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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an Eggcellent Easter Eggstravaganza

i am loving the fact that everton is getting old enough to enjoy things besides food.  holidays are a blast with him.  even though he can't do EVERYTHING that comes with every holiday that older kids can do, it tickles me being able to share some traditions that brett and i have done as kids with our everton.

i love love Easter.  dyeing eggs and binging on peeps is my thing.  we thought that it would be fun to dye eggs with everton for family home evening.

poor everton though, he got in trouble probably more than he had fun.  it did say on the box that this kinda stuff isn't for kids under 3.  he wanted to get his hands on and in everything.

sorry bud, we'll try to let you make a mess next year.

but everton loved eating some of the eggs afterwards, which is really my favorite part of egg dyeing. 

my Easter bunny.

SNOWARRHEA 2

utah couldn't control its bowel movements and it's been having snowarrhea probs.  i love the fact that 2 posts ago, i blogged about how wonderful the weather was and how i was ready to welcome spring.  FALSE.  utah lovingly reminded us that winter still has its evil grappling claws sunk into it.  it is technically spring but we are in utah but it sure as heck doesn't feel like spring.  I was looking back on earlier posts and indeed, last march we had a snow dump. 

 click here for post and for cute pics of my snow bunny last year.

in an attempt to make an "unimpressed" face, brett just happened to capture a chunky snowflake passing my lips, making it look like i was honkin something out.

winter, you can just leave.

AHOY!

i come from a family where my dad urged us girls to do something in music.  i went the band geek route and played the french horn through middle school, high school, and college.  my sisters kyla and erin were band geeks too but they could also sing.  and they are AMAZING singers.  they were in our high school's pop singer club, which i like think of as a somewhat glee club.  my sister erin has such a strong voice that when we were little i would get mad at her for singing louder than the actual music.

she goes to ldsbc and is in a band called ahoy, captain!

erin is the co-singer and plays the keyboard.

they are such a fun band and brett and i got to see them play down in provo!

our aunt was able to come too and she and i were amazed looking up at erin sing her little heart out.

click THIS LINK and THIS LINK to listen to and download their fantastic songs!

special thanks to my best friend, charlene for babysitting everton!

AHOY.

SPRING, COME ON DOWN!

i realized that since my last post life has consisted of: hibernating at home, snow, i got a cold, everton has been bouncing off the walls due to the ants in his pants, and we've been catching up on downton abbey, there is no meaning to life after that season finale. 

and then there was yesterday.

it got to a windy 60 degrees here in the salt lake valley.  

the sun was just smiling at us, saying, "come on out ya'll."  i'm assuming the sun has a southern drawl.

and everton and i embraced it.

we wore light sweaters and went to playgroup.  i love going to playgroup.  it just sucks that we have 1 car and i have to wake everton up at an ungodly hour to take brett to the bus stop.  but we had the car and we had things to do.  playgroup is a perfect time for everton to get out of the house, play with different toys, and for us women to chat it up.  and what did everton do at playgroup?  he slept on my chest the entire time.  i guess yesterday's playgroup was for me then. 

i'm so excited for spring to officially be here.  i want to cuddle with spring, wear bermuda shorts and light t-shirts.  i want to rescue everton from our boring house and take him to every park tooele has to offer, which they honestly suck, but he doesn't know that.  spring does mean having to get hopped up on allergy meds for me but it's SO worth it.

spring also means that we get to go back to west virginia in april!  i haven't been back home for 4 years.  and i have a lot of family members that haven't even met everton yet.  

so c'mon spring, i welcome you with wide open arms.

p.s. holy crap i just realized that today is the exact day when brett proposed to me on that blistery and icy night in rexburg, FIVE YEARS AGO.  holy crap.