The Happy Road to Disaster

While visiting Auntie Aubrey at work at Fashion Island, we stopped off to see another jolly friend. We had to walk this little brick road...Lined with Christmas trees...
And gingerbread houses...

All for this...

Wet Winter Wedding

This Saturday my favorite cousin was married for time and all eternity in the Newport Beach, California temple.It was a beautiful day, well, not literally. The skies were rainy and I was sick as a dog (at the doctor just a half hour before we left) but I was so grateful to be there to witness the union of Jason and Nicole. Dallen was glad to be there too...

He had fun with his Mommy and Daddy:


His Auntie:

His babysitters, Uncle Scotty and girlfriend Kenzie:


His Mimi and Grandpa:
(Would have been a super cute picture if Dallen wasn't blocking my Mom's face)

And all things not wedding related:



(I wasn't by Dallen when he was playing in the water with his Mimi and Auntie and I heard someone saying "When I have kids I am never gonna let my kids do that" haha, that's my boy!!)

Also, I just had to share the photographer's hilarious solution to the rain problem :)

All in all it was a wonderful day and I was so glad I was there to be a part of the celebration!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree?

This year we decided to get a recession proof tree, well, bush!! We are going to California for Christmas so we didn't want to spend a fortune on a tree that would be alone on Christmas Day, but we wanted Dallen to get used to the idea of a tree so he wouldn't terrorize my parents' tree. So as a solution we got this little living, potted pine bush to hold a few of our plastic ornaments, or as Dallen likes to call them "footballs". We love our little "tree" and are so excited to have a little Christmas spirit in our home!!

**Let it snow**

We found snow in Arizona, at one of our favorite places, the Tempe Marketplace!! Good thing Mark had his new handy dandy iPhone to snap some pictures of Dallen enjoying the wintery white stuff. It took us a few minutes to figure out that it was soap, we finally realized when Dallen was rubbing his eyes, poor kid!! Happy Christmas :)

Holy Guacamole!!

This kid definitely has Messick in him. Let me explain...at nearly EVERY Messick family function you can find a bowl of fresh, homemade, delicious guacamole. At the last event I remember my Dad made the most ginormous bowl of guac you can imagine, using a dozen, yes 12 avocados, and the bowl was gone in less than 30 minutes. I am not exaggerating when I say that my family LOVES us some guacamole and little D has not missed the boat on this one!! He will devour the green stuff like candy whether it be on a chip or with his fingers :)

More Gratitude

Some more pictures from Thanksgiving weekend...

Dallen playing with baby Emma
Ride 'em cowboy!!


Strike a pose
Busted, Mr. TroubleThis beautiful little boy is definitely counted among my blessings!!

Never Ending

The last few weeks seem to be UNENDING! Its been one thing after the next with Dallen. It all began with a stuffy nose that turned into a sinus infection. Then the meds that he took to knock out the infection caused MANY adverse reactions. In less than 2 weeks the poor kid has had vomitting and hives and acidic diarrhea that has caused a burn/rash on his bum that turned into a yeast infection. Today the doctor said that the best thing for him is to run around like a little nudist. Dallen doesn't mind it so much but I feel like I have a new puppy in the house. Following him around cleaning up his poops and pees!! So you see, there is a reason why I am slacking on the picture taking. We still have another week on these nasty meds before the infection is gone, so we are in for a long, exhausting couple of days. Wish us luck!!

Amongst all the sicknes, I recognize that there is still so much to be thankful for...NEVER ENDING blessings. Here are a few pictures from Texas to hold you over. I am hoping to get more from Mark's family when they upload them, hint hint ;)

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN...

Reading stories with Grandma
Playing with all the unfamiliar toys


Making new friends: Madison and Dallen became fast friends


We even celebrated with some birthday pie for Daddy!!Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Count your many blessings...

Name them one by one!! Wishing you an enjoyable day of eating too much turkey and counting your many blessings. Also, a very HAPPY birthday to my husband...enjoy the last year of your twenties!!

M.I.A.

If it seems like we have been Missing In Action, its because we have!! We've been locked up inside because Dallen has a sinus infection that refuses to quit. It's been more than 2 weeks and it will NOT go away. Its a nasty one!! Earlier in the week it didn't really phase him. It was just a lot of boogers, but not enough to stop him from getting into trouble. Including some of his latest tricks (that I don't so much love): emptying the garbage cans, surfing on rocking chairs, and climbing in the cupboards, dishwasher and dryer.
However, today was the worst of it so far. He woke up with a fever of 100 and was miserable all day. I literally had to hold him every minute of the day, even while he was sleeping. He was crying and boogery and cranky. And the kid wanted nothing to do with food, unless it was a popsicle. The poor kid.
Plus, it doesn't help that I am still recovering from my super fun, super late, ladies night out!! I went with all the cousins and Aunts and friends and even Grandma to the 12:30 showing New Moon. I swear I am still paying for staying out past 3 am, but it was TOTALLY worth it. I had a blast!!

An Update

I'm sorry it's been forever since I have blogged. Sometimes I have so many pictures I can't keep up and other times I struggle to find things to post. This kid is growing so fast, sometimes I feel like I don't even recognize my own little boy. Just to document and share some funny things he has been doing lately: he has a "courtesy laugh". It is so cute. When Mark and I laugh in a social situation he totally pretends to laugh. It kinda sounds like my courtesy laugh, just a single "ha." He copies a lot of things he sees us doing. He is starting to push buttons and the right ones. He knows how to turn the TV on and how to open the DVD player. He knows to clap his hands when we sing "If you're happy and you know it." And he is climbing on everything. Here are a couple pictures I got of what Dallen has been up to lately.


Finally got the kid to stop watching football for one picture!!Climbing in his new toy basket...he did this all by himself!!
Also, on a side note: I think its finally gonna start cooling down enough to wear these...my birthday boots!!