4 Years Down, The Rest of Forever to Go

Yes Reese and I celebrated our anniversary of 4 years last Thursday, August 6! We have been through a lot and can't wait for what the future holds. We have added a great little boy, half of an already active girl, and some amazing life and learning experiences. It has been a blast!

I love you Babe!

4th of July Weekend

More July Fun

July 2009

Here are some things we did/learned in the month of July:

• Bought a new mower that blows bubbles for Mason since he only had 2 out of the 4 wheels attached on his old mower.
• My parents and sister came for a visit to watch fireworks and help us with our basement construction.
• We held a multifamily yard sale in our yard. We were able to sell a lot of things and now our basement is open and free for more junk. :)
• Anything stacked in a pile is considered a fire by Mason. This includes shoes, blocks, all wood, shredded cheese on his plate, piled up toys, and mounds of dirt.
• That we have a great friend named Bryan that missed his family so much that he took Mason for a night so that Reese and I could have a date night. Thanks again Bry!
• The only thing that Mason loves more than pancakes with syrup is pancakes with syrup in the shape of a truck or airplane.
• Mason has a popcorn bowl and in order to get ready to eat popcorn, he MUST put the bowl on his head before the popcorn comes out of the microwave.
• Mason loves the camera! He finds it, takes it to one of us, says "Cheese" so you can take a picture, and then says "Wanna see" so that he can see how good he looks in pictures.
• Bedtime is really at 8:30 and you sleep in your own bed but when Dad is in charge sometimes the rules get bent and you go to bed at almost 10:00 in Mom and Dad's bed with Dad.
  

It's a...

Girl!!
Mason already calls her " Baby Sis."
And here are the pictures...
(I have added captions to help explain what is what)

Here is her little arm. The elbow is to the right and her hand is over her face.

Here is a good shot of her spine. Her bum is down on the right side.

Spine shot along with her head on the left.

Look at that big ole' foot! She's probably going to be taller than both Reese and I if she ever grows into those feet. Her other leg is crossed over her crotch. Her left knee is to the right of left big toe, and her bum is to the right of her shin. Got it?

Here is a picture of her right leg. Her foot is to the right and her knee is bent. Her legs were crossed and tucked right up under her the whole time so it wasn't until the very end of the ultrasound that we were able to find out that she was in fact a girl. I have the actual picture showing that she is a girl but she was so modest and not wanting to show us that I figure I won't post her exposure on the internet. :)

She was also very camera shy. The arrow is pointing to her upper lip, her nose is to the left and her bottom lip and chin are to the right. This is the best picture we were able to get of her little face. So, like her brother, they both didn't want to show off their cute little faces. We have some 3D images of her face that help you to actually see her face better but they didn't get onto the CD that we have. Here is the picture we have of Mason's face in his ultrasound. They are already alike, only showing their noses and mouths.

So did you guess right...boy or girl?

The Month of June

I haven't updated in a bit and I bet you are all wondering what we have been up to. Well, we have been trying to get as many things accomplished right now while it is summer and while we only have one child running around the house. We ended the month of May with sickness. Mason came home from church the last Sunday in May and was kind of out of it. He just rolled around on the floor and moaned. So we got him changed and checked his temperature, which turned out to be 101F. We were able to get his temperature down with rest and a little bit of Tylenol. We really didn't eat for about a week and we were tempting him with all of his favorite things. Thankfully, he quickly recovered.
This next picture was taken obviously once he was feeling better. What can I say, he likes cookies.

Here is another cookie-enjoying picture.Which oddly looks very much like this next one taken when he was just about to turn 1. Why do I always give him chocolate cookies?

We check on Mason every night before we go to bed. This particular night, he found a new position to sleep in...hanging off the bed.
For our "school time" I made Mason some edible playdough, you can find the recipe here. I shouldn't have told him that it was edible because now he eats more than plays.Here are all the stars he made with the cookie cutters. He gets impatient with taking away the excess dough so the shapes aren't quite as sharp as he would like.

Nothing is better for Mason than coloring with Dad once he gets home from work. Our neighbor Graham was over that night to play too

Mason LOVES my sewing machine. I made a "craft room" out of our unfinished downstairs bedroom. Finally, I have a somewhat permanent place for my sewing machine, scrapbook supplies (even though I no longer scrapbook), and my other storage boxes filled with craft stuff. So here is Mason helping me sew. He is very good at just watching and knows that he does not reach in to actually help me sew

Here is Mason in one of the corners of the "craft room."

Here is one of my most recent sewing creations. Yes it is another nursing cover, but I think I have perfected the pattern. It is a little longer and wider than this one and since I used 2 different coordinating fabrics from Hobby Lobby, I personally think it is cuter! I also made some matching burp cloths. It is not for me though {sigh} but for someone who may or may not check this blog so no names will be mentioned. I cannot wait until we find out what we are having so that I can start sewing things for the new babe.

Speaking of the new babe...here I am at 18 weeks. I have Reese take pictures of me on the days when I have done my hair so here I am, on a Sunday...the one day that I consistently get ready.

Here is our small but very tasty crop of strawberries and raspberries thus far minus a couple strawberries that have already been devoured. Hopefully we will get a few more from our newly planted bushes this year.
Mason helped me make brownies and then he helped me clean the utensils.
He doesn't just eat junk food I promise! We just happen to take pictures of him only when he is into junk food. So here he is eating from a bag of chips.

Pregnancy Update

Reese and Mason have a new wrestling technique. It is wrestling like Gorillas. Here they are doing their monkey crawls getting ready to attack each other.
As for me, I have been behind the camera for lack of getting myself presentable enough to be in front of the camera. Here is a picture of me on the one day I always get ready...Sunday, last Sunday to be exact. But even when I do get ready, I seem to get back into my pajamas as soon as possible. I hope you enjoy the glimpse of my emerging pregnant belly.

I am 14 weeks along in this picture, just entering my 2nd trimester.

Camping at Porcupine

Reese, Mason, and I went camping up to Porcupine Dam this last Friday. We had a grand ole time. While I set up camp, Reese found wood for our fire with Mason's help of course. Once all the bedding was in the tent, Mason had to test it out. Here he is with Reese in the tent checking the bounciness of our mattresses. You can barely see Mason's little hand flinging through the air in the tent.

In case you weren't sure, Reese is amazing. He was able to get a fire going with one match and wood that refused to burn. With the warm fire now burning, we started to cook ourselves some delicious hot dogs. Mason was so excited to eat his that he wouldn't even take it off the roasting stick to eat it.

For desert, of course we had smores. We like to try smores differently every time we go. This time instead of just chocolate, we put Rolos in the marshmallows as we cooked them. Yum! We also had Barq's Red Cream Soda! My personal favorite...and apparently Mason's too.

This picture was taken BEFORE Mason got really messy from drinking the red cream soda.

It was a somewhat sleepless night. Mason was in between Reese and I because I was scared that he would get too cold over on his own mattress. Oh how wrong I was. He kept kicking off all the blankets because he was hot, which left Reese and I without blankets and freezing.

Not only did we not get near 8 hours of recommended sleep but we were woken up by Mason a little before 6 a.m. He seems to wake up with the sun. So we made breakfast and went for a hike. Here are Reese and Mason climbing up a crevice.

We made it to the top and into the cave. It was a little difficult to get all 3-1/2 of us up there but it was worth the view of the lake and our campsite.

Mason and I enjoying the view. He is pointing out where our car and camp are.

The cave from down below.

Here is the waterfall we were camped next to. It was three times as pretty in person but I hope you enjoy what I was able to capture with our camera.

Did I mention we went to Vegas?

We finally made it to Las Vegas! Reese and I went with Bryan and Jessica M the first week in May. We have been planning this trip since the end of last summer. We were without out kids, which was a nice break, but I have to admit that we missed Mason pretty bad at the end. We stayed in a nice hotel and had some excellent food including BBQ wings, brazilian grill food, and fried Oreos.

The four of us at the famous Vegas sign.Bryan and Jessica....and Reese.

Reese and Lacey also at the sign.

Enjoying Freemont street. It was a little more family friendly than Las Vegas Blvd.

The light show on the ceiling was pretty amazing.

Reese seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.

At the "Old Vegas Strip" on Freemont Street.

This umbrella display was pretty cool. I think Bryan is upset in this picture because he is worried about all the bad luck that will come from the umbrellas being open inside.

Still in love while riding on the walkways into the Venetian.

At a 3D movie in the M&M factory. Here is the first of many appearances of Reese's "crazy eye." That's what Bryan was calling it. I don't know why I am trying to look like Popeye.

Reese next to the red M&M.

Lacey and the green M&M.

In the M&M factory in front of a picture of Vegas.

The two of us throwing up the M&M gang sign.

I know this is a picture of Brian but I had to post it because of the appearance, again, of Reese's "crazy eye."

Reese getting arrested! This cop was taking pictures with random people so the guys got one too. Reese asked if he was a real cop and he got a little offended because he really is one. I don't know many cops that park on the sidewalk and pose for pictures arresting tourists but it is Vegas.

We were able to do some "free" gambling at a couple places on the strip. What would happen is the casino would give us each $50 or $100 in promotional slot play. You could only play at certain machines and the only way you could actually win anything was if you won the jackpot.

Belagio fountians. My favorite "show" was set to the song "All That Jazz." It was sweet! We went to a comedy/magic show. There was one guy in it who was hilarious but I don't remember his name.

Jessica and I step up to the machines. I won $70 at one point but I couldn't cash out because like I said, you could only really win money if you won the jackpot.

More "free" gambling.

I wasn't sure who won this fight but it looks like it was good one.

Sharing a yummy chocolate milkshake at Planet Hollywood. There's Reese's "crazy eye" making another appearance.

When we turned on the TV it welcomed Reese to the room. We just didn't know that Reese's middle name is "(2909". I guess you learn something new everyday.

Mason sure was happy that we came back for him. Here he and dad are watching some demolition derby videos.