D-d-d-ddDawson

First, an update on Aimee- She is home and doing much better. We are SO thankful for all the progress she has made. She is working really hard to get better, it is a 24 hr/a day battle for her, I don't know how she keeps going. The funny story is that on Tuesday Jessica had a minor surgery (Replacing her Hickman central line?) Anyway, they put Jessica 2 rooms down from Aimee for her recovery. When I called, Aimee had gone for a walk to visit Jess, and my Mom and Dad (Who had been taking turns being with the girls) and Aimee and Jess were all in the same room. It reminded them of a few years back when Jessica and my Mom actually shared a hospital room.

Anyway- on to the original post:

Dawson is so funny these days. He just figured out that he could pull himself up to stand. He could have done it months ago, but he didn't know it until a few weeks ago. He still does his little worm crawl, and crawls all around the house trying to find little treasures that his brother has left behind. He loves being outside, and when the door opens he moves as fast as he can to try to escape. If he doesn't make it before the door closes he clenches his fists and yells at us. Here are some of the latest pictures:


The topless boys

Dawson standing up (and getting into trouble)

Dawson eating dirt with a snotty nose. Honestly, you turn your back for 2 seconds!


Dawson drinking his bottle. He loves his bottle! He starts laughing every time he sees it.

My sister Aimee

My cute sister Aimee had surgery on Tuesday. She had cancer in her tongue last year, and it spread into her lymph nodes. So she had surgery to remove those lymph nodes, and they found a lot more cancer, unfortunately. It was a really rough surgery and a REALLY hard recovery. After 4 weeks of recovering she will have the decision to do 6-8 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy. It is hard for us all to watch her go through this. We just want her to feel better so badly! We really love her and hope that her recovery is fast. I'm so sorry she has to go through this. If you have a minute please say a prayer for her, she needs all the prayers she can get.

Aimee is 8 years older than me, and has always been a great older sister to me. I've heard many stories of her carrying me around on her hip (And I was a BIG baby) and taking care of me right from the start. She is such a thoughtful person. She has always found little nice things to do for me through the years. I remember when I was around 4 years old and I swallowed some little plastic thing. I was terrified that I was going to die from it or something. Aimee put together a treasure hunt for me and I found a little present at the end. She did so many fun things for me as a child. I especially remember her mailing or bringing home fun things when she went away to college. She sent home great 80's mix tapes, candy, and other treats for me.

When Dave & I got married, Aimee gave us a free night at the Anniversary Inn for our honeymoon. Since then she has given us so many thoughtful gifts both to Dave and I, and to our kids.

Aimee and I have been on lots of fun trips together, even on the "family" trips we always ended up in the same rental car together. We love to sing Indigo Girls together, I take the alto and she the soprano. We've been to all their concerts together, and we try never to touch each other at the concerts so people can know we're sisters and not lesbians (The Indigo Girls are lesbians). We actually have tickets to their concert on June 19th, so I hope that she's feeling well enough to go.

Aimee is a very smart girl, and I've always been jealous at how successful she's been both in school and in her jobs. She's always had great jobs starting with babysitting jobs working her way through school and graduating with her MBA from BYU (A very competitive program). Upon graduation she had excellent jobs(although she didn't ENJOY all of them), but she always made a lot of money! She always has been a hard worker, and has had great success as a result.

Aimee is eternally one of my best friends and sister, and I love her! I hope this misery ends for her soon!

The Faith of a Child

On Sunday night we awoke to Isaac screaming shortly after midnight. Isaac is a VERY tough child. We have known him to get black eyes, smashed fingers, chipped teeth and bruises galore, and he barely even cries about it. He has never been sick other than mild colds, and he hasn't let me give him medicine in almost 2 years.

So when we heard him screaming, we knew something was wrong. As I walked into his room he was thrashing back and forth and rolling up onto his head, in EXTREME pain! I couldn't get him to stop and tell me what was wrong, so I pulled him out of bed and had him stand up. Dave finally got him to say that his ear was hurting. I quickly went and mixed up some chocolate milk with some Motrin in it, and came back. He couldn't drink it because his throat hurt too badly. He still was in excruciating pain, and we didn't know what to do. I was in tears at this point too. I couldn't stand seeing my baby in pain.

Dave asked him if he wanted a priesthood blessing. He said no. Dave told him that Jesus could make him better if he would let him give him a priesthood blessing. He agreed to that. So Dave annointed him and when he took his hands off his head Isaac cried, "I'm not better!" Dave told him that he hadn't done the blessing yet, and if he believed that Jesus would make him better he would feel better after the blessing. Dave gave him a wonderful blessing and within a few minutes after the blessing Isaac stopped crying and went back to sleep.

This was such a wonderful miracle to take place in the middle of the night! We are thankful for the healing powers of the priesthood and the pure faith of our precious son. When he woke up he felt completely better. He told everyone all morning that, "Jesus maked me better." He had no doubt in the priesthood.

A boating we will go!

We took our first boating trip without any help. I launched and trailered the boat, and Dave backed up the trailer to the water. We couldn't believe how smooth it went even for us boating dummies. The guy who sold us this boat said it pretty much loads itself on the trailer, and he's right. It is so easy to load! We got this awesome 3 person tube at Sam's club, and we love it! It is very safe and child friendly, we even took the babies on it. (April and Tim went with Ethan). It was a beautiful day, and the water wasn't even that cold. I've gone boating the first of June before when the water was FREEZING! I guess this unusual May weather has warmed up the water early. I'll admit though, I still didn't want to get all the way in. Just getting wet in the tube was enough for me. I'll have to get up the courage to ski next time. I can even kneeboard this summer since I don't have a big belly (no comments PLEASE!)

Our first waterskiier (Tim)

The skipper too.

A funny shot of Dawson. The lifejacket squished his chubby cheeks, and just like his big brother always did, he fell asleep whenever the boat was moving.

Mommy & Isaac tubing together. We even crossed the wake!

Our whole family fits on this tube!

In the Summertime when the weather is hot....

We have been loving this warm weather! We actually held our whole family home evening on Monday OUTSIDE! We played tag and had a squirt gun fight for our activity. We've spent a lot of evenings sitting on our porch swing. This morning I was out mowing the lawn with Dawson in the backpack, and then Tim took Dawson in the bike trailer for a ride. He loved it! I'm going to go call Dave in a minute and see if he wants to go boating tonight. Even though it was a mild winter, we are feel like this is much needed sun. And we are going to enjoy every second of it!

Squirt Gun Fight

Bike Ride

Ethan and Dawson (Dawson looking like a goof. He loved the bike ride!)

The new tradition

Here's me (looking like a freak in the wind) sporting my Mother's Day bouquet. (somehow this was the best out of like 5 pictures?)

My Mother's Day was lovely. I got my first annual bouquet of flowers. Dyer's Woe and Sunflowers.... my FAVORITE! I also got my nice long bath while Dave put the kids to bed.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day this Sunday to all my readers (You know, all 2 of you!). Unless you're a man. You've got another month until your day. So, Happy Mother's Day to all my female readers. Those with children and those without. I agree with what Patricia Holland said of Mothers:

"As I tenderly acknowledge the very real pain that many single women, or married women who have not borne children, feel about any discussion of motherhood, could we consider this one possibility about our eternal female identity—our unity in our diversity? Eve was given the identity of “the mother of all living”—years, decades, perhaps centuries before she ever bore a child. It would appear that her motherhood preceded her maternity, just as surely as the perfection of the Garden preceded the struggles of mortality. I believe mother is one of those very carefully chosen words, one of those rich words—with meaning after meaning after meaning. We must not, at all costs, let that word divide us. I believe with all my heart that it is first and foremost a statement about our nature, not a head count of our children."

Onto the gift. Ahhh, the Mother's Day gift. My mother is luckily VERY easy to give gifts to, but my mother-in-law....... well lets just say she's a little less easy. But I'm pleased to say that we successfully gave our Mother's Days presents to both Moms and they were both a hit. My Mom got a Subway giftcard (maybe the Subway addiction is genetic!). My mother-in-law got new crocs and a beautiful beach towel for her boating trip to Belize. (Thanks Jesse & Brooke for going in on it with us!)

As for me, I have requested no gift. I think in a few years when my kids get older I will start a tradition of them going up into the mountains with Dad and picking a bouquet of wildflowers for me. I mean really, they already will have to find Christmas and Birthday presents, do they really need to do more? And as romantic as my husband is, I can never get over the fact that he's spending OUR money on my gift. I always think, "Did we even have money for this. I mean we already spent our gift budget on our Moms." So Dave is pretty good about writing a really sweet note and letting me take a nice long bath. I hope he honors my request of no gift this year. The thing with Dave is he buys me whatever I want, whenever I want it, so there's really nothing left that I need when holidays come around.

So Happy Mother's Day to all! I wish you all long baths, no dishes, backrubs, breakfast in bed, and whatever other wonderful things you or your husband can dream up.

Baby Animal Days

Baby Animal Days was held the beginning of April, and Isaac just loved it! He got to ride a horse, hold baby chicks and bunnies, and pet the baby horses and cows. They had an easter-egg hunt where he found some candy. We also went on a wagon ride. Dawson spent the morning on my back (in the backpack), so he had a great time too! Ginger and her kids came, so Isaac enjoyed spending the day with his cousins too!

Dawson's Post

Warning: This is a long post. More like a journal entry. Read at your own risk!


(Flashback picture of Daws at 6 weeks)
I thought I would dedicate a post to my little cutie Dawson. He is developing such a cute personality, we're falling more in love with him every day.

Dawson was an easy baby to carry in my pregnancy. He never kicked or moved around too much.(Carrying Isaac on the other hand was like being pregnant with an angry octopus). His delivery was easy, and BOY was he an easy baby. A typical newborn, he slept all the time. (I always chuckle at the new parents who brag about how easy their newborns are. But I never tell them that colic doesn't usually hit until a few weeks after birth. No sense bursting their bubble.) He only woke up 1-2 times a night, and he ate and went right back to sleep. Around 4-5 weeks he started becoming more uncomfortable, and by 6 weeks he was in FULL blown colic. Grumpy all the time, with a nightly screaming fit lasting from 1-2 hours, he made his discomfort known! From 6 weeks to about 10 weeks it was pretty bad, and then for a few weeks afterward he occasionally relapsed once a week. By 5 months he was a dream baby. He was very happy and very easy..... until he started teething.

Ahh, teething was quite an experience. He got 5 teeth- each one at a time- over about a 2-3 month period. I DON'T look forward to the molars. I will probably have to check myself into the psych ward when he cuts his molars.

After teething for months, he spent the whole month of April sick. Actually, our whole family did. Daws had 2 ear infections that month, several fevers, and a runny nose and cough the whole month.

With Dawson's difficult nature, I haven't left him very much. He still takes 3 naps a day, so that's when I get my relief from him. I have left him a couple of times with Dave's Mom so we could go to the temple, but really no babysitters. Dave will of course watch him for me too whenever I need him to. He's a very capable Dad. The other people who have really dealt with Dawson through thick and thin are my Mom and sisters. They have tended him for me even in the midst of his colic. My tiny sister Kate has been known to hold him for an hour, even while he was screaming. Jessica, even as she has been on her death bed, has held him through countless dinners (since she doesn't eat), and I have watched Aimee go from swing to bouncer to rocking chair just trying to find SOMETHING that would make him happy. And Grandma- well Grandma tells me she knows what she's doing (I was a TERRIBLE colicky baby) and she loves holding him even when he screams. Oops, I left out Lauren, but honestly, she's a busy teenager. I generally don't even know where she is most of the time, but she is really cute! On the tending note, it's great having parents with young children because you can trade babysitting. We're tending Josh and Kate in June, and when we go on our cruise in August, we are leaving Isaac and Dawson for 10 days! Woohoo! I can't wait!

The last couple of weeks, Dawson finally decided to venture off of our laps, and learn how to crawl. It's still kind of a funny crawl, but it gets him around. The other day I left him in the living room and went back to my bathroom to get ready. Now let me tell you he has never crawled out of the living room before. Within just a few minutes he had crawled into my bathroom. I don't even know how he found me. Now I know I'm really in trouble. I've really enjoyed having him immobile.

Dawson is a very picky eater. He doesn't want to be fed, so he will only eat the things he chooses to put in his mouth. He really likes eating paper, but I've been supplementing his paper diet with cooked spinach. It has a similar texture!

At home Dawson smiles ALL the time! Every time I say his name he throws his head back and grins. Away from home Dawson closes up, and rarely smiles for strangers. Heaven help me if that means he's shy. I have no patience for that!

Dawson loves his big brother, but does get a little impatient with all the squishy hugs he gives him. Isaac's classic line that originated back when Dawson was first born is, "It's Oooookay, it's nooooooo monsters." Isaac was going through a monster phase at that point and couldn't imagine why else Dawson would cry except being scared of the monsters. We still say it to Dawson daily.

Dawson is what I call, "Daddy's boy." He was named appropriately because Dawson means "Son of David." He loves his mommy, but always when given the choice between Mom and Dad, he reaches for Daddy and clings on to him. When his Dad is around he wants him to HOLD HIM! He loves Daddy, and it is a very sweet relationship. I've watched Dave become more attached to him since he learned Dawson's preference. He does a lot more kisses, games, and tickling with Daws then he used to, and I think it has something to do with learning that he's "Daddy's boy."

Well, I think that was plenty long. I just thought I owed a post to my little Daws. We sure think he is a cutie. And at least for this week, I'm not sending him to boot camp!

The Countdown

We are taking our little family to Hawaii this summer. And I am counting down the days. We are staying in a cheap little condo just up from Kaa'napali beach in Maui. David and I haven't spent much time in Maui together, so we're excited to explore a new island. And Isaac can't wait! Whenever we talk about Hawaii he runs and gets out his swimsuit and swim diaper and tells us he's ready to go. He's heard a lot about Hawaii, and he really wants to go see it!

Hawaii here we come

This is the only picture I could get where Daws wasn't screaming. When Dave came home from work, he put on his matching shirt too. So cute!

Fishing

Isaac went fishing with his Dad, Grandpa, uncles, and cousins. He can't stop talking about it. He keeps telling me he caught a Big, Big, Fish! He also told me that he caught a blue fish and Matthew caught a purple one. Here he is with that GIANT fish.

Matthew and Isaac with their fish.

Mexican Chicken.

MMMMMMMmmmmmmm. This is a yummy, easy recipe. I just made it for dinner, and I love it! If anyone else is in a recipe rut (I ALWAYS am.), here is a fresh new recipe for you.

Mexican Chicken Recipe: Takes about 5 minutes of prep and then you can do whatever while it simmers.

4 chicken breasts I use boneless skinless
1 large jar of salsa, however spicy you like it.
8 oz shredded yellow cheese
Rice


About 30 minutes before we want to eat:
Put chicken breasts in a large skillet. Cover with Salsa, Cook covered on medium to medium high for about 30 minutes (You want the Salsa to be bubbling a little). Cover with cheese and continue cooking until the cheese melts.
Serve over rice. Viola, you are done and trust me it is good!

Update- a little late

Dawson crawls now. It's pretty funny. He gets up on his hands and knees, and then launches himself forward. Then he just "army-crawls" around. I'm not encouraging him any further though. I really like my "sitting duck".