My love story.. ok not really.

You know.. I'm new to the whole blog community, just started this one so that I could have a journal for the kids to look at some day and see how their lives were when they were young. Anyhow.. I was supposed to post my story HERE instead of in the comment of another blog.. yikes.. I'm learning. :) I decided that instead of posting the story of how we met, I instead want to post something for my husband. (Although he seldom reads this himself.. hehe.. its the thought). If you are interested in how we met, look in the comments of Mrs Hub ;)
Here it goes:

50 Reasons My Life Is Worth Living
1.I get kisses every morning, night, and in between.
2.I have a man who still gives me butterflies when he looks at me.
3.I have a wonderful man that loves me!
4.I have a manly man.
5.I have a man who works long unforgiving hours so that I can stay home and raise our kids.
6.I have a man who I can make laugh.
7.I have a man who makes me laugh.
8.I love my man's laugh.
9.I have a man who takes pride in his work and accomplishments.
10.I have a man I can be proud of.
11.I have a man who helps keep me sane.
12.I have a man to get through the hard times with.
13.I have a man to share the great times with.
14.I have a man whose hug can make me relax no matter how wound up I am.
15.I have a man who puts up with my crazy family.
16.I have a man who is not afraid to say what he thinks.
17.I have a man who is wise.
18.I have a man who respects me.
19.I have a man I deeply respect.
20.My man and I have the same goals.
21.I have a man who supports our family.
22.I have a man who is an incredible father.
23.I have a man who appreciates me.
24.I have a man who I appreciate.
25.I have a man I can trust.
26.I have a man who trusts me.
27.I have a man who holds my hand when we walk together.
28.I have a man who lets me lean on him (figuratively and literally).
29.I have a man who I feel completely safe with.
30.I have a man who is my best friend.
31.I have a man who loves to make me happy.
32.I have a handsome man.
33.I have a man who buys me chocolate once a month to put next to the chamomille tea he brews for me.
34.I have a man who, with the proper tools, can fix anything.
35.I have a man who loves his kids.
36.I have a man who shares my morals.
37.I have a man who is committed completely.
38.My man is good to his friends.
39.My man is willing to serve others.
40.I have a man to cuddle with.
41.I have a man with beautiful blue eyes and soft lips.
42.My man knows me better than anybody else and still loves me.
43.I have a man who is amused by the stupid things I do.
44.I have a man who is patient with me.
45.I have a smart man.
46.My man has great taste in music, books, and movies.
47.I have a man I can communicate well with.
48.I have a man who awes me with the way he can take control of any situation.
49.My wonderful man finds me wonderful.
50.I cannot wait to grow old with my amazing man!

The best birthday EVER!

Seriously.. wow. Who would have thought 28 would be the best?? First off, I already told you of Dr. Laura -- seeing her in person was unforgettable. The icing in the cake? My very first mp3 player.. as if this wasn't enough, my in-laws gave me a portable GPS!! It is a Garmin Street Pilot C330 -- aka: Lifesaver. I am always getting lost. Seriously, I hate driving out of town because my sense of direction.. not so good. Now I have this groovy device that talks me through every turn. No more stress driving, no more getting lost in Portland!! :) Just.. the best. I thought this was it for my surprises.. nope. All of this took place before my actal b-day, so I was expecting.. well, nothing. My first surprise was a call from an old friend asking me out to breakfast -- FUN! So we all packed into the mighty van and let my new GPS tell us where to go to eat. Turns out it thought Ihop would be a good place.. ok really I picked, but it gave me a list to chose from. I just love that little thing. After breakfast I arrive home to a beautiful vase of flowers -- 6 white and 6 red carnations.. I love carnations.. perfect for the family on a tight budget -- they smell terrific and last forever. Anyways, in my card was a note from hubby saying we had reservations at Alassandro's and that my folks were watching the kids -- WOW! I instantly panick because I have nothing to wear!! No problem, called a friend (my fashion adviser) and went to my favorite consignment shop. Found a fabulous little black dress and felt much better about the night. Went to the restaurant where we enjoyed the most fabulous dinner and live music. I ordered the chef's surprise.. basically had a 5 course meal (cold appetizer, hot appetizer, salad, main course, dessert) and a different wine to go with each course that the chef picked to compliment the food. That was interesting. I haven't had that much to drink .. ummm.. for at least 4 years? It only equalled about 3 glasses all together, but boy was I feeling it!! It was so fun being surprised each course!! Just.. fun. I loved dressing up and being with MAtt. I could go on and on about the night.. but I'll just leave it at this -- perfect.

Ok ok enough of me.. on to other news. I found this princess bike at a consignment store for $7!! Alissa was in heaven!! This is her first ride.

And here she is harrassing the poor dog. :) Zena loves her.

Finally.. why is it that when you have more then one child -- it becomes next to impossible to get them to both look at the camera at the same time? It just doesn't happen. Ok, that's not true.. but it doesn't happen when you REALLY REALLY want the perfect shot.. and they happen to be matching dinosaur pj's.. sigh.. maybe next time? ?

It is almost Valentines Day!! Tomorrow is "Daddy Day" at Alissa's school. She is sooo excited!! I'm glad Matt has Thursday's off.. You know, I don't think I posted this.. the other day we were in the car with Bethany and she asked Alissa who her favorite Super Hero was.. know what she said? My Daddy. How cool is it to have a daddy who "gets the bad guys" just like Spiderman?? Her own personal super hero. Life is good.

By the way.. still no spell checker.. you will have to bear with me ;)

Monster trucks and MP3's.. woohoo

Jonathan is really starting to talk.. here he is after his nap -- like the bed head? Hehe..

I have lost count of how many verbal words and signs he has.. but a rough estimate is 30+words and 100+signs. He is a frantic communicater. He is very intense when he is trying to get his point across. He also loves to flirt with everyone, loves getting attention from strangers.. he waves and says, "HI!" and blows kisses to people. It is really funny. He is not shy at all.

So, yesterday night Matt took Alissa to the Moster Truck show in Portland. She thought it was awesome!! It was very cute because they went with a friend of Matt's and his 5 year old son. The little boy was named Kyle. When Kyle's dad told him they were going with a little girl he said, "A GIRL?! Girls don't like cars!!" Hahaha.. THIS girl does!! By the time they hung out for a few minutes at our house they were buddies. They played out front with Zena and had a good time.. ended up catching bugs together.. Ali found a lady bug for her bug jar.. that's the only bug mommy likes!! Hehe. .

While they were in Portland Jonathan and I went out with Grandma Adams to dinner at Applebee's yuuummm (the Cowboy burger is to die for!) and then we went to Best Buy for part 2 of my b-day present-- my very first mp3 player.. I am so addicted!! I am listening to Dr Laura on it right now. I got the Sansa Clip, it holds 500 songs. It is a cute pink one with pink marshmellow earplugs. I had no idea how neat these little things were. :)

Tonight we are going to my in-laws house for a birthday dinner. Tacos!! My mother-in-law makes the best tacos. :) I can't wait!! I should mention my dad took me and the kids out for breakfast this morning at Shari's -- awesome. And the best part -- he bought me a birthday "cake" -- marionberry pie!! So much for the old diet.. oh well. I only have 5 pounds to go, might as well indulge.

The kids got a package from GG for valentines day. Here is a video of the aftermath.. stuff all over the living room!! This one is for GG:

Jonathan is a big fan of the peek-a-boo books. :)

I still have this stinking cold, it is a stubborn one. It is all in my chest, grr. Oh well.. the kids are healthy and as long as they dodge it I am happy. I would be sick a thousand times if I could keep them from ever being sick. Nothing worse then a sick kid, its so hard when there is nothing you can do for them :(. Anyhow.. I better get going, Jonathan is asleep and Alissa is playing with Papa. I'm off.. .

My Uncle Karl

Just had to share! :)

It's a bird..it's a plane. .it's a virus?

You know... I was just looking back at my pictures and realized I have no pics of me and both kids.. I will have to remedy that soon! I love Alissa's eyes in the above picture -- that famous soulful look of hers.
So I am kind of bummed.. next week is my birthday and I feel a winter cold coming on today -- grrrr.. I hope I can fight this one off. Lots of vitamin C and I bought some delicious echinachia tea. I am more worried about getting the kids sick -- it is going to be a busy week next week for Alissa!! She starts swim classes and has "Daddy Day" at preschool that she is really looking forward too!! Yikes.. We paid our dues last winter -- hopefully we have some immunity to everything by this time. We will see.
And just for fun.. here is Jonathan being a goof. I will have to dig up the famous Ali picture where she is wearing glasses about this age and post them side by side!! (Hint hint Mom!! I need that pic!)

Superbowl Sunday

Things were pretty quiet today on this Superbowl Sunday. This morning we went to a friends house to pick up some items to send to Iraq.. then off to Safeway for dinner items. My dad came over for the bog game and treated us to some ribeye steaks -- yumm!! We had steak, green bean casserole, and baked potato covered with cheese. For dessert Alissa and I made chocolate chip cookies. Life is good. I was cheering New York so was very happy they won!! Always have to go with the underdog.

Alissa came up with something clever today.. to understand I need to back up a bit to our morning -- Alissa started the day with a powdered donut (and then we threw in some oatmeal and fruit, don't worry I don't put her into a sugar coma right away). So the afternoon rolls around and I forget what happened but she started pouting. I said, "Alissa, why are you pouting?" You know what she said? Without a pause she says, "Because you fed (ok, she really said feeded) me powdered donuts." Took me a second.. oh yes.. powder/pouter.. ook.. I was impressed.. teehee.

I was going to post some pictures, but that feature is not working at the moment -- humbug. Oh well.. here is a video instead -- this was Alissa right before leaving for her first day of school. She was admiring herself in the mirror.

You'll have to ignore the finger at the end.. lol

Finally some good snow..

I forgot to post these.. last week we got some awesome snow!! Above is Alissa's first snowman! She named him Frosty, go figure.

The kids had a blast!! Here is my favorite video of the day. Jonathan's new favorite word -- SNOW!! All day he would grab his boots and run to the door screaming, "SNOW" it was too cute. He absolutely LOVED playing in the snow.

I never did post about Alissa's school experience. She had a great time and was all smiles. I was glad Matt had the day off so he could come with us to drop her off and meet the teacher. He was impressed with the school. While Alissa enjoyed her first day of school we went and got our taxes done -- YEAH US. Hehe.. anyhow.. when we picked up Alissa she had just finished show and tell. I asked the teacher how she did and she told me that a few times she seemed a bit lost because she didn't know the routine yet, but she did just great. Mrs. Kruse (the teacher) said it was so cute because as soon as we left Alissa approached her all serious and said, "Would you like me to teacher you sign language?" LOL.. that's my girl!! Teaching the teacher on her first day. Too good. When we got home from school she was wiped out.. went right to her room and snoozed for 2 hours. We are normally late risers, so I think getting up early plus all the excitement of school wiped her out. She still naps occasionally but she can do without.

Tonight sometyhing strange and wonderful happened -- both kids were in bed and asleep by 8:30, my house is clean, and I have nothing to do. Wow. Let me just soak this up a minute. :) Poor Matt had been at work since 6 am and won't get off until 11pm.. brutal. He does the same thing tomorrow. I really don't know how he does it. It's funny I was warned many times that it was hard being a law enforcement family and there were long hours, blahblahblah.. and you know what? They were right.. it sucks sometimes.. but really he is so good at what he does I am glad he found a career that is a good match.

ps.. spell checker isn't working and I don't have the energy to reread this to see if I goofed.. so sorry ;)