Ringo Again

Of course while we are here in Holden we have to ride Ringo. Dawson can't get enough of riding these horses, helping his dad, feeding the animals, and being a cowboy like daddy. Dawson is such a champ at handling these horses and not being scared. 

Dawson loved holding the horses while dad saddled them. He was so proud of himself! He then helped brush the horses!

It was a good thing Ringo bent down to eat so Dawson could reach him. He's a HUGE horse.

And finally they were ready. CHEESE!

I love that we have so much opportunity for Dawson to grow up around animals. It's such an amazing experience as a mother to see your child around animals. I think it can tell you a lot about your children. I think Dawson is less scared of horses than I am. lol!

Sand Dunes with the Coats'

Last night our good friends came up from Cedar City to see their family here in Holden. They invited us to come spend time with them at the sand dunes so they could see us too while they were up here. We had a blast. Dawson was on cloud 9 and got to spend time with his friend Payton.

Dawson and Payton buried alive! They both kept wanting to be buried, get themselves out, and get buried again and again and again. 

Poor Payton's diaper was filled to the brim with sand- that can't be comfortable at all!

Dawson loved running around barefoot and not a worry in the world. He got so dirty, but it was all worth it! He kept sliding down these steeps hills! It was hilarious- and it wore him out (which meant good sleep that night!)

Peace out! Yes, I asked to get buried too....

Dawson and mom

We went to their house afterwards and cooked hotdogs on a stick. One day we are going to have this in our own backyard. It was the coolest fire pit station ever- and they built it themselves!

We also had s'mores!

Lovin me some s'mores!

 

It was so nice to see them and spend some good old Holden quality time together.

We Moved to Holden

As the title of this post says, we did in fact move to Holden. It was a sudden decision. J.D. had a meeting with his employers about benefits, job pay increase, and mold issues. J.D. has been sick for quite some time and we never could quite figure out why he'd stay sick for so long and never could quite get over what he had. Sometimes it was worse than others, but it never let up. Dawson and I would get sick as well, and it would take a really long time to get over what we had, but it would go away and then 2 weeks later we'd be sick again. The last couple months none of us could actually get all the way over our illnesses. J.D. was the worst though. We soon found out (which was in December) that we had black mold growing everywhere in our apartment. We knew there was mold, but we didn't actually know how bad. We looked up symptoms of mold poisoning and sure enough, that's what J.D. had.

After talking to his employers, they didn't give us any reason of why we should stay working with them. When J.D. told them of the mold, they said we had to move and we had no choice. They were going to move us into another apartment, except that too had mold. They wanted us to move into the other apartment, fix our old one, and then move back into it. In our minds that seemed pretty ridiculous. So, not a day later J.D.'s brother Lucas found him a job on a dairy for a temporary time and his mom and dad said it was okay for us to move in with them as long as wanted. So Thursday afternoon we found this job, and we moved out Friday. We finished up some little moving things Saturday, but we were gone by 1. 

It was so crazy how fast we moved. However, since then J.D. has been doing amazing! He doesn't wake up numb, all of his sores have gone away, he has tons of energy all the time, he is sleeping way better, and is breathing amazing! (He doesn't even snore at night anymore which is a huge bonus for me!) Dawson and I too feel tons better. 

Dawson absolutely loves living in Holden. Anytime we've gone to Cedar for a day or 2 to get our truck he just cries because he wants to be back in Holden. He plays with his cousins all the time and has a huge house to run around in, animals to take care of and ride, friends all the time, family (which is his favorite) around all the time, and can run around outside anytime he wants. It's been so good for him. J.D. loves all the resources and being close to family as well. He is waiting to hear back on more permanent jobs and has many opportunities come up. I am adjusting slowly. I love living here, love being around family, love that I have so many things I can do with helping out, but it is kind of lonely. We don't have friends here which is the hardest part of the whole move. We miss our friends the Petersen's probably the most. The Lord definitely had a hand in leading them to move a door away from us. We had so much fun getting to know them and after Andee passed away, it was them that helped us see light and get through our days. There wasn't a moment that we didn't spend laughing with them. The laughter was medicine for us; it was exactly what we needed and still need. They were our family and we spent a lot of time hanging out and we have the best memories from being around them. Not seeing them or being able to hang out with them all the time has been so difficult and something we think about all the time. Dawson always called them his teachers and loved seeing them. He loved the fact that he could go knock on their door anytime he wanted and tell them all the things he did.  We can't wait to see them again. 

Also, I am further away from my family. That too has been an adjustment because I got so used to being able to run to St. George anytime I needed. My mom was living so close to me and that was really nice to be able to have someone to talk to who just listened. She never tried to fix me, she just let me talk. 

 

I know moving to Holden has been an amazing choice, and we really do like it. We are going to have find some friends, but I think we are going to have to visit Cedar at least once a month to see our friends. :-)

First Day of Preschool

We saw a post on the local facebook page about spots opening in a preschool.... so after much thought we decided that even if we move during the semester, Dawson is ready for school and socially & emotionally we felt that he really needed to go to preschool. So we registered him and he's started. He was SOO excited!

And of course I had to get first day of school pictures! Here's Dawson and his daddy! J.D. was pretty emotional and had some tears because his little man is old enough for school. They grow up too fast!

Here's Dawson and me. Yes- I did dye my hair dark with some red.... which I love! I can't believe how proud I could be of him. He is so smart and couldn't be more happy about FINALLY going to school.

Dawson kept asking if 'it was school time yet?' and 'how proud he was of his mom and dad for being so excited for him to go to school.' He was kind of sad because he didn't have a backpack yet, but we did get one after he got out of school. He woke up and had no resistance of brushing teeth or doing his hair. He was ecstatic!

I dropped him off and he even gave me a kiss on the cheek to say goodbye. He wasn't sad at all! His teacher was so sweet and when I picked Dawson up she said, "He was SO good! He was the best one ...literally." It made my heart melt and once again I was so proud of him. He showed me his papers and already knew the letter 'A'! 

When we went to get a back pack he picked out a cute little red and black backpack that he wouldn't take off. He is so proud of it! He loves the idea of going to school and is so open minded of learning. He has definitely stepped up in so many ways. 

Dawson we love you and are so proud of the person you are becoming. We are sad you are growing up so fast and becoming more independent, but it's okay. We are so grateful for you and the happiness your bring us!

The Igloo Incident

One of the many responsibilities of J.D.'s job is snow shoveling. He is lucky because they provide him with a 4-wheeler that has a plow on it. One snowy snowy night before Christmas I had just finished delivering cinnamon rolls to all our friends. When I got back J.D. asked if I'd help with shoveling entry ways while he drove the 4-wheeler and got the sidewalks. Of course I did because I secretly think its peaceful to be outside when it's snowing and no one is out at night. We got home and there it was... a snowman right in front of our stairs to our house! It was the cutest snowman and very well hand-crafted. It had a ship captain's hat on and from that we knew our good friends Doug and Megan were the pranksters behind this. It was cute, but pretty hilarious because we couldn't exactly get into our house. ALSO- it wasn't something Dawson was about to let get crushed and swept away.... he was SO excited and the snowman had to stay. 

As we managed to meneuver around this snowman, we finally made it out and were shoveling the snow. When I finished the studio entry ways I started on the 1st row of the 4-plexes...which is the row Doug & Megan live on. To get back at them, J.D. and I had discussed plowing snow high in front of their door with the 4-wheeler. I had a more grand plan. I had to make it cute, just like the snowman being cute. So I grabbed an empty ice cream bucket out of our house and began building. 

J.D. drove by on the 4-wheeler looking for me and found me working diligently on this awesome igloo for our friends. He just about crashed because he was laughing so hard. We took a pic, left the crime scene, and sent the pic to our friends. Their response, "No way!" Doug also managed to say, "I knew we should have built ours taller!" HAHA

 The funny part about all of this is that Doug had texted J.D. a couple of times asking if he was home yet because they were anxiously awaiting to hear about our reaction to their snowman. Little did they know, we had seen the snowman and were already creating a suprise for them. 

It was pretty awesome and one of the best snow days we've had in a long time. Thank- you Doug and Megan for our beautiful snowman, but our igloo was taller. :-)

Sleep Over with Andee M'lee

The other night Dawson was having a 'hard day.' That's what we call days when we are missing Andee. Dawson had 3 hard days in a row- he would constantly be asking for Andee, asking when he will get to play with her, why she can't come see him, when we can bring her home.... and along with all the questions he gets pretty upset about the smallest things that he normally wouldn't get upset over. 

The last 'hard day' we knelt down for family prayer and in the middle of J.D. praying Dawson whispered, "Don't forget to say we are grateful for Andee." Both J.D. and I just smiled and J.D. didn't forget. After we gave hugs and kisses goodnight. Before I left Dawson said, "Mom I just want Andee to be with me and sleep at my house." I was pretty emotional and said, "I want that too, but she can't. ..." Pause "You can pray to Heavenly Father and ask him if she can sleep on the couch with you. I bet he'd let her if you asked."

Dawson sat there for a moment. He had asked to sleep on the couch earlier and so he was already there, but there was room for Andee on the other half of the couch. So Dawson thought for a moment and said, "Will you help me ask him?" So of course I did and it was the sweetest prayer in the whole world. Afterwards I told him that he wouldn't be able to see her spirit, but he could feel it." 

As I was walking away Dawson said, "Mom! We need to make Andee a bed. Here's her blanket!"

So I laid the white blanket down on the couch. Then Dawson said, "Here she can use my pillow and my other blanket so she can be warm. Is that a good idea mom?"

Me: "That's a great idea. You are such a good big brother." So we made her bed and I said goodnight. 

 (The pirate patch he put on because he scratched his eye really bad and couldn't hardly open it. It was so sad! When we got home, he found his patch and put it on all by himself. He is seriously so smart because neither J.D. or I thought about a patch helping him.)

About 20 minutes later I came back into the living room to see if Dawson was asleep so I could turn off the TV. He noticed me and sat up quickly, "IS SHE HERE?" He looked at the bed we'd made for her.

Me: "um... I don't know. Can you feel her spirit?"

Dawson sat there for a moment and then said, "YES! I can! She's here mom! Can you feel her too?"

I started to choke up, but managed to stop and try to feel her spirit too. I could feel her there. It something that's unexplainable. Me: "Yeah I can."

Dawson was so excited and happy that Heavenly Father let Andee come stay the night with him. He went to sleep with the biggest smile on his face. 

In the morning Dawson woke up and said, "Andee had to go mom, but she said bye."
Me: "I'm so glad you got to have a sleepover with your sister. You need to say a prayer now and tell Heavenly Father thank you."
Dawson: "Okay. But I don't need help. I can do it by myself."
So he did and I was so proud of him for taking time to thank our Heavenly Father and learning the power of prayer.

Abra-Ka-Dabra

While putting our Christmas decorations away, Dawson found a new use for his New Year's party hat and the Christmas tree stand. . . .

 He would say, "Abra-Ka-Dabra......."

 "Suprise!" He pulled the bear out of his hat!!

 And again on the floor....

 "Abr-Ka-Dabra!"

 I'm not gonna lie- he is a pretty smart and creative kid! I love him so much and love how much he makes me and J.D. smile! He is getting so big and growing so fast! He is in the 98 percentile for height...but lacks a bit on the weight. He eats a ton and uses every ounce of it to grow taller. He can do so much by himself and loves thinking he is getting bigger and can do things by himself. Some things he still likes help with- which is fine with me because he won't always want our help. He says he wants to eat good so he can have huge muscles and be big like Uncle Parker. Dawson is pretty smart because Uncle Parker is probably going to be the tallest one in the Steven's family. He has the genes from both sides to be tall...so we will see! Plus he has the genes to have huge muscles like his daddy (J.D. is pretty muscular!)