Half Day Hike

Last week the kids had a half day .  It seems like there are a lot of half days.  I don't remember that being the case when I was a kid.  

I decided we needed to go do something fun. So,  when Spencer and Hallie got home, we packed a lunch, and drove to Papago Park, near the Phoenix Zoo.  We had lunch by a little lake with ducks, and then hiked to the "hole in the rock".  It's only about a 5 minute hike, but with Dylan, it was just right.  It was such a nice, sunny day,  and there weren't alot of people there which made it even nicer.  We stayed at the "hole" for quite awhile before we hiked down.  We were all having such a good time, we didn't want to leave.   Now I want to find more trails, so we can do this more often! 

 

City view of Phoenix from the top.  It was higher than it looks.

Lost Dog

Hallie is nuts!  She just finished reading the book "Ginger Pye" by  Eleanor Estes -she LOVED it, and recommends it to all kids.  She also loves dogs and is obsessed over when we are getting one.  She draws them, writes songs about them, makes up stories about them, and even pretends she is a dog (ok, ALL my kids do this one).  Anyway, she drew a picture of "Ginger Pye" how she imagined the dog would look (it was really cute), and cut it out like a paper doll.  She carried it around with her...until Ginger went missing.  It's just a paper dog, but she had become attached to her "masterpiece" and hung these signs all over the house:

Of course, we all assume Spencer took the paper dog, and hid it.  He denies it, but when he does stuff like that ALL the time it's hard to say "innocent until proven guilty".  Last night he even asked Hallie what the reward was, or rather, how much it was.  I wonder if she might be getting a ransom note soon.  Poor Ginger, where are you?

(By the way, it says room 512, because the kids play "Hotel" and they have room numbers taped on all the bedroom doors for when they "check-in".  They even do room service and have a maid come and clean.  They're creative!)

Crazy Hair

This is what you get when you mix a wild 4 year-old with long hair, and a trampoline!

Goodbye Baby Bed

No more "baby bed"--Dylan's new "big boy" bed came today.  I spent the morning taking apart the crib (a little tearfully) and setting up his new big bed.   He was all into it when it was done and I called him into his room to see.  He smiled, climbed up, laid down and rolled around for a minute with a smile on his face.  Then he hopped down, and walked away.  I even put on Spencer's old construction truck quilt to entice him.  We'll see how he does sleeping tonight.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  

Happy Birthday DYLAN!

I can't believe it, my sweet little Dylan turned 3 yesterday!  It sounds cheesey, but where has the time gone?   He's still short, skinny, doesn't really talk much,  doesn't always sleep through the night, wears diapers, and is a HUGE mamma's boy, but he's my "big boy" now and I love him to death!  

We celebrated with BBQ tri-tip, strawberries, and yummy cupcakes made by Hallie.  Then we heated up the jacuzzi and swam.  The pool is still FREEZING.

Dylan LOVES cars and trucks and one of his favorite movies is Disney's "Cars".  He was SO excited to get all his cars he had a giant smile when he was opening his presents. 

I remember when I found out I was pregnant with him-it was on Emily's first birthday.  My sister kept telling me she thought I was pregnant since I hadn't had a period since I had weaned Emily a few months earlier, but I assured her my hormones were still screwy and re-adjusting and I wasn't worried (secretly, she was freaking me out).  So, when I went to the grocery store to get a cake mix, I decided to get a pregnancy test also-"just in case".  

I went home, peed on it,  and lo and behold it was positive!  I was in total shock.  A few months later, my best surprise ever,  Dylan Kimball Greding was born.  Happy Birthday Dylan!  We all love you!

"I'll Just exercise more..."

Emily strikes again!  That girl is so funny.  I should preface this by saying that Emily LOVES to exercise and show us her muscles.  Whenever she drinks milk or acai juice, she flexes her biceps so we can see that her muscles are "instantly" growing from ingesting something good for her.  She also does real pushups (what 4 year old does that?), walks on the treadmill and does little workouts with Dylan in our bedroom.  It's really cute.

So--Last night at dinner, she ate everything on her plate EXCEPT for her chicken and our conversation went like this:

Emily: I'm done!

Me: Emmy, you need to eat your chicken.

Emmy: No I don't, it's yucky chicken.

Me: You haven't even tasted it yet.  It's delicious.  You need to eat it so you can have big, strong muscles.

Emmy: No.  I'll just exercise more.

Then she vanished,  reappeared a minute later with her pink dumbells,  and proceeded to do a workout in the kitchen so that we could watch her muscles  getting bigger.  We were all laughing.   She's great entertainment.  After her brief workout, she decided to try her chicken. She determined that, it was indeed delicious, and then ate every bite!

Saturday Picnic

I love when the kids play so nicely together!  Hallie is especially good at this.  She often thinks of creative things to do with Emily to keep her entertained, and of course Emmy loves it.  A lot of times they go "on Safari" to the backyard, and have adventures with wild animals (Spencer).

 

Saturday, they decided to go on a picnic to "Pecan Pines" (our front yard).  The boys got in on the action, too (probably just for the food--that's boys for ya'.)  Hallie packed celery with peanut butter and craisins,  grapes, lemonade, hershey kisses, and Doritos (for Dylan).

When he picnic was over, Hallie stayed outside and read her book for awhile to enjoy the sun. The Winter weather has been so nice here!  Like in the upper 60's and low 70's.  That's not normal, but I'm loving it!  Today is only supposed to be 64 with a chance of rain tonight.  I may need to bust out the long sleeves again - sigh.

Look at that boy! Shortly after I took this picture, me and Spencer went shopping for some new church clothes and then he got a haircut.  He looked so handsome for church!  I can't believe he's almost 12!