BUBBERS!!!!!

My little baby boy turned 1 year old yesterday!!

Here are some highlights from his first year of life:

Note:  this is another very long post!

This was our first picture as a family.  It was about 20 minutes after he was born.  Emma wasn't quite sure what to think about this new little bundle, but I sure was excited that he was here safe and sound.

This was a rare thing for Matthew the first 4 or 5 months.  He did not do very much sleeping at all, so I'm glad we got a picture of this.  The first 2 nights we had him home I got a total of 2 hours of sleep one night and 3 hours the next night.  It did improve a little from there, but not much as he had a pretty bad problem with acid reflux.  Fortunately he sleeps much better during the night now.  Now if only we can get him to nap a little better. :)

This was the only way we could find to ease the pain in Matthew's tummy and get him to fall asleep for the first several months of his life.  We would wrap Grandma Harshberger's blanket around his back and hold him close to us to put pressure on his little tummy.  I remember walking with him like this for up to 45 minutes sometimes to get him to fall asleep.  My back sure hurt after doing that, but it was worth it to help his tummy not to hurt so he could fall asleep.  I sure am glad he grew out of that.

Here he is with aunt Karla feeding him.  Matthew did take a bottle from time to time for about the first 2 months.  Unfortunately, that was all the longer it lasted and from that time on, he has decided that he wants nothing but the best!  He loves to nurse.  It has been an interesting experience.  I have not been away from him for longer than about 5 hours since he was born.  It has really made me feel like I have bonded with him and I just love him so much.

Here he is with Grandma Southern.  I think he has the most darling little cheeks that just beg to be kissed and I guess grandma must have felt the same way.  From the look on his face though, I am not entirely sure that he liked being kissed so much.  He seems to be okay with it now though, because I kiss those cute little cheeks all the time and he doesn't mind one bit.

This picture with me was taken during his first professional picture shoot.  He was a little confused as to why everyone was acting like a fool, but we were able to get some really cute pictures.

This picture with Great-Grandma and Grandpa Sperry was taken at the luncheon held after his blessing.  He did so good during his blessing so fortunately we were able to hear it.  It was a wonderful little blessing.  As you can see in the picture, he was so tired that afternoon and fell asleep shortly after this picture was taken.

Here Bubbers is in his Easter outfit.  I have loved getting to dress him up.  My favorite little outfits are the Sunday ones.  I love the little button up shirts with ties, slacks and cute little vests.  They make him look like a little man.  It is so darling.

Here is one with Grandma Harshberger.  This was taken on the 4th of July.  He really seemed intrigued by the fireworks and fortunately was not scared by them.  I love his great big smile in this picture.

This picture with Grandpa Southern was taken last summer.  This was a momentous occasion just because of the fact that my dad doesn't hold the little babies very much.  I don't know if this was the first time he held Matthew or not, but it was one of the first times.

This picture with aunt Jan was taken last summer while we were at the zoo.  It was Matthew's first trip to the zoo.  He was still a little young though, so he didn't get way excited about anything except the glass of water that Jan was letting him take little drinks from.  It was really cute, he kept trying to grab the cup from her.  I would say that was his favorite part of the zoo.

Here he is with Great-Grandma Spendlove.  We go and visit her in a rest home most every Friday.  This particular Friday happened to be Halloween, so he was all dressed up as a darling little bumble bee.  We got to go trick-or-treating around the rest home.  Matthew was not entirely sure what to think about it, but he did find a little girl about his age there who was also dressed as a bee.  He seemed to like her.

Bubbers has turned in to a fairly laid back little guy.  He is generally happy, as long as he has a full tummy.  However, he does not like hats.  As you can see from the picture above, he is about to pull the hat off, but he is laughing and is not bugged about it.  That is one thing I love about his personality!  He is such a sweet little guy.

As I said earlier, he loves to nurse and that is exactly what he is doing in this picture.  The past few months he has decided to take up yoga while nursing.  It is quite funny to see how far he can move without loosing the milk supply.  He has actually fallen right off my lap into a standing position on the floor in front of me several times because he went a little far with his yoga.  It is so cute!

Here he is with his favorite friend, his sister.  He loves to do everything that she is doing and can frequently be found following her around the house, knocking down her blocks and taking her baby doll.  He LOVES her.  Fortunately, even if she does get frustrated with him at times, she has decided that she loves him as well.  It is so nice to see her sharing with him so often now, and showing him that she loves him.

Here he is with his aunt Jenny at his first birthday party.  What a big boy he is getting to be, but he has obviously not lost those kissable cheeks yet!

Our sweet little Bubbers is one year old now.  He has such a sweet little personality.  He seems to be so gentle and have a wonderful little spirit about him.  I feel blessed every day that I am able to be his mother, to be home with him and to get to see his sweet little personality coming out.  He is such a joy to be around and a wonderful addition to our little family.  We love him so much!

Pappy!

This month is such a special one; it's birthday time for you.

We'd really like to celebrate your happy day with you.

Zipadeeay and heighdeeho, here's something we can do.

We'll sing a song that we all know, Happy Birthday to you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPPY!!!

I have many fond memories of going to Bear Lake for our family vacations while I was growing up.  Dad's boss owned a condo up there, so we went there most every year.  Dad used to stress a lot  trying to get all 9 kids ready and up there, but we always had a nice time when we got there.  I don't remember him having dark hair like he has in the picture above.  I guess having 9 kids must have stressed the color right out of his hair.

There was one time that Dad and Jon found a trail for us to hike.  It went to a lake, so we packed a lunch and planned to hike to the lake and enjoy the beauty as we ate our lunch and then hike back.  They picked a lake that was named "Red Lake."  Unfortunately there were no pictures of this lake, so they didn't know how "beautiful" it would be.  When we finally got up to the lake it was hideous.  I think there were cow pies all over the place and it smelled awful.  The lake was not kept up at all.  It had a bunch of algae or moss or something and looked disgusting.  We ended up going a ways away from the lake to eat our lunch.  Despite the disgusting lake, we actually had a very fun time.  As we hiked down we made up this song sung to the "Sound Off" army tune where one person leads and the rest repeat each line:

Dad and Jon they picked a trail

(Dad and Jon they picked a trail)

They led us straight down to ...

(They led us straight down to ...)

Red lake was a hiker's trap

(Red lake was a hiker's trap)

It looked and smelled like a pile of Crap!

(It looked and smelled like a pile of Crap!)

Sound Off 1, 2, 3, 4

Wow, I was a little crass back then!  :)

Dad was always very supportive of all of the missionaries from our family.  You could always tell just how much he loved his children when missionaries would come home because the moment he hugged them, he would start crying.

Dad was a good sport about things.  He often did family activities that he did not want to do because Mom wanted to do them.  The 4 girls went with mom and dad to the Oregon coast on a vacation one year.  I remember one afternoon we were just sitting on the balcony of our hotel room talking and laughing.  There were 2 different conversations going on.  I said something about boys being scared of me and then I heard dad say, "Well yeah, if all you look at are the hips."  He wasn't talking to me, but I didn't know that and it sounded like he was saying that boys were scared of me because of my enormous hips!  We laughed about that for a long time.

Pappy is a great big teddy bear.  He talks like he's all tough, but deep down, he's a softy.  I remember he asked me to teach him the basic step to a slow dance for my wedding.  When we actually started dancing, he broke down crying and didn't even try to do the dance.  I felt so special knowing that he loved me so much that it moved him to tears.

Pappy has a great sense of humor.  He's very handy and was always fixing or improving things around the house while we were growing up.  He is also a very good teacher.  He taught my Sunday School class when I was about 12 or 13 and I remember being impressed with how much he knew.  He also taught by example.  I remember him taking us to the stake peach farm several times to thin peaches while we were growing up.  He is a great man and a wonderful father.  He is one of the best examples I know of someone who has come unto Christ and allowed himself to be changed.

Thank you Daddy!  I love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

So Handsome!

Matthew got his first haircut on Saturday, December 27th.  When I took him in, the girl cutting his hair found that he has 5 cowlicks on his head.  She said the hair on the top at the back of his head won't ever lay flat, so the best thing to do is to cut it really short.  Bummer!!  Oh well, he was so good the whole time.   When she started to cut with the scissors, he wanted to see what she was doing and started moving his head, but I blew some bubbles for him.  He loved the bubbles and just kept laughing over and over again.  It was so cute and very helpful because it made it possible for her to finish cutting his hair.  He was so cute!

Here is his hair before it was cut!  It was so darling, but it was always falling in his face.

The first snip!

He loved the bubbles!!  It was so cute to see him laughing so much!

All done!!  Good thing aunt Jenny came and brought her camera or we wouldn't have any pictures of this momentous occasion.

Don't I look handsome!?!

Christmas Day 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!  We decided to do only 3 presents per person, 1 fun, 1 practical and 1 spiritual.  That made shopping easier and it was fun to come up with ideas for each present.

We had decided to start opening presents at about 7:30 so we could be sure to be done in time to get to my parents house for the traditional breakfast which was at 9:00 this year.  Emma woke up earlier than I thought she would and was very excited to get going.  We had to wake Matthew up.  He was so tired and so cute!  Jan, Jenn, Tamara and Chris came over to do presents with us.   We had a really nice time and it was so fun to see Emma.  She really understood it this year and was so excited!

After opening presents, we went to my parents house.  While my dad and a couple of my brothers made a delicious breakfast, Daniel played with all the kids.  They all piled on him and tackled him.  Then he would do a push up and lift all the kids up and they would fall off.  It was really cute.  

After breakfast we opened presents from my parents and did the gift exchange among my brothers and sisters as well as one between all the grandchildren.  It was a lot of fun and at the end, Jon and Daniel had "special" presents for each other.  Jon gave Daniel a bunch of "Sunstate Rental" coupons as a joke because he had rented something from them instead of from us.  Then Daniel gave Jon a pair of sweat pants with Jon's company logo, "South Point Builders" in vinyl letters across the back end.  It was so funny, everyone was laughing so hard.  It was a really good joke!

Later that day, we just vegged and played with our new things.  We put the kids down early that night and watched the movie my parents gave us, "An Unlikely Mormon."  It is the conversion story of Glenn Beck and it was very funny!  We both liked it a lot!  It was a WONDERFUL day!

Matthew just after he woke up.  He was SO tired!!

Emma was so excited!  Matthew was still a little tired at this point!

Matthew didn't really get the whole opening presents thing.  He is still a little young.  He liked to pull of a piece of the wrapping paper and play with it.  He was so cute!

Daniel opening his "Graham Crackers."  It was actually his spiritual present, a scripture case.

Tamara gave Emma a play doctor set which she loved.  Here she is giving grandma a hug after opening it.

I guess he didn't like the present!   I just thought this face was so funny, I had to put it in.

Emma loved opening her presents this year and required very little help.

Daddy helping Bubbers open his "spiritual" present.  It was a "Little People" Noah's Ark play set.  Bubbers was more excited about the wrapping paper.

This was Emma's very favorite present.  It was a baby doll with a stroller, car seat, bassinet/rocking cradle, diaper bag, etc.  She loved this and played with it for hours at a time for several days after Christmas!  She still loves it and plays with it often.  It is cute to see her taking care of her little baby.

Here we are at my parents house.  All the kids are piled on Daniel and he is getting ready to do a push up.

Here is Emma opening her present from Ethan.  It was a kitty and she loved it!

Here are the South Point Builders sweat pants.  I think they were the funniest present this year!

This is Emma playing with the doctor kit that Tamara gave her.  She has played with that almost as much as she has played with her baby.  This was on Christmas night when she and daddy played "checking" for about an hour.  Daniel was so cute about it and she loved it!

Matthew with his favorite aunt!

Emma with her favorite aunt!

Christmas Eve 2008

We had a very fun Christmas Eve this year.  First we went over to Steve and Jane's house to have dinner.  I don't have a camera so I don't have any pictures of that.  It was great though.  Emma had so much fun with her cousins, and Matthew ate about 10 slices of peaches.  We all had a really nice time.

Then, we went over to my parents house where all the kids did a little nativity play.  Emma got to be a shepherd this year.  Matthew was supposed to be a sheep, but he was so hungry by the time we got there that I didn't think he would make it.  Emma was darling though and loved being a shepherd.  She kept her costume on for most of the night.  

After the nativity play, we did white elephant gifts which are always a lot of fun.  While we were doing the white elephants, Dave and Melis made little toy bags with the kids which they all loved.  The toy bags had kazoos in them though and it got pretty loud with about 15 kids walking around blowing kazoos.  Matthew was getting a little overstimulated, so we decided to get him home.  

It was a great night!  The only bummer was that we never did read Luke 2.  I hope we will remember to do it next year.

Emma in her Shepherd costume.

Daniel as the Inn Keeper.  (Yeah, he was pretty excited to do that!)

Emma as a shepherd coming to see the baby Jesus.  She loves the baby Jesus, it is her favorite part of Christmas.

All of the kids who were in the nativity play.  L-R Annika, Emma, Dannan (hidden a little by Seth), Brianna, Lizzy, Brina, Kate, Josh, Ethan, Truman, Holly, Logan, Mieka and Melis (she put the whole thing together.  She is awesome!)

Matthew was pretty bugged by the end.  Daddy was trying to keep him from screaming while I helped clean up a bit.

Emma's Preschool Program

Emma had her first preschool program last month.  It was on the 17th of December and it was so darling.  They sang and did actions to "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."  Each of them also got to say a little line about a letter that eventually spelled out the words "SANTA CLAUS."  Emma's letter was A and her line was "A is for antlers upon reindeers head, that guide Santa's Sleigh while we are in bed."  She did so well.  Unfortunately the microphone was not very close for the first half, so that was hard to hear, but the second half was loud and clear.  

Their last number was with the other preschool class and they sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," and "Silent Night."  It was so cute to see her up there.  She didn't sing the whole time or do the actions very much, but she was so darling.  She is growing up so fast!

Here are some pics:

Emma was a little nervous when she first came out.  She was looking around like, "What is going on here?!?"

She seemed to get a little less worried and got excited about the songs she had practiced after a little while.

Here she is holding her letter A for her part of the program.

She is so cute!  I just love her!