Good times

When my friend Leslie called and asked if I wanted to make a trip down to Clarkston with her I was right on board! We are fortunate enough that it was our old ward's Christmas party and we were able to see all of our friends. It felt like coming home.

Kelsi also got to play with this cute guy.

They had a lot of fun with a few moments of fighting over who had what toy first. Kelsi is still asking for "Gant" and "Owie"(ali).

Wreath

This is a pic of my Winter wreath that yours truly made herself!! I need to get a red bow for it to cover the wreath hook, but I am pretty proud of myself. I am glad that I ended making one by myself because if I made the same thing with someone else, I know mine wouldn't look half as good as theirs. So, move over Martha....Karina's just getting started.

Season of thanks

I am thankful for so many things that I couldn't let a Thanksgiving go by without listing a few of my blessings.

I am thankful for a loving husband who is also a terrific, involved father.

I am thankful for those who came before us and the example that they have set. John's grandma Betty was in town for Thanksgiving and Kelsi got some reading time in.
I am thankful for food to eat. I have never gone hungry and I take for granted that my pantry is full and that all I have to do is figure out which food I should eat, and not wonder if I was going to get to eat at all.

I am thankful for family. I feel so blessed to have come from amazing parents and that I have 3 awesome sisters. I have been blessed even more by adding 3 more sisters and a brother and two more parents through marriage to John.

I am thankful that Kelsi has cousins that she gets to play with and get to know. The pic below is Kelsi and Hailey born 5 weeks apart.

I am thankful for health and shelter.

I am thankful for pure innocence and joy.

I am thankful for this Holiday season that allows the world to reflect on the birth of our savior Jesus Christ.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that we all remember the reason for the season.

They're Baaaack!

Grandma and Grandpa Calderwood came home from a 2 year mission in Cambodia. We are all so happy to have them home and Kelsi is looking forward to getting to know them better. She is warming up to her "Gamma and Pa".

Like father like son. Lloyd was cracking jokes as soon as he stepped off the plane!
Melanie's family, Jalyn & John and I welcomed them at the airport with a banner and flowers.

We feel blessed for their service and are thankful for their strong testimonies of Jesus Christ.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!

My wonderful husband celebrated his 35th bday this week. He had a really busy day, so Kelsi and I took him to lunch

I made him the usual. His favorite "Pudding Cake"

What a ham....

We opened presents. Kelsi was SOOOOO cute. We can't wait for her bday and Christmas. With every rip of wrapping paper, she would say "WOW!" like it was the coolest thing she had ever seen. (BTW - don't you love her bed head?)

John got a very manly tool kit that he has been wanting for a while for his motorcycle as well as a few other things.

Thank you and you're welcome bday kisses.

We had family over for pizza and games and just celebrated the wonderful man who is my husband, John.

Every night I thank my Heavenly Father for John and all the hard work and support that he brings to our family. I am so proud of the man that he is. John is a great husband, father, and friend. We love you!

BOO to daylight savings

Poor Kelsi....she has been soooo tired lately. She is waking up between 6am-6:30 since daylight savings and we HATE it. We were running errands the other day and I came home for a few minutes before I needed to run another errand, so I put in a Dr. Suess DVD for Kelsi and ran upstairs to fold a few clothes. Literally 5 minutes later, I came out to find Kelsi asleep on the couch. This has NEVER EVER EVER happened. Kelsi ONLY sleeps in her crib or on long car rides and ONLY if she has her binky. Poor kid...she is so off schedule.

Today, she was fighting her nap, so I went upstairs and asked her if she wanted to sit with mommy. I brought her downstairs and she fell asleep on me in about 3 minutes. Again....WHEN DOES THIS HAPPEN??? I savored it for 30 minutes and then took her to her crib. What a sleepy girl.

PS: John and I are FINALLY being strict about Kelsi's binky use. ONLY in bed at naptimes and bed. She was mad about it the first day, but now she happily leaves it behind. I am taking it as a good sign that she fell asleep TWICE this week on her own without that darn bink! And so, the weaning continues....

I tried to email these to the fam, but for some reason it said it was too big. So, here they are for everyone to see. Kelsi is pretty good at knowing all of her numbers 0-9 (90% of the time)

Learning numbers. John's favorite is "twoooooo".

Kelsi loves this book. Hop on Pop. It is a simple rhyming book. If you listen closely she says two different words that rhyme. The book says things like "all, tall" and "brown, down". She "reads" this book to herself all the time. Sorry it's out of focus.

Happy Halloween

This post is a little unorganized because, well, I didn't feel like making a bunch of different posts. So, here is what we have been up to Halloween week.

Kelsi got to go to a bday party for her friend Jane who turned 2. She had a great time. Bubbles, balloons and cupcakes - can't go wrong.


Here is Kelsi with her cousins Lauren and Joshua all ready to go trick-or-treating.

We went to a family Halloween party and the kids all dressed up and had a great time.

Kelsi and I decorated sugar cookies...or I decorated a sugar cookies and Kelsi ate everything in sight.

Isn't she adorable?

We ditched out on the Trunk-or-treat at the church this year, because three wards = WAY too much candy for Kelsi. I just took her around the block on the culdesac and she got about 10 pieces of chocolate and a toothbrush from our dentist friends (they gave a piece of candy too!)


John and I got to go to a couples Halloween party. We won for best traditional costumes!

We got our pumpkin carving on

The one below is my pumpkin. BOO!

John decorated our front yard for us this year.

You would think that Kelsi would be afraid of this guy, but she would always just say "Hi Doggie".

Hope everyone had fun!

The story of the comb

Kelsi was playing with her comb this morning after I did her hair. I told her that it was time to go to the gym and I proceeded to put on my shoes. As I was putting my last shoe on, Kelsi started yelling "COMB! COMB!" as she pointed to my shoe. At this time, I already had my shoe on and wiggled my toe around and felt no comb. I said "Silly girl, there is no comb in my shoe". She continued to say "Comb! Shoe!"

I got to the gym and started my boot camp class. About 15 minutes into the class, I started doing the box jump and my instructor came up to me and said "Do you know that you have a comb in your shoe?" I looked down and sure enough there was Kelsi's comb sticking straight up right on the outside of my ankle. I told my instructor what had happened and we had a good laugh. She said she wasn't sure if I just kept the comb with me at all times or what!

Sorry, I doubted you Kels!

Worst fear

As most of you know, Kelsi has many phobias. She is scared of being close to vegetation, hates elevators and so on and so on. However, the vacuum seems to have all others beat (well, maybe tied with the lawn mower). Even the mini-vac sends her screaming and crying so hard she is nearly hyperventilating. I don't know when this phase will end, but it has been going on for about 18 months or so and I just don't understand. These pictures are from earlier today. She hides behind her crib in terror.

Forget goblins and witches. Maybe John and I should dress up as a vacuum and lawn mower this Halloween.

Fun on the Farm

This week Kelsi got to go to a little farm down the street. For a small fee, she received a bag full of special food so she could feed the animals. She got to see Horses, pigs, goats, sheep, geese, ducks, chickens, rabbits, cats, dogs & a turkey. Her favorite animal was the horse, of course!

Kelsi wasn't good at feeding the animals. She fed the dog his bone from her hand, but she just threw the food at the other animals.
I tried to get her sit on bales of straw and cute little props that were set up around the farm for picture purposes, but the only thing Kelsi would sit on was a pumpkin.

Kelsi made quick friends. This is Kinzie from her nursery class. Kinzie is like the mom to all the kids in the nursery. She hugs them and says "It's OK, mommy will be back".

It was pretty cute. She just kept saying "hand?" to this other little girl, until she held her hand too! Kelsi misses all her boyfriends in Clarkston, but I think she thinks it is pretty neat to have some girls to play with!

Our little family

Here are a few pics for the grandparents. We were just hanging out the other day and I started snapping away.

She does pretty good on the swing by herself.

Snuggle time with Daddy.

She's quite the lounger.

We love our little girl.