Friends

Madi with her buddies at the annual Dance-a-thon. 

Dress-up! Think we found a winner for a Halloween costume! 

The giant nest!! Every single kid at the park was helping to build it! 

On one of our "visiting teaching" park days.... Cal loves his big buddy (also a Calvin - in the middle) who passes on all sorts of adorable clothes he's outgrown!

Calvin with the ladies! Love these sweet little girls and their moms!

What great friends my kids have! But what I love most, is that anytime I ask who their BEST friend is, they always say each other!

I'd get Cal in there, but he's in the "don't force me to be in a picture" stage!

And I love having finding stuff like this in Madi's backpack!

General Conference weekend

I was so in need of this weekend! It had been a rough couple of weeks leading up to conference- very busy, lots of stress, and for some reason a lot of things were really annoying me- making me especially on edge with Spencer and the kids. So I went into the weekend with a prayer in my heart and a desire to learn. I was hoping for some inspiration, words of wisdom, and just a good kick in the pants! And I tell ya, Conference was exactly what I needed for a good attitude adjustment.

I'd love to link all the talks that touched me, all the quotes I jotted down, and include all the notes I took, but there was just way too much good stuff. Elder Hales said it perfectly, "What is said is not as important as what you hear and feel."

I was left feeling uplifted and inspired, with a desire to be better, work harder, be kinder and to make changes in my life to help me become more like my Savior.

I've already started re-watching / re-listening to some of my favorites:
Elder Hales, Elder Soares, and President Uchtdorf from Saturday morning.
Elder Christofferson, Elder Nielsen, Elder Holland, and Elder Elder Ballard from Saturday afternoon.
President Eyring and President Monson from Sunday morning
Elder Cook and Kevin Hamilton from Sunday afternoon


I loved seeing the girls so excited about conference! They were up early Saturday morning, dresses on, conference packets set out, and ready for the fun to begin.

Even Cal was having a good time!

I think they were most excited about our traditional conference cinnamon rolls though. We made two batches this year- one on Saturday morning and a new batch Sunday morning. Our house smelled heavenly all weekend! And it was fun making deliveries between conference sessions- loved sharing the cinnamon roll goodness with family, friends, neighbors, visiting teaching and home teaching families!

Saturday sessions were fabulous! The girls were good little workers- Elle colored and drew pictures, Madi took notes, colored, played BINGO, cut out pictures of the speakers and glued onto another paper in the order they spoke. Cal ate snacks and then wandered around playing quietly for morning session and napped during second session.  At 5pm, the kids and I joined friends for dinner, crafts, and then the park while Spencer went to priesthood session.

By Sunday, the kids were a little burnt out with sitting and listening to conference. We let they play quietly but the the fighting began... so after morning session, Spencer took Madi over to Boppi and Grandpa Al's (love that we can do that:) for Madi to finish a sewing project she'd been working on and then enjoy conference over there. Elle played quietly at home while Cal napped, giving Spencer and I a nice, quiet Sunday afternoon session! Then we joined Madi afterwards at Boppi and Grandpa Al's for Sunday dinner. Madi was really excited to show off her final sewing project! She sure has enjoyed her sewing classes with Boppi, and now Elle's in line for cooking classes with Boppi (love living close to grandparents and being able to do stuff like this).

Another fabulous conference weekend down in the books! 

18 months

Height: 34 inches (95th%)

Weight: 27 pounds 12 ounces (90th%)

Head: 49 1/2 in. (90th%)

I'm really lacking in the picture department lately. Don't have much from this past month, but I can't let that stop me from documenting! I feel like so much has happened in the few weeks since I last documented Cal at 17 months. The whole tantrum deal from last month was short lived thankfully. Not sure what that was all about - maybe teething?! I think expanding his vocabulary has helped.  Cal now feels pretty confident about being able to communicate with us. Most of the time he jabbers on about all sorts of things - none of which we can understand, but he does have a dozen or so words that he says clearly, like: apple, bagel, cookie, nana, cheese, mom, daddy, Ellie, baby, shoes, book, bubbles . . . as well as several phrases that he uses all the time, like:
"go bye bye"
"get out" (when he wants out of his high chair)
"Where is it?"
"Where _____ go?" (usually filled in with mama or daddy)
"What you doing?"
"I don't know" (which sounds more like "I no know").

I love his newfound desire to communicate with us!

He also loves copying his sisters. When I ask the girls, "Who wants ________?" Cal will now be the first to answer "MEEEE" just to beat them to the punch line!

I've also noticed how he watches them very carefully and then does the stuff that they do. For instance, last year Madi started the whole "kissing hand" thing when we'd say goodbye to her at school or when Spencer would leave for work. Elle followed suit, and now Calvin will come running with his hand in the air for a kiss, anytime any of us are leaving, saying good night, good bye, etc. It's adorable!

Always being silly!

Cal's been super sweet lately and very obedient. Just the other day he grabbed something he wasn't supposed to have and took off running in the other direction. I immediately said, "Calvin, bring it back to mama please!" And not kidding you, he stopped mid run, turned around, and brought it right back to me! I was impressed! He's really good about giving things back when people ask for them. I'm trying to teach the girls that they just have to ask, instead of throwing a royal fit when he takes off with their stuff.

He's a lot like Madi was as this age. He's very teachable. We're currently working on letters - "S" is his favorite. He's obsessed with watching Letter Factory in the morning with Elle.

Calvin seems like such a big boy lately!

He plays super well by himself, which I believe he's learning from Elle, who gets lost in her dollhouse and/or barbie play, so he'll wander off to his room where I find him reading books on his chair, or playing with his leap frog letters, or cars, or animals, etc. I love it!

He loves playing chase and wrestling with his dad.

We celebrated Cal's half birthday with a trip to Boppi's work to wish her a happy birthday! He was a pill though and didn't want to be held or smile for any pictures. That's definitely been the biggest frustration of this current stage- his only wanting to be with mom or dad, and not warming up quickly to others.

Cal's such a lovable little guy though and I want others to able to experience his sweet personality. His big hugs are the best! Especially when he pulls on my shirt or leg, calling, "mom" just to get me to pick him up and give him a squeeze! I love how he'll put his head on my shoulder when he's tired, how he'll listen intently to story after story at bedtime while rocking on my or Spencer's lap, how he still calls fish "babies", how he folds his arms on demand for family prayers, how he looks up and says, "nummy" when he's eating something he likes, how he'll put his finger to his lips, say, "shhhh" and then tell us to be quiet ("kiet"),  and how he's always watching us and learning. Sure love our little man who melts my heart everyday! 

Hawk Pride Award

This morning was the first Citizenship Awards Assembly of the year at Madi's school and she received the Hawk Pride Award! Mrs. Pidduck introduced Madi as someone who always tries to do her very best! Describes Madi perfectly! She gives her all to any and every assignment given. I couldn't have been more excited for Madi to get this award (it was a surprise that I'd known about for a week or so).

Madi thought it was pretty cool too, especially since it was the first assembly of the year!

 Congratulations Madi! 

Keep up the great work!

Speaking of great work. . . check out these writing assignments Madi brought home today:

This is why I'm going going crazy with all the paperwork sent home. I can't decide what to keep and what to toss! It kills me to throw this kind of stuff away!

Piles and other stuff

My life is such an organized mess right now! I know where everything is, but I despise piles and they currently cover my desk and dining room table.

Caught Calvin trying to go through my piles this afternoon!

I probably shouldn't even be blogging right now with all I need to get done, but blogging always seems to help clear my mind and keep me focused. So, just gonna get some random stuff off my brain. . .

My calling in Primary has been monopolizing my time. Our music leader decided to call it quits 7 weeks before the primary program and I'm not sure how long it's gonna take to call another chorister. So now I'm working on planning music for Sunday (trying to come up with a fun game to gauge where the kids are with complete memorization of each song) along with finishing the program, printing out parts for each of our 65 primary kids and emailing all parts to the parents. On a positive note, I finally got a new secretary called on Sunday (my last one moved a month ago) and I think she's going to be fabulous!

Staying on top of Madi with her reading is exhausting. She's totally self motivated when it comes to her math homework, but reading is a different story. It definitely requires my undivided attention. I've been trying to use our 2-2:45 time for it, but since Calvin's usually just waking up from his nap, he also needs my attention.  I try to make good use of every reading opportunity. This one was a fluke - I turned around at a stop light and happened to catch it:

Spencer had taken my car to be cleaned this particular day, so unfortunately moments like this won't happen too often.

Madi's currently on level E books and I'm determined to help her move up quickly. I want her to be able to get into chapter books and enjoy reading, but for now it's still a chore. I made flash cards with all the first grade sight words and even got the 2nd and 3rd grade word lists. We'll see how it goes. I signed up to be the home reading mom every Monday morning - I start on the 30th.

School mornings are always so crazy and I haven't been getting my regular 4-5 mile run in. Since school started I've been running Madi to school every morning which ends up being a measly 1.8 miles. But since most days we're cutting it close on time, it's usually a sprint while pushing a double stroller, so I try to justify that I'm getting a good workout. When Spence is out of town (which he has been this week), Madi bikes along side the stroller which slows things down and we have to leave quite a bit earlier. I'm not a fan of the hustle and bustle of trying to get out the door in a rush. Always makes me feel like a crazy mom.

I'm currently working with the girls on taking care of their things. For awhile they'd run into the house after school, leaving backpacks in the car or just tossed in the garage. So now we're doing some serious training with hanging backpacks up, bringing lunch box into the kitchen, homework folder into the house, and shoes lined up in the garage. Clothes are another issue! Pajamas are always left on the floor and other clothes tossed into the closet or drawers. We're also working on looking at our clothes at the end of the day and deciding if they should go into the dirty clothes basket, or folded and back into the closet. I'm constantly finding dirty clothes folded and put away! Gotta work on that! One of these days my hard work's gonna pay off though - I'm sure of it! Today we were super rushed but I was shocked that Madi remembered to put jammas away and clear her breakfast dishes! Yay! Another thing I like the girls to do at night is lay out their clothes for school the next morning. Elle's loves doing this! The picture below is an old one, but the only one I have (she was trying to decide what to wear). Wish I would have taken one yesterday afternoon when she layed out her soccer clothes before leaving for preschool and they layed down next to them to show me how it was going to look!

Aside from church, school, and kids, Spencer and I have gotten sucked into watching the "Breaking Bad" series. I was initially against watching it after hearing how intense of a show it is, but then I justified how I should be supporting "Jesse" (Aaron), who was my neighbor for several years before he left for Hollywood to "make it big". He was the first friend I made when my family moved to Boise and it's been fun watching him on TV and feeling like I'm sharing in his excitement of achieving his dreams!  It's been impossible for Spence and I to stop after one episode though, so on nights when he's in town, I don't get much else done aside from kitchen clean-up and stuff ready for the next day of school (also a big reason for all the piles and why I'm behind on my blogging)! Spencer's had to travel a bit for work and I'm quite pleased with everything I've been able to accomplish in my evenings alone when he's away!  We're almost done though (just one season left), then life can get back to normal! :)

Madi at six!

I've been meaning to do an update on Madi for awhile now. These posts always take me so long to finish, so I'm just gonna have to post it and then add stuff later. So far, six has been a big age for Madi. For some reason, as soon as she turned six, she was all of a sudden brave enough to do a bunch of stuff that she used to be terrified to do before, like finally figuring out the whole biking thing. Spencer spent many a Saturday out there trying to teach Madi how to steady herself and stay balanced on two wheels, but she was a hard one to teach (believe me, I tired too). Then a month or so ago we had a nine year old neighbor over for the day and she got Madi riding within 30 minutes! Now it's as if she's been riding for years!

Another fear conquered over the summer was swimming underwater (with no flippers or nose plugged)! Now Madi's obsessed with seeing how long she can hold her breathe- she's up to 16 seconds!

Next skill to conquer - doing flips on the monkey bars. She's determined!

A few things have stayed the same for Madi, like her love of art. She's always drawing, coloring, writing, or crafting. I've got a big folder stuffed full of pictures and/or cards Madi's made that I can't bring myself to toss. Her skills WAY surpass mine! She also likes playing school with Elle and is a natural teacher (a little on the bossy side though). Madi has a couple good friends but rarely requests play dates cause she's got a built in BFF. Elle is always her favorite person to play with. I just can't figure out why they fight so much!

Her favorite color is purple - and yellow (cause it's Elle's favorite)

She's memorized up to the 9th Article of Faith (the most out of the whole junior primary - which she made a point to show me)- 4 more to go! I love how determined she's been to memorize them all on her own.

I am constantly in awe of what a strong spirit Madi has. I love hearing her share her testimony during family home evening or after a good gospel discussion. She remembers to say her own personal prayers every morning and between her and Elle, we never miss a meal prayer, family prayers in the evening, or family scripture study.

Madi continues to have amazing self control. She rarely eats treats cause she know they aren't good for her and she is afraid of eating something that might upset her tummy. She also has a lot of self control when it comes to waiting for something she wants. One day Madi and Elle's blankets, Penny, and Raffie were in the wash. So the girls headed out to the garage to watch the washer. With our front load washer and dryer, you can see how many minutes are left on each cycle. While Elle played around in the garage, Madi sat there and waited for 27 minutes - watching each minute pass by! She'll also do this when waiting for something cooking in the oven or waiting for a special visitor to arrive. We're working on the interrupting when she wants my attention that very second. That kind of stuff she has no self control with and can be quite demanding.

We're also working on her attitude. We've been getting a lot of sass, rolling of eyes, and talking back lately. For some reason, she always thinks everything is up for debate and can be very argumentative. It's exhausting!

Madi is all about improving herself though. She loves to set goals and is totally motivated when we read stories in the Friend Magazine or watch Mormon Messages about good things that people are doing for others. Her new favorite show (which they can earn one 30 min. episode of a day) is Sofia the First. Madi loves hearing about all the things that princesses do. She's not really into playing princess dress-up anymore, but she sure loves trying to act, talk, and walk like one.

Starting school has been great for Madi. She's always been one that thrives off of structure, schedules, rules, incentives, positive discipline, etc. She loves school! Her teacher is fabulous and it makes me so happy to see Madi beaming everyday at pick up. One day this past week Madi was practically bursting with news that she got to read to her whole class. Then her sweet teacher emailed me a picture, telling me how she asked Madi to read to a couple kids, but then next thing she knew, a huge group had flocked around Madi to hear the story. I love Mrs. Pidduck and am so grateful Madi got a teacher who's going to give her opportunities to shine!

Another picture her teacher text me of a project they did yesterday:

Pretty sure six is going to be a great year for Madi! Her confidence at school has gone up a ton. She plays with lots of different friends everyday and is becoming much more social. Sure love our Madi Moo!

Catching up

So much to record, never enough time. I figured once school started I'd have tons more time to myself. Hasn't seemed to be the case. I feel like I'm constantly running kids places (and that's just with 2 kids in school)! I am loving our back to school schedule though. I love having time with Elle and Cal in the mornings. They're fun little buddies, play super well together, and not too hard to run errands with. I love my hour and a half of alone time every afternoon! It's heavenly and I don't like for anything to interfere with it. I love my time with Madi from 2-2:45, but it's never long enough. And I love how after we pick Elle up from school at 3, everyone's happy to be back together!

I don't like how busy this past week has been for me. This is the first time I've ever felt like things are taking me away from my family and I'm not liking it at all. Trying to get it back in check.

Spencer went away this past weekend for BYU's opening season football game against Texas. I was glad he got to go, but it was hard not to be totally annoyed hearing about how much fun he was having. I'm fine when he's busy with work - makes me want to work harder too, but I get super jealous when I know he's off playing and I'm stuck carting all three kids around with me on a busy weekend. He got home Sunday (just in time to walk out the door to church), and I was pretty stressed with a bunch of stuff, so I know he thought I was totally ticked that he went. Which I wasn't, I'm glad that he got to go. I just wish it was as easy for me to take off for the weekend as it is for him.

It's my fault that I've been stressed though. I'm usually really good with saying "no" and not taking too much on, but I got suckered into joining Mary Kay at the end of August- mostly cause I wanted the cute bag and discount on the product, but I'm starting to feel that I took a lot more on than I wanted. I had my first party, placed a big order, went to a couple meetings, and am quickly getting burnt out. We'll see how it goes. I think I have a plan for how to make it work for me.

Aside from that new adventure, Primary has been keeping me super busy. I've never written a primary program and I think I made more work for myself. Instead of writing questions to ask the kids, emailing the questions to the parents, trying to get responses, and then plugging those responses into the program, I ought to have just written out parts and called it good. Oh well... next time.

This week Elle started soccer. I've been against putting the girls into stuff that they haven't expressed interest in, and obviously don't want to pay for a bunch of classes just to create more places to go and things to be at, but Elle's buddy Lily signed up for the class so we signed up too. Elle didn't really want to play initially, but ended up loving it and having a total blast. Made me so happy!

This week I also started a joyschool co-op with some girl friends. Seven little 4 year olds, once a week, 9-11:30am. I taught today and had such a great time! We had circle time, reading, writing, math, snack, science, and a craft. I was totally exhausted by the end, but am so glad that we're doing it! It's a great group of kids and I'll only have to teach every 7 weeks!

Such a FUN bunch (and all with super good behavior which is huge)!

I love how even Cal got into it!

On top of all that, we've had Truly staying with us for the past 10 days. Spencer's parents have been away on a canoeing trip and Truly's much too old to be left alone. Her days are numbered and sadly she won't be with us much longer. I was glad to have her here and let the kids make some good last memories with her. She can't get up on her own though, falls down a lot, and walks super slow (using only 3 legs) once she's finally up and stabilized. So it was quite a big job, especially the weekend Spencer was away- just getting Truly into bed for the night would take at least 30 minutes. But we made sure she got lots of love and attention!

In other exciting news... this week we found out that Madi's new friend from school (the one she got lost in conversation with on the first day of school) lives just 4 houses down from us!! I'm really hoping this turns out to be a great friendship for Madi!

Beatin the Heat!

We're spoiled here in Camarillo with gorgeous weather year round. The winter never gets too cold, and most of our summer is usually in the high 70's (perfection in my opinion). Actually, most of the homes in Camarillo don't have AC. I didn't even know that we didn't have AC until mid August of our first summer here. But every summer there's a couple weeks that are much too hot for a non-air conditioned house. This past week has been one of those.

In attempts to try to stay cool, we hit up the beach 3 times this week! Then pool invites from friends, and today I busted out the blow-up pool to survive a warm afternoon. Windows open, fans cranking, no blankets in bed - this is not how September is supposed to feel! I'm ready for some fall temps!!

Sand mermaids:

I love how Elle makes a new friend everywhere we go!