Mason Ross Edwards

Mason was born on December 29th, 2009 at 1:18pm.

The Stats:

Weight: 8lbs 3oz
Height: 20.9 in.
Head Circumference: 14 in.
Body Circumference: 12 in.

There were more stats but I completely forgot to grab the info sheet when we left the hospital and these are the only ones I remember.

Name: Mason Ross
Ross is after Dave's grandfather who passed away. We were pretty set on having the middle name be Ross since the beginning of the pregnancy. We had a hard time picking a first name, though! We were still debating it in the delivery room. Mason is one of Dave's favorite names. He even tried to convince me to name our first son Mason, but I liked Liam better at the time. I was hesitant to name this boy Mason because we know a Mason and I don't want that to be weird, but when I saw this little baby the name Mason just felt right. So I hope there's no weirdness :)

The Delivery:
***This may be too much information for some people***
After having contractions for about 2 weeks and being dilated to a 4 for a few days, I was induced on Dec. 29th. Dave and I arrived at the hospital at 6:30am. I was hooked up to an IV and given pitocin to induce labor then we sat around waiting for the contractions to get stronger. Around lunch time I was hooked up to an epidural. Not 10 minutes later the doctor came in and broke my water, saying it would probably be at least another 3 hours before the baby arrived. I went from a 4 to a 10 in about 20 minutes and only pushed for maybe 15. Maybe. I'm guessing there... it's not like I was staring at the clock while in labor. It wasn't long, anyway. No where near the 3 hours my doctor said it would be! And since I had gotten the epidural only 20 or 30 minutes before the baby was born it didn't have time to fully work its way into my system. So I had, what I like to call, a half epidural. I couldn't feel anything in my abdomen... but I could feel everything else. A full epidural is definitely the way to go!!!

About Mason:
He looks just like Liam did when he was born. A full head of dark hair, dark steely-blue eyes and very pink skin :) Mason is just a tiny bit smaller than Liam was (some newborn clothes fit Mason that didn't fit Liam) and Mason has a big birth mark on his face by his left eye. Doctors say it may fade but will most likely be there his whole life... so we'll be able to tell him and Liam apart :) So far Mason is really easy-going. He only really cries when I change his diaper and he eats like a champ.

I guess that's it for now. More pictures will follow later. Eventually.

Boy #2!!!

Dave here. I just wanted to let everyone know that Nicole gave birth yesterday in the afternoon to a healthy 8 pound 3 ounce boy. His name is Mason Ross Edwards. Both he and Nicole are doing well.

Only nine more and we can compete for the Super Bowl!!!

Christmas Day

The Christmas Tree before Liam woke up.
Dave hung cars on the branches. Liam was enthralled with them and didn't want to open his other presents for a while.
He finally got around to opening the other stuff... and had a lot of fun with his presents :)
And then he sat and watched the Curious George Christmas Movie he got while holding his new monkey.
In the afternoon my parents and brother, Ian, came up to hang out with us. We opened presents, ate Christmas lunch, watched some TV, went to see Avatar, ate some more and just generally hung out. We had a lot of fun :) Sadly, the only picture I got with them was of Ian attacking Liam wearing the reindeer antlers. Liam had a lot of fun with Grandma Pilcher. He kept leading her into his room to play cars. When Dave or I would go in there to see how my mom was holding up Liam would say "bye mommy" or "bye daddy" and shut the door on us.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. One of these days I'm going to actually send out Christmas cards... but if you're reading this blog then you know that I'm kind of lazy with stuff like that :) Anyway, Merry Christmas!

This is what you do when it's 75 degrees on Christmas Eve

That's a real Pelican, I promise. It was chilling on the pier.
Even Santa was enjoying the fine weather.

Random Recents

Liam has a newfound affinity for poles. He tries to climb anything that remotely resembles a pole. Dave and I think it's because of all the firemen books he reads. We hope so, anyway.








I ordered 50lbs of flour from a food storage place. Silly me, I thought it would come in food storage cans. No, no. It came in a GINORMOUS bag! So I've been doing lots of baking. Lots. I guess it's good that it's the holiday season and I'm pregnant because I can make all the sweets I want and not feel bad about it :) I'm about 8 1/2 months pregnant in the pic, by the way.

This is the bear that Liam attacks. It's one of his best friends. They ride bikes together, dance and wrestle all the time. Liam also likes that the bear doesn't try to take his toys. Good times.

Liam-isms

Today Liam woke up from his nap crying. I go in there and ask him if he wants more sleep. He says "uh-huh" and lays back down for another half hour.

I am "The Mom". Whenever Liam is saying hi or bye to me he says, "Hi, the mom" or "Bye, the mom". For some reason I'm the only person he does this to.

When we tell Liam to say his name he points to himself and says "me!" He's very proud of that :)

Liam has recently started telling us when he needs a new diaper. He'll say "poop", "stink". Last Sunday he pooped during Sacrament Meeting and the whole way out the door he was telling everyone we passed "poop, stink".

All colors are pink. I don't know why. We have very little pink around here. When he wants to know what color something is he'll ask "what the pink?" The binky is also "pink".

All numbers are still "two" but he's starting to differentiate letters... finally!!

Liam likes to tackle this big stuffed bear he has that's about his size. Whenever he does, he goes "attack!"

When anything is in a line it's a train. A train of cars, a train of food, a train of people. Anything lined up one after another is a train. And they're all "choo choo cars".

Food is still "num a num" but he's started to say "eat" when he wants to eat.

Liam likes to help me cook. He calls it "scoops" because we scoop out flour and sugar and things into a bowl, and "dough ball" because we often make some kind of dough into a ball. Anytime he sees me in the kitchen he tries to pull over a dining room chair to stand on so that he can help me make scoops and dough balls. It's very cute but also kind of frustrating...

St. Augustine Christmas Parade

St. Augustine does tons of Christmas stuff! If you want a calendar of what's going on, here's a website. Yesterday we went down there for the Christmas Parade and it actually felt like Christmas!! It was cold! And kind of rainy...
We put a hat and gloves on Liam and he didn't even try to take them off... that's how cold it was. Well, it was in the 40s. That's cold for Floridians :)
The colonial marching band. I'm a fan :)
And what is this, you ask? Rudolphadillo. It's a giant armadillo that was dressed as Rudolph. I don't really get it but I had to take a picture anyway.
And when's the last time you saw Ronald McDonald? He was actually really funny. He'd stop and make jokes and do silly stuff with his tiny car. Very amusing.
The Shriners. There were tons of them!
And they were really loud. I had to cover Liam's ears... good pic, huh?
What would a St. Augustine Parade be without pirate ships, I mean really?

And, of course, Santa Claus. He got to ride on a fancy fire truck :)

Anyway, despite the cold and rain we had a lot of fun. Although we probably shouldn't have taken Liam out in those conditions because now he has a little bit of a runny nose. Oh, well. It's all in the name of Christmas :)

Christmas Festivities

We've already done a couple of Christmas things this season and I wanted to mention them a little.

St. John's Town Center Tree Lighting
We got these cool free light-up snowmen things that Liam still plays with. There were craft vendors, a pathetic fashion show, a free concert and just lots of fun stuff to look at. The tree lighting didn't happen until 9 so we didn't get to see it but had a lot of fun, anyway.
And what is this? I don't know. But it's really cute :)

Christmas Tree Shopping
We didn't buy our tree here because it was really expensive... but we got a couple pictures anyway :)
Liam likes Christmas lights. We drive around at night sometimes just to look at the lights and whenever we see some Liam says "more", "pretty". I like it.

Putting up our Tree
This year we decided to only decorate with lights and ribbon... I'll bet you can guess why...



Free Santa Picture
Liam's third Christmas and we have yet to pay for a picture with Santa. This one is way better than last years' but not as good as the first year. Let's hope we can find another free one next year :) I had to crash a nearby neighborhood's party to get this free Santa photo...

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving Day with the Pilcher side of the family. We usually spend Thanksgiving with extended family as well but with me being hugely pregnant and my Dad recovering from surgery it was just more practical to do a Pilcher thing. I was bummed about the idea at first because I love our big Thanksgivings but after driving down to Orlando for 2 hours I really don't think I would have made it the extra 45 minutes to get to the dinner. I could barely walk...

I finally remembered to get a picture with the whole fam but completely forgot to get one of our meal or anything. And this year we started a new tradition to burn off some turkey: dodge ball :)

Liam kept trying to play. My very brave Mom kept trying to chase him... she was tired by the time we left :)
I'm so thankful for my family. I love them.

Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!
We made these for Family Home Evening this week. Liam was afraid to let us trace his hand so I had to trace mine on his paper... ah, toddlers...

Good bye Young Women

Being a public blog, I never really post anything personal. But yesterday I was released from my calling and that makes me sad. I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in my church there are no paid clergy; Members of the congregation are asked to perform certain duties to make the church run. Whatever duty they are asked to perform is their "calling" and when it is time for that member to move on from that calling they are "released" from it. Ours is a completely volunteer church.

Anyway, my calling was the Second Counselor in the Young Women's organization. I loved it! I got to work with teenage girls planning activities, teaching lessons and just hanging out with our wonderful Young Women. If I could always be involved in the youth program I would be happy :) But, alas, Heavenly Father feels the need for me to grow by being removed from my comfort zone. I am now a Relief Society teacher. I haven't been in Relief Society since I was single so I'm a little nervous. Relief Society is where women 18 and over have 1/3 of their Sunday lessons unless they are working somewhere else. So pray that I'll be a good teacher :)

Before I was released I finished all of the requirements for the Young Women's Personal Progress program. Personal Progress is a program set up to teach teenage girs how to set and achieve goals centered around a Gospel theme; It helps Young Women to come unto Christ. When I was a youth I never finished so I made it a point to work very hard on it so that I could complete it and get my Young Womanhood Medallion. As a leader I only had to do about half of what a Young Woman has to do. I was planning on doing everything a youth had to do but I had finished all of the requirements for leaders so that if I was released before I could finish everything I would still get my medallion.
When you finish Personal Progress you are supposed to write your testimony of Christ and the church in the back of your Personal progress book. I would like to share it with you even though this post is already really long :)

I have a testimony of the Youth Program. I loved it when I was a youth and I loved being able to participate as a leader. I feel that if youth use all the resources available to them there is no reason they can't have great friends in the church and build a testimony centered on Christ. I wish all Young Women could feel the love Christ has for them and the love their leaders have for them. I am convinced that if everyone felt Christ's love and knew that people cared about them there would be no crime, no bad feelings, no hate. I am thankful for Christ's Atonement, for his selfless sacrifice and for loving me enough to go through that. Without Christ there would be no hope. He has given us everything in this life. I hope to one day be worthy to stand by His side. I hope to one day work with the Young Women again :) And I hope the Youth will know how many people love and care for them, especially Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know of their love and it helps me daily. I would like to say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Crystal Came to Town

Dave's sister, Crystal, was able to come visit us for a few days. Being from Idaho, she came at the most perfect time of year to enjoy sunshine and 70 degree weather :) We had a lot of fun having her here. Liam LOVED having a constant and willing playmate (and so did Dave and I...) and would pull Crystal around everywhere. It was very cute :) Anyway, we did lots of fun stuff while she was here:
St. Augustine








Gainesville

Morningside Living History FarmLiam wanted Crystal to hold the monkey tail. I thought that was a nice break... Sorry, Crystal :)

Fort Clinch
I really like the way the pregnancy silhouette turned out :)

The Beach
We had a lot of fun! Thanks for coming down to Florida, Crystal!

Like Magic

Fast Asleep

This is why we put his mattress on the floor...