The Stevens Family: Oct 10, 2013

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Griddle Coloring

Often times...well every minute of the day Dawson is wanting me to play with him or just do something with him. After building an awesome car track and playing with those for a while, I finally said it was time for a change. Dawson suggested coloring. I love coloring, but just felt like doing something a little different with it. I remembered griddle coloring with my mom growing up; she did this every year with her preschoolers. SO I called my mom to find out exactly how to do it. All it takes is tin foil, a griddle (on low), and crayons.

My mom had also sent a pic of cookie monster in the mail for Dawson to color (she did for all the grandkids) for National cookie Day, October 1st. We decided that it was time to color the cookie monster and send it back to Grandma Shelley. Here's our results of the griddle coloring!

Dawson LOVED it! He colored SO MANY pictures!

J.D. had never heard of such a thing, but had to try it out once he saw how much fun Dawson was having. Needless to say, J.D. enjoyed it just as much as Dawson. lol! He's a kid at heart 24/7.

Pumpkin Carving

October is finally here and we had to start the season off right by carving pumpkins. J.D. actually got extremely sick that day, so Dawson and I went over to Chet and Bobi Sue's to carve pumpkins with them. It's so nice to have family close by to be able to do fun things with. We had so much fun over there for a family home evening activity. Chet baked the pumpkin seeds for a snack, and we also had pumpkin pie after we were all done. (SOOO YUMMY)!

Here's the little man so proud to light up his pumpkin for Halloween season!

For J.D. not being able to carve with his professional skills, I think I did pretty good for a substitute.

Happy Halloween!

Cutting logs

As you may know J.D. makes log furniture from scratch. This year we are making a log swing again for Chet and Bobi Sue for Christmas. So before the weather turned we headed up the mountain to get the logs. Dawson wore his camo (which he wore for almost 3 days before I finally forced him to get them washed). He looks so dang cute in it!

Here's my hunk of a husband! I love watching him work, especially in the mountains because he's so happy doing what he's doing.

It was so much fun, and SO peaceful. It's so nice to get away from all the busy cars and noises in the cities. Dawson loves to explore and is the easiest to take care of when he's in the hills or camping or just doing some boy thing. I love it!

Carnival

One evening in Orem we went to Orem Elementary's carnival with our friends the Reynolds. The kids had an absolute blast and we enjoyed watching them have so much fun! It was so cheap and had a TON of games and rides for the kids. We only got this pic because we were so busy having too much fun. Here is one of the many rides, ponies!

Twister and Shooting Doves

One thing the Stevens boys and girls do every year is hunt. Dawson truly enjoys it with his dad. I love that Dawson knows about gun safety and how/when to use a gun so early on. He takes it more seriously and is more safe since he understands guns and what they can do/or used for.

Here's Dawson and J.D. practicing shooting at doves in Holden.... between all of the Stevens' we got quite a few that day. :-)

J.D.'s dad had a horse who gave birth to this beauty, or as we will call him, "Twister."

That's the name Jetta picked out.

He is the BEST kid horse ever! He's still a colt, and yet he is so calm and is so gentle with the kids. The kids will even hop on him bare back because he's so easy going.

Funny Things Dawson Says

One early morning-

Dad: Dawson didn't you love soccer?
Dawson: Um, no. I just want to play with friends.
Dad: Well you did really well at soccer and you did make friends.
Dawson: Ya, I just wanted to pretend sick everyday so I didn't have to go though.
Dad and Mom can't stop laughing.

Driving to Chet and Bobi Sue's to play and hang out-

Dawson: Taylee is my bestest cousin
Mom: She is a pretty fun cousin uh?
Dawson: Yeah....but sometimes Taylee makes the boys cry.
Mom: Why does she make the boys cry?
Dawson: Cuz she just makes them wear dresses and high heels when we play with her and I don't want to.

The Farting -

Dawson farts and mischievously grins..."Can you smell that?"
Mom and Dad: That's so gross
Dawson just dies laughing and sticks his bum closer to us. Seriously how boy can you be and where the heck did he learn that!?

After a morning of watching "Daniel Tiger" I was a little frustrated from just sitting down and J.D. calling me into the office for help. So I finally come in saying "What?!" with sass and annoyance-

Dawson: Mom you need to calm down
Dad: Ya mom, calm down.
Mom glares at dad: I don't want to calm down, I was just finally relaxing.
Dawson singing: Mom, when you get mad and want to roar, just take a deep breath and count to four. one, two, three, four, and then you won't be made anymore. Okay mom?
Dad laughing: ya mom, just count to four.

3rd Trimester!

Well, it's been a long road and we've made it to the 3rd trimester! Every day, every week, and every moment I am constantly praying we get to bring a baby home this time. This is why I feel it to be a huge milestone again to make it to the 3rd trimester. We are starting to get more ready and trying not to hold back on getting excited. We've thrown around a few names, but the one Dawson is sticking to is Monty. It's a name we've had since before Dawson was born and we really like it a lot. For some reason, we just want to make sure that's what his name is supposed to be so we aren't completely sticking with it quite yet.

He is a pretty calm baby compared to the other two, but I feel that he has a personality that fits that as well. I obviously am concerned with making sure I can feel him, but he just isn't quite as active so he worries me a lot. I try to pay attention to the spirit and be aware of what my feelings are in order to know if he's okay or not. So I will be realistic with how he normally is as far as being calm and not moving a lot during the day. After awhile I finally just can't take it anymore and decide I need to do a kick count session. THEN the minute I look at my phone and decide to start timing, within 5 minutes he's like a little jumping jack! He will give me a good 2-3 minutes of constant movement. I feel like he's saying, "Mom! I'm fine. Everything is okay. I'm still here." I will get a million kicks in that few minutes, and then he calms right down and I don't feel him the rest of the hour. I truly believe he can sense my worry, and his spirit is right there with me. He will worry me up until I can't take it anymore, and then calm me down for a few minutes. Then he worries me again until I finally start to react, and then he gives me a little more movement just to calm my fears. I wonder if this will be his personality when he is with us and grown up....?? If so, I have proof it started in the womb by documenting it here. I guess in a couple years we can follow up with it.

Another way I can always get him to move, and this has happened over the last 2-3 weeks without fail. J.D. is living proof of witnessing this. If I really get worried about movement, I will push and push on my stomach, BUT he will not budge. So, one time I decided to hum, 'You are my Sunshine.'

History behind the song: It's the song I would hum to Andee the week we buried her. Since then, it's the song Dawson always wants me to sing to him, and the song he sings to Andee when he needs her or misses her.

So, I will start humming that tune and it might take a second run of the tune, but this little baby will start moving and kicking a ton. It's a safety for me to turn to when I get really worried and he won't even move when I poke at him. It's on cue every single time, which I've turned too many times once I figured it out.

I will see the doctor's every 2 weeks until November when I will go in for weekly testing. So far I haven't really craved anything. I really love BLT's, but it's not a necessity. He is really making me gain weight and look like a balloon just like Dawson did. I haven't developed any new stretch marks, but I don't doubt they will come soon. He really likes to lay on my nerves and has caused a lot of pain along with ligaments stretching, but the further I get a long, the less pain I am in. I used to barely be able to hold my leg up to get it in a pant legging without cringing with pain through my body, but it's getting easier and less painful. So far no hiccups or digging at my ribs. He likes to hang out low :-) . I sang a song to J.D. the other day,

"Does this baby hang low? Does he wobble to and fro? Does he tie me up in knots? Does he tie me up in bows? I'd like to throw him over my shoulder like a continental soldier, Does this baby hang low? YES!"

Pretty creative right? I thought so too. Other than that, I'm happy to report we are making it week by week. I'm starting to get pretty emotional with the thought of Andee's 1st birthday coming up, but I know I can make it through that. I just try not to less my emotions get overboard to where it affects the baby which has been a constant struggle from day 1. I constantly have flashbacks of her and the week of her death. It's something that keeps J.D. and I awake for hours at night just thinking about it. It's those thoughts that keep us from getting too excited about bringing home a baby and have fear lingering over our minds and hearts all the time. Heavenly Father is truly blessing us by helping us stay calm and know that no matter what, everything will be okay. I'm so grateful for the gospel and our knowledge.

Dawson Turns 5!

This year Dawson really didn't have many friends up here in Orem yet so we did a little birthday cake and presents with Chet, Bobi Sue, Taylee, Kyson, and Brielle. We decided Dawson needed to have something ON his birthday.... so here are the events of that day.

We woke up about 7 and I said, "Dawson, Happy Birthday" really quietly just in case he wasn't awake yet. He popped up and said, "It's my birthday?! Today!?" I said, "Yep!" Then Dawson laid back down straight as an arrow and said, "Oh my gosh! I totally grew! I'm so much bigger now that I'm 5!!" J.D. and I busted up laughing! It was such a good morning! Then we headed to the store to pick out a cake for him that day. We also let him open his big present from J.D. and I.....

He got a huge Thomas the Train set with tons of electronic Thomas trains! He was SO excited and waited patiently for 10 hours for J.D. to get home to open it. We didn't get to set it up until late that night because we wanted to go party with Chet and Bobi Sue, so we headed over to their house for cake and ice cream.

He picked out a Scooby Doo cake at the store and was so excited to eat it! Then Chet and his family gave Dawson some awesome books that Dawson had us read all of them that night. He has been so sick of reading the books we have over and over again, it was a perfect gift! Thanks Chet and Bobi Sue!

Then we decided Dawson to have his big birthday party with friends in Holden since we still have been going to their so much. Dawson considers all his friends the ones who live in Holden. Every kid we invited came, plus his teachers from Cedar City, my mom, my brother Matt, and J.D.'s family that lives in Holden. The friends... well not one of them was Dawson's age. There was 2 year olds to 15 year olds. Literally, he sent an invite to kids of all ages, BUT to be honest they were all the kids that he knew and played with. Everyone was so excited, and the 14 year olds even loved it. He wanted a Rootbeer party/pirate party. This kid loves pirates so I am not suprised he wanted pirates 2 years in a row.

Here are some of the many guests.

His face was pretty much like this for every gift he opened. lol!

Dawson was very specific on the rootbeer had to have... the IBC rootbeer. He's got good taste! Then we had rootbeer cupcakes (a recipe I found on the internet that turned out to be sooo divine). We also had ice cream for rootbeer floats. We played rootbeer bowling, which included 10 2 liter bottles of rootbeer as the pins. We were going to do a ring toss, but Dawson wanted a treasure hunt instead. So I came up with all the clues, treasure map, and treasure for the hunt.

We also had a pirates of the carribbean pinyata!

He got so many awesome gifts which some are posted below, and one that we had to blow up and play with right then! THANK YOU DOUG AND MEGAN (teachers as Dawson calls them)