Leavitt Christmas

We were in Cedar for Christmas Eve Night & Christmas Day. We made it from Logan in time to catch the last part of the Journey to Bethlehem dinner. Then the Christmas Mouse came and much to Dixon's disappointment the rule was decided that only the grandkids could search for the mouse. If my memory serves me right Xander was the one to find the mouse. (Finding the mouse is a stuffed mouse on a box of books.) The kids enjoyed looking at their books before it was time to head to bed. Hayes was soo excited for Santa to come but knew he wouldn't come until he was asleep. He was laying in bed so still and trying so hard to fall asleep but it took him awhile.
Santa didn't disappoint, bringing Kamri her princess bike she had been asking for consistently for the last three months. Hayes also got the Toy Story toys he asked for. Santa was grateful Hayes had changed his request from a time machine to a toy story toy a week before Christmas. Buzz Lightyear & Woody are a little easier to find than building a time machine.
Hayes & Kamri were able to get in some time with their cousins (minus Parker & Christine's girls) before they all headed off to see their other cousins. We ended up heading home Christmas Day night...looking forward to our own beds that night after a week away!

Longhurst Christmas

Hayes & Kamri had fun running around all day, every day with cousins or 'helping' Grandma Niece and Grandpa Paul. Had a get together with Bracken's high school friends one night. I got to go on the girls shopping trip, although unfortunately missing Katie & Skye O! Thanks to Paul & Denise I was able to get a cute pair of shoes and a coat I love (and will love even more when I can fit into it next winter...) Bracken was too sick to go on the boys skiing trip, missing out on some awesome snow and watching Kade get a concussion. Grateful he is okay! Hayes was in heaven with his older boy cousins and playing the new Toy Story 3 game on the Wii. Kamri loved playing dolls and kitchen with Macee and carried around a little green purse she found in the toys the duration of our stay. We had the Longhurst Christmas party on the 23rd and had fun playing games, eating great food and exchanging gifts. We had fun eating with all the Holmgren cousins, having a nativity and doing a white elephant gift exchange at the Christmas Eve party. Then started our trek down to Cedar City.

Patterns

Boy

Girl

Boy

What comes next??

Hint: (She'll be coming around May 15, 2011 and hopefully not much sooner!)

Little bits of Life

A few things I want to remember from the past week...

I don't remember the first part of the conversation but at dinner Hayes had to go check if it was dark outside. (Probably to see if it really was bedtime.) He looked out the window and said "Yep, it's eighty-six-five pounds of dark!!"

Some questions from Kamri the other day:
"Do turtles have tails?"

"Do Spiders have noses?"

"Do ants have hands?"
(so do spiders have noses?? I'm kinda doubting it...)

Hayes is really into writing things lately and asks me how to spell things. When he's done with one letter he'll ask "What next?" if I'm not fast enough with the next letter. Kamri, always wanting to be just as big as her brother, will now sit and doodle with a pen and randomly ask me what's next. She makes these little tiny doodles that looks like some kind of foreign language. (she also wanted to label her cousin Izen's present we wrapped tonight and her "writing" looks like she wrote "Poop". I think Izen will love that...)

Kamri saw a little pink lip gloss at JoAnn's the other day and really wanted it. I bought it for her and she carried it around everywhere for two weeks, wouldn't go to sleep without it. We left it at Mimi's after thanksgiving but luckily i found another pink lipgloss I got for free with some makeup. She still carries it around and is currently sleeping with it, along with a little bottle of nail polish our friend just sent her and Bracken's old cell phone.

Looked in her purse today that she took to the store and park...a snack bag, a pen, old cell phone, lip gloss, piece of paper. This girl is prepared.

Two mornings ago I gave Hayes an old notebook i found and he sat by the Christmas tree with the letter blocks (that have pictures of things that start with that letter) and he was writing some lists. (he LOVES lists). He told me he was writing a list for a party, a boys party, and a girls party. He also kept telling me we NEED to go to the store to get grapes for the party.


The blocks have the name below the picture (he doesn't know how to spell all these words)(this was his list for the party: Hats, Bat, Grapes, Fishes, Sun, Pears, Cheese, No Mouse (told me he didn't want a mouse sneaking up on them), Ice Cream. blocks only give him so many words to work with so i liked his creativity to put no in front of mouse. I also didn't notice until I put the picture on the computer that he marked off everything that we already had at home....glad he someone knows we have no mice! This is for the boy party: boy, ball, hat, kicks...and then i think he was starting to make a list of who to invite but he only knows how to spell one of his friend's names.

Girls party : Doll, Girl, Necklacess

One Year

November 15 marked a year since Dane was born.

Bracken and I wanted this day to be a day that we celebrated that Dane was part of our family, even though he is not with our family right now... so we had fun together as a family doing some geocaching.

Hayes lead the way with the gps. luckily the gps had a voice since Hayes would often say turn right and the voice would be saying turn left!

we found a yellow frog in our "treasure chest" cache. We went to a few cache's that we couldn't find or were destroyed and Hayes was happy with the explanation that other pirates found the treasure first.

made a cake.

kamri poured in the ingredients.

hayes got attacked by the chocolate spatula

they both licked the beater clean

the cake fell apart as i was getting it out of the pan (fitting for a 1st birthday)

1 blue candle for Dane, 2 pink candles for Kamri, 4 yellow candles for Hayes.

Happy Birthday Song and blowing out of candles.

Bracken left for class and the kids wanted to do a project. I wanted something easy and that we wouldn't have to run to the store. So we made beanbags with fabric scraps and filled them with rice and old noodles.




I didn't think they would love them but they both played with them and Kamri slept with hers for two nights.

It was a fun day, an excuse for Bracken to not study all day and for us to plan something fun to do instead of the usual Monday clean up after the weekend. I think we'll make a tradition of doing something fun and making a cake together on Dane's birthday.

I don't want this post to seem like we'll only show the happy in our lives. We just have enough random hard times missing Dane that his birthday seemed like a good day to be celebrate that he is a part of our family and the growth his life (and death) has brought our family.

We looked through the box of Dane's things. Hayes really wanted to give Dane a present for his birthday. It was a bit interesting try to explain to him how we can't get things to heaven. We've had a lot of conversations with him and Kamri about Dane, heaven and when we'll see him again. It is amazing how much they grasp, especially when it is something that we don't know all the details and is so hard to explain.

We sure miss you baby Dane!

: )

We went to McDonalds one night to pass the time until Bracken got home from his night class. Kamri was just a little too short for the play place but she persisted. Using her foot, pushing it into the corner she was able to push herself up to the ledge and then onto another ledge to get up to where the slides were....

to say she was excited is a bit of an understatement. This was her second time down...

Moments

Kamri has been fighting naps and the only way she will take one is if I rock her to sleep. At first I was annoyed because it took longer than when she would just lay in bed but now I really enjoy it. Every time I look at her face after she falls asleep I'm reminded of what she looked like as a newborn and rocking her in the middle of the night. So although I wish she would just easily take naps like she used to, I do enjoy cuddling with her before she gets too big.

This day though she asked for Hayes to rock her to sleep. So I thought I'd let him try then she would let me rock her and we could get on with the production. But surprisingly she held really still and he actually sang to her. She didn't fall asleep but it was so sweet!

Dress up

Kamri loves to dress up. Hayes likes to wear costumes but he would never be caught in a dress....until bedtime a few nights ago. Then he was suddenly very willing to let Kamri dress him up. She took full advantage of the opportunity and layered them on.

hmm is it going to fit?

So then to prove he wasn't sissy Hayes had to turn it into some kind of manly competition so they had races down the hallway. Kamri had the upper hand since she is already well versed in high heel walking so she took hers off in preparation....Hayes unfortunately tried to race in the high heels and tripped.caught him checking himself out

Haircuts

my handsome men

Halloween

We drove up to Cache Valley for the annual Longhurst Halloween Party. We took some pictures before the party.

and of course the party didn't disappoint. A personal treasure hunt, doughnut eating, ghost race, mummy wrap, balloon popping, cookie from forehead to mouth race, dinner, puzzle contest, lots of candy, cousins and I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the games but it was FUN! Isn't Halle the cutest mummy ever! (upper right hand corner)
I stole out of Hayes' dress ups for my lame costume, Bracken was an undercover cop, Princess Kamri & Pirate Hayes

Trick or Treating with Macee. (Hayes is a cyclops pirate I guess)

Bracken & Telly took them out while Kristen, Griffin and I held down the fort. Hayes was so cute in making sure Kamri didn't eat any peanut candy (she's allergic) and luckily she was fine with that, she just wanted the suckers!

Hayes & I had to run to the store during the day to get him a new pair of shoes, he has only worn flip flops for so long I didn't realize he had grown out of his sneakers. So he got to break in his new shoes trick or treating in the rain!

It's all in how you say it....

I do not remember the occasion that brought on the whining...but my kids were whining all day.

So I sat them down to explain a complexity of life and used a saying I picked up from our former neighbor.

"You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit"

Makes perfect sense right?

Kamri's response: "Don't whine or you don't get nuh-fin"

good enough she's getting the idea...at least she's remembering what else I say (I always ask What does whining get you? and they have to respond Nothing)

Hayes' response: "You get what you WANT, and you don't throw a fit"

Well...you better as heck not be whining if that's the case....but NOT what i was going for.....

those little. rascals.

they still whine. i mean comon!

Hayes: Soccer Season II

Hayes did awesome his second soccer season. His first season (in the spring) his skills consisted of distracting teammates during games by pointing up at flying airplanes, hunting for ladybugs, and telling his coach he was hot and needed a drink. He was good to kick the ball during practice, but games was a different story. We were considering it a successful game if he just ran in the back of the pack of kids. He loved it though and said he wanted to do it again.

So we signed him up again. He had the same coaches, Chris Orme & Rich Doxey and this time instead of signing up with a league they just offered to have a practice once a week and then one game a week on Saturdays. I think there was about fourteen 4 & 5-year-olds and they would split them up into different teams every Saturday. I don't think Hayes found a single ladybug this season but he did end up kicking the ball a lot during the game, even making a goal or two most games. He also picked up on some of the rules and was a stickler on 'Out of Bounds' and would yell 'out of bounds, out of bounds!!' to his coaches if the ball went out. Even if they wanted them to keep on playing since the ball goes out a little too often with kids this little. Hayes would stop the ball and make them kick it back in. Now to get him to be a stickler on keeping the rules at home! We're proud of him for keeping at it and improving so much. He is really excited to start playing again next season!

Hummingbirds in Loa

We loved watching the hummingbirds. I think I watched them for at least an hour total every day we were there. It was fun to sit in the rocking chairs and just hear them hum. Their hum was a lot louder than I thought it was. Sitting so close to them and no other noise around you you could hear it really well. At times there would be five or six come and fight over the feeders and dart at eachother in their air.

Preschool

Is it just me or do they look big in this picture?

Hayes started Preschool Wednesday Sept. 8. . He loves it! He's already learned some new songs, tells me they practice counting to 100 and learned about sharing...among other things. It's a preschool co-op so we'll be having it at our house in a few weeks.

Kamri had to go get her backpack and was so excited for Hayes to go to preschool...and so disappointed when she didn't get to go. Bracken and I went on a date a few days later and the baby sitter told me Kamri told her it made her sad when Hayes went to preschool because she missed him. So this week I tried to do some fun stuff with her and I think (i hope) she's enjoying the one-on-one time.

Loa

Bracken started school again Aug. 16. I was going through withdrawals from having him home so much during the summer that I decided the kids and I needed to get out of the house and Bracken could study. So we went and visited Grandpa Anne & Grandpa Dixie in Loa, UT. It was a short trip but so relaxing! It was so nice to see my grandparents and fun that Hayes & Kamri know who they are and talk about them now. When I grow up I hope I can be like my Grandma Anne. She amazes me with her strength and her ability to comfort and not judge. Someone in my family (one of you will have to remind me who and help me quote you correctly) said something to the effect that you could come to Grandma's house in gym shorts and be served a dinner on china plates. She accepts you know matter how you are.

The pictures are out of order and I'm too lazy to switch them around but you'll get the idea.

Geese that flew over the house in the morning to land in this pond.

Hayes helping feeding the horses.

Hayes was so excited to see a 'real cowboy' shoe a horse!

the back of the farmhouse (showing the new addition)

Helping Grandma Anne with watering

watching the hummingbirds

investigating a stink bug on the cellar steps

My grandma had told Hayes & Kamri the night we got there that you could hear the geese honking in the morning as they flew past the house. They were so excited to see them that the minute Hayes woke up at 7 a.m. he asked if he had missed the geese. Not 2 minute later we started hearing some honks. Totally a magical childhood moment, the kids ran to the window to watch and then ran downstairs and outside to get a better look.We saw two big 'V's of geese, their honking was loud. Such a fun thing to wake up to.

We went up to the Dairy three times but I think Hayes would have preferred to live there. One of the time we were up they were feeding the calves so Hayes got to help bottle feed them. Then he was helping gather all the bottles to put them back in the basket.

Cow milking machines at the dairy. Kamri was a bit scared of all the noise and machinery so we stood back aways but Hayes wanted to go up the aisle of milkers to see the machines a little closer while the workers were setting the cows up to be milked. My grandma went up with him and when they came walking back I saw some little yellow green specks on my grandma's shirt. I pointed it out and she said she felt something landing on her...then we realized it was cow manure and it was all over her face and hair..and Hayes too! So funny! I guess I shouldn't laugh since it didn't happen to me. Hayes was disappointed we headed home to clean up instead of visiting the calves again.

love the peace & simpleness of small town life. I didn't realize exactly how noisy living in the city was until we were in Loa and Kamri asked in alarm, "what's that noise?!" every time a car drove past the farmhouse....it just didn't happen that often! So much quieter compared to the constant drone in Vegas.

Happiness is being a child freely playing outside......

or being the parent joining them :)