I'm Alive!

Don't worry my pretty little readers, I am alive and well!

I know it's been 2 months since I last wrote...

Lots has happened!

Both good and bad.

So I will just bullet point, and add pictures, to review.

November after the 11th, which was the last post:

*I found out I was pregnant

* I started miscarrying the night of Young Women in Excellence

This is a celebration we have for our young women in the church 12-18 and all they have spiritually accomplished in the year!

*We traveled to Colorado for Thanksgiving with Mr. Dawson's family

*Finished miscarrying the day before Thanksgiving

* Fantastic time visiting with family and relaxing

December:

*My hair was THIS long!

*I held my 3rd violin studio recital in Kansas

It also happened to be Ellie's first violin recital, spur of the moment decision on her part!

Don't worry we are working on posture! =)

*Mr. Dawson finished the semester with flying colors!

*We traveled to warmer weather and stayed 3 weeks in Arizona visiting family.

*Christmas was awesome

*My cousin got married

*We celebrated 5 years of marriage!

 *Attempted a Family Photo

 *Added another temple to our list of visited! 

The Gilbert, AZ temple!

*I also got my hair cut...as you can probably tell! =)

*We evaded the polar vortex by staying in AZ for a total of 3 weeks!

And I think that is about it!

2014 is the year!

I feel it!

It's going to be an awesome year!!! 

I can't wait to see what it brings!

Family Vacation

It's Mr. Dawson's fall break, so I decided we needed to go on a trip.

Initially Mr. Dawson and I had been planning on going to Washington D.C., but with the shut downs and all the monuments barricaded we thought it best to postpone that trip and take our little family out for some fun!

We decided that the Mall of America in St. Paul, Minnesota was the place!

It was awesome!

It was like a pre-Disney vacation!

Ellie's so short, 35" to be exact, and so she can't ride most rides.

At the MOA they allow short kids to ride some rides with a chaperone.

The awesome part?

You pay for the kid to ride, but not the chaperone!

So we only paid for a full day's worth of fun for two people! It was pretty awesome!

We found that Ellie is an adrenaline junkie and can't wait to be taller to do some of the other rides!!!
Justin and I managed to ride a few roller coaster rides ourselves, individually, while the other was riding rides with Ellie!
We also decided to ride the metro to the airport on our way home!
Ellie's first "train" ride and she loved it!

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

Blue's Clues

Blue Train

Hot air balloon ride, in honor of the Balloon Fiesta! =)

Mr. Dawson riding a roller coaster all by his lonesome.

Another of Mr. Dawson

Lego creations that were incredible....

On the Carousel! Ellie's most favorite thing to ride!

Riding a ferris wheel

On the metro heading home.....

Fun Around the House

We love to dance in our house...

Ellie also loves to do puzzles, or rather tell mom to do them for her!

This Snow White puzzle, she has figured out how to try and match each piece and see if their edges can be put together! 

 This is Ellie's silly face:

This is Ellie's angry face:

If you ask her to make a specific face for you, she will!

It's very entertaining at meals or when we skype with family!

Pre-Spring Break

We had my family visit us the weekend before the weekend of our Spring Break

(It was my sisters' spring break)

And unfortunately I didn't take any pictures!!!

Then the weekend that our spring break started Mr. Dawson's parents came and visited us!

Two of the trips that I actually took pictures of were the Kansas City Zoo and Liberty Jail!

Liberty Jail

New Years in AZ

So I finally uploaded all the pictures taken in the past 4 weeks....

Here are my favorites from our New Years festivities in AZ.

Sleeping with Grampa

Dressing up like Cinderella with her headband and shoes!

This is the way Ellie puts her headband on!

Pancho made by Great Gramma Gayle

Jumping on the trampoline with Grampa

Horse riding with Gramma

The Zoo with Cousins!

Ellie was our navigator and a very good one at that! 

She could look at the map and point at where the animal was located that we wanted to see!

(Kinda hard to capture via camera!)

Catch-up/Picture dump

Mr. Dawson graduated with his undergrad May 12th...

 It took it's toll on us...

Then the Mr. and I dropped the little girl off at my parents and went on a week long cruise to the western caribbean

 (A motorcycle is a family vehicle!)

 My favorite picture on the ship

our dinner crew!

It was a welcome vacation and break from real life and a toddler!

=)

Now we are starting new and wonderful adventures!