To Tennessee...AGAIN!

Dawson, Bentley, and I just got back from a short trip to Tennessee for the weekend. John had to work, and so we made the trip by ourselves. This was my first time on a road trip with Dawson by myself, so I was a little unsure how he would do. Luckily, he did wonderfully! I really could not have asked for a 7 month old to do much better on a 4 hour trip alone by himself (except for the dog) in the backseat without much entertainment. On the drive up he only got fussy a couple of times and the same for the drive back. I decided to drive up for the weekend for my friend, Lauren's, engagement party. Dawson's Lolly and Pop kept him on Saturday while I went wedding dress shopping with Lauren (so fun!) at Wedding Wonderland in Knoxville. I love everything wedding, all the details, everything, so we had a great time looking at the dresses and discussing the details of her upcoming wedding in 2010.
Then Saturday night Dawson got to spend a little more time with his Lolly and Pop and some time with his Nana and Grandad too while I went to the engagement dinner at Flemming in Turkey Creek. It was a lot of fun, and I got to see Erin and Ashlee, two of my other Sigma Kappa sisters, who will also be bridesmaids in Lauren's wedding.
Sunday Dawson got to visit with his Nana and Grandad a little more and see his Great Grandmother (Mamaw).
Before I knew it the short visit was over and it was time to pack the Jeep back up and head back to Huntsville. Dawson had a lot of fun getting to visit with his grandparents, and I enjoyed visiting friends and family.
Just a few pictures below to share...

Above: This picture is not from the weekend, but

a recent photo of Dawson. We decided to see if he was ready

to try sitting up in the sink for a bath rather than in his plastic

tub. He loved it! Unfortunately though that meant he got into

more stuff while trying to bathe him. I loved this picture though!

Above: Me with the bride-to-be at Flemmings.

I will be the Matron of Honor!

Above: Me with the other Sigma Kappas planning to be
in the wedding. Left to Right: Lauren, me, Erin, Ashlee.

Above: At Flemings with the other bridesmaids.

Santa and Snow

This week John and I have been working on decorating the house for Christmas. We spent Tuesday putting up our outside icicle lights which we will have to take a picture of soon to put on here. Wednesday and Thursday we put up our tree and inside decorations which was a lot of fun. Last year when we were decorating our tree was when I felt Dawson kick for the first time, so it was fun to think how much has changed in a year when he's actually moving around the house in his walker this year while we're decorating. This year has gone by so fast! Dawson loves to look at our Christmas tree all lit up!
After spending the week decorating, we had an appointment with Santa on Friday evening. At John's office they have Santa come every year and you can come there to do pictures if you like. Every year since John and I started dating we have had our picture taken with Santa, and last year we had our picture made with the same Target Santa when we were expecting. So this year we dressed Dawson in his own Santa suit and took him! This Santa was great, and I'm sure he was the real one! :) When we got there Santa gave us tips to get a few good photos with him in case Dawson started crying when he was on Santa's lap. Although these were helpful, Dawson was not afraid of Santa at all-he loved Santa! We got a some pictures and had fun with Dawson's great Santa visit!
As a perfect end to a Christmas-y week, last night during the night it snowed! Since we have lived in Alabama this is only the third time it has snowed, and there is not usually much accumulation. This morning when John got up at 3:30am for work, we looked outside to see a white yard. When Dawson and I got up for the day, I decided to bundle him up really well and run outside to take a few pictures of Dawson's first snow. By now a lot of it is melted, and you can tell from the pictures just how little snow we got, but still, it was Dawson's first snow!
We hope you enjoy the pictures below and that you're enjoying this Christmas season!

Above: One of our traditions is that every year John and I

pick a Halmark Keepsake Ornament to add to our tree. The

past couple years we've chosen very pretty ornaments, but

this year we picked a fun one. It's Cousin Eddie's RV from the

movie Christmas Vacation which we watch several times each

Christmas. In the picture above John is adding our newest

ornament to the tree!

Above: Dawson thought this was hilarious that he was laying

on Daddy and pushing on his face. We were taking a break from

tree decorating.

Above: This year we also got Dawson a "Baby's 1st

Christmas" Halmark Ornament. So here we are putting it

on the tree.

Above: Santa says, "Make more toys!"

Above: Our little Santa before going to see the
real Santa.

Above: Dawson on Santa's lap!

Above: All of us with Santa, and Dawson looking like

he wants to give Santa a kiss.

Above: Everyone with Santa.

Above: Dawson sitting in our front yard in the snow.

Above: Dawson checking out the snow.

Above: Of course, Bentley had to join us in the snow too!

Above: Bentley in the snow in our backyard.

On the Road Again

Just like last week, this Tuesday John, Dawson, Bentley, and I loaded in the car for another road trip to Tennessee. For not having driven up since July, we went two weeks back to back this month! After getting in town on Tuesday we helped my brother, Logan, celebrate his 16th birthday! We had dinner at Aubreys (our favorite restaurant in Maryville and where our rehearsal dinner was hosted) which was great, as always. Logan passed his test like we knew he would, and is now a licensed driver! Congratulations to Logan! After dinner we had birthday cake to celebrate!
On Wednesday we just visited with familyand did some cooking for Thanksgiving.
Then Thursday was Thanksgiving and my birthday! We celebrated Thanksgiving twice at lunch and once at dinner. Although it is usually hectic going from house to house, this year wasn't bad, and more than anything, we are thankful to have family with whom we celebrate! We got to ee my newest cousin, Josie, who is adorable! We also go to see Corbin, my cousin's son, who is 2 months older than Dawson. He is a cutie too! It was great to see a lot of family members we don't get to visit on a regular basis.
That night we also had a delicious birthday cake (strawberry cake with strawberry icing-yum!) to celebrate my birthday. John's mom baked mine and Logan's birthday cakes this year, and they were great! My parents kept Dawson that night while John and I went to see a late movie. It was nice to get to go out on a date, especially on my birthday! We saw Couples Retreat which we thought was pretty funny.
This morning we got up, packed the car up, and drove back to Huntsville after saying our goodbyes. In the car on the way home I was excited to have some relaxing time to start reading Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue, that I have been wanting to read and that John got me as one of my birthday gifts! It's really good so far, as I got to read a good amount while Dawson was taking a little nap in the car.
We are so glad we got to see a lot of our friends and family in the past two weeks, but now we're looking forward to spending the upcoming week at home (hopefully decorating for Christmas)! We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Above: Dawson in his walker, still in reverse, while we

were packing for Tennessee.

Above: The guys! Dawson, Logan, and John at Aubreys.

Above: Dawson with his Lolly and Pop at Logan's
birthday dinner.

Above: The night before my birthday, Dawson

gave me his gift early, and Bentley had to

get in the picture too!

Above: Our family on Thanksgiving Day (and my

birthday).

Above: Dawson on Mamaw's (his great

grandmother) lap on Thanksgiving.

Above: Me and Mamaw on Thanksgiving.

Above: John and Eric with the little boys.

(Dawson kept reaching out to touch Corbin as

you can see in the picture!)

Above: Dawson with his "Baby's First Thanksgiving" bib

ready to eat his Thanksgiving dinner of

squash and sweet potatoes.

Above: Corbin (left) and Dawson (right) through the side

of the Pack N Play during Thanksgiving dinner. They

were pretty entertained by each other!

Above: My birthday cake!

Tennessee Trip

We just got back from spending a few days in Tennessee. Although we will be going to visit again soon for the holidays, we decided to drive up for a visit and to help Mamaw celebrate her 80th birthday.
On Tuesday morning we got up early and packed up to start the drive. We hadn't been up to visit since July with Dawson was only two months old, and this drive was much different. At two months old, he slept almost the entire trip, however this time he stayed awake the whole trip. He was happy though. He played, looked out the window, talked, and tried to grab Bentley's ears (we made her ride in the seat beside him so it would provide him some entertainment).
Tuesday evening we went to Mamaw's surprise 80th birthday party. She had a great time, was surprised by the party, and surprised that we were in town. It was a lot of fun and several friends and family members who had not met Dawson before got to see him.
On Wednesday we met our newly engaged friends, Jeff and AT, for lunch which was great fun! We got to catch up, hear about all of their exciting wedding plans (even more exciting because John is in the wedding), and they got to see Dawson eat his oatmeal for lunch which is entertainment in itself. After lunch we did a little shopping at Turkey Creek which we were excited to see is even more developed since a couple of years ago when we were out there last.
Thursday John got to play golf with his Dad at Rarity Bay. That evening Dawson and I went to visit Steph in Knoxville. She cooked some great pizza for dinner, and we had fun catching up and watching her Yorkie, Bear, react to Dawson. Stephanie drove all the way down to see Dawson when he was only three days old in the hospital, she saw him in July, but hadn't seen him since, and he's changed a lot. We had a lot of fun, just hanging out like old times!
We also had fun seeing family while we were in town and plan to do more of that while we're in for the holidays. Unfortunately we didn't do a good job taking pictures on this trip, so I only have a couple to share with you all. Enjoy!

One of Mamaw's birthday cakes.

(It was made by John'sMom's new bakery in

Maryville, Something Savory.)

Dawson with his Auntie Steph.
(I was impressed that she was already
decorated for Christmas!)

6th Month Update

I had typed this and attempted to post it to our blog last Saturday, November 14th, but it did not upload for some reason. Some of the information, of course, is dated to last week, but here's attempt two.

It's hard to believe, but Dawson is six months old today! All the sudden he is able to do so many new things. A couple of weeks ago Dawson said "Ma ma" for the first time. John and I were so surprised that we thought it was accidental in the middle of all of his baby babble. We decided for this to count as his first word he would have to say it a few more times. Over the past few weeks he has said it several more times along with "da da" now too! We are so excited! Of course, he doesn't say it when we want him to or when we're trying to get him to say the words, but that just makes it that much more exciting when he does decide to surprise us with the words. He doesn't know who Mama or Dada are, but it's still sweet.
Also, a new thing for Dawson is sitting up on his own. Now he can sit for a good amount of time without anyone or anything supporting him.
We decided this past week that Dawson was ready to play in a baby walker, and he loves being able to move around the house. At this point he can only go in reverse instead of walking forward, but it's so funny!
Dawson's six month check up was Tuesday. He weighs 17 pounds 11 ounces and was around the 75th percentile for all of the measurements they took. Unfortunately he had to get four shots, but after a nap and infant Tylenol he was fine. We don't have to take him back until he is nine months old which seems like forever away, but I know it will come sooner than we realize. We really like Dawson's doctor and nurses. They all come in to peek at him when we're there to see how he had grown. The doctor is really patient and puts up with the long list of questions we always have for her at his check-ups!
At his check-up the doctor told us that he is ready to start baby food. We were very excited as we have been waiting for this day in hopes it would help him sleep through the night, or at least logner stretches of time. The first night he slept great, but after that he's been back to his old sleeping (or lack of sleeping) habits, waking up between 1 and 5 (sometimes 11) times a night. Even though it hasn't helped him sleep, starting baby food has been fun and messy!
For months now I have been reading about how to make homemade baby food, and I was excited to try it myself. It is so easy! I would recommend it to anyone who has a little time to make it! So far, I've made carrots, yellow squash, and sweet potatoes. For the carrots and yellow squash you peel and steam them and then put them in a blender for a long time until they get to the right consistency. The sweet potatoes you bake with the skin on, then peel, then put in the blender with a little water for a while. After you get the food to the right consistency you pour it in one ounce size ice trays and freeze. After you freeze them you pop them out, wrap them, and then put them in freezer bags. Each cube is one ounce so it's easy to gage how much Dawson is eating based on how much I thaw.
We decided to start Dawosn on veggies so he wouldn't get used to the sweet fruits and then refuse veggies. So far he's only had carrots, as you give them the same food for 4 days straight to make sure there is no food allergy. Tonight he will get to have yellow squash for the first time. He seems to like carrots okay, but still prefers rice or oatmeal cereal.
We have also started giving Dawson a sippy cup this week once a day with water. This way he can teach himself to drink from it with a clear liquid inside (easy clean up). He has had the sippy cup for four days in a row now, and I think he's managed to get about 1/8 of an ounce of water total. He's more interested in chewing the cup than drinking the water.
In the midst of helping take care of all this new stuff that has gone on with Dawson, John has been really busy with work as they are getting ready for all of the Christmas shoppers. He also got the chance to play golf (a rarity in the last 6 months) with a couple co-workers on Thursday. The weather was perfect, and he had a good time! I've stayed busy with working out (in addition to caring for Dawson). I've even started attending a cycling class recently which is intense, but fun! Our gym has childcare, so it's a nice break in the day for me to work out and leave Dawson in "playcare" for an hour or two.
I'm getting excited about decorating for Dawson's first Christmas soon, even though it's hard to imagine with the weather in the 70's that we've been experiencing here in Alabama. We're looking forward to visiting family and friends soon with all of the holidays and birthdays coming up, so hopefully we'll see a lot of you all soon!
Enjoy the pictures below!

Dawson's first time eating baby food. He's not sure

what to think about these carrots.

Dawson's first time with a sippy cup!

Dawson was rolling around in the floor
when Bentley decided to join!

Always a ham for the camera!

Dawson's first time in the walker,

going in reverse, of course.

Smiling in the walker!

This is what the food I make looks like. This is obviously

frozen, but it is one ounce of yellow squash.

Ever heard of putting your foot in your mouth?!?

Rolling around on the living room furniture.

I think he looks like such a little boy

(not baby) in this outfit!

Dawson with his Mommy.

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween Dawson dressed up as a giraffe. We stayed home Halloween evening and handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters. We probably had about 60 trick-or-treaters stop by for candy. My mom was also in town for a visit the weekend of Halloween, and she got to see Dawson dressed up. While she was in town we shopped, went out to eat, visited, and played with Dawson. Unfortunately Dawson was a little sick with a cold which was really his first time being sick, so of course we gave him extra love and attention. He is doing much better now, but still has a slightly runny nose.
The Wednesday before Halloween we began celebrating by carving our pumpkins. We got one pumpkin for each member of the family, but we didn't carve Bentley's. John got the biggest pumpkin which proved to be really difficult to carve. We ended up spending over 3 hours working on our carvings. I carved mine and Dawson's, but I was the happiest with his little pumpkin. I carved a "1" into his for his first Halloween.
In the past few weeks, John has stayed busy with work as they are getting ready for Christmas shoppers, and I have stayed busy taking care of everything at home. I still love being a full-time stay-at-home-mom. It's amazing how quickly time goes by playing with Dawson and doing things around the house everyday.
Last week we had another dog at our house to take care of. Our friends, The Hough's, went to Florida to see the launch last week, and we kept their Golden Retriever, Maggie. She was a good dog and easy to take care of, but Bentley was so jealous of the attention we gave Maggie. It showed us (not that we were even considering it) that Bentley needs to be an only dog because she thinks she's the queen around here!
When Dawson had his little cold we took him to the doctor to make sure nothing else was going on, which it wasn't. He weighed in at a booming 17 pounds 9 ounces, so he is growing well. We will have more to report after his six month appointment next week.
I received the exciting news a couple of weeks ago that my friend, Lauren, is engaged! She as the maid of honor in our wedding, and now I will be the matron of honor in her wedding. We are excited for Lauren and Dillon as they begin the wedding planning.
This past weekend I received a call from Amanda (AT), another good friend, with the news that she is getting married to one of our other good friends, Jeff, who was also in our wedding. We are so excited for the two of them and can't wait!
Also, we wanted to say congratulations to our friends, The White's, who celebrated their one year wedding anniversary over the weekend!
Enjoy the pictures below...

Above: Dawson after church a couple of weeks ago.

Above: Dawson in his Johnny Jumper while we're carving pumpkins.

Above: Pumpkin Carving.

(Yes, I have the smallest knife possible

out of fear of cutting myself.)

Above: Before

Above: Left to Right: Bentley's, Mine, Dawson's, John's.

Above: Dawson with the pumpkins.

Above: Dawson with the pumpkins.

Above: It was hard to get a picture

because Dawson just wanted to touch the pumpkins.

Above: Daddy with his little giraffe.