The Newest Arrival!!! (This post takes precendence over any Christmas post)

GAVIN THOMAS DIXON
Born December 28, 2007 3:30am
6 lb. 10 oz. 19 inches long

Wonder woman has done it again. Not only did she entirely clean her whole house the night before she goes into labor, but then she decides that she's gonna push that baby out so quick that she won't wait for an epidural to work. Ok, so maybe that wasn't exactly her decision but yes, she delivered number 4 al natural ladies.
So here's the story as I remember it...check Shannon's blog in a month when she has time with 4 children to actually make a blog entry about it.

Andrew was working late until 11:30 and Shannon had been cleaning the house and didnt' finish until 12:30am. She got into bed and then thought. If I go into labor I don't want my hair looking like this! (She had washed and dried it but not flat ironed and if you know Shannon's hair, she likes to calm it down with a flat iron. So she gets back out of bed, flat iron's her hair (I love it :) ) and gets back in bed. But just as she falls into sleep, she is woken up by....Dun Dun Dun back labor. THE WORST KIND! So then she gets back out of bed and frantically starts packing.

Dan and I had a game night with old friends in San Diego so we decided to put our kids to bed at his mom's house in Carmel Valley and then spend the night there afterwards. We got back to his mom's at 1am and Dan fell asleep on the couch while his mom and I chatted until 2am. I knew I would be hating myself the next morning for that one. So I start to head upstairs to bed when I hear a phone sound like a text message beep. I thought it was my phone but I was too tired to check. 3 minutes later after I'm in bed, Kari, Shannon's mom, comes upstairs and says that Shannon is in labor and is on her way to the hospital and that she was leaving to drive up there. I fell asleep before I could complete my thought process of her needing someone to watch her kids. So Shannon frantically calls people trying to get someone to come over to the house to watch her kids and after a few calls, her neighbor comes over.
In the meantime, she is rummaging through the box with her new camera in it that isn't ready to go and she was packing stuff in a bag. At one point when looking for someone to come over (which would have been us if we were home) Andrew suggested someone who lived 15 minutes away and Shannon assured him she wouldn't last that long.
OK, so a neighbor comes over and they rush off to the hospital. Shannon will admit she doesn't have a high tolerance for pain and she was in PAIN! Andrew will attest. He offered her his arm to help her walk and got a response something like DON'T TOUCH ME! I was cracking up with her telling me this because I can just picture it being on those baby delivery shows. So they get in and of course have to fill out paperwork and then she hears them say that she's the last patient they can take in Rancho Springs labor and delivery *phew.* They then put her in the smallest room possible to deliver a baby and check her. She's at a 6. They call her doctor to come. Meanwhile she is in tears begging for the anesthesiologist to come with the epidural. Leaning over the bed with her head practically in the drawer of the monitor system to somehow escape the pain, the nurse comes in and tells her to sit up so as not to irritate the anesthesiologist when he comes in.(Oh sure! Why are all of them men?!?!?!) 10 minutes later, when he finally arrives in his designer jeans and over grown mustache, they check her again and she's at a 9 1/2. And he still gives it to her!!! AMAZING. But too bad it never worked in time. (And her doctor was upset that he gave it to her that late-I guess it can have an effect on the baby sometimes when it is administered that late. They sat her up and after two pushes and 45 minutes of being in the hospital, baby GAVIN THOMAS DIXON comes into the world at 3:30am!

Oh yes, we forgot a part. When the anesthesiologist was in the room, and Shannon was screaming, yes screaming (she says that she was kind of seeing herself from the outside thinking holy cow I can't believe I'm one of THOSE women who is screaming and telling her husband not to touch her.) HAHA! So anyway, the doctors see the white ghostly look on Andrew's face, because does not like seeing his wife in that much pain (obviously) and they all tell him to sit before he faints. When he says, no I'm fine, they say " Sit! We had a father faint before and hit is head and he died! So sit!" So he sat.

Anyway, we are so amazed that Shannon now has NUMBER 4! AND that she did it without anything!! She said that the epidural never even numbed her legs, it just slightly numbed her back and she was able to get up and walk fine afterwards.

We went to visit later that morning so here he is! He's a doll. He doesn't have the old man look and he looks very much like his big brother. Congratulations Shannon!


Who looks THIS amazing after delivering a baby?!?!?


Big cousin Allison is a pro now!


A proud uncle.

A proud mom

Here is a positive update from the mom of the Dobron kids...
Allison is going on the potty!!!! She has had a few accidents but lately she has been catching herself and doing so good!! We even went to someone else's house tonight and she was in a pull-up and she told me she had to go and she went on their big potty! (Which relieves me so maybe I don't have to clean out that little potty 5 times a day.) Now if she could just get the other business down...it too will come I'm sure but lately with her using the potty I feel like, well, kinda like I used to after taking a long semester class that I worked really hard at and getting an "A" as my final grade. After feeling like earning B's C's as a mom lately, I feel like I've finally achieved something. I'm not sure who's more proud that she's going on the potty--her or me. When I get all excited and tell her I'm so proud of her, she replies, "You're welcome." I just laugh because I think it's funny that she feels like she's doing ME a favor (which she is of course because I'm not filling up the diaper pail every other day, but hello?! Who wants to sit in it?!)
So for anyone out there ready to try. Plan on staying home a while, and go straight to big girl/boy pants and set the timer for every 15-20 minutes. I used 2 peanut M&M's as my ploy to get her to sit on it everytime and fruit snacks or a sucker for a success! For the other business, we're bribing with ice cream. I think I might have to start slipping Colace in her drinks! We'll have to go to marbles in a jar to earn those things once she gets the hang of it but whoooweeeee am I stoked about it. Thanks for the inspiration Chelsea!

Balboa Island Boat Parade!

My family used to go to this boat parade when we were young and I decided that if Allison loves seeing lights on the houses, it would be a fun experience to see them on boats! So we made the long drive to Newport and had a little fun with Lee and Jana and Carmen. Once we finally found parking we had to walk a ways but Dan took most of the load.

Of course once we saw this ride, Allison HAD to go on it...twice.


Then, she bravely said she wanted to go on the ferris wheel. There was no way Dan was going on it-plus he had Cole in the backpack, so I took her. We waited in line and she was all excited and when it was our turn to get on, she got cold feet so I picked her up and put her on it. Once we got going, she LOVED it. I'll admit, my stomach was a little squeemish at the top-everytime. And when Carmen who went with Lee almost leaped out of the ride while yelling Jana's name, desperate to be saved, they decided they had had enough and they were on the opposite end of the ride so of course we get stopped at the very top. Allison loved it though so it was fun for me.


We had to wait quite some time before the boats were coming by our area but Cole couldn't last that long. I forgot a hat for Cole so Jana kindly lent me one of her darling hand knitted caps which looked so darn cute on him- he might have preferred blue but Carmen the girlie girl only goes as far as red when it comes to straying from the true girl colors :) He was so tired that I guess when the "lights went out" he figured it was time for bed.


There were some boats that were decorated to the hilt but others were a little weak and Dan was sure to let some of them know it. It wasn't quite like I remembered it probably because I remember watching it on the sand on a blanket and seeing the boats come so close by the shore but we had a pretty good view from this dock. Dan was dragging his feet a bit but once we were there, he had a good time too...and he said it would be a good tradition to start :)

Success!!

Check out our photos from the other day at JCPenney...
click here and enter the following:

Customer Name: SHANNON DIXON
Access Code: LTPP0732109942JCP

Photo session

Not for the eyes of Wendy---only becuase I don't want her to die that we went to JCPenney for these pictures...

It was a day that will live in infamy. Last week, Shannon and I took all the kids to JCPenney in the mall to get pictures of them together like we did a couple years ago, to give to her dad. We signed up for their first appointment at 9:10am so Madison had to miss the first portion of school. What was amazing was that Shannon, with her 3 kids and 9 months pregnant, got all her kids bathed, hair done and at the "studio" before the appointment time. Meanwhile, me with my two kids struggled to race in almost 10 minutes late. So while I touched up Allison's hair with the curler (which she is deathly afriad of since I sorta burned her ear that morning with it), Madison got her individual pictures done. Then on to the sweat factory. Yes, getting 5 kids ranging from 10 months to 7 years to stay seated in place let alone smile is quite the task. Shannon and I were bribing like mad--which sadly wasn't working. I thought by bringing some mini marshmellows, I could shove them in the kids mouths and they'd be happy and sit still. Not so. Instead, Drew and Allison pretty much had their hands out the whole time begging for more marshmellows.
Finally we would get everyone set and I couldn't get Cole, the leech, to pry his hands off of me. Then, he would let go and sit right and then Drew would stand up in the middle with the custest little look, begging for more marshmellows, and finally when we got Drew and Cole seated and happy, Allison decided she didn't want to share a seat with Audrey anymore and started shoving her off of the stool. I think the other customers waiting their turn were entirely entertained. But it gets better, finally, after promising a "booty shake" and shoving a mini marshmellow in my 10 month old--yes ten month old son, I hopped up and gave my booty a shake (which brought a real big smile and laugh from this man watching the parade, and they all smiled and thank heaven the lady snapped the picture and the war was over.
But that wasn't the end of the fun day, no, we decided that while we waited 15 minutes for the pictures to be ready for viewing, we would go see Santa in the mall. We got there and the people said it was a 30 minute wait. Alright, that's tolerable, Shannon took the kids over to the tree play area...that blasted place, and after making Allison promise not to run away, off they went. 45 minutes later, halfway through the line, with my arm about to fall off from carrying my 20+ lb. child, we felt like we had already waited so long that we couldn't leave now. Thank goodness on the last half of the wait, there was a TV showing clips of Christmas movies for the kids to watch. So they comfortably sprawled out on the dirty mall floor in their brand new Christmas dresses and watched. Shannon and I were at a low caring point by then and waited impatiently for the freaking long line to slowly move-- due to the operation being led by some high school drops outs---Wendy--next year, hire a santa and take pictures because you would make BANK!!!



We were like 4 people away from the front when we were told they needed to reload their paper so Santa woul come through the line and say hello. I was snapping pictures like crazy and I was like -ok we got our pictures! They were charging 16 bucks for a 5X7 which of course we weren't going to buy and no sign said we couldn't use our own camera so when we got to the front and they tried to tell us we had to purchase something to use our own cameras- Shannon pretty much told them that we had earned our right to take our own pictures since we waited 1 1/2 hours in a "30 minute" line. Allison kept saying she was tired and wanted her binky for a nap so when we got to the front of the line and she said she didn't even want to see santa I was like whatever--Cole is going to then. So after the picture of Shannon's kids with Santa and Drew ever so excited to be taking pictures again, and Cole with Santa, which as soon as he realized there is a hairy man holding me he go the look of all times on his face, we wisked the children off after our 2.5 second visit and headed back up to JCPenney to spend even more time with our tired hungry children trying to choose poses we liked...which thank goodness some existed.





Then we went to Costco to feed the kids cheap pizza and Cole completely conked after drinking a cold bottle of formula on our way there. The kids ate pizza and watched a movie in my car and then we headed home at last. And that, my friends is the recipe to sending yourself strait to the insane assylum.

Long awaited...

Ok so I guess you all DO read my blog because I've had complaints of no updates for a while so here goes!!!
We threw our 5th annual Christmas party for some friends we grew up with and some family and it has grown to include some co-woworker friends of Dan's. And I will have to say, what started out as a couples party halfway ended up as a bachelor party--Brad, you are disinvited from the gift exchange portion of the party next year unless your future wife is in charge. We had a potluck with ham and potatoes and we continued with the tradition of playing the bells and reading The Orange story...which I will say is a long book and yes it is a children's book but it has a good message and even though it seemed like people were disinterested from listening to it yet another year--deeeeep down everyone loves it. Anyway, we ended with a gift exchange which came up with mixed reviews--sorry Nick, and a fun game at the end that Leah loves (not really-it puts you on the spot.) So anyway it was a good time and here are of course some pictures to document our 5th Annual Christmas party--and DON'T feel neglected if you didn't get invited this year--maybe you'll make it on the VIP list next year. Good luck! :)

Merry Christmas!

Here's a Christmas dance just for you from the Dobrons!