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!