There's something atop my head?!

What do you think of the HUGE flower on Ellie's head? Too big? I'll quote Paul, "Whoa!" I agreed, but it kinda grew on me. If we wear one to church, I will have to write down all the comments we get. We love our ward and are so fortunate to feel like everyone is family there. They love to tease me about Dallin's spiky hair and Ellie's bows and ribbons.Sorry, Julie! I couldn't crop your arm out of the picture! She found this sweet headdress in the nursery while doing some spring cleaning. Dallin was fascinated with it.
I love it when Dallin wants to be in pictures AND smiles!

Mud-mUd-MUD

Not a day outside that goes by where Dallin doesn't track some form of mud or dirt into the house. He LOVES to play in mud!

I love...

Dallin loves hoodies!Ellie loves the ocean mobile that hangs over her head!
Dallin loves this step stool!
Ellie loves to rest her chin on her arm!

Easter Celebrations

Our Primary at church had a fun Easter party! Dallin got to make this cute Easter bag to collect all of his eggs. The Easter bunny brought him candy (a Lik-m-aid that turns from blue to green, as you can see the remains of on his face and fingers) a shovel and pail for his sand box and....
CARS underwear!!! He loved it all.
Poor Ellie didn't get her picture taken that weekend, but the Easter bunny didn't forget about her. She got a cute little lamb and an Ellie-phant (haha) toy and a can of baby formula.

And, no, Dallin is not potty trained. He wore the underwear for 10 minutes before he wet his pants.

Birthday Cake

We had a delicious birthday cake for Paul on Sunday. I think he really liked having his birthday on Easter. We didn't have any candles, so I put toothpicks in the cake and lit them on fire.
Ellie did not like it when we sang "Happy Birthday".
Dallin likes to have 10 forks, knifes, and spoons with every meal.

Nuttin'

I really want to blog something fun today.... probably not going to happen. Here is our week after week schedule.

S: Meetings, church, VT/HT, try to take naps
M: Usually free!!! We wake up and stay in our jammies ALL DAY LONG! No appointments, no therapy, just good ole fat doggin'. Family home evening.
T: Speech therapy at the hospital, clean, clean, clean
W: Speech Therapy at home (that's why we clean, clean, cleaned on Tues.) and then Young Women's Activity Night, Mom goes grocery shopping ALONE!
Th: Speech therapy at the hospital, and we clean, clean, clean again, because...
F: Occupational Therapy at home

Not too exciting, but every bit necessary.

I just found the camera with 80 pictures on it. Maybe you'll get something fun after all.

Paully-wally-doodle-all-day

Paul's sister, Heather, tagged me. I will spare you a picture of my hubby, though, because, well, duh!

What is his name? Paul Stuart Duncan
How long did you date? I chased him for 3 months and then he chased me for 9 months
How long have you been married? 6.9 years {July 13, 2001}
Who eats more sweets? That would have to be a tie.
Who said I love you first? Now here is where my pride would like to get in the way, but I will tell you the truth. I did. Then, a month later, he did. In fact, Itold him that I was ready to marry him in December.....He proposed in May. Slow and steady, I guess!
Who is taller? Paul
Who is the better singer? The other day, I told Paul, "Honey, sometimes you sing REALLY good, and sometimes, you REALLY don't." His reply, "I only do that to make you feel like you have a really good voice." But, really, I think we tie on this one, too!
Who is smarter? Paul, he's a smarty pants.
Who does the laundry? We both do, and we both hate folding it and putting it away!
Who mows the lawn? Mostly Paul, because we have a complicated yard to mow. But I like to help with the front because it's flat.
Who cooks dinner? We both do. We are so gourmet!
Who drives? Paul drives if we are not in a hurry. If we are, then I take over the wheel. I am starting to drive more on the road, because Paul gets tired so easily!
Who is more stubborn? Me, me, me!
Who kissed who first? It was quite the mutual kiss. I waited and waited and waited for him to kiss me. Then, one day it just happened. Poor Kodi.....(I will let you comment about that one if you remember...)
Who asked who out? I asked Paul out. Good grief, I had to work hard to get this man!
Who proposed? Paul, and his mom, and his sister Heather! Paul is quite laid back. We were joking the other day that if I had never asked him out, we would have just gotten married last year.
Who is more sensitive? Paul.... he is starting to sound like the woman in the relationship.
Who has more siblings? That's a tie as well, we both have 5 siblings.
Who wears the pants? We both do. I am so lucky to have an awesome husband who helps a lot with the kids and around the house and who lets me have a say in things (more than he would like, probably).

The BIG 3-0!!!

Happy birthday to a wonderful husband, father, and friend! We love you! Thirty pictures for thirty years....

Can you feel it?

This picture may be small, but nonetheless, it's officially here!

SPRING!!

You can expect blog colors to change at any moment, because really, that's all I have time to do before we run out the door to another appointment. I never thought that me, of all people, would be as busy as I am with just two little ones under the age of three. My house gets cleaned twice a week {only} for Dallin's at home speech/OT. This morning, the kids and I had a diaper changing party--good times! They decided to take turns crying this time.

Last Sunday, Bro. So&so brought Paul and I into his office. He started out with, "We have very limited resources to pull from...." That's where the "Oh crap!" comes out of my mouth. So I'm getting a new calling. Paul jokingly calls us "President Squared". I really am excited about this new calling. Our Heavenly Father knows that we are struggling and that we have so many imperfections, but He never fails to give us the strength to make it through every day. That's the only way I make it, personally. Life can get so overwhelming for me if I look at the big picture. Not the BIG big picture, but the small big picture. My motto is, "Small steps at a time". I don't want to climb a huge mountain, but I sure can take one small step at a time. Because then I can look back later and see the mountain that I have climbed.

I Wish

I wish I knew what Dallin was saying when I put him in his crib and he looked at me and said "ush" and signed a made up sign. He wanted something for his naptime. He was tired and willingly went into his crib and laid down. But now, he is crying because I don't know what "ush" means.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Here's an Irish song that Paul's mom sang to him and now we sing to our kids:

Over in Killarney,

Many years ago,

Me mother sang a song to me

In tones so sweet and low.

Just a simple little ditty,

In her good old Irish way,

And I'd give the world if she could sing

That song to me this day.

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral,

Too-ra-loo-ra-li,

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral,

Hush, now don't you cry!

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral,

Too-ra-loo-ra-li,

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral,

That's an Irish lullaby.

Oft, in dreams I wander

To my home again,

I feel her arms around me

As when she held me then.

And I hear her voice a humin'

To me in days of yore,

When she used to rock me fast asleep

Outside the cabin door.

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral,

Too-ra-loo-ra-li,

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral,

Hush, now don't you cry!

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral,

Too-ra-loo-ra-li,

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral,

That's an Irish lullaby.

One day at a time.

Dallin has been doing pretty good lately. He now has therapy 4x/week, 2 private speech at the hospital, 1 in-home speech, and 1 in-home occupational therapy.

The occupational therapy: He got tested last week and has "deviations" in a couple areas. Deviation is just a fancy word for below or above average on the test. (Here is where Paul would give you the real, scientific definition, like he just gave me, but us small minds might not understand, har-har) The short of the long is that when he gets wound up, he doesn't know how to wind down. Also, he tunes out easily and has to be physically contacted to get his attention. Basically over stimulation and under stimulation. Most people naturally learn how to self regulate to these things. But some people don't and they get over-under stimulated and flip out or tune out. This is my own explanation, hope it make sense. So the OT (occupational therapist) will come over and we will figure out ways to help Dallin self regulate. Some things she mentioned are deep pressure, ie. wearing a backpack, pushing something heavy across the room. It is all very interesting and though it is very confusing, we trust that they all know what they are doing.

On the speech front, Dallin has been doing really good and we see progress here and there as the days go by. He used to say truck: "vruh". Today he said "truckq" and "tuc" right after the other. Last night he copied Paul with the word mask: "mash-k". You can only imagine how excited Paul and I get when we hear him trying to say these words. Today, he has been having fun labeling all the mom's and dad's and babies in books and on TV. He calls the babies, "beebs" because that's I what I call Ellie a lot. He is also getting very creative in making up his own signs for words. He loves chocolate milk, but only knows the sign for milk. I didn't know the sign for chocolate, so I told him to sign milk and then the letter "C" one right after the other. He did this for a couple days, and then today put them together in a whole new way. One hand signed milk while the other hand formed the "C" and he cupped it on top of the milk signed hand. He has also made up signs for knife, fork, and spoon. There are also others that he's made up that we have no clue what they mean.

He says shoe backwards, "eesh". We are trying to teach him to say it correctly. I was "shhh"ing with my finger in front of my lips and then would exaggerate an "ew" after that. He then proceeded to shoosh me with his finger to his mouth, then, poked his bum at me, pointed as well and said, "eeewwwww!!!!" He's a hoot!

We are done with all the First Steps meetings, YEAH! What a stressful time for me! Now we have their services until he turns three. He has also qualified for the pre-school in August, which is 5 days/week. It will be so good for him (and me...).

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Blog giveaway...

First of all... love this blog: An Island Life. This cute girl, Kailani, is a flight attendant, so you get to hear some funny stories every once in a while. She lives in Hawaii, who wouldn't want to live there? And she has giveaways every week. I pretty much think she's my new best friend! (Okay, I am just kidding, I don't want to creep you out!) Her latest giveaway is here. And here is a sneek peak before you go there:

I thought these little characters were pretty darn funny!