Halloween Time

Here are a couple of the Halloween activities that we enjoyed over the last couple of weeks.

We went to the fall festival at the park near our home. They had lots of booths and and face painters. Every booth had candy and information. The kids looked so cute!

I absolutely love this picture! I couldn't believe how well it turned out.. and no photo shopping! With my computer being down, no photo shopping for me.

It was so hot! The temperature was about 90... this is not normal October weather! The kids were waiting to get their faces painted and we had them sit down in the grass... they really wanted to eat the candy most of which had melted.

Emma got the cutest candy corn on her face. It matched the cute candy corn bow in her hair. She LOVED that bow. She has also gotten quite the sweet tooth for said candy corns. The funny thing is I really don't like them, but she could have eaten a pound of the candies.

Riley picked a dolphin. Apparently there's is no remaining ill feeling from our trip to sea world. We got totally drenched by the dolphin show. He really didn't like them after that. But he says that he forgives the dolphins.

We also spent last Friday carving and decorating pumpkins.The kids had a blast helping Daddy get the guts out.

Also on Friday we went to the ward Halloween party. The kids were so excited to get the new accessories to the costumes. I found them that the dollars store. It was fun.

Riley was so funny. He really didn't want me to take his pictures. But I begged, and showed him the bad pictures that I'd tried to take of him... He thought it was so funny that I was able to get these super cute laughing pictures.

It was pretty cool that that night. At least cool weather for us. The kids had a blast going from booth and booth. I love the face Emma is pulling in this picture. She was trying to tell Riley "NO!" but he wasn't listening. She pulls this face often, at which time I usually have to pull her off of Riley's back to keep her from biting/hitting/scratching him.

For Halloween night we went to Allen's brother's house for a potluck and trick or treating. The kids had a blast going around with their cousins and getting all kinds of treats.

Happy Halloween!

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weeks ago, my dad and I took the kids to the pumpkin patch. I'd been promising this trip for a week, but had to keep postponing it. But I finally got them there. We got to the pumpkin patch, and they were closed because they had a tour going on. But they let us in anyway. I was so glad, I knew Riley would start to cry if we had to postpone this adventure once again. Riley was so excited to find his perfect pumpkin. The kids had a blast running around the patch looking for pumpkins. Everyone found one that was just right! Emma found one just her size... but then she dropped it. Thankfully we found a better one, and she was happy. Riley found his PERFECT pumpkin. It was a great time. Thanks for going with us Dad.

Baby Update

Hi all, Just wanted to give an update on our newest little Leavitt. Sunday evening I was having contractions and generally not feeling well. Allen took us up to the hospital to get checked out. I was 3 cm dilated, and having contractions about 5 minutes apart. They started me on an IV for fluids and penicillin because I've tested positive of beta strep in the past. It turned out that I also had an urinary track infection which is what the nurses think may have started labor. Thankfully, with all the liquids (5 bags of IV fluids in 12 hours) and the antibiotics labor pretty much stopped. By morning I was still only 3 cm dilated and my contractions were more than 15 minutes apart or more. I was sent home on orders to stay quiet and rest. After reading my discharge papers, I'm on bed rest for the rest of the week. My doctor would like to see me stay pregnant for at least 36 weeks which will be on Thursday. Obviously, longer would be better. Full term is considered any baby born after 37 weeks. So, the kids are with grandparents so that Mommy can rest. I love my little ones, but know that I can't take care of them right now which has been hard to swallow. I know that my focus has to be on taking care of me and keeping this baby were she belongs! Anyway, prayers would of course be appreciated. We REALLY don't want to have to relive Emmaline's birth experience. Thanks everyone!

Allen's new hobby

About a month and half ago Allen found a new hobby: geocaching. That is, using GPS to go on scavenger hunts. It's pretty fun (I'm sure I'll enjoy it much more without the bowling ball in the front) and the kids LOVE it. They call it going treasure hunting. Basically, people hid small containers, give you the GPS location, and you try to find it. Inside the container is a log book and sometimes other fun treasures. One Sunday we drove up towards Mt. Charleston and turned off at Harris Road. There's a nice little hike that takes you through a pretty canyon. Just beyond the canyon was the cache. It was a little further than we'd thought, but the it totally wore the kids (and me) out. Emma cracked me up. She was very interested with rocks. She's saying "OH, pretty rock..." She wanted to put them in her pockets, but they weren't deep enough. So she got her brother to carry them for her. We didn't notice until the way back when we saw Riley's pants were falling down. You can see the bulges of the rocks if you look closely! I told Emma to go catch Allen. She was so cute she ran as fast as she could saying "Wait Daddy! Wait Emma, hand!" He didn't hear her, but she was very pleased when he stopped and scoped her up on his shoulders. In parts of the canyon the walls are so narrow that you can hold your hands out and touch both sides of the wall. We found the cache! The kids were so pleased. We don't always find it, but when we do there are smiles all around. The kids were excited to see what was inside. It's basically a trade. You can take something out, but you need to put something in. Allen tells Riley that we have to share. Riley got a compass and Emma got a elephant eraser. We put in a key chain and a silver dime. It was nice to get out of the house for an hour or so. The fresh air did us all a lot of good!

Happy Birthday Emmaline

I've been meaning to post this for almost a month... I finally got a picture of Emma that I thought really captured the changes in her during the last few months. She's really changing for a toddler to a kid... But she's still so cute and funny that we forgive her for growing up!

Emmaline Christine Leavitt turned two years old! It's hard to believe that it's been two years since that day. I have to admit, it was one of the worst days of my life! I was scared and felt so guilty. Weird huh? I had been watching way too many shows about preemies during my pregnancy. When they talked about what was going on with her I actually understood. I was very grateful that I'd felt like I need to watch those shows. I also learned she could be way worse off. Those 10 days in the hospital were some of the hardest of my life. I have never felt so useless. We couldn't hold her, feed her, bath her or even change her diaper. But I'm happy to report that she is great! She talks well. OK, Emmaline never stops talking! She's sweet and sneaky! She loves to doing things she KNOWS Mommy doesn't like. We have love getting to know her. She's really funny, and LOVES to make people laugh. She's got a bit of a temper... We are working on that.

She adores her big brother. She follows him everywhere and wants to do everything he does... most of the time. When she doesn't Riley gets upset, but she is fiercely independent, and will do things her way! Emma is really looking forward to meeting her new sister and loves to give my baby belly hugs and kisses. Emma enjoys playing mommy and taking care of her dolls. But one of her favorite people in the whole wide world is her Daddy. Emma has been a Daddy's girl from the beginning. They have had a special bond. Emmaline give the best hugs! We love her so much!

Happy Birthday little girl!

more on cars

So, we spent all of last week trying to get our cars fixed. Such a pain. But, at last I can say that we have two, yes two working cars! YEAH!!!!! It turned out that the van's problem was very simple. When they installed the new battery they didn't put the resistors on tight enough. This cased the the resistor to pop off the batter and cased power surges through the van. Power surges cased system failure in the AC, and made the a fuse for the driver side window pop. As for the the driver sided sliding door... the van thought that the gas door was open. There's a sensor that wasn't getting pushed... the mechanic adjusted it! Now everything works!!!

Allen spent much of last week fixing pipes and hoses in his car. It was kinda like two steps forward and one step back. Thankful, it has gotten him to school and back so far this week. Car problems have been the focus of our lives for about a month now. Hopefully we can now concentrate on getting Allen ready for finals and our family ready for the new baby.

We spent Saturday rearranging the bedrooms. Originally the plan was to put the two girls together in one room, Riley having his own. On further reflection, we decided to put the two kids that sleep through the night together. Why mess with a good thing? We made Emma's room into a playroom until the new baby needs it. We put all the books and most of the toys in there. It seems to be working out pretty well. Emma loves the big kid bed. We put her on the bottom bunk. The only hitch we've had it Emma waking up EARLY!!! Monday she was up before 6... it was still dark outside. And see woke Riley. The only up side was they took a LONG nap in the afternoon, so I could sleep.

Halloween?

So, I've been racking my brain on what to dress Emma and Riley up as for Halloween. I asked Riley what he wanted to be... yeah, not so helpful. He had a different answer just about every time. However, pirate came up many times. I didn't want to do pirates again... big pain, and I just don't have the energy I had last year (being almost 8 months pregnant will do that). I finally got the Halloween stuff out today. Mostly we have a few costumes. In my mind I was going to dress Emma up in a Tiger costume Riley had worn when she was a baby, but the costume was too long... ugh. So, I tried it on Riley, too short. So, I finally gave in and let Riley try on last year's costume. It FIT! I was shocked! Yes, the pants aren't pants but shorts... so what, it's a pirate costume, if you look a little rag-tag it makes it cooler. Well, I figured I had nothing to lose.. and tried Emma's on her.. It fit too. Hmmmm. So, does it make me a bad mommy if we are going to go as the same thing this year? I hope not. As for me, I think I'm just going to be a great big pumpkin. I'm round enough for it! This was last year. I was so sure Emma would be walking (yeah, not so much). But we made her stand for just a few shots. I think it looks pretty cool. We will have to find some sort of shoes, and of course Riley wants a parrot. And, if you get one for him, Emma will have to have one too. (She's gotten quite vocal about what she sees as unfair treatment. If Riley gets something, she wants something too.) But this is a small thing to me. I know where to buy fake birds, and I'm sure their black shoes will be fine. Get Emmaline some tights and we are done! I don't have to worry about what they are going to wear anymore!!! Yeah!

Prayer

Over the last few months, Riley and Emmaline have both decided that they want to say prayers. It's really cute. Generally we will prompt them on what to say. Although, Riley will look over at you and "I can do it!" it's really fun. At lunch today, it was Emma's turn. Without any help she said the prayer.

"Heanly Fader, thank yu for da hot dogs, thank yu for da apple sauce, and dee yellow chips. name of Jesus CHRIST. AMEN"

It made me laugh so hard! In cased you missed it. We had hot dogs, apple sauce and potato chips. My babies are growing up!

I hate cars

So for the past month we have been dealing with car problems. I HATE car problems. I find them frustrating, aggravating, make me crazy, and there's really nothing I can do about them crazy things. First Allen's car basically blow up. We think the head gastic blew (please excuse my ignorance, but if you asked I couldn't really tell you what it means) and we spend a great deal of time and effort trying to fix it. It finally came down to: do we keep throwing money at this hoping that it something we do fixes the problem, or do we start looking for a different car. I'd love to say "new" but yeah, we are in the 3rd year of law school, there's no such thing as new. We decided to start looking for an additional car. We found one, it seemed to be running good... yeah, seemed to be. The next day when Allen took it to get smoged... smoke and death. Oil was leaking, and smoking and the dumb thing didn't pass smog... not because it was smoking (again you'd have to ask Allen, I'm not sure what was wrong). UGH! Thankfully my dad is around. He and Allen spent yesterday working on the car. And this morning it passed smog, it doesn't smoke or die!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! So, Allen's car is working... and my van is possessed.

I'm serious. A few weeks ago the back ac stopped working. Actually, the fan blowing air in the back stopped working. This is a really headache because this means no heat, ac, air anything is going on in the back. It also made the front ac not work as well. A couple of days later, the driver side door slider stopped opening... very irritating. When we bought the van you could only open that door from the inside or with the auto doors... now you have to open the driver door and pull the door open. A couple of days after that the driver side window stopped working... So, now when the ac isn't cooling the only air coming into the van is from the passenger side window. We figured it was just that the van has a lot of miles on it, and it's starting to wear out... not so my friends. Yesterday, while following Allen to my parents' house everything started to work! I went over a bump and boom the fan started to work. I went to show my dad by opening the doors for the kids, and Emma's door opened! And low and behold the driver side window rolled down! Oh my goodness!!! It all worked for most of the day yesterday... and then just like that! Everything stopped again... I was one sad panda. I really hate cars!

Scary Geese

Last week my brother in law Brigham and I took the kids to Floyd Lamb State park to feed the birds. It was a beautiful day, and seemed like a fun thing to do. The intent was to feed the ducks. The geese had other ideas! See the goose up on the deck? This was just the first in a major invasion that the geese conducted to get all the bread! These geese tried to take the bread right from the bag! That takes all the fun out of it! These crazy geese followed us all around the park. They thought Riley's bag of leaves was more bread... I really don't like geese (not sure if I've ever mentioned that?).. in fact, they kinda scare me a lot! I remember taking Riley to Floyd Lamb before Emmaline was born, and getting surrounded by these same evil geese... Riley and I were perched up on top of a table, and the geese completely surrounded us! I was really scared (the picture above, which I took 2 years ago, shows about 1/3 of the crazed geese that had us trapped!). But anyway, I still love this particular park! It's a beautiful oasis from the brownness that is Las Vegas! But I think next time, we will check out the historical building and the less scary peacocks!