space...does it exists in a queen sized bed with a preggo woman who needs a body pillow or two, to get up to pee 4 or 5 times, and to rotate sides every 30 minutes to prevent limbs from falling asleep every night?

weeeeeell, my hubby is pretty patient with me. it might have a little to do with the fact that he is dead to the world 2 secs after his head touches the pillow till morning, but still. to avoid a second body pillow in our bed, nick often allows me to use him...

this led to a very interesting discussion tonight when he told me that he feels like he is always clinging to the edge of the bed searching desperately for those extrafew inches of uninhabited space.

but it doesn't stop there, no...he mentioned that there have been a few nights when he wakes to my semi concious 'fluffing'. where I pull on him, flatten, or fluff him into the shape I need in order to sleep.

copy cat...

Matthew is hilarious. He has this wind up to running. He'll back up several paces to prepare to run and then TAKE OFF, hips a swayin'. Krista (MIL) noticed that he must have gotten it from watching football. The QB always backs up after he catches the ball. That's totally Matthew. He's so funny. he wants to do everything Claire does. Include get out of the gate and run into the street (she doesn't do the running in the street part), or climb the bunk beds and then yell at me to help him down (she also doesn't do the yelling part). Best is when she acts like a cat, so does he. 

text me...

I've lost all of my contacts from my phone. If you want me to have your number, please text me your name ;)

made it...

Everything has to finish with an "it".

Matthew now has an entire vocabulary that consists of:

Made it
Want it
Have it
Close it
Eat it
etc.

My favorite is, after saying his prayer, he no longer says "Amen". He says, "Made It".

hot...

The family was in the car, running late. We decided that McD's chicken nuggets and some free waters were essential. I gave a box of them to Claire who was to share them with Matthew when they cooled down. Nick and I started eating ours when they were hotter than the kids to handle, but soon, Claire was saying:

"They're not hot anymore, Mom!"

Deb: "Oh, good. Will you share some with Matthew?"

Claire: "Sure." She passes some to Matthew.

About 10 minutes later, it was clear that they were done. I took the box from Claire and looked to see how many they ate. There were about three left in there, but they were partially chewed and soggy.

Deb: "Did Matthew give you back some?"

Claire: "No."

Deb: "Oh, okay. Did you eat some and then decide you didn't want any?"

Claire: "No."

Deb: "Why are they all soggy?"

Claire: "I poured water on them because they were hot."

Deb: "Oh...."

obviously.

When Claire takes matters into her own hands...

that's sunscreen

extra teachers...

Claire: Hi Mom! I love you.

Mom: Hi Claire. You are so crazy. I love you, too.

Claire: That's cause I'm from heaven.

I'm pretty sure she has had coaching on this phrase. This is how she answers almost everything right now.

uh hummmm....

an email from claire...with a little help

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

-          This is Caire’s paper. Mitchell is helping me write it.  We had fun in Salt Lake City at Matthew’s 6

Doctor’s appointment. 5Claire8 went on a walk with Kami in the morning and with my brother matthew.  My name is Claire.

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30, flirty and fabulous...

That's right...I'm thirty tomorrow.

My momma has had her 35th birthday several times. And while I find nothing wrong with her perspective, I want a different one.

I want it to be okay to get older!!!! I want it to be known that I GET to get older. I get to be immature, petty, selfish, demanding, thoughtful, giving, loving, generous and anything else that describes me because after 30 years, I know who I am. Well, mostly. I'm working on knowing who I am and no matter what age, I will always be working to become a better person.

30 can be amazing. And while I notice that my body isn't what it used to be, or my eyes or my poor knees, my VOICE is growing and maturing, my CHILDREN are getting bigger and smarter and more wonderful and NICK is mine. TY, Father.

exaggerations....

Sitting there listening to the doc right after Chunky's surgery, i was laughing. if i had been describing these things, I would have done them very different. my family is a family of exaggerators. If we tell a story, no matter what it is, we have huge gestures, different voices, loud voices and silly facial expressions. So it was funny to have Dr Park explain things:

Dr: So, ah, Matthew had significant swelling behind his ear drums. We removed the, ah, adenoids, which were, ah, abnormally large...

Nick: How large is 'abnormally large'?

Dr: Well, if I were to ah, put it on a scale? Hmmm, ah, from 1-10? They ah, were ah, probably about ah, 10. And his tonsils were about a ah, about ah, a 10.

While this is scary that his adenoids and tonsils were on a large scale, especially because he is only 1, blocking his nasal passages for BREATHING and his tonsils further escalating the problem and not only breathing but eating, too. The funny part to me, is if that had been a member of my family telling that story, it would have gone something like this:

Dr (that is a Mathews): So, ah, Matthew's tonsils were the size of a MAC TRUCK and the interstate was so crowded with the two of them that it was like is was down to two lane with construction speed but those Macs NEEDED to get to the produce store to store thier produce in a very short amount of time, so they were speeding like there was no tomorrow and ran head into each other, creating a road construction worker to let only one lane of traffic through at a time. It's a good thing we had the Jaws of Life to help clear the wreckage...

Us Mathews, we might be a bit heavy on the drama.

our chunky...

Holy Moly. Chunky is currently at Primary Childrens Hospital in SLC. We came for his tonsils and adnenoids removal, replacement of his clogged ear tubes, a broncosopy and a trachosocpy. The awesome ENT doc here (Park) had to dig out huge ear infections, drain his sinuses, and then found his treacea is too small and he secretions consistant with asthma. We are still here, three days later, because his oxygen level is struggling and we cant get him to drink. This is nothing like the worry we felt with Claire when she had all her drama two years ago, but we still think we could live with out all this drama. Chunky is a trooper and we love him so much. We hope he starts to turn that corner today. We have high hopes. He drank about two ounces this morning with a lot of prompting and constant nagging and pressure, but what are mothers for? Nick has the flu and Claire is still recovering from her own drama of tonsils, adenoids, and ear tibes last Thursday. She was a lucky duck and had Gramma Rosi and Grampa Bill take her for a night. She wasnt feeling so hot, and niether was Grampa, so she came back up to us. At the last minute at Grampas house, the cat scratched Claire right on the face. Big boody scratches, silly cat. Claire says she was just petting the cat, but I wasnt there to know if there was any provocation. We are doing fine, just a lot of lottle drama all at once. We hope to go home soon.

"No, David!"

With both of our kiddos, we used the "No, David!" Method. It's from a book called "No, David!" and it shows pictures of things that kiddos shouldn't do and has a mom telling him "No, David!" through the whole book. We love it. No we can just say "No, David!" if we need him to stop doing something. It's not foul proof or anything, but it's still awesome. We also like to think our kids have an alter ego called David because our precious angels would never do anything wrong (ha ha ha ha ha). When I was a kid, my mother called me "Roberta the Neighbor Girl" and told me to "go home and bring back my nice, sweet, obedient girl Deb." It was very effective. I, however, can not STAND the name Roberta now. Sorry to all of those Robertas out there.

It is common for people to think we named our child, David. My favorite was when Claire about 18 months and we'd say it and people would look at us like we were crazy. 2 weeks ago, we had a friend ask when we changed Matthew's name to David. And another time a person, who had just met me and found out the names of my children, asked if we changed Matthew's name legally and were still trying to get used to it being Matthew. HiLArious.

Big sister and little brother...

 I adore my family. I love to see how it will all come together. It is very obvious right now that my little girl LOVES to play 'Mommy'. She loves to help her brother and bosses him around whenever she can get away with it. This is Claire telling Matthew that he needs his shoes on if he wants to go outside and play.

 Notice SHE is missing her own shoes.

My thumb sucker. I love that shot.

On to the next shoe.

 Growing up, as the youngest, I always wanted someone else to play with.

 I put Matthew in the swing and went to the garage to grab...I don't know...because I had to go grab the camera.

Claire got in the swing behind him to pump them both.

My kids freakin rock.

Hoogle Zoo

Matthew had a doc appointment in SLC a few weeks ago. We decided to make a day of it. We went to the  appointment, then to the zoo, to the new City Creek Center, and then to the This is the Place monument. Great day. Cold, but good.

Claire couldn't even move it. 

Here's my Monkey by the monkey exhibit.

I look so much like my sister right here!

This is the Place Monument.

See itty bitty Claire on the right in pink?

Best for last. This is the FUNNIEST thing I have ever seen.

updates...

Matthew is the craziest kid. He started throwing his binky at me in January and won't take one anymore. He has adopted his sister's philosophy that thumbs are the only way to go. Even when he is so congested that he breathes out of his mouth, his thumb is still in there, while sounding like Darth Vadar. Marlies, this kid should be your favorite. Anyway, Matthew has a reputation in Nursery on Sundays. Every week I come in to do the singing time with the Nursery kiddos. A few weeks ago there was some new kid named...brace yourself...Cloud (it's a boy) whimpering from a leader's lap. I started singing, figuring that it's pretty normal for the new kids in Nursery to be upset because they are away from their parents. Well...This was a different kind of circumstance. Matthew has evidently been chasing the kid with long hair around trying to hold his hair in one hand and suck his thumb in the other. It is usually well tolerated by the kiddos because he's pretty gentle. Not so with little Cloud. Our own Chunky Monkey can cause this kid to shower (remember that he's a cloud) by chasing after him and then drooling all over him. Fellow Cousins, be prepared. Awesome.

Claire is scheduled for surgery on Thursday. She is going to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out and ear tubes put in. She is nervous about it and it comes out in her as shyness around anyone new. I wish there was something I could offer her to calm her down. Hopefully this will help her not to get so many ear infections.

She was sharing a cookie with Chunky today and was generous enough to accidentally put her finger in his mouth with the cookie. It came out bloody, the poor kid. She was brave and sucked it up and we put a bandage on it. She told me "I love it when I have bandaids, Momma." What a trooper.

Chunky's gets to have the same surgery the Monday after Claire's and I'm very excited. His ears are bleeding again, his eyeballs and nose won't stop running. Hopefully this will help him feel better.

Chunky and I have been sick. Vomiting through the night sick. We are feeling better today, but woosh! That was a rough couple of days. Poor Nick.

Nick is taking some summer workshop classes this semester hoping to boost his GPA a little bit. Should be interesting.

talking...

Matthew is starting to get words and I guess he has for a while, but they are a bit muddled, so I didn't recognize them:
ow-sah for outside
saaaaahx for socks
ah duh for All Done or Amen
dah for down
shhhhoooz for shoes
sheesuhs for Jesus
Da
Mamamamama
eye
no for nose
etc.

But my FAVORITE STORY of him talking is:


We are all in the car. Claire is singing:
Sha la la la la la
my oh my
looks like the boys shy
kiss the girl

Matthew:

Woah woah!

Had us rolling. Totally acidental, but SO FUNNY!
He now does the "La la la la la" and the "iss" (kiss) parts too. Through no encouragement from us (ahem).

what dad's do...

I went out for a bit. Nick was in charge of Matthew while I was gone. Claire was at preschool. He sent me an email later that day with this picture and caption:

Best Babysitter Ever.

sigh.....................................................

pianists

I had a wonderful Sunday last week. I am doing Lent this year. I know it's a Catholic/Evangelist Holiday, but I didn't think it was bad to give up something to Christ for 40 days. I am in no way perfect, and I do give myself Sunday to indulge a bit more, but I have enjoyed it. I was even lucky enough to sing for an Episcopalian Church the same day. Listening to her sermon was quite remarkable. She spoke about how giving up chocolate isn't exactly what God had in mind, but remembering the sacrifice is the point. I loved it.

My monsters are wonderful. Claire is absolutely driving me up a wall with incessant questions, but she is a dear and helps around the house so much for a three year old I wouldn't know what to do without her. She is scared of being tackled lately and I think she's going to end up more like Kloey, who doesn't like to wrestle. Matthew is so excited to wrestle that I sent Claire to time out last week and while I was on the phone for a second, I hear Claire yelling for me. I come back to find Claire on all fours with a Matthew on her back trying to ride her like a pony! That kid is so adventurous! He does that to me and to Nick regularly. He is especially good at giving raspberries on our backs when we pick something up. He lifts up our shirts and slobbers all over our backs. He is speaking, but not clearly. He says "All duh" (all done), "outside" (ow sigh), socks (sahks), and a few others.

Claire had her first recital last Tuesday. She will be doing it again at the end of April. She was freakin' adorable! If you want to come see her, please do! She was pretty shy and you couldn't hear her well, but it was wonderful. I remember singing "Bibbity Boppity Boo" when I was a wee one. I don't remember performing it, but I remember learning "sall a ka doo la, men key ka boo la" with my mom at the piano. Hopefully we're carrying on a little heritage ;) I played the piano...poorly. It was my first professional accompaniment. ha ha ha ha

We are lucky. And we know it.

Happy Valentines!

Claire's first Valentine Party EVER! She let me eat the Twix ;).

SHE'S READING! AGHHH!!! I LOVE this preschool!

Ready, Dad?

Nick and Claire were sitting on the bed. Nick was sick and let a little...toot...out. Almost directly after, Claire let a little toot out herself. They both giggled together.

And then...

Claire looks up at Nick and says: Ready, Dad?

Nick: Ready for what, Bear?

Claire toots!

*this is where you giggle, too!


Claire has started Primary (LDS church version of Sunday School for kids) this year:
A few weeks ago, Claire's Primary teacher comes up to tell us all the crazy antics Claire has been doing. Apparently she's the funniest girl they have ever heard because they commonly come up to us after church to update us and tell us how hilarious she is.

In class, this week alone, Claire said the following things:

Sister Roxy? Do you enjoy your sleeves? 

(we've been discussing modesty. her role model is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and her sleeves are always off her shoulders. Something that Claire tries to do daily. What kid uses "enjoy"?)

They went on a trip to the potty and they heard Claire:

Eew! Disgusting!

Sister Roxy: Everything alright, Claire? do you need some help in there?

Claire: No, my poo poo is just red and green.

In class they were discussing how to keep bodies healthy.

Claire: My daddy says it's good to toot. My momma don't like tooting. I like tooting. (tooting has been substituting to save my mother's ears. She doesn't like the f word version of toot)

OH MY GOODNESS! this kid is awesome...

At the last minute, they asked her to give the opening prayer in Sharing Time (where all the kids 3-12 meet to say a prayer, sing songs, have a short lesson...etc). I was playing the piano and I seriously had to work not to be hurt that I couldn't help her with her first time. Or even help prepare her with what to say...

The Primary President asked her if she needed any help.

Claire: No, I can do it mysssself.

She gets up to the podium and

whispers into the microphone...

"Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this day,
Thank you for my Momma and Daddy,
Something I couldn't hear,

Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

then she runs to Sister Roxy and gives her a HUGE hug.

It was too cute.

again, my kid is awesome.

pitcher's mound

Matthew is the ultimate pitcher for the 18 month old league. That kid is hilarious. When we play ball, he throws the ball like a pro and then waits for me to throw it back. He can't catch yet, so he usually has to chase the ball down, but then goes right back to his 'mound' to throw again. He's so stinkin adorable. I love my kiddos.

Claire is LYING! AGH!!!!! Advice? Anyone?

any form of present will do...

So, maybe I'm the only one in the whole world who thought this was hilarious for so many different reasons, but I thought I'd share:

Does she really even understand what this does?