Our Newest Additions

A week ago I told Mason that if he started going to the bathroom like a BIG boy then I would buy him 'real' fishies! One thing you have to understand is that we have been trying to get him potty trained for so long that I thought this was just going to be another failed motivational tool (I know, my positivity has been overflowing with this whole potty training ordeal)! When we started this summer we tried all kinds of motivation: first stickers, then M&M's, followed by movies and then the prize system all to no avail (he would tell me he "did not like these things anymore"-oh dear!) I was actually told by my pediatrician to give up for a while and then restart weeks later because he was obviously not ready. So, when we started this back up again I promised Mason if he filled in the reward chart then he could go to the store and pick out 2 fish. Since I was totally convinced that he would walk down the isle getting married in a pull-up since he is too stubborn to be potty-trained (OK, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration) I really did not think that we would end up owning any fish. Well on Thursday he had filled in every square on his sticker chart, so off we went to buy his fish!

Here he is showing the "man-helper" which ones he wanted :)

Just a bit excited! He could not wait to get his hands on everything!

Watching "Nemo and Dorothy" swim around as he explained to them they could not have a snack if they did not eat their dinner!

...and more watching!

Since we almost had a near casualty with them already we had to set some rules:
-NO hands in the fish bowl
-NO sliding the bowl across the counter because we don't want them on the counter
-NO feeding them unless an adult is around

So, even though I did not think we would end up with fish, it is fun to see how much Mason enjoys them! Hopefully I am better with fish than I am with plants :)

Fall Snip-its

Our kiddos! They are such good buddies now that they can interact with each other. Kailee lights up every time Mason goes zooming by, it is so cute to watch! I can no longer put her to bed without Mason kissing her head first and he is the one who "needs" to wake her up in the morning. He has definitely turned into her protector and is such a big helper!! They are both amazing kids!

Kailee started eating cereal now that she is 5 months old!! Although it is time consuming (since we recycle the same bite about 5 times), it has been fun to start this new adventure with her. She on the other hand has made it perfectly clear that we have to feed her the cereal AFTER her bottle because it is just not fast enough when she is really hungry...a concept we have no experience with but love!

Her 5 month picture! Happy as always :) She is rolling over like crazy, scootching around (mainly just in her crib) and is working on sitting up. She is content to just hang out and chew on toys but mostly loves when she has someone to talk to!

Stacy and I took the kids to the Zoo-Boo a couple weekends ago and had a great time! Mason was a bit confused as to why were at the zoo, but not there to see the animals but he sure enjoyed collecting all of the candy. It was chilly, but we were so happy it did not rain!

One of our very close family friends Jodi got married last Friday! She is one of our 'girls night attendees' . Wendi, Jodi, Stacy and myself all get together about once a month to hang out and chat. We are looking forward to our November night out to hear all about Jodi and Eduardo's honeymoon :)

Our fall has just been SO busy! I hope things slow down a bit but with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming I am not holding my breath!!

Basement

We started a project a couple of weeks ago...finishing our basement!! One of my patients who is currently laid off from his carpentry job came in to get his teeth cleaned and he was ready and willing to do any kind of work to help him pay some bills. We have wanted to get our basement done for a while, but just could not afford it so this worked out great for all of us! We worked out a great deal and he got started on it that next week!
Mason loves "helping" when we go down there to paint, clean up, etc. The other night we told him we had to go down to do some work and he ran into his toy room, grabbed his 3 hammers and his hard hat and told us he was ready to work! He has really enjoyed this project!
It is going pretty fast, we had wood floors installed yesterday and our carpet should be installed tomorrow! It will be less than one month from start to finish!! WAY faster than doing it ourselves :)

Noah Luke

Here he is!! SO cute!

My First Nephew Has Arrived!

Congratulations to my sister-in-law Sarah and her husband Marc as they welcomed their little baby BOY into the world today! Noah Luke was 8# 1 oz. She had him via C-section and is recovering from HELLP Syndrome. They expect Sarah to recover and be out of ICU tomorrow. Please pray that she would have no lingering effects of the syndrome so that she can start to enjoy their family of THREE!

We are all anxiously awaiting photos of little Noah. I will share them when I get them!!

A Look Back....

Our handsome little man was born on 9/28/2006 at 10:34 am. He was 8pounds 8ounces and 22 inches long!
The poor baby was SO colicky due to a horrible case of acid reflux. Little did we know that it would land him in the hospital with a feeding tube when he was 6 months old :( He struggled with a food aversion until he was over 1 year old. Looking back, it was only the grace of God that got us all through this very tough time.

Mason at 1 year old. Look at those chubby cheeks! He was much happier once he could get around and see the world. He is still SUPER nosey today!!

At 2 years old he was talking in full sentences! At his 2 year check up his pediatrician said he had a 3 year old vocabulary. Such a smart little guy. His food aversion at this point was a thing of the past!!! Praise God!!

And now...our BIG 3 year old!! So much has changed in the past year! He amazes me each and every day with the things he says, does and understands.
We had so much fun today! He came down the stairs this morning and immediately spotted his present sitting on the kitchen table. I have never seen him come down the stairs that quickly before (Christmas is going to be a lot of fun this year). He started tearing into it and found a bag full of new trains!! He was so excited. The bad news...he could have cared less about breakfast, but eventually he made his way into his chair and crowned himself with his birthday hat. Thankfully he was excited about the muffin (or maybe just the candle) and ate in record timing so that he could get back to playing with his new toys again.

Grandma Char came over to watch Kiki in the afternoon so that we could go out for a special birthday lunch at McDonalds just him and I which included ice cream and all :)

Our neighbors Sarah with her daughter Kaydence and Carrie with her son Noah came by in the afternoon and evening to wish him a happy birthday and shower him with fun gifts.

Thanks to everyone for all of the birthday wishes, phone calls, and presents. It is so hard to believe that he is already 3 years old! He has been such a blessing to our family. I don't know what we would do without him.

Stay tuned for more pictures after we have our family party on Saturday (Thomas the Tank Engine-themed of course)!

Preschool Birthday Party!!!

Mason celebrated his birthday at school last Thursday (a few days early). I must say I was excited to make him brownie bites with frosting to send to preschool and he was SUPER excited to take them and share them with his "new friends". He got to parade around with this birthday hat the whole 2 hours which he thought was really special! I had to laugh because I remember these birthday hats from when I was in elementary school and I never wanted to wear mine, I didn't want it to mess up my hair :)

I'm not sure if you can tell, but Mason is still LOVING school! I do love seeing his huge smile every morning! He cracks me up!

His first ever school project was a tambourine (thankfully it is a quiet one as it only has beans inside of it). In honor of his birthday he also got to bring home the "Share Bag" in which he gets to pick something from home to put in it. We close it up and he has to help me write down three clues for his classmates to guess what is in the bag. (Thanks to aunt Stacy sharing with us her feelings on how many germs are on that bag, we have kept it in the laundry room since Thursday!)

Tomorrow is Mason's actual birthday and even though we are not having our family party until Saturday I think he will be excited when he sees his present on his breakfast chair in the morning :) I cant believe my little boy is turning 3 already!!