another year in pictures

I can't believe Dawson is already one!  I blinked and a whole year went by.  When Brady turned one, I did a post where I put up a picture of him from each of the 12 months of that first year.  Here is the Dawson version.  Enjoy!

just a few hours old...remember those frosted tips?

a few weeks old

1 month

starting to smile a lot at 2 months

3 months...he smiles with his whole face!

4 months and already trying to crawl

crawling at 5 months

6 months-first haircut!

7 months-first Christmas at Nana & Papaw's

8 months-trying to walk already and getting into everything!

 9 months-first steps!

 

10 months

 

11 months-his sisters thought it would be funny to put fairy wings on him.

 ONE YEAR!  Disregard the horrible sunburn.

All 19 of us sang "Happy Birthday" to him, and it scared him so bad that he cried off & on while he ate his first cupcake.

This is my favorite.

He opened his presents, and got several balls...all of which he plays with every day!

the past 10 days

Last fall, I promised Annalee that I'd create a butterfly garden for her when spring came.  Now that it's here, let the work begin!  The Voskamps came over with a tiller to get things going.  

And in true Lee & Travis home project fashion, something broke 5 minutes in...

 

It caught a brick and bent part of it; nothing a pair of pliers couldn't fix, though.

Megan and I did our best to keep Camper and the kids out of the way of the work going on. Not that we had to try too hard... 

 

 

Beacon & Dawson made sure the compost stayed put.

Dawson wasn't a fan of the loud tiller.

Megan did a good job comforting him.

 

 I LOVE LOVE LOVE that our best friends live right across the street!  They all play together so well, and it's so fun watching them each grow up and become such different and unique individuals.

My parents came in town last Friday so they could catch Annalee's double-header on Saturday.  Nana (my mom) made time to help the girls decorate Easter eggs.  I love this picture...the girls had been looking forward to hanging out with Nana for so long, and you can see the joy all over their faces!

 

I'm pretty sure Dawson is the messiest eater in Dunn baby history.  He is a sticky, colorful mess after every meal, but it makes for great pictures!

Now that Brady has mastered the 50 states, Pop Pops is making sure the learning doesn't end there.  He found this awesome magnetic world map that has about 100 teeny tiny pieces, and it's definitely a big challenge.  It will be a miracle if we still have all the pieces this time next week.

Finally, you must run, not walk, to the nearest bookstore and grab a copy of my new favorite book...

 

...and read it immediately.  It is a quick & easy read at only 150 pages. If you haven't yet heard of this #1 best-seller, here's a summary from the back cover:

"Heaven is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.

Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.

Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle."

soccer

Annalee started playing soccer a couple of weeks ago, our first experience with organized sports.  She absolutely loves it, wants to practice all the time, and is constantly asking when the next practice or game is. Lee got talked into being a coach, and of course is great at it, and all the girls love him. Here are some pictures from her first game as #3 for the Blue Breeze.

warming up


last-minute instructions from Daddy

she and Lane were team captains

throw-in

Those of you who know me know how proud I am of her already near-perfect running form.  I love this picture, because to me, she looks like she belongs on a Cross Country course.
 
the other 3

I love this picture because it is a typical snapshot of what's going on at any given moment.  A couple of girls are paying attention, while the rest are watching a butterfly or staring off into space.

 

 post game snacks

all 50 states

Told ya he'd get them all. This is 8-1/2 minutes of the cutest, smartest 2-year-old I know.

Dawson's first steps

This happened about a week ago...

Senior Night

Amidst a fierce bout with pink eye in all 4 children, we decided to go ahead and make the trip to Lubbock on Wednesday to cheer on the Red Raider basketball team one last time as they played OU.  Man, was it worth it!  It was Senior Night, and Wally's last home game.  In summation, it was incredible, inspiring, and made everyone who knows him feel so proud.  The night began with presentations to & acknowledgements of the 6 seniors, for which Micah and Tim & Terri got to be on the floor with him.

The team got ready for the starting line-up, and we noticed Wally taking off his warmups!  Thanks to a humble Rudy-style move by fellow senior David Tairu (left), Wally got to make his first start, and made the most of it, to say the least.  He ended up playing almost half the game and scored 15 points.  That's not all.  He also had the play of the game, (video below) and the fans chanted his name on several occasions.  He shot lights-out and provided endless energy and momentum to the already fun game.  We're SO proud of you, Wally!  Perseverance does get rewarded.

If these first few pictures look like I'm on the court, well, it's 'cause I am.  My sis-in-law Lindsy and I wanted to get some close-ups, and kinda ended up down there pretty much on the baseline.  I felt like I was in high school again, sneaking out after curfew to join up with friends...sorry Mom & Daddy, it's time I confessed.  Glad to finally get that off my chest.  Anyway, we decided to stick it out until Wally went out or we got kicked out...luckily, the former happened.

the starters walking out just before tip-off

tip-off

hustle!

defense

last free-throw...don't forget to look at the jumbotron!

great game, guys!

high scorers...Wally's #10

the Fan of the Game was holding this sign...I tracked her down and snapped a picture

post-game

Wally's last 3 and then the chanting...I got teary-eyed!

this wasn't recorded live, obviously, but you have to see the play of the game!

post-game recap

progress

You may remember this post from December (you'll have to scroll down; it's at the end of a lengthy post) where I had a video of Brady learning the 50 states via a puzzle.  Well, 2 months later, he could teach us a thing or two...

...he went on to do all 50 states, and only missed a few.  Bet he'll know them all soon!

discovering eachother

Now that Brady is older and Dawson is more mobile and interactive, they have discovered eachother.  Brady's favorite thing to do these days is make Dawson laugh (see video below), which he is so proud of and will announce it to the world: "Mommy Dawson laugh at me!"  And Dawson loves to chase Brady around and just watch whatever he's doing.  They seem to adore eachother, and I can't wait to see what they're like as they grow up.

Also, Dawson is already trying to walk.  He's stood for a few seconds at a time, and really badly wants to take steps; he just hasn't figured out the whole balance thing yet.  He loves to explore, and I sometimes have to get down on his level to find him; I've actually lost him a few times around the house! Here's a prime example.  He disappeared for a while, and I looked everywhere for him...I finally found him under the dining room table.

One semester down

Annalee is half-way through Kindergarten, and I'm so amazed at all that she's learned just in a few short months!  Her ability to absorb so much information in such a short time is astounding.  The picture above is a stack of all the work she's done since day 1.  And here's a list of things she can do now that she couldn't do before school began:

-Math facts: We work on a stack of about 100 flash cards several times a week, and she can now add and subtract. She can also count by 10's.
-She can recognize odd and even numbers.

-She understands symmetry.

-She can pick out a number that is within a range, given multiple choices.

-She has memorized and recited 4 poems in front of her class, and is working on her 5th.
-She has logged over 1,000 hours of reading out loud.
-Money: she can work with pennies and dimes, understanding their worth and will count out the correct amount if you give her a number, such as "Show me $.78."
-Reading: She can read any easy word that follows the rules of grammar.
-Sight words: We work on these flash cards also; she can read about 40 words I'd label as "difficult" for this age since they don't follow the rules of grammar (calender, right, love, outside, triangle, etc.)
-She picked up on reading really quickly, and can now read extremely well for her age (and is in the highest reading group in her class!).
-She sits attentively and works diligently on her homework, not wanting to take any breaks I offer.  Homework days are Monday and Wednesday, and take about 2-2.5 hours each.
-She feels the freedom to fail. Let me explain: She is highly competitive. (Shocked? Wonder where she got that trait.) Before September, she rarely wanted to play organized games at church or pre-school.  We never knew why, until I finally figured it out: she was afraid to lose, so she didn't want to try.  Turns out, all she needed was permission to not win.  So I gave it to her, and she's been competing ever since.