Bath Time

Alden loves having Calvin take baths with him. Often he will say that he doesn't want to take a bath, but if he sees or thinks that Calvin will be going in to, he runs to the bath tub to get in.

He will often mimic the things Calvin does.. such as floating in the water.

Thanksgiving Day

We spent Thanksgiving Day at my Aunt Tara's house. Her son's in the picture made Alden an amazing house out of cardboard boxes. He loved it, it was full of tunnels for him to crawl through.

Thanksgiving was a nice and relaxing day for us, we were glad that we had family so close that we could go to.

I would post more pictures but this was the only one I could get to load... more may be forth coming..?

The Zoo

During Thanksgiving Break we did a little vacation in our own town. We went to some new places that we hadn't been before. One of which was the zoo. I have been here with people in our ward but Michael and Calvin had never been, it was neat to go as a family.

Graceland and other pictures

Every year about a week before Thanksgiving, Graceland has a night when they turn on their Christmas lights. They have activities and music and everything is free. This year our family made the trip to see the lights turn on. It was a lot of fun, here are some pictures...

Michael will often go for a run on Saturdays and will take Alden along in the stroller. They stopped by a good friend of ours, Joseph, who is always giving us something. It was cold so Joseph found Alden this scarf and hat to wear, Alden loves them!

11-22-11 Palindrome

Tuesdays date was a palindrome, it is the same written forwards or backwards. It was also the day Calvin turned 3 months and Michael and I had our 3 year anniversary!
It was a great day, and extra nice that Michael could be out of school. We spent the day together as a family. Michael and I had celebrated by going on a date the Saturday before. Thanks to our friends the Lamberts who watched Alden while we went out.
Another random but fun fact is that Calvin's birth day 08-22-11 makes the day we were married when you write it backwards 11-22-08. :)

Almost 3 months

We haven't had anything big lately to write about (which has been nice, things have been fairly laid back.) but I was just realizing that Calvin will be three months on Tuesday! So this is the update on him and on Alden. (Alden is almost 27 months=2yrs and 3 months :)

Calvin is growing up so fast and is such a joy to have around. He gives us lots of smiles which we love. We still need to catch one on camera... they are some of the cutest smiles in my opinion. He still is a good little baby boy, sleeping and eating well. He has slept through the night a few times and usually doesn't wake up too many times in the night which is nice.

Alden is also learning and growing quickly. He loves to help and really is a big help around the house. He helps me cook, clean, do laundry, and especially loves to help with Calvin. When Calvin gets fussy I will sometimes have him give him his pacifier if I can't get to him at the time. When Alden gets the pacifier to stay in Calvin's mouth, he will get excited and often says, " I got it" as he jumps up.

We have been trying to limit Alden's time on the computer, because he would be on it all day if we let him, so we have been reading a lot more books.
He loves it, when people come over he will start handing them books to see if he can get them to read to him. He knows his ABC's even though every now and again he will get some of them mixed up when we ask.. such as W and M or R and K. He also loves counting things but will stumble around 4 and 5 because his four sounds like five so then he will usually skip 5 and go on to 6.

My little monkeys

Family Photos

Home Again

We have been gone this week taking care of another family while their parents went on a cruise. It was fun to have 7 kids for a week! I think my favorite part was when everyone came home from school. It was fun to see the things they did and help them with homework, and Alden loved having so much attention from all of them.
We are now home and grateful to get to spend so much time with our 2 little ones. Calvin started smiling at me for the first time yesterday! now all day long, I just talk and smile at Calvin until I get another smile. He has been doing a great job giving out his cute little smiles and we love it!

Sardis

This semester Michael has had a lot of afternoons off, which has been really nice. Last week on one of those afternoons we went down to Sardis Lake. It was nice to get out and enjoy such beautiful weather

FHE

I never thought we could get an accordion over at our home! It was fun to hear the beautiful music it can make. Some of my favorite times at our home is when we all get out our violins and play, Michael was gone yesterday so it was nice to have the missionaries, and people to play music with, it made me not miss him so much, it would have even more perfect with him here though.

Baby pictures and Alden's 2 yr old pictures

Baby Calvin
He is a sweet little baby, he has been such a good little one. He sleeps and eats well and is great to snuggle with... We couldn't ask for anything more we have been greatly blessed to have him in our home.

Alden at 2 yrs old
He is a joy to have around. Things he loves are the computer, playing ball, playing outside, dancing, and having anything in his bottle. He says quite a few things now, what I here the most though is yes, no, i want that or I don't want it, Alden's turn, jump, dance, snack, movie, juice, and milk.

Beans

Tonight Alden was asking for something and I couldn't understand him... a common assurance. So I asked him to show me what he wanted, he pointed in the direction of some chocolate chip cookies we had just made, even though what he was saying didn't sound at all like cookie I asked if that is what he wanted. He responded, "No, eans" next to the cookies was a can of beans. I am glad my son would take a can of beans over a cookie, he has now eaten about half the can.

Calvin's Baby Blessing

Calvin was a good little baby for his blessing. It worked out well that there was a BYU game here in Mississippi so we had quite a few family members here. Thanks to everyone that came!!
We had three of Michael's siblings with their families.

Movies

For Alden's birthday Michael took him to the movies and let him pick out whatever treat he wanted. He got a big thing of popcorn.

As you can see he was one happy camper!
He loved the movie and was really good the whole time, which isn't too surprising as he loves it when we will let him watch a movie no matter what it is.

Alden's 2nd Birthday

Alden had a great birthday. This year it was on a Sunday, it was nice that Grandma was still in town.

Alden's favorite part of his birthday was blowing out the candles on the cake and having everyone sing to him. He kept saying again, again. We sang to him a number of times.

We sure are grateful for the birth of this cute little 2 year old. He brings a lot of joy into our home, he is always happy, laughing and wanting to run around. He makes us laugh at all of the crazy things he thinks up to do.

We are blessed to have him in our home, we learn from him every day. Thanks Alden we love you.

Birth Story

Calvin couldn't have picked a better day to enter this world, he came right on time on his due date. I woke up needing to go to the bathroom a few minutes after midnight and on my walk to the bathroom my water broke. I woke up Michael and Becca, who was gratefully staying with us, and then rushed out to the hospital as my contractions were already quite painful. I got to the delivery room a little after 1 a.m. the nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 6 and then at 1:51 a.m. Calvin was born.
The nurses all said that next time I should just camp out at the hospital. I was glad it all went so fast but it did throw me into a little bit of a shock. Last time with Alden I had a little more time to prepare myself for the hard contractions, but I guess this time it went a little faster.
All in all we couldn't have been more blessed to have everything work out so well. The delivery went well and we have a healthy beautiful baby. He couldn't have come at a better time, Michael is on break, my sister was here to help, and my mom came in that day to help with Alden and the new little one. We feel very loved and blessed and are grateful for all of your prayers and support.

It's a Boy!

Early Monday we welcomed Calvin into our family . He weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and measured 21.5 inches long.










Alden meets his new baby brother. He was pretty excited and a little curious.
We sure love baby Calvin!

Becca Comes!!

We all love having aunt Becca here! She has been a huge help already and Alden loves playing with her. Anytime she leaves the room he gets nervous and starts asking for her. We hope the baby decides to come soon so he will have the extra attention when the new baby is here, but I guess we just will have to wait and see. Either way he is loving having so much attention, with dad and mom home and Aunt Becca. These are some pictures from our visit to the Riverwalk...

Blueberry Pancakes

Yesterday morning Alden woke up and wanted to read a book, specifically the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. He looked through saying the things he thought were yummy and then selected his breakfast.. blueberry pancakes.
He loves to help cook in the kitchen so he likes to pull down the cook books and find something to make. It was fun, he made most of the pancakes all by himself... I just had to hand him the ingredients. He has even gotten down putting the eggs in.

Pink Palace

This weekend they had a members night at the Pink Palace, we got a free summer membership and decided it would be fun to go. We had fun walking around the exhibits and meeting some people from the area, it was a fun night.

I am now 36 weeks pregnant and am getting really excited for the new baby.
We are really excited to have another little one around, it is amazing how fast they grow up. I keep looking at Alden and thinking he is getting sooo big, and acting more and more like a big kid. He loves to help with everything and sure is a joy to have around.

Ducks

This was last week on Sunday, we walked over to the pond at our place to feed the ducks. It has been fun to see the different families (of ducks) growing up over the last few months. I thought all of them were done having babies but we have a new little family with 4 ducklings.
This first picture is Alden saying "oh" just after a duck ate one of his pieces of bread.

Jumping

Alden loves jumping lately, and keeps finding higher and higher things to jump off of. Lately it has been the piano bench and his table, hopefully he will stop there... He is quite the little monkey.

Sitting and eating popsicles

This is one of our favorite things to do in the summer time.

Drive In

Last night I went to my first Drive-In movie theater. We went and saw Cars II.
Alden was so excited the whole drive to the theater, every time we told him we were going to see a movie he would start clapping his hands and smiling.
When we got there, he loved running around the parking lot, jumping on and off things in the car, and dancing to the music while we waited for the movie to start.
The movie started after the sun set, which was about 8:45. Alden lasted until about 10, which is way past his bed time, but he was happy and good for the whole thing.
The movie ended at 10:30 and you could stay for the second movie, which in this case was KungFu Panda II, Michael was all for it and probably would have lasted, I would have probably just fallen asleep part way through, but we were being eaten by bugs and Alden was sleeping in a funny way in his car seat, so we thought it was best to head home.

YMCA

Every Friday Alden and I have been going to the YMCA swim pool. This is Alden's favorite part, he goes down this slide over and over again.

Gender Quiz

Last night I decided to take one of those gender quizzes online to see what they thought I would have based on my size, cravings, ext... Based on there calculations I have a 50% chance of having a boy! I guess this baby really wants to surprise us and I think he/she might just accomplish it. :)
We are excited about maybe having a surprise though, either way we are glad we have a healthy baby.

Summer!

These are pictures from our trip to the Smoky mountains and when we visited Shilo back in the beginning of May. (I haven't taken many pictures this month otherwise I would put up some more resent ones, I definitely do not need my coat this month .)

Summer is officially here in Mississippi, it has been nice and warm/hot for the last few weeks. Alden and I have been enjoying going swimming just about every day. We also spend most of the morning playing outside (the park, feeding the ducks, and playing in the sand volleyball court) then we spend the afternoons keeping cool inside.

We still have a couple of boys come over in the mornings to play, which we love. Alden loves having someone to play with, and it keeps me busy and on my toes.

As far as the pregnancy is going, it is going really well, no complaints. It is going so well that we haven't needed an ultrasound... which means we still don't know if it is a boy or girl. We are hoping that we find out before the baby comes, but as my doctor has assured me, we will find out one way or the other when the baby comes. I am now 30 weeks and the time is flying by.

Pictures

This is one of Alden's many piles that he has made lately!

Alden's first ice cream cone!

Graceland, we finally decided to make the trip to see Elvis's old home. It was neat to learn about him and to have a fun date together.

What Alden is up to...

Computers

Alden loves playing on the computer, and he has gotten quite good at it, he likes to pull up home videos or any video for that matter. This is one of the reasons we don't blog much anymore, because Alden wants to play on the computer any time it is on.

Piles

Alden loves making piles of things, he will find anything and everything he can to make his pile. It is almost like his little nest, because he will then sit in his pile and play with everything around him.

Potty Training

We have kindof started potty training Alden, we aren't pushing it that much, especially since we will be taking a road trip this weekend. He does quite well with it though. We started because he started going potty in the toilet a few weeks back and last week when he ripped off his diaper and then went potty on the floor, I decided I might as well be potty training him.

Alden's song

Alden has had a greater interest in playing his violin. Every time I have a lesson he wants to get his out or if Michael or I are playing he likes to his violin out.

February Pictures! :)

I was finally able to upload a couple of pictures, these are from the last week or two of February. The first was a day that we all went to the park, Alden loved feeding all of the ducks and birds, Michael and I just enjoyed being outside in the nice weather. Lately it has been really nice so we have spent a lot of time outside.
These last two are from my birthday. It was a great day, Michael made some wonderful food and an amazing cake. It couldn't have been any better of a day.
When I went to get Alden up in the morning on the day of my birthday he had this flower ready for me with a note that said, "for mommy". (I took the picture later once he was dressed for church.)

We are all moved in and have internet again!

We love our new apartment, it is much like the old one, but has more room and new carpet. Having it so similar and so close made for an easy move.
Here are some pictures from the new rooms...

Michael's Mom and Dad came to help us with the move, they not only helped us but brought some fun things for Alden's room! They brought the bunch beds and all of the red, white, and blue decorations. Also one of Michael's sisters was changing her boy's bathroom, so she sent us all of her red whit and blue bathroom things!

We were definitely blessed with so many fun things to make our new place look nice!

As you can see we are having problems uploading pictures (that is why the 1st picture only loaded 1/2 of the picture), I am not sure what is wrong, but when I try to upload pictures here or other places, my computer shuts down, we did get these two up. Once we figure out what is wrong we will put up a few more pictures of Alden's new room and bathroom. :)

A Wonderful Week

This week has been great! We have all been healthy and happy. It has been especially nice to see Alden so happy. He has had fun playing with the boys that come over, and he is glad that I have finally stopped taking his temperature every few hours.
Also Michael's test schedule slowed down a little bit this week, and now he is done until after spring break! I am excited to have him home and he is excited for the break.
Another great thing is that we will be moving to a 2 bedroom apt next week. For probably obvious reasons I am really excited about this as well. I am even more excited after taking to Michael's mom who is in full swing thinking of decorating ideas for the kids room!
Another great thing is that we will have visitors this next week. Michael's parents will be coming to spend some of spring break with us.
It has been a great week and we have a very nice week of spring break ahead of us!
This is a picture from a couple weeks back when we had school canceled because of all of the snow.