The sirens are blaring!

When we got back to Ogden on Saturday evening our neighbor brought us a package that had arrived while we were gone. I ordered Dillan a Little Tykes Police Car about 2 weeks ago with some reward points that I earned from DirecTV. We put it together on Sunday afternoon and man is it a big hit will Dill. He played with it all afternoon/evening, and then all this morning as well. When Jeremy said goodbye to Dillan this morning he had to kiss him through the car window. He is obsessed with it! And like every boy known to man he has already done things in it that he shouldn't and tipped it over a few times. Not too shabby for a free car! Thank you DirecTV.

The longest post ever!

Now that the holidays are winding down I am getting a chance to sit down at the computer and actually put together a post of what happened the last week and a half. It has been a busy week with the holidays and Dillan's birthday all at once.

We spent the week at my mom's house in Sandy. My sister Sarah, Ramiro, and Gillian were there all week as well. It was fun to see how Dillan and Gillian interacted with each other. She is almost 7 months older than Dill and she teaches him a lot. The deal this week was that she would teach him to walk and he would teach her to do the stairs (up and down). He did his end of the bargain, but he isn't walking so I guess they spent too much time on the stairs. He did take a few steps each day on his own, but he is chicken to do any more than that. He is now walking long distances with you holding only one hand though. He will also push anything he can around the house.

We spent the 23rd downtown looking at the lights. I, unfortunately, didn't get anything but this picture of the temple. I didn't think about it until we were ready to leave. But, it is a great picture if I do say so myself. We met my brother Jared, Peggy, and Iris down there as well. Iris (3) gave us a great rendition of This Little Light of Mine while we walked. We saw the sister missionary choir, saw the "Holy Cow" according to Iris, and enjoyed the lights.

Monday night, though it was Christmas Eve, was spent watching the Chargers/Broncos game. It was intense only because Jeremy and Ramiro are avid football fans and of course on opposing sides for this game. Gillie even sported her own LT jersey along with her papa. Jeremy stood strong on wearing his Bronco gear (despite the teasing that he should change shirts at half time). Go Chargers!!!

Christmas was great. We got up and opened stockings and made avbelskivers and butterscotch balls for breakfast. We opened presents once every one else got up. Dillan doesn't quite get it yet. He rips the paper, but in little pieces and then just wants to play with it. Good thing we only got him a stocking (socks, onesies, bath toys, a ball, and shoes) and one big present. We have learned that putting together presents the night before is best. You would not believe the assembly required on some things. Dillan got a jumping zebra, which he loves and will grow into for more fun, a firetruck, and a ride-on zebra (coincidence that they are both zebras). He had a great Christmas. Jeremy got a Zune and a new car stereo. I got a new XM radio and a fabulous shopping spree Dillan free!

We spent the next few days playing and shopping and seeing family. Wednesday night we all got together at my brother Aaron's and he and Jenn made a great dinner for all of us. My uncle Tom and Ruben were even in town from Brazil. Everyone was there and it was loud, but good.

Friday was the big day! Dillan is now a one year old little boy. We made arrangements for all the grandkids to meet downtown at the Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun. It was really busy but everyone had a good time. We will definitely go back once school is back in. Dillan got a little people garage, and some cool pjs for his birthday. Thanks Sarah and Ramiro...Dill loves them and is wearing them as we speak.

Instead of making a cake for his birthday we made cupcakes. He had one a few weeks back at cousin Emmitt's party but we scrapped the frosting off first. We gave it to him, sprinkles and all, for his big day. He loved it! By the time he was done there was cake everywhere and frosting all over his cute little face. He washed it all down with a lot of water from his cup.

We came back home Saturday evening and we are glad to be home. We love the holidays because we get to see people we don't see very often and get to play like crazy. It will be nice to get back to a normal routine again. Merry Christmas and Happy New year to everyone! We love you guys and all that you do for us.

Pudding and Trucks to name a few...

Dillan really likes pudding now. He doesn't descriminate either, he likes both vanilla and chocolate. I intoduced him to vanilla last week in hopes that he would only eat some of it and I could finish the rest of the cup...to my demise, he loves it and I did not get even one little bite. Too bad for momma. He seems to have a hefty appetite, but we don't know where he puts it all because he is a little peanut. I fed him chocolate pudding yesterday with animal crackers for an afternoon snack. He liked that as well.

He has also found a new toy that he REALLY likes. Daddy won't let him play with it all the time though and that makes Dillan sad. :( Jeremy got a remote control car for christmas a few years back and it has become a hit with Dillan. He doesn't like it when you actually turn it on and move it though. He just likes to push it around. The noise and movement when it is on scares him. Jeremy keeps it in the laundry room with the door shut.

I was doing laundry the other day and didn't get the door shut all the way. I was folding clothes in the family room and Dill had disappeared for a bit and I could hear him laughing so I knew he was close and having a good time. I figured he was under the table or something. Well, after a minute or two of non stop laughter I had to see what was so amusing. I got up and called his name and followed the laughing. I found him in the laundry room pushing the car back and forth between the wall and the dryer and Dillan just giggling away! It was really funny.

I pulled it out the other day and let him play supervised for a little bit and he had a blast, and in turn, cried when I put it away. Now, any time you are in the laundry room you can hear him bolt for the car and giggle. It is too cute.

Cuck Coo

This...

Plus this...

Equals this...

You have to turn the volume up.

Family Picture Time

We had a first real family picture session today. It turned out pretty well. I hate the way that I look in the family pics, but oh well. Dillan's turned out awesome and he was a great sport. He is a one take wonder. Other people seemed to be amazed at how good he was and smiled on cue. What can I say? He is a perfect little boy!

We got something to eat afterwards at one of our favorite places, Dylan's. They spell it wrong, but the food is good anyway. Jeremy was up at the register and could hear the cooks in the back talking about a cute little boy with red hair up front (all in Spanish). It is amazing how much you get to listen in on in Ogden when you speak Spanish. Enjoy the pictures!

It is officially Winter

It finally snowed here in Utah! It started late this year. Dillan has never had the experience of snow when he could actually realize there was something different about the grass out front.

Funny story from this morning...

Dillan and I were going to meet Jeremy for lunch, and since we were a few minutes early, before I put him in the car I let him touch the snow with his hands. He reached down to touch the grass at the edge of the driveway and felt the cold snow and immediately jerked his hand back to his chest. He then decided he would try it again and put his whole hand into the snow and again immediatly jerked it back to his chest, looked at me, and started to cry. I picked him up and wiped his hands with his blanket. I guess he doesn't like snow....yet.



We also went on a walk to the care center down the street this week. We had a couple of model cars to drop off. They were requesting crafts and decorations. By the way, if you are throwing anything out or going to DI, please think of the elderly center next to us. They are redecorating the entire building and can use anything from decorations to furniture. Dillan got all bundled up in his coat, hat, and mittens and we went for a walk.


Everyone at the nursing home loved him of course. No one can get over his red hair. I do have to admit that he is one super cute little kid and Jeremy and I are worried that whenever we have more they won't be as cute. In Jeremy's words, "Even a 50% ugly baby is still pretty ugly." We fear all the cute genes have been used on Dill and there isn't anything left!


On another note....Dillan likes toothpaste. We were getting ready for church on Sunday morning and he was dressed and ready to go. Jeremy and I were just finishing up some last minute things like makeup and a tie. Dillan was crawling around the floor, like normal, exploring whatever he could. We found him a few minutes later chewing on the toothpaste tube and he figured out how to get the flip top off of it and well....check the picture out! He thought it was great. Even after we fought it away from him he kept smaking his lips in enjoyment. It was pretty funny.

Dillan's new favorite past time is getting into things he knows he shouldn't. We put locks on the cabinets and lower drawers. He thinks it is great when he can actually get into something and if for some reason there is a lock on the cabinet...it doesn't matter! That is when it gets really fun because it makes tons of noise!!!

Master of the Stairs

Dillan has mastered the stairs finally! He can go up and down and thinks that it is great. We still keep the gate up at the top and the toy chest at the bottom because even though he has figured it out, we still think he isn't allowed to play on the stairs by himself.

Petting Farm

While we were in Zions the local town of Springdale had a petting farm. I always thought they were petting zoos, but this one was definitely a farm and labelled as such. Dillan thought the animals were cool and you could even feed the buffalo!

Zions

The Carling side of the family takes an annual family outing once a year over UEA weekend. We try to meet somewhere in the middle of San Diego and Salt Lake City so that not everyone has to go too far. This year we went to Zions National Park. It was a lot of fun and we all got some good exercise.

The leaves were changing colors and it made the hikes absolutely beautiful. We hiked to the opening of The Narrows, Emerald Pools, and the brave boys made it back from Angel's Landing without falling off!




Dillan fell asleep in the backpack that Uncle Paul was carrying since Jeremy went to Angel's Landing. I ended up pushing Bradley in Dillan's stroller since both Aaron and Jenn went as well. It was a great trip and we had good food and a overall good time.

Congrats to the Red Sox!

I will probably get murdered by Ramiro for doing this, but Clint bought Dillan a Red Sox outfit when he was born and since the Padres didn't make it to the World Series we have to sport the winning team for Clint. So here we go!

I sent a picture to Jeremy on his phone and he responded by saying, "He sure is a cute little traitor!" Isn't that the truth. Jeremy is a Rockies fan since he is from Colorado...so really, Dillan isn't following either one of our footsteps right now.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was pretty peaceful for us. The monkey got dressed up and we visited the grandparents in North Ogden and then my boss. Everyone loved his costume. He was the cutest little monkey ever. It was good to have everyone together since I had been away at Wood Badge the previous weekend and went back on November 1st. The weekend before halloween we went to Zions and had a lot of fun/exercise. These pictures are all from that trip. We dressed Dillan up one night and went trick-or-treating to the rest of the family to show him off.