New Leavitt Family Member

Yesterday, Josh and Rachel had their baby girl. She came in at 7 pounds even and is 19 inches long. So cute. And we finally have a name for this sweet little girl: Brinley Carlene Leavitt. Allen and I went to visit this evening at the hospital. The pictures don't do the little girl justice! Everyone was getting ready to go home tonight, and enjoy their first night alone as a family.

Yummy Goodness

Tonight I made blueberry muffins. I wanted them for breakfast, so I don't have to cook in the morning.. They turned out SO good! Anyone one would like this recipe, let me know. It's really good, and you can add different fruit to it, instead of blueberries. It turns out so good. I made blueberry muffins last Saturday with less than good results. They were to oily, and tasted wrong. These taste like something you would pick up in a bakery or a coffee shop. And yes, they have Christmas cup liners... it was all I could find.

Yeah for FHE

Last night for FHE Riley and I made pudding for treat. Emmaline REALLY enjoyed herself!Her headband is one of Allen's socks... We had a mishap with some dirt and Riley's eye. Allen tried to make an eye patch for him.. but he wouldn't go for it. But it kept the pudding out of Emma's hair pretty good!

St. Patrick's Day

We had a blast on St. Patties day! It was my turn to do Weldon and Riley's preschool lesson, so I decided to do GREEN and St. Patrick's Day. We had so much fun.

I started the morning with Green Eggs and Ham. No, really I made Green Eggs and Ham...Then we read the story. Riley thought it was SO funny. In fact, that's what he wanted for breakfast this morning. Then I got Emma dressed for the day. She knew she was looking cute, can't you tell? And yes, ladies and gentleman, I made those bows... She wore them 3 days in a row because they turned out SO cute! Just as Emma was finished, Weldon got here. I read them a book about St. Patrick's Day, then we went on a leprechaun search. I gave them each a bag of leprechaun dust (green sprinkles) and we walked around the neighborhood looking for things that were green, and places where that naughty leprechaun might be hiding. We came home and I gave the boys (and Emma) their party hats and noise makers... and we went on parade around the house. Can you tell they were excited? After that we did a little sorting games with shamrocks and four leaf clovers. Finally ending with a wild game of Red Light, Green light. I let the boys play outside in the sandbox while I made lunch: Green bread grilled cheese sandwiches, green apples, green grapes and cucumbers. Weldon had to leave early, but took his lunch with him. After lunch, I loaded the kidos up in the car and we went to the library for their special St. Patrick's day program. It went OK, but I could sure tell that it was nap/quiet time. What a day! And I still had my doctor's appointment, and had to do a little grocery shopping. Everyone was so tired when we got home!!! But we had to finish our day off with something kinda Irish. So, we had baked potatoes and ham stake with apples. And for desert: Green Jello!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Seriously Cute Pictures

I've been hording pictures again. I seem to do that from time to time. I take a bunch of super cute pictures and I can't figure out how to share them in a way that makes since... so, this is just a random collection of pictures I've taken over the last few days

So here is the first one:Emma had just gotten up from a nap. She's been suffering from a bad cough for about a week, and wasn't very happy about being awake. Mostly I think she was thirsty... My kids seem to be camels, they drink and drink and drink and drink.... Riley had been watching a show while I was working and I wasn't quite at a stopping point when Emmaline woke. So I plopped her down with Riley. They were both so content, I couldn't help myself, I just had to snap a few pictures.

Here is picture set number 2: Sunday after church we went to the graveyard to see the new headstone for Allen's grandpa. It's really pretty. I wanted to take a few pictures for those family members who read my blog, but have a hard time getting out this way to the graveyard. We didn't stay too long, but it was we felt it was a nice thing spend our Sabbath doing. Emmaline and Riley had fun running around on the grass.... I don't think anyone minded... They just love how peaceful it is there. I love the picture of Emma with her tongue hanging out.. it reminds me of when she was younger, and every picture has her with her tongue sticking out! This was a moment when I realized my baby isn't really a baby anymore... She is a toddler, with opinions and not always willing to do as mommy asks, and most especially when mommy wants her to look at the camera. But the shot turned out pretty anyway! Here is pictures set number 3: Emma really wants to ride Riley's trike. But she a little too small, plus Riley really, REALLY isn't ready to share this particular toy. He loves his bike. However, Sunday he was so sweet to let her try it for a few minutes. Luckily I had my camera, and was able to get some super cute shots! Riley is trying to push her... we kept telling him no. But as anyone with a 3 year old will tell you: Yeah, he wasn't listing! They did reach a compromise: Riley would sit on the back of the trike, and Emma would push with her feet.Shot number 4: Not much needs to be said about this one.... they are just plain too cute for words!!!

Strange Happenings

OK, this is a strange happening around these parts. We have a noodle thief. I have planned all week to have shells and cheese for lunch today, I know I had two packages left. So, you can imagine my surprise when I reached into the box and found two packages of cheese, but no noodles... hmmm.... strange. I look all over for the missing noodles, but to no avail...

Roland at Two Months Part 2

The park was fun. Got a few more cute pictures... and I've been having fun photoshopping them too.

Roland at Two Months Part 1

This morning I took a couple of pictures of Rolie for his two month photo shoot. I got 2 good one... so I'm hoping that I'll be able to do better this afternoon at the park... it's just the way it goes sometimes. But the two I got were really cute. I really liked the first one below... and I just had to add the one with him holding his head up! He's only 2 months old!!!

We finally have our "new" van back

On Friday we FINALLY got our van back from the repair shop. YEAH!!!!! Riley keeps telling everyone that we have a "new van". He's pretty excited. It took a month. I am so grateful that we kept full coverage on the van. I know that we were inspired in that. Having the van back has been wonderful. Though I have to say, I don't think the estimator did a good job... The original estimate was $4043.... Final bill: $10,091. We believe that if they had know that up front, they would have totaled the van. But what can you do? We did have to fork up the $1000 deductible... so now funds are even tighter than before. Sigh. That eat up one month's rent. Fortunately we just got a check from our medical insurance (did I mention that our COBRA insurance just ran out? We are currently filling out the stack of paper work for Medicaid. We should qualify, we have about $1200 in the bank to last until about May. But we own 2 cars...I don't know). Allen had over paid. Plus the games I've done in the last month help, and my folks gave us a loan for a portion of it.

I'm not sure how things are going to work out, but we are doing our best. We have lots of family that love and support us, and the church will help if we need (and we might...) Hopefully someday all this stupid law school life will be behind us, and we will be in the position to help other out, instead of needing so much help ourselves... this new government scares me to death, and I'm afraid I simply refuse to watch the new much, or read the paper, or listen to the radio. I want to be brave, and face what's going on... It's a bad day when the American people are willing to sell their liberty for stability... I'm not sure what the next years are going to bring. Personally, I just want to get though the next couple of months, but that just me. One day at a time. I think that's all I can do. If I look to far ahead, I get scared, angry, and I just don't understand why this is happening. Allen's explained it to me, I've read some about it... and I still don't get it. Maybe, my brain just doesn't want to get it... but then, if I get so caught up in the fear I'm unable to my job: nurturing, loving and teaching my little ones. Anyway, enough of such thoughts!!! We have our van back. Allen and I are healing faster than our doctor expected. Allen's mom is doing well. My dad is doing well in Qatar (still misses the grandkids, but having lots of fun adventures. Plus he's getting to work on a really cool project). We are almost half way though the semester... and then just 2 more to go!!! YEAH. Hopefully this will be the last car accident we have to deal with for a while!!

And the crowd goes wild....

On Sunday we had dinner with Mary and TJ. After dinner Mary and Allen took the kids outside to play. Allen showed the boys how to use the t-ball tee that the Delvin's have in their collection of toys. Emma found this very interesting. She sat and watched as Allen explained that you have to knock some of the dirt off your shoes, take a few practice swings, keep your eye on the ball and swing. Weldon was getting pretty good at it, and loved the instruction.

Well, a couple of days ago, I spent the afternoon with Mary. We were letting the kids play in the backyard. Emma picked up the t-ball, carefully placed it on the tee. Then she found the bat, walked up to near the tee, took a couple of practice swings, and then walked up to the tee, and swung the bat. Believe it or not, she connected with the ball! She was so cute! What follows is the action in photos... of course!

Taking the ball up to the tee. So determined!!Taking a few practice swings. Got to warm up, right?Walking up to the tee.

And the ball is... GONE!!!

A few seconds later I got a big smile, which of course I missed on film.. but oh well! I wish I had a video camera for moments like this... But I know it warmed my mom's heart stings to see at least one of her grandbabies might just love the game as much as she did!

Gone Horsie

I just had to share what I made. For awhile now I've had a problem... Riley had broken many of the blinds on his window, which means that the sun comes into his room sooner and sooner, and I was having to get up sooner and sooner. And summer is coming, which means the sun gets earlier and earlier... So, I fixed the problem: I am so proud of the way they turned out. I'm not sure if you can tell, but these are Riley's new horse curtains!It really changed the look of his room. He was SO excited about them! Still LOVES horses, and cows, and dogs (sometime, of course.. after Apollo bit him, I don't blame him for not really liking dogs all the time), and fish, and birds, and dragons, and.... But his love affair with horse is still going strong.