Birthday Blues

Kimball Benjamin Matusek

1 Month

1 Year

2 Years

3 Years

I still can't believe I missed his Birthday (I was in Illinois) and I also missed his Birthday Party at Leo's Pizza, (because Mike and I were at Physician's Redicare with Brandon, who had an accident and his bottom teeth went through his lip)! But, we do have some pictures, which eased the sadness for me a little. My little boy is 3! And I am so grateful for him in my life. He is a respectful son, a patient big brother, an exciting friend, and a great student (he loves to learn in "School" with mom and at nursery on Sundays). I saw on my friends blog, Amy and Chad, their post of their 3 year old's Birthday and decided to do the same thing and post a picture for each stage of his life. He had a great birthday party, or at least that is what Mike and I heard through the grapvine. He loved his Transformers Birthday cake (which turned out to be a great recipe!) and enjoyed playing with his friends and cousins who came to the party. We had 21 people at the party, a pretty good turnout!

Well, here is to another great year with my Kimball!

Lets hear it for Illinois!

**Disclaimer: For this post, you will just have to bear with me. I put a lot of pictures in this post!

I flew to Illinois on February 3rd to help my parents with their big move. Big is an understatement, it was a massive job, which is why I was so glad that I went! Mike and I decided to ask my brother Corey and his wife Daymi to take care of Kimball while we were gone, so we could save on his plane ticket. I took Brandon with me and Mike stayed in Pocatello during the week and on weekends made the trip to Rexburg to be with Kimball. The plane ride with Brandon was, well not very fun but we survived. We got to work as soon as we got home with plans for our 3 weeks. When we got to work, we dug in and didn't stop until the job was done. Brandon did well, and made two good friends, specifically Rowdy and Browny, my mom's dogs. Rowdy thought that I was hurting Brandon, every time I would play with him. So he would come and nip at Brandon, trying to make sure he was ok. Brandon didn't like this, and soon found a hiding place, amidst all the boxes...


My brother and his girlfriend Kayla came up from Missouri for a visit, and I just love this picture of my Brandino with his uncle Brandon, so cute! We had a great time with Brandon, even if it was a short visit.

I created a moving blog to start selling larger items on craigslist.com. We kept working and we soon had half of the house packed and we were ready to host a LARGE moving sale. We set up my parent's living room for the moving sale, as well as the kitchen and garage. We sold over $1000, and still had a large pile of items that we donated to St. Vincents Thrift store.
After the sale, we were visited again by family. Melissa, Wes, and their 4 kiddos came up for Presidents Day Weekend. We enjoyed lots of Wackee 6, Dirty Rummy, and Monopoly card game, not to mention ALL the wonderful food we ate that weekend.

Megan LOVES Mor-Mor's Dogs

Weston and Jenna enjoying a flic

Wes watching the gals play games

After our long weekend, I followed the Newcombes back to their house in Aurora, Illinois and spent the night. My sis and wes taught me the ins and outs of couponing... I don't know if I will ever be as good at it as they are though:)

Kyla is so talented, that she needs 2 microphones!

Weston was having a great time eating his gummy worms

Sisters!

Megan, Tiff, Jenna, Weston and Kyla

After my drive home from Aurora, I had a poignant moment as I pulled into my parents cul-de-sac. I stopped the car, turned off the radio, and took this view in...
... and thought of the many wonderful memories I have here, many on the front porch, in the driveway, on the grass, in the garage, and hundreds more inside.

My trip was winding down at this point. We had only 4 days until we were to travel out west. On Thursday the 18th of February Corey Flew in from Idaho to help us. Melissa, my mom, and I went to the Chicago temple before we picked him up. This is my fave picture, it tells a funny story. We got home to Melissa's house after the airport and her keys wouldn't work for the front door. So we knocked, and rang the bell. After a minute or so, one of us said "I wonder if he had to go to the store?" And then someone else "I wonder if there was an emergency?" At this point we weren't panicked, we were all laughing pretty hard, and it just got worse as the scenarios we put out there got more outlandish. "What is he is unconscious?" "Or in a Diabetic coma?" I seriously know that these conditions are not funny, but goodness, we had a serious case of the giggles.

I snapped this pic of us standing waiting for Wes to answer the door.

Turns out he was in the shower:)

We treated ourselves (with the help of a $50 gift card Mel and Wes had) to BD's Mongolian BBQ.

Walking to the car after BD'S, my mom was miserably cold

Melissa's the mastermind of this photo...

And after all was said and done, and the truck was packed, we left...



And had a LONG trip to Idaho (especially through Nebraska) . . .

The end!!

Just for fun

I have no idea why we took this picture, but we did. I just ran into this photo while I was trying to find other pics and just started laughing. Weird . . . .

Homesick...

I am in Illinois currently, having a lovely time ...really...

On the down side: Leaving behind my Husband and my Kimball boy for 2 1/2 weeks, airplane ride with a grumpy one year old, boxes, packing, pricing garage sale items, posting sale items on my blog and on craigslist . . .

On the upside: Spending time with my parents, Brandon and his new girlfriend, and Melissa's Family, enjoying my mother's cooking, spending time with my old Bourbonnais Ward Family, shopping at consignment shops (where I bought the cutest clothes, for a dollar a piece!!!), reminiscing on the good ole days in Illinois . . .

We will definitely be working like busy bees until we final hit I-80 headed west. I will post when I get back to my family in Idaho, it will be shortly after Kimball's Birthday which is the 19th (Bummer that I have to miss it!). For now... I work!

Need I say anything at all?

Cool Guys!!

4:30 a.m.: I hear crying from Brandon, so I go in and comfort him, give him milk and tell him to go back to sleep
4:30 to 5:30: I hear Brandon playing in his crib
5:30: Brandon decides he doesn't like his crib again and protests... Kimball wakes up... and we all head out to the living room to "start our day"...

By the time that lunchtime rolled around, we had about 50 meltdowns, all classified under the "I'm so tired I don't know what to do but have a meltdown" category. Now my angels are both sleeping peacefully, after a good lunch. As I sat down to the computer just now, the first thing I noticed was my camera. I picked it up, not remembering if I had taken any pictures recently, and found these pictures. We took the about a week ago in the evening. We were all in the living room playing and enjoying the evening and Kimball and Brandon found two of Dad's hats on the couch. These were good moments, and they help remind me to keep my cool in the "not-so-good" moments, like this morning.
I am so grateful that I have learned parenting techniques and tools to help me discipline my children without yelling, spanking, or giving long-winded lectures. I'm sure my blood pressure has benefited from these parenting tools... as well as my marriage for I have more energy at the end of the day to spend with Mike.

Lookin good Brandon!

Like father, like son!

Kimball with dad

These two boys look more and more alike
every day... except for their hair colors

Sweet boy!

Anchor

I saw this song posted on Camilla's Blog, a friend of mine from BYUI and thought that I would share it as well. The song is Anchor by Mindy Gledhill. It has become one of my favorite songs... Click here to listen, and just press play on the i-pod when the page loads. Enjoy!

"The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands"

There is a little book that is changing my perspective on being a wife, a book that my father has been urging me to read for the last 4 years. Written by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who hosts a nationally syndicated talk show, this book is a jewel. Why? Here is a quote from the introduction, just to give you a taste of the message of this book:

"Most of the women who complain that they are not getting what they want from heir husbands should stop and look at how disrespectful and disdainful they are of them. They should look at what they put their time and energy into at the expense of him and their marriage. It would be a stunner for them to realize that they try harder to impress strangers than they try to impress the person who is supposed to be the most important to them (pg xvi of intoduction)."

My marriage to Mike is what I have always described as strong, we work as a team and have enjoyed strength in this unity. Yet there has been something missing, and I couldn't quite pin it down. I never realized what the missing element was until now. I have been putting other obligations and priorities before the man that I married, even putting my children before our marriage. As it says in the book "You had a husband long before you had children." I have been changing little things about my behavior and have noticed these little changes reciprocated in my relationship with my husband. Some of the ideas for making sure that Mike is my priority are:

• Temple trips
• Date nights
  
• A call of affection during the day
• A simple love note
• A kiss at the door
• Putting on a nice outfit while at home in the day, instead of pj's
  
• Request his opinion on family matters more often
• A comment of appreciation for something well done on his part
• A hug
• A home cooked meal
  
• A backrub
• Turn off the TV and just enjoy good conversation and laughter with him
• Listen to him, respond and act interested in his interests
• Express real problems maturely, instead of complaining
• Tell him how he can improve, don't nag!
  

Mike needs to know that he is my priority and that I don't want to change him, instead of feeling that he isn't good enough, or that I wish he would do things differently.I want to be able to keep a healthy perspective towards my marriage, to know that in order to "get" that I must give. More importantly, I should give for the pure joy of giving, not to "get" anything out of it. I love my man, he would conquer the world to bring me caffeine free Dr. Pepper at a simple request! He loves me and our children and supports us in all things, allowing me to stay home with the kiddos... what more could I desire?

P.S. Has anyone else read this book?

Crazy Matusek Christmas!

Our Christmas celebration started in Rexburg on the Friday after Thanksgiving. We were able to enjoy a frigid night at Smith Park with Corey and Daymi. With a donation of one toy per person for admission, we enjoyed hot chocolate, live music, and a picture with Santa. Kimball enjoyed the snow a little bit too much, he kept on stuffing it into his mouth and burying his face in the snowy ground... brrrr! We spent the next few weeks in December trying to enjoy the season. Mike was busy with classes and Tiff kept busy with the boys and choir performances. It was a wonderful season, how grateful we are for the special spirit of this time as we remember Christ and his birth and life!

To kick off our Christmas week, we went skating for FHE on the Monday before Christmas. The boys loved it. Kimball tried skating, but after a short time he decided to ditch the skates and go for a stroller.

Brandon was so fun to watch as we skated around, he got so excited when we would go fast!
Tuesday night was met with yet another family adventure.... Bowling! This is one of Kimball's favorite activities, and he does well for a 2 year old. Wednesday was not adventure-less, we saw our first 3D movie with the Bakers and left the 4 kiddos with a sitter. 3D headaches... not so good, but the movie was pretty good.
Thursday we made Gingerbread cookies, our family tradition. They turned out moist and delicious... better yet were the caramels that my mom sent that day, YUMMO! I had to sneak one of my Grandma's caramels, because they had black walnuts in them. Thursday we went to my Grandma Moore's for their annual Christmas Dinner/Program. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there. Here is a pic of Grandpa opening a gift and of my aunt Debbie.

Grandma Moore opening a gift

The whole gang enjoying the Christmas program

Brandon on Amy's lap. Carson with the red headpiece (he was Joseph). Kirsten and Trevor on Amy's right.

Christmas Eve we started a new tradition, now that Kimball is old enough to participate. We had him set out cookies and milk for Santa along with a letter to him. We then read a book about the symbols of Christmas and what they can mean to us. When he went to bed, Mike and I "helped" Santa out and arranged the gifts under the tree.
Christmas Morning was fabulous! There was a special spirit in our home! We enjoyed a simple pancake breakfast. After clearing the table, we brought out the violin and the keyboard, the scriptures and the music in preparation for our annual Christmas Devotional. We enjoyed helping Kimball learn for fully what Christmas is truly about. Here is our family by the tree after the Devotional.
Brandon was excited for gifts....
As was his brother Kimball!
By the end of opening all the gifts, Brandon was tuckered out, and had to lay down on the job:) It was so cute, he opened that gift laying down... funny kid!

I hope your Christmas season was as enjoyable and memorable as our own. May 2010 hold such enjoyment and memories is our wish to all...

Cookies and new bangs??

A friend of mine, Steph, gave me a trim the other night. I have been wanting to cut my hair short for a while, but I've worked so hard to grow it out that I have held back on the short hair thing. I needed a change though, so I went with bangs, just wondering what everyone thinks... and the only pics I have right now of them are from the night we made Christmas sugar cookies... hence the title of the post:)