CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve was fun.  As Mason gets bigger, he is able to do more fun "big kid" stuff.  Like stay up late.  And go with the flow when the usual schedule changes.

I had to work in the church nursery during the Christmas Even service.  Which really only means I didn't get the obligatory mom picture of Mason at the candlelight service.  Next time.

After church, my family came over to our house for snacks/appetizers.  It was super simple.  I went a little crazy, and bought poppers.  Who does this?  It was probably too much money for something that lasts 3 seconds.  But, memories.  They were also super hero themed, because that goes with Christmas.  Basically, I went nuts, but in the end we still had poppers.  And the whole point of this ridiculous story is just to introduce the picture, which is us in our crowns.  You're welcome.  (Sadly our Uncle Matt was working.)

I know to anyone reading this that it probably seems silly, but I really hope that we can continue this sweet little tradition in the future.  It was special for us, and that is what matters.  Maybe even the poppers, too.

AUGUST

As I try to think back to August, I don't think it was too memorable for us.  Although as I type those words memories are suddenly flowing back, so maybe I'm wrong after all.  We spent the majority of our days playing outside in the summer heat, but we also took our first family trip to the State Fair.  Yes, you read that right.  For the first time in Mason's life, and the first time in Byron and my eight years together, we have never gone together to the fair.  It's like an Iowa sin, I'm sure.

We did get the chance to zip up to our home away from home, Michigan, to meet up with my family to celebrate an uncle's wedding.  It was a chance to see all my relatives and some of our friends, too, in a very short amount of time.

Finally, August marked a big milestone for us as far as our adoption goes.  Yes, we are still hoping that adoption is in the future for us, but we say that now knowing ultimately that whatever happens is in the Lord's hands.

The rest of the year flew by.  We would soon be celebrating back to school, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  At home, we are already starting to look ahead to what the new year will bring.  But for now, I still have a few more months to recount.

FAMILY VACATION

Even though through the majority of this year we've been focusing on saving for our adoption, we did want to make a family vacation a priority for us.  So how do we get the best vacation experience on a dime?  We go visit family, of course!  This year, we had a whirlwind week visiting two of my aunts and our best friends.  It always felt like we didn't have enough time in any place, but the time we did have was so much fun.  It was just what we needed!

First stop was South Bend, to visit my Aunt Nanny and Uncle John.  Our first stop was the zoo.  It was a beautiful day!

We also toured a chocolate factory, which I thought would be a highlight of the trip.  However, our boy was tired, and not at all interested in following instructions, so it ended up being kind of a flop.  Not to mention the chocolate factory we toured doesn't even make its own chocolate.  (Spoiler alert - it's shipped in from Chicago.)  Needless to say, we were very thankful we opted for the free tour.

We stopped at some playgrounds, took some walks around the neighborhood, and played with cool toys only an art teacher would have.  Mostly, we just chilled out and visited.  And at ice cream.  Lots of ice cream.  John even took us on a driving tour of the Notre Dame campus, which was so cool, especially to Byron.  It was an impromptu tour, and it was around sunset, so by the time we got to the cool buildings, it was pretty dark so I don't have many pictures.  Here's the one that I captured of the candle Byron lit in the grotto.

The next stop was to Troy to visit my other Aunt and her family.  The next few days were full of swimming in the pool, jumping on the trampoline, visiting parks, cooking fresh vegetables, and plenty of relaxing time.

The last night of the trip was spent visiting our best friends.  Ice cream, toys, and good conversation filled the few hours we had together.  The most hilarious thing happened though.  At our house, we don't really have any costumes for Mason to dress up in.  However, in the short time we were visiting, Mason LIVED in their Spiderman costume.  It actually caused several meltdowns when it wasn't his turn to wear it.  Who knew?  Guess somebody better get this kid a Spidey costume of his own.

We wish our vacation was much longer, of course, but in reality we cut it short a day and headed home early.  It was so nice to have a day to catch up on laundry, get groceries, and do any other last minute home things before rushing into another week back at work.  The memories made on this vacation (even the ones involving meltdowns) were great, and it just makes us eager to plan the next one.  Right now we're hoping to explore South Dakota next year, but you never know where the wind will take us by the time vacation is here again!

OUR EASTER

We had a jam-packed Easter weekend, full of some really great family time.  By Sunday night, we were exhausted!  I don't have a lot of words to describe everything, but here is a quick recap.

Friday night, I honestly don't remember.  Nothing too special, I guess.

Saturday morning we did errands and played at the park.

Saturday night our niece Jessica got married.  The wedding was at Hoyt Sherman Place and the reception was at West End Salvage.  It was all very "them."  Mason did so well during the wedding and reception, though he did have help from his favorite big cousins...and Angry Birds.  Three of our nephews stayed over with us that night, so yes, it was me in the house with five guys.

Sunday morning Byron took the big boys to help him set up at church, then we enjoyed a nice service.

Sunday afternoon we had an Easter meal with Byron's family, and we left stuffed.

Sunday night we made lunch with my parents and celebrated my mom's birthday with Cheesecake Factory dessert.  We left even more stuffed.

I didn't get many good pictures of the weekend in general, but I did manage to get some really great pictures of the boy. And we really just want to look at those pictures and say how handsome he is, right?

Okay okay I know that's a lot of photos.  But he just makes my heart soar!  He is a little boy that is constantly on the move, so these action shots really represent him.  And while I'm sharing photos, here's one I took of the birthday girl.  Isn't she beautiful?

HAPPY EASTER

I am a bit behind the times in wishing people a happy Easter, but I actually have a good reason.  A little something called vacation happened to us.  And let me tell you, it was AH-mazing.  Pictures will be coming soon.  But for now, I want to share a couple of photos from our Easter. First, my little dapper Dan.  Isn't he a cutie?  The bowtie might be a bit much, but he just looked so darn handsome in it (and a little mischievous).

My dad is a minister and planning to retire in October, so it was really important to us to attend his last Easter service, and he did such a great job.  And the weather was great, too, which meant we could get a few pictures outside.  We are notoriously bad at capturing holiday pictures of our family, but we managed to get a couple this time!  Of course, attempting to capture a toddler on camera is another battle in itself.

I hope you and your families had a very happy Easter.  He is risen!

PUMPKIN PATCH

Taking the family to the pumpkin patch is now an annual tradition, because it has happened two years in a row.  On a whim, we went to the pumpkin patch this morning after church let out.  We are weird and actually like to go to a really early service, so we were able to get to the farm not too long after it opened.  We literally had the best time, and we got the absolute best pictures to prove it.  We were there for about an hour, and I snapped nearly 600 pictures.  I apparently am THAT mom.  I was able to narrow them down to my favorites, so don't worry, you won't have to view all 600!
Like last year, Mason fell asleep on the way, so the first few minutes were pretty groggy for him.  We wandered around the land to see what we wanted to tackle first while letting him snap back to reality.

We started off feeding the goats.  Mason didn't really grasp the concept of holding the goat food in his open palm for the goats to eat, but he still enjoyed watching them eat out of Byron's hand.  Then we put Mason on one of the tire swings.  I think this one might have been shaped like a horse.  He loves swings, but since this one didn't have much of a handle for him to hold onto, we didn't swing too high.  But consider this your foreshadowing for later.  We also jumped right up on the big antique tractor, and Mason took the wheel.

One of the highlights of the morning was the pony ride.  I felt a little iffy putting my 15-month-old on a pony, especially because we saw two kids who were clearly older than Mason start crying and refuse to ride, but Mason was a champ.  He did such a great job, and I'm so glad that we put him on.  It was a great memory to make, and even if Mason doesn't remember this, I always will.

We did some of the typical pumpkin patch activities, too.  We looked at all the pumpkins. Uncle Matt and Aunt Bebe would be proud, I think Mason enjoyed "drumming" on the pumpkins.  We have almost the exact same picture of Byron and Mason at the measuring stick last year.  I think this year's Mason could have eaten last year's Mason for a snack. He's gotten so big!  I just love the last picture because it looks like Mason's finger is up the pig's nose.  We found these animal statues a couple of different places on the farm, and Mason really liked them.  He knows how to make a pig noise.  It sort of sounds like uh uh. He even said it to this pig.
The last photos I'll show you are my absolute favorites.  I can envision one of these blown up extra-large on canvas or maybe just framed hanging in our living room.  But that would require me being able to make up my mind as to just which one is my favorite!

Man, that face is the best.  I can't help it.  I'm obsessed with my kid.

SUMMER VACATION

When Byron and I were first dating, we discovered an unusual thing.  That is, that my family and his best friend hail from the same corner of the world.  More recently, we discovered that our nephew's fiance just so happens to be from the same place as well.  So when Logan and Brigitte got engaged, we decided to use their wedding as a chance to plan a family vacation, one I like to call the Stover Family Tour de Michigan.  We would be able to introduce Mason to family and friends, as well as do some fun stuff with the boy.  So that's what we did!  We just returned from about 9 days away.
The first part of the trip was spent in Western Michigan.  We attended Logan and Brigitte's wedding, which was right on the beach.  Of course, being new parents who are obsessed with our own, we took more pictures of Mason than of anything else. This is him in his handsome chambray wedding shirt.

We crammed in as much as we could during the few days we were in western Michigan. We took a trip to the Frederik Meijer Gardens.  A few days before our trip, I noticed Mason was starting to reach for the faucet any time I had the water on.  This little excursion confirmed my suspicion that this kid truly loves water.  It was the highlight of his trip!

Later that weekend, some of my relatives from Detroit (who we would be seeing later in the week) met us in Grand Haven and we enjoyed more water!

Another thing we got to do was introduce Mason to my grandfather for the first time.  Here is a nice little family photo.  This is my mom's dad (oh, did I mention my parents were there, too?)

The last thing we did in western Michigan was to go to the zoo with our friends.  And...I didn't bring my camera.  To summarize our zoo experience, a bird pooped on my head, I rode a camel, Byron petted a sting ray, and Mason didn't really notice the animals much, though he loved the waterfall (go figure).

The second half of the vacation was spent visiting our other relatives, who as I mentioned, live outside of Detroit.  During this part of the trip, we crammed in as very little as possible...my kind of vacation.  We tried to sleep in, though that is nearly impossible with an 11 month old who doesn't quite understand the concept of "summer vacation".  The major perk we got to enjoy was that my aunt and uncle have a pool.  It was so great! Guess who else thought so.  Yep, Mason.

The rest of the time was full of swimming, jumping on the trampoline, scootering, eating ice cream, shopping, and frothing coffee (I may have been addicted to that last one - I'm so getting a frother!).  We even got to see a neighborhood house fire, which I admit is very tragic and unfortunate but I have never seen anything like that in person before.  Mason did, however, want to end vacation with a bang, so the Friday before we returned home he sprouted a 102.8 degree fever, which later led to the diagnosis of two ear infections.  Of course they were his first, and we were miles from home, but we managed to find a great walk in clinic and pharmacy close by.  Phew!

Now that we are back at home (and ironically rested up) we can't wait to plan a vacation for next year.

And next time, I'll hopefully get more pictures!  Although if I had to take too many photos of any one subject, I guess I'm glad it was Mason!