Baby Announcement

Friday I went to the doctors to find out what I will be having. It looks like I am really going to be out numbered in this family! That is right, I am having another boy. I have to admit that both Alan and I wanted a little girl this time but we are really excited for this boy to enter our little family. Hopefully the boys will grow up to be great buds.
That same day I packed away all of the baby girl clothes that I had been buying at garage sales. I won't be using those for quite some time, but hey at least I got them all for REALLY CHEAP! I am also glad that I had only made one girl baby blanket. As for names we have NO idea as to what we are going to name this child. We had agreed upon a girl name but hadn't even talked about boy names. Boy names are a lot harder for us to see eye to eye on. With our son Michael I finally just gave in at the last moment because this baby needed to have a name. Don't get me wrong, I love the name Michael. It is just weird and kind of hard to have both my son and my brother have the same name. Life does go on though! =)
Anyways the doctor said that things are looking great. He also said to me, " I am not sure how big of a family you want but you are a great prospect to have a large family. Your babies are really cute (I have to agree with him there), they are healthy, and you are at the prime age to be having babies." Thanks doc! Maybe I need to stop paying him so much.

Still here and kicking!

Well for those of you who do not know yet I am pregnant! We are very excited about it, but for me the excitement went out the door when the nausea hit. I am 19 weeks along now (almost the half way mark!) and due October 6th. I get to find out what we are having this weekend so I guess I will have to make sure to write again soon. I haven't been able to get on the computer for the last several months because of how sick it would make me. It still makes me sick but not as bad so I thought I would try to update everything.

I love this picture! His smile makes me think of a little beaver. What a cute!


The beginning of February Me and Michael went out to Portland to help my sister-in-law/ good friend with her new baby. Eli and Michael really enjoyed each other's company for the first couple of days! After that they were both pretty done with being nice to each other.

Jessie and their new baby Alex. He was a BIG baby! I can't remember the exact weight but I believe he was 9 pounds and something ounces. Way to go Jess!

Michael woke up from his nap one day and insisted on wearing his hat and flip flops. His sandals were hurting his toes so bad but he would cry when I would try to take them off.

Okay so I kind of jumped the gun and made a baby girl blanket. I figure if it isn't a girl it's alright because we have a lot of baby boy blankets. Better be safe than sorry.... right?

Easter morning. This picture makes me laugh because Michael looks so innocent and cute in this picture and Alan looks like some scary guy that you wouldn't want to mess with. I promise he really is a nice guy.... most of the time! =)

Erik and Jessie came down here for Easter and General Conference. It was a lot of fun to have the company. We watched a lot of General conference, which was really good, and we had a little Easter Egg hunt in our front yard that had splotches of grass at the time. The grass still needs some help but it is looking a lot better now.

The next week Alan's parents stopped by our house for a couple of days. We went to one of the parks out next to the Colombia River and ate lunch, played croquet, and rode bikes. It was a lot of fun. We sure do love having family and friends come visit us. Hint, hint everyone! =)

Alan trying to climb one of the big trees at the park. Alan's Mom tried after him! We love you Annette! For those of you who do not know my mother-in-law she has the energy of ten oxen and could probably out do me any day.

So I have been going to a lot of yard sales lately. I find it really fun to find stuff you need or want for a cheap price. I get that part of me from my Mom. Love you Mom! Anyways these couches were one of our finds. They look pretty gross all dirty but look at the cushion that I have washed. I will have to show you a picture when I get it all cleaned. I am about half way done and have put a lot of hours into it. If anyone knows any tricks on how to clean upholstery I am all ears.

This is the shower in our master bathroom. It had a lot of mold issues so we tore all of the tile, Sheetrock and some of the lumber out. Alan has laid the new tile already and will be grouting it this weekend. I can't wait to show you a picture of the final results. He did an awesome job!

Christmas Festivities

Sorry that some of these pictures are kind of old. I have started a bad habit of downloading pictures off my camera only once a month. So this year for Christmas we decided to do our own family traditions before we left for Idaho to go to Alan's folk's place. It was really fun for us! I made this HUGE dinner for the three of us. Afterwards we told Michael the story of Christ's birth, sang Christmas songs and then opened up most of our presents to each other. I really didn't want to haul all of the presents to Idaho so Alan and I opened up all of our gifts and saved half of Michael's gifts to take with us. I think we are going to do that from now on.

This year I decided to make bookmarks for all of Alan's family that was going to be at his parents house (Sorry Annie and Sharen's families). I also made some for his siblings that are out on their missions right now. I made a total of 11 bookmarks. It took me all year to do them, but they were a lot of fun to do.

Grandpa Mattson and Michael enjoying Michael's new book from Aunt Heather.

Michael just loved being around all of his cousins. I was afraid he might have a hard time since he did during Thanksgiving, but this time he did great!

Alan's parents have a bird that Alan just loves. He showed it to Michael and Michael feel in love too. In this first picture he is trying to kiss the bird!

Since we have been back from Christmas the weather here has been pretty nice. It has been raining quite a bit but the temperature hasn't been very cold. Once we all got over our colds we were out side immediately. Michael was so happy to be able to play outside again!

So for Alan's church calling he needed me to make him a batch of home made root beer. I have never made it before and there are definitely things I will have to change to the recipe for next time, but it was a lot of fun for Me and Michael to try!

As you all know we have been working on our house a lot! We decided to get Michael a tool set for Christmas so that he can have his own tools to help with. =) (Alan also loves this gift!)

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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!