Retail Therapy

So my birthday is this coming Monday and as a fun day "get-away" my mom, sister, and I are headed to the Vicksburg outlets to shop!! I can't wait.  A day with my best friends and SHOPPING!!
After the LONG week we have had... (Lu's been sick with a cold... and pitiful... which breaks my heart and I can't sleep due to over-stressing about her... enough said) Anyways, it will be nice for a little retail therapy!

I am so proud of myself too.. Look what I stocked up before leaving:
 



Oh and...



plus...


Woo Hoo!!  Love me some COUPONS!!!!
and yes, I have noticed that 2 of the 3 places are stores where I buy LUCY clothes. HA! Oh well... something happens when you become a mom and you no longer care about your own clothing... but rather how precious your little one will look.  Weird, I know.

I will post soon pics of my sewing ability! I made Lu two dresses, and a matching headband! They turned out pretty cute I must say.

Okay, thats it for now. Go be MERRY!!

A Pinteresting Weekend... or not.

Well... you know... I had GREAT intentions. Someone needs to remind me when I get to planning that I have  an almost 6 month old (she technically turns 6 months tomorrow!) and that "plans" are for the birds. HA.
I didn't get one "pinterest" idea completed.  I took several steps in the right direction of getting them completed.. but yea. nothing to show you guys. Sorry!

I bought the necessary plates for the cupcake stands at the dollar store... just could not find the right candlesticks to go in the middle.. so.. still looking for those and I will complete the stands. Anyone seen any wooden short candlesticks???

Oh and while I was at the Dollar Store, I racked up on the CUTEST champagne flutes to use for Lu's birthday party.  They are plastic and pink with heart in the middle of the stems! 2 for $1! Can't beat that!
I also may have also bought Lu's birthday dress... (go ahead and put CRAZY across my forehead) but I simply could not resist. It is the PERFECT 1st birthday dress. MUST HAVE.

I did try to "make my own canvas print" and it was sadly a fail. Just like I thought... WRINKLES! I even tried to plan around this before I did it and yep. Wrinkles.  So now I am going to have the print printed at a store on good paper and try again... regular printer paper wrinkles, terribly! Who wants a wrinkled canvas print? No thanks.

So... I guess I did make a good effort!
Regardless, I enjoyed my weekend with Lu... SO much.
Here is a sneak peak from our photo shoot yesterday! One of my favorite things I get to do with Lu is get up, grab some "accessories" and get the camera snapping! I'm really getting the hang of playing with the ISO etc. on my Nikon! Let me know what you think.. I LOVE the natural light I was able to capture!

I'm going to blow these up and give them to our sweet grandparents for Valentines! 

(If by chance, you are one of Lu's grandparents- forget you read this... ha!)

P.S.

Did you see what my BIG girl is able to do now...

AHH!! She can hold her bottle!

Hope you all have a great week!

I'll keep you updated on my Pinterest crafts- Better luck next time, huh!

Merry Merry!

A Pinteresting Weekend

Who's ready for a PINTERESTING weekend... and a 3 day weekend at that!  

This girl, that's who!  Crafting/art time! 

Colby is heading to deercamp today and will be gone all weekend long so it is just me and Lucy Lu for the weekend. Girl time! I cannot wait, even though we will definitely miss Daddy, girl time to us means pajamas, a warm fire in the fireplace, heat on 75 degrees (and no complaints), and some shopping fun!  :)

This weekend it also means actually creating all the "pins" I have on Pinterest! During our "down" time (a.k.a. while Lu takes here naps), I plan on doing the following:

**Updating Lu's 6 month scrapbook page!**

**Canvas Prints: So I saw this DIY canvas prints on Pinterest (my weakness) the other night.  It cannot be THAT hard, right? I mean I believe the hardest part is going to be keeping wrinkles from getting in your print while applying it to the canvas... anyways- definitely giving it a try this weekend.  Here is the example:  Perfection!

thisismeinspired.blogspot.com 


And I also saw this...





www.thepartydress.net


I mean... how cute are these cake stands?? You could stack and create a two tiered- cupcake stand even... and ANY color you want?!! YES please. Also on my 3 day weekend "crafting" list.
I love the way this looks:

Is it too early to start crafting for Lucy's 1st birthday?? I already have the "theme" pinned down. I mean, helllloooo people. She is SIX months on the 18th... we are already half way there. Wow. Just typing that  made me tear up. okay.. okay.. Seriously, I do love the "tu-tu" on this cupcake stand.
and this ....


Okay, so somehow I ventured from what I wanted to achieve this weekend to tu-tu's and Lucy's first birthday... safe to say my "pregnancy" brain has permanently turned into "mommy" brain... which is bad news for all of you. I currently blame Pinterest! HA! Sorry for the randomness... but I'll post pics as soon as I finish my "crafting" from the weekend!

Closing thought:
At school today, one of my students walked around all morning during free centers singing:
"Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be His GLORIOUS name.... Blessed be His name" Does it get any more precious?


Go be MERRY!~

Lucy's First Christmas

Christmas is always a very treasured, and blessed day for my family.  We celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior together and spend a lot of quality time in prayer, thanksgiving, and fellowship.  If possible, this year, I feel it was treasured even more.  Not only was it Lucy's 1st Christmas, but Grandaddy was able to come home from the hospital (after battling some issues with his small bowel for over 50 days at Baptist Hospital) and all of our family (with three new babies) was together! A perfect day for sure!
Here is a recap of our day- through a lens!

Christmas Eve at Dee and Ron's- Meeting Baby Dylan (cousin)

Pretty Lucy

Family Photo

Santa came!!

I sure love my new pink "car"

This is my "hey mom, its way to early for that camera in my face" expression

              

                

Going through Lucy's stocking

  

Christmas breakfast at Khaki and Pops 

Christmas morning at Dee and Ron's- Santa brought Lu an excersaucer!!

Khaki and Pops for Christmas dinner

Hey sweet Cousins! (Weslee, Jon Martin, and Lucy)

How precious. Grandaddy playing with Lucy.

Our family of 3! Such a blessed Christmas.

And guess who else was born on Christmas 2011?! Lucy's best friend, Lana Brooke McGinnis!

We went and met her when she was three days old. Here are the girls:

Lucy's so excited... Lana's is still unsure about this place 

Cheese!

Hey pretty Lana... we love you.

As you can see, it was a busy but PERFECT Christmas for the Mason's.

Merry Merry Merry

Daycare

EEK!
Lucy started daycare today... and I actually held it together! Oh my. Oh my.
The hardest thing you will ever do as a mom is take your baby somewhere and LEAVE her. (I mean, in my 5 and a half months of being a "mom" this is what I will now call the hardest part- I am sure that will change as new "issues" come up.. but for now- "The hardest thing you will do is LEAVE your baby!")

 I had Lucy all packed with her monogram bag, monogrammed blankets, labeled dishes, bottles, and extra clothes... we were READY.  Lucy was dressed in her new outfit (made by mom!) and off we headed to drop her off... when all of the sudden it hit me... I am basically leaving my most treasured, most beloved, beautiful Lucy with strangers. Oh my. Can I DO THIS?? I did. Thank you, Lord, for giving me the strength, and answering my prayers to  make "mommy" calm.

Colby, Lucy and I walked in... I hung up her bag and coat on her "hook" (yes.. she had her own hook!) and Colby set her in the swing... we kissed her and said "have a great day" and walked out.  Whew-
Be proud of me... no tears... no screaming... Lucy was all smiles and laughs, and I know she is already the class favorite. (HA. This is my blog, I can say that). Colby may have had a harder time leaving than I did actually... I guess because I am her NEIGHBOR- literally... her daycare is next door to the school that I teach at (and I already went and visited her once twice) that I knew we would be okay.  But Colby sent me a text at 8:03 that read: "I am going to pick her up."  Ha. She has melted Daddy's heart. For sure.
By the way, I am so THAT daycare mom (the over-protective, peeping through windows, checking, and double-checking, lecturing, always there, "my baby is perfect" MOM)

Daddy and Lu- ready for "school"!

I will do my "Christmas/New Years re-cap" blog soon!
We had a wonderful holiday and I LOVED every second of my two weeks off with Lucy.  She is such a fun baby! We also met Lucy's best friend: Lana Brooke McGinnis over the break! She arrived on Christmas day. What a special birthday, and she is just beautiful! Pictures to come of her, too!