A Whole Lotta Randomness

I feel I get so behind on posting, so here's a whole bunch of stuff in one post.

Look at this face. As my kids always say, "There could be no baby cuter." This little lady will be 5 months on Tuesday. She's the sweetest thing; rarely cranky, smiles at the drop of the hat. She's been sleeping for 12 hours straight for probably a couple of months now, so I'm feeling human again instead of like a zombie.



On Wednesday, Emily sliced her toe pretty badly at a friend's house. She was playing on their splash pad when she slipped on the drain. Danny says the drain worked like a cheese grater on that little toe. The cut went all the way through the nail even. Emily was very brave. We took her to my cousin's house so her good husband (a podiatrist) could look at it. No stitches needed at this point. I've been playing doctor this week changing the bandage and putting ointment on the cut - all without fainting. Kudos to me for that!
She lost that second tooth a week or so after the first. Again, she pulled it out herself at school, but this time went to the nurse to get one of those cool tooth-holder-necklaces they give out. Those permanent teeth are coming in nicely - and crooked! I'm sure she and our future orthodontist will become good friends. Emily also gave her first talk today in Primary. It was on the Restoration. I wrote up a little talk, which she pretty much read. I held up a few pictures. She did a great job! In the past, she's been very afraid to do things like this. We were pleasantly surprised and proud at how well the whole thing went.

Remember way back when I took a bunch of photos of the kids to put on my wall? Well I finally got them ordered and hung. I cannot take credit for lovely way these are all arranged. My mom is the one who has a knack for that sort of thing. She helped me hang these soon after we moved in. But instead of old pictures (except the family one and our engagement shot), I have the new ones I took.

I was inspired to do this back in Alabama by a photographer friend. I took these one day in Dallas, and finally got around to getting this up. Can you read it? It spells D-I-X-O-N. I think it turned out pretty well. And I like that I did it, that it's my very own work of art. Just yesterday my neighbor thought I bought it. It was a neat feeling to get say that I took them myself.

Since Christmas, Megamoo's vocabulary has exploded. She's a little chatter box now and repeats just about anything. It's really cute. Her favorites to shout at her siblings are "No!", "Mine!", and today she yelled "Stop!" at Emily during sacrament meeting. Awesome.

Her hair is finally long enough to put into a pony tail on top. This was her first one.

My wonderful mom gave all us siblings a weekend of babysitting so we can have a get away. Danny and I (and HannahBelle) went last weekend to the Phoenix area so we could attend the temple. We also did some good eating and awesome outlet shopping. Danny said I wasn't allowed to shop for the kids - just me. You see, I've not gotten hardly anything new for so long because I'm never just my normal self. For the past approximately seven years, I've been out of whack size wise due to pregnancy or nursing or postpartum, etc. Well, I hit the motherload. Totally terrific sales. Happy Mother's Day to me! (I can feel cute again!)

Last month, I took Dallin and Emily to explore the desert near our neighborhood. Our goal was to look for the signs of spring.

Though spring here not as obvious as in other parts of the country, we found plenty of beautiful things if we looked closely enough. My favorite was the heart-shaped prickly pear Dallin found.

This little guy is getting freckles! I swear last year he only had a couple. They look so adorable. DallinBoy went camping for the first time two days ago - the ward fathers and sons campout. He had a blast smashing bugs and hanging out with Daddy.

And my brother's video won, not one, but TWO awards in the Church's International Video Contest. He was one of three winners voted on by the panel and he won the viewer's choice award. Totally cool!!

Easter 2011

This year we got to have Grandma and Grandpa Dixon for Easter. They were in town from Colorado to see their newest baby granddaughter born a couple of weeks ago. Aunt Stacy came from Mesa and it was a grand old time.

We dyed eggs on Friday.

Every year we ask the Easter Bunny to come a day early. He always graciously accomodates, so on first thing on Saturday, the kids found candy and plastic eggs filled with candy to put in their baskets. You gotta love the jammies and bed-head.

Our tradition on Easter Sunday is to have an Easter devotional. It consists of the kids opening plastic eggs filled with things that remind us of the Savior (ie. thorns, rope, dice, cloves, a nail, etc.) We discuss each one. The last egg is empty to, of course, symbolize the empty tomb.
We felt the spirit as we taught and testified of the glorious Resurrection.

4 Years Ago....

....this little rascal was born.


He wanted a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and dinosaurs on top. These dinos came from our toy room.

He got a LOT of great stuff including clothes, Wall-e toys, a pillow pet, and The Incredibles. The best gift of all, however, was a big boy bike! He was so excited and so surprised. It was awesome.

A few days later, we had a friend party. It was our first time ever doing a friend party. We had a dinosaur theme and got some clever ideas online. We thought we were doing a pretty low-key party, but it turned out to be quite a bit of stuff and work. Maybe that's how they all are? We don't know; we're rookies. It was still fun, though.

Here's the table all ready for the guests.

Upon arrival, the kids got to color some dinosaur pages.

We had them do a couple of crafts. A baby dino in an egg.

And put together a dinosaur skeleton. These were to be the kids' goodie bags.

Don't they look cool?

We also played some games: Pin the horn on the triceratops. Notice the fine art work by yours truly.

Don't Wake Dino! consisted of the kids grabbing a dino egg filled with goodies before the sleeping daddy dino woke up and tagged them.

Instead of Duck, Duck, Goose we played Pterodactyl, Pterodactyl, T-Rex (I thought of that one all on my own!).

The best part of the whole party was all Danny. He created "fossils" out of salt dough he made, rolled out, and baked. While the dough was soft, we pressed some of our toy dinosaurs into it to make the impressions.

It almost never rains here and is typiclly warm this time of year, but on this day it was rainy and the temperature was in the 50's. Not to be defeated by the rain, we made the "excavation site" under the cover of our back patio as opposed to out in the backyard like we'd originally planned. Danny shoveled the dirt and then buried the fossils in it.

The kids thought it was super cool, and it was.

Their faces say it all.

The credit for the dessert also goes to Danny. He made volcanoes out of sugar cones drizzled with red frosting sitting atop crushed Oreos and chocolate pudding. Inside the pudding were dinosaur fruit snacks and dino eggs (jelly beans).

We sure love this little guy! He brings so much fun to our family. Tickling him is a great way to get him laughing and it's SO cute. He's usually very cooperative, obedient, and helpful. He is a good brother in this house full of girls. I took these the morning of his birthday. He was being a goofball, but I got some good ones out of it too.

Happy birthday, Dallinboy!

Emily's Tooth (or the lack thereof)

Emily lost her first tooth today! She actually pulled it out herself during P.E. and put it in her pocket. She showed and told me all about it first thing off the bus. She is SO EXCITED.

She and Dallin went to the dentist during Christmas break. Based on the X-ray, the dentist figured she'd likely lose a tooth in March or April. So, I kid you not, every day for a month she'd ask me if she had a loose tooth. After that, it was very often that she'd ask me that or say she wish she'd lose a tooth. Every time a classmate of hers lost a tooth, she'd comment on how much she wished she could lose one too. Last week we noticed that both bottom front teeth were loose and she's been diligently wiggling the looser of the two. Well, right now that little tooth is under her pillow and she is sound asleep axiously awaiting the Tooth Fairy.

The Cutest Age

I think Megan is at the cutest age right now.

She LOVES wearing sunglasses (I, of course, put on the bandana, but she enjoyed wearing it as well).

She LOVES wearing Emily's headbands. All of them.

She LOVES wearing other people's shoes.

Who wouldn't LOVE wearing a good nursing bra on laundry day?

She LOVES wearing hats and Hannah's bibs.