Matt's 2!!!

Little dude turned 2 on April 23, 2012. I cannot believe it has already been 2 years. We had an impromptu birthday party for him yesterday. My parents and my sister came to visit from El Paso and my Aunt Kim and cousin, Ryan, drove up from Corpus Christi to celebrate with us. Matt got some super awesome gifts!!

These pictures are a little out of order, but on purpose. I had to put the picture of him and his candle that he took a bite out of. He was super excited after he blew out the candle and just took a big bite!

He picked out this dino himself and bought it with birthday money Mimi sent him. This is probably the best dinosaur figurine i have ever seen and it is heavy! He immediately named him Alex.

Sammy got a present on Matt's birthday too.

The cake!! There is a lot going on, but it's dinosaurs surrounded by volcanoes and lava. Matt had to take the decorations off before we could even sing Happy Birthday.

Apparently he HATES when people sing happy birthday to him. To be honest, this is how I feel inside on my birthday too. It is super awkward when you're sitting there and people are singing to you.

He liked the cake though!

The present opening is a team effort.

Cool dino from Aunt Kim, Uncle David, and Ryan. He also got a cool coloring book and a motorcycle. Not to mention a HUGE set of legos!! Thank You!!

                                                Train set from mommy and daddy.

Sammy enjoying the interchangeable dinosaurs from Grammy and Grampy.

He got a lot more presents too, which I unfortunately did not get pictures of him opening. He got a lot of cute books from Henry and Ashley...Thanks guys! Cute outfit and bubble blower from Aunt Kassy and Uncle Billy...Thank you :) Outfits and toys and another cute dino book from Grammy and Grampy... Thank you :) We really enjoyed seeing everyone! You all made his birthday extra special :)

Updates

Wow. I haven't updated in a looong time. I need to start doing it at least once a week since we live away from all of our family now :(
Let's see, since my last update we bought a house!!!! For some reason we have yet to take pictures. We are putting in new flooring and I'll take pictures when that is all done because right now things a re a little bit of a mess. We really like it so far. The neighborhood is great and we love the backyard.

We have made a few trips back to El Paso to pick up furniture and visit. They have been short trips, but this summer I would like to visit for at least a week. Sam might start Officer Training School in the summer, so that might be a good time to take some trips.

Aunt Kim, Uncle David, and Ryan have been here a couple of times to visit. I can't wait to go visit them. The kids and I drove up to Fredericksburg about an hour away to watch David and Ryan shoot in a competitive Cowboy Shoot. It was pretty cool to see everyone all decked out in frontier gear. I forgot my camera though :( I think I have a few pictures on my phone and I'll upload those soon. Fredericksburg is an old German town in the Texas Hill Country and it's pretty neat. I want to go back soon, sans kids.

Now onto some photos:


Here are the kids on the slip and slide. I have to push them all the way down it because it's not very "slippy." It's been about 85 here and hot and humid enough for water stuff. We've even been swimming already. My friends Bobby and Alisha live in a condo and we swam there. Sammy and Matt had a blast with their daughter, Audrey, and Matt loved to run and jump in the pool. He would yell, "Bobby!" and jump into Bobby's arms. It was so cute. He must have done it at least 30 times. I really wish I had a video of that.


Matt helping Sam with the kitchen tile demolition. We will NEVER put down floors again. We popped up the ceramic tile in the kitchen and entry way and pulled up the carpet in the den and hallways to lay down a floating bamboo floor. We're still pulling up boards weeks later to level out the uneven concrete. This has been a nightmare to say the least. On the bright side, Sam now has a pretty decent stockpile of tools and power saws.


Matt getting a running start on the slip and slide. (sorry these pictures are random and out of order.)

Sammy in Grammy's hot rollers from our most recent trip to El Paso in the beginning of March.


This one is from our visit to Guadalupe State Park to release Sammy's butterflies that she raised.


The caterpillars. I think this little project was from February.


We bought Matt a toilet seat to start the potty training process because he has actually told us a few times that he needed to pee, so we sat him on the toilet and he actually went!! (This was about 6 months ago and he has since lost all interest in the toilet.) His potty seat has become an accessory.


Matt sees Samantha painting all of the time and he thought he would like to try. He really loves it, but it only lasts about 10 minutes.

Pre School!

Sammy started preschool..again! She could not be more excited about getting back into school. When she came home the first day, she was not so sure she wanted to go back. By the second day, she was begging me to enroll her in the five day a week program (I just have her in Tues & Thurs from 8am to 3pm). I'm glad she likes school and it gives Matt and I a chance to spend some quality one on one time together.

This is 30 seconds after getting her ears pierced. She has been asking us, begging us to let her pierce her ears. Sam was against her piercing her ears until she could make the decision for herself. The girl knew what she wanted, so we went ahead and let her do it. Her friend, Audrey, had her pierced a few weeks before and she went with us for moral support. About two minutes after the piercing, the girls were laughing, playing, and eating lunch. We've had no problems with them and Sammy even reminds me to clean her ears 3 times a day.


Can't finish this post without a dose of Matt:

San Antonio

Since my last post, we have moved to San Antonio, TX. It's been quite an adjustment. The city is so big and spread out. I feel completely lost as soon as I leave the apartment complex. We invested in a pretty good navigation app and that has helped tremendously. We have had a lot of fun though. Right away I got to reconnect with a friend from Travis AFB, CA., Alisha. Her husband was a fire fighter with Sam and he is now a reservist for the Marines stationed out here in SA. She has a daughter, Audrey, and they are a month apart, exactly. Here they are pictured below in our living room at Travis AFB.

.... and here they are just a few days ago in San Antonio. Those two definitely hit it off like they haven't missed a beat in the past four years.

Kassandra and Sammy at the River Walk. We got completely lost and ended up there for over two hours. I NEVER want to go back there.

Natural Bridge Wildlife Park

We are all driving around the city a few days ago just trying to familiarize ourselves with the area and trying to figure out where we want to buy a house out here, when we ran across a drive-thru wildlife park. It was awesome. They gave us a bag of food for all of the animals, but as soon as you threw it out of the window, the animals came running up the the window. We saw one, lone zebra so we decided to feed it. He got closer and closer to the window and before I knew it, he had had his head in my lap, trying to steal the bag of food. I was screaming because he was rubbing snot all over me and he was just huge and strong. Poor Sammy was screaming in the back seat, crying buckets of tears because she thought it was attacking me. Needless to say, she is traumatized by zebras. So sad because they used to up there on her top 10 favorite animals.

There was also a petting zoo. Matt loved it, Sammy waited behind the fence. This was post-zebra incident.

Goodbye dinner w/ Papa Jeff

Sam's dad took us out to dinner before we had to leave. We had a great time. We also were able to say "Bye" to Aunt Dakota (Sam's sister). Sam's dad was so much help to us packing up and getting Sam's jeep in working order before the move.

This is pretty much the cutest thing ever. Matt and Sam's cousin, Rafael, at the kid's table at Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful dinner. Couldn't eat too much though because we also went to Mimi's for dinner (and chowed down there too :))



Matt has literally hit himself on the head and ran into things so much that he has a permanent goose egg. Here he is wearing an ice pack.


My parents and my sister helped us with the drive and move-in to San Antonio. It was a tremendous help. Here is Matt trying to be like Grampy.

I love mornings sometimes

I generally hate getting out of bed before 7am. Unfortunately, with kids, that's usually not an option. Samantha was trying to wake me up at 6:15 this morning and I sooooo did not want to get out of bed. At about 6:30 Matt started crying in his crib. Sammy ran right in there and started reading him his favorite books through his crib. Apparently he was really entertained because I got to enjoy and extra 15 minutes of sleep and I woke up to two happy kids. I walked in Matt's room to get him out of his crib and it was full of books. I took him out and set him down to get him changed and he crawled right into Sammy's lap for more story time. It was sooooo cute. Samantha is the best sister ever.

Ruidoso, NM

This past weekend the kids and I went to Ruidoso, NM with my parents. Sam was in Tucson for his guard duty weekend and we figured we would head out of town for some R&R. Unfortunately, Matt had other plans. He was pretty much awful the entire trip. I can't blame him though. He is used to his bed and he NEEDS his routine. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Sammy got to ride a pony for the very first time. His name is Peanuts.

Matt being crazy on the back deck of our cabin. We spent a lot of time out there deer watching. However, anytime a deer came close, Matt yelled, "dog dog!!!" (That's what he called them.)

Matt eating a plum. That's one way to keep him entertained. He worked on that thing for a half hour.

The kids and I.

Matt was too little to ride, but he loved watching the ponies.

My little nature girl.

Apples that we left for the deer on the back deck. They ate them right up!

Sammy made out like a bandit at the local craft fair. She got a beanie and a new apron. Thanks Grammy!

Exploring nature.

Even though Matt was a little terror, we still had a lot of fun. Thanks Mom and Dad!

It's about time...

... that I update this thing. I'm super lazy about blog updates these days. Since the last post, Sammy turned 4!!

We got her a HUGE dollhouse for her birthday. She used to play with it for hours, but I think the magic has worn off.

Random picture of Sam when he was a baby...kinda looks like Matt.

He loves this tricycle. His legs are barely long enough to use the pedals. For now I have to break my back pushing him around.

Splash pad at Ft. Bliss. I finally gave up and let the kids run through it. We had a really hot summer. Sammy was a little reluctant at first, but Matt jumped right in.

Baby in a bag.