First Day of School!!

It was a total success! The entire day was fabulous! 

We took Madi to school at 8. She didn't seem nervous at all. She sat right down, had me kiss her hand, smiled for a picture, and then I was off! 

Elle, Cal, and I drove back home to clean up from breakfast and get ready for some errand running. We hit up Costco then Target (which was so much easier with just the 2 kids), then home to unload before taking Elle off to preschool.

Elle got into Ms. Barbara's class this year, going Mon-Thurs 12-3pm (and only costing us $60/month)! Ms. Barbara is amazing, I was thrilled when I heard Elle got her as a teacher!

After dropping Elle off, I raced home to lay Cal down for a nap (totally shocked he actually lasted till noon). He was down by 12:20, giving me a whole hour and a half to myself!! I wasn't even exactly sure what to spend my time on. I thought about taking a nap, but ended up responding to emails and texts, uploading pics from the morning, cleaning the kitchen, and going through papers. I felt super productive! I just wanted all my stuff done so that when I brought Madi home I could sit down with her, have a snack, and hear all about her day. 

When I picked Madi up at 2pm she ran right out and gave me a big hug. I loved seeing her so happy and excited. Then I made her give me a play by play of her entire day. My favorite story was about a new friend she met. She told me how at recess she and this new friend were talking so much when all of a sudden they looked up and realized they were the only ones left at the lunch tables. Everyone, even the "supervisors" had already gone out to the playground. Made me so happy to hear she made a good little friend!

I loved having that time to talk to Madi about her day. Last year I'd want to hear about school, but then I'd noticed Elle feeling bad or wanting more attention so I'd try to downplay my excitement. I think this new schedule is gonna be great cause it'll give me alone time with each of my kids. At 2:45 we were off to pick up Elle. She also came out super excited, telling me about what a great time she had and how nice her teacher is. Then both the girls started asking each other about how their first day of school was (I couldn't stop smiling).

A cute little story about Madi's day: she was given a writing assignment in class entitled, "My best friend can..." Madi chose to write her story about her best friend, her sister, and she drew a picture of Elle hanging from the bar on our mini trampoline. I loved how Madi was beaming as she told me all about it.  Oh how wonderful it is to give these girls time apart to remind them of how much they love each other!

After picking up Elle, we headed over to Boppi and Grandpa Al's to hang out and let Boppi hear all about the girls day. Then Boppi made us all a delicious dinner of Lemon-Zucchini Fettuccine (from Our Best Bites). A wonderful end to our fabulous day!!

It's gonna be a great year!!!

17 months

Our sweet little boy entered a whole new stage this month. His tantrums have been the hardest thing for me to deal with (the girls never had tantrums this early). The first started about a week ago and since then, he throws about a couple a day. He'll fling his body back, stomp his feet, scream, kick, arch back, flip around, etc. etc. It's super frustrating when he does it and I usually have to just leave him alone. But take for instance on our road trip home from Brentwood when, after a quick pit stop, I tried putting him back into his car seat (which he wanted nothing to do with). It took about 10 tries to finally get him strapped in (all while causing a great big scene in the McDonalds parking lot). Luckily the tantrums don't last long (that's the great thing I've noticed about boys - they're over it much quicker than girls), it just makes me sad to see him with such a temper.

Other new things this month - Cal's a total climber now. He especially likes to climb up onto Madi's top bunk and hang out. I still get nervous when he's on the ladder though - he's gotten stuck a couple of times and even fallen off once.

Loves to climb onto Elle's art table. . .

I had to keep a pretty close eye on him at my parents' house. . .

Luckily he hasn't tried climbing out of his crib (I vowed I'd never have one of those- fingers crossed that I'm right), or onto kitchen counters yet!

Calvin's personality has really developed this month and I think he's got a little comedian in him. He's always trying to make us laugh and has the funniest face expressions!

This next one is his regular "WHOA" face. We'll all laugh when he makes it, so now he does it all the time.

Elle trying to get him to make the face:

And there it is again:

He really is such a funny guy!

He's also pretty brave (well, much more so than the girls at this age I guess). At the park he likes to climb up to the tallest twisty slide and go down all by himself.

Cal's not a fan of strangers though and has become super clingy and needy (especially during nursery which we're totally bummed about). If someone that he doesn't know walks by him or looks at him wrong Cal will freeze, hang his head down, and after a few seconds, start bawling! I don't get it!

He started loving saying prayers this month. Well, he actually hates that we force him to sit still and fold his arms, but he loves saying "amen" at the end. I love that smile he gets on his face at the end of the prayer knowing that the amen is coming. We'll be sitting in sacrament meeting listening to a talk or testimony or something and as soon as he hears, "in the name of Jesus Christ, " he'll shout "A MEN!!" It's pretty funny.

He totally understands everything which is why I've got to start being consistent with time-outs (quiet times at the girls call them) and enforcing the rules with this kid. He knows not to scream because sometimes he'll be really loud, but then he'll put his finger to his lip and say, "shhhh...."

As crazy and feisty as Cal has become, he's still our sweet little guy who loves to snuggle and rock in his chair reading story after story. Here he is on Sunday morning with Spencer, watching "Music and the Spoken Word":

And snuggling with Grandpa Al on the trampoline:

Sure love you Cal! Looking forward to continue watching your personality grow and develop!

Week in Brentwood

With Spencer busy at work, I decided to spend our last full week of summer in Brentwood. We had a rough start to our trip with a nail in one of the tires (luckily found it the night before we left), an hour delay waiting for a new tire, and then stuck in traffic with an overly tired little boy (both things I have very little patience for). On top of all that, the drive seemed a lot longer than normal - probably cause I was really tired. But I snacked my way through and made it safely! It was good to have a change of scenery for the week (I think we were all getting tired of our regular outings). Bob, Amy, and Matthew got in just a couple hours before we did and we were really excited to hang out with them all week! Normally my trips to Brentwood are totally relaxing, but with mom working at the school now, this trip was different. I didn't want to be a brat cause I knew she couldn't get out of her responsibilities, but it was a bummer not having Gram around. We're so used to having her there to entertain us. Plus, my dad usually works from home, but he's been exceptionally busy and was traveling for business most of the week. We loved having Bob, Amy, and Matthew around but I found myself worrying that my kids whining and/or Calvin's tantrums were driving them crazy. So it just seemed like a lot of extra work. I'd usually take Elle and Cal on my morning runs just to keep the house quiet and allow Gram time to get ready for work. She'd leave at 7:45 and I'd usually take off for a park right after. One day we hit up 4 different parks within the span of the day! Gram would get home by 3:30, but with the kids 7pm bedtimes, it didn't allow a lot of time to play. One night they were all asleep by 6:30pm (early wake up + action packed fun will do that). It was nice to be able to go out on the town and go shopping with mom and Amy though (something I never do). A couple times I was able to leave the girls home with Bobby while Cal napped so Amy and I could do some shopping. That was a treat! I think the hardest thing was just how much work Calvin was. He throws crazy tantrums now and is afraid of strangers (didn't warm up to everyone til the end of the week), so dealing with him was a full time job. The best part of the week was hanging out and playing games at night. Family night was a pretty big hit too. Madi planned Family Home Evening Monday night which ended up carrying over to the next 3 nights! Good times!

Some iPhone documentation of the week:

Brentwood has great parks!!

The splash park was my favorite!

Love that they're both plugging their noses to run through that little bit of water!

Elle at the end of the rainbow!

Uncle Bobby took Cal through a couple times. Cal preferred just to walk around and splash in the puddles though.

We went swimming with Gram, Rox, Zachary, and Faith Wednesday afternoon. Everyone but Calvin had a great time!

SO relaxing!!

Gram's got a great dress-up box!

I was dying over all Elle's costume changes, not to mention her awesome face expressions! Love that girl!

Madi's FHE of the iron rod (one of her favorite scripture stories), followed by spotlights of everyone with goodie bags to pass out. 

Loved our game nights! 

Dad demonstrating the "hack paddle" which was used on my siblings and I when we were little!

Snuggle time with Gram Rox while playing an iphone game (a novelty for my girls since I don't let them use my phone).

Brentwood peaches are the best! Mom had picked extra to send home for Spencer. Gotta make peach cobbler this week!

Saturday morning bike ride to get out energy before heading back to Camarillo

Thanks Mom, Dad, Bob, and Amy for all the fun!

We had a great drive back- Papa had bribbed the kids with $5 a piece for perfect behavior. Only Madi earned her $5, but just minor outbursts from the other 2. We got in a little before 5pm and had lots of surprises from Spencer- new Pottery Barn bedding on our bed and pictures of the kids hung in the family room to name a few!

Camp-out!

Trying to fit in all the summer fun that we can, Spencer and the girls decided it was time for some backyard camping. Last year was such a success (minus the 4am sprinklers) and it's great practice for when we actually take the entire family camping.  Cal's still not ready to sleep outdoors, but he enjoyed all the set up.

Our fire took awhile to get going. At first it was just a lot of smoke:

The girls couldn't wait for s'mores:

Finally Spence got a fire blazing and we were able to make real s'mores.

The girls couldn't hardly wait to get into bed. They all snuggled up with Spencer who's the best story teller! He told story after story until it was dark and the girls were falling asleep. I talked Spencer into sleeping in the house cause I knew he wouldn't get much sleep out there with the girls rolling around all night, but he felt totally guilty about it the entire time. I guess he woke up tons, listening for the girls, and when I finally heard Elle waking up around 7am, he ran out there and jumped into bed with them!

And of course Cal was excited to join in on all the fun!

Backyard camping is the best! Totally the way to do it with little kids!

Then I made pancakes and hot cocoa for a cool foggy morning breakfast (before I ditched out on everyone to go on my run).

Now we just gotta get a bigger tent for Cal and I to join in on the camping action next year!