Surprise!

This is Bowen as he walked in the house and didn't notice the sign behind him.

This is what it said... This is him after I asked him to shut the door because it was cold. He saw it, paused to read it, turned around laughing and a had big smile on his face and asked, "Are you pregnant???" "Yep," I said. "Alright!!!!!", he said, and gave me a big hug and kiss. We're so excited for this little peanut to join our family! It's still pretty early, we don't know what it is or anything, but it's too good of news not to share! Woohoo!

On a side note, this is how lovely our parenting skill are. This is Mason when he watches the Simpsons. He loves them! I know, it's awful.

Not so HO HO HO

Last night was our ward Christmas Party. They always have such nice decorations and yummy food. The highlight for the kids is that Santa comes bearing gifts and treats. As you can see, Mason was not impressed at all by Santa. In fact, he was down right terrified! Oh but this picture was so worth it!

All he wanted was his daddy to comfort him after the Santa experience

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were so lucky this year to have my family drive out here from Utah for Thanksgiving! They arrived at our house Wednesday evening and we were sooo excited to see them. From the time they arrived, Mason had all the attention he could get. Everyone was a bit weary from the drive, so we just took it easy for the rest of the day. Mom, Chellese and I did have to make a last minute stop at the grocery store though :) We woke up bright and early Thanksgiving Day to start the cooking. Bowen went and played flag football with some other guys from the ward. I was so excited to "host" my own Thanksgiving dinner! Everything turned out amazing! I was so scared I was going to dry out or burn the turkey, but even it was so delicious and falling off the bone! Yesssss! I moved the table outside because nobody in my family has ever had a warm enough Thanksgiving to eat outside. Needless to say, we were stuffed!

Mason was thrilled to make a complete mess of his dinner. He did eat pretty much everything though

Even Lady was excited for the leftovers Lady popped Masons favorite blue ball. He wasn't very excited about that. I guess Chellese needed a creative outlet so she decided to style Masons hair much against his will. After she was done she asked what I thought. I started laughing because he looked like Kate Gosslin from the John and Kate plus 8 TV show.

That night we went and saw 2012 at the theater. It was pretty good. The graphics were amazing!

The next day we went downtown to Seaport Village. We spent a couple hours there walking around and shopping. It was such a beautiful day. We could've spent all day outside.

Grandpa Kurt with his favorite grandson :)

After that we went to Fashion Valley mall. It was insane! I guess that's what we get for going on Black Friday.

That evening Bowen and I went and bought a fire pit. Mason is such a little pyro. We enjoy some yummy smores. Mmmmmm!It started rain a bit so we put out the fire and headed inside. C.J. had stepped outside a little while later to talk on his phone when he started yelling, "Shaelyn, there's a thing on your fence...a monster." "What?" I yelled back, "a cockroach?" "NO," said C.J. "A POSSUM!"

I forget that there's no possums in Utah. It was pretty funny when the whole family came outside to take a look at it. C.J. being the hunter man he is wanted to kill it, but I wouldn't let him, so he opted for poking it with a stick until it jumped off the other side of the fence.

When we woke up Saturday it was pouring rain. Booo! Thinking it was going to let up we decided to head to the Wild Animal Park for the day. Well, the clouds got darker and the rain fell harder as we got closer, so we ended up not going. We all went to Red Robin to eat then walked around the mall a bit. Good thing too, because I found Bowens Christmas present. Woohoo!

When we got back to the house, Mom wanted to go walk around La Jolla so just she and I went. It was nice to get a break from babies and boys. Poor Chellese, we left her there to fend for herself. We did have fun going into all the little boutiques and stopping at Starbucks to get my new favorite drink, Soy steamer with hazelnut. So good!

Even though we didn't do a whole lot that day, we were exhausted. I felt bad we didn't get into the Wild Animal park so we made arrangements to go the next day.

I had never been there before. It was so much fun! Mom said she liked it better than the SD zoo. We walked around a good portion of the park before we decided to get something to eat.

Mason and Chellese in their "cave"

The view of the park. Another view...if you look hard to the left you can see the giraffes roaming the African Pride lands of the park.This was probably one of my favorite parts. There was a little aviary call Lorakeet Landing. You could buy a little cup of nectar and as soon as you walked inside of the cage all the birds would come and land on you to try and get a drink of the sweet nectar. Mason was a little nervous when the birds would fly over his head, but he looooved it! Daddy helping Mase. I think Bowen had fun in there too!

Another great exhibit was the gorillas. Mason was a bit nervous of them. I don't think it helped that Bowen kept telling him that we were going to let him stay with the gorillas. There was a display where you could push a button and it would sound off all the sounds gorillas make. Mase was nervous of that at first too. He kept looking for whatever was making that sound. I think he figured it out when he was courageous enough to push the buttons himself.

Daddy and Baby Gorilla

Bowen, C.J, and Dad

For the last part of the park we went on a 4D motion ride and the petting zoo. Mason couldn't get enough of the deer. I got some food pellets so he could feed them and he liked that too.

When we were done with the park we said our goodbyes. They headed back to Delta and we headed back home. It was sad that they left and I hope they had a good time while they were here! Thanks for making this such a fun Thanksgiving! Love you!!!

Lately Masons favorites

Mason's vocabulary has boomed within the past couple of weeks. For example... 1. Owie, owie, owie. These are his favorite words to use when he's in any sort of discomfort which is fine and expected. But he also uses it if, perhaps, he can't get off the couch, he put the ball in the bathtub and can't get it out, or he wants something and it is just out of reach. It's slowly becoming like "The boy who cried wolf." I have to go running even though most of the time he's completely fine. 2. Lolololo. This is slang for tomato. But it's also the first word that comes out of his mouth when the fridge is opened whether he wants a tomato or not. Speaking of tomatoes he eats them like an apple and loves it. Just this morning he had oatmeal, banana, and a tomato for breakfast. Weirdo. 3. Chuck. This is pretty close to the word truck. Mason is obsessed with trucks of all kinds. If the door or window are open when the garbage trucks come by he and Lady are there watching them the whole time.

Mase, you probably shouldn't do that.

Usually when I do housework Mason just tends to do his own thing and play in his room or make a big mess elswhere in the house. Well, as I was doing the dishes I noticed that it was unusually quiet. All of a sudden I heard, "MOMAAA!" Thinking something was wrong or he was hurt I rushed to find him just to see that he had gotten his hand stuck in a toilet papper role. I don't like to laugh when he's in distress but it was so funny!

A few more things...

Our dog, Lady, looooves to wrestle and play. That's great because so does Bowen. Last week they were roughhousing in the living room when lady jumped up the same time Bowen was bending down. Her head smacked him right in the eye. Ouch! Now it looks like Bowen has pretty purple eyeshadow on.

Now this one is a little hard to see, but it completely made my day. I walked out of the house on Saturday to see this cute message.

I *heart* Shaelyn Have a great day!

What a great husband I have! I love him so much! He works so hard for our little family :) Thanks babe!

The past two weeks Bowen has been working the 2nd shift at the shipyard. He was going in at 11am and coming home about 10:30pm. Kind of weird hours, but it was really nice to be able spend our mornings together. I think Mason especially liked having his daddy home at that time because when he would wake up Bowen would go get him and they would cuddle on the couch. By the second week Mason was waking up asking for "daddy?" So cute! Now Bowen is back to his regular schedule, but Mase still came into our room today asking for him. I kind of felt a bad because I had to tell him daddy wasn't here, he was at work but he'll be home soon.

I love my boys so much!

Awesome!

I just have to say how proud I am of my bargain shopping! I just found all these kids books, a couple books for me, some christmas decorations, and a baseball mitt at the thrift store for $14. And the best part is, they were all 60% off. Yesssss! I brought them home and disenfected them before mase could get to them and now he's sitting in the middle of the floor reading them.

Fun in November

Here are just some random pictures from this month. Mason just loves to play outside and throw the ball to Lady. As soon as he does, though, he cries, "Mommy! Ball!" and wants me to get it back from her. Lately he's been obsessed with bugs. Everything is a bug whether it is or not. Also, Balloons. He can spot a balloon from a mile away and once he sees it, that's all he wants. If there's a full moon he thinks that's a big balloon in the sky. "Boooone, mom, booone!"He loves his Your baby can read dvd's. They're a little long for his attention span, but he's starting to say the words it's teaching. I usually pop one of the movies in if I need to mow the lawn or do the dishes without my little helper by my side. He's definitely turning into a full blown toddler. What were little messes before have turned into whole house messes. Just tonight he found the bag of cotton balls. Needless to say, it looks like it snowed in our house. He had fun showing us how pretty it was when he would throw a handful up and let them fall gently to the ground, so i let him do it. You don't realize it until your a mom how precious those little moments are. I have to write them down because I want to remember them forever. Speaking of toddler, his taste in food changes every day. He absolutely does not like vegetables except tomatoes and peas if they have a bit of salt on them. Carrots are out of the question. He does love fruit though. Also, any meat that he eats has to have either ketchup or bbq sauce for him to even try it. I did discover tonight that he likes quesodillas with taco meat, tomatoes, and cheese. Despite his efforts to malnutrition himself, he's still a healthy, happy little boy and that's all I can ask for. I love my little Mason so much!

Old Town San Diego

This week I made plans for our little family to go to Seaworld. Since Bowen is in the military we're able to get in free once a year. We hadn't used the pass yet so I wanted to go before it expired. We got all packed up and headed to the park. We parked the car and were about to walk through the gates when we decided to turn around and come back in December for the Christmas celebration. So, instead we headed up to Old Town. It'd been a whil since I'd been and Bowen had never been there so it was a perfect opportunity. We had wanted to go see the Mormon Batallion, but it was closed for renovations until next year. So we just stuck to the state park part of it. It just so happened that there was some sort of Irish festival going on. There was a band playing celtic music and even Irish dancers. It was just fun to sit and listen to the music. Well...I don't know how much sitting I did with Mason running around, but it was fun to chase him and get a couple of pictures. On our way back to the car we stopped on Coyote Cafe to get some homemade, fresh, hot tortillas. Add some melted butter and sugar and it's a treat! Mmmm...even Mason liked it and lately he doesn't like anything! Since we'd saved the money I had budgeted for Seaworld I offered to buy Wings for dinner for my Bowen. He graciously accepted! We made it home in time to watch the end of a couple of football games. Don't worry though, there was another one right after they finished :) Ha ha!

Julian and Halloween

On Halloween day we took our annual trip to Julian. Our good friends, Heidi and Gordon, came with us. It was nice to have their company! We were far enough in the mountains that the leaves on the trees were starting to change colors. It made me a little homesick to see them but I quickly got over that when I started getting car sick from winding around the curvy roads. I think by the time we got there I was a little green. But the fresh air did wonders! Julian is a little gold mining town that has a apple festival in the fall. When you go you have to get their delicious apple pie and cider, which we did! Since it was Halloween there were kids trick-or-treating at all of the stores and shops. So, Mason got in on the action too and came out with a handful of candy. We were there for only a couple of hours but it was just enough to walk around and see the sights. On our way back Heidi spotted some giant pine cones, so we had to stop and pick up a few. Bowen was a little too sleepy to drive, so I more than willingly offered to drive so I wouldn't get sick again. What a fun little trip!

In front of Mom's Pies. The best! We got an apple boysenberry and it was delicious!

Bowen was anxiously checking football scores throughout the day...

We were wiped out, but that evening we dressed Mason up and took him trick or treating to just a couple houses. One stop was a family in our ward, the Braziers. They give out regular size candy bars, so we HAD to go! LOL! It was fun to visit them for a little bit. Afterwards we went over to our former bishops house for some homemade chili. Every Halloween they make a HUGE pot of chili and invite anyone and everyone over. We stayed there a few hours until Mason was delirious and needed to get to bed. It was such a fun day!