I'm leeeaving on a Jet Plane....

SO excited to see you tomorrow sisters:)!!!!

Mason Cole..... MCVEA

That's right he's now a McVea (officially). We finalized Mason's adoption today and honestly it was one of the best moments of our lives. This as been a very long process, a lot of work, a lot of waiting, a lot tears (good and bad), a lot of intense moments, a lot of learning, a lot of growing, a lot of loving, a lot of joy and ALOT of moments thinking "I can't believe this is really happening" which is what went through our heads today as the judge finished with saying ".... I now approve the adoption of Mason Cole Hobbins who will now be Mason Cole McVea. You are now Parents and Child and Child and Parents" Then we all signed the documents (the judge and us).

Some of our other friends who have adopted said it feels different after.. for me not so much different. Different was the day I brought him home.. since then he's felt natural. Today we felt a weird weight lifted we didn't know was still there. It was relieving, emotional, awsome and rewarding!!! Such a cool feeling. All the paperwork, interviews, waiting, EVERYTHING was for today for him to be ours for life... May 5th he'll become ours for eternity:)

Unfortunately our families weren't able to come out so my two best girl friends joined us for the big and we are SO grateful they did! Thank You SO much for being our family today! We love you:)

The judge was so sweet, she gave Mason an american flag teddy bear

Mason's biggest fans for the day:) {Except for Mommy & Daddy}

Katy's sweet gift for Mason (she can't make it to his sealing because she'll be too pregnant by then:) so she wanted him to have something that day that would represent her. White embroded socks for his sealing and blue for his blessing! I LOVE them. She has been such a thoughful friend since day one:)

Ivy was so sweet and also bought Mase a little gift today. Such a cute picture frame and an adorable build a bear dog. Their both so good with Mason and I love that he has 'stand in' Aunts here in Cali:)

14 hours.....

In fourteen hours a judge will have us sign papers to put Mason in our name, then he will sign and stamp it which will legalize it... I could not be more excited. It's so surreal to me to realize we're finally at this step. Little Mase is going to be a McVea:) At last........

LAKERS vs JAZZ

A couple weeks ago Seth took his Young Men to a LAKERS game and ended up winning another set of tickets (not the best seats... but hey it was FREE) we choose to go to Tuesday nights game against the Jazz because I will forever be a Jazz fan:) However when I got there I decided to be a Silent Supporter... It was a different crowd then I'm used to in Utah at the Jazz games;) I think I was the only JAZZ fan there seriously!- even Seth was going for the Lakers! When the entire stadium started chanting "UTAH SUCKS" I became very glad I didn't wear purple.. ha ha. It was an awsome night though, so fun to get away with the hubs! (Thanks Steph for watching our little man, I love being able to count on friends:) We left during the 4th quarter (didn't want to be too late picking Mase up) but I'm pretty sure the Lakers won:( Oh well it was a fun game...

Photog Blog is FINALLY up:)

The last few weeks I've been working on my photography blog. I wanted something NEW. So much of my energy and focus this last year and has been on Mason's adoption.. naturally so:) I had little energy for anything else but my family this year. So my photography got put on the back burner for a little bit:) I've been doing shoots all along the way so I guess it's more my motivation for 'business' side is what suffered {Opps:}... Now that Mase is 6 months old, and we're TWO days away from finalizing. I feel somewhat like a normal person again (for those of you who have adopted you know what I mean:).. I finally feel like I can put some of my energy into my business again. I have my new logo and site all ready:) Just click HERE (or above on the box) and tell me what you think:) In the past I've had requests for Utah photo shoots.. I'm usually insanely busy when I go home to visit but I'll be in Utah (Northern & Southern) from April 20th-May 9th and will have a few days open for shoots:) If your wanting some pictures done just let me know!

I'll be posting new stuff all week of shoots I've done and haven't posted before.....

Did the Easter bunny find you?

He found me and Mase thanks to Seth's "creativiness' ... We had a handmade basket waiting for us to find after church!!! I love my hubby, he's so cute:)

Easter BBQ!!!

For Easter weekend we decided to pull out our fancy BBQ (ha ha) and have some good food... (our salmon couldn't fit so we had to wait until the veggies were done:) It all turned out very YUMMY and I loved spending Easter weekend with my two boys:) We missed our families though!

E & M came over to play:)

Friday night Ebby & Marius's parents went out for their Anniversary so we got them for the evening. Mase loved having kids to watch and play with... they were so cute with him. It was fun having them again, it made me realize how much I miss watching them everyday:)

Man!!! What's the highchair doing out already??? Crazy!

"LOOK MOM NO HANDS!!!"

Hey where did my toys go?

Baby Food Website

I got a few request for the homemade baby food recipes... I wish I had an awsome recipe then maybe it would mean I'm supermom:) ha ha but basically it's as easy as it gets! Which is great!

Pick out any veggie or fruit

Cook: steam, microwave, bake or boil.
Then puree it in your blender while adding water until it's the consistency you want.
Pour into ice cube trays and freeze up to 3 months (recommended to use within a month if possible)

Everything has to be cooked (even fruit) until their 8 months EXCEPT for Avocado's and Banana's.

I started with sweet potatoes and will be introducing Avocado's tomorrow. *Oh and there's a FOUR day rule about introducing foods... Each new food you gave your baby do it for FOUR days straight before mixing it up or changing, that way there's time to see if they have an allergy or anything that like.

On this WEBSITE it will give you a lot more details. It has the do's and don'ts, recommended method on freezing, more advice about which veggies and fruits are good to start with & specific instructions on how to prepare each food item. The website is good because if your anything like me you like to read and re-read everything you can about something your going to try with your baby:)

Good Luck-

XO

Easter Card For The Nielson:)

I had a photo shoot last week of the oh so cute Ebby & Marius. Since it was around Easter time Steph asked if I would make a Easter card for her to send out... This is what I came up with:)

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

{More photo's from the shoot to come}

Thank You Everyone:)

Chezney is now home. Chelsea has to take her into the Hospital 3 times a day to have her lungs suctioned out and make sure she's breathing properly... but coming home was a GREAT sign. Thank you for your prayers!

Chezney needs your prayers

Hey Family.. this morning we found out Chezney (Chelsea's newest addition) was admitted to the hospital. She's been sick for over a week now, had a fever and hasn't eaten for the last day and a half. Their doing lots of tests... they know she has RSV and they've done a spinal tap to make sure it's not meningitis. Their still waiting on results. This breaks my heart I haven't even met my newest niece yet... Please keep her in your prayers! Thanks family:)

At least he knows what he wants...

Okay, so Mason was obessed with his Dad last night. It was so funny. He hasn't gotten to the age of where he prefer's one of us over the other (daddy's boy or Mama's Boy) or is fussy about who he's with... he just loves anyone who will look at him and give him attention:) But last night was a different story... While Seth was on the couch watching some basketball I came over to sit by him and I was holding Mason.. Mase wouldn't stop smiling at Seth and trying to get his attention so he then starts to work his way over to him: leaning his head, grabbing his shirt, trying to get his feet on Seth's lap... it was so funny.. he was doing everything to get over to Seth. Once he made it he was all smiles and laughes. Being funny, I grabbed him back and said "Hey little boy you love Mommy!" He puts his hands on my cheeks bring our heads together and starts screaming while grabbing my cheeks as hard as he can... He was so mad.. Seth and I almost died laughing. I handed him back to Seth and this is the picture I got.. no joke. I totally lost last night, I would have been sad if they weren't so stinkin cute together:)

Happy SIX months little one

You've made the grass greener, the sky bluer and the sun brighter in my world... Thank you for coming Squirrel:) I love you!

Sweet Potatoes Anyone???

Some of my girlfriends were telling how they make their own baby food. I thought it would be complicated however I like to eat fresh so I thought Mase would too. So I jumped on the bandwagon and made my first batch today (since we're going to be starting him on it this week)... I was shocked at how easy and cheap it was!

$6 of sweet potatoes=almost three weeks worth of food!
Healthy, easy, cheap?! I'M IN!

***Note To Self

-Turn blender off before stirring with spoon

DUH!!!

I'm quite the genius

Huntington Library

On Thursday the lovely Monica Cook put together a great day activity for the RS sisters. We were able to go to the Huntington Library (aka Huntington Gardens) it's 120 acres of different gardens: Australia, Japanese, Chinese, Desert, Lilly ponds, etc... along with the Mansion of the family who owned and started all of it "The Huntington's", an Abraham Lincoln exhibit & a Museum. I'm SO glad I went, it was so fun and every garden was just breathtaking. I am such a nature girl so living in the city the last four yrs has been hard this was like a day in heaven for me. The company was great.. I enjoyed all the ladies and can't wait to get together again soon:)