my baby is one

actually, he's 3 1/2 and my second baby is 14 months! it's so hard to see my boys grow up. it's been such a fun year with our sweet mason, though! he's been a trooper with all the changes this year. he was 8 weeks old when we moved across the country and then waited 7 more weeks to get into our house. we've done lots of traveling too and we're so glad that he's an easy-going boy. what a blessing to have him in our family!

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mason is happy and full of mischief. he still looks so much like russell, except he has a curly mop of hair on his head that i refuse to cut for fear of losing the curls! he runs around these days and wants to do everything his brother does. he loves to climb and dance.

mason is mastering the sound effects that boys seem to inherently know. he likes to play cars and trains with calvin and makes a "woof" sound like a dog. he has learned to say "please" in sign language and "no" with his words and these are his two most-used communications (at least one is polite). he also says "hi," "hello," "mama," "dad," and "dog." oddly enough, he sits in time-out when we ask him to and seems to think it's pretty fun, which we need to work on. he's a good helper and likes to clean up and put his clothes in the basket.

mason has become a great eater, which is a total change from a few months ago. he loves fruit, veges, cheese, pasta, and any kind of meat. and, cake of course.


mason loves to give hugs and slobbery kisses. my favorite is how he puts his head on my shoulder and pats my back when i pick him up. we sure love this brown-eyed boy!

beginner's luck

we decided that to have a true "ohio" experience, we need to grow something while we're here. our first attempt at a garden turned out pretty well. in february, we planted tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green peppers, habanero peppers, and jalapeno peppers and grew the plants inside until may.

in april, russell and calvin measured and tilled a great spot in the backyard. we planted local sweet corn, cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkins, cantaloupe, green beans, lettuce, carrots, onions, and strawberry plants.

we planted our tomatoes and peppers outside just after mother's day. these two pics are in early june.

here's a late june and mid-july shot:

this was just one day of picking cucumbers...we've had so many that i've given away probably 10 or so every week in addition to trying to use them!

here's a more recent shot...

i got the "prize-winning 100 lb pumpkin" seed packet (unknowingly, of course).

amazingly, everything has grown! our corn has been excellent and we were able to freeze some for later. the melons should be ready soon and we've actually been getting strawberries for a couple months. the peppers and tomatoes are just ripening and we're going to attempt some salsa-making and hope for beginner's luck there as well.

i decided that i really like gardening. it's a lot of work, but we've learned a lot and it's definitely rewarding. last night, we had corn, cantaloupe, strawberries, and tomatoes from our garden at dinner and we felt so self-sufficient! anyway, we're already planning some revisions for next year (lots fewer cucumbers!), so let's hope our luck holds out.

the rest of winter, spring & half of summer

time to catch up. it's so hard to update this when it's been so long, but i've decided i need to start. my new year's resolution of writing in my journal isn't going so well, so i need to document our family's memories somewhere. for now, we'll go with highlights for each month:

FEBRUARY

russell turned 29! we had a little get-together to celebrate (with rainbow chip cake, of course). it snowed a lot that month, too.

russell made a lovely dinner and dessert on valentine's day
and, mason's cute toothy grin in the tub


MARCH

we had some rainy days and decided to make a box playhouse
and, i seem to have a surplus of tub pics, so mohawks in the tub


APRIL

we dyed sports-themed easter eggs this year

we had easter dinner with our friends the schenk's. pam made a delish feast and we brought lemon blackberry cake and these huge egg truffles for dessert.

russell had spring break! one of the days, we rode a little ferry across the river to augusta, a cute historic town in kentucky for ice cream

we also visited ripley, ohio, which is known for the underground railroad activity before the civil war. the rankin house is up on the hill. we had lunch at a 50's style diner... note my delicious burger and onion rings and russell's marshmallow rootbeer.
and, here's an unrelated, but cute shot of mason helping me unpack groceries.


MAY

i woke up to breakfast, a box of chocolates, and cards from all my boys on mother's day

my mom came to visit for 2 weeks! we took her on the ferry to augusta, to ripley (the top left picture is from the rankin house on the hill looking out over the river), to the aquarium in newport, and to woodland mound, a hamilton county park with a fun splash playground (bottom picture is calvin with his friend kade).

mason turned one! calvin made him this banner and we had a fun time celebrating, which i'll post about separately, very soon! we loved having grandma here and were sad to see her go.


JUNE

mason got a new big boy car seat in preparation for july's road trips. he loves facing the front like his brother. we got to go to lunch and catch up with the holt's, our friends from freshman year at byu.

russell took step one of the comlex board exam on june 15th (and we just found out this week that he passed!) and then he was done with school for a month. we went to woodland mound with playgroup friends, the aquarium, and a cool butterfly exhibit at the krohn conservatory in cincinnati:

we got to walk around with the butterflies everywhere and try to hold them. it was really hot that day, and it's in a greenhouse, which is why we look a little wilted in these pics. it was fun though, and we also discovered eden park, a great spot in cincinnati.

and, here's father's day and some recent pics of these silly boys. i still have our road trips to post about too, but i guess this is a good start. happy summer!

6 years

6 years of marriage
5 more years of school/residency
4 homes in
3 states
2 sweet boys
1 happy couple

i love you, russell!

"the singers"

just found this funny video that i took when we were visiting heather, ephraim and boys. max told me how to introduce them as "the singers..."

happy president's day

so, it's been snowing ALL day and i got a little cabin fever earlier and decided to check the mail. this involves shoveling a path to the mailbox because someone i live with (starts w/ "r" and ends with "ussell") hates shoveling snow that has been walked/driven on (the mashed down snow freezes fast and is really hard to clear). anyway, we didn't have any mail, but i decided to keep shoveling. about halfway through clearing the driveway, i realized it's a holiday. thus, NO MAIL.

love the long driveway, hate shoveling it. at least i burned some extra valentine's calories.

hope your president's day was snow-free!

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!!