Levi Photos

My friend, Stephanie Ballard, took these pictures of Levi last week.  She is an amateur photographer, so I only paid $25!  I am posting all 21 pictures that she gave me (she took 400, these are the best) so you can tell me what you'd like me to do with them.  I will order enlargements through Walmart.com or Walgreens.com (whichever you prefer) and have them printed at your local store so you can pick them up.  Either call me or write a comment for what you want.  (This is obviously a post for grandmas and maybe an aunt or two!) 

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January Update

This has been a really cold month.  We've had consistent below zero lows, so I've been driving the girls to the bus stop in the mornings.  It sounds simple, but it's actually a major pain.  I have to plan for Levi to be awake, dry and fed.  Then I have to warm up the van for 15 minutes and make sure the snow and ice is scraped off.  Then we drive down to the bus stop and wait.  Emma catches her bus at 8:05 and then Lauren's bus comes around 8:20.  By the time Levi and I get home he's cranky and ready for a nap.  I really want the weather to warm up!!

A week ago the girls had a ballroom performance at the civic auditorium in Idaho Falls.  They did a great job and it was fun to see their routines.  They improve every year.  This year was a bit more challenging having Levi with us.  We sat in the back row and I nursed him the majority of the show.  On the drive home he screamed his lungs out for the whole 30 minute drive.  He's not a fan of his carseat or being out past bedtime.  We got home around 10:00 p.m. and we were all pretty worn out. 

This weekend the girls had 3 days off school!  Friday was no school because of parent teacher conferences Wednesday night and Thursday night.  Landon had to do drives Friday morning and then prepare his presentation for teacher inservice.  He was gone 8 to 4, just like a normal school day (normal without drivers' ed anyway), even though it was technically a day off.  Today is MLK day and then tomorrow is teacher inservice.  Landon ended up having 2 hours off for his super fun 5 day weekend.  Oh well.

Tomorrow is Levi's 4 month appointment!  He'll get shots and weighed and measured.  I'll let you know how far off the charts he is as soon as he gets over being upset and sad from his shots.  (Wendy, I'll let you know what percentile he's in when we find out tomorrow!)

I tried out the baby bjorn to see how Levi liked it.  I used it to shop at Broulims and it was a lot easier.



Levi has started sticking out his tongue just for fun.  It's harder to kiss him when he's constantly trying to tongue us.





Emma made a delicious cake last night.  It looks lopsided, but it was still yummy.  She got this cake pedestal for Christmas.



Sometimes Levi gets naked tummy time.  We love a naked baby around here.



We dug out the exersaucer!  He's still too young and floppy for it, so I stick a blanket in the seat to prop him up.  For now it's just another place to entertain Levi.  He's got the floor, his bouncy seat, the swing and now the exersaucer.  Our living room looks like a day care center.   



I don't know what we would have done without all of the Lauri's "donations!"  She gave us the swing, exersaucer, crib, stroller, carseat, humidifier, toys, and more clothes than Levi will ever wear.  I am grateful for her kindness every day!

P.S.  I had a friend take pictures of Levi with her fancy camera last week.  She's giving me a disc this week some time.  I think we'll have some amazing new photos! 



New Year Updates

It may be hard to see from this picture, but Levi is HUGE!  He is as long or longer than his bouncy seat and his bottom almost touches the floor when he sits in it.  We like it because when he's constipated, we put him in the seat and turn on a Baby Genius DVD.  Most of the time we can expect a good blowout.

One of the many happy faces of Levi.

Notice how close his head is to the top of the bouncy seat. 

He's just super cute.  

Lauren is great about getting down on the floor and playing with Levi. 

He will have his 4 month appointment on January 22.  I'm guessing close to 20 pounds and around 27 inches or so.  I recently found one of Lauren's old growth charts.  She was 19 pounds at 10 months.

He smiles all the time.  He also giggles a lot.  At this point he clearly prefers his mom, then his dad, then his sisters.  It's fun to see that he can differentiate between everyone and clearly prefers his family over strangers, too.

On New Year's Eve we made homemade pizzas and had Caroline Bates over to hang out with the girls.  They all stayed up until midnight, but Landon, Levi and I went to bed around 9 or so.  At 11:45, Levi woke up to eat, so I was awake until about 12:30.  First time in years that I "saw in" the new year.  We made delicious crepes for breakfast and had a lazy day.  Late that afternoon we went to Pizza Pie Cafe (gross) with the Bates family and called it a day.  The next day everyone went back to school!  Such a short break this year.

On New Year's Eve Landon, Lauren and I worked together for a couple of hours to clean out Lauren's room (yet again).  This time we removed 6 bags of DI crap, 2 bags of garbage and 2 boxes filled with crap for Landon's "prize drawer" at school.  I have no idea where it all comes from.  All I know is this time she actually has empty shelves and everything she owns has a home.  Hopefully she can keep it somewhat clean for more than 2 months.

Emma took this picture, I think.  The other day she made bacon-wrapped chicken with honey mustard sauce, roasted potatoes and homemade coleslaw.  She is getting to be such a good cook that I am starting to take it for granted!

 

 

Christmas 2012

It was another great Christmas!  The girls were told on Christmas Eve that every time they fought with each other, we'd be opening gifts a half hour later in the morning.  We started out with 7:00 a.m.  Dad was told that if he yelled at the girls (or farted), they'd get to open gifts a half hour earlier.  We ended up opening gifts at 7:30 a.m. after all the various infractions were calculated. 

Super excited to get started!

Just happy to have a clean diaper!

All three cuties before the festivities began.

Lauren got HUGE dolphin slippers that she loves.

Levi crashed soon after the gifts were opened.

Grammy made cute pajama pants for the girls.  Whose butt do you think this belongs to?

Nana had taken the girls to buy Christmas gifts for Levi when she was here earlier in December.  This fun toy is from Lauren.

This is from Emma.  It lights up and plays songs.
We also bought Levi a high chair, some baby genius dvds and cds (like baby einstein), and some pajamas.  We're buying him a bigger, fancier car seat in a month or so.  It will be the convertable kind so he can use it backward-facing and then forward-facing later.

The girls each got their own Ipod Touch with the money from Nana this year.  They were so excited!  Definitely their favorite gifts.  Aunt Lorina and Christina gave them an "outfit in a box," which has become a favorite gift over the years.  (They give them gift cards to use at JC Penney, Claires, and Payless.)  Santa also brought the girls some Ipod gift cards, Ipod covers, Toms shoes and some books they'd each requested.  Emma also got a cake stand and off-set spatula, the game "Pit," slippers, the movie The Count of Monte Cristo, and other odds and ends.  Lauren got the game "Curses," Floam, a nightgown, and other stuff.  They put up with a lot this year with me being pregnant and then sharing my time with Levi the last few months.  We spoiled them and tried to buy their forgiveness. 

I bought Landon a helicopter this year.  He also got scratch off lottery tickets (from Emma and from me...he won $16!) and a punch drink card to Horkley's for 44 ounce drinks.

This is what I did much of the day.  For Christmas, I got a hair dryer, some chocolate, some pajamas, lip balm and a People magazine.  Landon wanted to buy me something really nice this year, but evidently I'm really hard to buy for.  I asked him to pay someone to come clean the windows and blinds, but he thought we should just do it "ourselves".  I asked for a new Kitchenaid, but the bigger size is just barely bigger than the one I have and costs significantly more.  If only I liked jewelry!  His job would be so much easier. 

This is a really cute kid.