Bluebell Icecream

My father-in-law LOOOOOVES Bluebell Icecream. It is made in Texas and it is one of his most favorite things.  He went to the Bluebell store a while back and bought the boys some Bluebell shirts.  In honor of the one year heart attack-aversary, I dressed the boys in the shirts and took some pictures to send him... thankful he's alive to see them wear them!

Chatterbox

About a week after Cal's second birthday, he really began talking.  He was talking quite a bit before his birthday, but we really started to notice him stringing sentences together a week or two after his birthday.  Now, the kid talks NON-STOP!  Literally, non-stop.  Some days, we wonder if he can catch his breath.  Not everything he says can be understood by everyone, but I can understand him about 99% of the time and offer translations often.

One thing he will do now is say something repeatedly, until you say it back to him. For example, if his DVD player in the car isn't working and he's watching Cars, he will say, "Momma, peen and mater not working!" (he calls McQueen peen-- whatever).  Well, he will repeat that over and over and over and over again until you repeat it back to him.  So, we get in the car and I haven't even put the key in the ignition yet and I hear: "Momma, peen and mater not working!" "Momma, peen and mater not working!" "Momma, peen and mater not working!" "Momma, peen and mater not working!" "Momma, peen and mater not working!" "Momma, peen and mater not working!" "Momma, peen and mater not working!" "Momma, peen and mater not working!" "Momma, peen and mater not working!" "Momma, peen and mater not working!" until I finally say back to him, "McQueen and Mater will be working in just a second!"

With this new voice comes a whole new personality... and it is cracking us up!  My mom was playing with Cal the other day and she said to him "Are you thirsty, sweetie?" and he replied to my mom "yes, I am thirsty, sweetie."  My mom about died laughing!

There is no way to list all of the words in his vocabulary because the list grows daily and he will repeat whatever I tell him, so there's no limit to the list. 

I am starting a new label for things he says called "Cal said WHAT?" so I can document all of the hilarious things he is saying.

This is not a video of him talking, but it's a sweet one of him teaching Andy how to do high five and knuckles.... love these kids!

iPhone Update

My phone is FULL!  Time to do a little update on the blog since I am way behind with pictures... here is a little insight into what we've been up to....

the Toys R Us toy book came in the mail and CalBoy was thrilled to sit and peruse

Cal thought Andy was cold.  So he brought him every single blanket he could find. In the house.

Cal decided he was chilly too

this is Eddie's dad's office... I send them pictures every day and he prints out his favorites to put on the bulletin boards.  He had to add the one to the left because the one behind his desk was too full.  He refuses to take down old pictures, he just puts the new ones in front of them until the pins won't hold any more.  Can you imagine being a college football player sitting across the desk from your coach getting scolded for missed tackles and looking at these faces on the wall??  haha

my cousin sent this outfit for Cal and I just loved it on him and I love it on Andy now!

I took the boys to surprise daddy at work

LOVE this sweet one

Cal is attempting the Horned Frog sign here... we have a ways to go, but he is trying hard!

our nightly habit of reading together.  Cal loves to have us all on the blanket together.

he might be *slightly* obsessed with Lighting McQueen...

at a birthday party devouring a delicious little oreo cookie ball treat thing that was to die for...

how to prevent two boys from fighting over a swing.... they thought this was hilarious

cal pushed the 3D lenses out of the frames and rocked the glasses.  He came out of the playroom wearing them...couldn't help but smile!

Andy just can't take it any more!

back from a long walk...sweet feet!

happy, happy boy!!!

Cal wanted to be JUST like his daddy here...tried to stand with his legs crossed with his hand up...haha!

redefining bareback riding

I loved Cal in this hat too!

Andy the hunter!!!

Lots of fun stuff going on!!!  I am going to try to update a lot this week. 
Andy turns 6 months on Friday and I am having a SUPER minor surgery to have a cyst removed from my wrist on Friday.  Not sure if I will be able to type for a few days after since my arm will be in a bandage, but I will try!

TEXAS

We left last Wednesday to head for Texas to visit Eddie's family and to see TCU play BYU in Cowboys Stadium.  We had a wonderful time filled with a trip to the Fort Worth Zoo, boot shopping, and lots of play time!

The boys both slept in pack n plays, which didn't go over very well-- Andy was up several hours each night (he just would NOT go back to sleep!), and Cal was up extremely early every morning.  The sleeping made things hard, but it was still fun. 

This was the first time Andy had flown and he did really well.  Cal has flown several times before, but this was his first time in his own seat, so he was big time! 

The only little "hiccup" on the flight out there was that both boys went number 2 within minutes of each other.  Andy pooped so I squeezed out past Cal and Eddie and took him to the bathroom and while I was changing him I thought "this is hard with a little kid; imagine if I had to change a big kid...".  I walked back down the aisle carrying Andy and Cal was standing in front of his seat and announced: "Mommy, I poopooed!!!!" Everyone around us thought this was funny, thankfully.... so then I walked back down the aisle, this time with the big boy to figure out how to change him.  We managed just fine, but it was certainly interesting!

playing in the dog's crate with Eddie's sister, Tricia, who came in from LA.  Cal thought the crate was the greatest thing ever-- he would take his cars in there and play away!

 (the rest of these are all out of order, and I don't have the patience to rearrange them.  Call me lazy)

At the Fort Worth Zoo, showing Mimi and Shosh the animals-- he points with three fingers

this was game day! Cal had just woken up- HA!

lounging with dad

game day!

family picture

at the zoo with Tommy, Tricia's boyfriend...Cal is a HUGE fan :)

strolling around the zoo

It was a great trip, and the Frogs won, which made it even better!!!

Halloween!

I'm BACK!!!  I have not posted in FOREVER it feels like!  (I have a theory that when people who blog are first pregnant they neglect their blog, either out of fear of writing something that will give it away, or they just plain don't feel up to it.  Don't worry, my friends: I am NOT with child!  I have just been crazy busy.)

Eddie and I were really looking forward to Halloween this year...okay, maybe Eddie wasn't really looking forward to it, but I certainly was (and he humored me!).  We have been telling Cal all about dressing up and trick-or-treating and now that he's at such a talkative stage, we thought it'd be fun taking him out.

I had a feeling, however, that getting him into a costume would prove to be challenging.

He wore a Lightning McQueen costume at school one time while playing dress up, so I found it online and ordered it for him to wear for Halloween.  It came and he looked at it and refused to let me put it on him.  Okkaayyyyyy.  He put it half way on by himself once, but when he saw me looking, took it off and refused to put it back on. 

My mom saw an airplane costume in Target and knowing how much Cal loves airplanes, she bought it for him.  He wanted nothing to do with it!  I put it on myself (start laughing now), and that made him want to wear it, but he only wore it for about 2 minutes and then was done with it.

Cal is really into animals these days and after seeing The Lion King, I thought he might want to be a lion.  I found the costume and brought it home.  He immediately grabbed it and put it on....but quickly took it off and didn't want to wear it again.

Are you seeing a trend of my little strong-willed man??

WELL, on Sunday, we had a birthday party for two of Cal's friends.  It was a Halloween themed party and kids were to wear costumes.  We had just gotten in from Texas, and we had to wake up Cal, so he was a little crank-tastic.  I laid out both the Lightning McQueen costume and the lion costume and asked him what he wanted to wear.  He said "no lion. I want McQueen" so we grabbed the costume and headed out.

He wore the car without a fuss, thankfully, and Andy was more than happy to be a pumpkin!!

getting ready to leave the house

my little McQueen at the party

Brad Mickey arrived the same time we did-- the boys were sooo excited!

off roading

Andy was worn out from a long day of travel!

Before we went to Texas, Andy's playgroup was getting together for the little ones to wear their costumes.  A bunch of people had last minute conflicts/sickness, so the play group was really small, but it was SO cute to see these little ones in costume!!!

Andy the zebra!

Andy and Charlie...our own little safari

how freaking cute is this watermelon?  (and andy is saying: "excuse me... there seems to be something on my head...")

they all look a tad panicked... ha!

Halloween Night:

It rained on Halloween and we were pretty disappointed.  We had plans to go to a little neighborhood get together loaded with kids, but outside....but that got rained out, so some friends of ours stepped up to the plate and invited everyone over to just hang out (with fingers crossed that the rain would cease).  We ended up having a GREAT time!

Before we could leave the house, we had to get in costume.  Eddie and I decided that since we spent the money on the lion, we were going to have ourselves a lion!  We wrestled that squirming two year old into the costume...

And Mr. Andy was just as happy as can be to be a zebra... he's just waiting it out in the carseat:

the kid loves his fingers!

I offered Cal a treat once the costume was on (total bribery....worst mother ever, I know.  Whatever.).  He took the treat and all of a sudden, he was the happiest little lion ever!

see the treats? 

 Once we arrived at the get together, Cal did not want to take off his hood.  He was having a great time playing in costume!

with Owen, the train

trying to get some of the kids...we couldn't get all of them!

my loves

 We left our friends' house just before 7:00 and the rain had stopped.  We decided we needed to take him to a few houses for some trick-or-treating.  We were already in the best neighborhood for it, so we parked down the street and let Cal run the cul-de-sac.  

This is super cheesy, but it was honestly one of my favorite memories so far in parenting.  I had Andy in the Bjorn on me, just laughing non-stop, and Cal was in between me and Eddie holding our hands, chatting up a storm and just SO happy.  We were all just SO happy-- it was great.  It was one of those nights that just made me smile...(see? cheesy.)

he is asking to hold my hand here....love

momma looks like she has her hands full, but she's one happy lady :)

After hitting about 10 houses, Cal thought trick-or-treating was the greatest.  He would walk right up to a house, hold out his bag and say "trick-or-treat!" and then they would give him candy and his eyes would get real big and he would say "thank youuuuuu!" and then turn around to show me.  It. was. awesome.

We got home around 8:00 and got the kids bathed and in bed fairly quickly.  We finally sat down to eat some dinner around 9 and had off all of the lights outside the house, and the only lights on in the house were in the kitchen...and the doorbell rang.  Some stupid teenagers were wanting candy after 9.  I mean, come on. AND our lights were off! The dog was barking too....but the boys were so tired they didn't wake up....those teenagers are lucky! ha!

On Tuesday, the kids wore their costumes to school for a little parade and some games.  Eddie had an early meeting this day so I was on my own to get Cal in the costume- ha! He got to pick out his jammies the night before because he was so tired, and he picked out some crazy mismatched top and bottom-- like the most pattern filled top you can imagine against the most pattern-filled pants... normally, who cares, they are pajamas, right? well...

Cal REALLY did not want to take off these awesome jammies that he picked out, so I told him he could keep them on under his lion costume-- he was fine with that!  Got him in the costume without much fight at all!

running into school-- so excited!

with Hunter  (who was obsessed with his mom's camera)

some of Cal's class

Once the kids came down the hall, there were games set up in the great room.  They went "fishing" for treats (Cal thought this was AMAZING-- he spent the rest of the day telling me "I went fisheeeeng!"), pinned the nose on the pumpkin, played musical chairs, and lots more.  Cal had a great time.

fishing!

no, Cal....the nose does NOT go over the eye...hmmmm

I just love this one of Cal and Tatum...so sweet!

I came back after drop off to see the parade and help out with games, etc, as the teachers requested some extra hands.  When I left, there was still 2 hours left in the day, and Cal was super upset I was leaving for whatever reason.  His teacher hugged him to calm him down, and as I walked out the door, I heard her say, "okay, Cal, let's just get you out of this costume..."  I spun around and said "WHAT?" I thought they were leaving the costumes on all day (hence allowing for the crazy mismatched pjs!).  So my child was "that kid" in preschool, running around in some construction zone shirt, bicycle pants and some sneakers.... but he was grinning ear to ear.  And that's all that matters!

Safe to say Halloween was a success!

With how much fun we had this year, I can only imagine next year!