Dawson starts Kindergarten

This was a special day for our family.  A day that was once so far away and uncertain.  When Dawson was diagnosed with his brain tumor I was convinced it would come back.  So I lived from MRI to MRI.  First in three month increments.  Then six month.  Now yearly.   I would lie if I said I do not get emotional every time I see him run into kindergarten happy and as normal as can be.  We are forever grateful for our Dawson.    

This is the only picture I got of him smiling.  It is a terrible quality picture but as you see below smiles are hard to come by. 

Forever the entertainer!!!

His fire backpack!!

His crazy grin...

Dawson among his classmates.  Just as any other normal kid.  The greatest feeling in the world.

Brielle starts 2nd GRADE!!!

 Where did my baby girl go?  2nd grade.  Her own fashion opinions.  Her own attitude.  Oh man. 

 Had to have a side backpack!

She is a great big sister and Dallin just adores her!!!!  He waits all day for her to get home.

 

 Brielle loves her brothers.

2nd Grade and no looking back!

Little Projects...

I have done a few small projects over the course of the summer nothing huge but just to keep the DIYer at bay. 

At the beginning of the summer my sister Karrah and I re-vamped a used changing table.  It was in okay condition to begin with but we did not like the color.  We originally stripped it down and tried to re-stain it but it would not take the stain.  So we just painted it black.  Several coats and then several lacquer coats later and it turned out AWESOME.  I wish I had a finished picture with the cute knobs but I don't.  I will get one. 

 The few scratches it had....

Then I whipped together a valence out of baseboard in about 15 min.  I having been struggling for 6 years on what to do with our sliding patio doors then it hit me.  Duh.  Make a valence just like my other windows.  I got a 1.5 inch dowel and cut it to length.  

 

Got a set of closet rod holders and some L brackets and it was done.  Whole project cost about $5.  

I had the curtains but I bought the easy slide rings and they work great!...  

Got some gorgeous metal knobs to hold back the curtains during the day....

 Then painted the valence black....

 I did a picture collage...WHICH I LOOOOOOOVE!

Made a blanky for my niece that is coming in December.  

Plus she needed some burp rags....

Most recently my Mom and I painted her garage floor with the epoxy garage floor paint.  It was SUPER easy and went on without any problems.  

It really transformed the entire garage!!!

Super Fun Summer!!

We have had a super great summer!...I always feel good about myself when my kids are exhausted from all the fun we have had!  I think this year was a success.  We got season passes to 7-Peaks for $10 which is a water park in SLC and Provo.  We were really able to take advantage of these passes by going almost weekly.  With these passes we were able to go to an indoor football game and hopefully a baseball game when it cools off.  Another perk of these passes was we got to go to Trafalga Family Fun Center and play for FREE!

7 Peaks FUN!!!!

Sleepovers with BFFs. 

 Snow cones!!

David and I were even able to get a couple dates in!..We went to see Davids friend play in his band.  It was a really fun night!..

 The Ogden Cafe where they played.. 

Of course, Dress UP...

After a late night sleepover at Monna's house....

The babies playing at Trafalga!!!

 We even spent an evening in Provo Canyon and we LOVED it.  Water and rocks.  What more could you want?

 We bought a tent and had our first "camp out" in our backyard.  The kids loved it. 

 Silly time....

 Fun with COUSINS.....

More exhaustion!..

Then all the couples went out for Andrea's birthday!!..A night in SLC.  (Have I mentioned I love these girls?)

Party animals...

We even went on a family hike!  It was supposed to be very kid friendly but we started at the wrong place and it was SCARY....Can't do that again!  Sad to see summer come to an end love the freedom and no pressure schedule BUT I could not be more ready for school to start!!!.....

Baby Dallin at 23 months!!

Its so hard to believe my baby is almost 2 years old.  Where has the time gone?  Oh right we spent the first 20 months in and out of the doctors office and hospitals but since then he is like a different kid!  So happy.  So silly.  His personality is soaring and we love it!  We are waiting for his speech to really start to pick up but much like his older brother at this age he uses very little words instead choosing to just scream and get angry when I cannot distinguish between his screams.  Here are some fun pictures of our favorite baby!

 He loves these cars from the hospital and gets so excited when he sees them but when we went to our friends house they had a smaller version with a shopping cart connected to it.  He would not listen to me that it was too small to get into.  So he tried.  And tried again.  and again.  Each time resulting in me having to get a stuck Dallin out! haha

 Dallin wants to be a big kid so bad!  He is often wearing Dawson's helmet or clothes.  He wants to go on bike rides with the big kids and loves to go play in the backyard!

 He is a total Momma's boy but gets SO excited when Daddy gets home!  Literally screaming at the top of his lungs "DADA, DADA!!  Trust me it is LOUD.  He still is not a fan of many other people but he does like a couple of my friends he lights up when he sees them.  :)

 He absolutely loves to EAT.  He will eat anything and everything you give him.  He is drinking salsa in the picture.  Just like my other two, Mexican is his favorite.   

 He loves to do the Al Bundy which sometimes turns into a surprise hand sanitizing!..YUCK

He can reach the counters which means my life is officially over.  He loves to "help".  Isn't that nice?

 He loves making us laugh and getting reactions out of us!

 He has a new favorite toy which is the play laptop.  He likes to be like Mommy and Daddy and do his work.  He spends most of his day opening and closing this toy!

As comes with loving food.....a huge MESS.  He cannot have a single meal without completely covering himself in his food.  Practically requires a bath after every meal.  Yes I'm tired. HA.

 He likes to rub his food all over his face and hair!

 Oh and he thinks hes pretty funny!!!

Even two year olds get warn out.  He still naps once a day and it usually is about a 3 hour nap!  Gives me time to clean up his messes right before he gets up again.  Or I nap also.  :)

 

After our pool trips he is pretty exhausted and usually doesn't make it out of the parking lot!

 And every once in a while he falls asleep in our laps.  Love that!  After almost two years with this baby we are more than in love and cannot wait to see how he grows and develops.  

Few of his favorites:

Balls (any kind and sport, also anything that resembles balls)

Mexican food

Spaghetti/Raviolis

Laptop

Juice

Music

Boxes, batman castle, drawers, cabinets (anything he can open and put things in)

Chapstick 

Markers (which he confuses for chapstick) 

Anything that smells good (loves smelling things, ie baby wipes, perfume, lotion, chapstick)

Mommy/Daddy

Bath Time

Pool Time

Swings

Siblings 

His Buddies, Tanner and Ollie

Says: Momma, Dada, "E-L" Brielle, "Aws" Dawson, "Mour" more, Bite, Ball, Pool, "Ba" Bath, "Yo me" Your mean!