Lights at the Zoo

It was that time of year again... but we have all been so busy that we didn't think we were going to make it to see the lights at the zoo this year... However, we made it happen this saturday. Thank goodness! it was so great

we all enjoyed the wonders of the beautiful array of colors that they put up. and their display at the entrance where they play music in time to the lights... just awesome. I took a little video of it, but I am not sure if I will be able to upload it to blogger. It was freezing cold, but Cal didn't seem to mind. I wish we could have made it earlier in the year... this weekend probably was by far the busiest weekend for the lights.... as adam would say, "it was an absolute zoo there!"

Christmas morning...

Christmas morning was a real treat in the Wahl house this year... Santa was good to us and we all got several of the things that were on our wish lists.

cal got his tricycle and a train set, a new Pez dispenser and lots of "Cars" characters among other fun surprises and truly enjoyed opening up his gifts this year... it was a treasure just to watch him walk down the stairs in the morning and see what Santa had brought for him. I wouldn't want to pass that up for anything.

christmas eve is finally here!

We had a practice run of gift opening on christmas eve with some gifts from grammy and poppy. Calvin really loved this and I just can't wait until the morning to see how his face will light up after Santa has come and gone...

Then we put our cookies out for Santa and some carrot sticks out for the reindeer.

Cal didn't like this, he wanted to eat all the cookies and even the carrot sticks, I am sure in the years to come we will laugh at this, but at the time, it was very frustrating to explain to him that the plate of goodies was for Santa! Cal threw an absolute fit... that was when it was decided it was bed time for one little man!

The Wahl's christmas

We got to spend christmas with adam's family on Sunday the 23rd. We had a delicious dinner then opened our stockings from Santa there.

Cal checks out grammy's immaculately decorated christmas tree... this is a real treat, since most of the time the tree is up, it is off limits for the kids!

We got Quentin his favorite character... ELMO! and Forrest got a neat spinning top, that he seemed to like. and of course adam's mom and dad got a new food saver.

Christmas at Gramma and Boppa's

We spent saturday the 22nd at the Brandt's house for christmas with my family. What a day! Calvin got to see cousin Zac after a long time without him and they love playing together! We were all very tired by the time we left, then I had to go to work from 11-7! yuck.

Calvin got a brand new table and chairs from grandma which he absolutely loves. anything that is kid sized is a winner in his book. we tried to make the kids eat at that table, but that didn't go over so well, in fact, I don't think they ended up eating lunch at all... too much gift opening excitement

Then we had to make our annual batch of sugar cookies, which usually ends up being a bigger mess than the cookies are even worth, but it is fun nonetheless.

Cal of course, felt that any cookies gramma sat in front of him were his own cookies to sprinkle... and then eat... so when I tried to explain to him that we had to decorate the cookies, then NOT eat them... he pretty much exploded. I think he ended up eating the 3 cookies that he decorated. Zac decorated the rest... after all, he actually understood the concept of not eating ALL of the cookies!

christmas card picture...

As many of you already know... once you have kids, it is never easy getting a good picture. multiply the number of kids and you extremely multiply the difficulty in getting pictures. So when the holiday season comes along... it becomes immediately necessary to make attempts at potential shots for the christmas card.

Sometimes people will simply pull a picture off their hard drive for the year, but my dad (aka Boppa) is a firm believer in that the pictures in christmas cards must be somehow christmas related... so in our case, we have to at least wait until we have pulled out the christmas supplies, the tree, the decorations, before we can even make an honest effort at getting our photos!

Here are just a few of our attempts at getting that perfect shot...

Trust me, there are MANY more that were either deleted, or just didn't make the "final cut" if you will...

gramma and boppa's tree...

cal was a big help in picking out his gramma and boppa's tree...

as you can see, if it weren't for him, they may have never gotten the tree home!

check out these boots, ma...

c'mon, everybody needs at least one of these type of photos from their past... Here is cal's

He decided to try on mom's old work boots, and I must say, he looks a lot better in them than his mommy does!

he sure can strike a pose when he wants to!

so damn cute!

cal's new crawl...

crab crawl anyone?!!? here is the pro!

Calvin loves suckers!

Calvin is the kind of kid that will give up any other treat in a trade for a sucker... he just loves them, I don't really know why! But because he likes them so much, you will sometimes find him trying to eat them in the strangest circumstances... like with an ornament hanging from the end of it... look close, there it is!

what a wierdo!

Random actions...

Cal really thinks he is cool when he can wear sunglasses just like mommy. However, we go through many pairs of $5 wal-mart sunglasses this way. probably at least 2 or 3 a month... What can I say, the kid is like a scud missile, he can seak out sunglasses in purses, pockets of jackets, on top of counters, you name it!!! (plus, it doesn't help that mommy is really good at losing sunglasses, left on counters of gas stations, flower shops and grocery stores everywhere. if you need a pair, just follow me around and you will soon come upon a pair.)

Donations of sunglasses are gladly accepted, we are not too proud here!

Cal's best buddy is Ralphie, which unfortunately for Ralphie, means the brunt of most of cal's shenanigans and quite a few doggie bruises. It is not uncommon to hear cal laughing and poor ralph whimpering. we are trying to teach cal that he has to be nice to ralph, but ralphie usually lets him do so much, that by the time he actually starts to whimper, cal has already nearly pulled an ear or jowl off, or poked an eye out, so sometimes we are running so far behind that it is hard to really discipline cal and help him to see the harm he is doing. Here are the two of them, in one of those rare moments of love. I shouldn't say rare, cal is always loving and hugging on ralph, unfortunately, he usually just does that very roughly OR he does it so darn quick it is hard to capture on camera!

We were recently able to visit great grandma and great grandpa for one last showing of cal's costume and lucky cal, there were some fresh sugar cookies there...

Everyone knows grandma makes the BEST sugar cookies, and the frosting too!!! MMMMM

Cal polishing off some of his halloween treats for a snack after dinner...

proof that mommy and daddy aren't the ones drooling over most of the trick or treats in his pumpkin pail

Ayden's Birthday party

We were able to visit Ayden's (my cousin's kid) birthday party on Saturday, even though Cal was feeling a little under the weather. We had such a good time, even in the short time that we were able to be there.

Cal enjoyed the birthday cake at a table sized just right for him and the younger kids.

The birthday boy, Ayden, now 3 years old!!

And Reece, of course, Ayden's big brother (as if you couldn't tell!)

Ayden wanted a pic of his balloon and the little girl is Ariah, their friend... so cute!

Happy Halloween...

We finally carved the pumpkins and got them lit and out on the porch, and here are the results...






It was interesting because this year Cal didn't even want to touch the pumpkin guts, he thought it was too gross. but last year, he wanted to eat it... He did like scooping it out into the trash can though. He did a pretty good job at this

We discovered recently that the best way to get cal to put on his costume was to bribe him with visions of candy... now, however, whenever he feels like a piece of candy, he comes running with this halloween costume. very funny, now where can I hide his costume!

carving pumpkins...

Cal has become a pro at pumpkin carving... okay, really, mom is the pro. She carved cal's and her own, but cal at least is pretty good at scooping out the gunk and putting in the trash.

Cal is a true lover of pumpkins, whenever he sees one, we have to stop and have a "conversation" about the specifics of any particular pumpkin we happen upon. He also has to always try and pick them up and this is usually accompanied with a grunt and a sigh. What a comedian!