Calvin moments to remember.

Here are a few Calvin moments to remember from 2012-2013.

Trying meat for the first time.

Screaming every time the vacuum was on. The only thing that soothed him was holding him while I vacuumed.

Entertaining Calvin with juice, chocolate, and the movie Cars while strapping him down for a hair cut.

"Folding laundry."

"Putting the dishes away."

"Taking out the trash."

Hating the snow from the first moment he touched it (refused to wear gloves). It took him 15 minutes to get dressed. And he lasted less than 3 minutes outside.

...Then needing hot chocolate to recover from the cold.

Freaking out about the "people" with no heads.

Shopping overload.

Aching for a nap after church.

Cheering for Mom on the sidelines during her flag football game.

Climbing out of bed and getting stuck in the toy dresser when supposed to be sleeping.

Kneeling for family prayer.

Making funny faces during General Conference.

Making a first marker masterpiece. With lots of juice and goldfish breaks.

Climbing on Justin's scooter and saying, "vroom vrooooom!"

Trying to grab the ball from Grandpa Scott.

Gambling at the Las Vegas airport.

...and getting caught by security for being underaged.
  

Being a goofball at Megan's wedding.

Trying to clean his face while fighting five adults. (Cleaning Calvin's face is always a battle.)

Joining Mom to do laundry at the laundromat.

...it was a few blocks away. We looked ridiculous.

Climbing trees with Daddy.

Messing with Dad's glasses on his shoulders. (Every time!)

Helping Dad cook.

Helping Dad cook with a more hands-off approach.

Comforting Mom after her trip to the ER.

The Big Move

This is the biggest move we've ever had! How can us college kids accumulate so much stuff?...Oh yeah, we had a baby ;)

Arizona is beautiful in it's own way. Yeah, it's dry, hot, desert looking, and cacti count as trees, but the sunsets are to die for. Each evening is filled with vibrant color in the sky that makes me so happy.

We first moved into my Grandma and Grandpa's house while we waited for our house to be available. For a couple months we enjoyed life in a retirement community. In this 65+ community, we REALLY enjoyed all the perks:

Swimming in this beautiful pool.

Cruising around in golf carts.

Playing with rocks.

Enjoying all the palm trees.

Running around in swimsuits.

And playing with cars in the water.

Calvin is always too cool for his parents...

...But one day, I noticed Calvin acting like the elderly neighbors, and I knew we had been in the retirement community long enough!

In November, we finally moved in to our own place! My boys are so excited to have more space to run around&wrestle, play in the backyard, and work in the garage.

Currently, the LDS Mesa Temple is the closest temple to us. However...

...we have a new temple being built closer: the LDS Gilbert Temple! The Open House (where ANYONE can go take a tour inside) is going on from January 18th-February 15th 2014 Click here to reserve free tickets! After the Open House, the temple will be dedicated where only baptized members who are qualified and prepared are allowed to enter the temple. So if you can, go take a tour and see what's inside!

Overall, Arizona is treating us well :) We are loving the warm winter weather and we're fitting right in. This Arizona desert has become our home and we are taking everything in stride. We've even become DiamondBack fans!

Summer all-year-round is the best!

Calvin thinks he's done with naps...

Every day I fight with Calvin to take a nap. He definitely still needs still needs one a day so that he's happy the entire day. Otherwise, he becomes a crying, unreasonable monster. I mean, c'mon. How cool is his bed?! Why doesn't he want to sleep in this awesomeness?

After a couple hours of fighting his fatigue and playing (aka destroying the room) by himself, he finally crashes in the only clean space left...his closet!

I love my little munchito (little munchkin with a spanish twist). But man, he can be so stubborn! I'm sure there will be many more stubborn moments to come. Yay for the terrible-twos!

New Years Resolution

What's are my New Years Resolutions?

Make more videos of Calvin

I absolutely LOVE taking photos of Calvin. Jake bought me my Canon Camera as my "baby present." I've always wanted a nice camera. And Jake completely surprised me. Luckily at the time, Jake worked at Best Buy where he got a pretty good discount on the camera. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have been able to buy it before Calvin was born. Now that I'm getting comfortable with adjusting the settings for photos, I want to get more comfortable with using the camera for videos.

Photos are always valuable to me because they capture moments in time that will help me remember the moment. I'm realizing the older I get, the more hazy my memories are becoming. Videos, on the other hand, are extremely valuable to me because I feel like I am taken back and immersed into to the the very moment.

My goal: is to make at least one video per month. That way, by the end of the year, I'll have at least 12 videos of Calvin during his toddler years.

Make time to re-read the Book of Mormon
I love studying and learning. I think that's what I miss most about school. Constantly learning. For so many years I spent TONS of time devoting myself to secular knowledge. This year, I want to read the Book of Mormon as if it was one of my text books in college: carefully and meaningfully. I want to understand each verse. If I don't understand something...look it up!

Instead of reading before I fall asleep, I'm going to read in the morning to help jump-start my day. Since I'm home a lot, I need that extra push to get me going.

My goal: is to study the Book of Mormon each morning for at least 30 minutes.

Good news: I don't have cancer!

So, around the time Brittney and I took engagement photos, this weird lump surfaced on the side of my neck.  You may have seen it.  Most people didn't say anything when they saw it -- out of some sort of courtesy, I suppose -- but those closest to me never hesitated to voice their distress.  I remember Matt saw it during a trip to Idaho and immediately said, "What the heck is that thing on your neck??!" followed by a series of pokes and prods.

My mom and Brittney tied for the most vocal.  My dear mother told me religiously to "get that dang thing looked at" while Brittney subtly hinted at my early death and her apprehension at raising Calvin after my premature departure.

If you haven't seen it, check it out:

Notice the artful diagramming.

I had plenty of reasons not to go get it looked at but, when the stars aligned and I ran out of excuses, I decided to see a doctor.  The first doctor sent me to a dermatologist who poked and prodded ("Four years??  You've had this for four years??  Why didn't you come earlier!??") and decided it was totally harmless and "purely cosmetic."  He told me I could leave it alone or get it cut out.  I flirted with the idea of leaving it but I knew the grief I'd get from my mom and my wife, so I scheduled a surgery.

Fun fact: novocaine injections actually sting a little and I counted twelve novocaine injections into my neck to remove this sucker.  They made a small incision, pushed the thing out and stitched it up.  Simple.  They asked if I wanted to see it and, as they were handing the vial to me, started joking and laughing between each other about the last lady who wanted to take a picture of it to "put it on the internet somewhere."

So, sorry I didn't take a picture.

Stitches:

Looking again, those sutures are pretty awful.

And semi-healed up:

It is really bright out this morning.

So, basically, I traded one lump for another lump.  The last lump was smooth but big, and this one is gnarly and small.  Two days later, I got a call from the pathology lab telling me it was cancer-free, which finally gave the supporting women in my life the relief they needed.  I still wish I had a picture.

In other news, we finally landed just the right job, which was cool.  More on that later.

Trick-or-Treating with Calvin

This year was the FIRST TIME Calvin went trick-or-treating!!! Last year, he was going to go with us dressed up as a tiger...but then he got Hand Foot and Mouth Disease and he was prohibited from interacting with others for at least 10 days. We were so bummed for him...but we certainly made up for it this year! 

We dressed up as The Batman Family! Calvin wore Jake's original batman costume that Lisa made for him when he was 2. How cool is that?! The only thing that didn't survive over the years was Jake's cape. Apparently he wore that cape ALL THE TIME and it was ripped to shreds. So, it was up to me to make a cape for Calvin. Feeling a little inadequate for the job, I did the best I could! I think it turned out just fine. Once Jake heard I was making Calvin's cape, he REALLY wanted a cape made for him, too. But not just any old cape...A HUGE, LIFE-SIZE replica of Batman's actual cape. Yikes! Talk about feeling inadequate. But I did the best I could! So, since Jake and Calvin had capes, I had to make one for myself, too! Those will be fun to have for years to come. 

We tried to explain to Calvin how Halloween and trick-or-treating works: everyone dresses up in costumes, knock on doors, says "trick-or-treat," the person who answers the door gives you candy in your bag, and then you say, "Thank you!" Calvin didn't quite get it, but he caught on quickly!

There he goes! Jake's trying to push him along. Calvin was pretty hesitant at first.

But after he trick-or-treated at the first house...

...He was excited for more!

The Justesen kids helped show Calvin what to do.

Uncle Chris and his girlfriend Brittany joined us for the fun.

Calvin was having SO MUCH FUN going from house to house collecting candy.

...Until Jake and Uncle Chris introduced Calvin to the SCARY side of Halloween. Calvin didn't like the scary looking costumes at all.

From then on, Calvin only wanted to be near his Mom and Dad.

After all that trick-or-treating, we thought Calvin would want to eat his candy...NOPE! He just wanted to play with Drayten's toy cars. We weren't surprised.

Calvin had A BLAST trick-or-treating for the first time. He'll definitely remember how it goes next year.