Nicholas

Today Mason said, "Mommy, Do you really love me?" I said, "Of course I do". He then proceeded to ask if Daddy really loved him too and then he said..."Mommy, Nicholas really loves me too and he's gonna come to Masons house soon!" WE ARE SOO EXCITED TO SEE EVERYONE REALLY REALLY SOON!!

Camp Meeting 2009

Balls Creek Camp Meeting Here we go AGAIN!!

Once again we gather together to this place of tradition, heat, relatives and food! This year was not as eventful seeming to me as most...I'm not sure if it was because this is the first year that Grammy isn't actually spending the night there or the fact that when I asked her if she was glad to be at camp meeting she said, "well, its not the same, I'm ready to go home" None the less we spent the afternoon there and reflected on the fact...once again...that this

"Might Be the LAST camp meeting"

Me, Grammy and Aunt Jackie sitting out on the front porch watching people walk by
A close up...she looks pretty good for 93 hunh?

Mason sure loves these two guys!

Mom in the kitchen like usual! Anytime Mason pretend calls her on the phone he tells me she cant talk cause shes cooking!

Drink Lots and lots of fluids because its always really hot!

It was raining briefly and Mason just listened and watched...then he found the pear tree and started throwing pears with some of his distant cousins...it was cute they would clap for each other and take turns throwing them as high as they could...the other little boys would go way up to the limbs Masons just went about 2 feet above his head!

These trees are OLD..watch out for the MASSIVE roots!

When there's nothing else to play with a rock will do!

He was VERY proud of his BIG rock! I found it today when I was doing some laundry...thank goodness it wasn't a frog or something!

Mason and Chris pushed Grammy around back for potluck lunch! Kinda sad but I'm not sure if she even went into the tent this time??

The reason we go to camp meeting (also for the little lady in the back in a white top too)

ALWAYS SOO MUCH FOOD...fresh corn, lima's, green beans, fruit...some of my FAVORITES!

Sheila and Olivia chowing down!

Cheese Owen!

Papa and Chris took Mason to the shack...they told him he could pick out a prize and some ice cream but all he wanted was ice cream...I promise we allow him to eat sweets at home! This kid LOVES sweet stuff!

Mason fought trying to stay awake on the way home to keep watching his movie...he was so wiped out!

This years campmeeting really wasnt the same. I cannot put my finger on what was missing so much about it? Maybe because Alyssa, Marbi and Andrew werent there???

Day with Daddy

This picture is of Masons "Babies" The one on the Left is "Baby Baby" and the one on the Right is "Momma Baby"...this week he added a new member to his little make believe family "Daddy Dog" its a long stuffed dog that he got for valentines day from Poppy and Mammaw...I guess one day he reailzed that "Baby Baby" needed a daddy too!...Its really precious to here him pretend with them...he changes his voice for all of them and loves to have the "momma" and "daddy" take care of the "baby"...and sometimes he wants us to pretend we are the charachters so that he, as Mason, can do the nurturing...I guess hes practicing for when Micah gets here.

Chris took Friday off of work...its the first time EVER for no reason that he decided to take a day! One of the library books Mason has right now is called "Day Out With Daddy" its a cute little book and the son and the daddy go and do fun things together...one of them is eating donuts....Well, We were all so excited about Chris' day off and Mason and Chris started their day leaving the house in PJ's to pick up donuts...we didnt realize that this was the first time that Mason had ever had a donut! Not because we are against him eating them, just because we dont ever buy them. Chris let Mason pick his out and it was chocolate covered with sprinkles on top or as Mason says, "Shrinkles". Then we took a trip to Home Depot (Mason LOVES that place...well, he loves riding the tractors (lawn mowers) and looking at all of the drills and other tools) Then we went to Best Buy where Mason and Chris played the guitar hero drums while I looked at cameras. Mason asked if we could go to Chick Fila and Chris said, "Sure" so we ate lunch out, came home napped. Then Mason helped Chris mow the yard. (he pushes the spreader around while Chris uses the lawn mower) Mason asks me like every other day if he can mow the grass...I want to remember this question he poses to me in about 10 years when hes actually old enough to HAVE to mow the grass!...Over all the day was SOOO wonderful... I know Mason had a great time and I know Chris had a great time...but there was a moment in the day when I had to fight some tears as I watched Mason look up at his daddy with an awe and wonder of this man he is so lucky to call Daddy. I'm so in love with this little family we have and I cant wait to meet our new addition in only 12 weeks!! How is it possible to be blessed this much??

Micah

Having the opportunity to be pregnant for a second time has been wonderful!! I wanted to just have a short blog in here with some pics of my growing baby boy that we have named Micah Christopher Haynes. Choosing a name is always so tough, just deciding what your child will be called for the rest of his life...hope he likes it :) Last night we took a trip as a family to Babies R Us to register for somethings we know we are going to need for Micah...its really the best way for me to create a list of some things I want and that way if someone asks then I can just tell them I have a registry. We knew Mason would be SOOO Bord in the store so we brought along his head phones and portable DVD player and he Had a blast watching his movie while we searched the shelves and got excited all over again looking at all of the new baby stuff! We are going to give him a monkey themed room. We don't have it all finalized yet but the plan is to paint the walls a light sage green color and use brown green and blue to accent the room. And we figure Papa can paint some monkeys or palm tree or something on the walls! I think it will be super cute plus, I'm imagining my life is gonna feel like a zoo sometimes with two boys running around, so might as well get used to it! Here I am, this week marks my 26th week of pregnancy number 2!...I feel much bigger this time around but I don't think I really am I think I just forgot how big I was last time! That's okay, its so much fun and just last week Mason actually was able to feel Micah kick...he was soo excited but now he thinks every time he puts his hand on my tummy that he feels him kick! Mason also likes to put his hands on his hips and bulge his belly out to touch mine (I've gotta get a picture of us doing that its really cute) And he will randomly come up and give Micah kisses and ask him what hes doing and tell him he loves him...I think Mason is going to slip into his big brother roll just fine! Micah is very active, just like Mason was, in fact I really don't notice there being that much difference...the only thing so far that has been different with the pregnancies is that I was pretty sick at the beginning with Micah and it took me longer to really feel him moving around, but once he started moving he's not stopped! 26 Weeks

20 Weeks
This was when Chris and I took our trip to San Francisco...I was 16 weeks pregnant for this trip and I could really feel it!! I'm so glad we did this, I love taking trips with Chris!

15 Weeks...what you cant see is Mason really wanting me to hold him and be in this picture :)

10 weeks...already budging out! I felt bloated before we even had a confirmed pregnancy.

ROAAARRRRR!!

Dad celebrated his 62nd birthday at our house. I knew all the grand kids were in town and I love birthday parties so Friday Mom asked if we could have dad's birthday party over at our house and I got started planning. Any one who has ever been to their house can testify that Bill Mauch Loves lions! And just a few weeks ago they had a party at their house and I caught him asking some of his friends if they wanted to play "Elbow Tag" Soo I thought, "Hmmm....maybe we should play some games for dads party, but I'll need a theme"...no better theme than a "Lion Birthday Party". We all drew lion faces on ourselves, gave a big RROOOOAAAAARRRR and started playing some "Lion Games" We started the games out with "Lion Freeze" to the Lion King soundtrack, then moved onto "Lion Musical Squares". Next, was our version of duck duck goose AKA "Lion, Lion, Mouse" then we played "King of the Jungle" and finished the games with Pin the Tale on the Lion. I had fun playing the games but I think Owen enjoyed them the most...at one point I heard him say, "This is awesome!!"

Mason is taking his turn at Pin the Tale on the Lion...he didn't want to keep the blind fold on.

We threw some meat on the grill had some yummy roasted potatoes, salad, fruit and rolls.

Here's my favorite part...I love to create cute cup cakes and these are my favorite ones I've made so far! Mason picked out the chocolate cake, I dyed frosting two shades orange and brown, used cinnamon honey popcorn for the mane, chocolate chips for the eyes, pretzel sticks for the whiskers and pink marshmallow for the nose...they turned out super cute and yummy too!

"Happy Birthday Dear PAAApaaa, Happy Birthday to You!!"

I really have never seen another kid who loves sweets more than Mason...he gets soo excited about dessert!!

YUMMMY!

Okay, just had to get a close up picture!

After dinner and cupcakes there was ONE LAST Lion event...A Lion Hunt...I gave Papa and the kids a paw print and on the back was a clue to where they could find the next clue and so on and so on...This is kind of a fun tradition we have in my family at birthdays or sometimes at Christmas for a big gift...we have a scavenger hunt...however, I know Andrew would have laughed at my clues...I know I sing preschool songs for a living but me coming up with clues that Rhyme and are understandable lack a little in the area of creativity...good thing they are young enough to not really care.

The first clue on their Lion Hunt lead them to the garage ...Mason said..."yook, A clue a clue...like Blues Clues"

Then they all had to ROOOAAAARRR and went upstairs, then out to the van then back up stairs then to the coffee pot then finally...

Finally after following all of their clues they came to the Lion Treasure...Papa's Gifts.

WATER BALLOON TOSS...yes, this was a request of Papas that we could have water balloons at his birthday party.

Watch out the balloon toss turned into a BALLOON FIGHT!!

Since everyone was already wet we decided to get out the Elmo Splash Mat and play some in the water! Alyssa and Owen Take their turn down the slide onto the Elmo Splash Mat

Mason actually, for the first time, allowed the water to spray really high...he usually just barely wants to see it come out of the holes...guess his cousins liking the water "big" made him want it that way too!

Everyone just watching the kids slide over and over and over...we moved the slide and mat like 4 times to keep the yard from becoming a mud hole. I was really surprised to see how many times they were going down that slide...and I would have thought Alyssa would have been over it first...but she actually loved it the most!

Mason and Olivia took turns "driving" the fire truck ...over all the afternoon/evening was wonderful! I hope Mason remembers this day...I'm sure he wont, I've defiantly come to see that there are TONS of things that parents do for their children that their children NEVER remember! But that's okay, I'm not going to stop trying to create fun memories for my family! I'm sure there were lots of days like today in my childhood that I cant remember so I was glad to pay back my parents in a way by hopefuly creating a fun experience for everyone... And I also discovered that I think if I'm going to continue having Masons birthday parties at my house then I need to cut down the list of invites...how can he already have so many friends???

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I need you Jesus

"I need you Jesus, Jesus is here, come quickly" are the words I heard Mason say last night as I was laying him back down at around 2 AM. This past week with him discovering his new found ability of going pee pee in the potty coupled with his new awareness of the dark in his room at night and thunderstorms he's been unusually fearful at night. The night light has helped and I think we need to stop going in his room in the middle of the night. Although hes waking requesting to go pee pee, the past two nights hes been too 'out of it' to actually stand and pee.

To help him be able to go to sleep Chris reminded him that Jesus never leaves him and that he's

always with him even when Mommy and Daddy leave the room...well it brought such an emotional wave of love for God and my little boy when, unprompted by me, he let go of my neck for me to lay him down and said, "I need you Jesus!" He then looked at me as I was wrapping him up in his favorite blankey and tucking him in, and said "Jesus is here, come quickly" I said, "You're right Mason, Jesus is here" he turned his head to the side, closed his eyes and went right back to sleep.

What an awesome reminder for me that sometimes I need to let go of whatever it is that I'm trying to master on my own, or whatver it is that I am afraid of or what I may want to put my trust in and instead call out to my savior "I need you Jesus, Jesus is here, come quickly"

Corduroy

Mason goes through phases where he wants to read a book over and over until he has it memorized. Yesterday he and I were playing the "sleeping game", which I love. Heres how you play: Mason tells you to lay down in the bed, he turns the sound machine on covers you with his blanket and says okay mommy close your eyes its time to go to sleep then he tip toes out the door and closes it shut and leaves you alone to "Sleep" for about 2 mins or so...sounds short "2 mins" but we play it over and over so 3o mins later I've had a great little rest and Mason has had a blast playing a game! Well, yesterday he added some story time into the bedtime routine with one of his all time favorite books "Corduroy"...now if you read him this book there is no skipping pages or even words for that matter he will correct you. The clips are a little hard to understand but if you know this book as well as Mason you may be able to follow along. He did the whole book through without stopping with me these videos are him doing it a second time with Chris so he gets a little silly distracted by daddy but I wanted to include it anyway.

Amazed

I was feeling some freedom that I could leave our little boy for a little while to start making dinner...he told me he was making a train and when I came around the corner heres what he had made!

He said, "Yook Mommy I found all my cars and truks and yined them up and now they are a really big train...you yike it dont you?...CHUGGA CHUGGA CHOO CHOO...ALLL ABOARD!!"
Me- "Of course I like it...I love it"

No Shorts...but I really think that was KEY to him "knowing" when he needed to go!

I'm still in shock at the fact that Mason and I just decided on Monday to give the potty training a try and here it is Sat morning and I really feel like hes "got it" I know that I am to expect some accidents if he gets excited or is in the middle of playing but he tells me when he needs to poop and pee and he makes it to the potty and we've even been wearing shorts the past two days. His little sticker book is really filling up but sometimes he doesnt even care about getting a sticker he just is proud of himself and wants to go back to playing...Hes soo big I cannot believe it! Yesterday we made a venture to BiLo and he went right before we left the house I showed him as soon as we got there that BiLo had a bathroom too if he needed to go and he looked at me and said with his head to the side and wearing a little grin, "Mommy, I just went remember, did you forget?" Last night he woke up again to go pee and then it was right back to bed and yesterday morning he woke up with a dry diaper and I was freaking out because he said he didnt need to go but I put some blankets down and decided to trust him and an hour and 1/2 later he said I need to go peepee now...I was releived and amazed that he could hold it so long...maybe road trips to KY wont have as many stops as I was expecting!! :)

Since we've been in the house alot this week we've had the opportunity to play and Mason has been loving to sing and destory the bonus room!! Mason got this microphone from Joya when we helped her move into her new place and he loves singing in it! The second video of him dancing is really toned down to how he actually dances to the truck music.