double birthday deluxe weekend

everton and i are birthday buddies fo life.

we technically have separate birthdays, but the fact that he was born 30 mins after midnight when it still felt like my birthday those 2 years ago, i like to think we share the same birthday.  i can't think about my birthday anymore without thinking about my water breaking at the mall and i was in labor for 10 hours.

i feel like i have an even bigger bond with my son.

and this past weekend, it was our birthdays.  mine was on friday and everton's was on saturday.  couldn't do too much on friday while brett was at work but i took advantage of it being my birthday for all it's worth and did everything i wanted to do.  except sleep in, everton could care less that it was my birthday.  maybe i should've slept in on his birthday!  

i got to play around with my birthday gift from brett and i'm still in love with this palette.  i can attest that it is truly amazing.

my awesome friend jill threw a little surprise birthday party for her sister and i during the day.  it was really great getting to hang out with friends while gorging on mint chocolate cake pops.  thanks jill!!

then that evening all i wanted after dinner was to get some coldstone ice cream, which is something we do, like once a year.  seriously, that stuff be pricey!  but it was my birthday and i needed it.

sharing the goods with everton.  i'm just that great of a mom.  (and i ain't payin to get him his own!)

then the next day, it being everton's day of arrival to this earth, we went to the sketchy looking stockton miner's cafe and had a super delicious birthday breakfast.  and we didn't have to pay for everton's and my breakfast because it was our birthday!

i think everton enjoyed his breakfast.

for everton's birthday this year we didn't get to throw him a party and right now i'm sure he could care less about a party.  we're still recuperating from our vacation, shoo i just now unpacked the last suitcase.  so i thought that it would be more enjoyable and less stressful for all of us if we took everton to the zoo for his first time.  we went to the hogle zoo in slc and met up with some of our really good friends.

(most of the zoo pics were taken by my girl charlene, thanks girlfriend!) 

for the most part everton had a lot of fun.  but we went a little late in the day when he is prone to get cranky. he's really into animal noises right now (still not into talking a lot yet) and he imitated a lot of the animals he saw.  the monkeys mesmerized him and he didn't want to go onto the next animal exhibit.  now the elephants, they're my ultimate favorite animal.

left-right: matt & elise, us, mitch, jenny, & baby charley, and adam & charlene.

thanks again for coming out guys!

i think i have the greatest friends in the world and i feel so blessed to have most of my friends living right here in utah.  Christy, you need to come out here!!

and adam and charlene got me everton an awesome set of marvel figures.  he really appreciated it, you can see it in his face.

i can't believe this child of mine is 2 years old.  or the fact that i'm 25!  

everton is my treasure.

even though he's still not very chatty, he's really into sound effects.  what a boyyyy.  he's utterly and completely OBSESSED with trains.  and lucky us, we live near one!  (hint:sarcasm)  he can hear the train going by anytime during the day and rushes to the couch, peeks through the blinds and just watches it go by. and screams, "CHOO CHOOOOOO!" the entire time.  he also loves the thomas the train show, which i thought was so boring when i was younger.  his other fav shows/movies AKA ones i can tolerate are curious george, mickey mouse clubhouse, sid the science kid, sesame street, and toy story plus most pixar movies.  i also throw in an x-men/avengers cartoon every once in a while to keep him cool.  like i said earlier, he's also pretty good at doing animal sounds.  so as of right now, i try not to get too worried about him not talking as much when he gibbers like crazy.  but rest assured he still loves to say, "ashes" and can also say, "peas" for please, and "cheeeeese" when he sees you taking a pic of him.  he's coming along.  he's pretty much in love with fruit snacks and chicken nuggets, but heaven help him if i try to feed him anything green and healthy.

and i'm sure you'd like to know my latest obsessions in my 25th year of life.  i am in love with the vampire diaries, downton abbey, sherlock, and revolution, instagram, and i'm still obsessed with the titanic and LOTR.  i'm so freakin excited for the movies coming out this year i.e. iron man 3, start trek 2, man of steel, THE WOLVERINE, and THOR 2.  ughhhhhh i can't wait.

and that concludes our birthday weekend.

keeping up with the jones-of family, mud, and food

hallelujah.

we are home and alive after flying with a toddler.

everton did pretty well actually, it's just not on my list of favorite things to do.

we are exhausted and still on east coast time.

we were only there for a week yet did SO much.

  let's recap our east side vaycay.

SATURDAY-4.13

it's been 3 1/2 years since i've been home and flying back felt so weird.  maybe it's b/c this time i had a kid with me.

like i said, everton did pretty well on the plane.  i like that he's more aware of things now and can be easily entertained.  he is now fascinated by planes and kept saying "wow" as we took off.  but he would start getting antsy and restless towards the end of the flight and that's when he would drive me crazy. oh yeah, he peed on me too whilst on the plane.  it was AWESOME.

SUNDAY-4.14

we went to church and holy crap was it trippy being back.  i loved seeing old friends and it weirded me out seeing kids that i thought were in primary but were going on/getting back from missions.  i didn't think i was gone THAT long.

then after church we headed down to harrisonburg, va to see my dad's side of the fam.  everton got to meet most of them and he was loving playing outside with the cousins.

this is the playhouse my uncle built, everton and hazel had a heyday.

MONDAY-4.15

we drove to maryland to get sushi, visit my aunt, and grab ice cream at one of our fav spots, nutter's.

brett commented how crazy it was that we drove to another state for dinner and ice cream.  but that's how we roll!

TUESDAY-4.16

we went to the D.C. temple for my sister erin's endowments before she leaves on her mission.  what an amazing day and an amazing experience.  being in the temple with my entire family was so special.  it was the temple brett and i got married in so i consider it my temple.

and those tulips!  these are my favorite flowers so it just tickles me seeing so many of them.

WEDNESDAY-4.17

my mom, being the awesome lola that she is, put together a little Easter egg hunt for the grandkids.  you can say it's mainly for her enjoyment.

then it was lunch at panera bread with my best friend, Christy, and my sisters.  panera bread is one of those things you never realized you'll miss until you live in a state where it doesn't exist.

then that evening was kyla's "surprise" baby shower

we attempted it to be a surprise till someone spilled the beans just a few hours before the event.  but it was ok, i think kyla was still super excited about it.  she's having a boy so she got soo many cute outfits!

THURSDAY & FRIDAY-4.18/19

we actually spent a majority of these 2 days preparing foods for erin's mission farewell party that sunday.  thanks to Christy for spending her day off with me chopping veggies!  

thursday night was our little jones' surf n' turf feast.

we LOVE to eat.

friday night, brett and i got to get away and go on a little date while my parents gleefully watched everton.  my mom often tells us that she really just wants us to go away so she can babysit everton; i will happily give her the privilege of watching one of the cutest kids on the planet as often as i can. 

brett and i went to what i thought was a swanky theater in winchester, va where they serve you meals during the movie and watched '42.'

SATURDAY-4.20

TOUGH MUDDER DAY

my dad did tough mudder again. LAST YEAR the event was in MD, this time it was in WV.  he actually didn't finish this time around.  there were crazy hills and the weather was so chilly.  we all got to be spectators and even then we all got a good workout trying to walk to a lot of the obstacles to watch my dad get close to death.  he's so hardcore yet freakin insane.  

brett and i were enjoying the fact that we weren't army crawling through muddy water under barbed wires before going into suffocating pipes.

the top left corner pic was my favorite obstacle name, "the arctic enema," where you dive into a vat of ice water.  again, so freakin insane.

and this is my cousin terri, who went with my dad and totally rocked it till the end.

watching this event live made me think, "yeahhhhh, definitely never doing this ever ever."

 and it was totally a mistake to bring the kids.  we were outside for about 6 hrs straight and thankfully they eventually sonked out.  my mom wrapped them in the foil blankets they give out, making the babies look like little baked potatoes.

and next year my dad plans on doing tough mudder in seattle, WA.  slow down crazy, slow down.

SUNDAY-4.21
erin's mission farewell!
erin gave a really good talk and sang a beautiful rendition of, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" in church.
then it was time to celebrate that erin is FINALLY leaving for 18 months!  jkjk i'll miss her so freakin much.

why so serious?  you can see poor brett's sunburned arms and face from tough mudder the day before.

and check out kyla's hot preggo bod!

everton can be a total grump face or a super cheeser.

so much work went into all this food.  i often think my mom is crazy for making ALL this food but in the end, everybody is well fed and leftovers are always a plus.  

hazel stuffin her face.

my parents had about 80 people over for the party.  yeah, they're still crazy party people.

 MONDAY-4.22

coming home felt like an all day event.  i was really sad leaving my fam and i teared up a little, which is actually silly because my parent's are driving out sometime next week!  sooo i need to suck it up.

everton fell asleep after busting his lip and nose face planting in the airport during our 3 hr layover.  the flight home was not bad.  i felt more relaxed than i did going out to DC.  also, thomas the train helped chill everton out. brett and i have become masters of changing diapers while in our seats.  i don't plan on flying on a plane with a kid anytime soon though.

TUESDAY-4.23

and here we are.  

i hope you're all still with me.

everton and i are still in our pjs, watching tv, and i've pretty much been putting together this post all morning. it's times like these i'm super grateful for freezer meals.  i don't have to cook all week!  and i really don't feel like doing anything right now. 

but today is when erin leaves for the philippines!!!  she'll actually be going straight to the manila, philippines mtc so she'll be immediately submerged in the culture.  when i last said goodbye to her we were both too tired to cry and i think we did some toddler and tiaras moves in our goodbye.  she is such an inspiration to me and she is totally going to rock being a missionary.

good luck girlfriend. 

we'll see ya in 18 months!

end of post.

thanks for hanging in there!

BRB blog

brb blog.  

we're going to west virginia.  

i haven't been home for 3 1/2 years so i plan on soaking up as much time with these people as i can.  except for my brudduh-in-law, travis, he won't be coming.  and it'll be the first time in 5 years since all 3 of us girls have been home together.  everton will get to see extended family he hasn't even met yet.

of course we've all been hanging out here in ut, but this time it's on the east coast, baby!

BUT, if you'll really miss me, you should follow me on instagram to see what shenanigans the caldwells are up to on the east side.

@moboadobo

i'll see ya when i see ya.

sugar detox, a giant sized Easter post

the caldwells are exhausted.

this weekend was full of driving all over ut, seeing so many people we love, and sugar sugar sugar!

on friday we spent the evening visiting with my old college buds, carmelo, his wife autumn, and jones in slc.  

it was mostly a brasilian dessert party so brett enjoyed speaking portuguese again.

then bright and early on saturday morning, everton got to experience his first Easter egg hunt.

when everton first picked up an egg, he examined it, then threw it back on the ground.  realizing he had a basket with him, he proceeded to throw the eggs into it instead.  he was a pro finding all the eggs (i didn't exactly hide them super well.)  and then, he opened an egg and realized that there was treasure inside, 2 jellybeans in each egg as a matter of fact.  and he ATE them all.  our living room was littered with open eggs and our son was left with a colorful mouth and characteristics similar to a rabid animal.

later on that day was my friend matt's wedding reception/luncheon in sandy.  it was so awesome seeing lots of old friends.

us with charlene and adam!

that night i opened a package of peeps when we got home.  everton can hear you open anything that has sugar a mile away.  he and i devoured them.  then i realized that we didn't really have dinner yet, so essentially, everton had peeps for dinner.  i'm that kind of mom.

the next day was blessed Easter Sunday.  first event of the day was driving to ogden for my friends, mitch and jenny's baby blessing of their baby charley!  jenny is matt's sister so we got to see our old friends again.  it was pretty much a harpers ferry ward (my old ward back in wv) reunion.

everton spent a majority of the blessing luncheon on the hill squatting.

my old bishop, mitch's dad, from harpers ferry ward.  he's my fav bish.

hf ward ladies.  the one on the left lives out here in ut so we get to see her and her fam a little more often.  and check out photobomber jenny in the back.

jenny is the creator of baby charley, i love her.

such a gorgeous mom and babe.

everton was not impressed with mitch's bubble blowing skills. i love everton's man with no teeth face.

it's official, i need another one of these.

i love these people!

during the luncheon, everton just ate a chocolate covered strawberry and a few tomatoes from my salad.  at least he got some good nutrition in right?

after the fabulous blessing luncheon we swung on over to slc to pick up erin then stopped by at the birrells in lehi for an Easter dinner.  they're sort of our adopted parents since our parents are on other sides of the country. and we're so grateful to them for inviting us over for dinners.

everton barely ate anything for dinner.  he was more interested in the swedish fish and the dessert.  that little poop.

 they also had a little Easter egg hunt for the kiddies.

everton doing what he does best, stuffing his face with candy.

then we finished off the night by hanging around the fire pit, eating dessert.

ernie and i.

this weekend couldn't have had more gorgeous weather.  but with great weather comes great allergies... 

we all got home and everton crashed from all that sugar in his crib.

and here we are today, monday.  everton is on a sugar detox.  only water and bread for him today. jkjk but seriously, i hid the rest of his Easter candy and will give it to him little by little throughout the next few days.  he can't talk so he can't whine for what he can't see.  buahahaha.

today is a super lazy day for me.  the only things i'm thinking about doing is either watching the hobbit for the 200th time or catching up on the vampire diaries.  now i'm about to go hide and eat my last delicious cadbury caramel egg and try out my party cake peeps.  

hey i said everton's on a sugar detox, not me.

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