More summer days

There is a really fun park that we've been to a few times this summer. The first time, we went with Diana and her ward's play group. It's fun 'cuz there's a petting zoo and a train ride that are both only a dollar.

But the real fun began when we let the kids loose in the creek. Diana was nice enough to get an extra bucket and shovel for Mason, he was in heaven!

Carter even slept the whole time that the kids were playing in the creek so I could turn my full attention to making sure that no one drowned. :)

The only damper on the day was that we kept hearing lightning. At first we tried to deny it...we didn't want to pull our kids out so soon. But eventually thoughts of someone getting electrocuted because we didn't get them out made us call it a day. We were just in time...on the way to the car rain came down in buckets and then it started to hail. Of course there was a big hill to climb with all of our stuff and strollers, but it was a fun day!

It's been so fun for Mason (and me) to be able to spend so many fun summer days with his cousins, thanks Diana!

This was the second time that we went...Mason is looking so sad because he didn't want to leave, poor kid! :)

Carter enjoyed the shade of the stroller.

We love the outdoors!

This was a fun day that we had at the park back in May. I showed Mason how to blow the fluff off of the dandylions. One of the funnest parts about being Mason's mom is that he gets so excited about things, and this was no exception!

He ran around searching for more saying "roars!, roars!" (his interpretation of dandylion). :)

Mason is always interested in everything, especially things outside. Here he is learning more about the pine trees.

This was one of the first times that I had gone to the park with both boys. I had hoped that Carter would sleep in the stroller the whole time, but no such luck. Here are my attempted pictures of him in the sling. As you can see, he wasn't too happy about it at first, but he then gave in and fell asleep.

I found a nice shaded area and let Carter enjoy the nature around him. I am so lucky to have such a smiley baby!

Carter is always moving, he has been scooting on his back for about a month and everytime I put him on his tummy, he wants to crawl so much! This is probably why I am able to get so many pictures of him that look like he is waving, he is constantly moving both his arms and his legs!

I hope this doesn't sound vain or proud, but I guess my blog is the place to do it...I just can't get over how stinkin' cute my kids are, and they have such amazing personalities to go with it!

I hope I don't ever meet an unrestrained alligator!

I saw this on my friend, Megan's, blog (which is very entertaining and is worth checking out) and I just could not resist taking the test myself. These statistics are good to know...I think most of these animals (besides the sharks) can be found at the zoo. Mason keeps begging me to take him there, so hopefully there won't be any escapes when we go!

I had David take this test and I couldn't believe it...he seriously has a 100% chance of surviving everything! I made him go back to make sure he filled it out right. I am sure lucky to have him around...and hope that he is with me if I ever encounter a wild animal!

The new snack food

The other day I was rearranging a few things in the freezer. I came to realize that I hadn't heard much from Mason, so as every mother of a two year old does, I quickly went to see what trouble he was getting into.

This is what I found:

Before I got a good look at what he was eating, I figured that he had found a bag of chips that I knew had been left out.

A closer look revealed that his treat was actually this bag of frozen vegetables!

He was snacking on the frozen vegetables...while they were still frozen. He must have snagged the open bag while I was organizing the freezer. :)

I don't think that I got any pictures of him actually eating the vegetables, but he really was. I tried them myself...not bad...but definitely not like the frozen treats that I prefer. I think I'll keep Mason snacking on these rather than real popcicles as long as possible though! :)

Party Details

Mason's party was so fun! Mason played lots and was showered with love and attention. He is really into Cars, so we ordered a car-shaped pan and made him this cake, it's definitely not professionaly done, but it worked! The black frosting also left a lovely impression on Mason and Levi's faces.

Mason was excited to blow out the candles!

It was so fun to see his reactions to the presents. :)

He received a dinosaur that walks and roars. Later, when he was playing on the equ

ipment, he refused to let the dinosaur and the singing birthday card out of his sight, well actually out of his hands. It was really cute, but he had to be watched extra closely to make sure that he didn't lose his balance since he didn't have any hands to steady himself.

Carter, as always, was well-cared for at this party!

The best Two years...

On Friday, on June 6 , Mason turned TWO! It's no surprise that I'm way behind on posting these, but I have an excuse that our computer is being difficult when it comes to loading pictures.

We had a fun day-he got to get a happy meal and then we went to play at a park. After that, the real fun began! David took Mason on the Father-Son campout that our stake had. They had a blast and I'm waiting to get pictures so I will leave the details of that adventure to its own post. Since most of the boys were at the campout, we had his party at a park a couple days later. It was so nice to have so many members of our family there, but we definitely missed those who could not make it. I'll post most of the pictures from that party separately, too.

I always like to see the difference that a year makes. These two pictures are Mason on his first birthday...and here he was when he turned two!

Here are a few pictures from this past year that I never put on the blog, but that are definitely blog-worthy. The commentary doesn't really go with the pictures, I just wanted to record a couple things about Mason at this age.

Mason, at the age of TWO, still loves to read and if we read slow enough, he will repeat the words that we are reading to him.

He especially loves music, dancing and singing! His Grandpa Ford picked out the perfect birthday card for him-it sang the Shrek song when he opened it. As soon as he opened this card, he didn't care about anything else, he insisted on listening to the song over and over again and dancing to it. Look how happy he was:

We had to really work to get him interested in the rest of his unopened presents.

At nursery, his leaders tell us that he loves singing time and usually makes them sing the 'Popcorn' song first, even if they have started on a different one. When we tell Mason that it's time for Family Home Evening, he gets excited and starts saying "popcorn" and doing the actions.

Maon is such a good big brother! He loves to be around Carter and if I don't get to it quick enough, he always jumps in to help wipe up Carter's spit up.

Mon loves to play outside, especially with his cousins. He gets so excited when we tell him that he gets to see them.

Mason really loves animals-all kinds. The animal sounds and names were the first words that he learned. He received some plastic animals for his birthday and they will keep him occupied for hours. He even takes them to bed with him!

Mason has the biggest smile that is so contagious, he literally jumps up and down when he is excited about something.

Mason also likes to mix things and help me cook. He always has to have his own container and his own mini version of whatever I'm making.

Other things that he loves include: Milk, shoes, Elmo, 'George' (as in curious George), fruit snacks, bananas, being in the stroller and especially the wagon, rocks and sticks, blocks, sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed, bubbles, balloons, rough housing with Daddy, making messes, playing in the water, the zoo (everytime I talk about it, I have to spell it out 'cuz otherwise he gets so excited and thinks we're going, it is so sad to squash that excitement!)

We love our Mason and our family would not be complete without him!

Breaking Dawn preview

Has any one else seen THIS yet? I am getting really excited for August 2nd! David got me her other novel, The Host, for my birthday and I'm trying not to read it too fast so that it lasts longer.