Sofi turns 1!!!!!!!!

Well, it’s been a loooong time since we’ve written, and I apologize. We’ve been super busy with keeping up with tax season, skiing and trying to keep Sofia under control! That girl is nuts! She has figured out how to walk, and she is all over the place. Typically wherever Dallas is, and she wants to play with whatever he is playing with, and wants to be right up in his face. Her favorite thing to do is to put her finger in his ear. Let’s just say, we’re blessed he’s so tolerant.

Yesterday was her first birthday. I can still remember waking up to go to work at four, not finding Jyl in bed, and thinking to myself…really…today huh? Jyl came in and told me she’d been having contractions, but that she was probably fine to go to work. I asked how far apart they were, she said….get this…8 min. Yeah, um, you’re in labor, and will have the baby soon, so I don’t think you really need to be working in people’s mouths with razor sharp instruments while you just “grin and bear it!” Needless to say, Sofia B Call came before noon that morning! And hasn’t really slept since! It’s our lot in life.

This tax season has been so much easier on me than the last because I’ve made a real effort to get up to the ski hill once a week. Dallas Jay is skiing so well and we’re really impressed with his progress. There’s something to be said for having passions in life, and I couldn’t fight the fact that I need adrenaline, and I love to ski. It’s been a real blessing that Jyl and I are able to now share this love for the sport with our kids. Next year we may even see Reese and Sofia up there! We’ll see how well Sofi gets at walking without falling first! Hahahaha.

Well, enjoy the pictures, and thank you Carrie for Sofi’s John Deere Boots. Very cute…wait…as D would say… “not cute, Dad, cool.” The picture of Sofia all messy is her birthday cupcake adventure. The picture of her with her hair done up was when D was supposed to be washing his face, and decided to help Sofi “have cool hair like me.”

A quick note

A quick note, Ok just some really cute pics of the kids. Dallas loves skiing and Sofia is taking a few steps on her own. She does great except everywhere she goes she runs! In this picture she totally reminds me of a young Audrey Hepburn. So adorable! In the other pictures Dallas is skiing and loving it! He especially loves skiing with his poppa!

Dallas goes skiing!

Today was the day. Ace got Saturday off and we were able to take D skiing for his very first time. He was so excited to go and wear his "parka" and show the lift attendant his pass. It was adorable. The first run down was good. We got on the chair no worries. Then we got to the top where there was flat light and we all know how "well" they groom the hill sometimes and we hit a little bit of a big slope and he got scared. We made it down the first time with a lot of frustration all the way around. But then came the next run and the next run and he did really great. By the end of the day he was turning and burning. He can stop and start and semi skate etc. I would get tired and need a little stop for a minute and he would get impatient with me and want to go. Finally he would say to me, "Are you ready to rock and roll?!" And then we were off again. He did awesome. It was so great to be back on the hill and with my family enjoying time with them. It doesn't matter if it was the aspen all day, it was great. The funny thing was he kept asking us for more and more runs down and then when we got home he rode his bike for awhile. I mean does this kid stop? What a great day!

Christmas 2009

I love Christmas with little kids. Every present that Dallas opened he would say, "Oh my word!" and get so excited. One time he did say, " Oh my hells!" that was pretty hilarious. We had to explain that we weren't supposed to say that, but lets just be honest it slips out from his mom and dad every once in awhile, what do you do. It was great watching him love every present, even the dull Sunday shirts that I bought him. I love kids at this age. Dallas has been talking about this whole girlfriend thing and now he knows that he can't have a girlfriend until after his mission, I know wishful thinking but you can't blame me for trying. The other night he asked Ace and I if after his mission he could get a girlfriend and have a life! I told him that he could have a life right now, but the girlfriend would have to wait until after his mission. He told Ace last night that he wanted to buy a horse and take his girlfriend for a ride on it after his mission. Ahhh he is always thinking that one.
Sofia has been struggling with ear infection after infection. I took her to the specialist and he looked at me like I was crazy for bringing her there even after I told him Dallas's story. Oh well. He said that she needed 4 in one year to do the tubes and well we've had two in a month, so I think we'll probably be doing surgery next year. Gotta love Doctors. Oh well.
She is determined to walk right away instead of crawling. She can roll anywhere and scoot and crawl backwards, but no forward crawl, very close though. Right now she just likes to walk from furniture piece to furniture piece. She loves her playtime with her cousin Reese and friend Jay.
My parents got us a day of skiing in Sun Valley for New Years. It was really fun. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed spending time with the family. Ace got to demo some fun ski's from Barrie and totally was amazing to watch ski. Thanks Barrie! Also, thanks Mom and Dad for the tickets.

Here's Ace: Well, we've started tax season already! Yeah! working from 5 am to 7pm every day. I'm going to work harder at being home more. So, here's my plan, make sure I leave every night at seven thirty, that way I'll be able to be home to read the kids their bed time stories and I'll be able to see them for at least a few minutes.

I'm going to also work harder on taking some time every Saturday to have some ski time, or do something with Jyl and the kids to have some fun.

And, I will be attempting the CPA exam again this coming year. I have the goal to be completely done and passed by next year. It's going to take some serious sacrifices, but it's worth it.

Well, Christmas was wonderful, the New Year great, and Valentines is coming. So, here we go. Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!

Ahh the joys of parenthood

I know from the title it probably sounds like I have some ridiculous story to tell about my children, which they do make me laugh everyday with the silly things they do. In fact I cringe every time Dallas tells me about his drawings in church and what his teachers must think. This Sunday he told my parents that he learned Rock and Roll at church. Ahh yes... Rock and Roll. He was singing the black eyed peas song, "Tonight is going to be a good night". As the songs were being sung and prayers were being said. Oh my.
This morning I put Sofi in the bath and Dallas had the need to get out his guitar and serenade her with the Monday Night football song and then he sang her a song about being a girl riding a four wheeler. It was very cute.
Sofia is finally sitting in her high chair. She has been sitting on her own for awhile , it's just taken us this long to get it out for her. She is really wiggly and loves moving around, but alas is determined not to ever be on her stomach or crawl. She may just run for her first move. It is totally her style. I think she is going to give me a run for my money.
Ace as you have read previously is now studying for the CPA. I am proud of him for going to the library rather then coming home as we all wish were possible. But the sacrifice is totally worth it. We got to have lunch the other day. Since he is working further away now, it is a luxury. He also brought some beautiful yellow roses. What a keeper. That is life at the call house. Fun, crazy, and totally the best.

Happy Halloween!!!!!

So, we had a great Halloween. Dallas Jay was a cowboy, I know...stop the presses, never would have guessed that one, right? Liz and Jordanne sewed his costume, they made a set of chaps and a vest. It turned out great. He wore Uncle Andrew's scarf, and of course, he had his pair of six shooters! Sofia went as a bumble bee, which suits her personality, sometimes she's really cute, but man, when you piss her off, she'll sting ya! Jyl dressed up as a mom and I dressed up as a football player, which, I found out via Dallas Jay's instructions, was not correct. So, Saturday, I, also, was a cowboy! We even got Winnie a scarf and she was our cowdog!

Friday night we went up to Loveland's shop and had a huge Halloween party. It was great. There was hay bales all set out, and the kids ran and played. We had homemade soup, and then after the dinner, we sat around the hay bales and
the kids did a trick or treat walk. I must say, Liz and Steph looked great!

Saturday was a busy day, as we know no different around our house! We woke up and went out to the farm, Dallas Jay, Winnie and I helped Jesse and Dallas Sr. put a new gate on at the cellar. Evidently, there's some harvest workers that think it's OK to run their potato truck through a five-bar gate, turn around in the cellar, and then run it over on the way out. You know, in case they missed completely demolishing it at 30 mph! Dallas spun cookies on his power wheels four wheeler while we worked. Sr. taught junior how to crawl under a fence, and he brought home enough dirt in his clothes that we are going to have an increase in property taxes this year [accountant's joke].

Then it was up to drop off Dallas Jay at Grandma Baileys as he made sugar cookies with her and Aunt Steph. Mighty tasty! We then met some friends downtown and went through the slowest trunk or treat you've ever seen. It was probably 1,000 people, walking around two blocks to get candy from 6 stores! But, it is always fun to see Dallas Jay with his soccer buddy Cambell. What can we say, good company makes the time fly! Grandma Cha-Cha stopped in and walked through the madness with us.

Then we went to our trunk or treat at our church. It was great. Heidi and Scott showed up with Dallas' play buddy Emma. I wish I had the camera on me, because those two are so cute together. W e got to see a lot of our friends, and it was fun to walk around with Dallas. He was really more interested in playing with his friends than he was getting candy! We had a good time seeing all of our friends dressed up.

Then it was back up to Grandma Bailey's for the traditional Halloween Pizza and candy. It was fun to see Reese in her Duck costume. So cute.

So, Halloween is over, now it's time to put up Christmas lights...oh man, I can hear my Dad saying, "You ready Rusty?" Yes, that's right, it's Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which, Jyl has outlawed at our house. It's not my fault that she is not more closely drawn to the finer points in life!

We had a great time with our friends, but now it's back to work for me. I have to get going on my studying for my CPA exams. I've got one in November, and one in January. So, if I'm a little incognito for a while, you'll know why. I was about to say that if I was a bit cranky....but, we know that I'm that way naturally! Hahahaha.

On to Thanksgiving....the best holiday of the year! Turkey, football, Turkey, parade, Turkey and...stuffing!

Happy birthday Dallas!

Yeah! Dallas Jay turned four! He is growing up so fast. We celebrated with chocolate cake and ice cream and then spent the weekend in Island Park. It was really fun. Dallas loved all his fun presents. We took him to Yellowstone and saw some beautiful elk and bison. It was really cold, but it was fun to see old faithful. As we were driving and Dallas kept questioning what we were doing every four minutes (must be something with the age haha), we kept telling Dallas that we were going to a national park to see the animals. He was first disappointed in the fact that we weren't going to a giant playground and then was disappointed when it wasn't like seeing animals at the zoo. Oh well. What can you do. So... we took him the the bear and wolf preserve right outside the gates! They have bears and wolves, like the zoo, and a play ground! Perfect! One of the most fun things was sitting by the fireplace in the morning and watching the snow fall, a lot of snow on Sunday. Dallas and Ace went on a bike ride, prior to the snow, and Dallas is almost as fast as Ace. He is fun to watch! So happy b-day to Dallas.