Month in Review...

So it has been over a month since my last post... I have been extrememly busy at work and can't get the desire to come home and sit at my computer to blog! I have just spent the last hour catching up on everyone elses blogs, and now it is time to get my blog caught up! Sine the last post Mason had his first birthday party... what an event! I have to thank my mom and dad once again for letting us have the party at their house... there is no way that all of those people would have fit in our house! I guess that is what happens when you have a very LARGE family! Mike made a comment to me during the party that there were "a lot of people here" and I looked at him and said, "Well it is all family... and mostly yours!" Dispite all of the chaos it really was fun and Mason enjoyed himself along with the cake... well I guess I should say cupcake! He had a full cake for his 1 year pictures that I had taken, so I figured he did not need another!

Mason is now walking full speed... I don't know why I was so excited for him to walk becasue now he wants to walk everywhere... including the Mall and Costco the Saturday before Christmas, just a few people to manuver around! He has also discovered my tupperware cupboard... not only does he pull everything out of it, he climbs inside of it! (See pics in the slideshow!)

I put up our Christmas tree after much hesitation... worried that it would be more work keeping Mason away than it was worth... Mike won and I put up the tree! However, smarty pants kept pestering me to put the tree up because he had bought me a present and wanted to put it under the tree... however, he hid it in the garage with the Christmas decorations! So needless to say I found the present... what a surprise! Mason has taken off all of the ornaments at the bottom of the tree... but has only broken one of the glass bulbs!

For my moms birthday wish, she wanted to go see Christmas lights with the Kids! We chose to go to the Zoo Lights, rather than downtown! Besides freezing our butts off, and taking Mason out with a 103 degree fever... it was a good time! They did a really cute job of decorating and we even got to see some of the animals awake! Mason loved the carosel, I think that was the only time that he cracked a smile the whole night! He is finally feeling better and has fully recovered from the ear infection, that took two times to the dr. to diagnose!

The last even to date worth blogging about was the visit from Santa yesterday! My cute Uncle Don dresses up as Santa every year for the kids and delivers presents. Mason did surprisingly well, at first it was a little sketchy, but by the end he was doing better. I only have a few pictures from the day, I am waiting to get more from Grandma Cher... she came with her new camera and was the photographer! She only took 778 pictures in a little over an hour! Those of you who know her this probably does not come as much of a surprise! Thanks for coming up! It was great to have you there!

Hopefully now that the open enrollment season is coming to an end I will be better about keeping my blog updated! No guarentees though... just wishful thinking!

And by the way... if there is anyone interested in a German Shephard let me know! I am ready to kill my dog right now! He has been crying outside the entire time I have been working on this post and he is right below Mason's room where he is sleeping!

How time Flies!

This was just the beginning of a fabulous year! I can't imagine my life without my Mason! He is such a happy little boy... we were truly blessed!


Our First Family Photo... doesn't it look like he just "slid" right out... HA


Proud YoYo


Mason 7lbs 15 oz 21 inches long...

Halloween

Here are some pictures from our very busy Halloween! Mason was such a trooper, stayed awake ad happy until 10:00PM... with NO nap during the day! I guess it showed when he didn't wake up until 10:45AM the next morning! The day started off playing with his cousin Jake, then went to a Halloween party at my Grandma's, from there he was dropped off at my work to go trick-or treating, then off to COSTCO to visit Mike and show off his costume (Mike wanted to be surprised, so he didn't know what Mason was until he saw him), then stopped by to visit my long lost friend Ashley and her family, made an appearance and had Dinner at Mike's family Halloween party and then finished the night at my parents house, where Mason and Jake found great amusement in eating the candy... still in the wrappers! I guess they just liked the sounds that the plastic made!

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we carved pumpkins as a family for the first time... Tim the tool man thought that it would be a great idea to carve open the pumpkins with his electric saw... and I must say that it worked pretty well! Mason loved playing in the seeds and even thought that he might try them!

Before...


Power saw meets pumpkin!


Mason playing in the seeds...


Mike & Mason


Mason & Mom


The "WOOD-o-lantern"


Oh and after we finished carving pumpkins our little boy took his FIRST STEPS! I got it on video, but I can't get my video camera to load onto my computer... I will try to get some video tomorrow with my mom's camera to post... so stay tuned!

The Boys

Just thought that this was a cute picture of Mason and Jake... could they look anymore alike? No wonder people are always asking if they are twins!



Just Kidding!

Pumpkin Patch

So I am a little behind in posting these pictures, but better late than never! Alicia, Mason, Chaia and I went to the Pumpkin Patch to try to get some pictures for the Halloween frames that I made... thanks to my crafty sister, I too had a crafty moment too! The day we went to the pumpkin patch was freezing, Mason was way past nap time and had the poopiest diaper ever... so given all of the elements, the pictures turned out pretty well! I would still like to get some in better conditions, but seeing that Halloween is only 3 days away I think that my window of opportunity may be over... there is always next year!

Spaghetti Anyone?

Hungry?

We're Back!

Yes, we are back from Virginia but also back to the "blogging world"! I know it has been a very long time since the last time I have updated my blog, and I do not have any good reasons for being such a slacker other than the battery in my camera decided to die AGAIN... and not re-charge! This is the 3rd battery I have had to replace in my camera... I am not a fan of the re-chargable lithium batteries!

For those of you who don't know, Mike, Mason and I just returned from a week long vacation in Virginia visiting Mike's Grandma and Grandpa. The red-eye flight was a little fightning going into it, but Mason did surprisingly well. He only slept for about an hour and a half on the flight to Atlanta, but sure did charm the pants off of the flight attendents the rest of the time that he was awake. Mason and I spent a lot of time standing at the back of the plane so we would not disturb the rest of the plane that was sleeping. As soon as we caught our connecting flight in Atlanta to D.C. Mason passed right out, he slept the entire 2 hour flight (which also meant that I as able to sleep) and didn't wake up until after we had gotten our luggage. 5 hours of flying combined with a 2 hour layover is grueling for anyone... so given the circumstances Mason did great!

They live right outside of Washington D.C. so we were able to go into the District a few times and check out some of the sites! We visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Capitol Hill, White House, Washington Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial all in one day... we walked and walked and walked some more!

Mike has been dying to go to Six Flags ever since he saw a documentary on the Discovery Channel about how roller coasters are made, so lucky for him there was a Six Flags 35 minutes from where we were staying. We took the trip to Six Flags in Maryland and couldn't have had more fun. I was able to work my magic to get us in for 1/2 price, we walked on to every ride and had ridden all 8 of the major roller coasters in less than an hour and a half! After seeing the signs showing the wait time on the entrance of each of the coasters at "90 minutes from this point" we knew we were in luck! There were times I wanted to chicken out... especially on the Spiderman Rollercoaster, but I was brave and rode all of them like a champ! Good to know that I can still ride roller coasters without getting sick even after having a baby!(For those of you who are curious where Mason was while we were galavanting like little kids again, he was at home with his Grandma Cher!

Prior to all of the fun, we did spend 2 days gutting his grandparents attic and 3 dump trucks later you could actually walk though the attic and can now see everything that is up there!

Virginia is such a beautiful place, I can't wait to go again! Thanks much to Grandma and Grandpa for their hospitality!

Orange County

We took a trip to Orange County last week, and had so much fun relaxing at the beach. This was Mason's first airplane ride and he did great, considering that he had an ear infection and I didn't know it! He loved everything about the beach, especially eating the sand! Sorry there are so many pictures, but when you have over 700 pictures to choose from it is hard to narrow them down. Thanks to Cherilyn the picture queen... we will remember every moment of the vacation. Hey if you scroll through them fast enough it turns into a motion picture!

My Little Scooter!

Mason has discovered his own way of crawling... now I don't know if he will ever figure out the "real thing". He has been scooting around like this for about a month now... he can get up on all 4's... but apparently finds this to be easier than actually crawling!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July! We had a great holiday weekend and fortunately the weather cooperated to make the weekend even better! Mike golfed Friday morning and Mason and I went over to my parents and swam in the kiddie pool with Ellie, Jake, Goliath. Yes, I did say Goliath! He loved the kiddie pool, I don't think that the kids were big fans of him swimming with him, but he had a fine time. Later that evening, we went over to John & Cherilyns for a neighborhood BBQ... and fininshed the evening watching fireworks from Rick & Connie's deck. Thanks to everyone for your hospitality! Saturday morning started out early for a day on the lake. We went up to East Canyon with my family. We had so much fun. Mason loved the water... but was not a fan of the life jacket. Who ever invented that life jacket must not have kids... it was so uncomfortable for him... luckily we steered clear of the ranger, so he didn't have to keep it on all day! Here are some pics from the weekend... enjoy!


Family Photo... these are very rare!



I loved these pictures!




Mason & Jeremy


The lifejacket... see what I mean?


He loved floating in the tube!


Nap time was a bit sketchy on the lake... but he finally figured it out!

Lizard?

I got a text message from Mike yesterday while I was at work informing me of the new creature that had let himself into our house! Apparently he thought that he too would fit in nice with Mason, Goliath, Mike & I. Thanks to my eco-friendly grocery bags in the bottom of the pantry, it made the catch pretty easy. Apparently their little claws get caught in those cloth bags!

Swimming!

As you all know the temperatures keep rising... and we have discovered that the pool is a great way to cool off. Mason LOVES to swim... or should I say float! He is content to float around in the water for hours. We went swimming on Friday afternoon and again this morning with Jake and Ellie. Thanks for coming with us we had so much fun!

Dolls...?

So tonight we were over at my mom's house and Mason discovered "baby beans". I don't know how his daddy is going to feel about him playing with dolls... maybe we should not show him these pictures!

Happy Father's Day

Yesterday was Mike's first Father's Day! The day started off as a normal Sunday at 2:45 AM for work, followed by 9 holes of golf, and a steak dinner over at my mom and dad's house.

I just want everyone to know how lucky Mason is to have a dad that spends so much time with him... sometimes I get jealous of how much time they get to spend together! Mike is such an amazing dad... better than I could have ever expected! I love you babe!


Mike & Mason



Mason playing in the grass

Ellie & Mason

Jake & Mason... sorry Jake... Mason is kind of turning into a toy hog! We will work on sharing!