My Kids Know How to Enjoy Life

February was a great month.  I'll let the pictures do the talking...

 They are on a "road trip."  That box has toys, "snacks" and all their favorite sleeping stuff.  They "slept" through the night (I wonder who was driving the car?), then they woke up and ate "breakfast."  Dillan: "No ice cream until you finish you're breakfast!"  A great reenactment of a road trip we took last summer and a similar one the Christmas before that.

 She looks like she's going to an English Tea Party, no?

 We stopped potty training her and put her back in diapers.  She loves to take off her pants and diapers and be free!  Especially when I've waited too long to change her.  But where does she think she's going?  boots on with no pants!

 Yes, they all fit

 For Valentine's Day for Kyle to have at work.

Cute family Kellie!

Oh, why thank you!

 Dillan calls her "Batman Girl." Yes, she's wearing 2 Batman capes.

 ???

 Seconds before (and after) she was frolicking up and down the hallway, flapping her arms:

"I'm a birdie, I'm a birdie!"

 Dillan is turning into an engineer (inventor/designer).  We are going through lots of tape to make his inventions happen.  This is an airplane, he has also made airplanes out of tongue depressors, wood, paper, legos and colored pencils.  He designed and implemented at least 2 pairs of skiis, 1 pair of rollerskates, "sticky boots", "sticky gloves" to help him climb up walls, several masks, a remote control airplane.  His current project is a water jetpack: water bottle, twine, tape (if you've seen Chicken Little, you'll know where he got the idea from).  At the end of his project Hazel eventually finds the tape and pulls out several feet.  We've been enjoying tape on our carpet, blankets, pants, and socks.

Kyle finally made me my birthday present, grow boxes for my vegetable garden!  The kids and I enjoyed the first nice day in months, Picnic!  Dillan also designed an obstacle course that involved jumping over his basketball hoop (laying on its side), jumping over some stacked wood, and running under the grow boxes.  In the foreground, that pile of wood is another airplane Dillan made.

A slow New Year

Each month I do a blog post, and as I look back over the month I think to myself "Whoa, that was a jam-packed month!"  Every month I think about putting that in the title of the blogpost.  As it turns out, a busy month is not special.  January was very special, it was EMPTY!

 

I did an intense intestinal cleanse after getting back from our Utah vacation.  Due to the demands of the cleanse, I spent a lot of time doing nothing, being tired, and being cold.  I learned a lot about the sufferings of the Mormon pioneers with no food, no fat, no energy, and no body heat!  I'm glad it's over.

At the same time we started potty training Hazel, that's why there are so many pictures without pants.

 Playing together with their new Christmas toys.  I love it when they play nice together!  And we love the underwear bum!

 Don't tell anyone that we put Hazel's bare botton on the internet.  Shhh!

 It took almost all day Saturday with Dad's help, but Dillan finally finished the lego dirtbike he got for Christmas!

Adorable...reading a book...in her baby doll stroller.  I wonder when it will break from the weight of the kids?

 Happy Birthday Hazel!  We went swimming and had a chocolate beet cake.  She was so excited to be 2!  and so excited to blow out her candles!

 A present from Grandma.  Who knew there were so many uses for socks?  They were the center of attention (and a little fighting) for both kids all day!

How did her bum get naked without her shoes coming off?

 

One more exciting thing happened in January.  We went out to the movies on a date night!  Actually, that wasn't the interesting part, although I did really enjoy myself.  When we got back to Gma and Gpa Hardy's at 11pm we found Dillan awake, watching a movie.  To make a long story short, he had dislocated his elbow (Nurse Maid's Elbow) while dancing with Grandpa getting ready for bed.  We knew something was seriously wrong when he wouldn't let us move his arm without freaking out.  2 hours later, at the emergency room we finally got to see a doctor.  Dillan told him very calmly, "When you move my arm, I keep freaking out."  It turns out its really common in kids under 5 and really easy to fix, so we won't get a $1200 bill next time, we'll just do fix ourselves.  (Don't worry, insurance covered it.)

That's a Wrap!

December was a fun month for us.  We went caroling with Kyle's parent's and sister's family.  At the end of the singing Hazel said "Halloween" and went to the person standing at the door, expecting a treat!  She was disappointed and confused that going door to door caroling was not the same as door to door Trick or Treating.

 

We took the kids to some workshops at Lowe's.  They have free projects for kids on different Saturdays.  Dillan made Santa's sled and both of them made an airplane.  Free family entertainment, boo yah!

 

Santa came to our church Christmas party.  Hazel and Dillan waited patiently and excitedly to sit on Santa's lap.  Their moment came, and they ran for him!  2 seconds later, kind of scared, Hazel came running back to me.  No Santa's lap for her!

 

Kyle can only change his health insurance once a year.  So we spent the first week of December figuring out our insurance needs and what each option provided.  What a pain!  It was a really stressful week for me, I don't like dealing with health insurance.  I'm glad it's over and we got it all figured out.  We also got dental insurance, that's new!

 

A vacuum salesmen came.  It had been a challenging day with the kids and Kyle was going to be home late.  He entertained us all until Kyle finally got home.  Then we couldn't get rid of him.

 She has on Dillan's swimming goggles.  Peek-a-boo!

 Father-son bonding, with a vacuum.

 It's snowing!  We barely got enough to go outside and pick it up.  Dillan made "snowballs" by scraping some off the grass and throwing it at me, missing most of the time.  Hazel repeated "snowball" each time she picked up some bark dust (with a little snow on it) and put it in the gutter drain.  And they were cold in less than 10 minutes.

 Christmas morning was so fun.  Hazel would have preferred to play with the first thing she got and stop opening presents.  It was a challenge to rip her away from one new thing in order to unwrap something else.  She got underwear, that's what she has on over her pants.

Our Christmas tree was hand sawed by Kyle at a nearby Christmas tree farm.  It smelled amazing!  Oregon has some unique perks.

 Dillan got a batman costume for Christmas, and he looks legit!

 This was Hazel's big gift from Santa.  "Come on, do dishes!" is what she says when she wants to play with it.

 They all got healthy licorice.  Yum!  Candy first thing in the morning!

This is kind of lame, but we didn't decide to fill each other's stockings until a few days before Christmas.  I was busy with Christmas dinner preparations, and getting things ready for the kids, and getting ready for flying out on Christmas evening, so Kyle did his own stocking shopping with Hazel!

 Dillan gave a present this year to Hazel.  The joy of giving!

 The rest of these pictures all happened earlier in December (before Christmas).

 We hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls.  This is a recess/inlet in the mountainside.  Dillan hiked the whole way up (1.25 miles) and most of the way down, with his Camelbac.  We were so proud!

 The hike was georgeous and peaceful.  For those of you not from around here, that river is the Columbia, and those mountains are in Washington.

This branch was brought in, unbeknownst to me to make a bow.  He's a go getter!  Later that day we had our own homemade bow and arrow that he took with him everywhere for the next week (until it broke).  We got him a toy bow and arrow for Christmas.  The homemade stick and twine one works way better!

 Riding his "dirtbike" (which is my digital piano stand)

Getting along, snuggling = love it!

 I heard a lot of rucus when Dillan was supposed to be napping, but it quieted down, so I didn't worry about it.  This is what I found when he got up from his nap: Dillan in a full snow suit that's too small (size 2T).  He wore it for the rest of the day.

 Skis.  Getting in some practice before visiting Gma and Gpa in Utah for the real deal.

Happy Birthday Dillan!  We don't really celebrate his birthday in December, we do it on his half birthday.  This year we had a family dinner: salad, socca pizza, and beet cake (all Dillan's requests).  Dillan was so excited about the socca pizza, telling his cousins how yummy it was, they thought it was weird, but they ate it!  I loved that he stuck up for his delicious healthy whole foods!

Fun Stuff and a Funeral

November was great.  I got to vote, Dillan had swimming lessons, I joined the ward choir, we watched the football civil war (mostly sleeping through it).  I got to go to Time Out for Women for the first time.  Loved it!  And I think about the things I learned there all the time.  Grandpa Thad Kirkham died.  I was blessed to be able to go to his funeral and celebrate his life.  He was a great man, not great as the world judges, but great through the eyes of our Heavenly Father and his fellow family members.

 Empty milk cartons, who new they were so fun?  She pulls them out of the recyclying bins.

 Doggy was cold and needed a coat.  This is a 3-6 month size pajama dress thingy that I found for him.

 It fits Hazel as well!  1.5 years later, it is no longer long sleeved or dress length.  Hee hee

 Proof that I do have fun with my kids and play with them, I'm just usually the jungle gym.

 We started making fires in our fireplace!  They are so cozy and picturesque, I wish I could curl up in front of it and not get anything done.

 We heard him get out of bed when we were downstairs watching TV, but he didn't come down, so we never checked on him.  Totally asleep on that body pillow in the upstairs hallway.

 Lego siblings!

 We got a reel lawn mower for free!  It was so fun to mow our lawn, and Dillan loved it.

 They are "trappped"

 The many uses of a laundry basket.

 Snuggling siblings watching a show.  Usually they each need their own blanket.

 My Great Grandma Hugo's famous apple pie recipe, with health adaptations made by me.  Thank you to Thanksgiving for a reason to buckle down and make them.  So delicious!

 What a lucky dad

 That's right, Buzz Lightyear lives here.