Smittin'

Sorry grandparents, this isn't about the boys. Well, not really.

Last night I got to go on a fun date with Jason to get me some shoes and see Harry Potter. I love going out with him, without kids to stress about, just him and I. It reminds me of when we met only it's MUCH better. There isn't any nervousness about me wondering if he would still like me if he knew I was such a grouch in the morning, or if he really knew how impatient and irrational I can be. Or if he'd still love me as much with all my crazy ideas and messes around the house. I didn't have to wonder if he thought I looked good or if I chose the right outfit (even though, yes, it still took me 3 outfits to pick the right one). I knew that he thought I was beautiful. He knows all my horrible habits and faults but yet I know that through all that he still loves me. There is no greater feeling than knowing someone loves you so unconditionally.

When I got married it was a huge leap of faith, especially since we only dated a short while, I had trust issues, and lots of other stuff. But once I made that leap he has shown me every day that it was the right one.

Jason I love you more than you'll ever know. Thank you for everything you do for me. For waking up early with the boys so I can sleep in, for never complaining if I ask you to make dinner, for always making me feel absolutely beautiful regardless how disgusting I feel, for helping me with all my many projects and actually caring, for always driving on road trips. Thank you for always encouraging me to take time for myself, never complaining about a girls night, for making sure I am able to accomplish the goals I set for myself. Thank you for being so wonderful with my family, for letting your career take a backseat so we can help take care of my family. Thank you for not only putting up with your (sometimes) bossy wife, but with her equally bossy mom and grandmother with out much complaint. I know I couldn't handle that as well as you do. Thank you for being so wonderful with the boys, the absolutely love you. And as cheesy as it sounds I am everything I am because of you.

Best. Decision. Ever.



Oh, then after our date night Jason made me watch this. Almost made me cry.

Dance Baby Dance

Me and the boys have a little routine going every day. Levi wakes up pretty early, well, Max usually wakes up pretty late, regardless of the time he goes to bed. He doesn't get up until 9-10 in the morning.

Usually we have a later breakfast after Max wakes up (Levi has a small pre-breakfast to get him going) but then we'll do something bigger for the two boys. After the boys have messed up themselves and the kitchen we'll do a brief kitchen cleanup and then head off for a bath. Yes, we do ours in the morning most days. Sometime in the evening. Sometimes both, it just depends.
Once the boys are done they take their little naked butts to my room where we have a dance party on the bed and get dressed. After the first couple times we did it, Max started insisting on playing the music the minute he saw our cd player.

I love his goofy little face.
Classic Max. Note the pencil in hand.
Brothers. This is Levi's interpretation of putting his arm around someone. Borderline choker hold. Max loves it though.

An Apple A Day

Two thing my boys love: dress up and apples.

Obsess much??

I don't know how it happened but Mr. Max is OBSESSED with spoons, tooth brushes and any sort of writing utensil. Basically anything he can easily hold in his hand. He carries them around all day and woe to anyone who tries to take it from him.

Here he is at our kids Halloween party when we first got there. Take a look at his left hand, he brought in his yellow spoon. This is one of those battles I didn't want to fight. Sometimes I make him leave it in the car, this time I didn't care so much.
The rest of the party.
Maybe he likes spoons so much so that he can be ready to eat at a moments notice, though many times he just ends up eating with his hands. Here he is "decorating" cupcakes. His spoon you ask? Yeah, he's still holding it.
And he held it all the way home. (Oh, he even slept with it after I cleaned it, it had gotten a little gross. I didn't want to fight that battle either. Maybe another day.)

November Randomness

My brain is completely random. I usually have a million things going on at once and am lucky to ever get anything done on my to do list. So here goes.

We've all been a little sick these days, mostly the boys, though I just started getting a cold. No fun. It better go away quick. Or else. But now both boys have pink eye and for the first time we've had to deal with doing the dreaded eye drops. You should see them run when they see the bottle. It's kind of funny.

I did my first craft bazaar this week and I think it went pretty well even though I was very nervous and stressed about the whole thing. Selling online and selling in person are very different but I think I learned a lot, which will help with my next two I'm doing. I almost only did one but I'm glad I'm doing more because it's a lot of work for just one. I am not really stressed about the ones coming up, which is great. One of the things I liked the most was talking to the people who buy my jewelry. Online it's much more formal. They buy, I make and send and there's not a lot of chit chat. Hopefully their input will help me improve!

Speaking of jewelry making, I was thinking about it and I have NO idea how I was able to do every thing when I was working at the law firm part time, doing what I do now AND finishing school. I am so glad I quit even though at the time I though I was a little foolish for doing it while Jason was between jobs and money was tight. But I was pretty much stressed all the time, making family life pretty unpleasant. So it was either stay with a steady income and be completely stressed and miserable or take a chance to do something I love. I am SOOO glad I took the leap of faith and quit! Now Jason has a job (not his dream job by any means, but a job) and I can do what I want with my jewelry and make some good extra money. I actually make more than I did at the law firm and it's a lot of fun for me. Since I was 15 I have worked and haven't really stopped except for a brief 3 months after Levi was born. I don't know if I could ever not work in some way or another. I am pretty sure I get that from my mom, though she's a much bigger work-a-holic than I am. My sister is too. That probably comes from my grandpa. But I like earning 'my own' money and contributing what I can. Because of it we have been able to pay off the car in a very short amount of time, pay down debt, save for the boys collage/mission funds and for retirement. And a bunch of other random stuff, like a trampoline and a super awesome bedroom set.

This weekend Jason painted the bathroom, which I have been wanting to do almost since we moved here. If you've ever seen it, it was quite a masterpiece. When I was in my early teens it was a summer project for us grand kids. It was painted a kind of teal blue green color with a decorative border about 2/3 the way up that was sponged on in orange. On that it had foam stamp shapes of stars, moons and suns, also in a shade of orange. Not horrible I suppose. I'd grown up with it but it's not exactly my taste. So Jason was wonderful and painted it while I did my bazaar. It is a darker red and I fall in love every time I walk in. We just have to paint the cupboards and figure out what to do with the counter. It's still the original one from when the house was built, a nice mustardy orange. Very 70's.

Max is a sleepaholic. I've been figuring it up and he pretty much sleeps 16-18 of 24 hours in a day, if it's a normal day. It's great and I'm taking advantage of every moment. I don't know how I'm going to get everything done when he decides he doesn't want to nap anymore. I know some of the time he's just chilling in his crib and needs time to wake. But I don't want to interrupt his quiet time.

I have a bunch of Christmas sewing to do. We'll see if I can get it all done in time. If not they'll just be a little late I suppose. On the good side of things I'm mostly done with all the other Christmas presents, but still have a couple people to go and I have assigned several to Jason which I am not in charge of at all. Yeah for delegation!

I think that's all. Oh, my cousin's bridal shower is this weekend, right after a craft fair I'm doing, and I'm in charge of decorating. I'm playing around with some new stuff but so far so good. My house is a mess, like usual, but I was able to fold 2 loads of laundry, do a load of dishes, clean up the kitchen and living room, feed 2 boys and even had time to play some games with Levi. So far so good. Now it's time to try and convince him he needs a nap. Wish me luck!

Halloween

We had a very busy, very fun, Halloween, though I don't have many pictures to prove it. To start off we had a church party where we got our only family picture while we were in costumes. During the week we had a party with some friends, then off to Washington we went to celebrate with "the uncles". We picked some apples, trick-or-treat downtown, a trunk-or-treat and we hit up a number of houses in between. It was lots of fun and Levi got a TON of candy. Max pretty much slept through most of it. That boy loves his sleep.

The ward Halloween party and our only picture of us all in costume. King Jason, Queen Kendra, Sir Levi the knight and his squire Max. When we asked Levi what a squire does he replied 'he squies'. Here is some pics from the fun kids party we threw. They all had a blast (at least it sure seemed like it!)
Drawing.
Games.
Food. Hot dogs and Mac N' Cheese. The lunch of champions.
And we ended with decorating cupcakes.
The girls and Cameron got really into it.
The rest of the kids (all boys)? They pretty much ate candy and frosting then went off to play. They know where it's at!

Noodles

For birthdays around these parts the birthday boy/girl gets to choose their favorite meal for our Sunday birthday bash. I chose my mom's famous homemade chicken noodle soup. She makes the noodles from scratch. They are ah-mazing!

Max got into it and help my mom roll out the dough,
And Uncle Isaac helped him cut it.

Reasons why I love Levi Today

He cleaned off his art table without even being asked (and he did his lunch dishes earlier today too) I was very impressed. Only took hundreds of times reminding him.

I taught him the fine art of thumb wars, which he thought was hilarious.

He's been referring to himself as 'puppy dog' for pretty much the entire day.

Today has been a pajama day because all his cloths are being washed and nothing is cuter than pj's on a little boy, at least in my opinion.

There have been no complaints about the food I have given him today, though I do know the things he absolutely hates and I didn't even bother to offer.

We did flash cards and he read the word "mom".

We also did our insect flash cards and he knew just about all of them, he loves bugs so much.

Today he did 'squishy face, stretchy face' with me when he had gotten close to my face. It was adorable.

It was handy when I needed a glass of water refilled, he went and filled it for me very cheerfully.

I sure love my little man.