Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Julia's Fourth Birthday

I can't believe it's been four years since that little girl changed our lives forever. She's such a little cutie. Just this morning she said the cutest thing. She was kissing her "babies" and "aminals" good-bye when we were on our way out the door. I commented on how she will be such a good Mommy some day, and she said, "Yep. And when I'm a Mommy, my kids will have plenty of aminals to play with." How does she know the word "plenty"? Such a little character.

I had surgery (I had my deviated septum on my nose corrected and a tonsillectomy. Not fun.), so while I was still recuperating, Lindsay threw Julia her birthday party. It was so fun. It was a Princess Party, of course. They read a story. They played games. They had face-painting and fishing for prizes.

Lindsay reading "The Frog Prince" to the crowd. Such a cute book about how beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

They were out of the Rapunzel and Princess Cake Kits at the grocery store, so Dad took her over to Dairy Queen. The gal made this one right Julia's specs.

Rileigh, Emma Sky, Emma G., Julia, Kirsten, Khloe, Sofia, Andie, Ellen

The Princess with all of her Princes and the Dragon:
Luke, Noah, Samuel, James, Max, Miles, Dane, and Wesley

Halloween 2011

I'm finally catching up. Here we all are on Halloween.


Here we have the 3 werewolves, a monkey, a princess, and an octopus.

Here's the car-ful of Trick or Treaters on our way to the "good" part of our neighborhood. Lindsay had a few friends join us. It was a party!

I chuckled when I saw Tim taking a picture of this skeleton made entirely from milk jugs. It reminded us both of my Dad. One year he made the most awesome Darth Vader mask for my brother, Matt, out of a Clorox Bleach bottle.
We had a fun Halloween. The three olders weighed their candy bags when we got home. They each had about 7 pounds of candy. I'm glad we have a great dental plan. As usual, I was the worst behaved. I just want everyone to stay together, be perfectly well-behaved, etc. Sigh. It was hard to sort of let Lindsay go off with her friends. I even tried to sort of "guilt" her into staying with us: "Don't you want to see Calvin trick or treat?" Sad. Another highlight was watching Calvin. He got seriously into it. He insisted on knocking on the door himself. And he had to put the candy in his bag after each door. So cute.

My Trip with Tim

We had the chance to take the trip of a lifetime. We figure it was an early celebration of our 15th wedding anniversary. We got to spend about a week in...Can you guess from these pictures?





Yes, it was Florence, Italy!! There is actually something dental in Florence: a laser manufacturer. They make a seriously cool CO2 laser that dentists use for gum surgeries. All of the pictures of the two of us are on his small computer at work, so I'll add them later. We had a great time.

Saturday, November 05, 2011

Fall 2011

I thought I'd keep with the season theme. "FALL". So much has happened since our trip to CA this summer.

Our Owens Cousins came to visit us on their way to drop off Lynette at BYU-Provo.

The kids started school. I'm one of those horrible moms who actually looks forward to school starting: the routine, less sitting around fighting, less frequent utterances of "I'm bored", etc. But every year I get blind-sided by how hard it is to get us all on that schedule. I was so pro-active this year. I took each school aged kid out by themselves to get their supplies (is anyone else perplexed at how every year that list gets longer and more expensive?) and have some lunch together. But even with the head-start, I still felt like it took us a good two weeks to get on the routine. Here they are on their first days. I've now got 2 in Middle School, 2 in Elementary School, and 1 in Preschool:






And 1 at home.



I love the four seasons. It somehow adds a rhythm to the year. So, after we've settled into school, we start looking forward. We notice the days get cooler. Then, we have to go get our pumpkins at the pumpkin farm.



Lindsay got her braces off.
You can see she has like 3 pairs of bands in just to try to make sure that the teeth really would be ready. 

And, we carved the pumpkins.







Sorry for the long lapse in blogging. We're all still here.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Summer

We just got home last night from three weeks at my parents' house in California.  I don't have time for a full recap.  Let's just say that my kids were in Cousin Heaven for the entire 3 weeks.  Swimming with cousins, a zip-line with cousins, sleeping in the tree house with cousins, the beach with cousins, San Francisco with cousins...the list could go on and on.  They seriously had so much fun.  They love their cousins.  I love that they love their cousins.  I remember loving my cousins.  Any amount of effort we went through was worth it.

Samuel holding the newest cousin:  Tanner Soren Call.  Samuel was so sweet.  He kept asking if he could hold the baby. 

Conner, Van, and Dean swimming.

Upside-down view of Calvin watching the action in the pool.

By some water falls in Gilroy Gardens: Van, Wesley, Dean, Miles, Julia, Calvin, Samuel, Lindsay.

Calvin, all asleep.

On a hike up to Look Out Point in Villa Montalvo.  These were all the cousins who gathered, plus  Aunt Leslie, who's holding Baby Zane.  It was fun to take the kids on a hike that we all grew up on.

Wesley enjoying two quintessential Call Family Reunion 2011 objects: the balcony on Granpda Call's 4-story Tree House and popsicles. 

Grandpa Call and Julia.  Grandpa was on his "throne" that overlooked the pool area and the swimming grandchildren.  He broke his leg on the second day of the reunion.  Sooo sad.  He was so great about it, though.  He really tried to still have a good attitude and enjoy himself and the grandchildren despite the disappointment of not being about to enjoy it the way he imagined, of course.  Notice the popsicle in Julia's hand.

Breakfast on the front porch

Lindsay and Mikaela at the piano.  Two basically opposite young ladies who despite all their seeming differences love each other devotedly.

We found a guitar for Matt to play for us.

This was on July 3rd, the day we gathered for Tanner Soren's Baby Blessing.  Awwww.

It was really hot July 3rd.  Poor Uncle Dan, he's too hot and tired to notice that cute niece just waiting for some attention.

How beautiful is my nephew, Clive?

This is such a great picture: tiny newborn innocently sleeping, proud grandparents contentedly looking on, kids and grandkids making mischief in the background.

The marble tracks were serious business: Van, Dean, and Samuel.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Lindsay.  I am now officially the mother of a teenager, but let's be honest here.  She's basically had the temperament and the independent streak of a teenager for, uh, let's see...um, 13 years now.
He loves watermelon.

Wrestling on the front lawn: Conner and Wesley. I think they were both still smiling at this point.  That was a temporary situation.  

Dinner on the front lawn: Seth (Hulme), Tate, Dalton, Conner, Jacob (I think) and Miles.

Um, is that my precious little three year old way up there on that zip line?  

My heart still skips a beat even just looking at this picture.  I had to sort of block out the whole zip line thing.  It was a little too much for me.  Let's just say I was definitely relieved when Uncle Dan finally took it down last week.


the Annual Soccer Game on the front lawn: Shawn (Hulme), Seth (Hulme), Brandon, Clive, Uncle Matt, Conner, Uncle Dan, Miles, Hudson, Dalton 

Samuel and Clive

the front porch after the older boys slept out there
So those were from the first few days of the Reunion, but I can't find the other pictures.  And it's getting late.  I need to catch up on some sleep more than I need to catch up on this blog.  Good night.