This Blog 2.0

It's been a while. I don't think I've looked at my own blog since my last post, and I hadn't realized it had been so long. Time flies! I hadn't felt the desire to post, but lately I've been thinking about our little family blog. I decided (I think) I'd like to come back to it and be more regular with my posts, but I realized, I'm going to do it more for me, than for readers. Sorry readers... if any of you are out there. Some of my future posts might be boring to you. And my grammar won't be perfect. I apologize in advance. If it's on my blog it's important to me or interesting to me or just something I want to write about, and since this is my blog, I'LL DO WHAT I WANT. :) Consider this your disclaimer.

So, first of all, do I try to catch up or just pick up right here. I'll do a semi-quick overview I guess.

Halloween 2012 was mostly low key. Austin dressed up as superman. He was adorable. Parker was (last second) Jimmer Fredette. I was not dressed up. It's not really my thing. We drove around SLC like crazy. We visited Gram and Papa, then the Matheson's, then Grandma Hilton, then Grandma Talbot (bonus, Aunt Sandra was there too!). We won't ever do a Halloween that way again (too busy to stop and enjoy it much), but it was fun to show Austin off to grandparents. It worked out because I wouldn't let Austin eat any candy anyway. Plus he was too young to really get the concept of trick-or-treating. Next year we'll do the traditional stuff.

We spent Thanksgiving at my Grandparents house in Idaho. It was miserable. I take that back, it was fantastic but I don't ever want to spend a Thanksgiving that way again! We got to spend time with my dear, wonderful family (my mom's side) and contemplate the many blessings we have in our lives everyday. The miserable part came when the septic system backed up in the basement, so the house full of people (30-ish I would guess) had no drains, no toilet, no shower for a couple days, including Thanksgiving. (Can you imagine cooking a Thanksgiving dinner and doing the dishes when you have to catch all the water you use in a basin and literally throw it outside every time it gets full!? My Aunts are superstars.) We had to drive to the church nearby to use the facilities there. And to top it all off, everyone (seriously, at least 75% if not more) of the people there ended up with some terrible stomach bug. I apologize to my family members I kept up all night. I won't go into detail. I'm so glad the plumbing issues were fixed before the majority of us got sick, and my poor baby and Parker didn't seem to get it too bad.
I am grateful for my good health.
I am grateful for plumbing.
I am grateful for people who are willing to do dirty jobs (like climbing into a septic tank!)
I am grateful for a family that is so positive, service oriented, and willing to do hard things.  

Parker and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. I can't remember what we did. When I was planning my wedding I was determined to not let our anniversary get forgotten/smushed into Christmas celebrations, but it kind of does. :( It's my own fault for choosing to get married on December 20th (sorry again, Mom) and not making it more of a priority to celebrate in a big way. I know we did something, I just can't remember what it was without thinking too hard.

Christmas was super fun, of course. We woke up super early, got ready for the day, and had to skip opening gifts because we had places to go and things to do. We went to breakfast at Gram and Papa's, skyped with Bobby (who's on a mission in Vina del Mar, Chile) opened gifts with Gram, Papa and Nancy, went to brunch at Jana and Jon's for the Matheson morning celebration, over to James and Cindy's for a visit with their family, Grandma Hilton, and Rose and Marshall, back over to Gram and Papa's (I think...? things are getting jumbled in my brain) for visiting with all the Aunts and Uncles there, then over to Bob and Carol Matheson's for more food and family, opened presents there with Mat, Debbie, and Taylor, then headed back home where we finally opened our gifts... around 10:00 pm. Poor Austin was exhausted, but so happy to have so many people to play with throughout the day. He loved playing in all the wrapping paper too. Parker disregarded the budget we had set (as usual... you think I'd learn) and bought me a new laptop which I kind of hated at first (it has window's 8, so it took some time getting used to). I did a special 12 days of Christmas thing where I gave Parker little gifts to count down to Christmas. It was fun, and I think he enjoyed it. It helped me remember the true meaning of Christmas and reminded me that giving is so much more fun than receiving. Oh, and we put up Christmas lights for the first time (not on Christmas day, several weeks before. :) Although they were a giant pain and I had to restring them on our balcony 3 times, they were magical.

We rang in the new year with a staycation in Sandy. We hung out with Mat, Debbie and Taylor at the Matheson's house for a week and just had a low-key, relaxing, fun time together. We ate good food, played games, watched movies, slept in and stayed up late and just took it easy. That's my kind of vacation... at least after a busy Christmas season. :) (Just a side note- I must document the awesomeness of my husband. He frequently gets up with Austin and lets me sleep in. I guess he knows I need at least 8 (or 10...) hours to function.)

Parker has been extra busy this school year (winter semester 2012) because it was his last semester before graduation! Hallelujah! Parker had 21 credits to finish up his major, and was participating on BYU's National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) team and went to the Dominican Republic for 10 days. Heavy sigh.... I'm exhausted just typing that out. Like I said, he was busy. The NAHB team worked hard all through Christmas break (although I'm remembering now that he took the evening of our anniversary off so we could go to dinner...) and pulled a few all-nighters. They presented in Las Vegas the third week of January, and took 3rd place in the nation! Go BYU! We were glad when that was over. The trip to the Dominican Republic was a great experience for Parker. The group he went with (7 people total, I believe) were all from the construction management program and went to tour construction sites there as well as teach at the university there. Parker also got to go scuba diving a few times. He had a good time.

While Parker was in the D R, Austin and I went to Medford. We flew there, and Austin did quite well. He was tired and quite the handful in the airport. He decided several times to just sit or lie down on the floor as we walked to our gate. And he loves to see the screen on any electronic device, so he would get quite friendly with people on their laptops or phones to check out what they were doing. Once we got on the plane he settled down and finally fell asleep after take off and woke up just before we landed. We had a WONDERFUL time in Medford visiting family and especially loved seeing little Ella. She's a doll! I've got such a great family. Love them.

I opened and closed an Etsy shop within about a month. I love to decorate sugar cookies, and thought an online shop would be a fun venture... but it wasn't. It was just too much stress for me at this point of our lives, so I closed it. I still love to make cookies, especially for friends and family, so let me know if you have something you'd like me to create for you! Seriously! Maybe someday I'll open it again, but no plans for that now.

Instead of my Etsy shop, I went back to school. I wish I was kidding! I can't even go a year without being in school I guess. It's really not that bad. I like learning, but that constant nagging weight of knowing you could/should be working on homework is back, and I'm not a fan. I started an online education program to be a medical documentation specialist (medical billing, coding and transcription). It's something that I hope to finish in the next couple months and ideally start working from home shortly after... we'll see. I'm just over halfway done now, and it's pretty interesting, but somewhat time consuming.

Last but not least, Parker will start his new job TOMORROW! He's working at CBRE ( in corporate real estate) working on the retail team. His first assignment is to go to a golf tournament and meet people/network and eventually sell retail space (I think...?  Please tell me I'm not the only wife who is a little fuzzy on what it is their husband actually does at work). If you know Parker you know all those things are right up his alley! I know he'll do great, but he's also working on getting his real estate license. He's finished the course and has to pass the test, and again, if you know Parker you know tests are so NOT his thing. Pray for him to pass! 

There's so much more to document... but I think this post is plenty long. I'll break it up a bit. Maybe if I get really ambitious I'll post pictures to go with this post. But, honestly, probably not. Just being realistic.

PS. Parker graduated from BYU, but I thought that was recent enough to deserve a post all its own. I didn't forget that major life event. :)

Memorial Day

Yes, I am aware that Memorial Day was months ago. However, we had a fun day and since this is as close as I get to journal writing these days I wanted to document it. We paid Wendy to make burgers for us, bought fishing licenses, and went to Payson to catch ourselves some fish. We had great luck at this spot a few years back, however this time... Nothing. Not one bite. There were a lot of people there, and it was late afternoon. I'm no fishing expert, but I don't think that really helped. Austin napped in the car at first, then sat in his stroller and whined until I held him. We went back and forth from stroller to me holding him for the majority of our outing. We watched a group of horseback riders walk by and watched the cute little duck family swimming nearby. It was a fun day for our family, and we were grateful for the beautiful country we live in and the people who fight to protect our freedom. 

Oakley Rodeo

It's a Matheson tradition to go to the Oakley Rodeo every July. This was the first time we've actually been in town and able to attend. We had fun eating good food, being with family, and going to the rodeo! Austin was so tired when it was just getting started, so he was a lot to handle. He finally fell asleep during the fireworks at the end of the night. He was a sleepy little guy! I didn't get any pictures actually at the rodeo but we had fun playing with Parker's hat before hand. 

I swiped the group photo from Parker's cousin's Facebook page. Thanks Laura!

Baby Austin is One Year Old!

I can’t believe it! Austin’s first year of life sure has flown by, and yet I feel like I’ve been doing this (taking care of him) for a very long time. We knew we wanted to have a party for him, but I was nervous about it. I’m definitely not a party planner… at all. I think most everything went well, but it was a lot of work. I think I’ve learned to keep things simple, but a few fun details are important too. Thanks to everyone who helped with the prep, and came to celebrate with us. 

We roasted hot dogs, had fruit, green salad, and pasta salad. Papa and Gram, pictured below, helped so much! Besides allowing us to use their yard and fire pit, they supplied the cute plates, napkins, and tablecloths, let us use their kitchen all day and helped wherever they could. 

 

I've been planning on making a cookie platter for Austin's birthday pretty much ever since I started this new hobby. These cookies were simple and fun to do, but the cake was much more difficult. That was the first time I'd ever attempted a decorated cake, and I learned a lot that should make future cakes less frustrating. 

Austin stuck his hand in the cake as soon as it was near enough. Can you tell?

The cupcake was more of a toy than food to Austin. He didn't really like how the frosting stuck to his hand and wanted to get out of his chair after a few minutes. Once he was out of the chair I fed him some of my ice cream and he LOVED that. I can't blame him, I prefer ice cream over cake any day too!

  

We opened presents later that evening, but we recorded the whole thing so we don't have any pictures of that. Austin received some fun toys, books, balls (those seem to be his current favorite), and clothes. Austin, we are so happy you joined our family a year ago and hope you had fun celebrating your special day! 

Sun Valley Part 2

I feel like I’m not a very good at consistently taking pictures of our family together, so while we were in such a beautiful place and all looking decent after church, I decided to try getting a few snapshots. Luckily, Sheryl was there to help us out. She loves photos and went wild with the camera. Here are a few of the resulting photographs. 

Sun Valley Part 1- I'm warning you now, this is long!

Here are a few of the highlights (and lows) of our little vacation.

Let’s start with the lows of the trip...

I got sick for a day and a half. All I could do was lie around and watch TV all. day. long. It was awful. I don’t care if you have 120 channels, watching that much TV becomes torture, especially when you’re in Sun Valley. 

Because I was sick, Parker was in charge of feeding Austin.  Unfortunately, Parker was unaware of the consequences of feeding him fruit all day.  It resulted in lots of diaper changes and a terrible diaper rash for a few days.

Parker lost to Ben in Tennis and Basketball. He might not be very happy I included this and may deny it.

Austin’s skin got so dry; I believe from the chlorine in the pool. He had the worst breakout of eczema on his back I’ve ever seen. He seemed to be unfazed by it and it cleared up after being slathered with aquaphor several times.

 

My glasses were stepped on while I was in the pool and broke right in half late on July 3^rd. I was a little (very) worried I was going to have to spend the rest of the trip blind because no eyeglass place would be open on the 4^th, not to mention they were about 100 miles away. Parker super glued them though and they held up great. My hero!

Enough of the negatives, on to the highlights!

We avoided really terrible sunburns! I’m a stickler about the sunscreen and it paid off!

We went to the pool practically every day. It’s a lot of work to get a baby in a pool, and because of Austin’s health issues that week he only got in a few times. We loved lounging too. Parker and his Uncles launched the young kids like I’ve never seen before. The kids can do all sorts of flips, so we had fun watching them, as did many others at the pool.

We went on a little bike ride. I love riding bikes! We don’t own any, so we don’t get to ride very often… maybe that’s why I like it, because it’s a novelty.

We enjoyed the warm days and cool nights. Perfect weather all week!

Grandma Carol and Grandpa Bob treated everyone to breakfast at the Kneadery.

I got a new coat and sweatshirt. We got an awesome deal at a ski/snowboard shop since they obviously aren’t in season right now.

Parker and I had a perfect spot for fireworks on the Fourth. Fireworks don’t really get old for us.

We kept with tradition and made a stop at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for caramel apples. German chocolate for me. Festive fourth for Parker, which was so awful he took it back, explained (not complained J) and they let him trade it for…. Something else. I can’t remember. 

Austin became great friends with the other little kids there. He loved watching Tanner and Whitney and they were great playing with him! They loved to help feed him, watch him go down for a nap etc.

We got to spend time with family members and get to know extended family a little better. Thanks for having us, Matheson’s!