ROOK!

Saturday was a good day to let Mason try to feed himself oatmeal. He did really good for the first few bites then he gave up on the spoon and tried to use his hands, which did not work to well. Check out his bib, given to him by Aunt Cassie, it covers him up pretty good for such occasions.









Saturday afternoon Mason and I (Phil had to work) met up with GranNanny and Pap-Paw, then headed to Uncle Mike's and Aunt Edie's house (Dakota was already there). They had fixed an awesome feast, especially the pork chops. After eating, a few of them played the card game, Rook.

Isn't this monkey hat too cute?




Uncle Mike and Mason




Our cutie pie!

GranNanny's not to happy with her hand.

Everybody had a good, laughable time. This brought back memories from when I was little watching family play cards. Pap-Paw is pretty funny by himself, but when you add Uncle Mike and a few others you have a good show.

Mason got a late birthday present, but he was more interested in the bag and paper.


Thanks Aunt Edie and Aunt Mary for the great food. Hope to do this again very soon.

We took Mason to the doctor again on Friday, to if he needed anything for his congestion. The doctor prescribed antibiotics for 5 days and said to give him Zyrtec at bedtime until all of this clears up. He is doing much better today.

Fourwheeling Fun

This past Sunday, Mason and I spent the day at GranNanny's and Pap-Paw's since Phil was at work. We were pulling Uncle Dakota around in the little wagon. Mason just leaned back on me and enjoyed the ride.







Taking a big step.

Tractor time with Pap-Paw.

Meet Zip. I got her when I was 14, I'm now 24. When Phil and I got married she stayed with mom and dad.


On Monday, I got a call from Hospit-tots to pick up Mason due to him running a 101 fever. I took him to the doctor Tuesday, his temperature was up to 103 even though I had given him Motrin. The doc was unable to find anything wrong, and advised it was more than likely a virus that would have to run it's course. Much to my surprise, the doctor did not prescribe antibiotics. Long story short, I was out of work Tues. and Wed. with Mason since he couldn't go to daycare running a fever. I truly believe his fever was caused by his teething. He also has a lot of congestion, and I do mean a lot. The doctor said once warm weather gets here and stays his runny nose and congestion should go away permanently. Hope she's right.

Although he hasn't been feeling very good this week, he's still learning everything he can. He can say "bath" and "ball" now. He'll try to throw the ball but he pretty much just hands it to me. You can ask him, "Where's the light?" and he'll look up to the ceiling and point. Something I think is so cute, I'll tell Mason, "Let's go change your diaper," and he'll lead me straight to the changing table in his room and wait for me to pick him up.

Have a great weekend!

Mornings with "Millie Moo"

This has become Mason's favorite book, and I say that, because we have to read it two or three times before he's ready to play. Every morning this past week, after eating his breakfast, he would get down, go get this book, and bring it to me, then want me to pick him right away so we could follow "Millie Moo" on her adventure. I just love that he's now bringing us the book to read to him. He'll sit through the whole book, which he didn't use to do, and even turn the pages.




This is one of his favorite pages. Maybe it's the spots that really get his attention.



Daddy and Mason reading this morning, before breakfast.

13 months

Chocolate chip muffins. Yum!

Poor monkey, Mason drags him all over the house.

All About Mason MEETS Gilliam.Life

Saturday, Mason finally got to meet Jack. We've been trying to get these two boys together for a while now. Patrick, Sarah, and Jack were visiting with Sarah's parents, Rick and Ann, which only live about 5 minutes away from us.

For their first meeting, they really did not pay that much attention to one another, but it sure was fun for us to watch them.

Jack- 14 months old

Not only do Sarah and I have boys that are close in age, we also share the passion for photography. Knowing a professional photographer has it's benefits, because they can teach someone like me, a lot of tricks about photography.

It was so great to finally get together with ya'll. Hope to see all of you very soon.

P.S. Sarah, like I said, you just give me a call when you need a back up photographer, I would love to help, anytime.

A Sleeping One Year Old: PRECIOUS

When Mason was a newborn up to 6 months, I took a bunch of pictures of him sleeping. Now that he's a year old, sleeping pictures are just as precious.


We only have two stuffed animals in his bed, one is a prayer bear and the other sings "Jesus Loves Me." Phil and I pray for Mason's safety not only during the day, but also as he sleeps.





Look at those "big feet."

"DR. MASH"

Playing with daddy's stethoscope.

Mason Loves Being Outdoors

Mason started Hospi-Tots last Monday. It's a daycare for kids of the hospital employees. After everything that happened with Mason's babysitter, Ella Mae, and after turning one, we thought starting daycare would be good for him. He had a really good week, both of his teachers/caregivers bragged on him. One of them even said, " if they were all as good as him, we wouldn't have any problems." I beamed with pride. When I dropped him off in the mornings he would go to the other kids and not even worry about mommy, but when I came to pick him up he was ready for me. Everything was going good until Friday, when I get a call from Hospi-Tots around 10:00 saying that Mason was running a 101 temperature. I picked him up and headed to the pediatric clinic. By then he was running a 102.5 temp. The nurse gave him some Mortin. The doctor came in, said one of his ears looked a little red, but nothing serious. She did check him for the flu, but it came back negative. Needless to say she gave us more antibiotics, and sent us on our way. By the time we left, Mason's temp. had come down, he didn't even feel warm anymore. I swear he's been on so much antibiotics I don't even know if it's helping him or not. I don't even think the pediatric doctor's look to see what happened on the last visit, they just automatically give a prescription for antibiotics.

Even though Mason was still under the weather Saturday with a runny nose and congestion, we managed to make it to Austin's 2nd birthday party.




Austin got the cutest wagon, and took some others for a ride. You can see Mason just wasn't himself, otherwise I think he would've really enjoyed this ride.


Sunday after church, we were all tired, and thought it was a perfect afternoon to take a nap. After napping, Mason was up and about, feeling a little better. In the picture below, I had laid this banana on the stool after giving Mason a couple of bites. I was fixing supper with my back turned to him, and noticed he had gotten quiet. I then turned around and seen him sitting in the floor feeding himself the banana. He's a sneaky little fella.




Today, I stayed home with Mason, because he was still so congested in his nose. I wanted to make an appt. with the ear, nose and throat doctor to have him check Mason's ears. To my surprise, he said Mason's ears looked great, and that Mason probably just has a little sinus. He also said his ears could be popping and that could be causing him to be cranky. We got back home from the doctor, had some lunch and Mason took a two hour nap. When he awoke, daddy was home and we decided to spend some time outside.

Walking around.

Here Chickie, Chickie, Chickie. I was trying to teach him to call in the chickens.

Cousin Adin was at Nana's and joined us for a little bit.

Once Adin and Nana went back to the house, he tried to go with them.

Helping daddy.

Smile!


Mason seemed to feel a lot better this afternoon, but was still clingy and whiny. He's also cutting his two, top teeth, which I'm sure is adding to the problem. Hopefully, once he gets completely over this round, he'll be on the road to "recovery." We sure thought once he got the tubes put in he was good to go, but apparently not. Please add Mason to your prayers, that he can get over all this mess and have a full month without being sick.

On good news:

Mason is learning so much these days, and everything Phil and I do he will try to mimic. If I try to tinkle him, he'll try to tinkle me. If I dance, he dances, which by the way he's pretty good at. You can ask him, "where's your belly?" and he knows exactly where it it. He can sometimes point out my eyes, when asked, "where's my eyes?" When he sees one of his play cows he'll say, "moo." Of course his favorite word his, "dog." He says it with such excitement when he sees the dogs. We're hoping that he'll start to pick up on all kinds of things now that he's at daycare, because they do art, read books, play ball, dance to music, play outside, and lots of other things.

If Mason's seems well in the morning I'll be taking him to daycare. I so hope he feels better.

Have a great week. You better enjoy Tuesday, because after that it starts getting cool again. Come on Spring!

Another Birthday ShoutOut!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my cousin Heather! Hope you have a great day!

Celebrating Granny Pullen's 70th Birthday!

Saturday we had my Granny Pullen a surprise 70th birthday party, (her birthday is actually today.) She was surprised alright, she had no clue until she saw all the cars. She couldn't believe somebody would have her a party.

Granny was a little shy about having everybody watching her open presents, but she did just fine.

Funny story: she got a cow for her birthday, so when that cow's calf sells in the fall, Granny will get all the money from it.

Group shot. "Where's Brandie?" Oh yeah, she took the picture.

Granny with one of her long time friends, Faye.

Granny Pullen is who I got my desire for photography from. Ever since I can remember she has always taken her camera every where so she could capture any moment.

I took this picture of the snow, when we got home Saturday night.

Happy 70th Birthday Granny Pullen!

We Love You!