Last weekend was both busy and fun. On friday Jackie (my mother-in-law), Catherine (my sister-in-law), Amelia (my niece), Mason, and I all went to Canton for the day. We were literally there all day, but we had so much fun! This was my third time to go with them. The first year I was pregnant, the 2nd year Mason was 5 months old, and this year we had Mason and Amelia. Our numbers have slowly increased! Both Amelia and Mason were great, except Mason did not like the frog backpack/leash that I bought for him to wear. He gets tired of the stroller because he likes to run around so I thought it might work. Unfortunately, he doesn't like to be told where and where not to go. We only had a few screaming incidents though!

Friday night, my cousin Matt and his girlfriend Tracy stayed with us on their way to the Big 12 championship. It was great to see and visit with them. We got to eat breakfast with them, then they headed on to San Antonio.

The rest of the weekend we hung out with Jonathan's family. Saturday we went over to Catherine and Brad's and hung out while they decorated for Christmas, and Sunday we went to the mall to see Santa Claus. Amelia's picture turned out so cute because she sits perfectly still and smiles. Mason on the other hand never holds still! His picture was pretty good except for the fact he has his hands are in the air. I told Catherine to enjoy it while it lasts!

Mason in his Aunt Catherine's t-shirt!

Mason loves his cousin Amelia!

Mason with cousin Matt and his girlfriend Tracy.


Mason is ready to fight with his lint rollers and frog backpack!

Thanksgiving Trip

The week of Thanksgiving was a great week. Jonathan took a week of vacation so we packed up and went to Oklahoma to visit family. We started off at my parents house because my brother, Josh, was in the musical Oklahoma. He played the part of Will, and he was hilarious! He did such a good job, and Mason slept through the performance so everyone got to watch! Monday and Tuesday, my parents watched Mason and Jonathan and I went to Tulsa to Christmas shop and have some time to ourselves--a rare occurence!

Wednesday morning we had breakfast with my best friend Olivia and her husband Jay in Oklahoma City. It was so great to see them! After that we headed to our final destination of Stillwater to see Jonathan's family. We stayed there until Saturday and had a wonderful time. Mason's Mimi got him some Elmo houseshoes that you can see below. He loved them! My family joined us for dinner on Thursday so we had the best of both worlds on Thanksgiving day! Mason didn't know what to think having both sets of granparents in the same place, but he sure loved all of the attention!

My sister Julie with Mason after the play.

Josh(Will), Mason, and me after the play.

Trip to the Zoo

My parents came down last weekend, and we took Mason to the zoo for the first time. The weather was beautiful, so it was the perfect day to be outside. Mason liked watching the other children about as much as he liked watching the animals. His favorite animal was the camel. He oohed and ahhed as the camel just sat there and chewed. It was rather boring to me, but I loved watching him get so excited. He did that with a lot of the animals, but none as much as the camel. My favorite, as well as Jonathan's, was the monkey who jumped to the top of the fence and started urinating. All of the spectators scattered very quickly! Overall our trip was great, and we were definitely worn out after being there for 5 hours. That night we went home, cooked dinner, and watched the OU game. It was a fun weekend!

Mason got super excited to see the baby monkey!

Jonathan looks like he could be one of the animals!

Mason was obviously excited for the game!

Halloween

This year was Mason's 2nd Halloween, but his first to dress up. On Halloween night we went to our small group party. Most every couple wears costumes that coordinate, but not us. Jonathan was dying to wear his beloved Woopie Cushion costume. So, I dressed up as a fisherman to somewhat coordinate with Mason's shark costume. Mason's favorite activity of the night was digging through Justin and Allison's candy bucket. He didn't really eat the candy; he just liked to carry it around. I'm sure that will be the last Halloween that it works out that way!

Mason digging for candy!

Just the Beginning

I've been online looking at other people's blogs thinking, "Who really has the time to do all of this?" After looking at so many, though, I have come to the realization that it can't be that hard and that it would be a great way to keep friends and family up to date on how things are here in Texas. Mason is growing fast. He is almost 13 months old now and is a very busy boy. He is definitely enjoying the fall weather and playing outside. His favorite pastime lately is to go in the backyard and pick pecans with his daddy. He has so much fun and the pecans have been pretty tasty, too! He has also enjoyed going to a couple of pumpkin patches. We went to the one by our house last week and today we went to a more elaborate one with some friends from church. We had a good time. Anyway, that's all for now. Happy Fall!

Such a big boy!

Our little shark!