Cotton Bowl 2012!

A contractor that Derek works with offered him tickets and a parking pass to the Cotton Bowl! I love Derek's job!

We were about even with the ten yard line on the second tier seven rows up. The seats were in the club area, in other words "the fancy area." We were on the very edge of the "fancy area" but we were still fancy for one night. There were secerity guards guarding the entrance as to keep "the common folk" out of our gourmet concession, cushy seats and private bathrooms.

I wanted a soft pretzel and had to go mingle with the peasants to get one, but if I wanted a black bean gourmet veggie burger I could have stayed where we were.

The Ginormous Screen!!! HUGE!

Oh, and our seats were on the Arkansas side...

We were surrounded by red.

The fans were really nice and fun, but then we were introduced to drunk Mike

Drunk Mike doing his thang, which was doggin' on us Kansas State fans.

the lady that came down to kick said drunk Mikes butt.

The guy in black talked her down and they went and got security instead.

getting a little talkin' to.

The security guard came down two more times.

He apologized to us the rest of the night after that.

It was good entertainment.

Very sad we didn't win, but we still had a very fun and eventful night.

THE END

6 months

Our little lady is SIX months old already! It's very upsetting and wonderful at the same time. She brings so much joy and fun to our lives.

Calvyn Abigayle Clements:

6 month stats and facts

Weight: 15 lbs 15.4oz

Height: 26 1/2 in

Head: 44cm

Percentages

Weight: 50%

Height: 75%

Head: 75-90%

tall and skinny with a big brain :-)

Feedings

Favorite foods: oatmeal, squash, sweet potatos

Dislikes: green beans, carrots, bananas

How it goes down:

she is just starting on fruits. bananas are the only ones we've tried so far and they're not her fav yet. she used to like carrots, but I gave them to her with bananas and now wont take them. darn bananas ruining everything.

Nap time

Naps: 2 per day

She likes them served with: a blanket to rub her face in, the sound of rain, a lullaby by her mamma and giraffe friend, Gary and a side of a kiss on the cheek.

Bath time

1. we set the half naked baby on the bath mat while I fill her little blue tub. she loves to babble and look around

2. set out the little towel for our little lady

3. test the hottness of the water with the rubber ducky and take the diaper off and hurry her into the warm water

4. pour water on the happy baby with a big cup

5. scrub a dub dub with soap

6. rinse said baby with same big cup

7. let her kick, yell for joy and play with toys for a little while

8. carefully remove the sweetness from tub and wrap her in her towel.

9. we end with new diaper, lotion, ear cleaning, brush head to hopefully help the hair growth :-) and a clean pair of jammies

Bedtime

Time: 8pm

How it goes down:

Derek will read her a story or two, tuck her in, and then we end with a kiss or three from her mom and dad. Calvyn likes to babble herself to sleep. she hardly ever cries.

About Calvyn:

Teeth: not yet

Loves: there's not much that she doesn't love, but she extra loves the pups(Pippen), lights, exit signs, people, and just being the happiest, sweetest baby ever!

Hates: ear cleaning, having the tray on the highchair, and anything that requires the messing of her arms: getting in or out of the carseat, putting on shirts, washing of the armpits.

Rolls: both ways but has no desire to roll around

Sitting up: on her own longer and longer everyday!

Cries: barely ever

Favorite

Toy: Larry the lion, my still wrapped fortune cookie, squeaky birds

TV show: yo gabba gabba

Books: little pea, brown bear brown bear, oops david, that's not my robot, that's not my dinosaur, bear in underwear, napping house, goodnight gorilla, there was an old lady, curious george

Songs: you are my sunshine, I'm a child of God, L.O.V.E, the turtle song, hurry hurry, I'm a little bubble, wheels on the bus, I've been workin on the railroad, mamma goonybird

Color: red

Calvyn is the most agreeable baby I have ever known! She is happy all the time and when she is upset she make a very pitiful effort to show it. She is also the most curious baby I have ever known. She hardly looks at the person holding her because of everything else around. She makes the cutest noises! right now I'm listening to her babble in her crib. It's the sweetest sound.

Larry the Lion

the tag on the pillow

the end

White Elephant

This year my office decided to do a company wide white elephant gift exchange with a twist. Instead of opening presents then trading, we reversed the order, so you had to trade based on the wrapping. This leads to some unique wrapping techniques, but hands down, I won the award for most unique wrapping job.

We started our search for the perfect present at Goodwill where we found this:

No doubt this would be an excellent white elephant gift. But we continued our Goodwill search and found this:

For those unfamiliar with their zoology, it's a mythical Liophant, a close relative to the Liger, but exceedingly more rare. And this particular Liophant also happened to be a puppet. It begs the question- how does such a beast come into existence? The mental image of a lion and elephant...you know... "procreating", that's almost as disturbing as this stuffed version of said creature.

My initial thought was to have the Liophant riding the giant red whale, but I came up with the brilliant idea to use the whale as the wrapping for the Liophant. After cutting open the whale, I found that it was filled with styrofoam balls and cotton, so I had to make a little pouch and sew it into the whale:

Then I put the Liophant inside:

And Lianne helped add some ties to keep the gaping wound closed:

It was a huge hit at the office. Each gift could only be traded twice. The first person picked the whale, the second stole the whale, the third didn't want it and picked a lame gift, the fourth stole the whale for the second time, and thus the dynamic duo found a new home. Congratulations to Michael, the owner of the white elephant worst, but most creatively wrapped, gift.

On a side note, the company I'm at is pretty fantastic. This year they gave each of us gift card with the caveat that we have to spend half of it helping someone else in need. So now we have $125 that we get to spend making someone else's holiday brighter. I'm pretty excited about it. Now we just need to find someone in need. Now accepting applications.

Proof!!

Calvyn smiles ALL the time for Derek and me, but as soon as that camera comes out we get this.

She's a tricky little lady!

I finally caught some of her adorable

smiles on camera.

Will the real Calvy please stand up!

Whoomp there she is!

Look at those cheeks!

there so squeezable,

kissable, hugable, lovable

and down right edible

eat your heart out folks!

the end

month 4

Yesterday:

• Calvyn turned 4 months old!
• had our 4 month check up
• rocked it!!
• got those rotten shots

• tried rice cereal for the first time

Very Excited!!

• loved it
• hated it...

• it's a work in progress

I took this from my cousin, Jessica's blog.

Month 4!!!!

name: Calvyn Abigayle Clements
age: 4 months!!
height: 24in.
head: 42.5cm.
weight: 13lbs 8oz.

favorite foods: formula
dislikes: Nothing really, just trying to get the hang of cereal

naps: 3 per day
she: likes to talk to the light from the monitor. It's way more fun than sleeping.

bedtime: 9:30pm

sleeps: 12 hours
requires: passy, blanket to cuddle, and the sound of rain

hair: blond! and very little
preferred style: a headband
eyes: blue blue blue

lips: the only thing mamma gave me
teeth: not yet

hates: cleaning of the ears, being cradled ( I can't see the world from down here!!)
loves: mornings, talking to whom ever will listen, being talked to, looking at everything, mamma and daddy's faces,their voices too, watchin the pups play, Larry the lion, chewin' on my fingers and anything I can get into my mouth (that's the tricky part)

rolls: to the side. Woot!
most likely to: put it in her mouth
cries: barely

favorite tv: yo gabba gabba, baby einstein

favorite toys: Larry the lion, alphabet chain
favorite time of day: mornings and bath time
favorite song: the turtle song, hurry hurry, I'm

a little bubble, wheels on the bus, I've been workin on the railroad, mamma goonybird

favorite books: little pea, brown bear brown bear, oops david, that's not my robot, that's not my dinosaur, bear in underwear, napping house, goodnight gorilla, there was an old lady, curious george

favorite car rides: none
favorite friends: Addi and Bennett
favorite pastime: laying and watching the ceiling fan, kicking mamma during changing time, sucking my bottom lip, blowing bubbles with my spit, having mamma play with my feet
favorite movie star: Hugh Jackman... the accent

Now a few out takes for your viewing pleasure:

The End

Bobbly Bobbles

Things to Know:

• We are now calling Calvyn, Bobbles. She is still a little wobbly with the whole holding up her head thing and she is so curious that she swings her head from side to side to make sure she has seen everything. She looks like an adorable little bobble-head! Cutest thing ever.
• Calvyn is a little over two months now
• She is smiling a lot more.
• Her favorite facial expression is surprised/content.
• She has squeezable cheeks!
• Bobbles loves, I mean LOVES to eat! Thus the big cheeks:-)
• I keep choosing the wrong times for photo shoots, so I haven't gotten many smiles yet.
• It's getting close to nap time in these
• I dislike the lighting in our apartment.
• She has slept 10 hours at night for a whole week now!
• She is such a happy content baby!
• The only time she cries is hunger and sleepiness
• Naps are not something that happens in our house... (I hope this phase is over quick!)
• Calvyn is such a wiggle bug:-) Her favorite time to do so is when I'm trying to change her. She thinks kicking my hands is such fun.
• She has been making the sweetest cooing noises!
• She loves her wiggle gym
• She loves Yo Gabba Gabba
• She loves Baby Einstein
• I try not to let her watch the TV too much, but man, when she does lock eyes with it, it's all she wants to look at. The colors, shapes, and sounds. It's the greatest thing to her.

I promise she has other facial expressions. She just likes this one best:-)

10%

Lianne and Calvyn finally returned last Monday after being gone for a week. A week is a pretty long time considering Calvyn was only 10 weeks old. That means that I've missed 10% of her entire life. So what did I miss in that 10%?

-She's now able to pretty much hold up her own head

-She smiles a lot more, but randomly. I can't make her smile on cue yet.

-She made the jump from newborn to size 1 diapers.

-Her double chin turned into a triple chin (ok, not really, but she's getting really chunky in the face)

-She now sleeps 10 hours a night.

-She had her first and second plane rides. She didn't cry even once.

-She's starting to coo a lot more.

But above all of that, I missed being with her and her mom.