We are here!

I check my blog every day, but I really don't have much to say on a new post. So this is just re-assurance that we are here. :-) Here is a little update on each of us....starting with Dawson.

Dawson is not sleeping good AT ALL! lol! He wakes up randomly screaming, he won't get out of his bed anymore to come into ours. He just sits and cries, and screams, and cries, and yells DADDY!!! Even in his naps he wakes up crying for no reason. It's perfectly silent in our house, he has been asleep for 2 hours and has woke up 4 times screaming. Maybe night terrors??? I can't figure it out. He is very attached to his mom and takes an extremely long time warming up. He is in a VERY HARD phase now. Which includes
Testing me to every limit
Screaming, crying to get what he wants
Testing how many times he can get away with something after saying, "No."
Acting out violently when he is tired
answers "No" to everything
Can't make up his mind

After all of this, you might be thinking what a difficult child he is...but he is SOOOO cute too!! lol! I'm not crazy, but I love all that he is learning and does which includes

tons of new sentences and words
Mimicking everyone
Mocking me
Attitude
Reading books to me
Singing and leading music
driving
wanting to do everything like dad and be just like his daddy
cleaning up
Cooking
washing his own hair
brushing his own teeth
and potty when he wants ;-)
getting dressed and undressed
pulling at his diaper when messy
playing games with me
and he loves to hide!

J.D. is working full time maitenance manager for studio apartments across from where we live. He is going to school and taking a DAT course as well. He is ALWAYS busy! Although, he still finds time for his family here and there.

I am doing school, about ready to pass another 4 credits and am staying at home taking care of Dawson. This may not seem like a lot for our family, but it is. We are always on a do or die schedule I feel like. hahaha! Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well and we get to see everyone this summer at least once.

Moving is the pits!

Well, from the title I'm sure many of you followers can understand how I truly feel about moving. Our lives have been crazy...and they still are crazy. I don't dare say I'm stressed in fear that my mother will say, "That's the excuse everyone uses these days..." So, we are just crazy. We came home from the cruise and tried to have somewhat of a normal life, which didn't pan out too well.. J.D. went straight to work, I spent my days moving small stuff, Friday J.D. took the DAT, and then Saturday we moved. We were going to wait til this week to move because we all had colds, but we decided it was the best time. We moved everything, didn't clean and left for st. george because the utilities weren't in our name yet. We came home monday night, and I tried making a good pathway to travel through our house.
It's Wednesday and I'm so proud of myself, yet there is TONS more going on...In 2 DAYS I have decorated my whole house and put everything in its place!!!! It's truly amazing how fast it got done. I just had to do it so I could start marking off my list.
Although life never really slows down, I hope mine does a little. I don't think it's healthy to live the way we've been living. LOL! I will post some pics..maybe soon, no guarantees, but this is my excuse for not blogging in the next couple of weeks. ;-)

The Cruise

The Cruise was so much fun! We went to Half Moon Cay Bahamas, St. Thomas Virgin Island, Puerto Rico, and Grand Turk. It was so fun to barter with the island shop people, and just visit places you've never been. The weather was so perfect, and we definitely got plenty of sun!

To start from the beginning, the plane ride to Miami we had a person on the plane that needed medical attention-luckily my brother was there and he could help the man. Turns out he had kidney stones and when we landed we had to wait for medical personal come get him.
While checking in on the ship we saw our friends from california! It was so fun to see people we know.
Then we took off, the farewell was like that scene on Titanic where everyone is waving and the horn is blowing, people are cheering and saying "BYE!!" It was so cool! :-)
I think on Monday night, or it was tues..a man had a heart attack on the ship, so we had to stop in the middle of the ocean and wait for a helicopter. They couldn't land, so we watched the whole thing happen with only a rope between the ship and the helicopter. It was sweet! (we couldn't take pics-they wouldn't let anyone)

So here we are at the beginning! We are just sailing off out of the port of Miami

On Monday we spend the day at Half Moon Cay Bahamas! We ate lunch, spent most of the day on the beach, and went parasailing!

My mom, & my sisters Jamie and Amy (L-R)
Look at how clear the water is! And our huge ship in the background!

My sister Jori, my dad, and J.D. (Dad-we love your hat!)

Here is J.D. parasailing! The rope is 1,000 ft. long and you get so freakin high!

Here I am...freaking out! I was so scared because you could see reef shark jumping out of the water!

This is Matt loving life!
And here's Jori!And here's Choc, now you see him.....

Now you DON'T!
Here we are in St. Thomas on Wednesday! my poor brother Matt got FRIED from parasailing!
It was sad to see how much pain he was in. But he was a trooper!

On Thursday we went to San Juan Puerto Rico and saw the RAINFOREST! We went on a hike through the top of it and it was amazing! This was everyone's favorite day!
Here is my mom with a leaf...and my sister Jori. :-)

J.D. and I in the rain forest!

This is my dad, J.D. and my mom walking over a bridge on the hike. Notice all the plants!

This is the one and only CHANELLE tree (sp??) This is where they get the perfume. You could really smell the perfume just standing next to it! Yes, the tree is located in the rain forest!

After the rain forest we headed to the Old San Juan and saw the fort. It was so amazing to see this.

On friday we were in Grand Turk! We went shopping, ate at Margarita Ville, and laid out on the beach! We got Dawson a Bob Marley hat here :-)

Each night we all dressed up and went to dinner in the fine dining restaurant. This was a really neat experience for all of us to see how fine dining really is. This is my sister Amy (left) and Kortni.

J.D. was brave and tried a lot of new things...this was one of the nights where, as you can see, I didn't even like the sight of him eating it, and he didn't like the taste..can't remember what he tried...lol!
This is the last night after dinner with my dad and sister Amy up on the deck. We could see Cuba's Light houses!

Here is J.D. and I on the last night up on the deck.

It was such a fun vacation! For all who didn't know, we took this vacation for my parents 40th Anniversary! Thank you Chad and Jamie for everything you did to have the whole family together for this vacation. It was something that none of us will ever forget and probably won't ever get to do again. You guys made it possible, and i know mom and dad really appreciated it! :-) We love you guys!

anxiety..

Well, in 7 hours I will be boarding our flight to Miami, and then on sunday I will be boarding our ship. We found out that some of our friends from California will be on the same cruise!! We were really excited to hear that.

Although, I have to tell that I have never in my life experience something so hard as saying goodbye to my baby boy. I have cried this whole week over it, thinking I will cry it all out by the time I say goodbye, but it didn't happen that way. I had explained to Dawson for a couple of days that i was going to be going "buh bye" and he was going to be staying with grandma. I know he is in the best hands possible, and i'm not worried about him...it's me who feels, "not whole" and has had anxiety attacks since I left him. I am completely out of my comfort zone and have been so unsure of myself since. I can't relax or focus on anything. My stomach feels like its an never ending pit of pain. All of this sounds awful and it really is. I will get over it I'm sure, but I'm already counting down until I see him again.

My mother in law was so good and understanding today. She has called me and let me know everything about what they're doing and told me to call as much as i want. it made me feel so good to know that. She didn't rush me into saying goodbye and really understood why I wanted to say goodbye. I wanted Dawson to understand that mom was leaving, instead of just rushing off and hoping for the best. I know he doesn't understand much, but i think he understood that because of how he's acted for his grandma. He will have the time of his life and really get to bond with his grandparents, which is so important. I'm very lucky to have such good in-laws.

It's always harder on the mom :-) So until we get back, I hope everyone enjoys there week!

The Stages of the REAL Dawson

Last weekend, my sister Jori came to stay with us and colored my hair. Although she is not licensed, I have never had anybody do a better job than she does. She is AMAZING at hair, and basically hair school would be pointless for her. I have yet to see someone do a better job, not just on my hair, but anyone's hair. We colored it for the cruise, and because J.D. thinks I look better with highlights.
The stages of the REAL Dawson. . . . .
As you can see, it starts with this sweet, doggie eyed "pease?"

And then it turns into an upset, life is going to end, look
And in the end, the REAL Dawson shows himself!

I need some serious advice!

So i know I've posted about Dawson sleeping all the way through the night, which he really has done several times. But since I last posted about it, was the last time... I'm pretty sure its been over a month. I am DEAD tired. He wakes up around 4 or 4:30 and I have tried
letting him cry himself to sleep. 2 reasons it hasn't worked- J.D. doesn't get sleep and so he gives in, and Dawson throws up everywhere which makes it worse to just let him cry.
I have tried sleeping on the floor by his crib, and in the rocking chair just after he wakes up to let him know I'm there. He tries to come lay by me, or climb to have me hold him and I'm very strong, I tell him, "No, you need to lay down. Mom isn't going to hold you." So I sing to him, or read another book, play primary music without words- NONE has worked. I have done this method for 8 days straight and i had no improvement.
I tried making a bed for him on the floor by our bed and practicing multiple times with him, to show him that he needs to come from his room to the bed on the floor and lay down. This only works if I lay on the floor with him. So I did this for 5 days or so and then tried having him do it on his own....nope. He just cries until he throws up or until I get him.
I've tried rocking him back to sleep, and holding him, but once I go to lay him down he wakes up. So I rocked him for 1 week straight for a whole HOUR and then laid him down. Well, he started crying after I had laid down in the bed for 10 min.
So, the last resort we thought of so far was just bringing him in to let him sleep with us. This results in J.D. moving to the couch, and Dawson waking up SEVERAL more times in the night because every time I move, he wakes up. He also feels for me and my hair, if he can't feel it immediately, he starts screaming.
I have limited the amount of candy and pop he's drinking and eating, making him eat more solids and less sippy cups, and have limited TV/Movie time and the kind of shows he's watching. i have given him benedryl ..yes sadly I have done so, but I think he metabolizes it so fast it doesn't work-(I have this problem with all medication and especially anything the is an anesthetic.)
In the end after he wakes up, we are both awake for 2 hours almost, and then he sleeps so good from 6-9. He doesn't go to bed til 10 usually, so the problem is the 2 hours being awake. I end up breaking down more times than necessary. I just need my sleep too so I can function properly.

I am asking for some serious advice. I will try and do anything. All you moms out there- help another mom in need please! :-) Thanks!

Estate Sale!

Well, as most of you know I go to these AMAZING Estate Sales in St. George all the time and get the best deals ever! So there is another one this weekend and here is the site to check out all the stuff they will be selling, where its at and the time. REMEMBER!!! 50% OFF EVERYTHING ON SUNDAY 9am-3pm
www.suzannesales.com
Maybe I will see some of you there!