Mason Family: January 2012

Bowling

We are fortunate to have a bowling alley near us, and very fortunate to have good friends! So we all went bowling together on a random Tuesday night. Well, we thought it was random. Turned out to be during Christmas break, when the bowling alley was offering a special and they had a Groupon. So we were supposed to meet at 6 to bowl. Had to wait to start bowling at 9. That's pm folks. My boys are usually asleep in their beds by 8! But we figured, why not. Could be fun. As you can see by this picture, Jonah had fun. Henry, not so much. Poor Hamster. He loves his bed and sleep. He still managed to be a good sport and got his second wind around 10. So we all bowled and had a great time. It was so cute to see Jonah in his little bowling shoes. Didn't try to get shoes for Henry. They would have been cute too!

The two buddies! Like little peas in a pod!!

This is where the kids spent most of their evening. This weird little shelf, hidy place was right behind our seats, so they took snacks and toys into it and played for a long time! So funny what kids think is fun!!

Cousins of the Round Table

Grandma and Grandpa Mason got all the boys Knight/Dragon dress up outfits with swords and shields for Christmas. Super Cute! So of course, we had to get pictures of all the boys together. After the nice photos, we got this beauty. Yep, that's Jonah going for the stab while Gavin tries to take his cape off. What else do you expect when you give a bunch of little boys swords and tell them to get the dragon?!?

Mason family photo. Sadly the front row looks freakishly huge. I can say that because I'm in the front row.

Henry looks a little more like Dracula!! His cape was so cute. Since he's so tiny and the other capes are so big, Grandma Mason made his little cape. She did a great job. And I'm so glad he has his own. He would have been upset to be thought of in a different light than the other boys!

Cousins of the Round Table

They were both growling in this photo!

Christmas 2011

We had an absolutely great Christmas this year. Perfect, in fact. Since Christmas actually fell on a Sunday and we would have church then be traveling out of town, we actually had our "Christmas" on Saturday. Worked out great! We got up, Dan got donuts for breakfast, then we tore into the presents. Oh, I forgot to mention, we had to wait until 9am to get this started because lazybonesJonah was sleeping!!! I think Henry finally went in and woke him up! We let the boys open several of their presents, then they took a break to play with what they had while Dan and I opened our presents from each other. Then the boys came back for more action to open their presents from each other and the big present from "Santa". We refurbished their train table. It was a hand-me-down that had been handed down for a LONG time. It needed quite a bit of tlc. So we gave it some. It got a full make-over! The boys LOVE it!!! It was the hit of the day. We bought a few "new" trains that I found a resale store super cheap. And Jonah got what he had been asking for...the "gates" and Jack. (The gates are the railway crossings that make chiming sounds when a train goes by. And Jack is a construction vehicle from Thomas.) Such a fun day!!!

LOVE his new train table.

Henry spotted the elf!

A tiny new train for my tiny little guy!

Jack!

New Llama books - we love these books!

Had to get a few cute photos of their matching Christmas jammies!

christmas cookies

This year, I was ready to start some new traditions. We started The Elf on The Shelf. We continued our tradition of going to the Del Mar Lights Show. I tried to start a new tradition of Christmas crafts (didn't do too many of those this year- leaves me room for improvement next year!). And I thought we were ready for something I've been wanting to do for a really long time. Like longer than I've been married or had kids. I wanted to make Christmas cookies with my boys. So we did. And it was more fun than I even imagined it would be! Henry did a great job, although he only decorated the cookie that he later ate. (Trust me, it was for the best and for everyone's health!) Jonah did a really great job using ALL our cookie decorations! I basically made the cookies and iced them, then passed them on to Jonah, er, the boys, to decorate. They had so much fun and I guarantee this will be a tradition that we carry on until they leave the nest. Maybe they will come back to the nest to help me continue it. Thankfully I've got a while before I have to think of that!