august

i wish instagram had a button that would automatically upload photos to your blog! then i would totally be on top of things in the blog world. instead here's another month long post of random pictures.... mostly just for my memory and to remember what our little munchkin was up to at 28 months

she has started skipping naps these days but I always make her have "rest" time in her room and she loves to read her books, play with puzzles, try on all her shoes and sometimes she gets so worn out she falls asleep right in the middle of playing :) I can't decide if I'd rather her take a 2 hr nap in the afternoon and then not go to bed until like 9:30 or have no nap and go to bed closer to 8. 

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We went exploring one weekend in Jesper Park and had so much fun! 

 it was so pretty!

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this tough cookie got her first real booboo. blood and all. and had a crazy huge scab! she was so brave. we were playing hop scotch and she got a little too excited and slid down the driveway a little :( i sure didnt tell her to make this face in the picture ha! 

it didn't phase her much bc we were right back where we started the next day :)

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thanks to gigi and pajoe Reesieboo started taking the 'mommy and me' gymnastics class and none other than Chows gym here in Des moines. She LOVES it and is just too cute out there in her little leotard working so hard :) I'm sure we'll never ever see chow or shawn or gabby... but it's still so fun to be there. If you can't tell she's showing off her stamps in this picture that she gets at the end of each class all over her body. ha. note: there were several mornings that she woke up screaming crying and I thought she must of had a nightmare or there was someone in her room or something and as soon as I scooped her up she said thru her tears 'my stamps not there anymore' :( sweet girl. when i told her they wash off and we'll have to wait until the next time to get more, she just cried harder and harder. needless to say she was more than excited to get more stamps the next time. I think i might have to buy a stamp for at home for when she goes potty in the big girl potty!! 

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The surgery dept got a box at the Iowa Cubs game one weekend and we had SOOO much fun watching the game, eating popcorn and visiting with all the residents. R still talks about when we went to watch the baseball game. oh and they gave her a baseball player bobblehead doll when we walked in so now thats quite a treasure. and its hilarious to watch her try to mimick the bobblehead haha!

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After church last weekend. This sweater is 6-12 month and FINALLY fits her. haha. it HAD to have been marked the wrong size or something. We've been trying out lots of different churches here and haven't really decided on one yet but feel very blessed to have so many good options. We are definitely missing our church in Columbia so much though. 

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A new favorite is princess dress up. don't know where this came from but one day after she took a bath she just asked if she could be a princess :) It's so cute. she dances around and sings "princess, princess princess." It's also spurred some pretty cute convos between daddy and R about how she really is a princess of God. too cute.

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another favorite activity: blues clues. 

this is reeser searching for clues in our front yard with her 'handy dandy notebook' ha! her idea! and she'll say 'find 2 more clues mommy!' 'where is it?' and she'll look all over for it. and don't even think about trying to get in on the game and pretend like you see one bc she'll say 'silly mommy... thats not it. its over there!" :) 

 and you better believe she stops after every clue she finds to draw it. and even explains what she's drawing just like steve. its so great. i really need to video this!

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Found a new love of painting. im sure her Honey could give her a few tips :) 

 this is a daily activity for sure!

found this idea on pinterest.... bowl of water, paint brushes, sidewalk. brilliant. 

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last weekend our cute street had their annual block party :) it was so fun to visit with everyone and meet a few people who live down the road that we hadn't met yet. I just feel so incredibly blessed. Reese is the only kiddo under 10 yrs old (but our next door neighbors have one on the way just two months behind us! yay) What a fun evening. Oh and tomorrow night they're having a movie night where they all bring chairs and watch a movie on the side of one of the big houses at the end of the street! how fun is that!! 

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oh this just started the other day too... reeser the photographer sets up these three bath animals in different places all over the house and then takes their picture and makes sure they're looking and smiling and its awesome. this seriously entertains her for 30 minutes! but most of the time I have to be in the picture, or the one waving my arms to get their attention and R will say "look up here ducky!" or I take a picture of her with them. 

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she is a little ball of energy. loves to play pretend. has an awesome imagination. is very stubborn. never stops talking. loves to take care of everyone. maybe a little bossy. but has the sweetest heart and truly seems to care about those around her. i just couldn't love her any more.

its a......

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are just so blessed to add another sweet baby girl to our family in January!! I am so excited for Reese to have a sister and for them to grow up together and be forever best friends! (that will be my prayer at least) yay for girls! and praise the Lord for this healthy baby that we got to see on the ultrasound today. It just blows my mind the way HE creates such an intricate being inside my tummy. incredible. feeling so blessed and thankful today!

Iowa State Fair

Since the first day we moved here we have been hearing so much about how awesome the Iowa State Fair is in Des Moines and how we just absolutely have to go! So we decided we better see for ourselves :) Mark happened to be off the day it opened (and it was an unbelievable 75 degree day!!) so we decided to be crazy people and go on opening day. {to preface... I'm not really a "fair" kind of person. I didn't grow up going to the fair so I don't really feel any sort of nostalgia going there like a lot of people and honestly I think it mostly goes back to my freshman year at Baylor when I took my seventh grade small group girls to the Waco fair and was trying to be a super cool leader (since I had just met them) and went on all the rides with them and ate all the nasty food and had a blast with them but then was sick for days afterward haha so... I wasn't super thrilled about going but thought it might be fun to let R see all the animals and maybe eat a corn dog...} 

so... thats exactly what we did! and we had a blast! It met up to all the expectations that people had been telling us, for sure! It was unbelievably clean. It really didn't seem that crowded. We stayed away from the rides - even though the only fit Reeser threw was to ride on the teacups ha! I think she was mainly crying because I told her she wasn't tall enough. :( through her tears she kept saying "I'm tall mommy" maybe daddy can take her on that next year. There were an insane amount of farm animals. Reese could tell you all about it. "Remember mommy!" The pigs were getting a bath. The sheep were getting haircuts. The "cowgirls" were showing their horses in some sort of competition. There were bunnies and chickens and roosters and HUGE boars and cows... etc. Little Reese was LOVING it. After getting over the shock of how much the food cost, we went all out and got fresh squeezed lemonade, corn dogs, fries and even fried oreos - which were actually really good! but no way could we eat more than one! gah lee. oh and we found these incredible little donuts that our friend told us to look for and i'm not kidding that they were maybe the BEST thing I've ever put in my mouth. unreal. we might have gone back for a second bag before we left ha! and maybe I really wanted to go again on half price day just to run in and get some more donuts and come back out but my hubs declared that was crazy. (they only sell them at the fair once a year) I guess I'll have to wait until next year and you better believe I'll be the first one in line. now that my mouth is watering ... here are some iphone pics. Such a fun family outing :). This is for sure a new Iowa summer tradition for the Mason family.

oh yeah... some artist does this every year and its like the big thing to see. She makes a cow sculpted out of butter. yes, BUTTER. weird. but sorta cool i guess? how does someone ever get started doing this? ha. and its always a surprise what other characters she does. this year was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. and yes, we waited in line to see it. ha. might not have to do that next year.

mini camp gigi

A few weeks ago {sorry that every blog I write starts this way... some day i'll catch up.} Reese and I took a road trip to Branson while Mark was working nights and spent a long weekend at Camp Gigi :) It was just a mini camp this summer since it was totally last minute due to our moving, me feeling terrible most of the summer, my parents two week trip to Africa... the list could go on... but one day I just decided I wanted to go play at Kamp and in Branson for at least a few days before the summer was over and that weekend was pretty much our only option... so we made it work. and we had a total blast - of course! 

Does anyone else remember this toy from their childhood?? We call it the 'people house' and i'm not kidding when I say reese could play with this FOR DAYS at a time {she pretty much did most of the time we were there} too cute. 

Probably the highlight was my mom taking Reeser to build-a-bear. I tagged along to take pictures and it was pretty much the cutest thing ever! I have never done it before {well besides when kristen and I made one for katie when we were in high school for some reason haha remember that katie??} but it was so fun! the whole thing was just so cute going from station to station and picking out each thing. and the best part is that my mom recorded a little voice thing that is inside the puppy and when R presses her hand it says "hi reese! gigi loves you!" She still presses it about a billion times a day as if she's never heard it before and every time says "mommy!! you hear that? thats gigi. gigi in there!!" 

It's always fun to get to go to FBC and see my dad in action on sunday mornings :) Reese wore a dress my mom made for me when I was her age so we had to have a little photo shoot after church.

That afternoon FBC had their annual "back to school bash" where they hand out backpacks to thousands of kids and it was so awesome!!!! seriously, such a cool ministry. We got to swim while my parents worked. R is such a little fish. She was crawling on her knees but using her arms like she was swimming like a big kid. and of course she made me do it the whole time next to her too. 

We were so excited to play at kamp with kristen and emerson one day too! It's always just so refreshing to get to be with them. I'm pretty sure these girls are already BFFs!! :) 

so sweet!!!

{gymnastics time. this happened to be during the gymnastics at the olympics and you better believe we watched every second so R was so excited when we got to the gym :) it was hilarious watching her "vault" on the floor and walk on the beam!}

popsicles with pajoe

we visited my moms little preschool gymnastics class before we had to leave town and R was sooooo shy and wouldn't do anything but just watch- until we got to the block pit. and then she kept saying "this is so fun mommy!!!"

Thanks for everything mom and dad!! We had so much fun and can't wait to do it again next summer :)  

xoxo

visit from sam

A few weeks ago our dear friends came to visit for a few days. Reese was just beside herself with excitement that her best friend was in her new house!! They were holding hands pretty much 24-7 while they were here. It was just too cute. SO thankful for Kara and Sam (and Charles for letting them come). It was so refreshing to see them! 

they learned how to drink out of the hose ha.

played at the park

fed the ducks

ate tcby

I dont think I wrote this down and just don't want to forget... Reese woke up one morning last week screaming crying like she had had a bad dream and then stopped pretty quick so I just listened on the monitor. I then heard her saying, "Sam ate my ice cream. I wanted another bite." and she was sniffling and sort of whining and kept saying it over and over. When I went in to get her I asked if she had a bad dream and she said yes and started crying and again told me sam ate her ice cream :( haha poor thing. It was so hard for me not to laugh. I'm sort of glad to know that her "bad" dreams only consist of this though. What a sweet and tender heart she has. I pray that God will use that quality in her in an awesome way as she grows up.

anyway... we had a blast with kara and sam and can't wait to play again soon. also, will someone please tell me how to teach reese that des moines and columbia are in separate states and we cannot drive around the block to see sam or addy anymore :( It's so sad when she asks for him and Addy everyday! 

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in keeping with pictures of reese and sam, here are some cute pictures from Sam's 2nd birthday party the day before we moved in June. So glad we got to celebrate our sweet friend!! 

the three musketeers :) R still talks about sams bday party ALLLLLL the time.