Happy Mother's Day!

This is my kind of Mother's Day breakfast.
Gabe and Levi got donuts and coffee this morning. And flowers too.

I tried to sleep in, and was completely unsuccessful at doing so. Guess for the rest of my life, my body will just be conditioned to wake up at 6:30am. Even on the rare day I actually get a chance to sleep later.

The boys were also going to make me a nice dinner. But I took the car, which also happened to have Levi's car seat in it, to see a movie with my mom and sisters this afternoon. So, they were left stranded at home and couldn't go to the store to get any groceries. We ended up here for Mother's day dinner instead.

On this Mother's day, and every day, I am very grateful to have this wonderful child in my life! Stories before bed are definitely the highlight of my day!

Bike Repair Shop

I think what I'm loving most about playing with Levi right now is just watching what he comes up with. Everything is a toy. Everything can have an unusual purpose. Everything must be explored.
And I'm amazed at the things he does naturally.
For example, he loves this "bue" hammer. (He just started saying blue this week. And that's what it sounds like. He also started saying "poo" and "hoe" this week. Translations: poop and hole. Although thankfully he's not using the two words together.)And this is naturally what he does with it. I swear he's never seen his dad working on his car or bike. So how does the kid come up with the idea to use the hammer to "fix" the seat on his bike?And he couldn't take off riding his bike without the hammer. It had to go everywhere with him this morning. He tried to put it on the front of his bike but it wouldn't stay on while he rode. But he was thrilled when I suggested he ride with it in his pocket!It's crazy what this kid comes up with!

This is why...

I teach.

And boy did I need a reminder today!

It's Friday. It's spring. Only 20 days left.

When a couple kids make my day difficult, it's hard to remember the ones I enjoy spending my day with.

Gabe was told by his boss Wednesday afternoon, that he'd be spending the rest of the week in Canada. He gets home tomorrow afternoon.

Our district is cutting another 120 teaching positions this year...should find out next week if I still have a job next year.

Just feel like there are a lot of things out of my control right now and a lot that has me worried.

I needed this poem a girl in my second period class wrote and gave me today. I'm sure she wrote it because Tuesday was teacher appreciation day. She had no idea I really needed this reminder today.

A love for history

A passion for teaching

A heart for students

Memories you make

Thoughts you create

Dreams you inspire

Places we wish to go

Things we want to overcome

Actions we hope to do

Thanks to you

The day must end

The trimester is almost done

The year is close to the finish line

I will never forget

I will always remember you!

And I should probably also include the funny reasons why I teach. I don't get a lot of this mushy stuff often, but I do get a fair share of funny random stories and crazy statements.

Like the kid who walked into 5th period on Wednesday and announced that he was still hungry because "All I had for breakfast was a rice crispy treat and a piece of ham."

We have a beaver!

I'm a little late in finally getting around to posting this story.
We were notified several weeks ago by the neighbor behind us, that we have a family of beavers living in our creek. He took Gabe down to the creek and showed him the damage the beavers are causing and their "cute" little den. The neighbor says he's seen them, but we've only seen evidence of their existence. Here it is...I was sorta putting off this post, hoping that Gabe would be able to get a shot of the actual beaver(s), but he just hasn't had the time. Maybe I'll update if he finally gets around to it.

After doing a little research (thanks to our friend Carley for recommending this source) here's what Gabe did to solve our little problem...And so far it's worked. He covered about 6 trees (you can see one they started in on in the background of the photo) and we haven't found any more evidence that they've been after more trees on our property.
Here's to hoping they've moved on to better tasting trees somewhere else!
Oh, the joys of home ownership. I never really did expect we'd be forced to deal with beavers. We can cross that one off the list!

My Idea of "Play"

I was told by a friend last weekend (a friend that will remain nameless so she will not incur the wrath of Levi's grandmas) that I should include some pictures of what I consider "play". In other words...not just pictures of the cutest kid on the planet. That got me thinking. There are a lot of things I enjoy in addition to spending time playing with my boys. And really, I don't do those things nearly enough. I don't get out my paints and pictures enough. I don't open up my Kindle enough. I don't sit outside and soak up the sun enough. (Actually, I'll do this in a heartbeat when we get some sunshine). I don't get pedicures and massages enough! And I don't bake nearly enough! Mostly because if I bake it...I eat it.

Other than spending my furlough days (Thursday and Friday) playing with Levi, I made the most delicious chocolate chip cookies.

I think Levi likes my idea of play too...

I gave him two chocolate chips while I was making the cookies and he thought they were the greatest thing ever! I don't think we've ever given him chocolate. Boy, did he love that cookie!
(This picture is for Levi's grandmas.)

Happy Easter!

We started our Easter celebration Saturday with a trip to the zoo's Rabbit Romp. It was a beautiful day and it was busy! They had "egg" hunts for the kids every 20 minutes. It was a little disappointing because all they did is throw out candy on the lawn. Here's Gabe and Levi planning out their strategy for grabbing candy.
Yesterday, we went to church with Grandma and Grandpa G. Then we spent the afternoon at their house. Enjoying time playing with family and eating a big dinner. We also had a real egg hunt.

Here's Levi checking out what he got in his Easter basket. Looks like he got caught red handed doesn't it?
Verdict on Levi's first bite of peeps...
apparently not yummy. He spit the bite out and gave the rest of his peep bunny to Grandpa.Happy Easter!

Is this how you play in a sandbox?

You're suppose to fling all the sand out right?
Well, that's what Levi thinks.
I've given up telling him to keep the sand in the box. Decided it's a battle I'm not going to fight. After all, it's not like it's going to hurt him. It will probably just mean he'll run out of sand to play with. Although sometimes the flinging sand does end up in his hair and in his face. Which he doesn't like very much. I guess that means he'll learn his lesson eventually...maybe.

Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, the West family will be making another commitment to change the way we live. It's getting more and more difficult for us to find small things we can do to live in a more "earth friendly" way. We already recycle, compost, grow our own vegetables, and use our cloth grocery bags. I wish I could say we're willing to make some more drastic changes but really...we just aren't....not yet anyway. I wish I could say we're willing to do something like this family. I read the Sunset article about them months ago and felt pretty inspired by what they are doing. But for now, we'll just continue to take little steps in that direction.

The commitment we're making this year is to buy in bulk. There is so much waste in packaging. Not just after you buy it, but also in the manufacturing of the packaging. We will need to invest in some new glass jars (and probably some smaller reusable bags) but the bulk isle at New Seasons is awesome! We can get everything we need package free! Including shampoo, soap, and laundry detergent.

Hope you took some time today to love the earth a little more!

Packy's Party

Levi and I took Grandpa and Grandma G to the zoo yesterday to celebrate Packy's 49th birthday. Gabe's chasing a golf ball through the woods with his dad (and his dad's friends). So it's been a Mommy and Levi weekend.

Warning: this post may have way too many pictures in it. I had a hard time deciding which ones to post!

Here's the big birthday boy.Levi wearing his elephant ears to celebrate!I love this one of Levi and his grandparents. He's more interested in looking at the big elephant puppet then his mommy behind the camera.There was even cake to celebrate Packy's big day.
Here's the big cake for humans to enjoy.And here's the cake for Packy. They fed it to him at 2pm but we couldn't stay and watch him enjoy it. We had to get home for nap time.Levi did like his bites of birthday cake!It was a fun day!
Happy Birthday Packy!

Duplo Airplane

Levi loves building things with his Legos. Mostly he just makes towers and train cars for his Lego elephant to ride on. But what Levi really loves is when his daddy makes him things. He'll carry around this silly cow for days. Getting upset anytime a piece falls off and he can't get it put back together himself. Levi was thrilled when his daddy made this airplane. He was carrying the cow in one hand and the airplane in the other for days. The next step is for Levi to figure out how to put these creations back together himself. Because mommy isn't very good at figuring out what pieces go where. And Levi knows if mommy doesn't put it together the same way daddy does!

Dinosaurs Attack!

We've finally had some nice spring weather the last few days. Really that just means we've had some dry days. Levi has enjoyed riding his "bike" and playing in his sandbox. And also helping Mommy and Daddy rake the dead moss out of the lawn. He thinks he's helping any way. The rain should be back tomorrow. On the bright side, it will provide a nice drink for all the grass seed Gabe laid down today where the moss use to be.

Dirt don't hurt

and neither does a little tumble in the back yard.

We went out to try and get some work done this morning between hail and rain showers. My job was pulling massive weeds in the front yard, Gabe was in the back yard with Levi planting the blueberries and raspberries we bought this morning. Levi likes to play in the lower part of the yard, but you have to go down these terrible wooden steps to get down there. Levi slipped on the big bottom step and ended up doing a face plant into the gravel. Poor guy! He doesn't have any battle wounds. Just ended up a little muddy. (I know the focus is off in this picture but getting pictures with Levi's face in focus is getting harder and harder. What toddler wants to hold still for a picture?) Also, please ignore the snot running out of my child's nose. There were some tears flowing after this tumble. Plus, he caught something either at the zoo in Nashville or on the way home. He's been sick and crabby all week. In fact, he's woken up coughing 3 times during his nap today. And it sounds bad. It makes my chest hurt just listening to him. If it doesn't sound better tomorrow, he'll be on his way to visit the doctor on Monday.

Can't believe how fast this week flew by! Hoping the next ten go by just as fast.

Nashville

The rest of our visit we spent playing in Nashville. We spent several mornings at parks.Ryan and Gabe went here for a tour. Since we were in music city, we also stopped by the one place Gabe couldn't miss on this first visit to Nashville.
We made a trip to the zoo.
Had a great time watching the animals. And Gabe got a chance to play with that new lens he bought a while back. These gibbons were so loud we could hear them all the way across the zoo! We had to come back and see what all the fuss was about.
Of course the boys had a ride on the carousel.And one little boy was not happy when the ride came to an end.But the best part of the trip had to be the evenings spent together with family. Cousins all together and after dinner stories. And of course, playing games once all three kids were in bed. Good times and great memories!

Biggest Fan

It's crazy how much Levi loves his cousin Sawyer.
Where ever Sawyer went, Levi wanted to go. What ever Sawyer did, Levi wanted to do it too.
What ever Sawyer ate, Levi was willing to try.
Levi is Sawyer's biggest fan.

Sawyer was pretty patient with having Levi under foot all the time. Here they are playing a little b-ball in the back yard. Both sporting their Vanderbilt shirts and balls. (Ryan works there...the reason for the move to Nashville). Sawyer did have to draw the line at hugs and kisses from Levi.

Pretty sure Levi is going to miss playing with his big boy cousin!

The Smokies & Chattanooga

We're back...all in one piece. It's 8:30am and it's already been a long morning. Hopefully the little guy can transition back to west coast time quickly. We've already unpacked and done 2 loads of laundry. Guess that's what happens when we're up before the sun.

We had a great time visiting the Morrisons in Nashville. It was so nice to see them and watch Levi enjoy being with his big cousins.
We started our vacation off with a trip to the "mountains". Spent the weekend in a log cabin outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We enjoyed the views, played games and relaxed in the hot tub. Ryan, Gabe, Savannah and Sawyer went into Pigeon Forge to ride go-carts one afternoon. We also did some hiking in the park. We hiked out to Arch Rock...and Laurel Falls.On the return trip to Nashville, we drove down through Chattanooga and took a trip up Lookout Mt. on the incline railway. Just happens to be the steepest passenger railway in the world. Here's Levi enjoying the ride (I think).And the Morrisons enjoying the view from the top.

Levi's Ready to Go!

All week we've been getting ready to go to Nashville to visit Heather, Ryan, Savannah and Sawyer for spring break.  Levi sure seems like he's ready to go since he was climbing in the bags as soon as Heidi got them out.  It'll be interesting to see how he does on the flight back there.  It was a year ago almost exactly that he was last on a plane when we went to visit them in St. Louis.  I'm sure we'll have a decent flight out there and a fabulous time once we're there.

-Gabe

Dump Truck

If feels like spring is never going to get here. We haven't had any clear sunny spring days yet. I'm hoping they come soon. Even though the sun hasn't made much of an appearance yet, we have had some breaks in the rain. Giving us a chance to play outside a little. Levi loves to gather up all the pine cones in the backyard and load up his dump truck. Then of course, he loves to dump them out.
Try not to notice the amount of moss that's in our lawn. Actually, we don't really have much of a lawn right now. The moss completely took over during the winter. Well, as soon as the sun finally does make an appearance you know what we'll be doing outside. Levi will get to play, while Mommy and Daddy do some much needed yard work!

Cheeseburger

With a drumstick on top.
Doesn't that look delicious?
Levi thinks so.
Well, at least he likes to pretend to eat all his play food. It's really silly to watch. He even makes chewing noises now when he pretends to eat it. Why not since Mommy and Daddy do when ever he offers us a bite?

We're all very excited around here today. It's Gabe's big 32! Big birthday celebration for Gabe, my sister Tricia and her fiance Travis later this afternoon. They all have birthdays this week. After cake and presents, Gabe and I are going out to dinner without the little guy. Hope it's a fun day for my special guy! I'll give the complete rundown tomorrow. Or maybe the birthday boy should.

Snow Day...finally!

Thursday morning at 6:20, I got the automated call from school. No school due to snow. And you can see how "much" snow we had. Less than an inch. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining but it is really silly.
Fortunately, Levi and I got out to play in the snow about 8am. Good thing because it was already melting while we were playing and was gone by noon!
Levi wasn't too interested in playing with the snow. I tried to build a snow man and he just wanted to throw the snow balls. Especially the really big one that was suppose to be the base. He was also really upset about the snow all over his lawnmower and other outside toys. As you can see, he really didn't care about playing in the snow. He just wanted to play with his lawnmower. Silly kid!
Even though the snow was gone by noon, Levi and I still had a fun day playing at home together.
Thank goodness for "snow" days. Too bad my tulips are looking pretty desperate for some warmer temperatures.

Holiday weekend in Mt. Rainier National Park

I always feel a little stir crazy at this point in the year. The holidays are long gone and spring break still feels like an eternity away. That's why I feel the urge to escape during the President's day weekend. This year Gabe and I debated for a while where we should head. We always go to the Oregon coast. In fact, we went there last year for this holiday weekend. We didn't feel like going to Mt. Hood but thought playing in the snow might be fun since we didn't get any in Portland this year. That's how we decided to make the 3 hour drive up to Mt. Rainier. Not to mention, neither of us have ever been up there. And we have a family goal (although Levi doesn't know it yet) to visit as many national parks as possible on our family vacations!

Gabe's dad and Joanne (along with their little dog Tinka) joined us for this adventure as well. We didn't make it up to our cabin until around 2pm on Saturday and after the long drive no one really felt up to much. So we enjoyed a fire, some hot chocolate and view of the creek out back. Sunday we took off to the mountain. Did some sledding on the small toddler hill. Got lots of video of Levi's first sledding adventure. We were planning to snowshoe around Paradise Valley but since there was no fresh snowfall, we didn't even break out the snowshoes. It was a fairly clear cold day but the mountain wasn't visible once the entire time we were up there. I'm sad that we returned without a single picture of the largest mountain in the Cascade range!

But here's a shot of Levi and Gabe before our hike into Paradise. That's the Tatoosh Range in the background.And another view of the Tatoosh Range from our hike into Paradise Valley.Levi came down with a cold this weekend and was up really early every day. We came back yesterday completely exhausted from staying up talking and playing games. And then having to get up at dawn with you-know-who. But here's one more picture Gabe took of Christine Falls. So pretty!It was fun to explore somewhere we've never been. We might have to make a trip back in the summer to hike and see wild flowers. And to get in some up close views of the mountain we never saw this time!

OMSI playtime

I have today off. One of our many furlough days this year. It hurts on the pay check but makes for a nice four day weekend at least!
Levi and I met Marie and Taya at OMSI to play this morning. They have a play area designed for toddlers. There's a sand area which the kids loved, and a forest area with stuffed animals. Levi's favorite part was the ball area. One section of the ball area has this cone where blown air holds the ball in the air. Levi thought that was so cool and really quickly figured out how it worked. The bigger boys didn't really like him playing with it, but Levi sure loved it. It was fun for him to try and grab the ball out of the air. Here he is...I wonder if his daddy could make something like that for him to play with at home?
Didn't get many shots of Taya and Levi together. They move too fast in opposite directions! But here's one of them giving kisses to the mama raccoon. Well, Taya is giving kisses this time but Levi was as well.So we just got back, and I got Levi down for what I hope is a longish nap today. We're leaving in the morning to spend the weekend up on Mt. Rainier. I've got to find our snowshoes in the mess that's our garage, as well as get things packed and organized. Figured it would be best to get this post done a little early since we won't be around tomorrow. But I will post some pictures of our adventure on the mountain when we get back.

Red Velvet Experiment

Happy Valentine's Day!

For my valentine, I decided to make a red velvet cake this year. My maiden voyage into the baking of this interesting cake follows.
After a little searching, I decided to use Paula Dean's recipe (as much as I can't stand the woman, she does have some amazingly delicious recipes) with little consultation from this cookbook. They were pretty similar.
First, I had to wait for the buttermilk and eggs to come to room temperature. May have rushed it just a bit because I wanted to get the cake in and out of the oven before Levi woke up from his nap.I don't have a functioning sifter anymore, so I hope my whisking of the dry ingredients was sufficient. I also used dutch processed cocoa even though the America's Test Kitchen recipe specifically said not to. It was the only cocoa I had. I also put in more cocoa than Paula's recipe called for, but not as much as the Test Kitchen recipe said to use.All the recipes I looked at stressed the importance of using a hand held mixer instead of a stand mixer. So I had to dig the old hand held model out. Didn't have as much food coloring as I needed but it doesn't look like it will make too much of a difference.

To top it off is a very standard cream cheese frosting. Which I wish Gabe would have made. He made a killer frosting for my birthday cake and as you can see...mine is a bit on the lumpy side. But I guess I couldn't ask him to make the frosting for his own Valentine's day treat. I'm already a failure as a valentine this year. Today at New Seasons I was trying to buy him a beer with some other Valentine's day treats I was picking up for him. I didn't grab my purse on my way out the door since the boys were coming with me. Turns out the checker at New Seasons had to ask for my ID and wouldn't have sympathy for a wife just trying to do something nice for her wonderful husband. I had to walk the beer down to Gabe and Levi's check stand and ask his checker to please put it on Gabe's tab. She was nice enough to discreetly put it into a bag without him seeing what kind of beer it is. That is unless he's peeked into the bag since it's been home in the fridge. Like I said, I'm a failure for a valentine.Tomorrow, after our traditional steak with blue cheese dinner, we'll cut this baby open. It will give me something to look forward to. I'm certainly not looking forward to spending Valentine's day trying to teach 140 middle school kids. The worst day of the year...too much drama and too many tears.

Cool Shades

I know, I know. More park pictures. We don't really have a lot of options for active adventures on a Saturday morning. We've discovered Levi will only take naps longer than an hour if he's very active in the morning. Definately going to figure out some new places to let this kid run all his energy out.

Photo by Gabe

As you probably noticed, our child has an obsession.  He wants to wear his glasses and hat EVERYWHERE.  Last weekend he wore his glasses to the grocery store.  And into the grocery store, where everyone commented about what nice glasses he had on.  Today he had to wear them to the park.  Even though the sun was under a very thick cover of rain clouds.  A friendly man walking his dog laughed when he saw Levi today with the sun hat and glasses on.  It was maybe 40 degrees this morning.  The man was wearing a stocking hat and gloves.  Like I said, this kid has an obsession...with looking cool.

Out of Juice

It's not raining today. This morning we set off to get some coffee and spend a few hours at the zoo. I grabbed the camera on our way out the door, hoping I could get a few good shots for our photo this week. I took a few pictures on Thursday night of Levi laying under the living room chair. Which happens to be one of his new favorite places to play when he's getting sleepy in the evenings. Strange kid. I knew the battery was getting low, but figured I could get a few more shots before it died completely.
I pull out the camera 2 minutes after arriving at the zoo. The black bear cub was wandering around looking oh so cute. Low and behold, the camera is dead. I couldn't take one shot. Totally disappointing! As I was watching Levi watch the river otters do back flips off the glass, I knew I was missing my shot for the week.
So this is all you get...me playing around with the macro lens. Which is actually ok. I haven't even touched that lens in what....could it be like 2 years? Another reason why I wanted to do this photo a week project. We need to play with our camera again. Especially now that Gabe bought this bad boy with his bonus.