Time for an Update

Since the holidays have concluded, we've been busy getting our life in order.  Once I quit work we quickly moved into the holiday season so I never really got too settled into my new role.  Plus, the beginning of the year always causes me to want to get organized, to start fresh, to change things up -- you get the idea.
January also brought about the month of our biggest event for the Aero Club.  So, I spent a lot of Mason's nap times working, but it was kind of fun to have something exciting to work on.  Plus, it gave Brandon and I a reason to get all dressed up for an evening.  It's too bad the zipper on my dress broke towards the beginning of the event...just my luck!  Thankfully, a friend of mine attended the event and graciously lent me her sweater to wear over my dress.  
Mr. Man has also been learning lots of new things that are keeping us on our toes.  He's crawling -- a little unique in style, but he's pretty good at it and he can move quickly!  

He also started to cruise on the furniture shortly after he learned to crawl and now he's even pushing his fun new zebra toy that he got for Christmas.  

Determination is not one of his weaknesses :)  He's also turned into quite the jabber box.  He can say "mama", "dada", "up", "apple", and is beginning to say "bye bye".  He also mimics a lot of our sounds, which is pretty cute.  He gets very excited if we cheer for him and starts flapping his arms up and down at a very rapid pace.  The dog is one of his favorite things in the world, but the feeling isn't so mutual.  Koby generally stays on higher ground if Mason is on the loose.  Needless to say, Koby really likes Mason's nap times too ;)

We started attending the mom's group at our church last week.  I must admit I was a little hesitant at first, but I think I'm really going to enjoy Friday mornings with other women.  It also gives Mason a chance to play with other kids, which I think he enjoys.  This coming week, I will also start another women's Bible study that I'm really excited about.  It is a multi-generational study and I'm looking forward to getting to know more people in our church.  Of course, we're still meeting with our awesome small group each week too.  
Speaking of our small group, I had the girls and their kids over for a Super Bowl party.  Our husbands all had other things to do that evening so we decided it would be fun to hang out together with our kids rather than sit at home alone.  It was so fun to see the kids all playing together -- something that made me smile given that I never thought I'd see that day.  Even though Mason couldn't quite keep up, he hung in the whole evening (which ended shortly after half-time).  
As we move towards the spring, I'm feeling the urge to finish a few projects and get the house in order.  The winter evenings make me want to snuggle up on the couch and watch TV rather than make the most of my time, so as the weather turns nicer I tend to find a little more motivation.  We started painting a little dresser that I bought for Mason's room before he was born (it has been sitting untouched in the garage all this time).  We painted it a cheery apple green (actually, I think the color we picked is "Asparagus", but that does not sound like a very pretty color to me...) and I can't wait to get it finished and up to his room!  

We are also starting to paint our trim upstairs -- a goal we've had for quite some time.  It is hard to get motivated to tackle those projects since we know how much work it is to paint all of the trim.  Unlike last year (when we painted the trim on the entire first floor), we're going taking it room by room this time.
I mentioned I want to get our house in order....One thing I've had a hard time doing since becoming a stay-at-home-mom is to maintain a good cleaning/laundry schedule.  Part of me likes the idea of tackling one room/area per day, but then I think I'd feel like I was cleaning all day everyday.  However, with this approach, I can consistently maintain the house rather than let everything pile up all week and tackling it all at once.  On the other hand, I like cleaning everything in one day so we can enjoy an entire clean house for at least one day.  So, I'm looking for tips and tricks that have worked for other people.  If you have any words of wisdom, leave me a comment!
We are certainly looking forward to the nice weather so we can get outside to play a little more.  Our neighborhood has a nice little playground and we got Mason a new swing for our yard so he can "hang out" while we are outside.    I know Brandon and I are both itching to get into the yard as well -- if only we had a little more rain this fall and winter.  I'm a little nervous our new plants from last year are not going to fair well this spring.  
Well, that's about all for now!  My brain is officially fried :)