Dixon Family Blog

One year ago, today...

Today. Where has the time gone?

We love you so much Sage Elizabeth, Happy Birthday!!

Here are some more birthday party pictures from Saturday. When I was planning the party in April, a morning at the park sounded so lovely…at the end of June, it was HOT!! But with the help of water tables to play in, a breeze and fans, we made it.

Sage actually turns one tomorrow. Cody leaves for camp tomorrow with the youth from our church, so keep them in your prayers this week. I am going to hang out in Tyler and go to my family’s 4th of July reunion!

Cody and 10 week old Jackson, so CUTE!

Sage and GiGi

Tristan, Catherine, Wyatt, and Sage playing a the water table

Sage's favorite thing about the park - wood chips!

Sage and Wyatt swinging together

Sage's first birthday cake

Feeding Daddy!

Cookie, Jeff, Aidan, Aunt Lauren, Uncle Daniel, and Avery

Too cool!

Amy and I had an awkward married moment this week that I’ve been thinking about a lot, so I decided to share.  It all started Wednesday around 5:45 PM when Amy started to get dinner ready and I went to mow the grass.

The time line is important so I’ll put it in sequence so you see it…

• 5:45 PM – I started mowing the grass.
• 6:00 PM – Amy came outside and said she needed to run the store and get a few items for dinner.  She took Sage with her to the store.
• 6:15 PM – I finished up with the yard and Amy wasn’t home yet so I decided to reorganize the garage.  My motivation to do this is both selfish and selfless, I’ll explain.   Selfish because I wanted more room for my weight equipment.  Selfless because I wanted Amy to have be able to park in the garage with the confidence that she will not be attacked by wasps.  Although I had other motives, I was trying to help my wife.
  
• 6:40 – Amy returns home from the store while I am reorganizing the garage.  I help her get Sage out of the car, explain what I’m doing and that I’ll be inside “in just a bit”.
• 6:45 – Amy begins dinner.  I am still reorganizing.
• 7:00 – Amy is cooking dinner and watching Sage while I am still cleaning in the garage.  I come in to grab something and see Sage being a little fussy while Amy is stirring dinner on the stove with one hand and feeding Sage with the other.  I get the sense that I’m needed inside rather than in the garage, but as I mentioned earlier, I am “helping” my wife by eliminating the wasps nests in the garage, so I say as I’m opening the door to the garage, “I found 3 wasps nests so far, I’ll be in just a few minutes.”  Thus, in my mind, I’ve reassured my wife that I’m doing the right thing at the moment and continue with my work.
• 7:15 – I finish up in the garage and come inside for dinner.  We dine at the dinning room table; Amy is sitting with Sage in her lap because I am dirty from yard/garage work.  We make eye contact.  She isn’t happy.  I know why, but I seek to explain myself: “I’m sorry, I was cleaning up the garage so you can park and not be in danger of wasps.  I’m helping you out.”  (Remember, this is partially true Amy responds, “But that’s not the kind of help I needed at that moment.“
• 7:30 – Finish up dinner and conversation.  I apologized for my actions and Amy understood I was trying to help her in some capacity, but not the way she needed at the moment.
• 8:00 – Put Sage to bed then hung out the remainder of the night.

REFLECTION

First, it is possible to do the right thing at the wrong time, thus making it the wrong thing.  I had my own reasons for reorganizing the garage, but I did want to make Amy happy.  And she will be very happy when the car is in the garage instead of the sun or when she parks in the garage and no wasps attack her.  Part of fulfilling Philippians 2:3-4 is timing.  Don’t forget that husbands.

SO WHY DID YOU WRITE THIS?

I wrote this because situations like these cause more trouble than one realizes.  In my example, I tried to help out my wife only to find out that I wasn’t helping her at all so I felt like I “can’t do anything right even when I try.”  And Amy felt like “doesn’t he know that I need help inside with our daughter and not a clean garage!”  The danger comes when couples do not communicate what is going on by either ignoring the issue or it escalating into an argument.  Wives feel misunderstood by their husbands and husbands feel under appreciated by their wives.  If it goes undiagnosed next thing you know you’re saying to your self, “he doesn’t understand me at all” and “she doesn’t appreciate anything I do for her.”

SOLUTION

Song of Solomon 2:15, “Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”

Hunt down those “foxes” before they get to the vineyard.  Talk to each other so that unmet expectations do not turn into dangerous feelings of doubt.

Happy hunting.

To the most amazing husband and partner in parenting, happy father’s day! This picture was taken with my phone, so not the best quality, but I thought it was too cute to pass up.

Love you Daddy!

Sweet Mercies – verse 1

It’s our confession Lord, that we are weak
So very weak, but You are strong
And though we’ve nothing Lord, to lay at your feet
We come to Your feet and say, “Help us along”

I was out walking the other night and this song randomly popped into my head. The Lord has been showing us new mercies every day. It is amazing how faithful He is when we are so unfaithful and undeserving of His grace. We feel so blessed to have a happy, healthy, (almost) one year old girl.

Sage did NOT take to teething well, we have been busy the last couple weeks pushing two teeth through and another one almost through, all on the bottom. She even had a fever above 104 for a couple of days – scary! I haven’t updated in a while, so here are some (and by some I mean a lot) pictures from the last couple of weeks:

Showing our American spirit early this summer.

We went to Harry Meyer Park in Rockwall with some friends from church last week. This was Sage’s first time to go to a splash park and she loved it! The boy behind her is her friend Wyatt and the baby in between them with her back to the camera is her friend Evangeline. They were all three born within a month of each other.

Sorry for the view Wyatt!

We took Sage’s bath seat out and put in a mat in the bottom of the tub so she can have more freedom now that she is walking well, and has pretty good control over her movements. Before her bath the other night she managed to get herself into her bath seat anyway!

Sage’s first blueberry muffin face! I think she liked it.

Sage has been more and more interested in books lately. She will even go get one and bring it to me sometimes like, “hello, read this to me, now please!”  She likes to look at colorful pictures and especially loves lift-the-flap books.

So when we were swimming yesterday, I noticed a little slit looking thing in Sage’s mouth where it looks like a tooth might sprout. It does not however look red or swollen, so maybe it is something else…let me know what you think. All you Mommies out there who have babies with teeth – is this the beginning of the end of our simple painless days with no teeth, and if not what else in the world could that be?

you can't see it too well, but there is a little slit on the left side of her gums

Today we took sage to the Tyler zoo. I left my good camera at home, so I had to take some pictures with my phone. I am posting this with my phone too, hopefully it won’t look too weird.

These pictures are a little late…our internet has been out for a little while and I am now at my mom’s using hers! Here are some pictures from our Port Aransas trip. We forgot our camera so Aunt Lauren lent us some of her pics, thanks Aunt Lauren!

All of us the first day at the beach

Sage and Daddy

The beach house we rented for the weekend

Aidan buried Uncle Cody in the sand

Daddies and Daughters

Sage, Avery, and Aidan

Family swim

These two kept trying to climb up the stairs

All of us except Gigi, wish you were in the picture too Gigi!!

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the Dallas Arboretum this week. We had so much fun!