It's May tommorrow!! What??!?!

So April has officially gone way too fast! I really wanted to do at least one post a month, and I'm cutting it a little close this month!
I have some great news... I'm officially a licensed PTA in ND! yay! I passed my board exam and received my license. It is officially over. I wish I could express the joy this brings me! It has been what feels like a very very very long road, but I think it only feels that way because of all the other things life has brought during this time. But alas it is over and I'm really proud of  myself for sticking with it and finishing. I'm very grateful for my dear hubby who has put up with being left home alone a lot, and lots of his hard earned money being spent on tuition, books, travel and stuff that has to do with school. And on top of it all, he is so good to me, because we both knew all of this was just for "in case" scenarios. I have never planned on working enough to justify doing this, but felt it was something I needed to do "just in case" something happened to Brian and I needed to work to support our family. Anyways he has been a champ and put up with me doing this and we are both grateful to be done! Enough said on that! I'm sure those that might read this are tired of hearing about SJC and me complaining about it... so everyone should be a little happier now! :)

On to better things....
Madi and Mason are quite the duo. Madi has adjusted and is doing much better with the Mason man and he has started smiling and trying to talk when she comes up to his face... and she definitely gets nice and close so he can see her! Madi loves her little brother and is super sweet to him most of the time. Prime example: I was leaving for a church meeting and Mason was coming with me, Madi and Brian would come later, so on my way out the door, Madi leans in Mason's carseat and whispers to him, "Bye Mason, be safe! I love you little buddy." then she proceeded to tell me to be careful of the lions, alligators, bears, and tigers on my way to church. :) Who knew those creatures lived here in the coldness of ND?? ha ha ha But I love how she always calls him little buddy.... I think that's my favorite.

So Mason recently hit 8 weeks and tomorrow will be his 2 month mark! Crazy how fast little babies grow. He is such a great baby and I feel so grateful he is the way he is. :) I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father knew I needed a baby that could co-exist with miss Madi... ha ha ha

Mason has started smiling and really lighting up when he hears voices he recognizes and sees familiar faces. He has also started trying to "talk", however most of the time it comes out like a wheezy shriek, it is pretty funny. Every once and a while he gets a nice little coo out though. :)

Here are some pictures of the little man:

Well sort of, I was trying to get our first whole family picture, not sure how we still dont really have one, but these were the closest we have - notice miss Panda even made it.

So here is a surprise... Mason enjoys his car seat! I know right? Who knew that some babies really did like to go on rides, I always thought people were crazy... but turns out they weren't lying, it really is a true thing!

 The Armstrong's hold an annual March Madness NCAA bracket tourney... that's right - my hubby won the trophy this year! woot woot

 I'm trying to do a monthly picture with the giraffe so we can see growth... hopefully I can remember the 1st of every month....

 All but Brian went to Rexburg to celebrate cousin C's birthday!! My children love their aunties!!

 All the grand babies together!!

 Isn't he such a sweet boy? Look at that super cute face!

 Because I'm so late blogging we are going to travel back in time to Easter... Madi and I did some serious egg dying, and we took it to a whole new level. Ha ha ha ha :) I had two goals in mind for egg dying this year, #1 I wanted Madi to be able to do it and have fun  and #2 I wanted to make a project with the cool egg shells.
So if you have read previous posts you know my disgust towards artificial dyes, especially red dye #40, well Easter tends to bring out all the beautiful colors and dyes you can think of. So this year we tried something new! We made our own dyes! It was definitely more work, but so much more enjoyable, as I wasn't nearly as concerned about madi ingesting awfulness into her little system that would in turn create awfulness for our household!

So here is what we did... We used orange peels and carrot shavings, red cabbage, raspberries, blueberries, and paprika mixed with chili powder.

 Here is the finished product! Definately not as fun or bright as kool aid dyes or food color dyes, but I still thought they looked pretty good for being all natural. From left to right in both rows: blueberries, orange/carrot, raspberries, broccoli (a last minute addition so didnt make the photo shoot cut above), red cabbage, and paprika/chili powder.

 The back third row were eggs we left in their dyes overnight... they turned out a little darker!

 And here you will see our easter egg hunt! Not many can say they did it in snow I bet! :) The blessings of living in ND!

 It was so much fun for Madi, she found a few eggs... then spotted the mud! And off she went, never to look back! She got stuck many many times, requiring a little assistance to get out with her boots still on her feet!

And here are some pics of the Madi girl:

She is so much fun and always good for a giggle... Here she was telling me it was a "beautiful day" and "so nice and warm!"

 I would like to point out the crookedness of the pants she has on at this point.... oh and yes the snow in the background...

 And ahhh some help from mom to really be dressed for our, "nice and warm, beautiful" day.

 Madi loves her cousin "Wyssa" and is always so excited to see her!! The bonus is "Wyssa" will take miss Madi in the pool, while her mom (ahem, myself) will not....

 It was a very long road trip from Williston to Rexburg, then Rexburg to Pateros, and Pateros to Williston... over the span of 10 days....

 The bonus of going to Grammie's house... is the BUNNIES. Madi has found her nitch...

 Alyssa's bunnies are so well handled that the handling of a 3 yr old, doesn't even bother them. She was packing them throughout the house, trying to pack them in her backpack....

Here we have the hunters!! Madi and Daisy teamed up to find the rock chucks yipping in the wood piles...

 Madi was able to go to the circus! My good friend has a daughter close to Madi in age and they get along really well, so one night they took her to the circus while I was at mutual and Brian was out of town. She had SO MUCH FUN!! She has talked about it a bunch since then... in fact I'm still hearing about it. :)

Feeling Grateful

I am so blessed. When I look back and reflect upon all that happened leading up to Mason's birth and everything that happened after, it is amazing to see how much Heavenly Father looks out for us.
Let me just tell you about it...
Item #1: Because I love being pregnant so much (if this is your first time reading, this is a very sarcastic remark and you can find my true feelings in a previous post) I had asked my mom to come about a week before my scheduled day of delivery... I had a list of things that I wanted to get done before the baby came... and my list was long and there were many things involving heavy lifting/moving and my SI joint was screaming at me saying please don't try to do it alone!! So in the week before Mason was born my mom and I were able to tackle my list, and the 2 things that made me so happy were getting all my carpets shampooed and cleaned, as well as moving some painted trim into the shed... It felt so great to get those 2 things checked off as they had been bothering me for sometime.... We then proceeded to complete many other items on the list... It made it so much easier to come home after Mason was born... My house was clean, organized and Mason's room was all set up for him to come home and sleep peacefully in his cute room. I'm so grateful my mom was willing to come and be put to work! So very nice that she knew what she was getting into and still came and helped me get my checklist done. I'm so grateful she can come when I need her as well!
Next item #2: Choosing to go to Bismarck was much more of a blessing than we anticipated.... So grateful we were already there so it wasn't a big deal to have him shipped off to the NICU. If we would have been in Williston, I'm not sure how it would have gone, but Mason would have been flighted to Bismarck and I imagine Brian would have gone with, then I would have been stuck in Williston in the hospital until they would release me... That would have been sad.... So that is why this makes the list again! :)
Item #3: Family! Always a blessing and I'm always grateful that we have such supportive loving families... When we learned Mason would be staying for at least 10 days, we knew Madison would need some one on one time and attention. My in-laws said they could come to Bismarck and take Madi back with them... This was a huge help... Madi had been doing awesome in the hospital, but there is only so long you can ask a 3 yr old to "shhh, be quiet, sit still, don't run, you can't yell, etc." She needed to be able to be all Madi again... She loved the Ronald McDonald house too, but it was hard because she would be playing and we would need to go back to the hospital, running back and forth every 3 hours... so you can imagine how ready she was to be able to be back on her schedule and have a little more attention. It was awesome that my in-laws were willing to take Madi for a few days.
Item #4: Turns out there are a couple perks to having your baby go to the NICU... the first 3 days he wasn't eating anything, just on IV fluids... so I was able to sleep all night long for the first 3 days. :) Also when you have a surprise baby and you have no boy clothes, it was a great opportunity to get all the shopping out of the way... I was able to hit up an awesome 2nd hand store to buy a bunch of little onsies (I have this problem of I hate buying onsies full price... especially for newborns, I find it ridiculous that they cost as much as they do, and the baby will wear it for maybe a month... maybe.. anyways that is why I am a fan of 2nd hand stores for baby clothes, especially onsies) carrying on..... as I had none that were for a boy. :) Really didn't think we were having a boy... ha ha  And we also got the fun shopping done for him, and of course some for Madi... The shopping in Williston consists of Wal-mart.... and JC Penny's... so I was glad to shop other stores and found some super cute outfits! Made it a little easier when we would have to leave the little man at the hospital... Plus what better way to get all the C-section aches and pains out than walking around shopping... :)
Item #5: So grateful that my body can actually rebound after being through the strains and pains of pregnancy. My SI joint feels so much better... and it feels SO good to bend over and put my shoes on! And sleeping is amazing now! No more struggles to get out of bed or simply turn over... Love that! It is again amazing to go to bed... :)
Item #6: I'm so grateful for amazing sister-in-laws who took the time to do some shopping for me and sent us a great package! They sent a bunch of little boy clothes and it was great, like I said before he didn't have anything when we left for the hospital... and we came home to a package on the doorstep full of fun, cute boy clothes!  There were a bunch of outfits and more onsies... it was awesome, and I'm so grateful they took the time to do that for me, well us because poor mason would have just been wrapped in blankets! :)
Item #7: So grateful for awesome people that live here that are willing to bring us dinner! We had dinner for 3 nights brought to us and it was awesome! I love not having to make dinner... and we were spoiled as everything was very tasty and so yummy!
And I'm grateful for friends that drive long distances to see us in the hospital and bring Madison little things to keep her occupied and happy as well!
Item #8: I'm so thankful Mason is here and he is healthy and home! And I'm so excited to have a boy! I thought boys were boring... but turns out they aren't... and there are cute clothes for them! Who knew?!? ha ha It is exciting to have a boy and a girl, and I'm so grateful for our little family. I'm grateful for a 2nd child and for realizing now how precious the first couple of weeks are and how fast they go by... I spend a little extra time snuggling and gazing at him, because I know I didn't realize how fast it would go by when Madi was born... I'm so grateful that we have a 2nd child to admire and enjoy the newborn stage again. :) They are so precious when they are so recently delivered from heaven.
Item #9: So grateful for an awesome camera... :) I did an attempt on a baby photo shoot with Mason... I'm far from professional, and definitely still learning, but I got a few I really liked and I'm going to try and get a few more in the next couple of days... I'm trying for the "hands propping up the face" pic... ha ha we shall see if I ever accomplish it. Anyways so the following pictures are an attempt on my part to capture the newborn look before its gone. Let me know of any tips or ideas you have for me... I used mostly my 50 mm 1.4 lens, and then a little with just the standard lens it came with. So if you have ideas or tips or tricks I would love to know... Because mostly I'm using a book I bought about using the camera, pinterest, and google...  And let me know which one is your favorite! Enjoy! I know some are similar and look almost the same... but ya know... that is how pics go with me I guess. :)

I want to use this picture somehow in a frame and use this as the "V" in LOVE... not quite sure how to do it yet.. but I plan to make it happen... somehow. :)

He has funny feet... and they kind of do whatever a lot of the time.. This one kept popping out from the blanket... I thought it was funny...

He has his daddy's head/hair..... some awesome cowlicks!! I feel it will be an adventure to learn how to tame his locks. :)

Here are just some random pics from my phone:

When he gets his diaper changed he stretches out his legs as far as they can go!! I think it's funny!

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Sweet precious children sleeping! I love it!

I thought this was hilarious! He slept with his hands like this for over an hour! Contemplating the struggles of eating, sleeping, and pooping?

This is how our first day without my mom ended... Sometimes pj's just aren't that important... I'm pretty sure I looked about the same! It was rough... but we all made it to bed... eventually!

Fun at the library... Madi loves going to her story time, and they always do an activity after... but this was the first she had ever seen the parachute... she loved it... oh how she loved it. :)

Here is an example of a super cute outfit from the aunties!

Madison doing her part as a big sister to help out. :) As of right now the binkey patrol is about all she likes to help out with. Can't seem to get her to put the dirty diapers in the garbage :(
Mason had his newborn well baby, and at 2 1/2 weeks he weighs 8lbs 14 oz.!! which puts him in the 50th percentile, and he is still 21 1/4" long which is the 75th percentile! Ya... we are shocked too.. ha ha not sure how long he can hold out for the upper end for height, we as his parents didn't pass along much  of it... but perhaps his Pappy and Grandpa are coming through. :)

That's all for now! 2 posts in one month... don't want to over do it.. :) Plus I have 2 weeks until the big BIG test... and I should be studying instead of playing with my camera and blogging... So back to the blasted books...
On April 8th make sure you say a little prayer for me to remember all those things I've studied!

Chau!