Mason's First Fishing Trip

Mason really wanted to go fishing for his birthday (I know, it's a week early), so we took him to get a little fishing pole on Friday night and Dan took the kids fishing Saturday while I did a boutique in Rexburg.  The kids both had a blast!  Here's one of the several videos he took . . . I'll try to post the others as well.

Mas has been watching Dinosaur Train a lot lately and they go 'fishing' for food, which is where this all came from. He'll put piles of pillows on the floor to make a big pond and fish in them for 'big fish'.  He also thinks we have 'great eyesight' when we can see the fish!

His idea or ours???

Mason has always had a way of twisting something that is his idea so that suddenly it seems like your idea! Lately he will say something like "hide and seek" and when I ask "do you want to play hide and seek?", he'll say "um, well . . . okay!" He pretends like he really had to think about it first and kind of says it like he's not really excited about it. He used to just say "um, okay", but the past few days he's been throwing "well" into just about every sentence!

I wish I could pull the same stunt with Dan. Like if I said "Hawaii" and he'd say "you want to go to Hawaii?". I'd answer with "um, well . . . okay" and make him think he had come up with the idea.

Last week I mentioned that he needed a haircut and immediately he started asking for suckers (which we use to distract him during the cut). He was ready to put on his shoes and get in the car to go get his haircut. He really, really wanted a sucker I guess! Too bad we had to schedule it and he'll have to wait until this Thursday for that sucker!

He is also monopolizing our fridge! He's so proud of his artwork that he puts about 9 magnets around it on the fridge before it's even dry. I'm glad he knows that we enjoy his creativity!

Boutique this weekend / Home party next week!

On Friday and Saturday I'll be doing a Miche Bag and Close to my Heart booth with my sister, DanaRae, in Centerville. There will be tons of other cute vendors and they are giving away over $500 in raffle prizes!

Also, next Tuesday (Oct 20th), I will be having a combined Miche/Discovery Toys party at my home. It will be an open house from 6:30 - 9:00 pm, but the Discovery Toys rep will be doing her presentation at 7 pm. They have so many cute toys that would be perfect Christmas or birthday gifts for your kids, grandkids, or whatever kids you know! They're fun and educational, which is a bonus!

It will also be a great opportunity to see the trendy Miche Big Bag and cute new October shells! Please let me know if you plan to come by!

If you can't make it, but are interested in either product let me know! You can check out the Discovery Toys products at
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/home/nickyshepherd.

Fall Boutique in Bountiful

This Friday and Saturday my sister-in-law Julie and I will have a Miche booth at a Boutique in Bountiful. The address is 2200 S Orchard Dr and it's from 11-7 both days. Come by to visit and see the new BIG BAG. I have them in stock now for anyone that was waiting to see them (let me know if you want me to bring them by sometime).

There will be a lot of other fun vendors this weekend, so come see us!

September Update, Part III (of 3)

Baby Animals galore . . . Hogle Zoo was buzzing this year with everyone anxious to see the new little baby elephant and giraffe! They were sooo cute! As in the past, Mason wasn't real thrilled with the animals at first, but then he liked looking in the displays to see what he could find. There were a few he was scared of (the black bear, the elephants, and the huge cockroaches in the rain forest), but he liked to watch the monkeys and even tolerated the giraffes long enough for a photo! When we went on the Merry-go-round, he went straight for the peacock bench, but someone was already there, so he actually sat on the big giraffe! Tristyn was asleep so he used her ticket to go back, but that time would only sit on the sled. At least he had fun! I think his favorite thing is always the train. Tristyn liked it all! She loved watching the elephants and pretty much everything that was close enough to see. Luckily, she had a little nap in between so she was in a great mood! It was nice to get out and spend some time in the sun before it got cold!

Last weekend Melissa and Dan played catch out back with Mason. Well, it was more keep away than anything. Mostly Mason liked to get the ball and have them chase him to get it. Tristyn watched them run back and forth, but for some reason didn't want to walk through the grass to play. I guess the long grass tickled too much! She did end up with a super dirty face after playing on the slide and swings (top right photo). While they were doing all this . . . I was reading Twilight! I started it the day before and wanted to get through it on that Sunday before going back to work! Since then I've also read New Moon and started Eclipse last night! I'm now an addict and need to get through them so I can concentrate on other things! We watched the movie last night--A lot of things weren't as I imagined them, but I was glad that when I read afterward that I was able to go back to the things I imagined rather than what was in the movie. I can't wait until the opening of New Moon!

Not really an update for September, but Tristyn turned 16 months old on October 2nd! I can't believe she is getting so old, so big, and so smart! She has no problem getting her way has learned to sneak away and to naughty things even when we tell her no. Actually, when we tell her no she thinks it's really funny and she never stops what she's doing. She likes to copy us and shake her finger at us saying no, no, no. In the last couple of weeks she has been doing animal sounds on demand and she can do an elephant, duck, snake, dog, cat, cow, owl, frog, bunny, fish, lamb, bear, lion, dinosaur, tiger (the last four are all the same growl), monkey, and more. She says the names of a few animals too. On Friday when she heard the garage door open, she said "Dad"! Normally Mason hears it before she does and runs to the door, so it was cute that she recognized that he was home. She likes to climb on everything, most recently up on to the table. She likes to draw and gets mad when I take the pens away. I've had to scrub ink out of her shirts and off the couch, so I'm not so crazy about letting her walk around with pens! She mostly uses her left hand to color and draw, so maybe she'll be a lefty (won't be bump elbows at the dinner table?) She is getting better at going downstairs and I would almost allow her to play in the front room without the stairs being blocked (almost). She likes to dance and loves to run after Mason and be chased. She's giggly and likes to tease. The other day I was asleep on the recliner and she kept tickling my toes (maybe Dan put her up to it). She knows where her eyes, ears, nose, hair, belly button, and toes are and will also point to ours. The poor thing has been teething for what seems like months! Hopefully those nasty molers will be in soon so she'll sleep through the night! She likes to get up and watch Blue's Clue's, so I wonder if she's been faking it some nights! She's definately keeps us on our toes and is wearing us out! She's super cute and way fun, though!

As mentioned earlier, Mason is talking a lot more and is getting really good with words. He'll read a few of the words in his books and he especially likes to 'do words' on our computers, where he types words into Microsoft Word. He knows a lot of them from memory, but will also get one of his first words books and will look at the word, then type it in. He likes to type his name, mom, dad, Tristyn, Go Aggies, hat, bat, cat, and more. If he doesn't know, he'll ask us what letter is next. Tonight when we were reading, he asked what a word was ('and'). Some of the pages he has memorized, but I love that he'll look at the words and relate them to what's in the picture. He is learning his part for the primary program and has 'Choose the Right' down pat! Now if he'd just repeat the rest of it! My sister Karen and her husband Steve were in town for the weekend and he had a blast playing games on their iPod Touch (and messing up the apps). Thanks for keeping him entertained, guys! He likes to paint and write words, play outside, do puzzles (he can do a new 24 piece puzzle in a few minutes), play the 'board game' (wii fit), and play with the cookie scoop! He always wants to make cookies, but just because he wants to scoop them. Eating them is only the 2nd best part for him! He also loves pulling all the cushions off the couches and making towers, trains, and 'holes' to hide in. I don't really like that game, but I'm afraid it's going to get worse as the weather gets colder! Hopefully he'll like making towers and holes in the snow! Oh, and he's great at telling Tristyn 'no, no, no'.

Dan took Steve golfing for the first time yesterday and also took him shooting. We had fun with them here, so hopefully they had a nice visit too. I have boutiques for three weekends in a row, so October is going to be crazy. I better start planning for Mason's birthday! I still can't believe that summer is over! Where does the time go???

That's my update for now! Thanks for sticking with me! You should be able to click on any of the photo collages to see them larger.

September Update, Part II

I feel like the worst mom ever that I haven't blogged about Mason's first day of preschool 2009. In my defense, it wasn't acually his first, first day . . . just his first day this fall! He went to the same preschool last year after he turned three to help with his speech delay. He did so well last year and we saw a lot of progress, so I was so glad when they approved him for 3 days a week this year! It's amazing what he picks up on and he is talking more and more every day. It's awesome to hear him use proper grammar. I don't know why he was set on wearing his blue shoes that didn't match for the first day, but oh well! He still looked super cute! He and Tristyn both love to visit the fish tank just inside the preschool door before going to class. The tag for his box is a green frog and he really likes finding it and picking out a box to store his hat and backpack. It's nice that he actually likes to wear his backpack now! Dan also started his 2nd year of Grad School a few weeks ago. I failed to get a photo of him by the front door with his back pack and ball cap. Either way, I'm proud of both my guys!

My sister, DanaRae, and her family were so nice to invite me to the Keith Urban concert! Dan doesn't care for country music, so I went without him. I don't own any of his albums and only recognized a few songs, but he's nice to look at and sounds good, so I didn't mind! It was actually a great show. When he went down into the crowd, a bunch of people leaned against the guard rail to touch him and it fell over. There was a pile of people on the floor. No one would admit to being hurt, but I don't know how everyone could have been okay! The opening act was Little Big Town, who I have never heard of, but they were pretty good too. I had a great time, so thanks for letting me go with you Bennetts!

A couple of weeks ago Mason wanted to play with the water bottle that I use to do his hair. Of course he just wanted to spray it at random things, but I told him he could only spray it on the counter. I then gave him a rag and he proceeded to wipe the counter off for me. I decided to also let him spray the kitchen floor! He was cleaning one square at a time, so hopefully someday I'll have a sparkling clean foor! He just needs to use a little elbow grease! I was pleased with his enthusiasm for cleaning! Toilets next???

September Updates

I'm going to attempt to catch our blog up! I have tons of photos from September (a busy month as always), so bear with me! On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, we went to Swiss Days real quick on our way to Bear Lake. It was crazy busy at Swiss Days, so it was almost impossible to get the stroller through the crowd and even harder to get it into any booths. Luckily, that helped me avoid spending much money there! We got to Bear Lake in the late afternoon, but we were able to spend a couple of hours at the Ideal Beach Resort private beach. It was nice to have a huge area to ourselvles. Tristyn as a little hesitant in the sand to begin with, but it didn't take her long to dive in. Mason had fun running out in the water and kept saying 'so far' when he got far from shore. Dan tried and tried to build a sand castle, but Mason really enjoyed dumping water on it. We did come across a huge sandcastle that another group had left. Mason wanted to wreck it too, but luckily I got to him soon enough! The kids also had a great time at the resort playground. I think it was both kids' first time on a merry-go-round.

On Sunday we visited Diane and Emelia in Logan before they headed to SV for my nephew Braxton's birthday. Mason and Emelia are just 8 days apart, so they'll both be turning 4 soon (I don't know why I didn't take photos at breakfast--probably just trying to keep the kids under control). That evening we took grandma and grandpa Higbee's 4-wheelers out to Wellsville Reservoir to feed the ducks and play at the playground. Mason looks awesome in his helmet. I'm surprised he'll even wear it!

Labor Day is when Wellsville celebrates their Founders Day, so they had festivities galore! On Monday morning we went to the parade. Mason didn't enjoy the noisy vehicles that started the parade (especially the cowboys and Indians that shot blanks). He made Dan cover his ears for the first half of the parade . . . until he realized they were throwing candy! It didn't take him long to get down in the street and grab what candy he could! Tristyn even joined in and picked up a couple of pieces herself (hmm, I just remembered that their bag of candy is still in the cupboard). When Big Blue went by, I ran out to have Dan take a photo, but Mason freaked out and arched his back away from the bull. I should have just had him say 'Go Aggies'. After the parade we let Mason go on a few of the carnival type rides. He loved the little ride that shot him up and down (shown in the collage). He didn't do so well with the timed toys ($3 for 5 minutes)--we had to drag him out every time.

We also played games with our friends, the Rigby's while we were there. It was a super fun, and super busy weekend! At least the kids slept well for a few days!