Happy 4th Birthday Livee Lou!

Our niece, Olivia (otherwise known as Livee) had her fourth birthday party this weekend and we all had great princess fun!

Mason especially loved playing in her pink princess kitchen but drew the line at wearing a princess crown.

We had lots of cake and ice cream and my brother raced (for the second year in a row) a 10-year-old girl named Mia. This year was a rematch because last year, at Livee's party, she smoked him. *giggle* He did end up winning this year. Whew...
After the party we went to a fun train exhibit and the kids enjoyed it a lot. We only had a couple near-meltdowns which is nothing short of a miracle when a toddler, a preschooler, and a crowded exhibit are involved.
Here are pics of the party, the 'race' and the kiddos at the train exhibit.

Also, here are a few pictures of Mason painting that we found on the camera.

Steph

A Year Without French Fries

I've decided to take on a challenge...a hard challenge, but an interesting one nonetheless.

You see, I am my father's daughter. As much as I try to steer myself in a more healthy direction, my hand still goes back to the yummy goodness that is a french fry. I must blame my dad for the addiction as I'm sure he passed the I-love-fries gene on to me.
He can probably blame his mother who, when I was younger, always had shoestring potatoes to munch on. Now that I'm older I still go to her house wishing that they will be there...but they aren't. At Christmas this year my Dad actually brought up the topic of the shoestring potatoes...that's how I know that I am my father's daughter (well that and my eyebrows).
I'm actually a very, very picky fry eater (another sign of addiction). I cast away fries that don't make the cut. I like my fries to be skinny, crunchy and salty. I don't like the just-barely-cooked fries or the limp fries or the cooked-too-long fries. I also will not eat a fry that has any type of discoloring.

Fries, though delicious, are certainly not healthy and Nick and I have made a "Eat Great in '08" goal for ourselves...so I have to ask myself if fries will really help me achieve our goal. I normally only order fries at a fast food joint and only then because it's easier to order a combo than to search the menu for the sandwich I want. Fast food has made me lazy.
I needed some more ammunition to convince myself that I did indeed not need fries. I needed a pro/con list.

Pros of ordering fries:
- Tasty
- Easier to order a combo than a single sandwich
- Tasty
- Tasty
Cons of ordering fries:
- Very unhealthy
- More food than I really need or will eat
- Costs more than just a sandwich alone
- The packaging adds more trash to the landfill
- Lots of useless calories

It's pretty clear which list won. So, I'm going to attempt this goal and not order fast food fries in 2008. We travel a lot so cutting out fast food totally would leave me very hungry in some circumstances...so, for now, I'm just sticking with fries. I will still allow myself baked fries in the oven, but no fast food fries. I challenge you to join me in my quest!

Oh how I will miss those delicious fries that come from the rays of the golden arches...

(I have a couple more days in 2007...I better get to eating)

Steph

Mason's Guys

Many of you have heard us talk a lot about Mason's "guys." His guys are his collection of stuffed animals. The guys started out as Percy (Mason's favorite and the ringleader of the guys -- and the likely beginnings of Mason's penguin obsession) and Duck. Mason would refer to them as "my guys." Soon after that, Dino and Fish were added. Eventually, Giraffe was added. In September, Ming Ming was given "guy" status to bring the total number of official guys to six. Meanwhile, several stuffed animals tried out for guy status, but didn't make the cut as far as Mason was concerned. Not making the cut meant one of two things: You weren't allowed on Mason's bed or, worse, you weren't even allowed in his room. One of those animals that didn't make the cut was a smaller penguin named Pasha. Steph and I were surprised that Pasha didn't crack the starting lineup, since she was a penguin, but something changed in November: Mason got another, even smaller penguin, who he named Little Pasha. Little Pasha was given immediate guy status. When Mase let Little Pasha in, I guess he felt obligated to let the original Pasha in, and then the floodgates opened. Many animals that couldn't cut it (Turtle, Mr. Blue, Puppy Dog, Bentley and Jack) were now welcomed as guys. The two giant penguins -- Benny and Penny -- joined the club. More recently, Pippy the blue bear and Bobo the talking monkey are now welcome. Pretty much, Mason gives guy status to any and all stuffed animals he owns. Well, all except for one: Lightning McQueen, for whatever reason, has never been granted guy status. It's especially weird because Mason loves the Cars movie and always points out red cars out on the road as "Lightning Queen." Anyway, you can click on the picture above left to get a better view of the guy tutorial. Enjoy!

Nick.

Coughs, Snot & Goo

Off to the doctor we go today. Mase is full of coughs, snot and goo so it's time to go see our fave pediatrician. We've been lucky that he's such a healthy little kid, otherwise we'd have to take out a loan for the co-pays. He's had a cough for a couple of weeks now (no other symptoms)...just your average run-of-the-mill cold cough. But, since it's not clearing up like normal we thought we'd get an experts opinion.
We've been trying to teach Mason to cover his mouth when he coughs. Inevitably he never remembers when he's actually coughing. It normally goes something like this:

Mason: Cough
Nick or myself: Remember to cover your mouth when you cough Buddy
Mason: Fake coughs and covers his mouth

Mason really enjoys the doctors office. They have a giant brightly-lit fish tank filled with cool guys like yellow seahorses and Nemo fish. Sometimes he can tap hard enough and get the starfish to move. Cartoons are always playing on a TV and there are puzzles strewn about. It's hard to wrangle Mason to stay in the 'sick' kids side...I guess the toys are always greener on the other side of the waiting room.
Although I love our pediatrician...I hate the waiting room! The fish tank that is bright and colorful to Mason seems smudged with gooey fingerprints to me. I can only imagine that the puzzles and books on the floor, though inviting to the little ones, have been sneezed on and chewed on by not one, but many, sick kiddos. Eww!
Dr. Krous will surely laugh at Mason's crazed hair and massive size today and ask if he's been kicking the soccer ball like a good Greek boy. Hopefully he'll also give Mase the all clear and we can go home antibiotic free. Yes, I said antibiotic free...but that's a debate I'll leave for another day.
I'll be back with an update when I have one.

Steph

*UPDATE*
We are back from the pedi's office. Mason has a mild ear infection and possibly the start of mild asthma. Last time he was sick he had asthma symptoms and had to do breathing treatments. This time we got a Rx for an inhaler for the little guy. He seems to be worse at night and when he's playing hard which are common symptoms of asthma. At this point we're doing a wait and see. After his ear infection clears, if we're still needing the inhaler more than two times a week then we got back to the doctor to see about a more structured plan of action for asthma.

Oh and Mase weighed in at 33.5 pounds and he measured 38 inches tall!
In general, you are half of your adult height at two...so if that holds true then we're looking at a six foot tall adult Mason.

Photos,Photos, Photos!

**Flickr can be confusing at first...if you click the "View as slide show" it will rotate through all of the pictures for you. **

Christmas 2007
We had a great time! I cooked mashed potatoes and the most delicious orange rosemary pork tenderloin that Nick and I have decided should be a family holiday staple of ours. The recipe was just phenomenal! Mason made out like a bandit! As mention before, we went very eco-friendly with our toys this year in lieu of our switch to more earth-friendly people, but also to protect the house from dozens of lead-infused toys from China. Mase loves to cook and he's good at it...so a kitchen is what Santa brought him. He got tons of wooden food from fruit to eggs, bread to veggies. Some of them are super cool, they are precut then put back together with velcro. They come with a wooden knife so you can 'cut' (or undo the velcro) the food. So cool, I like playing with them too. :) Thank you to everyone that sent lots of toys, love, books and more for him this Christmas. He had such a blast!!!
Here are our Christmas pics from our family Christmas this year.

Christmas in Broken Bow
We also had an early Christmas in Broken Bow this year with my Dad. Mason lovingly calls everyone "Papa Tuck", "Meemaw", "Cousin Wibee", "Uncle Timmy" and "Aunt Tummer". Livee and Mase had a blast together. They played outside on the fun jungle gym that Papa Chuck built and made bird feeders with Memaw's giant pine cones. To top off the weekend Papa Chuck took Mase on a "tractor" ride which he thought was pretty cool. (Not sure if Papa Chuck or Mason had more fun with that one.) Livee gave Mason a giant elephant for Christmas that they lovingly named "Dinky." He's a fun new addition to our stuffed animal family here in Edmond. Here are pictures from the Broken Bow Christmas trip.

Cooking Time!
As mentioned above, Mason loves, loves, loves to cook! The holiday season brought out a Martha Stewart side of me and I found myself dropping all other obligations to stay in the kitchen and bake cookies. Mason was quite the helper. Pictures of Mason cooking.

Bath Time
Mase LOVES to splish splash in the bath...well once you wrangle him in there he likes it. Before that he hates baths, he doesn't want to take baths and throws the biggest fit about them. So, he's dirty 70% of his life. (joke) :) You can really get a feel for his curls when his hair is wet. He had the longest hair that recently, with the help of new hair care products, we were actually able to comb!!! Here are fun recent bath pics.

Got Curls?
We got, what might be, the most perfect gift for Mason ever!!! A friend of mine sent him a shirt that says "got curls?" - it's sooooo funny when we take him to the mall/store in the shirt because we get lots of looks and laughs. What a character. Here are a few shots of Mason in his "got curls?" shirt. THANKS KATE FOR OUR SHIRT!!!

Fall 2007
I'm really behind on sharing pictures! :) Here is a collection from this fall. Mason was a Zebra and we all enjoyed many football games, including a fun trip to the Nebraska game where OSU put a whoopin' on the Cornhuskers!

Sarah's Wedding/Toronto Trip
In September we set out on a cross-country voyage. The first leg was a flight...then we rented a car for the middle of the trip...then flew home. It wasn't the easiest feat to pull off with a crazed toddler, but we all survived and have pictures to prove it!!
Pics from our week-long trip.

Welcome to our world of blogging.

Some of you may ask "What's a blog?" Well, as a blog virgin myself I decided to look it up and post an actual definition.
blog (blŏg) n. A weblog.
(that doesn't help me one bit, how about you?)

How about this?
web·log (wěb'lôg', -lŏg') n. A website that displays in chronological order the postings by one or more individuals and usually has links to comments on specific postings.

Basically our blog is the spot that we're going to keep you guys updated on our progress, our adventures, our laughs & giggles and everything else that may come our way. Come back often!

And so starts the blog...
The Trougakos family is making a keeping-up-with-technology goal in 2008. Nick upgraded from his Walkman to a iPod Nano...Mason upgraded from lead-based plastic toys to nice eco-friendly wooden ones and I...well I'm updating from antiquated email updates to blogging. I normally reserve my update emails for one big mass production as to not annoy you all with repeated updates...but then life happens, I forget what happened in life and then a big email update seems too daunting of a task. So, I just don't send one. You can stop throwing rotten fruit now because, as I see it, this blog is the answer we've all been looking for! I can post when I please because I won't worry about bothering you guys and you can all check as often or as little as you'd like. :) Gotta love technology, right?

Looking Back
We'd like to call 2007 The Year We Survived! We survived not one but two ice storms that involved overnight power outages, two trips to the emergency room, a sub par football season by the Cowboys, a head on collision with a deer that resulted in carpooling in the Crapalier for four weeks, the first year of opening my diaper business, flying with Mason several many times, super fun toddler meltdowns in the middle of numerous stores, getting rid of the pacifier, moving to a big boy bed, a week-long voyage from OKC to Washington DC to Canada and back that included several flights and a long car trip. What a whirlwind of a year!
As much craziness as we've had we've also had some really great times! We celebrated four years of marriage, the last birthday we'll have as twenty-somethings and our tiny little baby turned two. Mason and I took our first solo trip this summer when we headed north to Chicago to visit friends. Nick and I had successful years with our own businesses (photography and diaper), kept busy and managed to keep our house clean 60% of the time. We worked in a fun minivan trip to Nebraska to visit Grandma and Grandpa with Tim, Summer and Olivia. Our zoo pass also helped keep us busy every single free/warm weekend this year. Our friend Sarah got married and made such a beautiful bride and Mason visited Canada for the first time and got to see the "big waterfall" (the rest of us call it Niagara Falls). We worked in a few trips to Broken Bow, as well, where Mason got to ride with Papa Chuck on the tractor.

I'm going to be working on updating pictures for you guys. More will come later but until then...enjoy this, our first blog.

Steph