Thursday, April 30, 2009

Daniel and the Ball



Daniel has been having a blast with the beach ball that Grandma got him. I finally got a little bit on video, but get Grandma out there playing with him and he laughs even harder.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Catching Up

We had a very busy week last week with lots of doctors appointments and a couple of fun meetings as well. We went to see my Aunt Rosemary and a couple of her kids (with their kids) on Friday last week and they took us to the Kangaroo Zoo in North Salt Lake. They have these big inflatable toys like moon bounces that the kids can play on. Daniel was so busy and so sweaty by the time we were done, at nap time he slept until 5pm. I pretty much didn't see him the whole time we were there as he was running from one place to the next. This is a great place to spend a rainy day to get the energy run out of them.





























This was a slide, that you can't see how tall it was but it had to be at least 12-14 feet high and Daniel had no fear whatsoever and would scale that as fast as he could to go down it one more time. He loves slides and I predict that Roller coasters will be in his future. Reagan who usually hates slides, didn't go down this one but did go down a couple of smaller ones and really liked it (as long as Mom was there to cling to).

















Also that week we had to go down to Salt Lake for an eye Doctor apt for Daniel so I called my friend Aimee and we went to go see her before the appointment in West Jordan. I've known Aimee since my first week in Virginia about 9 years ago. She was my Maid of Honor at my wedding and I haven't seen her since we got married. She's out of town every time we come to UT. Aimee took us to a fabulous park in West Jordan that I wish was closer to us.















Reagan's favorite thing at a park-swings!



























Yesterday Daniel wanted to finger paint and Reagan thought she could too. Here are the results of her first finger painting experience. We mailed off the pictures to Dad today.









Speaking of Paul, he is now in at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco GA. He says that the campus is pretty big and he is wishing we had left one of our cars in VA so that he could fly up and drive it down one weekend. He has passed his physical fitness test and now has to pass all the book work. His first test I believe is either this Thursday or next. The weather is hot and the bugs are out. Hmm... what would that be like? We keep getting snow here in UT.
Yesterday I took a couple of hours for myself and got a babysitter for the first time since being here. I really haven't been away from the kids since we arrived here over a month ago. So I got my hair cut and went to the chiropractor. It was great! It was so nice I will have to avoid the temptation to do it too often. How about Thursday?!
Sunday we went to the Farr West 1st Ward instead of our ward so that Daniel could play with some kids in Nursery other than his sister. We were so welcomed and it was so nice that we will go back again. Daniel didn't want to leave Nursery and in our ward they are bringing him to me saying he doesn't want to stay. Who would when there is no one to play with?
Paul and I decided that we would get Daniel a ticket for a Day out with Thomas that is coming to the Heber Creeper in May as his birthday presents. He's really excited. The other morning he woke up to the noise from Petersen Inc. behind us and said," Mom, you hear that? That's Thomas!" It should be a fun day for us.
Well this should bring us up to date. No fun plans this week but we'll see what the week holds.

Monday, April 27, 2009

A Day

I was just reading my friend Heidi's blog and she was writing all about the postitive things about her little girl who is a little bit younger than Daniel. How I wish I could write that tonight, but after the last 2 days and night I have had with Daniel... Augh! He has fallen apart at everything and all day long for the last two days, kicked and hit his sister, not listened to or obeyed anything I said, and last night climbed into my bed about 6 times last night. Where is my adorable, loving little boy? I was hoping to get him to go to sleep early tonight so that perhaps he would have a better day tomorrow, but at 9 o'clock he was still in the bedroom getting in to things. I'm not sure that I want to go in and see if he's asleep yet. Tomorrow I am hoping will be better. If not the poor babysitter will have to deal with 4 hours of life with this new Daniel while I take some time for myself.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Earth Day


Daniel had pulled the cover for his tent out and had left it in the front room. Reagan found it and knew that you were supposed to get under it. So she did. She couldn't get out as she was all tangled up, but instead of getting scared like most kids would she thought it was great fun and had a blast doing this for quite awhile. Who needs the full blown tent when you can have more fun with half of it!









Where's Reagan?





In honor of Earth Day Daniel and Lois made dirt cups- You know, the chocolate pudding with Oreo cookie crumbs and gummi worms. Daniel loved helping her make it. He probably ate more of the middles of the Oreos though then we would really like to know. He didn't care for the cookie.



Then came the fun of eating. Here we go- Ready for a big mess!

Reagan really got into it as you will see.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Daniel and the Audioligist

This is easier than calling everyone who will be wondering how Daniel's visit to the Audiologist went. The Audiologist said that he could hear the different frequencies of sound just fine. He does however have a slight bulge in his eardrum which causes the sound to be delayed slightly. He said it's nothing to worry about.
So we will move forward and will have his speech evaluated on Thursday. We have been concerned because he is almost 3 and we still have a lot of trouble understanding his speech. It will be a week of doctors visits. Tomorrow is the eye doctor to check his eyes out.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

A Saturday At Grandma's

Saturday's at Grandma's usually start with pancakes and little smokies. Grandma is quite talented in making the pancakes and usually there are Mickey Mouse pancakes and smiley face pancakes, this morning she out did herself and made a Lightning McQueen pancake. You can imagine what this little boy thought. He is not usually a good eater, but he ate 4 pancakes this morning. He couldn't resist all those different pancakes.



Reagan got her first 4 wheeler ride today and she really loved it. They take it down the street to visit a horse and feed the horse grain out of a bucket. Grandma said Reagan wasn't afraid of the horse at all, which isn't surprising as she is my animal lover. Daniel likes them, but she loves them. She came back with a very serious face and you would have thought that she wasn't so sure about it, but she didn't want to get off the 4 wheeler and wanted to stay long after the ride was over. She kept trying to climb up there all day.

Daniel was jumping for joy just to be outside for the day. He was skipping all along the lawn.


Grandma also brought out a big beach ball she had got for them this week as well as a bat and balls to hit. Daniel is currently using the bat like a crochet mallet or a golf club, but he's working on the coordination. If he's anything like me it will never come. Hopefully he will have more of his Dad in him in this respect.



Next up was feeding the birds with Grandma. He thinks this is so much fun, though I'm not sure that equal amounts of bird seed don't end up on the ground as well.




Reagan tried eating dirt. She decided it didn't taste very good but then went back for more a couple of times. By the end of the day both of our children looked like little urchins and Reagan had been through 2 outfits due to my not wanting to put her down for a nap in her filthy clothes. And they were so happy about it. They played so well in the dirt together that I took my book out and read. Calvin jumped in my lap and went to sleep. That made his day. I loved that they were playing so well together that I could just sit and read. I could get used to this! Of course there were plenty of other times when they didn't play so well and timeout was a must for Daniel. Tonight while talking to Daddy on the phone he was telling him about his day and he said he had to go to time out. Daddy asked why, he said because I was naughty. He was not ashamed of it at all.







This afternoon we went back out after naps and Daniel discovered that kicking the beach ball around was a ton of fun. I wish I had had a video camera because he was hilarious running around kicking the ball, Grandma and I would help and he would giggle for all he was worth. He was laughing so hard he would fall on the ball or he would go to kick it and fall over because he was just laughing so hard. You had to be there.
We finished off the day with Spaghetti, one of Daniel's favorite meals and also very messy. So by the time they were finished we were very ready for a bath. What a glorious fun day we had.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Alaskan Road Trip


Well I decided to take a small road trip Today and it turned out kinda cool. Anchorage is starting to look like spring "might" show up. However; the mountains in the background say different.

I headed south on the New Seward highway from Anchorage and went as far as Girdwood; about a 45min trip south. This is the same road you would take to go to Homer or Seward.




I stopped along the way when I thought something looked cool. If I had continued stopping for the same reason, I would still be driving toward Girdwood. The scenery here is really awesome. You can look at something and think that it's beautiful, and yet it can do a lot of damage to you. All the brown stuff behind me, that looks like water, isn't. It's mud and a lot of it. The mud here is worse than quicksand they say. One minute it's safe to walk on the next second it grabs you and your done for. It's been said that if you get caught in this mud you have about 2 min, tops, to get out. The fire dept. won't even bother rushing to the rescue if it's been past that time. They just can't save you fast enough. Scary stuff!!!
This is main street Girdwood, not exactly a tourist attraction; or is it? I kept driving up the canyon and I found the following area snuggled up in the back of the canyon.




This is a miniature of the high dollar ski areas in Colorado. They have a tram here (ski lift's too) that takes you to the top of the mountain and you can see clear across the cook inlet. I didn't get to go up, because the tram was shut down for the day, but you can see that Volcano (Redoubt) from the top of this thing.

Pretty cool, at least I thought so!!



Here's just a couple of pictures I took. ENJOY!!!



















Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

The day started out with the bad and quickly went to ugly. Daniel had been wanting to go outside and play with his new buckets, shovels and rake in the dirt, and although I have been having problems with him not staying where he was supposed to I thought that the toys were new enough that they would have enough draw for him and keep him occupied long enough so I could eat breakfast while glancing out the window. He has been told many times that he has to stay right there where I can see him in the backyard as my mother in laws house sits on a a very busy road and behind it is Petersen Inc. with a lot of traffic going in and out, the yard is only fenced in some areas so it is very dangerous. I couldn't have been more wrong about the new toys holding his interest. Since he had been told that he couldn't go where he did I decided I had to (1) stop letting him go out without me, and (2) that I had to get him to start listening and obeying. He knew very well he wasn't supposed to do what he did. So I marched him to his bed and told him he had to stay there. Of course he didn't and the struggle began. 2 1/2 hours later I finally let him off his bed as I had gotten him to sit there finally for 5 minutes. He had to go back to his bed 3 more times yesterday but luckily for not as long. He was starting to get the idea. The infractions weren't as bad, but I had to find a way to get him to obey as he could be seriously hurt if he doesn't.

Some of the good things about yesterday- It was a beautiful day! Hooray! Of course it is followed up by rain today and it's supposed to snow. I think that UT is trying to get me ready to move to AK. They had 3 inches of snow yesterday when Paul woke up. The kids enjoyed being able to play outside.













Here the kids were so good about working together. They were trying to empty Grandma's flower pot of dirt. A big mess but they were so good at working together why stop them?



Daniel and I have been working on potty training and he didn't have any accidents yesterday. Hurray! First time for him. Of course the promise of Easter Candy didn't hurt either.
He also got these sun glasses in his Easter basket and he decided he needed to be like Dad and have a hat with his sunglasses.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter









So I wasn't able to get the pictures that I really wanted. Daniel was in a less than cooperative mood yesterday but here are a few pictures of the kids. If you click on the one of just Reagan with the front view you will be able to see the smocking on her dress. It's such a cute dress, but the kids were in full blown run away from Mom and Grandma mode yesterday and most of the shots I took are of them running away. They ran away outside, they ran away at church, they ran away inside the house. What a day. At church we were sitting in the back of the cultural hall and they both decided to go their separate ways at the same time. Reagan made it halfway up through the chapel before I caught her. A very wearing day.
They did enjoy what the Easter bunny brought them. I had hoped to get pictures of their reactions, but you'll just have to read about them I guess. Reagan got an Elmo book that has a piano on the bottom of it and that brought a giggle out in her. They both received buckets and shovels and did not want to come in from playing out in the dirt. A definite hit. Candy of course was Daniel's favorite thing, Reagan wasn't far behind. Neither one of them ate breakfast very well.
They have both decided to change their name for me. Reagan who can same MaMa just fine decided recently that my name is now MotMa and she sings it like Uh-O. Daniel has decided that he is allowed to call me Calleen. He walks into the room and says, "Calleen", and then what ever is on his mind. I'm working on correcting that. Yesterday he even called Paul, Paul on the phone. Crazy little boy.
Anyone have any suggestions for getting an almost 3 year old to listen and obey? I have tried spanking, bribing/rewarding, timeout, sent him to his bed, taking away things. Everything I can think of and none of it matters to him. I know that at least part of it is him adjusting to the the new place and the losses he has experienced but something has got to change before he gets seriously hurt. He is doing better about falling apart emotionally all the time and I am grateful for that.
Paul has about a week and half left in Anchorage before leaving for Georgia. Daniel thinks that Daddy is going to his friend Georgia's house and I cannot convince him otherwise. Paul has been enjoying his time there in AK. Friday and Saturday nights he went to hockey games and Friday he had a hard time trying to decide who to root for as they were playing the hockey team from UT. We miss him and can't wait to be back together as a family.


Thursday, April 9, 2009

Baby Animal Days in Wellsville

We spent the day in Wellsville with Grandma Lois and cousin Tyler (Tyler Hunsaker, we have two Tyler cousins.) It was a GREAT day although a little cold and a few sprinkles.


Tyler threw a tomahawk so hard it broke, and then proceeded to eat a grasshopper. He said it was onion and Garlic flavored. Grandma said he's off the kissing list. He was a great help with the kids.


The highlight of Daniel's day. His first pony ride. If you can focus in on his face in this first picture you can see the absolute joy. He was so proud of himself.






















This was probably one of Reagan's favorites. She sat there as they drove all over the field and wanted to get right back in when it was over.






My favorite thing was just watching the joy and wonder on their faces, and then of course there was the kettle corn...















Baby, Baby Animals everywhere. There were goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, calves. Reagan really liked the calves. If the picture had been taken about a second later you would see her head resting on the calves head.










You can't see these very well but they were white peacocks. I've never seen white peacocks and I thought that they were pretty cool.










Daniel thought that it was pretty cool to chase all the birds, there were a giggle or two that escaped here.
















Here Daniel learned a very important lesson about animals- that they can be dangerous and hurt you. Would you have guessed that this sweet little bunny would have ripped his lips and scratched his face? Note for the future. Baby bunnies have VERY sharp claws.