Memory all alone in the moonlight-

Today for Cason's scrapbook I made this page-My eyes welled up with tears when I stood back to look at it. I miss our little Maestro. He was so sweet and loving, had so much energy and just loved to play! I hate that Cason is not going to remember him and grow up without a pet. Because of this page I have been flipping through old pictures and old blog posts just reminiscing about the days we had Maestro. It seems so long ago that I was training him to give me a high five, teaching him how to jump off the couch, and crying over yet another surgery that he had to have. Now I just adore all the memories I have of him including this, this, and this one!
Love you Maestro!

Yeah for snow!

Do we finally have snow? Can it be? It snowed for longer than 30 minutes and actually stayed on the ground? Through the night? Haha!
I cannot believe it took till the middle of January for us to get snow that actually stayed on the grass for longer than 24 hours. Crazy. Cason stared out the window throughout the entire day that it snowed. And the next morning he was ready to go out with Trav to shovel the sidewalks. I can't tell you how adorable he looked in all his snow stuff. He loved being able to use his shovel for actual snow instead of sand. Thank you for snowing snow!

Christmas is officially over

Today was the first weekend we had where it was nice and sunny and we weren't busy. Which meant we could finally take down our Christmas lights. It was sad. I hate when Christmas Day is over. Everyone is tired, all the yummy food is gone (or you're too stuffed to eat more of it), and everything is just over. I kept my tree up for a week after and I hated taking it down and putting everything away. Why do the holidays have to pass by so quickly?I miss them already and I miss my tree! Now that everything is put away and all the excitement of the holidays are over I finally have time to blog. And my blog is all Christmas-y! Oye. The clean up is never ending!

We had an awesome Christmas. My sister came into town so everyone from my family was here and ready to celebrate! We started the season off with celebrating our six-year anniversary! We went to Red Lobster (our favorite place) and then saw the new Sherlock Holmes (yes, it was awesome).We attended three family Christmas parties in one weekend! Both of them had a pinata, which Cason loved!Our very first 7.5' Christmas tree! Isn't she a beauty! It was huge! Covered the entire corner of the room (which we had to rearrange). But I loved it! Cason helped us cover the thing in ornaments and I did all the lights (yes, there were probably way too many). Yep, definitely miss the tree.Chrsitmas day was wonderful! We had our little Christmas at our house. This is Cason with his favorite toy, a stocking stuffer. A pez dispenser in the shape of a truck. He carried this around with him all day long! And still asks me all the time for his truck. If I would have known I wouldn't have spent the extra money on a huge buzz lightyear that he's hardly played with. Live and learn. After our Christmas we got all gussied up for church and I thought it would be a great time to take a family picture by the tree. I find it ironic that the practice picture came out just as great as the real one (how can that cheesier not make you smile)-Our family picture, still just as great...although I think my belly is taking up the whole picture of the tree. Good thing it was a big one.After all of that we spent the rest of the day up in Salt Lake. His other favorite toy, a scooter from his Nana and Papa. We ended up taking him and his cousin to the church so they could ride them around. They love them! We had lots of family time after the holiday since my sister was in town. This is my favorite picture from the whole week's worth of activities. Cason playing with the mic from Rock Band-New Years we spent with Travis' family. We over ate, played games, watched silly cartoons, and enjoyed fire works (from the window of course). It was one fabulous holiday after another!

Happy New Year!

Temple Square Beauty

LAST weekend (I know, I can never seem to stay on top of it) we went to see the lights at Temple Square. I thought it would be so fun to walk around and see the lights, the temple in all it's glory, and to have some extra time with family. Turns though it was kind of a chaotic mess. Cason was so uncomfortable in his hundreds of layers that it was just one thing after another. Yes to gloves, no to gloves, yes to hat, no to hat, needs a snack but can't eat a snack because his fingers are cold, wants the light, drops the light, needs a blanket, won't wear the blanket, and on and so forth...oye. It was exhausting. The lights were beautiful and Cason absolutely loved seeing the temple but it was stressful. When we got in the car to go home Trav and I both had huge headaches and were wondering if it was worth it all. Guess we'll see when and if we decide to go next year. BUT, I did score a couple good pictures-

Actually my sister got this one for me-And this shot is traditional for me and Trav- I totally love that we're both wearing beaniesLove this shot I scored, beauty-

If you went to see the lights this year I hope you had better luck than we did. And if you haven't yet, good luck!

How important is dinner really??

Cason is finally at that age where dinner is a nightmare!! I don't doubt that all Mom's go through this but what do I do? He just turned two, I don't know if he understands, 'you have to eat your dinner and then you can have a treat.' And is cheese considered a treat? Or an extra piece of bread? I mean, at least he's eating, right? But then he never eats the main dish, is that a big deal? Do I continue being strict and tough on him hoping that he'll eventually catch on? Do I stress myself out making him take more bites so that he can have more bread? Is it worth the fight? Should I wait until he gets a little older till I know he understands? Say three, maybe?
Every night I walk away from dinner with a massive headache because it's such a fight and I don't know if I can do it anymore. I don't know if it's even necessary that I do it anymore. I want my kid to eat what he needs to to grow strong and big and I want him to develop good habits while he's young so that it's not an even bigger issue later but is it worth it right now? Do I keep making him go to bed with only two bites of dinner because he didn't eat the main course? Or should I be more flexible and let him eat what he wants as long as it's the good stuff, like cheese, applesauce, yogurt, or bread? Help! What do I do??