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...

Kayda's Third Birthday

Kayda's birthday was a kind of crazy day! She woke up to a family room full of balloons, which both she and Dillon thought was fanstastic.

Then Uncle Justin surprised us by arranging with his friend to go see their horses. They have two: Doc is the brown one that Kayda and Dillon got to sit on, Brutis is the HUGE black one. Neither of the kids wanted to leave after almost an hour of wandering around with the horses and dogs. The lady you see in the pictures is Liz.

In the horse trailer...

Then around lunch time Grandma and Grandpa G, Uncle Justin and Paige (Uncle Justin's girlfriend), Came over for icecream cake and presents. Aunt Kirsten and her family sent gifts with Uncle Justin and Kayda got a special birthday phone call from them later on.

Then in the evening...Grandma and Grandpa H, Uncle Scott, Aunt Anna, Uncle Greg, Aunt Liz, Baba, Peyton, Mikey, Jarrett, Ella, and our neighbors Jerry, Carla, Tazz and Kylie. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Pat spent the evening in the emergency room with Chase, he was having food troubles.

She named the big black horse Brutis after the real horse. We are so thankful to have so many people that care about our little ones and for them all to be so close. It was a wonderful third birthday. Thanks everyone for being there to celebrate with us.

Oh and the icecream cake was yummy. In a spring form pan: Crushed oreo cookies (1 package) with a little under 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 carton of icecream, hot fudge, another 1/2 of icecream, covered with whipped cream. Simple but takes a long time because you have to keep freezing in stages.