and we love it! Can't you see!:) Well actually Tim is usually screaming with joy but, right here he is crying because Mommy and Daddy were jumping on his trampoline. He likes it all to himself. Sometimes he is really good with sharing other times not so good. I guess it goes with the twos! He also is really into baseball lately we don't go anywhere without a ballcap, ball and glove. Maybe even sometimes he brings his bat!

We finished off this week with a really fun lake trip last night! It was sweet and short but of course awesome! I was able to wakeboard and Matt skied and our friends skied too! It was a success everyone was able to get up! Which is scary the first time out after winter. Timmy loved jumping into the water. I think he could have been there all day he liked it so much after he would get in he would swim away from me everytime I tried to get him to go back to the boat. He calls the boat the boot! It's really cute :)

The 2 Sophmore Years!

2008-07-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

So here is to more blasts from the pasts! Oh what fun memories! This was on the last day of our sophmore year I think! I just love it!! It's a classic! Oh we had so much fun. Who would have thought that we would be where we are today. Isn't life awesome! I wouldn't change it for the world.

This was my sophmore year in college! The semester right before I met Matt! I love to see it because it's has some of my favorite roomates in it Natty and Ari. I wish Mitchie was in it, I don't know where she was that night? Where is Jaymie too? Anyway, good times I miss you guys:)

This One's For The Girls

2008-06-25T20:58:00.001-07:00

I was sorting pictures with my mom the other day and I found this! I was so excited because I loved High School because of my friends. I had the best friends anyone could ever ask for! This was taken our sophmore year at the Sweetheart Ball! Mel was our princess or something I can't remember! She has her crown! It's so fun to find pictures. I just can't believe this was 8 years ago!

Sorry!

2008-06-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry the video didn't work. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Timmy's Sliver

2008-06-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty traumatizing day! Timmy got his first sliver in his foot. It was a pretty good size one too! He would only walk on the heel of his foot crying saying "Mommy hurt" and then he would go over to Matt and say "Daddy hurt". So Matt thought since I always take his slivers out that I would be the best one for the job. Well, everytime I touched it Timmy would get these huge alligator tears and scream "hurt" at the top of his lungs. So amongst the fighting I thought I would never get it out. So I went to get some help from my mom. She gave me a needle and told us that we needed to hold me down and just do it. So Matt held his arms and put his legs between his knees and I was able to hold the foot still while I pulled out the sliver. It was a very intense and tireing 2 minutes. We successfully got it out and showed him his sliver and he was so proud he had his "hurt" on his finger! He was showing it to all of us. It was pretty cute!

This is a video of our trip my mom and I took to New Mexico to visit my Grandma. In New Mexico there is this place called White Sands it's so amazing. We went there for a day trip because it's one of my favorite places to visit. I was able to get this video of Timmy playing in the sand with his feet. He is saying, "Where is it?" "There it is!"

Six Flags

2008-06-19T20:33:00.001-07:00

We went to Six Flags on Tuesday. It was the most perfect day for an amuesment park. It was the perfect temperature and hardly anyone was there. The max wait time for a rollercoaster was 10 min. It was a blast! Matt and Jen have come to town for the week and so we met them in St. Louis for the day. Timmy and Adam had a blast playing together and Porter and Summer had their crawling times as well. For about 1 hour Matt and I had the 4 babies and everyone thought that we had 2 sets of twins! It was fun for the hour! For those of you who have twins you are amazing. It was a real treat going with Timmy on the rides and seeing how much fun he was having but he sure got worn out. By the end of the day he just layed down on the pavement and didn't want to get up.

Ricks Birthday

2008-06-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we celebrated Rick's birthday! It was such a fun day we went to Anne's and lounged in her pool for the whole afternoon and then we went to the drive-in. It was a lot of fun! Porter is such a little swimmer and loves the water! Timmy loves the water too. He doesn't like his life jacket at all and when it's off he will jump in!

Boys will be Boys

2008-06-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

We have had a blast lately. I thought once I came back from Utah that I would relax and sleep in everyday. Take some breathing time and enjoy summer. Well, I am definatley enjoying summer but relaxing is probably the last thing on my list. We have been having a blast. I have 3 posts for you today. The first is of our adorable boys. I just LOVE being a mom of boys. They are so cute! With it being summer we love to grill and cook out. Then when we clean-up I take the high chair outside and dump all of Porter's leftovers for the dogs to eat. Well, he is EVERYWHERE now and before we knew it he had made it outside and was sharing his leftovers with Merry!

Little Timmy's favorite toy. His bike! He rides it inside and out! Lately he has been doing stunts on it including: jumping his bike and riding off the deck on his bike! He has only rolled a couple of times! It doesn't stop him from coming up with more ideas of what he can do with his bike!

Field Trips

2008-05-28T10:12:00.001-07:00

It has been a really great week and a very sad week at the same time. I was able to do 3 field trips with the boys. Then we took a family trip to St. Louis for the end of the week. It was a blast I took 120 pictures downloaded them on the computer, cleared them off my camera and then they weren't on my computer. So they are lost but, I was able to scrounge up a few from friends blogs! So I can tell you about the fun that we have had! On Tuesday we went to the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal, IL (It's about 45 min away) with some of our friends it was so much fun. The kids were able to play dress-up and play with doctor tools! Timmy thought his uncle Tim would like this pic of him looking very doctor like!

There was a painting wall wich was very fun. This is Tim's friend Zack and his friend Eliza! They had a lot of fun painting. Timmy even thought the paint tasted good!
This is for Uncle Noah! Timmy has some pretty good skills! You better watch out next time we come to visit!
On Wednesday we went to 2 things. In the morning we went to the forest preserve on a stroller strut. We talked about the senses in the garden and picked flowers, learned about colors and played with a parachute! It was a blast and Porter loved the parachute he crawled under it while we were waving it up and down. It was such a fun activity! Timmy even got to plant a seed. I hope it grows! We left the stroller strut and went to Touch a Truck. The park system puts this on and they had mail trucks, semi's, motorcycles, tractors, tow trucks, a fire engine and eve a police truck with a robot. It was really cool. Coldstone was giving free ice cream! And the pepsi truck was giving a taste of their drinks! This was my favorite truck!

The Raminator! It was huge and so much fun to stand next to!

We finished our fun week by leaving on Friday morning to St. Louis! We went to the Chaokia Mounds (Thanks to Nat for directing us there!) and to the temple and on the way home we ended up at Cabela's! Matt's favorite store in the whole world! So we ended up getting a lot of cool stuff!

This week has been a lot of fun too! We had a really fun Memorial Day picnic with our ward on Monday and then yesterday a movie party with Tim's friend Zack although 2 year olds don't watch movies to well! Then we might end up in Utah the end of this week for 10 days! So for all of you Utahns it's been a year since I have been there and longer since I've seen some of you so let's have some fun and get together!

It's been a long while

2008-05-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

So a lot has happened in the last month. I mean A LOT! Which happens when you don't keep up on your blog every day that goes bye you get more behind and more behind and pretty soon there ends up being a post much like this one! I think I'm getting pretty good at these long posts! Here is an update on us!

Matt is so amazing and such a wonderful person! He is so smart and truely dedicated to doing his best at all times and with any task that he needs to do. I'm so glad that he is my husband and I love him so much. He graduated with his Masters on Mother's Day. It was so fun to see him walk in Graduation! Two years sure has gone by so fast!

This is Matt's Adivsor German Bollero he is the most wonderful advisor.
We went to Chicago on Saturday to celebrate summer! It was a nice getaway. It was kindof and congratulations on your graduation and thanks for all you do trip for Matt and a wonderful day for me!
We went to the aquarium. It's so much fun there my favorite parts are the Wild Reef where the sharks are and the opening fish tank. In the tank they have a huge sea turtle and a scuba diver does underwater interviews it's really cool. Come to Chicago and I will take you to the aquarium!
Here is Matt and I in front of the Buckingham Fountain! I was so happy that day I had cramps in my cheeks from smiling so much! I love being with my family!

Porter is so sweet. I thought that he would be a calm baby since Tim is so wild. You know your kids are suppose to alternate temperments. So I have heard! Well, Porter is more wild, crazy and just as strong. He is so funny. He now has 2 teeth. He cut his 2nd today!

We've been having crazy weather here in Illinois. One day it's 83 and the next it's 54. So someday we bundle up!
I can't believe my baby is 6 months! Isn't he so cute!
He has such a great smile!
Loves to crawl and at this rate will probably be walking next month! He loves to bear crawl!
I wish you could see his teeth. They are in there!

Yo Timmy is growing up so fast. He talks all the time and uses so many words. The other day I was at the table with him eating lunch and I spilled the water and he looked at me with his smile and said "Way to go Mom!" Where did he learn that? He loves to wear hats and sunglasses!

This is Timmy going bye bye's! This is at Grant Park in Chicago. It could be his cover photo because he might me a singer someday!
My sweet little boy! He still finds time in his day to make me feel loved! He is such a cuddle bug and I love it!
This is at Noah and Ashley for those of you that haven't seen his great dance moves, you have got to see them! He is so awesome!
So awesome he had to show off at the aquarium!
I noticed in Chicago it's kind of hard to get him to take pictures lately.

So it's been a really fun month. Sorry, I haven't kept you all in touch maybe this next month I will be able to do everything I would like to do and be everything that I would like to be! So I just have one last person I would like you all to meet. This is for my wonderful brother Tim and his family in Florida...

I would like to introduce you to Bill

This is Bob's brother who lives in Chicago!

We love and miss you all and hope you have a wonderful day!

Spamville USA Pics

2008-04-16T06:54:00.001-07:00

Spamville USA

2008-04-16T06:04:00.000-07:00

We had a blast visiting Noah and Ashley last weekend. I wish we lived 7 hours away or closer to all our family and friends! We went up on Thursday and came back on Sunday it was such a perfect little trip! Thanks Noah and Ashley for all the fun!

A Great Day with Mom!

2008-04-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday I had a really fun mom day! The boys and I went with some friends to the Miller Park Zoo for the morning and then had a picnic in the park after. It was a blast!

It's a small zoo and great for these 2 year old to run and look at the animals.

Tim, Eliza and Zack looking at the singing dogs.

Eliza, Laney, Zack and Tim in front of the Tiger cage.

This was a very nice tiger! I couldn't get Tim to stay seated, it's so hard to get pictures.

Then we came home for some much needed NAP time! It was awesome then at about 4:00 we went to the Library and read some books and checked out a video to watch that night. After the library we went to the toddler park and played on the swings and slides! We got home at 5:30 and made dinner. It was fun we made chinese food. Tim loved his fried rice. Then we watched Happy Feet to end our wonderful day. I loved spending time with the boys. Wednesdays are always long because Matt is gone all day and then all night with mutual. But, we sure had a great day!

Picture Time

2008-04-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

Aren't these so cute! The picture of the 2 boys is the only one we got out of 50 different tries! Posed pictures are so hard. I just love my cute boys, doesn't Timmy look so grown up! I cut his hair on Monday and he wanted it to be cut. He sat there and let me cut it like a big boy. He kept saying "hair" and patting his head. It's moments like this that I love to treasure!

5 months

2008-03-26T19:27:00.001-07:00

So today is the day! My baby is 5 months old it's so crazy. Where does time go. To celebrate his 5 month mark I want to tell you all the cute things he does! He sits up and he rolls around. He's getting pretty mobile with his determination he reaches any toy he wants. He is so happy we have nicknamed him "Tickle me Porter" because he will just laugh and laugh with the biggest grin! Just last week he started talking to me when we was crying so instead of just screaming he at least tries to tell me whats wrong. He LOVES his big brother! Timmy can do no wrong and everything he does is so funny to Porter. He loves food and bathtime. He still likes to get up in the night but, he gives me a break every once in a while! I love my baby and I can't believe it's been 5 months!

Timmy's First Sentence

2008-03-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

We have done so much this month it has been insane! I don't know how March has flown by so fast. I can't believe it's almost over. It started with Matt's birthday which I didn't even get to post because we left for Texas the next day and being gone for 2 weeks I have a lot to catch up on. Matt turned 26 on the 9th. It was a good birthday we had a really fun party with friends on the Friday before and then we had a family party on Sunday with cake and gifts! He is such an awesome husband! I love him so much! Then my mom and I went on the Texas trip. This will be a whole post as soon as Matt brings the camera back from school. We saw my Grandma, my nephew Mason and his family, we saw my neice Amber and two Uncles. It was a blast! Then we flew into Indianapolis and Matt came over. We played in Indy for 2 days and then came home. That will be another post. But, Tim's first sentence was while we were in Indy. We pulled up into the hotel late after dinner and it was in a wooded area. As soon as he got out of the car he looked into the woods pointed his little pointer finger (up by his eye like he does) and said "Is there a bear in there?" Matt and I looked at each other and then at him and smiled and said "what?" and he said " Is there a bear in there?" we told him there wasn't a bear in there and he said "Oh, no bear." It was so cute and totally made our night! I just can't believe that Timmy is 2 and growing up so fast. I love you Timmy!

Finally a Post

2008-03-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

So it's so sad because my blog is my reward. If I get all the things done that I need to then I can post. So just to show you how bad I am about accomplishing my to do lists! It's been how long?! I was out of town last weekend too. But, still it's been too long so..... I have a lot to post! So to start off, I don't know who knows but we will be staying in Illinois for the next 4 1/2 years. That's a long time but, we have some great family and friends here so we are happy! It's been a lot of fun to live here:

1) To be in this part of the country so close to family we love having Mom, Abby Jane, The Taylors, Noah and Ashley and Dave all here in the midwest.Plus we are close to Chicago we have an aquarium year pass it's awesome!

2)It's just a days drive to the East coast (haven't done it yet but maybe someday).

3)We do get awesome prices to fly down to FL to visit Tim and Kate! Wich I wish I could do this weekend because I'm so sick of the freezing cold and no sun. But, good news I get to go to Texas with my mom and the 2 boys next week. It's going to be so much fun!

Okay, that is enough about Illinois and trips! My favorite thing to post about is my family! I love my family it's so fun and changes so much! Tim grows-up more and more everyday. Last night he pointed to a lion and said " Mommy, lion rrrroooarrrr!" It was so cute and a new word for him. I didn't know he knew animal sounds or lions. Other animals he knows are fish, dog and bear. Another knew thing is that he knows how to make toast. I caught on a little late I had no idea what he was doing until he pulled out the bread and toaster. I wish I could have gotten the tape a little sooner. After his toast was done he said his prayer and ate it. He is the cutest ever! I love my Timmy! This is Tim stuck in the mud while dad was playing with him. He had an adventurous week with dad while I was with the girls in Chicago!
Tim loves to make pop pop! This is popcorn, we even sing Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree!

This is Tim's first picture with the digital camera! Pretty good huh? I think he might have a talent!

We have so much fun toghether he always keeps me laughing!

Now it's time for my sweet Porter Bear:

I like to call him my chunker monker!

He likes to eat everything!

He is so sweet!

Check out this pose! Love the thighs!

He now eats rice cereal, applesauce and peas. Tim was such a wonderful big brother to help in this feeding process. He even thought the cereal was good so he ran and got a spoon and dug in! Here is a little picture to show you:

Here is Porter becoming my little PT cruiser. He can roll and sorta sit up he is growing way to fast! I wish I could push pause sometimes and just keep him this age. He laughs like crazy and it's so much fun.

Matt and I are doing great! We were able to go to a Martina McBride concert a couple of weeks ago. It was so much fun. Our friends had an extra ticket so last minute we got a babysitter (Grandma, Thank You) and went and had a blast. I love going on dates with my honey! Time flies and I can't believe that we have been together for 4 years! When we went to the concert I had such a blast it felt like we were dating again. I even got the butterlies in my stomach! I love him so much. He is such a wonderful husband and does so much for me and the boys! I love you honey! It's his birthday on Sunday the 9th!

Can I just say that I think Martina McBride is a really awesome person. She let a 15 year old girl stand up on stage and sing with her. Isn't that so cool! I wish I could sing on stage with her! Anyway thanks for looking at my long post. Pat yourself on the back you made it to the end!

Tim's Birthday!

2008-02-23T07:04:00.000-08:00

So we officially have a two year old! The day was so fun we had two parties and fun inbetween! We are so grateful for Timmy he adds so much to our family and is such a wonderful little boy! He is so kind and giving. He is funny and so loving! We love you Tim! Here is what we did:

In the morning we had the traditional pancake breakfast

Then we started with the cupcakes for the friend party that starts at 10:30!

I am competing with Megan for the mother of the year award! Aren't these cupcakes the cutest you have ever seen!

While we made cupcakes our cute lover boy wanted to play outside but it was 18 or so degrees with a wind chill that made it feel like -2!

At 10:30 we started the friend party, we had 6 two year olds running around! It was so much fun. We played with balls, went fishing for sand toys, played a jumping game and had a lot of fun with baloons.

Before the kids! It was and under the sea party so I had fish tied to helium baloons and so they were floating around for the kids to play with! We served 2 year old favorites grapes, goldfish and blue jello jigglers.

This is Tim making music with his friends and then sitting in timeout for hitting his friend with the drumstick. This is timeout 1 of 5 at his birthday party. For some reason he thought that he could get away with anything he wanted to on his birthday!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Timmy, Happy Birthday to you! This is the cutest all these friends singing this song. Some of them even were folding their arms at the beginning. My favorite part is them all clapping their hands at the end. It's so sweet to have good friends!

After all the festivities with friends we had a family party at 9:00 when the day was ended and we could all get together. It was really fun and Tim got his favorite toys a tonka truck from Grandma and some cool toys from Uncle Rick and the Taylors. He had an ice cream cake and a fish cake to carry on one of his favorite things fish! Yes Mike, you have a fish friend! :) Timmy loves fish!

We love you all and wish you could have been here! Thanks to blogs we are able to share all of our fun memories and times!

Valentine's Was So Last Week

2008-02-20T10:33:00.000-08:00

Okay so I'm really late on the whole Valentine thing! But, it was wonderful so Iwant to share it with you. Oh yeah, I will share the Merry story at the end!

Our little family tradition is that they boys in the family get the girls flowers and the girls in my case girl makes the boys candy grahams! It is really fun and Matt surprised me with some beautiful red roses! Then I made my Valentines their candy grahams! It was great!!

These are my roses!

Tim with his candy graham!

After we gave our valentines we set up a candle light dinner in front of the TV and watched No Reservations! It was really fun!

This is the dinner!

Sorry no pictures of Porter in his cute heartbreaker pj's! He was in bed. Timmy on the other hand wanted to watch the movie with us. I think he lasted for about 20 minutes and then was taken to bed! It definatley was a Valentines to remember.

That is not all to remember it by! I had the assignment of putting something special together for my mom. So I spent most of Wednesday running around town picking out the perfect things for her. In Champaign there is this awesome chocolate cafe and the have amazing chocolates! Each one is just so beautiful. They have a fudge sundae, cinnamon roll and all sorts of truffles but, their beautiful. They are like art! So I picked the ones I wanted and then they wrapped it up really pretty in red paper and a bow! I grabbed some pretty foil covered hearts too because I thought that would add just the right touch. I didn't want her to see them so I took them down stairs and put them behind our couch pillow. So as the day went on and turned to night I had to go to the grocery store to pick up some milk and groceries along wiht some extra things for the special present. I came home and with my arms full and noticed there was a scratching noise coming from the basement door. I felt panic coming, I let Merry out and ran downstairs in a panic lifted up the pillow and the choclates are gone. I look up and in the famly room was the bag that once had the foil hearts in it. No trace of red foil hearts but, where is the box with the specialty chocolates? I ran around the basement I saw red wrapping paper with teeth marks in it and a red bow that had been torn off but, no box. So I went into Tim's room and at the foot of his bed was the box and about 3 of the paper wrappers that chocolates come in. They were GONE! All of them nothing left. I wanted to cry! Still do as I'm writing this! I felt like I wanted to kill her if she didn't kill herself by eating all that chocolate! I was having feelings like I hate dogs! But, now I'm over it. Somewhat! She luckily threw everything up on Porter's toy and then in her kennel and had diaherrea all night. It was nasty but saved her life. Merry since has pooped twice in the basement and once Matt stepped in it in the middle of the night! So she is a bad bad dog! What did I do to deserve this royal treatment! Don't dogs now that they are suppose to be good nice loving pets that don't eat chocolate! Anyway, she has come a long way and has resumed her role as a pet. Currently Merry is died yellow from food coloring, Thanks to Tim! She puts up with a lot from him. I'm glad she is patient with him! She's just has it in for me I guess! So that is Merry. Her picture is to the left!

Peek a Boo

2008-02-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

Timmy is the cutest little boy. He keeps me laughing all the time. He is learning new words everyday. So I was feeding Porter in the chair and said "Tim, can you play peek a boo?" He then covered his eyes and opened them and said " Boo" it was so cute! I was able to get it on tape to share with you!

To Girly!

2008-02-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

So I changed the blog because Matt said it was to girly. I was just trying to be festive for Valentines day! I have to take advantage of those girly Holidays. I'm always surrounded by boy things. So I was tagged here we go...

Two Names You've Gone By: 1.Honey 2. Jules

Two Things I Am Wearing Right Now: 1. Sweatshirt 2. Pajama Pants

Two things you Want (or have) in a Relationship: 1. Love 2. Trust

Two of Your Favorite Things to do: 1. Hang out with my Husband 2. Play with my kids

Two things you did last night: 1.Looked at puppies 2. Ate valentine cookies (thanks Taylors)

Two people you Last Talked To: 1. Matt 2. Mom 3. Timmy

Two things You're doing tomorrow: 1. I don't know 2. Miss Matt while he goes to mutual and doesn't come home till 9:30

Two Longest Car Rides: 1. Moving to Illinois 2. Church History tour in the motorhome in 7th grade.

Two Favorite Holidays: 1. Valentine's Day 2. Christmas

Two Favorite Drinks: 1. Water 2. Milk

Two Things About Me you may not have known: 1. My hair isn't as light blonde anymore 2. I love singing and dancing to music when I'm by myself.

Two jobs I have had in my life: 1. Mom 2.Physical Therapy Tech

Two Movies I would watch over and over: 1. How to lose a guy in 10 days 2. August Rush

Two Favorite Foods: 1. Steak 2. Vegetables

Two places I'd rather be right now: 1. Somewhere where the sun was shining with my family 2. In May

Okay so now I tag: Anybody that hasn't done this yet! I actually think I am one of the last ones!

Tim behind closed doors!:)

2008-02-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

Those of us that try to train our kids to sleep know what a joy that is. So since Tim has been in his big boy bed he has a really hard time going to sleep. This day it was his nap! He was screaming at me and locked me out of his room. As soon as I knew he was asleep I went to the other door that was shut, luckily not locked and this is what I found....
Emptied drawers, diapers scattered, destin in the hair and rubbed on the dresser and toys everywhere!! He almost made it all the way on his bed to fall asleep. Nat, this is for you!

Snow Day in the Freezing Cold!

2008-02-12T08:25:00.000-08:00

We had a really fun snow day! Tim is such a big boy and loves to go outside. The only thing that he does not like are gloves. He takes them off as soon as he can.

Smiley:)

2008-02-04T09:11:00.001-08:00

Isn't he adorable!!

Hi Matt!

2008-02-04T07:52:00.000-08:00

Tim is so funny!:) He keeps me laughing all the time, anyway he calls his daddy Matt. I was able to get it on film and I wanted to share!

Breanna's Sleepover

2008-02-02T15:39:00.000-08:00

I have a really cute 11 year old niece and she came and stayed with me two weekends ago while Matt was winter camping with the Scouts. It was so much fun and Tim just adores her. This is part of the reason why. She is so creative she made him this little play area with all his toys. I thought it was so cute I had to post it.

As you can tell he had a blast with it as well! He's all tuckered out!

It's catch up time!

2008-01-24T20:57:00.000-08:00

So I'm sorry, I'm obviously not a very good blogger. It has taken me a month and a half just to get another post up. I am feeling better now about my page it has a cute background and I'm figuring this out. I seem to give up on things when something doesn't happen right the first time. It's sad because then I leave it for a while and then come back to it and finish it. I wish I could be more dedicated and finish what I start. So having said that here is the catch up part!!

Christmas was a blast we stayed home in Illinois. It was fun and a first. We haven't stayed home for any holiday's since we have been married. I learned 2 things:

First: It is very hard taking pictures with an almost two year old but, when you do get good ones you have to hang on to them!

Please (crying) Tired rubbin eyes Singing Popcorn Popping

This is the picture that we were able to get! I wish he was smiling, he still is so cute!

Second: It important to get away and we didn't during the break so we decided to go to Florida over Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday! It was a blast, we crashed Tim and Kate's place for 4 days. We went to the beach and ate a Grand Luxe where there is the BEST Key Lime Pie everyone should try it!

My nephew Camden! What a cutie!:) I'm in the background.

Tim at Rainforest Cafe. He loves fish.

Tim on Matt's shoulders.

Here is our Porter Bear.

Sandy Tim at Commercial Beach. He also loves sand!

This was a highlight of my trip seeing my two sleeping babies after a busy day! I just love them so much!

I've now started! :)

2007-12-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

My friend Natalie and my sister-in-laws Kate and Ashley have shown me how wonderful it is to have a blog and how easy it is to maintain! So we are going to start a family blog because I think it will be a good healthy thing. I have a lot to write about now since I have two crazy and wild little boys so we are going to have some fun!!