Christmas Dance

Abigail and Carly had their Christmas dance recital at the Veterans home this year.  It was fun, crowded, and chaotic.  Neither of the girls were the least bit scared to get up there and dance.  

 The girls with their friend, Ellie

 Luke and Dad brought flowers for the girls

 the sweet grandparents who always come and support.

Oh how I love these girls!

Abigail is 7!

Oh what to say about my sweet Abigail.  She is such a loving, responsible, helpful, and happy girl.  We have a paper on our fridge where the kids earn points by doing random good deeds or cleaning up without being asked... she by far has the most points.  She gets sad when there is a long school break or she's sick and she can't go to church.  She loves her teachers and talks about them all the time.  She's the only one that consistently doesn't grumble about scripture study.   Ab is always in need of new clothes because she's SO active.  Every week she comes home with a new hole in her pants.  She's always on the go... out playing all day,  never getting tired.  She works hard and plays hard.

Abigail HATES homework.  

Luke can finish his entire weekly packet in 5 minutes, and Ab is still crying that she has to write her name at the top.  Ab is stubborn, and doesn't let anything go.  She gets one idea in her mind and it stays that way.

Favorites-

color- yellow

book- Everything but the Horse

school subject- Art

scripture story- Story of Jesus' birth

Holiday- Easter

Season- Summer

Toy- My doll, Lilly Anna

 For her bday breakfast she chose chocolate milk, toast, and cuties

 Pretty little girl waiting for some teeth to grow in

 Her Grandparents came over for cake, ice cream, and gifts

 She was happy with all of her gifts

 She had asked for a snowman cake, but as I was taking it on the deck to cool (too big to put in the fridge and I needed to frost it asap)  I dropped it.  The funny thing was is that I was on the phone with Ben asking him to bring home some licorice for the snowman's scarf.  She was a little sad when she saw the cake frozen to the deck, but thought that going to walmart to pick out a cake would be great too.  And,  I also forgot candles.  So we had "8" candle and a single one.  I told her 8 minus 1 equal 7 and she was just fine with it.

I just don't know what we would do without our Abigail, she's such a happy spirit in our home.

Thanksgiving 2013

 Eli was kind enough to host Thanksgiving this year at his house.  We had Larry and Sharla, Ryan, Courtney, and boys, Eli, and us in attendance.  We might have a small group, but it was so much fun to hang out together.  And all my kids care about is that Dawson and Fisher are there to play with :)

 pre-dinner football... the boys have all the fun while us women are slaving away in the kitchen ;)

 The kid table

After dinner, the kids tried out Eli's new hot tub.  They thought it was the coolest thing ever.  

I love being with my Dawson family.

Pinewood Derby 2013

 Luke was so excited to have his first pinewood derby this year.  He has been loving scouts and all the fun things that they've done.  He modeled  his car after a king cobra I think, or diamond back, I can't remember.

 watching it go across the finish line.

 Hailey found her nursery leader, sister Jen, she was so excited.  She loves her nursery teachers.  Jen even let her help out on her cross stitch.

I'm not quite sure why he's got a serious face, because he was having a blast.  He carried his car around for the next few days showing it off.

Halloween 2013

 A few days before Halloween, we invited cousins over to decorate sugar cookies.  Carly had been wanting to do this, and would not let it go... she loves to have people over for any occasion.  She's always trying to plan little get togethers.

 I'm not usually organized for Halloween, but since being organized is my goal this year, I had their costumes a month ahead of time.  I took them to walmart and let them pick out whatever they wanted.

We have a nurse, a cheerleader (or captain America as Ben said), an Angel, and a Ninja (which Luke ended up hating the mask, and wanted to paint his face... so a zombie ninja I guess).

 We all thought it was hilarious that Hailey wanted to be an angel.  She's so fun, awesome, happy, loving, high spirited... but definitely not angelic :)

 We always go next door to our neighbor's cemetery for some pictures. 

 My kids with Jake and Aubrey

Next we went trick or treating around the neighborhood with a group of friends, then went to my parent's for some dinner.  

October 17th 2013

We had a couple of events worth mentioning on October 17th. 

Every fall, My Mom, Grandma, Sisters, and kids always go to the Perry park and have some pizza.  Afterwards we go to Pettingells and my Mom gets the kids pumpkins.  This year, it fell on the 17th which happens to be our anniversary and my Grandma's birthday. 

We sang Happy Birthday to our sweet Grandma Dixie and had some cake for her.

Jessica had her handsome baby, Noah, a week earlier and was awesome enough to still brave the outing.  He's the little guy in the carrier... obviously :)

 Hailey's always good for a laugh

 That evening, we dropped the kids off at my parent's house to have a sleep over, the next day they got to go party with G & G Dawson.  They were just as excited for their weekend as we were.

It was so nice to have a weekend away, just the two of us.

  I had to document us at ten years, even if it was with the blurry purse camera, and the kids trying to photobomb.

 Me, Ben, and baby #5. 

Life has been so good to me these last ten years.  Sometimes I can't believe my fortune... finding the perfect husband when I did, and having these amazing healthy spirits trickle into our family one by one.

  I am so blessed.

I love life.



 

Carly is 5!

 She is growing up so fast!

 

And yes, while she is growing up fast, she's still always going to be the one that likes to be my baby.  We still have special snuggle time everyday.  She loves preschool, but it's hard to get her to go some days because it's too long for her to be away from me (her words, not mine).  She also takes dance once a week, and again, she loves it... but it's just so long to be away from me.  She's my little sidekick.  She always loves to help me do whatever I am doing, even cleaning.  She's always asking what she needs to learn for when she's a mom and has her babies to take care of. 

 She LOVES babies.  One day she thought it would be a good idea to put a sign in our yard that said, "If you don't want your babies, drop them off here."  She thought it would be wonderful to have lots of babies.

In Primary she has to hug me all of the time.  One time I walked passed her while I was doing sharing time and she tried to hug me, but I had other stuff to do.  I just smiled at her and kept walking.  After she told me that it made her very upset and sad, and that when I pass her I have to give her hugs.

She's so sweet with her siblings and her and Hailey play most of the day together.

Sometimes I think that I got my sister's daughter... Carly reminds me so much of Jessica when she was little.  She hates how her socks, pants, shoes, feel when wearing them.  She would just rather wear a dress.  She hates bumps in her hair.  And she still has a thumb sucking problem.  I remember all of these things about Jess, and it just makes me laugh.  Jess assures me that she kicked her thumb habit, so Carly will too.

 

Favorites:

Food- watermelon, cupcakes, pasta

to do- play with dolls

color-purple

name for baby #5- Tyler

primary song- I like to look for rainbows

outside activity-play with friends, and hide and seek

 

 Carly decided that for her 5th party, we'd do make overs.  She invited all her friends from church.  My Mom came over to do makeup, Shannon came to help with fingernails, and I helped make necklaces.  It was so funny to watch all the girls with their makeup on.  They also wanted lipstick retouched constantly.  They played outside for a while and we had cupcakes and ice cream.

 

 

 

On the morning of her birthday, Carly requested cinnamon rolls for her special breakfast.

 getting ready to open her presents with the family

 She was so happy with her gifts

 Having some cake

We love this girl and the joy she brings to our family!