Roses

When we moved into our new house, we were blessed by the previous owners having planted beautiful rose bushes all along the back of our house. Unfortunately, they hadn't done a very good job taking care of them. While the rose bushes were tall (some around 7ft), roses were scarce. So we set to work pruning and hacking back the untamed things. Well, our hard work paid off and now our backyard is full of lovely, sweet-smelling roses! I love being able to go out the back door, make a couple of snips, and have a gorgeous bouquet that brightens up our kitchen. It just makes me so happy!

Throwin' Rocks

As I mentioned in a previous post, Levi quite enjoys throwing rocks. My parents have added a new water feature to their backyard, complete with ponds and waterfalls. Needless to say, the only thing Levi wants to do when we go to Grandma and Grandpa Thurgood's house is throw rocks in the water. (That, or watch a movie on the BIG screen.) Luckily, Grandpa is always willing to take Levi outside and play with him. And, as anyone who knows Levi can attest, he has quite the arm! Perhaps a feature quarterback or pitcher? Only time will tell....

Camping at Mt. Rainer

(Click on the collage to make it bigger)

The weekend of August 15-17th, we had the opportunity to go camping at Mt. Rainer with my sister Amber and her family. I started camping at Mt. Rainer's Ohanapecosh Campground when I was only a baby. Although I haven't camped there every year of my life, I have most of them. So Ohanapecosh holds a very special place in my heart, and I do believe it might be the most beautiful place in the world. Sam has come with me to Mt. Rainer two other times, but this is the first time Levi has been there. I love that I can share this tradition that is so special to me with a family of my own.

So, I just got Picasa 3 and I already love it. The new collage feature is so much easier to use! You might have noticed little numbers on each picture... well, here's what I have to say about each one.

1. When we first got to Ohanapecosh, after we set up camp we went for a walk. The campground is filled with streams, so Sam took Levi down to one and was teaching him to skip rocks. Levi's didn't skip, but they did make a splash! Levi thought it was the greatest thing ever, and I loved watching Sam being a fun daddy.
2. If you look closely, you can see Levi is holding a rock. I didn't get any great ones of him actually throwing the rock. The next day, we went down to the river and Levi was content to throw rocks in the river for hours. Such simple amusements.... :)
3. This picture is really for my family (and you'll probably have to click on it to enlarge it). Last year there was severe flooding at Mt. Rainer. Our favorite loop, C, was especially hit hard. Sam got this picture of site C25. While it may just look like a stream running through it, actually just past the sign is a shear cliff maybe 100 feet high (I don't know, I'm not good at estimating... but it was high!) down to the Ohanapecosh River below. Not a campsite I'd like to stay in. :)
4. It is hard to see what is happening in this picture, but I had to put it in so I'd remember to tell the story. While we were on our walk the first day there, we came across a centipede. As any good parents would, we pointed it out to Levi who immediately wanted to touch it. So Sam is holding Levi back from touching it and talking to him about the centipede, about how we don't want to hurt it and should just leave it alone. About two seconds after this picture is taken (keep in mind what Sam is telling Levi), Levi stomped on the poor bug! So much for leaving it alone! Where'd that come from?
5. We had 3 or 4 of the most beautiful blue jays flying around our campsite. Sam captured this great picture of one right by our firepit.
6. Sam and Levi on the bridge spanning the Ohanapecosh River. Aren't my boys cute?
7. Here is Levi, feeling very chipper, one morning. He was so excited to wake up in a tent and to know that he'd be able to play outside ALL day! I just love this picture.
8. A family photo. So, I told Sam that he had to take a least one picture with me in it, because I'm always the one taking the pictures and never in the pictures. My children are going to look back at their childhood photos and wonder why their mom wasn't ever around! So, we were all packed up, ready to go, and actually in the car leaving to go home when I made the comment about how I still wasn't in any of the pictures. So we hopped out and got a family picture taken. At least Levi will now know I was there on his first trip to Mt. Rainer! :D

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of Amber and her family, although they were there as well. In fact, I didn't get hardly any pictures at all. Our battery was pretty much dead, and we could only get one picture out of it before it would shut off and take forever to power back on. Amber was going to send me some pictures for this post, but they are having some technical difficulties with their camera. But the Puzeys were there, and we had a blast camping with them! Thanks for inviting us to go along!

Cousins

I didn't get many pictures while Amber and her kids were staying with us, but I did snag a few of Levi and Carson (Amber's youngest- he's 2). Here they are playing nicely together, just chillin' and watching Madagascar.



I'm glad that Levi has so many cousins his age. I think he will especially appreciate this more and more as he gets older. He has two boys cousins on each side of the family that are all within 3-7 months of him.

Kid in a Candy Store

Last week, my sister Amber and her four kids came to stay with us. It was nice to have the company, as Sam was in California on a business trip. We took a day and drove out to Walla Walla, Washington. (I just love that name!) While we were there, we stopped in at Brights Candy Store. Now I know exactly where the term "kid in a candy store" came from. Levi ran from one bin of candy to the next. We finally settled on one of those big lollipops. He was too cute walking down the street licking a huge ol' sucker. We overheard a lot of people saying "Look! How cute!" I had left my camera in the car, so I didn't get any pictures until we were back in the parking lot. But I still got some rather cute ones, so I'm posting them all (in a slideshow). (And yes, the carseat it still sticky... you'll see what I mean when you get to the last few pictures. The shirt, however, did come clean. I LOVE Tide with Bleach!)

Benton Franklin County Fair!

After missing the last two years, we were able to go to our local county fair this year. I grew up going to this fair, so it is kind of a nostalgic tradition. Our fairs are pretty darn awesome. Growing up I pretty much just went for the carnival rides. This year, we didn't do any rides... kinda hard to do when you are pregnant. Plus, they've just gotten so darn expensive, and Levi is really too young still. We spent our time at the tractors, animals, and eating food. Ahhh... fair food! That is reason enough to go to the fair. Too bad I ran out of money, because I'm in that second- trimester-eat-us-out-of-house-and-home-stage. BBQ Pork, elephant ears, caramel apples, lemonade, foot long corn dogs... better stop or I'm going to have to go raid the kitchen. Oh, and Air Supply performed, which was pretty cool. (Also this year at the fair were Chicago, Gary Allen, LoverBoy, and Emerson Drive... told you we had pretty awesome fairs!)

Levi loved the tractors! He sat on each of the 6 they had lined up. Notice how he is even shifting?

If pictures had sound, you would hear Levi going "Vroom, vroom".

Levi was absolutely giddy about the animals. He kept running from cage to cage, pointing and talking excitedly. We saw cows, goats, lambs, sheep, ponies, and pigs!

Levi loved to reach his hands through the fences and pet each of the animals. That me a bit nervous that he might get snapped at... especially with the goats! But no animals ever attempted a bite. Right before we left the barn, this sheep stuck his head out of the fence, so Levi got a good chance to really get up close and personal! Unfortunately, Levi got a bit too excited and bopped him on the nose. I was sure the sheep would retaliate, but he just jumped and whipped his head back inside of the fence. The sudden movement was enough to scare Levi, but he didn't get hurt at all.

Being ignored in the highchair... again

Perhaps I should start
paying attention to Levi when he is in his highchair. Once again, I was sitting two feet away, eating my own lunch, when I noticed that Levi was very, very quiet. I guess he was wanting to go down for a nap, and since I wasn't putting him in his crib, he just fell asleep right there in the highchair. I liked this suprise much better than the chocolate pudding one (see previous post if you don't know what I'm talking about). I am so grateful to have such an easy, sweet baby. Don't get me wrong, sometimes he can throw a great fit or refuse to go down to sleep and scream like the best of them, but overall I'm pretty darn lucky!

Oh, what a day!

Levi, without a doubt, keeps me "on my toes." Some days it seems like all I do is clean up one mess after the other. Yes, that seems frustrating and like drudgery, but it is actually very entertaining. That's why I had to grab my camera and document this day (August 13th... see, I'm still playing catch up from not having the internet).

What a yummy looking face! The sad part is, I was sitting at the kitchen table two feet away reading my book, completely oblivious to the artistic face painting going on just to my left. Levi can be a very quiet mischievous child. Needless to say, he was thrown in the bath immediately upon my discovery (well... after taking a few pictures and laughing my head off), which explains his lack of clothing in the next picture.

[Insert here: Video of Levi creating more mischief. I starting downloading a video I took of Levi, then I remembered I let it run a bit long, so the file was huge and decided against it. But if there were to be a video here and you were watching it, this is what you would see: the viewer enters a room which is immediately recognized as the master bedroom. There on the middle of the bed is an adorable, diaper-clad toddler, sitting surrounded by various objects that were once on his mother's dresser, reading the Dilbert-a-Day calendar that was once on his father's dresser, and laughing out loud like he got the joke. A closer look would reveal an opened jar of Vaseline, a destroyed chapstick, a small amount of lotion dispensed but not rubbed in, etc.]

And the final straw. It wasn't enough to relieve the dressers of the burdensome things they were holding, Levi had to then climb onto the dresser himself and check out who the cutie in the mirror was. It was cute and all fun and games until he started smacking the mirror with that Maglite he was holding. I finally wised up, took him downstairs, and we played with his toys together the rest of the day.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Levi has always been an extremely observant child. He picks up on everything so fast (which means, I really should be more careful about what I do and say in front of him!). For example, the other day, I was cleaning up some stuff in the garage. Levi dug through my purse and found the keys to the car. After "unlocking" the car, I opened the door for him and helped him onto the drivers seat. I went inside to put some stuff away, and on my way back I could hear a dinging sound... the kind the car makes when the key is in the ignition and the door is open. That's right, Levi figured out how to get the correct key into the ignition (luckily our dinger is pretty sensitive, and he barely had it in there). When I got back to him, he signaled for me to shut the door, so I appeased him. Then he waved goodbye to me, pretended to turn the key, put one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the gear shift, "shifted" into reverse, then put both hands on the steering wheel and started going "vroom vroom". It was hilarious... and a little nerve wracking... he really does was everything that I do! Here are a couple of other examples of how Levi can do it "all by himself".


I'll blow my own nose, thank you. And do it anytime I see a Kleenex or roll of toliet paper. The good part is, Levi also throws it away in the garbage.

Makeup time. Levi has putting on makeup down to an art. (I told you he was very observant). He knows exactly which brush goes with which makeup and where to apply it on the face. Here he is applying his eye shadow. :) Below, you might notice the eye shadow on his right eye (our left side) as he decides which color to do next.

And here we observe Levi's newest skill (thanks to some help from Dad). This is Levi's first self-protrait. Not bad for a 18-month old.

Beware of the Post Below

Okay, so in the post right under this one, I tried some unique formatting. Well... it made the text huge, and I don't know how to fix it. (I tried making it the smallest size font, but it is still huge!) Anyways, just a little friendly warning about how weird and huge the next post is.

It's a...

BABY! A human one, we hope. :)

And the ultrasound technician says she's 90% sure that it is a

Girl!!!!!!

We're very excited to have a daughter. And if Levi could understand what was going on, I'm sure he'd be very excited to have a little sister.

Oh, by the way, she has a name. It is BRINLEY VICTORIA.

(p.s. Sorry it took me so long to post this. They gave us a CD-Rom with the ultrasound pictures on it, but it wasn't formatted correctly and didn't work. We have a scanner, but no wires to hook it up, so I couldn't get the picture on the computer that way either. Finally, I took a picture of the picture with the digital camera. Got to love technology!)

BIG!

These pictures were taken on July 8th. Levi and I went to Burger King with lots of aunts, cousins, and Grandma Thurgood. Levi just ran off after his cousins and was climbing around on the big toy. I couldn't believe it! He just seemed so big, I had to grab my camera and take some pictures. I can't believe how fast my baby is growing up. He is definitely not an infant anymore, but a sweet little boy with lots of energy! The last picture was a horrible shot... originally you couldn't even see Levi. He was all black because of the bright light coming in the windows behind him. I did a little playing around with it though and, even though it still isn't a great picture, you can actually see Levi in it now!

Clements Family Reunion con't.

Alright, so as for the rest of the Clements Family Reunion. The first day of the reunion, Levi fell and hit is head on the corner of a closet door. It swelled up instantly into the biggest goose egg! I felt so bad for him. But he is one tough kid! Levi only cried for a minute and then he was back to playing. The goose egg swelled so fast and so big that it stretched his skin to the point of splitting and he got a big scab which, over the next week or so, kept coming off and bleeding a whole bunch. I'm not sure the pictures even do it justice, but here they are anyway.


Saturday, we took a little outing to Fishhook Park (about 45 minutes outside of Richland). I unfortunately didn't get too many pictures there, but I did get a good one of Levi! We took my parents Sea-Doo... and that is where our endless adventures derived from. :) First, Sam ran out of gas in the middle of the river. I had to ask another group of boaters to go tow him in. We couldn't figure out why he ran out of gas, seeing as though he was only the 3rd or 4th person so have a ride. We finally figured out that when we had filled up the tank on our way there, we had only filled up the reserve tank. So now both the regular and reserve tanks were empty. We filled it up with the gas we brought with us. Then, later, Abe and Ann (Sam's brother and his wife) couldn't get the Sea-Doo started after they had drifted away from the dock, so Abe had to jump in and tow it back. Finally, Becky and Eric (Sam's sister and husband), somehow completely capsized the Sea-D00. Eric has very limited use of the left side of his body, so add that to the difficulty anyone has trying to get back on a Sea-Doo in the middle of the water, and it was quite the ordeal. Eric thought it was pretty funny... Becky not so much. All in all, it was a really fun day full of lots of memories. :)
On the way home, Joe and Levi both fell asleep... in the same position! We had to take a picture.

Oh wait... all the Sea-Doo mishaps were not our only adventures for the day. On the way home, my parents van's (which we were driving to tow the Sea-Doo) tire blew out. The scariest part was the lady behind us who either was speeding, not paying attention, or slow to react, and almost hit us. Luckily, she changed lanes just in time. We got the spare put on and were able to make it the rest of the way home.

(How many Clements' does it take to change a tire? :D)

The Fourth of July

Okay, so I actually spent many hours when we were in our temporary apartment (and still had internet available) trying to post about the Fourth of July weekend, but to no avail... well, except severe frustration and the computer seriously fearing for its life. So now that we have internet again and lots to catch up on, I'm going to try doing multiple posts about the weekend instead of trying to cram it all into one and start another cycle of torment. :)

What was this post supposed to be about again... oh yes, the Fourth of July. Sam's family held their first ever family reunion over the Fourth of July this year. It was a blast! Everyone was able to be there, except Reuben who is serving a mission in Salt Lake. The reunion took place here in Richland at Mom and Dad Clements' house. Everybody arrived sometime on the 3rd. On the Fourth, we went to a parade in Pasco. It was by far the quietest parade I have ever attended, and to be honest, a bit boring. But Levi and the other kids really loved it, so that made it all worth it.

After the parade and lunch, we went to Mom and Dad's neighborhood pool and had a swimming pool "Olympics". That was really a blast. We played the over/under game (where one person passes a ball over their head and the next under their legs and so on), and another where we had to scramble to grab ping pong balls with different point values marked on them. The day ended with a came of water ultimate ball (since we used a ball instead of a frisbee). Check out the pictures below. I think you can click on the grid to make it bigger, but I'm not positive.

Hooray for the Internet!

Wahoo! We finally got the internet hooked up at our new house. Now I have lots of blogging to catch up on... so stayed tuned for a slew of new posts (most likely to be followed by another drought because then I will be all blogged out!). Well... I better get started on the real posts. Wish me luck!