Soakin' in some Summetime Fun!!!

It is definately summertime here in Northern Alabama!!! It is hot!!! Too hot but we will take it over the snow of the winter! Matt absolutely loves to be outside. We don't get much time outside during the week after we get home from work/school but we do spend lots of time outside on the weekends. Poor little things sweats so bad but doesn't seem to bother him in the least. He loves to swing on his swings and would have us push him for hours at a time if he had his way. Saturday and Sunday mornings we usually get out on our nice long bike rides with Matt relaxing in his Chariot carrier attached to Daddy's bike. Matt loves to help daddy out in the yard and as you can see from the pics, has his own little shovel and likes to dig in the places where he should not but o'well.....all is fixable! He loves to watch the butterflies on our butterfly trees and tries to catch them if he can. His newest thing is trying to catch the bumble bees....he will be sorry if he is able to catch one....we keep telling him ooocchh!!! So far this year Matt has not been too fond of the pool so we are working on that. Last year by the end of the summer, we could not get him out of the pool and now this year he will barely stick his toes in....hmmmm????? We are getting ready to head back to the beach in 2 weeks to celebrate Matt's 3rd birthday! Should be a wonderful family vacation for just the 3 of us!!! Poor puppies will have to go to camp! LOL.

That smile just melts our hearts!!

Matt finally loves tubby time.....it only took him 15+ months!!! LOL Bath time is much longer now than it used to be and it is alot of bribbing to get him out!!! So different from where he would not even sit down and we got in, got washed and were out!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

15 Months Home and progressed into a Toddler Bed

Matt has now been home for 15 months. He recently moved into a Toddler bed after continuously climbing out of his crib!! We thought we would take baby steps with moving him into a bed so we got this little bed to start. Matt has been doing great going to bed at night and staying in his bed (well after 4 or 5 times getting out and being put back in). We are still in the process of potty training which is taking a bit longer than we expected but each day is getting a little bit better with less accidents. He is pretty good about going on the potty when he is put on there but he is still not telling us when he has to go so if we don't stay on top of him and continually put him on the potty, accidents happen!! Another huge accomplishment that has happen in the last 10 days or so is Matt is FINALLY sitting down in the bath tub and of course is now loving his bath time......

Matt can count to 10 and sometimes can get close to 20. He knows almost all of his colors and mostly knows all of his letters. His speech continues to get better and better with every week. It feels like forever ago that we walked through our front door after 24+ hours of travel on that late monday night!!! We can't even ever remember what life was like before Matt was home.

Communion and Mother's Day

Matt and Mommy headed to PA this weekend to celebrate my 2 nephews 1st Holy Communion's and Mother's Day! Unfortunately both of my nephews made their Communions on the same day in 2 different parishes so our family had to split up. My dad and I and Matt went to Danny's who is my Godchild and my mom and headed to Will's Communion. Thankfully we were all together to celebrate Mother's Day together!! It was great to be with my Mom and Matt's MomMom and my sisters and Matt's Aunts for Mother's day!! The last Mother's Day we were all together back in 2007, we announed the news that we were in the process of adopting!!! This Mother's Day was so much better to have my little boy by my side!!!! It was an exhausting trip as it always as we just go, go, go but worth every minute!!! Here are some pictures from the weekend!! It was a wonderful 2nd Mother's Day!!

Matt's 1st trip to the Beach

At the end of April, Matt's Aunt Sue, Uncle Ed, Cousins Megan and Danny came down from up north and we went to the beach in Destin, FL for Matt's 1st trip to the beach! We had such a blast! We didn't know if Matt would like it or not but he ended up loving it!!! He walked right down into the sand and right into the ocean. He loved chasing the birds down the beach and just playing in the sand! We were so excited as Mommy and Daddy love the beach!!!!! We road boogie boards, made sand castles, had some great seafood and just played in the ocean which was much warmer than we had expected!!! We had lots and lots of family time!!! We cannot wait to go back....hopefully sometime this summer!!!

On another note, North Alabama where we live, was hit with devastating tornadoes last week. We are finally trying to get back to "normal" after losing power for 5 days. It has been quite a trying several days but we are so thankful that other than losing power for an extended period of time, we were all safe and our home was safe as well. Please keep those in your prayers that have lost everything in this part of the country. We are so hoping we do not hear the word "tornado" or hear the "sirens" going off for a very long time.