Father's Day

Mike's family all came to our neck of the woods for father's day this year. We all went out to the lake and then had a cook-out at our house. We all had a great time! Mason, Graham, and Isabella bought Mike a new grill for father's day. He loves it and wants to cook every meal on it. On father's day my parents came over and went to church with us. It was Mason's first time at our church and he did awesome! After church we came back to our house and once again...had a cook-out! Below are some pictures of our father's day celebrations. Don't you just love Mason's shirt...I Love Dad :)

It's been way too long!

My last post was right after Mason was born. Alot of things have happened since then. We found out that he is lactose intolerant and has acid reflux. We were also so lucky as to have a baby with colic. Things are much much better now. Since Mason is on lactose free formula and taking baby zantac he is a very happy baby. He smiles and screams all the time now. He chews on his hands and is beginning to find his feet. He loves to grab my hair when I bend over to kiss him. Right now my favorite thing he does is when he sees his Pop (my dad). He goes wild screaming and smiles forever. He is sleeping from about 11pm until about 6am. We are sooo happy about this! We usually get up one time each to either change his diaper or give him his pacifier if he wants it.

When all of the craziness was going on I didn't know if we would make it through alive, but we did. Thanks to help from my parents. They were either here or I was over there almost every day until I went back to school in the middle of May.

Now Mason and I get hang out together all day long and it is so much fun! We sometimes take a nap, watch Handy Manny, or go visit Nan and Pop. Mason has now been to Wal-Mart quite a few times, the lake twice, and just a couple of days ago he swam in a little mini pool that my parents bought for him. He loves to sleep in his swing and he loves to sit in his bouncy on the counter and watch us cook and clean! He is eating rice cereal, drinking juice and eating prunes (per the doctor for stomach reasons :)), and tried squash for the first time the other night. The doctor didn't want to start anything other than rice cereal until he was 5 months old, but he had a little trouble going to the bathroom when we switched him to formula. Now he is teething so he needs no help going. That is why we replaced the prunes with squash. He weighs 14 and 1/2 lbs and is 26 inches long. We have a big boy!

Mike and I love every minute we get to spend with our sweet baby pigs...graham and isabella incluced. We are so lucky! Below are some pictures of the last 3 months.


Mason sleeping on his Pop


Taking a nap with Isabella
Aunt Cake and Mason




Hanging out with Jeffrey...thanks Aunt Calley!
Laughing at Pop

Sorry Grannie Kim...Born a Horn Always a Horn!
Mason and Mike on Mother's Day

Mason Is Here!!!

Mason was born on March 16th, 2010 at 4:16pm. He weighed 8lbs. and was 20 inches long. He is so precious and looks just like Mike! He has my lips and my nose from when I was a baby, but other than that he is all Mike. We scheduled an induction because my doctor was going out of town the weekend of Mason's due date. We went to the hospital at 5am on the 16th and the nurses started the medicine to make me have contractions. At 7:30am Dr. Vaughn broke my water. By 3pm...ish I had only dilated to a 3 and the he said I was having placental abruption which is when the placenta starts to separate and the baby has no where to go yet! So...I had to have a c-section. I was very nervous, but Mike was the best husband in the world. Even though he was nervous too he never let me know it. My aunt Sue got to be in the room with us during the surgery and that helped alot too because she worked in that department for 30+ years. I know I was the craziest patient because I kept asking the doctor and Sue is everything was going ok. I wouldn't just let them do their work! ha! I knew everything would be ok as soon as I heard Mason cry. It was just like who cares about anything else. I knew he was ok and that was all that mattered. Mike took him to the nursery and they got him all warmed up and then took him to the window so that our friends and family could see how handsome he was! Our stay at the hospital was kind of rough because I was drugged most of the time so we were very glad to get home. Thanks to my sister-in-law Sherry and my mom we made it through those first days. My mom and dad still come over every day or so and are the biggest help! Aunt Rachel is now called the baby whisperer and Aunt Cake. Every time she touches that baby he is quiet! And...Sunday she was making a cake and Mason wanted to taste the icing so bad...one day :) Mason is doing very well and even went on his first walk yesterday! We could not be happier with our sweet little gift from God! P.S. Graham and Isabella love Mason too! Graham is the protector and will not sleep unless Mason is sleeping. We call them our three little pigs because they all snort! Below is the link to some pictures...enjoy!

http://pbckt.com/sm.d570

Come on Mason!

We had another appointment last Wednesday and there is no progress to report. There are 7 days left until my due date so we are trying to wait patiently, but it is not easy. Mike got finished with a big furniture delivery in Corsicana on Friday, my dad made it home from the state basketball tournament, Mike's sister is in Dallas and his brother will be here on Tuesday. I guess we are all ready except Mason :) I gave up on work after Wednesday so I had Thursday and Friday off to start my maternity leave. I'm glad because I have come down with a sinus infection and I probably would have injured some students if I had gone. My mom came over and helped Mike clean the whole house so that was a BIG help. Today I have walked and spread fertilizer in the back yard. Last night I ate spicy food, took a hot bath and did sumo squats. My back is hurting down low, but other that that I got nothin'. Mike is still outside right now cleaning up the yard. I think he is just trying to stay as busy as he can until Mason gets here! Hopefully I will get some sleep tonight. Lately sleep has not made it into my vocabulary. Dang, as I am reading over this post it just seems so random. Sorry. Below is a picture of me today. Notice the clothes. This is about all that fits comfortably...Mike's shirt and my maternity tights. I guess I better go wash these clothes so I will have something to wear tomorrow ha! I hope my next post will be of Mason's arrival. COME ON MASON!!!

Mason's Room

Here are some pictures of Mason's room. The only other thing we have added is two shelves above his dresser. Also I am throwing in a couple of pictures of us over the past two weeks. I am almost 38 weeks. I go to the doctor tomorrow again. We are excited to meet Mason! I am just really tired and he is still punching me from the inside all day and night :)


Almost 36 weeks




These are some cute outfits our friends gave us. Jen-he WILL have his picture taken in the weenie dog outfit!
Isabella likes playing in Mason's toy basket and this night she was checking out what was on the window sill.
37 Weeks

Mason

hmmm...I'm trying to think of all of the things that have happened since my last post. Well, we went to an all day class at the hospital on January 23rd and it made us both feel better about the whole having a baby thing. We had two baby showers! One was hosted by my friends and the other by my sister and family. They were both so much fun! So many of our family and friends were able to come. Mason got so many cute things. His room was overflowing until his dresser was delivered this week. Mike got it all put together and now his room is starting to look nice. I will post some pictures of it when we get it completely put back together (bedding is on back order until March 5th :). My sister got a job in Mt. Pleasant working in the loan department for Guaranty Bond Bank and she got a house in Mt. Vernon so she will only be living about 25 minutes away now which we are excited about! It snowed like crazy and I got this past Friday off work which was nice except for the fact that I am trying to get my students ready for the events they are entering at the Region III FCCLA meeting in Plano this next weekend. This will be my last work related thing to worry about before Mason gets here. I have already planned out for the rest of the semester so I don't even have to think about that stuff anymore! This weekend we made a bunch of different meals for the freezer so we won't have to cook as much when Mason arrives. Last night we got a few other things done that we needed to because I started have more braxstan hicks contractions and we figured that was a hint to get busy. Mike packed our bags for the hospital and put some things in the car that we will need. Below are some pictures from both baby showers. Thanks to all of our friends and family for coming and thanks to all of the hostesses!
Isabella actually liked the snow once she got out in it. Graham was on the couch as usual...

Mike modeling the cute baby clothes line Rachel made for the shower
Graham sleeping in some of Mason's gifts while we were organizing his room
Cute diaper cake Rachel made
Us at the shower in Paris
Haley (one of the hostesses) and me at the shower at our house
Julie and my mama
Emily made this cute diaper cake for the shower at our house!
Mike loved this gift!
Graham testing out the umbrella stroller
Me and Mason at 32 weeks... Yes, i felt like crap this day, but we took the picture anyways.

Colorado Trip

We went to Keystone Colorado December 19-23 for my sister Rachel's college graduation. We went with our family, Rachel's boyfriend Nick, and my aunt, uncle, and cousins on my dad's side. As Mortons do...we fought the entire time. Daddy drove like a crazy person and Nick hurt his shoulder snowboarding. At least this time there was no condo fire. We all had a blast doing many different activities...eating, skiing, snowboarding, sleigh riding, tubing, and dog sled riding. The condo that we stayed in was so nice and really close to where the ski lift was. I took pictures of pretty much everything that went on since that was the only thing I could really do besides the sleigh ride. It started snowing the night before we left and we got just out of Denver before a huge snowstorm hit. I was worried about flying in the snowstorm, but we ended up having a horrible time getting through the east Texas thunderstorms. I thought I was going to loose my Big Mac on the plane! Mike was amazed at how young the kids were that were skiing so I'm sure we will be back in a couple of years for Mason to try it out! Above are some pictures from the trip. I am trying to figure out the photo bucket thing so bare with me. It sent it straight to my blog and made it a slide show. I will figure it out!

Holidays

Man, I am posting like crazy today! It must be because I have to go back to work tomorrow and I know it will be one busy week! Below are some pictures from Christmas, New Years, and one of Mason and me :)

Rachel and her "new do"

My family and Mike's sister Sherry and nieces Peyton and Miranda came over for NYE!

Nan and her grand dogs

Mike got Reece's and one of his mom's paintings framed in his stocking.

Me and the pups sniffing out their gifts from Santa Claus

Mason and Me: 28 weeks

Thanksgiving

I know I am working backwards on my posts, but I keep thinking of more things I need to catch you all up on. Thanksgiving was very different this year without Mike's mom, but I think we honored her very well. We drove down with my part of my fam-in-law (Chris, Sara, Julia, and Callie) to Mission where some of my other fam-in-law live (Sherry, Eric, Peyton, and Miranda). Mike's little brother Jon and his girlfriend Crystal drove down as well. I did make the trip longer than it would have been due to my frequent need to potty, but we made it there! We went on a walk, the kids played football with the guys and we went shopping. On Thanksgiving day we made lunch and Eric cooked the Turkey. Everything tasted so good. I know Judy was proud of all the cooking we did! We went to the ocean the day after Thanksgiving and spread Judy's ashes over the water. We got there just at sunset. It was so pretty and it was her favorite place and time of the day. Mike and I do miss her, but we try to remind each other when we get down that she is having a blast in heaven! Below are a couple of pictures from the trip.

Mike and I with niece Miranda. She looks like she belongs to us! No, Mike is not drugged.

Mike's brother Chris with nieces Julia, Callie, Peyton, and Miranda

Daddy's Retirement/Rachel's Graduation

My dad retired from 37 years of teaching/coaching/administration on November 30, 2009. We are all so proud of the things he has done for public education in the schools he has worked for and for education in Texas as well. We had a retirement reception for him at Prairiland and so many of his friends, family, and co-workers came. It was such a good turn out! We gave him a flat screen tv for his room as a retirement gift!

My sister graduated from Texas A&M University - Commerce on December 19, 2009. We are so proud of her as well. Her degree is in Management with a minor in Family and Consumer Science. I think she should make a business out of selling her crafts and cakes...maybe she will do that one day!

To celebrate both events we went on a trip to Colorado with our family and my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Below are some pictures of the retirement party and Rachel's graduation.