Happy Early Valentine's Day!

I intended to mail these Valentine's cards out this year, but I had some camera issues and couldn't get them uploaded in time.  So, here's our e-Valentine for this year:

Spencer had a fun Valentine's party at school yesterday.  Mason and I got to go for a few minutes to help the kids make their penguin bags and pass out snacks.  The party was disrupted by a fire-drill right in the middle, but the kids still had fun.  Spencer got way too much candy. :)

That will probably be the end of our Valentine's celebrations this year.  My amazing Grandma LeFevre passed away last night and we will be traveling to southern Utah for her funeral this weekend.  We are so sad she is gone, but so happy that she gets to spend this Valentine's with her sweetheart to passed away almost exactly nine years ago.  Happy Valentine's Day you two love birds!

5 Months

Here are some pictures from Mason's 5-month photo shoot yesterday.  5 months!!  I am really loving this happy stage where he's starting to interact with us more.  Mason LOVES Spencer and gets so excited and happy when Spencer comes home from school.  He's recently started squealing loudly and goes a little crazy when Spencer gets home.  It's really cute!

Mason slobbers a lot now and has been spitting up more the last week or so.  I don't know though why because we haven't changed his formula.  Everything he touches goes directly to his mouth.  

We did some sleep training with Mason a couple of weeks ago and it went so well, much better than I anticipated!  Instead of always rocking him to sleep now, we just sing him a song and put him in his bed.  He sucks on his 2nd and 3rd fingers to soothe himself and falls asleep almost immediately.  And, he can soothe himself during the night now so he's sleeping through the night really well.  Mason goes to bed around 8:00 and wakes up between 6:00 and 7:00 in the morning.  His naps are still inconsistent though.  He will usually sleep for about two hours in the morning, but not usually longer than 30 minutes throughout the rest of the day.  He goes down easily and is sleeping through the night though so I really can't complain!

Mason's eating has improved too.  He drinks about 5 oz. every three hours during the day.  He's starting to get interested in our food, so I think we'll be trying solids in the next few weeks!

We love this little, fuzzy-headed, cutie bug so much!

Winter Blahs

I've been having a hard time motivating myself to take pictures lately.  Mason and I stay home most of the day so he can have decent naps  That doesn't make for every exciting pictures, but Mason is still as cute as ever!  

We've had enough "warm" dry weather, that I've been able to take Mason on runs in the jogging stroller once a week.  We literally run our errands.  We've been to Home Depot, Kohls, the library, Safeway, Walgreens and Dollar Tree on our runs.  Mason usually falls asleep and I get a little exercise.

He's almost too big for the baby bathtub now!

 He loves his feet!

I took this profile pic to document the flatness of the back of Mason's head.  It's definitely getting worse and causes me a lot of stress.  I do my best to keep him off of it while he's awake, but he sleeps on his back about 14 hours a day and it's impossible to counter-act all of that time.  I think he's going to have to wear a medical helmet to correct it. :(

We try to get him to do lots of tummy time during the day.  Mason doesn't like it, but he lasts longer if we read a story to him.  Spencer is really at helping him stay happy on his tummy.

Until Mason rolls over anyway!  He learned that escape skill a couple of weeks ago and now we have to block him from rolling if we want him to stay on his tummy for any amount of time at all.

 
My best buddies!

Mason is getting closer to sitting up by himself.

I can't get enough of that face or those eyes!

His sits in the booster seat now and stays much happier in there during meals than on the floor in the bumbo seat.  

It's a good thing Mason came along before winter.  I would be having some serious boredom and depression issues if I was home by myself all day this time of year!