March 2011

I love this outfit, and I love my cutie in these shots. 

I was trying to post pictures of my outfit with a self timer and she wanted to be right there...and have some of her outfit, too.

Truly, she is my favorite accessory.

When I do these outfit shots for my photog blog, I often ask Tyler or Alyssa or Michael to take them and I have to first do a test shot...

Cali loves our new digital frame.  She gets very excited at each picture and points and screams as she names the people in the picture.

My neighbor Naomi and her son Reece were over...

The boys played flag football for the first time.  The play a lot in our yard with the neighbors, their first team play was trickier than they thought.  On the Ravens team.

They said Tyler is a good rusher because he runs fast...look at that stride.

Went on a field trip with Tyler's 4th grade class and toured Whole Foods.  Love hanging out with my boy.

Alyssa got a little love note from her classmate, Ryan.

I borrowed Naomi's floor vacuum robot and Cali was afraid of it.

She doesn't like to wear hair pretties, but this day she got all fancy.

Notice Cali holding my itouch.  She loves it and knows how to navigate it well.

Disovering spray whipped cream...

This was the spring wellness walk just before spring break.

At the end of all 3, I was exhausted!

Alyssa and Ashley (neighbor, Naomi's daughter) buddies in class on howdy day.

Cali loves to go to school to see the big kids!

 I was running more and more miles in March and I came home with achy legs and pained knees.  Michael iced them for me.

For spring break, Michael took the whole week off and we had a stay-cation.  IHOP for breakfast happened one day...

Then Michael thought he would potty train Cali on one day...

Alyssa got fancy, as usual.

She came up with this hair contraption on her own.

Then...we went camping...

Michael built a bench to hold shoes...

2 nights of camping was on the menu--our first.

We went with a group of our former ward friend in the Brushy Creek Ward. It was a chilly night and Candida Bennett cuddled Alyssa while I cuddled Cali to keep them warm.

In the morning, Cali enjoyed her daddy's ear plugs that helped him sleep. I love this pic of her below.

There was a lake to play in...

The Steed fam...

Michele Steed (she and I were both in Brushy Creek ward and moved to Walsh Ranch ward about the same time).

Cali and Sophie Steed having fun in the tent.

Adam Bennett with daughter Ryleigh (she broke her leg before...in wheelchair)

Virginia Trip

On February 23rd, Cali and I flew to Virginia.

This is her waiting for the plane.  I love this cute little outfit I was able to put together from different sections at Target.

 This was the nice man who read to Cali and talked to her when she got tired of me trying to rock her to sleep on the 3 hour flight.  She never slept.

Jen brought this cute purse/animal carrier for Cali as a gift (handed down from cousin Abigail).

This is us arriving at Jen's house.  Cali likes her cousin Jonah already.

This pic is out of order, but this is my sis in law Jen and 2 of her friends.  We went out for cheesecake to celebrate her bday.  She didn't know about the get together, I got ahold of her friends and we planned it un-beknownst to her. That was fun;)

I brought my laptop so I could fill e-book orders easily while I was gone.  Cali liked to watch her new fave movie, Gigglebellies. She calls it "choo choo" because the first song is about a choo choo.

{pic?}

After staying with Jen and fam, we went to stay with Emily and her fam.  This is our dance party.

I like this shot of us;)

Below, Emily's girls and Cali enjoy a little Justin Bieber video.  I may or may not have converted my friends and their children to be JB fanatics like me.  I shared lots of JB trivia with them (probably too much). I may have scared them.

Uncle Steve kept trying to scare Cali, but she learned to get over it. 

my girl!  This is on the plane on the way home.  We departed at 5pm and she had not taken a nap.  I thought FOR SURE she would fall asleep right away, but no...after 3 hours of tears then happiness (and not as many helpful neighbors) she finally conked out the last 30 min. of our flight.  It was manageable and I was surprisingly even keeled throughout her mini fits, but I was always able to bring her back in.  I was happy about that. As I got off with her sound asleep on my shoulder, I had to unpop the stroller with  one hand and one foot (and 2 bags) and laid her in it.  She stayed like this til our family picked us up.  It was happy to all be together again;)

Finishing February

These next few pics crack me up.  They were taken on Michael's cell phone.  The boys wanted to buy air soft guns, and I said they could with their own money.  They were very excited about their impending purchase, and we all headed to Academy on a Friday night.  This was the bribery to bring happiness for THESE PICTURES (see Alyssa is still wearing her outfit). The funny part is that Matthew carried in his piggy bank to the store.

And watching him count it out at the counter nearly had me peeing my pants.  It was so stinkin adorable;)

The cashier was so patient and cracked a few smiles himself.  The lady behind us also seemed to be entertained by it all.

  I had to include a lot because it just brings me joy to watch my boys grow up like this.

You saw in a previous post my friend Stacey and I went to the JB movie.  Well, a week later we took our girls (plus a friend).  Alyssa enjoyed it, and I had to counsel her not to be a crazy little girl like the ones in the movie.  She loves his music like me...so does Cali.  Cali watches the 'Baby' video on my itouch over and over. 

I love this mothering moment while reading scriptures.

a little love note that alyssa got from school from Ryan.