MOPS Weekend Fun

Levi and I went to DeSmet with a small group of MOPS mamas. He was one of three baby boys along for the ride. We went to a floral/gift shop, dined on free snacks, learned scarf tying, flower arranging, and tried on hats.

I love Levi in this Davy Crockett hat. I should get him one sometime.

Afterward, we dined at a country club. It was a fun day.

5 Months!

I really cannot believe that Levi is almost a 1/2 a year old! He is getting so big. Here is his 5 month picture along with a few other cute shots.

Such a boy. Right after the above photo was taken, he decided the giraffe looked good enough to eat.

When giraffe slides away, Levi decides to lecture it on how to behave.

Mom fixes slumping giraffe followed by giggle fest from Levi.

Followed by another attempt to lick his giraffe.

And this led to. "Okay, I am tired of sitting up. I am going to just fall forward now."
Here is one that I did NOT pose him for. I set my magazine on the ground and when I turned around, this is what I saw: (note: as soon as this picture was taken he proceeded to rip 2 pages out of it :)Lately, Levi has enjoyed rolling all over the floor. He is getting frustrated at his failed attempts at crawling. This picture does capture his amazing ability to levitate his legs however. (This could potentially be the key to the crawling frustration. Feet need to actually touch the floor. :)

"Secrets from Daddy are my favorite!"

"Daddy makes me giggle!"

Here, Levi is grabbing my camera while I am attempting to photograph him.

First Lesson/First Tooth

I am excited to report Levi's newest development: recognizing animals. Due to having several rubber duckies, and a night time story referring to duckies, he recognized which animal was a duckie! I had this mitten on my hand and I asked Levi, "Which one is the duckie?" He immediately grabbed the duck. After our first "homeschool" lesson, he know recognizes piggy and froggy. It is surprising how much little ones actually know. (I tried this over and over mixing up the animals and he picked the right one!!!)

His newest game is "take mommy's glasses off her face".

Due to his recent first homeschooling experience, I posed Levi as "Baby Genius".

In this photo you can see Levi's first tooth. (Just click to enlarge) It is on the lower right of the picture.

New game number 2: Grab foot, insert in mouth during changes.

Another creation and some smiles

Here is a picture of our happy little man. I thought you would appreciate the updated picture. He is significantly fussier due to his recent newly acquired tooth but still tries his hardest to be happy. Here he is sharing his Jumperoo with his Teddy.
Wednesday was "crazy tie" night at our church. I don't yet have a tie for Levi, let alone a crazy one, so I made him one on a onsie. Here it is :)

Valentines Day Dinner

Andrew and I have celebrated our love several times this weekend. On Friday night, another church in town hosted free babysitting and a chance to win dates. We won a gift certificate at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Levi did great in the nursery. Sunday night was our church's youth group dinner fundraiser. Again Levi got nursery time and we ate a nice meal to fun music. Last night we stayed in and I cooked my coconut chicken recipe with some delicious fancy baked potatoes and veggies. I attempted to make it romantic by using Grandma's china and fancy glasses and candlelight.

First Valentines

Levi's first valentines in order from Mimi & Papa (which he took a bite out of right after this photo was taken :)

From Grandma & Grandpa Balsley:

From Grammy Lori:

Here is my latest sewing project. I made the blue-brown one for Levi and the red one for a friend's baby.

Homeschooling Finds 2

Here are some more homeschooling finds. Enjoy.

1) Printable preschool color cards in English and Spanish
2) Printable Geography (Very cool with country info and flags to color and lesson plans)
3) Preschool Math Printables
4) Preschool alphabet cards and Sign Language cards
5) Bible downloads & Expedition Earth download (very cool)

I would have linked straight to the PDFs but these sites requested people don't do that.

Coconut Chicken Recipe

Hi friends and family! As you know, I like to try new recipes. Here is one that I cooked for dinner tonight that turned out excellently!

COCONUT CHICKEN

Ingredients:

• 4-6 chicken thighs
• 1/3 cup crushed croutons
  
• 1/3 cup flaked coconut
• Olive oil drizzled on top of chicken
  
• Salt & Pepper (to taste)
• Cooking Spray
• Optional: tin foil

Directions:

STEP 1: Season chicken with salt & pepper to taste.

STEP 2: In plate mix crouton crumbs and coconut together, and roll chicken thighs in crouton crumbs mixture 1 at a time to coat well.

STEP 3: Place coated chicken in lightly sprayed baking dish and drizzle lightly with olive oil.

STEP 4: Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes until chicken is done.

Also: Place foil over the chicken for the first half of baking just to keep the coconut from browning too much. I served this with Jasmin rice.

Weather Comparison

I never thought I would see the day when Tucson, AZ would have similar weather to South Dakota!!! I don't think I even owned much of a jacket or many sweaters when I lived there :) Here is Huron weather:
And Tucson weather: (The "real feel" due to wind chill is only 7 degree difference!) Then notice, when our weather is 16 tonight, it just reads "mostly cloudy". When Tucson's weather reads 18 for tonight, it reads cold :) Some people I know are getting frozen pipes because the insulation is just not the same I guess.

Current Weather...

I just had to post these weather reports because they are so depressing! So we just got around 5 inches of snow followed by these ridiculously cold days that make it impossible to go shovel! The following weather shows the prediction of -4 being the HIGH today! (and with windchill it is actually -30 right now!) I know I am getting a little too used to the midwest when I don't put gloves on in 4 degree weather :)