Just a few pictures

This picture just makes me smile every time I look at it.

Aunt Kathryn came for a visit and we went to the Oakland temple.  It's always such a peaceful place and the temple grounds are beautiful!

Levi is actually reaching out to get to the fountain.

In the visitor's center.

Levi loves Trevor's laptop.

I asked Calvin how many kids he thinks like scarfing Kale chips as much as they do.  He said, "four."  I told him he may not be far off...  They pretty much ate that whole bowl in one sitting.

This is Levi's new "cheesy face" he poses for the camera.  Also trying on mommy's shoes. :-)

Calvin's 3rd Birthday

Friday was Calvin's 3rd birthday.  He was just a little excited to say the least.  He woke up at 5:00 am ready to go! 

I made him pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  After Levi took a nap in the morning we picked Trevor up from work and headed to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo in San Jose.  It was our first time going and Calvin and Levi loved it!  They had kiddie rides, carousel, a huge play area, petting zoo, regular zoo (it was small, but a good size for toddlers), a puppet theater, and other play areas.  It was a great thing for Calvin to do on his birthday.  Chrissy and Natalie Dix and my friend Sarah all came with their children as well.  Hopefully we will be able to go again soon (seeing as we bought year memberships we better!).

 This is just a cute picture.  Levi loves playing in the dirt.  We are really excited to get grass put in our backyard soon!  A BIG thank you to Wray for helping us till our ground in preparation of laying sod. 

Anyway, here are some pictures we took at Happy Hollow.  Calvin was really excited to get in the park:

 

Here is Calvin on the ladybug ride.  He seemed to think it was better to hold on to the antennas the entire time.  I don't think they had a bar or anything else for the kids to grab a hold of.

These rides were perfect for Calvin.  When Trevor got him off the swing he said, "Daddy I liked that ride!"

 

 Calvin wasn't too sure about having to stand next to Danny the Dragon.

At the petting zoo.  Not sure what Calvin was doing...  You can see Levi (white hat) in the background looking at the animals.

 Apparently there was something really interesting Calvin and Levi were looking at while we were taking this picture.

 What is it with little kids and pushing buttons? :0)

 Trevor and the "2nd cousins" looking at the monkeys.  We really are excited to have more family living closer by.


Calvin looks awake in this picture, but he was actually really tired after our adventure.  Levi didn't make it very far before falling asleep (you can see the remains of his sandwich in his hand).

We then dropped Trevor back off at work and Calvin and Levi decided NOT to take naps (remember Calvin had been up since 5am, Levi took a 15 minute nap in the car).  So instead they played while I made hamburgers (with homemade buns), honeydew, Calvin's birthday cake (I did chocolate with a strawberry filling), and homemade vanilla ice cream. I'd say it was a success.

Here is the train cake I made:

I have an inner conflict between decorating cakes for cuteness and trying to make it healthier.  I just made cream cheese frosting, which was pretty soft to decorate with, but I think it turned out okay in the end.  Calvin seemed to like it which is all that's important.

After dinner and dessert Calvin opened his presents including a cool lego airport from Grandma Marty and a new bike from us.  All-in-all it was a delightful day.

Calvin is a sweet boy and while he is a little boy who can sometimes test my patience *a lot*, he really is good and tries to do what's right.  We love having him in our family and he is a good older brother to Levi.  Some of his favorite songs to sing right now include Jingle Bells (he still requests it almost every night), We Are the Dinosaurs (Laurie Berkner), I love to See the Temple, Nephi's Courage, I Am a Child of God, Popcorn Popping, and lots of others (I guess he just likes to sing a lot!).

Also, here is a picture from when we visited Hank and Leah a few weeks ago.  Trevor's uncle let us ride his Go-Kart.  Calvin had a lot of fun riding on it!  Thanks Uncle McKay!

Levi's First Birthday Party and Other Happenings

Trevor and I decided on Wednesday it would be fun to have a little birthday party for Levi at the park yesterday.  We had a picnic potluck lunch and invited some other families.  We had 10 adults and 10 kids there.  It was pretty low-key but I think everyone had a good time.  I made BBQ pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce, tomato-avocado-mango salsa, carrot-pineapple cake, and chocolate muffins.  I was tempted to make homemade rolls, but Trevor convinced me to buy them instead (I'm glad he did).

The weather was perfect.  I'm so glad it didn't rain that day and the sun was shining!

Don't judge the writing on the cake.  I literally had about 5 minutes to decorate it.

Trevor's brother drove down from Sacramento just for the birthday party.  What a great Uncle these boys have!

Levi had no trouble eating his whole cupcake! :0)

Happy Birthday Levi!  We are so happy you are a part of our family!  You add so much joy to our lives.

Thanks Grandma Florence for the cool bubble gun from Valentine's Day!

Little Levi loves to go on walks.  He gets SO excited every time he sees me get out his stroller because he knows what it's for. 

Last Halloween Walmart had Marvel costumes on clearance so I bought some for the boys.  Calvin loves to dress up as Spiderman, Iron Man, and Wolverine.  Even though he has no clue who these people are, he thinks what they wear is pretty cool. :0)

Calvin is definitely his father's son.  He knows how to navigate the computer with the mouse and has discovered many shortcuts on the keyboard such as volume control and how to pause a movie.  Sometimes I have come over to help him and found he has opened up a ton of programs and it takes like 10 minutes to open them all just so I can close them again.

It's so much fun taking pictures of Levi.  I couldn't decide which pictures to add so I'm adding them all.

Levi is very independent when it comes to eating.  The only way I can feed him is if I give him a spoon or fork so he can try to feed himself as well.  At first I thought he just didn't want to eat dinner and was picky, but he just won't eat unless he is feeding himself.  As you can imagine, mealtime is very messy around here! :0)

Levi loves 9-grain cereal!

In other news, I (Lindsay) started tutoring an eighth grade girl in Algebra two days a week in the evening.  It's been nice to brush up on my math skills and stretch my brain a little bit.  She is home schooled so I'm practically her teacher instead of a tutor.  She is a really nice girl and it's fun to teach someone who doesn't despise math and is pretty bright. :0)

Other things I want to record before I forget:

• Levi loves to spin things. Anything. It's so cute. 
• Calvin can ride his tricycle now.  He's gotten so much better at steering and peddling.  We went on a walk together as a family for almost an hour and Calvin rode his bike the entire time.  It's fun to watch him get older and be able to do more things.
• We have been slowly working on potty training Calvin and getting him more used to the idea.  Now he tells us when the "poo-poos are coming" though he still goes in his diaper.  Sometimes he says, "poo-poos went bye-bye.  They went back to their house." when it's a false alarm.  It makes me laugh.
• Calvin likes to sing a lot more.  He has been singing Jingle Bells a lot lately and loves to belt it out in the store or anywhere.
• Calvin has also getting better at recognizing stores and knows if we are at Sprout's, Costco, or somewhere else.  He also knows you get samples at Costco and cookies at Safeway.  Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have started this habit...
• Levi is a little cuddle bug.  Trevor and I love it when he crawls up to us and puts his head in our lap.

Calvin's new favorite song on the radio

He always sings along to the radio whenever we are in the car and this song is played.  I think it's really cute.  Definitely something I remember doing as a child (singing along to the radio trying to learn the words--hey I still do!).

The song is "Hey Soul Sister" by Train in case the video gets taken down off YouTube.

Woeful Wednesdays

Wednesdays have been quite eventful for us in January so far.  The first week, I was carrying Levi at 6 am to go feed him.  I was not quite awake and it was still somewhat dark in our family room, and I tripped over our Christmas tree box and fell onto our computer desk.  Thankfully Levi was fine, but I had a big gash under my chin and had to get stitches.  It didn't help that we switched to a different health coverage plan this year (thank you government for making our health insurance worse because of the law passed recently).

The next Wednesday, Levi was by the pantry door while I was cooking dinner and Calvin shut the door pinching Levi's fingers in the door-hinge.  Oh boy did he howl, and I was crying because I felt so bad it happened.  I called Trevor and told him I needed him to come home right away.  We went to Urgent Care (another great use of our health insurance...) and thankfully nothing was severed or broken.  I felt so awful, but I know Calvin didn't do it on purpose and it was just one of those unfortunate incidents.

This past Wednesday, I was trying to get Calvin more interested in potty training so we watched a video about it.  After watching the video, he decided to flush a plastic ball down the toilet.  It took Trevor and I about an hour to get it out (had to take the toilet apart and tip it upside down and run water from a hose through it).  Even though it wasn't fun, it beat paying for a plumber to do it!  Oh the joys!  At least if it ever happens again we will know what to do.  I think I'm going to hold off on potty training for a little bit longer. :0)  At least no one got hurt this time!

I'm kind of afraid of what will happen this coming Wednesday.  I'm going to be praying it's an uneventful day!  :0)

Christmas and beyond!

I just thought this picture was funny...  Levi gets this scrunched up face when he gets frustrated about something. 

 Calvin figured out how to put headphones in his ears himself.  He certainly watches us closely! :0)

 Before Christmas, I wanted to decorate sugar cookies with Calvin.  He had a lot of fun doing it, though all he really wanted to do was eat the cookies.

Levi had fun playing with the rolling pin.

We went to both of our parents' homes for Christmas this year.  We spent one week with Grandma and Grandpa Black and then another week with Grandma and Grandpa Florence.  We realized that two weeks is a little too long for our children to be away from home.  Well, it didn't help we were sick the entire time.  The first week we were battling colds and the second week Calvin got the stomach flu.  We still tried to make the most of it, but I think we are done with driving long distances for a little while. :0)

Calvin and I went to see the Mesa Temple lights with the Skabelunds (Trevor stayed home because Levi was sick).  We had lots of fun although it was packed that night!  I always love looking at Christmas lights, and I'm glad Calvin got to experience it as well this year.

Here we are opening presents Christmas morning!  It's fun that Calvin is starting to understand things better and gets excited to open presents.

"Why won't Calvin share with me!"

 Calvin got a train set and he loves setting it up.  It was a good gift for him!

Yes, our son is eating the couch.  Typical.

 Everywhere I take the boys I get comments about Levi's big blue eyes (and Calvin's red hair).  Now you can see why. He's also teething which is why I have a big wet spot on my shirt.

We love going to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas!

My parents had a cool sleeping bag/tent that Calvin slept in while we were there.  He loves sleeping in it.

We don't have many pictures from visiting Trevor's parents (I really need to be better about taking pictures...).  We still had lots of fun though.  We got to meet Mandy's awesome fiance, Richard.  They also had an awesome New Year's Eve party (I came in first place again!). Calvin and Levi both woke up right before midnight so we all celebrated the New Year together!

We also celebrated our five year wedding anniversary! We wanted to do something bigger this year to celebrate, but having a child that still nurses and another one sick it just wasn't going to work out.  We went to Lassen's Deli for lunch, saw Harry Potter 7, and went to the mall where Trevor tried on $180 Diesel jeans (didn't have any interest in buying them, just wanted to see how $180 jeans would look).  It was nice to be able to get away for a little while.  I love my best friend and am so glad we get to go through this life together.  Here's to many more happy years together!

Our drive back home was a nightmare.  Calvin was so sleep deprived from two weeks of not napping/sleeping as well in addition to being sick.  What should have been a 5 hour drive took us 8 hours due to traffic and having to stop to help our children.  I've never heard Calvin shriek so much.  Yes, I think we are done with longer car trips for a little while!

My mom gave us a gingerbread train kit which we put together when we got home.  Surprisingly, Calvin didn't eat any of the candy (if it was chocolate I'm sure it would not have survived)!  He really enjoyed putting it together.  Thanks for the kit mom!