christmas!

So it's Christmas morning and I'm posting from Joey's new phone. Will post more later because this keyboard is really cramped. Everyone loved their gifts so far. going over to Sean's mom's in a bit. Matt was good until he got tired, but that was expected. Okay, hope everyone elses Christmas is going well! Merry Christmas!

Matt's 1st Birthday Party!

I've been really tired/burned out lately and not feeling like blogging, but since we did have Matt's party this last saturday, I figured it wouldn't be fair to the people who didn't go if I didn't post some pictures.
We had lots of fun and he got a ton of awesome gifts. He got a lot of super cute clothing, some books, a push-along popper/mower, stacking rings, a piano/xylophone, light-up maracas, some dishes and of course, a cake.


Here is him and his Grammy Brenda, complete with party hat!

Him having TONS of fun on the ride :-P Can't you see how thrilled he is?

Here's him unwrapping some of his gifts.

Yay! Dishes! Food...mmmm....

Him with two toys he LOVES! He really likes the piano.
After we were done unwrapping gifts, it was cake time! This was not the time I expected him to have his expected meltdown, but it's pretty funny. Here, for your viewing enjoyment:

But don't worry about him. Here he is two minutes later:



Ooo, Intro To Fingerpainting...

Here's some of us, from the right: Sean, Matt, me, Jana, Stephanie, Josh (her husband), Jody and her 11-month old Kaelyn.

All in all it was very fun and he had a wonderful time. Brenda and Andy's visit went well and I miss them lots already! Hopefully I'll be able to wisely use my vacation next year to do plenty of family visits.
I hope everyone is having fun with the holidays, and I'd like to say I'll post soon but apparently that isn't as true as I'd like it to be, so I'll post as soon as I feel up to it! Enjoy the pictures!

Yay!

Yay! I've finally finished the Christmas shopping! I got gifts I know everyone will love, and now I am all done two weeks beforehand! Just have to send out Aunt Hillary's box and everything will be good to go! Well, Sean hasn't shopped for me yet and he probably won't until Christmas Eve (if at all), but oh well. That's just how he is. He needs someone to yell at him to go shopping (that person was Joey last year), and I'm not going to bug him to shop for my gifts! Don't really need anything anyway. Anyway...I am super excited! Now I can spend my nights sipping tea and enjoying the brief seasonal "cold". Ah...
Oh by the way, those of whom I am sending stuff in the mail to, I did do the obligatory Christmas photos, so they're included. Since I am cheap and don't feel like paying a bunch of money to get professional pics done, I did them at home! Luckily Matthew is pretty photogenic.
Okay, going to go to sleep now!! Have a good night, everyone!

Christmas Is Evil

Blah...haven't been posting because I've been distracted by shopping for Christmas and pretending like my credit card charges are being magically whisked away by the angels that decorate every store. Lalala...
No, it's not that bad, just stressful! But I am almost done. Just have Andy's and my brother-in-law's gift left. By the way, my awful address book program magically decided to forget I ever used it and entered a ton of addresses into it, so if these following people (or if you know) could send me their addresses, that would be wonderful :-):

Karen Miller
Dennis Schafer
Hillary Holloway
Dawn Holloway
Brenda Holloway
(jeez you Holloways!)

And anyone else I should be sending cards and stuff to. I don't need Brenda's or my mom's because they are coming to visit, and I know Grandma Schafer's by heart. Don't ask me why, but I do.
Oh and if anyone has any good "Secret Santa" ideas, let me know please because I am way too burned out too even TRY to think of innovative cheap gift ideas for a girl at work.
So...I am also going to be taking Matt's "good" Christmas photos soon, with my homemade portrait studio. Tablecloth...check. Tacks...check. Stool...check. Embarrassing old man sweater vest outfit for Matt...check. Excellent!
I also personalized some of the gifts for certain people...I hope they enjoy! They are drying on my bed now and I am hoping to God Sean doesn't come home soon.
Yes, I am rambling. But it will all be better on Christmas! (Not after, because then the bills come...eek!)
Ooo and I got these awesome shoes for Matthew! Aunt Hillary sent me an e-mail about them, and they are called Robeez. They are soft-soled leather shoes for walking babies and toddlers. They're much better than regular sneakers because they allow the kid to feel the ground with his feet but still be protected. Matt finds it very difficult to walk in sneakers. Now he is okay at it, but still trips over his own feet all the time if he is tired. (Which leads to crying, then temper tantrums, then slamming his face on the ground, twisting from my grasp, and eye rubbing). So since I can't afford the brand name ones right now, I got the generic ones from Target. Just one pair. But he loves them! And I do too. They got really dirty from the mud (yes, it rained!) and I just rinsed them off under soapy water and now they're all clean and almost dry.
So anyway, speaking of mud and water and extremely large puddles...
It also rained last weekend. And that was awesome! I loved driving through the puddles, and walking in the rain.
Alas, I forgot I did not have a normal durable car, but a Kia Rio Real Steal Deal.
Yes...the one that requires me to turn off the a/c (press my turbo button as I prefer to call it) if I need to accelerate. Or listen to the radio.
And I think it has driven through it's last puddle. On saturday, I had Sean and Matthew in the car, and there was a huge puddle looming ahead.
"Don't drive through that puddle, Ally." Said Sean.
"Why? I drove through a ton yesterday!" Drives through said puddle with glee.
Car has difficulty pushing through but succeeds.
Ten seconds later, the car makes a very strange noise (a sigh of defeat?) and begins to idle extremely rough and accelerates very slowly.
The check engine light flashes on...
And I laugh. Of course.
Turns out it's a misfiring cylinder caused by some sort of vacuum leak.
Guess I'll have to drag out the duct tape.
So I'll post later, hopefully sooner this time!
Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving, Christmas and Everything Inbetween

So, our Thanksgiving was super awesome! My best friend Dana came down and her and Joey stayed from tuesday all the way until Sunday. We had quite a feast, and the Tofurky was actually not bad! It looked like some sort of loaf...kind of like the sausage-looking packages that ground beef can come in, only smaller. We made an apple pie, completely from scratch. I made the crust and it was soooo flaky and wonderful and delicious!!! She did my hair cool ways, we made vegan gingerbread cookies, and just basically had tons of fun!

Here's the pie. Didn't think to take a picture until it was half gone. :-P

Here's one of the hairstyles Dana put on me. 80's anyone?

And here we are with our respective gingerbread people.

And here are all the cookies we baked and frosted!

Joey, Dana and I all helped frost these. Dana's are the cute artistic ones, mine are the mediocre ones, and Joey's are the crazy ones. Interesting how those seem to reflect our personalities exactly...

And here's the tree! This picture was actually taken in pitch darkness. I love the flash on my camera!

Here's Aunt Dana with Matt! She loves him so much. But then again, who doesn't? Oh, yeah. Our neighbors. (just kidding!)

mmm...we're eating ourselves...

We're Charlie's Angels! Except Joey. He's a visiting member from Charlie's Gayngels.

And lastly, here we are on the day she left.
That was very sad, and I hope sometime soon I can take a trip up there! I'd probably have to leave Matt at home with Sean though, and that's what makes it hard. Anyway, Matt's crawling around getting into trouble, so I'll post later! Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was awesome!

Still Walking!

Yep, he is still walking and getting better every day! He can walk across the room now, although he only does a few times a day. The point is, those first steps weren't a fluke! He is ready and willing to walk as soon as possible!
Yesterday we had a ton of fun! Since he is learning to walk, he is finally getting good use out of the toy my mom got him last time she was down. It's a car that transforms into a push-along thing for kids like Matt who are just gaining confidence to walk.
He told me he wanted to go outside by pathetically standing by the door and gazing out:

So we went outside, saw some tress, took some pictures and generally had a great time. Mostly, he played with his push-along toy. In fact, I have very cute video of him, BUT IT DOESN'T WANT ME TO UPLOAD IT GRRR!!! And I am tired, so I will try again tomorrow. Anyway, here are some cute other pictures.

Here's him having fun with the tree just outside our apartment:

Peekaboo!

And another tree near our apartment. He really liked the bark on this one. Woof woof!

And here's him playing with our neighbor's cat. He calls him "Ni Ni!" , I guess baby talk for Nino, our big queeny cat. He calls every cat Ni Ni. Very cute. Anyway, this is all I have time to post today, have to get up extra early tomorrow. But I don't care because I get wed, thurs, fri, and sat off in a row this week yay! And Dana is arriving tuesday morning! She wants to get a Tofurky for Thanksgiving but although I am sure it tastes fine, I looked it up and it already has stuffing in it! EWWW I hate stuffing so much! Oh well, guess I will be scooping that out! Anyway, I'll keep everyone updated on, you know, everything!

MATTHEW TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS!!!

Okay, so the title says all, and he LOVES walking!!! Well, ok, maybe just the newness and the attention of it all, but still! He's not scared!!! He was cruising along the couch, looked over in a particular way, and I said to Sean (really) "Hey, I think he's about to take his first steps!" Matt looked over, let go of the couch, and WALKED!! And of course we made a huge fuss and he loved it, so we put him standing in front of me and told him to come here and he walked, AGAIN! And again! Over and over! And Jana came over with her girls and they all saw too! He was just showing off! So we did get video, and here it is!!!

Really, there's nothing like a video camera to make a kid forget whatever he just learned. It took many, many recordings to FINALLY get him to walk for the camera. I don't want to discourage him when he crawls but when he gets down when I want him to walk it's like, "noooo Matthew!!!!!" But, no worries, he did!!!! Hope you like it!

Again, The Zoo

Sean and I DID end up going to the zoo on Friday, and it was really fun! That morning Matthew slid into the sink and I got some cute pictures:

Ooooooooooooo....

THINGS I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE!!! AHHH!!!!

We saw a lot of animals, but I know you guys are probably not as thrilled with the blurry panda bear pictures as we are, so I am trying to keep the pictures strictly family here. We had a lot of junk food, walked a lot, went on the Skyfari, and really had a blast. So without further ado, here are pictures of our family day out :-).

Sean and Matt at the beginning of our day. Aren't they cute?

Matthew loved the fish. I think he wants to be one...

See? He's trying to get in!

Here is a classic Blank Matt look.

Sorry, had to get one animal pic in. This is a polar bear, floating weightlessly. Cool, huh?

Here's Matt being cute...

And here he is on the Skyfari ride. He loved it! He's not scared of heights yet, I hope he never is, because it rocks not being scared of heights. Sean is, he didn't have as much fun.

Congrads Matt! Now you're a middle-aged overweight farmer!!!

Matt is as ferocious as any lion!!

Daddy and Matthew and blue birds!

Which are actually Macaws. And now I know why they are called Macaws. Because their favorite thing is to scream MACAWWWWWW!!!!!!!!! as loud as possible in your ear as you walk by.

Anyway, on other news, MATTHEW SAYS MAMA NOW!!!! YAY!!! And he is becoming such a sweetheart! He goes up to Mai or Nino and gives them kisses now, and he comes to us when he wants affection and kisses when he never used to do that. And I don't know if it's wishful thinking or not, but sometimes when we ask him if he wants something or wants to do something, he says "ya!". He also claps for himself when he does something right (like put his toys away, drink from a cup well or hands me something when I ask). He waves hello and goodbye reliably, and gives high 5's! He is learning to stack blocks and is babbling CONSTANTLY. I was worried there for a while!
Yesterday I gave the apartment a really good cleaning, and vacuumed and steam cleaned super well. Matthew HATES the noise. He screams at the top of his lungs. He is better when I hold him, but still scared. Luckily he went down for a nap and he let me finish. It looks AWESOME in here now! Sean is finishing up the laundry and we can actually pretend we have a nice place for a few days. Yay! Anyway, I am pretty tired and want to relax and veg out for a while before bed. Hope you enjoyed the post! Don't forget to vote on my pointless poll!

The Long Long-Awaited Post

So Joey and I went to the zoo last saturday and it was super fun. Matthew petted some animals at the petting zoo, we saw some pandas (and a Lesser panda too). I'm REALLY trying to keep the pictures to a minimum, especially since Sean and I may go to the zoo tomorrow (if Sean is feeling okay). Here are some highlights of the trip:


Here's Joey at the beginning of the day.

Here's a koala...sleeping...so they say...

Here's Matt, looking peppy as ever. Something happened to his eye, have no idea what, but it cleared up by the end of the day. Guess we'll never know...

Panda!!

Ha ha you're caged and I'm free SUCKER!!!!!

Here's a hippo lazing around, waiting, sometimes watching.

Something tells me this animal's parents might have been victims of inter-racial discrimination.

Here's Matt, ready to pounce on the goat at the petting zoo.

Here's him behind bars. Getting used to it early--preparation is a good trait, right?

Here's a Komodo Dragon. Poor thing. Really thinks it's a dragon.

This is an elephant playing. Tossing around a barrel like it's a cardboard toy.

Here's Matt doing what he does best--sleep! Except for last night. He did not do that very well.
Anyway, moving on from the zoo theme...well, no, these WERE taken in my apartment so we aren't moving away from that. Moving away from my diplomatic trip to another zoo, are some other pictures of random stuff.

Here's Sean and Matt with the oneshare.com stock of Dreamworks!! My son is a shareholder now! It was his early birthday gift from his Great-Aunt Karen.

And here's him opening and tasting it. Does success taste good, Matt?

Here's Mai after her grooming. I took her to work today.

Like her outfit? I really am not one for girly-girly but she sure is. It fits her well :-P

Anyway, nothing much else going on. I have a lot of things to do and a lot of guests during the holidays, and I'm really stressing out about it. I know I shouldn't be, but it's going to be so hectic and I'm going to be so broke! But Matthew will love all the attention, and hopefully I'll be able to relax with the people I love a LITTLE bit. Anyway, going to go now. I can't believe Matt slept through this entire post, but I don't want to push my luck!
I have the next two days off, so more posts are coming! Have a good day everyone!