10 Days old

Luke is 10 days old today!
He is growing fast, regaining his birth weight within a week, and is continuing to fill out nicely.
We can't get enough of him.

Yes, this picture was taken on top of our dryer.
I was doing one of my hobbies---laundry.
I know how to party!

Our New Arrival

We are so excited to announce that
Luke Christian Calder
was born Sunday, January 11, 2009
@ 10:19 p.m.
He weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long.

This picture was taken shortly after his arrival. I was so relieved to have Luke here safe and sound (and not to be in labor anymore).
His birth story will have to come in a later post. This mommy is going on no sleep!

Luke with his proud dad just before they left for the nursery for Luke to be cleaned up and weighed.

This sweet baby boy is an unbelievable blessing to our family.
He has dazzling blue eyes, a beautiful complexion and dark brown hair.

Luke couldn't be more perfect.

He was ready to leave Tulane-Lakeside Hospital and all of the poking and prodding he received when taken to the nursery. Little did he know that he would come home to face four excited big brothers and an increasingly motherly big sister who can't get enough of him!

Thank goodness for Grandma Calder, who came to help just in the nick of time!
(In fact, her plane arrived Sunday while I was laboring in the hospital.)
We'll never be ready for her to leave us to return home.

Welcome to our family little Luke!

Projects

After spending a little over a month in Phoenix, a weekend in Utah for Thanksgiving and a week in Tulsa for Christmas, we are ready to be at home. Mark and I both feel anxious to finish last minute projects and get things all set before the baby is born and before Mark's Christmas break is over. It isn't easy to complete projects with the kids running around, so we have been working at night after the kids go to bed. Unfortunately, they can hardly sleep with all of the pounding and sawing going on.

Last night Mark put our new linen closet door frame in while I "assisted" and then I painted the door along with a few other closet doors outside. Carston wanted to help so much that he couldn't stay in bed. He watched Mark work and with all of the sawdust flying around, he found his own safety glasses. He really did help with anything we could find for him to do, picking up old nails and handing screws to his dad. He is shaping up to be a little handyman like his Daddy. We are so proud of him! I had to get a picture of Carston with his hero.
Once I finally talked Carston into going to bed, since he was nearly falling over with fatigue, Mark and I painted the door frame and the moldings together. It was a lot of work. We have also scraped off and replaced some caulking in the bathroom. Mark fixed our toilet and the kid's bathtub drain. There is still more to do. So much to do and so little time (I hope)!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Grant!!

Today is Grant's 3rd birthday. Since his birthday fell on a Sunday this year, we celebrated all weekend. He had his Chuck E. Cheese birthday party yesterday, on Saturday, and today he opened his presents and we enjoyed his train ice cream cake. It was a beauty!

He was really excited about this cake. He helped me order it at Baskin Robbins and after we picked it up, he kept peeking at it in the box and giggling.

After he made a wish and blew out the three candles on top of the smoke stack, we devoured nearly the entire cake, yum. May all of your dreams come true, sweet boy! I hope you had a wonderful birthday, Grant! We feel blessed to have you in our family. You have a smile that lights up the room and you are loud, adventurous and fun. You do everything with excitement and zest. We all love being around you and just wait with baited breath to see what you'll think up next! We love you and can't imagine life without you.

Grant's Chuck E. Cheese Birthday Party

If you cross Grant these days, he'll tell you that you're not invited to his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. This means you are in hot water with him! His siblings were glad once we had already had the party so that they could tell him they had been there and done that. Since we weren't home near friends or with extended family for Grant's 3rd birthday, his party just included his siblings (luckily, they are his best friends anyway). It was fun to experience the Chuck E. Cheese birthday party package and Grant was so excited about everything (although shy about having anyone outside the family speak to or sing to him).

Carston took this picture of Mom and Dad with our little birthday boy! Happy 3rd Birthday, Grant! You are a bright ray of sunshine at our house.

This table was our party headquarters! We had balloons and a table cloth all ready for us. Luckily, it wasn't too busy so the kids ran a lot more freely than they would have been able to otherwise. The kids enjoyed pizza, drinks, cake and were in close proximity to the dance floor and the TV screens.

Chuck E. Cheese actually came out and sang to Grant and let the kids love him to death! Grant was shy and didn't want to get too close. He didn't dare take his eyes off of Chuck E. long enough for me to take his picture.

We let the kids carry around their own tokens, which was funny and disastrous at the same time. Jackson played the same game nearly the entire time and couldn't tell the difference between when he had put a token in it and was actually controlling things and when it was a demonstration of the game. All of them walked around putting their tokens in games and walking away. Needless to say, a little crowd formed and followed them around. We had to gather up the tokens and give them out one at a time after that. There weren't many rides, but the kids all enjoyed going around the clock.

I wasn't in the position to make Grant a birthday cake since we weren't at home, so he didn't get the homemade cake of his choice this year, but he did get two cakes. (Does that make up for it?) This was his first birthday cake purchased from Chuck E. Cheese and it was better than anticipated. In fact, Carston snapped a picture of me with a big chocolate cake crumb stuck in my teeth after our party helper cut the cake and divvied it all out. (Oh, how nice it was to have someone else taking care of things at the party. I could get used to that.) I couldn't move quickly enough to snap the picture of Grant blowing out his candles while everyone sang to him (since I was singing and clapping to encourage him out of his shyness), but I managed to capture the aftermath of licking the frosting off of the candles.

Amidst the eating, playing games and running around, everyone took a minute to dance in front of the blue screen.

That's right, shake it!

The party was a great success and we all had fun. I was glad it worked out so well.

Christmas on the Mesa Temple Grounds

The Mesa Temple Christmas display is nearly as impressive as Temple Square's light display. The lights twist around every tree and gate and twinkle in the reflection pool. The nativity scene was beautiful and reminded us of our Savior and the reason we celebrate this season. We loved visiting the temple grounds and watching the Nativity movie at the visitor's center.


The kids were so excited to see the lights and thought the temple was beautiful. I am conspicuously absent from this photo. That is the benefit of being the one taking the pictures. Being eight months pregnant makes me want to hide from any form of camera.

All of the kids were impressed by the nativity scene and pushed and pulled to get a better view (as you can see). I loved the discussions we had as we gazed at the baby Jesus in his manger.

Brothers! There is a special kind of bond between our boys. I love to see it. All of the kids noticed the special spirit on the temple grounds.
The funniest part of the evening happened while we were in the visitor's center watching The Nativity. Once the show was over, the two sister missionaries in charge stood up and bore their testimonies, one in English and one in Spanish. When the sister speaking Spanish began bearing her testimony, Peyton started making imitative gibberish noises and then turned to Mark, giggled and said: "Daddy, she's not speaking in words or making any sense.".
We were just glad Peyton was listening.

St. Nikolaus Tag

The sixth of December is St. Nikolaus Tag. On the night of the fifth, children put out their boots (or their biggest shoes if they are lacking in the boot department) and St. Nikolaus fills them during the night, either with candy and goodies if they've been good or with coal or a switch if they've been slightly less than good. This tradition is a little part of central European culture that we like to celebrate. The kids enjoy it as well.

St. Nikolaus left candy, a book and a matchbox car for each child.
We have been away from home for the past few weeks, living in Arizona while Mark does a rotation in orthopedics here. So, it was fun to stick with our usual tradition amidst our travels.

The candy was eaten almost immediately. What can I say? They take after their mother.

We decided to get a little Christmas tree in Arizona since we didn't bring any of our usual Christmas decorations. It was nice to have it as a visual reminder of the season. We love reading Christmas stories and singing Christmas carols by the light of the tree before bedtime.

All Carston wants for Christmas is his two front teeth!

Jackson is still wearing his badge from the Fire Engine Museum we visited. He was so excited about the things he got in his shoes.

It is always fun to watch the kids discovering the things hidden in their shoes.

Peyton was the only one with actual boots. St. Nikolaus is not dumb though, he knew to give everyone exactly the same amount, no matter the size of their shoes.

The best part of the morning was having Daddy read aloud the Christmas books that St. Nikolaus brought the kids. We treasure just being able to be together. Thank goodness Daddy didn't have to work.