Noon Years Eve

Today we went to the New Years Eve Party at the Discovery Science Center. We had a great time.

Boys in the Dinosaur section of the center

We made some rockets

We got to see what bats see

We got to hear what bats hear

We did experiments


We made Party Hats and said Cheers!


They even had a count down with falling balloons.

Merry Christmas

Every year since Shea was born Scott has had to work on Christmas. This year was no different, needless to say my boys enjoy every minute of their time at the Fire Station. After the fire station visit we went to Grandma Gail's house and had some cousin fun.




















1. My boys in front of Daddy's engine
2. Papa Steve and Mason
3. Shea sitting in Daddy's sit in the Fire engine
4. Mommy and Mason
5. Kissing cousins
6. Mason, Shea, Hanna, and Hailee
7. BFF
8. Grandpa Barry and Hanna

Christmas Eve

Every year we spend Christmas Eve with the Dawson side of the family. This year it was at the Anderson house. Thanks Andersons.


The Stephens Boys

The Dawson Family little ones

Grammy and her boys

Great Aunt Claudia

Auntie Danielle

Rainy days at the Stephens House

So we got this frog as a White Elephant gift at church and the boys love to play the music and dance. They fight over who gets to make the frog sing. Shea was a little shy as soon as I got the camera. You have to come over soon and see his moves.

Shea's first stage show

Ok so this is not that exciting for everyone, but for me mom. This was pretty cool.

My little firefighters

It is getting close to Shea's 3rd birthday and I thought it would be fun to ask him what he wanted to do. So I asked him, " Do you want an O George (Curious George), Elmo, Word World, Dump Truck, Trash Truck, etc. party never mentioning Fire. But, every time I said something he would say no Firetruck. Needless to say he will be having a Firefighter party. Here are some photos we took to make his invite.

Mason wanted to get into the act as well.

It's out

Some of you know that I had a kidney stone removed on Thursday. It was really big (9mm). And some wanted to see what it looked like, so here it is:

Cattle Drive

On Saturday we took the boys to Costa Mesa to watch the cattle drive to the fair. We all had a great time.







When we were all done with lunch and the cattle drive we let the kids jump in the fountain. How white trash are we?

Check out the video of the actual cattle on the streets.

It has been a long time

It has been a really ling time since I have blogged. I have lots to catch up. So be looking back in the next week and I will add a lot of past things that I have been meaning to blog about. But for now here is what Shea has to say about his Dad.

Mason is almost there

He just started to push the chart all around. He now stands by himself and if you hold out your hands is almost runs. But, so some reason he just does not want to walk by himself. Deep down I don't really want him to walk either. Then he will not be my baby anymore. :0(

Helping Daddy

My boys are getting so big that they are starting to love to help around the house. Their favorite thing to do is to help Daddy wash the cars. Just look at how much fun they had last week.

1st River Trip of the Year

We went to the river for the first time this year. We had a great time, check out our photos.

Mother's Day

What did you do Mother's Day? I went to the river and had a wonderful time!

It's been so hot lately

Mason is 10 months

I can not belive that my little man is now 10 months old. It seems like yesterday I was pregnant with him. He is doing so much. If you want to see what he did last month check out Shea and Mason's webpage.

Have you ever

I was wondering if any other mom's out there have taught their kids something that they wished later that you had not?

A couple of months ago I thought it would be a good idea to have Shea help me cook. So, far it has been going well. He really enjoys helping me out, and I think it has even helped with keeping him away from the stove. We have had discussions about where he can help, where he can not, what is hot, where the fire comes from, and how the fire is what makes things cook. I bet you all are thinking this all sounds great, why am I blogging about it.

Well, this morning we came down stairs and I asked Shea. "What do you want for breakfast?" He said, "Pancakes." I said, " Great. We can make some after I go get Mason and get him started on his breakfast." Well, I went up stairs and I heard some movement down stairs. I did not think anything about it. When I finally got downstairs. Shea had gotten in the cabinet gotten out the Bisquick, oil, a bowl, a fork, and was starting to pour the Bisquick. If I had been about a minute later. I know that there would have been food everywhere. I am so glad that he can not open the frig yet. It was hard not to laugh as I walked in the room and he says," I help make pancakes."

All Done

We are in the process of teaching Mason some sign language. I was trying to teach him the sign for all done, but he started to try to say "All Done." Listen to the end of the video really close. He tries to mimic the words and not the sign.

Time Change

Yuck! Ok so some of you like the time change, but for me, not so much. The morning of the time change always starts out great. Since my boys always get up between 6 and 7am it was really nice for them to get up at 7:20 and 8:05. Then as the day went on I tried to get them on their nap schedule. (Mason 9:30 and 1:30 and Shea at 1.) So, I tried to not be to hasty and change them by an hour so I did it at the half hour instead.
Mason did not do well with the first nap. He cried for the entire half hour difference. He finally fell asleep at 11am. I had to go in and wake him at 12 for lunch. I did not want to let him sleep so that I could maybe get him back on course at the second nap. His second nap I tried to put him in his bed. He was not having it and the crying was making Shea stir, so I brought him in bed with me. Which ended up being great- we slept for 2 hours.
Shea went to sleep with little problem. I put him to bed at 1 and he slept until 5. My mistake. I should not allowed him to sleep so long, because now that we are trying to go to bed he will not.
Mason and Shea both did not want to go to sleep. They were both crying and and Shea kept getting out of bed and turning on his light. They both gave me grief until 9:15. I can not wait until tomorrow so we can do it all again. ;0)

We're in the army now

Today Mason started to army crawl. He is well on his way to becoming a crawler. Good Job!

Two Nights of Bliss Again

So, I keep having only having two great nights of sleep and after much thought I have come to the realization that the nights that Mason sleeps until 6am are on the nights that Scott's not home. I think that some how Mason goes to sleep telling himself that Daddy's home tonight so if I cry loud enough, long enough, and hard enough either Daddy will come in my room and talk to me and rock me or Mommy will finally give in and bring me to their bed. It is really strange because this week Scott has been gone 5 out of 7 days and Mason has slept until 6am for four of them and 7:05 for one of them. He did however sleep until 5:30 on one of the nights that Scott was home.
One good thing out of all of this is I now know that he does not need to eat and his stomach does not hurt so now I need to figure out what to do. I think the first thing we need to do is not allow Scott to go in his room. But, this is not very fair for me. I already have to get up with him most of the time and now I will be getting up with him all of the time. And now with the new rules of getting up with him I can not just bring him to bed with us I actually have to get up, go in his room, put his pacifier in his mouth, and walk out. I must do this over and over until he either goes to sleep or the clock turns 6am. I know most of you are probably thinking you should just let him cry... I have tried that. We did that with Shea, but with Mason one of two things happens he either cries so loud that Shea wakes up (having two kids up at 4 am not so great) or he cries so hard you can not even console him. He turns into that kid that cries so hard that he starts to hyperventilate and cannot calm down for hours.
So with that all being said. Please pray for me, that I will have the strength to get up every night and be able to keep up with Shea every day.

2 nights of bliss

Ok, so in my last blog I was again talking about my sleepless nights and now for the last 2 nights Mason has slept until 6am. I woke up both nights at 4am, I think my body is just excepting it. I laid there listening to the sound of nothing. I was so excited. I closed my eyes and fell quickly back to sleep.
I did not do anything different then I have been doing for the last month or so...
Mason ate at the same time, took his two naps, and got his medicine at 10pm. The only thing different was Shea fed Mason cheese pizza. I was helping Scott empty the car after getting home from Costco when I put the boys in their chairs, gave Shea his pizza, and Mason some crackers. When Scott and I finished we sat down to eat our pizza and we looked at Mason he was taking a huge bite of pizza. We asked Shea how Mason got the pizza and he told us that Mason wanted it so he gave it to him. Scott and I looked at each other and laughed. We figured that he had already been eating it so why take it away. I just fed him is normal dinner between his bites of pizza. Then last night Shea gave him some of his noodles. So I do not know what to do now. Maybe Mason needs to eat real food. I gave him some of Shea's homemade Mac n Cheese, just to be on the safe side. I will again pary that Mason sleeps and that I do not wake up so I can have a full nights sleep.
Just a side note that I thought of last night... I think God does not let my boys sleep through the night until they are 9 months or so, so that I would not want more kids closer together. ;0)

Ok...Ok...

So, I have not blogged in awhile. Not much has been going on here. We have been doing the same old same old. And all I want to blog about is the fact that my 8 month old has a stronger will than me. He still wakes up between 4 and 5am. I just do not know what to do. I have tried to let him cry (cried for an hour)... holding him and when he is asleep putting him back (wakes when I put him down)... rocking him in his chair (wakes when I put him down)... standing over the crib and sing to them... just standing over him... keeping him in the crib and putting my hand on him... putting his pacifier in his mouth and walking out. I have done all of these for an hour or so each and the only thing that seems to work is for him to come and sleep in my bed. I can either fight with him for and hour or so or just bring him to bed with us and he is asleep in no longer than 5 min. I really do not care that he comes into my bed. I just wish it was after 6am.

You have to take the good with the bad

Mason has now slept for 7 hours in a row for the last 3 days. Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! He sleeps from 11pm-6am. He did sleep from 11pm-4am, then he would cry I would feed him and we would all sleep until 7-7:30. Now sleeping until 6 means he cries and wakes Shea up. So instead of getting up at 7-7:30 we now get up at 6. Boo Hoo.

Great Quote

Ok, so I was just about to clean my house when I got this email from a friend. Now, after reading this quote I guess I should wait.
Here is the quote:
Cleaning your house while your children are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. (Phyllis Diller)

Just kidding I'll get working.

God has a sense of humor

Well, I knew that God had a humor but COME ON.
Last night was the first night that Mason slept through the night. I fed him at 10pm and then he did not wake up until 5:45am. Hurray for that! But, then the rain woke me up around 2pm, Shea was crying at 4am, and Scott had to get up for work at 5am . So needless to say I did not sleep through the night. And now tonight Mason went to sleep without eating. For some reason he did not want to eat. I even woke him up at 9 and he did not want to have anything to do with me. I will try at 10 and then it will all be up to God.

Scott's 1st Day

We are so proud of Scott and his promotion that we went to see him on his first day as captain. He is now the Boss of the Hot sauce on Engine #1.