I've been wanting a camcorder for a while now, to record Dawson's walking, moments, playing, etc. But they're SO expensive! Luckily, I picked this one up on Amazon for only $230, which is incredibly cheap compared to a lot of other camcorders. This is originally priced at $380, so I got a really good deal when I caught it on sale. I'm really liking it so far. I am an avid Canon lover.

I want to buy a video-editing program, and I think I've settled on Adobe Premiere Elements 9. It's got a $20 rebate and I do love my Adobe programs.

Taking HIST 101, ENG 102, PHO 170, & MATH 093.
It's only been a day since school began and I'm already somewhat stressed. This semester is going to be more difficult for me than last semester because Dawson is walking and hardly takes naps now. History is going to be a lot of reading & writing, I can already tell.

I really wanted to get back into reading, but I doubt I will be able to with Dawson.



My mom & I made Baked Ziti.. very cheesey & delicious. I only had a small piece, of course. Dawson loved it. He's been eating more and more table food daily.

He absolutely LOVES these; they're perfect sized for his little hands and mouth.

Dawson got his first box in the mail today. Dan, who sent me flowers, also sent Dawson a surprise for his first birthday. Dawson LOVES Buzz Lightyear & Toy Story, so he was really excited when he saw these!

Baby Bear is terrified of quite a large number of things, but they're all mostly sounds: telephones ringing, sirens, dogs howling, etc.
Today I sat him down to take some new pictures and just as I began, a firetruck passed by with it's sirens blaring. He got scared and made his cute little booboo face. I still ended up getting some good pictures.. just not the cute, smiley ones I wanted.

I have been craving oranges lately, much like I did near the end of my pregnancy with Dawson. And luckily, they were on sale this week, so we picked up a good amount. I gave Dawson his first orange and he really liked it. He spit out the pulp, though.





Don't they look delicious? Yeeep, they were!

My obsession with nail art & nail polish has resurfaced, and in perfect timing, too; CVS had a bunch of nail polishes on sale for 75% off, and almost all of them had unexpired coupons attached to them, which means they were all nearly FREE! Needless to say, I picked up a bunch.


See? A BUNCH. And guess how much all of this cost me? $3.58. WITH tax. Yes, I am proud of my findings. I'm such a bargain shopper MOM.

Went to Target to pick up some baby things and ended up in the Christmas clearance section.. I'm surprised they had a decent amount of things left. I picked up some peppermint lotion & body spray.


I couldn't resist! My weakness is definitely things that smell good. I'm so attracted to anything pepperminty. It smells utterly delicious.. and they were 75% off as well. They were about $1.49 each. Not bad at all. :)

While I'm on the topic of peppermint, I got some of this for Christmas:




SUPER duper yumminess. I'm trying to keep with my resolution, so I've definitely got to monitor my chocolate in take. I'm only allowed to have one square a day. It's all about portion control!

The doorbell rang at about 11am this morning and when I opened the door, a man greeted me with flowers, saying they were for "Samantha-Lee". I was like "Hey! That's me!"; He prompted me to sign a paper on his clipboard and handed it to me. I was so surprised! The card didn't have a name on it, but it did have a phone number which wasn't mine.. so I hunted down the owner to this number and it ended up being my twin, Danny Lee's! The flowers are so pretty and I love 'em! Dawson thinks they're pretty, too.. he keeps pointing at them, smiling saying "Mom!"





More after the jump..

I've been trying really hard to eat healthy; it's been a difficult task, especially with so much junk food in the pantry. :/
For lunch today I had a tuna-celery lettuce wrap/shell. It looks kind of gross, but it was delicious!

Today was the big day.. Dawson's first birthday party! I had been planning it for months. We were both very upset that his father was not in attendance, but we chose not to dwell and had a great time anyway! I'm so glad a few of my friends showed up, especially after I had so many people cancel on me last minute. I was terrified that no one would show up and it'd be a complete waste of money.. but it wasn't! Dawson had a great time and got lots of toys! I got to see friends I hadn't seen in a while and I got to meet Jessica's little boy Tyler. Have some pictures:


His cake & Cupcakes!


Balloons!



More pictures after the jump :D

Napping!


Rubbing his eyes


Awake

Dawson loves bubble baths in his ducky tub! I bought him a pirate ducky before he was born and forgot about it! I was attempting to clean out our closet and found a bunch of stuff I'd forgotten about/lost. I love when that happens!

Having snow in Vegas is pretty rare, and it's especially rare in North Las Vegas. But it snowed last night/this morning and I took Dawson outside for a little bit!


He was SO excited!

I love watching Baby Bear sleep. During the day, he sleeps peacefully and still in his playpen. But at night when he sleeps in bed with me, he tosses and turns; he's quite the violent sleeper at night!

On New Years morning, I woke up to him giving me a kissie. It was the cutest thing! He was my New Years kiss. :)