Mother's Day

Today was a day that has been filled with surprises.  Part of those surprises has been a puking 22 month old that started this morning. The greater of the surprises were my sweet gifts from my cute kids and husband: a homemade card from Reagan, a handprint school project from Rees, and a similar school project from Jackson plus some cute bows he made me at scouts.  How I treasure these!  But if I can say the greatest surprise was from my husband who gave me an airplane ticket to UTAH so I can be there for my sisters endowment session!  Rarely do I cry over a gift, but this opened the flood gates!  With my fathers declining health it means that much more.  How grateful I am for a loving and considerate husband who buys me things I would never buy for myself.  So Mason and I are homeward bound for a few days in June and I don't think even puke can make me not love this day.  How grateful I am to be a mom.  It is the reason we are here and I count my blessings daily that I'm living my own happily ever after, puke and all!

Snow Fun!!

"Snow"Much Fun!!  Although the hills are a lot more scarce in Michigan, we do have a decent sledding hill not to far from our house that we have played on at least three times so far.  My kids love it, especially Mason.  Here are some pictures from those outings. 

Elf on the Shelf

Elf on the Shelf!

Our Elf was sent to us by my sweet Sister-in-Law Jennifer Landon.  After much excited discussion an agreement was made on a name for our sweet elf----James Jimmy John Landon  (Reagan is still upset we didn't thrown in Christmas Tree or Candy Cane).  This has been a fun adventure for our little family each morning.  Rees, are early-riser inevitably finds him each day and then broadcasts it to the world and wakes up the others.  He has hidden on various light fixtures and on shelves, on a wreath, and on windows and in closets.  One day he played with Jacksons legos and built a spacecraft sled that we assumed he used to get back to the North Pole that night. Last night we think he was playing hide and seek with Cookie monster because we found them hiding together this morning.  Our favorite has been when the Elf decided to be naughty (Jackson adamantly defends the elf as just trying to be funny).  The Elf was found hiding on a shelf in the morning holding a marker.  He and the four children had mustaches drawn on there faces!!  Rees in the morning was classic--she ran downstairs and exclaimed "MOM I have a mustache and the elf does too and he's hiding upstairs with a marker!!"  This is going to be a great tradition--  

Christmas Season in Michigan

The Christmas Season in Michigan

We went to a fun GLOW festival.  The kids made crafts, saw reindeer, ate roasted chestnuts --(not that great), roasted marshmallows, and saw some cool ice sculptures.  We are sad we can't be with family for this holiday season, but gratefully our new friends here in East Lansing have made the transition much better.  Just last night we went to a friends home and sang christmas carols and drank hot chocolate and ate cookies.   What an amazing ward we have been blessed to be a part of, the Lord is always in the details.

 Here are some super fun photos we took after our awesome cousins sent us some fake mustache's
To get the picture we knocked on the neighbors door and said " we 'mustache' you a question---can you take our picture?"  HA HA HA HA.

Well I'm trying to figure out this new blogger thing....yea I haven't posted since Christmas...a few things have changed....We now live in Michigan!!  Trent was accepted into a PhD program at Michigan State University and we decided that we needed to take a leap back into student life.   So I'm staying home with my great kiddos and Trent is busy doing his graduate program and teaching classes on the side.  I'm loving staying home with my kids. Jackson and Rees are is school full time so Reagan and Mason and I get to hang out all day!  I thought life would slow down a little now that I'm not working and I have more kids in school, but oddly enough it stays pretty busy, a good busy.   East Lansing is beautiful and the town and ward have been very accepting.  We have good neighbors and the kids are adjusting well.  We all miss family and cousins.  I'm not promising to be perfect with my blog, but I'm going to try to occasionally update it.  We have been so blessed.  The Lord has helped us with this move and so many things have fallen into place.  Its a new adventure for our family and I'm saddened to be away from those friends and family we love so much, but I do think we as a family are growing together more.  Life is full of changes and we are excited to grow.

Christmas

Anxiously Waiting!! Mom can we open a dag gum present yet??

Here is some christmas pictures-- Our Holidays were super busy with lots of partying on both sides of the family!! Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, I actually enjoyed it--I think it helped us to keep the holiday in perspective! We are so blessed to have such great family and friends!

Fun Halloween Costumes!!

Rockstar

Chinese baby

Flower

Captain America
Some other weirdos!

Mason 6 months old!

Where has the time gone--- Our sweet little man is 6 months old. He rolls everywhere and is almost army crawling. He has one of the most adorable laughs---its almost like a bear cub growl. He's really a terrible sleeper---good thing he is so cute--but I'm probably responsible for the not sleeping super good part because he is still sleeping with us 90% of the time. We are so happy he is in our family. His siblings love him and they all beam when Mason smiles at them. So blessed to have this little one!!

Time..

My Little bug is 2 months old!! How does the time pass by so fast. I am so sad how quickly these little ones grow up. However, I love the little smiles he is now giving and I'm so excited for him to soon start giggling. I have become a better journal keeper (not a better blogger), but I am trying to keep a better personal journal mostly because of the fear that time does pass by too quickly and I never want to forget these days of mess makers and funny little sayings from my kiddos. I've come to the conclusion that a clean house is fantastic---and I really do need some form of cleanliness for my own sanity---but I'd rather have a house where there is laughter and fun. I know one day I will miss the never ending fingerprints on my windows and the fact that my kids spill something sticky on my floor everyday or today when I found out my kids ate almost a whole box of graham crackers on my bed while I was at a meeting and Dad was in charge- love those crumbs in my clean sheets! So I have to remind myself to chill and remember to enjoy this time, because it will pass. I just hope as it passes happy memories will be made.

1st Day of School

First Day At School! I only cried after Jackson left for 1st Grade and did much better when Rees went to her first day of Kindergarten. They both love school and it should be a great year!!

Mason Stanley Landon was blessed on September 4th, 2011 by his Father Trenton Joe. It was a great day. We did a brunch after at our house and enjoyed spending time with family. We had lots of family there from both sides. It's time like these when you realize how blessed we are to have such supportive and loving family. Trent, Jackson, and I all ended up bearing our testimonies at church, it was Jackson's first time and he did great. Mason is getting bigger too fast, it's moments when he snuggles in close to me that I remember how short lived this newborn baby stage is and makes me cry. I've decided the only reason it's okay that our kids get older is because as parents we understand that we want them to have these same unexplainable feelings of love for there own children someday. So even though I hate seeing my kids get big sooo fast, I'm excited for them to one day change the world.

July 31, 2011

I'm sitting here looking at a beautiful baby boy---perfect as can be and realizing how blessed I am! Mason Stanley Landon was born July 26th 2011 at 4:04 p.m. at Bingham Memorial Hospital in Blackfoot, Idaho. He weighed 7# 2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Labor and Delivery went really well. I went to the hospital at 6:00 a.m. hoping to be dilated more that I was, but I was still a 2-3, so they gave me a cytotec pill to help soften my cervix. By 11:00 I was still only a three, so they started me on pitocin. My contractions really picked up after that and be 1:30 the Dr. came and broke my water. By this time, my contractions were feeling really strong, it's funny how you forget how terrible they really are. Anesthesia walked in and talked with me and after a few minutes I went for the epidural--drugs are amazingt!! Anyway 45 min or so after I got my epidural they went to put my catheter in and I was 9 + centimeters. The Doctor came over about 3:45 and once we were ready to push, it only took me three pushes and my cute little man was here. By far this was my easiest delivery. So grateful it all went so well, as a Labor and Delivery nurse I am always worried things will go wrong. but we were blessed and both of us were okay. He has had no complications and is a healthy little boy. He has a good amount of dark hair, with a really light auburn tint to it. At first I was sure he had no resemblance to any of my kids, but now that I have looked through Jackson's baby book, I realize he looks a lot like my little Jackson. He is already a little pig and thinks he needs to eat every few hours, luckily he has had no issues with nursing. We still have to figure out nighttime, he does much better in the day as far as naps go, but last night was not as bad. The other kids have done pretty well with the adjustment. Jackson is thrilled to have a little brother, a roommate!! Rees never wants to stop holding him and Reagan is pretending to be excited, but we can tell she's trying to figure out her place in this new family dynamic. She has done okay, but like any two year old she needs to learn a new definition of soft and we are hoping that the stealing of the pacifier will eventually end. It's crazy to think that we have four kids!! This week will be more of a reality check because Trent will be going back to work and my mom who was able to be with us until yesterday has also left to go home to her family. It will be okay. I am so grateful for the love of family. I'm lucky that one of my best friends in life is my mom--she has blessed me life in so many ways. We had a fun week together and I already miss her.

I'm also grateful for a good husband who does help around the house and is also one of my best friends. We had a good laugh together yesterday over something I said and how grateful I am I have someone I can laugh with in my life. Friday he took the other three kids camping with his family so my mom and I could have some quiet time. I'm grateful for his thoughtfulness. So at the end of the day, I am blessed beyond my measure and am constantly seeing the Lord's tender mercies in my life. We are so excited for baby Mason to join our family!! Let the memories begin!