Family Update

Wow! It has been so long since I have been on here. So much has happened that I do not even know where to began. So I will just began with this year!

We celebrated Christmas together a few days early because Nathan has to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Kourtnee had been asking for a while for a RC truck. She cannot wait until it is summer out so she can drive it around outside.

Natalleigh loves baby dolls so we got her a My Story baby. It looks like her with blonde hair and blue eyes. The baby's name is Lil Miss Michelle from Full House.

They both also got some clothes for Christmas. Nathan and I were able to get each other some things too. It was a wonderful Christmas for all of us!

On February 2, we celebrated Nathan's 28th birthday. We really did not do a lot because he had to work so much. But we did have homemade chocolate cake!

Kourtnee, 4, has started school this winter! She is so excited about it and every day would be a school day, but its not for mommy. Right now, we are doing ABCmouse.com with here, but in a few months I will ordering school books for her. I have a feeling that she will not be able to go all summer without school.

Natalleigh will be turning 3 years old in a few weeks. It is hard to be believe that my baby is growing up so fast! :( She wants Hello Kitty for her theme this year so I have a lot of work to do for it. But I am so glad that I can make it special for her.

LivingImage Photography is starting to get back on its feet! I have been blessed to have someone come along side of me to help me! It has been amazing!

Well, I think this brings everything up to date.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Kourtnee!!
Wow! My oldest is 3 years old! How did this happen so fast?!? Kourtnee keeps me very busy with all of the energy that she has inside of her. Where she gets all of it, I am not sure... I enjoy watching her use her imagination!

We had a Tinker Bell theme for her birthday this year. I was not able to make her cake this year so we bought cupcakes from Wal-Mart and also a small cake. We invited family and friends over to celebrate with us.

Kourtnee is very much a daddy's girl!! She loves being with daddy and doing anything he does. I enjoy watching them go out and mow our yard together. We have a little seat that she sits on to help him.

She is teaching Nattie her A,B,Cs now. It is so cute to watch her teach Nattie different things. Kourtnee loves to have books read to her before bedtime.

The biggest news is that Kourtnee is potty trained and she did it all by herself!!! She is a big girl now! And because she is a big girl now, she has a big girl bed.

I am so proud of my baby girl!! I love you, sis!

Happy 1st Birthday, Natalleigh!!

We did a lady bug theme for Natalleigh's first birthday this year. (It is had to believe that she is already a year and half! Time flies and it also shows how late I am on updating the blog. :) ) We had family and friends to our house to celebrate. I made a big cake with little lady bugs on it. She enjoyed opening her gifts!

It has been wonderful to watch her grow! She is so sweet and loves her sister so much! I love watching them play together and give hugs and kisses. They play well with each other too.

Nattie is very smart! She is already doing somersaults, helping with the dishes, and tries to help with the laundry. ;) There are only a few words that come out, but there is a lot of noise that she makes!! Once she starts talking, it will be a lot like Kourtnee, non-stop.

She loves to be outside, reading book and dancing.

I am so very thankful for my beautiful baby, Natalleigh!

American Eagle Lawn Care

Nathan has been working his dream job and loving it! He has been working with a local lawn care business here since April. When there is enough rain, he stays very busy. There are 5 guys on the crew and they work anywhere from 8-12 hours a day. They are off on Sundays. :) There are a few places up near our place that they mow, so the girls and I love to watch for Daddy to go by once day a week.

Natalleigh Hadassah Dawson

Our second beautiful baby girl, Natalleigh Hadassah, was born on April 9, 2012, weighing 5 pounds 7 ounces and was 18 1/4 inches long. She was a month early and because of that she was in the NICU for about 11 hours because of some breathing issues. I was very excited when they released her from the NICU and I got to hold her for the first time. The doctor in the NICU said that she did wonderful once she got to the unit.

Natalleigh and I were in the hospital for 4 days. My sister took care of Kourtnee for us so Nathan could still work and my Mom stayed with me in the hospital.  I was so very happy when it was time to go home. My sister brought Kourtnee to the hospital and we got the girls dressed in matching outfits, took pictures, and we left for home. When we left the hospital Natalleigh was only 4 pounds 11 ounces, so very tiny!!

Over the last year, Natalleigh has grown so much. Time goes by so fast!! She is crawling every where now and trying to walk. It is wonderful to be able to watch her grow and develop. We have also enjoyed watching Kourtnee teach her different things.

The girls get alone very well! It is so much fun to hear them laughing in the van while we are driving some where. There are still times when Kourtnee is a little rough. :)  It is such a blessing to be able have both of the girls. God has blessed with a wonderful family!!

Move

In October 2011, we moved from North Carolina to Indiana. Nathan's parents came down to help us pack and move back up here. It was a long drive, but Kourtnee did very well. It was very hard to move away from our church and friends, but I was very sick and needed to get back to my doctor. So we moved in with Nathan's parents in Roann, IN until we could get a place of our own. Thankfully, Nathan's job was able to be transferred up here. Our family is very grateful to them for letting us stay with them for five months.

There are many times that we miss North Carolina a lot, but we are very glad to be back with our great doctor and our wonderful family.

One of the Ministers at our church in Wabash, Pat Byers, heard that we were looking for a place to live, and they had been looking to sell their home for a while so we worked out a rent to own deal with them. So in the middle of March we moved into a 1 story house of our own again. It is a nice house, 2 bedroom, dining room, living room, (All with 10 foot ceilings) 1 bathroom, kitchen and laundry room.  It also has an expansive detached garage. (Built by a Mechanic) and plenty of yard to play in.

Update on Baby Dawson

We have found out that Baby Dawson is a little girl, Natalleigh Hadassah Dawson!! We are very excited!! Kourtnee has learned to point to my tummy and say "Baby". It is so cute! She will also lay her head on my tummy and talk to the baby.

Things are starting to go better with the pregnancy. I have had a PICC line for 3 or 4 weeks now and getting fluids all the time. I am also on some medications to help keep me from throwing up. I have been able to gain some weight!! In 4 weeks, we will be getting another ultrasound to make sure that Nattie is still growing ok.

Thanks everyone for your prayers!!

New Baby Dawson

In August, we found out that we are going to be adding a new baby to the family. We are very excited!! Kourtnee is going to be a great big sister!! She loves children and loves trying to take care of  babies. :) My due date is May 3, 2012, which is my Dad's birthday.
It has been another rough pregnancy. I have been very sick again and been in and out the hospital. The doctor put me on a patch to help with the morning sickness. And I am very glad to say that it is helping a lot. I still get sick in the evenings but I am not sick all day. :) It has also been hard on Kourtnee because she does not understand why I am so sick.

The Beach

 Nathan, Kourtnee and I went to the beach on April 24, 2011 and had wonderful time!! The water was 71 degrees and the air temperature was 85 degrees, so it felt so good. Kourtnee loves the water and sand... I had sand that I was cleaning off her for 3 days and we still have sand in our van... Kourtnee loved the water so much that she just wanted to keep walking out as far as she could. I had to stop her before she got too much water in her tummy.

We live about 2 hours from North Myrtle Beach. So it is not a bad drive to make a couple times a year. We are looking forward to being able to go more times this year!!! It will be fun to see Kourtnee trying to build sand castles!!

Here are some pictures of our beach trip.... Enjoy!!!

 On the way to the beach

Eating her puffs

Playing in the water

Swimming

Trying to dance in the water

Stepping over waves

So pretty

Watch out!!!!

Here it comes!!!!

Big smiles

Here is another wave

Playing in the sand

Oh, what fun.... SAN

I guess the sand tastes good... 

It is our Snicker-doodle!!! HEHE

On our way home 

Sleeping after a BIG day!!!

Play Time

We have a park that we like to walk to a lot... Kourtnee loves to play on the playground with Mommy and Daddy!! We have a lot of fun as a family.

Here are some pictures from April 7th, 2011. Yes, we are in short sleeves. :)

Pretty trees

Riding on Daddy's back

 Here is the sign to our little park....

Swinging on Daddy's back

Having fun swinging on her own

Weee!!!

Looking down our  road...

Playing in the tunnel

Kourtnee

Kourtnee is doing very well. She is growing so fast. We love her to death. Nathan and I thank God every day for the wonderful little girl that He has given to us. It is wonderful to see all of her firsts. She will soon be crawling. Right now she is pulling herself up on her knees and pulling herself forward. For the most part, she is just rolling for place to place. As her last doctor's appointment, she was 24 inches and 12 pound and 9 ounces. Last week, her first tooth came through!! She is growing like a weed and too fast!

Home is where we all are...

We found out in the beginning of September that we had a miscarriage. We were very saddened but we know that God knows what is best. It is neat to think that Kourtnee is a big sister. We are looking forward to seeing our baby is Heaven.

Wade, North Carolina is now our place to call home for a while. We are going to be here in our cute little house for at least 18 months. Nathan and I love it here! Wade is 15 minutes north of Fayetteville which is the city where Nathan works. The little town of Wade is very nice. There is a little park down the road where we can walk during the summer and when Kourtnee gets older we will be able to take her to play on the playground. We have only one light here in town and it is a flashing light. There is a post office and there is a general store that is not too far, but there are only a few things that you can get there. Really to sum it up, we live out in the boonies. But we love it!

Our family was able to travel to Indiana for a few days to visit family the weekend before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving Day, Nathan was off work so we were able to spend it as a family. We did not do a lot, but played games, read together and played with Kourtnee, which was fun.

It also really started getting cold here in November. I was not happy when it started getting into the teens at night down here. People around here keep telling us that normally it is in the 50s in December during the day. Not this year! most of the time it has been in the 30s and 40s.

In December, my parents and brother, Justin, were able to come down and visit. They were here for 3 days and while they were here we celebrated Christmas. My brother, Ryan, who lives in Wake Forest, NC, was able to come one night and have dinner with us. It was wonderful. Nathan and I took my family out to Chick-fil-A for breakfast... and yes, they liked it!

On the 24th, Nathan's parents were able to come down also, but they were not able to stay as long. We wish they could have, but it was great having them here.

We almost had a white Christmas. It started snowing during the night on the 25th, and did not stop until the morning of the 27th. We also had thick ice. Nathan was not able to go to work because of the weather. I was Kourtnee's first time seeing snow! I think she liked it!

North Carolina

On August 15th, Nathan and I dedicated Kourtnee to the Lord at our church in Indiana. We played a special song that was also played at my dedication when I was a child. This was also a big day for Nathan and me; it was our one year anniversary!!! it was hard to believe that we had been married for a year. And the pastor who married us did our daughter's dedication.

In the end of July, Nathan and I had started to pray about his job and the stress it was causing our family. We talked with our family and some friends to get counsel about what we should do. We had been invited by a friend of mine to come down to North Carolina to look for a job. We were wold that the job market was better down there.

Well, Nathan quit his job at Home City Ice in the beginning of August and on the 17th, we headed down to North Carolina. We stayed with my friends and looked for jobs. We looked for a month and nothing came up. At this point we had already decided that we were moving down to North Carolina to stay.

Our pastor, in North Carolina, called us in September and said that Chick-fil-A was hiring; he had just talked with the manager. Nathan and I drove over there right away and filled out an application. It took only an hour and a half after filling out the application before the store operator called us back. He asked if Nathan could come in the next day for an interview. The next day Nathan went to his interview and was hired on the spot. Nathan is now working full time and some over time.

Some of you may not know much about Chick-fil-A, but it is a Christian company, which means that they aren't open on Sundays. and when Nathan had his interview they asked him what days and times he would need off for church things.

We are very glad that we listened to the Lord and the ones that counseled us to come down. It was hard for a little while, but God is working things out the way He always does.

We have been blessed with a very WONDERFUL church family. They have done so much to help us. There are not enough words to thank them. I have been writing thank you notes, but it sometimes doesn't seem like it is enough. I pray every day that God will over flow their cup daily for all that they have done for us.

Family Pictures 2010

Here are some family pictures that we did last night. I hope you enjoy them...

Kourtnee Nicole is now 6 pounds 12.2 ounce...

Kourtnee, Kechia, and Nathan Dawson

Our sweet baby...

I love taking pictures of baby feet. =)

Daddy and Kourtnee together...