A Belated Mothers Day Story

So I want to start out this post by apologizing to every other mother that reads this, because apparently I have the smartest kid in the world! ;) He may only be 10 weeks old, but he knew it was Mother's Day on Sunday. Smart little guy I tell ya. He sleeps about 4 hours at a time at night, twice I got 6 hours out of him, but that was weeks ago. The Saturday before Mother's Day I did what I do every day.

He woke up and wanted to Dance:

We let him help us dress him:

He helped with chores:

Got some more exercise in his Jumper:

I gave him a bath:

We read him a book:

And we put him to bed:

Ok, I know this isn't a picture of him in bed, but I wanted you all to see how cute his Dr. Seuss bed is :)

Four hours later I wake up. To screams? No. To Silence. He is still asleep. Hmmm. Must be sleeping longer tonight. At six hours, I again wake up. To Screams? Nope. Still silence. Is he breathing? Yep. Hmmm.... By 7:00 in the morning I was having withdrawals!!! But he finally stirred at eight hours of sleep, so I scrambled up to go get him. You can see that maybe I am the one not ready for him to sleep all night without me :)

Has he slept that long since? Nope. He just KNEW it was Mother's Day!!! Smart!

Here are some pictures of the wonderful breakfast Chris made me (Also a smart move by dad, Mason must get it from him):

This is one of my favorite breakfasts from our old Hangout in Oceanside, Beach Break Cafe. It is called crunchy French Toast. I was in heaven!!

I also want to give a shout out to the best Mothers I know!!!

My own Mother:

She is the most giving person I know. She is always willing to help us in anything, and she supports us in what we do. I love you Mom!

My Mother-In-Law:

The Sweetest, Kindest person I think I have ever met. And she raised a pretty good son ;) I hope I can raise my son like she did hers.

And to my sister:

Jessica is such a great mom! She loves Audrey so much, and does so much for her. Plus she is ahead of me by 4 months and can tell me everything that I am doing wrong!

Also, to my sisters-in-laws: You are all raising happy, smart, talented, spiritual children. I am glad I have you all to learn from.

And a Happy Belated Mothers Day to everyone else!!!

Moab

We decided to go to Moab in mid April. Mostly because I had never been there, Chris was getting burned out at job hunting every day and also our good friends the Rotollos from Houston were going to be there! It was a lot of fun, and was pretty warm. It did rain on us a little the first day, but it was great. Mason, as always, was a trooper. At 7 weeks old he held his own :)

The first day we actually did a slot canyon by Goblin Valley. It was so much fun we didn't make it to Moab until late. But the slot Canyon was great! It rained a little, but not too much that we couldn't handle it. The only problem came when Mason had a blow out.....and we spilled our water on his extra clothes....whoops.

Family picture in the Slot Canyon. Mason always good for a ride...

I just think this picture of the slot canyon is pretty

This is the face of someone having a little too much fun.....wait a second, what is that smell?

Yes, my 7 week old is wearing a jacket and no onesie. I am a bad mom. I am changing his blow out on a rock, go to pull out the extra onesie, and spill my water all over it. Yep drenched. Poor kid. I know now to have extras of the extras. Hey, I am learning....

As I am changing the blowout, Chris and Joseph are trying to climb up the canyon to a cave.

In case you are wondering, they don't make it.

And another family pic photo op.

The next day we actually get to hang out in Arches National Park. It is pretty amazing there! We only had time to hike to Delicate Arch, and wander around in the Fiery Furnace, but it was great fun. And yes, a ranger told me while I was carrying Mason up to Delicate Arch that he was the youngest hiker there so far that day :)

Fiery Furnace was pretty sweet. Poor Mason was getting pretty jostled though, so we made it short.

Poor kid. Get used to it now.

And to finish off the pictures some random ones that I like:

Balancing Rock

Isn't the sky beautiful????

Cousins

Like I said in my last post, we love to stay with the Evan's Clan. Mason is also fortunate enough to be able to be so close in age to his cousin Julia. Here are some cute pictures of them playing one night we stayed at their house in April.

Julia wanted to hold his hand...

Do you love his Texas Longhorn pacifier? Ha ha ha. He loves to hold on to "Lawrence" as he sucks away.

Time to catch up!!!

Now that we are finally settled in Salt Lake, and I have a bunch of pictures to share, I guess I can get started!!!

First a post on our 38 hour road trip from Texas to Utah. Blah.

Here is a picture of Chris holding Mason the night before we left. I just think it is funny how his eyes are peeping out over Chris's shoulder.

The drive was not as bad as it sounds I guess. It was very nice that we had lots of stops to make on the way. The first day was the longest. We drove from Houston to Kansas City, Missouri to stay with Chris's parents. It was a lot of fun to see them and for them to meet Mason for the first time. Here are some pictures we took there:

A picture with Great Grandma Brown. He was having a hard day after the 14 hour road trip so GG was a little nervous as well.

A four generation picture. Too bad we couldn't get Mason to smile.

A picture with Grandpa Brown

While we were there we had Mason's blessing. It was sweet. Just me, Grandma Brown, Grandpa Brown and Chris giving the blessing in his parents house.

Next Stop: Denver. We were very fortunate to be able to stay with Chris's sister Lisa and our brother in law Stephan. It was so great to see them and to hang out with our niece Abigail.

Chris and Mason after an exhausting drive.

The next day was Easter and we drove to Provo. We were very excited to get there for many reasons: A) You gotta love the whole Evans clan, and they had new baby Julia that we had not seen yet, B) The Hills were there as well!!! We miss all of our nieces and nephews so it was so good to see all of them! C) The main part of our travelling was over. Phew!

Here are some pictures from Easter day with all the cousins:

Mason and Julia are 1 month apart exactly. It is going to be fun now that we live by the Evans's to see these two kiddos grow up together. They are fighting already....

Who knew these boys could be so gentle ;) ha ha just kidding Laura! I know they are, just not with each other!! Dan is missing from this picture, but we love those Hill boys and hope we get to see them more!

This little diva is our niece Katie. She takes after Aunt Laura I believe. ;)

Chris got all the cousins doing a sit up contest and push up contest. The Winner? Dan beats everyone by a mile!!! Great job Dan! He is the silent threat in that household I can tell.

After all of that fun, the next day we made it to Benson to stay with my family. We were there for a month. It went by too fast. But here are some other fun pictures we took:

Mason with Great Grandma Hansen. Mason loves going to Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's. We went there a lot while we were staying with my parents, and he falls right to sleep when Grandma picks him up. He also likes to stare and Grandpa and smile :)

We were also able to go to Wyoming and stay with Erin and Snug. Here is a picture of Mason and Chris in Jackson Hole. Brrr...cold. Mason is not used to cold weather!!

Mason's first road trip at 1 month old included him going to 8 states in one week! Not too bad at 1 month old!! He was in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming!