Another great video

Two days ago I started praying for lunch for Mason and me and out of the corner of my eye I saw Mason fold his arms and close his eyes and bow his head!! Hahaha I've always kind of tried to help him fold his arms for the prayer, but he always resists. So afterwards I told him good job and hoped he would do the motions again for dinner with David, but he was just his normal self. But yesterday morning I got him to pose a few praying shots--here you go!

Laugh :D

Thanks Aunt Brooke and Uncle Brighton for this fabulous birthday gift!!

If you look close you can see his two upper teeth that have come through! Some other bottom teeth are on their way,

David was nominated to represent the junior dental class in an eating contest. They held it at a really yummy bbq place in Council Bluffs that we'd never heard of before, but we are sure going back because the food was Great! (Although David understandably wouldn't care to go back any time tooo soon . . . ) David placed 2nd out of 6 guys by only 3 ounces--that's my man!!


One day I noticed Mason had what looked like a small bug bite on his wrist. A few hours later, when I was giving him a bath, I noticed a whole lot more "bug bites" covering his knees, stomach, arms, and a few on his neck. At first, I thought we had bed bugs (since there is a bed bug epidemic going through town) and it wigged me out. Poor guy. But David insisted on taking Mason to the doctor just to be sure, and they told us it was probably an allergic reaction to penicillin. As soon as they said it, I knew that was what it was, since he had been on penicillin from an ear infection. So Mason is allergic to penicillin, just like his aunt Marissa and Grandpa Yates.







A few of us girls took some pictures of our kids--these were by my friend Erica. Aren't they so fun? He's getting so big!

ONE YEAR older and wiser too,

Yay Happy Birthday Mason! Mason was kind of sick for his birthday (the usual runny nose, cough, low fever that seems to have hit our neighborhood) but all things considered we had a really fun day. We had crepes for breakfast and put up some birthday decorations in the morning. I had planned to invite some of Mason's little friends over for a kind of playdate, but since he was sick I didn't want him to spread germs. So we just invited some of our (adult) friends over for cupcakes that afternoon and I'd still like to do a little party for my other friends and their kids a.k.a. Mason's friends later when he's feeling better. We were also able to Skype with both of Mason's grandmas and they saw him try out his new skill--walking! He took his first steps this past Tuesday and he has been slowly getting more confident at letting go of hand supports and striding out. That evening we opened some bday presents--he got some good DVDs and toys and books! Thank you everyone! He loved them all.

(I tried making his birthday sports themed--with baseball, soccer, and football cupcakes with a giant basketball cupcake for Mason . . . I realize I have a lot of room for improvement in my cake decorating skills)

David was our camera man for the birthday cake/song/candle moment. He caught the blowing out of the candle, stopped the video for one second (unfortunately that was the part when Mason touched the frosting) and this is the rest:

Other than that I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. David took me out on a date which involved going on a treasure hunt via several of our favorite places in Omaha and ended with a dozen roses at our home, and we went out to eat at P.F. Chang's.

Oh what do you do in the wintertime?

I've been feeling tons better--pretty much back to normal since the surgery, so this week I've got a LOT done. It might also have to do with the fact that I haven't exercised (at first I wasn't supposed to after surgery, but now I really don't have an excuse) and I put cleaning on the back burner. AND it's still too cold to go outside so I'm always trying to think of things to do . . . Here are the fruits of my labor :)

- completed a Valentine's wreath--I stole the idea from one of my friends--it includes loofahs! Who thought of using a loofah for a wreath?!

- finished painting our dressers (the big one and the dresser seen in the mirror reflection)

- ordered a poster-sized wedding picture (thanks Maris for the fabulous editing job ;) and painted the frame for it (free frame that our friends were taking to Goodwill!) and Finally ordered pictures for the frames on that side table
- sewed some real cute snap bags--I had some great instructions via phone from Talane since I was sick when she showed us how to make them during Christmas



- I actually finished putting new seats on our kitchen chairs in December, but I had to show them because I took so long in getting them done--I got the chairs this past summer and just kept putting the project off because I didn't have a clue how to get started. It was actually pretty easy to do, and I'm mad I didn't do them sooner.

- puttied and re-painted all the nail holes in our upstairs.

- finished "decorating"/hanging frames up in our bedroom

- finished making "countdown to Christmas" wooden blocks, but I stored them away before I got a picture!

- made and sent out Valentine's cards, but once again I didn't take pictures . . .

Bday, Xmas, Vacation, Annniversary, Gllblddr

Opening presents with dad!















Visiting the amazing gingerbread display in Council Bluffs, IA.

Mason's new favorite treat: a slice of apple. Feels so good on teething gums!

Introducing the Harper piano quartet!

My wonderful grandma Harper.

our Christmas card :)

my bday :)

our Christmas tree

Homemade stockings!

December 7th = my 24th Birthday! David gave me the most wonderful present I could ever ask for: a Nook! (Well, he got me a Kindle but I returned it and went to B&N all that same day and picked up my nook :) I have LOVED it. I was very surprised because it's a little more pricey than our usual bday gifts, but that was my bday/Christmas/Anniversary gift. I received presents from family back home and I loved them all! Everyone was just so thoughtful and knew exactly what I would like. I had a terrific day. We had a yummy homemade Chinese dinner with fried rice and orange chicken, and I also had a fun book club night with my friends. I was also going to make a chocolate cake that I thought looked SOOO good, but I ran out of time and David surprised me once again with an Oreo cake! He's so good to me.

The week of Christmas Eve & Christmas we spent with David's family and played games, ate good food, watched movies, and just loved hanging out together. Mason was in heaven with all this exciting company, fun new toys and books and friendly Zuri kitty. He was right on her heels most of the time. We also loved hanging out with our friends in Salt Lake--we miss you guys!

The week of New Years Eve we spent with my family in Idaho and enjoyed doing crafts, watching movies, playing games, going shooting, playing ball, all the fun traditional ID things. It was especially fun to see Mason's little cousins and all of them play together! It was hilarious. We had a family talent show one night and our talent was Mason's Magic Imporium. He made a blueberry disappear, pulled a turtle out of a hat, and performed a card trick.

For our 3rd Anniversary (woo-hoo!) on January 2nd, we were actually flying back to Omaha. So we celebrated a few days earlier and left Mason in some Very good hands and got a special Mississippi-themed hotel room for a night. It was soooo nice to go out to eat, to sleep in, sit in a jacuzzi, and watch movies.

On January 3, I got my gallbladder out. I had 5 attacks during our 2 week vacation, and the roughest part was not being able to eat all the typical holiday food, including ice cream, pies, cakes, cookies, ham, toffee, chocolates, etc. My mother flew in to help for a week and ended up staying an additional 5 days after I had a setback and had to return to the hospital from severe muscle spasms. It was so nice to have her here though--I love you Mom!

Saaaantaaaaaaahhh!

Free Santa picture from the Bass Pro Shop in Iowa! (Sorry about the big glare)

As we were waiting in line, David says to me, "I'll give you $10 if you pull an Elf scene when we get to Santa."

Don't you love that movie?