the big 0-3

our handsome boy turned three! he was so excited to celebrate his birthday in texas this year...

the special day started out with a traditional birthday breakfast with his dad. they had breakfast tacos at taco cabana (where else?):

grandma and grandpa roberts took us to incredible pizza for lots of food, games, and rides. calvin got to ride the go-carts with russell and they got first place in their race!


then, back to kelly and john's for cake and presents. calvin wanted a baseball cake this year, so this is what i came up with. he loved it, and that's what matters!



calvin got to open some more birthday stuff when we got back from texas. (can you tell he still loves sports?)
everyday is an adventure with this kiddo. he has developed quite the imagination. he loves pretending to be different animals, a "sports guy," and various rescuers (firefighter, policeman, etc). some days, he's all of them at once: last week, he says, "i'm a rescue lion sports guy." it's freezing cold here and he still prefers to wear basketball shorts and a t-shirt. i'm trying to convince him that sports guys wear pants when it's snowing...

calvin's first day of sunbeams (3 year-old class in our church) was our first sunday back. he got all dressed up and was so excited to bring his scriptures. he loves his new teacher, too.
he was asked to give the 1st article of faith in primary and got a little shy, but he still has it memorized and recites it every once in awhile.

calvin loves to sing. he's like his dad and just makes up songs as he does stuff. his favorite song is "i love to see the temple."

he's potty trained! i do miss the sound of a little diapered-bottom running around the house, but we'll have that again in no time with the way mason is moving (army crawl right now). calvin did great and was so proud to wear his big boy underwear on the airplane for our christmas trip.


i wish i could record our conversations everyday! lately, calvin has talked a lot about his big blue truck that is coming to our house and how he will drive it to ohio and it's really big and his dog is in it and he will let me ride in it too. he still loves trucks and dogs. one day at lunch he was saying the prayer and he thanked Heavenly Father for the dog he's going to get. he must know something i don't. he does have an imaginary dog named frenny (?) that hangs around and likes to go to play group at the library with us.

i love to hear calvin say "silly": "siyee" and "smarshmallow." i asked him the other day if he wanted to call me mommy or mom or mama. he said "i'll call you windsay (lindsay)." calvin is such a good big brother and he loves to help with laundry, cleaning, and cooking, which will hopefully last!

we sure love this sweet boy. happy birthday!!

feliz navidad

{ i've been putting this off because i have so many pictures! i decided to try the photo collage thing this time; you can click on the collage to see it enlarged. enjoy!! }

we got to spend 2 weeks in texas over the Christmas break! we did our Christmas morning on friday before we left ohio to minimize the luggage. as it was, we took 2 suitcases (3 on the way home!), 2 strollers, 2 car seats, and 5 carry-ons (not including the baby), so i guess it was a good idea.

after russell's test on friday night:

after a 6-hour delay in memphis because of weather, we made it to grandma and grandpa roberts'! most of the clan picked us up in the rv with a HUGE welcome banner on the side! (i wish i had a picture!)

monday, we headed up to killeen to visit ephraim, heather, max and ezra. they are the texas bbq gurus and recommended that we stop at kreuk's in lockhart. we're glad we took their advice - amazing brisket!

heather and ephraim treated us to some delicious meals, a drive through Christmas lights show, and a fun visit to the 1st cavalry museum. and all these boys treated us to some laughs! they sure had a good time and calvin misses playing army guys in max's backyard. thanks for letting us drop in for a fun visit!

back to san antonio... we performed the nativity pageant at a nursing home, which i'm sure was entertaining on some level! we had a good time. Christmas eve started at bruce, nancy and grandma's home with food, ornament-making, and a program with scriptures and songs.
we got some fun pictures of 5 of grandma's great-grandkids born in the last year...
then to kelly and john's for the opening of Christmas jammies...

FINALLY, the magical morning! grandpa read from the bible and book of mormon about the Savior's birth. we started unwrapping in an orderly fashion, then had some chaos for awhile. we took a break for a delicious breakfast and then started round 2 of the presents. we were definitely spoiled! (i love the pic of russell holding up his "blinded by science" t-shirt from his parents. he looks like a mad scientist with that hair!)
calvin had a blast making SNOW with cousins that night, which was the closest thing we got to a white Christmas.


calvin turned 3 on the 26th. watch for a separate birthday post SOON, but here's a preview pic...


we got some cute shots of the boys in their new sunday suits with grandma and grandpa:


we got to test out a flight simulator at kyle's work.
grandma took us to see the san antonio children's museum and eat yummy mexican food on the riverwalk.
russell and i got to go to the temple.
kim and mike treated us to a heavenly breakfast at magnolia pancake haus.
reese let us take him to northstar mall (that's big...he's a teenager. and it was fun)
we met our good friends the wright's for dinner and shakes at ez's. so good to see them:

on new year's eve it was a gorgeous 75 degrees and we spent most of the day outside. we started with the mandatory visit to rudy's bbq:
then off to breckenridge park to feed ducks and play corn-hole, fox-tail, and on the playground...

we rang in the new year (or in calvin and mason's case, slept through it) at "the shire" (grandma and grandpa's vacation rental home). we had a shrimp boil and strawberry shortcake, played a bunco tournament and monopoly deal, and exchanged white elephants. russell and i barely made it til midnight then somehow stayed up til 3 to get everything packed for our trip the next day.

after another long day of flying we (and ALL our luggage) made it home.
p.s. this little guy came home with three new teeth on top (now he's getting a fourth up there for a grand total of 6)

big thanks to rod and karen and kelly and john for hosting our stay. we had such a good time!
worst part of the trip: coming back to SUB-freezing temps! it was so nice to fly south for a bit of the winter and now i'm ready for spring.

happy new year!

6 months!

this little sweet-cheeks is such a joy to our family. he's already 6 months old and ready to be on the go.

he has a little curly mohawk and the sweetest smile, which he shares often with family, friends, strangers, and even stuff on the shelf at the grocery store. he's such a happy baby.

mason has two teeth and has been eating rice cereal for a couple months. he recently started on fruits and veggies and he loves his peaches and sweet potatoes. right now his mode of transportation is rolling around (it's alarmingly quick and effective) and i suspect he'll be crawling within the next month. mason is ticklish and cuddly and loves to spit and make his big brother laugh.

he looks so much like his daddy. see for yourself! russell and mom in 1981...

mason and mom in 2009:

we sure love this boy!

turkey week

we kicked off thanksgiving week by having some friends over for dinner and fhe. we decorated turkey cookies:


russell was off school tuesday through friday, so we had lots of free time for some more exploring...

we visited a couple amish settlements in the area and bought WAY too many treats (cinnamon rolls, cookies, pie, pretzels, apple pull-apart bread, candy, and more). YUM
calvin also loved trying out the huge (and expensive) play sets that they build.



we came home and had a pizza and popcorn movie party, complete with a "tent" in the living room:


we ventured into cincinnati for the first time and went to the aquarium in newport. we saw the penguin parade, frogs, birds, alligators, snakes, turtles, and feeding time for sharks and pirhanas. we got to touch crabs, starfish and SHARKS!

couldn't keep his eyes off the alligators

cool jellyfish exhibit

and the new favorite, sharks! at the petting tank, he kept yelling, "I TOUCHED THE SHARK!"

my three boys (in brown and orange stripes) on the scale they use to compare your weight to a shark's. calvin and russell decided to wear matching outfits that day, so i dressed mason to go along.

we walked outside in the chilly weather for a quick glimpse of cincinnati across the river (i love calvin's hand right on russell's forehead)

the missionaries joined us for our thanksgiving feast (my first time cooking the whole thing!).

i love smelling the onion and celery cooking in butter (for grandma's famous dressing)

russell roasted an excellent turkey this year

calvin wanted to take a thanksgiving picture with this book because he is thankful for it

our feast. we thought we'd be nice and start mason on applesauce for a special treat. this was the look he gave after every bite:

friday we went to the temple in louisville and then put up our christmas tree.

these two are so alike!

this one enjoyed nibbling on a package of ribbon

saturday we went to downtown cincinnati with our friends the levin's. we saw gingerbread house and train displays, rode a horse-pulled carriage, visited santa at macy's and ate seafood.

calvin was keeping his distance from santa and didn't want to sit on his lap. santa was nice and let me sit in his big chair with calvin - that's a first for me!

so grateful for a fun week together.

warbird museum

last week in honor of veteran's day we visited a local ww2 airplane museum. it was good to learn more about that history and the heroes from that era. these two couldn't get enough:

candid shots

calvin wanted to hold mason the other day and i happened to grab the camera...they turned out pretty cute:

three halloweens

ohioans (is that what they're called?) don't go trick-or-treating on halloween. no one has been able to tell me why, but out here, all the towns decide the day and times for trick-or-treating. so, we did that on thursday, a ward trunk-or-treat on friday, and then a little party at our place on halloween. at least we got some good use out of the costumes. we had a great time making some fun treats too. here's the pics from our spooky week:

on monday, the boys and i made a jack-o-lantern cake and took it to share w/ russell and his fellow students and professors...

yes, it took a long time to make and no, i probably won't ever make one again, but it was yummy. (recipe was in family circle, but we used reese's pieces instead of m&m's and just did chocolate cake)

our cowboy and his horse rusty (named after aunt kim and uncle mike's huge dog) before trick-or-treating:

little monkey mason:

posing w/ sarah the bumblebee:

my friend sharon and her daughters trick-or-treated w/ us in our neighborhood

we made witch's hat cookies for our trunk-or-treat:

russell and mason (dressed as manu ginobili) at the trunk-or-treat

calvin and i made a spooky graveyard dessert for our party. he was such a good helper so i took a picture of every layer. here he is crushing the oreos for the dirt:

spreading the "dirt":

putting the worms, snails, and slugs in the dirt:

spreading the muddy mud:

dyeing the grass:

spreading the grass:

showing off the gravestones:

the graveyard:

more dirt to cover the graves

more creepy crawlies on top:

and, right before we ate it, we added some whipped cream ghosts:

BOO!

happy halloween!