Home town visit!

Wow I've been terrible about updating lately! The weather has been pretty nice here so we've been out doing things, plus our computer decided to go haywire so I've been making sure all of our pictures and videos are backed up just in case!

Here are just a few snapshots of our every day life. This little boy brings us such JOY! He is really gaining a lot of personality and keeps us laughing at all times!

 These cups keep him really occupied while I cook! He'll go get them out of the pantry, sit down and stack and unstack over and over. Sweet thing!

 This is one of our new favorite things to do. I saw it on Pinterest and of course you can get like 15 glow sticks for a dollar at Target! It's really hard to get a picture of though, we turn the lights all the way off but the flash on the camera makes it look like they're on.

 We flew to Midland a couple of weeks ago for a visit to our beloved Batesies. I haven't seen any of them since August and that is TOOOOOOO long! Here's Gage in his sweet outdoor stroll gear. :)

 It was kind of cold and rainy, but when we got a chance we took them for a quick stroll in the wagon.

 I'll spare you from all 97 Cheeto pictures I took. It was HILARIOUS! Levi hadn't ever had Cheetos before but Gage shared with him. He quickly figured out how much he loved them! Also....excuse the terrible hair. I am definitely aware that he needs a hair cut but he acts like you're trying to murder him when you cut his hair so I'm putting it off.

 Precious grin and beautiful blue eyes!!

 "Hey man, you said you let me have some so I'm taking them ALL!"

 Let me tell ya bout my best friend :)

 Sunday it was pretty chilly, but sunny! We decided we'd use the West Texas wind to fly a kite! Then we remembered how much we hate West Texas wind!

 Crazy kite flew into the shed!

 "Here man! I'll push you!"

 Then it was off to the park! Levi has recently really gotten into the park! We take him after school to our neighborhood park if it's nice and he loves to slide! He looks so big, he can scoot himself down all by himself, climb up the stairs to get to the top (with us behind him of course!) I'm still in awe of how fast they change!

 Race time!!!

 Gage was fascinated with the rocks! It was hilarious....he was diving and swimming in them!

 You can see such differences in their personalities already! Gage is a daredevil in the making. He is not afraid to do anything! I swear he would have just walked into that pond if we'd let him. Levi, on the other hand is very cautious with almost everything he does.

 Love these two! I can't wait to see them grow up together!

We had such a great and relaxing time. I know Crane is a teeny tiny town with nothing in it....but it's still home and I still love to visit. Eat some delicious mexican food of course and chill with my other family. They're not blood....but they're most definitely FAMILY!

15 months!!!

It's so hard to believe our sweet little blessing is already 15 months old. Every day brings new challenges and even more smiles than the last! And wow...it's even more hard to believe that there will be 2 tiny faces in our house in just a few short months!

We went to the doctor Friday afternoon for his 15 month checkup and everything looked great! It feels like we've been to our pediatrician's office a million times in the last couple of months, really just 3 between his 12 month visit and now. That's a lot for our normally very healthy boy! He's extremely long for his age and pretty normal for his weight. 

Levi has started saying "gone gone!" and turning his palms up in the air. It is one of the cutest things I've evern seen and makes my heart smile every time!! He's also started shaking his head yes when you ask him questions he understands. As much as I don't want him to get any bigger, I do look forward to the day when he can communicate better! He has definitely started throwing some fits! We joke that there's actually some parenting involved now, but it's true.

These pictures are from some church friends house. Their twin boys were turning 4!! Complete with a zip line, trampoline, basketball court, train rides and an amazing breakfast buffet! It was a great party and this family does SO much to bless other people lives, we were thrilled to help them celebrate.

 Get some berries from Daddy.

 These are from the photographer at the party. What a cool idea! He even had a portrait backdrop set up in their house and they emailed them to us!

 The photographer was totally in love with Tifanie! I mean...who could blame him!!

Uncle Brent and Tifanie came down for the weekend and we had a blast! We just chilled most of the day on  Saturday and then went to the horse races that night. Levi did pretty well considering the races don't start until 7. We weren't able to stay for that many of them, but it was a fun time!

A baby GIRL and a sick (again!) baby boy

Wow!! What a roller coaster week it's been around here!!! Wednesday morning was the big day....when we would find out if we were blessed with a baby boy or girl! Since my appointment was in the morning I was planning on taking Levi to the sitter a little late. He was having quite a bit of trouble breathing and was coughing a bit but he was playing and acting just fine. I gave him his inhaler and took him to the sitter. I headed off to my appointment where I found out we're having a GIRL!!! I was shocked and sooooo excited! Trent didn't go because he wanted to be surprised. She looks healthy and it was so exciting seeing her sweet little hands and feet wiggle around! I called to check on Levi a little later and he was doing ok, he wouldn't eat or drink anything but wasn't too miserable. I picked him up after school and we headed home to tell Daddy he is going to have a little girl!

 As you can tell, he quickly got more and more miserable. The inhaler wasn't working and he wouldn't eat or drink anything. :( Daddy is pretty excited though to find out what's in that bag!

 He spotted a feather!!!!

 I think he's already realizing he's going to have to match hair accessories to outfits! Levi looks less than thrilled for a sister..but really it's just because he doesn't feel good.

 We are so very excited and feel incredibly BLESSED that God has chosen to let us be parents of both genders!! Our excitement was quickly curbed by a miserably sick baby. By 9:00 we were loaded up and about to go to the ER because he started the barking cough and we knew it was probably croup. We talked to the on call doctor at our pediatricians office and he told us not to go unless we felt REALLY uncomfortable. Fortunately for us, no matter how sick Levi is, he seems to sleep well. He slept all night that night but Trent stayed home with him on Thursday and took him to the doctor. Sure enough, a little croup. They said it probably traveled from his head to his throat (remember he just had an ear infection last week!) They gave him a steroid shot and he got to hang out with Daddy all day, which of course made him ecstatic!

 Then by Thursday night, this was our smiley boy! Even still today he doesn't feel 100%, but he's getting better every day.

 Sunday we got the car washed. He was SO serious watching those cars!!!

And I've done a little crafting this weekend...just a few bows to start our collection!

Our week....

Well to start it off here is a baby bump picture. I'm 18.5 weeks now! I can't believe how fast it's going by! I also can't believe how pregnant I look already seeing as how as I haven't gained anymore weight than this point with my last pregnancy. Oh well...grow baby grow!!

 This was last Sunday at the grocery store, it's hard to believe he's this happy when he's sick! I'm pretty sure this was right around the time his first ear infection was settling in. :(

 We knew he wasn't acting like himself Sunday afternoon but he wasn't running a fever on Monday morning so we went ahead and went about our normal routine. About 3 o'clock Ms. Jeannie called me and said he was running a fever. I L.O.V.E. our pediatrician here. They always leave room open at the end of the day for sick babies so I have never had trouble getting him in after work. I left work as quick as I could and headed to get him. I didn't plan on taking him that afternoon until I noticed that he had green goop in his eye. He got some insect bites of some sort the Thursday night before right on his temple. (you can kind of see them in this picture.) I didn't know if all of this was related to the bites but he was BURNING up so I immediately called the doc and they said come on! Since we have no clue what bit him, there's no way of knowing if all of this is related to the bites or not but his left ear was definitely infected. We feel very blessed that he didn't get an ear infection until 14 months but it still isn't any fun! By the time we left the doc, got dinner, and medicine it was 7 when we got home. This was him by 7:20. I honestly think it's been over a year since he slept in my arms. We started very young putting him down and letting him put himself to sleep, so I sat on the couch and enjoyed this for a while!

 We had a blast on Tuesday! Since we got to start the antibiotics on Monday night, he already felt great Tuesday morning. He went back to Ms. Jeannie's on Wednesday. He figured out how to drink out of his straw sippys finally!

 I don't remember what night this was but we were laughing hysterically!! Trent was doing P90X and Levi was trying to jump up and down and exercise like Daddy. Then he would go get my giant jug of water and get a drink. It was hilarious!

 Saturday we headed out for some errands. Of course the boys needed to play at Academy. :)

 Picking out his putter.

Despite the minor sickness, we had a good week!

Levi Update and Our First Day at the Park!

I haven't really updated on just Levi's progress in a while. I'm not sure how I've managed to update this thing 2 days in a row, but hey I'll take it! He is ALLLLL over the place and all boy!! The germophobe mom in me hadn't come out really until last week when he spent some time with his cousins. (Luckily, he thinks it's a blast to wash his hands!) Well, I realized it's because we haven't really done much outside that we had to worry about because he just started walking! It's been almost a month since he took his first steps, but it's only in the last 2 weeks that he has just absolutely taken off. He doesn't crawl at all anymore! So....I took him to the park yesterday because it was GORGEOUS outside! He's still pretty little to enjoy a lot of it, but he had a blast on the slide and pushing his car.

He talks a lot, and says quite a few words that we understand. One of which is "baby." He'll be whistlin' a different tune in 23 more weeks! He also says, hi and bye bye on command. It's really adorable! I had to take him with me to a function at school tonight and of course as soon as our principal got up to talk and the room was completely quiet, he yelled "BYE BYE!" as he waved. Ironically enough, we were having this function because our principal is leaving! Haha! I'm sure it wasn't as loud to anyone else as it was me. :) We loved hearing him saying "ho, ho, ho!" during Christmas. He acts like he's talking on the phone and says "eh-whoa!" One day I though, Uh oh he's getting an ear infection! (*knocks on wood*...we haven't had one of those yet!) Nope...he was just pretending to hold the phone! haha

He loves to dance, he's almost always happy, and absolutely makes us laugh hysterically every night. As I type this, I'm watching him play with Daddy. This is my favorite time of day! He's fed, happy and loves playing with mom and dad!

He loves to do our night time routine. He loves his bath, brushing his teeth, playing while we read a book and is always eager to get in his bed. Usually by the time we're done saying our prayers, he's flipped over on his belly with his booty in the air, sucking his thumb and holding his blue blanket. I'm so thankful he's such a good baby!

Hopefully I can update more in 2012!