The Hardest Thing Ever......So Far.

Toby
November 14, 1998 - December 18, 2008
We said good-bye to our "baby" yesterday.

I gave him to Matt for Christmas in 1998.

He was our little polar bear.

Abby taught him this one!

This was the last picture taken of him.
A few of his favorite things:
chasing "mice" under the covers, his football, playing with the dogs on the other side of the fence, curling up on your tummy for a good nap, being a snapping alligator, sharing popcorn with Matt, going for walks, free roam at Grammy's house, squirrels in Papa's backyard, sleeping under the covers, giving a "smile" and a paw.
We said good-bye to our best-friend yesterday. It was so hard. Much harder than we could ever have imagined. I don't want to go through that again for a long, long, long time.

Picture Success!

Matilyn - 5 weeks old

strong girl

I'm in love with a beautiful baby girl.

Yay, they did so good! With a little help from Mollie, the photographer, and a promise of McDonalds! Needless to say, Mommy was exhausted when we got home.

O Christmas Tree!

Our annual trip to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm. Load up for a hay ride out to the trees.

We searched for about 15 minutes for the perfect tree.

Matilyn pretty much did this the whole time.

Papa and Grandma came too!

The boys helped Matt saw it down.

We were close enough to walk it back to the front. There they shook out the dead needles, sent it through the rope wrap, and daddy tied it to the top of the car. We spent some time looking at the animals, but my camera battery died (go figure) so I don't have any pictures of that.

Here it is all decorated, one without the flash so you can see the lights. It looks more crooked than it does in person. I think it's just the way it was trimmed, it really is in the stand straight. I also think it's not turned the way I originally thought it should be. Oh well, it smells really good and brings my kids joy. What more could you ask for?!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We love you and hope you have a SUPER day! We can't wait for all of the fun at Christmas!

Mattie And Her Great Grandpa

Mattie went to meet her Great-Grandpa on November 13th. She was just over a week old.

About a month shy of 90 years old, on December 2nd, Mattie's sweet Great-Grandpa went to meet Jesus.

Sweet Grandpa, I love you and will miss you so much. What a great man you were. I have been flooded with memories this week that I will treasure forever, and I will share them all with my children. Beginning with spaghetti on Sunday.

In My Next Life.....

I'm going to have time and money to learn how to take pictures with a really great camera. I tried to have a "photo session" with my "best gift ever," but it's not the same as the pictures I get from Chey or Jen. Oh well. Here's what I did get.

She's 4 weeks old today. She weighs 9 lbs. 11 oz. She's still getting me up only once in the night. We are having more and more awake time. I think her eyes are turning brown. She smiles in her sleep in response to voices. I can't wait for a few more weeks when she starts smiling at me for real! As Noah says, I think we'll keep her.

Visit To Santa

After breakfast, we loaded up the car to see Santa. This was my first "big thing" with just Mommy and the 3 kids. I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I knew Logan wouldn't like Santa, so I set my expectations low and was ready to walk away. However, we were 3rd in line, Logan got to watch the other kids, we got a picture, and I'm calling it a success! A few glitches: Logan wouldn't put his matching shirt on like Noah, I wasn't going to fight it; I didn't have time to get Mattie's red pants on, no big deal; Mommy had to be cropped out of the picture again this year, at least Logan is in the picture and not crying!

Mattie slept through the whole thing.

One more picture of the boys with the decorations. Time to go, right? Wrong. Noah says, "I want to eat here." So to the elevator we go, up to Chick-fil-A. It's 11:30am by now, and Mattie is due to eat at noon. They did great, ate their lunch, played on the "rides" and actually didn't make me fight them (too much) when it was time to leave. This is where the fun begins. Of course I didn't park on the right side of the mall (FYI - he's by Sears), so we had to walk all the way to the other end to get back to the car. Here's where Mommy messed the perfect morning up. We walked right by the bathroom, upstairs in the men's department. I looked right at it, thought about asking Noah if he needed to go, but didn't. We go all the way through Macy's, down the elevator, back through the first floor of Macy's to the door we came in, to the car, get the boys in the car, Noah looks at me and says, "I have to go to the bathroom." Back in the stroller and all the way back to the bathroom. Next time, I think I'll let him pee in the parking lot. Matt showed me the silver lining: he didn't have an accident. I might have had a breakdown.

I really do have fantastic kids. They did a great job!

Cousins

Grammy and Grandpa Cothern with their Grandkids. It was the year of the girl! It's funny how much Claire and Noah look like they should be brother and sister.

This is the "Brehm" side. On the left is Cousin Eric with new baby sister Sarah. Finally the Brehm side was infiltrated with PINK!!! It only took 31 years.

Happy Thanksgiving

Loaded up, we hit the road to Grammy and Grandpa's.
You'll notice that despite spending only 2 nights, Rock Band made the trip!

Lots of ping pong was played.

Noah helped Grammy make Daddy's favorite Mincemeat Pie. Maybe someday he can teach Mommy how to pinch the crust!

Cutie-pie Cousin Claire!

Hanging out with Grandpa.

Time for the adding of the handprints to the Thanksgiving Tablecloth.

Mattie was not very happy with Mommy.

Look how much they have grown!

Claire checks out her new cousin. They are 7 months apart. What fun next Christmas will be with these little girls!

Just Because....

....They are so darn cute!

Sweet Baby Gift

A sweet friend of mine from church gave this to us today. She made it just for Mattie. It is absolutely precious! I don't know where she found the time. She has a five year old and 8 month old twins. They are all boys, so maybe the pink was a good diversion! :) I love it and can't wait until she can wear it! She will be even more snuggly than she already is!

And mittens to match!

First Church Trip

Matilyn went to church for the first time last Sunday. Matt and I played "musical church" for most of it, but that's for another blog entry. She stayed with me for the music, then it was time to eat during the sermon. We went to the nursing mom's room.

With her big brothers after church.

Headed to the car. Totally couldn't resist this picture!

2 Weeks Old

Mattie was 2 weeks old on Wednesday. We went to the Dr. on Tuesday for her check-up. Her stats were:

8 lbs. 4 oz. (50%)
21.25" (75-90%)
I don't remember her head measurement off the top of mine, but it was in the 25-50% range.
No shots until 2 months, but we had the 2nd newborn screen, which was a heel stick. She wasn't very happy about that.

Everything else checked out beautifully! We go back at 2 months. She's able to hold her head up when you hold her on your shoulder. She's focusing more on my face, which also means more awake time. She's eating about every 4 hours during the day, and usually has 5-6 hour stretches at night. I'm only having to get up once! Yippee for that and hooray for the DVR. She hardly ever cries. I still can't believe that she is already here and that she's mine!

Pink Lint

I must be losing my mind! I've been doing laundry today. Lots of laundry. The crazy part of it all, I got really excited when I cleaned out the lint trap.....it was PINK!!! I know, I know, I'm a little weird.

Writing on the Wall

Yippee! I got the letters on her wall yesterday! Now her room is officially finished!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday was Matt's 34th birthday. Noah had the great idea to make him breakfast in bed. On the menu: blueberry pancakes and bacon. No bacon, so we had to substitute ham. Only one eggshell made it into the batter, and we found it before it made its way into a pancake.

Noah was so proud of himself. Blueberry pancakes are daddy's favorite.

Present time. Grandma had lots of surprises for daddy. Daddy picked out his own birthday present from all of us - Rock Band 2. The other part of his present was that the X-Box came back from the "red ring of death" repair just in time!

Next it was time to make cake! Yummy chocolate! Logan managed to get batter in his nose, too!

Happy Birthday to the best daddy ever! We love you so much!
You Rock!