Easter Eggs!

So I'm a little behind on the posts.... They're still cute, so what they hay...

Mason had so much fun dyeing Easter Eggs this year. He discovered the best part was plopping the eggs in and out of the dye. Sometimes we used a spoon, sometimes not (as evidenced by the multicolored hand)...

Mimi and Papa joined the fun!

Look! A blue one!

The finished products!

Now what??

Crack them. Peel them.


Eat them!

YUMMY!!


Evidently eggs aren't the only things we can dye! Hands work pretty well too!

Waiting....

Waiting on my Mimi and Papa....

Are they coming now?

In His Father's Footsteps

Mason, we've learned has quite a knack for wanting to fix things, take them apart to see how they work and build things. He has his own little set of plastic tools (although given the chance he'll pick of any of his daddy's heavy tools in a heartbeat). He's also inherited his daddy's love of Home Depot. As luck would have it, the first Saturday of each month is "kid's project morning" at the big HD. We went in looking for a plant I believe, when the friendly lady at the door said "Oh, are you here for the kids workshop to build the racetrack??" We weren't but it sounded like fun, so after a little pleading to Pat, off we head to the back of the store. The lady at the check in counter was not quite as nice. She wondered just how old Mason was. I think technically you are supposed to be 3 (which he wasn't quite at the time), but by this point, we'd already told him he could build the race track, and let me tell you she was going to have one angry mommy and on screaming child one her hands if she didn't let us play. I nicely told her that the sweet lady up front sent us back here and that we were going to build our track.

We pounded, glued and stickered for about 10 minutes and this was the result. Mason had a blast and he actually hammered in most of the nails. I was in total amazement of Pat, who unflinchingly held the teeny, tiny nails as Mason pounded away at them with a real hammer. To Mason's credit, he did not smash even one finger (his own or his daddy's!)

Thanks Home Depot for an AWESOME Saturday morning!!

Honey Bunny...

So as we were leaving Wal-Mart tonight, Mason clutching his new fishing pole and Spiderman toothbrush in hand, our cashier, Stacy Jo was treated to the following parting statement:

"Good-bye, Honey Bunny!"

Well that's a new one. To our knowledge he has no covert relationship with Stacy Jo. Maybe he just liked her smile... More than likely she won him over because she didn't make him put his new fishing pole on the counter, but rather scanned it while letting him keep hold of it....

Yeah, that's big brownie points to a little boy...

The Newest Little Outlaw

Welcome to the world little Ava Grace! Your Auntie Christina is so, so, so happy you are finally here! Congratulations to Daddy Brian and Mommy Ellen. You are just about one of the most precious little girls in the whole, wide world!

Ava Grace Outlaw

born: January 30th, 2009; 10:17am

weighed: 7 lbs, 8ozs.

length: 19 inches

Lots of pictures below :)

Such a strong grip for such a little girl!

She's already fallen in love with her Auntie Christina (well, at least her Auntie Christina is totally in love with her!).

Proud Mimi and Papa Outlaw

Happy Grammas!

The first bath - not liking it all that much....



Followed by a quick trip to the salon for a first hair wash, which she liked much better...

Proud Daddy Brian

Ahhh, the end of a long day, all snuggled and happy in Daddy's arms...

Life is good!

Bubbles, Bubbles EVERYWHERE!!

As I was talking to my mom on the phone the other night, I walked into the bathroom to see how bath time was going and I was greeted with the following site...

Mason had evidently turned on the tub jets after having "only 6 drops of bubble bath" added to the bath water according to Pat.

This was the result!

Needless to say, Mason was having a ball. Bubbles were being flung everywhere! All I could do was laugh (and let Pat know under no uncertain terms, this was his mess to clean up - Don't forget the ceiling baby...)

The Newest Little Settler

Please join us in welcoming our newest little niece into the family. Pat's brother Chris and his wife Jamie had a baby girl. Mackenzie Irene made her way into the world on January 14th. We are so excited that she's here!

Welcome to the world little Mackenzie Irene Settler (and Congratulations to Daddy Chris, Mommy Jamie and big sisters Ashley, Tapanga and Ashley)! We can't wait to meet you.