The Holidays

Wow Thanksgiving and Christmas has passed by so quickly and today is New Year's Eve. I can't beleive how fast this year has gone! To fill you in quickly, we took a trip to Santa Clara for Thanksgiving to see Bryan's grandma, spent Christmas morning here at the house and then flew to Sandpoint, Idaho to see Bryan's mom for Christmas. In that time Dawson learned how to walk, throw and got 2 more teeth. He did amazing on the airplane and in houses that he had never been before. He is getting such a great personality and loves to smile. We will be sadly saying goodbye to Dawson's godparents, Jenn and Isaac as they travel back to Boston to live for a year or so. We will really miss them! Here are some of the pictures from Thanksgiving as well as Christmas (backwards from most recent to Thanksgiving):


Christmas in Idaho

Snowmobiling with daddy

Learning how to control and drive the snowmobile

Bundled up for the snow

Bathtime in Idaho

On my new bike from Grandma and Grandpa

Christmas morning at Auntie Julie's

Asleep after a long Christmas morning

Christmas morning with mommy and daddy:

New couch

Playing in the box

Diving into the ball pit

Dawson's first look at what Santa brought

Christmas morning

Christmas Eve with Auntie Jenn and Uncle Isaac:

Power wheels quad love Jenn and Isaac

Christmas with Bryan's family Dec. 23rd:

Snow boots for Christmas

Getting the bow off

Mommy's birthday

Seeing Santa Clause

Thanksgiving Loving cranberry sauce

Great Grandma, Bryan, Dawson and Michelle

4 generations of Kunsts's

The Kunst family

Kisses from Papa

Pumpkin Patch

Today we took Dawson out to the Fort Vannoy pumpkin patch to choose his first pumpkin! He loved it! We got to ride a tractor and then hunt for the right pumpkin. He was more interested in the corn stalks and pumpkin leaves than the pumpkins I think. He loved the tractor ride and was such a happy boy! Can't wait to carve them with him tomorrow!

Sorry for the long wait

Boy life sure gets busy! Chasing after an 8 month old is hard work for sure! So let me catch you up on the last 2 months!

September:

School started and so I went back to work. It wasn't a really hard transition which was comforting. Dawson went off to daycare just like he had been going all summer! The weekend before, however, he got his first little cold and had the runny nose and a little cough. He also started saying "da-da-da" but not associating it with his daddy. Dawson got his first haircut, given by daddy on the 12th. He was such a good boy, sitting really still, but not really knowing what was going on. We had a lot of birthday's to celebrate including Bryan's 26th! We gave him a surprise party, and boy was he surprised! Dawson also learned how to clap, finally! He gets super excited now and claps away. It's really cute!

First haircut

Look mom, no hands

Playing on daddy's new 49er chair!

October:

Bryan and I went to Las Vegas for the trip that he won through his work. It was an all expense paid trip with hotel accomodations at the Bellagio! We decided to not take Dawson with us and left him in the good hands of his daycare person and good friend of ours Renee. We thought it would be best to leave him with someone that already knew his routines and what to do for all his needs. We had a great time, but missed him terribly. While we were gone, the little stinker decided to sleep through the night each night, but didn't let that continue once we were home again. The day we got home, he spent the whole day saying mama-mama-mama and associating it with me. He chases me down the hall calling after me. Sure makes a mommy melt! We then needed to find a new daycare for Dawson. Our friend wasn't able to continue watching him for us so we searched and ended up with a great one! They are super great people. The first day, they sent me 2 picture text messages to let me know he was doing great. And I keep receiving updates throughout each day. He loves going there! He has a best new buddy, Chace, that is 2 weeks older than him and they just wear eachother out! We are looking forward to the upcoming holidays and can't wait to see Dawson grow more. This month he has decided how fun it is to stand without holding onto anything and walk behind anything he can. We think it won't be long before he takes a first step!

Helping daddy unwrap a birthdya present

messy face!

Playing the guitar with daddy

River trip

We had a great weekend! It started with Bryan's mom coming in to visit us Friday. She hadn't seen Dawson since he was about 4 days old and still in the NICU. She was pretty amazed by him we think, and infatuated too! We then had a wedding to go to that Bryan was in. Our good friend Nick got married and Grammy and Auntie Carol watched Dawson for us so we could go and have a good time. Then today we took Dawson to the river for the first time. It was so much fun! Then after that we had a family BBQ and got into a huge game of Catch-Phrase, we are such a board game type family! We are sad to see Grammy go, but we think we will be going to see her at Christmas and hopefully she can come down for Dawson's first birthday!

Dawson loved his Grammy's shoes! The little pull tab was a great teething toy!

Even though the water was a little cold, Dawson loved sitting in it and playing with the rocks and dirt.

Bryan and Jiron playing in the water

I think I am in love! He is the best thing in the whole world!