salt lake comic con 2014 in a nutshell

i really miss blogging.

blogging is so rare for me nowadays.

but now i've got a chance to finally blog about comic con and i'm going to take it!

 i'm still going through comic con withdrawals.  it was an amazing break from the kids (thanks parents for watching them!) and it was a perfect NERDvana.

and this time i went with both of my sisters.

1st day

i recycled pocahontas from a previous halloween, kyla was captain america, and erin was her scary self. :)

we didn't get to go to as many panels as we did last year but the few we did go to were just as awesome.  we went to the weta workshop panel and daniel falconer was the main panelist.  if you watched the lord of the rings extended edition's millions of hours of special features like we have, you'd know who he is. if not, just know he's a fantastic armor and weapons designer who worked on a ton of films.

cosplayer hook from once upon a time.  ALMOST as dashing as the real thang.

the batmobile!

erin paid for a photo op with the delightfully delectable manu bennett.  he asked to take 2 pictures with us and when we left he gave us HUGE delicious hugs!  whenever i watch arrow i grin to myself knowing i hugged him!

day 2

so i made my own wolverine shirt and had planned to make my own claws too.  mehh i didn't have enough time for the claws but was able to finish painting my shirt.  i used fabric paint and put a sheet of paper in between my shirt to prevent the paint from seeping through to the back. well the paint seeped onto the paper making the paper stuck.  in the bottom middle pic you can see the ripped pieces stuck to my shirt, refusing to come off.  and that's how i spent my 2nd day, with a stiff painted shirt that shed random pieces of paper every now and then.

oh i got to try on some real metal wolverine claws.  it was niiiice.

day 3

the last day of comic con and the day we regrettably took the kids.  our parents came as well, which was great, but the kids, we should've left at home.  as much as the kids loved seeing their heroes, we had to worry about making sure they're fed, haul the kids in the ginormous strollers, made sure they were making it to the potty on time, and we didn't get to go to any panels.  brett would rather clean poopy diapers than go to comic con with me so he was able to watch charlotte.  at least i didn't have to worry about her.

sorry to those ankles we accidentally bumped into with the strollers.  next time if i do wanna take everton, i'll take him on thurs, less crowded.

lesson learned.

onto the funness, kyla was captain america, i was princess jasmine, and erin was dark phoenix.  everton was batman, hazel was snow white, and fox and my parents were their cute selves.

'

we spent most of the time on the convention floor, buying fantastic nerd merch, taking pics with cosplayers, and meeting celebs.

and one celeb we delighted in meeting was jon heder from napoleon dynamite and blades of glory!

SUPER nice guy!

and the kids just didn't give a crap about who this random guy was!

my mom with some mighty morphin power rangers

and my dad with the punisher and some avatar.

most of the fun at comic con is MARVELing at other peoples' costumes.  seriously, there's a lot of talent out there.  as much as it was kind of a drag bringing everton along, it was really fun to see him excited meeting some of his favorite heroes.  he wouldn't let go of iron man's hand.

PRINCESS POWER

i have to say, dressing up as a disney princess at comic con was as close as i was to my dream of being a princess at disneyland/disneyworld.

it made me just as giddy when little girls gleefully asked to take my picture with them.  and i gleefully asked other princesses to take a picture with them too.

we got to meet some other celebs but couldn't get a pic or autograph because they all charge for em!!!!  but a lot of them were gracious enough for us to meet them and that was good enough for me.

we got to meet efrin ramirez (pedro from napoleon dynamite,) patrick warburton (kronk from emperor's new groove!) veronica taylor (she voices ash from the original pokemon show!  major nerd moment for us,) and giancarlo esposito (sidney glass from once upon a time).  i also got to see john barrowman up close but didnt get to meet him.  and on his way to the bathroom, kevin sorbo said hi to me, super swoon moment.  

my baby bat was pooped out on the way home.

comic con was fantastic and i can't wait till next year.

i love the nerd life.

6 year

we've been married for 6 years!

even though we've been married for 6 years and have 2 kids i still totally consider ourselves newlyweds.  our bishop back in rexburg said you're still newlyweds until you hit the 10 year mark.  i love that because it makes me feel young but man are we starting to cut it close!

6 years.  brett and i have been married for 6 years and life with 2 kids is stressful and tiring, yet so rewarding.  i was just looking through our wedding pictures and i kept thinking, "do these young newly married people know how much sleep and sanity they're gonna lose when they have kids one day??"

i bet these noobs didn't know that they're going to make 2 ADORABLE kids who will fill their lives with poop and happiness simultaneously.

i still love brett tremendously and i think it's safe to say he loves me that much too (at least he better!)

i'm SOO grateful i have him.  he's still the best teammate i have in this whole parenthood thang.  he's my anchor back to the world when life gets overwhelming.  he comforts me, makes me pancakes, is willing to change diapers, and is an excellent cuddler.  he's totally a keeper.

we didn't really have plans for our anniversary.  with me still nursing charlotte i figured that we wouldn't be able to do anything or go anywhere, at least for longer than 2 hours.  but brett and i decided last minute that we should at least go out to dinner or something but the friends i asked to babysit were busy.  we figured we'd just order in then watch a redbox when the kids were asleep.  then a dear friend showed up to our door while we were eating dinner and said, "give me your kids and go out!"  within 5 minutes after she left with our sweet babies we shot over to the theater to catch a guardians of the galaxy showing!  i ran into the theater with a huge smile on my face.  i miss going to the movies as often as before.  the movie was freaking fantastic and i got to spend time with my honey without a little being screaming in my face.  thanks again to my friend for giving us a little break! 

brett brought me breakfast in bed the next morning. blueberry pancakes with strawberry syrup, seriously, he makes the BEST pancakes!

life is great, life is grand.  my kids are cute, they make me tired, and i love them to death.  my husband is still sweet and i love the fact that i still have eternity to go with him.

don't fret dear old blog, i'm back

oh my goodness i haven't blogged since the beginning of may!

it's not like we've been busy or anything.

i'm just always in the  'taking care of two kids tires me out so freaking much so i'd rather eat my feelings in chocolate than do anything else' mode.

i feel like when we're just now getting into a schedule, one of the kids changes the schedule and everything's all thrown off.

i've at least been keeping up with charlotte's month by month pics but haven't blogged about them at all.

so here's my sweetheart's last 6 months! 

she's so squirmy and is trying so hard to get mobile.  the minute we lay her on her back in the crib, she immediately flips to her front.  she's been sleeping a lot better lately, giving me some more energy throughout the day.  she does wake up at around 4 so we'll drag our feet into her room, plop the pacifier back in her mouth, then we all go back to bed.  

she's been eating solids and i forgot when it comes to feeding babies how much ends up on their face instead of their mouth.

this little girl is too sweet she gives me cavities!

she's teeny for her age but she's got awesomely fat knees!

and those blue eyes!  where the heck did they come from?!  well, we think she got them from brett's mom, but really, how did i, myself produce this blue eyed beauty?  when she was born i told everyone that they'll totally change but seeing how light they are, i pray they never change!

now as for mr. everton,

HE'S BEEN DRIVING ME FREAKING CRAZY.

i call him my threenager.

yes, he's been potty trained for months now but heaven forbid he goes a week without peeing himself, his clothes, the floor, or on me.

sorry neighbors if you've heard me screaming bloody murder because it's most likely due to everton's loose bladder like a 90 year old!  seriously it's getting so annoying and i'm so tired of constantly cleaning his clothes, the floor, or my legs!

he doesn't talk but his favorite word is 'no' so that gives him the attitude of a teenager. 

BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS KID!

oh, how i love him so.

in other caldwell news,

pretty much the only major event that's happened this summer was Brett's family reunion up at bear lake.

it was a much needed vacation, where my awesome nieces took and watched the kids for most of the time and we were practically living outside.  we boated, beached, swam, and ate food the whole time.

i even attempted to wakeboard!  which, knowing me, that's a super adventurous thing for me to try.  but holy crap it was HAAAARD.  i did get up a few times but it honestly freaked me out being on top of the water so i let go.  yup, that's as brave as i get.

knowing it's august gets me bummed because that means summer's almost over.  everton goes back to preschool soon so he better get his bladder under control.  as much as he makes my blood boil i'm starting to get sad again knowing he'll be going back to school but yet having time with just my little charlotte and maybe time to take a nap or blog does thrill me.  and with him going the full year HOPEFULLY HE'LL START TALKING!

alyssa out.

time is my enemy

before i had kids i would go through life like, mehhhh i want high school to be over. mehhhhhh i'm so done with school, when will i be done with college?!

but ever since i got married, life just seems to shoot on by and having kids just seemed to make life shoot by even faster.

brett and i are going on 6 years of marriage this year and we have a 3 year old and a 3 month old!

while i never want to repeat high school, i do wish i could go back to everton's baby moments, i barely remember them anymore, and it's from past blog posts and pictures that the memories start coming back to me. 

so now that i have another baby i try so hard to cherish the times i have with my baby girl.

but it's so hard to do that cuz life is so crazy!

anywhos, time goes on whether we want it to or not.

everton and i just celebrated our birthday 2 weekends ago.

and we celebrated at chuck e. cheese!
(much to brett's dismay)

we went to the one in sandy but they didn't have a ball pit!

does anyone know where in utah a chuck e. cheese have one?

but we enjoyed cardboard cheese pizza and their variety of arcade games instead.

forget yearly family photog sessions.  i think we'll just get our portraits done here.

the top pic was from 2007 when we went to chuck e. cheese on a whim.

oh, how we've changed and i'm glad i don't dress like rainbow brite anymore.

i can't believe my baby boy is 3 now and i'm 26!

just some fun birthday facts about mr. E

he's obsessed with the justice league and the avengers (that's my boy)

his fav foods are chicken nuggets and strawberries.

he is currently 37.5 in. and weighs 32 lbs.

he still gives the best kisses and is still a good helper when it comes to charlotte.

we are also attempting to potty train him!  so far it hasn't been too bad, we've had minor accidents and more successes making it to the potty.  thank freaking goodness.  changing his diapers is becoming unnecessary and excessively stinky.

charlotte is the one that's allowed in diapers now.

so as of my last post everton's been to preschool twice now!

here's how his first day went.

i solemnly got him ready that morning and made sure he was nice and fed before he left. 

we saw the bus coming and i tearfully took his hand and we walked out to the bus together.

the bus comes pretty much right to our door so that's really awesome.

he was really apprehensive about getting on.

the bus helper lady allowed me to come on the bus so that everton would know it was ok.

she strapped him in and motioned for me to sit next to him.

that SLAUGHTERED me.  i bawled and bawled which made him bawl as well.  totally my fault for freaking him out.  i gave him a teary kiss and a hug goodbye and left.

i went over to jill's for a second for much needed hugs and comfort then i went home where i ate whatever i wanted, watched whatever i wanted, shnuggled charlotte, worked out, and what?  i even got to take a shower while charlotte napped.

i could totally get used to this.

everton's awesome teacher would text me pics as to how everton is doing and stuff.

i'm so grateful that he has this opportunity to go to school and am glad i'm used to that fact now. as much as he drives me nuts sometimes at home, I totally miss him when he's gone.

and today, once he got home he opened his backpack to show me his baggied aquarium thing they made.

love my schoolboy.