Dawson digging in!

Dave was gone one night last week and I totally let Dawson dig into his dinner -- which usually does not happen if Daddy is home! Check out these photos, he had a blast and of course, it was a messy one -- spaghetti!!!

Saturday at Como Zoo

This last Saturday, we had a very fun filled day at Como Zoo. Kylie goes every year and still has soo much fun and this was Dawson's first year and he also seemed to really enjoy it or at least enjoy everyone's company :) We brought my godchild with us -- it was her 11th birthday on Friday, so I thought it would be a nice treat to have her join us. Kylie's cousin Brynn also came with with her Grandma; so we had a nice little group and had tons of fun!

I've been to Como Zoo every year for the past 3-4 years and I've never seen the Butterfly Exhibit. It was really cool and the kids didn't know what to think...but the butterflies really loved Dave. They kept landing on his head or his back.

Dawson too really loved the butterflies. He didn't know what to think at first, but kept trying to grab at them! It was really cute! I swear this child is not afraid of anything! :)

Finally after looking at everything in the Zoo (it was Sparky the Seal's birthday too) including Kylie's favorite, the giraffe's:

we headed over to Como Town and rode some rides! Yes, this Mom got onto the "Dragon" rollercoaster! Kylie definitely enjoyed it more than I did -- in which I was completely surprised! She had a blast! Dave and Kennedy also rode a ride with Kylie and it flew in the air and spun by them turning the little table in the middle...no thank you! I wouldn't have made it through that ride! There must be something about having two kids and not being able to handles the rides anymore :)


While in Como Town they had a thing called "Bear Express". Very similar to Build a Bear Workshop...but the "Express" version...so the kids picked out an animal to stuff and an outfit to put on their animals/bear. Kylie and Brynn got the giraffe and Kennedy got a bunny -- both very cute! :) Kylie's giraffe and outfit (cheerleader outfit) were a odd but cute combination...hehe!

We ended the fun filled day with a little BBQ outside the park. Grandpa brought his little gas grill and we cooked up some brats and hot dogs and hung out for an hour or so before we took off for the afternoon. The kids were exhausted by the end of the day and took naps when we got home!

That evening, we had a bonfire with smores of course! It was a great evening for it, until the mosquitos decided to come out around 9:30 - 10 p.m.

Look Alikes?

Daddy, sorry, but there is no denying these kids!

Let's put a mustach on Dawson!

They may have a "smidge" of Mom in them :)

Jamie's "Friends" Baby Shower

Elizabeth and I had a friends shower for Jamie on July 13. She came out with some really good things that will be a great help for her with baby Lydia! :) Our friend Rachel was in town from Seattle, so we were able to arrange the shower around the time she was planning on being in town. It worked out perfect! It was nice to get all of us girls together to chit chat and visit, with our busy schedules these days, it's very hard to do! As for the shower, they "I think" enjoyed playing the "poopy diaper" game! We melted different kinds of chocolate and put them in a diaper and the guests had to guess what kind of chocolate it was...some of them (most of them) were pretty disgusting...HA! It was quite hilarious though!

Rachel, Angie (expecting at the end of Aug.) and Jamie

Jamie and the soon to be Grandma Lisa

Dawson and a freezee

So Sunday night, Dawson tried a freezee and after those first few bites, he loved it and ate almost the entire thing!! Check it out :)

"Hmmm...my teethers are cold"

"This is COLD"

I LOVE THIS FACE!!!

"Now, this is good (but still a little cold)"

Long 4th of July Weekend!

Wow, where do I start -- what an extremely long weekend!! My weekend started out last Wednesday (while Dave worked) -- woohoo! I got to spend a couple days with the kids (as daycare was on vacation) and I loved it! I don't usually get days with the kids by myself, but I totally enjoyed it and the weather was perfect in all ways for us to spend a lot of time outside!



Friday, the 4th of July, Dave and I and my parents and my cousin Scott went on a motorcycle ride! The week before Dave bought a Harley! It is soo much fun! We had an absolute blast and the weather was great. I actually ended up getting sun burned, thinking aww...I'll be fine and not thinking this was my first real long time in the sun. Unfortunately, I do not believe in sun screen for myself, so I guess I'll pay the consequences! Then Friday night we went over to our friends, Jamie and Brian's house for a little get together and a BBQ with a little bean bag toss and a few UNO games and on our way home, we stopped on the side of the road to watch fireworks. We couldn't figure out why all these people were stopped on the road (the fireworks hadn't started yet), so we're like what the heck, we'll pull over too and then shorter after, they started booming...they were pretty as Kylie would say!

Then on Saturday, my parents had a BBQ, so we headed down there in the afternoon and hung out with the family for a few hours! It was a good time and Kylie spent most of the time playing with her two cousins she doesn't see a whole lot and swimming :) Dawson went swimming for the first time and didn't know what to think! He would stand up in the pool, but wouldn't sit -- I think it was cold on his tummy and it scared him a bit. Then when we got home, the neighbors were having a bonfire ("firecamp" for Kylie), so Kylie and I headed over there for smores. It was definitely a very exhausting day!

Sunday, we literally laid around all day -- I "attempted" to clean the house, but unfortunately didn't get too far...Dave and Kylie cleaned her room and I got the kitchen floor cleaned and that's about it. We went for a walk later in the evening and it was still soo darn hot out, I broke a sweat at 6:30 p.m. It was just gross!

But all in all, it was a great 5 days off. I needed that time and can honestly say, I enjoyed every day!

Father's Day

Dave had an great Father's Day! We got up on Sunday and laid in bed with the kids for a little bit and Kylie was soo excited to give Daddy his presents! She couldn't hold it back anymore, so she finally gave him his gifts and he loved them. We bought him a cover for his guitar for guitar hero and a bluetooth for his PS3 and cell phone. We also bought him a shop light for the garage. He's been wanting one for a long time and it's one of those things that you just don't buy!

We had breakfast reservations at the bowling alley restaurant! We just got a new bowling alley with a restaurant attached an a bar attached along with an arcade with mini golf! We went to breakfast at 10 a.m. and it was packed! It was great food and afterwards, we went to the arcade and played mini golf in the blacklight. As we driving home, Dave decided that he wanted to see a movie...so I dropped him and Kylie off at the theater and they saw Kung Fu Panda! :) He said Kylie was tired throughout the movie, but watched parts of it. Dawson and I went shopping and picked Dave and Kylie up after the movie was over. The kids went home and had a nap and Dave and I did some putzy stuff around the house (put door handles on) and then after the kids go up, we went to my parents house for dinner. It was a gorgeous night out, so we spent a lot of time outside in the yard. Kylie got a new bike when she got there -- Grandma and Grandpa bought her a bike to keep at their house! She was SOOO excited and thought it was the coolest thing. I brought my rollerblades with me knowing she was getting this bike -- so she went out a few times up and down the road -- it is a bit bigger (18") so she'll be able to keep it for awhile, but seems to ride it great!

Some other fun and exciting things!!

A couple weeks ago, Dave's Dad came up and we took his two girls, which are 7 and 8 (yes, Dave's sisters). :) It's soo amazing how Kylie resembles Christina so much! They are so much alike and actually look alike as well. We had a really fun time -- it was a lot of work, but it was fun. On Saturday, we took the kids to a park in St. Cloud (about 30 mins. from our house) and little did we know, it had a little water park with huge sprinklers there. Well that didn't last long and they were wet -- especially Christina, she loved it!! Kylie and Casey Jo held back a bit. They had an absolute blast though and it was great for them to let loose and burn some energy out there. When we got back, they begged to set up the sprinkler in the back yard, so we did that and they also made me some very special "dirt, grass and rock soup"! No, I did not try it...but they had a blast making it! :)

We've been trying to do some minor things to the house to "spiff" it up a little bit...we bought solid oak 6 panel doors for upstairs! We got them really reasonable and they were already stained and matched our oak perfectly! So we've been putting those up and buying new door handles. It's looks great!! It totally changes the look of the house and I love it!

Another project that we had this summer was to add a couple things to Kylie's swingset...we ended up putting a sandbox in as well as a rock climbing wall, which was for her birthday! She definitely did not let us forget about it...as we were waiting for the accessories for it, she would constantly remind us that we still need to do the rock climbing wall...it was cute! We finally did finish it!

Some other exciting news!! Our daycare lady, Sheila, had her baby! It was a BOY -- Beau David! He is absolutely adorable! He weighed in at 10 lbs. 2 oz. Both Sheila and Beau are doing really well!

Awesome Dawson!

Dawson, of course, is just Dawson! Still, not crawling but getting around by rolling or scooting on his butt. We'll put him in the middle of the room and the next thing you know, he's 10 feet from where we put him and of course, when we look at him, he just laughs! He is such a happy baby! He's transitioning really well from baby food to people food and LOVES it! He LOVES to eat. It seems like we're always feeding this little guy!

He is officially done with the helmet. He wore it for about 8 weeks and it definitely made a difference. I cannot believe how those little things can change the shape of a head soo quickly! It was definitely worth the $$$ we put into it.

Dawson had his 9 month check-up on 5/29/08, he weighed in at 20.4 lbs. (50%) and he was 29" long (75%). He's right on track with things, which was good to hear! He is such a laid back baby that he has no ambition to do things. But I guess it's ok :)

One of his most favorite things to do is show everyone "how big he is"! The first picture, I just had to take -- we were laughing soo hard at him and he kept doing it over and over and over!! :)

Miss Kylie!

Kylie finished dance in May (after a long season) and then started up with t-ball. She really enjoys it and seems to be doing really well with it already. It's so adorable to see all these 4 and 5 year olds out there, running after a ball...and "trying" to catch them. I can say (not only because she's my child, hehe), that she is probably one of the more competitive girls out there. We kindof figured she'd be this way with sports, because she is quite competative in other things as well. :) It's a lot of fun to watch and more up my alley! We'll do one more year of dance and see where she sits after that to see if we'll continue with it!