Baby Shower

My wonderful sister and sisters-in-law threw me a baby shower (isn't that so nice of them?). Lots of people came, we had some great food, played some fun games (unusual for a shower...), and we got some great stuff for Brinley. I am very excited to see her in some of the extrememly adorable outfits we got. My sister was in charge of picture taking, and she did a great job the first 5 minutes. After that, she forgot all about it. So anyone who didn't show up right on time didn't make it into the pictures... sorry! At the end of the night, right after I opened the last present, I remembered the camera. So Lacey snapped a shot of me holding up the last present - a very beautiful Christmas dress for Brinley to wear next year. (And my apologies go out to Mom... Lacey never did get a good picture of you.)

Oh, and funny story. My Aunt Louise arrived quite early with my Mom and Grandma (even before I got there). As they were coming in the door and taking off shoes, my grandma fell backwards and my Aunt Louise made a snide remark like "Way to go, Grace!" Then the next second, she tripped forward and ended up hurting her foot and ankle pretty bad. She had to sit the entire night with her foot up on a chair with a ice pack to keep the swelling down. At the end of the night Illeen Hodgson, from my ward, let her borrow some crutches to get home on. Moral of the story: don't make fun of other people because something bad will happen to you and everyone else will get a good laugh out of it.

Wordless Wednesday

Pregnancy Picture

I haven't posted one of these yet, so I thought I'd better. This is me last week at 33 weeks (just over 7 months along, for those not acquainted with pregnancy lingo). And just so you know... I feel so much HUGER (is that grammatically correct?) than this picture looks.

Day-After-Halloween Shopping

This year Levi and I hit the post-Halloween sales at Target and Walmart. We got some really great deals and some much MUCH needed Halloween decor. Levi was pretty hilarious at Walmart, so I just had to post these pictures. I picked up a witch hat (for 50 cents... perhaps I'll be a witch next year...) and Levi loved it! He wore it the entire time that we were in the store. Everyone got a good laugh out of it-me most of all. And I guess all that shopping just wore Levi right out, because when we got out to the car, I opened the hatch and let him get out of the cart, he immediately sprawled out using some blankets as a pillow. That kid just cracks me up.

Trick-or-Treat

Trick-or-Treating was so much fun this year! Levi went as the cutest Mickey Mouse you've ever seen, Sam was a Mad Scientist, and Brinley and I went as a Jack-o-Lantern. We went to Truck-or-Treat at the church, then over to Grandma and Grandpa Clements to show off our costumes. We also went to our next door neighbors house. Then Sam went with his parents to Joe's football game in Sunnyside (which the dominated!!!) and Levi and I went to my brother Justin's house for more Trick-or-Treating with the Thurgood side of the family.

Levi picked up on the whole Trick-or-Treating bit pretty fast. He would walk up to the cars (since we were at Truck-or-Treat first), set down his soccer ball bucket, and then step back. After they put in the candy, he'd pick it back up and move on to the next Sweet Stop. Levi had a lot of fun Trick-or-Treating with his cousins, too, but I got totally worn out so we didn't stay out as long as his older cousins. He still got quite a bit of candy... I think the last two weeks may have proved that that isn't necessarily a good thing... oh well! It was so much fun to watch my cute boy walk around in his little costume and approach the cars and houses. Below is a slide show and some movies from Truck-or-Treat. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the cousins (on either side), but they were all dressed very cute.

Painting the Pumpkin

This pumpkin was growing in our backyard when we moved in. A vine from the neighbors had sneaked through the fence... so we reaped the benefits! Isn't it a gorgeous pumpkin?

Sam was our chief artist (and by chief... I mean the only one who actually painted the pumpkin). He did a fantastic job, as you will see in the final picture.

Levi, of course, wanted to paint too, so we let him paint in his coloring book. This was Levi's first time painting ever. He did a good job not getting it absolutely everywhere... just several places. Nothing that didn't clean up, though. He had a blast and really loved it.

Here is Levi towards the end of the painting escapade. He is looking a little more colorful. Notice the paint on his lips... every time he got paint on his fingers, he would try to lick it off. Yuck! We had quite the time trying to teach him not to eat the paint. He finally got it though and would go to put his fingers in his mouth, then stop, scrunch up his nose, and say "Yuck!"

Ta-Da! The final product! See, I told you Sam did a fantastic job. He copied (not traced, just freehand copied) the tractor from Levi's coloring book (tractors are currently a favorite of Levi's). What a good lookin' pumpkin... and family, too!

What a character!

So, I remembered a story that happened while we were canning applesauce that I really want to record for family history's sake. Plus, I'm pretty sure you will all find it quite amusing.

Towards the end of the canning project (I really only had clean-up and a couple other things to do), I guess Levi had decided that we had spent enough time in the kitchen and that he was DONE. He walked over to the pantry and pointed/grunted at the door. I figured he wanted some chocolate chips because that's pretty much what it always means. So, I opened the door and started for the chocolate chips when I noticed Levi pointing at something else... something besides chocolate (weird, I know). He was pointing to the hook on the inside of the door where I always hang my apron. So I asked if he wanted me to take off my apron, then I did and hung it up. He started clapping... how funny is that!?!?!?!? Like, "Hooray for Mom! She did what she was supposed to." What a smart cookie. That's how we always let him know that he did the right thing, so I guess he's using the same trick on us. He was kinda mad, though, when I put the apron right back on...

Domestic Diva

Yes, that's right. I am turning into a domestic diva. This past week I tried my hand at canning for the first time ever. I was pretty excited about it. And the lucky food that got to be my guinea pig was... applesauce. And some mighty delicious applesauce at that! With the help of a Victorio strainer (one of my favorite new things), a very large stove (hooray for my stove!), and a sweet little boy, my canning experience went beautifully and the product turned out fabulous! Levi downed the applesauce I gave him, which is saying A LOT since he has been the pickest eater lately. Check out the slideshow for the entire process and the videos to see how good of a helper Levi was.

The white bowl has lemon juice on it to preserve the color of the apples. That is what Levi is sucking off the apple. Strange, I know, but the kid loves lemon juice. He'll drink it straight.

Grandpa's Hats

We were over at Grandma and Grandpa Clements' house while Sam helped his dad fix his truck. Levi found Grandpa Clements' hats and decided to see how they fit. He was so cute, I had to grab the camera and take some pictures.

I'm not quite sure why, but Levi loves to pull the hats over his face. He does it with our hats at home, too. Then he walks around like a blind man until he runs into something. What a silly kid.

We went outside to show Dad and Grandpa how cute Levi was, and he decided to give one hat to Daddy and one hat to Grandpa... Levi is really good about sharing and is always finding toys for other kids to play with.

Isn't this one just adorable!?!?!

(Sorry about the color... the light wasn't on in the hallway.)

Ward Talent Show

On October 18th, we had a ward talent show. They seemed pretty desperate for people to participate, so we decided we'd better do our part. I displayed pictures of some arts and crafts decorations that I've made for our house. Levi and Sam preformed the classic Flip Flop maneuver. The crowd loved it! (They don't see toddlers very often...) The movie clip is below. Unfortunately, I turned off the camera too soon. After they finished and everyone clapped, Levi totally started bawling. He wasn't crying because of the Flip Flop, it was because of everyone clapping. It scared him. Poor kiddo.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Mom's homemade strawberry jam...straight out of the jar. (Who needs bread?)

CARS! (Or as I currently say, 'ars). Here I am holding just four (but one is a monster truck). I often have even more in my hands and will play for hours with my cars. I also have to go to sleep holding a couple of them.

BALLS! (I have actually started saying the "b", so I'm pretty much an expert on this word.) I can spot a ball anywhere... and every circle is a ball to me. Here I am at Old Navy... it took me two seconds to find the balls here. For a while, I liked throwing balls most of all. Now I spend most of my time practicing running and kicking balls. Mom says I have lots of coordination and that I'll be quite the athlete.

Sprinkler Blowouts

Nice house, huh? I have no idea whose it is... I Googled it. I just wanted a visual representation of what has been occupying most of my time and has kept me from posting anything for a shameful amount of time. Sam's dad has a sprinkler blowout business and this year we volunteered (can you call it that when you are getting paid?) to help out. I am in charge of contacting and scheduling people and organizing the blowout routes. This takes a lot more time than it sounds like. Sam is helping his dad do the actual blowouts. So... that's pretty much the update on our lives... yay. This is supposedly the busiest week for blowouts, so maybe next week I'll get around to an actual post... that is, if you're lucky. ;-) (Just pretend like it means that much to you. Thanks.)

Girls! Girls! Girls!

Jaime, Allison, Taylor, Alison, Paige, Sam, Kelsey, Levi, Amy, Brittany

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to host 7 high school girls at our house. Sam's brother, Joe, was on a committee in charge of the WASC (Washington Association of Student Councils) Conference. To help him out, we volunteered to be a home stay family and have student leaders come stay out our house. It was a fun experience. Levi loved all the attention. I was really impressed by the caliber of these girls and how polite they were. One of the girls who stayed with us, Jamie, is highly functioning mentally retarded. Her friend and mentor, Amy, also stayed with us. Amy was absolutely amazing with her, and I was really impressed at how well all the other girls did with her as well. The girls were also so thoughtful as to bring us gifts! I think it is something we would definitely do again in the future. The only downside was that Levi lost out on quite a bit of sleep staying up late and waking up early. Then on Sunday, we switched church times to 1pm... Levi usually goes down for his nap around 12/12:30. So he only got an hour nap on Sunday. Well, yesterday he really made up for it. He woke up at 9am. At 9:50am, he went back down for a nap... AND SLEPT UNTIL 2PM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, he has been much happier since catching up on his missed sleep.

Hut! Hut! Hike!

Levi has become a sports fanatic. In fact, ball-or rather "mall"- is one of the only words that he says consistently and that everyone can understand. After going to several of Uncle Joe's football games, Levi has become particularly fond of the pigskin pastime. One day, he picked up a small football, crouched down, yelled out some sounds (that are rhythmically quite similar to Hut! Hut! Hike!), stood up, threw the ball, and then ran after it. We have no idea where he got the Hut! Hut! Hike! from since you can't hear the quarterback yell that from the field. I guess maybe it is just innate. Now he does it all the time, whether with a football or any other ball he can get his hands on. I was able to catch this adorable new ability on camera, but I was holding it the wrong way and you can't rotate video... so feel free to watch with your head at a 90 degree angle!

Carmel Apples

The astute among you (or perhaps simply those with more time) may have noticed the Fall Activity List in my sidebar. I love Fall! Something about the cool, crisp air and changing colors just makes me happy... or maybe it is the baking and goodies that I associate with it. :) But lately, there has been this weird phenomenon in my life called "time flying by". Summer was pretty much over before I knew that it had begun. Granted, we were pretty busy buying a house, moving, and me trying not to throw up (so glad my morning sickness doesn't last throughout the pregnancy!). But, I didn't want the same thing to happen to Autumn, especially since it is such a sort season.

So for Family Home Evening a couple of weeks ago, we sat down and made a list of things that we wanted to do this Fall. One of those things was make Carmel Apples. Back in college, my roommate, Michelle, and I had a tradition of making carmel apples, and I've decided to continue this tradition with my own family. This years carmel apples proved to be quite funny, though. After making the carmel apples, I realized that I had no room to store them in the fridge. (I was a co-chair over food for our Stake Relief Society activity, so my fridge was chock-full of that food.) I had no choice but to leave the apples out on the counter. Well, I guess by doing that, the carmel never got the chance to really set. It pretty much just ran down the apples and pooled on the tray. By the time we got around to eating the last apple, there was a ring of carmel about 3 inches in diameter around the bottom of it! Moral of the story: store carmel apples in the fridge!