Pictures with Santa

Poor Mason.  He cries every single year sitting on Santa's lap at our Ward Christmas party.  This year we couldn't even get him on Santa's lap.  Maybe next year?  You can tell by Marcos' face that we (along with about 30 people in line behind us) were cracking up.  It sounds sad, but I promise if you were there, you'd be laughing too. :)  My poor, sweet, sensitive little man.

Max on the other hand just loves to be held, and pretty much doesn't care who is doing the holding.  "You want this big red bearded stranger to hold me?  Sure, Mom.  Whatevs."

Halloween 2012

This was the best picture we could get of Mason and Max in their Halloween costumes.  Mason can't sit still for the life of him, and Max looks all scared from the bright flash of the camera.  Mason was Woody...and it would've looked better if he had been willing to wear the cowboy hat.  I should have learned my lesson from the Halloween where he was Mario and wouldn't wear the red hat with the big "M" on it....so he just looked like a kid in overalls with yellow buttons.  Anyway, lesson finally learned.  The kid doesn't like hats.  Just like his mommy, comfort wins out over appearance every single time.

This year we did the church Trunk or Treat with all the other various foods and festivities there.  It was fun, but for some reason once it was dark and came time to go car to car trick or treating, Mason got super scared.  Not of any one thing, just trick or treating in general.  He kept telling us it was scary and made Marcos hold him the entire time going car to car.  He wouldn't even say "trick or treat" because he was scared.  But after people put candy in his pumpkin he'd get happy and say a loud, unprompted, "Thank you!"      People sure got a kick out of that.  What a sweet, scared, polite little boy.  Maybe next year he'll be more into trick or treating.

Max wore the same little pumpkin sleeper that Mason did at this age, which blew my mind!  I totally remember Mason in this costume.  This baby is growing so fast it's insane.  It seems like he's growing way faster than Mason did for some reason.  It's kind of nice that I had them both at almost the same exact time of year, so I already have clothes the right size for the right seasons for Max to wear!

Mason 2009

Max 2012

Easter 2011

A few days before Easter, we were in Fresno and Mason enjoyed a super fun Easter egg hunt with the rest of his cousins!

Mason loved finding the eggs

And picking them up.  And when he filled up his basket with eggs, he dumped them all out so he could place them back into his basket again.

Then we had Easter morning at our place, which happened the previous Saturday morning instead of Sunday. We have church early, so it was just easier...plus, he doesn't care, right?  He loved his new toys and all the fun Easter eggs.  We put 2 goldfish in each one--they're his favorite and I want to hold off on candy for as long as possible.  He loved shaking the eggs to hear something rattling inside, then opening them up and finding his precious goldfish!

What's Easter without an Easter bunny??  Mason loves stuffed animals...

as you can see.  This is his happy, goofy smilingtoohard smile that is EXACTLY the crooked smile I did when I was little!  My Mom called it my "Popeye" smile. :)  Awesome, isn't it??

Christmas Break 2010

Well, now that it's Spring I think it's time to throw some Christmas Break pictures up here.  We really didn't take to many...too busy visiting and having fun I suppose.  Here are some of the best!


This first set is outside in the rain at our visit to the Oakland Temple.

Touching the temple

Inside the Visitor's Center there were Christmas decorations, breathtaking views, and familiar faces!  My Uncle Dave, Aunt Patty, and cousin McKay happened to be there that day with their ward from Fresno.

Tracy, Me

Here are a couple of our ward Christmas Party with Mason sitting on Santa's lap.  The lighting in the cultural hall wasn't very good, so not many of our pictures turned out so well.  But here are a couple which show the most important thing.....Mason crying with Santa.

"Why are you doing this to me?!?!"

Mason being cute with Daddy and loving his new spinning lights toy from Santa!  We went to Grandpa Louie and Grandma Elizabeth's for the holiday in Fresno, and apparently didn't take many pictures because we were having too much fun!

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween we needed easy and budget-friendly.  We went to the local Halloween store to see if they had anything discounted yet (it was the 30th after all!) and of course all their baby costumes were 25-35 dollars.  No way I'm spending money like that on something he's gonna wear once!

But while we were there, we saw a 30 dollar Mario costume and thought, hey, we could totally throw that together ourselves!  So then we went to Target and got a red long-sleeved shirt and some overalls and red socks.  His brown church shoes worked perfectly for Mario's shoes (thanks Amy Duran!) and Marcos tailored a red hat of his to fit Mason and stuck a printed out "M" on it.  The finishing touch?  The yellow buttons.  We just cut circles in yellow colored paper I already had and wrapped them around the existing buttons.  Done!

We thought about drawing a mustache on him with eyeliner or chocolate or something, but the chocolate would get everywhere and I was nervous about putting makeup on my baby.  He still looked stinkin' cute!

The great thing is that he can wear that red shirt and overalls all winter, and they were still cheaper than buying a costume (which by the way, I'll have no problem doing when we actually have some semblance of money someday!).

And I may as well point out since I noticed it's in the picture below...see that white latch to the left of our dishwasher that hooks onto the wood?  Yeah, that's what we had to attach so he'd stop playing with our forks and knives and starting our dishwasher when it's half empty.  It works!

It'sa me, Mario!

Mario crying-power

Tongue-power Mario

Tongue-power Mario 2

Papereating-power Mario

One thing I'd do differently is put some plastic wrap over his paper buttons, because by the end of the night he was already chewing them off!  And he definitely did not want to wear his hat.  At all.  All pictures of him in the hat are against his will.  But they sure are cute!

Cheesy Mario No Hat (he has 99 lives!)

Duck Pond

One of the things we did for Labor Day this year was go to the nearby, beautiful, relaxing duck pond.  Mason really likes to observe the ducks and geese, and valiantly struggles to break free from my grasp so he can walk straight into the water to play with them.  I kindly try to explain to him that the water is "yucky," which I'm pretty sure he interprets as "fantastically fun and forbidden."

4th of July 2010

To celebrate the 4th this year, we drove up on the 3rd to Shaver Lake to watch fireworks with Marcos' family.  How cute are we with our matching 4th of July shirts?!

Marcos' family hands out glow sticks to all the kids right before it gets dark, which is super fun for them and I think a smart way to keep track of kids in the dark.  Mason liked playing with one for a while.

But I soon replaced it with another toy, cuz he would totally chew right through that glow stick.  Bad news.  I like his "duck lips" while studying his toy.

Then came the fireworks!  It was really cool to watch the fireworks with the reflections off of the lake.  What was even more impressive was the resounding BOOM that echoed and rumbled through the mountains with each display. 

It was so much fun, and Mason wasn't even afraid of the fireworks like he is with other loud things (i.e. the blender, vacuum, etc).  He sat and watched intently the whole time.  I was so happy and had a great time!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family in San Diego. It was a busy and fun week. Traveling was rough, because Mason does NOT enjoy riding in the car....so what should have easily been a 5 hour trip ended up taking about 7 hours. I know, I hear ya.....I thought babies love car rides! Yeah. I thought so, too.

We had a great time with family once we arrived. My Mom made a yummy Thanksgiving meal and we got to go over to Aunt Carrie's for some dessert and long overdue cousin time. Unfortunately, that night Mason got sick for the first time, and that's when I learned that seeing your baby sick is pretty much the saddest thing ever.

Even though he wasn't feeling well, we still got some cute Mason shots with family. It took extra encouragement to get smiles, but he's a pretty good sport about pictures. I'm glad. Cuz if that many people tried to get me to smile and laugh when I was feeling sick....I'd pretty much wanna punch them in the face. Here's a bunch of pictures of my sweet boy and family. It was so much fun to see them. And play Tetris with them.....which, I might add, is one of the funnest games ever.

Halloween 2009

My sweet little pumpkin boy.

There's a jack-o-lantern face on the belly of his sleeper...but the stem on the hood was my *favorite* part!

Sleepy pumpkin

LOVE the stem!

Grandpa, Grandma, & Bella


Cousin Bella was the cutest little ladybug!

Binky pumpkin

Love that smile!
I must give a shoutout to Marcos, because ALL the cute pictures I post are his doing. He really enjoys taking pictures and has a naturally talented eye. Having a cute model doesn't hurt either. :)