Winter Weather in Late February

Our 1st real winter snow storm hit yesterday. We have been spoiled all season with warm weather and little snow so now its a little hard to get used to. Here are some photos from our neighborhood. We got more snow today.

Levi has recently discovered the wonder that is the laundry shoot hole in our bathroom. He keeps tossing duckies down it and looking down it.
Like Father Like Son

17 Months!

Levi is on the move all the time now. Somehow I was able to get a cute picture of him for his 17 month shot. He is almost a head taller than most babies his age around him. To my knowledge, he is 32" tall. It is very hard to get an accurate measurement with his constant movement. He is in size 5 shoes. He weighs roughly 23-24 lbs. He loves to say "door", "mama", "papa", "ball", "bubble", "daddy", "meow", and "moon" the most. He loves playing with balls and trucks.

Here is a photo of Levi and his friend Vera. They are about the same age. Levi is quite tall for his age as you can see. Here they are swapping snack cups. They just had to have whatever the other was eating.Here, Vera was poking Levi and they were both giggling.
I got this stick on wall/window animal scene cling on at an after valentines sale. The stickers re-stick over and over again. Levi is loving sticking the animals and hearts all over. He is proud of the hearts because he likes to point to red hearts.

Living Room Curtain Reveal & Recipes

For some reason, curtains make me feel like a house is really lived in. We couldn't really do anything to the apartment we lived in previously so when we finally bought a house, I wanted to settle in and get my curtains up. Well, 2+ years later, they are finally up. I told Jan I would post a photo of our living room as soon as we got the curtain rod up. We got it up last night but then I had a hard time finding a photo of our old "curtain thingie" that was up when we moved in. You can kind of see it in this November 2010 holiday photo:

We were able to reuse some of the holes from the original mounting. I had to tie them back a little awkwardly as Levi decided to attack the cat with the curtains and I foresee ruined curtains. Also, ignore the crooked pictures. I didn't stage the room well before taking the photo... Here is after:

I also wanted to include a few recipes I tried lately that Andrew really liked: (click to enlarge)

Valentines Weekend Festivities

Andrew and I enjoyed a "Mystery Date Night" at a church in town. You go to the church, drop your child off for free babysitting, and get in a drawing for date prizes. We won movie tickets but saved them for another time. We went out for dinner instead. Here are a few photos before and after.


Sunday night we also had our church's valentines fundraiser dinner. Here is Andrew and the youth and helpers he works with. Here is Andrew and Wade at the dinner. Wade helps with Youth Group.
Levi and I helped the youth decorate the dining hall. It looks so nice this time of year.
Here are a few photos of Levi opening his Valentines from Mimi and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa.Also, I just thought I would add this photo that a friend took of Levi and I. We attend a play group at our rec center on Thursdays. Here we were taking a snack break. Levi is very attached and takes about 2 of the 2 hours 15 minutes warming up to his surroundings leaving only about 15 minutes to play on slides and things before we have to go. :) It is a nice time to talk to other stay-at-home moms. Last week I was very proud of him though because he crawled all the way through the 8 foot tunnel by himself and went up and down the slides.

Fun in February

I made Levi a little dino sock puppet. I love how it turned out!

Levi was giggling at my kermit-the-frog sounding "dino" voice. Here are two more scarfs I made for friends.

Andrew taught Levi how to play the penny whistle this week.

Here is Levi walking around. He has been walking here and there since his 1st birthday but now he is on the move constantly.

1st Snowman

Levi and I played in the snow today. It was a balmy 50 degrees out. This was about the 1st day we have had where there was snow on the ground and it was nice out. We have had other nice days this month but no snow to play in. Can you see the mini snow man? :)

I came upon Levi "reading" in his room by himself. So sweet. Notice he picked the airplane book to study.

We invited some friends of ours over for dinner and a movie (Courageous) and the three kids had a great time playing together.

I just posted recently about Levi's success at eating with a spoon. Well now he is eating with a fork as well. And here is Levi doing what he likes to do best. Play with his tongue.

16 Months

The time is just flying by around here. I can't believe Levi is 16 months old already.

He loves to make airplane noises and fly airplanes around in the air. Future pilot like his mama?Levi loves the dry erase markers Mimi & Papa gave us. He likes to write on this mirror. Also, he wrote on himself for the first time (and surely not the last :) Can you see it?He also is very interested in helping me clean the house. This is his 1st attempt at mopping.We went out for a "snow day" on his sled but he was mostly just sitting there cold. We haven't had a decent "warm" snow day to play out in it."Healthy" Hash Brown Recipe

Recently I have gotten frozen hash browns for really cheap and I was trying to figure out an easy/healthier way to make them as I never make them right on the stove. (Probably because I don't like to add oil.) Here is an easy/yummy way to make them. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread an even layer of them over a cookie sheet. Lightly spray with butter spray. Bake for 10 minutes. Stir them around. Bake for another 10 minutes. They are crispier if you put a thin layer on your cookie sheet. a little moister if you put a thicker layer on your cookie sheet. We all enjoyed them. Great with ketchup all over :)This photo was taken today :)