Little Man's First Christmas

Dear Friends & Family,
I hope you all had a great Christmas! I did. Christmas Eve-Eve I went to bed, then woke up in the back of my daddy's car on the way down to my cousin's house in Utah. I was pretty tired the next day, so I took a loooong nap.



The rest of Christmas Eve was spent watching dad and uncle Luke rough house, playing with cousin Tanner and wishing I could get around as well as he does (though he is 9 months older than I am).





After I woke up and had gotten some breakfast in my tummy, it was time to wake up dad. Mama made me do it because he's always grumpy Christmas morning. (I guess I am too cute and lovable to get mad at).

Time to open presents! I got to open two. The first was a roll-along-singing giraffe that my cousins seemed to really enjoy, and the second was little musical drum toy. I didn't really understand the point of opening presents... maybe next year it will make a little more sense.

I love the taste of a new toy!


I got to watch my cousins open gifts too.

Then I romped around with Grandpa!

Playing around with all my fun family made me really wish I could get around as easily as they do.

It's okay though. My dad makes it possible for me to harass various family anyway. Like uncle Jack!

All in all, I had a lot of fun these last couple of days: I got to watch cousin Sage make Grandpa "pretty" with stickers.

I also found out that one advantage to having Christmas with family, are your counsins toys!

And guess what?! I saw chickens for the first time!

We all got a pretty good laugh when my mom accidentally dropped a tube of toothpaste in the toilet... (don't worry, she made daddy fish it out and throw it away)

And last but not least, we headed to SLC with uncle Luke and had fun trying to figure out the Trax system. It was SUPER COLD but I didn't mind. I guess I must take after my dad.

My mom has been telling me all about Christmas for that past few months, and she was right! It is a great season! I guess now that it's over we'll get back into our normal schedule and catch up on all that sleep we missed... until next year.

Happy New Year's in a week!

Love,
Malcom

Merry Christmas!

Gosh, it's only a few days away and I'm just SO EXCITED! Ben and I have just two presents for each other, and of course the little man is only getting two from us since I know he has a box coming from Grandma. I have been dying to tell Ben what his present is. I've been stowing away money in the past few months so that he could go snowboarding with his brother Luke. We're planning on hitting Powder Mountain while we're in Utah for Christmas (it's a good thing too, because there is hardly any snow here yet and Kelly Canyon hasn't even opened yet). I planned a little further with Luke this afternoon, then decided to just tell Ben what his big present was. Ever since then we've been watching videos of snowboarding- and he's had a very happy look on his face. We haven't gone since we've been married! We've been poor, and last year I was super preggo so that wasn't going to happen. Anyway, I can't wait to head down to Utah!

Ben also gave me a present today. He got me a $100 gift card to Sage Day Spa, that he earned with points from Melalueca (I don't know how I'd feel if he actually spent that much money on it!) I've always been curious about messages but too cheep and scared to do it. It'll be a wonderful little mini-vacation! We haven't been getting a lot of sleep with the teething Malcom and all, and I always can use a little "me" time. I have the best husband ever! Seriously.

Anyway, let's move on to the real reason for the post: my friend Orchid! She tagged me. I need to list ten things that make me happy- which is probably good for me considering the cynicism of my last post. Here it goes- in no particular order!

1. My family. All of them! The one I grew up in and the one I'm growing, and my in-laws ROCK.
2. Being outside. Maybe this comes to mind because we're at the end of December and having a little one makes it a bit more difficult to enjoy frozen sunshine. I've always felt that being out in nature, whether it's exploring a mountain side or a neighborhood park, offered a sort of personal peace and sanctuary. Plus it's fun and you don't have to worry about trying to keep it tidy. :)
3. The gospel. It's a huge category really, but all in all, it is by living those things that I have been taught that has given me the best things in life: ie. my husband and family, solace, confidence, friends and SO much more I can't begin to list them. I don't believe I would be who I am today with out it.
4. A working car with a heater and defrost. Our last car did not have these luxuries for it's last few years, and that made driving all the way to work in sub-degree weather with the windows rolled down SO NOT FUN! And then it died just before a huge snowstorm last year, and we ended up going with out a car for a month. It felt like a year. Last winter was miserable! I am grateful for our working "man-ex-cop-car", even if it does look like a rust bucket.
5. Nights that I actually get to sleep more than 4 hours. This has not happened in a long while. *sigh* I miss you, sleep. Please come back!
6. Slip-on shoes. Laces are just too much work.
7. Date nights! It must sound like I'm always trying to escape my child. I'm really not! I love him dearly, but I also love mommy-daddy time. Even if it's just a movie, some treats, and a good cuddle on the couch. Date nights rock!
8. In-door plumbing. Best invention ever.
9. Friends. I have been so blessed through out my life. I'm not typically an out-going person, but somehow I end up meeting the coolest people! A person can never have too many good friends.
10. Health. This is one thing that is easy to take for granted until you are sick in bed with the flu, or you're covered in "poison evil". It's wonderful to be able to do whatever you please with out being hindered by some sort of physical affliction!!

Now I shall tag:
Cindy McG
Nicole Meacham
Sara Farnsworth
Jessie Jo
Heather Bowman

Love you all! Have a WONDERFUL Christmas everyone!

Poison Oak Sucks.

That's an understatement.
(These are random pictures I found online)







Those of you who knew me growing up know that I was perpetually covered in it- whether I had come in to contact with the plant's oils by way of animal, clothing, someone else, or just the evil plant itself, I swear I was always battling one break out or another. My last encounter came just before high school graduation- my arms and neck were COVERED in the worst seeping blisters I had ever had... itchy graduation robe in the hot sun... guh. Then there was grad night at the high school, where I had to keep changing the paper towels covering my weeping blisters every 10 minutes- because yes, they were that nasty. Not exactly how you want people to remember you but there wasn't much I could do about it.



Two weeks after graduation I headed to Idaho where I later learned had NO POISON OAK! I went rogue in the outdoors- finally free to roam anywhere I wanted without the threat of my arched nemesis. Sure there was stinging nettle from time to time, but compared to poison oak it was a joke. Life was grand! I camped everywhere and went 6 months with out sleeping on a bed. I backpacked for the first time, went caving, mountain biking, climbed mountains and hiked in some really awesome places (Rexburg is actually a lot of fun if you have means of getting out into the country side). I have always loved the outdoors, but I was finally able to enjoy them.



Fast forward a few years, a husband and a kid later. It's Thursday night, and you find out your husband has arranged your friends to kidnap you for a night out of fun. He takes the kid to Walmart for some "man time", you bundle up knowing that the person in charge of kidnapping you is super hard core and you need to be prepared for anything. Then the power goes out all over Rexburg, and you think, "Wow! Brilliant! I didn't know they were that good!" Then the husband comes home with the kid because there's no where to go with the power outage. It get's late, and you decide that it's better to call the night off just because you know you're going to have to get up earl with the kid. Husband calls the kidnappers, who apologize for the lateness and ask to come over and say hello anyway. Half hour later, you're sitting on the couch by candlelight, minding your own business, when your kidnappers come bursting into the door, throw a blanket on you and duct-tape it around you. For practice. You don't struggle because, honestly, you've been entertaining a little one all day and your pretty exhausted. The kidnappers stay a little while then leave with some hugs...

And then it begins again- the red spots that you hope is just dry skin or a horrible food allergy, the itchiness that gets more intense as time goes on, the spreading dots that appear over the next few days, the welts and blisters... and you realize, you have been foiled. Again. In your own apartment, during a power outage, by your own friends' blanket and goodwill, after 5 years of steering clear of the stuff.

I can't describe how much I HATE poison oak. Hate hate hate hate hate HATE! No joke. Over the years I have become increasingly desperate to get rid of it as soon as possible. So Saturday night I found some bleach, and I put it on. You know, it didn't actually burn that much. I have to say it's drying out pretty well, and I think bleach is now my new best friend. I have a strict regimen of bleach, scalding showers, dermicort, benedryl (the gel, not the ingested stuff since Malcom's still nursing), and pretty soon my personal favorite, rubbing alcohol for the more sensitive skin like my face and ears. Ben has never seen me have it before, and I think he thinks my attitude about it is funny. How did he describe it yesterday? It's either me or the poison oak? Haha.

So yes, that's my story. Let's hope I can deal with this by Christmas! (so far so good I think). Now the little man wants some attention, and he's stuck in a corner. I know I'll regret saying it later, but I can't wait till he can get around on his own! He's going to be such a happy boy.

Love to all! Those of you who have never had to deal with the sheer evil of poison oak/ivy/sumac, I hope you never do (though I am secretly jealous of you- wait, that's an understatement...). Merry Christmas to everybody!

Kind of Pointless. No, Really.

Has anyone else noticed how busy this time of year is?!!?

I guess it's somewhat self-imposed so I really can't complain. But seriously, whew!

Things are going well. This is finals week for Ben- which means only FOUR more days left of this semester. Ben's off-track in the winter, and as a result I'll get to have my husband back till April when his crazy schedule resumes. I'm SO excited! I'm sure Malcom will be happy to see another face besides mine all the time. :)

The Manchild has been having a rough time in the sleep department. I think it's teething related.. bah! I can't wait till he doesn't have to teeth anymore! Tylenol seems to help, but I still feel bad for him... and our neighbors.. and us. Malcom finally figured out how to roll from back to tummy the other night. He's been flipping over front to back since he was 4 months old, but for some reason he forgets he knows how when he wakes up on his tummy in the middle of the night. We end up having to go in and flip him back over. It's more comical than anything- but I'm sure he'll connect the dots soon enough.

Ugh. I just realized our camera is across the room... I guess I'm too tired and lazy to post any new pics tonight. This is all you get:

(He was checking out the snow from our old bedroom window)

Love to all!

All Moved! Now it's Time for Sleep.

So. Tired.

Uuuuuuuuaaggghhhhh.

I am happy to announce we are finally all done moving. It took us the entire five days to do it- turns out I forgot how tedious moving your stuff from one place to another is- especially when a kid is involved. I never want to move again!... well, at least not until we leave Rexburg for good.

We have really enjoyed the extra space so far. I can't describe how wonderful it is to not have to constantly be tip-toeing around Malcom all the time after he's gone to bed, or that we no longer wake each other up, or that there is a designated space for all of his stuff (our living room and bedroom used to be lined with baby gear, now it's all in his room-except the high chair of course). Wonderful wonderful wonderful!

And about the "noise problem" in our area.. yeah, I haven't been able to figure out what that's about. We hardly ever hear the people upstairs and we never hear the people next to us. I just hope we're not too loud to them! lol

That's pretty much all I've got for now. I honestly don't have the ambition to write anymore tonight... I think I might be in bed by 10 tonight if I can get the laundry folded. Mmmmm.. sleep.

Happy birthday to my sister Cindy!

Hope you are all staying warm in this cold snap that seems to be everywhere. Weather.com is saying that it's 5 degrees here, and with windchill it's supposed to feel like -7. Honestly I hardly notice... I think once it gets below 30-ish outside it feels the same. The only difference is how quickly your nose hair freeze.

Any way, love to all! And may you all sleep well. ;) Here are some pics for fun (because we all know that's really what you came here for):

Boys like things that make noise.

We went to a festival of lights a few weeks ago, and as you can tell Malcom loved it! The added bonus of unlimited access to pulling daddy's hair probably helped.

Here's our little Chubby McChubbers after a bath. This was taken a few weeks ago as well, and I think he's actually leaning out now that I'm looking at this. It's crazy how quickly babies change!

Hehehe, since he's been "leaning" out a bit, he's finally able to play with his feet! They are now good toys for those desperate moments when mom's conked out on the couch and he's pushed all of his other toys out of reach (which has been happening a lot lately with this moving business!)

Whew!

Busy busy busy!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We went to my sister's house in eastern Oregon for a few days, which was a lot of fun but a LONG trip. It took us 7 hours to drive there, which wasn't so bad because we drove at night and Malcom slept the whole way. The way back however is a completely different story- we left about noon and the poor kid had some crazy cabin-fever. The manchild was not happy. We had to stop a lot and in the end, it took us nearly 4 hours longer on the trip back home. So tired. Currently I'm having to do some re-night-training as his sleep routine went out the window for the trip... not so fun. In fact, I have the privilege of hearing him scream himself to sleep right now. He is actually really good at getting himself to sleep normally, but wow... Let's hope he goes back to the old ways soon! I hate to hear him cry.

On another note, which may very well be related, the little man's FIRST TOOTH is finally beginning to show! Malcom's been teething for months, so we've been expecting one to pop up for a while now. It doesn't seem to be bothering him at all actually, so that's a neat surprise. I guess once it's erupted it's not as much pressure to deal with. Once it fully debuts I will definitely post lots of adorable toothy-grin pics!

Also while we were gone we found out that Ben's Grandma Matheson passed away. It was sad, but at least she had led a very long and full life. I was lucky enough to meet her a year and half ago on Memorial Day. Ben introduced me as his wife and she said, "Oh! I thought you were a boy!" Awkward way to meet anyone, so I tried to lessen the awkwardness and lightly chuckled, "Oh, it's okay... I guess my hair's tied back...It's kind of funny..." and I stammered off hoping that someone would change the subject or something. She just looked at me all confused and said, "No, it's not." And that was followed by silent smirks all around by the Mathesons, who as nice as they are, never pass up a moment to laugh at each other. Endearing, really.

But she was a very sweet lady. I loved watching Ben's Grandpa with her. He was so gentle and patient, he took care of all of her needs and never complained. It opened my eyes and made me contemplate really growing old with someone, what happens when one of you succumbs faster than the other to old age and senility. Years of caring for another human while not getting much in return... it's beautiful, inspiring, and even romantic in a way. I think that it's the ultimate show of loyalty and unconditional love.

And you know, I could see similarities between him and Ben. My Ben has had some wonderful examples growing up, for which I am so very grateful. One thing is for certain, and that is that all the people who helped raise him did a good job of it. I can tell that from the stories of his childhood that he was not always an "angel child"- or ever- so I'm thankful for all those who helped steer him in the right direction so that he could come find me. :)

Enough of that. On to other news- we're MOVING! It's official! We're moving across the parking lot to #120, so we will stay in the same ward and everything. Easiest move ever. The new apartment will have TWO BEDROOMS! 'Bout time for it too. I'm not sure which day yet, possibly Thursday or Saturday... so if anyone wants to help move stuff across the parking lot, or entertain a silly little man (Malcom, not Ben.. haha, couldn't resist), then your help would be appreciated! My manager Jessica (who is pretty much the most amazing manager you could ever hope to have) warned me that we're moving underneath a family with a few kids and that there has been some noise-level complaints going to and from the apartment. Hopefully things work out just fine.

Is that all? I can't think of anything else. Oh! We got Christmas cards to send out this year! Thanks to Lois for the free Christmas card tip. I'm lazy, so here's a link to her post about how to get the 50 free cards. (I hope you don't mind Lois!) I had to pay $3 in shipping, but that was all. It only took a week to get, they came with free envelopes and the cards look pretty good. So kids, if you want a card, I need an address! You can email/facebook/call me because we have a lot to give away. :)

And that is all. Whew! Happy December everyone! Now to get busy cleaning, organizing and packing! :D

Luckiest. Vicki. Ever.

Blessed? Lucky? What word is it that I can use to adequately describe my life right now? There are so many adjectives out there but I can't seem to find the right one. Wonderful? Amazing? Full? Stupendous? Lovely? Well what ever it is, I'm in love with it. Here are some pics of late:

Malcom fell asleep on the way home from a RS activity, and stayed asleep on the journey from the car to the couch.

Our friend across the parking lot from us, Julianne, had an extra Johnny Jump Up and gave it to us. This kid had so much fun in it he didn't need me to entertain him at all. It's like a puppy or sibling substitute, but better because it doesn't poo. :)

We do laundry together nearly every day, and we typically play a lot of peek-a-boo. Here he is hiding under one of Ben's shirts. It was super cute because his feet were kicking and thrashing around as he giggled below. I love this kid.

Here by request- a pic of my new hair cut today, courtesy of the amazing (and a dear old friend) Erin Liggett. She gave me a head message, hair washing, and definitely a kind of haircut I have never had before. It's taking some getting used to, but it's tons of fun and I really like it. It's good to try something completely new sometimes! (Plus, the manchild has a harder time reaching my hair now!) All credit goes to Erin- I never would have gotten bangs with out trusting the stylist first! Erin, you are wonderful!

I'm only including this pic so you can see how big the manchild has gotten in comparison! His head is almost as big as mine! There is nothing dainty about this boy.

In other news, we may be moving in to an new apartment soon... one with TWO BEDROOMS! I know, I know, it's almost too good to be true. Apparently, a couple across the parking lot from us is moving and needs someone to buy their contract. We're going to check it out tomorrow (we want to make sure it'll have enough room for us... our apartments have different layouts), but if all works out we might get to move on over soon. Yeah. I'm excited. This week we have discovered that the manchild only needs to eat about 1 or 2 times a night, instead of the 4 I used to think. He still wakes up and cries for a few minutes though, and sharing a room with that is not fun.

Also, Ben officially cut back to part-time at Melalueca, so that he can focus on school work more. Now he only goes in MWF from 4 to 10pm, instead of the old MTWTF 1 to 10pm. It's been a nice change for both of us. He is no longer as stressed as he used to be, and Malcom and I get to actually see him a few times a week. :) We love our Ben, and we especially love when we get to have time with him! We have also been blessed in the fact that they're letting him keep the same wages as he made as a supervisor. I don't think we would be able to make it if they didn't. It never ceases to amaze me how our prayers are answered, that things always seem to work out.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Travel safely if you are traveling! Love you all. :)

Fun with the Manchild

I am constantly amazed at the little man- how quickly he grows [insert chubby joke here], his developing personality and wacky sense of humor, his physical and cognitive skills... the list goes on. Really, he just amazes me in general. I feel perfectly lucky to be able to stay at home with him and be his mom. And seriously, we have more fun than should be allowed to a 7 1/2 month old and his half-crazy mother!

Malcom loves books. Not only do the pages have fun colors and shapes, but they taste yummy too.

We bought him a high chair last week, and got to enjoy the big box that it came in.

We decided to break in the high chair, so I stripped the boy down to his diaper, strapped him in, and let him "paint" with carrots on his white canvas of a tray. He REALLY enjoyed this one!

So life's still good here. Love to all!

Toll Paint

I never thought I'd be one of those women that would stay at home all day baking yummies, playing with babies and planning my next little crafty project. In my youth, I was a skilled avoider of the toll paint and needle point activities. "Useless waists of time and resources that I will undoubtedly trash", is how I also referred to such projects. Ironic, considering my love for drawing, painting, and general creativity.

Thus, you may see how I surprised myself earlier today as I woke up early, made some bread pudding, cleaned and grocery shopped, fed the kid a dozen times, got all atwitter about the crafty potential of a 12X12 sheet of magnetic paper, and then went to the relief society activity tonight where there were blocks of wood and- you guessed it- toll paint. TOLL PAINT. Annnnnnd, *whispers* I may have liked it.

Sh! Don't tell my young self, she would find me and flog me for sure.

I didn't actually do more than get supplies and chat, since the manchild decided to prevent me from doing anything besides trying to appease him (his bedtime does shoot really close to the activities), but it was so wonderful to get to meet and know other women around here. I didn't realize how much I cherish social interaction until I'd been away from it for a while. Today was definitely a good reminder of the greatness of adult conversation.

*sigh* It's been a fabulous day.

Halloween

It's November! Is this year speeding by to anyone else?! I love this time of year, there's always this excitement right before the snow comes.. well, excitement and dread, it's hard to describe adequately. If you've lived somewhere with a long white winter, you probably know what I'm talking about. One thing I love about the fall/winter is all the excuses you have to bake things. Seriously, during the rest of the year it's like you have to have a birthday, visitors, party, or some reason to bake goodies. But this time of year is all about yummy food! I'm excited because I finally have more time to bake and experiment with recipes... last year I was preggo and working 12 hour days, 5 days a week... so yeah, I'm not sure how I survived that, I don't remember it very well at all, and I obviously had no time/ambition to do anything besides working and sleeping, and sometimes mixing the two. I think I need to make cinnamon rolls sometime in the next few days, or orange rolls. I'm not sure but it's going to be tasty! :)

We had a great Halloween. Ben worked all day (curse you month end!!! Gah! 12 hour days suck!), but Malcom and I were able to have fun. We made little pizzas and "dirt 'n' worms" (something I haven't had since I was a kid), watched some silly old "scary" movies which ended up borderline comedy, danced around the apartment, and handed out candy to trick or treaters. We only had two groups of treaters, about 9 kids total... I confess I got so darn excited at the first group I gave them all huge handfulls of candy. I believe the word "jackpot" was whispered between them... :) Yeah, I'm that lady apparently. When the second group came I only had one piece left for each of them. I felt bad but I'm sure they got lots of candy anyway.

Malcom dressed up as the Monopoly, officially named Uncle Pennybags. He turned out looking a lot more like Mr. Peanut, or a capeless magician, or the villain from Rocky and Bowinkle, or an old-time gangster like Al Capone. I worked for weeks on that costume and he was barely fitting in it by the time I finished! He actually had outgrown the shoes I made. It's all good though, I think he was quite dashing anyway. :) Here are some pics from the cuteness:

Haha, I love how serious he looks in the picture. Priceless.

That's all for now. I'm off to bed. Happy November!

Master Malcom's Maple Leaves

The sky is a pure cornflower blue, it's almost warm outside, and Master Malcom is captivated by all the gold, bronze, and crimson colors dancing in the air outside his window. He must go outside on a day like this! Urgently he calls for his chariot (ahem, mother... in PJs...) to carry him to his outside domain to further enjoy the day.

Upon arrival to his first autumn throne, the manchild feels a gust of unexpected wind on his face, and with it a thousand leaves whirl and surround him. This is hilarious, and he finds himself in a fit of uncontrolled laughter. Well done Mother Nature- you are a good jester.

Satisfied with the breezes performance, Master Malcom turns his attention to an investigation of his colorful subjects.

"Hmmm, not crunchy enough.. too green.. too small... this one is looking at me weird..."

All at once his efforts are rewarded when he finds the most beautiful, crisp, deep orange leaf.

Overcome by it's superb crunchiness, he stuffs it into his mouth and closes his eyes to enjoy the savory taste of the season.

All at once Master Malcom is overcome by the urge to eat leaves, and begins frantically searching for more. He begins to stuff his mouth with varying sizes, shapes and textures. A small growl escapes his throat in his pursuit to fulfill his sudden hunger.

...And again...

And again...

Suddenly, the breeze picks up again and makes the golden leaves dance, disrupting his concentration and sending the Manchild into another fit of uncontrolled laughter.

A delightful bit of autumn lands on his chin, and he (or his PJ clad chariot) gets an idea...

Satisfied, Master Malcom takes one last look at his splendid kingdom, eats one last leaf, says a few parting syllables to his subjects, then heads back to his castle for a well deserved nap.

Tomorrow his autumn excitement will blow away and will be replaced by a blanket of snow. Soon a whole new adventure will await!