More fun with Grandma

While my mom was here, we did a few more fun things. First off we went through 3 boats that Dallin got for his birthday. The first one just stopped working. The second one sank....and the third one finally worked! Dallin was pretty sad until we bought his new one. Here is his boat that sunk....it's the little green speck in the water. Jeff was using his boat to try to knock it over to us.

One night we went and shot off rockets. Dallin thought it was awesome. Alyssa was very scared and hated it. She did have fun running around.
One day we went and played frisbee golf. We had a lot of fun. Alyssa was very dirty, tired and hot when it was over. I'm pretty sure Dallin is already better than Aunt Tori :)
Dallin and Grandma did lots and lots of puzzles.
We went shopping, and the kids had fun playing in the kids area.
The kids played in the puddles A LOT!!
The kids were obsessed with apples while she was here.
The kids were very excited to sit next to each other in the way back in the car.
Alyssa had to get an Echo done while Grandma was here because the doctor heard a heart murmur. She did great and sat there for 45 minutes while the technician did the test. I couldn't believe how great she was. Her tests came back fine so now we don't have to worry. Here is the waterfall she was obsessed with at the hospital.

Zoo

My sister Tori flew in this past Monday. The kids love playing with Aunt Tori! One day we went to the little zoo the next town over. It's a really small zoo, but there's a big park, a tram ride, and a little water area all for free.
Alyssa LOVED the animals. She kept saying animals over and over again. She loved saying hi and bye. Her favorite was the turkey.
Dallin liked to look the animals for about 10 seconds, and then he was ready to move on to the next one.

His favorite were the crocodiles, but I think they kind of scared him.
We played at the park for a little while, but there were lots of big kids who didn't care about the little kids.
The tram ride was kind of lame because it just took us around some random neighborhood, but Dallin thought it was awesome!
After our picnic it was time to play in the water. Dallin got right in and didn't stop running. He loved every minute of it. Alyssa was a little hesitant at first, but then after Dallin pushed her face first into the water she had fun.

Next stop

Next stop was the Museum of Science and Industry. WE of course had to check out the tractors first. It was a free day so there were lots of people there, but the kids did pretty good at waiting in line.
Dallin's favorite part was the storm section. He loved watching the tornados, but there' this awesome part where he pretends he is a member of the storm chasing team. He got to drive the dow truck (for those who don't know, Dallin is OBSESSED with being a storm chaser. It is pretty much all he talks about). He thought that was the coolest thing.
Alyssa loved the cows. She thought it was pretty silly to touch the fake cow.
She also really loved the trains. She would wave bye bye at every train.
We got there kind of laste in the afternoon, so Alyssa was really tired. She mostly wanted to just chill in the stroller.

Fun with Grandma

Grandma Butts has been here the past 2 weeks, and we had a blast. We got a lot in during her visit. One of the first places we went was the children's museum. We really had a fun time.

Happy Birthday Dallin!

Dallin turned 4! He was so excited for his birthday this year. He would ask me several times every day for the last month or so when it was his birthday. It finally came! Jeff's brother was blessing his baby, so to start off the day we got the kids up at 5:30 am to get there on time. Dallin really wanted donuts. They were not very thrilled to be up at this hour though...
Then we drove 2 hours for the wonderful baby blessing. Then we went to their house for a couple hours, and Dallin had a blast playing with his cousins and the dogs. He spent almost the whole time in their backyard. Grandma Petersen got him a yummy ice cream cake. He hid behind Jeff when we sang to him...I guess he is still kind of shy.
Then we headed home. I'm pretty sure 4 of the 5 of us were asleep for part of the drive (Grandma Butts came the night before to visit). Then it was time for presents!!! Dallin could hardly wait. He got a new helicopter, a firetruck, a lego tractor, lego fire station, a new boat, a Mater bike, some puzzles, a new tent, a bike helmet and bell, and a DOW truck (doppler on wheels - the truck they use to chase tornados). Alyssa tried to help him open all his presents. She even tried to unwrap some without Dallin's help, which he did not like.

Here is Dallin opening his dow truck.

Here is he is opening his new boat.

Alyssa loves to play in his tent.
And ride his bike...
After he opened his presents it was time to ride his bike to the pond and drive his boat. I'm pretty sure daddy enjoyed this activity more than Dallin :) That is until it broke, so we had to use Jeff's boat to push it back to us...another one is on the way.

Then it was cake time :)! Dallin really wanted a garbage truck cake, so Jeff and I made one for him. It even had a dumpster and little orange trash cans.

On Monday night Dallin picked Choo Choo Johnny's to eat for his birthday. It is a place where they have a train that brings you your food. There is also a train that goes along the whole restaurant. The kids were great because they just sat and watched the trains the whole time. It was awesome. Dallin loved it so much, but I think Alyssa was more fascinated :)

18 months old!

Alyssa is 18 months old today! She has been so much fun. She is a great sleeper now. She likes a few more things to eat. She now has 11 teeth (she is sooo grumpy when she is teething). Alyssa loves playing with trucks, trains, stacking cups, her baby, and pretty much anything Dallin is playing with. She loves going down her slide and playing with her kitchen. She is talking a little more now. She LOVEs getting new clothes, especially dresses and shoes. She loves to give us kisses and hugs now. If she gets a boo boo, she makes us kiss it over and over and over again :) We took her into the doctor for her 18 month check up and she was a whopping 20 pounds 11 ounces, so she is pretty small.

We have taken her to nursery the past 2 weeks to prepare her for really going. Well, we thought Jeff was going to need to stay in there and make her feel more comfortable, but she has loved it so far. She was feeling left out when Dallin went to his class, and she LOVES playing with the toys. She even lets the nursery leader pick her up, which is pretty rare. Jeff just has to put her down, and she is fine. The nursery leader said even though she is the youngest, she listens the best and does exactly what they say. I hope that lasts :)

Our little monkey!
She LOVES yogurt, but it gets pretty messy sometimes...
When we come inside after playing outside, she always has the reddest little cheeks. She loves being outside though. She would play outside all day if we let her. There's almost always some kicking and screaming when we bring her inside.
She LOVES to color. She colors all the time.
For the most part (except when she is teething) Alyssa is a very happy little girl. She loves to just run around jumping and laughing with Dallin.
I realized I have not taken nearly as many videos of Alyssa as I did with Dallin, so here are a few. The first one is of her pointing to her body parts.

This second one is of her different sounds. At the end I asked her if she wanted to take a nap because I love how she says no...she really exaggerates it. Every other time I would ask her if she knew how to say "no" she would respond with a yes...

Splish Splash

Every day this week Dallin has asked me to get the pool out. We don't really have a great place to put one, but it was finally almost 90 today so we got the pool out. It was a little too cold for Alyssa, but she kind of got used to it. They mostly played with the cups and dumped water out, but they also bounced a lot along the sides of the pool. They thought that was pretty funny. It's amazing how fast they grow. Just last summer Alyssa wasn't even moving, and now she is running and jumping with Dallin :)