Levi's Soup for a Cold Day

Today I made cookies and Levi, my little helper. His phrase to say is "help me" when he wants to help someone else. Ironic, since most times he really is not "helping me." He gets his little step stool and carries it over to where all the action is. He is getting better at pouring the ingredients in the bowl and he loves stirring the dough. The egg cracking...although he loves that part, he needs more practice on. After we get the cookies baking in the oven and while I am cleaning up, I set Levi up to make his "soup" as he would call it. I give him a bowl with a little bit of water and some dish soap and he stirs and stirs. I set out all sorts of random things and he adds and stirs. He has not tasted his soup which is probably a good thing. Today's soup of the day was the following: dish soap and water, Mrs. Dash, honey, salt, sugar, pepper, baking soda, flour, egg shells, peanut butter, and my favorite, old hard marshmallows. Levi has such fun doing this and seems so proud that he can make his own "soup".

Weekend Trip

This past weekend Ryan, Levi and I went to visit Ryan's brother, Casey, and his wife Laura. They live in St.Joesph. We spent time on Saturday at the Curious Kids Museum. Levi had fun exploring while we all watched him...and played with some of the exhibits ourselves. The only part that Levi did not seem to like was the "exploding volcano", he got pretty nervous when it would make noise and "explode." We also walked to a new inside carousel and Levi and Ryan rode that together. On Sunday, we went to their church and Levi seemed to really like their Sunday school. We enjoyed visiting Uncle Casey and Aunt Laura and had a relaxing time together.

Swimming Lessons

This winter I signed up Levi for swimming lessons. Ryan and Levi have been really enjoying their Parent Tot Swimming Class together. It is on Saturday mornings at the Grandville Middle School Pool. I have gone the past couple of weeks to watch. A couple from our church's son is also in the class too. Levi knows when we are driving up to the building that he is going "swimming"! He loves practicing his "kicking" in the bath tub. At the end of the class the kids are supposed to be able to jump of the side of the pool and go under. One part of the class the kids play with all sorts of boats..I think this is Levi's favorite part. At least this week he did not have a fit when the toys went away. He has gotten more used to the water and Ryan enjoys playing/teaching him how to float, grab the side of the pool and blow bubbles. After class, we go to the donut shop and each pick out a donut or as Levi call them "no newts". This also might be the part of Saturday morning that Levi likes the best. He loves donuts.

A New Life

We are blessed and thankful to announce that Levi is going to be a big brother on or around August 28, 2010! I had my first doctor appointment this week. I was thinking it would be pretty standard with blood work and an exam so Ryan took the morning off and stayed home with Levi. We were thinking that we were early in the pregancy 6 or 7weeks. However, after the exam the doctor thought I was further than what we thought.
She found the heart beat, 167, with the fetal doppler and I could not believe it. She next sent me to ultrasound to get a more accurate picture of the baby and an estimated due date. The u/s tech said that I was about 10.5 weeks pregnant! What a surprise and a blessing to see that God has already carried this little one almost to the first trimester. God taught us a lesson in patience and trust. I know God and I were laughing together on Monday..HIM saying, See...I have YOU always in MY hands and YOUR life in MY control.

Snow Shoveling!

Since Ryan has been home on Christmas Break him and Levi are such buddies together. He sure loves his "papa". Lately, when Ryan wants to go outside and shovel or snowblow Levi wants to come too. He grabs his "oots", "ittens" and coat and cannot wait to do outside. He can last a lot longer outside than last year. He wants to move faster outside and pick up his shovel but it is hard for him because of his snowpants and his mittens...he is figuring it out though, sometimes the hard way.

Christmas Snapshots

We had a fun Christmas. We spent time with both families and enjoyed seeing Levi open all his presents..too many. We feel blessed to have such great Christian families who know the real reason of Christmas. Here are some pictures of our time together.

More Christmas Fun

This year I bought Levi an Advent Calendar. He loves opening tabs like the ones on the calendar(some of his books have them) so I knew that he would love it even more if there was a chocolate treat behind. Plus, I get to have some candy too. In the morning when he wakes up he goes to the counter and pulls his step stool over and says "up", "num num". But the routine now is that he gets his treat after his nap...he says "ooohh" when he gets it. This past Saturday, we went to Blandford Nature Center for there Homestead Holiday. Blandford is about 5 minutes away from our house so we bundled up and headed over. I used to go there all the time growing up with my parents to walk the trails and to see the injured animals. We were not sure what the event was all about but we were ready to get outside after all the snow days the past week. Ryan sure was excited when he got "a threepeat" with the snow days. I am sure that will not happened again. But it was nice to be home as a family for those 3 days. At Blanford we got popcorn from the General Store and then waited in line for a horse drawn carriage ride. Levi never had popcorn and loved that. He was pretty nervous around the horses and clung to his "papa". The carriage ride was fun with the jingle bells that the horses were wearing. After the carriage ride we went to play Snow Snakes, a native American game. Ryan did alot better than me at that. We wandered to the old cabin and looked in side and then saw the horseshoe shop. It was good to be reminded of the simplicity of life back then and how family was really important. We ended at Blandford Building to warm up and have cookies and hot cocoa. Levi saw a turtle..but was scared of that...and an owl. It was a fun little outing...when Ryan asked me what my favorite part of the afternoon was...I said just being with my family...its is the best!