I can take a hint

Mathias came into the office the other day with his not-so-subtle hint that he was hungry and what he wanted to eat.

He came around the corner to the office and pushed his truck with the ramen on it and then hid out in the hallway. I asked him if he wanted lunch, it was only 11:00. He said he was hungry and wanted noodles right now.

I told him I would make them for him in a bit since he had a big breakfast not too long ago.

I guess that was not soon enough because he then pushed his jeep in here with the ramen on it as well. He is so stinking cute and creative!

I can do it by myself.

Apparently Mathias is too big to have his apples cut up for him anymore. He loves to just eat them whole even though it takes him forever to do so. I just thought it was funny that he is not quite 3 and has to do even this on his own.

pyscho kitty

Izzie playing in a little box.

Let her true colors shine. Here is a great picture capturing the evilness that this cat can sometimes portray.

hours of entertainment

Mathias got some new "qwedough" for Christmas and we just went out a couple of weeks ago to Bed Bath and Beyond (thanks Dustin) and bought a 100 piece cookie cutter set for only $10. This set is seriously the best, it has the ABC's, numbers, holiday sets, animals, vehicles, dinosaurs, basically everything. Who knew that this kid could be entertained for more than 10 minutes? This actually entertained him for hours along with a few of his cars (so he could see the tire tracks). Mathias loves playing with his play dough so much that the very first thing he asked for when he woke up the next morning was to play with it. I loved watching his excitement when he would put a car cookie cutters on it and see that it left the shape behind. It is so much fun and I am able to get stuff done around the house with out him hanging all over me!

Ice Skating

During the holiday break we went ice skating with the Brower siblings and all of the cousins. It was so much fun. I think that Devin has been dreaming about this day since the day Mathias was born. Devin is really into hockey, played some himself through high school plus a little college and can't wait to get Mathias into it. I will say that taking Mathias was better than I thought it would be. I thought that Mathias would get frustrated because he is so determined to do everything by himself and I though that if he would not be able to do it quickly by himself then he would get upset. He actually did alright and seemed to enjoy it.

Here is a quick snap shot of us about half way through. I am trying to get better about pictures. Most of the ones I have are of Mathias or Dev and Mathias so I am trying to get in there more as well as get the whole family in them. Thanks for taking this for us Melissa, I think it turned out great.

Mathias pretty much does not sit still long enough to take a picture and when he does he REFUSES to look at the camera, so after 100 tries Dev just grabbed Mathias' face and we called it good.

When we started to put on Mathias' skates, I don't think he had any idea what was going on. Dev was really having a hard time getting them on and it ended up that we needed to go up three sizes. Ice skates must run really tight but we finally found the pair that worked just right.

I thought for sure that Mathias would not be able to walk around in the ice skates and Dev was pretty sure that he would be a pretty quick learner and that it would not take him long. He was right. The first couple steps were pretty wobbly but towards the end he was actually running around in them. He loved the extra height it gave him as well, he was able to reach the water fountain all by himself, although still making a mess of it.

When they first got on the ice, it was pretty funny. Mathias just kinda hung there and let Dev push him around. Mathias kept chewing on his sleeves or his mittens, I think this was a nervous habit or something because I have never seen him do it before.

They had these cones out there that kids could push around the rink to help them skate better. Mathias found one of the smaller ones and just wanted to hold it. Like I am holding something so I won't fall, I dunno, I just thought it was cute.

Then, thanks to another friend's blog, we learned that if you teach the kids to march that it helps them to skate a little on their own. So towards the end of the evening we told Mathias to march from one person to another. I love the middle bottom picture, he was telling me that I needed to get further back from him for him to want to come to me and I was already almost to the other side if the ice rink. He did not get to attempt that huge distance though because it was time for everyone to get off of the rink. I think he liked this the best because he is my Mr. Independent and has to do everything for himself.

We had so much fun spending some time with the family and are happy they were all there with us. I am sure that Dev, Mathias, and I will be making a few more trips make to the ice arena.

Christmas present fun

I know this post is a little late but still wanted to share it. It was so much fun to be able to have something for Mathias to do to give his daddy and Mema a personal Christmas present. We went down to Color Me Mine and he picked out between a few pieces of what he wanted to paint and then he picked out the colors. He did these mostly by himself . The only thing I did was touch up a few white spots and of course the words. This was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again.

Toddler Talk

I love how creative he is. He decided that his road needed a mountain so he made one for his jeep to climb!

It has been a very long time since I have done Toddler Talk, but I want to remember some of the cute things Mathias has been saying this last little while, and since this is my journal/scrapbook this is where it gets written.

A couple of months ago Mathias told me, "Look mom, the moon turned on his lights." He would always point out the moon during the day and when he saw it at night one time, that is what he said. I love to see how his little head thinks.

A couple of weeks ago Mathias asked me to play cars with him. I have pretty much given up on playing cars with him for a few reasons.
1) he gives you a certain car to play with and then takes it away from you and plays with it himself
2) he basically ends up playing on his own like 1 minute after you sit down to play with him.
So when he asked me to play cars with him I told him "no" and his response totally took me off guard. He said, "Oh c'mon mom, it will be fun!" with a little convincing voice. I laughed pretty good at that one.

At around the same time Dev went to clean off his face and Mathias told him, "That's not fair dad!" Seriously, where is he coming up with these?

The other day Dev was bouncing Mathias on his lap and Mathias said. "Wow, you are making me dizzy, dad." I don't think he even knows what that means or where he got it from. Just goes to show you that they listen to everything that you say.

They are building some new buildings over by where we live and as we were passing it today he says

M: look mom, there is a crane truck
Me: yup there sure is
M: He is going to lift our house up

He also saw a tractor and said:

M: look mom there is a tractor
Me: yup
M: He is looking for potato bugs in the dirt
Me: oh is he
M: yup potato bugs like dirt

Seriously, he is way to smart for his own good. I love how he knows what cranes do. Such a little boy!

Another thing he has been saying a lot lately to get out of stuff is, "That's enough for me, yeah."
He says this when he doesn't want to eat anymore because he just wants to play with his toys. He will also say "that is enough for mom" when I am doing something like helping him brush his teeth or wash his face.

Something else kinda funny is when he says something and you don't here him or can't understand him and ask him "what?" he says "no, not what" and repeats whatever it is that he says.

Oh, and another cute thing he did today was on the way home I started singing along to one of those annoying catchy commercials in the car and Mathias chimed right in and sang their phone number. He totally knew it. That is when you know they play those commercials too much.

This does not have much to do with cute things he said but more about how stinking smart my little guy is. Dev just asked me if we should start to get Mathias ready for B-E-D( actually spelling it out) and Mathias came running up to me saying, "I can't take a nap right now!" (he calls his nap and bedtime both a nap) He totally knew what we were talking about. So much for spelling things out!

fun in the snow

The last big snow storm Mathias and I decided to play in it while waiting for Devin to come home from work. Mathias had a blast running around but enjoyed eating the snow even more. He would repeatedly tell me "snow is yummy mommy." I am not sure what is so good about snow but at least he will stay hydrated while playing out in it :).

While playing in the snow Mathias liked to make little trails through it, kicking up the snow and climbing the little snow piles. He would fall over in it and just lay there for a minute. When we came inside I wanted a picture of his cute little half red face, he refused to look at me so I put my leg on his head to hold it still and keep him looking at me. He thought that this was pretty funny. Mathias loves playing in the snow (I just mostly freeze) but it is worth it for this cute little one. Kids make snow a little more enjoyable!

Playing in the snow

We went over to Aunt Kelly's house on the day that Rick and Melissa and Audrey were leaving and decided to squeeze in some last minute snow fun. The kids played in the back yard for a little bit (it happened to be the coldest day ever). Mathias was mostly interested in pushing this little car around then looking at its tire tracks and telling me "the snow is yummy mommy". He also thought it was fun to bounce the snow around on the trampoline and then to try and get it off. He loved having little Audrey to play with as well. Aren't they just so cute in their snow clothes? We sure wish they lived closer so that these two could play together more often.

I want to be like Daddy

On our way home from Temple Square I looked in the back to see if Mathias was asleep or not, and this is what I saw. He had found his daddy's hat back there and was just chillin' with it on, looking out the window.

When he saw me looking at him he decided to play hide and seek and would pull the hat down over his eyes. This was a pretty lucky picture I got when he pulled the hat up. I just love this little guy!

Bruce is married.

My cousin Bruce got married on December 27th. We were not able to make it to the temple so we watched my cousin Cory's kids while they went. After the temple some of the family went out to eat at the classy establishment of Golden Corral. It actually wasn't that bad.

Mathias feel asleep in the car on the way over, he didn't have a nap that day because he was so busy playing with all of his second cousins. They must have really worn him out because usually when we take him out of the car when he is asleep he wakes up, but he slept the entire time we were at the restaurant. We just laid down my mom's coat and laid him down on top of it. He was zonked. After we were all done eating we went home to change and headed over to their reception.

Mathias turned out to be a dancing fool. He danced with everyone: me, Mema, dad, Aunt Kari, himself, and best of all his second cousin Sarah. They were so stinking cute together! The funny thing is, is that I have pictures of them dancing at another cousin's wedding a couple of summers ago.

When we could finally get Mathias off of the dance floor, we headed over to my mom's house to play games with my cousins. It was so much fun to be able to spend time with them since they all live out of town and we don't get to see them that often.

New Years Day

Since Dev's Brother and his family has been in town for the holiday, we have been inviting ourselves over to my sister-in-laws house quite a bit. We met them for lunch at Ricks favorite place in Utah, Cafe Rio, and then headed back over to Kelly's house to play games and watch movies. It would not be the holidays if Mathias did not get sick (he was sick his first Christmas and last Thanksgiving) but hey he made it to New Years Day. If we are lucky, next year we might make it through. He would not eat any of his lunch and was acting really clinging. By the time we got to Kelley's after lunch Mathias just wanted to lounge around and watch TV. He then decided to go in the kitchen (luckily) to see what everyone was doing and threw up. I am just glad it was not on their carpet! He slept for a few hours after that and then was ok. I think something just did not agree with his poor little stomach, so he only got graham crackers and water for the rest of the day. After he woke up, he and Rick played with Rick's remote controlled helicopter. I think Mathias thought this was the coolest. All in all it was a pretty good day.

New Years Eve

We went over to my sister-in-laws house for New Years Eve and hung out with all of the Brower family. It was a pretty laid back night. We went over after dinner and hung out , played games, and ate a bunch of junk. Mathias got to stay up about an hour past his bed time to play with all of his cousins, then off to bed he went. We woke him up when it was time to go and decided to take a few pictures with him while he was a wake. I felt so old this year. It was like we were all waiting around for some stupid glass ball to drop just so we could all go home and go to bed. For some reason this holiday season was kinda hard to get into. I think it just snuck up on us all this year. It was nice to spend time with everyone though.

Christmas at the Brower's

After we were done opening presents at our house, we loaded up the car and headed over to Dev's parent's house. We are usually the last ones there (because Mathias likes to check out all of his toys) but this year we were actually the first to arrive. Once everyone got there we were all able to open up our presents and then eat the traditional brunch of omelets.

In Dev's family, all of the kids rotate names and have one family for Christmas each year. This year we had Rick, Melissa, and Audrey. We got Rick and Melissa a gift card to Cafe Rio and we got Audrey a super cute outfit (man I am in so much trouble when we have a girl). Scott and Mel and family had us this year and got Mathias some cars and a cars book. He absolutely loves them. They also gave Dev and I the best gift ever, they got us Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premier Elements, which is for editing videos. I am trying to figure it all out but think I will need to get a Photoshop for Dummies book. We also got all of Dev's siblings to pitch in to get his parents some new faux wood blinds for their big front window. They needed some new blinds really bad. The ones they had were really old and falling apart. If you wanted to open or close them you had to get the stick that fell off, try to get it on the part that twists, and do it all manually. I think Dev's mom was really excited, she kept saying how she needed new blinds. We had such a great Christmas, getting to hang out with both sides of our family. We feel so blessed that most of them live so close by and that we get to see both sides off the family on a regular basis.

Oh, and don't you just love the picture of Mathias kissing his Great Mema. He loves her so much and they have been entertaining each other since she came to live with Annette and Jerry over a year ago. It is so much fun to watch them together!

Hope you all had a great Christmas, we sure did!

Lastly, here is a picture of all the Brower grandkids this year.

Christmas day

Christmas morning, Dev and I woke up at about 7:15 , got up, made some hot chocolate and waited for my mom to show up. The past couple of years she has been having Christmas with us at our place. She got there at about 7:45 and Dev went to help unload her car while I went to wake up Mathias (yes I had to wake him up). When he came out he was excited to see Mema and that Santa had brought him lots of presents and that he had eaten the cookies that Mathias made for him.

Mathias is very into Little Einsteins this year as well as anything with wheels. So that is what he got a lot of. He also got a few other fun toys, like Lincoln Logs, Gator Golf, a fireman's hat, Magna-Doodle, playdough, a pin board thing, and a piggy bank. Oh, and three flash lights (he liked to steal dad's work flashlight and kill the batteries, so he got his own). He also got a few things that he needed since he is just growing way too fast, like some new sweaters, a church shirt, and snow clothes. This kid is just plain spoiled! I love this age because he is just figuring out the whole Santa thing and it is fun to watch his face as he opens his presents. He would also hand us ours and watch us open them. He is just so much fun!

Christmas for Dev and I this year was pretty practical. Dev got me an awesome jewelry box (all of my jewelry has been clumped together on a plate in our room), a couple of books, and hubcaps. Yes, you read that right - I got hubcaps for Christmas. Apparently it has really bothered him that one of ours was missing so he bought me new ones. Gotta love him. Mom got me a couple of really nice coats that I have been in desperate need of, along with a scarf, some work out clothes, a T-shirt, a cute CTR ring, some perfume, and some fun socks. My brother Dust got me some really yummy smelling stuff and some great gift cards. Our dad also gave us a webcam so we can chat and see each other more often. We truly got way more than we should have and we feel very blessed.

Dev made out really well this year as well. My mom got him a couple of North Face pullovers, a North Face jacket, a hoodie, an REI gift card, with which he bought his North Face sneakers (can you tell he likes north face), and a T-shirt. I got him some games (he is always saying we need more), a new fancy bottle to hold his olive oil, soccer cleats, thermals, and I took Mathias to Color Me Mine were he painted a mug for him. It is fun to be able to include Mathias in getting presents for people (he also painted a plate for my mom). Oh, and mom also got both of us 72-hour kits and some food storage stuff. What a great thought, things that we would need but unfortunately would never spend the money on our selves.

Izzie even had a good Christmas.

Even though we complain about how our life isn't perfect, I love looking back at our life around Christmas time and realizing how truly blessed we all are! I love hanging out with all of our families and just being together. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas.