Happy Father's Day

I know, I know... I'm behind again. :)

Father's Day was so much fun! We started off with biscuits and gravy, one of Patrick's favorite breakfasts, opened gifts and still made it to 9am church on time... maybe just a minute late:)

I was thrilled to find these daddy and son ties. I know giving a tie on Father's day is so cliche, but this was perfect! Patrick held Cal the whole time at church, he's such a proud daddy. My boys looked so very handsome!
I was also thrilled to find this children's story book- in SPANISH! Now, as part of our night time routine, Patrick reads Cal a story from it. E-V-E-R-Y night, Cal starts to giggle as Patrick reads. I read books to Cal all the time and never get quite the same reaction.
My boys know how to have fun! More than one time I have walked past Cal's room to find this going on... when Patrick changes his diaper he puts his shorts on his head. Cal smiles the whole time- he thinks it's funny too!

When we are out and about Patrick loves to carry Cal around in the Bjorn carrier. As I mentioned before- he is a very proud papa!

Patrick, I love you so much! You are such a great husband and father. I love to watch you with Calan... you are so patient, so loving, so helpful. Thank you for who you are and all you do!

Cal simply adores you... and so do I.

Happy Father's Day!

Splish Splash He Loves Takin' a Bath

As the sun goes down and our little man starts to yawn that can mean only one thing...

BATH-TIME!!

Cal LOVES to take a bath! In fact, if he is fussy even a little bit, I turn on the water and he instantly perks up... this boy loves the water!

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He splashes and coos the entire time.

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I love how our bathroom sink is just his size... his own personal hot tub! :)

It is totally a highlight of our day!

We sure love our little fish!

It Must Be the Dryer!

It seems like just yesterday these cute little airplane PJ's were huge on Cal. HUGE! In fact, we knew they were way too big, but Patrick couldn't resist and Cal wore them... often.

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Well, we put them on him tonight and I just can't understand what is going on... They are snug- much too snug to be comfortable.

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So we tried on another pair and you won't believe it- they are much too snug as well.

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And several of our favorite outfits?? All have shrunk 2 sizes too small.

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I'm almost positive I washed them in cold... So it MUST have been the dryer!! :)

Family Fun!

Patrick is from Indiana and most of his family still lives there. We sure wish we all lived closer- but boy I tell ya, having them come visit is such a treat!

We loved introducing them to our little Cal. He seemed to instantly know they were Grandma and Grandpa.

This trip was extra special because two of our nieces, Emma and Lilli got to join Grandma and Grandpa. It was their first plane ride and first trip to Utah. We loved having them with us and they too loved meeting their new cousin! He loved them right back!

The first day was a tour of Salt Lake City and all the fun Church history sights. There was Temple Square, the Tabernacle, the Conference Center, President Hinckley's grave, Brigham Young's grave... it was quite a day!
That night we had dinner outside. Actually, most nights we ate outside and enjoyed the mountains- something that is unique to these Indiana folks! :) We also got out games and played and laughed! It was so much fun! On this particular evening we were celebrating Cal's 2 month birthday. Lilli helped me make his little cake.

One night Emma and Lilli decided to soak in the hot tub...

I forgot to take any pictures- what a pity- but we spent some fun time on BYU campus. We ate at the Cougar Eat, toured the school a bit and even played in the science building. We are doing our best to convince them it's the BEST place to go to college! Their mom played on the BYU Softball team a few years ago so we also showed them her old apartment. Fun stuff!

Patrick's mom is an AMAZING singer! She has been singing with the same barber shop group since Patrick was a kid. At this year's competition they won FIRST place at the NATIONALS competition! Wow! So, I loved to hear her sing to Cal... he loved it too!

One morning we got up and headed to the Canyon to make breakfast. Why does everything taste so good when it's cooked outside?? Eggs with sausage, OJ and fruit... YUM!

(I forgot to get a picture of us eating... I think I was too hungry:)

After Breakfast we went to Sundance to ride the ski lift. Here's a picture of Patrick and his Dad.

It was gorgeous- the only problem was that about half was up it started hailing- BRRR! But we girls snuggled up close and had a great time! Can you see Cal? He's bundled up safe in my Baby Bjorn carrier. He loved it too!

Afterwards we went to Cascade Springs. We had hoped that the rain would let up, but no such luck! It was chilly but pretty nonetheless!

We decided to warm up at a family favorite, The Brick Oven. The pizza is excellent and the homemade root beer is even better! It was the perfect ending to a great day!

I love this video clip... This is Cal 'dancing' on the table with daddy's help at the restaurant. It makes me smile!

It just so happened that very weekend was the air show up in Ogden. Patrick's love for airplanes comes from his sweet dad. When Patrick was born his dad bought him his first airplane and Patrick has been hooked ever since! :) I LOVE that they were able to spend the entire day looking at all the different planes and get to see them fly by. They came home with sunburned faces and HUGE smiles! Patrick said to me, "That was a PERFECT day!" One he will treasure forever! We girls decided to go shopping instead. We also went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point- it was awesome! (No pictures cuz the boys had the cameras)
On Sunday we went to my sister's house. It was Emma's first time to play pool and we discovered that she is quite the pool shark! She totally beat me! Good Job Emma!

We did so many fun things- but my favorite was just hanging out together. These girls are so polite and well behaved- what a joy to have them visit us! They were so cute with Calan! They are super cousins!

Grandma and Grandpa, Emma and Lilli... we miss you like crazy! Thank you for spending time with us! We love you so much!

Trying to package them up just right

We have had so many wonderful moments, visits, experiences the last few weeks.

But, I feel like I am living the I Love Lucy episode at the chocolate factory... it's one of my favorites! You know the one... the chocolate candies come through on the conveyer belt and they are supposed to wrap them up before they get past them. They start coming too fast so they gobble it up, stick it in their shirt, their hat, etc. If you haven't seen this clip it't worth the watch...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wp3m1vg06Q

I have been wanting to sit down and give each of these sweet memories their own special package to get wrapped up in... but as they have come so quickly I realize they are " melting" away... left undone.

So for the next few days I have committed to getting these precious moments jotted down so we can cherish them forever... even if it's not in in the perfect package! :)

Girls Night Out

As our final bit of our Cali trip I have to mention our super duper Girls Night Out. Every year the boys have their over night campout and that is when the girls have their time to play. I was thrilled to get to join in the fun! Cal didn't seem to mind he was the only boy, actually, he slept most of the time. He'll join the boys the a couple years!

Claire made a list of all the things we wanted to do...

Our first item of business was getting a pedicure. It was very fun, but not as relaxing as I had remembered. It has been years since I have had a professional pedicure and I seemed to have forgotten how ticklish my feet are- yikes!
Next we headed to dinner at the Rain Forrest Cafe. Yum-O!

Claire was not a fan of the "Rain Storm" that hit every once in a while. Next we went to the Mall for some shopping time. I found some great deals for Cal- I just couldn't resist! After each event Claire would check it off her list...

Only one more stop...
Crepes for dessert- again... YUM-O! We shared 2 huge crepes. They were so, so good!

And we licked the plate clean!

Thank you Mindy and Claire for letting us tag along with you for your annual Girls Night Out.

We had a BLAST!

Our Cali Trip... Continued

My whole life I have been blessed with great friends.

Growing up there was a big group of us "Mormons kids" that loved hanging out and having good clean fun. Every weekend we would travel to a different youth Stake dance to meet cute boys. It was so much fun!! I always felt lucky to have such a good group of friends to hang out with, but never realized what a blessing it was till I was a bit older to appreciate what we really had... friends with high standards that were a good example to me. My parents never had to worry that we were out doing bad things because as a group we would never let another friend make a dumb choice. :) We were far from perfect and on more than one occasion told to remove our ice blocks from the hill at the park, but for the most part, in our little group it was "cool" to stand up for what we believed and "CTR"... Choose the Right.

While in California I was able to meet up with some of my closest childhood friends, Rebecca, Heather and Melissa. They now have several children, but as we had lunch together it was as though we were still in high school laughing about silly things- as if no time had passed at all. Our good friend Shannon was in Spain with her husband (lucky girl!!) but we will catch her next time!

I loved introducing little Cal to them... it was so much fun!

E.J. is quite the baseball player. We were able to go to his game- watch him pitch for an inning and even hit one way into outfield. He kept telling me before the game that he was going to play his best for Cal... and he did!

My parents were lucky enough to find a cruise for an INCREDIBLE price that week- the only bummer is that they were not with us for the first couple days of our visit. As soon as they returned Grammy would not share Cal with anyone- smile! She said that she had to catch up on her snuggle time... and she did! Both My mom and dad could not believe how much Cal had grown in such a short amount of time.

My mom's best friend Silvija has always been like an Aunt to our family. She loves us just like family! We were thrilled that she could drive up with her husband, Ron, from San Diego to meet our Calan. She knit the adorable hat Cal has on in this picture and found a lovely baby book for adoptive families- how great is that? She also gave me a sweet figurine of a mother and baby- I love it!

Before too long it was time to pack up and head home. Our trip went by much too quickly, but we enjoyed every minute of it!

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We were so impressed with Cal... he traveled like a champ! He slept most of the way but when he did wake up he would look at me with the facial expression "Am I still in this crazy car seat?" What a trooper!

Happy first Road Trip Little Man!

Cal's first trip to Cali

Patrick had some business in California and Cal and I were lucky enough to get to tag along... ROAD TRIP!!! We were extra excited because we would finally be able to introduce our little guy to my sister's family. While Patrick worked hard, we played and played!

Our first night there was E.J. and Claire's open house at school- it was so fun to see their classrooms and meet their teachers. They are both great students!
The very first morning I went downstairs to prepare Cal's bottle and asked E.J. to watch him for me. When I came back this is what I found... all 3 of the kids giving Cal cuddles. They sure love their new little cousin!

They all wanted a turn to feed him his bottle...

Claire

E.J.

Even Austin!

Every time we went somewhere there was a moment of begging to sit next to Calan in the car... at the restaurant... at home. He was quite the celebrity. Here we are at a yummy restaurant and E.J. was more interested in his little cousin than eating his food.
Cal loves when you sing to him. We sing songs all the time. When he is fussy, just start singing and he calms down... it works every time!

Check this out-


We sure love you guys! Thank you for a wonderful time! We can't wait to see you again soon!

There were lots of fun things that we did including a girls night out, time with Grammy and Grampy a visit with old friends that I will post soon...