Slip n Slidin OR Belly Flopin?

One of Dawson's birthday presents this year, was a new slip n slide. Thanks Shauna! So, we spent several days a week cooling off this way in the backyard. This day however, was the first day Andi was brave enough to actually try 'sliding' and it was hilarious!

My kids are of course matching...shocker right? I had been eyeballing these adorable swimsuits & snatched them up when they went on sale for next summer. That is why they are too big on them. But, they had just come in the mail & they were excited to wear them. I love the added touch of the temporary tattoo on Dawson's arm!




Here is the hilarous video of Andi's 'sliding'.


And, here is a cute video the the slip & slide master!

July 4th Fun

I LOVE when my kids match!

Swimming at the Morse Resort, this is Dawson's 'dive'

And, crazy girl jumping

Dawson with Granna & Granny's Dog Willy

Derek & Granny (who just turned 92!)

We ended up at the last minute joining up with the McDaniel crew to watch fireworks

Trace, Andi, Dawson & Carson

They pointed at EVERY firework & then giggled...so cute.

These two visited the entire time, like long lost friends that had been reunited. And, Andi was TOTALLY flirting. Hmmm, something to watch out for in the future!



And, snuggling with Mom after a long day.

Derek's gonna kill me...

One evening Dada had some...uhm, stinky gas issues...hehe, love ya babe! But, the funny part was that after Dawson had complained about the odor, he came running into the room with this contraption on claiming it would 'help with the smell.' Ha! You probably never knew a slinky & snorkel were so valuable.

What is that?

During our vacation this summer, this framed print was hanging in the bathroom opposite of the toilet. The first time that I took Andi to the potty in there, she just kept staring at the picture. Then she glanced over at me, then back at the picture, then over at me, and then back at the picture again. Finally she whispers at me with wide-eyes "Mom...is that...is that...is that...God?" It was so adorable.

Dawson turns 5!!!

This post is SO late, but better late than never! My sweet boy turned 5 back in June...here are the photo highlights!

On his actual birthday...he caught his hair on fire doing this!!!!

WHOOPS! Don't think he'll do that again anytime soon!

Derek & I took him to Space Center Houston for the day.

Me & Dawson

Getting sung to at LaCasita at dinner, how cute is he!

At his birthday party at Jump n Jungle with best buddy Jonathan.

The cake table with cousins & friends.

Here he is with all his presents!

And, with his new spiderman bike!

Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Knee Woes

These last few months with my knee have been really interesting. On average, my knee is dislocating about 5 times per day, and it will dislocate 3 out of 4 directions. And, something inside my knee keeps getting hung up, on something else in there & I have to jiggle it loose constantly. It literally feels like I am having to balance the bones on top of each other very, very carefully with each step I take. If you didn't know, I had multiple surgeries on my left knee when I was a senior in High School. (Someday, I will have to tell the entire story about how I hurt my knee because it is actually quite an amazing story of how God used my painful/ frustrating situation for his good....but, that story is for another day.) After my last surgery, my knee doctor informed me that he felt like I would probably need a knee replacement within 20 years because the damage had been so severe. Well, I made it 13 years.

I hurt my knee that last week we were in Mn going up & down all of our stairs packing for the move. Since then, it has just gotten worse & worse. I made an appointment pretty soon after we moved back & the soonest my doctor could see me is the 30th of Aug. The newest development is severely crazy. On top of all the dislocating & things getting stuck...I now have a lump??? The lump will fall down from somewhere in the top of my knee cap, down to the side of my knee cap. When it does that, it almost completely restricts any movement at all. To bend my knee again, I have to physically push the little lump back up where it came from. When this first started, it only happened a few times per day, but now it happens with every 10th step or so. Have you ever heard of such a thing??? Talk about bizarre. I will keep you posted about what the doc says after I see him.

The Wii Addict

When Aunt Hettie comes down to visit us, the first thing Dawson asks her is "Did you bring your GAME?????" He loves to play video games & is really quite obsessed with the Wii. So, it is a good thing that he only gets to play every once in awhile. The funny part is that he is HILARIOUS to watch when he is playing. He is actually really good, but he just has his own very interesting methods of playing.

I posted two funny videos of him playing two different games. Video #1: Dawson playing Mario Kart. His feet are obviously the main focus here...I love how during the stressful parts of the game, his feet will go faster/slower or how he flexes his toes! Video #2: Dawson playing Wii boxing. Again, the feet are going crazy...and the arms are going crazy too! Too funny! He is just so serious about it.




While we were on vacation in Galveston, he had been playing the boxing game for awhile & had made it passed several different opponents. Then, he finally beat one guy that he thought was really hard to beat. Very enthusiastically, he yelled at the opponent on TV, "LAY LIKE A BIRD IN YOUR BED...SON!" We all began laughing hysterically at his random outburst, and one of us managed to ask him through our laughter "Dawson, what in the world does that mean?" He shrugged nonchalantly & simply said "It means I beat him."

Galveston Vacation 2010

Starting Memorial Day, our family with Derek's parents & sister, spent a week at Point West Condos in Galveston. We had wonderful, wonderful weather & a great relaxing time. Sorry for the onslaught of photos...but, these are some of my favorites from the trip.

The kiddos striking a crazy pose before we went to the beach the first day. (Andi's sunglasses are upside down!)

There was ALOT of wave jumping.

Lots of crazy face making!

The Porters came to hang out with us one day.

Lots of running down the beach.

Lots of swimming. Both kiddos decided to ditch the floaties this year!

A little bit of sibling sweetness.

Lots of snuggling with Dad watching movies.

Lots of 'fun with Hettie' time.

Lots of peanut butter.

Lots of pics of my 5 year old birthday boy!

Lots of floating the lazy river.

Lots of sand castle building.

Lots of naps...Dawson piled the pillows & floaties on top of them & they didn't even wake up!

And...lots of cuteness!

So, so, so, so behind.

Yes, I know...I am HORRIBLY behind on my blogging. I have a list of about 12 things to blog about, but I am just lacking the motivation. We will blame it on my 'leaving Minnesota depression.' But, I will get my butt in gear asap because I have some great things to post! I'll be back soon.

American Idol in our future????

Our little girl sings ALL THE TIME...and I really do mean all the time. She LOVES to sing! And, coupled with singing, she is super duper DRAMATIC! I definitely think we have an entertainer on our hands. She loves to make up songs all day long about whatever task she is doing, or if she hears a someone speak a word from the lyrics of one of her favorite songs...it will trigger her to begin singing that song immediately. On the flight back home to Texas, she even serenaded the 'lucky' passengers around her with The My Little Pony song for the entire 5 hour flight.

I have been collecting these videos of her singing for the last several months & I am finally ready to compile them into one blog post. These videos are of her singing all her absolute favorite songs...the ones that we have heard over & over & over again. Did I mention that she sings these songs repeatedly???? :-)

Derek & I watch American Idol, and last season Adam Lambert was on the show. And he is quite the entertainer. At one point, his mom gave an interview about him as a child. She said something along the lines of how unbelievably loud he was a child...that he would just scream for the sake of screaming when he was a toddler...then the screaming turned into loud singing...and, the loud singing never stopped! At this point in the interview, Derek & I looked at each other with wide eyes and started cracking up laughing. Adam Lambert's Mom had just described our baby girl exactly! So, who knows what is in store for our little entertainer in the future.

Singing Jingle Bells at Christmas time:

Singing a song from Little Mermaid: (Sorry you have to listen to me sing on this one too! She is reenacting the movie on the stairs though...the scene where Ariel is perched on the rocks singing to Prince Eric...too cute!)

Singing Bear Necessities from The Jungle Book:

Singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star & I'm wishing from Snow White:

And, lastly...here is the song she sings the most...a song from her My little Pony movie. I almost didn't post this video because the quality is HORRIBLE. The video is so dark that you can hardly see her, but you can definitely still HEAR her! So, I posted it anyway since it is her favorite song.

I hope you all have enjoyed The Andi-Palooza!

Kemah Fun

The VERY first thing Dawson wanted to do when we moved back to Texas, was spend the day at Kemah. So, we flew into town from MN & the very next day we took the boy to ride rides at the carnival. He is such a little dare-devil & will ride everything he is tall enough for! I'm sure we will be back many times this summer.

The boys waiting in line

Riding the wagon wheel...they are CRAZY!

Some more funny shots riding the wagon wheel...

And, this is why I LOVE my husband...oh yeah, he is riding in the tiny airplanes!

We ate dinner on the patio of Landrys & this was our gorgeous sunset view

Dawson & his Hettie

And, here he is with all his Kemah loot: a light up sword & his new Scooby that he named 'Scooby Dooby Blue.'

What my eyes have seen...

Well, this is my final blog post about Bemidji, Minnesota. I whole heartedly fell in love with this town, it's people & it's beautiful countryside. Our time spent there was such an amazing adventure & I miss it terribly. It was really neat to watch the seasons changing before my eyes. This is what I saw while living there...through the lens of my camera of course.

This shed was located across the street from our house.

This is the main road that our street was off of.

Living Room window

Our Cabin

Buena Vista Ski Resort

Kitchen window

Our street

Sunroom

Birch trees

Every day when Andi was napping, Dawson & I would walk down to the lake. In the image on the right, it was -25 degrees outside with a -50 degree wind chill. He's a trooper!

Turtle Lake
And although our time there is over, I know that someday I will have to go back...because I am pretty sure I left a part of myself there.