Kayda's Dance Class

Kayda's cousin Ella (~6 months older) has been doing a dance class. I wanted to have her take the class with Ella because they're good pals but the class starts at 10:30 and I'm not done with my classes until 10:35 so we couldn't do it. Well last Thursday Aunt Sarah volunteered for Kayda to come to class with Ella as a guest and guess what...she loved it. So we were able to figure out a way for her to go to class with Ella. Every Thursday Grandma G is taking Kayda to Aunt Sarah's and from there she'll go to class. I figure I should be able to grab Dillon and get over there by a little after 11 so I'll be able to poke my head in and watch a little. A great big thanks to Grandma G and Aunt Sarah for making it possible for her to go.

Ella was sick today so Grandma G brought Kayda and bravely tried to occupy a very tired, grumpy two year old (he hasn't been sleeping much the last few nights). Before Grandma G left I was able to snap a few pictures.

Well, Grandma G left before Kayda was done in the hopes it would avoid a tantrum. She has been a Grandma's girl completely since she's been staying the night there whenever Grandpa's gone. She doesn't want to leave when I go to pick them up after work, she's constantly asking to go over there and constantly asking Grandma to sleep there. The plan kind of worked. The last couple minutes of class the mom's can go in and watch so I came in to watch holding Dillon. They're doing the hokey-pokey and Kayda is just sitting there looking sad. I wave her over and she has the silent tears running down her face because she wanted Grandma. She went back over to get her stamps but she was sad that Grandma was gone. Hopefully she'll stay happy the whole time when Ella is with her.

It's been a while...

Well, it's been quite a while since I've updated so here's a quick summary... Our family has been hit with illness after illness after illness. The kiddos were basically sick from mid-December to mid-February. So we haven't been doing a whole lot. Here's a few things we've done that I have pictures to go with.

Kayda and Dillon love to ride their trikes, this is their newest invention. Dillon figured out how to pedal and then stopped all together, maybe this is why.

Kayda and Dillon love to color. Kayda has discovered that she LOVES glitter, I haven't been brave enough to try that one with Dillon yet. Here are some examples of her masterpieces. I drew out the shapes and then she did most of the cutting, I helped hold the paper while she did it though.

While our little family has been sick we've spent a lot more time than we like indoors. Well a couple of weekends ago it was gorgeous outside and Daddy decided that we should go for a walk. A walk turned into a trip to Lake Meridian with our little family, Hank, Grandma H. and their new dog Jake. Gotta love how nice the weather has been. It definitely doesn't feel like March, and it didn't feel like February and it didn't feel like January. Not so sure we had much of a winter... maybe 2 or 3 weeks worth.

For Christmas Kayda got moon sand and I was finally brave enough to take it out again. Kayda had a blast, Dillon liked to smooth everything I made for him but got bored quickly.

Another big step this month was a trip to the movies...again. We took the kids to see "Planet 51" at the $3 theater. They BOTH did great this time. They sat and watched the whole movie and had a great time of it. Kayda recently went with Grandma and Grandpa G to see "The lightening theif" and did very well.  She didn't get scared at all and wanted to go see it again!

As I've said before Kayda can officially write her name, but now it's without help! Way to go! She even wrote out every letter of the alphabet with me a couple of days ago and the important part...most of them looked the way they are supposed to! She wasn't learning her letters very well because she would get bored so I finally bought the letter factory and it has made a huge difference! She knows all her letters and the sounds they make. She's so excited to know them that she'll read off the letters on posters and such. It's helped some with her speech but we'll still be happy to get her into speech therapy; we're still waiting for the official results of the evaluation. Kayda loves the book "Snug House Bug House" and enjoys reading it to us (she has it memorized). Last but not least, Kayda is officially signed up for little chargers starting next fall. Now we just need to get her to potty train. I wish she was interested. Hopefully the no potty, no school rule will help.

Now for little Dillon. We have discovered that Dillon does not like it when Kayda isn't home. She has started staying the night at Grandma G's a lot and he is miserable without her. He adores his sister and is more than a little lost without her nearby. One good thing about it is that he gets to ride in the Jeep which he adores! He is starting to talk like crazy and many of the words are recognizable. He is the most charismatic little boy I know. When we go anywhere he's waving at everyone, talking to them, saying bye to them and giving them his sweet smiles. He's a charmer, watch out girls here he comes!

Man they grow up fast...

Well several major things have happened recently. Kayda has learned how to write her name! You still have to prompt her on which letter to write and sometimes how to do it but she is doing great considering she's not even 3 and a half! (I'll get pics up as soon as I get some). That's one of the big things going on for her. Those of you who see Kayda know that she has some problems with her consonants. She can say them individually but she tends to just leave them out when she's talking, this obviously makes it pretty difficult to understand her. She is starting to get very frustrated, she'll tell us big long stories and we can't understand her. We've decided to take her to speech therapy with the school district. They did some testing last Monday and will complete that testing this coming Monday. Once the testing is complete she will be seeing a speech pathologist to help her sort out her words a little better. I figure this gives us some time to get her speech better in time for preschool next September.

Dillon has now officially figured out how to pedal his tricycle! He's been thinking about it since Christmas but preferred to simply sit on it and push around. The last week he has been putting his feet on the pedals more and more. Well today was a beautiful day so we went out and got our front yard up to snuff and then the kids were riding their bikes. I hooked a belt to the front of his trike and would just pull when he got stuck (when you have to switch the foot you're pushing with). Soon thereafter he was pedalling just fine on his own. Every once in a while I have to give him a little push to get him started but he was pedalling for quite a distance, he was pedalling himself from the cul-de-sac all the way back to our driveway (about 40 yards or so). Barely over two and riding his trike!

Now for Grandma and Grandpa H. Normally I don't write much about what's going on with other people's lives but they just got a new dog. He's a ~6 year old beagle that was at the pound. The kids HAD to go see him yesterday and he's a sweet heart. They love him to death, hopefully he'll fit in as nicely as Sandy did before and he and Hank can be pals.

Off to the Movies!

We took the kids to see their first big screen movie this evening. We went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks 2. Both kids were pretty good. When we got in the theater Kayda kept talking about the big screen and was very excited for the movie. She did exceptionally well, she ended up standing most of the time but we were seated right behind the handicap spots so it was just a railing in front of us. She would dance to the music and get all excited when something good happened. We had to remind her a couple of times that we should try to be quiet so we don't bother other people. Dillon did well for the first hour. After that his attention started to wander to the lights along the walkway. We had to take him out twice but only for a few minutes. Considering he's just barely two he did great. When we left Kayda wanted to "go see Chipmunk again".

Dillon's Second Birthday!

Dillon turned two yesterday. We ended up driving him around to visit grandparents (our house hasn't recovered from attempting the den just yet and the kids have been sick for almost a month now). He didn't really understand the concept of birthday though. When people would call him "birthday boy" or tell him "happy birthday" he would get upset until in the evening when he got the presents...then it was okay. Both Kayda and Dillon helped me make and frost cupcakes they did a great job and did whatever I asked them to. We'll celebrate with all the cousins once the kiddos have fully recovered from their colds. Here are some pictures from our traveling celebration:

What Dillon Can Do Now:

Words: Bubble, bath, Mama, Daddy, Kayda, Papa, Gramma, duck, dog, Hank, more, please, up, pop, boot, shoe, poop, cup, blue, yellow, purple, drink, cocoa, me, truck, car, no (he's especially good with this one), yes (or mmm-hmm), Ella, Chase, boat, cookie, movie, lightening mcqueen, bed, room, choo-choo, nay-nay, green...
Activities: Jump (both feet off the ground), climb, draw, blow bubbles, launch off of couches and land it, kick balls, throw things...hard, ride push cars faster than even his sister, pretty much anything his sister can do (he loves to copy her right now), climb in AND out of his crib, put lids on cups and bottles...
I know there's more that I just can't think of right now.

3-day Christmas

Our Christmas was busy as usual. Though this year it was spread out a little more. Christmas Eve we had our dinner with Grandma and Grandpa H plus all the cousins, aunts and uncles on that side of the family. It was difficult to get the babies to sleep not because Santa was coming but because Kayda wanted to "go mamma Peggy's ouse eat andy" and Dillon is still fighting off a cold and not sleeping at night. Then Christmas morning Grandma G, Grandpa G and Uncle Justin came over to watch the kiddos open their presents (we didn't do our celebration with that family until the day after Christmas because we were waiting for Aunt Kirsten and Uncle Ranen and their kiddos). The kids knew just what to do and went about unwrapping presents with gusto.

After we opened presents we had some monkey bread with them, we then had to take off to get to Baba's Christmas breakfast that she puts on every year. The kids have a great time there because of how many kids there are. And then.... we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa H's for another gift exchange. Dillon slept through until the end of this one but wasn't bothered in the least.

Last thing that day...we headed home and then had both sets of Grandparents and Uncle Justin over for a small dinner. The house still hasn't recovered from all of it. Here are the kids enjoying some of their gifts in their "down" time.

The next day Uncle Ranen, Aunt Kirsten, Mason and Owen came into town so we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa G's to celebrate with them. Our kids are somewhat unique in that Santa visits them at both places (they practically live at Grandma and Grandpa G's during the week so it's home too right?) . Well Santa surprised the kids there with BIKES! Our first thought was, wow that's gonna have to hang in the garage for another year. Kayda proved us wrong. She was ON that thing and ready to go. Dillon was very excited about his trike until he realized that it's different than a bike so we'll have to remedy that situation... Great Grandma Bishop sent the kids up some money, Kayda definitely knew what it was! It's amazing that she figured it out even though we never use cash!
Uncle Justin claims the colors on the ball are a coincidence (he goes to WSU) but Daddy never really believed him! Dillon loves it though so what are you going to do?

Here's Kayda proving us wrong with her bike. She even figured out the brakes though when she rode it at home she decided that the curb was a wonderful tool for stopping.

Dillon with his trike. He used it more like a push car, he's got to figure out the pedals still.

After our after Christmas dinner a bunch of us were playing Beattles Rock Band. Kayda enjoys singing so she was rocking out with crazy hair and everything. Dillon got into it later with the drums.

Thanks everyone for things that were given or sent to us or the kids. It was a wonderful Christmas and we hope yours was too!

Prep For Christmas!

Well, normally we do all of our Christmas decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving but it was too chaotic this year. We had Kayda's birthday, Aileena's baptism, a group of friends getting together etc. Then last weekend we were cleaning the garage so we could GET to the Christmas decorations and running errands like crazy. So this weekend was our first opportunity. We put the lights up outside, straightened up inside and went in search of a Christmas tree... with no luck. We finally decided we should just buy a fake tree to make life easier but we hit a one day sale unknowingly and now they're all sold out. So maybe we'll be getting a real one after all... We DID however get SANTA PICTURES! We actually got there in time this year. We went down to the supermall and got the pictures and rode the carousel. Unfortunately Dillon did NOT like sitting in some strange guy in all red lap, so he is very unhappy in the pictures. Kayda however did marvelously. Enjoy...