The Knowles

Picture-a-Day {Jan 15-21}

2012-02-01T13:28:00.000-05:00

I went to New Orleans for the weekend mid-January and the boys had the house to themselves. Jeremy texted me tons of pictures of what they were doing throughout each day so I thought I would let those fill in for while I was gone.

The day I got back, Ella and Kellie were here. They had come down to keep Mason while Jeremy was at work that day. On the way home from the airport we stopped by the store and picked up some ice cream, per Ella's request, and these two had a messy good time.

A good tickle fight always seems to erupt when they are with each other. This time I made sure to grab my camera.

Jeremy grilled ribs and Mason, the little meat eater, loved it! He made the funniest faces.....

and a big mess.

There was a pack of balloons in Mason's stocking at Christmas and slowly we have blown up almost every one of them and eventually they make their way to the bathtub. Mason is running out of room in there.

There are several games on the iPad that Mason really loves. This one is Preschool Farm Animals and there is a voice that says "touch the ducklings" or "touch the sheepdog" etc. He has learned a ton of new animals this way and this game has helped us survive many doctor's visits here lately. He will sit so quietly and content while playing it.

Jeremy was doing the dishes over the weekend (thank you sweet husband man!) and he put a little water and bubbles in Mason's sink and let him wash his own dishes. He put baby wash in there as the soap so the dishes and the baby got a good washing mid-afternoon. Great strategy on Jeremy's part. ;)

Picture-a-Day {Jan 8-14}

2012-01-26T15:27:00.000-05:00

We bought Mason a potty, which he calls "pee-pee"....there may be some confusion there. He screams bloody murder if we try to get him to sit on it, but he loves throwing stuff in it.....funny because that's what he likes to do with our potty too. He also carries it all over the house, which is why its in the kitchen here. (The kitties are in the background enjoying some tuna juice, a by product of one of our new favorite sandwiches, the skinny tuna melt)

Mason, the boy. Parading around with his find of the day...."biiiiiiig stiiiiiiick".

Mason's buddy Jon stayed with us one evening. They had lots of fun and are truly little toddler boys together. They play together really well, but they also push and pick on each other too. They are SO funny together! After a fun bath time, I thought they were so cute in their coordinating pajamas.

Mason's love for being tickled has been trumped by his love for tickling others. Anytime he sees any bare skin on our back or stomach he grins slyly and runs over with a pinching twisting motion "tikul tikul tikul". It's pretty much 99% hurt, 1% tickle. The cats also get tikuled quite frequently. They don't seem to be fans of it either, but we all put up with him because he's so stinking cute.

At some point during (almost) every day, Mason will just randomly start running laps around the dining room table. I liken him to a grey hound dog that just needs to run. Run to live. Live to run. Here lately he tries to get Jeremy and I to run with him by coming over and pulling us by the hand, and for some reason handing us a matchbox car.....that seems to be a necessity for lap running. This particular night he ran at least 60 - 80 laps around the table, I kid you not. I kept on having to take breaks because I was SO dizzy, but he would just keep on going, going, and going.

Several months ago, Mason picked up the phrase "it's hot" from us telling him why he couldn't have a bite yet at the dinner table. He would copy us blowing off a spoonful of food, and say "iss-hott, iss-hott", with the cutest emphasis on the O. Now he says it all the time about the bath water and anything he's eating, even though neither are ever hot by the time he gets to touch them. He also loves putting on our oven mitts and running around saying "iss-hott, iss-hott". Like most parents, there are certain words that we can only say the Mason way now, and "iss-hott" is definitely one of them.

You will be glad to know that B learned to go pee-pee on the potty and even got wiped....on the foot.

Mason really loves the chalk easel we got him for Christmas. We are over the chalk-eating phase which lasted a good two weeks, and have moved onto the drawing vertical lines phase. I get a kick out of how you can see exactly how far he can stretch up to reach. Every time he sees the pink chalk he says "Eyya, Eyya?" I guess he has already figured out that pink is Ella's color. :) And yes, he just randomly wears that hat around the house all the time, I'm sure you've noticed it in several pictures here lately. It's his favorite. Mine too. :)

Picture-a-Day {Jan 1-7}

2012-01-25T09:40:00.001-05:00

One of Mason's favorite things to do is walk to the park down the street and throw rocks in the creek (drainage ditch). He's such a big boy and wants to walk the entire way instead of being carried. He collects rocks and sticks along the way....and by that I mean, he picks them up and hands them to us to carry (of course). Then when we arrive he piles everything up and throws them one by one into the water with lots of loud "whoa"s.

Anytime the boys run out for an errand without me, they come back and play peek-a-boo around the doorframe. This is my view from my desk which is where you'll find me anytime they are out of the house.

Mason is all about hats, shoes, and swim goggles here lately. I'm sure hats and shoes are normal accessories around everyone else's house, but so are goggles around here. :)

Mason naps from 1-3:30 every day. He's been on a one nap schedule for a while now, but it was right in the middle of the day (10:45-1:15) for a while. I really love the time of day he naps now. We get the first half of the day to play and run errands and we can actually meet friends for lunch now! Then he naps from 1-3:30 and I work while he sleeps. Jeremy gets home right at the end of Mason's nap and if I still have a lot of work to do I just keep on working and the boys go play outside. I feel like we've found a new groove.....which means this schedule will probably be changing soon because that's how it always seems to happen. ;) {last picture with his paci}

Mason is usually a pretty good eater, but some nights here lately he has just been in a very non-compliant mood. He will ~~say~~ whine "no" and cover his eyes while making the most sullen face. It's such a stinker-fest, but we're glad he's covering his eyes so he can't see us almost laughing while we get onto him. Usually all it takes is telling him he has to eat before he can take a bath, then he comes around and chows down.

This month we added clean-up time to Mason's bedtime routine. I'm not gonna lie, the boy makes some things very difficult, but he has honestly been a sweetheart about helping pick up his toys. After just two nights of telling him what to do, he walked in the living room after his bath on the third night and just went right to work putting all of his toys back in their places. Its definitely not that easy every night, but we were so proud of him for catching on so quickly. Now, I just need to know, what age can kids start washing dishes?

Mason has become obsessed with "kar krucks" (fire trucks). Every truck we see or hear, he yells "kar kruck" in the deepest manly tone he can muster up. One of his favorite toys to take along for car rides is his little toy fire truck that Grandmama and Granddaddy gave him for Christmas. Great toy, except for the button that plays a siren sound....momma is not a big fan of that part. ;) This set of PJs is definitely his favorite and he puts up quite the fight when I try to take off his beloved "kar kruck" shirt in the morning.

On this particular morning Mason spent about half an hour bringing me shoe after shoe to put on all of his stuffed animals. After we completed the task, he sat them all down and admired his handiwork. I just wonder where he gets ideas like this? Its funny to see the little things he comes up with to entertain himself.

Tim and Mason still spend a fair amount of time staring out the front door. I love looking back at these pictures of Tim and Mason at the front door to see how much Mason has grown since we moved into this house.

Now that Mason has figured out how to blow his own bubbles, he doesn't like for us to help him. He makes the cutest faces, and of course, the biggest mess!

Ten on Tuesday

2012-01-24T09:00:00.007-05:00

1. You might notice the blog has had some minor changes. I decided to make the main frame a little wider so I can post larger images. I know I am making all of your dreams come true by posting larger pictures of Mason, right? ;) The blog also finally has a name (after 4 years!), "for the record".

2. I went to New Orleans last weekend for a photography convention. A good friend, Amanda, went with me and we had more fun with New Orleans than we did with the conference. I wasn't expecting to enjoy Nola as much as I did, but with all the great restaurants, beautiful antebellum homes, great atmosphere, and lovely weather, what's not to love! Amanda has already done a blog post about our trip and I'm thinking if you want to know more and see some pictures, you should probably check that out because I don't know when I am going to be able to get around to it.

(FaceTime with Mason on the iPad)

3. But I will talk for just a minute about the food. I was glad that Amanda was very go-with-the-flow and let me pick out most of the places we ate. I love researching restaurants and finding unique places. Usually where there is great cuisine, there is great interior design and architecture, so finding a good restaurant fills me up on both accounts. A few favorites were Emeril's NOLA (amazing roasted duck!), a Sunday brunch at Arnaud's (I loved the cajun flare to a classic brunch with a live jazz band....we felt like we were "in the know" by hitting this hot spot for locals), The Rum House (great Caribbean food in the lower Garden District), Three Muses on Frenchman Street (a local hangout since tourists have taken over Bourbon Street...a very neat atmosphere in this part of town) and of course we enjoyed some beignets from the famous Cafe du Monde. I think I seriously stretched my stomach while we were there enjoying all of this amazing food, its taken a week to try to get my eating habits back to normal.

4. I'm actually headed out of town again this weekend to go to a retreat with a few friends in North Georgia that is centered on adoption and orphan care. I am looking forward to being with some very like-minded friends and studying God's word throughout the weekend. But I do feel a little guilty for leaving again so soon. From what I can tell, Jeremy and Mason really enjoyed their guys weekend while I was in New Orleans, so I'm sure this weekend will be no different.... unbridled fun and lots of frozen pizza.

5. Have you ever been through a season of life where you feel like everything is working against you? That is sort of how I've been feeling the past few months. There have been a discouraging mix of circumstances and frustrations and I just feel like I'm in a rut. I feel like every area of life has been extra difficult and things that normally go smoothly have been so muddled with very odd difficulties. I'm not necessarily praying that my circumstances change, just that I would be changed....my heart, my attitude, my faith. I think that is one of the main reasons I am looking forward to the retreat this weekend, hopefully this will be a turning point and maybe just a big attitude adjustment for me. :)

6. One of the more minor things that has happened is I had an allergic reaction to some medicine about two weeks ago. My hands swelled up in the middle of the night and I didn't know it, when I woke up the next morning the swelling was going down everywhere but my ring finger where my wedding band had the fluid trapped on my finger. A visit to urgent care and 2 hours later and the doctor solved the problem by cutting my rings off my finger. I was a little sad, but knew they could be put back together and honestly I was just thankful that if we were at the doctor, at least it was for me and not for Mason. This was the first time a doctor has prescribed a jeweler for my allergies. I found it humorous that he wrote this on the prescription pad.

7. We haven't gotten my rings fixed yet because they are pretty badly damaged and the estimate for the repair was $400. So I went about a week ago and bought an $8 ring from Walm@rt to wear as a wedding band. Unfortunately the silver has already turned a rosy color and it only took about 2 days to turn my finger green. I guess we will at least get my wedding band repaired soon and just save the engagement ring for later ... my left hand feels so naked.

8. In other news, the flu has been making its way through the family. Somehow I ended up with it last which means, as I type, I feel like a 40lb bag of grain is sitting on top of my head. Mason was a trooper getting through it, especially since we had just taken his pacifier away 2 days before he got sick. Talk about bad timing! But we decided to go ahead and carry through with the de-pacifing, and now a week or so later I guess its good that is behind us....I had way more anxiety about the what-ifs of taking it away from him than actually came to fruition. He had a few days where he couldn't fall asleep for his nap, but then he got right back on schedule. Thank goodness he has B (his bear), because I think that has really helped him. B's ears are probably going to get rubbed until they fall off. I have to admit I'm a little sad about the paci being gone though, I feel like that was the last "baby" thing he had. I guess its time that I fully embrace the fact that we have a "big boy"....why is that so hard? :)

9. Wow, this post has been kind of a downer. Let me think of something positive..... oh! So, we all three have new favorite t-shirts. Jeremy's is a shirt his brother sent him that says "It's better in Exuma". Mine has a picture of a camera and says "Mom's gonna snap". And Mason's has Aubie on it and says "Real kids wear orange and blue". When given a choice, he picks this one out every time and runs around yelling "weagle, weagle, weagle!!" (war eagle). Who knew t-shirts could be so exciting?! Maybe I'll stick to posting about Mason from here on out. ;)

10. Mason definitely keeps things around here on the lighter side. Just this morning he was literally bouncing around the room. Convenient that he gets his energy back on the day I feel near death. But I loved the entertainment nonetheless. I don't know where the line is between letting him be a boy and keeping him safe. I'm thinking we are going to have a trip to the emergency room soon and then we will know that we have crossed the line and should reel him back in just a little bit. ;)

Christmas Spirit

2012-01-18T10:25:00.002-05:00

For Christmas, we used pretty much all of the same decorations as last year, but I added in our red ornaments as well this year instead of only using the metallic ones. Most of the paper ornaments I made last year held together really well. I also made a few new things this year, like the big moss K on the front door. It took a little bit of time but was pretty simple and cheap (I just used cardboard from a big leftover shipping box, hot glue, and two rolls of moss that I ordered online).

I also replaced a few of the prints in the frames above our sofa just for the holidays. I made both of these prints in photoshop and had them printed. And in all honesty, I was too lazy to open the frames and put them in, so I just used double sided tape to tape them to the front of the glass. No one even noticed. ;)

This was the first time the Christmas decorations have spilled over into another room. I guess this is how it slowly happens, and then all of a sudden one year you are putting up 4 Christmas trees in your house...please don't ever let me do that....it is way too much work to take it all down. But anyways, in the dining room, I cut this banner shape out of some cardboard, then covered it in burlap, and wrote on it with glitter glue. Another really simple and cheap project.

When we got our Christmas tree home from the Christmas tree farm, we realized that it was pretty short. We also had a shelf in this spot in the living room that we needed to move during the holidays. So in a stroke of resourcefulness, we decided to lay the book shelf down on the floor and put our Christmas tree on top of it. I covered it with some burlap I had leftover and ta-da...taller tree, hidden bookshelf, AND it kept a certain little boy from pulling down all the ornaments. He could still reach the ones at the very bottom but wasn't too bad about pulling them off. It ended up working out really well because the base caught most of the pine needles that fell off the tree which is definitely the worst thing about having a live tree....well, I guess bringing home a tree with a squirrel in it could have been much worse. No squirrels at our house, thank goodness, just a bunch of sparkly things.

So that's what the holidays at the Knowles' house looked like this year. I was sad to put it all away, but of course equally as excited to get things back in their normal places as well.

Picture-a-Day {Dec 29-Dec 31}

2012-01-16T10:23:00.002-05:00

The fun with the car continues. I don't know if we'll over outdo this Christmas present.

Mason is obsessed with balloons so you will always find some balloons floating around our house.....literally, floating! Mason loves to put them on the vents on the floor and when the heater kicks on they float around over the vent. Great entertainment for both the boy, and the cats.

We have hit the stage where we carry toys with us everywhere we go, so Mason has this little bag that he fills with a few toys before we get in the car.

On New Year's Eve we were taking down our Christmas lights outside and Mason was in a major "daddy's boy" mood. He was his little shadow all day long.

On New Year's Day I caught Jeremy giving Mason a lesson in sailboats....a Lagoon 380 to be exact.

Picture-a-Day {December 22-28}

2012-01-13T17:21:00.001-05:00

A few days before Christmas I had a newborn shoot in Atlanta, and since Jeremy was out of school the boys went with me. They got to visit Jeremy's sister and her family while I was working. We did extended rear facing for Mason's carseat so we just turned him around the week of Christmas. He enjoyed being forward facing for this trip, but we quickly learned it was going to be much harder for him to go to sleep facing forward since he was so involved in what we were doing...or eating.

Mason loves his little car-transporter truck....sometimes it is a ball-transporter truck.

On Christmas Eve we took some homemade goodies to the firemen at the station in our neighborhood. Mason loved the big fire trucks and you can see in his hand that he took his little toy fire truck with him for the visit. Mason has talked about "kar-kruk" every day since. I guess this is when some little boys begin to dream of being a fireman when they grow up.

Christmas morning was a blast, but we've already covered that here.

After Christmas we spent a few days at my parents house. Ella and Mason are so hilarious together. Mason would not give up his car to let Ella drive, but he would take her for a ride and they both squealed and giggled with delight.

There were also lots of tickle fights. Mason loves to tickle people these days and says the cutest "tik-wul tik-wul tik-wul" while clawing and twisting your skin....it actually doesn't tickle at all.

The day we left my parents' house we took the long way home....from north Alabama to Birmingham, via Atlanta, Georgia. Jeremy's sister April and her family were still in Atlanta visiting her husband's side of the family. Mason and Luke enjoyed playing together and were so cute at bath time.

Jeremy's mom was also there visiting and helping since April just had her third baby (not pictured here). So here is Nana with Mason, Luke, and Olivia. Olivia is 2 1/2, Luke is 16 months, and Levi is their newborn. I'm exhausted just typing that. It's amazing that there has already been an addition to the grandkid picture in this post from the summer.

Christmas with Family

2012-01-12T10:26:00.002-05:00

Christmas at my grandparents' house is a long-standing tradition and is always so much fun. Its even more fun now that the focus has shifted to the next generation. They have changed so much since last year. Granddaddy loves playing with the 3 little ones.

And Grandmama always works her magic in the kitchen.

This is the world's best banana pudding. Don't bother arguing with me, my Grandmama's banana pudding is absolutely the best there is.

Every year Santa drops off a bag of goodies, which is pretty neat because we get together the Sunday before Christmas, which this year was a full week before Christmas Day. But Santa does it just for us and leaves a letter asking someone to help him by handing out the presents. This year it was Ella and Caitie's turn to be Santa's little helpers.

We piled all of the kids up in Granddaddy's lap but it doesn't take long before Mason starts pestering the girls. It really must be part of being a boy to natural pick on girls. He is always trying to tickle them or just poking at them and taking stuff away from them. Its pretty funny if you ask me. ;)

My little sister (on the left) has been Santa's first choice as helper for a long time since she was the youngest (by far), but now she has been dethroned by the 3 little ones. I think she enjoyed relaxing through the festivities though. She will be 15 in April.....can you believe it?!?!!!

Caitie is a hilarious little girl. She's going to be a comedian.

Ella is growing up so fast. She is going to be someone's boss.

Mason is full of energy. Based on his current interests, he is going to either be a garbageman or an engineer.

Each year we read about the birth of Jesus before opening presents. This year we passed out slips of paper, each with one verse from the account of Jesus' birth in the Gospel of Luke and went around the room reading the chapter verse by verse.

Then it was present time!

Mason was very excited to bring his first gift from Santa's bag to me to help him open it.

My Aunt Darlene and Uncle Jerry made the 3 little ones a book based on a storybook that my aunt wrote and illustrated when she was a little girl. It is the cutest thing ever, and so meaningful!

Mason was excited to get a bap-pul (apple), and didn't waste any time trying to dig in. When I showed him what it was actually for, he was equally excited about that. I thought this was such a clever gift for a child, a bank and a little bag of money for them to put in it. We have taken this money out and put it back in too many times to count.

Mason gave both the girls a nano-bug, which I thought was a totally appropriate gift from the boy in the family. The girls were both so excited!!

Caitie even gave Mason a thank you hug.

Then Mason stole someone's nano-bug, and we made a mental note to go buy him one to go in his stocking.

After completing this post, I noticed I should have taken more pictures of the adults....the kids are just so cute that I have a hard time turning my camera elsewhere!

Picture-a-Day {December 15-21}

2012-01-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

I just can't seem to get on the ball with trying to get up to date with the blog posts I want to do. These pictures date back to almost a month ago.

December was a busy month and Mason was such a sweet boy and put up with me dragging him all over town to get things done. One day I went into his room and he was just laying in his tunnel with his feet sticking out. It was odd because this boy is never still, so this made me smile....I thought maybe he was learning the art of relaxing, but now I see he was just testing it out and decided that relaxing is definitely not for him....he has to constantly be moving. But I'm glad I have this brief moment documented.

You know how Mason loves water? Well, I couldn't resist letting him go out and splash in the puddles one day. We don't have rain boots but this was still a fun activity that left an impression on this little boy. Now our routes on rainy days have become less direct, and you will find us snaking through the parking lot on the way to the car in search of a puddle to stomp through.

Grandmama and Granddaddy gave Mason some Christmas gifts one day when we were there playing, and Granddaddy got out some tools to take the little fire truck out of its packaging. Why are toys so hard to get out of the box?! I just love how Mason has his hands on Granddaddy's knees, watching him carefully as he works.

My mom's side of the family always gets together the Sunday before Christmas, and here are the three little ones on that side of the family with Granddaddys....their Great-Granddaddy. Ella, Mason, and Caitie.....they were 1, 2 & 3 years old this year. :)

Poppy (my dad) got a new boat and Mason was checking it out. He LOVES Poppy and talks about him all the time. I guess he does have a lot of fun toys to play with.

We visited Santa and that did not go over well. :)

Some of the ladies from the group of photographer's I am friends with got together for a little play date before Christmas and we did this little set up to take pictures of the kids. I'll do another post with more pictures of Mason from this day because they are so cute.

I think I have mentioned before how Mason loves little chairs and stools. He likes to line them up in the living room and point to us and tell us "seat"! We each take our places and he just looks around so gladly.

2011 Family Pictures

2012-01-05T15:30:00.004-05:00

Since moving to Birmingham a year and a half ago, I have become friends with a great group of photographers. To say that group has been a blessing in my life is a huge understatement! It is so fun to have a group of friends that share so many similarities. We all have lunch together once a month and Mason & I have had play dates with some of them that have young kids too. It has been such an amazing network of friends. One of those friends is Becky Abernathy, who owns Abernathy Photographics. Becky and I have SO much in common. From our style (both for our home, our clothes, and our photography), to our priorities with our faith and our family, we just always have so much to talk about. She's the type of friend that I could sit down and talk with for days and still not run out of things to discuss. I knew I wanted her to take our family pictures this fall because I love her work. I was super excited that things fell into place to capture my vision of us running around and playing at a Christmas tree farm. Becky captured us just being us, which was exactly what I wanted. I also wanted this to serve as a bit of documentation of the beginning of an annual tradition of going together as a family to chop down our own Christmas tree. I love ALL of the images from our session, I was literally blown away by Becky's work and just SO thrilled to have these images of our family. She really connected with Mason and got so many genuine expressions from him. It was so fun to be on the other side of the camera and it reminded me how exciting it is to have great pictures of our family. So I wanted to share a few of my favorites....

I ADORE this expression that Becky got out of Mason. That's my boy to a T!

And here is our Christmas card that I designed with my very favorite images....

front...

back...

Am I the only one that is super sad that the season for getting Christmas cards in the mailbox is over? It was so much fun this year and I got excited about checking the mail every day. I love snail mail!! :)

Mason at 18 months

2012-01-03T18:21:00.001-05:00

I started this post a while back but never finished it, so even though he is now 20 months old, here is Mason's 18 months in review. I thought I would go ahead and post it so it will be a part of our blog book one day since that has sort of taken the place of his baby book. :) Its just a bunch of random thoughts to describe him at this age and record his favorite things so we will remember what he was like at 18 months.

The picture above was taken at the doctor's office for his 18 month check up. He had a blast playing in the room while we were waiting on the doctor. Mason amazes me with how much fun he can have wherever we go...the world is his playground. His little mind is always working so fast to try to figure out where to hide and play peek-a-boo, or looking around for pictures of things to name. No matter if we are at home, or in the car, or at the doctor or the post office. He comes up with something to play and has the best time. This is one of my favorite things about spending my days with him. He has taught me to slow down and have fun wherever I am. He is joyful and exuberant from the moment he wakes up, almost every single morning. Mason is my alarm clock in the morning, my morning rooster if you will. I usually stop by the bathroom to brush my teeth before going to get him out of bed and in that time we are talking back and forth to each other through the walls. By the time I walk through his door, he has Bear tucked under his arm and is giggling and talking about some specific activity that he has in mind to do...usually car, ball, bubbles, or kiggy. He wakes up ready to play.

I love the way his eyes sparkle and light up with a hint of mischief even when he isn't being mischievous. His smile lights up his entire face and usually all the faces that are around him too.

At 18 months, he loves to be tickled. When we are having a good tickle session and we stop, he does the sign and says "more" over and over until we give in. He asks for "more" often when it has to do with us and our time ("more" = play with me longer), which is more usual than asking for "more" of food or material things. I love how much he just wants our attention and our playtime. His desires for attention and affection just seem to be so pure-hearted at this age.

Mason loves hats. He doesn't always keep them on if we put one on his head, but almost once a day he goes into his room to get a hat and comes out wearing one. He'll usually bring one for me and Jeremy too so we all have a hat to wear. He likes to put other things on his head too and call them hats, like bowls and plates, or toys....even slices of deli meat can serve as a hat according to Mason. His favorite cartoon is Cat in the Hat. No doubt because it combines his two favorite things....kiggy (cat) and hat. This fall when we collected acorns on our walks in the neighborhood, he said they had hats because of their little tops. Anything can be a hat in his world.

When Mason runs, his entire body moves with excitement and a hint of uncoordination.

He says "no" a lot but in the sweetest voice. The cats get reprimanded a lot by a little boy voice exclaiming "no kiggy!!" And occasionally we will even hear him scolding himself with a "no-no baby".

Mason no doubt has my favorite giggle in the world. I replay videos of him giggling on my phone all the time just because it is the best sound in the world.

He has always really loved balls, but right around 18 months he fell in love with cars and they have now taken the number one spot for favorite toy. He usually grabs a little car on the way out the door to take with him when we run errands. He makes the cutest car noise and anytime I am sitting at the computer working he likes to come over and drive his little cars on my legs.

He knows how to count to 3, how else would you start a race with daddy?! :)

And just recently he learned a lot of boy words.... burp, poot, pee, and poo-poo.

He prefers giving a head butt over a high five. But a good fist bump is quickly replacing that, thank goodness.

His manners are coming along nicely for a little 18month old boy. He says "wuv you", "cank cou" (thank you), and "cuse me". All in the right contexts and all very often, I just want to squeeze him every time I hear it in his sweet little voice. He says "cank cou" anytime we hand him something and he usually waits just a second to make sure we heard him and we respond with a "you're welcome buddy". Sometimes he will even grab onto something we are holding and say "cank cou" while looking us in the eyes as if to say "you have to give it to me now" ;).....this tactic has a pretty high success rate because he is just so stinking cute!

His favorite snacks right now are popcorn, peanut butter, and hummus. He loves dipping crackers in hummus, I think he enjoys the act of dipping even more than the taste of hummus.

At 18 months, we made a list of all the words that he knows and we were very surprised to see the list was at least 70 words long. He says a few little multi-word phrases like "I did it" and "its hot".

When we are on the phone with someone he has learned that we always say "okay, I'll talk to you later" right before we say bye, so every time I say that, he yells "bye-bye!" before I can get the words out of my mouth.

He is such a sweet boy and its so neat to see his personality forming more and more each day. This phase of being right on the cusp between sweet obedient baby, and rambunctious demanding little boy is bittersweet. I'll miss having my little baby to carry around, but all the new things this phase is bringing is so exciting. Seeing him grow in wisdom and understanding is such a neat thing to be a part of. I'm just so thankful to be his mommy.

Christmas Morning Video

2011-12-31T21:32:00.007-05:00

About a week before Christmas, we were reminiscing and looking through photos from Christmas last year. Its crazy how much Mason has changed in just one year!! Check these out...

We also watched our Christmas morning video from last year and decided that we had to do it again. So Christmas morning I sat up the camera on interval shooting, easy peasy. I just got around to going through the images and putting it together in video form today. I like how simple this is to do, as long as you don't expect to be blown away by creativity because what you are about to see its nuts and bolts basic, about 4 hours of fun simmered down to 2 minutes with a fun little song. I suppose this is now an annual tradition. Enjoy! :)

Since the camera was capturing an image every two seconds, it was bound to capture some cute moments. This is one of my favorite things about doing interval shooting since I can be in the moment and in the pictures....not the greatest pictures, but they get the job done. Happy momma.

Mason was so excited about his little train set. He had a train in at least one hand the rest of the morning. It didn't take him long to learn two new words--- " choo-choo" and "coal car".

Ella has one of these scooters and Mason loves playing on it when we are at her house. It was so cute when we opened this box and he got so excited because he knew exactly what it was.

Mason was excited to have the "kiggies" join in the Christmas fun, they enjoyed their Christmas tuna while we all ate chocolate from our stockings.

And I love these next two moments with his car. We had planned on setting it up outside and taking him out to find it after opening the rest of his presents. But it rained all morning, so we pushed the table and chair to the side and drove the car into the dining room. He was playing with his train in the living room at the time, and when he saw the car he dropped everything on cue and took off running for the car. This was one excited little boy!!!!

So much fun for all of us!! This is what its all about! :)

A review of his Christmas presents this year...

He got a cute Team USA Olympic gold medalist dress up outfit. With it being an Olympic year (already?!...I can't believe it!) we are sure he will get some use out of this. Can you say Olympic viewing party at Mason's house?! :) We have plans to make it adaptable to be a Bahamian Olympian outfit as well. :)

Thomas the train was a big hit!! We are already planning on buying him a few more track pieces pretty soon because he loves this so much, and one little loop just isn't enough. ;) This little set is so neat though because we can easily carry it places with us, it has already served us well when Mason and I had a leisurely two hour breakfast with a friend yesterday morning. He could play with this thing for hours on end.

He also got a Veggietales movie and a Thomas the Train movie. Some fun little things from his stocking... Silly straws, balloons, a laser pointer, nano bug, a book, and some stickers.

And of course, the gift of the year....a car!!! Such a joy!

I guess you might have noticed in the video that Jeremy and I both got iPads for Christmas. We weren't supposed to be spending much on each other. But in years past when we have said that, Jeremy has still been a stinker and bought me a nice gift, so this year I wanted to be the one to surprise him big time. I was SO excited about surprising him with an iPad which I knew he would love. Little did I know that he was doing the same thing for me. It feels a little indulgent to have one iPad, let alone two! But we are enjoying them and of course already have some neat apps for Mason as well. :)

It's Christmas!

2011-12-25T14:03:00.006-05:00

I couldn't resist sharing a few pictures from last night and today. I am going to let the pictures do the talking for the most part, starting out with pictures from Christmas Eve in his Christmas PJs.

And after the little man went to bed, we set the stage for Christmas morning. It's so fun and exciting to be the one to set up the big gift surprise, Jeremy and I had so much fun wrapping everything and setting it up.

This morning when Mason came out, he went right to the chalkboard and started coloring. After enjoying that for a few minutes, I asked him if he wanted to open a present and he dropped the chalk and his eyes got really wide like he knew exactly what I was talking about.

He loved opening presents and tearing all the paper. One of his favorite gifts was his little Thomas the Train set.

The kitties got their annual can of tuna for Christmas breakfast.

Another favorite was a laser pointer to play with Tim. I wish I had these loud squeals and giggles on video.

And the big hit was his new car! We hid the car in the kitchen until he had opened his other presents because we knew he could play with this all morning. When we brought it out, he dropped his trains on the spot, ran over, and jumped right in.

If you're wondering where he learned the expression on the right, you need only scroll back up a few pictures to the one of Jeremy throwing the toy plane. ;)

Such a happy happy boy!! He had a very merry Christmas indeed. It was such a fun day!

Joyful, Joyful

2011-12-21T16:17:00.005-05:00

If I had to use one word to sum up our little family right now It would be "Joyful". We have felt so blessed this year to be able to enjoy so many moments of health and happiness together, just the three of us, as well as with our extended families on both sides and an amazing community of friends. Mason is such a happy little guy and just exudes JOY pretty much around the clock. The pitter patter of little feet that have quickened over the better part of the year brings so many smiles to our faces. The sounds of his belly laughs and the way he says our names permeate our memories as we try to soak in these moments into deep places so we will never forget those precious sounds. If we could bottle all of this up and stay here forever, we just might. But since we know that isn't possible (and we do look forward with great anticipation as to what the future brings) all I wanted for Christmas was a video of our family, right here and now. A day in the life captured, so we will never forget these sweet and joyful moments.

The Knowles Family | A Day In The Life from Hampton Road Studios on Vimeo.

{you can also view the video larger through the link above}

Many many MANY thanks to Matt & Ashley at Hampton Road Studios for capturing our family on video, and to my sweet friend Becky at Abernathy Photographics for the amazing photographs for our Christmas cards. Also, my friend Amanda Pair captured still images during our video shoot so we have some sweet moments at home captured in photographs as well. I will be sharing more of both sets of those pictures on the blog soon! :) We are so thankful to have this season of life preserved so beautifully. All of you know how sentimental I am, so --as you can imagine-- many tears of pure JOY have been shed to have all of these great memories captured to keep forever. It is the best Christmas present ever!!

I know our family blog has turned into Mason's blog, as that is pretty much all we talk about these days. :) I love to share pictures and stories with our family and friends so they can know Mason as he grows up. No matter the distance that separates all of us, we want you all to know that we love you and cherish each one of you. We talk often about how blessed we are to have so many loving and supportive people in our lives. We pray that each of you have a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. May each of your lives be filled with the true JOY and happiness that was delivered to all of us this very season.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Jolly Ole Saint Nicholas

2011-12-21T08:54:00.003-05:00

Monday afternoon, we took Mason to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops. They allow people to take their own pictures and we anticipated that this would be the year that something funny would happen with Santa so I wanted some shots of the "in-between" moments with Santa. We were expecting one of two things to happen....(1) Mason would be interested in Santa and would pull on his beard and do cute things like that, or (2) Mason would freak out.

So we weren't really that surprised when the freak out started. He started clinging to Jeremy pretty tightly as they approached Santa, and they stood there and talked to him for just a second. As Jeremy tried to place Mason on Santa's lap, the expected happened.....he started screaming and crying. Hopefully you won't think any less of us for saying that we were laughing. :) They asked us if we still wanted a picture, and of course we did! Of all Christmas memories, a crying kid in Santa's lap is a classic one that we can now call our own. Since he was crying, Jeremypicked him back up and we all stood with Santa for a picture....that they almost cut me out of.

We walked off to the side and stood and watched some other little kids visit with Santa, all of them without tears. Mason seemed to be warming up to Santa as he kept on waving at him so we decided to try again. And well.....

He calmed down right away and he enjoyed looking at all the animals around the store. He was terrified of Santa, but went right up to a big scary brown bear (stuffed) and stuck his hand right in his mouth. It's so funny how Santa freaks kids out. Oh, the Christmas memories that were made. :)

Picture-a-Day {December 8-14}

2011-12-16T18:17:00.006-05:00

Our favorite part of each day is when daddy gets home from school. Most days, Mason is waiting by the front door or we are sitting together on the front porch steps waiting to run and tackle daddy as soon as we can.

We've had some cold morning walks recently and Mason gets to wear his cool aviator hat. He objected at first, but now he knows he likes the warmth it brings...especially to his ears.

He was helping with a little Saturday morning laundry by helping carry things to our rooms, each time returning for a new load to balance carefully between his hands and his face for a little extra reinforcement.

This little activity started months ago but continues on very strong. Mason and Jeremy put their backs against the door and Jeremy says "ready, set, go" and they race to the other side of the kitchen. Mason likes to jump the gun by a step or two and he usually wins. This time after a few races against daddy, he pointed to me and challenged me to a race.

Moments before bedtime....when we put his paci in his mouth, he just leans over in our arms to rest in this position, waiting to be carried to his room and to get a few night-night kisses. Its so sweet that it almost tempts me to let him stay awake longer.

The good little student loves to turn his favorite little stool into a desk. I was letting him play with pens off my desk until he drew on the chair in the dining room....and the sofa....and the bathroom door. He can't be trusted with pens, and he eats crayons, so we have moved on to stickers. I haven't found a downside yet, but Tim might disagree since he usually gets covered in them.

Mason loves putting his socks and shoes on each day since it usually means that we are going outside to play. This day I was given hurried orders to put socks and shoes on Bear as well, that was a first.

He still has so much fun on his little toddler playset that he inherited from cousin Ella. Its so funny to me how many times he can do this 20 second routine of up, down, and around this little thing.

A surprise balloon from daddy has been kept close every day for at least a week. I love these sweet little sleepy eyes and the cuddly striped footie pajamas.

Picture-a-Day {December 1-7}

2011-12-16T17:14:00.005-05:00

On the first day of December we began a new family tradition. The Christmas Angel is a little angel doll and storybook that explains the true meaning of Christmas and encourages children to give to others. Each day she leaves a hint in gold dust (glitter) for what we are supposed to do that day. It has been a lot of fun doing something with Mason each day to serve others and even though I'm sure he doesn't fully understand why we are doing these things, it will be neat to see how this leaves an impact on him over the years.

I have really been trying to think of things that Mason can do on his own so it doesn't end up being me doing everything for him, some things require my help but they have mostly been simple things that he can do. On the first day, the angel left a message to "share".

His little friend Iris was coming over that day to play so the Christmas Angel wanted Mason to share some of his favorite toys and snacks with her. :) He did a pretty good job.

This picture is just so funny to me. Two little toddlers wiggling their way off the window seat.

Tim spends a lot of time looking out the front windows, and Mason will often go over and join him. They were so funny this day tucked behind the curtain. Half the time, Mason had Tim in a head lock giving him kisses. :)

Kisses like this one. I swear Tim gets more kisses than we do! I let Mason open one of his Christmas presents early. :) I ordered several of his things online and the days when something would be delivered I was so excited to see what each package contained ..... and on this day, I just couldn't wait for Mason to see it either. He LOVES his Cat in the Hat hat!

Over the past month, Mason has become really interested in the moon. He always says "hi moon" and "bye bye moon" when we are outside. It reminds us of how much cousin Joss loved the moon when he was this age (and still does). It is neat to see how much the boy cousins have in common.

Mason has started saying a lot of little expressions like "huh?" "uh-uh" and "oh". Its so funny to see how he has picked up on these things, because they are definitely not words that we have intentionally taught him. Sometimes, he will even make a cute little inquiring face with a head tilt to the side when he says "huh?" and I realize this is what I do to him when he starts jabbering in his little language and I can't understand what he is saying.

On trash day, our Christmas Angel left a note for Mason to help our neighbors. So we walked up and down our street and pushed everyone's trash cans back to their house. This was a huge hit!! I didn't really anticipate how much Mason would love this little activity, but now he always wants to do this when we are out walking. Don't worry, he also loves using antibacterial gel on his hands afterward.

We got to go with Jeremy's class to Mcwane Science Center again. Just like the first time, Mason loved it! He stayed so hyper and busy the entire time we were there. Jeremy's kids love Mason so much and he always ends up being the center of attention when he is around. Right here, he was going around giving them all a fist bump....such a ham! :)

They had a huge train exhibit setup with model trains behind plexi glass. Mason enjoyed watching them and pressing the buttons to make them go. They also had little train tables set up for kids to play with and Mason stayed busy here for a while. This definitely reminded us of Joss and Emit because it was so much like their train table. This summer when we were at their house, Mason was more of a track destroyer than a train conductor, but I think we have made some progress in this area. Joss would be so proud!!

He also really loved the big piano and kept on pointing to Jeremy or I to join him so we continually traded places. It is neat to see how much he loves music, I always wonder if little interests like this will develop into being a big part of his life.

Every once in a while, Mason has a day where I look at his hair and it just naturally falls in the right place. It is so cute when its like this and just perfectly feathered back over his ears. Of course this only happens about once a month, and its cute all the other days as well .... I just took particular notice this day to how perfect it was.

This 1/2 month with Mason

2011-12-01T19:32:00.003-05:00

I can't believe that I haven't posted in half a month! November was crazy. Its December 1st now and things are starting to slow down on the horizon. In the meantime, our house is still a disaster and I have bags under my eyes. Both of which you will see in the pictures below. Just concentrate on the cute little boy. :)

"If you're happy and you know it then your face will surely show it." He loves that song and I love those little fingers pointing to his face.

I just love this little excited face, I can tell he was yelling the word "car". Isn't it funny how a mommy can know that sort of thing.

We went to visit one of my friends who happens to be mom to one of Mason's little friends....she became big sister to twin baby brothers! So I went to meet the boys and Mason went to play with the big sis. But turns out, he REALLY liked the babies. We had to give him one of Caroline's baby dolls to take care of so he would stop "helping" the boys with their pacis and bottles while they were sleeping. :)

The Saturday before Thanksgiving my mom's side of the family all had lunch at my grandparents house. The three little ones found these flags in the house and we had a little impromptu marching parade outside. He was SOOOOO happy!! I love his expressions here.

Ella, Caitie, and Mason also loved playing in the leaves and throwing them on each other. Mason has started picking on the girls already and it is hilarious!

Jeremy killed a big deer that Sunday morning. They go hunting early in the morning so when they got out of the woods, Mason was still in his pajamas. I just threw his crocs and hat on with them and he was styling while we went to check out daddy's 10-pointer!

The little stinker loves to kick this picture frame that hangs above his changing table. He just has to stay busy and moving all the time.

He has been playing with all of his little cars a lot here lately. Balls used to be his favorite toy but I think he has for sure moved on to cars. He is such a boy!

He also loves to wrestle and get rough....even with Ella.

I adore these next few images with my grandparents (Mason's great-grandparents) on Thanksgiving Day. They were all having such a good time playing.

LOVE!!!!!

I shared a bite of an ice cream cone with Mason and he loved it so much he pulled it out of my hands and gobbled it down. Its safe to say he had the biggest sugar rush of his life the rest of that afternoon. He was wild and energetic, but Jeremy and I had so much fun with him that day, I think we all laughed for about 4 hours straight.

Mason loves riding in the carts at the big orange home improvement store. We went to pick up a few things and came home and went to work. Mason manned the tape measure.....which he sneaked into his toy box instead of putting it back in the tool box.

The night before this we had skipped his bath, so I think he devised a plan to guarantee a bath this night.....it worked.

Mason and Mommy ready to go to church in our new shirts.

I've been getting lots of packages with orders in for clients. Some of them have included fun things for Mason....like bubble wrap! The fun of this big piece of bubble wrap has lasted for days!

He loves driving his cars around the house and going through tunnels....especially mommy leg tunnels.

We put up Christmas lights outside for the first time ever this year. We did it one night after Mason went to sleep....in the dark, thanks to daylight savings time. We couldn't wait to show Mason the next night, he was so excited about all the lights. The next several weeks are going to be so much fun!!

This week with Mason

2011-11-16T22:44:00.002-05:00

It's been really hard to keep up with this the past few weeks....October and November are always really crazy months for me with work. It's good to be busy....but crazy insanity too. :) You'll notice two themes running throughout this set of pictures... (a) our house is a complete disaster and (b) half of these were taken minutes before Mason headed to bed...I kept on almost forgetting....which means that they were taken in awful light and I am glad that these are small pictures. :)

Playing outside these days is so much fun. Mason is getting to where he really loves to just run around and explore and play his little heart out. He is so cute when he gets down on the ground and pushes his car around ... complete with little boy sound affects.

We usually keep our bedroom door closed to keep little boys and kitties out. One day they pounced on a cracked door of opportunity and in seconds the room looked like this. I suspect that the emptying of the drawers was the kitty's idea, but that the little boy was coerced into action.

We drove up to Grandmama & Granddaddy's (Mason's great-grandparents) house one day and played with Ella in the leaves. I have lots of cute pictures of them from this day, so it will have to get a post of its own soon.

One of Mason's favorite books right now is "Commotion in the Ocean", a book that cousins Joss & Emit sent to Mason for his birthday....it is also one of their favorites. He will get it from his basket of books in the living room and bring it to me, saying "buh-buhs!" (bubbles) A few things he likes to point out in the book are buh-buhs, fish, mouth (the shark), babies (the octopus page), and tuh-tuhs (turtles).

Mason had his 18 month checkup last week and we had tons of fun in our 75 minute wait...why is it always so long? Anyways, we played peek-a-boo for a while (isn't that a precious face!!!!) and he has a BIG thing for "trash" right now. He is always coming to me and asking me for "trash" and I have to look around for something that he can wad up and go throw away. I usually rip one piece of paper into little pieces and he will take trips back and forth to the trash can throwing each piece away. At the doctor's office, he loved wadding up the crinkly paper from the patient table.

Nana (Jeremy's mom) came up to see us for a few days. She was making a trip up to the States to pick up a standard poodle from a breeder 2 hours north of here to take back to some family friends in the Bahamas. So we got to have a fun weekend with Nana and Griffin (the dog). Mason loved having his very own dog for the weekend, but the cats were relieved to see Griffin leave on Sunday.

Nana's visit might just get its on blog post too (if I can ever catch up). Since the dog was here, we spent a lot of time outside playing in the amazing weather. The picture on the left cracks me up....this little part of his playset that you are supposed to look through.....he has put every part of his face up to it except his eyes. He was doing his ears for a while, and now he has moved on to mouth. I'm sure he's thinking "What is this stupid thing for?" One day he'll look through it and figure it out. :)

I brought ALL of Mason's toys into the living room one day to go through them and clean things out. It was nice to sort through everything and put things back in sets, and then rotate toys from the living room to the bedroom, and then just get rid of a bunch of stuff. I had piles for each thing (bedroom toys, living room toys, trash, donate) and of course the piles he was most interested in was the trash and donate pile! He kept on pulling toys out of those and taking it back to his shelf in the living room to play with.

Mason loves little word books that have one picture per page and the word in print at the bottom. He has several and we will sit and go through them learning new words. I just got him a new one the other day that has some words that he didn't know so we've been reading it a lot. Then the other night I was cooking dinner and he pointed to the timer and said "clock"....he had not repeated that one yet while we were reading so I didn't know he had picked up on it. He is always surprising us with the things he knows....this age is really neat!

Mason has had this plastic flute for quite a while and plays it all the time but it has been quite the challenge to ever get a picture of him playing it. I think he loves it so much because it combines his two biggest interests.... moving + being loud.

We went to the library Monday morning for a little while. The first 5 minutes or so he was pretty interested in all of the "booksh", but then he spotted something else......

Toys!!! And toys win every time. We had fun playing. There was this precious little girl there and they had a great time playing together.....but it was kind of weird to go to the library to play with toys. oh well....baby steps! :)

Mason already has little things that he likes to do like "dada". Whenever he has the opportunity he gets so squealy excited about carrying around Jeremy's lunchbox. He was prancing around this night and just talking and talking saying who knows what. But it included lots of squeals, giggles, and "dada".

There is a cute little "Cat in the Hat" cartoon that comes on PBS and Mason has fallen in love with it. He is really into hats so I think that is the main attraction. Whenever he sees a picture of Cat in the Hat he says "eee hat!!"....followed by "dho dho dho dho" (go go go go) which is part of the theme song. He cracks me up when he gets settled down in some random position watching tv. I learned this summer that Joss & Emit both do this sort of thing to, so maybe this is just how little boys watch tv.....their bodies have to be moving and doing something interesting at all times.

Mason is still a really good eater. His favorite food right now is peanut butter....which he has a very interesting way of pronouncing....I'll have to share a video of that soon. ;) He usually just joins in with whatever we are eating which happens to be a lot of rosemary triscuits and hummus for snacks here lately. It's a little hard to believe that he eats things like this....he took triscuits as a snack to the church nursery on Sunday and they thought it was hilarious that he loves them so much. He just loves to eat.

Trick or Treat

2011-11-14T08:20:00.001-05:00

We got to hang out with the two most adorable swim bears on Halloween. I'm sure you recognize the little bear or "B" from his many appearances with Mason. He is Mason's best little buddy. He even has to go with us many places, but sometimes has to wait in the car when we go to places that don't allow bears.

You may not know though, that B normally wears swim goggles and a speedo. He used to have a blue speedo but it vanished into thin air a few months ago, and he doesn't wear his goggles on a daily basis since they are not too cuddly.... and he doesn't spend too much time in the water anyways. ;) But on Halloween, he was back in his full attire and so was our big bear Mason. We pulled Mason's goggles down over his eyes and he immediately pulled them off. Then he looked over at B and with a look on his face like "what have y'all done to B!!?!?!?", he quickly ripped them off of B's face to rescue him as well.

The two swim bears loved playing in our candy bowl, all the wrappers made such a fun noise when tossed about.

They guarded the bowl carefully and Mason was not too sure about things when kids started coming by and reaching in "his" candy bowl and taking things. He started frantically "grunting" toward me at one point like "mom, are you just going to stand there and let them do this?!"

We walked our Bear around to all of our neighbors on our street to get some candy. At our first stop Jeremy showed Mason how trick-or-treating works by instructing him to get a piece of candy and put it in his bag. Notice that little swim bear was excitedly tossed to the side when Mason went to join in on the fun.

He didn't stop at one piece though. In fact, he didn't stop until he had emptied the entire bowl!

He doesn't even know what candy is, but as a budding toddler, he definitely understands the concept of "I'm taking this!"

After he had methodically transferred all of the candy to his bag, he reversed and started pulling it out of his bag and putting it back into the bowl.

Our first trick-or-treating stop took longer than most, but we enjoyed visiting with our next door neighbors for a while. Once we had moved most of the candy back to the bowl, just leaving a few pieces of candy in Mason's bag, we moved on to the next house. All of our neighbors enjoyed seeing our little swim bear, he was quite unique.

After a bit of trick-or-treating we gathered with several of our neighbors around a fire pit set up in our driveway. I had made some chicken tortilla soup and everyone brought another treat to share. Mason and Jon got to hang out for a little while longer before bedtime. After they went to bed around 7, we all got to hang out for quite a while as other trick-or-treaters trickled through the neighborhood until about 9:30. Our house was like the "depot" of candy bowls, a one stop shop.

It was such a fun night, and all the neighbors agreed that we had started an annual tradition. We might have to come up with more excuses to congregate in the driveway with a fire pit because we all had such a great time. We are so thankful for great neighbors!!! We love our neighborhood and our little swim bear.

The Beauty of Fall

2011-11-11T20:21:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday afternoon we went to play in the park. The leaves here right now are gorgeous and I had my mind made up that I was going to take some pictures of us while the leaves are at their peak. I wanted to let Mason play and run around too, so I just had my camera out for about 10 minutes. Right when we got there, it seemed the first thing on Mason's agenda was to find a stick. His first choice was pretty big but he quickly found a smaller one to run around with. He is such a boy!

He doesn't stay in one place (what toddler does?!) but I could at least bribe him in my direction with some Halloween candy....we have been letting him eat one pack of smarties a day and it is the most exciting thing in the world to him. The most exciting thing to me.....the fact that we get to eat all of his chocolate. :) I guess this will be the only year we can do that.

I handed the camera off to Jeremy and lured Mason my way with another smartie and grabbed him for a quick shot. There are not very many pictures of me and Mason, so I was thrilled to have a new one with both of us smiling! I usually look so awkward on this side of the camera, but I think having my sweet boy in my arms helps me relax. I just updated my facebook profile picture (for the first time in 9 months!) to this one on the right.

Then I set up my camera on the tripod to shoot a few of all of us with my remote. I was taking some test shots with these two in our spot, but the little one got away.

He ran all the way over and licked my camera lens!!.....which he has actually done two other times since then. I have no idea where he comes up with these ideas, but he is getting to where he does random funny things like that daily. He keeps us entertained.

I decided to change the way it was framed and rotated my camera to take some vertical shots to get more of the leaves in, and Mason was running out of "staying in one spot" juice which I hope can explain why these were not set up too well (and a little bit out of focus). But I love them anyways.

Did you know that it is hard to get a little boy to look at a camera when no one is standing over there. I was pretty surprised to see that he looked right at the camera for a few. I guess he has had a little bit of practice.

By the time the adults looked at the camera, the little boy was done though. The past 3 weeks have been really beautiful with vivid colors all around and such wonderful temperatures. I wish it could stay like this a little longer, but I am afraid winter is on its way. This little family isn't too thrilled with the idea of freezing temperatures....although my new brown boots are making the transition a little more fun!

Mental Note

2011-11-10T14:45:00.006-05:00

I needed somewhere to make a mental note of this so I wouldn't lose it. :) I love how I can keep things organized on Pinterest and come back to them later, but the page where I found this color chart didn't have an image to pin. That's where this post comes in. So this is probably useless to most of you, although some might find it very helpful. If you are ever needing to pull off the right shade or color in photoshop or illustrator, this chart has 500 colors with their Hex value, RGB value and Microsoft Access code number that you can just plug right into Photoshop. I was looking for the right shade of coral today for an album design for a client and found this chart. This is a great resource that I definitely don't want to lose so I'm putting it here for safe-keeping. :)

The Tiny Chaperone

2011-11-07T09:17:00.000-05:00

Last week, Jeremy's class had a field trip to the Mcwane Center, an interactive science museum, so Mason and I tagged along as chaperones. :) We've been a few other times but this was the first time that Mason really ran around and played with things that caught his eye.

There is this little playhouse that shows how perspective can trick the eye. With one wall being shorter than the other and the floor and ceiling sloped toward the shorter wall, it can make someone look taller or shorter than they are depending on where they are standing.

Like making a baby boy and a daddy appear to be the same height.

Mason loved running around in here. There were a bunch of other big kids in there so he would quietly walk over to a wall and back up all the way to touching it and stand there so quietly.....smiling all the time. It was precious.

Mommy and Mason built towers. Mostly mommy doing the building, and Mason doing the knocking down.

This exhibit had air hoses and light weight balls that you could blow around and keep elevated in mid-air. Mason, of course, loved the balls, and he got so tickled playing with the air.

There is a big section of big bubble makers. He loved it!

And I didn't read what this was, but it was one of his favorites.

Daddy and Mason climbed up in the toddler play area and while high up in the air, Mason spotted something below....

Water!! He hurried down and we played here for quite some time. He was so cute in his apron.

Playing in water is one of his favorite things to do. He giggled and squealed "bath" and "wa-wa" the entire time.

It was well past nap time when we were leaving but that couldn't stop Mason from wiggling down out of my arms to run over and watch the balls traveling through this exhibit. I had to get my camera back out to take a picture for Joss and Emit. This is one of their favorite things at the Mcwane Center. I could sit there and watch it for a long time too. Its a big obstacle course of sorts that little balls travel through and make music as they hit different elements. It reminds me of a big game of Mouse Trap.

With colder months ahead, I think we'll be making some more trips back to the Mcwane Center. We all had so much fun!

This week with Mason

2011-11-05T21:07:00.003-04:00

I'm using my extra hour tonight from daylight savings time to get caught up on the blog. I'm preparing and scheduling several posts to go up in the days ahead. :) Let's get caught up on the daily pics first.

The week before Halloween, I tried Mason's costume on him several times to try to get him used to it. He did pretty well with it, and it was so cute to have a little bear walking around the house. On the right is Mason & Jon's nanny Haley. They go out for walks a good bit and Haley tells us funny stories about how they constantly throw a leg or arm over on the other one just to mess with each other.

We met our little friend Iris at the park again to play one morning. Mason and Iris get along so well and its so nice to talk to Brooke while they play. This week we were discussing discipline strategies because these two sweet angels have both started being little rascals from time to time. Mason has this new habit of standing in quiet contemplation sometimes with his hands behind his back....its super cute, and usually followed by mischief.

While we were at the park, this little girl from the neighborhood drove up in her powerwheels car. She parked it right by the gate and hopped out and went in the playground. As soon as Mason saw it, he had to go check out this cool ride....and he wasn't the only one. It was quite the kid magnet.

The little girl (she was probably around 5 years old) took Mason for a little ride around the park and then Mason and Iris sat in the car and looked cute. Mini people + mini car = pretty adorable

On Friday, Jeremy's class went to the interactive science museum for a field trip and Mason & I got to join in on the trip. Mason is just now at a great age to really enjoy running around to each exhibit and exploring all the fun things around the museum. We'll definitely be spending some of the cold winter days there in the coming months.

Friday afternoons at the park at the end of our street, the neighborhood kids (& some of the parents) get together and play soccer. This was our first time to be able to go, and Mason (with a lot of help from daddy) scored his first goal. :)

Mason always has to be included in whatever we are doing, especially if it involves anything that resembles a broom. So Saturday morning when Jeremy was raking the leaves, he had to pull out the extra rake for his little helper.

Sunday afternoon we were playing outside and Jon came outside to play too. We live a few miles from the airport and some of the flight paths are right over our house. It has become super exciting when we are outside and see a plane flyover.
Mason and Jon both love walking with these push toys on the sidewalk..... they also like ramming them into each other.....they are just like little brothers.

I'll post more pictures of our little swim bear in another post, but Mason had a great time trick-or-treating.

Jeremy usually does bath & bed time so I can use that time in the evenings to work. But since he started grad school and is gone a couple of nights a week, now I get to do bath time sometimes too. He was so wild this night, and we had a lot of fun. Its so great to laugh so hard right before bedtime.

I have been fighting a cold so Jeremy stopped by Mcallister's one night to pick up some soup for dinner. Mason loved his big boy milk carton with a straw that came with his meal.

Three nights in a row of forgetting until the last part of the day to take a picture. I blame it on the cold medicine. :) Mason loves to feed us.

Mason loves to pretend to drive the car any chance he can get. I guess there is a general trend showing that he loves to do anything that is "big boy".

While cleaning the floors, we found quite the hidden stash of toys under the couch. I wish I had a picture of Mason squatting down with his hands on his knees and saying "whoa!" when he peeked under there. It was hilarious!

Cartoons are serious business.

I had my hands full today getting out of the car so I put Mason's bag on his back. I love his look on the left like "uh, mom....a little help here?" I can't believe how quickly he is becoming a "big boy".

Weekend in the Mountains: Part 2

2011-10-31T11:11:00.002-04:00

Saturday morning, Mason woke up sick....and stayed sick all day. So we spent most of the day just like this. I hated that he was sick, but I loved that he was so cuddly. The image on the right of him with his sippy cup of Pedialyte can pretty much sum up our activities of the day.

Some of the sick episodes were quite contained....while others were a giant mess. I think we gave him 4 baths that day, and we definitely had to wash every single towel in that cabin before we left.

By early evening, he was slowing down just a little bit with the sickness so we decided to run out and pick up some barbecue for dinner. We always like to find little local hole-in-the-wall type of places to eat, so this little gem hit the spot.

We got our dinner to go and went to the spot in town that we had heard had the best view of the mountains and downtown Elijay.....the town cemetery. Pretty funny, but it was a great view.

We enjoyed dinner and tried to take a quick family picture.....which went about like this....

So we settled for a picture of the two of us....and that's a little part of Mason's head in the bottom left corner.

Mason actually kept dinner down and seemed to be better Sunday morning so we decided to try to go out and do a few of the other things we had planned. We went to the Apple Festival first which is a big annual event during the big harvest season in Elijay. Yep, that's a Christmas sign for our yard that Jeremy is holding....I couldn't go to a festival without buying something crafty. Its cute y'all, and its red nose lights up. I can't wait to put it up at Christmas!

There was one small episode of sickness at the festival which resulted in a momentary shirtless boy. He's pretty cute like this if you ask me.

After some browsing, and lunch....and an awesome caramel apple.....at the festival, we drove over to Amicalola State Park to hike to the Amicalola Falls.

We stopped along the way to "smile" for pictures...

And pet dogs....

And learn how to skip rocks....

The trail up to the base of the falls was an easy hike....and then we had to climb 175 stairs.

It wasn't terribly difficult, but it did turn out to be a good way to burn off the apple cider doughnuts, the caramel apple, the fried apple pie, and the apple butter we had eaten over the weekend. ;)

The view once we got to the top....which was really more like the middle....was beautiful.

I can imagine that the details change throughout the seasons when there is more rainfall, or different colors of the trees depending upon the season, or even snow on the ground. When we got home it was interesting to do a quick google search and look through some other images of the Falls. It really is a pretty place.

On the way back down we pet some more dogs....

Mason enjoyed riding on daddy's shoulders and banging on his head. And I love when he walks beside us and holds our hand....usually slinging the other arm as fast as it will go.

We had such a great weekend....and it feels so weird to say that considering Mason was sick. But since he was going to be sick either at home or away....I was glad we were away. It was relaxing to get away and enjoy such beautiful scenery so close to home. We are talking about making it an annual tradition...except the stomach virus of course.

Weekend in the Mountains: Part 1

2011-10-28T22:24:00.003-04:00

As I was looking through our pictures from our quick weekend trip to North Georgia, you wouldn't even know that we were stuck in the cabin all day on our only full day of our trip. We were still able to fit in all the things we wanted to do, and it was kind of nice to spend an entire day on a slower pace.... well, it was nicer for Jeremy and I than it was for poor little Mason.
We drove up Friday and arrived just after lunch. We went directly to one of the big apple orchards since we couldn't check into our cabin until later that afternoon. Driving along Hwy 52, where many of the country's apple orchards are located, was so beautiful and peaceful. We stopped at Hillcrest Orchards since they had several extra attractions at the orchard like hay rides and a petting zoo. Like I said in the last post, Mason helped us load up our bag of apples and he loved trying to sneak a bite of each one on its way to the bag. Who knew something so simple could be so entertaining. :)

He helped mommy finish loading up the bag of Fuji, Pink lady, and Honeycrisp apples.

Then we went and checked out the bear, which he refused to call anything other than a dog.

We didn't make it very far past the exit before breaking out the apples for a snack. Mason eats an apple almost every day. He can eat the entire thing by himself, and he eats it just like we do, like a big boy. It amuses me to see his tiny mouth take apart an apple one little bite at a time.

He always likes to offer us bites of whatever he's eating. I think sometimes this is a strategy so he doesn't have to eat all of his food, but sometimes he shares something he really enjoys and we know he's just being sweet.

He really is a sweet boy. It makes me so happy to see how pleased he is when all three of us are together. It is so precious to me to know that we don't have to be doing anything special.... just being together makes him happy. I love that so much!

After enjoying fresh apples and some apple cider doughnuts...which were both amazing!!.... we took off and explored the rest of the orchard. First stop.... cheesy tourist photo.

We walked through some of the apple trees and realized it was a good thing we didn't try to pick our own. We decided to wait until Mason was a little bit older, and this little stroll confirmed our decision. There were tons of apples on the ground and we could barely keep up with how quick they went to his mouth....and some of them were bad apples. yuck. Maybe next year he will be old enough to understand that we can't put all of them in our mouth. :)

We made our way down to the petting zoo which was really small, but the perfect size for our small boy. Mason loved the baby chicks and little goats. He was pretty comfortable around them right from the beginning, but while Jeremy was getting food from the feeder, one of the goats stood up on Mason (put his front feet up on Mason's shoulders) and that did not go over very well. For a minute I thought that might have put an early end to our trip to the petting zoo, but Mason got over it pretty quickly and walked around some more.

He slowly got closer and closer as Jeremy was feeding this little guy from his hand.

And he was eager to join in on the feeding action. He stood so still and didn't flinch as the goat licked his hand to get the food.

Mason walked over to check out the biggest animal in the pen, a little calf. This part definitely made me a little sad because this little guy was definitely sedated. :(

So we gave him some food and pet him for a minute. He totally arched up like a dog when you are scratching his back like you hit the sweet spot. It was so cute. Poor little guy.

Mason tried to jump the fence at the pig pen.

And his little goat friend followed him around that whole time.

So we took a little break and let the little goat hang out with Mason for a few more minutes before leaving to scrub our hands clean.

On the way out Mason spotted his favorite....kiggies!

Every day since we've been back, Mason has tried to pick up our cats, he just doesn't understand that this "kiggy" was a lot smaller and that was why he could hold it.
Another really cute thing he did while we were there was the excitement that erupted when he saw this thing on the right. I'm guessing its some kind of grain silo?? But when he saw it, he bounced, and squealed, and said "buh-buhs" (bubbles) over and over and over. We walked by it several different times while we were there and each time he would get so excited about "buh-buhs". It seemed like he was thinking this was a giant bubble maker and he was waiting for a big bubble to come out the top. I thought that was such a sweet display of his little imagination.

After the orchard and petting zoo, we headed to the cabin to settle in for the night. I had packed a frozen chicken pot pie that I made ahead of time. So we enjoyed a nice home-cooked meal without any effort, and then snuggled in our pajamas before bedtime.

Such a sweet day.

This week (or two) with Mason

2011-10-25T22:20:00.006-04:00

It has been a long two weeks with Mason. He had an awful stomach virus that made him throw up for 6 days, and then still sick for a few more days after that. It was a long, draining sickness, for all of us. We are still recovering in pretty much every way.

These go back to 2 weeks ago, a few days before he got sick. This day it was cold and rainy outside so we were stuck indoors all day.

Friday morning, Jeremy and I were packing up our things to go on our trip to North Georgia. Mason wanted my phone to play with the "buh-buhs". I have an app on my phone where you can pop bubbles with your fingers, he loves it.

I love that his little imagination is starting to really get active. He was laying there playing so quiet and then all of a sudden he held the phone up to his ear and said "oh?" (hello)

We drove up to Elijay and arrived early afternoon. We went straight to one of the apple orchards to get some apples and go to the petting zoo. Mason made a big game out of trying to bite into every apple he picked up. Jeremy was holding the bag and Mason would pick up one to put in the bag but would really quickly pull it up to his wide open mouth. Jeremy would make a big deal out of it, like "nooooo" and get real silly and Mason thought it was hilarious. Its so cute how such simple things can turn into such a fun game with him.

We walked over to the petting zoo to see what Mason thought about all the baby animals. I'll do a full post with pictures from our trip and more pictures from the petting zoo, but here is one of Mason really enjoying this little goat friend. He followed Mason around most of the time we were there.

Saturday morning we woke up to get ready to go to the Apple Festival and first thing that morning Mason threw up. We were hoping it was a one time thing, but 20 minutes later, it happened again. And 20 minutes after that, 20 minutes after that....and so on.... ALL day long. He was such a tough boy and cuddled with us all day. We stayed at the cabin all day, and even though he was sick, he seemed to really enjoy the fact that he had mommy AND daddy all to himself for an entire day.

Sunday morning he seemed completely back to normal, so we thought he must have had a 24 hour virus. So we packed up our things and headed out to the Apple Festival and then to Amicalola State Park to hike to the falls. We had such a great time and Mason seemed to feel great all day. The weather was perfect and the hike as well as the waterfall was beautiful. Toward the end of the hike was this long staircase up to a viewing platform across the base of the falls.

We could feel the burn once we arrived to the top. Even Mason climbed a few steps....about 4 out of the 175. The view was beautiful, especially with the fall color in the trees framing the edges of the waterfall.

We drove back home Sunday night and Mason started getting sick again and was sick the rest of the week. You can tell by the look on his face that he doesn't feel good, he was worn out too because he wasn't sleeping well.....none of us were. It was a long week.

We did a lot of very calm indoor activities all week including getting to blow bubbles inside. Anything for a sick boy. :)

Mason was very impressed by how high Daddy could bounce the ball....all the way to the ceiling.

By Thursday, he was starting to get a little bit of energy back even though he was still sick. We played outside for a little while that day and he was such a happy boy.

He loves riding this little toy on the sidewalks and stopping to collect rocks, acorns, and pinecones along the way. I need to put a little basket on the front for his little collections.

One day I put a little bowl of water down in the kitchen for the kiggies (kitties) Mason took it upon himself to sit down with the bowl and make sure the "kiggies" were sharing. If Tim went too long without taking a break he would push him away "no kiggy" and hold him back long enough for Chloe to get a drink. If only he had this same concept of sharing for himself with his little friends. ;)

The fun moments above were small instances in time during days that mostly looked like this. I took this picture with my iphone, we spent most of the week cuddled up with a towel or a big t-shirt. He would throw up all over it, then we would switch it out until the cycle started again. I let him watch a lot of cartoons because he pretty much only felt like laying down all week. His new favorite is "The Cat in the Hat knows a lot about that" on PBS. Its a really cute show, and Mason tries to sing little pieces of the theme song, and calls him "eee hat". He was so excited the other day when I showed him his Dr. Seuss books and "eee hat" was on the back of all of them. He finally lets me read entire Dr. Seuss books to him all at one time (in the past he would lose interest). Now he loves "Go Dogs Go" which was one of his cousin Joss' favorite books for a long time.

Mason loves our neighbors' wind chimes, so while we were at the Apple Festival he took particular interest in the booths with hand-crafted wind chimes. We bought this set for him from a little old couple that was so excited that this sweet little boy loved their wind chimes. They are hanging on our front porch now and he loves to play with them every time we walk outside.

Monday afternoon we gave Mason his first haircut. We were going to take him somewhere to have it done, but I got really nervous that they would cut too much off. I really just wanted it slightly trimmed to get it off his neck just a little bit, but I didn't want a big change that would change his looks completely. We're just not ready for that quite yet. :) So we strapped his booster seat to one of our bar stools and set up shop on the front porch. One sucker later, and Mason had finished his first haircut! He did surprisingly well, and I am glad that I just did it myself. It probably doesn't even look like we cut it to other people, but I really did take a good bit off in the back....he was growing a pretty good mullet back there. ;)

This is what Mason thinks about his new haircut....I think he was a little nervous to see the end result. ;)

I don't think I mentioned on the blog that back in August, we started nanny-sharing with our next door neighbor 2 afternoons a week. We have the sweetest nanny ever who is pregnant with their first child. She comes over to Jon's house next door and I walk Mason over. He stays there from around 1-5 on Mondays and Wednesdays, it has been a huge help in helping me get my work done. I now have 8 hours a week to work uninterrupted and take print packages to the post office without having to wrangle Mason at the same time. Mason and Jon are such big buddies, they end up playing together other days of the week too. They usually see each other 3-4 times a week at a minimum. Yesterday, they sat outside and colored.....or ate the crayons and threw them in the monkey grass. But they did it together and that's what they like best. Although they are starting to fight over things and tell on each other which is nothing short of hilarious. Ali and I have a hard time holding back the laughter so we can get onto them for not sharing. It is SO fun having them next door!

Every night for the past few weeks, Mason helps Jeremy feed the cats before he goes to bed. Jeremy hands him the cup full of food and he walks over to the bowls to dump it out and the walks the cup back over to the container to put it up by himself. His aim is getting better, but still has a long ways to go. Bless daddy's heart, he is so patient with this process and still chooses to let Mason help him every single night even though he doubles his work on such a simple task. Its so sweet.

There's no doubt about it, daddy is lots of fun, and lots & lots of love. I am so lucky to have these two guys in my life.

Bear

2011-10-20T22:47:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we took a short trip to the North Georgia Mountains. It was gorgeous, we had lots of fun things planned, but an awful stomach virus made the trip with us and Mason woke up really sick Saturday morning. I'll share more later about our trip, but for now, Mason really loved all the bears that were sitting around at the cabin. Especially this one out on the screened in porch.

Bonk.

Ow. Bear bonks hard.

This week with Mason

2011-10-13T10:20:00.000-04:00

We took another trip to our new favorite park, this time bringing along our friend Iris. She is so cute and these two together....oh my!! Adorable!!!

Brooke and I really enjoyed hanging out, and watching these two little people. Its fun living in their world, they are so funny! Mason and Iris could totally pass for boy/girl twins.

We've been working on selling our two door accord and late Thursday afternoon someone came by to look at it, but Jeremy was logged in online in a grad school class. So Mason had to sit in "class" with him while I went outside to talk about the car.

I LOVE footie pajamas! So glad the weather is getting cooler and we can put him in footie pajamas again.

On Saturday we went to one of our cousin's weddings. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding, wonderfully detailed and a beautiful bride. This chair was sitting out in the grass from the pictures before the wedding so we plopped this cute little pair in it for a quick picture. Aren't they cute wedding guests?! Mason wasn't so keen on sitting still during the ceremony, so I had to get up with him and walk to the back. Another mom had her little 3 month old baby girl back there laying on a blanket and Mason wanted to go check her out. As he got closer, I was holding his shirt and the mom said "he's okay". I was thinking... I'm not so sure about that.....he's sort of a loose canon, I have no idea what he is going to do! But I let go of him and let him walk over to her and he laid down right beside her on the blanket and gently laid his head on her and said "awwwww" like he was giving her a hug. That was not what I was expecting him to do! It was so sweet!

Jeremy went camping and rock climbing with some of the guys from our small group so Mason was my date for the wedding. He has been calling me "dada" all the time the past few weeks. Every morning when he wakes up he is so excited to see "dada"....ME! And when I come home from a photo session, he excitedly yells "dada"!!! I'm not sure how long this is going to last, but I think he is just doing it to get under my skin.

We spent the night Saturday night and Ella & Mason enjoyed playing at Grammy & Poppy's house on Sunday. We've been thinking about getting Mason a little power wheel car for Christmas so we were excited to let him try out Ella's.

Jeremy was out of school Monday, so we met Grammy, Poppy, Kellie, Haley, and Ella at a pumpkin patch for the afternoon. Mason went CRAZY over all the "balls"! He said "ball" at least a few hundred times while we were there, and that is not an exaggeration. The first 20 minutes we were there, he was repeating it almost constantly. He was SO excited to see so many "balls" and he tried to pick up each and every one.

We did a hay ride to the pumpkin patch and Mason ran around like the wild child he is. He ran from one pumpkin to the next, patting them and trying to pick them up. We came back with a few pumpkins....

And half of the dirt from the field. Such a little boy.

He also got to play in a bouncy castle for the first time. He didn't love it, but he didn't hate it either. I think he was just trying to figure out why his legs weren't working like normal.

Mason is so loving to Tim, he gets more hugs than mommy or daddy. He walks up to him all throughout the day and gives him a hug with a long "awwwwwww", and usually a kiss or two.

Last night I had taken his little turquoise stool with me to a photo shoot. When I got home and brought it back in, Mason was so excited to see it. He was pulling it down from my arms and saying "I seeeeee. I seeeee." As soon as I put it down he backed up and sat down for a few minutes. It was like a reunion of long lost friends.

This weekend....

2011-10-10T20:09:00.002-04:00

Ella taught Mason how to scream like a girl.

This went on for a REALLY long time...but I figured y'all could only handle about one minute of the squeals. :)

Once a Month Cooking

2011-10-07T09:27:00.002-04:00

Toward the end of August I mentioned that we were going to give once-a-month cooking (or freezer cooking) a shot. We don't like to eat processed food from the grocery store so we normally cook from scratch almost every single night. Over the last few months our evenings were getting so crazy full and the chaos was taking away from us enjoying that time together as a family. I always need to work when Jeremy gets home, and Jeremy started Grad school, so between those two things and trying to keep up with other commitments and responsibilities, and Mason's bedtime routine (dinner, bath, story time, bed...usually taking up about 45 minutes) our evenings were the worst time of day when they should be relaxing and enjoyable. Pretty much the only thing we could get rid of was the time we spent cooking and cleaning up. So I started working on a plan for making our evenings more enjoyable, and stumbled upon the concept of "once-a-month" cooking. The idea is very straightforward; you dedicate one day a month to cooking meals for the month and put them away in the freezer, ready to be either reheated or fully cooked (depending on the recipe).

There are several websites that share monthly meal plans and recipes, but I was a little reluctant to spend an entire day cooking new recipes that we may end up not liking. So I compiled several of our favorite recipes and used those instead. I had to do a little bit of research to find out what food freezes well and plan our meals around that. So I chose 9-10 recipes, doubling some of them to make two meals, and then got to work on a grocery list and cooking plan for that Saturday.

On cooking day I started off by chopping and slicing all the vegetables for every recipe. The picture above was less than 1/4 of the way through all the chopping. It took forever, it truly was the worst part of the day. But I made it through and then started multi-tasking my way through all the meals 2-3 recipes at a time. I borrowed my mom's vacuum sealer to package all the meals really tightly to save space in the freezer and to remove as much air as possible from each package to help the food stay fresh.

Over the course of 4 weeks, dinner was super easy and clean up was even easier. No longer did our kitchen look like it does above on a weeknight. All the meals except one (turkey tetrazzini) turned out really well and tasted just like they do when we cook them fresh, the texture was really normal as well. We both definitely LOVED this method and decided to stick with it because it worked so well for us. So this past weekend I did round two of cooking. This time around instead of cooking for 6 hours straight on a Saturday, I split up all the work over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and just did about an hour and a half each day. That was much easier and I had time to enjoy the weekend. Friday night I did a lot of the prep work like chopping all the veggies, and boiling & shredding half the chicken. Our refrigerator was lined with premeasured chopped veggies for each recipe. This made Saturday SO much easier!

The nights we didn't eat from the freezer, we made something simple like paninis or pizza, or had leftovers. So 17 meals stretched the entire month. The first time around we made:
Chicken pot pie(x2), Chicken enchiladas, Chicken stir fry, Curried chicken with pineapple & rice, Pork fried rice, Tuna casserole, Sausage & peppers penne in tomato sauce, Turkey Piccatta, pulled pork bbq for sandwiches (3 meals), grilled citrus grouper, grilled apricot glazed pork chops with grilled apples, grilled steak w/apple & green bell pepper marinade, grilled orange teriyaki grouper. All the grilled meals we did the marinades in a packet in with the meat, and they were ready to thaw and throw on the grill.

This time around I just did all chicken recipes to make it go quicker and I plan on doing a turkey, pork, and fish day in about two weeks and we'll end up with about 6 weeks of meals between the two. This past weekend I cooked: chicken & dumplings, chicken tortilla soup, chicken stir fry, curried chicken, white bean chicken chili, and chicken pot pie. I doubled each one so we have 12 meals. All in all this has been a really good plan for us. We've been able to continue to eat healthy meals, but our evenings have been about 400% better. So if you've read this far, you're either bored to tears, or maybe you'd like to give freezer cooking a try. I say go for it! We absolutely love it!

Now our kitchen just look likes this about once a month, instead of almost every night. I think that may be my favorite thing about this new method of feeding our family.

A couple of sites that I found helpful when first preparing:
http://lifeasmom.com/2010/03/preparing-for-freezer-cooking.html
http://onceamonthmom.com/recipes/
www.30daycafe.com
www.frugalmom.net

This week with Mason

2011-10-05T22:10:00.004-04:00

Last Tuesday on my birthday, Jeremy woke me up to breakfast in bed and a surprise that he had taken the day off to spend the day at home with us! That alone would have been enough to make it a great birthday, but Jeremy's plan wasn't to spend the day at home, but to send me to the spa for a relaxing massage, followed by lunch together, a little shopping, and Jeremy and I ended the day with an amazing dinner at one of our favorite restaurants after Mason went to bed. After Mason went to sleep, we took him next door to Jon's house and laid him in the pack & play where he didn't budge from his slumber. Then when we returned, we walked back over to their house and picked him up, carried him back to his crib in our arms, and he was still deep asleep. It was pretty amusing to us that we were able to move him twice that night without him even knowing that he had changed houses in the middle of his sleep. We are so thankful for our sweet neighbors and the friendship we have with them.

During our little shopping trip, Mason kept us super busy going from rack to table to rack to table...pulling things off hangars, wiping stacks of clothes off tables, dumping out bins of socks... it was hard to actually shop but I'm pretty sure we had more fun chasing him around and laughing at our little wild child. And for the record, we did clean up behind him all along the way and try to stop him from the chaos.... mostly by trying on hats. We may have brought one home for him... the cutest birthday present for mommy.

(He always says "eee hat", we don't know what the "eee" is for but I'm sure we'll figure that out at some point, and it will be something that should have been obvious to us)

Mason doesn't usually seem to mind that I have my camera in hand at times, but this day he kept on trying to put the lens cap back on, so I put the camera away and we went back to playing.

On Friday, Mason and I went out on a little lunch date, followed by frozen yogurt, and some play time at the park. We LOVE frozen yogurt and haven't let the cooler temperatures keep us from enjoying this sweet treat. Mason knows right where we are when we walk in the door and he knows how to get some of the good stuff in his bowl. We seem to make ourselves at home wherever we go. That was manifested this particular day (thankfully for us a slow day at the fro-yo place) by Mason sweeping the floor, and carrying one of the booster seats to the middle of the room and sitting down and hanging out for a bit. He's an entertaining little dude.

He also spent a good bit of time pressing all the buttons (tile) on the wall.... beeeeeeep.

We headed to a nearby park that we had not been to yet, and I have to say it is my new favorite. Mason enjoyed swinging for quite some time. I LOVE this picture on the left, it makes me SO happy!

He also played in the rocks and dirt... little boy through and through.

And I taught him this little game of pushing his cars down the slide. He loved it!

Friday night he wore the turtle pajamas that were a part of his Halloween costume last year, and I found the hat in his drawer to go with it Saturday morning. We got a kick out of how snug it was.

Another example of him making himself at home is his new-found love of playing on our neighbor's porch. They are a super sweet middle aged couple without children, and they are always stopping by to talk to Mason when we are outside and bringing their dogs over to play with him. The bumpy part of the sidewalk that Mason loves to play on is in front of their house, so he slowly moved from the sidewalk, to the grass, to the front porch. And now he just makes himself at home, which is exactly what our sweet neighbors told him to do. :)

I can't get over how long his hair is getting and his mouth full of teeth. He's growing so much!

This weekend I "remodeled" Mason's kitchen. The pre-K class at Jeremy's school got a new play kitchen a few weeks ago and they passed along their old one to their favorite toddler friend. He has really enjoyed playing with it. I'm always finding random things in the cabinets like tupperware, or the toy dog, or even my clothes that he pulls out of my drawers in the bedroom. I really wonder what goes through that little mind sometimes. So anyways, Saturday I painted the kitchen a light pistachio green and covered the back panel in some leftover fabric from his crib bedding. They were really quick and easy changes but I like the facelift and the fun color. Mason loves his little snack spot, and Chloe loves looking out the window.

Sunday evening we went next door and played with Jon in a fun pile of rocks for a little bit while Jon's mommy and daddy were working on a backyard project. I love our little neighborhood, and how much time Jon and Mason get to spend together.

When we moved the play kitchen into the kitchen, we had to move out this little bench that was in that spot. So I decided to try it out in the living room to hold some of Mason's toys. That benefit has taken the backseat to the fact that Mason and Tim have a new hangout spot to watch the dogs go by outside.

Another favorite hangout spot is this little tunnel from my grandmother. He always cracks me up when he gets in here to play because I can tell he goes in with a plan. He'll run grab some specific toys or books and then crawl inside and get all set to play for a few minutes, usually talking to himself the entire time.

Mason enjoys riding in the wagon that Grammy and Poppy got him for Christmas last year. We pull him up and down the sidewalks on our street and he just sits and takes everything in. But as soon as we stop, even if just for a second to say "hi" to a neighbor, he pops up to his feet.

We were getting ready to go on a short walk when daddy was leaving for his grad school class the other evening, and Mason was being so sweet. He is repeating more and more words each day. Last week he started saying "love you" and this week he randomly called Jeremy "buddy".... that is what we both call Mason a million times a day. He was so sweet this day saying "bye buyee" and "wuh u buyee".

After our wagon ride, Mason wanted to just walk around so we did another current favorite activity and just walked up and down our sidewalk. We'll often do this with him, just following along until something grabs his attention and he stops and plays for a minute before continuing on. He always loves these little acorns that he calls "balls" (of course) that are along the sidewalk just a few houses down. He sat down in the grass and started collecting them. We may have brought home a pretty good collection in our pockets. I love all of this little boy stuff!

Bear makes an appearance in probably about half the pictures of Mason because he carries him around the house and never excludes him from any activity. Mason loves to "bonk" our heads, its sort of his way of high-fiving. Usually when we lift up our hand and say "high-five?", he will tilt his head over at us and say "bonk?" And then he will give us a little bonk on the head. He always has to bonk everyone around if he gets going, and of course he doesn't leave Bear out of a good bonking. He was super sweet this morning sharing some of his apple with Bear too. Bear is a very special part of our family.

This little stinkerooney is just constantly amazing us. This age is so incredible. It is so neat to see his vocabulary and understanding expanding, and he has quite the sense of humor. We are just so in love with this little boy. So thankful that he is ours. We are most definitely his.

More sweetness

2011-10-04T17:07:00.002-04:00

....and expressive eyebrows....

The sweetest thing

2011-10-03T12:30:00.002-04:00

Love you.

Tiny Striker

2011-09-30T21:38:00.004-04:00

This mama played soccer for 11 years, so this was an important skill for Mason to learn early on.

He trips and falls in holes just like mommy too.

This week with Mason

2011-09-26T13:32:00.006-04:00

I'm starting to see a trend of this being the only post I can get done each week. oh well, lots of cuteness ahead. 19 pictures to cover 6 days....I'm getting progressively worse at narrowing it down to 1 picture a day. :)

Jon came over last Thursday while Ali went to the dentist, they got to play together 4 days last week. These boys have SO much fun together. They are like brothers, and starting to behave like it too. They have begun pushing each other and throwing stuff at each other, but that is a very small portion of the time.....for the most part they just have a lot of fun.

Mason can tear apart a room in about 2 minutes flat, but when these two are together it happens even faster. That night, Mason helped us clean up. He gets really upset if we have the vacuum out and we don't let him help. I am seriously thinking about getting him a handheld vacuum for Christmas. I know they have toy vacuums, but why not a real one?

Friday we were leaving in the afternoon to go up to my parents for the weekend so I gave Mason an early bath. He loves running around without clothes so I thought this was a good opportunity to give in to his demands. I love how he still looks like a little baby when he isn't dressed. Please note the fact that toys are everywhere despite the fact that we had cleaned it spotless the night before. Seriously, every room in our house looks like this by 10am every morning.

We watched a cartoon that afternoon and he was ALL over the place the entire time. I have a series of about a dozen pictures of his body in different positions, all with his eyes glued to the tv, but I'll just share these two favorites. This is how a boy watches tv.

Tim distracted him away from the tv long enough for a little rough play.

After I got him dressed, he went in his room and put on a hat, this is beginning to be the new routine. I remembered that he had a dress tie in his closet and wanted to try it on him and I thought these accessories with a t-shirt were so cute. He loves this musical toy in the picture, his right hand is "dancing".

That night we stayed at my sister's house, since Ella's 3rd birthday party was there the next day. He LOVED pushing this stroller around, and was super excited when Ella put B (bear) in it for a ride around the house. I think we may have to get him a baby stroller for Christmas too.

The next day, in keeping with the theme of loving push toys, he loved "mowing the yard".

And riding Ella's new scooter with some help from daddy.

Mason was a big Momma's boy all weekend..... and really I don't mind at all. It was a frequent occurence to look down and see this face staring back up at me.

It really reminds me of this view of mine before Mason was born.

But of course when I tried to catch him for a quick picture with mommy, he was way too busy for that.

We were there for Ella's 3rd Birthday party which was an absolutely blast! I can NOT believe she is 3 already!!! The kids had a great time, and consumed at least half a ton of sugar.

Mason loved sliding down Ella's "big" slide with daddy by his side. Jeremy was decorated for the party too. (the pink on his hat)

The cooler weather has been SO nice!! We have been playing outside as much as possible because a certain tiny boy destroys the house each and every day if he is in inside. Yesterday I caught the boys chasing each other around the yard. Mason just keeps getting faster and faster, I wouldn't say he is running yet but he is definitely right on the verge.

On our walk this morning, Mason found some boy treasure. He is always picking up different things and putting them in the bottom of the stroller. There is quite the collection of rocks, sticks, and acorns in there now. This morning he had a rock in one hand and a big yellow leaf in the other. The leaf was a beautiful glimpse that Fall is just around the corner!!

We also walked down to the park and kicked the ball around. He had more fun playing in the net though.

This week with Mason

2011-09-21T13:59:00.007-04:00

I know the blog has been light this month. Whew! We have been busy!! We have been all over the place and back again, and living with a full schedule even when we are at home. Coupled with the fact that Mason by himself is BUSY.... my bottom doesn't really know what its like to sit down these days. Mason was at my parents' house a few weekends ago and my dad said "well, I've just about decided that I have to keep my feet on the ground at all times when Mason is here, to be on standby and ready to go." Yep.

So it seems I am at the point where I am having to figure everything out once again..... right as things were beginning to get manageable. So many moms have told me before that is how it works. I believe them! These babies are on a mission to keep us on our toes! I just hate that I start to feel like "oh, I've got this" and begin to commit to things right before the rug is ripped out from under me. When will I learn?!
There are SO many things I want to blog about. Pictures of Mason that haven't fit into the "This week with Mason" posts, and different projects that I have been working on around the house the past few months, and random thoughts....I do have a few of those these days....but only a few. I have no idea when I will get around to all of that....I'm typing as fast as I can right now during nap time and will most likely regret this later because I should be using this time to edit the 3 sessions I shot in North Carolina last week....but Grandmama needs pictures!! :) So this is my job for the moment. And like usual, I'll be burning the midnight oil tonight.....I'm currently running on a major sleep deficit anyways, so I don't know that another late night will even make a big difference.
So anyways---here are pictures from the last week. I'm not so good at the ONE picture a day, so these posts are way longer than they should be. You don't mind, do you?

Mason loves watching the Carolina Panthers play, and of course the Auburn Tigers too. I somehow forget until fall rolls around that football is on ALL weekend. This year, I'm not too upset about that because Mason really likes watching with Jeremy (in short spurts) which gives me time to do other things. I think his favorite part is yelling at the tv like daddy.

p.s. you HAVE to check out this post from last year to see how much our little football fan has changed!

Every night as Mason finishes dinner he starts asking for a bath because he knows that is the routine. Over the past few weeks however, he has started asking for a bath every time he is in the high chair. One day last week his cute face was pretty convincing so he got to take a fun bath in the middle of the day. He loves filling up cups with the running water and pouring it on himself.

Tuesday afternoon I left to go up to North Carolina to work for a few days. It was hard to leave for this trip since I had just been away from Mason for a few nights two weeks ago when Laura's baby was born. I was away from him 5 nights total this month which is half the amount of nights I've been away from him his entire life. It is hard to go from being with him 24/7 to him not being anywhere near me. But he got to spend the night with Ella 3 nights in a row so he LOVED it! They had so much fun that I bet if he could talk he would request mommy take a trip at least once a month.

While I was away, Aunt Kellie texted me pictures of Mason so I could stay up to date with his shenanigans. Ella loved showing off her new playset and showing Mason around the farm.

Mason loved playing with her kitten...I mean REALLY loved!! "Catty" (named by Ella) was probably his favorite toy at Ella's house. He also enjoyed talking on the phone....er, hot dog.

And this is a little display of stinker-ism when Kellie asked him to smile for a picture. I actually never ask him to smile so I am surprised that he even knew to do anything, but he did, and he smiled his big squinty eyed fake smile.

Saturday morning Ella and Mason played a little bit longer before Mason and I drove back home to Birmingham. These two have so much fun together.

Ella was so pouty toward me all morning because she knew I was leaving and taking Mason with me. I think their facial expressions are pretty self-explanatory. They adore each other!!

p.s. another blast from the past. :) Seeing Ella be so upset with me for taking Mason home reminded me of the second video on this post and how she wanted to hold him and not let Kellie have a turn. "Macy" has always been HER baby!

Sunday afternoon activities..... walk the dog. watch football. water the plants.

One of his favorite things to do when we are outside is to walk up and down the sidewalk. He LOVES going in front of our neighbor's house to play on the part of the sidewalk that is all bumpy from the tree roots growing under it. He loves to climb all over the different sections like an obstacle course. They are only a few inches high but he always turns around to ease off backwards.

On the way home from Charlotte I stopped at the Pottery Barn outlet in South Carolina. They always have great stuff there and I love browsing. I ended up buying one thing and it had to have been the most random thing there, of course it was something for my boy. He loves bubbles so much and always wants to help blow bubbles but that always ends with the bubble wand in his mouth. So when I saw this little squeeze toy with a bubble wand on the end of it, I didn't even have to think twice about it. It didn't take him long to figure it out and he LOVES being able to blow bubbles all by himself!

Speaking of doing things by himself....Mason also loves climbing up his little play-set by himself and going down the slide on his own. Such a big boy. :)

He still loves to swing in his baby swing outside. He has started this new thing where he smiles so big and squeezes his eyes shut. So this is a very typical Mason face right now.

He had to go exploring his little sidewalk obstacle course again on Monday (we pretty much do this every day), and he got his first skinned knees. He didn't even notice though and got right back up and kept on going.

Mason is beginning to really like hats. I am so excited because that means that sometimes they are on his head for longer than 1 1/2 seconds. He will often go into his room and get a hat by himself and put it on his head....or any other random thing he finds that will double as a hat. Bonus points to whoever knows what the hat on the right really is. :)

This morning after we went on a walk, he wanted to play with the "buh-buh"s again. So I'll let him show you how's it done.

Also this morning we were once again playing on the sidewalk obstacle course. Who needs a playground anyways!?! I love his little curls poking out from under his hat....and that little profile. So sweet.

I will sometimes run around him and jump in front of him and he giggles so hard. I know he thinks mommy is so cool and lightning fast. ;) And of course he's right. ;) Then he will turn around and walk the other way while saying "bye" and doing this little backwards wave with his hand behind his back. I know he wants so badly to just be able to go off on his own and play. He's constantly trying to ditch me, but at least he always says "bye!".... but he just can't seem to get rid of me.

This week with Mason

2011-09-11T17:21:00.002-04:00

I thought I would do this week's post a bit early because I had too many pictures from each day to narrow down. I just fall more in love with this sweet boy every single day!!

He loves his bear! About two weeks ago, we took his pacifier away during the day and only let him have it when he's in his crib. That solidified his attachment to bear even more! He is pretty much always with him, Bear even went to church this morning. His ears especially are well-loved. You may have noticed that bear is naked now....his speedo went missing a few weeks ago. I'm going to sew him a new one soon, we can't have a naked swim bear! ;)

This boy couldn't love peek-a-boo more. His excitement over something so simple is just so precious. He has the cutest giggle during a game like this.

To be able to keep up with the picture-a-day project, I try to make sure and take a few pictures first thing in the morning in case I forget to later in the day. He often will sleep in the same pajamas 2 nights in row....so that is why he is wearing the same thing as above. It's not uncommon for us to hang out in our pajamas until lunchtime. :) This day he accessorized with a hat.

This little stool is his favorite place to sit down right now. He loves climbing up on top of it and sitting for a minute. But his absolute favorite is turning it over on its side and sitting on the bottom support that makes the perfect Mason-sized chair.

We had such a wonderful family day yesterday. I woke up with Mason so Jeremy could sleep in. We made a fort in the sunroom after breakfast. Then after daddy woke up, we watched the Auburn game, took a long afternoon nap, went to Birmingham Artwalk, enjoyed some great barbeque outdoors with live music, and then came home and watched Soul Surfer after Mason went to bed. A simply perfect day.

It seems to be that the size of the mess is directly proportionate to the size of the boy. Our messes are getting bigger and bigger these days, but I'm certain have a long ways to go! When we play in his room he can dump out a basket of hangers or diapers or empty out a drawer full of clothes or shelf full of books in about 10 seconds flat. I can't imagine the messes that are on our horizon.

On Saturday, Mason got a little boo-boo on his thumb. It wasn't a big deal and he didn't even notice it, but it was bleeding so we put a band-aid on it. He pulled it off right away.

So we put band-aids on our thumbs too and anytime he started playing with his, we would show him ours and he would leave his alone. We were all able to take our family band-aids off before bedtime last night.

This afternoon I tried on one of Mason's new outfits and snapped a few pictures on our front porch. His undershirt says "My life rocks, then it gets louder". This is his rocker face.

I sat him up on this chair to keep him still for about 10 seconds and had to run through all of his "tricks" to keep him occupied for a second. "Touchdown" is his current favorite.

I don't know what to say but this is the cutest little boy ever. My obsession with him is reaching an all time high. I love his little model face on the right.

Caught on Video

2011-09-09T17:59:00.007-04:00

I'm quite certain Chloe is not pleased with the fact that Mason has started scolding her. She is so bad about getting on the dining room table, I suppose it is one of the best places to take an undisturbed nap in a house with a toddler. We are always yelling "down" at her, and he started repeating it several weeks ago. She always looks at him like "you've got to be kidding me rugrat".

Last week in celebration of the beginning of college football season, Mason learned how to kick a ball, catch a football, put his arms up for "touchdown", shake a shaker, and dance to the Auburn fight song. He is officially ready for tailgating.

Now he wants Tim to play catch with him. Right before I started recording this, he pegged Tim with this ball so hard and yelled "tatsch!!" Poor Tim. It caught him off guard.....and well, I guess even if he would have been on guard he still wouldn't have caught the ball. But he just sat there and took it so I'm guessing he didn't mind too much.

Mason is definitely a little boy through and through. He is already getting pretty rough and tough. He loves playing really rowdy on our bed. He will go into our room throughout the day and hike one leg up and try so hard to climb up by himself. He can't quite do that yet, but he's pretty persistent with me until I finally toss him up there and tickle him for a few minutes. He loves it! In fact, the first time he finally did the sign for "more" was one day several months ago when I was tickling him. I had stopped for a second and he signed and said "more" so clearly. Now he does it all the time. It was so cute, and of course I couldn't resist a second round of the tickling match. Another one of his favorite things to do on our bed is to stand up and fall face first into our pillows. He was only halfway doing it here (he ALWAYS changes what he is doing when he sees me videoing) but you get the idea. He is such a silly boy!!

And here are a few of his current "tricks"....touchdown....what does a dog say? cat? duck? monkey? what does daddy say in winter? And getting really excited at the mention of a bath. We have no idea where he came up with the noise for a dog. We think he is picking up on the f sound when we say woof and ends up just spitting with his lower lip out. We think its great, so of course we cheer him on! :) When we go out for walks around the neighborhood, he is always "barking" at the dogs with that sound. I guess we'll teach him the right way sometime.....in a few years.

This week with (and without) Mason

2011-09-06T22:26:00.005-04:00

This was the first time I have attempted finger painting with Mason. I didn't want him to get paint on his hands and then take off running around the house so I sat him up on the kitchen table. He really enjoyed playing, and of course he had to see what it tasted like too.

He loves to talk on this old cell phone that one of our friends gave him, but if I try to get him to talk on the real cell phone to someone, he just stares in silence.

Saturday morning, my best friend Laura had her first baby, Miss Evelyn. She and Nathan live in Winston Salem NC right now so I drove up with her parents Saturday morning to spend the weekend welcoming Evelyn to the world. I seriously cried all weekend. It was just so special to be there with them and to watch them fall in love with this precious baby girl. GAHHHH!!! I'm crying just typing that!! It is just so neat reliving all of these emotions from a different perspective. I remember how amazing those first few days with Mason were and watching my best friend go through that experience was just so beautiful.

All the emotions of the weekend made me miss Mason like crazy, but it was so worth being separated from him for just a short time to be able to be with the new family of three. I miss them so much already!! How beautiful is she?!

After the most terrifying and traumatic flying experience of my life to get home yesterday, I was so excited that Jeremy ended up getting the day off today because the power was out at school. So we got to spend the day playing and cuddling as a family of three. It was just what I needed.

Mason is so incredibly sweet and really is a good boy most of the time. He is just starting to get a little defiant and will look us right in the eyes after we tell him "no" and do exactly what we were telling him NOT to do. The mastery in his eyes always cracks me up, so Mason and I both end up in trouble. Discipline is hard!! Most of his mischief seems to involve water. He likes to gather up items and go throw them in the bathtub. Or find a cup of water we were drinking and dump it out on the floor. Or shake his sippy cup up and down to sprinkle water all over the floor and then splash around in it. We've even caught him lapping water up off the floor like the cats. And again......I have a hard time not laughing at him.....except for the day he sprinkled water into my camera bag.....that wasn't funny at all.

Such a terd. How inappropriate is it that I call him a terd? But it only happens in moments of mischief. He's going to repeat that one day isn't he?

This week with Mason

2011-09-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

Sew Mama Sew!!!

2011-08-31T10:00:00.000-04:00

I am getting so exciting about the change in seasons and have been looking online at fall & winter wardrobe ideas for Mason. My fall & winter clothes have always been my favorite because of all the layers & textures, I guess that it is just spilling over into Mason's wardrobe as well. So he has become my little design project. :) I have been gathering ideas on pinterest and I want to make him some clothes for the winter so I gave it a go this weekend with a simple little baseball tee. These are hard to find in Mason's size, and I dare say IMPOSSIBLE to find without some sort of graphic on the front, so I wanted to see if I could sew one for him.
I should preface this by saying, that I am not great at sewing and pretty much every time I sit down to sew something I want to throw my machine through a window because I'm always jamming it up or breaking a needle. I pretty much only sew straight lines.....simple things like curtains and pillows. The only other time I have attempted to sew clothing was in college and I tried to sew a very simple skirt (all straight lines) for myself and it ended up 3 sizes too small. So with that said, I hope your expectations are set on the lower end of the scale, as mine were headed into this little project. :)

I found a tutorial online that showed how to create a pattern by using a shirt they have just outgrown. I love this little shirt on Mason but it doesn't fit over his head anymore (it fits everywhere else). So I cut it apart at the seams and laid out the four pieces. The best way to figure out how something is made, is to take it apart. I would have never guessed the parts of the shirt were those shapes.

Then I traced the pieces to create my patterns.

The blog that I found the tutorial on has several projects reusing old t-shirts and I thought this one would be a good one to try it on. So I used two of Jeremy's old t-shirts as the fabric. Two cheers for free!!! After cutting out the shirt pieces, I pinned them together.

And then flipped them right side out. At this point, I was feeling pretty good about myself, because that my friends looks like a shirt!! A REAL shirt!! I know, this is pretty advanced science right here. Crazy, right?!!!

So I head downstairs to my sewing machine with a spring in my step and zig-zag stitch the four seams between the sleeves and the body of the shirt, and then stitch up the sleeves and side of the shirt. I started working on the collar of the shirt and hit a big snag.

I stitched in the collar wrong side out..........womp womp woommppppp {sad trombone}. Huge bummer since I had zig-zagged it TWICE. That seam was pretty hard to rip out, but I got it out and sewed it back on the right way. Noticing some problems at this point, I chalk this first shirt up to learning experience and hop back upstairs to try it on my little model. He seriously got SO excited when I put it on him....like he knew it was special. We let him wear it the rest of the night, and yes, even left the house in it! Sooooo............ drumroll please.....................
TADA!!

Hahahahaha!!!! Obviously got some problems going on here. And yes, I said we went out in public with him wearing this.....and his hair looking like that. The neck just never really straightened out...... and it was too big......and sort of lop-sided.

And the bottom of the shirt didn't really match up.....

BUT!!! I love stories with a big ~~butt~~ but!! I trimmed down my pattern pieces a little bit and figured out where things had gone wrong the first time and got right back on that ~~horse~~ sewing machine and gave it another go. And this time, it turned out MUCH better! I am so excited to have a pattern to work from now and I plan on making a couple of these for him in different color combos to start off his fall wardrobe.
Also....this may be my new favorite picture of Mason because he looks just like ME at this age!! :) I could just smother that little munchkin face in slobbery kisses!!!

Surprise!!!

2011-08-30T13:12:00.005-04:00

Saturday night, Mason threw a surprise birthday party for Jeremy (and I helped just a little). Mason did a great job playing host. He mingled with the guests, provided entertainment, poured out drinks so they could get a new one, you know just all the normal hosting things. Jeremy's brother Dallas (and family) was in town visiting from the Bahamas so we sent them off bowling and they were told to come back home around 7 and we would grill out and have dinner together with all the little boys and then put them to bed. So our friends arrived while they were gone and we set up the surprise.

I put Mason in his high chair and faced him toward the kitchen door that Jeremy would walk through as a decoy. Then gathered everyone in the living room which opens right into the dining room where our decoy was positioned. Jeremy came through the door (with 30 people standing less than 10 feet away) and just started talking to Mason "hey buddy! what are you eating?" He talked to him for several seconds before doing a double take glance out of the corner of his eye and noticed that our house was full of people.

Everyone yelled surprise!! And had a good laugh at how well our decoy worked. It was a really fun evening with our friends. I didn't get a picture with everyone but at least I did remember to take a few pictures...okay....3 pictures.

Today is Jeremy's actual birthday and he is celebrating tonight by going to his first night of grad school. I guess that's what 30 year olds do??? I told him last night that I was saying goodbye to my 20-something year old husband and hello to my husband in his 30s. I figure his 30s will be even better than his 20s because I will be there for every year of this decade. Doesn't get any better than that, right?

"I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow."
Happy birthday to my dear husband who is so easy to love. What a privilege it is to share life with you! XOXO

Tickle Fiiiiighhttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-08-28T22:13:00.003-04:00

{every afternoon at our house}

This week with Mason

2011-08-22T21:47:00.003-04:00

First time eating ketchup. It was messy but he enjoyed it. Not long after this shot he got up to go play and within a moment he no longer had ketchup on his face....I still haven't found where he wiped his face....I'm guessing there is some sticky ketchup on some curtains somewhere in this house.

He learned how to take off his diaper. Ruh-roh....

Thursday we went up to spend the day at my grandparents, Mason's great-grandparents. Ella came too and we played ALL day.

Mason's hair is getting more and more curly and looking more like Ella's.

New shoes from Ella. Thank you Aunt Kellie!! They are the coolest!!!!

Bath time is always a very exciting time of day. Halfway through dinner every night he is sitting in his high chair asking for a bath. By the time he is done eating, he is rocking back and forth yelling "baaaatttthhhh" with so much excitement. It is a really fun time of day for all of us.

First time trying to go down the slide by himself....whoops! We do a lot of things where we will count to 3 and say go so he has gotten really good at knowing what that means and sometimes he tries to count with us. uuuuhhhh, dho, reeeee!!!! He let go and did it, I was a bit surprised and proud of our brave boy. Yes, I said "proud" for sliding down the 18" tall slide. :) I thought that was really cool. I guess we'll see how brave he really is when he does it again after the way this time ended. He got up happy though, so I'm thinking this wild ride was pretty thrilling to him. :) OH, to be a baby!!!!

Tonight he wanted to put on his bear's swim goggles. I'm going to have to hide them now because I am sure he is going to want this to be a daily thing. It was a big hit with him!

Friday Brain Dump

2011-08-19T15:11:00.015-04:00

A completely random set of things I've been thinking about this week....

Sunday was a very moving worship service at church. In particular there was a 15 year old Chinese boy who was adopted at the age of five who was baptized. He was deaf and he signed his testimony. It was translated so the congregation to hear his story. Jeremy didn't even have to look over at me to know that I was crying. It was such a beautiful moment. I wish there was video of it so I could share.

This song has been so special to me this summer. I listened to it on repeat for weeks after the tornadoes, and it still brings me so much comfort and hope. oh friends, I hope you have time to stop and listen to these words.

"What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
this world can’t satisfy"

That line in particular has been resounding with me for the last few weeks. Last weekend one of my great friends from college and I went to spend the night with the woman who discipled us in college. I was telling them how I grew up in the same house all of my life and how now I find myself longing for a permanent "home" for Jeremy and I. We call so many places home, yet none of them really feel like home in the permanent sense. I would really love to know where we as a family should call home...... what country, what city, what house??? Where is home? Toma, our mentor, just quietly but confidently, said "Heaven.". It is such a blessing to have someone in my life who will speak truth into our lives. In that moment I thought about the line above in this song. So true.

This week has been filled with playdates (almost every day) and time with family....and a good dose of work too. I'm currently trying to decide how much work I want to take on this fall. It can quickly spin out of control and I don't want to lose the balance we currently have. I'm really not great at juggling too many things at one time.

Mason is at the stage where he is learning and verbalizing SO much each day. Sometimes I just sit back in amazement at how a baby develops. It is so neat!! Yesterday he said his first sentence "I want to go outside." But you might not be able to understand it because it sounded more like this, "uuhhnnn dooeee ahhhh daaaaa!!!" I feel privileged to be the world's leading expert on translating his particular dialect. Does that make me a scholar?

One of Jeremy's students drew this for him today. My favorite part is the hooker boots. Mason and I haven't been up to school yet this year but are planning on going to meet his class one day next week during their lunch time. I'll have to thank this sweet child for being so kind with my waistline.

I just got the cupcake cookbook by the owner of the amazing Dreamcakes here in Birmingham. The cupcakes there are NO DOUBT, the BEST I've ever had, and I've had A LOT of cupcakes!! One of theirs called Mango Tango is my favorite.

I've also been trying to get back on track for losing the last pounds of baby weight. My specialty is setting myself up for failure by all at once finding new cupcake recipes I am dieing to try and organizing a workout schedule. Self-torture at its finest.

For the last 3 years we have been trying to cook from scratch with fresh, organic ingredients due to some health issues I've had. We have really learned to enjoy cooking but the meals we enjoy have become very time consuming and tend to get every dish in our kitchen dirty. I have been researching once-a-month cooking for a while now thinking it would be a good thing for us to do, and this weekend I am finally giving it a try. I am cooking 15 meals tomorrow to store away in our freezer for the coming month. Quick, healthy meals, but no preservatives.
I'm hoping it helps us reclaim some time in the evenings to spend together as a family instead of having to rush through dinner prep, eating together, and then slamming into our bedtime routine each night. Its become quite the train wreck. I'm also really excited about not dirtying so many dishes as we cook each night. This afternoon during Mason's naptime I started off tomorrow's cooking extravaganza by cooking some tomatoes from our's and my grandparents' gardens. Now we have some fresh diced tomatoes instead of using some from cans. I'm not going to lie....I did not enjoy peeling all of these tomatoes. But I AM enjoying the smell of them cooking.

ummmm....okay. I think that's all I've got. Sorry to overwhelm your brain with random. I hope you all have an exciting weekend! If not, compare it to mine, and I'm sure it'll seem fantastic.

A Picture a Day

2011-08-16T22:36:00.005-04:00

I had plans to start this picture-a-day project at the beginning of the year but life still seemed a little out of control at the time. I just felt like I didn't need something else to fail at. I took pictures of him at least once a week (most of the time much more) his entire first year but I didn't want to put the pressure on myself to do it every single day until I could actually enjoy it.
As Mason started walking and getting more active I began to take more and more pictures of just the everyday things we find ourselves doing. He is always doing so many things that I want to remember. So I think its time now that I start a picture a day project. There will be days that I miss, but that will be balanced out by other days that I have more than one to share, and I am going to try to not drive myself crazy about it. :-) Every day when Jeremy gets home from work I tell him stories from our day. The funny things, the smart things, the mischievous things, the mundane things. So I think this will be a fun way for me to record Mason's day-to-day activities as he continues to learn and grow and do new things.

He loves loading up all of his balls in this bucket and carrying them around the house.

With the picture-a-day project you are going to get to see how wild Mason's hair is.....a different look almost every day.

He loves stacking blocks and knocking them down. He set a new personal record of 5 blocks tall this day!

Peek-a-boo with the curtains is a daily activity.

He has started dancing when he hears music, particularly when we sing the ABCs.

Annabelle came to visit for the weekend!

He never lets bear out of his sight, and Mason often brings him to me to put his speedo back on.

He loves to go in his room and climb up in the window seat and hide. We try to hide from daddy in the afternoons when he comes home from work but Mason always starts talking or laughing when we hear Jeremy looking for us.

Our next door neighbors have a baby boy that is just a few weeks younger than Mason. We have become great friends over the past year and the boys definitely love each other. They play together several times a week.

We have been watching an episode of Veggietales here and there and Mason has really started to like watching tv, it is the only time he sits still for more than a minute. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I love his expression when he zones out.

oh boy, he found some cups....

At least he decided to stack them back up after he took them apart one by one.

He is always spotting toys under the couch and telling us to "didit" (get it).

Just a few weeks 'til football season. We've been practicing saying "war eagle!!" Yes, that is a tiger chair for tailgating!! We can't wait to take him to a game again this year!

He was eating a little cup of goldfish ......well, actually Annie's organic bunnies but we call them goldfish out of habit..... He dumped them out in this box and then climbed in to eat his snack. It definitely made clean-up easier.

Almost every day when we are playing out in the front yard, Mason likes to walk over to Jon's house.....

and climb the steps and bang on the door, yelling for Jon. Best buddies indeed.

He LOVES bubbles....another daily activity.

After Mason took an extra-long nap today, we took him to the park to get out a little more energy before bedtime.

Waterplay 2

2011-08-15T22:25:00.001-04:00

Several weekends ago we went up to my parents' house for the weekend. We always have a lot of fun exploring the outdoors there. They have a big garden so we were sent home with lots of fresh veggies. We had our tomatoes laying out and Mason was admiring all of them saying, "ball. ball. ball. ball." Of course he had to pick out the biggest one to pick up and bite into.

That wasn't going to go very well, so I gave him some little cherry tomatoes to eat, and he went over to share with Grammy (my mom).

He also liked all the potatoes and wanted to try one of these "ball"s. I love this face!!

My sister got a new puppy, Cooper. He is so adorable and is actually a really calm and sweet puppy for the most part.

Mason likes dogs but surprisingly he was not too crazy about Cooper. I guess he is used to dominating in the small and adorable category. Cooper got this look from Mason often if he came near him. Usually the raised eyebrow didn't hold Cooper off though and he got into a few games of tug-o-war with Mason's shirt or diaper.

Mason was not a fan.

We also got the sprinkler out for Mason to play in while we were there.
He loved walking through it and stopping to get a drink.

It is so sweet to see his face light up at the sight of water.
I love how much he loves it!

Waterplay 1

2011-08-14T21:54:00.004-04:00

All summer we have spent a lot of time playing in the water. We love to go to the outdoor pool at our gym, and Mason has a little baby pool in the backyard. I think we went about 4 or 5 weeks straight of being in one or the other every single day. These pictures are from back in mid-July.

When he is outside of the pool he leans over the edge and plays with the water, and when he is inside the pool he leans over the edge and plays with the grass. He really can't make up his mind.

Mason also loves playing in the water hose when we are watering the garden.

He loves to fill up containers with water and then dump them on himself. He couldn't figure out why this container would never fill up. I spy a mini plumber's crack. ;)

He actually will do this indoors sometimes if he sees us set our cup of water on the floor. He'll come over and get it when we aren't looking and hold it up over his head and tip it over on himself. It is really cute and funny outside....but inside the house....not so much.

He loves to have running water on his hands. We started a while back with carrying him to the sink to wash his hands. He loves washing his hands, and he really likes the different feel of the spray from the hose.

I love these of my boys.

Also, why are baby board shorts so long? All of his look like pants on him. Cute pants though.

Rookie of the Year

2011-08-10T10:24:00.001-04:00

Weekend before last we hosted a baby shower for my best friend, Laura, and her husband Nathan. Laura is the kind of best friend that would pack up and go to the other side of the world with you to support you while your husband competes in the Olympics. Believe me, I needed my best friend with me on that trip, she was perfect to help calm my nerves. Laura deserved a reward for being there for me so the next summer (2009) we invited her and Nathan to go to the Bahamas with us.

Now their family is growing and their sweet baby girl Evelyn Ruth is due in September. I am SO excited for Nathan & Laura to become parents! I am almost beside myself to meet this precious little baby girl!! Since they live in North Carolina (funny that we both ended up living in NC at some point) and don't get to see all of their friends here very often, we decided to host a casual baby shower for both of them so the ladies and the gents could both come and celebrate with them. They love baseball and one of the big things on their "bucket list" is to visit all of the MLB stadiums, they've already been to quite a few. So when I started brainstorming ideas for the shower I knew I wanted to tie in baseball somehow and come up with a pretty casual menu and setting so it would be a great atmosphere for everyone to hang out just like we were tailgating before a game (an Auburn game, of course).

I took a couple of quick pictures of them Saturday morning before we sent them off to brunch so we could get ready for the party. Um....their baby is going to be gorgeous with these two sets of genes!

One night as I was trying to fall asleep (this is how it always happens and it literally keeps me awake at night), the ideas just started rolling and I came up with the concept of the shower being "Rookie of the Year" to celebrate the newest "team member" of the Ealy Nation (the name of their blog is a nod to the Atlanta Braves -- "Braves Nation"). So that idea really got the ball rolling and we decided to serve ballpark franks of course but jazzed it up with a full spread of topping choices for everyone to dress their own hot dog. I had a lot of fun designing all of the paper products for the party, from the food labels, to Ealy Nation pennants that were table centerpieces and fun for the kids to play with. I also designed a baseball card for Evelyn and on the back of the cards everyone could guess Evelyn's stats at birth. side note: In baseball, throws and bats is an important stat because you want to know if someone is right-handed or left-handed, so I included that one on there just for fun. I wondered if everyone would understand why that was on there and most people got it and wrote R or L, but one of our girl friends wrote "really well" out beside both. haha! Not to be outdone though, one of the guys guessed that the baby would be 31" long at birth. Even bigger HA!!!!

I had so much fun planning their shower. A few of Laura's other close friends helped me pull it all together the morning of the shower and I was so thankful for their help. One of our mutual friends, Makenzi, helped a lot in the pre-planning. She also made the adorable burlap buntings above the food tables. I really enjoyed having another detail oriented person to bounce ideas off of, and someone who didn't think I was crazy for being so particular about so many of those details. :) One of my favorites were these favor bags I put together of cracker jacks, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and big league chew. Also on the dessert table we had strawberry cupcakes with these strawberry puffs on top, brownie bites, and strawberry lemonade.

And for the main course everyone enjoyed creating their own masterpiece of a hot dog. I was worried that the whole idea of "hot dogs" would be lame but really wanted to serve ballpark food to carry through with the theme. I am glad I stuck with it because the spread of topping options really turned it into a little more of a gourmet treat. I created sample idea cards of different ways to dress the dogs based on different places that are really special to them. Memphis - where Nathan grew up, Sand Rock - where Laura grew up, Auburn - where they met, San Diego - where they got engaged and married, and North Carolina - their current home and where Evelyn will be born.

I love having people over. I mean really really LOVE it! So this scene of loads of people filling up our home and having a good time makes me happy. The fact that they were here to celebrate one of the most amazing events in my best friend's life made it EVEN better!!!!

Everyone who has kids was encouraged to bring them along to the celebration since Laura and Nathan don't get to see them very often. I knew it was going to be a hot day so I sat out some swim diapers and towels beside the baby pool. It was a hit with the little ones.

After a while we headed back inside to open gifts. The ladies piled up in the living room and oohed and ahhed over all the adorable goodies.

While the guys stood nearby and tried to look interested. ;)

They perked up when Laura handed Nathan a bag that was for him to open. It was a great little book for new fathers. Nathan is such a natural with babies though, I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote the book himself. He is going to be such a great dad.

So now that the party is over, I am just waiting to hear that Evelyn is on her way! Just about 6 more weeks and I will be heading up to North Carolina to meet the Rookie of the Year!! I can't wait!!!!!!

Family in the Bahamas

2011-08-08T21:39:00.001-04:00

For our trip we booked round trip flights from here to Nassau and then just played it by ear to see which days would work out best to fly back & forth to Exuma. Since Jeremy swam in the Bahamas National Championships in Nassau at the beginning of our trip, we stayed there with his parents from Friday until the following Wednesday. That also gave us some time to visit two of the orphanages in Nassau and play with the kids and take them some things that they needed. The kids loved meeting Jeremy and the director actually brought some of the little boys to the swim meet on the last night. They sat with me and Mason and were so enthralled with the entire event. They were so excited when they spotted Jeremy behind the blocks about to start his race and they cheered for him the entire time. It was great that he won that race and then he came up into the stands afterward and talked to the boys. He gave one of the boys his gold medal because he remembered the time that Jeremy won the race in. I wish I could show you pictures of their sweet faces. One little boy in particular that loved Mason and Mason was quite intrigued by as well. It was so sweet.

So on Wednesday we flew from Nassau to Georgetown, Exuma to spend a week and a half with Dallas, Tamara, and the boys. (all of the Exuma posts are from that time). Then we flew back to Nassau Sunday morning, the day before we were flying back to the States on July 4th. Jeremy's grandmother was celebrating her 85th birthday so his parents put together a little surprise party. Dallas, Tamara, and the boys flew to Nassau on the same flight that we did. We were almost half the flight....its a small plane. :) While we were waiting at the airport, the little boys entertained themselves like little boys do.

This was probably Mason's most unsettled flight of the entire trip. He was in too wild of a mood to want to sit still so it was tough corralling him into the seat the entire time. Thankfully the flight is only about 35 minutes, so it wasn't a big deal. I guess he just got really wound up before we took off....please reference the tongue sticking out in the pictures above. :)

Jeremy's sister April and her two kids Olivia & Luke flew down to Nassau from the island where they live (Man-O-War Cay, Abaco). Her husband, David, wasn't able to come down with them since he is a pastor and it was Sunday. This was the first time all of the current grandchildren were all together. I say "current" because we know this little brood will be growing. April is currently pregnant with their third child, we know we'll have more, Elliott & Erin will be adding to the bunch one day, and who knows, Dallas & Tamara might add in another one too! ;) I wonder what the total grandchildren count will end up being!!?! Its exciting to think about.

This is Jeremy's parents with Dallas, Jeremy, and April, and all 5 grandkids. And of course we are missing the youngest brother, Elliott; I feel bad for even posting these pics since only one sibling is missing. Sorry Elliott!!!! :-)

The grandparents, Nana & Papa, looked SO happy to have all of their little grandchildren together at their house for the first time!!

From oldest to youngest, here are the Knowles grandkids....
Joss will be 4 in December (parents: Dallas & Tamara)

Olivia just turned 2 in May (parents: April & David)

Emit will be 2 in September (parents: Dallas & Tamara) The boys are about 20 months apart.

Mason just turned 1 in April (parents: well, duh...its us silly!)

Luke will be 1 in August (parents: April & David) Olivia & Luke are 15 months apart and baby #3 will be 15 months younger than Luke.

It was just so cute seeing them all together. I know I must have said "cute" a million times already. But man, are they cute or what?! Cute. Cute. Cute!!!

I think Mason was enjoying playing with someone smaller than him since he was the little guy the entire trip with Joss & Emit.

Olivia was so funny when they brought the cake out for Muh, Jeremy's grandmother. She just went right to town scooping off the icing. She sat right behind the cake and when everyone started singing Happy Birthday she smiled SO big and just looked around and took it all in! She REALLY thought everyone was singing to her. She was so proud and excited! She just had a birthday in May so I guess she remembers how the cake and birthday song goes and she was probably thinking oh boy, its my birthday again!!!

It was great to get this picture with great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, & babies. Elliott & Erin, we are just going to have to photoshop you guys in! ;)

And one of the entire crowd there to celebrate Muh's 85th birthday. Lots of family members from both Jeremy's dad's side of the family and his mom's side. Most we hadn't seen in 2 years since we didn't go at all while we were pregnant or this entire past year. So it was really great to see everyone!

Exuma: Part 4

2011-08-07T18:19:00.001-04:00

Almost finished up with all the pictures from our trip to the Bahamas. :)
More pics at: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and some underwater video here.

I definitely didn't take as many scenic pictures as I normally do when we are back home visiting Jeremy's family. Before Mason was born I took more pictures without people in them than with, but now I take more pictures with people (specifically Mason) than without. A big shift for me. :)

I think I mentioned the beautiful little bay that Dallas, Tamara, and the boys live in. We took the little boys exploring one day and Tamara took us to this little tower in a new neighborhood being developed not too far away. This was the view looking back toward their house and the bay. Such a beautiful, long white sand beach!

And here is a shot on the beach looking back in the direction that the above picture was taken from.

Every day Mason would spot this "ball" on the way down to the beach hanging on one of the neighbor's porches.

Also on the day we went exploring, Tamara took us out to some of the old Bahamian settlements on the island. Some of the people drive into Georgetown to work, and some of them have their own little trades and skills that they put to use in their settlement. Tamara was telling me that some of the older people that live out in the little settlements like to be cut off from the rest of the world and modernization; some choose to not have electricity and running water. The true island life.

Another stop along the way was at the new marina at Sandals and Grand Isle Resort. I think this marina was finished since we were there last, so it was neat going to see it completed. It was a pretty huge construction project for an out island. I didn't take any pictures of the docks because there were a lot of multi-million dollar yachts there and people can be kind of funny about you taking pictures with their boats in them, I guess its a privacy issue. So I took some of my favorite little subject instead. :) And Tamara took a few of me with Mason! I'm not a big fan of most pictures of me these days because I still have some baby weight to lose, but I thought these were so cute! Great job Tamara! I did a family photo shoot of them on the beach one evening, check it out on the Sprouts blog. Everyone has commented to me about how you can tell they are such a happy family from their pictures, and I agree! You have to go check them out.

After a hot afternoon of exploring we headed back to the house with sippy-cups in hand.

We got an underwater housing for our point and shoot camera. It was a lot of fun to play around with underwater, and even above water when we were in the ocean and obviously couldn't hold my nice camera. :) Like this for example when we were snorkeling around and Tamara found a starfish. Mason wanted to touch it!

And talk to it....

The little camera was good on the boat for quick shots like this when Mason fell asleep on the boat ride back one day. We were obviously cutting it pretty close to naptime. But the boat lulled him to sleep in daddy's arms. And on the right Mason was splashing in some little tide pools. Tamara blogged some more pictures from that day over on their blog.

While playing at the beach, Mason loved to gather all the "balls" (coconuts).

It really came in handy when we were swimming with the turtles just off the beach. This isn't a tourist attraction....its just out in the wild!! So crazy! Their shells are SO beautiful!!

And again, Mason wanted to touch it! :)

It was a lot of fun to take pictures of the reefs but pictures really don't do it any justice. The reefs are SO beautiful and the array of colors doesn't really show up in pictures. Underwater photography is almost an entirely different ballgame. But its fun to just play around.

15 months

2011-08-05T13:24:00.005-04:00

My mom and little sister Haley came down Tuesday night to spend the night and go back to school shopping on Wednesday. I did a quick photo shoot for Haley Wednesday morning. We just walked down the street one block to the neighborhood park. Mom pulled Mason in his wagon and when we got there, he stood up to play around and watch what was going on at the park. He was so cute I had to stop what I was doing and run over and take a few pictures of him. :)

I was singing the Veggietales theme song here to get that smile out of him. :) Works like a charm.

Then as we were walking back to the house I couldn't resist a few more. Sometimes we will go on little walks where he will just walk up and down the sidewalk in front of our house and I just follow him around. Sometimes we are playing with a little toy or bubbles, but most of the time we are just exploring. He always looks so cute walking down the sidewalk because he's so little with the trees towering above him.

Mom, are you coming?

He was saying something here, but I have no idea what. He is "talking" so much here lately. He says a lot of recognizable syllables and letters but they are put together to form his own little language. We can tell by his facial expressions that he really thinks he is telling us something though.

As far as real words go, he is saying:
mama
dada
ball
usta ("lips" in Polish from Veggietales) :)
more (sometimes with sign language too)
up
bath
bear ("B")
uh-oh
no
hey
bye
books (booksh)
bottle ("bah-bah", although he rarely uses this one now since he no longer takes a bottle)
fan
fish
kitty (key-yee)
dog
bubbles (buh-buhs)
where's daddy (wuhs da-da)
get it (didit)
quack-quack (dak-dak)
and he just started making the cutest monkey sound... hoo-hoo-haa-haa

First World Problems

2011-08-01T10:58:00.005-04:00

watch this....

then this.....

Nothing like a little perspective to start off my week. Does it make you disgusted with yourself too? You can read a little more about the famine going on right now in the Horn of Africa in this article from the Huffington Post.

"Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to
Eternity"

-Hillsong

If you would like to read more about the crisis and donate to help provide food & water to those in desperate need, please visit some of the following sites:

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/articles/food_crisis_in_kenya/

http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.asp?c=9fLEJSOALpE&b=7542627

http://www.worldvision.org/#/home/gallery/hunger-and-drought-in-the-horn-of-africa-5-1422

http://www.compassion.com/africa-drought.htm

Ten on Tuesday

2011-07-26T17:22:00.013-04:00

another Ten on Tuesday in iphone pics....

1. Mason keeps on getting more and more attached to his Bear. He carries him around most of the day and frequently stops to give him a good hug complete with an audible "awwww".

2. I saw Mason asleep like this one day last week on the monitor and I just HAD to risk waking him for a quick picture. I have slept with one leg hanging off the bed since I was still in a crib. Could this be the beginning of him taking after mommy's really strange habit?

3. Does anyone have Martha's book "The Housekeeping Handbook"? I was looking through my mom's copy the other day and picked up several new tips. I love lists so I was particularly fond of her weekly, monthly, seasonal housekeeping lists.

4. Mason has a really bad habit of getting under the dining table and then standing up and banging his head. So I came up with a solution (joking of course). In case you are wondering, it didn't work.....but once Mason ripped it off the table, the tape did keep him occupied (and out from under the table) for quite a while.

5. If you are really observant, you might have noticed in the last picture that we painted our dining room table. I really love how it turned out! Details coming soon.

6. In other (small) around-the-house projects, I put up a shoe organizer on the back of Mason's closet door a few months ago to organize all those little baby things that we always need but can't find. It has been a sanity saver, so I decided to put one on the back of our bathroom door too so I could organize things in there. I am loving not having to search for these types of things when we need them. I'm thinking there will never be another "junk drawer" in our house again.

7. And I finally hung up Mason's hats.

8. Mason really loves music. Listening to music. Dancing to music. Making music.
So we decided to get him some musical instruments; a little band in a box and a little saxoflute toy. He loves making music with them and is so cute marching around the house blowing on his little horn.

9. He also has a new (unsafe) reading spot. I can't keep him off of it. He just really loves to climb.

10. We went to Dreamcakes the other day and got a Mango cupcake that was to die for!!! I MUST find a recipe like this!!!!

Exuma: Part 3

2011-07-25T16:51:00.008-04:00

Yes there is more! :) This whole "no plan" idea is not working out for me very well because I can't keep up with which pictures I have/haven't blogged. I am becoming more and more convinced that my brain needs an organizational method for every single thing. :)

So let's start this post with what we did when we stayed indoors on vacation. The time was filled with all sort of activities from play-dough, to cartoons, to reading, and an extra large measure of playing with cars and trains. It never failed that one of them would always want a toy that someone else had. The rule seemed to be whoever was having the most fun with their toy....that was the toy that everyone wanted! There were quite a few toy snatchings by all parties involved but Tamara is a skilled referee in fairness, as I hope to also be one day. I learned a lot of little mommy lessons from her while we were there.

Dallas and Tamara also have two cats. Mason liked chasing Joy around, probably because she is grey like his buddy Tim. Although Joy did not seem to be too excited about her new friend.

Most days right after lunch the scene looked like this. Everyone was finishing up their sippy cup of juice or water and snuggling with their lovie while watching an episode of Thomas the Train. Emit has "Mo" (monkey), Joss has "Po" (Hippo), and Mason has "B" (bear), all three are very well-loved.

Whenever the daddies were out fishing without us, Emit and Mason had a routine of standing at the door while banging the glass and yelling "da-da-da-da-daaaaaa-da-daaaa-da-da-da-daaaaaaaAAAA!!!!". As far as we could tell, it was a contest of who could be the loudest. And when the daddies came back when they happened to be standing there yelling for them, well that was just pure excitement!!

The little boys also took LOTS of baths. Usually we would either hose them off when we got back from the beach or if we were ready to get inside, they would all take a bath together. Then every night they would take a bath together again. It was fun. And efficient.

The only drawback was that Mason grew quite the temper while we were there and pitched the biggest fits ever when we would take him out of the bathtub.....which was particularly not-enjoyable since that usually happened twice a day.

Back to the beach......

One of my favorite things about Exuma, and this goes for Great Exuma and most of the other Exuma Cays, is that there are so few people there. They are truly the most beautiful beaches I have seen with the perfect soft powdery sand and turquoise waters. And most of the time you get that all to yourself!

Well, you share it with your family. Which makes it even better.

Mason loved to chase the little waves coming in and out either by walk.....

or crawl.....

or maybe just dip a little toe in.

We love eating fresh mangoes and luckily one of their neighbors has several trees and the whole little community likes to share things with each other. We were definitely excited about that! We love to eat mangoes at the beach. One day I was sharing my mango with Mason and he ripped it out of my hands and wouldn't give it back. He sat there and ate the entire thing all by himself, all the way down to the pit.

He also face planted in the sand a couple of times. Which was nothing short of hilarious.

But most of all, he was just all around adorable.... and got his first farmer's tan.

And one for the ladies.... Mason's swimsuit model pose.... ;)

I love this little guy. Mason is 15 months old today! Can you believe it!?!

Exuma: Part 2

2011-07-16T14:37:00.003-04:00

We always spend a lot of time out on the boat in the Bahamas....I guess that's sort of the obvious thing to do considering all the water. :) The thing about Exuma is that it is a chain of a bunch of little islands so it is really fun to go exploring all the other islands (most of them uninhabited). Dallas and Tamara know all the great spots, so we love going to new beaches, or reefs, or a great fishing spot. The guys love to go spearfishing and the girls love to go snorkeling. Tamara and I both have underwater housing for our little point & shoot cameras so we enjoyed when we had the chance to go snorkeling around different reefs and try to capture some of the beauty (I'll save those pictures for another post). This was our first trip to Exuma with a little one to keep an eye on, so it was a little different in that Jeremy and I had to take turns staying on the boat with Mason so we were never really in the water together. Sometimes Mason would get in as well but not very often when we were out in the open ocean. He enjoyed being in the water more so when we were closer to the beach. But he also really loved being on the boat, so he had fun in or out of the water.

The 3 amigos were so cute on the boat, always up front watching where we were going and catching the nice breeze.

Mason's hair is getting pretty long so it was so wild the entire time. Between the wind and the humidity, it constantly looked a little crazy. Andrew, Dallas & Jeremy's college roommate, came down for a week too. He is basically like another brother for the guys so we call him Uncle Andrew.

I love these two pictures of Joss. He is growing up SO fast!! It is just unbelievable that he is a little boy now, no longer a baby. He is so much fun and such a little sweetheart.
The boat was sitting still for both of these as he was watching someone getting ready to ski on the left and "The ocean is calling."on the right.

I still can't believe that Joss went skiing on Dallas' back!! It was so awesome! They were both having a great time!!

Dallas and Jeremy also tried out a couple of tricks that their dad used to do when they were younger. Here Dallas transitioned from skiing to slalom skiing by reaching down and picking up one of the skis. I'm super impressed considering I only got up on the skis one time and that was VERY brief.

Emit had fun watching and cheering for everyone.

I love Mason's crazy hair on the left and the three little boys in a line watching some of the guys in the water spearfishing.

Here are some more of the spectators in action.

We saw a shark too....wait. That's just the cutest little boy shoe ever. Joss & Emit have these and I thought they were just adorable!!

There was lots of snacking on the boat. The boys were always hungry so we would load up our bags each day with all kinds of goodies. Mason decided he was a big boy and could eat an entire apple. The boy can eat!!

Jeremy and I really want a sailboat. Jeremy is actually quite obsessed.

oh, paradise. How I miss you.

Hives, Harvest, and Hair cuts

2011-07-12T19:59:00.009-04:00

I have been worried sick for most of Mason's life about him having allergies. I have really severe allergies that one time a few years ago in Charlotte left me broken out in hives every single day from July to November. Managing it has been a struggle that I did not want to pass along to Mason so I have been holding my breath for the first sign that he might also be sensitive to different things. So I guess you'll understand why I completely broke down in tears Sunday morning when my baby woke up looking like this. :(

I took pictures for the doctor because the thing about hives is they are almost always gone by the time you get to the doctor and then they look at you like you're crazy. The bumps came and went 3 different times on Sunday and we have gone through an exhaustive mental checklist (we are very used to the "figuring out the cause" side of allergies) and we still can not figure out what might have been the trigger. Nothing makes sense. They haven't come back and he has his 15 month check-up soon, so I think we are just going to "wait-and-see". It absolutely makes me sick that is the best "solution" we can come up with, but that is just the nature of allergies I suppose.

In other news, several of our tomatoes have started turning red! We have been so eager and excited waiting on them to ripen. I even had a dream a few nights ago that a little rodent came into our garden and took them. Apparently I have nothing better to dream about than tomatoes! So we decided to pull two of the 80% red ones off yesterday and let them finish ripening in the safe indoors. Its a good thing because turns out we do have a tomato thief on our hands.

But its not the kind of rascal I thought it would be. He just can't resist picking the "ball"s. I like his "oh, I'm sorry mommy, were you wanting to eat this?" expression. I didn't mind too much, since this sort of "pick it & eat it" love of vegetables is exactly what I had in mind when I first tossed out the idea of starting a garden.

I had the first ripe tomato for dinner tonight and I think it was the most satisfying thing I have ever eaten! I may be addicted to growing my own food now. How did I eat it, you ask. How else? Plain and simple is the best!

I had to trim our basil plants today because a few of them were getting so tall they were blocking the sun from the bell pepper plants. Now, what does one do with a hat full of basil? (And this was just from half of one plant.)

Mason was having a good hair day today so I knew I needed to snap a few pictures of him. His hair is getting really long and I don't know when it will be "the" time to cut it. I'm thinking I'll stick to......when in doubt, don't cut it. Also, you'll notice he is wearing his boy uniform. :) On these summer days at home, this is what I love to see him in, so most days I just dress him in athletic shorts and no shirt. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE it!!!!!

Mason has officially moved on from Baby Einstein to Veggietales. He has a few Veggietales DVDs that we have watched a few times over the past few months but over the past couple of weeks he has really started loving them. We can sing the theme song and he starts bouncing & grinning. When he watches it he starts to "sing" along with them, making the most hilarious faces and soft noises. We tried videoing it the other day and then he stopped doing it, so we'll try again. But today I sat my phone up on my camera and he was watching it and singing along. Cute little rascal.

Behold the power of Veggietales. Starting to whiny cry. Enter Veggietale-singing-mama, and Badabing. Badaboom. Grinning-bouncy-Mason. Easy as that. (please overlook the fact that he looks like a bobblehead....I was shooting at a wide angle for these shots because he was so close to me, so it makes his head look large and in charge)

So..... any ideas for my basil harvest?? Anyone willing to share their family secret recipe for pesto?
Also..... to haircut, or not to haircut, that is the question.

And now that you mention it.....I wonder where I could get a Mason bobblehead made? I can sell them to all of his fans and start his college fund, yes?

Exuma: Part 1

2011-07-11T18:15:00.003-04:00

I have so many pictures and stories from our trip to the Bahamas that I really don't know where to start. So I am just going to jump right in with no plan whatsoever.

Dallas (Jeremy's brother & bff) and Tamara & the boys live in an adorable little house called Sweet Breeze on Great Exuma, Bahamas. It is just a few hundred yards from the beach.....a really stunning beach at that. They run a tourism based company, renting out kayaks & sailboats, and leading expeditions through the Exuma Cays. Check out their company, Out Island Explorers, and their blog to learn more about the island and what they do there. Its a pretty awesome job to have, and they are really great at what they do.

Every day we would load up the 3 little boys in the wagon, with toys, snacks, and sunscreen, and head to the beach. Its a short little walk down a private path filled with beautiful tropical flowers. If it sounds like paradise....that's because it is! I would never grow tired of taking that walk every day.

At the beach, we would play until everyone was pooped out, which of course meant that all the adults played past the point of exhaustion to get to the point where the little boys were out of their never-ending energy supply.

Mason enjoyed playing in the water, "jumping" off the dock, seeing several sea creatures for the first time (and up close!), and learning all the "big boy" tricks from Joss & Emit.

Mason really loved the sand as much as he loved the water, so he spent a lot of time digging around on the beach. Emit was such a fun little buddy for Mason. Emit is about 8 months older than Mason but they are close to the same size so I called them my little twins all week. Mason got really jealous every time I held Emit, which was pretty funny. He would run over and try to climb up in my lap and push Emit away. They were best buddies.....except when it came to Mason's territory of mommy. I'm sure you've already noticed that Joss & Emit are little Coppertone babies. They have the cutest tans! And Mason's belly saw the sun for (what seemed like) the first time on this particular day.

It's worth repeating that these 3 boys together=the cutest thing ever!! Don't you agree?!

After each beach trip, we would load up and head back to the house for a freshwater rinse, food, and sleep. Rinse and Repeat.

More beaching, boating, and playing to come!

Five on Friday

2011-07-08T11:32:00.003-04:00

1. We arrived home Monday night (several hours later than planned) and all 3 crashed immediately.....wait, that's not true, Mason was so excited to see his toys and his cats so he had a burst of energy for about half an hour and then we crashed. Both of our flights were delayed on the return trip, just as they had been on the way there. We took turns chasing Mason around the airport before we boarded our flight (an hour behind schedule) and then we sat on the plane on the runway in Atlanta (again) for a few hours. Delta is definitely on the naughty list this year.

2. Its always a little depressing to see how abruptly a vacation ends when you return home. Its like someone pouring a bucket of ice water on you to wake you up. Mountains of laundry, lots of cleaning, work to return to, loads of emails, voicemails, text messages, and facebook messages to answer. Don't even get me started on those last two....I hate having 4 different forms of communication to respond to, especially facebook messages since there is no way to set up an auto-responder to let people know you are on vacation. And really don't get me started about how some people these days expect you to respond to all these communications anytime, anyday, even when on vacation. Those type of people will just have to be displeased with me. Its my party and I'll not reply if I want to.

3. Mason got four new teeth on vacation, to bring the total pearly white count to 12. I'm glad he was too busy to notice. He also dropped his morning nap while we were there and just took one nap a day on the same schedule as Joss and Emit. This definitely helped us have more time for play. But Mason decided yesterday it was time for two naps again, so back to the old schedule we go.

4. Sunday night in Nassau, all 5 of the Knowles grandkids were together for the first time to celebrate Jeremy's grandmother's 80th birthday. We just loved seeing all the little ones together!!!!

5. I have so many pictures to go through and blog about, but I haven't had time to get to that yet...please refer to #2 on this list. Which is why I am stalling with this post, but I personally believe the cuteness in the picture above totally makes up for it. If you're itching to see some more pictures pronto, check out Tamara's blog, she is on top of her game (unlike me)! :)
Have a happy weekend!!!!!

Island Life....

2011-07-01T20:41:00.002-04:00

....Mason is enjoying it.

We'll be back home in a few days with lots of adorable adventures to share!

Underwater Video

2011-06-27T11:42:00.005-04:00

We are having a blast visiting family in the Bahamas. Exuma is Jeremy's happy place so I love seeing him here in his element. We got an underwater housing for our little camera (Canon G11) before we left and we are really enjoying it. Here are 3 videos we've shot with it so far....

Feeding the turtles at the beach down the road from Dallas and Tamara's house. I jerk around at the end (and squeal underwater if you listen closely) because another turtle swam up and bit my big toe. :)

Jeremy was swimming with the camera in this one, freediving through an underwater tunnel. He found some sleeping nurse sharks....this kind of shark does not have teeth so they aren't dangerous.

Yesterday afternoon all the guys went out spearfishing. They came back with quite the bounty!! We enjoyed some for dinner last night. John, one of the guys, filmed Dallas and Jeremy tag-teaming a nice sized grouper. After seeing them do this so many times over the past 8 years, I'm still so impressed by it....free diving down to 45' and spearing a big fish. Both of them could do this all day, every day if they could, its their favorite thing in the world to do.

Hangin' with the Cousins

2011-06-24T09:25:00.013-04:00

I thought I would take a minute to share a few pictures from our last two days of adventure. Wednesday we flew down to Georgetown Exuma where Jeremy's brother Dallas and wife Tamara lives, along with our two adorable nephews Joss (3 1/2) and Emit (almost 2). The party started the minute we arrived and hasn't stopped since! Mason is having a blast trying to keep up with the two "big boys"!!! He is learning all about cars and trains, and is trying to keep up with them talking constantly. Three little baby boy voices jabbering in unison is the sweetest sound.

It is a quick little 35-45 minute flight down to Exuma from Nassau with beautiful scenery as you fly over the keys. It was a challenge once again to keep Mason occupied and sitting down in such a small space.

This backseat full of boys is TOO cute!!!

We've been having fun playing at the beach. The first day Mason spent a lot of time staring at the boys with his mouth dropped open not quite sure if he could get right in the middle, but by the next day he was trying to keep up.

And I have a super big crush on this little guy, Emit. He says the cutest things!
Mason is having fun running around in just board shorts or a diaper. He has learned two new words since we've been here, "fish" and "fan". He loves all the fans sitting around everywhere to keep us cool.....he also found out what happens when you stick your finger in a fan.

Yesterday we went out on the boat and Mason LOVED it! He stood up here for a while and went "weeeeeeeeeee"! Do you like his wind blown hair?

And Joss is such a brave little boy!! He went tubing with Jeremy and then decided he would try skiing with his daddy by riding on his back and hanging on. It was the cutest thing EVER!!!!!

He was so cool he even gave us a little wave!! It was so fun to be here for one of Joss' "firsts".

Mason loves the water and loves being tossed up by daddy.

I just can't get enough of seeing these three boys together!!!!!!!