We may have a lefty...

Mr. Dawson refuses to write with his right hand...we may have a lefty! Most of the time he eats with his left hand too! Auntie Sharon...he may be taking after you :)

A new hobby for Jen

So I picked up a new hobby! I've learned to knit -- I'm so excited! Its soo fun and RELAXING! I've only completed one project in the last 2 weeks. A dishcloth! I'm working on another project and came to find out over the weekend, Dawson took my needle out of the stitches, so now I have to bring it into work and hope someone can fix it! I'll be posting my projects as I finish them. My goal for sure is to be making the kids' hats for next year -- YAHOO!!!! So if you're looking for any gifts for me (hehe!), knitting it is!!

Dawson's first experience...

WITH KETCHUP AND HE LOVED IT!!!!!!

MOM, WHY DO YOU HAVE THE CAMERA AGAIN??

THIS IS GOOD!!!

THIS IS REALLY GOOD!!!

MLK Day!

Both Dave and I had Martin Luther King day off -- so we decided to take Kylie snowtubing at Powder Ridge in Kimball. Neither Dave or I have ever been snowtubing so we weren't quite sure what to expect. It was the perfect day to go -- the weather was great! We had a BLAST!!!! Kylie was quite the brave girl -- the first two times we all went down together and after that she wanted to go by herself...and she did! It was awesome family time :)

What a week...

It's been a tough week as everyone has been sick with the stomach flu. :( Mon"day" was fine and but Monday "night" was very very long, Kylie said she wasn't feeling well and ended up with the stomach flu...so she slept on the couch in the upstairs living room while I set up camp on the floor next to her. Dave had called into work that night knowing he had to stay home with her. I think Kylie finally fell asleep around 10:30 - 11 p.m. for the night.

Around 2 a.m. Dawson woke up crying. I went in there and he had puked all over in his crib, he had it in his hair, on his jammies, well you get the point. Poor little guy...was crying so hard, he just kept puking :( So we ended up going through about 3 pairs of jammies, two crib sheets and he had a bath at 2:30 a.m. I brought him to the living room with me, moved Kylie back to her room, since I thought she was in the clear and Dawson and I crashed on the couch watching Baby Einsteins for about an hour when he woke up again and after that round, he was up for a little bit and I put the gate up so he wouldn't go to far as he seemed like he wasn't going to go back to sleep and no more snuggling (I got a little out of him though). I was just exhausted and fell asleep on the couch and when I woke up to my alarm at 5:30 (because initially I was planning on going to work) and saw Dawson snoozing with his butt in the air on the living room floor.

I of course, stayed home with Dave, because I knew there would be no way I'd be able to function on a couple hours of sleep. So I went back to sleep at 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. The kids recovered by morning and were doing much better!

We got a call yesterday from daycare at 6 a.m., so I knew something was wrong...I answered the phone, "uh oh"...Sheila's like yeah, she's been puking since 1 a.m. (her daughter MaKayla). So the kids went to back-up daycare yesterday, which is just acrossed the street...which is nice and convenient.

AND TODAY, lovely Dave is home not feeling well either. So lets hope he gets better TODAY, so we can still have our date night tomorrow! Yes date night, I have a massage scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at Salina's in Elk River and we have dinner reservations at 4:30 at Rockwood's in Otsego and then we're going to go and see Marley & Me or the new movie that just came out today, Grand Torino.

Have a great weekend all and I'm hoping to update with some photos soon!

Back to the grind...

A full week of work -- what's that??? Its the start of a new year...I cannot believe it (and I got a cold...ugh!)! Time is flying so fast and the kids are getting soo much older. I cannot believe that Kylie is going to start Kindergarten this year -- what a heart wrencher I tell you! She's really ready for school...she's spelling really well (3 letter words mostly) and spelling names is a huge thing too -- she does great and is really interested in learning! I think school will be great for Kylie! Kylie is still in dance one time a week and expressed interest in Cheerleading as well...so I think I'll sign her up for that...which starts in March I believe. It's one time a week as well on Mondays. So Mondays and Tuesdays will be busy with Kylie in extra activites! :)

As for Dawson -- he's learning and talking soo much more these days! Instead of just putting his hand up in the air to say "Hi" or "Bye", he's trying to start to use his fingers to say it and he's starting to say more words and definitely understands what we're saying and its so much fun! You ask him to pick something up and bring it to you (i.e. his shoes/socks) and he knows exactly what you're saying! I love it! He's also likes to laugh at himself...lol. He'll be playing with his cars or something...and just start laughing at them. It's too hilarious! He also figured out his 4-wheeler he got for Christmas!! He absolutely loves it and knows to push the button and he'll go -- so he does just that and has soo much fun -- a video to come! :)

I hope everyone has a great new year!!

The first and hopefully the last...

I went to the store last night to get my Dyson vacuum cleaner (YAHOO!) and gave Dave a call on my way home and come to find out, Dawson fell down the steps. We have a split entry home, and from the top of the steps to the entry way is about 12 steps...OUCH! We've had to keep an good eye on him...because he'll run up to the steps (if the gate isn't up) and usually stop...but as I've been saying, one of these times he's going to fall so we need to make sure the gate is up...he's a very daring little boy and will push his limits!

Daddy told Kylie to take the gate down, so she could go to her room and get her jammies on and that Daddy would put the gate back up when he was done changing Dawson...well he just let Dawson down and he headed straight for the steps...Dave barely got Dawson's clothes in his hamper and he heard a thunk...and Dawson was at the end of the steps crying! Good thing he wasn't hurt...he had a little bump in the middle of his forehead, but it didn't seem to bother him. I got home and he acted like nothing ever happened...definetely a boy I tell you! This is coming from a child that will run his head into the wall and laugh...lol...and he'll stand behind the rocker and wait for it to bonk him in the head and then look at you and laugh! I'll get it on video sooner or later!! :)

New Years Eve and New Years Day

We didn't do anything special for New Years Eve this year -- just hung out at home and tried to get some stuff done around the house -- including fixing our washing machine! Finally...it amazing when you relize how much you really use something when you don't have it. So now, this weekend, time to get caught back up with laundry!

New Years Eve, we let Kylie stay up a little later than normal - 10 p.m. and her and I sat on the couch and shared a little bucket of sherbert ice cream, nummy!

Before Dawson went to bed...I was able to get a video clip of him "jumping"!

On New Years Day, we got our Christmas tree down and Kylie and I got to enjoy some time outside playing in the snow, with Kirby of course! Poor puppy is getting old...he was so sore last night from playing outside! He could barely walk up the steps and jump up onto our bed.

Kylie barried my legs

Kirby Birby!!

We barried Mom's legs again and Kylie's giving me bunny ears!

We also took a trip to Walmart to return a couple of things and of course, nonetheless, here's goofy Kylie -- she's trying on these reading glasses and she's like says, "awww...I can't see anything" and is like spinning in circles and then takes them off and is says, "woofta, I can see again!"....and has to pick the ugliest ones off the shelf too...LOL! :)

Christmas with Nana and Papa

On Friday, December 26, we headed down to Nana and Papa's house in Albert Lea. Nana and Papa have a big hill in their backyard and the kids love to sled down it. So Dave and Kylie and Dawson brought their appropriate clothing to go sledding -- this was Dawson's first time sledding -- but he had a blast!!!!!

Christmas Morning and Christmas Day

Miss Kylie did not get out of bed until 8:30 a.m. on Christmas morning...I think she's a little to young for her body to get so excited quite yet and doesn't understand that it's normal to get out of bed at 5 a.m. to see if Santa came...lol! So she came into our room all excited...and seriously ran to the living room and wanted to start ripping apart gifts...but we had to wake Dawson up, he was out like a light. Dawson had no clue what to think and was probably wondering why Kylie was soo excited!

After we got things somewhat cleaned up and of course, played with some toys, we got ready and headed down to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Anoka. It was seriously another Christmas morning all over, PLUS some! The kids got soo many toys...but they are all super fun and lots of fun! Dawson got a few bigger things...his Thomas the Train train track and Elmo couch (in which he's a huge fan of now) and my Aunt Terri bought him a push button 4-wheeler with forward and reverse -- in which he didn't quite figure out right away, but it didn't take long! :)

Grandma and Grandpa got a collage calendar from Dawson and Kylie. Grandpa got the luxery of opening it and as soon as he opened it, he literally suckered it up and thought it was the coolest thing ever...we had to ask if Grandma could even see it...LoL. He said this is so cool and is coming to work with me...so therefore, we need to make Grandma one for her work too! I had to track down the calendar so Grandma could see it -- Grandpa already had it in his lunch box ready to go!!

Christmas Eve at the Heurung's

Alright, so it's taken me a bit longer to post than I thought...but be ready to read -- I will be posting from Christmas Eve through the New Year! :)


We started out our Christmas by having Christmas Eve at the Heurung's. My kids and Brynn exchange gifts and of course, Grandma's buy gifts for the kids too. The kids seriously got soo much stuff -- Kylie got a 400+ kit of tattoos and body art and absolutely LOVES it...this girl is seriously obsessed with tattoos and Dawson got a Cars chair and a remote controlled Tonka car that flips and does cool things and the Gears toy (in which is LOVES) and LOTS of other things too (its to hard to keep it all straight).

Kylie showing off her "body art"

Dawson being silly as always!

Grandpa and Dawson cuddling -- he was getting tired!