Half Way....

Mason is 6 months today(well it was today when I started writing this post but now it's a week later)!!! I was laying in bed the other day thinking about how much he's changed and grown in the last 6 months and then I started thinking about how much he'll change in the next 6 months. I don't even want to think about it. While I love to see him accomplish something new, I just love the stage he's in right now. Sleeping through the night, laughing at the most ordinary things, sitting and playing with toys, not being able to crawl, two naps a day, moving every single body part when he gets excited, smiling at anyone who looks his way, and startling himself when he makes a loud noise are just a few of things I get to look forward to everyday.

Here are his 6 months stats.
16lbs 8oz of sweetness 25%
26 inches of joy %30

I didn't even realize he's on the small side. He has two cousins who are 2 and 3 months older than him but he is bigger than both of them. I love Mason to pieces and can't imagine a day without him.

Scriptures and a bowl of cereal

Last night during family scriptures we were reading Ether 12:27 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."
We talked about some of our "weak" things. One of Dylan's is his temper. We explained to him that if he asks Heavenly Father for help and tries to be good then Heavenly Father will help him not to get so angry.
Well that night I barely got any sleep thanks to an annoying cough. Mason woke up at 5:15 and after eating he decided it was time to play. I tried to go back to sleep and hoped Mason would follow suit but apparently he was having way too much fun swatting at my face. Finally at 7:15 I went and put him back in bed. Dylan came into my room a little while later and this was the conversation we had. Just remember that while your imagining this scenario, my voice sounds really groggy because I'm not really awake yet and Dylan is mostly yelling or screaming.

Me: Dylan you can either climb in bed and lay down or go turn on the tv.
Dylan : No I'm hungry! (Did you remember to scream this, it's just not the same without the yelling.)
Me: Go get yourself a bowl of cereal.
Dylan: NOOOOOO! I want oatmeal!
Me: Dylan, Mom's really tired. I didn't get very much sleep last night.
Dylan: I don't care, I want oatmeal now!
Me: I'll get up in 10 minutes
Dylan: NO!!!
Me: 15 minutes

Dylan stormed out of the room and slammed my door, twice! Then he slammed the bathroom door and all the cabinets in the bathroom. I heard him go into Mason's room. I knew what he was going to do but I knew that even if I got up I wouldn't make it in time to stop him, plus my body just wouldn't let get up yet. I was thinking that I'd have to have a talk with him about his temper again because obviously it didn't sink in. Dylan came in my room again.

Dylan: Mason's awake, you need to get up.
Me: Dylan, go to your room. That wasn't nice of you to wake Mason up.
Dylan: You're the WORST mommy ever. I don't like you at all.

Dylan stormed out of the room again. I thought maybe Mason had gone back to sleep because I couldn't hear him. I snuggled back up in my blanket and was almost asleep again when I heard my door open very quietly. I could tell Dylan was in my room but didn't want me know he was there. I was totally fine with that, seeing how I still wasn't fully conscious. Five or ten minutes later I finally subcumbed to my parental duties and rolled over to see what time it was. There on my night stand sat a bowl of cereal. Dylan came into my room once again.

Me: Did you decide to get yourself a bowl of cereal?
Dylan: No, I decided that since you are soooo tired I would get you a bowl of cereal so that you don't have to get out of bed.

Awwww, seriously I was blinking back tears. Just minutes before my five year old was throwing the tantrum of all tantrums and then all on his own he decided to do something so sweet. I know when I'm in a bad mood I don't feel like doing anything nice for anyone. For him to put aside his wants and think about mine was amazing. I was so proud of him, maybe it did sink in after all.

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WE FOUND NEMO!

If you've never been to The Living Planet Aquarium then you're missing out. We were in SLC to get our family pictures taken (don't get to excited, our supossedly 90 minute photo session turned into a 20 minute hurry and snap a few pictures before the kids freeze to death and the sun goes down, I'll save the rest of that story for another time). We had half a day to kill so we decided to try something different than the zoo. It was a lot of fun. You could probably hurry though it in an hour or take your time and spend a good afternoon there.

They had all kinds of info on all the species living in Utah, my kids were more interested in playing on the big frog

This was by far our favorite part! We could have spent an hour just playing in the touch pool. All the sting rays just swim around the edges of this big pool and let you pet them.

Even Kenzie liked petting them. Once in awhile they'd come pop out of the water a little and splash us. Kenzie would let out a little squeal but then she'd be right back in there.

The Jelly Fish were really neat to watch, too bad you can't touch those!

Dylan taking a nap in a little sea cave!

Swim away, swim away!

Monthly Recap

Keeping up with blog has been harder than I thought but I hoping to do better, even if my kitchen has to suffer once in awhile. Here's what we've been up to the last month!

Hiking

We decided to go on mini hike. The kids probably walked three times as far as the actually hike with all the running back and forth they were doing.

Dylan and Kenzie had tons of fun just running around and climbling trees.

Mason in his usual means of transportation

I love waterfalls! Big ones, small ones, I love them all!

Lagoon

We were able to go to Lagoon twice, once with Jeff's family and once with mine. They kids had a blast with their cousins and we were even able to go on a couple of rides.

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Where was Mason?

Here he is! He was sooooo good both times we went.

Aggie Homecoming Parade!

Kenzie would not look at me, she didn't want to miss anything that was coming up but I had to get a picture in her cute Aggie cheerleading outfit.

Don't you love how everyone gradually moves further and further into the street. I swear we didn't camp out in the middle of the road!


Willow Park

I can't believe we went all summer without a trip to Willow Park. Dylan had a whole week off of school so we decided to hit a couple of parks and enjoy the last of the warm weather.

This was Mason's first time on the swing! Doesn't it make him look big!

Corn Maze

I have never been to a corn maze before. Every year we talk about going, but by the time we decide to go, it's always freezing so we change our minds. This year we decided to go beforeit got too cold. It was really windy but we all took our jackets off by the end because we were hot! Entering the maze!

The Kids loved playing in all the lights

This was the kid's favorite part. They loved climbing all over the pyramid. Dylan was jumping from the highest platform!

Well that's it for September! October's shaping up to be really fun too.

KINDERGARTEN!!!

I've been anticipating this day with mixed emotions. Somedays I can't wait to send Dylan off to school. It's so much easier to run errands with two children. I said easier not EASY (It's funny how less than 3 months ago 2 kids seemed so hard and now 2 seems like a welcome break.) Plus I've been really excited for all the fun things that Dylan will get to experience and learn. But Kindergarten seems like the beginning of the end. I mean 5 1/2 years ago I held this little bundle in my arms and vowed to take care of him and not let anything bad happen to him. And now I'm just supposed to let him go out into the world with all of it's influences. Today, Kindergarten, Tomorrow, High School, and then he'll leave for good. I guess I have to face the fact that my little boy won't be little forever and Kindergarten is fast forwarding those thoughts. So since I can't put it off any longer here's my little guy's school debut.

Playing around at the bus stop.

Doesn't Kenzie look sad, I think she's going to miss her big brother.

Mason too!

Off they go! I didn't even shed a tear, not one.

Who's ready to learn?

Are you STILL here!

The best part of the day: He made it home!!! Who can resist mint chocolate chip cookies?

Dylan

McKenzie

McKenzie is our sweetest, most precious, selfless little 3 year old. She is always looking out for her brothers, even her older one. Kenzie will share with anyone, but ask first or you'll see her fiesty side. She's such a big help to Mom and Dad. Indepent should be her middle name but we love seeing her determination and watching her get so excited when she figures something out. We love our little angel so much.

Mason 4 weeks

I've been waiting for almost an entire year for something worthy of my blogging debut. My sister's wedding, Dylan's first day of preschool, Kenzie's broken arm, holidays, and birthdays have all come and gone, and still my blog sits empty. Even the birth of our third child wasn't enough to jump start my blog. So, instead of some tremendous, once in a lifetime experience I have decided to write about our worst week ever in the hopes that things will only get better from here on out.

Jeff left for scout camp the same week my dad and brother went on a guys trip. We would have gone on a girl's trip at the same time but my mom had a wedding to do and 3 new babies make it a little more complicated to pack up and leave. So it was just me and my 3 kids for the next 4 days. Wednesday I spent almost the whole day cleaning so that I could do some fun things with Dylan and Kenzie over the next couple of days. I managed to wash and put away 3 loads of laundry, mow the lawn, do the dishes, clean up the kids rooms, and all of the other mudane tasks it takes to keep a house clean. We even cooked a healthy dinner, played games, and read books in the evening. I was feeling pretty good about my parenting skills at this point. I let the kids camp out in my room, so with them tucked into their sleeping bags I climbed into bed hoping for a good nights sleep after such an exhausting day.

And that's when it all started.....Kenzie woke up crying, then she threw up all over herself and her sleeping bag. She then proceeded to throw up on Dylan's sleeping bag, my bedroom door, the hallway, the bathroom floor, and all around the toilet but not so much in it. All the comotion woke up Mason. After getting Mason back to sleep and cleaning up all the mess it started all over. Poor Kenzie was up every 15-20 minutes throwing up or screaming at the top of her lungs because her stomach hurt so bad. Finally at 3:50 she seemed to be able to sleep. Mason got up again at 5:15 and I put him back down at 6:30. Kenzie threw up again at 7:00. After only 2 hours of sleep I was up for the day. After a bath, thankfully Kenzie was back to her normal self.

An abbreviated version of day 2 was Dylan's graduation practice, library, slurpees, store, laundry, Dylan's graduation, and a sleepover with Uncle Matt. Did you notice there wasn't a nap in there? I sure did. A combination of staying up late, getting up with Mason in the night, and the kids waking up early, I only managed to get 4 hours of sleep.

My SIL and I decided to salvage the weekend with some crafts, movies, and dinner. Dylan started feeling sick at her house so we headed home but not soon enough. I'll just say a repeat of night #1. My mom even came and slept on my couch at 1:30 in the morning to help me with Mason, while I was helping Dylan. I don't know how single parents do it.

Jeff finally made it home and just in time too. It was bound to catch up with me sometime. It's no fun being sick, especially while taking care of a baby!!! That was just my little piece of nightmare, if you take into account everything that happened to the rest of my family that week you can add a trip to the ER, lost keys, 2 flat tires, and more sickness. Next year we're going on a girl's trip and a long one too!!!

Well, that feels good, no more pressure about my 1st post. Who knows, I may just do another one tomorrow.