Ceud Mile Failte
A Hundred Thousand Welcomes
A Little About Each of Us
Welcome to our family website. Ceud Mile Failte is Gaelic for "A hundred thousand welcomes" (my dad is Irish... mostly). Feel free to explore and leave comments in the blog!
Michael - He's finally done with his Bachelors in Business Administration. He is working at a job he really likes, for an awesome boss and a good company. He is contracted to the company, and has applied for positions within, we are hoping and praying that he will soon be a permanent employee. It will utilize his degree and someday allow him the possibility of moving forward in the company. Personally, he enjoys hunting, fishing, trains and Mt. Saint Helens, we visit both regularly. Lucky Michael, when the mountain started erupting again, he was only five miles away from the eruptions, and got some fantastic photos and video of the events. He loves spending time together as a family and making sure we all smile atleast ten times a day. He is also working on a model train layout in our garage, it's the biggest and best one he's ever built. The landscaping work looks fantastic.
Theresa - Part (and now part-part time) time jeweler, full time mom and wife. Personally, I love a quiet life minding my own business, however, with Michael, life is almost never quiet , there is always something exciting going on! 
Don't get me wrong, if life was too quiet, I most certainly wouldn't be having as much fun! I'm thoroughly enjoying Stephen, it's so much different being an older mom. You appreciate more of the baby stage than you do when your younger. And things that used to bother you, like fussy days don't so much anymore. I think some of it is experience, you realize how fast this stage flies by, and before you know it, they're 13 and taller than you.
JR - Full time student, full time kid. He is thoughtful, kind, analytical, amiable, tender-hearted and like every other kid I've met, doesn't really like school. He loves fighter jets like his mom, hunting like his dad, and is an awesome fisherman like both his parents. 
He's not sure what he wants to be when he grows up. He talked for a long time about flying airplanes, has thought about becoming a policeman, thought it would be fun to work at Game Crazy, but he honestly hasn't settled on anything, yet. He takes very good care of his younger brother and adores his baby brother. He very willingly picks him up, walks him, entertains him. I don't know what I would do without JR! And by the way, he is taller than I am now... not that it was hard, mom is only 5'1".
Austin - Full-time student, full time kid. Austin is also thoughtful, kind, and tender-hearted but the exact opposite personality of Mikey, he is expressive and driven. He doesn't mind school so much, he loves asking questions about anything and everything and expects and answer. For example, it had been about 2 months since we found out I was pregnant with Stephen, neither one had asked "the question". We're in the middle of dinner, all of us eating, none of us talking and all of a sudden he asks, "How did mom get pregnant?" 
I was ready to tell him something, but Michael told him, "I will have to look that one up, Austin, and get back to you." Michael consulted a friend, who said, "My mom used this on me, and I've used it with my kids - it works. Tell them, "When a mom and a dad love eachother, it makes a baby." They accepted very well." Fortunately for Michael - it did work. He loves his baby brother, and told me the other day, "Mom, I'm so glad you got pregnant." Austin has had his mind set on becoming a firefighter for a long time. Really, he has the personality, the physical ability and the curiosity about human anatomy for it. He loves looking at anatomy in the visual encyclopedia I have. He's not afraid of owies or blood, infact, if you have either, he'll ask to look at it and touch it. He's very concerned if it hurts, and later he'll ask if you are feeling better. He also adores his baby brother. He's always volunteering to entertain him when he's fussy and has even packed him around in the baby wrap.
Benjamin Powell Matthiesen was born October 22, 2008 at 8:32pm, 7lbs 11oz, 20 1/2 inches long. So far he is the baby I thought he would be. Sleeps 2 - 3 1/2 hours at a time, calm and curious. His biggest brothers love him dearly. He was only one day old, Austin told me he absolutely loved him and JR said he couldn't wait to bring him home. Stephen? He's doing well, actually. He loves to rub his head, but then wants to pull his ears and tug at his hands. He tried to share a toy with him the other day and when Ben wouldn't take it, he threw it at him. Hard to explain to the little fella that Ben's too little for toys. He's already gained back some of his weight, he was 7lbs 8oz, the doctor expects him to be almost 8lbs by his two week appointment. I love our new family doctor, he simply doesn't fuss over things that don't need to be fussed over.
A bit of advise - any mom who wants to go through birth natural - hire a Doula they are invaluable for helping you through it all, I went natural these last two times and LOVED it. I would never go back to having an epidural again.
Well, this is it. No more babies for us, we had that permanently taken care of while we were at the hospital. JR didn't quite realize that was what the surgery was for and when I told him, his face fell and he asked, "No more babies?" I swear the boy is going to have 10 kids someday!
That is our family, and we all enjoy lots of time together, playing video games, going for drives, smooching Stephen and Benjamin and in general having family days together.
