Spring Fever

Dorian had fun celebrating beach day with his class!  They all stayed nice and warm inside even though outside it was snowing.  :)

Spring fever hit our family on a day when it was 50 degrees!  Maybe it hit me the hardest...because I went and bought myself a new bike!!!  Kerry had called about a week prior and wondered if Nathan might be crazy enough to consider riding the first day of Ragbrai with her.  69 miles!  July 20 will mark the 3rd year of saying our earthly goodbyes to Rodney.  After thinking about it, I decided that I really wanted to do it!  I'm really excited, but I'm REALLY out of shape.  So I know it's going to be hard.  And Kerry said that it was also going to be a challenge for her, but nothing compared to the difficult road she followed 3 years ago.  I don't know if I am going to make it all 69 miles, but I'm going to try.

11 months old!
It brought me great joy to follow Mason around for a while and take pictures of him.  I literally took 90 pictures.  :)  He loves to play, he's happy, and he's healthy!

 Mason loves to play peek-a-boo!!!!

 He says "mmmm" for the sound that a cow makes and loves to play with these little farm animals.

 He loves to wave and does so often!

He will almost always try walking when he wants to get somewhere.  But most of the time he loses his balance after a few steps or decides that crawling is going to be faster.  :)  But I have seen him walk as far as 10 feet on his own.  He usually just gets so excited to be walking that he starts waving his arms and loses his balance.  :)

If the older boys are downstairs, you will likely find Mason at the top of the steps wanting to go down and play.  :)

 Levi loves to play games on the PBS kids website.  Mason is old enough to enjoy playing with the little kitchen!

 Mason loves balls and will often play catch with me!

 What a sweet, precious little face!

Valentine's Day

Mason is looking quite handsome with his new haircut!!!
He's happy to be eating Pizza Ranch pizza for the first time.  :)

 The boys did a great job putting their valentine's together!

On his own, Dorian made really special Valentine's for Nathan, Levi and myself.  SO SWEET!

 Levi made me a very special Valentine with markers and glitter glue!!!  LOVE IT!

The boys didn't have school on Valentine's Day this year so it was a perfect day to take them to the Brookings Children's Museum as a family!!!

As you can see from the pictures, we had a lot of fun!  It was perfect for the ages of our boys right now!

This is Mason's favorite toy right now.  He just figured out how to push the balls down on his own.  It's so fun because I remember the older boys loving this toy as well!

First steps!!!  Two weeks ago, Mason took his first step (February 5).  The following day he took about 8 steps!!!  And since then he's take lots of steps but not ever that many in a row again.  It's so fun to watch him learning and growing so much!

We've had a lot of fun the past couple of weeks, but right now all of the boys are fighting off illnesses.  We've washed lots of sheets and clothes, had lots of cuddle time, spent a lot of time at home in our pajamas, and watched lots of PBS shows on TV.  We are hoping to all be feeling better soon.

I know that I'm excited about the warmer weather.  It's nice to see the snow melting and 40 degrees feels like summer after so many really cold days!

January

New Year's Day:  All 5 of us enjoyed swimming at the All Season's Center!  I was excited to take Mason swimming.  I thought that since he loves bath time that he would also love the pool.  It turns out that it took him quite a while to adjust to the water and the noise, but he ended up relaxing and enjoying himself.

Dorian discovered that Mason could fit in this little wagon and that he enjoyed being pulled around in it. What a cutie! 

The boys and I had a lot of fun taking Nathan to a Skyforce basketball game in Sioux Falls. The wolf mascot was a big hit with the boys, along with popcorn and pop!

It's been a cold winter....very cold.  And our windows are terrible.  :(  I hate to think about how much it will cost to replace them someday.  Check out all of the frost on the inside of the window!

Love having Levi home so much yet this year and I think Mason is happy about that too!  :)

When Nathan comes home from work, Mason immediately stops what he is doing and crawls straight to the door to get a hug from daddy.  It's so sweet!!!

 I LOVE to see the boys playing happily together!!!

 Oh boy...Mason discovered the piano!  His excitement was certainly contagious!

 10 Months Old!

 I'm loving the little curls in his hair, but it's nearly time for a haircut. :)

 Mason is standing next to everything and his balance is improving.  He will let go and stand on his own now.

He has also learned to play catch.  He babbles "da" a lot.  He loves to open cabinets and take things out of them.  He has discovered the toilet water.  Aside from his 2 middle bottom teeth, he has one eye tooth and the other one just poked through so we're hoping that his 2 front teeth are in there somewhere.  :)  He loves to eat whatever we are eating.  He is now drinking only formula from bottles.  He takes 2 naps of varying lengths and typically sleeps from 7 at night until 6:30 in the morning.  He loves it when we crawl on the floor and chase him.  He brings great joy to our lives.