Catch Up!

This last month has been a blur, now it's time to catch up a little bit.  Not much is going on with Kayda and Dillon, they're done with preschool so it's been speech and playdates.  I really need to start bringing my camera for those!  But Carson, that little man is growing up so fast, I'm home with him everyday and yet I still feel like I'm missing it!  Not to long ago he took his first steps, his interest in that seems to come and go, he can climb onto couches, into chairs (one of his favorite places to sit are in Kayda and Dillon's kid sized chairs), he is eating anything he can get his hands on, walking around pushing anything he can (step stools, chairs, walkers etc), he LOVES to clap right now and will start most anytime you say "yay!".

 One of the places he enjoys climbing...

 Papa G was getting some good snuggle time.

 Kayda and Dillon decided the laundry basket was a great place to hang out.

 AHHHH SO CUTE I CAN HARDLY STAND IT!

 Look at those big blue eyes!

 Carson got a new toy, Thanks Grandma and Papa G!  So of course we had to walk around the loop to try it out!  Kayda and Dillon have really enjoyed riding their bikes around the loop.  Dillon needs help up the hills but Kayda managed to go ALL the way around without help!  That includes the BIG hill!

 This little dude LOVES stairs, well any climbing really.  I love the way he keeps stopping to make sure you're watching!

 This is one of the faces he likes to make he does this and kind of hisses in and out.  It sounds weird but it's actually kind of cute!

 He has started scooching to the edge of this step and then standing up, when he's in the mood he'll even proceed to take steps to someone!

Getting ready to launch!  Course then I had to get my hands free to catch him!

Sibling Bonding

Having three kids is a wonderful, busy and often exhausting experience.  I get so much love from these three babies of mine.  It seems like Kayda and Dillon are getting so mature now. 

Kayda is totally ready for kindergarten.  I'm so exciting for going in to work in her class and walking her to the school bus and back home at the end of the day.  She is back into her dress kick again, maybe I need to take pictures of her in her many, many dresses.  She doesn't want to wear anything else...ever.  I'm not sure how I ended up with a girl that loves to dress up so much but she looks so goregous I can't help but encourage her.  She is working on reading, she picks it up very quickly and can count to 100, we're working on adding and subtracting now.

Dillon is getting so smart!  Grandma G and I went in to work in the preschool for a center day where each person runs a station.  I was running a station where the kids were given a worksheet, they were supposed to read the number and color that many of a certain picture.  For instance, there might be the number three with four cows next to it.  They had to leave on of those cows blank.  Dillon was one of two "bumblees" (kids who turned 4 this school year) that could do this without help.  He's writing his letters and is such a good student.  I am so glad that both of my children follow directions and focus when a task is presented to them.  We are constantly being told how wonderful they are.  (We have parent conferences Tuesday for Kayda, SO excited!) 

Carson is on fast forward, he's as big as Kayda and Dillon were at a year,keep in mind he's 7 months old.  He's doing his little army crawl, cruising the couches, getting himself from stomach to sitting, pulling himself up to standing on just about everything, crawling up a step from the family room to the kitchen at Grandma and Papa G's, and he mimicks how you play with things (we were playing a drum and he proceeded to play the drum right after us).  He is back to loving baby food, though he is much more interested in our food.  He loves to go upside down an d "fly", he smiles at pretty much everyone, he is fascinated by animals and his big brother and sister. 

 Kayda and Dillon can get Carson to smile even if he's mid cry. He wants to be playing with them all the time. A favorite play place of theirs is Uncle Justin's couch. They love all the pillows. Don't worry Uncle Justin, we're being careful with it.

 Here's Carson sleeping on me, he is SO cute!

 Carson wants to play trains too!

 But that doesn't mean big brother and sister always want him to...

 Well hello beautiful blue eyes!

He wants to stand up ALL the time!

Christmas craziness!

It all starts with Christmas Eve. Saturday morning Auntie Kina came over to hang out and exchange gifts. The kids got to spend the whole day with just those gifts, no other gifts to distract them and they had a BLAST. That evening we did our traditional dinner at Grandma and Papa H's. Then came Christmas. Christmas is always a wonderful, crazy day for us. It worked out slightly differently this year since it fell on a Sunday and obviously you aren't going to skip church on Christmas.  Grandma and Papa G joined us at our house again for Christmas morning.  Grandma even helped wake up the big kids. 

Good morning!  Grandma went in and whispered that it was Christmas to Kayda, she immediately popped up and smiled at Grandma. 

Dillon wasn't quite so enthusiastic.  He got right up but he has a much harder time becoming alert in the mornings, takes after his Daddy that way.

The kids came out and checked out what Santa brought them.  We asked them if they were ready to open presents, Kayda immediately said yes, Dillon said he wanted to keep playing.  So to get them started Daddy and I opened their gifts from preschool.  The kids made us picture frames and put the kids' pictures in them.  They're supposed to be magnets but they made them too heavy for the magnets they glued on!

Then is was off to the races.  Fortunately Grandma and Papa were there and snapped pictures for us while we orchestrated gifts, opening, getting the paper out of the way, making sure toys don't get lost in the rubbage etc...

Carson liked his Santa gift, SO cute!

Carson spent more time in Papa G's arms than anyone elses'! 

Daddy REALLY loved the little einstein set he opened!  Fortunately he was willing to share with Carson!

See Grandma G was here!

After presents we were able to do my family's tradition of cinnamon rolls and/or scones, we did both this year.  Normally we skip this because we would be heading off to Baba's for breakfast, instead we were headed off to church.  Then we went straight over to Grandma and Papa H's.  Here are almost all the grandkids!  (Brett was getting his diaper changed, but our pictures with Brett in them we can't see Dillon so I chose to see my little boy...)

When that were done we hung out for a while before going home.  We got a short break before Grandma and Papa G came back and we got to talk to Uncle Justin on the phone!  One of his two phone calls home a year (all he's allowed on his mission).  Then it was off to the races getting dinner ready at approximately the same time that the meat would be done.  Grandma and Papa H joined us as well.  It was a great time!  I'm so glad that we have such a good relationship with BOTH sets of Grandparents AND that they seem to enjoy eachothers' company as well!!! 

Santa gave Carson some rice cereal, he's not even 5 months old yet but he will STARE at my food when I'm eating, and the doctor gave me the go ahead.  So we went ahead and let him have his first solid food on Christmas!  He LOVED it.  At one point I paused holding the spoon over the bowl to talk to the Papas, Carson wasn't willing to wait though.  He started leaning toward the spoon with his mouth open wide.  Good thing Grandma G was holding him good and tight!

It was a couple of crazy, busy, wonderful days.  We all got some great gifts and got to spend a lot of great time with the people most important to us.  Thanks everyone!

All for the Sake of Entertainment

As a quick meal the other day we gave Kayda and Dillon spaghetti and meatballs. Kayda did pretty well as far as staying clean goes but Dillon was an ENTIRELY different story. At least we thought to take off his clothes before he ate!

Kayda randomly decided that she didn't want to wear her shirt anymore. She has mastered removing shoes, socks, diapers, pants, pajamas but she can't quite figure out shirts. She made some pretty entertaining faces while she was attempting this. After a few minutes I took mercy on her and helped her take them off but not without the pictures!

Kayda has turned into a climber. She climbs on her dresser in her room and sits there, she'll get on the table if we don't catch her first. She has now determined that the back of the couch is GREAT fun to climb on. She was laying on it and crawling all over it and of course Dillon wanted up there too but he needed more help with it so Daddy's holding onto him. They had a great time!

Curious Little Dillon!

This little guy obviously can't do too much yet but he is SO curious about everything. I love to watch him. Here's our sweet little chunk working his magic. Unfortunately I couldn't catch him smiling, it's hard to make him smile with a camera stuck in front of my face. He spends his day eating sleeping, playing with mommy, sitting, laying and standing to play. He still hasn't decided to roll over yet but he is loving solid foods. He tried green beans yesterday and actually took to them pretty well.

Dillon's First "Solid" Food and Kayda's Safe Driver Award

Dillon got to eat his first rice cereal on Thursday. He was excited about eating it, he would open his mouth up nice and wide but he just couldn't figure out how to keep it in his mouth.

He's had it a few times since then and he's still having trouble. That's to be expected of course because he's just starting. It's cute to watch but not so much fun to clean up after. We're going to be starting him in swim lessons with his big sister soon, we'll post pictures as soon as we have some.

Kayda absolutely loves to "drive" anything that she sees us drive. She goes nuts over Grandma and Grandpa G's riding lawn mower and even more crazy about pretending to drive cars. We were out doing yard work on Saturday (a beautiful day by the way) and that's where she wanted to be. So I rolled down the windows, moved all the little things into the center console so she couldn't put them in her mouth and let her have fun. First thing she does, being the little genius that she is, is try to put on the seatbelt!!! YAY!!! She's figured out that if she's in the car she should be buckled in. She tries to help us buckle her into her carseat too. She has a great time driving and when we turn the car on next we always have all kinds of fun surprises, turn signals and windsheild wipers are on and all kinds of other fun things.

Last but certainly not least I HAD to post this. It's daddy's thing to fall asleep with the babies so I had to include another one of those pictures. That and they're adorable