Making Friends

We are at Burger King for part of our 'Friday Adventure' and I'm working on some work things while they play but I can't helping writing about my little guys.

I used to have to talk to Levi a lot about saying hi to people, asking their names, how their doing, things like that. But now in the play place he is (at least in my opinion) attacking all the kids, getting in their faces and asking their names and saying "I'm Levi!!!". Some just ignore is immense enthusiasm but he keeps going , chasing them around and chatting up a storm. Max isn't quite big enough to climb up but follows the best he can.

He found one boy whose about his age. It's so funny to hear him talking to them. "'Is this your second time here? This place is kind of like McDonalds, have you ever been there?"

Now he's acting as the welcoming committee to all, "Hi, I'm Levi. You need to take off your shoes. Is this your first time? This place is fun."

Only a Mother Could Love

This week we babysat our friend Aiden. He was in our old ward and I remember he as one of the funniest kids when I was doing singing time. Basically he made me laugh every week. He's a bit older than Levi but I'm pretty sure Levi loves it because older kids are usually much more knowledgeable when it comes to pretty much anything awesome in his world, video games, superheros, legos......you name it.

I took these fantastic shots while we were having snacks. Those boys make the funniest faces. Man, I thought they were pretty hilarious when I was taking them but looking back at them, they are even better than I remember. Even at their most twisted and goofy, I still love those little faces.
Now everybody!
And since I haven't pulled out the boys craft stuff in a while and Levi begged to make a spider, we did along with some caterpillars. Levi always gets really excited when we 'recycle'.

Fred

This is Fred, he's our frog. Jason still has his big tank up and during the holidays he used it more as a terrarium and he grew some beautiful plants, but I insisted we get this little guy. The boys were thrilled despite that in the big tank he was able to hide pretty well most of the time. But in preparation for the tank being sold (or something....) we got a little one for the living room. Now we can always find him, the boys love it.

Hilarious Levi

- "When I grow up I'm going to be a writer. The first book I will write will be called 'Curious George frees all the other animals that don't belong' like in the zoos and animal rescues. It is going to be the best book ever!" He's all about equal rights for animals.

-Me: Levi you were SO good today!
Levi: I know. I just couldn't stop myself.

- I had some dollar bills out I was putting away and decided to teach Levi a little about money values (like 5 $1 equals a $5 bill, things like that). He then began talking about the presidents on the bills so I was showing him who was on what. Then, "Is President Monson on one of them?"

- Max had just confessed to breaking a train. Levi: "I guess Max is in a breaking mood today".

- I've hid a sword we had a while back in our back bathroom, I'm pretty sure because they were fighting over it, per usual. But Max is clever and found said sword to which fighting ensued. "I'm Ammon!" "No I Ammon!" I guess I can't complain TOO much.....

- For some reason Levi has been talking about farting a lot, he does it all the time and many times announces it. Ahhhh, living with boys. After he had farted on me while I was reading a story I told him it's not a very nice thing to do. Reply: "Tooting stinky secret weapon".

-Levi came out of bed after an epic long battle of him sleeping on the bottom bunk, getting rolled on by Max, going back to the top, giggling and fighting. After Max had crashed for the night, he came into my room, simply stated, "Superman can catch bullets". And went back to bed (for a few minutes that is but then he cutely came back in and signed 'I love you'. How can I get too mad at that? He knows just how to handle mom....)

Sunday Haps

Today we went to church without Max (sick) and Jason and I have to admit it was pretty nice. I think I got more out of today's meeting than I have in a long time. It's just putting those two boys together that doesn't make for a quiet meeting. Levi and I sat together and he was so good and reverent, I was extremely impressed. He even asked some really good questions so we got to talk a lot about the sacrament and what it means.

Also today was nice for me because I wasn't conducting or doing sharing time, just helping. I ended up leading a couple songs on the fly but that's nothing big, kind of made me miss doing singing time.

This week was Levi's week to do the scripture and prayer in primary and we had been preparing all week. He had it memorized and only needed prompting with one word but got the rest completely on his own "Oh, remember my sons and learn wisdom in thy youth. Yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God". Alma 37:35 It was fun working with him on it all week because we had it posted up all around the house, even downstairs with gram so she and my mom could work on it with him. We got to talk about it's meaning a number of times and it was so sweet to see him making connections between our lives and the gospel.

He then did a great prayer and was way more eloquent than he usually is at home, which is usually the same 2-3 lines. My big boy! I was so proud.

And to top it all off he got the golden ticket! One kid a week gets the 'golden ticket' for being the most reverent then gets to go see the bishop, who adores the kids, and get a treat. He was awestruck. Usually kids just smile and take it but he got into a big conversation with the person handing it out, "I tried SO hard today, and before I was so close every time but I kept trying and trying and I finally got it, I'm so excited!!!" He was all smiles.

It was an awesome primary day and at the end of it all Levi and I got to go see the bishop and get his treat. The bishop was even wearing suspenders just like him. Levi was thrilled because he thinks bishop Hayden is one of the coolest, most silliest guys ever. "Silly bishop!" he's always saying.

Then we came home to sweetie Max (who had been sick, not horrible, just bad enough to not be able to go to nursery and infect the ward) and Jason who had been busy and cleaned the house, cleaned off the trampoline and Jason had even started rolls and getting meat ready to BBQ. My awesome boys. And then Max pulled out the cooking spray and told me he wanted to makes something so per the boys request we made brownies from scratch. It was nice. I'm not usually not the best at letting the boys help me cook during the week because I've got so much going on but Sundays are a bit calmer and so I like to cook with them more then. It was fun and they turned out great.

It was a good day.

Birthday at the Beach

It always seems we take a trip for Jason's b-day in January, weather it's just Jason and I or the whole family. Prices are lower and it's less crowded, which is, in my opinion always better.

This time we had a two room condo right on the beach and it was a fun trip. It's actually been quite a while since we did a trip with only us four that wasn't visiting family. Not that family isn't a ton of fun to visit, it's just nice to be us four every once an a while.

Since we were going to Seaside we decided to stop off at the cheese factory, because......ummmm cheese is good. And ice cream.
It had been a while since we went to the cheese factory and the boys were in heaven with the array of ice cream flavors they saw behind the counters. But they ended up with the same favorite favs, strawberry for Levi and chocolate for Max.

Once we got to where we were staying we just hung out, did bath time and snuggled in for a movie.

The Saturday we were there was actually sunny, which is pretty rare in Oregon, let alone Oregon in January. Our first stop was the Seaside aquarium, which is always a hit. The boys loved feeding the seals,
looking at the octopus,
the other fishes
making crayon rubbings,
and touching starfish and sea anemones.
Then off we went to the beach.
Free!!!!!
Not quite so cheery.....But he cheered up and they ended up doing a lot of drawing in the sand.
So did dad.Later we decided to get one of those rent by the hour buggies, which is actually pretty hard to drive, especially with two big boys in the front. Sad to say, we didn't even last the full hour, but I think the boys had fun while Jason and I were huffing and puffing around town.
It was a very fun day, we went to the carousel mall got to ride the carousel, look at the fun toy shop, even picked up a fun flying tree squirrel puppet (they have our favorite kind of puppets which we LOVE), his name is Simon.

And we couldn't go to the beach without going to one of their awesome candy shops to pick out a treat and having an elephant ear. All and all a good time.

Since it was Jason's birthday the boys and I headed off to get some supplies for his big surprise. I explained to both of them that we were going to trick him and give him 2 surprises, a fake one that night with some of his favorite root beer as a gift and a oreo shake, which we did. Then the next morning we got up early, blew up lots of balloons to hang from the ceiling, had some of his favorite breakfast foods, cards written up and even a gift card for one of his favorite stores (home depot). I think we fooled him. The boys were actually able to keep the double secret, secret. They still aren't the best at keeping a secret, it's usually doesn't last longer than a couple minutes before they're spilling the beans.

All and all a good day, but by the next morning the sun was gone and it was back to the good ole' Oregon we know and love, though it was a little too windy for the boys liking. Happy Birthday Jason!

I'm a Woodworker!

Levi (with help from dad) sent this picture to me last Monday. For our FHE we did a little bit of work on their new toy box.