Good things are growing!

Colorado is the only place I've ever seen gigantic dandelions and, though it's contrary to the normal reaction, I was very excited to find that one had snuck it's way into our yard. Mack couldn't believe the size of it!


Blow, Mack!


And almost as exciting is the goodies growing from the plants we inherited from the previous owner of our house! Mack had been watching the lone strawberry plant for a few weeks now. Yesterday, one was red enough to eat! I could barely get her to hold off on eating it for a picture!

I caughtcha!

After much coaxing, I finally caught that sneaky smile:


And it looks like tummy time is working! Check out those neck muscles:

Mx4

I wanted to have a shot of our family with Mason as a baby so
I pulled out the tripod, rounded up the family got to snappin'!

This picture is priceless to me. It's a true snap shot
of life in our house right now. Poor Mason
just wasn't having it.

My little Macky

I've gotten a few glimpses into the mind of Mackenzie the last few weeks and I just love how her brain works. Here are a few "Macky Moments" from the last few weeks:

We drive past a power plant each time we go to my mom's so Mackenzie is constantly asking questions about it. As we drove past it last week , she said " Mommy. There's the power plant. It's a BIG, BIG building full of light switches!"

My sister came over for a visit and brought along Hayden, the five year old girl that she babysits. Mackenzie provided her usual introduction (" Hi. I'm Mackenzie and I'm four years old." ) and Hayden shared hers and off they went to swing in the back yard. A few minutes later, Mackenzie came pouting into the house and planted herself on the kitchen floor followed close behind by an equally pouty Hayden. When I asked Hayden what was wrong she said " Mackenzie said she won't be my friend any more!" ( Yes, unfortunately, that game still exists.) . I said to Mackenzie " That is really not something that is ok to say. That hurts Hayden's feelings and you need to apologize" . I expected that Mackenzie would realize that what she had said was hurtful and she'd refrain from saying it again. What I got, instead, was this; " I'm sorry that I'm not your friend any more Hayden."  Oh. That didn't go as planned. She later shared with me that Hayden had broken a house rule and, when Hayden refused to correct herself, Mackenzie didn't want to play anymore. She knows that, even still, it isn't good to say such things.

Mack's all about jokes these days. Some are funny, some would be funny but the idea of the punch line isn't quite in place yet and some are just plain weird. Yesterday Mackenzie was letting Ellie lick her hands after she'd put on hand sanitizer. I told her that hand sanitizer could make Ellie sick. Mackenzie, dead pan, replied " Then we'd have to take her to the " DOGter!" Good one, Mack!

She has been so proud of herself as she's gotten even better at reading. Last week she read most of new a step one early reader book on her own. She was so elated by herself that she danced around and gave me every type of "high five" known to her four year old brain.

Little Mackenzie is such sunshine in our lives. Not a day goes by that I don't look at her and marvel at what an awesome gift she is to us.

Chasing smiles....

Mason has started flashing a gummy smile and I've spent the last few days trying my best to capture it. He's pretty stingy with them so I've gotten every face BUT the smiley face....Soon. I promise! 

Click on collage to enlarge

                                    

Four weeks!

Mason is four weeks old- a month! I can't tell through the sleep deprivation fog if the month has truly gone by as fast as I think it has or if it's trickled by at a snails pace the way it feels at 2 am. In any event, check out our little one month old:

You can't tell it by this picture, but he has three chins! THREE!  And an informal weigh-in on our home scale shows that he is well over 9 lbs- that's two pounds gained in one month! Keep up the good growin', Mason!

Play time

Mackenzie cannot wait until Mason can run around with her. Until then, she finds any way she can to hang out with him:

Snoozin'

I happened upon this sight when I went to find out what was taking so long to get Mason down for a nap. It was too sweet not to snap a few pictures:

Three weeks!

Mason is now three weeks old! His umbilical stump FINALLY fell off and so we celebrated with a bath. I suppose I should use the world " celebrate " loosely since I don't think any one of us particularly enjoyed the occasion.

Isn't a bath supposed to be soothing? Not for either of my kids! They both screamed through their first baths and, from the sound of it, the trend will continue:

Mackenzie had been waiting to give Mason a bath for two weeks. She was all set to rub him down with lotion and use the soft brush to brush his hair. Poor thing was a little shocked at the volume and duration of her brother's cry:

But after thing settled down, all were happy:

Mackenzie Park

Wouldn't you love to live a world where you can just rename things after yourself on a whim? There are several parks in our city but the biggest one is now known to us as " Mackenzie Park" although Mackenzie did say that she would be willing to change it to " Mackenzie and Mason Park" when Mason is four and can play at the park, too. Poor little brother. It's gonna be a long four years!

Mack catching some air on the swings:

While Mack played her heart out ( and made some new friends, too) , Mike followed close by. Mason and I found a shady spot to sit and watch the action:

Mother's Day

As seems to always be the case, Mike had to work the night before and the night of Mother's day so he did his best to improvise and make me feel special! He came home from work carrying a Chai tea latte ( my favorite Starbucks drink) and the sweetest card and pulling a garden cart full of herbs for my herb garden!  After he scurried off to bed, I packed up the kids and we headed to my mom's for the day. My dad BBQ'd for us and it was a nice relaxing day. You can imagine Mason got more than his fair share of squeezes while Mackenzie and the cousins played outside the entire day. You can bet we were all ready for bed that night!

My mom with Mason on Mother's day! He's her 8th grandchild :

My cart full of goodies from Mike:

Our little herb garden! Grow babies, grow!

Mack after her first taste of cilantro:

Such a process

Just as most newborns do, Mason had his days and nights switched. In efforts to " set him straight" , I was instructed to wake him up every two hours during the day for feedings. Easily said, not so easily done! Mackenzie is watching herself on the computer which is what you hear in the background:

All in one year

It's nearly impossible to believe that it's been one year since we packed up our cozy lives in Michigan for the chance at an even cozier life in Colorado. All at once, it seems like just yesterday but also an eternity ago that we got the call that Mike was hired at the University of Colorado. When I think back on that time , I can still feel the complete tornado of feelings swirling in my belly- happiness, anxiety, fear and sadness to leave Michigan behind. Even after a year, I still feel a twinge of sadness when I think of the life we left behind in Michigan but the year has proven that distance can be over come and I am so thankful for the modern technology that knits those distances a little closer together.

What's even harder to believe is all the changes we've had this year. ( Cue the sappy music!)
After many  sad good-bye's , this is how the journey started:


After uprooting our Michigan lives and moving in less than a month, we landed at my moms and moved in. Not long after, I reunited with my brother whom I hadn't seen in almost 20 years. Now, after a year, he is one of my best friends and I can't imagine my life with out him:

The summer held lots of fun- trips to fairs, carnivals and parades, many bbq's and evenings spent with family and friends watching the Colorado skyline work it's magic:

Thanks to Mike, the house hunt began and we spent many days with Betsy on impromptu house visits and racing to get offers in on time in the busy Colorado housing market. After three failed offers, we found our dream home and everything just fell into place:

While we packed up our things ( again) and prepared to move, things got even more exciting:



Less than 12 hours after closing on our house , we traveled to Kansas for Andy's wedding where we got to spend the weekend with Grammy! Mackenzie still talks about going to Kansas because she is sure Grammy will be there.

And we can't forget Ellie:

We spent the winter anticipating visits from loved ones and watching my belly grow. Mike continued to plug away at school and also began charge nurse training at work which lead to a few nights at the helm of the unit. With a new baby on the way, we decided we needed one more addition before he came. Say what you will be about mini-vans but we sure are loving ours!:

Holidays and birthday flew past and before we knew it, Mason was born:

I'm tired just looking back and still can't believe it's all true! It's been one exciting year and , though I hope this next year doesn't include a single moving box, I do expect that it will bring just as much happiness as last!

New tricks! Part 1

We've been working with Mack on learning to make herself go on the swings. Of course, it's always more fun to have someone else do it, so this skill took a little while to master. Seeing the look on her face the first time she make herself go " Super-DE-douperdy HIGH!" was priceless. It was an amazing "high" to see her achieve a goal that she'd set and I can imagine how it will feel to one day watch her achieve even bigger goals.  I was so proud for her,  and she was proud of herself. This video is a little shaky ( Think Blair Witch Project) but still pretty cute. :

New Tricks! Part 2

Happy Birthday, Clay!

We got the chance to celebrate Clay's birthday with him this year, something I can't remember ever doing before!  Having him , and his family, in our lives and getting to know him this last year has been something of a dream come true. Seeing him hold Mason for the first time was a special moment! It was a great evening, all around!

 
The guys corner:

Mason got lots of squeezes but he didn't seem to notice:

For the love of trout

I received a Facebook message from Brian ( Annie's husband) asking if Mike could come out and play. More specifically, if Mike could go fishing! Knowing that I had just had a baby, Brian didn't want to steal Mike away if it would put me in a bind but I thought it was a great idea and " the boys" made plans to go fishing the following Sunday.

Check out their haul:

And look what we had for dinner:

And guess who ate TWO Rainbow Trout all on her own:

The guys had so much fun, they plan to go again. Mackenzie has already begged Mike to let her go! I have a feeling there will be more headless fish photos in the future!

Rockets again

This time, Mike and Mack made their own rocket!

This time they sent  a passenger along- one of Mack's Littlest Pets:

Don't forget to cover your ears!!


Tragedy almost struck as Mike and Mack lost visual of their Maize and Blue rocket as it landed. Thankfully, with Mike unwilling to give up the hunt, it was found in the neighbors front yard and all was well again.