Fun Times!

The last couple of weeks have been busy but tons of fun. Three weekends ago we took a trip to the zoo via the MAX to reward Mason for his great job potty training. He took to it like a fish to water. What a guy! I forgot though, that with potty training comes the potty talk. It seems every statement of his includes or ends with "poop," "pee," "booty," or shaking his buns. And it has brought out the potty talk in Drew too. Hopefully this too shall pass.

The next weekend we stayed in Seaside at a resort with Paul's mom's timeshare points, and had a GREAT time with his family. If you forget about my severely burned right shoulder from spending too much time in the beautiful 75 degree sunshine on the beach with the kids. They were fine, I bathed them in sunscreen, but I forgot about myself.

We took a walk along Broadway and stopped in lots of the shops. I never realized what I was missing when I was in high school, cruising the turn-around. I was shopping for something a little bit different than knick-knacks at that point in my life. Mason and Drew took a ride on the carousel with their cousin Megan. The operator hopped on and held on to Mason so he wouldn't try to jump off in his terror. Poor guy, I just laughed at him. And I just deleted the picture so I have no proof right now!

The day after we got home I took the kids to the Childrens' Museum for Drew's preschool field trip. That picture didn't get loaded, don't know what my problem is! We had a great time there too. We had never been there before and the kids loved it. Mason especially enjoyed the water room. Drew painted her face warrior-like and insisted on wearing it to her t-ball game that night. The coaches loved it!

Wednesday was Drew's last day of school. She was so sad! This girl LOVES school. I don't know what she will do all summer, or what I will do with her. She and I attended the Kindergarten round-up at her new school and we got to visit classrooms and take a ride on a real school bus. She was in heaven. We got her the "Bob" series of books for beginning readers and she has almost finished the first 10 books. Go Drew! Tuesday we fit in Mason's 3 year check-up and heard that he is a healthy guy, only 4 pounds behind his big sister. Wednesday was also Mason's birthday party with tons of fun all day. Its great to be 3!

Friday we packed up our trailer and headed south to Honeyman State Park, just south of Florence. We camped with Paul's family and lots of people from his sister's ward who camp there every Memorial and Labor Day weekends. It was great to camp again. Good practice for our road trip in June.

Here is about half of the crew eating lunch. We had lots of fun hanging out with everyone again. Mason was excited that he had yet another birthday celebration there. That made a total of 3!

We vivisted the Heceta Head Lighthouse and took the tour. They had just turned the light back on about an hour before we got there, after months of repairs. Pretty cool place.

After the lighthouse we took a walk through the tide pools. Darcy's Uncle Scott was very nice and walked her around in the stroller so she missed most of the fun. But we really liked the sea creatures and also exploring the caves in the cliffs near by.

My little fisherpeople! Paul taught Mason and Drew how to fish for the first time. Luckily there were lots of family friends in the area when the warden was making his way down the dune so they warned Paul to pass off the pole to Mason real quick! I don't think he was old enough to need a license. Nothing was caught, time was wasted, but I think they had a good time. Isn't that what fishing is about?

Drew and Mason posing on the beach in front of an historic bridge on highway 101. Pretty neat. The beach by the lighthouse is really nice.

Here is my Darcy, crawling up the dunes. If it wasn't for her aunt Alloa she would probably have kept going all the way to the top. I was amazed at how strong she was and how she just kept on going!

Now I would like to say I could relax and catch my breath, but crazy me, I signed up to start working again, pretty much up till our trip the end of June. This summer is already busy and I guess it isn't even officially summer yet. We are looking forward to lots of fun in the sun in the next few months!

Happy Birthday Mason!

Mason was born 3 years ago today. What a blessing he was in a time of turmoil. From November of '05 till October of '06 we had lots of major family drama, the death of my Father-In-Law exactly one week before Mason was born, and the deaths of both of my grandmas. It was a VERY rough time for all of us, except for the one bright spot - my sweet, sweet Mason. He was such a good baby and just seemed to make everything better. He helped me survive those 11 months. I had a pretty darn easy labor with Mase, only 4 hours and a couple pushes. I was almost too late asking for the epidural and I was only numb for 45 minutes but thank goodness I had it! He was a gorgeous little guy from the very beginning and we were actually able to nurse, which made me very happy.

Drew wasn't quite sure what to make of the new addition. She still isn't!

I love this picture. What a funny little thing.

Ah, the curls! I was so sad when Paul insisted on shaving his head. I loved his soft blonde curls, they kept him my baby. Once we shaved him he aged about 2 years.

He had this thing about being a tiger last summer. Here he is at Sunriver, covered in dirt and dust, chasing after his 2nd cousins. He had us all laughing.

Boy did he make out with the gifts today. I swear it was better than Christmas. His grandma and grandpa came to party with us and they gave him this remote control train. Trouble is, we gave him a RC car and the controls try to control the other toy. Oops! We had a hard time waiting for Paul to get home from work to eat our pizza and Devils' Food cake. Now that is my kind of menu! Mason was a bit emotional and volitile too, just like Drew was on her birthday. I don't know if that is normal or if we hype them up or something! Here are a few of Mason's favorites as a 3 year old:

color - blue

animal - snakes

food - "fire chips" (Doritos), chocolate milk, apple juice

movie - Willie Wonka

toy - "fishing toy" which I have no idea what he is talking about

activities - Having bad dreams and saying bad words. I'm not sure he understood the question! But maybe he did, his favorite word these days is "kraznots," and he uses it when he is mad or upset about something. I guess its his own personal swear word. If anyone knows what it means or where it came from please let me know!

Mason is a wonderful little guy. He keeps me on my toes and has taught me alot about being a mom. He is not always easy to handle but he is extremely easy to love. He is independent but loves to snuggle and I wouldn't give that up for anything. We are so blessed that he is ours!

Busy, Busy Days

Look at these angelic faces. Man have they been running me ragged the past few days. Call me crazy, and I know I am, but I am totally enjoying this crazy, hectic time in our family. For the last 3 weeks in April I was working almost full time from home, which is not as easy as it sounds. I give major props to those who do it full time, year round, and keep their sanity. My kids absolutely hate me working. I sit on the computer all day scoring english essays for various high school and college tests, and am monitored by someone out in cyber space so I can't get up too often to take care of small wants and desires. That doesn't go over real well with my spoiled children. The work is a blessing, it is sporadic, but it is a nice little supliment to our income, and it makes me feel good to contribute monitarily a bit also. Its just very difficult on all involved at times. It really is a great, fun, job, and if you have a Bachelors degree and are interested, check out this link.

Work ended last Thursday for me so Friday it was potty training time! Mason will be 3 on the 20th and I wanted him trained before his birthday. He was not at all interested just a few weeks ago, but it was like magic on Friday. He willingly donned the big-boy underpants and decided to give it a try. The first day we had 5 accidents and no tinkles in the potty. The next day only 1 accident! Both those nights he woke up dry. Incredible! Sunday he got out of nursery to potty, which I think made him feel pretty cool, and today he has had no accidents and even stayed dry during his 31/2 hour nap! What a kid! He is trying his darndest because his daddy promised him a train ride when he gets it down. Every time he uses the potty he ask if he can take his ride now. Oops! Hopefully the MAX will be a big enough train to placate him. I am so proud of my big guy. I was putting his 2T clothes in storage yesterday and started to cry a bit at the loss of my baby boy. He is definitley a kid now, no longer a baby.

This is a picture I dreaded finding so soon. Darcy heading up the stairs! Time for the gate that Mason can't get over so I have to heft him over the 50 times he wants to go up or down the stairs in a day. This little girl of mine, who is almost 10 months old(!), is one FAST little body. I turn my back for an instant and she is gone. She doesn't crawl correctly, she uses the soldier crawl where she slithers on her tummy, but she is very efficient at it. Its a ton of fun trying to rush Mason to the potty and keep track of her at the same time. And I think Hoover ought to design a vacuum cleaner after her. She finds things in the carpet that I can't see or vacuum up the few times a day I try to get it done. She is always chewing on something and we are lucky she hasn't decided to swallow some of those things. I spend lots of my time just laughing to get me through the last couple of days. I swear I am asleep before my head even hits the pillow at night.

And here is my Drewsy, reading. She was reading my book over my shoulder the other day! I am so proud of her and her ambition, and I wish I could help her out more with it. She is constantly asking me to spell things for her and it is a constant frustration for me that the English language seems to follow no specific rules from one word to the next. Take for instance "mama." She had me spell it, then she tried to spell "mommy." Sounds the exact same, spelled differently. I find myself telling her she just has to look at the word and memorize how it looks instead of trying to sound some of them out. I guess I wasn't cut out to be a Kindergarten teacher. I really need to get her some sort of series to help her learn to read because she is just so eager to be reading. I have to admit that spelling everything I say get a bit old at times too.

I am usually one to wish my time away, waiting for the kids to get older so I can get some sleep, or carry on a real conversation, or quit wiping dirty baby bottoms, but I really am enjoying the stages my kids are in. It is so fun to watch each of them in their stages, growing and progressing before my very eyes! I am so blessed to have such good kids and I look forward to the adventure each day promises to bring.