It's getting indisputable...

lashes- so glad he got the dark long lashes. :)

We have been trying to determine what color Tate's hair will be...I have thought that it has had a red haze and that it was going to eventually be pretty red, he has the complexion for it. Lee, however thought that I was crazy...Lee is starting to see it my way now, as he usually does. ;)

Pumpkins and baby smiles! (Well it actually posted in baby smiles then pumkin patch, ugh)

These are the smiles I get every time Tate gets a diaper change, this one happened to be on the front seat of our car and the camera was handy. :)

Zane thought the pumpkin patch was pretty cool, Tate was not so impressed! ;)

We ventured off to the pumpkin patch for the weekend, it was pretty fun. I'm still not quite sure why people fork out .17 cents a lb for a pumpkin when they can get one the same size at BJ's for $4.99???

And, could someone please teach me how to blog! My goodness, I can't get the hang of posting in backwards order so that my pics follow a storyline and I can't seem to move them around once I have uploaded them! This is why I am not a blogger!

Back to blogging...

Aye! I need to blog more than facebook. I really should get into the habit of jotting down what happens in our lives. So now I am going to be in catch up mode. (We will see how long it lasts!)


So, we have a new baby! (As if the world didn't know that already). We even managed to come up with a name. I'm not sure we can have any more kids, they may end up without names, well boys anyway. I think we will have an easier time naming a girl. Let's hope! We had a list of names for Tate and spent the better part of the nine months going back and forth, pulling them out of hats, etc. Brandon wasn't even on the list until we came up with it. All I know is that Tate went absolutely crazy inside me when Brandon came out of my mouth,, so there it was. If he doesn't like his name I will tell him it's his own fault. :)

Tate is an awesome baby and Zane LOVES him. He always asks if we can take Tate with us when we are getting ready to go. If Tate is crying he is right there telling him "it's ok, Tate it's ok".

The other day I asked Zane where Tate was before he came to our family. I had not had the "preexistence discussion" with him before so this was all Zane. His reply was that Tate was at church. hmmm...ok "What was he doing at church" I then asked..."praying" was his reply...I think, after analyzing this a bit, he got it as close to correct as anyone else could Tate was indeed talking with Heavenly Father at his house. Kids really do get it.

Zane is so smart. The pediatrician says my issue with him when school starts is that he will be bored! He is not quite 3.5 yrs old and he has all of this letters down, the majority of the sounds that go along with them and is getting the concept of putting the sounds together to sound out small words. He can also write a handful of letters.

Now for the updated pics and such...I had so many other little things to catch up on but now I don't remember what....

Brandon "Tate" Dawkins
6 lb 13 oz
21.5 in

Loyal ( a really old post that didn't get posted)

We have been trying to decide a name for this new baby, at first we were thinking "Bryson" and then we decided to look at other options, we came up with one other option but have been keeping it from everyone. Zane apparently picked up on this. We were at my parents house eating ice cream cones at their table and my mom decided to be tricky and ask Zane what the baby's name was going to be (when I ask him he always says one of the two names). I just smiled, I didn't tell him not to tell, just smiled and watched what his response was going to be (expecting him to say "bryson" and hoping he didn't say our secret name). He looked at me like what am I suppose to do and didn't say a word. This went on for a few minutes, then they started guessing names and he just responded "no". Then there was a pause in the conversation, he was eating his icecream, I was laughing that he was so ingeniuously loyale, my dad was fixing him another icecream cone to try to bribe him into telling him the name. Then he says, "how about we name the baby...brown!" and he just started laughing and then started spurting off all these random object names. He thought he was hillarious, so did I. My mom continued to ask him throughout our visit what the baby's name was and he continued to say random names.
I was telling Jen this so yesterday she and Zane were playing checkers, I was in the kitchen but caught him looking at me funny, it was the same "what should I do?" look, I said, "you just aksed him what the baby's name was didn't you?" She said yes, but she also included in her petition that I had told her that he could tell her. He kept silent her first attempt and changed the subject on her next attempt when it was just the two of them playing trucks in the basement he changed the subject. He has yet to reveal the name, I think it is hillarious and incredibly astute of him. :)

Zane is now totally into the imgagination stage, one of my favorites! The other day I had to open the door to let out the alligators that were on the celing and all the "other" animals in the house. The other night he came into our bedroom eating a granola bar, he said that ducks were following him. I said "well you still need to eat that in the kitchen" he said, "but the ducks are following me!" I replied that he should "tell the ducks to leave him alone". So, he turned around told the ducks to leave him alone and went back into the kitchen. Sometimes, his imaginiation also affects what I can do, I wanted to leave the bathroom but he informed me that there were a lot of trees and I couldn't leave. I said I would just walk around them, he said there were too many, I said OK, I will walk through them. Nope, not an option. So finally I say "well, I need to get out, will you please cut down the trees for me?" He says yep and proceeds to use his saw (finger) to saw down the trees, and at last I left the bathroom.

fireman

I love that we are getting lots of rain except that Zane gets cabin fever and then he does not sleep well. So I was telling my mom and she pointed out the obvious, which to me was a stroke of brilliance, buy the boy some rain boots and jacket. Wow, couldn't have thought of that on my own....so we did...
Zane got his first rain jacket and boots, what makes it the most awesome set is that it is a "firefighter" outfit...Zane is now a fireman and is almost always wearing his rain gear. Good thing he is super cute doing it. :)
Along with being obsessed with being a fireman he is also obsessed with his upcoming b-day party (in two months). He brings it up all the time in conversation so I asked him who he was going to invite to his party. I first suggested grandma so he would understand the question, his list of people are as follows:

Jerry
Heidi
Santa Clause
Grandma & Grandpa
Daddy
No cows, horses, moose, or zebras
well, just little tiny Zebras
No plants and trees and grass

I'm not sure if Santa will be able to make it although that would be cool. Ever since Santa brought him a train for Christmas he has been his #1 pal, Santa even took Jesus' spot of the people who he loves and loves him. We are working on it. Monday our FHE lesson was entitled "Jesus is better than Santa-although we do still like Santa"

Art

"spider"

the "stare down"

Above: baby brother

the sun

my favorite "daddy with lots of legs"

I love children's art...Zane enjoys drawing and has always been pretty meticulous with his pictures. He was drawing triangles, squares, circles, ovals, fish, and rocket ships six to nine months ago, now he has moved on to a bit more animated objects. Unfortunately his best work is usually done on a doodle or aquadoodle so I can't keep them so yesterday I decided to preserve his pictures by taking a picure of his drawings.

Close calls...

A funny day....I should have know it was going to be a day full of funny things. It started off great, Zane slept until it was actually light outside (very cool) and to top it off he decided to not wake us and to entertain himself (a first)..........................I woke up to him saying "ohhhh, look my blankie!", then I hear his little feet tromp into our room. There he is, covered in his paints. It's as if he made a mental note that I left the box on the counter and set his internal alarm to remind himself to take advantage. So, now the boy is discovered covered in paints, the only mystery left is where and what did he paint.

Lucky for us he stayed on the tile and nothing was irreversibly damaged. :)

Later that day I was taking a nap, Lee was in charge of daddy duty because I was sick. I woke up hearing zane say repeatedly "dad, come look at my poop" "dad! come look at my poop"...apparently dad was either not understanding or preoccupied so I drug myself out of bed hoping to find zane looking into the toilet (he isn't potty trained yet so that was a bit of wishful thinking). I pass the bathroom and find him in his room squatting by his diaper pointing at his poop, not really a good thing for a toddler to take off his own nasty diaper. Luckily, once again, no damage done and my carpets are still clean!

In the evening (this doesn't actually involve a mess) we were hanging out in our living room and Zane had went into his room. He ran out saying there was a monster in his room, I said "oh, well isn't he your friend? why don't you go and say hi?" so he returns and the conversation goes "Hi monster, you want to be my friend? oh ok, How are you?" I couldn't really make out the rest of the conversaton but I thought it was very cute. I definitely see an imaginary friend in his future.

One more funny thing about Zane, he is obsessed with colors and identifies people by the color they wear, today I am blue. So, a couple weeks ago we are sitting at a table at the food court and he sees a lady and says "she's black" the lady was wearing a black shirt...I though "oh no..." Luckily she didn't hear him however I can see the day where I have to explain that I am not identifing people by their race and that he is just talking about what they are wearing...

Mind of a two year old

Although it has some challenges attached, I love this toddler stage. It is so funny how a two year olds mind works. A few weeks ago we were teaching Zane that red means stop and green means go...he was, and still is, very adement that red means go and green means stop....We couldn't figure out his logic and continued the argument and one day while in the car he says, "No, not red means stop, red says go" and then I got it "Ready, Set, Go" or in a toddlers mind "red said go". I've come to accept that, although my two year old can hit a baseball from a pitch and nail the bazonkazonk out of a golf ball, he will not excell at "Red light, Green light", and that's ok, as long as he is convinced by the time he is 15 that red means go he'll be ok. :)

Another funny story: We were sitting at the table finishing dinner when Zane lets one rip. It was a passing of gas to match a very grown man. So Zane laughs, I say "oh my gosh!" and Lee, as ritual says "pooter" and then Zane says "pooter". Then Zane, still laughing says, "I want to do that again!" He even grunted a bit to make the attempt. Boys! :)

I'm sure I had a few more tidbits to jot down but I can't think of them now now. Zane is so much fun, such a personality! Although we anticipated another baby much sooner, I'm glad we've had so much time to spend with Zane. He isn't too excited about the new arrival, but he says he will love it anyway. (I'm pretty sure this one will make it's way here if not, lds family services will be the next resort) Any pointers for making the transition from one to two will be greatly appreciated. :)