Dixonrow

Elizabeth lost a tooth

2012-01-27T23:55:00.001-08:00

Her tooth has been loose for a while and it finally just popped out this afternoon. In the close up smile you can see that the new adult tooth is already starting to grow in. She is very excited about the tooth fairy coming and leaving her a surprise tonight.

2012-01-10T15:12:00.000-08:00

I Forgot to put pictures with my post and talk about Abby. Here are our costumes at Halloween and the other picture is Elizabeth and Abby at AIM. Abby goes to preschool there 3 afternoons a week and has a great time.

Hello blogging world!

2012-01-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

hello blogging world!
I am going to try blogging again at least once a month. I'm coming back now because my Aunt Barbara posted a message on facebook that she wants to see more blog posts and I am off work this week because I hurt my foot. Once again I rolled my foot (like the post from June of 2009) Last Saturday I was playing tag with Chris, Steven, and the girls at a park and there was a dent in the grass I stepped into it and fell twisting my foot in the process. Chris took me to Kaiser on Sunday because it got all swollen we thought it might be broken but no, the good news is it is just sprained. Hopefully my recovery will only be one week and not two weeks like the last foot injury. So I am keeping off my foot as much as possible and icing it to make the swelling go down.
So now I will try to update things from 10 months ago. I am still working at AIM with children with disabilities but because of budget cuts we are not getting the children refered to the center program and all of our classes have gotten smaller. So to make up more hours and serve more children I am now also a home teacher meaning I go to the homes of the children and work with them there. It keeps me busy. Chris is still working for Caltrains in the swing shift so we can trade off work schedules. He is very good and walks with Elizabeth to school every morning so I can get ready for work. In August Elizabeth started kindergarten and is enjoying school. For Halloween the girls and I were princesses and Chris was our prince. Well technically he was a thief because he was Eugene (Flinn Rider) from Rapunzel. We went to Visalia, CA for Thanksgiving to be with Chris's parents and brother Craig and family. We stayed in San Jose for Christmas with my parents and family. Then drove to Visalia again to spend Elizabeth's 6th Birthday and New Years Eve with family there.

2011-04-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of the wood on the beach and the girls in their Easter dresses. Enjoy :)

Easter 2011

2011-04-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I blogged, only about two years!! So I will try to not have it be another two years after this entry. Elizabeth is now 5 and Abby is 2 and a half. This Easter weekend Elizabeth got the opportunity to go camping with my parents up at Mt. Madonna. She had a great time, my Mom said she is quite the little camper. My Dad helped her find 15 banana slugs on their nature hike.

Abby stayed home with Chris and I and so she got to dye eggs by herself and spend some good quality one on one time. She talks a lot more without Elizabeth around. Then Saterday afternoon we went up to Mt Madonna to join family for the egg hunt and picnic lunch. The girls had fun finding eggs in the trees and hidden with leaves. Then we went to Rio Del Mar beach. We were just going to go look at the wood that has washed up on shore but Elizabeth wanted to put her feet in the water. Soon we all had our shoes off, pants rolled up and jumping in the waves. The water was very cold but once your feet got numb it was fine.

July Review

2009-08-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone sorry I have not blogged in a while. I will let you know all that happened in July. So in the begining of July we drove to Blackfoot Idaho to visit with Chris's parents and some friends. We got there on the 4th of July and enjoyed the fireworks at a park called Jensens Grove with our niece Ashlie who had been staying with Grandma and Grandpa Dixon in Blackfoot for about three weeks. The rest of the week we spent visiting and doing fun things. We went to a small zoo in Idaho Falls, saw the Titanic exhibit at the museum also in Idaho Falls and took a tour of BYU Idaho in Rexburg. We drove home on the 11th and took Ashlie home to California with us (she lives in Visalia, CA), she was happy to be home and entertained our girls on the way.
Then on the 16th Abby tuned one year old and we had a party for her at my parents house on the 18th. It was a water party and Abby had a great time on the slippin slide a little blow up pool with all the big kids.
On July 26th it was my Birthday and we just had a small celebration with my parents and brother and sister in law.
July 31st we went to see the local baseball team the San Jose Giants play. Elizabeth loves the mascot Gigante and Abby loves being outside. Both girls sat throughout te entire game and had a great time! So that was our fun month of July.

My foot story

2009-06-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

Hello so some of you have been wondering what happened to my foot from the comments on facebook so I decided to do a post on our blog to give more detail. Well a little over two weeks ago I was at my parents house outside on their deck. My Mom was holding Abby and Abby started wiggling and she looked like she was going to drop so I ran over to where they were and missed the deck step. I fell and my foot rolled under me and then I landed on it squishing it. So the next day I went to have x-rays and it was not broken but very ouchy just the same. They wrapped it in an ace bandage (the second picture), gave me crutches and pain pills perscription with the thought that it would be about a week recovery. Well it's been over two weeks now and I am still not fully recovered but I am better. After two weeks I went back to Kaiser and got a walking shoe so I could limp around better (the first picture). I also wanted to say thank you to everyone who has helped me during this recovery process. Especially my Mom who lent me her wheel chair and shower chair, and my wonderful husband Chris who pushed me around and helped out as much as he could. I am very glad that I am getting better and able to do more things everyday.

Abby is 10 months

2009-05-24T22:21:00.000-07:00

Messy ice cream face at whimsicle, I couldn't resist the bowl hat.

getting in trouble under the kitchen table

So I had to post some cute pictures of my cute ten month old. Abby is now crawling fast and getting into troubles. She can pull to stand and stand by herself for about 30 seconds. She has not taken what I would call her first steps yet but she is getting close. She also says mama and dada and waves bye bye very cutely.

Family full of Love

2009-05-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Elizabeth had the opportunity to give a short talk in primary. She talked about our family and how we are full of Love. She talked about the different things that she does with each member of her family and really had fun doing it. On the way home from church she was talking about it and said that my tummy was full of hearts because we are full of love then she added hearts and milk so I guess hearts and milk go well together. It was fun to have her give her first primary talk she is getting so big. She is past the toddler stage and into being a little girl. She is also mostly potty trained (ya!!) It's the mostly part that we have to work on now. but I am soo proud of her. The pictures are of us being full of love. In the top picture Chris was giving the girls horse rides but the horse got tired by the time the camera came out and the second one is us on our porch after we played with bubbles.

Abby is 9 months

2009-04-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

She is creeping around and loves to jump when someone holds her. She likes real food and will not eat baby rice cereal. Abby is mostly patient when Elizabeth takes toys or knocks her down by acciedent of course. We love having her in our family. She makes us smile!

More Easter fun

2009-04-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

So I was going to do a post about the girls easter baskets just because it is fun. The top picture, is a picture of Elizabeth keeping her loot from Abby, oh the joys of sibling rivalry. Elizabeth couldn't wait to get the candy, so she opened and ate the candy in the bathroom where the Easter baskets were hidden. Abby had fun discovering what was in her basket. She liked her yellow ducks to chew on.

2009-04-15T23:09:00.000-07:00

After we colored the eggs we went up to Mt. Madonna and had an Easter picnic (Togo's sandwiches) and an egg hunt. It was loads of fun as always.

Elizabeth knew just what to do and went about collecting eggs, and had a wonderful time filling her basket. At one point the basket had gotten pretty full of eggs so Chris offered to carry it for her but that would not do because it was her basket and she wanted to carry it. So he let her carry it and she tripped and all the eggs spilled out but they had fun picking them up as fast as they could. The top picture is of Elizabeth and Grandpa looking at a bannana slug (you'll have to enlarge the picture to see it). Elizabeth has just touched it and is wipeing her hand off on her shirt, it was "too squishy". My Dad always did like bannana slugs for some reason. We ended the afternoon with some candy and a nice quiet ride home as both girls were tired from all the fun.

coloring eggs

2009-04-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

Hello so I am finally posting some Easter pictures. Abby had fun spilling die and eating the egg (with the shell still on of course) Elizabeth had a great time coloring the eggs and her hand. Chris looks soo cute with his two bunnies, to bad we do not have some bunny ears for him.

Like to paint?

2009-04-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

So this afternoon Elizabeth wanted to finger paint so I said okay. I knew she would get messy so I told her to take off her dress. She had fun painting then I thought well Abby might like to finger paint also so I stripped her down to her diaper. They were both having fun painting on paper untill Elizabeth decided it would be fun to paint on Abby's arm so I eventually just put them on the mat and let them be creative. They had a nice soappy bath afterwards and are not painty any more. I am glad that I only buy nontoxic washable paint!

8 months old

2009-03-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

Abby turned eight months old on Monday. I was going to post a blog but I ran out of time. Abby is a sweet happy baby. She is begining to get up on her hands and knees and move around more. She is so surprised when ever she manages to move anywhere. She has the cutest giggle laugh when beining tickled or finds something funny. Abby has four teeth (two on the top and two on the bottom) and loves to bite and chew on anything she can get her hands on to get that sensory input in her mouth and new teeth. She is very happy sitting on the floor playing with toys and mostly enjoys playing with Elizabeth. We are so blessed to have Abby in our family.

Sacramento Train Museum

2009-03-15T22:30:00.000-07:00

I think that Chris had the most fun at the train museum. We went on the tour in the begining and Elizabeth did very good at listening with her stuffed monkey George. When we were by the display of the mountians being blasted to make room fo rthe train tracks Elizabeth started singing her own made up song pointing to the words on the sign like they were the words she was singing. There was an older gentelman standing behind her and I appoligized for her blocking the sign and he just nicely said "oh that's okay mam I like the singing and I'm guessing that the men who worked on building this railroad would have liked to hear her singing as well" so I thought that was nice. We also go to go inside some of the old trains and see how they ate and slept on the train and learned all about the different engines and types of trains made from the 1830's to 1950's or so and the history. On the second floor they had toy trains, electric trains set up that you could watch go around a small village as well as the history of toy trains with lots of display cases full of trains. They also had two train tables set up with Thomas trains that kids could play with and Elizabeth had fun doing that.

Synchronized Swimming

2009-03-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

So last weekend March 6th and 7th we had the opportunity to go to Sacramento to see our niece Alexandra Metcalf proform in synchronized swimming. We got there on Friday afternoon and Elizabeth had a great time watching them practice and running around on the grass. We were able to see her proform in a trio (three girl synchronized swimming together) with her super gelled hair and fancy suit with matching head piece. It was fun to watch. That night we went to Chevys for dinner and just relaxed at the hotel. The next morning (Saturday) we saw her swim in a duo and visited some more. Then in the afternoon we went to the Sacramento train museum.

Ice Cream!

2009-02-24T20:41:00.000-08:00

So last week Elizabeth helped me make some play dough. She had fun making it and playing but we didn't have any play dough toys. So on Saturday we were out shopping and we let Elizabeth choose one play dough toy. She choose the ice cream making set from several different choices. I thought well she'll play with it for awhile but she already had plastic pretend ice cream that she did not play with very much. When we got home she played with it for over two hours and had a great time. I decisded that we needed to go to Cold Stone and get some ice cream and she choose blue (cotton candy flavored) ice cream with sprinkles. I guess she was inspired by her playing. She has continued to play with it everyday for at least half an hour witch is good attention span for Elizabeth. That was money well spent.

I'm not sleepy!

2009-02-24T20:27:00.001-08:00

So now days it is rare that Elizabeth has a nap because if she does then she does not go to bed until late. But yesterday I knew she was tired because she woke up early and was acting grumpy so I told her to take a nap at about 2pm. She said she couldn't sleep and so I told her to just stay in bed and play there. She stayed there for an hour and then finally she came out again and said she wasn't sleepy so I let her come and watch some TV while I fed Abby, within 10 minutes of watching she was fast asleep so I had to take a picture (she slept for over two hours). I guess she was sleepy.

My Valentines

2009-02-17T23:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's day card from Grandma Turner, and a kiss from Dad for Abby.

My two Valentines together, sorry about the glare from the window.

My seven month old happy girl

So it seems as if Elizabeth is getting along better with Abby. She still wants to play with Abby but is not always right in front of her face. Thank you for your comments they definatly helped. I think the main thing that changed was that I am letting Elizabeth just play with Abby more before I was so worried that she would get carried away and hurt Abby that I was always telling her to get away and giving her the negative attention thus she wanted to do it more. So I stopped, unless Abby was crying or I could see an unsafe situation I let Elizabeth play with her and she started giving Abby toys and they started to enjoy each other. It makes my time with them much more enjoyable. I love my Valentines Chris, Elizabeth and Abby. I am so lucky to have them in my life!

Help

2009-02-04T17:27:00.000-08:00

This is a note to all Mom's out there who read my blog. Elizabeth will not leave Abby alone! Elizabeth has always loved her sister and always wants to be a big helper but lately we can not put Abby down without Elizabeth trying to play with her, tickle her, jump over her, pull her, or try to pick her up. Luckily Abby has not been hurt yet but some of these things really scare me. I don't know if we are just putting Abby down on the ground more often now so I notice it more or if Elizabeth does it more because we give her attention (negative though it may be) or what it is. We have started to put her in time out after a warning but that again is just more attention. If anyone has any ideas let me know. I guess it could be just a phase and hopefully in a few months Abby will be able to crawl and get away or hopefully not get bugged so much by her loving sister.

Pier 39 fun!

2009-02-02T16:36:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody

Sorry I have not posted anything for a while. On Saturday we had the opportunity to go up to San Francisco and walk around Pier 39. The weather was beautiful and it was fun to just get outside and enjoy doing something together as a family. Elizabeth enjoyed seeing the Sea lions and going on the merry-go-round. We put her backpack on with a strap so she was free to walk around but could not go to far or get lost. Abby was in a riding backpack and enjoyed just looking around. We also enjoyed fresh doughnuts and lunch by the bay. We had such a good time that both girls fell asleep on the way home (well Abby decided she was hungry for the last 25 minutes of the trip and let us know, but Elizabeth kept sleeping through the crying). It's trips like that that make you glad you live in California.

The cake!

2008-12-29T17:35:00.000-08:00

Take a deep breath...., blow..., ya did it!
We are so happy to have Elizabeth in our family. She is so full of energy (when she is not sick) , love and happiness. She lets us know what she wants and most of the time helps us when we need something. She is a good big sister to Abby and they have fun together. It is so fun to see her little imagination as she plays and figures things out. We have had three wonderful years and many more to come. We love you Elizabeth!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

2008-12-29T17:26:00.000-08:00

Today my little girl turns three. We began her Birthday celebration by having a pancake breakfast, then for lunch we went out to eat at Burger King which is always Elizabeth's choice because it has a play place outside that she can play on after she eats some of her food. Today for the first time she was able to climb all the way to the top by herself. She usually makes Chris climb in there and help her get to the next level. I guess now that she is three she can do more things. Then we went back to my parents house and had presents and cake. Her favorite gift was a princess outfit and accesories that she had to put on as soon as it was out of the box.

Santa came!

2008-12-29T17:16:00.001-08:00

Santa gave Elizabeth a baby grand piano for Christmas and she has been sitting and singing all of the christmas songs. Abby also got her own version of a piano from Santa. The picture in the middle is me with all of my Santa loot (I must have been very good this year!) The one on top is Chris after all of the presents were opened feeling very tired, he is wearing his new #42 Dodgers jersey that was my present to him. The picture under that is Elizabeth almost asleep on the trampoline that Grandpa gave her. She is sick and was very tired also. I hope that everyone had a very merry Christmas as well!

2008-12-29T16:59:00.000-08:00

We had a very merry Christmas this year. These pictures were taken at my parents house on Christmas Eve. My brother Brent, his wife Eliza and their two boys Jacob and Daniel came down from Oregon to be with us for Christmas this year. So my parents had a full house and all of us kids were together once again. Elizabeth has had fun playing with her cousin Jacob, and the babies like staring at each other.

Elizabeth loves Santa

2008-12-24T01:09:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth and Abby had two opportunities to sit on Santa's lap this year. The pictures above are at the Willow glen Ward Christmas party. They also saw Santa at the AIM (the school where I work) Christmas party. Both times she was happy to sit on his lap and excited over seeing Santa.

2008-12-22T23:38:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth had fun putting together and decorating this gingerbread house. She also enjoyed decorating everything else in our house with the foam sticker decorations. It's much easier than using real gingerbread although not as much fun without the candy.

2008-12-20T18:55:00.001-08:00

Hello I havn't posted anything for a while so I will post some pictures. the first ones are just some of the girls in their Christmas Pj's and then it's our Christmas tree with Elizabeth putting on an ornament. I will try to post more fun Christmas things everyday tell Christmas, but we will see how good I do.

Christmas tree hunt

2008-12-12T17:33:00.000-08:00

Hello, so last Saturday we went up to the mountians to cut down our christmas tree. We went with My parents, Jason, John, and Amanda, as well as Joe and Dixie Strople. It was a beautiful day and we didn't even need jackets. It was so sunny that there was too much sun in some of the pictures. Then after the tree hunt was complete and we loaded our find into my Dad's truck we went to Togo's for lunch (yummy). It was a fun activity and it is fun to see my daughters enjoy the tradition of cutting down a tree that I experienced when I was growing up. Isn't traditions fun!

Rice cereal

2008-12-02T00:00:00.001-08:00

We have started giving Abby some rice cereal now but she has not caught on to swallowing yet. Enjoy the messy picture!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T23:38:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving here in San Jose with my parents and had a wonderfull day. I am so thankful that I am able to live close to my parents and that we can continue to make memories together. For thanksgiving dinner my parents also had my brother John and his wife Amanda, my friend Steven and his brother Richard, and Zona Cobb over to enjoy in our festivities. My Mom did most of the cooking but I made apple jello and a chocolate pie (YUMMY) of course Mom's rolls were the best, but Amamnda's deviled eggs were also a hit. We spent the evening eating pie and playing games with lots of laughter. I am so thankful for all that I have. I am thankful for my wonderful husband Chris and all of his love and support. I am thankful to be a mom and have two beautiful daughters. I am thankful that Chris is able to stay home in the mornings and watch the girls while I go to work part time. I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge and testimony I have. There are so many more things but these are the most important and I can't list them all.

Tag

2008-11-18T22:11:00.000-08:00

So the first picture is from my 6th folder, 6th picture and it is a picture of my brother Jason and Elizabeth at Denny's during our Friday nights out.

The second picture is from my 4th folder, 4th picture It is of My Dad, Chris and Elizabeth with stickers all over themselves (Elizabeth had fun) part of one of our family Sunday nights at my parents house (Amanda, John and Jason are in the background)

Hope you enjoy the pictures :)

4 months

2008-11-18T00:53:00.000-08:00

So abby went for her four month check-up today and had to have four shots (poor baby). She weighs 15lbs 12 oz and is 23 and 1/2 inches long. Abby is good and healthy. We are blessed to have her in our family. As a side note yesterday Elizabeth can up to Abby and told her "now Abby I want you to be a good girl and to not cry to much and no urping (meaning spitting up), okay" It made me smile.

Sisterly Love

2008-11-14T17:18:00.000-08:00

Abby has just starting to hold rattles and toys. Elizabeth helped me wash all of her baby toys to get them ready for Abby. So the other day I was holding Abby and she reached out to grab Elizabeth's shirt and pulls on it a little. Elizabeth pulls away and says to Abby " don't pull my shirt Abby, I'm a girl not a toy".

Elizabeth gave Abby a hug and then told her "don't wiggle so much Abby, I'm trying to give you a hug".

The best is when they are interacting and Elizabeth says, "Abby smiled at me, she likes me".

I am sure they will be best friends for life.

trick or treat

2008-11-02T17:30:00.000-08:00

This year for Halloween we were characters from the Wizard of Oz. Elizabeth & I were both Dorothy, Chris was the Scarecrow. Abby was our little Lion. Chris was able to come to the AIM party that morning and enjoyed being there. Elizabeth had a great time trick or treating that evening. She also enjoyed "Helping" Grandpa give out the Halloween candy to the trick or treaters. Although sometimes she didn't give it away, she kept it for herself. All in all it was a good halloween.

pumpkin carving

2008-11-02T00:33:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth actually helped me to pull out the guts of the pumpkin this year. It was a new sensory experience for her. She also picked out the pumpkin pattern I used and "helped" me poke holes to trace the design. She liked how it looked in the dark with the candle the best. Abby was happy with what ever we had her do and sat patiently in her bouncy chair so I could do the carving. All in all she was rather interested in the process and had fun getting involved in this Halloween tradition.

Pumpkin patch

2008-10-21T16:22:00.001-07:00

On Monday we went with AIM to the pumpkin patch. Elizabeth enjoyed the petting zoo they had there and even held a baby chicken. She also enjoyed painting a pumpkin and had so much fun she painted two pumpkins. She would not smile for any pictures though I guess it is her age, or just a stage she is going through. Abby was not to happy to have her picture taken either because she was hungry and tired, but it was still fun to be there as a family.

Steve's Baptism

2008-10-21T16:16:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we were able to wittness my friend Steven Fisher getting baptized into the Penicila Bible Church in Cupertino.

Saturday

2008-10-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

Hello on Saturday we were able to go with my Dad to his work celebration. They had bouncy houses and big inflated slides that Elizabeth loved. She also liked the food and the cotton candy.

3 months old

2008-10-16T22:52:00.000-07:00

Hello today Abby is three months old. In some ways it seems like we have had her in our family for a lot longer than only three months, in other ways I can't believe she is three months aready. Unfortunatly it also means that my maternity leave is over and I go back to work on Monday. We love our Abby and Elizabeth.

Seven random facts about me

2008-10-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

I was tagged and told to share seven random facts about me so here they are, enjoy!
1. I love how the air smells at night at my parents house during the month of October. I call it "Halloween air" and it brings back childhood memories. Somehow the air is not the same just a few miles over where I live in 1776 Almaden Appartments.
2. I like to have things look neat and organized but it does not happen very often at my appartment for various reasons
3. I like collecting things and so does my husband so we have way too much stuff for our apprtment. I would love to have a big house with a room just for our collections, and another room for a liberary with walls of books and big comfortable chairs.
4. I like socks, soft socks, holiday socks, baby socks, pictures of socks, the Boston Red Sox because they have red socks as their logo (but not stinky dirty socks left on the floor for me to pick up).
5. I have boxes of tissues all around my appartment (at least one in every room) because I never know when I am going to need one. If I sneeze too much my asthma will kick-in and the only way I will stop sneezeing is if I blow my nose. They also come in very handy for cleaning up baby urp when nothing else is within reach.
6.I like to eat chocolate cereal in the mornings for breakfast (Reeses Puffs, Coco Puffs, Cookie crisp, and coco pebbles) In fact I have an entire cupboard devoted to cereal (the cereal cupboard) but I do have other kinds of cereal in it besides chocolate.
7. I like to kiss my girls on the soft spot on their neck below their ears, and give them big squishy hugs.
I tag anyone who wants to be tagged, it's kind of fun thinking of what random things people might not know about you..

Abby too.

2008-10-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

So the other morning Elizabeth was up watching cartoon and I had gone back to bed to try to get a few more minutes of rest. Abby woke up and so I carried her into the living room and said to Elizabeth "look who's awake?" and she said "Mommy!", I said "yup and Abby too", Elizabeth said "Abby too?" and I said "ya here she is". Elizabeth looked at Abby and said very seriously, "Abby do you like being two?" I just laughed.

Another smiling moment came when Elizabeth told the sun he was being very naughty for shining light in people's eyes because it hurts them.

Halloween fun

2008-10-09T17:16:00.000-07:00

The top picture is a part of my doll collection. These are little Kelly dolls (Barbie's little sister). They only get to come out once a year for Halloween and I enjoy decorating with them. The other pictures are my cute living dolls (he,he,he) in their Halloween outfits. I finally captured an Abby smile in picture!

Discovery musseum

2008-10-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

Hello, last Friday we went to the discovery museum. We are trying to do fun things as a family before I go back to work. As soon as we got there Elizabeth had a great time exploring, she especially loved the water area and if given the chance would stay there all day. She got very wet. Abby loves being in her Baby Bjorn, and just watching everything, she eventually fell asleep.

I've been tagged

2008-09-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

One word answers to 31 questions

1:Where is your cell phone? purse

2:Where is your significant other? work

3:Your hair color? brown

4:Your mother? wonderful

5:Your father? generous

6:Your favorite thing? smiles

7: Your dream last night? blank

8:Your dream/goal? thin

9:The room you're in? bedroom

10:Your hobby? dolls

11:Your fear? mistakes

12:Where do you want to be in 6 years? house

13:Where were you last night? home

14:What you're not? sad

15:One of your wish list items? clothes

16:Where you grew up? sanjose

17:The last thing you did? TV

18:What are you wearing? shirt

19:Your TV? recording

20:Your pet? none

21:Your computer? samsung

22:Your mood? tired

23:Missing someone? Chris

24:Your car? toyota

25: Something you're not wearing? socks

26:Favorite store? walmart

27:Your summer? busy

28:Love someone? Chris

29:Your favorite color? purple

30:When is the last time you laughed? 3minutesago

31:When is the last time you cried? Wednesday

Our trip

2008-09-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

Hello we just got back from a week long trip to Idaho and Utah. It was great fun and we were able to see many friends and family. On the drive to Idaho we stopped in Lovelock Nevada and saw a playground for Elizabeth to play on while I fed Abby. She had a great time getting out her energy and we stopped there on the way home as well. We stopped in Elko for the night but had dinner in Winemucca and here are some picture of Chris holding both girls while I eat. I was feeding Abby a bottle when he ate. We had to be creative sometimes with our stops in order to provide for the needs of a two month old and an active two year old. We made our destinations in saftey.

Blackfoot Idaho

2008-09-29T17:04:00.000-07:00

We went to Blackfoot to visit with Chris's parents Jeri and Glenn Dixon and so they could meet Abby as they were unable to come out for Abigail's blessing. We were also able to celebrate Glen's 75th birthday while we were there. They enjoyed having us there and playing with the girls. Elizabeth loved to follow Grandpa out to the garden and feed the corn to the horses. We just wish we lived closer to them and could see them more often. The second picture is when we went to visit Chris's friend Seth and Jill and their three kids. This is the best we could do to get all five kids in the same picture.

(Added by Chris) The second to last picture is of Elizabeth sitting on the rock where some of us, if not all of us kids, would wait for dad to come home at night and we could ride in the back of his truck.

West Jordan Utah

2008-09-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

When we left Idaho we drove to West Jordan to visit with my cousins Nikki and Heather and their cute kids. Our girls are only two months apart in age, Nikki's baby is also named Abigail and called Abbie so that is kind of fun (the last picture is the two Abby's together). Our older kids ages are all within three months together, so we took a picture of them all together as well. That night we were able to stay at my Aunt Dawn's castle of a house even though she was away on vacation herself. We are blessed to have such wonderful family to visit.

Provo Utah

2008-09-29T16:45:00.001-07:00

On our way to Vernal we stopped in provo so Chris could visit the grave of his Grandmother Jean Harrison Jensen who passed away on June 16th of this year. It was a tender experience for him as he was unable to attend her funeral. We also really enjoyed the beautiful provo cannyon as the leaves were all reds and yellows on the trees there. This picture does not do it justice.

Vernal Utah

2008-09-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

We stopped in Vernal Utah to visit with my Grandma and Grandpa Madsen. We enjoyed spending time with them and they had a great time playing with Abby and Elizabeth. We also visited the dinasaur museum while we were there, Elizabeth thought that the dinasaurs were exciting and enjoyed exploring the hands on activities they had there. It brought back many memories of when I was a kid growing up and visiting them every summer, it was fun.

On the way home.

2008-09-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

On the way home from our trip we stopped at a rest stop in Nevda so I could feed Abby and Elizabeth had a great time running on the salt flats. It kind of looks like flat snow. When we were not stopped at rest stops, Elizabeth had to be creative to entertain herself. She kept herself busy for a good ten minutes by having her hands interact with each other. One hand would hide and the other hand would go looking for it or the hands would pull each other and she would make the hands say "let me go" or "oh I found you hand". It was interesting to watch. We also liked to find shapes in the beautiful clouds, the picture is what we thought looked kind of like a dog. She also colored, read books, sang songs, danced in her carseat and watched DVD's. Abby did not like being in the car for so long. Fortunatly for us she slept a lot and when she was not sleeping she would be complaining and crying :( We were all glad to be home and Abby was happy to be out of her car seat.

Blessing of Abigail Rose Dixon

2008-09-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

Hello so on Sunday we had the opportunity to give Abby a name and blessing in our church. Chris's brother and family came up from Visalia for the day and it was fun to have them here for this special event.

Abby

2008-09-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

So the other night Abby started playing with her hanging toys on her bouncy chair and so I took a short video of her and I even managed to get a smile near the end so have fun watching Abby have fun.
PS. this video was filmed at about 10:45pm because that is the time that Abby is most awake and happy, lucky me (he, he, he)

Elizabeth's point of view

2008-09-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

So we have been trying to get Elizabeth to stay in her bed at night and not come sneak into ours once we are asleep. So I've been talking to her at night before she goes to sleep and the other night I sat down for our talk. She patted my arm and told me "now mommy you be a good girl and stay in your bed all night and don't come sleep in my bed because there is not room and you would squish me, okay?" So I guess she knows the talk and now I just wish there was someway she would follow her own advice.

Elizabeth also has two new answers to most questions they are something and anything. So if we ask her what she wants to eat for lunch she says "something" and when it is quiet in her room and I ask her what she is doing she simply says, "anything". Lucky for me if she is doing something that she knows she shouldn't like taking all of the diaper wipes out of the container then she says "not anything". So if I hear "not anything" I know I need to go and investigate.

One evening I was nursing Abby and Elizabeth was pulling at her diaper. I noticed that the diaper was pretty soggy so I told her she could take it off and I would put another one on when I was done feeding Abby. She ripped it off, stood up, said, "now I can really shake my bum bum", and started dancing. I found a music channel on the T.V. for her to dance to and she danced bare bottomed for a good ten minutes. It was so cute but I didn't think a picture would be apropriate, sorry.

Just a little note on the moon once again the other day she was telling the sun to get out of the car and I asked her why and she said she wanted the sun to go down so she could see the moon again (she loves the moon!).

Say cheese

2008-09-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

So the moon stories continue. The other night we were in the car driving home and Elizabeth had her play phone that makes a picture clicking noise. First she was saying "say cheese Mommy" and taking pictures of me and then of Abby. Then she was pointing the phone at the window and I asked her who she was taking pictures of and she said "the moon, 'cause he's smiling at me". She took pictures of the moon for a few minutes then everything else outside got pictures also like trees and buildings, my favorite was the wind. She took a picture and then said that the wind "whooshed" for her picture, saying "the wind whooshed at me".

Swimming

2008-08-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

So on Saturday we took Abby swimming for the first time. She almost didn't get to go into the pool because she was asleep and we didn't want to wake her up, but she woke up for awhile and I think for the most part she liked it. We had also invited my friend Steve and his friend Naomi to come and swim also. (steve's in the picture). So it was a nice relaxing Saturday.

Cuddle time

2008-08-24T00:52:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth loves spending time with her sister. Abby gets lots of loves (no matter if she wants them or not)

Things that made me laugh

2008-08-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

So Elizabeth has been saying some things that made me laugh and I thought I would share although I am not sure you will think they are funny. Anyway on the way home from church yesterday she told us, "well I asked Abby if she wanted a pancake and she said no I don't want a pancake I want eggs". We havn't had pancakes and eggs for breakfast in awhile so mabe she was thinking it would be good, but I thought it was kind of interesting that she interperated her sister's desires already.

I know she has a very good imagination also because of some of the phone conversations she has. She has several play phones and ususally she calls people she knows like Grandma or Uncle John. One night we were driving and she called the moon. She was asking the moon why he was following us and had this whole conversation about how the moon wanted to live at our appartment and was going to sleep with her in her room and shine at night for her. When we got home I asked her why the moon was following us, and she said "just because"

I was loading the dishwasher and Elizabeth brings me a bowl and says, "here Mommy you can put this bowl in the dirtywasher to make it clean".

Abby

2008-08-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

Abigail is one month old today and she is doing what baby's do best eat and sleep. She just needs to learn to sleep less during the day and more at night. This is a picture of her at the picnic.

AIM picnic

2008-08-16T22:01:00.000-07:00

Hello this afternoon we went to the annual AIM picnic. AIM is the early intervention school where I work when I am not on maternity leave. I'll return back to work in October. It was a fun picnic this year with a petting zoo and pony rides (above is picture of Elizabeth petting rooster). The line for the pony rides was too long for Elizabeth to wait in but she still had fun. We invite all of the alumni to come to the picnic so it was fun to see some families that I had not seen for awhile. Of course everyone enjoyed seeing Abigail and Elizabeth.

Then tonight my parents watched the girls for us and Chris and I were able to go out to dinner kid free. It's nice to just be adults for a while.

Grandpa time

2008-08-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

I go over to my parent's house in the evenings at least twice a week because Chris works at night. It's good for me to get out of our appartment and it's good for my parents to be able to play with Elizabeth and Abby (well she can't really play yet but she is fun to hold). Elizabeth loves her Grandpa Turner and as soon as he gets home from work she runs up to him and asks "Grandpa do you want to play with me?" He usually says sure and they go make a tent, pick vegtables in the garden, or play chase outside.

As some of you know my Dad was recently called to be the Bishop of the Willow Glen ward (the congrgation that we attend in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints) and so now he has to make phone calls or go to meetings and Elizabeth is having a hard time understanding he has other things to do than play with her. She is adjusting and Grandpa is doing a good job of balancing some time for her and some time for Bishop stuff. So I though it would be fun to show you some of the fun pictures of them playing together.

The picture on top is on the 4th of July with glow sticks around his eyes

The orange one is super grandpa with his tablecloth cape

the next one is my dad fixing the deck outside

the last two are him enjoying his grandaughters

I can do it too

2008-08-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

So I had Abby on the changing table and she was kicking her feet and I thought it was cute and wanted to get some pictures. I was saying things like good kicking Abby and such and Elizabeth heard me and said, "I can kick my feet too" so she climbed in her crib and kicked her feet. Then she said "take my picture too mommy" so here are the pictures of my two girls kicking their feet.

Cute Abby

2008-08-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

Hello so I just wanted to post some more cute pictures! These are pictures of Abby in the swing and Elizabeth pushing her in the swing. Elizabeth can hardly stand to leave Abigail alone when she is awake, especially in the swing. In fact the swing is never empty because as soon as we take Abigail out one of Elizabeth's baby dolls takes her place (I think we are going to go through a lot of batteries). But it is fun to seethem interacting as sisters already.

Elizabeth's nap

2008-07-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

So last friday Elizabeth did not want to take her nap, so she played in her crib for over an hour and finally at about 4pm I said okay you can get out. She wanted to paint with water colors (one of her favorite things to do) so I said okay at least that would keep her busy while I feed Abby. I set up everything and then sat on the sofa to feed Abby. About 20 minutes latter I noticed it was realy quiet, so I looked back at the table where she was painting and she wasn't there so I called her name to see where she was and no response. So I stood up and walked to the table and there she was curled up on the chair, fast asleep so this is a picture of her sleeping somehow on the kitchen chair. I put Abby down and moved Elizabeth to her bed and she slept another hour and and half (so, she was tired).

The Arrival of Abigail Rose Dixon

2008-07-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

Abigail Rose was born through C-section on July 16th at 9:37am. There were no complications and I was able to leave the hospital on day three. We are soo happy and blessed to have her in our family. We are still working on getting used to having another little one in our family, especialy Elizabeth although she always wants to give Abby hugs and kisses. Enjoy the pictures and I am sure I will post more latter.

Father's Day

2008-06-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

Hello on Father's Day Chris got surprized in the morning with breakfast in bed. Well I'm not sure how much of a surprize it was but Elizabeth sure had fun telling him, "Daddy guess what we have a surprize for you" as we brought it in to him. At church this year they gave the Dads, "Dad's" root beer as their treat with a #1 tag on it. Then that evening we went over to my parents house for Father's Day there for Chris and my Dad. I think that Chris had a good day, next year he'll be the father of two cute girls.

Water park

2008-06-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth loves to play at the water park by our appartment. We call it the water park because it has these cool water fountians built into the park for children to play in. It also has some water features in the sand areas that are very fun when they work. Any way so this is Elizabeth getting soaked sometime in May before it was really warm enough to get wet just because she loved it so much (that's why she is wearing pants and a jacket). She also likes to try to drink the water just for fun!

2008-06-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody,

Sorry I havn't posted anything for awhile so I'll try to cover the last month. About a month ago my Mom had knee surgery so I have been busy helping her and entertaining Jason. She is recovering slower than she though she would but making some nice progress. Above is a picture of her and Elizabeth playing on the bed. Elizabeth thought she needed some company.

Too Hot!

2008-05-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hello so for the past four days it has been 98 to 100 degrees here in San Jose. Too hot for me especially because we were having such a nice spring full of 70 degree weather. To keep cool we have been going to the swimming pool in our appartment complex and Elizabeth has been having a great time. Hopefully it will cool down some but we will keep swimming.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-14T00:12:00.000-07:00

Chris took Elizabeth shopping on the Saturday before Mother's Day and so she could not wait to give me my gifts and tried to give some hints as to what they were. Sunday morning I recieved breakfast in bed along with Elizabeth's "surprise" chocolates (a box of Sees chocolates) and a gift card to Cold Stone Ice Cream (one of my favorite locations). It was very nice to be pampered and appriciated, Elizabeth even sang Happy Mother's Day to me (soo cute).

April Get Away Trip

2008-05-13T23:56:00.000-07:00

Chris and I decided that we needed to have at least one night away from Elizabeth before our next little one comes along. My wonderful parents said that they would watch Elizabeth for us so we were able to get away for a weekend. We left Friday after I got off work and drove to Genoa Nevada to stay at a natural springs resort- David Walleys. My parents have a time share there and so they are able to get discount rates, which is also very nice. The drive was good to with some snow on the mountians as we drove there, and not much traffic. That night we had a nice romantic dinner at Apple Bees, well it was good food. The next day we went to Carson City and Virgina City playing tourists, and it was fun. We were able to tour the Nevada State museum and see the old Washoe club house which was featured in an episode of the TV show Ghost Hunters (one of Chris's favorite shows). We also did some shopping and ate some Nevada chocolate. It was a good trip and we are glad that we took the chance because who knows when we will be able to get away again.

Baseball game

2008-05-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

We had a fun filled night at a baseball game watching the local San Jose Giants play the Modesto Nuts. We told Elizabeth we were going to go to a baseball game a few days before and she was very excited to go, when we drove up to the Stadium she said "hey look it's baseball". We went a little early and ate a nice BBQ dinner before the game. Elizabeth was happy to see the mascot Gigante and was a little scared at first but really warmed up to him, even more than last year. (Last year she loved to see him from a distance but would not shake his hand when given the opportunity) This time she gave him a high five before the game started. Gigante came and sat behind us in the bleachers and she gave him a hug and a kiss. Later on in the game Gigante was giving away a free Churro. Lots of kids wanted it but Elizabeth held out her hand and he gave it dirrectly to her, I think she won his heart. So other than our Gigante experiences she also had a great time watching the game. Chris would tell her things to say like "strike um out" or "get a home run" and she would yell it out. We stayed the entire game without any fidgiting problems, I think we've got a sports fan on our hands.

2008-04-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

Hello so Elizabeth has been saying some cute things lately so I thought I would post some of them.

After Time Out for Women I went with my sister in law Melissa and her family to Visalia (about half an hour away from Fresno) where I met up with Chris and Elizabeth as he drove there Saturday morning. Elizabeth was having some fun playing with her cousin Tyler, they were heading upstairs and I asked "what are you doing?" her usual answer is "I'm just playing" but this time she said, "we are going upstairs to play by ourselves Okay?", it was like she was so grown up telling me exactly what she was doing, as if I couldn't see that.

In the car on the way home Elizabeth was laughing at something and I told her she was a silly goose, we went on to say that Mommy was a silly goose and Daddy was a silly goose, then Elizabeth exclaimed, "Hey we are all duckies"

In the bathroom one morning as I was getting ready for work Elizabeth went to grab something off of the sink counter I pulled it away and said "that's not a toy", she held up her Dora bubble wand and asked, "is this a toy?", I had to smile and say, "yes that is a toy".

Time Out for Women

2008-04-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody, this past weekend I had the opportunity to go with my Mom and sister in law Amanda to Fresno for a women's conference called Time out for women. Attached is a picture of Mom and Amanda in front of some flowers at our hotel, Amanda and I being excited with our new cute bags we recieved, and Mom fighting off Amanda or anyone else with her cane. It was a very good experience with music and speakers. The main theme was how we can have a more joy filled life, through living the gospel. Speakers talked about positive thinking skills and knowing when we can change things and when we can only change our reaction to the events. We also got to listen to Kenneth Cope sing, a group called Mercy River, and Nashvile Tribute a band who sang touching songs about Joseph Smith and the pioneer's trek west country style. It got us re-energized spiritually although we were all sleepy when we got home. : )

Chris's Birthday

2008-04-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

The 27th of March was Chris's Birthday! The first picture is of him in the morning being excited for his Birthday (I think he was also happy because I took Elizabeth to the babysitters so he had all morning to himself, to play computer and do whatever he wanted). Chris also took the day off from work so we went out to dinner with my family at Chilli's, so the next few pictures are of us waiting for our table. Chris had to tickle Eizabeth to help keep her happy while we were waiting, it's hard to wait when your two. Then after dinner we went back to my parents house to open presents and have yummy Oreo cake. Elizabeth helped him open the presents. One of his cards was the musical kind that sing when it's opened and Elizabeth hads a great time dancing to the song. All in all it was a good Birthday!

Hunting Eggs

2008-04-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

So as a family tradition Chris, I, and Elizabeth when with my parents and brother Jason up to Mt. Madana to hunt Easter eggs. We missed having John and Amanda there because they had to work. We had a picnic of Togos sandwhiches, chips and fruit and then Grandpa Turner hid the eggs. We usually go for a walk while we are waiting but this year it was a too cold so we waited in the nice warm car unstead. Elizabeth had a wonderful time finding all of the eggs in the trees and on the ground. Sometime times she would say, "I can't reach, help me please", and there was always someone willing to help. We had a good time being outdoors and enjoying nature.

Dying Eggs

2008-03-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

We decided to postpone dying eggs and the egg hunt for a week because Jason my brother was at Camp Conastanoan last Saturday and we didn't want him to miss out on the fun. It worked better this Saterday anyway. Elizabeth had fun coloring the eggs and we didn't even spill the dye this year. The first egg she colored she was very careful and followed all my instructions. Then after that she seemed to think the egg only needed to be in the dye for about 10 seconds before removing it to make room for another. She also enjoyed drawing on the egg with a white crayon and seeing the design. Her hands will probably be dyed for a few days.

Easter Dinner

2008-03-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

For Easter Elizabeth got a new dress, which had a matching Doll dress, Elizabeth had fun putting the dress on her baby doll. Everywhere that Elizabeth went the doll was sure to go, even to church. She always takes good care of her dolls, Jenny & I know that she'll be a good sister.

We had Easter Dinner at Grandma & Grandpa Turners, it was very yummy, with Honey Baked ham, fresh made rolls, & Bunny salad. Later that night we played a heated game of Settlers of Catan. Jenny won of course, she seems to always have the good luck.

Easter Basket

2008-03-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

Woke up easter morning, and we told elizabeth that the Easter Bunny hid a easter basket in our apartment and that she had to find it. We gave her clues, but she didn't seem to understand them, finally we told her to go look for her pink bunny, which was conveintly by her easter basket, she found it easily then. She was very exicted and proclaimed WOW!! She ate the chocolate bunny first and later on that day it was all gone. She gets her love for chocolate from her mom.

For easter breakfast Grandma Turner made Bunny Buns, Elizabeth seemed to enjoy them. Elizabeth had fun trying on Rabbit ears, she always has the cutest smiles.

Burger King Breakfast

2008-03-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 22, we decided to do something we haven't done in a while, and that is to go out for breakfast. We gave Elizabeth a choice of where to go, either McDonald's or Burger King. She chose Burger King. We like to include her in some of our more complicated decisions. Elizabeth had a ham & egg sandwhich, she ate half of it, including the bread, which for her, is really good. Normally she just eat's the meat & egg's. It was a really good way to start our Saturday.

John's Birthday

2008-03-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

For John's Birthday we went to Red Lobster and Elizabeth had fun trying to drink from two straws at once. John was blinded by the candles on his cake, or at least he pretended to be, but I think he had an enjoyable night.

Visalia trip

2008-03-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we went to Visalia for Sari's Birthday and Elizabeth had fun playing with her cousins. She especially enjoyed riding Tyler's toy train around the house and playing the piano. I think she needs to have piano lessons when she gets older.

Bath Paint

2008-03-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! Here are some pictures of Elizabeth having fun painting in the bath with bubble paint

2007-11-04T22:16:00.000-08:00

2007-11-04T21:56:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody I have wanted to make a blog for a while now so I can share stories and pictures with everyone so here is my attempt to do so.