My Crazy FUN Family

Look at my family. Aren't we FUN?

My brother-in-law, Tim goes to his daughter for beauty advice.

We tried to put the green thing on Dawson's head and he got mad.

That's Domingo in the middle there in the picture above. He serves us chips & salsa.

My niece Felicia joinrd the National Guard. My niece Shadow bosses Felicia.

There were never such devoted sisters.

Happy Family!

The "Eyes" Have It

Family consensus: BLUE.

Photography

Who needs the Mona Lisa now that we have digital cameras? I mean if I were Leonardo and had a digital camera rather than a paintbrush I'd have deleted that picture. Come on Mona, is that all you've got? Show me those teeth. Sport me a big smile to show all my peeps. This picture is going to be looked at for years!

Jason has been getting into photography and he's getting really good.

I don't think I have the imagination to look at something and see a different angle. How much of our relationship with God is that way? "This way is right because it's what I was taught when I was 3. There is no other perspective". If you have the time, use it to read an article by Walter Beuttler called "Knowing God as Friend". It's worth the time it takes to read it.

 Jason took these pictures of Dawson with black and white film on 35mm camera.

Remember those? I remember the excitement I would have when I got to go pick up a roll of film that got developed and I couldn't remember what pictures were on it. Hey! Look out MONA! Dawson just had HIS picture taken!

My Baby is Growing Up

 My sister Karen burned us a cd with a bunch of pictures of Dawson on it. Some of the pictures are from last summer.  I was looking at them and I'm just really amazed at how much he has grown and changed. For one thing, I don't remember him being that chubby!
Then today was the worst. The daycare had been telling me for a while that now that Dawson is walking, they'll probably  be moving him up to the one year old room. Which is fine.. I thought... I dropped Dawson off at daycare like usual. His teacher wasn't around so I dropped his stuff off in his room and took him to another teacher and left. I went to visit him over my lunch break and he was in the one year old's room laying on a cot with the teacher patting his back because the whole class was taking a nap. She said he wasn't asleep yet so I said "hi honey" and he perked right up and crawled into my arms and cuddled, sucking his thumb. I couldn't stay long today, so I cuddled him for a while and gave him back. Then on my way out I talked to another girl who said he did a great job today with the one and two year olds. They went outside to play and he was afraid to walk in the mulch. Then he tried to eat it. I was just all of sudden overcome with emotion. I kept myself composed and left and when I got in the car I sat there and cried and cried. He's too little for the one's and two's classroom! The will walk on him! Why can't I be a stay at home mom? This is how I felt when I dropped him off at daycare for the very first time when I came back to work after my maternity leave. And I imagine it's how I'll feel the first time he gets on a school bus to head to kindergarten.
I think I need chocolate.
Dawson, if you have to grow up, could you at least take your time?

Time with Grandpa

While we were in the process of moving, Dawson got to spend lots of time with Grandpa Greg. he helped us out tremendously with moving and getting things put together once were all moved in. AND he spent on LONG day with us choosing furniture. "I like this couch"..."No! it looks like a wrinkly grandma" "I like this one... NO don't like that color"...

Speaking of the house... I love our house. This spring we'll paint and get started on the landscaping. Our grass is in pretty bad shape. When we step on it, it cries. It's all brown and gangly looking, in the spots where we actually have grass. Our grass is balding. Balding like an old man. Can you get a toupee for grass? I want our grass to look like Ernest Angley.

We actually don't have much left to do and that's exciting. We need some medicine cabinets. And I'm worn out from looking at matching towels, wash rags and rugs. And I've only been to two places. There's really nothing glamorous about towels and wash rags. Think about what you use them form. But I want to match! Be festive! Get in the Better Homes & Gardens magazine!

Here are some pics of Dawson and I on our new sofa and love seat! Microfiber!

Puttin on the Ritz

We got out some of Jason's baby clothes that Gloria brought to us when they were here for Dawson's birthday. So Jason was messing around and putting some of the clothes on Dawson. Jason had this outfit that he got his picture taken in when was probably about 2 and the outfit was complete with a bowtie (Jason was such a stud!)

So Jason put the bowtie on Dawson and the results were just remarkable. I mean he's just stunning in this vintage Prada bowtie.

"What Not to Wear" -can't touch this.

Not a Morning Baby

This time change... it's killing me. Who decided this without calling me first? And whoever it is, does NOT have a baby.

I was actually ambitious to begin my day. Until my alarm went off. Then I laid in bed thinking about how I should get out of bed for about an hour. Eventually I made it out of bed and Jason had to go wake up Dawson. Dawson cried all morning. He needed one more hour of sleep. I drove all the way to work-without any form of natural light (which I just had last week) and when I got Dawson to daycare he little slits for eyes. Then I had to go track down the girl who would be in his room today because his teacher had her last day on Friday. So he was even more upset. Time change AND no teacher. Hmph. Then I came to work and told the girls I work with to get me a shot of coffee and I'll take it straight black! Oh and hook me up with two CC's of worship music. I'll take that intravenously.

God gave me today so that tomorrow will be better.

Here are the last few pictures of Dawson that we had on the camera from the old memory card.

Grandma's magic touch-

I took these the morning of his birthday. I had just told him it was his birthday. His first reaction was "That makes me HOW OLD?" and his second reaction was "just kidding".

Walking's My Favorite.

That's right! You heard me! Our little D-diddy is now a walker! Monday night when we got home from work we took Dawson into the living room to practice his walking skills. We do this best by having FOOD readily available. So we grabbed some fruit puffs and we each took turns holding a fruit puff and encouraged him to walk from one of us to the other. He'd get one glance at the fruit puff and as long as he was balanced when he started off, he'd be on his way.

Now he walks all the time. If he is already on his knees, he won't get up to walk. He'll crawl to whatever it is that he wants. If he is standing up at something though, he will just walk to something else he sees that he wants.

He does walk sideways sometimes. He has started off with good intentions to walk to me or Jason and then can't seem to walk straight ahead and he ends up somewhere else entirely. It's so cute. Now..will be able to keep up with him?

Eggs

A few weeks ago I decided to make Dawson his first batch of scrambled eggs for breakfast. I had been thinking of different kinds of finger foods we could start introducing so that his mealtimes wouldn't be so boring. Speaking of which, if you have any suggestions other than eggs let me know. He did eat some! But I don't know how much he liked them. I made them again a few days ago and he was eating them up like candy. I think it's because of the new house. The lighting makes them look more appealing. And of course, now he has his new highchair.

 Thankfully, he's been feeling much better and he's been much happier these past few days though he's still waking up once during the night. He falls right back to sleep when we go check on him but we still don't know what that's about. Yesterday Dawson was in such a giggly mood. He has started terrorizing our new coffee table. (You'll have to ask Jason his story about getting those put together, by the way.) The coffee table has a glass insert that can actually be lifted out to be cleaned. Dawson crawls right over and smiles and slaps the glass like it's nobodies business. He just stands there and slapping and smiling and looking at us and slapping and smiling. Then he goes and gets one of his cars and thinks he's going to add an extra bonus to the noise he can make... oh no you don't kid. The buck stops there. So I have to get out my stern voice. "Dawson no." sigh.

He also found his shadow yesterday. Quite funny. He was waving at his shadow. the shadow waved back and we got it on video.

I'm so ready for warm weather.

Hello? Warm weather? This is Joy. Where are you?

I'll leave you with some random pictures of Dawson...

If you'll look below, Dawson doesn't know what to think of discovering my nose. I realized I needed to trim his nails.

Hi

In addition to the many wonderful things Dawson can do, we can now add that he waves and says "hi" as opposed to "bye-bye". I say that this makes him an OPTIMIST.

He even said hi to my mom on the phone the other day! Though he didn't wave when he said it that time. Mom didn't wave either I don't' think.

 He also got his first haircut a while back. We decided it was time to cut his mullet. We were tired of braiding it. I actually didn't get a picture of his very first haircut, I forgot! But I did save some of locks for his scrapbook. Then, when Jason trimmed it again a couple of weeks ago, I took pictures. See-he likes it!

AND he also got his first forward facing car seat finally. This is the FIRST one he had. But we couldn't get the strap to tighten up the seat belts well enough to get him securely fastened in. So we took it back and got the one I originally wanted to get. The only part I don't' like about him being in a front facing car seat is standing outside to strap him in. Especially if it's cold or raining. Both of which are happening TODAY.