Birthday Extravaganza

My baby boy turned two this past Monday. I know everyone says this, but I can't believe two years have gone by already. Its crazy how he went from this little, helpless creature to a little human who can be pretty self-sufficient when he wants to be. He is growing up in so many ways and while I want to enjoy every bit of it, I think I join most mothers when I say that it is happening so fast. This year his birthday fun was spread out over about a week and a half. It began with our girl's weekend in Arizona. My mom threw him a fun little party with cake, ice cream, presents and decorations. He was a little grumpy after the long weekend of shopping with very little sleep, but he still had a great time. Thanks mom for making it so much fun for him! (Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of everyone in attendence. Shayna, Shay and Eric were all there too.)

Then on the following weekend my dad, Penni, and Grandma Kelley came down to stay Friday night. They had the great idea to take the front runner to downtown for dinner. Mason loved every second of it.

Saturday we had a little party at our house. We had quite the turn out. The list included: Nic's parents, Ali, Kristen (Nic's cousin), Marci, Chris and kids, Jorden and Clay, my dad and Penni, Grandma Kelley, Nic's uncle Jason and kids, and my dear friend Camille with her little boy Jackson. My cousin Tyson also came for a few minutes with his son Tag. We ate pizza and cake and ice cream and had a great time.

Nic spent the morning blowing tons of balloons that we used to fill the play room. The kids loved it.

Before everyone got to our house my dad, Penni and my grandma played with Mason in the balloons. I was in the shower, but rumor has it he was laughing so hard Nic thought he was going to throw up.

Jackson, Mason's good buddy.

We also had trains to color.

Nic's parents made Mason this awesome seat. I know you can't really see it, but I did that on purpose. I plan to do a post in the near future showcasing all my mother-in-laws beautiful art that she has done for us. I didn't want to spoil the surprise.

Mason also got two new packages of little cars, trucks, buses, etc. He was in heaven.

My dad and Penni got Mason this awesome bike. He loves it and we have spent many a'hours outside with it already.

I knew Mason wouldn't like 15+ people singing to him. I predicted a terradactyl scream and I was right.

He wanted to lick the frosting off the candle, but in doing so he decided to take a big bite out of the candle. This is him pushing me away when I tried to get him to spit it out. He ate it. And apparently liked it.

(Below is not the best picture of me but what are you gonna do? I've always had a little bit of an issue being photogenic. Sadly its a trait I have passed on to Mason.)

The theme of the party was choo choo trains. I made these as party favors. I also made him a choo choo cake, but of course I didn't take a picture of it.


His official birthday was on Monday the 8th. It was a beautiful day so we spent much of the morning outside. This is Mason telling me how old he is. He can't quite figure out how to hold up 2 fingers so he holds them all up but puts two of them together.

Nic was able to come home a little early and we spent some of the evening putting the rails up on the sides of his new big boy bed. (We gave him the bean bag and the bead thing for his birthday. Again, hours of entertainment...apparently for him and Nell both).

In his big boy bed. He's been doing pretty well. (Lots better than he did when we tried to convert the crib to a toddler bed). I'll post pics of his room once I get it and the nursery done.

Then we had more cake and ice cream.

And he got to spend some quality time with his goofy parents.

(The comment I made above about not being photogenic...one look at this picture and I take it all back.)

Some fun two year old facts about Mason:

-He is obsessed with modes of transportation. Choo choos, tatas (airplanes), cars, trucks, buses, jeeps. By obsessed I mean we often hear him whispering to himself about them while he is falling asleep.

-He likes to dance.

-He loves fruit snack and calls them "sucks".

-He tries to be very polite. He says "pweese" and "thanks" and "stu me" (excuse me) to everything. including his cars.

-He knows his numbers 0-9.

-He loves books.

-He loves to run and jump and wrestle. (The kid can easily run over 1/2 mile at a pace that I have to jog to keep up with).

-He loves his grandparents.

-He loves his friend Jackson.

-He loves Nell Nell. Usually a little too much.

-He likes to snuggle, kiss, and do all the things that make a mama happy.

-He has a mean terradactyl scream.

-He loves to either rub his belly button or pinch his upper lip.

-He still calls himself "Moose".

-He likes being around guys more than girls.

-He is, in my humble opinion, the awesomest kid out there. He is the joy of our lives. Love you Mase.

Girls Weekend

So this last weekend Mason, Shayna and I took a quick flight down to Phoenix for a girls (and little boy) weekend. Despite the fact that Mason has flown 8 + times in his short life, this was by far the coolest experience to date. His little face was pressed against the window most of the way there, and when it wasn't he was entertaining Shayna and me with his crazy antics. (Lets not forget that he still calls airplanes "tatas" so it made for a pretty entertaining flight as he kept yelling "ooo BIG TATAS" everytime he looked out the window). My mom and Shay picked us up at the airport and from there the weekend was filled with lots of shopping at some sweet stores, eating of some delicious food (awesome pizza...delish), and watching of some girly movies. We also had a little birthday party for Mason complete with cars decorations, cake and ice cream. Good times with some of my favorite people. Thanks girls for an awesome weekend. Love you guys!

The Big 3-0 in Sin City

So lets face it. Its going to be a long time before I catch up from Christmas. In the meantime I'm not posting anything else that is happening because I feel the need for our blog to be chronological. So lets just say, we had a nice Christmas. (Just like how we had a nice move across the country that I never posted about.) There. Lets move on.

In January Nic turned 30. I wanted to do something special for this big day, so I planned a little weekend getaway. (A huge thanks to Nic's parents for baby/dogsitting). Since living in Utah we have been a little disappointed in the distance we have to travel to go anywhere. On the east coast we could be in Baltimore or Philly in an hour and a half, DC in two hours, NYC in 3, etc. etc. Out here in the wild west its a little more spread out. So with only 4 days total I decided vegas (6 ish hours away) would be a fun place to go. Lots of activity packed into one little area. So we went. And it was fabulous. We've never been away from Mason like that and it felt like we were young kids again.

Here is the birthday boy!

We ate at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. Yum.

We did the Freemont Street Experience.

I was apparently a little over excited at the Freemont Street Experience.

We saw all the classics like the fountains in front of the Bellagio. (Again, judging by the size of my smile it must have been a great show).

We also saw Cirque de Soleil's LOVE. Loved it.

We also...

-Saw Avatar in IMAX 3D

-Went to movies

-Ate awesome Pizza at midnight

-Walked until our feet were ready to fall off.

-Ate at In-n-Out for the first time.

-Lost $10 on slot machines.

-Window Shopped.

-Ate at the Bellagio Sunday Brunch. Didn't eat for the rest of the day.

It was so nice to spend one on one time with Nic. It really was like we were dating again. Oh how I love this guy! Thanks for a great weekend sweetheart!

choo choo

Tonight I had to go to work so Mason and Nic got to hang out. Usually Nic takes Mason to go get ice cream or something on the nights I go to work, but tonight Nic was feeling a little bored and therefore a little spontaneous. I got a picture on my phone of them from around 7:30 and they were riding the front runner (SLC's commuter train). They were just coming back from ice cream and decided to hop on. Mason is a little obsessed with trains so I am sure he loved it. What a fun daddy.

um...Christmas? Part Uno

I know no one wants to hear about our Christmas a month after the fact, but for posterity sake I am posting it anyway. It will have to be done in segments though. Otherwise I will become overwhelmed and may start compulsively rocking and twirling my hair. I might do that anyway. Its been one of those days. So here goes. In reverse chronological order.

New Years at the Cabin:

This is the one and only time Mason got in his snow gear. Good thing we bought those over priced snow boots eh?

Instead he spent most of his time dragging Grandpa all over the cabin. I think my dad spent the majority of the week up in the loft where all the toys are. He's a really good sport about it though. They are good buds.

Sledding with Dad (The purpose of the "one time snow gear putting on")

Nic and I, however, had the chance to spend a lot of time outside (thanks to my dad and Penni for watching Mason, and more importantly, Nell). This was one of our more mellow rides. Well, actually this is about 10 minutes after I yelled at Nic because I thought he was going to dump me, afterwhich I dumped us both. Not nearly as scary as the high speed, night time ride we went on with my brother and sister and their respective partners. Not a great idea seeing as two of the riders are pregnant.

(There was actually a beautiful view of the mountains in the background, but it didn't show up very well in this picture.)

The highlight of the trip for me was our cross country ski adventure through Harriman. I've never XC skiied before (though I grew up down hill skiing), and I always saw it as an activity for Geology professors and granolas in their 40s, but I loved it. It was such a pretty way to see the park, and good exercise too. Hopefully we will be doing it again sometime.

On the trail... (and "expert" trail at Nic's request. It was pretty funny until we got the hang of it.)

Our fearless leaders?

Shay. This was more than likely taken before a shriek was heard throughout the forrest as she went down that small hill and crashed at the bottom. She went to the dark side and started snowboading when she was younger and as a result she had a hard time adjusting to skiis.

Nic scoping out the river. There were about a billion swans on this river. It was cool.

The "warming" hut, which actually just allowed our sweaty bodies to cool down enough that when we went outside again we froze.

We also went to West Yellowstone one day with my dad and Penni, and then Matt and Shayna come up to celebrate New Years Eve/Day with us. It was a really great week with some really great people.

Results are Now Conclusive.

Well, I had my ultrasound yesterday and its official. We are having a baby girl. Everything looks great and she is growing nicely. I was a little concerned about the extreme length of her legs. I am preparing myself for another giant baby. Can't wait!! (No, really. I can't wait to squish those cheeks and smell that new baby smell. ahh.)

slacker

Dear Friends and Family Who Sent Us Such Wonderful Christmas Cards,

We have genuinely and thoroghly enjoyed each card we have received. We love seeing the pictures of your cute families and hearing the updates from this past year. Please do not be offended if you didn't receive a card from us this year. We didn't send any. I was a slacker. I sincerely hope that his lack of correspondence doesn't exclude us from your card sending list next year. I will do better. I promise. Thanks you and many warm and special greetings to you.

Love,

The Pierson "Slacker" Family

Random Thoughts for a Friday

Random thought #1: We have this huge clock on the wall in our kitchen. I like it. It broke somehow. I fixed it. McGyver style. 3 earplugs and it works.

Random thought #2: For the past several months Mason has been very opposed to sitting in any kind of booster device. This hasn't been too much of a problem because he is tall enough to just sit in a normal chair and eat. Unfortunately the last month or so dinner has become a big shinanagan. He is in and out of his seat. Trying to crawl on my lap, chasing the dog with his food while laughing, the dog chasing him with his food while he cries, wiping his dirty hands on my grandma's white antique chair in the living room. Disaster. So Nic demanded that we re-impliment the booster. Another disaster. But after much screaming, many tears, and alot of frustration I have come up with a solution.

Yes. That is pepperoni. It is the only bribe that works. I need to find something else though because I don't think a little boy should eat 21 + of pepperoni a week.

Random thought #3: Mason has been wielding this golf club yelling "stupiddiiii". I have no idea what "stupidiii" means because stupid happens to be a word we try not to use. It is kind of funny though.

p.s. My child does wear clothes. The pepperoni picture and the golf club picture just happened to be taken right after each other.

Random thought #4: Here is a list of things we found outside in Nell's frozen vomit: 4 baby socks, 3 baby wipes, 2 hair ties, a sucker stick, candy wrappers and other trash. I should say that this "binge episode" happened while we had a house full of people and my attention was distracted. She is a garbage disposal. Good thing I learned how to make her vomit when I worry that she's eaten something bad. Pleasant.

Random thought #5: Last night Nic made himself a sandwhich and sat it on our kitchen island. Mason walked right up the little steps we have that go up to the island, grabbed the sandwhich, said, "tanks" (thanks) and walked away with it. He ate almost the entire thing before Nic finally got a bite. At least he was polite about it right?

Touched.

I had a bad day today. No real big reason, just a bunch of little ones. I was feeling overwhelmed, tired, and down. Such a mood is not very conducive with having the "Christmas spirit". I was out this morning trying to figure out what to buy the parents' for Christmas when I came upon this book called "Reflections of Christ". This may be a fairly famous book, but I hadn't heard of it or seen it until today. Its a collection of photos taken by a photographer named Mark Mabry. The photos depict the life of Christ. I thought the pictures were pretty so I decided that I was going to get a book for each set of our parents (and I am currently hoping that none of them look at this blogpost until after Christmas). I really didn't think much about it other than, "Oh that will make a good gift." So tonight, after putting Mason to bed and sending Nic off to some residency meeting, I found myself alone with a million things to do. Instead of checking said million things off my list I thought I'd look through this book, just to make sure it will indeed be a good present. Before the photographs are shown the photographer talks about how he came to start this project. His story is very inspirational and I encourage anyone to read about it on their website (www.reflectionsofchrist.org). Then I looked at each picture with the corresponding scripture. I was mesmorized with all the details. The looks on the people's faces, tears on their cheeks. It was an touching experience for me. After the photographs, Mark Mabry has a little blib on each shoot and talks about the experiences that enabled him to take such stunning pictures. By the time I was finished looking at the book I found that I had an entirely different attitude than I had previously today. Now I know this isn't something I usually post on my blog. These are my private thoughts and I tend to keep them to myself. Maybe more often than I should. But I just have to express my gratitude for my Savior and what he has done and continues to do for me. Although Christmas seems to be a time when everyone gets these warm fuzzies, I want my friends and family to know that this is something I have believed my entire life. Jesus Christ is our Savior and he loves us. He knows us each intimately and loves us just the same. I have always found comfort in knowing that he fully understands any crisis I face, and to say more, he cares about it. He lives and this is something I know to the depths of my soul. So although this may seem out of character for my blog to post something so personal, I just wanted to share it. I hope that everyone reading this will find a way to have similar feelings and not just because its Christmas, but because its true.

I checked on YouTube and found that there is in fact a video with the pictures from Reflections of Christ. In fact, I may be the only person on the planet who hasn't seen it until today. But here it is. (It was a little finicky for me. You may have to start it and then drag it back to the beginning so it loads ahead of you. You probably could have figured that out though.)

drum roll please...

So I had my 17 week appointment today. It was at this appointment that I was to schedule the big ultrasound, and I did. However, due to multiple reasons, I was unable to make said appointment until Jan. 6th. I was feeling a little bummed because I wanted to know the baby's sex before Christmas. No particular reason behind this other than I just did. Lucky for me I happen to be very close and personal with a dashing radiologist. So after the appoinment Nic took me back to the ultrasound room and a tech did a very quick scan of the baby. Everything looks good and although the little one had its legs squeezed together, both Nic and the tech are 80-90% sure that we are having a.....girl! We will keep you posted on how the Jan. 6th ultrasound goes, but in the meantime (and of course thereafter) we are thrilled!

Whats in a Name?

Mason has been able to recognize himself for months. We ask him "Where is Mason?" and he points to his face. The last few days, however, he has made an attempt to say his name. The conversation goes like this:

Me: Mason who is that? (pointing to Nic)
Mase: Dada
Me: Who is this? (pointing to me)
Mase: Mama
Me: And who is this? (pointing to Nell)
Mase: Nell Nell
Me: Well then who is this? (pointing to Mason)
Mason: (in his characteristic deep voice) Moose.

He now frequently refers to himself as Moose (emphasis on the "oo"). I see a new nickname in his future.