Taking it to the Mat

Max loves to color and lately he's been drawing on everything. Walls, tables, whatever he can find. You'd think that would be something that happened with a 2 year old who doesn't know the difference. But not this one. We're working on it. We did let him go nuts on this box that we had from a freezer we bought.




Awesome baby. I love his smooshy face.
























Our small vacuum for stairs finally died and so I had to get a new one. I love these because they are great for stairs and for kids, lightweight and portable. This one is called a 'scorpion' which the boys both thought was cool (our vacuum is called a shark, how manly) and wanted to try out right away. I love that sort of enthusiasm. It didn't last too long unfortunately.

We found some ABC flash cards that Max wanted to put in order on the floor. He did almost all without any help. I can't believe that boy is 4 1/2, time passes way to fast.

The past two weeks we have been getting back in the normal swing of things and doing our regular carpool route. I caught these two making each other smile. Levi loves his little brother so much, it is very sweet.

We have been doing a pretty good job for FHE lately, well as good as it gets for us. A few weeks ago we went to the store to pick out this years ornaments that the boys get each year. The boys picked these cool air plane ornaments. While we were there I saw this small tree that I thought we should get for Gram. We have asked her many times about getting a tree for downstairs and she always declines not wanting to be an imposition but we did it anyways and she was extremely happy about it.

Levi asked and asked if he could hold Davis so after teaching him how to hold him and keep his head up he did a great job, though I was nervous the entire time. Levi was extremely excited. I can't believe he's so big!

Then a brief lesson on how to cross your eyes properly.

 

And last week it snowed! Not a lot but some. And naturally snow clothes were dug out and the sled pulled out of the garage. Mostly Levi dragged Max around the lawn and they threw snowballs at stuff.  Typical boy stuff. Later they found a bucket with frozen ice and found ways to break it.

I made some cinnamon rolls to warm us all up.

But mostly I watched from the window while hanging out with this guy. We are working hard on getting this kid to take a pacifier. I have tried a number of different kinds but upon a recommendation we got these and they have worked the best so far. He still spits it out a lot but he's most likely to take this one. Who knew babies could be so picky.

I love these hands! Every time he eats his hands are flexed or in a tight fist. It's very cute. I had forgot about it along with so many other cute little things babies do. Also I forgot about how gross their hands get because they do keep their hands closed a lot.





One of the reasons I love Levi's school is I feel more in touch with their teacher, Sister Riley. I can call or text about whatever and she always responds immediately. Also she is extremely thoughtful and sends lots of pictures about what the kids are doing. This one has something to do with the book they had read, Fugemania I believe. Such cute kiddos!

The boys have been asking and asking about sleeping in the living room under the tree since we set it all up and I have been more reluctant to do it because of Mr. Davis. I usually bring him in the living room and feed him in our big chair in the middle of the night. But he had been sleeping well and only doing 1 feeding a night if any so they did it and loved it! They even went to sleep relatively quickly. 

Last weekend Levi had his first wrestling tournament and to say it was crazy is an understatement. All the gyms were filled with wrestlers ranging from Levi's age to high school from all around the area and their families. Levi's age they don't keep track of points, more than anything it's to practice. Levi wrestled two times with dad coaching him on. Jason is now an assistant coach working with the younger kids. It's been good bonding time for him and the boys I think.

On his first round Levi got creamed, the kid was way better than him and Levi was underneath him the whole time. It was my first time ever really seeing him wrestle and to see him struggling was a little hard for me to see because he is my baby despite how big he is. Jason took some pictures of it but refuses to send them to me because Levi is on the bottom on all of them. But we'll have more tournaments where I can snap some better pictures. Silly dad.

The second round Levi was up against a kid who had even less experience than he does and so Levi took him to the mat time and time again and the other kid didn't seem to resist at all. I kind of felt bad for him because he was struggling and getting very emotional but proud of Levi. He had a couple moves he did really well.




Davis and I came late (those things go on for hours!) so we kind of found a spot in the corner to wait to see Levi. Davis did a great job and mostly hung out in his car seat and Max chatted with me or played on the ipad.
Later that evening Max ran into the kitchen with Levi's singlet on then showed me some of the moves he had learned.

Blessing Day

Davis had his baby blessing last week while everyone was visiting and all went wonderfully. He started off the day falling asleep with grandpa.

And stayed asleep until it was blessing time and actually all through the blessing. It was a sweet blessing. Though Jason did call him by his first name Neil, which is not what we are calling him but he is fighting tooth and nail to do. Not on my watch.

It was funny though because when it was done Levi, who was sitting in front of me next to his uncles, turns around and says, "There was one thing VERY wrong with that. It's not Neil"  That's right buddy. That's right.

During the testimony meeting Grandpa Larry pulls out a roll of Life Savers and handed them to Levi. Max got a wiff of what was going on and wanted in on the action. As soon as Levi figured out how to open them he stuffed as many as he could in, silly kid.

I found a cute outfit for Davis the night before because I realized I didn't have anything that worked. I guess it wasn't anything I had thought about enough in advance to order. But honestly I knew I didn't want to get one of those all white baby blessing suits because you only get to wear it once. My other boys had soft, light colored comfy outfits and it seemed to work out well. They are more comfortable, you don't have to worry about a blowout in an all white expensive (usually) outfit and you get to wear it more than once. This was the perfect outfit for the day. 

I didn't get any pictures of all of us together after the blessing. I wish I wasn't the only one who was into taking pictures sometimes (though Richelle does, maybe its a girl thing?) . I forget to take them or sometimes it is just too much of a battle to get everyone gathered together so I just let it go. We'll get a family picture soon I hope.

Later during Relief Society I sang 'Mary's Lullaby'  for part of the lesson we were having on Mary and motherhood. It was fun because the lady who was teaching asked if I could possibly hold and rock Davis while I was singing like a real lullaby. It went well. I think. He didn't freak out, though he did have a major case of the hiccups because I had just fed him, I didn't forget any of the words and no one died. So that's good. It's been a while since I did a solo and sang in front of people but got to start practicing for my new calling......

Cider

This year our normal Washington harvest routine was a little different because it was the first time I wasn't there, though I'm sure it didn't make too much of a difference because I'm sure much of the same things happened. One thing that they weren't able to do was to press cider like we usually do but it worked out because Larry brought everything over that we needed to do them so we did it all Oregon style.

On the first round my mom even got into it.

And my grandma.

Max did too but for some reason decided to use a car neck pillow. For warmth perhaps?

And the press. We have been doing this since Levi was a baby and this cider is out of this world good. Once I had some I now have found myself laughing every time I see any 'cider' in the store. Jason even got a smaller chest freezer because our other one was full so that we could freeze a bunch.

Well as much as we pressed we found that even we didn't have enough containers for them and asked around to see who would want to come over and make some.

It was great because the families that came are people that I haven't seen or hung out with in a long time since our wards split.We had the Binnions, the Wilsons and the Judkins with all their kiddos who all helped a bit but mostly loved playing around in the back yard and roasting marshmallows.

After our cider day it was time to get Christmas trees, the Washington Goodrich's planned on taking theirs home.  As it turned out after the cider was done it was getting late and Davis needed to be fed so I sent off my boys to get our tree while their was still light. They sent me this picture for my approval.

I hung with this guy.

It was a big day because after they got the tree Jason snapped these. They didn't last long when being forced to stay still.

After that trees were wrapped up/set up and more wrestling, movies and games.

But once bed time hit Max actually conked out pretty quick, which is rare for him.

T-day 2013

Levi did this in his class. I eat turkey. I see family and friends, I am a Goodrich.
Every year the boys and I make a fun treat for everyone that's not pie. Probably because I have no idea to do a pie (it's not my favorite treat) and chocolate is kind of amazing. This year the boys helped me pick this one.



It was the perfect treat and they did pretty much everything though I was in charge of the piping bag, I wasn't about to hand that off to them, what a mess that would be. Other than that it was all them.

This year Jason's family was over for the weekend so we had Larry, Richelle and the Uncles. The first thing Levi and Max did was do their best to wrestle them to the ground, didn't quite work though but they tried. And of course they loved watching them play computer games.

In the morning everyone but Davis and I went off for a few hours to play in the Turkey bowl our ward does every year. From what I hear Jason played along with some of the older boys and the rest watched. 

It was actually probably one of the most chill Thanksgivings ever, at least in my opinion. Jason was in charge of the turkey, Larry brought up a smoked turkey as well, I did the potatoes and we had stuffing from a box, bought rolls, canned cranberry sauce, lots of olives, Scarlett did her fruit salad, Jared did sweet potatoes and my mom was in charge of the pies. It was all pretty easy putting everything together and we did it buffet style as usual.

Most of us stayed upstairs, some went down to eat with my grandma it was great. And by the end everyone was stuffed. At least I was. Davis was also a dream because he took a 3 hour nap that happened to be timed perfectly so I had time to get everything put together and even eat and then he woke up after we were all done. I love that he's overall a great sleeper.

























In Max's class for the past week or two they have been doing Thanksgiving crafts. Among them were 3 different hats; a pilgrim, an Indian one and a turkey one. Max picked the pilgrim, Levi the Indian and I think they tried to get people to wear the turkey but I didn't actually see it on anyone.
Davis off in dreamland.



Maybe.

After everything was over people slept, movies were watched and Jason went off to do some Black 'Friday' shopping. He went that evening and in the morning so didn't get much sleep that night. I'm so glad I didn't go. I just love Amazon.com

Passing Notes and Keeping it Real

While I was feeding Davis Max brought me Peanut aka 'Baby', his kid, so he could get fed too. Or maybe it was to keep us company? Hopefully the latter cause otherwise that might be a little awkward.

I forgot to put these in a while ago, Levi's class made cards for Davis when he was born, I only took pictures of these two which were coincidentally from the only two girls in the class. I love it, "Welcome to the world".


Max is doing such a good job writing and can even do his whole name. Again I am astounded because it's all him, I have done very little in the way of practice. Go Max!

Just the two bigger boys and I out to run errands and grab a hot dog from Costco while Davis napped (with dad)

I was on the phone talking to someone regarding some medical stuff and I had asked the boys not to interrupt me (we've been working on phone ettiqute and not interrupting). I told them they could watch one of the scripture/hero movies which are either about people from the scriptures or famous people like Benjimin Franklin, we usually watch them on Sundays. As I was on the phone my door opens so I do the quiet gesture to Levi and shoo him away because I'm in the middle of a call. He hands me this note. I think he wanted to watch something else....

Davis' first day of church. He was amazing and slept for the first two hours. I fed him in RS (he was being a very loud eater) and then he was happy as a clam the rest of the time hanging with grandma. He made it pretty easy on all of us.

"Mom look! I made a Mayan pyramid."

Loungin' and pondering life.

The boys did this for an hour and laughed the whole time, until someone got hurt that is, then it was over.

From the Mouths of Babes

I can't get over sometimes how sweet and thoughtful Levi is, I love that kid. In the past day or so he has done and said so many things that just astound me and make me appriciate the fact that I get to be his mom.

- Davis wasn't going down for a nap very easily so I told Levi to be extra quiet so I could get him down. After a long time of trying I did it and told Levi. His response was a hand held up for a high five. It made my day.

- While I was doing dishes and he was working on some homework in the dining room he randomly asks if there are more girl pilots or boy pilots. By the way, his homework had absolutely nothing to do with planes or pilots. I told him I wasn't sure and we talked a little bit about women, the history of their employment, the right to vote and such (he thoroughly enjoys history as do I) and about what different women do now and told me very matter of factly that "Moms have the most important job in the world!" How can a little kid know something that sometimes is even hard for me to understand and remember sometimes?

- Last night Jason and I were just about to go to sleep when we heard Levi get up and go to the restroom. I waited to hear him go back to bed like he usually does but this time I saw a little (ok, big) shadow army crawl to my side of the bed where he whispered to me "I want to be with you." Melted this mamas heart so I let him snuggle in bed with his dad and me for a bit then Jason carried him off to bed. Sometimes I wish I could have my kids sleep in my bed just to snuggle them all night long but I just can't because very early on I found I can't sleep at all with kids in my bed. Oh well, I just have to do it during the day.

- We had someone at the door and I thought it was a family member so I had Levi run down and get it, it wasn't. It was a door to door sales person who knocked despite their being a 'no soliciting' sign right by the door. Eh. I hate them. After Jason politely told them no thanks and the door was shut I jokingly said (probably because I had far too many that day at the door and on the phone) "Can't they read?"  Levi quickly answered me, "They are just doing their job the best they can." He was of course right and it made me stop and think about how often I am just thinking about me and the inconvenience they are making to me which really isn't anything. They are just trying to do what most people do and earn a living. I'm so glad I have that little man to give me some perspective.

I am so grateful for this sweet, sensitive, kind, smart little/big boy in my life he always helps me remember that 'a child shall lead them'.