Teenage MoMo?

My little Mattie thinks that she is so much older than she really is! I don't know if its first child syndrome or what, but she loves to play with older children. I guess most of the kids she does play with are older than she is! Anyway, the other night I went to an Enrichment Activity, and since Matt was away on a trip, I got Alexis Jarvis and Rachel Berger to come over and watch Mattie. Mattie was very excited to have them over to play with her. She immediately took them into her room to show them her stuff. They got right down on the floor and started playing with her. I was finishing up getting my things together and I could hear them listening to the radio. Lexy asked Mattie if she liked the song that was on, and Mattie told her that she did, and then started singing. The song was "Clumsy" by Fergie, and of course Mattie didn't know the words, she just makes them up! I peaked in on them and Mattie was laying on the floor coloring with her feet in the air. I thought that it was so sweet. She's just one of big girls. Its times like these, that I really wish we lived closer to her girl cousins in San Diego or Boston (not to say that her boy cousins aren't fun!) Or better yet, she just needs a sibling to play with.

Menzie Easter Weekend

Our fun weekend started out with an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning. Growing up, every year we would go to our very close friend's house, the Berger's, and have an Easter egg hunt with their children. Even though we're all grown up now, they continue to have it each year for their grandchildren. I've known this family my whole life, we're practically related, so of course we get invited each year.

The festivities start out with dyeing eggs, and then the children go to the front yard and play games, while the adults hide the candy filled eggs and some of the dyed ones too. Along with the candy filled eggs, there is always a golden egg with money in it. Last year Mattie found it, with some help from Mommy (I wasn't cheating though, because I didn't know where it was)! This year there were two golden eggs, one for the older kids and one for the littler kids. Mattie loved hunting for candy filled eggs, but didn't really care for the real eggs. She actually picked up one of the real ones and realized that it didn't have candy in it, so she put it back on the ground! This year the golden egg for the older children was hid in the deep end of the pool, idea courtesy of my sister Stephanie and my good friend Alex. Of course they got permission from their parents first, and then it was pretty funny to watch the kids jump into the cold pool for that money egg! Well, actually only Spencer and Adam jumped in, and Spencer prevailed.

After the children finished hunting the eggs, we had a lunch of egg salad sandwiches, carrot sticks and potato chips. This is also a tradition! When we had just about finished eating, Kathy Berger came out to the patio to let all of the adults know that she had hid a golden egg for us in the front yard, and that it had $50 in it! We all went running and started searching like crazy. She told us that she had out done herself this year, so we knew that it was going to be difficult. After searching for what seemed like forever, Andrea found the egg, even though she's only 13 years old, and wasn't suppose to be looking. Kathy had taken leaves from a tree and taped them around the egg, and then nestled the leaf-egg back into the tree. Matt searched that tree like four times and never saw it. Andrea gave the money back to her Grandma, deciding to use it to buy a ham for Sunday dinner, to go along with the turkey we would be having. It was pretty funny, but also a little disappointing. I wanted that egg so bad, that I was digging in the ground and actually got a couple of slivers from the mulch and such!

Sunday morning we woke up earlier than normal to attend a baptism held before church. We have 9 o'clock church, so the baptism was at 8 am. I took the time to curl Mattie's hair, and then Matt got her dressed into her Easter dress. I was finishing up getting ready, so I asked him if he would take a couple of pictures of Mattie, before she could do the 2 year old thing by getting messed up! Next thing I know they are coming in from outside and her curls are just about completely flat. Now we all know that FL is a humid place, but put rain on top of that... those curls never stood a chance. I honestly don't know why I even bother! Of course there was no time to fix her hair, so she went to church in her pretty dress looking all ragged. Oh well. It was a very nice sacrament meeting. I even got Matt to sing in the choir with me, since he's been home the past two Sundays! By the time church was over the weather had cleared up. We didn't have time for family pictures before church, so I made sure to fix Mattie's hair before taking pictures in the afternoon.

I just want to finish this post by saying how grateful I am that I have a Savior who gave His life for me, and for all of Heavenly Father's children. I'm grateful that I have Easter time to reflect on the importance of the atonement, and the life of Jesus Christ. He gave His life for us all, but more importantly, He lives. This weekend truly was a special one for our family.

Four years and going strong!

Four years ago yesterday, Matthew and I were married in the Orlando Temple. For the last couple of years we have tried to make it to the temple on our anniversary to celebrate. We were able to do that again this year. The morning started out super rainy, but it turned into a beautiful day. Matt got done with a trip at about 10am, so I met him at the airport, and we headed off to the temple. We made a quick stop at Panera on the way, for a little breakfast. We did a session at the temple and then did a couple of sealings too. It was fun to be in a sealing room, at the temple we were married in, on our anniversary. Sometimes it feels like it was only yesterday that we got married, and then there are other times that it feels like we've been together for eternity already!

After we finished up at the temple, we headed off for a late lunch. We decided on P.F. Chang's at the Mall at Millenia. We don't have one in Palm Bay, and after having lunch there with Matt's dad last December, I was allover wanting to go again. It was yummy I had the lettuce wraps and Matt had this amazing wild salmon dish. It was beautiful yesterday afternoon, so we ate outside on the patio. It was a great lunch.

We went into the mall after lunch, and Matt, who never lets me get him gifts, actually let me get him a new headset for work. His old headset only works in one ear and in the cockpit of his plane, it is really, really loud. We walked around and I saw a Jimmy Choo store, and since it was my anniversary too, I thought that it would be a blast to try on $700 shoes!

They were beautiful and amazing, but obviously I could never pay that much for shoes. Matt did think it was funny to try and talk me into a pair of $400 black flats, just to see how I would

get myself out of it in front of the salesman. This salesman was so nice and just kept bringing shoes out to me, even though I had only wanted to try on this one pair of magenta platforms. When we left the store, I asked Matt what he would have done if I had taken him up on his offer to get the flats?! He said he probably would have passed out.

After, going to a couple of more stores and enjoying our day minus Mattie, we went over to the Cheesecake Factory for a little dessert. We shared a piece of chocolate tuxedo cream cheesecake. It was heavenly. It was the perfect ending to a great anniversary.



I love Matthew so much, and I'm grateful to have him as my eternal companion. I'm so blessed that he is such a loving and compassionate husband to me, and a terrific father to Mattie. I love our little family so much. Now, if only we could just add to it...

Deseret Ranch Rodeo

For those of you who don't know, the LDS church owns a large cattle ranch here in FL. The chunk of land is huge and contains not only cattle, but many citrus groves as well. This piece of land happens to be in our stake boundaries, and every year when I was growing up they would have a rodeo as a fund raiser. As I got older they stopped having them. Well a couple of years ago, they decided to start them up again. We always have a lot of fun eating barbecue and watching the rodeo events. Two years ago Mark, Tallie and Luke came to the rodeo with us.

This year some friends of ours, Jody and Dieter Weiss, were in town visiting my sister Stephanie and her husband Greg. They all came over to enjoy the evening with us. Matt's favorite part of the night is when they let the children go down to the arena and chase baby pigs! Last time Matthew did this with Mattie she was only 6 months old.

Needless to say, it was a little different this time for her.

Matt seems to understand the way those little piggies think, because both times he has done this, he goes to the same spot on the outskirts of the arena, and sure enough all of those pigs run right over to where he is standing! He puts one hand down, grabs hold of that little pig, and then proceeds to put our daughter on top it! It was crazy, but everyone watching thought it was hilarious.



Last summer when we were in Utah visiting Matt's mom (MoMo's Ama), she arranged for the kids to go horseback riding. Mattie took to that horse like a little pro, and ever since when she sees a horse she wants to ride it. Seriously, I had talked to her about chasing a pig so that she would be excited, and when we got there and she saw those horses, it was like the pigs didn't matter. All she wanted to do was get on a horse. We found a very sweet girl who was more than happy to accommodate Mattie's wish.


All in all, it was a great night with family and friends.

Fun with Daddy in North Carolina

Matt has been flying a lot lately, which means us not seeing him very much. This past week after being gone on a four day trip, then home one day and then leaving again on another four day trip, Mattie and I decided since he couldn't come home to us, we would have to go to him! He had an extended lay-over in Charlotte, NC. We flew up on Wednesday night and spent all day Thursday hanging out with him. We were going to rent a car, but the prices were a little outrageous because of the basketball tournament going on. Instead we just did the taxi/bus thing and went to the mall. We walked around the mall for awhile and then got lunch. It was getting close to Mattie's nap time and she was acting very tired, so we decided to walk down the block to go check out a movie. It was beautiful outside and along the way we saw some wonderful trees with white blossoms on them. It looked like "popcorn popping" on those trees, and since that is Miss Mattie's favorite song, of course we had to sing it as we walked down the street! The movie was a little lame and Mattie actually stayed awake to watch the whole thing. After a few more adventures we finally ended back at the hotel for the night. The next morning we accompanied Matt to the airport, us heading home to FL, him heading off to Cincinnati. Even though his day was filled with the typical delays, he made it home just in time for the Deseret Ranch Rodeo (stay tuned for that post, possibly tomorrow).

Matt's first post

Really, this is just messing around.
After our ward Easter primary activity yesterday, a few of the fathers started showing off their mad skills. I didn't even dare try cause I would look like a goof.
I grabbed the camera and started shooting.
I have been wanting to make a video montage of MoMo so I used these video clips for practice. Kind of weak on my part in terms of editing.
BTW, yesterday was 89°, tied for the record.

My sweet Mattiekins

My little girl is 2 and a half years old, and she is a riot! This age is filled with "cute moments." Let me share a few with you. I'll start with the name Mattiekins. Usually when we ask her what her name is she tells us, "MoMo", and then we ask her to tell us her real name and she'll say, "Mattie". So, a couple of weeks ago Matt asked her what her name was and she said, "Mattiekins". He was shocked and asked me if I had been calling her that. I told him no, and that I had never heard her say that before. The reason for our shock was, the only person that has ever called her that was my grandmother, and she passed away when Mattie was about 13 months old! We have no clue how she even knows that was a nickname, but she continues to call herself that when asked what her name is.

Another "cute moment" happened a couple of weeks ago while Matt was away on a trip. I was cleaning my room, and I saw Mattie go to the other side of my bed by the plug outlet. I told her that she better not be playing with the outlet, and she responded, "I know this Mommy." A couple of minutes later I looked over the bed and saw her trying to play with the plugs, so I told her to come to me. I knelt down in front of her and started to scold her and tell her how dangerous it was to play with the outlets. And, right in the middle of my scolding she leaned in, put both hands on my face and gave me an "Eskimo kiss"! Of course I couldn't stay mad after that. But, the funniest part about this whole thing, was that her dad did a very similar thing to his mom when he was the exact same age. Matt got in trouble for something, and as his mom was scolding him on her knees, he leaned in and kissed her on the nose! I guess Mattie gets more than just her looks from Matt. Like father, like daughter!

And finally the most recent "cute moment" happened today. As I was getting ready for the day I could hear Mattie in her room talking to her toys. I peeked in on her and sure enough she had them lined up and was talking to them, putting them to bed, etc. Then a couple of minutes later she came into the bathroom and asked me to help her count. I thought this was a little strange, because she can already count to 20 basically on her own. But, I began helping her count. She got to 10, and said, "Ready or not, here I come." Since she and I were the only two home I was wondering who she was playing hide and seek with. I followed her into her room, and she began looking around for someone/something. She opened her closet and said, "I found you", to one of her dolls. The whole thing was so sweet, and at the same time made me want to cry a little. She really needs a sibling to play with!

I really love, love, love my sweet Mattiekins!

Finally we have arrived!

So, after months of wanting to start a blog for our little family, finally we have one! My amazing sister-in-law Shayla designed our blog and I so appreciate it! Of course Matt fought me for quite a while on the idea of having a blog. He hates doing anything "trendy"! He actually wanted to name our blog "the Bandwagon Menzies"! I quickly vetoed that one! Instead we came up with "Menzie World", because it sounds like Disney World. And, for everyone who knows us really well, they know that we live there! Seriously, we have annual passes, and sometimes we do feel like it is our second home! And for any of you wondering, yes Matt did shave his head, but that's another story for another time. I'm just glad that his hair has grown back! So, here we are with our blog.

I guess I should catch everyone up to speed on our family. Matthew and I have been married for almost four years now. We met while Matt was attending flight school in Florida. After he finished we moved to Salt Lake City, UT where we both worked and awaited the arrival of our daughter Mattie. Our little MoMo was born in Sept. of 2005, thus making her 2 and a half years old. Shortly after Mattie arrived we moved back to FL. I missed my mom, and the beautiful, warm weather. Yeah, I'm so not a fan of the long, cold winters in Utah!

Anyway, so here we are still living in Florida. Matt works out of the Orlando Airport flying for Freedom Air, the 50-seat regional jets for Delta Connection. He has loved living out his dream of flying! I'm grateful that he has a career that he enjoys so much, even if it means I play single mom for days at a time. Mattie and I spend our days going to the gym, playing with friends and watching Dora the Explorer. Yes, she is a HUGE Dora fan! Mattie will be starting up swim lessons again in a month, and she is very excited about it. Here we have to teach them young!

Well, I guess that's about it for my first post. I'm way excited to finally be part of the blogging world! Cheers!