SURPRISE

A few months ago I decided what I wanted to do for John's 40th birthday. I wanted to take him to a Celtics game...where ever it was. It just so happened that the weekend before his birthday, they were playing the Chicago Bulls in Chicago. John went to Optometry school in Chicago and loved it, but hadn't been back since. I thought it must have been meant to be! I contacted his best friend from Optometry school and his wife and asked if by any chance they might be able to meet us (they live 6 hours outside of Chicago). I was so happy when they said YES! My plan was in motion!

Luckily, John had a 3 day weekend for work anyway - so I managed to keep it a secret (he also doesn't handle any of our finances - so he didn't know what I was spending and when).

Friday night started like any other - he came home from work and I left to go help with our church youth sport program. However, I came home early and told him that I had plans for his birthday and we were leaving at 6am! He had no clue where we were going. I packed his bag for him and when we arrived at the airport, my friend Kim was on our same flight which threw John off even more!! When we touched down in Minneapolis for a short layover - he found out and was excited - but there were more surprises to come! When we arrived in Chicago - I told him a shuttle was coming to pick us up. As we were walking out - his friend jumped from behind him to surprise him AGAIN! They were our ride! We had such a fun time with them at dinner and catching up. They are wonderful people, and I wish that we lived closer to them. After dinner - I asked John what he wanted to do next - then I handed him our tickets to the Bulls vs. Celtics. Our seats were amazing and we had so much fun. After the game - we walked the streets downtown and had dessert and laughed until we cried. We said goodbye to the Birdsongs. Im so thankful they could be part of John's special weekend.

The next day we walked and walked and walked all around. It was so fun to explore and see the beautiful city of Chicago. I loved it! We ate some yummy food (I got to experience my first real deep-dish pizza), and saw some great attractions.

We took the L to the airport Monday morning and headed back home to our girls. It was a whirlwind trip - but we made great memories.



More Halloween

My friend Ivy and I threw a Halloween party for a few friends this year. The costumes were awesome, the games were fun and the food was yummy. John made his costume himself! He glued it together while I was at Les Mis at nights.

Calderwood Halloween

We love October in Coeur d'Alene. The weather was beautiful with tons of sunny days. Once again, this year we had friends over for soup and donuts and pumpkin carving! Since my sister and I have not celebrated Halloween together in about 18 years....I invited her family over for the festivities.

My girls dressed up as a bumblebee and vampire this year. At first, Kelsi wanted to be a skeleton - but the only ones we could find had silver or pink bones. She was adamant that it didn't look like a real skeleton because bones are WHITE.



Lake City presents Les Miserables!

Last March, my friend convinced me to go with her to an audition of Les Miserables. I have never auditioned before and was scared to death, but decided it was on my bucket list to try out for a musical and if not then - when?

My first impression of the playhouse was a little disconcerting...it was small...like 160 seats small. I had no idea what to expect. My veteran friends tried to give me any tips they had about their past experiences in theater. When the director called my name to go up on stage and sing, my heart pounded and as I walked up the steps to the stage...I tripped...I caught myself and tried to cover my embarrassment with a Jennifer Lawrence-esque laugh. I was humiliated, but after assuring them that I was ok, I went on with my audition. It was NOT my best. I was nervous, embarrassed, but I did it. To my astonishment the director told me that he wanted me for sure! 

At my first music rehearsal- I was taken aback by how much talent my fellow cast had! I was honored, humbled and felt out of my league. I looked forward to every rehearsal - how could I not? The music was inspiring and beautiful and I was getting to know some amazing people that I would never have met otherwise.

Over the months that followed, I learned theater terms, the "magic" that happens backstage as far as set pieces, props and actor traffic. I fed off the talent that surrounded me and I like to feel that it raised my level of performance.

Below are just a few pictures of our cast and just a "few" of the people who came to support me. 

I was amazed by the transformation of the stage into our beautiful set. The behind-the-scenes artists were amazing.

 I grew to LOVE my ensemble women! Tiffany, Aubree, Jennifer, Sarah, Kim, Chelsea, Kalla, Mariah and Torey taught me so much. We laughed and cried together. I was also privileged to work with a couple of the youth, Olivia and Belle. Such amazing talent in little bodies!!

 I am so so thankful for all the friends who came to support me and our show. I wish I had pictures of all of you. It was an amazing experience that I hope to participate in again. Thank you for coming and I hope you enjoyed the show!

FUN ON THE FARM

One of our fall traditions is to visit Prairie Home Farms just down the road from our subdivision. It is a cute little farm and pumpkin patch.  My girls get to feed all the animals (Pigs, horses, chickens, rabbits, goats, geese, ducks, turkeys, mules) and we always do our "Sit on a Pumpkin" picture. Kelsi looks so big in these pictures it hurts a little. The first time she went to this patch was 6 years ago. Time has flown.

MUSIC CLASS TIME

I have been taking June to a music class every week. We love this time that we get to spend together while big sister is at school. Junes' teacher is amazing and keeps these 1-2 year olds engaged and entertained the whole hour.

 Here they are galloping after their teacher.  I love music and I hope that my children learn to love it as well.

My husband is an angel

All summer I have been rehearsing with the Lakecity Playhouse ensemble for Les Miserables. We opened in September and I knew my mom was dying to come up and see it. However, since my Dad's layoff earlier this year, I knew it wasn't likely to happen. I asked John if he minded if I flew my  mom up to see it for a weekend. He acted really strange and said that he didn't think it was a good idea with all the expenses we have had lately. I was pretty upset to say the least. I didn't give up. He finally said, "If your mom can get time off, I guess we can do it.". I called my mom right away and asked if she could make it work. She said she wouldn't know until Friday due to scheduling. I was antsy all week. On Friday morning, I was excited to call her after I got Kelsi off to school to see if it would work out. There was a knock on the door around 7:30am. To my surprise, my PARENTS were standing on my doorstep. I was dumbfounded. Completely blindsided. John had bought my  mom a ticket a few weeks before, and then my sister Shayla (after hearing that my mom was coming) bought my Dad a ticket to come up as well!! My mom was quite the good liar, as I had no idea that the story about scheduling was all made up. She looks innocent...but that can be deceiving...

 I was so happy that my parents could come see me in my first musical debut. I love them so much and am so blessed to be their daughter.

First cut

John has been asking me to cut Junes hair for a few months, and I finally gave in. My friend Jaclyn does hair, and she was brave enough to agree to take on June as a "client". She was a typical 2 year old and had a hard time holding still...but the m&m's mom came with helped keep her attention. I think it turned out VERY cute.

Auntie Shays

We were lucky to have Aunt Shayla come visit for a week in September. Tamar and Trevor went to HI for a conference (rough life) so Aunt Shayla flew up to watch their kiddos. Sadly, she came up the week of before Les Mis opened, so I was gone every night for rehearsals. But I did get to see her during the day. 

The weather was lovely, so we took the little ones to the lake while the big kids were at school (shhh!). All of our kids just adore Aunt Shayla because she is so loving and patient. On her final night here she had a movie/pizza night with all her nieces and nephews.

We love you Aunt Shayla and we can't wait to see you in December!

Feels good to be back!

After over a year hiatus from blogging, I am happy to be back! I love looking back over our family history and am sad that last year was not documented on this blog! But lets let bygones be bygones!

Kelsi is in 1st grade!

I am so proud of this girl. She reads like a champ and makes friends easily. She is very easy going when it comes to school. I had to yell at her to come back and give me a hug as she went running off to the playground on the first day of school. June misses her sissy during the day, but we have been having some fun quality 1:1 time together. Kelsi's teacher is Mrs. Burke until Dec. when Mrs. Labou comes back from maternity leave).

The 4th

We went to our wards 4th of July breakfast and bike parade first thing in the morning well....8:30. It was the BEST breakfast that I have ever been to. My friend is an amazing cook. After the breakfast we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa Calderwoods house for family fun on the lake!

 I love how my girls both adore their Grandpa Calderwood. June thought it was hilarious to sit on Grandpa's shoulders and pull his hair.  Grandma made homemade ice cream Popsicles for the kids, and as you can tell Kelsi LOVED it.

 After a BBQ lunch we headed down to the dock to enjoy the water and beautiful weather.

 The kids enjoyed many paddle boat rides, and so did Val and Dave's dog Eddie.

 I love seeing the cousins play together. It was LOUD, but so much fun.

 Aren't these too cute? Hailey and Kelsi are the same height...tall genes run in both sides of the family!

 Cousins Macee, Katie, Haylie and Kelsi!

 June loved to roam around the dock. I did my best to not pay attention since Daddy was on duty. Someone put a life jacket on that baby!

 Eddie is getting ready to dive in!

 Kelsi was EVERYWHERE in the water....until some seaweed found her...

 Then she ended up way out there. She kept swimming farther and farther away because she was afraid of the seaweed. We couldn't get her back so we sent the paddle boat after her. Crazy kid.

 June enjoyed the bobbing and swaying movements of the water.

 We are so thankful that Val and Dave were able to come out for the week. Kelsi has been in heaven!

High adventure

Last month John and I had the opportunity to take the Laurels of the Hayden Lake Stake to Schweitzer on a "high adventure". We ended up getting rained out of half of our planned activities, but we had a great bonding time. We roughed it by staying at my friends condo right by the lodge. The girls that came really were the cream of the crop of our stake. John and I kept saying how amazing these girls were.

 The next morning after breakfast we headed out on a hike. The weather started out sunny and HOT and then became overcast and HUMID and ended with a downpour. Luckily, we made it to the base when the downpour began.

 I had the best hiking buddy there. Jealous?

 I have come into contact with some amazing youth throughout our stake as I've been involved in Youth Sports, but these faces below have become my favorite. It was an experience I'll never forget!

The year I don't remember

My beautiful miracle turned "1" last weekend. I still cannot believe a whole year has passed since she arrived into the world. When I put her down to sleep the night of her birthday, I couldn't help but remember that night a year ago when I first held her in my arms. Screaming, experiencing this cold world for the first time. One year later, she is calm, peaceful in my arms clutching her blanket and staring at me.

My first few weeks with her were not the easiest, as it isn't with any new mom. Physically, I was feeling much better than I did after I had Kelsi, but emotionally, mentally and spiritually I was falling apart. Honestly, it was the loneliest, darkest, scariest place that I had ever been. I remember every day just wanting to take June and run away...where? I don't know...I just wanted to leave. As the weeks and months moved on, I tried to get back into my "normal" life. Exercising, time with my husband, my new family, my girl time, callings at church. I felt like I was putting on the best show of my life. I can't explain it in words, but I felt as if I was always having an out of body experience. Physically there with my friends, smiling and laughing at the right times - but something was wrong. I became a mother to my oldest that I am ashamed of. I reached out a time or two to a few close friends nearby, but I would never dare to confess to them where I was or where I felt I was heading. Until, one night I talked to a friend and realized I really needed help. I swallowed my pride and got help and I wish that I would have done that 6 months prior. I started to feel normal again, at least my "new normal". I shed the past and moved on to embrace the present. I can really only remember in detail things that happened 5 months ago to present. I do remember my baby growing way too fast. And now here she is...a year old and not stopping!

I am so thankful for her sweet cheeks, constant chatter, chubby legs, crazy hair, crooked smile and those little dimples. She reminds me of my purpose in life, of how selfish I have been, but how far I have come. I am thankful for her constant reminder to slow down and enjoy the present. I love you little June Bug!