Do You Play Croquet?

Recently, I did more work for the King James Bible documentary, and this time, my duties included props and set dressing for the pickup shots that we had to do. We were able to borrow and buy most things, but we did need a croquet set that looked like it could have been played with in the 16th century. Well, I bought this one at Wal-Mart: 

 And made it into this one:

I was very happy with how it turned out! All I did was sand parts of the mallets, especially the bight colors, so it looked more dull and used. Then I put a coat of a darker wood stain on them. Calvin and I banged and scratched them on the concrete to also look more used. For the balls, I bought brown paper machete balls from Michael's and just used Mod Podge over tissue paper to put a stripe on them. A layer of Mod Podge over the whole ball made it look more wooden.

So there you go! An antiqued croquet set fit for decoration in your rec room.

Summertime

It finally feels like summer in Provo and we have been taking advantage of our Pass of All Passes which gets us into the water park, the fun centers, and the baseball games for free! We have also been making trips to the library a few times a week to participate in activities there and listen to storytime. Calvin loves picking out books and using the computers to check them out.

Today's activity was miniature golfing! He seemed have a hard time grasping that the clubs aren't hammers and that the balls are not really to be thrown, especially not into the surrounding bodies of water. It took some work, but he seemed to get the object of the game by hole 17.

He ran straight for the biggest puddle he could find.

Looking to see where his ball went after it entered the lighthouse.

Figuring it out!

Hole 17- he gets it! But why do I say "Can you golf it into the hole?"



His prizes that Kayla bought him with some tickets she won at the arcade. He spent the entire car ride home having his 2 monsters growl at each other.

Two of my sisters are staying with us right now and it is so much fun. Sam is doing an internship for the summer here, and now Kayla is visiting for 2 weeks!

Calvin has been cracking us up lately. He is such a good talker lately and his ideas and comments on things are just so cute. My favorite thing is when he does something he knows he shouldn't do, like throw a toy across the room, and our conversation goes like this:

Me: "Calvin!"
C: "Mommy happy now?"
Me: "No, Mommy's not happy because Calvin threw his toy."
C: "Oh, sorry, Mommy."
Me: "It's okay."'
C: "Mommy happy now?"

This conversation repeats probably 20 times a day after various episodes. Here is another favorite conversation that we had lately:

Me, upon seeing a very focused expression on his face: "Do you need to go poopoo in the potty?"
C: "No, not poopin. Only tootin."
Too funny.

In other news, we're getting ready for baby number 2! I still have a couple more months, but I am starting to look and feel very pregnant. Calvin is very excited to have a little brother. He puts his hand on my belly all the time and says "Feel kickin!" Precious.

The Easter Bumpy

You all know that last Sunday was Easter, but it was also Calvin's birthday! He is now a 2-year-old, and is very proud of it! We celebrated these things and the end of Tyler's most difficult semester so far with a trip to St. Louis and Waverly, Ill., to visit my dad and his side of the family. We had such a great time and narrowly missed all of the craziness of the tornadoes in North St. Louis.

On Friday, we braved the impending weather and headed to the St. Louis Zoo- one of my favorite zoos ever. It is such a big zoo with such a neat variety of animals, AND it's free!! Who can beat that? Here is one of my favorite attractions- the big drinking fountain:

There are 6 different spouts you can drink from at varying heights. I have loved it since I was a child.

The zoo was great! We went with my aunt, uncle, and some cousins, who I haven't seen in 9 years! It was a pretty rainy day and at one point we had to run into the bird house while a big rain/hailstorm passed over, but we loved it. We also made sure to hit White Castle, Imo's Pizza, and Ted Drewes before leaving St. Louis Friday night.

We drove to my dad's new house in Waverly, Ill, population 1400, missing the tornado by about an hour...yikes. We arrived safely, and my dad presented Calvin with his birthday present, a wagon he built using antique wheels he found in the woods on his property. Calvin loved his little apple cart and took rides in it all weekend. I wonder if the future grandchildren will be jealous?

On Saturday, we drove to Springfield to take a look at some rental properties that my dad owns. While we were driving down one residential street, looking at houses, I had a double-take and said:

Me: "That house totally looks like a Frank Lloyd Wright house I've studied."
My dad: "Oh, yeah, didn't I tell you? That's a Wright house."
Me: (now hyperventilating as though I've seen a celebrity) "What? No! Let me out! I need to take pictures!"

I jumped out and took pictures while they drove around the block. Architecture really gets me so excited. And I have never seen any of Wright's houses in person before! Who knew that my dad owns a house only 3 blocks from one?! I didn't! I was bummed that tours don't start till May...I can't wait to see the inside... Here's the exterior of the Dana-Thomas House:

On Saturday afternoon, my friends J and R came down to Waverly to help make Calvin's cupcakes. We decided to make the angry birds cupcakes as seen on The Crafting Chicks blog since Calvin is obsessed with the iPod lately.

We also decorated a sheet cake to go with it:

For dinner, we went to Verda Mae's, one of the 2 restaurants in Waverly, for "horseshoes," a popular dish in Illinois. Horseshoes consist of a big piece of toast, your choice of meat (I chose country fried steak), thick, batter-y, crispy fries, and a house cheese sauce on top. This meal almost made my heart stop, but was one of the most delicious things I have had in a while. The fries were so good and crispy. And the cheese sauce was yum, yum, yummy! The horseshoes were HUGE too! Here is 1/2 of one:

Then came Sunday. We woke up early and Calvin found balloons next to his bed and an Easter basket downstairs! His favorite thing in the basket was definitely his "lellow peeps!!!" He carried the row of five marshmallow chicks around for hours. I don't think he even knew that they are intended to be eaten. He just thought they were friends. It was precious.

My dad booked Waverly's famous "bumpy wagon" for the festivities. It did not disappoint. I am seriously questioning whether I should have gone on that thing while pregnant. It definitely lived up to its name. I cannot describe to you how bumpy it was. Here's Calvin awaiting his ride.

One of my cousins dressed up in a big bunny costume and surprised Calvin. He loved it! He followed the "Easter Bumpy" around and searched for eggs all over outside. He seriously was having the time of his life. He would find an egg and then take it to the bunny for approval.

We BBQ'd outside all day and had so much good food to eat. So many of my relatives were able to come, and it was so much fun catching up with cousins who I haven't seen in years. I didn't take half the pictures i would have liked to. I didn't even get any of Calvin playing with the 5 chicks that my dad recently got! He loved petting their soft feathers and watching them run all around, pecking the bottom of their coop. What a fantastic weekend in the country. We can't wait to go back.

By the time we left on Monday, the St. Louis airport was up and running again, and we had an uneventful flight back to Salt Lake City.

I love my little 2-year-old so much! And I am so grateful for the Easter holiday when we get to celebrate the miracle of Christ's sacrifice for us. It means so much to me that we can all learn and grow and make mistakes and be forgiven of them and move on. I feel so much hope and happiness learning and growing with my family, and I know this happiness can continue through eternity only because of our Savior. Here is a last Easter message I leave with you all. Happy Easter!

Geek Pride

Ok, so we are geeks. I know this. And I like being a geek. And I really like being a geek about LOST. And we like surrounding ourselves with other LOST geeks. Today, I went to a baby shower for one of my dearest friends who also happens to love LOST, and I couldn't help indulging in my geekiness and creating one of (I think) the coolest gifts any baby could receive. Behold: I made the onesies using some of the PhotoFabric paper that I used for Calvin's Halloween costume last year. I just printed the Dharma logo out and sewed it on! Very easy. I had some ideas to get really geeky and technical, like using the logo for the Staff station and writing "nursery" below it, pretending like they were Dharma-issued onesies that they would keep stocked in the maternity ward of the Staff station. I ended up deciding that just using the Swan station logo looked the coolest. I am very happy with how they turned out and think I am going to have to make some more of these for our new baby's arrival in September!

Innate

Though I haven't been working, I have had more than enough things to keep myself busy. I was put in charge of planning the ward activity for March which was a Home Video Night, so collecting and compiling all of the video submissions kept me occupied throughout March. It turned out really great. It was really fun watching friends' videos from when they were younger.

Calvin has also been keeping me very busy. He is definitely becoming a 2-year-old. He talks so much now and repeats everything that you say to him. It's so funny to watch him figure out language. For example, one morning, he was holding my hands and jumping on the bed and I let go of him signaling that it was time to stop. He said, "One more time!" So we did it a little longer. When we stopped again, he said, "One more--" then though hard for a second, "--Six!! Six times!!" It was so funny to think that that was probably the biggest number he could think of.

He spends half of the day running around and jumping on everything, then the other half of the day begging to watch various movies. He is absolutely crazy about electronics, too. We try hard to limit his media usage, but he still has managed to find time to master various electronic devices. I seriously think children are born with these skills now. Here's him playing with the iPod:

Livable

I (Tyler) was looking at a company's website that is recruiting at BYU this week and read this:

Based in Provo, Utah, one of Forbes Magazine's Top 10 Most Livable Cities, the InsideSales.com team continues to look for innovative ways to better serve our clients and local community.

I love that category. It's not 10 best cities to live in, just 10 most livable.

"How do you like Provo?"

"It's so livable!"

My Valentine's Day

I don't like calling it "V-Day." I also don't like "Turkey Day" and "Xmas." I dislike all of these names for different reasons, and I don't want to go in to it, but just let it be known that I really don't like them. There.

Besides being annoyed about the title of the day, my Valentine's day was really wonderful. Tyler had flowers delivered to me while I was at home alone with Calvin, and it was a wonderful surprise. Now, even 2 weeks later, they still actually look pretty!

For a romantic evening, we went to dinner and a movie. We saw The King's Speech and it was just wonderful. It is so refreshing to see a well-made movie with fantastic acting. Well done, filmmakers.

Also for the occasion, I went to my friend's annual Valentine's Day Cookie Exchange, and I do have to say that I am constantly amazed by her creativity and talent. She is an amazing decorator with such a unique style. I have included some pictures from the party for your enjoyment.

For my contribution to the exchange, I made Sweetie Pie Pops, which I thought turned out so cute! I got the idea off of Our Best Bites which is my new favorite go-to site for yummy recipes. I also made their Chicken Pot Pie this month which was really easy and so good. Basically, I will make and eat anything that involves homemade pie crust. :)

I like it when I make things and they turn out the way I want them too. It doesn't happen all the time...