Savannah and Co.

We {heart} Kim Brock of KimBE Photography.

Savannah at 3 weeks:

P.S. I know I have yet to tell her birth story. Work with me - I'm juggling 3 kids 3 and under!

To a child, Love is spelled T-I-M-E

Have you seen this video?

Take a minute or two and watch it if you would. Maybe it's seeing how big my boys look compared to Savannah...maybe it's just my Mommy hormones...I don't know. It just really touched my heart this morning.

They're what it's all about:

{ This is the only photo we have of the three of them together - (you have to be quick around here!) they're trying to get her to hold onto their fingers :o) }

Like brother, like sister

So, Savannah is pretty much Levi's twinner.

She really is a spitting image (except for her nose...Levi had a rounder nose).

And apparently, they both have a lot on their mind as babies :o)

One person's Craigslist Ad...

is one little boy's treasure!!!

His Noah's Ark, actually!

We found this awesome toddler bed for Levi's 3rd birthday on Craigslist for 50 bucks! SCORE! Our friends had given us a toddler bed a while back, which the boys loved...for playing on...no sleeping happening though. And then they broke it. So we needed to get a new one, and this one is perfect!

He loves it! He slept the whole night through last night (even though it took him an hour and a half to actually fall asleep)! I woke up a little sad...my baby didn't even cry for me once!

It's okay though. I guess it's just preparing the way for

Savannah to get here :o)

John Morgan likes it pretty good too :o)

A prayer from the heart

On September 1st Levi offered his first prayer (unassisted by me or Joe-Z). It was one of the sweetest moments either of us have experienced since we became parents almost 3 years ago. He's said the goodnight prayer every night since. Tonight, he took it to a whole new level.

His prayer went like this:

"Dear Heavenly Father, we thank the for our door. Thank thee for family. Thank thee for this day. Thank thee for our cribs. Thank thee for food. Thank thee for John Morgan and Levi and Daddy and Savannah and Mommy. And for Dora and for Boots and for Blue and for Sprinkles. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I haven't smiled so big in a long time. It was just so sweet and sincere...Dora and Boots and Blue and Sprinkles? Gotta love it!

Update: On Thursday night, I asked Levi to offer the blessing on the food for dinner. He said the longest prayer I've ever heard, lol. He thanked Heavenly Father for EVERYTHING! He also thanked him for 1, and for 2, and for 3, and for 4, all the way up to 20. As much as he loves numbers, I have no doubt that he really was thankful for all those numbers! SOOOOOO cute!

More Levi-isms...

Yesterday I asked Levi to pick something up for me. He brought it over to me and I said, "Thank you baby!" Walking away, without even skipping a beat, he said, "You're welcome baby!" Lololololol.

Today Levi woke up early from his nap. He said "I wanna lay on the couch." I said, "Do you want a pillow?" He said, "Mmmm hmmm." I laughed and said "And a blanket?" "Yep" he said. I laughed again and said, "Levi, you're SO funny!" His response, "I AM so funny!" I laughed again and said "Oh my gosh, you're SO cute!" He nodded emphatically and said, "I AM so cute!!!" After that we were both in hysterics.

What a crack up this little boy is! Such a sweetie!

"It's a long story..."

This morning, as I came from the kitchen to the living room, I noticed the lack of one Mr. John Morgan. I couldn't find him anywhere! I checked our bedroom door (we have a child lock on the outside) and it was closed, so I figured he couldn't be in there. After a few minutes of searching with no luck, I went back to the bedroom and opened the door to find JM quietly talking to himself while taking all of the food off of our food shelf. Nice. I must have left the door a smidge open earlier and he was able to push it open, then fully close it behind him. I turned to Levi (who was assisting in my hunt) and said, "Levi, how in the world did he get in here?!?!" He looked at me and with a very somber face said "It's a long story, Mom." I said, "What?" And he repeated "It's a long story." Lolololololololol. For some reason, this really tickled my funny bone! The really strange thing is that I don't even use that phrase...I wonder where he picked it up? Little cutie.

Thanks Grandma!

You know the way to his heart!

Garbage!!!

We rented a Dora DVD from the library last week. One episode briefly talks about picking up garbage at the beach. Ever since Levi's seen it, he's been going around picking up everything in sight and putting it into a box or a bin, then dumping it all out and starting all over again, all the while chanting "Garbage. More garbage!"

So tonight, we decided to test out his garbage skills...we wanted to see if he'd like throwing away real garbage! Joe-Z was reading the newspaper and JM dumped it on the floor. Ads went flying, pages torn apart...paper was all over! Levi was in a little garbage-man heaven, lol. He loved picking it all up and filling the bag with garbage. So we moved on to all the other rooms, letting him throw away anything that was garbage. Whenever a room was getting clean, he'd say

"Morrrrrrrrrrre garbage please. Need more garbage!"

It was just so dang cute. I couldn't even stand it. He's such a good helper!

Three magic words

"I love you."

He said it!

Levi finally said it!

For a while now he's been saying "Yes, I love this one!" in reference to a toy or tv show, but he's never said it in reference to anyone.

Today, I'd just come out of the room from putting in a load of laundry and he ran up and hugged my leg, looked up at me and said, "I love you!"

It was so heartwarming! I said, "Oh, Levi, I love you!" And he smiled and said, "I love you too."

2 years, 8 months, 12 days in the making.

Happy Day!

John Morgan's birthday present from Grandma:

Sayings

Here are a few of my recent favorites (all compliments of Levi the Great):

"I can't want to mommy, I can't want to." or "I can't like this mommy, I can't like this."

- For some reason, he's started mixing up don't and can't. It's incredibly adorable, so I have to work really hard to not laugh at him when he's trying to express a real concern. :o)

"Don't say that word mommy, don't say that word!"

- I'm laughing as I type this, just remembering how he used this earlier today. We were in the check-out line at the store, and he saw a little toy he thought he needed. I told him "Levi, we can't have that because it's not ours...it belongs to the store." With such a distressed look on his face, almost in tears, he told me not to say that word :o) This is a fairly new phrase, used only in situations like this, and I'm finding it so interesting, as I've never told him not to say a certain word...?

"It's a 'squito mommy, it bite me!"

- He was bitten by a mosquito and every time he's seen a bug of any kind since, he's been SO afraid of it and tells me it was a 'squito and that it bit him....even if it's five feet away on the sidewalk ahead of us, lol! I don't know if it really hurt or what, but it put the fear of God in the child. So much so, that if we're playing outside and I can't get him to come inside, all I have to say is that I see a mosquito, lol. Bad mommy.

Levi, Levi, Bo Bevi...you crack me up.

I was at target today with the boys. I was looking for a new bra (insert plug for multiple new bras during pregnancy...so worth it!) I had Levi in the back of a regular cart (he hates the "kid carts" anywhere that isn't Publix). He usually sits pretty well in the cart, I usually don't have to tell him to sit down very often.

Today though, I bent down for a second to look for my size, and when I stood up I saw this:

He originally had the hanger over his head, adjusting the cups to right where he thought they should be placed on his chest, lol. When he looked up and saw me, with a big smile on his face he said, "It's for me mommy! It's perfect!"

Oh Levi, you are such a joy!

The First of Many

We love where Joe-Z works. There's a fun little park that's literally a 1 minute drive from his office. We meet him for lunch on days the kids are going to take a late nap for some reason or another.

The kids love this park, and always have fun playing there. There's always a bit of a power-struggle though, because the park also has a baseball field...and you know my boys (especially Levi) and baseball!

For some reason, while at the park one day last week, we decided Levi was just too cute to say no to. He was trying to sneak in, and when I saw him, he maintained eye contact with me while he kept going down the stairs to the dugout, nodding his head "yes" as if to assure me that it was okay, lol.

Such a big field, such a little {big} boy.

Look at him go!

JM in action!

All in all, we had a blast!

Levi's had a birthday party...

Finally!

Yep. I'm pretty sure I get the "Worst Mother Ever" award for this one, folks. Levi just had his first birthday party ever. And it's 5 months after he turned 2. Yikes!

We had a great time. It was quite impromptu, so we kept it very small. Levi loved having both sets of grandparents over, and his Auntie Kayla. {Yay for airplanes that enable "quick trips" for grandmas missing their grand kids!}

I think his favorite part of the whole thing was getting the balloons...

and his favorite present was stickers, for sure!

This is Levi enjoying the miracle cake! It's wasn't too much to look at, as I was missing a number of ingredients, and couldn't find my decorating supplies to save my life. {Note to self: Never try to throw a "party" on a Sunday if it's not pre-planned and you know in advance that you have everything you need to make it flow, lol.} However, it tasted downright yummy and it matched the balloons and table decorations, so I...errr, I mean...Levi was happy. {I tried to tell Joe-Z that it totally mattered to Levi...he just couldn't bring himself to agree with me...}

Happy Birthday Levi! We love you so much!

To give in, or not to give in...

Tonight, before bath time, I said "Levi, do you want anything to eat?" "No" was all he said. Me, again, "Are you sure? Aren't you hungry?" {Looking at me with his ever-so-cute "duh" eyes} "No hungry Mom. I don't."

Upstairs we went.

We get to the bathroom, he realizes what we're doing, and beelines for the door. Of course, I stop him. After I take off his shirt, with puppy dog eyes, and as he rubs his tummy, "Mom. Hungry." I just stare, trying not to laugh. "Yeah Mom, hungry? Yeah Mom, dinner, yeah, yeah. Dinner Mom?" As if in the last 2 minutes he realized he'd become famished.

I bathed him and put him to bed, amid many requests for many different types of food. The next 45 minutes, sounding like his little mouth is right next to the microphone on the monitor, he keeps saying "Mommy, dinner? Mommy, hot dogs?" Over and over :o)

I finally gave in after 48 minutes (and in his defense, he did down 2 hot dogs in about 30 seconds flat). He was so sweet.

But he does this all. the. time. And I always give in. I just can't stand it {see aforementioned comment about sweetness}. So, now I ask you, where do you draw the line?

Levi's new trick

He'll usually pronounce the words more, but he clams up when he's on the spot {just like his Mamma!}.

Was the Santa picture successful?

I didn't have high hopes after the catastrophe we had this past Easter:

(Please ignore me in all my 8-and-a-half-month pregnant glory)

But, to my exceeding joy, we had semi-success!

John Morgan had a ball! He loved every minute of it and couldn't get enough of Santa! Levi was a little hesitant at first, but once he realized he was safe, he kept saying "cheese" over and over! I'm not sure who invented the phrase, "Say Cheese!" when trying to get someone to smile...obviously their child didn't look like this:

This was the best "cheese-face" {as we lovingly like to call it} of the bunch. Overall, we're very happy with it!

A moment to remember

We made the switch to 11 o'clock church today, with Sacrament last. This pretty much sums it up:

We asked him to fold his arms to say the closing prayer, and he never woke up.

;o)

Lunch at the park with Dad

We went to meet Joe-Z for lunch last week and decided to spend our extra 20 minutes at the park just up the road. It was a blast. These boys love their daddy!

(If you click on the collage above, you can make the whole thing bigger, so you can see each picture better!)