Sledding!

(There is another post after this one so scroll on down if you would like to see it.)

Before we talk about how much Mason LOVES sledding, we need to thank Grandma Schroeder for buying him Strawberry milk. He might just be addicted to it. Luckily, we think he thinks it is his special treat that only Grandma Schroeder can get him. And look, he is now an accomplished drinker using a straw!

Okay, now time to talk about sledding!
We went with Jessica and her kids last week and here are the few pictures from that trip taken with my camera phone.

After going down the hill a few times Mason just went out into the middle of the field and just sat there. I'm pretty sure he was contemplating how hard it would be to walk through the snow to get to the playground on the other side of the park.
As you can see from this picture he made it to the playground, with mom carrying him most, if not all of the way. He really liked going down the slides.
He also liked throwing snowballs at mom. This was the only picture that turned out while he was throwing snow at me. Once I successfully took a decent picture I exclaimed, "I took your picture Mason!" He then tackled me.
Here is our sledding excursion, Take 2!
We went to the same place and this time were joined by Jessica, Jake, Kate, and Merrik as well as Alicia and Ashton. Here is Mason in the parking lot waiting to be pulled while I finished putting on my hat, scarf, and gloves.


Mason and Jake were sledding buddies for a little while. They would sled down and then eat snow while they waited for me to tow them back up the hill. On this particular slide down, they veered off and the sled rolled. They both started laughing hysterically once they saw each covered in snow.
After playing in the snow with buckets that Jessica brought and rolling snowballs to make a snowman, Mason headed over to the playground. If I said the word "playground" out loud right now he would be ready to go in 2.37 seconds. It turns out that he loves playing on playgrounds during every season of the year.

Mason played on one playground with all the other kids for quite some time and then headed over to the other playground. It looks as though this is his fort. And here he is throwing snowballs at anyone that comes close to his tower.
Gathering more snow to throw at mom for getting too close with the camera.

Mud Buddies

My mom and dad came up on Monday to help us finish mudding our basement bedroom. My mom and I mostly watched Mason and the boys did all the work. Nice job guys!

Since they did such an excellent job I made them dinner and homemade apple pie! (Yep, even the crust was homemade! They deserved it!) It is supposed to have 2 Superman symbols. Super Reese and Super Steve! My mom also deserved a Super Janice symbol for taking care of Mason while I helped the boys finish up downstairs.

Here are the studs with their payment.
Here is the room all taped, mudded, and textured! Next stop...primer then paint!

Our Valentine's Day Celebrations!

We Hulbert had a grand 'ole Valentine's Day. Earlier in the week Mason helped me decorate the house with paper hearts. It's the cheapest and easiest way to add a little love to our house. So here are a few pictures that document the decorating. Enjoy!

He no longer smiles normally. When I say "cheese" this is what I get.

Putting up his heart that he cut out himself! He's got an eye for decor.

I guess he wanted it more on the corner so that everyone could see it from all different angles.

Our Little Cupid.

Mason had his friend Ashton over Friday night. We arranged with our friends, Matt and Alicia, to kid swap for Valentine's Weekend. Great Idea! So here are Ashton and Mason enjoying a movie with their own bowls of popcorn.

Happy Valentine's Day!!
I don't know why Mason is pulling such a funny face. Probably because we forgot to send out Valentines. Just know that we love you all!

Here's a little better picture. By better, I mean that you can see his lips that were turned blue from eating M&Ms.

For Valentine's Day, Reese, Mason, and I went to IHOP for breakfast. They were shorthanded and even though there wasn't anyone waiting for a table ahead of us we still had to wait about 10 minutes.

Obviously, we hadn't eaten anything yet and Mason was starving! So he decided to take action. He picked up a booster seat, the kind that goes on top of the bench made of plastic, and started carrying it to a table. Reese and I were laughing our heads off but he kept getting frustrated because we told him that he couldn't sit down yet. That didn't stop him though. He would just pick up the booster again and start carrying towards a table. He seemed to keep veering towards the tables where people already were eating. I guess he figured they would give him scraps.

Later on in the evening, Reese and Mason went around town together and came back with a bunch of treats for mine and Reese's movie later on that night. Reese made a delicious dinner. Mason went over to Ashton's for kid swap and Reese and I went to a movie.

Thanks for yet another amazing Valentine's Day Reese!

The Best Start to February!

Thus far February has been a great month! We actually have a house that has flooring, we've had family and friends visit, and we are expecting more family today! Mason is tackling me with excitement as I type.

I would also like to thank my parents for coming up this past Saturday to help us out with the downstairs. My dad and Reese worked downstairs getting the drywall ready for texturing and painting while my mom and I went to Hobby Lobby for almost 3 hours! It was nice and kelaxing...for the girls. Thanks guys for letting us go out, talk and shop.

I thought that since I haven't posted for some time that I would show you our front room with furnishings. You can click on over to my other blog to see other decor items I have added to our space. Here is the front room with the carpet patch. I love the carpet patch by the way. It is more padded than a rug would ever be and it is just the right size. I know the curtains need lining but I haven't made it over to Joann's for the materials just yet...so let the sun shine on!
Here is the dining room. Still somewhat boring because I have an aversion to putting holes in my walls. It stems from my childhood when my dad would say how much he disliked patching holes before we would paint a room. So if I am going to put a hole in the wall, it has to be in the right place. Therefore, only the mirror is hung because I already had holes in the wall for it. I just bought that beautiful orchid today! I have asked one of my dear friends for help in keeping it alive but the more advice the better so if you have tips please leave a comment at the bottom of the post where it says "Your Thoughts."

Don't mind the cheesy little boy at the bottom of the picture.

And here is the kitchen. We don't know what to do with this space! Reese says that we need to paint it, which means I need to pick out a color and then he will help with the actual painting. I don't mind the painting part...it's the color picking that I dread! How are you supposed to imagine what a whole room looks like in one color from a 1"x1" paint chip?!
We were thinking of staining the cabinets but there are A LOT of cabinets! Any ideas on paint colors at the moment? I was thinking a very light spring green but who knows.

A Glimpse Just For You

Here is an overhead shot of our new flooring. We do not yet have our couches, television stand, or anything else in place yet as you can clearly see. But Mason's toys somehow are already out. I may or may not post more pictures of everything in place. You may just have to drop by for a visit. I'd love to have you over!If you are wondering what is in that blanket, it's Mason. He was rolling around and laughing because of his new place to play.

Bwah, Bwah...(Sad Trumpet Sound)

The sad Trumpet sound is because of the current state of our house...yep, it's still not done. The installer was supposed to come to our house today to put the finishing touches on our floors where the carpet meets the wood but, alas, the pieces that were ordered are still not in. That explains the sad sound. I wouldn't mind so much but poor Mason has most of the living room furniture in his room so there is absolutely no play space in there for him and he can't get to most of his toys. It's a project to get into his closet. We have been using a single chair in the living room between the three of us.

I must point out the good part of this whole thing...at least we have a home and new flooring and we did a pretty good job picking out carpet that goes with our wall and floor colors. (Chelsey would be proud) And another huge plus is that Mason has a very open floor that he is able to play soccer and run around like crazy, which is pretty funny. Also, everything should be totally complete on Monday! (Fingers crossed)

Here he is enjoying the smooth floors while riding his truck.He laughs the whole time he is moving.

Reese and I have noticed that Mason may be addicted to apples. He has been eating about one a day. He eats the whole thing, seeds and all, unless we cut it up for him. I really noticed that he loves apples when I noticed this piece of half eaten food on his tray. (Pay no attention to his open-face PBJ, he will not eat them in sandwich form.) So look at that fruit. It wasn't squished into that position it was eaten away to look like that. What's so special about it? It looks like an apple core but it is a banana! He sure is a funny little kid.

This is the face he gave me when I asked him about his banana.

Umm...he really likes this Raspberry jam that one of our friends made us. He gobbles it right up!

Baking and Breaking

Mason's favorite spot this last week and a half has been on top of the stack of laminate flooring next to our kitchen counter. At this vantage point he is able to "help mom" with all her baking.

What are we making today? Hmm... well, mom is making rolls.

And Mason has mixed flour, salt, basil, and his secret ingredient Playdough! He is a culinary genius!

Here is baking Day #2! Mason can't stand it when someone is stirring something in the kitchen and he is missing the action. So he gets his apron on and digs in.

He loves stirring banana bread batter.

It's all worth the cleanup when you get to remember the great time you had with a picture like this!

As everyone knows that have visited our house in the last 7 months, we have been slowly remodeling our house, very slowly. We started with spackling a few holes in the walls and just never really picked out a paint color for our front room to cover up all of the white spackle marks. So, one day, let's say a Tuesday a couple weeks back, Reese came home from work with a couple laminate flooring samples. After looking at them and then talking about getting our house actually put together during the month of January instead of waiting another 7 months, we decided on Friday the 2nd to actually purchase the flooring. So it was purchased and we picked out a coordinating paint color. The next day, Saturday, we went to the paint store and purchased just a quart of "Cup of Cocoa."

I want you to picture a cup of cocoa. What color is it? A nice, warm tannish-brown color right? Wrong!! We put it on the wall and it made our already multicolored wall (from other paint samples) into an orange-ish hue that you see in a used diaper. We tried to talk ourselves into the color but it wasn't working.

Needless to say, we were at a loss. So I called the most wonderful woman in the world, Chelsey! She came over, confirmed that we had an orange wall, and helped us pick out colors.
THANK YOU CHELSEY!!

The next Saturday, Jessica and I had a productive painting day. It was wonderful! Yes we were working almost 9 hours straight and kind of getting goofy off of paint fumes but we got the upstairs totally painted! The guys were studs and took the kids for the day. I love being a mom and so does Jessica but it was nice to do one day of work that didn't include diapers, runny noses, and some type of food on our clothes. It was probably the most fun I have ever had painting.
THANK YOU JESSICA!!
And Reese and Bry Dog!

With the walls painted and the new flooring about to go in, we needed to get all the old carpet out. So we went to it. Here is Reese taking out our old heavy carpet for our home remodel.

Ahh! the carpet is gone! I hope that we like what is going to go in!

We were not the most quiet carpet-taker-outers. We were banging hammers, ripping carpet, and pulling staples, which is not a quiet activity and Mason slept through the whole thing both nights of decarpeting. But Mason still wanted to get in on the action, so the next morning he helped make sure that the room had a nice boistrous echo and swept. What a good little helper!

New Blog

I, Lacey, have decided that I have a lot of random thoughts and ideas. I decided that I need a place to put them all. So instead of loading up my "favorites" folder, I thought I would just put them back on the internet in blog form.

So here I am announcing Lacey's Applesauce!
(Applesauce is not only delicious mushy apples but the word also means nonsense)

So stop on by if you would like to see what projects/crafts/recipes and other ramblings I am working on.

It's still the New Year, right?

I just wanted to make sure I could still dedicate a post to our New Year's Celebrations and activities. And since this is basically our family journal...I think I'm still within the "Happy New Year's Posting"deadline.

First off, Here are the darling boys of the family playing each other at Madden Football on the old school Playstation. Even though Mason can't talk, it sure does sound like he does a lot of trash talking or something to that effect. He will point to the screen and say, "Whoa wa ya!" and then laugh at times as if he just intercepted a pass. I enjoy watching and listening to them.

When I came home from the store on New Year's Eve this lovely bouqet is what I saw waiting for me on the table. How sweet is Reese!?! Not only did he give me some beautiful roses, but he had also came home from work early and cleaned up the house! Thanks for making every year better than the last, Reese.

New Year's Eve we spent the evening babysitting Reese's cousin's little boy, who was an angel and then headed over to our friends' house to play some serious and heartpounding Dance, Dance Revolution. Now, I have quite a bit of experience with dancing (ages 3-19) and with coordination (I'm gifted), but for the life of me, I cannot pass a level at Dance Dance Revolution. I think something becomes disconnected between my brain and my feet, balance, and lower body when I hear the words "Dance Dance Revolution" because I COULD NOT pass a single level. Oh well, I'll get better at it one day.

On New Year's Day, we were invited to go snowmobiling! (Thanks again Jon and Lori!) We rode around Wellsville on and off for about 6 hours. It was so much fun!
Here is the troop about to head out for our first ride. Look how wide open the land is...LOVE IT!
Mason absolutely L~O~V~E~D riding on the snowmobile. Since they are such loud machines I would slow down to ask if he was okay, which kind of angered him because he just wanted to keep going.
Here is Reese and Mason speeding by. It doesn't look like it but Mason really is having fun.
We also towed the little kids around on tubes. Here is Reese holding our relaxed little BUG.
Mason was so relaxed on the tube that he fell right asleep. I have no idea why I am pointing to my eye.
Here we are at the top of a mountain. It was as far as we could go on this trail because the wind had blown all the snow away. From this spot we could see all of Cache Valley and part of the highway in Sardine Canyon.

We had a grand ol' time ringing in the New Year. I hope yours was awesome too!

Our Christmas Celebration

Thank you to everyone who helped make our Christmas Celebrations so great! We love all of you and can't wait for the new year to begin. Hopefully it will be a good one filled with new challenges, yes I said challenges to make us stronger, new friends, to add to the outstanding ones we now cherish dearly, and new experiences to help us gain knowledge and understanding of the world around us.

I hope that you have a very happy New Year and don't be a stranger in the new year. Stay close and we will try to keep in touch as much as possible.