Benji Has a Birthday!

Mom and Dad came for a visit last weekend to celebrate Ben's first birthday. The weather was great and we had a very nice visit.
He was saying, "Tickle! Tickle!"

Mom and Dad both arrived with one small bag each for their clothes and one giant bag full of presents for the kiddos. Here Nana is reading to Levi a book titled Tractor Trouble. Those are two of his favorite subjects!

These two love ballons. Levi calls them "Boonboons." Yet another thing that charms me.

He's gotten so big! I can't believe it's been a year already.

He liked the candle and his pseudo cup-cake.

Ruby cheered him on.

She also helped Ben unwrap his gifts. Levi was close at hand as well- after he finished his cake of course.

This is Levi just as he finished saying, "I want it!"

Baby on the Way

For those of you who have not heard: we're expecting! I am 12 weeks along and am posing here with Levi, my already-there preggy belly, and a lime approximating the baby's current size. This is a very exciting time and we feel extraordinarily blessed.

Busy Boy

Levi's ball rolled under the couch. Daddy utilized Great Grandma's cane to retrieve it.

Success! He had so much fun getting it out with Daddy that as soon as he got the ball out, he set it down and kicked it back under the couch again.

Helping out by dusting the top of the fridge. Poor Luke got a face full of dust. Levi's cleaning style would not be described as steady and methodical.

Levi is doing very well in his bed now. As we tuck him in he often says, "BED STAY!". Yes, you have to stay in your bed.

Levi now takes a shower before bed instead of a bath. Big boy.

Bridge Friends

We had a fun weekend with friends in a long overdue reunion of sorts of some people from a bible study I used to attend. Things are different than they used to be- spouses and kids have been added into the mix!

Our friend John donated some play-doh he had used with kids at his church earlier that day. Levi and his buddies, Micah and Daniel, spent a long time happily playing with it. Grown up, Tim, proved to be quite the play-doh sculptor putting my masterpieces of snakes and balls to shame with his octopus, snail, elephant, and kitten creations. The boys loved it.

Here Levi is eagerly following Daniel up the tree. Daniel is an amazing climber. He climbs up door jambs and furniture. yikes- Levi, don't try that please!

Look how proud he is. We'll have to show this one to your Uncle Joel. He'll be pleased you are starting your tree climbing nice and early.

Here he is complaining because his foot is stuck, wedged in a crook of the trunk.

Micah vs. the hot dog. I wish I got a video of his technique. It was pretty amusing. The hot dog never left vertical and Micah never tipped his head downward.

These here are some good people.

Well, Levi did other things besides play-doh playing, tree climbing, and cheetoh eating. As you can see, he was enchanted with Abigail. Who wouldn't be?



Leaning in for a kiss!! Hilary, Wes, Luke, and I decided our grandchildren will be beautiful blondies.

Big Boy Bed

On Wednesday Levi successfully climbed out of his crib during nap time and landed with a horrible thump on the floor. He escaped any injury but I suffered a heart attack. By that evening we had a toddler sized bed up and ready to go. He did amazingly well that night and didn't get out of his bed at all- he just laid down and went to sleep. We patted ourselves on the back for our incredible parenting. Well...you probably know what happened the next day...at nap time he did NOT go down easily. It took almost two hours of putting him back in the bed, back in the bed, BACK IN THE BED, and the ordeal finally culminated with a wrestling showdown. Last night and tonight have had some challenges but all in all it went pretty well. We'll keep you posted!

More Cousin Fun

Corrine's Baby Shower

This weekend we celebrated with Corrine and had a family baby shower. It was great to see her and her baby bump.

There were lots of kiddos on hand. Levi had a great time with all of them.

Avery is getting so tall!

Here are the cupcakes I made. They look a little less like Martha Stewart made them and a little more like a team of kindegartners did...

It's so hard to share! Especially when it's your brand new backhoe from Gran and Grandpa.

Levi at Play