Musings by Catherine Yvonne

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

2011 has been an exciting year for the Russells!

We bought our first home the beginning of March and took the first step of doing what Marc has always wanted to do: real estate! We are now proud homeowners and landlords - we rented the apartment out within a month of closing on the house and moving in.

Having a yard has enabled us to grow a HUGE garden which we did using the Mittleider Method which gave us AMAZING results!

We also hosted a German exchange student, Hanna, for the month of August and took our first ever family vacation to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (home of Brighty, the donkey). Hanna was so good with Mason and Ellen and so fun to have around. I should have suggested we sew something the first week she was here because then we would have had more time to make more clothing items and accessories. As it was, Hanna sewed a very cute skirt and scarf and I made a scarf for myself and shorts for Mason.

Mason: started speech therapy in April and we can finally understand everything he says. He is also a budding photographer and catches some of the best pictures of Ellen on the digital camera! He knows how to spell his first and last name and is excited to learn! He is going to start Taekwondo next month to direct his active and competitive traits in a socially acceptable manner and we are sure he will thrive in that environment!

Ellen: learned to walk this fall and is a very confident little walker. She has started using more ASL signs and speaking some words (”baby” means she wants her baby doll). She loves to explore and get into everything and to give kisses to her baby doll and Mommy. Being Mason's younger sister she is no doubt going to develop some excellent muscle reflexes!

Marc: still works for DHI and is currently the marriage and family Sunday School instructor. He plays raquetball a couple of times a week at work and invites anyone who is in the area to come and play with him! He is currently working on creating our first LLC (we are still trying to figure out exactly what to name it) and partnering to buy real estate in the Phoenix, AZ during 2012. Marc has also acquired some power tools and has found his inner Bob Villa and built a wall of shelves in the garage. When it warms up again he is going to build himself a work bench and a place to store all the tools and continue insulating the garage and building more shelves. He's also decided that it would be good to get a couple of hens - now we just have to wait until we get the rest of the chain-link fence installed in the backyard that he and my (Yvonne)'s dad started installing this summer.

Yvonne: I enthusiastically mentioned to the bishopric when we moved in that I was currently a registered BSA leader in our last ward, that I attended Wood Badge last August and was working to complete my ticket. It didn’t take long to receive a calling to be the Pack Committee Chair this spring. I love it! Outside of my church Scouting responsibilities, I have discovered that, yes, I truly am a Scouter! From being on the Utah National Parks Council Cub Scout Leader Pow Wow Committee (from January - August), to starting a tenure as the Bridal Veil Falls Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner in October, to finishing my Wood Badge ticket in November, to allowing myself to be recruited to be the Dean for UNPC’s upcoming College of Commissioner Science in February, I have most definitely found my other calling in life (since motherhood is my first calling)! Marc keeps joking that I should get a job as a professional Scouter at the council office. I think that would take away some of the thrill of doing this for free. I am counting down the days (3 years 6 days) until Mason turns 7 because that is when I can start a Tiger Cub Den to share the Cub Scouting experience with Mason! The beginning of December I started taking Karen Tyler's online Montessori training program and I am so excited to start using this method at home with Mason and Ellen as our home preschool this next year.

We are so grateful for your friendship! We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year! We want to end this Christmas letter by sharing with you why we love the Christmas season so much. We know that God so loved each of us that he sent His Son as a newborn babe born of Mary in a stable in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago. That Son grew to manhood, preached His Gospel, which is the only pathway back to Heavenly Father. He suffered in Gethsemane for our sins and sealed his mortal mission with his death on the cross. Three days later, Jesus Christ, took his body up again and was resurrected and became an immortal, glorified Being - just like our Father. We know that He lives and that he extends the gift of eternal life to everyone, but it is up to us to choose to accept His ultimate gift to us.

A Gift to the World

Happy Easter!

2011-04-27T12:36:00.000-06:00

Happy Easter!

I'm lame - I had us all color coordinated and forgot to take pictures of us all!!! And then everyone but Ellen was changed out of church clothes after church... so I only have Easter pictures of Ellen.

And here are the awesome 'bird nests' my brother-in-law's mother made.

And the Easter Bunny himself - as a lemon cake. Yum!

And then some pictures of the little girls (who are only 6 weeks apart in age so I am sure they will be little buddies as they grow up).

Ellen eats A's arm...

They hold hands.

And then A starts eying Ellen's flower and was trying to get it almost the entire time - which is actually funny since A has one exactly like it since her mom (my sister-in-law) made Ellen's flower clip.

I just can't believe my little Ellen is almost 8 months old already! When Mason was this age I was preparing to take him to Europe for my friend Annika's wedding.

Pictures of the House

2011-04-27T11:46:00.000-06:00

Now that we've been living in our house for 7-1/2 weeks and are mostly moved in and the house is actually clean and mostly organized, I thought I would finally take some pictures and post them all for my curious friends.

The Master Bedroom

Repainting the bench is on my list of projects to do, as is making some pillow shams for the bed.

I forgot to take a picture looking towards the other side of the room - I have this beautiful painting Marc's grandmother painted of pink poppies.

The Bathroom (the first picture is taken from the master bedroom)

The awesome toilet seat we bought!

For child use

For adult use

The Kids' Bedroom

Mason's bed is obviously the bottom bunk. I made a duvet cover out of the Mario Kart flat sheet and a cream flat sheet I wasn't using anymore. Mason LOVES his 'cars' bedding - and that his name is on his bed in between the cars. I cut both out with my Cricut Expression. He likes to spell his name a lot. "M-A-S-O-N"

The crib... I still need to make a crib skirt and bumper to match the quilt Kjersti made for Ellen.

My sister-in-law gave me this vinyl wall quote and I decided to put all the baby pictures around it. I still need to buy more Command Damage-Free Hanging strips so I can finish putting the pictures up around the quote and the 2nd row on the right side.

Ellen's name. I cut the roses out using the 50 States cartridge and New York's state flower is the Rose. I then had to paint the white on where the cuts were since you can't see the detail cuts very well even close up. I have a print I bought on Etsy from sarahjanestudios I am going to frame and hang up above the picture.

The toy shelf

The Office

The Hallway

(I obviously still have some pictures to hang but I am going to spray paint the frames black first).

The Entryway

The Living Room

(Mason is watching PBS)

Mason is trying to pose (his idea) but he looked over at the TV at the last second)

And looking towards the dinette - but I was really getting a picture of Mason's little activity area where he likes to cut paper and practice his ABCs.

The Kitchen/Laundry area :D

My sewing corner and our food storage - most of which I canned myself!

The kitchen... with some dishes I still need to clean and put away.

Naptimes at our house

2011-04-27T10:28:00.000-06:00

Pretty self-explanatory picture of naptimes at our house on a Saturday afternoon.

July 2010 - Yellowsone: Day 5

2011-04-11T13:58:00.000-06:00

On the 5th day we visited The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and saw the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone River. It was a great day (weather-wise) and such magnificent views!

July 2010 - Yellowstone: Day 3

2011-02-10T01:43:00.002-07:00

Since we hung out in West Yellowstone on our 2nd day (and went to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center and the IMAX theater), I don't think we took very many pictures.

So we are moving onto day 3: Mammoth Hot Springs & the North Entrance.

In the 12 years since I last visited Mammoth Hot Springs with the German exchange students, it has started to dry up! It is sad to think that by the time Mason comes back to Yellowstone it will be dried up even more - but if there was one lesson I learned on this trip, Yellowstone National Park truly is a dynamic and constantly changing locale.

All the kids and grandkids - I just realized my brother-in-law Mike isn't in this picture, so now I can't even say it's the entire family minus my father-in-law who is taking the picture and my mother-in-law who is trying to get the grandkids to smile for the picture.

Since the North Entrance, aka Roosevelt Arch, located in Gardiner, Montana, isn't very far from Mammoth, we decided to drive out to it and see it. It is pretty cool to think that at the time these pictures were taken it had been completed & dedicated (by President Theodore Roosevelt) for just over 107 years.

Okay, my European friends can stop laughing now. I know this is practically brand new compared to the buildings all over Europe.

Marc's birthday... May 2010

2011-01-31T16:24:00.000-07:00

We spent Marc's 28th birthday with his parents, brother Rob and sister-in-law Christy in Oregon this last May.... if you remember that was also the same week my e-mail was hacked and an e-mail went out to everybody in my contact list (including posting on my blogs) that I was stuck in London and needed you to wire me money. Anyway.... Rob was so kind as to take us all out for Marc's birthday, to one of Marc's favorite steak houses, Ruth's Chris. Yummy!

New baby sister Ellen!

2011-01-29T01:20:00.001-07:00

Mason's first time meeting his little sister Ellen. After talking about 'baby sister' in my belly, he sure was interested to see what this baby thing was all about!

What a good big brother!

Mommy and Ellen (Ellie)

Baby yawn!

Super Grandma! Many thanks to my mother for coming down to stay with Mason while Marc and I were at the hospital for Ellen's birth and then to stay a couple of days to make sure I could manage being the mother of two children!

Marc always makes funny faces when Mason is taking the picture.

Almost ready to take Ellen home from the hospital.

Is Mason ready to have baby sister at home outside of Mommy's belly? We'll wait and see!

July 2010 - Yellowstone: Day 1

2011-01-29T00:49:00.001-07:00

We visited Yellowstone National Park this last summer with Marc's family. They hadn't been to Yellowstone as a family since the fires of 1988. It was a grand adventure and I definitely had pregnant moments when we were 2 hours away from Yellowstone and I realized I didn't bring the umbrella stroller. I realized much later that Mason still fits in the Ergo carrier and I SHOULD have brought at least that to carry him around in rather than our arms! Mason was a trooper for how much he was willing to walk around and Marc was such a good daddy to carry Mason around so much.

Here we are at Old Faithful. That was the first stop on our first day at Yellowstone.

All the cousins lined up on the bench waiting for Old Faithful to erupt!

"Thar she blows!"

Old Faithful dying down.

Cousin Joe holding Mason's hand as we took a little hike to see the other geysers near Old Faithful.

Catching a ride on Daddy's shoulders.

There are my handsome boys!

Considering I was 7 months pregnant and it's been 6 months since we were there, I don't remember which stop this was.... if you know feel free to post it in the comments section!

Jeffrey and the mud-pots. He really wanted to see the mud-pots. Unfortunately they were pretty dried up as they usually get in July - but no need to fear, we saw some fabulous mud-pots near the end of the week!

That evening we went to a dude ranch for a deliciously yummy dinner. Grandma, Grandpa, the pregnant ladies (Hillary and myself), Christy, Mike and all 4 grandsons rode on the hay ride trailer pulled by a tractor while Marc, Rob, Emily, Katie and Sissy (Chris) rode horses. At the end of the trail was a delicious BBQ dinner and a local cowboy musician as entertainment.

The four boys, Andrew, Mason, Joseph & Jeffrey

Saddled up for the ride back to the cars and then onto the condo for swimming in the pool and bedtime! Mason fell asleep in the car on the way back.

Mason the Photographer

2011-01-28T23:47:00.000-07:00

I realized when I got onto update the blog that most of the pictures on our camera are ones that Mason has taken.... and Marc has deleted many of the 'bad' photographs Mason took (too close up to even tell what the item is, blurry because he wasn't holding the camera still, etc)... so I thought it would be fitting to showcase pictures our budding photographer has taken. Although he broke our camera a couple of months ago so I really should invest the $50 in one of those kid digital cameras his cousins Joe & Andrew have (that he LOVES to play with whenever we go over to their house).

Silly Mason!

2011-01-28T23:38:00.001-07:00

Mason likes to help with the dishes. I think he's rather kind of silly. These pictures were actually taken 31 March 2010.... yes I am very slow at updating my blog. I would compare myself to molasses going uphill in winter... up a VERY steep hill, more like a mountain.

Rather than try to do the impossible (update the entire last year and a half which I obviously didn't do at all this last year), I am only going to post highlights of the last year and try to actually make this blog CURRENT on our cute little family with the latest addition of Ellie!

Why so quick to 'judge' others?

2010-12-01T01:40:00.004-07:00

*Edited to focus more on what I learned and not so much on the back story that triggered the 'ah-ha' moment for me.

I recently pondered why the phrase, "Stop judging" gets thrown around so often. I've been accused of 'judging' others mostly in my online interactions with others (on facebook or babycentercommunity.com). On the flipside, many people I interact with in real life (in my ward for example) have expressed their appreciation for me NOT being judgmental of them even though others have made harsh first judgments about others with multiple body piercings, tattoos and substance addictions.

It has caused me concern that on one hand I am being accused of being judgmental and on the other hand I am being applauded for not judging - there is definitely an inconsistency out there and I wanted to figure out what it was.

As Marc was getting ready for bed tonight, I was trying to talk the situation out with him and he really just wanted to go to sleep so he wasn't really interested. It dawned on me that what I viewed as stating the obvious had been incorrectly construed by others as 'judging'. More correctly, in situations where it has happened, my accusers basically have said I was condemning (they used the word 'judging' when in reality they meant 'condemning') others for their actions when it was never my intention to condemn anyone!

First of all we are all at different spiritual levels and so I am obviously not going to hold some people to the same level I hold myself, (well... maybe Marc, but I would think that since we are spiritual equals I can hold him to the same level I hold myself to!). Secondly, despite anyone's current bad choices I know the Atonement of Christ is real. The ability to change and overcome weaknesses is possible through Him. Satan tells us otherwise. He tells us that we have no hope of repenting of past mistakes/sins/weaknesses. I know this because I experience a change of heart on a continual basis.

Marc went to sleep but I had to figure this out tonight or I wouldn't be able to sleep! It was too late to call my mom or my sister Kjersti - but there is always babycentercommunity.com and facebook! I posted a thread on babycenter about it and then decided to post this on FB as my status:

Yvonne wonders: when did stating the obvious turn into 'judging' someone or hurting that person's feelings???

and then I decided I should use a real life example of stating the obvious of a bad habit - but I didn't want to offend anyone for fear they would think I was judging them, so I used my own bad habit as an example. I think that as you read what I typed (which came to me as I was in the midst of typing it as my ah-ha moment) you'll hopefully see when it dawned on me why others perceive me as being judgmental when I am not.

If someone was to say, "Yvonne picks her nose" (which I do) I wouldn't be offended or have my feelings hurt. Embarrassed, yes... Ahhhh...
that's why - because it's something I know I shouldn't be doing anyway and then I would feel like someone thought less of me because they actually pointed it out. And since I'm a prideful person that embarrassment would then turn into anger/denial and I would then tell myself that they were judging me because they pointed it out to me. It's too bad my mom only points it out in the hopes I will quit doing it so that I will come across more refined in public. She was only trying to help and then I am quick to accuse her of being 'judgmental'. This is only somewhat hypothetical - insert any other undesirable behavior for nose picking and that explains a lot about why people get defensive when you are actually only trying to offer support/help for a loved one who is struggling with human weakness.

Such an amazing insight to understand for me - especially since repeatedly in my life what I have said or typed has been taken the wrong way. The only time me being blunt didn't offend people was on my mission and I think that was because the Spirit made up for most of my inadequacies.

Since I posted my thread on babycentercommunity.com, a fellow board member shared Elder Dallin H. Oaks' talk, "Judge not" and Judging. It is a VERY insightful article and Elder Oaks explains further the difference between intermediate judgments based on righteous principles which we are allowed to make and final judgments (or condemning), which we are NOT allowed to make as only God can make those judgments.

For intermediate judgments he said:

We all make judgments in choosing our friends, in choosing how we will spend our time and our money, and, of course, in choosing an eternal companion. Some of these intermediate judgments are surely among those the Savior referenced when He taught that “the weightier matters of the law” include judgment (Matt. 23:23).
The scriptures not only command or contemplate that we will make intermediate judgments but also give us some guidance—some governing principles—on how to do so.

He then went onto give guidelines for intermediate judgments - there are seven in all but I want to share the first two as they have been very applicable in many situations I have been in time and time again:

First, a righteous judgment must, by definition, be intermediate. It will refrain from declaring that a person has been assured of exaltation or from dismissing a person as being irrevocably bound for hellfire. It will refrain from declaring that a person has forfeited all opportunity for exaltation or even all opportunity for a useful role in the work of the Lord. The gospel is a gospel of hope, and none of us is authorized to deny the power of the Atonement to bring about a cleansing of individual sins, forgiveness, and a reformation of life on appropriate conditions.

Second, a righteous judgment will be guided by the Spirit of the Lord, not by anger, revenge, jealousy, or self-interest. The Book of Mormon teaches: “For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain … as the daylight is from the dark night.
“For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil” (Moro. 7:15–16).
The Savior taught that one of the missions of the Comforter He would send would be to assist in the judgment of the world by guiding the faithful “into all truth” (John 16:13; see also John 16:8, 11).

Ellie's birth story

2010-09-29T00:08:00.000-06:00

We are so happy to announce the arrival of our little Ellie! Two weeks later and we've adjusted pretty well to having the newest addition to our family finally here.... especially considering that she was a week late! (as is well evidenced by her peeling/flaking skin and the fact that she was so long when she was born 20-3/4" - both signs of late-term babies).

When nothing happened the weekend after I was due (we even went to the hospital that Sunday after her due date to get checked and nothing was happening), I called the OB's office on Monday to make a '41-week appointment' and the first thing the receptionist said in response was, 'You poor thing!' So I went in on Tuesday and when the doctor came into the exam room he asked me, "Do you want to have a baby tomorrow?" I said, "Yes!" Apparently he was on call at the hospital for the practice on Wednesday and as we learned later, he had about 6 of HIS own patients in there that Wednesday (I was the last of his patients to be induced that day... which is why I wasn't called to come in until 2pm - and they wanted me there at 2:30 to be induced!)

We had gone into his office Wednesday morning so he could strip my membranes to see if that got anything started, but I guess I must be like my mom and will need pitocin and for the doctor to break my water in order to get the consistent contractions needed to birth babies! Anyway.... stripping my membranes did hardly anything at all since I was 5cm that morning when he checked me and I was still a 5 that afternoon when they started me on the pitocin at 4:30. But that Wednesday was the date I had in my mind ever since I got my positive pregnancy test back in January and did the math - and my date was a week after the doctor's due date based on the first day of my last menstrual cycle and even based on the date of fertilization (people think it's weird when I know that - but when you are charting your cycle to get pregnant you do keep track of those things!) The entire week that she was 'due' it never felt like she was coming - and even Marc didn't feel like it was the right time for her to be born. So I guess Ellie needed to come on that particular Wednesday and no other because that date just felt like the right day for her to be born.

So on with the birth story.... I was started on pitocin at 4:30 and was at 5cm. At 5:30pm when the doctor came in to break my water I had progressed to 6cm. Yay! An hour later I had started to feel like pushing because the contractions were so intense but when the nurse checked me I was still only at a 6. I was so frustrated because I was trying to relax and breathe correctly as I was taught to do in my HypnoBirthing class I took when I was pregnant with Mason (and refreshed myself on during this pregnancy), but it wasn't helping. I begged the nurse to turn the pitocin off to give me some reprieve, but she was hesitant to do so. She said, "You're already 41 - 3 (41 weeks and 3 days overdue) and some women like that really need the pitocin." I countered with, "Some of my friends have had the pitocin on for an hour or so and it's turned off and then their bodies take over." So she said, "Okay, we'll turn it off for 1/2 hour to see if you progress."

After it had been turned off for a few minutes (and the contractions were still intense and my body was tensing up even though my head was telling my body to relax), I had Marc give me a priesthood blessing. Then I climbed back into the bed and on his own, Marc turned on my "Rainbow Relaxation" track from the HypnoBirthing CD I received when I took the class. The track is about 20 minutes long. I was really getting into it and was thankfully able to relax and even sleep a little bit between contractions (Marc will vouch for that since he heard me breathing so deeply it was almost like when I snore). The nurse came back in right before the track ended and when she checked me I had progressed to a 7! So she said she would keep it turned off.

After she left the room Marc started the track again. This time through was amazing for me because the last 3 or 4 contractions before she came back in I was for the first time able to see how contractions can be 'waves' or 'surges' that you 'ride out' until it peaks. I was also able to visualize my cervix opening like a rose with each contraction because I really did feel like it was opening.

So when she came back in before the track was even finished she told us, "The doctor wants to turn the pitocin back on." I was NOT thrilled with that prospect.

But happy day - when he came in and checked me, I was to a 10! I had progressed 3 cm in less than 20 minutes and was the MOST comfortable through those contractions then I had been when I wasn't progressing at all during the hour after the doctor broke my water and I was still on pitocin.

So all the nurses came in and everyone got everything ready and then he had me start pushing at 8:04 during my next contraction and had me keep pushing for the next 3 minutes - almost continually without any breaks. He and the nurses kept saying, "You're almost there" but I knew I wasn't since I couldn't feel Ellie's head coming out yet and I certainly couldn't see anything since they never got the mirror into a position for me to see anything! But apparently Ellie's head was sideways and the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck so he was turning her head and pulling the cord over her head during the time he was having me push. FINALLY after pushing for 2-1/2 minutes I felt her head start to come through and then I KNEW it was almost over since she was finally on her way out!

Then since Marc gets queasy about blood and stuff like that, I cut the cord. That's a different experience. It really is squeaky and tough to cut with the scissors. It was like cutting through chewy calamari (which is the only type of calamari - aka squid - I've ever eaten).

But she made it safe and sound and weighed in at 8 lbs 13 oz and 20-3/4" long - which is 4 oz less than Mason was when he was born but 3/4" longer!

I'm also happy to report that I only tore about a half a degree - so my recovery time was MUCH faster than it was with Mason when I tore to a 2nd degree. Thanks in large part to my friend Nadia telling me about the epi-no and my exchange partner Annika ordering it for me over there in Germany and then sending it to me. That thing works! I only got it up to 9 cm since the last week I was using it (the week she was supposed to be born) I only used it 4 times and not every night - so I know that had I gotten it up to 10 cm I wouldn't have torn at all. But I'm happy with my 1/2 degree tear since my recovery has been sooooo much faster!

I was nervous about how Mason would react to her once we brought her home, but he's been pretty good. He's loving and will kiss her at night after family prayers when we have him hug us and give her a kiss. He's most helpful in getting the boppy pillow for me - he LOVES to say, "boppy" as he brings it over to me. He tries to put the pacifier in her mouth and share stuffed animals with her when she's in her swing. He's most helpful in carrying his chair over to her swing so he can change the music/sound settings and turn the rotating mobile on for her.

So all in all things are going well. I took her for her two week appointment yesterday and she's already gained her birthweight back and then some! She was 8 lbs 4 oz when we left the hospital but yesterday she was 9 lbs 7 oz AND she's grown 1/4" so she's now 21 inches long!

Also, when they put her up on me after she was born, she latched on correctly almost right away to my nipple and was nursing correctly! She hasn't had a problem nursing at all - so that has been really nice as well that she's done so well nursing.

I've decided the only negative thing about her birth was the fact that she was born at 8pm and I didn't have any pain medication, so even though I was tired by the time they got me down to my room and brought her back into my room at 10pm.... I was still wired on the natural endorphins that I hardly slept that night! Mason was born at 1:30pm, so by the time it was time to go to bed I was ready to sleep and the endorphins had pretty much run their course. But even with that I can't complain. HypnoBirthing and the epi-no both worked! I'm so grateful I took the HypnoBirthing course during my pregnancy with Mason because it taught me a skill I can use during the births of each of my children.

Essentials, Necessary and Nice to Do

2010-09-21T23:31:00.000-06:00

As is apparent, I haven't posted very much at all on the blog this year. Much to some of my friends' chagrin as they want to see recent pictures of our little Mason. As this blog also was intended to serve as a place of my 'musings' I thought I would explain my lack of posting this last year.

For those readers who really know me they know I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (in other words, I'm a Mormon). In December of 2009, I was asked by my bishop (the ecclesiastical leader of our congregation or ward) to serve as the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. The Relief Society (RS) is the oldest and largest all women organization in the world and functions under the direction of the priesthood within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The motto of the Relief Society is “Charity Never Faileth” which stems from the first Relief Society meeting. The sisters were asked by the Prophet Joseph Smith to assist the brethren “in looking to the wants of the poor—searching after objects of charity, and in administering to their wants.” The sisters took this call to heart and became a society devoted to seeking out the poor and needy.

That was the first reason I started posting even less this last year. Then I became pregnant with our 2nd child and as was the case with my first child, I had really bad morning sickness/nausea. I felt my energy was better spent tending to my own needs and that of Mason.

Then in April, I attended a training meeting that is held every April/March the week before General Conference at the Tabernacle with the RS president I am serving with. At that meeting, the General Relief Society President, Julie B. Beck talked about how we as the sisters of the Relief Society need to prioritize our time so that we can be more effective in our various roles we each have in life.

She said that there are ESSENTIALS that should be done every day/week/month as appropriate. Things such as daily scripture study, daily prayer morning and night to our Heavenly Father, weekly Church attendance, and regular temple attendance as our situation permits (some people can go everyday, some attend every week, others attend every other week or once a month and others attend as often as they are able to travel to the temple if they live far away from a temple).

After we have done the daily ESSENTIALS, then we are to look after the NECESSARY things in our life, such as preparing meals & eating, housework, personal hygiene, budgeting, school, work, etc.

Then, after the ESSENTIALS and the NECESSARY are done, then we should allow ourselves time to do things on our "Nice to Do" list, which for me includes internet time (e-mail, facebook, blogs), sewing, family history, watching TV and movies, reading, scrapbooking, etc.

Sister Beck said that as we prioritized our time and made sure we did the ESSENTIALS and NECESSARY items first, we would be surprised at how many of the "Nice to Do" things we got to do.

It is true - when I have followed this prioritization I am amazed at how much I actually get done in a day and how much of the "Nice to Do" things I get to do - as opposed to when I do "Nice to Do" things first and then feel like I am a failure of a stay-at-home mother/wife for not having very much done in the house while Marc was at work. Or the fact that too many times I have gotten ready for bed and ready to crawl into bed at 1am and realized that I hadn't prayed that morning or studied in the Scriptures at all. And the Spirit says to me, "You had HOURS to spend on the internet and you couldn't make any time for your Heavenly Father today?"

The following week at General Conference Sister Beck gave this talk and again talked about prioritizing. "And upon the Handmaids in Those Days Will I Pour Out My Spirit"

A week ago Sunday we had a regional conference for Utah County where Elder Steven R. Snow, President Boyd K. Packer, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and Sister Julie B. Beck spoke to us from the Marriott Center at BYU (it was broadcast to all the stake centers in the area and the 1/2 million members who live in this 'region'). Sister Beck again talked about prioritizing. The comment that was most biting to me (as something I felt the Lord was specifically telling me I needed to change about myself) was, "I am concerned about the young mothers. The time spent on the computer is time that could be spent nurturing your children." (that's paraphrasing it, but it was something to that effect).

I realized that I truly did need to make a change in my priorities so that I don't neglect nurturing my children - for that is why I chose to stay at home: to raise my children and teach them many of their life skills myself.

So.... if I don't even get on here once a month to update the blog, know that it's because I am trying to do what is most important and I'll try to update as often as I feel I am able to without sacrificing valuable time with my God and my family.

e-mail account hacked

2010-05-22T07:48:00.000-06:00

Ack! Our friend called Marc today to tell him that he received an e-mail from my account saying that I was in London and needed money. My yahoo account has been hacked!!!! I have no idea how that even happens, although I probably should have created a sign in picture again AND changed my password from when I created my account.

And not only has my yahoo account been hacked and is now locked for another 24 hours, but my facebook account has been deactivated! So I can't even go onto FB and post and warn everyone to NOT send money to me in London because I'm safe in Oregon with Marc's family. Anyway.... now I've created a new FB account. I guess this is a good time to start over on FB.

Pregnancy...

2010-04-25T20:59:00.000-06:00

So since I was AWOL in posting very often on here during my first trimester, I may as well post a picture of my positive pregnancy test from the Dollar Tree. And since they work for me, why should I pay more than $1 for a pregnancy test, right? Anyway - I took the test 1 January 2010 and saw that it was positive - so that's when the picture is from. :D

And, here's our first ultrasound picture of baby girl!

I decided to forgo sharing the gender picture - you'll have to trust me when I tell you it's a girl since none of us (Marc, the tech or I) saw any male body parts. Anyway, since she couldn't get this stubborn little girl to move around to get a profile picture, we've got the frontal view - which really does remind me a Halloween picture since you mainly are seeing the baby's skull. But everything measured normal and looks normal. We are going to see if baby girl will give us a better picture next month when I got in for my appointment - the doctor had me go ahead and schedule a 2nd ultrasound.

"Just Right" sizes for Mason boy

2010-04-25T20:16:00.000-06:00

Here's a collection of some fun pictures we've taken over the last 4 months of Mason in some cool new spaces he's found in our apartment that are or were just the right size for him.

The first set of photos is from right after New Year's when our brother-in-law Mike brought us their old book shelf. Since they now have a 'library' in their new house, they needed a LOT more shelves to hold all of their (mostly Mike's) books - so they offered this bookshelf to us they no longer were using (I don't blame them, their new shelves look so good and as an interior design major - this bookshelf really wouldn't look good in the same room with all their other book shelves). Yay for free stuff from family! It came just in time as our old book shelf in the office was getting quite wobbly since it had a top and a bottom and this one is a solid one piece. Anyway - Mason thought it was great fun to play in until we started filling it up with books and wouldn't let him play in it anymore.

Now for the corner kitchen cabinet! Beginning of March we had emptied most of the bottom kitchen corner cabinet out when we were making home made ice cream in our refurbished electric ice cream maker - which is normally stored in the very back of the corner cabinet since we don't use it regularly. Anyway, Mason realized it was the perfect spot to climb into - it was just his size!

And now for the very most recent photo yet to get on our blog in over 8 months...

We bought a new bed from My Comfort (we actually bought it from one of their retail stores here in Utah) - and the foundation came in a box via UPS that we had to put together. We were a bit hesitant when we realized that we had to put together our own bed's foundation, but it wasn't too hard and even Mason found it fun to 'help' out. Plus, once it was all put together and it doesn't have a fabric backing on the bottom of it (as you can see in the picture), we can stack some of our short boxes on top of each other underneath the bed. Yay for more inconspicuous storage!!!

New Year's Eve Sledding Fun!

2010-04-25T16:46:00.000-06:00

Mason got to go sledding for the first time ever on New Year's Eve. It was even more enjoyable that he was able to go with his cousins Ethan & Lily! He had so much fun! The first time he was a bit hesitant, but then he kept getting on whatever sled was available (after we had walked back up the hill of course) to go again. A couple of times we got a lot of snow in our face and it wasn't so fun at that point - but brushing off the snow and waiting a few minutes gave him ample opportunity to decide he liked it to go again and again and again!

All decked out in snow clothes and his new Sorel boots and mittens and hat.

Cousin Lily make a snow angel :D

Mason getting ready to go with Uncle Shane and Ethan.

There they go!

Now Uncle Shane is taking both tots - Lily & Mason.

Mommy & Mason

Mason thinks he's ready to go by himself now that he's so confident with sledding.

Kay, Jordan & Charles!

2010-04-17T16:39:00.000-06:00

We were so blessed to have Jordan (Marc's best friend and former roommate), Kay (Jordan's wife and one of my best friends) and Charles (their son) out to visit us. Jordan's brother was getting married out here in Utah, so since they were coming out for the wedding, the decided to stay with us. It was so fun to have them here even if it was for only a couple of days. Mason and Charles got along GREAT! So hopefully they'll become best friends. And who knows, if Mason gets into the Chinese immersion program they have here in some of the elementary schools in Utah, then they can talk over Skype in Chinese to help Mason's Chinese get better (Kay is from Taiwan and so Charles is already bi-lingual and he's 6 weeks younger than Mason but enunciates so much clearer!).

Anyway, here are a few pictures from their 2 day visit. And happily, Mason and Charles got along really well!

Mason is really good at sharing his new car with Charles.

At Jay Dawgs.

At home with Mommy, Kay and Charles.

Combined Birthday celebration with Tia Kjersti

2010-04-17T16:28:00.000-06:00

We celebrated Tia Kjersti and Mason's birthdays on the same day while we were up in Idaho since they are both the same week because then my parents wouldn't feel like they needed to come down to Utah to celebrate his 2nd birthday. So here are some pictures of Mason opening his presents and/or with the person who gave him the gift.

Opening some cars.

With Tia Dantzel but since Mason wasn't making a very happy face, we had to take a 2nd picture....

better, but still not excited.

With Grandma and his latch board and puzzle of Jesus.

Cheese!

Smile!

With Grandpa and his tool box.

Yay!

Cheese!

There's my cute Mason smile!

Showing off their cars from the movie Cars they gave each other. Tia Kjersti gave Mason a Lightening McQueen and Mason gave Tia Kjersti Sally and Guido. He gave her those because when Tia Kjersti was a little girl her alter-ego name was Sally, and Guido because Guido is an Italian forklift who only speaks in Italian - and she served a full-time 18 month mission in Italy. Tia Kjersti still hasn't seen the movie, but we know she will understand Guido when she does see it!

Christmas from Mason's Perspective

2010-04-17T16:10:00.000-06:00

Daddy helped Mason take some pictures on Christmas morning - so this is all from his eye!

The Christmas tree and angel

Tia Kjersti and presents

Mason's foot and leg

Daddy & Me - and yes the camera is upside down.

Mason's leg & foot, Tia Kjersti and more presents.

Grandpa reading the comic section of the paper.

More presents and the tree.

Daddy's stocking and goodies.

Even more presents!!!!

Some presents already open and it looks like some birthday presents Mason gets to open the next day to celebrate a combined birthday party with Tia Kjersti. That post to come......

Christmas

2010-04-16T14:33:00.000-06:00

As I stated in my previous post, I'm trying to get caught up since until today, it's been at least 2 months since I last posted. So here are some Christmas pictures!

At Aunt Hillary & Uncle Mike's house a few days before Christmas since we would be in Idaho for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Andrew really liked the large Melissa and Doug animal floor puzzle we gave him. This kid is amazing that at 2-1/2 he can easily do puzzles!!!

Mason opening up a present from his Aunt Hillary, Uncle Mike and cousins - with Daddy's help of course.

Up in Idaho at Mason's great-grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. We tried to leave early enough, but we still didn't get to Rexburg until 7:30/8pm. I'm so glad everyone was okay waiting for us until we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, rolls, jello salad, etc. After dinner, it seems to be customary for Grandpa to lie down for a nap. Mason decided to do what Grandpa did.

Mason with one of the 'bobby' dolls that great-grandma has had for years for her grandkids to play with. 'Bobby' is how he currently is pronouncing 'baby'.

Coming down the hall at Grandma & Grandpa's house to the Christmas tree, with Grandpa right behind him. I should point out that he's wearing Lightening McQueen pajamas that his Aunt Cissy (Christina) gave him for Christmas/birthday present a few days before at Aunt Hillary's house.

He makes such interesting faces sometimes! We're just taking turns opening presents in between waiting for Uncle Stuart to call home from Ghana for Christmas!

Sporting his new hat for the winter cold we get here.

Checking out the sweet book Tia Dantzel gave him for Christmas. Mason got a LOT of books for Christmas because everyone then gave him toys for his birthday the following week.

Just waking up from his nap on Christmas day. And yes, he really did fall asleep in this position!

Our package from Grandma Jeri and Papa Brant didn't arrive until after we got back to Utah and a few days after that. So here we are having our late Christmas (which also happened to be Mason's birthday) with the presents we left at our place (there was no reason to take ALL our presents up to Idaho to turn around and bring them back in addition to all the presents we got up there). So here's opening a present from Grandma Jeri and Papa Brant.

"What could this be?"

And another present for Mason!

Playing with a Lightening McQueen car and look, he got some Lightening McQueen socks!

Getting ready to open another present - this one from Mom & Dad

And this was the best face of all. Mason has learned how to make a 'surprised' look and it's so funny.

2nd attempt to visit Santa Claus

2010-04-16T13:11:00.000-06:00

Finally, some Christmas pictures! I'm afraid that we have slacked off on taking as many photos of Mason as we did in the beginning. Funny how that really is kind of true. We tried to go see Santa Claus again this year, this time with Mason's cousins Joe & Andrew.

I think he was more excited seeing the train go around since I still think he doesn't understand the whole Santa Claus part.

This is right after we tried to get him to sit on Santa's lap. He wasn't very happy about that but he tried to be brave and put on a smile when he saw the camera.

Joe & Andrew were fine talking to Santa Claus.

Since Mason wasn't up for talking to Santa, we went and played on the 'rides' in the mall. Mason had a great time even without us ever putting any quarters in the ride!

Bus Driver Mason

Cheese! He is turning out to be such a ham!

Playing on the train with Joe.

Miss Abby's 1st birthday!

2010-04-16T12:38:00.000-06:00

My niece turned 1 last November and here are a few of the photos from the family party.

I really love those chubby cheeks!

Such a cute face!

Abby, Daniela, Spencer & Connor.

Daintily eating her birthday cake. Mmmmm Yum!

Playing games with the family. Yay!

Mason my cutie

2010-04-16T12:25:00.000-06:00

So in an effort to try to get caught up (or at least closer to getting caught up), I've got a collection of pictures through the end of the year that I need to post because Mason's so cute!

Take this crying face. Even though he's quite upset about something - it's really kind of funny and cute.

Mason and I watched our neighbor's son one day a week while she and her husband were in class. In this picture, Mason is trying to get Calvin to give him '5'.

I LOVE this face!

Techno Toddler Mason.... he's obviously Marc's son!

It's almost scary how well he knows how to use our phones!

Daddy fell asleep but Mason's so cute sitting there by Daddy with his thumb in his mouth.

What's my name???

2010-02-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Have I told you all that while Mason can clearly say "Daddy" and "Cissy" (for his aunt Christina).... he still refuses to call me Mom/Mommy/Mama. Instead, I am Bo... as in Bo Jackson or bow or beau.

Kind of cute.... but I wonder, where did he come up with that name for me????

Happy Halloween!

2010-02-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

I am DEFINITELY making progress today! Up to Halloween! Woohoo!!!!

So here are some Halloween pix for your enjoyment.

I was going to make us all Raving Rabbid costumes, but ran out of time, energy and creativity, so instead I called up my sister-in-law to see if Mason could borrow Joe's dragon costume from a few years ago since her boys were going as Robots. She said 'sure' so here's our little Masonsaurus!

Spencer and Daniela hosted a fun Halloween party at their house with games, pizza and treats. It was so much fun! Mason was the only one who didn't have to wear a blindfold to stick the eyes on the jack-o-lantern.

"ROAR!"

Playing 'balance a ping pong ball on a spoon game. I am a pirate in case you can't tell.

Here's Connor and Aurora going at the game.

Apparently Mason loves to play in Spence & Dani's pantry every time we go there.

My scarf sure does bring out the blue in our eyes, doesn't it!

Halloween day we had our neighbors over for a missionary discussion with the Spanish elders and then had pizza for dinner and then we went out trick-or-treating in the late afternoon. Marc put on the Dragon hat to see if we could get Mason to wear it since he likes to do whatever Daddy is doing.

Our mythical creatures, a dragon and a unicorn!

Isn't Metterlin such a cute unicorn?

I handed the camera to our neighbors to have them take a picture of Mason helping himself to some candy in the basket.

This was even funnier in real life because it really looked like a little horse/unicorn walking up the stairs.

At the Taylor's house. This was the perfect Halloween picture. The only trouble was once they opened the door Mason just walked right in. Looks like we need to work on some manners with this child!

We went to all the houses on our street from our apartment building to the corner, but only 3 of them answered. So either they weren't home or they weren't expecting trick-or-treaters that early in the evening. Mason was pretty much done by the time we got to the end of the block, so we went and played at the park for a while. They both had a LOT of fun doing that. After the park we went to one more house and then went home.

Mason helping in the kitchen

2010-02-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

Mason sure likes to help me in the kitchen. I left the rubber gloves on the sink to dry and he pulled them down. I came into the kitchen and he was working on getting them on his hands.

Uncle Stuart's Farewell

2010-02-22T21:43:00.001-07:00

My younger brother Stuart was called to serve a 2 year mission to the Ghana Accra mission. He left to the MTC in Accra the end of October - so we went up to Idaho for his farewell, the talk an outgoing missionary gives in Sacrament meeting within a few weeks of entering the MTC.

Stuart and future missionaries Ethan, Mason and Connor

With all the grandkids - and possibly more future missionaries if Abby (Stuart is holding) and Lily decide to serve missions too.

Stuart and the next missionary to leave in our family, Ethan! We'll have to wait 13 years until Ethan is old enough serve a mission though.

Dantzel hanging out in the living room

Grandma, Abby, Stuart and Merrit

Showing my dad the knobbed cylinders I bought with my birthday money for Mason to use. You can see my post about it on my MrsTips blog to learn more.

Stuart is so grown up!

I think this is Ethan's Razor scooter that Uncle Merrit is helping Mason ride.

weeeeeee!

Last pictures with Uncle Stuart! We'll miss you Stuart!!!

Mason in his little suit

2010-02-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

My mom gave Mason a little suit last year, but since it was 2T and he wasn't quite a year old it obviously didn't fit, until this fall. It's so cute to have my little man in a suit, especially with him playing his little harmonica.

Mason helping me sew

2010-02-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

I was working on some sewing projects in September and Mason decided to do some of his own work.

Hat!

2010-02-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

When the Oquirrh Mountain Temple was dedicated, we took turns with Christina attending it (she went to the morning session and we went to the afternoon session). So.... while we were at the afternoon session Chris took these awesome pictures of Mason.

More 2009 Summer fun!

2010-02-22T20:15:00.000-07:00

More Summer 2009 pictures.... and then onto fall! Maybe I'll get caught up this week!

Mason thought that maybe the push toy would push him if he sat on it on one of our walks to the park with our neighbors Schmetterlin and Carina.

Trip to Cabela's!

Not so happy about the Elmo hat Uncle Mike was trying to help Mason put on.

Andrew.... who didn't smile for the picture we took of him. Maybe his mom or Cissy got a better picture.

Mason and Andrew checking out Andrew's birthday present from his Grandma Marion.

Papa Brant opening his birthday present from Cissy and us.

..... and it's Condorman! Brant & Jeri were actually in Paris when they were filming the opening flying from the Eiffel Tower scene - but they didn't know until months later when the film came out that it was their favorite actor - Michael Crawford (the original Phantom).

Happy 4th of July!

2010-02-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

The United States of America Independence Day.

I LOVE my country and the freedoms I enjoy. I am so grateful for the early Patriots who gave their lives so that I could be free from tyranny. I only hope I am valiant enough in my life to prevent tyranny from controlling my beloved country.

With that in mind, here's how we celebrated the 233rd birthday of our nation!

We woke up and had breakfast - and Mason is quite patriotic in his red, white and blue jammies!

We went outside and waited for the parade to begin - we're so lucky to live so close to the parade route. No parking hassles and walking long distances for us!

Shane, Lori, Ethan and Lily came to watch the parade with us.

Mason and Lily had a fun time playing with the bubbles!

We saw Marc's cousin Linnea! She served as a missionary in the Utah Provo mission but mostly in the St. George visitor's center. Since she was nearing the end of her mission she got to come up with all the other outgoing missionaries and be in the parade. It looks like the sisters got to ride on the float! (Linnae is in the greenish shirt on the right of the picture)

That afternoon Hillary, Mike, Joe and Andrew came over for a BBQ and to have our own little fireworks. They sure had fun playing with the sparklers!

Such a cute face!

Mason and Mommy

I think Joe is having fun!

Hillary and the boys

Mike & Andrew. I just LOVE the faces Andrew makes!

Aunt Glady's 80the birthday party

2010-02-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

1 July we drove about an hour and a half to attend Marc's great-aunt Gladys' birthday party. It was fun to see Gladys again! And her kids put together a few of her famous and beloved recipes to give to everyone who came to the party - so we were especially happy to receive those!

Coming back from getting treats!

Mason lounging in a chair - what a cutie!

He obviously enjoyed his desserts!

Gladys, Mason, Marc and Yvonne

Christina and Gladys

June 2009 Fun

2010-02-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

We did quite a bit during the Summer of 2009!

June we had a family reunion of my great-great-great grandfather and all his children. So being the family historians, we were sure to go. Unfortunately we got stormed out and so the reunion ended early and Mommy didn't get to do the spotlight on Daddy's great-grandfather that she had prepared. Maybe in 2011 she can do it.

Daddy's company paid for us to go swimming the day they had the company party. Cissy (who also works with Daddy) ended up not being able to go, so we took my friend Tryn and her mommy. We forgot to take pictures until we had gotten out of the pool and went back to the dressing room. Do you like my lime green diaper Mommy made me?

We went to Daddy's company party.

We went to Mommy's 10 year reunion and saw her best friend Barrie!

While we were in Idaho, we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa and Tia Kjersti was visiting too! She helped me swing on the swing!

Happy 19th Birthday Stuart -The Surprise Party!

2010-02-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

TOTALLY belated posting - but I thought I may as well get this pictures up on the blog since there are some cute ones!

Since you only turn 19 once, I thought we needed to have a little surprise party for Stuart with his parents and Kjersti - but we had to have it a few days after his 19th birthday last June (like a week - at least we celebrated at Shane & Lori's on his actual birthday!) We had it at a park here in town and EVERYBODY was here before Stuart even got here. I told Stuart to come over on his way to do laundry since Mason and I would be playing at the park.... pretty tricky!

So here's Abby all ready to party!!!

The kids digging into their food! I think Connor is reaching for some cashews and all of them buy Abby have food in their mouths!

Stuart's ice cream cake I made myself. I used cookies and cream ice cream as the frosting and filling between two layers of my mom's 100% whole wheat chocolate cake!

Stuart blowing out his candles!

Connor is just such a cutie!

Playing ring-around-a-rosy: Grandma holding Mason, Tia Kjersti, Lily, & Uncle Shane

And Tia Kjersti all cute for the camera!

Mountain Fun

2009-11-18T03:03:00.001-07:00

We spent some time in the mountains late summer/fall. The first trip was a family reunion involving my mom's family (cousins, aunts, uncles) up at the Heber Valley Girls Camp owned by the LDS church. It's a pretty nice camp with cabins - that probably makes for more comfortable girls camp experiences when it happens to rain. I remember having to pull our sleeping bags away from the side of the tent when it rained at Girls Camp when I was a teenager. Good thing I stuck it out for 4 years and was a Youth Camp Leader and got to stay in the lodge in beds with real mattresses my last year! :D

Anyway.... enough of my rambling - onto the pictures! We didn't get any pictures of me at the reunion, just Mason and Marc by the fire... My boys are so cute!!! I especially love this picture!

I'm pretty sure Mason is watching the fire in this one.

Then we went up to Great-Grandpa's cabin near Fairview! Lots of fun for little boys at Grandpa's cabin because there is a never ending supply of rocks (from the gravel roads) and sticks! Boys and their sticks, if they aren't out in nature with their sticks, they sit at home in front of the TV with a digital 'stick' such as a remote or a wiimote. ;)

Starting out on the family nature walk to Mason's Great-Great-Uncle Jim's house.

Mason showing off his stick!

What a good little hiker I have. Someday he'll be able to do 50 milers (backpacking trips) no problem!

Coming back to the cabin, but first he has to push these flower stalks out of his way!

Saying "Bye-Bye" to cousins Joe and Andrew.

I love getting toddler hugs on the camera - so precious!

Enjoying the swing set Great-Grandpa built.

Another family nature hike - there is no short supply of sticks for Mason to find and pick up!

Our family tree at the cabin. We etched our names in the tree on MY first visit to the cabin (so our first trip together since Marc has been MANY times before) and then under our names we etched in Mason's name for the date he came to the cabin for the first time (in 2008 when he was 7 or 8 months old). I still can't believe Marc and I are coming up on our 5th year wedding anniversary!

Enjoying the wildlife - the deer get pretty close to the cabin. It is always fun when we see them down in the meadow.

Toilet Surprise

2009-11-02T16:13:00.001-07:00

15 July 2009

I heard Mason opening the toilet lid and by the time I got to the bathroom to investigate, this....

is what I found. He was taking stuff out of the garbage and putting it in the toilet.

Mason styling in his suit

2009-10-26T21:02:00.000-06:00

So here's the link to another video where Mason is stylin' in his new suit from Grandma Jeanette and signing "please" and "I love you"

"Please" and "I love you"

Mason and Schmetterlin's duet

2009-10-26T01:07:00.001-06:00

Mason and his neighbor friend, Schmetterlin (German for Butterfly - her parents are from Argentina but of German descent) played the piano together this week and it looks like they are popcorn kernels popping up and down in an popcorn air popper!

Click on the link below to go to my YouTube video of it.

Mason and Schmetterlin

Boxes and Boxes!

2009-09-08T10:51:00.010-06:00

I don't remember where I was this night.... but when I came home Marc made sure I saw pictures of what they 'played' with Aunt Cissy while I was gone... sliding Mason back and forth across the kitchen floor in a strawberry flat (a shallow box that holds multiple containers of strawberries). And thanks go to Chris for thinking of getting out the camera to take pictures!

With Aunt Cissy

Obviously in the middle of a push from Daddy.

A small break for a picture.

Maybe Mason is a little too aware of the camera?

Giggle Giggle

Then.... since we had so many boxes around the house getting ready for Mason's cousins move to their new house (we were collecting boxes for them and then took a couple after the move to use ourselves).... Mason decided that they made for a great obstacle to climb in and out of and sit in.

Happy 19th Birthday Stuart!

2009-09-07T23:43:00.006-06:00

Again, I do realize that there is a bit of a timing issue on this post since my brother's birthday was in June and it is now September... but there you go. Anyway, we had a little family party at Shane's house ON Stuart's birthday with those of us that live here in the area (Spencer, Shane, me and our families...) Then later that same week after Kjersti had a chance to get up here from California, my parents drove down from Idaho and we had a surprise party for Stuart at a park.... pictures to be forthcoming.

In LDS-dom, when a young man turns 19, about 50% of the time he will choose to serve a mission if he is in good health. Stuart has chosen to serve a mission and he has been called to serve in the Ghana Accra Mission English speaking (yeah... he got his call well over a month ago). He will report directly to the Accra MTC the 3rd week of October, spend 3 weeks there and then spend the next two years of his life teaching the good people of Ghana about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are so excited for him! He will be the first grandchild of either sets of my grandparents to serve in Africa - the rest of us served in North and South America, South-East Asia and Europe, but so far nobody has EVER gone to Africa (my great-grandfather served a mission to Australia where he met our great-grandmother... so I'm including that far back of my direct line).

I still can't get over that he is really old enough to serve a mission, I actually remember him as a baby and toddler! I think that's why I sometimes call Mason "Stuart" and have to correct myself and call Mason by his correct name! Stuart and Mason are the same many years apart that Stuart and Spencer (my oldest brother) are... so I'm going to work really hard to make sure that Mason doesn't forget Stuart, like Stuart forgot who Spencer was by the time Soencer came home from his mission.

Here's Stuart and Ethan.

This is really cousin Lily's car, but it is Mason's favorite toy when he goes to his Aunt Lolo's house and the times that Aunt Lolo has watched Mason for me, she tells me that he stays in that car pretty much the entire time he is over there. Ah Mason... if only we had a house we would get you your own car.

And here is my sweet niece Abby. I love her large blue eyes! I just realized that all of my parents' grandchildren have inherited large blue eyes. They are so cute and at least Mason gets complimented on them all the time, as I'm sure his cousins do as well!

Mason LOVES the water!

2009-09-07T23:17:00.007-06:00

How bad is this... it's Labor Day and I'm posting pictures from the Saturday before Memorial Day! Probably not what Jordan had in mind when he e-mailed me last week to find out if I was ever going to update our blog. Ah well.... I haven't posted this pictures before and Mason is a cutie in them! This was the last singles ward activity we attended before Marc was released. The previous bishop of the ward (the man who was the bishop when Marc was first called into the bishopric but then was released 2 months after Marc was called in) has a long standing service project at a cemetery down here where the statues and memorials to the servicemen from that city are cleaned and the polished. He asked if the singles ward could do it again this year (they did it last year) and they willingly obliged. Afterwards, the bishop invited everyone to his home on the other side of town to swim in his pool he had just opened up and warmed up. Marc and I didn't bring our swim suits even though we brought Mason's, and only one of the singles actually did bring her swimsuit so she could go swimming... so here is a VERY happy Mason playing on the steps and then swimming with Julia! He is sooooo excited!

My brother's an MBA!

2009-07-12T00:16:00.005-06:00

and our camera rocks!

So my brother Shane graduated this last spring with a Master's of Business Administration (MBA) from the Marriott School of Management at BYU - which is one of the top ranked business schools in the nation, coming in at #29 in the top 50. You can read about it here

I'm super proud of him as he is the first one in our immediate family to graduate with a post-graduate degree. Yay Shane!!!!

Anyway... we were up pretty high in the Marriott Center's bleachers - but I pulled out our camera and shot some pictures of Shane at the highest zoom. So here you go (and I have no idea who he is shaking hands with in either picture - but I'm sure he could tell you).

Shane was also in the choir that sang the closing song for the convocation. I think they sang "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy" because I remember thinking, "This was Grandpa's favorite song. It also sounds awesome on the cello."

A Duet by the Maestros!

2009-07-11T23:47:00.007-06:00

Also back in May.... we watched our friends' two children while they went to an interview with the stake president of the single's stake we served in. Incidentally, they were NOT our replacements in the single's ward since he was called to be the 2nd counselor in another ward within the same stake before Marc was released from the single's ward. Anyway.... Mason and E started playing on the piano together - and by the pictures, it really does look like they are either playing a duet, or Mason is teaching E a piano lesson.

"Press the key like this" Mason says.

"Yay for E!" as Mason claps his hands for his friend E's mad piano playing skills!

"Yay for us!"

Mason "Helping" with Household Chores

2009-07-11T23:25:00.006-06:00

Mason really, really, REALLY likes to 'help' us with chores. I don't discourage it because Dr. Montessori recommends that children learn how to do chores. In fact, she says, they have a 'psychic' need to fulfill their own development to learn how to do chores and that by 'helping' out - no matter how much it slows the parents or caregivers down, it really does help the child feel a part of the family and household.

So here is Mason 'helping' to sort the laundry the beginning of May. I actually do let him help me load the clothes into the washer and push the detergent tray in and press the start button on the washer. Then he will sometimes help me transfer the clothes from the washer to the dryer and start the dryer. I get after him when he tries to start EITHER machine when we aren't doing laundry and especially when I'm not in the room with him.

And although I'm sure that some will think I am a reckless mother for letting my son stand on the stool by the sink.... well, I don't really care what you think. He likes to 'help' wash dishes and I don't really have room or money to create a small sink area for him to wash his own dishes in. Anyway, here he is on the 3rd of July - so about 2 months after the laundry fiasco.

And no soap, just water and a wet washcloth - which he then stuck in his mouth and sucked on. For the last few months, Mason has really liked sucking water out of wet washcloths. I totally understand that fascination, I remember liking to do the same thing when I was ten. Yes, I know I'm weird, but I will be the first to admit it!!!!

Faces

2009-07-11T23:07:00.002-06:00

So here are some pictures that Marc took of Mason a few months ago. I think he (Marc) was testing out one of the features on our camera where everything else in the background is black and white with the focal person being in color? I don't really know. I just know he went 'snap, snap, snap, snap, snap and snap' with the camera and got all these pictures one after the other.

If You See a Kitten

2009-07-08T01:00:00.005-06:00

We checked this book out of the library a few months ago (so this video is actually a month and a half old). Anyway, Mason was quite entertained when Marc read it to him!

Happy Birthday Bucko

2009-07-08T00:41:00.003-06:00

Joseph sings "Happy Birthday" to "Bucko" (Marc)

Spring Birthdays.....

2009-07-07T23:12:00.019-06:00

So since I'm so behind, I thought I would try to play some more catch up.....
Here are some snapshots of all the spring birthdays we've celebrated between our two families this last spring - minus our niece Lily's and Stuarts (I already did a post from Lily's birthday and Stuart gets his own post.... he did turn 19 years old - which is a HUGE milestone in Mormon culture, as he is now old enough to serve a mission. Speaking of..... he turned his papers in a week ago - so we should be expecting a call anytime 3 days to 3 weeks from now. Any guesses on where he will be called to serve for 2 years?)

Here's a great shot of Uncle Stuart and Ethan blowing on those party celebratory things (what are they called???) at our sister-in-law Lori's birthday back in April

Lily is such a cutie!!! This is right as we were getting ready to sing or singing "Happy Birthday" to Lori.

Lily helping her mommy blow out the candles.

And now we're into May.... Marc's birthday. So here's Mason and his cousin Andrew sitting at Mason's table. Mason looks so tan next to Andrew! I guess that's what happens when Marc and I have kids (if you haven't noticed, Marc and I both tan pretty easily - at least we did when we were kids and spent 80% of the day outside in the summertime). So Hill's kids get the height (seriously, Andrew and Joseph are off the charts they are that tall) and my kids get the tans.

Joseph, Christina, Stuart and Marc.... Happy Birthday Bucko!
(Marc's oldest brother started calling Marc 'Bucko' when he was 12 and it has stuck - all the nieces and nephews on Marc's side call him "Bucko" - of course I'm also called "Vonn" on that side, so often it sounds like this: "BuckoVonn")

Mike & Hillary enjoying the Pillsbury Funfetti cake I made Marc.

Ahhhh...... my husband is finally as old as I am... at least until I have my birthday in about 3 months. AND.... do you see the picture of Marc and I on the fridge in the yellow frame? We took that of ourselves the day we finally met in person - you know.... after writing each other for just over 3 years)

I have no idea why my face is cute off - but it's a cute picture of Mason on his daddy's birthday!

We headed over to the school near our house to play on the toys - so Joseph is getting ready to come down the slide.

Looks like Mason found an interesting wood chip there under the slide.

Cute picture of Joseph through the slide/tube.

Happy Birthday Connor!!!
Well, Daniela & Spencer obviously had a "Cars" theme for Connor's birthday - and they even had a pinata! Here's the birthday boy taking one of the first swings at it.

Then they decided that the kids could take turns starting with the youngest. That means that Mason got to go first! Go baby Mason!!!!

Here's Lily taking a swing at it.

Ethan took some good swings. Papa Syd made it a little more difficult for the older kids to hit the pinata by making it go up and down.

Anyway.... those are just some of the shots of the birthday parties we attended & hosted this spring. Happy Birthday all you spring babies!!!!

Easter Fun

2009-06-23T23:05:00.014-06:00

I know, I know.... I really should have posted these back in May at the latest.... but now that Independence Day is NEXT Saturday - I thought it was time I got caught up on my holiday postings!

So even though we have been serving in the single's ward on campus for the last year (we did get released mid-May), we still went to the married stake's primary Easter activity. In a BYU married stake, the Primary is the Nursery and they made sure to invite ALL the babies in all the wards and not just the Nursery age kids (which is 16 -18 months and older) - so 2 weeks before Easter (they couldn't have it the week before Easter because that was General Conference) - we headed up to the Church building to have some Easter egg fun!

The first thing they had us do (besides make a name tag for Mason and get him his own brown paper bag to collect his goodies in) was to give us a line-drawing of the empty tomb, rock and the Savior to color. We went and sat with the other families from our ward - which was the majority of the people there. Way to go 200th Ward to show support for the stake activities!!!

Then we all headed into the room next door where they had all the Easter eggs 'hidden' for the kids to find. It was rainy or they would have done it outside. Evie grabbed Big Mason James' hand and he in turn made sure to grab Little Mason Jame's hand. Apparently, Mason James is a quite common name for little boys born in 2007 with blonde hair. So much for having a unique name! {Although I did see a very unique girl's name on my mother-in-law's family history (her direct maternal line - so where her mitochondrial dna came from) that I think I will need to use if I ever have a girl - Zina. Pretty cool, huh?} Back to Easter Egg hunting.....

It was so funny to watch the kids 'find' all these Easter eggs and how long it took them all to collect all the eggs up. If you had 8 year old boys come into this room, it would be cleaned up in less than 3 minutes. But with this group of kids, the oldest was maybe 3 and then you had first-time egg hunters like Mason here, who wanted to play with or open the first egg he got and had no plan of moving on and collecting any more of the eggs laid out in plain sight.

He did understand the concept of putting the eggs in his bag I held for him though. That was good.

Reaching to grab an egg........

And in the mouth it goes.... he did figure out how to open them and get the candy out of the inside of the egg.

Back in the first room, trying out all the goodies he found. I think he's going to like candy now that he's old enough to eat it.

This reminds me of Derek Zoolander and "Blue Steel" or whatever all of his 'looks' are. It's so hilarious!

Ahhhhh..... yes...... plastic grass!

Sticking an entire something in his mouth... is that an egg? I should also brag that this very cute handmade green and blue cardigan sweater was lovingly made by his Grandma Jeri and it is so cute!

Easter Sunday

So ON Easter Sunday after our church meetings, we drove down to Marc's sister's house to have Easter dinner and a little family Easter egg hunt. So this was BEFORE we tried to take pictures of the boys in the previous post. I like how they are all wearing the harlequin on their sweater vests, and how Andrew and Joe match each other - but how Mason also seems to compliment their outfits with his brown harlequin sweater. I must say, I love Mason's smile of pure joy. He is such a happy little boy!

Somebody obviously is eating some of his Easter candy!

Once again we had a hard time getting Mason to pick up any plastic eggs at all. He was content to just sit and play with the one or two he found right off the bat - so we had a hard time convincing Joe to give us Mason's eggs (which were different than the ones Hill had for her boys)

You can't say we didn't try...

2009-06-15T01:08:00.011-06:00

Easter 2009.... Marc's sister's house..... trying to take a picture of the Utah grandkids for the grandparents. Not the easiest thing in the world to do with 3 boys under the age of 4 who have just been eating Easter candy and either want more, are bored or don't understand the significance of ALL looking at the camera at the SAME time and all SMILING!!!! I have a newfound respect for photographers who can actually get more than 2 kids to smile for posed photographs.

Mason getting away

Marc calls this one the "GQ" picture - that's right, we've got models for nephews and a son

Maybe they are signing 'candy'?

If only we could get all three to do the same thing at the same time then it wouldn't matter if they weren't even smiling!

I honestly think this one is my favorite of all of the pictures we took that sitting. We couldn't have posed that one if we tried!

AAGGHHH!!! Where did Mason go? Did he see some colored sugar on a stick over there? Where is he going?

Daddy putting Mason back on the sofa with his cousins.

With Mason back on the sofa, Bruiser is getting ready to take off.

On second thought... maybe I'll just hang out here for a little bit.

That was exhausting. How do professional child photographers do it? What is the secret to their success?

Helping Daddy

2009-05-22T15:23:00.004-06:00

So last summer the grid to our SFG (Square Foot Garden) was destroyed when our old landlords had to demolish their garage to pave a huge driveway into their backyard in order to comply with our city's duplex law (which they didn't know about until it was too late to get grandfathered in like the next door neighbors). We knew they were going to do it, but not the weekend that they did, so they dumped our garden, with its VERY expensive mix of vermiculite, compost and peat moss - (which cost us about $50 and that is a LOT of money when you have a tight budget like we do) I was very peeved about the whole thing since they didn't call us until after they had dumped it to ask us if we wanted to save our box. And the cage we had built to keep the neighborhood animals out of box (rabbits that ate our lettuce, spinach and pees to the cats who used our box as a litter box) had been destroyed a week or so earlier - without their son-in-law even calling us to ask us to move it. He just threw it away. We a block away down the street and they daughter and son-in-law were in our ward, it's not like they didn't have our phone number. Anyway.... we had to replace a lot of our garden this year, the cage was one thing and the grid was another.

So after heading to Home Depot back in March and buying some chicken wire for the cage and some wood slats, we headed home and Marc got to work drilling holes in the grid so we could attach it all togther with the nuts and bolts we were able to recover from the grid we bought last year. Mason decided to help Daddy with the drilling.

As you can see, Mason is quite the daddy's helper.

And here is our little SFG in the back corner, behind the dumpster on the weed lot strip at the back of our parking lot. The plastic milk jug is actually covering a plant I have planted in there (which hasn't survived since it just wasn't growing and then the bugs got to it, thank goodness my mom started broccoli plants since mine didn't do much this time around).

Adventures in Naptime!

2009-05-22T15:11:00.003-06:00

I like to sneak in and take pictures of Mason while he's napping.... especially when he's in interesting sleep positions.

So here's one back in March (he's got the BabyLegs on because I think that was a day we were attempting to wear underpants or I didn't have any clean pants for him to wear).

And this one was from this last Tuesday. I had put him down for a nap because he was acting really tired and it was time for his nap. I guess he wanted to fall asleep nursing, but I didn't let him - so I put him in his bed. He cried for a while and then I heard him get out of bed and play with his toys. Eventually things quieted down some and I went into check on him and found him like this! It's been a couple of months since he was too tired to finish crawling back into bed, so I had to take a picture of him almost on his bed. So funny!

Miss Lily's birthday

2009-05-22T14:19:00.009-06:00

So once again.... this post is LONG overdue! But there were some great pictures of my niece Lily and of course Mason.... that even though it's been about 2 months since her birthday, I'm posting them anyway.

It was a bit confusing because my sister-in-law's family were also there, and her sister has a boy named Mason.... so we referred to our Mason as 'baby Mason' (since we still call him that anyway) while everyone else would tell 'big' Mason when he turned to see who was talking to him, "No, they were talking about 'little' Mason, not you."

So here is the birthday girl Lily with her new haircut that is just so cute! Lori always dresses Lily up in the cutest outfits, and I love this white eyelet dress/shirt thing with the jeans.

I attempted to do Mason's hair, but I think it was way too long - so here's what he looked like. I should try it again since I just gave him a haircut this week or last week. Marc's sister thinks this hairstyle is quite fitting for "MM" or "Mason the Menace" as she calls him.

The rising generation. Mason played with a cell phone at his birthday party, why should it be any different at his cousin's birthday? This little baby is actually "Big Mason's" little brother... well, one of his twin little brothers I should say.

It almost looks like Mason is talking to Zoe... that or going to grab his bone.

I think Lily was quite pleased to get her princess barbie doll, don't you?

I think it's time for Mason to go to bed.

But first he'll say goodnight to Lily's new Cabbage Patch doll.

Christmas.... only about 3-1/2 months after the fact

2009-04-15T17:40:00.000-06:00

So yes... I just realized that I never posted Christmas pictures! Well this string of pictures actually starts on the 4th December at my cousin Becky's wedding reception - and ends on Christmas day!

This is such a cute one of Mason and his Grandma Jeanette - I don't think he's ever made this face since then!

Almost getting daring enough to let go and walk... but not quite. Instead it looks like he's saying, "Ta Da!!!"

I just love this little boy and his cherubic face! How can people not want to have children? I'll never understand.

So this was on 12 December after Annika got here. She stayed a few days with us. We went to the mall to take pictures with Santa, but Mason didn't trust this old man with a white beard. So instead he sat on Mama's lap while Annika took the picture.

We went up to Temple Square on the 13th. Annika had seen Temple Square 10 years ago when she and the rest of the Bernhard-Strigel Gymnasium students were over.... but Temple Square at Christmastime with all the lights is quite a different story!

Mama, Mason and Cissy (Marc's sister) in the Joseph Smith Memorial building (JSMB) - the same place we had our wedding dinner at!

Ahhh... family. The JSMB Christmas tree is always so gorgeous!!!

Playing with the Little People Ark that Tia Kjersti brought up. Christmas was still 6 days away, but Tia Kjersti wanted to see Mason open her Christmas present to him in person since she was on her way up to Idaho for Christmas break.

In Mommy & Daddy's bed, all snuggly and warm!

Modeling his snowsuit that he got from Grandma Carol and Grandpa Ruel. It's just too bad we never made it snowing this winter... oh wait, it's April 15 and it snowed today - maybe we should go today! ;)

Christmas Eve talking to Grandma Jeri & Papa Brant.

Christmas morning - and hamming it up for the camera!!!

Yummy! These new blocks are so tasty!

SUCH a ham! We were on Skype with my family and I took a picture of Mason with the digital camera so they could see how he was hamming it up just for the camera! Such a funny little guy!

Playin' at the Park

2009-04-15T17:05:00.002-06:00

So I decided that since we now have our new camera, I better get some of the pictures we've been taking of Mason up here for your entertainment. We've started going to the park on good days (today it rained and then snowed, so we haven't gone to the park in a few days) and Mason LOVES the swing. He used to like the slide more, but one time he came down face first and got a face full of bark - so he hasn't been too keen on the slide since then.

Enjoy the show!!!

My SUPER exciting news!!!!

2009-04-15T11:35:00.013-06:00

I FINISHED MY SOFA!!!!!!!!!!

Ha! You thought I was going to announce I was pregnant - didn't you? Nope, haven't jumped on the 2nd child bandwagon yet.

However... After four years, it is finally done!

We inherited our sofa & loveseat set from Marc's sister, who had inherited them from their parents. She had them for 3 years before she passed them onto us.

Marc's mom won this sofa set from a furniture store when she was pregnant with Marc. Funny story - her friend had been going into this furniture store to enter their in-house contest and she dragged Marc's mom along, who entered the contest just because. She didn't really care and did it just because her friend persuaded her to. And then she won them!

So they were definitely 'free', but they were also 23 years old when we got them.

As you can see below.... they had scratchy cream fabric which after 23 years of use in a family of young children up through all of Marc's teenage years (he is the baby of his family) got some wear on them.

(The cream sofa behind our lovely X-Box DDR models is the one I'm referring to. Our models are Kay & Jordan - this is back in January 2006 so this was a year before they got married... Kay didn't know Marc was taking the picture and she was looking at the TV screen and Jordan was posing for Marc.)

I could tell that the frame was good, solid wood (which surprisingly enough, most furniture today is made from particle board... even the expensive name brand furnitures - and I would know, I did work in furniture stores for about 2-1/2 years), so I wanted to recover it. We knew we would be inheriting these sofas when Marc's sister and brother-in-law moved into their new home (we were also moving into their old apartment... how convenient) and we moved back to Utah - so one day - probably spring break of 2005 - my sister and I headed down to the fashion district in LA. We both like to sew (hence our Swedish Sisters etsy shop in the sidebar) - so we were checking out all of the fabrics and notions that could be bought at way cheaper than the retail fabric stores (JoAnn's, Hancock's etc). And since I had thought about recovering the sofa and loveseat, we were also checking out upholstery fabric. We came to this one shop, which didn't really have that much - but they had this green chenille fabric. Marc really likes the color green, and so do I. So I got the information from the salesman, if I bought the entire roll of fabric (60 yards) he would sell it to me for $7/yard. He also had 25 yards left of this striped fabric that I thought would be great for a contrastring trim - and he would have sold that to me for $7/yard as well, but I figured I only needed 10 yards, so instead I got that for $10/yard. So total was $520, plus however much it cost to have it shipped - which I think it was close to $600. I had it shipped back to the house we were moving into back in Utah (our landlords are family friends of Marc's family and their son and wife were still living there, so we told them it was coming and he just put it in the basement apartment for us). Anyway - when I got back to Utah I checked out upholstery fabric at Hancock's and same exact chenille fabric in a different color was $22/yard - so I definitely got a deal on the fabric!

So that summer, July 2005 we started to rip the fabric off of the loveseat. I spent a lot of time making the trim - which I wished I had made the casing not as wide because I ended up cutting off about half of the fabric. I spent too much time making the trim because I had mistakingly bought upholstery thread.... upholstery thread makes non-commecial sewing machines spaz out and it got very frustrating to get all the thread looped and stuck and bunched up in the bobbin under the feeder foot. I also remade one cushion cover initially because I wanted to have a 'box' style cushion cover rather than the rounded cushion that came with the sofa.

Anyway - here's the progression of my loveseat, starting about 3 months after we had completely removed all the existing fabric.

6 November 2005

8 November 2005

9 March 2006

12 March 2006

16 May 2006

We eventually bought new foam for all the cushions - then then I had to remake the two cushion covers I had made for the loveseat because the new cushions were firmer or just a little bit larger that the initial cushion covers I made didn't fit anymore. But that was the loveseat. For the sofa I decided to make all the cushions first and THEN take the fabric off and put the new stuff back on. Well, I got the other 2 cushion covers made (I still had the ver first cushion cover I made, which was a bit too large for even the new foam cushions) - and I was going to make all the pillows, but then when I was still working at RC Willey, they were selling different accessories for way cheap (like 75% off), it was a different type of accessory every week. So I bought these red and green taffeta pillows. They were thin, but the pillow covers I had previously bought at JoAnns fit in them, so I replaced some of the thin ones and then the extra thin ones I doubled up in the existing taffeta covers. (If any of that made sense). I still need to take apart and resew the one cushion cover (it is noticeably larger than the cushion by about an extra inch) and I will still sew the rest of the pillows for the sofa.... but for all intents and purposes..... MY BEAUTIFUL SOFA IS FINALLY COMPLETED!!!! And all in all we spent about $750, so way cheaper than buying the same quality sofa & loveseat set from somewhere else. Plus, look at all the cool things I learned about reupholstery furniture!!! And I didn't have to pay for a class to learn how to do this. I just figured it out on my own... me with my mind that works more like an engineer's than an interior designers - gotta thank my progenitors for that one since my dad is a civil engineer and my maternal grandfather was a mining engineer and I have a dozen or so cousins on my mom's side that are one kind of a engineer or another.

I did just realize that I started this process about the same time my brother Shane propsed to his girlfriend (and now wife) Lori. That's a looooong time for a project like this. But I did learn a TON and mistakes I made on the loveseat I fixed when I finally did the sofa. I have about 25 yards of the green fabric left.... so maybe I'll make a beadspread & bedskirt for our bedroom and have it machine quilted someplace.

Anyway... it just feels so GREAT to finally have this project done - something that has been hanging over my head for the last 4 years. I even did a little victory dance and yell yesterday when I got it done before Marc got home from work. You can ask my brother Stuart - he was over doing laundry and helped me finish it up.

Follow-Up on the Spiritual Education of Mason

2009-03-28T16:59:00.002-06:00

Well we have some exciting news! Yesterday morning when I went in to get Mason and hold our morning 'devotional' and I sat down in our little reading corner, he reached for his scripture case... he knew what time it was! I guess doing it for 3 weeks has established it as routine for him!

Also, he no longer struggles against us when it is time to pray. He will let us help him fold him arms and keep them folded during the duration of our prayer. It is so exciting to see him progress and develop.

I'm sure that for some anti-religious people they will argue that this is unfair of me to suppress my child and 'make' him be religious or to conform to my beliefs. But honestly, don't all little children inherently know that God exists?

For the three weeks leading up to Christmas we read a scripture to Mason about Jesus Christ along with a picture that went with it and then left the pictures up on the wall in our living room. But aside from praying, we haven't been pointing out pictures of Jesus to him in our house and I hate to admit it, but I haven't really specifically talked to Mason about Jesus all that much up until a few months ago when we were in Mason's room (where I do have two pictures of Jesus framed and on the wall by his bed) and Mason started pointing to the picture and saying, "Gezus" (that's what it sounded like anyway). Alright then - how did you know or remember that one? I was shocked! And of course I couldn't get Mason to repeat it when his daddy came home, but he did it that one time. So I'm pretty sure that he still remembers our Lord from his premortal life.

The Spiritual Education of Mason Part 1

2009-03-19T13:48:00.008-06:00

It's almost 2pm and I don't know what I'm going to make for dinner tonight. So what am I doing? I'm blogging. Maybe I'll have an idea. If not, then I thin I'm going to make lasagna. We haven't had that in a while. In the meantime.... I'll share with you what I started doing with Mason as an early pre-school curriculum I'm gradually building up .... as I indulge myself in Mint Milano cookies from Pepperidge FarmYummy!!!

(While we're at it, can anyone explain to me why Marc gets upset when I eat all the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, but he doesn't mind if I eat Mint Milanos? They're both chocolate mint cookies aren't they? I'm so confused!)
Anyway... enough of my mint chocolate cookie fettish. I've already eaten 7 cookies today. Agh!

Those of you who know me well will know that I've been reading the Book of Mormon almost everyday since I was 12. After the 2nd time I read through it at 12, I would end up reading through it once a year. I feel like I really know the Book of Mormon, and I have such a great love for it. Also in my teenage years I read the entire Old Testament, the New Testament, the Doctrine & Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. The scriptures have been such a blessing in my life. Because of the daily scripture study, I have been blessed with numerous insights that have helped me when I felt troubled or upset. I have always KNOWN of God's love for me and for all of his children because of the scriptures. They truly do testify of his great love and mercy for us all, especially in the repeated prophecies of His Son's birth, life, death & resurrection.

So because of this great love I have for the scriptures, and because I like to really think, research and prepare for things years in advance (anyone remember me researching about cloth diapers before Marc and I were even trying to conceive? yeah - I like to do my homework), I've been trying to think of ways in which I can instill a great love for the scriptures in Mason and my future children as I have been blessed with. For my generation, reading scriptures as a family everyday (and having incentives to read through the scriptures on our own) helped, and were enough. But with the world becoming increasingly wicked and turbulent, I feel such an urging to work with my children at an even younger age. Once a child turns eight years old, they are no longer free from the tempations of Satan. Eight is the age of accountability, and as we are seeing with the increase in promiscuity among even elementary school age children, I can not afford to leave this to chance.

Well that's been at the back of my mind for the last few months, as has formulating a preschool curriculum to use with Mason when we start preschool this fall with 4 of my friends and their children. My friend Krystal told me about letteroftheweek.com and how she had downloaded everything on there for the actual letter of the week curriculum, and since I saw that my friend Linda had also started using letteroftheweek, I decided to check it out. I still haven't looked at the actual preschool curriculum, instead I browsed around the 12-24 month old category.

She had 24 lesson plans with each lesson covering two weeks (I guess you get two weeks off at Easter and then again at Christmas?). They really were some great ideas, but I wasn't ready to full commit to the full program just yet. I have to build it up and gradually introduce a new thing to the routine or I feel overwhelmed!

One of the first things I noticed was that she had a Scripture you were supposed to recite to your little one each day. Having this concern about strengthening Mason's understanding of the scriptures and his desire to study the scriptures on his own, I went to that section first. Each scripture was from the Proverbs, and like she said, "As your child gets older, continue to read from the Bible daily. I like to read straight from the King James Version of the Bible. For toddlers I have selected verses from the book of Proverbs. The wise advice in this book will continue to help your child get used to biblical language. They may not understand what is being taught, but as they grow older these verses will be familiar to them."

I can't argue with that, but as I looked each Proverb up, I felt that some of them were obscure, or weren't teaching the Gospel principle as clearly as I know other scriptures do. I also realized that if I kept reading the same scripture everyday for two weeks, Mason will eventually be memorizing them and saying them along with me (I know that children as young as 20 months or so can memorize scriptures with daily recitations, I saw with one of the little boys in the Nursery class Marc and I taught a few years ago do it).

Since it is a free country (well, at least for the time being it is), I decided that I could and would adapt it and use other verses that I felt were more clear in the topic discussed in the scripture. I went to the Church's Seminary site and began to look up the scripture mastery verses I memorized in high school (but because I didn't keep up on them, I've forgotten most of them verbatim, although I have a general idea of where they are located in the scriptures). I did this because I decided that I would rather have Mason start memorizing scriptures that he will need to memorize when he is older for Seminary or for his mission rather than all the Proverbs listed (although they are really good verses). And, these scriptures clearly teach eternal truths that I know will help Mason and my other, future children when they face difficult circumstances in life. But if they aren't in their minds to begin with, then the Spirit won't be able to remind them of those scriptures when they need to be reminded of them.

Really quick I'll share some instances found in the Book of Mormon of prophets who had this type of experience I am forseeing be a very real possibility in the lives of my own children. The first one is Enos, the son of the prophet Jacob, who was the son of Lehi - the same Lehi who left Jerusalem with his family about 600 BC.

Enos had been out in the forests hunting beasts (he was the 2nd generation of Lehi's descendants to live in the wilderness of the promised land) and he felt deeply troubled because of his sins, when he recounts, "and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into mky heart." (Enos 1: 3) These scriptures were brought to his remembrance and encouraged him to kneel on the ground and pray to Heavenly Father, asking for forgiveness of his sins, and once he felt he was forgiven he prayed for his people, and also for the people who were seeking to destroy his people.

The second instance from the Book of Mormon is the experience of Alma the Younger. His father, Alma the Elder, had a great conversion story and risked his life as he left his worldly life behind him. He became the prophet and high priest of his people. Well, his son Alma the Younger, and the four sons of King Mosiah (who was the last righteous king of this people) secretly went about seeking to destroy the Church of God. They instilled doubt in people's testimonies of the coming of Jesus Christ, of Christ's ability to heal them from their sins and other falsehoods.

One day they were out doing their mischief when an angel came to them and told them that they needed to stop seeking to destroy the Church of God or they would be destroyed - and that he was appearing to them because of the many prayers and fastings offered up to God on their behalf by their fathers, Alma the Elder and King Mosiah respectively, and also the prayers of the other members of the Church (so even though they thought they were being secretive, their parents still knew what they were up to).

Alma was so shocked that he literally fell to the ground and was in a coma for three days - the sons of Mosiah had to carry him back to his father's house. His father then again prayed and fasted for his son to come out of the coma - but this is Alma's depiction of what happened while he was in the coma: "And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world. Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlastin chains of death. And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain" (Alma 36: 17-20)

Once again, a young man recognizes the true source of deliverance from his sins as Jesus Christ - and that recognition came because he had heard his father testify OFTEN of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Back to the present - it was two weeks ago today (5 March 2009) that I was reading all of this preschool stuff and trying to find some Scripture Mastery verses that taught the same ideas the Proverb listed on the letteroftheweek. I had figured out about 12 scripture substitutions when the thought came to me, "Yvonne, just last week you picked up the 2009 Primary Program Outline from Church Distribution. They scriptures already picked out in that that goes along with the yearly theme. Why don't you use that? The work is already done for you AND the sisters of the General Primary Presidency have felt inspired that what is in the program should be the focus in Primary this year."

Duh! It's like I needed a "That was easy" button from the Staples commercials!

So I got it out and started going through all of the scriptures that are listed as the ones to teach the Sharing Time lessons on Sundays in Primary (a 1/2 hour time period when all the Primary classes meet together for a lesson before they go to their individual classes). Incidentally, the theme this year is "My Eternal Family" (you can click on the first PDF file link which is the outline in English, or you can click on the links to the other languages) and I forgot that not only is there a yearly theme, but also a monthly theme with an actual scripture for each monthly theme!

I wrote down each theme on different 3x5 notecards, and then wrote the scriptures for that month underneath the theme with the scripture reference. When Mason woke up from his nap, I sat with him, opened his nice leather bound scripture set his Grandma Jeanette gave him for Christmas and read to him the theme and then we looked up the scripture.

January's theme is: "I am a spirit child of Heavenly Father." The scripture that goes along with that is Psalm 82: 6, which the 2nd part of the scripture from the King James Version reads: "All of you are children of the Most High." Then I got out a little colored pencil and 'helped' Mason mark his first verse in his own scriptures.

Letteroftheweek.com actually suggests you read the verse to your child in the morning when they are most awake and aware, but since I didn't see a reason to put it off, we read it that afternoon. But the next morning when I went in to get Mason when he woke up, I decided we would start praying together in the morning and then reading our verse. So that is what we do. A week later I was studying the curriculum again, and she also suggests singing the same children's song everyday for those two weeks - but rather than singing a silly children's song (which we already do), I thought I would use one of the Primary songs.... and guess what! Those are picked out for each month as well! So the next morning when I went in to get him I sang, "I Lived in Heaven" (Children's Songbook page 4 - and now Mason is inheriting my little Chidren's Songbook I bought for my mission), I prayed, and then we opened his scripture case, opened up his Bible and read Psalm 82: 6.

Today is the day we change it up, and since it's been 2 weeks we started February's theme (we'll get caught up and start doing the month's theme during the actual month the last two weeks of April - then after we do May's the first two weeks of the month, we'll have to choose a different scripture to read everyday - but no fear .... there are lots of suggestions in the Primary program outline!).

February's theme is: "I came to earth as part of a family." and the scripture for that one is actual a modern-day scripture that was given to the world by President Gordon B. Hinckly in the General Relief Society Conference on 23 September 1995. It is called, The Family: A Proclamation to the World and is the first sentence in paragraph 7: "The family is ordained of God." The song that the Primary children were supposed to learn in February is "How Firm a Foundation" found in the LDS Hymnal, Hymns, no. 85 - verses 1 and 3. Since Grandma Jeanette also gave Mason a hymnal for his birthday, we now open up his hymnal and sing those two verses every morning (well, we will - today was just the first day of our new routine).

It starts our day off on such a happy note and I am noticing a difference in how I respond to him and how he responds to me. I really do enjoy this little ritual Mason and I do in the mornings (except praying - right now he fights learning to hold still while praying, but I know it is just a phase and that soon he will be asking to pray or say the prayer all the time as all children who are taught to pray do).

It is my hope that when Mason is a young man he will be able feel the same way the 2,000 Stripling Warriors, or Sons of Heleman did. They had been taught that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them, and as they said: "We do not doubt our mothers knew it." (Ama 56: 48) What a marvelous heritage the mothers of those 2,000 young men gave to their sons. Their sons knew by their mothers' teachings, examples and how the mothers lived their lives that their mothers knew God and trusted in Him.

So that's just what has been on my mind for the last couple of weeks. And now it's 3:35pm, Marc will be home in less than an hour and I STILL don't have any idea of what I should make for dinner!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T17:22:00.004-06:00

I learned how to do 'texturing' on photos in Photoshop today - so I thought I would make a little quad picture with these four pictures of Mason I took today (in his new green sweater from Grandma Jeri). If you want an easy tutorial to learn how to do texturing, you can go to SummerTime Designs. How to make your own digital grunge paper, how to add texture to your photos.

Anyway- these pictures are from the walks we take almost everyday. Mason just LOVES his walks, and about a week and a half after we taking daily walks outside with him pushing his little cart on the sidewalk for support, he gained enough confidence to walk on his own. That happened at the end of the 1st week of February. Now he's a little speed demon!

And just some photos I took of Uncle Stuart and Mason today when Uncle Stu came over to do laundry.

Then Mason heard the camera take the picture and so he turned to look! But still a very cute face!

Our camera broke!

2009-03-01T21:03:00.004-07:00

So I haven't been able to take very many pictures these last two weeks. Our camera broke! Thank goodness we bought it used 3-1/2 years ago and only paid $80 for it! The great thing about it breaking was that it is a Canon - and Canon has a customer loyalty program. You tell them that you want to 'recycle' your camera and then you can buy a refurbished camera from them for about 1/2 of what it normally costs. We decided that although we didn't need one of those super duper professional digital cameras (with the removable lens), Marc's sister Hillary had been looking at buying a Rebel, like his other sister Christina has. A Canon Rebel costs about $1,000 new and $700 refurbished. But if you buy it through their customer loyalty program, it only costs $300! I would think that 'recycling' your Canon cameras is the way to go if you want to upgrade your camera - especially if it is broken! So Marc ordered the 'new' refurbished camera and then Cannon sent it along with a FedEx shipping label with it - so all we had to do was to take out the Rebel, pack in our old camera in the same box and then place the FedEx shipping label on that baby and drop it off at a FedEx location! Easy as pie!
Hillary was also gracious enough to pay us a little bit more than the actual camera cost (since she was getting it for WAY cheaper than anywhere else!) that with what we had saved up in our "Big Buys" & "Computer" accounts that we had enough to buy our new camera already - and we haven't even gotten our tax return back!
Our camera should be here tomorrow and then I can post new pictures! In the meantime, I do hope that you enjoy the new blog layout. I redid my Mrs. Tips blog a month ago, but I hadn't yet gotten around to updating this one. I should really update it every season I think.... so this one is for spring obviously!

My Mom's cousin

2009-03-01T20:57:00.002-07:00

Everyone in my family already knows this, but I have been so impressed with my mom's cousin, Larry H. Miller, that I thought I would post a link to his biography on the NBA website. She & my dad came down yesterday for his funeral, and it was so touching the thoughts that were shared at his funeral that she shared with me.

I was going to attend, but I have been so exhausted this last week and I also hosted a cloth diaper making class at my house yesterday morning (which my mom had already planned on coming down for). I also was the last one to finish my diaper and that didn't happen until 1pm, and by then the funeral was already half over and we still would have had to drive 45 minutes to attend it.

Anyway - for those of my readers that aren't as familiar with who Larry H. Miller is, here is his bio on the NBA website: http://origin.nba.com/jazz/news/0809_larry_h_miller022009.html

Other Montessori activities for Mason

2009-02-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

For Mason's birthday present Marc and I gave him a table and chair set from IKEA (again - trying to do the Montessori thing allowing him to get in and out of his chair by himself - which he wasn't able to do yet in this picture but it was getting him used to it). It was $40 for the unfinished wood set. So I painted it black at my brother-in-law's mother's house (Rita). I've got to say, my sister-in-law Christy has the right idea about painting - spray paint is the way to go! It took me two cans of primer spray paint and another 3 cans of black spray paint. Word to the wise - don't buy the cheap $1/can spray paint at Wal-Mart. It doesn't cover nearly as well as the more expensive but better quality Krylon brand. Plus, Krylon has a different nozzle so that your finger doesn't hurt after 30 seconds of pressing the nozzle/button thing. Anything to avoid finger fatigue!

So here is Mason sitting at his little table eating his animal crackers.

And a very cute close up!

..........................................................................................................................................................................

Next up - Marc is building us a server and upgrading our desktop (so he bought new parts for the desktop and then is recycling the older parts into our server). He finally got some of the parts he needed so he brought it all out to the living room to exchange out parts in our computer and put them in the server. Marc had his little screwdrivers out, and Mason always being very interested in whatever Daddy is doing crawled over, picked up a screwdriver and started to help his Daddy. I don't think he realized that sticking the screwdriver through the fan exhaust holes was really helping - but he thought he was helping! And even though this isn't a Montessori activity, per se, it

He is so intensely interested in what he is doing - it makes me smile all the time to realize that Mason is headed down the path of computer geekery as his father and grandfather. Maybe it's that Y-chormosome?

..........................................................................................................................................................................
And finally, a wii story to share (get it, 'wee' story, as in short story? ah ah ah.... now I am turning into my father-in-law with my puns!)

I was out running errands a month or so ago and Marc had Mason at home with him and Marc decided to play some MarioKart. Mason has learned how to open the drawers in our coffee table and pull out all the wiimotes and nunchucks we have in there. I guess while Marc was playing Mason pulled out another wiimote and even though Marc was playing MarioKart as a one person game, when Mason pressed the button that made it pause it would pause the game for Marc. At first Marc was irritated with Mason and took the wiimote away and tried to interest him with something else, but Mason found the wiimote and did it again. This time Marc realized that he could get Mason to do what he wanted him to do without getting upset with him, so he said to Mason, "Good Mason! Press the button again." and Mason would press the button and it would unpause the game so that Marc could keep playing. Everytime Mason paused it Marc would tell him to press the button again and he would so that Marc could keep playing. Such a brilliant husband I have and what a great daddy Mason has! I wish I was that patient with Mason and could be that gentle with him instead of getting frustrated with him.

Mason's Quasi-Montessori Bedroom

2009-02-17T15:39:00.012-07:00

I've been doing a LOT of reading about the Montessori method after my friend Rinna introduced me to it last summer. The more I've read the more convinced I've become that this is the method I need to use with Mason and my future children. And lucky for me, Marc's mom sent me three of the Montessori books on my amazon wishlist for Christmas and with a Barnes & Noble giftcard we received from my brother Spencer & sister-in-law Daniela LAST year, we ordered two more Montessori books (used) last month. So it's been good to get my little library started.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Montessori method, it is based on 'following the child' and observing them and what they are interested in and then introducing them to activities or lessons based on what their interests are because they will learn more when they are interested in it. The other aim through Montessori is help the child form himself/herself into a self-sufficient adult. I read my friend Linda's GoodReads review of a book about the mothers of the latter-day prophets and how each of them did things to help train and teach their children to become self-sufficent. If this was something the mothers of the prophets did for their children, then it is surely something I can do with my children (teaching them to become self-sufficient).

I noticed right around Christmas that Mason would try to climb into his crib when he was tired. I thought about turning his crib into the toddler daybed but I was still worried about him getting into things behind the curtain (our storage area). So we started off the new year by rearranging his room on New Years Day. It is so exciting because now it doesn't look like a storage room - it looks like a little boy's room!!! Although it is most definitely not a 'Montessori' style bedroom now that I know what that is.

See all those little jackets and hats on the wall in the left-hand corner? That was a little coat rack we bought at IKEA for about $10. Dr. Montessori advocated that children have easy access to their clothes so that they can learn to get their clothes out for themselves and then put them away again.

The bookshelf that Marc's sister Hillary bought for him at a garage sale when he returned home from his mission and was back at BYU. I was worried that Mason might pull the shelf on himself, so top shelf actually has a back to it and Marc used the drilled a screw through the back part of the shelf and into the wall. We thought we might need two screws - but the one screw was all it needed!

A little reading/playing nook. Mason likes to play with the power button on the fan - and don't worry about him putting his fingers into the fan - it's pretty deep on either side to get to the blades and there is no risk of him injuring his fingers... just wearing out the button by turning it on and off and on and off and on and off and on and off...... well you get the picture.

His crib.... which turned into....

a toddler daybed! Of course I was worried about him falling out of his bed so I put the comforter on the floor right in front of his bed - and Manatee to break his fall should he roll out of bed in the night. It also makes for a good little cushion for me to lie on when I sometimes nurse him at night.

This demonstrates the other reason I wanted to turn his crib into the toddler bed - he would be scraping the paint off in the morning while waiting for me to come get him. The sad thing is that even AFTER turning it into the toddler bed so that he could get out of bed in the morning and at least play with his toys while waiting for me to come get me - this spot on the bed has gotten even WORSE!!! I finally put some cushion stuff on it today so that he doesn't make it any worse - but I'm sure he did it because he's still teething.

And here's my sweet boy asleep in his bed (he looks just like his Uncle Stuart and cousin Lily with his hands up behind his head like that). His first night in the toddler bed was the same night as his cousin Lily in fact (but I didn't know that until the next day when I called my mom to tell her about Mason's first night in his bed and she told me about Lily) which was the 10th January. This picture was actually taken the 31st January - so 11 days after he first started sleeping in it. He sometimes will fall asleep on the floor when I put him in his bed for naps (he gets out to play with toys because he doesn't think he's tired yet) - but usually it's on the comforter in front of his bed. It's like he was too tired to climb into his bed. I was going to wait until he could walk better before we put him in the toddler bed - but that week and half after we re-arranged his room I just felt like I really needed to have him start sleeping in his toddler bed, even though he couldn't walk by himself yet.

It has worked out really well - he crawls in and out of his bed so much and so well that he has really mastered how to climb down stairs (make sure he's going backwards) and how to safely get off the sofa and piano bench (and even our bed). So I'm really glad that I 'followed' him and made it possible for him to do something for himself that he felt ready for.

Mason's First Birthday

2009-02-16T00:43:00.014-07:00

Ahhh.... finally - photos from Mason's first birthday! Here he is right after we sang to him and I blew out the candle (I didn't even remember to try practicing that with him leading up to his birthday - well next year we'll remember to work on that so he can blow out his own candle).

I had looked up a recipe for a baby's first birthday cake thing and although I was glad to find a recipe without any sugar, I kind of wish it wasn't really a banana muffin recipe (that's what it tasted like... minus the sugar that is normally in muffin recipes). Oh well. Mason still dug in and loved the cool whip and strawberries on top!

He switched the fork back and forth between his hands a lot I'm realizing!

Playing with his puzzle from Tia Dantzel.

Tia Dantzel helping him walk while Lily is trying to cruise around our crowded small apartment on his little bike.

And our futile attempts to get a decent picture of Mason with all his cousins who made it to the party - from left to right: Joe, Ethan (Joe's new best friend), Lily, Mason and Andrew

This one makes me laugh because Mason's little butt looks huge because of his cloth diaper and he's the only one not facing the camera!

This is a great one of Ethan - it's too bad Joe and Lily are too interested watching Mason and Andrew with our cell phones.

And now none of them are even looking at the camera in the next two pix.

Next year I will definitely make sure we take the picture with the cousins first thing instead of at the end - when as you can see, Lily is already to go to bed she's cuddling with the pillow on our sofa!

Happy Birthday Mason!

2009-02-16T00:13:00.003-07:00

Wow! I can't believe our little boy is already a year - and of course I have been so very slow in posting lately. I just can't seem to pull myself away from my online friends at community.babycenter.com . But here I am... finally posting video and pictures for your entertainment! (Although I should warn you that Marc did a quick pan of everyone in the kitchen after we were done singing to Mason - so if you get motion sickness from watching a camera move all over the place.... well - you've been forewarned!)

Happy Chinese New Year - the year of the Ox!

2009-01-26T07:00:00.002-07:00

I made this Chinese New Year e-card with Summer Driggs' "Year to Shine" digital scrapbooking set - she makes digiscrap kits that are always free!

Mason's 1 year photos

2009-01-16T23:56:00.004-07:00

Last week, Carrie, a girl in the single's ward, took our family pictures and Mason's 1 year pictures at the Provo Tabernacle. Carrie is somewhat of LDS celebrity. First of all, she is drop-dead gorgeous model for Allyse's Bridal (I think the first company to design and produce fashionable, modest wedding dresses for Mormon brides) and here is a link to a picture of her on their website: Allyse's Bridal. And the other part that makes her somewhat of a celebrity is that she's been in a couple LDS movies... but don't tell her that I mentioned any of this to you. She's actually quite shy about it - and got all embarrased when I brought an Allyse's Bridal catalog to church to have her sign it for Mason. And now that she's taken his pictures, I can show him the pictures of her in the catalog when he's older and say, "That's the super cute girl that took your 1 year pictures!"
Anyway, she is getting into the photography business and she volunteered to take pictures of Mason for us. So that's what we did last Saturday. She has amazing talent and I just loved the photos she captured of Mason and also of the three of us. I also loved how she tinted some of them! I couldn't choose between any of them, so I just included all of them.
Enjoy the show! But be sure to pause my blog music player (to the left of this post) since a Jack Johnson song accompanies the slide show!

CPSIA isn't the only problem. Apathy is as well.

2009-01-12T23:27:00.000-07:00

I am so upset that the media hasn't mentioned this devastating effect of CSPIA - I can only hope that collectively as the voting citizens of America we can convince Congress and the Senate (through writing our congressional and legislative public servants: aka senators and congressmen) to protect the small businesses that contribute to our great nation.

And now, a word from a fellow outraged WAHM producer of handmade children's clothing/toys.

“Your outfit is absolutely adorable!” I heard a woman say behind me and my daughter replied with, “Thank you! My Mommy has a clothing business!” and I sighed. Sighing is not my usual reaction when I get a compliment for my work. The woman and her sister were very polite and had no idea that they had just brought to surface so many terrible feelings with their compliments, “You made her outfit? It's amazing! You really have talent and I've never seen anything so adorable.” They didn't have kids but talked about how they almost wished their biological clocks started ticking simply to shop for my line of clothes. I was completely flattered but almost muted because of the recent decision to close up my Immature Couture shop. When they asked where I sold my clothes I didn't have the energy to explain what was going on so I simply said “Online.” thanked them and went back to grocery shopping with the kids.

I want nothing more than to know that the toys my children play with are safe and will not cause them any harm. I understand the urgency to protect the children of this country from high levels of lead and stop the ridiculous recalls. What I do not understand is why these new regulations were passed with such carelessness that it requires testing for products that have virtually NO risk of lead contamination! Products like clothing, blankets, wooden toys and books! The CPSIA is essentially causing many small businesses that make products for children under the age of twelve to close up shop because of their haste in passing regulations that have an insane amount of loopholes. Congress decided that a problem caused by ridiculous and irresponsible mass-market toymakers should be solved with a solution that sucks in various other industries that are completely unrelated to toys!

Later on when the kids and I were checking out the two women approached me and asked for my business card because they wanted to tell their friends about my clothing line. I smiled and tried to explain to them as plainly as possible that as of February 10^th I would be officially closing up shop because of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act . Shockingly they were outraged that they hadn't heard of it. That they felt their rights as consumers were being taken away. That the deadline is so close and there isn't a media outrage over it. That more small businesses are being shut down and allowing the big companies to triumph. We exchanged information, I gave them my card and they said they would be writing whoever they needed to and be in contact with me. They weren't business owners who are effected by this nor were they parents but they were as equally outraged as most of us that have to close our shops.

The apathy that I have seen from the general public and even those that own small businesses and are not effected by the new regulations have saddened me until I spoke with these two women. They were absolutely right! This does not just hurt my business. This hurts everyone no matter if they have children or not. No matter if they have a business selling products to children under twelve or selling something that, thankfully for them, does not have to be burdened with the CPSIA. Why don't more people care?

I loaded up the kids, put my groceries in the trunk and at that moment it finally hit me. Something I started as a side business for extra cash in hand and as a creative outlet was taken from me. Just when my business started to take off it was ripped from my hands, discarded and no real explanation for it. I sell clothes. Not jewelry. Not toys. Not anything that has been manufactured overseas or injected with lead. I design, cut, iron, serge, stitch and package every item of clothing myself. To comply with these regulations each product I made would have to be tested which means each indicidual component of the garment would have to be tested for lead. A 15$ onesie now costs 400$ to make simply because of the testing fees! I put sleepless nights into marketing plans, helping Etsy teams and writing blogs to help the handmade market. There is no reason for so many of us to be swept out of the way because some major corporations wanted to cut their overhead costs and put MY children in danger. I stood there and cried in the parking lot. There is no reason why so many handmade artists look away at the pain so many of us are going through simply because they are not in the same boat.

Do something. The children in this country need to be protected but by regulations that target only the products that can cause potential harm. If you don't do it for yourself and your business, or your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or friend's kids then do it for the sake of what's right and stop being silent and a doormat in our society.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/economicimpactsofCPSIA/index.html

http://nationalbankruptcyday.com/

http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/

Mason's It!

2008-12-19T23:46:00.010-07:00

Mason got 'tagged' by his cousin Ethan, via Aunt Lolo (Lori). So... here are 5 things about Mason you probably didn't know (because I didn't keep a current blog very well the 2nd half of this year).

1. Mason likes to put things in his mouth, and sometimes he'll carry them around the house when he crawls, kind of how a cat carries her kittens from place to place.

2. Mason likes to play at Daddy's desk in the office. He will push the power key on and off on the computer (which is why 2 weeks ago we moved the computer tower on top of the desk), grab for whatever his hand can reach on the desk and pull it off, sit under the desk and play with whatever CDs or CD jewel cases are down there, etc. Lately, he has goes to where the empty jewel cases are pulls them off one by one and then stacks some of them back up again. I really think this kid is a techno geek. Gee.... I wonder which parent he gets that from!

3. He discovered that he likes peaches - even unwashed peaches with the fuzzy skin still on it. He got teeth and nothing is going to keep him from trying everything out by biting into it.

4. Remember the book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Well Mason had one of those days - well, it was actually all within a 24 hour period from 3 or 4 pm on the 21 September through to about the same time the next day.
We had gone up to Great-Grandpa's cabin to help them close it up for the winter. We were all done and just working on little things while Great-Grandma got lunch ready. Mason was pulling himself up and standing next to the furniture, and all weekend I had done a really good job of keeping him off the huge petrified wood coffee table. But this time I thought he was okay and I kept doing what I was doing, even though I had a prompting to grab him and pull him back. I didn't listen to that 'voice' or prompting and sure enough, Mason lost his grip and his forehead smacked a protrusion on the table. His forehead developed a really good-sized goose-egg very quickly from the fall and turned very purple & red. Poor baby! I felt so bad and it took us quite a while to calm him down. Thankfully the swelling went down quite a bit by the next morning. Here is a picture of what his forehead looked like 24 hours later.

Unfortunately for Mason, that was just the beginning of his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 24 + hour experience. The next afternoon Kelly came over to play and I was in the kitchen cleaning out the fridge. Kelly was 'helping' me and Mason was playing in the living room with his toys. All of a sudden, I hear Mason crying and screaming and crawling over to me as fast as he can - he really sounded like he was distressed. I picked him up and held him but I couldn't see what was wrong with him and I tried to comfort him which wasn't working. I couldn't figure out what was wrong.... until I saw the BUMBLE BEE crawling across my kitchen floor. I realized that the bee must have flown in through the kitchen door when it was open and I didn't see it. I started looking for the stinger and couldn't find it, all the meanwhile Mason was getting very red! I called the pediatrician and the nurse told me how much benadryl to give him (and I still couldn't find the stinger!) and then Marc came home. When Marc checked him again, he found the stinger in Mason's index finger on his right hand. The bee must have ended up on the floor in the living room, and since Mason grabs everything small, he must have picked up the bumbling, slow-moving bee in his right hand, it stung him and so he started crawling towards me with the bee still in his hand until he got to me and opened his hand and the bee fell out. Which explains why the stinger was in Mason's hand so far. I put the bumble bee in a cup and stuck it in the freezer before Marc got home so I could show it to Marc - and then I decided to take a picture.

So here is Mason with all his rashy, red face, head, shoulders and right arm - with his right hand all wrapped up so that he doesn't take off the bandage with the baking soda paste on it. He's a pretty happy baby for recovering from a bee sting!

5. Mason can do the splits!!!!

6. There is really only 5 things you need to share, but since he just did some of these things in the last week, I thought I'd add them in. Ever since we got back from Germany, Mason has been really good at pulling himself up while holding onto the furniture and walking along the furniture. Today (Friday the 19th) he was standing next to the coffee table at Aunt Rita's house (Aunt Rita is cousins Joe & Andrew's other grandma) and he let go of the table and stood all by himself! He will walk while pushing his toddler cart from IKEA that we got Thanksgiving weekend (and early Christmas present) and just yesterday (Thursday) he grabbed onto the back of both my pant legs and walked behind me. Also today, he clapped by himself for the first time (I of course was out in Aunt Rita's garage painting his birthday present, but he did it again for me when I got back into the house). Why does it seem I keep missing a lot of his firsts when he doesn't do any of these things when he is home with me all day, but then does them for other people???

Mason can't tag any more of his cousins because their mommies either don't maintain a blog - or they are the ones that tagged him! So Mason tags his friends Katryn, Kelly, Robbie, Little Man, Morgan, Brooklyn, Carli and Kyla. Well see if any of their mommies ever read his mommie's blog since she hasn't ever gotten that many comments and still doesn't get that many comments!

This baby can sleep almost anywhere!

2008-12-17T23:52:00.005-07:00

Mason's first birthday is upon us, so since I took ever so many pictures of him sleeping, I thought I would make a little slideshow of all of them so you can see all of the funny positions he's fallen asleep in and also how he's 'peacefully' grown. He's almost like his mother in that he can fall asleep almost anywhere.

I still can't believe it's been almost a year since he was born - this year really has flown by and I am amazed at how fast little babies really do grow. Just in the last 6 weeks it's like he's stopped being a baby and became a little boy.