Mason's 2nd Birthday, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Disney on Ice, and a Water Park!

Our baby is officially 2! My oh my that is hard to believe! I don't know why, but with both boys I have had a hard time with them turning 2. One was really fun and a big milestone, but 2 has been hard...I think it really means they are not babies anymore! Monday night Matt, Zane, and I blew up a bunch of balloons and snuck into Mason's room to put them all over the floor. When he woke up, he sat up in his bed and said "Boons? Floor?" We spent some time that morning playing in the balloons! They traveled from there, to our room, to the living room over the next couple of days!

Happy Birthday Mason!

Tractor from Jo!

Cupcakes at Jo's

Opening presents at home

Wednesday none of us had to work or go to school, so we scheduled family pictures. This was not our best photo shoot...I'm hoping we got at least one photo we can use for Christmas cards! We met our photographer at Union Station. Right away the boys saw a dinosaur outside (they currently have a dinosaur exhibit), so I think that had their minds off of photos...as well as the fact that we were heading to Papa's house after we finished. After pictures we did go see the dinosaurs. Zane was in awe and Mason was scared!

Digging for bones...

Scared Mason...amazed Zane

For Thanksgiving, we stayed at Matt's parents' house. We had a "potluck" Thanksgiving for everyone who wasn't going somewhere else. We ended up with Matt's grandma, grandparents, parents, brother and sister, uncle, and my parents. Matt's uncle made prime rib...YUM! I think that needs to be our staple meat for every holiday! It was fun to hang out with everyone and relax for the day! That night Matt and I headed to Des. Moines. We went to see Harry Potter with Matt's sister and then we stayed at the mall to "Black Friday" shop. There was only one item I really, really wanted...and I sat in line for 3 1/2 hours for it. Lucky for me I got it...and Zane better like it! I'll let you know after Christmas!

Friday we went to Disney on Ice with the Baker family. The boys really liked it! After the ice show, we went to our hotel, which had an indoor water park. It was so neat and a lot of fun! It was good to see Porter and Tate, as we don't get to see them too often!

Zane & Porter ready to see Mickey!
The boys with all their toys...

Cotton candy!

There's Mickey!

Grandma being "carted" to the water park!

Zane trying to be like the big boys...

CHEESE!

Masers enjoying the pool

We spent the night Friday, and came back to KC Saturday. We were anxious to get our house decorated for Christmas! We spent yesterday figuring out how we wanted to decorate and where we wanted the tree, and the rest of today actually getting things out and up. After lunch today Zane came downstairs and began screaming, "Mom! Mom! Buzz is here! He's in the tree!" Well, he was right, our elf, Buzz, has returned to our house for the season! We have been talking about Buzz for some time and wondering when he was going to come back to see us. Zane was so excited he couldn't stop jumping, laughing, and hugging us! But...now we have to be extra good because Buzz reports to Santa! Zane wanted to make Buzz a picture...and decided to also make Santa one. He told Buzz what he wanted for Christmas and then put these to pictures under the tree, all the while explaining to Buzz that he was to take them with him tonight.

Pictures for Santa and Buzz!