Monday, December 29, 2008

Christmas 2008

Mason looooooooved Christmas this year!!!

He had so much fun!! I would have to say that his favorite gift by far would have to be the Tonka truck that Daddy... I mean Santa brought for Mason!! It was so cool to come home and find this big shiny truck waiting for you under the tree!! Not only was there a really cool truck under the tree, but the truck was full of tools!! Mason had so much fun loading and unloading his truck. It is even big enough that HE can sit in it too! We think that he may have a great future ahead of him as a dump truck driver! :-)

I would love to share pictures of Christmas... but he never sat still long enough to get a good shot of him! I have many pictures of him sans head, hands, and facing backward! You know you are having fun when you can't even have your picture taken!

Thank you everyone for all of the lovely gifts that we all have received! It is so nice to know you are so loved! :-)

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Evolution of a Bebo!! Find out what our little Bebo is!!!

This is the first ultrasound that we had done on September 25th, right around 8 weeks. For those who aren't proficient at reading ultrasounds that little "blob" on the right of the screen is the baby!! Crazy isn't it?!? Although it may not look like much at this point, the baby was really busy!! We were able to see it move and hear the heartbeat!!




















This is during our Nuchal Translucency ultrasound on October 24th, this was done at around 12 weeks. It is pretty amazing to see how much growing has been happening in the past four weeks. The "blob" from the previous ultrasound is now a little creature... albeit a bit alien looking! The first picture is of the full body from head to toes!! The second one is a close up of our little ones profile!





































This is our 20 week ultrasound from December 19th. This is a profile of our little bebo!! It's starting to look a bit more cramped than during our 12 week ultrasound!! We are only half way... it's going to get even more squished in there pretty soon!!



















After much debate in our house, we decided to find out the gender this time around. With Mason we waited until he was born... and it was great!!! This time around in order for us to be able to feel prepared to have two kids under two we decided that we just needed to know! Soooooo.... we have a very healthy and happy little......



GIRL!!!!!

We are so excited!!!

Friday, December 12, 2008

As if I needed more proof....

Everywhere we go as a family we hear "oh you look JUST like your Daddy!!!"
Yup, it's true and it burns me every time! I just want him to look a *little* like me... I don't think that it's asking too much!! Now, I have all of the proof that I need... he is in fact a carbon copy of his father....

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph


Here's hoping that the next one look a bit more like me!!!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

So much to share from the past year!!!

I had decided to do a "virtual Christmas card" this year. The more I thought about it, I decided that it was time to start a blog!!! This way family and friends from all over can keep track of us and watch our little ones grow!! I will try to hit all of the highlights of the year...




Happy Holidays from the
Marcheske Family!!
Dan, Lara, Mason, and Baby#2!


One of the biggest changes in our lives have been our job situations. Dan changed jobs in August. While this new job was a well deserved promotion for Dan, it also changed his status from full time employee on the weekends and Stay at home Dad during the week... to full time employee, with weekends off! Sounded great until you factor in the fact that Mason was going to have to be enrolled in daycare full time. We gave daycare a shot. After six gut wrenching weeks of dropping him off and hearing him scream (yes this was my job almost everyday for those keeping track!) as well as contracting a horrendous string of viruses (for those still keeping track 104.5 is NOT an acceptable temperature!) we decided that the best decision for Mason and our family was for me to quit my job and become a stay at home mom. I know that most of you will say that he would have adjusted to daycare eventually... but you didn't have to hear the screaming and the calling out of mama...mama... MA-MA!! If you can do it... I give you credit. I learned that I would break under interrogation and torture... just make my boy cry out for his mama and I am done! Mason is thoroughly enjoying his time at home. No more rush to get out the door in the morning, no more getting pulled out of bed when he wasn't ready to get up and the best thing of all for him is..... extended pj time!! The boy looooooves his jammies! After an adjustment period I can honestly say that I am enjoying my time as a SAHM as well. It was hard at first, but now I wouldn't trade it for anything!
























The most exciting news from our family this year is that we are expecting again!!! We found out we were expecting right before Mason's birthday on August 25th. It made it very hard to keep quiet at his birthday party!! We managed to keep it a (semi) secret until September when we went in for our first ultrasound. Everything checked out okay, and he/she seems to be growing and developing right on schedule! Baby #2 is due to join our family on May 8, 2009!!! I had a tough go of it at first... I was even sicker than I was with Mason! YUCK!! Being sick and chasing a very fast toddler around isn't that fun! We are mostly over that portion of the pregnancy and are now moving into the more fun aspects!! I have already felt little bumps and a few really good kicks. Poor Dan is still waiting to be able to feel one from the outside... and believe me he tries!! Mason has taken to calling all babies "Bebo" so we refer to the baby as Bebo! We have our 20 week ultrasound on December 19th at 3:30pm. We are finding out the gender this time around! Much easier to plan for the second one when you know the gender! I think that this will be a great (early) Christmas present!!!

MASON... wow! He has changed so much in the last year!!! He is walking... ummm... make that running! He had taken some steps before his birthday, but had a need for speed, so he continued to crawl. Once he hit 13 months though, he decided that *maybe* there was something to this walking thing and decided to give it a try... he hasn't looked back since!! He is a wild man!! He also has the ability to climb like a monkey! We have no chairs in the kitchen, as they have all been relocated to the office! Chairs are used for climbing onto the table, counter tops and trying to get on top of the refrigerator! Amazingly enough he has yet to be hurt during his circus worthy performances! One fall off the couch isn't too bad when you are striving to become the next Evil Knevil!!

We have also discovered his love of the water! We would take him to the pool in Eau Claire... at first he wasn't so sure... then he decided that he LOVED the water!!! He was often times very sad when we would need to leave! We went as often as we were able to go, but he would have gone every day of the week if he could!!






















The following is a blog that I added to myspace right before Mason's 1st Birthday. I didn't want to forget all of the milestones that he had made in the first year of his life. I also wanted to remember all of the fantastic memories that we had made along the way. So if it seems a little out of place, I apologize. I just love this and wanted to share it with everyone... even if it was a little delayed!

We are very quickly coming up on one year since our little man entered our world! I'm not sure where the time has gone as I feel like I blinked and missed an entire year of my life! I just can't believe that one year ago I still hadn't met this little creature that was to become mine! This just blows my mind!!

I decided to blog a few of Mason's favorite things and a few of the milestones that he has made it to as an almost one year old... to share and to make sure that I don't forget!






- Kitties!!! He loves to pretend to be a kitty... crawls all over saying "ki-key" meeeeeeeew!!! He loves when you play along with him and tell him what a good kitty he is!
- He loves to terrorize the dogs! Poor Sasha! He loves to try to steal her food... who knew dog food tasted so good??!! He also loves to feed Sophie from his tray... boy do they loooooove him! They wait underneath the highchair until food comes a flying at them!
- We discovered his love of turtles at the Mall of America. We went to the underwater adventures and his favorite part was turtles... the regular old turtles and the sea turtles! Forget the sharks! My boy loves turtles! We made a build a bear while we were there... and they had a turtle!! He helped by kissing the heart before it went in... and he gave is turtle a hug once he was all stuffed. When we asked him what we should name the turtle Mason promptly said "Meew!" So Meew it is! He loooooves to wrestle with Meew, play peek-a-boo, and for some reason to bite poor Meew-- yes I do find that slightly disturbing!
- Mason has decided that he has songs that he really likes and songs that he doesn't.... some of the favorites are as follows:
  • 1. "When Doves Cry" Prince... his song that is guaranteed to calm him down and make him pass out in the car (I think we listed to it about 20 times on loop driving through the Brookfield construction on our way to Milwaukee for Beth's baby shower!!!)

  • 2. "All I want to do" Sugarland... omg he loves this song! He really loves when Daddy sings it with the song... laughs hysterically... but that might be because Daddy doesn't sing all that well!
  • 3. "Everywhere I Go" Moose A. Moose from Noggin... he will stop dead in his tracks to go over and watch this in a trance... if only there was a noggin cd.. I would so be there! We YouTube it too!
  • 4. "Elmo's World" Elmo himself! Seasame Street CD never leaves the car!

- He also really dislikes some songs... he doesn't like when I listen to Public Radio... okay not a song, but still! He also really hates the "I don't want to live on the moon" Ernie sings that one and it is Mama's favorite! He has a particular distaste for the bad 80's music that I love so much too!
- Mason has a suggestion for the food pyramid too... a whole section dedicated to cheese! My god that kid would only eat cheese if I let him! Mandarin oranges and cheese!! He would pass up ice cream for cheese... strange little critter!
- He has decided to boycott the whole actual walking stage and now will walk around furniture and DIVE across to what it is that he wants!! Yes this has ended badly a time or too!
- The "big boy" rocking chair also had a few lessons learned on it! You can NOT stand and rock with out falling off and bonking your head!! He then gets back up and points to his head and says... Ahhhhhh! Not owie, no crying... just ahhhh... as if he knows it was a dumb move!
- Remotes! Loves the satellite remote... you know the expensive one!
- He can point to his head and show you his "button"... but be warned he kind of flashes the button!
- The kid refuses to wear cloths or sock and shoes... I worry that he will be a very cold kid this winter!! He tries to remove as much as possible before being caught! I think I have a nudist in the making!
- Horses!! At Grandma's farm we go and pet the horses! He loves to stand on the fence and call the horses! He knows to "click-click" with his tongue to call them over, and he is not afraid to pet or feed them at all! He especially loves Huck and Domingo... they are his favorite boys!
- Stacia. He loves Stacia (and Manda and Brett!) Stacie has been watching M on Friday's since he was 10 weeks old... and he loves his Grandma Stacie! I also think that he would marry Mandie if she would have him! He looks at her with those big eyes and flirts! He should be ashamed of himself... he gets away with murder by looking at her like that!
- Going for our nightly walks with Sophie... although he won't let anyone pet Sophie... or he cries! That is HIS puppy!
- TV... I knew that it was inevitable... he would discover the tv. Mason looooves The Wonder Pets! His favorite! The Backyardigans, and Go Diego Go are the other two that he is allowed to watch. He has no interest in Sesame Street... but he loves the Sesame Street CD... go figure! (on a funny side note the characters in The Wonder Pets are: Linney- the guinea pig, Tuck- the turtle, and Ming-Ming- the duck... for months and months Dan thought they were singing LEONARD, CHUCK, and Ming Ming too.... what a kids show! Lead characters named Leonard and Chuck... this isn't the AARP show!!!)

Happy (almost) Birthday my sweet boy!!

You made us a family! We were incomplete without you! We are so grateful for you, and cherish every moment that we spend with you! Every day I look at you and feel privileged that you *chose* me to be your mama! Love you lots!!

Mason's 1st Birthday Invitation!!!

Off to the pumpkin patch we go!!! Mason loved picking out his pumpkin!! I thought that we would have a terrible time getting him to sit still for his picture, but he loved sitting in between the pumpkins!!! He just sat there and patted the pumpkins as if he was very proud of them! It was a very windy day... but he was so patient and sat so nice for his picture!

Halloween this year was a blast!!! He didn't get the concept of "Trick-or-Treating" but he had many requests to stop and show off his costume!! He loved to wear his costume, and did the week before Halloween and off and on in the weeks following Halloween! He also didn't understand why everyone around him was wearing costumes... maybe next year he will understand! We had a doctors appointment that day, so he got to show it off to the ladies at the office. We stopped and visited Grandma at the Law office, showed the ladies there, and then headed off to lunch at the mall. Went home took a nap, and headed out "Trick-or-Treating!!" We then went to Grandma's farm to show off, Uncle David and Aunt Nettie's, Brenda and Skip's, Carrie and Gordie's, Stacia and Brian's, and finally to Great Grandpa and Grandma's house!!! Wheeew! He was exhausted when he got home!! For being too little for most Halloween goodies, he ended up with quite a haul too... it pays to be cute!

The big event for Dan this year was bear season. He finally drew a bear tag this year and he was successful! The first week of season Dan shot this boar. He was 252 pounds fully field dressed. He soon will be coming to live out the rest of his days as a bear skin rug. Still not too sure how I feel about that, but we did agree to get it mounted with the mouth closed!



















Another "new" addition to our house has been the time out corner. Some offenses get you sent directly to time out. Biting, hitting, or climbing on top of the table are the big ones. Everything else you get two warnings and then time out. For some reason I don't it's working!! He looks a little too happy for being in "time out!"


















Christmas wouldn't be complete without a visit to Santa Claus!!! After a few moments of panic, Mason decided that the funny looking guy was alright! Since it was a Monday morning, and no one else was in line, Mason got to spend some time with Santa! Mason and Santa sat and read a book... when you pushed Rudolph's nose it squeeked!! Overall his first Santa Claus experience went well... but he was sad when he had to leave the book with Santa Claus!
















Preparing for Christmas this year has been interesting! We have spent a lot of time explaining that we don't touch the pretty on the tree (ti-ti's!!! in Mason speak!) It has been exhausting, but fun at the same time! He loves the lights, and has found that he has his favorite pretty on the tree. This is the saddest looking Christmas tree that we have ever had... never have I put so few ornaments on the tree! Oh well, lights are the most important part to Mason, so I put plenty of them on the tree! We went and cut our own. Dan headed out with the four-wheeler and trailer first. I stayed and bundled Mason up, loaded him and Sophie in the car, and off we went. On the way up to the tree farm, we rode in the trailer. Me, Mason and Sophie. I don't know who liked it more... Mason or Sophie!!! We picked out just the right tree, loaded it up and headed down!! This time the trailer was full so Mason got to help drive the wheeler! Boy did he think that was fun!!! I rode on the back rack (not so fun... note to self... cold metal!!!) Poor Sophie had to run along side the trailer... she was NOT appreciative of the fact that we filled her trailer and there was no room for her! She let us know by barking and yelling at us the whole way back to the car! We finished up the morning with a cup (or two in Mason's case) of hot cocoa, followed by a nap for Mason, and tree decorating for me. Mason loved to come down after nap and see the tree all set up and pretty! It was a really great moment for him!















We also had family portraits done at the end of November!! I love how they turned out!! Mason was done in about 30 seconds... he is such a ham!!






































































































Mason has done so much growing and changing this year. He has really become a little boy instead of a baby!! It's so sad, and so fun to watch all at the same time! In the past few months he has added a couple of new "favorite things" as well:

  • Kisses!!! Both blowing kisses and coming up and planting one right on your lips!! Sometimes it is a marathon of kisses and sometimes he comes up and gives you a kiss for no reason at all!
  • Books!! We looooooove to read!!! His favorite book is still "Eight Silly Monkeys" Yup, those silly monkeys that jump on the bed. He loves to touch his head when you say "they bumped their head!"
  • Fixing his four-wheeler ride on toy. How he knows how to "fix" it I don't know... must be genetic or imprinted on his man DNA! He fixes his toys more than he plays with them some days!
  • Sharing!! He really is good at sharing... when he decides he wants to! Bites of snacks, toys you name it... he is generally trying to share with the dogs.
  • Tom. Our big fat cat. Tom is his buddy. We like to try and ride Tom like a pony... and bless Tom he actually likes it.
  • GO! He loves to go! Anywhere... it doesn't matter.
  • Bossing the dogs around... granted they don't understand him, and he gets mad. It is very funny, and goes to show he will be great at instructing his new little brother or sister!

Wishing everyone the best in 2009!!

All our Love,

Dan, Lara, Mason, and Bebo!