The Moon, My Cowboy, & Jammin

A while back when we went to Kanab, my niece came home late one night and ran inside yelling at all of us to come outside. We were all up still, so we ran out and this is what we saw.

If you look closely you can see it. It's the moon with a HUGE lit up ring around it! It was amazing! I've never seen anything like this before-so here I am documenting that I've seen a ring around the moon. :-)

I have the funniest little cowboy ever! Not only is he a little prankster, with a touch of sarcasm, he is hilarious about everything! He can make you laugh on the roughest, most boring days. This was today's laugh of the day. He knew he was being silly because he came out smiling and saying, "No pants!" and then he'd just laugh and laugh about it. The only thing he had me do was button up his shirt- he did everything else!

Check out how long and skinny his legs are!! Dawson is super skinny and tall and my mom always says how much Dawson reminds her of my brother Chad. He was built just like this, except Chad wasn't as tall as Dawson..so the height comes from my dad, or my grandpa Petersen...or on my grandma Shelley's biological side (unknown because she was adopted).

Now here's my little jammer! This pic does not do him justice, so watch the video!
Uncle Matt gave Dawson this guitar when we went to Kanab last, and Dawson would NOT put this thing down. He knew he was so cool playing the guitar.

He tries so hard in this video to bob his head! It's the cutest thing ever! AND you gotta love how he jams with only a diaper on...that's scary for a mom.

Latest News for us

I don't have pictures for this post, but I do have lots to say as usual. :-) We headed down to sunny St. George again..well, it's been over a month since we went last, so we figured we were due time for the sunshine. It was amazing! We ALWAYS feel like we are on vacation when we go there-this is why J.D. wants to live there. I wouldn't mind living there, but I get a little too hot in the summer. That sounds crazy right...me too hot? Yes folks, it's true, I have a hard time with controlling my body temperature. I like the fall the best, I am never too hot or too cold because I can control putting on and taking off clothes to be just right. (ONLY IN THE FALL). Every other season I am too freezing or too hot.

We have lots going on in our lives-but just the normal busy. Hopefully in the upcoming months we will have more exciting news...hopefully. I am not going to post all the new happenings that could be good happenings or bad happenings. This is because...well, I just hate being a disappointment or having a lot of 'bummers' on here. I want people to be happy about what I post. Also, I want to remember happy and important things. So if our 'new haps' don't turn out, I would post about a lesson I learned, or post months later about it when I realize why it worked out and how the Lord knows us better than we do kinda thing. Plus, we've been down some rocky ROCKY roads with trying to understand the Lord's way for us and that not going the way we want it to. Make sense?

The regular normal things going on are-LOTS of studying...LOTS! For me, I am trying to get through 2 classes...which I have only 6 assignments to do so, but it's a bit of a stressor when I look at how much my calling, Dawson, cleaning, and trying to take care of myself go along with it. J.D. is just ending his spring break and so ready to graduate. YES- J.D. graduates! I can't wait! He has worked so hard and in May, he will have some gratification. All you graduates can relate I'm sure.

Dawson is so much fun! His new favorite thing to say is, "What the heck!" or "What the heck are you doing?" I'm not sure where he learned it...J.D. and I don't say it very that often, but he's picked it up and loves to say it. He is a little cowboy at heart- he just loves anything cowboy no matter what time of day or his mood. His new favorite show is "Chuggington" from Disney. I have to drag him away from it after too long because he LOVES it. He really just loves trains! His new favorite movie...yes, Jurassic Park. He loves the dinosaurs! So there is my little boy in a nutshell, sarcasm, dinos, trains and is a cowboy at heart. He has been telling me for a while now when he's stinky or wet. He will go hide or hang out by himself when he is going poop. It's so funny! So here are 2 stories,

Last week he went in his room, shut the door and locked it. I easily unlocked it and tried to open the door. Dawson pushed against it to try and not let me in. I got in and he said, "No. Please go out." I got a pretty good wiff of what he was workin on in there, so I knew why he wanted to hide. I left and he locked the door again. 5 minutes later he came out saying, "Stinky! I stinky mom!" He had a diaper in his hand too.

Today, J.D. went to a luncheon after a baby blessing. He took Dawson as well. I had to do sharing time for primary. J.D. said during the luncheon Dawson stepped outside in the hall by himself and was staring out the window. J.D. went out and said, "Dawson why don't you come back in." Dawson said, "No! Go dad. Go!" So J.D. not knowing what Dawson was doing, just let him be. He later learned that Dawson just need his time to do some good in his diaper.

Dawson is playing so good by himself. He is communicating in 5 to 6 word sentences! It blows my mind how well he's been talking. I work on letter sounds with him because he has had a little lisp with his 's'. He has gotten some much better at pronunciation. He is the biggest helper when it comes to cleaning- he will help with no questions asked. He loves to eat now! YAY! He has been eating so well lately! He is a prankster for sure! I can't believe all the funny things he does to J.D. and I already. He's only 2! He is an EXTREMELY GOOD negotiator! Through all of this, he still loves to be rocked and swaddled. :-)

We have a new thing in our home...it's our 'Good things Jar.' No, that didn't come from Good Things Utah... I made it up. haha! This past year we've learned lessons, and still don't understand things that happened for us... The other day I realized that we were starting to focus on a lot of negative things not just for ourselves, but others. SO, I just broke down and realized how it was effecting us. I didn't want that! I want people to look at us and see joy, happiness, and lots of positive! I wanted to remember positive things about ourselves and others. I really wanted to have confidence in myself, and the decisions J.D. and I make. So this is where the 'Good things Jar' came into effect. It's not a thankful jar, it's a Good Things Jar. Every day we have to write at least ONE good thing that happened to us for the day. Even if it's just "Dawson took a nap and I got to study." Simple, yet positive. Then each week for FHE we would read about them. J.D. and I figured that this would really help us be more positive and happy people. I think life can really get to you, but we felt through this that we can work through it a little bit better. My goal is to have a stranger on the street notice how much joy I have in my life. Wouldn't that be amazing? I mean, wouldn't it be so rewarding to have a stranger say, "Wow, you really have a lot of joy." I can't imagine how rewarding and motivating that would be to hear someone say that, but I know I will. :-)

It's the 20th so I need to make a shout out for everyone's birthdays today. J.D.'s dad, our niece Breslynn and nephew Daxon (twins) who turned 2, and my bestie Brie! :-) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Doctor Stebens

Dawson has recently learned his name, however he pronounces it Dawson James Stebens-instead of Stevens. haha! It is adorable! He will point at J.D., me, and himself and say, "Daddy Stebens, Mommy Stebens, Dawson Stebens James." haha!

We went his doctor a month or so ago and he got pricked to get blood for pneumonia. Since then Dawson will say, "Doctor hurt." and point to his finger. We really didn't want him to think the doctor was mean, so when he gets hurt we will say, "Let the doctor fix it. Let Dr. Stevens fix it." So now when he gets hurt, or one of us gets hurt, Dawson will say, "You need Dr. Stebens to fix it. okay." And he will pretend to fix our owies. It's the cutest thing! He now refers to himself as 'Dr. Stebens.'

What a CRAZY/PRECIOUS night!

We had such a crazy experience last night- we still aren't quite sure as to what happened. We got home around 10pm, and right as we walked in the door I set Dawson down on the couch. I went to get him some corn, but before I could he was fast asleep. We made his bed (which is still on the floor in our room). I got his pj's on, and laid him down. J.D. and I got ready for bed, read our scriptures, said prayers and turned out the lights, and tried to go to sleep. After 20 minutes, all of the sudden Dawson started screaming bloody murder! I jumped down to him and he started smacking me and hitting! He kept screaming, so I turned on the lights and he still flipped out. I kept saying, "Dawson-it's mommy. What's wrong? Dawson it's mommy..." He finally quieted down, but kept smacking his face and saying,
"Bugs! Bugs! Eyes!"
So we asked, "Are their bugs in your eyes?"
Dawson, "YES!!"
Daddy,"Bugs like you get in your nose? or bugs like spiders?"
Dawson, "Bugs like spiders!" he continued to scream and then started ferociously rubbing his right eye. He wouldn't open it, he just kept rubbing and freaking out. J.D. got down and shook out the blankets, however we figured something was still in his eye.
Mom,"Do you want to go shower to get the bugs off?" I knew he was still pretty traumatized, so I figured we'd just play along and see how it went.
Dawson,"Yes. Please. Shower."
So we hopped into the shower. He would not let go of me for the life of him, but I had to ask him to put his head and eyes in the water. He was so tough! He just kept opening his eyes and rinsing them with water all by himself! I just held him and kept telling him things he needed to do so he could better rinse. Finally, I asked if they were gone, and Dawson said, "Yeah.."he sighed. He still kept rubbing, but he'd keep them open long enough for us to look in his eyes to see if anything was there. We couldn't find anything, so we wondered if it was an eye booger from sleeping, or an eye lash.

We started up a bath to calm Dawson down, however he still wouldn't let go of me. He just kept saying, "Hold me mom! hold me." So I did, but I was still concerned he was hurting in some way. So I decided to check his vision by asking him where my eyes, nose, or hands were. He never responded except to say, "I don't know. where is it?" He wouldn't point to them, he'd just look straight forward. J.D. was getting really concerned. He checked his prescribed medicine for the RSV to make sure he wasn't having any allergic reactions within his eyes because he was so concerned. Finally, I asked, "Dawson, do you want bubbles?" He got excited and said, "YES!" He started to be happier as well. J.D. then set the bubbles on the floor outside the tub and said, "Okay, you get to get the bubbles and poor them in yourself!" AND Dawson jumped out, grabbed the bubbles and dumped the ENTIRE container out! LOL- I was of course still in the tub, and now I was covered in bubble solution. haha! BUT- we were relieved to see Dawson could see and was acting calm/excited.

After our bath, Dawson got very clingy again. He wouldn't let go of me at all. So, I told him he could pick out a blanket from the tote (this is where I've put blankets that we don't use. The baby blanket box is what we call it). Dawson loves blankets, so he was excited to see all of his old blankets again. He picked out his favorite one-which was J.D.'s favorite blanket too as a child. It's pink, silky, and worn down completely. BUT it gets my boys to sleep :-) Yes, J.D. still uses it from time to time because he LOVES this thing. I put it away because it was so worn, and I wanted to save it. BUT, tonight this blanket was a much needed and wanted blanket. I wrapped Dawson up, and then Dawson pointed to the rocking chair and said, "Mom sit. Dawson." I definitely wasn't going to pass up time to rock my little one to sleep. I sang our special lullaby that I made up and Dawson fell asleep after an hour of just looking up at me. It was so special and precious. It reminded me of Dawson when he was a baby baby. He always calms down to our song, and J.D. fell asleep too. I just love my boys!

HOORAY!

I am just going to forewarn everyone, I have to post about my success' about my education. It's online which is sometimes extremely hard to stay motivated about. So I blog about my success to stay motivated.

Why am I congratulating myself? .....drum roll please................

I PASSED THE BASIC SKILLS EXAM!!! ALL 3 PARTS!!!
You have to get between 170-174 to pass... I got
Math-180
Reading-178
Writing-173

I am stoked about this! First reason why I'm stoked- my friend Jessica had mentioned that not a lot of people pass. Second reason-when I got to the testing center i would say 95% of the people were there RE-TAKING the exam. Some were there for their 4th time! You can imagine why I was freaking out more. However, my sister-in-law talked to me before the test and said,"You'll do just fine Jen!" She had the same experience as me and passed it first try. This did help a lot, but I was still freaking out that I wasn't going to pass. Third reason- I felt SO GOOD after the test, and usually when I feel good, I do horrible. Fourth reason- if you don't pass, then you don't get to move on in your education until you do pass. Fifth reason- it was an expensive test and we didn't have the money for me to re-take it, so the financial pressure was there.

I think I got special treatment for my test because I was the only one in the room, with an elderly couple to supervise just me. They were so positive and kept saying, "You are going to do awesome! Don't worry! We have a feeling about you, you will do a great job!" They kept repeating all of these nice motivational comments.
I seriously think this needs to happen for all those anxiety test takers out there. I think everyone would excel! This was also a great learning lesson for me in becoming a teacher, I want to be this positive about all my tests for all my kids.

Baby Dawson!

The other day I pulled out Dawson's baby book and showed it to him. I explained that it was baby Dawson, and told him stories of all the pics. He was loving it!Dawson would scream, "YAY! Baby DAWSON! I DAWSON!" Then he would point to me and say, "Mommy" then he'd point to his chest and say, "I Dawson! I baby Dawson!"

He loved seeing all of the family in the pictures. His face just tells you his excitement over his baby book! It's now his favorite book to look at and read for a bed time story! He points to different pics each night and I tell him about it. It's so much fun!

Cuteness

Here is my little puppy! We don't have to buy one because I've got one at home half the time. Isn't he cute! My puppy is extra special because he can talk! He lets me know when he needs fish to eat or water. haha!

Surprisingly, my puppy is pretty good as getting water with his tongue! My puppy has a playmate who just happens to be a monkey! Aren't they cute?

For the photo above-notice Dawson's finger wrapped up in gauze? Well, while I was shaving my legs..Dawson reached in to 'help' me and I got his nail with the razor! It cut clear into the skin! I felt horrible!

For the picture below- need I say more?

He helped me make the PB rice krispies with chocolate/butterscotch on top! He loved it! I have the cutest and bestest helper in the world!


I just can't get enough of my little guy! And for the record-he still loves being naked or just having a diaper on. I try to dress him because last year at his birthday party our friends the Johnson's didn't recognize Dawson because he actually had clothes on! lol! So I am trying to do better!

Poor Little Guy

This is such a cute story! So last night, Dawson wanted to sleep on the couch, but I told him he needed to sleep in mom and dad's room to be by the humidifier. He quietly and hoarsely said, "Okay mom. Thank you."
I loved how he said Thank you! It just melted my heart. We laid him down, and asleep he went. He woke up at 4 and needed a sippy, so I got some really watered down juice. The milk curdles in his stomach when he's sick, which causes him to throw up a lot! But after I gave him his sippy, he said,"Thank you mom." Another thank you? He is usually pretty good about being polite, but it's 4 am and he was so exhausted, I didn't expect it.


We all woke up around 7:30, and Dawson just laid in his bed. I asked him if he wanted to come sit in the shower with me so he could breathe better. He said,"No thank you. I'm tired." So I started to leave and turned off the light. When I turned off the light he said, "Thank you mom." I took a shower, and went back into the room. Dawson was still awake.
Mom, "Dawson, get up." I laughed while I said it so he would know I was just kidding.
Dawson said, "Okay." So he stood up.
I felt bad so I said, "Dawson, mom was kidding. You can lay back down if you want."
So he did! lol, he was that tired! He pulled the covers over him and just laid there. I went back in just barely to find him fast asleep.
Isn't he the cutest and sweetest little sick boy?