Grad 2012

Dave had convocation this morning for the criminal justice diploma. Go Dave!! It was pouring rain so we had to take picture inside.We're so proud of all the work he has put into getting an honors in his diploma. We headed to Moxies after for some lunch and now were just gonna relax since dave worked a night shift last night.

Our week {slightly eventful}

I feel like this week was eventful but at the same time not so eventful. So here's a few things that happened!

 We did the Coaldale Family Fun Run - 5km! Dave did it 25mins- awesome job!!! I did it well in 50 mins, but I can't run at the moment so I had told myself to just take it easy and pace myself. When Dave ran ahead of Levi and I he did not approve of this. He wanted out of the stroller at that moment! So the first 10mins or so I was calming levi down. Soon as he was ok he crashed for the rest of the race. Its a nice easy race ( no hills!! ) but the gravel was a little annoying.

 This afternoon we took Levi and Benson to the Childrens Festival. It was such a blast! The boys saw a dog show, got to go play in the petting zoo, got balloons and "bob the builder" hats. So worth the smelly crowds just to see them light up!

 Levi loves to "dress himself" I say that sarcastically because he doesn't dress himself. He picks the clothes and then tells me where to put them. Mittens on the feet? Why hadn't I thought of this yet :) He seriously cracks me up!

The imagination has started and its really fun to watch him explore.

 When we put levi to bed at night the routine is as follows:

Good night to everything, literally even the fridge gets a good night from levi.
turn on music
get into crib and tuck in his monkeys
say prayers and tell monkeys its goodnight
then i read a book to him
then he reads it to the monkeys once I leave the room.

I started having him put the monkeys to bed to give him a feeling of responsibility. He also then has heard severals times its time for goodnight. Seems to help. Anywho he loves putting the monkeys to bed, so other night I see him putting all the animals to bed in their barn before he went to bed... So stinkin cute!

hip hip hooray

3 months ago I started weight training. For the leg press I started at 45lbs. .  today it was 105lbs. BOOYA!

cough. puke. bath. sleep. repeat

 sleep & cuddles

 trip to ER

 sleep

bath

Huge Thanks to everyone who's helped us out this weekend! For the rides, baked goods, medicine and phone calls. Were not on the mend but hoping to get into another DR tomorrow to get some more medication!

Running.

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” 

 

 

    My shin splints have flared up to the point that I can't run for more then 2-3 minutes without being in extreme pain. So after lots of research I know I need to take at least a few weeks off. Levi and I walked for 8km and did it in 80mins. Stretch and iced after the walk and I have hope to be running soon! Guess I'll be walking my 5 km race next week, but still hoping to do 10km in August.

Just the way we are:

Sometimes my focus gets a little blurry. I start to want to be the perfect mom, perfect in my definition not Levi's. I want the cupcakes with the fondant, I want the size 2 jeans, I want every holiday to be decorated and celebrated with every tradition, and I want the homemade playdough.

 

 (levi in his favourite outfit)

The past 2 days have probably been perfect in Levi's eyes, this is what (i think) he sees:

(movie night)

daddy takes me to the park

we all play in the garden 

we have a picnic in the yard

Mommy takes me on a walk

Dj and I play fetch

mommy and I read books

i watched Cars 2

i had yummy snacks

we blowed bubbles and chased them 

i got cuddles with dad on the couch 

naps in my gum boots

(playing outside today)

He doesn't care that:

im wearing yoga pants again

my hair isn't done

that the easter decorations are still up

laundry is behind

that the home decor isn't perfectly color coordinated

supper tonight was crepes

some of his clothes are second hand

that Im not a size 2

dave doesn't make 100k/year

i can't make homemade bread 

our house isn't big or perfect

All he wants is who I am and who Dave is. Not who we think we need to be, or want to be. He loves us just the way we are. 

(levi feel asleep in the truck on our way to waterton, with the sippy cup still in his mouth)

And we love him just the way he is.

Here's an awesome article that I read about my same thoughts I've been feeling lately.

Easter

 The Easter bunny visited us today! He left a little trail of candy to Levi's basket. The top right pictures shows how excited Levi was when he saw that ball! He's obsessed with basketballs, soccer-balls any round little object! He got a shovel to help us in the garden. Seeing his face light up just makes us so happy as parents!

 I did the annual Easter egg hunt and Levi was in heaven! I have prepped him this week on what to do. He joined in on all the games, even carrying an egg on a spoon. We must have tired him out this morning cause he just feel asleep on the floor. He has never fell asleep like that, its too bad we didn't snap a picture. Now that he's getting older he's able to help more and more with the holiday fun. He helped with sugar cookies, marshmallows dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, and he even helped color pictures for our memory game.

Levi showing us all his "eggs".

20 months old.

 Crazy isn't it? 4 more months and he's 2! I try to take a bunch of pictures on the 19th of every month, just to document just how big he's getting. I was thinking about doing more formal pictures today, soon as he started jumping on the couch I thought I'd capture him doing what he loves to do. These one's are a little blurry but I had to show them, look how happy he is.

 Levi Loves:
to build towers
make animal noises
talk
toy story
reading books
dj
momma
daddy
jumping
dancing
scrambled eggs
babies
snacking
blocks
animals

Here's the rest of the pictures, I know I'm biased but I think he's the cutest kid! We sure love our little monkey!

patience iago & bapple

i say this to levi all the time.
now im saying it to myself.
i have NO patience these last few weeks!

Hopefully in less then 2 weeks we will know what were doing this summer, next year,and the year after etc.. Dave has passed almost everything with LRPS, we aren't too sure if we will have another house visit like we did last year!  Ive done pretty good about trying not to constantly think about it, but this weekend is killing me! so say a little prayer for us and a little prayer for me to get some patience, please.

as for bapple?
thats levi saying apple.
he's getting so old, i was cutting up his apples for so long that i never thought not too.
until the other day he just grabbed one and started eating it. guess he's that old he can just eat a bapple all by himself. the kid cracks me up, he knew he was  funny by saying bapple over and over!

were going on vacation, say what?!

i just booked a getaway for the family. we've discussed for awhile what we wanna do for a vacation, book a cheap cruise? roadtrip? mexico? then we decided to wait till next year when its our FIFTH anniversary and do something really big! words can't tell you how excited i am for us to get a little relaxing time in RADIUM HOT SPRINGS! i found a really good deal, $59/night and includes 2 tickets to the hot springs, per day (saves us over $35/day).

the hotel has a heated outdoor pool and hot tub! its only a mile walk to the hot springs and 30 minutes away from our favourite little town, Invermere. We're just a little excited for our "we made it through school" gift to the family!

I am so excited!!

Something huge happened today:

Levi is eating bread, not just bread a whole sandwich! This is a big moment, Levi has never eaten more then a bite of bread without spitting it out. So a whole sandwich is beyond exciting!!

Moon light run 2012

 

We did our first race this weekend!

 Here's the race course, see those arrows its the mountain of death.

Dave ran with his sister for the first little bit. He ran without stopping until 1/3 up the mountain of death. He completed it in 37 mins!! Without training I'd say that's pretty darn good!

My goal was to walk all of it, Ive only started to run on the treadmill at the gym this week. I had set a goal of 60 mins to complete it. What I didn't know was how dark it is (the course isn't lit up) and how hard the hill would be after already going 5k! So I ran the first 1.5km and couldn't get control of my breath and had to slow down. I can't stand not knowing where im going so the parts that were quite dark I was walking pretty slow cause I wasn't sure where to go. Dave had asked me before the race started if I wanted him to stay with me or if he could run with Shauna,being the good wife I told him to go ahead with her. During this part of the race I was pretty sure I hated Dave for leaving me! (i don't really hate him) Soon as the pathway lit up again I ran till the mountain. Oh the mountain, it nearly killed me! I ran into a couple I know and he told me how many lamp posts there were and just to count them as I went, smart advice! I did it in 63 mins! My goal next year is 43 mins, might seem unrealistic but if I completed it this year in 63mins, imagine how well I can do next year at the rate Im loosing weight!

Our next race is next month in Coaldale and Ill bring Levi for this one!

Our goal is the 10k in August for the Cornfest run! 

And a HUGE shoot out to MOMMA ROBERTS!!! She watched Levi for us, thanks again mom!

soooo hot!

Recognize this suit?? 

(ignore the little hoodlum next to dave, he just woke up but insisted on being in the picture)

 

Yep he fits back into his wedding suit!

YAY DAVEY!

 

March {thigh} Madness

Here's this months challenge, it prints nicely into an 8X10!

Click on it to enlarge.

Good Luck!

smart and determined!

Levi is really smart, I can tell already! I can see his gears just a workin when he wants something and can't quite reach. 

Last week I made some brownies and I stepped out of the room for a moment. When I got back I found Levi on the counter licking the bowl, he was covered in batter! He had pushed a chair from the table over and climbed up! I wasn't thinking fast enough to get the camera, all I could think of was getting it all cleaned up.

About a month ago I got asked to make some cookies for a baby shower, I had spent all afternoon baking these 2 kinds of cookies. I put them on the table to cool and thinking nothing of it went and switched the laundry. The house got quite and I went looking for Levi only to find him sitting on the table devouring the cake batter cookies. He didn't touch the lemon crinkles, the sprinkles must have been calling his name and I have no idea how many he ate in those 5 or so minutes he had unsupervised.

 Yesterday when I was dusting I finally decided to move all the movies up a row. Levi can reach them on his tippy toes, and it was becoming such a battle to have to constantly tell him that they are off limits. I watched Levi do what hes doing in the above picture cause I was shocked! First he stood on the toy box and couldn't reach, then he grabbed his potty (which has never been used in case your worried) and put it on top of the box. Then climbed up all of it just to be able to reach. Told ya he's smart!

Then again this afternoon I caught him! I made muffins and Levi had eaten quite a few and I told him no more.  Then I can hear him behind me go get his chair and drag it to the counter and  pull the box closer to him. Then he snatched one and laughed. How could I not let him eat after that?

He's one determined and smart kiddo!

worthy of a wedding slide show. . .

I went walking/running this morning and when I got back I changed out of my workout clothes. Then headed down to the kitchen to finish loading the dishwasher. Levi comes walking down the hall to me, wearing this:

 A SPORTS BRA

    . . . . and if you know levi he loves to "cart" things around, generally its always a blanket but this morning he's carrying around my sports bra.

at least its not "stuart little". . .

Our lives focus around one thing right now. If its 4 am, 7pm, 1pm or anytime of the day for that matter. Levi wants to watch "despicable me". He wakes up in the night asking to watch it, as soon as he wakes up in the morning, soon as the credits roll he asks for "mooor gru"! I'm writing this down just because when this phase is over it'll be funny, right now its not. One of my friends in the ward came up to me laughing saying she heard levi is obsessed with the movie. Then she proceeded to tell me her oldest was obsessed with "Stuart Little" when he was Levi's age. So it could be worse, at least despicable me is a cute show.

So here's Levi at 7am after being up for 3 hours of fighting off the movie, I finally caved and let him watch it. Look how tired he is?! If only he understood that he's momma would be less cranky with more sleep at night. He's will 19 months old this week and still a terrible a sleeper, it may possibly be my fault since I have the hardest time letting him cry it out. Here's hoping tonight I can get a little more then 4 hours like last night!

Happy Valentines Day from the Murray family!

proud, really really proud!

Daves been working so much lately that not a lot of people (besides coworkers) have seen him lately. Its gonna be a shock when you do see him. I need to brag about something, Daves lost almost 30 pounds, and down 2 pant sizes!! Our big goal this year was to get healthy. Loosing weight is of course a perk of getting healthy. We have learned so much! 

We've learned:

portion control

to count calories

to control sodium

to cut out sugar

30 mins of exercise isn't that hard

to bake more, fry less

veggies, veggies, veggies

no fast food is good food

eating healthy isn't more expensive, because your eating less portions

We've changed so much about our lifestyle and its amazing how much we've really enjoyed this. We still haven't eaten fast food! We get headaches if we have too much sugar, and feel sick if we eat too much. For Dave its more physical then anything, portion control and exercising. For me its almost all mental emotional/bored eating, and learning I can find time to exercise and make healthy meals.

Im blogging this to say how proud I am of Dave. That having him on this journey really does make it so much easier for us as a family. We hope that by making these big changes we will be able to start Levi off with good habits and skills to be healthy.

So 6 weeks in:

no fast food

daves down 28lbs 

nyshas down 12 pounds

If your curious to what were using to count calories go check this OUT!! We really love it, its so eye opening!

Did you know a slice of cheese cake from cheese cake cafe has 1800 calories?? That's your daily intake!

( I'll update in another 6 weeks)

hey dave, remember . . .

Its putting my photos in the wrong order?

This month has been quite the month to reflect back on some of the ups and downs of the past 4 years. We've had to relive some of the downs but we've also got to see more happy times.

 when you built the shed, all those long hours.

 we found out it was a BOY!

 we landscaped our yard.

 we went to the star trek museum.

 when pregnancy turned me into an elephant.

 the time we went camping at  38 weeks pregnant.

 4 days before we had levi.

 13 hours of labour. July 19th 7:35pm 8lbs 5oz. 21 1/2" long. Levi Douglas Murray.

 a perfect precious little boy.

 we took a million pictures of levi.

 that levi hated his car seat, and we'd have to pull over on the highway and swing him to sleep.

 the day we found out we were expecting Levi.

 when we went camping in june and it blizzard.

 that terrible haircut i had.

 sledding at the sugar bowl.

 our first date in calgary.

 the night we danced and you proposed

 March 21, 2008- sealed for eternity

the 2nd place we lived in, the yard was a jungle.

when you found out I wasn't an outdoorsy type of gal.

 Levi's first christmas

 levi ate dirt, and I panicked.

 Levi got a pool for his birthday, he was in heaven!

 Levi turned one!

 when we adopted a dog and she had puppies 3 weeks later??

 levi was a chicken for halloween.

 your grad party!

when these big brown eyes melt your heart.

I wouldn't trade anything to be where I am at today. I love being a mommy, wife, and your best friend.

Love you, and can't believe its almost been 4 years!