It is early in the morning and it is a rainy cold day outside. I am nestled in the warm covers of my bed hoping that Mason decides to sleep in late this morning. As I lay here, typing away, I am grateful for the blessings of my life. Life has been a bit of a bumpy road in recent history; bumpy with beautiful scenery, however. It is truly amazing how one can be at the top of the highest mountain peak and then fall suddenly to a valley, only to return to the top of the rolling foothills! Ok, enough with the metaphors! .....

The highest mountain peak .....

As many of you have already heard, Tim and I are expecting our second child! We are excited about our pending new addition and are happy that Mason and baby will be so close in age. I am due November 11th. We will be able to find out the sex of the baby in about seven weeks (my big ultrasound appointment is June 23rd). I have been feeling relatively OK; I was queasy and consistently tired the first weeks. Thankfully, the queasiness has subsided but unfortunately, the exhaustion still remains. I am hopeful that in the coming week or two, I will hit my stride and ditch the "first trimester tiredness." When announcing the pregnancy to our immediate family, it was revealed that Tim's sister, Kara, is also pregnant!!! I nearly tackled her in excitement when we found out the great news. Kara is a week and a half in front of me (her due date being October 28th). We couldn't be more excited to have another cousin that will be so close in age to our coming addition (Mason is two weeks older than his cousin, Rudy - my brother's second child). So as you can probably understand, we were standing on Mt. Kilimanjaro there for a while ....

The valley ....

In the past two weeks, my Grandpa Jim has been in and out of the hospital with complications arising from congestive heart failure. My Grandpa is 93 years old (almost 94) and has lived beyond the years his myriad of doctors ever predicted. My family is very blessed to have had him in our lives all these wonderful years. He is the origin of the spark, orneriness, wit, stubbornness, humor and cunning nature that flows through my veins. It is hard to see 

him so altered and I am forced to remind myself after talking to him (or about him with Grandma) that no one is immortal and we need to be grateful for each and every day that God gives us!

 

Well, when it rains, it pours, and I am not talking about the  downpour that is occurring as I type. This past Thursday, Tim's (and my) beloved Grandma Susie (more commonly known as "GG" for "Great Grandma") suffered from an acute hemorragic stroke.  She is currently in the ICU receiving treatment; although she has been responding well to the treatment, she is heavily sedated which clouds any potential progress she may be achieving. It is hard to say how GG will recover from this episode as it is too soon to tell what lasting effects will remain after her release from the hospital. Tim and I are praying for the members in our family that are suffering from ailing health. 

Back to the foothills ......

So amidst all the emotional turmoil, we were excited to celebrate Connor's (our nephew) first birthday last night (although he does not officially turn one until Monday the 4th)! He had a Finding Nemo / beach theme party complete with bubbles (in the rain), chocolate fountains, trampoline jumping (during a break in the clouds), and face painting. All the kids were running around late into the night while still high on the mass quantities of sugar pumping through their veins. Mason had a great time, but hit his wall around 9pm.

We are also very excited to meet our newest 2nd cousin, Ainsley, this coming weekend. (Tim and I will be traveling down to Paso Robles to visit family and see GG.) Although Ainsley isn't scheduled to join our world until Wednesday the 6th (via C-section), we are eagerly anticipating her arrival and can't wait to meet her.

We are also very excited to see Emily, Ella and Rudy as they are heading to California this coming Wednesday for a visit. Mason and Rudy will have such a great time wrestling around and playing with each other. Mason always learns new things from Rudy as he tends to be a little ahead of Mason in learned skills (he is lucky enough to have a sister to emulate). We are very excited to spend some much-needed time with them.   

Even though we all have our struggles in life, it is important to recognize the blessings we have each and every day. Often times, it is tragedy and sadness that forces us to recognize how fortunate we really are! I challenge you to take a moment every day to be thankful for the family, friends and loved ones that care about you. Tell those people that you love and/or care about them, too; as you never know what curve-ball(s) life will launch your direction.

Another post will follow with the Mason update from April.

I hope this finds each of you blessed and grateful!

Love,

Jenn, Tim, Mason, and Baby "B" 

Our Growing Boy ...

Mason is now 19 months old! He has definitely grown into a toddler complete with the attitude. Although he remains mostly mellow, we see his "streaks" during mealtimes, when we bring him in from outside, and when it is time to get out of the bath. Although, I must say that we have developed an ingenious tactic in ending bath time. We use a blow-up tub that sits inside our larger tub. When bath time is over, we open the plug and slowly let the water out of the blow-up bath. Before he knows what is happening, Mason's water is gone and he doesn't seem to pitch as large of a fit to get out of an empty bath. We're so clever ... or at least, we feel that way!

Mason is definitely solar-powered like his daddy. He LOVES to be outside! We frequent the park on the days I am home with him. His new favorite past times are swinging and going down the slide. 

This last month, our little Peanut learned to use 

his fork and spoon! Self-feeding has its upsides and its downsides; although we are glad to see he is progressing, he makes a holy mess when he self-feeds. He also becomes very defiant when someone tries to help feed him .... "NO!" he says! Nahla has never been happier with all the floor scraps she cleans-up from Mason's missed attempts ..... The other morning, Tim gave Mason some yogurt and went down the hall to put something in the bedroom, when he returned, there was yogurt ALL OVER the place .... the floor, Mason, and the walls were covered in blueberry delight! He is slowly getting the hang of it, but for now ... I am just glad to have tile floors!

Mason now has 11 teeth! He is cutting teeth like crazy! Poor little guy has had a swollen mouth for the last 6 months with as many teeth as he has popped through (11 teeth in 6 months)! That is almost a tooth every two weeks!  The other night he pitched possibly the WORST temper tantrum we have ever seen. I called it his "Grand Mal Fit" ...It was the middle of the night and he was PISSED OFF! He was rolling around the floor screaming, absolutely refused to be held by Tim or myself, and would occasionally swat at my legs and robe in defiance. After both trying our hand at being the loving, comforting, understanding parent, Tim and I decided to let him work out his issues in his crib ... alone. After 30 minutes of hysterics, Tim went in and picked him up. Mason collapsed in exhaustion on Tim's chest; he had his fill of drama and was ready to finally sleep .... as long as it was on daddy's chest in the recliner (reminded us of the good-old days of sleepless nights). The next morning when we woke up, I checked his mouth and Mason had a new molar poke through! Poor little guy, that can't be comfortable!

Anyhow, I (as always) have included some pictures of this last month ...unfortunately, I haven't been all that good using my camera. I hope you all are doing well! Video will follow in the next couple of days when I can get to another computer ... 

Love,

Jenn, Tim and Mason

Getting Up ....

Growing up!

February - what a fun month! We spent February with family and friends relaxing at the beach and playing in the Sierras ....

We started the month by stealing away to Mount Madonna Campground over by the coast along with our friends, Steve and Crystal. We were kid-free and loving our new-found adult freedom! It was a beautiful little park. Although it rained on us during our first night's stay, the rest of the weekend touted beautiful weather - - we decided to take the dogs down to the beach. We packed a lunch and had a picnic in Seaside ... the sun was warm on our faces; however, the ocean breezes kept us comfortably cool. After a long stroll on the beach, we decided to head back to camp so we could start drinking our adult beverages and chow down on the yummie dinner we brought. Of course, we capped-off the evening with schmores ... who says schmores are for kids?!

Later on in February we took a trip to the Tahoe cabin. Although Tim was unable to join us for this excursion (due to wrestling obligations), I was very fortunate to have Grammie Margie be able to babysit Mason so I could ski. I hadn't skiied in three years and it was glorious to be on the slopes again! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect ski day! The snow was squeaky (for all you fellow-skiiers/boarders, you know that is when the snow is prime)! 

The cabin was a nice little vacation for me, even though Mason had his share of annoyances on the trip. The poor little guy was cutting his molar and was VERY unhappy during the middle of the night. He cried (loudly) in the small cabin for over an hour. I felt so terrible in that I knew he was waking everyone up. Thankfully, Grammie Margie came to the rescue and helped me out. She was able to finally get him down about 45 minutes after coming down to help. Thank God for Grandmas!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to play in the snow this trip as it decided to RAIN the following two days. Thankfully, it was snowing up on the summit of the mountain (as to not ruin the beautiful ski conditions); 

however, the damp weather didn't allow us to complete our yearly tradition of erecting an "anatomically-correct" snow person. 

Mason is growing faster than ever. It is amazing to look at him and see a little boy and no longer a little baby. He has his own set of quirks, habits, and desires. He LOVES to open and shut doors. He could play with a door all day, if you let him! He is (gulp) now able to open doors, too! Our interior door handles are the ones with the pull handle (versus the round door knobs) ... they are WAY too easy for him to open. Thankfully, all our exterior doors have knobs and not handles (as well as dead-bolts)! He is having to learn what rooms are "off limits" and is surprisingly, doing well. 

Mason is very mechanical in nature. You could put a stack of toys in front of him and he will completely ignore them! He would much rather open and shut cupboards, put lids on jars, and stack buckets inside of each other.  It is very interesting to see his little mind at play.

Tim and I are pretty lucky that he has fallen back to his normal sleep routines. He tends to take one, very long afternoon nap (usually 4+ hours) and goes down for bed around 8:15. I usually have to wake him up in the morning when I leave for work around 7:30pm. 

Well, I have posted some pictures and some video from February. I hope you are all doing well and I will post the "ins-and-outs" of March in the not-too-distant future.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=60cie9o.54pm40p8&x=0&y=44ckjw&localeid=en_US

Jenn :)

NO!

The other day, I came to the realization that Mason is no longer a baby. He earned his "right of passage" as a toddler when he learned to emphatically say the word, "NO!" I was feeding him breakfast and when I asked him, "one more bite?" he turned his nose in the air and forcefully said "No!" ... at that moment, Mason's baby life flashed before my eyes ... his first day home from the hospital, his first bath, the first time he rolled over, the first time he slept through the night ... all those lovely moments ... in the past, tucked away in our memories ... we now have a little person who is learning his independence and is interested in testing his boundaries.  It's funny, I see more of myself in him now that he is getting older and is starting to display stubbornness and independence. 

The month of January flew by and was filled with many happy days. We celebrated New Years at our house with a pajama party ... all the kids sacked out early and let the adults play games, drink and enjoy the overall splendor of the evening. 

Mason and I enjoyed a few trips this past month. We took a day trip to Tahoe with the Thorns family in early January. Mason and Stephen had a great time playing in the white fluff that covered the ground. Mason and I also went up to Chico and visited Mason's Great Grandparents, Jim and Rita. He learned how to say "Rita" during his visit and now makes a usual practice of saying, "Wee-ta, Wee-ta" on a regular basis. 

Our little man now has six teeth and is walking more regularly. Although he still scoots around on his knees (mostly when he sees mommy, daddy, or a grandparent), he is much better at walking around. Mason is talking .... a lot. He has quite the little vocabulary for a 16-month-old. He can be such a little chatter-box, if in the mood!

Anyhow, I have posted pictures that can be 

viewed at the following link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=60cie9o.62o8bc3w&x=0&y=-7pr5gj&localeid=en_US

I hope this finds you all doing well!

Love,

Jenn, Tim and Mason