She's Here

Beka arrived Nov 18, 2009. More pictures to come!

Rebeka Susanne Leavitt arrived today! She was born at 3:51 AM and weighed in at 7lbs and was 19.7 inch long. She is super cute! Her deliver was pretty easy

Too Cute

Last night Allen was reading Emmaline stories. I looked over and saw this: I think she was a little tired! It was really cute.

Another Baby Update

Well, now this little baby has decided maybe I don't want to come out just yet... It's cold out there. So, after 14 days on bed rest I'm up and about a little. I feel really good, for being nine months pregnant. We have an official eviction date of November 25th (yes the day before Thanksgiving). With luck, we might be able to convince her to come a little earlier than that, but as with many things, we have no control over that. She's doing well, heart beat good, growing well, moving and grooving all over mommy belly. Mommy's blood pressure is good and for once gaining weight like I'm supposed to. Usually I loss weight with pregnancy. Another 1.5 lbs this week... hopefully it's mostly baby, right? Anyway, that's the news out here... pretty much no news. Which is good. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes!

MGM Lions

A few weeks ago I dragged my dad with me to take the kids to see the lions at the MGM. It's a free exhibit and I wanted to do something fun with the kids... I had been kinda a boring stay in the house not leave all day mommy... I think that's what happens when your almost 9 months pregnant. Anyway, the kids really enjoyed it. One of the coolest things about the exhibit was going under the lions. They have a tunnel that you walk through and the lions LOVE to lay down on top. It took some convincing to get Emmaline to look up... but once she did Emma was very impressed. Her mouth was just hanging open. It was really cute!I tried to get a cute picture with the lions, dad, and the kids... Couldn't get the kids to look at me. Emma was too amazed at the big cats right about her head. Both kids were really impressed. It is really cool how close you can get to the lions. Riley and Emma were both in amazement with all the lights and sounds that go along with the casino. Riley in particular liked the bar that looked like it was underwater. The best part I think was going to the rain forest cafe afterward. If you never been it's a lot of fun. There is a thunder shower every couple of minutes. There are animals all around you (fake but animated) and they all start doing their thing. My favorite animal was the giant butterflies. It was really cool. The other amazing thing in the rain forest cafe was the aquariums. They are from ceiling to floor circular tubes. The were salt water tanks with giant fish! Walking out of the shop was this giant snake! It gave Riley quite the scare!

All in all it was a really fun outing. I think I'd have planned a little differently but it was really nice to get out of the house!

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!