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.

Visitors

Last weekend we had more visitors.  I was especially looking forward to these visitors because they are the most awesome people in the world!  My sisters came up for the weekend and we had a blast.  While Aaron worked on Friday we walked the shops on Main Street in town and grabbed lunch at the Coffee Shop or as Levi calls in the corndog place.  Friday evening we drove out to see the elk and luckily the the bull and several cows were out.  We finished it up with some DQ ice cream.  Saturday we drove around taking in the mountain sights and spent the evening out at the river park.  Of course we found plenty of time for cards as expected.  They went to church with us Sunday before heading back home.  While NC is an adventure, I miss my sisters.  They are my best friends and I miss not seeing them and talking to them every week.  Their visit was so nice and refreshing for me.  They've also been quite the hostesses for us when we come down to GA - even at the last minute.  There are no two better gals on the planet and I love them so much.  Thanks for coming a spending some time with us!

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.

Sewing

I have been wanting to learn to sew for some time now.  My ultimate goal is to quilt just like my grandmother.  She made each grandchild a quilt when they got married and I treasure mine.  Its this little piece of home I always have with me.  I've been putting it off for a while now because I had no sewing machine and really didn't want to spend the money to get started.  Not to mention I needed someone to sit down and really teach me what to do.  Well, to the rescue was my mother-in-law.  She came up this week and generously taught me to sew and got me set up with a few sewing basics that I'd need.  A huge thanks to my sister-in-law for letting me use her sewing machine until I get one of my own.  Yesterday I had my first lesson and we jumped right in with a project.  Below is the finished project.  I'm really proud of myself and looking forward to doing a lot more sewing.  

Elk

We live about 30 minutes from the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.  Recently they reintroduced elk into the forest.  On most days you can see them at either the visitor center near Cherokee or in the Cataloochee Valley area.  We've been to both places frequently and have seen several elk.  At the visitors center lately we have seen a bull.  Just this past weekend we saw a bull, 9 cows, and 3 calves.  It was quite awesome.  We were walking the River Trail when we saw the calves and you can see the bull walked out right in front of us while we were on the trail.  As we walked back to the visitors center we could see them all in the pasture.  Here are a few pictures.

18 Months

Where has the time gone?  I can't believe my baby girl is already 18 months old.  She is just the full of personality and we couldn't imagine life without her.  Here is all the stuff she is into...

• Her and Levi are best friends.  Fight like cats and dogs sometimes, but best friends.
• She adores Aaron.  Definitely a daddy's girl.
• She loves to eat.  Bananas, cheese, yogurt, crackers, grilled cheese sandwiches, and chicken are some of her favorites.
• She still loves the pacifier.  Was going to take it away, but we caught her sucking her thumb so we are putting it off a little while.
• Wears 18 month clothes and size 3 diapers.
• She loves playing outside.  
• She loves the water.  One of her favorite things is to play in the river across the street.  
• She is super brave.  She'll try almost anything.
• She has the BEST laugh and smile.  I love to tickle her just to see and hear it.
• She has mastered walking, running, climbing, and stairs.
• She is talking so much.  She can repeat almost anything you ask her to, but she here are a few words that she says frequently:  mama, papa, Levi, Dodger, eat, baby, please, yes.
• She takes 1 nap and sleeps about 10 hours at night.
• She is quite obedient most of the time.
• She likes to push the boundaries.
• She is very playful.
• She loves Dodger.  She climbs on him and probably drives him absolutely crazy!
• She loves bath time.  

Watching

Today I watched my children.  I watched them play.  I am a stay at home mom so I watch my kids play all day.  Everyday.  But rarely do I sit back and really watch them.  Truth is I'm usually doing things while I'm watching them.  I'm doing laundry, dishes, cleaning, bathing, cooking, and so on that I sometimes miss those moments because I'm caught up in my chores and such.  I'm not oblivious to them or ignoring them.  I'm just multi-tasking which means I'm playing with one hand and doing some chore with the other (or at least thinking of what chores I need to be doing).  But today I sat and watched.  I didn't participate I just simply watched them do their thing.

I watched as they lined cars along my bathroom counter (never-minding how it was going to be all in my way later when I tried to get ready) and then ran from their bedroom back to the bathroom carrying one car at a time to add to the countertop. I watched as Naomi ran as fast as she could to keep up with her older brother.  I watched her little legs run and how awkward, but completely normal her running was.  I even chuckled at it.  I watched as the laughed as they chased one another from room to room only to do it all again until every Hot Wheel and Matchbox car in our house was lined on the bathroom counter, and believe me we have our fair share of cars.  Then I watched Levi's imagination take over as he named the cars and raced them 2 at a time using the big bathtub as a race track.  And then I watched a his little sister mimicked his every sound and movement.  I watched them play and get along.  I watched their imaginations, their learning, and their friendship.

What's even better is that twice during my watching they let me know that they were happy that I was just there.  Each one without prompting and at different times suddenly at some point in their play just to hug me and give me a kiss.  No words were exchanged.  No words were needed.  It was the highlight of my day.  I know my multi-tasking lifestyle will continue because I am a mother and that is what we do, but hopefully I'll try to take a few extra minutes everyday to just let them play and I will watch.  Watch them grow and become the adults I'm praying they become.  I'm always aware that I'm blessed more than I deserve, but today I got a little glimpse firsthand.