Picture Princess

Shabby Apple is having a Picture Princess Contest. All I have to do to enter Grace is to post three pictures of her on my blog and write why I think she is the "picture princess".

Grace is not only is she beautiful on the outside but more importantly has a spirit that lights up a room. When she looks at you with those dark brown eyes she melts your heart. From the day she was born she has always been very expressive (that would be putting it mildly-lol). Her smile and laugh are contagious and her frown stops you dead in your tracks. She is the epitome of a Princess- happy, gregarious, and always ready for adventure. She lifts the spirits of those around her and always makes me laugh.

Shabby Baby has the cutest little dresses!! Grace would look adorable in the "Watermelon Summer Dress": http://www.shabbyapple.com/p-81-watermelon-summer.aspx or the "Peach Cobbler Dress": http://www.shabbyapple.com/p-83-peach-cobbler.aspx. The winner will receive an entire Shabby Baby spring wardrobe and will be used in the Summer 2009 photoshoot. Wish us luck!!!

Little Girls and Girls dresses from Shabby Baby: http://www.shabbyapple.com/c-16-shabby-baby-dresses.aspx.

For mama too! http://www.shabbyapple.com/t-apparel.aspx

Dawson Household Update

Got quite a few randoms to update about this week so I am going to copy most of blogland this week and do it bullet style :)

• Had a great weekend in Chicago / Michigan City with these crazy girlies. For pictures and stories head over here , here , here and here
• I am working on a few new items for my Etsy Shop. I have had a few people ask me to do some different designs. I am working on Chinese characters for "peace, love, wisdom", etc. as well as astrological signs and full name handstamped silver pendants. Keep checking back!
• I can't believe how verbal and expressive Grace has become. She is repeating everything and starting to understand and use words in the right context. Her new thing is to respond with "yeah" or "nooooo" when you ask her a question but the way she says it with such attitude is so funny.
• Her other new words /sentences: "Nana's house", "No Bookie/Dooley/whoever she is bossing around", "I poopy", "I burped", Where dada/mama/Dooley/Nana go?". She also says "I love you" which sounds like " I yuuuuve ewe" . You heard her say last week "Mama, where are you?" now she answers herself with, "It's meeeeeeee". She cracks me up.
• She has also decided she doesn't like wearing pants. I mean has an absolute breakdown when you put them on her. She is much happier running around like a hillbilly with no pants.
• Adam and my brother Scott got tickets to the sweet sixteen tourney in Indianapolis. GO STATE!! So looks like it is going to be just me and Grace this weekend.
• I have been loving the sunshine but it is giving me spring fever big time. I can't wait for summer to be here!

1st (Professional) Haircut

Grace had her first day at the salon yesterday. I have been wanting to get her hair cut by a professional for a while now but didn't know who to take her to. My mom happened to have an appointment at Number Six Salon (the place we usually go) so I asked Christopher to give her a trim. She was really good and I was so surprised! Chris was so good with her, took time to talk to her and let her hold the comb. The slinky I bought just for this occasion served as a good distraction well. I held her standing up and she tolerated the whole thing with just a few tears. I didn't get very many pictures because I was holding her but oh well. She is so....lets say "busy" I had a hard time getting her to sit still long enough to get a decent picture. He ended up taking off an inch in a half from the back and cut her bangs. No more baby mullett! She looks sooooo cute.

This One's For the Girls

Grace is lucky enough to have two big girl cousins on my side of the family. It seems like rest of her cousins and friends are all boys! She idolizes Ally (or Aiiiieeeee as she calls her) and thinks Natalie is pretty special too. They are both so good with her. They let her play big girl stuff and don't get too annoyed by her shenanigans.

This past weekend we went to the The Chelsea Treehouse and the MSU Gymnastics meet with the three girls. I took them upstairs to the practice gym which they absolutely loved. I hate to admit it, but gymnastics it might be in the genes. Grace can walk across the high beam with me holding her hands. At 19 months. With NO FEAR! It is so crazy. I guess that would serve me right for what I put my parents through with gymnastics if I went through it again on the other side.

Sadly, we have had some not so good things happen this week as well. My uncle passed away on Saturday. He has been sick for a while but got very bad very fast. My dad was up with him all night holding his hand and was with him when he passed. I can't imagine how hard that was for him. He was one of my dad's six younger siblings, only 55 years old. He left behind 4 children and two grandchildren. His memorial service is on Friday.

In addition, the bad economy has hit home for us as well. Adam is going to be laid off for a couple of months. Not the end of the world but tough being that we have to dip into our savings that we put aside for a down payment on our next house. Thank God we did save that money and still have our jobs though. So, if anyone needs a plumber give us a call!! Lol

Sometimes life throws things at you that make you put it all in perspective. Small hurdles make you realize how very blessed we are.

Mama...where are you?

Every morning I hear this, "Mamaaaa, where arrrrrrre ewwwwww?

How can I resist that :)

(you might need to turn up the volume on your computer to hear the audio on this video)

I'm a Big Girl Now

It was a very nice. relaxing weekend. Friday night I went scrapbooking at Nicole's with her and LeeAnn. I think I got about 5 pages done despite only having like 2 pictures printed out.

Saturday G and I went shopping with my mom at Briarwood to get Grace fitted for some shoes at Stride Rite. She hates shoes, she hated the lady who tried to measure her, and basically had a breakdown in the store. The drama. But, $50 freaking dollars later we have shoes that fit and are comfortable and know she is a 5.5 wide.

We also visited my cousin Sarah who just had her third boy Henry. He is so sweet and cuddly and definitely didn't help my baby fever. It was great seeing Sarah and the boys. I came home to an empty house (Adam was in Lansing with his cousins) and watched 3 episodes of Greys and Private Practice on DVR. It is nice to be home along sometimes :)

These pictures were taken this morning when I was trying to fold laundry. Grace's hair was CRAZY and Adam thought it was funny. She promptly unfolds everything as fast as I can fold it. I also took her to Meijer this afternoon for my monthly big grocery shopping trip. She is starting to recognize things so this is also getting a bit more difficult. She was standing up in the cart, screaming and pointing when she wanted something, and generally had ants in her pants. Not as easy as it used to be to take her places.

We put the highchair away today. Physically she still fits but hates being in it. The only reason we kept her it it so long was because we usually eat at the kitchen island and only have two chairs. So, we started a new family tradition of eating at out dining room table for dinner this evening with G in her booster. She thought she was such a big girl. Now i just need to find her a fun placemat. Any suggestions?

She has Girl Scout thin mint cookies all over her face. Which we are currently keeping in our china cabinet. Classy.....

Hope you had a great weekend too..........