Mother's Day 2012

For Mother's Day this year we took the kids up to Woods Canyon Lake. On our way up, we saw the smoke from the fires that were burning. Woods Canyon Lake was fairly busy but we did find a secluded picnic spot and had a yummy lunch of hot dogs on the grill, chips, fruit and the best part, s'mores! During our lunch, an elk decided to lunch with us about 30 yards from our picnic table. She stayed for quite awhile before venturing off to do something else. After lunch, we headed down to the lake to look for crawdads. We found a few and also saw some blue jays (or maybe it was the same one, hard to tell). We tried feeding the chipmunks some sunflower seeds but they didn't get close enough to see where we were throwing them. We had a great time and decided that going to Woods Canyon Lake is how we're going to celebrate Mother's Day for our little family each year. If viewing the video in full screen, the pictures end up grainy for some reason but it saves so much time to make the video instead of trying to upload all of the pictures to actually put in the post.

AnnaBeth Tidbits...

I asked AnnaBeth why she loves Daddy and these are her answers:

1. He loves Papa
2. He loves you
3. He belongs to Mason
4. He's tired so he's hungry
5. He's silly Daddy

While trying to get answers out of her, she also told me 3 or 4 times that she loves Michael (our part time employee).

I also asked her who she loves and she told me:

1. Jesus
2. I just love God because God and Jesus need to be outside
3. The trumpets because they're instruments
4. Mason
5. Me
6. Boof
7. People
8. Cars
9. Wheels
10. Mouses

Sand and Water Fun

Last week the kids had some fun outside playing with the hose, in the sandbox and in our little pool. Bondo had a pretty good time too!

8 Months Old!

Mason turned 8 months old on Saturday. He's doing very well with crawling now and it takes him no time at all to get across the house. He's able to pull himself to standing using the couch and yesterday he did it while in the playpen. He can also do a little walking (ok, who am I kidding, staggering) when holding on to my hands. He tried some little chunks of chicken on Sunday after church and seemed to like it. He has also gotten pretty good at picking up his puffs and putting them in his mouth. He's still waiting for those top two teeth to come in but hopefully they'll pop through soon.

Ophthmaologist Victory!

Well, victory in the sense that AnnaBeth's eye appointment yesterday did not go the way it did last time (with holding her down, her screaming and crying and resisting and all 3 of us (Dr. O'Neill was holding the top her head) broke a sweat and he was not able to get a complete exam done). Now, there was some "I don't want to do that!" going on but AnnaBeth did SOOO well overall!!! He was only able to see her right eye wander for a split second but then never saw it do it again. However, when he held the prism up to that eye, instead of her eye turning inward or outward (depending on how he held it), her eye stayed straight which confirmed for him that her right eye does indeed wander a bit (I only notice it if she's really tired and/or staring off into space which is common he said. Mine will do that too under the same circumstances). She had her eyes dilated and she was really frustrated that she couldn't see and kept saying she had to get the "drips" out. It was during the exam after the dilation that he saw the astigmatism in both of her eyes. He said it's good that it's in both because then one eye won't end up working without the other one (typically). And she was able to see the image when she put the special 3D glasses on so that's good too. Her eyes do work together as they should and she does see well, she just has those two little minor issues. And right now, they're minor enough that we don't need to start glasses right away. He said she will most likely need them in 2-3 years though. So, we go back again in 6 months to see if there are any changes.

Oh, funny story! While we were waiting to be called back the first time, AnnaBeth was happily looking at the fish in the big tank with another girl who was there who was a few years older than her. This girl was tapping on the glass and AnnaBeth said "Hey kids. Don't tap on the glass. You'll scare the fishes." While it made me chuckle, it also confirmed for me that she remembers what I've told her while looking at the fish at Petsmart and that makes me happy.

7 Months Old

My big boy is 7 months old today! He has two teeth and is enjoying his solids. So far he has liked everything he has tried (green beans, sweet potato, carrots, avocado, apples, pears, bananas and cantaloupe). He is sitting up well, scooting backwards and has been getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. He'll be on the move soon!! His sleeping has gotten better as he is taking longer naps during the day (many times 2 hours or more now). He still gets up a few times in the night but not as often most nights. He has also started splashing in the baby tub and tonight, cried when I took him out. I guess he was having fun!

He's Definitely a Porter...

The kids and I were at the shop today when lunch time came around so we joined Kent, Jim and Michael at Jason's Deli. The best part of going there for lunch is the free ice cream (well, it's really frozen yogurt). I let Mason have a few teeny tiny taster bites which he really enjoyed. So much so that he decided he should have some more of it. A LOT more. So what did he do? He grabbed my hand/cone with both of his hands and pulled as hard as he could and successfully got the ice cream to his mouth. And then he started biting. He ended up eating a little bit of the cone and had chocolate and vanilla ALL over his chin and mouth and even up his nose. We all about died with laughter. Mason was incredibly determined to have ice cream like everyone else! And he was not shy about expressing how unhappy he was that he didn't get to have any more.