Birch Bay

We went out to Birch Bay last week and met Shane, Lynn and Aiden to play. Dawson was anxious for me to put him down and he was not afraid to get dirty! Shane & Aiden trying to build a sand castle.

Lynn and her cute pregnant belly!

Ewww...seaweed.

How cute is that face?!

This picture doesn't do justice to show how dirty Dawson was. I had to wrap a towel around him in the carseat and come home and get right in the shower with him.

Fun at the Fair

Dawson had a great time at the fair! We spent a lot of time looking at all of the animals and watching kids on the rides.

Dawson's favorite was definitely the cows!

This was Big Ben. He weighs over 3200 pounds and stands over 6 ft. tall.

Chad was fascinated by him and we had to go back to look at him about 5 times. Baaaaa

This was the only ride that Dawson went on...unfortunately he didn't meet the height requirement for everything else.

Ponies!

Dawson's first bus ride. There was a free shuttle that picked us up by Lynn & Shane's house and dropped us off at the fair.

All smiles after a fun day at the fair.

We have a Porch!

Dawson and Aiden had a front row seat to watch their daddy's & Bill pour concrete thanks to Chad's perfectly placed window! It sure made it nice having the truck be able to pull right into our backyard.

Shane putting his stamp skills to work.

The finished product

(well almost, this picture still has a lot of the colored release powder on it).

Hopefully in the next couple weeks we can set up and pour our "huge" patio-I can't wait!!

Progress!

I'm a little late in posting the updates on our home improvement progress...but here is how it's coming along.

My Baby is One!

My sweet baby boy turned one on August 7th. How did a full year go by already? I am so, so lucky to have been able to spend almost every day with him and watch him grow. It's amazing to think of how he's turned into an active little boy and not just the tiny baby that laid there all day. He's still not walking. I think he is so content by how quickly he can get around crawling that he doesn't have much interest in learning to walk. He's saying more words (at least I think I can make out some) and starting to copy the tones I use in my voice. I still have yet to find any food that he doesn't like, he will eat anything and everything. As much as I want him to stop growing and be my little baby I can carry around forever, I'm also excited to see all the new things he does every day.

Here is Dawson when he woke up on his 1st Birthday. We celebrated in the morning with a pancake breakfast for the 3 of us and then Dawson opened the presents from his mommy & daddy.

This c.d. is so fun! It's all the well known nursery rhymes and his name is added into them.

Dawson's Beach Party

Let me start by saying I had this fun "beach party" planned for Dawson with pools and sprinklers but that all changed when the weather report said it was supposed to rain! :(

Luckily, they were wrong and the rain stayed away but it was still too chilly to have the little ones get wet. So I had to improvise by putting beach balls in the pool instead of water and make the best of it.

As you've seen in past posts, I take a picture of Dawson in the same spot every month on the 7th to see how he's grown, so I put a big picture together.

I made beach cupcakes with sand, water, a peppermint beach ball and umbrella.The Wantz family playing in the sandbox.

The beach balls in the pool were actually a big hit! It turned into a game to have the kids throw the balls out while the adults threw them back in.

Dawson and cousin Aiden playing in the sandbox.

Tyler, Ezra, Maia, Aiden, Dawson, Riley & Kaleb at the sandbox.

Dawson LOVED his present from Shane, Lynn & Aiden!

Dawson wasn't sure what to think when we all sang Happy Birthday to him.

He just stared at the cupcake for awhile...

...then he poked at it...

...all it took was a little taste and then he kept shoving it in his mouth!

Next it was time for presents.

He got so many great gifts! Fun toys, books, cute clothes, rain boots, a big boy car seat, a wagon and so much more!

Aiden, Dawson, Ezra & Maia took the wagon on a test drive. Things have definitely changed since the wagon I had when I was little. This one has backrests, seatbelts and cup holders!

Despite the weather the birthday party was a huge success. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate a milestone in our baby boy's life. Dawson seemed to have a great time and I have a ton of pictures to help him remember it when he's older.

Happy Birthday Dawson!

Home Improvements...Finally!

We're finally getting started on our home improvements! It's so exciting to see things coming along and it's amazing how much different it already looks even though it's far from done. When complete we will have new windows, new siding & garage door, stamped concrete patio in the back and stamped concrete walkway and driveway up front.

Here are some before pictures (Chad got a little anxious and started ripping off the siding before I could grab the camera):

We started off by getting the new windows installed. This is what I came home to one day...a big open hole in the wall. Turned out the installer found some rot and had to run get more materials.

Here are some after pictures of all the windows in:

It's been so nice on these smoking hot days to be able to open our living room windows and get some air flow!

We're actually further along than this, but my camera battery just died. Chad and some co-workers have been working hard on getting our siding put up and we're almost 3/4 of the way done. Last Saturday Shane, Bill and Chad also poured our landing and steps coming out of the slider. We can't wash off the colored release powder until tomorrow so I'm anxiously waiting to see how it turns out and if I'm happy with the color I chose. I'll be sure to post more pictures as soon as I can.