church suit up!

my amazing and hard working husband will not be working for wells fargo anymore.

turns out the banking business was just not his cup of tea, or in his case, his cup of dr. pepper.
brett just wasn't happy at wells fargo.
and what do you do when you're not happy with something?  try to change it!  if you can, at least.
so brett decided to try to change jobs.  he didn't want to leave wells fargo unless he had a job already.  so for a while he had been revamping his resume, getting in touch with any contacts or hook ups he has, and we've been fastin, a'prayin, and a'readin our scriptures.
and our prayers were answered.
brett had applied for a job with the church.
brett got an interview with them and about 2 weeks later he got the job!

he'll be starting on jan 23rd and will be working in downtown salt lake.  not at the official church headquarters building but in a building 1 block west of the conference center.
he is so freakin excited and i'm just so excited for him.

what exactly is the job, pray tell?

we don't know!  well they told brett a little bit about it and it has something to do with accounting...
i'll update soon about exactly what he'll be doing when he starts his new job.  all i want is for brett to absolutely love his job, even if that means living in utah for awhile longer.


you know, i seriously love being a stay a home mom. i love spending as much time as i can with my everton and i love watching him grow and develop into such an amazing little boy.  it is hard work though and can be frustrating when everton is fussier than usual.  i'm so grateful that brett works so hard so that i can stay home and take care of our son.  sometimes i feel bad not contributing financially to our income but i always try to support my husband in everything he does, attempt to keep the house clean as much as i can, and help raise our kids to be righteous people.  and that counts as contributing right?  well i think so.

as for the rest of our fam, everton and i are sick.  our days consist of sleeping (even more than usual), going through tissue boxes, red noses, nasal aspirators (for everton), drugs drugs drugs (for me), and lots of cuddle time.  i have realized that it totally sucks taking care of a baby while being in a state of near death.  being a mom actually became harder.

so no pics for today.  i'm sure you don't wanna see puffy red faces.  yet, everton's snotty face is still cute.

new year and a new calling

let us welcome the new year 2012!

the transition into the new year consisted of friends, family, games, lots of delicious food, and the bubbly (sparkling cider=derishousness)

on new years eve at midnight, the baby was already snoozin, brett and i shared a little smoocheroo, and we went to bed.

as long as i get a new years kiss from my man and some sparkling cider, i'm pretty much a happy camper going into the new year.

what an amazing year 2011 has been.  

we had a baby.

brett and i reached our 3rd year anniversary.

brett and i grew into our roles as parents this year.

i've gained such amazing friends here in tooele.

brett has worked a full year at his "grown up" job at wells fargo since graduating college.

we've watched our everton grow so much in the 8 months of the year since his beautiful birth.

we got a washer and dryer! which is pretty spectacular after living a few years without one.

we have so much to be thankful for that had happened in 2011 and we have so much to look forward to in this new year.

one new thing that's happened to me in the new year is i got a new calling in church.

i shall be teaching primary!

CTR 6 to be specific,

which means teaching 6 year olds.

at first i was really nervous, knowing that i'm teaching the future leaders of this world!

even though i'm really just teaching them basic basic gospel principles and there will be coloring involved.

my first lesson on sunday went great.

we learned about choosing the right choices in life and we did, indeed, color.

we colored our shields that says CTR, which means CHOOSE THE RIGHT.

the kids i teach are seriously so darling and a bit chatty.

one thing we have to look forward to this new year is everton turning one!!!!!

ugh, i'm not ready.

8 months

it is now 2 days after Christmas and everton has turned 8 months!

-he's been sleeping so much lately.  sleeping on an average of 12-13 hours a night and takes 2 2-3 hr naps during the day. he must be going through a growth spurt right?

-he's definitely been eating a lot too.  when i make his baby food i have to make sure i buy a lot of veggies so that it'll make enough to last awhile.

-and speaking of food, it's been so awesome feeding him little snacks and finger foods.  he loves his crackers and those little yogurt/fruit puff things.  actually, i love snacking on them too.

-as for crawling, he's not fully crawling yet, but creepin.  more like, creepin/crawlin.  and he creeps fast.  we often forget how mobile he is now.  we'll leave the room for what feels like a minute and he's already on the other side of the room chewing on some cords.

-he talks and talks and talks.  but doesn't really say anything coherent.  he does say "yeahhh" a lot.  but other than that he just grunts or babbles.  one time i was in the kitchen while he was in the living room and we honestly had a conversation.  it was mostly grunting like monkeys back and forth but it was awesome!

-he's just an easygoing and super happy baby who only gets grumpy when he's hungry or tired.  

as for Christmas, we had a great one.

i got a kindle!

(pardon the face sans makeup)

i used to be opposed to e-readers, thinking that the paper way is the best way.  but since having a kid, hauling around big books sounded like such an inconvenience.  call me lazy if ya want, but for once, i can actually read scriptures at church!

and what'd i tell ya?  trash and carboard tubes makes the baby happy for Christmas.

reindeer in the headlights

and ok, we did actually get him an actual present for Christmas and got him this snazzy outfit.

whaddup handsome??

Christmas traditions

it's our first Christmas as a little fam bam!

on Christmas day we'll be going down to my auntie's in spanish fork after church.

of course everton doesn't give 2 hoots about Christmas or presents right now.

so that's why we're seriously just giving him a cardboard tube for Christmas.  he LOVES those. with all the presents his darling family is giving him we thought he wouldn't mind if we go cheap for his first Christmas.  it's not like he'll remember it anyways.

brett and i have been talking a lot about what our own families do for Christmas.

we're so excited to see what traditions we do as a family each year as my family gets bigger and is full of different personalities.

and one tradition brett and i have carried on from the jones side since we've been married is picking out our own ornaments every year.  i have an ornament from every year of my life.  with my name and the year on each one.  and when i got married my mom gave me all of my ornaments to put on our Christmas tree.  so right now most of the tree is full of girly and some not so girly ornaments.

and the spider man?  he's mine, from '04

espn santa?  that's brett's from last year.

for everton's first Christmas ornament we're still in the process of making it...

we hope everyone has an amazing and safe Christmas!

LOVE,       

Brett, Alyssa, and baby Everton

come and see the temple lights

i LOVE to see the temple!!

i always feel such a peace when we're walking around the temple grounds or doing temple work.

a Christmas tradition we've always done in my family is going to see the temple lights.

and that was out east to see the DC temple.

now that my little fam and i are here in ootah we feel blessed to live 30mins from the slc temple.

so taking everton to see his first temple lights was very much needed as Christmas is quickly approaching.

(check out one of his top teeth!)

i'd say he had a grand time, despite the freezing weather and his cold cheekies.

but he was a lot warmer then brett and i combined due to his fluffy marshmallow suit.

brett and his parties

brett turned another year older on monday.  26 years old, in fact.  he had to work on his birthday but took tues and wed off.  he has a few paid days off left so taking a few days off for his birthday seemed to be the best time to use em.

monday morning started as present time!

i got brett the movie, the lion king.  and everton got his daddy this super cute picture.

i always joke that ever since we cut everton's hair he's pretty much a man now and that he's gonna go on a mission like, tomorrow.  and i'm just always feeling like it really is gonna happen soon.  and maybe i get sad already just thinking about it.  and getting married?  oh heck no.  i'm going to be forever the love of his life.

but this picture warms my heart.  i really hope everton does serve a mission for our church one day.  ok stop talking about it.  shut up.

but what did we do to party it up for brett's birthday?  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  ok well we did go out to dinner just us two but that's pretty much it.  brett often doesn't want a big hoopla for his birthday.  i sometimes feel bad not throwing him an awesome party.  i mean, last time i did i ended up setting the apt complex's fire alarms off, causing the cops and firemen to come.  mayyybe that's why he doesn't really like to party.  but do you think that's a "man thing?"  saying they don't want you to make a big deal for their birthday when in reality, they want you to go all out?

idk.

i wanted to respect the man's wishes and just chillax for his birthday.

so on his days off we slept in, which actually meant waking up when everton did, feeding him, playing with him, then setting him down for his naps, watched our fav show how i met your mother all day, farted around and cuddled around.  we ate red velvet cake his co-workers got him and then watched some more how i met your mother.  us caldwells sure know how to have a crazy time.

but brett was starting to get a little burnt out from work so i think it was just what he needed.

happy 26 years brett.

let's go buck wild for your birthday next year and maybe go to a movie?

then on saturday brett's work had their annual Christmas dinner/white elephant party at his boss's house.

it was so freakin fun.  and a lot of brett's co-workers aren't LDS, which made the party have quite a few hilarious drunk people.

i brought my lumpia, which was a hit if i may say so myself, and we had a mexican dinner.  it was delicioso.  and the white elephant part of the party was very eventful.  gifts consisted of chocolates, cash, gas-x, hot cocoa mixes, bark-off alarm, picture frames, and other random items.

our winnings of the night?  a GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL!  which brett won from a raffle.  and i got 5, count em, 5 bucks from white elephant, and brett got some cup with freezable gel inside.  i guess he really needed it.

it's been a pretty good week.

everton meets santa

it was the ward Christmas party.

got milk?  actually he got frosting from brett when i wasn't looking. hmph.

we ate good food, chatted with good friends, and met good ol' santa.

everton freaked out a little, but just because of the stranger danger factor and he knows his mommy doesn't have a beard..or does she??

he definitely doesn't know who or what santa is right now.  it'll be fun to see his reactions next year.

remember this post from 2 Christmases ago?

brett was a firm believer in santy and i wasn't.

at first i told him i didn't want my kids to believe in santa because i thought he was just something silly and there was no point.

we spent Christmas with brett's bro and sis-in-law one year and the looks on the kids' faces were absolutely priceless as they came down the stairs and saw awesome presents santa left them.

it was the cutest thing and from then on i knew i wanted my kids to believe in that fat man in red.

ok santa you'll get another chance with me through my kids

but leave me some christian louboutin shoes under the tree and you'll make a full believer outta me.

and it's my mom's birthday!  happy birthday ya cute lola.