Birthday Party

I think Tanner looks just like Peter's Dad. It is kind of hard to capture on camera but when Larry holds Tanner I can totally see it.
This weekend Peter threw a Birthday party for me. We had lots of people over and lots of food. Dallin decided to go topless during the whole party.
There were probably more kids than adults at the party. It was all of my family and Peters family and a bunch of friends with kids too. My floors are still sticky from all of the soda and cake.
My favorite part of the Happy Birthday song was how exited Dallin was. He sang just as loud as everyone else and helped me blow out the candles. The only candles we had were the numbers for 26 from last year so Peter just made me 62 instead. My mom and mother in law knew just what I needed for my birthday. Peter's mom gave me money to go clothes shopping and babysat for me. My mom also gave me a whole day of babysitting so that I can shop and get a message. I feel so pampered. Saturday I went to the General Relief Society broadcast with a friend and Peter had a Pool game tournament in the basement. I think we both enjoyed our evenings. Sunday we had some new friends over from our ward and then also had Peters family over for dinner. This was a busy weekend as usual. Peter and I have been watching the first season of the show Lost at nights together. We are almost done but it has been kind of nice to wind down after the kids go to bed. Especially with such busy days.

busy busy

The last couple of weeeks have been so busy for us. We do manage to have fun in between the craziness of life. Last weekend we went to dinner with Greg and Heidi. When we picked up the kids we visited with Peters Parents for a couple of hours. On Saturday I did my friend Sarah's hair while Peter and Aaron installed yet another window. This project has taken months but we are finally at a stopping point. We have one more window to do but because of complications we will probably put it off indefinately. Now we are trying to decide if the weather will let us paint the outside of the house or not. We are hoping. Sunday we had lunch with some friends from our ward and dinner at Larry D and Michelle's house. We always seem to cram as much fun as we can into our weekends because our week days are so crazy i guess. Fall is definately here. We have had a lot of rain the last few days and I am wearing sweatshirts and socks a lot more. I just don't like cold weather much so I am so sad to see the long days come to an end and our heating bills go up.

Our friends Greg and Heidi had their baby Brooklyn this week. Congratulations, we are so happy for you guys. When we visited Eden did not want us to hold the new baby. She couldn't stand it even though we hold our Tanner all the time. Silly girl.
We are now doing speech therapy sessions with Dallin 2 times a week. The techniques we are using also seem to help in the everyday routines which is what we really need. He also still likes his preschool, however, on Monday Dallin slept in really late because we had a busy weekend and just woke up grouchy. When the bus came to get him he didn't want to go on it which is not normal for him. I drove him to school about 15 minutes away and he still wouldn't go so I just gave up. Wednesday however he was totally delighted to go on the bus again. Go figure. Last weekend Dallin was jumping on a trampoline at Grandma and Grandpa Dickinson's and bounced right off. He scraped up his face pretty good but luckily no broken bones or stitches. He is a wild man.
We could not get Dallin to hold our hands in the parking lot the other day so he settled for holding Shelby's hand. We had to capture the momentary friendship. Normally when these cousins are around each other Dallin teases and Shelby tattles. Tanner started giggling a little bith this week. He is such a doll. I think this is the best age. He sleeps well at night and takes good naps and just acts cute all the rest of the time. Eden is still suprising me all the time with her talking. The other day she walked past Dallin and touched him on the back as she said "excuse me Dallin". Then when I sneezed she looked at me and said "bless you". What a polite kid.

The Hike

Last weekend we had a nice time with our friends. We went on an all day hike up at Eagle Creek. There were 3 couples and 3 little baby boys all the same age. I think all of the hard core hikers were amazed to see us doing such a hard hike with babies. We felt really cool. Dallin and Eden got to play at Grandma and Grandpa Dickinson's all day. We had so much fun.

Tanner was such a good boy all day. I think he was just happy to be held the whole time. With three babies we had many stops to feed them. It was a pretty relaxed hike that way but the trail was quite vigorous. We hiked about 10 miles and got up somewhere around 1000 feet elevation. There were a lot of rocks which is hard on the feet and the trails were narrow and next to cliffs. I had to taks some ibuprofin before bed because my legs hurt so bad. I am still not totally back in shape from having Tanner and I could really tell.
The scenery was totally gorgeous. True Oregon. The weather was also perfect. It was partly cloudy and in the 70s. It is hard to tell in this picture but the water is probably 50 feet down.
Peter and I remembered that we did this hike together with our friends when we were 16. I think we liked eachother at the time. He jumped off the punchbowl falls as I watched in horror. I remember he slapped his hands on the water and they were bright red and he was freezing cold. Luckily he survived and now here we are 10 years later. What a great day!

Fun at the zoo

This was a pretty busy week for us. I am working at our club Butterfly Life 2 evenings a week so that keeps things moving and shuffling. I usually drop the kids off at my sister Laurel's house around 2:30 and then go to work and then Peter picks them up on his way home from work. The kids seem to like playing with cousins but I really don't like shuffling them around so much. The nice thing about being in the fitness industry is that I can get my exercise in while I am there. This really helps me stay somewhat sane. Now that we have been open for a while, we are really starting to see women getting results and feeling better so at least it is something I enjoy. I usually come home feeling refreshed and ready to take on my busy role at home. We had a very fun weekend too. On friday we hung out and played games with the Nielsons and the Koberleins. It is fun how many new words you can learn when you play Balderdash. Saturday we went to the zoo with a bunch of family and friends. Then today we had dinner with Peter's family and celebrated Spencer Dickinsons 2nd birthday.

Eden being "Cheeky". Too cute to pass that one up. Eden is such a happy little girl, but when she wants something we really hear about it. She is talking quite a bit and uses a lot of signs. She almost always has a cup of "gulk" (milk) or "watey" in her hand. This is one hydrated kid. She lost her voice a little bit this week so it was quite funny to hear her walk around the house singing e-i-e-i-o in her cute little squeeks.

We rode the train at the zoo. Dallin just stared out the window the whole time and loved every second. Waiting in line for 20 minutes on the other hand was crazy. Dallin was eating yogurt and getting it everywhere and would not let us help him. Then he was trying to run away and throwing a fit. I was holding Eden's hand as she was trying to pull away and then she started screaming and holding her arm like it hurt. I thought for a minute that we would have to go to the emergency room. The people all around us were just staring at us like we were a reality TV show. We were so glad to finally get on the train!

The kids really liked the aquariums. We saw all kinds of fish sea lion, turtles, and snakes.
Eden was the most exited to see fish. She just kept saying "fishies" over and over. I think as parents it is more fun to watch your children reactions than to see the animals.

This is Eden and Dallin with their cousin Shelby. She came over to play this week and was being a big girl to help me give the kids baths. Then she decided to join them. This is proof to everyone that our kids do have their clean moments.

This is actually a polar bear, but everything at the zoo that had fur and four legs was a doggy.

I think Dallin's favorite part of the zoo was this tractor. The train was also a big highlight. He just loves anything mechanical. He came to me the other day with 5 little cars and layed them all out in front of me. Then he picked up one at a time and put them way to close to my face and said Car? then I would have to comment on the nice car before he would show me the next one. Dallin also helped daddy put in a window this weekend. He climbed on ladders, moved boards around and used them as car ramps. Then when daddy was caulking, Dallin decided to caulk his cars. He completely coated them in the stuff. So were his clothes.