Christmas Slideshow

More pictures

Here are some more pictures of my cutey pie. I finally edited some more from our mini-photo shoot and there are some from last Saturday when it snowed all day. Enjoy!

Another post on Matt

My baby is growing up so fast. He is attempting to army crawl now, but usually gets so frustrated that he can't move that he just rolls over to his back and finds something else to play with. He has his first tooth showing through the gum (his top left front tooth). I don't think I'm ready for little baby to have teeth! He is sleeping all through the night now, which is a huge blessing. He likes to sit in his high chair and eat food whenever we are eating a meal. Overall, he is at a really fun and cute age (except for the teething pain). I've taken a lot of pictures of him recently, surprise surprise :) Here are some of my favorites....

Christmas time

Last night, Josh and I went to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional at the Conference Center with Amy and Justin. I wanted to say, "Thanks"again to them for inviting us. Josh and I have been to the Devotional every year since we've known each other, I think. It was an awesome date. Matt got to play with Grandma during the devotional, so I could sit and pay attention with out a lil' wriggling baby on my lap. I forgot how much you could learn if you just sit and listen! I felt so uplifted by the messages and the beautiful music. I love our First Presidency. I was really moved by all of their messages, if you didn't get a chance to hear it, you should definitely get your hands on a copy. They spoke about being kind this Holiday season to those around you who are in need. Which got Josh and I thinking, "Who can we serve?". My sister was an example of that on our way from the parking lot to the Conference Center. She gave a lady in need of us a bus fare, the full amount for her ticket. President Monson told us he knew that each of us had the desire to grow closer to our Savior. And that now, this time of the year, is a perfect opportunity to do so. It really made me want to focus our Christmas celebrations on the birth of Jesus Christ this year. Josh's family has a tradition of lighting a Christmas candle and reading a Christmas story every night. We've thought about finding a good collection of uplifting stories and starting that tradition. Anyone have special traditions they do this time of year?

After the devotional, we walked through Temple Square and enjoyed the beautiful lights. I had to play crowd blocker to Josh's broken arm, but he made it through unscathed. It was so much fun to be on a date with my hubby and be all dressed up downtown. Thanks for a great night Sweetie!

My lil' boy is growing up

So we've taken some really cute videos of Matt over the last week. The first one is him eating some real food. He loves to eat whenever he sees Josh or I eat. Sorry the video is a little dark.

This next video is him holding and drinking a bottle of apple juice all by himself. We were surprised at this new skill because Matt rarely gets bottles.

This last video is my favorite ever! We got a Wii today and Josh was playing a baseball game. Matt thought it was hilarious whenever Josh's guy swung the bat. So every 5 seconds or so Matt would bust up laughing. Thats quite a feat for our baby, because he usually makes us works really hard for the tiniest of laughs. I hope you enjoy!

Three Weeks Later

Well, it's been three weeks now since I broke my arm. I had surgery on the 19th of November to place a plate and 12 screws along the humerus bone in my arm. I got all 35 of my staples removed this past Tuesday, Dec 2nd, and now I just have a 9 inch scar waiting to get ugly. Doc says I'm not allowed to lift anything over 2lbs so that makes me pretty much useless around the house. Heather says she doesn't mind, but we all know that is a load. I'm pretty much a 2nd baby for her to take care of until January.

I thought I'd include a couple pics for your visual enjoyment. The first one is an xray of my arm after surgery and then before surgery.

This second pic is of my arm before I got the staples taken out. It just gives you an idea of how big the incision was and how huge of a scar I'm going to have for the rest of my life.

How did I forget Halloween?!

Sorry if you've been anxiously awaiting Halloween pictures...somehow I forgot to post them. We had a fun Halloween with Matthew. Josh and I were farmers and Matt was our Peapod. He didn't care for his costume too much (didn't allow for much movement).

Updates on Matthew

My cute little boy is now 7 months old! He is such a quick learning babe. Here are some updates on him:

-He rolls all over the place.

-If something is out of reach it drives him crazy and he will try his hardest to get it.

-He is eating stage 2 baby food and loves it.

-His all time favorite food is carrots.

-He is eating finger foods.

-As of Sunday 11/16 he can pick them up with his pinchers and feed himself.

-He enjoys playtime on the floor with his toys.

-He still prefers to be nursed and rocked to sleep.

-He wears size 6-9 months and 9-12 months clothes.

-He has some ticklish spots on his shoulders close to his neck, underams, and legs.

-He is a watcher, loves to watch kids and adults interact.

-He has him mom and dad wrapped around his little finger.

My Broken Husband

For all of you who are about to play an innocent game of dodgeball....please reconsider!!! Josh was playing in his company's dodgeball tournament last Thursday when he broke his left arm in 2 places. He was simply throwing the ball trying to get out as many opponents as possible and the torsion and force of the throw sent electrifying pain up his arm. He walked off the court and knew something was very wrong with his arm. After a trip to the instacare, he learned that his left humerus had a horizontal fracture and a spiral fracture below it. The X-ray was unbelievable. The bone was diagonally severed for about 4 inches, the bottom completely detached from the top of the bone. It was the worst break I've ever seen. Even the doctors couldn't believe he received this injury from throwing a ball. So then we rushed to an Orthopaedic doctor that could see him on such short notice (also happened to be Pioneer Valley). They finally gave him pain medicine, oh, 3 hours after the accident, and took X-ray after X-ray without much success of a good picture. Josh was put in a splint and lots of ace bandages and told it should be fine to heal on its own.

Well, after a long and hard night Thursday we started to think we should get a second opinion. Josh can feel the bone moving around in his arm at the slightest movement and it burns and aches and throbs all at the same time. He was in so much pain and I felt helpless. All I could do was sit and watch him suffer. It was a horrible feeling.

Another trip to the doctors (we saw a specialist and a surgeon yesterday) and the verdict is : He needs surgery. He will get a plate and screws in his arm to stabilize the bone and help him heal faster bright and early Wednesday morning.

If you are reading this, please keep Josh in your prayers.

Autumn in Utah

Well, Matthew and I are home now. The weather is a little chillier here and the leaves aren't as brightly colored as in NC. But, Its great to be home with Josh!!! The leaves are falling off our trees, so we took some pictures before we raked and bagged them. Enjoy!

Autumn in NC

Matt and I are in North Carolina visiting my family for a week. We have been living the good life...getting treated to yummy meals (I don't have to cook!) and visiting with family. While its very fun to be back....we miss you Josh!

The leaves are changing and are gorgeous shades of red and yellow.

Matthew and my dad about to take a walk on the Greenway trail.
We wore Matt out by the end!

Catching up

So some big things have happened in the last two weeks and I thought I would briefly catch you up. It snowed for about 2 minutes one flukey Saturday, so of course we had to get a picture of Matt and his first snow.

We celebrated my sister Amy's 22 birthday.... sorry about the cake again. It looked pretty before we made the car ride up to Kaysville.

Matthew rolled over from back to tummy for the very first time on Oct 21. We were so excited and proud of our little guy. Now he won't stop rolling over. Time to babyproof.

And these next pictures are for my mom. Here are the little Timberland boots you bought him. He looks like a wanna-be thug. HAHA!

We had a Whitmer Family dinner and we had a contest to see who could build the best mummy. They all looked really cute.

And lastly, Amy tagged me on her blog. So this is the 4th picture in our 4th folder which is Amy's Engagements. It was taken at Gardner Village and this was a practice shot to get the camera's settings fixed.

Fall Fishing

We finally made it to Strawberry Resevoir last weekend for the big turnover. We were scheduled for two weekends ago, but it was too cold and snowy for us. Good thing we waited because the weather was perfect on Saturday...blue skies and sunny. Float tubing is always an adventure. In times past, I've had mini-panic attacks if I get too far from shore or if I see something in the water (underwater trees, gross moss, etc) or if I let my mind wander about what is in the lake. I know, I'm a wimp. But much to my delight and surprise, I was able to have a pleasant and calm time out on the lake this time. We even went further out than Josh usually goes!

There were lots of people fishing that morning and we saw some big fish come out of the lake. I'm proud to say that I caught the first trout of the day!!! I was off by myself at that time, so I was screaming across the lake to Josh, asking "What do I do now?" I haven't caught a fish in over a year, so I was a little rusty. Poor Josh started kicking as hard and fast as he could to get

over to me and help but he had a long way to go. (Sorry for that babe!) I pulled in the fish and landed him in my lap by myself. As soon as he got in my lap, the line slacked and the hook came out of his mouth...I'm thankful I didn't have to pull it out because I didn't have forceps. But then the guy started flopping around (as fish do out of water) and I couldn't get a grip on him. Needless to say, he flopped right back into the water before Josh made it over and before I could hold it up for a picture. Bummer. I think it was about 18 inches and a Rainbow. It was a gorgeous fish, too bad I'm the only who got a look at it.

Josh caught the next fish, a 20 inch Cutthroat trout. That was a fun fight to watch. We each had a couple more bites and some that were caught but got away. Then 30 minutes before we were suppose to leave, Josh's dad caught 3 cutthroats in a row!!! They were all good sized too. He definitely had the right fly on. I think it was a dark olive woolly bugger.

Then the merciless wind started. It was a hard and long kick back to shore. I'm grateful to my tug-boat husband for helping me get back to dry land. All things considered, it was an awesome trip.

My Adorable Baby Boy

I have been feeling the need to take lots of portrait type pictures of Matt recently. I've seen some friends' baby pictures and wanted some of my own cutesy-artsy baby pics (without taking him into a studio and paying for them). So here are some of my favorites! He sure makes it easy to take good pictures, such a photogenic babe.

This one is at Gardner Village in his carseat, not the best background. I still need to work on it.

This next one is my absolute favorite!!! His eyes are gorgeous!

He is such a cute smiley boy. We are so blessed to have a happy baby.