the perfect day.

Levi helping me make ginger snap cookies.

This is how Levi spends his day! Some how he’s always in a tent.

 

He got bored of the bouncer and so onto the playmate. He is a mover and he’s quick.

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a fresh batch of homemade ginger snaps. Thanks Laura for the recipe!

kickin the habit!

We are now a soother free home. A week and a half ago Levi all of sudden decided he didn’t need a soother anymore. At first I was so excited, we wouldn’t have a toddler still sucking on a soother!! Now it takes twice as long to go to sleep, we just cuddle and rock to sleep. It is getting better tho.

This was when he was a few days old, he always started out wanting to hold his bottle. Now he almost holds it himself every time.

He’s gonna hate this picture when he’s older but I love his face. Look how happy he is to be naked! This kid loves getting naked. We were having a little “airing out time” and I had to get a picture of those back rolls and cute little bum cheeks.

PS. 26 days till Christmas and only 10 days of school left for Dave!

{not} a nap.

I went to go get a picture of Levi sleeping. The shades were open and the ray of light across him was just picture perfect. This what I got instead, and I love them.

 

We should make some money off this kid and put him in modeling!

our baby.

nice and clean!

 woombie time

 wasn't as tired as we thought

 this is how smiley he is when he wakes up.

 he slept in our bed this morning and was just loving all the room to play

trying to grab the camera

 dave carting levi around so we could get somethings accomplished

just playing on his mat.

jam anyone?

This is so gross but had to share it. Levi wore black socks to church, can you tell?

a {Sappy Lovey Dovey} long post..

Well our little man is 4 months old today. In a way its been the longest and somehow fastest 4 months of our life. He has changed our world forever. Some days it feels as if he’s always been a part of us and other days we just marvel to think this little miracle came from us. He is becoming such a mini Dave. He isn’t the easiest baby but sure makes it up with the giggles, and big smiles. He smiles and lights up soon as Dave gets home from school or I walk into the room.

I was talking with my dad this morning and we were discussing how a child learns more in the first 5 years of their life then they will in the rest of their lifetime. Kind of makes you feel the pressure eh??

Little Levi we sure love having you in our family!

My aunt sent me a book and I received it yesterday. I'm already 30 pages into! It’s a collaboration of women's different experiences of motherhood. The stories range from post-partum depression to adopting to miscarriages to the perfect baby. Its so great for me to read because as I have been reading it I realize that it’s okay not to be perfect, nobody is. I would recommend anyone to read this.                                           

Thanks again Auntie Barb!

On another side note:

The day we brought our new SUV home the starter went on the truck. Of course right? So I have been vehicle-less this past week. Its been cold and snowy, too cold to take the little man out for walks. So needless to say, I have been starting to get cabin fever. Last night I told Dave I was so excited to go to the bright lights festival and to midnight madness on friday (today). He informed me he needed the car that night. BAH! He is volunteering at a wine festival with the Leo Club and would need the vehicle to drive people home. I had been looking forward to this all week. So I had a little bawl session and then realized how big of a boob I was being! The next morning (today) I awoke to the cutest love note on my night stand. Dave and I have hardly seen each other all week. He leaves for school at 6 in the morning and sometimes doesn’t get home till 5:30 and then studies all night. I think he has maybe gotten a total of 15 hours of sleep all week. He has so much homework and tests these next few weeks. So I am so grateful for that little note that tells me how much he appreciated me. Shouldn’t I be the one giving him the notes? He works so hard to achieve high marks and school, so how does he have the time to give me the love notes?

I am so grateful for my boys.

a weird day.

this day was really bizarre here’s why:

- first off I accidently started the dryer with the cat in it.  he must have crawled in the few minutes in between me loading it and starting it. the cat is fine, but I still think its funny. it must have terrified him enough, because he peed OUR bed!

- secondly I found a free piano for davey. I play too but he’s amazing at the piano and I love to listen to him play!

- then levi has cried for about a total of 5 hours today. bah! I thought this was behind us.

- levi got to experience the snow.

it was such an up/down all around crazy day.

heres the new piano:

levi’s first snow fun:

I caved.

So I finally caved, I know I'm gonna get some serious harassment for this but oh well. I'm coloring my hair this Friday. Since May I have been trying to go all natural, its not working. We have pictures this Saturday and I’m feeling very blah! (Check out our sweet photographer – My Brother!! )So I can’t decide what to do? At least I'm still growing it out right?

So tell me what you think?

 

I love the warmth of the browns, caramels and blondes.

 

I love having lots of blonde but is it too much?

This is the cut I like, whatda think?

Heres the color scheme I’ve chosen for our photos, I am still trying to decide if it’s too bland or is it nice and simple and you can go crazy editing?

light blue, tan and a soft cream.

Ps. I am officially down a pant size!!

5 nights in a row, we feel so blessed.

We still aren't sure if Levi's medicine is working 100% yet as he still has some "episodes" but this stuff is magic.

RICE CEREAL! 

We tried it about 3 weeks ago and he would just puke it all back up. So we attempted it again 5 days ago. We have really been pushing to get Levi in some sort of schedule and the hard work is starting to pay off. 

 I can't feed him fast enough, he loves the stuff. He is so dang smart this little guy, he knows when we start to make it and he gets all excited just like when we make his bottle.

I have a feeling we may get this look a lot when he gets older, but for now i think its too darn cute!

P.S. My adorable Grandma turned 75 this week, it had to be the best surprise party we've ever been too! Happy Birthday Grandma Campbell!

our houdini

We woke up to this:

 

Can you see that he got out of his swaddler? He also managed to get his arm out of his shirt. HOW?? 

I started laughing when i saw him in his crib this morning! I layed him at the top of his crib last night and when i walked in at 4am he was at the bottom of the crib upside down and squished into a corner. 

ps. i only lost 1 stinkin pound the week! only means i gotta work hard this week to get my new jeans. so im now down a total of 7 pounds!

am I the only one?

{warning: brutal honesty}

So I’m sure I’m not the only one, but some days I sure feel like I am. I have tried my hardest to stay so positive about Levi. Being a mom with an extremely fussy baby is sooo emotionally and physically draining. I have tried for 14 weeks to act like things in this house are bliss. 50% of the time they are. The other 50% of the time Levi is crying. I constantly feel like no one knows what I'm going through. I'm sure people have but I feel so alone all the time. Don’t get me wrong Dave is there whenever I need him! But he’s gone to school for 8 hours a day and then I feel bad asking him to help at night when I know he needs to study. He is so willing to help whenever I need it, I am spoiled I know that. It’s just hard never getting things done around the house. When you set one goal for the day and you can’t get it done because you spent the whole day in the rocking chair, makes you feel like a failure. Please don’t think I'm ungrateful, but for those days where Levi can cry for 5 hours straight. I feel like the worst mom.

We had an appointment with the pediatrician on Thursday this week, and hopefully got things figured out. Levi was diagnosed with Severe Acid Reflux. We have tried medications before, but it was for Mild Acid Reflux and so they didn’t do anything. So here’s hoping the new medicine keeps working and helps this poor gaffer to start feeling better. Sorry for the rant but as for now this kid may be an only child (I’m sure that will change). Its nothing wrong with Levi or my Hubby, its that darn heartburn that kills me! Everyday I feel so drained from holding a crying baby and not being able to help him. It’s the worst feeling for a mom to feel helpless. I am not saying I don’t love being a mom because I truly do. I appreciate so much more what my parents did for me growing up. Its not easy that’s for sure. How can you not love being a mom when your kid is this cute?

I love seeing him discover new things and squeal in delight when he gets those toes in his mouth! When he isn’t having his heart burn episodes he is the grinniest and most vocal 3 month old I have ever seen. I love being a mom and a wife. Its truly the greatest gift, I feel like I'm just getting ready to see the best part of being a mom. A baby who is healthy and not constantly in pain, so here’s hoping that medicine works.

Happy Birthday to Grandpa Roberts.

Happy Birthday to a wonderful Father & Grandpa.

ps. don't forget to check the post below and leave a comment.

its beginning to look alot like christmas in the murray home.

 Here's Levi helping.

 ( for some reason his hair always looks so red in pictures, its not that red in real life. )

 the start of something miraculous!

 oh boy! you as excited as dave is????

 here she is! our 5 1/2 ft christmas tree in all her glory. aint she a beaut!

 

just put a bow on this and he's gotta to be our greatest gift ever.

 yep he's sucking his toes, i love how he has a death grip on the left leg!!

 our christmas wreath that cost me a whole dollar from dollarama.

 my favourite decoration. the willow tree nativity set.

Well Christmas has kicked off in our house! We have watched Elf twice and the Polar Express already. I was in charge of the lesson we had for FHE at our friends house and I used this talk. Which related to both our families as we both have young kids. Anywho it talks on how telling stories of christmas time and growing up can teach our children good morals and values. So I am asking what's your favourite christmas memory? 

Mine you ask? 

Well christmas of 07 is one of my favourites. I got engaged 3 days before christmas and my fiance ( now hubby ) surprised me by staying for christmas, after weeks of telling me he would be in edmonton all christmas holidays. I was in hair school at the time and was being a boob about how he "had left to edmonton" that morning, when surprise! he shows up at my school with subway ( my favourite!! ) and roses to say he is staying. he had planned this all along with my parents that he would be staying for christmas and celebrating with us. he had my whole family in on it. i had just been crying that morning because i asked my dad for the millionth time if dave could do christmas with us and he had told me "he wasn't technically family" so NO. i was devastated, the roses and subway made up for all the tears.( ps my dad wasn't serious, it was just a distraction ) we got engaged that night. also that christmas my mom made me a HUGE denim quilt, its our favourite blanket to this day, so warm! its on our bed right now actually.       

So again I ask, what's your favourite memory?

{second week down} & {lately}

 Bubbs loves the exersaucer!

 Momma & her stud muffin all ready for church.

 We couldn't stop laughing at Levi in his pumpkin costume.

 Dad & the pumpkin.

 i LOVE this photo!

 We're done, good thing he only wore for 10 minutes to hand out candy to the trick or treaters.

Our halloween ended up being quite uneventful! We got about 12 or so trick or treaters this year, which is more then last year! We dressed Levi up for about 10 minutes to hand out candy. He wasn't very excited about his costume, maybe it didn't help that his parents were laughing at it. I still think he made the cutest pumpkin. Our decorations are coming down today and Christmas is going up this week. Bring on the Christmas music and movies!

Second Week.

The second week was TOUGH! It was a very emotional week for me which made it hard to constantly make good decisions. Thank heavens for my healthy buddy, she really gives me the motivation! Im now down a total of 6 pounds in my 2 weeks. Im not sharing to brag im sharing to hold me to my weight loss goal! Its 50% off at Thrift Village on Nov.15 so my goal is to be down a pant size so i can get a new pair of pants. The pair I have now are getting loose, I can't wait to get a new pair!