Trip To Paradise - Turks and Caicos 2011

My family
The ENTIRE GROUP

My boys

Chad's family

Dawson's favorite part of the trip was all of the sesame street characters walking around

(poor people in those hot costumes)

Chad and Jett enjoying the ocean

Me totally relaxing while Lisa took care of my kids :)

This year over Thanksgiving we went to Turks and Caicos and stayed in Beaches resort to celelbrate Ivard and JaNeen's (Chad's Granparents) 50th anniversary and enjoy a Budge family reunion. IT WAS AMAZING! I would imagine that place is pretty much exactly what heaven is like... I WOULD TOTALLY GO BACK TOMORROW! When I am totally rich, I plan to move there (ACTUALLY LIVE IN THE RESORT) and lay on the beach, float in the water, swim with the fish, have all meals prepared for me, have someone clean my room daily and do my laundry, check my kids in whenever they are driving me crazy and have no responsibilities whatsoever. SERIOUSLY what a life! Anyway, in all seriousness, there is just something special about the Budge family. I TOTALLY enjoy every single person and appreciate everyone for completely different reasons. What a neat group! ANYWAY, some day I would like to return and relax on the beautiful beach and be pampered.

The Rumors Are True...

We are buying a home!! We are very excited to have a space to call our own. I NEVER realized the amount of time and paperwork that actually goes into this process. We are set to close on August 19th but things have been going so quickly. I am hoping that will be moved up a bit so that we have more time and cancan slowly move everything without the stress of getting everything out of one house and into the next within the same day.

We LOVE Summer!!

We have loved the summer this year so far! We enjoy the pool that we have here at our complex just about every day. My boys love running around with little or no clothes in the sun. I get Dawson ready and he wants to take his clothes off after about 5 minutes. My boys are really starting to enjoy their time with one another. The FUN time is almost ALWAYS ruined by a jealous act and ends in tears and time out. I LOVE these little stinkers so much!!

Dawson's Pre-School Interview

Today we had "the interview" the dreaded "I hope my child behaves perfectly with each given scenario and responds appropriately to every question asked" situation. Well... I guess as can be expected Dawson was a little shy at first which I was a little annoyed by BUT okay with. Almost too quickly though, he became comfortable and began to show off in a not-so-awesome way. He was so crazy. Here I am trying to prove to Ms. Michelle that my child is ready, 1 year early, to attend pre-school and NOW he has reverted back to throwing crayons, running in circles and talking in baby babble. Luckily, there were a few moments where he showed his potential namely the moment where she asked him what he had drawn for her and he explained that his spirally crayon mess was "a house with daddy standing next to it" AND when she handed him a book and he instantly began to identify each object, carefully turning each page one at a time explaining in detail what was happening on each page. At the moment when I thought yeah this is starting to go well... he jumps down from his chair running in circles. Honestly, I kept thinking to myself "she has got to be more impressed with sweet little one year old Jett who was behaving (in my opinion) charmingly". URG! Dawson, what a stinker... I think she could tell that I was a bit frustrated by the situation because she kept assuring me that it always ends up working out and the children usually do better when their parents are gone. When we arrived home after the interview I found myself feeling upset and overwhelmed by frustration with the situation that had just occurred. AND THEN... I was reminded that he is STILL only 2 and that I was possibly expecting too much out of him. The thing about it is... that he has moments where he SO MUCH impresses me with how he behaves, what he says and the things that he somehow knows, that I forget that he is still just a toddler.

The Zoo & The McEwens

I have been trying to get this up for a while now and decided I just need to do it. Shortly after moving to Kennewick we met a family that was very much similar to our own Chad and Brandon (or as Alyssa and I refer to them as "the boyfriends" to each other) are both obsessed with sports and have many similar interests, Dawson and Jaxson are both very busy and enjoy playing (wrestling) together love each other so much, Jett and Jaggar were bound to be the best of friends with their laid back personalities and Alyssa... well what can I say about the two of us... we are pretty much both amazing and truly became the best of friends in a very short period of time. It makes me sad to type this because they have since moved to Utah. For our last hurrah trip we decided to take the 3 day weekend last month and make a trip to Portland and visit the zoo with our families. Our boys (especially Jaxson) are obsessed with animals/dinosaurs and we believe it was pure fate that the dinosaur exhibit opened the exact day that we visited. We had a really fun weekend with our friends and then we came home to the reality that they were really moving... it came much to quickly and they are now gone. I still talk to Alyssa almost daily but I feel sadness each time Dawson says "I want to play with Jaxson" which has since changed to "We can't play with Jaxson... he moved!" which makes me even more sad. One thing that brings me comfort is that we have vowed to visit one another and vacation together... you don't lose good friends. We LOVE the McEwens!

New Portraits

We had some new portraits done mainly for our anniversary but Julie was kind enough to do a few family shots as well. I LOVE how they turned out! Thanks Julie!

Seriously... Where Has Time Gone??

This picture perfectly shows what Dawson is like these days. I would totally describe him as silly, energetic, mischievous, funny and sweet.

(This perfectly portrays Jett's personality. He is always happy and smiling. He is my sweet little cuddler but is very motivated to keep up with Dawson.)

Where in the world has the time gone?? I feel like I just had a baby and my "baby" is already 11 months old. Dawson is already two and a half years old I was looking at them play together today and kept thinking to myself that they are each looking much older daily. I can feel the time that I have with my children as babies slipping away. I have a feeling of sadness as well as an excitement for what is to come. I feel VERY blessed to have these two cuties in my life!

"Don't Run Him OVER..."

(Bath time is so fun these days they love to splash and play in the bath together. Dawson is so protective of Jett and always wipes the water out of his eyes with a towel. CUTE LITTLE BUMS!)

( Ouch! He was being run over by Dawson's car and fell and hit his eye on the car. This looks amazing compared to what it looked like before we cleaned it up. Scary.)

... or you will go to time-out!!" This is one of the many phrases that I say multiple times on a daily basis that I NEVER imagined myself having to say. My patience is running thin these days. Throughout the last nearly 11 months my boys have taken turns being what we like to call "THE STINKER" They have really never been in a stinker stage at the same time for much longer than a couple of days... that is until now. The last couple of weeks have been a bit hectic. Let me first say that Dawson constantly tells me that he "LOVES Jetter" but lately I have found Dawson sneaking in a little push, being bossy or even trying to run Jett over with his car. Jett is now needing a little more of my "fun physical attention" less of the necessities like feedings, comforting etc. and more playing and interacting. I think that Dawson feels like his territory is really now for the first time being invaded and is acting out a bit.

Jett is getting very loud and active and will be running through the house any day now. He has been taking a few steps for the last couple of weeks and I can feel it coming. He is in the "hard at church" stage where he is completely happy BUT cannot sit still and/or be quiet. He is also in the "stick EVERYTHING in your mouth" stage. In the last month I had to call poison control twice. (Side note: he now says "Dott-N (Dawson), Jett, Dada, Mom and has the cutest smile and best laugh I have ever heard)

Needless to say, my life right now is busy. I am not complaining I am venting which is helping to keep me sane at this point. Everyone is happy and healthy and we are VERY blessed that Heavenly Father has allowed us to care for two of his BEAUTIFUL children in our home. I am trying to enjoy every single moment as I feel my babies quickly changing into big boys. I am beginning to see small glimpses of the joy that we will have when the boys can more fully entertain each other rather than relying so much on me for entertainment. I feel like I wear so many hats right now with the diaper changing, clothing, cooking, feeding, cleaning, playing, entertaining, disciplining, loving, teaching, shopping, comforting, fixing etc etc etc...

Lately I Have Been Thinking...

I have been thinking a lot lately about how Dawson was so young when we found out we were pregnant with Jett. Originally I wanted all of my children pretty close together and we did plan to get pregnant with Jett. Here is a picture of Dawson the day that I found out that I was pregnant. He was so tiny... thinking back I remember thinking he was bigger/older than he actually was. I had many doubts during my pregnancy that having two children so close together was a good idea. Thought of doubt came every time Dawson would run away from me or make a huge mess. Looking back I wouldn't have done it any other way! My boys are starting to play together and it is so much fun! There are definitely days where I would rather go scrape my face on the sidewalk than be a mom. It is amazing though how two tiny giggles can turn those thoughts around in a second. I am so grateful today for my two little guys. The other main concern I had when having a second so close to my first was that Dawson would not receive enough of our attention. The second photo was he and I cuddling a couple of weeks before I had Jett I remember when I saw this picture thinking that the baby was already LITERALLY coming between the two of us and thinking how my relationship with Dawson might change. I have just decided that there will always be room for more babies, more love, and the love will not be divided but will duplicate with each. Now DO NOT get me wrong here... I am going to wait a bit longer this time to have another but it is nice to know that when the time comes I will not need to worry.

I Have An Announcement...

Today I registered for a 10k race. I am going to train and get myself ready. I HATE RUNNING but I am one of those people that needs to constantly set goals to be able to keep motivated with working out. After this race we will see what happens but I think I'd like to do a triathalon and maybe even a half marathon at some point. Wish me luck!

Test