Our boxer... Mason!

Yep, we have another ALL boy on our hands! We have a hanging punching bag in our basement and now even Mason is using it! Chris put the gloves on him one day and we say "Box! Box! Box!" really fast and as we do he just jabs away! He hits really hard and loves it! So now he's been bringing the gloves upstairs and will go "Ba! Ba! Ba!" really fast and starting anything. (He does it without gloves too, so if you child is in nursery, I'm so sorry come the end of March!)

Mason with the wind up....

And the follow through!

You can see he really lays his body into it as he's beating up my cabinets! I hope he doesn't want to be a boxer?! haha

A year... really?!?... and Pinewood Derby

I can't believe that I've been blogging for a YEAR now!.... CRAZY! But that said, I CAN believe that I haven't blogged in over a month...CRAZIER! Basically December and January took off somewhere and most of it's a blur, but time to get my butt in gear and try to catch up a little or least update what and where I can. So if there are lots of post, sorry. And if there aren't very many posts, sorry. Here are a few events I am hoping to catch up on: Christmas, parents in town for Christmas, Hockey (always hockey), snow days and sledding in MO, pinewood derby and Beck's latest (leave it to me!).

Let's start with pinewood since it was just this past weekend. Tanner is no longer in cub scouts, so it was just Parker this year. They did double elimination this year instead of racing everyone on every lane like they've done in the past. Let's just say it was a very fast race and lots of sad boys who only got to see their cars go a few times and not race their friends. Parker got the "Hat Trick" award because of the design of his car. Of course... Hockey. Last year it was black and green and was the Dallas Stars. This year he painted it three colors and it was for his three favorite teams: St. Louis Blues, Dallas Stars, and the Chicago Blackhawks. Here's just a couple pics....

Parker getting his "HAT TRICK" award
Getting ready to race

Parker happy to have the race over with

Another round of the Tooth Fairy

Who in their right mind would have thought our little "bird", Evan would lose a tooth so soon? NOT ME! It was only 3 days ago it was barely loose and by today it was really loose. Well, if a tooth is even kinda loose in this house, it's coming out! With a handy-dandy paper towel, and a little muscle from daddy, out comes Evan's first tooth! He lost his lower left tooth and thought it was "cool"! He immediately wanted to call his best friend, Andrew, but it was 10:15pm and we knew Andrew would be asleep, so I said, "Who else can we call?" He got just as excited and said "grandma and grandpa" so we got on the phone and gave them a call. He was so excited to tell them. He made his envelope and has it under his pillow all ready to go (hopefully the tooth fairy can do her part and remember :)... she's been out of practice for a while. He thinks he is big stuff now and as big as his brothers. Way to go, Ev! We're so proud of you!!! (Now if we can just get you a haircut?!!!)

Tan and Park playing hockey on the pond

Last week before Christmas (I know, Christmas will eventually get posted) it was really cold for quite some time. That means... POND HOCKEY!!! The boys love when it's cold enough they can take their skates and go skate on the pond. They had a great time and all their friends who were just trying to run on the ice were jealous that the boys had skates and were skating. It was cause for some serious brother-on-brother brawling, but they had a good time. Tanner didn't want to take his nice sticks so he just took one Chris' extra ones.

Parker chasing the puck.
Tanner is in gray and Parker is in the 33 jacket.

Nice little brotherly contest.

Parker on a mission...

At the end of the day, they can still stand side by side (the next picture I didn't post was Tanner pushing Parker out of the way... so much love :) Until next time....

Mason and TUBES!

So before you all are in shock that you haven't heard from me in a bit, I'm going to try to get you updated. Let me start with one of the more recent events... Mason getting tubes.
Mason has had over 8 ear infections and at least 4 ruptured eardrums all in less than year resulting in every drug given to the poor the kid from the easy "pink stuff" amoxocillin, to a shot with over a 90% rate of getting his ears cleared up called Rocefin?. Anway, for only being one, it seems like he's been sick as much as he's been well. So when he got his last ear infection, mean mommy came out and said, "I'M DONE!" (i really didn't, but doing tubes with Parker, I knew i wasn't going to do this any longer... and went proactive!) So I called the ENT, Dr. Park (not to be confused with my son, Park) and got him an appointment the next day. Sure enough, he agreed to tubes and a week later, we went for tubes.
This past Thursday, December 18th, we took our 14 month old for MINOR surgery. We had Evan sleepover a friends house (Thanks, Carlton's) and figured Tan and Park were big enough to get up and to the bus on their own. We had to be there by 6:30a.m. so we were out the door by 6. We got there, filled out the paper work and then went back to get ready. The following pictures are OUT OF ORDER, but i wasn't going to try to fix it (sorry).
Mason and I walking laps. He was all rigged up with what he needed, but is like his mom in that he doesn't want to just sit in one place to long...always has to be on the go! Plus you can tell it's an early morning as he's still in jammies and I'm sporting the glasses and hat.... before 6 is just too early!!!

I love this shot! We just kept lapping the nurses station and the poor kid had all these wires poking out everywhere that we were trying to hide them so they were "out of sight, out of mind." That is the true joy of a 14 month old. Easily distracted.

One of his favorite toys was the bell. They had a bell in there in case we would need a nurse for something, but he just loved it!!! He would concentrate so hard on getting his cute litte finger on just the littlest part...PRICELESS!

This is a pic where you can see a few of cords poking out and one he kept tripping on (that we had to hide). They also put his ID badge on his ankle so he wouldn't fidget with it.

Trying to keep him occupied and not bored while we wait.... and wait.... and wait!!!

More cords! He had 3 pads taped to his chest, a pulse monitor taped to his toe, and a blood pressure cuff on his arm by the time he left... too much confinment for a Condiff boy!!!

His pulse monitor taped to one of his toes. We put the sock on it to cover help keep it off his mind.

As you can see he did really good and the surgery was successful. He cried and cried when he was done, but after we took off the sheet, the two blankets, the BP cuff, the toe monitor and chest pads, he was happy to go to sleep, slept about 2 hours and been great ever since! We are so glad we have this over with now!!! We hope for a much easier winter and happy, happy baby!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend...a little late

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is over and Christmas will be here in 25 days?!! Where does the time go?!!! We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. As unusual as this might sound... I did not take ONE PICTURE :(. So I will just quickly recap the weekend in a summary.

The kids were out of school on Tuesday which allowed for a yep you guessed it.... sleepover. Tanner and Parker each had a friend spend the night (Josh and Nick) and then woke up to a pancake breakfast. Wednesday was just a lot of playing outside and enjoying the day "off".

Thursday was Thanksgiving and allowed us a moment to become grounded and really think of things we are grateful for and all the bounteous blessings we have. Our family was able to enjoy a meal that was warm, fresh, in a warm home, in clean clothes (mostly :) ) and with friends. What more could you ask for? (Don't answer that...those that know me are answering family, but I told you not to answer!)

We had some friends, Les and Kenny Wamsley come over for dinner. Their 2 oldest kids were in Michigan with family and so they brought their other 2 daughters, Nikki and Britney. Dinner was FABULOUS and then while the kids were all being good and entertained we were able to play Boxers and Briefs and just hangout and talk. We had some good laughs, were very full, and ate some yummy desserts!

Friday posed as Beck's annual "I don't know why I do this, but I love it!" day. Chris always makes fun of me staying up until 2am online shopping and then getting up at 4a.m. to hit the stores. His comment is "it's worth my extra $10 to sleep and I'll get it later". Well not this year! I tried to tell Tanner I would pay him to come be "cart boy". He was all over that, but Chris reminded me that then the surprises would be ruined. Although I could have gone with Lauri, or Brooke, or Holt, or anyone, HE volunteered to come! He said "I can get up early to duck hunt, what's the difference?" Well he learned the difference :) It was major chaos.... and I LOVED IT! I love bobbing and weaving in and out of people and most importantly I love to people watch. I like watching to see who's just really not going to have this be a positive experience no matter what. So Chris hit Walmart and Target with me and then he came back home for a quick nap and up with kids. I continued on.... Kohl's, Home Depot, Toys R us and made the mistake of hooking up with a friend to go to the mall..... WOW can this girl shop!!! It was the longest Black Friday in history, but only comes once a year and I loved it!

Even though I was gone, Chris took ALL the boys (even Mason) up to the ice rink to go ice skating. He had promised them and I was suppose to be back, but because I drove with a friend to the mall, I wasn't. Friday night was of course hockey and of course... another sleepover. However, this one ended in a ride back home around 11pm as Kyle took a hockey puck from Parker to the face. :( They were playing shinny's and using a real puck and Parker did a slap shot and nailed Kyle in the lip. Busted lip, loose tooth, sad kid. So he went home, but was fine and hooked back up with us on Saturday.

Saturday was sleeping in and the big boys going to a Blues hockey game. It was Chris, Tan, Park, Ev, and Tan and Park's hockey friend, Kyle Holt. They had a great time and got some souvenirs. Came home played some more and then Chris took all of them that night to the ice rink for a couple of hours to skate.

Sunday was just another Sunday.... church :). The best part was we did wake up to our first snowfall of the year. The grass was covered, but it wasn't cold enough to stick to the streets. My kids asked if church would be canceled (they have canceled church before because of snow) and yes, we had church. That was about it for our Thanksgiving weekend end. Thanks Chris, for all your time taking care of the boys and spending time with them. It was truly something to be thankful for!

Hockey Champs Fall 2008

Tanner Condiff #3 (after his mom's favorite number haha)

Parker Condiff #1 (because he really thinks this! haha)

Back row: Coach Kevin, Coach Derek, Braden, Tanner, Parker, Brad, Marlon

Middle row: Kevin, Kyle, Drake

Laying down: Riley and our goalie, Noah

They did it again! I can't believe I didn't post this, but the boys and their hockey team won their division again this past month. They did a really good job and both boys got goals. Chris had ordered their jerseys for the from Nike and they love them! They are in a middle of a session right now, but they have BOTH been asked to play up this next session in December and play on the 12 and under advance team. That's really good news especially for Parker since he just turned 9 and should be on a 10 and under team. The boys have really improved over the past few months and really are putting their everything into it which makes it easier for us as parents. So this won't be the end of pictures and more info to come as we get it. We're really proud of them and can't wait to see what this advanced level can do for them!!!