Snow Day

My sister and her family came to stay with us last weekend. One of the things on our agenda was to take the boys sledding. It sounded like a great idea but we were wrong... well partially wrong. Her boys Jaxon & Jace absolutly hated it while Cade loved it!! It was short lasted for there family but Tyler, Cade and I were able to stay out a little longer and let Cade sled his little heart out. Luckily Amy and Jay were able to take a few good FAST (hence Amy smacking into the snow bank) runs before there boys completely lost it.

Back in the day

So Tyler was looking through his email a few days ago and came across this gem!! It was taken while we were dating and living in Corvallis. I love 3 things about this pict:
1. You can tell how in love we are
2. We look so young!
3. It brings back memories of living in Corvallis in the Forest Green apartments with Jenna!

This picture is going to be printed out and framed somewhere in my house!!
I LOVE IT!

Yummy Potatoes

Parmesan Potato Wedges

6 med baking potatoes or red potatoes
1/3 C. butter, melted
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 C. grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, crushed

Cut each potato lengthwise into eight wedges. In a large zip lock bag or bowl stir together butter, garlic, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Add potato wedges and shake/stir to thoroughly coat. Place wedges in a baking pan lined with parchment paper or foil.

Bake uncovered in a 425 degree oven about 35 min.

Enjoy
So Yummy and easy!

My life as a stay at home mom

When I first wrote the title to this post I started listing all the "mommy duties" in my head; dirty diapers, cleaning up messes, meals, human jungle gym, play buddy, ouchy kisser.. the list could go on and on. But the real reason I write this post is to release my recent feelings for my life as a stay at home mom.
To sum it all up I would use the words blessed and satisfied. I am at a spot in life where daily I am so full of joy and content doing the things God has called me to do. In my last post I was super excited to share with everyone that I would be opening up a shop on etsy but the Lord has changed my heart about this. Over the weekend I was praying about everything while I scurrying around finishing up necklaces, trying to get pictures taken of everything, and finalizing a license for my digital projects and I was just feeling so overwhelmed and burdened by it all. My photos weren't turning out like I had hoped and the license process wasn't going smoothly and more than anything I was not enjoying it. I felt like the doors were slowly being closed and I am ok with that. Today I felt the need to put everything away and when I did I felt such a relief and a peace that my job in this season of life is to be a wife to Tyler and a mommy to Cade. I'm still going to enjoy being creative and making earrings, necklaces, scarves and scrapbooking, but I don't need the burden of keeping things in stock to sell. If those blog readers of mine out there want me to make you something I would still LOVE to do it just like I always have, but for now you won't find my stuff on etsy.

With that said I can now brag on my son! It seems like in the last month he has just taken off in all areas of his development. Because of this if feels like our lives have become much more relaxed. Some of Cade's accomplishes:
For a long time Cade wouldn't go down the stairs in our house by himself because they are abnormally steep, we have recently taught him how to go down them by himself and we no longer have to use the gate. It is so nice to have him be able to roam up and down as he pleases without Tyler or I needing to be upstairs when he is up or down when he is down.
Another accomplishment is getting rid of his paci. Thursday was the official night of taking it away. I had read the book The Sleepeasy Solution and was all prepared for the steps to take, but I stressed and worried about it all week and when Thursday finally came around I was dreading bed time. But Cade proved to us it was time to give it up, he only cried for 30 min before he soothed himself to sleep. The next day for his nap he only cried for about 5 min and ever since then he has just laid down and been totally fine without it! All my worrying for nothing!
Cade's vocabulary has just taken off as well. He is starting to put words together like "over here" he uses this a lot. The other day I had him in his chair for lunch and kept saying down, down. So I took him out of his chair and he immediately ran over to the living room coffee table and said "over here" and pointed to the table so to see if he really knew what he wanted to put his plate on the coffee table and he eat every last bit of his lunch! Little smarty pants! Some other phrases he is saying are "wheres daddy" and "where's mama".
We are now working on colors. The past 2 days we have been focusing on blue and green and so far he is doing amazing. He has over sized keys that are blue, green and orange and he I can ask him which one is blue or which one is green and he will point to the right one!
Having a toddler is so much fun, I just get overwhelmed by how fast he is growing and I don't want to miss a second of it!

Coming soon...

As you are all probably aware, I have another blog where I post all of my creations; http://dezignsbymeg.blogspot.com/, well coming soon I will be selling my creations on etsy. I am in the process of gathering everything up and loading it to my shop. I will keep you posted on the progress and when my shop is up and running.

Mackeson's 09

Merry Christmas everyone! Tyler and I are so excited to have Christmas morning at our own home, just our little family of 3. Cade can definitely tell that something is different this morning because he woke up in a crazy goofy mood! It has been so fun to watch him try to figure out what a tree is doing in our living room and why there are so many lights. He has been amazing at not touching the tree or the presents. I worried so much about that for nothing!
Tyler and I are both big on traditions, we had a few already started but are starting some new ones with Cade this year. 1 tradition we are keeping with is going into the woods and chopping down our tree and a couple new ones we are starting are, opening 1 present after church on Christmas Eve and having home made cinnamon rolls while we open presents Christmas morning. I am excited to make our Christmas meal for this afternoon. We will be feasting on ham, potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and for dessert Tiramisu cake!

This last year has been a crazy whirl wind of change. Tyler is no longer working in the construction industry for Hendrickson Homes, he has totally taken a career change and is now a financial adviser with Edward Jones. He is doing an amazing job so far and is really liking the professionalism that comes with the career change. No more jeans and t-shirts at work for him, he has upgraded to a suite and tie! The beginning of this change when Tyler was studying for his exams from home was very difficult especially with a infant in the home. But that is far behind us and Tyler passed his tests with flying colors (of course). He is currently working in the office of another financial adviser, but the beginning stages of getting his own office leased have begun. If everything goes smoothly he should have his own office in March! The funny thing about it all is, the office he is looking to lease is the same office he worked out of when working for Hendrickson Homes. Crazy how some things work.

I have been very busy this Holiday season with my little Designs By Meg side business. I was able to design Christmas cards for 4 different people as well as 2 birthday invitations, a baby shower invite as well as 3 bib necklaces. I was asked to donate a few of my things to an auction that a local school will be having in Feb so I have also been working on items for that. My goal after the holidays is to start my own little shop on at Etsy.com, I will keep you posted on when that is up and running.

Cade obviously also keeps me very busy. He is walking everywhere and talking so much. He is defiantly no longer a baby but a full blown little boy. We are currently in a rough season with him. He is very clingy and won't really play or entertain himself and is also getting a few more teeth. Teething has been an ongoing issue with Cade pretty much for a year now. We will all be thankful when all his teeth are in. Only 4 more to go!! When Cade is awake I am usually constantly engaging with him by reading stories, building with blocks, wrestling with him or tickling him, 2 of his FAVORITE things! I am so amazed at how much he knows and what all he can do. The other day he was drinking out of his sippy cup and there was another cup sitting next to him. He took his sippy cup and pretended to pour some of his milk into the other cup and give it to me to drink! I was amazed that he for 1 had the coordination to do that but that he was able to pretend already! He is so much fun and seriously one of the silliest and most goofy kids ever!

Well that is life with the Mackesons, this little post is my version of a Christmas letter :)
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.
God Bless!

He may be sick...

But he is still a barrel of laughs!

Cade and I have been fighting the dreaded cold for about a week, and on Sunday it finally took it's toll on us both. It's one thing to have just 1 person in the family sick, but to be the mom who is sick and have a child who is sick is NOT FUN! Needless to say Cade and I have been doing a lot of laying around, watching TV, reading books and sleeping! Even though Cade has been under the weather he still knows how to make us laugh and smile. It totally makes the days bearable and helps me over look the times when he is whining or throwing a tantrum.

So excited about his 1st taste of fruit snacks, he LOVED
them hence the drewel on his chin :)
Just being his silly self! He was copying me peaking my
head from around the camera to get him to smile.
"You lookin at me"
My little movie star

Interpreter

I have always been very good at interpreting what Cade is saying, or I should actually say Cade is just very good at communicating and using his words. However lately he has been saying 1 thing over and over and over and over and I can not for the life of me figure out what he is saying. Is sounds something like this "Mika, mika, ma". I think today alone he said it about 30 times! I have tried saying different things that sound like what he is trying to say such as "mickey, mickey mouse" or "milk, milk mama" but nothing is correct. When I repeat "mika, mika, ma" back to him, exactly as he is saying it to me he always says "YA" right back, like "ya mom that's what I'm saying!" Maybe he is just babbling and I need to give up trying to interpret, but it is so frustrating especially when I have always been able to understand his language.
He is such a crazy silly kid!!

Speaking of Interpreting here is a list of some of the new words Cade is saying:
moon
star
home
oatmeal
burr (every time we go outside! it's so funny!)
diaper
poop (he now tells us when he is poopy, potty training time!)
potty
tree
bug
Amy
box
thank you
bunny

Freezing Tree Hunt

This weekend we knew we want to go out and get our tree, however we were a little reluctant when we saw that the forecast was below freezing temperatures all weekend. We decided to just buck up and do it on Sunday after church. It was a "perfect" winter day to go tromping through the snow covered forest. It didn't take too long (PTL) for us to find our perfect tree!
Cade enjoyed the first little bit, but when we took him out of the backpack and tried to get some pictures he became a not so happy camper! (Check out the last picture it a perfect picture describing his mood)I don't blame him though 16 degrees makes me cranky too!

Cade the dare devil

I love this picture because it describes Cade at this stage in his life, a dare devil and an absolute goof ball! He has taken up a love for climbing on EVERYTHING as well as making this goofy face while saying "ohhhhhh" in a very low raspy voice. Makes me crack up every time!

Always a project going on

One of the many things I LOVE about being a stay at home mom is the time I have to be creative. I pretty much always have a project going on; fun to do but not fun to always have the mess around. Lately I have been working on several orders for people but I snuck in a random last minute project, random is the best!

As I was putting together a bag of things to take to the Goodwill I came across a tote that had a really stupid logo on it. I immediately wanted to cover up the logo and make it cool.
Here is what I came up with. No my obsession with Owls hasn't diminished yet. But now Cade has a fun bag for his toys, diapers, wipes, sippy cup, snack trap and anything else we need to take in the car with us.
So yesterday I realized I have a few down days before I have another project I need to start, so I was thinking about what would be not to time consuming but fun.
Here is what I'm working on now.. I love the look of the "cowl" I haven't decided which one I'm going to try to do, I'm thinking either the brown one with the button or the chunky red one. So far I am working on the basics of crocheting it. So far so good!!

Da Da is back!!

This last week Tyler was out of town Sun-Wed. It is kind of a double edge sword when he is gone. I have to admit I do like having evenings (when Cade is in bed) to myself every once in a while. I watch the girly movies, do crafts and read. However I don't like the time from about 6pm-7:45pm. This is when Tyler usually gets home from work and spends time with Cade. Cade is now to the age where he looks forward to and anticipated Tyler walking through the door. He loves going upstairs with Tyler to change out of his clothes then coming down stairs and rough-housing, reading book and playing ball until dinner is ready. When Tyler is gone it makes that time SO long because Cade is at my feet fussing demanding my attention while I get our dinner ready.

I tried to fill our evenings with fun things to do which helped a little bit but nothing replaces Cade's 1 on 1 time with his Da Da. Cade and I are both happy to have him back!!

Where was Tyler you ask? He was in Arizona for his last Edward Jones training (for a while). He is now over the BIG hump of kicking off his new business!! I am so proud of Tyler's hard work and dedication to his new job. It has really paid off and we are now seeing the benefits of his career change. He is in the beginning stages of opening his own Edward Jones branch here in Bend. He has hired a Real Estate Broker and they are currently scoping out the different available locations. We are both excited to get his office up and running. I am obviously excited to help him decorate and he is excited to have his own space and no longer be sharing an office with someone else.

We have been truly blessed through this transitional stage in our life! The motto I always hear the other Edward Jones spouses say is "Just stay in the boat" and it is so true. There were several times where Tyler wanted to throw in the towel and call it quits but that little saying came to my mind and I would remind him of it. I am so glad we worked through those hard times and didn't jump ship. I know the hard times aren't over but just like Matthew says "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."!!
Today I am thankful that we don't have to face hardships and trial alone, God is on our side!!

Here are some picts of Cade keeping busy while Daddy was gone:
Helping me make dinnerCORN!! His favoriteDriving his school bus
You have to make the noise "brrrrr!"

Strut your stuff

Here is a picture to go along with my last post.
Just for you Aunt Deb :)

Sporting his new winter coat and awesome Nike shoes

Baby steps

Now that Cade is cruzing around EVERYWHERE he doesn't like to be held when we go places. So today I thought I would let the little one loose and allow him to walk from our car into Fred Meyer (on the sidewalk of course)by himself. He thought he was the coolest kid around, strutting down the sidewalk in his new Nike tennis shoes and his adorable new puffy coat from the Gap!! It was so fun to see his independent side come out and also such a challenge for me to slow down and just let him do it. Of course it took about 10 min to get 50 steps and we had to stop and look at all the rocks, bugs and leaves as well as stop and say hi to EVERY person that walked by.

I am so sad that the baby phase is behind us, but after seeing the little boy come out if Cade, I am so excited for this next season in our life.

Cade's new words:
Waffle
Morning
Knock Knock
Emma
Grandpa
guy

Cade's 1st "art" project

A birthday card for his cousin Jace

Pumpkin Patch

I was going to continue with more clues on what Cade is going to be for Halloween, but people have been asking for some pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch. Cade wore his costume when we went so I will reveal it early...

It's a bird
it's a plane
No..it's an
OWL!!
I'm on a huge owl kick so just bare with me!
There are a few more last min touches I still need to add to his costume, but you get the picture.

Cade on his friend Emma aka "memma"

What am I?

What is Cade going to be for Halloween?

Clue #1

I can be brown, white, tan, black...
or a combo of all

What am I?

(No giving it away Amy, Kristina, or anyone who already knows)

Fall Wreath

I was so excited when I saw the "Wreath Making" meet up at our church, but was immediately bummed out when I realized I was out of town the day it was scheduled for.

So when I was at my parents house for the week my mom, sister and I decided to have our own wreath making meet up!
I am super happy with the way mine turned out!

1 year pictures

Photos by Dolce Photography

Vocabulary of a 1 yr old

I find it very interesting that most of Cades 1 year old friends are either off and walking or talking up a storm. I have yet to find a child that is doing a lot of both. Cade falls into the talking category. It seems like every day he is saying a new word or at least giving it a try. I love the expression people give me when they ask what words he can say and I start bouting off his lengthy dictionary of words.
Here are Cades words:
Mama
Dada
Bye Bye
Ya
Hi
Baby
Book
Night night
Two
Cheese
Dog
Movie
Down
Cup
Ball
Bubble
Bath
Hot
What is even more amazing to me is that he knows when to use the majority of these words. For instance, he will be crawling along upstairs and see his bathroom and immediately point to the tub and say bath or bubble. When it's getting close to his bed time we will say "Cade are you ready to go night night?" and if he is ready he will lay his head down on the floor and say "night night" when he is thirsty he asks for his cup, when the TV is on he will say movie over and over again. I am amazed every day at how far he has come in the past few months with his words and his association of things to them.
What a big boy I have!

House Inspiration

This is a blog I subscribe to. I don't remember how I found it, but I love it. Her name is Haley and she has amazing style, is an amazing photographer, mom, decorator and pretty much everything else. Her kids are absolutly adorable especially her daughter Millie, I just think she is so beautiful for such a little girl. She also has an 8 yr old son and twins that are about 3 months 5 kids!!! That is just CRAZYNESS.

Anyways the reason I wanted to share about her is because there house has recently been put on the market and I WANT IT. I don't want it in it's current location of Provo UT, but move it to Bend and I am all over it. When I looked at the first few pictures of the outside I thought it wasn't anything special, it was built in 1966 so I thought it would be old and outdated. But she proved me wrong. Just like everything else about her it was amazing. As I continued to scroll through the pictures I fell in love with every room and every detail of there home (the kitchen could be a little bigger but it would work), from the colors on the walls to the furniture I just love it all.

I know I can't buy this house for myself but I can get inspiration and decorating ideas from it. My dream is to have an office/work space of my own like she has as well as a designated "play area" for all of the kids things. I know these things won't be possible in the current house we live in, but I will defiantly keep her post/pictures in my "house idea" folder for a later date.

Fun necklace

A few weeks ago we got together with the Andersons to watch some football. Ok well they guys watched football and Amber and I did a little craft blog hopping. We came across a super fun blog where fabric "bib necklaces" were shown. We both immediatly fell in love and decided we had to duplicate them. So we got together last week and each put one together. Here is how mine turned out. Pretty fun and different isn't it?

1st Birthday Bash

I can't believe I no longer have a baby, but a 1 year old toddler!

We had a great birthday weekend. My family came over Friday to help us get things ready for the big party on Saturday. Cade had so much fun playing with his cousins Jaxon and Jace, it was adorable to watch Jaxon and Cade get all hyper together. It was such a blessing to have the help of my mom, sister and dad. I thought I was super prepared and had everything organized but there was just so many last minute details I would have never been able to get it done without there help.

The party on Saturday went very smoothly. I was a little worried about there not being enough space in our backyard for everyone, but we all fit! Cade did amazing! Saturday morning he woke up with a runny nose but that didn't stop him from having a blast. He eat his cupcake, opened presents, played with all his guests and not once did he get fussy.
It was a great day! Cade was exhausted and once we put him to bed Tyler and I were able to go out with his family and watch the Beaver football game at Bostons. Cade was babysat by his greatgrandma. I'm sure not many babies have the opportunity to have there great grandparents be such a big part of there lives.

We are so blessed to have so many awesome friends here in Bend and such amazing family! Thank you everyone for making Cade's 1st birthday a memorable one.
Here are some pictures from the celebration

Changes in Life

I can't beleive I am finished nursing Cade, or better put; that Cade is finished nursing!
My goal was to nurse up until Cade's 1st birthday, but things don't always work out the way we plan them. I remember that first week of nursing being in pain, crying and thinking to myself "I have to do this for an entire year!" But after the pain of the first week it became easy and natural. I can't say I loved it ALL the time; Cade was such a high maintenance nurser, he needed to have it perfectly peaceful and quiet, no TV, no talking on the phone, and no interruptions. This made it hard to nurse on the go, so EVERYTHING had to be planned around when i needed to be home next to feed Cade. However frustrating and at times inconvenient it was there was always joy in the actual task. He loved to play with my face while he nursed he was constantly rubbing my lips or playing with my ears and when he was a new born baby he would just stare into my eyes the entire time (until he fell asleep of course). It just melted my heart.

Looking back on the 10 months I spent nursing Cade I started getting sad to think that the 1 on 1 intimate time was gone but after the first couple days with the sippy cup my sadness was washed away! Cade now loves to cuddle while he drinks his cup! He will even drink it with other things going on in the room around him ie. tv, radio, people. So even though it's not as physically close as it was before, I am so happy that we still have that special still/quiet time together. Because anyone who is around Cade knows that he isn't still/quiet for very long :)

A visit from Allie & Owen

I love having company and this week I got a great surprise! My cousin Allie and her son Owen came to visit Monday till Wed afternoon. Allies husband works out of town quite a bit and he left for WA on Monday for a few days. So they decided to drive over the mountain to Bend. We had a blast hanging out in the sun, playing cribbage, going for walks and just talking. It has been way to long since Allie and I have spent quality time together and I forgot how much fun we have. On Tues night we played a cribbage tournament and between hands we got to being crazy and laughing so hard. It was so much fun and totally reminded me of when we were young! Here are some pictures from there visit.
Thanks again Allie for coming to stay with us!!

Spinning Circles

Wordless Wednesday

I have been married for 4 years!!

As crazy at that sounds it doesn't supprise me at all. Ever since I was a little girl I couldn't wait to get married so the fact that I was married at 21 doesn't shock me or my close friends and family.

Looking back on the big day there really isn't anything huge that I would change. I still love my dress, love the colors we chose, love, love, love the flowers, the cake, the location and the people in the wedding party. I guess if I picked one thing to change it would be the way I wore my hair! Lame I know but that's all I could think of.

The past 4 years have been the best and most challenging 4 years. Not only did Tyler and I move to Bend right after getting married (the day we got home from our honeymoon to be exact) which put us 3 hours away from both sides of our family, but we also started our own family. 2 HUGE things!! As sad as I get at times that we are away from our families, it has been such a great way for Tyler and I to rely fully on one another and build our life together. These are only 2 examples of the blessed life that we are living together!!
I am excited to see what the next year has in store for us.
Happy Anniversary Tyler!
I love you!