Christmas Day 2009

Christmas day we went to Pocahontas to see my Grandparents and all my uncles, aunts and cousins! It was a FULL house. My cousin Joseph and his wife, Diane, came in from W. Virginia with their new baby, John! He's two months old and very sweet and happy...he smiled all day long! We had one gigantic family picture done and then we all took our individual pictures which turned out great! Josh got a really cool nerf gun, Mason got some awesome toys and I got some jewelry and a beautiful framed collage of Mason!

Here's grandpa having fun with Mason

Looks like Ely is very excited about Josh's nerf gun!

Mason and John shaking hands.

McArthur's family pic!


Baltz/McArthur family pic!

Family pic with Grandmother and Grandfather

Below are some random pics of the house throughout the day!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! 2010 will be great!

Christmas Eve 2009 McArthur/Baltz

Started pulling up all by himself a couple of weeks before Christmas. He's discovered it's not so much fun to be trapped in a playpen and he wants out! He's got his two top teeth coming in along with his left incisor tooth, so a total of 5 teeth! Oh and the child CRAWLS like a mad man! Aunt Sandra and Uncle Clyde came by with Christmas gifts for Mason! They brought him a couple of cute coats, blocks and an Elmo Jack in the Box. He loved them.

Too much fun made Mason very sleepy.

Got to test drive his new car before Christmas! Josh worked hard to put that car together!

Mason's first Christmas was a WET one. We were worried we wouldn't get to see everyone because the roads were so bad. This was Christmas Eve day.

Mason stayed the night with Maw Maw and Paw Paw McArthur the night before Christmas Eve. He could barely wait for his mommy and daddy to get there to open presents!
He officially got to open his new car at the McArthur's and he absolutely loved it!Nanny and Mason eating some lunchDaddy and Mason!

Christmas Eve evening we went to Grandma and Grandpa Baltz's house. Boy were there lots of toys! We got a surprise visit from Santa...Uncle A.J. surprised us by dressing up. Mason was NOT impressed, but I loved it!Grandma and Mason opening gifts

Grandpa and Mason playing in the awesome ball pit!

Christmas day we went to Pocahontas...I will post those pictures tomorrow!

Thanksgiving 2009 was held at our house this year for the McArthur's! We had a blast with everyone and Mason was in heaven with all the attention.

Aunt Sandra trying to get Mason to look at me for the picture!

Nanny, Josh and Mason taking a break from the lunch.

A bunch of people trying to get Mason to reach for them first!

Here's Mason showing his latest trick...trying really hard to pull up! He gets it sometimes, but usually take a face down tumble!

We had a great time and I can't wait till Christmas to see my family!!

6 month pictures

Hey everyone...Mason had his 6 month pictures done with The Click Chick and they are now online to view. They are at www.theclickchick.com You've got to click on "website" then on "client galleries" and then on my name...the password is 'mason'

They are sooooo wonderful...I love them! Jennifer, the photographer, does such a great job!

So some little updates on my big boy: he has had his first cold over this last weekend. He had no idea what to do with himself and not being able to breath out of his nose, so we were up all night Saturday night. Mommy got sick, too! We are both doing better, though.
He has also learned that throwing his hands up in the air will get him picked up...what a spoiled child! Today, Mom and I thought he waved "bye bye" while he was flirting with the ladies at her work...we aren't sure if it was a real wave though.
I gave him some stage 3 spaghetti O like baby food the other day and he wasn't sure what to think of that taste...he made an awful face, but ate most of it...the little spaghetti o pieces were all over the high chair!

You'll notice he has no shoes in his pictures because he had none that fit him. Over the weekend, we had his foot sized and he is a 4 wide. So now the child has shoes...dress shoes for Christmas, tennis shoes for every day and some "pre walker" from Stride Rite that are pretty cool!
At his last doctor's visit he was 18.8lbs and 27 1/2 inches long...big ol' boy!

Hope everyone stays healthy and safe...get your shots...stay away from the flu of any type!
Love, Mason and Audra

Mason's first Halloween!

Mason had a very fun first Halloween. He dressed up as a Teddy Bear, a costume that his great Aunt Sandra had bought for him. It was a little difficult to get on, but once it was on he was a major wiggle worm! He refused to let us snap the the head piece under his chin, but wore everything for his first trip to trick or treat. We walked to our neighbor's house where Miss Amanda let Mason pick out a piece of candy for his daddy! Both sets of his grandparents came over to see him dressed up for Halloween. It was a fun evening of trick or treaters, football, and some very good deer meat and chilli!

This was his first halloween candy bucket that g-ma Baltz gave him.

Here he is watching cars and people go by. He's got whiskers and eyebrows, but they are hard to see here.

Mason is looking hard to find the perfect piece of candy for daddy.

Mason sitting in front of Mommies yard display for Halloween.

Happy Birthday, John!

Joseph and Diane had their baby this morning!!! She had a pretty long labor, but they kept us updated on Facebook through the process!

So Happy Birthday John Joseph Baltz...From Mason, Josh and Audra!

Congratulations Uncle Joe and Aunt Diane, proud new grandparents and Tiffany, Eric, Leah and Josh proud new aunts and uncles!

6 months old!

I didn't want to be one of those people didn't keep their blog updated, but I seem to have become one...oops! Mason turned 6 months old Tuesday and though I have tons of pictures between my last blog and now, I just haven't posted them. Today I took pictures of him in his Halloween outfit. It is significant to me because it was the first article of clothing I bought for him even before I knew he was a "him." Right after Halloween last year, I bought this little outfit on sale for less than $2 and it was unisex so I couldn't resist! He fits in it perfectly today!

So now I'm going to go backwards a bit. This is at 4 1/2 months old. He was just getting his bottom teeth in and learning to sit up unassisted!! Here he is on grandma's bed at Julie's baby shower. He met his first baby friend, Chase. Chase is Chrissy baby who is about 2 1/2 months older than Mason!

Our next adventure was Hannah's birthday. She is Jason and Erin's oldest daughter, but they had another baby girl, Jaycee 2 weeks before Mason was born! This was a skate party and Jaycee got to "skate" in her stroller, but Mason didn't care too much to try that at the time.

And finally, toward the end of September, Tucker had his first birthday party and it was a blast. Angel had Tucker's Radio Flyer car out, which Mason took over and LOVED!! He also loved Tucker's awesome birthday cake which was jungle animals. He wanted the giraffe off the top of the cake!

So around 4 months, Mason started getting his two bottom teeth...which are now sooo cute! I can't seem to get a picture of them in his smile, though. He is rolling both ways and sitting up like a champ. I'm guessing our next milestone will be crawling!

Sweet Potatoes...Yumm!!

Do I really need to tell you how much he likes his sweet potatoes?!?!

Visiting cousin Tonya!

Today Mason met his second cousin Tonya from Josh's side of the family. We visited with Aunt Sandra, Kim and her children Olivia and Heston, Tonya and her husband and son Mike and Jacob. It was a fun afternoon and Mason was such a good boy!

Here's Tonya having lots of fun with Mason!

Here's Heston holding his first baby

Olivia trying not to get drooled on!

Mike and Tonya making Mason giggle!

Mason finally found a dog that wouldn't run from him, or lick him.

4 months old!

Ok here are few fun milestones Mason has made lately... #1 eating cereal and trying a few fun fruits like watermelon here...he was very pleased with the taste!

Mason found his feet and uses this position to roll over very quickly!

He is also holding his head up longer while he's on his belly...he plays in his crib all morning like this!

And finally he can "eat" his feet...which is pretty cool since he can't drop them or lose them like his other toys.

He's loving his jumperoo, which I think is well worth the $ even though Josh and I took full advantage of it as a yard sale find by my parents! It keeps him busy for a long time!

Lastly, it as a relief this weekend to know I didn't have to go Walmart! I'm sure you guys got my email about the "alice.com" website, and I can't say enough good things about it! Josh and I did run into Walmart to return something and the lines were horrible now that school is back in session. Some other cool websites I've visited lately are freebies4moms.com and freesamplefreak.com Both are pretty cool sites!