Dawson turns 4!!

I can't believe our little man is 4 years old! We were so blessed to have so many people come celebrate his birthday with us. We feel extremely grateful for all of our family who drove so far to come and all of our friends who were able to make it. 

We asked Dawson what he wanted for his birthday and he said, "I want my family to come play." For a 4 year old, we were completely amazed by his answer. That's all he wanted even when we asked him if he wanted toys or what kind of cake, Dawson just wanted to play with his cousins. He has the sweetest and biggest heart ever and once again, we couldn't be more blessed that God chose J.D. and I to be his parents. 

We had a small party later that day, but then had the real party Saturday. It was absolutely amazing! We went to the Canyon Park to have cake, ice cream, and a pinyata. It couldn't have worked out to be more perfect- we went to pick out a pinyata and they had a PIRATE PINYATA!!! What are the chances?! 

Story: I was looking up at all the pinyata's haning in walmart and suddenly I hear Dawson gasp and say, "Oh MY GOSH! It's a pirate!" I looked down and it completely blew my mind to see a pirate on the shelf. Dawson's next response, "Holy freak mom- I'm freaking out." HAHA! Of course, I busted up laughing and we threw the pinyata in the basket. :-)

I also attempted to make a pirate ship out of rice krispies for his cake..... I froze the rice krispies into a block and my amazing husband with his amazine perceptual abilities and manual dexterity skills carved out a pirate ship. We kept the ship frozen until it was time to put it on the cake..... well, a good note for next time is that rice krispies don't hold very good once they start to warm up again. Needless to say, it kind of fell apart. BUT it still looked pretty cool.

Dawson and Kage (and Carson in the background)

 Make a wish Dawson!

Dawson received so many amazing gifts! He got LOADS of pirate stuff- treasure chest, gold, telescopes, beads, patches, hats, scarves, swords, hooks, and a compass. He also got a microphone with an amp, race tracks, books, pirate stickers, a 'Dawson size' football, a mini hymbook (he has wanted one forever), book of mormon action figurines, guns, yummy treats and drinks, and a huge castle. He has not stopped playing with everything since then! THANK YOU to everyone who was able to make it and for all the gifts.

AAARRRRGGG!!

 Here's Carson and Dawson with Dawson's new pirate stuff!

At the party when we finished, Dawson ran to every single person there and gave them a hug and told them 'Thank you.' He really has the biggest heart and really loves everyone.

Visitor from California

My best friend since I was 3 years old came to visit from California! She has a daughter that is 10 months younger than Dawson, and is the CUTEST thing ever! We had so much fun just catching up and they came on Dawson's real birthday, so they got to celebrate with us.

Dawson was more than willing to give her loves and take pictures with her... I'm not sure what she thought, but you can decide from the picture. lol!

 One of the best parts about our kids is that they both LOVE pirates! So, since Dawson is pirate every day, he was able to share his pirate stuff with Addison and his cousin Carson. We had an extra pirate costume thanks to Aunt Jamie who's let Dawson borrow one (THANK YOU JAMIE). We decided to get Dawson his own since he has a pirate addiction.

 Dawson was pretty sad that his friend had to go. Afterwards he kept telling me how  cute she was. Now he asks for his cute girl friend to come play.

It was such a great day to see my bestie and let our kids play. My sister Jori drove up as well and let Carson play with Dawson for his birthday as well. It was so much fun! Dawson just wanted his birthday to last forever.

Primary Program Practice

Dawson has his first primary program coming up, so we have been practicing his line. To make it official, Dawson wanted a microphone like at church to practice with.... so we got a microphone and improvised since we don't have a podium. 

 We even turned on the primary children's songs CD and Dawson practiced singing songs as well as saying his part. It was the coolest thing and he's a pretty good singer!

 His part is, "Noah, his family, and the animals were safe because Noah made a choice to follow God."

Dawson has the 'Noah made a choice' down which is pretty awesome I think. I got to listen to him practice in church that day too, and he did so good! He sang so proudly and kept waving to me- it was the cutest thing ever! I'm so lucky to be his mom. :-)

Seeing Miss McKynlee

It took us a couple weeks to be able to go see McKynlee because we had all been sick with a cold. Mckynlee was put in the NICU because they couldn't get her jaundice count to go down- it was pretty scary. She was in there for about 3 1/2 weeks under intensive light therapy, and special formula (which was super nasty). Together they finally were able to get her count down and to stay down so she could go home. 

Here is the little one under the lights in the NICU. Dawson didn't get to go in and look at her inside the NICU, so we had to come back a week later when she was able to do the light therapy in Jori's hospital room.

 Here is Dawson's first visit with Mckynlee! He was so intrigued by her. He kept touching her hands and fingers saying, "Mom, they are so cute and tiny." It was so sweet. He just kept watching her and would get so excited anytime she would move. He absolutely loved feeling her hair- it was so soft! It made me more excited to have our own little Andee arrive. Dawson is going to be such a sweet brother.

 J.D.'s first time holding her. It was unreal to see how small she was up against his biceps and hands. His arms were huge next to her small body. She was so calm while he held her.

 Dawson giving her lots of kisses- it was soooo sweet!

 And.... I FINALLY got to hold her after a much anticipated wait!

Mckynlee is home now and doing so much better. In fact, while in the hospital Jori really tried to push for her to be in Jori's room and sleep there instead of the NICU. When they finally allowed it, McKynlee's jaundice count automatically started dropping. It's amazing how a mother's instinct and presence can change the life of a child. It really makes me feel more confident in my decisions for my children as well. I can't wait for Andee to get here- only 10 more weeks! Holding McKynlee just keeps making me more excited for Andee.

FALL is here

Fall is here- at our house anyways! It's my FAVORITE season with my favorite holiday- Halloween. Fall is such an amazing time of year. There are so many reasons I love it. I had J.D. bring home all the fall decorations and they are up! I'm dying because I want to do more and more every year. 

We even have a pumpkin carved! 

 Dawson isn't much for the 'scary' part of fall because he likes things to be happy and content. You might not guess that with his temper, but he really likes everyone to be happy. So...he found a happy face for him and his dad to carve into the first pumpkin. It will probably go bad soon....but we will just keep carving more all season. Dawson is so proud of his pumpkin. He even helped get the goey seedy mess out of the pumpkin.

He is so handsome!

When the fall decorations were opened up, Dawson went crazy with helping putting it all up. His memory of what goes where and what is used for what amazes me! I put up the scarecrow and he said, "Mom we can play some funny jokes on people with the scarecrow!" and "We need to get candy to put in here." he said that for our little guest candy jar. We are so excited fall is here and Dawson is dying for Halloween to come. He could almost care less about his birthday because halloween is so cool. lol!

McKynlee's Birth

I had the most amazing experience of being able to be there for my niece's birth. It was like nothing I'd ever expect. It was the neatest thing. My other niece, Sari, my mom, me, and my mom's friend were all there to see McKynlee come into the world a little after midnight.

This is my younger sister and I minutes before McKynlee arrived.

 This was the first picture of her, and she was even still attached to the umbilical cord. She had been here for less than 20 seconds!

 Look at her big lips! The next day all the swelling went down and she looked totally different. She weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces, was born 2 1/2 weeks early, and was 23 inches long. I can't imagine how big she'd have been if she was born on her due date.

I'm grateful my sister let me be there because it was such a neat experience. i still have yet to hold her because we left a little after she was born. J.D. and Dawson have been sick so we are waiting until they are completely better before going around her and her family. It makes me more excited for our little Andee to arrive.... 3 more months!

Snowflake Road Trip

Soon after the reunion we headed down to Snowflake Arizona to see family and attend a good friend's reception. The trip took about 6 hours, so we did stop a couple of times on the way. 

Dawson decided to 'share' his candy......

 We stopped at Glen Canyon Dam to show Dawson the bridge and the dam. He thought it was cool, but kind of scary. I will agree with the kind of scary- the bridge would move as the cars drove over it and the wind was blowing so strong!

We stayed at my Aunt Kathy's house. (My dad's brother's house). My cousin lives with her parents so Dawson had cousins to play with. They had so much fun! it was beautiful weather and their house is right below the Snowflake temple. 

Saturday night we went to our friend, J.P's, reception. We were so excited to see him because we hadn't seen him for 5 years! The story behind J.P.: we worked at the Village Apartments for 2 years and while working there, J.P and his brother came in looking for an apartment. I noticed they were from Taylor Arizona so I immediately got excited because that's where my cousins (the other Shelley's) lived. They knew them and seemed pretty awesome people so i offered J.P. a job. He and J.D. became way good friends and we knew it'd be a life long friendship. He is such a genuine person and we had some awesome memories with him. We weren't about to miss his wedding, so here we are. 

 When we walked in, we stood back for a second just seeing if J.P. would notice us or even remember us. I told J.D. I didn't think he'd recognize us because we both have gotten fat. lol! His face made the trip all worth it. He just got big eyed and opened his mouth with shock. He was the only one there who knew who we were and so EVERYONE was giving us confusing looks like, "who are these people..." J.P. just left the line and grabbed us both. He started crying because he was in disbelief. We started tearing up because we all knew that our friendship was so much more and had missed each other so much. It was such an amazing night and the BEST reception ever. 

 Dawson was WAY into the girls and dancing. He'd go up and ask them to dance. It was the cutest and yet hardest thing as parents to watch. He'd slowly make his way towards the girl he wanted to dance with and right as he got upto her, she would run off or walk away (SHE didn't realize Dawson was right behind her when this would happen, so it wasn't like she was turning him down.) Dawson would then look at us and you could see he was disheartened. However, he tried over and over and over again. Finally, I gave him a little help by actually asking the girl and getting her attention... so here he is. Isn't he so handsome!???

 He did come ask me to dance first before any other girls. It made me feel so special. He wanted me to dance all night with him, but I had to let him venture out and see other girls.

I was the happiest mother ever. 

The next day we went to Heber to show Dawson and J.D. a little Shelley history. The Shelley's have been a part of Heber from the beginning. This is the Heber house the my dad and Uncle still own. 

 Here is a road named after the Shelley's.

 We went to the cemetary to see my grandparents grave sights. Dawson wasn't super into pics today, but we got a couple.

 This is my grandma and grandpa Shelley. I have little, but fond memories of them. My sister Amy always says that out of all the kids, I look the most like my grandmother... so we looked at pics of my grandma when she was younger and its funny how much resemblence there really is. I know where I get my face shape, my cheeks, and curly hair. (curly hair also comes from my mom's mother as well).

 This is my dad's other brother who passed away when he was 13, Gary.

 Dawson picked wild flowers and kept putting them in my hair- it was so sweet.

It was neat to show Dawson a little history of my family. He now thinks that every cemetary is where my father's father died. Little kids are so innocent and sweet. Sometimes their understanding makes life seem so simple. 

We had such a good time and really enjoyed the weekend. It was short, but it was filled with amazing memories and we left feeling like it was more than worth it to come. We were so happy we could make the trip.

Shelley Family Reunion 2012

This year my family rented out cabins at the highest functioning city in the United States, Alma Colorado. It's basically the top of the rockies. It was BEAUTIFUL! 

We started our trip Wednesday evening and drove to Grand Junction to stay the night. We didn't get there until 1 pm, so we were extremely grateful that we had a hotel room to sleep in. We had breakfast the next morning with my mom, Kortni, Jori, and Carson. (they stayed the night in Grand Junction as well). The boys thought it would be cool to pretend to have a professional breakfast.

 We rested for a bit before check-out and then headed up the road again. We did end up stopping to let me walk a bit and use the bathroom.

 Dawson thought it was cool to see if we could make our feet touch the tracks with the camera. He totally has my legs- lol!

 We were so excited to almost be there, be away from home, be in the mountains, and with family.

 We stopped for a good 30 minutes to let Dawson stretch his legs too, which he loved as he climbed on the fences and showed us his mad skills.

We were the second family to arrive at the cabin behind Chad's family. We were stoked when we pulled up and saw where we would be hanging out the next few days, The Dolly Varden Ranch. It included our own personal pond and jacuzzi!

 Chad's kids were already kayaking and fishing! This cabin was INCREDIBLE and HUGE! The bathrooms and showers were decked out with spa equipment and luxury. 

We went kayaking....

 Jaidon above and Miki and Dawson below. Dawson was a little scared in the beginning, but he soon learned that this was awesome!

 We cruised around (slowly) in the paddle boats...

 We fished, and fished, and fished every single day and night! Grandpa was a good help with this!

 We played TONS of card games, even the little ones got involved!

Sometimes we would just hang out and chillax because we stayed up so late and played hard all day. We are a big movie family, so we were glad there was a big screen TV to satisfy our movie need. Of course, Dawson had to have his daily dose of chocolate milk as well. :-)

 J.D., Sari, and Layne enjoying the good times. We have an incredibly funny family and ended up laughing so much! There was never a dull moment- honestly!

 Uncle Choc getting Dax to sleep. This is a genuine moment because if you know my brother, you know that he has a hard time holding babies. He is a pretty big and strong dude, so he has a fear of the babies not liking him, being scared, but mostly he gets nervous he is going to hurt them because he's so strong and big and loves to play around with them. Once they can walk, he is usually okay to hold them. Daxon has probably seen Choc a total of 3 maybe 4 times in his life and he's just 3 here. When Daxon's mom and dad were gone he started to get tired, and I was getting him some chocolate milk. I asked him if he wanted me to hold him and he said, "No, I just want Uncle Choc too." So I handed him to Choc, and he was out. I think it made Choc feel good that he was wanted and known by the little kids.

 We had a t-shirt day as well! Every sibling had a different color for their individual families to wear. Our color was tan. You can see each family by the color of shirt. The only one missing is my brother Matt. :-(

 Above is the big family picture together. Below is the nieces ranging from age 19-3. (L-R: Rylee, Miki, Lyndee, Sari, Jessi, and Breslynn)

 AND the nephews...who are clearly living upto the goof ball shelley boys stereotype. (L-R: James, Jaidon, Dawson, Chase, Carson, Daxon, and Layne).

Dawson's only request for the cabin was to have a party (his most favorite thing to do). He wanted a pinyata and a cake. So we made that happen. I set up a treasure hunt for the kids and the prize was the pinyata and cake. It was so much fun to watch those kids run all over the ranch finding clues. You'd think they would've gone to bed good, but the candy reversed that....

 All the kids got to hit the pinyata except Sari...which means this pinyata went through 13 grandkids! James broke it in the end. Here is Dawson taking his turn. The pinyata was hand chosen by Dawson....it was such an ugly dog. lol!

 Since Sari didn't get to hit the pinyata, we decided she could wear it. Thanks to Uncle Choc, the kids split up 20 WHOPPING pounds of candy!!

We also had several 4-wheelers that we all rode all over the place! J.D. even took them clear up to the top of the mountains where he found GOLD! We have had it pass a couple of tests by jewelers to see if its real and so far it is.... 

 The rest of the time was filled with plenty of entertainment, AMAZING food, and lots of memories.

Daxon, Jori, and Sari

 Jessi read books to the kids and they loved it! Here is Jessi, Breslynn and Daxon.

 Here are the 3 year olds, Bressi, Daxon and Dawson.... partners in crime.

 this re-iterates 'partners in crime.'

 Our personal jacuzzi!

 My sexy husband! I didn't know he could lift his leg this high....

 Me and my little prego belly. We told our family at the cabin what the gender was. It was so much fun and Dawson loved showing off his shirt.

 The old man- my awesome dad!

 My awesome mother- she was so happy to have her kids all there. We really did miss Matt though. :-(

Dawson and Daxon eating their candy....such silly boys!

 

We monkey'd around the cabin... that's James holding Dawson up!

 The kids played several games of pool

 And Dawson wore his pirate costume non-stop the last 2 days. He is in love with pirates and being one. I found the hat when we went shopping in Breckenridge one day and couldn't resist. This was the topping on the cake for Dawson.

After all was said and done, we had an emotional goodbye with all the family. No one wanted to leave. Dawson cried himself to sleep....in his pirate hat. 

We really had a blast. Dawson told us that he wanted to have a birthday party with just his cousins. He has dreamt of going to the cabin for month and it finally happened. He just loves family so much and I love this about him. He truly wants to be with his cousins all the time every single day. 

We drove the whole way home Monday and stopped every couple of hours with Amy and her kids. That made the drive much better because Dawson could get out and play. It helped keep us awake. We can't wait for the next reunion.