Halloween fun!

We had lots of fun this Halloween! Levi got to dress up FOUR times throughout the week! First, on Sunday afternoon, our friends Molly and Kent, and their daughter, Pieper, had a little Halloween party for the kiddos. She did a great job, it was super cute! She even had a little photo booth set up outside to snap pictures! I was so happy with how this one of the kiddos turned out! Can't ask for much better. :) And to top it off, the weather was perfect! So fun!

Tuesday night, Levi got dressed up again for ECFE. He has loved going to 'school', by the way. Hopefully one time I will remember to bring my camera and snap a few pics of him.

Wednesday night, we made the rounds to visit Mark and Jess's and Grandma and Grandpa's. Levi's cousins were all dressed up when we stopped there, too! Fun!

And here is my little cowboy on Halloween night before trick or treating!

Daddy took Levi out to some of the neigbors' for trick or treating, and Miss Ladybug stayed home with mommy to hand out candy to the few trick or treaters that came to our house. Levi had lots of fun and was thrilled with all the candy he got, of course!

After trick or treating, we headed up to the school for the Halloween party that the Lions Club in town always holds. They always have a great turnout for that! Levi played a few games and got some fun little prizes. They have a costume contest for the kids, too. And guess what? Levi got third place in the age 0-2 category!! Yay! He really didn't know the difference, but he got a prize of $5, and his name and picture will be in the newspaper this week.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween, too!

4th of July 2013

This was the best picture I could get of Levi on the 4th. Little stinker would NOT sit still or even glance in the direction of my camera. Turd. Oh well, he's two and there was a lot going on. We always have a good time on the 4th! I took Levi to the coin dig at the park that the bank sponsored, but he wasn't real interested. He found two dimes and when I looked down to check on Paige, then looked back up, he was gone and halfway up the steps to the slide. So I let him play for a bit, then we went home and got ready to head uptown.

 We walked the few blocks uptown and met up with Paul's parents for lunch. Hamburger and a Pork chop on a stick from the 4-H food stand for Paul and I, and Levi had a hot dog (surprise) from the Buddies tent. After we had some free ice cream, we took Levi over to the bounce house they had set up for the kids. It was supposed to be a big dragon, and you climbed in through his mouth, jumped inside of it, then slid out the tail. Well, there was no one there controlling it, so kids were just swarming it and Levi kept getting trampled. Even when he did have the chance to get inside on his own, he didn't want to. He was entertained just climbing up and down the teeth at the entrance. Which was probably good since he might have been a little small to be inside with that many other kids.

After that, we walked to our spot for the parade. I wanted a family picture but a certain someone was not about to cooperate, so we got this one of Paul, Paige and I. Once the parade started, Levi got the hang of picking up candy pretty quick. He would stand at the curb after every float and yell "More can-ey!" He got plenty since his cousins weren't there this year to share with. We hid that when he went to bed that night. :)

 Since it was so hot, Paul stripped him down when we got home and let him cool off in his pool. He thought that was hilarious. He kept squatting down and touching his tush in the water, then he would stand back up. Finally he sat down all the way. Haha!

And this year's 4th of July was extra special because my sister and her husband had their baby! I will do a separate post with a few pictures of when we met her next!

Christmas

I am FINALLY getting some Christmas pictures up. We had a great holiday, Levi received lots of wonderful gifts, and it was fun spending time with our families!

Family picture from Christmas with my mom's side.

 Next two are from Christmas with my family. Levi was having fun climbing on all the gifts and getting the bows! And, on his present from Grandpa and Grandma!

 Paul with his Grandma and Levi at his dad's side Christmas.

 Levi opening his presents from Santa on Christmas morning!

 And in his wagon from mommy and daddy! Notice the fancy bling on the back... :)

 At Christmas with my dad's side, Levi is the best present ever!

 Just yesterday, Christmas with Paul's family...Paul reading a book that Levi got to Aaron and Levi.

 And last but not least, we managed to get the kids to sit still long enough to snap a pic of all the Staples cousins!

So that is a general overview of the last few weeks!

christmas cards

I am done with my Christmas cards! They will go in the mail tomorrow. I guess I am not 100% done, since I had to order 12 more, but what I have is done. :) One of those where we got a card from someone that wasn't on my list already. Anyhoo, I've had them for awhile but it took a few evenings after I put Levi to bed to get them all addressed and stamped. I actually have a mis-match of cards this year...I saw some from Paper Coterie that I absolutely loved, but they were waaaayyy too expensive. Then I happened to see a promo code on facebook for 12 free cards from there...SCORE! So I gave those out to our immediate family and got some from Shutterfly for the rest of the list that I also absolutely love! There were so many great designs it was hard to choose, but this one caught my eye:

Merry Merry Christmas

Turn your favorite photos into Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Simple, clean and colorful. Right up my alley!

Levi meets SANTA!

We took Levi uptown to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus on Monday night. I think practically every kid in town under the age of 7 was there! It's nice to see a good turnout for such a small town though. Well, Santa even brought his reindeer along and his helpers were giving out rides while Santa met all the kiddos. We skipped out on that and got right in line, which ended up to be a good thing, because by the time we left, the line was all the way out the door of the community center! Levi was a good boy and just looked around at all the other kids while we waited in line. Sucking on the binker of course. :) When it was Levi's turn, Paul set him on Santa's lap while I took pictures. He would not take his eyes off of him! He just stared, for like 30 seconds, then burst into tears. It was pretty funny! Paul scooped him up as soon as he started crying, and then he was ok. Hopefully next year there will be no tears, but only time will tell!

Thanksgiving

We had a fun, busy Thanksgiving weekend! Thanksgiving day we went to my mom and dad's and had dinner with them and my sister and her hubby. It was nice to have it low-key and just the seven of us. Levi was the center of attention and was loving it! Then on Saturday we went to Paul's brother and sister-in-law's house for dinner with their whole family on his dad's side. So there was quite the crew there! We have an annual tradition of making lefse, so after dinner that is what we did. Paul slept all afternoon and I was watching Levi, so neither of us helped a ton, but I made sure to get a sample! :) The girls have a good time, they like to help roll it out, so that is fun. It's something that all of our kids will remember when they grow up, and hopefully the tradition will continue! I don't have a lot of pics from this weekend, I chose to just enjoy it and not worry about taking so many pictures, but I made sure to get a few of Levi in his shirt!

 

We have so much to be thankful for this year! First on the list I am thankful for our healthy, happy, perfect little boy!  Also for Paul, my family and friends, the roof over our heads, and for everything that God has given us this year. We are truly blessed! :)