Dawson's Baby Blessing

Dawson was lucky to have his baby blessing take place right in our own home.  Since almost all of the Routsong family was in town at Thanksgiving, and we were celebrating Thanksgiving at our house, we thought it would be more than appropriate to hold his blessing here surrounded by his extended family. Most of the family was not going to be in town through Sunday, so we chose to hold his blessing while everyone was in town.  It was a special moment.  We had finished our Thanksgiving meal and everyone was mingling and visiting.  I changed him into his special blessing suit, the same which his brothers wore on their blessing days.  The priesthood holders participating also changed their clothes to show respect for the blessing, though it was not in a church building.  This made it special.  The priesthood holders who held him for the blessing included Nate of course, Uncle Abe, Uncle John, Uncle Mike, and Grandpa Routsong.  

Nate blessed you, Dawson, with wonderful words.  He blessed you to know that your Heavenly family cares for you.  He blessed you to have a commitment and dedication to God and that you would develop a testimony that would give you a foundation for your life.  He blessed you with a desire to serve the Lord.  He also blessed you with good health, that with that health you may be a worthy priesthood holder willing and able to serve the Lord.  

There are great things in store for you Dawson.  We love you so very much and are excited to get to know your personality as you grow.  We can't imagine life without you.  You complete our family!

Grandpa, Uncle Mike, Daddy, Uncle John, & Uncle Abe

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a great Thanksgiving this year.  It is starting to be tradition that we spend Thanksgiving with the whole Routsong family at our house.  Its a lot of fun to have everyone over to our home!  Everyone helped out with different dishes for the Thanksgiving Feast, and we planned some fun activities for everyone.  We were able to fit everyone in our formal dining room area around three long tables.  That was important to us so that we all could be together in the same room.  I baked some pillsbury crescent rolls with questions inside of them, and as we ate dinner, all 26 of us, we went around answering the questions we found in our rolls.  I made a "Thankful Tree" for everyone to hang notes of things that they were thankful for this year.  It was fun to see the different things that people wrote.  I also found a fun idea using sugar ice cream cones.  I wet them, then "steamed them" in the microwave till they were soft, then curled the pointy end around a pencil creating a mini cornucopia.  I filled them with goodies for the dessert table.  Fun fun!  

After dinner, we had a scavenger hunt planned for the kids.  It was a beautiful day outside, so the kids each got a bag and a list of things to find and do.  They teamed up and went searching in the woods, on the playground, and all around our house.  It was fun to see the big kids team up with the little kids.  So much bonding!  So much fun!  

Christin & Uncle John

Madison & Kaylee

We roasted smores on a fire later on in the evening.  Jace loved the idea of roasting marshmallows!  But the fire was so hot to his face, that he announced that he needed goggles.  The next minute, he appears with a roasting stick and goggles on his face!  He must have seen these goggles upstairs in the toy room with the dress up stuff.  He knew right where to find some!  It was cute.  

The cousins always have games that they bring on their phones or the wii and Jaxton and Cooper got way into these games, especially Cooper.  He was playing with Jared's phone games for a long time and had a hard time giving it back to Jared.  So a couple weeks later when I asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he genuinely said he wanted an iPhone.  Haha!  He said, "Jared told me to ask for an iPhone for Christmas since I liked his so much."  Ohhh goodness!  He was so genuine about that and thought that Jared indeed believed that he could ask for an iPhone for Christmas.  It was a sweet request that unfortunately did not get granted.  Maybe in 15 years....lol.

Here are some fun pictures of the family: 

Brothers: Nate & Mike

Grandma Routsong, Cassidy, Baby Sophie & Grandpa

Katie, Christin, Lauren, and Cassidy

Jace loved to play the piano!

Lauren & Kaylee playing in Kaylee's room

Nate & Tara

Beth, Abe, Kate, and Jared

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Jaxton's 6th Birthday

Jaxton is 6!!! I can't believe it!  I can't believe it has been 6 years since he entered our world!  Here are some fun things about him at 6 years old:

1. Jaxton's favorite dessert is brownies

2. His favorite color is gold

3. His favorite breakfast is waffles and sausage.  He got this from Grandpa Routsong who makes the kids eggo waffles warmed up in the microwave, with a sausage, and then drenched with syrup.  Its a classic!

4. His favorite friend these days is Campbell, another kindergartener   She is a cute little girl that Jaxton talks about all the time.  They are good little friends, but they also think they will get married one day.  Cuteness!                                

5. Jaxton absolutely loves legos.  He loves to build lego sets and he is really good at following the directions step by step.  He will take a new lego set upstairs and disappear for hours.  When we see him again, he has this masterpiece spaceship that is so detailed and perfect.  He just loves that.  And then, these lego masterpieces are put up on a shelf for him to cherish.  They are off limits for anyone to touch and he says he plans to NEVER break them down!

6. Jaxton is reading so well.  He knew how to read basics and sound out sounds to make words before he started kindergarten.  Now he is at a Kindergarten level C reading level.  He can read, or sound out, just about anything!  Sometimes we will be reading the scriptures, and he will come to a difficult word. I am ready to help him out, but before I do, he figures it out!  I am just amazed at how well he is picking up reading.  And he loves to read!

7. Jaxton is an artist.  He loves loves loves to draw and color.  He will spend a long time designing some kind of art design and coloring it in certain patterns.  He is very creative and artistic.

8.  Jaxton says his favorite sport is soccer.  He will begin play soccer in 2 weeks on an indoor soccer league.  It should be a lot of fun!  

9.  He says his favorite movie these days is Harry Potter.  He has seen the first 3 Harry Potter movies and we have just begun reading the first Harry Potter book aloud together.  The kids are so interested in "magic" and love it!

10.  When Jaxton grows up he wants to make machines.  He wants to build devices that do stuff with buttons and wires, etc.  The career that fits this description the best seems to be an engineer.  On Career Day at school, Jaxton wore an oversized white karate robe that fit perfectly as a "lab coat" along with "lab goggles."  He looked great!  Someday we will have ourselves a very intelligent engineer that will invent and build something amazing! 

Happy Birthday Jaxton!

Jaxton wanted a Transformers Birthday Theme.  He had 6 of his buddies over for a fun filled transformer party.  Each child got a paper transformer mask.  They went on a scavenger hunt around the house to learn how to be a transformer.  First they practiced building energy cubes for their powers.  We used sugar cubes.  Then we did a matching game and matched the car to the robot it transforms into.  We played a few other games, ate cake and ice cream, and then watched an episode of the cartoon version of Transformers.  It was a blast!  Jaxton asked for a Tranformers quilt for his birthday from us.  We found a fun Transformers fleece tie quilt that he could actually cut and make himself (with some help).  So that's what he got! We worked on it together for several nights until the edges all around had been tied.  Now he sleeps with it every night!  It was a fun project!

Dawson is 2 Months Old

Here is Dawson at 2 months old

Here are some fun things about Baby Dawson at 2 months old:

1. He loves to smile!!

2. He can focus on faces now.  He gets those classic wide eyes and big nostrils as he is focusing hard on making eye contact.  So cute!! And then once he's made eye contact, he will move his little head and follow you as you move to the right or to the left or up and down.  

3. Dawson loves loves loves to be held.  I never used a sling before, but I have really enjoyed it and Dawson absolutely loves being all cozied up against me all snuggled up tight.  Its a win win!

4. His little features are becoming more and more apparent.  He has the cutest ears that stick out on either side of his head, and he has bright big blue eyes.  Sometimes his little expressions remind me of Dopey, one of the 7 dwarfs.  =-)

5. He likes his white noise when he sleeps

6.  Feeding has been great for him, extremely painful and difficult for me. Regardless of me though, he has been eating and growing great!!

7.  At night he will sleep about 7 or 8 at night until 12 or 1 in the morning and generally will wake up every 3 hours or so after that.  So right now, he's a pretty good sleeper.  

8. He is the Spit-Up King.   It doesn't bother him one bit, but he spits up more than any baby I've had.  I am constantly covered in his puke, which luckily is just made of milk and not anything else.  Thus its consistency is not super yuck.  In fact, the scent of Dawson's spit up has become a part of him and I actually don't mind smelling like spit up all day since it reminds me of my cute bundle.  However, I do go through 3 and 4 different outfits each day...

What a cute boy!  He will continue to grow and the time will not stop! So I must capture every bit of him at every stage that I can!  I love him to pieces!