Football Season Is Here!

Football season is in full swing at our house, which means we get to go to daddy's football games!  Mason has received the stadium much better than he did last year, when it took us 3 games to even get past the entrance.  This year, he went right in and loved it, although for some reason the band made him nervous.

Luckily Uncle Dan saved the day when the scary band came out for halftime!

With his buds Brody & Cal.  Obviously the band is still playing.

I think half the reason why these boys love going to the games so much is the concessions.  For only $3 each, we figured why the heck not let them each have their own huge shaved ice :)

Daddy spends a lot of time at the computer these days, watching film & planning.  Madden tries to help out when he can.

Football season is definitely exhausting for me, juggling two boys, a full time job and all of the household duties.  But, so far so good - it helps that Gator football is back, too!  Go Broncos & Gators!

PreK-3

Mason just started his second year of preschool, in the 3-year-old class.  The week before school starts, they have a "meet the teacher" day for the kids.  It's essentially an open house that allows parents to take the kids to the school to become familiar with their new classroom, classmates and teachers with their parents by their side.  It is meant to help alleviate some of the first-day-of-school stresses that may come to a toddler for being separated from their parents for the first time.

When we walked into the door, there, in the very center of the room, was a huge car table!!!  Well, as you can guess, Mason was in heaven.  He literally spent 2 hours doing this, other than the 10 minutes I was able to drag him away to half-heartedly do a craft project.  But he wasn't alone, at one point there were five boys speeding around the table!

His teacher, Miss Haskins

The next week it was time for the big first day.  I took some time off work to take him.  There were no first day of school jitters for this little boy, he was ready to go!

Leading the way to his classroom.

I stayed long enough to get his name tag pinned on, and a quick pic and kiss, and off he went, playing and barely waving bye.

Unfortunately I'm unable to be there to drop off or pick up due to work, but we've scheduled BG & Opa to watch the boys on school days so they can be a part of the process.  Looks like Mason's in good hands being dropped off, and Madden's got a new mode of transportation!

It's going to be a great school year for my sweet, smart boy!

Madden - 9 Months

Another month has flown by, and we are now 3/4 of the way to being 1!

18.3 lbs (25% weight), 28" long (35% height).  Still a peanut!

But that small size doesn't hold this peanut back at all.  Little man is on. the. move.

Go Madden, go!

He is now fully mobile, crawling like a champ.  Which means, he's getting himself into all sorts of trouble, like getting stuck under toys.

 Not satisfied with simply crawling for a while, he's also pulling himself up onto anything he can get his hands on - toy boxes, chairs, tables, our legs, the couch...

And of course his crib.  The nanny got a little surprise when she turned on the monitor a few weeks ago.

This is one of his favorite places to hang out.  He's got that in common with his brother, who also wants to spend all of his days jumping on his bed.

 Once he's upright, he's generally looking for someone to help him walk.  Luckily most of us are happy to oblige for a while, especially his cousins who don't have to bend over quite so far!

Little man is also OBSESSED with food.  Just like his brother around this age, now that he has discovered the joys of real, adult food, he wants it all the time.  Our very busy little boy will sit still for 30 minutes at a time if we put him in his high chair and keep the food coming!

Not only has his eating gotten easier because he's chewing well, but he also had all FOUR of his top teeth break through in one week.  No wonder he was so fussy the week before!!

You've got something in your hair, buddy.

Now, why would I want milk when you've got these delicious peanut butter pretzels staring at me?

He is also loving this little red car that used to be Mason's, we take her for a spin a few nights a week after dinner while Mason rides his bike.

Oh, and balloons.  He is infatuated with balloons.   This one was in our house for 2 weeks, and Madden lost his mind every time he saw it.

As for his big brother, Mason is finding his little brother's sudden mobility to be a bit frustrating.  He doesn't really want to share his (ridiculously large) car collection with his little brother, and we've been having a lot of conversations about sharing.  

One day I made a fort for Mason, and his way of "sharing" with Madden was giving him access to the box of cars, but using the box to block the entrance to the fort.  I called this one a win, since both boys were perfectly content with the arrangement. 

For the most part, Mason is a really good big brother who's starting to realize his little brother can be a little bit more fun than he used to be.   And as for Madden, he sure does love his big brother.

I can't wait to see the trouble these two get into over the next years (decades??).  Sure do love being these boys' mom!!

Florida Trip 2013

Every summer, we make the trip back to FL during Tristan's 2 week break between summer and fall football.  This was our first time flying with two kids, and I'd be lying if I didn't say we were a little worried about how it would go.

Don't let this absolutely adorable face fool you...this boy is BUSY and doesn't like being "worn" for long periods of time.  Nor does he like sleeping anywhere but his crib.

This guy, on the other hand, is SO easy, so we knew he would be an angel on the flights.  And, he absolutely was!  This was actually a fun trip for Mason - even though he's been on a LOT of planes in his short 3 years, this was the first trip he really understood what was happening.  He was not only so excited to ride the planes, but to see all of our family in FL.

Do you SEE that mischievous look on Madden???

Mason was such a big boy with his own suitcase to carry on the plane.  It was stocked full of cars, coloring books, stickers, a few movies, and snacks.

Unfortunately, we were delayed in Atlanta due to weather, and ended up getting to FL 3 hours later than expected.  This is unfortunate, because Madden was dressed and ready for the BIG event happening that night, which we ended up missing...

Auntie Brittany's engagement! 

But we survived the trip, and I'm happy to report it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be.  Guess that's what happens when you expect the worst!

Luckily, even though we missed the actual proposal, we didn't miss the post-engagement celebration!  My mom had planned a surprise party at our beach condo, so once we got a very tired Madden to sleep, we were able to celebrate!

WAHOO!

We stayed at the Ritz Carlton residences on Singer Island in West Palm Beach for the week.  This was, A. totally NOT how I vacationed growing up, B. totally NOT how we will vacation as a family of 4 as the boys grow up, but C. totally awesome.  So, thanks mom, for turning into a hotel/vacation snob over the past 10 years!

We had such a fun week - not only was the facility amazing, but this was the first real vacation Tristan & I have taken since our honeymoon.  It was a little different with two small children, but was also a perfect vacation to take them on. 

We spent the majority of our time in the hotel's two amazing pools.  The upper deck had cabanas and water fountains.

And the lower deck had an infinity pool overlooking the ocean.

Madden absolutely loved the pool - as soon as we'd get down there he'd start kicking, squealing and launching himself out of our arms. 

And this guy is a swimming fool!!!

Every day, after a few hours of swimming, we'd pull Mason out of the pool for a snack.  Well, he apparently adapted to the Ritz mindset real quick, and insisted on being covered like THIS for all of his snacks. 

So then, of course his little brother wanted in on that action.

These two, I sure do love them. 

More poolside fun in the cabana with Gigi.

Mason scoping out the pretty ladies.  Ha!

Madden helping Pop get some work done.

Of course, we also ventured down to the beach a few times as well.  Although, to be honest, we preferred the pools.  But the water was gorgeous and Mason had a great time riding the (small) waves with daddy & Pop.

When we weren't down at the pools/beach, we were having our own fun up in the condo.

And, as you probably already know if you've read ANY of my other posts that involve my mom, this trip wouldn't have been complete without serving Mason copious amounts of sugar, in the form of ice cream...

Leftover engagement cake...

And more ice cream.  Don't worry...no babies were actually served ice cream with the making of this photo.

And of course...we had plenty of adult beverages as well.  Don't worry, no babies were actually served wine with the making of this photo.

We also took a few small excursions, including to a local nature park to see the fish, turtles, and other local wildlife.

And also to a local outside mall that had a merry go round & train. 

The Ritz also has a private movie room (of course they do) that my parents reserved for one evening so that they could watch a movie with Mason. 

They had the whole place to themselves, and Mason was in heaven, with a movie & popcorn.  They watched A Bug's Life, b/c that's the only movie we had!

Some post-movie fun.

Tristan & I were also able to take advantage of the free babysitters to get away two nights.  The first night, to celebrate our 5 year anniversary.  I had planned for us to go on a sunset cruise and out to dinner, but sadly, 2 hours before we left, the company called to tell us they hadn't booked enough people for that evening's cruise, so it was cancelled. 

We were bummed, but had a fantastic dinner at a restaurant recommended by my sister and friend Kelly. 

We also got to spend some time with some of my favorite women and sorority sisters.  We all went out for dinner one night without kids, but I forgot to take a picture.  Then, our last day in town, Kelly & Dustin hosted a BBQ for all of our families.

All three of these women had babies within a month of each other last summer, and I've been dying to meet all these adorable babies.  They all just turned 1, and it was so fun to see some of my greatest friends as moms for the first time.

We were all having so much fun catching up, that I only took 2 pictures!  So bummed, but we had an amazing time catching up and meeting our babies.

After our great week in S. FL, we headed up to Gainesville to spend a long weekend with my family.  We got to see Uncle Brandon.

And Auntie Erin.

And Grandma Sandy

And Grandma Bev, who we somehow forgot to take pictures with.  Oops!!

We did plenty of hanging out while we were in town.

And of course got MORE pool time in (what else would we do in Florida in July???)

 

We also had a BBQ one afternoon for all of our extended family, as well as a few of my high school friends who live there.  This is my Aunt Cheryl with her grandbaby, Zeke, who is 6 weeks older than Madden.

And Uncle Charlie

And one of Zeke's older sisters, Lauren.

 Apparently Zeke wasn't supposed to touch Madden.  Ha!

This is Ava & Michael, who you may recognize from our trip last year.  It's become such a fun tradition to see these little ones every year, and so fun to see our kids interacting.  These three had a blast together, and the greatest part is that Michael's mommy and Ava's daddy, were some of my best friends in high school. 

This year Parker joined the mix too, he just moved back to Gainesville with his mommy, who was also one of my besties in HS.

Kristin, Kim & I all danced together in high school.  We were inseparable those years, and then Kim & I were also lucky enough to be sorority sisters at UF.  This was the first time all 3 of us have been together since high school, and now all of us have TWO boys. 

Madden also got to meet a really adorable puppy.  This has nothing to do with the trip, but this picture was too cute to not include :)

After a long 10 days, we made the LONG trek back to Cali.  It was a really long day, and much tougher than the trip there for Madden, but we made it in one piece. When we finally got into the car to head home from the airport, I caught this moment in the back seat.

Next year's Florida trip is going to be a little different, and a little sooner, because we'll be going back for Brittany's wedding in May.  The wedding will be in West Palm Beach, so hopefully we get to spend some extra time in S. FL again!!