General Conference Traditions

Dear readers,

Are you still there? Sorry it has been over 2 months since I've written. I actually have one post stuck in draft form and another stuck in my head. I can't come to write/post them. They are more personal than anything I have ever written and don't know if I can publish them to be available by anyone with internet access in the world. We will see. Until then, here is a lighter post with pictures!

General Conference was this past weekend and we have some fun traditions we want to share!

We build a bed out of blankets!     Set a specific candy for a word, when spoken we get to eat it!

We make the Dawson ham, cream cheese, and pickle snack! TOTALLY delicious!

Mr. Dawson and I took a guess as to who would speak in the first two sessions!

              

Ellie might have gotten a sugar high....

                                        

Cuddles with daddy

And lastly, being a dare devil with no hands!

To answer any questions, yes we really do have a TON of blankets, we also might have used our 3 body pillows to help out with the blanket bed.

No I initially didn't eat the Dawson creation. I thought it looked and sounded gross, but I have come to really like it and even crave it occasionally!

Ellie doesn't always sit still, but she gets excited for conference because we are excited, and the candy helps her to focus and sit and listen! In October I plan to add celery sticks and carrots to help tame the sugar crashes! =)

5 Years Ago

It all started as an ordinary day.

We were in Nauvoo Illinois visiting our grandparents who were serving missions for our church.

Amazing that they were at the same place at the same time right!?

Anyways that morning we saw a couple of sites before going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.

This is us walking back to get dressed in church clothes...

Then the proposal!

If you want the full story, read it here!

If you take a close look at the pictures you will see that we had two secret camera men.

My brother, so secret he's never seen in any picture!

And Grandpa Dawson, he's the guy in a white shirt and tie standing by the open door!

They caught everything!

To which, I am so grateful!

 This is me after the fact, after everyone had been alerted to the fact that it had happened, saying, "Really!?"

The moment....

My brother caught my back turned with Justin's face, but Grandpa Dawson caught my reaction.

In case it isn't clear enough, this is my "No way, Seriously! Yes!" face.

Oh!

And because Justin teases me about it still.....I never actually said the word "yes" until later. I was so caught up in the moment and that he had actually proposed that word never left my mouth!

I know....terrible!

We've come so far in 5 years!

I love you babe! Thanks for being mine!

July 3rd

Dear calendar, 

I am not quite sure what happened, but it is suddenly July 3rd!

I was trying to make a 4th of July skirt for me and a matching dress for Ellie.

To be honest the dress pattern is pinned to the fabric, not even cut out!

I usually have my nails painted all patriotic.

And a few decorations up on my house!

I have no idea how you suddenly crept up on me!

Okay, that's a partial lie. 

I've been so busy with Young Women things with the president gone.

Getting them ready for girls camp, getting activities planned, lessons and talks written....

Wishing girls camp would come sooner rather than later.

It was inevitable for July to creep up on me!

So I ask you this favor,

Could you quite possibly pause so I can finish the skirt and dress, paint my nails, and continue to finish ALL this YW stuff?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

I guess we will wear our patriotic gear a bit later this month!

I won't stress....

Easter Traditions

We do things a little differently in our house, especially Easter!

On Friday we dye eggs.

This was Ellie's "first" time!

(We didn't get a chance to do it last year and she wouldn't remember her first Easter)

The next morning we do an egg hunt!

Mr. Dawson had to do some service Saturday morning so Ellie and I hid eggs for him, and a few for her!

As soon as he came home they went hunting!

Then we sent Ellie upstairs to watch a sing-a-long and we hid eggs for her.

She was fully aware that we hid eggs for her.

And she was so excited to find them all!

Every time she found one she would say, "Thank you for hiding my egg!"

Another tradition (that ended up not happening for Mr. Dawson this year) we get a new outfit for church. 

It can be a new dress, new shoes, a new shirt, a new skirt, a new tie....you get the idea.

Ellie and I got dresses.

She also got new shoes out of necessity!

=)

The eggs were hidden high and low for Ellie!

These are the eggs we dyed!

Sunday is the day we focus completely on the true reason for Easter.

Here's us girls in our Easter dresses:

This was a new recipe that I tried called "The Cake"

It was DELICIOUS!!!

And addicting!

Consider yourself warned!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well!

Happy Easter!

Our little Dawson Family has created our first tradition!!!

For Easter we will celebrate the "worldly version" the saturday before.

And celebrate the REAL reason for the Easter holiday on sunday.

Meaning...

We color eggs on Good Friday.

(We only boiled our eggs and then ran out of time)

BUT we found out something neat-o!

Put 2TBS of baking soda in the water while you boil the eggs, then pull off the ends, and blow!

The egg pops right out of the shell!

SO COOL!

Then Saturday morning we did an easter egg hunt!

Sorry, no pictures...but I have a VERY long video that I need to edit!

We didn't want to be stuck eating all the candy or anything so we didn't fill the eggs.

We are also poor parents and didn't do a basket.

Honestly though, she was THRILLED to find all the eggs!

But she was spoiled by her grandparents!

Then Sunday.

This is the day that we celebrate the true meaning of Easter.

The resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Isn't it so awesome that he was resurrected and that we too will be resurrected!?!

After church I said, "Lets go outside and take your easter picture!" 

She walked out the door, found her place to stand and said "cheese" before I was even ready!

Wonder why the eggs are in the picture? 

She's loves the bright colors and how fun they are! She won't put them down!

She wore the necklace in the top picture to church because I was wearing my pearls!

She had to switch her necklaces between pictures! 

Have a very wonderful Easter! We hope that you remember the true meaning of Easter!