Just a few comments of my own.

if we didn't have enough of those already, right??

This picture of shirtless Mason just makes me crack up- and think of the following things...

1. Is this a Baby GAP Commercial?? (I think it SHOULD BE!)
2. Watch out Josh Holloway (read previous Sawyer commercial) this is the next shirtless hunk.
3. Girls- take a good look he won't be on the market for a few years...oh say more like 15!
4. Sometimes I think (and agree with certain family members) that Mason should model. HOWEVER, unfortunately, he prefers to be naked (or half naked) in front of the camera, so that could pose some issues ! LOL
5. Mason should be the new advocate for Carson Kressley's show "How to Look good Naked". Mason's got it.
6. How in the world did I birth something so freaking CUTE?

Few More...

Anyone Home?


One of my favorites- this is what I see every morning while in the shower. As much as I wish I had the PRIVACY, can't help but love the cute plastered face up against the window. The smashed nose cracks me up.

I've been tagged

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to the person who tagged you: Charlotte (indirectly by her own rules, ha!)
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking to them
5. Leave a comment for each tagged blogger to let them know that they have been tagged

6 Quirks about me..

1. I shower with a certain routine and CANNOT go out of sync otherwise I have to start all over again. Wash Hair, rinse hair, condition hair, soap up, rinse body, rinse hair, double rinse body, wash face from top to bottom. Strange? I also make up tunes to the words on my face wash bottle.

2. I wake up consistently every night at 3am. yes it probably has to do with a full bladder, but even if I dont drink anything before bed, I still wake up no matter what. must be a mommy thing? my kid sleeps thru the night, why can't I? Its almost impossible for me to sleep in. I've found Mason & I have very similar sleeping habits- I can go to bed early and get extra sleep that way and still wake up at my normal time, but I cANNOT go to bed late and sleep in. (that sucks.) no matter how early or how late I go to bed, I will still wake up my normal time. Again, probably another Mommy thing.

3. I LOVE milk with ice. if ice isn't available, then milk has to be SUPER COLD. and I can't drink enough milk, ever.
4. I touch my hair a lot throughout the day, pulling / moving it out of my face. I cannot stand it if it is in my face or if I have stray hairs flying around.

5. I might be known to be occassionally messy and disorganized at home, but i CANNOT handle the house being dirty. Some may argue, but there IS a difference!

6. When eating a meal of more than 1 item, I cannot finish one item then move onto the next, i have to finish them all at the same time, so if that means leaving ONE bite of my sandwich while I munch on my chips, so be it :-)

If you read this, then you HAVE to do it. TAG! You're it! :) more specifically- I'm tagging Amy, Sara, Alicia (for your lack of posting!!!!), Laura, Lesley and steph!

Trip to Oklahoma

Today Mason & I decided to go up to Oklahoma. Okay, not really, we just went to see Sara and made a trip up to McKinney to the Cotton mill to her studio and then to hang out for the afternoon at her house in Little Elm. it was alot more driving than Mason is used to! haha, honestly, he's not used to car rides longer than 15 minutes long, that's kinda sad! I know its really not that far, we just joke that they live so far north its Oklahoma and when we DO make the trip, we need our passports ;-) Sad to say, we don't make the trip very often, because honestly we're just lazy and selfish. Mason napped so great today at Sara's house- so maybe we'll do that more often ;-D We'll have to head out to David & Jes' soon too since we haven't been to their house in....a YEAR! that's bad.
So anyway, we had an exciting and eventful day. TO start off the long car ride, we hit up McDonald's which is a rare treat- Mason can't eat much there, but he can eat the Bacon! He didn't eat much for breakfast this morning before we left, so I thought- i'll order him a few sides of bacon, that way, what he doesn't eat we'll have for tomorrow- but he ate ALL 3 sides of Bacon I ordered for him, apparently he's a bacon man like his dad. We went straight up to McKinney and picked up a stroller I bought from someone on craigslist (LOVE craigslist) I've been looking at the double strollers and had my mind set on the Combi Double Savvy or some crazy name like that. Its the same one that my friend Cathy has in CA, and we used it for Maddie & Mason when we went to the aquarium which Mason seemed to like it alot because he could see Maddie & have fun together. SO i found a steal- a really good condition copper/brown color one and for only $75!! Sara and I saw one just like it today but blue at a consignment store and it was $175! Mason and Hendrix enjoyed it today, so I know it was worth the drive! :-)

After picking up our new buy- we went to meet Sara and Hendrix at the Cotton Mill and hung out and got to burn some energy and be silly in front of the camera. Finally we headed to her house just before naptime where Mason got in a really nice 2 hour nap, Sara & I had some yummy homemade Indian food & I also got a stupid farking parking TICKET for facing the wrong direction. GAH! So pissed about that. Apparently Little Elm police have nothing better to do except drive around and check to see who's parked in the wrong direction on the street.

We let the boys play a bit after their naps & we hit up the consignment store before heading home for the day. I think Mason spent more time in the car than playing today! ha, poor kid, oh well he got a dose of what Hendrix does! LOL
Sara got some super cute pictures- here's a few to enjoy!

Mason being sweet and kissin' on Hendrix


Mason and his faux hawk


Teaching Hendrix how to strip and be cute about it


Mason in his most favoritest state....Naked.


Mason would be a good advocate for the show "How to Look good Naked" hahahaha!


Mason threatening to soak Hendrix...or himself...


Thats it! You asked for it!

Not a mommy moment! but turns out to be...

As i sit here enjoying my quiet computer time with the cat I have the tv on as someback ground noise, not really watching it anymore, but something caught my eye.
This Commercial.

Sawyer in the Davidoff Cool Water Commercial

If your a LOST fan, you will DROOL. Yes, its our beloved Sawyer in all his hottness. (DId I just say that?) Enjoy then wipe the drool off your chin.



PS, on a side note- Gavin has crossed off almost ALL my girl names off my list. HOwever, he did surprise me with one suggestion that I'm seriously considering. Gavin acquired his name from a popular tv show (Love Boat- the Captain's real name) and our secondary name for Mason was "Aiden" like Aiden Shaw from Sex & the City, but by that time the name was overused since the show went off the air in 2004, so I stayed with Mason crossing off the list the idea of carrying on a tv name. So anyway, Gavin suggested "Sawyer" as a girl name. I was surprised but I do love it! and I DO loooove LOST. I'm sure we'll have family who hate it, but it IS different and our little family does have original names (no we're not the first but you don't meet Gavins, Aprils & Masons everyday!) So as of right now- SAWYER is in the running if its a girl. No middle name yet, possibly Leigh? Need a girly sounding middle name! If it's a boy- Maddox Lee will definitely be the name!
Funny , tonight I was telling Tiffany about Sawyer as a girl name (she loved it! thanks Tiff! :0D) so after seeing the commercial tonight, maybe its a sign. HA! I'm still not sure what gender I'd prefer for #2- actually I don't prefer one, just a healthy baby is good for me. So many times I think a boy for sure- Mason would be thrilled to have a little brother close in age and a built in playmate. But at the same time, I want a relationship with a daughter like I had with my mom (Yes, one with my niece Rilee will fill that want too!!!) With Mason I wanted a girl so bad I could taste it, but I couldn't be happier with having a boy now, I joke around with Gavin that if #2 is a girl- boy are WE in trouble. Imagine her high school days, a sophmore girl with a older good looking outgoing senior brother with LOTS of guy friends- and if she is anything like me and how boy crazy i was in high school- Man are we in trouble. (I promise I was a good girl!) The thing that makes me laugh out loud- is the idea of having a girl, and what she will do to Gavin and throwing a wrench in his dynamics of being so rock solid manly man super dad. Yes, he'll still be super dad, but I'm sure he'd be wrapped around a little girls finger pretty easily, and that just makes me laugh!
So really, I'm ready for whatever God wants to bless us with girl or boy- either would be fun and exciting to add to our trio!

This Mom rocks!

Yes, I sound full of myself, but I have a reason to be! Twice in the past 2 days Mason has misplaced some beloved item. (1 was a toy car, the other his BELOVED lovie.) and both went missing for 12 hours +.
The other day Mason & I were at Once upon a child finding some shirts for him and he made friends with a little boy about 2 or 3 years old. They were playing so well together in the play area.. he even shared 1 of his toy cars with Mason. The little boy and his mom already left when we went to go check out and I noticed Mason still had one of his cars in his hand and I said to Mason, "uh oh! Your friend forgot his car! He's going to miss it, maybe we should leave it here if he comes back" and the cashier proceeded to tell me that the other little boy was sweet enough to let Mason keep it. How sweet! She said he even hugged him (awe!) So Mason has been taking this little green Ferrari hot wheel car around the past few days, he even had it in the bath the other night- while I was changing him in his room into his jammies, he threw it somewhere and we couldnt find it ANYWHERE the next day when he asked for his car (none of his other cars were good enough) Tonight, I was pulling out some more diapers from the bottom drawer and what do I find? So of course I yell across the house "Mason I found your green car!!!" Seriously, he couldn't have run to his room any faster and the look on his face was absolutely PRICELESS! He jumped up and down and squealed and danced around his room carrying his car- he even ran up and hugged both my legs. His look on his face just told me I absolutely made his day! For once it was nice to feel like his Hero(ine) for the day!!

AND the best part is, I get to see that priceless face again in the morning because I found his green lovie tonight in the hamper (great chance to wash it tonight too) just before i got into bed. Thankfully, he was okay with his alternate lovie for both naptime AND bedtime, but you can tell its not THE lovie. So Mason will be thrilled when I show him first thing in the morning!
YEAH for MOM! i rock today! :-) (Go Mom, Go Mom, Go Mom, Go Mom, Go Go Go...)

Missing Mason?

we need (Gavin.) to get some new pictures of Mason. We've just been too busy, any pictures I get are the ones Amy takes of Mason & Rilee or any with my phone. At least I have those! I did get a few cute ones of him tonight with my phone. It was so nice out this evening I took Mason for a walk with his car. It was a pretty sunset but iphones dont like sunsets apparently, at least mine doesnt so you can't see it.


Mason after Bathtime- I went into his closet to get him a shirt (he wasn't cold.) he was just being silly. We were going over body parts and he decided he was NOT going to show me his belly OR let me see it! He was being such a ham, I couldn't help but take it. I love having such a funny little man!

Martha gets another star!

Okay I'm not a fan of Martha (mainly because I'm jealous of her crafty empire.) however, I dislike her less today. I was trying to vamp up dinner and in an easy way, and Martha came thru for me once again. I was going to go the easy route with just purchasing a rotisserie chicken, however I noticed several ingredients in their marinade that Mason couldnt eat- so I went with Martha Stewart's suggestion and roasting your own chicken. SO I did it, don't necesarily suggest it. My house is still smokey. First off, they don't package whole chickens like they do the turkeys at Thanksgiving (someone needs to change that!) because i had to pull out the innerds, liver, giblets and other things by hand. And hello, I'm preggo with a gag reflex. Okay so I didn't really pull it all out (okay none of it.) I held the little bird while Gavin did it. Actually, I didn't even really watch, I just made sure he got it all. GROSS. Who wants that stuff anyway?? Don't answer that please.
Let me go on to say how Chickens are nasty birds, or maybe the one I selected was. Poor little guy, or gal, probably a gal, she had an abnormally large tailbone. I feel for her. Also her stuff was hanging all over the place! She had some loose skin that was fryin' like bacon after I lubed her up with butter and stuck the thing in the oven. Maybe it wouldnt have been such a smokey mess (wasn't really that messy) if I cooked it in a turkey bag. But I wanted it to look like Martha's picture in the recipe so I used the roasting rack. The smoke might have not really been from the bird (who knows) but I accidentally pulled out the wrong meat thermometer and partially melted my new one in the oven. It looks pretty cool though, all warped like. So maybe that's what caused the smoke, me cooking the thermometer.

SO ANYWAY, Gavin cut the bird apart (because I'm a total sissy girl and do not like meat on a bone, let alone touching it is gross.) I had some of the yummy tortillas from Central Market, piled it on with some iceberg lettuce (spring mix would have been good too) threw on some spring/green onions, Hoison sauce and the yummy chicken and I was very pleasantly surprised at my dinner. yes it did slightly resemble Moo Shu Chicken, but way healthier! You could probably add some stirfry veggies, but I'm all about the meat cravings right now (and chocolate. Hey Hoisin sauce does resemble it!)
Mason didn't have the wrap, but he did want to try it (sorry dude.) instead he had mmmm'd over the chicken, and had some veggie noodles I made him with a side of granola. (hey its what he wanted!)

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/asian-style-chicken-wraps?autonomy_kw=Rotisserie%20chicken&rsc=header_10

Thanks again Martha for coming thru for me!

Not so pretty chicken (but I did it!)


Easy SUPER yummy delicious wrap pre chicken.


Sorry there's no pretty after/wrap pictures because you would have seen me stuffing my face, and that just isn't pretty.

Name that Photo

Who ever comes up with the best quote--gets a cookie :-)
I have a very observant child.


OH, where do I start??? HAHA. First off, Mason was pointing at Rilee standing up and peeing in the tub. HAHA.
1. "Mama, she broke off her pee-pee."
2. "Wait.......huh? Where did it go?"


Oh boy, what will I say when he really does ask???

The Quiet

Saturday afternoon Gavin & I were invited to go out on a friends new boat so Mason stayed overnight at Granma & Papaw's house. We had a nice time out on the lake tubing and ate out. I even got to sleep in to 9:30 on sunday morning!!! (i never ever ever sleep in, i did wake up quite a few times but kept forcing myself back to sleep ;-) When I did get up, it was so strange. It was so QUIET. I couldn't get over THE QUIET. I just kinda walked around the house, like 'what do I do now?' no toddler to feed, change, etc. it was almost surreal how quiet the house was. After Gavin woke up, we lounged around watched tv for a while and I even mentioned, "I don't remember the quiet like this before Mason was born, what did we do all the time???" Not that my kid is so loud, but he sure does put life in a room! :-)

I have to say I'm LOVIN' this rainy weather. Lazy Monday, no plans, no where to be, always my day off- we all 3 slept later than usual this morning AND all 3 of us even took a nap at the same time...and longer than usual :-)
I love the rain!

A week off

what's that? it doesn't happen very often, but it does occasionally occur! We've enjoyed the last week of summer...well really Mason has 2 weeks left, but it was the last week of Amy & Rilee's summer. We'll be sad to not see miss Rilee everyday as we have so much fun with her funny little personality. Its pretty easy now to bribe Mason out of a rotten attitude or even a tantrum with 'Go see Rilee', but now we're not going to be able to do that so easily!
Mason sure does enjoy his almost daily playdates with his cousin as he calls her "Ai-leeee" I can't even say her name in just chatting on the phone or to Gavin because if he hears it, he expects to see her soon! its sweet.
We've spent our week relaxing at home (as I've had a horrible fight with allergies all week and its knocked me on my butt) and had a few outings and playdates with Amy & Rilee.

Mason trying on some shades


Trying to get TWO children to follow TWO directions is next to impossible (1. put on sunglasses 2. look at the camera)


Mason trying to be his rockstar self....or maybe a diva...


Grocery shopping made easy with Mason & Rilee.
Mason is wondering, "Who's driving this thing!"

Bread for Mason

So i think Mason has been getting bored of his breakfast muffins- so I've been playing around with my Mom's bread maker to make him some bread. The only bread he's eaten since March/April has been his gluten free, egg free, corn free, soy free muffins. (sounds not appealing, but I make them rather tasty- either Carrot, Pumpkin or Zuchini muffins). I attempted a bread mix last week with the bread maker and it came out still gooey. So that was a flop. I'm also trying all this withOUT the manual for the breadmaker. Who knows where she has the manual! I remember my Mom used it pretty often, so maybe she just didn't need it.
Last night i attempted it again and I'm rather impressed! The crust came out a little over done and in parts it even looks like some of the mix didn't get mixed in, but for the most part the bread looks really good. I haven't tried it but it sure smelled good last night! So Mason is enjoying his first "Cinnamon Toast" for breakfast this morning. He's loving the new breakfast food! Yeah!

Am I missing it?

I'm a big big fan of Google Reader since there's so many blogs out there that I read on a daily basis. I'm still a fan of going to each individual blog to see the different headers and so I can leave comments. I haven't figured out how to leave comments via google reader yet- am I just missing it or are they not that high tech yet?
Someone HELP! (I know this may require you leaving google reader to leave me a comment on how to!)
Thanks ! :-D

Sweet Peas

Yesterday afternoon we went swimming at the Kaspar Casa & Liz and Mr. Reed came too. Reed is such a sweet happy boy. We got some cute pictures of them in just diapers goofing off after swimming. They all 3 sure do look cute and innocent, huh!

Babysitters, ANYONE?

So we LOVE our babysitters (Alyssa & Kalie who are twin sisters) but they both leave for college in TWO weeks. And that's the week that Mason finishes MDO for the summer before the fall session starts up (beginning of September) so there's 2 weeks in there that we are going to have to juggle somehow. I'm sad we won't have Kalie & Alyssa (and they are awesome!) and I'm even more sad I have to go thru the process of finding a new babysitter (and that's just stressful altogether!)
So maybe my few avid readers can help me find a new babysitter- qualifications are as follows:
- must love faux hawks, bouncy balls & toy cars
- must be responisible!
- must be ON time!
- must love kids (well thats a given!) and experience is highly suggested!
SO if you know a high school age or college age (that is going somewhere near by) gal with experience I'd love to meet her! The days we need help with are (for the remaining last 2 weeks of August) are Fridays and then most saturdays-both during the day- (and an occassional date night with my husband would be great too!)

Funny story about Mason and his babysitters- Alyssa has sat Mason most of the summer- we desperately needed her to watch Mason and Rilee last friday as Amy was leaving town and Gavin & I had to work- so Alyssa's twin sister Kalie & her friend Laura saved the day and watched the kiddos. I wasn't sure about how they would do with Mason not having met them yet. But when the girls got to the house, Mason had NO clue that Alyssa & Kalie were 2 different people. He went straight to her and I think he thought Kalie was Alyssa. HA! Now I love this idea of having twin babysitters- he's clueless!!!! NOW, if he EVER saw both girls at the same time, he'd probably wouldn't be sure what to think! LOL

I heart the farmers market

I've always been a big fan of the farmers market (i have a weakness for the ones in california! lol!) I've hit ours up in Colleyville pretty often but usually find it easier with Mason to just buy our fruits and veggies at the grocery store (Market street or Target which I've found dont always have the freshest and cheapest variety) I've officially made my vow today that I will ONLY buy our fruits and veggies from the farmers market. I bought a ton of items today (raspberries, vine ripe tomatoes, scallions, plums, ripe avocados, kiwis and asparagus) and I ONLY spent $10 plus tax! I couldn't believe that was it. The thing that gets me even though i look for items that are close to ripe at the normal store they usually take a few days to ripen, Mason already devoured both plums and I had used tomato & avocado tonight that was perfectly ripe! Not only are their things super cheap but also ripe enough to eat AND are local and Texas grown. So off my soapbox, just sayin' how much I love the farmers market!

Chicken Salad with Lemon Yogurt Dressing

Our dinners have been pretty boring lately (and Mason's too) even though we eat at home almost every single night. I've been lacking in the creative dinner area. I've been into anything lemon-y lately (partly because lemon is so refreshing with it being SO hot out!) Lately I haven't been able to get enough of lemon yogurt or Caesar Salad with lemon. To even out my indulgence in my cupcake craving last night (see my flickr photos) I thought I must make a super healthy dinner tonight. When Mason went down for a nap so did I (I do this daily when I'm not at work!) but before falling asleep I was channel surfing and came across an old recipe of Martha Stewart Everyday. I've seen the show before but didn't really think anything of it. She was saying how everything they cook has 8 ingredients or less and all fresh ingredients (meaning produce=most things Mason can eat) and one of the things they made today was this Chicken Salad with Lemon Yogurt dressing and it looked really good! I made it tonight and it was SUPER quick and REALLY tasty! Mason definitely gave his approval as he had already snacked alot prior to dinner and then he ate 2 good size servings! yeah! I had JUST enough to put into his lunch for tomorrow. Here's the recipe below- quick, tasty, HEALTHY (and still hearty enough to fill up on!) and easy :-)
PS- I used vine ripened tomatoes which I think are sweeter than plum tomatoes (although I think this recipe would be awesome with cherry or grape tomatoes too!) I also added some avocado to my salad and YUM! did it make it tasty!!

Chicken Salad with Lemon Yogurt Dressing
Ingredients

Serves 4
2 1/2 teaspoons dried tarragon
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
4 bone-in chicken breast halves
1/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt
2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3 plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
4 scallions, thinly sliced
6 ounces mesclun (about 6 cups) * we used chopped up romaine lettuce mixed with some leftover baby spring mix *

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rub tarragon, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper under chicken skin. Place on a rimmed baking sheet; roast until cooked through, about 30 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt, 2 teaspoons olive oil, remaining 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Remove and discard skin and bones from chicken; thinly slice meat lengthwise. Add to bowl along with tomatoes and scallions; toss to combine.
In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining 2 teaspoons lemon juice and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add mesclun; toss to coat. Divide among plates; spoon chicken mixture on top.