Book Smart

Like father, like son! This little boy is getting so smart! We love watching him pick up on new things everyday. He LOVES to read books. He is constantly walking up to me with some book in his hand, thrusting it at me as he turns himself around backwards and backs himself up until he lands on my lap. It's so cute! Then he sits there patiently listening while I read until I ask him to "please turn the page" then his chubby little hand reaches up and grabs the page and flips it over...














I just love it! Afterward he likes to flip through it by himself and turn the pages and babble like he's reading. Here he is in the last pic trying to hand me the book.

Party Time!

Hooray! We had so much fun celebrating Rick's big 2-7! We can't believe we're growing up...it seems crazy that 30 is just around the corner. We had all the CDP's over for fajitas (Ricks fav) and some ice cream pie (aka: pain in the neck to make) and cupcakes.

In case you couldn't tell I tried to make the cupcakes look like surfboards at the beach...a little cheesy, I know but hey, someone's gotta get the party started! Oh yeah, in case you're wondering, no I did not forget to frost the one in the upper right corner...have fun making dinner and dessert for a group of 8 where one is lacto, one is a vegetarian and the other can't eat any red meat for religious reasons.

All in all it was a lot of fun, Dyl had a good time helping blow out the candles and we all sang while he clapped along.

Cool Camera Tricks

I found this cool feature on my camera and had to try it out...it blacks out all the color except for green...the indoor shots look way different, much more subtle then the outdoor ones. Dyl has been a very patient model for me lately as I'm trying to capture every single cute thing he does on camera...not an easy task!

I love this next one of him doing what he does best outside - collect leaves! Actually, leaves rocks or sticks but leaves seem to be his object of choice and, with fall finally arriving he has quite an array to choose from.

The Camera Loves You

Just wanted to post some of the many faces of Dylan...he has so much expression and loves to ham it up for the camera. I can't get over how much it makes my day to be around his happy face. Being a mom is the greatest job I've ever had by far, it's also the most underpaid but that's a whole other story!

He wanted to show his more serious side, so all the ladies out there would know that he can be a good listener and lend a shoulder to cry on.

Gotta end it with the bottom teeth shot...he's still only got five which is kinda good because they will hopefully stay stronger and healthier when they finally do decide to come in, it sure makes it tough to eat some of his favorite foods though.

Messy Eater

Manners? I guess we'll learn those later. Dylan is one of the messiest eaters in town. He loves to smear it around his tray, on his shirt, in his hair, in his ears, etc. I felt so bad the other day when the young women offered nursery services during enrichment...one of them came up to me and said, "umm, Sister Dalton, Dylan has some really bad ear wax built up in his ear, it's even kinda turned brown.." How gross does that sound?

Okay before all of you get too disgusted let me assure you it was none other then the refried beans we had with our tacos that night...yum...he had stuffed a whole handful in his ear and we were running late so I didn't notice. Guess I'll be looking a little harder now. Those poor young women must have been grossed out all night with him!

Rock On...

For some reason Dylan's latest craze is getting into chairs that are his size...which my mom has two of so that helped when it came to taking turns rockin' out. he especially loved the white one because it was slightly bigger so it was more of a challenge. He mastered the pink one rather quickly so he lovingly passed it on to baby cuz Aisley. There's Miss Brielle behind them, making sure neither wipe out...what a good cousin/big sister!

I just love Aisley's face in this pic so I had to put it on here...look how big and beautiful her eyes are! I think we surprised her with the double flash, as you can see Megan was taking pics next to me too so when they both went off I think it caught her off guard. Dylan sure had fun playing with his cousins on this trip, Elly is officially one of his best friends now, I think Ais is probably glad to have Dylan gone now so she can crawl safely on the carpet without being wrestled to the ground.

Ladies Man

While in Cali I had the opportunity to take Dyl out to lunch with some of the Dalton girls...Me, Sharon, Val, Theresa, Catherine and of course, Caitlin. The waitress asked if Dyl and Cate were twins! I guess they are looking rather related as they grow! It was fun to see everyone, we went to the Cheese Cake Factory, yum yum!
Here's Miss Caitlin in all her glory, gotta love those big bows! I think Catherine is just HATING having a girl after all those boys...

And of course Lil Dyl bein' his usual crazy self. Gotta love it tho, this kid's got quite the personality! All in all it was a really fun trip, we put the two of them side by side in their highchairs and they passed food back and forth between the two of them, they were pretty funny together.

Surfs Up!

Rick was more then happy to hit the waves again...it's been a while and he was a little rusty at first but it wasn't long before he was hangin' with the best of 'em. I think he misses the coast but we're havin' fun out in good ol' Michigan too.

Down By the Water

Here we are down by the water...it was pretty warm this year, which made it even more fun to swim. We always go for a long walk down by the water as a group to look at the other beach houses lining the shore and to get a little exercise (because we all know how I eat on vacation!) We stopped for a little family pic right after the gorgeous sunset.














I loved these pics of the boys watching the waves. It was so fun having Dyl this age on the trip, it made it a whole new experience since he wants to explore and know about everything. I'm not sure which lighting I like best between the two pics..they're both kinda cool for different reasons.

Tower Time

The infamous lifeguard tower. We take a pic on it every year...unfortunately practically half our group wasn't there when we shot the pic but at least Rick, Dyl and I managed to make it. Then we put Dyl up on his own to feel like the big kid he thinks he is...I can't believe how much he's growing! (Dont worry, dad's right there beneath him ready to catch! Okay, Dad's turn for a little fun, even though the next pic is a little blurry I just love the way they're laughing. I was so glad Rick was able to make it for at least a small part of the trip.

The Good Stuff

Uh-oh...mom turned her back for a minute and someone slipped Dyl some licorice...obviously they haven't seen the damage he does with this stuff...who could say no to that face? In the background you can see how close our house was to the water...these pics were taken off our porch, you stepped off right onto the sand! It was so beautiful.

Balboa Beach Baby!

OKAY...I'm FINALLY putting up the pics from our Cali trip and will hopefully get caught up...eventually. Here's some fun pics of Dyl in the "beach outfit" my mom bought for him. I loved it, it was so cute! This was in the beginning of Dyl's walkin' days so he's a bit wobbly but getting the feel of his land legs. He was so proud of himself and Rick was so happy that Dylan literally waited until the day his plane touched down to join us in Cali to start walking. He got to be there when he officially took off after all. He was so worried he'd miss it!

Of course we had to ride the traditional bus bike loaded with cousins.

Dyl and Aisley loved riding in the front basket (don't worry, they're buckled in!) Until Dyl started trying to figure out how to get unstrapped.

Tiempo Libre - CALIENTE!

Ok, so I didn't get any pics but last night Rick bought us a couple tickets to this Latin concert at the Dow gardens where they taught Latin dancing then had Tiempo Libre perform live. It was a lot of fun, they were actually really good, I guess they've been nominated for all these awards and stuff. Anyways...we got up and tore it up on the dance floor...I'm so glad I have a husband who doesn't mind getting up and having a good time looking dumb with me. We were some of the most inexperienced by far but we had so much fun laughing at ourselves and trying to copy what everyone around us was doing. It's so good to be home!

Help!

is anyone else having problems with their stupid blog sites? ive been trying to do a video for about a week and it never downloads and it wont even let me do a regular post even without a video...which is why i will make this one extremely brief considering its my third time writing it and im not sure if its not going to go through again. it wont even let me log on and view my family blog, i go to sign in, it takes me to the main thing where you manage the blog, like the dashboard i think and if i click on view blog from there it takes me to my page but with the option to sign in still...but when i click sign in again it takes me to dashboard and shows that im already signed in...if i sign in, go to dashboard and view blog for my ms blog it works just fine...what the heck? ive been trying for at least five days now to just do a regular, simple blog but when i get to the end of typing it it tells me it couldnt connect to blogspot.com....help?

New Posts!

There, that's four new posts (five if you count this one) Hopefully this can tide you all over till I get home. I might throw in one or two more later if you're lucky.

Balboa Bay Arcade

Here we are at the beach, over on Balboa Island, in the funzone. We took the kids to the arcade and Dyl had a blast! I took him to play this game where you have to roll these rubber balls down a ramp and try to get them to line up, Dyl won 18 tickets in one game because he got a full house...it was so funny, he totally knew where the balls came out, waited for the next one to come, then carefully rolled it down the ramp, like he was aiming or something. It was pretty cute to watch. Then came his most favorite part of all, playing the race car game without having to put in any quarters! He had the most fun doing that and seriously played for at least twenty minutes. He was getting so into it, when the screen would change and the cars would zoom by he'd start gibbering really loud and fast and then he'd lean down and push some of the blinking buttons on the left side of the wheel and was touching the screen when words flashed up and stuff. He was getting so into he started drawing a crowd. It was pretty funny. Oh yeah, how much do you love the little hawaiian outfit my mom bought for him as his official "beach outfit" it was so cute on him. I wonder how much longer we can get by with free games?

BBQ - Apartment Style

OK - so we finally broke down and bought an almost BBQ. We swore up and down that we wouldn't do it until we could do it for real but I just couldn't stand it any longer. I am SO excited to have it, it seriously opens up about ten hundred new dinner ideas. We invited one of the summer interns family over since it was their last Sunday in Michigan and decided to test out our new BBQ with delicious sish kebabs (pretty sure I spelled that wrong) and s'mores. Here's Dyl headin outside to help dad heat up the coals. Ok..these next two pics go together and are so funny to me...this is obviously before he was walking but when he decides to go outside or in he has to cross that stupid metal thing that guides the glass doors, and it hurts to crawl over it because he's so chubby and it cuts into his fat little knees and palms so he developed his own method...he'd get right up to the edge of it, then throw himself over the threshold. I die every time because he does it on purpose! I can't wait to get him home now that he walks to see what he'll do...I'm sure he'll just walk over and it will be no big deal but I'm gonna kinda miss his little solution to the hurty door problem. Anyways...Dyl loves to be outside so he had a blast "helping" Rick get the food ready. He didn't want to leave his side the whole time, it was so cute. If anyone out there needs help figuring out sish kebab then let me know, it's one of my fav meals to make by far...kinda messy but soooo good. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I remembered everything we could possibly need for that day except...freaking lighter fluid! Can you believe it? And of course it was dang Sunday so we couldn't go out and buy it and we searched our house and had no hairspray or anything of that nature. We finally had to settle on an expensive bottle of perfume...how lame are we? It didn't end up working either, well not that well anyway. All part of the BBQ magic. By the way I just love this color blue on Dyl, it's kinda hard to see in pics but in person it just makes his eyes pop.

Back to Lake Huron

Here we are at good ol' Tawas Point again, this time we took Dad! We had so much fun last time we couldn't wait to go back. Dyl had fun playin' in the sand with his little sand trucks, (gotta love the dollar bin at Target!) and splashin' in the water with Dad. I was so sad, I missed the cutest shot of Dyl crawling behind Rick who was also crawling through the shallow waves of the lake, it was really funny. This lake is so awesome for kids, it has all the perks of the beach, minus the things that really stink about the beach. For instance, the water was really warm, there was plenty of fun sand for the kids without the million mile walk from the parking lot to the water, the waves were a few inches high if that and it had a sand bar so at least a half mile out it was still only knee deep with no dips or pockets of deep water. But you couldn't see land when you looked across the lake so you totally felt like you were at the beach! And to top it all off, my fav thing was that it was fresh water...so NO SHARKS! Or jelly fish for that matter. We really had so much fun.

A Night Out on the Town!

Ok...I'm gonna be SO behind on posts when I get back that I decided to download some older shots onto my moms comp so I'll be all caught up by the time I get home. The weekend before I left my adorable husband decided to go all out and plan an entire evening for JUST THE TWO OF US! I cannot tell you how long it has been...so he got a sitter and told me to get dressed up and came home from work with a bouquet of beautiful red roses. We went to this really fancy Italian restaurant in midland where he had made reservations (see the pretty flower they served in the middle of my plate?) and followed it up with tickets to see fiddler on the roof. it was such a fun night! P.S. That lovely necklace you see me sportin' on the big night is none other then the one Rick bought me at the dollar store on that horrid work trip to Florida. At least I got some fun jewelry outta it!

Sorry!

Hey everyone...just thought i should take a quick sec and explain why nothing has changed in a while on my site...im in cali and my vacation has been extended several times so ive now been gone from my home about three weeks and wont be going home until the 10th...so, after that i will have a lot of new updates. dylan is walking all over the place now and has been since the 17th of august. if he falls he can get up in the middle of the room by himself, we're very excited at how big he's getting! its so cute, he's figured out that the only way he can talk to daddy is on the phone so he gets really excited whenever he sees it and now knows how to hold it up to his ear, he always grabs it and starts shouting, Dada! dada! over and over again...i love it. anyways....hope all is well with everyone, give my lonely husband a call sometime to cheer him up. :)