Today is my Sweetheart's 30th Birthday!! It is amazing that we are now hitting milestones like this together. He is such a loving, gentle, crazy, and good man. As my Grandmother reminds me often, I am so lucky to have him in my life. I thought I would just post some of the pictures I have of him in his 30 years thus far.
When Matt was a baby he had the nickname of being the Michellin Man.
This is Matt with his Dad and older brother Cory.
These crazy boys: Matt loves his memories of being at his Grandparent's house in Hyrum, Utah playing with his brothers and cousin Jake. They always had something up their sleeves.
And these are the two (Jay & Bonnie) that made it all possible. (This picture explains a lot don't you think?)
Sadly, on our computer we don't have any pictures of Matt in highschool, college, and mission. Matt loved highschool and was heavily involved in wrestling and the school musicals. All the girls swooned over him when he was Conrad Birdie. Then after his freshman year at his beloved BYU where he met his best friends (see below) he went on his mission to Paris, France.After the mission he came back home, roomed with the boys above and had a blast living the single life.
But sure enough in January 2002 I came into his life and 6 months later we were married.
We both had a year left at BYU and then had the awesome experience of graduating together.
After graduation we were off to Des Moines University where Matt attended Podiatry School.
But true to Matt (and sometimes with a little nudge from me), during all of this we were still able to get out and have a good time.
Matt being his crazy self and jumping in the goose poo infested lake behind his parent's house.
Halloween with our friend's the Whoolley's in Des Moines.
At the top of Mount Timpanogous
Colorado
Visitng the Palmers and Lowrys in Gainesville, FL
For our year anniversary we went to Paris, France (that is the Eiffel Tower in the background) and London, England.
And then the coolest thing to happen to either one of us:
Matt has always been a phenomenal father. You can just see it in his face.
And finally the craziness of Podiatry School ended and Matt graduated from DMU. Little did we know that we were going into something even crazier called Residency.
Matt is now a resident in Pittsburgh and life continues to be interesting, but I know I can always rely on my fantastic husband to be the rock of our family. We have such a great time as a family and when we are all together we find ourselves laughing quite a bit of the time. (Carter is a big help in that area.) Thanks Matt for your unending dedication to our family! We love you more than we can say.
Carter has an older buddy Linus who he really admires. Carter thinks that Linus's house is the coolest because Linus has all the coolest toys ever. It has been really nice for me in deciding what to buy Carter for birthdays and Christmas because I can just think of the toys that Linus has and buy whatever he has that we haven't already copied. Linus is into all things builder and manly. It is rare that you see Linus without his builder boots, jeans, and his construction hat. So when I saw Carter in this outfit playing with his crane that Aunt Nicole gave him I thought it had Linus written all over it.
Growing Up
The other day we had playgroup and I was so amazed watching Carter play with the other kids. First, because he wasn't hitting or pushing, he was overall being a pretty nice kid. Second, he was right there keeping up with all the imaginative play that the big kids were doing. The playground was at times a castle with princesses, dragons and bad guys. And then it became a Pirate Ship and they were all pirates. But no matter what the playground was Carter was right there with the rest of them playing his part. I was so happy and proud of him. I just never imagined such things would bring me such happiness and joy.
His new phrase after this playgroup was, "I had it first." It is essentially a glorified way of saying, "That's Mine!" It's just so funny to hear his developed speech.
Also, last night Carter peed in the potty for the first time. We aren't ready to go full blown into the potty training thing, but we thought we would start introducing him to it and get him thinking about it. He was VERY proud of himself.
My Two Boys
Siddharth, my nanny boy, is on Spring break right now so I had him all last week and most of this week. We have been playing pretty hard and having so much fun. I have now nannied Siddharth and his older sister for a little over 1 1/2 years. I have grown to love them so much. They are as close to my own kids as they could get. So I wanted to include a few pictures of us playing on the playground at the zoo. Random Videos
Carter is at the point where I feel like to truly capture so many of the things that he is doing or that makes him who he is I have to take videos. I take these videos with my not totally awesome, but gets me by digital camera. It is convenient and super easy to download, but the videos are far from high quality. Really all that matters to me is being able to see my boy and hear his voice.
This kid is always cracking us up by the clever stuff that he is doing (Can ya tell I'm a proud Momma?) Also, this video shows one of his very favorite games. He loves to Roar and have us Scream. He could do this on and on:
Notice in this video his "ums" it cracks his mommy and daddy up!
This is C's new favorite board game:
Last Friday evening we went out to get Matt's favorite food - Thai. C had to give the chop sticks a try:
Daddy is just the funniest guy around, wouldn't you agree? He certainly knows how to get some good laughs out of his boy.
Carter and I were planning on making a trip out to Utah for the first two weeks of February. Matt was going to join us for most of the second week. About a week before we were planning on leaving I got a call from my mother informing me that my dear Grandpa Clarence (my dad's father) was not doing very well at all. I asked my mom to tell him that he needed to hold on for one more week for me to get out there. When my mom started to cry and said that if I saw him I would not ask her to ask him that I knew it was serious and I needed to get out there. I was okay with my Grandpa passing on because of my faith in God's Eternal Plan and forever families. But I needed to be able to talk to him one last time and to tell him face to face how much I loved him. So minutes later I was on the phone with Southwest. It was going to cost us at least $300 (and that may have been per ticket) to change our flight plans so that Carter and I could get out there early. I explained my situation to the lady on the phone and she sweetly looked into every possibility she could for me. Even though she wasn't supposed to do this, she got Carter and I on the next flight that she could (the next morning) at no extra cost. I knew this was Heavenly Father showing us His tender mercies.
There were several other miracles that happened in preparation for and during this trip, but I want to share just one more with you. My Grandpa and Grandma have two kids, my dad and his sister Karma. My cousins and I grew up very close. Once we were all grown several us because of jobs and schooling had to move out of state and across the country. It had been years since all of us had been together at one place. And before we even knew that something was going on with my grandpa all of my cousins and myself (unbeknownst to us) had all planned to come home to Utah at the same time. What a beautiful statement of love that our Heavenly Father had made to us that he let this be the time for my Grandfather to pass on, when we could all be home to say our good-byes and to comfort one another. I got into Utah late on a Thursday afternoon and was the last of the family to arrive. Thursday night we all gathered at my grandparents house for family prayer and to give my Grandpa a blessing. I am so grateful that i was able to be there for that and to have these last few memories with my grandfather whom I love so much.
All of Grandpa Clarence's and Grandma Ione's great-grandkids except my sister's twins.
All of my family except Matt, Carter, and my sister's twins.
The funeral and burial was beautiful. The spirit was strong and testified that Grandpa went on to a much better place.
Also, a special thanks to Whitney for watching Carter the day of the funeral. It was so nice to be able to call on family and ask for help. It was also so comforting to know that Carter was in such good hands and that those hands were just as excited to be on Carter.
Most of all at this time, I am so grateful for my knowledge that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for Temples that allow us to be forever families. I am grateful for the Priesthood that can seal these many blessings upon us. If any of you who read this blog would like to know more about what I am writing about please let me know, I would love to share this joy and knowledge with you!
Living here in Pittsburgh has been a real eye-opener for me. There are poor and slums here like I have never seen before and is still not even the tip of the iceburg of what can be found in other places. In our ward alone we have so much need and being part of our Relief Society Presidency here I have worked closely with this. Sometimes the need can be daunting and overwhelming. I wonder how can little me make any difference, how can I change these people's circumstances? But then I read this quote and the Spirit told me that I have it all wrong: It is always and forever in and through Christ...
“The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature” (Ezra Taft Benson, in Conference Report, Oct. 1985, 5; or Ensign, Nov. 1985, 6).
I am gone for a few hours doing church stuff and I come home to hear: "Oh No!!"
I feel so blessed that I know I have nothing to worry about when I leave Carter home with Matt. These two boys love each other so much and are always horsing around together. Matt is so great at encouraging me to get out and let him and Carter play. In the words of my Grandma Ione: "Oh Amber, how did you ever get so lucky to marry a boy like that?"
Pizza Anyone?
A couple weeks ago, our Relief Society was in charge of feeding 80 missionaries during their Zone Conference. So what's a girl to do with a number like that? Go to Costco of course!
We were quite popular with the workers and customers and everyone was shocked watching these people walk out with that many pizzas. Everyone wanted to know where the party was at. That car has certainly hauled a lot of odd things in it's time.
Starting on Tuesday 2-28 Carter woke up in the early morning hours with the stomach flu. He has never acted that sick before. He layed in my arms all day long. He didn't want me to read to him or anything. He would try to walk, take two steps and fall to the ground. We layed around all day and watched shows. Thank goodness for satellite with 2 Nick channels, 2 Disney channels, Noggin and DVR! Wed. morning Carter woke up super cute and happy, but still with diarrhea. Thursday Carter woke up just as bad as he was on Tuesday. He couldn't hold down any fluid. Around 4:00pm when Carter threw up and was crying but no tears came I decided it was time to call the doctor to see if he had any tips for me on how to keep fluids inside him. After giving his status, the nurse told us to take him right away to the Children's Hospital. So Matt (he had just walked in the door), Carter, and I grabbed some stuff to get through the hours of wait time at the ER and took off.
While in the waiting room, Carter chomped on a few ice chips and started to perk up a bit. We figured it was the end of the day and Carter's body was already healing itself. We were feeling like idiots showing up at the ER and having the Doctor tell us, yep your child has the stomach flu, nothin we can do for ya. Matt and I have never been the parents to be overly cautious and take our kid in the doctors quickly. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it is just not our style. So we decided we should just pack up and leave before we pay out our $75 dollars to be sent home with our child who was hardly sick anymore. But as we were walking out the door, Carter's name was called and we decided what the heck, let's just go.
Here we are waiting to see the doctor. Carter is somewhat smiling, he is actually talking which he wasn't doing before, paying attention to books I was reading him, etc. They asked him if he wanted a popsicle which Carter calls "colds" and Carter said he did. Matt and I got a big kick out of him eating this "25 cent" popsicle and kidded around that this was the most expensive popsicle that he will ever have since it really cost us $75 because we were certain we were going home as soon as he finished that popsicle.
The resident came in looked at him and agreed with us that Clinically he looked like he was on the mend. She said let's just get the attending in here so we can send you home. Thank goodness for attending doctors who have more experience and wisdom (sorry all my resident friends & husband, but it is the truth) because our attending caught some warning signs and said we needed to stay and get more liquid down him before he could go. Carter promptly threw up everything we tried to put down him so on the IV he went.
Doesn't he look so cute in his hospital gown? After blood work, we found out he was in the danger zone of dehydration, the doctors all told us that his test results were "impressive." In fact, it was bad enough that he needed to be admitted to the hospital. They all got a kick out of it too, because he was fairly perky for the dehydration state that he was in.
So Carter layed there with his IV and Jungle Book. THANK GOODNESS for portable DVD players!!!
All of Carter's veins were sunken so they kept poking him over and over. Two people were laying on him while a third was poking him. I just sat there and cried the whole time while my little boy was screaming and struggling. It was horrible!
Finally around 10 o' clock while we were still waiting for a room in the hospital, Carter "passed out." The nurses got a big kick out of the way he was sprawled out. One would sing the wipe out song as she passed our draped off room.
This is Carter and I on our bed we shared during our night at the hospital. It was a restless night for me, but Carter did pretty good. We shared a room with a newborn baby and a mom who left the TV on till 4 o' clock. At around 3:30 Carter woke up and saw me in bed next to him. He gasped and then in a super loving voice said, "Mommy." It melted my heart.
So we were admitted on Thursday and on Friday Carter was okayed to play in the kid center. This room was awesome! It had a Thomas Train Table, every kind of gaming system, arts and crafts, computers, lots of toys, and a hand full of volunteers to play with the kids. Carter thought this was the greatest. Matt and I are worried he might like this hospital stay a little too much. Carter's face looks so funny in the picture above because he is being a duck in this picture, this is him quaking.
The video below i think is pretty funny. He woke up from his night sleep asking where his friend went? I said he must have been dreaming. He said, "Oh yes, dreaming." Then he told me he also dreamed about water and juice. He must have been a pretty thirsty boy!
One more thing I wanted to add, the doctors came and rounded on him shortly after I took this video. As you can see he was a pretty chipper kid. He had just finished watching Mickey Mouse Playhouse. While the doctors were talking to Matt and I, Carter busted into the "Hot Dog" song and the doctors laughed and said what is a kid like that doing in the hospital. Later on that day when they told us they were going to let us go (we were worried they might not because his diarrhea was still really bad) they said a kid who sings the "Hot Dog" song in the hospital really shouldn't have to be in the hospital so I really think that is what pushed the doctors over the edge into letting us go home. Thank goodness I have a spunky kid because I don't think I could have taken another night in there. More than that, thank goodness for modern day medicine and for the priesthood and that my husband is worthy and able to give my son and myself blessings. My family continually is blessed by Heavenly Father's tender mercies and I am so thankful to Him and His Son Jesus Christ.
Another activity that was on the "must do list" was swimming at Murray Pool. We did this last year when we went home, but Matt was not with us and I thought he would really enjoy it.
Brother Dan and Sydney Lexi Emi Jen and Sawyer Carter freezing as we were waiting for the pool check to be over so we could get back in.
The cool thing about the Murray Swimming Pool is that they have a water playground and water slide that you can take the kids on:
When Matt was a baby he had the nickname of being the Michellin Man.
This is Matt with his Dad and older brother Cory.
These crazy boys: Matt loves his memories of being at his Grandparent's house in Hyrum, Utah playing with his brothers and cousin Jake. They always had something up their sleeves.
And these are the two (Jay & Bonnie) that made it all possible. (This picture explains a lot don't you think?)
After the mission he came back home, roomed with the boys above and had a blast living the single life.
We both had a year left at BYU and then had the awesome experience of graduating together.
After graduation we were off to Des Moines University where Matt attended Podiatry School.
Matt being his crazy self and jumping in the goose poo infested lake behind his parent's house.
Halloween with our friend's the Whoolley's in Des Moines.
At the top of Mount Timpanogous
Colorado
Visitng the Palmers and Lowrys in Gainesville, FL
For our year anniversary we went to Paris, France (that is the Eiffel Tower in the background) and London, England.
And finally the craziness of Podiatry School ended and Matt graduated from DMU. Little did we know that we were going into something even crazier called Residency. 
