Mason's Baptism

After several months of visiting, Chris and I recently joined Dunwoody United Methodist Church. We are so happy to have found a church for our family to be a part of. We both want Mason to have the same Christian background that we did growing up. We didn't exactly plan to get him baptized on Easter Sunday, but that's the way the schedule worked out. And we were very blessed to have both of our families stand with us for the ceremony. It was a beautiful Easter service and we were pleasantly surprised that Mason behaved the whole time (it definitely helped that he had a bottle and fell asleep).

After church, we had a lovely lunch at our house. I wish I had gotten some pictures at home - we were so excited that Bill, Maddy & Dillie joined us to celebrate. It was truly a special day!

Our little family before the service. Mason did not want to keep his socks on.

This was the best picture I had of the whole group.

Much better with us and Chris' parents.
Sitting with Uncle Lamar before the service. He clung to his Easter bunny the whole time (bunny even got baptized with him).
After the service (can you tell Mason just woke up?). Look at the beautiful Easter lilies!
Another picture with Nana and Grandpa.
And with his handsome Uncle Lamar. I just love the lily covered cross behind them. It was such a beautiful service!

Easter Fun!

We had a fun Easter weekend with family and friends. It was a very special day for our family as Mason was Baptized on Easter Sunday (separate post coming soon). For now, I just wanted to share a few pictures from the past week or so.

We went to a local 'egg drop' and met the Easter Bunny. I think he'll be scared of him next year. His buddy Kieran's reaction was priceless!
We also met the Chick-fil-a cow. Mommy and daddy LOVE Chick-fil-a, so I have a feeling Mason will too.
You can kind of see those new teeth here!
Nana and grandpa brought him a cool new chair and a cuddly Easter Bunny.

Favorite new toy - empty diaper box.

And fun bath time with daddy - his hair is finally growing and is just long enough for a mohawk.

Lil' bulldawg

My very first trip to Athens!!

It's no secret that we're Georgia Bulldog fans in this house. Chris and I attend most of the home football games, but it will be a few years before Mason is big enough to attend a 'real' game. In the meantime, I hope we can make the 'G-Day' Spring scrimmage game a family tradition. This year, we met several of our good friends and their adorable little ones in Athens for the big game. It turned out to be a gorgeous spring day, despite the rain showers early that morning. As always, Mason just loves being outdoors and exploring new things. He did very well at the stadium and sat through the entire game. I was not very good about taking pictures, so I borrowed some from our friends. It was such a fun and special day!

Here is Mason enjoying his first tailgate with Jessica. Her precious Landon was running around somewhere!
Chris and Ryan with the kids. Erin practiced her bulldawg chant all day! Mason's girlfriend Ashley stayed home this year.
Here are the 'big kids' enjoying their picnic. Lola Cate and Addison in the chairs, Kaylee, Landon, Erin, Hayley, and Cooper on the blanket.
We got to meet a real bulldog! 'Sanford' was a big hit with the kids. Sadly, we don't have an official mascot right now because UGA VIII passed away recently after only one season. This big guy is the son of UGA VI.
Here are Dan & Barrett in the stadium for the game. What a happy boy!
"Can I come to a real game next season, daddy?"
Gooooooooo Dawgs, sic 'em! By the way, Georgia did win the game ;-)

First teeth

About 2 months ago, my perfect little sleeper started having regular nightly wake ups and late afternoon fussiness (more so than normal). We blamed it on teething and waited... and waited... Then while we were in Cochran, just a few days before he turned 10 months, we noticed something finally popped through! A few days later, the other one surfaced. It took a while to get a picture and you can barely see those little bottom teeth, but here they are! We're still patiently waiting for our good sleeper to return, but it has gotten a little better.

Water Baby

Love that face! We already know that Mason loves bath time, but it has not been warm enough in Atlanta for any outdoor swimming. Luckily, the weather was nice enough in Florida to spend some time in the pool. He wasn't quite sure what to think at first, but then he started splashing around and realized it was just like a really big bath tub.

Chris' parents good friends Don and Verna were nice enough to let us swim in their pool. We couldn't get many smiles at first.
What are we doing here, Nana?

Then he started splashing around and realized how fun the pool was.
The next day, we tried out the baby pool in Nana's backyard. He liked this one from the beginning. I guess it is more his size.
Splashing around with all of his toys.
This is fun!!
We're looking forward to more warm weekends so we can practice our swimming skills.

Vacation in Florida

We continued our spring break trip south to visit Nana, Grandpa and Gigi in Spring Hill, Florida. First, I have to brag about our little traveler. He has always been good in the car, but we have never done a trip longer than an hour or two. I was a bit nervous, but he did GREAT!! Our ride home was over 8 hours (thanks to spring break traffic) and he napped and happily watched his DVDs (Thank God for Baby Einstein!) the whole time. He only fussed when he was hungry or needed a diaper change. We are so thankful!

Except for some storms on the first morning, we had beautiful weather in Florida. Chris and his dad enjoyed several rounds of golf and a few fishing trips. Unfortunately, they did not catch our dinner. Mason, Nana and I played around the house, went shopping, 'lunched' with the ladies, and spent a lot of time in the pool. We went on several stroller rides through their beautiful village and had a lot of playtime with great-grandma. It was a very relaxing week and we were sad to see it come to an end so soon. I'm sure we will be visiting often as Mason gets older - especially since they are only an hour away from Disney!

Nana had a swing for Mason in her backyard. He loves to swing!
Mason playing with his Gigi (great-grandma). She was so excited that he came to visit!
This kid loves golf carts and cars of all kinds. He goes straight for the steering wheel.
Hop in - I'll drive!
On Thursday, we celebrated Grandpa's 65th birthday. It also happened to be Mason's 10 month birthday. We took the opportunity to get a few family photos.

Here are 4 generations of Henretty's.
Just the guys. Happy Birthday, Grandpa!
And Mason with the ladies.
Our little family of three.
And Mason being silly with Daddy.
Stay tuned for swimming pictures. Mason loves the water! And we took a ton of pictures, so I created a picasa album from our trip.
https://picasaweb.google.com/chenretty/SpringVacation2011#

First trip to the farm!

We left Saturday morning on our first major road trip with Mason. We started in Cochran for Mason's very first trip to the farm! He had a blast exploring and playing with all of his toys (I think he has more here than at home). My boy loves being outdoors, so I have a feeling we will be visiting Mimi, Dee and Lamar A LOT when he gets a little older. We actually spent a lot of time outside riding in the golf cart and visiting the horses, but I guess we were having so much fun that we forgot to take many pictures outside. So far, it does not appear that Mason has inherited my love (obsession) of horses, but we'll see if that changes as he gets older.

Mimi got Mason this little car walker and he LOVES it. He turns the steering wheel and acts like he's really driving. He could even move it around on the kitchen floor.

Here he is driving his 'car' with his sunglasses on.
Mason loves hanging out with his Grandpa Dee.
And his favorite Uncle Lamar. Maybe next time we visit he'll take Mason on the four wheeler or fishing in the pond.
We rode in Dee's 'Beast' (off-roading style golf cart).


And just for fun, I took my old Camaro out for a spin. This was my first car when I turned 16 and my parents still have it.

We had so much fun at the farm and I just wish we could have stayed longer! Tomorrow, we head for Spring Hill, Florida to visit Chris' parents for the week. This is a MUCH longer drive, so I hope Mason will do as well in the car as he did on Saturday.