This week flew by, as they've been doing for the past 4 or so months. We got a little taste of the cold weather that's in store for us, and now that it's warmed up a bit again, we resolve to enjoy the sun while we can has been strengthened. Over the past couple of years, we have spend countless hours at the park. Connor MUST get out of the house every day or no one's happy. He's identified each one by the predominant color, except the neighborhood park, which speaks for itself. The blue park is just down the road, the red park is over the highway, the castle park is up the street from Grandma and Grandpa's, and the orange park is over the highway up in Kaysville.

We spent a couple of hours at the blue park yesterday. Alaina's favorite activity is the monkey bars. I'm much too short to be able to support her, and I'm sure Anthony will be quite happy when she learns to do them by herself!


Connor thrives when there are a bunch of kids at the park. Alaina doesn't like it when she has to take turns on things, but Connor just eats it up. I pointed it out to Anthony that Connor was having a great time yesterday, and he said that it's because our little man thinks that all eyes are in him. Right at that moment, Connor tore by, quite obviously showing off for a little girl. :)


Swings!


Alaina is a little daredevil in the baby swing. She likes us to twist her as far as the chains will let us, then push her so that she swings and twists at the same time. She and I have many fun years of rollercoaster together ahead of us, while Anthony and Connor, the non-adrenaline-junkies, do some boyish (boring) thing together. :)


Tag on the pipes, aka the shoe killers. Both kids climb all over these things, scraping the toes of their shoes. I can finally explain the holes on the tops of their feet! Can you find Alaina?



More hill rolling. We could pay to take our kids to expensive family-themed places, but I think they enjoy the simple pleasures more. Either that, or I'm just too cheap.


If there are flowers around, watch out, Alaina WILL pick at least one. She always says the same thing: "Mommy, I got some for you!"


...and here's where it gets a bit mean. Alaina and Connor had been eating ALLLL morning. They shovel at least three meals in by the time I am ready to even think about eating. They both noticed these luscious-looking crabapples and asked to eat one...


I obliged, snickering in an evil way. I expected Alaina to take a bite and wince, but she just kept eating. Asked for more, even! We don't call her our little garbage disposal for nothing!


Connor described them as, "Good, but not very good."


Here's where I should wrap up my post with something reflective or funny, but by the end of putting these things together while the kids are yelling in my ear for 20 minutes, my brain is about as fried as it gets. The end.

I feel like I've been MIA in the blogosphere, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Pictures are still being taken, memories are still being made; I'm just short on time to write about them!

Ever since our visit to Colorado in March, Alaina hasn't gone a day without Bootsie by her side. It's gotten to the point where she WILL.NOT.SLEEP without her little yellow giraffe. Anthony and I began to panic a bit after she cried for an hour and a half while Anthony overturned everything in the house looking for Bootsie. I jumped on ebay and luckily found a replacement (what would I do without ebay? The original Bootsie was purchased 5 years ago when I was pregnant with Connor!). It was supposed to be a secret, but we have to bust out the new Bootsie on occasion to get us through a night. The kids prefer the newer, brighter Bootsie, but there is a soft spot in my heart for the old one with her lipsticked face, torn out nostrils, and tail that's been chewed off by a dog.


Sometimes we let Alaina play with both (only for a minute!) and she is in heaven!




Like most of the women on the internet, I must profess my love for Pinterest. At first, I have to admit that it served as a way to compare my life to others', and we all do too much of that anyway, so I contemplated cutting it out. But then I discovered all of these fun kid activities and my days with the kids have been so much more fun and gratifying. Painting with shaving cream, making our own playdough, making marshmallow shooters and having mallow wars, balloon ping pong, and painting on bread have been highlighting our days and we are all much happier spending time together. Thank you, Pinterest!




Papa's new region includes Utah and over the past two weeks, we got to spend some quality time with him! We are so grateful for this new development! Papa brought the kids and Anthony into my work to sit in my section while I was on the floor (so fun!), the kids got to spend the night at a hotel, Papa got to see Connor off to school, we tried a new pizza place by our house, shot Papa with our marshmallows, and grilled outside two nights in a row. It was so nice to see him; next time we need Nana to come, too!










I'm having an emotional battle with the kids growing up so quickly. They're at such fun stages right now where we can go and do fun things without having to worry about diapers or real school schedules. I love all that we're able to do together. However, I am heartbroken that they are not little babies anymore and that we're not really in a position to have any more at the moment. It's an exercise in both treasuring this time in our lives and patience for the next couple of years. Can you believe how old she looks?!


Luckily, I still get glimpses of them as babies. Like this day, right out of the shower. The tear was caused by the cedar chest lid dropping on her finger, but in this moment, I like to believe that she looked just like she did two years ago. Crying just to cry. I don't miss those unprovoked tears from Alaina, but I do wish I could have her babyhood back for just a couple of days. :)


Is this kid really 4? Because I could swear he looks 8 here. He's got a hollow leg and is growing in height so quickly. He weighs over 50 pounds now. I remember weighing 56 pounds in third grade. I can't dead-lift him anymore, and it makes me sad. I feel so bad telling my 4-year-old son that I can't carry him home from the park. Such is life, I guess.


...and then all it takes to remind me that he is four is his utter fascination with a grasshopper.


For size reference, here is Connor with another 4 year old. It's funny to see how their sizes affect how they run. The little guy is spry and quick while Connor kind of lumbers and it takes him a minute to reach max speed. Connor's so sweet to other kids in his preschool and really only beats up on Alaina (typical), but watch out. A little kid came up to Connor at the park yesterday and started punching him in the arm and back. We diffused the situation before anything happened, but all it took was one deflecting swing of Connor's arm and the kid was thrown off balance. Don't pick fights with the gentle giant, weird kid. Remember that story about the scrawny kid who constantly picked on the bigger kid and finally the big kid retaliated and drop kicked the little one? That'd be Connor if provoked. :P


I'm thinking that maybe we shouldn't tell Connor when Papa is on his way. It is just torturous for him.

I've always liked the idea of "A Day In The Life" posts, but I've never been able to commit to one. It is my personal goal, however, to take more photographs of our every day life and not wait until a "function" to pull out my camera. There are so many things about this stage in our lives that I don't ever want to forget, even the negative things, because I know that our lives will be drastically different just a couple of years from now.

Tonight, the kids and I headed to a new park. Our visit started off with trying to take some pictures for Grandma's frames. See, Grandma? I really am trying...I'm just so picky that I haven't felt like I've taken the holy grails of Dietrich children photos yet! :)


I'm a little freaked out by how old Alaina looks on the far left. Slow down on this growing thing, girl.

...And then, if you know my children, you could guess that Connor would tell me he's thirsty, then Alaina would have to follow him to see if there was a puddle to be stomped in near the fountain, then Connor would find the wall spout, and Alaina would end up soaked. There are two possible outcomes of this situation: Alaina crying and yelling, "Donny dot me wet!" or her switching into her silly voice and saying, "Mama, my shoet is all wet!" Luckily, we got the latter.


After taking turns being onstage and singing songs in the pavillion, Connor discovered a huge hill. There was much rolling.




When it was my turn, I handed the camera over to Connor, and promptly rolled straight into the bike gutter.


After I regained my composure (I had completely forgotten how fast you can roll and how dizzy you'll be afterward), I noticed that the kids had beaten me to the swings.


I had forgotten that their shoes were soaked from the water fountain, so we got these. I contemplated not showing this picture, but it DEFINITELY is part of our everyday life.


Connor loves to twist on the swings and Alaina loves to get underdogs to "doe weal fast" (sometimes so fast that she just can't keep her saliva in her mouth)!




Gotta love these fall evenings!

Connor's first day of preschool, part deux!

On Thursday, Connor started school at a new elementary, and we are over the moon regarding his new teachers, the location, and the time slot! Connor loves that he gets his very own locker (most of the kids have to share..."Carson" is in the afternoon!), the toys are SOOO much cooler than his last preschool, and the classroom is filled with natural light instead of being a cave!



Ready to go!


He couldn't hide his excitement!


Hanging up his backpack for the first time!


Connor jumped right into his day. It was cute to see how hard he was trying to impress his new teacher, Nikki.


We were a little worried about first day jitters, but Connor had none. Alaina was the one that had a hard time with it. We had attended the family open house a few days earlier and Alaina had gotten to play with all the toys. I think she was under the impression that she was staying, too. She cried, "Where's Donny?!" the whole way home.


After a fun day at school, and me not getting called in for a standby shift, the kids and I took some September pictures.




Please ignore the "enter logo" corner. Photoshop template layers are still new to me. :) I thought about re-editing it, and I will for our family photobook, but it's mistakes like that that let me see how I grow. :)

When the pictures were over (and it didn't take long...the kids were not too fond of the little grasshoppers all over the place), we had an impromptu visit with Grandpa. As always, Grandpa knows how to please and let the kids have first dibs on the few ripe plums on the tree. Connor even got to pick some "nettaweens" and the both enjoyed having Grandpa push them on the swings.

Remember those saying that you'd hear your parents reiterate as a teen? Especially the ones about how time only speeds up and life only gets busier? Man, it's all so true, and if I think I'm busy now, I can't even imagine what the next couple of decades holds for me! Life's been good, getting back in the routine of Anthony in school and getting Connor ready to start on Thursday. I feel like I've done a lot of thinking and growing as a person and a parent the last couple of weeks, and I'm working on incorporating the lessons learned into my daily life.

In a couple of weeks, we will have officially lived in Bountiful for a year. We still love where we live. I feel completely safe about 99.9% of the time, and after talking to some neighbors, I think we're the target in the end unit for some weirdos. I had a guy come to the door the other day, and our blinds were all open, so I felt obligated to answer the door. He spun some tale about his nephew being stuck at a summer camp in Colorado because he didn't sell enough children's books. Weird. I gave him the three dollars I had in my pocket just to get him to go away. Anthony thinks I just gave him a reason to come back, but whatever. If you come over to my house and I don't answer the door, now you know that if I'm not expecting anyone, the door stays closed. Despite the occasional odd solicitation, I love being on the end and having privacy on our side, even if that means dealing with the road noise. I love the little park in our complex and how in the evenings, it seems like all the kids are sent out to play. I like that most of the families know each other and watch out for others' children. I'm really REALLY bad with names and faces since I meet so many new people at my job every day, so I'm really considering making a directory so that my kids and I can know who lives in which number. I love our light kitchen, our big bedrooms, our hot water heater that ensures LONG, HOT showers. I love that the maintenance guy comes on a moment's notice and that the lawn guys keep everything looking nice.


Since we can't have pets here, the kids have taken to adopting bugs as their "fwiends". The dragonflies love the hostas right outside our door and often rest on the sidewalk or in the lawn. They're fearless and let you touch their wings.


Sometimes they're a little TOO fearless and let you pile grass on them. And then they get squished by a bucket. Next lesson plan for the kids: animal cruelty, even if it's just a bug. If it's in the house then you can kill it. If it's outside, let it be.


We've been busy attending some family functions, and yet again, Janet outdid herself. What a fantastic party planner she is! I need to take some lessons.




I had my dad snap this picture of our family, and when I saw it in my camera, I had to laugh. In my mind, Alaina is still a little baby on my hip. Um, no. She's 3/4 my size!



Aaaarrrr!!!


Digging for some treasure!

Alaina with Kimball and Alton, showing off their booty!


Best blooper ever.






Here's to another busy week!