Oklahoma!!

We are actually in Budapest, Hungary right now....but I'm updating in order! We went to Ada, Oklahoma to see the Nelson Family's newest Chicken Express. I realized after going back through the pictures that I didn't take any of the actual store. I'll have to get some that mom has sent me when we get home. The store is off to a wonderful start and is a beautiful building!

The plans were for Levi, Nathan and Braeden to go swimming on Saturday morning but Sir Snoozalot slept through swim time. Nathan and Braeden had fun though!


It's not an easy task to get these 3 to take a picture together!

Levi playing with Aunt Kristie and Uncle Steve at the new Chicken E.

Excuse their bed head, haha! This was after some projectile vomiting! We still don't know exactly what it was, but he puked EVERYWHERE in Dad's car and then again in the middle night Friday night. Made me super nervous to be leaving the country, but he's been doing fine. He hasn't had a huge appetite but that could be from a number of things.

Mom and I did a lot of shopping in Ada Saturday. That town has a TON of cute little boutiques!!

On Sunday we took Trent back to the airport in OKC. We stopped for just a few minutes at the OKC Federal Building Memorial. I've always wanted to go there and really want to go back when we have more time. It really is a neat memorial!

I loved the quote on this wall. I can't remember all of it, but it said "this city and this nation will not be defeated, our deeply rooted faith sustains us." Even though it seems like all there is in our country is hate and violence, this is a reminder that there are many people who love and trust God!

Nathan and Braeden wrestling....which turned into Braeden kissing Nathan! haha

All 3 of them skyping Trent Sunday night.

Brief Hungary update...we made it safely. The flight over was great. We were SOOOOOOOOO glad to see Holly and are absolutely enjoying this city! We're at Holly's flat right now letting Levi and Nana take a nap. I'll update again if I have time, but it may not be until we get home!

Lake Amistad with the Batesies

Ah........serenity! It's that time of year again! The annual house boat trip on Lake Amistad. I've said it before and I'll say it again....The Bates' are my second family. I love them like family and they will ALWAYS be a part of our lives!!! They are nice enough to invite us along on this adventure each year and it is F.U.N.!!!

This year we had 2 tiny little passengers with us. :) They're plotting their swimming plans here.

Daddy and Levi about to go swimming. Levi looks a little nervous about that BIG swimming pool. :)

Don't worry, it didn't stop him! He had a blast in his little froggy floaty!

And here's Gage, he also seems a little unsure of that giant body of water! He didn't like his life jacket (well neither of them did, they looked VERY uncomfortable!) but he liked the froggy floaty too!!!

"Uh mom...I think it's my nap time."

This was HILARIOUS! Gage makes this awesome dinosaur noise and when he roared at Levi he started boohooing, big ole' baby! They were friends again in like 5 seconds.

This is the sweetest pictures of Gage and his Grandpa!

Stayin hydrated with Dad

One cool dude, with some wind blown hair!

I didn't mean for this to be turned like this, but look at his sweet little chompers! You can kind of tell the two on each side of his teeth are trying to come in too. They are giving him a lot more trouble than the other two did. He wakes up every now and then crying at night, but he puts himself back to sleep pretty quickly.

Ahhhhh......4 days. Get on the boat, don't get off the boat. No showers, no make up, no blow dryers, no flat irons, no cell phones, no computers. Just fantastic friends, good fun, and wonderful memories!

I'm squeezing in a little blog post now. It's going to be a busy week for Levi and me. We're here until Friday, then all 3 of us are going to Oklahoma to see the new Nelson family Chicken Express in Ada. Trent will come back to Houston, but Levi and I are headed to Europe with Nana to visit Holly!!!! We are SOOOOOO excited to not only go to Europe for the first time, but to get to see Holly and Philip! We will be in Budapest and will either go to Prague or Salzburg, I don't think we've decided which one yet. From what I'm reading, we could spend the whole trip in Budapest and not run out of things to see! Hopefully I'll get to blog quickly again before we get home from Budapest....but if not get ready for 1 looooong blog post! haha!

Love to everyone!

Mimi's visit!

This past weekend Mimi came to visit! Levi was very excited to get to spend some quality time with her, and I'm sure she was at least a little bit excited. :)

First time trying blueberries, they're MESSY, but he loves them!

Gettin his hair did. I have recently decided that we have to start combing and putting some gel in his hair so that he doesn't look like a hobo baby!! He looks so handsome when he's all ready! He also loves to reach for all my stuff on the counter. We were getting ready to go to lunch at Papadeaux....Mimi's favorite!

Hey Dad look at me!

Lovin' on Mimi!

Look at the 2 coolest boys in the world!!

A little family pic in the pool. Levi LOVES the water. It's really funny because he kicks his legs like he's really trying to swim! I think we have a water baby....but I don't think he really has a choice because we both love the pool!

That's all for now. I'm trying to drag myself to school for these next two days. Agh!!! HURRY SUMMER!!! This long weekend was such a tease!

Oh Poop!

There's not too much exciting going on around here, but I thought I'd update anyway. This picture was actually taken on Mother's day. As I was putting Levi in the bath tub, when I walked by the mirror I could see he was starting to take care of some business! I screamed, and then reacted and put him on the toilet. So here it is folks....Levi potty training at 6 months old! I kid, but it was really hilarious because he was screaming because I scared him when I screamed. You gotta go when you gotta go I guess!

Here's his handsome little face and you can kind of see his two little teefies. It's hard to get them in a picture, I still can't believe he has teeth! How can it be that he's old enough to get teeth already??

And here is my way of preparing him for our Disneyland trip this summer! He's watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the computer, so far he thinks it's pretty funny. He bobbed up and down the whole time he watched it tonight. :)

Not a whole lot else going on around here. Just dragging myself out of bed for the last 8.5 days of school. Woohoo for summer!!

Happy Mother's Day!

I am sooooooo thankful that my mom came to keep Levi this past week so we could have some time to calm down and find a new babysitter. And of course our prayers were answered and we found someone. She was referred to us by a lady at my school and she only keeps teachers kids. I think she's going to be great, but after what happened we are skeptical of EVERYONE. We just pray it turns out better than the last one!

Nana got Levi a swing! He looooooves to be outside and he is so relaxed in this swing!

Just look at those beautiful eyes!

I made a little craft time for myself on Saturday. I've been wanting to make this for a while now. It's a nook cover. Mom left her embroidery machine at my house and I'm SUPER excited! The corners aren't near as pretty as I'd like...but not too shabby for my first time using piping, a zipper and the embroidery machine by myself!

This picture is no joke. Since Levi has started eating more solids his diapers are MUCH different! (All you mommy's know what I'm talking about!) I kept telling Trent I couldn't wait for him to have to change one. He got all prepared to change his first bad diaper....and of course Levi hadn't even pooped!

This morning we went to church and then went out to a restaurant I've been wanting to try. Levi fell asleep and was NOT letting go of that toy! haha

Woke up just in time for some pears...yum!

Sharp dressed man!

What a wonderful Mother's Day. This little boy is the greatest gift I've ever been given!

We have teeth!!!

Well since I was off unexpectedly on Monday, I got Levi's 6 month check up changed. Unfortunately his pediatrician wasn't in the office that day, but since it was just a check up I decided it was fine if he saw a different dr. in the office. He weighs 17 lb 3 oz now and was in the 45th percentile. He was only 22nd percentile at 4 months. He is 27.5 inches long, 79%. Long and skinny boy! He's growing just as he should be and we got the go ahead to start more solids. He HATES peas! I keep trying them because I know at this age they say they really don't know if they like something or not until they've had it 5 or 6 times. Well let me tell you....he does NOT like peas! He loves sweet potatoes and pears, that's as far as we've gotten. He got 3 shots, which he did not handle well. They also recommended he go ahead and get the MMR since we are going to Budapest. Evidently Europe doesn't vaccinate for measels and they're pretty common there. Since Nana rescued us and is keeping him this week she gets the awful job of taking him back to get that tomorrow. Poor baby. The other ones left little bruises and knots in his legs!

We've thought for a week or so that he was about to cut some teeth, when the Dr. shined her light in his mouth you could see little indentions in his gums. It looked like all 4 bottom ones were coming through at the same time! So we've been waiting all week. I'm a newbie so after seeing them Monday I thought for sure they'd be in by Tuesday morning! Well, Trent just gave him a bath and while he was dressing him he said "you can see his teeth!" Sure enough the center bottom two have popped through. Just barely, but I imagine over the next 24 hours they'll be all the way through. I guess I never really thought about how teeth felt, but they feel weird!! I'm kind of strange about putting my fingers in his mouth anyway, I don't like it, but now with those chompers it feels crazy! He's such a wonderful baby, last night he whined for about 5 minutes when I put him down. Looks like we're going to be really lucky in the teething department too! Seriously...we have a super baby. He has to be the easiest baby on earth! Well ok, maybe we're a little bit biased. :)

Happy half birthday Levi!!!!

Our LIFE....

How did we get so lucky to be blessed with this amazing boy?

MELTS MY HEART!!!

I absolutely cannot believe Levi is 6 months old already!!!! We had a wonderful weekend and I'm enjoying some unexpected days off with our handsome fella. Uncle Brent came down this weekend and got some good Levi lovin'. We didn't do a whole lot, just hung out but we had a good time! I got a little picture happy this afternoon. I though to myself..."I have to do a little 6 month photo shoot." I'm home by myself for a couple of nights, Trent had to leave for business today so when we got home from church we played paparazzi in the back yard!

Levi is sitting up really good now! We still surround him with pillows or make sure we're sitting behind him because he does dump over every now and then. He has really started to use his hands. He reaches for just about everything and loves to flail his right arm around! (see above picture) He's also getting to be quite the little splasher in the bath tub. He kicks his legs and slaps the water with his hands through the whole bath! It's pretty hilarious...but whoever gets the lucky job of bath time gets soaked! Tonight literally my whole left leg was wet. I swear he's getting a couple of teeth. He hasn't been abnormally cranky, but he has all the other symptoms. Of course I really don't know what I'm looking for since this is my first go round with teeth...but someone told me they start out as little white bumps. I'm pretty sure he's got 2 white bumps right now. I guess we'll see!

This picture is my fave!!

And look at those dimples!!!!

Levi started eating some other solids this past week too! I'm usually pretty crazy about not doing anything until the doctor gives us the ok, but Levi's 6 mo. checkup isn't scheduled until the 16th. We were having sweet potatoes ourselves on Thursday so I decided to whip him up some of his own! He wasn't too sure about them and gagged quite a bit that first night, but he gobbles them up now! We are on day 4 of sweet potatoes and no reactions yet. I think we'll do peas next!

Yummy sweet potatoes! I spent a little while this afternoon making quite a bit of food so I can just pop it out of the freezer and serve on the weeknights.


Mr. "I don't wanna take a nap" didn't much care for the kitchen ninja. (I really should have closed the pantry door!)
Zucchini!!

And on a waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay worse note....every working parents nightmare came true for us on Friday. I know that everything happens for a reason and that our Mighty God sent me over to the babysitters house unannounced because it was time for Levi to no longer be there. Words cannot describe the way we have felt for the last couple of days. Anyway...I'm taking tomorrow off until Nana can get here. She's going to stay for a week so we can get ourselves together and find someone else. I have faith the right place will come along, and I pray it will be somewhere that he is LOVED AND SAFE.