latest shenanigans...

Our little guy is full of shenanigans, and here are some of the latest.

Levi putting the flour to bed... He was in the kitchen while I was making dinner and then I heard "night night, night night" and found him tucking in the flour. :)

We have also been playing outside a lot more with both the slide and the pool. Well, this weekend Papa John and Gigi were over and thought it would be a good thing to combine the two. We didn't say no and we kind of thought it would end badly...

He didn't seem to be too upset but he certainly didn't go down the slide again that night! He was wet and laughing a lot afterwards. (please note - those swim trunks are too big but we couldn't find the ones that fit so those were better than just a diaper...)

Levi is now (thanks to Kyle) trying to climb in and out of shopping carts... This was one of the several times on our last Target run.

Levi has also learned about the ancient world of flip phones from his great grandpa. Actually, he was just responding to a bribe, the only way that Grandpa Don can get Levi to come close to him... Ha!

So those are some of the latest shenanigans. We are enjoying the warm, summer weather and all the adventures!

Saturday fun in the sun...

After the cold day at the zoo last weekend it has been wonderful to have warm and sunshiney weather! Thankfully we had a beautiful Saturday that we got to enjoy as a family. The fun and the sun wiped the boys out - Levi went to bed early and Kyle is napping on our new overstuffed chair and ottoman as I write this. I'd say that's a sign of a good Saturday. (I will have to wake Kyle up so he doesn't miss the Pacers' game, though!).

This morning was the St.Vincent Kidz Marathon and our niece and nephew were running so we decided to head over to AU and cheer them on. It was HOT and muggy. It was fun to cheer them on see some people from work in a different environment.

Reagan and Linkin before the race

Linkin and his medal :)

Kyle, Levi, and Reagan on the football turf after the race

After the race, we headed home and Levi took a nice, loooong nap. We had to wake him up so we could go to Jayce's first baseball game of the season.

The boys watching Jayce's game

While we were at the game Megan called and said she and Adelaide were going to come to Anderson. We decided to meet them at Shadyside (after some ice cream at Good's!). Levi and Adelaide are so funny when they are together. They get excited and keep saying each other's names. It is hard to get a good picture, though, as they are always on the move. I think we were there for almost 1.5 hours! That is a long time to run around in the heat for these kids.

Levi, Adelaide, and Reagan on the slides (it was a good thing there were 2!)

At the bottom of the slide but not looking at the camera

 Trying to get through a tunnel at the same time...

Our teeter-totter partners :)

Levi fell asleep on the short ride home but was awake as soon as we got him out of the car. There was still a lot of sunshine so we decided to get out our kiddie pool(s) and the slide and spend some time in the backyard. Levi didn't actually get into the pool but had fun splashing and enjoyed going up and down the slide. Kyle took advantage of our small shade tree and napped while Levi and I played.

Splish splash!

So fun!

(see Kyle napping? hehe)

Happy to be outside!

Climbing UP the slide...

So that was our busy but fun day outside in the sun. We are definitely looking forward to this summer and watching Levi play and learn how to do new things. It is amazing how much he is already doing and how he gets more brave (and more dare-develish) every day.

Happy weekend!

mother's day ...

It is hard to believe that this is already my second mother's day! Just wanted to send out a quick note with some pics from last year's mother's day and this year's mother's day. The difference is pretty crazy!

We got to spend the morning yesterday with the Kriebels at the Indianapolis Zoo, like we did last year. We took the same kinds of pictures and had a little more difficulty keeping the kids entertained. Their attention spans are slightly shorter :) Regardless of the much cooler weather and shortened attention spans, we had fun. Enjoy a few pics from yesterday and last year's mother's day weekend at the zoo!

 Almost had more fun at the playground than watching the animals :)

Happy Mother's Day! 

(does the sign look familiar?)

Mother's Day 2012

Elephants, 2013

Elephants, 2012

Levi and Adelaide at the dog show, 2013

Levi and Adelaide at the elephants, 2012

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope you've enjoyed these pics! 

we like to play...

And once again it has been more than 2 months since the last post. Sorry!

Things have changed quite a bit in the past 2 months. Levi is on the move! He is walking, running, climbing and getting into everything. We've taken swimming lessons (this was where he learned how to crawl up and onto things), gone to a kid-friendly bouncy play house, and spent some time at the park.

Levi really enjoyed the swim lessons, eventually. :) He relaxed and floated, with help, of course, played with a ball (loves those things!) and even went down a slide and "off" the diving board. We accomplished our goal of having him feel comfortable in the water and enjoy it but he has not yet learned how to swim. :)

Showing off his "beach body" in the locker room before the last class

Last weekend we spent the afternoon with Megan, Dave, and Adelaide Kriebel at Qdoba and then Monkey Joe's. When we got inside Monkey Joe's the 4 adults looked at each other and said something along the lines of "well, now we're officially parents." Ha! It was a crazy busy place with blow up castles, slides, bouncy houses and LOTS of kids. We managed to stay for 1 hour and all of us, kids included, were tired! We did have fun, though. :)

Levi and Adelaide kept holding hands on the way to Monkey Joe's

Levi was not too excited about the bouncy house...

 He did finally warm up to it, though

He especially loved climbing into this bouncy castle that had a slide! That is where we spent most of the time, again and again and again and again... :)

Today the weather was great, albeit windy, and we decided to head out after church to the playground at Eastside Elementary. We found the little kids playground and Levi enjoyed the slides and climbing up the stairs.

Smiling on the way!

Big boy climbing up the stairs, without help!

He even made it across the wobbly bridge :)

He seemed to like to go down the slide head first... Kyle caught him so it was all good. 

He was not as big of a fan going down normally, but he caught on

Spinny things!

A little father-son bonding over fake airplane controls :)

So, in the past few months we've been busy playing! Levi keeps us on our toes but keeps us laughing and happy. What did we do before him? :)

snow! ...

After having a very mild winter last year (and even 80 degrees in March!) we have had snow! While we didn't have a white Christmas, we enjoyed a "blizzard" on the 26th and then even more snow on the 28th. Luckily Santa's elves (my 2 aunts) surprised us with a snow shovel and we have gotten lots of use out of it already. We didn't brave the snow the first day but on Saturday we decided to head out to the Davy hill and go sledding.

Enjoy the pics and video of Levi's first sled experience :)

the first snow day, Papa John volunteers to shovel snow :)

on the 27th we put our tree in the backyard to clean out the Christmas decorations... we woke up to this on Saturday the 29th, kind of pretty, right? :)

Daddy, and Levi, looking at the snow (Levi kept pointing at the window and saying "da")

 the second blanket of snow before the attack of the shovel

a little later in the morning it got windy and our pretty tree blew over

Saturday afternoon on the Davy hill (Levi is inside with Aunt Brooke at this point)

Levi was not impressed with the cold or being held by his dad

slightly less upset 

a little happier now that he is with mom but still not thrilled about the prospect of going down the hill

Levi's first sled ride with mom

family pic after surviving his first sled run!

... Happy Birthday, Levi!

Hard to believe but Levi is already 1! We started off his birthday with the now obligatory tie photo shoot and then got ready for his party. We enjoyed celebrating with family and friends and despite a little mishap with the candle, it was a great time. Enjoy some pics from the special day :)

Smiley big boy!

His new thing is fish lips and lots of talking

But, as usual, very happy 

Some of the party fun - lots of blurry people because everyone was moving!

And so begins the cupcake series...

#1 the candle is lit and we are singing, he is perplexed

#2, the candle was just blown out but it was interesting so he starts to reach for the wick...

#3, contact with a freshly blown out candle wick is not so pleasant

#4, finally stopped crying with a little big of chocolate cake

not the greatest picture but Levi and Adelaide enjoyed playing with his new parking garage

Our favorite picture of the day - Levi's new hat (courtesy of the greatgrandparents) and his mustache paci from Alex, my what a handsome fellow

Here are a couple shots of our handiwork/hardwork

The lion cake :) 

I designed it (with inspiration from Pinterest) and Kyle and I decorated it

Our animal cups - giraffes and monkeys :)

And so, our little guy is 1. Onto the next adventure!