Mason on the Move

So do you know the saying "If you can't beat'em...join'em?" Well this is like that except it's "If you can't keep him still......take his picture anyway!" Mason is definitely the busiest person I know and he gets into EVERYTHING. He...unrolls toilet paper, opens drawers, pulls everything out of the drawers, puts crazy & random things in the drawers, sits IN the refrigerator, climbs on/under/through furniture, jumps on the couch, climbs up the playhouse, slides down the slide by himself, hits the dog with a plastic baseball bat, plays in the dog's food/water, climbs in his car "Dukes of Hazard" style (through the window), throws perfectly good food/cups/other objects in the trash, tries to climb in the bath tub (water or no water), picks up bugs/rocks/cigarette-butts off the ground then tries to eat'em, throws food from his high chair and then decides that maybe it tastes better off the floor (YUCK!), kicks/throws/hits every kind of ball you can think of, and he thinks EVERYTHING is a sword and then will attack you with such sword... And all of this stuff was just in the last few days! He definitely keeps us on our toes and there is no doubt this kid is all BOY!

Going down the slide in the backyard. (Crazy swimwear and crazy hair secondary to swimming pool just prior to photo)

Playing swords with cousin Lauren at the lake. Pieces of wood make great swords!

Climbing the stairs at the lake

High-fiving Gramps

Carrying his basketball. Check out the lean little body! So adorable!

Sitting in the fridge...I don't know why he does this!?!

Climbing through a bookshelf I bought for his room!

Florida Fun

We recently took a trip to Destin, Florida and invited our friends Jennifer & JR to come with us. We stayed in a condo that was actually in Miramar Beach. Mason stayed home with Mimi, Nana and Annie. They all took turns taking care of him. Although we missed him so much, it was amazing getting to sleep-in, go to the beach on a whim and eat nice dinners in peace. During our stay we mostly went to the beach, but also did some snorkeling and even rented a boat one day so we could check out "Crab Island." The condo was awesome, the white sand beaches were amazing, and the food was delicious. All in all... we had a fantastic time!



Jenn and I at Pompano Joe's the first night. This restaurant was right on the beach and across from where we were staying...first on the agenda...drinks!

The second night we went to Osaka, a local Japanese Steakhouse and sat at the Hibachi grill. Our cook was hilarious... "You want gravy Cowboy"





Chris and I on the beach. JR was our photographer.


Jennifer & JR at the Village of Baytowne Wharf inside the Sandestin Resort

The last day we were there the water was incredibly clear. Chris and JR spent a lot of time snorkeling. They say some large fish and a stingray!

Good Luck Aunt Falon

Best wishes for your upcoming surgery. We'll be thinking of you and we love you!

Fourth of July

So it's been like a decade since I've blogged but here goes. We have been super busy as I'm sure everyone else has too. Life with a one-year-old is a different kind of hard...non-stop, always on-the-go hard. We had a terrific "Fourth" at Chris' parents lakehouse. They had their family reunion on the fourth, so the day was full of lots of people...many of which had not seen Mason since the reunion last year when he was only 3 weeks old...he's definitely changed just a little! That night we sat in the screened-in area of the boathouse and watched fireworks. Mason liked the sight but not the sound! He fell asleep sitting in my lap while we were out there. He's turning into quite the little boy...but still a mama's boy for now!

Mason is ONE!

Look how far we've come...our little guy is officially no longer a baby, he is a one year old. Time flies when you are having fun and we feel a great sense of accomplishment for surviving our first year of being parents. It definitely wasn't easy, but well worth every second.

Mason weighs about 20 pounds and is about 30 in. tall. We go to the doctor on Friday to get the official numbers. He is wearing 12 month clothes, but some of the shorts still seem big because he is so skinny. He wears size 3 diapers and size 4 to 5 shoes. He is still a light eater, but is interested in trying most everything we eat. He has showed some interest in feeding himself with the spoon and that gets pretty messy. We gave him whole milk for the first time tonight at dinner. He seemed to like it. We will be so glad to say goodbye to expensive formula. Mason is walking everywhere and getting quite fast at it. The faster he goes the more he falls of course, but he loves walking like a big boy. His newest thing is sitting on things...he thinks it is so funny to sit on random objects. He is also getting good at climbing. He can get on and off the little plastic four-wheeler he got for his birthday and can get in and out of the car Mimi got for him too! He hasn't added too many words to his vocabulary, but now points and says "ahh" to the things he wants but doesn't know how to say. He says mama, dada, mimi, bye-bye, baba (bottle), hi, and a weird version of puppy. He say "whoa" instead of uh-oh...he sounds like a surfer dude when he says it. He has started squealing when we take something from him or keep him from doing something he really wants to do. A wonderful sign of things to come. He has a very stubborn personality and can be quite demanding at times, but he is also quite funny and charming too.

Happy Birthday little man! We love you!

Tune in tomorrow to see everything we did on his big day!

First Birthday Party

We had a great turnout for Mason's first birthday party yesterday. I decided to got with baby dinosaurs as the theme for the party and bright colors as you can see. The party was from 2 to 4 and we ended up waking Mason from a nap about 1:45. He was definitely quite cranky for the early part of the party and I think he was a little scared about all the people in his house. He did NOT want to wear his birthday hat. He would NOT let me put him down, and when it was time to do the cake he would NOT sit in his high-chair. So he sat in my lap and wondered why everyone was looking at him and singing to him. He did NOT dig into his cake and cried when I tried to feed him some. I thought it was funny but of course he did not. I was definitely disappointed with the lack of interest in his birthday cake, but the boy is a picky eater.

He did finally get used to all the wonderful people who came to see him, and showed everyone how he could walk & play. Since Mason loves to hit things with the bat, we even had a little pinata. The older kids loved it. Mason got so many cool toys...here's the run down...
A four-wheeler, a little tikes car, basketball and crayons for the bath tub, clothes, money, gift cards, puzzles, books, hippo piano, alphabet pal learning catepillar, mega-blocks wagon, a new big-boy car seat, a dinosaur that moves, a beach towel, a inflatable car for the pool, sunglasses, giraffe guitar, crawl tunnel, and balls, balls and more balls!

Kasie and Robby got Mason 200 play balls to put in his inflatable pool for a ball pit. He loves throwing them, catching them, kicking them, hitting them, dumping them, and putting them everywhere!

My 29th Birthday

Yep I've got one more year until the dreaded big three-zero! So I've decided I need to really enjoy the last year of my twenties. I was off work on Friday and had a "me" day for once! I slept in a little and then went and got my hair cut. Then met some friends from work for drinks in Denton. I stayed a little longer than I intended, but did manage to finally make it to my pedicure. It was amazing! The pedicure lasted like an hour and a half (I went for the super-duper "sea-scape" version) but was totally worth it. Then I had to rush home to change for dinner. We went to Buca di Beppo in Southlake with Jennifer, JR, Chad and Falon. It's a querky Italian place that serves dinner family-style. We had a great time!