What did we do on our vacation?

Well, here's a peek:

Matt wanted me to post this, here it is babe!

A run of bad luck

-2.5 weeks ago our water heater started leaking (it was 30 years old after all). Thankfully, Matt had it replaced before I got back from our vacation! :)

-Devin got a double ear infection while we were on vacation and it probably peaked the night I left him at my in-laws (sorry!). Thankfully, my Father-in-law quickly started him on some antibiotics for me. Oh and the same night, there was an earthquake not far from my in-law's house. Weird!

-Then, low and behold, Luke got the flu, which I really should start expecting because it happens pretty much every time we visit Utah. Thankfully, it didn't last longer than a night. 

And the one that takes the cake....

-After all very long day of traveling from SLC to CLE, and complete pat-down, search through every single bag, item, child and stroller I was traveling (all because they don't have "one of those fancy machines that costs like a bijillion dollars(according to the TSA girl)" to search unopened baby food! Which I have traveled with several times and never had a problem), we finally arrived in Cleveland.We called daddy as we were taxiing in and he was on his way to pick us up. We jumped off the plane and the dreadful phone call came from an unknown phone number that Matt had been in a car accident. Luckily it was his voice I was hearing on the other end, so I knew he was okay enough to call me. All he said was, "I got in a car wreck call the Kiene's (our heros! Oh why do they have to move! sniff, sniff) to pick you up." Thankfully, Marilyn picked up and soon enough she rescued me from the airport. Thank you Marilyn!!!!!! A hundred times!!!

Well, Matt was going under the speed limit, not texting or talking on the phone, driving straight through a green light when pretty much out of no where an oncoming car turns left right in front of him. He didn't have enough time to stop and smashed into them, lost control and hit a pole. And the car that turned in front of him, spun and smashed into another car that was stopped at the stop light going the opposite direction. The airbags deployed and Matt has suffered from some whiplash and bruises. We are so grateful that he is okay! 

Our van is totaled and right now we are living on a prayer, hoping that the guy who was at fault has car insurance. 

It was a long day, but it never felt so good to be back together as a family Friday night.

Here's a picture Matt snapped with his ipod. He said that even inside car the dash board was cracked.

And since he's been a hardcore soccer player all of his life he doesn't think this bruise is anything special, but I think it's huge, purple and disgusting! The picture doesn't serve it justice.

Oh and then the next day I had the flu. 

Booo!

We're ready and waiting for some good things to come our way now.....any day now.... :)

Some Dad time

Matt has been doing an ED (or as most people know it, ER-it's called the Emergency Department now) rotation, so he's had quite a lot of time off during the week. It has been nice, but it has really thrown off our schedules, so oddly enough it'll be nice to have a more consistent schedule for his next (and FINAL!!!!) rotation. But we've really enjoyed having him around more.

The other day we took a walk over at Shaker Lake, just a couple of miles from our house. Give it a week or so and it'll all be beautiful, luscious, green trees!

This is a common sight in our house and throughout much of our day....Luke getting in trouble. Have I mentioned that the 3's are much harder than the 2's for us? :)

It's so interesting that only a few blocks away from our house, or in the other direction, not far from the ghetto, there are some amazingly HUGE & beautiful homes. Many of them are completely different in style too. It's so fun to see them all. I think this one is one of the biggest I've seen here. One of Matt's favorites. It's so big I couldn't even get it in the whole picture!

 I liked this one too.

And since there are never any pictures of me....I had to (and have always wanted one of these..haha) take this one.

This is also a common occurrence at our house. Whenever two of us are interacting with one another, or hugging or whatever it doesn't take long for a Luke to end up squished between you. He loves getting all the attention he can!

Devin has recently learned how to wave, say "Dada" and is almost crawling. He's doing the army crawl and working on getting up on those knees. It won't be long! He's getting his first tooth now too!

And one of the biggest things that went down recently was Matt's BIG birthday!!! He turned 29!!! And all he ever wants is my homemade brownies and ice cream.

Happy Birthday my love!!! 

You're the greatest Dad & Husband I know!

Some things I really love...

• When Devin is fighting to go to sleep, and screams and screams (don't love that) and I give in and hold him, cuddling him close. Then I kiss him on the cheek and he can't help but giggle every time, even if he's still crying.
• How Luke wants to snuggle with me on the couch.
• When Devin is hungry and watching me open the baby food, or mix the cereal and he makes this whimpering sound and opens and closes his mouth to make it sound something like this, "ahyayayayahayaya." It's a sweet sound, nothing loud and annoying (yet).
• That Devin loves to eat food. 
• When Luke and I have quiet time, while Devin is napping. We usually end up snuggling on the couch, under a blanket, reading a lot of library books. And sometimes Luke will even fall asleep.
• How Matt teaches Luke to respect and listen to his mama (me).
• The ring tone I have set on my phone for when Matt calls. I get excited every time.
• The sound of the garage door opening or the keys turning in the backdoor, when Matt gets home.
• The growl sound that Devin makes when he's playing and pulling everything towards his mouth. It's so funny.
• How Devin just rolls all over the place. He's so determined to get around, so he rolls right into the next room. Or now he'll even slide himself around on the hardwood floors.
• How Luke just loves his little brother.
• How Devin tries hard not to smile, but ends up smiling anyway.
• That Luke is "the cleaner guy" and always wants a job to do. And he's always so proud when he cleans up the front room. Even though all he's done is picked up everything and put it on the couch.
• How happy and excited Devin is to see all of us in the morning (especially me). 
• That Matt is so encouraging and supportive. He's always encouraging me to learn and try new things, hanging out with my girlfriends, telling me to take a friend out to eat, or take time out for myself. He's such a great guy.
• How Devin reaches for me.
• That Luke loves to have dance parties with me and is silly and wild. We have so much fun and he's actually quite good.
• That Devin is so ticklish on his neck, under his cheeks. He laughs every time we kiss him there.

I love that my life is surrounded by these amazing guys, big and small.

I never imagined that when I had children that I'd be outnumbered. I'm pretty girly, I just assumed that I'd have all girls, I guess. And I thought that my life would be complete chaos (and maybe it will be when they're older) with boys. But I actually love having boys and wouldn't be sad if our next (not anytime soon) was a boy. Most people when they see me at the store say something rather annoying like "Ohhh two boys! Gesh! You must go crazy" or whatever. Some people really like to give you their opinion around here! But this older lady noticed my two boys when we were shopping the other day and I was expecting a similar comment, but she surprised me. She said, "Oh you are so lucky to have two boys. Boys are so sweet and they just love their mama's!" It made me happy, and I completely agree with her.

Just some random pictures!

It's always fun when Daddy comes home!
Just a cute picture of Matt and Devin, after a short 10 hour shift. Can you tell how happy Matt is about that?

Seriously, his shifts are usually waaaaaaaay longer. When he takes weekend call, they are more like 27ish hour shifts. Crazy!

You're probably getting sick of these Luke-and-Devin-wrestling-on-the-rug pictures....but this is a big portion of my day...and I like to take pictures. I think I need to be more creative.

I know, it's almost always of Devin' face, but that is because Luke is the wild one that won't stay still long enough for me to get his face. And Devin is always so happy.

Even when he's trying to eat Luke's nose.

Gross!

Notice Luke's hilarious shirt? I don't know where he found this "Hawaiian" shirt, but he insists on wearing it. It's funny because it's too big on him and it's 27 degrees outside.

Bat Baby.

This was the best 25 cents ever spent.

I love all my cute boys!

Happy Green's Patrick Day.

Luke is SO into holiday's this year. It is so fun, he asks what the next holiday is every day and thinks every day is/should be a holiday. So, since V-day, he's been so excited for St. Patrick's Day. And now he keeps asking if we can clean our house and decorate for Grandpa Johnson's birthday that's on Monday....so we might be having a long-distance birthday party for you dad! He's a funny kid.

All along he can't seem to get the name right either. He calls it Green's Patrick Day. And if you ask his what the name of our church is, it gets even better. He says, "The Church of Jesus Christ of St. Patrick's Day."

We're working on that one.

Luke and Dev in their green clothes. Notice Luke's green mittens?

We had such a fun day planned. We had a little play group at our house. I made these totally awesome rainbow cupcakes, go here for the recipe. I am still amazed by them and they really weren't hard to make. The kiddies decorated their cupcakes and colored leprechaun pictures.

We had more babies than kids here, so we had some serious tummy-time going on.

These two rollers, aren't they adorable?

Dev was so excited to have all his friends there...

I think. :)

It was so fun. The kids were wild, as usual, but it helped Luke get some of his wiggles out. The weather was gorgeous! In the 60's. After our friends went home we spent much of the afternoon outside. Played in the swampy backyard (Luke had to change his clothes 3 times, because of slipping/splashing/getting soaked in the puddles-I hope it dries out soon), walked to the park and the library.

Matt got home and we decided to go out and grab a Philly sandwich at Penn Station-yum! My heart is still hurting though.

It was a great day! By the end of the day Luke was begging Matt to take off his green shirt so he could pinch him.

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Here are a few random pics I thought I'd post too.

I was preparing my lesson for YW last week and Dev was sitting up nice and cozy next to me. I thought it was so cute, so yes, I bothered Matt for a half hour to come take a picture, because I'm always the one behind the camera. Isn't he cute?!

And just a few things I love.

First, him. 

He is hanging the rods for my kitchen curtains (that I still need to make). He is always so helpful and so willing to help! I love it.

Second, he is a total nerd and sometimes wears his beanie like a dork. Usually folding the sides up to look like Robin Hood (not in this pic).

And third, he had this day off, we ran errands for me, he let me buy some new shirts, he played with the kids and kept them busy, he helped me do things that I needed to get done, and watched the kids as I ran out the door for YW's that night. And on top of that, my friend needed a babysitter asap and he watched anther little almost-3-year-old, and put Luke and Dev to bed-ALL while I was at YW's.

He did all of that in a day. Can you see how amazing he is?

Yeah, he's totally awesome and I love him.

.mih evol I

Matt is the best.
No, seriously.
(sorry for the ooey-gooey post)

I love this guy. 

He is:

 super good looking

funny

happy

driven

adventurous

loyal

honest

a little wild

a great provider

 caring

goofy

creative

mellow

never gets angry (seriously-I'm not sure if this is normal?:)

a wonderful dad

even better husband

a traveler
did I mention fun?
talented

a great cook
intelligent

ambitious

 loving

and just simply wonderful.

I love you Matt.