Happy Birthday Dawson!

Dawson turned 3 TODAY! it's not official until 5:26 pm (the exact time born). lol! Today, he woke up singing "Happy to ME! PRESENTS!" It was the cutest thing ever! Everyone he talks to that's what he says. He never fails to include the 'presents' part. AND... Dawson asked for a shark cake and fish.... so that's what we got him! We got him EIGHT fish! and the shark cake is in the works... lol!

Dawson- we love you so much! You never fail to make us laugh and keep our days full of joy. You are so much fun to be around, and we are so lucky we get to spend so much time with you. You are growing into such a gentlemen. Today, without mom or dad reminding you, every time someone said, "Happy Birthday" to you, you immediately smiled and replied, "Thank you!" We love how you remind us to say prayers every night. As of today, it changes often,
you love sharktales,
can repeat most lines in any cartoon movie,
love pizza, homemade orange chicken, especially love POP (pepsi or coke),
LOVES talking to people on the phone or face to face,
you are a true cowboy in every way,
have a sincere and fun love for family,
you always want family or 'the kids' to come play,
you are definitely in the stage of everything is 'mine,'
you are still really tall and thin compared to the average,
you're attention span is unreal long for a person of your age,
everyday you want to go to school with mom,
you are very coordinated in shaking your bum ...and you shake it while you say,
"Bou chicka wow wow" or "Shaka bum, shaka bum, shaka bum bum bum"
you care for everyone and have show extreme concern for others when they are sad/hurt,
you are officially potty trained and never fail to remind us that you still want stickers for going potty,
you took a big hit catapulting over your bike yesterday (hit a huge rock with your head) but you got back up and rode again after a little lovin' from your mom,
and you hate to be called anything but DAWSON.

On your birthday this year we had pizza and a green shark cake. Grandma Shelley, Jori, Carson, and Sari came over to join. So far you've gotten 8 fish, 2 huge battle ships with sharks, an outfit, and a history book from Grandma. We love you and love watching you grow. :-)

Lightening Storm

First- I seriously am regretting leaving my camera in Holden. Last night was UNREAL! I've never seen or been through anything more life threatening. So...sorry no pics- just use your imagination.

My niece, Dawson, and I went to the Kanab Cowboys football game in Enterprise last night. We got there, started watching the game...randomly we would see lighting that lit up the entire sky. It was pitch black, and then BOOM! At the time, it looked so cool and I started wishing I had my camera to take pics. With 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter- we notice the lighting was getting really close....and we were sitting on metal bleachers...with no cover... and water everywhere because it had been raining. Did I think I was in the red zone... yes at the time...until later.

The ref's called the game- told everyone we had to get in the gym, in a car, or under the pavilion. My family and I went to our individual cars. I turned on the radio just to kill time and it was perfect timing to hear, "Severe lighting and thunderstorm warning for Iron County, Northeast Washington County, especially 12 miles north of Enterprise and hitting New Castle. Destructive hail storm. Winds up to 70 mph. Stay AWAY from windows, find shelter immediately. Storm lasting from 9:25-!0:45." Needless to say I was really freaked out. I was going to head south to my mom's and go the st. George route, but we decided i could probably get ahead of the storm. I was nervous because anyone who's been the Cedar route to Enterprise knows that there is a turn off just about 12 miles north of enterprise at the junction.

We start driving..I'm trying to hurry to get ahead of this thing, but instead I drove right into the middle of it. Hail the size of golf balls..possibly bigger was beating on us in every direction. I thought to myself- maybe this is actually the red zone of danger... It was kind of scary, but we were okay. Then, we made it to the turn...started over highway 56...little did I realize there were power poles and power lines crossing over highway 56 for a good 5 miles. All of the sudden- about 40 yards in front of us BOOM! Lightning hit a power poles, I swear the ground lit up, and sparks were flying EVERYWHERE! I tried to gradually slow down because we didn't want to get hit by the power line. We made in through, but hail and lightening were flashing every 2 seconds all around us. You could tell when it was hitting the ground too. We quickly said a prayer and we DID beat the storm to Cedar City by 20 minutes.

Now... after we made it to the beginning of the storm and just passed, on the left side of the road was a HUGE herd of deer! Here we did slam on our brakes because they were everywhere! I would say over 20 deer. I wish my thoughts were to look for a buck...but they were

"Great...now we have to worry about deer!"

For some reason, after what we'd been through this seemed to be so funny. lol! Anywho- I know most of us heard and saw the north end of the storm... so hopefully you have some kind of idea of what the middle was really like. After we got home and watched the storm hit cedar, I watched with a little worry. In the sense that, I'm no longer naive about lightening never hitting me and the realization of how 'real' lightening can me.

The Handiest Handy Man injured

While he was replacing the parts on the truck. ... he was under the truck, front bumper behind him. He was trying to loosen a part ..it came loose and J.D.'s fist back fired right into his upper lip. His head went flying back, hit the bumper and he was knocked out. When he came to, he sat up, and when he looked down blood was EVERYWHERE. It was literally dripping all over! He hit his upper lip so hard his tooth cut right through! He could stick his tongue through the hole!!! DISGUSTING! He just cleaned it up, his buddy Dan helped get it looking alright. He came home shortly after and that's when I saw it. I wanted to throw-up everything in my stomach. I went so pale and sick looking, it was making J.D. sick to look at me.

We don't have any insurance anymore, so we decided to home remedy the hole. We got it bandaged and today it looks like it's healing good! J.D. can't stick his tongue through it anymore- which means the hole isn't a see through hole anymore. lol! Poor guy. He can't shave- and for all those hairy hubsters out there... you know how bad it can get. HOWEVER- the positive side of this is that hunting season is about, SO J.D. blends in just fine. What takes most guys months to grow, only takes J.D. 3 days. :-) He looks great aside from the home remedy tape job.

Now- at first I wanted J.D. to go to insta care, but he said no. Why did he say no...well- first he's a man. Second-

he said, "I'm going to have a scar with stitches or without stitches."

That's true...but the size of the scar without stitches....

He said, "Chicks dig scars. You'll like it- I promise."

As far as chicks digging scars.... i seriously think its a myth. I think other men like showing off their scars to other men, not women.

He said, "Trust me, I'll be like John Wayne.... and you love John Wayne."

Yes, John Wayne was a hottie for his era, but talking out of the side of his mouth wasn't my favorite feature.

Needless to say, we didn't go to insta care and I have my own personal mouth side talking John Wayne at home. Please .. no autographs.

Small update...big update...

Well....I completely forgot my camera up in Holden, otherwise I would have been able to update about Labor Day weekend (AMAZINGLY AWESOME), and taken some hilarious photos of Dawson. Since I don't have a camera for the time being, I just want to update on a couple of things before I forget.

First- It's official! I turned in my graduation papers and paid the diploma fee! I graduate in May! YAY! I was nervous about taking all psychology classes next semester, and I didn't really feel that good about it. I really enjoy Family Life and Human Development. It's been so amazing to learn things about the family. SO- I made a small switch and things worked out more perfectly than planned. I feel so good about my degree, my classes, and what is expected to take next spring. I couldn't be more proud of myself. I came home the day I turned my papers in for graduation and said, "HUN! You're going to be married to a college graduate!!" lol! He just laughed and was so excited for me. This is personal and I don't want to put a downer on people not being college graduates- heck my whole family minus my brother and sister in law aren't college graduates. BUT this is something that is PERSONALLY important to me and my self worth. Doing this and getting a diploma just boosts my own perspective of myself-which isn't very high..so this diploma is huge. :-)

I truly am loving school and what I'm learning. I feel like I know myself better, I'm becoming a better person, and a better wife and mother. I love applying what I am learning to my own life.

Second- Just know- J.D. is doing great. He is seriously becoming the handiest handy man I've ever known. I need to brag a little- he can build ANYTHING, fix just about any motorized vehicle, and fix any yard thing ever possible. anything about building a house- carpet, laminate flooring, plumbing, electricity, roofing, sprinklers, washers and dryers, clogs, refrigerators, doors, window installs, installing cabinets, or any other household item, and does it all within a budget. He's amazing! Our truck needed some major repairs on the idler arm and pit arm (somewhere by the tires). Our tires were getting worn SO bad on the outside. Anywho, we took it to a mechanic once and it was going to cost over $1,000. Took it to a second mechanic at Bradshaw's and it was going to be $700. My husband fixed it in 2 hours and it cost us....$112. Yep! He's amazing.
*We will recommend Bradshaw's to anyone - they've been amazing to us with our vehicles and their prices are so reasonable. They have amazing mechanics.

third- Dawson's birthday is coming up and we ended up giving one of his gifts to him. (We don't really care, he's too young to remember anyways). His attention span on this toy is blowing our minds. This has been over a week and he will sit for hours ..yep hours! playing with this toy. He is so imaginative about what goes on. It reminds me of the little boy Andy in toy story.

His new thing is to wear swimming trunks...to him it's like the best underwear of his choice because it's connected to the shorts. (easier to deal with) and it's shorts. He's definitely still into no clothing, well.. I guess to better say it, he prefers ONE piece of clothing at all times. We can't keep shoes on, socks on, shirts on, shorts on, hats, ...etc. It's swim trunks, or underwear and that's all. He's so like his father.

J.D. comes home and strips down to his G's any chance he gets.

The whole thing kinda gets to me with J.D. because this just means- he hides out when guests come, he never has to answer the door, and while he's hiding out he gets to relax, play games on his phone, watch movies, and ignore the fact that it would probably be nice if he just got dressed and came out to talk to our guests.... I am pretty sure the thought hasn't crossed his mind. lol! Heaven forbid I do that...lol! All you wives know exactly what I'm talking about.

Well- this ended up being a big update. :-) Until I get my camera back...