Kiddo Update and Cute Pictures

Dallin

· Dallin is 42 inches and 46 pounds of pure dynamite! He is so tender and helpful and so crazy and out of control all at the same time. He keeps me humble and focused on what is really important.

· I think Dallin may eat us out of house and home. We joke about having to use his college fund in order to feed him when he is a teenager and starts eating even MORE! We are thankful he is so active…otherwise weight would be an issue. He can eat 5 adult tacos!

· Mommy: Dallin, did you know that your bellybutton is how you were connected to Mommy when you were in my belly?

Dallin: (fingers bellybutton, eyes me suspiciously) well…it’s , MINE now!

· We have been potty training Kate, so Dallin has been part of the “encourage Kate to use the potty committee” and has spent a lot of time with all of us gathered around her in the bathroom. Here was his enlightening discussion with Christopher.

Dallin: Where is Kate’s penis?

Daddy: Kate does not have a penis.

Dallin: How does Kate go pee-pee with no penis?

Daddy: Kate doesn’t need a penis to go pee pee.

Dallin: How will I go pee pee if I lose my penis?

Daddy: I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that.

· It is a longtime coming, but Dallin is staying dry most nights and will wake up and go to the bathroom in the night ON HIS OWN! Woo-hoo! I think we are almost ready to try going it without pull-ups!

· I walk in to find Dallin with his pants around his ankles in Nana’s bathroom getting a drink with the little cups by the sink. “I was thirsty.” I look in the potty and ask him if he is all done and needs some help. “Nope, I’m not done. I just needed a drink” He climbs back on the potty and finishes the job. Who does that? Who gets THAT thirsty? Do you just sit there and think “Man, I am soooo thirsty…I need a drink RIGHT now!” LOL What a funny man!

· “I am the spectacular Spiderman!” Indeed it has come to pass. Dallin is into the action figure phase of boyhood. I noticed it creeping in this year with playgroup and now it is full-blown. He loves all things Spiderman. I was a bit weepy at Easter when I picked up Spiderman beach items instead of Mickey Mouse…it is the end of an era. Spiderman gets us in trouble a lot…from calling people “skinny little creep” to “webbing people” to jumping off furniture and even insisting in primary class that he in fact IS the spectacular Spiderman and refusing to sit in his chair. Good times. We are focusing on how NICE and WELL BEHAVED Spiderman is. I think I miss Handy Manny.

· Mommy: “Who made this mess?”

Dallin: It was Kate!

Hmmm…suuuure.

• Dallin loves spending time with his friends, although he is not 100% certain on how to BE a friend. I guess this comes later. Not everyone thinks that having Dallin put a ratty blanket over them is "special" like he does. LOL
  

· “I have to eat a lot of food to grow. If I don’t eat a lot of food, I will shrink.” This could explain the eating problem.

· Dallin loves to play pretend and play Memory with mommy and daddy. He also loves family scripture study and family prayer. He insists on “reading” his own Book of Mormon and loves saying the prayer. When he wants to make it longer he will just keep repeating “in Jesus name, bless this food. In Jesus name, bless this food…Amen! I said a long one!”

Kate

· Kate is 26 pounds and 30 inches tall. Yes, she is little. It has been quite amusing to have one on each end of the spectrum. She is just getting into 2T pants and 3T shirts. It is a challenge finding teeny tiny ballet clothes and teeny tiny training pants.

· “I pee pee in the poggy!” Kate is being potty trained! We are hoping to have her pretty much done by the end of the year. She is doing pretty well and is learning quickly how to pee on the potty. She LOVES to have people get excited when she is successful so it is often a mini party at our house with singing and dancing when anyone makes a pee pee in the potty. Kate will even walk in and to the pee pee dance for me when I go.

· “I preaking out!” Kate says this when she is “freaking” out. I just think it is cute because she substitutes p for f.

· Kate loves reading scriptures and saying prayers as well. I must confess that I melt when I hear her teeny tiny voice getting around words like Nephihah and Zarahemla.

· Kate loves to laugh and is experimenting with a new deeper more forced laugh. It makes me laugh every time.

· Kate still has her onery streak and will often pick on her brother until he nails her. (The picture of her with the bubbles on her face is after Dallin got tired of her splashing him and throwing bubbles at him and nailed her. She started to cry, but I thought it was so funny I took a picture. She definitely deserved it) She also still whines and has a piercing scream that can break glass. We are hoping this phase ends while our hearing is still somewhat in tact.

· Kate’s legs have sprouted recently and she looks so much older to me. She seems like she is going to have really looonng legs for her tiny body.

· “I wuv you!” I love it when she says this. She is very loving and loves to be held and cuddled. Every morning she crawls in bed to sleep/snuggle with us before it is time to get up.

· “Play castle with me, mommy” Kate is learning how to play pretend and loves to play castle with her Little People castle. It is very funny when she sits them at their little table and serves them her pretend food (which is as big as they are) She also plays Night at the Museum with Dallin and will run through the house yelling “Cecil! Cecil! Dinosoh!”

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Here are some fun pictures and videos I ran across that never got posted. Back in April, we took the kids out to fly kites for the very first time. They were very excited since they had gotten new kites from the Easter Bunny! We went to the park by Nana's house with Nana to try it out. It was the perfect blustery day. I was actually quite surprised with how well the kiddos did flying kites by themselves-even Kate. They were really good at running when the kite started to come down to get it to go back up again. We only had a kite get stuck in a tree one time and all the kites and kids came home in tact. A successsful outing! It was a super fun afternoon.

Big Girl Bed!!

It's Official!
Kate now sleeps in a big girl bed. Back in May, when we thought we were having another baby, we started to think about moving Kate to a big girl bed. She was old enough. She could already climb out of her crib. It was just a matter of choosing what type of bed (and affording it). I thought a toddler bed would be the easiest (and cheapest). Since Kate is quite little, she would be able to use it for a couple of years yet. I already had an extra crib mattress and plenty of extra crib sheets too. We would just need to buy the frame. But then.....WE GOT LUCKY! Our dumpster diving is getting quite notorious in my family. In our neighborhood, people are moving a lot and so they just throw out perfectly good furniture. It may need a nail or a cleaning, but it is still in good condition. So....as you may have guessed by now, Kate's darling little bed was a dumpster diving deal! We cleaned it up and it works perfectly. Plus it looks adorable, like a little piece of doll furniture. hee hee
Kate was really proud of her bed and she had very little trouble making the transition from crib to big girl bed. It probably helps to have a big brother who kept telling her "now you are big just like me Kate! Wow!" He wanted to sleep in it too! This transition must have made her feel more "free" and independent because when she first got the bed she wandered more in her room and took longer to go to sleep. Sometimes, she would come find me downstairs or fall asleep in the hallway. That ended pretty quickly. Kate has pretty much always been easy to put down. You show her the bed and she lays down and goes to sleep. LOL She is pretty much back to that now. Except that she now comes in our bedroom and climbs in bed with us every morning between 5 and 6 and sleeps there till 7. Oh well....I can't say I don't enjoy the cuddles. What a sweet girl!

Our First Garden

It seems that we have had a lot of firsts this past year and among them....TA DA!...our first garden. With such a big back yard and such a warm climate, I decided I would like to give it a try. At the very end of March, my dad and Michael came over and built me a garden plot. The yard had one when we moved in, but it was sunken and in the part of the yard that never gets much sun so we moved it. First, dad tilled up the area.

Then dad and Michael moved the beams to build the plot. Dallin "helped" wherever he could (and some places he couldn't). He dug around and moved rocks and was very excited to be a part of it all.
They even put in some tomato plants and cages. Here is Dallin sitting in front of our newly planted garden.
I told the kids that they could NOT walk in the garden because it would kill the plants and then we could not eat the food. So...this has become their favorite past time--garden rail walking. I think they got the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it. All in all they are pretty careful though. In this picture, you can see little sprigs of green starting to come up.
We were so excited when our garden starting bearing fruit! Dallin helped me pick it, and I think that he would eat almost anything that came out of our garden with enthusiasm. He thinks it is all delicious. We got a ton of green beans and quite a few squash and tomatoes. The peas shriveled in the heat and the pepper plants produce the tiniest peppers I have ever seen, but at least we are getting some. It is getting less and less with the heat, but Dallin loves to find any veggies that are "ready" and pick them in the evenings with me. It has actually been a nice bonding experience between him and I-planting and watching it grow, tending the garden and picking the veggies together. We have both really enjoyed it.
With some of the severe weather, vacations, etc. our garden has been neglected the end of this season so we did not get as much as we could have possibly gotten(and that is also why there is no picture of what our poor garden looks like now), but I think it was a really good learning experience for me and the kids and we are definitely going to plant another in the fall! Wahoo-fresh produce!

Hot Fun in the Summer Time!

About a week ago, we went to a ROCKstar playgroup at Monica's house. It was a pool party for her kids. She rented a GIANT Little Tikes mountain/water slide and the kids had a blast and a half. It was super fun and just the kind of day that we needed. In the top picture, you can see Dallin in the orange shirt at the bottom getting ready to climb and Kate is getting all crazy and bouncin around. Crazy kids! LOL
Unfortunately, we received our very first sunburn that day. Boo! We had almost made it 4 years sunburn free. In my defense, I DID apply SPF 50 twice to Dallin during that 3 hour block....it wasn't enough. He has such a fair skin tone that he was quite crispy. He never complained about it hurting though, and we were quick to apply LOTS of aloe.


Kate was sunburned too, but not as bad as Dallin's . Hers went into a tan...his shoulders peeled. Good times. Good times. I thought the bottom picture was funny after they had been aloe vera'ed! Smile and Say Sunburn!

Kate's 2 Year Old Pictures

Kate's 2 year old pictures went really well. I really liked our photographer at JC Penny. It was the same one we had for the sibling pictures (Lisa). Somehow, even with my terribly uncooperative kiddo, she turns out beautiful pictures. Here is her entire shoot for your viewing pleasure!
THESE ARE THE PICTURES WE ORDERED- The top picture we ordered as well. I thought it really showed her personality and liked how they made it read "I Am 2" Cute!

I think she looks like such a mischevious pixie in this picture.

This was part of her pouting tantrum. We thought it was so "Kate" that we ordered it and put it on the "I Am 2" print.

Ready for my close-up! What a little diva!

This was my favorite pose. I liked how you could see how long her hair is getting and the cute bow on the back of her dress.

All smiles! Sugar n spice and everything nice.

THESE ARE THE PICTURES WE DID NOT ORDER, BUT THEY ARE STILL PRETTY CUTE!

She totally looks like she is tapping her foot in this picture. She WAS being pretty sassy right here and wouldn't do what the photographer asked.

I liked this picture, but I thought her hand floating in space looked weird.

This is the one we used on the "I Am 2" print

This is the one we used on the "I Am 2" print. What a clown!

This is the one we used on the "I Am 2" print. I think she looks like she is serving it up on a tray.

ENHANCEMENT PICTURES THAT WE DID NOT ORDER (they used the pictures you just saw and did cool stuff with them)

I actually thought this was pretty cute and timeless and may do this myself at another time.