Happy 9th Birthday, Parker!

Happy Birthday, Park! I can't believe he's 9!!! Where does the time go??? Parker had a great birthday this year. The best for him was going to the Blues hockey game and seeing the Dallas Stars. And as great as that was... He also loved getting presents, eating at HIS favorite restaurant, Chili's (he always gets the ribs), mom's homemade chocolate cake, and the never ending sleepover with his friends and his trademark..."midnight snack"!

These pictures are out of order, but you'll get the idea.
Grandma and Grandpa Thompson got Parker 4 new additions to his Webkinz collection.

Nanny got Parker the Iron Man DVD with bonus Ironman cartoon.

Of course a birthday would not be complete without SOMETHING new for hockey! He's been wanting this 195 Hockey stick that brother got for his birthday and has had to wait so long that he gave it a big hug and a kiss...literally! He was very happy!

The real mini hockey set or "shinny hockey" as the boys call it. Now they each have a real goal rather than mom's laundry baskets to use as goals. (Chris' fingers were in front of the flash that's why a few pics are shadowed.)

And his first present... the official NHL mini stick for the St. Louis Blues. He's wanting to collect all the NHL teams and hang them on his wall in his room. I guess we'll see. (Oh and as a side note to these pictures.... the scrape above Parker's right eye is where the puck hit him earlier in the day. They were playing outside without their helmets on and took one in the face. Needless to say...He loves it and thinks it's so cool!)

All in all, he had a great birthday! Tons of hockey stuff (stick, mini hockey, trading cards, mini stick), a few DVD's and PS2 and DS games, and as always, Parker's favorite....cold hard cash! Happy Birthday post (a little late), Parker! His birthday was on Saturday, October 25th.

Seeing Stars???

For Parker's birthday, he wanted to go to a hockey game and see his favorite team, the Dallas Stars play. The Stars are only playing at the Blues game twice this season, so we had to go the week before his birthday. As we all walk in and are sporting our St. Louis Blues apparel (NHL Hockey for those of you already lost) or just our blue and gold...Parker has on his Dallas Stars jersey and some green mardi gras beads and is already for this game. My poor soon to be 9 years old is getting booed by random drunk guys and thinks it's great as he's yelling "Let's go Stars!" in the middle of a Blues game. (I'm not kidding...he's my wayward child, i swear!) We had such a great time though! We made sure to get some nose bleed seats so he could "see the whole game and not miss anything" and he got to bring his best bud Nick and I got a babysitter for Mason, so it really was a great evening. Of course we spent just about as much money on concessions as we did the tickets, but he was so happy....they all were really lovin' it! The sad news was that the Blues WON 6-1 and his Dallas Stars lost. He was sad, but when the Blues score 5 goals or more, you get a free blizzard at DQ and he forgot all about his Dallas Stars! Thanks for an awesome birthday party, Park!
Parker at his soon to be 9 Birthday party! He was SOOOOO happy!

Parker and his best friend, Nick at the game.

Mom and Parker enjoying some rivalry time! "GO BLUES! GO STARS!"

I wasn't kidding we were in the nose bleeds! This was the last minute of the game and where they were so far ahead, the place had cleared out, but was really full.

The 4 boys enjoying the game. Evan really got into and asked before we even left "When are we going to a Blues game again?" He's so cute!

Mason's First Steps

Chunky Monkey has decided that it's time to grow up and start walking. He took a few steps when Chris was out of town last week and by the time he got home on Sunday this is what he was doing. It's so fun to see how excited he gets just standing there clapping for himself. He will walk anywhere for as long as you want him to as long as he has one finger. Once the finger is gone he'll do about 10 steps and start laughing and fall. He's growing up sooooooo fast. He is officially my slowest to walk and yet he's just past his one year birthday. Good job, Mase!!

Mason's Presents/Toys

To finish off the night, we had a few presents for Mason to open. I think he was so excited it had nothing to do with cake, he would have been happy to just go to bed (it was close to 10 pm by this point and half his problem was that he was tired). He didn't understand that he was to open presents and toys because of course they come in a square box with so many security measures to get through! I swear! Do we have nothing better to do that twist each one of those metal things on and have an average of what...10 a package? And don't even get me started on the zip ties!
He did like the wrapping the paper (after the kids gave him space and a chance to try it himself.)
Those looking onward to see what the next new toy was going to be!
Someone a little happy about that vacuum? You know you vacuum way to much when your one year old immediately knows what to do with it and the sounds it make. After Evan, Chris swore we would never have another vacuum (Evan was the only one thanks to some neighbors who had one and got Evan hooked), but I knew how much Evan loved it and figured Mason would too!
Our little muscle man. He was so proud of this vacuum that night. He didn't want to go to bed after getting this toy. Thanks to all who helped make his birthday special and thanks to our friends, the Dawson's for coming over and helping us celebrate! (oh! And introducing the vacuum and many other "girlie" items to Evan!) The End.

Bathtime AFTER the cake!

Bathtime is Mason's all time favorite thing in the whole wide world! If he's crying for any reason, he will ALWAYS stop and do a 180 and be so happy for the bathtub. How can you not eat up those eyes?!!
He loves the bath! He got more icing on his face from crying and rubbing his eyes than anything else. He loved getting all cleaned up for his "party". Bring on the fun!

Mason's 1st Birthday... the CAKE!!!

Wow things have been crazy with Chris gone over a week and also realizing it's been OVER a week since I've posted. The worst was realizing I haven't posted Chunky's First Birthday.... what a bad mom I am! So here's a few of the classic pictures with his cake:

Why is everybody looking at me?
What should I be doing with this big thing on my high chair?
Nope!!! I don't like it! It has too many calories and will make me fat!
As you can see from Parker's reaction shot in the background, we were all surprised when our Chunky Monkey, Mason, decided to chuck his cake OVERBOARD instead of eating it and playing in it like most one year olds like to do. (By the way, nice action shot, babe!)

More cake!

So he finally looked like he might just like this after all.....
As he thinks to himself... WHAT IS THIS???.... (Now starts the music......)
Oh YES he did! He hated it so much that if you notice in the picture we had cake flying everywhere! So much for trying to save "around" the highchair with a tablecloth on the ground. Ohhhhh no! We had it all the way behind him on the counters - to on the carpet ~10 feet in front of him! He went ballistic over this cake thing. (again to Chris... great action shot!)
We gave him one more shot to try to eat it or like it and he just wasn't having it.
So on that note... Birthday cake is officially over! He kept crying saying "momma, momma, Momma" and reaching for me as I was an awful mother saying in a nice motherly voice, "This is fun, Mason. It's okay, honey! Play in your food :)" Now that he's chalked me up to the devil himself, I did redeem myself by putting him in his favorite place... the bath tub :)!

Happy FIRST Birthday, MASON!!!

Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Mason, Happy birthday to you!!! I can't believe that one year ago today at 12:57pm, Mason Andrew Condiff would come to our family. He weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. He arrived with some serious sized "paws" and feet and as handsome as the rest of the Condiff boys! (Only this one had a few of mommy's features...YEAH!)

This has been a GREAT year with our "Chunky Monkey". We first thought we would be calling him "big MAC" (for Mason Andrew Condiff and because he was big), but he very quickly became our "Chunky Monkey" or as the people at church calls him... "TANK". :) He just brings a huge smile to your face. He has the best personality and is so easy going.

The feature I love most about Mase are those CHEEKS! He has had these huge cheeks that even strangers will come up to me and comment about how big they are try to give them a squeeze. When he started to crawl and move, he “slimmed down” and his cheeks just aren’t what they used to be, but people still comment on them.

Another feature I just love on Chunky are his HANDS! Those paws on him are so solid and big… you just know he’s going to do something great with those hands. Evan had skinny, long finger hands, but Mason’s are huge and thick!

Another favorite feature on Mason are his EYES! He got his momma’s big brown eyes and I love that! Not that I don’t love Evan and Parker’s eyes, but I just love his brown eyes! (Tanner’s eyes are brown too!)

And of course, I just love his DIMPLES! He gets to laughing and he has the cutest dimples! Or when he’s trying to be shy (or flirt with the other hot babies at church) he does this really subtle smile, but his dimples just kill you!

Here are a few pics from his first hours to his first week. Of course I wanted to post about 100 pics, but that's not happening today.


Oh, how sweet was this!!! This was about 4 or 5 hours after he was born. Check out that dimple! (Note to myself: My fingers were so fat and swollen that for the first time ever after already having 3 kids, I had to take my wedding ring off :(. I've never done that before, and hope I don't have to do it ever again!)


Getting ready to go home. He loved the carseat.

Some mommy and me time. I can't believe that he was ever this small. It only lasted what seemed to be days and before I knew it, he was a month old and HUGE! lol

This was taken when he was 6 days old. Pretty content at that point, but oh has times have changed..........

{HaPPy biRtHDaY, CapTAiN eVAn!!!}

Happy Birthday, EVAN!!! I can't believe my little swashbuckling pirate is 5!!! I must say, please be impressed with his birthday cake... I MADE IT!!! Now I know that may sound dumb, but if you know me at all then you know how lucky Evan was to get a pirate hat with gold money made with love by mom! He invited only boys and dressed them up in their pirate gear (click on the picture to get a better a view...Aargh!) We played pin the X on the treasure chest, cannonball toss, walk the plank, had pirate boats (hot dogs) for grub, and had a pirate pinata they were able to take a swing at. It was a blast and kids were really good and had a fun time with. Why do they grow up so fast?!?!