Love these People

Family Pictures 2015

I'm in love with all these people.

Grady Paul

age 2

Saylor Kate

age 5

Colby Virge

age 9

Carter Dean

age 12

Andrew Stephen

age 15

So Random

Truly...this post is random.

As is the port a potty sitting in the middle of my street.  The freakishly strong wind blew it right off the sidewalk and into the road.  It makes me neighborhood look super classy.

My parents have deer in their back yard all the time.

They are beautiful to watch.  This night, there were six of them, one being super young.

My kids are loving the zoo in the back yard.

 Dry wall is done.

It's been done since Tuesday, but nothing else has happened all week.  I'm struggling being patient. 

I really really really want my own house again.

(Its hard to be patient.)

By the time Steve and I can walk through the house everyday together it is dark and cold.

The landscaper has been working on our retaining walls and this night I was too cold to get out of the car.  Steve checked it all out though.  I took pictures while enjoying my heated seat.

 Andrew's good friend Barrett had a birthday party yesterday night.

This is a fantastic group of kids.

Today...we put up the Christmas tree.  As you can see by my face, this is not my favorite thing to do with kids around.   They love it so blasted much and having them around is not great for my OCD anxiety.

Grady "helped" the most.

Good thing he was so cute while driving me so crazy.

Be grateful for your looks Grady...they might have saved your hide today!

Colby my violinist

Sometimes I feel my darling middle child gets neglected.

Colby is my happy go lucky-go with the flow kind of guy...and sometimes I feel he gets left out of the family limelight.  

He's been my most independent child so far and often is self sufficient in many things.  This being the case I wonder if he gets the attention and recognition he deserves.

I mean really, what nine year old gets up by himself at 6 am everyday, gets dressed, fixes breakfast, and fixes his own lunch before I get out of bed?  He's dreamy.

So for today, I think my Colby Colbs deserves his own post!

This afternoon Colby had a violin recital.  

His pieces were Gabotte by A. Thomas and Pax by C. McMichael.

Seriously, the cutest violinist I ever did see.

 

Tuning up with Sister Call.

Gavotte

Colby performed his solo piece with ease and didn't act nervous in the slightest.

I couldn't have been prouder.

 Pax was his next piece and was a group number.

To the right is his cousin Annie and two girls to the left is Meg.

It's so fun to see him play with these older girls.  

I had to take this picture as he was

1. the only boy 

and 

2. definitely the shortest violinist.

It was funny to watch.

His cousins are much more advanced in their violin abilities, and I so appreciate how patient and helpful they are with Colby.  He is lucky to have such wonderful cousins.  Man we love them!

Colby you did a beautiful job today and I'm so grateful I was able to hear you play. 

Thanks for being you Colby!  I'm one lucky mom!

Birthday Picture Overload

My Saylor girl turned six on Wednesday.  Not quite sure how six years when that fast, but it did.

She is growing up and I'm beyond grateful to have her little spirit in our home.

Saylor is funny, dramatic, energetic, persistent, kind, loving and a blast to have around. 

She adds just enough girliness and spice to our Dixon family. 

I adore her to the moon and back.

Her birthday started off Dixon style with a big greasy Jim Bob's donut for breakfast.

Steve got up way before the sun to bring his girl home a birthday donut.

We sang Happy Birthday and let her open her presents first thing.

(We seem to only be together as a family in the mornings these days and I wanted everyone around for Saylor's present opening. Our schedules are all crazy!)

Grandma and Grandpa Walker got Saylor a new Sophia doll and matching dress.

We got Saylor a few more dress ups too.

 

Grandma's present was her favorite and that couldn't make me happier.

 Before Kindergarten started, I took Saylor and her friend Preslee out for a greasy lunch.

They are such fun cute girls!

Steve brought home roses for his girl after work.

(She has him wrapped around her little finger so blasted tight!)

 Crazy enough we were all home for about 45 minutes in between swimming and YM's so we were able to sing to Saylor again and eat cake.

 Saylor had a little help with her candles.

 My only picture with my princess on her birthday...with a little photo bomber.

Saylor came home with a little tummy ache from school on her actual birthday (maybe the junk food from breakfast and lunch) , so Friday I brought in treats to her Kindergarten class.

Saylor was treated like birthday royalty by her wonderful teacher Mrs. Stanger.

(I love love love this woman.  She is so fantastic!)

Real birthday candles and everything.

It must be pretty great to be six!

I tried to get Saylor to pose for birthday pictures in her new dresses on her actual birthday.

She showed me many of her crazy faces...but happy ones weren't prevalent.

She is a funny girl.

I love you Saylor Kate!

Happy Happy 6th Birthday!

While Steve was gone

Steve was in Seattle for education all weekend and didn't get home yesterday until after midnight.  Poor man had to get up at six and go to work this morning.  He's a hard worker that husband of mine.

But while he was gone ( I really hate when he is gone) we kept busy.

I obviously didn't do any of this work, but our landscaper Mike worked his tail off.  We now have our curbing in.

 He also planted a few of our trees.

I'm a little worried about the ones that didn't get planted.  Its freezing and super windy today so I'm guessing the trees shown on the back of my picture are on the ground today.  Sigh.

(Yes...Andrew can be obnoxious.)

Carter kept busy with endocrinologist appointments.

He has needed more insulin for a while now so I was happy to see his doctor.  Carter was not happy about getting his blood drawn and I don't blame him.

Good news is that Carter is growing and putting on weight.  All good things to be grateful for.

We are currently working on his new insulin rates and hoping they work better.

Saylor kept busy with friends this week.

One of her favorites is Preslee Bulkley.  Her mom and I switch off taking the girls some mornings, feeding them lunch and taking them to school.  We were lucky enough to have these two in the same kindergarten class.  It works seamlessly and these two play great with one another.

Carter had the best weekend of all of us I think.  My mom gave his some pie making lessons.

(Can I say how much I love that my parents have chef hats and aprons for such occasions?!)

 Learning the art of fluting.

Finished Pumpkin Pie Perfection.

This boy is a foodie.

House update:  Dry wall started yesterday.  I would have been there this morning to check it out, but its too blasted cold outside!!