Eden's Song

As she played quietly by herself, I overheard this great song!

"Air, Air, CONDITIONER, CONDITIONER, CONDITIONER, CONDITIONER"(repeated over and over).

Question

What do you do when your family is taking the sacrament and your daughter chokes on her water and caughs into the sacrament tray???? Umm.......pass the tray on, close your eyes and pretend you are invisible.

Deja Vu!

I thought Carter looked really familiar. So when I had him in this outfit I just had to go back and look at pictures of Dallin at this age. Carter is first then Dallin, then Carter first again followed by Dallin again. Ha!

Observations

Overheard conversation, I assume regarding anatomy:

Eden to Dallin: You have a pee and a bottom, I just have a bottom.

Dallin: Yeah I have a pee AND a bottom

Eden: No, I don't have a pee, just a bottom, but thats okay.

(the conversation continued for about 2 minutes)

Private

I knew it would happen sooner or later. Being compelled to go private with the blog has gotten to me. So if I have your email address I will send you an invite. If I don't please give me your email in a comment or send it to cillaeatscheese@yahoo.com. I still want anyone who knows me to be able to read so just let me know and I will invite all of you. I will go ahead with it in a couple of days...

Milestones

Carter- I can't believe he is barely 4 months and is rolling all over the place. He is rolling back to front and front to back as well. Maybe my memory is off, but I wasn't expecting this for a month or two. I can't set him down anywhere now that I think he could roll off of which is something to get used to. He spits up A LOT so I lay him on a blanket on the floor to try to save the carpet, but he now will often be off of the blanket in no time. It is fun to watch him develop. He is starting to use his hands to grab at toys in his exersaucer too.

Tanner- Speech development is an amazing thing to me. Especially with typical development, it comes so easily and I don't take that for granted. Every word is a gift. I am always counting the length of their sentences. So yesterday my little 2 year old Tanner came up to me and spurted out a 9 word sentence! His exact words were "I want to go jump big on the trampoline!" in his cute little Tanner language of course. Wow!

Speaking of trampolines...Don't tell your kids that you are going to go play "crack the egg" in a few minutes if they don't know exactly what that means. If you are busy and not paying attention you could end up with a dozen eggs cracked and being jumped on out there!!! Not that I would know :)

Life is Beautiful

Insights of a 29 year old, my Birthday rambling:

Yes, I am really that old. I have realized that I love getting older. Age brings more wisdom and insight to life. I think that I know myself better than I did when I was 18 or 19 and I am very comfortable with who I am. I love my life and feel so blessed that I can't say that I would want to be any other age. I have a wonderful husband and beautiful healthy children and no regrets about how I have lived my life so far on this earth. I have learned from every mistake and trial and grown from them and even learned to be thankful for them. Of course I would like to improve myself and feel that I still have a lot of growing to do(I am so far from perfect), but I think I am doing the best that I can.

I think having this blog has actually really helped me to see how beautiful life is, because now I am always looking at the small things that bring joy every day and counting my blessings. I think the older I get, the more I have learned to not "sweat the small stuff". There is way too much life to enjoy, than to worry about being uptight, and it took me a long time to realize that. Since I was very little, I dreamed of being a mom, taking care of a home, and being married. All my dreams have come true and it is even better in reality.

I also don't care as much as I used to about the drive to have more possessions. I really don't care at all that my car is 10 years old, it works great and is absolutely perfect for our needs. I just don't feel the need to have bigger and better like I used too. I am not saying it isn't fun to have nice things, it totally is, but things come and go and are in and out of style anyway so waiting until something I want to fit our budget is fine with me, it feels better to live within our means. I feel like I have a lot so why not enjoy what I have instead of always wanting the next best thing.

I dont worry about what others think of my things, my parenting, my marriage, my housekeeping, or spirituality as much as I used to so it is a lot less to worry about. I don't have time for that. I have learned that a simpler life is a happier life. My number one priority is my family and I won't let my focus be turned by trying to be everything and have it all.

I was reflecting on the words to the song that Peter and I sang at our wedding yesterday as I was absorbing the thought of my new age. I have loved Peter since I was 16, but I realize now more than ever how much I really picked the right person for me and that has attributed to the happy life that I am blessed to have. This song seemed romantic to me at the time of our wedding, and now it is awesome how true it is so far:

Grow old along with me.
The best is yet to be.
When our time has come,
we will be as one.
God bless our love.
God bless our love.

Grow old along with me,
two branches on one tree.
Face the setting sun
when the day is done.
God bless our love.
God bless our love.

Spending our lives together,
man and wife together.
Worlds without end,
Worlds without end.

Grow old along with me.
Whatever fate decrees,
we will see it through,
for our love is true.
God bless our love.
God bless our love.

-John Lennon

I am grateful for my life and the plan of salvation. Heavenly Father has given us this time to have a body and for our spirits to be enlarged. So far I love having this experience and I imagine it will continue increase throughout life. I am grateful for the Savior's plan of agency and spiritual growth that we all chose to follow.

Finally, I feel like I can't finish all this without counting just a few of my blessings:

The Gospel, especially the Atonement

Living in the Promised Land

Peter, Dallin, Eden, Tanner, Carter

Being raised by loving parents, who continue to keep my foundation firm by loving each other so much

Awesome siblings who are my best friends

The Dickinson family

Modern comforts

A beautiful home

Enough finances to meet our needs

ABA therapy

Overdoses of kisses and hugs every day

Education

Trials

Living in California and the miracles that have come with that

Health

Being able to stay home with my children

The little blessings without number

Life is Beautiful.

Another Tanner Funny

Holding up his Woody doll
"eh naken my boot!"(theres a snake in my boot)

This kid makes me laugh like 20 times a day.

When Daddy Comes Home

I haven't put video on in a long time so I was going over some from the last couple of months. This one is pretty cute. This is no exaggeration of how much the kids love it when Peter comes home. This was the end of July...

"UNDERPANTS!!!!"

Thats it...thats the joke(shouted over and over at the breakfast table).

-Tanner

Peter

Sorry this is a gushing post, be warned!

Peter is the coolest guy ever! A few months ago he found out about a $500 scholarship that was being offered through his apprenticeship. All he had to do was write an essay so he went for it, and got it! Then a couple of months later he found out about another one that was $1000. This time it was for a collaboration of of apprenticeships nation wide and there were only 2 winners. He won again! They even came to his work to take his picture and present him with a check and put a whole page about him in the newsletter. This time there was a third one for $500 that was similar to the first one. He had to put that he had already received two scholarships this year so he was not hopeful about winning but went for it anyway. They awarded 2 people out of 20 and Peter won again!!! They told him that they reviewed him and when they talked about him they discussed that even though he got the other scholarships, they were still impressed with him enough to give it to him.

I also really appreciate how Peter keeps his priorities straight. The moment he walks in the door each night he is a hands on dad. He plays and cares for our children and isn't afraid of diapers. He is always taking the kids for bike rides or to the park or other family outings. After that last round of pest control hours, he never wants to sacrifice that much time with his kids again. Even though he is ambitious, I don't think he will ever let his career become more important than TIME with the kids, work is secondary for him and he is not nearly as fulfilled by it(I think he is like his Dad in that way). Kids spell time L-O-V-E you know :)

He is also such a sweet husband to me. My favorite thing to do with Peter is just talk about our life and our family and our goals. I love how we are all about the same things. Peter really listens to me and we really respect each other's opinions. I know I am hard on him at times(I blamed it on the pregnancy hormones when I was prego), but he really tries to do the little things that make a big difference to me. Even when he doesn't think something is a big deal he can see that it is to me and he respects that.

Lately we have been going on a date EVERY week without missing. We have always continued to date in our marriage but not this consistently. Since we are trying to be frugal, sometimes it is a long bike ride and talk, or ice cream or something simple, but we easily fill up 2 hours or more just visiting. I can't speak for him but I have been trying to pretend that it is a date from before we were married. I guess just trying to be funny and cool so that he will like me or something. It makes it so much fun. I really look forward to our Wednesday nights now and we work better as a team the rest of the week.

Another thing we have been doing lately is emailing. I haven't really emailed him before just to email him, but we have found that it is a really fun way to flirt and appreciate things, and get exited about our next date. It makes sense since we both check our emails several times a day, but don't always get a chance to talk until the evening.

I feel blessed.

Comic Strip

This a comic strip that a lady writes about her life so sometimes she writes about her experiences with her autistic son. I found this to be funny, but only because I have lived stuff like this.

Manual

This week flew by so fast and we have been busy busy. One thing I that has really kept me busy is practicing with my camera for my photography class. So fun! After taking a lot of bad pictures, I am finally starting to use manual mode. I have been working on using light, shutter speeds, angles, depth of field, etc. I am very proud that I took these pictures with manual settings. It was sort of like learning a new language at first, but I think I am starting to get it. I already like the pictures so much better. So here is what I have from the last week: Peter is such a cute dad.

The kids were pretty exited about our new bike trailer. We went for our first family bike ride all together. Eden had a bit of a hard time keeping up in her bike and Tanner ended up squishing Carter in the trailer, but it was still pretty cool.
Okay, this one and the next one were taken in Auto mode because I didn't have time to figure out my settings. We had a pizza party for the soccer league that Dallin and Eden were in and they received their trophies. I love Dallin's face here, he is so exited. They are very proud.
Tanner loved the cake just as much!

Still motion. Also experimenting with light.

More with light.
Narrow and Wide depth of field.

More depth of field shots

Same thing with a longer lens
Fast Shutter speed
Slow shutter speed

Stake Conference

Stake conference has been very difficult for us since having children. We once again brought all of our kids to sit in the folding chairs for 2 hours today. It was actually was our best behaved conference yet, but was not without its moments. The first hour, the kids did wonderful and Peter and I kept looking at each other with surprised glances. After that things slowly started to spin out of control. I began taking kids for walks to get their wiggles out, especially Tanner. Dallin and Eden were pretty entertained with their color books and crayons. Then they discovered that our box of crayons had a pair of scissors and a glue stick in it. Dallin LOVES to cut paper so he began making a mess with his confetti. So the scissors were taken away. Then He and Eden began to try to glue the paper pieces to the chairs. I told them they could only glue onto paper, but that didn't go so well either so the glue stick went away. Then Peter came back in to join us with Tanner who he had taken for another walk. He sat down next to me and we continued to try to keep control of our situation. We were losing. I could not stop laughing when Peter stood up to restrain someone and had a big piece of paper glued to his back side (don't worry I was quick to remove it)!

Then their was our neighbor. He was an older gentlemen that was alone. Tanner loves to talk to strangers and had pretty much talked his ear off during the first hour. In the second hour the man began to fall asleep, which apparently really offended Tanner. He shouted "Wake up!" and startled the poor guy to death. He continued to make sure that the man stayed awake the rest of the time.

Dallin needed to use the bathroom at one point so I took him. There is only one set of bathrooms in our building and it is right outside the door of the gym where we were sitting. Dallin now insists on using the men's room so I could not go in with him. He went in for a minute and then came out and said he was going to wait for his turn. I told him to go find a potty because it sounded like he was stalling, and then he said very loudly that he wanted to use the urinal. The people in the hall thought it was hilarious.

We were just glad that the first hour went well, that was the best it has ever been. Peter and I haven't really listened to that much stake conference in a long time. The second hour was a zoo, but quite entertaining anyway.

More on Marriage

Well,
I finally went out and knocked some doors last night. Peter had gone out last week while I stayed home with kids. I was pretty sure I was going to pass out at the first door but by the third or fourth, I was feeling pretty confident on my own and told Peter we could split up. I found that a lot of people were very supportive and we got about 10 people willing to let us put a sign in their yard that says "vote yes on proposition 8". People that were not in support were not really rude and it was very easy to tell where they stood and so we would just move on without any sort of confrontation. The main goal was not really to change any one's mind that was made up, we were to find supporters to help out and educate those that were undecided. We were able to do both so it was great. The Church is so behind it that it really felt like we were on the Lord's errand. The wonderful lady in our ward that is in charge of heading up our 17,000 home responsibility is so awesome and inspiring.

I found out about an experience that a heterosexual couple had recently Roseville, near where we live. Since gay marriage is legal for the time being, the new marriage licenses no longer say Husband _________ and Wife__________ on the part where you fill in your name. It now says Party A and Party B. So when this couple filled it out, they crossed the new terms out and put Husband and Wife (like it should be). A few days later they found out that the court house had nullified their marriage because they had changed a legal form.

Another thing that was interesting when we were knocking doors was that if they were not home we would leave a flyer with a little blurb about the proposition. It made the point that before the judges in San Francisco had legalized gay marriage there were already civil unions which means that a couple can have of the same legal benefits that a married couple has(meaning insurance, home ownership etc.). I think the point is that it is more than just about marriage, it is about how making gay marriage legal affects everyone else, whereas civil unions do not affect the big picture and begin to infringe on other's religious beliefs. The above example shows me that by making marriage legal for all couples, it takes a little bit away from those of us who want to be called husband and wife legally and begins to loosen the thread of our tightly woven moral values.

!Dias de Verano!

We have been having an indian summer. We have been enjoying this brand new super park near our house that has EVERYTHING. It is like the size of 3 or 4 parks put together and even has a great splash park. Last weekend it was still in the 90s in the evening so we took the kids over to enjoy the late summer fun. They love this park, especially Dallin because there is so much to climb on.

This picture really makes me smile. I love how Carter's face is all squished.
This is one of my favorite pictures ever because it really captures the true meaning of childhood joy. Tanner is so content to be playing so hard and his cheeks are all flushed. I love it when my children are this happy.
This was actually the end of an action packed day. We took the kids out for a pizza lunch and then we went to the Goodwill. That is my favorite place to buy kids games, puzzles, toys and board books. Dallin got a new police car with sirens, Eden got a Cinderella barbie carriage that talks, and Tanner got a couple of dinosaurs to go with his ever growing animal collection. Seriously, you can buy a whole cart full of fun things for a few bucks. Then we came home and spent the afternoon playing some of our new games like Disney Princess Monopoly Jr., Shrek Operation, an I Spy kind of game, we even got a play doh kit that molds race cars, and an over sized pirate ship puzzle and looking at the new books for Carter. Then after all of that we went to the super park for a couple of hours, went shopping for a new bike trailer to stow the kids in and out for burgers. What a full, busy day. Everyone passed out very quickly. We had a great time. I love days when you just let everything go (even nap time) and play like a kid. I just can't believe how fun it is to have a family. The bonds are truly eternal.

Niece!

Congratulations LD and Michelle!

Expressions

I was having some fun with pictures today, and got a little artsy. I kinda like it. I love that these pictures really capture some of Carter's expressions.


I love this one because Carter is always blowing rasberries like this.

New Nephew

My oldest sister had a baby on Monday. His name is Tyce Quinn and he has the same middle name as Tanner after our grandpa. My sister and I joke because I have had 4 babies since she had her last one, so it was definately her turn. This is number 3 for her. Congratulations Laurel and Bryan!!! Can't wait to see a new niece tomorrow Michelle!

Tagged

I haven't been tagged in a while so here we go. Anyway, the rules are to answer the following questions using short answers. Here goes:

1.Where is your cell phone? Arm of the Couch

2. Your significant other? Peter

3. Your hair? Shoulder length

4. Your mother? miss her

5. Your father? miss him

6. Your favorite thing? children laughing

7. Your dream last night? I was directing music with a wand

8 Your favorite drink? water

9. Your dream/goal? raise great kids

10. The room you’re in? family room

11. Your hobby? blogging

12. Your fear? dying and leaving my kids w/o a mom

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? In Oregon

14. What you’re not? unhappy

15. Muffins? Costco chocolate chip

16. One of your wish list items? a sweet hair straightener

17. Where you grew up? Oregon

18. The last thing you did? fed the baby

19. What are you wearing? husbands hood to coast t-shirt

20. Favorite gadget? new early birthday present..pressure cooker!

21. Your pets? no thanks

22. Your computer? HP laptop

23.Your mood? very content

24. Missing someone? my new nephew born yesterday

25.Your car? dodge caravan

26. Something you’re not wearing? makeup

27. Favorite store? Target

28. Like someone? family

29. Your favorite color? brown

30. When is the last time you laughed? this morning when Tanner told me I was wearing a pull up!?!

31. Last time you cried? about a month ago when I had a splitting migraine



And I'm tagging all the Dickinson family.

Everyday Pics and Labor Day

Dallin is doing great in Kindergarten! He goes and comes home everyday happy. He is such a good boy and doing better all the time. He is one amazing boy. People that have known us since we moved here are always telling me what a big difference they see in him. His primary teacher told me the other day that Dallin is one of the easier kids in his class now!!!
This is how miss Eden plays with soldiers. Ha Ha, it looks more like a pie to me!

We have had this little friend courtesy of Eden by our front door for a couple of months now. I thought I better take a picture for his memory before he met Mr. Magic Eraser the other day. (there are actually two stick figures if you look at it big)

Six Flags!!!

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is a pretty cool place. For us it is a lot closer than Disneyland and way cheaper so we opted to do this for our weekend after considering our options. Disneyland will have to wait a few months. I really like how it is a zoo and amusement park incorporated in one. The kids loved both aspects. They were very exited to see sharks so that was the first order of the day. they have one of those conveyer belts that go through a tank so they were pretty wowed with that. This big shark behind Dallin was actually a saw shark and had a really impressive 2 foot saw for a nose. They watched the sharks in the big tank for close to a half hour.
Then we were off to Thomas Town. The outfits went very well in this area. We all rode on Thomas and then the kids rode Harold the helocopter and Bertie the bus.
This is Thomas. This was a really short ride for a train ride, but the scenery was cool like you were at the train station.

This was my favorite kid picture of the day. What a little engineer!
These are matching outfits that Peter's mom gave us. The baby had one too, but it was too big and I didn't think it would be comfortable enough for an all day outing like this, maybe I should have put him in it anyway. Anyway, a lot of people thought they were really cute all matching and it really gave a good family united feeling. Thanks Lori!
The character show is not match for Disneyland shows, but the kids really did like it.
Dallin loved this car ride because he thought it looked like "Grave Digger" a popular monster truck.
We got more comments about the triple stroller than the kids outfits. We were really glad to have it and could easily let all 4 kids ride. Dallin and Eden liked to sit on the front footstool part and hop on and off at will. One time we had Eden, Tanner and Carter in the chairs and Dallin crawled underneath in the storage area to rest for a while. It was so funny. It was kind of like our own little rest stop for the kids throughout the day wherever we went. I admit the attention was kind of fun, we got lots of counting our little kids, smiles and commenting about our "Escalade stroller" as one lady put it, but Peter said it was still nothing compared to going places with his big family growing up.

This is a huge green house with thousands of butterflies and a big koi pond.

The flamingos were so beautiful and graceful. I could have watched all day long. They don't even look real they are so amazing to me.

By the late afternoon, Tanner literally bent in half passed out. Ouch, that can't be comfy. Don't worry, I laid him back after snapping the picture.

Not Pictured:

The kids did tons of rides in loony toon land, played in bugs bunny's house, played in the fun water park, saw lions and tigers, and Shouka the killer whale show. When Tanner was asleep we did a couple of rides that the bigger kids could do that he was too small for. There is a really fun white water rafting ride that Peter, Dallin and Eden did 3 times. Peter said they were laughing histerically the whole time. They got wet and came running up to tell me that they "wet their pants" as a joke afterward totally cracking up. Then we went to the Cobra roller coaster. This is between a big crazy roller coaster and a little kids roller coaster. We had Dallin stand on his toes and somehow he got on. It was the end of the day so the line was short and he did it 3 times. It was the highlight of his day except he wished that it would have gone "up-slide-down".

All four kids did great all day and we were there from when they opened at 10:30am to when they closed at 8pm. I think since Dallin is older, he particularly enjoyed everything that we did and saw. There was very little whining and crying and they seemed just so happy to be there. Dallin did great with lines and never ran away once or had any behavior issues at all. Another measurable difference from last years experience. It was just such a great, low stress, memorable day for our family. We could have easily spent another full day there taking in all the fun. It was awesome!!!