Happy Birthday Dear Matt.....

Hallie loungin at the beach

Matt and Eli doin a little fishin

Kelsey and Hallie with their mouths full

My happy baby

So many parables come into my mind right now. :)

The group set up....how perfect does this day look?

My beach cruiser...with the group in the backround

Matt's amazing birthday cake

Making a wish

Happy birthday to you! Matt's birthday was on Saturday and we had so much fun! Here's a recap of our day:

We woke up around 9, threw some clothes on, ate breakfast, packed a few things, and waited for Kelsey and Eli to get here. Then we all took our random modes of transportation (Matt on his scooter, Kelsey on my beach cruiser with Hallie in the kid seat on the back, Eli in their car, CHase and I in our car) and went down to the beach. It was the perfect beach day. Matt brought the fishing poles he had gotten for Christmas and the boys fished from the beach the whole time. Kelsey, Hallie, Chase, and I just relaxed and layed around. We ate subway sandwiches on the beach for lunch and just played for about 3 hours. Then we all came back to our house and got cleaned up for a baptism in our branch where I had to speak. Went and did that, then came home and quickly cleaned the house for Matt's party we were having that night. I also had to put together his birthday cake that I had made (I made it all from scratch and it was soooooo yummy. I'm so domestic I can't even handle myself). It was three layers tall and everyone was really impressed. :) Then was had an awesome turn out for his party (about 30 people) and we all hung out, ate cake, drank soda, chatted, talked about the superbowl (the guys), just had a lot of fun. So anyways, it was a great day and here are a few pics for ya.

Welcome

One of my best friends, Kelly King, (a lot of you know her) just started a blog of her own. So head over there and welcome her to the new land of blog.

Dance dance revolution!

My Happiness....

-Hallie's pantie's sitting on the desk right next to the computer, why are they there?
-Eating ridiculous amounts of soy beans because they're good for you....until you coat them in sea salt to make them taste better.
-Good friends (I have been really blessed with really good friends everywhere we go)
-When Matt calls me honey (I know it's cheesy, but I love it)
-Perfect days in our back yard, eating lunch, swinging on the tire swing, cozy in the hammock.
-Runs to the shopette with friends for some much needed doughnuts
- Hearing Hallie try to say her prayers by herself.
-Watching Matt fold laundry right now while he watches CNN (do other people's husbands do that or am I just lucky?)
-Sweatshirts and jeans.....and flip flops.
-New scriptures! (I have great in-laws)
-Everything about Chase.
-The gospel.
-Our families (our kids are really lucky to have lots of grandparents who love them to pieces)
-Service.
-Exercise....I really like it. Who knew?
-Being pregnant again with our third baby (totally kidding....but I'll bet a few people gasped)
-Prayers with Matt

I really believe that we determine our own happiness. We can choose to be sad, or choose to be happy. I (usually) choose to be happy. although it's not hard to do with the wonderful life I have.

The most perfect time of the day.

That's my gangsta smile....I felt left out of all the picture taking. Do I look tuff?

Sleepy husband

Sleepy daughter

was a sleepy son, before Mom snuck in and took his picture, waking him up.

That would have to be nap time. While enjoy time with my kids, nothing is better than a restorative nap for them and little me time for me. Sometimes I take a nap too, or finally take my shower for the day, or curl up and watch a little E News on tivo. I'll make random phone calls to friends and family that I feel like talking too. Occasionally (if I really have to) I might even do a few chores. So while I was cozy on my couch with my blankie watching E True Hollywood Story (guilty pleasure) I started thinking about what a perfect two hours I get to have everyday. Today was extra special because Matt got home early and he is sleeping right now too. So I (being the cheesy mom I am) snuck around and took all of their pictures. However (being the not very smart mom I am) the flash woke them all up. Oops. The house seems to be quiet again though so I think they each went back to sleep. Here's my nap time pics.

So this post is a little out of order.

Hallie at the shooting range

Hallie watching the security forces men trying to get the door unlocked

Hallie rummaging through my purse because she knows I can't get in to stop her.

Matt and I trying to convince Hallie to unlock the door.

This happened like a week and a half ago, but I needed to wait to get the pictures from my friend Kelsey before I wrote about it. So.....last Saturday we went down to the shooting range on the base to shoot shot guns. As we were unloading the car Hallie was playing around inside of the car. Matt had turned off the car, but left the keys in the ignition so I could turn the car back on and nurse Chase in there. So the drivers side door was still open and we were all standing outside of the car and Hallie pulled the door shut.....then locked it. Luckily I had already gotten Chase out of the car so the only small child trapped in there was her. Was she scared you may be asking yourself? Of course not. She took the opportunity to do everything in the car she has always known she is not allowed to do. Put pennies in the AC vents, put CDs in the CD player, completely empty my purse, play with the shot gun shells in the back seat, drink the drinks in the cup holders. She seemed to be capable of turning on and doing ABSOLUTELY everything in that car EXCEPT unlock the doors. Sooooo, we had to call the police. It took them about 10 minutes, but they finally got the door unlocked with a slim jim. So I (being the good, concerned parent that I am) documented the experience by taking pictures the whole time. :)

Because we live in the south,

and it's like a right of passage here to get a tire swing. So after a fun day at the zoo with the Nelsons, Matt went and got not just one.....but two tires. (Apparently one tire swing will cause fights among the kids when they come over to play, so two should help with that problem). Anyways, Matt and our friend Josh hung the tires this afternoon and Hallie LOVES them. They are so fun. Isn't Matt such a great Dad.

Poor little ears

So after 2 and a half years of ear infection after ear infection we finally got a referral to the Ears, Nose, and Throat specialist. Here's a little side story:
So our appointment to see the Dr. was at 2:30, by the time 4:00 rolled around and we were STILL waiting to be seen all of my mommy politeness went out the window. I sat back, folded my arms, crossed my legs and let Hallie go to town destroying their office. I have never done anything like that before. I was so furious though! I went and asked a nurse if it was normal to wait for two hours to see a doctor, she cocked her head to the side, glared at me, and said "yep". So I simply replied "You know (really incredibly rude nurse who I would like to punch in the face right now), if you had scheduled my appointment for 4:00 we would only be running a half hour behind right now instead of two hours!" Anyways, another father who had been waiting as long as I had and myself decided to let our kids trash their office and harass other waiting patients in hope they would try to get us back there sooner. It didn't get us seen any faster, but it sure made me feel a little better.

Back to the point of the post:
The Dr. told us (after doing a hearing and pressure test) that Hallie has substantial hearing loss and a lot of "glue" built up behind both of her ears. He called it "glue ear". He said it's not fluid, but has been back there so long that it's more like the consistency of glue. Nice. He also said that she should have had tubes put in years ago. Thanks a bunch all of you past pediatricians who have done NOTHING. Sorry if this post sounds a little angry. Anyways, they are going to call me to schedule her surgery "some time in the next two weeks". However, they went on to tell me as they handed me a business card "if you don't hear from us in the next two weeks, call us". Aka- we are a sucky dr's office and sometimes forget to call people to schedule their surgeries thus causing them to suffer more hearing loss every day. UGH!
So now here I sit eating a container of cookie dough that I saved from making cookies last night because I knew I would need to do some comfort eating while I wrote this post.

It's like he's trying to tell me something...

Occasionally Matt likes to communicate with me without having to use words. :) For example, take a look at the picture above. What would all of these half dranken bottles of water sitting right in the entry way of your house tell you? I took a few meanings from Matt's little display. They are as follows:
1) Honey, please finish drinking each of these bottles of water BEFORE you open a new one.
2)Sara, please throw away your bottles of water when you feel you have reached a stopping point.
3) DO NOT HAVE ANY LIQUIDS NEAR MY COMPUTER.
4) I love you so much honey and I find all of your strange little vices (like drinking ridiculous amounts of bottled water but never finishing the last one you opened then leaving the half full bottles all over the house) endearing and cute even. I think you're the most wonderful wife ever and really really really ridiculously good looking.

I like to think he was trying to convey to me option number 4. As a matter of fact, I know he was. :)

Two little monkeys

How cute are these two! I just needed to take a minute to count my blessings. I have SO many. Two of which are featured above. :) I have such a good life, and I am so very grateful. Matt is such a great husband, always encouraging me to do better and be better while always making me feel like I'm perfect the way I am. It can't be easy to accomplish those two things at once. He's so smart, such a hard worker, an amazing Dad, an honorable priesthood holder. He keeps our little family happy, safe, and entertained on all his little adventures he likes to take us on. Hallie is ridiculously smart (too smart for her own good), such a sweet big sister, so cute when she's walking around our house in her "big girl panties" with her little buns jiggling, and so happy all the time (almost). Every morning when she wakes up she goes straight to Chase and says "Good morning cute baby!" and he gives her the biggest grin he can muster up and usually a pretty good belly laugh. She's so busy and such a good little helper. Anything I'm doing she wants to help me with and I love getting to teach her about all the things I do (cooking, cleaning, doing laundry). I just couldn't have put together in my mind a more fun two year old (usually). She's perfect. Speaking of perfect, did I mention Chase? He is the sweetest, happiest little monkey. He brightens my day. My favorite part of every morning is when I get to go and get him out of bed (where he lays happily talking to himself until one of us comes to get him) and he greets me with his huge, light up my whole life, smile. He just figured out that if he just keeps rolling he can get some pretty good distance and grab things that are really far away. I'm so happy to be me and have the life I have. I love you Matt, Hallie and Chase!