The Munchkins

I've been thinking a lot about parenting, about my abilities as a mother, our abilities together as father and mother.  I don't think I could ever love more than I do now as a mom, but with that great blessing of motherhood comes great responsibility, a responsibility I do not take lightly.  With a very spirited almost five year old, I worry sometimes I'm doing it all wrong.  She will be a leader as she grows older, and am I teaching her the right things so that she will be a positive leader?  In counseling with our bishop on this matter, he recommended Shaun and I read an article from last year's General Conference titled, "What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?"  The following excerpt is from that talk.

"A sweet and obedient child will enroll a father or mother only in Parenting 101.  If you are blessed with a child who tests your patience to the nth degree, you will be enrolled in Parenting 505.  Rather than wonder what you might have done wrong in the premortal life to be so deserving, you might consider the more challenging child a blessing and opportunity to become more godlike yourself.... Could it be possible that you need this child as much as this child needs you?"

The talk goes on to point out that discipline and disciple  come from the same root, and both imply patience and teaching, and should not be done in anger, but rather as taught in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 121, "by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and be love unfeigned; by kindness and pre knowledge."  The article goes on to point out that we should separate our children's behaviors from who they are (a point I have often made to Shaun), that they are not bad, but their choice was bad.  And he encourages parents to teach from the scriptures examples of being a good person, not only doing good things.  If we focus our energies on helping them become good people, they will be motivated to always do good things.  "Our children are God's children.  That is their true identity and potential."  So Shaun and I hope to work on teaching Christlike characteristics through the scriptures, and also by our own personal examples.  It's my hope that as we move into this Christmas season, that we can have the Spirit here in our home more, and that the spirit of contention can decrease.  I'm not saying it's always contentious here, but it's more so than I would like.

I love my family.  I love both of my girls and my dear husband, and I pray to be the mother and wife that the Lord would have me be to them.

 My girls can have these really sweet moments together.  This was this morning at breakfast.  They were just chummy, and then they wanted me to take their picture.  So stinkin' cute.

 My Amelia is a cuddle bug.  She let me curl her hair this morning for church.  This was a first so I had to get a photo.  She has the most beautiful hair (in my unbiased opinion of course)

 With her daddy before church.

My beautiful, spirited Ella on her favorite horse before church.  She only would pose for me on her horse, but I'll take it if I can get her to smile pretty like this.

Gobble Time

We've been enjoying a lovely and relaxing Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends.

This year, after much debate, we decided to spend Thanksgiving with Shaun's uncle Kerry and Aunt Pixie who live about fifty minutes from here.   We were torn because we also had an invitation to spend the holiday with my Aunt Liz, and my parents went there.  But after weighing the pros and cons of a five hour drive with our children, and the logistics of when we'd get there and how long we'd stay, we felt it may be best to just stay local this year.  We love his uncle, we love my aunt, but ultimately practicality won out in this decision making venture.

 The girls Thanksgiving morning on their new horse, Spirit.  Ella has named him.  Papa bought it for them at the consignment store, and it has been prominently placed right in the middle of my living room ever since.  Thanks Papa.  It has caused a little strife I will admit, but ultimately the girls have really enjoyed having it.  Ella absolutely LOVES it.  Even though she's still asking Santa for a "real horse," I think it might suffice for the time being... as in... until she reaches adulthood:)

 The girls at uncle Kerry's coloring and waiting for time to eat.

 The other fun part to staying here was that we were able to have a family friend come and join us for Thanksgiving.  Emilee is a friend of my sister's actually, but she is out here for an internship, and was by herself.  It was great to get to include her in our holiday, and she was a great sport for having never met any of the Calderwoods.  We hope to spend more time with her before she heads home to Las Vegas for Christmas.  She was a sweetheart!

 The thing I'm most thankful for, my lovely family!  Even if Ella is a ham in this photo.  I just love and adore my husband and my girls.

 Emilee with us.

 Then yesterday we decided to take the girls to the movies.  Amelia's first movie in the theater, unless you count the one time she was three months old.  

The girls enjoyed some games before the movie.  Riding the motorcycle in the arcade.  Girls after their dad's heart.

 Amelia did a pretty good job I have to say.  It's a good thing we bought plenty of food.  I think Amelia ate her way through the whole movie.  It kept her entertained, though she may have a had a little tummy ache after.  Sooo much popcorn!  Let's just say no one wanted dinner after all that junk food.  I suppose every once in a while it's okay to skip dinner in favor of treats, just every once in a while.

Ella was perfect.  She loves going to the "movie vador" as she calls it.  She's seen more movies at the theater than me, this one making four trips for her total.  We saw, "The Guardians," a cute holiday film.  Elle seemed to really love it, as did the rest of us!

So it's been a lovely kick off to our holiday season.  We're excited to start decorating for the holidays, and next weekend we'll probably pick up our tree and go to see the temple lights.  I am so grateful to be surrounded by wonderful family and friends this holiday season.  More to come from the Calderwoods later.  For now, we are content in saying we are grateful for some time off of work to really enjoy being together with just our little family.

October Happenings

October has been a fun month for the Calderwoods.

More than ever, I just love and adore being a mom, while at the same time feeling completely overwhelmed and inadequate.  I suppose that is Motherhood in a nutshell.

This photo is actually old, but I wanted to include it because I actually liked it of me, which is rare.

 It's fun to see my little girls become such good friends.  They are so very different, and their personalities really compliment one another.

 Ella continues to be very intense.  She's learning by leaps and bounds, and has started putting letters together to spell words, all on her own.

 Amelia is happy and fun loving.  She has so much to say, and it's pretty adorable to hear her talk, ramble, sing, play.  She's about as cute as cute can get.  In my unbiased opinion, she's the most adorable two year old ever!

 Ella's been excited about being a "real cowgirl."  She got boots and a cowgirl hat, and plans to dress up for Halloween.  She tells me this is for real though.  She will be a cowgirl when she grows up.

 Nana and papa took her to visit the horse down the street.  She fed him apples.  She thought she might get to ride him, but was still happy to spend time with him, ride or not.

 Bound and determined to get on his back...

 Amelia was more comfortable visiting the horse from the comfort of Papa's arms.  No fence climbing for her.  While she's more easy going and laid back, she's not quite as fearless as Ella (a little like Shaun and I- me being more like Amelia)

 Ella feeding the horse some apples.  I think he'd already snatched it at this point.

 I think he welcomes her return... as long as apples are in hand.

 The girls have been enjoying time with their nana and papa when Shaun and I are working.  Here they are with papa this morning before church.  Ella was performing in the primary program today, an extra special Sunday for her.

 Well, at least one of them was looking at the camera

My beauty queens with their adoring papa.

More to come on trick or treating, if we can get around to it with this hurricane coming.  We are ready to hunker down the next couple of days while Hurricane Sandy makes its way this direction.  Already schools and government are closed, so we'll enjoy some nesting time indoors I suppose and see how Halloween plays out.

S'More October Fun

Last weekend we "camped out" in our backyard.  And by campout, I mean Ella and Shaun slept in a tent for all of an hour before coming inside (Amelia and I knew better than to even try).  But it was a lot of fun.  We had a bonfire, s'mores, sang songs, and enjoyed seeing the girls loving their first campfire.  We have to give Ella credit for the idea.  I'm not sure where she got it, but she had been asking all week to have a campfire, so we decided to give it a try.  We had Emily and Riley over, and we really enjoyed an evening under the stars.  Maybe one day we'll work up to camping out away from home, but for now I think that's just about the perfect way to do it, with a kitchen and bathroom just feet away:)  It turned out to be the perfect evening for it.  The weather was just chilly enough.  The girls LOVED it!  I hope we can find time to do it again before the Autumn ends.

 Ella was so excited.  She helped Shaun collect firewood.  Amelia preferred to stay out of the woods.

 Ella loving the fire

 Amelia loved the fire too.  You can see the tent in the background.  We borrowed it from a friend, but I'd really like to get one of our own.  Maybe Santa can bring our family one?

 All the kids enjoying the fire.  They are so stinkin' cute!

My boy scout.  Okay, not really, but he did a really great job with the fire.  And he was very proud of his roasting sticks, although we called them roasting limbs.  They were rather large.

Definitely a great way to spend a Friday evening in October.  It's a wonderful thing to put on your

 "Autumn Bucket List."

Eight Year Anniversary!

To my dearest hubby:

Thank you for eight beautiful years.

They've been hard in many ways, 

but also very rewarding.

Even after all the ups, downs, and in betweens,

you still manage to make me laugh,

relieve my worries,

and remind me to have fun in life!
I look forward to whatever life
may bring us.
With you by my side, 
we will continue to weather the ups and downs... together!

Happy Anniversary!
Love,
Rebecca


This year we decided to go
horseback riding in the mountains
for our special day.

We had a great time.
For me this was a first.
For Shaun this was doing
one of his favorite activities.
Then we had a nice dinner
at our favorite local
restaurant, "Long Horn."

We're calling this one our
"Southwestern Cowboy"
Anniversary! 

Pumpkin Patch Pickins

We had a lovely time visiting the pumpkin patch yesterday.  Ella and Amelia enjoyed seeing the chickens and bunnies

 They enjoyed slides small and big

 Ella went on a tractor ride in a recycled barrel

 Amelia played in the tunnel (Elle too if you see her boots in the background)

 Ella awaiting the hayride.  She was so excited about it even though she looks more pensive in this photo.

 Amelia inspecting the pumpkin picking

 Me and my lil' pumpkin.  She is the most gorgeous little girl and every day gets more and more precious to me.

 Naptime on the hayride.  She was so sleepy, but she hung in there until we went home.

 We went with friends, Emily and Riley, and had a lovely time!

We love the fall and are so excited to go home and decorate with our pick of pumpkins.

Family Beach Trip, 2012

Our family took advantage of the lower rates in September and headed to beach last weekend.  We ended up staying at a wonderful hotel and resort.  Above was the view from our balcony!  Talk about picture perfect.

 

 The girls enjoyed the sand and pool, and Ella enjoyed riding some waves in with her daddy.

 Amelia preferred the pool to the ocean, so that meant most of the time one of us was at the pool while the other was at the ocean with Ella

 Our last night there we enjoyed a lovely walk on the beach to the Pier.  The girls played games at the Pier Arcade, and then we walked along the Pier, where Ella proceeded to talk to every fisherman there:)  Our little social butterfly.  Then we walked back to our hotel for a lovely dinner:)  By far my favorite memory from the trip, but really the whole four days were wonderful.

 My girls are so stinkin' cute, and getting so big.

 We found some other beach walkers who volunteered to take our photo while on our walk.  We lucked out.  They were really into it and took several for us.

My Favorite photo from the evening!