We found out today...

We had our 20 week ultrasound and doctor's appointment this morning. We got to see our precious baby and hear that everything looks good and the baby looks healthy. We were able to see the profile, the feet, the heart (all 4 chambers), the bladder, the kidneys, the spine, and the stomach (and maybe some parts that I'm forgetting). It is truly a miracle to see that at less than a pound, this already looks like a baby.

And we found out that Canaan will have a LITTLE BROTHER! We are excited to welcome this boy into our home as well as frogs, snails, and puppy dog tails.

This girl at 2

> loves bubbles of all kinds – wants to blow bubbles, wants to have bubbles in her bath, wants to wash her hands with bubbles

> likes to sing and sometimes surprises me with the words she knows to different songs

> wants to talk on and play with our cell phones (we don’t have a home phone)

> has been doing well on her gluten-free diet – there have been a few instances of her eating something she shouldn’t, but she’s been a trooper and her tummy and bottom are better for it

> wants to play and be outside all the time

> loves to eat fruit

> likes to feed Max, give him treats, and try to throw his ball – and has covered him up with her blanket when she thinks he’s taking a nap

> likes to go (as in leave the house)

> likes to have pigtails in her hair (her daycare teacher puts them in her hair almost daily), Matthew calls them pig knobs because they’re so short

> points out any airplane or helicopter she sees and hears by yelling “airpane!”

> really enjoyed singing “Happy Birthday” the couple of weeks around her birthday and still sings it to herself and us

> likes to give kisses to both people, animals, and inanimate objects alike

> will now say “cheese” for pictures and sometimes smiles at just the right time

> likes animals and always wants to pet them at the zoo, a squirrel, a bird, etc

> has a lot of personality and good facial expressions

> is happy to begin the day – a good sleeper and a good napper

> enjoys about a dozen nursery rhyme readers I bought several months ago – can recite a few of the stores, says “oh no!” when Humpty Dumpty falls or Little Miss Muffet gets frightened, says “ouchie!” when Jack and Jill fall down the hill

> can count to 10 but often leaves out 6 and 7

> knows most of her letter and words that start with some letters – H to O are often left out

> will watch us to see if we notice she’s doing something wrong – if we’re watching, she’ll sweetly say “hi” or give us a big smile

> “no poop” – has started excitedly saying this when she gets her diaper changed, I think it started during a nasty diaper rash

> “my turn now” – we hear this a lot! She doesn’t understand giving other people a turn quite yet.

> is wearing size 6 Huggies Little Movers (I don’t think there are any bigger sizes)

> remembers old "owies" and still talks about how she got them and wants to put ice on them

> she will be a BIG SISTER in December!

Another birthday celebration

A few days after we got home from our trip to St Louis, my parents came out to celebrate Canaan's 2nd birthday. They stayed with Canaan a couple of days while we worked.



Then on Saturday, we got up early to ride a ferry to one of the San Juan Islands. We intended to go to Friday Harbor, but we missed the ferry. So we went to Orcas Island. We drove to the highest point on the island and had a beautiful view. It was a long day, but a beautiful day.








On Sunday night we celebrated Canaan's birthday with another flourless cake. I don't think Canaan ate even a bite of her cake. She enjoyed blowing out the candles and singing "Happy Birthday". The cake was so rich, I don't think any of us ate much of it. In fact, we just took it to a party this weekend to get rid of the last of it.




Before leaving Texas, Mom ordered an ice cream maker for us. It arrived days before they left so we made some vanilla ice cream. It is an electric ice cream maker and very easy to use. We enjoyed the ice cream and tonight tried our hand at chocolate ice cream. I have a feeling we'll be enjoying this all summer.

Happy Birthiversary!

In order to help celebrate my birthday and our 7th wedding anniversary, my parents came to town. They kept Canaan overnight at our house while Matthew and I drove into the mountains. We were only away from home 26 hours, but we had a wonderful time in the mountains. We did a lot of driving, ate a couple of nice meals, and spent the night at a bed and breakfast. After dinner Saturday night, we sat in the outdoor hot tub at the b&b which was crazy relaxing.

Ski season ended at most of the resorts the weekend before we drove up there so some of the places we visited were a ghost town. It was eerie to be there with no one else. We stopped in Keystone because we had not been there before. We saw a total of 8 people. Not a single shop was open.


We tried a new place for dinner with some interesting things on the menu. We started with a salad that had seared calamari. I didn't get a picture of it, but I really enjoyed it. For the main dish, Matthew enjoyed a lasagna dish made with buffalo while I had roasted pork in a blackberry sauce. We were surprised by the large portions and couldn't even order dessert. We had enjoyed some chocolate cake earlier in the day when we stopped at a coffee shop.

Thank you Mom and Dad for keeping Canaan (and Max) and giving us a night away!

Christmas Day 2009

Our stay in St Louis was really nice. We mostly hung out around the house which was fine by me. I enjoyed being inside where it was warm. We got to the house late Saturday night. I didn't step outside until Tuesday to run an errand.

**Tuesday night we drove into Illinois to drive through a light display. I always enjoy viewing Christmas lights so I enjoyed myself.
**Wednesday we went to the mall to visit Santa. We also got to see Pops on Wednesday as he drove in from Illinois.
**Thursday we stayed up late with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law watching them put together some Christmas gifts.
**And, of course, Friday was gift-opening. I have to say I was glad that everything was low-key with Canaan this year. We opened her stocking gifts before breakfast. And by the time we started opening the gifts under the tree, Canaan was napping. I think that was good timing because I expect that she would have been overwhelmed with all the activity.

We had wonderful hosts in St Louis who fed us amazing food! Next year we may have to ask for the brother-in-law's recipe book for Christmas. He is an excellent cook.

Canaan thoroughly enjoyed the many toys they had to play with, the dog and 4 cats, the cousins, the food...pretty much everything but the sleeping. The first few nights were rough, but then Canaan settled in and slept at night and took a nap during the day.

The reindeer outfit has been worn by all three kiddos on this side of the family. Canaan's aunt said we had to get an embarrassing picture like her kids had, but I think she looks really happy to be wearing something so fun!

I have to say that this year is the first time that I never really felt like it was Christmas. I definitely did not get my fill of Christmas music, Christmas movies, Christmas goodies (as I still cannot eat anything with eggs or dairy), or Christmas decorations. When we got home Saturday evening, we opened presents that we had not even wrapped. This was the first time in 7 years that I've gotten to take off the week of Christmas. I thoroughly enjoyed not working and did enjoy the holiday. But something was different this year. I was so thankful to share the time with Matthew, my precious Canaan who I was only dreaming of this time last year, and the rest of the family.

When we got home Saturday night, we went to pick up Max. He stayed with some folks from church. They said he was the best behaved dog they have ever kept. They have a son in college who apparently wanted to ask if they could "rent" Max for another week. It appears that Max had a good time there as well.

Merry Christmas!

Birthday Celebration

I don't have any pictures to prove it, but we did celebrate Matthew's birthday on Friday. He and I went to dinner at Carrabas which is one of our favorite restaurants. (I will have to go back once I am completely off the elimination diet so I can have a few of the goodies I had to stay away from this time.)

A former co-worker of Matthew watched Canaan for us so we could have a dinner for two. It was really nice and special. Marc and Lindsay had their hands full with their own 4 kiddos and Canaan. Canaan was crying when we left her at their house, but they said that didn't last long.

I had the camera in my purse but forgot to ask someone to take our picture. I have got to stop doing that!

I finally got Matthew's red velvet cake made Saturday night. He finished frosting it on Sunday. We tried substituting the shortening with butter as someone suggested this might keep it from being so dry. According to Matthew, it is more moist, but there is also something that tastes weird about it. I can't try it so I guess next year we may need to try something else. I also have got to figure out a better way to get the individual layers out of the pans without making a mess. If you have any suggestions for me, I'd love to hear them. Thank goodness I doubled the icing recipe. Icing covers a multitude of errors!

Happy Birthday Matthew!

Here are some of my favorite recent pictures of Matthew with Canaan.









And here are 35 things I love/appreciate about Matthew today.

1|he can make me laugh even when I don't want to 2|he has a big vocabulary and I often have to ask him what he's saying 3|he loves and cares about people 4|he has secret rules that I can't figure out 5|he wants to have an adventurous life 6|he is passionate about his relationship with God 7|he wants to celebrate special occasions 8|he tries to encourage me to do things that are good for me 9|he is a good dad 10|he lets me go get Canaan out of bed even though he wants to do the same thing 11|he can make Canaan laugh/smile sooner than anyone else 12|he wants to be working but appreciates the time he gets to spend with Canaan 13|he is willing to work anywhere or nowhere so Canaan can be at home 14|he is FINALLY coming around to the idea that playing hard may not be a good idea 15|he believes it is important to be at church each week and to be involved with our Sunday School class 16|he recently told me he's ready for some yummy Mindy cooking (as I've somehow taken a hiatus from cooking) 17|he continues to request a red velvet cake for his birthday despite the fact that they don't often turn out right 18|he continues to challenge me even when I don't respond well 19|he recovers from injury/surgery pretty quickly 20|he can laugh at himself 21|he is ALWAYS the one we wait on while playing board games 22|he supports my goals/dreams 23|he's willing to help those in need 24|kids are generally drawn to him 25|he thinks about/plans for the future 26|his laugh is LOUD and infectious 27|while he doesn't like to be wrong, he can admit when he is 28|he is a good friend 29|he is very generous 30|he makes me want to know the Bible better and to be more obedient 31|he made it a priority to get us out of debt 32|he loves to have people over 33|he is really good and helpful at cleaning the house 34|he will kill any spider I find without me asking 35|he's a hard worker

Happy Birthday!!

Weekend Extravaganza

This past weekend was a lot of fun.

• My mom and Matthew's sister and niece came into town for my baby shower. I knew my mom and sister-in-law were coming, but I did not know my 18 month old niece was coming. It was really great to see all of them.
• I had to go to a work event after picking my mom up from the airport on Friday morning. I wasn't looking forward to the team event but was convinced to go by my supervisor. Boy am I glad I went. We first went on a tour of one of our stores that will be opening in the middle of June. I got really lost getting to this store so we were about 30 minutes late. We joined the tour once we arrived and then went to another of our stores for lunch. My team had planned a baby shower for me where we ate lunch and cake and I opened a very generous present from them. It was really fun and it was fun for my mom to be there as well.
• Saturday was my birthday and baby shower. The last time I had so many people around on my birthday was at my rehearsal dinner 6 years ago. I really enjoy birthdays so it was fun to have so much family and friends around. I had a really good time at the shower. There were people there from my Sunday school class, Matthew's previous job, my job, and some of Matthew's family from other places in Colorado. The family then came over to our house for dinner which one of them had prepared beforehand.

• My mom made my favorite birthday cake. When I was a kid, one of her friends made this delicious chocolate sheet cake. I liked it so much that I think I embarrassed my mom by asking this friend to make the cake for my birthday. She did so and then when I turned 16 she and her husband showed up at our house with a cake straight out of the oven. It is truly delicious!
• Sunday was mine and Matthew's 6th wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe we have been married six years. Time sure does go by quickly. My sister-in-law and niece had to leave Sunday morning. While Matthew took them to the airport, my mom and I did a bit of shopping. Later in the day, we helped Matthew hang the Roman shade my mom had made for the nursery. I still need to take a picture of that to put on here. I'll do that on another post.
• My mom fixed 8 to 10 meals that are currently in the freezer for us to use between now and when the baby makes her arrival. Isn't that great? She knew that days are coming when I will get home from work and not have a desire or the energy to fix dinner. While she is here after the baby comes, she is going to fix us some more meals to put in the freezer. She was in the kitchen most of the weekend doing this. (By the way...while checking out at the grocery store when my mom bought groceries for these meals, the checkout lady said something about me looking 22. I lost 10 years this weekend! It was an awesome compliment even though I know she wasn't being truthful.)
• After some BEAUTIFUL weather last week, it snowed Sunday night/Monday morning. We ended up leaving at 5:45 yesterday morning to take my mom to the airport. It took us about 2 hours to get there in the traffic and snowy conditions, but about half that amount of time to get back because the snow had already stopped. It was crazy weather. I really hope that was the last snow of the season. I think out of 4 anniversaries spent in Colorado, it has snowed around 3 of them. This is not a very good picture because I took it before we went to the airport, but you can somewhat see all the snow that is on and around our tree.

• One thing that has become very apparent is that we are going to have to work on teaching Max the difference between his toys and Baby Girl's toys. Does anyone have any advice for this? He pretty much thinks any toy on the floor (or anywhere else for that matter) belongs to him. He wanted to play with all our niece's toys as well as anything that I was messing with in the baby's room.

Matthew's Birthday

I am really late in posting this.

Another birthday has come and gone for Matthew. Birthdays are a big deal to me so I always try to make Matthew's birthday a big deal. This year was just not a good birthday. It was a hard birthday. We had dinner at Carrabbas and even got in an argument at dinner.

So I tried to have a do-over on Saturday. I got out of bed and made blueberry pancakes, sausage, and eggs for breakfast. Matthew was planning to have a relaxing and fun day. Soon afterward, there was a knock at the door. Matthew had offered a couple of weeks prior to help a neighbor poor concrete at his house. He sent his son over that Saturday morning to let Matthew know the concrete truck was currently in front of his house. So Matthew got dressed and spent the next 4 1/2 hours helping our neighbor pour concrete.

This is the first year I didn't make Matthew a cake on his birthday. Time just got away from me during the week. Rather than making the cake on Thursday, I made it on Saturday to take to our first small group meeting. This cake turned out the best of the 5 I think I have made (it was moist and fluffy), but it looked terrible. The 3 layers were not all the same shape and leaned a bit once they were stacked and iced. Oh well. It tasted good!

Did you see that????

I am a baseball fan. When I lived in Dallas, I worked for a company that had season tickets to the Texas Rangers. I grew up watching baseball with my dad and going to a Rangers game or Astros game on a few vacations. My LOVE for baseball, however, did not really begin until I started going to so many games at the Ballpark in Arlington. I just could not get enough. One season, I think I went to 50 to 60 of the 81 home games. When I couldn't go or when the team was out of town, I would watch them play on tv. Since getting married, I haven't watched as many games because (1) Matthew couldn't care less about baseball and (2) now I cannot get many Rangers games on tv. Matthew knows I love baseball though and took me to Wrigley Field for our first anniversary.

Last night, I watched the Home Run Derby. It was awesome! I cannot believe Josh Hamilton did not win the competition, but he sure did put on a show. He hit 28 homeruns in the first round of the derby. It was seriously incredible to see. Even the other major league players there were “wowed” by his ability. His pitcher last night was his mentor who is 71 years old. That guy threw more than 50 pitches in the first round.

What is even more exciting is that Josh is the real deal. He came back to baseball after a 3 year hiatus of drug and alcohol addiction. He is a believer and uses his platform to share his story and how God has made all the difference in his life. He also shares his story about his drug abuse with kids in school. I have heard that he is a fan favorite and is really good about connecting with the fans and giving autographs.

You can read about him and last night here, here, here, or here (or just do a search on his name).

Our 4th

I worked a normal 9 hour day on July 4th. While I was at work, Matthew tilled part of our backyard. Unfortunately, it is still in this state which is making it really fun to let Max out. Once I got home, I played with Max a while before we left for a Sunday school party - or a 4th of July party at someone from Sunday school's house. It was a nice sunny day. We enjoyed eating grilled burgers and dogs, some yummy sides, and about 5 different desserts for the 5 people that were there (I think I tried them all - you can't say I don't take one for the team when necessary). We had a great time visiting with some folks we didn't know very well. We also saw a fire break out in the field behind their house. It wasn't very close but not too far away either. I have to say that's the first fire I've ever seen. All in all, it was a nice day, and we are both so thankful to be able to celebrate our freedom.

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Happy 10th anniversary to our friends N and M! We are celebrating with you today!

50th Reunion

My father grew up in a small farming area. He went to grade school in Aloso, OK and high school in Stonewall, OK. This weekend is his 50th reunion. He said of the 29 people he graduated with 6 have passed away and 22 of the living folks have been located and invited to the reunion…only 1 lady has not been found. He and my mom are traveling there today. He has been talking about this reunion for at least the last 6 months. He is excited to visit with some folks he hasn’t seen in a while.

He has been attending the reunion for the past couple of years. They have a reunion every year and anyone who went to the school is invited to come back. There are a couple of people he hasn’t seen in 50 years. There is one lady that he went to school with from 1st grade to graduation. In fact, they were “next door neighbors.” The doctor came to the farm to deliver my dad and then on the same day went to the next farm to deliver that baby girl. So they share the same birthday as well. They didn’t have kindergarten then and his elementary school was grades 1 through 8. They had one teacher for 1st and 2nd grade, one for 3rd and 4th grade, one for 5th and 6th grade, and one for 7th and 8th grade.

I really enjoy hearing about how different his school experience was from mine. I pretty much enjoy all the stories from his childhood. He always wanted to be a cowboy and would practice roping his brother. It sounds like it took his younger brother a while to catch on to the fact that he was going to be roped every time my dad told him to start running.

I hope he has a GREAT weekend and expect to hear all about it when he gets back home.

15 years

Today is my brother and sister-in-law's 15th anniversary! Wow! 15 years ago I was enjoying the summer after my 16th birthday. Lots has changed since June 26, 1993.

Congratulations C and D!!!

Celebrating 41 years!

Yesterday was my parents' 41st wedding anniversary. Isn't that fantastic?

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!