Happy #6 Birthday Mason

It's hard to believe, but Mason just turned 6 years old!  He's grown so much and been through more in his short six years than a lot of adults have ever experienced.  From living in California, to moving to TX, the loss of his Mimi, birth of twin brothers, relocating to Dubai and submerging himself in school and activities.  He has handled everything with such grace and ease, and I am so proud of him.  His classmates here in Dubai absolutely adore him and his soccer and martial arts coaches have been impressed with his determination, dedication, intensity and respect.  He's an amazing big brother and there is so much love between him and his little brothers.  Now, don't get me wrong he's still a typical 6-year old boy that can drive his momma crazy, but I love every bit of him!!  (Be sure to scroll down to the bottom for one of Mason's wrestling videos.  You'll notice he's got "that look" in his eyes)

 Mason celebrated his birthday with his classmates

Playtime with his buddies after school

Birthday present from Mommy & Daddy - Nintendo 3DS

Mason with Coach Andre, his soccer coach

Wrestling video of Mason

Bath Time Laughs

Who needs bath toys when you have a big brother to keep you entertained!  Enjoy this video of Jake & Cash CRACKING UP at Mason :)  I might be biased, but I think this is one of the best things I have ever seen!

Our First Haircut!

Jake & Cash officially had their first haircut at 8 1/2 months!  We stopped over at our friend Caroline's house for a playdate with her daughter Shyla.  They boys played for a good bit with all of Shyla's pink toys and even had some of her shepherds pie for supper!  Caroline's friend Leslie was also there cutting Caroline's hair, and she so graciously offered to trim the boys' hair for me. Of course it was during the boys' fussiest hour, but they were troopers and managed to get a nice trim!  

Leslie, Jake, Momma & Cash

On The Move!

Click on the video to watch Jake and then Cash on the move at 8 months!

Jake & Cash - 8 months

Jake and Cash recently turned 8 months and what an amazing 8 months it's been so far!  For some reason, I've been counting their age in weeks, so I thought they were closer to 9 months, but they actually just turned 8 months one week ago. It's been so much fun watching them grow and reach the various milestones.  Jake continues to weigh in around 1 pound more than Cash, and they are around 17.5 lbs and 16.5 lbs.  Jake still takes the pacifier while Cash has never had any interest in one...until recently.  Now he is obsessed with taking the pacifier away from Jake and then will flaunt it and wave it around in his face!  Cash has no interest in actually using the pacifier as it's intended but will chew on the plastic part from time to time.

Cash is my pistol and definitely knows what he wants, which is usually whatever Jake has!  He is very determined, and I love when he gets "that look" in his eyes like he'll stop at nothing to get what he wants!  He's been crawling for almost a month, sits up on his own and is now pulling up on anything that stays put long enough!  He attempts to let go as if he could actually stand on his own, so he tends to fall a lot too.  Cash now has 6 teeth, 3 on the top and 3 along the bottom with one more on the way.  They seem to appear overnight with maybe a day or two of fussing.  He does a lot of babble and a lot of his talk sounds like "dada!"

Jake is my happy-go-lucky baby, and he is always laughing, squealing and talking.  He says a lot of "dada" and "mama" and I can't wait to see what he calls Mason; probably May-May.  He loves to play with Mason and laughs at anything and everything Mason does or says!  Jake is also crawling, sitting on his own and is now pulling up to his knees. He just started doing the one-handed clap and will sometimes wave bye-bye.  Jake still has no teeth and continues to drool through 5-10 bibs a day!  I keep thinking he's teething and should get some any day now, but the pediatrician told us last week that it doesn't look like they are coming any time soon!

Here are a lot of pictures of the boys over the last month:

Cash checking out Mason's box of toys (7 1/2 months)

Cash venturing out into the dining room (7 1/2 months)

Cash & GranBobs (7 1/2 months)

Daddy and his boys (7 1/2 months)

 Baby Jake & Baby Cash sitting at 7 1/2 months

Sitting not-so-well - oops!

Jake with Daddy's hat on (7 1/2 months)

 Cash & Jake playing the piano (7 1/2 months)

Jake says let's go swimming!  (8 months)

Cash enjoying the pool! (8 months)

Levi

Just thought that many of you would appreciate and enjoy an update on our beloved dog, Levi.  He is staying on the ranch with GranBobs and his "country cousins" (Bobby has 4 Jack Russell Terriers, aka the Terrorists!)  Let me first start off by saying that Levi is obsessed with GranBobs, and we cannot even say his name out loud without Levi going crazy.  He will start running around the house and to all of the doors at the mere mention of his name.  And when Bobby drives up to our place in his Kubota, which is a gas powered RTV, Levi goes nuts when he hears him coming up the road.  All you have to say is "Load Up!" and Levi hops in the back and is ready to ride around.  For the first couple of weeks while we were gone, Bobby would leave him outside during the day, and Levi would run back up to our house as if he was waiting for us to return.  At the end of the day, Bobby would pick him up and bring him back to his house for the evening (our homes are about 600 yards apart). This continued for a couple of weeks before Levi figured out that we were not coming back, so he stopped going up to our house and was content staying at Bobby's.  Even thought Levi is an Australian Shepherd and is considered to be a working/herding ranch dog, he's never been very good at either one.  While his "country cousins" are the complete opposite.  They will chase, attack, hunt and go after anything such as squirrels, raccoons, skunks, opossums and even hogs.  Levi would prefer to look the other way if he saw anything like that coming his direction.  He might bark a few times and start to chase it, but he's never had any interest in attacking or going after another animal.  That is, until now...Check out the picture below that Bobby just sent us.

Yep, you guessed it.  That is Levi and three of his cousins on a black baby hog!  I have a feeling Levi might not want to come back home after all the fun he's having on his vacation!!

More of Mason

Mason continues to stay busy with his school, after school activities and martial arts!  His class had a field trip last week to the Dubai Garden Center followed by a visit to a local park along the beach.  I went along as a parent volunteer and had a blast with Mason and his classmates.  Here are a few photos:

 Potting their petunia plant

 Mason with his buddies Tate and Austin

 Silly boys with Burj Al Arab in background

Class photo

Mason also had Sports Day at his school.  This was supposed to be "non-competitive" day of events, but someone forgot to tell Mason that - ha!  His class was broken down into three groups, and I was assigned five kids.  We called ourselves "Team Shark!"  They were 10 different stations and they did everything from ring toss, bean bag toss, kicking the soccer ball into the goal, various drills, etc, etc.  But Mason's group started their day off at the coloring station - ha!  I think it was supposed to be face painting but got switched at the last minute.  Check out Mason's face when he sat down to color!!

Team Shark: Juma, Anaise, Austin, Mason & Katrina

Seriously, I thought this is Sports Day...why are we coloring?!?!