First Haircut!!

Aunt Jessie and I took Mason to get his first haircut the other day at Cookie Cutters in Bountiful. My friend Jessica recommended the salon and I have to say, we were not disappointed!! They have giant toys for the kids to sit in, and there is a TV at every station. Mason watched Elmo while rollin' in his blue car. It was the cutest thing I think I've ever seen. I forgot my camera (argh) but took some pics with my phone. Grandma Linda saved the day and brought the video camera along! What a priceless video it will be!

Christmas in California

First of all, thank you to all of you for your great advice regarding my mommy meltdown. Your words of comfort were greatly appreciated. It's so nice to have friends and family who have been through some of the ups and downs of parenthood!!

So I'm always a little behind on the blogging, but we had the best vacation over Christmas break. Instead of doing the whole present thing we decided to go on a trip instead. We were originally going to stay in a hotel, but decided it would be hard not to have a microwave to make Mason's food and a separate room for him to sleep in. Since it was last minute, we got a great deal on a little 2 bedroom vacation rental on the beach. The complex was called North Coast Village in Oceanside. We left the day after Christmas and drove to Primm, NV. I was afraid Mason would get fussy in the car but he did so great! We put on some movies for him and he was a little champ.

Mason's first time in a hotel room!

The condo was so cute! And it had the perfect sink for bath time!

The first night there we bundled up Mason and took him to the tide pools at Cardiff State Beach.

Pete found some new role models (65 year-old volleyball playing beach bums..) I think he finally found out what he wants to be when he grows up =p


We took Mason to the beach for the first time. He ate his first sand!! I thought it was hilarious but Pete was a little concerned (see video below)

We had the best New Year's Eve ever!! We BBQ'd some steaks, threw together a salad and ate it while listening to the ocean on our little balcony.

Afterwards, we tried our hand at chocolate dipped strawberries. It was kind of a disaster. Apparently you're not supposed to get the melted chocolate wet-- Wish we would have known that before we washed the strawberries!!

Pete's friend Chris took him surfing for the day.

We built an awesome sand castle- complete with a moat! I added our initials to the castle and then realized they spell PMS. Go figure...

I never wanted to be the mom who never lets her kid get dirty- but I'm so that mom. In an effort to be less anal, I gave Mason a little teething biscuit and let him go for it!!

It was such a great trip. It was especially awesome because it was our first vacation as a little family. We were so sad to come home! I think I was meant to be a California girl!!

Crisis

Okay all you mommies out there- I need some serious counseling. I'm having a total meltdown!! Yesterday I put Mason down for a nap and after about 15 minutes I had a feeling I should go check on him. This is what I found....

Okay- first of all he just barely started crawling a month ago. He's never pulled himself up to stand before so I was in absolute SHOCK!! He thought it was hilarious. He was laughing and gooing because he finally got to chew on the stuffed snail he's been staring up at for the last 9 months. Maybe I'm just emotional or something but when I saw him standing in his crib it totally hit me that my baby is gone forever. He is growing into a boy faster than I can believe. Tonight I gave him his bottle and then bawled my eyes out over how big he is. I just can't help feeling like I didn't cuddle/snuggle/hold him enough and now I can't ever get his tiny baby days back.

Here's me post-breakdown. See, he's HUGE!

Update

I know I'm a slacker and Halloween is way over, but the pics were so cute I had to post them. Mason was the cutest pumpkin ever!!

A ton has happened in the last few months! I had surgery on my foot and we had some 6 month and family pictures taken of Mason. I love our photographer! He does such an awesome job! His name is Justin Hamblin and his website is www.hamblinphoto.com if anyone is interested.

Mason is getting so big. His first 2 teeth are coming in and he started crawling this week! I can't believe he was born 8 months ago. It seems like it was just yesterday. I swear time goes by way faster after you have a kid.

I've been scrapbooking calendars for Pete's and my parents for Christmas- They took forever to do but turned out really cute! We love you all and are so thankful for our friends and family especially at this time of year. We hope you all have an awesome Christmas!! See you in 2009!

Baby Shower Fun!

This past weekend, we had a baby shower for Corie. We had a great time! There was so much good food and it was great to see old friends. Corie, Lisa and I have been best friends since Jr.High. We have kept in touch by going to dinner once a month for the last few years. I truly look forward to it every month and have loved growing up, getting married, and becoming mothers together!! Good luck Corie!! Can't wait to see little Jonah!

I was in charge of decorations for the shower-- I had so much fun makin this diaper cake! I am totally not creative by myself so I found a cake online that I liked and copied it. I think it turned out really cute!

Mason's Laugh

Auntie Jessica was over the other day and she had Mason laughing harder than he ever has before. I've tried to get him to laugh that hard again but I just can't do it. I guess mommies just aren't as fun as aunties!!

Update

So I'm such a bloggins slacker. The last month has been crazy! I say this in every blog but Mason is getting so big! He had his 6 month appointment on Friday. He is 17.9 lbs (46th percentile) and 27 inches (74th percentile) I think he is going to be tall like his daddy! He also started trying to hold his own bottle and is rolling all over the place. He is such a smiley kid- we are so lucky to have such a good baby! When I was pregnant, a lot of people I talked to were so negative towards kids. They would tell me how much our lives would change and how there's no going back... etc. Our lives have definitely changed and there are definitely hard days but having a baby is so much fun!! He fills our lives with so much joy, and the older he gets the more fun he becomes. Here are some pics and videos of how we ended our summer

Mason watching his dad play volleyball.

He was so cute kicking his legs in his crab floatie. Man I'm going to miss 88 degree weather!!

Ben got us the coolest program for Mason. Its called You Baby Can Read. The DVD's and books help teach babies whole language and phonics using a combination of sound, sight and interaction. The beginning of the DVD's shows a 9 month old baby who can recognize words- like the dad holds up the word laugh and the baby laughs. Its amazing!! Anyhow- Mason loves to watch them while sitting in his bumbo chair.

I love this picture. My 2 favorite boys having snuggle time!!

He recently started sleeping with his bum in the air. Babies are so silly!

It was a big day when I went to lunch with my cousin Aaron and Mason sat in a high chair and entertained himself with this teething ring!

I somehow got roped into driving all the way out to Tooele one Saturday to take a 5 generation picture. Mason met his 96 year old great great grandma for the first time while we were there. She adored him, of course- and I ended up being kind of glad I went because it will be fun for him to see this picture when he's older!

We found this jumper on the KSL classified ads. I think it is the best thing in the world!! He plays in it for hours at a time. In this video, he is watching his You Baby Can Read DVD.