The Best Part of Christmas: Baby Superman

Baby Superman

Complete with Cape

And trusty sidekick puppy.

The perfect superhero team.



Some of you know that Tim's dad, Bret, is aka Superman. Tim wrote his dad a letter sometime before his mission and told him, well, I shouldn't try to put it into words cause Tim said it in the perfect way. Bret is Tim's Superman, because of the man he is, because of the dad he is.

Bret talked about it at our wedding and reread the first time Tim dubbed him Superman. And how there never could have been a more rewarding thing to hear, nor to have to live up to. It is so meaningful, touching, and significant. And he's been Superman ever since that first time.

And so we've got this Superman thing going. Tim being Superman II, and now Trent the Third. So how appropriate that he received his Superman pajamas from Papa and Nana on Christmas Eve. NOTHING could have been cuter than Little Superman crawling among the debris of Christmas at both grandparents homes in his Superman outfit, complete with belt and cape.



Super Men

Forced Christmas Photo

Well we did the best we could. I really wanted a photo in front of our tree for the first Christmas. There were no neighbors home to help us out, so we had to set up the camera and use the timer and Trent had a fever of 102 so he wasn't feeling great. But I just had to have a photo, so we tried to force it. At least we documented reality, right?

As of Late

Don't know how he decided on that pose.

t

i

As of late,

Doesn't he look so big and old? With his hair all swept to one side, Edward the Vampire style. I hate that he looks so big and grown up! He was just a squooshy baby earlier this year! And now, he's a big boy, on the path of destruction.

My boy is on the path of destruction. What a sweet little boy he is, but he is such a climber and tipper, and puller, and again climber. Yesterday I walked into his room just in time to see the six baskets stacked on top of one another, falling square on top of Trent and even me if they reached that far.

Exhibit A:

A favorite: The DVDs.

"How loud can I turn up the radio?"

And another favorite: Mom and dad's closet. I made one phone call, and this is what I return to.

He climbs everything, and yesterday I found him laying on an end table. Uhh...no.

Somehow "No" means "faster, harder, stronger, FASTER before mom gets here." Trent crawls like a gazelle. LEAPing with each step. As he reaches for the ornaments on the tree, and I say "No!", it's like that translates to "Quick! Do it quick! Before mom gets here to stop me!"

If there is one single speck of anything on our floor, Trent will find it. The lastest? Ornament hooks. SO GLAD those didn't go down the throat before I swobbed them out. It's probably because I didn't yell "No!"

Maybe it's best to stay calm and forget the word "no" for now.

If dad can just keep him up high in the air, there is nothing up there to destroy.





And have we told you about fish face? Cause I don't think we have. He loves to make a fish face! He probably holds the world record for holding it longer than any other person ever. He will make the face then proceed to play, or destroy, all the while with the fish face on display.

It's fun to joke about, but we truly love our little destroyer. He's a boy! And he knows that as a boy he has a mission to stay true to, and that's what he is all about. He is about his boy business.

Heaven on my Mind

Can you picture heaven?

Luckily, once I month I don't have to, cause we go there.

My parents live there. Winter, spring, summer, and fall.









Welcome to Huntsville. Welcome home.





A drive over the foothills of Weber Canyon, down the mountain where I can spot my house, see the lake, see the lights of three ski resorts at night in the winter, see the hay fields and horse pastures in the day, see Eden and Liberty where Tim can golf overlooking the valley. Fishing, horseback riding, biking to the Monastery, water skiing, a walk to the hometown park and home of the greatest Fourth of July.

The nicest people reside here, good ol' hometown people that either retired at 30 or are still out milking the cows. That know how to can jelly and bottle butter. Real people. Real good people.

Drive up the canyon again to Monte Cristo beauty, drive towards the lake and see the way the mountains depart over Pineview that just must be straight from the Celestial Kingdom. I love this place that makes every one feel like they're home.

And that is heaven.

Next, we had the most perfect afternoon Saturday in our wonderful town.

This must be what it is like to pick out a Christmas tree in heaven. We went to an old farmer's property, took a hay ride (or a sleigh ride if the snow has fallen) through the property, bells a ringin', horses hoofs clanging, down the hill and back to a shed made of quakies. There you will find the most perfect Christmas trees brought here from Oregon. (And my mom and dad really did find the most beautiful Christmas tree on earth.) Smells like Christmas, sounds like Christmas, feels like Christmas. We pass the elk in the field, a six point bull and ten cows (did you know I grew up on a farm of sorts? well yes), the beauty of the valley, and then drank hot chocolate in the farmer's shed while the men loaded the trees. Tim and I are the proud owners of our first real Christmas tree.















I'll be home for Christmas.

And next, heaven on my mind,



Because another gift from heaven will be joining our family on earth next year.

We heard the little miracle heartbeat last week, so it will be sometime around July 15.

It is difficult to comtemplate how we could possibly make our home a place a Spirit from Heaven will be happy to reside. But we will try. And I feel overwhelmed that another Spirit more perfect than I would be willing to accept me as his or her mother. But what a privilege.

I am very proud to be a mother, and proud that soon I will have two little young ducklings following my tail and under my wing. I am so happy that we have so many wonderful people to love our babies: Grandpa, Papa, Nana, and Nana Jo, aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts, great uncles, and amazing friends.



I am thankful to know there is a heaven we came from, and a heaven where we hope to reside. And that God has given us the opportunity to try to make our homes a heaven on earth.

Two children from heaven and a great husband are a good start.

Music is an Integral Part of Life

Music moves me more than most any other thing on this earth, it is true.

I think some people are just particularly moved by music. I am one of those people. My life would truly be glum without the music in my life. I play music. I sing music. I study music. I dance to music. I believe in music's power to heal, teach, edify the mind, edify the heart. Nothing makes my tear ducts leak faster or gets my adrenaline rushing stronger than music.

So I have music on my blog. And I love it. It represents a part of my heart.

I have had some questions about why the Steinway was number one on my wish list, not that my wishes were in a particular order, but some have questioned, do you play? Oh man. This is evidence that I have truly buried my talents and therefore God will take away.

Yes I play the piano. I majorly play the piano. How does a person answer this question without coming off in any way one wouldn't want to? Does it suffice to say I almost majored in Piano? I studied classical piano since I was five and practiced 2 hours a day until a few years ago.

I had two loves in my life. Dance and Piano. I wanted to major in both, but both were all-consuming. So I majored in Marketing. :) I still studied Dance and Piano both at BYU, but I just couldn't give my heart to just one.

So I am extremely thankful that I have playing the piano as an outlet in my life. I love that my mom sacrificed time, money, effort, and her sanity to fight with me to not quit for how many years? My whole life. The thing about piano is, you don't realize you are gonna regret not studying the piano for the rest of your life until you are, well, too old to justify the time to spend the necessary hours to study anymore! (Even though I still practice. But I can't do a serious study like I did in my window of opprotunity. So THANK YOU MOM.) I would have MAJOR regrets without you MOM, that I don't think I would ever get over.

Mom never let me quit because she saw talent. Mom woke me up at 6 am every morning to practice. Mom had me practice in between drill team and ballet. Mom got me the best teacher I could have ever asked for.

And pretty much half of my life lessons were right there, in piano.

I am so grateful that I know music, it's history, that I have learned the revolutionary composers and have tried to play their music as they intended and would make them proud, and that studying music has shaped me. Few things allow me to release the feelings of my heart like playing the piano, singing a song, and dancing do.

And back to the worldly part of music, outside the classical: I LOVE LADY ANTEBELLUM. Which you might be hearing right now if you can hear the music from our blog.

And Hilary Weeks new CD. Woah.

Tears. Tears I tell ya. Beautiful music = tears.

Let the tears come.

To Be Tagged, or Not

What is it with these tags? There are just so many going around! Laundry or tags? Feed baby or tags? Shower self or tags? Do I allow myself to be tagged? Do I pretend I never saw the tag?

Too many.

Fun, but I am way behind.

Fourth picture, fourth file: Tim has a goal to golf all of the golf courses in Utah before he dies. TIM LOVES GOLF. So the fourth file in our picture file is of the top 100 courses in the world. Here is the fourth in the file. Beautiful? Beauty is in the eye of the golfer.

And if you go take a different route to the picture file, the fourth picture in the fourth file is this:

TIM LOVES THE COUGARS. And we love this man.

So, who so far is ruling the picture files? Tim ta-tim-tim.

And Trent, who is pictured in surely 98% of all pictures on file.


"Words to live by" tag. Think of ten words to live by and post them. 10 of them? We'll see.

1. Sing in your car, LOUD.

2. Let your hair blow in the wind.

3. Make music videos.

4. Love, even if you know you will lose.

5. Let the tears come.

6. Always say I love you.

7. Heavenly Father will always give you much more than He ask of you.

8. Tell the people you admire how they inspire you.

9. All houses purchased must be big enough to dance in.

10. You can never say no one else in the world understands, because He always, always does.


8 things, on another tag it was 5...I'll combine.

Tag

8 Favorite TV Shows:

1. American Idol
2. So You Think You Can Dance?
3. The Office
4. 30 Rock (If it's clean)
5. Eli Stone
6. Felicity (yes, love love love)
7. Friends (when it's clean)
8. 24 (when it's not violent...oh wait)

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. PUT BOXES IN THE ATTIC, YAY
2. Played with Trent
3. Watched Celine My Love, Live
4. Let the cat out of the bag about my Celine obsession
5. Made some phone calls
6. Bought a Bissell Proheat Carpet Cleaner (yeah, my baby spits up a lot)
7. Took three samples of the Almond Rocha Cookies at Costco :)
8. Put off going to the gym...again

8 Things I Look Forward to:

1. Seeing my Grandma Calder
2. Celine Dion next week
3. June 2009, WELCOME HOME MY BRUDDERS! (Could not happen soon enough!)
4. Hot date with Timmy on Friday
5. CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!
6. Holding my baby
7. 7:10 pm Monday - Thursday
8. My To Do list being completely done (ha!)

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Mandarin (Bountiful Utah)
2. PF Chang's
3. Cafe Roma in Beverly Hills
4. The Roof at JSMB
5. Flour Girls and Dough Boys
6. Chile's
7. Cafe Rio
8. Every one of them! Because that means no dishes for me!

8 Things on my Wish List:

1. Steinway Grand
2. Boat
3. To sing like Celine
4. Trip to Hawaii
5. Lake Powell water level to be high again
6. A different president elect of the United States
7. healthy kids
8. for all of the people I saw converted in Venezuela to be three times in white

5 Things I love about fall:
- the chill in the air that tells me Christmas is coming!
-not getting SUCH a bad time for listening to Christmas music
-getting tickets to all of our favorite Christmas events
-the feeling of the season of Christmas
-wearing sweaters

5 People I'm Tagging:

I TAG YOU ALL!

That's right! Every single tag. TAGGED. :)

Our Little Lion's First Halloween

He's got the tongue down...

Grandpa Calder

Carving with Grandpa, Nana, Aunt Miranda, Uncle Curt, and Aunt Allison






Joe Dirt, Joe Dirt's Girlfriend, and Little Lion
(we thought Trent's real locks were a good lion's mane, and I LOVE my guy in a mullet)