Just like dad!

I think that every little boy wants to be just like his dad. Michael is no exception! Some of it is good: like the other day when I went to pick him up from preschool. All of the other kids came out of the classroom showing their parents all the stuff that they bought at the school store. When Michael came out he only had bubbles. He had thirty five dollars left in his wallet so I asked him if he didn't want anything else that the were selling and he said "I didn't want to spend all of my money"! Some of the things that he learns from Mike is o.k.: The next time that I picked him up from preschool I heard him telling his teacher that he is a Broncos fan, that made Mike extremely proud! Then he learns some really bad stuff from Mike: Last Saturday we had a really lazy day, the boys pretty much sat on the couch playing the Wii all day. Mike made Michael watch him play Zelda for the first part of the day and then they started playing Mario Kart together. About two minutes into the game Michael crashes and yells Son Of A Bitch! Mike explained that was not ok to say and Michael said sorry and continued to play. Then about two minutes later he says "Dad this game is pissin me off!" Mike tries to blame that kind of stuff on me becuase "I am around him all the time" but if you know Mike you know those words were taken right from his mouth!

My baby is two!

Wow my baby is two! I am just a mix of emotions right now! On one hand I can't believe that I don't have a baby anymore. That makes me a little sad and extremely baby hungry! (uh-oh) On the other hand it is amazing to look back at all that we have gone through with him and it feels good to be at the place in our lives that we are! When he was first born and we were so overwhelmed with everything I would tell myself to just get through that day and some day soon I would be looking back on everything. Even though we still struggle with his weight gain it is nice to be able to look back and feel good about how everything has turned out. I used to be so worried about all of the surgeries, bills, speech, and feeding problems. Now that he has been through all of his surgeries, we have learned how to manage the bills and still live, he is talking so much, and even though we have had a set back in his feeding we are used to it, it is so relieving. Mason being two is such a big milestone because I always wanted it to hurry and get here and now that we are here I would do it all over again to have such an awesome boy who has been such a blessing to our family. I love you Mason!

Happy Birthday Mason

I am finding out that a birthday on Christmas day is even harder than I would have thought! First of all I totally forgot about his cake until about four o'clock on Christmas Eve! I was going to make him one and have him help me decorate it but I didn't even have the stuff to make it, all the stores where closing soon, we still needed to make Santa cookies, and we needed to be ready to leave the house by five o'clock to visit all of the family that we wanted to. So I called my mom at Smith's and she was able to pick me one up before they closed. Then we always have such a busy day on Christmas that it was hard to even find time to sing him happy birthday. We didn't even give him his birthday present until two days after! I know that he doesn't know any better yet but I think it is going to be hard on him when he gets older. We saw almost everyone in the family on that day and only two or three people told him happy birthday. Then we always have a big birthday party for Michael but it is just too hard to do a party around Christmas so we are just doing a little one for Mason. I think from now on we will have to plan for a better party or we will have to stop having big parties for Michael so that it is fair!

We had such a busy day visiting everyone and he was so good all day. We finally had time to lay him down for a little nap before going over to Kristen's house for dinner. He didn't want to wake up though!

I really wanted a picture of them in their Christmas outfits before the night was over. Unfortunately I waited too long and Mason just was not in the mood! Michael was a good sport!

After having a little time to wake up and playing with Aric he did cheer up and had a good time.

The cake turned out to be a lot better than I could have made! Mason was so cute while we were singing to him! He knew exactly what to do with the candle! He blew it out three times before we were done singing so Mike just kept lighting it for him!

Merry Christmas!

The boys were so much fun this year! Michael has been so excited! We had to buy a little count down to Christmas tree to try to help him know how many more days until Christmas because he was a little confused. At first he thought that the whole month of December was Christmas and then when the day came to get the Christmas tree he thought that day was Christmas. The count down tree didn't help very much though because he was more interested in the candy in it than which day we were on! When we went to see Santa at the mall Michael was very excited! We had to wait in a little line and Michael stood next to me quietly the whole time (which means that he was thinking hard because he NEVER stands still!) I don't know how Mason knew what was going on but when it was our turn Michael ran right to Santa and sat on his lap but Mason without even looking at Santa started walking the other way! So I had to sit next to Santa with Mason on my lap to get a picture but Mason was trying to get away the whole time! The picture turned out really blurry though (I hate my camera!) So after going to my Grandma Elmore's house for Christmas Eve dinner, putting cookies out for Santa, and going to bed, CHRISTMAS WAS FINALLY HERE! I knew for sure that Michael would be up bright and early but I was wrong! Mason woke us up at 9:00 so we went and got him and got coffee going and then went and woke Michael up at 9:19! It took him a minute to wake up but after I told him it was Christmas day he decided to get up. Santa had to put the toys in the playroom this year instead of the living room like he normally does because the toys were too big to move to the playroom later. So when we went out into the living room the boys started looking for a present that Santa left but couldn't find one so we told them to look in the playroom. Michael had quite the list of things that he wanted from Santa but the one thing that was always on the top of the list was a kitchen and when he would change the items on his list the kitchen always stayed. So when we told him that Santa was only bringing one gift he said all he wanted was a kitchen. Then when he found out that Mason had asked for a train table he decided that he wanted a train table. I kept reminding him that he already asked for a kitchen so then he decided Santa was bringing him both! So I was very anxious to see what happened when they saw what Santa left. Of course as soon as Michael walked in the room he said "Look Santa brought me a train table!" Mason thought that the train table was cool too but Michale kept sending him back to the kitchen! Mason acted like he liked the kitchen a little though. So then we went to open presents. I was having so much fun watching them open their presents that I forgot to take any pictures! Every present that Michael opened he would yell "What!" and then tell us what it was. Mason is such a neat freak that he would tare one piece of and then say "here, here" so someone would through it away for him before he would open any more! Out of everything the favorite presents were the ones that Uncle Conor sent. He sent Mason a basketball and after Mason opened that one he wouldn't open any more! So we had to take the ball until he opened a present and then we would give it back. For Michael he sent a set of Galaxy Guns that light up and make noise when you pull the trigger and I don't know any little boy that wouldn't find that to be the coolest present ever! Wow sorry for the long novel! This is more for me to be able to look back and remember this Christmas but if you did read the whole thing I hope you enjoyed it. Now here are some pictures from the day!

On Christmas Eve before going over to my Grandma Elmore's house we stopped at my Grandma Johnson's house and had a good visit with my Grandma, Dad, and Uncle Monte. My dad is so much fun with the kids! Here they are riding him like a horse.
My dad got Mason the Wack a Mole game for Christmas. Mason doesn't quite understand that he is supposed to only wack the mole when it lights up he just has fun wacking it over and over and over!

I really wanted to get a good picture of the boys in there Christmas outfits. Michael kept taking his sweater off becuase it was "too hot". So as we were leaving my Grandma Johnson's house I had them stand in front of her tree. Cartoons were on the t.v. though so I couln't get one with both of them looing at me and not the t.v.!

The train table was a hit! After explaining to Michael that Mason knows it is not his (wink, wink) he let Mason play too. It took a couple of days for the train table to get old before they played with the kitchen but now both toys get played with equally.

Mason did open a couple of presents at my moms house on Christmas morning. Even with all of that paper on the floor next to him he still gave me each piece to throw away for him! He eventually stopped opening presents to help pick up the mess!

Michael was a present opening machine! He didn't even look at the present inside he just opened them! So when Mason gave up becuase of the mess Michael opened his for him!

My mom got Michael this cowboy sheriff get up, and boy does he love it! He didn't take it off for two whole days and wants to wear it everywhere he goes. She even got him handcuffs which of course he loves but Mason and the dogs are not so happy about it!

Making Santa Cookies!

While Mason took a nap on Christmas Eve Michael and I made Santa some cookies. Michael was such a big help, he did most of the work. I just had to fish out the egg shells and clean his hands off when he cracked the egg and dropped everything in the bowl! He couldn't quite stir the batter all the way so I helped with that. Then when the dough got stuck to the rolling pin he got frustrated so I helped with that. Then before bed Michael and Mason each decorated a cookie for Santa.













Santa knew that he was going to have a really late night so he was hoping that the kids would fall asleep easily! Mason did fall asleep as soon as we put him in bed around ten. Michael was way too excited though! We had been tracking Santa on the internet to see where he was and Michael would not stop watching him. Then when we told Michael that Santas next stop was Utah and if he was not asleep Santa would just pass him by. Oh my gosh he got so panicked! He started yelling at us to get in bed, he couldn't get his p.j.s on fast enough, and he got a little scared that Santa would come while he was still awake and talk to him. So I helped him get his p.j.s on and then we let him come lay down in our bed with us. It didn't take any longer than five minutes for him to fall asleep then.