Perfect Little Moments

We look good!

I was washing off the table, so I moved a few things onto Hazel's high chair tray. She knocked the bowl of grapes off and started eating them!

The kids are both in there! Hazel loves playing peek-a-boo with it.

We just got out our Christmas stuff. Dillan was so excited to wear the Santa hat and made everyone try it on.

Hazel was actually trying to eat that tube of ornaments. Like a dog with a bone.

Yay for perfect family moments, everyone is behaving and being helpful!

It's Dillan's first Christmas helping to decorate. He also go to set up a nativity by himself (it's funny, nothing is paying attention to baby Jesus), and he got to put up the doorknob hangers. He likes to rearrange the ornaments or pick up the ones Hazel has pulled off.

I'm so glad our bulbs are from the dollar store, didn't have to worry about Hazel playing with them. She tired of this activity pretty fast. Dillan even tried to tempt her back with a really low one placed just for her, didn't work.

I made some vegan hot chocolate, the rest is all Dillan!

They love having bathtime together! Usually Hazel is laughing her head off the whole time because she enjoys Dillan so much!

Packing to go to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving.

Okay, this is where I put in the stories of what has happened over the past few weeks. As I was doing the dishes one day I noticed that it was silent and both of the kids were in the family room. That's always dangerous. On checking it out I found Dillan sitting on the couch looking at a library book and Hazel playing by the legos. It was such a perfect moment!

Hazel has discovered legos, her favorite thing to do is is take apart every single piece. It's always a race to build something quick before she grabs it and begins demolition.

Also, Hazel only wants to eat "grown-up" food now. If it is made special for a baby, she doesn't want it. We are also making the transition to 2 naps a day for her, but with 2 kids sharing a room, naps are difficult.
I don't have any stories about Dillan. In general he is growing up, happy and energetic, behaving better, not improving in potty training, playing nicer with Hazel, and is so good at talking I think he'll be a public speaker.

Dillan and Kyle are swordfighting on the Wii. Dillan is good! He wins a lot of the time because Kyle can't get a swipe in!

He's got moves!

Hazel 10 Months

It's been an exciting month! About 8 months ago we finally got Kyle's bike outfitted with mudgaurds (rain + biking on road everyday= need mudguards!). 2 Months after that his bike got stolen, someone snapped the lock. Then he started using my bike. We outfitted that one with mudgaurds and finally got him a helmet (yeah, we're bad, he road his bike for a year without a helmet). That got stolen also! Including the Helmet. We blame the "occupy Salem" people, they were about 2 blocks away. Now Kyle keeps a watch out on the streets for our bikes and wants to jump whoever's got them.

Hazel's blueberry face.

This picture is not sideways! Dillan turned over the exer-saucer and is driving his "car"!

I read a book on the hundreds of ways sugar is bad for you. I've tried to stop eating it, but it is in anything that is store bought: sphaghetti sauce, bread, chips, potstickers, anything that is remotely convenient. We've all been duped!

The power went out for 45 minutes just as the sun was going down a few days ago. I learned that our only flashlight is one that you wind to give it power. We have repented of our unpreparedness and bought real flashlight.

Dillan envied Hazel getting the spotlight with these pictures, so he jumped in as well.

I went to get a haircut one evening and left Kyle with the kids for an hour. Knowing that he wasn't supposed to watch TV with them he got bored and rearranged the whole family room!

Cutie Girl!

One of her earrings got ripped out twice. I considered taking them out, but she's so darn cute!

Post trick-or-treating.

Team Work

Yay for us all working together! Ignore Dillan's weird face and notice that Hazel is standing under the table at dinner. What could be going on?

Dillan is feeding her rice! Both of them really love their rice tasks!

Rice + My Kids = Happy and Messy

Look at that cute boy! Our pumpkins took a lot of team work. Hazel slept. Kyle did all the scraping out and carving. I cut my finger before getting the lid cut out. Dillan described and modeled the faces he wanted on the pumpkins. I translated Dillan's words and faces into faces on the pumpkins (a.k.a. artist).

Yay for teamwork! They turned out great!

Kyle and I have been together for 5 Halloweens. This is the first time we have carved pumpkins. Mostly we like going to the pumpkin patch.

Dillan thought the pumpkin "guts" were gross. He wouldn't touch them with his hands, just a spoon.

I visited my family for a week, giving Kyle extra study time in Salem and me extra help with the kids. Seeing family is always great! (Yay team work again!) That's Shelly and Danny, my brother and sister.

This is Hazel at 9 months! She had so much fun pulling out all the books. Then she was surrounded by books, stuck, and crying because she didn't know how to get away.

Hazel's first box adventure. She loved it. There is a lot of playing with boxes in her future!

During General Conference Dillan made Witches Hats for the neighbors. It kept him busy for almost an hour on 2 different days! What impressed me was he didn't eat any of the ingredients.

These videos are all funny, no comments or explanations necessary.

Sorry, bad cinematography. I think the adorable Dillan makes up for it.

Germs

Me: Dillan, you should wash your hands after you go potty.

Dillan: They're not dirty. There's no poop.

Me: The dirt is too small to see.

Dillan: See!? They're not dirty (holding out his hands for inspection).

Me: There is bacteria and germs on your hands.

Dillan: I don't need to wash my hands. They're not dirty.

Hazel then reaches out and touches his hand.

Dillan: Hazel's touching my germs!

Me: You better go wash!

He was finally convinced and washed his hands. Hee hee hee!

Dillan Funnies

As he walks out onto our back porch:

"See you next day!"

"See you later, crocodile!"

"Patriot Day"

This is the Field of Flags in Salem. We had a very nice walk around the park, peaceful, respectful of our nation. The governor had some soldiers their with some sort of artillery for taking down airplanes (I'm guessing here). That was interesting, especially for Dillan. I am reminded what a big deal it was 10 years ago and that my kids will never really understand, just like I don't really understand the Iron Curtain or the Cold War.

I'm glad we're all alive and that the United States is still free. I'm grateful for this country, that it allowed Jesus' gospel to return to the earth and that I get to partake in it. I am so blessed.

Hazel chased a toy in there and then ended up on top of it, so she couldn't even play with it! She has started trying to get to toys by herself, before she had to be coaxed along to crawl.

Last School Year For Kyle!

It has been an exciting month (5 weeks)! We had our anniversary, apart. I went to San Francisco to visit Kyle and saw some of the sites. I even got locked into a subway station because there were protests against the subway going on. It was just me and Hazel, good thing I prayed that it would be okay, because there were some people really freaking out! We were let out in less that 5 minutes. My favorite part of San Francisco was sitting on some grass overlooking the bay eating a Ghiradelli sundae.

We had a looong road trip back because we took a detour through the Redwood Forest. Awesome! From there we went straight on a family reunion: reunited with Dillan, pool party at the Air and Space Museum, Beach house, kite flying, s'mores at a fire on the beach, great relatives, a huge sand dune, and Tillamook Cheese Factory!

2 days later Kyle started school. He's always busy, but he makes time for his family. Then there was the state fair, a minor league baseball game, Hazel started crawling, we went on a date (we decided to make it a priority after that long separation), and Dillan started potty training this week. He's doing good with the pee, it's the poop that's challenging!

I got a sourdough start and have been experiment with it. It's fun to try to new things, especially when it's something so healthy!

Dillan has started working out with me (10 minutes each morning), so our workout mat is always out. He also started playing with Hazel. I think he finally realized she's a person. Now he looks forward to when she can walk and play soccer with him.

There he is.

There he isn't!

This is at the baseball game. Ignore my cheesy smile and notice the kids have shared Dillan's pajamas. I forgot to bring Hazel pants. I forgot it cools down at night because it's so dang hot in our apartment!

Their first bath together. He loved showing off for her, putting his face in the water. She just plain loves him. Now Dillan wants to join Hazel during every bath.

Teething biscuit beginning.

Teething biscuit end!

Dillan continues to take lots of pictures. This is his best recent one.

As you can see, Hazel is growing up fast. She doesn't want to perfect crawling, she just wants to walk. Anything taller than 6 inches is used to try and stand up, but she isn't quite there yet.

Vacation Part 2

This is actually home from vacation. Julianne was the first person Dillan wanted to play with when we got home.

I also realized when we got back from vacation that Hazel could sit up! She watched a 20 minute video like this! She also got her first 2 teeth while we were gone and she is working on crawling. She can get the position and is working on the muscle control.

Kyle flew in to Salt Lake Airport at 9pm after work on a Friday night. I picked him up from the airport and we immediately started our roadtrip back to Oregon (overnighter!). We only stopped twice. This was our last stop, breakfast, at 5:45 AM. The overnighter would have been fine if Dillan hadn't woken up every 20-30 minutes crying.

Our breakfast stop was near an Indian Reservation, so they had these cool animals.

Cousins, vacation, books, and an inner tube. What a great combination!

All the women got pedicures. Hazel felt left out, so she got her first pedicure!

The problem with videos is by the time you record it, your kids have already been doing it for a couple minutes. Of course they ran out of juice right when I was taping, but at least I got some of it!