Scout Lake Camping

Pictures from our recent camping trip to Scout Lake.  

Randomness of our Home

On any given day when you enter the Mackeson house hold...

 there is no telling what you will find where. 

Enter our home today and you will find:

un opened battery pack in the bathroom

kids cup in a vase

Spatula in the entryway

and who doesn't have a head lamp in the living room?

what would we find if we entered your home?

A little something to put you in the Christmas spirit

Over Social media

I am so over social media! 

I feel like it is taking over my life.  My conversations with people can't not include something we saw on Facebook or what so and so twittered or Instagramed.  To me it feels like a fashion show or a big brag session and my life doesn't need that right now.  What my life needs is less pressure, more real close friends and simplicity, and I am not getting that from any of the social media out there.

    

 For several months now I have wavered back and forth about doing away with my Facebook account and I think I am closer now than ever.  I have been holding on to it because it is the only way I stay connected with a lot of friends.  So I came to a resolution, in the past several weeks I have been weeding through my peeps.  I have removed several people that I don't need and some of those people that it is nice to see whats going on every once in a while, but I don't need them clogging up my news feed; I have hidden them.  It's nothing personal against anyone I just need to do it for my own well being.  If it's in my feed I usually read it and I don't want my days consumed like that.  

All of this then brings me to this hear blog.  My goal for my blog in the next year is to be more of a "status update" or a journal of whats going on with the Mackesons and I still plan to update the Mackeson Moment FB page when a new post goes up.

So you will be seeing less of me on Facebook & more of me on here!

Feeling more simplistic already,

Trick or Treat

 Despite the rain we had an awesome time trick or treating last night.   

It was such a blast for the boys to trick or treat with their cousins!  

We met up with some friends and started the evening off with some trick or treating at Tylers office.  We then moved on to Scotts office where the guys had set up a fun little scavenger hunt for the kids.  Then we braved the Old Mill and only lasted about 20 min.  When you have a pirate who refused to wear a coat and a parrot who wanted to eat every piece of candy he got and threw a fit when he couldn't ... trick or treating time got cut short.  So we took a break and headed over to our good friends the Beairds house for some tasty food and fun. 

 Once our tummies were full we headed out again to trick or treat the neighborhood.  

This time was much more successful.  We brought a coat for the pirate and tried as best we could to hide the parrots candy :)  

Blake had a blast for his first real time trick or treating.  He literally had the time of his little 18 month life.  Running, flapping his wings, jumping and going crazy in the dark as we went from 1 house to another.  One house we trick or treated at liked him so much they thought he needed 2 full sized candy bars!!  He loved the candy and actually learned and said the word for the first time "canny"  fitting for the occasion I suppose.  

Enjoy a few pictures of our cutie pies 

  

Pirate Cade

Pirate Cades little parrot flapping his wings

Our crew of cousins

Trick or treat!

B's little tale feathers 

This morning Cade gave me a little message "mom you have to ask me if you want a piece of my candy!  If you take it without asking me that's stealing!"  Ok Cade I will make sure to ask..... bbuahhhhh, right!

What have I been up to?

Over the past couple of months I have had the privilege of working for the Crunchy Mamas.  

Crunchy Mamas are 2 sisters who are moms and have a passion for natural "crunchy" living.  

They took me on board to create labels for all of there amazing organic and all natural products.

So far I have tried the lip balm & the vapor rub & I am sold on both.  The vapor rub especially because Cade is a big "do it myself" kid and I'm not worried about leaving it on the table by his bed and letting him apply it by himself.  

Check out there line up of products:

Lip balm (orange, mint, cinnamon, grapefruit, ginger, lime, honey lemon, naked)

Hand sanitizer (grapefruit & lavendar lemon)

Baby Butt Balm

Foot Cream "crusty foot"

Face moisturizer "smelly face" & "not so smelly face"

Vapor Rub

Here is a peak at the labels, check out all the yummy ingredients!

 

 

They have a website which should be launching any day no which will make ordering a breeze.  

Please check them out and "like" them out on FB to stay in the loop.  

Feeling crunchy

New Years Resolution

Wow it's not even December yet and I already have my new years resolution in mind. 

I'm usually not one to make them, or if I do it's something simple I know I can keep.  

This one is a MUST!  

To slow down!!

to stop and enjoy my life, to not have weekend after weekend booked with plans, to relax!

I know with the Holiday season coming up things always get super busy and we always blame it on the Holidays... but this is how I feel like our entire life is.  One weekend after another of plans.  Don't get me wrong, we are SO blessed to have such amazing friends and family to spend time with.  But I feel like I am always anticipating the next event or the next thing on our agenda that I forget and loose sight of the day to day things.  Like playing on the floor with the boys in our PJ's, reading books, going for walks, doing NOTHING!!  

So my goal for next year and the rest of this year, as busy as it is, is to chill out, slow down and enjoy the here and now!  

Gerald

We have had one of Cade's friends living with us for quite some time now.  

His name is Gerald and he is anywhere from 17-28 years old.  His parents have been on vacation in Hawaii for about 2 years now.  Him and Cade play together all the time.  He usually eats dinner with us, drives with us in the car, goes to church and sleeps in Cade's room... but he doesn't go to school with Cade.

Yes we have been in the world of imaginary friend... 

However I don't know if you can actaully call it imaginary.  Yes he is imaginary but Cade knows that and tells us that all the time.  me- "Cade does Gerald want to take a bath?" Cade- "mom he isn't real"  But he talks to him and about him like he is real.  And Gerald has likes and dislikes, he can drive Cade places and entertain Cade, its the strangest thing. Especially how long it has gone on, we are going on 2 years now with Gerald & just recently we have been introduced to Macky.....  Macky usually just plays football with Cade.  He hasn't become as much of a person as Gerald has but i'm afraid it's heading in that direction. 

This house is getting too small for all of us!! 

So You Think You Can Dance

**Disclaimer**

Please excuse the whiny baby and underwear :)

If I Could Freeze Time

I am so in love with the different stages of my boys right now.  If I could freeze time I would just so I could savor it as long as possible.  

I would freeze the way Cade & Blake are becoming friends and really playing together.  They race cars together, wrestle each other, dance and jump on the beds together.  But as much as I love the way they play together, after the calm always comes the storm and I even want to freeze the fighting.  Though the fighting & annoying each other is well, annoying it is also a joyful noise.  It cracks me up when Blake is annoying Cade because he deserves it 100%.  When Blake was younger and defenseless I would always tell Cade "just wait until Blake is bigger, he is going to get you"  and now he is getting bigger and "getting" Cade.  It reminds me of when my sister, brother & I were young.  We would fight and annoy each other ALL the time!

I would freeze the way Blake points at the rocking chair and says "peese" (please) when putting him to bed.  Our new routine is for me to rock him, sing to him, & rub his back before going in his bed at bed time.  

I would freeze the way Cade HAS to say good night to Blake and give him kisses before I put him down.  

I would freeze Cade and his excitement to learn and go to school.  He thrives at learning and when he isn't learning at school he is learning at home with his kindergarten book.  I love picking him up from school and seeing what pictures he has drawn for me.  Right now he is on a surf board kick.  For the past week or so he has had numerous drawings of surfboards and our family on them.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way he draws people.  A stomach, a head, eyes, legs and a belly button.  No arms & no other facial features.  4 year old perfection!

I would freeze the way Blake hollers "mom! mom! mama!" to get my attention, or to just tease me.  He does it mostly in the car.  

I would freeze how Cade is so passionate about the Beaver football team.  We play Beaver games numerous times a day and if I would let him he would wear his Beaver jersey every day.  I can't wait to take him to his first game on Saturday.  It is going to be priceless!

I would freeze the way they both stand on the porch every morning & wave bye bye to Tyler as he leaves for work. 

I would freeze the way Blake says "oh" whenever I tell him something or the way he nods his head yes or no when you ask him a question.  

I would freeze the way they both just love there special friends "Melvin" & "Uno" 

I would freeze the way my heart just melts for these boys.  

School Lunch Blues?

Or just lunch blues in general?  

Lunch is one of the hardest meals for me to be creative with.  Cade LOVES, now when I say LOVES i mean LOVES peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  Seriously the kid is addicted and would eat them every day if I would let him.  I know there are worse things he could want but come on the kids needs a variety!  I'm not into packaged and pre cooked foods so the thinker gets put into overdrive coming up with fun new options.  

Well put the thinker away and get out this!

"Cooking With Trader Joes, Easy Lunchboxes"

It's a cook book full of colorful pictures and great ideas for school lunches, breakfasts and dinners.  It does have quite a few pre packaged things in it, but every once in a while it's nice to just take the wrapper off and call it good, and with these recipes you can feel better about it being from Trader Joes.  I have so many pages with post-it notes just waiting to be tried.  Fingers crossed Cade is feeling adventurous!

Cades school is selling these books and our favorite neighbor across the street, Katie Brandow has a 2 page spread in the book!  Check out page 64 & 65.  

I know it's only 2-3 weeks into the school year but if your running into the lunch packing blues, pick up a copy of this book and see the sunshine again

Not so little anymore

Sept 10 my little man turned 4! 

Love is..

"Love is everlasting,

Love is only kind,

Love is always patient,

Love will blow your mind!!"

- JeKob

Loving this song!!  The boys and I rock out to it in the car daily.  

I love finding up beat catchy Christian songs.  Cade can seriously memorize a song by listining to it twice, so I have to be EXTRA careful what goes into his little ears.  I'm trying to stay away from secular music but it's so hard because KLove and all the other Christian radio stations are um... lame! 

So I'm looking for a list of songs to download for us in the car.  

Please pretty please leave a comment with your favorite 

upbeat

danceable

funky

Clean songs!

Thanks!! 

rock on, 

Can't believe ...

That in a week...

I will have dropped my boys off in Dallas and won't see them for 8 days!

My sister agreed to watch them for SO long

I will have flown across the ocean SCARY! 

Be having breakfast in Barcelona Spain!!

Boarding the Norwegian Epic and cruising the Mediterranean for 5 days

Stopping in Barcelona, Naples, Rome, Florence, Cannes and Provence

Spending a week with my hubby

SO nervous but SO excited!! 

Campout with Grandpa Don

My dad is so amazing with his 4 grandboys.  They all just adore him and it's easy to see why.  He  reads, wrestles, plays jail, gives pony rides, cuddles... pretty much anything those boys want to do he will do it.  Last year he did a campout in the back yard with them and they had a blast!  So this summer he had to keep it going.  

It all started out great.  They helped set up the tent, got the sleeping bags spread out and made a fire to roast marshmallows.  Everyone was settled in and grandpa told some stories before bed.... and thats about as far as it got.  After story time the boys decided they didn't want to sleep in the tent and they all piled inside.  Grandpa is such a great sport, he didn't care how much work it took or that he busted his foot really bad on a stake getting the tent set up, he just packed everyone up and brought them inside. 

Even thought they didn't last it was still a great time and the boys had a blast! 

Sun River Fun

This last week we packed up and took the long drive to Sun River, haha long.. ya right.  Try 15 minutes!  AMAZING!

We met my sister and her family for 4 days of sun, laughs, water, bikes, laughs, good food and did I say laughs?  We had a fantastic time and the boys were in cousin heaven!  I mean what little boy wouldn't be in heaven here?!  

Some highlights of our trip were defiantly the bike rides and the SHARC.  We rented 2 bikes with trailers so we could all cruise around together.  The boys loved riding to visit the horses riding to the pool and to pizza.  The SHARC is Sun Rivers new aquatic center.  Water slides, lazy river, activity pool, giant sand area and kiddy pool.  3 days spent outside makes for some tan little men! 

Sun River may be a new annual must do.

Perfect

This is the perfect picture to go along with The Dreaded Phone post

What to do when my 3.5 yr old is at Grandmas

Dinner out with my hubby & Blake

Curling my hair

Painting my nails

Catching up on gossip mags & watching some tv

Overhauling Cade's room

And lots of play time..

 Stories & snuggles with this man.

Enjoying our time but missing Caders!