Trying to pose....

Some days we catch Dawson trying out new ways to walk, talk, run, and so on.... Today we caught him trying to pose.... and yes I mean 'trying.'

 He's still got some work to do, but he's still so cute!

 This one is my all time favorite because his face just shows you how hard he's trying... or is that the face that he thinks goes with it. I can't say I've never seen someone posing with that face before. I'm not sure what to refer the face to....

He's the cutest and funnest little boy ever! We love you Dawson and love how entertaining you make our lives!

Dawson's mouth

When Dawson gets the camera we never know what we are going to find later on. This post is definitely explaining what I mean.

 What does a kiss look like?

 "What does my tongue look like?"

" Lets see what my half smile looks like....."

 I love finding pictures that he takes! He's so curious and it lets me get a little bit of a glimpse of what goes on in that smart little head of his! :-)

 

Bonfire Time Again

J.D.'s sister, Loni and her family moved to Cedar City at the beginning of the year. It's been awesome because it's been so long since we've had family live in the same town as us. Plus, they are amazing chefs and always cook the most amazing things for us. Dawson has started to build a great friendship with his cousin Destry as well. During the summer, they go back to Holden so they can work.... so before they left we made sure to have a bonfire with them. It's so nice to have family to do things with! 

Here's the cutest little girl ever with campfire all over her sweet little face! 

 Dawson, for some reason, was being a little camera shy. However, here's the 2 munchkins sitting in their little campfire chairs. They absolutely loved being outside and watching the fire.

 This is the best shot I got of all of us... me of course taking the picture. It was a perfect night for a bonfire in our secret place. :-)

 Silly Uncle Daniel with Destry's campfire face! lol!

 Dawson kept trying to stick out his tongue too... but he wouldn't look at the camera!

 Mommy and Dawson! All it took was his mom to take a picture with him for him to smile at the camera! He's such a turkey!

We had a blast, and the food was delicious! The smores of course are the favorite for us :-)

Dibs on the Recliner

Not long before graduation, we had some friends of ours getting rid of their recliner. It just so happened that the recliner is the exact material and color of our other couches that we picked up off the side of the road. It's amazing how much free stuff we have accumulated! This recliner was in AMAZING condition as well. So J.D. and his buddy hauled it on over to our house. There really isn't much room in our little apartment, but J.D. never doubts my skills of making things fit and go together. 

We brought the chair in, made it fit, and the next thing we knew Dawson had already called dibs on the chair. LITERALLY! Anytime any of us sit in the living room and try to sit in the recliner Dawson will say, "Hey, that's my chair. You need to move." lol! He is an awesome cuddler and a great sharer with his mom and dad...so usually it ends up with one of us plus Dawson in the recliner. Other times...it's just Dawson. 

Tender Moments

I really love how Dawson says "Good Morning baby" every day. It melts my heart that he is so attentive already to the idea of the baby coming. He says now that it's a baby sister. We had an ultra sound and saw only 1 baby-so we decided that Dawson must be telling us there is one more after this one.

We ask Dawson what his sister's name is and he says, "Andee! Andee Stevens" Then we ask, what his brother's name is and he says, "Monte Stevens." It's the cutest thing ever! He will tell the baby, "I love you baby." He will also sing songs to the baby. It's amazing how he is making this pregnancy easier because he sets such a great example to me.

Dawson has also been into looking at the stars. The other night he sat in the doorway and said, "Mom! Dad! It's Jesus!" We went to look outside and Dawson was pointing at a really really bright star (more like a planet). It was SO cute! Tonight he got a blanket and said, "Mom- want to come share the blanket with me?" So I sat with him in the doorway and he held my hand. He kept covering me with the blanket making sure I was warm because I kept telling him I was too cold and wanted to go inside. His reply, " Mom- you'll be fine. Just get in the blankets and you'll be fine. You can't go inside. You need to stay with Dawson." So i stayed and after a little while he started singing songs. He would sing how he wants to grow up and get so big so he can sit in the big chair (which is the recliner- he can't make it stay laid back because he's too small, but it' his favorite chair). He sang about the stars and how they are bright and shiny. He helped me sing "You are my sunshine" but he said he's Dawson not the sun! He is so smart! lol!

Graduation

Yep! I did it! I finally graduated, with a Bachelors in General Studies. I'm so excited to finally be done with school! I can't believe I did it with a child and how sick I've been...some how J.D., Dawson, and I made it. I am very proud because I graduated with a 4.0 GPA for this semester (did I mention I took 19 credits as well)- huge accomplishment for me.

Graduation was so much fun- even with being sick. Almost all of J.D.'s family and mine came to see me walk and receive the most expensive piece of paper I will ever have to buy (aka diploma). We had a BBQ, went swimming, ate at the pizza factory and sizzlers. To be honest, it was just so nice to be around family and spend time with all of them. Dawson was on cloud 9 with cousins to play with. A huge THANK-YOU to everyone who came and made my day more special. It meant so much to me to hear how incredibly LOUD my cheering/support section was when my name got called. :-) lol! It was awesome! 

It's a huge relief to have this chapter of my life closed and I can just stay at home and be sick instead of using all my strength to get to class and make it through a presentation without throwing up....which only happened once... lol! I want to remember how hard it was because I think it will be fun to look back and remember how hard it was and how good it felt to be done. 

My plans now.... hmmm... I hope I start feeling better soon so I can start preschool with Dawson. Right now we are learning how to sing the alphabet and months of the year songs. I want to build food storage shelves and work on that. I also want to put together 72 hour survival kits. I hope this summer we get to go camping a bit, a few lake trips, and go out to see J.D.'s sister and my brother out in the midwest. I also want to make another bucket list with J.D.- which is another awesome blog post I will share soon. So those are my plans and I guess I can compare my list at the end of the summer....

Speaking of that...now that school is over, none of us have school in the fall which means I will end this post by saying

 SUMMER IS ALL YEAR BABY! HECK YA! 

Words of Praise

Lately Dawson has been so kind! He is growing up so much! The other morning he came in and said, "Good morning Dad! Dad.... you're a great dad."

Then later that day he said to me, "Mom, you're a great mom."

He has been so good at saying thank you and please to everything. When we try to help him solve a problem he will say, "YA! That's a great idea! Good idea mom/dad!" "Good job"

He reminds us all the time, "Mom, Dawson is just....Dawson is just so awesome." I'm so glad he has confidence in himself! When others say, "You are just so cute!" Dawson replies, "Yeah" or "Yep"

We just love this little man and how happy he makes us every day! We love you Dawson!