Matthew's 2nd Birthday

Matthew had his 2nd birthday on the 12th of March. Some of the things Matt does right now are:

He puts on everyones shoes. Here he is wearing Shay's shoes.

He copies everything you say, especially Adam. Adam gets really bugged by his brother copying him all the time but they also have the best of times together. The kids think its hilarious to teach him words like stupid and dumb. Of course it's not what I would like to happen, but it does.





He climbs on everything. We go to this park by our house and he climbs the rope wall. It makes me nervous every time, but he somehow makes it.
He climbs on our desk or couch and jumps off and says "A Ha!"




He's still obsessed by Star Wars. He's singing the Droid march right now as I type this. He's also asking Jar Jar Binks not to follow him:)
For Christmas and his birthday he received a bunch of Galactic Heroes that he plays with for most of the day.



This is Matt's bear that he has affectionately named "Beary". He treats him like he's his baby. He's very offended if you treat Beary like a toy and just throw him on the ground. Beary is his friend, after all. Here he is giving Beary a drink of milk. Beary is his comforter when he's sad or tired.


Enjoying the finer things in life! Ice cream, of course. When he needs a treat he chases me around the house saying I canny (translation I want candy) He learned more about this great stuff during Halloween. He doesn't let up easy if he knows there's some in the house - especially chocolate.



Poor Matt - he doesn't take a nap anymore. We have moved him to a big boy bed. He usually falls asleep eating dinner - that is, until you try to officially put him in bed for the night. He then has the energy to get out 50 times. I have a hard time being serious about putting him back. I am, though - its just hard. He's so sweet and innocent at this age. I love his laugh and smile as he's running away from me and I have to catch him. Is that wrong?



He's also a major fit thrower! Don't try to put clothes on this child or change his diaper. I'm sure its close to changing an octopus.

He's a fun boy to have in our family though. We wouldn't know what to do without him either.

Movin On Up

In October Derek moved up to the 11 Year old Scouts. Geez, I can't believe he's growing up so fast. On to campouts and the serious scout stuff.







This is Bro. Bielefeldt in our ward. Here he is explaining the way the arrow of light helps you to choose the right. He pretty much dresses up like this for every pack mtg. He's not even in Cub Scouts anymore. He makes each of the boys their own arrow of light and adds special stuff to it. He's pretty amazing! I made sure we took it home and stuck it right above Derek's bed so nothing would happen to it.

Trevor the Beloved

This story happened back in Nov. but it was one I wanted to remember.
We went to Pima for Thanksgiving and had a great time seeing Mark's family in Pima. When we returned home our cat Trevor was eager to go outside. He had been stuck in the house while we were gone. That night and most of the aftn he was gone gallivanting around the neighborhood (I assumed anyway). When I saw him on Saturday his eye was completely swollen shut. I didn't do anything immediately because I figured perhaps a scorpion or something else had gotten to him. I watched him for a few days and he looked completely miserable. Finally his eye wasn't swollen anymore, but it appeared that he didn't have an eyeball anymore. The kids were completely freaking out and wanting me to take him into the vet. Working at a vet when I graduated from high school I knew the bill would be crazy. Plus, my husband also wasn't too keen on a cat going to the doctor.
On Wednesday (a week later) it didn't look like the cat was getting any better, so I decided I would take the cat to the vet on a whim. I called a girl in my ward to babysit the little boys (we have a babysitting club that we trade babysitting for each other in my ward). I don't have a cage for the cat, so I conclude that that's ok - I will just use one of my kids folding clothes hampers. But, the smart thing I do is leave the top open. Not sure why I don't shut the top. I figure the cat is pretty easy going so it shouldn't be a problem. So we get on the road and I'm driving over to Charity's house (the gal in my ward). That's when the cat really freaks out and decides it's time to climb on my back with claws out and makes it up on my head. He also climbs down and sits on the brake. But I'm no quitter so I carry on.
I get to Charity's house and the cats hiding. I open the door and the cat makes it out of the car in a split second. The cat immediately makes it on Charity's roof. I go to her door to tell her. "Hey, my cats on your roof. I guess I won't be making the appointment so I wont need you to babysit. She's extra kind and nice about it. She opens up a can of tuna and gets a bowl of milk out. The cat comes down, but he's too smart to eat the tuna and I'm too afraid to catch him (I'm too afraid to get scratched). So, on the roof he stays. Now I feel like the loser mother of the year. Especially when Adam says "Oh, mommy I don't want to lose Trevor". It broke my heart that the cat is still sick and now I've lost the beloved family pet. Will any kid in the family ever forgive me?
I can't catch the cat so I go home and pray that somehow we can find him. Mark even came home early from work and took Derek and Shay over there in an attempt to find Trevor to no avail. About 8pm, Charity calls me and the cat has now gotten down from the roof and is in her backyard eating tuna. Hallelujah! - an answer to a prayer. Maybe, this is Heavenly Father's way of letting me know that the cat doesn't need to go to the animal hospital.
I wait a couple of days but no - the cat is still not any better. My imagination is running wild at the point. I'm pretty sure some other person has hurt our cat. Now I'm angry because how could someone hurt our cat? Despite this story he really is a pretty nice cat. Every time a neighbor kid comes over they point to our next door neighbor as someone that would do the deed. I don't want to blame him unless I know for sure. I'm starting to think its the kid also.
I decide to take the cat in again. This time the only appt I can get is in the aftn when there is no babysitting. So I load up the boys and the cat. I tie the cat in a hamper with a ribbon around the top super tight. I don't want the cat to get out after all.
We make it to the animal hospital. The hamper has stopped moving around. Low and behold the cat is not in the hamper. He has some how squeezed himself through the ribbon that was tied around the top. I see his green eyes shining underneath the back seat. Now I'm here at the animal hospital, but I don't want to get out, because then I will lose the cat on the roof again. So I call the animal hospital from my car and say "I'm in the parking lot, but I cant come in because my cat's stuck underneath the seat". So one of the ladies comes out to catch the cat while I take the boys in the ofc. She finally catches the cat with some major scratches. I feel really bad especially when the boys are completely bored. They take turns tearing up the animal hospital. I chase them around and try to make them behave for a 1/2 hr. We finally get called back there only to find out that the cat has an abscess. Some other animal bit him. Relief - he has surgery and he's back at the house being Trevor the Beloved.