My accomplishment

I just need to talk about myself for a moment. :-) I have finished 2 classes in 2 months. I'm so excited! I feel a bit behind, but I'm already 1/2 way through the next class-which will be a little bit less stressful since its not an objective exam, just a performance one. I am feeling better and better about the whole program, and am slowly figuring out the odds and ends.

I have to keep reminding myself that its sooo good that I'm finishing up my degree because ALL the time I think that it would be so much easier and less stressful if I weren't going to school. I think of all the things I could be doing instead of school....but I just keep going. It's definitely a huge sacrifice. I cant' wait to be done. I think the more I learn about the program, and get back into my study habits the easier and faster I will be able to go. I know I can do it because my sister-in-law did it with 3 kids at home (1 was a newborn) and her husband was in residency for medical school. That's a huge motivator because I don't want to wuss out or quit.

I have had an experience of quitting 1 class at UVU. I was SO deathly sick from pregnancy I just couldn't keep up. It was the worst feeling of my life. I was taking 15 credits, this particular class was online and the teacher said that I had to keep up, and wouldn't give any sympathy because it was online. I don't regret it because I know there was no way of being able to finish with how far behind i was, BUT I hated the feeling, and never want to feel that way again. So I am going to finish, it's just hard. But no one ever said it would be easy, just worth it.

So until I finish, I take care of our house, a stay at home mom, go to school, and try an do my church calling. It's such a busy life, especially since my husband has to work and study himself for school and the DAT- he's hardly home. I feel like a bad friend sometimes because I can't do all the fun things I used to, but I have such great friends who are so understanding. :-)

There's my venting...lol! The end! HAHA!

Summer Fun

This summer we have had so much fun! It's been super busy, but here's the tale

My mom took the kids and dogs to a creek in washington somewhere- they had a blast!

Dawsie and Mama-that's what they call eachother

Carson loves to play by himself, and isn't one for pics..

The boys spend a lot of time together- here dawson doesn't like the pics and carson does...

And they love their shades- don't get them mixed up though

We went to the Washington pool and it was fun, but Dawson was so tired after an hour..

Summer Fun Continued..

For the 4th of July we went to Holden. They celebrated it on Saturday, so after the parade that J.D., I and Dawson missed, we ate lunch and went to Yuba Lake. My brother Matt let us borrow his jet ski's.. and other than that the pictures will explain how much fun and how relaxing it was.

Here is the cutest baby in the world, Destry. She is only 2 months old and she is already out enjoying the sun

Aunt Loni and her baby Destry are lookin so fine with their shades!

Here is Taylee! always smiling! She knows all about the beach!

Here is Mama and papa...at least that's what Dawson calls them :-)
Parker is the ULTIMATE UNCLE! He is EVERYONE's favorite! Taylee loves him so much! She looks so dang cute in her shades! Parker used the goggles for shades

Parker taking Taylee out to play. He is such a good uncle!

Uncle Chet took Grandma for her FIRST ride on a jet ski!! She said it was fun, but didn't really want to drive one by herself

One of Dawson's loves is shoes...especially ones that aren't his...he stole grandma's for the day :-)

Grandpa made himself really cozy at the lake

and so did Aunt Bobi Sue! :-) She didn't get to ride the jet ski's because she was being safe and protecting our new little niece or nephew on the way!!! :-) We are so excited!

And of course Parker..there isn't many words for this one...

This is our sweet little niece Taylee! I couldn't get enough pics of her! She is so dang CUTE!

Dawson didn't quite like the Jet ski as much as he thought he would...

Here is some more random fun pics about how our summer is going

How can you resist this little man! ? He loves his hats, because he knows mom won't do his hair if he will grab a hat..this is the one he chose for the day. HAHA! He looks like a baby genius from the movie

On the 4th of July (Sunday) we got to see our new little niece Destry get blessed. It was such a neat blessing-although I didn't get any pics of Destry..I found my camera afterwards and caught a pic of Dawson in his new sunday outfit. :-)

So we got a new dishwasher and this is what I created with the box...

Dawson LOVES it! It's his new hiding spot

It's the coolest place ever as Dawson would say if he could speak his mind better...He's such a cute little boy!

We really are enjoying our busy summer and all the visitors we have had, and all the visiting we have done. :-)

An update with pictures

Our little family has been so stinkin' busy, I apologize for it being so long since the last post. We are either studying, working, cleaning, or trying to find time together. It's been a struggle trying to be 'good' friends to everyone because we definitely can't do what we used to be able to. This post shows our exciting events since the summer started-not many, but there is some. :-)

We went to Sand Hollow with my family for a day. My brother Matt brought his Jet ski's and we had a blast on the beach.

And here is our niece Lyndee with Dawson. The best thing about having nieces and nephews is having them take care of your kids while you relax. Dawson was in his glory having attention 24/7!
One of the jet ski's stopped working for a minute, so J.D. had to pull it, and our 2 nieces back to shore. He's such a good uncle.


This is our nephew Layne- he's so handsome! (workin on his suntan for the ladies)

Here is a partial pic of who came. We had so much to eat, plus it was so nice to just relax and not study for a few hours.

One weekend, J.D.'s parents came down and suprised us with a quick visit. (They needed to get away) :) So we went to a museum, shopped a bit, and then just visited for a few minutes before they left. It was fun to have them come see our new place.
Dawson loves his grandpa, he loved hiding in between his legs and saying, "BOO"

Last, but no least, Dawson loves earrings. I bought these at a yard sale and hadn't changed the clip on to regular- of course Dawson saw what I saw in them, THEY ARE SO CUTE! He had to wear them before me ;-)

For some reason he loves the feeling of slowly pulling them off...don't ask me why, but i think he looks pretty cute with them on. lol!

There isn't much else going on in our lives-Dawson is growing and talking so much. It's fun to play around with him. He is such a stud! J.D. is still working and going to school-one class ends this week-WAHOO! He is also spending time studying for the DAT this august. I'm still trying to figure out my study habits again and about to finish another class here in a week. hopefully I will post the 4th of July comin up soon after than later. No guarantees though...

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!