Selin

Here's what I want in an apartment/house. Now find me one.

2012-02-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

Listed in order of importance. One through 3 are essential. Everything else would be nice.

1. Safe neighborhood
2. 2 bedrooms
3. Washer and dryer in the apartment
4. Within 10 minutes of Evan's job
5. Open floor plan so I can see Calvin from the kitchen
6. Ground floor so Calvin can jump all he wants without bugging anyone
7. Within walking distance of a playground
8. Spot for a vegetable garden
9. Exercise room we can use in the complex

2012-02-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

Today is four weeks since the miscarriage but it should have been almost 14 in the pregnancy. I wish I never had to start over counting. I was pretty much better until, all of a sudden, surprise!-I'm not anymore. Physically and emotionally. What's up with that? I mean, how long is this going to take?

Really, most of the time I'm fine. So don't feel that bad for me. This is just my first time losing a person close to me. But is a one inch person really a person? I dunno. And were we really even close? We never actually met. But is feels like a loss anyway.

This week

2012-02-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

I just realized that if I had gotten pregnant when we first tried to, I'd be two days past my due date right now. Weird. And we only waited that long since we were going to be moving in December. But we are still here and I'm not pregnant again. But whatever. Maybe it is a blessing in disguise because Calvin very possibly would kill a newborn right now. Probably not on purpose. But who knows? He kicks people during prayers since he knows their eyes are shut. Plus, I don't even like newborns. I only tolerate them since I know that they will turn into awesome 2 year olds who make me laugh during prayers. Give me a 5 month old next time. Or I'll take a newborn. Guess I'm in no position to be picky.

And potty training isn't going as well as I thought, in case you were wondering. But maybe he's improving? Maybe not too. Let's just say we are going to need our carpets cleaned. And I don't know how all you cloth diaper people can do it. Cleaning poop off training pants grosses me out.

And we are sick. But at least I don't have a stuffy nose. Just lots of coughing. I'd rather have coughing than a constantly stuffy nose. I've been boiling water constantly in the absence of a humidifier. I don't know if it is helping or not. Sick Calvin is super whiny, but he makes up for it by being super cuddly and taking extra long naps. On Tuesday he even told me he wanted to take a second nap and then did it.

Also, my sister in law Amanda made a cheesecake and saved me a bite to try and it was DELICIOUS so I am going to make it for Valentine's day. After I buy all the stuff it is going to cost me at least $15. Maybe I should have just bought one since there is a really good chance I'll mess it up. But no. I WILL TRY!

And I am attempting to make this skirt in yellow without a pattern. Wish me luck, since things made without patterns rarely turn out well in my situation.

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam!

2012-02-01T15:14:00.001-07:00

In nursery the kids get to hold little paper suns stuck on popsicle sticks when they sing Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. Here's Calvin's at-home version.

2012-01-31T21:19:00.002-07:00

I'm so glad I'm not a doctor. They have way too much control over life and death. If a patient ever died I would probably always wonder "should I have ordered that other test?" "Should I have given them a different medicine?" Or whatever might have saved their life

Cause that's how I feel now. I wish I had requested a follow up ultrasound before I took those pills so I wouldn't have these awful nagging thoughts in my head that make cry every time I think of them.

New years resolutions and unner-wars

2012-01-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

I decided to include a million pictures in this post because no one reads posts without pictures. So read away!

So I'm making some "unner-wars" for Calvin because every store (and online) is out of Gerber training pants. I know- weird. Who make's their kid's underwear? He would surely get made fun of if any of his friends knew how to use complete sentences. Luckily they don't.

But I just cut a big gash in my finger with my sewing scissors. Youch. I think I barely missed a vein because I could see one in there. Luckily it is my left hand and I don't even use that one.

I will now change topics.

This year I decided to make some new years resolutions. They included exercise for half hour a day (except Sundays), don't eat sweets (except muffins if they have fruit or vegetable in them), go to bed by 10, floss my teeth daily, memorize one scripture a month and read my scriptures daily. Evan and I also made some family goals that I won't bore you with.

Here's how I'm doing:

Exercise: I think I've done it four days so far. I had a pretty good excuse for not doing that one though since Jan 1st was a Sunday, I did it Jan 2, and Jan 4 I started showing signs of threatened miscarriage. I just started back up a few days ago and it feels great. I guess now that I'm not pregnant I have more time to work on my six pack. (Ha. Let's start with a two pack.) (And for the record, I'd rather still be pregnant. But I'm not, so oh well.)

No sweets: I've missed 12 days. That's less than half!

Read scriptures: Haven't missed a day!

Floss teeth: Haven't missed a day, despite the fact that we ran out of flossers and I was forced to use real floss. Not sure how I'll do it tonight since the sewing scissors incident. Oh wait. I never use my left hand anyways.

Go to bed by 10: Missed 12 days. But 5 of those missed days were like 10:05 or something. So that's pretty close.

Memorize a scripture: I'm doing 3 Nephi 17: 5-7. I almost have it down. It's an awesome scripture by the way. It show's Christ's compassion, and it reminds me that if Christ can put aside his plans because he sees that people need him, I can too. (There's a great talk about that here.) That whole chapter is great.

Nana Nice

2012-01-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

The other day Calvin learned the word "nice." We went through the whole family with him and asked him if each person was nice. He said yes to everyone but Lindsey and Zac. (Haha! I don't know why they weren't nice- Calvin likes them.) The next day we asked him again and the only person he though was nice was Amanda.

He also occasionally says thank you for Nana in his prayers when we tell him to say Mama or Dada.

To Connecticut... bleh.

2012-01-22T23:05:00.001-07:00

We are planning on moving to Connecticut in April. I'm not really looking forward to it. I should be, since it means Evan will have a real job and we'll be moving on from the student part of our lives. But I really like this part of our life.

I've been in Provo for the past 7 years. At first it was exciting because it was a new adventure to move away from home and stuff. But I don't like exciting anymore. I like familiar. And it is familiar here. And safe. And sunny. And affordable. And the mountains are beautiful. And we have friends and family here. I don't know a soul in Connecticut. Well, that's not true. But I don't have any friends or family there. Plus I hate winter and I think their winter is worse than Provo's.

I'm going to miss Wymount too. It is so easy to make friends here. All I have to do is go out on the playground that is right outside our apartment. I think it is going to be much harder in Connecticut. And I'm not really one to make friends easily.

At least I get to move with my best friend and my little constant companion.

On an entirely unrelated note, I painted my fingernails a purpleish color 3 days ago and couldn't decide if I liked the color or not. I think I just decided that I kind of like it. But I don't love it.

Hello and goodbye

2012-01-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

We lost a baby yesterday. Or maybe it was a week before that when we found out it was dead. Or it was the week before that when it died. It is hard to put a date on it. But it kinda sucks.

Isn't it funny how you make plans, but that isn't what the Lord has in mind for you? I know He knows what is best, but it is hard to accept His plan sometimes. We planned to have a baby in the first half of 2009. We got Calvin in 2010. Then we planned to have another one that would be two years apart from Calvin in school. And guess what? I got pregnant just in the nick of time! I was due August 8 or August 15th, depending on who you asked. And it was awesome because the baby would be born right around mine and Evan's birthdays, so we could get 3 free birthday meals at a time. And my sister-in-law Amanda was pregnant too, so our baby would have a cousin a few months older. But then Amanda and Dave lost their baby at 20 weeks. It was awful and we were so sad for them. And I almost felt guilty for being blessed with a second child right when they lost the baby they had been looking forward to so much.

Fast forward a few weeks. I started bleeding. I wasn't too worried about it since I bled with Calvin and he was fine. But when we went to the doctor, they couldn't find a heartbeat. I still wasn't too worried since by my calculations, I was only 8.75 weeks, which is pretty early to hear a heartbeat without an ultrasound. So they sent me over to get an ultrasound. The lady showed us the baby. It looked a lot like the ultrasound of Calvin when he was the same size. Except this time, we didn't hear a heartbeat. This scene keeps replaying in my mind: The ultrasound lady says, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this baby has no heartbeat." I begin to cry as she types "FETUS, NO HEARTBEAT" on the screen over the picture of the baby. Then she tells us it probably died about a week before.

I wish I could get that scene out of my head. Actually, I just with it hadn't happened. But I guess it is okay. I read an article a few months ago about why bad things happen to good people. And the answer was we don't understand God's whole plan. If we did, we would realize everything was going to be okay in the end. And we would realize that maybe the trials in our lives helped us become better people. So I am hoping this helps me become a better person.

We waited a week before I finally took what is basically an abortion pill since the baby wasn't coming out on its own and the other alternative was surgery. It was pretty awful. I had the worst diarrhea of my life and I vomited in the bathtub at the same time. Evan cleaned it up for me. Fortunately, once I cleared out my intestinal tract, I wasn't nauseous anymore and by the end of the day, the baby came out. We had to make sure that I had "passed tissue" so we could let the doctor know, so we scooped it up out of the toilet. And I'm really glad we did. It sounds weird, but we got to see the tiny little baby, still in it's gestational sac. It looked just like they do in the pictures. It was between 1/2 inch and an inch long and had tiny arms and legs with fingers and toes. It even had little eyes. I sat and looked at it for quite a while before we disposed of it. And I didn't even cry.

I realize that I am so blessed. I have a wonderful husband. I love him so much. I have a darling little boy. We have all the necessities of life, plus extras. We aren't rich, but we have plenty of money. I even get to stay home with Calvin. Other people have much bigger problems. Some people can't even have kids. Some lose their pregnancies much later after they have become more attached to their babies. Miscarriages like mine happen to tons of women.

I'm still a little sad. But you know what? I'm going to be fine.

Our sweet little Calvin

2012-01-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

We love out little Calvin and despite the fact that everyone calls the twos terrible, we think he is in a delightful stage. Here are a few things about him:

You know how some kids say no to everything you ask them? Well, Calvin says "yeah!" or "yes!" For example, Ask him if he will help you sort the laundry and he says "yeah!" Ask him if he wants to go potty and he says "yeah!" Ask him if he will put his diaper in the garbage and the answer is "yeah!" Of course, he does say no occasionally, but he says yes way more.
He likes to pretend. My favorite thing to pretend to do with him is take a nap. Haha.
He LOVES jumping. He jumps everywhere, even down the stairs if you are holding his hand. And while singing once there was a snowman. And whenever he is naked.
He loves the ipod. At random times during the day he'll say "eye.. bod," which means he wants to play with it. He has learned to open all the games and to how to watch movies. He doesn't know the passcode yet though, but he keeps watching when I put it in, so I think he'll know it pretty soon.
He is very good at giving hugs and kisses.
He likes doing everything we do. His push-ups are hilarious.
He is starting to manipulate us at bedtime. If Evan is putting him to bed, he'll say "hug mama" so he can avoid going to bed for a little longer. And how can you say no to more hugs? Smart boy.
When he does something he is proud of, he'll come over and smile at you. Today he kept putting the chain on the door and then he'd come over to me, smile, and wait for me to tell him what a good job he did putting the chain on. Haha.

Of course he isn't perfect. He has started throwing himself down on the floor when he is mad or wants something he can't have. Where did he learn that? Definitely not from me or Evan. And he still spits out food and throws it on the floor. But other than that, he is a delight. It is so fun to watch him grow and be able to interact more with him.

Calvin's fort

2012-01-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

Front door

As promised, here is a post about the play house Evan and I made Calvin for his birthday. It fits over our kitchen table. I copied the playhouse from Homemade By Jill, but made it smaller and simpler. Her's is much cooler than mine. But mine probably took a lot less time.

Stuffed animal entrance

This side is awesome. Calvin loves looking out the window and putting all of the flowers through the mailbox (which opens). The flowers fit in the little pockets on the bottom so he can take them out.

This side is cool too. The corn slides in and out of the stalk and the carrots and lettuce are removable too. So far, they have mostly ended up going in the mailbox. Haha.

My sister-in-law Amanda also made some felt mail for the mailbox after she saw we didn't have any, but I forgot to take a picture of it. Maybe she'll blog about it. But it is pretty awesome.

Calvin's Birthday

2012-01-07T20:00:00.001-07:00

Calvin turned two on Friday and we had a great family birthday party planned with awesome food for dinner and awesome cupcakes, but I had a cold and then had another medical issue come up, so we uninvited everyone, but let Dave and Amanda come over for presents and non-awesome cupcakes. So sorry everyone we uninvited! We'll invite you over sometime when I feel better and maybe we'll have the awesome food I had planned. Minus the Sesame Street cupcakes since Calvin and I don't even like cake.

Here's a super long post with lots of videos from Calvin's big day.

The night before his birthday we hung up these balloons in Calvin's doorway, pinterest style. He loved them, but pulled them all down by 10am and had fun popping them the rest of the day.

After dinner we had cake and ice cream. Calvin liked blowing out the candles.

Unfortunately, he wanted nothing to do with the cake (that he chose and helped make) or the ice cream.

Next we did presents. Calvin was great at opening presents this year. He had been waiting all week and every day we told him that he had to wait until Friday to open them, so he was pretty excited to get started.

He got a barn thing from Grandma and Grandpa Selin, which he loves. He was playing with it for twenty minutes straight this morning by himself, which is a long time for a two year old.

We also gave him a toy airplane from the dollar section at Target.

We gave him this playhouse that fits over out kitchen table, which he loves, since he has a huge obsession with forts these days. I'll post more about it in another post.

And he got some big boy training pants! I think they are adorable. And he likes them, Maybe we'll start potty training full time soon.

That about sums up his birthday. We think Calvin is awesome and we are happy to have him entering his terrific twos!

Calvin is two today! And here is a video of him counting to 5

2012-01-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

Today is Calvin's birthday! He is getting so old. Which means the rest of us are too.

Here is a video of him counting to 5. We had to bribe him with candy to get him to do it on video.

A toddler sit-up (The video should work now)

2012-01-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Remember Calvin's baby sit-ups? Well, Calvin is still working on his sit-ups. He likes to copy me when I exercise in the morning and it is pretty funny.

Pretty dishes

2012-01-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

I really like colorful ceramic dishes. For Christmas I got some Fiesta ramekins that I wanted and after Christmas I found a set of mixing bowls to add to my collection. They are so pretty I had to take a picture. They look prettier in person though.

Christmas

2011-12-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

Calvin playing with his Santa present- A cell phone!

This year we went to my parent's house in Portland for Christmas. Calvin woke up before 5am every day so we were pretty tired, but we had fun anyway. While we were there we went on a bike ride, made gingerbread houses, and had a murder mystery dinner. Unfortunately I only took pictures of Christmas morning. I wish I had taken a group picture of the murder mystery dinner because there were some pretty good mustaches.

Here are the pictures from Christmas morning:

Evan helping Calvin open presents.

"Oh boy! Pajamas!"

I made Evan this beard hat in Phoenix Suns colors. Hopefully it keeps his chinny chin chin warm.

I made Calvin an Elmo hat. He wasn't too excited to wear it at first but now he doesn't mind.

Kristy and Josh got hats from Josh's mom. They were pretty awesome.

Bruce, who does an impressive Elmo voice, wanted an Elmo hat for himself. Too bad it doesn't fit.

Christmas Outfits 2011, Part 3

2011-12-29T19:56:00.001-07:00

December 12. We are doing once there was a snowman

December 13. Wearing my light-up gingerbread man pin

December 14

Calvin helping with the cooking in my Christmas apron.

He can do thumbs up with his thumbs now instead of his pointers!

December 15. Wearing my light up Santa pin.

December 16

December 17

December 18

December 19. Calvin was extra Christmas-y that day

December 20. At my parent's house

December 21.

December 22

December 23

December 24. With my sister Kristy

December 25

Once there was a snowman

2011-12-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

Calvin loves the song Once there was a Snowman and we sing it just about every day. I don't think he really knew what a snowman was though until we made one the other day.

We got a tiny bit of snow on Monday, so I decided to take Calvin outside. He was excited to go outside until he realized he had to put on boots, coat, mittens, snow pants, and hat. I had to bribe him with a piece of candy to get all his clothes on.

Once we got outside though, he loved it! He helped roll the snowman balls a bit and practiced shoveling the sidewalks. He even gave the snowman a hug, and then looked at me and said "kiss?" I told him not to give the snowman a kiss though. Haha.

Baby Girl Skirt

2011-12-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

I made this skirt a few months ago because it looked so easy to make (and it was). When I found out my sister in law Amanda was having a baby girl, I decided to stop saving it for the future baby girl that I may or may not ever have, and give it to them instead. Plus, if I have a girl, I can make a million more since they are so easy. They are made from two sleeves of Evan's shirt! Here's the tutorial.

Christmas Outfits 2011, Part 2

2011-12-11T19:47:00.001-07:00

Monday, December 5- Please note the Christmas earrings my sister in law Lindsey gave to me.

Tuesday, December 6- Please note the Santa pin on my sweater. It lights up. Awesome.

Wednesday, December 7. I made my scarf just do I would have more Christmas accessories.

We even eat dinner out of various Christmas colored bowls.

Thursday December 8. Unsuccessful jumping picture #1

Success!

Friday, December 9

Saturday, December 10

Sunday, December 11

My awesome and slightly creepy bike ride to Utah Lake

2011-12-08T20:06:00.001-07:00

I went on a bike ride the day before Thanksgiving all by myself- no Evan and no Calvin in the trailer. I rode to Utah lake- 17.37 miles round trip according to my bike computer, which is probably my longest ride yet. The weather was pretty good and the trail wasn't too crowded.

I found a part of the Provo River Parkway that I didn't know existed. It runs right along the lake, which is pretty cool.

Before I left I drank a ton of water and I also drank some while I was riding, so by the time I turned around to go home, I really needed to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately all the restrooms at the parks were closed for the winter. Afraid I was going to pee my pants, I decided to stop at Macey's on my way back home. I didn't have my bike lock with me, and I figured that no one would notice my bike on their partially hidden bike rack. However, right when I was about to go under State street, I decided to go to DI instead since it was closer. It is a good thing I did too, because the path under state street is really dark and long, and at the entrance, a creepy looking old man and his dog were blocking the path. I turned off the path to go to DI, and the man started yelling at me. He said something like "You should always have a partner on the trail!" I ignored him, and he kept saying it and said something like "you better be careful or someone will get you." CREEPY! It sounded more like a threat than a reminder. Not like he and his tiny dog could catch me on my speedy bike, but still creepy.

After I went to the bathroom in DI, I decided to cross on top of State Street at the light instead of going back over by the creepy man.

Other than that incident, my bike ride was a fine way to spend an afternoon. My knees were sore for a whole day afterward though. And I definitely prefer the trail up the canyon to the trail down to the lake. In the canyon there are fewer bumps on the trail, no underpasses under streets, and fewer creepy/scary people.

Christmas Outfits 2011, Part 1

2011-12-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

I know you all have been anxiously awaiting the pictures of this year's Christmas outfits, so without further ado, here they are.

Day after Thanksgiving: Nov 25

Saturday, Nov 26

We even eat Christmas colored food!: Nov 26

I skipped the 27th because I got a new orange sweater that I wanted to wear. Sorry to disappoint.

Monday, Nov 28th.

Tuesday, Nov 29

Wednesday, Nov 30- Calvin loved posing with me and using the timer feature on the camera.

Thursday, Dec 1

Friday, Dec 2

Saturday, Dec 3

Also Saturday, before the Santa Run

And another from Saturday because Calvin is so cute.

Sunday, Dec 4. Forgive my dorky pose; I'm pointing to my awesome shoes that I painted green.

Travel and Prayer

2011-12-04T20:43:00.005-07:00

I (Evan)(I know, it's weird that I am actually putting a post up here) had some fun this last week as I had the chance to travel out to New York for an interview at the General Electric Global Research Center in Schenectady, NY. Ok, maybe the address is in Niskayuna, NY but I really don't know and I'm not that picky.

I left last Tuesday morning at about 5:30 am so that I could get to the airport, park and get through security prior to my 8:00 am flight to Chicago. Luckily I left bright and early because I got down to the gate just in time to hear that the flight was being delayed by an hour and 30 minutes. Actually, they had boarded half of us, I was just getting situated in my seat, when they announced that we needed to get off the plane and go back to the terminal. Luckily we got off of the plane because we got delayed again for an hour and then again for an hour. Apparently there were high winds in Chicago which was limiting the number of flights allowed to land there.(I'll talk more about this later) Lots of flights were being cancelled, but we were lucky and got off of the ground around 11:40.

The flight was pretty uneventful except for the landing. In an airplane, there are certain motions one feels that are quite natural, at least to the frequent flyer. Pitch and Roll are two of these. Pitch is what you feel at take-off as the plane pulls up or down, imagine sitting in a cockpit and angling the plane towards the sky or towards the ground. Roll is when the plane rolls from side to side, like when you are sitting next to a window and the plane turns so that more of the ground or sky is visible through the window. Although the rudder is an important piece of the aircraft, I find it difficult to feel the plane distinctly yawing, which is like a left or right turn of the aircraft. In the windy conditions, and being in a relatively small regional jet, I was able to distinctly feel all three maneuvers as the pilot attempted to land us safely. It was the most fun I think I have had in an airplane, it was like a roller coaster. Needless to say, we landed safely.

I had an hour long layover in Chicago. Wait, did I say an hour? I meant to say that since we were delayed, I missed my connection by about 3 hours. It was 4:00 pm instead of 12:00 pm. The staff on our plane told us a representative would meet us by the gate with connection information. A few of us inquired a United Airlines employee standing in the gate area, but she pretty rudely informed us to go get in line at some customer service booth. So, I set off for the line with the rest of the crowd. Luckily I was towards the front of the plane, thus I was towards the front of the line.

It was about this time that I checked my phone to discover a message from United Airlines about the connection that I missed. The message informed me that I had been re-booked on a flight out of Chicago on Wednesday morning to Washington DC, and then from there to Albany, my final destination. These flights would get me in to Albany by 1:30 pm Wednesday afternoon, about an hour and 30 minutes after I was supposed to meet my tour guide buddy at GE. Hmm...This wasn't sounding good.

As I got to the customer service desk, I tried to be nice to the woman helping me because I am sure she was having just as bad a day working as the rest of us were having travelling. I knew there were a few more flights out of Chicago to Albany that night, so I asked about them. She said they were all booked or gone. After some further searching, she informed me that there was no way to get there before Wednesday about mid-day. This worried me because I would have to stay the night in Chicago and I didn't want to shell our any money for a hotel, but I didn't want to spend the night in the airport either. As the woman tried to find my earliest flight in to Albany, I offered a silent prayer that I might be able to make it on the last flight of the day so that I could sleep and be on time for my activities.

I asked her if it was possible for me to get on a standby list for a later direct flight to Albany. She said I could but there were lots of people on standby and the chances were not good. She thought I should just get out of there the next morning as early as possible. Her supervisor came over and needed to use her computer for a minute and I took a moment to collect my thoughts and worries about not making my interview on time. After the supervisor left, she again reiterated that standby was probably a long shot. She gave one last final effort to find a better flight, but there was no luck. She printed a boarding pass and handed it to me. I didn't know what it was for, so I just asked her which gate to go to for standby. SHe told me to look again. So I looked for the first time at the pass. It took a while to register with me, but somehow she had gotten me an actual seat on the flight that I needed to Albany that night, getting in around 11:00pm. It was really weird, because she never told me that she had succeeded, she just gave me the pass and told me to look at it.

As I walked away, I had the distinct impression that Heavenly Father listens to prayers. Who knows, maybe I would have gotten on the flight had I not said a prayer. But I had prayed and I had gotten on the flight, without even having to do standby. It is comforting to know that the things which are important to us are important to God. I felt it a great blessing to not have to worry about spending the night in the airport and making it to GE on time. I knew I would make it to Grandma and Grandpa Selin's house that night and that I would be on time to my interview. I turned my attention to getting to my gate, finding something to eat, and killing the 4 hours left until the flight out of Chicago.

More on my trip in a day or so...

Santa Run

2011-12-04T20:18:00.003-07:00

I love all things Christmas, so when I learned about the The Provo Santa Run, I knew I had to sign up. I've never run a 5k race in my life. I think maybe when I was a freshman I may have run for almost three miles straight one time, but that was seven years ago. Recently I've been trying to run, but when I make it to a mile and a half or two miles my knee starts hurting. Luckily though, this course was flat and I ran the whole thing without stopping to walk! I think my time was around 34 mins. Not great, but not terrible either!

The whole atmosphere of the race was fun. Before the race began, some santas were giving out gifts to all the kids so Calvin got a little toy firetruck.

The race was a loop in downtown Provo with three laps around the loop. It was pretty cool to look in front of me and just see tons of santas (and a few grinches) running down the road. There were milk and cookies at the aid stations (and water), with little kids in "Santa's Helpers" shirts encouraging us along. It was a pretty fun and low key race. I think it was the perfect choice for my first 5k.
Here are some videos of the start of the race.

If you watch this video about a million times, you might be able to see me run past. You can see my face on the right side of the screen for about a tenth of a second at second 43.

Calvin wearing earmuffs

2011-11-30T13:14:00.001-07:00

Just kidding. They aren't earmuffs. They are for wrestling and we all know wrestlers wouldn't wear ear muffs.

Shoes

2011-11-29T13:20:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of Calvin wearing my shoes. And no, I did not tell him to.

One thing I'll miss about Wymount

2011-11-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

We have always had great views out the windows of our apartments in Wymount. Here are a few pictures I have taken over the past few weeks of the view out our window. It looks better in person than it does int these pictures.

Lovely!

Tiny tartlets

2011-11-26T11:15:00.009-07:00

Need something to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers? Look no further.

I saw a picture in Better Homes and Gardens magazine of tiny appetizers made of tiny pie crusts filled with various things. I used to hate pie crust, but ever since I discovered this recipe [(http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/butter-flaky-pie-crust/detail.aspx)-Sorry, blogger won't let me add links right now.] made with butter, I have loved pie crust. So our dinner last night was very delicious and VERY fattening. I made the crusts in a muffin tin and filled them with leftovers from Thanksgiving. My favorite was the one filled with turkey, hummus, and apples. We also had one made of mashed potatoes and gravy, one with cottage cheese, ham, and pineapple, and one with balsamic vegetable mix.

Jumping on the couch

2011-11-25T12:44:00.002-07:00

If you come over to our house unannounced, most likely all of the couch cushions will be on the floor because our couch is Calvin's new favorite toy! He likes to hide under the cushions and jump on the couch.

He probably spends half an hour to an hour jumping on the couch each day. It certainly keeps him occupied.

Calvin the weight lifter

2011-11-24T12:39:00.002-07:00

As you may remember, I've been doing some ab workouts, one of which requires weights.

Unfortunately, Calvin loves the weights, which makes exercising kinda hard for me. But it is pretty cute when he tries to lift them.

My pie mishap

2011-11-23T12:31:00.002-07:00

Ever since I made that spider pot pie, I've been wanting to make a pie just so I could eat some more pie crust. We had a whole bunch of apples, so a few weeks ago I made an apple pie.
Unfortunately, I wanted to eat it right away and when I cut into to my still warm pie, I found not pie, but pie soup. I didn't take a picture, but you can imagine what it looked like.

Don't worry. I ate it anyway. And the crust was delicious!

Meat!

2011-11-22T12:27:00.001-07:00

Apparently one time Evan's family went to Tucanos and the meat server asked Evan's brother Isaac what he would like him to bring. Isaac responded "meat!" Then the server asked what kind of meat, and Isaac responded once again, "meat!"

So here is Calvin's impression of Isaac.

Our Thanksgiving decoration

2011-11-21T12:21:00.003-07:00

I love to decorate for Christmas, but I don't usually do anything for Thanksgiving. This year though, we made a thankful branch for our front door.

Please note, Selin family, that Evan, the reigning sandwich king, is thankful for sandwiches.

Hike in Rock Canyon

2011-11-04T20:30:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago we had a family home evening lesson on God creating the Earth and for an activity we went for a hike in Rock Canyon.

Calvin loved to climb the rocks, as always.

The leaves were finishing up changing colors. Unfortunately, Evan didn't get to see it as pretty as it was when I took Calvin hiking there a week earlier.

Calvin's Halloween costume and our Halloween activities

2011-11-03T20:18:00.002-06:00

Our ward Halloween party was more than a week before Halloween this year and the day of the party, we hadn't thought of costumes. Calvin was playing with a rolled up camping foam pad and we decided to make it into his costume since he liked being in it so much.
We thought it turned out pretty cute.

We also took Calvin to the Halloween Spooktacular at BYU last Thursday. He had fun playing all the games and getting candy. He colored a trick-or-treat bag, shot Severus Snape with a dart gun, fished for a rubber duckie, rolled tennis balls into a muffin tin, miniature golfed, and pinned a patch on a pirate. And colored in a Halloween coloring book.

These pictures are from the Spooktacular.

On Friday Evan and I went to listen to scary stories in the Provo library attic. That was pretty cool. They had the attic set up with scary decorations and a professional story-teller dressed as a witch came and told scary stories. The best part was, it was free! And so were our babysitters!

On Monday we took Calvin trick-or-treating to a grand total of two apartments. Dave and Amanda's and their neighbors. His candy didn't even last through bedtime.

Halloween Dinner

2011-11-02T12:55:00.001-06:00

You may remember our Halloween dinner two years ago. (If not, you can click the link). This year, we did it again, but had different food this time. I've included the link where I got the idea for the food, but I didn't follow any of the recipes.

We ate pumpkin deviled eggs,
Mashed boo-tatoes,
and spider pot pie. (And I made the pie crust from scratch and it was delicious!)

Calvin helped put the eyes on. (Actually, he was trying to take them off and eat them.)

My prize winning pumpkin (cheesecake) pie

2011-11-01T11:11:00.003-06:00

As part of our ward Halloween party, we had a pumpkin pie contest. I decided to enter and I won first place! Which is impressive, because usually everything I cook turns out badly because I never follow recipes. I kinda cheated though because I made a pumpkin cheesecake in a pie pan instead of a pumpkin pie. My sister in law Amanda made a pumpkin cream pie, which took third place. She even used real pumpkins, which is more than I can say for myself.

Here is my recipe. It is adapted from November 2010 Parenting, the Early Years magazine. If you make it, be prepared to spend several hours making it since the cream cheese has to come to room temperature, then it has to bake for an hour, sit in the oven for another hour, and cool down before you can put it in the fridge. Then it is best if it sits in the fridge for several hours before you eat it.

Crust
You'll need to make two if you use a pie dish. That means make the crust recipe twice.
1 1/4 cup finely crumbled graham crackers
5 T butter, melted
1/4 C sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9" glass pie pan with cooking spray (or I suppose you could use a springform pan. I tried one but didn't like it as much).
2. Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar. Pat mixture down on bottom and sides of pie dish.
3. Bake 10 mins, then let cool.

Filling
24 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 C sugar
3 T flour
1 t Vanilla
5 large eggs
3/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t allspice
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground nutmeg
15oz can pumkin puree
1/4 C brown sugar
2/3 C sour cream (I've tried with full fat and fat free. Both taste great.)

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
2. Beat cream cheese and sugar together
3. Add pumpkin, spices, flour, vanilla, brown sugar, and sour cream. Mix.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, until just blended.
5. Pour filling into cooled crust.
6. Place in center of oven and bake one hour. (The cake will not be set yet.) Tun off oven and let it sit in there for one more hour.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool. I like to add white chocolate flakes as soon as it comes out so they melt on top and cover any major cracks.
8. Refrigerate at least 6 hours.

PS Check out the time this post was posted. Awesome, right?

The potty training has begun!

2011-10-31T12:24:00.002-06:00

A girl in my ward is potty training her 14 month old boy, so I thought maybe my 22 month old could get started too, so we tried letting him sit on the toilet a couple of times, but he hated it.

Then, on Saturday, I bought him a Sesame Street potty seat. I guess he loves seeing all his Sesame Street friends while he sits on there, because it sure did the trick. Last night he did a tiny poo-poo and he peed in the toilet twice today so far!

He also sat on the toilet 3 or 4 times without going potty just because he loves sitting on there so much. Haha.

Our prize

2011-10-29T22:04:00.000-06:00

Evan and I went on a date to the nickel arcade a few weeks ago. It was pretty fun and I even got a sore arm from this one game where you throw balls at a big screen. Kinda embarrassing.

Anyway, we got this little dinosaur for Calvin with our tickets and Calvin really likes it. So does Evan. And he is really proud that we won it with our tickets.

Calvin loves his stuffed animals

2011-10-28T22:37:00.001-06:00

Calvin's favorite toys these days are his stuffed animals. He lives to hug them and kiss them and pretend that they can walk and bring them to to grocery store. And invite them to family home evening. It is pretty cute. He even shares his blankies with them.And when he takes a nap or goes to bed, he hugs and kisses each one and puts them to bed in their closet.

This is what happens when Calvin gets the camera

2011-10-27T22:10:00.002-06:00

Thank you Evan

2011-10-26T23:15:00.001-06:00

As we were laying in bed last night Evan was telling me about a conversation he had with some guys down in the lab. He told them that women look funny when they are really pregnant. As a previously pregnant person, I thought maybe he shouldn't be telling me this, but he told me that of course I didn't look funny when I was pregnant. Only other people do.

A few minutes later he said, "So have you been doing a lot of sit-ups lately so you don't show as early when you get pregnant?"

I responded, "Well... yes. But it isn't working."

To which he replied, "Why? Because you are already showing and you aren't even pregnant?"

And then I punched his arm.

Stewart Falls

2011-10-25T21:49:00.000-06:00

Evan and I went on a date to Stewart Falls a little while ago. It was very pretty and we were fast! It is supposed to take two hours and it only took us an hour and a half. Nice. But these pictures don't so it justice at all. I am certainly going to miss living so close to these mountains when we leave Provo. They are beautiful!

Skirt and diaper cover

2011-10-23T21:38:00.000-06:00

I made these for a friend's baby shower the other day. I loved them so much that I also made a matching set for a little girl that we may or may not have some day (or for another baby shower). Here is the diaper cover tutorial and pattern.
Elmo is a great model.

Fork? Or is it...

2011-10-22T21:34:00.001-06:00

Calvin says a lot of words that are kinda funny. Here is one of them.

We found this in the closet

2011-10-21T21:29:00.000-06:00

Changing diapers

2011-10-20T20:42:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago in the middle of Sacrament meeting, Calvin took the diaper clutch out of the diaper bag, spread out the changing pad, and changed his toy lion's diaper. I thought it was hilarious. Since then, he has been doing lots of diaper changing. Check it out:

He also changes Evan's.

Our dumb computer

2011-10-02T18:26:00.002-06:00

Remember this post? How we bought a brand new Dell computer less than a year and a half ago?

Well, our warranty ran out in April and just after that, our DVD player stopped working. Then a few weeks ago the battery stopped working well. Then when Evan was in Connecticut and was trying to put some finishing touches on his presentation for a job interview, the power cord stopped working. He got it to work again the next day and it has been working off and on for the past two weeks, but yesterday it stopped working, probably for good.

I'm really mad. My Toshiba still works and it is more than 7 years old. I took that thing to school with me all the time. And probably dropped it a bunch of times. And it still works! The Dell is just lame. I don't want to buy a new battery, power cord, and DVD player, but I don't want to buy a new computer either.

The really dumb part is Dell won't even let me email them since I didn't buy their support package. I have to call them on the phone. Which I don't want to do because I'm pretty sure they will just tell me I can buy all those parts from them for about half as much as it cost to buy the computer.

Eh. So annoyed. Anyone have experience getting them to fix stuff when it isn't under warranty?

Our little baker

2011-09-27T21:00:00.002-06:00

Calvin helped me make some pizza dough the other day. Here's proof:

His biggest smile

2011-09-25T20:57:00.001-06:00

Update on the girl who wouldn't stop texting me

2011-09-10T14:30:00.001-06:00

I forgot to tell you all about this.

A day or two after I called the girl at 4 in the morning, someone else texted me inviting me to her birthday party. I didn't go. Ha.

Then two days later, she sent me another text! I called her back immediately and got really mad at her and told her to remove my number from her phone immediately. She said something about her cousin getting a new phone blah blah. I still don't understand how after everything she could still think my number was her cousin's new number. But whatever. I think I scared her even more this time because I was pretty forceful. And she got off the phone as quick as she could. She hasn't texted me since, so hopefully she finally understands.

Gnome hat

2011-09-09T14:23:00.002-06:00

I've had this hat bookmarked for a long time and I finally decided to take a break from my afghan and make it. It went so fast that I want to make a bunch more! Well, probably not. But maybe some kind of hat for me (not this one though! Ha.)

Lemon cookies. Yum.

2011-09-06T21:20:00.002-06:00

This is not my photo. It came from here. But it is now my recipe. I've made these cookies four times since I discovered the recipe about 2 weeks ago via Pinterest. And they are sooooo good. I add a little more lemon zest and lemon juice than the recipe calls for since I like them extra lemony. If you see me in a few months and I look extra fat, don't assume I'm pregnant. I'll just be hundreds of cookies permanently making their home in my fat stores throughout my body. Yum.

Tomato Zucchini Pie

2011-09-05T12:18:00.004-06:00

I've been cooking a lot of new recipes these days to creatively use the produce from our garden. On Saturday, I made Martha Stewart's tomato zucchini pie. It was quite the ordeal.

I started by watching her video of how to make the pie. There was my first mistake. She showed how to make the pie crust in a food processor, but after adding all the ingredients, I realized that my food processor is about half the size of hers and it would not work. Then I realized I forgot to add the egg. Then I added twice as much water as I was supposed to. Then I realized I forgot to put the cheese in, so I threw it away and started over. The second time went much better.

By then, I was really invested in this meal so I decided not to make some of the substitutions I was originally going to make. We only had shredded mozzarella and dried basil so I sent Evan to the store to get a chunk of mozzarella (still substituting that for bocconcini). I ended up using dried basil anyway since the fresh stuff was so expensive.

Meanwhile, I burned the onions but decided to use them anyway.

Then, of course the dough kept breaking when I rolled it out and then it stuck to the counter. I had to use a spatula to get it off. The whole time I was cursing Martha Stewart, who made it look so easy in the video. Of course her dough was already rolled out for her and cut in a perfect circle.

Luckily, it all came together, despite the fact that I made substitutions for about half the ingredients (margarine for butter, three cheese mix for parmesan, medium egg yoke for large egg yoke, cubed mozzarella for bocconcini, dried basil for fresh, a few regular tomatoes with juices drained for half the cherry tomatoes, and red onion and green onion for shallot).

This is what it looked like before going into the oven:

This is what I took care of while it was in the oven:

And this is what it looked like when it came out (not as pretty as Martha's, I know).

Luckily, it tasted delicious. The cherry tomatoes exploded in your mouth and it was so cheesy and wonderful. If you have hours to spend cooking, you should try it. It was delicious.

Pictures on Facebook

2011-08-27T13:17:00.004-06:00

My brother has a fancy camera and took some pictures for us while we were in Idaho. Here's a sampling, but you can see more by clicking on this link: Facebook Photos

The girl who wouldn't stop texting me

2011-08-25T21:13:00.005-06:00

Several months ago I started getting texts from a random phone number. They all went something like this:

FWD:FW:Fwd:Fwd:FW:FWD:FWD:FWD: [A picture of a heart or something] Do as it says tonight the one u love will suddenly want u and fall for u more:) Send to 10 people and u will find true love. Send to 1 or 0 people or BAD LUCK STARTS NOW

At first I just ignored them, thinking they might stop or at least wouldn't get worse if I ignored them. But then they kept coming. At times like 12am, when I was asleep. It began to get really annoying. I began to figure it was a 12 year old girl (who else would believe the curses at the end of a forward?) so I texted her back, told her I did not know who she was asked her to stop texting me immediately. She responded with surprise (and a profanity) that I didn't know who she was, so I made it clear that she had the wrong number.

Fast forward a few weeks. She hadn't texted me at all during those weeks, but at 11pm on while we were on vacation in Idaho, I got two more texts from her, one with a couple making out in their swimsuits on a beach and the words:

Fwd:FW:Fwd:FW:FW:Fwd:FW:FW:Fwd:FWD:FW:FW:FW:Msg: Middle school couples: almost 96% of people marry their high school sweethearts. Because you opened this you will get kissed on Friday by the person u luv or like & tomorrow will be the best day of your life.Do not break this chain. U have 2 minutes this is not a fake. Forward this to 14 people in the next 10 minutes and you WILL have the best day of your life tomorrow. You're number one crush will KISS,ask u out, or call u.If you break this chain the little girl from the RIng will be in your r0om tonight.

(Please note that the grammar errors are not mine.)

I was cracking up just now as I typed out that text. I mean seriously, who believes this stuff and actually forwards it? So I texted her back again and told her she had the wrong number, to which she replied, "What the h*** y not u getting a new phone?" I didn't respond. But the next day she sent me two more texts, so Evan called her and left her a message, telling her to remove my number from her phone.

Apparently she didn't get the message though, because last night I got another two from her at midnight. I read them until 5:45am this morning when I woke up and I promptly decided to call her. I assume that she is in Portland though and it was 4:45am there. She answered in a very sleepy voice and I said something like "I have asked you to remove my number from your phone several times. My husband called you and asked you to stop texting me. I want you to remove my number from your phone, and do not ever text me again, do you understand?" I think I scared her because all she said was "yes" in a very timid voice.

I felt kinda bad about being so mean, but I hope I got my point across.

Now we'll see if she follows through. If not, I suppose I'll call her every morning when I wake up since she seems to text me before she goes to bed.

Happy Anniversary to us

2011-08-25T06:27:00.000-06:00

Photo courtesy of Bruce Christensen

Four years today! I love you Evan.

Back from Vacation

2011-08-24T19:56:00.002-06:00

We just got back from vacation with my (Shanna) family in Driggs, Idaho. We had a good time and Calvin learned a lot of things like how to climb out of the pack and play and how to open doors. We were hoping the doors in our apartment would be harder to open, but they aren't and we'll be buying door knob covers tomorrow to keep him from escaping or flushing the toilet a million times a day.

We stayed in a big cabin (really just a house on a few acres of grassy land) and coming home reminds us of how tiny our apartment is. But it is good to be home where Calvin can't climb out of his crib (yet).

I may blog about it more later, but no promises since many of the people who read this blog were there with us and don't need to hear about it.

Why is it awesome to have a birthday three days away from your spouse's birthday

2011-08-10T11:42:00.004-06:00

To all of you who aren't married yet, I would highly suggest only dating people who have birthdays within a week of yours. "But then I'll have to share my birthday!" you might say. Let me tell you though. It is awesome.

Every year Evan and I can use all our free birthday meals at the same time. This year we'll be going to Red Robin, Noodles, Fudruckers, and Baskin Robbins for free (except a tip at Red Robin). We'll also be going to Jason's Deli and possibly IHOP and Tucanos. Awesome, right?

Even if you don't have a spouse with a birthday near yours, here are all the birthday club deals we signed up for:

Noodles (Thanks for telling me about this one Cathy!): free meal up to $7.50
Fuddruckers: Free 1/3 lb burger or other entree of equal or lesser value
Red Robin: Free gourmet burger of your choice
Ihop: Free Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n Fruity or menu item of equal or lesser value (I think there is only one allowed per table though. Maybe I'll take Calvin.)
Jason's Deli: $5 off any item (they have a few menu items priced around $5 and most aren't much more than that)
Baskin Robbins: Free 2.5oz scoop or 3 oz soft serve
Cold Stone: Buy any creation, get one free (We probably won't use this one this year since it is BOGO)
Tucanos: Free meal when you buy one in the month of your birthday (We may or may not use this)

I'm so excited!!!

Thunderstorm face

2011-08-05T12:31:00.000-06:00

This is the face Calvin kept making whenever he heard a big clap of thunder outside. Except it was even funnier than the pictures show.

Playing in the rain

2011-08-04T12:18:00.002-06:00

Last week we had some really big thunderstorms. During one of them, Evan let Calvin play outside on our balcony. He got completely soaked, but look how much fun he had!

Progress on my granny square blanket

2011-08-03T12:08:00.003-06:00

Remember this post? Well, I learned to crochet and I have now made 73 granny squares. Or rather, the circle part of them. I'd say I may be 1/3 done. And then I'll have to join them all with white yarn. Yikes.
You also may notice that they vary quite a bit in size. Whoops. Hope they will still work.

Words

2011-07-27T13:22:00.000-06:00

Calvin's vocabulary has been improving a lot recently. In fact, the other day I was giving him a bath (something Evan always does) and he kept whining and reaching for the baby bath. I thought he was just being whiny until he said "bubble!" and then I realized I forgot to put bubbles in the water.

Here is a video from last week of him saying a few words:

A couple of videos of Calvin

2011-07-26T13:09:00.002-06:00

Evan stuffed a beach ball in a sleeping bag and Calvin had a fun time throwing himself on top of it.

Apparently Evan's family used to play a game called "piano." I have no idea why they called it that or why they even played it, but Calvin likes it:

Pictures of our garden

2011-07-25T15:17:00.000-06:00

As I have mentioned before, we have a plot in a community garden in south Provo. Here are some pictures from last Thursday.

Green beans:
Cucumber:

Pepper, with zucchini behind it:

One of our last heads of lettuce (they are bolting):

The whole garden:

So far we have only harvested lettuce and one banana pepper, but we are hoping some tomatoes will be ready soon!

For Evan's Dad

2011-07-24T13:07:00.001-06:00

Evan wanted me to post this video for his dad, who is always trying to get Calvin to high-five, pound it, and tickle.

A few things

2011-07-24T12:47:00.004-06:00

Evan and I gave talks in church today for the first time in maybe 3 years. No one he called to give talks last week called him back so on Wednesday he told me that we were giving talks. I think we both did reasonably well. Mostly I'm glad it's over.

We went on a 15 mile bike ride on Saturday. Evan pulled the trailer and I actually went faster than him this time! All my training pulling the trailer is paying off! And I got a computer thingy for my bike that calculates how fast I am going and a bunch of other stuff. My max speed was 23mph and average was 13mph or something.

Did you know that the Cafe Rio tortillas have 14 grams of fat and 420 calories?! Wow. No wonder they taste so good!

Biking

2011-07-19T15:03:00.004-06:00

Just to let you all know, I am still using our bike trailer! I consider that a pretty good accomplishment since I tend to get really exited about a certain form of exercise and then quit doing it a week or two later. I've been going down the canyon about twice a week and today I pulled Calvin the farthest I've done so far- 15 miles. My knees tend to hurt when I go too far, but I am slowly working up to longer distances.

Evan has also been riding a lot. He is doing a 111 mile ride in a few weeks, so he has been doing some training rides. On Saturday he went 60 miles. That's a lot more than the 13 I did on Saturday, but he wasn't pulling Calvin. Who am I kidding?! That wasn't the real reason he went way further than I did. He is just much more athletic than I am. And that is why I will not be riding 111 miles with him.

Haircut

2011-07-17T12:05:00.001-06:00

I got my haircut on Wednesday. It has been a while since it was this short and I always forget how much I like short hair.

New Skirt

2011-07-16T11:57:00.006-06:00

I got this roll of eyelet fabric at DI for a dollar a while ago. And I made a skirt out of it and an old yellow sheet. And it is awesome.

And maybe I should be a model too? Haha.

4th of July Weekend, Part 3: The Parade

2011-07-15T13:18:00.001-06:00

We went to the parade on the actual 4th of July. I really don't have much to say about the parade except it was fun and the weather was perfect. I forgot to take pictures of any of the floats, but here are some of Evan and Calvin watching the parade.

4th of July Weekend, Part 2: The Fireworks

2011-07-14T17:05:00.002-06:00

The Stadium of Fire was on Saturday the 2nd this year instead of the fourth. Evan loves fireworks and Independence Day is his favorite holiday so we always try to make sure we get a good spot to watch the fireworks. This year we set up our blanket on a hill by the Marriott Center on Friday evening. We had great seats.
We entertained ourselves by attempting to take family pictures.

We got to see the parachuters fly into the stadium and watch the flyover before it got dark. So cool! Calvin kept pointing to where the planes flew. He loved the flyover! He also loved playing with this calculator.

Calvin usually goes to bed at 7:30 so we were afraid he was going to be really grumpy, but he wasn't too bad. We enjoyed watching all the little fireworks everyone was setting off after it got dark and when the big fireworks finally started, Calvin fell asleep after about 5 minutes. We really enjoyed looking at them and thought they had some really cool ones this year. The finale was pretty short, but I think that is how finales should be.

Calvin was super sleepy and barely woke up when we got home and changed his diaper.

The best part was he took a 3 or 4 hour nap the next day to make up for it. Maybe we should keep him up late more often! Haha.

4th of July Weekend, Part 1: The Balloon Festival

2011-07-13T17:54:00.002-06:00

One of the things we love about living in Provo is the Freedom Festival that they do during the Fourth of July holiday. We started off our festivities by going to the Balloon Festival on the Saturday before the fourth. We met Evan's sister's family there a little after 6:30 just in time to see the last of the balloons inflating. It was really cool to see so many hot air balloons together.

This is the world's tallest balloon or something. It didn't even take off.

Darth Vader did take off, but he only flew up over the power lines and went across the street to the other field.

Can you see the pink pig balloon in the very right of the picture? So fun!

We thought Smokey the bear was the best balloon because it had an unusual shape and it actually flew up high and far.

Lettuce

2011-07-12T17:47:00.003-06:00

We have been getting a lot of lettuce from our garden recently. I think it is so pretty. Here is some of the leaf lettuce.

And this is a romaine type called "Little Gem." I picked a bunch of heads before they were totally ready because we needed them to take to a dinner with some friends, but I still have one or two that I am hoping to grow a little bigger before they bolt.

I love how scrunched up it is. And it tastes great!

So pretty!

"Peas!"

2011-07-11T17:45:00.001-06:00

Here is a video of Calvin saying please. I think it is adorable. And so polite.

Nursery

2011-07-10T13:32:00.001-06:00

Today church was awesome. Calvin was entertained for the majority of sacrament meeting by a contact lense case. Then he went to nursery for the first time and apparently he didn't cry at all. I knew he would love nursery! As soon as we dropped him off he ran right for the toys and didn't even look back at us. Haha. Exactly what I thought would happen.

New Gadget: Books I've Read

2011-07-08T13:15:00.002-06:00

My sister just asked what books she should read on facebook, and it reminded me that I have read a lot of books recently. So I added a gadget on the side of the blog that lists the books I've read and the rating I gave them. I'd probably recommend anything that I give a rating of 4.0 or higher.

This is what happens when Evan dresses Calvin

2011-07-04T15:05:00.002-06:00

Nooooo!

2011-07-03T14:50:00.003-06:00

Calvin just learned the word that the parents of every toddler dread. He practiced it loudly several times at church today. Haha. There are a lot of videos here, but you really only need to watch one of them to know what it sounds like. I thought my mom might appreciate some extra videos though.

What do I do all day?

2011-07-01T21:18:00.000-06:00

I think that sometimes people wonder what exactly stay at home moms do all day. Well, this is what I do:

Before 8am: Eat breakfast, change clothes, check email, clean house, etc
8am: Take Calvin on a walk, run, or bike ride. We usually stop at a playground too.
10:30: Eat a smoothie
11:00 Calvin naps while I shower, read scriptures, clean house, and if I am really lucky, do some hobby like sewing or reading
12:30 or 1:00: Calvin wakes up. We eat lunch.
1:30: Go outside and play on playground, start fixing dinner, clean house, play with Calvin, or go shopping.
4:30: If I haven't started fixing dinner already, I usually start now.
5:30: Evan comes home and we eat dinner

New Shorts

2011-06-30T21:26:00.000-06:00

I made some shorts for Calvin out of a pair of Evan's old shorts and they actually turned out really well. I based the pattern on another pair of his shorts and made the front flat with elastic in the back. I even added real pockets this time!

Ouch!

2011-06-29T21:22:00.002-06:00

Calvin fell down a couple of concrete stairs today and hit his head. Poor little guy! Fortunately he was only sad for a couple of minutes and then went back to his little happy self.

Throwing

2011-06-20T20:02:00.000-06:00

Calvin surprised me the other day when he picked up a ball and threw it across the room. His throwing skills have really improved recently. Here's a video.

Mommy and Daddy

2011-06-19T20:09:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone. This is Calvin again. Remember last time I wrote a blog post about how my parents torture me? Well, I guess I should tell you that I like them anyways.

This is a picture of me and Mama after she gave me a bath. I like Mommy because she gives me a smoothie every morning after our walk. And she tickles me and I think that is funny.
This is Daddy and me. I want to be just like Daddy. I wanted to wear a hat in this picture just because Daddy was wearing one! I like Daddy because he always makes me laugh. He makes really funny faces and he is really good at chasing me!

I love Mommy and Daddy!

Friends

2011-06-18T19:55:00.000-06:00

One of Calvin's favorite friends moved away last week but before he left, he came over to play with Calvin. He is only a month and a half older than Calvin and they play really well together! We'll miss him and his parents!

Aren't their hugs adorable?

Calvin loved showing him all of his toys. Haha.

The time I wet the bed

2011-06-17T18:22:00.003-06:00

I was talking to some of the moms on the playground the other day and I told them this story and I thought I might as well share it with the world.

Here it goes...

About a month (or maybe three, I can't remember) after Evan and I got married, I was hanging out somewhere with my brother or something when I suddenly had to go to the bathroom, so I found an outhouse and did my business. Imagine my surprise when I immediately woke up to find that I was not in an outhouse. I was in my bed! And it was wet!

Embarrassed, I went to the bathroom, changed my clothes, and came back to the bed and debated what to do. We were still newlyweds and I really didn't want to tell Evan that I, at age 21, had just wet the bed. What if he thought that I did it all the time? Maybe I should sleep in my pee just so I didn't have to tell him? Or sleep on the couch? But it might soak through to the mattress. Our brand new mattress.

I had no choice but to wake up my new husband and in the most timid voice, tell him that I had wet the bed. Talk about embarrassing. He was very nice about it though and helped me change the sheets. I was so embarrassed that I made him swear not to tell anyone. He did tease me about plastic mattress covers on several occasions though. Only within the last year or so have I began to tell the story.

World, now you know the story of Shanna, the adult bed wetter. Fortunately I haven't done it since.

Handsome

2011-06-16T19:49:00.000-06:00

Kisses

2011-06-15T20:15:00.001-06:00

Calvin finally learned to kiss a few weeks ago... sorta. He just puts his lips somewhere near ours. But it is pretty precious.

First harvest of the year

2011-06-14T19:37:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned earlier, we have a plot at the community garden in south Provo. Last night we picked our first produce. It was just a little spinach, but still exciting.
Another funny note about the garden: We planted a strawberry plant and one day Evan went to water and found it completely missing. We also noticed a new garden plot completely full of strawberries. One of them even had the exact same tag as ours used to have... it seemed a little fishy. We are just hoping that no one picks all of our produce before it is ready.

Kicking

2011-06-13T19:31:00.002-06:00

Sometimes Calvin lays on the floor and just kicks his legs. I think it is funny.

My grocery list for the week

2011-06-07T11:34:00.002-06:00

For the past few months I've been doing nearly all my grocery shopping at Walmart because they price match. Here is a partial list of produce I am planning on buying tomorrow from Walmart:

roma tomatoes 3lbs/$1 (Rancho Market price match)

gala apples $3lb/$1 (Rancho)

banana 3lb/$1 (Rancho)

beef stew meat $1.99/lb (Rancho)

pineapple 2lb/$1 plus $1.25 on two coupon (Rancho)

maybe mexican squash 2lb/$1 (Rancho)

maybe nectarines or peaches 2lb/$1 (Rancho or Buy Low)

maybe red grapefruit 3/$1 (Buy Low)

cucumbers 4/$1 (Buy Low)

pint blueberries $1.97 (Sunflower Farmer's Market)

red seedless grapes $0.59/lb (Sunflower)

Awesome, right?

Like father, like son

2011-06-02T20:09:00.000-06:00

Do you wonder what Calvin is doing in this picture?
Or where he learned to do it?

Every day after Evan comes home from school he lays down on the floor and eats some chips. Calvin has learned to do the same.

Oh. And I apologize for the no pants picture. Usually Calvin wears pants but that day he got them really dirty so he lost his pants privileges.

Gardening

2011-06-01T20:03:00.000-06:00

I can't remember if I have already mentioned this on our blog, but we are growing a garden at a community garden in south Provo this summer. It isn't doing all that well so far, but hopefully it will soon once the weather warms up a little more.

I also planted some herbs to grow in our windows inside and Calvin helped me. Let me tell you, that boy sure is busy.
He kept grabbing handfuls of dirt from a bag on the balcony and adding them to the pots we were finished planting.

He even did the same thing at Evan's mission reunion with his mission president's pots. Haha.

P.S. Aren't his flip flops adorable? Too bad he hates wearing them.

The word of the day is resilient

2011-05-31T15:03:00.004-06:00

We took Calvin to the hospital at 6:30 this morning to have surgery and everything went well. He was happy as soon as he woke up at 5:45 and loved playing with the toys in the waiting room at the hospital. Then when we went to his room, there were even more toys to play with!
Aren't his hospital jammies cute?

This is the magic drug they gave him so that he wouldn't be afraid of strangers. It made him drunk. And apparently it tasted really good because he didn't want to give up the syringe.

Watching tv:

Getting more drunk:

About to be wheeled away to surgery:

After the surgery, the surgeon came in to talk to us but he didn't say anything when he first walked in so I was sure that Calvin was the one in a million that dies from anesthesia. But fortunately, he wasn't and everything went fine.

After Calvin woke up, they brought him back to us and he was very grumpy for about half an hour. He hated his IV and hospital tag.

We got him to calm down a bit with some ipod games.

But he was still having a hard time.

Finally they came in and took his IV out and we got to take him home around maybe 10:30am. It was a lot quicker than I thought it would be.

When he got home, we got out all of his toys that we have taken away from him and he was happy.

By 1pm he was running around and climbing like he had never had surgery in his life. He is doing really well! Hopefully he isn't over-doing it.

A Few Updates

2011-05-30T12:26:00.004-06:00

We got a humming bird feeder from the dollar store the other day and have had tons of hummingbirds eating out of it. However, yesterday some bully hummingbird decided it was his and started chasing all the other ones away. We tried scaring him by spraying him with a squirt bottle, but it didn't work so we had to take the feeder down to stop the bullying. Plus, I was getting scared to go on our balcony with all the birds zooming around. We are hoping that the bully will leave and we can put it up again in a week or two.

Calvin is going in for surgery tomorrow morning. He has something that is similar to a hernia.
It is a pretty minor surgery and he shouldn't have to stay over night.

Evan got called to be in the bishopric a week ago. We were a little surprised, but he is doing a great job so far. He conducted Sacrament meeting on Sunday with only one blunder. I am now the only one in charge of Calvin in Sacrament meeting, but Dave and Amanda sit by me and help a lot with Calvin. I'm glad they are in our ward!

It has been raining for weeks here! I feel like I am in Portland.

New Bike Trailer Review

2011-05-26T12:09:00.002-06:00

We got our new bike trailer last week and I've had a chance to try it out. Here is my review.

This is the bike trailer we bought, although we bought it on eBay, not Amazon. It cost about $132, which is pretty cheap for a bike trailer, but not the cheapest you can find.

This is why I wanted to buy it: it has big wheels so it isn't as bumpy, it doubles as a double jogging stroller, has shocks and a front wheel that can swivel or stay fixed for jogging, and it has a running brake.

The things I don't like about it: it is heavy, it takes about 10 minutes to take it apart to put it in the car (although I am getting faster and I think soon I'll be able to do it in less than 5).

As a stroller, I really like it in comparison to our regular stroller. It is really easy to push and seems a lot smoother ride for Calvin. Calvin loves it in there. Plus, I can run now if I want. The only problem is it is pretty wide (but that is to be expected since it is a double stroller).

As a bike trailer, it is a little harder to use. It is heavy so if I am going up a slight hill, I have to use my lowest gear on my bike. (That could have something to do with not biking in about a year though).

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I loaded it up in the car and drove to the Riverwoods, and took the Provo River Trail up the canyon. It was fun to go biking, but on Tuesday by the time I got everything in the car, it was already 9am and Calvin was getting a little grumpy so it wasn't quite as fun as I thought it would be. Calvin hated wearing his helmet so he whined a lot. When we stopped at a playground, he didn't really want to play. And I discovered that I had run over a slug and the slug guts were all over the trailer. I tried to clean it off and nearly threw up about four times in the process.
This picture shows how much fun Calvin had the first day:

When I went on Wednesday, it was a little more fun. We got started an hour earlier and there were no slugs and Calvin wasn't as grumpy. It was a little embarrassing though when two runners passed me.

I'm excited to go on more bike rides. If any of you all want to join me for a VERY leisurely ride (for you, not me), let me know. And If you want to go for a VERY VERY leisurely ride, bring a friend for Calvin and I'll stick them in the trailer.

Happy!

2011-05-16T11:29:00.002-06:00

I'm feeling really happy this morning. Calvin and I went on a walk and spring was everywhere! Every time I saw a pretty flower or a well designed yard, it just made me smile. I really love the neighborhood by our apartments. The houses are old, but many of them have a lot of charm and nice yards with fully grown trees and shrubs. And kid's toys all over their yards. And people working in their gardens.

I'm also feeling excited because I should be getting one of these delivered soon.

I'm counting it as my mother's day present since Evan agreed to let me buy it on Mother's Day. It is a bike trailer/double jogging stroller and the front wheel can either swivel or stay fixed for jogging. I'm SUPER excited about it.

And I'm feeling happy because I love being a mom. This morning I was chasing Calvin around the house and he thought it was so funny. Kid's laughs are contagious!

Plus, I really really like Evan. And not just because he agreed to let me buy the bike trailer.

The biggest bonk so far

2011-05-15T10:30:00.000-06:00

Ouch! The other day Calvin ran into the corner at full speed and got his biggest goose egg so far.
Poor kid.

Stick 'em up!

2011-05-14T10:30:00.000-06:00

We taught Calvin a new trick. It is pretty useful when we need to take his shirt off and pretty funny the rest of the time.