February.

& here I am for my monthly update. With pictures! February went by so fast, but it was a good month =) I started looking for a job & I actually had a phone interview with a bank set up. I don't know what happened, but the lady I talked to never called me for the actual interview. I tried for two weeks (calling & emailing) to see what was up and I never got a response back to anything. So, I moved on. I've found a few receptionist & bank jobs so hopefully one of those will come through. One of those jobs actually has a daycare in the building for the employees so I'm praying something happens with that one. God's in control, though. There's a new Kohl's opening up down here & we went to take Jason's aunt to her interview. His mom called & told him to come back & do an interview since they were taking walk-ins. He hesitated for a little bit & decided to do it since he was supposed to apply to two jobs anyway (to receive unemployment--which eventually got denied anyway!). In he went with jeans & a collared shirt, haha. A few days later, he got a job offer. It's not much, but it's something. We're still praying for a job on base. Lent also started and I am focusing on spiritual growth. Something's happening because I've been waking up at five in the morning to make Jason's his breakfast before work. & today, instead of going back to bed, I stayed up & spent a few minutes with Him. Also, Sunday after Mass, I went to confession. I used to AVOID going at all costs & I just went. I freaked out a little bit when there was no screen, but in the end, I felt a lot more comfortable without it. So, I am trying to keep up with this because I've never felt better. And so at peace. So anyway, here is a look into my February.

My dad's birthday was on February 3rd! He's a hard working guy and has done a lot for our family. I look up to him a lot and I hope to be like him in the way that he serves the Lord. We went to Oga's for sushi & when we came home, we surprised him with this cake.

Matti was/is so in love with this hat. It's a New Year's hat. He walks around the house with it on. Sometimes, he covers his eyes with it & walks around blowing raspberries, haha. I don't think he wanted me to interrupt him and his hat. Also, the outfit is ridiculous, haha...the paw print onesie was an undershirt.

 

  

We had a "blizzard" early in the month & I had fun taking pictures of it. I also started my obsession with (naked) trees.The bottom picture is my favorite tree here at my parents' house--I don't know why! Jason says I need to take a picture of it in all four seasons. Smart man. 

Matti LOVED the snow. We finally bought him some boots so he could actually walk in it. It was so hard to get him inside! He definitely takes after his daddy on this one. 

 

Whoever invented this game (Hand & Foot) is a genius. We pretty much got all of our friends & family addicted to this game. I've been told it's a lot like Spades because you have to make books & whatnot. Hand & Foot is just love love love love and we played a lot of it =)

I think this was day #3 in the snow for Matti. It was after we got the second part of the storm so a lot of the snow on the ground went away. I snapped this picture of babylove when he heard an airplane fly by. We live close to a base & they're constantly flying over our house. & Matti stops what he's doing, looks up & says, "Ayplayne!"  Sometimes, he makes his hand "fly" in the air while he makes an airplane sound. Back to the picture: He was looking very, very hard to find the "ayplayne."

 

I love that Matti loves books now. This is one of his favorite books--Cars--because there's cars all over it. This is also one of his favorite pages. The other page he loves has Lightning McQueen with dirt all over him. The page reads, "Dirty car." & Matti says, "Ew! Ew! Ew!" everytime. He has a new book that he loves called "Wheels" which has cars on it too, but one page has a train (choo choo) AND an airplane on it. Along with Elmo, those things are his favorite. Oh & firetrucks too. 

One of my favorite things that Matti did this month was him finally calling me "mommy." He would say "mama" but it was never consistent & he would call my mom that too. I know he wasn't doing it intentionally, but I wanted to be called something, too. He was sitting in his high chair eating & as I walked away, he said, "mommy.." When I turned around & he was looking right at me with a smile on his face. Now he says, "mommyyyyyy" with a cheesy grin & it melts my heart everytime.

And to end February off, Jason, Jeaniffer, Marisa, Ashley & myself decided to make some sweet treats. So we made rice crispy treats, cupcakes (a la Jason) & chocolate covered strawberries. & they were all delicious!

So, February was pretty good. I look forward to March. I started it off pretty amazing & I hope it gets better. I've got big plans for Matti. I'm going to attempt to take away his pacifier this month. He has an Elmo that he hugs at night so I'm hoping that will help him with the big change. I've also started teaching him the Alphabet. I made the mistake of using the Alphabet song for one of his lullabies, and he doesn't like singing it. So, I changed that and hopefully he won't hate it anymore, haha. We started with the letter "A" last week & hopefully this week we can go to "B!" He's learning more & more words and I just love it. I love seeing him learn new things. Sometimes, he picks up a book & starts babbling like he's reading. He has my heart, completely. Jason & I have a few things we want to do. One of them is start the process of going back to school. We're hoping that maybe in the summer we can both take a class (maybe together?) and the latest we'll go back is in the Fall. We both really want to start up soon though. I also have been wanting a DSLR camera even more. I told Jason to forget about the Imac & the Dyson, I just want a camera. All in God's time, Frances. & that is the end of February :)

Hello, March!