Mason's First Christmas

Mason had a fabulous first Christmas. He was so spoiled by all of his grandparents and aunts and uncles! Santa brought him a car that has all kinds of buttons and levers for him to play with.

Mom and Dad were spoiled as well.

Grandma Kelly and Uncle Devon came down for Christmas Day for a visit. Mason had such a good time seeing all of his grandparents while we were in Idaho.

Thank you all for everything. We love you all!

Merry Christmas Eve!

 Mason and I drove up to Jerome with Aunt Aubree.  Boompa and Oma Russell came to pick her up and have a visit with him. He loves seeing them, and especially loves grabbing Grandpa's glasses! The cute owl hat is a gift from Aubree from Argentina! 

No opening presents before Christmas Mr. Mason!

He also had a visit with Santa Claus this month. He wasn't afraid at all, he patted his beard and just stared at him. 

My parents' neighbors have a horse, and we took Mason to visit him. He looked pretty amazed at seeing such a large animal, but he wasn't afraid! He reached out to pat his nose. Pam, this picture is for you. :) 

And our big news...Mason is CRAWLING!!

Decorating for Christmas (I know, it's too early)

Trent is a good sport and let me put up the Christmas decorations a little early. (To be fair, it's only four days early) Mason loves all of it. He couldn't take his eyes off of the tree, and once he found this string of beads, he was in heaven.

So much fun. Mason also showed off his Ute shirt this weekend (even though it did not help them win). I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! 

9 months (cont)

 Hanging out with his best buddy.

 It's so funny to put things on your head!!

He's getting to be such a big boy!

Halloween

 Cutest little crab ever! 

9 months old!!

Mason is nine months old today. He talks to us all the time in his own babble, and can say Dada and Baba. (Still working on Mama, unfortunately!) He loves bath time and pulling on the dogs' ears, which they are sweet enough to let him do. He's not quite crawling yet, but he can stand with help and spins around in circles on his tummy. His favorite foods are applesauce and peas, and he loves his stuffed giraffe that he sleeps with every night.

Our friend Kathleen is a retired teacher, and she loves reading as much as I do. She has spoiled our little Mason by sending him a new book to open every month. We love getting books from her and we have found a few new authors that we love. We opened our 9 month book today, after Mason chewed on it for awhile. He was very excited about the paper it came in. I'm pretty sure we could just get him wrapping paper for Christmas and he would be one happy baby. His likes the roll of paper on the exam table at the doctor's office more than most of his toys!

Weekend in Boise

We recently went to Boise to visit family and friends. It's always a whirlwind visit, and we always want to have more time with everyone, but we love catching up with everybody and showing off our cute baby, of course!


We visited Grandma and Grandpa Russell, where Mason spent some time with them playing on the floor...

And tasting all of their toys.

 

 He also got his first haircut from Grandpa! Both Grandpa Russell and his father were barbers and Grandpa gave Trent his first haircut as well. Mason's hair looks great and Mason tolerated it well (mostly!). Thank you Grandpa!

After the haircut, we went to Nolan's superhero themed 4th birthday party! His parents were very creative and sewed each kid their own superhero cape.

They built a Gotham city with Batman cupcakes...

And even made super food!

From left to right- Captain America's shield, Green Lantern and Spiderman.


Mason looked pretty cool in his own cape.

 We also visited Grandma and Grandpa Barrus' house. Mason thought his cousin Abby's hair was so entertaining, and she was nice enough to let him chew on it most of the night!

He loves Grandma Barrus. :)



Ernie, Jackie and I also ran a 10k near Ste. Chapelle. Even though it was wet and very hilly, we had a great time!

We had to get a picture by the trees where we got married.


Thank you for the visit Boise! We hope we get to see everyone soon!

Boston!!

Trent and I just returned home from a kid free weekend in Boston to celebrate both of our birthdays and our anniversary. Baby Mason stayed in Jerome with Grandma and Grandpa. Although we missed him like crazy, it was nice for the two of us to get away for awhile! We saw a lot of very interesting historical landmarks, saw a Tom Petty concert, ate a lot of seafood, rode on a few boats and had a great time!!

We visited the Public Garden, where I insisted on finding the bench where Robin Williams and Matt Damon filmed Good Will Hunting. People had written quotes from Robin Williams movies all over it, so we had to contribute by writing "Beeee yourself!" He has always been one of my favorite actors and it was neat to see how many other people loved him as well.

These are the duckling statues from the childrens book "Make Way for Ducklings," which is based in Boston. 

We also visited the Cheers bar! The set is upstairs and there is an actual bar and restaurant downstairs, which used to be called Bull and Finch Pub. That was where the producers met before they created the show and based the setting for the show on that pub. 

The second day of our trip we did the Freedom Trail, which is a 2.5 mile self guided tour of all of the historical landmarks throughout the city. Right next to our hotel was the site of the first public school in the US. 

This picture was taken inside the Old South Meeting house. This is where the Sons of Liberty would meet to plan different events leading up to the Revolutionary War, such as the organization of the Boston Tea Party and to protest the Boston Massacre. It was also where Benjamin Franklin was baptized and where George Washington spoke after the end of the war. 

This is the Old State House, where the government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was located following the war. It is also where the Boston Massacre occurred, and following the evacuation of British troops, where the Declaration of Independence was first read to the people.

This picture is from the balcony of the Old State House, where the Declaration of Independence was read.  The circle on the ground is supposed to mark the place where the Boston Massacre happened. Actually, it would have been closer to the entrance of the Bank of America building across the street, the bank just didn't want to put a landmark there, so it was moved near the State House! This is where five citizens were killed after a stand off with British troops. 

Trent and Paul Revere....

The Battle of Bunker Hill Monument.

We also toured the USS Constitution, the oldest warship in the world! It's nickname is "Old Ironsides" because in the War of 1812 the British were amazed that their cannonballs would bounce off the side of the ship and not sink it. They were sure the ship had to be made of metal, so it got it's nickname. (the sides are actually made of wood)

Below deck where 500 men used to sleep.

The ship still sails the harbor once in awhile for tourists.

There were two cemeteries near our hotel- the King's Chapel Burying ground, which is the oldest cemetery in North America, and the Granary Burying ground. The first female pilgrim to set foot in the US is buried in King's Chapel and many famous people are buried in the Granary cemetery, including Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and the victims of the Boston Massacre. 

 Mother Goose's headstone.

 The combined grave of the Boston Massacre victims.

We took a boat to Salem, where a lot of their tourism is based on the Salem Witch Trials. Halloween is the huge holiday for them.  Over one hundred thousand people come to Salem to celebrate Halloween!

There are a lot of beautiful mansions there....

This was a wand shop, very similar to the one in Harry Potter!

Back in Boston, we ate lunch in Little Italy, which has 150 Italian restaurants in a very small district. We also waited in this huge line...

For this cannoli....

Which was delicious. Time well spent. :)

And of course, the main reason we went to Boston was to see Tom Petty play at Fenway Park! It was so much fun to see one of our favorite musicians play at such a historical venue!

Jackie Robinson's number.

We had such a great time!

But we were happy to get home to our baby.

And show him his souvenir.