Home Again

This past weekend Mason and I accompanied Mom back home to Maryville. We thought it might be our last chance to visit before Mason's surgery (we go to the cardiologist on Wednesday and will know a date for the surgery soon after that). Chris stayed home, as it was the opening weekend of archery season...or something like that.

We had such a great time, and Mason thinks his little cousins are hysterical! He smiled almost non-stop, although he's still not sure about Dad's little dog, Skipper. I can't imagine any baby ever getting more attention than Mason got from Friday to Sunday.

We spent Saturday with Mom and my sisters, and I even had a chance to go visit my friend Alisa and her new baby, Callie. She's a doll! And so tiny! She's only 5 weeks younger than Mason, but he's almost twice her size, and he's small, so that's saying a lot. On Sunday we were able to go to church, where Aunt Mary monopolized him (as usual), and then everybody came over to Mom's for lunch. Haylee came home with us to spend the week since she's on fall break, and we ran by Thomas' soccer game on our way home. Oh, and Mason started sleeping all night on his own this weekend! HALLELUJAH!

I was sad to leave everybody but glad to be home. Not as glad as Chris was to see his baby again, though!

Costume Chaos

So the hunt for Mason's first Halloween costume has been somewhat like Charlie Brown's search for the Great Pumpkin. Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday of the year, so I've been thinking about what his first costume would be since I was 6 or 7 months pregnant. Not surprisingly, Chris does not share my high level of concern about this issue. He does, however, freely give his opinion about what costumes are not MANLY enough for his son (as if I care...this is clearly the mom's domain!).

Idea #1: Chris and I would be pirates and Mason would be a parrot. I found the CUTEST parrot costume online and could just imagine a picture of Captain Chris with Mason the Parrot on his shoulder! Haha! Chris nixed that one.

Idea #2: Chris and I would be Deadliest Catch fishermen and Mason would be a crab. Chris hated that, too.

Idea #3: Quit telling Chris about my ideas and just do whatever the heck I wanted.

My nephew Jake wore an adorable skunk costume a couple of years ago, so Megan sent it to me, but it is waaaay too big. Next year we'll be able to put it to use. Mom also brought up what she thought was the pea pod costume one of my sisters had, but it turned out that she had grabbed a sunflower costume. Chris about had a stroke when he saw it! You can see that Mason was none too impressed, either.

Finally I settled on a dragon costume that I found at Old Navy. Stay tuned for pictures!

And More...Because They're All So Cute!

3 Month Pictures

Yesterday my mom and I took Mason to have his 3 month pictures, and he was so good! It took us 2 and a half hours and coincided with his afternoon nap time, but he was a trooper and smiled through it anyway. I also ran out of the house without his diaper bag (I thought Mom had it!), and of course, he pooped through his outfit after three pictures, so Mom had to run over to Target and buy diapers. So, yeah...I'm definitely in the running for Mother of the Year! Luckily, no one else was scheduled that afternoon, so the studio was empty and we had the photographer's full attention.

Anyway, here they are. Mason looks like the mini-Chris in a few of these. Haha!

More Pictures from Kentucky

Mason Visits Grand Rivers

Last year Chris and I spent Labor Day with Tasha and Wes in Memphis. Who would have thought that Labor Day 2009 would find us with a baby?! We left early Saturday for Grand Rivers, KY, with Debbie and Dave, and Chris and I spent hours (it seemed) packing for a 36-hour trip with Mason. This was his first trip anywhere besides back home to Maryville, and he was great! Every day I count our blessings because Mason is such a happy little guy. M. wore his brand new hat for the occasion, and it was adorable!

We showed him all the sites in Grand Rivers (didn't take long!) and had dinner at Patti's. We got a lot of cute pictures of him there at the settlement. I love the one of Chris and Mason looking over the fence at the petting zoo...Mason's first glimpse of turkeys and pigs! He even got friendly with the Patti's Pie bear. The next day we took the scenic route home and stopped in Dover for lunch at Chris' favorite, The Dip, so he could get fried cheese balls and a pineapple shake.