Even though it's a little late for Christmas cards, we still tried taking a family picture hoping that we might at least send out a few. These are all 6 of the pictures that we took. Which one do you think we should send out? By the way, it took a lot of effort to get these, so don't think you can pick "none of the above".
I've been really getting into all my Gmail extras. It started with the google reader, which saves me so much time on blog checking. Then the other day I decided I should keep a calender and started putting stuff on my gmail calender. I got a little carried away with all the public calenders you can add and put on a BYU calender, U.S. holidays, Christian holidays, Lebanese holidays and Canadian holidays. Then I created calenders for Waddington birthdays and Miller birthdays and added every event I could think of. Then I added Tasks to use for my daily To Do list, instead of a scrap of paper I always lose. Between gmail, blogging, web searching, using my calender & to do list, I'd say my life feels like it's run about 95% by google.
Calvin's toys aren't that interesting to me, except his colorful rings. If they are anywhere around me in church I can't resist playing with them and changing their order over and over again to see what the best pattern is that I can come up with. There's really no way he likes them more than I do.
The Gift of the Magi is such a loving story. It has beautiful illustrations - Lisbeth Zwerger is probably the best illustrator in the world. Maybe someday I can go to Vienna to meet her. And maybe I'll learn German too so I could actually talk to her.
Ever since making my practice pie for Thanksgiving I've decided making pies is fun. This was the first apple pie I've ever made and I even tried doing a criss cross top. It was kind of sloppy, so I'll have to work on my cooking art skills and experiment with some more recipes too.
2. fold in half so you have a smaller triangle
3. fold the same way again
4. fold in half again, but from the center so it looks like this:
5. make large geometric shaped cuts and a couple small ones, leaving as little paper as possible
ta-da!
I don't think I have a single post that is spiritually related so in honor of Elder Wirthlin who just passed away, I thought I'd mention one of his conference talks that I thought was very inspiring awhile ago. It's called "Follow Me" and it's about how the apostles left their nets and followed the Savior and how we need to recognize the things in our life that we need to leave behind to follow Him.
I was at the BYU bookstore and randomly found this whole section of blank white books. They were the coolest thing I have ever seen! I bought 5. They have all different kinds, and blank puzzles too. You can just take some markers and have a ball. They even have a couple different size board books for babies. So for Christmas Calvin is getting a board book all about himself drawn by Mom.
I feel like we are always trying something new to get Calvin to go to sleep better, longer, cry less, etc. The other day we were cleaning Calvin's room so we put him in his crib with some toys to play with while we cleaned. After we finished cleaning I took out the toys and read him a story then turned out the lights, walked out of the room and he went to sleep without making a sound. It is such a great routine, and it's worked quite a few more times since then too.
Sometimes I take a really really really long time making decisions while shopping. Clothes shopping is especially bad, but even grocery I take forever. Calvin is pretty good at making me a faster decision maker. If I stand in one place too long trying to decide on flavors of Jell-o, how many and what size, he lets out some screams to let me know I need to just grab one and keep moving. What a great little helper.
Has anyone else checked out flights on Southwest? 50% off flights to & from Salt Lake. There are restrictions for when you can fly of course, but I am so excited I just booked a flight to Seattle for $51 each way!
Brandon and I were listening to some Chris Merritt music yesterday and I thought I would share how great they are. Brandon's friend plays in the band so we have gone to see them play several times and it's always been fun. They have songs on itunes and a few websites too. My favorites are Tower of Sand and Dance Karate.
We went with some friends to the Lehi pool and I was so impressed! What a cool facility. Not only do they have a kid area, but they had a baby area. We had a great time. I love swimming in November.
We were hesitant to give Calvin rice cereal right at 4 months because of what the doctor said about the "slight chance he can develop allergies", but he also said it might be worth a try when he heard what a horrible sleeper he is and how he is always hungry. (he was waking up every 2-3 hours - and that was on a good night) After not really sleeping at all on Saturday night we decided we should try out the rice cereal. The result: he slept for 5 hours straight the past 2 nights!! He is back to only waking up twice to eat. I used to be really anxious for him to sleep through the night, but for now I'm just grateful to be sleeping in chunks again. Hoorah for rice!
Since Calvin's costume was so cute, we decided to try and match him. I think he pulled it off better than we did, but we all had a good time. You can tell Cal enjoyed the party : )
I was on my favorite food website, allrecipes.com and I found some fun Halloween treat ideas to take to a party. I thought this one was 2nd best. The mice looked even grosser but the recipe for the fingers and toes was easier. Brandon said I shouldn't be offended if no one eats them because they look disgusting. They're just sugar cookies with some food coloring. I think I should have done the red gel and almonds after I baked them, I didn't realize the gel would melt like that. Maybe they'll look better next year because I think this might be the beginning of a great Halloween tradition. yum. Happy Halloween!
1. I sleep with an eye mask at night. If I'm traveling, ear plugs too. I'm just a light sleeper and our room is too well lit from the parking lot light outside our window.
I found some wooden things at the craft store and decided they would make it really easy to make a mobile and add a little color to Calvin's room. We thought Calvin might like something to look at, and we're wishfully thinking that he might just hang out in his crib longer and we can sleep in now & then. (ha!) He did seem pretty excited about it and was smiling at it and swinging his arms for awhile, until he realized that we were leaving the room and we wanted him to take a nap.
Sometimes when I take a walk I like having a destination, like Provo Bakery. Taking a walk to the bakery kind of defeats the purpose of taking a walk though. Maybe I should find a bakery in Springville to walk to.
Calvin was becoming a horrible napper and therefore not the funnest kid to be around. We decided we might need to implement the crying himself to sleep method to help him learn to sleep better on his own. We have also paid more attention to his schedule and when he needs to sleep. It started making a huge difference right away. He has been so much happier lately. It's great. So even though it is torture to let your cute baby cry, sometimes it is beneficial to everyone in the long run. He is still a very long way from sleeping through the night though. Someday.
Yesterday I had quite the conversation with my younger sister Heather. She is currently taking a family finance class at BYU and they were talking about life insurance and wills. She asked me if we have either of these, which we don't (yet). She volunteered herself to be Cal's guardian if we wanted her to since she doesn't have any kids of her own and she might not in the future either. I told her that we would probably prefer someone that is married to raise Calvin if something happened to me & Brandon. She gave me this mean look and I told her to quit acting like she wanted me to die so she could take care of my baby.
Today I purchased our 3rd pair of baby finger nail clippers. I have no idea where the other two are. So whoever is stealing them, we'd appreciate it if you would let us keep these ones. They even came with nice little nail files.
complete with a tail:
On Saturday when I was at Seagull book there was an author sitting next to me, Janeen Brady. She was there to sign her new book called The Creation. Depending on your age, you may or may not recognize who she is at first. For anyone who grew up listening to that classic red cassette tape entitled "I"m a Mormon", she wrote that. As well as all those Standing Tall tapes, about Happiness and Gratitude and Captain Dependable. Anyone else have fond memories of singing to that stuff as a kid? It was like I was meeting a celebrity. She also did the Safety Kid stuff. My childhood would not have been the same without her.
In case you were thinking of renting Iron Man and you see it at redbox, make sure it is just called Iron Man and not Invincible Iron Man, because it's not the same thing. But if you have a 5 year old in the house, it might be okay anyways.
