Farewell, Lauren

Dallin's little sister has been called to serve in the Piura, Peru mission- so last weekend we headed down to St. George so that we could go to her farewell and say goodbye. 

Ellie and Calvin are only 1 month apart, so we had a little joint birthday party for them on Saturday. Cal loves being sung to and got really spoiled with presents. He is into 'Toy Story' right now and completely obsessed over the Buzz and Woody dolls that Dal's parents bought for him. It was pretty cute. Cal really loves Kaden and Ellie and it is fun to watch them together now that he is {kind of} old enough to play with them.

Perfect photo of the birthday kids

Since Mae was supposed to be born the week after the farewell, my parents were planning on coming and then taking Cal back with them so that he could stay with them during our hospital stay. She had a flight to fly back with him a few days later to bring him back to us and meet our brand new baby. Well... didn't work out quite as we planned, but my parents insisted on taking Cal anyway. They drove down to meet us in St. George and we met them at their hotel so that they could meet Mae for the first time! She screamed the whole time! Just kidding- she literally never cries. She was a little angel baby like she always is and Cal had the time of his life wrestling with my dad and jumping on the hotel beds.

Lauren did so great on her farewell talk! I was proud of her, but we are so bummed she is leaving. She has become really close to Cal the past few months since we have been spending so much time there, especially since she just came and took care of him for 3 days while we had Mae. Their goodbye was quite heart wrenching, but we are excited for the people of Peru.

Lauren made this for Dal and gave it to him before she left

We were sad to say goodbye to Cal again, but he loved staying with my parents. He keeps saying, "yaya house" over and over since he has been home. Good thing we are going this weekend for a good friend's wedding.

After Cal left, Dal and I spent 1 more day in St. George to spend a little more time with Lauren. We were really happy to be able to go to her getting set apart. It was cool to watch how much less nervous she was once she officially became a missionary. We were pretty sad to say goodbye to her, especially since Mae will almost be Cal's age by the time she gets back! The rest of the time that Cal was gone Dallin and I were mostly kind of lazy and just stared at Mae all day. We did celebrate our anniversary with dinner and a movie one night and it was lovely.

The premie outfit Lisa bought for her

Best ever way to go to a movie

My mom braved the flight with Calvin! Flying with a barely 2 year old is no joke. It was fun to have her here for a couple of days and see Mae and our upgraded house.

Drenched at the splashpad after lunch... in his clothes

Life with 2 kids continues to be pretty nonstressful since Dallin is still off of work! Only 1 more week though... we have reeeeeally liked having him around.

Ready for the Utah game

First walk with both of them

He's getting pretty dang good at block building

Dinner made by Devee puts Martha Stewart to shame

Love bug

Life with Mae

So... Mae is a dream baby. She literally never cries. She still sleeps a lot of the time, but even when she is awake she is the most pleasant little babe to ever exist. This probably sounds cliche, but Dallin and I seriously cannot get enough of her. We argue between us who gets to hold her. He has all of October off, which made it nice that she ended up being born the very beginning of the month. She is a champion nurser and takes bottle. Nights are kind of hit and miss, but we really don't mind yet because it has been so long since Cal will let us hold him while he sleeps. Also, nighttime seems like a piece of cake with Dal taking turns too.

After Dal's family came to the hospital to see Mae they took Cal back to St. George with them while we finished out our hospital stay and so that we could get settled at home. It is crazy how much we missed him while he was there... but it was nice to have just the 3 of us and know Cal was having fun there.

We were pretty thrilled to have Calvin back and he has done great with Mae!! He only pays attention to her for 30 seconds at a time, but he is never mean to her and gets really excited to see her in the morning. He is still quite the handful, but he was like that before :) He doesn't seem to have changed at all since she has been born and I am happy that he has adjusted so well. 

Cal is obsessed with "sharing" his toys with Mae

We went to Cedar City for a weekend to go to Russell's wedding with the Mitchells. We took turns being out with Mae since she was only a week old and we didn't want her around so many people. It was fun to see Dal's cousins and I was so happy to see the fall leaves since autumn in Vegas is lame. Our drive home was not quite as good. {Side note: we had our friend's mom with us in the car}. About an hour into the drive, Cal woke up and vomited allllll over himself and his car seat. We pulled over at a gas station and cleaned him up the best we could and continued on. A few minutes later Dal didn't realize how sick he was and threw up himself while he was driving. A lot of throw up! Inside the car. Then we switched places and drove the rest of the way with the windows rolled down. They both just had the 24 hour stomach bug, but I cried and panicked all night long worrying that Mae would get it. She and I stayed away from them both the next day and she (thankfully) never got sick. Dal was superdad and took care of sick Calvin while he was really ill himself so that I could stay away from Cal and take care of Mae.

Mae's great grandpa Gib

Napping through the pretty leaves

I love this photo

Sick boys

It has been fun and nonstressful getting used to having 2 kids while Dal is home too. We have been spoiled with people bringing us dinner and friends coming to visit. We have spent a lot of time at the park and had a fun evening at the pumpkin patch that Cal looooved.

Lunch with my best friends

Mae with baby Max

Bein a champ a his 2 year checkup

Oh, Mae. We can't get enough of you. Stay little, ok?