Adventures of The Sweeties

Summer is here!!

2009-06-17T11:52:00.004-08:00

Just taking a break to enjoy a summer evening in the yard with the boys.

The piles of debris in the yard make fun play things for boys.

Wyatt was picking flowers for everyone.

Tecate even got some :)
Every day ends with a dirty nose and dirty toes.

The bedtime buggy. Every evening we load the boys up and make the trek down to our little guest cabin to go to sleep.

Demolition Party

2009-06-17T11:33:00.005-08:00

Well the demo party was a huge success and our humble litte cabin is no more. It was a little sad to see it go but i think we will be happy we did it this winter. A huge thanks goes out to all of our friends who pitched in to help- it was a big job!!

This is why we tore it down!!

A little historical art went with it :(

Eric saved the day with his skid steer!!

It was a party after all, plus we had lots of stuff to fuel the bonfire.

Nancy brought a mobile sandbox for Wyatt- he loves her!!

So she is gone, only the kitchen remains.....well and of course the junky camper.

Gramma Pam's Visit

2009-06-17T11:24:00.002-08:00

Gramma Pam came up to meet Baby Sam in early May. We had nice visit and the boys kept Gramma plenty busy while Mama slept.

Catching up again...

2009-06-17T11:11:00.004-08:00

So I think this random selection of photos are from when Sam was about 2 months old. He will be 4 months this weekend, so yeah I am a bit behind on the old blog. I am going to skip the commentary for now.....

Five Weeks!

2009-03-29T15:17:00.004-08:00

Hard to believe that Sam is over a month old already. He has still been a very good little baby. We have not had any uncontrollable crying and he is getting cuter everyday. At night he still wakes up way too frequently but he doesn't cry, just starts fussing until I feed him then he goes back to sleep or just hangs out and is awake.
Jeff has still been able to stay home in the mornings so I have been able to get a little extra sleep. Pretty amazing that I still have not had an entire day that I have been home alone with the boys yet- I feel very lucky!! Plus the moms group that I belong to has been bringing us home cooked meals. We just got our last one this weekend but I think we got approx. 15 meals total which I am incredibly thankful for!! It is so nice to have such a great group of moms around for support!! Not to mention all the gifts we have been recieved from friends and family, it is a wonderful time for us.
Here are a few random pictures of Sam from the last few weeks. I do have to admit that he has definately been getting less camera time than the first born. Sorry Sam!!

Keeping Busy

2009-03-29T14:59:00.004-08:00

Wyatt has been keeping himself pretty busy while Mama and Papa have been napping or taking care of his little brother.

One of his favorite past times is trying on Mama's underwear...

Sometimes on the bottom, sometimes on the top.

Think he is embarrassed now, just wait until I show these to his first girlfriend!!

He has also been taking care of his baby..Maybe Jeff needs to spend more time with his son doing "man" stuff :)

Hiding in the tunnel is aways fun.

Playing with Kieran made an impression on Wyatt. This was almost a month ago and for some reason practically everytime I lay Wyatt down for bed he says, "Wyatt did share with Kieran"

Wyatt is such a good helper now. He loves to help Mama feed the goats their hay. Notice the nice new hat from Carolyn :)

The cardboard box airplane I made for him months ago is still a hit.

And, yes, we sill have enough snow to make snow angels, but it should be going away anytime now.....we hope.

Name that Baby!

2009-03-29T14:23:00.007-08:00

I was looking back through some pictures of Wyatt when he was a baby and was able to reliplicate the photos with Sam at the same age (3 weeks). Take a guess, Sam or Wyatt?

#1.

#2
#3

#7. Okay, I will give you a hint for this one :)

Answers: #1 Sam, #2 Wyatt, #3 Wyatt. #4 Sam, #5 Wyatt, #6 Sam and #7 Sam.

How did you do? Needless to say the boys look like brothers!!

Waytt sure had grown! He has a lot to teach his Baby Brother.

Like where your eyes are....

How to kick a ball....

and how to laugh.

Hot Springs and Cold Parks

2009-03-29T13:55:00.007-08:00

Most of Gramma's visit was spent reading books or playing on the couch with Wyatt but we did get her out to see some sights. We made the long trek up to Chena Hotsprings- I think Gramma said "are we there yet" more often than Wyatt did!! But the soak in the springs was worth the long drive.

After the Hot Springs we headed into Fairbanks to the Ice Park. Wyatt loved the kids park with all the slides.

Sam slept through the whole thing and didn't even notice that he went down a slide made of ice with Mama.

Snow machines and airplanes... two of Wyatt's favorite things!!

Gramma was starting to get a little cold and wasn't too excited about sitting in her ice chair :)

The ice carvings were absolutely amazing!!

Mama really wanted to go down the big kid slides but due to cold noses and toes we had to call it a night.

Looking back we really should have done this in reverse, would have made more sense to soak in the Hot Springs after the Ice Park. Next year we will know better.

Thanks to Gramma Sherry for all her help!! Come back soon.

Visit with Gramma Sherry

2009-03-29T13:42:00.004-08:00

Gramma Sherry braved the winter weather to come up and meet her newest grandson. We had a great visit, I am super thankful to have had the help in those early weeks. It is really nice to lay down for a nap and wake up to have the house clean, laundry folded and lunch on the table!! Plus Wyatt really enjoyed the extra Gramma attention.

Not a moments rest for Gramma.

Bonding with grandson number five!

Sam's First Week

2009-03-02T16:28:00.006-09:00

We have made it through our first week as a family of four. Sam has been a very mellow, sleepy baby. He pretty much just wakes up to eat then goes back to sleep again- Mama has even been getting some good sleep, although it has been in broken blocks of time. Papa has also been enjoying these sleepy times with baby Sam.

Wyatt has been a great big brother and is very interested in what Sam is doing and asks to hold him a lot, although we are constantly having to remind him to be gentle with the baby. Wyatt has not inflicted any harm yet but I don't doubt that we will have some exciting times ahead when Mama is home alone with both of them. I am sure that Sam will be a pretty tough kid by the time he is one.

Wyatt looks like a giant next to his little brother.

My boys, handsome bunch aren't they? :)

Ahh, those first little gassy smiles-so cute!

The proud Papa.

Shiway was just sure Sam was going to be a girl and made him a darling purple hat with a flower on the top....but he is man enough to still look good in it.

This one came from Julie, he has got some growing to do before it fits him just right but he definately makes a statement when he goes out with this one.

Visiting with Ellen. Taking some time to bond with my new little boy.

He may be sweet and cute but he still has attitude!

Samuel Flynn Mason

2009-03-02T15:57:00.006-09:00

We are very hapy to announce the birth of Samuel Flynn Mason. Sam was born on February 19th at 10:35 pm and weighed 9lbs, 3oz . We were extremely lucky to have had a safe, quick and natural water birth. I started having mild contractions around 3:00 on Thursday and we decided to leave the house and head to fairbanks at 8:00 pm. Our dear friend and neighbor, Sara, came over at a moments notice to stay with Wyatt. We could never thank her enough for all she has done for us lately.
We arrived at the Birthing Center at 9:30 and had Sam in our arms about an hour later so we timed it very well. I had one pretty strong contraction in the car about 45 mintues out which got me a little nervous but Jeff kept his cool and drove quickly but safely.
Jeff was able to catch Sam and cut the cord. We were once again very happy with our experience with our midwife and the birthing center, it is such a peaceful relaxed environment to welcome a new little one into the world (well, it was peaceful after mama quit screaming).

Another well baked baby.
Our midwife made us breakfast in bed the next morning :)

The morning after Sam was born we hung out at the birthing center until mid afternoon and had a chance to call a few friends in to meet Sam before heading back home. Adrian and Dan took some nice pictures for us.

Unfortunately the super cute hat that Lauren made was just a tad too small for this big boy.

Being on the outside is tiring!

Jeff showing off his prized catch.

Heading for home.

Bonfires and Beyond

2009-01-29T18:33:00.005-09:00

Just a couple pictures from Greg and Rachelle's bonfire party to celebrate the return of near normal winter weather. Jeff was a sweetie and stayed home with Wyatt while he was sick so I could go out :)

Burning stuff with friends is always fun.

Tecate got to go with me because he and Luke are buddies now. He thought that my lap was way more comfortable then the straw Greg threw down for them.

Our sweet little boy. They are so dang cute and snuggly when they are sick. Well, not that he is not when he is healthy but it's different :)

For example, he is healthy here..... Cute but different, right?These two like to sit on the stairs watching birds at the feeder. That is sweet!

I was a little slow and missed the first few letters, but this is just about the cutest thing ever!!

He has also been successfully counting to 10 the last few days. We are going to work on his long division next!

Christmas Recovered

2009-01-29T17:59:00.004-09:00

We were able to recover a few Christmas pictures from my camera so here they are....

Trimming the tree, this was one of the nicest Black spruce trees that we have found in the yard. The tree was about 15 ft tall, we just sacrificed the top 5 ft. I promise that we will plant a new tree to replace it this spring. Wyatt was even pretty good about not yanking stuff off of it.

Cookie making and decorating with a 2 year old requires a fair bit of patience. I ran out of it during the decorating and had to have Papa remove Wyatt from the kitchen while I finished by myself.

Wyatt seemed pleased with the finished product.

Presents, presents and more presents!!!!
My mom sent my old (25 years old) cabbage patch kid to Wyatt. He loves it and has been spending a lot of time practicing to be a big brother.

Christmas night we had about 20 people over for dinner. We provided our homegrown ham and everybody contributed some thing yummy. We had a spectacular feast, but no pics of the food or many of the crowd.

Rachel and Kieran made it in front of the camera.

Mike, Laura and Brook stayed for the weekend. Mike and Jeff spent a lot of time jamming and the girls did a little skiing and kicking back. Unfortunately the video of Wyatt playing the guitar and singing his song didn't get recovered.

Random pretty picture of some moose in the yard.

Breakin'

2009-01-29T17:08:00.005-09:00

I picked a good night to get out of Delta. Brook just happened to be hosting a Sushi and break dance party at her new cabin. A strange combination maybe but it was a huge success!! I can't believe that the dancing and laughing didn't shake my baby loose.

River was giving sushi rolling instructions.

Andrea supplied the break dancing instructional videos.

One move everyone could handle (even the pregnant lady)- the point.

The windmill was a little advanced for this crowd but they definately get an "A" for effort. The most impressive part...nobody got hurt!

As the Groovaloo said "It's not in the move it's in the groove".

Thanks ladies, I needed that!!

Two Years Old!

2009-01-18T15:08:00.004-09:00

Sorry- I had to skip Christmas blogging because of technical difficulties with the camera. I hope the pictures can be saved, we are still working on it.

So on to January, Wyatt turned 2 on the 6th! Unfortunately -50 was just a tad too cold to have his little friends over for a party. So we had a quiet celebration at home, Mama made a blueberry cake and he recieved many phone calls from friends and family. Of course the gifts had been rolling in too and after Christmas he knew exactly what to do with the birthday presents!

As some of you may know, anyone who has a birthday celebrated at our house is either 40 or 4. These are the only candles we have :)

Ummm..tastes good, and still makes a good mess even without frosting!

Here is wyatt playing with his new legos that Aunt Liz and Uncle Mike sent.

Mama and Papa got Wyatt a ukelele. He had written his first song for the guitar at Christmas so we figured he was ready. The song goes like this....Wyatt is a big boy, give him a little smooch. He is still working on the chords and subsequent verses. I have a video of him singing it but it is stuck on the camera with the Christmas photos :(

I just got done updating Wyatt's 2 year old milestones for his baby book. So if you don't mind my bragging here is a recap. His vocabulary and speech continue to amaze us and many people we encounter when out and about. He pretty much speaks in full sentences and really doesn't stop unless he is sleeping. Actually we have even heard him talking about airplanes in his sleep a few times. He can pronounce big words, like ornament, imagination, stegasaurus, etc and his memory is very impressive. He still talks about Grandpa fixing the light which happened in back in August. Wyatt loves to sing; in addition to his own song he can sing his ABC's, Old McDonald, Ring around the Rosie, the colors of the rainbow, Patty cake, and bits and pices of many others. He knows his basic colors and shapes and is working on counting. He can also spell his name! He loves anything with wheels or motors (especially boats and airplanes), stacking blocks, scribbling with his crayons and reading books. He hates pretty much all vegetables but will eat almost any kind of meat that is put in front of him- good little Alaskan boy! Sorry I will stop now, but needless to say he is a great kid and we couldn't be prouder!! These two years have gone by quickly.

Sneak Peek -Hawaii '08

2008-12-23T19:16:00.010-09:00

We had a wonderful trip to the Big Island in Early December. I am not going to go into detail about all of our adventures because there is just not enough time (give a call if you want a full trip report) and I had over 200 photos so here is just a very quick look at our trip. Who knows maybe after the holidays sometime I will get around to adding some text. The best part about the trip was just being together as a family without any distractions. But don't get me wrong, being on the beach all warm and sunny was nice too. You will notice I opted to post pictures of Wyatt instead of a lot of scenery shots. Can you blame me? I am trying to upload all pics onto a web album so you may still have a chance to see those other shots.

Our camper broke down on us the second day so we stayed in a couple hotels and spent the rest of the time at our friend Dan's guest house near Kona. It turned into to different trip without the camper but it worked out just fine.

This was the highlight of Wyatt's trip- the captain let him drive the glass bottom boat!! Good thing we were the only ones on it :)

Lava was flowing into the ocean- it was amazing to see.

No denying that I am pregnant now!

Our hosts- thanks we had a great time!!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-18T17:07:00.004-09:00

We enjoyed a lovely thanksgving at Dan and Adrian's house. They were brave enough to tackle our homegrown 30 lb turkey. We we worried that it would be tough because it was so big but it turned out perfectly.

Even after they got it thawed out, found a pan to fit it, and squeezed it into the oven- Adrian was still a little concerned.

But look how nice it turned out, Dan was pretty excited.

Wyatt was excited that Mark and Shannon brought some friends for him to play with.

Wyatt really wanted to hold baby Hugh, he is going to be a good big brother.

Wyatt was also more than happy to soak up the attention from the adults. He took right to Adrian's parents and even got to show off a few of his spanish words to Adrian's mom.

Waytt and Dan are old pals by now...Dan is a natural with the kids ;)

There were a bunch of other people there too but I apparently only take pictures if Wyatt is in them. Thanks again to Adrian and Dan for hosting, it's so nice to spend the holidays with such good friends, our Alaskan family.

Playing Dress Up

2008-12-18T16:48:00.005-09:00

Just a few cute pictures of Wyatt showing his stuff.

Papa's glassess,
Mama's hat and boots...

Mama's hat, Papa's mittens...It's hard to find just the right combination.

These are my favorites..I was trying on some of the summer maternity clothes Mette lent me (thanks Mette!) for our Hawaii trip and Wyatt joined in. This cute pink frock was his favorite. I think it is a very nice color for him.

Wood Cutting in a Winter Wonderland

2008-11-20T14:45:00.005-09:00

Living here in the northland we always seem to be in search of more firewood. Wyatt and I were feeling a little cabin fever so we decided to accompany Papa during his woodcutting adventures. We really were not much help but we did offer our moral support and got in some good sledding while Papa did all the hard work. It was a gorgeous day to be out..if only every winter day could be just like this one!!

I love it when the plants are all frosty, I took a million pictures but they never quite come out as pretty as it really is.

Wyatt is pretty excited about the chainsaw so it was hard to pull him away from the action for some boring old sledding with Mama.
Aww, aren't we cute :)

We also met up with Rob and Ellen, they have a huge trailer so we shared a few loads. I think we (I guess I should say -they) ended up getting ~ 6 cords. It wasn't hard pulling Ellen away form the woodcutting for a little sledding!

Catching Up..Again

2008-11-20T14:36:00.007-09:00

Back at the library, lucked out today because there is a little girl here entertaining Wyatt by putting on a puppet show and enlisting his help with various other projects. It's very cute.

So here are a bunch of random shots from the past month or so. The first one is Jeff playing guitar during his first big gig! He has been playing music with some friends that have a band in town but this is the first time he has played in public in many, many years. The name of the band is "Simple Folk Uprising" and they rocked the Moose Family Lodge!!

Sometime around Halloween Wyatt and I flew down to Anchorage to meet up with Jeff who had been down there for work. We spent the weekend with Kim and Paul and got some good visiting in with a bunch of friends we had not seen in a long time. We did our traditional pumpkin craving over at Jp and Elizabeth's. The tradition is to carve the pumpkins then order food and have the delivery person judge the pumpkins. This year was kind of a bust in that the delivery guy did not speak any English but we still had fun.

April and Jeb- we missed you!!

Jp is great at keeping the youngins entertained. Oh Jp- if your reading this Wyatt was talking about you the other day and he is still saying "No talking about gansers" :) I guess your Phd defense really made an impression on him!

For Halloween Elliott was dressing up as a Worker Man and Bennett went as a Spaceman.

The dogs don't make it on the blog very often so I thought I would stick these on. Nellie and Tecate were freaking out one afternoon because a squirrel was on the wood pile. They managed to climb up on the pile and get stuck in between the top of the pile and the barn roof- it's a pretty tight squeeze and we had to help get them out, the squirrel got away.

They were up on top of this pile, crazy mutts!

Shiway and Dave came for a nice long weekend. The boys went moose hunting of course and Shi and I hung out and had some girl time. I even got her to go to my mom's group meeting. The theme of the meeting was "becoming an outdoors mom". Shiway was a good sport and took part in the obstacle course.
Walking the balance beam with baby in the backpack, waders on and 2 bags of groceries
Doing some target practice
and hauling some wood...yup, pretty typical day for an Alaskan mom. Good work Shiway, I think your ready!!!

I was bad and didn't take any other pictures of Dave and Shiway's visit. Dave and Jeff got their one moose and Shiway spoiled me being such a big help with Wyatt. I wanted to hire her as my nanny!! Come back soon!!!

Below are just a couple cute pics from our little play group. Wyatt has some good looking girlfriends.

Jen was brave and let them all paint on her floor, most of it stayed on the paper.

Happy Boy

2008-11-11T13:47:00.005-09:00

So here I am with two hours of free time at the library but I forgot my camera cord and can't download the newest batch of photos...bummmer! I guess I will have to do some online shopping instead :) But I will post a couple videos I took of Wyatt this fall. Shiway als0 posted a few pics from thier stay with us.

That laugh just melts my heart- even if he sounds a bit like a chimpanzee when he really gets going :) I try to get videos of him talking but he always comes running to the camera and wants to see the pictures. During that video I was running backwards away from him.

I also feel ike I should take a moment to comment on baby # 2. It was recently brought to my attention that I have not even mentioned #2 on the blog. I meant to post some ultrasound images but it didn't work out. So, anyone out there that doesn't know, I am 6.5 months pregnant. We expect to meet the new baby in mid-February. We did not want to know the gender of the wee one but during the ultrasound both Jeff and I thought we saw boy parts. So??? Now we think we know but we don't really know, so it will still be a surprise either way.

Jeff is taking off for NY to go hunting with his Pa. Wyatt and I will be solo for a week so don't expect the blog to be updated properly for a while. So sorry.

A couple more

2008-11-11T13:30:00.000-09:00

While I was looking for the videos I saw these photos that I don't think I ever posted.

Wyatt loves to climb the Elk fence.

Rose hips are another favorite. Even now that there is snow on the ground he is still munching on them.

Enjoying one of last really nice fall days.

Getting Out With The Girls

2008-10-04T14:41:00.007-08:00

After the busy hunting season (which isn't actually over yet) I was feeling like I needed to get in some quality time with my lady friends. Mette was nice enough to host a get together at her house in Fairbanks a couple weeks ago. It was a super fun but I don't have any photos to post, not that there was anything going on that we felt like we needed to hide ;)

I also decided that it would be fun to get outside before the weather turned so I reserved the Lisa Lake Cabin and invited a bunch of my Delta lady friends out for the night. We had a blast and there are lots of photos to prove it.

If you look closely you can see the ladies hiking along the shore.

Ellen and I took the boat across the lake to the cabin, it turned out to be a lot faster to hike!The view from the cabin.

We took a hike from the cabin out to the Johnson River, very nice.

Here is Heather setting up for the group photo opp.

Here we are: Cindy, Rita, Ellen, Tiffany, Rachelle, Heather and me (minus Brooke, she showed up later).

Relaxing around the campfire.

Cindy and I caught a couple nice lake trout, they tasted great cooked fresh right on the fire.

Brooke gave Cindy some wood chopping lessons.

Dinner is ready! Beans, dogs and fish on the fire, yum! Not that we were at all hungry after eating all the yummy snacks everyone brought, but we still found room for dinner and dessert. Heather's husband had this great idea of wrapping roll dough around the hotdog then cooking them right over the fire. Try it sometime! Our timing was just right with the weather. We woke up to a blanket of white. It was gorgeous, we were all glad to be out in such a pretty spot to welcome in the first snow. Well, maybe welcome isn't the right word but it is time- we do live in Alaska!

Those hot drinks taste so good on a snowy morning.

The all the ladies ready to head back for home, husbands and kids. No offense to my boys but the trip was too short!

Amazing how much stuff eight ladies will pack in for just one night :)

Cindy rows the boat ashore.

Thanks for the great trip ladies- we will definately have to do it more often!!!

Sneak Peek

2008-10-04T13:37:00.005-08:00

Here is a quick look at some of the things we do to keep life interesting during the week.

Playing with Owen, Torsten and Sara is always at the top of our list.

Think these boys will be embarrassed when they are teenagers and we pull out this picture of them smooching in the dog kennel?

Riding the tricycle is another sure hit.
We love picking berries, unfortunately now the only thing that is left are Rose Hips. Wyatt and Nugget can have them all.

Taking the goat to the library is sure to bring alittle excitement to your day. We got invited to participate in Pet Day for the preschoolers at the library. Nugget did great and he was probably the most popular pet there, even though he pooped and peed on the floor ...well maybe that's why he was the most popular?

Play dates are always fun. We get to together with these ladies and kids once a week.

We had everyone over to our place and Wyatt showed all his little friends how to climb the Elk's fence.

And you might not think that playing with the strainer is very interesting but your not a one and half year old little boy.

It's a Helmet....

oh wait, it's a jungle gym.

Hmmm, very interesting NOW it's a drum! Amazing don't you think?

And there is soo much more, there is just not enough time to blog ALL of the fun!!!

It's Done!!

2008-09-13T16:46:00.005-08:00

We can't say how much we appreciate all the work Grampa put in building our addition and now it's done!! It turned out great, we are very pleased!! Thanks Grampa!!!!!

The bar turned out great!

I also just got a bunch of art framed so I am excited to get those up on the walls for some nice finishing touches.

Getting this drawer built in the bathroom was also another major accomplishment, Grampa sure does nice work- even if he says he hates finish work.

The siding all stained and windows trimmed :)

This is wear we made poor Grampa stay while he was slaving away building our house, nice huh? He is probably building us a house just so he doesn't have to slum it when they visit us :)

Thanks again Grampa!!!