Party with the Calls

On the day that we were planning to return home to Texas, my family had a quick party at the Montessori school. I think everybody had a lot of fun, and we were able to catch up with Great-Grandma Call. As these pictures show, both Braxton and Tavin spent a great amount of time being flung through the air, and asking for more.

Tavin with his floatie would bob up to the surface.

Braxton has become a strong enough swimmer that he is able swim back up to the surface and then back to me or the side. In this picture we see his superman pose.

Take a moment to admire Braxton's pose in this picture. I think this is one kid who may end up participating in extreme sports.

Family Pictures

While we were in Utah we were able to get family pictures taken with the entire Call family. Despite having to wrangle together 5 families, everybody had a fun time and we were able to get some cute pictures taken. I took some fun pictures between family shots.

Susie is an amazing model to work with. She always has a smile for me. I think that she is incredibly beautiful.

It was hard to get the boys to remember that they were wearing nice clothes and we wanted them to stay clean for the pictures. 

 Both Braxton and Tavin enjoyed the time that they were able to spend with their cousins.

Here come the picture updates

So much has happened since I last updated the blog. We have bought a house and moved in. Attended Renee and Arnie's wedding in Nauvoo, visited  family in Utah, etc. I will go through some of pictures and post updates, It will be out of Chronological order, but I hope that you enjoy them.

The Saturday after we bought our home, Susie and I rented a uhaul, loaded up our storage unit and unpacked it all. We ended up doing it by ourselves, and it took two trips. In this picture you can see Tavin as we have nearly emptied the storage shed. He is sleeping on a scrap of carpet padding placed on the bottom shelf of our metal storage shelves.

Wet and Wild Week

It has been particularly wet this week. Everything has been getting plenty of rain. Thursday was the kid's field day. Appropriately it was called a wet and wild day.

The primary kids had quite a few activities available to them. Susie and I were able attend and participate with the boys. 

Braxton, Tavin,  and I had fun throwing around a frisbee.

Tavin is trying to catch the bubbles on his nose.

It was fun to see Braxton on the playground equipment. He has developed so much this year.

Braxton loves water slides. He went on this one over and over.

Tavin didn't appreciate the water slide quite as much. After he jumped out he tore his shirt off and complained that it was wet.

I think Susie enjoyed hosing down the boys a little more than the boys enjoyed being hosed off.

Tavin is decorating a marshmallow with food coloring pens. Susie and I recently discovered this craft. Braxton and Tavin like to help!

This water balloon launcher turned out to be the surprise hit of the day.

On Friday, Tavin went with me to the University to look at the mascots. There is a large fountain in front of the Science building. Since there was going to be plenty of time to drip dry, I gave the go ahead to jump in.

One of the untalked about aspect of parenthood is the hundred of dollars in damage that they cause, but we love them anyway.

It's been a busy week

So it has been quite an eventful week. I finished my last final. I can now say that I have successfully completed my first year of graduate school. I'll spend the summer studying for the qualifying exam in September and figuring out what type of research I want to start doing. The weather has been consistently hot, and we are very grateful for the air conditioner.

These pictures were taken Monday at the play structure at our apartment complex. Both boys still require a little help with the monkey bars, but Braxton is nearly able to do it by himself.

Tavin had great fun with the slide. He would go down, then race around in order to do it again. I know that both he and Braxton thought that Susie was pretty cool to slide down with them.

I was convinced to try the slide as well. I didn't fit well.

Tavin turned 4 on Tuesday. We took this picture in the morning before he left for school. He really enjoys school and having him able to attend with Braxton has been an incredible blessing for us. We have decided that he won't be returning to Pre-K in the fall. I think that he is excited to spend some extra time with Mom before he starts Kindergarten the next year.

Grandma and Grandpa Gerrard sent Tavin an embroidered apron and chef's hat for his birthday. One of his favorite shows is Iron Chef, and he is always eager to help.

Friday night Braxton, Tavin, and I attended a Father's and Sons' campout with the Waco stake. The boys were excited to be able to go camping. They enjoyed playing with the other boys. It was incredibly hot and humid. I sweat through all of the clothes that I packed.

Fortunately, both of the boys understood to keep the door to the tent zipped closed. They didn't want to let the bugs in either. When Braxton discovered the scorpion on the tent wall, he came running to tell me about the "sting ray" that he had found. I think that I have been able to identify these two little critters. The Scorpion is a Striped Bark Scorpion. It's sting is painful, but not particularly dangerous to humans. The spider is a type of wolf spider. There were 4 or 5 that jumped all over the tent while were there.

Sunday was Brad's Birthday. In order to celebrate we cooked and decorated a cake the night before.

The next morning we used the leftover frosting to decorate our pancakes.

Sunday night we had the missionaries over for dinner. It was incredibly delicious and fresh.

Tavin loves every opportunity we give him to "drive" the car.