Merry Christmas

Wishing you a blessed Christmas!!

Going Private...

Heads up! I'm going to make my blog private within the next week, so if you would still like to have access and keep up with us - just leave me a comment with your email address or send me an email at dawnprust@gmail.com.

Mr. Cover Boy

Check out who made the cover of the 2010 DOC Band Calendar. Woot woot!


And look at cutie Elias in March!!!

And Zoe as Miss August!!!

How cool is it that all these Ethiopian cuties made the calendar!! There were 3400 entries and had no idea these babies came from the same little home in Ethiopia. Love it!

Nerd Alert

I'm nerdy... let's just get that out of the way right now. I love browsing through the gadgets & gizmos at Bed Bath & Beyond and other kitchen stores. You never know what you might find and there are so many quirky things out there. Well, you will never believe what I found today. My new friend... Brown Sugar Bear. I will never have hard brown sugar again! Do you know how happy that makes me?!?! I get so frustrated when I'm baking and I go to take out the brown sugar and its just a brick. Now, I've tried putting a piece of bread in there, but I just end of with hard as a brick bread and hard as a brick brown sugar. So... I'm hoping that Brown Sugar Bear is the trick! Not only does it do that, listen to what else it can do...

~keeps cakes & cookies moist

~keeps raisins, coconut and other dried fruits fresh

~keeps licorice fresh

~keeps spices dry

~keeps salt dry

~keeps crakcers & chips crispy

All of that for a $3.99 Brown Sugar Bear. It's a good day folks... a good day.

P.S. I know what you are thinking... "did Dawn really just do a blog post 3 days in a row"?! Yes... Yes I did. That's how I roll.

Artwork from Ethiopia

I've been meaning to show you all this picture for ummm like 6 months now. So, today is the day. Here's the picture that we bought while in Ethiopia. I'm SO happy that we bought this canvas. It's a picture of the road to the U.S. Embassy. So, we thought it was meaningful & beautiful. We absolutely love it and I think it will be a great gift to give Jaxson one day.

Thankful

As usual, I'm behind on the blogging, so I'll catch up soon. But, seeing as Thanksgiving is this week, I thought it would be appropriate to do a post about what I'm thankful for.

1. I'm thankful for the 28 years that I had with my Grandpa. He is the strongest man I know and I am so proud of him. He will be deeply missed, but we carry him with us.

2. I'm thankful to have my other 3 grandparents alive and apart of my life.

3. I'm thankful for 2009. What an AWESOME year!! Jaxson has brought us more joy than we could have ever imagined. Ever.

4. I'm thankful for all of our friends & family. They have been such a great support system to us when we've needed it the most.

5. I'm thankful for the roof over my head. I often complain about how small our house is and how we need to get a new one. Then, I think of our time in Ethiopia. Do I really need a new house? No. So, I'm thankful for my itty bitty 1100 sq ft home that is packed full of toys and stuff and lots of love.

6. I'm thankful for my super comfy pajama pants that I'm currently wearing. Hey... not gonna lie... somedays I can't wait to get home from work and slip them right on. It's the simple things in life...

7. I'm thankful for my health, Tim's health and Jaxson's health. Cancer sucks. Too many people that I love and care for have strugged or are currently struggling with it.

8. I'm thankful for my husband. I knew that I hit the jackpot with Tim. He's wonderful, but once Jaxson came along, a whole new side of Tim came out that I didn't know. He amazes me everyday with his patience, love and compassion. He is the BEST dad. The look in his eyes when he looks at Jaxson melts my heart. The way he talks about Jaxson... melts my heart.

I'm blessed.

Birthday Boy!

Today was the little man's 1st Birthday! We spent the day just hanging out as a family, it was really nice and very much needed. My grandpa is not doing well, so stress & emotion levels have been very high. So... here are some pictures from our day...

Pumpkin Farm

Jaxson + Zoe

I got the cutest piece of mail the other day! Jody's oldest daughter drew a picture and sent it to me. Her daughters are so sweet and adorable. I love how she has a nice mix of black and white people at the wedding. hehehe.

Here are the little lovebugs in Ethiopia. :)

11 months

Changing things up this time. I gave you the pics first - aren't I just so crazy. Jaxson is going to be 11 months tomorrow. 11 months people!! I can't believe my baby is becoming a little boy. He's been a busy little guy lately. With what you ask? Well... he's now the owner of 4 purdy little toofers. He's down to 2 bottles a day. I think we're done with the spitting up phase - thank the Lord! We just started the sleep sense program a few nights ago and he's doing AWESOME! We are so proud of him! I do miss him during the night - not gonna lie. Yeah yeah... call me crazy. He now signs 'more' when he wants more food. He pulls up on everything. Sitting is no fun anymore in our house. He wants to stand all day long. Crawling? Pssht... no. This boy has no interest in crawling. He's going to walk long before that ever happens. Oh yes and how could I forget... we are helmet free!! His last appt is on Tuesday, but being the wild and crazy people we are - we decided to end a few days early. Soooo happy that is over. So, yes that's life around here lately. We are very happy the top 2 teeth finally came through because they were just sorta taking their sweet ole' time and well... wasn't making us very happy. Jaxson is such a sweetheart and loves to cuddle and give hugs - its the best. And he loves to make us laugh. He is such a ham!

Soooo... I'm starting to plan Jaxson's 1st Birthday Party. FUN stuff!! The 1st birthday party is a big deal! I'm someone who loves traditions, so I'm looking for some fun birthday traditions. Do you have any that you want to share?

Shmuck!

Miss me? It's been too long - I know. I need to spend some serious time catching up with the blogs and adding people to the blog list on my page. But... first of all - thanks a lot to all of you for making me feel like a big ol' shmuckity shmuck! Here I am thinking of all the different ways I could destroy the helmet and everyone thinks I should keep it. Fine... you win. It will find a spot on a shelf or in a box in the basement. Boring.

So, today is Tim's 30th Birthday!!! He's joining all you others out there in the old fart club. Haha - just kidding. Well... kinda. :) He's the best husband and father to Jaxson - I'm SO blessed. Really really blessed. Here's a pic of my favorite boys.

We went to the AGCI picnic in Chicago a couple of weeks ago and got to meet several families. Of course I forgot to take any pictures. I was so excited to meet Tisha, but we only got to spend like 3 minutes together. :( But, we will meet up soon because we aren't too far away. We got to talk with the Millers, the Hensleys, the Voights, the Toepplers and I think that's it.


What else have we been up to? Umm, not really sure. But, I'll post some pics because I know thats what you really want.

Jaxson's 1st 49er game!!

checkin' out the babes at the beach...

chillaxin...

stud

cutie

The polls are open...

Ok... let's start off with a little confession, mmmkay? Before Jaxson I would get so frustrated when families would come home with their kiddos and disappear from the blogs and think "man, I'll never do that". Ha. I am SO that person. So... there it is. I take it back. Ahem... moving onto other things...

So, we are getting close to being helmet free in this house. Not close enough... but close. We are 4 weeks away. Woot woot! Come on... say it with me now. Woot Woot!! Ok, much better. The big debate in our house right now is what to do with the helmet once we're done with it. Which is October 6th - just in case you wanted to mark your calendar and have a little celebration that day - we sure will. However... we can't agree on what we want to do with the helmet. I would like to take my Chrysler Pacifica and run it over and do an evil little mmmmwah hahaha sort of laugh while doing it. Some other suggestions have been thrown in the mix as well, so... this is where YOU come in. We are doing a little poll to see what everyone thinks we should do. Over on the top right of my page there is a little poll - go on over and vote what you think we should do. This should be fun! :)

And since I can't do a post without a picture. This is just one of the many horrible things we do as parents to Jaxson. Poor kid. We stick socks in his helmet and then laugh and take pictures. We are horrible - I know.

AGCI Picnic

The AGCI picnic in Chicago is in 3 weeks and I can't wait! I get to see all of these adorable Ethiopian faces...

And I'm hoping that Matt & Jess are coming with Aiden (WELCOME HOME JESS!!!)

Who else is going?!??!?!

appreciate your dingaling

I remembered this funny story the other day and thought you all could use a good laugh.

So, about 3 yrs ago Tim had shoulder surgery. Surgery went well and we left the hospital to go home. Tim was in pain obviously and on percaset. The next day he kept complaining of a sore throat and I told him it was probably just from the tubes down his throat. Well, he kept complaining so I took out the flashlight to take a peek. I noticed that his little hangy ball in the back of his throat(I refer to it as dingaling) was pretty swollen, so I called the nurse and she said that he may have just had an allergic reaction to the anesthesia so to give him some benadryll. If you ever want to have a good laugh - give your husband some percaset and benadryll. Wow - quite the combo. Tim was in some other world... seriously. He was a zombie. The next day it wasn't getting any better - it was actually getting worse. It was turning purple and swelling up more, so since it was the weekend and the doctor wasn't in, I called my mom. This is how the conversation went...

Me: Mom - Tim's dingaling is purple and really swollen and laying on his tongue. I'm not sure what to do.

Mom: WHAT?!

Me: His dingaling is really swollen mom and it's laying on his tongue

Mom: DAWN!! What is going on over there?!?

Me: Mom... what do you mean?

Mom: How in the world....

Me: Oh Mom!! Not THAT dingaling!!! His hangy ball dingaling!!

Mom: Oh my goodness Dawn.... I had no idea what you were talking about.

So, since I freaked my mom out and she wasn't sure what to do - we called the doctor on Monday morning. They had him come in and they were stumped - they had no idea why his dingaling was like that. They had him go over and see an ENT (ear/nose/throat) doctor right away. He said that when they put the tubes down his throat that they scrapped the outer layer of skin on his dingaling and it became infected. Crazy, huh? So, I suppose I should tell you now that its actually called a uvula in case you didn't already know. And is it just me or does that sound like a female body part? I don't know.. I just don't like that word. Anyways... he tells Tim that he needs to CUT it off. Yes, cut off his hangy ball!!! So, he puts a needle in it to numb it and then snip snip... GONE. Just like that... gone. Doesn't your throat hurt right now thinking about it? Mine does. Tim now has a uvanub. So, I then wanted to know why we have a hangy ball. Is it just for decoration? Nope, it's not. It's actually used to help push food down your throat and it's also used to pronounce some words in some foreign languages. I bet you never knew that.

Moral of the story... appreciate your dingaling!

4 Months Ago...

little fishy

Jaxson LOVES the water. He loves bathtime and loves to just play with the running water in the sink. So, when he's in the pool - he's in heaven! Here are some pics of our little fishy...





Then we played in the ball pit and he thought that was lots of fun!



Jax isn't a fan of the flash on the camera though... ha!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Happy 9 Months Jax

Happy 9 Month Birthday Jaxson Kyin!! Here are 9 things that we LOVE about you...

1. We LOVE your 2 little teeth and how you show them off so nicely with your big smiles.
2. We love how you try to not smile when you think something is funny and then all of a sudden you crack and the giggles come. You are always making us laugh.
3. I love how you play with my hair when I rock you to sleep.
4. We love bath time with you - we have so much fun!
5. We love how you've captured the hearts of our friends & family.
6. We love how you say "dadadadadada".
7. I love how you light up and flap your arms & legs when I come home from work. Makes mommy happy to know that she was missed.
8. We love how you crack up laughing when Daddy kisses your neck & back.
9. We LOVE that we are a family - you've made us happier than we ever thought possible.

Finding Balance...

So, it's been a week and a half back at work. And really it's been fine. I've been very busy so my days fly by and I'm home with Jaxson before I know it (don't get me wrong - I do miss him very much!) However... it's a whole new routine to figure out. When I get home I want to just sit on the floor and play with Jaxson until its his bedtime. So... I'm trying to figure out how to get my play time in with Jaxson, make dinner, clean the house, do emails/blogs, and let's not forget some time with my wonderful husband. I'm so lucky to have Tim. We are a very good team and he helps so much around the house, but we never seem to be caught up. So, if any of you have some tips/advice for me - I'm listening!

Ok and since I can't do a post without a picture, here's Jaxson straight out of the bath. He LOVES bathtime! And he loves being wrapped up in a towel afterwards too. This is what we do after our bath and we bring him in front of the mirror and he just laughs at himself. He's a hoot.

Happy Birthday Jody!!!

Guess who's birthday it is?!?! Jody's!!! Make sure you wish her a Happy Birthday (tomorrow)!!



Happy Birthday Jody!! I hope you have a WONDERFUL day!! Thanks for being a GREAT friend! I don't know what I would have done without you this past year. Wish we lived closer so I could celebrate with you! Love ya!

Family Picnic

Well I survived my first 3 days back to work last week and I think I'll make it back tomorrow. It really helps that Tim is home with Jaxson. So thanks for all your kind words... I survived. And my friends made my 1st day back very special - so thank you! :)

Today was our annual family picnic for my dad's side of the family. The weather was gorgeous and we had lots of fun!

Could he BE any cuter?! Oh my... he SO has my heart.





Jaxson playing with his cousins











Playing... or ummm wrestling with cousin Maddox









Isabella - how adorable is she??



Ok... I could post more pics, but blogger is being dumb. Does anyone know why you can't see the pics until you post them now? So annoying.

Hope you all had a great weekend!!