April 21.

April 21st has always been a special day for rmy husband.  He was born on April 21, 1979.  He was drafted to the Green Bay Packers on April 21, 2002.  And his 2nd baby boy was born on April 21, 2010.  Needless to say, we love this day.

My husband is a sweetheart.  He's a giant kid 90% of the time and has a bit of Peter Pan Syndrome.  But he's got a heart of gold and is a great husband and father.  We love him so much and are so thankful for him!

Now on to #allthepictures.

Here is Craig on the phone with the Packers when they called him on Draft Day to tell him he was about to be drafted in the 5th round.  I'm pretty sure his dad had never been more proud.  

The pic looks weird because it was scanned in before cell phone cameras were the norm. 

We were all so proud of this guy!!

After the NFL, we settled down in Mckinney, TX, had Matthew Jay in 2008 and then got pregnant with Mason.  This pic was taken just a few days before Mason made his grand entrance a couple of weeks early.

And this "Say hello to my lil friend" shirt was my favorite when I was pregnant! I miss that big ole belly!

On the night of April 20, 2010, Craig left to go eat dinner with some of his friends for his birthday the next day and I stayed home with my mother-in-law who had arrived to help out during the final week or two of my pregnancy.  They had only been gone about 30 minutes or so when I got up from my chair in the living room while talking to my mother-in-law.  She was in the middle of a sentence when I took a step and felt something....curious.  I stopped in my tracks and completely interrupted her with "I think maybe my water just broke".  She looked at me shocked and frozen.  I took one more step and there was NO DOUBT that was what was happening.  I screached and ran to the nearest bathroom.  

I was a little over 38 weeks and had googled "accupressure to induce labor" a couple of days earlier.  I had been STEADILY pushing on this spot on my hand for at least 24 hours.  So much so that it had left a bruise!  So for all you preggos, be sure to google that. I really think it worked!!

Anyway, I called Craig to tell him to get his butt home and the first two times he didn't answer!  I knew the place they were at was loud (pizza and arcade type of place) so I tried again and when he answered he was pretty excited.  He raced home and we headed to the hospital. I think we got there around 9:30 and by 4:41am our sweet baby Mason was born.  Both of my labor and deliveries were  incredibly undramatic.  Epidurals (yes please!), push for 5 minutes, no pain.  It was nothing like A Baby Story, which I had been obsessively watching for the past 3 years.  Of course the recovery was absolutely no fun at all but at least the actual labor/delivery part was enjoyable.  :)

We had called my parents (a few hours away) and they raced to the hospital.  My mom refused to go home and sleep so they slept out in the car in the hospital parking lot. I should say my dad slept in the car.  My mom was too excited to sleep.  So she ended up being in the delivery room when Mason was born which wasn't in the plan at all but wasn't something I was opposed to.  We just hadn't really considered it!  So I'm so happy it worked out that way!

Later that afternoon with  my sweet little boy!!

The 2 birthday boys!

Our family of four!  Big brother Matthew loved Mason from day 1.  No jealousy whatsoever.  We totally lucked out with that one.

Now here goes the gushing.  Our Mason is an aboslute joy.  From day 1, he has been such an easy, laid back, fun-loving kid.  I remember staring at him in the hospital and saying out loud that I knew he was going to be so smart.  And I was not wrong.

He seems to pick up everything so quickly.  He was sleeping through the night by 6 weeks, never cried unless he was hungry or needed changing, rolled over early, crawled early and was walking at 9 months.  He jumped on his first bike with training wheels and sped off without a backwards glance.  And when we took his training wheels off when he was 3, we gave him his first little push and he raced away with no problem!  

He IS super messy and a bit of a klutz.  From early on, he earned the nickmame "Messy Mase" and I don't think the name is going anywhere.  He's the first one to break something, spill something or trip over something.  It's actually kind of endearing.

Mason is also incredibly smart.  He's always been above grade level on everything at school and started reading really early.  He's a rule follower by nature and LOVES to volunteer to help.  (At school, I should add.  At home, he hates to lift a finger.)  We LOVE this boy of ours!!

When he was a few months old, we realized that flat head of his wasn't rounding out on it's own so we ended up with a DOC band for awhile.  What a little cutie!  

Unfortunately, this kid's head is still super flat but it's inherited from Craig's dad so there's not much we can do.  He's still the cutest thing ever in my eyes!  

For Halloween that year, I found him a costume that would work with the helmet.  Custest little tiger!

One thing Mason didn't love was his first haircut.  He had just turned one and he threw the mightiest fit you've ever seen during that haircut.  I felt so bad for the girl cutting it but I couldn't stop laughing (in between trying to console him).

One of the first times he was really sick.  He was so sad and pathetic.  All he wanted to do was snuggle.

Birthday boy, 2012 (?)

Goofy kid!!  I miss the days where we would just go up to the playroom and he would run around for hours.

  

I loved this pic!  Look at that tiny tushie!  I remember him putting the laundry basket on his head and wandering around saying "I'm a ghhhhoooosssttt!"

And then there was the time he tripped over his feet at preschool and broke his collar bone.  That was fun.  :)

These two are best friends.  Could not love them more!

I could add pictures for DAYS of all of our memories.  But I know you would get super bored. So I'll end with pictures from their big day on Friday.  Both boys got new bikes (Matthew's is an early birthday gift since his birthday is in a few weeks) and cool high tops.  Mason also got some Pokemon stuff (obsessed), enough water balloons to last all summer, some Mega Nerf guns (these things are pretty awesome!) and the pizza and donut pool floats are on their way!

For birthday party fun, we usually have a big joint birthday party in the backyard.  They swim, we rent a giant bounce house/waterslide, the kids eat cupcakes and ice cream sundaes and everyone has fun.  :)  So hopefully we can nail down our date for the party soon.  Matthew's birthday is May 19th so we usually wait until the week after so that it's warm enough for a pool party.  Parties stress me out!  We skipped them last year but I don't think I can get away with it this year.  ;)

So happy birthday to my boys!!  I love you (all) to the moon and back.  xoxoxo