This Last Week

So a couple of cute stories about Levi. One was from his birthday that I forgot. I had just finished making and decorating Levi's cake, and I asked him to come look. As I said before he was sick, so his voice was all scratchy and he was tired, but he agreed. He took one look and ever so softly said, 'It is beautiful!' Probably the most precious thing he's done in a while. He is such a sweetheart sometimes. The other Levi story happened the other day when we were in the car. Levi was being feisty and yelling, 'Stop it!', so Justin was saying back to him. Then he started saying other things like 'Yes', 'No', etc. Levi would repeat every single word Justin said. So then Justin said 'Daddy is cool.' expecting Levi to repeat what he said. Instead Levi hesitated and then said, 'No, Daddy no cool!' I couldn't help but burst out laughing, which made Justin and Levi laugh too. It was a funny and charming moment for all.

In regards to Justin, we found out last week that he's been accepted to OSU for the fall. We are excited and thrilled to be done with LBCC and the daily commute to Albany. His major will be business, and he should graduate in summer 2011.

This past week Levi has developed a love for my camera and taking pictures. Here are some that he personally took without help from mommy or daddy.

Hazel is growing every day and I swear becomes more and more adorable! She smiles, laughs, coos, and talks all the time. She has discovered her hands and loves devouring them every chance she gets.

I love this one because you can see me smiling in her eyes.

We got our tax return last week, and since Levi got a lot of Thomas train sets for his birthday we bought some expansion track for him. It takes up our whole dinning room, but he loves it. By the end of the day he usually rips it apart and wants me or Justin to rebuild in the morning. We are trying to teach him to do it himself though.

Another purchase was an Xbox 360, and an Xbox Live subscription for Justin. This allows him to play with family and friends who also own an Xbox 360 via the internet connected to the game console. We've had a blast so far playing with our brother-in-law, Braydon in Utah. Levi's old pal Bentley (Braydon's son) was awake one evening we were playing, so he came in and we let the two boys wear the headsets and they sat and had a great conversation for about five minutes. It was so sweet. They miss each other so much, I wish we both lived closer to the other.

For Valentine's Day we spent most of the day just relaxing at home. Justin left me little 'I Love You' notes around the house, which was very sweet. He also got me chocolates and flowers and some very soft socks. I got him an Oregon Ducks basketball jersey and a green Oregon shirt (he's wearing it in one of the pictures above), and some balloons. We had my parents babysit the kids so we could go out to dinner for a little. I debated for a while on where to go. I went from fancy to casual, to nice casual, to ethnic, then to bowling alley. I decided on the bowling alley because Justin and I both love to bowl, we have fond memories of bowling together. We also wanted something fun to do, and this way it was more like a full date instead of just dinner. We went out for ice cream afterwards too. I was shocked to find out we had only been gone for an hour and half though. We had a great time and it was a fun Valentine's day.

The last thing is a sentence or two from Justin. He wanted to contribute to the blog, so here he is...I just wanted to say that I have the awesomest wife ever in the history of mankind! That's all. Thank you and have a great night!

Party Time

Its been a while, but I have had a busy two weeks!
I had my niece's birthday (she lives in Chicago, so I can't claim that as a busy day), followed by my sister's birthday, followed by a friend's daughter's birthday party for Levi, followed by Levi's birthday.

For Levi's birthday we took him on a train ride, a real one. We caught an Amtrak in Albany and rode up to Salem where my mom picked us up. The plan was to ride a train back as well, but our train up there was two hours delayed so we missed our train ride back (they refunded our money). We sat in the station for those two hours because they kept delaying it every fifteen minutes, so we couldn't ever get a good idea how long it would really be. It was worth the wait though, Levi was in heaven! He loved it! Justin and I decided that we should take a train ride once a year. It wasn't that expensive, and it was relaxing to just sit and watch the countryside. We took some video, but you'll have to go here to see them: http://picasaweb.google.com/JustDaCrooks/January2009 (they are the images near the bottom with little gray rectangles in the lower left corner)

Levi's party went well, even though he was sick. He had the flu, so he only lasted about an hour, but he loved the party, and so did all the kids. I made him a Cars themed party, and even made a Lightning McQueen cake for him. We had it at McDonalds so he could play in their tunnels and play place. He invited a few friends from church and they all came, which made him really happy. Like I said he only lasted an hour, but I think all the kids and parents were ready to go by that point.

Hazel has been learning a lot about herself, and so have we. She has recently discovered her hands and loves to grasp things, especially my hair. She is all smiles most of the time, but we are still dealing with a bit of gas every now and then. She has learned that mommy and daddy can't always hold her, and she isn't happy about that. She is learning to laugh, which is cute to watch her try. She is making all sorts of expressions with her face as well, some cute, some funny!

For his birthday Levi got a lot of Thomas Trackmaster trains, which he plays with constantly. In fact he prefers playing with them to watching shows, a first! I am so happy he has something he can use his imagination with that distracts him from the tv! He also had his 3-year-old appointment with the doctor, where we were told he is a great kid and seems to be developing great! He said by three they should know one color, and he knows four or five. The doctor thought it was interesting because Levi knows yellow, and that is normally the last color kids learn because it is hard to say. However, kids normally learn red first, and Levi really struggles with identifying red. But overall he looked great. He is tall for his age, which means he weighs more for his age too. He is 3' 2" tall, and if that is any indicator of his height when he is fully grown, I bet he'll be over 6 feet tall! Don't know where he gets it from though!

Well that's all from our family! We are well and great, hope you are too!