Everything That Has Happened in the Last 2 Weeks

I have been chastised for not posting anything the last couple of weeks. I have been busy, so I will try to make up for it now and get everything from the last 2 weeks caught up.
It snowed again, so I made Levi and Michael go outside with me and build a snowman. Michael wasn't really very interested in the snowman part. He mostly just wanted to walk around in the virgin snow and make foot prints. I did get him to help me push the snowballs around a little bit.

Here is our lovely snowman. He actually lasted for a couple of days before hel started melting. Now He is just a small puddle with a gunny sack jacket.

Santa also made it to our house this year. It has been really fun to watch Michael this Christmas season. He is starting to understand some of the traditions and get excited about what is happening.

Santa brought Michael some homemade blocks that were a big success. Michael loves to stack them up and knock them up. Even more than that he loves to try and knock them down while someone else is stacking them up. My goal is to get the tower a little taller each time before he can knock it down. We're both getting pretty fast. Michael also got some magnetic letters in his stocking that were probably his favorite presant of the day, or at least the best reaction. As soon as he opened them, he clapped his hands together and said, " Ooohhhh letters!" Then he promptly pulled out a letter, held it out to me, and said "R". To my total astonishment it was the 'R'. He can pick out the 'R' and 'O' about 80% of the time and he's getting almost as good with several of the other letters. It totally shocks and amazes me. We're going to have to come up with some new ways to keep his brain engaged and entertained.

Santa also came to Levi and I. He brought Levi a Blue-Ray Disc player and me a diamond necklace. We had a great day visiting with our family and hanging out.

Michael also got a frog blanket and little recliner pillow that he was pretty excited about. He thinks it's pretty cool to lay on the floor with them and watch movies.

Our Christmas Tree and the First Real Snow of the Year

We had the first significant snowfall of the year last night. It snowed a little bit a couple of days ago, but it didn't even last until morning. Michael was so funny walking around in it. He calls it "snowmen". We'll have to build a snowman so he can see the diffrence. He wanted to touch it and then jerked his hand back when he felt how cold it was. His favorite thing was to watch himself make footprints in the snow.

Here is our decorated Christmas tree. I really love the color blue, so of course my tree has a blue, silver, white theme. I finally found my tree topper last year. I wasn't going to settle for just any old tree topper, so the top of our tree went naked for a couple of years.

A Successfull Christmas Tree Hunt

We went and got Christmas trees just after Thanksgiving with my family and some friends. It's a great tradition to go traipsing through snow up to my thighs looking for the perfect tree. I'm a fan of trees with the perfect number of branches. Not too many and not too few.

I'll get a picture of the decorated tree posted eventually. I'm just glad to have finally gotten this much.

Thanksgiving

Levi's family as well as a couple friends all came to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. Our house was pretty crowded, but we all had a great time and ate a lot of food. Levi and I also attended the Holyoak dinner at my mom and dad's house. It was great hanging out with all of our family.

Here is our cute family. Thanks for the picture Aunt Stacy.

Here I am with one of the pies I made for dinner. I got these really neat pie crust cutters so I made some cute little leaf cut-outs in the top crusts. Stacy thought I needed a picture with one of them before it got cut into.

Twilight Part 2

So, we had a great time going to the midnight showing of Twilight. I know many of you are waiting for my opinion of the movie, and I don't know what to tell you. I think I need to see it again to decide if I liked it or not. I was too busy comparing it to the book to really pay attention to it. They followed the book fairly well, but of course there were a few changes that I just don't understand. I am sure that it was a fine movie. Levi enjoyed it, and it has even prompted him to begin reading the books. I do think the movie is worth seeing and I would love seeing the opinions of anyone else who has seen the movie.

I Accept the Challenge Alysia

I have seen many people posting things that they are grateful for, and I have wanted to do the same, but I confess that I have just been lazy. I just read my friend Alysia's blog and was inspired to finally write my own Thanksgiving post. I am mostly thankful for the two boys in my life and everything that comes with them. They make my grateful for the wonderful gospel that I belong to that provides me with an eternal family and a Heavenly Father that loves and blesses me in more ways than I even know. I am so grateful for the house that my husband works so hard to provide for our family. There are so many more things that I am thankful for, but those are the biggest.

Twilight!!!

I don't know how many of you have read the Twilight series, but I have. I was given the first book for Christmas and proceeded to devour the rest of the series. (No pun intended.) About half way thorough the first book I had to pause and wonder why I couldn't put the book down. It's definately not a well written or complicated plot, but I couldn't put the book down. I have decided that it is the perfect escape from reality into a slightly dangerous love story. It would ruin the raw intensity of the story for it to be written any other way. Tonight Levi and I are going to a midnight showing of the Twilight movie. I am not sure that the movie will live up to the books, because with the exception of Lord of the Rings and The Princess Bride the movie never does live up to the book. I am going for the party and just because I can. I will let you know what I think about the movie.

I Know I'm A Mom

I know this is an odd title for my post, but it struck me quite forcefully this evening. I found myself grinning from ear to ear and so excited about something that would have totally grossed me out before I became a mom. Michael pooped in the toilet for the first time tonight!!!!
He has been curious about the whole potty training thing for a while now. He has cousins just older than him who have recently been potty trained. Michael started my going into the bathroom and standing in front of the toilet trying to figure out how to get his pants off so he could go to the bathroom. Then he would come to Levi and I and say, "potty" until Levi or I would take him in and let him sit on the toilet. He never did anything. Levi and I just humored him because the doctor had told us to not even try and potty train until he was 2 1/2 or 3. We were just trying to keep everything related to potty training really positive so it would be an easy process when we did start. Lately Michael has been coming and telling Levi or I that he was poopy right after he pooped. A couple of times he has told me he was poopy before he pooped. I would go sit him on the toilet for a few minutes and nothing would happen, then he would poop in his diaper. Tonight he came and told me he was poopy, so we went and sat on the toilet. And he pooped in the toilet!!!!! As I was jumping up and down and cheering and yelling for Levi to come see, it occured to me how much of a mom I am. I love the changes that have occured in my life. I'm not ashamed to say I'm a mom and I'm excited about poop. When it's in the toilet at least;)

Please Pat Me On the Back

When I got home from work today, I was feeling ambitious, so I began cleaning my kitchen. I swept and mopped and cleaned my counters and I even washed the walls. Then I moved to my living room and straightened it up and vacuumed. I even vacuumed under the couch cushions. I proceeded to clean Michael's room which had gotten quite out of control. On top of all of that, I still managed to make dinner for my family and make rolls for a funeral tomorrow. My feet are killing me, but I am incredibly proud of myself.

Problem Solved...Hopefully

I would like to thank all those who responded to my last post. We haven't really done anything different, but Michael has gone 2 whole days without throwing up at all. I am really hopeful that whatever phase he was going through is over now. Thanks for caring about our little boy though.

I Need Advice

So we are having a problem with Michael. He has started throwing up randomly when he eats. It started last Monday, Oct. 26, 2007. At first he would start saying, "Ow, ow, ow," when he would swallow his food. He would stop swallowing and started coughing and gagging until he threw up. I thought that he was sick and having a sore throat and that was the problem. We switched to eating yogurt and oatmeal for a few days. Now he isn't complaining that it hurts, but he's still gagging and coughing until he throws up. He is doing it at least 2 times a day. It's not all foods that he does it to, and I can't figure out any pattern to a certain food causing it. If any of you mom's have had similar problems or issues with your kids, I would love any advice you could give me.

Family Pictures

Aren't these kids so cute? The other day we went out with my sister's family to take some family pictures with the fall leaves. We had a good time and the pictures turned out really well. The kids were well behaved the whole time too.

These were some of my favorite pictures. I love the look of us all walking away from the camera.

It was so fun to be out on the first of November and not have to worry about wearing coats or being freezing. It was actually quite warm. I love our town.

Trick-or-Treat

Halloween was a little traumatic at our house last night. Michael hasn't been feeling real well this past week, and he had a total melt down when it was time to put his costume on. He wanted to go get candy, but he didn't want to put his costume on to do it. Levi finally went and put on all of his SWAT gear and that got Michael to calm down enough to put on his own costume so we could go. Once we got out Michael had a great time as evidenced by the picture.

Pumpkin Carving

This past weekend we carved pumpkins with some friends of ours. It was so much fun with children running all over the place. I must admit though that my husband is the most amazing pumpkin carver I have ever met. I wanted the hardest design out of the book, a haunted house, put on one of our pumpkins, so Levi took on the task. It tuned out perfectly. The cat that I carved didn't turn out nearly as well, but I did make the effort, and it didn't turn out too terribly. All in all a good time was had by all.

It's the Silly Things That Bring Me Joy

My son is the silliest person I have ever met. He makes the funniest faces and noises, and he loves chaseing me around the house yelling at the top of our lungs. He is helping me learn to be silly, and, for anyone who knows me, it's not a lesson I learn very easily.

Michael has taken an interest in helping me cook. He is wonderful at pouring things in the bowl and stirring, and the other day he decided to try something new. I was peeling some potatoes and he wanted to help. He went to our utensil drawer and grabbed the first thing he could reach, which happened to be the ice cream scoop. He came over to me and i happily supplied him with a potato to begin peeling. It may have been a little cruel of me knowing that his ice cream scoop was not going to have the desired effect. He kept looking from my potato to his with such a confused little expression that I couldn't help but giggle and yell for Levi to get the camera.

Little things like this make me glad to be a mother. They remind me to take a minute and just play and be silly without worrying about the house being clean or dinner being cooked.

Michael's New Bed...Sort Of

While Levi and I were in Salt Lake, circumstances worked out so that Michael had gone a couple of days without having a bottle. We decided to just bite the bullet and get rid of the bottle all together. It went really easily. Michael only asked for it a couple of times and then he seemed to forget about it. He did come up with his own form of retaliation.

Sunday night when we got home, we were having a hard time getting Michael to go to sleep. We put him in his crib to cry it out which we have done before without any problems. Levi and I began to shower and get ready for bed when Levi heard a thump that he didn't think too much about. He should have. Pretty soon Michael came into our room crying hysterically and throwing himself against the door. He had climbed out of his crib. I had never even seen him trying to climb out before. We tried to leave him in the crib that night, but he climbed out 2 more times. Needless to say, we gave up on the crib, so Michael is now sleeping on his mattress on the floor until we come up with plan B.

Yesterday I was taking down the crib, so we could put it away. Michael kept running in and out saying, "Mom you broke it, you broke it." He doesn't seem to mind sleeping on the floor though. Every night he gets up and comes into our room fewer times.

Visiting Lagoon and Friends

We had a little vacation this weekend. We got to go to Brigham City to visit our friends Katie and Troy and their kids Ethan and Adia. We had a good time visiting and catching up, and the kids had a lot of fun chasing each other around and yelling at the top of their lungs.

On Saturday we went to lagoon with jeremy and Stacy and their family. The weather was cold and a little rainy. Toward the end of the day it started to snow quite a bit. In spite of the weather we had a great time. Michael even had a good time. There were a few rides that he could go on and he liked the haunted houses.

Just an Update

I know it's been a while since I got on and updated anything, so I thought I would do that.
We'll start with Michael. The super glue has come off of his forehead and the cut underneath looks to have healed really well. He will probably always have a scar there though. He talks like crazy too. Most of the time I understand him, but sometimes I'm totally clueless. He's pretty good natured about it though. Levi and I taught him how to play hide and seek today. He had a great time hiding with Dad while I looked for them, but he couldn't be quiet. As soon as he would hear me coming he would start to giggle.
Levi and I are doing well. We spent the past weekend visiting Levi's family. His grandparents were in town from California and his younger brother's girlfriend gave birth to their baby on Saturday. They had a beautiful little boy named Jaytin.
I guess that's everything that's new with us.

Well we have had our first trip to the Emergency Room with Michael. Michael has started chasing Rocky, our Boxer, around the house trying to grab Rocky's little nubby tail. They were in the kitchen when Rocky turned suddenly and the two of the bonked heads. It knocked Michael down on the floor and he started crying. When he stood up, his forehead was bleeding from a fairly deep cut above his nose and right eye. We got him cleaned up and Levi tried to put a butterfly band-aid on it, but Michael kept pulling it off. Finally we decided that we had better take him down to the hospital. They ended up being able to glue it closed instead of having to stitch it up. Michael was pretty pleasant through the whole thing; although, he didn't like having to lay down on the table while they worked on him.

Meet Our Family

Hello All. We're kind of new to this whole thing, so be patient with me. I'll just start by introducing our family. Levi and I have been married for almost 3 1/2 years and we have a little boy named Michael who is 19 months old. He is a very energetic and smart child who keeps us on our toes.