Special trip to CA

I made a trip without my kids or hubby to CA in early March to be with Kaylee when she went through the Newport Beach Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the first time.  I was able to spend quality time with my sisters, especially Tamar whom I stayed with. I also attended a Humanitarian Project that my mom was leading. It was a weekend full of spirituality, service, fun, family...and shopping.



8 months

Junie turned 8 months in Feb. She has 5 teeth and loves puffs, mum mums and formula. That's it. She is so happy and loves to shake her head "no" and thinks it is the funniest thing EVER. We love our June bug!



This girl is on FIRE

My friends (especially Marissa and Shawnte) loves themes and they decided to throw me a "Smoking Hot Bday party". It started at dinner where we went to "Fire" for some delicious gourmet pizza. Then we headed back to Marissa's for games, dessert and TONS of laughs. As we began, Alicia Keys, "This girl is on FIRE" was playing in the background and then we played some....games. The funniest one of the night was "Karina's old Flame memory game". It was hilarious...somehow my friends had found pictures of almost all my ex's (and manufactured some that they couldn't find) and we played the "Memory" game. Yup, the one where you flip over cards and try to make a match. Once a match was made, I had to give them the "dirt" on each guy. My stomach hurt so bad. It was so funny and REALLY embarrassing.

I have the BEST friends.

7 months

June turned 7 months in January. She sits up super well by herself. She continues to love her exersaucer. She has 4 teeth, still doesn't like baby food and still drinks 8 oz. at a time. She is still a great sleeper and a happy baby. She does great for her babysitter, but is still a mama's girl around strangers. Oh yeah, and she has crazy hair.



CA dreaming

I took the girls to CA on New Years Day.  The flight to LAX was smooth and the girls were fantastic. It was such a relief.  We had so much fun spending time with family. I miss my parents and sisters everyday. Kelsi was in HEAVEN with her cousins. She especially loves her 8 yr old cousin Abby. They were connected at the hip the whole time we were together.  Abby was also baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while we were there.  It was a wonderful experience to see her make that choice to baptized.

I got to spend a couple days at my sisters house. I miss her SO much and wished that I could have spent more time with her while I was there.  She is awesome.

The flight home to CDA wasn't as smooth. June got RSV at the end of our trip and was fussy, but manageable on the flights. I also experienced one of the worst pains my ears have ever felt on the descent into Spokane. It was so nice to be back together as a family after 9 days. John had to stay behind and work.

Christmas

We had a very nice Christmas this year.  For Christmas Eve we went out as a family for dinner. John isn't thrilled with this little tradition of mine, but he goes along. :) Another tradition that we started this year was to do something everyday starting on 12/1 that had to do with Christmas.  Some of the things were small, like singing christmas carols or watching a christmas movie and some were big like going on the North Pole Cruise to see Santa. I love this tradition and am excited to continue it.

We hosted Christmas dinner this year. Grandpa & Grandpa Calderwood and the Patterson family were able to join us.  We really missed the Dixon, Wades and the St. George Calderwoods! It was my first time hosting a holiday dinner and I think it was a success! Whew!

Kelsi enjoyed opening her presents. We conitnuously tried to remind her of what the Christmas season was really about, and got frustrated when all she seemed to think about was Santa and presents, but one FHE we had her teach the lesson on The Christmas Story and she explained it perfectly. I was so proud of her.

Kelsi's school had a Christmas concert and her class was SO cute. They sang "Away in a Manger" and "Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer".



She is 5!

Our big girl turned 5 in December! She ran into our room with a crown on her head announcing that it was her birthday in true Kelsi form. The day before we had cupcakes at her school and she beamed as her class sang Happy Birthday to her. Kelsi is growing up to be such a beautiful and smart girl. She cracks us up daily and it is usually not on purpose. She loves her little sister and is a joy to have as a daughter.

She spent her birthday at a Jump House with 5 other friends and we came back to the house for cake and ice cream and presents! Later that night the fun continued at our ward Christmas party. Her day was full!!



6 months

June turned 6 months on the 22nd of Dec. Stats: 27.5 in. (95%) and 17lbs 15 oz (86%). She is a big girl.  She is so tall that she needs to wear 9 month pants already. She is a big piggy when it comes to her bottle. She drinks 8 oz. at a time. However, she doesn't like babyfood. We have tried all the orange veggies and bananas and she doesn't like a single one of them. June is sitting pretty well and is just a doll.

5 months

June turned 5 months on Thanksgiving.  We went to Grandma and Grandpa Calderwood's house and had a delicious meal and had a good time with family.  Turning 5 months seemed to flip a switch in June when it came to "strangers".  She wouldn't go to ANYONE on Thanksgiving except Mommy or Daddy without erupting into tears. Besides, that she is perfect. 



Happy Birthday!

We celebrated John's birthday this month! He just gets better with age! We are so lucky to have him in our home and lives. He is a fun daddy and a loving husband. Thanks for all you do!

Every year we either go out to dinner or John makes a special menu. This year he wanted Fillet with mashed taters, bread and garlic asparagus. Everything tasted AWESOME! (If I do say so myself).

John is anything but traditional, so we haven't had birthday cake for a few years. This year he wanted a balsamic berry parfait. It was delicious again. It was fun to spoil my man!

Halloween

Not sure how I skipped documenting Halloween! Kelsi and June decorated their pumpkins by painting this year.

John and I dressed up as the Publishers Clearinghouse winner.  We had a fun party to go to...but then June got sick right as we were ready to go...so we snapped a pic and then got into our PJs for the night (I was already there!)

June was the cutest octopus I have ever seen!



Kelsi was the scariest bat I have ever seen! Her bucket was FULL to the brim for trick-o-treating. She had a ball. I'm not sure though if she prefers to go GET candy or hand it out at the door.



Kelsi started yet another year of preschool this fall. Below is her K-4 class with her teacher Mrs. Dehlbom. She loves school!  I recently had her first parent/teacher conference and her teacher said that Kelsi can write her name better than anyone else in the class and she is the best colorer! She said that she is very happy, helpful and respectful. She comes home every week with a new bible verse memorized, new songs, she knows the pledge of allegiance and of course can read and write all of her letters. She also knows the numbers up to 100. She tries to read almost everything she sees....what are mom and dad going to do when we can't spell in front of her anymore?

 My pretty girl

 Thankfully, her teacher has not seen the crazy, picky, tantrum Kelsi that mommy gets to see at home she makes a mistake (like accidentally going out of the lines). She saves that just for her mommy.

 She really is a happy and helpful girl. She is a great big sister and I am so lucky to have her as my oldest daughter.

4 months

Miss June turned 4 months on the 22nd of this month. She is a happy little bug! She weighed in at 15 lbs 1oz. which puts her in the 85% and she is 25.5 in. long which puts her in the 93% (no surprise there!). Her head was in the 97%! HOLY COW THAT IS A BIG BRAIN! She is thinking about dropping her late afternoon nap and no longer needs to "top-off" before bed. She is growing so big! She sleeps 12.5 hours every night. 7pm to 7:30am which makes mommy and daddy very happy.

She is starting to reach for things and gets frustrated when she can't grab the thing she wants most.  She doesn't do too many tricks yet. She can roll from her tummy to back and can sit up pretty well supported. I think she is going to be an early sitter like Kelsi and hopefully a later crawler like her big sissy too! We can all hope! She is showing a lot of interest in what we are eating. Today she watched my PB&J sandwich intently and every time I put it down she would smack her lips, so I may start her on cereal soon.

June LOVES her big sister Kelsi and is just overall, a super happy girl.

We received the BEST news we could hope for this month.  Our PT who has been seeing June for Torticolis has taken back the diagnosis and her pediatrician agrees. June has NO tightness and no tilt to her head any longer.  My PT and another specialist I have been seeing suggested that I get a CT on June's skull to rule out craniosynotosis. They found it very odd that she had NO tightness or torticollis, but has some asymmetry to her head. Thankfully, the CT was normal.  It was an answer to fasting and prayer.  June has moderate positional plagiocephaly. The ratio of width to length of her head is normal, but she has a protrusion on the left side of her forehead.  We are evaluating her for a helmet.  We are meeting again after Thanksgiving to do more measurements to see if a helmet would be beneficial.  It is purely cosmetic, so insurance will not cover it. It is a pricey service, but one that I think I am on board with if needed. Nothing but the best for my little bug!

2 wheeler!

Kelsi doesn't need training wheels anymore! I'm kind of in shock since I didn't learn until I was 6. I didn't want to push her and just decided when she was ready, she would just DO it...kind of like potty training. :) John had taken her out once or twice this summer, but she was having NONE of this no training wheels business.  However, two of her gal pals recently learned how to ride, so I think that was the push she needed. John had the idea to just take off the pedals and let her "glide" around. She did that for 2 days by herself (down the driveway and down the street) and then John put the pedals back on and that was all it took! She has had one nasty fall, but after about an hour she went right back out. We are proud of her determination.

Green Bluff field trip

Kelsi's school had a field trip earlier this month to Green Bluff in Spokane. It was a perfect fall day! We started the trip with a corn maze. It hadn't rained in a few months up here, so it was VERY dusty. Pushing June's stroller wasn't the easiest! In the center of the maze was this look out tower. You can see Kelsi peering down at me!

This is Kelsi's K4 class.  She loves her teacher and all the kids in her class.  Listening to her stories are the BEST.

She was a little nervous about the train ride that took us around the farm, but she put on a brave face and loved it (of course).

This little piggy....

She also went on their little train ride. She had to watch half of her class go first before she was convinced that it would be fun. She picked some pumpkins and we called the day a success!





Kids Museum

I wish that I took more pictures, but earlier this month we went over to the Spokane childrens museum. It is one of Kelsi's most FAVORITE places on earth. I wish we could stay there all day, because she would be SO content, but sadly, we could only stay a few hours.  Kelsi spent the majority of her time in the playhouse area.  This log she is sitting on was her "bunny hole". She stashed away tons of "food".  She has the BEST imagination! I'm thinking of buying an annual pass because she just loves it there so much!

GRAPES!

I have a love for grape juice. I have never been the biggest fan, until my mother-in-law introduced me to real fresh grape juice. It is AMAZING! I canned a bunch a couple years ago and sadly finished my last can, so when my in-laws said they were headed to go get more grapes and wanted to know if I wanted any...I jumped at the chance!!! I got 25 quarts and just love it! It is super easy to do and SO worth the couple days of time to do it. Thanks Debbie and Lloyd!!

Surprise trip!

A couple months ago, one of my favorite people moved 1.5 hours away to Moscow, ID where her husband is going back to school.  It was her birthday so a few of us decided to surprise her for lunch.  Her husband was in on it, and she was VERY suprised when we all showed up at her door.  It was a quick turn around trip, but we wanted to let her know how special she is to us. Happy Birthday Month Shawnte! We love you!

Fun on the Farm

We took our annual trip down the street to the nearest pumpkin patch/farm so Kelsi could feed the animals. This time Daddy got to go with us!  It is a cute little farm where for $1 the kids get a little bag full of pre-filled zip locks with food for each animal. There are horses, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, dogs, cats, turkeys...and more! Kelsi loves feeding the horse, but is always a little hesitant!

Mama and Kelsi riding the tractor

Daddy giving the Horse some "extra" food.

Kelsi ended up dumping the goat food....it was taking too long.

Daddy and his girls (+ June's first "sit" on a pumpkin picture)

She is such a little sweetie!

We asked Kelsi after we were done, what her favorite part of the day was, and she said "feeding the cat".

4th annual "Sit on a pumpkin picture!" She is SO big!

Here she is ready to go!

3 months

Our June bug is 3 months old today. I'm still reeling a little bit on the fact that my baby is no longer a newborn. :( We have had so much going on, that it seems I am missing something!!

 June has discovered the playmat (above) and loves that little star almost as much as Kelsi did (or still does from the above picture).  We love to watch her watch the star intently and then break out into a huge smile and kick her legs.  She also loves ceiling fans and can stare at them forever if I let her.

I had to start buckling June into her bouncer since she can now wiggle her way out of it.

June also loves bath time. She wishes that they would last longer than they do. 

June still sleeps great. She is on a true baby schedule. 2 hour nap in the morning and in the afternoon and a 45 min nap in the late afternoon early evening. She goes to bed between 7-7:30 and sleeps 11-12 hours every night. We have settled into a nice routine and we couldn't be happier.

I had June screened with the Infant Toddler program to see how severe her Torticolis was.  The therapist said that there is a difference in tightness between her left and right side of neck, but not severely tight.  She thinks that June won't look to her right more out of bad habit now than not being able to.  We are just supposed to keep working on positional therapy and gentle stretching. (Making sure she tries to look to her right during awake time). If you look at the cute bath picture above, you can see her eyes looking to her right, but her head is straight on. I am taking June in for a helmet evaluation. If you look at the bouncer picture you can tell her head is rounded but it is bulging on her left side a bit and may require a few months of helmet therapy to even it out.  This has been caused by her constantly laying on her left side. Since babies heads are so soft, it has changed the shape of her head.

We love our little June bug. She is such a good and happy baby and she brings SO much joy into our lives.