Boo!

Yes, it's Calista's second Halloween. But this is the first one that's been fun! Partially because last year I was horrible sick, but mostly because Calista is so much fun!

We started preparing by reading a Halloween book from the library, and dressing in Minnie Mouse skeleton shirts. Because, you know, why not?

Then we carved our Jack-o-Latern.

This year, a cantaloupe was our medium. It has made our outside entryway smell amazing, like tasty melon! Yum. Kyler's the designer and artist this year, by the way. Didn't he do awesome?

So, we've done enough prep. Now it's time to dress up and have Calista get told she is beautiful by complete strangers!

Calista was, as you can see, a butterfly. Or a fairy? I don't know. 

She did have a wand, though.

In keeping with the spirit of the day, we made monster faces with Mr. Potato Head.

Actually, who am I kidding? Every Mr. Potato Head face looks this... interesting when Calista is the designer.

We also had a dance party brought to you my the Sesame Street Saxophone.

And the letter H.

Then, we headed to the mall. In exchange for a small donation to the food shelter, Calista got a treat bag, a pumpkin to decorate, and the materials.

Calista's pumpkin!

There were also numerous stores that were giving out candy to trick-or-treaters.

Ready to go look cute in exchange for candy!

And off she goes! Wait up, Calista!

Watching her with the people at the mall was very entertaining. Calista loves people. She likes to be talked to and smiled at. She will walk up to someone... and then stop, once she is several feet away. From this distance, she will continue to smile and flirt... but from a distance. If the person comes to close to her, she retreats back further until she is at a "safe distance" again. The length of the safe distance changes depending on how well she knows you. People at church she will get much closer to, but generally will back away if they seem to want to pick her up. Some people, however, can pick her up. As Calista gets to know you better, your "safe distance" decreases. It's really cute. And rather sensible.

Pushing the stroller at the mall, because, you know, she's a big girl.

There was one woman at the mall Calista would actually take candy from. Calista would take a piece or two, and then immediately reach back for the bowl, drop her pieces back in, and grab two new ones. She did this over and over. The store clerk thought it was adorable... and it was. After she started chewing on the wrappers, though, I made her keep the candy and we moved elsewhere.

 She sucked on the candy wrapper for quite a while, finally managing to break it open and get to the good stuff.

 Yeah! Happy Halloween!

Oh, the silliness

It's another month gone, and it is becoming increasingly obvious that Calista The Baby is being replaced by Calista the Toddler. 

Except in pictures like this. It was a long day.
She is growing up so much. Her favorite things are still books, music, and food. That has not changed.

New Sunday shoes, tights, dress and book!
She loves to run around from one end of a room to another, hiding and playing.

She also enjoys coloring and playdough...

...though getting her not to eat the playdough and the crayons can be a bit difficult.

Dance!
She is such a silly babe.

Hiding behind her plate.

Wearing my shoes...
...and playing with a bucket.

So much fun!

Pretending to be Mommy.

Or just playing with her high chair.
Speaking of chairs...

One day I watch her roll the computer chair from its proper position all the way into her bedroom. She was so proud of herself!

On this day, she had us put on and take off every pair of shoes (or boots) she owns over and over again. So silly!

She enjoyed the Calgary Temple open house, and was relatively good for it. As good as you should expect a 15-month-old to be.

Calista enjoys "helping in the kitchen.

 I even let her wear an apron.

She enjoyed it.
She also enjoys getting into everything.

 Her closet...

The boxes under her changing table...

The diaper pail, What a silly baby!
In addition to being silly, she is also very deliberate. Case in point: Calista was playing with Kyler's phone today, and she handed it to me to hold for a little while so she should play with something else. When she put it in my hand, the phone ended up being face down. This simply would not do! She had to reach over and put it right side up before she could play with the other thing properly. A few minutes later, after playing with the phone again, she handed it to me and the same thing happened. Again, she had to set it right. I love that babe!

We've had some snow the last few days.

 Calista wasn't quite sure what to think.

The she tried to run down the driveway, so I decided to go for a walk with her.

Every once in a while, she'd bend down and brush at the snow on the grass. This went well until...

She fell over. You can even see her head print in the snow. Calista didn't actually cry, but I did decide our walk was probably done.

Now, for some more videos. These three videos I've called "Being Calista (1 and 2)" and one last one I called "Please." These all represent how the happy Calista spends her time.

Finally, she is 15 months today!

Happy day!

The 2012 Edition of the Rasmussen Family

A few weeks ago, we went and got family portraits taken. It's my goal to do them around our anniversary every year... so far, so good. Here are the pictures we got:

Calista, with her new walking skills, would not stay still for the pictures. Putting her on the rocking horse did get her to stay still. Go me.

We took pictures of both Kyler and I with the babe.

 In this one, she is signing "more." She wanted some of the cracker I had.

She started signing "more" again, so I held a cracker up for her behind the camera. This is her attempt to get it.

Family pictures!

When you're one, you can get away with stick your tongue out for pictures and still look adorable.

Kissing the cheeks!

I'm glad we got these done. Hopefully I'll keep doing them, so we can look back and see our family grow up a year at a time. Because, let's not forget, at about the same time last year, this

was the three of us.