7 years to the day...

Holy cow.  He's 7.  How did he get to be seven?  He was SOOOOOO excited that it was finally his birthday!  He got several lego sets and some nerf guns.  After he'd built all his legoes he played with the guns.  He was kinda bummed that he had school on Monday.  He thought he should be able to stay home and play with all his new toys.  Sorry, bud!

Present opening.  It took some patience for him to wait for everyone to wake up.... Almost as good as Christmas morning, for him anyway.

Legos!

And, on Friday, we did treats for his class and they sang for him.  When the kid is self-conscious, he cannot keep his hands out of his mouth.  Drives me nuts, he doesn't even notice, I don't think....

 

One big seven-year-old.  The pics of the cake and such are on the camera, so I'll try to add those later.  We had chocolate cake and chocolate frosting after we enjoyed some homemade mac n cheese (although it's really penne and cheese, technically).  His choice.  We also had some dear friends over to help us celebrate.  I thought I was so funny and bought some trick candles.  Mason was slightly confused at first and then he just said, in a really annoyed voice, "Mooom...."  I thought it was funny.  The other kids enjoyed it.  Needless to say, everyone got to try to blow out the candles.  Hee hee... I think I'll be using those babies again!

Mason is a good kid.  He's very adept at pushing my buttons, but when he chooses to be, he's very sweet and creative.  I still think he'll grow up to be an architect or something.  He loves to build with his legos and draw things.  He's also discovered how fun creative writing can be.  His handwriting is a little rough, but he's working on it.  He is considerate to others and would love to play with Brooklyn more.  Unfortunately for him, she's kind of outgrowing that...  Given the choice to go out and about and say home, he would rather stay home 99% of the time.  Unless the out and about means he'll be shopping for something for him.  Then, he's totally game.  Julianne is always game to play with him and plays with his legos as much as he does.  They make quite the building team.  He had a great birthday and thoroughly enjoyed being spoiled for a day.  He got some cash as part of one of his gifts and he's been begging to spend it since Sunday afternoon.  I like to say it's burning a hole in his pocket and I think it's scorched his leg.... Silly kid.  He still loves to sleep with his blanket, although we had to retire Do-do Bird..  It was getting so frayed that I had to keep cutting strips off so he didn't get choked in the night.  Fortunately, he let me convince him to put it away for safe-keeping and to use the other blanket Grandma Carole made.  It's not quite the same for him, but it's getting the job done.  He's is just as attached to froggie as he was to do-do.  It was really windy Sunday night and he came down to us several times saying he was scared of the wind.  Each time he came down, his blanket was in hand.  My little Linus.  I hope he doesn't outgrow that for a while.   Mason was my baby that was born in Iowa.  It was a little surreal to be here still (technically, again) for his 7th birthday.  Who knew we would enjoy it so much when we came out nearly 9 years ago?  Happy birthday, bud!  We sure love you!

Winter

As usual, time is running away from me.  We had excellent Holidays.  We were loved and spoiled and enjoyed our time together.  This is our Christmas Eve dinner. Rather than spend all day cooking Christmas day, we do a big dinner on Christmas Eve and then something smaller Christmas day.  It works for us.  This year we had yummy steaks, sweet potatoes and rolls.  YUM!

This pic is from before Christmas (because I'm that on top of things).  Brooklyn had a Family History project at school.  She had to make a family tree in any form she would like.  It was a pretty great project.  Her classmates are really creative.  Brooklyn started out with a candy store idea, but then Dad suggested gingerbread men.  She loved that even more so we went with it.  Unfortunately, there are way too many of us to have all the pieces be gingerbread men.  So, the "main" people are, and the smaller ones are pieces of candy.  It worked for us.  Nothing like proving you're from a big Mormon family to the entire 4th grade! That's what happens when you're parents each have 6 siblings!

This was before Christmas, too, I believe.  We were needing sugar cookies.  They were tasty.  After frosting all these, I made Jon do the Gingerbread houses pretty much on his own.. Poor guy. 

We are very blessed to have each other, and since it's winter, he's in full-beard mode. 

We made a special cookie for Santa, and since he left us a note, we know he thoroughly enjoyed it. :).

All ready to see the loot.  No one sneaked downstairs this year.  We all made it down together.  Merry Christmas to us!!

I was in charge of Picture taking, see.  Poor Jon. 

Right after Christmas, we had some much welcomed visitors!  What a great way to keep the celebrations going!  It was a quick trip, but we enjoyed every minute of it!  Thanks for coming! Please come back soon!! :)

Today, we're on our 3rd snow day since our 2 week Christmas Break.  Needless to say, that's a lot of time off from school during the coldest part of the year. Julianne is totally not complaining.  She'd much rather have them around.  Today hasn't been so bad.  The kids are actually getting along and I was able to get some errands done.  We're prepping for a big birthday this weekend, and then next weekend I'm taking a solo vacation to see my Dad.  I'm already saying my prayers for smooth travel, though.  All the forecasts I've seen are predicting snow on my travel day in Denver and SLC.  Neither of those forecasts bode well for my prompt arrival...  We shall see.  I'll just have to hope for the best.  We are so blessed and we hope your Holidays were just as happy!