Look what Kylie did....

She's been bugging us to get her hair cut short. Daddy has had a tough time with accepting this,but I finally just say yes. So I brought her up to the salon I go to and one of the girls had an opening and could get her in right away tonight. She was a bit afraid at first, but after a bit, she was quite excited and LOVED looking at herself in the mirror (as I was trying to not have the "scared" look on my face). It'll be so much easier for her to care for it during the summer. She was able to cut 10" off to donate to Lock of Love (http://www.locksoflove.org/). She is telling everyone that she is giving her hair to someone that needs it and to someone that is sick. She's just thrilled. I will be addressing the envelope and let her mail her hair herself. She's ADORABLE!!!!

BEFORE AND AFTER

She was SOO excited to be able to give someone her hair :)

Please Spring hurry!

It's been a rough last week and 1/2. Dawson came down with pink eye early last week (first in one eye and then in both eyes) and then on Friday, Kylie got it! Good thing our clinic knows us and we didn't have to bring her in, they just called in a prescription for her! Then on Sunday, Kylie had it in both eyes!

Late last week, I came down with this NASTY cold...coughing and runny nose. It really kicked me in the butt came Sunday. I was misearable! I had plans to go and meet some friends at Gigi's in Mpls. on Sunday a.m., in which I was able to go, but by all means felt terrible and left early :( It's only gone downhill since then...I woke up Tuesday morning with a small cold sore that got bigger throughout the day and REALLY big on Wednesday morning when I woke up. I'm actually headed to the dr. to get some medicine for this thing!

Dawson woke up today, Wednesday morning, with pink eye AGAIN and IN BOTH EYES! I seriously cannot believe it! I know this stuff is contageous, but really?? Poor little guy -- both the kids are definitely feeling under the weather...they NEVER cry when I leave daycare and Monday morning, Kylie started crying and this morning, Dawson started bawling :( It just breaks my heart, I feel terrible leaving them. They aren't softy children normally, so when they "want me", I feel bad I cannot be there! But I know they are in GREAT hands with Sheila! :)

So lets hope we all get better soon!! This crud is no fun!!

Kylie had a busy week...

last week. She had Kindergarten Round-Up on Thursday night and LOVED it. She was soo excited and thought it was soo cool to be able to see all the Kindergarten rooms and all the toys they have to play with. She also got to meet a few of the Kindergarten teachers, but was mostly excited about riding the school bus to and from school though!


I really think Kylie will do well in Kindergarten. She already made friends that night...there was another little girl named Kylie (but spelt Kylee) that followed my Kylie around everywhere! Her Mom's like she wants to be with the other Kylie -- it was too cute! But she's definitely a social butterfly and I am positive she'll do great!

Dave and I have decided to enroll Kylie into Kindergarten Plus - which is all day - everyday Kindergarten. Kylie will continue to go to Sheila's in the mornings and catch the bus at her house and then will go to school everyday and will take the bus to our house and Daddy will be there to get her off the bus! This will be a little different as she won't be at daycare all day everyday (until Summer), but I'm really looking forward to her being in school and think this is a great opportunity for her! :)

Also, Kylie experienced her first dentist appt. last Friday! We've tried this once before and unfortunately it didn't work out to well. So I had a referral to take her to a Pediatrics Dentist and it was the best thing I could have done! It was an awesome experience. She went into the office excited and then walked back to where the chairs are and literally clinched onto me. She was afraid -- really afraid. But what child wouldn't be when you see a chair and all these little tools surrounding it. The dental assistant was fabulous and got her to sit up in the chair and was able to show Kylie all the tools and what they did! Kylie did GREAT! She even got to wear a cool pair of sunglasses during her visit! :) Anywho, she ended up "skipping" out of the office saying, "this was fun!". So I too think she enjoyed her visit!

Dawson's 18 month check-up

Last Monday, February 16, Dawson had his 18 month check-up! Dawson weighed in at 23 pounds on the button. That's a 6 oz. gain since his 15 month check-up and puts him in the 10% tile for his age. His height was at 31 1/4" (10%), that's a 1/4 inch taller than his 15 month check-up and his head circumference was 18 3/4 (25%) which was identical to his 15 month check-up. Other than him being small, he's right on track with things! He definitely liked to show off what he can do and also tried his hardest (with spilling of course) to drink out of a cup...lol! Dave is a little concerned that we're going to have a 6 foot daughter and a 5 foot son!! He believe's Mr. Dawson is taking after Grandpa Merrill! :)

So this "little man" has changed drastically in the last month or two...he's into everything!! He likes to dig in the garbage and take things out and bring them to us! Yes, it's NASTY...LOL! One other accomplishment -- no more baby gate...YAHOO -- he's up and down those steps constantly...and yes, we do need to watch him as he experienced over the weekend on eating Kirby's food, he started to choke and as soon as he coughed it came flying out. But we've had to put Kirby treats up and everything, because he's figured out the child locks on the cupboards and will give Kirby tons of treats and of course, Kirby's loving it!

He's also graduated from the highchair and is in a booster seat at the table! Yay -- that thing took up soo much room...it's so nice to have our kitchen back to normal! He thinks it's pretty cool and feels like a big boy!

We're really looking forward to the summer with him -- he's going to be on the go all the time! This little guy will love the outdoors! :)

Our Family Getaway

On Thursday, February 12, 2009, we took a family vacation up to Alexandria, MN. Dave nor I have never been past St. Cloud on I94 before. Don't get me wrong, there is not much to see, but both of us were quite curious as to what we would see up that way. It felt as if we were going to Albert Lea (farm land)! The drive from our house was approximately an hour and half. It was bad at all...before you knew it we were there (I did knit almost the entire way though). When we found our hotel (Arrowwood Resort), we unloaded our stuff in our room, relaxed for a few mins. and ate our packed lunch we made before we left home and tried to figure out what we were going to do first. Unfortunately, the waterpark wasn't open until 4 p.m. and we got an early check-in, so we were there around 12:30 p.m. We decided to go and check out some other things...and ended up at the Snow Center. Inside the Snow Center, they have board games, crafts at certain times, movies to watch and for outdoors, you can rent snowmobiles, ice skates, cross country skis and can use their downhill sleds. With all the rain we've gotten in the last week or so, we were unable to ice skate as their pond wasn't in too good of shape. But, we did get to enjoy sledding! The kids had an absolute blast!! Here is a slide show and a video of Kylie. I've never laughed so hard in my life!

Then after we did our sledding outside, we went back to our room and shut the shades and took a nap! Dawson definitely still needs his daily naps. :) When we got up, we ordered pizza and felt like we waited FOREVER for it and then after we got dinner cleaned up we headed to the Waterpark!

The kids were beat after the waterpark, but we ended up getting ice cream from the concessions and bring it back to our room to eat. Then the kids hit the hay. I got the pleasure to sleep with wacky sleep girl Kylie both nights! :) She wasn't too bad sleeping until she'd hit me in the face with her flying hands!

Then on Friday, the kids were up at 7:30 and we headed to Perkins for breakfast and then made our way to the Harley Dealer. Of course, we didn't come out empty handed...I got two t-shirts, Dave got a button-up shirt and a pair of cowboy boots (in which the kids thought were fun to wear) and each of the kids got a little toy motorcycle (kindof like a matchbox car). But EVERYTHING we got was on sale...we felt like we robbed them when we walked out of that store, we couldn't believe it!

Since the Waterpark didn't open until 4 p.m. on Friday either, we decided to take the kids bowling! It was a ton of fun and we had to contain Mr. Dawson to a high chair by us, otherwise, he would not stay near, he loves to run and check things out.

After bowling, we headed back to our room and ate some leftover pizza for lunch and we all laid down and took a nap! It was soo nice! Then Dave got me up shortly before my massage. I scheduled a massage earlier in the day for 3:00 p.m. It was just a nice 20 min. massage (my Valentine's Day gift), but it felt fabulous! :)

Then after I got back, we hit the Waterpark again and then went out for dinner and headed back home to sleepy land! The kids were just beat!

On Saturday morning, we got up, ate some breakfast at the Lake Cafe, which is attached to the hotel and then packed our stuff up and headed home! The kids were GREAT on this trip and did soo well. Dawson was getting a bit fussy, but he was completely out of the norm with everything so its expected a little bit. But we had a great family getaway and will definitely go back!

Knitting update...

here are a few of the projects I've completed...I'm still working on a couple different things too, but these three I've started and finished :) I've also completed a pair of legwarmers for my godchild, Lydia!

Hat for Kylie

Hat for Dawson

Legwarmers for Kylie

Legwarmers for Lydia

Dawson playing catch

He loves to throw things...especially his ball. The other night I came home from work and he's saying "ball", "ball". I look and he's throwing around an orange -- yes, an orange!! I said that's not a ball that's an orange. But he still felt the need to constantly throw it down the steps...lol.

Dawson's experience with a strawberry

It was quite funny -- he didn't know what to think at first and was making all sorts of faces...

This isn't soo bad....

Umm...yeah, its a little tart...

I'm done with this thing.

Fishing with Dad

Dave's been fishing quite a bit this Winter...a couple weeks ago, he took Kylie out for the first time -- she had a blast -- I don't think she would have been out there for 3 hours if she wasn't catching anything. The next day Dave just went to a local lake and me and the kids met him out there and he caught a tiny little sunny that the kids thought was pretty cool....

Kylie was hanging onto the fish until it decided to flop out!

The fish came to Dawson :)

More pictures to come from Kylie's fishing experience with daddy!

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 :)