Leaves!

We had an unusually warm, dry afternoon a couple of weeks ago so we spent some time outside.  Mason walked around pushing a plastic shovel in the crunchy leaves for a good 30 minutes.  It was really cute.  December afternoons like this are what make living in the rainy north west bearable. 

And, he's finally big enough for shoulder rides on Daddy!

"School" Pictures

I really don't like paying for expensive school pictures where the kids are posed in front of a cheesy backdrop and get one shot for the perfect picture.  So, this year I opted to take my own pictures of Spencer.  They didn't turn out perfect, but here's what we got for Spencer's 2nd grade pictures (with with outtakes!):

Gosh, where did my little boy go?!  Spencer looks so grown-up to me now!

Family Pics 2015

Alan's mom, Debbie, was kind enough to be our family photographer this year.  (Thanks again Debbie!!!)  We did the shoot at a little park here in town.  It was a pretty and cool November day.  Mason didn't last long so we had to be quick, but I think we ended up with a few good shots.

Starting to get tired of trying to contain a wiggly baby:

Really tired of holding a wiggly baby:

 
"Hurry, take it!  He's holding still!"

All done with serious pictures:

We love our little family!

Standing, Talking, & Walking!

Mason officially turned 14 months old this evening.  The last two weeks have been exciting ones for him.  He learned to stand independently, said his first word (doggie!) besides mamma and dadda, and took off walking!  He still uses a mix of scooting, crawling, and walking to get around, but walks more and more every day.  It is so funny to watch him toddle around so wobbly!

 

Mason also got his first haircut on Sunday.  He was always rubbing a lot of food in his hair trying to get it out of his eyes while he was eating.  It was time. 

Before:

 

After:  I think he looks a lot older now that it's cut.  I have mixed feelings about that!

In addition to all of those fun milestones, Mason has also been cutting his top molars the past couple of weeks.  He was waking up a lot at night and napping terribly.  Not fun.  At least he was happy during the day though.  I think we're past the worst for those two teeth now.  That gives him 10.  Just 10 more to go!

Halloween

Halloween is definitely my least favorite holiday.  This year was no different, but it is fun to see how excited Spencer gets.  



Alan was on carving duty this year.  Spencer was grossed out by the insides, but eventually helped.  :)

Not too shabby!

We celebrated Halloween a day early because that's when our ward was putting on a Trunk or Treat.  Mason began the day by smearing bananas all over his face and hair.  Nice.

The boys helped me get the big bowl of treats ready to hand out.

Spencer knew he wanted to be Lloyd from Ninjago for months before Halloween.  You can't buy Ninjago costumes so I knew I would be making it.  It wasn't that hard and would have been fine if I had started earlier.  Making costumes stresses me out!  Spencer was happy with it though.  He got to wear it four times: his school party, the Trunk or Treat, trick-or-treating to Grandpa Rasmussen on Halloween, and again on Sunday so Grandma could see it.  

Mason got to be the cutest, cheapest thing we found at Goodwill.  He was a pretty cute giraffe!

The Trunk or Treat got rained on a little, but was still fun.  I set up an I Spy game in my trunk for the kids to play before they got their candy.  It was raining so hard on Halloween afternoon/evening that we wimped out and only went to see Grandpa.  There's no shortage of candy around here though.  Spencer does a good job of not gobbling it all down.  A recent throwing-up at school incident taught him that his stomach doesn't handle a lot of junk food very well.  :)