Merry Christmas!

Not sure if I'll get a chance to post again before the new year so we just wanted to wish you a wonderful Christmas!!! Safe travels and God bless!

Azlyn thought she would draw in more hair with a black pen! Who gave her the pen? Yeah, that would be me! I thought she'd draw me something similiar to one of Picasso's pieces but instead took the pen to her own little noggin!

This was taken at the annual Liberty Lake tree lighting ceremony. Mason was so excited to meet Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. When he finally sat on Santa's lap he froze, not a word! We take two steps out of the building and the kid's in tears because now Santa won't bring him Optimus Prime because he didn't tell him! Sound familiar? Does a Red Ryder BB gun ring a bell?

More pics...

Say cheese!!!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!!!

They look like they're up to something...

Proudly wearing her U of M cheerleading outfit, GO GRIZ!!!

Thanksgiving 2009

We went to Poppy Vern and Grammy Cyndy's for Thanksgiving this year. Full of good food and great company!

We're back!

My sweet little huckleberry!!! Grammy Cyndy thought it would be a most spectacular idea to give Azlyn a taste of her huckleberry pie! The girl went crazy! Loved it! Mommy didn't love the clean up so much. Thanks Grammy!

Not that we've been anywhere but just plain busy...I'm taking time out of our crazy schedule and posting some pictures finally. They'll go back as far as Thanksgiving. Sorry for the overload!

Disciplining your 15 month old

Is it not the cutest thing in the world when you hear your fifteen month old baby girl awake in her crib, when she should have been sleeping an hour ago, singing the 'Head, shoulders, knees, and toes' song? Obviously in her own version, but seriously!!! How do you put on that serious 'mom' face and tell her she needs to sleep or else...when she's patting her head and making all the motions???

More of 'What our kids say'...

I picked Mason up from preschool today and began our conversation in the usual way...

Mommy: So how was your day Mason?
Mason: Great!
Mommy: What did you do?
Mason: Well Miss Kathy let me wear her firecoat. (They were learning about policemen, firemen, ect.) And, well, we learned about firehumans...
Mommy: Firehumans? OH! Firemen!
Mason: Yes mommy, firemen.

I truly believe that in my son's eyes his interpretations, his way of thinking and speaking is the RIGHT way...mommy is the one learning...

The things our kids say...

Mason: Where's Daddy? Is he in Sattle? (Seattle)
Mommy: No sweetie, he's in an airplane that's headed to Minneapolis.
Mason: What??? Minneapolis? He's getting apples there?



Mommy: Mason please go sit down at the bar if you're going to eat that.
Mason: What did you say? Did you say barn? Why do you want me to eat in a barn?

Azee's first steps!!!

I know it doesn't look like a lot of steps, but two minutes before this she took four big steps from me to the ottoman. I'm pretty sure that when we put her to bed at night, while we think she's fast asleep, she's been pacing in her crib, perfecting her movies...she looked way too calm when she walked for us! Now the fun paced life begins!!!

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes...

Mason came home singing this new song and it caught on with someone else...

Date night!

Our friend, Sara, was celebrating her 30th birthday so it was the perfect occasion to dress up a little, kiss the kiddos goodnight, and hit the town! It was a night full of sushi, laughs, and fabulous company!!! Have you ever laughed so much it actually hurt? I love when that happens!!! Sorry I don't have any pics of the night, we were too busy just relaxing and being adults. I wouldn't let Sara tell anyone the time because I knew if I heard it had been past 8pm I'd want to crawl into my pj's and go to sleep. Low and behold we did stay out until 11:45pm!!! I know! That's incredibly late!!! Thank you Sara for having a birthday and a fun one at that;) Let's do that again!!!

It's ok Mason...

"It's o.k. Mason...Mommy said this would happen. Sneaking too much candy will give you a major bellyache. But I'm hear...it's o.k. Shhhhhhh...there, there."

Once a Griz, always a Griz!!!

When life hands you lemons...

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade! Then add a little vodka to calm the 'ol nerves!!! Is it true what they say? Some years are crazier than others. If that's the case, I can't wait for 2010 to get here!!!
We've just had some bad luck lately! I had to bring Mason into the doctor, once again, because the antibiotics he'd been put on last week after his eardrum ruptured was not working. He was put on a stronger med in hopes to knock out the infection.
Oh and Roth left this morning at 5am to head to Kentucky. Poor guy, his only flight option was to fly out of Spokane this morning at 6:05am to San Francisco, sit there for two and a half hours, then off to Chicago, then to Kentucky. What an extremely long day for him too!
This is the part where I grab the vodka. For those who read last week's post of the smoke detectors going off for no reason...my friends, it's back! Not a peep out of them this weekend while Roth was home. It would only be appropriate that they start up a few hours AFTER Roth has left!!! Nice, real nice!
But it's not that bad! Really! When Mason's sitting in front of you singing how much he loves his mommy you tend to forget what you were so worked up about. Or when your little girl is looking at you wide-eyed and all smiles because she's trying to take that first step and carefully balancing herself! Life is good, just a litte crazy at times...I can live with that!

Handing out gobs of candy!

We started off by gathering at the neighbors. Azlyn is posing with Evan, otherwise known as Chewbacca. Then we headed out to collect as much candy as we could! Mason did very well!!!
We ran back to our house to hand out candy, went through about 700 pieces! Yes you read that right!!! Mason LOVED handing out candy to all the kiddos! Although, I kept asking him if he needed to go potty but it turned out he just couldn't keep his feet still from all the candy he and daddy had eaten everytime mommy walked out of the room...nice daddy, real nice! Slip your child into a sugar coma for your own sake of eating candy too!

Hope everyone had a great halloween!!!

Now we really didn't plan for Mason to be Bumblebee and Azlyn to be a ladybug to make them our little bugs, regardless, they were the cutest EVER!!! It's ok, I'm allowed to say that...I'm their mom;)

Ok, so Roth and Mason were having a little too much fun, especially with the easy cheese!

Happy Halloween!!!

We had our own little Halloween party, just the four of us, and got pretty creative with the food! Although, I have to admit that the pizza came from Papa Murphy's.

Azee's new dance moves!

Not only does she love to sing, but she can bust a move! Stayed tuned next week when she's got her new breakdance moves down!

When it rains, it pours!

I'm imagining looking back at this years later and saying 'it wasn't that bad!' or 'oh, what crazy times!' but tonight those weren't exactly my choice of words. No, what you may have heard would be very close to what a sailor would shout out!!!
Why, you ask? Well let's start off with the fact that Mason woke up Sunday night with horrible ear aches. We actually thought he was making a full recovery from being sick the week before but when I took him in yesterday to the doctor she said he had severe ear infections in both ears. Usually I catch these before they have ever reached 'severe' but this hit Mason fast! They put him on antibiotics and sent us home. That afternoon he did his best to sleep it off but whimpered the whole time from the pain. It broke my heart! We made him as comfortable as possible by putting his little Elmo couch in between us IN our bed so we could be right there in case he woke up with more pain. He actually slept the whole night so we thought it was on it's way to getting better. Roth left this morning at 5:30am to catch a flight to NY for a conference. When the kids and I came downstairs for breakfast that's when I noticed blood in Mason's ear. His poor little eardrum had ruptured! Because he's already on antibiotics there's not much we can do but hope it heals. While the pain seemed to lessen throughout the day, this evening his left ear started to build with pressure. Then, as we're finishing up dinner, our entire house is filled with the sound of our smoke detectors going off. No, it wasn't the battery! I put in new battery after new battery and it was still howling back at me. Poor Mason was huddled in the bathroom (the only place with no alarm) and covering his ears so the piercing beeps wouldn't hurt his tender ears. Azlyn was competing with the tones of the aweful siren and I'm running around trying to figure out which one is making the entire system go off. I finally pulled out the detector in our computer room realizing it's not the battery but the unit itself. I put Azlyn to sleep in her freshly washed sheets, gave Mason his meds so that he can hopefully sleep well tonight, called Roth so Mason and I could say 'goodnight' and now off to bed I go.
What new adventures will we experience tomorrow?

Azee's happy/mad face!

Azlyn's been working on this for a while and just recently mastered the "I'm happy, surprised...and now I'm mad" face. Cracks us up everytime!!!

October fun!

October fun...that can take on so many meanings. In the past years it meant carving pumpkins, trips up to Green Bluff for pumpkin donuts, corn mazes, jumping in piles of leaves in our backyard...you get the idea. This year, while we were able to get in a few of those things, our biggest accomplishment was making it through the H1N1 scare! While it was nasty, scary, and just plain exhausting, we made it! Three days of fever, two days of a yucky cold, and days upon days of the worst cough imaginable!!! Roth managed to stay away from it all but the kids and I were down for a good week and a half! Now onto the REAL fun! We attended our neighborhood pumpkin carving party. Twelve or so families participated in carving the most unique designs and lots of comfort food on the side! Mason and I also worked on pumpkin and ghost cookies. I think I've found my baking partner for life!!! I pray all of you are staying healthy and enjoying the last of these October days of 2009! God bless!

A tender moment...

So Azlyn and I were dropping Mason off at preschool this morning, just like every Tuesday morning. He walks into his classroom and takes his coat, gloves, and hat off. Then he walks over to the board to find his name to show he's checked in for the day. Next, he walks over to his table, finds the piece of paper with his name on it and begins drawing pictures and writing his name like he's been doing this for years. Really, this was a pretty ordinary day, very routine until those big hazel eyes looked up at me and said "Mommy, I'm really going to miss you today! But it's o.k. I'll be fine, you can leave now."

Did I forget to remove the sign on my forehead that said "Mommy's heart breaks when I have to leave you!"? I would have thought that by now it would have been easier to drop him off and go but I wanted to stay! I find myself standing outside of his classroom looking into the big window just watching his every move. Not because I wonder if he'll be a good boy or not, but simply because I'm not ready to let him go into the big world. Yes, I know it's time but sheesh! No one warned me how hard this would be!

So it all ended well! Two and a half hours passed. Azlyn and I grabbed our coats and drove off like a crazy person just to go pick Mason up! Now one would hope that after missing someone so much they'd get the opportunity to grab the first hug from their little man! Well, not today, or any day for that matter! Mason came running over to Azlyn and gave her a big hug and kiss. "Oh Azee, did you miss me? I missed you!!! O.K. mom, we can go home now!"

...and that's when I realized that while I have to learn to let him grow and find his way, he knows where home is and who's waiting for him. And that's a good feeling...

A cold October day!

How deceiving! Not a cloud in the sky! The sun is shining through our windows...it is truly inviting! Ha! Until I slip my flip flops on and go outside to place our decorated pumpkins out on our porch! In a brief moment my toes are nowhere to be found and my nose looks similar to a famous reindeer! Where has fall gone? Was it ever here? We went from 80 degrees to 38 degrees. How is that possible? Now I realize that some of my fellow readers are sitting in single digit weather over in Montana and I am sorry for that, but can someone take us back to last year when Halloween was approaching and we were still wearing light jackets? I am NOT ready for snow yet, let alone the cold that chills you to the bone!

So I decided to stop my whining and make some delicious homeade potato soup! My mom gave me this recipe years ago and I have finally mastered it! This soup definately hit the spot on this cold October day! My only issue is that the mass population did not show to eat the gallons of soup I made! Mom, I blame you for this! No matter how hard I try, I cannot cook for four but rather for an army! When sitting down for dinner at my mom and dad's my husband's exact words are "Will there be more showing up for dinner? This could feed the entire reservation!" Can we say yummy leftovers?

Mr. Pumpkin Head

Like the days of "Where's Waldo?", it's "Where's Mason?"

What you may assume as a special, tender moment of decorating pumpkins with each other really turned out to be "Azlyn Lorelei! Do not take his eye off! Azlyn where did you put the ear? Azlyn get the nose out of your mouth!" Mason did his best to hold his alligator tears back as his sister tried her best to destroy his great masterpieces.

I give much credit to the person who created these clever pumpkin decorations! The days of gutting out the seeds and hours of carving are behind us!!

I think Mason thought his sister was a pumpkin...squeezing the seeds out of her!