Funny Cade Moment

Cade: "mom guess what? Taylor Swift is going to be singing in Portland in a couple weeks!!!" 

Me: "wow cool, who told you that?" 

Cade:" Katie Brandow" 

Me: do you want to go?" 

Cade: " YES!!" .... Oh dear!!

He is constantly asking me to play the song "We are Never Ever Getting Back Together" 

What am I going to do with this kid??

A little something to put you in the Christmas spirit

Ski Bum

I think we are going to have a ski bum on our hands!

Cade started his ski school, Mighty Mites on Saturday and he LOVED it!  I don't know why I worried about him so much.  I was nervous for him all day, the class was from 10-3 which in itself is a pretty long day for a 4 year old.  Then throw snow, cold & wind in the mix and I was praying all day that he would have a good time.  Well my prayers were answered because he was a natural and the elements didn't phase him.  He says "mom it wasn't a big deal when it was snowing & cold because I have good clothes" 

oh ya of course you do!  And I'm so glad he did!  

Tyler was up on the mountain as well but the class is just for kids.  There are 5 kids in his class and 1 teacher.  Lucky for him he is good friends with one of them & then the other boy is in his pre school class.

On Saturday they worked on stopping and getting comfortable on the skis.  So far so good, Cade tells me "I'm really good mom!"  I didn't get to go up and watch this week but I think I may have to spy on him next week, at least for a little bit.  

I think Cade is going to be just like his dad... good at EVERYTHING he does!

The gear

Cade & Kian

Ski buddies

Christmas Tree Hunt

One of my favorite parts of Christmas, is hunting for our perfect tree and this year did not disappoint!

We always go to Jack Lake Road out past Sisters and we find the best trees!

The boys had a blast traipsing being carried through the woods.  It was cold & windy so we tried to speed the process up as much as possible.  Luckily we didn't have to walk to far and we had lots of help chopping our tree down.  Cade could not wait to get his hands on the saw & he did a great job! (supervised of course)

Not only did we get a tree, we also got some Christmas card worthy pictures.  I was starting to think that cards weren't going to happen for us this year.  The thought of getting everyone dressed, situated and smiling for a photo was just daunting to me.  But I lucked out and the good ol' self timer pulled through for a family shot & the boys hammed it up for some brother love picts.  

While I can't disclose the pictures for the card, I do have some fun ones that weren't quite right 

for the card but are still absolutely adorable! 

Blake couldn't figure out why we were walking in the woods & still can't figure out why we have a tree in our living room!!

What more could a girl ask for?

Such a tired boy

Our lovely tree

Takes lots of concentration ie. tong hanging out

See no, hear no, speak no

Over Social media

I am so over social media! 

I feel like it is taking over my life.  My conversations with people can't not include something we saw on Facebook or what so and so twittered or Instagramed.  To me it feels like a fashion show or a big brag session and my life doesn't need that right now.  What my life needs is less pressure, more real close friends and simplicity, and I am not getting that from any of the social media out there.

    

 For several months now I have wavered back and forth about doing away with my Facebook account and I think I am closer now than ever.  I have been holding on to it because it is the only way I stay connected with a lot of friends.  So I came to a resolution, in the past several weeks I have been weeding through my peeps.  I have removed several people that I don't need and some of those people that it is nice to see whats going on every once in a while, but I don't need them clogging up my news feed; I have hidden them.  It's nothing personal against anyone I just need to do it for my own well being.  If it's in my feed I usually read it and I don't want my days consumed like that.  

All of this then brings me to this hear blog.  My goal for my blog in the next year is to be more of a "status update" or a journal of whats going on with the Mackesons and I still plan to update the Mackeson Moment FB page when a new post goes up.

So you will be seeing less of me on Facebook & more of me on here!

Feeling more simplistic already,

Paper to pal

You know that pin that has been pinned on Pinterest where you can send your child's drawing in and have it turned into a stuffed animal.  Well had I been a little more on the ball I would have loved to do this for Cade for Christmas.  (I guess I still could... and sew it myself.... maybe...)

He is huge into drawing right now and he has crossed the stage from scribbles that supposedly represent something, to his interpretation of people, animals and things.  Lately he has been drawing pictures of rainbows, people; usually our family,  houses, him & Blake paddle boarding and most recently beavers.  He is SO INSANELY into OSU football it is ridiculous!  How fun would it be to turn his little beaver drawing into a pal to have forever.  Thanks Grandma Shireen for instilling your love of art into my little man!

Now to just get my booty in gear and whip it up before Christmas.  Thank you to Kian for teaching Cade how to draw such a fitting animal for him!

Beaver

Cade paddle boarding

Wordless Wednesday

Trick or Treat

 Despite the rain we had an awesome time trick or treating last night.   

It was such a blast for the boys to trick or treat with their cousins!  

We met up with some friends and started the evening off with some trick or treating at Tylers office.  We then moved on to Scotts office where the guys had set up a fun little scavenger hunt for the kids.  Then we braved the Old Mill and only lasted about 20 min.  When you have a pirate who refused to wear a coat and a parrot who wanted to eat every piece of candy he got and threw a fit when he couldn't ... trick or treating time got cut short.  So we took a break and headed over to our good friends the Beairds house for some tasty food and fun. 

 Once our tummies were full we headed out again to trick or treat the neighborhood.  

This time was much more successful.  We brought a coat for the pirate and tried as best we could to hide the parrots candy :)  

Blake had a blast for his first real time trick or treating.  He literally had the time of his little 18 month life.  Running, flapping his wings, jumping and going crazy in the dark as we went from 1 house to another.  One house we trick or treated at liked him so much they thought he needed 2 full sized candy bars!!  He loved the candy and actually learned and said the word for the first time "canny"  fitting for the occasion I suppose.  

Enjoy a few pictures of our cutie pies 

  

Pirate Cade

Pirate Cades little parrot flapping his wings

Our crew of cousins

Trick or treat!

B's little tale feathers 

This morning Cade gave me a little message "mom you have to ask me if you want a piece of my candy!  If you take it without asking me that's stealing!"  Ok Cade I will make sure to ask..... bbuahhhhh, right!

What have I been up to?

Over the past couple of months I have had the privilege of working for the Crunchy Mamas.  

Crunchy Mamas are 2 sisters who are moms and have a passion for natural "crunchy" living.  

They took me on board to create labels for all of there amazing organic and all natural products.

So far I have tried the lip balm & the vapor rub & I am sold on both.  The vapor rub especially because Cade is a big "do it myself" kid and I'm not worried about leaving it on the table by his bed and letting him apply it by himself.  

Check out there line up of products:

Lip balm (orange, mint, cinnamon, grapefruit, ginger, lime, honey lemon, naked)

Hand sanitizer (grapefruit & lavendar lemon)

Baby Butt Balm

Foot Cream "crusty foot"

Face moisturizer "smelly face" & "not so smelly face"

Vapor Rub

Here is a peak at the labels, check out all the yummy ingredients!

 

 

They have a website which should be launching any day no which will make ordering a breeze.  

Please check them out and "like" them out on FB to stay in the loop.  

Feeling crunchy

New Years Resolution

Wow it's not even December yet and I already have my new years resolution in mind. 

I'm usually not one to make them, or if I do it's something simple I know I can keep.  

This one is a MUST!  

To slow down!!

to stop and enjoy my life, to not have weekend after weekend booked with plans, to relax!

I know with the Holiday season coming up things always get super busy and we always blame it on the Holidays... but this is how I feel like our entire life is.  One weekend after another of plans.  Don't get me wrong, we are SO blessed to have such amazing friends and family to spend time with.  But I feel like I am always anticipating the next event or the next thing on our agenda that I forget and loose sight of the day to day things.  Like playing on the floor with the boys in our PJ's, reading books, going for walks, doing NOTHING!!  

So my goal for next year and the rest of this year, as busy as it is, is to chill out, slow down and enjoy the here and now!  

Gerald

We have had one of Cade's friends living with us for quite some time now.  

His name is Gerald and he is anywhere from 17-28 years old.  His parents have been on vacation in Hawaii for about 2 years now.  Him and Cade play together all the time.  He usually eats dinner with us, drives with us in the car, goes to church and sleeps in Cade's room... but he doesn't go to school with Cade.

Yes we have been in the world of imaginary friend... 

However I don't know if you can actaully call it imaginary.  Yes he is imaginary but Cade knows that and tells us that all the time.  me- "Cade does Gerald want to take a bath?" Cade- "mom he isn't real"  But he talks to him and about him like he is real.  And Gerald has likes and dislikes, he can drive Cade places and entertain Cade, its the strangest thing. Especially how long it has gone on, we are going on 2 years now with Gerald & just recently we have been introduced to Macky.....  Macky usually just plays football with Cade.  He hasn't become as much of a person as Gerald has but i'm afraid it's heading in that direction. 

This house is getting too small for all of us!! 

So You Think You Can Dance

**Disclaimer**

Please excuse the whiny baby and underwear :)

If I Could Freeze Time

I am so in love with the different stages of my boys right now.  If I could freeze time I would just so I could savor it as long as possible.  

I would freeze the way Cade & Blake are becoming friends and really playing together.  They race cars together, wrestle each other, dance and jump on the beds together.  But as much as I love the way they play together, after the calm always comes the storm and I even want to freeze the fighting.  Though the fighting & annoying each other is well, annoying it is also a joyful noise.  It cracks me up when Blake is annoying Cade because he deserves it 100%.  When Blake was younger and defenseless I would always tell Cade "just wait until Blake is bigger, he is going to get you"  and now he is getting bigger and "getting" Cade.  It reminds me of when my sister, brother & I were young.  We would fight and annoy each other ALL the time!

I would freeze the way Blake points at the rocking chair and says "peese" (please) when putting him to bed.  Our new routine is for me to rock him, sing to him, & rub his back before going in his bed at bed time.  

I would freeze the way Cade HAS to say good night to Blake and give him kisses before I put him down.  

I would freeze Cade and his excitement to learn and go to school.  He thrives at learning and when he isn't learning at school he is learning at home with his kindergarten book.  I love picking him up from school and seeing what pictures he has drawn for me.  Right now he is on a surf board kick.  For the past week or so he has had numerous drawings of surfboards and our family on them.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way he draws people.  A stomach, a head, eyes, legs and a belly button.  No arms & no other facial features.  4 year old perfection!

I would freeze the way Blake hollers "mom! mom! mama!" to get my attention, or to just tease me.  He does it mostly in the car.  

I would freeze how Cade is so passionate about the Beaver football team.  We play Beaver games numerous times a day and if I would let him he would wear his Beaver jersey every day.  I can't wait to take him to his first game on Saturday.  It is going to be priceless!

I would freeze the way they both stand on the porch every morning & wave bye bye to Tyler as he leaves for work. 

I would freeze the way Blake says "oh" whenever I tell him something or the way he nods his head yes or no when you ask him a question.  

I would freeze the way they both just love there special friends "Melvin" & "Uno" 

I would freeze the way my heart just melts for these boys.  

School Lunch Blues?

Or just lunch blues in general?  

Lunch is one of the hardest meals for me to be creative with.  Cade LOVES, now when I say LOVES i mean LOVES peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  Seriously the kid is addicted and would eat them every day if I would let him.  I know there are worse things he could want but come on the kids needs a variety!  I'm not into packaged and pre cooked foods so the thinker gets put into overdrive coming up with fun new options.  

Well put the thinker away and get out this!

"Cooking With Trader Joes, Easy Lunchboxes"

It's a cook book full of colorful pictures and great ideas for school lunches, breakfasts and dinners.  It does have quite a few pre packaged things in it, but every once in a while it's nice to just take the wrapper off and call it good, and with these recipes you can feel better about it being from Trader Joes.  I have so many pages with post-it notes just waiting to be tried.  Fingers crossed Cade is feeling adventurous!

Cades school is selling these books and our favorite neighbor across the street, Katie Brandow has a 2 page spread in the book!  Check out page 64 & 65.  

I know it's only 2-3 weeks into the school year but if your running into the lunch packing blues, pick up a copy of this book and see the sunshine again

Party Like a Rock Star

Someone I know turned 4 on Monday, or was it Sunday?  or Tuesday?  

With all of the parties it was hard to keep track of what day was his actual day of birth.  

September 10, 2009!  How could I ever forget that day & the previous night?  It was hell at the time but looking back it was one of my favorite moments.  A pure miracle!  

Now 4 years later its hard to imagine him at 7lbs 3oz!  We had a great time celebrating him.  We had a family party at my parents over the weekend, then Monday (his actual bday) he picked where we went for dinner and did presents as our family of 4.  Then on Tues was his big friends party at our house.  

Needless to say he had a lot of fun and was feeling super special and grown up.

Having cake at grandpa & grammie's house.  Check out the spit that came with blowing out the candles!!  

Opening presents at home.  Dad got him this special balloon to take to dinner with us.

A BEAVER JERSEY!!  He is in heaven

He picked a bike party for when his friends came over.  We had stuff for all the kids to decorated there bikes &; then we did a parade down the street

Cade's birthday invitations

Now he is already talking about what he wants for the 5 year old party, asking me what he will wear when he is 5 and telling Blake is he SO much bigger than him now!  

It's so cute how important age is when your a kid!! 

Love you Cade!!

Wordless Wednesday

Not so little anymore

Sept 10 my little man turned 4! 

Trip of A Lifetime Part 6

Day 7:  Cannes


On Thursday of our trip we found ourselves in Cannes.  The Beverly Hills of France!  Unbelievable cars, high end shopping, celebrities & home of the Cannes Film Festival.

At this stop there wasn't an actual port for the boat to dock at.  Instead they set anchor out in the ocean and we got to take the life boats in to the little docks.  We had an excursion booked for this day, however we were SO tired and really just wanted to relax on the beach.  So we had a relaxing morning and just took our time getting off the boat.

Once we made it to land we hopped on a bus to a locals beach where we just laid in the sun, swam in the ocean and had a great time relaxing and pretending to be a local :)  After we got got tired of the sun we grabbed some gelato and walked around.

The yachts of the rich

 Life boats

 Our ship from the life boat

 Awesome cars like this everywhere!

Locals beach (don't look to long you may see some topless old ladies)

Fun in the sun

Day 8:

Our final stop was in Marseille.  The stop here was very short as we had to be back on the ship by 3pm to set sail back to Barcelona.  Tyler and I opped to stay on the boat this day.  I don't have any fun pictures :(  we just laid out, went to the spa and took a nap.  It's a vacation right your supposed to do that!

The travel back home was brutal!  With an early morning flight, delays and a 9 hour time difference we  were traveling for a total of 24 hours by the time we made it to my parents house!  So tired but so worth it.

It definitely was a trip of a lifetime and we are so thankful to have gone and seen/experiences the things we did.  It was such a blessing to have my sister as well as my parents to watch our boys.  They did so good while we were gone.  We called every morning & they were usually too busy having fun playing to talk to us!  That made it much easier to be away from them.

I hope you enjoyed the re cap of our trip!!

Spain airport treat (Mc Donals icecream cones come with a kit kat!)

And they have beer!