Odds and Ends

• Last week Kimi and I canned 42 pounds of pears! It was surprisingly easy and went pretty quickly. They turned out awesome; they kept a pretty white color, and they taste great. I am excited to use them for baby food this winter and Justin is excited to eat them for dinner. Now I am just watching for a great deal on peaches so I can store some of those away. (If anybody knows of a great deal, please pass that info along.)

• Justin got another interview request. This one is for Virginia Commonwealth University which is in Richmond, VA. He will be flying out for that on Sept. 26th. I am a little jealous that he gets to go to Virginia without me. But aside from the cost factor, I don't think I will want to go a week after having a baby.
  
• One of my life goals has been to make a good angel food cake from scratch. Tonight I was successful!! I got the recipe from one of the chef's I like off of Food Network and it worked great. The cake tasted awesome and it looked pretty beautiful if I do say so myself.

• We discovered some educational train videos on you tube the other day and there is one that Matthew likes in particularly. He now knows that A is for apple and it makes the "a" sound. (Or at least he repeats those things independently, whether or not he really understands what he is saying.) It is just a preview video so they only do the letter A and I wish I had the other letters for him to watch because he obviously picked up on that quickly. He also loves to watch the number train video and is remembering more numbers.
• Can I just say that money is no fun.
• Things are progressing well with baby. The nurses are always impressed with my weight gain and I am kind of impressed myself. I haven't tried to gain less weight this time, but I guess that is what happens when you have no appetite for 9 months. But overall I am feeling well, although I am ready to be done. I have definitely been more sensitive to the heat the last week or so and am ready for fall to show up.
  
• Cory and Tiffany moved back to Utah this weekend. We are excited to get to see them more often.
• And Matthew is just cute and has been a lot of fun lately. However, it is like he woke up on his birthday knowing that he had hit the terrible two's. He hasn't been terrible yet, but definitely exerting his will more and it is getting harder to change his mind. He has also taken to telling us to "Go away." It is pretty cute really.

Matthew's Happy Day

Matthew has been looking forward to his birthday for a very long time. Ever since our ward campout in June he has wanted to launch bottle rockets. We told him that we would do them for his birthday, and so his birthday became something we talked about and looked forward to on a daily basis. Matthew calls birthdays "happy days" and when he woke up on Saturday he knew exactly what it meant when I told him that his 'happy day' had finally arrived. This birthday will probably go down in history as Matthew's best happy day ever. He got to spend the morning swimming at Lagoon with grandma and grandpa (see the post below for the Lagoon trip), he got to see his daddy after being gone for a whole week, AND he got to launch bottle rockets. As soon as we got home that was all Matthew wanted to do and he would completely melt down if we told him he had to wait. (He was a little tired from spending the weekend at Lagoon so his coping skills were lacking.) So Justin took him out and launched a rocket with him so that he would let us bathe him and feed him dinner. Aside from our family, Matthew's little friend Emmett came as did the Bishop, which made Matthew very happy. When he saw the Bishop walking across the grass Matthew took off at a run to greet him. (Bishop was the one who started the rocket obsession in Matthew's life, so it was only fitting that he came to his rocket launching party.)
Anyways, we had a really good time eating root beer floats and watching the rockets.
The launcher that Justin made worked great and the rockets go really high; it is pretty fun to watch.
Since his birthday happened to fall on the weekend that Kimi was blessing her baby, and when my parents came down to Lagoon, we had a lot of family at the party which meant plenty of presents for Matthew to open. His happy day only got better because everybody bought him the perfect gift and he seriously got something to represent every one of his favorite things right now. The bishop gave him blocks:Mom and Dad gave him a baseball bat and ball, and a helicopter. (The rocket launcher was also Justin's present to him)Grandma Koyle made him the cutest book full of nursery rhymes.Kimi & Kevin gave him a basketballJamie gave him a firetruck that actually shoots water
and Grandma Jones gave him a train set and whiteboard crayons. Somehow I didn't get a picture of the train set but Matthew loves it. Today he didn't want to stop playing to lay down and take a nap so I let him take a few trains in to bed with him. This is how I found him once he finally fell asleep.As a parent I have to say it was also a very happy day for me. There is something so special about seeing your little boy SO happy and surrounded by all the people and things that he loves and that make his eyes light up. Happy Birthday Matthew! We love you and are so glad that you are in our family. You make us smile and laugh every day.

Lagoon

This was a crazy weekend for us but in a very fun way. Justin left Thursday morning for his very first medical school interview at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. It went really well and he liked what he saw and learned of the school. So while he was away opening opportunities for our future, Matthew and I met up with my family at Lagoon to play : ) We had a wonderful time. Matthew wasn't scared of anything and would cry, "More, more" every time he had to get off a ride. The very first ride he went on he called Baby Beluga. He had a big grin on his face but he was not letting go to wave at us.
He got braver though and on later rides would totally wave at us every time he came around. He especially liked riding in the helicopter
And he had fun on the dragon roller coaster with grandpa.
Mom and Dad had a good time being young again with Lindy & Jana and went on quite a few of the rides with them.
Matthew saw the Skee Ball game while we were playing in the fountains and then he wouldn't stop talking about them. So after dinner, the carousal, the train, and the sky coaster (swings), we let him play a few games of Skee Ball. Unfortunately he didn't get enough points to win a stuffed animal.
That night we stayed at the hotel with my family and then Saturday we went swimming at Lagoona Beach. I didn't get any pictures but we had a fun time swimming in the water. Matthew and I left early so we could pick Justin up from the airport and get ready for Matthew's birthday party. It was so much fun to see Matthew's smile and excitement getting to do all the fun things at Lagoon. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Koyle!

Showing Off Idaho

This weekend we took our friends home to share our love of western Idaho with them. It was a lot of fun but jam packed. Friday Matthew got to hang out with grandma and grandpa Koyle (and Lindy) while we went rafting. I was the car chauffeur since I didn't feel like braving the river with my large belly.

That night we went out to eat at Big Judd's. Alan & Erin had heard about this restaurant and were told that you couldn't go to Boise without eating there. Ironically, none of us had ever really even heard of it. But we went to check it out. They are famous for their one pound and two pound hamburger, so of course Justin had to try it out. He got the one pound burger and the thing was HUGE. He ate his entire milkshake and drank a big glass of water before getting his burger so he only made it through half. He didn't get his picture on the wall, but maybe another time. Alan's hamburger was pretty large as well; it had onion rings on it. The food was really yummy but I don't think it was out of this world good.
Then they wanted to see the famous blue turf so we took them by Boise State on the way home.
Saturday we went boating up at Arrowrock. The weather was beautiful and the water was perfect. Matthew really loved the tube and he even enjoyed just swimming in the lake. He would jump off the back of the boat into the lake all by himself. I went on a little tube ride and then had to be content to watch everybody else play in the water, which was sad because it was such a beautiful day that I actually wanted to get in and try skiing and surfing.

Notice my life jacket doesn't really close in the front : )

In one part of the lake there are 3 old tree trunks that stick up. Usually we know to avoid them but we didn't realize we were that close to them and while Justin was skiing he ran right over the top of one. Luckily he didn't get hurt but it was pretty funny to see him just standing up in the middle of the lake.
That night we went over to my house for a BBQ and hung out there for the evening. Sunday we went to church and then headed for home. Tami turned in her Christmas gift certificate and got to keep Matthew for the week. She was super excited. I keep having flashbacks of two summers ago when I had lots of time on my hands and was just waiting to have a baby. Only this time I do have plenty of things to keep me busy.
Anyways, we had a really fun time up in Idaho with our friends and getting to go out on the boat for the first and only time this summer. Idaho is the best-we love it!