Random photos

Playing "kitchen"
check out that cowlick! We'll be keeping his hair short!

Maddox's 1st visit to the Aquarium. The fish were bigger than him

I love when they can stand under tables

Mason and his friend doing crafts

Big brother helping little brother eat

Our little "turkey"

Our big "turkey"

Helping Dad fix the dishwasher

Found Mason's "computer" and was able to turn it on and figured out the piano keyboard side. (we have been trying to figure that out for about 3 years. Mason said "Mom! Maddox is AMAZING!!!)

one handed stands. He'll be walking (probably running) soon

hat hair. Rosy cheeks from the fresh air

A sour grape

Mason and I made pilgrim hat cookies with marshmallows, fudge stripe cookies, melted choc. chipsand yellow icing. I forgot to get a picture of the finished product, but they were cute. And I heard they were yummy.

Testing the cookie

Cookie Approved!

Making a marble maze with the pipes Dad bought to fix the sink. It was the 1st thing he did when he woke up

Watching Elmo do the "Hokey Pokey" for the 1st time. He wasn't too sure about it at first

....but then figured out it was OK (Anything singing the Hokey Pokey would be OK with him! IT is his favorite song. He'll clap his hands together to ask us to sing it. That was Mason's favorite song as well, and he would clap his hands together to ask us to sing it.)A little someone figured out he is tall enough to turn the TV on and off and change the channels tonight

A typical face in the life of Mason

He was just sitting there with this wad of paper hanging out of his mouth..like a little puppy

Popcorn Disaster

This was my failed attempt at making colored popcorn on Sat for the boys. The house just reeked for about an hour or 2. I will perfect this though and I bet it will be spectacular!!!

Christmas Crafting

On Sat, (oh that was only yesterday), Vinnie, Nic, and Gianni, and Junal came over to do some Christmas crafts! It was a blast. The boys made some wnderful Christmas trees. Ideas courtesy of Paper Trends book Oct/Nov 2008 borrowed to me by my cousin Cathy. Gianni and Mason came up with the neat idea of just gluing the paper strips on flat instead of looping them and they turned out great!! Then they painted frames. Maddox even got in on some of the fun. He played with cornstarch and water mixture and loved it. He definitely has no problems with textures.

Maddox loooves Nic

The trees!! Aren't they adorable?!

Working hard

Pizza Break!

Loving the Cornstarch

He was covered!

Another Use for Tape

The other day Mason was having a hard time with his younger brother. Just typical stuff, but just having a hard time being a brother. Maddox had an unusually fussy day that day with lots of crying and screaming. So at bedtime we were talking about how hard it can be sometimes being a big brother and the conversation went a little like this:

Mason: Mom, being a big brother is the HARDEST!!
ME: Yeah, I know it can be hard. What is the hardest part?
MASON: All the crying and whining and crying and whining (while covering his ears)
ME: Well, we should think of a plan for you when Maddox has hard days. You could grab some toys, play in your room and we could shut the door and play some nice music on the CD player so you don't have to listen to all the crying.
MASON: Welllll, I have a better idea.
ME: (thinking, Of course you do) "Oh, what's that?"
MASON: We could tape his mouth shut like this (demonstrating on himself), then he could'nt make any noise.
ME: (horrified, but remaining calm) Hmmm, that might hurt him, and we don't want to do anything to hurt your brother
MASON: Yeah, but it would work
ME: Yes, it would work, but it would be mean and hurtful. I think we'll stick with the going to your room and listening to your favorite songs
MASON: But mom, it would work. It really would!!
ME: No, we are not going to do that. ever.

I'll be keeping a close eye on all of our tape!

Thanksgiving

We had a pretty nice Thanksgiving. We went to Craig's mom home in Hoyt Lakes. The boys love seeing Grammy and we were able to spend the night. Mason got to sleep in Grammy's room on his cot next to Grammy's bed. That was a treat for him.

Grammy had more snow than we did, so Mason was able to play in the snow on Thanksgiving and then on Friday a.m. he and Craig went sliding for 2 hours on a small hill near Grammy's house.

We brought the food and Craig did all the cooking. It was a nice spread. Turkey, roasted veggies, squash, sweet potatoes and cran-apple sauce (courtesy of my mom) and Craig made me an apple/cranberry crumble that was delicious!! He substituted lard for shortening. The only thing is, we think I'm not handling the lard too well. However, I sure did enjoy that crumble!!

It was stressful at times, only because little Maddox is everywhere and Grammy's house isn't baby proof. Especially with her oxygen concentrator and tubing that is all over the house. Poor Maddox heard "no no" so much, that by Friday, if I just walked over to him he would start shaking his head no. Poor guy.

2 reasons to be thankful!!
Mason's snow angel

This is a snow bridge. It is hard to make out, but it has 4 arches and Mason worked on just this bridge for almost an hour.

Maddox's first reall experience with snow
He had enough of the white stuff

Reading a Finnish Bible and finding Colossians for Grammy

Birthday Party Pictures

Mason's party was fun. The children were all so calm and quiet!! It was very relaxing. We had some games: Drop the Dinosaur into the volcano, shoot a dinosaur through a "ring of fire" to see whose goes the furthest (Mason made that one up), tape the tail on the dinosaur, and dino bone hunt.


This is Mason helping melt the jolly rancher candy for the volcano cake

It's hard to see the cake, but I think you can get an idea of it. It was a really fun cake to make and easy.

The birthday gang!