Sorry this video is a couple weeks old. Since I shot it, Dallen is all over the place with this thing. He walks under the table, turns it all around, lifts it up, everything!! Tonight Mark and I sat across from eachother on the floor and little D took as many as 5 steps totally unassisted :) This kid is totally ready to walk and will be doing it in no time. I will do my best to catch it on video sometime soon. Until then, enjoy this one :) Love my big boy!!

Dallen got yet another hair cut. His curls were soooo adorable and I loved them but it was just getting out of control. He practically had a mullet of curls. Just look at these pictures...

Before:


During:Dallen's first lollipop. It got super hairy!! Haha :)
After:Strike a pose




And of course, there's always a little watching of the football game with Daddy.


Not all to pleased with the outcome of the Cardinals game.Love my handsome little man. He is looking so grown up!!

Every now and then there are moments in the day when Dallen is all to quiet to be up to any good. The other day, we had one of these moments and I turned my attention to find this…Then he tried to climb down...Dallen can and will climb on anything and everything. I have recently decided there is no such thing as really “baby-proofing” your house!! (Sorry for the poor quality of my camera phone, my real camera's memory is full at the moment).

One of Dallen's favorite things to do is...
DRIVEOk, he can't drive, but he sure loves to turn the windshield wipers on. And the radio and the A/C and the blinkers and the brights!! My favorite part about it, the crazy faces he makes when he's having fun. Plus, he turns around to give me lots of hugs :) At least until I have to strap him in the backseat, then he just yells at me all the way home!! Two more weeks and you can face forward Dallen and before I know it you will be in the drivers seat. Don't grow up so fast Little D!!

My best friends are my favorite people with whom I love to do everything with. I have lots of best friends in my life: my husband, my parents, siblings, cousins, and my new best friend, my son. We literally do EVERYTHING together, even things I would rather do alone. Different people have filled the position of "best friend" at different times in my life and for each of them I am grateful for being a part of my life when I needed them most. This is for all of them, but especially for one...

Meet Michelle.She was my best friend all through high school. We did everything together and knew each other better than any one else. And now...

Meet Chloe Jane. That best friend from high school so many years ago has her new best friend. Welcome to the world baby girl. I know from experience you are gonna love doing everything with your mommy!! Give her lots of hugs and kisses, smile at her often and try to make her laugh so hard you both pee your pants :) I love you already baby girl!!

Doesn’t mean you should eat off the floor!!I refuse to sweep my floors more than once a day. That would be a ridiculous waste of my time because Dallen is constantly throwing food on the floor and he eats ALL day long!! Even if there is one tiny crumb in all 900 square feet of our condo, Dallen WILL find it and he WILL put it in his mouth. So long as its his own food and not garbage, it gets swallowed...pick your battles :)

On September 3rd I posted a few pictures of my little troublemaker and his infamous "busted face" that I love so much. Well, somehow I missed this one...Little D decided to rip up Daddy's magazine. I don't really blame him, its a boring attorney magazine from work :) Plus, how do you get angry at this little face?!?!

Dearest Dallen,

Today we built a fort. While we were playing inside and you were smiling and laughing with me, I couldn’t help but think there will soon come a day when you will build a fort where there are “no girls allowed”. Then my mind drifted off to the day, probably amongst your teenage years, when you will be mean to me and think that you hate me. Then I pictured one of the proudest days of my life, when you will decide that you love the Lord more than me and leave me in His service. Next, I thought about the young woman you might meet that will steal your heart away from mine, someone worthy for you to love enough to leave me again. Finally, my thoughts arrived at the proudest day of your life when you will learn how much I love you and why I, like Robert Munsch, can say “I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be.”

Love, Mommy

Dallen wears some super cute, fun shirts. Only the problem is, he is a little too active to sit still long enough to read them.
"I still live with my parents"
I guess these ones are pretty clear "Choose the right" :)
Say "cheese"...so cute!!

We wear our best fan gear...fun fact: this was Mark's BYU shirt when he was a wee babe.

Sometimes we get angry when our team makes a mistake...
We pause to make important phone calls...
And we ALWAYS celebrate touchdowns like this...We LOVE football :)

Is exhausting!Can you believe this big boy is officially 11 months old?!?! Just one more month until this kid is one years old and he is already: climbing UP and DOWN stairs, saying words like "ball", "this", "that", "what", and "diddy" which means doggy :) He knows sign language for milk, airplane, more and wash hands. He can walk holding onto anything and has got it down to only holding on with one hand. He has 4 teeth and more on the way! Unfortunately he has also learned to bite and pick his nose!! We are so proud of little D and are excited to continue watching him learn and grow!Oh yeah, did I mention he loves TV, yikes :)

We have had a few rainstorms this summer but they have all been in the middle of the night. We finally got a day time dumping and Dallen was introduced to water falling from the sky. We set him out on the front step in his jammies Saturday morning and let him go crazy. Wish we had a yard for the kid to play in, but he made due. In fact, he had a blast. Also, this is the perfect time to point out that lately Dallen has been pointing at everything and saying “this” or “that” or “whats?” It really is cute but sometimes after the millionth time in the day it gets kinda old. Love that kid!!

The cougars are outI am sure most of you saw the game but just in case you didn't...we won!! Dallen was the best little fan, cheering as loud as he possibly could!! He was totally into it. It was so funny, when Daddy would yell at the TV, Dallen would point with both his fingers and yell at Daddy. It was like he knew exactly what was going on. I wish I could have gotten it on video, but this kid is not a performer. Dallen had the best seat in the house!! He seriously watched the whole game with us, it was just so fun :)And lastly, we must address the outfit...I think we know what Daddy will be getting Dallen for his birthday this year :) Go Cougs!!

Our little family motto is “Endure to the End” and I am so glad that Dallen already understands the concepts of not admitting defeat and never giving up!

Lately I have not been feeling myself. I have almost NO appetite and hardly eat anything all day. I am totally un-motivated to get stuff done. I feel like I have no muscle strength, barely enough to carry Dallen around. I have almost daily headaches and backaches. And all I wanna do is sleep, ALL the time. A lot of these are symptoms of depression but I knew that wasn’t it. How could I possibly be depressed when I have such a wonderful life? So, I went on WebMD to try and diagnose myself and this is what I came up with. I have every single symptom of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS): “tender lymph nodes in the neck, muscle pain, joint pain without redness or swelling, forgetfulness, memory loss, confusion or difficulty concentrating, headaches that are different from other headaches you have had in the past”, and the biggest one for me “un-refreshing sleep (waking up feeling tired or not rested).” The symptoms are known to last for as long as 6 months. There are no known cures for CFS. There known causes. Although, I have a pretty good idea of how I may have gotten it. Meet my trouble maker:

Chewing on a piece of Mommy's candle holder...Instead of his binky
...
Using the bumbo as a stool to get into Mommy's computer bag...And then, the busted face

...
Climbing on the TV box...Busted face

...
My attempt at mascara with a monkey on my back...Literally

Gotta love this kid :)

Dallen has become everyone in the family's favorite photography subject. Can you blame us?



Playing in the pool with Auntie Kellie

Kisses for Auntie Aubrey
We are gonna keep that camera snapping :)