February

Levi is almost one, I can't believe it.  He can have me laughing at one moment and pulling my hair out the next.  He is a good baby, he's just at a busy stage, and he loves his mommy a lot.  He has been standing pretty good on his own the past few days so I'm hoping that walking isn't too far away.

I'm not very good at keeping up with pictures in the winter.  It just seems like the same old stuff, every day, and the next day, and the next day.  These pictures were from about two weeks ago of what the little dudes have been up to.

Probably for about a month Levi has been doing this goofy thing when he bites his upper lip with his lower teeth, cute huh?  Not really, . . . and he does it all day long.  What a silly boy.

Trying to bathe two kids at a time is not my favorite thing to do, but at least they enjoy it.

I can't get Bronson to eat very much fruit, but one that he will eat is pineapple.  Every time we have one I give him the core and he just goes to town.  It's a good way to keep him busy for about 30 minutes or so.  He loves pineapple.  

Levi the geo-trax wrecker :)  Bronson has improved A LOT with his patience when Levi starts messing up his trains. I can't say I blame him but they've got to learn to play together right?

Levi moved into his big boy car seat and loves being able to see what's going on, but so far hasn't been able to fall asleep sitting upright.  I love to be able to look back and see my cute boys.  I'm one of those drivers who has there rear view mirror pointed towards their kids, not the road.

The basement is getting very close, we are on to the fun stuff now, paint, cabinets, carpet, furniture.  We won't make Levi's birthday so maybe St. Patrick's day.  The basement will be so nice to have, but mostly I'm looking forward to getting my husband back. :)  Here's a little video of Levi's latest, well not really his latest, just the latest that I have on video.  

  

Oh what do you do in the winter time?

What you are looking at is hundreds of hours of a

 very talented husband.  Hopefully his indecisive wife

 won't mess it up :)

Mr. Levi doing what he does best.

We had some favorite cousins come over,  guess who was the

 only one to finish his banana bread breakfast?

Davis, Brock, and Bronson doing what they do best. 

When I need to keep Levi in the same place for a few minutes, 

this little car becomes quite handy.

Jared had some left over balloons from his scout meeting and brought them back home for Bronson.  Bronson absolutely loves balloons.  He carried his "boons" around for about 3 hours.  He started getting pretty frustrated because he wanted to do other things but wouldn't let go of the balloons.  I was finally able to convince him to let me tie

 them back to the railing.  Silly boy!

Some of my favorite Bronsonisms

While pointing his index finger up "Momma, more ookies?" 

I reply just by pointing my finger up and get a smiling "ahkay" in return.

"Where's beybee bug?" 

"Beybee's wake." "

"Na, no beybee, my choo choo." 

"My turn beybee."

"Na, no Momma, stay."

No matter what we try Bronson doesn't like to call Levi by his name, and he is closer to spelling his own name than repeating it.  I don't know why he doesn't want to say it.  He is also becoming a very cute little counter, he can go up to about 14, and when we sing our abc's, well he never misses the P and the Z.  I wish I had a video camera on my forehead so I could always catch the fun stuff they do, but I guess writing it will have to do for now.  Levi is the most ticklish baby I've ever seen hopefully I'll get a good video of his contagious giggle up soon.

I don't know about you guys but January was a long month for us.  We have been itching like crazy to be able to go play outside.  Well I wanted to do something fun for my birthday, and discovered the Kiddie Cove at Boondocks in Kaysville.  It is a giant indoor playground perfect for my little Bronster.  I was so excited to discover this - it will be a life saver helping us get through these last winter days.  We've gone twice now and have had lots of fun playing with cousins.   Some of the major highlights:

• it's pretty much in my mom's backyard
  
• it's brand new and very clean
  
• if you go in the morning, you can count the number of cars in the parking lot on one hand.
• 3 dollars will let you play all day, and most of all
• it's the perfect place to let out all of your bottled up winter energy.

the winning loser

Keeping it simple, weight loss for me is 99% mental, and we all know that mothers have a tendency to lose their minds.  The physical part is easy, it's great, my body loves it.  Trying to convince my mind however is the hard part. I won't bore you with the long list of excuses, but I have learned a lot, and there is a bright side;  

~I have uncovered my clavicle bones, 

~I can see my feet when I look down, 

~I do feel a lot better about myself.    

Don't worry I'm not giving up, just looking for a new strategy.  As you can see I'm a genius when it comes to outsmarting myself. :)  I will be sure to let you know when I reach my goal.  Thanks for all the encouragement.

Motherhood

There never was a child so lovely but 

his mother was glad to get him asleep.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Babies don't need fathers, but mothers do. 

Someone who is taking care of a baby 

needs to be taken care of.-Amy Heckerling

We worry about what a child will be tomorrow, 

yet we forgot that he is someone today.

-Stacia Tauscher

The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother 

attempts to transform herself back from 

an ogre to a saint. -James Fenton

Cleaning your house while your kids are still 

growing is like shoveling the walk before

 it stops snowing.-Phyllis Diller

Experts say you should never hit your children

 in anger. When is a good time? 

When you're feeling festive?-Roseanne

There is no point at which you can say, 

'Well, I'm successful now. 

I might as well take a nap.'

-Carrie Fisher

any more thoughts?

that makes me smile

I have never really enjoyed shopping, no matter what kind.  Since Bronson turned two shopping has gone from annoying, to difficult, to total nightmare.  So I've tried my best to go shopping without him, or just not at all :)  Well after thanksgiving I saw a mom and her little girl walking into Wal-mart, and the little girl was pushing her own little shopping cart.  "Wow," I thought, "would that really work?"  I remembered some cute shopping carts I'd seen before, ordered two on-line, and used them for Christmas.  They are very cute and Bronson loves pushing it around the house.  I kinda decided I didn't really want to take it to Wal-mart and have it get all gross, so I've just tried to continue shopping without Bronson.  Well today I had to go to Wal-mart, and I had to take Bronson with me, so I figured I'd give it a shot. OH MY HECK, it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen.  Bronson was soooooo GOOD!  He loved it, I loved it, it worked!  We got all of our shopping done.  We went from climbing in and out of carts, stepping on and eating food the food in the cart, rolling around all over the floor (too many times to count) - to a happy little shadow who stayed right by me the whole time and loved being able to put things in his cart.  Seriously, I wish I would have had my video camera it was so much fun.  Anyway my shopping dread has now turned into a fun activity we can do together to get out of the house.  (and in case you couldn't tell I've been smiling the whole time I've been typing this) 

Our "Levi Bug" figured it out.  He has been crawling everywhere since New Year's Day.  Some of his favorite things to do are dump and eat dog food, pull off the heater vents under the cabinets, and try to pull himself up on anything he can, and  last night he did, all by himself. 

(he was pretty proud of himself and we were too)

22 days - 12 lbs ? ? ?

With the holidays out of my way, procrastination and excuses are no longer an option.  It's just me and. . . . . . . me.  I just hope my body can do what my mind wants it to.  So here's to being 27 and weighing 127.  Happy New year!  

Is this possible?

 ~ Of course, no problem just don't lose your motivation

 ~ Probably possible but maybe not a good idea

 ~ Weight doesn't matter, it's how you feel that counts

 ~ Unlikely, you are totally exhausted at the end of the day

Of course these options are all things that I've told myself.  Bottom line, I set a goal and I want to reach it, so even if you think I can't do it, just lie to me this time.