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.