Baby, It's Cold Outside!

After a mild fall, we finally had some snow!  It really feels like Christmas now.

Speaking of Christmas, this is from a few weeks ago, but had to put it in...Alli and Mary worked up the courage to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.  Hazel would have nothing to do with him and gripped Quinn with her hands and feet.  From a safe distance, though, she will point to Santas and say "ho ho ho"! Some more snow pictures....

Mary decided she likes to shovel snow       Alli had fun sledding, and throwing snowballs.  I noticed I was a favorite target.

We are pretty sure Hazel liked sledding.  It was her first real time going, and she liked to lay back in the sled and close her eyes.  Apparently she found it relaxing...?  Quinn was just pulling her around, maybe once she hits some hills she will find it more exciting!

Hazel is 2!

Hazel had her second birthday on Thanksgiving this year. It was a busy, crazy day so of course I did not get all the pictures I wanted to! What Hazel wanted more than anything was a doll with a binky (she is obsessed with her own). Grandma Cindy gave her a stroller to go with it, and that is what she did the rest of the day! She has taken that baby everywhere, she even sleeps with it. It's fun to see her love something so much, and it makes me hopeful that maybe a real baby in the house won't be such a traumatic adjustment for her!






Hazel's personality has really come out over the last year. She is a little busybody, following her big sisters around. They have taught all kinds of valuable things like how to make noises that sound like bodily functions, and also they helped her come up with this strange phenomena:

She keeps constant track of each family member by holding her hands out to me during the day and asking "where Daddy?" and going down the line as I explain that everyone's either at work or at school. She is my little shopping and cooking buddy, so I also hear "ina hep" (I want to help) all day long! She is a sweet little girl, and we can't get enough of her!

Halloween

The weatherman kept telling us to prepare for a cold, wet Halloween. We lucked out and had pretty mild weather. We had a fun time walking the loop in our little part of the neighborhood, seeing friends dressed up, and eating too much candy!


Alli was Emily Elizabeth, and Arthur was Clifford.


Mary as a cat.





Hazel's costume was a last-minute decision. She's a little tiger.

I swear I'm almost done...

I have to have a somewhat coherent timeline when I look back at my blog, so yes, I am posting first day of school pictures even though we are already into our second quarter of school. If you didn't know I was slightly OCD, well, now you know.

Alli is in 2nd grade and is having a great time. Mary is in Kindergarten and is still getting over the fact that she has to go EVERY SINGLE DAY. I keep reminding her that if we were still in Arizona, she'd also be going full day!







Every summer the Dittman family has a reunion in McCall. And, every summer I question the necessity of a Dittman reunion when every single member of the Dittman crew lives within a five mile radius of each other, and gets together at least every other Sunday for dinner! Either way, the kids look forward to going because it is pretty up there and they get to ride in boats, swim, fish, and sleep all together with their cousins. Alli and Mary both begged to go fishing. Mary ended up having a little more perseverance and was rewarded with a fish! She helped Quinn gut it and even tasted some.



I took a couple of pictures while we were there, but my sister in-law took a bunch and so I am making what she gave me a slideshow. I feel that I do need to explain a few of the pictures. You see, it wouldn't be a Dittman function without some competition. Thankfully the ladies' swim relay was not documented, but we did get a "friendly" race on film between Quinn and his oldest brother Eric. There wasn't a definite winner because the whole thing started looking like the chariot scene from Ben Hur. In the end, they each claim to be the fastest, so I guess everybody wins.

Catching up....Oregon Coast August 2009

More Summer

Okay, Maria, you were wondering when our BBQ at Manwaring's was coming....here you go. On a related note, would you be honest and tell me if I am really extra wide in real life or just in the picture?















My camera battery died after I got only these pictures of the 4th....





















And what is summer without a lemonade stand? Alli and Mary (and a cousin) gave a good effort, but we live on a quiet street. Good for not getting run over, but disappointing for lemonade stands. A couple of friends came by and bought some, but in the end these guys ended up drinking themselves out of business.

Summer 2009

My relaxing summer has turned out to be more crazy than expected. We've had unusually mild weather (this week it's supposed to reach 100 for the FIRST TIME THIS SUMMER), and we've just been busy doing summer things, I guess. So, to appease my type A-ish personality, I have to log what we've been up to since last posting...

Mary graduated from preschool! She is super excited to start kindergarten-there are a bunch of kids in the neighborhood that she and Alli will walk to school with.




Alli and Mary were in a children's performing arts group and had their spring concert. They sang and danced to some fun songs, hitting the big time when they landed a gig at the Meridian Dairy Days parade! It rained and was freezing, but the girls felt like celebrities.
















At the beginning of June, Alli went to a jump rope camp. A week of jumping rope every day was heaven to Alli, she loved every minute and learned some cool tricks!



Later on in June, I got to tag along with Quinn on one of his business trips to Seattle. We had fun being part of a big city, and seeing the Wharf and Pike Place Market. I also got to see some of my cousins and my aunt, which was really fun!


I watched the guys throw the fish at the fish market which was cool, but I could have done without the smell...we had just found out not too long before our trip that we are expecting #4 and morning sickness was rearing its ugly head!

Botanical Gardens

Another field trip...this time with Alli's class. We had a good time at the Botanical Gardens looking at plants, creepy crawly things on the ground, and of course, worms. Alli volunteered to hold one of the worms, but when it started wriggling around in her hand, she wasn't too sure.
It didn't take long for her to warm up to her little friend.

I think I may now function in society

I think I've figured it out. Video. I am pretty much awesome. Oh yeah, and if you get seasick watching this, blame Hazel. It was a battle trying to film Alli while Hazel was trying to grab the camera.

This is a song of Alli singing Earth Day songs with her first grade class. Yup, they can't sing Christmas songs, but they can sing all about Mother Earth and saving the planet. So, I gritted my teeth (not so good for TMJ) and recorded a song because even if they started doing some sort of pagan sacrifice, I would still think that Alli was cute doing it. Go green!

To the Zoo!

Mary had a field trip to the zoo with her preschool. We had fun- we were able to go see what we wanted to, so we didn't have to follow a group. There were some new animals this time, too! Mary and Hazel liked the penguins the best.

Happy 7th, Alli!

Alli had a smile from the minute she woke up on her birthday, even though she had to go to school! We ate dinner out, and stopped for some doughnuts, which Alli wanted instead of cake. We got her to stop dancing around the table at dinner long enough to take this picture. She is one of the few people I know who burns the calories before they're digested!

Easter

With all the birthday stuff, we put off coloring eggs until Sunday morning. Here are the girls in their pj's dipping the eggs. Hazel was content to watch for only a few minutes!


















Once everyone got out of their pajamas, we took some pictures in front of our house.

Party!

Today was Alli and Mary's birthday party. We had a lot Easter fun. I was most excited about probably the lamest part, namely the napkins. They're carrots!


We ate bunny cupcakes that Alli and Mary decorated for the party.

Everyone played jelly bean tag and jumped in the "bunny sack" race!
























Singing to the birthday girls

Happy Birthday, Arthur

Yesterday was Arthur's birthday. He turned 3. Now don't you all feel guilty for not sending a card.

Spring Break Fun

Now that we live in the frigid North, where I'm convinced that I will never be warm again, our spring break was cold and wet. We played with friends as much as possible, and one day we decided to go bowling.
Alli and Mary liked their bowling shoes.

Alli had an interesting technique. She took a running start, and then heaved the ball chest-pass style at the lane. It worked, she got a strike!











Mary did the best she can, since every ball was as big as she was!














Hazel helped Quinn out on some of his turns.












He beat us all, but come on, he had Hazel helping him! What a cheater.