Christmas 2011

This year we spent Christmas with just our little family. Christmas Eve we decided to have Christmas Fettuccine for dinner, my special hawaiian drink mix, and watch a Christmas movie.

Dawson finished the countdown by placing the last ornament on the tree. He also is wearing his new church clothes from Grandma Shelley. He looks so handsome!

He also got to open one gift on Christmas Eve.
He was truly excited to open this gift, but he thought he would get to open the rest which made it really hard to wait for Santa to come.

SCOOBY DOO! Dawson loves Scooby Doo and was so excited about his jammies! He wasn't ready to get into them for bed- in Dawson's terms "The sun was still awake" therefore it's not time for bed. He is so smart!

After explaining he didn't have to go to bed and to just put them on, he was full of gratitude! He thought just mom got him the pj's...lol!

He is such a cute little boy! We love him so much!

Then when we thought he'd be up til 11:30 like a normal night- he was out at 10! So J.D. and I hurried and cleaned the house and left out some cookies and milk for Santa! Uncle Choc showed showed up at our house as a suprise and Santa had already came! However, we decided to go back to bed until morning. Dawson slept until 8 AM!! We had to wake him up and tell him "Santa came!" but Dawson's reply, "Mom- I'm so sleepy. Just let me sleep please." J.D. and i busted up laughing. Then we told Dawson that Uncle Choc was out on the couch...Dawson was confused, but finally got up. All of the sudden on his way out he heard, "Choo choo..." Dawson bolted to the living room to find

HIS POLAR EXPRESS TRAIN!!! Santa brought it!
Dawson, "Santa.....my train.... oh my gosh.... Santa brought my Polar Express Train!!!"

Dawson wouldn't let go of the controller for the train. He sometimes let mom hold it while he opened his other presents. This is the reaction to every other present
"Mom will you hold this (the controller)." -
Picks up another present-
opens it- "Wow! Thank u mom and dad!" -
puts the present down -
grabs the controller and continues playing with his train.

Notice below how he is excited for his fire truck, but he still is holding onto the controller. :-)

Dawson
From Santa: his train, a red radio flyer wagon, 2 scooby Doo movies, toothbrushes, and socks
From everyone else: fire truck, McMissle car station, buzz lightyear bubbles, Toy story huge coloring book, huge dog bean bag chair thing, Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, and a McQueen watch.

Afterwards, Dawson just laid by his train and watched in go around and around and around. He ran out the batteries Christmas Day.

It was such an amazing Christmas! We loved having Choc come down. Since Choc came down after Dawson fell asleep, Dawson now thinks Uncle Choc is Santa Claus! He tells everyone, "My Santa Choc brought me my Polar Express train!" So Uncle Choc has a lot to live up to now.

J.D. got new shoes, a extremely nice shop vac, a new jacket and shirt, we both got a set of new amazingly soft sheets plus new pillows, new cologne, and his big present hasn't arrived yet....

Jenny is a new proud owner of a Dyson. No more sweeping or feeling like my carpets are dirty. I'm SO EXCITED! I also got earrings, a cute hair flower clip, Awapuii shampoo and conditioner (the best stuff ever! I could fall asleep to the smell), Sensual Amber lotion, perfume, and spray stuff, new shoes, and a jacket.
It's funny how J.D and I got each other vacuums...lol! J.D. went and used his that night, and I used my all day long. Our cars are detailed and our floors are SO clean! :-)
We still have Christmas to spend with my family and J.D.'s family... so more to come soon.

3.8!

I only got 1 B out of the 6 classes this last semester! My GPA went up! I am so stoked about this. One more semester with 19 credits and I will have finished my college degree. I'm so excited to graduate! This is something that I've worked so hard on and I can only hope and pray I don't get the 'whatever' 'i just need a C' attitude. lol! I'm afraid if I think that way, then I might not pass and really not graduate. lol- that would be horrible, so horrible that I can only laugh at the thought.

This break has been so nice for me to catch up on housework, crafts, and other need to be done things. It's almost been unrealistic to have this break where I don't have homework at all. It makes me start to day dream about what life is like not going to school...... I can't wait to just be a mom and get more involved with things.

On a not so happy note- Dawson caught the virus going around- high fever, no throwing up, just diarrhea. Poor little guy. AND on top of that he pinched a nerve in his neck and can't hardly get up from the couch it hurts so bad. He wants to be held, but once I hold him he cries with pain and wants back on the couch. It's so sad. I'm hoping it all fades enough for him to really enjoy Christmas.

What does he want for Christmas??

Every day for about 2-3 months now, Dawson keeps telling us that he wants the Polar Express for Christmas. For the record, that's not the movie, it's the actual train that he wants. It looks like my son has expensive taste like his dad. How did this start...?? Well, one day we were walking through sears and stopped to look at the Christmas section. That's where Dawson found the coolest Polar Express train ever! He didn't want to leave and wanted mom and dad to buy it for him right there. We kept saying, mom and dad don't have enough money. His reply, "I have money in my monkey bank! I have the money!" Well, he has money, but not 200 bucks. lol! We told him to ask Santa or his Grandma's. lol! Since then, Dawson wakes up asking to talk to Santa on the phone to ask him for the Polar Express Train. He never forgets, it's unreal!

We went to see Santa last weekend. Dawson's reaction to just seeing Santa reminded J.D. and I of the magic of Christmas. He was mesmerized by his movement and words. We got in line and Dawson was SO EXCITED! As we got closer to being next in line, I crouched down to be at Dawson's level. He looked at Santa and then whispered in my ear, "Mom, that's Santa." It was so magical the way he said it. He told me that the reindeer were up on the roof waiting for Santa to take him home. Then.... we were next! Dawson ran right into Santa's arms and sat on his lap.

Santa "What do you want for Christmas?"
Dawson "I want the Polar Express Train!"
Santa "Oh wow! Do you like trains?"
Dawson "Ya"
Santa "Make sure you're a good boy and we will see about getting you a train."
Dawson "okay"

Then Santa gave him a coloring book. Afterward, Dawson just wanted to sit on a bench and watch Santa. It was so much fun. :) Dawson is making Christmas so fun for us! We honestly can't wait for Christmas! It's 3 days away!

Grandma Beil's Birthday Reunion

My Grandma Beil turned 86 on December 3rd! She is amazing for how old she is! My mom planned this suprise for everyone to come that weekend to Pheonix because my Grandma was going to be there. She traveled all the way from California with my Uncle Jim's family. We had a big birthday lunch for her! She got to wear a birthday crown too! lol!


Here is her beautiful cake! The numbers are backwards because Dawson took the picture from behind. BUT- he took all the pictures at the party! I was lucky to have him so photo happy otherwise I wouldn't have had any pics!
Here's my mom! She was so happy just to be with her mom!


We went to see where my Grandpa was buried. We changed the flowers out and added a flag this year. It was neat to see his headstone, and my aunt Lela's and Uncle Carlton's headstones as well. My Grandma putting the flag in.

Here is Grandma and Cousin Casey (the one from France).

Here is his headstone.

Dawson snagged the camera again, so I thought i'd add this picture since I rarely have pics of me on here). lol!

My cousin Casey came all the way from France! We last saw him 2 years ago, so this was a huge suprise for everyone, especially Grandma. Grandma was speechless when he walked in and she started to get tears in her eyes. My Grandma only had one brother, who adopted 2 sons. So this is one of the two nephews, with my Aunt Sonja, and sister Kortni. I missed pictures of Dawson touching the headstone. He was rubbing the stars around the vase; it was so cute! He wanted to run around instead of look at the headstone afterwards, so hence why he's mad in this picture. :-)

We had so much fun with all of the family. Dawson just played and played with all of the cousins. We had a little rain hit us, but it was so much warmer than the snow in Cedar city. Dawson was shy with Grandma Beil at first, but he warmed up quick when he found out it was her birthday. He loves birthdays, so he couldn't get enough of the birthday candles (fire), and the balloons. After that, he was more than happy to give her hugs.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was so much fun this year! We spent the actual day with the Stevens side. Dawson absolutely loves his cousins. We chased some horses down, did a little black Friday shopping, worked on our Christmas present for Lucas and Molly, and ate way too much!

Uncle Chet and Aunt Bobi Sue brought these bad boys down! They found them in the dumpster!! They were so much fun. :-) Here's Jetta and Taylee racing down the street....going about 2 miles per hour...maybe. haha!

Chet was able to get it going pretty good, but it looked like a lot of work! lol!

Here's Brant and Dawson! Dawson didn't want to get off, he thought they were the coolest thing ever! which they were.