I'm back!

Well....after a long hiatus, I'm back. I can give you a ton of excuses why I haven't blogged in so long. After looking at our pictures on the computer, we have been busy. That and the fact that my old computer crashed, or froze, or chose not to work anymore. It's still a good computer, and we need to take it into a computer guy to get all of my pictures off of it and take Microsoft Vista off of it and add Windows 7 on it. After getting and using the new computer (for 2 months now), I'm realizing that the old computer was mega slow, and I simply didn't have the patience to wait for the pictures to load onto blogger. Now, it's better and stronger and faster! Here are recent pics of he boys. They are getting big!

Mason got a new bike last week. Lee and I have never been the type of people to buy the boys bicycles for thier Birthdays or Christmas. Thier birthdays are in the winter, and it would KILL them to wait for a nice day to ride thier bikes. Mason out grew his bike, and needed a 20 inch. It was hard to find, but Lee found a few. Mason is super excited about his bike. He slept with the bike in his room the first night he got it.

This was the second year Mason made a Pinewood Derby Car. He wanted to paint it Camo. So, we did. Then Lee (The Dad) put on the wheels, etc. He did pretty well.

Mr. Mac. Mr. Big High Schooler/9th grader now. I guess this would be another reason why I haven't had time to blog. He needs to go places. It's always something. He has been going to early morning Seminary this year. He's enjoyed the teacher and what they are learning this year, it's Church History. He's all into that. He's also going on Trek next month. He's been busy with Schoolwork, Scouts, Scouting Fundraiser...it goes on. His Uncle Wes (Lee's youngest brother) wants Mac to spend the summer in Utah with him and his new wife, Kamisha and their little baby Ava. So, he's spending the month of July and part of August there. Then, he comes back for Football of course. Real High School Football, which practices are twice a day, everyday, until School starts. Mac is officially taller than me, and is as tall as Lee, and he is still growing. The picture was taken when he first got back from his Order of the Arrow "Ordeal". It's a big deal. He had to sleep outside (in March, in the rain). He couldn't talk for the duration that he was there (really). He had to fast (not eat), and do a service project at the Boy Scout Camp they were at. He did it, recieved it, and we couldn't be prouder. Now if only he can get working on his merit badges for Boy Scouts.

The Two Little Red Heads

This is Mason with his cousin Gracie when we were in Yakima last month. Mason has been mad at Gracie since November, when she stood on the stairs at our house, and screamed in his ear as he walked by. He got really mad at her, went to my bedroom, and cried because it hurt so bad. He was mad at her up until we went to Yakima in June. He was less than thrilled when he found out we were going to stay at Uncle Sam & Aunt Andrea's house, because Gracie was going to be there. I told him he didn't have to play with her. He said "hi" to her when we first got to the farm, and then they went off playing. This was the first picture I got of them together. I told Mason to move a little closer to her, and he said "This is close enough". It made me laugh.

Looking at her little face, and seeing that little smile she has, he couldn't be mad at her too much longer.

Then they became friends. They are cousins, so they are kinda stuck. There are only 3 grandbabies that ended up with red hair (from Papa Dawson). Kalen, my nephew who lives in upstate New York, is the oldest grandchild on the Dawson side. He's 19 now. We need a picture of Kalen, Mason and Gracie. That would be too cute.

Happy Fourth of July!

We hope you all have a Happy and Safe Fourth! Just a few reminders from last year.

The Cake........

The Fireworks!!!!

The Zoo

A couple days ago, the 1st Graders get to go to Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. It's their annual, end of the year field trip. The weather had been rainy several days before the trip, and the forecast predicted for Seattle on this particular day had a raincloud w/rain and then the sun. What??!! Thankfully....it was wet, and didn't rain much. We had a pretty good day. A couple days before, I can fell on my bare toe, so I couldn't wear shoes, I wore my Tevas. Oh, and I had a Charlie Horse in my calf the night before, so my shin, on the same side of my bad toe, was really sore. I thought I would mention this because.........

These are Mason's good friends (Mason is in the middle). These 3 decided to RUN from animal to animal, exhibit to exhibit. They RAN all DAY! I wish I was exaggerating a bit, but I'm not. I was paired up with another Mom, who was also, a 1st Grade Teacher at Mason's School. She said it first. We were saying "Stop! Slow Down! Wait for us! Don't run to far ahead of us!"

The cool thing about getting to the Zoo in the morning, the animals are OUT! They aren't in their caves or homes. So we got to see the animals fairly up close. Like this elephant. I didn't have to zoom my camera in too far.

A few days before the trip, the kids all colored animal bingo cards. They had stickers, so when they saw the animal on their card, they covered the animal. They all had different cards. They had more than 1/2 of their cards full before we had lunch. And they got "blackout" on their cards way before the day was through.

The last few times we have been to the Zoo, we haven't seen the giraffes. We saw this baby one. He was so cute!

I have always loved Flamingos. The boys were unimpressed with the pink birds, but they were on Mason's bingo card, so he marked it off and we moved on 20 seconds later.

We had to take pictures on EVERY SINGLE animal sculpture. 3 monkeys climbing on the Monkey sculpture. Ha! Ha!

Mason loved this boat. We had a good time. We covered the whole Zoo in about 2 1/2 hours because of their running through it. I'm glad the weather cooperated a little bit. He had a blast and that's all that matters.

The Big 4-0

On June 11th, I turned 40. I remember when I said it out loud a few weeks before my birthday, and I repeated myself 2-3 times. When saying it outloud, it sounds terrible at first, but then I kind of got over myself.
On my birthday, I cleaned the boys' bathroom & did some laundry. My siblings terrorized my on facebook. My Dad came over for a bit and visited. I was waiting for a guy to come and detail the car, but he never showed. Lee had the day off, but he was off doing stuff. Then we went out to dinner at Azteca and then I went out to see a movie with my good friend Trudy. She was dying to see Sex and the City 2-so we did and she was greatly disappointed. Oh, Well.
Part of the day was "just another day" which was fine. Oh, the sun came out-so that was a nice suprise.
I still have all my teeth, my hair, no broken bones, and I somehow don't feel much older. I survived.