New do

Kelsi got about 6 inches chopped off her hair today. It was such a better experience than her last trip to the hair zoo.

There is a cute kids salon in Post Falls that I take Kelsi to get her haircut. As you can see, they get to sit on cute animals while they get their hair cut and watch a movie of their choosing. Kelsi didn't resist, whine or cry the whole time. She was very excited and she looks so cute with her sassy short hair.

I'm 4!

Kelsi turned 4 earlier this month and we couldn't love her more.

She asked me a couple months prior if she could have a bunny cake when it was her birthday. VERY last minute (as in frosting and decorating RIGHT before we blew out the candles) I got it done for her and she was very happy.

Very elementary, but all that matters is that Kelsi was thrilled.

We open presents first thing in the morning. When I woke up, Kelsi was sitting amongst all her gifts and asked, "Mommy, whose presents are these?" When I told her that they were hers of course, she jumped up and yelled "OH THANK YOU MOMMY!!".

My creative girl got tons and tons of beads. She has been making necklaces, rings and bracelets ever since.

She also loves her puzzles!

At Kelsi's 4 year old check up, she got all her immunizations, so she is good until she is 11 yrs old! YAY! She is 43 3/4 in. tall (97th percentile) and 43 lbs 2oz. (92%). We love our big girl! She is very excited to be a big sister.

I'll take some fruit, hold the peanut butter

John and I are expecting a new bundle of joy this June! We are very excited. We found out in October and it is STILL sinking in. I have been really nauseous but haven't thrown up too many times compared to how I was with Kelsi. I am not sure if I should attribute that to this baby possibly being a boy, or the fact that I started downing the Zofran at 7 weeks this time instead of 17 wks with Kelsi. I wasn't going to take any chances.

We surprised my parents with the news when we went down to CA in November. Kelsi was sporting her "Big Sister" pajamas. Needless to say, we STILL had to point out her PJs. We surprised Johns family at Thanksgiving dinner. The Calderwood tradition before dinner is to go around the table and say what we are thankful for. When it was my turn, I mentioned a few things I was thankful for including my pregnancy.

I don't think I will be posting monthly pic updates like I did last time around...it got pretty scary those last couple of months. However, we had our ultrasound at what we THOUGHT was 9.5 wks only to be told that our lil baby was about 2 weeks behind. So, it feels like I have been pregnant forever. I am just about 14 weeks. Baby's heart rates was 160 and then 172 at the last two appts. We are VERY happy.

As for the picture above, all I want to eat is fruit. However, it is NOT good to crave fruit in the winter...in Idaho of all places. Nothing is satisfying me. Sadly, I have an aversion to Peanut Butter, which is usually my favorite food.

I am so excited for these next 6 months to fly by so that I can: brush my teeth without gagging, eat my daily dose of peanut butter, get back into my REGULAR exercise routine, not feel like I am going to vomit at any second, stay up past 9pm (and that is PUSHING it), sleep through the night without having to pee 2-3 times (hoping after a couple months that this baby will be just like Kelsi and sleep sleep sleep), be a happier wife and mommy, stop taking these dumb prenatal vitamins and most of all so that I can cuddle with my brand new bundle of love.

Trip to CA Nov- 2011

First thing about our trip to CA, was that Kelsi overcame her fear of airplanes. HOORAY! She was great on both legs of our trip. No screaming, no crying and NO throwing up all over Mommy. It was heaven. We arrived on Thursday night and Friday morning we headed to Knotts Berry Farm with the cousins, Aunt Mar & Shays and Grandma and Grandpa Manderino.

Kelsi did pretty good in Camp snoopy. She didn't want to ride the kid roller coasters, but she had fun on the other rides. I WONT mention how long it took me to figure out how to get the kids out of the truck.
Kelsi loved the Mexican Hat Dance. She laughed and laughed the whole time.

Kelsi especially had fun joking around with her cousin Kyle.

Merry-go-round

Emma is quite the daredevil and John was nice enough to go on most of the rides with her. This one, pictured below, I would never go on. It tips you straight up and then fall face forward and then around and around...I got dizzy just watching them.

See! Totally conquered her fear of flying! She's the pilot!

The next day was John's birthday (you can read about that in the previous post). Sunday we went to church and drove out to Tamar's house for dinner. (Thanks Tamar!)

On Monday, we took Kelsi to Irvine Regional Park and visited the zoo. She brushed a bunch of goats, saw bears, mountain lions, coyotes, lots of snakes and birds.

Then we let her play on one of the playgrounds while John and I enjoyed the 75 degree weather before we had to head to the airport.

Did I mention that we went to In-n-out TWICE while we were there? Yum. AND, I finally converted John. I knew his taste buds would wake up.

Happy Birthday John

John turned the big 37 earlier this month. He celebrated it by continuing "No Shave November". Thankfully, he got lonely enough and it didn't make it the entire month. We spent John's birthday in California visiting my family. The day was spent shopping and eating and exploring his new iphone.

John wanted the below banana split cream pie. Thanks Mom and Shayla for the team effort!

We sure love our John! He is so funny, smart, handsome, he loves to play games with Kelsi when he gets home from work and he works SO hard for us. Love you!

Remainder of October

Kelsi and I took our 3rd annual trip to the farm down the street to feed the animals and pick a pumpkin. We couldn't miss our annual "Sit on a pumpkin" picture.

She loved feeding the chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, dogs, cats and horses.





We let Kelsi decide how to carve our pumpkin this year. She chose the traditional route.

Kelsi dressed up as a bumblebee this year. John and I threw together (literally) a last minute bee keeper costume for our church party.

Here is Kelsi with her best gal pal Jane. They partied hard at their Halloween Preschool Party complete with crafts, games and a yummy lunch.

SURPRISE!

My friend Shannon moved about an 1.5 away a few months ago. She and her family have been missed greatly. So, a few of us drove up to her house on a Friday night and surprised her and "kidnapped" her! She was blind folded for 45 minutes as we drove to Sandpoint and up to Schweitzer Mountain. It was a good thing we got there when we did, because Miss Shannon was starting to get carsick.

We guided her into our friend Nan's cabin where more of her friends were waiting to surprise her with a birthday sleepover.


As usual, it was a fun night of eating, playing games and talking.

We spoiled Shannon as much as we could since she really does deserve it.

We had a great, almost sleepless night!

Daddy/Daughter Date

Last month John took Kelsi out for breakfast and he bought her a bike. She was very excited to come home and ride it.

She has been getting some saddle time this Fall, and Daddy finally lowered her training wheels so she doesn't lean and fall over when she turns corners. HA!

She loves her bike!

6 years/Whistler

John and I celebrated our 6 yr. wedding anniversary last month. We went out to eat at a French restaurant called Fleur de Sel. It was tasty. I feel so blessed to married to John. He is a wonderful man, husband and father. He is also perfect for me.

The following week, we extended our anniversary celebration by heading out to Whistler, B.C. with the people that we always celebrate our anniversary with....The Evans (a little bit of an inside joke). The boys usually go on their yearly mountain biking trips without the ladies, but this year we all tagged along and brought our bikes with us!

Our accommodations were....small, as evident from the loft area in the pic below where the Evans slept. However, the location of our condos could NOT be beat. We were right in the village with views of the Olympic park.

Part of the view from our balcony.

It was coooold. 60 as a high and teeth chattering at night while we walked around in our light jackets and sweaters. It was also VERY beautiful.

The Olympic rings were right outside our condo.

The whole gang below. The Gatten, Wilson, Calderwood, Evans, Dance, Neilsen & Schofield couples.

John had SO much fun downhill biking. It was his first time and said it was the highlight of his trip. Luckily, for me, there isn't a downhill mountain in our immediate vicinity, so he will be sticking with his regular cross country hobby.

The girls all headed out together one day (minus Nichole, since she was 6 months pregnant), and had a lot of fun riding the green trails. A few of the more adventurous girls even tried some blue trails. I am not the biggest fan of anything downhill. A little scary for me, especially since I am just learning how to use a bike with gears! But other than that, it was fun and I will continue to go out with John from time to time to do a little cross country. Can't wait for next year! Maybe, Moab??

BUSY AS A BEE!

Our little bumblebee has had a fun September. She started preschool! She goes twice a week for 2.5 hours and loves it so far. I think one of her favorite things about it is her new backpack. She hates taking it off. She is learning so many new things, she seems bigger and bigger each week.

Kelsi also started swim lessons. This season, we switched to a new teacher. Kelsi has embraced it and is doing so much better than she was in the summer. Her new teacher has a very different approach to teaching, and it is really working for Kelsi even if it isn't my preferred technique. Kelsi asks her after each lesson, "Can I come back?". In my opinion, she can go back as long as she needs to.

Her favorite thing to do so far, is to wall walk. She also loves climbing out (BY HERSELF) and jumping in and turning to grab the wall.

Here she is practicing her kicking.

Kelsi has also started Ballet/Tap. I think that this is by far her favorite activity. Today after class, she ran over to her teacher and asked if she could come back next time. When her teacher said "Yes", Kelsi said "Thank you" and gave her a BIG hug.

If anyone ever needs some extra joy in their lives...go watch a 3-4 year old dance class. Too cute for words.

We love mud!

John and I...along with 17 other friends decided to run the dirty dash together. It was SOO much fun. To be honest, I was a little nervous because I had never run over 6 miles before. I actually have only been running just over 3 miles so I thought that I would be holding people back, but it was just so laid back and I was happy with my performance.

These our the manly men of the race. Jean cut offs and wife beater tanks. Awesome.

Here is a pic of the whole CLEAN gang (minus late Lizzie) before we headed over to Spokane.

We didn't want to take our camera on the race since we knew it would get trashed, but towards the end of the race, the path led us right by our car, so John ran out and grabbed it for a few shots. Overall, here is how our day went:

We arrived in time for our wave at 9:40am, but we were chatting and not paying attention when our wave started, so we were a little late out of the gate. We jogged about .25 mile till we got to the tires and then another .25 mile when we got to our first mud pit. Some of the boys didn't waste ANY time, and cannon balled RIGHT in. Then we ran for another .5 or so until we got to another mud pit and some mud tubes (which hurt btw - pebbles scraping your knees). Then it was just a run for the next mile or so when they had a pit stop of water and then another .5 mile or so until the lake where we could rinse off, clean out our shoes, rest if you wanted or just keep going. Then we crossed higher balance beams with another water pit stop at mile 3 and then another run until mile 4 or so where they had a beer/rootbeer chug. Then it was just a series of multiple bales of hay, more running, more balance beams, more mud pits, more mud tunnels until after mile 5 they had the most awesome water slide! Followed by half a dozen wall climbs and bales of hay and a final mud pit.

Our group had a lot of fun together. We walked, jogged, laughed and had a muddy good time.

Here is Kim and I going over one bale of straw.

After the race.

We are so hot.

After the race, we got to shower in freezing cold water with our friends.

I would do it again in a heartbeat. Bring it on Dirty Dash 2012!