I want an emotive head shot!

Yesterday, on a whim, I decided that I wanted to get a cute head shot or two of Mason... and I'm basically only writing this to show you what I was able to get! Now that he decided to crawl, this is MUCH harder!

Michael's First Father's Day!

Michael's first fathers day was a pretty quiet one. He didn't want anything fancy. I was super excited for him to see the clever card that his son chose for him, and for him to read mine, and see his gift. I was up before him so I printed out the picture to put in his brand spanking new, "My dad's the best" thermos! He totally loved it! Then we all went out on the trampoline, and Mike had some sweet father/son moments while I snapped some pics! I'm so jealous of the cute pics that he has with Mason! I need to teach that man how to take some pics!

Mason's First Time at the Beach!

Today was Mason's first time at the beach, and it totally wasn't planned! Michael called me, spur of the moment and said our good friend Tuncay and his son Max were going to be going to the beach and would like if we all came along! Now I've been dying to have the chance to lay out in the sun so that I could look a little less like Casper the friendly ghost, so I jumped at the chance to go!

So away we went! We headed out to Cedar beach on the north shore, which is kind of rocky, but still really beautiful, and it was a plus that there is absolutely no rip current up that way.

Now my poor baby takes after me and got the fairer skin, but even more white then me, so according to my husband, I polluted the gene pool. So, needless to say, I was terrified to have him in the harsh sun for hours at a time. Tuncay had stopped to grab some sunscreen for his son and Mason too, but I wanted to be extra careful, so I brought along his little pool with UV protective shade that his wonderful great grandparents got for him.

Now, pictures from today aren't the greatest because there was no way I was going to lug my DSLR to the beach and risk it getting ruined. So, instead I brought my Kodak point and shoot and my cell phone, which actually has higher megapixel count than the Kodak... go figure! But all in all it was a really lovely day, and my darling baby escaped without a sunburn... so I think I'll put a check in the WIN column!

The Fair!

This time last year, I was very very pregnant, and running around the fair grounds with Mike and his cousins. I was sad and bored because "pregnant people can't go on rides." Eventually I couldn't take it anymore, and I sucked Mason in, and got my butt on the ferris wheel! Which was even better because I convinced one of Mike's cousins, who is terrified of heights, to ride with us!

This year, though, my parents offered to watch Mason, so Mike and I could have a little bit of alone time! I swear I have anxiety attacks whenever I'm away from Mason. Apparently the feeling is mutual. Michael and I had just gotten on our first ride, when my mother called to let me know that Mason had been hysterical since I left....45 minutes ago... I felt HORRIBLE. He apparently would cry hysterically, then turn around to where I sit on the couch, see I wasn't there, and start bawling again. I stuck it out though, my parents called back about 10 minutes later to say that he had fallen asleep, and to have fun. So Michael and I spent a good hour standing by the clown that insults everyone, laughing our butts off. Then we watched the magic show, and the old west show. I got to pet the horses! And we HAD to stop at the petting zoo because I am incapable of walking past animals and not petting them. I got to pet a friggen buffalo! how cool?!

On the way out we were going to get a caricature done, but then I saw one of a baby and decided we couldn't do it without Mason! So we decided to go back the next day, which we did!

The dog rescue that Michael works for had a booth set up outside the fair, so I spent some time there with Michael before we went inside.

When we went inside, we went straight to the caricature booth. This is the result!!!

PURE GENIUS!!!

Then, my main priority was getting Mason to ride the Merry-Go-Round! It was a BIG thing with me when I was little, and I'm slightly obsessed with recreating my childhood for Mason.

It was so much fun! I'm so happy we got to have this family experience!

Angela's Graduation Weekend

This past weekend, Mike and I decided to skip Mason's swim class to get on the road early so we could spend as much time as possible down in Virginia with family, for his cousins graduation. So we stopped at the deli to get breakfast and hit the road with a happy baby in the backseat and headed down south. 

We always seem to stop at the same two rest stops, one on the way down, and one rest stop on the way back up. This time was no exception, and we stopped so Mike could get a drink, and I could feed and change Mason. We decided to hang out for a bit and get some fresh air before continuing the drive again. 

Traffic was ridiculous as we got into Maryland and Virginia, and to make matters worse there were about 5 different tornado warnings going on right where we were, but we just kept on going. If it wasn't for the traffic we could have been there two hours earlier, so we were a little bummed that it was taking away from us spending time with family. I was so excited for everyone to see Mason. Because they are all out of state they have only got to see him once before for Thanksgiving, and I wanted them to see him again before he was a toddler and running around.

As soon as we got there, EVERYONE was at the door and they scooped up Mason to give him so many hugs and kisses. I LOVE how much my baby boy is loved.

I'm soooooo happy that Mason got to spend quite a bit of time with his great grandparents! I love seeing them with Mason. It is so obvious how much love they have for my little man...and I wouldn't have it any other way! Any chance we have for them to see Mason, we will make happen. I love them to pieces! They are the most adorable couple.

Then we had miss Angela's graduation! All grown up!!! Mason was totally in love with her, and I think the feeling was mutual. Mase just seems to bring that out in people, even if they don't like children for some reason everyone wants a piece of my Mase Face. <3

After the graduation ceremony we all came back to Aunt Marion's house, and they surprised us with presents for Mr. Mason! Great Grandma and Grandpa got Mason a pool that can also be fill with sand, or be a ball pit! Soooo much fun! Mason will DEFINITELY get use out of that! My dear Maid Marion got Mason his first bubbles, which I was thinking of getting him days earlier. So of course we immediately had to take Mason to play with the bubbles. Uncle Vinny was so pumped that he didn't even wanna wait until we got Mason outside!

The next day was Angela's party. I threw together a sign for the front yard to welcome the guests to the rockin' shin dig, and of course had to have Angela model with the sign!

My sister-in-law made the most AWESOME cake ever, for the party! Totally could have fed a small army, and a very fashionable army at that!

And we ended our last day with taking some pictures of Angela and her BFF Taylor! Their parents had both asked if I would be able to take some because they LOVED the random shoot I did of them last time, and wanted to use them for their thank you cards. Taylor's mom was sweet enough to slip me an envelope with one of the cards she made in it, AND some money along with a very cute thank you note! Sneeky sneeky! I told her that wasn't necessary!

and here are the gorgeous bffl!