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Our "family" bike ride and picnic at the park

Kylie has been asking to go on a "family" walk as a family...lol. So, after we got up this morning, had breakfast and decided to take a "family" bike ride. Of course, Kylie wanted to ride in the bike carrier, but its obvious she's a tad bit to big for it, so the backpack with our lunches took her place along with Dawson of course. So Dave got the bikes out and ready, and I packed our lunches and off to the park we went. It was an awesome family day and I couldn't have asked for more! Here are some cute photos of the kids from our fun family trip to the park!

He discovered the slide was hot after he sat on it -- ouch!

He loves swinging!

We've had an awesome Memorial Weekend! The weather has been absolutley gorgeous and of course, I'm extremely sun burned. We could not have asked for a better weekend! Tonight, we had company over...a friend of mine Kristine and her husband Jerry and their son Nicholas. It was so great to see them and see how much Nicholas has grown. Him and Dawson weren't quite sure of each other, but definitely opened up to each other. Nicholas LOVED Kirby...he laughed everytime he walked by him. His laugh was so cute -- here are a few photos of the boys :)

Dawson tried to feed Nicholas a part of his cookie, and Nicholas literally pushed his hand away -- it was quite funny!

Nicholas thought it was hilarious to take Kirby's toy away from him -- Kirby didn't seem to mind at all and loved playing Nicholas' games :)

Nicholas LOVED Kirby!

Dawson's First Visit in a Lake

Yesterday, May 23, we went to Fish Lake to visit the family and celebrate my aunt and uncle's 40th Anniversary. Dawson got to enjoy his first visit in the lake. He LOVED it. At first he wasn't quite sure what to think about the rocks and sand, but after he figured it out and after he figured out he could splash just like in the bath tub, he had no fear :)

He wasn't quite sure what to think

This water is cool....

Picking up rocks to of course, throw them.

Absolutely loving the water :)

Kylie's Dance Recital 5-17-09

Kylie had her 2nd year end recital on Sunday, May 17, 2009. She did great and was absolutely beautiful as always :) Here are a few photos of her special day!

On our way to Monticello High School

Dancing to "Lollipop"

Kylie and her best friend Madison

Kylie and Mommy!

A few knitting projects I've completed

I haven't updated the blog in a couple months. But thought I'd share quickly some of my projects I've completed.

Dawson had to be in the pic, but this is the tunic/dress I made for Kylie

Kylie's slippers

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!