Sweet Baby Mason & Sweet's Candy Factory

I realized that I haven't updated my blog for almost 3 weeks, and nothing too exciting has happened since then, so you'll have to live with a few pictures of Mason.....and the news that he is finally sleeping 9-10 hours at night!!! Yipee!! I think I'm in heaven. I forgot how wonderful it is to get a full nights sleep. I feel so refreshed and have so much energy. Hopefully this is not just a phase and he keeps it up. So far he has slept about 5 nights in a row and about 10 total.

He is the happiest baby. When he's awake, he is so pleasant and smiley. We love to play with him and make him laugh. Oh, he also started sucking his thumb!! As many of you remember, Camille sucked her thumb until she was three, so if Mason is as easy as Camille was, at breaking the habit, then we have no worries.

Camille got to go to Sweet's Candy Factory in Salt Lake on Wednesday for Preschool. I convinced Jared to go along with me, since taking three kids is a huge ordeal. Anyway, we had a great time taking the tour and an even better time wearing the hair nets. Even Mason had to wear one. Garet was pretty leary at first, but he soon forgot about it when they gave him some candy to sample. Yummy! They are most known for making Salt Water Taffy, Cinnamon Bears, and Orange Sticks. This picture is Camille modeling her hair net from the factory. I'm not sure what kind of face she is trying to pull:)

We had to get a picture of Mason with his hair net on!Also, one more bit of good news is that Garet is finally potty trained! After the holidays he decided it was time to do it. That's all it took, him deciding and he hasn't had any accidents! What a big boy, we are so proud of him.
Garet and cousin Isaac holding baby Jesus on Christmas Eve for the Nativity! So sweet. They are best buddies. Garet calls him "Ike". This is the only boy cousin out of 7, Garet has, so we are especially grateful for Mason.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Kids make it so fun! We were so excited, that Jared and I woke up before the kids. They didn't wake up until 8:00a.m. Anway, I realized today that I don't have any pictures of Christmas morning:( We took a bunch of video, but no pictures, so that really stinks. Oh well.

The Saturday before Christmas we had a family Christmas party with my family. We went to an Elk farm up in Liberty where they take you on a horse drawn sleigh ride to see the elk. It was snowing and cold, but absolutely gorgeous. As you can see from the picture below we are bundled from head to toe. Mason is the green blob inside my coat. He is such a good baby. He slept the entire time. We are so thankful he is so good.

The big Buck!

This is the sleigh. The people who have this farm are my brother-in-laws neighbors or should I say his parent's neighbors and as you can see they have two giant dogs that like to come along for the ride also. They kept our feet nice and toasty.

My good friend Mary Ann, who lives in Idaho now (boo-hoo) did this awesome post on her blog for Christmas. She wrote about the top 10 people that made her holiday great. I thought it was a wonderful idea, so I'm going to copy. I hope you don't mind Mary Ann!!

#1 - My husband. He is so generous and uses his many talents to bless everyone. He built the cork/magnet board for my friend Mary Ann because he is so sweet. Whenever I need anything he is willing to engineer and build it exactly how I want it.

#2 - My sweet baby Mason. He is so mellow and good. I don't know what I'd do without him. He brings such a sweet spirit to our home. He helped me focus on the true meaning of Christmas this year. He was our baby Jesus for family night:) #3 - Camille and Garet. They are such great kids. They are so obedient and sweet. They were the highlight of my Christmas. Watching their faces on Christmas morning is like nothing else in the whole world. #4 - Grandma and Grandpa Taylor - They came to our house on Christmas Day and are the best Grandparents to our kids. They are the most loving, generous people and would do anything for us. We love you!

#5 - Grandma and Grandpa Cable - We got to visit them on Christmas Day and they are also the best Grandparents to our kids. Thanks so much for the thoughtful gifts. I love that they are willing to babysit anytime. You are great.

#6 - My brother Jake. He is on a mission in Fiji and we got to talk to him on Christmas Day. He will be home in six months! Thanks Jake for your example. I have learned so much from you!

#7 - Jason and Melissa (Jared's brother and his wife) - We had a great time at their house on New Year's Eve. Thanks for letting us stay. We love you guys and the closeness we have. Melissa, you will be one of the greatest mom's I know! Thanks for being so great with our kids. They love you to death.

#8 - My cousin Kandie and her husband Steve. We had a great time hanging out with you on New Year's Day. Camille and Garet had so much fun with your kids. We'll miss you when you move to Florida. Cousins Forever!!

We were roommates at Snow College. This is a picture of us - back in the day!!

#9 - My sisters - I love you all so much. Kendra, thanks so much for the awesome nursing blanket, I love it so much. You are such a great friend. Love ya tons. Carly, you are such a super mom! Wow, I hope I can be as good of a mom, cook, decorator, fashion designer, sewer, hair dresser, etc. when I grow up:) You are so talented. Collette, thanks for letting me come visit on New Year's Day. It was great to talk and get to know you better. We miss you not living close. You are such a cute little mom. It is so fun to see all my "little" sisters turn into grown up mom's. Kaydi, you are such a sweetheart. I love that you love the kids so much. They adore you and look up to you so much! Camille wants to be just like you.

#10 - The thing I am most thankful for is the gospel. Jared's Grandpa Davies died on December 30th, his funeral was on Saturday, Jan. 3rd. I was reminded of how blessed we are to have the knowledge that we have of the plan of salvation. I know we will see him again someday, and that he is happy now with his siblings and parents. It was a great funeral for an incredible man. My hubby is a lot like him.

Their are many more things I could list, but I don't want this to be boring, so I have one more funny story. On Christmas Day Jared's family all came to our house for Christmas dinner and then his parents spent the night at our house. That night we put the kids to bed and Garet was so wound up. He didn't want to go to bed. We were down in the family room talking and we came upstairs about 45 minutes later and look what we found....

Yep, that is Garet fast asleep on the stairs!!! We got a good laugh out of that. Christmas wore him right out:)