Kayda's 8th birthday! And Thanksgiving.

Thursday was both Thanksgiving and Kayda's birthday.  It happens every now and again but she certainly doesn't seem to mind.  She wanted pumpkin pie, cupcakes and she wanted to MAKE an apple pie.  We had thought about going to have Thanksgiving with Uncle Justin, Aunt Ayana and Grandma and Papa G but Mommy's surgery recovery would not allow it.  So we decided to join in the big Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma and Papa H.  There ended up being quite a crew there (over 30 people) and Kayda was very excited to see one of her other "girl cousins" (Kimber).  

 We started out the day frosting her cupcakes.  Dillon and Kayda frosted all but one of them (there was an odd number) and put the sprinkles on.  They had a great time!

 Then it was time to make the pie.  They each got to take a turn cutting in the shortening and rolling the dough.

 We took a break before we did the filling.  Daddy had gotten home from football so we let Kayda unwrap her presents.

 This lovely contraption is why she wanted to MAKE an apple pie.  It peels, slices and cores the apples.  The kids were fascinated.

 Of course we had to bring fruit salad.  Daddy is very particular and after one year with a different style fruit salad someone else provided we are forever committed to bringing it.  Carson and Kayda both helped slice up the fruit.  Carson especially enjoyed slicing bananas.

 Go Daddy!

 At Grandma and Papa H's house we sang her happy birthday.   By the way the dress that Kayda is wearing was made by Grandma H out of one of her old formal dresses.  Kayda loves it. 

Happy birthday my sweet beautiful girl!  She is SO excited for her baptism on Saturday!

Playdough!

I made playdough a LONG time ago (yeah I know I could have bought it but we get more this way). I kept it in the fridge and remembered I had it today, so I pulled out one of the colors for Kayda to play with. She entertained herself for an HOUR with the playdough, a plastic knife and a cookie cutter. I attempted to keep Dillon occupied for her but eventually he managed to make his way over anyway. The recipe I used was super easy and works really well, it doesn't dry out at all (I put it at the end of this so if anyone wants it they can keep going, if they don't they don't have to read it!) We had the fire going so it was nice and toasty so here are my diaper babies!

I thought these pictures were cute so I had to share. Kadya was sitting on the couch getting ready to watch "Kung Fu Panda" (movies are my way of getting her to take a nap) and Dillon wanted up so I put him up there. Kadya decided she wanted to sit next to him and snuggled right in next to him. Dillon was acting hungry so I got him some crackers, I thought this picture of it was funny because Kayda was trying to put his water back where he could reach it and ended up leaning on his arm, well obviously when she did that it moved the cracker further away from his mouth so he's kind of going "come here cracker" with his eyes and his mouth. I thought it was a funny expression.

PLAYDOUGH!!!

Flour 3cups

Salt 1 1/2 cups

Water 3 cups

Vegetable Oil 2TB.

Cream of tartar 1TB.

Food coloring few drops or unsweetened "Kool-Aid" 1pkg.

Mix ALL of the ingredients in a large saucepan.Cook over medium low heat, until the dough comes away from the edges of the pan and it becomes difficult to move the spoon. Remove from heat. Cool until it can be handled.Place on counter or wax paper knead 3-4 times.Store in an air tight container.

So many cute random things!

August 16th, yes I know I've updated since then but I found some pictures! It was one of those wonderfully nice Saturdays and both kids were out on the swings and loving it. It's days like these that I'm glad I ended up with two baby swings instead of just one.

We had fun swinging for a while and then I let them both stop for a few minutes thinking "they'll want to get out" but no. Dillon immediately started examining the ropes and Kayda rebuckled her harness everytime I undid it to get her out. So much for that idea.

When I finally did get them out Kayda went inside and laid out Dillon's yellow blanket and her blanket. She pointed to the yellow one for me to put him down so I did. Once I'd done that she went and gathered all of these toys for him then sat on her own blanket and started playing. It was so sweet!

Fast forward to August 24th, Grandma and Grandpa G were kind enough to take us to the zoo again. We went first thing in the morning so that when it started raining we could just leave. It's wonderful that they got the membership and are willing to take us. We can go for just a couple of hours and not feel like we wasted any money. I decided that Dillon was old enough that he'd probably like to look at stuff too so we stuck him in the snuggly which he ended up thoroughly enjoying! Unfortunately he's a heavy little guy so we had to trade. He didn't mind though. He loves his daddy. 

Despite the fact that we've been there before we were able to do completely new things. We went to the kid zone. Kayda had a blast going down the slide, and looking at everything. They even have a few goats you can pet there, you can go in one of the pens and brush them too. Kayda was a little nervous but Grandpa G was able to get her to brush the goats all of TWO times before she was done. We saw one of their little shows that they put on, it was incredibly cheesy but Kayda got a kick out of it. There was even a little "touch and feel" fake aquarium for kids to play with. Amazingly Kayda didn't really want to play with that water much. After that we went to see the elephants but it started raining so we left.












That brings us to TODAY, September 1st!!! Dillon is now holding on to things and standing up. He likes to stand with anything he can. In the bath he's trying to grab onto the sides, of course I'm not sure if he's trying to stand up with it or chew on it. But the most exciting news is that Dillon ROLLED OVER the OTHER way (back to front) today several times. He's decided he likes to move and now he's going all out. When we were reading our bedtime story he was making it difficult. Daddy was making his bottle so it was just Kayda, Dillon and I. We were all laying side by side with Kayda in the middle. Part way through the book he rolled right up to Kayda's side and started playing with her face which distracted her from the book and made her laugh. Since he obviously wanted to move around so much I moved him down by our feet so he had space. He rolled right onto his tummy and squirmed his way up to Kayda's feet which again made her crack up. He kept wiggling his way up until he was up in between us. I'm so EXCITED I love this stage!!!



Now, true to form I'll spend some time talking about Kayda! We made cookies the other day, she LOVED pouring in the ingredients for me. When the cookie dough was done I went to grab the cookie sheets and this is what Daddy caught her doing. She decided that she really liked it and kept going back for more. Can't say I blame her. I've always preferred my cookies prebaked.

Today she discovered a bag full of some old stamps I have. Some of them go on the roller and some are used the normal way. She sorted them and kept putting them in and out of the bag. We ended up buying a stamp pad while we were out shopping and Kayda and I had a great time playing with the stamps. She especially liked the roller, the train seemed to be her favorite. After I was done having ink rubbed everywhere I pulled out some crayons for her. She colored for a while (she's figured out how to make big circles) then decided that she wanted mommy to color the things she pointed at. So I ended up being her little coloring servant. Not that I mind, I'll do just about anything that my babies want!