Pretty Much Sums it UP!

This shot pretty much sums up his day! Harrison wanted to eat his birthday dinner at Chili's so after we spent some time at Nonie and Papa's we headed over to his favorite place to eat. I am so blessed to have such a WONDERFUL little boy! Where did the time go.... he is 4 and it just seems like yesterday we were on our way home from the hospital with him. Happy Birthday sweet man! I LOVE you!

More of Harrison's Special Day

After a good time at the Pumpkin patch, we celebrated with Nonie and Papa, Nina and PapDad, Don and me. What a good time we had opening presents, eating cookie cake and playing with Harrison's new presents! I am so glad that we were able to celebrate with Nonie and Papa, and Harrison just adores them both too, so everyone was HAPPY!
Presents from Mommy and Daddy and the cookie cake that I made for my little man!
The cookie cake that I made.... not to bad for my first time.... IT WAS SOOO GOOD and tasted so much better then the Great American Cookie Company!
May all your wishes come true sweet man!

What he wanted the most! Wall-E the robot!
Nonie and Papa got him a bike and he was a speed racer on it! Thanks Nonie and Papa!

Harrison's Special Day

For Harrison's actual birthday he got to plan the whole day... (for the most part). He had been talking about the pumpkin patch that we went to last year, so i did some research and found one closer to home.... Kaska Family Farm.....( the adults were not impressed, however Harrison had fun and so did his little buddy Camden that was able to join us)! Below are a few pictures from the pumpkin patch! The rest of the pics from his special day will be in future posts!
ENJOY!

My Little Pumpkin is 4!
Nina, PapDad, and Harrison
Harrison playing in the CORN Box. Like a sand box with corn kernels!
Rubber Ducky race!
Harrison and PapDad on the hayride!
Daddy and Harrison shooting the corn cannon!
Harrison and Camden. CHEESE!
Harrison climbed the top of the hay hill!

Harrison's B-Day Party at School

The Friday before Harrison's birthday he celebrated at school. Below are the only 2 pics i was able to get... a room full of three and four year old boys and girls.... need I say more! I am grateful that he has such wonderful teachers to take care of all of them. They welcomed me and my good friend Jennifer that day for a few minuets of BIRTHDAY FUN!

The SUPER cute ice cream cone cupcakes I made for the class at Harrison's school. They are super easy and oh so cute! I had heard of them, but never made them, an added bonus: kids eat the WHOLE thing rather than just the icing from the top of the cup cake!
The love of my life...Happy Birthday "Little Man"

Have You Met Oliver???

Welcome the newest member to the Masten Family....Oliver! Don and I are suckers for dogs and we went to Canton this weekend and came back with Oliver! SERIOUSLY, we went the whole weekend with no purchase and then on the last day we were there we find Oliver and he suckered us in! He is a SNORKIE, a toy Schnauzer and a toy Yorkie. He is 14 weeks old and is not going to get much bigger than he already is. He weighs 5.5 pounds and will not get bigger than 7.5 pounds. He is TINY and oh so cute! Take a look for your self.... how could you not love this face!
Hi i'm Oliver!
Look at that face!!! OMG!
This pic makes him look big, but he is so tiny!

Family Pics

My good friend Lyndsey was in town the other day and took our family pictures for us! WHAT AN AWESOME JOB she did! Thank you so much for taking so much time with us! On the other hand my check book does not thank her in the least bit. You can see a sneak peak at Lyndsey's Blog. The family pic that she posted is not even the good one. I can't wait to buy it up to plaster a wall in my house with them!
Thanks again Lyndsey I can't wait to "work" with you again!

I heart the HOT Fair and Rodeo

It's fair time in Waco and I love this time of year! Not sure why I just do, maybe its because i have such a cute little cowboy to take with me now! Ha!

My little cowboy!
Harrison:" Mom you take way to many pictures of me!!!"
Me:" I know, but you are sooo cute!, please act like you like this!"

Happy Birthday to ME!

For my birthday in August... yes i know it is October?!?!?! Don and I were able to celebrate it with good food, friends, and fun! My birthday falls on labor day weekend so i was able to spend one of the evenings with all of my favorite people! Thanks for such a good time!
Don and Harrison also worked very hard on a Surprise party on my actual birthday, it was very small just for us and my family. They did a great job, Harrison planned the whole thing and was even able to get Don to take him to the party store to get things for it. It was super cute Harrison chose Strawberry Shortcake as the theme and Nemo cupcakes for cake! What a great hubby and little boy i have! The party was at Nonie's house so that they could be a part of it since Nonie is home bound i was greatful to be able to celebrate with her one more year!
I was really surprised and enjoyed the afternoon, now if i could just get my dad to email me the pics it would be GREAT! So stay tuned, i will post those soon enough!
Below are the pics from our night out with friends at one of my favorite places: GEORGES!


Me and Don
Jacob and Jennifer
Sarah and Dannie
Ashley and Darren
Alisha and Me

Update for September

I know it has been a while and so like i promised in the previous post, i thought i would take some time to fill you all in. September 1 i started a new position at the Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children. I am now the Emergency Services Coordinator, there are two of us that fill this role, I am the "supervisor" for lack of better words of the volunteers who answer our crisis line and respond to local hospitals with victims of sexual assault. I also am now the case manager for the adult victims that go to the hospital. With this change means that i have had to rearrange our schedules, as i am on call one week and off the next. On call not meaning that i am working, but meaning that i am fielding all questions and calls from the advocate on call or possibly going to the hospital if i do not have an advocate! I LOVE THIS JOB. I am so happy to go to work and be right in the middle of helping the people of my community. For any one interested in becoming an advocate, ask me about it...if you decide it is for you, you will forever be changed person. What a rewarding job it is! I JUST LOVE IT!

Don started teaching school on the first as well. He loves it! He likes it even better now that when he is at the school, at least he gets paid to be there! What an honor it was for him to be asked to teach school the very next year after turning out! I am so proud of him and the life that he is working so hard to provide for us! He is so dedicated to being a great provider!

Harrison adjusted well to Preschool and was recently the star of the week. He is a "helper" almost everyday and there are days when it is hard for me to get him to leave. As i am writing this, I can not believe that i am about to have a 4 year old. Where did the time go? He is not a baby anymore:( Oh how i miss him being tiny, but he is still my cuddle bug!

Well that is really what has been going on with us in the month of September, i cant believe that is already OCTOBER! My how time flies when you are having FUN!

So what I'm a SLACKER

I know I know, how lame am I. A whole month went by and not one post! Not that anything was not happening, believe me it was. This last month was a learning month for the Masten family. I recently was promoted at work and we are adjusting to new schedules and moving things around so that it works for us... i do have some pics from the last month. I promise to get to those pics tonight. I hope that everyone is doing well and having as much fun as we are. We have lots to share and can't wait to hear from everyone about their last month!

First Day of Pre K3

OMG! I can not believe Harrison started PRE K on Monday. Where does the time go? He is such a big man now, and believe me, he lets me know! I was all prepared for a break down because he would be in a new class... NO SIR! He walked right in and never looked back... i wasn't even granted a kiss...WHAT? How can this be that my little man who gladly ran across the room to give me a kiss each and every morning since he could walk... would not come and hug or kiss me good bye.... i hung around waiting...with hopes that he would have a change of heart.... NOPE! What? I turned and headed out the door and tears began to roll down my face! My baby is not a baby! Then to make it worse for me, when i returned to pick him up, he started to cry and tell me that "he was not done at big boy school"..... another knife to the heart! He had a fantastic day and now he didn't want to leave to tell me all about it! We finally made it to the car and he was able to tell me about all the fun things he did that day! I just can not believe that i have a little boy that is in PRE-K!

Harrison will have two years of pre-school because of his October birthday, so Don and I have decided that we will keep him at First Baptist this year and use this year to find a school that we want to enroll him in for the last year of PRE-K.

After school we visited Nonie and Papa and Nina and he told them all about his day in big boy school!

Harrison on his first day of Pre K3
Another one mom?
Mom, ENOUGH already!
Harrison and Papa
Harrison and Nonie

Margarita and Salsa Festival

For the last three years Don and I have volunteered for the Arthritis Foundation at Margarita and Salsa Festival. We help in the contest part of the night, which is great, because we get to sample all of the goodies and then enjoy the great music. This years music was a good line up: KEVIN FOWLER, JOE NICHOLS, and PAT GREEN. We had fun and were able to get some good pics from the night!
Don and Me
Becky and Me-Becky is the person that got us involved with volunteering. I work with her at the Advocacy Center and she soon became a friend that i know i will have for life!
Phil, Me and Don- Don used to work with Phil and seems as though we catch back up with him each year at Margarita and Salsa
Joel and Don-they work together...apparently they are gansta' here--HA! Joel and Me-I JUST LOVE HIM!

Friday Night Camp Out

Friday night after a long week, Don decided that he wanted to stay in and watch a movie and order take out... we went to Best Buy and bought Swiss Family Robinson... I forgot how much I liked that movie. What a blast from the past it was, Harrison really enjoyed the movie, and how could he not, it has all of his favorite things in it...PIRATES, ANIMALS of all kinds, and the OCEAN! Before we started the movie we thought we would build a tent or as the men in my life so politely told me it is not a TENT, it is a FORT! We had so much fun and we all fell asleep in the FORT. I guess life really is about the little things! Here are a few pictures of our camp out.

Don and Harrison making the tent that was as almost as big as the whole living room
Say cheese for Mommy!
Harrison and Mommy in the tent taking the famous self-portrait!
Family Self Portrait
Don and Harrison in the tent intently watching the movie-look how they are sitting the same way- Harrison is a mini-Don!

Cute Beach Cupcakes!!

Tomorrow is Harrison's end of Summer Party at school. Here is a pic of the cupcakes that I made for it. Cute Beach Cupcakes.... can you tell we still want to be at the BEACH! Those are Teddy Grahams swimming in the ocean and the sand is Graham crackers that are ground into fine powder.... and what beach wouldn't be complete with out a BEACH UMBRELLA( drink umbrella)! I know the kiddos will love these! But with the end of summer party also comes promotion to the next room....PRE-SCHOOL! WHAT..... PRE-SCHOOL...where is my baby at? The time has gone way to fast!

More Port Aransas Pics

Brooke and Mindi... Brooke was able to come down the Friday before we left and spend some time with us. We had lots of fun with her. Harrison adores her. Once she was there, no one else mattered!
A sand castle that we found one night while at the beach

Mindi and Don...LOVE HIM!
Mommy and Harrison...again! I told you I just can't get enough!
The pirate skeleton at Moby Dicks...Yummy place to eat on the island!
Old car at Moby Dicks
Mindi, Harrison and Don at Mobby Dicks