Christmas Card

In case you're not on our Christmas card mailing list (and why aren't you anyway? Leave your address and you'll be added for next year...if you want), here's what we sent out this year! Merry Christmas everyone :)

Well, not much has changed with Becca and Brad.

‘Cept someone’s hair has diminished a tad.

Brad still likes his job, not yet sick of the feet.

Becca’s getting more tough, she’s quite the athlete.

He still likes to run, she still likes to read.

But on to the boys, we’d like to proceed.

Still Jacob is like no one else you will meet,

has so much to say, with no time to eat.

He plays pretty well, with Levi “LooLoo”

‘Specially when brother will play sword fight too.

He goes to preschool. He likes to attend.

And now he says he has a girlfriend.

And Levi, is looking a lot like his bro.

Yes, which one is which, can be hard to know.

He learns a new word, about every day:

Like ball, mama, shoes; has so much to say!

Loves playing with Dad, his favorite man.

And likes to read books whenever he can.

As 2010 has come to a close,

We hope you’ve enjoyed our new Christmas prose.

Yes this year so much, we have been blessed.

We’re healthy and happy and all of the rest.

As for the New Year, we hope you’re good too,

And now bid you all farewell or adieu!

4 years old!

Jacob had a very big day in the month of October. On the 28th, my first born turned four years old! He was lucky this year since his preschool class was having a fall festival at school, so it mainly meant a party for him at school! They had all the kids dress up as scarecrows and then they also got their faces painted at school (hence the face paint on him in most of these pictures).

When Jacob came home for lunch, I asked him what he wanted to eat. This is his lunch of choice: Kraft macaroni, hot dogs with ketchup, and a glass of milk!

In the evening, we had Grandma and Grandpa Smith come over and celebrate Jacob's birthday with us. G&G Jones weren't able to make it as they were celebrating their daughter's birthday that same night. Jacob has really been into Star Wars for the past year or so and he requested a Star Wars theme. In the afternoon, Grandpa Smith came over and took Jacob for a ride in his truck so I was able to put up some decorations without Jacob around. He thought they were awesome!Jacob really wanted a blue Star Wars cake. Luckily, all of the cakes our local bakeries make that are Star Wars themed are blue!


Jacob was amazed by his cake!

Blowing out the candles. You'd think, with as much air appears to be in his cheeks that he'd be able to blow out the candles. It took him three tries!

Fighting Grandma Smith with his Star Wars men from the cake.

Jacob received a lot of fun gifts. He has been wanting an umbrella for awhile, so Levi decided to get him a Spider man umbrella.
Jacob also go the running pants he's wearing. If he had his choice, he would wear nothing but running pants.

Jacob has been wanting a 'scooter with two wheels' for awhile now, so we decided to indulge him. He loved it! He got one with three wheels for his third birthday, but noticed other scooters with just two wheels and has been talking about wanting one for awhile.

He was even kind enough to help Levi ride it.

Jacob was one happy four year old! He is such a funny and smart kid. He still has a lot of energy, but thankfully has been waking up at a more reasonable hour than he was over the summer. He still has an amazing memory. He also has a thirst for knowledge and asks all kinds of questions and demands a real answer. There is no fooling this kid. If what you tell him doesn't make sense in his mind, he'll keep asking questions about it until it does. You cannot tell him things like "You make faces like that and your face will freeze that way." He won't believe it.

We really love having Jacob in our home. He's a lot of work and keeps us on our toes, but he's also hilarious and a very loving brother. We love you Jake!

18 months

So, I'm a little bit behind. It seems like a lot has happened in the months of October and November, so, if you follow this blog, check back often as I'm going to be posting a bit in the next week or two.

We'll start off from the beginning of October. Levi turned 18 months!!! I didn't post about it on the day he turned 18 months because I was waiting to take him to the doctor to see what his stats are. His appointment was at the end of October so he was about 18 1/2 months when he was measured, etc. Drum roll, please!

Height: 33 inches (72nd percentile)
Weight: 21 lb. 3.2 oz. (about the 3rd percentile)

So yep, still tall and skinny. At least this time around the doctor didn't gripe to me about how skinny he is as he's now at least in the 3rd percentile instead of not even on the growth charts!

What has Levi been up to? Well, he's been a very busy boy lately. He loves to play light sabers with his big brother and he's gotten really good at fake dying! It's hilarious to watch a one year old fall on the floor grunting in order to die!
One of the big things Levi did this month was to get rid of his little stuffed bear that he liked to carry around everywhere and chew on. It was really getting disgusting, so we decided it was time to go. Levi's actually done really well with it being gone and I'm so glad to not have to see him carrying that gross thing around anymore. Win-win!
He's been a pretty good eater, despite what the weight charts may say.
He loves it when we read books to him. This is on a day when Jacob and Levi were waiting for Dad to get home. Jacob wanted to read a book while he waited, so the two of them sat on the front porch and Jacob read to Levi. Jacob can't read, but he's pretty much got this book memorized, so he could kind of read it to Levi!
Here is what Levi's vocabulary is as of today: hat; hair; hot (they all pretty much sound like ha so you have to know what he's talking about); car; cracker (sounds a lot like car); yeah; ball; shoe; boot; balloon (sounds a lot like boot); blue (sounds a lot like boot too); dada; mama; juice; cheese; keys. He also says J for Jacob. He can sign all done, more, and please. He can also shake his head for no or yes. He will wave bye bye, but still doesn't say it.

Those are what I can think of for now. There may be more. He is learning quite a bit and just recently learned how to take off his onesie PJs and his diaper. Luckily he did it before we put him in his bed and he didn't do it at night. I'm hoping now that he's mastered it, he will lose interest and I won't have to get too creative in how to keep his jammies on him.

Levi did great his first few weeks in nursery. I'm so glad he likes going to class and doesn't really cry. I guess dropping him off at the gym child care area has probably helped, which is great! Happy 18 month birthday Levi, we love you :)

A bit of fall

This past weekend we decided to take the boys to a pumpkin farm. When we got there, they had all kinds of activities for the kids.

Jacob had a great time in the bounce house!



Until it was time to get out :)

And Levi enjoyed this little tractor.
And they had a fun train that Levi took a ride on.

We tried having Levi go inside the bounce house when there weren't many other kids inside. He didn't like it very much. If you enlarge the picture, you can see a little tear on his cheek :(
But, he LOVED this slide!

And he loved climbing the rock wall (with assistance) to get to the slide.
This is what Jacob did while Levi was sliding.
Then we finally decided to go to the pumpkin patch. Here's Jacob's first pick for a pumpkin. It was a bit heavy :)
Levi and Daddy looking for pumpkins.
This is my absolute favorite picture! Brad's little ducklings following him into the pumpkin patch. I want to frame this picture :)
Jacob and Levi resting on some pumpkins.
Once we had picked out our pumpkins, Levi was just content to sit on a pumpkin to wait. So cute!
Then we all took a hay ride back to the car.
It was quite a bit of fun. Maybe if we go next year, I'll get to be in some of the pictures :)

Happy fall!

PBR

We decided to do something different for date night this week. The PBR (Professional Bull Riding) was in town this week, and I wanted to go, so we got tickets and headed off to a night of good 'ol bull riding! I was a little sad I don't have boots or a hat, but we had fun anyway.

Did you know, at the PBR, they pray before the whole event starts? They do!
This is the lead bull rider for this year. I think it's J.B. Mauney.

It's amazing how few of them are able to ride for the full 8 seconds. One of JB Mauney's rides the bull lost the rope tide under him so he didn't buck very well. JB rode the full 8 seconds and then asked for a re-ride since he wanted a better score. JB was able to ride his bull for the full 8 seconds every time (3 times) that night. He's in the lead to win the PBR this year (which has a million dollar prize!).
Proof that Brad and I were there together. It was pretty fun. Definitely a unique date for Brad and I. We're looking forward to next year's PBR :)

First Day of Preschool

Today is Jacob's first day of preschool. He ate all of his cereal very quickly since he was so excited to go.

We decided to take some pictures to remember this day. Jacob wanted to be a 'bad army guy'; hence the 'gun' in his hand.

The back of his backpack. If you look closely, you'll see it has both a red and a black spider man on it. He loves spider man and has two of them...one red and one black, so this was perfect!
So excited!!! I love this picture. He looks like he's having so much fun and that he's so excited to get to school!

Levi and Dad wanted in on the picture action.
Hanging the backpack before school starts.
Jacob and his teacher.
He's home from school now and he had a great time. I sure hope this keeps up and he enjoys going four days a week! I'm pretty sure Levi and I are going to enjoy it ;)

Just for fun

They look so much alike sometimes. They were having fun playing in the chair together so I thought I'd take some pictures.

Levi is trying to give Jacob a kiss here.

Now Jacob is returning the brotherly love.

I like this one because you can see clearly Levi's 4 front teeth.


This is how I found Levi one day after I had been in the shower. I had heard him crying outside my door, but I didn't come rushing out. By the time I was done showering, Levi was asleep. He only stayed this way for about 15 minutes, but he's never done it before so I thought I'd get some proof that he did it at least once! Notice the toothbrush appendages. He's sort of in a toothbrush phase and will use any toothbrush he can find. If you ever stay at my house, guard yours with your life, unless you don't mind 16 month old germs :)