Happy 35th Birthday Shawn!

35 Reasons I love Shawn
1.Cutest bum in the world.
2. Works that bum off so I can stay home with RoRo.
3. He always supports me (even if I am wrong).
4. Hands down...the best dad in the world.
5. He loves to watch cartoons.
6. Perfectly Irish name: Shawn Patrick.
7. He asked me to marry him & even asked my dad first.
8. He is a great friend.
9. He is super street smart and always knows the right thing to do.
10. He is great at picking out clothes for me.
11. He is a great brother.
12. He is the most genuine person I know.
13. He can hang with academics, rednecks, my parents, or close the bar down.
14. He has very little rhythm.
15. He is a great brother-in-law.
16. He always stays calm.
17. He is always planning for our future.
18. He always lets me fall asleep before he does, so I feel safe.
19. He is the least pickiest eater I have ever seen...whatever I cook is great.
20. He is phenomenal son and son-in-law.
21. He makes gorgeous babies with that knock-out of a wife he has.
22. He is not a person who has to have a plan for the day (I am...so this is so refreshing and freeing to be around).
23. He and I fit perfectly in the spoon position.
24. Roanin wants to be with no one other than Shawn when he is happy, sad....come to think about it....anytime.
25. He has great feet.
26. He is a Christian.
27. He will honor most of my weird, gross, ridiculous or insane requests (ie. smelling weird stuff that I already know smells bad, or looking at gross stuff that I already know is horrible to look at...hey sometimes misery just likes a little company.)
28. He gets along with all of my girlfriends.
29. He is always prepared in the way that boys should be...always has a flashlight, always has a plan of how to get out of a building quick if there is an emergency, always has a pocket knife handy, always has a rope in the car and is able to tie anything to the top of the car if necessary.
30. He is so patient.
31. He is imperfect in a perfect way.
32. He can never work out, and still beat my pants off in a bike race or hang right with me in a 5k race.
33. He always acts courteous to people in public, and never takes out his own frustrations on others.
34. He loves animals.
35. He is the best husband in the entire universe.

I love you Sweet Pea. Happy Birthday.

And so it begins...

I bought some finger paints, and decided to begin what only proves to be a messy but hilarious hobby at the Dunsmore house. Roanin was thrilled with the option of four colors to place wherever he wanted on a piece of blank white paper.
Just gettin' started (please take note of the clean bodied child). Not 3 seconds after giving him the paint brush and saying, "here is your brush, baby" he did do exactly what he knows to do with a brush. Brush his hair. Followed by brush his teeth (of which I didn't get a photo because I was so freaked out and busy flushing the paint from his mouth). Gotta love how the English language was too lazy to come up with different words for the various types of brushes....or gotta love a Mom that doesn't think ahead and just introduces the object as "brush." You can see the resulting blue paint in the mohawk.And the back view...The brush was soon replaced by actual finger painting. The white paper was shortly replaced by body parts. Thank goodness I left his diaper on.

"What? I'm a an artist..."

Table for Three, Please.

Roanin really likes mealtime, but especially when he gets to dine with his horsey and cow. He often requests their company, and of course we indulge him. Several weeks ago, we caught him trying to feed the animals in between bites for himself. It was the cutest thing...he was ever so gently trying to get the little guys to eat the little hot dog chunks. Poor little thing, we didn't have the heart to tell him that cows probably don't like hot dogs.One bite for me...One bite for you...

Family Fun...

Two weekends ago, we had a Saturday afternoon get together over at the Neelley's home. We got to eat, swim and played one mean game of dominoes. Most of the gang in the pool (Danielle, Derrick, DJ, Roanin, Shawn, Joshie, Kritta, Sophia, and David).Princess Sophie getting into her swim gear with Aunt Damaris.Mr. Crabby in his appropriate crab float getting special attention from Danielle (his favorite). Come on....too cute for words.RoRo found a favorite spot to ride...the only down side is the glare off that bald head (hee, hee...sorry little bro...I couldn't resist).

Roanin loves a controlled scare. He was so excited that Josh almost dunked him, but in the end only took the hit himself. Nice work, Uncle.

These two are so busy...I can never get a cute shot of the two of them. Kritta has a cute picture on her blog of Roanin giving Sophie some love, but all I can get is Roanin stealing the only toy poor Sophie is interested in (the baby lotion bottle).

Nana and Grandpa come for a visit

Shawn's parents came for a visit from Scottsdale (this was actually over 2 weeks ago...I am a little behind), and we had a ton of fun with them. As usual -- too much food and a ton of laughs. Mr. Man with his Nana and Grandpa at lunch. Gayle and John were real sports and even brought their suits to swim with Roanin. As usual, the center of attention in the pool.

Thanks for coming you guys...we had a ball! Can't wait until next time.

Dear Tooth Fairy,

When I was little and woke up to a dollar each morning after I had put a freshly snatched tooth under my pillow, I was elated. A reward for something so semi-easy to do! Most of my teeth fell out on their own (although I do remember trying the whole string connected to tooth and doorknob trick & don't recommend it) which made the reward almost for nothing.

That is just it. Nothing is completely the wrong word. The idea of nothing has me considering dropping the whole stay-at-home-mom gig to become a full-time lobbyist at the "Congress of Tooth Fairiness" for higher teeth prices. I now FULLY realize that the nothing that has existed in my mind for so many years in reference to the amount of work a tooth actually requires from its owner should actually be called "the most horrible 2 months of letting huge chunks of white razors slowly move through the gums of a poor child who has no understanding of what is going on but does know that he has a fever, CRABBINESS, diarrhea, diaper rash that subsequently turned into a mild yeast infection, loss of appetite, and trouble sleeping...followed by flat-out denial of any medical staff to the existence of any adverse side effects of teething."

The idea that the tooth responsible for such insanity in households across the world is worth a dollar is ridiculous. After what I have just witnessed (and hopefully finished with for the time being), I am thinking a twenty per pearly white would just begin the negotiations.

Just a little glimpse...

We recently had pictures taken. Here is one of the great ones that surfaced from the session. More to come...I just couldn't wait to share this one. I love these two boys.

Slidin' in Style

Roanin has really gotten much more comfortable in the water after playing at the pool all summer. He has now progressed to climbing up to the slide, and going down the slide into the water all by himself. This particular day, he also insisted on wearing his shades the entire time in order to look as cool as possible. On top of the world (or the 4 foot platform the slide is on). I am hoping the jail-like bars are in no way an indication of his future...

Dad is behind to help...but obviously, none is needed. And by the way: don't even offer. He gets offended.

Getting in position...

Gotta fix those shades for round 2.