January

Dallin is growing and achieving new milestones all the time. His most recent accomplishments are waving, clapping, dancing, playing peek-a-boo, and kicking upon our request - which means he's understanding what we're saying. It's very exciting. He's pulling himself up to standing position as well, and that means walking is not too far away. The photos above are of Dallin eating one of those buiscuts sticks that are really messy and of him hanging out at Chuck-E-Cheese's for a cousin's birthday party.

You can't beat bathtime fun!

Potty training round 2 went much more smoothly than last time. Reading to Emily that first day helped her get the hang of sitting on the potty for longer than two seconds. We've still got progress make, but over all she's done very well and stays dry more often than not. I've decided, however, that potty training is something I certainly don't enjoy doing.

December

Christmas was the best one yet for us as parents because Emily finally got the whole concept this year! She helped me wrap presents for Daddy and lovingly placed them under the tree. It was fun helping her anticipate Christmas morning and talking about opening presents. It was also satisfying to have her bring up Baby Jesus and how he was born in the stable on Christmas. Emily's favorite present she got is a giant hippo. She lugs it all over the house even though it's as big as she is. Dallin, on the other hand, was mostly oblivious to the events of Christmas morning. Since he can crawl now, he liked crawling amongst the wrapping paper and bows a lot, but also enjoyed some toys once we got them out of their packages. He likes his giant giraffe too.

We celebrated our 4th anniversary on the 27th. We went out to Bone Fish Grill and the food was exceptional. They even gave us a free creme brulee since it was our anniversary.

On the 28th the Dixon family celebrated a wedding as Danny's brother, Michael, married Emily Lynn in the Mesa temple. It was a fun, special day. An open house was held at the Dixon home and our little Emily was enchanted by the whole affair. She kept collecting all the bride's maids' flowers to make her own boquet and pretended she was a bride in a pretty white dress who also just got married in the temple. She LOVES her new Aunt Emily.

November

Dallin is getting bigger all the time. He got his first two teeth and had his first bout with ear infections. He had them over Thanksgiving and, needless to say, was a pretty miserable little guy.

Emily had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Dixon's this Thanksgiving. She loved "helping" Grandma make rolls (which translates into playing in the flour and making a big mess) and playing outside on the swingset.

I celebrated my 28th birthday on the 30th. Danny took me out to eat at Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

Happy Halloween

We're getting ready to carve our pumpkin. We've worked out a pretty good system where Danny cuts the lid and cleans it out. I'm the one who carves the face. Emily "helps" during the whole process. This year Dallin ate Cheerios in his highchair.

Emily was a beautiful ballerina.

Dallin was a cute little bear. Too bad his costume was made for sub-zero temperatures.

October

Moving on to bigger, better, and obviously funkier-tasting foods: carrots and peas.

I took the kids to a little Halloween carnival. They liked picking out their own pumpkins.

It's finally nice enough in the mornings for us to take walks and not sweat to death. It seems, though, it's just as sunny as during the summer.

September

Emily's gotten into wearing "fancy" shoes, be it Mom's Sunday shoes or slippers or flip-flops. On this particular occasion, she's wearing her daddy's shoes.

The temperature finally cooled down to the mid-90's (as opposed to 110), which means spending a little time outside in the swing.

Dallin's first BYU game. He comes from a long line of Dixon men who bleed blue for the Cougars and they're starting him young!

What a happy little guy!

August

We bid Dallas a bitter-sweet farewell and flew back to Mesa on the 3rd. We really enjoyed our time in the Lone-star State and think it's a very livable place. On the other hand, it was more than wonderful to come back home to the dry heat, our house, and our families among other things. Emily was thrilled to see her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousin Nathan again. Thanks to Amy's mom who came to help get her and the kids home, the flight was uneventful and easy. Danny stayed for his final week of work at Raytheon and made the 15-hour drive in two days instead of three, as he'd originally planned. He arrived home on the 10th and we were so happy to have him home a day early.

While Danny was still away, we spent all our time with Amy's family. The Garns and the Burnhams were in town so it was sort of a family reunion. Everybody stayed at the Wallises' house and had a great time. There was lots of swimming, playing with cousins, late nights catching up, and of course, eating. It was a fun week and it was sad to see the out-of-towners go.

Danny had a week between getting back from Dallas and the first day of school. He began his second and final year of school on the 21st and has been very busy so far. He has a job as a teacher's assistant every Thursday evening and he's serving as the president of the Graduate Supply Chain Management Association. He's enjoying this first trimester and does very well balancing his time effectively.

Toward the end of the month, we did an intense, crash-course in potty training for a few days. Emily put forth a good effort and loved her big-girl potty and new undies, but we're going to try again in a couple of months to see if we can have more success staying dry. I couldn't resist taking pictures of her sitting on the potty and wearing actual underwear. Her little buns sure looked cute!




Inspite of what it may look like with a lot of photos of and references to Emily, we do have another child. Dallin is such a fun baby and we love him to pieces. At his four month check-up this month, he weighed 16lbs., 12 oz. - a full eight pounds more than what he weighed at birth. His Daddy's genes have come through in a big way for height; he was nearly off the charts at 27 inches long! When we got home, I was determined to help him sleep through the night (mostly for my own sake!). He's doing really great now and it took just a couple of nights' worth of trying. Oh, and for those of you who've never seen Dallin in person and are wondering if his hair is red, it is!