Celebrating 6 Years!

Levi, Age 6

What is your favorite color?  Red
What is your favorite drink?  Chocolate milk
What is your favorite food?  Spaghetti
What is your favorite movie?  Ice Age
What is your favorite thing to do?  Something I've never done - go on a roller coaster - I can't wait to try it.
What is your favorite restaurant?  McDonalds
Where is your favorite place to go?  The Aquarium
Who is your best friend?  Kai, Samuel, and Naomi
What is your favorite song?  All the Ice Age songs
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Stay home and live with mom
What is your favorite thing to play?  Soccer and the car game on Mema's ipad
What is your favorite toy?  Doggie
What do you like most about being home?  playing with his toys
What is your favorite thing to wear?  Superhero shirt with the sparkly letters
What is your favorite fruit?  Bananas
What is your favorite snack?  Fruit by the Foot
What is your favorite book?  Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3
What is your favorite TV show?  Wild Kratts
What is your favorite animal?  Cheetah
What is your favorite thing to sleep with at night?  Doggie
What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Ride my bike
What is your favorite holiday?  Easter
Who is your favorite superhero?  Green Lantern

I'm amazed that I'm celebrating 6 years of this amazing kid being a part of my life. Everyday you bring excitement and wonder back into my adult world and help me see the things I too often look over. You surprise me with your unfounded wisdom and love for The Lord, and your childlike faith inspires me in my own walk. I love watching you learn and discover the world around you and feel privileged to be your teacher through the journey. Thank you for filling my life with Legos, superheroes, dirt, and more animal facts than anyone could ever know. You are a blessing to my life in so many ways and I hope all your dreams come true. We love you!!

Happy Birthday Shoog!!

Birthday Interview

Levi, age 5

What is your favorite color?  Red
What is your favorite drink?  Chocolate milk
What is your favorite food?  Spaghetti (noodles with butter & Parmesan cheese) and Pizza
What is your favorite movie?  Kang Fu Panda 2
What is your favorite thing to do?  Go to the park and Disney World
What is your favorite restaurant?  Pizza Hut
Where is your favorite place to go?  Zoo
Who is your best friend?  Bay, Naomi, Javier & Maila
What is your favorite song?  The Lion Song (Roaring like a Lion by David Crowder)
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Nothing
What is your favorite thing to play?  Angry Birds
What is your favorite toy?  Spiderman rings
What do you like most about being home?  The deer
What is your favorite thing to wear?  Superhero shirts
What is your favorite fruit?  All fruit
What is your favorite snack?  Apples
What is your favorite book?  Curious George
What is your favorite TV show?  Wild Kratts
What is your favorite animal?  Tiger, Leopard, and Cheetah
What is your favorite thing to sleep with at night?  Doggie
What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Play with Dodger
What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas
Who is your favorite superhero?  Spiderman, Wolverine, Captain America, & Ironman

This kid is the best kid in the whole world!  He is creative, smart, and loving.  He loves superheros, Wild Kratts, and playing the Wii.  Most of all he loves Jesus, and that makes us so proud.  We love you Levi and are so proud of you!

5 Years

Five years ago yesterday I had been in labor for 7 hours with nearly 12 more to go before they laid this beautiful boy in my arms. You are the most creative, generous, and loving little boy I know. Your curiosity, cheetah powers, humor, love for all things superhero, big heart, contagious smile and laughter have filled our hearts and home the last five years. We love you and hope you have the most amazing day with more blessings to come this year. Happy Birthday Levi!!

Interview

Levi, age 4.

What is your favorite color?  White
What is your favorite drink?  Pink chocolate milk
What is your favorite food?  Spaghetti (noodles with butter & Parmesan cheese)
What is your favorite movie?  Ice Age
What is your favorite thing to do?  Go see the elk
What is your favorite restaurant?  McDonald's
Where is your favorite place to go?  Disney World
Who is your best friend?  Javier & Malia
What is your favorite song?  Ice Age song with the baby.
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Engineer and a race car driver
What is your favorite thing to play?  Cars on the Wii
What is your favorite toy?  Buzz Lightyear
What do you like most about the mountains?  The bear place
What is your favorite thing to wear?  Spiderman shirt with the wings
What is your favorite fruit?  Pineapple
What is your favorite snack?  Ice cream
What is your favorite book?  The Nose Book by Al Perkins
What is your favorite animal?  Dinosaurs 
What is your favorite thing to sleep with at night?  Doggie
What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Chase Dodger with his truck
What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas
Who is your favorite superhero?  Spiderman

I have been meaning to do this ever since his birthday 2 months ago.  I really want to have a reminder of what my kids interests were and what they were into as they get older.  Levi is so imaginative and smart.  He loves his little sister and going to work with his Poppy.  He is cautious in new surroundings and situations, but adapts quickly with excitement.  He is huge blessing in our home and we love him very much.

Thumbs Up

We have a thumb sucker.  I guess I should has we had a thumb sucker.  He wasn't the worst case, but a thumb sucker none the less.  Typically he would suck his thumb when sleeping, napping, tire, riding in the car, or watching a movie.  He wasn't one of those kids who constantly walks around with it in his mouth, but he was definitely a thumb sucker.  We've been talking to him for several months about giving it up.  My goal was to have him thumb free by school so that gave me this year to work on it.  We've been talking it up, but he was not interested.  Finally one day while we were talking about it I asked him if he could have anything as a reward for stopping what would it be.  He replied "A BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!"  Not just any Buzz.  The real deal.  Lights, lasers, talking...the whole 9 yards.  Aaron & I discussed it (Buzz is not cheap by any means) and decided that if he quit sucking his thumb we'd splurge and get Buzz.  He was still struggling wiht his decision so while we were at Target one day I decided to take him by the toy section to see if they had a Buzz.  They did.  I showed him all the cool lights, lasers, sounds, and he feel in love.  I told him if he quit sucking his thumb for 2 weeks we'd come back and get him.  He was excited (partially because he thought we were getting Buzz that day...and he cried when we left without him), and it gave him the incentive he needed to reach his goal.  I intended to make a chart to mark of the days, but time got away from me.  After a few days I noticed he wasn't sucking it and thought it better to just go on with the days without saying anything.   Every few days I'd ask him about it and tell him how good of a job he was doing and how proud I was of him.  Well, he earned it!!  He has actually been thumb free (with the exception of night which is hard to monitor.  I haven't seen him do it, but I really don't know) now for 3 weeks!!  We are so proud of him!  He set his mind to it and did it.  Buzz became a member of the family last night and as you can tell Levi is super excited about him.

Birthday Fun

 Levi is 4!  I can't believe it.  We of course had a wonderful time celebrating his birthday with friends and family.  We were in GA the weekend before his birthday and had a party to celebrate with family and a few friends.  He loved it and got exactly what he asked for...a water hose!!!  I'm still not sure why he wanted it, but he had been asking for it for weeks so that is what he got.  He was thrilled and has asked to use it several times.  The only problem is that our rental property in NC doesn't have an outside water hookup for it :(  We are working on getting a solution so he can use it soon.  We also want to send a big shout out to Lou Lou for making his totally awesome monster truck cake.  He loved it!  He got so many wonderful things.  Lots of cars, a net for catching fish & bugs, clothes, a water hose, and the bird game!  Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate!

 Gramps even got his Batman car up and running again!

 Levi's actual birthday fell on Memorial Day this year.  Granddaddy, Grandmama, & Cara came up for a visit and we spent the day doing all the things that Levi loves doing in NC.  We went to the NOC center and watched some kayakers do tricks and then we went a visited a few waterfalls.  I made some cupcakes for us to celebrate his actual birthday and we had a mini party before they had to head back home.

 The birthday boy!

 Opening his presents he got a new fishing pole and 2 new VeggieTale movies!  Granddaddy & Grandmama also gave him a spray attachment for his waterhose!

 After Aaron's folks left we headed across the street to the park to grill our dinner.  Levi even caught a fish in his new net!  We had a great time together playing in the river and celebrating Levi's big day!

At the end of the day we had this awesome rainbow above the mountains in our backyard.  It was quite fitting for the wonderful day we had celebrating our son's birthday.  Levi is truly a blessing from God and we are so thankful he is part of our family.  His smile and humor brighten each day and his love for life is so contagious.  We love you and are so proud of our little guy!

Look Who's 4!

This little guy is 4 today!  Where has the time gone?  Its hard to believe that four years ago this guy gave me the opportunity to be a mother.  A role I treasure and strive to be worthy of each day.  He has brought so much joy to our lives.  His hunger and enthusiasm for life, his creative spirit, his imagination that is unlike any other, his  love for others, and this ability to find every little thing in life the most awesome thing ever.  He brings something new to each day and has made me face my own complacency about the little things that he is so passionate about.  I love him for this.  I love him for the challenge he brings and the newness to each day he shows me.

Happy Birthday Levi!

Cocoons

We now have 2 cocoons in our caterpillar habitat!  Hopefully soon we will have 2 beautiful butterflies!  It was actually kind of neat to watch them make them.  Even though it was a several hour process we were able to watch them wrap themselves up.  It was pretty interesting.

We are heading to GA in the morning!!  My cousin's wedding is this weekend and then we are headed to the beach for a week.  When we come back we'll stay in GA another weekend to celebrate the little guy's 4th birthday.  I am so excited about seeing some family and familiar faces!

Caterpillars

The caterpillars have been out in full force at our house.  Levi easily finds 4-5 every time we go outside.  He loves them and I feel pretty bad for the poor souls since he tends to love them a little too much sometimes if you get my drift.  He found a bright green one the other day that he grew attached too.  When he came inside I noticed he had built this contraption on the porch and so I asked about it.  He enlightened me that this caterpillars was his best buddy and he didn't want it to get away and so he built this.  The caterpillars is inside the middle while pipe.  One end is closed by the chair and the other end is closed by the other pipe.  This way the caterpillar cannot get out.  Pretty ingenious for a 3 year old right!  Realizing he was going to kill all the caterpillars in our yard this way we set out to keep our caterpillars alive.

A trip to Wal-Mart = $6.
An excited kid with pet caterpillars = priceless.

We are hoping that they will build cocoons and we can watch them change into butterflies.  That is assuming that they live.  Somehow we've already managed to let one die in the one day we had them :(  Sorry little fella.  We are hoping he is in caterpillar heaven.  Hopefully none of our other friends will join him anytime soon.

Just a Swingin'

With temperatures in the 90s and 100s over the last several weeks, we have spent most of our time indoors. However, last week we had a nice break for about 2 days with slightly cooler temps (80s) so we took advantage of it and headed to the park for the evening. Naomi loved the swing, which also happens to be Levi's favorite thing to do as well. Here they are smiles and all...

Silly Faces

"Do you want to see my silly faces?"

and now Doggie joined in.

Bad at Posting

Lately I have been very bad at 1) taking pictures, and 2) posting the pictures I actually do take. However, I have taken a few here and there that for whatever reason I haven't uploaded to post. Here is a little taste.

Naomi is rolling around everywhere! She is trying really hard to crawl, but hasn't quite mastered it just yet. This day she roller herself right under the TV cabinet.

At Levi's 3 year check-up the doctor noticed a heart murmur and sent us to a pediatric cardiologist to have it checked out. Levi wasn't too sure about it all. After being hooked up to all these cords and an ultrasound of his heart, the doctor told us it was just an innocent murmur and nothing to worry about. We have to go back in 5 years to make sure it hasn't developed into anything more serious. Can't believe Levi will be 8 then!

The is crazy man being what I like to call bucket head. He is so much fun!

So Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A was well over a month ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting this picture. Aaron's sister, Cara, dressed him up. I think she did a pretty good job. Just wished I had gotten a picture of the whole outfit. He definitely enjoyed his free meal!

Big Brother Sweetness

Levi is proving to be one amazing big brother. Naomi has not been sleeping well at night. Usually she wakes once at some point and it only takes a little snuggling and she is back asleep. I'm hoping it is due to teething, but we'll see. Anyway, Sunday evening I was woken up around 2am to hear Naomi crying. When I woke up I noticed the living room light was on, so I go to investigate. I walk around the corner and look into Naomi's room to find that Levi has crawled into the pack-n-play with Naomi. He has given her a pacifier and is telling her "Its okay." She actually seems calm and almost asleep. That is when he saw me and said "Mommy, Nome's crying." So I pick them both up, give Levi some juice, and send him back to bed (after I tell him what a wonderful brother he is). Naomi is back to sleep and in bed by 3am. When morning finally arrives I decide to sleep in since I had to get up with the kids. Around 7:45am I hear Naomi crying again so start to get out of bed, but before I can I hear my bedroom door shut. I get out of bed and walking into the living room to hear laughter coming from Naomi's room. I head that way only to find that Levi has crawled in bed with her again and they are laughing. When I walk in he says "Mommy, you awake?" To which I reply "Yes." Realizing that he thought I was asleep I ask "Did you shut my door so she wouldn't wake me up?" He looks at me and says "Yes." How sweet is that? I definitely have one sweet little boy.

Just One of my Proudest Moment (so far...)

I have never been more proud of this little guy, and let me share why... When we were pregnant with Levi, Aaron & I did a lot of talking about what kind of parents we wanted to be and what kind of kids we wanted to raise. To say the least we had high expectations, but who doesn't when you are expecting your first child. Everyone wants their kids to be well mannered, respectful, smart, obedient, resourceful, kind, and giving individuals. In my short time as a parent I have quickly learned that for children to be those things they must see them modeled in their home. This is not to say that I am good at any of it, but I do try to model for my kids the characteristics that I hope they develop. Although I fail daily at this task in one way or another, God is faithful and He is teaching my kids in spite of my own efforts. This story is really a testimony of the faithfulness of our Heavenly Father.

Stuff. We all have it and we all want more and more of it. We are taught that we can have anything and everything we ever dreamed of with a little hard work, sacrifice, and a little luck. We have more "stuff" than we could ever need, and when we get new "stuff" we just add it to our pile of old "stuff."

A few days after Levi's birthday we told him it was time to go through his room and pick out things he was willing to give to someone else to make room for his new toys. We started this when he was born, but now that he is older we felt it was time that it became his responsibility. Aaron took him into his room with a box and told Levi to start filing it up with what he wanted to give away. Now let me say that our son does not have a lot of toys as it is. No huge playrooms full to the brim of every toy a child can dream up. He simply has a toy box in his room and a few toys in the garage. At first he was hesitant and Aaron had to push him along, but once he put something in the box, he got excited. Excited to give away ALL his toys. I was completely touched at his willingness to part with some of his favorite things because he knew it would bless someone else. In fact I tried to talk him into keeping a few things (because he played with them quite often) to which he replied "No Mommy. They are for Jesus." I've never been more proud. Its times like these that make parenting and all the sacrifices totally worth every ounce of sweat and tears. I couldn't be more proud of him.

I hate that I'm just getting around to posting this, but better late than never.

The Celebration

My crazy little man is officially a 3 year old. I can't believe it. Three years seems like such a long time ago yet it feels like it was just yesterday that I held a beautiful baby boy in my arms for the first time. We had a busy weekend with family so we decided to have a small party with just close family to celebrate the big day. We cooked out hamburgers and hotdogs, enjoyed cake and ice cream, and Levi got everything that could be on the wish list for a 3 year old boy...cars, dinosaurs, and a boat!

Mommy & Poppy with the birthday boy!

the cake! presents!

Three

I can't believe my little Shoog is 3 today!

During the last month...

We have been busy. We'll that is a bit of an understatement, and May is looking pretty jam packed too, so enjoy this post because I never know when I'll get another update on here. Here is a look at what we've been up to.

Just a typical day in our house...building bugs and then fighting with them.

We celebrated Easter by hitting up a few egg hunts and lunches with family. Levi was super excited about all the candy, and really had a great time finding eggs. We even had to rehide some for him to continue looking. He is too stinkin' cute! We also had an Easter production at our church where Aaron participate in the role of Christ. He did an awesome job as always. Just a swingin'!

So excited about his prize in the egg hunt...a monster truck! Naomi is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I can't believe she is already 4 months old. I've taken a few photos of her lately (a few would certainly be an understatement). Here are some I love...

Love these little toes!

2 Corinthians 9:7 "God loves a cheerful giver."

We are so proud of him.

Ring Around the Rosies...

In Pictures

Here's a summary of our last few weeks in pictures...

...and many more wonderful weeks to come!