1st Day of Preschool

To say Dawson was excited for his first day of preschool is an understatement! Last year he did a joy school but this was his first day of real preschool. I got to go with him the first day and absolutely love his teacher. She is so fun and so awesome with the kids, but also is an amazing teacher. Dawson loves going and is learning his letters and sounds even better than he already knew them and can read some simple words already. He is always coming home with cute crafts and stories of what they did that day....I sure hope he always loves school this much!

End of Summer Round-Up

After our big trip at the end of July we tried to soak up the last month of summer and do some fun stuff. We swam a bunch, went to parks, the zoo, and anything we could think of! We made a point though to have a camp out in the backyard since we didn't get a chance to go somewhere. We did tin foil dinners in the fire, roasted mallows, and pitched a tent in the back. We started out with all four of us in the tent but after about an hour it dropped to two because Emerson was not going to sleep and it was already 11pm! So her and I went inside while the boys enjoyed the night in a tent for two.

I also wanted to let the kids one night "paint" with pudding. We stripped Emerson's down to her diaper and put D in his swimsuit and they got to paint each other and play with pudding to their heart's content. At first they weren't so sure and Dawson even said wait, but we will get messy...but they soon learned that was the point and had fun. The summer went wayyyyy to fast in my opinion but thankfully we had a nice mild-warm fall to still get out and do stuff. My kiddos are definitely summertime lovers!

Chicago Vacation: A Short Novel

I have been putting off blogging about this trip because I knew it was pretty much gonna be a short novel! We went to Chicago in July and had the best time ever there and did so so much, it was so fun. We couldn't of asked for a better trip and were spoiled rotten that's for sure! Here is what we did:
1. Splash Park- Veteran's Acres Park had a new splash pad so we decided to test it out. Emerson wasn't a fan but Dawson loved it and even tricked Becca into playing with him aka getting wet.


2. Six Flags Great America- I hadn't been in forever so I knew this was a must! It was a ton of fun, the kids loved the rides especially Dawson. Me and Chris even got to ride us some roller coasters while my mom who doesn't ride them tended to the kiddos! It happened that we went on one of the hottest days we were there and it hit over a 100 plus humidity. Yuck. I have never felt so wet in my life...even the poor kiddos were red faced and sweaty! The girls would pour water on Em's legs and she laid there in relief as they did it was pretty funny.



3. Beach and Housewarming Shower- They had a new man made beach in Crystal Lake so we decided to try it out. The kiddos loved playing in the sand and the water was warm so it got an A+ from us. Later that night we threw my sister Missy a surprise shower for moving out on her own.


4. Bowling- I got to catch up with some dear friends of mine (Mikie B and his wife Gina with there little girl Makayla, Laurel, and Katie) at Pinstripes Bowling Alley. Katie's fiance works there and got us in for free and also got us free food and we just tipped well....major thank you to them it was a BLAST and such a nice place! Dawson loved goofing around with my friends and even made Laurel dance with him!


5. Rockford Children's Museum and Food- the family headed up one day to the Children's Musuem and we goofed around, took a family "portrait" in a giant pin board, and then headed out to dinner at New Sunny....my favorite Chinese place ever! We also ate at Tommy's and Georgio's while we were there...yum!


We did a bunch of other things while we were there too...visited my grandma a bunch, cooked ribs, saw my uncle, celebrated Emerson's birthday, went to Julie Ann's, walked around Downtown, and just hung out!

For the last four days of our trip we all headed up to Wisconsin Dells, where my parent's got us a BEAUTIFUL hotel condo there. It was a-mazing! The resort had 3 indoor and 3 outdoor water parks so pretty much majority of the time was spent there. We did venture out some though and ate at a family favorite, Paul Bunyon, saw Tommy Bartlett, ate at Monk's, shopped, and ate at Rocky Rococo. It was pretty much an awesome 4 days and I wish it was double the length we had there! When we left Dawson even cried saying he didn't want to be so far away from Grandma and Grandpa because he had such a fun time with them and was spoiled rotten! Thanks family for an awesome trip! PS Nebraska is a place I couldn't live. They do Cruise Nights and have scary bugs that swarm your car....enough said.

Miss Em turns 2!

My little Emerson is 2 and I just can't believe it! She has such a personality now and talks so much it has been a pretty fun age so far. We have definitely had our moments of drama and tantrums, but for the most part it hasn't been bad so far! On her actual birthday day she woke up, had her door decorated, ate breakfast (pancakes with sprinkles!), then opened a couple presents.




After getting ready we headed out to our tradition of going to Build a Bear on their birthday and lunch. This year Em chose a cat and shocker, dressed it in a Tangled dress. They had so many cute outfits but she would not deter from it! One fun thing about yearly letting them do this each year is seeing what they choose because of their current interests. After that we went to Cheesecake Factory and had a delicious lunch and cheesecake. Emerson got sung to and a sundae. She was pretty pleased to say the least!





For her party we had an owl themed party since she absolutely loves them. I did a smores bar with various smores desserts, we sang, opened presents, then swam. At the start of her party is was down pouring but cleared up and was sunny for the second part...perfect! For party favors I made each child an owl that matched their bedroom and a tag with the child's name and a poem. I was please with it. Emerson was spoiled and received princess dress up, shoes, and accessories, and a play kitchen! She had a great day and thank you everyone!





A few days after Emerson's party she had her 2 year check up. She weighs 19.2 lbs and is 31 inches long. Small and petite like she always has been! She checked out great and the doctor said she talks really well and her vocab is at a 3 year old level. She pretty much uses 2-3 word sentences, like "juice mom, please" or "open please mom" etc. She will repeat and catch on to most words we use now. She knows the word no well and can be stubborn. She definitely has sass. She loves Tangled and anything princess. She has to sleep with her stuffed owl nightly and loves anything owl. She is my shy one, and runs hot and cold on people. She's a big time Momma's girl. She loves to copy Dawson. She is a picky eater, but loves and would live off of dry cereal, pretzels, crackers, yogurt, milk, and fruit if I let her. She will not touch bread or cheese (weird huh? They are child staples!) She is really sing-songy. Where ever or whatever she is doing she will sit there and take a word or two and sing it over and over like "happyyyyyy...happy....happpeeee!!" or "Momma, mommy, mama!" It's really cute and makes us smile everytime. I have a kids CD and she loves the song You Are My Sunshine and asks to listen to "Shine" over and over. She is also a total girlie girl. She loves wearing her bracelet and bows. She got lip glosses for her birthday and constantly is putting on "lips." She is such a fun happy girl and brings a lot of smiles to our home. We love you our little Emerson!

God Bless The USA

To kick start the 4th we always attend Taylorsville Dayz. It's usually the weekend before the 4th, and it's just become tradition to go yearly. Our friends the Olsen's introduced us to it and we have loved it ever since. We go the night of the fireworks, usually arriving about 6pm or so, that way we can stake out an area in the field, listen to the music, eat, socialize, and browse around the booths and such. The night ends with one of the best firework shows ever in my opinion. In the midst of it all I forgot to take a lot of pictures. Oops.



For the actual 4th of July, we kept pretty busy starting the day out with the parade with Jen, Jer, and Kohen. Chris and Jer staked out seats the night before so we didn't have to go ridiculously early, and Jer also brought his canopy cover which we ended up using not because it was hot and sunny but because it was rainy on and off. After lots of floats and candy catching we headed home to rest and have the kids nap, then Jen, Jer, and Kohen came over and we bbq-ed a delish meal then headed to Sugarhouse for another round of fireworks. The boys were even kind enough to wait in a 30 minute line for funnel cakes...thanks hon! It was great fun and since it was a little overcast not too hot. After the fireworks were over we headed home and crashed from the activities. Oh why the title? Well Chris loves the song God Bless the USA and plays it every year all through out the day on the fourth. Needless to say 9 4th of Julys together means I've heard the song a whole lot. A WHOLE lot.

Summer Happenings

I got discounted tickets to the dinosaur park in Ogden so we took a family trip down to it and loved it! It's really a neat place and I liked it more then I thought. There is an inside part with robotic dinos and dinosaur bones, then you head outside and they have all these life size dinosaur replicas. You get to walk around and go on "hidden" trails and at the end they have a play park area and digging area. The kiddos loved it despite the 100 degree weather that day!




We also went to the zoo for my nephew Kohen's birthday, which is also a favorite always. This time they have a dinosaur thing going on with robotic replicas there thru out the zoo and Dawson loved it. Emerson didn't. They made noises and moved which turned her off right away. But we still had fun and enjoyed spending the day with Kohen on his birthday!




Lastly we went to the Lindon pool with some neighbor/ward friends to go swimming. It's a bit of a drive but it is such a nice pool it's totally worth it. The kids had a blast and played for 4 hours! The only picture we got was them drying off in the sun. We just love summer time around these parts and getting out!