Little Helper

Cal loves "helping" around the house with whatever we are doing. He especially loves helping Dan in the yard. Sometimes his "helping" actually makes it hard to get anything done at all, but it is so worth it to spend the time with him and see the pure joy in his face at trying to be big and lend a hand. One of his all time favorite things to do is get his plastic hammer and help Dan "fix" toys and hang pictures, whatever it is Dan is working on. I love watching them work together and Cal learn from his Daddy. I also love it when Cal helps me cook sometimes in the kitchen. He loves pouring the ingredients into the bowl and sometimes even getting to stir. He is getting so big and grown up and I am loving this stage in his life. He is so much fun and really is just like a mini big person in so many ways.








We are also still LOVING our new bicycle. Some afternoons we go for long rides around our neighborhood and explore every street and cul de sac. It is so peaceful and relaxing and a great way to enjoy and appreciate the beautiful, amazing weather we have. Thank you Danny for the greatest gift!

Grandma A & Papa Don

Over Conference weekend in April, my Mom and Don came over for a quick visit to see the new digs. It was so great to see them and Cal of course loved playing with his Grammy A. They brought over a slide for him to play with that my cousin no longer needed and Cal thought it was the greatest thing ever. He climbed to the top over and over again and would yell "GO!". Grandma A also brought an old train set of ours we used to have under the Christmas tree when I was a kid. Dan set it up in the family room and Cal loved it. So fun to have that. We had a good time relaxing, watching conference, going shopping, and making yummy food. I just love whenever my Mom comes to visit. Wish we could see them even more....

Little buddies. Cal loves putting my Mom's necklace in her mouth and having her pop it out at him. He just laughs and laughs.

Watching Grandma and Grandpa drive away

The boys had such a good time with the choo choo train

And one afternoon Cal even got to try and run through the sprinklers

But turned out he was a little scared and Daddy had to run through them for him.

It was a fun weekend

Forts & Sidewalk Chalk

Entertaining this little munchkin is always on the brain. What can we do today to keep him from jumping off countertops, breaking mom's cool new thrift store vase, or hitting the dog in the head with a real baseball (or mom in the head with a golf ball....just happened actually, yesterday. grrr....)? Luckily he has a pretty good innocent face and so I usually forgive him pretty quickly......usually. But most days I just try and think of anything we can do that would be fun for him and me (other than relaxing in front of a movie :) ) to keep us both happy. 

Forts and sidewalk chalk are some of our new favorites. Here is proof.

Although Cal didn't know exactly what to do with a fort the first time Dan and I made one for him, he learned pretty quickly that you don't just throw your body on top of the blankets and make the whole thing fall over continuously.....that makes mom and dad mad. :) Once he figured out that the fun isn't on top of the fort, but inside, it was all good and we had a grand old time. He brought lots of his toys inside and we played pirates and hit everything we possibly could with his favorite red hammer. Because that is Cal for ya. 

I think the fun with forts is really just beginning.

Other days, after a nice afternoon snack.....

We like to go outside and play with sidewalk chalk. Cutest thing....one day while we were drawing out there I drew a picture of some of his favorite things, one being his blanket. I told him what it was and then he proceeded to talk sweetly to the cement in that spot and even laid his head down on it. It was so adorable. He kept yelling "kiki" at it since that is his name for his blankie.

He loves coloring on the ground, since inside he gets a time out for such behavior. :)

I have to kiss those cheeks, I just have to.

On this particular day he stumbled and got his first truly deserved bandaid. He thought it was pretty awesome after I finally got it on him. He pointed to his toe the whole afternoon and talked about his "owies", even on top of the 20 times a day he already does. So I made sure to give his big toe lots of get better kissies and all was good.

*These pictures are from back in March or April