15 months old.

Levi is 15 months old, that's 1 and a 1/4. That's a quarter of the way to 2. Holy Smokes! This week I've seen some huge improvements! This may sound horrible but this is my favourite  thing, finding a discipline that works. "Do you want to go sit on the chair?" Its not completely perfected but he does hate sitting on that chair. The funny thing is its my old chair my mom painted for me:

Soon it shall be painted and labeled the "time out" chair.

But back to Levi..
He's at a really fun stage right, pushing and hitting. Everyone tells me its the age, I hope its true and not just them being polite. It makes me sad that my little boy has learned to hit and push, he never did this till a few weeks ago. On a happy note though, he has discovered please and thank you. Happy 15 months munchkin!

Pumpkin Muffins

If you received some of these consider yourself loved, very loved! I didn't want to part with these, seriously my new favourite muffins! I made little muffins and the big ones, which I will trick our cubs with saying they are cupcakes. Those boys are hyper enough that they don't need cupcakes with icing!

I altered the recipe the first time I made these by using apple sauce for the oil, and they were fantastic!

 

Are you craving them yet?

Well heres the recipe, go make them, you will not regret it!

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup canola oil { or applesauce }

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp of each, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 cup of chocolate chips (white, milk chocolate or semi-sweet)

     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, whisk the pumpkin, sugar, eggs and oil until well mixed.

In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and baking powder. Mix really well together, and then pour this mixture into the pumpkin mixture until combined, but DO NOT over mix. Then stir in the chocolate chips.

Scrape the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for 52-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Try not to overbake.. The bread should be moist! Cool in the pan for atleast 10 minutes, and then transfer onto a rack to cool completely. Mini muffins 12 minutes, large muffins 20 minutes.

Thanks to "life as a lofthouse" I have tons of new cooking ideas! Go check them out - love it!

one week old.

I feel a bit like a new mommy with these puppies. They're accomplishments are exciting to us and seeing them grow is amazing. They seriously grow so fast! They almost have their ears open and hopefully they will open their eyes soon! They are soo cute, so come on over and give these guys a cuddle!

the puppies are here!!

Well after the unexpected (finding out DJ was pregnant) and now expecting it they have arrived! This may be gruesome- fair warning.

By about 10pm DJ was in full swing of "stage 1". I knew she was in labour by the amount of accidents she was having in the house.( they empty their stomachs before labour) also i could see the contractions, her stomach would shrink and stretch. She also wasn't eating and was moving so s.l.o.w.
So stage one is lots of panting and shaking, prepares the body for labor, think of it as when we have 10 hours of contractions. this started at 10pm till 4 am. I stayed up with her most of the night and rubbed her back. She seemed to love having me there. she whined if nobody was close. By 4 it didn't seem to be getting any closer so i set my alarm for 5 am to come back and check on her. as soon as i laid down, i heard little whines. she had puppy #1 and i missed it!

Once they bite the sac and clean them ( lick them off ) they bite the umbilical cord. its so fascinating how without their eyes open or being able to hear anything they go straight to the mom to feed. I may have been slightly jealous, levi and I don't have a good track record when it comes to breast feeding.
Enter puppy 2, after 15 mins from #1 being born.

She had 5 by 6am and surprised us with #6 an hour later. She did amazing! Dave and I absolutely love her and I know it seems crazy to everyone else but we feel so proud of her and its going to be very hard to give away these puppies, we're pretty tempted to keep one. Its truly an amazing experience.

                               2 look like beagles and 4 look like puggles & 4 males and 2 females.

Here's the nick names so far ( according to me ): Bronx, Kingston, Maddox, Pippa, Jagger, Apple.

big decisions.

Ive never been one to be able to write down exactly what Im feeling, im not a creative writer. So bare with me as I try to describe this weeks big moments.

As December comes closer some big decisions are weighing on us. Dave graduating soon ( apply now or do a bachelors degree), Levi's getting older( when to have baby #2), our house seems to be getting smaller (when to list our house), our dog is having puppies ( the stress of puppies and a 1 year old), our truck broke down at the college today ( fix it or just buy a new one), la dadalalda... on and on. Its not to be depressing its just we've got some big things to think about right now. 

We've been having some impressions on what to be doing right now. And to be honest one of these bigger tough questions I haven't liked the answer I've been recieving. I keep thinking "really heavenly father? this isn't fitting into my plan don't cha know??". Isn't that horrible?! Me not being a stubborn or very persistent person I just kept fighting these impressions feeling like I know whats best, I know the timing I WANT. Then I watched confrence and just cried! Knowing exactly what we needed to do and ya think I learned?? Nope, I still wanted to fight this! After going to the temple i had these same impressions and I just got so depressed this week about it. I kept thinking over and over, this won't work its not in our "plan"! So its been a month of fighting this and what finally made me come to accept this was Levi.

Bless that little kids heart! He has no idea what he's teaching us. All week we've been clashing. We just couldn't communicate to each other. I was so frustrated all week. I'd say don't feed Dj and soon as I turned around he will have feed her his entire lunch. This was so frustrating to me, why after I just told you would you deliberately do that? starting to see a pattern??  Today I took a different approach with him and slowed down and really payed attention to all his ques. We just had one of the best nights in a long time. No crying from either and no one got mad. Because I wasn't impatient he signed everything I was asking. He would do everything I said because I was HAPPY about it. Seeing him just obey so easily tonight made me realize how defiant I am when I know what were suppose to do and I am deliberately ignoring my answers to our prayers.

I encourage everyone to read this article: If We Do Not Doubt. 

“If they did not doubt, God would deliver them” (Alma 56:47). 

With some big changes coming, I'm so grateful to know that things always work out. Even if they aren't the way we planned. I am not one who likes to deter away from my "life plan" but thank goodness for a husband who is so good at helping me with that.

grateful.

We have so much to be thankful for :
-wonderful healthcare
-our health
-being able to have children
-our house we own
-a great education system
-a dog about to have puppies
-2 reliable vehicles
-the church
-wonderful friends
-a loving family
-supportive husband
-a happy 15 month old
-abundant food & resources
-safety
-temples
We are having a VERY busy thanksgiving weekend but enjoying it. Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

teeth

3 eye-teeth

+

3 molars

+ 

3 days

= 

blahness

i'm pretty sure Levi now has as many teeth as we do if not more. actually its only 16 but it sure seems like a lot in that tiny mouth. mamaw (how levi says grandma) and papa roberts came over for dinner yesterday and that was really nice to break up the weekend. i do every weekend pretty much by myself and it was so nice to not cook for just me and Levi. Looking forward to this weekend we have 2 mission homecomings, 4 family dinner invitations, 1 family temple session and a trip to waterton. can you say fun???