Melissa in Real Life

2012-01-23T13:29:00.001-08:00

The Holiday Season

2012-01-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

Starting with a few more pictures from Halloween:

Matthew slept with his Trick or Treat bag a few times

Going to Children's Fairyland in November

Visiting my family for Thanksgiving. Seating was limited, but we know how to improvise...

Texting

With Grandma and Grandpa

With Santa

Cooking class with Mimi and Nick

Raking leaves

At Children's Fairyland in December

"Playing Pillows" on Christmas Eve

Finding what Santa left

Christmas Day

At the BART station with Daddy

Pictures from the month of October

2011-11-09T10:23:00.000-08:00

We had a really fun month of October. My brother and his family came to visit, and then there was Halloween of course. Here are some highlights:

Matthew reading up on how to play one of the Wii games

"playing laundries"

Jumping on the trampoline with cousins

This move is called "triangle time"

Visiting Children's Fairyland in Oakland

Walking the plank.

L to R: Matthew, Sylvia, Luke, Sabrina, Isabel, Hazel

Trying out a flower costume

I made Matthew a Trick-or-Treat bag this year since I didn't make his costume. One of my favorite features is that its reversible...

Matthew was a lion for Halloween. Here he is with Daddy at the Trunk or Treat activity.

One last project we did in October; we put another shelf in our closet to give us a little extra storage.

Fun Pictures

2011-10-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

Well, they aren't the best pictures I've ever seen, but its always fun to see that there really is a baby in there!

So far, so good. Due ~ April 27.

Matthew stories

2011-10-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

Matthew just asked for goldfish crackers. I buy goldfish in bulk at Costco so I keep them in a plastic container in the cupboard. Lately, Matthew has enjoyed putting the goldfish in his bowl without my help. Until today, he always put them in by the handful, but today he decided to put them in one at a time and count them as he went along. He counted to thirty-five! He did need help staying on track a few times, but I was impressed that he could do it.

Yesterday, he decided to take all the butter knives out of the dishwasher and play with them. I started to put them back while he was napping, but I couldn't find all of them. Then, as I was walking past the dining table, I saw the three missing knives - one at each place. Matthew likes to help set the table, and I guess he decided to do that with the knives.

A little while ago, Matthew found a box of envelopes in a desk drawer and pulled out all the envelopes. He calls them "bills". And asked me, "I have them?"

I just took some bedding out of the dryer and Matthew jumped up and down, saying, "Hooray! Laundries! Clothes!" Matthew is a big fan of rolling around in the clean laundry or sitting in the laundry basket while I fill it up with clothes from the dryer. Sometimes he says, "Too hot!" or calls the clothes "dresses".

Talking to Daddy on the Phone

2011-08-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

Bye bye crib

2011-08-12T14:49:00.000-07:00

Almost two weeks ago, we decided to give Matthew more freedom in his sleeping accommodations. We started by taking the front railing off his crib. It worked out pretty well except for at least one fall out of the bed and another that we're not sure what happened. And then there was this night when he fell asleep half way out of the bed:

We had a toddler bed from my sister in the garage, and we decided that we needed to get that into use ASAP. We got it up and functioning over the weekend. Then on Monday, we got offered a hand-me-down bed from one of my mother-in-law's coworkers. So we picked it up last night. I didn't really think he'd be transitioning to a twin size bed so soon, but Matthew insisted on having it be his bed right now. So basically we've been having an awesome week of musical beds!

Matthew with his latest bed:

How did he learn about jumping on the bed so fast?

A few more pictures

2011-08-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

We took a drive into San Francisco to visit my former place of employment: Williams-Sonoma corporate headquarters. The drive was a little hectic, but it was so fun to see my friends there and show off Matthew's latest tricks!

Matthew loves, loves, loves these magnets. They're just orange squares with letters on them,
but he plays with them every day.

Matthew loves to eat his PBJ in the living room. I'm trying to encourage more eating at the table.

Matthew has started wearing sunglasses in the car every once in a while. On this day, he fell asleep during the drive.

Picking Peaches

2011-08-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

We went to pick peaches with Matthew's cousins. They had a lot of fun together! Matthew is lucky to have cousins living close by!

Those peaches were juicy! Matthew's shirt did not survive unscathed!

Trip to Idaho Falls and SLC

2011-06-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a fun trip to Utah and Idaho.

We went to Idaho Falls for the wedding of our good friend Chris.

Here are Scott and several of his closest friends from college:

They did an amazing job transforming the cultural hall in the church:

Also on this trip, we were able to go visit the grave of my grandma who passed away last December. It was nice to be able to say goodbye to her. I was also able to visit my grandpa's grave for the first time (at least that I remember). He passed away when I was one.

On Memorial Day, we went with Scott's sisters to leave flowers at the graves of their mom's parents. I didn't have my camera there for that one.

We later visited BYU Provo and checked out the new addition to the Tanner building. They have added dozens of team rooms including some with flat screens? This would have made our group assignments so much easier!

Scott was impressed by this classroom full of trading computers.

On Tuesday, we visited the Church History Museum. After teaching about Church History in seminary this year, it was really cool to go there and see some of the artifacts first hand like Emma Smith's hymn book, John Taylor's pocketwatch that stopped a bullet in Carthage Jail, some of the original transcripts of the Book of Mormon, and the stone that David O. McKay saw in Scotland ("Whate'er thou art, act well thy part"). I was really glad I had one more lesson to give to my class before the end of the year so I could tell them about it.

Also at the museum, we had a lot of fun in their children's area. Building Nephi's ship and going fishing over the side of it:

Celebrating Mexican culture by learning a dance (complete with costumes):

We even got to practice speaking from a replica of the pulpit at the Conference Center (I'm willing to bet its much more fun than the real thing).

I'm sure no one else has ever done this before:

If you check out the end of this video, you'll see a sample of Matthew's dance moves:

2011-05-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from Easter:

Favorite Phrases, ABC Song, Etc.

2011-04-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

I'm Back!

2011-03-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

After a lengthy hiatus, I'm finally back on my blog. I guess I haven't had much blogging time between preparing my seminary lessons and getting sick every other week. Here's a pictoral review of some of the silliness that has been taking place around our house:

Matthew showing off for the camera (he calls the camera "cheese"):

Matthew exploring the mysterious lack of a front door. We got a new one installed very shortly after this picture was taken and it looks great!

Making an awesome fashion statement:

"We're #1!" Who needs to shell out the big bucks for one of those foam fingers?

Poor Matthew was so tired one day that he fell asleep on the couch while he was eating goldfish crackers:

Bad hair day?

Gardening time with Grandpa Egg:

Lest you think we are always happy here:

Falling asleep with his flashcards in his hand:

Who does Matthew look like?

2011-01-16T21:32:00.000-08:00

Matthew:

Scott:

Melissa:

A Tale of Two Christmases

2011-01-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

We had two Christmas celebrations this year. We started by spending a week and a half in St. George with my family; then we went back to California to celebrate with Scott's family. We had a lot of fun.

Here are some of the highlights:

Four years ago, Scott proposed to me just outside the house of my great-grandfather, which is in Green Gate Village in St. George. We went back there during our visit and took pictures with Matthew:

On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed playing in the backyard of my parents' house:

That evening, we gathered together for our traditional Christmas Eve celebration. Here's my niece, Abby, getting geared up for the fun:

We acted out the navitity. I think my nephew, Zack, looked like he was basking in the glory of playing baby Jesus:

Scott played the role of the donkey and he was roasting in his costume:

Here's the cast:

After singing a rousing rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas", we discovered my dad had slept through some or all of it. We couldn't believe it!

We opened one or two presents on Christmas Eve and Matthew's first present was a coloring book and some crayons. He loved them!

Christmas Morning!

Santa brought Matthew an ornament in his stocking, which he was caught admiring with Grandma Vincent:

Finding what else Santa brought:

Who knew flashcards would be such a big hit?

Matthew with his cousins, Austin and Wyatt:

One of Matthew's favorite things to do at Grandma's house:

Leaping into the Christmas fun:

Another of Matthew's favorite things to do at Grandma's house. He would throw the ball down the stairs and erupt with laughter as his cousins threw it back up the stairs to him. He could play that game forever.

Matthew and Austin get some good night kisses from Grandma:

The day after Christmas, we got together with some of my friends from St. George:

At one point, Matthew climbed onto my friend, Tiffany's, wheelchair to try it out. Make yourself at home, bud.

On the day we left, Matthew enjoyed rolling on the bed while I was changing the sheets.

Once we got back to CA, we had a really fun celebration with Scott's family. Here Matthew is enjoying the attention of aunts Liz and Katie:

One of the highlights for Matthew was this set of Mickey Mouse socks. Apparently our son is totally satisfied as long as he receives socks and flashcards for Christmas. I hope this keeps up.

And last of all, we have videos of Christmas morning and of Matthew opening a present. Unfortunately, I filmed them both sideways and I think the quality went down a bit when I rotated the picture. I hope they are still enjoyable to watch.

We hope you also had a merry Christmas!

Scripture Power, etc.

2010-12-16T12:38:00.000-08:00

Our little scripture reader

"Feast Upon the Words of Christ"

Matthew and Grace

Couch Potato

We just had new windows put in our house. The biggest change we made was putting a sliding door from the kitchen to the patio.

BEFORE

AFTER

Matthew helping make cookies for the ward Christmas party

Happy to be with Santa

Pictures of Matthew

2010-11-30T17:30:00.000-08:00

Halloween Fun

2010-11-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

On our way to a Halloween party a week before Halloween:

Matthew's costume:

Trunk or Treat:

Overwhelmed by trunk or treat:

Matthew's drum set:

Spooky family dinner followed by fun with cousins:

Nora's amazing pumpkins (Go Giants!):

Going to a Play-off Game

2010-10-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

Scott and I decided to splurge and go to one of the Giants' play-off games. (It was my first time ever going to a play-off game in any professional sport.)

On our way to the park, we saw a lot of fans who were dressed in orange and black, but this guy was our favorite:

We were in good company at the park - Willie Mays, MC Hammer, some members of the Grateful Dead and Journey.

Of course, they were nowhere near our seats, but we had a great view and we were shielded from the rain.

Tim Lincecum pitching:

Today Scott was getting ready to draft his fantasy basketball team, and Matthew couldn't resist typing on the keyboard. I pulled out my old laptop so he could have his own buttons to press.

It didn't last long though. I guess Matthew was tired because he fell asleep on the floor in the office.

Here's a fun video from bathtime last night:

What does Matthew say?

2010-10-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

Halloween fun around the house and at Disneyland!

2010-10-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

We are excited that Halloween is almost here. We made these delicious tombstone brownies at Grandma Egg's house about two weeks ago. Yum!

Matthew continues to enjoy opening and shutting doors. Look at that smile.

Matthew is learning the value of good dental hygiene. It's never too soon!

Last week, we had a super fun trip to Disneyland with Scott's family. We flew down to Anaheim with Scott's parents and met up with the rest of the family there. Here is Matthew talking to Grandpa Egg while we were waiting at the airport:

Here we are at Disneyland!

Come on, Scott, am I really that scary?

After a tearful/traumatic meeting with Geppetto, we didn't let Matthew look too closely at Jack Skellington or Sally:

Riding the train around Disneyland:

Our little Mouseketeers:

Scott and I were excited to ride Casey Jr's train, but Matthew was grumpy from lack of a proper nap:

Even Dumbo couldn't cheer him up:

Matthew and Grace looked very cute in their Halloween PJs.

Recent Pictures

2010-10-04T17:24:00.000-07:00

Matthew playing with friends, Jeremiah and Daniel, in the backyard:

They had so much fun running around:

Daniel pushing Matthew over:

These injuries are NOT the result of Daniel's push. But they were incurred not far from that location.

Matthew and I were going into the backyard and Matthew ran ahead and tripped. He bumped his head against the concrete and scraped his knee. It was very sad! He's all healed up now.

Here's a fun picture from Tom's birthday celebration:

And here are some pictures from the night I was in charge of bathtime (usually Scott's jurisdiction) and started playing with Matthew's hair:

Fun Times with the Eggs

2010-09-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

There are some things that happen every day at our house. Like, for example, Matthew snacking on cheerios (in the morning) or goldfish (in the afternoon) while standing next to the couch:

A significant amount of Matthew's playtime is spent in front of our front window. Either sitting on the windowsill:

Looking out the window, removing pictures off the table, getting handprints on the window:

Or standing on the windowsill:

He also loves spending time looking at books. His latest obsession involves taking all the Little Golden Books, along with a couple dozen other books, off the shelf in his room. Then he'll read among the huge pile of books. He is not satisfied unless the floor is covered with books.

Occasionally he branches out and clears out other bookshelves around the house. Last night, we went to Barnes & Noble and I had to restrain him from doing this in the childrens' book section of the store.

We celebrated Scott's birthday a week ago. He requested a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

We had a dinner for him on his birthday with his parents and my sister and her family.

After the party, Matthew was playing with some of the gift cards Scott received. We later discovered them here:

Normally the trash can is just on the other side of the gate. Luckily, the gift cards didn't land in the trash can. I've since moved the trash can further away from the baby gate, and its a good thing because Matthew now regularly throws toys, blankets, socks, shoes, books, etc. over that gate.

Last weekend, the Elders' Quorum in our ward held a pinewood derby. Here's Scott with his car.

It didn't win any prizes for speed, but it was loaded with style!

Yesterday, Matthew had loads of fun running around the backyard with his friends Jeremiah and Daniel:

And, finally, my favorite thing that Matthew has learned lately is how to do all the actions to "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" - although he often freezes up when I try to video him. Here's the best video I've captured so far:

The Latest

2010-08-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

Well actually, "the latest" encompasses a lot since we've had so much going on lately. I hardly know where to start. Maybe I'll work my way backwards.

This past weekend we had our house painted. It has needed it at least since we moved in 18 months ago. Here's what it looked like then:

On Thursday, the painters came and did the prep work on the house - it looked pretty sad after that:

Matthew and I enjoyed watching Scott taking pictures of the house through the back windows:

On Saturday, the painting commenced and - about nine hours later - it looked like this:

We are so happy with how it turned out. It's weird not to drive up and see all the old paint chipping away (weird in an awesome way).

Two weeks ago, we had a family reunion with Scott's family, which was a lot of fun. Matthew got to spend some quality time with his cousin, Grace. We took them to visit Grandma Egg at work:

And they went for a swim in the pool:

It was a little tricky for Grace, since she hasn't mastered sitting up on her own yet. She managed to stay in place for a few pictures, but she was not very happy after getting "dunked" in the water.

We left the kids with Scott's parents one night and went to an A's game with Marc and Katie:

We also had my parents in town during the time Scott's family was here, so we had plenty of fun things to do that week. My parents were watching my sister's kids so we went over to their house a lot and went to the library and played games. Unfortunately, I don't think I took any pictures of their stay except this picture of Matthew one day after we visited them:

At the beginning of August, we went to the zoo with Matthew's cousins. They were, as usual, very sweet with him.

I couldn't resist including this picture of Nick. I can't help smiling when I see it!

So those are some of the major events that have made August a fun month around here. Our church responsibilities have also made our lives interesting. In the past month, both Scott and I have received new callings. I was asked to be one of the early-morning seminary teachers for our ward and Scott was called as Elders Quorum president. It took a few weeks for the shock to wear off. :) Seminary started today, but the other teacher is teaching today and tomorrow so my first day is Wednesday.

And I saved the best for last:

Swimming!

2010-07-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

Today we had a fun day swimming at Grandma's house. She bought a fun little pool just Matthew's size, a hat to match his swimsuit, and some cool sunglasses. He was all ready for some fun in the water!

A Few Pictures from our Family Campout

2010-07-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

2010-06-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

Grandpa Egg's wish to have a fellow gardener in the family may come true. Yesterday I took Matthew in the backyard, and he immediately gravitated to the flowers. He stood there touching them for several minutes.

Matthew is learning new things all the time. Here he is practicing the "S" sound:

2010-06-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

Both our computer and Matthew caught a virus about a week ago, and I think we have finally gotten things back to normal. Actually, things were pretty much normal by Tuesday, but it took me a few extra days to figure out how to get the Internet up and running again.

Look how sick this little face looks:

Before the illness struck, Matthew had fun playing with some of the toys he inherited from his cousin Nick

and he also got a hold of my copy of the Master Tax Guide:

If he ends up becoming an accountant like his parents than this picture will be gold!

Last Saturday we had a fun outing to see our cousin Matt play in the CCS championship baseball game and WIN! Our little Matthew got ready for the game by trying on his dad's baseball cap:

We also had a mini "Lane Day" celebration yesterday. Lane is my oldest nephew - almost 15. We heard that his friends at school decided to have Lane Day by dressing like him - plaid shorts and long socks. Here was our attempt to join in:

I love Matthew's expression here:

We're glad to be back on the Internet! Hopefully no more viruses come our way!

Bathtime and Peek-A-Boo

2010-05-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

Matthew and Scott find out what life would be like with facial hair:

And Matthew thinks peek-a-boo is SO hilarious:

I like how he picks out a book to read:

2010-05-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from about three weeks ago. I decided to let Matthew "finger paint" with chocolate pudding. It started out pretty much as expected:

And ended pretty much as expected:

From here, Matthew went straight to the bathtub!

This video is from last night. I was trying to get a video of Matthew walking and this is the best one we got:

I'll try to get one that more clearly shows his cute little steps sometime soon.

Our Trip to SLC

2010-05-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a fun trip to Salt Lake City. Scott and I hadn't been there in over two years, and it was Matthew's first trip. We had so much fun! The highlight of the trip was meeting Marc and Katie's new baby, Grace. Here's Matthew with his newest cousin: On Sunday, it snowed a little bit, and it stuck to the ground on the mountains. So we made the effort to find a spot for Matthew to check it out first-hand: On Sunday afternoon, we walked around Temple Square. It was lovely with the spring flowers blooming. We put Matthew on the little pedestal where the brides generally have their picture taken: And we couldn't resist a family shot (well, Scott probably could have, but I was in a silly mood): We got a few pictures with flowers in the background too: This is as close as I got to the Family History library. When I was little, my mom would often have us come here with her, and I hated it. Now I think it would be awesome to spend a couple hours there to see what I can learn about my ancestors. Maybe next time.

The best part of the trip was spending time with our family. Here are a couple of fun pictures: At the airport we saw a whole bank of payphones. I figured I should take a picture so we can tell our kids what they were like. ;)

The answers to the game I posted last time are: C K D A J E B H L G I F

2010-04-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

We just celebrated Matthew's birthday, and we had a lot of fun. On his actual birthday, we had Scott's parents over for his birthday dinner. I made an angel food cake from scratch, which was an adventure. Here he is with his piece of birthday cake:

And here is the aftermath:

Luckily not too crazy.

On Saturday, we had his official party. This time we had red velvet cupcakes, and they turned out very cute (if I do say so myself).

We did better job keeping him away from the flame this time.

And Matthew had another chance to go crazy with dessert.

He was getting tired by the time we got to opening presents, so I had to do most of it. At one point I put a bow on his head, and amazingly he left it on there. He cried when I tried to take it off.

We also played a little game that a friend of mine did for her one-year-old's party. You can play too if you want. There are pictures from the first year of Matthew's life, one for each month. Try to match the picture with the month.

I'll tell you the answers in my next post. :)

2010-04-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when I need to do something on the computer, I let Matthew stand up next to an ottomon we have in our office. The other day, I turned around and saw this:

He has now increased the amount of trouble he can get into!

The other night, I was trying to entertain Matthew, and this is what happened:

And, finally, a picture from Matthew's first visit from the Easter bunny. HAPPY EASTER!

A Trip to the Zoo

2010-04-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

Scott, Liz, Matthew, and I went to the Oakland Zoo yesterday. It was really fun! It was my first trip to the zoo (and Matthew's too).

Matthew got the chance to pet a goat!

And here he is checking out the squirrel monkeys:

He was really paying attention to them!

30 Going On 60!

2010-03-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Scott and my sister-in-law, Sabrina, joined forces to give me an extra fun birthday surprise. Sabrina painted an original watercolor of me:

It was such a wonderful surprise! Scott said he was amazed at how quickly Sabrina did it. If you'd like to see Sabrina's other works of art, which I think are brillant and amazing, visit her website here. She also has an Etsy store where you can buy originals, prints, and greeting cards.

Thanks Sabrina!

The Accountants' Kid

2010-03-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

Who knew pencils were so awesome?

Gardening and Laundry!

2010-03-12T09:45:00.000-08:00

We had a fun day last Saturday. Scott's parents came over for several hours. His dad helped us spruce up the planter box right by the front door, and his mom took care of Matthew. We forgot to take any "before" pictures, so I had to rely on a few random pictures that don't really show how dreary things were looking in there. Here's a picture how it looked when we bought the house about a year ago:

So there were several bushes in there and ivy growing through everything. There was also a bushy tree that was threatening to grow right into the roof. Last summer I cut back a lot of the bushes because it was getting out of control and there were lots of spiders living there and then wandering into the house. Yuck! So here's a picture from a month ago of how it looked without a lot of those bushes:

And here's how it looked after we finished planting on Saturday:

I'm excited to see the plants grow and fill in the planter!

Yesterday, I finally finished work in the laundry room. We had an issue with how the dryer was positioned when it was delivered but, once we got around to it, we were able to get all the little issues worked out! For comparitive purposes, here is how it looked before:

And here is how it looks now:

I love it!

2010-03-04T17:01:00.000-08:00

We had a new addition to our family about a month ago: a piano! Scott and I love it! And Matthew enjoys it too. He likes to bounce along to the music, and he even got a chance to sit with daddy on the piano bench.

This next picture is included at my mom's request. She wants to see Matthew in the church outfit she gave him for Christmas.

This was Matthew "acting up" during FHE. He was making some silly faces!

And finally, Aunt Liz said that every baby needs some camo when she gave Matthew these pants for Christmas. I just realized Matthew would probably fit into them now, so he wore them for the first time today (and he does kind of blend in with the chair.5). Thanks Liz!

2010-02-21T20:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted, and there have been a couple reasons for that. One of those reasons was our laundry room. On MLK day, Scott and I came back from a service project at a school in Oakland and, after he went off to work, I decided to try to figure out what was going on with our clothes dryer. The dryer came with our house when we bought it, and it has never worked really well. I started by cleaning out the vent and quickly realized that the vent was too small and poorly (aka, not really) connected, so the steamy air from our dryer was escaping into the wall (and our dryer was producing a lot of steam). It was at this point we decided it was time to tackle our next home improvement project. This is what our laundry room looked like before: Notice the peel 'n stick vinyl tile that wasn't quite sticking anymore: As we tore up the flooring, we realized that there was a bit of a hole in the wall: Then we decided, why not paint it while we have the room empty: We picked a gray-blue that we ended up loving: We now have the washer and new dryer in there, and it's mostly done. Just a few lingering items to cross off the list, and then I'll post an update. Now on to the really fun topic: MATTHEW! He is learning a lot of new tricks that keep us entertained. Just this last week, he started waving back to us, as demonstrated in the following video:

We went into San Francisco to Lucy Packer's 1st birthday celebration and stopped by the Golden Gate Bridge on the way: Then Matthew and I slept over at my sister's house one night when Scott had to go out of town for business. Matthew was very cozy in this cradle: Last week, Matthew really enjoyed receiving valentines: And this past Friday, we went to LDS night at the Oracle Arena. The Golden State Warriors played the Utah Jazz.

2010-01-22T16:46:00.000-08:00

Every so often I realize that I should check Matthew's closet for clothes that he's grown into. Today I found this cute outfit, which was fun!

Here is Matthew practicing his standing:

Then I caught a moment of excitement:

I'm a sucker for those blue eyes.

Then he decided the excitement was over, so he started trying to slide forward. He hasn't learned how to get very far yet, so he mostly just ends up on his back.

This isn't the best shot, but Matthew loves to get his socks off and wave them around and/or chew on them. This is an action shot of that celebratory dance:

Nine Months

2010-01-11T10:51:00.000-08:00

Christmas Pictures

2010-01-04T13:10:00.000-08:00

We had a rockin' Christmas Eve:

With new PJ's left by the Christmas elves:

Matthew enjoyed his first visit from Santa:

Aunt Katie even gave Matthew a bath in the kitchen sink:

He seemed to enjoy it:

Christmas 2009

2009-12-16T17:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas has arrived at our house: We had fun decorating the stage for Santa's arrival at our ward Christmas party. Matthew warmed the chair up for him: Matthew got to open a few presents early while we were at my parents' house for Thanksgiving. He loves chewing on the coins for his toy piggy bank:
And here he is in his little bear (or Ewok) outfit:

Autumn Leaves

2009-11-30T15:02:00.001-08:00

Our Halloween

2009-11-01T18:44:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun dressing Matthew up for Halloween, and he was a really good sport with wearing his costume. I made a hat and a scarf to complete the Harry Potter look, and I think they added a lot to it.

Matthew even seemed to get into the spirit of Halloween when we let him get his hands on a Snickers.

We hope your Halloween was just as fun!

The Boy Who Lived

2009-10-17T15:47:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun making Matthew's Halloween costume. We got the idea when my niece tried these glasses on Matthew to see if they fit.

Done!

2009-10-07T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is! It's been functional for several weeks now (four to be exact), but now we've checked all the lingering to-do's off our list. Hooray!

Our Little Eater

2009-10-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

Matthew has started eating rice cereal. He seems to enjoy it. He likes to put his hands in his mouth with every bite, so meal time gets pretty messy!

We have the kitchen mostly finished - we only have one little piece to screw in - but I figure that if I force myself to wait to post the pictures until it's totally finished then I'll be more motivated to get it done.

Good thing he's not walking yet...

2009-09-15T22:49:00.001-07:00

We're Getting Close...

2009-09-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been very busy, but today we reached another milestone - countertop installation! The workers were here for five hours and, voila, countertops. We're now working on putting the doors on and other finishing touches, but we are officially in the home stretch.

Progress

2009-08-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

Our kitchen is moving along better than we anticipated. There's still a lot left to do, but we're happy things are moving in the right direction! Marc and Katie have helped SO much, and Scott's mom has been keeping us well fed!

Moving On

2009-08-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

I love that Matthew is such a happy little boy, and - in case you couldn't tell - I'm quite captivated whenever he laughs. I took these pictures the other day, and it shows another fun side of Matthew - his fascination with his hands. Who needs a pacifier when there are hands to suck on? He hardly even realized he had Mickey Mouse ears on!

This may be one of those pictures that Matthew is embarrassed of when he's older, so I think I better share it now before he can protest. Isn't he so cute?

In other news, we had the electrician come over yesterday and now we have some extra lighting in the kitchen and a LOT of new outlets. Before we only had one outlet for all of our counter space and it (like most of the outlets in our house) was one of those old-school, two-prong outlets. I can only imagine the luxury of being able to plug in more than two appliances at a time, and I'm glad that we won't have to hunt down the two- to three-prong adapter the next time Scott uses the mixer to make his delicious chocolate chip cookies!

Now What?

2009-08-16T20:57:00.001-07:00

Grandpa Caught a Big Fish

2009-08-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

I was telling Scott about my parents' cruise to Alaska, and Matthew loved hearing about the 40 lb. King Salmon my dad caught.

Matthew Laughs Again

2009-08-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

Isn't it so cute when babies laugh? Matthew's only really gotten the giggles a couple of times, and I get so excited every time it happens. Today was another one of those times:

We've been busy little bees . . .

2009-08-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

Before:

After:

And we weren't the only ones:

We found this basketball-sized beehive in our backyard.

Marc and Katie are Coming?!

2009-08-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

This is the most I've ever heard Matthew laugh. It was so cute and totally unexpected:

Smiles!

2009-07-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Matthew is smiling more and more lately and letting out a few laughs. Here's a sample:

We Love Reading!

2009-07-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our family and friends, Matthew has a good-sized library of books to enjoy. It's so much fun to read with him, especially since we get to witness reactions like this:

Matthew Driving His Imaginary Car

2009-06-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

Matthew loves to wave his hands in the air. Scott says that he is driving a car because it looks like he has his hands on the wheel. I caught him doing it last night at around 4am. I think the glow of the TV offers good lighting. :)

Matthew Goes to His 1st A's Game

2009-06-09T21:36:00.000-07:00

Saying Hi To Dad

2009-05-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

Matthew

2009-04-17T16:53:00.001-07:00

We think this little kid is pretty cute!

T minus 5 days

2009-04-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

The baby should be here soon. We have the nursery mostly ready to go!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-31T11:41:00.001-08:00

Christmas is always a little crazy (a.k.a. super fun) at my parents' house because of the number of people involved. This year there were 23 people there! What better day than Christmas to live by the motto "the more the merrier"?

Reunion with My Friends

2009-01-31T11:35:00.000-08:00

We don't get to see each other very often, but these girls were pretty much my constant companions from 8th grade through my sophomore year in college. I love it when we can get together even though we're now "grown-ups". Too bad Lori couldn't make it, but I got to see her a few days earlier.

29 Weeks

2009-01-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

The weeks are flying by, and I'm getting bigger and bigger!

Packing on the Holiday Pounds

2008-11-26T20:25:00.001-08:00

I'm starting to burst at the seams, but it's not solely attributable to those turkey sugar cookies.

On Monday,we had the ultrasound, and our baby is a boy! Quite the wiggle worm too from the looks of things.

Gobble Gobble, Turkeys on Parade

2008-11-26T20:19:00.000-08:00

For the last three years, I have made these turkey cookies for the Berkeley University Ward Sub-4-Santa Auction. They are really fun to make as long as I only do it once a year!

For Joey & Sabrina

2008-09-29T09:04:00.001-07:00

Are you guys still even looking at this blog? If so, I hope this comes as a fun surprise. Scott & I are expecting a baby! The baby is due April 9, 2009. This ultrasound was at nine weeks so it was too soon to tell anything very definite about the baby, so we'll keep you posted when we find out whether it's a boy or a girl. Good luck with your new arrival - we're right on your heels!

The Great Lakes Tour

2008-08-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day, we took a trip we refer to as The Great Lakes Tour. We saw three of the great lakes - Lake Michigan (from the airplane), Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie. We visited Detroit, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Cleveland. We also made some good progress on Scott's goal of visiting all the Major League Baseball stadiums by going to see the Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays, and Cleveland Indians play. They were fun games to watch with mostly good weather (Cleveland was freezing!). Niagara Falls was a lot of fun too. We checked out the falls and wasted some money in an arcade. When in Cleveland, we stayed in a bed & breakfast near Kirtland, Ohio and saw a lot of great Church history sites. The above picture is in front of the Newel K. Whitney store. If I remember right, my great great great grandfather, Edward Partridge, joined the church after meeting the Prophet Joseph Smith in Kirtland. It was fun to get to see so many interesting places!

Helpful Websites

2008-04-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.catalogchoice.org/ select which catalogs you don't want to receive
http://www.optoutprescreen.com/ decline unsolicited credit card offers
http://www.donotcall.gov/ stop telemarketers from calling
http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ This is the website you want to use to check your credit report. I usually make the mistake of going to freecreditreport.com first and that website is not related at all to the federal program that lets you check you credit report (but not see the credit score) for free.

De Todo Un Poco (A Bit of Everything)

2008-04-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Last night for FHE, Scott and I read President Monson's message in the April Ensign. It was a really great reminder that we all need to learn from the past, prepare for the future, and live in the present. I'm really motivated by acheivement so sometimes I spend a lot of time planning for the future and looking forward to the next milestone to reach. President Monson's article reminded me that once the plan is in place I should relax and enjoy the present. After the lesson portion of FHE, Scott and I watched 101 Dalmations (which he gave me for my birthday) and played Yahtzee. Very fun!

I tried out a new singing time idea in nursery last Sunday. I cut the fingers off a pair of garden gloves and glued little eyes on each finger. Then during one song I passed out the little "worms" and the kids got to make the worms sing along to the song. It was fun, but I think I need to find a better song to do it with. It shouldn't be hard to do though.

Tonight Scott and I are going to Opening Night for the Oakland Athletics. I'm pretty excited about it and Scott is extremely excited about it. This morning he put on his A's sweatshirt and I'm sure his outfit today will have an A's theme to it. It's very convenient to live only ten minutes away from the stadium because I'll have time to go home and change my clothes before the game. "Take me out to the ballgame . . ."

1st Counselor/Nursery Leader

2008-03-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

Our ward does not operate like any other ward I've been in except for the wards I served in on my mission. It's probably for that reason that Scott and I often comment to each other about how our current callings remind us of being in the mission field. In one ward on my mission, my companion and I taught the Gospel Principles class and the other sisters taught Primary because we didn't have enough people to cover those callings. Our current ward is in much better shape than that, but still pales in comparison to the wards I grew up in.

For example, when I was still in the YW presidency, we had a president, two counselors, and a secretary. It seems like most wards usually have three teachers assigned to the YWs too. That doesn't sound too bad, right? It just meant that we had to plan the Sunday lessons in addition to the Tuesday night activity. Unfortunately, the other counselor and the secretary usually came to church once a month and to mutual once every three or four months. So then it was just the Pres and me and 20-30 young women. We were doing pretty well considering, until I was released and called into the Primary presidency. That was almost two months ago and poor Hermana Mejia is still essentially doing the YW program by herself.

Now I'm a counselor in the Primary presidency, and our president has decided that she wants the presidency to also be the teachers of the primary (conveniently we only have three primary classes and the nursery). It just so happens that I was assigned to be over the nursery. So I'm now in the nursery every week except the second Sunday when I do sharing time in the Primary. I haven't particularly cared for this arrangement, mostly because I feel like I have no idea what's going on in the Primary. Last time I did sharing time, I totally messed up the schedule because I just didn't know what was supposed to happen when.

Things in the nursery have also been a little rocky at times. The current nursery leader is an older lady who seems to be a convert. I get the impression that she hasn't had much experience in the church outside of the nursery, where she has apparently been for at least the last five years. She hasn't been in the habit of teaching a lesson or doing singing time, and that is something that the President really wanted me to change. So over the last several weeks, I have been trying to acclimate our nursery kids (and the nursery leader) to class time, singing time, etc. Some of the low points of my time in nursery include the day that the nursery leader got mad at me for not besandole (greeting her with a kiss) the week before, the lesson where none of the kids stayed in their chairs or paid attention, and the singing time when the nursery leader commented about how bored the kids seemed to a parent that was in there. I had a streak of several weeks when I went home from church and cried on my bed.

Last week was my first week where I felt like things went pretty well. The Primary chorister asked me to fill in for her at the last minute, so I decided to teach my lesson and do nursery singing time in between the Primary singing times. The Primary singing times went pretty well (except I don't know the Spanish words that well yet), but nursery is where I felt really encouraged. Our lesson was on trees, plants, and flowers. I kept it short and simple, and I brought an apple to show them the seeds inside. That was a big hit! I cut it towards the end of the lesson and all the kids were still eating their apple slices by the time I was done. All four kids sitting in their chairs, munching quietly on a slice of apple - what a heavenly sight! Singing time was also our best yet. For the last few weeks I've been working on some visual aids for nursery singing time and I finally had some ready to use last Sunday. Our nursery kids don't really even talk yet, so singing is asking too much. Here are the things I used to help the kids participate in singing time:

I made some little stars for them to hold up during "I Am Like A Star"
I made a dad, mom, brother, and sister to hold up during "We Are A Happy Family".
I topped some popsicle sticks with foam stars and wrote each of their names on one. They love getting to picking a name.
I made little fishes that I taped to a blue piece of cardstock. Each fish has the name of a song we'll sing. Once a child's popsicle stick is picked, they get to come up and pick a fish off the board.
I made a CD with just the songs that I wanted to use for nursery on it (I wrote the track number next to the song name on the back of each fish and I recently added the page number in the children's songbook because I usually need to see the words in Spanish).
Musical instruments. Our stake gave us a set of musical instruments last week and it was a hit. Scott passed them out to the kids when we were singing "Sharing a toy is fun to do, fun to do, fun to do".
My husband. Scott was nice enough to come help me in the nursery after he was done with his resposibilities in YM. He was a big help!

I think our little nursery kids are starting to get hang of these nursery songs, and I'm starting to get the hang of how to make them fun for them. My mom helped me realize that at that age it's not really about singing the songs as much as participating in the songs.

Easter Birthdays Come But Once A Lifetime . . .

2008-03-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

My birthday falls on Easter this year, which has never happened before and apparently will not happen again in my lifetime. The following is a fun email my mom wrote to me about this:

I saw another article in the paper yesterday about how rare it is for Easter to fall on your birthday. This should be a very special birthday for you, undoubtedly the only time Easter will fall on your birthday in your lifetime. Note the following quote from the Deseret News:

"Sunday will mark the earliest Easter the world has experienced in 95 years, and unless human life expectancy improves immensely, nobody alive today will see another Easter this early in the year.

March 22 is the first date on which Easter can be celebrated, and March 23 is the second-earliest. The last time March 22 hosted the holiday was in 1818, according to an online calculator posted by the U.S. Naval Observatory at aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/easter.php. A chart for recent years is also at the observatory's site: aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/easter.php.

A laborious check by the Deseret Morning News of all dates for Easter from 1800 through 2160 confirms that the next time Easter will be this early in the year is 2160.The check also turned up these Easter tidbits: The earliest it has been observed in the past 70 years was March 24, 1940, and March 26, 1989; Easter fell on March 23 in the years 1845, 1856, and 1913."

I hope you find this information scintillating and exciting, the kind you can't wait to share.

Well, mom, I did find the information scintillating and exciting, and exactly of the nature that I would enjoy sharing with others on my blog. In response to my mom's original email message, one of my brothers replied and told me I needed to update my blog. So, here you go Joey! ;) Honestly, I think Joey, Sabrina, and Scott are the only people who have ever even seen my blog, probably because it's not all that interesting to read about YW activities or VLOOKUP functions in Excel. Yawn! So, to my three fans (I know it's a stretch to call you "fans"), thank you for still looking at my blog occasionally even though it's rather dull.

As for my birthday being on Easter, I'm not really sure how Easter birthdays are best celebrated. Here are a few of my ideas:

Instead of an Easter egg hunt, have a birthday present hunt.
Have a bunny or egg shaped birthday cake.
Have egg salad sandwiches for birthday dinner.
Have Scott dress up like the Easter bunny.
Make my nieces wear their new Easter dresses to my birthday party.
Name my first born daughter Easter.
Change my last name to include the word, "egg", oh wait, I've already done that.

Well, it seems like I'm well on my way to maximizing the Easter fun. If you have any other suggestions, let me know. Only four more days . . .

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Done . . . with a VLOOKUP

2008-02-29T15:28:00.000-08:00

I'm only putting this on my blog on the off chance that somebody someday googles this topic (and not to prove that I'm exceptionally nerdy).

How to get Excel to look up information from identical tables on different tabs/worksheets
(I'm not going to explain how VLOOKUPs work, so if you've never used one this probably won't make any sense)

Just so we're on the same page, here's the basic VLOOKUP formula:
=VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,[range_lookup])

Here's the problem (in simplified terms):
I have ten different companies that I'll need to get information for when preparing state tax returns. I wanted a summary worksheet in Excel to automatically fill in a company's information for any particular state just by typing that information (state and company) into two cells at the top of the worksheet. It was really easy to include a cell reference in the lookup_value part of the formula. What really had me stumped was figuring out how to get the table_array portion to work the same way.

The answer is two-fold:

FIRST - In Excel, you can select a range of cells and give it a name (like “CO1”) by going to the Insert menu, Name, Define. Once the name for that range is defined, Excel will know what you're referring to when you use that name in a formula. So you could get a VLOOKUP to work just by typing in =VLOOKUP($B$2,CO1,2,FALSE) and it knows to look for whatever value is in cell B2 in the CO1 range and return the value in column 2. That's the first half of the solution.

SECOND - The second problem was that I really wanted whoever was using the summary worksheet to be able to just type in the company abbreviation and have Excel know which tab to look at in the workbook, but Excel didn’t like just having a plain old cell reference in the “Table_Array” field of the function. I scoured the Help menu and the Internet and finally found someone who recommended using the INDIRECT function in a similar situation. Here's how I was ultimately able to get it to work: =VLOOKUP($B$2,INDIRECT($B$1),2,FALSE). I still have no idea what the INDIRECT function is intended to do, but it got the formula to work the way I wanted it to and that’s all I cared about.

You should note that this worked for me because all of the tabs of company information were identical, if yours aren't identical it could cause some problems.

My Release

2008-02-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

In a shocking turn of events, I was released from my calling in the YW yesterday and called to be the 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency. Asi es la vida (that's life). So my blog of ideas for YW activities has been cut down in the prime of life. ;)

Music Basics

2008-01-31T08:21:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday we had a music class for mutual because many of our young women haven't had any formal music training. I wanted to help them understand the church hymns better, so I made a copy of "Soy un hijo de Dios" (in English, "I am a child of God"). I made an accompanying worksheet by cutting out various music symbols from the song and taping them onto a separate piece of paper. I then numbered each symbol and had them look for each symbol on their copy of the song (see the link below). It was a fun activity, and it helped them actually notice what the different symbols were.

We discussed what the various symbols mean and then transitioned into some basics of directing music. I found it really helpful to first define what a measure is and point it out within the song that we were already using as an example. This helped to explain that 4/4 and 3/4 indicate how many beats are in each measure. My favorite part of this mutual was that the young women had an "ah-ha" moment at this point. They finally started to understand the purpose of conducting the music and the meaning of the patterns used to do it.

http://melissaeggertsen.googlepages.com/MusicWorksheet.pdf

NOTE: The website http://www.enchantedlearning.com/music/ is also a good place to find some basic music worksheets.

Johnny Lingo

2008-01-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

For the first part of our activity last night, we watched Johnny Lingo. Most of our young women hadn't seen it before and that made it more interesting to watch than I expected. I enjoyed seeing their reactions to the movie. They were kind of anxious to see what was going to happen and kept asking me questions during the movie to calm their curiosity. They also got pretty upset and annoyed when everyone kept calling Mahana ugly and making fun of her.

Here are some of the topics we discussed as a group after the movie:

Was Mahana always beautiful? What made her beautiful?
Why did everyone think she was ugly?
Why did Johnny Lingo pay eight cows for Mahana?
What helped Mahana see her own worth?

There was a little speculation among the girls as to whether or not Johnny switched girls while he was on the "honeymoon" but I don't think that's a very likely scenario. ;)

I think the main message of Johnny Lingo is that what mattered most was what Mahana thought of herself. Her father treated her like dirt, so that's how she saw herself. Johnny Lingo treated her with love, and she came to see herself as someone worth loving. I thought it was a good movie to watch with the YW because it illustrates the importance of seeing your own individual worth and the impact of treating others with love and respect.

For the second part of our activity, we wrote cards to the missionaries in our ward. We used plain white paper and let the girls decorate it with stickers and pens. Nothing too fancy, but hopefully our missionaries will appreciate the gesture.

NOTE: I have to say that I've seen Johnny Lingo dozens of times and this time I was surprised at some of the story line: buying wives, selling daughters, Mahana's father threatening to come after her with a stick, etc. I probably just noticed it because I was worried the YW might take the wrong message away from it. I liked having a brief discussion together after watching it because I could make sure that they got the right message from the movie.

Service Activity with the Missionaries

2008-01-16T10:31:00.000-08:00

Last night we had a fun activity helping the missionaries in our ward create calendars. It's a project they are going to introduce on Sunday to encourage the ward members to seek out missionary opportunities over the next three weeks. One of the sister missionaries split the youth up into companionships and gave each companionship an assignment. I liked that because a lot of our youth are fairly new to the church and their families haven't sent anyone on a mission yet, so it gave them a glimpse into one aspect of mission life.

At one point during the activity one of the young women told me that she was tired. I asked her, "Do you know what missionaries do when they feel tired?" "What?" "They keep working anyway."

B-I-N-G-O, and Kansas Was His Name-O

2007-09-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

The other day I had to call the Kansas Department of Revenue about a letter they had sent to us. I found their message so amusing that I hung up and dialed again so I could make sure I had heard it right.

First, their Spanish message went something like this, "Para servicio en el espanol presar el numero seis." If you translated this phrase to English it would say, "For service in the English, capture number six." (Presar isn't a word in Spanish, the closest match is presa, which means capture or seizure, but it's a noun not a verb.)

Then I listened for about five more seconds and the girl talking said, "for frequently asked questions and their annn-swers." It was a classic Kansas drawl. At that point, I hung up and called again.

I wrote Scott an email and told him to call, and he found something else on their menu choices. He selected the FAQ option and one of the choices said, "For liquor, cigarette, or bingo, press five." What really got me on this one is the bingo. I already knew that some states had taxes on liquor and cigarettes, but taxing bingo was a new one for me. Apparently, there are enough bingo games in Kansas to merit having a bingo tax.

B9, I22, N35, G50, O67 = $1.35 tax

To hear for yourself, call 785-368-8222.