Mommy's little helper

For an easier time hearing, you can go to the left side of my blog, underneath all of the links and press pause on the music that I have playing. :) (Haha, I just noticed that his pants are falling down in these videos.)

Some of you who are regular readers of this blog may recall that Mason loves to help me with anything that I am doing in the kitchen. He always pushes a chair over to wherever I'm working and has to see what's going on. When I start getting food out and cooking it, he can't be happier than when I let him have his own portion (in a plastic container) to cook with. He has recently discovered that measuring cups are really fun. Usually, I have to measure water for whatever I'm making. As soon as I get the measuring cup out, Mason will not rest until he also gets to pour water into his own concoction. A week or so ago, I discovered that if I questioned Mason with "What do you say?" when he is asking for water, he would say "Please" in the cutest way.

In the first video, he says it so high pitched that you may not be able to hear it. So, I decided to include the second video as well. Enjoy!

I also have to include a few normal pictures so that when I make 2008 into a blog book, I will have some pictures to include. (My amazing sister Cindy has already done this for 2007, if you are curious, here is the post where she wrote about it).

This concoction is just some frozen vegetables and cheese flooded with water. The funny thing is that Mason has discovered that with most foods, he enjoys it more after it has been soaked in water...he just eats it straight from there!

Sacrament meeting woes

Towards the end of last year, I began to notice that it was rare that we had to take Mason out of sacrament meeting. This doesn't, by any means, mean that he sat nicely on our laps, but at least we could somewhat contain his energy into a semblance of reverence. (haha, at least I hope it's a semblance, in reality I'm sure that we're not fooling anyone). :)

Then our meeting time changed from 9 am to 12:30. Mason usually takes a nap between 12:30 and 1:30...so you can imagine that this change made things a little harder for us. Still, Mason has, for the most part, allowed us to at least sit in sacrament meeting with only an occasional visit to the foyer.

Anyways. I, like most of you, try to bring an assortment of things in our church bag to help keep Mason occupied. He really loves the little cars that I got for him a long time ago because he always tried to play with the other kids' cars that their mothers had brought for them.

As cars will do, sometimes these cars get pushed under the row behind or in front of us. Apparently, David has often whispered to Mason to check and see if he can see the car, and if he can, Mason discreetly (we hope) crawls partway under the bench to get it. David says that if Mason doesn't see it, then he usually stays put.

Not this last Sunday. Before we knew what was happening, Mason was not just under the bench in front of us, but was all of the way in the row in front of us. The people looked back and whispered "he's going in front of us, too!". Luckily, 2 rows in front of us where Mason finally sat up to look around, there was an understanding lady who turned him around and sent him back to us. We later found the lost car under our own bench.

I really do try to pay attention in Sacrament meeting!

The next day, I tried to get Mason to pose nicely with the car that began it all, but he was not cooperating.

Some of my favorite things...

If you don't know me well enough, I have to say there are three things that I really love.

1. Mason (and David)

2. Free Food

3. Chick-fil-A

(Of course I love a lot more things than that, but you get the idea)

So imagine my excitement when I found out that the CFA near us is doing a promotion where they are giving out a free breakfast item on Fridays for a month. The only thing that I can complain about is that I didn't find out about this promotion until there were only 3 weeks left.

This past Friday, there was no doubt in my mind what Mason and I were going to have for breakfast. I asked David if he wanted to get up a little earlier and then he would have time to eat with us, but for some reason he is not as obsessed with free food or Chick-fil-A as I am.

Don't worry, though-I'm training Mason right! :)

The free item is called chick-n-mini's and I had never had them before. Here is the desciption:

"Bite sized Chick-fil-A nuggets nestled in warm, mouth-watering mini yeast rolls that are lightly coated with honey butter spread."

Their website must be protected or something 'cuz it wouldn't let me save the picture so I could put it on my blog, but if you are really curious, here is the link: http://chickfila.com/#home

I think that the other people eating thought that I was kind of weird for taking pictures of Mason eating...but oh well, I knew that the blog about this would be so much better with visuals.

I had the hardest time getting Mason to smile...he was just too into eating.

Lately, he has been doing the cutest thing, if I ask him to smile, he puts his hands over his face and closes his eyes.

After he had eaten two of his Chick-n-Mini's...he noticed some other kids going into the play area. Of course, he immediately lost interest in eating and couldn't wait to go play.

At least here I was able to get some smiling shots of him! :)

Any of you who live nearby want to meet for breakfast this Friday? :)

Super Tuesday

Have you guys heard about this? Talk about dirty politics!! Let's hope that the rest of the country goes better!

http://gopelection2008.blogspot.com/ (look at the post labeled "And the first winner is..."


Everyone that is able to...please go out and exercise your right to vote tonight!!

Who are you voting for? :)

If you are following the 2008 election, my little brother, Daniel, has made a great blog centered around it. He is very knowledgable and passionate about it and it is fun to read his views. Take a look if you get a chance!
http://gopelection2008.blogspot.com/

Taking advantage of a rare warm day

I love living in Colorado. Despite the fact that we had a stretch where the high did not get out of the teens...you can always count on the advice "If you don't like the weather, wait a little while and it will change." This past Monday, the sun was shining, and you could actually stand to be outside without running for shelter.

Mason and I had to run some errands in the morning, and when we came home, instead of going to the house, Mason really wanted to play outside. It had been so cold lately that I could not refuse! It started with just playing in front of our house...then we decided it would be fun to take a walk. I figured since we were going for a walk anyways, we might as well walk to the park that is close by. Then, I noticed that it was lunch time, so we went inside, got the stroller and packed an improptu picnic lunch. I was so happy that my little boy was getting to play outside for the first time in a long time.

Mason had the greatest time climbing around on the equipment and going down the slide!

Here, he was throwing some snow up in the air in sheer delight!

It wasn't too long before he discovered the little creek and bridge that crosses it near the playground.

I think that it is just human nature to want to throw things into rushing (well maybe it wasn't rushing) but running...water! First, Mason would get a handful of snow and throw it over the side.

He was quite proud of himself.

When I showed him how fun sticks could be...he was entertained for quite a long time.

When it was time to go, I had to drag him away. He fell asleep on the floor when we got home before I even had a chance to put him down for his nap!

A great man

I want to just take a little bit of time and mention the passing of our dear prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. I know that almost everyone reading this already has heard the news, but I still feel like I should say something. I was 14 when President Hinckley became the prophet. This was just about the time that I was really starting to listen and pay attention during General Conferences. I have always looked forward to hearing our prophet's voice and always feel so happy and reassured whenever he spoke. He had such a way of making you feel right at home and you just knew that he was speaking with conviction. His sense of humor could always get the whole congregation laughing! There were a few times at college where I was able to hear him speak in person and the spirit was always there testifying that he was indeed God's prophet on earth.

I will deeply miss him. I think that especially this spring's General Conference will be hard. I have heard many people echo some of my first thoughts...that it is sad for us, but everyone is so glad that he is with his wife right now. Isn't it so wonderful that he loved and missed his wife so much that everyone knew it!

The day that he passed away, January 27, 2008, the topic of our Sunday School class started me thinking about modern day prophets and how wonderful a blessing they are. We were talking about how God has told us that He is unchanging. On my mission, we used this truth to teach that if God never changes, and he spoke through prophets in Bible times, then why wouldn't he speak through prophets now? The times that we are living in now are so unique in the challenges and blessings that they present, and I am so grateful that God loves us enough to provide a prophet. I am especially grateful that Presiden Hinckley was that prophet for much of the time that I can remember.