Sea World for Mo's B-day

For Mattie's birthday we went to Sea World, and since her good friend Delainey also has a Sea World pass for the year, we brought her along to help celebrate!

It was a very hot, but fun day. The girls had a great time going through the new aquarium while Matt rode the new Manta ride.

Its a laying down roller coaster which is suppose to simulate you being a manta ray! Matt says its very fun, but I'll have to take his word for it, since I can no longer ride roller coasters without getting sick!

The kids played in the water park area, which Reddin quite enjoyed.

The girls also rode many of the rides in the kiddie area. I rode one of Mattie's favorites with her, the crab (drop down) ride!

Matt rode the Shamu roller coaster with the girls while I took a picture and hung out with Grandma and Reddin.

But I think the best part of the day for Mattie was riding the grown-up ride Journey to Atlantis! She has waited a LONG time to be tall enough to ride it, and boy was she excited. I thought maybe she would get scared of the big drop, but she LOVED it!

She was a little scared of the middle part of the ride, but the drops were her favorite part. She asked to ride it a couple of times, and since there was no wait, I rode it with her like 3 times in a row. On the last time going up the big climb for the big drop, she put her little arms up in the air! I was surprised, because I remember it taking me forever to get the courage to do that growing up. And she left those arms up in the air for the whole drop down! I think that she is going to be our little thrill seeker, like her daddy. And here's a cute picture of Reddin taken while Mo and I were riding Journey to Atlantis. Look at the sweet face!

We left Sea World and stopped at Chipotle for some dinner. Yum! I love their chicken tacos.

Overall it was a very fun day for Mattie and our family. Did I ever mention how much I love living in FL?! Its so fun to take advantage of all our FL resident discounts and to live close to so many fun things!

Mattie Turns 4 and Starts School

Back in Sept, Mattie Mack (I’ve been calling her that lately), had her birthday and turned 4 years old and started preschool all in the same week! She had been so excited to start school and I had been looking forward to that day for a while, but only because she is so social! Anyway, we didn’t throw her a big party this year, one because she will get a party when she turns 5 next year, and two we knew that she would be getting a small party on her first day of school... I did make a cake for her, which we ate for dessert at the Berger’s house after church.

The preschool that she is attending is at Palm Bay High School, and is taught by the high schoolers who are interested in becoming teachers. Of course there are adult teachers who help the teenagers and teach them what they should be doing. The program is a Pre-K one, and Mattie missed the cutoff for Pre-K by 9 days. They had not had enough 4 year olds enroll, so they decided to let some 3 year olds enroll as well. My wonderful friend Honor told me about it, and Mattie was lucky enough to get in. Honor’s daughter Delainey is also attending, and she and Mattie are practically joined at the hip! Mattie has really been enjoying her time in preschool, and it has been good for her to experience having playmates everyday. I think at times it was hard for her to be an only child for 3+ years. She is definitely making up for lost time! Anyways, she started school on September 8 and she turned 4 years old on the 9th. I had asked the teacher before the school year started if we could bring in cupcakes for Mo’s birthday, but another boy in the class had the same birthday and he was already going to be bringing in cupcakes on the 9th. She asked us if we could celebrate on the 8th instead, and that actually worked out great for us, since Matt would be heading back to work on the 9th. So, Mattie got to have a little birthday party for her first day of school! Matt and I came to school for the last 30 minutes of class and brought Disney Princess cupcakes for the girls and Disney Cars cupcakes for the boys, and Blowpops for the teenagers. Everyone sang to her and I’m pretty sure she enjoyed being the center of attention!

We also celebrated her birthday on the 8th as a family. Mattie got an art easel from us with some art supplies, a video game for her computer from Grandma, a wooden doll set that where you can change their clothes from Ama, a Snow White doll from Aunt Stephy and Uncle Greg, a Target gift card from Tia America and Uncle Chris, and the Tag Reader system from the Ahmeds. For not having an official birthday party, Mattie sure made out well in the present department

We love our Mattie Momo so much and are so grateful that she is part of our family. She is such a sweet and thoughtful little girl. She truly loves her family, especially her baby brother Reddin. I am touched by the love she shows him each day, and the tender way she cares for him. I can’t even begin to express how much I love that girl! Thanks for choosing us Mattie, we love you!

Vineyard Photo Shoot-August 2009

So here are some of the photos that my amazing sister-in-law Emily took of Mattie and Reddin at that vineyard in California back in August. Once again Emily you are FABULOUS and we love you so much!

Ending of my Blogging Strike

Ok so really I wasn't on a blogging strike, I just haven't taken the time to blog! But now that I only have one child at home in the morning, I thought that I would try to catch up and get back into blogging. I'm not really sure where to even start and I feel a little overwhelmed by all that I want to put in here. So I think that I am going to copy my sister-in-law Shayla and do a "note-worthy" post!

I guess I'll start back in April, when I had the opportunity to fly out to UT for my great friend Amelia's baby shower. I took Reddin with my of course since he was only 4 months old at the time and nursing. Mattie stayed home and was watched by my mom and my sister Stephanie. A big thank you to them for doing that, since Matt was working. Reddin was fabulous for his first plane ride, and we had a super fun time in UT. We went for a long weekend and we were also able to see Brett, Emily and the boys. Emily did a super cute photo shoot of Reddin (which I will post in another posting). We were also able to visit with Ama and Kman and my brother Chris and Tia America. Reddin and I packed in quite a bit for such a quick little visit.

While I was in UT, Matt got his schedule for May and found out that he would have a week off at Mother's Day. After we were back home in FL, we decided we would fly back out to UT to spend Mother's Day his mom, and then head down to St George to spend some time with the Brett Menzie family. So that is what we did! In Mt Pleasant we took the kids to the park, enjoyed some yummy food made by Ama and had a fun Mother's Day with her and Kman. Kelly was very sweet to have ordered corsages for Teresa, Mattie and I. Momo especially loved wearing her flowers to church! That Sunday night we headed up to Utah county with Teresa and Kelly, because Kelly was to have a procedure for his back the following morning. We slept in their RV with them and Mattie thought it was so awesome. While Kelly was having his procedure we went up to Thanksgiving Point to play with the Paschals, our friends who had recently moved back to UT from FL. We went to Meadow Golds petting farm and the kids had a fun time riding the horses and playing. We caught Mattie and Taylor holding hands! Those 2 are so funny and cute. (We have been saying forever that they are betrothed, and if you ask Mattie who she wants to marry, she'll tell you Taylor!)

After staying with Teresa until Kelly was released from the hospital, we headed on down to St George, UT to visit with the Brett Menzie family. Emily picked us up from the airport and we went to a super cute little water park. Mattie, Jonas and Makia had a great time getting wet. The next day we all went to Zions National Park for a day of hiking. We had a great time seeing some wonderful scenery and getting a good workout, (Matt more than me, since he had Reddin in the Baby Bjorn and Mo on his back! I would be lying if I said that I was totally fine with that set up. I was very nervous at certain parts of the hike to the Emerald Pools. I kept thinking if Matt just slipped even a little, I would lose my whole family!) All in all our trip to UT was a very eventful and fun one!

"Noteworthy"

Mattie finished up gymnastics. She took her lessons in the spring with her friend Jake from church. She really enjoyed her time in gymnastics each week.

"Noteworthy"

Matt played on in a interfaith baseball team with our Stake. Sometimes he would miss games because he was gone working, but when he was in town to play we would go and watch him. My sister Steph and Lochlan would go too, because her husband Greg was on the team as well. At this particular game Matt had two homeruns and Mattie the Cheerleader was going crazy cheering! Great job we had a blast supporting you!

"Noteworthy"

I did not attend my 10 year high school reunion last October because I did not feel like spending $200 to go. I was quite bummed about not seeing some of my really good friends from high school, especially the 3 girls that had been my besties during high school. Well this summer we had the opprotunity to go to dinner when 2 of them came into town, (1 of them lives here in Palm Bay). Steph came along cause she was always with us and she of course has been my very best bestie my whole life! It was so fun seeing Lacey, Krista and Melissa, and I can't wait for our next little friend reunion!

"Noteworthy"

Matt got to go on his annual Lobster diving trip down to the Keys. He doesn't get to go and do guy things very often, so I am always supportive of him going down to the Keys each year. Plus, the spiny lobsters are SO yummy! This year he brought home 9 lobsters, that is the most he has ever brought back, the max is 12. I'm glad he had so much fun.

"Noteworthy"

I was able to attend Youth Conference this year with the young women of my ward. It was 3 days and 2 nights long, and was held at Stetson University. We stayed in dorms and I had a blast bonding even more with my girls. It was however hard to be away from Reddin for the first time! A HUGE thanks to my mom and sister for helping to take care of my kids, since Matt was actually in the Keys for the first part of Youth Conference.

"Noteworthy"

(This is another long one!) My nephew Brayden was turning 12 and more than half of Matt's family was going to be out in CA to help celebrate. Matt put in for a week of vacation and got it, so we were able to go out too! We took a direct flight out to LA and both kids were very good for the flight. We rented a car and met up with Matt's good friend from high school, Roger. He works for Matel and gave both kids a toy, which of course Mattie loved. He also took us to Pinkberry for some AMAZING frozen yogurt.

After leaving LA, we headed down to San Diego to meet up with Matt's family at the beach. Mattie was in heaven being surrounded by cousins and playing in the sand. Aunt Brooke was fabulous with the little kids and Mattie still talks about her! Reddin on the other hand was very tired from a VERY long day of travel. We headed back to Matt's sister's home to get some sleep. Mattie, Izzie and Lexie decided to be teenagers and pull an all nighter with their slumber party! Seriously Mattie got up and left FL and 4am (Eastern time), and was still up in CA past midnight (Western time)! I honestly don't know where she gets her energy!

The next day we went to a vineyard so my wonderfully talented sis-in-law Emily could take photos of Mattie and Reddin. I really wanted the photo shoot for Reddin because he was turning 8 months and we had gotten pictures taken of Mattie at 8 months. I will post those pictures in there own post because there are quite a few! Once again Emily did a FABULOUS job! Later that night all of the adults got to go on a group date for some sushi. It was so fun to get away without the kiddos and we were very grateful to Kenzie for taking such good care of Redd and for Bray for taking such good care of Mo.

On Sunday Brayden was recieving the Aaronic Preisthood and being ordainded a deacon. Matt's father drove down from UT for the special day and it was his first time meeting Reddin too. It was a good time seeing so much family!

We left that night with Teresa in her RV. We spent the night in the LA temple parking lot, and the next morning woke up and headed over to Tito Tacos. This is a favorite place of Matthew's, having grown up eating there quite a bit. He actually took me there one time before and I had not cared for it. But this time I really enjoyed it. The salsa and chips were especially my favorite!

After Titos we headed over to La Canada to pick up Kelly from his daughter Lori's house, or should I say mansion?! The house had an awesome theater and an amazing pool, which of course we had to take a dip in! Mattie had a wonderful time playing with all of the super fun girly things. We were going to leave that afternoon, but decided to spend the rest of the day and night there. A big thank you to Lori and Glen for putting us up for the night!

We took off the next morning and drove with Teresa and Kelly back to UT in their RV. Mattie and Reddin were really good for the long drive to Ama's house. We got to Teresa's house late that night and went straight to bed.

The next day Teresa drove us up to SLC to the Paschal's house. Once again we had a wonderful time playing with our friends. Mattie and Taylor were joined at the hip, and I had so much fun with Adrian. We stayed up late watching movies and eating junk, laughing and talking! Oh how I miss her!

Also while we were in SLC for that short time, we were able to get together with our friends Amelia and Phil and meet their brand new little guy Max. We met for a picnic in the park and it was so fun spending time with them. I am beyond excited that Amelia is a mommy, and her little man Max is just too cute! Congratulations again Phil and Amelia!

We flew home the next day and that was the end to our very full and eventful week of family vacation.

Well I'm going to call this post/book good for now. There are more recent things that I am going to blog on very soon, so stay tuned for more of what the FL Menzies have been up to! (It feels nice to belong to the world of blogging once more!!!)