A Garden

Friday, March 28th Audrey would have turned 3 years old. Bryan & Sarah decided that they wanted to construct a prayer garden in a corner of their backyard as a place of remembrance, reflection, and meditation. Lots of able bodied helpers assembled at their house yesterday to help make their vision a reality. After rain the previous night the ground was a moist, muddy mess, but it was still manageable. Everyone pitched in and worked so hard to plant trees, unearth huge boulders under the soil, plant flowers & succulents, assemble a bench, lay pavers for a pathway, move dirt, wash & position hundreds of stones, put together a water fountain, secure & plant a small vegetable garden, and numerous other parts of the puzzle. The finished product looks amazing. I think it will be a nice, quiet retreat for them. I was so impressed at how it all came together.

The girls did a great job at getting their hands dirty and moving some rocks and dirt around themselves. They enjoyed finding doodlebugs as well.

Later, the kids helped blow out candles on Audrey's birthday cake. After sharing a slice with me, Matthew commandeered Mary Claire's piece and ate it as well. She said it was okay with her because she had already eaten all the icing off of it and that was all she wanted. My kind of girl!

Somehow we thought it would be fun to get all 5 kids on one swing. It worked! Matt was the last one to get squeezed in and his poor little belly is hanging out. Alright, so it's not so little. But, they all fit! We commenced to swinging them and Matthew loved it. He giggled the whole time.
We had a great day being outside with family and friends planting a garden in memory of our dear, sweet Audrey Kate.

Outside

Yesterday afternoon we spent a great deal of time out on the back porch. Give Matthew a bucket and the hose and he's set. He started by "helping" daddy water the plants in which he took his little bucket and dumped it's contents (a small bit of water after most was splashed on the ground while he walked) on the thirsty plants.

He then turned his attention to the coolers that were still out from Easter. He opened them and helped himself to a bottle of water which he chugged and choked on and then poured the remainder of water into the cooler. Then came the organization. First, he lined up the sodas on the arm of my lawn chair. He was especially elated to find TWO cokes with Santa Claus on them. After the cans began to fall off one by one and were therefore deformed and looked like they had botulism as Steven said, I encouraged Matt to stack them on top of the cooler which had a bit more surface area. After they were arranged to his liking he tossed them one by one back into the cooler with a great splash. He then added more buckets of water on top of it all. Then it was time to arrange the bottled water.This boy seriously likes to organize things. I'm surprised he doesn't have all the labels facing the same direction. For a taste of danger he then decided to perch himself on top of the stack of bricks. That's our boy.

Easter!

We serve a risen Savior...Hallelujah! What a day we had! Matthew woke up to his smiling parents photographing him and wishing him a Happy Easter and ushering him into the living room to find his basket. He first stopped at the dining table that was all decorated and said, "oh wow...hap-burk-gay Maffew!". After correcting him as to what all the fanfare was about he finally rounded the corner and laid his eyes on his basket. New books, bubbles, and some Thomas bathtub toys. He loved it. We later went to church where Steven & I helped out in Matt's Sunday school class and then worked in the infant's room during the worship service. Boy, did we see some spectacular Easter outfits. Parents go all out with their little ones; my favorite had to be the full on tie that this kid in Matt's class had on. The kid knew he looked sharp. After church, the troops all descended on us for lunch. We had Steven's parents, Tim & Pam, Bryan & Sarah & girls, Sarah's parents, and Zach & Joy & Ava. We all enjoyed some ham and numerous tasty side dishes. I like Steven's shiny head in that aerial view. Aww. After the little ones napped it was time for the hunt. Matt basically went straight from the bed to the backyard with barely a moment to slap his shoes on him. All three girls darted out into the grass like professionals collecting eggs as fast as their little legs could carry them. Matthew watched them in awe and slowly made his way onto the lawn while we're all urging him, "Matthew look over there! Look right here, there's an egg...pick it up!!" I had to take him by the hand to get him to his first egg, and once he picked it up he wanted to open it and just stand there and eat its contents. Never mind searching for more eggs. At this point Caroline & Mary Claire had nearly filled their massive baskets and Ava was on her second basket. I just knew that's what he'd do. With help, he got a few more, and each time he just wanted to stop and open it and eat what was inside. He wasn't too excited about the ones containing pennies or nickels nor in filling his basket up. One day.

Our little family:

Our big family:

Looks like the Easter bunny gave Mary Claire some lipstick. And Bryan some facial hair.

Happy Birthday Zach! His birthday was actually Friday, but we just got around to giving him his PS3. Good times.

Later, the kids ran-sacked Matt's room and had a grand time playing with the parts to the tunnel.

Today, we have recovered from all the fun. Matt indulged in a 3 hour nap. Myself, I raided our leftover desserts and ridiculously vast collection of Easter candy. What a great day!

C'mon Let's Go

Our son has a favorite song. A song that he could listen to all day long over, and over, and over. He asks to hear it every single day. And everyday we play it. Our dear friends who were present for the Port Aransas 2006 trip might remember a certain cd that Zach made for us all comprised of beach-themed tunes...well, Matt's favorite song is one of them. The song is actually called "Bronze Beached Boys of the Summer" by Pas/Cal, but Matt knows it by the chorus refrain, "C'mon let's go." Just watching his face light up and seeing that grin from ear to ear when he hears the opening notes of the song is entertainment enough. Sometimes he dances, but mostly he prefers to sit and stare at the ITunes screen and the tiny picture of the album label in the corner and soak it all in. Cracks me up.

And then this is how Matt spends a lot of his days now. His collection of containers and boxes has continued to grow to such an alarming capacity that the bookshelf that houses all of the grocery goods doesn't have an extra square inch of space to spare. It's like I have to secretly throw my trash away now because otherwise he spots the empty jelly jar in my hands destined for the trash can and he insists on adding it to his collection! He pulls them out individually from the shelf and talks to them and arranges them neatly on the chair beside the shelf. It's so funny to watch. It's like these items are his best friends..."Hey butter! Open...dere you go butter, right dere...(uproarious laughter); I found oatmeal! Hey oatmeal!" etc., etc. And when he's done he gets your attention with a "wow, look at that!!" and stands there with a grin and his hands resting together behind his back. Oh man. So, a future HEB stockboy or a 5 star chef???

While You Were Showering

So this is how I found Matt's room this morning after I got done showering. His room was trashed, and it looked like he had had a grand time doing it. His closet was opened and he had removed the extra parts to his tent and strewn them about, stuffed animals were "asleep" in a pile on the floor, ALL of his blankets were removed from their box and arranged in a sort of palate on the floor, he'd pulled out a couple other toys from the closet, his clothes hamper had obviously been tampered with, he'd been reading himself books, and he had found his cracker cup in my purse and was helping himself to a snack. I had to laugh at this scene. Honestly, this is an improvement from what usually happens while I'm in the shower. Typically, he comes in and says hi and then mounts the toilet and removes all my lotions, perfumes, contact solution, etc. from the medicine cabinet above and arranges them on top of the toilet tank. They inevitably tumble off the sides like dominoes. Anyway...it makes for a much longer getting ready process for me with a little helper at my heels. All that to say, I should be thankful (and I am!) that he kept himself happily entertained in his room this morning.

Early Easter Fun

Since it's spring break & because the big kids are out of school we were able to explore our creative side with some fun & tasty Easter creations over at the Rener's with Ava, Caroline, Mary Claire, Sydney, & Maddy. And Aunt Joy & Aunt Sarah of course...and Rachel stopped by for awhile, too. I hadn't really prepped Matt at all before we went over there because usually when I tell him we're going to go see his cousins or Ava he freaks out he's so excited & wants to see them RIGHT NOW. So, when he walked in the door yesterday he was surprised and very pleased to see all those girls sitting at the table decorating plastic eggs. When it was Matt's turn to dye his second egg he chose the color green (the 1st time it was pink) and with a thud and a splash his egg dropped into the dye and made a horrible cracking sound. So reckless he is unlike all the girls who ever so gently lowered their eggs into the water. Sigh. Stickers were put on eggs, duckies were put on cards, ceramic eggs were artfully painted, and then it was time for lunch. Guess who was the first one to eat? Yep, Matt. While the little ones napped, we baked sugar cookies and let the big girls frost and decorate them. The candy bowls were quickly emptied, icing was licked, and many cookies were consumed in the process. My favorite were Caroline's and you might see why. Her cookies were piled high with frosting and covered in a thick blanket of sprinkles and there were so many candy eggs nestled on top of all that that they kept wanting to fall off. More is always better when sugar is concerned.

Matt then woke up from his nap to find all the girls lined up in the window getting their toenails painted. I thought he might be interested enough to go and sit with them at least and perhaps ask to have his painted too, but he was content to watch them from the chair & cut up fruit.

High on sugar and perhaps the nail polish fumes, the kids ran around in the backyard. That evening Matt got his second bath of the week with a lady-friend; this time it was Ava. They played in there until the water turned cold.

The kids went nite-nite and the adults enjoyed some Chili's take-out and Lost. Dude!!! That show is crazy.

The other day Alicia had a playgroup at her house and made either the grave mistake or brilliant choice (depending on how you look at it) to provide lunch for us all. Feed them and they will come; I've never seen a bigger group of mommies & kids in one place! It was a good time. And with all that yummy food there Matt decided he'd rather lunch on pretzels and fruit snacks. Ugh.

Baby Doo-ay-go

At last, we finally got to meet baby Diego this weekend! Friday night we made the trek to Houston and stayed with our friends Bret & Sara in their lovely new home. Diego is a sleepy, laid back, handsome little fella with a full-on head of hair parted neatly on the side. He's adorable! Matt was thrilled because he got to play with their 2 year old daughter, Isa. The kids were elated to see each other when we woke up Saturday morning and set off to playing immediately. Matt loved all of Isa's kitchen/cooking toys. Looks like they went on a shopping trip to the bathroom...

Myself and some other wonderful ladies helped host a sip & see for Sara that morning. Everyone got to meet sweet Diego and eat some yummy food. My favorite part was when the 4 infants that were in attendance posed for a photo shoot...sadly, I did not have my camera because I left it with Steven. He and Bret were taking the kids to the Livestock Show. I hear that Matt enjoyed the animals but really enjoyed wolfing down his hot dog. I don't think Steven was inclined to share his sausage-on-a-stick. Mmm-hmm.

That evening we enjoyed pizza with the Olivers and McAfees. Matthew learned the word floppy, and repeated it multiple times through fits of giggles while watching his slice of pizza go limp.

Later, Matt had the good fortune to take a bath with two girls, Isa & Macy. They had bathtub crayons and went to town.

Sunday morning the kids had fun bouncing and falling down on the air mattress. Hilarious. We bid adieu to the Olivers and then headed out to Katy to visit my dad, Ann, and my grandfather. Oh, and with a quick stop by Bass Pro Shop so Steven could purchase a new reel. We enjoyed our visit; Matt got to play with their bubble guns so he was in heaven.

That tired little boy slept nearly the whole way home. We had a great weekend with all of our Houston friends. Thanks again, Olivers, for being such gracious & wonderful hosts!

Private Matthew

Looks like he's ready to enlist doesn't it? Matt was a perfect angel while getting his hair cut yesterday. Marked improvement to say the least. He calmly sat there the whole time looking from me, to his daddy, to his reflection, to the barber, to the clippers. Steven helped him wash off all the itchy hairs when we got home. He looks so big!

Have It!

Matt's horrible phrase, "have it!" has been a popular one lately. He's had a few emotional flare-ups on the issue of sharing. It's hard not to laugh when I see his little fists shaking in fury. Saturday morning I kept Ava while Joy went on a crazy-long run. Joy had been out the door 2 minutes and the kids both ganged up and demanded to go to the park. After getting Matt out of his pj's and packing a few snacks we were on our way. Those two together make me laugh. They play off one another like best friends one minute and agitated siblings the next. That morning, Matthew was mostly interested in eating crackers than enjoying all that the park had to offer. Oh, and keeping the bag away from Ava. Ava was content to swing. Forever! After much dawdling and one child walking awfully stiff-legged due to a dirty diaper, we finally made the long walk back home.

Later, Joy & I took Caroline to the Mad Potter to paint pottery as we had promised her for her birthday. The kids stayed back with Steven. Caroline painted a puppy dog canister and a small heart box. Such a chatter-box and wiggle-worm that one is! We thoroughly enjoyed our time with her and can't wait to see how all our masterpieces turn out. While we were gone, it looks like there was some jumping in bed.

This morning we headed downtown to the Children's Museum with Joy & Ava. Strangely, Matt & I had not been in over a year, and they had changed so many things -- it was great. Matthew ran from one thing to the next like sensory overload. He finally settled in and spent some time with the kitchen and all its fake food and pots and pans. This picture cracks me up...it's like Ava is telling Matt her deepest, darkest secrets or she's ordering something complicated like a cheese souffle or most likely she's wondering when Matt will be done so he can go play elsewhere with her.
Matthew spent a good 20 minutes in one sitting watching golf balls go down the ramps. And keeping the balls away from other children. Sigh.
He loved watching the train overhead go by, playing in the water, asking where Ava was, revisiting the golf ball ramp, and playing with sand. I love how focused they look on their work there with the sand.
Spent from his highly energetic and educational morning, he held still with his daddy before naptime.