Three Years Old

Happy Birthday to the sweetest boy I know! Bennett is three years old today! It's amazing that it has gone so fast. I feel like he is still my baby boy. He has us all wrapped around his finger. He's pretty spoiled around here!

Here's to a fabulous day of riding your new motorcycle, eating a Captain America cake, and playing superheroes with your sisters and friend Jace. We love you and are so happy you are part of our family. You are one special little boy!

Evening Up the Teams

Well, it looks like we are going to even things up and add another little BOY to our family! We are thrilled! Benny is excited to have a brother and he thinks his name should be Jacob. Hmmm.

The ultrasound tech gave us a cd with all the pictures of the baby on it! I've never gotten one of those before and I love that I can put the pics on the computer and blog. Here's a few of the best ones.

It's definitely a BOY!! I could tell before the tech even said anything!

Cute little face. I wonder what/who he'll look like?!

 It's so funny because when we found out what Bennett was I posted that boy names were easy and that we had a lot of them. Now, we have no idea what names we like! I guess it's a good thing we have some time to think about it. I hope it comes to us like it has in the past. I am so excited for this little man to get here!

May Adventures: Part Two

Over Memorial Day weekend we met my dad in Chicago.( Mom was going to come too, but had to stay home to take care of my little sister who was very sick from getting her tonsils out.) We had such a fun time with Grandpa! We went to two White Sox games. My kids LOVE baseball. They sit and watch the game and they can follow the game pretty well. Not normal for such young kids! As long as they have a bag of peanuts they are good to go.

The White Sox played the Indians. Benny loves the Indians. He wore his Indians hat even though we were in White Sox territory.  

Saturday morning we went to the top of the Willis Tower. It was pretty cool, but not worth the money it cost to get up there! :) Here is everyone out on the ledge- okay except me and Niah- it made my stomach turn and Niah did not want to go out there!

Sunday we went to church and then took a walk to Buckingham Fountain. The mist from the fountain felt really good on a hot, hot day. Niah is developing her own sense of style these days. For some reason she thinks she has to do 'hip hop' hands when she wears her hat and wristbands! She makes me laugh.

Observing the boats and enjoying the water view.

The famous bean in Millenium Park.

We had a great time in Chicago! I love that city. You get the big city feel, but it's not as overwhelming as New York. My dad is the best for going with us and spoiling us. We had the best time. We'll have to do it again soon!

May Adventures: Part One

May was a busy, fun month for us. We got to see family- a lot- and we visited some fun places with the kids. The pictures posted backwards for some reason, so we'll start at the end and finish at the beginning!

We drove to Nauvoo to see the sights with my grandma and grandpa. I love Nauvoo. Every time I go there it takes my breath away. It's such a pretty, peaceful place. Bryan and I were lucky enough to visit the temple. (Thanks to my grandparents for watching the kids.) It was so great!  

My little pioneer. I could just eat him up in this picture. I should have bought him one of those hats. He looks adorable!

Grandpa Dick is really good at stilts. He was showing the kids how it's done.

While Bryan and I were at the temple Grandma Sally and Grandpa took the kids on a carriage ride. The kids had so much fun getting to know their great-grandparents a little better. They loved having them all to themselves!

The purpose for our trip was to go to Kirksville, MO to see my borther-in-law graduate from med school. Yay! It was so much fun to see family and hang out for a couple of days. The kids are so happy when they are with their cousins, aunts, and grandparents.

Now there's trouble. Benny and Jonah found the arcade guns and thought it was funny to shoot the people in the pool.

On our way to Kirksville, we spent the night in Springfield, IL and saw some of the Lincoln sights. We are all huge fans of Abraham Lincoln- especially Bryan- so it was fun to learn a little more about him and to see where he lived. I had been there when I was younger, but couldn't remember a lot so it was nice to go back and refresh my memory!

Lincoln's tomb was huge! It was really neat to see where he was buried.

Outside Lincoln's home. The kids love learning about history and they really enjoyed touring the home and learning some things about Lincoln. Niah knew a lot about him from reading the Magic Treehouse book about Lincoln. That girl has a memory like no other! She can remember dates, events, and lots of other things that blow me away!

I love that we had a little getaway. Trips make me happy! :) It gives me something to look forward to and it was great to see family.

Four

 This is what we gave our moms for Mother's Day this past weekend! We are so excited to add another member to the Mason Family. The kids can't wait and they did so good keeping the secret for a few days before we told our families.

I'm fourteen weeks and five days along. I have been feeling pretty good the past couple of weeks. At first, I was exhausted and a little sick to my stomach at times, but it's passing. I am so grateful that I have easy pregnancies and that I don't throw up at all with my babies. It makes it so much more enjoyable! I know this baby is supposed to come to our family and I can't wait to meet him/her soon!

Chloe's First Tooth

Chloe's first tooth finally fell out last week! She waited so long for that to happen! It was quite the experience for her. She came downstairs Thursday morning and said, "Mom, my tooth is really loose. Will you pull it out?" I, of course, said yes. (Keep in mind that Niah was supposed to leave for the bus in about three minutes or so.) So, she got some tissue and I yanked on it. Chloe jumped back a little when I pulled so I didn't get it out. It was just hanging there. It started to bleed but she wouldn't let me touch it again. I'm not sure it was what she expected- I don't think she thought it would hurt at all but it did a little. She ran upstairs to look in her bathroom mirror. I ran up to tell her that I was going to take Niah to the bus and I would be back to finish the job of pulling out her tooth. I noticed that she was not acting normal. She kind of started panicking and bouncing around on her feet. Weird. She wouldn't hold still. She walked into her room and started walking crookedly (is that a word?) and then fell on her hands and knees. By this point I kind of figured out what was going on. I picked her up and cradled her saying, "Chloe, Chloe, are you okay?" Her eyes rolled back into her head and her eyes closed. She had PASSED OUT! She was as white as a ghost! She kind of came to and said, "Mom, I don't feel good." Meanwhile, it's about two or three minutes past when we usually leave for the bus so I scooped her up and carried her to the bus stop while she was half conscious. Niah had to run for the bus- poor thing- she was so worried about Chloe. I yelled to Niah, "Run Niah! There's your bus! Chloe will be fine!" Bennett was walking down the road with his blankie wrapped around him and no shoes. I'm sure we were a sight! Eventually, Chloe was fine and back to normal. It took her a few hours to let me get the tooth out, but when it came out she was so happy!

Chloe likes to make sure that everyone sees that her tooth is missing. She keeps that jaw stuck out with pride! I'm glad we now know that she does not handle blood well. We'll have to keep an eye on her. I don't think she'll be following her dad's doctor footsteps! She looks so big with her missing tooth. It changes her whole look. I think we will all remember Chloe's 'first tooth' story. It was pretty hilarious but a little scary at the same time!

Easter Weekend: Part Two

The kids had so much fun together over the weekend. They got to do a huge egg hunt in the yard. I love that they are all in jammies with messy hair in these pictures. Bennett and his cowboy boots with shorts cracks me up!

These three kiddos make me so happy. They look so big. I hate that they are growing up so fast, but at the same time it's so fun to see them grow and learn. I love watching them go through their own experiences in life.

Bennett and Jonah are best buddies now. They play so well together and they get along so well. They miss each other when they are apart.

Indiana has very few hills for us to carry on our tradition of throwing our hard boiled eggs down a hill. Bryan got creative and created a pully system. The kids and B would load an egg in the bucket, pull it up high in the tree, pull the string and drop it into the pool! We all had a good time watching this while Bryan did most of the work. :)

The kids loved getting the unbroken eggs out of the pool to send them up in the bucket again.

We might have to try this again next year. Actually, Bryan will probably use his inventor skills to come up with a new way of breaking our eggs! It's funny how such simple things made the kids happy this year. Just being with family and hanging out at home made our Easter extra special.