California: At the Beach

A few weeks ago we spent a week at the beach just relaxing. Enjoy these pictures & try to transform yourself there. There's something therapeutic about the sound of the waves crashing on the sand, being around all of the GREEN trees, and smelling the ocean. It was a great final get away before life as we know it resumed.

{Madisen & I got to celebrate our birthday's early- lucky us!}

{Madisen was happy to have G.G. (great grandma) read her a few books}

{Madisen & Matthew had so much fun racing up & down the hill}

{Singing to the seagulls}

{Check out those white boys!}

{G.G. in the background really enjoyed watching the kidos}

{They loved the sand!}

{The famous crawl.}

{Caitlyn loved splashing around.}

{My three favorite people!!}

{Coming out of her first official swim in the ocean.}

{Madisen thought it was so fun to have the waves splash her!
I've never heard her laugh so hard.}

Dancin' Girl

These pictures speak for themselves! I had to share because she just LOVES to dance. She asks for music on the 'puter' and then she just rocks out. Sometimes we're lucky and she sings, too.

Happy Birthday

I have to post these pictures. My sweet husband and children put on the sweetest little 'party' for me this morning. When I got home from my walk, I was welcomed at the door by them wishing me a Happy Birthday and the smell of waffles and bacon filled our house. This is what I found at my place at the table. Bill baked cupcakes in ice cream cones & decorated them after I went to bed last night. He even cleaned up every lick of evidence because when I woke up with Caitlyn in the middle of the night there was nothing to make me suspicious. I'm so lucky to have him! He is so sweet & thoughtful!

Tonight he babysat the girls while I attended enrichment. It was fabulous and inspiring! The speaker is a school psychologist who also owns a children's bookstore. She strongly believes in using books to teach & enrich our children. A sad fact: In the 1960's when students graduated from high school they had a vocabulary of 25,000 words. The average high school graduate now has a vocabulary of 10,000 words. What a tragedy! She recommend some great books for moms & children. If you'd like to know any of them, I'd be happy to share.

The best news of my birthday is that my sister had her baby tonight! I got the text that Caden Lane Scherbel was born at 10:35 p.m. weighing in at 8 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long. Mom and baby are doing well.

The Neighborhood Express

We have these fun friends in our neighborhood with crazy, inventive ideas! Kate was in charge of pack meeting for boy scouts this month & the theme was trains. As you can see, she & her husband decided to make a train that the boys could take turns riding at pack meeting. Zack worked hard to create this 10 car train that he pulls behind his 4-wheeler, sadly the pictures don't do it justice. The kids in our neighborhood got to be the help out with the dry runs. Kate said that Madisen's face was going to fall off because she was smiling so hard during her ride!

10 Months

On Saturday Caitlyn turned 10 months, the same day that she discovered the toilet paper. Wow was she ever pleased with herself! Sadly, she also discovered the toilet bowl brush in the corner so now we keep the door closed. As I mentioned before she LOVES the stairs, but hasn't mastered coming down. She also stands up to furniture & has started to let go occasionally and stand on her own. One of my favorite things about Caitlyn right now is that she just adores Madisen! On Tuesday at Madisen's dance class, Caitlyn REALLY wanted to participate and kept crawling toward the girls. On Sundays, we sit on the 2nd row at church and she always heads straight to the steps to get on the stand- it's time to relocate 'our seat'. She has also decided that she only needs one nap during the day, and she even protests at that, but I'm still the mom. Caitlyn has also got an opinion about baby food- and that was so yesterday! My challenge is finding the right things to feed her since she has only 2 small teeth. We sure love this girl!!

Looking Better

This picture was taken yesterday morning. Her eye is starting to look better. It's more yellow now, & less purple. Madisen knows what to say now if people ask what happened. She tells them it's blood flowing down.

For Posterity- Madisen's shiner

{The Shiner}

I took these pictures of Madisen on Wednesday night & I'm finally brave enough to post them. I don't even think they do justice to what she looks like. She took a nasty fall and a hard hit to her head last week. As we were getting ready to leave our beach vacation, she somehow fell on the stairs and hit her head (I'm still not sure what she hit her head on). I didn't notice the goose egg until Sunday when I was taking her to nursery. I was so alarmed by it that I took her to Bill. She was fine so we sent her to nursery. On Wednesday evening when the area around her eyes started turning purple I panicked & sent Bill to the ER with her. The ER doctor went through the routine questions: did she vomit, were her pupils dilated, did she have a loss in appetite, was she lethargic, was her behavior abnormal. When Bill answered no to ALL of them the doctor asked why we had brought her in. Bill explained that his wife was concerned about the purple around her eyes. He said that it is completely normal as the bruise starts to heal, the blood has to flow somewhere so gravity takes it down. So this is what they call a shiner! It's hard to believe that my 'girly girl' has such a crazy wound!

The Back Yard- Completed

The other day I realized that I never posted a picture of our back yard once it was finished. It may be small, but it's such an oasis to us in this desert! The girls LOVE bing outside. Madisen & her friends love running back & forth on the lawn. Caitlyn loves crawling around and finding the rocks. She's more obedient when I ask her to get them out of her mouth than her sister was (oh, wait, Madisen still puts rocks in her mouth). If you look carefully you'll be able to tell that we put LARGE river rocks in the perimeter so they couldn't be put in anyone's mouth. Bill did such a great job!

Fall in Las Vegas

It seems that fall has come a bit earlier this year than last. It has been in the upper 80's & low 90's during the day and the evenings have cooled off to the 60's. We had rain several days this week & it was much cooler on those days. It was so refreshing to have a much needed rain storm! I love feeling the change in the air. Season changes are so different here than in UT because the colors don't change- I miss that, but I'm glad that the weather has cooled off. We have been able to turn off our air conditioner most days and then we open the doors in the early morning & late evening to allow the 'crisp' autumn air to flow through our house. I love it & the girls have been able to play in the back yard a little more.

Labor Day Weekend

I know it was almost a month ago, but I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of our WONDERFUL Dodds family reunion. We stayed at a cabin in the mountains between Paragonah & Panguitch. The cabin is fabulous. It accommodates (sleeps) about 50 people. There is a trampoline, swing set, basketball court and BBQ area. We rode horses, went hiking, painted rocks, played games, and visited with family that we don't see very often. Bill even got to go to the BYU game in Provo with my uncle. The girls had a great time playing outside and chasing the 'cattens' (cross between cat & kitten) as Madisen called them. Another funny story about Madisen from the trip had to do with dandelions. She stepped on some in the front yard & immediately said "It melted". I love watching her little mind make connections!

{Caitlyn's new found love- going up the stairs}

{Check out that crazy hair on the tramp!}

{Caitlyn with Great Grandpa Dodds}

{Playing on the tramp, with 2nd cousin Makell}

First Dance Class

Here she is in all of her dancing glory! This is right after the class. Note the sucker- the teachers philosophy is that bribery works. After she warmed up to the teacher, she had a great time. Miss Renee is a 44 year old black lady in incredible shape! She did the splits & everything! I think Madisen is going to love this little experience. Next week I'll try to get some action shots.

A new job for Bill

Last week Bill started a new job with Hilti. We are so excited about this change! Last summer when he started looking for a job, he was hoping to get into the commercial construction industry. It was right as the housing market in Las Vegas took a down turn, so the residential construction companies have continued to go through a series of lay offs and many of these employees with experience turned to commercial construction. It was the wrong time to enter the market, especially with no construction experience. He stuck with Enterprise for a few more months and then worked for Alpine Water Systems. That was a great experience, but it was time for another change. He came upon this job and the timing is perfect. Hilti develops innovative construction devices & supplies and works directly with their customers for use & implementation. We truly feel like it's an answer to our prayers!

His title is 'Account Manager'. His business cards arrived today, so it's official. He'll spend the next 4 weeks training here in Vegas & then go to Tulsa, OK for another 3 weeks. Sadly, he'll miss Madisen's birthday and our anniversary, but as the French say, "Ces la vie!"

We're back!

We have had a busy month! We had to get in a few end-of-summer vacations. We spent Labor Day at a cabin in the mountains between Paragonah & Panguitch, UT for a family reunion with my family. Then we went to California for 10 days where we got to be present as our nephew was sealed to his family in the Newport Beach Temple, went to Disneyland & then relaxed with Bill's family at the beach. We're home & trying to get back to our routines. Tomorrow Madisen starts her first dance class- it's a tap & ballet class. I'm pretty excited, but we'll let you know how it goes.

Tonight our FHE activity was to bake some cookies & then share some with our friends, the Youngs. As you can see, BOTH of our girls wanted to help. Caitlyn is such a climber! She was frustrated that she couldn't get on the top step with Madisen. Ooooh, how I love these girls!