The Sniper.

How do boys learn to play with guns? I need to know. Is there a gun fairy? Does GI Joe come to them in their dreams and teach them the basics, including sound effects? GI Joe-Are you kinda ticked right now that I called you a fairy? Stop bothering Dawson in his sleep.
Dawson climbed into my sister’s SUV, which has a sunroof, grabbed one of his nephew’s toy guns from off the seat and started shooting us down like we were the enemy.

Man your stations!

I have the target in sight!

Wait! It's my mother!

All that said, perhaps I shouldn't share last night's prayer:

Thank you for my bed

Thank you for my pillow

Thank you for the window

Thank you for my toybox

Thank you for Iron Man

Thank you for my Hulk movie

Thank you for my Spiderman movie

Thank you for my talking Dinosaurs

Amen

Childlike Faith

We've been asking Dawson to say his own prayers at night.

Here's a little excerpt from his last prayer time:

"Dear God,

Thank you for mommy

Thank you for daddy

Thank you for Dawson

Thank you for my pillow

Thank you for my bed

Thank you for the window

Thank you for mommy's clothes

Jason inserts here: "Hey, what about daddy's clothes?!"

Thank you for daddy's clothes

Amen."

Like a good mother, I kept my eyes closed praying intently the entire time.

Jason rather, watched Dawson scour the room looking for things to be thankful for.

Dawson's 1st Sunburn. :(

Happy Day of the Fathers!

2 days late and a dollar short. Though I may find change in the cushions of our couch.

Of course every year Jason gets his picture taken with his son on Father's Day because I am the type of person who remembers such minuscule things such as taking pictures on a day that might matter down the road... Did I mention I don't have a picture of me and Dawson on my first Mother's Day. I'm sure I haven't.

Just look at my 2 handsome men.

The polo shirt Jason has on is courtesy of me for one of his Father's Day gifts.

I did good. I just hope it doesn't shrink.

Jason got 2 new Polo shirts from Old Navy, I let Dawson pick the other one out. A pair of tongs to use for grilling. Which, Jason thinks he should take over for the grill master Steven Raichlen because he's that good. Maybe get his own tv show. And he also got a mousepad with a picture of him and Dawson on it. But I have to say, this year I picked out the BEST Father's Day card:

Jason won't even let me mow the lawn, because he has to have those perfect hash marks that are criss-crossed. Another reason I'm glad I married an OCD. Less work for me.

Speaking of which, the picture is not centered on the card and that bugs me.

After church on Father's Day, rather than going out to eat, because Jason wasn't hungry, we went home, changed out of our church clothes and headed to my dad's house. I was STARVING so what did I get to eat on Father's Day? An english muffin. That is poop crap.

Here is a pic of my handsome daddy when he was in the Air Force:

I pick his brain all the time about the years he was in the air force. One of the best stories he's given me is the fact that he was the only one who could save money. So he started a little prosperous venture by loaning out his money to some of the other guys, with interest. When it came time for roll call, dad could be anywhere-in bed asleep or even off base...because the person doing roll call actually owed dad money.

My dad, the bank.

It was crazy hot on Father's Day and as you can see, I happened to dress Dawson in a sleeveless shirt. We didn't pack him any sunscreen. I associate sunscreen with pools, which is why I loaded him down with SPF 45 that I grabbed at my sister's house to go swimming later that evening.

But later that evening doesn't negate the sun that happened earlier in the day, now does it?

Now how pathetic is that little face looking at me like I'm the bearer of all sunburns? Some of these pics are fuzzy because Dawson wouldn't stand still long enough for me to focus.

>span style="font-family: Arial;">He's starting to notice how bad I feel about him being sunburned. Look at this face.

It doesn't take me long to tell him awesome sunburns are. Little boys with sunburns can have popsicles, and suckers.

He seemed happy with that.

A Random Act of Kindness

I couldn't handle all of the comments about how big Dawson is getting so I decided to scan a few I had from last summer. When he was younger. And had blonder hair.

We were at my dads house. You can clearly see that Dawson gets farmers tans just like his daddy.

I'm thinking my highlights look just like his in this picture. Why do I have to pay so much for mine? It's a scam!

This face is all me.

On to a story. Not "the" story. But a story.

Several weeks ago we brought home Dawson's daycare report that had a little story on it about a prank Dawson and few others in his class decided to play on their teachers. I will not put it past him any longer to pull pranks. I thought 3 was too young for that, but apparenently not. Although, I don't think this was his idea! It had to have been Xander's idea. Xander is 3 also. But he has a prankster brain.

This is the report:

There is nothing on the other side (as indicated by her arrow) other than their prayer they say at lunch which she wrote out for me so that I wouldn't forget.

As the story goes,

Dawson, Xander and Graceson thought it would be funny to hide from their teacher after lunch. There is a table in the kitchen area that is blocked off by a play kitchen set. When she rounded up the toddlers after they ate and got them all back in their classroom she did a little count and realized 3 kids were missing. She panicked and looked in the kitchen and called out their names but she didn't see them and they didn't make a peep. (side note, that is highly unusual for Dawson, when I call his name and he's hiding he always says "I'm right here" and gives himself away). But this time they were in the kitchen and remained silent. So their teacher went looking all over for them and then went back to the kitchen and saw their legs poking out under the table. They got a good talking to. We had Dawson apologize to his teacher.

We're pretty proud of his pranking ability though.

I have a feeling I'm going to be called to the principals office on numerous occasions.

I'll have a time here soon when I can write about all the lovely schemes Jason has pulled in his day.

And now moving on to the "the" story.

Last week was a long week!

Jason was in Ohio, directing camp for 100 junior highers which left me at home alone with Dawson, which I didn't want to project over the internet for all my killer reader's.

My hours at work changed as well so I had to be at work by 7:00 a.m. and that time doesn't mix well with Dawson's sleeping habits. We made it through the week though, and on Friday I dropped Dawson off to stay the night with my sister and I drove to Ohio to meet up with Jason so that I could go to Kings Island with them.

I rode their new ride "The Diamondback". Yes I am cool. I kept my eyes closed the entire ride.

Our feet hurt also, when we got back to the camp.

Cry me a river.

All that to say that our family was a unit again by Saturday night. So we decided to make Sunday a family day. We had nursery duty at church, then we wanted to take Dawson to the zoo after church.

We stopped at Applebee's for lunch.

Our waiter was really nice and he didn't pick on me for needing 20 creamers to put in my coffee. Jason says I need to order milk, with a couple shots of coffee, because that's how I drink it. Anyway,

we ordered the 2 for $20 deal. Isn't that a good deal? Dawson shared my fries and chicken tenders with me so it's really like getting 3 for $20.

When it was time for us to pay the waiter brought over this little card and said "your meal has already been taken care of, but the customers who bought it wanted to remain anonymous". This is the card he handed to us:

HOW COOL IS THAT?

I felt quite blessed when we left.

Then Jason and I got talking about it, and I wondered if maybe they were challenged to do that in church that morning, so they scoured the entire restaurant looking for the table with the least amount of people so it would cost less? That's probably what we would do...

And that's THE story.

Then we went to the zoo and rode the train that goes 1 mile an hour and Jason fed the goats while all 30 of them mauled him for the food and I laughed til I peed my pants. Then they ran out of goat food and we still had 2 tokens left so we had to buy 2 humongous suckers in the gift shop because they wouldn't exchange the tokens for money. Scammers!

Then we got ice cream on the way home.

And I wish everyday were like that.

Whatever Will Be, Will Be

My son has taken to napping in the oddest of places.

He just takes his blanket and goes wherever he feels led. I wonder if he'll take his blanket if he's ever called to be a missionary someday. I'll make a note about that and put it in his keepsake box for a future reminder just in case he forgets to take a blanket if he's a missionary some day. I like to plan ahead. And make lists.

When our sis and bro-in-law came a few weeks ago I found him napping in their dog cage. They brought along their dog Sydney. I begged for a dog for Mother's Day but I didn't get one. Does anyone feel sorry for me? Send me letters.

You'll notice in this pic he's got his pacifier. There are just some days a child needs a pacifier. This must have been one of those days. I keeping it too, because I'm going to make him use it still when he's 18. During the times he begs for money.

This one isn't odd but I love that he fell asleep holding his brand new airplane that Aunt Di Di and Uncle Jeff got him. It took him less than 5 minutes to destroy when he got home, by the way. He gets that from his dad. Always taking things apart to see how they work. I would say he'll be an engineer when he grows up, but then if he's called to be a missionary, he'll need his blanket, and engineers usually don't need blankets. I just made that up.

Skipping subjects, I have to post a picture of the goodness that is Jack Frost doughnuts. I've talked about them before, but I finally managed to get a picture of them for the world to value.

You have no way of knowing whether there are any missing...

Lastly,

One night we had family time and Dawson wanted to get the playdough out. Saw I got all creative and made a turtle with my playdough. My turtle looked like a rock with white pegs for eyes. Then what does Jason do???

He copies off of me and makes his own turtle.

Show Off.

So I've been crazy busy lately and realize I have no readers left.

Will you forgive me if I post this?