Busy Bees

This is a huge journal entry for me, so if you don't want to read it that's fine.

We have been so busy lately! It's hard to confront a busy life after an awesome christmas holiday. Yes, my feet have been dragging since then. I just wish life were a little slower, but I am going to have to buck up and figure out how to enjoy it while it's busy. Actually, yesterday was my turning point, the overwhelming part has been building up since I got my new calling. I was called to be in the 2nd counselor in the primary presidency. I am loving my calling and everything that comes with it. I know it's strengthening me in so many ways. However, it's a lot to do with going to school, being a mom, and all the other lovelies in life. (I call them lovelies because I would like to think of them as positives since they are the things that come with life...bills, schedules, traveling, family events, not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings of not attending things, cleaning, etc.) I know everyone reading this can relate.. I have come to find that everyone's life is really about the same as mine. I just had to realize that I can't do everything, but I have to stay on top of things or else I'm going to have another day like yesterday.

So-last night I had to come to grips with reality. I sat down and found ways of not overwhelming myself. It's basically the same old things like time management and calendaring better. I usually am organized, but I needed to take it a couple steps further because I want to be a pleasant busy person. I decided to go week by week, and time manage my days each week. Every Sunday I will sit and go over my week. This way I can get everything done, spend time with Dawson, and have time for myself here and there.

I planned at least 2-3 hours (1 hour increments) with Dawson each day. We've had some big issues with him lately. #1-he is NOT sleeping at night. He will wake up at least twice, if not more. Trust me-I'm working on it. #2-he loves church, but once sacrament is over he starts to have anxiety attacks. He gets so worked up he is throwing up everywhere. Nursery is the problem. He is scared to death to go into the room or even talk about it. I try prepping him all week, talking positive about it, playing in there when there is no other kids or leaders,...it's not working. This hasn't been going on until the last 4 weeks. I am pretty sure something happened in there that no one is telling me. Something with a leader or another child that has affected Dawson. Any suggestion???
*Now that I'm over Nursery in the presidency I have been working on changes that definitely need to be made, and will happen here in the next couple of weeks. Maybe those changes will help, they aren't just for Dawson...but we have 20 kids on the roll and 5 actually stay .. parents just take their kids because they are having the same problem we are. ... makes you wonder what the problem is. Trust me, I am working on what problems I've noticed already.

School is going good. I got a little behind because I had to take the Praxis Exam. I don't know my scores yet, but on Feb. 15th I will....If I don't pass I can't move on with my school. I just am at a stand still until I pass. The assignments are a lot of busy work, but it comes with going to school. I just have to find time to do the assignments. This means consecutive time...with no interruptions. My solution-I am turning my phone off during my scheduled hours. So at 5 I will have lot to answer to, but I will get my school done. I'm treating school like my job, with not being able to answer. SO everyone- between 2-5 please know I will not be answering to my phone. :-) If it's an emergency, please come knock on my door like the old school ways. lol!

I don't mind being interrupted for emergencies. I love helping out if I can. Usually I can since I get all my things done at home- I don't have to go places most of the time.

That's my spill. Other updates- well, we have come up with a really good plan that J.D. and I have been praying for as far as our future. We haven't heard from any dental schools yet, but we got another email yesterday about interviews going til April with one school. We actually have gotten 2 reply's that were no, but their are a few we are still waiting to hear from. There are a lot of other plans, but I really don't want to mention them yet. They are set, but I just don't feel that I can say anything right now. We have been trying to stay a little more private with things just in case we change our minds or we don't feel good about them. It saves us from a lot of over explaining decisions.

Dawson is doing great other than no sleep, and not loving nursery. He is growing up so much! He loves to help me clean and cook! He keeps saying he wants a baby...which won't be happening for a very long time. We ask him what baby he wants, a boy or girl? a brother or sister? He says a sister. Dawson loves little girls. He plays with them so well and loves taking care of them. lol! We got a new aquatic center here in cedar and we LOVE it! It's so warm and fun to play at. Dawson wants to go every day! Not kidding! He will get ready and tell me it's time to go swimming. lol! He loves to shower by himself, sing and dance, (mainly dance with me) and is so into How to Train Your Dragon. It's his new love. He re-inacts all the parts. He finds a basket lid for a shield, has a play knife and will talk to the dragons and say, "Get you Dragon!" And every night he sleeps with his gun-why??? He will whisper, "there's a dragon. ssshhh!" and all of the sudden BANG! he will shoot it. He reassures us too that he shot it. "Mom, Dad? I got him. It's okay. Sleepy time." lol! It cracks us up! His has lots of favorite people and will name them all. It's so funny how he pretends with things and people. I run everyday on the treadmill and lift. Dawson will get his bball shorts and shoes and follow in my footsteps. He hears us grunt sometimes when lifting, so he pretends to grunt as well. He's gettin ripped! lol!

Well, that's all I have for today. I will get pics up soon.

Print your blog!

Okay, so my good friend Stef just posted this on her blog (THANK YOU STEF!!) and I'm am freakin out excited! lol! It's a website that turns your blog into a scrapbook! I am doing mine in labels by year and just filtered through the posts I wanted to be printed. (Do this in your blogger within your label. You will be printing your label) Then go to

www.blog2print.com

I just ordered my whole year of 2008 and it was only $32 for a hard cover!! Not even kidding! I'm so excited because I have no time to scrap book anymore, but I post everything on here. So now I will have books to show my kids and lots of good stories to tell. :-) So another huge THANK YOU to stefanie for sharing this. I sit back and wonder all the time about how I am going to catch up with scrapbooking, I'm only 1 year behind, but I still..I have no idea when I'll catch up. NOW I dont' have to. I can just order my book which is cheaper than printing all my pics. :-)!

Is it just little boys??

I have the hardest time trying to get Dawson to eat. This is a constant battle and has been since he stopped nursing. This kid wants milk ALL the time. He could care less to take the time to eat...why should he, a bottle you can carry around, and it fast and easy. EXCEPT it doesn't keep you full as long, so he wants one every other hour. NOT EVEN KIDDING! He will cry and cry and throw fits and refuse to eat UNTIL he just falls asleep. He is so stubborn about it. I tell him, NO bottle (sippy cup) until you eat. I don't give it to him at all in the day..and he basically starves himself.

Some days I give it to him if he's way upset, and then after his bottle he will eat okay...but that is occasionally. If he does eat, it's top ramen, mac and cheese, apples, or pizza. He is such a picky eater... I have no clue where he got that from.. jk, i am a way picky eater. lol!

Is it me..or is it just little boys?

A little of our life

Well, for New Years we were up in Holden. J.D. had 4 beds ordered so we made a trip up to Holden to get started. There was too much snow to go up on the mountain, so we just turned it into a little vacation. It was so fun because we got to see baby Kyson again. We were so tired that we completely missed out on the New Year's celebration. We were in bed by 10. Normally we would have done our New Year's tradition of steak and potatoes on the living room floor, but since we were in Holden we did it a little different. :-) Our steak and potatoes tradition came from our first year being married, we were so poor and that was the coolest thing in our fridge to eat. To make things more interesting, we decided to make it elegant, but on the floor just for fun. We get so creative with decorating and setting it all up to make it special. We love it! So next year for sure!

J.D. is getting ready to start school again. He's going to finish the 4 beds by the end of this weekend and then school starts monday. He is pretty burned out with school, but this is his last semester to receive his bachelors. We have talked about him getting his masters if he doesn't get into any dental schools this year. He is still waiting to hear back for the dental schools. The masters program is only 1 year here at SUU so it would be do-able, but we will just wait and see.

I am finished with another class as of last night! WHOOHOO! I am starting a new class today and also studying for the Praxis exam. It's about 3 hours and I just hope and pray I pass. It covers Math, Reading, and Writing. I am pretty nervous, but I can only prep and try to be ready. On the side, I am still loving that I can be at home with Dawson.

Dawson is growing up so much! He is getting so smart too! Last night...
Dawson: "Daddy. I want a blanket."
J.D.: "Okay, well go get one then."
Dawson: "NO! You go get it!"
J.D.: laughing, "No, you have 2 legs, you go get it."
Dawson: "No legs. You get it."

Well, this goes on and on, but as you can see he is getting smart. lol! He loves to help me clean the house (yay for that one!). He helps me with all the laundry. He especially loves the rolling part when we roll our top and bottom g's together. He is into dragons, dinosaurs, trains, and cowboy stuff. Dawson absolutely loves to twirl mom's hair when he is tired or just cuddling. It's second nature to him now. :-) He loves milk, mac and cheese, soup (top ramen), apples, and chocolate. Of course he is a little boy and really could care less to eat a full meal...he's a snacker. He really hates nursery...well he hates the idea of mom and dad leaving him alone for 2 hours. I think Dawson has anxiety issues like me with being alone, or having to say goodbye.

history: If you don't know this, I really struggle saying goodbye. I have since I can remember. I remember sunbeams and crying by the door asking for my mom to come back. I would settle down after 20 minutes (yes, I remember specifically how it went because it was so traumatic for me). Saying goodbye while going to school I got used to, but i remember asking if my mom can come to class with me. After knowing my mom couldn't stay, I refused to play with anyone before school (I was in an afternoon class) in fear that my mom wouldn't be there to drop me off. I had to stick to the plan of mom dropping me off and going home. I became way good friends with Brie and Andy there. So, those are the only 2 houses I would go to after school if it wasn't my own. BUT I wouldn't go anywhere else. With dance, my sister taught me so I was okay. This is the sister who raised me (she was 14 and shared a room with me to take care of me at night).

I struggle saying goodbye to family especially. Anytime my brother chad and his wife would leave, I would go hide in my room and cry. I just hate to say goodbye. I cry when I say bye to my dad, J.D., and especially Dawson. I don't want to talk to anyone for a good half hour, and then I start to be okay. It usually takes a couple of days for me to get back into routine.

SOOO, I keep getting this feeling that Dawson is the same way. He really doesn't like to say goodbye. BUT it's hard to deal with it because I feel that if I think this way he will act more upon it...but if he really does struggle with it, I don't want him it to be traumatic like it has been for me. How do you handle it? I try to talk to him about what will be happening for a long time prior to leaving. This helps, he does cry...but it helps a little. Maybe it will help more when as he gets older. What would you do?

Christmas 2010

This year was definitely another memorable year. Dawson REALLY understood Santa this year. He has been asking for Santa for over a month now. He watched the Polar Express everyday..maybe twice a day because it has a train, tickets, and Santa in the movie (all of those things are his number ones things right now). We kept asking him, what are you going to ask Santa for this year?
Dawson: "A train and gun! Gun like dad's!"
He would wake up each morning and check his stocking for candy too! It amazed me that this 27 month old child understood all of this! He would get so down when we would explain that Santa wasn't coming for the day because it wasn't Christmas Eve. :-(

THEN the day came.... We had arrived in Holden on the 23rd and did some family pictures. We were so excited because we got to see our new nephew and Lynette's family (they live in Iowa so we only see them about once a year). We drove up north for the day to see Uncle Choc and give him his Christmas gift. (we had him for christmas this year) We got home and slept so good.
The next morning we woke up and told Dawson he would get to see Santa today. He FLIPPED OUT! All day he was so excited! Before the program we went to take the horses shoes off with Uncle Lucas. Need I say more... Dawson was so happy. The horses kept jumping and freakin our a bit, but Dawson got mad if we tried to get him down. He just held tight to Ringo's mane.

We taught Dawson how to say "Whoa!" to stop and "Giddy up!" to go. He knew when to say them. It was funny thought, Lucas was trying to get the horse to hold still why he pulled off the shoe and Dawson said,"Whoa Lucas! Whoa!" It was hilarious!

**If you've read my posts, you will remember that Holden does a short Nativity program and songs in their ward for Christmas Eve and Santa never forgets to come. **

So we went to the program, it was short and sweet and made me cry. I just loved the slide show about testimonies of Christ. Then, we sang some songs and all of the sudden from the back of the room "HO!HO!HO!" Dawson jumped in his chair. I am not exaggerating at all. He started hyperventilating when he saw Santa walk past him. People around us kept laughing at Dawson and his excitement. We got to see Santa pretty quick because they do 0-3yrs old kids first. So as we stood in line Dawson was twirling my hair so tight because he was all nerves. It was so funny! Then...it was his turn. This video only shows a part because the lady walked in front of our camera..but Dawson ran and jumped into Santa's arms all full of smiles. He just kept hugging him and smiling.


I know his face doesn't do him justice for how excited he was..just know he was so relieved to finally be with Santa after about a month of waiting.


After seeing Santa, he gave Dawson a bag full of candy. Dawson would NOT let go of the bag. It was from Santa and he wasn't about to let go of it for anything or anyone.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!! We took a family pic of all the kids and headed downstairs. We have such a big family we just moved all the gifts downstairs, and Santa knew to leave his gifts their as well. That way we could all fit in one room comfortably. It was funny to see Dawson run for the doll house and Taylee started to play with the workshop. lol!


Dawson did end up playing with his tools after a bit! He loved being like dad and having cool tools.


Santa brought Dawson his rifle!! He couldn't get enough of it! I will just tell you all the things Dawson got right now. His gun, workshop, and a pillow pet from Grandma and Grandpa Stevens, a cowboy dress up thing from Aunt Loni. From G & G Shelley he got a electric Micky Mouse, a dinosaur blanket, a train towel, thomas the train pj's, and thomas the train electric toothbrush.



J.D. got a dremmel bit, hair clippers, oil vial and socks. I got microwavable dishes from J.D., a soft plush blanket, a sunday dress, and the Doctorine and Covenants on DVD. It was so much fun to spend this Christmas with J.D.'s family. Dawson had a blast with all the cousins and family too.
Later that day, J.D.'s dad's boss has a Christmas part with horse rides, tube rides behind a tractor, and BBQ in his shed. It was a blast! It was a real hay ride behind 2 draft horses!!

We were freezing, but Dawson didn't care at all. He got to ride up front and drive the team with Grandpa Stevens. These horses were HUGE!!! They were kind of intimidating, but Dawson still managed to give them big squeezes and blow them a kiss while saying,"Buh Bye horsies!"


After getting home, we had some visitors...It was from the Evertsens! They live in California and were on their way back there from their Christmas visit to their families. It was so much fun! We got to see baby Halle, let our boys play and visit for a long time. Here is just a small piece that shows how much fun Ty and Dawson had. Here are the outlaws!

It was such a great Christmas! It really was so much fun to see so much family and friends!

Words and parents

I just have to laugh at this post before I start because I am having so much fun thinking of all these words that have changed meaning through time.

My memory has taken me clear back to my first kiss. BUT during the time in my life the word for kiss was 'score.' So..naturally at that time somebody would have asked,"Did you score last night?" When you read that...it sounds not like just a simple kiss, but it was that or a make out.

STORY TO NEVER FORGET: After the weekend of my first kiss, I went to school Monday. SOMEHOW is this very small town of Kanab everyone knew by 3rd period! Only 4 friends knew because they were there when it happened. I went home for lunch to talk to first kisser of mine on MSN (remember when that was the biggest hit ever) I was facing the computer, and my sister Kortni came home with 2 of her friends. She was a senior at the time, and I was a freshman.
***Pause: this was my first real kiss. Meaning it actually counted because I knew it wasn't a friendship thing**

My mother was in the kitchen behind me fixing us some lunch. Well..thanks to Kort's friends....
Kort's friend: So Jenny, I heard you got you scored this weekend.
ME: I turned fast.. looked at my mom and said, "Yep, I liked it too!"
It was perfect timing because my mom was just taking a drink of milk and spit it ALL over the counter! HAHA! She replied,"WHAT!??"
I could see she was about to laugh because of what I said. I decided to just end it with that.
(really though, the kiss was cute and sweet. The make out which was 2 weeks later was SO DISGUSTING. NOT CUTE. NOT SWEET. AND DEFINITELY NOT WHAT'S IN THE MOVIES)
Well...in my mom's era of growing up, 'score' meant go all the way..or sex. Now you can imagine why she was shocked. Go ahead-read the story over again with that thought in your mind. My mom was speechless. lol! What would you do if you heard that from your daughter and had the same thought as my mom? I don't blame her.. but she did have to clean up the milk.

More words...
Things that were cool were 'the bomb'...then it transferred into 'DA BOMB' then we had 'DA BOMB DOT COM' . it then went to 'That's sweet!' We used other words like, "sexy and hot..' and then it was 'That's sick dude!'

This didn't get too big because people were getting in trouble for saying it... and it wasn't that big in Kanab. It was big in the town not too far from Kanab. the word is 'sexual.' Someone would say, that is so sexual instead of cool. Ya..that didn't last long, but it was there.

The other big thing..and maybe this was going on before my time, but using words like 'freaking' and other substitutes for swear words. It's still happening today.

BUT now as I've gotten out of high school and am starting to grow up, my vocabulary is growing, times are changing and I'm definitely considered more of a mom and out of the 'loop'. I can see why parents watch what they say and try to be proper-especially since I have 2 year old who repeats everything. I just thought parents were old and from a WAY different time period, but in all honestly, now that I'm older and hear all the CRAZY stories my parents did when they were young, they were just like us. EXCEPT, I think they did crazier things that we could think of in high school. NO JOKE- my mouth just hangs open when they tell me what they did. I don't think they are dumb parents anymore, they are way cool!

In short, parenting is 'freaking' hard, but worth it and can be fun. I can't wait to see if my kids think I'm cool when I get to tell them my stories. I'm sure my kids will shock me with words they use. Maybe sex won't mean sex, but just kissing...lol

I want to be a Cowboy

I'm writing this so I can log all of Dawson's cute things ...
Monday night, December 13th, 2010

Dawson was getting his night bath and just enjoying every minute of it. J.D. and I were watching him, and talking to him about what we'd done over the weekend. J.D. and I went to Cowboy Christmas in Vegas!! My sister Amy watched Dawson the entire weekend for us. She loved it and so did Dawson. J.D. came back to Cedar Sunday, and I drove to Kanab to stay the night and get Dawson. On Monday, before we left Kanab, we went and hung out with my dad and Matt. Matt said he'd let Dawson go for a ride on one of the horses. Dawson was SOOO excited! He kept sayin, "I need a hat mom! I need a hat!" So Grandpa found one for Dawson to wear and off we were. The whole way Dawson said, "I got my cowboy hat, my cowboy boots, my cowboy belt...where's the horse mom?" I just laughed the whole way.

We got to the horses and Dawson was on cloud 9. He just sat up there (no saddle) and Matt walked the horse around. It was one of those moments where Dawson was speechless. Nothing else mattered. He got off so willingly and didn't complain at all.

I drove home to Cedar and during Dawson's bath he said, "Mommy. Daddy." J.D. and I replied "What Dawson?" And Dawson said, "Mommy. Daddy. I want to be a Cowboy. Cowboy hat. Cowboy belt. Cowboy boots. Cowboy horsey."