I hate "good-byes" and "short hellos", so I avoid them!

So I am "settled" in Farley, Iowa now. Malia and I are living at my mom's house. Thanks, Mom! Britt helped me get unpacked and organized these last couple days. It sure is nice being by my sister. We have lots of fun together and our kids keep us busy. Nothing like a 3, 2, and 1 year old running around!
David and I left Lewiston last Tuesday. Sorry to all of those that I didn't say an official good-bye to. Truth be told I HATE good-byes. I'd rather just avoid them. To me I know I will see you all again SOMETIME so it's just easier to pretend mentally that I'm just going away for "a bit".
We left Lewiston on Tuesday and headed to Phoenix. We spent two very short days with David's family. We managed to squeeze in a trip to the Mesa Temple. David's mom and sister took Mali on a shopping trip. Good times! Then we began the arduous trek to Iowa and arrived Saturday afternoon. I realized I passed lots of you on my way around the country. I would have loved to stopped and spent time with everyone. Just not enough time! I would rather wait to see you all when we actually have time to spend with each other, instead of just a "short hello".
We were able to attend Dubuque Ward on Sunday as a family. For the last time for awhile. It was nice. I was hoping since Dubuque's sacrament is first, unlike Lewiston's being last, that it would somehow improve Malia's behavior. No such luck! Can't wait to wrestle her all on my own!
We met a family that just moved into the ward. The dad had just got back from Ft. Sill, OK where David is going! What a coincidence! We invited them out to our big family dinner that night. It was nice to have Bro. Fountain share his experiences at Ft. Sill and he also gave David a blessing before he left. It was fun to have dinner with all the family, Hayes' included! Britt even made an army cake for David and the Hayes boys' birthdays.
On Monday we tried to get everything done that we could and enjoy our last day together. We went to lunch at the old "Annie's", my mom's restaurant sold and is under new management, new name. It was...not good. I could go off all about it, but the point is that it just made me sad. It was sad to see something that my mom worked so long and hard for be changed into something not so good. Oh, well. Mom likes her job at the bank. We went and visited her at work so she could show off Malia.
David left the next morning from the Dubuque Airport for SLC. Yesterday he flew from SLC to New Mexico to Dallas to Oklahoma City. Then he had to take a bus from OK City to Fort Sill. What a long day of traveling! No thank you. I spoke to him on the phone several times yesterday and he just amazes me! I would have been super cranky given all the traveling. He was just pumped about starting Basic Training! I hope everything goes well for him. I know he will be great. I'm glad Mali and I are here with my family, it will make being away from David somewhat bearable. I'll miss my other families and friends in Phoenix, Logan, and Lewiston tons. Thanks to everyone again so much for all of your help and support. Sorry again for the lack of goodbyes. I'll post some pictures later.

A Much Needed Update

So...things have been quite crazy for us these last few weeks. So much has happened and is going to happen that I don't even know where to start! Here is a rough update...

1. To begin with... probably the most exciting news... I am with child. 12 weeks today. David and I went last week and got an ultrasound and everything looks perfect. So much better results than my last trip to the OB! I'm due March 24th. I am very excited and will be even more excited when the "24 hours a day sickness" is over. I was sick with Malia until about 5 months. I am hoping this one will be kinder to me.

2. Probably the most life changing (although one could argue an addition to the family if definitely life changing!)... David is joining the Army. He gets sworn in this week and will be off to boot camp before the end of the month. After that he has job training that we hope will finish up before the baby is due to arrive. I am very excited for David. He has always wanted to serve in the military and we felt now was the right time. A challenging time, believe me, we know. However, we have prayed seriously about this and feel it is right. In many ways it will be great for our family. Of course, not without challenges. Malia and I can't join him during boot camp or job training. Which leads me to number three...

3. Malia and I are moving to Iowa until the baby is born. My parents have graciously invited Malia and I to stay with them while David is gone. We considered lots of options and felt this was the best for everyone. It is going to be so hard with out David. I will miss him terribly. My only small consolation is to be with my family while he is away. Sometimes a girl just needs her mom and sister. Especially when pregnant with a toddler and without a husband!

4. I eluded to this in my last post... our big scare with Miss Malia. Two weeks ago the doctor had prescribed me Zofran- an anti nausea medication (which by the way seemingly does nothing for me). I had just gotten it on Monday and Wednesday we were all at home. I was upstairs cleaning and David was downstairs cleaning. We each assumed Malia was with the other person. I had my bag sitting up on our chest freezer. Somehow Malia got to the Zofran in the bag and opened it. She came up to David with a fistful of pills and said, "Candy, Papa?". There were only 10 left! I had 7 of them... leaving 13 consumed by Malia. They were the quick dissolving type, so instantly in the blood stream. We rushed her to the ER and they got my little baby hooked up to all types of machines. They didn't have any records of someone this young taking so many, so really had no idea what to do. Since it was already in her bloodstream, they couldn't pump her stomach. They also couldn't give her ANYTHING, because they weren't sure how she would react. Bart, Patrick, and Koby came and gave her a blessing. All we could do is wait and watch her. She was so scared and just couldn't settle down. More than anything she was mad that they had me monitor attached to her feet! She started hallucinating, in Spanish of all things! Talking about monsters and worms. Around 12:30 (5 hours later) she completely settled down and you could tell the medicine had worked it's way out. They wanted to keep her over night, just in case. She woke up that morning, perfectly normal. The doctor assured us that she was fine and there was no damage done. I think I can safely say it was the scariest moments of my life. I definitely am not up for "Mom of the Year" for 2008! I felt horrible and am so grateful that she was okay. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

5. My grandpa George passed away. George was the father of my step-dad, Chris. He was a great man and I admired him in many ways. He was 88 and died in his sleep. Bart, Malia, Aly (my cousin), and I all drove back to Iowa last Wednesday to attend the funeral. 20 hour drives and being pregnant- not a good combination. The funeral went well and it was great to see family. It even worked out that we got to attend my cousin Ashley's (on my dad's side)wedding. We packed a lot into a few days and got back into town on Sunday.

So there you have it. The major events in the Mata home. Some scary, some happy, some sad. We got it all! These next few weeks will be crazy hectic while we hurry and pack up our home. A task I am not looking forward too! Thanks to all of you who have been so supportive during all of this. I am so grateful to family and friends who are so good to us.

An "Agua" Video

Here is a video from our trip to Lagoon a couple of weeks ago. It's of Malia playing in the water fountain at the entrance of the park. It is about 2 minutes and nothing terribly exciting happens. Maybe only the grandma's will have patience to watch it in it's entirety. Nonetheless, I love watching her and thought it was adorable. We have had a challenging week in the Mata home and are just grateful to have Malia in our lives. It I feel up to it later, I may fill you all in on the Mata drama. Just know she is doing okay. She is an amazing little girl and I love her with all of my heart.

A Day at Lagoon

Last week David's company party was a day for the whole family at Lagoon (an amusement park near Salt Lake City). There were lots of rides for Malia. We spent most of the day hanging out with the Caley Family. Bart and David took off for a bit to ride the bigger stuff. I think the definite highlight for Malia was playing in the water at the end. They also provided free dinner. Good Times! Thanks Alpine!

Malia's Second Birthday

Sorry for the delay in posting this momentous occasion. Malia turned 2 on August 9th. We had a great day. Bart, Lori, Caleb, and Max came up for lunch. Thanks guys for being there! I frosted some cupcakes and Malia wanted to decorate them with sprinkles. She kept dumping the sprinkles on the same cupcake, but had a good time. Not to mention she took a bite of the sprinkles between each attempt at decorating. As you can see, Caleb also enjoyed the cupcakes! Later in the afternoon my aunt Deanne and her daughter, Alyssa arrived. They had driven out from Iowa just for Mali's birthday! Okay, Alyssa is starting Paul Mitchell in Provo and Deanne brought her out. Nonetheless it was great that they could be there for Mali's birthday. They brought presents, including one's from my mom and Chris. Malia especially loved the sprinkles. She also liked the fruit snacks that Caleb included in their present. In the evening, we went to the Cache County Fair in Logan. Mali got to pet the animals and walked around. We checked out the rodeo from afar and let Mali climb on the tractors. We thought about taking her on rides but the lines were super long and scary-carnie looking. David let Mali get up close and personal with the agua. She had absolutely no fear of the animals. It was a great day and thanks to all of those who shared it with us.

PS- I realize it has been a bit since I have posted, but what's up with the changes to blogspot? How come when I am creating a post, my pictures don't show up as pictures anymore? How am I supposed to add commentary below each one? Can anyone help me out?

Our Trip to Phoenix

Last weekend we took a trip to Phoenix to take Nany back for school. We sure do miss him already! The trip was great and it was good to see family. I had done two other posts with slides from the trip. I had never created a slide before and decided to go back and condense the pictures into one single slide show. I chose the "Melt" slide option between pictures to accurately depict Phoenix's weather conditions-- STINKING HOT! It was lots of fun and great to see all of the family. Now I just need to get back to Iowa!

Tubing/Rafting Down the Logan River

 

A couple days before we took Nany back to AZ we decided to go down the Logan River. David, Hernan, and Malia had done it the week before in a couple of tubes. This time we decided to add David's 2 man raft for Malia and I to sit in while Nany and David rode in the tubes. Being as Malia is a huge fan of "agua", she had a great time. Well, we all did until we hit some rocks and punched a hole in the raft! After that David had to hold on to the raft, plugging the whole while simultaneously guiding it. It turned out to be quite the adventure. The water was FREEZING!! And our grand plan of bringing two cars so we didn't have to hike back didn't work out so hot since we left the keys in the wrong vehicle! Oh, well. We still had lots of fun.