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!!!

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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

party of four

Look who's going to be a big sister in January?!! :)

Mason baby #2 on the way!!! We couldn't be more excited!

new house!!

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future!"

Jer. 29:11

I am so overwhelmed by what the Lord has done and I absolutely want to give Him ALL the glory!! 

Let me say first of all that we originally thought we would rent something for six months or a year while we figured out Des Moines since we had never been there and don't know anyone. So we went to look at a few rental options and realized quickly that we needed to change our plan. way too expensive. way too gross and old. way too small. So we came home. Prayed that God would work out the details if He had a house waiting for us in Des Moines... and oh.my.word.... HE got to work and I just cannot even believe all that He has done!!! 

I'll keep a lot of the details just for our little family to keep special and remember ourselves... but the whole mortgage process has been just unbelievable the way they keep saying 'oh you will need to pay this BIG amount of money here' and then they decide... 'oh never mind. you don't have to do that anymore.' Hello God. (I'm crying tears of joy now that I'm typing this.) remember how we still own our home in Amarillo and we're renting it out? yeah we thought that would make this all a little crazy and it did at first... but then God paved the way and provided OVER AND BEYOND ALL THAT I COULD ASK OR IMAGINE.

So, a few weekends ago we went back to Des Moines to go house hunting. Our realtors were the greatest and we saw 17 houses that Saturday - and we bought one! that day. we made an offer just like that and the next morning they accepted. I promise I'm not just saying this but I really sorta knew going into the weekend that this house was the one God had for us there. I can't even explain all the little details that God has ALREADY done to make sure we live in this house. He's so good. The one couple we know there sent us a link to the house months ago and said they saw it in this area called Beaverdale {which -from what we've heard- is a fun older neighborhood with a little square and restaurants and shopping and lots of younger people are apparently moving there and fixing up the older houses} It's definitely really cute, lots of character, and lots of big pretty trees. and also only about 10 minutes from the hospital for Mark. So.... we saw only one picture of the outside of the house and saw it was still in the process of being built. The builder bought this empty lot where there was just the remaining basement from an old house that had been torn down, so he built on it. It was so cute from the one unfinished picture and I just knew the inside would be cute too. It was quite a bit over our price range but we still wanted to see it just in case. I think Mark had even contacted the builder about it and they said it would be sold in a few days. So, we really thought it would be taken already by the time we got there. 

The second we pulled into the driveway my heart started beating so fast and I just couldn't stop smiling. I just knew. This was it. and again, it was unfinished. hadn't been painted. no grass. stickers on the windows. but still. It already looked perfect. we walked in and mark and I both were practically jumping up and down saying 'ok lets put an offer on it' haha. we hadn't even seen the upstairs or downstairs. :) so... we saw several more houses. some of them were pretty great, but we just kept thinking about this one. We prayed about it together. We went back to see the house one more time. My mom met us there with Reese. They both loved it. The builder came over and walked through the house with us. He seemed pretty great. He said the other couple who was really interested had just backed out the other day. Hello God. We called all the money people- taxes, insurance and mortgage guy - and God did it. HE worked it out. HE was building this house just for us in Des Moines.

My mom took this picture of us sitting outside just before we put an offer on it. and no, the photo is not doctored, or instagrammed or anything. It might be cheesy but I KNOW that is God shining down on us just like this picture shows. Telling us its going to be ok in Des Moines and He has prepared it all for us. 

It's still in the process of being built but we've gotten to be a part of picking out little things like floors, appliances, countertops, knobs, etc. It's been fun! The house will be painted sort of the color of the garage. and It's not really as big as this picture makes it look haha We're heading up there again this weekend to walk through with the builder again and make a a more decisions.

Don't get me wrong... I'm still a little terrified about moving to a new BIG city where we know no one. But thank you Jesus for giving us so many small little signs that you're taking care of us and that you'll provide exactly what we need. Can't wait to see what else is in store. 

sunshine party

You are my sunshine.

My only sunshine.

You make me happy when skies are grey.

You never know dear, how much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

For Reese's 2nd birthday party we really wanted her to feel loved and special - even if she didn't really know what was going on (but she totally did!) So we filled the party with all of her favorite things! The "theme" was a SUNSHINE party (copied from my dear friend Katie- but not nearly as cute as hers) Reese truly lights up our lives and is such a ray of smiling sunshine and excitement no matter what we're doing, so this theme just fit her perfectly. It would have been a little more fun if it would have actually been sunshiny outside - but of course we had the most random 50 degree freezing and cloudy day. oh well. (God taught me a great lesson through that actually! story for another time...) We had the party at the park {which was awesome bc then I didn't have to clean my house before or after!!} Reeser absolutely loves to play outside at the park and we talked up her party a lot the days before and she was so so so excited to get there to play with her friends and eat cupcakes. Here's her sweet face when she walked up to the pavilion all decorated and ready for her :) so sweet.

Then gigi and papajoe gave her a new tricycle before the party even started and it was a huge hit!  

now every time she rides it {which is a billion times a day} she'll say 'gigi pajo give bike. birthday! cupcakes! remember mommy?'}

For the party we had a cookout with burgers and hotdogs and this delicious cowboy caviar that my mom made :) yum! my sweet friend Kara made the most delicious banana pudding and I made yellow cupcakes. We had a few more snacks like popcorn, animal crackers, lemonade, grapes....

made the garland by cutting out tons of circles and then just sewing them together on my machine. i also made these streamers i found on pinterest from here that were so fun! I forgot to get a picture of them but you can kind of see them in the background. 

found these cute letter balloons at the party store and reese just loved them :) i might have to get more letters because they were fun to play with at home to teach letters and talk about what sounds they make!! great teaching tool!

Like I said, it was freezing! so everyone was gathered around the grill trying to stay warm haha so hilarious. the kids still had fun playing on the slides and the swings and feeding the duckies and eating cupcakes and playing in the bubbles. Wish I had more pictures of the kiddos playing but I was too busy enjoying the fun too :) We sure felt blessed to watch so many sweet people love on our little Reese. We will miss all of our dear friends in Columbia so much! I never ever thought I'd be so sad to leave here...

happy birthday to you little Reeser...

she got a little shy when everyone was singing and staring at her

Couldn't be more blessed to have such a sweet, tenderhearted, spunky, energetic, passionate, goofy two year old daughter. We love you more than words Reesieboo!

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The next day we celebrated Gigi's birthday and drank french press coffee together, played outside, ate a yummy birthday lunch... another fun day!

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And here's Mark and R several weeks earlier celebrating Mark's birthday... 

so many fun people to celebrate during the month of April!

2nd birthday

april 19th, 2012

I really wanted to make Reesers actual birthday an fun day from start to finish since we weren't having her party until the next day. As I'm sure everyone knows our little Reese LOVES balloons :) so I got her the biggest one I could find for when she woke up in the morning. I also copied our friends and hung balloons from her door! She was a little scared of these at first (and even crawled as low as she could to get out of her room at first haha) but quickly she realized how fun it was to run through them and hit them as hard as she could! I had little powdered donuts with candles ready for her too when she woke up. We did sing happy birthday at least 300 times that day and blew out the candles over and over. She's a pro at it now. :) 

Her best friends here  - Sam and Addy - came over to play that morning. We ate fruit snacks, read all the new mickey books from Sam about 20 times, colored a lot, played outside, blew bubbles, watched Cars in mommy's bed after she refused to take a nap {she was crying for the balloons from her crib haha}, ate a sucker when daddy got home, and then went to Chuck E Cheese for dinner! I think maybe I was more excited about a Chuck E Cheese birthday than she was haha I just thought it was so cute! The Snyders joined us for pizza and silly games. Reese was definitely more interested in carrying her "pennies" (aka tokens) around in the little cup and would just put them in random games and not even watch or play the game ha. She did like the pizza and the little stage that the 7 year olds were singing on :) and then they played a three minute clip of veggie tales and that was just about all it took to get her excited! ha. It was too cute to watch her and Sam chase each other around. too hard to get a picture of them in action. they're just the sweetest little friends.

 oh she did LOVE LOVE this game with the frog and you have to get all the balls in his mouth for him to eat them. She thought it was sooo hilarious. played it probably six times :)

what a fun day celebrating our little punkin!

proof it was an awesome day:

asleep in the car 2 seconds after pulling out of the parking lot from chuck e cheese :) 

amarillo

We live 12-long-hours-of-driving away from Mark's parents and family in Amarillo. Therefore, this entire year, Mark has never had enough time off over a long weekend nor have I had enough courage to make it that far by myself with a little one.... and in conclusion we have never had the chance to go back just to visit together. until a few weekends ago... 

and what a special time it was!! It just so happened to be Mark's bday (april 13th) and we had an absolute blast! It also just so happened to be the weekend of Joel (mark's brother) and Julia's (our precious soon-to-be sister in law) wedding shower in Amarillo. so mark's entire family was in Amarillo. what a treat. mostly we just did whatever reese told us to do. what a firstborn child.

We drove half of the way on Thursday night after Mark got off work and stayed with Mark's aunt in Kansas. Then we drove the rest of the way early in the morning the next Friday. Reese was supposed to sleep most of that time.... but was too excited about watching the bee movie on the iPad. oh well. she is actually a pretty good traveler. 

R was so excited! On the way there she kept saying (for 12 hours) "see honey? see pops? see beanie?(their dog) see evabody???? this be weeeally fun!" :) and she would shake with excitement. too cute.

and it was weeeally fun!

celebrating marks bday! we miss you mexican food!

birthday boy: 

{don't be fooled... reese looks terrified in the moment but you better believe she still asks to watch the video of them singing happy birthday to daddy multiple times a day even weeks later haha}

meeting joel&julia's new puppy - Milly. 

"yook at her!" reese would say :) they were perfect for each other.

and auntie G taught R to play the drums. she LOVED it. 

"weeese working hard!" she would say. 

joint birthday party for mark and reese. what a fun lunch! and then they both got spoiled with waaaaay too many presents! both spoiled(but sweet) first borns, i'm afraid haha

one of the favorite presents: bubble lawnmower. 

ready to celebrate j&j at their dinner shower.

we love auntie anne!!!

the whole gang :)

then mark had to leave to make the LONG drive back by himself and be back to work monday morning. but reeser and I got to stay for a few more days and flew home later.

we fed the ducks.


played at gammaw&pawpaws

played at the park.

R had her first visit to the dentist.

played with friends. played outside. did some shopping. played with the dogs. ate more mexican food :). ate at donut stop. yum! drove by our old house. and got to play with family. what a special trip! we love you honey and pops!!