Merry Christmas!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday we are sad we cant join you! We miss you all and hope to visit soon! Until then Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
Love,
Matt and Melissa!!

New Home!!!

Matt and I finally made it to texas last monday but the movers are not hear yet:( hopefully they will be hear either fri or sat until then i posted some pics of our new home you can check them out on our blog!!

I guess if you drive at night often enough, you're bound to hit a deer sometime.  Well, this one sure was a surprise!!  Just after Weableau on our way home from Stockton, a doe at a hard run popped up out of the big dark ditch.  A big crunch at 55 or 60 mph. Surprisingly, no glass was broken.  I guess the hood rumpling up kept it from coming up to the windshield.  And amazingly Dallas was still asleep through the whole thing.  Grandpa and a tow truck came to our rescue.  We were leaking fluids like crazy, especially the radiator.  Otherwise we could have still driven it I guess.  We're just so thankful no one was hurt.  Waiting around in an emergency room would have made it so much worse.  Now we get to play ring around the rosies with the insurance company.  :0(

Addresses

Ok so I know Matt and I are the worst when it comes to sending our nieces and nephews birthday cards and such and we want to change that! I have always been big into birthdays but it seems like since we have been married life has just been placed on warp speed!! Im sure it will only get worse when we have kids! To make sure I get cards out to everyone I need addresses so if you could email me your mailing address that would be wonderful! birdfamily27@gmail.com Now I want to start with the month of December so I need addresses soon!! Happy thanksgiving to everyone! I hope that everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving day we love you all and miss you all!!

p.s. what is the plan for Elder Bird coming home? do we all plan to get together or those of us who can make it show up?

Very christmasy

I like the new look! Very christmasy (if that is even a word). This is much easier to blog - now I might actually keep up with it!

new invitations

Sorry it took me so long to respond Julie.  I finally sent you, and others of the family who haven't been posting on the blog, a new invitation to be added as a contributor.  Hope that fixes your blogging problems.  Best, Katie

Busy fall

We have had a very busy fall so far. Brendan has ran cross country, competed at district and state levels in the FFA grasslands team, and latest he was Barnwarming candidate. He did not win but it was a lot of fun. Bowen and Brice have been busy too - mainly following Brendan around to his events. He will be attending the national grasslands competetion next May - long ways to travel - Springfield MO! Hahaha ! I am going to try to figure this blog thing out and use it more.

Christmas Exchange

Mike- Johnny           Katie- Jackson
Jackson-Matt           Matt- Mike
Johnny- Amy Jo       Amy Jo- Katie

Remember: Game Theme. Happy Shopping!

Christmas Exchange

THEME: Games

We will be doing a random draw this week to find out who's family to buy for. It can be board games, computer, yard, video, sporting games, etc. Anything you think your persons family would love. No money limit, but don't break the bank. Isaac will not be included in this exchange, but everyone needs to send him some love. He needs lots of it.

Also I would like everyone to think about next years schedule and compare notes with all of us to chose a date for our Family Reunion. We need to be together, too much has happened since we all were together last.
More updates to come. Love ya.

Blessing Day

There were 3 blessings in the ward today and we were the last. She was fussing through the other 2, but made it through hers and sacrament fine. Then it was out the door, I'm hungry. Peter gave a nice blessing and it was a beautiful day. Darrell, Anne and the 3 youngest came out Saturday for some leaf raking and trick or treatin. They left after sacrament meeting. I wish we all lived close together so we could have had you all here too. Marie is a such a sweet, smiley thing. At the 2 month check up she weighed 12lbs 3oz. Just perfect to cuddle and squish. Hope you all had a fun weekend.

We had to be to church early for me to meet with the bishopric. Now I am not a primary teacher. I am the 2nd councilor in the primary presidency. What fun!

Happy Halloween!

What georgious Autumn weather!

Thanks for letting us raid your costume chest Grandma.

James had us walking all over the neighborhood until Dallas fell asleep.  Then the 3 older kidos bribed him with "We'll give all our Reeses if you take us to some more houses."  It worked, so I'm watching the sleeping giraffe and passing out the candy.  Halloween sure is fun around here.  I don't know how many full sized candy bars they've gotten already.

Hope you have an enjoyable evening!!!

More posts

Just so everyone knows i updated our blog again. If you type in mandmbird.blogspot.com its a little easier to get to then the directions before! I posted some pics of some housing possibility's at dyess AFB and other things we have been up to.

Smile

2009 Sheppard Air Show

Just so you all know i posted a new blog on our blog! It takes forever to upload pics and write so thats why I always just upload on our blog! To get to our blog if you go under contributors (before the Bird days) and click on M&M and then click on The Birds (there is 2 of them that say The Birds its the first one) our blog will pop up! Matt and I had such a fun 3 day weekend! We went to see the air show and bought a new Labtop! The new labtop was desperetly needed we were useing a 6 yr old Toshiba!! Now we can use the interenet at a speed faster then dial up times!!

More of the Girls

Just calm and enjoying the sun while the big girls take a nap.

This is Marie's favorite position in the afternoon. We need to work on burping at night so her tummy is not so upset during the day.

Maren and Lily never seem to get enough of sweet little Marie. Everywhere I put her they find a way to come give more loves.

Fall Fun!!

Matt and I have been up to a lot of fun things I posted new stuff on our blog and we even bought a new car!! You should check out our blog and you can see lots of pictures of what we have been up to and our new car!

Bertha Marie Hansen

We finally named her. Yeah! Here are a few of the fun pics of the week. You will all have to take a trip to Louisville if you want to see some more. We sure are happy to have Mom and Dad here. I think Dad needs a few more things to keep him occupied though. The girls love to see the baby and always want to touch her. Maren loves to swipe Hannah's binki and Lily wants to hold her and touch her soft hair.

So in the course of the week this sweet little ones name has changed several times. We have decided now and her name is Bertha Marie. We will call her Marie and Love it.

Tid-bit of summer

We made progress.  We got all the stucco done and painted, all the new windows are in, all the old kitchen cabinets out.  The list of things to do is GRADUALLY getting shorter.  I told James we'd better get it done soon cuz he ran out of brothers to come help.  :0)

A quick family shot before church.  Tyler was handy to have around.   And here is Mommy's big helper!  He watched me paint for two days and I guess he figured he knew what he was doing by then.  While I was concentrating on a small brush area (up the big orange ladder) he grabbed my mini-roller and went to town.  Nothing a little more paint couldn't fix!

Fair

We played from about 3 til 9 and walked the whole fair grounds about 3 times. It was lots of fun to see the shows and watch the girls get so excited to see the different animals. Maren was trying so hard to reach the goats through the fences and Lily was a little too brave to go up to the cows and pet them whenever she wanted. I have had a few contractions but not any labor yet. I will probably just have sore legs and still be tired tomorrow. It was a fun family day.

Fun update

So I just thought I would let everyone know that Matt is doing amazing! Hes been busy working out, playing with plains, studying, and taking tests! I have to say I'm so very proud of him! He has not failed any of the tests he has had to take! he took his final this morning and passed with flying colors! Hes done so well he has not scored anything under and 85%!!! He is one of the few guys who have not been put on mandatory study! Even though he has not been put on mandatory study he still studies for at least 2-3 hrs a day!! I am so proud of him for being very organized and committed to his studies! He is now done with the classroom part and can now move on to the fun playing with the plain part! He has had some fun already playing in flight simulators and playing around with tools. We had a fun weekend playing in Dallas this past weekend. We stayed in the most lavish hotel i have every stayed in and played at six flags! We had a ton of fun celebrating are 3 year anniversary at a delicious seafood restaurant and enjoying are hotel over looking the city! I'm sad to leave Matt again but am very excited its only short term!! I cant wait to come back and live close to him and be able to see him every day!!

Having some fun at stake and shakes!!!=)

Having a little fun and very handsome in uniform!!

So serious!

Potty Training

Well Lily isn't doing so great with the whole training thing, but Maren sure thinks it's fun. I tell Lily it's time to go potty and she runs to hide, but Maren runs for the bathroom and sits on the potty as fast as she can. She even gets her diaper off sometimes before getting there.

Update!

So I updated matt and my blog. We have had a lot going on and i would have posted on this one but I was done with the whole bloging thing! Im going out to see matt in 10 days so I will post more pictures of him. He is doing very well and ready for us to live together again. I will be in texas with him for 3 weeks then back in bozeman for 2 weeks and then all of september with matt again. Its hard for us to be apart so its nice that we will be able to see eachother again!!

Summer Activites

We have been having lots of fun with the weather turning warm. I just thought I would show ya some cute pics of the girlies.

Painting Job

It was pretty messy work, but boy was is worth it. The walls are painted a light creamy color with the white trim that make a wonderful contrast with the green and red door and our beautiful new floors. I love it! We (Peter) just have to finish cleaning up the trim and paint the cabinets and we are done with the inside of the house. It is sooo nice. Peter is also working on the outside wood that needs to be scraped, fix the rot and repainted. He is working in stages around work and rain. He just finished the gabble end above the driveway and it looks great.

Finally almost at the end!!!!!

So I have been lucky enough to talk to Matt every Sunday since he has been gone! He is doing very well and for some reason it does not seem to affect him as bad as we all thought. He is actually enjoying himself but really missing the fun times at home and the simple things. I started thinking of all the simple things that life has to offer and how much the simple things really do matter. After all its the simple things that lead up to the big things in life. When i was at church i started to think about how the simple things in the Gospel bring us great joys in our life. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a member of the only true church on the earth today. I'm so grateful for a husband who is obedient to the word of God. Who loves the gospel so very much. I'm so grateful for the family he grew up in that teaches their children strong gospel principles and did their very best to make sure he took his wife to the Temple. I'm so excited to teach our kids all about the Gospel and hope that they to one day enjoy the simple things in life that lead to the big things! I believe Matt is doing so well because he has not only the love of his family for support but the love from His Father in Heaven. I know that by reading scriptures and saying prayers even when we are far apart only make us grow stronger and closer to one another. Sorry for a long post with no pictures but I hope that as you go through out your week you take a minute to really enjoy the simple things in life. That even when baby's are crying and things don't seem to be going are way that we thank Heavenly Father for all that we do have. Well i better get off to work but I love you all very much and cant wait to see you again.
Love,
Melissa

Walking Finally!

Maren is still not brave or steady, but at least she is trying. She now takes several trips across the house a day without the help of her favorite chairs. But the chairs are still used plenty for climbing.

A few fun pics.