Birthday Boy!

Caleb's birthday comes at a busy time every year because it's the week before school starts! Lots of meetings and things to do. We still managed to make it a fun birthday weekend.

Caleb's birthday started out with waffles for breakfast.

After Bryson's nap, he got a kids' meal for lunch and then we went to Pump It Up.

Matt got off work early and took Caleb and Carter to a water park for the rest of the afternoon! This was something Caleb and Carter earned all summer long for good behavior, helping around the house, and Carter accepting a 'no' answer. Although it was unassociated with Caleb's birthday, we thought going on his birthday would make it extra fun!

When they got home from the water park, I had Caleb's birthday dinner waiting for him. This year he requested a chicken rice casserole that I called "Yellow Rice" growing up (due to the cheese).

 Friday we went swimming all afternoon at Ariane's new neighborhood's swimming pool. The boys rode these cool water slides over and over again.

Carter coming out of the slide.

Caleb's on the left slide.

That night we had a celebration with my family. Caleb was really excited about Lego presents this year.

New school clothes. Caleb's a great smiler. I love his smile.

Blowing out some candles. Gavin thought it was his birthday and couldn't understand why Caleb's name was sung instead of his and why he wasn't blowing out candles. So after Caleb had his turn, then we sang to Gavin and let him blow out some candles too. :o)

We've decided on a friends party every other year, so this was the year for friends. We had a carnival theme in our backyard with a soccer kick, basketball goal, bean bag toss, duck pond, water balloon relay, and water balloon toss. The kids had tickets to spend and could earn prizes.

Elijah at the soccer kick

Caleb and Caitlyn at the duck pond

Water balloon relay

Water balloon toss

Caleb received games and Legos from his friends.

He requested a rocket ship cake this year.

From us, Caleb received a new bicycle to ride to school. I'll post a picture of him riding it for his first day of school tomorrow!

Some fun things about Caleb at age 6:
His favorite color is green. Favorite food: pancakes. His favorite books to read are Nate the Great books. His favorite activity is playing games. Right now we play Settlers of Catan a lot. His favorite super hero is Spiderman. He's always been a very obedient boy, although over the summer he and I butted heads a lot during piano lessons, school work, and reading practice. An obstinate streak came out that I've never seen before! He is generally very kind-hearted and sweet. He and Carter can get along really well, but right now Carter antagonizes him often and fighting ensues. He's very responsible and a great helper at home. Matt and I tell him all the time how lucky we are that he's a part of our family!

Heading Home

No new victims of pinkeye the rest of the trip, although Lindsey said she woke up to it a day into her long drive home. So Matt and Bryson avoided getting it in our family. A cold spread around amongst all of us as well, which I caught. (I usually have a hearty immune system!) For 2 1/2 days of the vacation, I was not able taste due to the loss of my sense of smell. It was a bit depressing as I really look forward to our yummy meals on vacation. It was probably my first vacation ever to lose weight! We were passing around Ariane's natural oils like crazy to try to prevent the spreading and catching of the two diseases. It was pretty funny.

To break up the drive home, we decided to stop off at Krause Springs.

The water was so chilly!

Bathing beauties with the babies

A beautiful waterfall

Zane cliff jumping

My dad rope swinging

Matt, Zane, and Dallin did it as well!

Checking out the campground before leaving

A fun hole in the tree.

So many fun and happy memories. I love my family! We missed having Jared and Kari's family there with us. Hopefully next year!

Vacation Part II

Saturday morning, Carter woke up with pinkeye. I guess I passed it on to him prior to us leaving on vacation? I didn't read this on any of the sites I looked at, but it must have taken a day or two to manifest. I'm really surprised that it was Carter who caught it from me and not Bryson since I touch and handle Bryson a lot more during the day. It was also so frustrating that he caught it because I was super careful about washing my hands if I ever touched my eyes, which was rare. I was so concerned about any of my boys catching it that I used my willpower to not touch my eyes at all unless I was standing right next to a sink ready to wash my hands (twice). Matt and I considered going home to try to contain the spreading, but Carter had touched pretty much everyone the day before when we were in the caves. So everyone was kind to let us stay with our infection.

After an omelet breakfast, Saturday we visited Lyndon B. Johnson's farm that he grew up on.

Walking to the farm

Saturday afternoon, my dad was showing symptoms of pinkeye, and Sunday morning both Caleb and cousin Ellery woke up with pinkeye. Caleb was so angry and frustrated! So all the pinkeye people stayed home from church. Matt and I enjoyed attending church with only having to worry about Bryson.

Caleb loves games and has recently discovered games on the ipad. So he was constantly asking to borrow Lindsey's ipad in order to play a game she taught him, much to her annoyance. Here's Dallin and Carter watching on.

Monday morning started out with a vigorous workout. (Who works out on vacation? The Shurtliffs do.) This workout was too funny because Caleb did the whole thing with us!

All day Monday we rented a ski boat

Bryson and Daddy waiting for a turn

This is what Caleb did while he waited.

 Carter on the tube with Aunt Lindsey. He was very brave and wanted to ride the tube each time he got on the boat. But a few minutes into the ride each time he said he was done.

Caleb didn't seem to enjoy the boat very much at all this time. He got on the boat once and tried the tube once then was done for the day. 

I got up on the wakeboard for the first time. I still need lots more practice.

 Matt and Caleb jumping off the dock together. It made Mommy nervous.

Shurtliff Family Vacation 2013

I look forward to our Shurtliff family vacation every year. I love hanging out with my parents and siblings talking, laughing, and playing games together. This year we all met up in Austin on lake LBJ. Unfortunately, a few days before the vacation, I caught pink eye. I did not want to pass it on to any of my own family members nor take it with me on vacation. So we ended up coming a day late so that I could be sure I was goop-free and cleared of pink eye. 

Day 1 (for us):

We arrived at lunch time and everyone was swimming in the lake. We were quick to join in on the fun!

Much time was spent running from this dock (as Matt is in this picture) in order to catch a Frisbee. As the week progressed, people became pretty creative with either their throws or jumps.

Caleb wasn't too happy about leaving a day later than everyone else. Within an hour of when we arrived, Caleb got stung by a wasp on the side of his head. A wasp flew by him, and he stayed perfectly still as we had taught him, yet it still stung him! He's posing for me to take a picture of it, but it had cleared up by this point. Caleb can be pretty dramatic, so this was not a good start to his vacation! (Poor guy didn't know at the time that there was more to come.)

Carter showing off his muscles wearing Clayton's fighting mask.

Later that afternoon, we went on a hike in Longhorn Cavern State Park through a cave. This was how Bryson rode on the trip.

Caleb next to a "rock"weiler

Touching a bear's nose (rock formation)

Carter with Aunt Lindsey

1 1/2 mile hike was a long distance for the little guys.

We saw this bat in the cave, and Caleb really wanted me to take a picture of it.

After the hike

Family picture

Fun at the Creek

We enjoyed having Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Derrick here for a month of the summer. They stayed at our house a few nights so that we could play games together and watch a movie together. One afternoon we headed to the creek near our home so the kids could play.

Aunt Lindsey with Bryson

The boys having fun in the water

An "island" in the middle of the creek

Bryson just wanted to eat rocks

One of Lindsey's dogs that came with her, Izzy, had a blast running up and down the creek, in and out of the woods.

9 Month Check-Up

Bryson's 9 month stats:
Weight: 20 lb 2oz, 56^th percentile
Height: 27.5” tall, 16^th percentile!
Head count: 48.5 cm

Carter's 9 month stats:

Weight: 22 lb 12oz, 80^th percentile

Height: 30.25” tall, 95^th percentile!

Head Count: don't have it recorded :(

Caleb's 9 month stats:
Weight: 20 lbs. 13 oz., 55th percentile*
Height: 45th percentile
Head Count: 80th percentile for his head count

*I guess the child growth chart has adjusted from 2008, where Caleb was 55th %, to 2013, where Bryson was 56th % but weighed less!

It's only fitting that it took me 9 months to put on all my pregnancy weight and 9 months to take it all off! I'm finally consistently staying at my pre-pregnancy weight. :o)

Journal tidbits about Bryson:
Bryson is pulling himself into a standing position. He loves using his legs to bounce high in his bouncy toy. He crawls around everywhere, and usually ends up at my feet. He prefers me to every other person. If someone else holds their hands out to Bryson, he'll do a "fake out" lean towards the person, then go back to me. His favorite food is sweet potatoes. He's a great eater and sleeper. He sleeps from 7:30pm to 6:45am. He's transitioning from 3 to 2 naps, and he's nursing 4 times per day. 

Month 10: Scripture Reading

For July's Happiness Project goal, I decided to challenge myself to read The Book of Mormon in 1 month.  I love to change up my scripture reading so that I have a different focus each time. This time the focus was to read The Book of Mormon more like a novel, to purposely turn to it whenever I had a spare moment in the day. (It should probably be this way always!) Usually I read it relatively slowly with outside sources to aide my study. In order to accomplish my goal, I had to read 8-9 chapters per day/night. I learned quickly that I did not want to get behind and have to play catch-up! It was a difficult, but very rewarding experience. I enjoyed the experience so much that I'd like to do it again, perhaps on a yearly basis. As with each time I read The Book of Mormon, I felt the Holy Ghost witness to me that the words are true. This time around, I had a greater appreciation for all the orchestration that went into The Book of Mormon coming forth in these latter days--the plates being handed from father to son or prophet to prophet and then being preserved so well. Overall, it was neat to see how spending more time in the scriptures each day increased the Spirit in my life and in my home and thus made me happier. :o)

My goal for month 11 is to make improvements in our food storage (take stock of what we have and fill in any gaps) and update our 72 hour kits!