Mason's Birthday Party

We had Mason's birthday party this morning and had a great time and great turn out! We celebrated with some friends from our church at a local park. We played pin the shield on Cpt Mason America, you will see why below, water balloon toss, had yummy cake and watched Mace devour his cake too. I know you all want to see the cute pix. I had to post a ton of him eating his cake because that was the most amusing part of the morning. Mace diving into his cake and eating 1/2 of it and then everyone else coming over to steal a few bites too. VERY FUNNY! Enjoy the pix and Happy Birthday my little man!

 ~Oh WOW!!! Is that for me?!?~

 ~Sugar high!~

 ~One tuckered out little boy~

Mason is 1!!!!!

The day has finally come! Mason is no longer my baby boy, well he will always be my baby boy, but he is now a super energized toddler boy! He turned 1 year old yesterday. CONGRATS TO MY SWEET LITTLE ANGEL! I LOVE YOU!

I still can't believe that a year ago I had a baby. I still can't and probably never will remember most of my labor, which is a good thing as Matt tells me, but It just seems impossible that I and Mace could be in one piece after having a baby. It is just a miracle.

We spent Mason's birthday down in Williamsburg, VA. Our air conditioning unit was getting replaced with a brand spanking new unit and we had to skip town to avoid the heat in the house, so we went on a little vacay. We stayed at this swanky hotel that reminded me of the Dirty Dancing hotel because it had different activities schedule throughout the day. It was missing Patrick Swayze teaching salsa though. Mace went to finger painting this morning but had more fun playing in the kid area. We also went to the pool last night and he had a ball with that too. For Mason's birthday we went to 5 Forks Cafe, which is a place that is trying to get the show Diners, Drive-in and Dives to show up. It was really really good. Then we went to the outlet mall and on the way home picked up these divine cupcakes. Oh they were so yummy and as you can tell from the pix below MASON LOVED IT!

We had  just a really relaxed day and just spent it together. That is all we needed. However, Sat is Mason's b-day party and we are looking forward to that.

Mason is not quite walking independently yet but will be soon. I think he really does admire Archer way too much and is trying to walk like him and just likes to crawl around. He does walk on 2 feet around the furniture and has tried to walk on his own but it is quickly followed by a tumble down. Mason loves food. He is a pig really. He eats a ton. And we will see next week how much he has packed on. His favs at this point are french toast, mac and cheese and little crackers. He also likes to and wants to feed himself a lot more. We are working on that. He also throws tantrums. Quite melodramatic tantrums. It is really funny to watch but it gets old pretty quick. Anyhew, no bashing on the birthday post. So happy birthday to my little man.

Happy 4th!

It is my fav time of the night again! Mace and the mutt are asleep, Matt and me are just watching Army Wives and Carrier and chillin' together. I really missed just watching TV with Matt and I am so thankful to be with my husband and to have him home. He wouldn't even be home by now if he didn't come home early. So to have him home on our Nation's Independence day is such a huge blessing!

Yesterday my church friend, and neighbor invited us to her home for dinner with her fam and another fam from the church. It was also a 13 year olds birthday. I had already offered to make a cake for the dinner before I found out that there was going to be a birthday so the cake I made, and thankfully it was big enough, doubled as a birthday cake. We lit sparklers for the candles and the birthday boy loved it! This was the first time I made a cake by scratch. No box, no frosting mix, just a recipe and me. And it turned out really well. I just didn't go around telling everyone what was in that cake because man, you would think that Paula Deen wrote the recipe because of how much her fav ingredient was in it. I will just leave it at that and the pix, but if you would like the recipe just let me know and I will fwd a copy to you.

~Super yummy cake with cream cheese frosting~

~Mace and Daddy time!~

On Mason news...He is starting to walk. Tonight he was going back and forth between me and Matt laughing up a storm and taking 3 steps to both of us. He would fall and get frustrated because he fell but we would pick him back up and his huge smile would light up his face and off he went. I am pretty sure that he will be walking by his 1st birthday which is just 2 weeks away! I know... 2 weeks... WOW! He is also letting me finally brush his teeth without throwing a tantrum and he LOVES BREAD! We found this out when I made french toast and gave him a taste, which he will eat his own slice now, but the other day we were at Daddy's fav restaurant, Bertucci's, and he was eyeing Daddy's pizza. I gave him some of the crust and he gobbled it up. Then I said, "Matt just stick that curst in his mouth so I can take a pix." Matt did as I asked and Mace took a huge chomp out of it, then reached for it and took it from Dad's hands and then proceeded to eat the entire thing!!! From then on he loves graham crackers, french toast, buttered bread, and tonight he ate his entire bowl of my Mac n cheese, of elbow pasta with parmesan cheese and peas. He fed himself the entire dinner and was super proud of himself too for doing it. This kid is just growing up way too fast!!!

~Mace enjoying a little chomp of bread~

~Pix opportunity~

~Mace stole the bread from Dad and decided to feed himself~

~Almost gone. He suck that last little bit in his mouth and finished it off just after I took this pix~

Anyhew Enjoy the pix and Happy 4th of July to all of you. Thank you to all of our service men and women who are defending our freedom and sacrificing their time with their loved ones to protect us. I know how much it sucks to be away from the ones we love but when you look at why they are doing it, it helps make the time go just a little bit faster and for the pain of separation to not be as difficult. I love my husband and I am so proud of him for serving our Country and for him to return home to us! May all the families be reunited swiftly!

~Mace getting his 3rd haircut! Yep, 3rd. He gets them done about every 6 weeks~

11 Months

Each month it is getting harder and harder to take his pix of him laying down. I think next month, thankfully the last one, well at least till 18 months, will be the hardest. Mace just doesn't want to stay still. He has way too much stuff to look at and go and tear apart. Mace is a busy body. He likes to get into everything and be apart of everything that I or Matt does.

Speaking of Matt, so happy he is home. So sad that he and Mace are sick right now. Welcome home Matt, how would you like to go to the ER 2 days after you get home. Yep Mace had his first ER adventure. He spiked a pretty high fever and his doc said to go to the ER since it was after hours. We did. He has his first Ear infection, but we caught it super early and Mace is fine and Mace has a cold. Matt and Mace are on the mend but it will be a little while longer before they are 100%. One of the nice things about Matt being home: Matt was a dad and has been since Mace was born, but it has been amazing to watch Matt become a Father. Truly amazing!

Mace will be walking soon. A random lady said that he will be walking within 2 weeks. It has now been just over 2 weeks and he hasn't taken his first independent steps. I know it will be soon though. 

Mace loves to eat, and as Matt says he eats all the time!!! He really is eating all the time. His new fav, eating apples! like I will peel a quarter or half of an apple slice and he will eat the whole thing. Super cute and it keeps him busy for a little bit. I love you Mace and I am so glad that Matt is finally home and able to get to know you.

 ~Daddy and Mace chasing Archer~

 ~Superman!~

Welcome Home Daddy!!!

I am thrilled beyond belief that Matt is home. Home early and earlier than expected. Last week I found out that he had arrived back in country, which was 2 weeks ahead of the original time he had given to me months ago. Then he said he should be home by this Friday. Well I got a call on Monday evening saying that he was a free man. He got home last night! We are so thankful that he is home!!!

Mace didn't really like Matt at first. Actually I think that Mason was feeding off my emotions of crying hysterically. We went to take a pix with Matt and Mace gave the frowny face and then started screaming. It wasn't until after we got home and Mason saw how Archer was. Archer was going crazy yipping as loud as he could and running a hole in the ground by circling Matt. When we all got inside and Matt was playing and petting Archer Mason just sat back and watched. Finally little by little Mason started it interact with Matt by putting his hand on Matt's leg, then on his arm. Then finally reaching up for his face. It was very cute. Then Archer was done having his freak out session Mason finally agreed for Matt to pick him up and hence the beautiful pix that I have.

~Mace at just a few minutes old and Matt~

~Compare to how Mace is now. Must be weird for Matt to go from so small to Mace big~

And tonight Mace was preferring Matt over me. I think that Matt is the "shiny new toy" and Mace wants to get to know it. He feels comfortable with Matt. He snuggled up with Matt as Matt tried to rock him to sleep tonight. Mace was taking advantage of Matt and not acting tired and wanted to play with him rather than go to sleep.

So, the transition of adding Matt, has actually worked really well. Mace seems to be meshing well with him and I am very grateful for that! Anyhew enjoy the pix from yesterday and this morning and a couple of oldies!

~"Move it or lose it I'm here to pick up my Daddy" is what his shirt says.~

~Mace decided to push his stroller around at the airport~

~Mace getting to know Daddy~

~Mace playing with the balloons that we got for Daddy!~

 ~This is a week old, Mace loves to push his walker around. Always has a huge grin on his face~

 ~He is so funny when he holds his water cup. He won't use the handles but carefully holds it up with one hand.~

Best Baby Food Cookbook

I have had a few people asking me what I fix Mason to eat. Which cookbook I use and like. Well here it is!

Seriously, this is a really, really great cookbook for baby food. Everything is super easy and simple to make the food. I usually triple the recipe and freeze the rest and I am set to go for quiet sometime! Mason has his fav foods to eat, like sweet potatoes, apples, pears, butternut squash. There are also foods he can't stand, eggs, he hates them. But I think this has a great selection of options and also it goes into toddler-hood as well and a lot of those recipes look really great for the whole fam. On the side bar I have the book as well as the link to it on Amazon. GREAT BUY!!!

Practice Makes Better

We started practicing for Mason's first birthday party with Mason feeding himself his pureed dinner. What a wonderful mess it was too. Mason is too funny though because he started dipping his face into the bowl to lick it up, just like the dog does. Apparently this kid watches Archer way more than I thought he did. 

Mason is getting full of personality as well. He has a bit of an attitude, not sure where he got that from, and he is a little stubborn, still not sure where he got that from either. But bless his sweet little heart he has a sweet little personality when he wants to. He will crawl over to me as fast as he can go just to climb up on me and give me the biggest squeeze he can muster and a sloppy wet kiss. I love this little kid so much and I am so thankful that he is apart of this family! He just needs to stay this sweet and precious for the rest of his life!!!