Cute but not innocent

I know that I have claimed to be working on the house for the last several months, but here is proof why it is taking so long. Normally I work on the house while Michael is taking a nap, but sometimes I try to finish what I am working on after Michael wakes up. This is the end result. Oh plus all the drywall mud spread throughout the house where little fingers has touched.

Isn't this such a cute picture of Michael. Watch out for that smile! That smile says I think I am doing something notty, having a lot of fun doing it and getting away with it. Most of the time it is something that he should not be doing. We still love him though. How can you not love that face!

Michael just loves our Christmas tree! The first day wasn't a lot of fun while he was trying to figure out his boundaries but since then it has been really nice to have some festive Christmas decorations up. I just love Christmas time!

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree that we cut down. There is nothing like the smell of a fresh pine tree sitting in your living room. I know the decorations aren't much, but it's ten times better this year than last years decorations.

This year I decided to try to make homemade cards for family and friends. I also made chocolate, mint chocolate, and white chocolate coated pretzels for friends and neighbors. I have to admit I started getting grouchy by last night because of the stress overload, but as soon as we started delivering the plates my mood changed instantly. Service is such an amazing thing. It helps you forget yourself and think of others a little bit more. I feel that our family is so blessed. We are surrounded by great people, have family and friends and have the Savior in our lives. What more could you ask for.

Halloween

This year for Halloween we went to the Ward carnival. They had lots of fun booths to go to. Our favorite was the one where we got to pound the deacon's heads with a foam mallet every time their head popped up out of their hole. Michael was laughing pretty good. He thought it was a lot of fun to bonk their heads. Afterwards we went home so that we could pass out candy to the trick or treaters. It was a lot of fun to us because we aren't use to getting trick or treaters living in apartments. Michael would run to the door every time someone knocked, but then would cry when they would leave and he couldn't follow. Next year we will take him for his first time. I think he will really enjoy it when he gets to go himself.

I'm back!

So this picture was taken like two months ago but since I haven't down loaded my pictures off my camera for quite some time I am a little behind on past events that have happened. We are playing on the little sand bar next to the Columbia river. Michael is off to the right and on the left is our dear Alan buried in the sand. I thought my art work was pretty good but Alan for some reason didn't appreciate it. Needless to say he had drowned by the time we left.


This picture was taken right before we moved. Michael just loves helping me in the kitchen when I am making dinner. This day he really wanted to have a apron on so that he could be just like me. Oh we just love that little guy!


A week after we moved in to our new house I got a call from my older sister Amy saying that she was about to have her baby. Michael and I were able to go down to Provo Utah to help her out for a week. It was sure fun to see them and their new baby girl Kennedy (I think that is how you spell it).


Michael absolutely loved the new baby! Whenever she was awake he would make sure that he was in the same room and of course try to touch her. He was constantly saying "baby" and pointing to her. In this picture he is "softly" stroking her face. He was pretty good about being soft with the baby.

Here is a picture of My Sister, Me and The Kids. Brandon (Amy's husband) was nice enough to take it for us. It was so neat to see them and I hope that I get to see them again soon.

Now the fun is over and it's back to work. Alan and I have decided to re due the wall texture throughout the whole house, of course paint it and put trim on as well. Besides all of that we want to put tile in the front entrance and kitchen, fix the deck outside, refinish the fire place, and have tons of yard work and wood to be cut for the winter. All I have to say is that there is no room to complain of boredom now! No, we really love our new house and feel so blessed to have been able to get into a home. The space is just wonderful and the house has a really good feeling to it. I just love it here! There will probably always be some kind of project going on for awhile, but you are all welcome here anytime. We would sure love to see you. Oh, and for those of you who do not know we still live in Richland Washington. We just moved five minutes away from our old apartment.

Moving!

I just wanted to update everyone on our house. We finally signed the papers last night. That means that we should be able to move in by this weekend! Ya!!! We are so.... excited! There is still a lot of little things that I need to do around here before moving day so I better cut this short. Everyone of course is welcome to come and visit us. We just love company! There is a lot of projects that need to be done to the house but when we are finished it is going to look awesome! The funny thing is that Alan and I are so excited to get started on fixing it up. I can't tell you the number of nights I haven't been able to fall asleep for a while because I couldn't get my brain to stop thinking about what and how I am going to fix things up! I just love projects!

Our First House!

This is a picture of the house that we are in the process of buying right now. We are so.... excited to be moving into our own home but are also really sad to be leaving our ward. We will still be in the same stake but it is not the same.

This picture I got off the MLS listing. Everything looks the same except the grass. It is now a dried yellow lawn because of lack of water. As of right now I have no idea when we are moving in. In our contract it says that we are supposed to close by Sept 4th (less than a week away!) but I will be really surprised if we are able to close by then. The bank/owner has to have someone go in and hang a piece of sheet rock on one wall because of an exposed wire on the wall. We aren't aloud to do it ourselves and our lender can't finalize the loan until that is done because of it being a "hazard".

I have been packing up a little each day for the last week, but I have a lot still to do and cleaning on top of that. I plan on trying to be ready by next weekend just in case. Wish me luck!

Everything!

Well it has been awhile so I thought I better post "some" stuff that has happened in the last couple of months! =) This first picture is a picture taken on my Birthday. Alan surprised me with a Dairy Queen Ice cream Cake. You can't go wrong with ICE CREAM! It was really good but I think the next time we want ice cream cake I am going to try to make it. Dairy Queen cakes are expensive. They are good but not great, especially for the money that you pay. How hard can it be right!

I promised some people that I would post some pictures of the baby quilt that I made for my sister Amy. This is her first baby so I wanted to do something special for her. It was the very first quilt that I have ever made. It was a lot more work then I figured it would be but I really enjoyed making it. Now I want to try to make some quilts for our beds at home. Oh boy what have I started! (The coloring in these pictures aren't the best, sorry.)

Alan's BABY sister Heather got married in Idaho the end of July. I am so.... mad at my self because I didn't take ANY pictures the whole day! As soon as we would get to the next destination I would realize that I forgot my camera. (Maybe some people will be nice enough to e-mail me some pictures... hint, hint)

While we were there I also got to see some of my relatives that live in Idaho and my sister Amy. My cousin Sharla was kind enough to let me use her house to throw Amy a shower. I as afraid that I do not have any pictures of that either. I did take some pictures but it was on my sister's camera.

Here are some pictures taken at Egene Lakes. All of the kids really enjoyed it especially Michael. He just loves it when he can play in the dirt/mud and go anywhere he wants to. I think he is going to be really independent like his father.

Grandpa Mattson giving all of the kids a ride on his tractor.

The other day I decided that I was going to try to take a nice picture of him for the wall. As you can tell that idea didn't go so well.

Boulder Cave

Last weekend we decided to go to Boulder Cave. It's about two hours away from us up in the mountains. It ended up being so much fun! It was a beautiful drive there. When you get there you have to hike on a little dirt trail for probably not even a mile to the cave and right next to it was a nice waterfall. We took flash lights with us so that we could explore the cave and played at the waterfall for the afternoon.



In this picture Alan finally got the courage to emerge completely in the water. Normally you would think no big deal, but the water was really cold! Oh he just makes me laugh sometimes.

Afterwards we decided to hike up the trail a little further. Up ahead we found another little waterfall. A family there were using it as a water slide. We thought it was such a great idea that we both took a turn going down it as well. We both only went once since the water was so cold, but it was a lot of fun. We definitely will have to go back there again sometime.

The Fourth of July

So for this Fourth of July we decided to go to Portland to visit Jessie, Erik, and of course Eli! We decided to drive there a more scenic way. From the road you could see Mount Rainier really well. It took a couple of hours longer to get there, but it was fun to see new things.



We met Jessie and Erik in the mountains close to this random lake. The water was surprisingly warm. We also tried to go on a short hike but they didn't really have any trails around the area we were at. Maybe we will have to go for a better hike next time.

When we got back the boys were filthy! They really enjoyed taking a bath together. It is always more fun when there is someone else to play with.

The next day they took us to this really cool swimming place. It is specially made for children but it has enough stuff that adults can still have a good time as well. Michael didn't really like it at first but after a while he started to really enjoy himself.

Alan forced Michael to go down this water slid with him quite a few times. At first he would cry at the end, but eventually he warmed up to it. It was a lot of fun to be able to spend some time together as a family and with Jessie and Erik. Now it is their turn to come see us! =)

Alaska Trip!

Last month we had the opportunity to go visit my family in Alaska. It was so fun to spend some time up there with my family. I just love being around them. It is too bad that we live so far away from them. One of the first things we did while we were there was drive to Anchorage so that we could have a picnic lunch and take a walk along the ocean. It was really pretty and fun. Next to the trail they have a park so we let the boys play there for a little while before we had lunch. My camera ran out of batteries after the first picture I took so I didn't get any pictures of anyone else. My Mom and Sisters will have to send me some (hint, hint!). =)



Early Monday morning Alan and I went fishing with some guys from my parents ward. They have a fishing boat so they drove us a ways on the Deshka (?) river and knew exactly were to stop. They set us up right over a fishing hole and we were able to catch this 20 lb King Salmon. It was a small fish for Kings but I didn't care. I was just so excited to catch something! Alan also got a fish on his line but it got off his line after a couple of minutes of pulling it in. Next time I want to fish silvers because they come in in bigger groups and you are aloud to catch more then one.


This picture is taken in Denali National Park. The trails in the park were kind of boring so we decided to play along the river for a little while before our white water rafting trip started. Here Alan and Brett were trying to throw in a big rock. Brett almost feel in! I love it! Boys just make me laugh!

Here's Alan in his stud dry suit! You wear your clothes on underneath them and they are supposed to keep your cloths dry. Everyone was wet free except for me at the end. Mine had two leaks in it, one in each leg!

Continue of Alaska Trip

We wanted to go on a hike that Michael could go on with us. My sister Laurie suggested this one called Lazy Mountain. By the name of it I thought it sounded PERFECT! Ha, I guess you can't judge a mountain by it's name! It was 2 1/2 miles up with an elevation increase of 3,000 ft. Lets just say that it was like being on a stair stepper for 2 and a half hours straight and then you still have to go down the mountain. It was a lot of fun but also a HUGE eye opener of how out of shape I really am! Of course Laurie was skipping and singing the whole way up.




Alan and I had to turn around to go down the mountain about 100 yards before we reached the top of the mountain because of Little Michael. It was getting way too cold for him and he wasn't doing to good. Needless to say he caught a cold because of the trip. Eventually Michael feel asleep as we were coming down the mountain which helped a lot.

I had to include this picture because Michael's hair just looks so funny. With the way the light is hitting his hair it looks like he has a mo hawk!

This is a picture of everyone who went on the hike. The far left is Laurie and her husband Brett, Katie's husband Troy is in the middle and our little family is on the far right.

Alan also got the chance to go golfing late one night and use my Dad's chain saw to cut down a bunch of trees in my parent's yard (his idea). We played lots of games and just enjoyed everyone's company. I am so glad that we were able to go visit my family this summer. I wish I would of taken more pictures of everyone else but at least I have the fun memories! I sure love my family and I can't wait until we get to see them again. Thanks you guys for putting up with us. We sure did enjoy seeing all of you!

The Birthday Boys!

We have a lot of Birthdays in the month of June for our little family. Alan's was the 16th and Michael's was two days later. Since we were flying out to Alaska on Michael's Birthday we decided to celebrate it a day early. With everyone being sick and the big trip coming up we didn't get to do too much for their Birthdays but it was still fun.

Alan requested the usual (strawberry rhubarb pie). I couldn't find rhubarb in the stores anywhere so I ended up having to buy one. It was really.... good, especially since I didn't have to make it! =)

I actually let Michael make a huge mess with his cup cake and he loved it. I think most of it ended up on the counter or the floor instead of his mouth but it wasn't too bad to clean up.

We bought Michael a hiking back pack, a quiet book and some clothes for his Birthday. He kind of got spoiled but most of the gifts were for us so what can I say. We can now take Michael on hikes with us which is a lot of fun! The quiet book was a purchase in hopes to help keep little ones quiet and still during church. We tried it for the first time last Sunday. It worked for a while but I guess I can't expect too much. Church is a long time for little guys. Michael really is a pretty good boy and we sure do love him!

What was I thinking!

So I decided to go crazy and cut my hair. I have had my hair the same way for so long that I was getting really sick and tired of it. To some this hair cut might not be too extreme, but to me it is! I really don't mind the length of it now, but the layers didn't quite turn out like I was hoping. You can't see the shortest layers in this picture but take my word on it that they don't look good. Lets just say that I won't be wearing my hair completely down for a while.

(I used the timer on my camera to take this picture. You just can't beat the run and strike a pose real fast experiences. Not to bad for the first try hu!)

Camping Trip

Alan's brother's and their families came here for Memorial Day weekend. It is always so much fun to have family around! Friday night we went camping around Walla Walla. Here are some pictures of Michael in and around the tent. We took him camping several times last year so I thought it would be no big deal this time. Ha, can I just say that the crawling/learning how to walk stage is really hard out in the woods! The spot that we found had lots of thorn plants all over. Michael couldn't crawl around freely like he wanted to and he was putting everything in his mouth. One night was plenty for the two of us.



As you can see in the background we still have little old "Mighty Max"! I am sure that we will have to buy another vehicle in the near future, but while he is still running we will continue to run him. It is a good thing we have a truck because I don't think all of our camping gear would of fit in our car.

Here is Michael and Eli helping pick up our camp site. They are such great little helpers!

House Hunting Again!

For those of you who did not know, we put an offer on a house about two weeks ago. They accepted our offer and we were all set on buying it, that is until we had the inspection done on it. We knew that it had "problems" but not as bad of problems as it does. Lets just say the house had foundation issues, roofing issues, and a lot of mold! The inspection was well worth the $300 that it cost. I am just so..... glad that we were able to get out of the deal. Phew!

So now it's time to pick up our scattered dreams and start searching again. I am sure that one of these days we will find something that is perfect for us. Until then we will continue saving, searching, and swimming in the apartment complexes swimming pool for free. Yes!

That had to hurt!

As you can see Michael has a black eye. Last night he feel down hitting his face on my elbow. Ouch! There was an instant bruise off to the right of his eye. Michael takes after me and bruises quiet easy. We wondered if he would get a black eye from it. Sure enough, this morning it was there! He is such a good sport though. He hasn't complained about it one bit. As you can see in the pictures he is still happy and up to the usual mischief. Hopefully it doesn't hurt as bad as it looks. Now if only I could learn to not complain so much!

Play time!

Michael loves having friends over to play. This is one of our next door neighbor's kids. I was baby sitting her so that her parents could go on a date that night.

All they did the whole night was eat toys and then eye each other's toys for the next round of eating.

Sharing is a hard concept to grasp right now, but Michael would rather share his toys any day then have to play by himself. You just got to love him!