Christmas and Dad's birthday party

 We celebrated my Dad's 70th birthday the day after Christmas.  We decided to do a healthy theme because my Dad reads and tries to live a healthy lifestyle and because we want him to live for many more years.
We did various exercise contest and relays.  We had an applesauce eating contest, and instead of donuts hanging from a string to eat, you had to try to eat the carrot off the string the fastest.  Calvin is eating the rest of mine in the picture.  To my defense, I had the largest carrot of anyone, hence I did not win that contest.
We ended it with some yummy healthy dishes and couple of the cakes I make.  (They have no sugar, no added fat and no salt.  My mom calls them no good goodies.  But most everyone thought the cakes were at least okay and everyone thought they were great if they added enough frosting. :)
This was a perfect activity after all of the treats from Christmas.

 Alden loved having his cousins over!! He is always asking about them, especially these two in the picture that are his age.  They really have a fun time together.

Thanksgiving Point

 Alden was afraid of the pony rides but after watching Calvin go around he wanted a turn.  He wanted to go around all by himself and kept asking to go again and again.

 They loved all of the sand and dirt to play in!

Calvin was tired and wasn't as excited about the pony rides.

We had a wonderful time at Thanksgiving point.  The boys saw their first movie in 3D, they loved the museum and then had fun seeing and petting all of the animals! We are grateful to our friend Sheila for taking us there we all loved it!

Patterns

In school we talk about patterns frequently, AB patterns, ABB ext.  Today I was asking Alden if he was going to go to school with me tomorrow.  (Michael has the day off so he has the option.)  Alden said, "no, I stay home with Daddy".  I then said how I would miss him and all of the fun things we would be doing at school, I also reminded him how he has missed a number of preschool days lately. (He was sick on Tuesday, and last Thursday he wanted to play with one of his friends in the nursery.) He turned to me and said, "Mom it's okay it is a pattern, school, no school, school, no school"  I thought it was pretty cute and funny.  At least he still remembers something with all of his missed days.

Calvin talking, Alden reading

Calvin is our sweet little boy, he is the best little snuggler. He loves getting peoples attention, and then waving to them, smiling at them, or giving them five.  He loves going to school each day because all of the big kids love him!  He has just taken off saying a few little words.  He surprises me often with a new word.  For example when we were trick or treating, towards the end we let him go up to some houses, I was surprised to see how excited he was to knock on the door and then pick out a candy.  After I told Alden to say "Thank You", Alden didn't say anything but cute little Calvin looked up at the man and said "shank you".  I had no idea he could say that.  He then did that at the next few homes.

Alden is also loving school and loves when he can come to mommies class.  It has been fun for me to see his and all of the other preschoolers and kindergartners progress.  Alden is now reading some words, which is exciting for me to see.  He has been sounding out some words for some time but couldn't blend the sounds.  For example the other night we were reading a book that has a picture of an animal with the words underneath.  He would sound out the words and then say what they were, like dog, cat, cow,..ext.  But then he came to Hen, he doesn't really know that word, so he sounded it out correctly and then excitedly said, "cock-o-doodle-doo" so excited that he thought had read the word. He used to do that often where he would sound out a word correctly and then would say something completely different.  Now he will often figure out what the word really says or will at least think it is a rhyming word. He still only reads a little bit but still it is fun to see him read a word or two!

Halloween and other things

One of the last days that it was warm, Austen put up the tent in the back yard for him and Alden to camp out.  Alden and Calvin loved running around in it. Once Alden got tired enough, he wanted to come inside and sleep in his bed. In this regard he definitely takes after his Mom.

Alden sleeping picture--Alden loves his BYU hat so the other night he insisted that he needed it to fall asleep!

Alden and Calvin both loved all of the Halloween festivities.  Alden was a little pirate this year and Calvin used our monkey costume.  Alden remembered Halloween from last year and was super excited about getting to go trick or treating again, both him and Calvin brought home plenty of candy to last us a long time.

Snapping pictures

This is a spot that Michael and I love to go to.  In this spot four years ago just about this same time of year when these pictures were taken Michael proposed to me. We love coming up and seeing all of the fall colors, the streams, bridges, and lake!

Visiting Grandma and Gordon

It is always a treat when we can see both Grandma and Gordon.  We have been able to see them a number of times now that we are living in the same state!  On this particular day we got to see where they lived and then we took them out to eat.  It was the first time that we ever let Alden order something for himself, he was excited to get to pick something out just for him.