Happy Birthday, Levi!

Levi is turning one!

Levi is such a great baby with a wonderful personality! He is always smiling and laughing. We are so glad he came to our family! Happy birthday, Levi!

Jonah Funnies

Last night, Jonah was being so funny! I don't know if I can recreate the atmosphere; you might have had to have been there. I was at the counter making myself a chicken salad sandwich, and Jonah was at the table, apparently watching. I cut a tomato slice and put it on the bread, placed a sliced pickle on, added a chunk of lettuce, and put the top piece of bread on.

Jonah: "Wow, Mom! Awesome job!" (Giving me a thumbs-up) "You did an awesome job! That was great!"

I started laughing so hard. I guess he listens when I praise him.

When I came over to the table to eat my sandwich, he started "talking" to me in his vibrato singing voice. I joined in and we just sat there, having a conversation that sounded a lot like an amateur opera. Hope the neighbors couldn't hear.

Nabisco Gets an F in Grammar

It's obviously a little late, thus the reason for my rant. I went downstairs to get a snack and brought up a box of Wheat Thins. I was reading the back of the box, and this is what I found:

(click on it if you can't read it)

Okay, am I the only one who sees the problem here? Shouldn't both of those sentences say "are" instead of "is"? If I only wanted one of these crackers, I'd say, "Pass me a Wheat Thin," not "Pass me a Wheat Thins." I think I can see what they were trying to do, but it's not flying here. Fellow Dalley English AP classmates, please tell me I'm not crazy! How did this get past marketing?

Bored Out of My Mind

This lady needs a night out!

I have had nothing going on lately. Levi's birthday is in a week, and I have some things going on in October, but I have been seriously bored lately! I know I have nothing to complain about. My mom used to hate it when we complained and whined about being bored, telling us she'd find something for us to do (chores) if we didn't quit it. I could be working two jobs on top of being a full-time mommy...trust me, I know I am lucky and have it good. I'm just venting. Things are fine; I just haven't been out lately.

I was so bored today, that I set up a tent/fort/whatever-you-call-it in the living room for the kids to play in. Eden kept going in and out- she never stopped. I brought them some coloring stuff, and their blankets and pillows so they could have a little rest in there. It was fun, but that only lasted about and hour before Eden just stood up in the middle and it kind of collapsed. Oh well.

Yikes! I guess I didn't do Eden's hair today...

Besides that, I've been watching movies, cleaning up toys (a lot), and feeding the kids. So now I am blogging, even though there really is nothing to blog about. I did find a cute video of the kids while I was uploading my pictures. It's from the last time my parents came down. Here is Grandpa with kids (-they are looking at pictures of animals on the computer):

Here is a picture:

Flashback Friday- Boo for the Picture People Closing!

A while ago, they took Picture People out of both of the malls that are close to us. I was pretty upset, because I had always taken the kids there to take their pictures. I only did it because I was constantly getting coupons in the mail for free 8 x 10s, and with no sitting fee, that's totally free! So I would take advantage of that often...maybe I put them out of business.

Well, now that there aren't any freebies available anymore (and also because I'm lazy and have three kids to cart around,) I haven't taken the kids to get their pictures done in a long time. Poor Levi, I promised myself this wouldn't happen to the third kid, but it has. I do not have any professional pics of him yet, I think, and he'll be one soon! Shame on me. I made an appointment for his birthday after realizing this.

Here is a rather large collection of my favorite freebies from the Picture People. I have more, but this post was getting ridiculously long, so here are the best of the bunch.

Jonah
4 months:
11 months (with 2nd cousin, Emma):
15 months:
22 months:
Eden
3 months:
4 months (They let me use her Dalmatian blanket!):
4.5 months (Halloween picture):
7 months:

I still feel so bad about Levi. I think if the pictures turn out good, I might buy a whole bunch!

Levi's First Haircut + Goings On + Halloween

Poor Levi has been growing a nice little curly mullet that I finally found time to chop off. I just brought the clippers into the hallway while he was playing, and he didn't even know what was going on. Here are the before and after pictures:

BEFORE


AFTER

Much better!

I guess I have still not recovered from the hours I was keeping during the Olympics. I have been up almost every night until 2 am doing something. I guess I'm just not tired. I was up until 3 last night reupholstering an ottoman I got at DI (pictures to come). I am forcing myself to go to bed by 10:30 tonight!

This is the time of year when I wish we had satellite TV. BYU (and most college) football is a love of mine that I haven't been able to be a part of for about 7 years now! I am dying to go to a game this year, especially since I won't be watching any on TV.

What did we do this last week? I can't even remember. Oh yeah! We had some crazy thunderstorms going on. I was driving home from Enrichment one night, and I thought I was going to get struck by lightening. There was lightning all around me, and I could see huge bolts going all the way to the ground! Yikes! We had a few days of that; it actually lasted longer than usual. Storms come and go really quickly here. I usually am not a huge fan of rain, but it's really awesome in Arizona. It's either raining while the sun shines, or it's bringing down trees and the thunder is shaking the ground. I guess that's only fun when it's over and you know you survived! You've gotta love monsoon season.

The kids have been pretty good lately. They play well together, but still get into mischief. One day Levi woke up from his nap to a bunch of pillows and balls in his crib. Thank goodness he's big enough now to move around if he can't breathe!
Like I mentioned before, we went to DI to look around. Peter always wants to go look at thrift stores for junk, and I finally caught the spirit. We made out like bandits, with tons of books and a few toys for the kids. We even got a working Buzz Lightyear toy that I had been eyeing at Target ($20) for $2 there. Fun for all ages.

We also had Lexie and her kids over for 2 days. We went to our cousin's wedding open house, and just hung out and let the kids play (and fight). A crazy but fun weekend.

Halloween is coming, and I am so excited! I absolutely love Halloween. I have no idea why. I don't like being scared or watching scary movies, but I just love this holiday! I think part of it is the whole season starting. It's the beginning of all of the best holidays, right in the middle of my favorite season, right next to my birthday, and you've gotta love being able to dress up as anything you want without people thinking you're weird!

I have already started getting the kids' costumes ready. I start planning it out a few months in advance every year. I just can't help myself. Jonah is going to be Buzz Lightyear (he doesn't know yet, but will be stoked). Eden will be Snow White. She doesn't even know who Snow White is (thank you, Disney Vault), but she'll just be happy to wear something "pitty". Levi will be donning the first of many hand-me-down costumes, I'm sure. He will be wearing Jonah's old tiger costume. Poor kid. But it's a cute costume. I'm not about to let it go to waste. So I just have to decide what to be (yes, I am dressing up). Peter can if he wants to, but he will probably wait until the day before to tell me what elaborate costume he wants (me) to put together.

I am thinking of being Cruella Deville, but I'll have to figure out how much I'll have to make vs. buy. I think I can use a lot of what I have, but I'll need a wig and something to resemble fur. Other ideas include a ballerina with one of my longer homemade tutus, which would be a fairly easy costume, and a witch- kind of generic, but it would be fun. Also, I could be Tinkerbell- I have fabric I could use to make a dress, and the rest would be easy. I have also been playing with the idea of Rainbow Bright, which would be fun, but might be the most expensive to create. Vote on my poll and tell me what you think, although I might not go with the popular vote, depending on budget and time...

Anyway, that's what we've been up to/I've been thinking about lately. In other great news, the Office should be starting up again soon, and season 4 goes on sale this month. Yeah!