Happy Easter!

A few weekends ago I did a 10K hosted by the school's pharmacy program. I finished under an hour, and it was a beautiful day!
For Easter weekend, David's parents were able to come visit us--we loved it! We went to the zoo, went to the Winter Quarter's visitor center and temple, and saw some other historic sites. David and his dad also went skeet shooting, and mom and I made some yummy sugar cookies. It was so fun for Mason to see his grandparents--we miss that.

Visiting the beautiful Lauritzen Gardens and meeting the Easter bunny!
Getting a close look at a fishy.


Winter Quarters Temple
Visitors Center--I think Mason was doing a quick scary face. He loved turning the big wagon wheel.
Mason and Grandpa with their matching hoods. And faces :)

Thank you so much Mom and Dad for coming out--we LOVE YOU! Can't wait to see you all in less than two months :)

Happy Mother's Day!

My wonderful wonderful neighbor Catherine offered to take some pictures of Mason. I can't believe I get to be this little boy's momma. He is the best.

I feel very blessed to be in such an unbelievable line of amazing, inspiring women on both my dad and mom's side of the family. I love you all,

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 . . .