Splish Splash

What ya cooking?

Yummy Yummy Carrots

Look, Mommy, I figured out how to splash!

Up He Goes

Mom, I realized you would probably love to see a video of Matthew crawling up the stairs. My favorite part is his growling. Hehe.

In with the new

Well, we are all settled here in our new home. I love it here! I won't even begin to list all the little things I love about having a house. Instead, I'll give you Matthew's list:

1. Stairs to climb
2. Carpet to soften the blow when I fall
3. A much larger space to explore
4. Mommy actually makes baby food purees for me since she has a dishwasher
5. Door stoppers make great toys
6. Box city - the living room was turned into a maze of empty boxes

The move went really well. Our Elder's Quorum showed up unexpectedly thanks to our home teacher. We thought we would be fine with just family, but it was so nice to have 20 people working to load up the truck. Luckily for them, I am an excellent packer and had everything boxed up ahead of time. All I really ended up doing was sweeping the floor. Moving in was easy because our house is so much bigger than our apartment. My father-in-law was in town last Friday and got to see the house which forced me to finish unpacking all the boxes.

Other than that, there isn't much to tell. The ward seems nice. We haven't met too many people. There are a whole lot of children. We have met all of our neighbors, mostly while shoveling snow. It has snowed and snowed and snowed since we moved in. Oh, and Matthew now has all 4 teeth! They have all come in in the last 2 weeks. Every few days I would see another one. They haven't come all the way in, but you can see all 4 white spots in his gums. He hasn't been too bad with the teething though. I guess we got lucky there.

 I'll pack the utensils.

Snow!

Don't pack the toys!

Taking a bath in the new kitchen.

Confined!

Shoveling snow

Cuddling with Daddy

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, whose the fairest one of all?

Navigating the maze of boxes

If you look closely, you can see a tooth to the bottom right.

Daddy brought home airplanes today.

Merry Christmas

Well, Matthew seemed to enjoy his first Christmas. He loved all the attention from family. We had a pretty laid back Chrismas. We spent Christmas Eve at my grandparents' house. Then we went to see the lights on Temple Square, which did not go over very well with Matthew. But he seemed to cheer up when we let him open his ornament. Christmas morning, we opened presents at our house. Matthew was not very interested in opening the presents, but he enjoyed playing with everything. Most notable presents would be: my in-laws got us a sailor suit for Matthew - professional photos will be coming soon; Mark got me a roasting pan (which surprised him because that isn't what he originally bought me); Mark and I got Ticket to Ride: Asia. We dressed Matthew up in the super adorable Christmas outfit my mom bought, and went back up to my grandparents' house for Church, dinner, presents, and Train Game. Then, that night I went home and packed all the Christmas decorations. I'm definitely ready to move. Only 10 days ...

Grandpa Pingel

Grandma Pingel

Uncle Benjamin

Uncle Aaron

Aunt Melissa

Great-Grandpa Pingel

Matthew and Ayden helping open the present

Watching Harry Potter with Grandma

A Naked Baby

I just realized that a large percentage of my recent pictures are of Matthew without clothes on. He rather enjoys going around in just his diaper. At some point, I will have to teach him what modesty is. Until then, here is a montage of naked baby photos.

No place like home

We bought a house! The paperwork is all signed, and we are on track to have our own home. Hopefully everything will go well with the inspection, appraisal and loan. If so, we should be moving in January. I feel so grown-up. The house is in a great location. It's near my grandparents, and also close to Mark's work. Close enough that he can even bike to work, so we can put off getting a second car. There's a nice park and grocery store within easy walking distance. There's even a 100+ acre park nearby with a nice biking/running trail. Unfortunately, the church building that is right by it would not be the building we would attend. Ours would be a little farther, so no walking to church (there are no sidewalks where the church is.) But we are super excited. I can't decide what my favorite part about the house is: the deck, the gorgeous kitchen, or the jetted tub. Probably the kitchen. I really want a dishwasher.

Okay, details. It's a 2,300 sqft. multi-level home. Upstairs there are 3 bedrooms, a full bath (with the jetted tub), and a three-quarter master bath. You walk into the front room, with the kitchen and dining room on the same level. You can go up to the bedrooms or down to the living room. From the living room you can walk into the garage or onto the deck, which has a retractable awning. The back yard isn't particularly big, but it is fully fenced. The house sits on only 0.14 acres. From the living room, you can go down into the basement. The basement has another bedroom - probably a guest room or playroom - and three-quarter bath. There is a bonus room which they seemed to have used as a exercise room. There is also a laundry area and a huge crawl space for storage. Basically it's my dream house.

Deck

Backyard

Front Room

Kitchen

Dining Room

Living Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Jetted Tub

Happy Birthday

In case you didn't know, yesterday was my birthday. Mark was kind enough to bring me breakfast in bed, and Matthew was kind enough to stay asleep long enough for me to eat it. Matthew woke up, and they first thing out of his mouth was "Dada," which he learned yesterday. It just melts a mother's heart.

 I didn't do too much exciting for my birthday. We were going to go to Temple Square to see the lights, but decided not to since it was snowing. Instead we stayed home and Mark watched the baby and did dishes while I cuddled up in bed with a book. It was perfect.