"Everyday" Milestones

I have been looking at scrapbooking layouts on one of my favorite scrapbooking websites, creatingkeepsakes.com, recently. I have been getting a lot of insperation on how to design my layouts and also for pages that I want to make. The other night I got a killer headache and took some Excedrin Migrane around 6pm. It made my headache go away, but the caffinee in them kept me awake until around 1am. After Todd went to bed I went online and started looking at pages and pages of layouts. Then I finally crawled into bed and tried to go to sleep, only to start having scrapbooking insperations for pages I wanted to create of things that were happening in our lives! The next day I got yet another insperation for a page to create, or atleast of a memory I wanted to document. Mason had decided that he no longer wanted to sit in his highchair at the table but that he wanted to sit in a big chair like Mommom and Daddy. As he was sitting in his chair waiting for his chicken nuggets to cook he started singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with the hand actions and all. It was adorable and amazing that he did it without being prompted!!! It was the first time that he had ever sang a song on his own and it was totally recognizable. While he was eating his chicken nuggets, I noticed that his highchair, which I need to get cleaned up and taken to Laura's for the triplets to us, was sitting behind him so I grabbed my camera. I thought it was a good way to show one of the "everyday" milestones that kids go through. I loved how Mason's head barely reached over the table, his chin was practically resting on the table top, and he probably couldn't even see into his plate, but he feels like a big boy and that is what matters. I just thougth I would share my little exciting Mom moment with you all.

The End

So I don't know how many of you were still watching The OC or even watched it to begin with. It was my guilty pleasure. I think I only missed a few episodes the whole 4 seasons. I was kinda sad to watch the last episode Thursday night. I liked this season, with Marissa gone, because it seemed a lot more up beat. Her character was just so dark and dramatic last season. I heard that Mischa Barton said that The OC was getting cancelled because her character was gone, but I thought it was better without her. The show was definantly corney and far fetched at times, ie this seasons Chrismakah (sp?) episode, but it was a lot more up beat. I was happy that they wrapped all the stories and gave an "end" to each story line. I was happy that Seth and Summer got together, they were always my favorite characters. I noticed the mention of The Valley getting picked up for 5 more seasons...could this be a sign of things to come? I have already heard rumors that other stations are going to pick up The OC, or maybe the show will continue, just not being called the OC since they are in Berkeley now??? Anyway I guess this is just my little ode to The OC. It was fun while it lasted!!!

Much Too Long

Well if anyone is still checking my blog they will know that it has been much too long since my last post!! The holiday season was a busy and exciting one for our little family. Mason had lots of fun trick or treating as Thomas, didn't enjoy the Thanksgiving Feast but loved spending time at the beach, and was COMPLETELY spoiled at Christmas. We enjoyed time in California with my family and were excited to meet Isaac finally. Mason had lots of fun playing with Auntie Natalie and Uncle Donald. He is getting to be such a big boy, I can't believe that he is almost 2!! Crazy how fast the time flies!!! January flew by for us. Todd is back in school and is taking 3 classes this semester. He has been keeping VERY busy with work, school and homework, and his church calling. But he always makes time to spend with Mason and I. Todd won some tickets to a Blazers game at work so he and I went a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun, and while we were there I realized how long it had been since we had been out on a date. It was even more exciting when the game went into over time and then the Blazers actually won!!! I have been working on Pre-potty training Mason. He has actually gone potty in the toilet about 5 times, but doesn't tell me when he has to go, it just happens to be when he is sitting on the potty. We will probably start it full time in a few more weeks. Mason will be getting 4 new cousins this year, Teri is having a boy at the end of April/Early May and Laura will be having triplets, two boys and a girl, probably toward the end of May. I am excited for the new little ones, Todd is just hoping I won't get bit by the baby bug ;). I am sure that I will be spending lots of time helping Laura with the triplets and Braxton, with four kids under three she will need LOTS of help. We are having fun just watching Mason grow. We hope to take him to Disneyland for the first time in the fall, and then we can also meet Erin and Ben's baby who will be born at the end of June. They will find out next week what they are having. I am so excited for them!! So nothing huge is going on for us right now, just living the life and having fun. We love you all!!!

Oh how I love the Fall

I have really been enjoying this fall season. I love the beautiful colors as the leaves change. I love the few warm days left and the cool, crisp nights. I actually am looking forward to some rain, but come December or January might be changing my story on that one! I love getting ready for the Holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. With a little one it is so much more fun! I love being able to wear sweaters and boots again. I am just excited about fall I guess. I was just telling Todd the other day how it seems like there are so many more trees in the fall than other times of the year because you notice the changing leaves on every single tree you pass, and there are so many different colors. The rest of the year when they are all green they just kind of blend together. But in the fall they all stand out so much. I love just going to run errands and seeing all the trees. Fall in the Northwest is beautiful! We went out to the pumpkin patch this past Saturday. It was a lot of fun. I can't remember a time that I have been to an actual pumpkin patch, so it was exciting for me. They had some pumpkins already picked and some still out in the vines. Mason had a lot of fun running through all the pumpkins and throwing them because he thought they were balls. Luckily he didn't break any of them. I think his favorite part was the train ride when we went throught the tunnel. He is obsessed with tunnels right now. He probably says tunnel about 100 times a day. Anything he sees that even looks like it could be a tunnel he will say it. He loves going between our legs and pretending it is a tunnel. He will say, "TUNNEL" to let us know he is coming and then goes right through. He could probably do this for hours! He is also becoming a lot more vocal about what he wants and what he doesn't want. If we ask him a question and he likes what we say he says, "YEA, YEA, YEA" but if he doesn't he will say, "No, No." I knew the day would come that he started saying No, and I was not looking forward to it. For the most part he is still pretty agreeable, but if he doesn't want something, he will let you know. I guess I would rather that he said No than just screamed! He is working on getting two or three new teeth in, but is still sleeping pretty good, which Todd and I are so thankful for! He is a good little boy and almost always very happy! We sure love him.

"NO"

I think it is so amazing how much little ones grow and develop each day. One day Mason will just start saying or doing something that he never did before. It is amazing that they can understand so much more than they can communicate to us. Mason has a few new words that he says, "Again" he can say all of his numbers 1-10 but doesn't usually do them in order, like if he hears 5 will say 6, 7, 8, when he falls down he says, "I'm OK," he is finally saying Mommy and using it to address me, he says "ball" says and signs airplane, and our least favorite word he has learned, "NO." He usually only says no when I give him something to eat that he doesn't want, he hasn't learned to say it to us when we ask him to do something. He still is completely obsessed with trains and says choo choo train whenever he hears or sees one. He also will make the chugga chugga sound, very precious. He loves to play with his trains on the window sill and could do it for hours on end! He also has a new favorite toy, a shape sorter from Chin. He is getting to be a big boy and I have learned that I can't take my eyes off him for too long or he might get himself into trouble! Yesterday we were at the park with a friend from the ward and her kids and we were talking as the girls were eating their candy necklaces and Mason decided that he wanted to go play on the play structure. He climbed up the stairs, went on the bridge and started playing there. Then the next thing I know I look over and I can't see him anywhere but I can hear him start to whimper. I got up and ran over to the part of the play structure I couldn't see and found him holding on to the play structure hanging by one arm. He must have tried to go down the twisty fire pole and wasn't quite able to reach it! I told Todd when he got home, it would have been such a cute picture to scrapbook, but what kind of Mom would I be if I ran to get the camera instead of getting Mason down! Mason will be starting Nursery on October 8th and we are excited about that. I hope that he won't cry and if he does that it won't be too much! Well we are heading off to the beach for the weekend, so I gotta go finish packing.

E-I-E-I-O

It has been a while since I last posted. Not a lot new going on here, just trying to get some sort of normalcy back into our lives. Todd has been working as a supervisor for the past two weeks and will be doing so for a few more. It has been great because he has been able to work an 8-5 Monday thru Friday, with the exception of one late night Tuesday. It has been nice having him home at nights, but both Mason and I are still trying to adjust to having him gone all day. Since he doesn't get scheduled breaks sometimes we don't get to talk to him at all except at lunch. Mason is all confused about what his sleeping schedule should be. He still thinks he needs to stay up until 11 or 12 because that is when Daddy should be getting home. Then some mornings he will wake up at like 8am, this morning he didn't get up until 10am and that is only because I went in his room and woke him up. He is only taking one nap a day, unless he takes a cat nap in the car. He has gotten to the point to where he will sleep through most of the night most of the nights. Usually if he does wake up it is about 5am to have some milk and then go back to sleep for a few more hours. He is talking a whole lot more, he says, "All done," "choo choo train," "bye, see you," "where did daddy go?," and will copy pretty much anything you say. He is learning all the family members names and just loves looking through the photo album I am putting together for him. The other night the whole family was together and Mason was looking through a book of Thomas stickers and we were saying all the names and then all the sudden he points to Todd's dad and says, "There's Papa!" and then just went right back to the book. Tom was a proud Grandpa that night! We are teaching him to say "Trick or Treat" for Halloween, it is pretty cute to hear him say. The other day he was playing with his little people farm and if you turn a wheel it plays Old McDonald. Well he turned it and the music started playing and he started singing along with the music. The only thing I understood was "E-I-E-I-O" but I thought that was pretty cool! It is amazing to see and hear all the new things he learns each day. I have been keeping busy with my calling, October means the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. Luckily I didn't have to write it, but there is still lots for me to do. We are looking forward to October 8th which will be Mason's first day in nursery. I am curious to see how he will do. The secretary in the presidency has a 3 year old who will be in the nursery with Mason, and Mason is afraid of him, so it will be interesting to see how he handles being in there with him two hours every Sunday. I think he will cry, but will calm down, and will stay close to the nursery leaders. I know Todd is excited to finally be able to attend classes without the distraction that Mason can cause! We sure love our little man and he brings so much happiness to our lives!

Whale Sighting

So we went out to the beach this weekend and ofcourse had lots of fun. We didn't do anything big this time, it was nice to just kinda hang out. We drove down to Tillamook and went to Cape Meares and saw the lighthouse there. We also saw a whale spouting water, it was soo cool. It was really foggy there, so we only saw him for a few minutes before the fog bank rolled in and we lost him. Todd just wanted to go boogieboarding all weekend and finally got a chance Monday morning. He ofcousre had to wear a wetsuit because the water is totally freezing!! But he had lots of fun until he saw a fish jump in the water and got spooked by it because that morning he had heard about how Steve Irwin had been stung by a sting ray and died. It looked like Todd was having so much fun that I decided to give it a shot too, with the wetsuit ofcourse. Even with the wetsuit the water was still freezing but I tried a few times before I got out! I guess once you have been in the water in Hawaii nothing else will do!!! Anyway we had a lot of fun at the coast this weekend. Mason absolutely loves the beach, but has wised up about how cold the water is and runs away from the waves instead of into them. Although he still loves to go out in them if someone is holding him. He loves running in the sand and enjoyed digging in it while Todd was boogieboarding. His favorite part about the beach is all the birdies and doggies that he sees on the beach. A lot of times people will bring their dogs over for Mason to pet and he just loves that. One morning when we were walking on the beach he just sat and watch these two dogs chase their balls into the water. He would just laugh and smile at them!! He also started saying two new words/phrases this weekend, "stuck" and "go train go" we also figured out that he says "azul, azul, azul" (spanish for blue) which he learned from his favorite Dora episode where Dora rides a blue train named Azul and says azul to help him go fast. It is pretty cute! We sure enjoyed our summer and were glad we were able to spend a lot of time at the beautiful coast. Now it is back to real life, Sierra will be coming back 2-3 days a week and Todd will be starting classes at the end of September. He will be taking 3 classes this quarter so he will be super busy. In the end it will all be worth it though, we just wish the end could get here faster!!! We are excited with the news that another niece/nephew is on the way, Matt and Teri are expecting and Laura could be soon. She is doing an invetro process and should find out in about two weeks if the first set of eggs worked. We are excited for both of them and are crossing our fingers for a little girl!!!