our weekend.

we had a BUSY weekend but a fun spur of the moment weekend.

 sleeping puppies

 playful puppies

 addison waiting to see the reindeer and santa. isn't she just the cutest?

 levi beyond tired!

 benson waiting for santa

 benson's reaction to santa,, lets just say he didn't love him.

 santa and the reindeer. it was pretty cool to see!

 sunday night dinner at our house. I think DJ likes papa roberts.

 bath time for the boys.

 benson loved the puppies, look at all the kisses jagger got from him!

 i heard levi laughing and found him doing this He even got up all by himself :)

Super saturday was fantastic, one of my crafts.

It was a fun weekend with lots of spur of the moments including becoming a brunette! Hope everyone had a good weekend!

giving back.

Dave and I are wanting to give back this Christmas season, so please go check out my hair business blog : thenichehair.blogspot.com for more info! RSVP if you want to come!

halloween, chicken style.

Why does the chicken cross the road?

 To go trick or treating!

 We taught him to flap his arms and cluck like a chicken.

And he was all done.

Family Pictures. . Sept. 2011

We take tons of photos, an average of 400/month

but these are the first professional

  ones we've gotten since Levi was born.
Now we have pictures to hang!

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???

Wanna see a cute kid?

Here's our little sneak peek into our family pictures : DARREN ROBERTS PHOTOGRAPHY

I don't think anyone can understand my excitement for these, well maybe Dave because he's heard me for the last year on how badly we've needed pictures done. I was super nervous because Levi is so fast and super wiggly. I tried to time things so he wouldn't be tired, hungry or bored. Needless to say how a photo-shoot goes with a 14 month old, he was all of the above. No nap and it was bedtime when we took the pictures. He did so well. It helped that our photographer has a 2 small children and was super patient for the times he was extra wiggly. Thanks again Darren! We loved the experience and it was SO worth the drive to Calgary!

schlove you!

Dave texted me this picture tonight while he was at work. Just to say hi and that he missed me.. insert awws.. It was our first date almost 4 years ago!  I invited Dave to go up to Calgary to pick up my best friend with me. We'd been hanging out for a month and I was nervous to drive in Calgary so I asked Dave to drive for me. I mean who wouldn't want to drive Shelby my multi (click here to see a multi) This picture was taken at the calgary zoo. It always reminds me of why I fell for him. He is a perfect gentlemen.

Schlove you Dave!

life as a mom & 14 months old!

a conversation that took place with someone who isn't a mom, 2 days ago { true story }

so & so: how was your morning?

me: its been great!

so & so: really?? how so?

me: well i was reading books with Levi this morning and I asked him to go get a book and then bring it back to me. once we finished the book i asked him to put it back. and he did exactly as i told him. he shoved the book right back onto his book shelf before grabbing another one.

so & so: seriously, thats why?

me: oh and he also signed that he was "all done" in the tub before he got out.

so & so: so thats the life of a mom eh? doesn't sound very exciting.

{maybe i should have told her that he also pooped in the tub twice that morning and thats why he was "all done".}

me: yes thats my life, those little triumphs are what make me so happy.

14 months is a very toddlerish age, might be because hes our first toddler. but wowza's hes all grown up. he's learned

he has swagger: walk really fast and then real slow. walk 2 small steps and one giant hop. bounce when he walks. doing all of this while smiling at us, like"hey mom are you watching"?

he can call DJ: the other morning when he woke up he started patting his leg and saying deeejaaa. wonder where he's seen that?

dancing: no more just bouncing, were full out moving the arms and tapping the feet and if your lucky a bum wiggle. soon as he hears music he's moving, even if its a hymn in church.

independent: he's always been like this but more so now then ever. if he could change his own diaper he would.

TV: we went to edmonton and took a portable dvd player (thanks mom & dad roberts) and he didn't watch it tons on the way up and back but since that trip he's discovered cartoons.

words: mom, dad. meemaw (grandma), more, DJ, please.

tippy toes: he can dance on them, walk on them and reach everything with them.

climb: he tries to climb in and out of the crib, baskets and the tub. he tries to get in the toy box, up on the table, ride the dog, get on our bed, sit in chairs.

there's just so much personality in a 22 pound body and sometimes we think its so overwhelming that maybe thats what causes the temper tantrums. or maybe its the language barrier, lack of sleep ( him and I ), hungry, bored etc..? whatever it is we sure love this developing personality.

this is back when we were puppy sitting, this is how much he loves having a dog and dancing.

ps. 5 gold stars to whoever guesses the theme song in the background.

we'd like to introduce to you . . . . DJ

DJ - 4 years old.

She's our "puggle" a PUG mixed with a BEAGLE.  We adopted her on Saturday. When we went to go meet the family, we instantly fell in love with her. She's very well mannered,  house trained, and plays fetch like crazy. Our favourite part is that she puts up with Levi trying to "ride" her or sit on her, in general just play with her. We love her to pieces already and she even gets along with Bowie! We'd love for you to come meet her!

model

Levi has just been wearing some of the craziest outfits lately!  He's definitely learning to

pose when he sees the camera comes out.