a visit to the temple.

we took a drive up to the calgary temple when my sister was in town.

like most temples, the calgary temple has a perfect location.

you have an awesome view of the city to the south and the rocky mountains to the west.

temple grounds are always such a nice place to spend time with family.

we have loved taking our kids to all the temples in all the places we have lived over the years.

no matter what temple grounds we visit, there is no denying they have a special spirit about them.

it was extra fun to visit the calgary temple grounds with my sister and her kids.

the cousins were all so excited to be there, and were all trying to sneak peaks in the temple windows.

(if only they weren't impossible to see through!)

even though sundays are often the most stressful day of my week (thanks to our 1pm sacrament meeting that destroys nap time and makes for exhausting children), i am very grateful that our family gets to grow up together in the gospel.

{chet calls those his 'creepy eyes'!}

cute cousins.

i am in love with this picture of this little cousin gang.

kids are so cute... when they aren't driving you nuts!

holden is TWO!

the weather here is.. well.. stupid.

you would think that if you were planning a birthday party on june 26th you could count on half-decent weather, right?

nope.

not here.

trust me, i know.

we threw a party for holden on june 26th.

it was at a park. outside.

and it was downright freezing. and obnoxiously windy. and i wanted to cry!

luckily, holden's cousins and friends have thick canadian blood and the best little attitudes.

despite the risk of hypothermia, they all had a blast.

and holden, most importantly, had a blast too.

i literally did not take one picture at the party.

i don't know how that happened!

but we ended up letting holden have another try at blowing out his candles inside the next day (away from the cold and wind, where we could actually get a candle lit!) and those pictures are pretty darn cute.

i think holden is such a handsome boy.

i love staring at his perfect little face, holding his squishy hand, and scratching his tiny back.

he. is. adorable.

he is smart, too.

he talks constantly these days. i swear he learns a dozen new words every day.

and he has a good memory.

he adores his big brother. but he also knows just how to drive chet crazy!

he is a total daddy's boy.

he likes to throw things - balls, rocks, food.

he likes to play with lego, animals, cars, and his new play kitchen. 

he likes to help. with anything.

he loves his blankey.

he can be stubborn and sure knows how to throw a mean tantrum.

he is an excellent sleeper and eater.

he loooves fruit.

he is busy, and silly, and brave.

he is independent.

he has taught me a whole lot about being a mom.

and he is one of my most favorite boys in the whole wide world!

happy birthday holden!

you're TWO!

gymnastics.

chet finished up his gymnastics class this week.

for the most part, he loved it.

there were a few weeks where he made a fuss at the start of class, and pretended like he didn't want to go in.

but he always ended up going in and always ended up loving it to bits.

i have had fun watching him try new things and gain confidence in that class.

he is much braver these days. it totally shows when we take the boys to playgrounds.

chet's favorite things to do at gymnastics were jumping in the foam pit and on the trampoline.

he can also do a pretty wicked somersault.

color me rad.

this morning, my mom and i participated in the color me rad run.

it was held up at COP (canada olympic park).

we ran to the top of the ski hill (where you get an amazing view of the city) and then back down.

every kilometer you would run through a tunnel where people were bombing you with colored powder.

by the end, we were covered from head to toe. and we looked lovely!

it was such a fun morning.

here we are before the run:

and here we are after:

we had to go up to COP yesterday to pick up our race packets.

the boys tagged along, as always.

while we were up there they got to try out a jamaican bobsled.

i thought that was kinda neat.

downtown.

my sister has been in town for the past 10 days.

and it has been a real treat.

april and i have had really bad timing when it comes to relocating over the past 15 years.

i feel like every time she has been living in the states, i have been up in canada.

and whenever i am in the states, she is in canada.

come on!

so every time we do get to spend time together, it is extra special. 

we have been able to do all sorts of fun things with her and her kids this visit.

[calaway park, heritage park, LRT ride, devonian gardens, library, campfire, and so on.]

i have a whole bunch of pictures to post from that.

but, for now, i am just going to post some pictures from last night.

we went on a family adventure up to crescent heights.

every time we have visited calgary over the past 4 years, i have wanted to make a drive up there. we have just never had time. our trips have always been packed full with other exciting things.

but now that we live here, we have all the time in the world to make the drive up there.

so last night, we did it!

and, of course, we stopped at peter's on the way to get some milkshakes.

we cuddled up in the back of matt's truck with our boys and some cozy blankets.

it was cold and rainy, and i totally dropped the milkshake that matt and i were sharing before we even had a chance to enjoy it (so depressing!).

but it was still a perfect little adventure.

i don't know what it is, but i love the view of downtown calgary.

blankey ball.

for as long as i can remember, chet's favorite blanket has been a blue, fleece blanket covered in pictures of balls from various sports.

and, ever since chet could speak, he has referred to that blanket as his 'blankey ball'.

technically, he should call it his 'ball blankey', rather then his 'blankey ball'.
but no matter how many times i have tried to fix that, it has never stuck.

so 'blankey ball' it is.
which is fine..
even though it makes no sense!

the really silly thing is that holden now calls his favorite blanket 'blankey ball', too.

and that makes even less sense!
because his favorite blanket doesn't even have a ball on it; just stripes.

now we are one of those families who speaks weird kid lingo. 

but i like how holden copies his big brother. so i deal with it!


holden will be TWO YEARS OLD in less then 2 weeks.
it's nuts!
we are getting excited to make a big fuss over his birthday this year.

fishing.

on tuesday night, we had a pizza & fishing party with the fox family.

we got rained on a couple times, and the only things we caught were some weeds from the bottom of the lake, but it still managed to be a really fun night.

the kids took turns reeling in the line and then spent the rest of the night playing on the beach.

it makes me happy that our families go so good together.

our very first garden.

for family home evening last monday we planted a vegetable garden.

other then the 3 bean seeds we planted in idaho, and the tomato we grew in california, we haven't had any gardening experience.

so this should be interesting.

we planted some potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, and cucumbers.

let's hope at least one of those things grows!

we live in a townhome, so we don't have a yard.

we are 'borrowing' some space on my aunt and uncle's acreage, just south of the city.

it's perfect because we honestly couldn't possibly live any closer to the edge of the city.

really.

the only thing between our home and farmland is a grocery store.

it is weird to be so close to open space right after living right in the thick of LA!

but it is a good 'weird'.

and it sure makes it convenient to check on our beloved garden.

we plan on this garden being our family project for the summer.

although, it seems like it will be more of a couple project then a family project..

our boys aren't much help.

they are way more interested in driving the miniature john deere tractor.

and i don't blame them.

i feel like we have been spending a lot of time out on the acreage lately.

last night we went out there with april and her kids.

they are up visiting from texas for a couple weeks.

we spent our evening cooking hotdogs and marshmallows in the teepee.

in the treehouse.

our boys love playing at their grandparents' houses.

and i love this picture.

and that's the end of this post.

lego-fest.

a couple fridays ago, my mom took chet on a date to a lego festival downtown.

chet loved it.

he got to play with TONS of lego, see some pretty crazy lego creations, and pick out some new lego to bring home with him.

and since chet was away all evening on his special date, matt and i decided we should take holden on a special date too.

we hardly ever get to spend time with just holden.

i suppose that it is just how it works for the second child, but sometimes it makes me really sad.

chet and i spent so much time together - just the two of us.

and i would give anything to get the chance to do that with holden.

we sure had fun taking holden out that friday night.

we took him to the wave pool to swim and then grabbed some pizza on the way home.

we spent most of our time at southland just lounging in the kiddie pool, but we did venture to the big slides and out into the waves a couple times.

holden was such a good sport - even when i accidentally got me and him stuck directly under the giant bucket of water at the exact time it dumped out!

holden has been a real trial since we moved here. he has been so angry.

i think all the changes that came with the move (new home, new schedule, new faces) was harder on him then we figured it would be.

i assumed chet would be sad about the move, but figured that holden wouldn't really care.

but it turns out that he did, in his own little way.

i'm not saying he specifically misses any part of our old home, but i think he has been confused.. and that has led to his anger issues.

and those anger issues haven't mixed well with my sadness issues. and it has been hard.

but this past week, our lovely little holden is back. and it is so so nice.

we missed him!

i don't have any pictures from our swim date, but my mom took lots of their lego date.

the move details.

i have done a pretty good job of making it known that i was really sad to move.
sorry if you are sick of hearing that.
but one thing i can't be sad about is the actual moving process.
i am pretty sure we deserve an award for how smoothly our move went.
it appears as though our disgusting amount of experience with moving paid off..
this move was flawless!
[of course, some credit goes to my parents and our friends who helped us load our trailer.]
we did crazy amounts of dejunking as we packed, and we sold/donated our furniture and large items.
we even got rid of our enormous eiffel tower canvas! can you believe that?
it was one of our first purchases as a married couple - only second to our beloved cuckoo clock.
after getting rid of all that stuff, we worked super hard to make sure everything was packed and neatly stacked by the time our friends arrived to load our trailer.
it took 45 minutes to haul everything from our apartment, down our hallway, down our elevator, and into the trailer in the parking garage.
seriously, it goes down in the record books.
after that, we did some final wiping down, handed in our keys, made one last stop at target, and hit the road.

we only drove to vegas that first night.
we put our boys down and then went and partied on the strip.
and by 'partied' i mean we ate a crepe. and nothing else.
we were both sad and tired so we were kinda lame. but hey, we did it.

we made it up to idaho falls on day 2 of our travels.
so that meant i got to wake up in that lovely city on my 28th birthday. lucky girl, huh?
haha despite the fact that i woke up in idaho - where there was snow on the ground - i had a nice birthday morning.
matt surprised me with a bunch of new clothes and my parents told me that they had my very own treadmill waiting for me at my new house.
i was down right spoiled. again.

on day 3 we made it all the way up to calgary.
the roads were clear the whole way and the border patrol wasn't too tough on us.
i think we lucked out by getting a new border patrol guy.

so, all in all, the move went so well.
and, even though i'm not itching to head back out on a long drive anytime soon, it really was neat to drive such a long distance.
this world is an amazing place.
i am kicking myself for not taking pictures of all the different landscapes along the way.

we love our new house.
nobody lives above or below us!
it has stairs!
and a garage!
we don't have to step foot in a death-trap elevator to get to it!
and it isn't completely finished in off-white carpet!

haha, we are pretty easy to please.
but, even if we weren't, it really is a perfect little place. we feel so blessed.
we have had fun decorating it and making it ours.
since we sold everything, we had to replace it all when we got here.
we now live in, what looks like, an IKEA catalog.
we have spent a painful amount of time in IKEA.
our family has eaten a gross about of those suspiciously cheap IKEA hot dogs.

matt likes his new job. and he especially loves his brand new work truck.
well, he liked it a lot more before they stamped the words 'SAFETY SUPERVISOR' on the side of it.
nerrrdy.

i am back to work too!
it is so good for me.
i am back working 2 days/week with the same orthodontist i used to work with.

we have also all had fun spending time with our friends and family.
it has been good to catch up.
i feel like we have had some sort of get together almost every day since we got here.

so, ya. life is good.
and as soon as i can stop bursting into tears more then the average person should - i'm sure it will get ever better!

and here are some 'last' pictures.

our last play date with our church friends.

our last trip to the pool.

our last trip to the beach.

how life looked for the last week before the move.

the only picture we took along the drive: holden!

and now we are here..

that picture was taken almost a month ago.. the weather has certainly shaped up since then.
but snow in may was definitely a little bit depressing!