Mason's 9 (10) month pictures

You would think with us having all the photo equipment, we would be on top of taking our kids' photos. Ha! Well, here are Mason's 9 month photos taken at 10 months. We also managed to get a couple of the boys together.

Mase & Mana

So cute! We were putting away the holiday decorations and came upon the Santa hat. Mase kept taking it off, but managed to keep it on for one picture.

old photos

ok, maybe not so old. Mana found our old Olympus camera that we used to use before we got our SLR (Nikon D50) and there were still a bunch of pictures on it. Some were pretty old (September '06) and some a little more recent (June '07). The yard (landscaping/garden) shot is our old house and brought a little tear to my eye. I don't know why, but I still get a little sad when I think about our first house. It was the place where Bean grew up - learned to walk and talk. Even though he was 2.5 when we moved, he still remembers it and has brought it up out of the blue, "remember at our old house, we had a swingset?" Things like that make me sad. I miss the cool landscaping and swingset. Well, no going back. And besides, the 4 of us wouldn't fit in that tiny house! The other couple pictures are from summer '07. Not sure why we were using the old Olympus camera, but there they are. I can't believe how little Mase was! I guess he's still a little peanut. He just does so much more now - compared to then sitting in a bouncy chair. I was excited to see that we have a photo of Zander feeding Mason a bottle. I don't ever do the bottle thing when I'm with the boys since Mason gets "on tap", so this made me smile too.

Speaking of Mason doing stuff, he now points his little finger. Yesterday, he did it for the first time. I was holding him in the kitchen and he randomly pointed out the window while looking at his little hand as if he's thinking, "so that's what this thing at the end of my arm can do." So now, I'm always bugging him to point at something... and he does it. And he does it well - his little pointer finger pokes out and then he smiles all proud of himself. My little baby is getting smarter and growing up way too fast!!

my boys goofing around

Love these cute pics of my boys. I can't believe how well they play together. Zander is such a "mother hen". I love overhearing Zander talking to Mason in a higher pitched voice, "Mason, would you like to play blocks with me?"

big boy bath x 2

The other day, we did a "big boy bath" with both boys. Zander was so excited, until he realized that he only got half of the bathtub to sprawl. But then once he realized how much fun Mason was having, he was okay.

P.S. Yes, Zander needs a haircut - he's getting one tomorrow :)

Holiday Craziness!!

Where do I even start?! Chronologically, I suppose... How has this holiday turned into such a rat race. It's for the kids, I tell myself!

Dec. 22nd
Eric & Mindi hosted the "Weinhagen Christmas". Super fun. All were there except the Handts who were sick. After we ate, the "kids" (big and small) went sledding out back. Eric's gotta to be in heaven now with his 3 acres of land. I love their house, even if it is out in the boonies.
































Dec 23rd
Two photo shoots and lots of last minute xmas gift making/buying/gathering! Here are some of the homemade gifts I put together (I stole the holiday card keeper and regular card holder from a fellow scrapper Lain Ehmann) ...









































Dec 24th
We hosted the xmas gathering that includes my parents, Marissa & Jason and June & Dud. I made 2 pasta dishes. They were yummy and pretty easy. I kept forgetting that this is Mason's first Christmas. He mostly loved climbing on the presents. I wouldn't say he really opened any presents, but he tore a few pieces of wrapping paper. He was excited to see what was inside. The only problem was getting the toys out of the packaging. Everything has a gazillion twist ties. Zander's fave toys were lincoln logs and a car ramp that attaches to a door. This present was actually for Mana & Zander :)
We also took family photos...the first time in many years. I guess we took one at M & J's wedding, but nothing since. Very sad since we're photographers and all. I'll update this post with a link to Phanfare from the "session".














Dec 25th
The boys woke up around 6am to see what Santa brought. The first thing Zander said when he came out into the living room..."Santa ate his cookie!". We then opened up presents from each other. Zander insisted on a "Christmas mohawk" like our friend Todd.










After Mason's nap, it was off to Grandma Wendy and Grandpa RT's house. Talk about chaos. I guess you can't expect 4 kids to sit and watch each other open up gifts. I didn't really see what everyone got. Wendy made super cool hard-cover books from all the Duluth trips. There were a bunch from the last 5-7 years and then a whole bunch from Mana's childhood. Super cool!






















Then it was off to my parent's house for the massive Kutzner gathering. There are two pools of gift exchanging. On group draws a name. The other group brings 4 random gifts totaling ~$30 and we play the dice game. Mana and I are in the dice game group. I like the adventure of "stealing" and thrill of not knowing what you're getting until the "buzzer".

Go home, go to sleep!!!!! Seriously, I wish I had a whole day just to sleep! After being up until about 2 am for the last 4-5 nights, 10pm is sounding like heaven about now!

Christmas card

We finally got our Christmas card out. Since people should be getting it today, I'll post the images here.