Christmas catch up

The Caldwells' Christmas was awesome.

the weekend before Christmas we got to see our niece, maddison, get married in the salt lake temple!

she's the first grandchild on the caldwell side and most of the family was able to come from texas.  they had a crepes bar at the reception and i danced like a fool with my nieces.

it was SPLENDID,

then we spent a few days over in heber city in a nice huge house with brett's family.

ice skating, games, laughter, food, and getting to hang out with family we haven't seen in forever were the focal points.  poor brett still had to go to work so he was able to enjoy his family when he came in the evening for dinner.  darn charlotte was starting to get to that 'never leave mom's side' stage so my nieces weren't able to enjoy her as much as i'd like them to.  i barely saw everton, he had a blast playing with all of his cousins! 

it was everton's first time ice skating and he did pretty well!  he fell down a million times but he was a trooper, hopefully we'll have more opportunities to go so that he could get the hang of it.

and then it was Christmas!  we were back in our home in tooele and "santa" came!  brett's parents were still in utah so they joined us on Christmas morning.

this was brett's childhood tent his parents brought from texas for everton.  he was ecstatic and has been sleeping in it every night since Christmas

everton's latest obsession are transformers so he loved these easy to transform toys.  i love how much easier it's been to shop for him for Christmas knowing what he likes.  

some of my fav gifts that i received are a loki funko pop vinyl figure, the hobbit- the desolation of smaug extened edition, and the first 4 seasons of downton abbey!

it didn't take too much to make this baby girl happy, a baby doll to shnuggle and her favorite yogurt drops did the trick.

last Christmas i was pregnant with charlotte and here she is for her first Christmas!  i'm always thrilled that shes's here!

brett's parents graciously watched our kids while brett and i scurried to the movies to finally see the hobbit- the battle of the five armies!  i wore my Christmas present from brett, the kids' initials and birthstone on a tiny rose gold necklace.  it's so perfectly dainty!

we also had a beautiful white Christmas so that thrilled everton to be able to play in the snow.

 we hope everyone out there had an excellent Christmas as we did!

attempted update

oh where to start.

i honestly hate these type of updated blog posts where i try to catch up the last few months and it ends up just being a massive photo dump.  but i really want to document these last few months but haven't lately cuz of pure laziness and the feeling of overwhelmness (made that word up.)
 when i think about how much i have to update when really it isn't THAT much.  

#firstworldprobs

but here goes...

everton went back to preschool for his official first year.  fingers were crossed that he'd start improving in his speech and he really has been improving.  he's starting to say more words and shows that he really does understand us when he need him to do things and we can also tell when he's blatantly ignoring us and just being a stubborn kid.
it makes me laugh when i think about how sad i was when he first went to school.  nowadays i throw him on the bus, throw charlotte down for a nap, and then i throw down a dance.

do i take a nap?  attempt to blog?  watch a movie? 

who cares!  i do what i want!

but i only have 3 precious hours to do so.

in other news, everton stopped regressing in his potty training.  the past few months were probably the most depressive i've ever been as a mom.  with everton peeing himself constantly all day, i'm doing laundry all day, and charlotte was still waking up throughout the night, i think the world is lucky i never murdered anyone.  not my kids of course but perhaps the person who gave me a wrong look or the mcdonald's drive thru cashier who forgot the straw for the millionth time.

y'all lucky to be alive.

but everton stopped pissing himself and charlotte sleeps and naps like a dream.  but i'm still doing laundry all the freaking time, what the heck?

my parents were in town for about a month and a half so we've been all over utah.

we went to my cousin's wedding, which was lovely,

to the new aquarium,

eating, cuz that's what we do best,

the discovery gateway museum for kids,

swimming,

the temple,

and shopping of course!

my parents left back to dub v and we were left to fend for ourselves aka i had to start cooking again!

then it was halloween!

we went to our ward's truck or treat dressed as characters from the lego movie.  probably the easiest costumes i've put together.  everton was obsessed with wearing his batman mask so i made that the center of our themed fam costumes and went with lego movie.  brett was emmet (cheapo plastic construction hat and borrowed construction vest,) everton was batman, i was wyldstyle (black jacket with duct tape,) and little charlotte was princess unikitty!  that one took the most work, as in, i sewed felt eyes on a headband, ripped a piece of cardboard from a box of diapers and made her unicorn horn.

trunk or treat went well, despite being horrifyingly windy to where everyone got their candy and bolted out of there.

then all week charlotte and i were sick so brett took everton trick or treating to another neighborhood here in tooele where brett's cousin lives.

we got one of the first "major" snowfalls.

you like my halloween decor? and that's all i did.

everton the giant weiner.

teeny update on my teeny girl

i took her to the doctors for her well check and she's in the 7th percentile for height and weight!  she only weighs 16 lbs!

she currently has 6 teeth and is a crawling monster.  everton leaves everything out, therefore, charlotte gets into everything.

we got her ears pierced, which was traumatizing for both of us but i'm so glad we did it!

i also got a haircut, majorly shorter than i'm used to.

and we just got our fam pics done!

thanks to charlene!

sighhhhhh i love my family, especially my silly little kids!