Shake yo booty...

This is now how we amuse ourselves...Sorry you have to turn your head to watch..

Parental Visitors...

This weekend we had my dad, step-mom, and little brother Steve come up and visit and meet Zoey! It was so much fun to have them here with Zoey and even better that they took her at night so Gary and I could sleep for more than 2 hours at a time! It was also Zoey's first time at the beach.. and though she slept through the entire experience.. I know she loved it! We loved having them visit and can't wait until they come back! Zoey misses her Papa and Nana already!

Papa and Zoey spending quality time together!

Beach Baby! Soo cute!

Family at the beach.. don't you want to come and visit!

Zoey and her "favorite" uncle Steve...(cause he's the only uncle she has met..) Sorry Paul and Brett!

Birthday Celebrations!

On Thursday we had some people over to celebrate Gary's birthday and play some Wii... Gary's parents came over and we introduced them to the Wii... ENJOY!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my daddy's birthday! I am so lucky to have the best daddy in the whole world! I am definitely his little girl and I have him wrapped around my lil' finger! I can't wait until I am bigger and can get whatever I want! I love you daddy! Happy Birthday!



Zoey had her two-week check-up today and she is 8lbs 3oz and is 21 inches. Man she is growing like a weed...

2 week old tummy time....

I can't believe she is two weeks old... time is seriously flying by... i think it must be the lack of sleep!


(sorry its so dark..)

Moms live for this....

4 generations of women in my family...


Brotherly love..


The reason i love being a mom...



Happy Mother's Day!

One week old...

Zoey is now one week old.. and its crazy to think that time is already flying by.. my mom and grandmother have been here to help out .. and they have been amazing..it has been nice not to worry about food, laundry, cleaning, or any other household duties... Zoey had her orthopedic appointment yesterday and the doctor gave her a clean bill of health.. her pediatrician also said that she was happy and healthy.. once again confirming that she is PERFECT... was there ever any doubt??

Mohawk baby!


Happy as ever!

Obsession...

Some new pictures for you.....
On the way home from the hospital.. I think I overestimated the size of my child!


First Bath.. the second one went much better!




Our lil' soccer star...


Dad is getting the hang of this...

only my brother...

after sending pics to family and friends... only my brother paul would come up with this....

At Last....

3 days late and 21 hours of labor... Zoey Elizabeth Mattes decided to make her appearance on April 29th! Here is the basic run down of events....

Monday- April 28th
9:30 pm - Gary and I was watching television eagerly awaiting midnight so that we can head to the hospitalto start my induction... when whoosh.. my water breaks! I tell gary that he might want to shower now instead of later since my water just broke.. to which he responds "you're kidding right?!?!?"

10:15 pm - Gary and I are off to the hospital and of course hit EVERY red light and get behind the ONE guy who drive 10 MPH UNDER THE SPEED LIMIT! needless to say we arrived safely.. thank goodness it wasn't an emergency

11:00pm - Im getting settled into my room, IV's meds all that good stuff.. only problem is I wasn't feeling any contractions! still 1 centimeter dialted!

11:30pm - Our friends Jenn and Hayden come by to help pass the time with us!

1:00am - Walk #1 - around the hospital floor, around labor and delivery, the children's hospital... everywhere! Gary found the "game room" in the children's hospital and we "borrow" scrabble.. to pass some time!

3:00am - Walk #2 - same route as last time... however we return scrabble and "borrow" trivial pursuit...

5:00am - Pitocin has begun... still not feeling contractions.. still only 1 centimeter dialted Trivial pursuit is too hard and we are never going to win so we call it a night.

7:00 - 9:00am - THE WORST TWO HOURS OF MY LIFE!!! Full blown contrations! i don't think i spoke one word for the entire two hours except to ask my doctor for an epidural!!!! 3 centimeters dialted.... (only 3 after 12 hours! i was soooo pissed)Seriously how and why do people do this without drugs... are you sick?? who wants to be in that much pain!

9:30am - Drug doctor finally comes! I love this man.. the only problem now is I can't feel my legs.. hmmm

10:00am - 2:00pm - sleeping on-and-off...

3:00 - 5:00pm - No pain whatsoever! contractions are getting stronger.. or so they told me... 9-10 centimeters! I begin thinking how am i going to push if i can't feel anything..

5:30pm - Doctor shows up.. start pushing!!! Couldn't feel if i was actually pushing or not!

6:00pm - Im SOOOOOOOOOOOO tired! Doctor uses a vacuum...
.... two pushes and 13 mnutes later.....

ZOEY ELIZABETH MATTES IS BORN!!!! woohoo!

Thank you for all the love and phone calls! We really appreciate them! She is the best thing in the world! and can not imagine life without her!

My final post..

PRE-ZOEY! It is official! tonight we go into the hospital to be induced. I had my ultrasound this morning and everything looks GREAT!! thank goodness! I must say i am sooooo excited to have pregnancy be over, to finally see my baby, and to be a mom... Its one of those things that you always wait and wait for and now that i am hours away the whole experience seems surreal.. my pregnancy has been wonderful with zero complications and for that i am thankful! i must also take the time to say thank you to all our friends and family for their amazing love and support of zoey.. and she is not even born yet! how could i have asked for more!

I am also extremely thankful for my amazing husband who has been there every step of the way... putting up with me, making runs to random food places, putting up with specific cravings, sleeping in another room when i would snore, and most importantly for making me a mom! that above all i am thankful for!


(i made it... 40 week and 2 days!!)

Come and gone...

that would be my due date.. it has come and gone with no signs of baby... i know i shouldn't be upset or disappointed about the whole thing since your due date is an estimate and i am being induced on Tuesday.. but still a part of me is disappointed... i know i'm close to this being over.. but man it would have been nice to be holding a baby today... oh well...

We do appreciate everyone calling with concern and wonder about Zoey.. i think she might be the most anticipated child ever... but we will call you when she is here... we promise!

The good news and the not-so-good news

The good news: I am scheduled to be induced on Tuesday starting at midnight.. so technically Tuesday morning! After my doctor's appointment yesterday, I expressed my discomfort the past couple of weeks and my doctor said that she could take care of that by scheduling an induction. So Monday I have to go in and get an ultrasound to make sure Zoey's head is down, and then we go into the hospital on Monday at midnight.. weird I know but at this point I would go into the hospital at any time of the day if it meant that this would be over soon! WOOHOO only 4 more days of being pregnant!

The not-so-good news: I am no where near having this child in the next 4 days! I have had mild contractions all ending quickly after they begin... so basically I go through a cyclical depression.. I get excited because I am having contractions and then get depressed when they don't last and go away..in the mean time I am walking all day, cleaning the house, playing wii and doing as many deep knee bends as my knees can take.. and still nothing.. whoever came up with these "old wives tales" really needs to reevaluate their effectiveness because NONE OF THEM WORK! I think even Gary is over this whole thing.. so pray and hope that we don't have to wait until Monday and Zoey decides to come this weekend! We will of course keep you posted!

Stay-at-home Mom???

Am I considered a stay-at-home mom if the baby isn't here yet?? today is my first day with NO SCHOOL! its amazing to be able to sleep in until 9 am, when normally i would be in third period... i made a wonderful breakfast for myself and now am enjoying watching all the TLC shows i can stand! The dogs are LOVING life right now, since someone is home to pay attention to them (as if they don't get enough attention already) this definitely has the potential to become very addicting... one of us just needs to win the lottery so this can be reality one day...

Today I have what will hopefully be my last doctor's appointment where we can figure out what is going on... but for now enjoy what I am hoping this will be that last big belly picture of this pregnancy...



(don't you love the outfit...)

One week...

As of today, I have one more week of being pregnant! I am trying to do everything I can to induce labor so that it is less than a week... but so far nothing has worked.. walking, cleaning, wii.. none of it has induced any contractions.. in fact since I have been trying to induce labor I have had LESS contractions! SO since it appears I will still be pregnant by the end of the weekend at least I only have 2 MORE DAYS LEFT OF SCHOOL!

38 Weeks...

38 weeks... and hopefully less than 2 to go! At least this picture signifies that I only have 5 more days left of school before I am on maternity leave! WOOHOO... that I am definitely looking forward to.. I would like to say that I am one of those teachers that will really miss her students.. but sadly I am not.. I will enjoy every second that I am away from my students and school! The fear of child birth is no longer my greatest fear of the up coming weeks...I am more in fear that my students will show up at the hospital while I am giving birth... (many of them have expressed that they will show up) Be scared for me!

ps- Thank you to everybody that has voted that I will have Zoey early! I knew I liked you guys! Let's just hope it comes true!

1 centimeter!!!

I never thought i would be so excited about something so small... but i learned today that i am one centimeter dialated and the doctor could feel the baby's! WOOHOO! i know to those who have had children that this is nothing and truly doesn't mean a lot.. but it made me soo excited! i have had more contractions in the past couple of days.. of course nothing significant... mostly they are random and infrequent but it just makes me excited that I am that much closer!!!! 9 more to go!

37 weeks and new furniture!

Please try not to look at my face.. only focus on the belly! With this posting I am now excited because it means I have less than three weeks before Zoey is in the world!! With doctors visits once a week and school starting again I think the next three weeks are going to fly by.. at least hopefully... (I think Cyrus was jealous of the picture..)

We made our final pre-Zoey purchase with the help of some of the wonderful teachers that work with Gary... i love it! its so comfortable, i often will just rock there by myself.. now truly all we need is Zoey!

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!? My in-laws bought us this gorgeous table for our new house! It's perfect for the space and fits perfectly with everything else we have! Though we haven't eaten dinner on it yet i know it will be perfect for many many many family dinners to come! Thanks mom and dad!

What is wrong with this picture?

The below picture might help to illustrate why our dogs our spoiled... and why they think that they are humans... Yes that is our bed.. my husband on the left, both dogs next to him... and yes that area to the right of the picture is where i would be sleeping... all four of us pretty much "spoon" all night... wanna trade spots?

Wii would like to play...

In the midst of a pretty uneventful spring break and with our newest addition well on her way... the Mattes family has purchased a Wii! and in the span of 21 hours hours we have played the Wii for about 8 hours already.. Gary pretty much kicks my butt in all the games except for a couple games of bowling and golf.. i dominated golf last night! so while we are at home with our lil' Zoey... we will have entertainment! I highly recommend them to anyone...

(video was asked to be removed by my husband... those who watched i hope you enjoyed!)