Swimming

Our first swim of the year (Malcolm's first swim ever)was at Grandma Dibble's house in May.

The water was still pretty cold and he sure didn't like the first few minutes, but after just a little while he was kicking around and loving it!

Stella is a fish. She swam better at age 3 than I do now.

We also went swimming over at Aunt Lindsay's house with Hannah and Brynlee. I forgot mine and Malcolm's swimmers, so so Malcolm just had a swim diaper, but the girls had a great time.

Hannah and Stella especially liked their activity of Hannah pushing Stella in by her buns.

Bryn is learning to swim without the lifejacket. Taking breathes at appropriate times in the next lesson.

Stella and the girls dried off after they were done by laying on the cool deck for just a little bit and Stella sunburned her buns. Arizona sun does not joke around folks.

A BIG Birthday Day!

Stella's cousins Hannah and Claire both had their birthday parties on the same day and they were both super fun!  We started out at Hannah's waterslide party and those kids couldn't get enough of it.  Eating cake and opening presents was a bother when they just wanted to slide!

Stella went on it a thousand times and got me soaked.

Then we were off to Claire's adventure party at her Grandma Wiscombe's house.  She got to ride the 4-wheeler with George . . .

Ride the zip line . . .

Ride this thing . . .

And go swimming . . .

You'd think she would have been exhausted, right?  There is nothing besides barfing sickness that gets this girl tired.  I'm not even kidding.  Not even a little bit.

Some Stuff I Forgot

Elliot says he looks at my blog 3 times a day wondering if I've updated it and he's been seriously disappointed lately. My excuses: I just got a new smartphone and I've discovered Draw Something, Words With Friends, and Instagram. This takes up most of my time and besides working on pictures, I haven't even sat down at the computer to check my emails (I get those on my phone now too). But I miss my blog, so now I'm going to update it.

Back in February, my sister Lindsay came over with the girls (Hannah and Brynlee). Right after they got here, the school Nurse Kitty called and said that Stella was in the nurses room and had a fever. So I picked her up from school. She was indeed sick and did have a fever. So I tried to get her to take some Tylenol. It took 2 hours. Yes, 2 hours to get her to take medicine. It's aggravating really. Lindsay tried, I tried, Hannah even tried. The girl is stubborn friends.

Anyway, she was still sick, but she's the kind of kid who doesn't know that she's supposed to lay on the couch and sleep and watch movies when she's sick, so we jumped on the trampoline instead. This was my first time on the trampoline and I'm sure things aren't all connected in my brain anymore.

When Lindsay got on, she jumped just like my Mom with her feet barely leaving the tramp. It's been years since we've jumped, so it took a little bit to get used to it.

Lindsay did a flip and then we mostly made the girls sit on the side while we showed our tricks (I don't have any).

I make no excuse for Stella's outfit. She did this one all by herself.

The girls did cartwheels and Brynnie tried to break her neck.

Brynnie's long hair was full of static!

Hannah was doing some crazy dance . . .

. . so Lindsay was imitating her. We had a good time, the integrity of my bladder is intact, and Stella got some new medicine that she took a little easier (not much).

Malcolm's First Haircut

Malcolm has had some serious mullet going on since the day he was born.

He also had a long wispy on top that just looked creepy when I combed it. He also has 2 cowlicks at the crown of his head going in opposite directions. The boy will always have hair problems. I've been saying I'm going to cut it for months, but I've had some interference. It was obviously not curly and therefore had no chance of being cute. It was a mullet plain and simple for those of you who are against cutting children's hair for the first several years. It needs to be done and so it was.

So like all projects that get me into trouble with my husband, my sister Lindsay was involved. This wasn't the plan, but when she arrived at my house we busted out the clippers and buzzed Mal's head (01/24/12).

He did a great job and mostly just didn't know what was buzzing on his head. He's a blondie!

And he loves a bath.

Zoo with Cousins!

We went to the Phoenix Zoo with Aunt Lindsay, Hannah, and Brynlee on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January. Daddy even go to go with us! The rest of Arizona decided to go to the zoo that day too.

Hannah had her head buried in the map the entire time.

The kids ate snacks the entire 4 hours we were there.

We had a fabulous time.

Four Balloons for an Angel

Lindsay, Keith, Hannah, and Brynlee got to send 4 balloons to Isaac in heaven today.

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Christmas

Merry Christmas
from the
Dibble Family!

(Stella decided against coordinating with the rest of our outfits when she saw her new dress on Christmas morning)

(picture taken at 2:00 a.m. . . . Santa finally came . . . zzzzzzzzz . . . hopefully we're on the earlier delivery schedule next year)

Stella and Malcolm were both super excited about Christmas because they both woke up at 6:00 a.m. Dad gave Malcolm a bottle (thank you) and sent Stella back to bed and they didn't wake up until people started arriving for our annual Christmas breakfast with several people from our Ward. Since we weren't going to open our presents until after church (our church starts at 12:30 p.m.), Santa was nice enough to NOT wrap Stella's gift so she could see it right away and wear them to church. Black nigh heel boots! Santa DID get our letters!

We love our tradition of breakfast with the Ward members (I hope they like it too). Grandpa Dibble and Elliot's coworker Curtis Gruninger have been coming for the last 3 years to help cook (he's the one with Lolly the Jeep). This year Curtis brought his mother and she practically took over my kitchen and wouldn't let me do anything (which turned out to be a good thing because I don't know how to cut pineapple). She made all of the fruit plates look so pretty.

Church was good, I sang in the choir because I always complain about not being able to sing as many Christmas hymns that I want because the choir is always taking them all up, Stella and Malcolm behaved themselves with the Roberts family during church, Elliot cleaned up the building, we headed home, took our picture, changed our clothes, and then FINALLY Stella was able to dig into her presents. She had already arranged them in piles by name and apologized to me because I didn't get as many as she did. I made her spread them sporadically again trying to explain how piles are no fun. It's funny how kids sort of forget what they asked for when there are other presents to open.

Malcolm enjoyed his presents by yelling at them. He got some learning toys and a barrel of monkeys.

The girl loves quesadillas. She also got lots of books and somehow she got lots of shoes.

WARNING: The Ove Glove was not made at NASA. Do not become overconfident in it's abilities such as thinking it's a smart idea to stick your Ove Gloved hand into a pot of boiling water. It's not, so don't do it.

Suddenly it was almost 5:00 and we were supposed to be at my Mom & Dad's for dinner at 3:30!! The day always goes by way too fast! We gathered the rest of the presents for the family and the nerf dart guns to see what kind of ruckus we could cause at my Mom's. I'm sort of happy that some of my siblings have my punctuality problem as well because Lindsay and Keith had just arrived shortly before us, but the prayer was said and everyone was dishing up by the time we walked in. My oldest, yet way younger looking, sister Marci and her family came into town for Christmas this year which was so fun!

We ate up the mashed potatoes ("these mashed potatoes are so creamy") and chewed up the turkey ("so dry you could gag on it!") before we moved on to the nerf dart gun war. Don't worry Adam, Mom's divinity was safe. (p.s. those are quotes from a movie and tv show . . . can you guess which ones?)

To help digest the delicious Christmas feast, we busted out the guns. Nerf guns. Oldies vs. youngsters (Bill, Elliot, Keith vs. Alex, Alecia, Karl . . . . Lindsay joined later, but I'm not sure she knew which teams she was on).

Don't worry, Alecia's not really possessed with those red eyes, but she was quite the contender with the dart gun.

There should be some theme music to this brother/sister conquering march picture.

Uncle Bill, intimidating.

Alex was hiding somewhere for the first several rounds and then popped out to massacre passersby.

Uncle Elliot posted at a popular corner by the laundry room.

My Mom's house has lots of places that have 2 entrances. This makes for a good escape.

Grandpa was helping Brynlee with the dart gun and she was just at the perfect height to be shooting everyone in the junk.

Uncle Keith taking over the post.

An ambush around the corner.

Uncle Bill stalking his prey.

That's a happy, chubby baby.

I thought Stella would totally be in on the nerf dart gun action, but she sat in front of the TV instead playing the Wii. Another reason we can't ever purchase one.

Bryn got such a laugh after shooting Uncle Elliot in the nether regions that Hannah wanted in on the shooting.

Father/Son battle to the death.

Another ambush. Will they never learn?

I think Lindsay just shot whoever came by.

Lindsay challenged Karl to a boxing match on the Wii. I hope their deodorant didn't quit on them that day because neither of them wanted to lose. Karl, quit beating up your aunt.

Hannah and Brynlee duked it out too. That sound coming out of Hannah's mouth is one of my favorite sounds!

Uncle Bill and Aunt Marci loved themselves a little Malcolm. (Uncle Bill looks like he's glaring, but he got his turn with Malcolm too)

I love that Brynnie giggle!