8 Months old

Mason is 8 months old!  

I have not weighed or measured him lately, but take it from me, he's big!

Not crawling yet, no teeth, getting better at eating solids (and by "solids" I mean rice cereal the consistency of soup!), and he is very aware that no one else is Mommy!

He is such a sweet cuddler, loves his brother, and squeals louder than you'd think was possible when tickled. 

He's a sweet ray of sunshine!

Nanny Goats

Damens Kindergarten put on the cutest little show called the Nanny Goats Opera.

Three of the classes participated in the production and it was hilarious!

Damen was one of the Nanny goats that got to cross the bridge.

 See the scary troll?  He talked about this for weeks before and sang the songs all around the house.  He didn't' do much singing during the show, there was too much to look at!

The video is a bit grainy, we were far away, but was sure cute!

Teacher appreciation!

For the last day of school I wanted to do something nice for Damen's teacher.  He was really great with Damen and we were so happy having him be Damen's first school experience.  I started out with an idea to write a poem and transfer it to a plaque somehow.  I wrote up the poem then searched online and found this tutorial.  It was exactly what I wanted to do!

First I found these pictures that I've had for FOREVER.  I had even put two holes at the top to hang them by with my sisters Crop-a-dile because I was going to do something with them two years ago?  Anyway, I tried to remove the picture first, but it was glued on pretty tight to the chipboard so I ended up sanding it a bit instead.

 Then I painted it using white, black, and purple to get this aged black board kind of look.

Then the poem.  For this trick to work you have to print it using a "mirror" image, easier said than done my friends!  That took way, WAY too long to figure out, but my digital scrapbook program figured it out finally and on I went.

 Once it was transferred I had to fill it in a LOT with this tiny brush and some black paint.

I strung some Raffia through the holes and TaDa, a one of a kind Teacher gift for our favorite Kindergarten teacher! 

THE cake!

The other night Damen wanted to make his Daddy a cake.  Not just any cake, oh no, a VERY special cake.  While I was feeding Mason he went to the cupboard and got out the following:

Cake mix

food coloring

chocolate chips

ONE graham cracker

oreos

red and blue sprinkles

and strawberries from the fridge.

We started with the yellow cake mix, added chocolate chips to the batter then baked it.  When it was cool I realized I had about a Tablespoon of powdered sugar, so we improvised with a frosting that you cook, it was ok, but won't try again.  Damen picked the colors for the frosting, blue and green and directed me on how and where to frost it.  Then I was instructed to draw Batman on the blue part.  Damen was very specific, can you see him?  Next came the blue sprinkles put on the green hot lava.  

Then the desert, I had to crush the graham cracker for that part.  

Then the three, oops two (mommy ate one) strawberry mountains.

Next came the oreos, they were bombs being lobbed at Batman.

Last came a suspicious pile of red sprinkles, Damen couldn't explain what that was for.

And there you have it, a very tasty, very special cake for Daddy:)

PS the chocolate chips all sank to the bottom and made a lovely crust, and except for the frosting Damen did all of the decor by himself!

Disneyland!

Wahoo!  We all went to Disneyland for Mason's first time a few weeks ago, he did great!  We only had one day to visit both Disneyland and California Adventure so we decided to focus on doing our favorite things and then fit in some more.  It was also our last trip for a while since it's gotten so expensive and it's hard to justify the cost.  We had fun enjoying the rides, the food, the happy place that it is!

 Mason was eating Dustin, but this was the best picture we got!

 Damen claims his favorite ride is Pirates.

 Mason wearing Mickey Ears!  And conked out finally!

 The tastiest and maybe most expensive Churros ever!

 Heading home, we left around 8pm, as you can see Damen was done walking and Mason had to be carried, he's not exactly "light".

Mason got this Mickey "chew" toy, we all got T-shirts and Damen picked out a Star wars toy for himself.  

Aaa, fun times, good memories made!

Soccer!

I signed Damen up for indoor soccer this spring.  I was excited!  I hoped he was excited!  My friends started getting calls from their coaches and we hadn't heard anything, so we waited, and waited. . ..
Finally I called the organization and asked what was up.  They said we were late signing up and were on the "wait list", it had 40 kids on it, and there were already 30 teams!!  The only way to guarantee he played was if I coached.  I said yes in a heart beat and thought about it later.
I thought about it a LOT.  I felt like being a "Soccer Coach" was a great responsibility.  Even if it was only pee-wee indoor soccer.
The team was small, only 8 kids playing 6 v 6, but they gave it their all!
Damen played goalie most of the time.  Once he was playing forward the last half of a game and he scored 4 goals!  He liked it I think, but he keeps asking me when he gets to play Basketball, and I am NOT coaching that.

Me and Damen at his Soccer party, with his prized trophy!  He was convinced he was the only one getting one because he scored so many goals.

Mason 7 months old!

Oh my Mason moose is growing up too fast! 

At 7 months he's 21lbs and 28in long.  

He loves to be held and to see what's going on.

He can roll over, but isn't mobile yet.

He started solids this month and after throwing everything up for a week, he likes it.  

His brother always knows just how to get him to smile and giggle.  He wanted in on the picture action and Mason was happy to oblige!