McIntire Madness: 2009

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Christmas Day

Everyone got what they wanted this year...

Matt got p90x!

Ethan got the McQueen track.

Cole got his Batman truck.

Such happiness.

The spread before the onslaught.

Seattle at Christmas

One thing we have never done while living here is visit Seattle during Christmastime. Even though it was raining on and off we went out and had a great time!

We saw the trains at Seattle Center, ate dinner and rode the Monorail to the carousal.

Ethan stuck his head in the fence waiting for the ride!

Then we saw the gingerbread houses.

The theme this year was Christmas movies. I kind of thought the leg was funny from "A Christmas Story".....

Every year we make a gingerbread house. Since Cole was two this has been his favorite activity of the season. We had our friends the Larson's over and they joined in the fun. Of course the candy kept disappearing and Cole claims it fell off!

As we don't have family in Washington we always invite ourselves to Shelley's family Christmas party. There was lots of good food, fun a gift exchange and they even got Cole to participate in the reindeer song!

Ethan didn't want to play in the reindeer games!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Merry Christmas 2009!

Seattle Times!

You're Invited! We have lived in Seattle for a little over 4 years now. Seattle has been good to us. We are accustomed to doing everything in the rain. We have great friends, have had many good times and have entertained a few visitors. This year was no exception. My parents came for a visit, Matt's mom, my sister, her kids and then my nephew. We are experts at taking people around to all the sights and you are all welcome to participate. The accommodations aren't very large and matter of fact it takes quite a bit of planning to coordinate the single bathroom. However, we promise good times will be had by all and most likely a little rain.

This year Matt and I got to spend 10 days in Spain visiting my old Madrid mission areas and hitting a few new places such as Granada and Barcelona. It was a magical and exhausting trip that we thoroughly enjoyed. I was able to see mission companions, friends and people I met while serving there. The boys stayed home with Grandma and had a great time showing her the ropes. I still hear Cole say "Well, Grandma let us!"

As a family we did our annual visit to Utah in August. We had our first ER visit while there and had to fly Dad back to get us all home safely.

Matt's year has been consumed by first studying for the GMAT, taking the GMAT, applying for MBA school and getting accepted to the University of Washington full-time MBA evening program and then starting school. We hope that once it is over we will be reacquainted with him. Fortunately, before he started we were able to spend some time together in Spain. I think Matt finally gained an appreciation for my accent when he was regularly asked to repeat himself in Spanish. Matt hit a milestone and turned 30 this year. He enjoys his work at Microsoft in Xbox and still tries to get out and play basketball, football, golf or any other sport as much as he can. He is relieved to now have an excuse to no longer remodel as he has run out of time. The boys love having someone to wrestle with and enjoy Daddy time.

This year for me has been very physical. I started it out with a complete yard remodel (thanks to my cousin Shayne's help) which included cutting out about 2500 square feet of grass by hand. Then I planted and spread many yards of bark. It looks great and the hard work has paid off. It assisted in my training for a sprint and olympic triathlon and a half and full marathon that I participated in this year. I had been heard to say I would never run a marathon but am glad I did and can't wait to do it again. My days are spent playing with the boys who don't understand what it means to be gentle, soft or quiet! I am trying to accustom myself to this level of rowdiness and being constantly surrounded by boys. I still write resumes on occasion and enjoy working when I get the chance. Going back to Spain was a real treat for me and I was happy I can still speak Spanish!

Cole started Five Bright Stars Preschool. He loves it and asks everyday if it is a school day. It is a coop that I participate in with a few friends. He also started taking a few classes. His favorite is gymnastics. He jumps, plays and gets out a lot of energy so I thoroughly enjoy it as well. Cole started out the year only wearing pajamas all day, but now will wear clothes particularly if they are batman shirts. He will also wear jeans to preschool (I told him it was a rule!) He is very kind to others and enjoys having Ethan to play with. In his spare time he loves to swim.

Ethan had a good year working on his physical and verbal skills. He can say "darn it" and "oh man" on any appropriate occasion, he can defy any adult in dressing him if he decides it isn't what he wants to do, and he is adamant about wearing Spiderman or Batman attire at all possible moments. He adores brother and copies everything he does. He was the reason for our first ER visit when he got his finger smashed in a door (Cole is claiming credit.) When I saw him I thought his finger was going to fall off, but no worries, it didn't and everything healed up nicely after spending a few weeks in a cast. He likes to stay close and is thrilled to have me be with him every Sunday as his teacher.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Baby Payton Faye

It has been a good year for the Wilson kids and babies. Payton Faye makes the 4th one for the year! Grand total is 18 kids and only 6 are girls but three of them arrived this year! Byron had another boy this year (that makes 3) but everyone else has managed to squeeze in a girl! Here's to hoping I might be able to break the strong boy gene eventually as well!

Born December 17th at 8lbs 9oz

Friday, December 11, 2009

Baby Ella Jane!

I got a call this morning at 4:30am from my sister Becky and she said "I had my baby!" Usually we call each other on our way to the hospital or whenever it is happening so when she said that I was quite surprised. Turns out she woke up at 2:00am really in labor! 1 hour and 50 minutes later she had her baby in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Her husband was four hours away doing business, but never imagined he would miss the birth. It makes for a crazy story. Everyone is okay and I can't wait to meet the baby in February!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

I try

I try to take my kids out to do fun things and sometimes it just doesn't quite work out...We went to see the lights with a few friends and at least one of the boys were crying at all times and at the end they both cried for the last 20 minutes. It was awesome. Matt had class so he didn't' get to enjoy the good times.

A few parties

We spent last Saturday attending two Christmas parties! We first went to Matt's work party and enjoyed balloon swords, good food and lots of treats.

Then we were off to the ward party. I helped out in the kitchen so I missed most of it, but the kids enjoyed a visit from Santa. Ethan is still a little hesitant about the big man in the red suit, but pulled it together enough to ask for his McQueen track.

Pure terror (I'm physically restraining him so he doesn't leave!

terror,

maybe he isn't so bad

Okay, we can chat now

Matt's feelings about the day

Finger painting and making cookies

I've always been a little resistant to messy activities but I am working on embracing them! The boys really enjoy painting and a little bath works wonders for clean up.

Waiting for the cookies to come out of the oven.

Who doesn't love a good beater?

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving this year we had dinner with the Elenbaas's at their house. It was nice to not have to cook and just enjoy the day. Matt got to be with us the entire day and we loved that.

The next day we immediatly put up our Christmas decorations! The boys LOVE it. Cole keeps taking things and putting them in his room. We have already lost quite a few ornaments. We are contantly talking about Santa, Jesus and of course what they want. Cole wants a Batman car with the cage on it and Ethan wants a McQueen track. As I have already finished Christmas shopping they will get what they ask for. I can't wait. Today Cole asked me if Santa knew everything he was doing and I said yes. I told him that is why he has to be good! Let's hope for the best. He told his little friend today that we need to do what is right to make Jesus and Santa happy. I'll take what I can get. We also told Ethan that if he doesn't stop hitting that Santa won't bring him what he wants. It seems to be working. We had an entire playgroup without incident!

Family Pictures

Thanks again to my friend Amy for more great pictures!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

MICE or rats, hopefully just mice

When you live in the northwest it is a very common problem to have mice and/or rats! We have seen ours and they are still pretty small so we think they are mice. However, they have been with us for far too long! Initially we thought we just had one that had set up camp in our garage. We killed it, cleaned out the garage and called it good. We saw more signs of poop so we set out a few more traps. So far we have killed 9 and have seen an entire box of decon disappear. Unfortunately, we still have MORE and it is a larger problem than we thought! They have set up camp in our attic which is totally annoying as now we might have to rip out our insulation. Anyway, we put about 10 boxes of decon up there and a few more traps. Matt will have to investigate again soon but hopefully we have finally got them!

Halloween Festivities

We started out the holiday with a party at our friends house. Unfortunately Matt wasn't able to join us as he was addressing our mice issue (it deserves its own post) and doing homework. The boys and I had a good time and we made these donut hole eyeballs to take for a treat!

On Thursday we carved pumpkins. The boys mostly liked to watch and I enjoyed cooking up the seeds afterwards.

We each carved one and then the boys decided they wanted to carve the itty bitty pumpkin that grew in our garden this summer! That was all we got and it was tiny, but the boys liked it. It has a sad face because they carved it for Grandma Mattie and as she isn't here they were sad.

Friday, we of course visited Matt at work because Microsoft sure knows how to throw a good Halloween party. There was lots of trick or treating, a Willy Wonka house and lots of things to do with the kids. We joined Matt for lunch and enjoyed spending the extra time with him.

On Saturday I took the boys to their gymnastics gym where they had a little Halloween party. It was great fun and FREE! The boys got to play at the gym for an hour and then got a little bag to take home filled with goodies. It was really fun.

That night we did our first official trick or treating. Both boys were dressed as Batman this year. That will be two years in a row for Cole. I say, why mess up a good thing! The boys had a great time. Ethan was a little slower so Cole did his best to help him and we had him skip a few houses in between. They loved the idea of knocking on doors and getting candy. Then we visited our friends and hit a halloween party. It was a great night.

The first quarantine of the year

Swing flu is buzzing around like crazy and it seems like everyone we know has it or just gotten over it. The fevers hit our house as well, but I don't know that it could have been swine flu as the kids weren't very sick! I hope it was and it just hit us lightly, but maybe we will have many more weeks indoors this winter as to the crazy cold/flu season. This sickness wasn't so bad this time because it is the first time I didn't get sick with the kids since being a mother. It meant however, that we had to get creative with activities.

Here is one such activity. Fill up the bathroom sink with water and play in it! Hey, they soaked the whole place so I just ended up cleaning it afterwards. Nothing like kids to motivate you to get some cleaning done.

Monday, October 26, 2009

A few other happenings

Matt and I have been able to go out on a few dates lately thanks to our new babysitting exchange! It is working out lovely. We got to see "Wicked" and "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream-coat." Both plays were great! Evenings out with the kids without them crying about it are fabulous and not having to pay a babysitter is even better.

I had a birthday shout hooray! It was an uneventful day as it was a Sunday but Matt took care of the kids and did all the cooking and cleaning. What more could I ask for? I even got my birthday wish from last year which was to eat all 3 meals sitting down! My friend Amy came through for Matt because he forgot about a cake! She whipped one up and we shared dessert with their family that evening. It was delicious. A couple of girlfriends and I went out to dinner and had a reflexology massage during the week. It was a very crazy experience. Sometimes it hurt like the dickens, but afterwards it just felt good!

Ethan's favorite phrase of the moment is "I do it myself" Yes folks, he is 2! We went and bought him a potty and he loves to go on it. Afterwards we can't get him to put back on his diaper but who doesn't love a little nakey time.

Cole can do many new things now because he is 4! That includes feeding himself dinner (yes, most kids can already do that, but food is still an issue), getting himself dressed and he can do flips on the tramp. Thank goodness he is so grown up.

We are surviving without Matt for the most part. The first couple of weeks were a little rough, but we are getting used to it. I find that Saturdays are the hardest but hey, we only have 1 year and 10 months to go. I will be earning an honorary MBA as I edit and help with assignments. Too bad I can't throw that on my resume.

Serpentarium

I have posted about this place before. We finally broke down and bought a yearly pass! It is a great rainy day visit and the boys love it. Cole even held the snake this time. We went out with a few friends and had a great time.

This snake jumped at the kids when they looked at him!

Babysitting

Many of you may remember that we used to own two cats named Max and Stella! Their new owners needed us to babysit for a little while. Cole LOVED it and the cats didn't as much! They spent most of their time on top of the kitchen cabinets (at least while Ethan was awake.) I had been thinking that I wanted to get a pet and I was reminded how much work they are!