Slacker, Some Halloween and Calvin Update

Yep, it is official, I am a SLACKER!  I have so many pictures and so much going on in our lives that I just feel too overwhelmed to write about them.  I will just start from now and possibly go back later and fill in the holes.

We had a fun Halloween this year.  The kids had fun making their own Halloween costumes, which was great and they turned out so adorable.  Hailey helped me with her butterfly costume.  I made her tutu thanks to some easy tutorials on the internet and she chose the color.

In Young Womens Lindsay made a modest dress for an activity night out of tissue paper so she decided to make one this year for Halloween also.  I love how it turned out.  By the end of the night she lost most of her tissue paper, but it was fun while it lasted.

Ashley could not decide on what costume to wear so she was a Renaissance Queen at school and a Nerd for both the ward harvest festival and on Halloween night.  She looked adorable in both costumes.

 

Aunt Heather found this cute outfit for Calvin.  It says "Babies First Trick or Treat."  It was adorable and I was surprised that the hat did not bother him.  He is my cute little Trick or Treater.

 

Two years ago Mitchell won the pumpkin carving contest at the Ward Harvest Festival so he was determined to reclaim the trophy.  He received the loudest cheers and applause so he won.  We now get to have the trophy in our home for another year.

 Ashley wanted to join in the pumpkin carving fun so she carved her pumpkin with Akaysha Stewart.  They both came to the party dressed as Nerds and they had a great time making their pumpkin.  They received third place!!!

Our sweet Calvin with his Daddy.

Our Couch Clan in their costumes.

Due to the fog machine staying on for quite a long time the smoke alarms went off in the building.  No one knew how to turn off the smoke alarms since the building is brand new and we just moved into it in July.  Once the firefighters came and realized there was no fire, they helped turn off the alarm.  At school Hailey was taught about fire safety and she was so mad that we would not leave the building like we were taught.  Once we did, she felt better.   

Lindsay, Hailey and Calvin are standing in front of the alarm that was flashing lights and telling us to get out of the building.

My Baby Boy's Update

Our sweet Calvin is 10 1/2 months and is getting so big.  At night when I hold him I politely ask him to stay small forever.  At his 6 month appointment he was 19lbs 2 oz 25-50%, 27 inches 25% and his head was 47 1/4" 95%.  Since his head was growing at such a rapid speed we took him into have an MRI done.  Once the results came back negative we felt better about things and just know he will be really smart.  I can't find his paperwork for his 9 month appointment but his head stopped growing so they are not as concerned anymore.  

He is such a sweet little boy.  He loves to give kisses, eat hotdogs, sit in his exersaucer and play (only if there is food involved).  He LOVES being held.  During the day when the girls are gone to school it is hard to get things done because he wants to be held all of the time, but that is okay, I have to enjoy him while he is small.  He says Dada and Baba.  We are working on Mama and one day he will say it.  

He is just starting to scoot on the floor.  He used to sit on his bottom and spin in circles or lay on the floor and roll everywhere so it is good he is finally scooting.  

He has three teeth!  Two of his teeth came in the same day of which they were his upper lateral incisors so he looked like a cute little vampire when he smiled.  We finally have a new bottom front tooth and the other front teeth are trying to come in now.  He wanted to be original, who can blame him.

The poor little guy has had quite a few ear infections already.  We are hoping that it does not keep happening.  I am blaming his recent infections on teething so hopefully they will feel better soon.

He is just such a sweetheart and he receives compliments everywhere he goes.  He loves to sit in the shopping cart seat and he will turn his body around so he can view where we are going.  It is so dang cute!  

He LOVES to eat!  Hotdogs are his favorite but we really have not found anything that he has not liked yet.  Scrambled eggs are easy for breakfast so he eats them a lot.  If he sees ice cream he will scream, "Ah Ah" until you give him some and he can and will eat everything in your bowl.

Calvin goes by many names.  Grandpa Couch calls him Boyce or Little B, we call him Bubba, Pumpkin, Buddy or Calvin, Uncle Jared calls him BoCalLee.  This poor kid is going to be confused as to what his name is.

Since he was six months he no longer sleeps through the night.  It seems as though every night he ends up in our bed and once he is there, and had a bottle, he will fall back to sleep.  He LOVES to sleep right next to his Daddy and will kick him all night long until I put him back in his bed or I move him closer to me.  Naps are very inconsistent but he usually takes two a day.  The morning nap is usually 1/2 hour to an hour and the afternoon nap is usually 2 hours or so if I am lucky.

He has the prettiest blue eyes!  I just love them and I am so glad that they are here to stay.  His hair is finally starting to come in and we have had to trim a little around his ears so he is not tickled all of the time.

We are so blessed to have such a sweet spirit in our home.  He has blessed our family in so many ways and we can not believe that we finally have a son!  We love you Sweet Calvin!

Graduation Cake for Three of Mitchell's Seniors

I Mitchell absolutely loves making cakes and so he told three of his graduating Seniors that since they were having a combined grad party that he will make their graduation cake.  

We decided to make it three tiered and have figures representing each of the boys.  The Football player represents Dan Jordan, the guitarist represents Ben Shurts and the drummer represents Mark Acosta.

 It was a lot of fun to make but we ran into a little snag.  Once the store bought fondant was on we ran out of fondant so we had to make some marshmellow fondant.  It was hot in the home so it kept sticking and was not cooperating.  We worked with it and it was just not cooperating.  After Mitchell gave up and went to bed I decided to give it one more try.  I made fondant balls to put around the cake and then cut really thick strips for the stripes on the bottom layer.  Somehow it worked. 

 Not our best cake, but I think the boys liked it and they did not see the faults like we do.

Stop Growing!!!

I wish that I could put my life on pause right now.  It is hard to believe that Calvin is 5 1/2 months old. He is such a sweet little boy and we are having so much fun with him.  Here are a couple of things about our little sweetheart that I do not want to forget.  

*Sleeping is wonderful lately.  He has slept the whole night through quite a few times and when he does wake up it is just to eat, then he goes right back to sleep.  Naps are at random sporadic times, but he takes a pretty good nap at around 12 - 2:30 or so.  He will go to sleep on his own if he is really tired but the best way to get him to fall asleep really fast is to wrap him all up in a blanket so his hands are secure, rock him and give him his pacifier.  Works every time.

*He loves to giggle and laugh.  He has so many tickle spots and we love to tickle him.  He has the cutest little giggle that melts our hearts.  He loves to stand on your legs and do squats.  Dr. Lacey said he is really strong for his age.

*He is not fond of tummy time.  He will just faceplant into the blanket or roll over to avoid laying on his stomach.  We like to rotate him through his different toys throughout the day.  He will play at one toy for about twenty minutes, then you have to hold him, then he will play with a different toy.  

 

 *He loves his Uncle Adam.  Adam has been living with us for about a month now and he is so helpful with Calvin.  It is nice to have him here in our home.

 *He loves to lay on the bed with only his diaper on.  Whenever his clothes are off he just smiles and giggles. 

 *Whenever I hold him I get so many comments.  At least five people have told me that they thought I was strange holding a baby doll, then they realize he is a real baby.  They all tell me that since his head is perfectly shaped, he looks like a doll from behind.

 *He eats solids once a day.  He loves applesauce and pears but so far is not fond of oatmeal or peaches.  He will open his mouth when he is ready for the next bite.  I love feeding him!  Whenever the girls feed him more of the food ends up on his bib then in his mouth.  He also LOVES ice cream and frozen yogurt.  He devours it.

 

*Sundays are getting harder.  The past couple of weeks he has cried a lot so I have to keep him out in the halls.  The second we go into the hall he stops crying.  He is a smart boy.  Thankfully a lot of people offer to hold him and so I have a lot of help.

*He has started babbling a lot more and it is almost like he is having a conversation with himself.  He loves to hear his voice.

*Somedays he likes to look at himself in the mirror and other days he gets scared.  It is so funny to see his reaction.  

*Our girls are amazing with him.  We have not really had any jealousy issues to deal with.  Ashley still likes to change his diaper, Lindsay is good at calming him down and Hailey is my pacifier helper and will come to the rescue and put his pacifier in his mouth to keep him quiet.  :)  She does not like holding him for long period of times and we won't let her stand or walk while holding him just yet.

*Some of his nicknames right now are Calvinator, or Ashley likes to call him Calvinator the Milkinator, Buddy, Bud, or Bubbas.

*He has had a stuffy nose his whole life.  The poor little boy has gone to the Dr. at least five times just because I am worried he has fluid in his lungs.  We just switched his formula to Soy so we will see if this helps him.  Cross our fingers!

*Hailey makes sure that everyone knows that his name is Boyce Calvin.  It is so sweet.

We just love this little guy.  He has completed our family and it feels wonderful!

Oklahoma

In April I was able to fly to Oklahoma with Calvin to meet his Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Couch.  Calvin's first name is Boyce and so I was so excited for him to finally meet his namesake, Boyce Lee Couch.  

As we arrived at the airport there was fog outside which caused my flight to be delayed two hours and I also had to change my connecting flight.  This meant that I would arrive in Oklahoma City at 7PM and I still had a three hour drive ahead of me.  It was a long day but Calvin did so well.  The only time he really cried was in our rental car while I was driving he was really hot and I did not realize it.  Once the blankets came off he was happy again.  

I pulled into Grandma and Grandpas driveway at a little after 11PM.  They were so excited to see us and are always so welcoming.  I love going to a barbeque restaurant called Able's so Grandma and Grandpa had Able's to go all ready for me once I got there.  It was amazing even if I did eat it at 11PM.

The next day was Saturday and we decided to drive around the town where Grandma and Grandpa live, Antlers.  Grandpa does not like to have Grandma cook so we went out to eat for every meal.  We ate breakfast at the Shell station which I wondered why we would eat there but they had an amazing buffet.  We then went to four different cemeteries including the one which my Great Grandma and Grandpa Maxey are buried in.  It was so neat walking around the different tombstones and listening to the stories from Grandpa about some of the people that he knew.  Grandma did not like going to the cemetaries so much, but she never complained and enjoyed the ride.

That night we went to Ables BBQ.  It was AMAZING!  I was literally in heaven.  I have not found a BBQ restaurant quite like it.  I ordered a whole chicken that came with coleslaw, bread, and potatoes.  I think that Grandma thought it was weird that I took a picture of it, but I am telling you it was devine!

We the decided to drive to the Couch property where Mitchell would spend his summers helping out on the farm, ride four wheelers, hunt, fish and just hang out.  While we were there I was able to see some cousins and visit for awhile. The street to their home is named "Couch Road."

 

Sunday I went to church with Grandma and Grandpa.  They were so sweet and offered to drive me to Paris, Texas so that I can go to my church, but I declined.  It was fun being able to meet their friends.  They must have talked about us coming because everyone cane up to us and said so this is little Boyce.  If they did not know who we were the Grandpa would say this is Boyce and I am Boyce (while we were in Oklahoma I made sure that I called him Boyce since that is his first name after all).  He was so proud to tell everyone.  

It was so sweet.  We were getting ready to go somewhere and I saw Grandpa rocking Calvin while he was in his carseat on the rocking chair.  He is so shakey so it was hard for him to hold him for very long so this worked for him.

Can't you tell he loved it!

 After church we went to see the home that Grandma grew up in.  We found out that the home will be demolished soon because the people who bought the land build another home in a different part of the property and this home was falling apart.  Grandma told me that the boards to this home were all taken from another building.  Mitchell remembers this home really well so he was sad when I told him that it will soon be gone.

My favorite part of the trip was the visiting.  We had a great time visinting with Aunt Carol and Uncle Dooley, Chase and Ray and Monte.  We also looked through a lot of fun scrapbook albums that Grandma has made throughout the years.  She is a great scrapbooker and had so many fun pictures.

Grandma and Grandpa do not use the gazeebo much anymore but I decided to sit outside with Calvin while they were taking a nap.  It was so peaceful and so relaxing.  

 The weather was absolutely beautiful while I was there.  The night that we went to visit with Carol I looked out into her field and I saw a lot of lightning bugs or fireflies.  It was amazing to see.  They were everywhere and were so beautiful.

 Calvin was such a trooper and did an amazing job while we were there.  He was so happy and loved every bit of the attention he received.

Before I left to Oklahoma I decided to change my flight and stay for one more day.  I was going to be gone from Friday until Tuesday.  Grandma and I decided that we will spend Monday shopping and enjoying being together while Grandpa stayed around the house.  On Sunday night Mitchell told me that I received an email stating something about my flight being the next day, which was on Monday.  I changed the flight, I knew it so I was not worried about it, but I decided to call the airline anyways.  They informed me that I did indeed change the flight, but I did not change the day so I was flying out on Monday night.  This meant that I had to leave Antlers at 1 to meet my flight on time.  Grandma and I were so sad but this was not going to stop us from enjoying ourselves.

We woke up at 7AM and drove to Hugo to shop and have fun.  I wanted to buy my girls their Easter dresses so we went to a couple of stores until I found exactly what I wanted.  We then went to a famous quilt shop that had so many fun fabrics to choose from.  Grandma asked me to choose an already made quilt for Calvin.  She said she does not sew and she wanted to buy something for him.  It is such a cute blanket and he loves it. 

It was so sad when it was time to leave.  I did not want the fun to end.  Calvin did so well on the airplane and I enjoyed looking out the window on each of my flights.  On my last leg of the trip we had WiFi on the plane so I was able to chat with Mitchell on Facebook while in the air.  I could look out the window and see a city and he could look on his computer to see exactly where I was.  It made the trip so fun.

I just heard that Grandma and Grandpa are moving to California to live with Hershel, Jan and Grandma Courson so I bet that was the last time that I would ever visit Antlers, Oklahoma.  It is just one of those towns where everyone knows everyone, everyone waves at you and you just feel at home.  I will truly miss it but I am so glad that I have so many wonderful memories of the times that I did spend in that little town.

Spring Break Ski Trip

Mitchell gets the wonderful opportunity of going on Scouting trips about once a month.  In March he took the Priests on an overnight skiing trip.  My girls have been begging their Dad to take them skiing so we decided to get a babysitter for Calvin, thanks Heather and girls, and went to Mt. Hood Ski Bowl for the day.

 

It was very slow moving at first and Mitchell and I looked at each other and wanted to know what we got ourselves into.  The last time that I went skiing was in High School and I was so bad and scared that I took my ski's off and walked down the mountain.  Not sure why I thought this day would be any better.

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We went on the Bunny Hill for the first half of the day.  Ashley caught on pretty quick and Lindsay took awhile longer but the two of them became pros on the bunny hill by the end of the day.  I love this picture of Lindsay.  She fell down and lost her ski pole and the only way to reach it was with her other ski pole.  :)

 Hailey had a great time also.  She loved to play in the snow and she tried to ski.  Dad was great at helping her out.  She also loved going on the rope lift on the bunny hill.

 Silly Hailey!

 At the end of the day Mitchell decided that the girls were ready for the big hill.  They accidentally took a wrong turn and got off at the other half of Ski Bowl so they had to ride the lift again and go down the correct way to get to where I was waiting for them.  Their faces were priceless at the bottom of the hill and I should have taken that picture, but I told them to smile instead.  Apparently it was pretty scary for them, but they still had fun.

It was such a nice day on the slopes and we had a great time together as a family.  We sure missed our Calvin though.

All Smiles

I can not believe that our sweet little boy is three months old.  He is such a joy in our home and the girls absolutely adore him!  

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We LOVE LOVE LOVE when he smiles.  It is so adorable.  We have made him giggle a couple of times but we can not figure out what we did to make him giggle for him to do it again.  One day I will catch it on video.  He is such a morning boy.  In the mornings is when he is all smiles and he is the happiest.  He sits in his bouncer and stares at his toys while I get ready for the day.  He is starting to hit the toys that are hanging in front of him but for the most part he just looks at them.

 Yesterday I was playing with Calvin on my bed and he was so happy and content.  I had to leave and left Hailey in charge of him and she ended up leaving him alone for awhile and he feel asleep while laying there.  This is HUGE!  I was such a happy MAMA!  He takes naps in his crib but does not care for it at night so he is still in bed with Mom and Dad, which I do not mind.  Last night I only had to get up once with him!!!

 My girls are amazing with him.  Ashley is great at changing his diapers and holding him.  Lindsay is the one who wakes up every Sunday morning and gets herself ready, then grabs Calvin from me and gets him ready before we go out the door at eight.  Not sure how I would do it without her.  Hailey will hold him for awhile, but she would rather play with him while he is in his bouncer.  I have the best helpers that any Mom could ask for.  I love the picture of Lindsay asleep with Calvin on her chest.  She was exhausted and so was he, but they looked so comfortable.
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He LOVES his pacifier!  If he is not happy it is usually because he wants his pacifier.  I just went into the room to check on him while he was napping and he found his thumb.  It was so adorable, but I took his thumb out and gave him back his pacifier.  I think it would be easier in the long run, but how cute is that!

  He is such a special boy.  It is amazing how much love you can have for someone that you have only known for three months.

Stars On Ice

I am a huge fan of ice skating and I always have been.  I remember watching the Olympics with my family as a child and the only reason I watched them was for the Ice Skating Compitition.  While we were at Great Wolf Lodge we got a phone call from Michael Wynkoop asking us if we wanted to go with them to the Stars on Ice that was going on that night, they had three extra tickets and there was no way I would pass those up.  We decided to take Hailey with us since she is the youngest girl and she misses out on a lot of things that her sister gets to do.  She was really excited to have a special date with just Mommy and Daddy, and of course Calvin too.  Mitchell was such a great sport to come along with me.  I think he was bored out of his mind, but he never once complained!

 The performance was amazing.  Sasha Cohen and Evan Lysacek were my favorite.  Hailey really enjoyed it also, but she was so tired from being at Great Wolf Lodge all day that she could not keep her eyes open so we sugared her up with kettle corn and cotton candy.

Hailey also had a fun time playing with Kailey, Heather and Michaels Niece.  It was such a fun night!

Great Wolf Lodge

We had the opportunity of getting a huge discount for a nights stay at the Great Wolf Lodge in Washington and we could not pass it up.  It was such a fun mini vacation full of good friends, good fun and good food.  The Woolners in our ward were staying at the lodge for their family reunion so it was fun to be there at the same time.  Sister Sommers offered to watch Calvin for awhile so we could play and it was so much fun.  The rides are a blast.  My favorite ride happened to be the River Canyon Run.  Howling Tornado was fun, but I did not like that I went down backwards so I had no idea what was going on.  It feels like you are being flushed down a toilet bowl.  I went on it with Mitchell, Alex Woolner and his son Addison and we went so high and soooooooo fast!  They were laughing at me the whole time because I was quite terrified.

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My girls had a lot of fun also.  Ashley's favorite ride was Alberta Falls where you ride in a tube alone or with a friend.  Lindsay liked the Howling Tornado.  Hailey would not go on any waterslides except for the small kiddie one.  She was scared to go on the big slides because she had to go alone.  She went on the small waterslide over and over and over and she never got sick of it.  I think that Mitchell liked it all, he had a great time trying to terrify me, but make it fun also.  :)

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 Calvin did so well.  You are able to go into the water park from 1-close and then go again the next day until close.  We stayed the next day until 3 and he pretty much slept the whole time.  Mitchell let me go on rides without worrying about Calvin and he took him up to the room and he cried for awhile, but that was the only time.  

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After playing at the waterpark the girls decided to play Magicquest.  This is where you are on a special quest and you use your wand to find clues.  We borrowed two wands from a friend of ours and then Mitchell bought Hailey her own special pink wand and they had a lot of fun playing the game with Mitchell.  I think that Mitchell had more fun then the girls.  :)

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This is a definite place that we will go to again but next time I think I will have a reward chart or something where the girls will have to earn it.  I know they would do anything to go back.  :)

 

Our kids in front of the Great Wolf entrance.  Upon leaving it was 17 degrees outside.  After being in an 84 degree room for two days and then to step out into that, it was a shock.

Having fun in the wave pool.

Waiting for the HUGE bucket to dump water on their heads.

 

This was when the huge bucket of water fell on Lindsay and Ashley.  It was so funny to watch their faces.

 

Hailey enjoying the kiddie area.

Ashley and Annabelle after riding Alberta Falls together.

 

Playing Magiquest together.  They were called the "Couch Potatoes."

Our sweet girls and little Calvin.