dr. reese

reeser giving her baby doll a check up (just like doc mcstuffins) she does this about a billion times a day to her animals, to me, to her fishy etc. and lately she's even been throwing the animal across the room then running to it and saying "you ok teddy? you need a check up?" too cute. just had to document it!

i.love.the.beach!

again, more than a month late in posting this ... but here we go.

My absolute favorite week of the year! Beach week with my family. We went back to Orange Beach, FL and we were there the last week in May/first of June. We flew straight from Joel's wedding in Dallas to New Orleans where my dad picked us up and drove us to the coast. 

Sadly, Mark had to work so he couldn't go this year :( we missed him a ton. Aimee's husband, Kyle, only got to stay a few days because he had to work too and Taylor didn't get to come at all either because he was at Kanakuk. So it was a little different not having EVERYONE there but we still had a blast. Our condo was awesome and Reese absolutely LOVED the beach, the sand, the shells, the pool, her beach toys, and having so many people to play with. As usual, I'll let the pictures do the talking... 

our spot every day {the umbrellas closest to the water on the far right. my sweet servant dad would get up at 7 every morning and set it all up for us!}

R checking out the sand for the first time with Uncle Eric. She wouldn't put her feet down at first haha but quickly realized it was pretty fun!

"pajoe" was her favorite playmate :)

he made a "slide" in the sand all the way to the water and she LOVED it :) it was hilarious.

building sandcastles

my sweet sweet cousins! aimee & anna. Aim is going to have a baby too!! She's due in December. So excited for our babes to be so close in age :) 

uncle eric taught R how to wink 

uncle trent spent hours with R organized shells from one bucket to the next. so sweet.

most of the week the waves were really big so we didn't get in the ocean much but the last day it was perfect and reese LOVED the waves - obviously! i think it might be one of my favorite things as a mommy to watch my child experience new things and get so excited about them! 

papajoe got reese her own beach chair and she thought she was pretty cool.

we had the BEST time. {besides the fact that I didn't really feel that great and was 7 weeks preggo- i think.} we still had a blast. Usually after family trips, once we get home we all email back and forth and make a list of all the memories :) It's one of my favorite things to do. Kinda like the trip will now really live on forever. highlights from this year:

1. Eric surfing with a real surfboard (lightening potential!)

2. Bo perfecting the skipper board technique (and never giving up)

3. The lady with the poofy hair playing cards all week (and her sidekicks)

4. Trent and Joey's productive trips to the store (experts in shopping)

5. Reese's smiles and excitement (playing with shells with Uncle Trent)

6. The best meals we've ever had at the beach (thanks Holly and everyone else that cooked)

7. Bike rides in the morning with my sister:)

8.  Family time:)

 9.  Tractor, Tractor Harvesting the wheat:)

10. m&ms in a cup

11. waiting 4 hours for dinner- worth the wait!

12. beating the college co-eds in volleyball (to anna and elizabeth- "ya'll are so good, why would you stop playing?")

13. Caribbean like water

14. everyone being pregnant

15. RIP The Warf --> Long Live the SUGAR SHACK

16. losing 50 cents and winning 9.50 in quarters (who cares if we started with 10?) we still won back 38 quarters and had a priceless amount of competitive fun.

17. watching the two little boys play with the toys and destroy the footballs right in front of our eyes

    18. dip n dots

    19. the weird brown cloud

    20. reeser in the pool

    21. uncle trent and reese playing with the shells (and R watching as uncle trent brought the cooler down and her saying "he got it mommy! there it is" :)haha

    22. sting rays!! and kite boarding

    23. reese saying everyone's name around the table :) she LOVES all of you so much!

  24. Looking out my window every morning and seeing the "complete" beach set up! Thanks Joey

    25. Oh yeah - Winn Dixie!

    26. Is that me tingling or was I just stung by that jellyfish - HaHa!

    27. I'm 52 and I finally have a real beach chair!

    28. Bike rides to the park with the beautiful weather

    29. Burn Bo Burn - now that's a man - Vaseline is for sissy's

    30. Maybe Uncle "T" will share Reese with Polly next year - HeHe - Maybe not

    31. Looking at opening an Alvin's in Baton Rouge! Beach wear and 10 quarter machines - OK OK Five!

32. Trent and Joey winning the spades tournament again (by default- the Holly and Jeanie wouldn't play us!)

33. The elevator (though fast- I went to the wrong room twice!)

34. Incredible Hulk walking the beach

35. Playing tennis with Mom!

36. Reese not wanting to put her feet down

37. The golf duel (thanks for taking it easy Bo)

38. Incredible food!

39. almost full moon reflecting on the ocean

40. cool lightening strikes from the balcony

41. cooking sons-n- law  awesome jambalaya and breakfast burritos, my girls married well!  Thank you boys!

42. incredible beach set up every morning before 7 am 

43. fresh tuna, never frozen

44. fixing the umbrella with a bobby pin

45. watching Reese slide on her sand slide

46. getting a phone call from Taylor!

47. Reese's Big Sis shirt! 

48. Baby flip flops :) 

49. Gulfport!!! 

50. Gulfports food court-- every "restaurant" was open and running! Haven't seen that in years! 

51. Lunch in one condo, dinner in the other. 

52. The movie that never happened. 

53. Capri sun on the beach (and milky ways and snickers of course!) 

54. Pink shorts dude. 

55. That huge poodle that was being led around the parking lot (Trent, I think y'all should get one of those!)

j&j's wedding

I can't believe I am so behind in writing this but here we go...

Mark's little brother Joel married his sweetheart Julia over memorial day weekend in Dallas and we had a total blast being there for all the wedding festivities and having the whole family together!!! We adore Julia and are so excited to have her as an official part of the Mason family. Reese and I flew to DFW a few days early and got to spend some time with Anne Marie (annieann as reese calls her) and I got to spend the morning on day with my grandmother in ft. worth. I also got some quick visits in with a few of my dear dear friends from Baylor. It was just sort of refreshing to get to be there with everyone for a weekend. That friday Mark's parents, Honey and Pops, got there and took Reese (and me & Annemarie) to the Dallas Aquarium. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever! Reese was in heaven. Like seriously she was just pointing and staring and saying "mommy look! oh look!" she loved the fishes, the penguins and the alligator the best and still talks about them almost every day :) The rest of the weekend was a total whirlwind running from event to rehearsal to set up to change to put reese down for a nap.. etc. and I was reminded of how much I hate dallas traffic. but everything for the wedding went soooo perfectly! all of J&J's friends were just the greatest and said the sweetest (and some hilarious) things about them and then the wedding was just beautiful and such a worshipful night looking out over white rock lake. Here are a few pics of our time...

R soooo excited about watching the airplanes :)

visiting Grandmama in ft worth

swimming at auntieannes

anneanne took R to see the ducks and turtles at north park and got her a few surprises at h&m

pics from the aquarium:

all the mason girls and gamma at the rehearsal dinner

flower girls practicing :) did i mention that Reese was a flower girl?? it was adorable! they did perfectly during the wedding and I was so proud. We had practiced with reese and talked about it for months how she was going to walk down in her pretty dress and go to daddy (the best man) and if she did it he would give her a surprise! worked like a charm and she did so good. they were all adorable. the other two sweet girls were sisters and the one on the right could be reese's twin. they looked so similar :) it was too cute!

sisters

beautiful beautiful bride!

happy wedding weekend j&j :) we had just the best time!!! thanks for letting us be a part of your special weekend. we love you!!!

....

and now today mark and I are celebrating our own anniversary!! I cannot believe its been five whole years. Today I keep thinking about this exact day five years ago and how giddy and excited I was to marry my sweet Mark. and here we are 5 years later, four cities later, one child and one on the way later, and lots of adventures in between.... and I'm still just so giddy when I hear his car pull up in the driveway every evening. I am so blessed to have such an incredible hubby and man to support me and encourage me and take me on so many adventures! i love you mark mason. can't wait to see what other adventures the Lord has for us in the next 80 years!! :) 

hello.

oh hello. where to start?

Well, we live in Iowa now.

We love our new house. We'll probably still have things in boxes this time next year at the rate we're going now... but who cares. (well I do actually but i'm trying to let it go)

We've met all of our neighbors and they're wonderful. You know the part in the Moving Day berenestein bears book when they move into their new house and all the animals come over immediately on the moving day in packs to say hello {oh wait of course you don't know that part because you don't have to read that book six hundred times a day like I do ha} anyway... thats what we felt like on our moving day! Everyone came over and said hello and offered to help and was just so sweet.

Mark is already crazy busy with work but is really liking the program so far. I picture him as the cool "experienced" intern that all the other interns look up and watch because he knows what he's doing since he did this last year :) of course Dr. Mason would never admit to that being the case. I'm just very proud. We had dinner with all the interns last week and loved meeting them all. I already feel so much more connected to the program and to the people at the hospital here than I ever did in Columbia (or at tech).

So far Iowa sure doesn't seem much different than any other place we've lived! It's still a billion degrees, thats for sure. Our water bill will probably be a thousand dollars this month because we are desperately trying to keep our new grass alive in this heat. Just like everyone else, we're praying for rain! oh one thing thats different is that almost every time I say 'y'all' someone comments that I'm obviously not from around here. I proudly say 'you're right.' ha. oh another thing is that I have absolutely no idea what other cities there are in Iowa. I feel ridiculous when people tell me where they're from and I've a) never heard of the town and b) couldn't repeat the name of it because its got to be in another language.

I'm now 12 weeks preggo. I've been feeling quite awful actually. I think I probably just overdid it with packing and now unpacking and chasing a two year old and it being 103 degrees. I'm praying I turn a corner soon and start to get energy back and can stop eating bananas and peach (only peach) yogurt and frosted mini wheats every hour - to keep from getting nauseous. I have had the most hilarious aversions and food things this time around. Its like one second something sounds good and the next second I want to throw up if I smell it or even think about it. Poor Dr. Mason has had to eat the weirdest dinners lately ha!

The little Reeser bug is just as cute as ever. She sure misses her little friends Sam and Addy and talks about them ALLLLLL the time but we've been having fun in our new house too! Oh and she is now sleeping in her big girl bed :) yippee! She's doing great in it too!! I do have to lay with her for a while until she falls asleep but she's been so exhausted most days that doesn't take long. She really seems to love our new house. The first time she saw it (when she and I came for the walk through) she just walked on in by herself and sat on the carpet and started playing :) cutest thing ever. She has 'her spot' in her closet that she LOVES to play in! She's become even more obsessed with giving her animals a check-up and does this all day long. (have you heard of the show doc mcstuffins? she's obsessed and she truly thinks she is a doctor too. I even heard her say 'toys go stuffed' the other day when i walked in hahaha!! - thats what the little girl says to her toys when they're alive and playing and stuff and then another grown up comes in and they have to go back to being stuffed animals again.) oh man. that girl is hilarious.

Des Moines is a HUGE city. It's pretty overwhelming to me because I don't know how to get anywhere  or know where all the fun stuff is to do... I know it's out there though because people keep telling me things. I do know that we have 5 targets and one is about 2.5 minutes from my house. so thats awesome. can't figure out which grocery store i like best though. (probably because at this point all grocery store gross me out!!)

ok thats all for now... summer update in pictures coming soon. I can't believe I haven't even shared the fun we had at Joels wedding and then at the beach!!!! maybe tomorrow I can get around to doing that.

xoxo