February flying

 I can't believe that we even considered flying a kite in February. In our defense this winter has been unusually warm. On Saturday we woke up to the sound of wind on our windows and didn't really have anything planned, except cleaning the church. So we decided it would be fun to take the kids to fly a kite. I'm not sure if I've ever posted about how we inherited this huge turtle kite. 

Trevin had a dinky dollar store plastic kite that he loved to fly. One day it ripped loose from the string and flew across the street. Trevin waited patiently until our neighbor got home, so they could look for it in his backyard. Well it wasn't there. So Trevin hoped on his trike and we went for a ride to see if we could find it in the next yard. Sure enough we did, it was ripped to shreds. We were on our way back home and had told Trevin we'd get him a new kite. Our first neighbor came out to see if we found it and Trevin told him his kite was broken. We'll he went into his garage and came out with the turtle kite and told Trevin to keep it cause his kids don't play with it anymore. Trevin was in heaven and we try to use it at least a couple of times a year. 

So our nice warm winter was a little chillier that we expected on Saturday. Levi and I stayed in the truck. Cheyenne came back to the truck to join us after just a few minutes. Trevin Loved every minute of it and didn't mind the cold. 

 In the truck... two thumbs up for flying the kite! Plus she thought it was a lot of fun to sit in the front seat. 

Chicken artichoke penne

Now that I am officially a stay at home mom I decided to improve my skills. Specifically cooking. I can cook plenty of things... I've come along way in the last 5 years. But I know there are plenty of things that I've never tried. So first on the list....Artichokes! I know people love them, I've never even tried let alone cooked one. Now I can say that I have. This was our Chicken Artichoke Penne and It was delicious!!!! Artichoke hearts are really really yummy. 

 This is the artichoke I picked up to cook and try along side our pasta dish. Not my favorite (and turns out Levi doesn't like them either, oops). but it was fun to pull of the leaves and dip them, we uses a balsamic vinegar/mayo mix for the dip. 

 Gage liked them, but prefers the artichoke heart. 

 Surprisingly Trevin loved them...or maybe he just liked that he only had to eat a very little bit then throw the rest away and pick off another. 

Quarantined!

We've been sick again at our house. Chey spiked a fever Saturday night and it lasted until last night (hopefully it doesn't come back). We rotated between Ibuprofen and Tylenol to keep it down. She is acting much happier and healthier today. To accompany her fever she has a nasty cough and boogery nose. It keeps her up at night even her humidifier doesn't seem to be helping this one much. She keeps a box of tissues and a cup of water next to her bed so she has them close. Poor girl hasn't slept much in the last couple of nights.

Sunday was interesting...Last week Gage switched calling yet again and is now in the bishopric. So this Sunday we both got the opportunity to speak in church. Try coordinating that one when one child has to stay home and both parents have to be at church. I convinced Janae to come hang out at our house for an hour and had someone else teach my YW class. So what to do with Levi while I spoke? I had a plan, give him to whoever sat behind us in church... and that is exactly what I did! It all worked out. 

Of coarse having one sick child isn't enough so Sunday night Trevin decided to get a nasty runny nose. Which by Monday afternoon was pink eye, I'm sure from rubbing buggers into his eye. Don't worry we used the old neosporin trick and  it is basically gone today.

Now I'm sure you're wondering what happened to Levi in all of this... He was quarantined! Yes we decided it would be easier to quarantine the healthy one. He was stuck in my room with the toddler gate blocking Trevin and Cheyenne from getting in. Gage and I wash our hands before touching Levi or anything in our room really to try to keep at least one of the spaces in our house healthy for him. On top of that we have used lots of Lysol in the last few days, I feel like I am constantly spraying or wiping something down.

So far so good, I think we are on the recovery side of things and Levi is doing great. Prayer is a powerful thing and I think someone up above has definitely been watching out for the little man. I'll take all the help I can get. 

How is that possible?

 I can't believe it's already been a month! I was taking to Gage yesterday and he said. "Each day seems so long, but the months fly by." I couldn't agree more and at the same time how is that possible?

 They say the switch from two children to three is the hardest... I'll let you know if I agree when I have four. For us the switch to three has been an adjustment. So far everything is different. Adding Levi, it now takes us twice as long to get out of the car and three times as long to get in. Laundry has doubled. There is never time to keep up on the tornado of toys and there is never enough room in the grocery basket. 

 Poor Chey I think gets the worst end of that last one. But she likes to "organize" the groceries so I don't think she minds. Trevin still falls asleep every time we go grocery shopping, so that's why he isn't walking. 

Levi really is a good baby. He loves to sleep as long as he has someone next to him. His favorite is Dad! Levi can be really fussy and calms right down with Gage. It is great and kind of annoying at the same time. I can rock him, bounce him, cuddle him, walk with him, feed him and nothing helps. Give him to Gage and he falls right to sleep. In fact after about 5 minutes Gage is usually out too. 

I was gone one night and this is how I found my family when I came home. All chilling in the PJs watching TV.  Chey was being a great little babysitter and had Levi fast asleep on her lap. He loves to lay on the kid's laps!

We love Levi and it's hard to remember what things were like without him around. 

Hey good lookin'

Levi's first time going to church, aren't they a good looking group? 

Trevin loved getting to pick out Levi's tie. Gage didn't really get to come to church with us, but he was sweet  enough to help us get settled into our seats in sacrament meeting before he left to attend the 7th ward. 

 Levi is 9 days old in this picture. He stayed in his car seat covered for most of the time. I think people were a little shocked to see us at church.  I love going to church. I was feeling great, Levi was healthy, so we decided to go. Besides that Trevin and Chey would have been really disappointed if they had to miss primary and nursery.

My Princess Cheyenne, This is her favorite dress right now. The princess dress that Sugar gave her. I'm not sure what we are going to do when she grows out of it. 

One of these days I'm going to scan all the pictures that this little artist draws so you can see how creative she is. Her favorite activity to keep her occupied during sacrament meeting is to draw pictures. 

Valentines

An easy homemade Valentine. A twinkie dressed up like a minion! 

The heart says "I've been "minion" to wish you a happy Valentines Day!" I stole this idea from my sister in law, I love it and will be using it again next year for T's valentines!

This is what we sent out this year.  We bought  fake mustaches to go with them. The kids had a lot of fun taking these pictures! They thought it was especially funny that we put one on Levi. 

Happy Valentines day!

Levi's first Photo Shoot

 I absolutely love all these pictures. And of coarse I'm totally biased about how cute the subject is to begin with! My sister in law took these for me and she did a great job, Thanks Alex! Levi is 10 days old. 

  This one shows off his heal pricks, he had his feet poked every day for the first 6 days of his life. Poor little guy. 

This one looks a little crossed eyed but I think it is more the ruptured blood vessels in his eyes. maybe? But I love the swaddling. 

 Yes, we are raising a University of Utah fan! 

Gage thinks these pictures make us look way more die hard than we really are. 

Levi's birth announcement. 

Flying SOLO

With Gage serving on the high council, he attends a different meeting house for church than the kids and me. It was hard to get used to flying solo at church, but got even harder when we switched to meeting at 9 am. (Gage is at meetings that usually start at7am). We all like to sleep in until about 8:30 at our house, so adjusting to waking up earlier to make sure we all get to church on time is just that an adjustment. We were all settling into a routine when we brought home baby Levi. Which meant making more adjustments and way more planning! The first week at church with me and all three kids was an interesting one. We made it on time, but Chey's hair was left lacking and our house looked like a tornado had hit it. So this past week I tried to be better and plan ahead. I braided Chey's hair Saturday night.

Sunday morning came and all we had to do was unbraid it. Which Cheyenne is much more open to than having to sit still to have it curled or whatever else in the early hours of the morning.

Add a clippie and WAALAA!  A hair do that looks like we spent a lot of time... we fooled everyone. And even made it to church on time again!
We have lots of help at church, one of my young women join our family for sacrament meeting, which was a huge help this week when Chey decided she had to go potty right in the middle of the meeting. Then the kids head off to primary and nursery. I head to sunday school and for the past 2 weeks someone has offered to hold Levi for me, which leaves me childless for Young Womens. So don't feel bad for me flying solo at church, because in reality getting TO the church is the hard part, life is much easier once we walk through the doors.

"GUN ENVY"

This week we were at Grandma's house with some of the other cousins. One of which is a boy and has just recently been potty trained. His parents were ready to make the switch to standing up to go potty but his mom had no way to show him. So she had Trevin go into the bathroom and show him. She called it "shooting' bullets. Trevin was more than willing to teach his cousin this "awsome and fun thing." Well they head into the bathroom and Trevin can't make it work (he had just gone to the bathroom). But the concept was still there and his cousin's worked and everyone was excited. Until his sister wanted to try it too, she was also recently potty trained, then there was some major disappointment that she had to always potty sitting down, "gun envy" is what her mom called it. Well Cheyenne was there to console her, she recently made this discovery herself....

One day I walked up stairs to see Chey with her pants around her ankles standing on the stool facing the toilet, she had a terrified look on her face (one I've seen many times, it's the one that says I've held it for too long and if I move now I'm gunna potty my pants). So I run in and turn her around and say "Ok, Go for it." She sticks her bum out toward the toilet, but doesn't sit down, and lets it all loose. I couldn't figure out what she was doing!  I asked "Why didn't you just sit down?" She looked at me and said "I wanted to go standing up like the boys and now it's a big mess!" I laughed for a second then we cleaned up and had a quick anatomy lesson. Since then she hasn't had any issues with sitting to go potty and can sympathize with all the rest of the "Gun envy" girls out there. 

a name for everything

Cheyenne pulled out this book for me to read with her yesterday. It's a new book for Levi. We were going through all the pictures and Cheyenne was telling me what everything was. I even found a few that she didn't know, like nostrils. So we moved on from the face page to the body page and she was doing great. Feet, toes, neck, even elbow... she knew them all. Finally I pointed to the "chest" and her response was "THAT'S MY HEARTBURN."

Can't blame her after hearing that for the last 9 months.