Christmas 2010

This year was definitely another memorable year. Dawson REALLY understood Santa this year. He has been asking for Santa for over a month now. He watched the Polar Express everyday..maybe twice a day because it has a train, tickets, and Santa in the movie (all of those things are his number ones things right now). We kept asking him, what are you going to ask Santa for this year?
Dawson: "A train and gun! Gun like dad's!"
He would wake up each morning and check his stocking for candy too! It amazed me that this 27 month old child understood all of this! He would get so down when we would explain that Santa wasn't coming for the day because it wasn't Christmas Eve. :-(

THEN the day came.... We had arrived in Holden on the 23rd and did some family pictures. We were so excited because we got to see our new nephew and Lynette's family (they live in Iowa so we only see them about once a year). We drove up north for the day to see Uncle Choc and give him his Christmas gift. (we had him for christmas this year) We got home and slept so good.
The next morning we woke up and told Dawson he would get to see Santa today. He FLIPPED OUT! All day he was so excited! Before the program we went to take the horses shoes off with Uncle Lucas. Need I say more... Dawson was so happy. The horses kept jumping and freakin our a bit, but Dawson got mad if we tried to get him down. He just held tight to Ringo's mane.

We taught Dawson how to say "Whoa!" to stop and "Giddy up!" to go. He knew when to say them. It was funny thought, Lucas was trying to get the horse to hold still why he pulled off the shoe and Dawson said,"Whoa Lucas! Whoa!" It was hilarious!

**If you've read my posts, you will remember that Holden does a short Nativity program and songs in their ward for Christmas Eve and Santa never forgets to come. **

So we went to the program, it was short and sweet and made me cry. I just loved the slide show about testimonies of Christ. Then, we sang some songs and all of the sudden from the back of the room "HO!HO!HO!" Dawson jumped in his chair. I am not exaggerating at all. He started hyperventilating when he saw Santa walk past him. People around us kept laughing at Dawson and his excitement. We got to see Santa pretty quick because they do 0-3yrs old kids first. So as we stood in line Dawson was twirling my hair so tight because he was all nerves. It was so funny! Then...it was his turn. This video only shows a part because the lady walked in front of our camera..but Dawson ran and jumped into Santa's arms all full of smiles. He just kept hugging him and smiling.


I know his face doesn't do him justice for how excited he was..just know he was so relieved to finally be with Santa after about a month of waiting.


After seeing Santa, he gave Dawson a bag full of candy. Dawson would NOT let go of the bag. It was from Santa and he wasn't about to let go of it for anything or anyone.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!! We took a family pic of all the kids and headed downstairs. We have such a big family we just moved all the gifts downstairs, and Santa knew to leave his gifts their as well. That way we could all fit in one room comfortably. It was funny to see Dawson run for the doll house and Taylee started to play with the workshop. lol!


Dawson did end up playing with his tools after a bit! He loved being like dad and having cool tools.


Santa brought Dawson his rifle!! He couldn't get enough of it! I will just tell you all the things Dawson got right now. His gun, workshop, and a pillow pet from Grandma and Grandpa Stevens, a cowboy dress up thing from Aunt Loni. From G & G Shelley he got a electric Micky Mouse, a dinosaur blanket, a train towel, thomas the train pj's, and thomas the train electric toothbrush.



J.D. got a dremmel bit, hair clippers, oil vial and socks. I got microwavable dishes from J.D., a soft plush blanket, a sunday dress, and the Doctorine and Covenants on DVD. It was so much fun to spend this Christmas with J.D.'s family. Dawson had a blast with all the cousins and family too.
Later that day, J.D.'s dad's boss has a Christmas part with horse rides, tube rides behind a tractor, and BBQ in his shed. It was a blast! It was a real hay ride behind 2 draft horses!!

We were freezing, but Dawson didn't care at all. He got to ride up front and drive the team with Grandpa Stevens. These horses were HUGE!!! They were kind of intimidating, but Dawson still managed to give them big squeezes and blow them a kiss while saying,"Buh Bye horsies!"


After getting home, we had some visitors...It was from the Evertsens! They live in California and were on their way back there from their Christmas visit to their families. It was so much fun! We got to see baby Halle, let our boys play and visit for a long time. Here is just a small piece that shows how much fun Ty and Dawson had. Here are the outlaws!

It was such a great Christmas! It really was so much fun to see so much family and friends!

Words and parents

I just have to laugh at this post before I start because I am having so much fun thinking of all these words that have changed meaning through time.

My memory has taken me clear back to my first kiss. BUT during the time in my life the word for kiss was 'score.' So..naturally at that time somebody would have asked,"Did you score last night?" When you read that...it sounds not like just a simple kiss, but it was that or a make out.

STORY TO NEVER FORGET: After the weekend of my first kiss, I went to school Monday. SOMEHOW is this very small town of Kanab everyone knew by 3rd period! Only 4 friends knew because they were there when it happened. I went home for lunch to talk to first kisser of mine on MSN (remember when that was the biggest hit ever) I was facing the computer, and my sister Kortni came home with 2 of her friends. She was a senior at the time, and I was a freshman.
***Pause: this was my first real kiss. Meaning it actually counted because I knew it wasn't a friendship thing**

My mother was in the kitchen behind me fixing us some lunch. Well..thanks to Kort's friends....
Kort's friend: So Jenny, I heard you got you scored this weekend.
ME: I turned fast.. looked at my mom and said, "Yep, I liked it too!"
It was perfect timing because my mom was just taking a drink of milk and spit it ALL over the counter! HAHA! She replied,"WHAT!??"
I could see she was about to laugh because of what I said. I decided to just end it with that.
(really though, the kiss was cute and sweet. The make out which was 2 weeks later was SO DISGUSTING. NOT CUTE. NOT SWEET. AND DEFINITELY NOT WHAT'S IN THE MOVIES)
Well...in my mom's era of growing up, 'score' meant go all the way..or sex. Now you can imagine why she was shocked. Go ahead-read the story over again with that thought in your mind. My mom was speechless. lol! What would you do if you heard that from your daughter and had the same thought as my mom? I don't blame her.. but she did have to clean up the milk.

More words...
Things that were cool were 'the bomb'...then it transferred into 'DA BOMB' then we had 'DA BOMB DOT COM' . it then went to 'That's sweet!' We used other words like, "sexy and hot..' and then it was 'That's sick dude!'

This didn't get too big because people were getting in trouble for saying it... and it wasn't that big in Kanab. It was big in the town not too far from Kanab. the word is 'sexual.' Someone would say, that is so sexual instead of cool. Ya..that didn't last long, but it was there.

The other big thing..and maybe this was going on before my time, but using words like 'freaking' and other substitutes for swear words. It's still happening today.

BUT now as I've gotten out of high school and am starting to grow up, my vocabulary is growing, times are changing and I'm definitely considered more of a mom and out of the 'loop'. I can see why parents watch what they say and try to be proper-especially since I have 2 year old who repeats everything. I just thought parents were old and from a WAY different time period, but in all honestly, now that I'm older and hear all the CRAZY stories my parents did when they were young, they were just like us. EXCEPT, I think they did crazier things that we could think of in high school. NO JOKE- my mouth just hangs open when they tell me what they did. I don't think they are dumb parents anymore, they are way cool!

In short, parenting is 'freaking' hard, but worth it and can be fun. I can't wait to see if my kids think I'm cool when I get to tell them my stories. I'm sure my kids will shock me with words they use. Maybe sex won't mean sex, but just kissing...lol

I want to be a Cowboy

I'm writing this so I can log all of Dawson's cute things ...
Monday night, December 13th, 2010

Dawson was getting his night bath and just enjoying every minute of it. J.D. and I were watching him, and talking to him about what we'd done over the weekend. J.D. and I went to Cowboy Christmas in Vegas!! My sister Amy watched Dawson the entire weekend for us. She loved it and so did Dawson. J.D. came back to Cedar Sunday, and I drove to Kanab to stay the night and get Dawson. On Monday, before we left Kanab, we went and hung out with my dad and Matt. Matt said he'd let Dawson go for a ride on one of the horses. Dawson was SOOO excited! He kept sayin, "I need a hat mom! I need a hat!" So Grandpa found one for Dawson to wear and off we were. The whole way Dawson said, "I got my cowboy hat, my cowboy boots, my cowboy belt...where's the horse mom?" I just laughed the whole way.

We got to the horses and Dawson was on cloud 9. He just sat up there (no saddle) and Matt walked the horse around. It was one of those moments where Dawson was speechless. Nothing else mattered. He got off so willingly and didn't complain at all.

I drove home to Cedar and during Dawson's bath he said, "Mommy. Daddy." J.D. and I replied "What Dawson?" And Dawson said, "Mommy. Daddy. I want to be a Cowboy. Cowboy hat. Cowboy belt. Cowboy boots. Cowboy horsey."

Getting Ready for Christmas

After getting our tall and beautiful christmas tree up, I decorated it pretty quick. Well...our tree fell over 3 TIMES!! Once on me, once on Dawson, and once on it's own. So we re-decorated 3 times. LOL! We are pretty sure our stand isn't the best one ever because we had this issue last year and our tree was probably at least a foot shorter. We have gone 4 days with the tree not fall over and being completely decorated! YAY! It's a record!

Dawson is loving Christmas as much as us. He has watched the Polar Express over a million times because he can't get enough of trains and SANTA! He is getting the concept of Santa this year.
Anytime we see Santa-Dawson will tell him to bring him a train! AND a gun like daddy's!
I've explained how Santa brings toys to us and wraps them in the presents. He gets so excited.

I've explained how Santa will bring us candy in our stockings. So everyday Dawson runs to the living room to check his stocking and see if Santa has come yet. It's so cute! He will point to the stockings and say-Santa? Candy? Chocolate? He is the cutest little bug! We also explained how we will get to see Santa when we go see Uncle Parker. So anytime we get in the car Dawson will ask "Santa? Parker? Train?" I love it! He will get so excited over the lights all over town. Last but not least, Dawson helps me water the tree. He will put the aspirin in, then I pour the water and sprite in. Dawson loves this every night. I think he would do it 50 times a day if I let him.
Here is our Christmas tree! For the record, we have been done with Christmas shopping for about 1 1/2 weeks! All wrapped and ready to be opened!

My mom gave all of her kids and their families an early Christmas gift- a super cute Nativity Scene. I love this one because Dawson can actually play with it. He will point to each piece and say their name, except Mary and Joseph are Mommy and Daddy. We explained that they are baby jesus' mommy and daddy. It's so sweet! And my crafty Christmas tree on the right I made last year with Sam! Isn't it the cutest?

This is our table setting. I just did the seasonal blocks in October! I love them!

AND the count down!!! Another Super Saturday craft!

We love Christmas and it's even more fun when you get to start your own traditions within your own family. Last year I copied my mom's christmas story book. Each day we read a story. AND the best part is, each story comes with a christmas song, a picture to color, and scripture to go along with it. We all love reading it every night. Dawson especially loves to color the pictures. J.D. even gets in on the coloring. We also get pj's on christmas eve. I have a couple other traditions I want to do, but I think they will take place when we have our christmas at our own house. Right now with just the 3 of us we still switch holiday time with our families. We love it and it gives me more thoughts about more traditions I will be able to do. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanksgiving Shelley Side

This year we spent Thanksgiving last Saturday because most of my family works during the real Thanksgiving. It was a perfect meal. My mom slaved all day baking pies and cooking all the food. Thank you mom for the yummy meal!

On Sunday we went up on the Kiabab to get Christmas trees! It was FREEZING! We didn't leave til 1:00 ish..got up there around 2:00 and we left at 5:00. We found 3 way awesome trees so fast. We had fried chicken, and HOT HOT HOT chocolate, and lots of snacks. We built a awesome fire and went sledding. All the kids had so much fun! However it was blizzard cold. Snow was hitting you so hard, and the wind was blowing so fast. No one complained hardly at all, which made it made it funner. We were in the middle of a thick group of trees, so it wasn't as bad where we were at, but when we went tree hunting, it was hard to see. We were so lucky to find 3 good trees so fast. We got down the mountain, and we headed back to Cedar City.

It was a Happy Thanksgiving for the Shelley family this year! :-) We have so many things to be grateful for this year. I think recognizing all the good that has happened to you makes the holidays more enjoyable and special. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

No pants...

As stated once before, Dawson prefers no clothes ALL the time. :-) He gets that from his daddy who comes home and just takes off all his clothes. J.D. says its just more comfortable that way. So all my fresh sunshine coming in from the windows is closed off because J.D. wants to be more comfortable.... BUT that's another story.

No Pants #1: Dawson loves to help me with the laundry, more so because he gets a pop every time we go to the laundry mat. It was late last night we went to go fold and pick up the laundry. Dawson is running around and next thing I know he has his pants around his ankles! I said, "Dawson pull up your pants." (I was laughing though) He replied, "No pants mom." and he laughed. He kept running around with his pants around his ankles until he totally biffed it-face first! I just laughed and said "that's what you get!" He just laughed with me and continued running around with his pants around his ankles.

No Pants #2: Right now, this instant as I'm typing, Dawson has taken his pants off... taken his diaper off.. and is grinning ohhh so mischievously. So, just his cool sweatshirt and his cute bum hanging out. He is also dancing to the "Word World" song. LOL!

No Pants #3: I have some boots that are SOOOO soft on the inside. Dawson just loves them! So...without pants he wanted to wear the boots. It was so funny! He could hardly walk because the boots went clear up to his bum. But he managed and was determined to wear those boots.
Need I say more?

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween! It truly is my favorite holiday. I have never missed a year of not dressing up. This year Dawson and I were devils, while J.D. was a REALLY UGLY hobo. Dawson really didn't do much trick or treating.
He doesn't look very happy here b/c he just woke up..but he was happy after he saw that everyone was dressing up.
...really ugly!

We went to Great Grandma Stevens' first to show off our lovely costumes. She gave us extra candy for looking so good. :-)

We were going to hit up some more houses, but it was time for the carnival. On our way out we ran into 'lucas' (which was parker dressed as lucas). If you don't know Lucas or Parker-they are J.D.'s brothers...Lucas is the oldest, and Parker the youngest.. Lucas looks like this..
We went to the carnival at the church and ate sloppy joes and played LOTS of games. J.D. won me and his Grandpa Stevens cakes for our birthdays. We left there and went back to Great Grandma Stevens' to eat our cake.

Here is Dawson and his cousin Destry. She was a fairy- and the CUTEST one at that!

Randomness

My little man can't hardly stand to not be in the same room as me. I was organizing his closet one day and I turned around to find Dawson putting the boxes I needed to 'better' use.
This is the outfit he chose for another day! He's so cute! He was so excited to have pockets on his shirt!

Dawson isn't really potty training right now..but we have taught him how it all works. Some days he wants to go, and MOST days he doesn't care. I'm not going to worry about potty training him- when he's ready I figure he can do it. BUT he feels the need to potty train his stuffed animals. lol! He will put them on the seat, and say, "Pussssssshhhhhhhhh..." Then he flushes, and tries to wash their hands.

Dawson is such a goof ball! Everyday I get a kick out of the conversations we have, and how smart he is. Yesterday for example, may not seem as funny as it did to me. He's too quick for me.

We had to go get his car seat out of the car that J.D. had at school. So I just buckled Dawson in the middle buckle of the truck and we were off. Dawson decided he didn't need/want to sit down when he can get out so easily...

Me: Dawson please sit down. I don't want you to get hurt.
Dawson: No sit down!
Me: Dawson if you don't sit down I will have to put you in time out when we get home. Please sit down.
Dawson: No sit down mom!
Me more sternly: DAWSON- sit down!
Then I tapped on my brakes a bit to have him see that he needs to sit down or he'll get hurt. (probably not smart of me, but it happened...) after he grabbed something and got stable again...
Dawson: GEEZ! GOSH! Stop it mom.
Me: (laughing inside seeing that it just made me look stupid and not him) Dawson, please just sit down.
Dawson: No sit down. no time out.
Me: (YELLING STERNLY) DAWSON SIT DOWN PLEASE!!!
Dawson: (with his finger to his mouth) ssshhh! No sit down.

By this time we were at the school, and I was trying so hard not to laugh! That's what we do to him if he's yelling at us. We say, sshhh please use your soft voice. He did the same thing back to me when I yelled. haha! I felt so dumb! He's such a smarty pants!

Deer Hunt

Here we are at the annual Stevens Traditional Deer Hunt. It was a little rainy this year, but I actually thought it was kinda of nice. We roasted smores, ate TONS of food, and just relaxed. All of the cousins had so much playing together.

I had fun taking some pictures of Dawson! Dawson loves his cowboy hats. He actually knows that his parents don't get him real cowboy hats yet, so he INSISTS on a real cowboy hat. We are lucky that Dawson has Grandpa's that are real cowboys. This hat is one of his Grandpa Stevens old hats-it's been worn down like a 'real' cowboy hat. :-)

My little man found himself a fort

He is too cute when he's sad! lol!

CHEESE!

Aren't leaves so interesting? They are more interesting when you see your child pondering about it..What is this? Look at how it crinkles? What a cool shape? Why is it outside? I've never seen something like this?

Dawson took this picture- I say he did a pretty good job for a 2 year old. He loves taking pictures.

When you get a pic like this I can't help but brag about how stinkin' cute they are!

Here's all of the cousins!

We had a blast no matter the weather. I wish we could have stayed longer, but I'll take what I can get right? :-)

Back from the Hunt

Well, like I mentioned earlier ..I definitely would rather have J.D. home than not home-even if it means more cleaning up to do. lol! Dawson was so excited for J.D. to come home. He would let go of him ALL night. He goes to J.D. for almost everything. It's just fun to have my own family all home.

They didn't get a elk...I don't even think they shot at anything. I do know they ate really well, and slept really well. I have officially cleaned everything, washed ALL the clothes from his adventures, and managed to cook a meal. We have yet to watch our netflix..but we will get there. It's a lot of catching up to do. I am extremely tired from the weekend, and finally feel a little better. I could use more sleep-seems like I'm the only one who lost sleep this whole time. But, this too shall pass once I get a little more sleep. haha!

PS-Just for the record...I'm am so glad they didn't get anything. I hate putting money into elk meat, or jerky especially since I hate it. I like it any time I save money. So ..yes, I pray they don't get anything. :-)

Bitter Sweet

Well, J.D. has left me to go on the spike elk hunt. This is a HUGE deal in my family. My brother and his kids fly in from Missouri every year to come. All the boys go on this same hunt, and have been doing it since I was born because I can't remember not ever having it. They used to allow the girls to come up for one of the days. I'm sure they still would, but we are all so busy and have a different lifestyle than we did 10 years ago. Even so, we are still not allowed to stay the night, it's a boys only ordeal.

Anyways, it's been really calm around here without J.D. I have found myself without anything to do. Dawson has cried every day since he's left. It is the hardest thing for me to see Dawson cry and want his daddy. Nights are little scary b/c I don't have someone here to protect us except neighbors (who were out of town). And I'm a worrier, so I thing of all the things that could go wrong and analyze a plan for each one...it'd be a lot easier if J.D. were just here. This is the bitter part of the whole thing.

The sweet part is the fact that my house actually stays clean...ALL DAY! I am so calm, and less stressed because my house is always clean. Even Dawson has been happier because I don't spend so much time cleaning up and can play with him more. I have everything to make all of my dinner meals! I don't have random things gone. J.D. just grabs what he can and makes something of his own out of it instead of what I make. The milk has lasted forever!! I hate going grocery shopping so I try to do a once a month big shopping day and then sometimes I have to go get small things because J.D. has eaten them, or the milk is gone. AND the gas in the car..well it's still full and has been since the day J.D. left. I know he has to go to school-I'm talking besides school.

Needless to say, it's a bitter sweet couple of days while J.D. is gone. :-) Even with the sweet part of him being gone, I would rather have him here because worrying takes a bigger toll on my life and sleep. I'm pretty sure my life line on my palm gets shorter every year because of all the worrying I do. lol! However, I will NOT admit any of this to J.D. in fear that he will know he is actually right and I'm wrong.. :-)

Fun with Grandma

I just wanted to include this pic to remind me of how funny Dawson is with his outfits. :-) It never gets old, and makes me laugh everyday. My mom came to visit Sunday night and Dawson was on cloud nine. He loves his grandma so much! I love it too! Who doesn't love it when there mom comes to visit? Some days you really just need your mom. Something about having your mom there makes life seem so simple. My mom is a pretty special grandma- she spoils ALL of her grandkids by actually getting down on her hands and knees just to play with them. She will crawl around, give them rides on her back, play hide and seek, or just even read to them. She has a way of making each of her grandchildren feel so special. She's also the kind of grandma that doesn't make you feel like you're walking on egg shells if your child breaks something, or ruins something in the house. She just says, "There are more important things in life." I had and still have the greatest example for being a mom and later on maybe grandma.

She always seems to bring the best treats too! This time it was dilly bars! Of course Dawson got all excited to see a suprise. He did get his own, which he downed in a short time. So he thought he'd go get more from his grandma....literally..MMMMMMM!!!!

Dawson is a pretty creative kid. He's extremely creative when grandma gives him silly ideas to do like try on mom's new sports bra...the hat to go with his outfit is 100% Dawson's idea. You can just see his personality with this face.

Dawson wanted to play cowboy with his new hat and guns. His face tells you how much fun this was. He would shoot my mom, and she died....he thought that was funny (kind of scary to think that it's funny...oh well!)

BUT he didn't let it end there! He would give her a big kiss to wake her up again! HAHA! This was repeated for 20 more minutes- shoot her, she dies, kiss her, she wakes up!

The next day we had Dawson play with our new neighbors! This is Lilly! We invited her over so her parents could get their house back together. They were gone all summer for an intern, and just returned. So they basically had to move in all over again. They had so much fun together.
Matching HATS!

Thanks for coming to visit mom!

Dawson's Update

Dawson had a visit to the doctor and dentist this last couple of days. For the doctor's visit, he was in the
83th percentile for height
56th percentile in head circumference
15th percentile for weight

Still tall and skinny. He doesn't look extremely skinny, he is just light weight. He is a pretty healthy boy other than his throwing up problem. He has had this since he was born. At first I wasn't concerned, but now that he is 2, I just feel like it shouldn't be happening as often as it does. The good thing is that it is NOT affecting his health as far as growing. It does NOT hurt him when it happens. The problem is that he should have grown out of it by now, and it could be tearing up his esophagus. This could lead to permanent damage, and possibly lead to cancers later on in life. So we got a referral to go see a G.I. specialist. It's not a emergency concern, just something that needs to be controlled.

I am not way concerned, or stressing out over the whole thing. I just would like to have to not deal with throwing up once a day and I don't want this to be a cause of something more serious for Dawson later on. I think I am mostly scared about what they will have to do to find out the problem. I am extremely terrified of hospitals, and ALWAYS try to find a reason not to go. I definitely have anxiety thinking about all the things that could happen. I don't mind doctor's offices, or clinics, but hospitals are and have always been hard for me to cope with. I think it is probably because of all the things that actually do happen there...and partly comes from scary movies that I shouldn't have watched.

The dentist office was good to. We did have to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes! They had 2 emergencies that morning and were trying to catch up from a 2 1/2 hour wait. I was so exhausted from trying to keep Dawson happy.. He did alright until the end, which was nap time. We finally got called back, and had to wait in the room for another 30 minutes. That was torture on my part. There were so many things Dawson wanted to play with that I had to keep restraining him from. And finally the Dentist came. He was so nice and apoligized a million times for the wait. Dawson had no cavities and the dentist said his teeth look GREAT! So he go a certificate to Red Robin! We ate and then went to my mom's for a nice nap.

He is growing so much! and talking tons! He loves to cuddle or hold hands when he falls asleep. He doesn't like being alone. He loves to read us books, his horses, and guns. He has the funniest sense of humor! With all this cuteness comes mischievousness too. He LOVES to test everything we say 'no' to. His eyes will look at us while he continues to do the things we ask him not to. His other new love is doing what the big kids do. He thinks he can just do whatever everyone else does. It's so funny to watch him stand like the big kids, laugh when they laugh, and just follow them around.

There is Dawson in a nutshell!

FINISHED!

I just wanted to share my excitement of finishing my courses for the semester. I finished my last class in 1 week-literally! I still have 1 month before the semester is over for me, and I'm going to try and finish 2 more classes. It doesn't cost me anymore to finish more classes, so i might as well save money than take a 1 month break.

YAY! for me! lol! It really is nice to see progression, and feel accomplishment.

Powder training

I wanted to blog about this before I forgot. This is the funniest and cutest story ever!

On Sunday evening Dawson comes running in naked! He keeps doing this, especially since he would rather be naked than wear clothes/diaper any day, at any time. I guess he just thinks it's easier to be naked. ... So does Dawson's dad. J.D. will come home, and take off his clothes because he is more comfortable just walkin around in his G's..or sometimes without. ;)

Back to the story- Dawson is naked, and loving life.
Me "Dawson, do you need to go potty?"
Dawson, "No potty."
Me "Well, you need to go get a diaper soon okay?"
Dawson "k."
Dawson runs off. J.D. and I are busy working on school stuff, and all of the sudden we hear water in the bathroom. In case you've never been to our house, the bathroom is in the most awkward spot- right in the middle of the living room basically. So you can hear EVERYTHING!

I go running into the bathroom and see Dawson facing forward on the toilet and going potty! He had climbed up there..somehow.. and was sitting backwards from the normal way you sit on the potty. make sense? I thought it was pretty smart of him to figure that out and just go on his own. Plus he didn't even tell us! He climbs off, flushes and says, "Hands! Hands! Water!" So I put his stool in the bathroom so he can wash his hands by himself too. I went back to studying, and Dawson goes off on his own again...

Next thing, Dawson comes running in to me carrying a diaper, and lays down...except he was COVERED in baby powder! He had powder on every spot of himself, except the spot that it really goes. HAHA! He had tried so hard to do everything on his own, potty, powder, and just needed help getting the diaper on. I was so proud of him, but in my mind I kept thinking...what does the bathroom look like, if you look like this?...

After putting on his diaper, Dawson went to play with his toys and I headed towards the bathroom. Powder was EVERYWHERE! EVERYWHERE! He didn't miss a spot, literally! The whole bottle was basically empty. I couldn't help but laugh at the situation. Dawson is so smart, and tries so hard.

Needless to say, instead of potty training him (he's got it down) I am going to be 'powder' training. :-)

Dawson's Birthday Party

We threw a party for Dawson 1 week early (on my brother Matt's birthday) because it worked better for everyone's schedules. We had a blast! It was pretty small, and only a couple of friends. Mainly family. J.D.'s family was missed-they couldn't make it because of a family funeral.

My mom thought it was funny that my 2 best friends growing up were Brie and Andy- my mom had them both in preschool and just mentioned the fact that we were all best friends since we were Dawson's age, and now our kids our best friends. There was only 1 family of 3 there that my mom didn't have in preschool. Pretty fun party/reunion!

Dawson definitely scored at his party. He was tired right when we started, but as we opened the gifts, his face just lit up with the biggest grins! He said, " wow!" & " Cool!" and just got big eyed over all of the gifts. Thank you everyone! He immediately put on his new hat, and back pack!Aunt Jori and Carson got Dawson some Cowboy guns with a holster. HE WAS SO EXCITED! He just kept saying, "boom! Boom! Boom!" Thank you Aunt Jori and Carson!
The pinyata has a story to go along with Dawson riding it. I took Dawson to K- mart in St. George to find a pinyata. They didn't have much selection. BUT, Dawson started yelling, "horse! Horse mom!" Get the horse!" I kept looking through wondering where the horse was. Turns out, it was actually a mexican bull. I put it in the cart, and Dawson rode the 'horse' throughout the rest of the store. :-) And that's why he's riding it now.

He didn't want anyone to hurt the 'horse'...so he cried during most of the pinyata hitting time. :(
Here is my friend Brie and her daughter Addi hitting the pinyata! It was so cute to watch the little ones hit it.

We tried to get him to hit the pinyata..but he didn't want to hurt the 'horse.' From here on, all the cousins got to hit the pinyata but it never broke...only when Uncle Matt's turn came.

I promised my brother that he could hit the pinyata because it was his actual birthday that day. He hasn't hit one in probably 20 years-that's not exaggerating! I spun him, and spun him, and spun him around. I figured it was only fair since he was older-lol! He totally PEAKED at the last second and whacked the pinyata! Well, this bull didn't even bust, it just broke the rope part! lol! Matt actually loved doing this, and he tore open the pinyata and threw the candy EVERYWHERE!

After the pinyata, we did the cake. I couldn't do a fancy one like last year because there were too many candles between Matt and Dawson. It was so cute watching them blow out the candles together! You can see how excited they both are!

Dawson did get a scooter for his birthday, and besides the guns (which he NEVER puts down) he loves his scooter..aka 'bike' (is what he calls it)

Afterwards, we ended with a little kite flying. Cedar is the perfect place for this because the wind never stops blowing. Everyone just LOVED this part of the party. Dawson kept running around with his, and kept getting it caught with other kites.

Here is Brie and I! Best friends since preschool! Her daughter is one of Dawson's girlfriends.

I have to put this on here-this is my other best friend Andy and his wife Kenzie (she is pregnant with a little boy!!) I told them I was taking romantic pics of them at the party and I wanted to post one to show them I wasn't lying...lol!

That night, Dawson put on his new pj's, his new hat, and new guns! He is the cutest little cowboy!

Dawson's buddy Brenton couldn't make it to the party, but he came over to play today. Dawson got this little 4 wheeler from both grandparents and his own parents. Since Dawson can't drive very good, Brenton drove. SO CUTE!

Thank you to everyone for the gifts. We definitely missed the Steven's side of the family! We had such a good time with everyone who was able to make it!