Picnic at the Park

I have been trying to come up with some ideas to make this summer more fun for the kids and me. I found this really awesome post on Pinterest and I am trying hard to live our summer by it:

Monday is Make Something Monday

Tuesday is Take a Trip Tuesday

Wednesday is Wise Wednesday

Thursday is Thankful Thursday

Friday is Have Fun Friday

On Mondays I am going to alternate between making a craft and making a treat with Braelyn. Tuesdays are going to be spent doing free or almost free activities. If you have ideas for this one let me know! Wednesdays we are going to work on our alphabet. I will do a different letter each week and do an activity associated with that letter. Thursday we are going to try to serve others and show our thanks to neighbors, friends, family, and so forth. And finally, Fridays we are most likely spending with a picnic at the park! What's more fun than that?! I'm hoping this can relieve stress as well as get us out of the house and bring Braelyn and I closer together. She is a very headstrong little girl and we tend to butt heads a bit :)

I have a few pictures from last week's picnic in the park. There is also a picture from the 5k we all ran. 

 Left to right: Amy (she took 6th I believe), Dale (4th) Marilyn, Claire, Aaron, McKinnley, Braxten, me, Tyler, Braelyn

 Cheese! Oh wait SQUIRREL!! (This is how I feel when I take pictures of this child...)

 Mmm.... PB&J Sandwiches, yogurt, grapes, and carrot sticks! (Mom! Don't forget to pack carrots!)

 Braxten loved checking out the great outdoors! He was fascinated by everything!

WEEEE! Going down the twisty slide!

Well that is it for today! We are heading to the Hill Air Force Museum after nap time! I'll be posting on that later!

Braelyn's 3rd Birthday

On Saturday we celebrated Braelyn's third birthday. We had a lot of fun. At one we had a couple friends over and they had a ball together. I told Braelyn she could invite three people and she picked cousin Caydence, her little neighbor friend Rilyn, and my friend Karli's daughter Danika. Danika couldn't make it, but the other two were here. I forgot to snap pictures, but they colored Rapunzel coloring pages, popped bubbles, and decorated cupcakes. Then the three of them watch Tangled until they left with their parents. Then at 5 we had family over for pizza (Braelyn's request) and cake and ice cream. Here are a few pictures I got from that:

Her balloon avalanche on her birthday

The birthday invitations we made

Tissue paper Pom poms I made

Punzel was in the corner and her "hair" was draped all over the ceiling

Her braid coming out of the tower Tyler made 

Opening presents

And last but not least Braelyn's birthday cake:

It took a lot of time but the look on Braelyn's face made it completely worth it! She loved her "Punzel cake" and kept talking about it all day long :)

It was a fun day, but I was so exhausted from late nights/early mornings to get it ready that I felt so sick on Sunday. Luckily I don't have to plan anything anytime in the near future!!

Where has the time gone?

Braelyn is 3!!! Where has the time gone? Here are some words that describe her:-- (The first letters spell out THREE)

T- Terrific big sister
H- Helpful
R- Rambunctious- in everything she does
E- Enjoyable
E- Empathetic -she is always so worried about the people around her and how they feel :)

I love my little princess. She brightens my day. Every morning she walks into my room and says, "Mom, the sky's awake so I'm awake so we have to play." It never fails to bring a smile to my face.  :) We are having a Rapunzel birthday party for her tomorrow so I will post pictures of how that goes later :) 

She wanted Braxten to watch punzel with her

Her "boyfriend" uncle Nick. She loves him

She loves to hike!

Being helpful!!

I love this girl so stinking much!! Thank you for coming to our family Braelyn! You made me a mom and for that I am forever grateful!! MUAH!!

4 month update

Braxten is now 4 months old. At his appointment he was 14.5 pounds and 26.5 inches long. He is continuing to grow and develop buy it makes me miss my little baby boy. He is wearing 6 month clothing because he is so tall. He can roll from his belly to his back, when he chooses to. He is really close rolling from his back to his belly. He loves his sister a lot. He is always smiling and giggling whenever she is around. If he is crying and I can't get to him right away, I send Braelyn to him to make him happy. He sleeps from 9/10 at night until 7 or later in the mornings. It's wonderful. He is my little light and melts my heart. 

Braelyn is getting big as well. She is 31 pounds and 37 inches. She will be 3 on the sixth. I can't believe my little girl is that old. It seems like just a couple months ago she was my smiling little baby laughing at Cooper the dog doing tricks for treats in my inlaws kitchen. We are having a Tangled birthday party. We are both super excited for it. Whenever Braxten is upset Braelyn will sing to him and I love to watch and listen to her. She is my little angel most of the time but we do butt heads probably once a day. She is very independent and head strong. 

I am just tryin to deal with the stress of being a mom and working 3 days a week at a daycare. It's been tough but we are making it work. I'm cutting back hours because the stress and being away from the kids was really getting to me. I need to make a list of fun things to do with the kiddos this summer. Suggestions?

We wenton a hike on Memorial Day and had a blast. Braelyn was such a little trooper

All of us

The top

Getting Big

So, it's been a while since I've posted, but things have been crazy and changed a lot in the last few weeks. Braxten is getting so big. I'm not sure how much he weighs. At his two month appointment he was 12 pounds and 23 1/2 inches long. He has an appointment next Monday so we'll see how much he's grown since then. He is smiling and cooing and laughing and we are just having a ball with him. Braelyn is great with him and he loves her so much. Whenever he wakes up from a nap, she's right there ready to calm him down and tell him things will be okay.

Braelyn will be three on June 6. I can't believe how fast time is gone by. I remember it like it was yesterday her being my little baby girl just as big as Braxten. We are having a Tangled birthday party. I have been searching Pinterest and I'm getting so excited to plan this for her :) She has decided that it is fun to sing every song whether it's the radio, her movies, a tv show, or even a silly commercial. It makes me smile. She went to the dentist a few weeks ago and now asks everyday if she can go back. No cavities and 20 healthy teeth!!

I am working in the daycare at Golds Gym and enjoy it. However I do hope that I can move to the front desk at some point. 

That's a quick update for you! I will post again hopefully when Braxten hits 4 months!

Hunting for Easter eggs!!!

Braelyn and Braxten

Now that I got Braxten's birth story on the blog, I wanted to get an update done on the kiddos and our little family of four.

Braxten: He is now four weeks old! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. He has been a very good baby. He only wakes up to eat once a night, if at all. If we put him to bed around 11, he will sleep until 6 ish most nights. When he is having a growth spurt, things are a little different. He loves to stare and try to figure things out. He stretches and wiggles and is starting to grin now and then-more than just gas. I will tickle his sides or tickle his cheeks with my hair and he will give me a hint of a grin. I love it! He is also starting to "talk" and coo a bit more. He will be really quiet and then all of a sudden let out a squeal and it catches me off guard. I can't help but giggle. I don't know how much he weighs. At his 2 week check up he was 8 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches. I look forward to watching him continue to grow :)

Braelyn: She is continuing to grow and loves being a big sister. She is 29 and a half pounds and 36 inches tall. She is a big helper, too. Braelyn will grab the dirty diapers and throw them away without me even asking her too. She will also come running whenever Braxten starts to cry. Today I was washing some dishes and he started to fuss. I heard him but was finishing the dish in my hand. Braelyn came running and said, "Mom, come here! Grab my hand. I need to take you to baby brother because he is crying!" I just had to smile and comply.

She is getting so smart! Today she did a 24 piece puzzle all by herself. She can count to 14 and sing her ABCs (Minus the J. She seems to skip it every single time...) She loves to play with all things princesses and babies, but she also loves cars and trains. She can navigate my kindle better than I can which is pretty sad. She loves to climb and jump on EVERYTHING! She is a little monkey. Her favorite TV shows right now are Super Why! and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (which is a cartoon spin-off of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood). Her favorite movie is Frozen-of course- and she keeps asking to go see it again. I have already pre-ordered it off of Disney Movie Club :) Her favorite color is pink and her favorite foods are pizza, grilled cheese and tomato soup, and PB and Js. The thing she wants to do the most is go to school. She can't wait to go and keeps telling me that she is 3 because I tell her she can't go to school until she is 3--Stinker...

Tyler and Me: We are just adjusting to being parents of two children rather than one. It is awesome and we wouldn't change it for anything. We didn't do anything for Valentine's-just got a Papa Murphy's heart pizza and Tyler gave me an Ice Cream cake. He is getting Thor 2 and Iron Man 3 if they ever decide to show up. I got them half off on Disney Movie Club. Hopefully they will be here in the next few days. I am starting to go to the gym. I love running on the elliptical. I am thinking about signing up for a 5k-possibly the one in Morgan. We'll see how it goes :)

That's it for the Matsons! Now here are some pictures because I know that is all you wanted to see anyway. P.S. If anyone has photoshop and wants to edit some pictures for me let me know! I love the ones I took, but they do need some editing.

Braxten's Birth Story

I have been meaning to write this for the past few weeks, but with two kids I am just now getting around to it. So here I go! This is Braxten's birth story.

My due date was January 19th, but we scheduled an induction for earlier. On January 16th at 7:15 a.m. we left our house with our family of three and dropped Braelyn off at my in-laws house. Tyler and I arrived at the hospital at 8 am and since I pre-registered, we were able to go straight to our room.

My first nurse was named Carol-Ann and by 9 am she had me on the pitocin drip and everything was underway. We watched season 4 of the Big Bang Theory while we waited for things to happen. Around 11:30 my doctor came it to my room to break my water and strip my membranes. I went from an almost 2 to an almost 3 just by her doing that. I got a new nurse named Cari (from Mountain Green) and she was absolutely incredible! She was very friendly and helpful and was able to keep me relaxed a bit better. At 2:30 my nurse checked me again and I was only a 3+ so I decided to go ahead and have my epidural. Dr. Patel came in within the next 10 minutes to start it. It took about 20 minutes to fully kick in, but I kept it so light I still felt the pressure of my contractions, just not the pain. Just before 4 the nurse checked me again and I was a 9+. It took me less than an hour to dilate 6cm! The epidural allowed me to relax and let my body do what it was meant to do. My nurse just let me finish dilating and wait until I felt ready to push. By 4:35 we started a couple practice pushes. Halfway through my second contraction she told me to stop because the baby was coming and she didn't want to be the one to deliver him :) She left and called Dr. Lister who got there by 4:45. She came in and gowned up while I pushed two more times, during which Tyler asked "What more can I do to help." After asking if it was okay with me, Tyler was gowned up as well. They got ready and I pushed 3 times through one more contraction. On my next contraction I pushed twice and Braxten's head was out! I loved hearing his little cry! I pushed one more time and my little man was here. They put him on my chest while Tyler clamped and cut the cord. This was the point where I could not hold back the tears. He was such a handsome little baby! I was a proud mama!

Braxten was born at 4:56 pm weighing 7 pounds 9 ounces and was 20 inches long. He has been such a little joy to our lives and Braelyn absolutely LOVES her baby brother. I do have some pictures below. There is some leg showing so if you don't want to see, don't look!