I'm Really Behind.....

.....which is a common theme on this blog. So it's a bit overwhelming to start up again.  But, my friend Trisha Haws inspired me to start up again by posting her books she had printed from her blogs.  (Thanks T!  I needed that!) So I will start a bit at a time.  I realized the other day that Mason is at an age where he is learning so many things, and he says and does the funniest things, and I don't write them down. I need to start doing that.  I guess I will go month by month until I catch up!

I believe I left off in March....

Mason has become really good friends with Elliott Ochoa.  We are friends with Elliott's parents, so it has been a natural friendship for him.  They are only a few months apart in age, so it is fun to see them progress together.  Learn to share together, learn to potty together, learn about new siblings together...  We like to explore parks together, and have done a variety things here in Folsom with Elliott and his fam.  I think Elliott can be considered his first non family member friend.  He asks to play with Elliott a lot!

One of Mason's favorite things to do with daddy is vacuum.  I found one of these old popping rolling toys at the Between Friends Sale for $2, and it has quickly become a favorite toy.  As soon as Mason hears the vacuum rolling out of that closet, he is running around yelling, "my vacuum, my vacuum!!"  I can't wait until he can actually run the real vacuum.

Davis started crawling around at 8 mo. This seemed like forever to me because Mason crawled at 4 1/2 mo.  But I am grateful that he wasn't moving too soon!  Two mobile kids takes awhile to get used to.  We are loving how exploratory he has gotten though.  It is a fun time when they start seeing the world in such a different way!

Last September I joined the Sierra Moms Club so that I could get involved in some play groups with the kids and also to be part of the Babysitting Co-op group since I have no family around if I need a sitter for a short time and don't want to spend all our money (It's expensive here in CA!)  The Sierra Moms have a quarterly party for everyone, and the Spring party was an Easter party.  The boys had fun running around with all the kids, and Mason was old enough now to do the Easter egg hunts.  He had a blast checking his eggs to see what treasures he had gotten.  Davis was just intrigued with the big bunny!

Davis finally grew out of his baby tub, so I got this baby chair that suctions to the bottom of the tub so he could still bathe with Mason without being drown from all the bigger kid play.  I am glad I got it.  It makes bath time a lot less stressful!

For the actual week of Easter we decided it would be fun to spend the holiday with family.  We packed up and headed to Utah.  On the advice of friends (Thanks Jenny) we went to baby animal days.













I must say that I had mixed feelings while we were there.  It was a lot of fun seeing Mason and Audrey get into the baby animals.  But there were a TON of people there and these poor babies were getting totally mauled by all of the children like mine that didn't really know how to handle them.  I think it was a good experience for the kids, but probably one we won't do again until they are older.

We were able to hit a couple of Easter egg hunts around the area.  We were excited to have Erin and Harper be able to come celebrate the holiday with us also.  Unfortunately for Harper, her head got in the way of a rock Mason decided to throw at the Easter Bunny (seriously, who's child is he?)  She is not scared of the Easter Bunny, she's mad at the 2 year old that continues to torment her every time they are together.

Chris spent some time fixing the very old swing set at my parents house, so that a new generation could enjoy it.












Which meant we were doing a lot of underdogs.  Over and over and over and over.....

We had a cookout Saturday night before Easter, and dad was feeling well enough to come sit out by the fire with the kids.  I am very thankful for the time I have had with him this year, and the time he has been able to spend with my boys.  Him and Mason seem to have a pretty special bond, which I believe came from my dad coming to our house right after my back surgery to take care of me, and help with Mason.  Mason's first word was "Gampa", and he seems to be able to communicate with him very well.  This was literally a couple weeks before my dad got really sick, so I am truly thankful for that time they had together to build a small relationship.  Now the time they get together  is just that much extra and that much more special.

Easter Day brought a great church service, and a fun time coloring eggs, and of course finding all the eggs that the Easter Bunny hid.  Which was WAY too many!!!

The kids all got presents from the Easter Bunny in the form of pajamas, and Swim Gear.  Fun Stuff.  Mason was thoroughly excited to get a pair of goggles like mommy and daddy swim with.

After leaving my parents house we were able to spend a couple of days with Paul and Susan Oddou, our best friends in Salt Lake, and hang with their new little guy Luc.  Mason calls him Lucky, and had fun being around a smaller baby again.

Lastly on our trip was to the Evans clan in Provo.   Oh how much fun Mason has with all of his cousins!  Since Davis was really on the move now, he was getting into all the fun Evans toys and crawling all over Will!

One night we went to the roller rink and Mason tried out Katie's scooter.  He was in heaven scooting around and around that rink!  I thought he would last 10 minutes, I had to drag him out and hour and a half later!!

Finally home with my three favorite boys!!!

When we got back we were able to celebrate Elliott's 2nd Birthday with him at the Railroad Museum.  Mason had so much fun.  He isn't totally into trains like I have seen other little boys, but as soon as Emily gave him his conductor hat and bandana he was very on board with the train idea!!

I just want to finish this post with a funny picture of Mason trying to make Davis stop crying by Nursing him!  Ha ha ha!  This is great blackmail material for later!!!

So that was our April!  More posts to come!!