Haircuts, Walking, Waving, and Movin' on up

Well, it's official. I am a hair cutting extraordinaire. By that, I mean, after not ever having a desire to learn to cut hair from my mom growing up and having visits from our moms timed JUST perfectly so I could escape hacking Matthew's hair, I finally did it! Granted, it took having Darla teach me 6 times how to cut it...... But, the day finally came.  I cut his hair on my very own.

 

In case there was any confusion, I am by no means an extraordinaire. However....I don't think it turned out half bad! It's kind of cheating when you have a husband with curly hair. Curly hair is a lot more forgiving than straight hair, I think. 

 Please, don't forget to enjoy the five o'clock blur in my 5 AM picture taking the morning after the cut. Oh, and the very aesthetically pleasing, EXTREMELY organized receipts hanging in the background.

Remember that one time--how our child is SO old?

 This particular trip to Walmart was a bit of a tired one. However, I needed to buy balloons for a church activity, which meant I opened the pack early and spent most of our shopping trip repeatedly blowing the balloon up for Anthon to immediately deflate--one of his very favorite things to do :) (he just squeezes it, as I leave it untied). 

Besides deflating the balloon and begging for me to re-inflate it, Anthon spent most of the shopping trip waving at passerbys, saying 'hi' as they approached, with a wave, and 'buh bye' as they walked away. I do all I can as a mother to make sure he is rewarded for these social efforts. haha, it KILLS me when he gets so excited to talk to someone and they either don't hear him or don't respond. 

 Two things are clear from these pictures...

1. We bought Anthon's first official pair of tennis shoes! (Yes, they're Spiderman shoes :) 

2. Just because he CAN walk everywhere, doesn't mean he always wants to. For the record, walking is much easier without shoes...

We realized Anthon has outgrown his infant carseat. . . . . 

WHAAAAT? 

Anywho, we ordered a bigger one that will convert to forward facing later. Matthew and Anthon had a blast breaking it in (i.e. rocking Anthon in the car seat and playing in it for like an hour), and then playing in/with the box for about an hour and a half the next day.

Homeboy is lookin' out. 

Anthon also graduated to 18 month clothing in the last few weeks. He still fits in 12 month pants and some 12 month tops, but he's definitely at an in between stage, where a lot of his 12 month clothes are too small. However, as evidenced in the next batch of pictures, he's not fully big enough for all of his 18 month clothes, either :) 

 

 Anthon loves when we clap for him. If he does something he thinks merits an applause, he lets us know by looking at us with the look below and slowly clapping until we join in.

Anthon LOVES his monkey. I didn't even realize he was attached to it; it had been in a bin in his room for about a month when I took it out. Since taking it out though--if it's visible, it goes everywhere with him 

His little hair flips just kill me.

As far as one of my new favorite things he does.... 

-Anthon now calls for 'mam' from his crib if he needs me. ha! So, the other night, I was gone and Matthew said he was just in his crib after bedtime saying, 'mam. Mom. Maaaaam.' repeatedly every few minutes. lol! 

He usually does this when he drops his bink, blankie, or stuffed animal outside of his crib. (Yes, most assuredly on accident ;)  

-If Matthew or I are coming or going, we hold Anthon up to our kitchen window to wave goodbye/hi to the one outside. He WHIPS his head toward the door, shaking his arms and legs, hurrying us to the front door--where we open it and either wave goodbye or await the person's arrival at the front door. 

-More with the waving. We roam the halls a lot at church. Often, Anthon sits down to take a break from walking or take a look at something on the floor. When he does this, he waves at anyone approaching. As they near the corner walking away, he says 'bye'.  

PAUSE in this posting for a real-life update. I just took a three hour break from this post because, as I was typing, I looked up to our front window to see my husband. . . . in the middle of the day. A little background for you... This morning, I received this text:

 I assumed (incorrectly), that this text message meant there was minimal damage done to the car and that it wasn't a very intense occurrence. I open the front door, hours later, (after seeing Matthew in the window), to this:

So....yeah. 

Apparently, after being hit, the deer wrapped around the side of Matthew's car, subsequently having her head crash through Matthew's driver side window. 

yeahhh....

What does Matthew do? Cleans up as much as possible, and continues on to work. 

Don't mind the fact that there's glass EVERYWHERE in his car, he no longer has a window, and that he might have glass in his eyeball.

Can you tell my husband loves his job? 

haha, after getting to work, relaying his story, recovering from the craziness, and putting in a few hours of work, Matthew decided to come home and take the rest of the day off.  

So....we spent the last few hours calling the mechanic, eye doctor, and looking up prices on replacement parts for our beloved car. 

Matthew is now at the ophthalmologist. Fingers crossed there's no damage to his eyes, as he's been experiencing some pain since the accident.. 

Thank goodness for guardian angels and thank goodness a few bandaids are all Matthew has to show (thus far) for the accident. 

Ummm...yes....so....

Back to the not so real time....
I typically hate taking crying pictures of Anthon. They break my heart. For my dear sweet mother-in-law, who loves them, I made a Santa Claus Christmas exception :)

Not going to lie, it still makes me sad to look at...

Matthew wins the good posture award for our family :) 

Tired eyes on the way home from Santa...

Christmas was magical here. Partly because Matthew did such an amazing job of decorating our apartment, partly because we found a magically free and magically beautiful tree on Craigslist, partly because it was warm enough to wear flip flops, and partly because our loved ones are far too generous in the gift-giving department. Also, partly (and mostly) because I have the best husband and baby in the world. 

A walk on Christmas Eve--free of jackets, real shoes, and hats. 

We were able to do some origami/DIY ornaments with some scrapbook paper a lady in my ward gave us. I loveeeeeee how they turned out!

We adopted/created a tradition of watching Rudolph Christmas day. Morning selfies are always extremely flattering. 

Well, if you're Anthon, you can actually remove the sarcasm from that statement...

Anthon with his spoils. Let it be known--only two of these gifts were from us. The rest is from the nice, kind people we call our family (and neighbors). 

And yet...there's something about a box (or two), and ropes, that still called to him Christmas day ;)

Post Christmas, the weather has gotten a little chillier. Thankfully, it's been sunny enough to psychologically convince me it's warm enough to go on a few walks. Anthon never complains :) 

 

...not because he can't actually verbally express that...but because he loves walks ;) 

Happy 2 year anniversary to us! December 28th marked 2 years of being married. Our anniversary included this beautiful bouquet of flowers, dinner as a family, lots of loveeeee and a few trips down memory lane, to boot :) 

I love this husband of mine. There's no one more goofy, selfless, and thoughtful than the guy I choose to spend eternity with. I've loved our two years together and am so excited for forever with our kiddo(s) :)

Anthon's excited face. 

I'm obsessed with it. 

It's usually accompanied by an 'ooooooo!'

A few pictures from Matthew's birthday festivities, which took place on the 7th.

We did Red Robin, (enjoying a free burger and hot fudge sundae) and I made my very first pecan pie! Matthew has never been a big cake person, so one of his family traditions is that he has a pecan pie instead of cake. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to make. Thanks for the recipe, Darla! :)

Dad playing entertainer. . .

Twinner outfits for Anthon and I, compliments of my parents and Kellie. 

LOVEEEE themmm!

 

As I mentioned, Anthon's obsession is balloons. We could spend all day long blowing them up and either letting them fly around or letting him squeeze the air out of them and it wouldn't be long enough :) 

I accidentally uploaded these videos along with my pictures...

Figured, well--I waited for them to upload, might as well let you watch them! haha. I love these two boys of mine! <3

Things, as you can see, are wonderful.
I love that our boy can now call for Mom and Dad individually, I love that he seems to love people as much as his parents do, and I love that it's been sunny here, even when cold.

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, and Happy Anniversary to all

or...us....

And to all a good night! :)