Santa? Who's that?

I love this, Calvin gets on Santa's lap and he is totally unexcited - until Mrs. Claus hands him a candy cane! Merry Christmas!

New Baby

Look - its a baby! Can't you tell? In the live ultrasound I could see movement and shape pretty well. This picture isn't as clear, but you can still see our new little baby blob. Yay! Only thirty more weeks to go! The due date is about June 21st.

Halloween: Superman!

Happy Halloween! This year Calvin went as Superman! That was my old Superman cape from when I was little and it is still awesome! Thanks mom for the cool dress up. Calvin was a great superman (does he even know who Superman is? I don't have an answer for that). He loved Trick-or-Treating and getting to hang out with Aunt Kyra was a lot of fun too = ). The picture with the doughnut mess is from our neighborhood Halloween party (sponsored by the ward). Man it was cold, but so much fun! We love Halloween around here!

Manly Apron

I have heard that Calvin was not particularly manly in all of the pictures I have of him in my aprons. Fortunately, his Nai Nai (grandma) took care of him. She gave him this very manly Lightning McQueen apron and he is loving it! Particularly when we are making chocolate cookies for the Halloween party.

Glasses

Calvin likes to wear Mr. Potato Head's glasses and I was finally able to get a picture of the fun!

Corny!

About a week ago my family came out over Conference to visit. It was a lot of fun. I wish that I had some pictures that included them; however, I only got Calvin pictures (I am biased) while we were all at the corn maze. Well, at least he is cute. The corn maze was a lot of fun, and there were a lot of fun activities for kids and families too.

Kinetic Sculpture

Calvin and I went to the Farmer's Market at Thanksgiving Point a week ago. They had an art exhibit that included this cool kinetic sculpture. It had big buckets of water that was piped and moved around. There were various switches and levers that could be pulled to affect the sculpture. Sometimes it made noise and sometimes it shot or dumped water. It was a lot of fun. I couldn't get Calvin away from it. He was in little guy heaven!

How to get a kid to eat his vegetables

It turns out that all you have to do to get some kids to eat their vegetables is to grow them yourself. If we pull it out of the garden Calvin will pretty much eat it. He is eating raw Zucchini here. He eats carrots, squash, tomatoes, cucumber, strawberries, peas, lettuce and peppers so well when he helps pull them from the garden. Yay!

Monster Carrots!

So that is why you are not supposed to plant carrots too close! Yesterday I wanted to pull some carrots from the garden to put into my dinner, but this was the beast that I ended up with! You wouldn't believe how intertwined those things were!

Washing Dishes

I thought this was a funny moment worth talking about. Calvin and I had been cooking (hence the apron) and we had accrued some dishes in the sink. Calvin thought that was great and he jumped right in to do his thing. I am not sure that his purpose was to clean dishes, but whatever it was he was having fun - at least until I pulled him down.

Canning

I canned! This is not a pastime that I usually take part in. I am planning to do more, but here is my start. I am pretty proud of how pretty they are. They are cherries by the way.

The great haircut!

A few weeks ago (yep, that long ago) Calvin and I made a visit to Aunt Chelsea's to get a haircut. I'd let his curls grow out too long, and although I loved them, he was taken for a little girl way too often. Fortunately, Chelsea is a pro and she did a great job giving Calvin a little boy's haircut. I still think he is super cute!

Before: After:

Wheeler Farms

On Monday Calvin and I went to Wheeler Farms with some friends from our neighborhood. It was a lot of fun to see all of the animals. Calvin made some of the best mooing and quacking sounds, and he really liked all of the farm equipment. It was especially fun to just get out and play! Poor little guy has been pretty cooped up recently.
Calvin liked the barn with all of the old farm equipment. However, I think that it was the rope barrier that was really fun! I had a hard time keeping him where he was supposed to be. He really wanted to get in and explore.
This is the tractor that he really loved. I couldn't convince him to turn and smile at me - he was too busy driving. It is important to keep your eyes on the road!

Cleaning the Kitchen

Can you tell that I am catching up on the blogging thing? Yeah, it has been a rough time for our blog (not that it was ever that full = )). So, here was a funny moment that I was lucky enough to catch on film. Calvin climbed up to the stove and proceeded to disassemble one of the burners. He then grabbed some toilet paper (unused and presumably closer than a rag or paper towel) and began to clean the inside of the stove out! I have no idea where he got the idea to do this. Did he see me doing it? I can't remember cleaning out the burner with him there - I don't do it that often.

Yup ... Asthma

Well, it is confirmed. Calvin is lucky enough to carry on the Walker legacy of asthma. So far we have only had him in to the doctor with breathing trouble a couple of times, and we were able to treat him at home (with the help of some drugs), but we will be keeping an eye on our little guy. Hopefully he'll be one of the lucky kids that can grow out of their asthma a little bit. If not, well, he'll fit in with the rest of the asthmatics in the family!

Welcome home Angie! - also, our vacation

This has taken me forever to get started, but here goes! Just before Memorial Day weekend Calvin and I headed out to California to spend some time with my parents and to welcome my sister Angie home from her mission in Colorado. It was the first time the Calvin had ever been to his grandparents home. I was a little bit nervous about the flight out (there was a layover), but Calvin did really well. The first night there Calvin fell out of bed and hit his head (presumably on the sharpish drawer pulls of the nightstand), and we got to spend a good portion of the evening in the emergency room having the cut glued back together. Calvin was a trooper through it and it didn't slow him down one bit the rest of our trip. He loved Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. They had a swing, a slide, a hill to run down, a sprinkler and so much more! We had lots of fun hanging out with our family. Then, Angie came home from her mission! That was exciting. Calvin met his Aunt for the first time, and I think that he really liked her! It was great to see Angie again and hear some of her mission stories and her strong testimony. Oh yeah, here's the welcome home cake that we made. We thought that it was quite fitting.
Calvin and I got to hang out with the family and afterward Angie and Kyra were kind enough to drop us off at home. It was fun having them over to visit us as well. We got to meet one of Angie's companions and to just hang out together for a little while. That is nice, as sisters we haven't been able to do that in awhile.
We also got to see Rusty and Chelsea and Kent and Raelynn. That was a good night of a little family togetherness. We'll have to do it more often.
Well, I think that I am rambling now. It took me so long to get this up that I have practically forgotten the details (well, not completely!) It was great getting to spend time with family, both here and in California. Hopefully, we'll get to do it again soon!

Sudoku on the Throne

This morning Chris heard something funny in the bathroom after Calvin had been washed. He looked over and saw Calvin sitting on the toilet ready to do some Sudoku! Hmmm ... where did he learn to do puzzles there?

Easter Eggs - finally!

I thought that I had better post these pictures of Calvin "decorating" his Easter eggs. Wow, that was messy! Also, note the Easter morning feast. Orange rolls and caramel chocolate eggs! Yumm! The best part was the straw!

Alien Pods

These are the infamous "alien pods" that Chris concocted a few years ago. I think that they were supposed to be creamy and cheesy, but, because they were standing, all of the creaminess that he had inserted boiled out in the oven. I thought the corn was nice for the alien landscape. Maybe those were the aliens?
So, we got a good laugh out of this and I thought that I would share it again.
... Don't try this at home kids - it is really hard to clean up!

Gardening

Well, here it is! We have finally planted our spring garden. It was a lot of work digging out those sections, tilling and making the furrows, and we still have more work to go. However, we are so excited to get this thing going. Calvin loved it, he could play outside and get into the dirt all he wanted. He helped dad get the rocks out of the garden. Now, if it will just stop randomly snowing we can watch this thing take off.
Sometimes he tried to rake and dig with the shovel, but they are a little bit big for him.
We are moving some of the plants that we started indoors into bigger containers so that they can continue to grow indoors. Calvin was a big help moving the potting soil from the bag into the cut up milk jugs.
Here are our plants growing away. We are trying some heirloom tomatoes that are supposed to be yummy, so, I hope that they stay strong.
These grew so fast! I was impressed at how well most of our seeds did in these little seed containers. They are a good way to get the plants started indoors and save a little money on plants. I just hope that they do as well when they are away from their perfect little environments!

Caught in the act

Here we have the wild Calvin in his native environment. He is eating a nutritious blend of milk, thickening agents, sugar and chocolate, and making the distinctive eating patterns so typical for his species. See how he carefully removes the blend from its container and spreads it for more easy access. He places the eating stick in his mouth and carefully masticates, using mostly gum action because this creature has very few teeth. Ahh, the joys of digestion in the wild. It is especially wild when mom turns her back to load the dishwasher!
Well, until next time on wild kingdom ...

Rock Monster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se1N26-BKSk

Is this legal? I don't know, but I am a B-52s fan and I thought the VeggieTales created an awesome version of a classic! It cracked me up, and Calvin really busts out his groove thing when we play it for him. So, now, everyone go out and buy The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything and I won't have to feel bad about posting an illicit link = ).

I did it!

I finished the beast! I started this thing a little over a year ago and I am finally finished. Okay, I still need to quilt and bind it, but the top is finished. It is huge! Yay! It is done!

Today at the park

Today was beautiful, if a little bit chilly, so, Calvin and I spent the afternoon at the park. It was a lot of fun. Calvin is all about pushing his own stroller, and today he screamed both times I put him in. He really wanted to walk and push the stroller himself. Calvin tasted the bark and dirt in two parts of the park and decided that it wasn't his thing. Thank goodness. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I grabbed him each time and made him spit it out. I'm okay with that! The slides and the swings were a lot more fun. I can't wait until it gets a little bit warmer and we can hang out with our friends at the park.

Look at him eating!

I can't get Calvin to eat anything these days - I mean really! It is a pain, but when he does look at how nicely he does it! So some of the food enters on the spoon and some in the hand, but it mostly makes it in (as long as he doesn't toss it on the floor first). I've heard that at about a year-old kids get really picky about their food, and it would appear so. Calvin won't eat so many yummy foods that he used to eat happily. So weird. I hope that he gets back to eating one of these days.