Playing Catch UP....

Sometimes, I feel like playing catch up is the story of my life! I'm trying. So back tracking to May.. The 222 was once again activated to serve a tour in Iraq.  So Brennen's dad is heading back there for awhile, possibly only until January but probably for 1 year.  We went up on the mountain to have a last BBQ and fishing before he left...

Since we had to be at the airport at 6:00a.m., my boys said goodbye to Grandpa the night before he left.  Obviously they had no idea what was going on but it was a little emotional on the rest of us.  Dawson will be walking, more than likely, by the time grandpa gets home-sad!  I didn't get any of Jackie's pics from the airport that morning.  It was probably a good thing because I tell you, the post-pregnancy emotions or so that's what I blame it on made this tough on me, and my eyeballs! We were all kinda an emotional wreck.  Troy left a few days before the rest of the 222 and 213 because he is a supply sergeant. So there were only 3 other families with us at the airport. It was hard to say goodbye and we're sure going to miss him while he is gone.  We're excited to see him soon for a few days before they deploy to Iraq.  I don't know how the wives handle themselves! I know they say they don't have a choice, which they don't, but I would struggle! So, when you say a little prayer, pray for them and their families!  And remember to be thankful for the freedoms we enjoy!

Dawson's Blessing

We blessed Dawson on May 1st.  He was just over 2 weeks old so he was still pretty small.  I knew it was going to be hard to find him a blessing outfit because of his size, but I bought one I thought might work.  Well, when we got home and I put it next to him, it was evident it was going to be way to big for him.  I was telling my mom how huge it was when my niece overheard and relayed the message to my sister-in-law.  So, she called me and said she still had Chantz's from when he was blessed and it was a newborn instead of 0-3 months.  She brought it down and we decided to use it instead.  It worked out perfect and I'm glad she had it because we wouldn't have been able to find Dawson in the one I bought. 

It was fun to get to bless our little guy with his future friends.  We have been friends with the Wilkins since they moved here.  Brother Wilkins was our seminary teacher.  Gary and Kristina Brown blessed their baby, Kline, too.  Brennen's parents are good friends with the Browns, so it was fun to get to bless our babies together!

Great-Great-Grandma Marshall

Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Stones

Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Carter

Family picture with an uncooperative 2 year old!

 

I can't believe we didn't get pictures with either of Dawson's grandparents.

We got the great-grandparents but missed his grandpa and grandma Black

and grandpa and grandma Orton.  Overall, it was a great day and we're so thankful for the blessing Dawson is to us.

Blessed..

How lucky blessed are these two boys??

How blessed am I??

I often take for granted how lucky and blessed I am to be married to such a great guy.  He never complains about taking his night shift (every other night), he can out clean me, he gets up early to take the boys to the babysitters, he gives them blessings when they need it, he always makes me feel good about myself, he is a hard worker, he'll take Dav with him anywhere he goes, he is super cute, etc.  I could go on and on.  I know this is a bit mushy and all, but last night as I cleaned up the dishes and looked over to see these three asleep, I stood back and thought about how blessed I really am!

Easter 2011

 This year for Easter we went down to Brennen's Aunt Shanda's in Beaver Dam.  I was a little nervous taking Dawson because he was just barely a week old.  However, the weather was great and we had a blast.  Dav got to do three Easter Egg hunts this year.  First, Brennen took him to the one in Beaver.  We only got these two pictures.  Brennen said he tripped at first so he wasn't real thrilled but ended up picking up some eggs.  Then he went to an Easter egg hunt in Beaver Dam.  They had a fun little hunt and Dav got quite a few eggs.  After that hunt, we went into Mesquite and did the Easter Egg hunt there.  It was INSANE! Seriously, they had 25,000 eggs!  There were several age groups, they even had an adult one.  My mother-in-law, Brennen's brothers, and Brennen's aunt did the adult one and it was some serious competition.  My mother-in-law got plowed by a man in desperate search for a prize egg.  There were so many kids in Davin's age group the eggs were all picked up in less than a minute.  I only got pictures of them getting ready because as soon as they said go, I lost track of them.

 The Easter bunny found us! Dav got a new set of golf clubs, an outfit and shoes, some play dough, bubbles, and lots of candy! The Easter Bunny took it easy on Dawson.  He got some binkies, a rattle an outfit.  Davin was excited and got right to playing with his golf clubs.  Dawson, well he didn't care so much :)  

 Dawson is such a good baby.  He just hung out and enjoyed life.  I love the boppy Kenz, it even went to Beaver Dam with us in our packed to the ceiling car!

 After the Easter egg hunts on Saturday, we went and fed the ducks.  Davin had a blast.  This was the first time he has ever fed ducks and we had a great time.

We had a blast for Easter.  It was so nice to go somewhere with some warm weather and be with the family! Dawson was great and got a lot of attention!
Dawson is three weeks old today...where does the time go?? I can't believe it.  We blessed him last Sunday because Brennen's dad is leaving for Iraq on June 2nd, so we wanted to get it done while he was home.  I go back to work on Monday :( I can't believe how fast the time has flown! I'm going back to wrap up the last 2 and 1/2 weeks of school.  I can't believe the year is almost over! We are doing great and I'll be getting some more pictures of the blessing and recent happenings soon....hopefully!

Dawson is here!

Dawson Ray Orton arrived Thursday April 14th, 2011 at 1:25 p.m. 

He weighs 7lb. 2oz. and is19 1/2in.

He is a spitting image of Davin! I can't believe how 

much they look alike.  

I went to my doctor appointment on Wednesday and I hadn't changed at all in a week.  I told them I thought I was going to do exactly what I did with Davin and have to be induced.  With Davin, I didn't soften at all and only dialated to a 1.  But once they started me I had him in 4 hours.  He said he thought I should wait until my due date, which was Monday the 18th, but he'd talk to the other doctor on call and see if it was okay if I was started that night.  They talked and told me I really should wait until Monday so it would be easier but if I wanted to try and come in that night I could.  If the cytotek didn't work they would send me home.  So, anxious to get this over with, I went in that night.  I got there at 8:00p.m. and they gave me some medicine to try and get my cervix softened.  It wasn't to help me dialate but they hoped it would start my labor.  I was only dilated to a 1 and 80% thinned.  I had contractions all night but they weren't way bad.  I thought for sure I would've changed a lot in the night but when they got ready to start the pit the next morning I didn't dilate anymore, I was only 85% thinned, and his head had floated back up.  Dr. Smith said he'd start the pitocin but I had a lot of odds against me that it would work.  He said we'd start it and see how it went for a few hours.  If it didn't work they would send me home and have me come back Monday morning.  I started having regular contractions and things got going pretty good.  My water broke on its own around 11:00a.m.  I was at a 4 so they let me have an epidural.  By the time they were ready to give me the epidural I was having pretty hard contractions.  They were mostly in my back.  They had some problems with the epidural and ended up trying 3 times.  Third time was a charm.  I didn't care how many times it took I just wanted it to kick in and help the pain! The epidural slowed down the contractions but relieved the pain so I didn't really mind.  I started feeling a ton of pressure.  They came in at 1:05 and started to get things ready.  I kept telling them I just had to push! I pushed 4 times and Dawson was here! He arrived approximately at 1:25p.m.  He is doing really good and I'm feeling pretty good. We are so excited he is here and healthy! Dav is doing great with him.  He is a big help but he is so cute with him.  He said tonight, "Mom, put him down he can walk by heself(in Dav's words)."  I said, "No he's just a baby and babies can't walk."  Then he says, "But he can crawl!"  We had to try and explain that babies can't walk, crawl, or talk.  He keeps saying, "Here Dawson, you want me to hold you?" It's so cute!

Our lives...

Well, I'm sorry for the lack of posting.  I thought I would do a quick update and inform you what is going on in our lives.
Brennen:    Hunting horns- he's picking up a lot of horns to take up more room in the basement. Taking care of the house and Mr. Dav a lot more-  I'm so thankful he can out clean me and is more than willing to help with Dav and the house.  Starting to pick up with work - I'm so excited it is baseball and softball season! I love it!  Just finished archery league and won some money for taking 2nd. Ran over Drake - it didn't hurt him too bad, he's still alive. Working one or sometimes two nights a week at the Chevron.  Turned the big 24 in February. 
Me: still teaching school and loving it - I can't believe it is 4th quarter, it causes me a great sense of anxiety.  Not working many hours at DQ I do the schedule and fill in when needed.  36 weeks today and feeling very large and uncomfortable - it will be a long 4 weeks.  I've been asked a few times if I'm having twins, R.U.D.E.  Seriously some people know how to make a pregnant woman feel beautiful! Wanting to decorate the house more but I'm realizing I don't have the patience, style or time to do it.  Taking a college math class - one night a week for three hours.  Got called to be the secretary in the Young Womens-I love it and work with an awesome group of women.  Did I say I was miserable?  Seriously, I feel like my hips are going to pop out of place at any given step, my feet look like elephant feet, and my ribs are permanumb.  I don't remember feeling this rotten with Davin at this point.  But I am LoViNg  life:)
Davin: The biggest cowboy ever!! As I type he is galloping his horse around and saying, "This is a great great horse" "Here come the race jockey's tada tada".  He would eat oatmeal for every meal.  He doesn't drink a lot of milk anymore-weird compared to back in the day when that's all he would drink.  He is still a daddy's boy.  Can tell a story about shooting a buck 10 yards away and loading him in the truck over and over and over without leaving out any previous details.  He was completely potty trained in February - We started in January and he got the peeing thing down but thought it was great to poop in his pants, take them off and bring them to us.  I finally told him real cowboys poop in the toilet because if they poop in their pants they can't ride bulls.  That did the trick! Every time he would poop he would say 'I'm a real cowboy huh mom'.  Has mixed feeling about the baby - he normally chooses to avoid the subject but will occasionally tell you there is a baby in my belly if you ask.   He is as wild as ever and is full of life!

Going for riding looking and shooting 'big bucks'

Yup...that means he is a big boy! Finally....

The House

Bonus Room

Entry Way

Front Room

My brown furniture looks blue in these pictures with the lighting!

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Kids/Guest bathroom

Baby's Room

Laundry Room

Dav's Room

So tired a rice krispie couldn't even keep him awake.

Drawing pictures of the 'yelks' aka elk

Dav's collage Breezy designed for me! I think it turned out so cute!

Telling a good ole' hunting story

Pulling his bow back....

Dav found his first shed with his dad...I have a feeling he is going to be addicted just like his dad.

He's a little special;) He's a happy cowboy if he has his cowboy hat and jockey glasses on!