Happy 1st Birthday Little Man!

Mason 2 weeks old!

Mason 1 years old!My little man is a 1 year old today. He has brought us so much joy and over the last month or so his personality has really started to shine. I wasn't a blogger a year ago, so I thought I would tell a little bit about his actual birth day. Mason was due on January 16th, but having had a c-section with Abigail I elected to have another one with Mason. This was scheduled for January 7th. On December 30th I had a few signs that signaled I just might go into labor a bit early. I sensed this only because I had the exact same signals the day I went into labor with Noelle. Even though I didn't actually think it would happen (a schedule is a schedule), I did call my mother-in-law in New York to give her a heads up. She was scheduled to come out on January 7th. Most of the day I had braxton-hicks, because of course I was not in labor. We went out to lunch with some friends and then most of the day I laid on the couch. I was very tired and didn't feel so great. Finally at 10:30-11:00 pm I decided to monitor my "braxton-hicks", just in case they were something more. Well, the "contractions" were consistently 7 minutes apart. Since I was having a c-section I called the triage nurse to see what the next step was. She asked me to time them for another hour and if they continued to come in to the hospital. We ended up leaving for the hospital around midnight. I was monitored for 3 hours and had an ultrasound. The contraction stayed 7 minutes apart and did not dilate me. At this point both my husband and I figured I would be going home but then the Doctor came in to inform us they were taking Mason. Each time I had a contraction Mason's heart rate dropped and then the ultrasound showed my amniotic fluid was low. They felt it was better to get him right then. We made the necessary calls to my parents who are 2 hours away and John's parents who are in New York. Within 1 hour of telling us they were taking him, I was in the OR. Mason was born at around 5:30 am on New Year's eve. He was 7lbs 3oz and 19 inches long. My parent's arrived shortly after he was born and my mother-in-law was able to change her previous scheduled flight and she arrived early New Year's day. I was very blessed to have my mother-in-law stay with us for 3 weeks. Her and Abigail became best buddies. I was so concerned about how Abigail would react to this new little person in her home, but she did great. When I would feed Mason, she would climb up on my lap look at him, hug me, and then go on her way. She was curious, but never showed any jealousy. Noelle loved him instantly. She had reservation about me having a boy, in fact she was not happy about it at all. Just the other day she reminded me of that fact she said, " mom remember how mad I was you were having a boy?, well I can't believe I ever felt that way. I LOVE him so much!" and she does, she adores him. With Mason's birth our family is complete, he is a total blessing from God.

Happy Birthday Mason, we love you!

Mason's 1st Birthday Party

Mason's birthday is tomorrow and so tomorrow I will be telling you his birth story, I know you just can't wait! This post is about his 1st party which we held on December 27. I sent out invites not really expecting many RSVP's, since it was so close to Christmas. I wasn't sure how much food to have so I bought a little extra. I knew for sure we would be there, my parents, siblings, nieces, my in-laws, and my friend Jennifer's family. As a bonus my two aunts and my cousin Gina and her family also ended up attending. I had just enough food and cake for everyone. I had planned on having the party indoors and for the most part it was, however it is hard to keep kids inside. Thank goodness for my father-in-law because he spent the morning cleaning up my backyard. It rained quite a bit here recently (something we aren't used too!) and many of the toys were filled with stinky water. Had he not done that, I don't think the kids would have been able to play outside. They really had a great time and I can still hear their laughter. It always amazes me how resilient children are because although it was a nice day with the sun shining, it was COLD. This didn't seem bother the little ones, grown-ups huddled inside with exception to a few brave ones.

Jennifer with her daughter Elsie

Jennifer's son Seth

Now, I am sure everyone will agree the best part about a 1 year old birthday party is cake time. What in the world will the little one do with the cake? We sang Happy Birthday and I gave Mason his very own smoosh cake.
I wish I could post a video because then you would be able to fully see how much he really did not like that cake. At first he touch the cake and wasn't quite sure what to think. Then he touch it a little more, made a couple of faces, and then tasted what was on his hands. At this point when my two other children had their first birthday they dug into their cakes, not Mason. He actually seemed to get mad and started to swipe away the cake, and each time he did this he seemed to get more frustrated that the cake was still there. Absolutely priceless! I know you won't remember this birthday Mason, but you had a great time!
As a side note I just looked at the clock and it was about this time last year I decided I just might be in labor.. more on that tomorrow. Goodnight!

Merry Christmas!

I cannot believe how quickly Christmas came and went. It seemed like Christmas use to last so much longer. We celebrated Christmas Eve at my parents house which is 2 hours north of us. We only stayed one night but I tell you half my house was packed up. Coming home was even worse with all the new items we all received.
We got to my parents a little later then planned and ended up leaving shortly after to attend Christmas Eve service at my old church, Long Beach Alliance. Generally during Christmas eve service there is no childcare so John and I traded turns watching the kids in the hall. ( I just re-read this and wanted to note kids are not excluded from service, it's just my kids are little and were being loud. It was better for them to be out playing around) Although I only got to hear part of the sermon and worship music, it was still wonderful to be in the presence of God in celebration of His Son's birth. After church we headed back to my folks house where we enjoyed some Chinese food and the company of my dear family. It has been a long time since all of the siblings and our children have been together. I think my mom was overjoyed!
This was also Mason's very first Christmas and the first time Abigail really participated in opening up gifts. I think both of them got pretty overwhelmed with all their gifts and the excitement of Christmas.
The best part of the evening was when my brother dressed up like Santa. Now the suit he wore was the suit my father-in-law wore for my husband nearly 40 year ago. Needless to say this was an old musty suit. I think the suit was disintegrating by the second. My brother is the best and played the role perfectly. He snuck out the back and knocked on the front door. Seeing him through an adults eyes was hilarious but I am not sure why the kids didn't head straight into our arms. The only one who booked it was Mason. He whined and crawled away, would crawl back, take a peek, crawl away and do it all over again. My brother was so much fun as Santa and although I cannot recount the things he said I can tell you it was funny. Mason got one of the neatest toys, here he is checking it out.
Mason was given one of the neatest toys and he hasn't stopped playing with it. Here he is checking it out.
Christmas day we headed back home to wait for my husbands parents who were flying in from New York. They were scheduled to arrive at 6 pm, however after sitting 4 hours on the runway the didn't get in until 11pm. They came over the next morning with many more gifts for the kids. Here is Grandpa Santa. One of the gifts Abigail received was princess chapstick which she LOVED and would not stop putting it on. I figured no big deal once it goes down to the base that will be the end of that. Of course I didn't share that thought with my husband who ended up showing her how to raise it... oh well she finally got distracted and I quickly hid it. I wish I had a picture of Noelle when she received her gift from her grandparents but I decided to film it instead. She got an IPOD touch which made her Christmas. The kids were blessed with many new toys. John and I decided to put several away and over the next few months give then a new one here and there. We also cleaned out many of there old toys to give way. It has been a wonderful Christmas, thank you Jesus for coming here to save us!

That's just how the ornament crumbles......

Abigail loves preschool and I love having her in preschool. When she walks in to the room she gets busy painting, exploring and creating. I am always curious as to what fun thing they will be doing and I wish I could stay and play too. One morning I walked into the class and it smelt so delicious. Ms. Jessica was making ornaments with just two ingredients, cinnamon and applesauce. She was using cookie cutters to shape them like gingerbread men, so cute! Now, Ms. Jessica has made some neat things. She really draws in all the senses especially eyes and nose. During Halloween she made orange and black glitter dough scented with pumpkin extract. She has made flubber scented with peppermint, this one actually looks and smells as if it was made with scope. I always look at these things and think I should do that at home. Well, finally I decided to actually put that thought into action. I was going to make the cinnamon and applesauce ornaments with Abigail at home. It is simple enough 1 1/2 cups of cinnamon and 1 1/2 cups of applesauce, so basically equal amount of each ingredient.
So Abigail, Mason, and I got to work. I mixed, and mixed and was overwhelmed with the wonderful scent. Mason helped do the measuring.
Okay maybe he just played with the measuring cups and ate Cheerios! Then, not know how the dough was suppose to be I continued to add a little bit of cinnamon here and there and Abigail helped mix it up with her little hands. Of course those kept making it into her mouth and why not, applesauce and cinnamon... yummy! I placed the dough between two sheets of wax paper and Abigail rolled out the dough. She absolutely loved doing this. She also loved the scent because she kept smelling the roller. Notice it is a crafting brayer, I don't actually have a rolling pin. We used different shaped cookie cutters and put a hole at the top of each ornament with a straw. We set them on cookies trays and put them aside for 48 hours. This of course is where I would should post the picture of our fabulous homemade ornaments. Notice the lack of a photo? Well, that little bit of cinnamon that was added here and there was too much. When they finally dried they just crumbled at my touch. Maybe I should have just followed directions! My house smelt like Christmas for two days, and Abigail and Mason had fun, so there is our keepsake!
This is a couple of bonus pictures from when we decorated our Christmas tree. This tree was given to us and I don't think we could have purchased one half as nice! What a beautiful blessing.

Sugar Cookie Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Sugar Cookie Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

I just love the things Kathleen creates! Maybe one day I will be the lucky winner of one of her creations.... heres to hoping!

Family Photo's Preview!

This past July I participated in a Picture Party. Tessa of Grin & Share It Photography meets up with playgroups and does 10 minute photo sessions with each child. I took Abigail and Mason to the "party" and the pictures were amazing. I can't get the link to work, but if you scroll all the way down on her main page to labels click on Princess Del Cerro, Mason and Abigail are the 7th and 8th picture down.

After seeing all the pictures I just knew I wanted to have her take our family pictures. We have taken family pictures at Sears and JcPenny's but nothing can compare to a professional photographer. The great thing about Tessa is her talent, how she captures the family, children, and she is also affordable. We met up with Tessa on December 6th at a beautiful park, Presidio Park. It was a beautiful sunny day and I had so much fun having these pictures taken. I am waiting to get all of our family pictures but she has a sneak peek of our session up on her blog: http://grinandshareitphoto.blogspot.com/
If you are looking for a great photographer then I highly recommend Tessa..

The Little Train Goes Chuga Chuga Chu Chu....

The majority of this post is going to be about our trip to Balboa Park and the San Diego Model Train Museum, however I did want to give a shout out to our Thanksgiving Holiday. We spent it with my family in LA and the kiddos had a great time playing with their cousins. I didn't get any post worthy pictures. Wouldn't you think my nice camera could have at least shot one nice picture... Oh well, I still love Turkey Day!

Just found from Turkey Day: Abigail aka Hannah Montana

Okay, on to our fabulous day at Balboa Park. Now this was a day (Saturday after Thanksgiving) that everyone decided to take a trip to Balboa. Parking was scarce and it was a good thing my husband was with us because he was the who had to park and park he did! I could not believe the curbside parking spot he go us. A tiny car pulled out and my husband eased us into that spot like it was nothing. I would have never attempted to park there and of course when we got out I looked and saw that there was plenty of space between our car and the other cars.. I need to get some parking glasses (is there such a thing?) Here is the kicker of the whole parking situations, there was a truck bigger then our van with a spot bigger then our spot that was trying to park just a few cars back. He was there way before us, and by the time he finished parking we had our stroller out, kids unloaded, and were heading for some fun. Hubby you are my hero!!
We stopped at the playground first where Mason enjoyed a few handfuls of sand, and several trips down the slide with mommy.

Only decent picture of me...

Abigail was a little bit timid at first which is unusual but then she too went out and enjoyed this great playground. Noelle was off at a table reading her "Twilight" book for the 100th time... (please someone tell me what is it with this Twilight phenomenon).

On to the Train Museum, I cannot begin to tell you how surprised and overjoyed I was at how much fun not only Abigail but Mason had here. The museum has steps the kids can climb up to see the trains and Abigail couldn't get up those steps fast enough. Each time a train would pass she did a little "chuga chuga chu chu dance" absolutely priceless.

Abigail enjoying the little trolley passing by

The "Chuga Chuga chu chu dance..

At one point the excitement was too much and she fell head first down the stairs. She was not hurt, but was sure surprised. She cried for about 5 minutes then went on into the playroom. This was the best and we spent a good portion of our time in this room. There were three train tables set up, plus blocks, books, and other toys. Mason got right in there with the big kids.

All tuckered out!

I have decided that I want one of those train tables for my kiddos of course finding the room and the money may be an issue. The trains on the other hand will be a little easier since my mother-in-law just told me she has trains she can send us. So once I get them I will post pictures. I highly recommend Balboa Park and The San Diego Model Train Museum for a family outing...