Lovely photos of our lovely family

Another group of family photos for our family. These were some of my favorites from the shoot. Erin from EKB photography did a great job!

Fashion Statement

Grrrr!

Calvin's version of a scary face.

Party in my tummy!

Recently we told Calvin that when he ate the food had a party in his tummy (Yo Gabba Gabba anyone?) He thought that was great, but then he looked at us and said something like, "My food has a party in my tummy, and then my food has a party in my poop!"

Basic biology from the mouth of a three-year-old.

Keep it up kid! I'm cracking up just remembering.

Maddie's First Shower

Please excuse the lewd butt shot in this one.

Yesterday (or was it the day before - wow, my memory is wimpy sometimes!) Calvin was taking a shower and I stepped out of the room for a bit. When I walked back in I was surprised to see that someone else had just jumped in! That was one happy girl enjoying her first hot shower with her big brother.

Calvin's famous (infamous?) sayings ...

So, I keep hearing things from Calvin that I want to post, but I have been terrible about posting. I also have pictures and stories to tell, but it just hasn't happened. Sorry my handful of readers! So, here is a bit from the mouth of Calvin:

Me: Calvin, how can you tell that Maddie is a girl?
Calvin: Because she has a big tummy.
Me: Is Mommy a girl?
Calvin: Yes.
Me: Does Mommy have a big tummy too?
Calvin: No, your tummy is getting smaller - you need to eat more breakfast.

I will consider that!

Uncle Rick: See Calvin, there is a Magic Wall and Scout (their big german shepherd that Calvin was afraid of) can't go past it.
Calvin: Mommy, I want that Magic Wall to kill that doggy.

Violent tendencies!

Calvin: My knees are getting huge, gigantic.
Me: Your knees?
Calvin: Yes, I is growing big, big like Daddy.

You would notice knee growth.

That is all that is coming to me tonight, but I will try to get some more of these out.

Swimming Lessons 2011

This summer I put Calvin in swimming lessons. I am happy to report that it was great. Calvin took to the water like a fish and passed with flying colors. It helps that he was totally willing to stick his face right in the water. He loved putting his face in and talking to Nemo through the water. He still does that in the bathtub. We were lucky with our class. Usually the class is two teachers per five kids, but Calvin's class only had two kids in it, so he was able to get a lot of one on one with his teachers. I am excited for the next round of swimming lessons to start, but we will probably wait until next summer.Here Calvin is learning to make "ice cream scoops" with his hands to tread the water.

I was never quite sure what they were having him do with this pose. It didn't seem to mean dive down like I would expect. Maybe it was for kicking on his back? I could never tell exactly what was going on with this one, but he got pretty good at sticking hands up in the air!
This summer I put Calvin in swimming lessons.

Happy Birthday Maddie!

Happy Birthday Maddie!

Here is one happy one year old! Maddie zoomed through this last year and she is definitely a wonderful part of our family. I feel like this year went by much quicker than it did when it was Calvin's first year. I can see why people call out to treasure these times that go by so quickly. I hope that we have because Maddie is quickly moving toward toddlerhood, and I am loving it! I love how interactive and intelligent she is, and I love that she is always on the move checking things out. The picture above shows how much she loves strawberries and getting her picture taken. We definitely have a little girl here, and with our slightly bigger little boy I think our family is pretty great. It has been a fun year with Miss Maddie joining the ranks and I look forward to many more.

We had a birthday party for Maddie with lots of strawberries and a stupendously ugly but very tasty daisy cake - a la me!

Bella and Calvin were kind enough to help Maddie open her presents. She wasn't all that interested in the process, but I think that she will enjoy what was under all of that paper!

First time at the beach

Two weeks ago we went to Southern California to attend Gommie's funeral. The event was somber, but we did have a bit of fun on the last day of our trip. We took the kids for their first visit to the beach. I did get into a bathing suit, but thankfully no one thought to take a picture of that sight.


Maddie didn't like that we kept forcing her into her hat.


Maddie liked the beach as long as we kept her far from the water and in our arms.



Calvin wasn't all that into the water either. The waves and such were scary for the little guy. He did have some fun outrunning the waves, but he wouldn't let them anywhere near him. The best part of the beach for Calvin was the sand. He dug, and built and had a great old time burrowing around. Goodtimes.

The Flash!

I was trying to take a picture of Calvin and he wouldn't stop moving. They all came out like this, but I thought it was a great demonstration of Calvin's boundless energy!

Touché!

Calvin pulled out some popsicle freezing sticks and taught Maddie how to sword fight! They loved it.

Fun Times in Cali

We had some fun hanging out with the family when we visited last month. Calvin especially enjoyed his Grandpa at the park. Thanks for making it fun for us!

Traveling By Train

Just thought I would post some pictures of the train trip that the kids and I took to California about a month ago. We were going to say goodbye to Gommie. We rode out in Coach, but when we came back we got a sleeper. That was awesome! I would consider doing that for vacation in the future.

Games with friends

Today Zander and Aunya came over to play. Right away they got the controllers out and started playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - very old school style. It was fun to watch them playing the same game that Chris and I both remember from the pizza parlor arcades. Awesome!The boys were very engrossed in their game, the girls were just happy to have controllers! They weren't actually playing.

SuperKids Preschool Graduation!

Super Calvin! What a cool kid!




Why did I stand to the side for these pictures? Oh well.

Calvin graduated from Preschool today (to another year of preschool) and we had a fun celebration for the kids at the park. The kids were so excited to get their SuperKid capes and certificates and they loved decorating graduation caps. The best part for me was watching a crowd of awesome kids race around the park in capes. Good times!

Want some?!

Car trips make for some awesome messes, but this red vines one was so cute!

Yummy Food

Recently Calvin came to me and said something like, "I don't like it when you make yucky food for dinner, I like yummy food for dinner."

Well well!

So, I asked him what yummy food he liked for dinner. His answer - "CANDY!!"

Right, we'll see what we can do about that.

Father and Son's Outing

Calvin and Chris went on their first Father and Son's Campout this weekend. Calvin was so excited. He was practically waiting at the door when Chris came home. They had a lot of fun, but didn't quite make it through the night. Calvin didn't like how noisy the older kids were when he was trying to get some sleep. I don't blame him, I like my sleep too!

Cantaloupe

Stay away from my Cantaloupe!

Maddie found a new love today! We thought this was so funny. She stuck her head into this half a cantaloupe and just started going! Without teeth to help she was basically just pulling the juice out and drinking it. She had just finished dinner so she must have really loved the melon flavor to go at it like she did. Its a healthy choice for dessert - I'm glad she liked it!

What a cute little piggy she was acting.

A New Camera!

Happy Mother's Day Friends and Family!

Today we are all home sick, but it works out because I will be using the downtime to post! For Mother's Day this year we decided to replace our broken camera. Nice, huh?! That meant that I got to choose what I wanted in a camera. We couldn't go super-expensive so that left me with the sale priced point and shoots. I knew that I wanted something that would give me clear pictures both inside and outside and I wanted it to be fairly compact. We went with the Canon PowerShot SX130 IS (you really wanted that much info didn't you = )) because it was highly reviewed and, more importantly, because it was $100 off at Target this week - putting it just into our price range.

I am loving it.

It has all of these weird functions that I probably won't use that often, but they are fun to play with. For instance, I can exchange one color for another in a picture, or hold down the shutter key for continuous picture taking (I will use that one with my "I won't sit still for you!" kids). My favorite is the smile recognition setting. You set it there and it automatically takes pictures when people smile. Pretty fun. Hopefully this means a lot more posting; I understand that my loyal fans are getting a bit annoyed at my lack of communication (sorry beloved family.)

So, here are some of my pictures with the new camera. Enjoy!