O Christmas Tree

We thought Mason would like to help decorate the Christmas tree and we were right. He loved it. However, now he thinks that the decorations are toys and are to come off the tree as often as they are put back on. The lower half of the tree is a little bare so that little hands aren't tempted!

Blending in...

We're calling this Mason's 'couch camo.' My grandmom has made Mason an whole wardrobe of pajamas in a variety of colors. These just happen to match our brown couch and have to be worn with camo crocs. Go figure.

Mama's Helper

The other day Mason was my super duper helper in the kitchen:)

Moo-Moo

Mason's favorite towel to use after his bath is his cow towel. He then has to run around the house and moo. It's quite the bath time ritual.

Handy Manny

So here's our Handy Manny from Halloween. For those of you without kids and no need to watch the Disney channel every morning, Handy Manny is a young man with talking tools who always does what's right:)

"Pie Peez"

So Mason is starting to talk more and it's cracking me and Brian up often. One of his new favorites is 'pie'. The variety he prefers is pumpkin. The other day we were out of pumpkin pie, as one often is, so he went to the cupboard and brought me two cans of pumpkin and told me 'pie, pie, peeeez' (that last one is his please of course). This kid's gonna love Thanksgiving!

The other fun word he is using is 'baby'. We're not really sure where he picked it up, but he spots them all over the place now. And when asked if he's a baby or a big boy he smiles, points to himself and says 'Baby!' Too cute...

We've been a little busy...

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything...some of you might have caught up more on Brian's facebook page...he's been doing more there than here lately. As a family we have been busy with church, Brian subbing more, being out of town, and the biggie is my complete exhaustion with this pregnancy. It's a whole different ballgame when you're exhausted, queasy and still have to chase the toddler around and work full time! The most awful part so far is that I had to go the chiropractor on Monday so that he could help fix a ridiculously sore gluteous! ON days that I was particularly limping we even noticed that Mason would limp around after me...pretty funny.

Here's Mason goofing off and also him flirting with the high school gals that watch him in the nursery!

Rain! A Reason to Celebrate

Praise the Lord, it finally rained here in our neck of the woods! Even though the rain was on the chilly side (or so Mama and Dada thought), Mason was ecstatic about running around and splashing in the puddles. What's that children's song? "Drip drip drop, little April (or September) showers. We're getting wet, and we don't care at all!" That pretty much covers Mason's feelings!

The Next SuperFan

We went to the first home football game tonight and Mason quickly became a SuperFan! He LOVED the marching band and signed for 'more' whenever they quit playing. He also sat on the bleachers and 'followed' the game (basically clapping and laughing whenever everyone else clapped and cheered). Then the cheerleaders were throwing out little plastic footballs and they gave him one. We went on many journeys up and down the sidelines with him throwing and then going to get the ball. I only had to go under the ropes and get him off the field once:) And on these trips up and down the sidelines he made lots of friends.

I really wish we'd had the video camera because it was the absolute cutest thing ever to see him start rocking and clapping to the band...maybe next time. Next week Heyworth plays Lexington (my hometown) so I think we have plans for next Friday...

But for now, the SuperFan is in bed with his binkies after getting to stay up a whole hour past his bedtime!

Small town living at it's best...

Tonight we took advantage of another gorgeous August day and went on a long walk through Heyworth. We found ourselves clear across town and very hungry (Mason was doing sign language for eat so we knew he was starving). So, we walked up to the restaurant in town and had dinner. I think about half of everyone there stopped by to visit for a minute and talk about church or admire Mason or talk about just whatever. It was such a fun moment to realize that for now, this is home and we have become part of things. While this move took us away from family and friends that we miss dearly we have been blessed with new relationships and a fantastic church and community. And it doesn't hurt that we have an adorable kid to get us on everyone's good side:)

Mason doing chores

What can I say, he just likes to help out around the house!

A great weekend

We had a nice, normal, relaxing weekend. Of course, for us the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Sunday is a day of work in our family! On Friday we had a leisurely morning, had lunch with my parents and sister, and then went shopping (everyone but my dad because he had to work). We found bargains of the century at Kohl's and I came home with the best bargain because I found a top on clearance for $4.80 and then got 30% off of that!!! That's always a triumphant kind of day. And we wore poor Mason out so much that he slept hard that night which meant that we got to sleep in and have a lazy day on Saturday too! I don't think we even left the house...

Tired little guy

We all accomplished quite a lot today I think. Grandmom came over and helped Brian sort out the landscaping here at the house. She told me that she knew it was bad, but she didn't know it was THIS bad...they worked their backsides off cutting bushes back that hadn't been given the TLC they needed for a few years...as far as our master gardener guesses anyway. But hopefully things will come back even healthier and prettier next year than they were this year.

The gardening ground to a halt after Mason got up from his morning nap. Grandmom and Mason played all afternoon while Brian got some house stuff done and I got some work done. After the two of them play Mason sleeps hard! He crashed at 6:30pm tonight. We usually have to put him to bed wide awake at 8:00pm. It's pretty funny to see the 18 month old wear out before the 81 year old!

Is this really August???

I don't know how things are outside of Central Illinois, but we are enjoying some un-Augusty kind of weather. We have had windows open and I've even been a little chilled when I wake up in the morning. I fear that a huge blast of oppressive heat is yet to come our way, but for now we are certainly taking advantage.

But with all the windows open we have realized there is a lot of noise around us. We have had the steady screech of trains coming in and out of the elevator to the south of the house and yesterday morning I was awoken by the seemingly amplified sound of geese! We do not have any body of water near our house whatsoever but there was a huge flock of geese. They didn't wake Brian up, but Mason and I were both up early (and both got up a bit on the wrong side of the bed...fortunately Mason went back to bed after the geese moved on, but I had to go to work:)

Too much time with Will

So Mason and Will (his 8-yr. old cousin) spent quite a bit of time together on Saturday while I was at Promise Keepers. I think Will taught Mason how to make this face. The other thing is Amanda's favorite Mason-noise.

Mason's first haircut

This morning I finally gave into the pressure to get Mason's hair cut. Gone are the wispy tendrils and corkscrew curls from my baby's head. But in their place is a sharp, shorter 'do and a rather dapper toddler. Brian took a couple pictures and put them on our shutterfly website. They aren't exactly 'Kodak moments' but he got every angle!

Day 2

So, Mason has started to place things gently onto the kitchen counter...and this is pretty much the tallest flat surface in the house so his most recent growth spurt has spurted those little curious hands into just about anything he wants. This also means that he's getting closer and closer to being able to work the door knobs. So, really watch out when you use the bathroom at our house!!!

better now than never...

I've been admiring the fact that I can keep up on some of my friends' lives because they have a blog...yet I have found my own life too mundane and boring to think anyone would want to read about our usually (thankfully) peaceful days...however, I realize that as Mason continues to do super silly things daily we might as well have a place to share them!