Temple Lights

We went to see the lights at Temple Square. Caleb insisted on bringing his sword, shield, and gun. His toys fit right in with the atmosphere...not at all. At least his crazy antics didn't seem to bother the massive crowd around us. He's too cute.










Inside the tabernacle:

Our Christmas

I'm glad 4 is still too young to wake up early for Christmas. Or maybe it's the fact that Santa isn't real when Caleb is with me (his words), which makes the excitement not as exciting. Whatever the cause, Caleb woke up around 8:45 and we moseyed on downstairs to open gifts. We opened up our stockings, then Nana and Grandpa Bud came out of their room to join us in opening gifts. I'd wrapped the presents so long ago that I forgot what was in all the boxes and ended up giving Caleb his favorite present as the first one to open. So it took some convincing to keep opening presents after that. (Favorite gift: Pirates of the Caribbean lego set -- the mill.)

Several times Caleb said "I'm so lucky!" and "This is just what I asked for!" and of course "thank you."

We went up to Farmington for church, to Cheryl's old ward. It was like being at a Christmas concert. They had tons of violinist as well as others playing the bass, cello, flute, clarinet, and of course the organ. When the choir sang Away in a Manger, Caleb sang along with them.

We also did some visiting, including going down to Orem to Grandma's house. Caleb had fun playing with Aidan there. Up until the very end when they got into a fight over something, which ruined Caleb's entire attitude toward Aidan. Before we left, when Grandma asked if he'd had any fun, he answered no. Not at all. Which wasn't true, but it was definitely the mood he left in.

Caleb really is such a sweet boy though and most definitely loves his mommy. He tells me so all the time (that he loves me). As I sang him to sleep that night, he said to me, "You have the most beautiful singing voice in the world."

Christmas Eve

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye always hurts. Our time together is never long enough.

Grandpa Bill

While in California, we got to see my grandpa Bill. Before leaving for the beach, we wanted to get a quick photo of him with all his great grandchildren. It was not an easy task. Well, getting nine kiddos smiling was not an easy task, but we didn't really try and instead went for the route of they are all in the picture, so it's good enough.

Caleb's Stories

I'm a person that loves stories. Reading them, writing them, listening to them. Sometimes even telling them. More than anything, I love Caleb's stories. His stories often make me wonder if perhaps reincarnation is real. So many times he's told me a story about before he was "born again" or when he was a teenager. There's one he's told me more than once about going rock climbing and his family all died but he didn't. I think that one took place in Africa, based on the names of his family members. Or perhaps another planet, like Krypton.

The other day he told me one that started like this, "When I was three, before I was born again, before you were a mom, when I was three, my new mom..." and then proceeded to tell me how this other mom of his liked her bath mat to be.


Sometimes he writes his stories down (not using real letters) and I try to write down what he's saying as he writes out his story. Other times, I'll ask him to tell me a story and will type it out as he talks.


Here's his most recent story:

Once upon a time, there was seven eight nine twenty pirates in a ship. Then they had lots and lots of food and stuff at the ship. But they never had TV at their ship. Next morning, the first little pirate went out to fish for a TV and he fished and he got it. Soon they had a TV at their ship. Soon they watched movies and played games on their TV. One day a big pirate came to their ship and said, “little pirates, little pirates, let me come in your ship.” And the pirates said “not by the hair of my feety feet feet.” I mean he says, “Not by the hair of my chinny-chin chin.” And then he cannonballed and cannonballed and then he never cannonballed their ship in their water. And it was never going to sink. And they lived happily ever after. The end.

I just read Caleb his story and he added, "Yeah, that's because the other little pirates cannonballed his ship."

Be Our Guest

After selling our house in July, we needed a place to stay for a few weeks (or rather, for six weeks). I asked the bishop if there was anyone in our ward that might be out of town for the summer and would rent us their house while they were gone. A few days later my Relief Society president texted me that they'd found us a place to live for the rest of the summer. A member of our ward had a guest house in their backyard that they would let us stay in. By guest house, I mean it was bigger and nicer than any apartment I could have afforded.

My favorite part of the guest house was looking through the kitchen window (the only window that faced south) to the view behind us (that was still their backyard). Mountains, horses, open space. It was beautiful, especially in the evening before the sun set.

We never did get a chance to ride the horses while we were there. Caleb said he wanted to, but I doubt he really did. Since well, even getting near one of the horses was rather terrifying. They were downright friendly.

Tidbits from Today

There were so many times today that Caleb did something cute and I wanted to share, so I'm writing them all down. Or at least, what I can remember now that our day is finally over and he's asleep in bed.

My car was out of gas, so we stopped at Safeway to fill up while we were out and about today. Caleb decided to get out of the car to help me. He wanted to wash the car while I pumped the gas. Not just wash the windows. Wash the whole entire car. Even after the tank was full of gas, we couldn't leave because Caleb was still washing the car with the gas station squeegee. As I watched him, I couldn't help but think, this is one of those moments where it really is the thought that counts. He was so sweet and cute, wanting to do something nice for me. Unfortunately, a squeegee isn't really the best tool for cleaning an entire car. After we got back into the car, he was so proud of his work because we could see so much better out of the windows. (I did help him wash the car, but I would have quit once the gas was done except that he insisted we finish the job.)

We read a book about tooth fairies today. It's a book we got from the library and we've read it several times before, but tonight as we started the book, I explained to Caleb exactly what a tooth fairy is and the whole idea of leaving your teeth under your pillow or in a glass of water for the tooth fairy who in turn leaves you money. After I finished explaining it to him, I asked him if he thought it was real or pretend. He decided it was both real and pretend. What do you mean? The fairy part is pretend, but the teeth are real, he explained to me.

Caleb was pretty crazy going to bed tonight. Bedtime is something I really struggle with. It takes me a really long time to get him to go to sleep. Part of the problem is that bedtime is often our funnest time of the day. There are no distractions, just him and me being together. We laugh so much at bedtime. He always wants one more snuggle, one more kiss, one more silly. And he's so cute that I have trouble saying no. He didn't want to get into his pajamas tonight (which is typical) and I said to him, "Do you want to fight or do you want to obey me?" He chose fight. But our fight was just so hilariously funny that we are both laughing so hard and there's no pajamas in sight. Trying to regain control of the situation, I modified my statement, "Do you want to obey me or do you want a mean fight?" He picked mean fight. I tried so hard to get my mean face on, but couldn't stop laughing.

Once we were finally ready for bed with the lights out and everything, after so much laughter and silliness, I asked Caleb if he wanted a song to help him calm down. He decided he needed five songs, since he was just that crazy at the moment. So I started to sing. After five songs, much silliness, and a story about being a space ranger one day, it was really time for bed. Caleb says to me that he needs one more song because he's just a little bit crazy still and it will help him calm down a little. He was still awake when I finished, we said I love you to one another, a kiss, then he rolled over and was sound asleep.

I just love that kid. He's so precious and adorable. I'm so thankful to get to spend the little moments of life with him.

Lunch at McDonalds

After the movie, we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, then stopped at the McDonalds in the store to have lunch because the boys really wanted light sabers and at the time McDonalds had Star Wars toys. Sadly, the McDonalds inside Wal-Mart didn't have light sabers. Or salads. So we decided to go somewhere else for lunch.

Loved that they were all holding hands as we walked back out to the car:


Somewhere else for lunch turned out to be a different McDonalds because well, the boys REALLY wanted light sabers. I made them promise that if the next McDonalds didn't have light sabers, they would settle for a different Star Wars toy and that we weren't going to find a third McDonalds.

Fortunately, this McDonalds had light sabers, but only one color. But while that wasn't the desired outcome for the boys, they were quite happy nonetheless.




Of course, being the responsible caretakers that we are, we made them eat their oh-so-nutritious meals before allowing them to play with their new toys.

Cars 2

After taking pictures of all the cousins together at the park, my mom and I took just the boys to see Cars 2. As we were walking (quickly -- since we were a tad late) to the front of the theater, Jackson asked if we were going to get treats and drinks and such. I told him yes, that he could have anything he wanted. He was so excited and replied that this was the best day of his life.

(Normally I edit my pictures before posting them, but these were all taken in such a hurry, that there's nothing "good" here, so I'm not bothering to edit them first. Maybe you won't even notice the difference.)

Going in to the theater (they were too quick at the ticket counter for me to get a photo):


Just inside, before we've given the ticket checker our tickets:


Getting treats -- they each got a candy, plus we got one huge popcorn and two drinks. Talk about pricey!



Caleb liked the movie. There was one part that was too scary for him. (STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE MOVIE.) When Mater and the two spy cars were tied up by the bad guys and it seemed like they were doomed to die, Caleb told me he didn't like the movie because it was too scary. Fortunately, Mater gets himself untied super fast and Caleb was back to enjoying the movie.


Nana had Eliot on her lap, so even though Caleb started out on his own chair, he quickly decided my lap was more comfortable.

After the movie, as we were walking back to the car, I had the boys pose by the movie poster.


I told them to jump, since they were so much shorter than the sign and I wanted to get more sign in the picture. But well, jumping didn't actually make them any taller.

Caleb at the Beach

The one thing I really wanted to do while in California was to go to the beach and have a bonfire. Well...that didn't happen. But after what seemed like the entire day of trying to get there, we did finally squeeze in some beach time at Huntington. (We tried Balboa first and couldn't find parking anywhere. Eventually gave up and chilled at my grandpa's for a while. Once everyone made it to his place, we tried again for Huntington only to have every entrance to the beach closed off except for one -- and you could only get in from one direction.)

I think Caleb was the most excited about wearing the new swim clothes Nana had bought him. But he was also pretty excited to see the ocean. Not so much on actually going in the ocean.




Caleb was inspired by the sight of Nick and Samuel out in the water each holding one of their kids and decided that he wanted me to hold him and go out into the water.


It didn't last long as it was really rather cold.



In fact, the entire beach was freezing. So windy. So cold. We didn't spend very much time at the beach before heading back to my grandpa's house to hang out. It was just too cold. But at least we made it there. We got our feet wet. And sandy.

(I have a ton more beach pictures of the rest of the family. Too many to go through. So enjoy just Caleb and we'll see if the others ever make their way onto the blog.)