Gardening and Laundry!

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!

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!

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.

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

Christmas Pictures

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

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: