10 Tremendous Years

Wednesday, September 5 2012, Matt and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe that it has already been 10 years. It has been a very long but fast 10 years. Some things I remember really well and others a a blur. I also feel like I lost a year since having Mason. The whole pregnancy brain thing, I guess. But I am so happy that Matt was here this year to celebrate with me. He got me the most beautiful flowers yet. We went out to dinner and had cake and just had a great time together.

Matt let me get all dressed up and fancy for our date, sans child, and we went to a wood fired steak house in Richmond. Walked around the mall a bit then went back to pick up the kid. Then On our actual wedding date we had a somewhat replica cake which we shared with Mace, who as you already knows loves cake.

It was a great weekend and a day. I am so happy that I met and married Matt. He is so amazing. He takes such great care of Me and Mason. Matt is an amazing father and friend. I just feel so blessed that I get to experience my life with my best friend and that I get to be with him for all eternity! Happy anniversary to my wonderful husband! Thank you for all you do. You are truly amazing in every single way and I am so very thankful for you. XOXO!

 ~My flowers!~

 ~Date night~

 ~ As of 9/3 I have lost 30 lbs since May!~ 

P.S. As I was writing this Mason decided it would be a great idea to climb up on the coffee table and have fun! Cute little kid!

13 Months

Mason, my cute little big boy! He is WALKING ALL THE TIME! On his 13 month old birthday we were at the mall and he walked all over the place. Matt was chasing him around and it was so super cute!!! Mace was being watched by all the mommies and they were so impressed with his walking abilities. And as you already know Mace is such a charmer with the ladies. He liked to follow ladies around, until he saw the train. The he was trying to walk as fast as he could to catch up with the little train that rolls around the mall.



Mace is still babbling. He knows who Archer, Mommy and Daddy are. And when we ask him were Daddy is he will turn and look at Daddy and give his cutest little smile. I sometimes think I hear him say "apple". I know I have heard it a couple of times. It is his fav thing to eat. He loves apples, and blueberries. He will pick out all the blueberries from his fruit and eat them all. He doesn't particularly like raspberries. He will eat them but prefers strawberries to them. Out of all the fruit he eats regularly the raspberries are the ones that end up on the floor for the dog.

Mason is such a sweet heart. He is in the squeezy hug and kisses phase and loves to give them all the time. He even gives little hugs to Archer when the mutt lets him. I love Mace more and more every single day. He is growing, learning and remembering new things and loves to explore everything. He is a little helper, or he thinks he is helping me. He loves to take things out of the dishwasher that I just put in, and tries to put them back in by himself but never where I put it. He tries to put his toys in bags, because he thinks he is cleaning up. Sometimes he does put his toy back in the basket where he found them but then just goes back and decides to play with it again. He loves to play with balls and roll them around all over the floor. He loves closing doors for me. Especially the fridge door. Whenever I open it up, he runs over as fast as he can and is waiting under the doors and will close them when I ask him to. He loves to imitate us too with sounds. He is just such a sweet little miracle.

Matt is loving working at this job again and loves working with his friends there. He comes home and plays with Mason and talks to him and he is such a great dad! I am still trying to workout almost every day. I am 11 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight which is a miracle in itself considering where I was in the beginning of May, 40 lbs away! SERIOUSLY!!! I have an amazing nutritionist that has changed my life and eating habits. I fell better. My body doesn't hurt like it used to and I am happy with how things are developing. Also I don' have to work out 2-3 hours a day to obtain these results.  I am eating, a lot of food. Not always the food I want to eat but food that I know is good for my body. Anyhew in the next few weeks I am planning on surpassing my pre-pregnancy weight, and getting and staying out of the 200's for the rest of my life!!! And I will be half way to my goal so 3 big things coming up with just 1 little number. I just have to get to that little number for now and then see ya!

Anyhew enough about me. I hope that this post finds all of our friends and family well. We miss all of you!

Gma & Gpa Visit

Our week with my parents, Gma and Gpa, ended way too quickly for all of us. Mason had so much fun with them and giving them hugs and love and showing off his walking skills. We enjoyed trying new things, chocolate bowels made using balloons and cleaning up said chocolate when balloon decides to pop while the chocolate is still melted and splatters all over my kitchen, and eating lots and lots of yummy food!

~I have proof that Mace was born to play the piano. So when he is 14 and says that he is awful and can't play the piano I have proof otherwise.~

Mason has such a rigid schedule, by his own design, that most of the eating out we did was in the early afternoon. We had fun hanging around the house watching movies and Matt and I went on our first date alone in over a year. I know that sounds like a long time, but remember Matt was gone for the last year. We went to downtown C-ville and ate some yummy gelato and pizza by the slice and enjoyed the Avengers in the theater. We are going to try and have a date at least once a month without the kid. Now to find a babysitter.

~Gma and Mace having fun~

Matt returned back to his civilian job this past Monday. And Thursday was my first day alone with Mace since before Matt was home. I am out of practice apparently because I have been worn out by the end of the day. I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to be able to stay home with Mace all day and support Matt in his jobs! Yes jobs, Matt is going to be doing military on the weekends for the next few months to make up for the months of drill he missed while he was on active duty. Things have been good though! I love being a mom and watching Mason grow. He is getting more and more confident with walking everyday and will be walking in his own due time. We are getting our new couches next week, YEA!!!!! So I look forward for their arrival. We are donating these huge blue ones to a needy family. Giving them a little Christmas early and so they don't have to sit on just the floor anymore.

~Daddy and Mace chillin' watching cartoons! Soon we say good-bye to these blue monsters.~

Mason's 6-12 Month Photobook

Click here to view this photo book larger

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~