INTRODUCING. . .

Mason Ryan 

Born on Oct. 8th

8lbs 10oz 

20inches

He's perfect!

This wonderful new addition to our family has been long awaited.  

To other moms out there, I have to say his birth was kind of a boring experience, compared to Damen's anyway.  I was induced one week early because of the Gestational Diabetes, we were worried about him being BIG.  So at 2pm we arrived at the hospital ready to go!  My paper work hadn't arrived though so we had to wait until after 4pm to get started.  Then the pictocin began to flow.  

Not much happened until 10pm when the contractions started to increase and I asked for an epidural, that was the worst part!  The anesthesiologist missed the first time, I had 4 contractions during the whole process, but Dustin held onto me and talked me through the whole thing.  

Then I took a nap.

Around 1am I was at 8cm and moving along. 

An hour later I  felt something strange, warm, on my legs and sure enough my water had broken!

Another hour passed and the nurse called the Dr. to come in, we were getting close.

Three contractions, and a few pushes and out he came.  He was born at 3:59am, I bawled, like a baby.

His beautiful head of brown hair was a surprise, so many differences from Damen.

It is amazing how something so TINY can take up so much space in my heart.

Welcome to the world Mason!!

This is love

He snuck into my room in the middle of the night.

Wrapped his arms around my neck and whispered:

"I love you mom."

Before I could say anything he was hurrying

Out the door to his bed.

I love you too.

Beauty

On a beautiful September morning, the sky was inspiring.

Just like ANDY!

The other day after my nap, Damen wanted to show me what he'd been doing while under the watchful eye of his Daddy.  He was explaining it to me, "Just like in toy story mom!" He was really excited, but I didn't understand until I got a closer look: 

He got the D -a - m - e  on before he ran out of room, nice.

Labor Day

We mostly had a pretty good Labor Day weekend.
I should start with Friday after work, we loaded up and drove up a canyon to pick wild Blackberries with our friends.  We were not very successful, we were unprepared in dress and kid to adult ratio!  We had fun though and went out for frozen yogurt after.
Saturday we headed to San Diego to visit the Birch Aquarium, for FREE!!  On the first weekend of every month a bunch of museums and zoos are free to Bank of America card holders.  We've never taken advantage of this, but I think we will more in the future.http://museums.bankofamerica.com/  This is the link if you're interested, there are places to go all over the US.  We were planning on going to the beach too, but Dustin had to go to work, NOT on our list of things to do that day.   We had lunch at Islands, never been there before, then headed back.

 Damen, doing lots of posing at the aquarium.

 I really wanted a picture of the fish in this one, they're called Dragon Fish, we've never seen them before and they are so COOL!  They look exactly like what a Dragon fish should look like, and there's Damen making crazy eyes for the camera too.

 Below is our view during lunch, so nice!

Monday Dustin wanted to go back to the Blackberry picking place, this time better prepared.  We called some more friends and headed up there first thing.  It was VERY successful!  We picked for about two hours, in the rain and humidity.  Damen enjoyed playing in the stream that passed through the little ravine we were in and Dustin enjoyed the challenge of getting the berries that were just out of reach.  We came home, rested and relaxed for the rest of the day.  All in all, it was a pretty good three day weekend with lots of memories!!    

 Our friend Tammy, up on the hill, and this is a pretty decent shot of what the ravine we were in looked like.

Below Damen's holding about half of our picking!

 Dustin with our friend Kerri, he bushwacked his way in, to get to the BEST berries!

Sisters

Me, Traci, Jodi, 

Christi, Kari, and Lori

My sisters, at our best.

At our worst we still love each other 

and now more than ever will be there for each other.

Love them:)

The morning GRIND

For the past 10 weeks or so, I've been dealing with Gestational Diabetes.  It really stinks to wake up every day and think/obsess about what I HAVE to eat for the next 15 hours.  

Is this enough protein? 

 How many carbs are in that?  

Do I have a snack to take with me? 

Etc. . . 

So, in July when we were visiting family in Washington, my great friend Yvonne gave me something to add to my mornings.  Choffy.  

It's an amazing drink that consists of ground cocoa beans.  That's it.  Cocoa!!  And who doesn't love chocolate in the morning?  Especially chocolate that's FREE from sugar and only has 3 carbs/serving!  

It's not like throwing baking cocoa in hot water, it tastes fantastic!  It's brewed in a coffee/french press for 4-5 minutes and then drink it up.

I like to add a few dashes of cinnamon while it's brewing and then a teaspoon of splenda and some milk to cool it down and make it creamy in my cup.  

It's been such a wonderful treat to have and I honestly think anyone who tries it will agree.

If you'd like to try it, or learn more about it, go to: 

http://www.drinkchoffy.com/ 

I'll gladly brew you a cup anytime too:)