Go Aggies! Go Aggies! Hey! Hey! Hey!

 So picture this, it's about 4 a.m. and something wakes me up. It takes me a while to figure out what it is. Oh, it's my baby who never quits eating, he must want a bottle. So I stumble down the hallway bouncing off the walls as I go. I clumsily open up the fridge to get the milk and grab a bottle. (Now I should have pre made a bottle before going to bed but I am new at this whole bottle feeding thing, so of course I didn't.) I pour the milk into the bottle but since I am basically sleep walking I pour a good amount onto the counter in the process. I grab a towel to soak up the milk then I try to put the bottle top onto the milk jug and get frustrated because it wont go on. After what seems like ages I figure it out, put the cap on the milk and put it in the fridge. I have done this a few times in the past two weeks. It's a struggle and I am a major spaz. Props to all the ladies and gents out there who bottle feed from day one. You fools are crazy!

But Calum still is lovin the bottle and wakes up happy as a clam each day. Below is him on one such occasion, being cute as ever right after he wakes up :)

We had a pretty sweet date on Friday. I took Kevin to the Nicklecade :) Calum had a fun time as well. 

What should I buy with all these tickets??

Saturday was really nice, so we picnicked in the park. Calum loves the outdoors and food so naturally he had a ball.

Calum is standing up better and better each day. Standing up long enough for me to snap a quick pic of him! He's going to be walking before we know it.

 Calum likes to help me fold (unfold) our clothes. He gets really excited and whips it around and laughs. It's too cute not to let him do :)

Stinker :)

Not much more to say this week other than Go Aggies! In case you didn't know, they are in the finals tommorow for the CIT tournament. Check it out and cheer them on to victory!! Hail the Utah Aggies!

 

You'd think that I posed this picture but I didn't Calum just loves Big Blue :)

Grandma says If you put Rocks on my Head I'll Quit Growin

Today marks one full week of not nursing Calum. I had to get a steroid shot in my wrist last Tuesday because I have a little thing called DeQuervain's Tendonitis, also known as New Mom's Wrist. Basically it's from lugging around 19 pounds of baby all day everyday. It had been killing me since August and I finally went in to a specialist and it didn't take her but 5 minutes to Diagnose it and give me a shot. It took a few days but my wrist is feeling great, still a little tender but vastly improved.

But anyway, when she gave me the shot she advised me to not nurse for a few days. I figured if I'm not nursing for a few days I might as well quit altogether. I was planning on taking the gradual approach but this curve ball changed my tactic. And it has been going great. Calum honestly doesn't even care. He happily takes a bottle. He is still waking up about twice a night but I guess that is our next hurtle. 

Mason came to our house the other day wearing this shirt. And Calum had just gotten the same one for his birthday from his awesome Aunt Kelli. So we put it on and had them be twinners. Too cute :)

It had been really nice outside this week so we have tried to go out and play a lot. This was us at our apartment complex just playing with the rocks. We tried out our awesome backpack carrier on a muddy little hike.

We also took our new bike trailer out for a spin and Calum had a ball. 

Our friends Hayley and Jake surprised us for a little visit on Friday. They were on their way back from road trippin it out to Minnesota for spring break and decided to pay the Foulger's a visit. It was really awesome to see them and hear about their adventures at an Amish community :) 

We just have the greatest friends out here in Colorado. We definitely miss our family but we are definitely cared for and get to share in fun times and special moments with people here too. 

On Saturday me and Kevin got to go to the temple and see our friends Ryan and Rochelle get sealed to their two kids. It was amazing!! Kevin and I had never been to a family sealing before and it was so awesome. There was such an amazing spirit that was there! The church is true. Families really can and will be together forever!! I am so grateful that I was married in the temple and get to be a family with Kevin and Calum for all eternity!! What an amazing blessing and promise! Click on my "I'm a Mormon" link if you want to read more about the awesome blessings of the temple :)

Kevin and Calum both got sweet haircuts last night. I've cut Calum's hair twice before but it was really only a snip here and there to cut off some stragglers. This however was a full blown hair cut. With buzzers and everything. Calum did not love it. He wasn't too sure about the clippers when I was showing him them, and then when I put them on his head he would move and try to look at them. I think they kind of scared him, or he didn't like the vibrating on his head. Either way he was a wiggly little worm. We put him in front of the T.V. in hopes that would distract him and when it didn't, we gave him some ice cream :) Kevin was in charge of giving him bites while I cut. His haircut turned out alright, I just hope he didn't eat too much hair in the process.

I put some product in Calum's hair this morning just to see what it looked like and this was the result. Kind of a little crazy. It might be too long but I didn't dare cut it shorter. His hair is so blonde that if I went any shorter I think he'd look bald. I don't think I'll style it quite yet anyway. Maybe when he starts walking because now with all the rolling around and bumping his head into stuff this hair do lasts about an hour and then after that it looks like a matted down mess. It's great. Also, He looks too grown up with his hair like that and he can't grow up yet he's still my baby...  

My sweet baby who controls our every move. Lately he likes to throw his pacifier out of the crib then stand there and cry til I come in and give it to him. It's a fun little game he plays with us until he gets bored of it and decides to finally go to sleep. He has been playing this game with me while I have been writing this blog post. I think I have gone in 5 or 6 times to retrieve his binky that he has hucked somewhere in the room. Sometimes I really have to search for it, it's times like these that Calum likes best. He stands there and giggles while I am on my hands and knees routing around his bedroom trying to find his pacifier. Yup he has us in the palm of his teeny little hand.

He's geting bigger, thats for sure. Big boy shirt. Big boy food. Big boy hair cut. He teases us like a big boy. He's growin up too quick. We better just follow Grandma Foulger's advice and start stackin rocks on his head! Maybe that will slow him down but I doubt it.

Calum has been the king of goofy faces lately. And these last two I thought were pretty awesome :) Enjoy!

Parties and Presents

Calum is one!!! I can't believe it. We have had quite the week, party planning and what not. I don't even know where to start. I'm going to start at the birthday party because that's what it was. A party. A monster party to be exact. I had so much fun getting ready for the party, making stuff (besides the cake pops. Those are the worst things in the world) and putting googly eyes on everything. I loved it. It turned out super fun and cute. We did it at our church because there's more space. But when we showed up there was a color guard team posted up in there and running all around. So it was kind of crazy getting ready and setting up for it but it worked out. 

Watch Calum eating his birthday cake

Lots of people came to celebrate with us. Including a surprise visit from grandma and grandpa Foulger!! Such a fun surprise!! Calum was so happy to see them and share his first birthday with them!

I had fun making these goofy party hats. Some kids liked them more than others :)

All of Calum's buddies and some of the action that went down at the P. A. R. T. Y.

We had a Monster Truck Rally at the party. Each family decorated a monster truck and then we raced them with the kiddos inside. I think people were a little skeptical at first but they ended up having fun with it. Especially the older kids. Thats what I was hoping for when we decided to do it. 

It was a party. Cake fun and lots of presents. Crazy kid got so spoiled. Everybody must know him really well because he got a lot of books. And Calum looooves books :)

Just keeping watch over the world. I love this cute cape that our friend Katie made him. Love it!! Calum has been doing this a lot lately. At our house he stands at our sliding glass door and looks longingly outside. I think he just likes to check it out and hopes that I will take him out on a walk or something. Such a funny boy. I think this is my new favorite picture though :)

We also got some other fun presents this week. Grandpa and grandma Foulger got us this awesome trailer/stroller. We got a sweet backpack carrier for an awesome deal on craigslist. And we got Calum a big boy car seat which we have yet to install but we are still excited about. Now summer just needs to get here for us to try out all our fun toys!

Funny picture that grandma snapped Sunday afternoon. Like father like son :)

On Calum's actual birthday we at dinner at Wahoo's taco's then went to the Bass Pro Shop. Kind of a random thing to do for a kids first birthday. But he likes to look at fish so we took him to look at the fish there. First we ate fish, then we looked at fish. It was a great night :)

Earlier in the week we went on a windy hike with some of my friends. We were quite the sight with all of our babies and baby carriers. So funny.

Calum had a check up with the urologist this week and everything is looking great. We will have one more check up in a year and if all looks good then we wont have to make any more trips to there clinic. Yahoo!! 

Even though Calum is one. He still isn't walking. But he is very observant. Loves picking up little things and checking them out. Lately he has been trying to share all of his drinks, food and pacifiers with us. He does this funny sighing noise and has also been blowing spit bubbles. He has three teeth and for the first time ever he slept through the night!! It was the day of his party, I don't know if he was just tuckered out or the sugar high finally made him crash. I was pretty excited though. Too bad it didn't last. I think he is finally figuring it out though. Happy one year buddy!! Can't wait to see what fun the next year brings us!!

Mess Maker, Mess Maker, Makin a Mess!

Once again it is Tuesday, Calum has gone down for his nap, so that means it is time to write another blog. Early in the week Calum was still recovering from his illness and so we stayed at home a lot and I got a little stir crazy. There is only so much you can do in a two bedroom apartment, and a lot of that is difficult to do when you have a child clinging to your leg for most of the day. But we survived. I found a website with activities to do with kids. You put in their age and it pulls up hundreds of activities to help them develop at whatever stage they are in. It's a pretty cool website, (it's on my Pinterest if you want to check it out). So we did some of those but Calum's attention span isn't that long so it wouldn't take long for him to begin clinging to my leg again. Kevin says it's just Calum's way of asking for a little buddy. Not yet boys... So needless to say Calum got into lots of stuff and sat around looking cool.

I read an article in the Ensign that talked about letting kids do stuff around the house even if they make messes because that is how they learn to be independent, confident  and do things on there own. This was meant for parents with teens but I found meaning in it for me too. I decided I was going to start doing things with Calum that may be messy but are fun and help him to explore and learn. One of those things is feeding himself. Now I don't let him do it all the time, but when there are foods that don't stain and cling to the spoon pretty good I let him have a go at it. Here is a video of one such occasion. Sidenote- Calum loves food and we can never feed him fast enough, so when I first gave him the spoon he started shoveling food into his mouth.

Another messy activity I buckled down and let Calum do was fingerpainting.

He Loved it and we made this sweet picture for Dad using Calums footprints.

Of course these things were messy but we had lots of fun and lots of laughs. Definitely worth it :)

We have been really busy lately and haven't spent a lot of time together as a family. So Friday night we went out to dinner. We had to wait a while for our table so we played cars with Calum to kill time. It was nice to just be together for an evening, even if Calum was a little cranky.

Our friend invited us to go to the Wildlife Museum this weekend. It was a cheap day so it only cost us two bucks :) It was fun to get out of the house and check out the sights. Calum wasn't too stoked on all the mechanical animals but he really likes the interactive areas. 

Saturday night the Elders Quorum had a Pinewood Derby. It was quite the party. Kevin decided to race his car from when he was a cub scout. It didn't do so hot on the race track. But for a 20 year old car it held its own. (Kevin was a little heartbroken when he realized that the car is indeed about 20 years old). Fun night.

We also went out to Elizabeth for Layla Greer's baby blessing. And finished off the weekend with a scrumptious dinner with friends and lots of carrots :)

As always it's been an eventful week and we are so grateful for our many blessings in our lives.