Christmas at home

We had a really wonderful Christmas at home.
Levi gave us a nice gift and slept until 8am! He couldn't have been more thoughtful after the sleepless nights we'd had previously. We opened the presents Santa brought, had some breakfast and just played most of the day. It was really nice to stay in our pj's until noon and enjoy our time together.After Levi's nap, we skyped with the Morrisons and Grandpa & Grandma G to wish them all a Merry Christmas. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner with my sister Becky and Gabe's dad & Joanne. For Christmas dinner, I made this and Gabe made a wonderful stuffed salmon.
After dinner when Levi was in bed, Grandpa Tom and Gabe had to put Levi's present together. It sure took them a long time. I wonder if the beers consumed during the construction had something to do with it!While the boys labored, the ladies played a game of Qwirkle and had a few glasses of the elderberry wine Tom and Joanne made.We had a very nice Christmas and enjoyed having Tom and Joanne here to visit.
I think we might have to venture out today or tomorrow and find some new storage solutions for all the new toys Levi got for Christmas. The clutter of toys is starting to get on my nerves! But Levi sure is having a blast!

Cookies for Santa

After dinner, we had to get started on a treat for Santa.
Levi loved helping us make cookies!
He got so excited when he got to help daddy pour in the spices!He really loved playing in the mess of flour he made on the floor.And of course doing the quality control taste test.

Levi's all snuggled in bed. We have a few more things to get ready before we're off to sleep as well. Levi didn't sleep very well in the same room with us at Grandma Winnie's house (neither did we). Every one here is pretty exhausted tonight. Plus, it's almost Christmas! Don't want to keep Santa away.
Merry Christmas!

Oakridge Family Christmas

We left town Wednesday afternoon to spend a few days with Gabe's family in Oakridge. As long as Levi is little, especially once he believes in Santa, I really want to be home for Christmas. So we came back home this afternoon. Very quick trip. It was really nice to see everyone. Just wish we could have visited more, and had time to play some games! Here are some pictures from the festivities today. We had a nice brunch together before opening some gifts.
On Thursday morning Gabe, Levi and I set out to find some snow in the hills outside of town. We didn't have much luck. Levi's never seen or played in the snow and the small amount we found wasn't that thrilling. It wasn't fresh powder and Levi kept slipping. (We haven't bothered to buy him boots this year. I'm sorta hopping we won't have to spend the money on ones he'll only wear once.) He did think it was pretty funny when I threw a little snow at him and he kept signing 'cold' whenever he touched it!

Girard Family Christmas

Since my folks are going to be gone for Christmas, we celebrated early at their house yesterday. We opened presents and had dinner together. It was really nice. Levi is definitely getting more into the whole present opening. He even wanted to help every one open their presents. And as soon as he saw there weren't toys inside each gift, he was off to play with his new toys.
We spent our first day of vacation just hanging at home. Played a lot with the new toys Levi got from his grandparents and aunts. Gabe's going to be home the next two weeks as well. I'm really looking forward to this stay-cation. We've got some work we could be doing around the house (like taking out the carpet in the dinning room and installing wood floors) but I'm not sure we're really going to try and make that happen. Both Gabe and I have had a rough couple months at work, so we may just relax with our little man. It might be nice to just enjoy some time with family and friends. That is what this time of year is all about right?

8th Holiday Cocktail Party

*****2012 Edit-We've done some better math, and determined that this is actually our 7th Holiday Cocktail Party.******

Saturday night we had our annual holiday celebration. Our house was full of friends and laughter. Plus some good food and drinks.
Thanks to everyone taking pictures with our camera, we had over 200 pictures of this party. Unfortunately most of them were taken without the flash so they had to be deleted. Most of the time drinks and photography don't mix!

The evening ended with a Gabe and Ross dance party, so it must have been a good time! I decided to spare you all and share the picture of Gabe dancing with his shirt buttoned.

Zoo Lights

(part two)
We tried to go to Zoo Lights a couple weeks ago on a Saturday night. It was so busy we couldn't even find a parking space so we came home. Tonight's trip was much better! A little wet, but it really just sprinkled a bit.

Levi seemed to enjoy all the lights. They have most of the animal exhibits closed off but we did get to see the penguins, polar bears, otter, sea lion, and of course the elephants. Levi really liked the penguins this time. He nodded emphatically when I asked him if he liked the penguins and also when I asked him if they were his friends. Didn't really get very good pictures. But here's one I like of Levi with his Grandpa and Grandma G. Grandpa and Grandma are going to be in Nashville visiting with Levi's big cousins for Christmas this year. So it was nice to do something festive with them since they won't be here to celebrate with us this year.

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!

We spent this morning decorating the tree and getting into the spirit of the season. The tree is trimmed, the stockings are hung.
Here's Levi getting into the spirit. Showing his friend elephant the tree. He might even be telling him to smell it...can't really be sure!
Helping Dad put the star on the top of the big tree. Big difference from last year. Wow this kid is growing fast!
Levi wasn't very interested in helping decorate the tree. Mostly he just wanted to play with the ornaments. This owl one was his favorite. I just finally put it on the tree, after we put Levi in bed. Hopefully it will stay on the tree tomorrow.
And here's the finished tree! Notice how it has been baby proofed. Very scarce on ornaments below the three foot mark. And those ornaments below three feet are safe for the little guy to touch. We're trying to just tell him the tree is to look at and not touch. We'll see how that goes.
Now Gabe and I are enjoying our tradition...watching this. We watch it every year on the weekend we get our Christmas tree.

We also spent the evening at my grandparents house today. They gave Levi his first Christmas present, a great cloth Rudolph the red nosed reindeer book. Lucky kid! Anyway, we showed him who Santa was in the book the first few times he looked at it. Then we asked him to point at Santa. He proceeded to then point at Santa in the book, and then his great Grandpa Girard. Apparently, Levi's great Grandpa is Santa Claus. He doesn't have a big white beard but he was wearing a red shirt. It was pretty cute!

Picking the perfect tree

We set off Saturday morning on our adventure to find the prefect Christmas tree. We didn't trek to the forest this year. But we were happy with the trees at the farm we decided on. Lots of really nice trees. This is a week earlier than we usually get our tree so we wondered if that's why there were so many more to choose from. This may be a bit of picture overload. But I had trouble choosing just one.
Here's Levi leading the search.
Here the boys are carefully checking the quality of the trees before we make our decision. Levi really wanted to help his dad cut down the tree but he'll have to wait awhile before that happens!
And here are the boys in front of the tree we all agreed was PERFECT!

Finished Kitchen

Well...almost finished. Gabe still has to do a little more painting touch up. But you can't really tell in pictures anyway. So here's the long awaited kitchen reveal.The pictures are a little dark since I took them at 8 o'clock last night. And they're distorted because I wanted to use the fish eye to get the entire room in the shots. But for those who haven't seen it yet, you get the idea.

I can't even tell you how happy we are with this new kitchen. We've got several other big house projects planned for this summer. But, we'll never do something this big again. Being without a working kitchen for 2 months is not something I ever want to do again. I am so proud of all the work Gabe put into it. He did a great job. And I'm thankful to all the friends and family that helped along the way. I'm just glad I now have this wonderful space to bake and cook in.

Thanksgiving Festivities

Here's our Thanksgiving 2010 celebration in pictures! To document the event, I had this idea to set up the tripod and camera to take a picture every 2 minutes. Put the fish eye lens on to get everyone into the shot, and just see what happened. So here are 2, of the many, shots of us enjoying our wonderful thanksgiving feast.After dinner Levi enjoyed burning off all the cranberries he ate by playing with mommy's big exercise ball.And here's what you should do if you want to get out of helping clean up the huge dinner mess.Another successful Thanksgiving dinner. We still haven't found the perfect stuffing recipe yet. So if anyone has one they love, send it our way for next year!

I'm thankful for...

~My beautiful, happy, and healthy son. He's such a silly goof ball and his laughter is contagious. He brings me the kind of joy I never thought was possible. His curiosity and intensity surprise me every day.

~Gabe, my extremely devoted and nerdy husband. He's amazing in all the areas I fall short. I'm so thankful he loves me and brings perspective and balance to my often neurotic thought process.

~Our home. Especially our new kitchen (which I will post pictures of by the end of the weekend).

~My job. In this time where so many are struggling and are unemployed, I do feel fortunate. Yes, it's a challenging and stressful job, but middle school students are also quirky and weird. I fit right in. And I'm so thankful I can go to work every day knowing my son is in the most loving hands possible.

Today, I'm giving thanks for everyone and everything I have in my life! I'll add pictures this evening or tomorrow.

Levi is thankful for...

I know I promised pictures of our cute 15 month old boy and the kitchen this week. I figured I should deliver on at least one of those promises. Even though I have a list of things I need to do that's a mile long, I'll take the next twenty minutes (while the garlic is roasting in the oven) to follow through on my promise.
Levi has some things that are the highlights of his day. So I figured for posterity's sake, I'd document those things Levi is very thankful for every day.

Levi is thankful for the 1/2 hour of TV time he gets everyday! He only watches Baby Signing Time while we're getting a meal (lunch or dinner) ready for him. But when you mention, "Do you want to watch Baby Signing Time?" he gets the biggest grin and starts giggling as he walks toward his big red chair.

Another thing Levi is thankful for is his afternoon snack. Which he eats in his big red chair. He is always so happy and proud sitting in that chair having his apples and milk. I had to take a picture of him just to prove how big he's gotten. He definitely looks like a big kid enjoying his snack.Levi is also thankful for his Grandma G. I can't even tell you how excited this kid gets when she walks through the door each morning! Plus, Grandma came over and helped nurse Levi back to health last week. I don't know what I would have done without her. There was no way I wanted Levi next to me while I was upchucking into the toilet.

And finally, Levi is thankful for his cat. Other than saying Momma and Dadda, the only other word Levi is saying is Dat (Cat). Pretty sure that's because he loves that cat as much as he loves his mom and dad. And I know Jupiter feels the same way about Levi. I've never seen a cat so loving and patient with a kid who just wants to pull his tail and give him big slobbery kisses.

Levi is thankful for many more things...but right now my kitchen timer is going off and the to do list is calling my name. Maybe I can include a few more of Levi's when I write my own list tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Unprepared

This post might be a little too personal for some of you. I know I rarely post much in the way of serious content, but this has been on my mind for the last week. I guess it was because of the abrupt ending to it all.

In so many ways I was unprepared for breast feeding my son. I knew I wanted to because of all the evidence that supports breast feeding's benefits. We took the class through the hospital and I really, seriously thought that's all I needed to know. After all, it's one of the most natural things humans do and experience. Well, no one prepared me for the difficulty Levi would have latching because of his severe tongue tie. And the frustration that caused all three of us. I wanted to quit from the very start. But I was determined! No one prepared me for the cracked, sore nipples or the number of times I would wake up completely soaking my entire side of the bed. No one prepared me for hauling my nemesis (the evil breast pump) to work with me for 6 months. Or the fact that I'd have 15 minutes to eat lunch and go to the bathroom since the other half of my short lunch was spent hooked up to a machine. I always set small goals for us. We can make it to six months at least...We'll just keep going until a year. I always assumed that when Levi's first birthday came that would be the end of it. I'm not one of those people who LOVES the experience of breast feeding their child. But now I realize I do love that snuggle time with my son and I'm having a much harder time admitting that he's ready to move on. It might be so difficult for me because I think this is the first of many ways he's showing me he's really not a baby anymore. So more than anything, I think I've just been mourning the fact that my baby isn't really a baby anymore. Plus, after being sick this week, he just cut me off cold turkey and I just wasn't prepared for it. Like I said...I'm just feeling unprepared. Me, the queen of always being prepared, also has a hard time letting go. Guess I better just get use to it.

There's no doubt you're a parent when...

you're catching your child's vomit in your hand to avoid getting it all over your bed, and you were just hugging the toilet 10 minutes ago yourself.
That's the week we've had around here. Gabe and I recovered pretty quickly, but poor little Levi is just now looking to be on the mend.

Well, I'm off for the entire week (3 furlough days, 2 days for the holiday) so I'm committing to do some serious posting. Gabe's almost finished with the final touches on the kitchen, so I at least need to show off our new kitchen before we put it to work preparing the Thanksgiving feast. Plus, I realize this blog is missing pictures of the cutest little 15 month old kid I know.

Spooktacular Halloween

Last night Gabe and I got dressed up and went to Aaron and Marie's annual Halloween Party. We had trouble coming up with costume ideas. Gabe's best idea was hippie zombies who eat grrains instead of brrains. I said normal zombies will be just fine. So here we are, all dressed up, with our friends Sonya and Joe (black widow spider and her prey). They won the costume contest, definitely put our lame costumes (and everyone else) to shame.

Today we took Levi over to the Children's Museum to play in his costume. They had a costume parade and some Halloween activities planned. He wasn't too interested in the costumes, he just wanted to play. He wore himself out! The last few weeks he's really been fighting taking two naps a day, more specifically his afternoon nap. We put him down when we got home at almost three o'clock. It's now almost five and he's still sleeping. Crazy kid!
Here he is sliding in the baby garden. It was probably his favorite thing. Which is funny because he refuses to go down the slide at the park!And here is our cute little dragon on his way out of the museum. Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Hunting

In between torrential downpours, we went to the pumpkin patch Sunday morning. Gabe was watching the Doppler pretty close. So when the sun broke through, and the Doppler showed a dry spell, we decided to pack up and head out. We took tons of great pictures, so I had a really difficult time deciding which ones to edit and put on to show our outing.
Levi wasn't very interested in the pumpkins. Here he is "looking" in the patch for his pumpkin. He looks very serious, like he's really hunting for the perfect pumpkin.But really, Levi was much more interested in the chickens, turkeys and ducks in a pen next to the pumpkin patch. Gabe, I think that means he wants some chickens as pets! I have to share this one because Levi just looks so darn happy and proud of himself. What a cutie!And here's one of me and Levi with the pumpkin Levi picked out. Actually, like I said, he didn't really care about the pumpkins so I guess really his mommy picked it out for him. By the time we were done pumpkin hunting it was past Levi's nap time, and time to head home. Plus we were afraid the rain would start again at any moment. So, it was a pretty quick trip. It was still fun to explore the pumpkin patch and get a little muddy. Guess we'll hope for better weather next year!

October Catch-Up

Figured this blog has been neglected long enough. I just can't believe how busy we've been this month. I am definitely excited about having a day at home today. Gabe is off helping his friends at the Mt. Hood rally so Levi and I are going to play, clean the house and hopefully start working on Levi's baby book when Aunt Becky comes over this afternoon. It's nice to be here and not have a house full of people. Don't get me wrong...I love entertaining and having people over. But as you are about to see, today is a welcome break.
Several weeks ago now, my uncle John who lives in MN came out to travel with my grandma back home. He was here for a long weekend and I haven't seen him since my sister's wedding (was that 8 years ago?). So we spent as much time as we could with him while he was here. Took him out to apple tasting, had beers at Henry's, browsed the shelves at Powell's and a record store. Things you do in Portland when it's raining. It was nice to see him.
Here we are enjoying the many varieties of apples and pears.
Gabe was out of town all last week doing some trailer testing in Indiana. When he got back we took off to spend our anniversary in Hood River. We went wine tasting, bought some fresh apples and pears, enjoyed good food and beer, drove up to Lost Lake and had a picnic. It was a nice weekend. Here's a few of my favorite shots from the weekend.We arrived home on Sunday around lunch, and the Morrison's arrived moments later. We spent Sunday afternoon and evening playing and visiting with them. Levi just loves his big cousins. He followed them around every where. He really wanted to hug and kiss them, but Savannah and Sawyer aren't too keen on the slobbery baby kisses. Here's some pictures from playtime on Sunday.Levi also got to spend some time with his cousins on Wednesday. Everyone came over in the afternoon and we had dinner together when Gabe and I got home from work. It was really nice to see the family. Just wish we could have spent more time with them. They have so many friends and family to see when they come to visit.
We were hoping to make a visit to the pumpkin patch this weekend, but the forecast is looking really wet. We'll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Mother's Little Helper

Levi has his own drawer in the kitchen that he can play in so he doesn't get into trouble in the other cabinets. In it is a basting brush that he's got all sorts of uses for. Usually it's a hairbrush or a toothbrush. Occasionally it's a broom like you can see in the video below. Levi was determined to help Heidi sweep the kitchen.

Another trip to the Zoo!

In an attempt to put off doing the work I brought home this weekend and never got done, I figured I'd post some pictures of our trip to the zoo on Saturday. This may be the last pictures of the zoo we take for a while. Temperatures are dropping and I'm sure the long winter will be upon us in no time.
Gabe's dad and Joanne came up this weekend to visit and go to the zoo with us. We wanted to take them when they were here for Levi's birthday, but that weekend was busy enough. So shortly after Levi's birthday, we put this weekend on the calendar for a visit and trip to the zoo with Levi's grandparents.
Levi showed his grandparents all his favorite animals. He also walked around the grassy amphitheater. It was hard for him to concentrate on walking when all the bigger kids were running around playing tag.
Most of the animals were out. Here's my favorite one of the giraffes. They're my favorite animal.
And here's the group shot of everyone before we took off to get Levi home for his afternoon nap.

September Recap

I can't believe that September is almost over. It's all been such a blur since school started. But at the same time if feels like the work week is dragging by, while the weekend is over in the blink of an eye. So unfair!

I had a nice birthday celebration a few weeks ago. Gabe and I went to The National concert downtown in Pioneer Courthouse Square the Sunday before my birthday. Then my family came over for dinner, cake, ice cream and presents on the actual day of my birth. I told Gabe the concert tickets could be my gift since the price of tickets has gotten so out of control. But he surprised me with this as my gift. I've been interested in them but never would have bought one for myself. He was a little nervous it wasn't going to arrive on time since the new ones were due to be released and shipped on the 17th (2 days after my birthday). But it arrived on time! And boy was I surprised.

Levi's walking is improving quickly. He can walk clear across the room without falling. He's a little unsteady and has to use his arms for balance. So we've been calling him Zombie baby. Totally fits! He's hard to get on video because he just wants to play with the camera. We're so proud of him and I'm sure he'll be off and running any day now!

I got to get away over the weekend and head to Rockaway with the girls. It was first time I've gotten away by myself (without either of my boys). We stopped in Tillamook for cheese, walked on the beach, made fondue, drank wine, played games and relaxed. It was a nice time.

I wish I could say I'll try post more frequently but looking at our calendar, October is looking just as crazy as September.