Marriage: 9 Years

We have been trying to remember to take a picture of ourselves...
every 300th picture of the girls.
Here's a few lessons I've learned in the last few months
to celebrate our 9th anniversary.
I promise to have MUCH better ones to go with the 10th anniversary post.

Don't take the picture in a way where you have to look at the sun as well.
Tim is smarter than I am.

Probably not the smartest to try to take a picture whilst driving.

ALWAYS keep the outtakes.

LOVE LOVE LOVE each other. It's the make or break of a good picture.

Happy 9 years, Tiffany Samyo.

The Rest of June

Building a vegetable garden!

This RUINED my back for almost 2 weeks.

Our sweetie with her sweets.

"Baby Holly" and the real baby Holly.
(At bedtime, I am required to call Anna "Baby Holly.")

Father's Day 2011

We spent Father's Day in the cities with Rambo.
Although I found out quickly that I was WAY off.
It was a princess crown.

Two little girls who have the SAME hair.

WE LOVE DADDY.
Even though I didn't manage to get a specific post out about him,
we love him dearly, and would be lost without him.

It was a busy day of celebrating Austin's baptism!
JESUS LOVES AUSTIN!

Bit-O-426

Anna loves to swing (in her winter hat).

Jenny (and Kim) ran her 2nd half marathon.

Ellie has a calle-pillar named, "Patti."

Tim enjoyed a fire fighter version of tug-of-war
at the Summerfest.

Weekend with Larsen's

Round 4 of Auntie-ness!

Meet Austin Michael Larsen...
little brother to Rylee Grace!

Mr. Austin has the same toe as Ellie - but Mr. Austin has 2 of them!!
They both have toes that curl under their other toes!

Happy Mother's Day!!! (Part 3) (Video Fixed!!!)

I had a little trouble earlier uploading it to Blogger and YouTube, so I finally got it to work in Facebook. So here you go, in case you saw the earlier version with the messed up audio! Yay!

Happy Mother's Day, Jenny! (Part 2)

Happy Mother's Day, Jenny!

On this Mother's Day in the year 2011, I, a husband and father, have decided to take this opportunity to voice a concern that my lovely wife feels the need to defend herself on Facebook. I don't know what caused her to feel the need to defend her qualifications as a mother of our two beautiful girls, but she did. On March 13th of this year she posted the above photograph and added the printed caption below it. Why? I don't know, but my goal on this Mother's Day is to defend this mother, and prove to the internet world that she is a capable, qualified, wonderful mother who deserves all the praise and recognition that we as her husband and children can shower upon her!

Exhibit A
Would a mother who takes pleasure in seeing her children cry take a photo like this in a public place for all to see? No, I believe that this mother is proud of showing affection and love to her daughters (see Exhibit A above)! She loves them in ways that they will never fully understand, or even possibly appreciate, because that's what moms do.

Exhibit B
Would a mother who publicly displays photographs of her children in moments of misery also post photos of her silly moments of fun and laughter with her children? No, this mother posts photos like this every day! I will go on record as an eye witness that this type of activity (see Exhibit B above) is a common occurrence, and the children enjoy every minute of it. This silliness is out of love, not craziness.

Exhibit C
Well, Exhibit C is just because I think she's pretty...

I believe I have built a very strong case in defense of my wife's comments about the photograph of our crying daughter. I am open to comments and observations below, and I am confident that I will squash any accusations that threaten her qualifications as a mother to our children! I love you Jenny! We all love you!

10th Anniversary: Engaged!

Today was a relatively normal day for us.
We had one sick kid to take care of, a Spring Program for the other.
Tim worked, and it was my day "off" (whatever that means for a mom).

BUT, if you were to ask us what today REALLY meant,
we'd say that 10 years ago, TODAY,
was the beginning of the future of the TJMathiesens.
Today, 10 years ago...
Ben (one half of our best "couple friends") asked me to tag along
to pick up his fiance, Jen, from the airport...

This was back in the day when you could go
all the way to the gate to meet someone.
Remember when we could go beyond
the less-than-exciting baggage claim to meet someone?

Not only did we meet Jen, but I met Jimmy Jam
and his gorgeous wife, Lisa.
THEY knew I was going to get engaged before I did.

Ben & Jen said that we needed to meet Ben's dad for lunch.
We ended up at *tada!!* the place where Tim and I had
our first date, Chili's...and Ben just happened
to have a card from Tim.

It was this one...

It was a wonderful card with his thoughts on our first date.
It was about our first date, that didn't become our first date
until a few months later when we realized that it had,
in fact,
been our FIRST DATE.

When we were finished eating
(and I was finished asking why his father hadn't come to meet us...)
we left. BUT Ben went the wrong direction on Snelling
and started heading to Northwestern College...
I kept asking WHAT we were doing,
and Ben said that his dad was doing a wedding there...
at noon on a Sunday.

Ummmmm....

In my sheer confusion, I do remember asking Jen,
"What's REALLY going on?" to which she kept saying,
"Nothing!" without ever turning around in the front seat to tell me.

When we parked Ben said we needed to go into the building
where we had chapel (as NWC students) everyday.
There we *tada!!* ran into Tim's friend from work, Peter.
Who happened to have another card for me?!?!?
Fancy that. I was SO dense. Seriously.

It was this one...
This card talked about how after that first date,
our relationship grew from...

looking for each other at chapel...
to sitting by each other at chapel...
to holding hands at chapel...
to skipping chapel to hang out at "our bench."

We were falling in love at chapel (or not at chapel).

At the end of card it said to go down to the bench by myself.
This bench was where we made that decision that we were dating.
Our bench.

If you are any smarter than I was that day,
you have already figured out that Tim was there.
Ring in hand.
With a question on his mind.

I believe my first response was,
"WHERE DID YOU GET THE MONEY???"

To which he said,
"I'll tell you later. Would you answer me please?"

To which I said,
"YESSSS!!!!"

This is us 10 years later...

On a "normal" day...

celebrating a not-so-normal day,
10 years ago.

Still in love.

Happy Easter!!

Happy Timmy Day!

Daddy turned "Terdy Two!"








So we went out to eat at a restuarant we'd never eaten at before.








We had to get silly to keep the noise levels low.








Sillyness is always fun.








We made Daddy an ice cream sundae with a few candles to blow out...







Then we gave him knives! (Seriously!)








Love you Daddy!
Happy Birthday!