2014

So far I am enjoying this year. Started a new tradition with our little Mason gang. Daddy the pilot was suppose to be gone flying, however he was able to sneak in a quick overnight back home for New Years Eve so we celebrated over a pancake dinner. We are going to call it  'Pilots , Princesses & PANCAKES'

JAN 2ND

Also an amazing day my wonderful family from Oklahoma came to town for a visit, so after toasting in the new Year with Dad Mason we headed to Providence to see my little brother John, his beautiful wife Michelle and my adorable niece Ellie and handsome nephew Timmy and then spent the 2nd having fun fun fun with all the little cousins. P.S. Happy Birthday to my awesome Uncle Keith

JAN 3RD

 A little sad, we said goodbye to the Oklahoma crew ( I may have pouted- its not attractive when a full grown woman pouts). But positives today are William is home ALL DAY- thats kinda rare these days. We signed up for membership to Kubex- a really cool new gym that I actually enjoy going to.  Received some long lost and forgotten rebate cards in the mail ( I sent off for in April), so that was a fun and unexpected surprise. Then finished the evening off with a movie at home with the whole family snuggled on the couch. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

tHaNkFuL fOr MaNy ThInGs

Thanksgiving has been one of my favorite Holidays for many years. On the surface it appears as another fun holiday to gather with family and eat good food, but for me it goes deeper and is a reminder to never get too lost in myself.

Yes I enjoy family and good food but for a handful of years now it has kind of been one of the more somber and reflective holidays. My world changed the fall of 2008 when I lost my grandma to cancer and then suddenly lost my Mother within the same week. I was lost in my grief and mourning as we approached the holiday season. 

I was surrounded by caring family and friends who would surely understand if I did not really get into the festive feelings of these holidays. I was numb and mentally wrapped in my own thoughts often. Such was the case as I sat at a reenactment of the First Thanksgiving. My children were loving the crafts and live animals at the event, however I sat quietly at the table physically present at the festivities but my heart far from celebrating Thanksgiving.

The host of the event began the evening recounting details of the 1621 feast and a realization came to me that in some ways filled me with shame, but more importantly made me want... no, NEED to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Of the original 102 pilgrims to arrive at plymouth little more then half survived to celebrate that first feast. Everyone at that first feast had lost someone. Of the original 18 women only 4 survived. At the first table of Thanksgiving sat 27 teens and children most of whom had lost their Mother.

It is hard for me to describe, but in that realization I felt connected to these people in our history, I too had that ache and the pain of losing something you cannot replace. Yet they chose to give thanks, while I sat wanting to be excused. 

Previous years I participated and listed things to which I was grateful for but in that moment my whole soul gave thanks. Fall now always finds me in those still reflective moments of reverie. My heart lets down some of its protective walls and allows me to once again deeply feel the ache and loss. But for me this is as beautiful as watching the leaves change as they die and fall. I was blessed. I was loved and for that I am thankful. I am blessed. I am loved, and for that I am thankful. I will see those loved ones again. I know I will always be blessed. I know I am always loved, and for that my whole soul gives Thanks.

We Turned 3

We Turned 3
Being 2 was a blast, we were super cool. We had a great 2012 Cousin Camp with the Morris family in June, saw the spiral jetty. Went with Sonya and Maggie to the Tree House Museum and even had a back yard party with a Giant Slide.
July we watched fire works in Kaysville with the Homers and had a fire burn pretty close to our neighborhood, and discovered GIANT pancakes with Ellie and Michelle at Herms.
We also went to Oregon where we ate at Voodoo Doughnuts with Uncle Greg, swam in Aunt Karina's pool and ate at Mike & Mimi's Cafe. We then had a Mason reunion on the coast.
In August we visited Jackson Hole and Bear World, we even got to see the Bears eat.
In September we visited Old Ephraim's grave and checked out the Book of Mormon museum in Salt Lake City. We also went to the Cure Search Walk.

October Savanna got stitches at the Pumpkin walk and we played with the Homer cousins at the corn maze. Madyson thinks corn mazes are boring.
November we learned to climb the cabinets and well really climb anything. We also started potty training. We also went to Popsi's house for Thanksgiving ( but we took a bath first- 5 min before to be exact-and in our clothes)
December Jingle the elf on a shelf stayed with us ( he gets in even more mischief then us) January we took a trip to California and played with Logan and Grace. February we all got Mustaches for Maddie and went with the Morris to the Jump Zone. We both love the high jump into the foam pit. March was a major craft month. We painted and played with all kinds of

arts and crafts all month long.
April we went on a Super Dee Duper family reunion on the Mickey boat (Disney cruise). We dressed up like princesses every day. Loved swimming and all the free icecream and cookies we could handle. But our  favorite part was all the FAMILY we had all our favorite cousin best friends in one place it was so much fun.
May we had a birthday Luau and can't wait to discover what being 3 is like. Love to you all the Mason Twins : Madyson June and Savanna Jayn.

Fake Hawaii Vacay

Happy New Year,

 I have never been great at telling a short story, but I will try and review our Hawaiian vacation. First of all let me say, we are very blessed and have been as a family (minus twins) to Hawaii, so no one needs to cry for us. We had been invited by my cuz to stay in his timeshare and since we fly for free it sounded like a great idea. We fly standby however so we always prepare for a bit of waiting around in the airport with carry on bags of snacks, games, etc. On the first day William had checked flights and it looked good to fly to LAX and then to Honolulu on the morning flights. So up and early we started out all dressed up (the company request since we fly free but represent them we dress up to fly). The first gate agent said we were going to make our flight, but after checking flights she called us back up to say the noon flight direct to Honolulu would be easier then the LAX layover and we would absolutely get on. Yes please. So she cancelled us on the morning flight out and booked us on the noon flight. Yeah! 20 min after that plane took off she called us up again to say she had made a mistake and there was NO WAY we could get on the noon flight. Ugg. That was the bumpy start and sparing you many other frustrating details I will for my own memory sake just outline the rest. William flew with the 3 older girls to Long Beach and took a cab ride to LAX. chaching$.

I got bumped around different gates in different terminals in SLC with the twins. They were super cute insisting on rolling their own little bags but super slow and prone to running into the little stores in the airport like moths to a flame."No sweetie mommy will not buy you that 4 dollar pack of gum."  They took a nice nap in the E terminal. 

I saw Bill Murray no lie, gray mutton chops and all. He even pointed to the twins and smiling said something to his friend.  I finally got a flight to LAX however the gate agent sat me in the exit row, Madyson near the front of the plane and Savanna near the back. Take off was fun as no one initially would trade seats with me. The babies LOVED flying I could hear Savanna all the way in the back shouting excitedly "We are flying, we are flying" over and over again until no lie the man sitting next to her offered to switch me seats. Shocker.The flight attendant mid flight I guess was not happy Madyson up front was using her seat as a trampoline while squealing "Weeeeee" and forced another gentleman in the back to switch seats with her. So mid flight we were again reunited, and after the flight reunited with Will and the other girls. We spent the rest of the day playing games, eating the snacks and every 40 min or so packing up camp and walking to the next flight we would not be getting on. We very late at night checked into a hotel and ordered pizza. Not complaining but the LAX food in the terminals we were in were pricey and pretentious. A second day of missing flights we realized it was time to head home. No flights home meant we rented a car and drove home. However just before sunset we drove to the beach, got on our Hawaii garb and snapped a photo of our fake Hawaii vacation. Who knows maybe someday the kids will have vague memories of traveling and airports and with this photo I will convince them we DID go to Hawaii and then be hurt they don't remember Hawaii. Yeah I am a good Mom like that.

We drove to Spenny and Nellies beautiful new home and had dinner, Nellie and I even caught a movie as the boys and kids relaxed before the long drive. We are blessed to be safe, we are blessed to be together, we are blessed to have great friends thank you Morris clan and understanding family whom had to console themselves that we did not make it to Hawaii with them. And hey in the end we had a weekend together as a family making memories. 

On the Threshold

So today I had an experience that has made me ponder and contemplate the next few years of my life. I know most people when they get reflective tend to look at the past and maybe even wonder about the future. I however felt like I was looking right down the barrel at the path ahead, and what I realized was....
Actually I am getting ahead of my story. This story is set in JoAnn's Fabric store. I wanted to pick up a few patterns that were going on sale today (that's one of my new things pretending like I know how to sew---I don't) and needed to pick up a few supplies for the office. It was just me and the twins right at 9 waiting to open the store before blissfully carrying on with dozens of other errands I had so smoothly planned out in my head. It was going to be a busy day the 3 of us, but we were all smiles. One confident smile, one mischievous smile and one devious smile equals 3 people with 2 very different opinions on how the day was gonna go ( 2 opinions because I am convinced at this time in the twins lives they have a collective conscience much like the Borg).
So in review 1. I am a closet Trekkie 2. I am blissfully optimistic and 3. I am at JoAnn's
Now the panic attack, or maybe the epiphany sounds better. So the epiphany (which was accompanied by sweating, rapid heart beat and the visual imagery of that super cool camera trick in Lord of the Rings when the path stretches weirdly far away) was brought on by a combination of things. First the valuable experience few lucky parents get to have: the joy of a child locking you out of your own vehicle. Priceless. I learned today that if you leave the keys in the ignition so the car will stay warm and the Disney radio will keep playing- after all you still have a few minutes before the store opens was not a great idea. Come to find out the time it takes you to unbuckle one baby is the same time it takes the previously unbuckled cherub to climb into the driver seat, and the time it takes to exit out the side door and reach for the front door is the exact same time it takes cutie pie to push the lock button. But lets be honest when are we ever granted time to slow down and play charades or even say pantomime for your toddler these days. Never right? So this was a gift. There is such joy to get front row seats to a child's learning progress....
Mommy using big happy smiles and large arm movements: Push this button sweetie
Child with mischievous grin: This one? - on go the wipers
Mommy: No this one on the door
Child: This one? - on go the blinkers
You get the idea.
Another factor leading to the paniphany might have been that JoAnns has chosen to fit as many aisles into the store as possible requiring small flimsy plastic carts to fit down said tiny aisles, that when loaded with two two year olds creates many challenges. My inner dialogue at this point said: "Your mission should you choose to accept it will be to drive down the exact center of the aisle with less then a 1/16th of an inch margin of error to prevent either child whom are now coordinating with each other and reaching from opposite sides of the cart for anything to grab including a branch from a display of topiaries ( yeah that display came down today)." Despite that I didn't do half bad if you ignore the topiary thing which seriously who need a forest in the middle of a fabric store anyways? I say they had it coming. But the twins got bored randomly adding things to Mommies cart, a game of rock the cart perhaps. Mom wasn't in the mood to reenact Humpty Dumpty, after all a trip to the ER not on the perfectly planned schedule. So the Borg I mean the babies thought throwing things from the cart would be just as entertaining.
Children's thoughts: Mommy goes and fetches shoes which we have freakishly thrown very far. Lets do the math 4 shoes, yep 4 different directions. Then we quickly dismount cart and run in opposite directions ourselves while laughing manically loud up and down all these awesome tightly packed aisles. This should work. Ready set GO!
There were a few other minor contributors to the paniphany (in case you didn't catch that the first time panic and epiphany had a baby). The toxic and un-ignorable diaper 5 minutes into the store which caused a delay to change. The little sleep and lots of Diet Coke and Zero breakfast may not have helped. Tangent in 3...2...1...
  Thank you Mitt Romney for drinking a Diet Coke which lead some to question you on your commitment to the word of wisdom which might have influenced your religion to make a statement on its website that Soda is not technically against the WofW. Many sleep deprived Mothers thank you. 
Back on track. If anyone is still with me it was somewhere in this AWESOME experience that I called in backup THANK YOU BRENT. May or may not have been added to the stores wall of flyer's of people to not let back in. And while resisting the erg to curl into a fetal position over in the Nutcracker Christmas display I realized the girls are happy. Laughing. Believing we are all playing a game together. That's right people I was not screaming  but trying on my firm but composed Mary Poppins, which was being ignored.And they were having a blast. And then it hit me. They are 2 we are just scratching the surface of many years of energy. I realized:

 I AM JUST ON THE THRESHOLD OF INSANITY. NEXT STOP FULL BLOWN CRAZYVILLE.  

You see today is not just one random insane day, but everyday is for the next few years. I think its gonna be fun. After all don't all the really crazy ones seem super happy? And get to wear cool hats?

Tomorrows To Do: Go buy a cool hat.

Tooth Fairies

   So Brooke Lynn lost a tooth today. More specifically I was sick of her leaning over in church showing me a half hanging out bleeding tooth, so I pulled it out today. So tonight as I try and stay awake for no apparent reason (wink,wink) I am left to contemplate about The Tooth Fairy. 

   First you must know the Mason Family Tooth Fairy is an unreliable no good Fairy. If I ever see him or her I would probably fire them. So many mornings sad children have discovered that our Tooth Fairy simply did not report for duty. It has been such a burden on William and myself to comfort them and we are only left to "guess" why our Tooth Fairy was a no show. Guesses have ranged from weather problems; it was windy last night, or too cold for wings to fly, to giving our Tooth Fairy credit for Choosing the Right; it was Sunday, of coarse they would not want to work on a Sunday. But alas I think our sweet innocent children are beginning to think that our Fairy is just lazy and forgetful.

   So I was wondering tonight, since only 2 of our 5 children have even been loosing teeth thus far and we are off to such a pathetic start. Did I say we, my bad... the Tooth Fairy is off to such a pathetic start. Is it possible to renegotiate the terms of the Tooth Fairy? After all the Mason Family Tooth Fairy is already different from the perfect Young Tooth Fairy my family had growing up. My childhood Fairy always picked up our teeth and whisked them away to .... well strangely enough my Dad's desk drawer, but I discovered that later in my childhood and that's another story. But still she took the time to locate the tooth and then haul it off. The Mason Tooth Fairy just shoves money under the pillow. Our kids at first wondered about this, but again William and I were left to "guess" that they may have had a hard time locating the tooth. "After all my dear, your big heavy head was laying on it". Now I am pretty sure ours doesn't even try to find the tooth anymore.

   Not to mention our Tooth Fairy half the time does not even get the money under the pillow. Children sleeping in particularly tall bunk-beds with pillows ridiculously high and out of reach... did I say out of reach? I meant in high atmospheric flying zones, have come to expect the money laying on the ground in the morning.

  

  So I have been wondering tonight, what does the Tooth Fairy have against daytime deliveries? Maybe our poor Fairy is just misunderstood and tired. Would deliveries improve if say they made daytime drop offs while kids were at school? If you could be sneaky enough to come into dark rooms at night full of sleeping babies and manage to not get the dogs to growl at you, or trip over toys... Did I say trip? I meant fly over messy rooms, then surely you can make deliveries in well lit empty bedrooms. Right? 

And don't tell me that it is less magical, cause it does not feel magical to be woken up from your sitting position (never mind why I fell asleep sitting up somewhere while trying to stay awake past when the kids fall asleep) by a sad child because our no good, unreliable Fairy was again a no show.

  

   Wait... I just realized its still Sunday! yippee the Tooth Fairy does not work on Sundays. This tired Fairy... I mean Mom is going to bed.  - Night

Cherished Possession

So I pulled a new question from the question jar:

What is your most cherished possession? 

For me this was a hard question. First I am going to eliminate all the obvious answers; no living things. That's right no answering husbands or kids or pets and so forth. Second I will eliminate anything I feel can reasonably be replaced. So as much as I cherish them scriptures etc are out. Lets be honest those handy dandy boys with the name tags can get me a new set. Then mentally somewhere around deciding what was eliminated by rule two I got nervous. Nervous I was not going to be able to pick just one cherished possession. You see this week I have had the misfortune of watching a couple of those hoarding shows on netflix. If you have never seen this show, then let me tell you it is a MUST watch before you start any spring cleaning. My heart just breaks for the people in the show and I realize how much we all assign value to objects differently. While watching I  pledge to myself to not get so attached to any material thing, and privately realize I cannot keep such a promise. So what is my one true cherished possession. Assuming all are safe what is the one thing I grab in a fire? Pictures, that seems like a safe answer. Not living; check. Not replaceable; check. Could I live without them, yes. They are just a crutch for my own memory of the events and truth be told if I only had to go off the memories I would be skinnier and taller in every shot. But then again as I approach another birthday and age and gravity play their tricks they may be the only proof I have that I was skinnier and taller. So yep my photo albums win. 

Now what is your most cherished possession?