Mason Turns One!

A glimpse of the birthday festivities...phew! Thank you everyone for helping Mason celebrate his first birthday. We are very grateful to have such great family and friends.

Mason takes a pre-birthday party nap.

My co-worker and friend, Carmen baked Mason his very own birthday cupcake. He was quite amazed by the candle and also by the amount of frosting on the cupcake. Thanks Carmen for being so thoughtful and making Mason's First Birthday Cup"cake".

This is a group picture of the kids who came to help Mason celebrate. Starting from the left bottom: Noah, Jaxen, Brandon, Mackenzie, Birthday Boy Mason, Angie, Melanie. The top left: Giovani, Daniel, Adonn, and Bobbi. Not pictured: Emily, Jonas, and Josh

Mason enjoyed his cupcake very much. Initially, we let him dig into his personally cupcake, however he wasn't getting anywhere so we switched it to a "normal" sized cupcake. He eventually figured it out and grabbed the cupcake with both hands.

"MMmmmm...may I have some more please?"

Mason followed Leticia everywhere yesterday. He just can't get enough of his favorite caregiver!

February 2009

February has come and is almost gone and I haven't posted to the blog. We can't believe Mason is turning ONE in 3 more days. We have been preparing for his birthday party on Saturday and can't wait to see him tear into his birthday cupcake! For those of you who don't know, my younger sister Debbie and brother in law, Marc are celebrating their daughters first birthday today! Happy Birthday Taylor! We love you!


Because I have been so bad about posting this month, here are a few pics of our exciting month. We celebrated Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day and we were able to spend a lot of time with our good friends from near and far.

We went to Ping Pang Pong to have some Chinese New Year dim sum with our good friends and neighbors, Greg, Linh, and Josh. After dim sum, Keith and I took the kids to Lake Mead to look for seashells. Mackenzie had a great time digging in the sand while collecting her treasures!


Mackenzie received Valentine's Day flowers from Dad. She was extremely surprised and excited. She also found some neat writing supplies and a puzzle in her Valentine's Day gift.





We had the crew from the Bay visit us on Valentine's Day weekend. We had a great dinner at Valentino's in the Venetian and spent most of the night hanging out at the V Bar and Lounge the rest of the evening.

Mt. Charleston

We woke up bright an early this morning and dressed Mackenzie and Mason up in their snow gear. I never realized how difficult it was to put a snow bib, snow boots, mittens, and a hat on a 10 month old kickin' and wigglin'! With much anticipation, we headed for some fun in the snow. However, we were a little disappointed with our annual trip to Mt. Charleston. Since it hasn't snowed in over a week, there wasn't much powder and most of the snow we did find was pretty much frozen over. Nevertheless, the kids had a good time playing and trying to make snowballs and we also found a perfect spot for sledding and making snow angels the next time we visit. We can't wait to head back up there again, so we can enjoy some fresh powder after the next storm, if we ever get one!

Mackenzie's Special Kisses

It has been fun watching Mackenzie and Mason interact with each other. As Mason gets older, we have noticed them playing more together and him seeking out his sister to "play". Mackenzie is a loving and caring big sister. She enjoys giving "special kisses", her version of "raspberries" to her brother. I finally got it on video with Mason laughing while trying to get away.

Welcome 2009!

Cheers to 2009!

Christmas 2008

Mackenzie, Brandon, Emily, and Mason made cookies for Santa. Don't they look delicious? MMmmmmmm... The kids went to bed fairly early on Christmas Eve and were definitely well rested for the Christmas Day festivities. Surprisingly, I didn't snap as many pictures as I typically do, but here are a few of Christmas Day.






The kids had so much fun opening presents and playing with them. Mason finally got the hang of pulling off the wrapping paper, although I think he had more fun checking out everyone else's "goods". Thank you to everyone for their generous gifts.


Each year, we usually head to the Strip to take pictures. The past few years, the Strip has pretty much been a ghost town during Christmas. This year however, it was not the case. We headed to Bellagio, but sat in traffic just to get into the parking lot. I jumped out of our car while Mackenzie and Mason were sleeping and had Carrie do the same. She pulled Brandon and Emily out of their car and we hopped onto the sidewalk in front of the Bellagio to watch the Fountain Show while the husbands parked the cars. Brandon and Emily had never seen the show and they really enjoyed listening to the music while the water shot up into the air.

Cruisin'

Mason started using his toy walker today. He was chasing after his big sister, Mackenzie. We were hoping he would stay somewhat immobile for a few more months. By the look of it, he'll be walking pretty soon. OH NO!!!!!