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TKO

In one corner we have the defending champion: Dean Bradley Walker

In the other corner we have the contender: the kitchen table chair.

The winner: table chair ... ouch! I didn't see Dean hit the chair, but when I picked him up he had blood rushing down his face. Good thing my sister Monique was over because I totally panicked. We packed all 4 kiddies in my van and Monique drove us to the doctor. Then my other sister Shelby came and sat in the waiting room with the babies so Roman, Dean's cousin, could come in the exam room with us. (My sisters are amazing - I love them).

Dean is really at the worst age possible to be able to hold still, so that didn't happen at all. I was EXHAUSTED by the time we got home from holding him down. It took me and 3 other nurses to hold him while the doctor stitched him up.

I feel like I have finally reached status of "mother of a boy." Dean's had plenty of bruises and dents in his forehead, but these are the first stitches. When we got home and he saw himself in the mirror, that's when he finally wanted to put a band-aid on. Then he realized his stitches look like a spider, so he points to it and says "Look at this! Spiderman!"

And here is evidence of the spilt blood Eww.

He's been very good today about not picking at the stitches like he was doing last night, and I'm proud of him for being able to put on his own band-aids, even though he totally misses the stitches. :-)

Family Pictures: the good, the bad, and the ugly!

So, my mother took some family pictures for us on Sunday since all the boys got their hair cut. I knew it would be a challenge, but I figured maybe we'd get one good shot out of a bazillion. And we did, so the sweat was a little worth it I suppose. We ended up with a couple good ones and plenty of bad ones. Here is our favorite:

And this one is a close second.

The one ok picture of Dean, even though he's not looking.

Now for the bad. For your viewing pleasure, I'm posting some of the bad shots to make all of you feel better about yourselves and your families. You can thank me later. In this one, Dawson is pretty much done.

They're kids, what more can I say?

And finally, for the ugly!! My mom recently got a Mac computer, and for a fun Sunday evening activity, we found out how to do the face distortion on it. Oh what fun! We laughed and laughed, and I hope you will too.

Anyone else thinks he looks like Frankie Munez?

If I keep eating the brownies my mom makes, I'll end up looking like this!

Here's Jonathan after he works for a few years and doesn't have time to work out anymore.

Okay, well that was fun. on to something of value. Last week I found some fun Little Tykes cars on Craigslist that the boys love. Dawson had been wanting us to push him around on a little tricycle that my mom has, but it hurts my back to bend over and push him, so we got a car with a push handle. It's awesome!

Happy Happy Birthday, Dawson Dear...

Dawson turned 1 last week. It's hard to imagine that a whole year has passed. He was born on August 6, 2008, after 8 hours of induction (a much better labor than his older brother). When he came out, I kept saying "he's so small!" much to the nurses' amusement because he ended up weighing 8lbs, 6oz. I guess I wasn't used to newborns. He was the sweetest baby I could have hoped for, and I just can't get enough of his huge smiles. We love our "Baby Daw" so much!

His birthday was pretty laid back, since I don't really do parties this early, but we did have a combined birthday with two of his cousins so that made it a little more fun. Here he is with his cupcake. He tried to grab the burning candle because smart mommy put it right on his tray. yikes...

He pretty much devoured the entire cupcake in just a few minutes.

He got a few fun presents, mostly clothes and some trucks that he doesn't play with, yet.

I think this guitar outfit might be my all-time favorite. I have a little rocker dude!

Auntie Autumn took some 1-year shots of him. He wasn't too cooperative, but we managed to get one adorable shot.

He just kept crawling toward the camera, or the hose, or the sprinkler, all of which were more fun than sitting still for pictures. What can you expect from a 1-year-old?

Pettit Family Reunion 2009

What a week we've been having. 5 out of the 6 Pettit daughters (we miss you Lisha!) are here in town for a little reunion. That makes 2 wonderful parents, 5 daughters with their husbands, and 13 grandkids. There have been a few days where we're all in the house together and let me tell you, it's absolute mayhem!! But we're having fun, and doing tons of stuff.

On Sunday, we all went to my sister Brittany's ward because she blessed her new baby Duke. Surprisingly, Jon got a pretty good shot of both the boys.

We got to take all the kids to a friend's house to ride her horse. I couldn't believe that Dean actually got on! Jonathan kind of forced him, but once he was up there he calmed right down and really enjoyed it.
Then (I know you're all getting jealous about all this fun stuff), my mom set up a slip 'n' slide in our backyard along with some blow-up pools. Dean went down it once with Jonathan but didn't love it, so he just walked down it with his lawn mower. I had been so excited to participate in the slip n slide competitions we had, but since I had gotten in a car accident the day before, my neck was a little out so I thought maybe I shouldn't make it any worse by throwing myself down wet plastic.
Jonathan, on the other hand, had a blast and even won the "longest slide off of the plastic" competition. He attempted many different ways to slide down.
I just hung out with my bro-in-law Neil by the kiddie pool.

There's Jonathan catching some sweet air.

On Monday we helped all the kids make tie-dye shirts and then we all wore them to Seattle yesterday. I thought it would be a little dorky, but it was really fun that we were all wearing the same thing. We got a lot of funny looks from people, though! Here is Dean stripping to help out with the dye.

In Seattle, we walked around Pike's Place Market and then took the kids to the Seattle Children's Museum, which I'm sorry to say blasts Cleveland Children's Museum right out of the water! Too bad Dean screamed for most of the time and couldn't really enjoy the museum. (surprise, surprise)



There's the "balloon man" in Seattle that will make any kind of balloon thing you want. Everytime we go to Seattle the kids get balloon animals, and this time Dean got a "dimomaur" (dinosaur) hat.

Dr. Walker... it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Well, Jonathan is finally finally, FINALLY, a real-life dentist. He got his license last week (no thanks to the slackers who processed it), and worked yesterday afternoon! He absolutely loved it, except for a patient who asked: "Are you old enough to be a dentist?" hee hee. Here he is in his dapper shirt and slacks:

Congratulations honey! We are so excited and happy for you. Now go make us lots of money!!

July Happenings

Happening #1

So, every night before Jonathan and I go to bed, we check on the boys. Last night we found Dawson like this. He pulled the bumper down over his face so he could grab onto the bar. Don't worry! We fixed it so he could breathe.

Happening #2

We have been having beautiful weather lately so Dean spends a lot of time in the yard with his cousins. This particular day, he was playing with his cousin Evelyn. They were jumping to grab the leaves off of Grandma's tree to feed the horses behind our yard (not our horses).

I know you're just digging the "no shorts" looks on Dean.

I was very surprised that Dean is not afraid of the horses, because apparently he's afraid of everything else (see Happening #3).

Happening #3: The Lawn Mower

All the grandchildren love to take rides on Grandpa's lawn mower. We keep trying to get Dean to take a ride, but all he does is watch everyone else. So today we thought that maybe if he saw Dawson on it, he'd want to ride also. That didn't work, but Dawson had a great time!

Our next plan was for me to ride the lawn mower and have him see how much fun I was having.

That REALLY didn't work. He apparently freaked out when I started it up and drove away. Like mother, like son. When I was little, I would cry like this whenever I watched Monique go on amusement rides. I was just sure she would fly off and die. Maybe Dean was afraid I would meet that same fate. So, maybe we'll try the lawn mower again later...

Last, but not least Happening #4: Our first nursery casualty

As I was teaching the Sunbeams on Sunday (yes, my new calling; yippie), the nursey leader brought Dean in to me. His nose was all red and he kept saying "nose, nose!" I guess another little 2-year-old got upset that no one was paying attention to him, and took it out on Dean by biting him in the nose. I see a Mike Tyson in the making!! I wish I would've taken a picture on Sunday because it looked so much worse. But aren't those two little teeth marks the best??