My first photoshoot with Mason!

I have my very own newborn baby to hold, snuggle, love, and to practice my photography skills on!

I had to take advantage of all his newborn baby cuteness. I set up a mini photo studio in my bedroom and snapped some shots of my sweet little guy.
After taking these shots I have a whole new respect for newborn photographers! It takes time and tons of patience.
After taking these shots I got a crash course in Photoshop. I called up Melesa and got some advice from her on how to use the program as well as some tips for editing newborn pics. I'm really happy with how they turned out for my very first newborn shoot. Now I am hoping I'll be able to snap some photos of Heidi's new baby when she is born in August.

Today my friend Erica came by to take some pictures of Mason. She is a very talented photographer (way better than me)! Mason slept "like a baby" during the entire shoot. Now I am anxiously waiting to see how cute they turned out. I just can't get enough of my little boy, the more pictures the better!

Here are my favorite shots I took of my sweet little Mason:

BTW, The cute little Teddy Bear Hat was made by Melesa. (It's so cute I can hardly stand it! Thanks Melesa!)

6 Days Old

A Real Memorial Day

We have started a new Memorial Day tradition. Starting this year we took a trip to the cemetery where Jeremiah's grandpa Fred Albert Waite was buried. As you can see on his gravestone he was a WWII veteran. He passed away when Jeremiah's mom was about 12 years old.

This was the first time that Jeremiah and his sisters had been to see Grandpa Waite's grave.  It was a very reverencing and sweet experience. There were flags placed on all of the veteran's graves, which made the cemetery a beautiful sight. We are truly grateful for all of our veterans, and especially those we can call our family.

 Simon's favorite part of the day was taking pictures of everything. We lent him our camera to document the trip from his point of view. (I will post some pictures when I get our camera back from Karissa. )

We are indebted to our soldiers for sacrificing everything to preserve our freedom here in America. Grandpa Waite was able to come home from the war but it had an irreversible effect on him, physically and mentally. War is not kind.

Fred Albert Waite died on September 10th, 1967 from complications of lung cancer surgery.

Thank you to Grandpa Waite, Grandpa Leverton (Boone's dad), Grandpa Kelly Hall (Renae's Dad), and every soldier who has fought and is fighting for our liberty!

Simon's Preschool Graduation

So much has been going on here at the Hall house: birthdays, babies, visitors, ect. but I can't forget to mention a momentous occasion for Simon!

On May 19th Simon had his preschool graduation. He has been going to Christie's Cuties Preschool. His teacher is Christie Hatch, and she has been the greatest teacher! She is fun, creative, and she gets genuinely excited about teaching these little people.

Once I got to his graduation ceremony I realized I left my camera at home. Way to go, mom.

Thank goodness for modern technology. I used my cell phone camera to snap some shots of the big event.

Getting his diploma. (Love the graduation caps!)

Simon and his fellow classmates and teachers. Cutest bunch of kids around!

The highlight of the graduation was when the kids got up in small groups and recited the Preamble to the Constitution with sign language!!!  (wow!)

I can't even describe just how proud I am of this little guy. He is so excited to learn new things! He has even started reading on his own. He reads simple books to his little brother and I am amazed at how good he is at sounding out words he doesn't know and immediately recognizing "sight words".

His handwriting has vastly improved since he started preschool and he has loved drawing pictures and writing little stories to go along with them.

Simon will be 5 next weekend! I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. Now, with Mason here, Simon seems even more grown up. We are so proud of him!

 Congrats to our Preschool Grad! We love you Simon!

He's Here!

Mason Henry Hall

 Our sweet little Mason joined our family on May 25th at 11:32am. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 6 oz. and he was 20.5 inches long.
We arrived at the hospital at 10 pm on Tuesday the 24th to be induced. Once they got me settled in my room and the monitors attached my belly we discovered that I was already having labor contractions! I had been having contractions all that day but they weren't painful at all so I didn't think I was in labor. They started me on petocin at about midnight and I had contractions all through the night but they weren't painful so I waited, with almost no sleep, until morning. About 8:00 Dr. Huff showed up and broke my water. It was like the Hoover Dam had burst!  And we discovered that  this was the reason why my contractions hadn't been painful, there was too much fluid. Mason had his own personal swimming pool. lol.

3.5 hours and one epidural later our baby boy was born!

Simon and Ryan came by to see him with their Aunt Karissa and Simon fell in love with his little brother right away. He gave him kisses and stroked his dark hair, he told me and the baby how much he loved us.  It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen.
Ryan, on the other hand, tried his best to avoid his new brother. When we would ask him to come and say hello, or hold his brother, he would say "no" and walk away or hide.
It will take some time for Ryan to warm up to our newest member of our family.

 This was the closest Ryan got to the new baby.

Sue and Boone, a.k.a. Grandma Sue and Pappa, dropped by the hospital on Wednesday and Thursday to see Mason.

Simon and Ryan stayed with Karissa on Wednesday and Jeremiah went home Wednesday evening to take care of them. It was so nice to have his parents here to help too. I have the best in laws in the whole world!

We arrived back home on Thursday afternoon and Heidi, Jesse, and Randi all stopped by to see our new baby.

On Friday we packed up Simon and Ryan and sent them up to the mountains for Memorial Day weekend to spend some time with their cousins and grandparents. It has been so quiet and a little lonely here at home without them but it has made the transition of bringing home the new baby so much easier. I just can't wait to get my little boys back.

Welcome to our family Mason!

We are so incredibly happy that you are here with us. We love you so much already, and we will love you every day of the rest of your life and forever.

38 weeks

I've made it to 38 weeks!  Pregnancy gets more uncomfortable every day but I am really looking forward to  next week when I get to meet our new little guy.

I finally got some pictures to remember this pregnancy by (thanks Jeremiah).

 The boys happily hopped into the pictures too. I love being a mom more than anything in the whole wide world! I can't believe I have been blessed with 2 wonderful boys and I get another one next week! I really am a lucky girl!

No, that's not a basketball under my shirt.

Comparing tummies.

Hopefully our next post will be pictures of Mason, and me with a flatter belly   :)

Coming soon. . .

He'll be here soon!

We are counting down the days until Mason arrives. This Thursday I met with Dr. Huff and he scheduled me to be induced on the night of the 24th. We will be going in to the hospital at 10:00pm so Mason will most likely be born on May 25th!

Only 12 more days and we will get to meet our little guy!

Because our other 2 boys were so big when they were born, I had the amazing oppurtunity to have one more ultrasound to determine this baby's approximate weight. Last week when we had the ultrasound he weighed about 6.5 lbs (at 36 weeks). He isn't as big as Ryan was but he is still a hefty sized baby. (Ryan was about 7 lbs at this age, he was born 2 weeks early and still weighed 8 lbs 2 oz! Simon was born the day after his due date and he weighed 9 lbs 5 oz!)

Our sweet ultrasound tech thought it would be fun to snap some 3D ultrasound shots too so we can see what Mason looks like.  Ultasounds are fascinating to me, and the 3D ultrasounds blow my mind! Just the thought of taking real pictures of a baby before he or she is born. . . amazing! I couldn't help but ooo and ahh every time she took a new picture.

Here's our little Mason.
I think he looks a lot like Ryan.
I can't wait to hold him!!!

This picture is of his teeny foot. He is twisted up like a pretzel and his foot is right by his face. I love his chubby little toes. :)

We are so anxious for our baby to arrive. His brothers can't stop talking about him too! Ryan is finally understanding that he gets to be a big brother.
Simon will give my tummy hugs and kisses for Mason. Ryan is excited to read stories and play trains with his brother. They both think Mason is going to come home walking and talking and ready to play "flying trains", or whatever silly games they come up with. I try to tell them that he is going to be tiny and won't be able to do much for a while, but they aren't convinced yet.

12 more days and they will see for themselves.

For now, I look like I swallowed a giant basketball and I frequently get told that wonderful phrase that I hear at the end of every pregnancy :  "You look like you are about to pop!!"
Thank you to all of those people that make me feel like a giant balloon.

Hopefully I can get a picture of me and my big ol' belly so you don't have to try and picture that in your head.

I'm just really happy that the pregnancy is almost over and soon I will get to hold our little boy and remember why we decided to do this in the first place.

:)