Mason's Baptisms

I've fallen behind on my record keeping as of late, at first it was because I was busy, but then after I was busy there was just so much catching up to do that I've been putting it off. First I need to write about Mason's baptism. It was such a nice day. We started by talking a lot about baptism in our family nights leading up to the big day. We even had one night where we just practiced the proper dunking procedure. As the day approached I felt like Mason had a pretty good understanding of things and he was excited for a day that was all about him. We were lucky enough to have my mom and dad come up for the weekend. It was great to have them. The baptism was very nice. Papa Jim gave a talk on baptism and told about what he remembered about being baptized when he was eight. He was baptized in the font at the Salt Lake tabernacle. Then he told about how my Grandma Pauline was baptized. He explained that in the small town where she grew up they baptized all the kids that had turned eight in a year on the same day in August. My poor grandma's birthday was in September and she really wanted to be baptized, so she got special permission and was baptized in a lake after she turned eight. I remember her telling this story when I was little and it was sweet to hear my dad telling it to Mason. Grandma Marie then gave a nice talk on the Holy Ghost, telling Mason what a gift it was.

The prayer of Maxwell

Sunday night at dinner Max said the prayer over the food. He tries to remember everyone in his prayers, so he prayed that dad's back wouldn't hurt, that Mason would remember his baptism, and that mom would make good choices.

Later that night as I was tucking him in he asked me to snuggle with him for a minute. I used to always lay by him for a few minutes before he went to sleep, but in recent months we've opted to have our bedtime story on the living room couch where there is more room for all. So I asked him why he had been wanting me to snuggle with him lately. He looked at me with a bit of pity in his eyes and said, "Because mom, I'm getting too big to snuggle with."

So that's it, I've been forewarned, my littlest is growing up...oh, and also I should make good choices.

 

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Snow Day

I know I've said it before, but we live in the greatest neighborhood. Towards the end of January the kids and I were blessed with a snow day. It didn't take long before all the kids in the cul de sac took to the street and reveled in the piles of new snow. Trisha brought out the four wheelers and us moms took turns towing the kids around on their sleds. It was the kind of day a kid dreams about.

 

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Snow and service

This winter we had so much snow. It fell and fell and fell. The kids thought is was the best. Shane and I gritted our teeth and tried to remember that spring would come, really.

One particularly snowy day Shane went out to clear the driveway and took the kids with him so that they could help. He decided that they would do some service for the neighborhood by clearing the snow from the neighors driveway.

Mason really wanted to drive the snow blower. So Shane handed over the reigns. Mason didn't really clear the neatest path, in fact it was quite random, so random that Shane and I couldn't help laughing quite hard.

 

Just as Mason finished our neighbor pulled up and surveyed the maze of snowblown trails in his driveway. He and Shane had a good laugh, and he graciously thanked Mason, who was extremely proud of himself.

 

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Basketball

"How tall ARE you?" that's the standard question Shane answers at least once with every person that he meets. The next question?

"Do you play basketball?" to which Shane must always answer an honest "no." You see, he never gained the skills in his formative years, so he feels that he can't play now because the expectations based on his 6'7" height (for those of you that haven't asked yet) are just too great. Now since Mason is headed down the same road, already standing a good 6" above his classmates we thought we'd better at least make sure he learned how to play. I must tell you, I'm not sure sports will ever really be his thing. Which Shane and I are ok with, there are a great many things in this life to be good at and Mason he is so clever and creative I know he will find his niche, but even so I really want him to learn to be a part of a team, and feel confident when people are watching him, and if it helps him not feel like the odd man out in gym class that's good too. So this winter we tried basketball. He got to play with some other kids in the neighborhood, and had a wonderful coach which was fun too.

Last spring Mason was on a soccer team that didn't make a single goal the entire season, it wasn't for lack of trying, but it was a little discouraging. So right away Mason found that he liked basketball because he and his team scored many baskets right from the start. The games were fast paced and even Max enjoyed watching them.

Altogether I think it was a good experience for Mason and we'll give it a try next year too.

 

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Christmas Break

As the long winter in Idaho began Shane and I brainstormed some ideas on how to enjoy the season a bit more. There are many good things about the place we live, but the weather is not one of them. Winter is long, cold, and dark. I find myself really feeling down about halfway through February every year, which is dissapointing because at that point we're only maybe halfway through the winter here. One of the things we decided to try was skiing. Our thinking being that if we had a cold weather sport to look forward to we might not hate it so much.

So the day after Christmas we took the kids skiing. I have skied one time in my life, and this time I decided to try snowboarding. The kids were great sports. While Max and I played on the bunny hill Shane took Mason up the lift. I sort of thought he was crazy for taking him, but a few minutes later Mason and Shane came cruising down the hill. Mason was in love, he told me that he wanted to do this every day.

Encouraged by Mason's good experience this time we all went up the lift for a run down the hill... Now just for a minute look at my smiling face, full of excitement...

All the way up the lift Mason gave me a pep talk, telling me how much fun I would have, and how easy it was. I hopped off the lift snowboarded about eight feet and fell flat on my face, we all laughed it off as I got up and dusted myself off. Little did I know that eight foot run would be the longest of the day for me... the next hour of my life would go like this: I would snowboard a few feet, fall down, spend the next 5, 10, or 15 minutes (down time got progressively longer each time) trying to get back on my feet only to go a few feet and fall down again. I'm not gonna lie it was pretty awful. Shane was busy helping Max, and Mason got tired of waiting for all of us and said he'd meet us at the bottom.

When I finally got to the bottom I found Shane in the lodge frantically searching for Mason who was lost. There were a nervous few minutes while my firstborn was located. Whille I was still on the mountain and Shane was helping Max, Mason wanted to go inside and warm up so Shane told him to meet him the in lodge, but when he got there a few minutes later no Mason was too be found. We finally found him outside the lodge unable to unbuckle his board on account of his freezing fingers. Shane felt really awful, and we were all relieved to find him. After we got Mason some hot chocolate to warm him up, he felt much better.

So all in all it was a good day. Mason and Max had a blast... me not so much, but even though I didn't have a great time on the mountain I could see how it might be fun some day in the future. We decided to try it again, but with an actual lesson for Max and I.

A few days later we decided to visit my family for a few days. On the way down Shane and I joked that Karen and Jim's house was our "cabin". It seems everyone in Idaho Falls has a cabin to go to on the weekends. We don't have a mountain retreat, but we have my parents' house in Salt Lake and we really enjoy visiting them when we can get away. It might have something to do with the good food and free babysitters.

One of the things we did while we were down there is go to a Gorgoza park in Park City. It was a beautiful sunny day and we all had so much fun

The kids especially thought it was awesome to make themselves into a train and let me pull them both up the hill.

On New Year's Eve Shane and I went to see Les Miserables, which was very touching and I noticed there was much sniffling in the audience as Val Jean sang his last notes. Then we went home and rang in thenew year with my mom and dad. It was a lovely low key holiday. The next day we returned home and it was back to real life for us.

 

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Christmas

We had such a lovely Christmas this year. I know its February, but its never too late to get things written down, right? Believe it or not, this is the first time we have ever spent Christmas morning with just our family. I was worried we might feel lonely, but we had a great time.

The night before we had everyone in Shane's family over for dinner. We put the kids to bed early, but around ten or eleven that night Mason wandered out of his room bleary eyed and announced, "Merry Christmas everyone!" Poor guy he thought it was the big day already.

After being up in the night, the boys didn't wake up very early, and finally I got too excited and convinced Shane that we should wake them up. We opened all the presents. Mason in particular was hoping that Santa would bring him a particular Lego set. The very Lego set that happened to be sold out in every single store in town and online. Mason was quite concerned, but ol' Santa is an excellent shopper and did in fact deliver one Vampyre Castle under our tree. Mason was delighted.

Max had asked for Monsunos and they also appeared under the tree.

Then we spent the next three hours building Legos and putting together toys.

It was such a nice relaxed morning. We all really enjoyed it.

Later in the afternoon the rest of the family came back over for dinner and more presents and hanging out. It was great to see everyone. I love having a houseful, especially on the holidays. I think its because it reminds me of my house growing up. Because my grandparents lived with us and my grandma was not at all mobile every holiday was a party with just about every relative in town showing up at our house sometime during the day. As a child I loved it. Now as an adult I really appreciate what a good sport my mom was with her more the merrier attitude. There was always a lot of laughter and desserts to go around.

In this picture Michelle is wearing the leg warmer/boot topper things I made for all the girls in the family. I was quite proud of my mad crochet skills with those.

We had a nice dinner and played games in the evening it was a great day.

 

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Missing Something...

 

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Today at breakfast Max looked at Shane with a scrutinizing eye and said, "Dad, you look old."
I tried to stifle a laugh, while Mason explained what Max must have really meant by saying in his most nurturing only slightly patronizing voice, "He means not old like an OLD person, but old like we love you."

Ok that clears everything up. Glad to know the kids still love there old folks.

A letter to my son on the worst day of his life...

Oh Max, my dear one, today on the way home from school you just had to use some of my chapstick.  Your lips were so dry you were sure you were near death. Unfortunately for you, you also got some chapstick in your mouth. Now you were convinced that you were one step closer to tragedy with the inevitable chap stick poisoning.  Finally in desperation you pronounced, "This is the worst chap stick day of my life." I tried to show sympathy, but I have to say that the worst day of your life happens quite regularly.

You my wild boy have always lived in terms of extremes. If we are having a hard day and I proclaim a boundary like no TV or no friends, your response will always be with despair, "FOREVER!?!" In your world there is no "a little bit" or "just a while." There is no moderation. Although it does give your dad and I a good laugh these days I do hope that as you grow you will learn that there is a middle ground, and that its ok to meet there once in awhile.

I do really love it though when the worst day of your life starts to show improvement and you pronounce that it has miraculously changed into the best day day of your life. I truly hope your best days will always outnumber your worst days.