The trek home was long, since it was such a short trip. I was exhausted both emotionally and physically from the trip, so Jeff and I decided to postpone Boston's blessing that was scheduled for Sunday. I got home Saturday evening to a full house! Drew, Paloma, and Sophia were there to visit.
Sunday was a day of rest for all of us. That afternoon, we decided to take the kids to my parents house to go swimming. Sophia, an animal fan, LOVED the horses. Calvin and Sophia were so good together, they danced, played, and held hands the whole weekend. That night, I made the cupcakes for Jeff's birthday party the next day. I've been really into Cupcake Wars lately, and decided to make up some fancy treats for the festivities. The first kind was in honor of the birthday boy and was a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter center with cream cheese frosting topped with drizzled peanut butter and a reese's peanut butter cup wedge. The second was a strawberry cheesecake cupcake with a strawberry cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting, crushed graham cracker, and a strawberry slice. The third was for the not-so-adventurous, and was a white cupcake with whipped cream frosting topped with a hershey bar slice. They came out better than I had even hoped!
Monday was Labor Day, so we decided to have JEFF'S 27th BIRTHDAY PARTY at the water park in town. It was SOOO much fun! We hadn't been to the water park yet, and thought this was the perfect opportunity to go and invite our friends and family. There is a huge kids area with lots of slides, shallow water, and even a playground in the water. Calvin loved it and loved playing with his cousins who made the trek to be there! Later that night, we took Drew, Paloma, and Sophia out to AJ's for dinner. It was YUMMY and so fun to hang out! After stuffing our bellies to the max, we headed to the McCauley's for an after dinner visit. Much to our surprise, there was a SOPHIA'S 2ND BIRTHDAY set up just inside the door, complete with a barbie cake and lots of fun presents. Tuesday was a sad day as the clan packed up and headed back to St George. We had so much fun during the weekend and hated seeing them go!
That Saturday, we packed up the kiddos in the limo (our extra long, extra sweet, and super hard to steer stroller for dos) and headed for Sherwood Park to watch Cami play some soccer. Calvin loves to kick a ball around here and there, but when he saw that you could do it on a field, with a purpose, he fell even more in love and persistently tried to get on the field and show those girls a thing or two! My dad even started to get excited about the prospects of his obvious talent with a soccer ball. Lol!
Monday was pretty standard with the Smith's over for FHE and some sweet grub. (If I do say so myself... refer to my recipe blog for more on that!) This was the week of great food for us! On Thursday our ward had a "back to school" potluck, and since Jeff is back to school, we felt it fit perfectly. So, I baked up our new fav dish: Cindy's Spectacularly Delectable Chocolate Chip Cookies ( I know, the title needs work, but they are delish!) and headed to the best potluck I have ever been to, I even had to write down a couple of recipes for later use! And, that later use came in handy the next night for our First Annual Young Families BBQ at the Vrajich (sp?) house in Atown. Also amazing food since they provided the tri tip and I brought a scrumptious pasta dish along with another batch of the a fore mentioned cookies. The consensus at the BBQ was: SO GLAD THIS IS ANNUAL!! :) All of the families had a lot of fun swimming, hot tubbing, and of course eating and mingling!
So, we decided to spruce up our yard on Saturday, since I have single-hand-idly sabotagged it's beauty this summer. Which may sound dull to you, but, you should see the sweet little red numbers I adorned her with. (I would show a pic right here of their beauty, but in the minutes and days after their planting, they have been mutilated by both child and dog and cease to exist in their a fore mentioned beautiful state. I do, however, expect a full recovery this coming spring)
These past few weeks have been particularly fun with the boys! Boston has managed to COME ALIVE and jabbers and smiles so much that even Calvin can't resist the urge to play and talk to him. Calvin's vocabulary has also come alive. He's producing words and sentences that are new DAILY, it is SO fun! He has been a great help in my baking lately and will often come up to me with a cupcake liner and say "cu-cake, heeelp" or "co-kie mooore, heeelp" he really likes to bake, or rather really enjoys cookie dough! (all you cringing out there at the thought of sal manila, take note that my amazing choc. chip cookies contain no eggs, so my son is alive and well) Calvin is also in love with his new bedtime story: Goodnight Stinky Face and insists we read it to him every night by repeating "booook, boook."
That's all from my end, I will now gladly hand over the writing to my husband (especially since this has taken me 3 days with a few minutes here and there to write!)
I have a bad memory, so this is going to be short and sweet! With Cindy and Boston gone for what seemed like forever, Calvin and I had some good bonding time. Cindy was so cute, she left me little notes around the house and in my car telling me how much she missed me and loved me and Calvin too. I was soooo happy when they came back! We had such a good visit with Drew and Paloma. Calvin and Sophia are so cute together, they play so well with each other. I wished we lived closer so that we could see each other more often, I love being with them! My birthday party was GREAT! Cindy's cupcakes were AMAZING!!! And the water park was so much fun. Calvin is talking so much now, as Cindy has shared, it is crazy! I have one funny story to share. Two Sundays ago we were at Cindy's parents house for dinner. I needed to change Calvin's diaper and of course Casi wanted to help (she and Calvin are inseparable). So I am doing my thing, and Casi asks "What's that?" Pointing to Calvin's boy parts. Trying to play naive I said, "His belly button?" she says, "No, the thing between his legs." So I am not really prepared to have the birds and the bees talk yet, I said that this is Calvin's "private." Casi asks, "Did I have one of those when I was a baby?" I said, "No, boys and girls have different parts." She must have been satisfied with the answer, because she had no more questions. She just said, "It looks like an elephant." Not going to lie, I was a proud Daddy at that moment. On a totally different note, I started school at Cal Poly this past week. It is not so nerve racking starting school anymore, since i have been going for 21 years of my life now. I actually really like my classes, and had the confirmation that changing majors was the right choice. I am so happy! My life is going so well right now, crazy busy, but going really well.
