Family Love

This sweet girl is my sister-in-law. Our babies were due one day apart in October. She ended up having her baby girl closer to her due date. All year long we would text each other to check up on one another and swap pregnancy stories. I've enjoyed getting to know her over the years and value our friendship. This photo was taken at her baby shower in September. She was pregnant with her first and I was pregnant with my third. 

This is a photo of Mason and Hailey the day after she was born. Mason is 11 days older than his cousin. 

Here is a photo of Hailey on Thanksgiving day. What a cutie! She broke the boy streak in this family. Before her there had been 5 boy grandchildren born in a row on my husband's side.  

I am looking forward to these two growing up together. I've always wanted my boys to have cousins that are close to their age. 

Mason's Baby Announcement

The Card Store company contacted me a month before Mason was born asking if I would review one of their products. What perfect timing!

Choosing the right card was the most difficult part of the process. They have so many cute ones to choose from. 

Once I chose the card the process of actually creating the card was very simple. When it came to the photo inside the card, they had several different options of templates. I could have added a few more photos if I had wanted to. It was super easy! 

Card Store also gives you the option of letting them address the envelopes. I chose to let them add a return address to all of the envelopes, which made things so much easier. 

The turn around on the cards was very quick and their customer service was a delight. 

How cute is their packaging? 

Here is the final product. 

Overall I was very happy with the product and working with the company. They have cards for every occasion. You've got to go check out their Christmas cards! All of their holiday cards are 50% now through 12-12-13.

Mason's birth story

Mason, our third baby boy, was born October 2 at 11:52 pm. It's been a month, I'm behind on everything right now so I'm just now sitting down to write out his birth story. :)

I went in at 6 am to be induced and labor seemed to progress really slow. I was only 37 weeks when they induced me so I'm sure it's because my body was not ready for labor. But due to a grade 3 placenta and a platelet count that kept dropping they wanted to get him out.

The doctor broke my water at 7 am and allowed me to walk around the hospital to try and get labor going. But after several hours of that I had barely progressed to a 3. The doctor hooked up the pitocin to get labor going and after several hours  I still hadn't progressed. After a few hours on the pitocin I was needing an epidural. Hoping for some relief via the epidural I was really sad to discover that it only took on the front part of my body. I could still feel everything on the back part of my body which was where most of my labor was. I finally progressed to an 8 at 7  pm. My nurse was really excited and said she thought since this was my third baby I should have only an hour of labor left.

Well, it didn't happen that quickly (and I could feel the frustration from the nurses and my doctor. I wanted to scream "Hello people! Why are you frustrated? You're not the one sitting strapped to a bed feeling like your butt is about to explode. You can NOT complain!")  ..almost 5 hours later Mason made his appearance and I felt everything thanks to an epidural that didn't work the way it was suppose to.

It's one thing to want and expect a natural (painful) labor it's another to get an epidural expecting a pain-free labor and not get it. But as soon as he was out (only 15 minutes of pushing) the pain was gone and he was perfect. There is something magical about holding a newborn baby. The second he was placed in my arms I forgot about the crazy whirlwind pregnancy and all the fears I had, had. And became wrapped up in the moment of getting to know my new son. We think he looks so much like little man when he was born. He is already showing signs of having super sensitive skin and possibly allergies like his older brother.

His big brothers love him although Cohen has had to have a little time of adjustment. Which is to be expected when you're the no longer the baby. Life with three has been an adjustment for me as well. Life has really had to slow down in the since we can't just load up and go somewhere anymore. But in the same since we are even busier than I ever thought we could be. (and so much more tired) 

We are so thankful for this little guy! 

Our Son's Namesake

I apologize for taking so long to get this post written. But I could not share with you our son's name without sharing with you his namesake. Below is a video of the man we named our son after. We have been trying to get this almost 25 year old video on a dvd, computer and loaded into imovie. It's really complicated for a non-techy person like myself to get it done. :)

So our new little guy's name is..

Mason David

He is named after someone very special not to just me but to the many lives he touched while in ministry. Grandpa Mason who this post is about and who you will "meet" through his video below was a godly man. Our little guy's middle name is my father-in-law's name who is also a man who loves the Lord. Grandpa Mason was a pastor and lived a hard life in his early years with divorced parents, an alcoholic father, sometimes not having enough food to eat and he grew up in a privately funded home for boys. But God used those hardships to put a desire in his heart to minister to those who were in need of food, clothes and who needed to hear about the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ. He founded a mission church where he preached and gave out food and clothes. That church almost 30 years later is still serving its small community. He met his wife on a blind date and stayed faithfully married to her despite her severe struggle with mental illness.  

Please take a moment to watch just a few excerpts from his video testimony. He was very sick and passed away just 30 days after this was taped. 

Grandpa Mason from monica on Vimeo.

Our prayer for our son Mason is that when he looks back on this battle ground called life, through the hurt, pain, joy and trials that like my grandpa he will still be able to say God is good.