Merry Christmas!

Cutie

Levi is just a little over six weeks now :)

Family!

Our Montana family is here visiting for Christmas--my brother Ian, his wife Krista, and their ten-month old son Forest. We only get to see them about once or twice a year, so this is a real treat. Forest seemed super excited to see another little kid to play with, and Parker remembers everyone from our visit to Montana this summer, so he was thrilled to see them again without needing any "warm up period" at all!

Okay, So He Didn't Cry the Whole Time

Gingerbread House Building

I almost forgot that I picked up a gingerbread house kit at Trader Joe's a long time ago...luckily I remembered it was hidden in the cupboard before Christmas arrived! Levi screamed bloody murder for the first half of the building process, but luckily he fell asleep at some point. It was messy but fun and, according to Parker (and he would know), yummy. (p.s. He says that it's a gingerbread police house, apparently because he made a stoplight out of colored M&Ms on one side of the roof.) 


(And no, poor Levi did not get his own stocking this year :( Mommy just did not get around to crafting him one of our fine family stockings...sorry dude!)

Storm's Aftermath

Like most of San Diego (and Southern California), we had our very own news-worthy flooding event just down the street...this is the road that goes across the lagoon from our home in South Oceanside to my parents' place in Carlsbad. Of course, there's a car stuck in the middle of the water, and there's a police diver in a wet suit headed out to it...wouldn't be a true storm without both of those things in the middle of a flooded street!

Rain Storm

We sat through five days (or more?) of nonstop rain here...it was pretty incredible at times. Unfortunately, the "storm of the century" (okay, of "the last five years") fell on the first five days of Jared's Christmas vacation time...we all were getting pretty stir crazy in the house, so Jared finally rounded us all up and ordered us into our rain gear and we set off for the Oceanside pier. We got drenched (Levi is in Jared's jacket in the baby carrier, he stayed nice and warm and dry), but it was fun to walk around in the storm and check out the beach and pier in all the drama.

The Boyzzzzzz

Both boys fell asleep on Jared like this one night while we watched "California's Gold" on TV...super cute, but my question is, how can anyone sleep through Huell Howser??!

Sleeping at 5ish Weeks

Who Needs a Nap??!

Parker passed out on the couch in the midst of building a pillow fort one evening...we are in a tricky, confusing place with him and naps right now...obviously he still needs to be taking them, but usually he doesn't!

Santa's Little Helper

Proof!

After so many years of putting up with us sticking a camera in his face, Parker is now able to pass the favor on to Levi; he captured these smiles this afternoon--and quite well, I might add! 

Smiles!

Levi has started smiling! I witnessed him giving Jared a couple of honest-to-goodness smiles this weekend (he definitely loves Jared!), and I just got my first real, official smile tonight! Time to start shamelessly overdoing the goofy noises and silly faces to try to get more smiles out of him--they're so worth it!

Letters

Parker is starting to learn to write many of his letters--I think it's so neat. Here you can see a P, a loose interpretation of an X, an A, and a T. He is so close to being able to write his own name--he can do all of the letters!

L-E-V-I

I'm so proud of Parker for learning to write many of his letters. Can you tell that he wrote Levi's name here? You just have to think outside the box a little...it starts with an upside down/backwards L, then an E with an extra line, then an I, then a V that looks a bit more like a Y. It's a great start, though!

Whale

I was really impressed with this picture that Parker drew of a whale--I can really see the whale, can you?! I think he even drew gills on it :)

T.I.R.E.D.

Deep in the depths of exhaustion. We had a really fun but super busy Sunday--started off with a birthday party for a girl from Parker's preschool class, then came home for a photo shoot with our sister/in-law Diana, who is an awesome photographer. She flew down from Northern California just for the day to take portraits of the kids and the whole family--we laughed a lot and hustled to get as many different photos done as possible before dark. I can't wait to see the results!


I've been fighting a nasty cough for over a week now, which combined with getting up four times a night with Levi (and rarely getting a nap) is just really grinding me down. It's bitterly ironic that while we've tried to be really conscientious about not having Levi around too many people in his first weeks, to try to keep him healthy, the person that he has to be closest to is constantly coughing. I'm really, really hoping that he and Parker stay healthy--Jared is already the next man down. 

Daddy and Levi

O Christmas Tree!

We went to our favorite Christmas tree lot this weekend to pick out our tree. We gave Parker Jared's GoPro video camera to record his experiences--we tried putting it on his head first (it has a strap that goes on your head just like a headlamp), but it kept slipping off. So Parker carried it around with him in his hands, and had so much fun filming his view of running in and out of all of the trees like a crazy evergreen maze. He and Jared played a lot of hide and seek until we settled on a nice big Douglas Fir. 

Bright Eyes

Levi has really woken up to the world in the last week--you can tell there's someone home behind those eyes :)

November 22, 2010

I found this photo that I haven't posted yet, I thought it was a cute one (except for the pile of laundry looming behind us!).

Another Weekend Ends

First off before we get to the kid stuff I want to let Santa know that there is a lightly used 23' Parker for sale that would look great in our driveway.


Now to the Kids. I can write about all the little stuff we did at the beach but I think this pic tells a good story. This sand pile was from just one shoe!


Parker wanted to eat broccoli for a snack. He helped himself.


kitchen tile progress. I layed up another 6ft. Still need to finish one edge, seal, caulk, grout, seal again and then start on the stove side of the kitchen.
Cut, wash and dry in the toaster.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Waking Up

Levi was snoozing in my lap this evening when I was struck by how cute he looked, and wanted to take a picture of him. I tried setting him up for a photo shoot on our bed before he woke up, but by the time I started getting the camera's manual settings figured out, he woke up...and then the camera battery died. So, I'll have to try again soon for some better shots!

Cabin Fever

Gotta get out! We found some new trails but only got to explore a little bit of the many miles before it got too cold and too dark.
























Pooped but we'll be back for more exploring.






Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone