Happy 1st Birthday Dawson!

Happy Birthday Dawson! My littlest love turned one today! I cannot believe a whole year has

gone by. He went from unable to breathe without a machine to practically running! He went from fragile and thin to...well...um...I think you can see how healthy he is. He has a remarkable smile and an amazing personality. He already can be quite defiant. The little stinker!

On the 26th of September 2010, I went to bed the mother of one. I was quite certain that something was up and was cramping throughout the night. My Mother-in-Law came to get Ollie in the morning just in case but I sent

Bob to work. Come 10 am, I decided that I might actually be in labor. I

called the midwives and see suggested I come in so they could check me.

On the way there my contractions began to pick up

and I was certain this was it. I honestly could have pegged the 27th of September the day I found out my due date. My due date with Ollie was September 18 and he was born at 36 weeks 6 days on the 27th of August. Dawson was due on October 19. September 27th would put me at 36 weeks 6 days. After being checked, they sent me to the hospital. Bob was already with me in case you are wondering.

The labor was tough. I don't remember Ollie's being as difficult. I did not get any pain meds or an epidural with either birth. I always joke that there are people who can't and those who shouldn't.

Maybe I should be in the shouldn't group! At about 2:30 (only 3 1/2 hours after arriving at the hospital) I was at an 8. My midwife asked to break my water. Part of me wishes I had said no. I was strep B positive and from the start to finish of round 1 of antibiotics needed to be 4 hours;

I didn't make it! The labor then got really terrible. I think if the window had been open, I may have jumped out. Bob quite literally took a beating. All the while, I was being told that I would soon know if our baby was a boy or a girl and then he/she would be in my arms.

Right around 3:30, Dawson made his grand appearance. He was placed on my chest and I was ecstatic. Little did I know that within 30 minutes, he would be whisked away, and I would be left alone to cry while staring out the window.

Later, little things would set me off. Ollie pushing on my belly and saying there was a baby in there, seeing other little kids walking into the hospital rooms to meet their new brothers or sisters, new babies out in the

grocery store. I remember wanting to tell people that I am not fat! I just had a baby. I HAVE TWO BABIES I wanted to yell. I couldn't tell you about the weather then or what was happening in the world. I don't know if there was food at my house. I don't know if Ollie did anything new. But I can tell you that my Savior did two great works in my life. First, he reminded me of the million little ways he had set me up to withstand this and He proved to be with me over and over again. Also, He healed my baby. It was scary but Dawson came home! Not only did he come home but he has had no problems.

So, not to be a drag a year later. I love my boy. I love the way he follows me through the house saying, "mama ma ma." I love the way he mimics people, pretending to brush his teeth or my hair. I love the way he runs his fingers over the patches in touchy feel books. I love that he is 27 pounds! I love that he roars and tackles his brother. I love how he runs to his snack table when I put something on it. I love how he sits on his riding toys and lets me push him around. I love how he runs to Bob and clings to his leg as soon as he comes home. I love how he tries to dive head first into the tub when I start the water. I am ever thankful for my boy Dawson Curtis.

Thank you Lord for a wonderful year. Please continue to bless this little boy. Draw him near to you and cause him to one day know the depth of your love!

Why not?

I answer many questions to myself with "why not?" For example, "Should I put spaghetti in the baby pool? hmm...why not?" "Should I let my kids play with flour on the floor? Hmm...why not?" "Should Ollie be jumping on the couch? Hmmm... why not?" So when I received a huge bag of balls from my MIL to use for Dawson's upcoming party. I looked at the tub and thought "why not?" Bob of course immediately asked if there were holes in the balls. Such a thinker. Never occurred to me. There were not holes. So the boys took a bath with 100 balls. They had so much fun. The squeals were heartwarming.

What's new with school?

So a new school year is upon us and Ollie and I have started to do a bit of work. I'm trying to do a short activity each day in addition to our co-op which is 2x a month. I'll talk about co-op in another post!

I decided to start off the year with creation. I really want to incorporate the Bible into our school work as much as possible. Ollie loves his little Bible. He usually requests "four, five, six stories mommy," each night. I'm not sure whether that is because he loves God's word or because he wants to stay up later. Either way, I'll take it!

On the first day, God created the heavens and the earth. He said, "Let

there be light and there was light." So amazing to think about. I really don't believe that we were just a chance happening. There is a God and he did create us. He took nothing and made something. I decided that it

would be fun to explore color and light. I got Ollie a flashlight and some transparent colored sheets (binder dividers). We first shined the light on the wall and then put the pages in front to see the light change colors. We tried 2 sheets at the same time to see if the colors mixed. Not really. The stronger color shone through. Ollie loves flashlights. The batteries are already dead. That lesson was last Monday. Unfortunately,I took no pictures of this.

On the second day, God created water and above it a sky. We did two activities to illustrate this lesson. First, we played with water beads.

These are the coolest things. I found clear ones at the dollar tree. They are squishy little balls found

in the gardening section. Ollie played with them for a long time. I'm not sure what most kids do with these but he made it his mission to squash

them and break them apart (sigh). Second, we made a picture with clouds and water. I had him glue batting onto the clouds. Once the clouds were

on the paper, we counted them and wrote a number above each one.

On the third day, God made ground and plants! This was my favorite day hands down. We had a bit of hands on fun. We went to Grandpa Jim's house and worked in his garden. Ollie got to dig up sweet potatoes and Dawson sat and chomped on raw green beans. It was a lovely afternoon!

On the fourth day, God made the sun, moon and stars. Ollie is a big fan of

glitter and quite frankly, so am I. Bob could live and die and never see a glitter project again. We tend to use glitter while he is away. I just love his rendition of the sun and moon and stars, don't you?

On the fifth day, God made the birds in the air and fish in the sea. We started by talking about the characteristics of each. Then we had a delicious snack--blue jello with Swedish fish. Ollie wouldn't touch the jello. I guess he's been deprived of Jello for so long

that he doesn't eat it now. As for the Swedish fish, he had no trouble with those!

We did the 6th day at co-op. I will hopefully find time to blog about that soon. As for Dawson,

well he is officially walking. I have been meaning to put up video of it but I just haven't had time. One super cute thing he has learned is the kissy face. He walks up to me puckers up and makes smoochy noises. It is adorable!

I just want to say that I do not know what is going on with my formatting on blogger. I've fixed all the weird spaces here on my edit page but when I view the blog, it is seriously messed up. Ugh!

A Rocking Party!

My little man turned 3 Saturday and we celebrated with a Rockstar party. It was such a fun party. Being that we have a limited budget, most everything we made ourselves. It helps to have an incredibly talented husband. It also helps that he loves his wife and is willing to put a little work into it! Ollie loves music. He loves to play drums and guitar. He loves to write his own songs. He loves to dance. Considering his two loves are music and dinosaurs and we did dinos last year, I decided that rockstar was the way to go.

After scouring the net, I found some invitations that were close to what I wanted. I sent my dear hubs a picture and what I wanted on them. Viola! He created them for me! Love that man! They are darling. The cool thing is that I had that picture of Ollie. There was no posing.

As for the rest of the party, I really struggled with what to order for

plates. Silly huh? I agonized, quite literally. I spent time harassing my

dear friend Lindsey until finally I decided to ask Ollie. He went with the

monster rock ones. They are too cute. I got them at oriental trading along with blow up guitars and tattoos.

I decided to give out the blowup guitars instead of doing a goody bag. They cost about the same as the little junk I'd put in but were simpler and quite frankly, cooler! I personalized each one but cutting out a guitar

silhouette,writing each child's name on it with glue and adding glitter. I then attached it with ribbon to their guitar. I had planned to write on each with a sliver pen but alas, I could find it and then I decided I'd use the sliver paint we have...haha...I couldn't find that either. I never said I was organized. But I will say that I think the glitter added some depth and they looked really cool!

I planned too much for the party. On the agenda

were tattoos, shakers, slip n slides, dinner, presents, microphone ice cream cones, cake, karaoke. In reality, only two girls started making

the shakers, and no one did karaoke. I mean who wants to make lame-o shakers when there is a slip n slide? The kids all had fun though. I feel like I've learned an important lesson here--let's just have fun whether or not that fits the theme! ha!

Alright, back to the important stuff, Ollie fit the part perfectly with his adorable MOHAWK! Yes, I love it. Truly I do but I am not about appearances. He's three who cares if I get funny looks

because he has a Mohawk? I guess I should mention that it was a green Mohawk. How fun! We needed to cut his hair anyway so I asked Bob to hold off who raised his eye brows inquisitively and asked, "Why?" His response, "Yes! That would

be awesome." Did I mention that I LOVE that man? Of course, this hair cut was the one were Ollie decided to scream like a banshee but oh well, his Mohawk prevails. Of course now he doesn't want it cut. Oh well. The inventor of the Mohawk had to be cool. Just saying.

Other rockstar factors include the amazing sign. Once again, I harassed my friend Lindsey and we Googled until we were blue in the face. Then one night, I was nursing Dawson when it came to me...It would be a guitar and the cord would come out of it and write Happy Birthday Ollie and then plug into an amp. Of course Bob made it better and made his name look like parts of a drum.

Awesome!

The ice cream came in the form of a cone. I made ice cream cones and then dipped them in

chocolate sprinkles to look like microphones. I found that idea online somewhere. I wish I were that smart! I love cupcake cakes. I think they are so much easier to deal with than plates, sliver ware and cutting! Bah! Of course, I maybe should have thought of that before I ordered the dessert size plates. The cake turned out amazing. I love it! Bob added the strings and knobs. I then added some rub-on glitter guys to the tin foil. I think it's neat!

I ordered Ollie's shirt online from an etsy shop called IzzyBTees. Go give her some love and buy her shirts. It is so cute and it is really well made.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my little Ollie! I cant believe that he is 3. Being a mom has been an amazing adventure. I feel so blessed to have been one for three years! With the birth of my first son, I felt like I had finally found my purpose!

Ollie is an amazing little boy. He is so smart and compassionate. He can name off 50 or more dinosaurs. He knows words like predator, prey, nocturnal and eye shine. He knows the difference between herbivore, omnivore and carnivore. He hugs his brother and says things like, "I love you so much Dawson!" He kisses owies on anyone who seems hurt and always tells them he is sorry. He writes his own songs! So for a special birthday presentation here is Ollie Gray at exactly 3 years old! Enjoy!

State fair

Sorry I've been having a bad case of the bloggenslackn lately. There is just so much to do all the time. On Tuesday evening, we went out to the fair with Grandma Mel & Grandpa Jim. It was a lot of fun. Ollie & Dawson started off their adventure in the petting zoo. This isn't just any petting zoo. It has exotic animals: cavies, zebras, & other various fun stuff. I'd tell you more but my 30 year old mom brain is fried!

We enjoyed great food & took in a few barns. Ollie got to go see the snakes with his grandparents. I guess he screamed with excitement at every one. Look at how excited he is to hold it. That is one devoted Grandma there!

Ollie rode several rides. His favorite was the motorcycle ride. I think that's because we told him he can't ride motorcycles since they are dangerous & he could fall off. Now every time we see one her says "see mommy. He can't fall off." Geez. Dawson rode one ride- the carousel. He loved it. I personally though it went a little fast for a carousel.

What a blessing it has been to be near family and enjoy things like the fair together!

Something Borrowed

I'm really not clever. I am just really good at finding and remembering other people's craft fun ideas! I have two places that I really love to steal, I mean borrow ideas from. One is family fun magazine. They are so much fun. I guess that is why it is called family FUN duh. Anyway, it's messy or it's not. I love their recipes and their fun ideas. I could talk about family fun all. day. long. amazing! I wonder if I could work there...but then I'd have to leave my kids. If I ever have to get a job, I want one there or maybe Hillsong kids. Ok now I am rambling.

The other people I love to get ideas from is play at home mom. They have the absolute best ideas. We have tried a ton of them. Here are a few of the fun things we've tried.

These first several are from play at home mom. We made this texture bag using hair gel, food coloring and glitter. The kids both loved it. Heck! Even I liked to play with it!

Here they are playing with glow sticks in the tub.

And making homemade moon sand.

This last activity was from FamilyFun. It was so much fun. We started by throwing the ball on the paper. Ollie soon used the ball to paint us! It looked really neat!