July 4th Celebrations!

 We had a fun 4th of July!  We started our celebrations on the 3rd with some small fireworks outside our house that Grandma Comeford had gotten.

Calin was loving hanging out with Gracie and kept doing everything she did.  She would lay down on her stomach to watch and so would he.  Then she'd sit up on her knees and he would follow her.  It was pretty hilarious. 

Having fun with sparklers! 

 On the morning of the 4th we woke up and got ready early to head downtown St. George for the 4th of July parade.  Thankfully they did it at 9am and it was a little bit cloudy so it was not as hot as it could have been! The kids enjoyed watching the parade and getting some candy while they were there too!

Loving these two and their matching patriotic outfits! 

Very intently watching the parade! 

 After the parade we headed back to Washington for their fun runs and games and booths they have.  Calin was not even going to get anywhere near the running races.  Maybe one year he'll surprise us and decide he's ready to race, but for now poor Robby is so disappointed Calin hasn't inherited his love of running a race! We thought Clara was going to do it, but she quickly changed her mind once it came time to race.

Once up to the starting line she got very nervous and was not super excited about it.  I was on the other end waiting for her. 

She ran about 5 steps and then turned and headed right back to Robby.  Silly girl. 

 After the park we were all exhausted and roasting.  The clouds had cleared and July heat was killing all of us.  Clara was very tired which was part of why I think the race was a little overwhelming.  She was in great need of her morning nap! We went home to rest for a little while before the afternoon and evening festivities.  That afternoon we played in the water on the trampoline with sprinklers and water balloons.  Then we enjoyed a delicious BBQ for dinner.

I love watching her see things around her.  Her expressions as she experiences new things are so fun! 

Fun on the trampoline with water balloons, cousins, and friends! 

These four could not get enough of the water ballon fun! 

Clara was content just playing with water balloons outside of the trampoline.  

She really loves that balloon! 

A little bike riding after the water balloon fun! 

 After the water balloons we got dried off and headed over to the Salley's for some fireworks with their neighborhood. A couple of houses had all pooled together to do fireworks.  It was quite the party out on the lawn with popcorn and all!

Getting ready for the show!  Tracee and Austin got the kids these cool light up sticks and they were loving playing with! 

 Clara LOVED the fireworks.  These three pictures demonstrate how most of her reactions to the fireworks went. We had some going on the ground and then there were tons going up in the air all around us from lots of different people putting on their own fireworks show! She was loving it!

Calin was also loving it and his light up stick.  He also loved the popcorn and
was carrying it around as he watched all the fireworks. 

After the neighborhood firework show we headed up onto Foremaster to see if we could find a good spot to watch the St. George city fireworks.  We got super lucky and ended up finding a parking spot right on the road with a perfect view of the fireworks.  The street was packed and lined with cars so I don't know how we happened upon such a great spot! Clara had fallen asleep since it was almost 10:00 so she missed most of the big city fireworks. She woke up right at the end to see a few. Calin loved them! A great 4th of July!

Clara 15 Months!!

Clara is 15 Months!! 

Weight: 16.8 lbs (0 %)

Height: 28.35 in. (4%)

Head: 17.7 in. (25%)

So I was slacking in my blogs in June when Clara turned 15 months.  These are a few pictures of her our awesome photographer Jen captured during Calin's 3 year photo shoot.  Thankfully she got these pictures because I didn't take any special 15 month pictures of Clara.  I did however start a blog post way back when and so I do have a few things that I had written down about our sweet Clara! 

-She is walking like a pro and loves to be on the go.  Especially so she can follow and try to keep up with Calin

-She is starting to talk on her own and more frequently saying words like "mommy", "daddy", "cheese", "snack", "nap", "aaaaeen" (Calin), "mama" (grandma), "ampa" (grandpa), "uh-oh", "up", "down", "wing" (swing), and many more.  She repeats a lot of what we say and then starts to use the words on her own.  She pretty much tried to repeat anything we or Calin say.

-She is still taking two naps.  One short one in the morning and then a little bit of a longer one in the afternoon.  Thankfully the afternoon longer one is usually at the same time as Calin's so we can all have a break or a nap.

-She is very good at going to bed.  I usually just have to put her in her bed and sit by her for a few minutes and then she is out.  She goes to sleep around 8:00-8:30 and then sleeps until 6 or 7.

-When people ask me what she likes it's hard to say except for that she loves to do everything that Calin is doing.  She loves to play what he is playing and try to be apart of whatever he is doing.  She loves Calin!

-She does however also know how to push Calin's buttons and is quite smart.  She will grab Calin's stuff, run away and say "mine", and then laughs cause she thinks she's sneaky/clever.  Calin does not think it's as funny as Calin.

-Loves cheese, macaroni and cheese, strawberries, m&m's (yummies), teddy grahams, and noodles.  She also enjoys eating squash, toast, oatmeal, applesauce, yogurt, and peanut butter.  She will also eat most of whatever we are eating, but she is picky about when she eats it.  So most meals it is still a guessing game for what she will want that meal.

She is cuddly/snuggles when she wants to.  But she also will move you or push you away when she doesn't want to be hugged or kissed.  Especially with Calin.  He will often try to give her hugs and kisses and sometimes she will love it.  Other times she pushes him away.

She still drinks a bottle of milk in the morning and night.  She won't drink out of many other cups so to keep her getting the calories, i haven't pushed getting rid of the bottle yet.

She loves to go out to swing and jump on the trampoline with Calin and Dad.

She also still really enjoys swimming and being in the water and does not have much fear of it. She will often just stick her face right in.

We love our little Clara.  She is turning into quite the spunky little girl with tantrums (throw herself on the floor) and all!  She is very sweet, but definitely has her sour moments too!  We love watching her learn and grow! 

Calin: 3 Years Old!

So unfortunately I was slacking in my blog posts and didn't even get many notes down about Calin right around the time he turned three.  So I'm doing my best to go back and remember things about him at that time.  

He is as smart as ever.  He picks up on information very easily and usually only needs to read or hear it once or twice before he's got it.  I am often surprised by something he will tell me that he knows.  

He loves doing puzzles and will often sit down and go through the 5 or 6 puzzles we have and do them all in one sitting.  I know he is excited to have some new ones from his birthday! 

He LOVES dinosaurs.  For a while now we have been checking out dinosaur books at the library and he can't get enough! We go every week and he wants a new stack each week.  I'm pretty sure we have checked out every single book they have on dinosaurs at least 3 times.  He can name and tell you all about dinosaurs I didn't even know existed!  We all became quite the dino experts in our house! He was so excited to get many dinosaurs for his birthday so that he had lots to play with!! He even knows all about some of the sea creatures that lived before and during the same time as the dinosaurs.  For a while one of the sea creatures Tylosaurus, was his favorite.  He also really likes Argentinosaurus cause it's one of the biggest dinosaurs.  It is very fun to see him so passionate about them and to see how excited he gets when he is reading or talking about them.  I also love how much he can remember about them.  Definitely gets it from his Dad! 

Although he is doing much better with being left and being away from Mom and Dad, he still does not like being left with new people or someone he doesn't know.  He is doing better in nursery thanks to some good leaders who help get him distracted, and keep him in there even when he does get a little sad. His favorite leader also saves the two dinosaur toys for him so that he will have something he likes to play with.  Hopefully he'll be a pro by the time Clara joins him in September! 

He still needs someone to be by him for naps and bedtime.  I have tried several times making him go down on his own but it ends up being more of a battle than it's worth.  It's also hard since he and clara share a room and so I can't just have him cry and cry when clara is trying to sleep too.  Sharing a room has been good though because he is very quiet and at nap time he will just read his books for about 1/2 and hour and then lay down and fall asleep.  So I don't have to be right by him,  but in the room.  Bedtime though he likes to have Robby by him singing him songs. This is good bonding time for both of them though and Calin learns a lot of his songs from Robby this way.  When I lay with him at night I can never seem to sing the right songs and just don't quite meet up to Robby's bedtime conversations and songs. 

All of these pictures are a miracle that we got any even close to smiling and looking at the camera.  Calin is very hard to get to stay still, look at the camera, and smile all at the same time.  So I am very grateful for when we can get good pictures of our handsome growing boy! 

Aside from reading about or playing dinosaurs, Calin's favorite thing to do is be outside.  Whether he's jumping on the trampoline, climbing, swinging, riding his bike or the wiggle bikes, digging in the dirt, jumping in puddles, hiking, or just exploring he loves to be outdoors.  Thankfully we had a warm winter and wonderful spring that allowed him to be out a lot! Robby is so good to play outside with him when he gets home from work for hours.  Calin hates having to come inside when it's time for meals or naps or bedtime. 

Another favorite indoor past time is reading.  Lately it is dinosaur books, but he pretty much loves to read any book especially when someone will sit down and read it to him.  Although he is getting more independent and will sit and just "read" books on his own.  It is nice that he can have that quiet time to himself.  I have been doing little mini reading lessons with him every once in a while.  I don't want to push it on him and I don't want to make it a big deal and time consuming thing, but we do try to work in some of those skills every day while reading or writing.  He is getting good at his letter recognition and is slowly learning some of the letter sounds. 

Calin is a good eater most of the time and will eat most anything although he can be somewhat particular about certain things.  He hasn't ever been a huge pizza eater and still isn't although he does love garlic or cheese bread.  He's just not a big sauce person. He loves spaghetti noodles but without sauce.  He was so excited about our food from the garden and can eat a whole cucumber pretty much on his own.  He loves the tomatoes too.  I'm very grateful that he will eat everything and I don't have to worry about hiding vegetables in his food.

Calin loves Clara and most of the time is an excellent big brother. He loves to give her hugs and kisses and often mimics what we say to her and how we say it.  He is helpful most of the time when she needs something or wants to be involved.  We are always working on the sharing thing and probably will be for a long time, but most of the time we can talk to him and he will then share or help or let her play with him.

Calin is all boy and loves to play rough.  This sometimes gets him into trouble when he overreacts to something or doesn't know how to manage a situation.  However, most of the time he is a very tender hearted and loving boy even if he does get a little carried away sometimes.  He is aware of others and notices when someone else is sad or hurting.  He doesn't ever really know how to help or make and effort but he does show that empathy when he sees that someone else is upset.  

He is starting to get better about being willing to do jobs and wanting to find things he can help with. He wants to help Robby all the time, and is willing to help me most of the time.  

He has stayed right around the exact sizes for clothes.  He had been wearing 2T but we have started moving him up to 3T as we buy for the summer.  

He has continued to do really well with potty training.  He rarely if ever has an accident and is usually pretty good to tell me when he has to go.  I rarely check or have him go unless it is before we go somewhere or before naps and bed.  

He still takes a nap in the afternoon which is a nice break for me when he and Clara are asleep at the same time.  I would give up the nap because he doesn't go to bed until 9 or 10, but then I lose that time when they are both asleep.

I'm sure there is so much more I could say about Calin and so many things I have forgotten.  He is such a sweet little boy and I'm so glad that he is in our family.  Although he keeps me on my toes most days, I love that he will and is able to have good conversations with me, that he likes to sing songs, that he loves to learn, that he still loves to cuddle after waking up in the morning and at naps, and that he is a good big brother to Clara.  He brings us joy every day and we are so grateful to have him!

Calin's Birthday

We had a fun day celebrating Calin's 3rd birthday!! It was fun filled from the morning until night.  He is one very loved and spoiled little boy.   

He was so excited to open presents so we let him open a few in the morning when he first woke up.
He didn't even want breakfast first! 

One of the presents we let him open was the game Trouble so we could all play together. 

We also let him open an outfit that he would wear for the day.  It was of course a dinosaur outfit!  He was so excited and it was awfully cute.  He wanted to put the clothes on right then and there! 

He also opened a couple of cars, because what's a birthday without some new cars!!??

Then we got to his breakfast of choice...Lucky Charms!

Playing around with Clara while we were getting ready for the day. 

We went to the park and fed the ducks, swans, turtles and fish! 

Then we took Calin to House of Jump where we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves and Calin was able to run and jump and slide and fall to his hearts content! He was quite sweaty by the time we were done! 

He was cruising all over the place the whole time.  He hardly ever stopped! 

Clara our little climber also loved it and took advantage of just being able to go go go! 

Calin would climb/crawl his way to the top of this wall trampoline.  I was impressed he could  make it all the way up cause it is almost vertical! 

Then after climbing up he'd turn around and slide down.  He loved it and did it over and over! 

After the House of Jump we took Calin out to eat to his place of choice, Panda Express.  He loves their "noodles"!

After lunch we went home for a much needed nap so Calin could rest up for more fun that evening! This was after waking up from his nap he was getting some snuggles with Dad while trying to wake up a little more. Clara is of course standing up checking out what's happening outside. 

That evening we had family and friend over to eat cupcakes with Calin for his birthday!  He also got spoiled with TONS of awesome presents from family and friends.  The main thing he got was lots and lots of dinosaurs.  We only had one or two before his birthday and now he has probably 25! This was his cake request when I asked him what he wanted.  I knew it was going to be a dinosaur but did not expect him to request an ankylosaurus with chocolate cupcakes and green frosting. This was my best attempt with some decorating help from Robby at midnight the night before to finalize the spikes!  Thankfully Calin loved it! 

The great thing about summer birthdays is that it's warm and still light! So after cupcakes and ice cream everyone went outside to ride/push/run/play!  

It was a great evening with cousins and friends Dylan, Josie, and Lucy to join us! 

Calin showing off some of the dinosaurs he got for his birthday! 

After the party we were able to FaceTime with family who weren't here to party with us!
Allie and Erich are on with us at this point! 

Not the birthday star, but she sure was cute and such a trooper all day long as we celebrated Calin! And this was also her 15 month milestone day!! Yea for our little 15 month old! (15 month post to come)