A Three Star Halloween

Given Cal and Crewes' fascination with playing Angry Birds, it was only natural they would want the WHOLE family to be Angry Birds for Halloween.

Each of us selected our own characters. Somehow, they are pretty reflective of our individual personalities:

• Crewe: yellow bird, the fun bird that breaks through obstacles easily and is Crewe's favorite color
• Cal: black bomber, the bird that can make any place look like a bomb has gone off in a blink of an eye and also Cal's favorite color
• Chris: red bird, the bird that is so dependable and is the perfect match with Chris' glasses
• Camille: queen pig, because the birds are always trying to score points with me!

My mom was such a trooper and helped to make our costumes (and costumes for two of my brothers and SIL). I have this thing for homemade costumes. They are so endearing and I love the memories that are created during the "construction period."

And it was quite a construction period. Cal was Grammy's assistant and had strict quality control requirements. We can thank Cal for the black feather on Crewe's costume. When given the choice of spending the afternoon at the train park (just his favorite place on earth) or staying home to work on costumes, he didn't hesitate even a moment and said "Angry Birds!"

The boys loved wearing their costumes and their respective preschool events:

They were also a hit at our local Church's "Trunk-or-Treat" event where we were honored with the the Most Creative award.

Trick-or-treating Halloween night with the Smiths was a blast. Who wouldn't love being taxied around in hay-bail lined trailer decked out in Halloween gear and pulled by a rhino? And, to think we use to just walk from house to house!

A three-star Halloween, indeed.

Egg-cellent Times

The annual egg dying event was even more exciting this year than previous years.

First, because Grammy was in town to participate:
Second, because Crewe wore this awesome "egg hat" that he made at the library earlier in the week.
Cal wanted in on the egg hat action: Crewe, may I please wear your egg hat?
Crewe: Cal, you better take good care of it!
And third, because we initiated the "icky egg" tradition at our house.

The icky egg tradition is one that Chris had with his siblings. It goes like this: take one egg and dye it in every color so that it turns black; hide this icky egg in an extra difficult place to find; on Easter morning the finder gets to exchange the icky egg for a special surprise.

Another egg-cellent adventure was the annual Easter egg hunt at church.

Crewe and grammy scored.

So did Cal, who was anxious to give his chocolate rollos to his dad.
The miniature petting zoo was so fun. Cal loved the petting one of the new bunnies.
Post egg hunt we headed got to spend egg-cellent quality time with Cousin Aubrey and Grammy at the train park.
Grammy, Aubrey, please come visit again soon!
We can horse around some more and create more egg-cellent memories together.

A Traditional Calvert Christmas Eve

Traditions are links in the chains that connect generations. At our house we have links to both the Calvert and Bailey sides and are creating some new ones for the future to pick from. Christmas Eve this year was largely about the traditions we have grown to love and look forward to each year.

Tradition #1
Make homemade candy and goodies to deliver to friends and neighbors while caroling.
Delivering treats to friends was something both Chris' family and my family did growing up. The Calverts would make homemade ice cream for their deliveries. The Baileys would put together a sampler of goodies. Our family currently does homemade carmels, pecan brittle and festive oreo cookies.

Cal and Grammy getting the packages ready for delivery

Heading out for our first delivery stop

Tradition #2
Read the Christmas Story from the Bible together
The boys are still young to get a lot from the Luke 2 reading so we read this adorable pop-up Nativity book together.

Tradition #3
Open one gift.
As kids, both Chris and I would do this with our families and we'd always open up the same kind of gift - a nice set of new Christmas pajamas. We've kept the open-one-gift tradition, but from this year forward, it's not PJs! We started a new tradition this year of giving the kids Christmas jammies the day after Thanksgiving so that they can enjoy them for the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Tradition #4
Leave cookies for Santa
We understand Santa's tastes have evolved through the years and he now really enjoys homemade oreo cookies -- the kind we enjoy sharing with our friends and neighbors.

In addition to cookies for Santa, the boys wanted to leave something for Santa's reindeer this year. In fact, Santa's reindeer have been way more interesting to Calahan than Santa himself.

Crewe quality testing the carrots to be left for Santa's reindeer.

Tradition #5, enjoying a homemade candle lit dinner together as a family, was suspended this year due to our deliveries running overtime! Despite visiting the farmer's market early in the morning to pick up fresh greens and vegetables for our dinner, we opted to go out for dinner.

Road Trip Part One Continued

Whenever we visit our family and friends in Utah it seems like we always run out of time to see everyone and do everything we were hoping. Here are some more of our trip highlights:

Helping Uncle Cord dig trenches for a new sprinkler system.

Spending time with Nana.

Cal holds a very special place in his heart for his great grandma.

Visiting Johnny's Dairy and picking up fresh milk.

Lots of quality grammy time. Cal is her little assistant in this kitchen.

Finishing a nightly bath and getting
ready for evening snuggles and books with grammy.
Hanging with Uncle Donald. He's one cool uncle.

Over the River and Through the Desert...

...to grammy's house we go! Our good friend Danielle braved the open road with me and the boys between Phoenix and Salt Lake this past week. Lots of snacks, plenty of kid videos and a stop at McDonalds made for a successful trip.

Enjoying lunch at a Flagstaff McDonalds

Admiring Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Glenn in a windy 90 degrees.

The wildest thing happened when we stopped for treats at the Maverick in Page, Arizona. As background, you must know that Crewe's condition is extremely rare and there are only two other kids in the whole state of Arizona that have it. One of them is an adorable five year old boy named Bryson.
He's a ward of the state and has lived at a Phoenix healthcare center for children his entire life. For the last several weeks I've been trying unsuccessfully to connect with the volunteer coordinator at the healthcare center so that the boys and I can find out what we need to do to visit Bryson.

So, back to the trip. We are at the Maverick in Page and the clerk behind the counter is being so sweet to Crewe and talking directly to him. We chat for a few minutes and as we are leaving he says good-bye to Crewe and says in a matter-of-fact way "you remind me of my cousin, Bryson!"

Danielle and I did a double-take and turned around to verify that he was talking about the same Bryson we were trying to visit. It was indeed the same sweet boy! The clerk, Bryson's cousin, gave us some valuable info, including that fact that he moved to another facility, that will no doubt help us to find this little guy. Seriously, what are the chances of that? We didn't even need gas -- we spontaneously decided to stop for a treat to eat at the Glen Canyon Dam.

Sunshine in the Cold

We whimpy Arizonans have been starved for sunshine since we arrived here in Dallas almost a week ago. The weather has been cold, overcast and wet. While the temperatures haven't improved, we had some beautiful rays of "sunshine" this weekend.

First, Grammy arrived on Thursday night. She came to help with the boys while I was in a two-day training for a medical device and Chris took Crewe in for his twice daily treatments. She was such a great help and the boys especially loved having her around. Crewe cried when she left for the airport earlier this evening.


Second, Chris and I got to go out with the Clawsons on Saturday night. Carrie is a former college roommate of mine and a long time friend who lives in Dallas. We went out for Texas style BBQ and enjoyed catching up.

Third, the smiles that come from visiting the clearance aisle in the Walmart toy section. Chris picked up this little drum set there for $5. The boys have had a blast banging on it and we aren't going to feel a bit bad when we leave it here.

Holiday Adventures Begin

There's something about Thanksgiving weekend that makes it one of the weekends I look forward to most throughout the year. I love to be with family, watch the holiday season unfold, and see the Christmas spirit come more alive. A few favorites this weekend:

• Decorating for Christmas
• Black Friday
• Holiday Lights & Pizza
• Movies
• BYU v. U of U Football Game
• Holiday Baking

Grammy's garland assistant.

While my mom and I were busy decorating inside, Chris was outside hanging lights and wreaths and.... creating a landing pad for Santa. This photo doesn't do it justice. It's so dang cute.

Shawna's black Friday purchase: her first ever laptop computer!

We went to see the lights at the Mesa Temple grounds only to find out that they don't go on until 8:00 pm the first night! So, no lights, just pizza at our favorite pizza place in Old Town Scottsdale, Nello's. Cal wouldn't leave Uncle Donald's side all night long.

Crewe telling BYU to "bite" the competiton. What a great over time ending - Go Cougs!

Brian starts some holiday "cooking," sharing his spinach, egg, cheese and magic toast combination. It was delicious. Reading with Grammy is always a favorite with the boys. She must have read "I Know an Old Woman who Swallowed a Pie" a thousand times.

Chris and I doubled with Brian and Shawna and saw this incredibly uplifting movie. It was definitely worth waiting for the 10:10 showing last night when the there were no more seats left together for the 8:45. A must see, for sure.