I like to ...

(Do you know the "I like to eat apples and bananas" song? This post is inspired by the song, so try to keep that in mind, if you want.)

1. I like to.. point. point. point. point at whatever!

2. I like to read, read, read, read a lot of books!

3. I like to feed, feed, feed, feed myself with a spoon.

4. I like to smile, smile, smile, smile for pictures!

5. I am a messy, messy, messy, me-ssy eater.

6. I like to bathe, bathe, bathe, bathe in warm water.

Thank you for singing with me, everyone!

A nice walk on a Sunday afternoon

We love going on walks on Sunday afternoons after church. The weather has been so nice lately. It's been warm and breezy for the past couple weeks. The Spring is just around the corner. We went on the trail by Maidu Park and took some cute pictures of Matthew and Sean. Here are some of them.

Matthew likes to show off his nice long neck.

Cute smile

I was having a bad hair day! Can you tell?

Can you do that? I can! :-)

Another cute one.

My Food Blog

I have been keeping busy cooking every night. It's been very fun, especially since we have been able to save a lot of money by eating at home everyday and also since we have a food blog where we can post recipes and pictures of our food! I love cooking and baking for the family - it's really fun. I am always looking for great new recipes, so if you have one, send it on my way! Be sure to visit my blog when you have a chance!

MY FABULOUS RECIPES

Matt Sings!

So Matt has been singing for quite some time, now. He has a beautiful singing voice, I must say. You may not believe me so check it out for yourself! :-)

Whenever we go for a ride, he starts singing in the backseat. He keeps us all entertained. Today, we went to Sacramento and Elk Grove for a wedding and it took us about 45 minutes each way and the whole time, Matt sang like he did in the video. I just had to tape it for all of you to see. :)

We were invited to a wedding!

Today, we were all invited to a wedding at a Sikh temple in Sacramento. It was one of the neatest experiences we've ever had. Sean and I both took a World Religion class while attending BYU-Idaho and learned that Mormonism and Sikhism are very similar. They have a temple where they perform marriages and guess what, all baptized sikhs wear special underclothing. Cool, right? For those who don't know a lot about Sihkism, they organized against caste system in India. They believed that every man and woman should be equal and that no one should ever be untouchable (lower caste people like farmers and servants could not be touched). They wanted everyone to be able to enter the Hindu temple, but of course, the Hindus did not like it very much. Many Sihks were persecuted for their beliefs and that is why they are known as to be always prepared to fight (against persecution). Also, Sikh temples always have a door on the each side of the building so that one may enter from any direction or walk of life. It was interesting to learn about the symbolism of the Sikh religion.

Unfortunately, we couldn't understand any of the things that were said during the wedding ceremony because they were speaking a different language (we think it was Hindi). But it was pretty cool to stand among the Sikhs and participate in their ceremony.

The guy in red robe is the groom, Pally. (Sean works with him. He is Indian but grew up in England.) They did a ceremony where the groom's and the bride's families exchanged "garland" (they look like leihs)... probably means they welcome each other. They chanted a few words in the process of exchanging the garland.

In the hallway in the temple, we were waiting for the ceremony to start. (Thank goodness they served breakfast there. We were so hungry!) Anyway, you see Sean wearing a white scarf around his head? It is required that you wear it to cover your head before you enter the temple. We tried to put it on Matt, but he didn't like it so much. But someone said that he didn't have to wear it since he is a baby and that no one was going to care. Phew...

Another shot of Sean and Matt. I love how Matt's sticking out his tongue in this picture.

That's me and Matthew. I bought a new scarf at H&M for this event last night and guess what, I totally forgot it at our apartment. I was pretty upset about it. But oh well, this rental scarf will do.

Hooray for a family picture!! I wish Matt was looking at the camera, though.

There were four huge video cameras in every corner, I think. That's the bright flash you see in this picture. Anyway, all men sat on the left side of the room and all women sat on the right side. Everyone sat on the floor without shoes. There was a priest in the middle and conducted the ceremony. It was pretty interesting. I was trying to watch the ceremony and Matt at the same time. It was a challenge but Matt was pretty good. Oh, I must tell you. There was another baby sitting next to us and Matt went and gave the baby a kiss! It was so cute!!

This was taken later tonight at the reception. They had really good food.

I was amazed by the gorgeous dress that the bride was wearing at the reception! So pretty. I would like to try on one of those sparkly, pretty dresses.

Matt was so excited to see a lot of people dance to loud music! The music was so loud, I could feel my heartbeat!

Another family picture... Yeah, Matt's not looking at the camera, again. Ugh! :-)

A lot of people danced at the reception.

With the groom.

Matty in Black & White

When I am not feeling so great, I like to look at smiley pictures of Matthew. Isn't he so adorable? It makes me feel much, much better when I see him smile.

Just annoyed

I know a lot of you might not like this entry but I thought I'd write a few sentences on how I feel about politics. I don't really like to talk about politics because I usually end up getting into an argument and I never feel good afterward. But I am getting a little sick and tired of hearing all these LDS people talking bad about President Obama. Yes, he's democratic and he does have different views on moral values and yes, that is sad and frustrating. I mean, we all want everyone around us (especially the leader of our country) to believe in the same things as us. But I think it is also wrong of us building a strong animosity towards our president, calling him horrible names. If your sister or brother had the same views as him, would you call her/him a disgrace to your family? Maybe you will. But not me. I think it's interesting how everyone thinks of him as some kind of a devil worshipper. Personally, I think he is a good man. Now, just because I think he's a good man doesn't mean I support all the things that he tries to reinforce in this country. Now, I do not support abortion. I do not support some of his policies on education, health care, and welfare. But it seems though, especially in Mormon community, everything he does and says is stupid and bad. Okay, that's nonsense. How did you feel when majority of the people in this country badmouthed President Bush? Didn't it annoy you when the media was making fun of President Bush and the respublicans in general? I was annoyed. Personally, I don't expect any of the presidents to be perfect. I know they all make mistakes. I wish they didn't but they do. I am not saying that you should totally support Pres. Obama with all your heart or anything but maybe he deserves some respect. Don't hate everything he says or does just because he's Obama. Stop complaining and engage in many political issues (like support traditional marriage/help with public education system/stop abortion). So many people complain about the new president but not do anything to make the community better or engage in soliving these issues. (For example, writing a letter to your congressman or even to Obama might be a good start. I know very few people actually write to the politicians on the issues that they don't agree with. Donating to organizations, volunteering, and campaigning would also help.) Anyway, that's all. I hope I didn't offend anyone with this post.

Matthew at Dinner Time

First, Matthew is hilarious during dinner time.

If he doesn't like something (to eat), he sticks out his tongue like that. At first, I thought it was so cute, but now when he sticks out his tongue, I get frustrated because that means he won't eat anymore.

Then he smiles so I can't get mad at him.

Oh, then he does this when he doesn't want more to eat.

And of course, he frowns too.

But when he's happy, he will give you the cutest smile ever.

When he's really happy, he does this.

---Some other stuff---

Matthew's been hugging the carpet lately.

He laughs a lot more.

Me and Matt

Another one of us.

I was in the living room and Matt went into our bedroom and played there for a while. That night, Sean went into our bedroom and found this. Somehow, Matt opened the lid to the lotion and stuck my hair clip in it. We got a good laugh out of it.

Shhhhh............

One night, I was out in the front room, finishing up something. Sean was in our bedroom, just chillin' with Matt. I heard a knock on the wall once or twice - Sean's way of telling me it's time for bed and that I needed to be in bed soon. I ignored the signs because I wanted to finish up whatever I was doing at the time. Then about 30 minutes later, I went into our bedroom, only to find the cutest thing I've ever seen! (I had to take a couple of pictures!)

So Matt usually sleeps in his crib, but he just fell asleep in Sean's arm. I thought it was amazing, though, how he fell asleep without fussing or crying at all. Usually he falls asleep after crying for about 2-3 minutes. Sean must have a magic arm that makes babies fall asleep like an angel. And the funniest thing was how much they looked alike in their sleep.

That night, I decided to let Matt sleep in our bed with us. Good night, my boys.

Ahh, if only we could afford it...

After dinner, Sean begged me to go see cars at the auto mall nearby. I was tired so I wanted to rest at home but Sean begged and begged and begged. I couldn't say no anymore so I went with him. For those who haven't heard, I recently got a driver's license, so we have been looking at cars - mostly used cars - here and there. I am still not sure if we can afford a second car yet but who cares, we can still look, right? So I know a lot of moms have SUVs and vans but I have never been a big fan of those. Since I only have one baby, I told Sean that I was getting a good size sedan. No SUV nor van... I've always thought that driving in a big car was for tall girls. I'm short. I'm barely 5'2''. In my mind, a short woman like me can't see far ahead in a big, tall car like SUVs or vans. Anyway, when we went to a Nissan dealership (strangely enough, most of my favorite cars come from Nissan), we saw some "Muranos" there. Sean convinced me that I should get inside and check it out. I didn't want to but I thought there's no harm in trying! So I sat in the driver's seat and adjusted my seat with an automatic button (so cool!). The car was just so amazing! It's got a nav, heated leather seats, cruise control, sun roof (or moon roof, whatever you want to call it), etc. And the asking price was $23,000. Wow, for a pimped-up car like that, that is a good deal! Well, but unfortunately, right now, we can't even afford a $10,000 car. We can barely afford the car we have, ha ha! No, but really, who would've thought I was going to fall in love with a SUV? Sean thought it was funny. I told him that I wanted a car exactly like that in five years. I told him that should be my 33rd birthday gift. Until then, I will just have to settle with whatever I get. :-)

I want to be a soccer mom, driving this SUV.

The one I looked at looked exactly like this on the inside.

This is how I blink

Hi, my name is Matthew and I have a mama who takes way too many pictures of me and so I decided not to be so photogenic anymore. Maybe then she will stop taking so many pictures of me. Well, this is my plan. I am going to blink every time she takes pictures. Do you think it will work? I am not so sure, because she kept on taking more and more pictures of me, hoping she would get one nice picture of me eventually. Ahhh... mama, take a hint and give me a break. No more pictures for Matty!! I am going to make sure I hide the camera real good when my baby sister arrives. I don't want her to have to go through the same trauma I'm going through right now!!

I was eating a little animal cracker and again, mama pulled out her camera. Uh oh!

So I blinked.

But mama kept on taking more pictures.

So I blinked again.

I don't understand! Why isn't my plan working?

Alright, I give up. But you're not getting a smiley picture of me, mama. Well, at least, not today.

What should I name this post?

Some new pictures of Matthew

I got some great photos of Matthew today. He won't eat pasta, so I fed him some apple sauce and rice pudding. He loved the rice pudding! I have been trying to feed him some cow's milk but he still prefers booby milk, of course. I got him to drink a little bit of cow's milk at dinner, though. That was a great achievement!

This picture reminds me of "Scream"

Cute, cute.

My favorite!

After I gave Matt a bath, I combed his hair and dressed him all cute. That's why he looks super clean in this picture.

It's incredible how fast Matt learns new things. So far, he knows what cell phones, cameras, remotes, and brushes are for. So he has been seeing me brush my hair all the time, and now he always picks up my brush and takes it to his hair to brush it. It is so cute!!

Sometimes he bites it too.

Or just puts it on his chin to be cute.

At Fats - It is a Chinese restaurant, kind of similar to P.F. Chang, only much, much better!! It is our new addiction. It's a little pricey but they do have the best Chinese food I've ever tasted.

Probably annoyed by me taking so many pictures.

Hello, Sailor man!

He kneels like that pretty much all day.