The Calhoun Boys on Instagram

My favorite time of the year is here! SUMMER! One of the things I love most about Summer is dressing up in Red, White, & Blue! Especially the boys! We've done it for as long as I can remember. You can also follow these cute boys, and their fashion on Instagram @threecalhounboys. They're lucky enough to get to rep a few brands, and even have a few modeling gigs (outside of what they already do for their Mama on Fly Little Guy), check it out!

My Baby Turned Six

I really didn't want him to do that. Why does six seem so much older than five?!?! It's like all the traces of him ever being a baby are gone. Well, except, he still has all his baby teeth. I am secretly pleased about this. He, however, is not. He wants money from the tooth fairy, and I want him to keep his baby teeth forever. Okay, not really. But, I am honestly really struggling with him getting older. Like, really, really. I did however try my best to ensure birthday fun was had! I made these super cute treats for him to take to school!

So, if I'm being really honest. These types of things don't happen much around here anymore. It took me over four hours to put all of them together. That is a lot of time, and quite frankly, I wanted mother of the year for it. But, I digress. The children's five minutes of happiness (which if you multiply that times 28 children makes 140 minutes of happiness :) was totally worth it!

We invited the neighborhood kids over for cupcakes after school! As excited as he was he got a little shy when we started singing. I sure do super duper love him!

Lastly, I just wanted to share this picture his daddy took of him before the kindergarten music concert. It is such a joy to see your children do things they love, and this boy loves to "be on stage and sing." His face on stage was absolutely priceless. We always joke that they put the cute Calhoun boys front and center (even if it is just for logistics you guys can let us have this one, right? :).

 

Happy Hump Day!

 

Dr Seuss Pics

And, a few of my beautiful sis!

Some Christmas Cheer for your Computer

Christmas is almost here!!! Since we're so close, I thought I'd share these cute little pics of Graysen!!!

I love that look!

Seriously, the cuteness?!?!

Fourth of July!

This Fourth of July was the best in recent memory...maybe ever. After sleeping in for a spell, hubby and I went to the gym. What started as a sprinkle when we arrived, turned into a downpour with no signs of stopping by the time we left. Since clearly we weren't going to be able to go swimming as planned, we went ahead and made lemonade (hypothetically of course)! We played with the boys in the rain for quite some time. Well, hubby did. It was actually kind cold for me at a cool 73 degrees. Cut this Arizona girl some slack. Anything under 75 is cold. Truth. Here's my favorite instagram pic's!

This one was is my favorite from the day! The boys are playing football! Daddy & Tate Vs. Jaren & Jace. Daddy holds off big brothers while Tate scores! Just a moment in time savored.

This one was actually toward the end when the rain was really just a sprinkle.

Cracking up at hubby as he celebrates a goal!!!

Splashing around! Still pretty wet and dark at this point!

Cold, wet, and done!

After showering off and warming up we grilled, sparkled, and watched fireworks (thankfully the rain cleared up I was a bit nervous) with our good friends The Basultos! Here's just a few more!

We walked over to the greenbelt near our home to watch the fireworks show. It's one of the features we love most about our house! Here are two more fun, festive, yet quite random photos I captured that day! My Fourth of July jewelry!

And, the patriotic pudding!

Hope everyone had a happy and safe fourth!!!

Happy Valentines Day from Greysen

And me of course (wink)! Over the weekend, we took Greysen's 9 Month Pictures and I thought they were very fitting to post today! You're welcome!

Love the shoes, and the bow tie!

I loved this one so much I had to show you b&w too!

Happy Valentines Day!!!

The December That Dashed By

In early December, Richard went with Jace on his school field trip to Tolmachoff farms. Here's the "vegetables" of their labor. Get it?

Richard and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary.

Andrew Thomas Mechup came to visit. Horrible pic, wonderful memory! The boys were definitely wowed when he snuck their balloons!

Santa Clause came to visit Tate's Preschool and they sang us some cute Christmas Songs. Nana and Papa came to watch too.

We went horseback riding and I didn't forget my camera. But, most of these weren't taken by me. Still glad I have them anyway!

Christmas came and went, and I hardly have any pictures to prove it.

And, lastly, we rung in the new year with deliciousness and sparklers.

November in a Nutshell

I'm way behind on blogging my personal stuff, and, since I'm turning this blog into a book it needs to get in here asap. So, the next few days will be catch up. Then, I'll post a few of my latest sessions. There is some good stuff coming your way.

The first grade had a little Thanksgiving Performance. They sang songs and Jace did so well. He was front and center and I joked that that's where they put all the cute kids (wink).

Tate's preschool had a Thanksgiving Feast and we took little cornucopias filled with pretzels, marshmallows, and craisins. I got the idea off of Pinterest, but we basically did an easy-to-put-together version. I think overall they were a hit!

When I went to volunteer in Jaren's classroom, I was hanging their "Thankful" writings. Jaren's (the only one I read) cracked me up. "I am thankful for... my toys because my parents got them for me when I asked them so it was really nice. I'm also thankful for my parents because they care for me and love me."

Richard passed out on the couch after eating our Thanksgiving Feast.

And, I made a left over turkey pot pie the day after. Yum! Stay tuned for December and January!!! I know you're all on pins and needles (wink)!

The Calhouns in October

Editor's Note: He says this post is so long no one is going to read it. Consider yourself warned.

I can't believe how fast October flew by! It's now gone with the wind. Literally. The wind we had here yesterday was crazy! Thankfully it calmed down in time for my photo shoot. I'm definitely enjoying the cooler weather! Got my scarfs and boots out and everything! So, here's a quick synopsis of what the Calhouns did in October.

My kids had Fall Break for the first time ever. We never had Fall Break growing up, but, I have to say, I liked it. It's a nice little change of pace, if only for a week. As a family, we made the trek to Vertuccio Farms. It was a lot of fun, but got hot as the morning wore on. Before we drove out there, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts, a special treat for my kids. However, I made the mistake of letting them pick out chocolate donuts. Lesson learned. It really was a cute little farm, but, like with most things, my kids enjoyed doing the not-so-farmish things the most. We rode big pedal cars, jumped on a huge trampoline-bouncyhouse-thing-a-majig, saw (and talked) to all sorts of animals, rode the train, and EVERYONE whined and complained in the corn maze. It was everything I expected :)! But, seriously, if the Calhouns life depended on getting out of a corn maze, we'd all be goners.

The smile on this guys face whilst riding the pedal car was well worth the drive.

Jace begged to jump on the thing-a-ma-jig, and enjoyed it more than anything else on the farm. Love that smile!

Tate wasn't too comfortable on the thing-a-ma-jig (that's what I'm calling it until someone corrects me), so he convinced Daddy to push him on the swing.

We took a tour of all the animals...There were cows, chicks, ducks, geese, and pigs, to name a few.

Tate had us laughing hysterically when he started a conversation with one of the goats!

Goat, are you in there? What are you doing? Are you hiding? Can you come out? To which Richard remarked "You think the kids have seen one too many movies where the animals talk?" Too funny!

My kids were DYING to ride the train! I love these faces!

And then...there was the corn maze. I'll just end on that note, because what happened next was quite pathetic.

We also picked pumpkins as well. I had this grand idea that this year instead of carving our pumpkins we were going to decorate them. I saw so many cute ideas on pinterest, and had even ripped some ideas out of a magazine. So it was very difficult for me when my kids didn't like any of them. Instead, they had their own ideas, and I was having mad anxiety that they weren't turning out as I planned. I had to take deep breaths and remember that it was all for them anyways. Here's the end result.

I didn't get the picture until Halloween night, and unfortunately, Tate's pumpkin didn't survive until then.
The kids and I also made bats, lots of them! You can see these decorative bats we made in our Halloween pics, but, unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of the 70 Halloween treats we made for their classmates. Here's a picture I took from the Skip To My Lou blog where I got the tutorial and pattern.

It was quite a process, and even Dad helped. The kids school doesn't have Halloween parties, but they do let them pass out treats and the end of the day if they want. The bats were a hit!

Now, for the grand finale! Our homemade Halloween costumes! I'm not talking about the kind you make yourself, but no one can really tell. This was our first attempt at anything like this, and I was very proud of the fact that we only spent $5 this year (versus the almost $100 plus we've spent in years past). I already know what we're doing next year. I can't wait!

I got the idea for Jace to be Clark Kent off Pinterest. As soon as I saw the picture, I knew he had to do it! I don't think the picture does him justice. He looked rather cute, and pretty much everyone knew who he was!

Tate was adorable! He had a "will work for candy" sign, and when anyone would ask what he was, he would say "I work for candy!"

We didn't decide that Jaren would be a pirate until the week before Halloween. But he loved it, and that's all that matters!

I've never been super into Halloween, but I'm getting better and I'm starting to collect more and more decorations. My kids (and myself) love it!

I almost forgot. I also attended the Mother/Son Dance with my babies, the two that are in school anyway! We had a really good time dancing untill the wee hour of 7:30! Love these two!