GARRETT

Garrett Bradley Callahan turned 5 years old on June 5th 2011.

My goodness how the time has flown by! It seems like just yesterday I was becoming a mom for the first time and looking down and his adorable little face. And now I am still looking down at his adorable little face, but it has changed so much over the last 5 years. He is turning into quite the little man.

1

This year brings a lot of changes for Garrett. He finished up preschool doing great and is excited to start kindergarten soon. ( I am pretty sure I will tear up as I watch him go to class that first day.)

2

He has learned to ride his bike without training wheels and has begun to read a little bit.
He also learned that he is going to be a big brother again to another little sister, although he had hoped it would be a boy he took the news really well and is now excited for a sister.

3

He has had a hard time getting along with the Embrie sometimes. But more and more they play together and have fun together. He is very helpful in getting things for her. She'll even occasionally ask for him by name to help her with something or if she is sad and just needs a hug.

4

He is becoming Mr. Independent. I am having to learn to give him a little bit more freedom as he gets older. But what is too much? He wants to ride his bike around the block by himself, but will he search the driveways for cars backing up? Can he be trusted to play outside by himself in our un-fenced yard? Hmmm. He is so ready to break free from mom, but I think we have a little way to go before we can trust him too much.

5

We hear a lot of roaring at our house. I don't know why, I think it must be his favorite sound to make and there are so many different reactions to be had from it.

6

I love to see Garrett get excited. He has the best smile, his eyes light up and he starts talking non-stop.

7

Keeping with the trend, he is still the most mischievous little boy!
I don't know how he comes up with some of the things he does. He sure knows how to get into trouble sometimes! and he'll do anything to try and get out of being in trouble.

8

Some of his favorite things to do are play the Wii, play in the water, still loves playing with his cars and stuffed animals, but is starting to like transformers and super heroes too. And he loves playing with friends. He is definitely all boy, rough and tumble and all that. I will say that if there is something he is not too fond of it's bugs. He doesn't freak out about them, but he is not one to go pick one up either. This year he tried out T-ball/Coach Pitch. It turned out to be a lot of fun. He also took the next level of swimming lessons.

9

He is also a good helper to me (when he wants to be of course). He'll help set the table, make his bed, and picks up his toys really well.

10

When I asked him if we should bring anything for him to use in his pictures he said he wanted to bring 'Lightening'. Well I confess that Lightening McQueen was not exactly the prop I had in mind, but on 2nd thought I realized how much he loves that stuffed pillow and what a memory it will be. In the long run we ended up with a bag full of his favorite little stuffed buddies.

11

It is so fun to see his imagination at work when he plays. He can turn anything into something else for the sake of pretend.

12

He got his Lightening McQueen pillow about 2 1/2 or 3 years ago for Christmas. Ever since then it has pretty much been his best friend so to speak. He takes him a lot of places and sleeps with him almost every night, but he is always good about it if Lightening can't come or has to stay in the car and if we can't find him at bed time or he is having a "bath" he is ok to sleep with another animal.

13

I can't count the number of times lightening has been thrown up on. As you can tell by his ever fading paint job he has been washed a lot. He did at one time have eyes, decals and windows. He sure has been a well loved toy. I hope he survives so that we can still have him one day and look back at this time!

14

They say an elephant never forgets, well neither does Garrett! He has a great memory just like his daddy. He is so smart and learns so quickly. I hope he always keeps his love for learning.

15

He has a thing for asking me these days, while we're riding in the car and listening to the radio, "mom what is this person singing about?" (he has Embrie doing it too). This always makes me take a second look at the lyrics of the songs and remember to make sure we're listening to appropriate stuff. He is such a good example to me and makes me want to be better.

16

He loves primary too. Brad and I are primary teachers for his age class CTR4, but we are not his teachers. However, in sharing time when we are all together it is amazing to hear him answer the questions sometimes. Often Brad and I just look at each other with raised eyebrows and smiles, thinking to ourselves, "where did he learn that?" or "how did he remember that, we thought he wasn't listening." It makes us pretty proud of him and sometimes we're pretty sure we have little to do with it. It's all him!

17

We are so proud of Garrett. He is a very special boy. He is so handsome, smart, energetic and sweet. He knows how to make us mad one second and melt our hearts the next. We are grateful for each day we've have had him in our lives.

24th of July

Pioneer Day

Day's of 47
Utah State Holiday to celebrate our pioneer heritage.

Well we actually spent it in Cokeville, Wyoming. But lucky for us they celebrate it there too!

Our first stop on the train of fun was the Buckaroo Rodeo. This year my nephew Jaxon expressed a desire to ride a sheep for those of you city slickers this is called 'mutton bustin'.
So Garrett was asked if he also wanted to try. He said he would do it too. Well as his mother and knowing him so well I was a little concerned that he's chicken out at the last moment. Jessica was also worried that Jaxon might do the same, I mean it's not like we're around a lot of sheep and the sheep are bigger than them, it could be a little intimidating.

Well here is what happened:

Brad could not be there for the rodeo because he was still working :( But luckily I have two brothers who were totally willing to help. Awh! look at those two handsome, strapping young men! As veteran mutton busters themselves they were able to help the boys get into the shoot. Actually Jared (in the green) I think rode a calf in a rodeo once.

The boys look down on their fate. Will they go through with it?

Jaxon is up first and he does it! Way to go Jax! I just got one shot of him taking his fall. Good job buddy!

And so Garrett can't back out now right? Kalvin lifts him into the shoot. Do you think he is nervous? I can only imagine since I wasn't right there.

and he is off! - or should I say on.

And he gets back up after the fall! Yay! good job Garrett! Nice ride!

I may get some more pictures of their ride I'll have to post later.

My step-dad now owns a 1930 Model A car that used to belong to his father. It is a very special car that my grandpa put a lot of work into during his lifetime and so it means a lot to my step dad and to us. It was decided that it could be driven in the Cokeville parade. Unfortunately, it should have been my step-dad driving it, but sadly he was at work that day (in China might I mention) or he would've been there. We missed him.

This was my kid's first time being IN a parade. They were sooo excited all week!

The little girls, Embrie and Jerzee dressed as "flappers" from the 20's/30's along with Grandma Sheri. They rode in the model A which was driven by uncle Kalvin, and threw candy and toys to the kids.

Embrie, despite not being able to talk about anything else the whole week before decided to be a little grumpy during the parade. She sat with Kalvin's friend Jessica and after she got her "blanky" thrown to her in the middle of the parade finally decided to cheer up and throw some candy for the 2nd half.


My Uncle Bret brought his Rhino up and the boys, Garrett and Jaxon, dressed as cowboys and threw candy from the Rhino.

Throwing candy is just as good as catching it! They LOVE that Rhino they spent the rest of the weekend pretending they were driving it.

Elder L.Tom Perry from the quorum of the 12 is a special visitor that come to the tiny town of Cokeville for each 24th celebration. (His wife is from here.) He rides in the parade and throws candy too! and then gives a devotional at the church afterward.

On our final night in town the kids watched the main Rodeo. I love this picture of Garrett and Jaxon on the arena fence. They are the cutest little cowboys ever! Garrett is even chewing on a piece of grass.

they decided to join the "chicken chase" for all 10 and unders. I don't think Garrett was really interested in catching one, but it's fun to try right?




Garrett

Jaxon

Jerzee and Embrie did a little cowgirl fence climbing of their own, but they weren't in the mood to keep their hats on.

Fun times!

Itallends

Well the Harry Potter movies have come to an end. I actually talked Brad into going to the midnight showing on release day (he has not been willing in the past). We have a group of friends who were going and an awesome friend and neighbor who got us all reserved seating tickets together.

Lots of fun! We're aloud to stay up late now and then even if we're getting old right?

Whistle While You Work

As previously mentioned, I had a 'week of projects' or so I called it. My mom was here and helped me get a few things done.

#1 The first thing on the list was to repaint the kid's bedrooms, well since the paint store was out of the paint I needed (because we were just repainting with the original color) that did not happen. In fact, it still hasn't happened BUT I did pick up the paint a couple days ago and that is still on the list of things to do, shouldn't be too hard to accomplish I hope.

So we moved to the next things in line.

#2 Finish the garden while we have the use of a truck (my mom's). We've been digging our overabundance of clay out of our garden and getting ready to replace it with a normal amount of good dirt. The side garden had already been dug out, and Brad built a brick wall on the edge of the garden and also moved all the sprinklers to the edge of the grass instead of being up against the house. So we needed to fill it with good dirt and plant our plants and work on the front garden. Here is my grandpa and Garrett digging out the front yard a little bit when he was here to see Garrett play t-ball.

and here I am in all my pregnant glory digging more out (there was a lot of clay in that dang garden!)

Now we weren't able to finish this whole project because of time, but we got the side garden finished and the front garden is almost done. Here is what the side garden looks like now!

I think Brad did a great job with the sprinklers and the wall! The front will look like this too it is just a little bit wider.

#3 refinish an old dresser that I got from a friend. There are actually two dressers. There was one in particular that is going in the baby's room. And since girls have more clothes I was hoping Embrie and the baby could share this one.

I always forget to take before pictures. But you can kind of get the idea. (Don't mind the messy garage you see in the background. Some of that is cleaned up now, but there have been a lot of tools and storage stuff in there since the basement project began, now we are starting to move things back around.)

this is the 2nd dresser

Here is the finished dresser today. Glad it turned out and glad that we didn't have to buy a new one. Now if I can get the rest of the baby's room ready before the baby is delivered we'll be set. Wish me luck!

Man we've been busy with projects this year!
Thanks mom and everyone who helped us out!

T-Ball Is Over

Garrett really enjoyed T-Ball - I think. Like a lot of boys his age he spent a lot of time looking around at everyone else and not as much at the ball, putting his mitt over his face or standing in the batter's box trying to put his hat on other boys along with them doing the same to him, or talking to the kids on the other team while they were on base or vise-versa. He was very excited when he got to play 1st base because that means you get the ball a lot. And he liked batting although he was a little more timid at the games than he is at home, but that takes practice. He has a good throw! And I am glad he enjoyed it.

The last week of T-ball Grandma Sheri was staying with us and got to see his last two games. One of those days Papa and G.G. were also there. Garrett was really excited to have someone else there to watch him play.

Garrett with his trophy and certificate.

Here is a little team shot we took (minus a couple players). Garrett was sick and missed the game day when they had 'official photos' taken.

And they saved the best treat for the last game! Ice cream sandwiches that Garrett really enjoyed as you can tell by this photo. Granted, it was a very hot day.

We even captured a video of him hitting a pitch!

All work and no play ? Nah!

So recently my mom came down to stay with us for a few days. She helped me some projects that I have needed to get done. I will talk about these projects later, but of course you need to throw a little fun into the midst right?

The first day they requested that Grandma play with play dough of all things.

All summer we've heard the ice cream trucks roaming around and all summer I tell the kids I have no cash (which is true) when they come by. But this particular day we heard it coming and we'd all been outside all day -adults working-kids playing- so I scraped up enough cash around because lets face it, its time to let them buy an ice cream.

This was Embrie's first ice cream truck experience and Garrett's 2nd or 3rd so obviously we don't keep these guys in business or anything, but I remember how excited I would get when I got to buy something from the ice cream truck. (Granted, back then ice cream was a lot cheaper, I mean that is the main reason we don't buy it very often because prices have really gone up! but this one was actually really well priced so I was happy!)

Then we took Embrie to her first theater movie. Cars 2. She was very excited. Of course it had been a long day and she was really tired but she didn't fall asleep and she liked the movie and was very good. Of course since Grandma was there the kids got their own treats and everything! Can you say spoiled? :)

Garrett really got into this movie! Of course we know how he feels about Lightening McQueen and Mater so what's not to love?