Calvin Jesse turns two!

What a cute two year old! Calvin had some help with the candles after he began to think that to blow them out he should be closer ...
Miss Lu decorated the cake (featuring Percy the train per Calvin's request): mounds of chocolate frosting, sugar letters, and sprinkles if course.

Happy 7th birthday, Lucy!

Miss Lu was pretty worried that with moving and all she wouldn't have enough friends to have a party. I think we proved her wrong with a very successful "My Little Ponies"-themed birthday bash :)

Happy birthday to me

The day after we returned from Texas, I turned ... older. Dina invited us out to her house for dinner, and Nick made a cake. Lucy provided decorative signage throughout the house. Good times abounded.

Calvin Jesse decides to practice for his upcoming birthday festivities

 

We were at a surprise party for our bishop's birthday. There were four adults sitting in this side room off the kitchen, talking and watching the babies crawl around. All of the sudden our friend Petra said "Oh my gosh. Well, Calvin will do well at his birthday party!"

Nick and I turned around and saw ... a very enthusiastic Calvin Jesse attacking a forgotten piece of cake. Nobody had seen him because he cleverly positioned himself just out of sight behind the chair. 

He spent the rest of the party naked.

Birthdays galore

Somehow, Miss Lu has managed to celebrate her birthday at least three times during any given year: one with the Webbs, one with the Joneses, and one with her family on her actual birthday.

Exhibit A
Party at the Webbs

 

  

Exhibit B

Party at the ocean with the Joneses (with Auntie Juju's amazing star cupcakes!)

 

 

Exhibit C

Party on the official day

 

Happy half birthday!

Miss Lu has a summer birthday. But she did not want to miss out on a chance to celebrate her birthday with her kindergarten class. So I made the cupcakes, Mrs. Whitaker provided the crown and a cute little gift, and we partied. Calvin Jesse even made a guest appearance, much to everyone's delight.

Now Miss Lu thinks she should get extra TV time, since she's "really almost six already."

PS I'm really happy with how the cupcakes (from scratch!) turned out. Prettiest cupcakes I've ever made :)

 

March Madness

I don't even know where to start. We had so much fun in March! 

I took Lucy to the Aquarium in Albuquerque. Her kindergarten class had been studying the ocean that week, so she was pretty excited about the outing. She knew all these facts about sea turtles, which surprised the aquarium volunteer at the large tank.

Calvin's big news for the month was that he started eating solid food. He wasn't too sure about it the first time we tried it ...

... but he caught on pretty quickly. As of today, he's eaten carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, prunes, applesauce, pears, rice cereal, and yogurt. And he's learning to wipe his mouth afterwards. 

The youth in our ward held a fundraising luau dinner, and Nick was in charge of purchasing a bunch of the food, so the day before the dinner we piled the kids in the car and drove down to Albuquerque to go shopping. For fun we went to the Botanical Gardens. They had a fabulous fantasy garden for kids, tropical hothouses, desert gardens, a Japanese garden, and a working farm (among other things). 

Our other big event in March was our spring break trip up to Seattle. Calvin met aunts, uncles, and cousins on all sides!

Lucy was most excited about the fancy dinner party we had for Nana's birthday ... Auntie Juju went all out on the decorations, cake, and favors!

The best part of the evening had to be the look on Nana's face when she saw the iPad we got her!

We tucked in a lot on this trip: visits to old friends, stocking up at Ikea, seeing a specialist (and getting good news) for Lucy's eye, Wacky Six, Balderdash, General Conference, seeing Uncle Steven's new apartment, trips to the Seattle Aquarium with Auntie Juju, 3-hour plane delays, and, of course, making cookies. 

We miss Seattle and our family, but we were pretty happy to get back to our New Mexican sunshine (and Daddy) after a week of rain! We'll be back soon :) 

A post for Uncle

Miss Lu and her Uncle Steven celebrate Lucy's fifth birthday with ample amounts of silliness (and a game of hide the pink sand-filled balloon ball)

Lucy and her Uncle Steven have always been close. Maybe it was the whole being in Utah together while he was at BYU, or maybe it was something else ...

Like how he bought her her first car ...

Or spent a lot of time showing her cars online ...

All I know is, I'm pretty sure we have Uncle Steven to thank for the following story. On Monday, Miss Lucy and I drove over to a friend's house to deliver a loaf of bread. As we pulled up, Lucy asked which house we were going to.

"The one with the car in the driveway," I replied.

"You mean the one that has Nana's car?" she asked. I looked over and saw a silver car.

"Yes, the one with the silver car," I said.

"No, Mom, it doesn't just look like Nana's car, it's exactly like Nana's car!" insisted Lucy. I looked closer, and saw that it was indeed a Honda CRV, silver with black interior. It looked something like this:

(2009 Honda CRV courtesy of dieselstation.com)

Uncle Steven, all your hard work is paying off. Your niece notices cars in greater detail than her mother. You would have been proud :)