We survived the 1st week of 2014

We had a rough start to 2014 at our house. I was really excited to get back to Vegas with our little family. Cal was so sick the first week or so in January. It was miserable for both of us... most definitely my hardest mama week so far. He had the flu and it was hard for me to watch him be so sad. After about 5 or 6 days he looked like he felt mostly better (besides his cough), but he was so grumpy and crying all of the time. It was hard for me because I didn't know what to do for him. I learned that neither of us do very well cooped up in the house all of the time... we were going crazy. 

Luckily he seems to be all better now! His appetite and smile are back! Hurray for my happy baby. Also, this past week he learned what a bear says & what a lizard says and it is the cutest thing ever. He also finds the leash several times a day and chases Hobbes around, trying to put it on him. Dallin has been looking into mine and Cal's ears lately trying to practice using his otoscope. Cal took it from his hand the other night, and kept trying to look into my ear with it. It was cracking us up.

Besides being sick and playing with otoscopes, we have had a fun couple of weeks hanging out with our friends here. We bought a pack n' play recently. Since Cal is a champion sleeper, we can just take it to the house that we are hanging out at that night, and Cal will go right to sleep (with his trusted stuffed tiger, of course). We also spent an evening at the container park on Fremont Street with the Taylors and had a ball. Oh, and Cal is starting to practice his walking skills a liiiittle bit more, but only a little.

Hopie, making Cal feel better

Container Park

He loves these blocks that Justin made for him

Best January weather

Walking skills in action

Pine Valley New Year's

We spent New Year's this year at the Hafen Hideout in Pine Valley with a bunch of our friends. We had been excited for a while because Jordan, Tomoe, and Hana were in town from Japan! It was so fun to see them! 

Cal started feeling hot as soon as we got up there in the afternoon, and was pretty grumpy until he went to sleep around 8. I felt bad for him, and I was bummed because most of Dallin's friends haven't really met Cal since we usually hang out with them late at night. We had a ton of fun ringing in the New Year with games, pool, poker, and sparkling cider. 

We went to bed around 3, and Cal woke up right then (really unlike him... he is usually the World's greatest sleeper). After having him cry on and off for an hour, we decided to just drive home because we weren't sleeping and I felt bad for preventing the other 20 people that were there from sleeping as well. So we made the drive back to St. George at like 4:15 in the morning!

An adventurous start to 2014.

reunited

The whole New Year's crew

Christmas in St. George!

We were in St. George this year and spent Christmas with the Mitchells. Cal still doesn't really know what is going on, but it was super fun that he was old enough to get excited about presents. It is nice because we are on the same holiday schedule as most of Dal's siblings, so everyone was there except for the Hunters. A bunch of Dal's cousins came over for a yummy dinner on Christmas Eve. We ate and played the quarter game. After they left we read the Christmas story and opened sibling gifts. Christmas morning, as usual at the Mitchells, we were up at 5 in the morning. I thought that Cal would be grumpy that early, but he did really well. We got him a tool set, which he really liked. We were kind of bummed about the basketball hoop that we got him because we got it for him with the assumption that he would walk by Christmas. Because he doesn't walk yet, we figured it would be a couple of months before we could use it. For sure the highlight of my day was Cal taking his FIRST STEPS ON CHRISTMAS!! It was magical. Dallin stood him up with a basketball and he took 2 steps and dunked it. He did it several more times after that and it was awesome. The rest of the day we hung out, ate delicious food, and spent time with family… a very successful Christmas.

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning

Christmas Day with Grandpa Gib

We spent a whole week in St. George! The day after Christmas we all went hiking at Snow Canyon and then to a park afterwards. Winter in southern Utah is lovely hiking weather!

One of the days we hiked the Angel's landing hike in Zion's with Dennis, Lisa, Lauren & Tyler. We switched off carrying the pack because Cal is getting heavy with that pack, especially up the switchbacks. It was a beautiful hike! Cal did great, he even fell asleep on the way down… hiking must have worn him out.

The rest of the week we spent bowling, eating out, and trying to get Cal to walk. This week he would mostly only walk if he was shooting his basketball. It was so darn cute. We also had a 'Mitchell Family Olympics' with teams of couples. Dallin's parents bought prizes for the winners and it ended up being really fun, especially because those brothers are so competitive. Cal had a lot of fun with Ellie and Kaden.