Christmas Eve

Here's Levi hanging out with Nana. He's smiling and looking down because...

...cousin Ruby is trying to get his attention!

My amazing husband:

Little Ben being so cute:

Two peas in a pod:

Reading before nap time. I think Nana was wishing she also could have a nap.

Levi is still trying to get the hang of his riding toy.

Something on this dismount went awry.

Yay! Lea's here!

Building towers with Papa:

These are Christmas cookies Levi made at the sitter's. MMMmmm. anybody want to try one?

We had a great Christmas Eve. Lots of family was traveling to see us and the weather unfortunately had an impact. Mom, Dad, Lea, and Uncle Bob were slated to land at 7pm but didn't get to our house until 3:45am. We all had lunch together here then later went to Leavenworth to have dinner at Mom and Dad Dickson's house. Then we all went to the Christmas Eve service together. It was a really special time.

Merry Christmas!

This weekend we celebrated an early Christmas in Leavenworth. It was really fun to enjoy family. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of pictures to share since I brought the wrong charger and the camera ran out of battery.

Here Comes Santa Claus (HELP!!!)

Santa thought it might go better if I sat on his lap with Levi. It didn't.

Christmas Pageant

We enjoyed the children's pageant at Leavenworth Christian Church this evening. Levi loved watching the kids and the props that Mom D created were really impressive. Thanks again for dinner!

Pictures from the Week

Ruby worked hard pushing Levi around on his riding toy. He loved it.

Here's Levi in his favorite sleeping position. I don't know why he considers this comfortable!

This apple made me laugh. It had little nibble marks all over it. Levi has figured out how to actually take a bite.

Levi smiling while his Grandpa tries to get an updated wallpaper picture for his phone. It's hard to do since he's in perpetual motion

He had a pretty good time with his hat. He's getting closer to actually being able to get it to stay on his head.

Saturday, Luke and Dad D. were working on getting the bathroom tiled. Levi so wanted to be up there with them. As you can see in the picture below, he stood at the bottom of the stairs calling up to them. He was in hopes that Grandpa would come and get him and take him upstairs to where all the fun was.

I am a poor boy, too...

One of the best parts of the holiday season is the Christmas carols. I'm pretty much a purist as far as stylization is concerned and get cranky about things when artists vary too far from the traditional take on the classics. The straightforward playing of the carols is how I like it.

In my opinion, one of the best is 'The Little Drummer Boy'. I recently went looking for my favorite version. I didn't know exactly who sang it, I only knew it was a choir and I knew it was an old recording. If you type 'Little Drummer Boy' into itunes, 150 different songs are returned to you in the blink of an eye. The results span many genres and range from the good (Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney), the bad (Rosie O'Donnel with Lauryn Hill, the Jackson 5), the ugly (New Kids on the Block, Kenny G), and the strange (the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Klezmonauts).

Happily I did find what I was looking for. It's a version sung by the Harry Simeone Chorale recorded in 1959. Somehow with this version the 'rum-pa-pum-pum's don't get distracting and the message hits home for me every single time I hear it. In the second verse when they sing, "I have no gift to bring that's fit to give our King" I start to get a lump in my throat. Then I actually get tears in my eyes when they sing, "I played my best for him, then He smiled at me, me and my drum".

p.s. You can see/hear the version I'm talking about here. You should have heard me try to sing this for Lucas. It sounded a little like "Alvin and the Chipmunks' Sing a Christmas Opera"

This pretty much sums up their relationship at the moment:

I love this picture that Mom just sent. She took while they were out here for Levi's birthday.

Holiday Weekend

Here Levi is carrying around his advent present that he unwrapped this morning from Gran and Grandpa. He doesn't understand that the bucket contains bath toys and is just having fun walking around with it.

Luke on Thanksgiving, ready for turkey.

Reading with GG on Thanksgiving.

Playing with Aunt Aundrea in her yard.

The soccer ball comes up to his knees.

Levi is working on figuring out how to get onto his riding toy by himself. He finds it easiest to ride it backwards.

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed all of the long holiday weekend and were blessed to have great visits with family.

Rock On

Fall is Here III

I just love the fall color of this tree in our front yard. A lot has certainly happened since this photo was taken there last year, and much more since this one.

Three Years

This from an anniversary card we received from Grammie Feerer:

"When the Lord brings two people together to share in a lifetime of love, He stays close beside them to comfort and guide them and fill them with peace from above."

Levi's Un-parented Weekend

Here is a picture of Levi on Friday afternoon on the way to Leavenworth. He was going there to stay with his Gran and Grandpa. Luke and I went away to Dallas in celebration of our anniversary and we left Levi behind in Kansas.

I was feeling a little bit reticent leaving him for the first time but knew he was in capable hands. At different times he was attended to by not only his Gran and Grandpa but also his Great Grandma Dickson, Great Grandma Feerer, Aunt Aundrea, and Uncle Chuck. We left on Friday night after he went to bed and got back Sunday mid-morning. We only called to check on him twice.

During Sunday morning church, Levi went down to the front of the sanctuary with the big kids to be part of his Grandpa's "Children's Minute"

Gran found some cowboy boots that Aunt Corrine wore when she was little. They are still a bit big for Levi but he sure looked cute in them.
Here Levi is holding a picture of his Daddy and Aunt Corrine when they were little both wearing their cowboy boots.

thanks for the book, Aunt A. and Uncle C.

Birthday Boy

Levi had a great time at his party. He played hard. This is a picture of him one minute after getting buckled in for the short trip home.