A Girl and Her Sword

The title pretty much speaks for itself....Mason-Kate loves her brothers' swords and everyone has to be very aware of her when she is armed as it is a very dangerous time for anyone who is near.

Guess Who Got A Haircut???

Although Mason-Kate's hair was not extremely long, we decided it was time to give it a little trim to avoid the stringy look. Mason-Kate was not convinced that sitting in a tall chair in a strange place was for her until she saw Miss Cynthia coming towards her with not one but TWO lollipops, one for each hand. Somehow, Mason-Kate also acquired a peppermint, so with all three pieces of candy in place, the cutting began. Two minutes later, we were all done and ready to go. Painless.

Our weekend

Happy Birthday to you! Ryan celebrated his birthday last Thursday. I think I enjoy his day as much as he does because it means that he becomes my age again. Of course, I am 3 1/2 months older than Ryan and he is forever telling me that he will NEVER be as OLD as I am. We sang, we opened gifts and he feasted on a juicy steak. I think MK was still in shock over her birthday candle. When we brought out the cupcakes with candles lit for Ryan, MK started to cry hard.

On Friday, Colin participated in the third grade talent show at his school. He did his piano solo perfectly. The children all did a great job. I must say that I was nervous for all of them and just proud that they had that confidence to get up in front of all of their peers. Nice job!

Ryan and Colin spent their weekend aboard the USS Yorktown with Colin's Boy Scout Pack. They thoroughly enjoyed spending some much needed father/son time together. My plan is for Colin to do his own blog about their trip and post pictures. He did an awesome job as the photographer in his group.

Pryce was in charge of himself, Mason-Kate and I on Saturday. Everything was up to him. He chose to visit the Charleston Aquarium. Wonderful place, the children loved it. Then he chose to eat at one of my favorite restaurants on the harbor....beautiful. Mason-Kate would point to the boats as they came and went and she would say, "daddy, boat?"....she knew Ryan was on a boat. We did manage to at least put our feet in the sand on the beach for a few minutes Sunday morning but being that it was 30 something degrees, we didn't stay long.

Sunday evening the boys of our household went to play Laser Tag with the children from church. They will never be the same. One thing I took note of is that six months ago, Pryce was not too impressed with Laser Tag. Our children's minister took the boys on their own private outing and he ended up riding on her back while she and Colin "tagged" one another. He was scared. Fast forward six months and he is a mad man with a Laser gun who can't "tag" enough people. Ryan said he was all over the place, hiding out, scheming who he was going to get next and rejoicing when he had a successful shot. Just a small reminder of how my little man is growing up!

Pinkalicious

This is another one of those posts that I am writing for my memory alone so I will not forget this precious moment with MK. This morning Mason-Kate awoke crying. That is very unusual especially being that it wasn't even 7:00...she is an 8:00 girl most of the time. Anyway, she wasn't awake very long when I realized all was not well in her world. She was not gleefully greeting the boys and Finley, she just laid her head on my shoulder. I could tell there wasn't a fever involved so I just shook it off to a bad dream and went about my morning with her on my hip. Minutes later she got sick. Poor baby. If you have been following us along on our journey, you know that my entire family has been stricken with its share of minor illnesses this year. This morning was no different. MK was not feeling good at all. I know this because she is normally playing early in the morning or eating or putting on her make-up while I myself get ready to tackle the day. This morning she just sat in our den chair with her head tilted slightly back clutching onto her bunny blanket. At one point I hugged her and she didn't let go so I just made myself comfortable and held her for awhile. She was not well. We drove the boys to school which is normally filled with noise of our prayer and MK saying "mommy" this or "boys" that....this morning it was silent, I thought she was asleep. This went on for the better part of the morning....she got sick one more time. Then, just as quickly as her illness set in, it left. She ate. She drank. She was all smiles and back to her giggly self. She had lunch and I opted to put her down for an early nap. Our routine at naptime and bedtime is two books, songs and night-night. She loves to read a book called Pinkalicious. It is precious and if you have a little girl, it is a must. It is about a little girl who suffers a rare case of "pinkititis" due to the fact that she ate one too many pink cupcakes while baking with her mom. Today MK gave me more reason to love the book. MK picked out the book to read, told me to lay down with her and we began to read. The book begins and the mother asks the little girl what color cupcakes they should make....so I read this part and MK yelled "PINK!"....then she looked at me with those eyes and laughed. The book continues on as the little girl continues to ask for cupcakes, "MORE, MORE, MORE!" yelled Mason-Kate, all the while doing her sign for "more" as well. She has the book memorized and it just amazed me and brought a smile to my face. She is so cute!

Snow

The boys awoke very bright eyed this morning and ran into my room yelling, "Come see the snow, it is SNOWING!" My first response was "WOW, it really is snowing" and then came my second response which was "what in the world are you two doing so wide awake at 5:30 in the morning???" Of course, we all three ran outside to feel the flakes as it is likely the only snow we will see this year at our home. After a few minutes of playing, Pryce announced that a flake had just gone up his nose, making him cold and we decided it was best to go back inside....nevermind the fact that it was 5:30 in the morning and we were probably waking all of the neighbors as we did our snowdance of joy around the yard. Later came Mason-Kate. After school, I was able to take her out for a little while to play in the flurries. She was most impressed with the "bubbles" and ran around our yard trying her best to pop as many of them as possible. She agreed to wear her hat which made for a fun opportunity to take pictures as she tried desperately to keep it on her head. Enjoy!

Our Weekend At A Glance

I must start this post by stating that all three of my children made it to school for one whole week...that is improvement! Of course, now Pryce has been up sick since 3:00am...stomach thing? Not good.

So, on with our weekend....starting with Colin. On Thursday, Colin performed in his piano recital with his friend, Morgan. They both did a wonderful job, serious while playing, silly while not playing...typical for these two. Friday Colin auditioned to be in the third grade talent show. He was selected and beyond proud of himself (Mommy and Daddy were proud as well!).

Mason-Kate took her seat to learn a little piano too....

Friday night was all PRYCE....he had his second basketball game and we were all cheering as he scored 8 points for his team. He and his friend Molly had a system....Molly would get the ball, carry it down court, pass to Pryce who had lined himself up with the basket and he would shoot AND score everytime! So exciting! When leaving the game, Colin asked Pryce if Molly was his girlfriend. Pryce is pretty sensitive to the whole girlfriend issue. His response was "No, Colin, Molly is my mate, like Julia"....so now we have two "mates", not sure how that is going to work for him, but we are good on the choices.

See the progression, Molly has the ball, passes to Pryce, he scores, he celebrates and then the two have a little discussion below about their success! What a team!

Gran, Pop, MK and Colin taking in Pryce's big game!

Saturday was, for the most part, about Mason-Kate. Several family members and close friends gathered to celebrate her second birthday. The most overwhelming moment, to all involved, seemed to come during the lighting of the candle. To give you some background, our local friends who adopted from China invited us over to celebrate their daughter's birthday. They had purchased a candle in China to put on the cake. The candle is like no other....when it is lit in the middle, a large, tall flame shoots up lighting other smaller candles, then it begins to twirl around and sing the "Happy Birthday" song. So, while we were in China, we purchased the same candle and placed it on MK's cake for the party. She was already nervous with all of the children crowded around to sing in her honor and then the candle burst open (honestly making us all jump) and she began to cry. There was a quick recovery, though, as she was pleased to have her cake with ample icing placed in front of her to enjoy. Mason-Kate loved opening all of her new gifts with the help of her friends. The evening at our home was spent playing, playing and playing more with the new toys. It was a great day for all involved!

In closing, January 17 was also a day of celebration for us as a couple....Ryan and I celebrated 11 years of marriage. We both agree, it feels like FOREVER! Kidding, if the next 11 are anything like the first 11, we are in for a good ride!

The Two Year Old Princess

Mason-Kate awoke to two very excited brothers and one special breakfast...a cupcake! Tradition. Then it was off to school to be with her friends for the morning, of course dressed perfectly in her birthday dress. She was all smiles and laughter and there were even more smiles to be had when she realized that she was going to get yet another cupcake for lunch....what a lucky girl :) Now the princess sleeps, a much needed rest. In the scurry of activity that surrounds us today, I have said a prayer for a woman I will never know yet she has given us a part of herself, our little girl. In this day of celebration, I do feel sadness. I pray that this woman will know a peace in her life and feel assured that the baby she chose to give life to is loved, cared for and adored by so many. I choose not to get too bogged down in those feelings, so in closing, I would like to share with you that Mason-Kate now knows two very important things. One, when asked how old she is she will respond "I two" while trying desperately to hold up two fingers with her one little hand and trying to keep the other three fingers attached to her palm, success is coming! Two, when asked who loves her, she says "Mommaaa"....love it! (Of course Ryan says I am brainwashing her but I figure he has done his share of brainwashing our children....the boys both -sadly enough- pull for Clemson.) Thank you to everyone for their birthday wishes!

Before school this morning, I left MK alone to watch Barney while I continued to get ready for the day. When I returned to check on her, I found her playing contentedly with her magnets on the fridge. Something was a little off though, she had a pink mitten on her foot!