Levisms

Some things Levi is saying right now that I don't want to forget:

- He loves to play with Playdough.  He calls it Laydope.

- He has added a few extra vowels and syllables to the words owl, towel, and mail.  He says owiel, towiel, and mawiel.

- When someone is behind us, they're right to hind us.
- When I was little, my sister and I called remotes "conTVtrols."  Levi calls them "furmotes"
- Lately he's started using the phrase "I can count on you!"

We love this little guy!

Easter Weekend

This year my birthday fell on Easter Sunday, so to help us celebrate this fun weekend, my parents came to town!  It was nice to have a long weekend with them here.  On Friday my mom treated us both to pedicures.  It was so nice!  Saturday we had a fun filled day around town.  We started the day off by an early lunch at Hula Hut.  It was my place of choice for lunch, but I insisted on leaving our house early enough that we would beat the lunch rush.  We ended up down there at 10:45, but we didn't wait for a table!

After lunch, we headed down to Zilker Park so Levi could ride the Zilker Zephyr.  While we waited for the next train, Levi enjoyed the playground and Pops enjoyed the souvenir shop.  Levi got his very own engineer hat and train whistle.  He loved riding the train!  He wore his new hat and practiced with his new whistle.  We completed our day at the park with some snow cones and a nap!

Saturday evening we dyed pirate Easter eggs.  Levi had a lot of fun directing the placement of the stickers and then adding his own flair to the eggs.  He loved playing with the pirates and their ship and even used his train whistle as the plank!  

 Mat picked up some cupcakes from Hey Cupcake for my birthday.  All of us enjoyed them...especially Levi!

Sunday didn't go quite as I had planned, but slowly I'm learning to let my plans go!  Levi woke up and loved his treats from the Easter Bunny.  Grammie fixed Levi a special Easter breakfast of pancakes and easter eggs filled with berries.  We made it to church without taking pictures, and I had a feeling they wouldn't happen after lunch either...  For lunch we headed to brunch at NXNW where the tables had lovely champagne glasses filled with jellybeans.

In order to keep Levi happy while we waited for our food, we filled him full of jellybeans!  After all that sugar, he was like a different child- rolling down the booth, screaming, kicking his feet on the table...  What was I thinking?!  Needless to say, it was quite the peaceful lunch I had hoped for but it was a wonderful weekend with family!  

Big Brother

The newest addition to our family is on the way!  Baby Kelso is due October 20th...4 days after Levi's 3rd birthday!  Here is a profile picture of Baby:

When we told Levi he was going to be a big brother, he started whimpering and said, "I don't want to be a big brother!  I just want to be Lebi!"

Church Retreat

This past weekend, we headed out to our church's annual family retreat.  Last year we had a family cabin since Levi was so little, but this year we were preparing for some interesting sleeping arrangements!  I knew it would be worth it, but I was mentally preparing myself for a stressful weekend.

Mindi and I had hopes of getting to the retreat for dinner, so we took the kids and left early on Friday afternoon.  Mat and Jeff were thankful to have a few extra hours at work (and I think they were both thankful to not have to deal with stressed wives!)  Between potty breaks, a few stops to ease my stomach from the twisty roads, and traffic, we just barely made it in time for dinner.  We got everything unpacked and all 3 kids fell asleep without any issues!  We were so relieved!  I think we all slept well that night!

Saturday was a great day with some devotional time (led by Curt Niccum- a bible professor that taught at OC when Mat and I were there), playing in the water and sand, and climbing on the rocks.  Mat had dinner duty this year, so for part of afternoon, Levi climbed on these large rocks that surround a picnic area.  We climbed, counted and walked along those rocks for almost 30 minutes.  It kept us busy!

Two of my favorite guys enjoying lunch outside.  

Mat, Mindi, and I sat on the porch during naptime on Saturday afternoon reading, talking, and gently reminding friends that there were sleeping babies inside.

Levi had SO MUCH FUN in the water!  He and Mat "fished" with sticks and a plastic pool toy for quite a while, and they walked up and down this shallow area of the river looking for more fish.  

 Another highlight of the water was the waterfall.  At first, Levi was scared of the loud noise, but after just a few minutes he loved exploring the area (with close supervision, of course!) 

Sunday we had worship and a picnic lunch before we cleaned up the cabins and headed home.  It was a wonderful weekend, and Levi had a great time!  He was already talking about camping again on our way home.  We feel so blessed to have a church family that provides this opportunity for us!

Clocks

Levi LOVES clocks!  He especially loves the clocks at Gran and Granddad's house.  They have a few clocks with pendulums and a cuckoo clock!  For the rest of us, the chimes just seem to blend into the background noise, but Levi hears them every time they ring (every 15 minutes!) and runs to see the clock.

When Levi was staying with them in February, Granddad taught Levi all about pendulums.  Now Levi will ask Mat to swing him like a pendulum, and the other night, he made a clock (complete with a pendulum) out of his spaghetti.

I thought I got a picture of him swinging the pendulum, but I didn't...I'll leave you with a cute picture of a messy little boy!

Spring Break

Spring Break is always a welcome break, but I think I needed it more this year than I have in the past.  I was looking forward to some rest and some time with my little guy!

The first weekend of my break, my parents came up to help us move some furniture from our house to my sister's house.  Levi and I traveled with them up to see Blair and Kyle.  It was nice to spend time with them, and Levi loved having all that attention!  

Once we got back to our house, Levi enjoyed showing off his bike skills on a trip to the park with Pops and Grammie.

The rest of our week was spent playing at our house and in our backyard and being lazy!  Just what we needed!

Skiing

A few weeks ago, Mat and I were blessed to be able to go skiing in New Mexico with our friends the Tipps and the Drennons.  All of our kids were left in good hands, and we were off to the slopes!

We left bright and early Saturday morning and drove all the way to Las Vegas, NM.  We arrived earlier than we had expected, so we had time to walk around and explore the thriving metropolis of Las Vegas.  We spent our evening throwing rocks (seriously...), having a nice dinner at the Plaza Hotel, and walking around the cute little downtown square.  It was an early night because we had big plans for Sunday!

On Sunday, we headed out early and made the beautiful drive into Angel Fire, and we made it in time for an afternoon of skiing.  Now when we planned this trip, I had every intention of venturing out onto the slopes with everyone else.  I bought/borrowed ski clothes and prepared myself for lots of embarrassing falls, but just before we left, I found we had a extra bundle of joy traveling along and my ski plans changed.  I spent a lot of time sitting here:

I read all 3 books in the Hunger Games series, played lots of Ticket to Ride on the iPad, and enjoyed relaxing by the fire.  After a refresher course from "Jeff Ski School", everyone else hit the slopes.  They all seemed to have a great time.

On Monday night, a storm came in while we were at dinner.  Our condo was up quite a steep hill, and as we were trying to get home, our car got STUCK!  Luckily, some nice guys with 4 wheel drive were able to tow us up the hill, and we made it safely back home.  The snow was absolutely beautiful!

Tuesday morning, Mat, Tim, and Megan decided to take a little break from skiing, and the 4 of us went on a walk around the resort.  Selfishly I enjoyed having a little bit of company for a while!  We did a little bit of shopping, enjoyed the snow, and the guys of course had to have an icicle fight.

On our last night in Angel Fire, we went out to a nice dinner to the Roasted Clove.  We enjoyed some delicious hamburgers, steak and fish!  It was such a fun weekend to spend with friends!