Matthew's 1st Birthday!!

Matthew turned 1 yesterday!! What a fun year it has been!! We had a great day yesterday, and last night we had a fun party!! We did a Sesame Street themed party and we had a great time, but I may have gone a little overboard with my decorations. My parents, Grandpa and Grandma Welling, Ben, Kristy, Heather, Greg, Becca, Ellie, Sarah, and Rachel all came to Matthew’s party. It was really nice of them to come and Matthew sure loves them all!! We played two games “Dorothy fell out of her fishbowl,” (the girls (and Grandpa) had to try throwing a beanbag gold fish into a fishbowl from different places around the room), and “Guess how many cookies are in Cookie Monster’s jar.” My sister won! She guessed 229 and there were 227 (my lucky number). It was a great night! Here are a few pictures:








Ben was our live entertainment and kept balancing a chair on his chin! Pretty impressive!



After visiting in the family room I heard my nieces giggling so I went into the kitchen to find this:


I guess I deserve that because on Sunday I ate all the recess peanut butter cups off my sister’s cupcakes.


For Matthew's Birthday we got him a pet goldfish!! (Like Elmo's pet goldfish Dorothy). I think he loves is...see what you think.

Reading Matthew!

Matthew LOVES to read!! Here are two videos of Matthew "reading." In both videos he is reading 10 tiny tadpoles! It is his favorite book!!

Luckiest Girl In the WORLD!!

For those of you who don't like when blogs turn to brags...stop reading here!! Yesterday I woke up to my wonderful husband bringing me breakfast in bed!! What a surprise!! Not my birthday, mother's day, or anything else! Just a wonderful Sabbath morning!! He made me an omelet, bacon, hash browns, and hot chocolate!! HOW LUCKY AM I!!!? Thanks a ton Darin!! YOU ARE THE BEST!! Love your guts!

Sugar Lips Matthew!

This morning I heard Matthew making happy little noises. When I went looking for him I found him in the kitchen. He had pulled himself up to the pantry, opened the door, and started sucking on the ledge that was covered in powdered sugar! Here is a little video for your pleasure! Sorry for the bad camera work, and sorry it is so dark!

Family Campout

Last night we went on a fun family campout!! (It was very similar to our other vacations in the fact that it took place in our basement!) We had the perfect campsite complete with a fire pit (or fireplace) right outside our tent!! We ate hotdogs over the fire and we had smores! Last night Matthew tried his 1st hot dog!! He LOVED it and ate TWO!! This morning we woke up and had homemade cinnamon rolls (yesterday I made 83!!!) Matthew wasn't too fond of the sleeping bags so he went to the campsite (upstairs) and slept in his crib...we stayed downstairs until 3:00am before we slept in our own bed too. Oh!! We also saw a bear!! Enjoy the pics!

Matthew's First Sliegh Ride!!

This has to be the cutest picture I own!! My two boys!! They are both so cute!! Matthew liked being pulled around the backyard in his new sled, however going down the little hill was a little more scary!!

HOUSE PICTURES!!!!!

Yes, we are still alive!! Life has been super crazy busy, but it has been great!! We have moved into our home and we have made quite a few changes. It has been amazing to work on this house and see it transform into our home. We have been so blessed with such wonderful people in our family who have helped us so much!! Darin has been working his head off at his new job, then comes home and works his head off for me!! What a sweetheart!! My mom has been at our house round the clock for the last month working like a mad woman!! She is amazing! She has the strength of a ten men—and seems to get in 48 hours of work in every 12 hours she spends with us! My sister Heather has been either working at our house or babysitting Matthew so that we could work and bringing me lunch! She has been an angel! My dad has been the bomb!! He has been so nice to make meals for us every night for nearly a month, watching Matthew, at helping us with tile, and moving in! Darin’s brothers Rick and Tom have also been helping a ton—letting us use their tools, and helping install baseboards and casings, and helping us move in!! My brothers Rick, Ben, and Greg also helped us move in, and Kristy babysat Matthew the whole day! Thanks a MILLION to all of you and everyone else who has been such a help to us the last 4+ weeks!!! You’re all the BEST!!!!

When we bought the house the people who lived there before were DEFINITELY not afraid of colors!! (As you will soon see!!) They also were big cat fans, and the house REEKED of urine and feces! It was pretty nasty!! We ripped out the carpet (which was also in both bathrooms) scrubbed the floor with some chemical cleaner stuff, but is was still pretty bad! We used a black light to see where the problem areas were, and that was pretty gross by itself! We used KILZ and that did the job!! Wahoo!! Mom also found some poop underneath the stairs and filled half a garbage can full of poop!! YUCK!!

Now, the moment you have been waiting for…..The BEFORE PICTURES!!!!!

BEFORE:






Here are some of the pictures of us working! We ripped out the carpet (as mentioned earlier), ripped out the baseboards and casings, , added new baseboards and new casings, painted those, masked everything, painted everything, tiled the bathrooms and the kitchen, and several other things as well. It was really frustrating because it seemed like for every step forward we took we also took 10 steps back!! But, we are pretty much there! We have a few little jobs left to do, but nothing too demanding!

Working:






And last, but not least…..the final product!!!

After:

Living Room


Kitchen



Bathroom


Master Bedroom


Master Bathroom


2nd Bedroom (Matthew's Bedroom)





3rd Bedroom (Matthew's Office)


3rd Bedroom (Darin's Office)


4th Bedroom (Matthew's Next Bedroom)


5th Bedroom (Weight room for now)


3rd Bathroom




Family Room


Family/Dinning Room



Backyard


The End!!

WE ARE HOME OWNERS!!!

As of 8:00 this morning we are officially home owners!!! WAHOOO!!!! We are so excited! This is a picture of the home we purchased! It is just over a mile from my parents’ house! If anyone is in the mood to rip out carpet, do some painting, install baseboards or tile let us know!! We will have to show the before and after pictures when we get the work done! YEAH!!! Happy Day!!!!

Day of Gratitude

I know we usually wait until Thanksgiving to share the things that we are grateful for, but I just feel so blessed that I had to count my blessings today!! We have been SO incredibly blessed! Here are a few things that I am thankful for

The best husband in the universe!
A wonderful, healthy, happy son!
The best family anyone could ever ask for!
Darin’s new job!
Darin’s old job with Perry!
Our new house that we are buying!! Closing in 2 weeks!!! EEEK!!!
The apartment we have lived in for the past 2 years and the wonderful friends there!
Wonderful weather!
The Gospel!