Happy 1 Year Little Man

So I am going to jump out of order for a minute to celebrate my little man's birthday. He is ONE!! I really can't believe he is already gotten here. He has been such a joy in our lives. He came to us 3 weeks early, and that is when we should have known he is going to be a little boy who just pushes ahead and does what he wants:) He has been our crazy little spirit that keeps us on our toes, but in all the right ways. He is always smiling, Aunt Corinna has nicknamed him "Joe Smiley". He is just that, and we are so thankful for his personality.
He is very much in love with his older sister, who treats him great. She teaches him how to "talk" and helps him to his sign language. She is also very protective and helps him be safe. We love him so much and are very grateful he came to complete our family:) XOXO


Here is the family, pumped to be there:)
Well...... maybe not the guys:) They were great sports though.
Holy PREGO Kim! Corinna's head was tired.


Growing some chest hair...
Look how excited he is about the new walker! Thanks Gma and Arnells!
Didn't do too much for the decor. He's one. Does that make me a bad mom?:)
I also just let go a little and let Makenzie decorate his cake. I figured he wouldn't mind and she really loved it. So, letting go of the control was hard, but totally worth it to see her face:)
Here is the moment.... Makenzie was trying to be really sweet and give Mason a lick from her finger, and then he bit it....HARD. There is no kidding around with this boy, his bites hurt ME really bad. About 5 seconds after this picture, Makenzie let out a scream heard 'round the world. Then, Mason started crying. It was a real treat, ask my family:)
My little man really went for it... no fear.
At the end, he was cake drunk I tell ya:)

Some Random Pics....

Here is our Mason man...just smiling away like normal. He loves to turn anything upside down and stack things on it. What a boy.

.....or opening doors, really, that is what entertains him. Men:)

Here was truly a "aw-ha" moment my mother will enjoy. These jammies are those horrible polyester ones that you think can't be comfortable to sleep in. And frankly, aren't as cute as those jammies you find at Baby Gap for example. But, I found them and they were crazy cheap (go figure:)) so I got them for her. I NEVER understood why my mother put us in pj's like this, until this day. When I gave them to her, she was JUMPING off the walls! She wanted to wear them ALL the time. It was TOTALLY worth it to see her face:)

Early one morning we saw out the side window on our front door these things that looked like they were falling from our roof. We opened the door, and it turned out to be baby birds! I'm not even sure what kind of birds they are. They didn't fly away, didn't seem to be hurt, but just continued to walk around right in front of us. Makenzie thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was pretty awesome:)

Makenzie and Mason loves their Nana and Papa so, so much:)

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Our first "Meet and Greet"

Holy Cow. I really can't believe my little one is starting preschool. And so it begins.....
We went the other night to meet her teacher, Miss Nicole. I say meet, but really Makenzie has known her for over and year and LOVES her. Well, we all love her. She is fantastic. To be honest, we are very blessed to have her. Makenzie was suppose to be taking preschool from my dear closest friend, but with distance and money being a factor, we needed to go somewhere closer. I didn't want to pick just anyone. Our prayers were answered when my dear friend Nicole told me she was going to do preschool! She is close enough to walk to, so no gas money even, and she is so incredible with kids. Makenzie also gets to be in class with some of her friends too!
All in all, we are so excited. Makenize was JUMPING out of her skin with excitement this night. It was an ice cream social. She had the best time.
I love my little girl, and this mommy is going to have a hard time letting go:)

Swimming Lessons

This was the first year we put Makenzie in swimming lessons. She was the youngest in her class, and the shortest. She was the only that couldn't touch the bottom, ANYWHERE. The first 2 days were pretty good. She only cried a little when I walked away. The instructors were awesome, and they really were patient with her. They pushed her to do the things she was afraid to do, which was great - until the 3rd day. On that day, she had had enough, and she was pretty much hysterical about everything. After that, she didn't want to come back. We tried one more day, but it was worse, so we called it a day and we will try again next summer.

Drew took her the following days to our community pool though and made her do bobs and all the other things she didn't want to do. It was one of those things that moms in general just shouldn't be a part of:) He did good though, and now our little girl is a water bug, and loves it.

This is where she spent the whole class, on the stairs, because it is where she could touch, poor girl!

This is a progression from the first time across the pool, until the end...hilarious.

My kids HATE being on there backs. I have no idea why, but there is no such thing as being relaxed floating on your back for them.

End of class "ring-around-the-rosey"


My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Some Silly things...

Here are just some random silly pics of my kiddos -

Here is Makenzie in her swimsuit, ready for the water park!

Here she is after playing out in the rain with me. She was cold, so we made some hot chocolate:)


Poor little brother, his sister likes to dress him up:) He is a good sport about it, as long as he in on his manly truck:)

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Say What????

Ok, so I turn around the other morning to Makenzie asking, "Mommy, what does this spell?" Refering of course to our fridge magnets. She does this all the time and spells things like dog, cat, dad, etc. This day I was really surprised and what I saw on the fridge! To those wondering, NO, we do not say this around our house, and NO I didn't tell her what it meant:)
I really laughed hard though.
(To those that don't know what this mean, good for you! Seriously. Also, this was first thing in the morning which is why Makenzie looks like she just went through a wind storm, then a rain storm... then played outside all day:))

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Cherry Festival

This year again, a new tradition we love, we went to the Emmett Cherry Festival with my sister Corinna and her family and my mom. It was SOOOO hot, but SO fun. It was awesome greasy food, and great company.

Why is it that kids could CARE LESS that ice cream is dripping all down there hands/clothes/etc and still LOVE every minute of it!?

Makenzie went on her first carnival ride! (She was FINALLY barely tall enough). She had so much dang fun and wanted to go over and over. Andra, her cousin, was a really good sport and went with her.


I love that they share a ice cream cone every year! And every year I get a picture like this. I am sure when she is 16 she is NOT going to think this is cool:) Until then....


My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Meridian Dairy Days

We took our little family to Dairy Days this year. It was the first time we were all there and Grandma was gracious enough to come too. It was so much fun! I know it seems lame to some, but we truly had such a great time. Makenzie couldn't believe that all she had to do was hold her hands out and she would get FOOD! (The chocolate milk was the best)

Stone-cold Mason:)
Not-so-stone-cold Mason:)


He didn't love the loud cars or horns, the made him cry. He and Grandma got a good thing going, she would snuggle him in and cover his ears. After that, he was good to go:)


We love Grandma!


We were also so excited our dear friends the Pflegers came too! Elle is one of Makenzie's dear friends. The laughed and giggled all night.


My Family from WiddlyTinks.com