August's Baptism and Kennedy turns 3!

On April 24th, we had a double Dodson Dipping of Payton Lee and Augusta Laine Dodson at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Helotes. Father Carlos(who confirmed both Kenneth and Trey) was the priest who allowed us the honor of sharing the cousins baptism.

Aimme Casper and Kirk Knussmann were chosen by us to be August’s godparents and Laura and Kenneth had asked us to do the honors of being Payton’s godparents. Both girls did well being immersed into the baptismal water.

We also celebrated Kennedy’s 3rd birthday at this time. She keeps me in stitches with some of the things she comes up. How their brains work at this age is amazing. She loves dressing up in princess gowns(wears them to church sometimes), wearing jewelry, and favorite color is still yellow. She still gets excited when she sees a yellow vehicle...yelling out "Yellow pickup, Yellow bus....etc". She picks her wardrobe out in the morning to a point, I try to give her a selection but she usually says "I need to wear my Cinderella panties with my yellow dress." Needless to say, she loves yellow! I wonder how long that will last. At her three year appointment, she weighed 34lbs and stood 37 inches tall. I have never thought of her as pudgy but the Dr. said her body mass index was a little high and that maybe we need to cut out some of the fattier foods (Poor little girl takes after her mommy). She also has a new made up little or sometimes big sister Ton Ton...yes Ton Ton. I think she derived this name from the GPS tracking devise Tom Tom. When we have Tom Tom she likes to hold it and repeat the direction it tells us to use. She also loves Dora. We have a Dora book "Dora's Hot Air Balloon Adventure" that we read almost every night. She has it memorized so I like to have her read it to me just so I can see how she infesies certain words. Since, I've been reading the book she has learned some of the spanish words incorrectly or with the wrong inflections. Trey just giggles and say's "let me do the spanish teaching".

Kennedy loves to eat stuff and then give messy kisses....here she is giving Papa Bill a cake kiss.




















Melonie and Becky, along with their children, came over to the house. The girls played softball. Yes, LeeAnn got hit in the head by Gracie(LeeAnn shook it off quickly) and then Gracie hit Kennedy in the hand(all by accident). They had fun playing with one another despite the injuries.































We went to the New Braunfels wine tasting festival and met Rhonda and Carley out there. We had a nice time tasting the wine…I like the 3 dudes winery in San Marcos the best out of the ones there. Kennedy and I stomped on some grapes and put of foot prints on a shirt for Trey. Our feet were purple, but with a red tint on them..so they almost appeared really burnt and swollen. The girls enjoyed dancing to the band.

Catch me up.....

Trying to catch up in the midst of a move and new baby is hard to do. August is growing like the beautiful wildflowers being seen across the state. She smiles, likes to push up with her legs to try to stand, while laying wiggles legs like she is running, likes her sister to kiss on her(to an extent), grabs hair/wraps fingers around your finger pretty well, seems laid back like her daddy, just started cooing, and has been such a joy watching her grow. Two children is harder than one, but like when Kennedy entered our lives, we wouldn't know what to do without August in our family.

I think one of the challenges is when you try to go shopping and fitting two children in the basket. We went to the grocery store the other day and brought along Kennedy's kid shopping cart . She pushed the cart around the store and put items in it, so August could ride in her carrier on the big shopping cart. It was wonderful. Now I have to figure out what to do when we go to clothing stores.

I really haven't felt like I've been on maternity leave due to being busy . I return to work on Monday, May 3. I've been trying not to really think about it, but I know once I get into the swing of things life will go back to how I knew it as a working mom. However, I have to say being at home with two kiddo's is much harder than going to my place of employment. Even though work can have it's moments, I don't look forward to returning to waking up on Monday mornings with the dreadful sigh of having to go to work and leaving the kiddo's/Trey. It's healthy though for all four of us and I do look forward to being with my friends at work. I have a great support group there and been very fortunate to have a great flexible schedule. Tracy emailed me this week to tell me not to bring lunch on Monday, that she has arranged for a pot luck for my return. She is such a blessing in my life!

On to other items, since it has been forever since my last post I'll have to try to remember things, which lately has seemed to be scarce. I'll post pictures of the new home soon, just trying to get the old one ready to be rented out. Trey put the sign in the yard late last night, so we are hoping to start receiving calls today(Saturday). Yesterday, Kennedy went to her room at the Leona house and said "mom, my room is all empty." I didn't stop to ask her if she realized the whole house was empty. I had a few moments of tearing up. It's as if we are saying goodbye to a good friend. Even though the duplex was smaller than what we just bought, it was HOME. It is where Trey and I first started our marriage, brought Kennedy and August home from the hospital, and have spent five years of our lives growing together as a family. I know the new home will bring the same amount of joy(all the neighbors are so nice), it will just take time to begin new memories here.

Trey and Uncle Tim had shot a couple of deer so it was sausage making time. We broke up the process into several days since it was just us making. Kennedy was a big help with grinding the meat.

Here are some photos of Kennedy and August showing the love between one another. Kennedy tells her sister how much she loves her, calls her sweetie pie, greets her in the morning by saying "Good morning baby August" with a big kiss, helps when she is crying by putting a pacifier in mouth(sometimes if Kennedy isn't taking the pacifier for herself) and finds humor in eating something and then giving August kisses primarily on the nose.

Mel Knussmann brought Gracie and Kase over to the house after August was born so the big girls(Gracie and Kennedy) could play together. Here the girls are having fun putting on hats

We went down to the lake to get away for a couple of days with the girls. We were down there for Ash Wednesday, which is reflected by Kennedy's sign of the cross on her forehead. August also got her first bath in Mathis on Feb 5. She loves her bath and so far doesn't mind the water dripping down her face, hopefully that will last so that washing her hair won't be an issue.

Kennedy wanted the kid size picnic table Trey built to be painted yellow, so that is exactly what you see here. The yellow is a bit on the bright side, which could be good if you are lost out on the lake...it's a good landmark.

Kylie and Payton, Kenneth and Laura's kiddos came over to play. Kennedy and Kylie played and rode with Trey on the lawnmower, while we got to meet Payton who was born a week earlier than August. Right now both the newborns favor there daddy's on the looks. I wonder what the Dodson boys were doing 10 months ago?

Lynn's boy, Breaden , was showing rabbits at the County show. The girls and I went up to watch him show, but missed it (they judge the animals quicker than they use to). Breaden did well and made it to market with the rabbits that he showed. We did make it in time to walk around with Lynn, Breaden, Zachery, Monica, and Mason. I don't know what I would of done if Monica and Lynn weren't there. They helped with August so that I could take Kennedy on some of the carnival rides. All the kiddo's had a blast. Lynn wanted to make sure Trey got a picture of August's first Carney experience.

Hanging out with dad

I took the girls to meet Rhonda and Carley at the McKenna Children's Museum in New Braunfels. The girls had such a great time and it was nice being able to catch up with Rhonda. Kennedy calls Carley, Charlie, so I'm interested when we meet them today in New Braunfels for some family fun if she'll still call her Charlie. Congratulations goes out to Rhonda for being accepted into the Masters Speech program(only 25 out of 60 are accepted) at Our Lady of the Lake in San Antonio.

We stayed with Aunt Vickie to go Trey's Captain's retirement party. Aunt Vickie waited hand and foot on us, I felt like I was on vacation. She watched August for us while we attended the retirement party in Conroe. Captain Pavlock has been battling cancer for sometime. When he was thanking everyone for coming and sharing stories he told one that included Trey. Apparently, one late night(around 2 in the morning), Captain Pavlock was in one of the hospitals recovering from a surgery. Trey and Mark(another firefighter) had dropped off a patient at the same hospital. They went upstairs and into Captain Pavlock's room and wrote on the chalkboard where the Nurses in Charge name was and put their name instead. Captain Pavlock woke up and they were able to visit for just a bit. Captain P. said it were people like them that helped give him strength while battling his cancer.

We spent the night at mom and Jim's. Kennedy wanted her fingernails and toes painted so Popo took on the job.

Does anyone remember this dress from Kennedy's 1st birthday?

Easter we spent down in Falfurrias with Honey and Papa. We went to Patty Ann's and Bubba's wedding anniversary party and had a nice time visiting with the family. The girls got to play with their cousins and Emma and Kennedy had a blast ridding the gator and Easter Egg hunting together. Kennedy woke up to the Easter bunny leaving some eggs in bed which followed to a basket full of goodies.

This is our neighbor from the duplex, Mrs. Nobles. She has really taken us under her wing and treats us so wonderful. Kennedy will ask to see Mr. Nobles so we go and visit. She always offers us good conversation, cookies, coffee, and milk. Hopefully, in the future she will be teaching me some quilting leasons. She has made the girls both some beautiful quilts.