Painting with Paper Towels

I've always wanted to take one of those painting classes so when I saw a Groupon for one I signed up!

I have never painted on canvas before and was shocked to find out we were going to be painting with paper towels, not paint brushes!

Whaaaat?!

Yep, that's right, we painted 99 % of our pictures with paper towels!

It was SO much fun. 

The instructor was hilarious and served wine  chocolate and pomegranate mini martini's.  Of course, I don't drink so I asked her if she had anything that was non-alcholic, to which she replied no one has ever asked her that!  LOL. 

It was fun to see how different everyone's painting turned out.

A fun girl's night out (after being sick most of the week).

Now I feel like going to buy some canvas, paint, and a roll of paper towels and redo my painting!

A New Record for the Quickest Pet That Ever Lived!

We went to a kids carnival at a local school on Saturday.  It was a very small carnival and we were one of the first ones there.  Matthew played all the games and won a gold fish! 

He was SO excited about his little fish!

We went to the pet store afterwards to get fish food (and a quick stop at the Dollar store to get more bubbles).  It was an hour from the time we left the carnival to to the time we got home.  The little fish seemed fine and when we dumped him out of the bag, he seemed like he was struggling a little bit. 

We watched him closely.

Then the inevitable happened.....

We told Matthew the fish had to go home so he went 'bye, bye'. I'm so glad he's still young to understand it all.  I didn't think his first pet would be such a quick experience!

He saw the fish food on the counter this morning and said 'fish go bye bye'.

I think we may try and get a new gold fish for him.  Let's hope the second one will out live the first one.  :)

**UPDATE - I just found out that there were a lot of other gold fish from the carnival that didn't make it that day because the person who bagged them used tapped water!  Whew, so glad it wasn't negligence on our part!  Rest in peach fishy.)

************

On a happier note....

There's a new cupcake place that opened up close to my parents house.  We stopped in on Saturday to check it out.  In the words of Matthew, 'Yummy tummy!'

Matthew and I tried the bananna peanut butter chocolate. Delish.

And the red velvet was just as good.  'Yummy tummy!'

35

I turned 35 earlier this week (tax day)!

It was a fabulous day. Absolutely fabulous.

 

I started the day off by waking up next to my hubby and little guy in bed.  I knew it was going to be a great day when Matthew randomly lifted my shirt and kissed my belly.   I am NOT pregnant so I don't know what provoked him to do that.  But it was such a tender moment for me.

 

 We took the day off from work to spend the day together as a family.  After breakfast at Cracker Barrell, we headed to the Washington, D.C. Zoo. Matthew had SO much fun seeing all the animals.  We read about all the animals in his books so it was exciting for him to actually see the animals in real life (and make the animal sounds!).

 

Afterwards, we picked up cousin Abbey and went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  I usually don't like when the wait staff at restaurants sing happy birthday to you, but I didn't mind this time because I knew Matthew would enjoy.  We had asked Matthew all week, 'who's birthday is it?' And he would point to himself and say 'Pumpkin's bday' or 'Mavew's bday'.  By the end of the night, I think he finally understood that it was 'mommy's bday'.

 

Yummy coconut cream cheesecake! The best!

 

And this is what I got for my birthday! So much fun! 

I took it for a spend around the neighborhood and found all the hills to avoid!  Flat ground is much more friendlier (for now at least). 

 

This little munchkin loves my bike helmet.  Just look at that cute face!

 

As each birthday year comes and goes, I am eternally grateful for my family, my health, and my faith!

 

Life is good! 

 

 

 

Sunday Morning Sillies

these pics just makes me SO happy.

We took these pics on Sunday morning as we were just playing around with Matthew in bed.

Then we were spiritually fed while watching General Conference. 

Life is good.

Re-peat-peat-peat-peat-peat!

^^Cool kid!^^

I was driving in the car last week with Matthew and my niece Abbey.  There was a guy in the car next to me that proceeded to merge over into my lane without even looking and continued to merged even though I was honking my horn!  I had to swerve to avoid him colliding into me.

In my frazzled state, I blurted out 'Jerk!', aiming my anger at the driver.

Then I hear Matthew from the back seat say, 'JER'!

Yep, Matthew's entered the 'repeating words that he hears' phase.

Recently, Steve called me 'honey' at the dinner table and without missing a beat, Matthew repeated 'honey'.  We just cracked up laughing!

On a positive, fun note, when we say prayers together, he 'prays' with us by folding his arms and repeating the last word we say. 

For example, we'll say 'Thank you for our food', then Matthew will repeat 'food'.

'Thank you for Jesus', Matthew repeats 'Jesus' (that makes my heart swell).

Fun times around here!

Eggs-tra Fun Weekend

 We had a very fun filled, eggs-tra special weekend!  See all the eggs-trodinary pictures below....

Matthew had an egg-cellent time with all the egg hunts! (haha, okay, I'll stop).

 And here is the big Easter FAIL picture of the weekend!
I love it because it captures the moment perfectly. 

Isn't it amazing what a difference a year makes? 

Look at how much the Easter bunny has changed!!

Here we are in our Sunday best right before Church. 

Of course, the real meaning of Easter is celebrating the resurrection of Jesus!

I am grateful that Christ died for me so that I could live and return to a loving Heavenly Father.

Real boys wear Pink!

Who says pink is just for girls?

I love boys/men in pink shirts.

(Remember the Friend's episode where Ross has a 'salmon' color shirt?!)

And this little cutie is rocking his pink shirt.

Some updates lately on my little toddler:

He is learning a lot from school (colors and numbers).  His favorite color is blue.

He is talking more and it's getting harder to try and decipher what he is saying sometimes. 

I love when he says nu-nu (noodles) and awfle (waffle). And my favorite is still chocket (chocolate).

When he gets up in the morning, he knocks on his door to get our attention.  (He can reach the door handle, but can't grip it to turn the door knob, yet).

Matthew is in the phase where everything is 'mine' and he doesn't want to share with anyone!  (How do you teach them to share?!!)

And he has started 'hitting' us so he has done his time in time out (it's only for like a minute or two).

The other night, we were all laying in bed together and out of the blue, he pointed to the ceiling and said 'temple'.  It was one of those moments that made me wonder what goes on in his little 2 yr old mind.  And what he actually see's. Those little one's have such a special spirit. 

My little guy is 25 months and amazes us everyday with how much he is learning and growing!

Being his mama has been the greatest calling.  :)