The Hobbit and the Fairy

 
Peter:
Peter is now fourteen months old. He is still our little mover. Pete loves to climb, especially the dining chairs to get onto the table. We were able to combat this for a while by keeping the chairs tucked in. Then he figured out how to push chairs around so he could pull a chair out move it anywhere and climb up. Now we have to have the chairs backwards at the table. If anyone leaves their seat while eating or doing something Pete eagerly climbs up so he can get on the table. He looks right at us bobs up and down and giggles because he knows he shouldn't be there.
Peter is still an awesome eater. He is our meat and potatoes guy. He'll eat fruits and veggies just fine, but he always goes for his meat and potatoes first. Pete has been a slow teether. He still drools quite a bit, but he's only gained one more tooth on the bottom giving him a grand total of five teeth. He's got a cute little gap in his top two teeth that shows when he smiles.
Pete has picked up quite a few sign language signs. He can communicate his basic food / drink needs. He also does up and down motions. No major words yet. He babbles a lot and with Mama and Dada. We think we hear real words amongst his babbles, but their not really clear. He also talks with his hands. It's funny because it's as if he's putting extra emphasis on whatever he's trying to say to us. Pete likes to wave at people (he did it throughout sacrament meeting on Sunday). He'll also give kisses; it's an open mouth I will eat you if you let me kiss, but still a sweet gesture.
Pete likes to grab his shoes bring them to us and then he turns around expecting to have them put on so he can go out. He loves being outside where he can climb things, swing, and discover "treasures" (aka rocks, sticks, and trash from lazy neighbors).  If we're sitting down he walks up to us and turns around so we can pick him up or he plops down to sit on our laps.
Pete still likes to mimic car and truck sounds when he plays. He also enjoys the golf clubs and can get in a decent hit now and then (for a one yr old). He's starting to sit with me when I read stories, but if I don't turn the pages fast enough he tends to get disinterested.
I the picture above Pete has a blanket tied around him. About a week ago Kendal had her blanket wrapped around her, so I put one around Pete. We thought he looked like a hobbit. Since then, he thinks it's funny to run around with the blanket around him.

Kendal:
Kendal will be four in just a few months; she is still our blue eyed blonde who is full of energy and words. Kendal is always full of questions, comments, and general info she just has to share. Sometimes it's hard to have a conversation with another adult, because Kendal wants to put her two cents. Kendal is rarely shy; she still says hi to random people in the grocery store, and any kids she meets at church, the park, or around the neighborhood become her friends instantly. There are a couple of neighbor girls that are a couple of years older than Kendal she's gone to play with them a couple of times and loves it. She also loves any cousin time she can get in too.
Kendal loves her outside time, besides the heat it's hard to deny her because we have a decent yard and her scooter here that she loves to ride. We're thinking of a bike for her birthday, but she seems to have a million ideas for her birthday and Christmas. It will be interesting deciphering her lists this year and deciding what we should really get her.
Kendal will start preschool next week. Technically I can teach preschool with my degree and I thought year one of preschool should not be a big deal. Luckily Vanessa and a group of moms were putting together a home Joy School where they rotate who teaches the kids every week. I joined in and get to have the kids two days every six weeks. Kendal is a bright little girl. She knows colors, numbers 20 (+ish), and she can read simple words, and sentences. I'm not worried about the academic part of Kendal's learning, but it will be great for her to socialize and learn more about general things that the Joy School curriculum will offer.
Kendal is definitely an older child. She likes to be in charge and tell others what to do. Luckily Peter is still "whatever" about things so no major fights yet. Kendal still gets grabby with toys that Peter has and she just "has to" play with. She is getting better though. She understands she has to use her words more, and needs to share, and work with others to have a good play time.
The picture above is Kendal the same day as Peter's picture where they had blankets on and ran around. Kendal had to have her faithful ducky strapped to her also. She turned the golf club into a fairy wand.

These two will be Peter Pan and Tinkerbell for Halloween. Kendal is so excited to have wings and be a fairy, and Peter is still young enough not to have an opinion so I can dress him up how I want. ; )

 They may test our patience from time to time, but we're so glad we have them in our lives. We love these two little hooligans : D

So long summer

Casey has training this week and starts back to work and coaching next week, then the students come the day after labor day. We decided our farewell to summer and Daddy being home we would visit Dierkes Lake by Shoshone Falls. We went Tuesday afternoon. The sky was overcast so it was perfect for Casey and I, but Kendal and Peter only lasted a little under an hour before we had to dry them off. Luckily we got some playground time in before we headed home.

Friends and a Fair

Today we went to the Cassia county fair and spent some time with the Pickup family. It's been far to long since we've seen them. It was good to catch up and spend some time together. Travis and Chelsea took their kids to the rodeo last night. We didn't think our kids could / would sit through it so we opted to go spend some time there today. The kids had fun riding some of the carnival rides. Peter was to little for them all, but liked to wander around with his cup of water, and was fascinated by the spinning rides. Kendal went on her first merry go round, a few kiddie rides, and a kids fun house. After a shy start, Kendal and Ava hit it off and were holding hands and enjoying each others company. Ava was so sweet to Kendal. Tonight Kendal couldn't stop talking about her fun afternoon with her new friend. Cute Liam liked the train ride, and loved the car ride.  After the rides we had to cool off so we took a quick rest and then went to see some 4H stuff and the animals. Kendal is still funny with animals she's fascinated by them yet scared of them. We ate dinner together and chatted a bit more before we parted ways. We took Kendal and Peter to a couple more 4H buildings, got some awesome maple bars, saw the tractors and headed home. It was so nice to see Travis, Chelsea, Ava, and Liam - we definitely won't wait so long to see them again : )

Me and 6 kids

Casey, Brett, Vanessa, and Sarah decided to go hiking to Independence Lake this past week. I'm not huge into hiking so I opted to watch the kids so they could enjoy the day. They enjoyed play dough, a little bit of outside time (didn't work so well with taking turns on the swings / slide; and the two little ones were done quickly), we ate lunch, watched a movie (to put it better, played in the room while the movie was playing), got naps out of Pete and Keegan though : ), played with water beads, and had a lot of pretend play. The kids decided to hold a party, they went back and forth from Kendal's little kitchen, to the card table house, to the kid's room. I was definitely spent at the end of the day, but overall the kids had fun so it was a good day.

Above are some pictures of the hiking bunch.
 I meant to take pictures of the kids playing, but having six kids all around didn't put taking pictures in the front of my mind.

D family Reunion

We spent our weekend at the Raft River water slides for the Darrington family reunion. Some of Casey's aunts, uncles, cousins and their families came. We  played, spent time on the swings, ate, caught up with each other, went down the water slide and had loads of fun. Many people were busy, lived too far, or didn't feel like coming so our group was small compared to the last few years. The kids enjoyed the swings, sandbox, water slide, sneaking treats, and mostly getting dirty. We weren't in the mood to camp so we slept over at Casey's parents. The house was jam packed with us all, but I love it when it is. So much fun! It's nice to get together with extended family, catch up and enjoy one another. The pictures are pretty much of just us,  Casey's siblings and their kids.

 Water Slide fun!

Family time!

 

  Oldest to youngest (only 3 yrs and 2 days between them all)

 Minute-to-win-it games (my team won! Way to go Sarah, Terry, Diana, Jill, Brady, and Bella)

Now that we're back home we have a nice to do list to accomplish before Casey is back to work, and of course some good family time to enjoy.
Pictures from the park a couple of weeks ago; and the new favorite play area in the house (the kitchen cupboard with all of the pots and pans)

Connected

We are now officially connected to the internet and civilization!
Thanks to my amazing family we got loaded up and headed out of Challis Monday the 29th. We stopped in Arco for lunch and made it to Kimberly that afternoon. We are in a three bedroom fourplex. As much as I'm Disliking sharing walls again and hearing others arguments and televisions I'm getting used to it, and I know we're not here forever. We have a yard for the kids to play in with an iffy, but OK swing set. We went down to Raft River Monday night. Casey's mom feed us all dinner and we spent the night because going home to a house full of boxes wasn't very appealing.
We spent a lot of our first week unpacking and exploring the Twin Falls area. It took a couple of days to get back into regular city driving again. Kendal found our new temple and likes to talk about the people who are getting married in it as we pass. I feel like we went grocery shopping way too much, but we now have options and they have variety ( It makes me so so happy!!). We ate dinner with Brett, Vanessa, and their kids in Friday. Kendal discovered that cousins can also be girls. We were eating dinner and David called her his cousin. Kendal said only boys are cousins. We had to correct her, and she spent the rest of the night laughing at herself over it. It's going to be so nice to have cousins around! Saturday we went out and saw the Twin falls. (Which happens to be only one fall right now because the other is dammed up for a hydroelectric plant). We wandered around and enjoyed the area.
On Sunday we ventured out to our new ward. It's a friendly ward with a good group of kids. Kendal walked right into primary without a second thought. Her teacher told us it's like she's always been apart of the class. Sunday night we had Casey's parents over for dinner.
We had plans this past week to hang out with family, go to the lake, and parks, but the kids had other plans. Sunday night started with Kendal throwing up and the next four days our home has been filled with a lot of cleanup, diaper changes, clothing changes, and sad little kids. Casey and I had stomach aches but luckily not much beyond that. Thankfully Kendal is all better, and Peter is slowly getting there so we can head out today and go to the extended Darrington family reunion this weekend.
I'll post about that and make sure to add some pictures in our next post.