Mason Makes the Paper

Ok ok I know it's not THAT exciting, but I was pretty excited. The county built a new jail and had an open house for it the other night. We decided to not attend but wanted the boys to go with my sister-in-law. She took all the kids down and did the tour with them and they got to pet one of the horses. So Mason and my niece Amanda got their picture taken petting the horse and there was a little article in the paper! I thought it was cute ;) Here's the link if you're interested...

http://www.recordcourier.com/article/20110826/NEWS/110829899&parentprofile=search

Summer Fun and Random Pics

I can't believe that it's already the end of August! Where in the world did this summer go? I've only made it up to the Lake 3 times but it seems like we've been ever so busy! I've taken the boys to the swim center twice, once on a play date with Madeline and once with Steph and her nephew Anthony, both times it was a hit. We've done a few park days, hit up the nice and cool library and lots and lots of just hanging out around the yard. We even did a day at Wild Island with Steph and my sister-in-law and my niece and nephews! I have to say, this sumer has been a lot of fun but I am looking forward to winter again, a little slower pace, although Steph and I were talking last night and there's only like 2 free weekend between now and after the Holidays, it's insane, so hunker down folks it's about to get even crazier!

For the random picture portion of this update is just a few of my favorite ones of the boys in the past month or so. They are getting a little easier to photograph, they'll actually smile and cooperate a little so it's fun. Enjoy...

God's Grace

Poor Waylon, he came down with a fever on a friday night a few weeks ago and fought it for 4 days. It spiked at a 103.6 but remained right in there all 4 days. It seems we always get sick on a friday night, right before the weekend where I can't get into the doctors office. We battled out the fever all weekend and I was able to get him in on Monday afternoon. The doctor thought for that he had strep but tested him anyway and it wasn't, it ended up being a virus that looks and acts like strep but doesn't respond to antibiotics just needs to run its corse. At that point the fever had finally broke so she gave him a throat numbing medicine to make him a little more comfortable. I feel so bad when the boys get fevers. They are just miserable and I just bug them to death with the cold wash clothes, yucky medicines and constant temperature checks. Thankfully no one else got it, just Waylon and by the end of the week he was much better.

I titled this post God's grace because not only did He get us through that week with Waylon and it was nothing more than a simple virus but He had his hand on Mason and my Momma that day too. Susie kindly took Mason for me the day I took Waylon to the doctor, she had to run to reno to pick up some material for our business and he tagged along with her. She called on her way back and said she had to stop at Trader Joe's for a few things and then she'd be home. A few hours had passed and I was so occupied with Way and dinner I hadn't really noticed, Ed too wasn't home and I had sent him a few text with no response but still wasn't by any means alarmed, it all was pretty normal. Around 7 pm Ed, his mom and Mason all walked in, I still assumed nothing other than they all got home at the same time, but then Ed asked Mason to "Tell mom what happened"... Turns out there was some ducks crossing a road and the lady in front of my mom stopped on the HWY for the ducks and mom crashed into the back of her. The Lord had taken 9 lives within 3 weeks of their accident on that HWY and he ever so graciously spared my little boy and my precious mother-in-law from nothing more then a tiny bruised neck from Mason's carseat straps. I could hardly believe that they were in an accident and fine, I just hugged Mason and had an abundance of thanks to the merciful God I worship! Moms car had to be towed away, she cracked the radiator or something so it didn't run but I was still just ever so thankful! Mason wasn't scared or shaken up at all, in fact he went and grabbed a little race car toy he has and a tow truck toy too and showed me what happened, and was very animated!

Puppy...Kittens...Who am I?

We started talking about getting another dog, looking at pictures and prices and seeing what's out there. We really weren't all that serious, it more like something that sounded like a good idea... Well I stumbled across this adorable little year and a half old Beagle/Hound dog on the incline animal shelter website. I called to see what it would take to get him, found myself filling out the adoption app, getting our animals current on shots and two days later driving up to incline to pick up our Henry boy! I don't know what happened exactly, I fell in love with this little guy, and if you know me you'd know I'm not a huge animal fan, but he was so sweet I couldn't resist. Plus, I wanted a pal for our dog Bailey to have in the yard with her, and I wanted a smaller dogs for the boys- They just love him, way calls him "hungry" and mason calls him "honey" so we're working on that. He dug out of the yard within the first few days, but I fixed that problem and he didn't listen at all and he's already gotten a lot better at that too! I'm pretty happy with Mr. Henry and Ed secretly loves him too.

Then just last week our cat had kittens. Like all the litters we have around here there was of course complications. She ended up having them in the litter box and when I opened it I saw one had died, one was roaming around and then there was a clump of four trying to separate but couldn't. I picked them up to put in a cleaner environment and the four were still connected by their cords and after birth. It was a mess, it was covered in litter and I think that's why she wasn't eating it off. So, after a phone call to Ed he came home to help me do some surgery lol. We had to cut them free and I honestly didn't think they'd live. The internet said to tie the cords if you have to cut them but it was such a mess and they were so tangled that we were barely able to cut them free at all without almost giving them another belly button! And then I thought momma kitty was going to just reject them after that, she wasn't getting in the box with them, but Ed put her in and she's been nursing ever since ha! So, now we have 5 kittens and I have one maybe two spoken for so....

Trenches

We have an amazing back yard, tons and tons of grass, a nice concrete area/basketball court but there's just this one area that we've always grown our goat head stickers that we finally decided needed to be grass. I should back up a little bit though because we've always wanted grass there but never really had the push to do it, my aunt gave me a few boxes or plants and oak tree to plant and I didn't have anywhere to put them. I wanted just a little planter over in that sticker area but we decided it was probably a good time to start this project. Before grass though you must trench and put in sprinkler lines! The saturday we started, or I should say Ed and Dad started, (july 16th) I had a few errands to run and a Birthday party to attend and after seeing the great progress Ed was making we both thought that by the time I got home it would be mostly done. Well, we I got back I found Ed about six feet underneath the concrete trying to repair a water line that he broke with the tractor...I can happily say that 3 weeks later the sprinklers are in and done! Ha! Poor guy, he was working late nights during the week and really only had Saturdays to work on it, so it was quite the process, and thank goodness for his Dad who was just a tremendous help! In the midst of it all, the boys were probably the happiest they've ever been, we had a huge sand mountain that they just loved and couldn't get enough of running through those trenches!

4th Of July Week

I'm a little behind I know...but here's my 4th of July post! We didn't do anything to exciting this year, we didn't even take the boys to fireworks (we figured they're still young and don't know any differently) so we went to my side of the fam for a BBQ during the day and then barbecued some hamburgers with ed's parents! It was a nice day and even nicer because we didn't have to fight the crowds and be out super late! Also that week our church held it's annual 4 day club. It's like a VBS and this year Mason was so into it! He did really well too, he sat with the other children and listened just great. Waylon was still to young be we hung out in the back and made it through. This year was even more encouraging because the little school behind our church brought over 12 or so kids, so we had a nice sized group which was just awesome! Also that week we were able to have Diane and her lovely grandkids over for a lunch and slip and slide play date! That was very fun, it was sort of overcast that day and ever so slightly cool so I filled up the pool with warm water and that was a hot spot for all.