Winter Ice and Power Outage

So far it has been a VERY busy month.  Right after Dillon's birthday we found somebody to rent the house so the craziness began.  I spent the first week over at Grandma and Papa G's trying to get the basement cleared out for us.  Then it was time to start moving in, in the middle of this phase the snow and ice hit.  Now we're in the process of finishing all of our projects throughout the house to get it ready for the renters.  The power went out Wednesday morning, came back on that afternoon.  Then it went out again Thursday morning and just came back on today, 4.5 days later.  It was bad timing for a move, between the ice on the roads and the power outage it made it all pretty difficult. 

In more detail, the first of the snow started on Saturday and came and went throughout the week, until Thursday.  Wednesday was the heaviest snow day, at 6 inches.  Then Thursday it turned into freezing rain.  It created a sheet of ice on top of the snow and coated all the tree branches in half an inch of ice. 

 

 Normally snow doesn't reflect this much!!!

 This tree is litarally bent in half from the weight of the ice.

 Check out those pretty icicles.

We spent a lot of time huddled around the fire to stay warm.  Of course the basement was nice and warm with the gas fireplace.  I was a second too late to catch Kayda and Dillon playing blocks with Carson. 

 He can sit REALLY well now.  He only really falls over when he gets excited about something (He tends to smile with his whole body).

Carson is quite the roller.  He doesn't need to crawl.  He rolls everywhere he wants to go.  He went from being in front of daddy to being by the diaper bag in about 30 seconds. 

A little craziness

There has been a lot going on since Christmas.  We've decided that we're going to rent our house and go live at Grandma and Papa G's so we can a) build up a down payment, b) get a rental history.  All in the quest to get into our "20+" year home.  This house was supposed to be our starter home, we bought a fixer upper, have spent the last 6 years fixing it up and now the economy has crashed.  On the plus side the houses we want to end up in are actually within our grasp, the down side is that our house no longer has any equity, not even sweat equity.  We figure this is the fastest way to get into a new home.  So the kids and I have been spending a lot of time over at Grandma and Papa's house helping them sort through the stuff they've collected over the last 20+ years.  We've also been trying to go through our things.  We're making pretty good progress actually.  Now we just need to get somebody in our house! 

New year's eve this year we decided to let the kids stay up to watch the fireworks on TV.  We had "giant sandwiches" (Kayda's favorite thing) and played until midnight.  Carson even decided to stay awake (despite my efforts to get him to sleep).  The kids had a great time and actually went to bed pretty well when it was time. 

Carson is loving "solid" food.  We've done rice and we just started with oatmeal, he doesn't seem to like it as much but he eats it anyway!  We're trying to figure out how to get him on the bottle, I'm ready to be done nursing.  I think it's going to come down to not nursing him at all during the day and just forcing him to take the bottle, only problem with that is that he will be a really crabby baby.  Not sure that I want to try that by myself.  He seems to be growing so fast!  He's got two teeth already and the top ones are getting close too.  Forget crawling, this kid isn't going to need to, he can roll himself all around the floor and he's FAST.  He's got great control of his hands, LOVES people and babbles up a storm.  He has even figured out how to play peek-a-boo!  I've played it with him a few times but now he has decided HE wants to do it.  He'll cuddle down into me, I'll say "Where's Carson?" and he'll pop himself up and grin at me when I say "peek-a-boo" or "there he is!" and then he'll repeat it, again, and again, and again.  He just keeps going!  He is getting pretty good at sitting on his own!  I wouldn't be surprised if he can sit unaided in the next week or so.  He ADORES his big brother and sister.  He just smiles and smiles at them.  He loves it when they get down on the floor and play with him, he even likes to just sit there and watch them play. 

Kayda and Dillon started preschool again on Wednesday.  They're having a hard time switching back to "early" mornings.  They tend to wake up at around 9:30 on their own, for preschool we have to switch to 8:15 wake-ups.  It doesn't help that we're trying to get away from the bed time pull ups.  We're following the doctor's orders: no drinks 2 hours before bed, wake them up about 2 hours after they go to bed and make them go sit on the toilet, and the worst part.... NO more pull ups.  Which means we're changing sheets in the middle of the night.  It's working great for Dillon, he woke himself up in the middle of the night and went potty last night!!!  (For the first time) AND he woke up dry.  Kayda is a little less willing and boy does she get MAD when you wake her up to go to the bathroom.  She spends most of the time screaming at us!  It sucks for her, and I feel guilty but I find it quite funny. 

We're gearing up for Dillon's birthday on Sunday, his birthday party is Saturday.  As always it's a very busy holiday season for us and it looks like we're going to be busy for at least another month trying to deal with the housing situation. 

 Dillon was "teaching" Carson to play with his new toy.

 I set Carson on the floor in his room while I ran to grab something, when I came back I found Kayda and Dillon squished into the rocking chair, they were counting off when to rock!

 ...and Carson was perfectly happy on the floor, as long as there's someone close by to keep him company.

Apparently when Daddy was little he would sit in this "pocket"  and watch tv with his Dad, so he is always trying to get Kayda or Dillon to sit there which they usually won't because they want to be in your arms.  Much to Daddy's delight we have discovered that Carson LOVES to sit there and play with his toys.  He sat there for a good half hour one day, perfectly content!  Notice his SOAKED onesie?  He is quite the drooler, I try to keep a bib on him but he'll even soak through those!  That and sometimes he gets frustrated because he catches the bib on top of the toys he's trying to get to his mouth or he'll flip the bib up in front of his face.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

I decided that it would be fun to bundle up and go for a walk today. Got the kids all bundled up, coats, hats, a warm drink and several blankets inside their little weather shield. They seemed to enjoy it. Kayda fell asleep. One of the streets in our neighborhood was entirely black ice so I was having fun pushing them around on that. Gotta love the strollers with the big wheels they are SO much nicer. They go every where, the beach, the snow... it doesn't matter. They're fantastic!

I thought these pictures were cute. Dillon decided that his toes were delicious and Kayda tried to wrap herself up in her blanket.

They're growing up so fast...

Dillon has decided to make up for the fact that he didn't roll over for over 7 months. Since figuring out how to roll back to tummy he now...

1. Rolls around ANY time you set him down or spins himself around on his tummy.

2. Gets on his hands and knees and rocks (he managed to move forward a little bit yesterday)

3. Wants to stand up whenever possible (he holds onto things and plays, if he's holding onto your hands he'll let go with one hand now)

4. He's figured out the motion of walking and if you hold his hands to support him he'll start trying to walk where he wants to go.

5. Has started thinking about cruising around furniture (he made it several inches moving his hands and his feet around a footstool yesterday)

We're so excited for the phase he's starting into. I love the crawling/walking phase! He's starting to lose a little baby fat since he moves so much now! He's still a cute little chub but he's definitely trimming up.

Kayda is still trying to figure out talking. She's added the word "go" (she loves to race) and has learned some animal sounds. Cow (she's known for a while), dog, chicken, sheep and monkey. She is starting to want to help me make Dillon's bottles. Sometimes she helps me scoop in the formula.

Last Friday, Monday and Today they stayed over at Aunt Anna's with her, Peyton and Mikey while I was working. (Grandma G is in Pullman) Kayda has been having a blast! Apparently on the first day there Aunt Anna discovered that Mikey had a poopy diaper and Kayda went and got her the diapers and the wipes. Kayda loves playing with them and apparently Peyton has been enjoying it becasue today he said" Kayda's leaving?" Aunt Anna told him yes and Peyton's response was "I will miss her." I'm glad that he enjoys her company so much. Dillon is having a great time with Aunt Anna too, she was playing "boo" with him yesterday so when I got there she showed me. Everytime she said "boo" Dillon just cracked up laughing. Thank you SO much Aunt Anna. It's wonderful to know that they're with someone that they know and are comfortable with while Grandma G is off in Pullman.

We have TWO new nephews!!!

Owen 9-5-2008, 8 lbs 4 oz, 20.5 inches

Chase 9-9-2008, 7 lbs. 5 oz, 20.5 inches

We're VERY excited to meet them both!

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!

Yay Dillon! Yay Kayda!

Sorry no pictures this time but there's some exciting news!

Dillon FINALLY decided to roll over, ON PURPOSE! He did it this evening. He was playing on the floor and after pushing himself around in a circle he decided he wanted to look around and slowly but surely pushed himself right over (tummy to back). It's so exciting! I've been waiting at LEAST a month for him to decide to do it on purpose! He's done it a few times on accident but I consider this his official "first" since he meant to do it. Of course after we (Daddy and I) got so excited about it he didn't have the opportunity again, Kayda kept deciding she would help him so that he'd get cheers again. Every time he started pushing himself up and twisting a little she'd run over and try to push his side to help him flip over. Cute that she wanted to help but frustrating when we wanted him to keep doing it on his own.

Sweet little Kayda... She is slowly but surely deciding that she is interested in talking. She is starting to work at saying the words now. Granted she tends to get as far as the first, maybe second syllable. She's saying "mama" very well (she used to go mamamamamamama etc) and she is saying "baby" again. She started saying it just after Dillon was born and then stopped a couple months later. She has a LOT of things she has sounds for that kind of resemble the actual word but she is actually trying now!

She has been cracking me up in the morning. She has several things that she does with Dillon. She whispers "hi", pats his back, tries to help him roll over, tries to hold him, grabs his hands and dances with him, and the newest addition... she tries to tickle him. She does "crab hands" on his belly and says "ahhhhh". She's imitating the way we tickle him of course but that doesn't mean it's any less adorable.

Lake Wenatchee State Park

From Aug 6th to Aug 10th we were at Lake Wenatchee State Park with the H Group. When we had our maximum of 8 families there we had a grand total of 30 people there, not counting the little one in progress (Sarah's). It was kind of crazy with all the little ones running around and I was sick all day Thursday so we didn't get as many pictures as we would've liked. The campground was nice. The only problem was the walk down to the lake was long. It was a gorgeous lake and oddly enough you could walk a long ways out into the lake, no swimming required.

Kayda LOVES camping and had an especially good time since she had all of her cousins there. To my amazement we were actually able to get her to play in the pack - n - play with Peyton a couple of times. I didn't think it would be possible considering we were outside and she could run free. Her cousins were very helpful, they would play with her, or follow her around for us occasionally. I was very impressed with the "Older kids" meaning anyone over the age of 4. They included the little ones quite a bit and kept an eye on them as much as you can expect a kid that's excited about camping to be able to.

Kayda got to ride on a bike for the "first time". It's not actually her first time but every other time it was just around either our yard or my parents yard so it was the first time she got to go anywhere exciting. She wore my brother's helmet from when he was little because I was unable to get her one before we left (without spending a small fortune). She wore it in her bike seat and then decided on her own that she should wear it whenever she was trying to ride her trike. It was so cute to see her grab the helmet, try to stick it on her head, then once it was on (with our help), she would climb onto her trike and expect to be pulled around.

There was a playground in the other loop that the kids thoroughly enjoyed. Kayda insisted on sliding down the tallest slide every time. She REALLY enjoyed it when someone would slide down next to her. She wasn't very interested in sliding down in anyone's lap though. She thought it was very entertaining when little brother went down too. Here's Grandma G with Kayda and Dillon getting ready to go down the slides together.

Kayda loved being outside all the time. She ran around with her cousins and on a few occasions willingly sat down to eat or snuggle. This one was too cute to pass up.

 Of course Grandpa G had no problem carting around the babies to help them explore. He'd stick Dillon in one arm and chase Kayda where ever her little heart desired.

One can't forget one of the best parts of camping... Smores!!! Course not everyone shares this opinion but Kayda sure liked the parts that make a smore. She munched on some chocolate and a marshmallow, decided it was too much and would pop the marshmallow in and out of her mouth to try to eat it. She was quite a mess by the time she finally finished.

Dillon liked being outside most of the time. He didn't like going down for naps while we were out and about. Grandma G was actually pretty good at getting him to conk out though. He got snuggled a lot because he would get tired of the exersaucer or high chair. He learned a new sound "ga" and spent quite a bit of time working very hard to make it over and over again. He also rolled over TWICE from tummy to back. I was tyring to put him to sleep and had laid him down. He decided he didn't want to be down yet and flipped himself over (this was Thursday night) of course I haven't been able to get him to repeat it.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa G! Once again they let us use their tent trailer so we were fortunate enough to be able to bathe the kids every night. Here they are waiting for mommy to get it ready. I love babies in diapers!

Friday we went to Leavenworth with the Grandma and Grandpa H branch (minus Uncle Greg who didn't come camping). We wandered around the stores for quite a while. They were fun to wander in and out of as long as the babies were in their back packs. We got a picture of our little family and almost immediately afterwards Dillon passed out. I love pictures of him sleeping in the backpack!





























































When we were done exploring we went to the sledding hill.  The chiblings, plus Kayda and Tyler, had a marvelous time rolling down the hill. Kayda tried desperately to roll down but always rolled her feet faster so she would end up the wrong direction. She and Ella decided that they liked to run down the hill. One time they ran down together and Ella tripped at the bottom, Kayda pointed at her like "hey pay attention she fell" and then proceeded to grab Ella's shirt and try to pick her back up.

 Dillon eventually woke up and got to play on the hill with Grandma Peggy.

All the grandkids attacked Grandpa Mike and Grandma Peggy and we were able to get some really neat pictures of them with ALL of their grandchildren. Unfortunately I didn't take any with my camera but when/if I get a copy I'll post it later. Grandpa Mike, being wrapped around Kayda's little finger just as much as Grandpa G, treated Kayda to a shoulder ride on the way back to the car. What won't grandparents do for their grandchildren?

Of course following G family tradition, and apparently H family tradition as well, there had to be some sort of water works while we were camping. So Friday night we got treated to a thunderstorm, this includes HAIL. I'm not just talking about little hail either, this was the size of mothballs. Kayda did NOT like it so we retreated to the safety of Grandma and Grandpa G's trailer. Grandma Peggy joined us there to play with blocks and cards to escape the weather for a while.

The last night we were there (Saturday Night) a group of campers walked around the campground wearing glow in the dark attire and yelling "happy camping". I say that we need to start this as a tradition for the H family camping trip, the little kids would have a great time. I tired to take a picture but have never taken one with this camera. I moved it before it was done on accident but it turned out pretty cool anyway.

So Sweet

Well, not a whole lot has been happening. The kids are keeping me on my toes, they aren't lining up their naps anymore and they are both getting over colds, hence the lack of posts. Kayda and Dillon have developed a new level to their relationship. The morning routine has been altered drastically. As soon as Kayda gets up in the morning she comes into Mommy and Daddy's room where she knows her little brother will be (I gave up on getting him out of here until after camping). Once she's there she'll get up on the bed and whisper "hi" to Dillon while she rubs his head or gives him kisses. Once he's decided to wake up she'll pull the clock radio off the dresser, turn on the music, grab Dillon's hands and try to dance with him. I thought they had a good relationship before but they are definitely bonding even more! Kayda is constantly going over to him and he watches her EVERY move.
She was trying to feed him her milk the other day and she ALWAYS wants to hold him. It's fun trying to help her hold him. Your arms get sore trying to keep him in a decent position for her.

Last Tuesday I discovered that Dillon now has his second tooth (his bottom left). I have yet to get a picture where you can see either of them, I'll keep trying though. He hasn't decided that he wants to roll over yet. He has all of the pieces but just can't decide to do them at the same time. It's actually pretty entertaining. He'll push his legs so that he twists at his hips. His stomach will still be flat on the ground but his little bum will be sideways. Or he'll push himself up on his arms and twist his little body around to look at everything but his legs won't have moved at all. If he would twist everything at the same time he'd have it but I'm starting to think he'll crawl before he rolls over. He is constantly pulling his legs underneath him and he can move himself around pretty good, slowly but he does move. He's a total sweetheart, he just sits and looks at you until you look at him or talk to him and then he'll just smile forever.

I thought this picture was cute, Kayda has decided that she likes her tooth brush. She can't brush her teeth on her own but she's obviously picking it up from her nightly brushing that I do for her. She was playing with the water and chewing on her toothbrush. She looks all grown up and responsible standing on the chair looking like she's brushing her teeth.

Totally different topic. My sister is now on a modified bed rest, meaning she can start to do a little more as long as she doesn't start having contractions. We're happy our unborn nephew will be able to stay in a little longer. Sarah (my sister in law) is also expecting around the same time, her little guy hasn't given us any scares though. I thought it was funny that Kirsten and Sarah had their last babies within two weeks of each other and are now both having boys due once again within two weeks of each other.