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! 

DIY at the Davy's ...

Shocking, I know, but not everything that happens in our house is about Mr. Levi.

We bought our house in March 2011 and haven't really done much in the way of DIYing. We have only really painted 2 rooms and actually can only take credit for one of those since Will and Mandy graciously painted the nursery for us. So, I guess a little DIY is overdue.

First, I, like many others, have become attracted to Pinterest. After pinning way too many project ideas, I decided to actually make one. Kyle was gone for the weekend at a youth convention in Indy so I decided to use my post-Levi bedtime time to be crafty. Our front door is now adorned with this wreath...

Next on the list... getting rid of the hideous purple front door. This has actually been on the list since we bought the house...

Ok, the other DIY project that has been accomplished is one that Kyle has been dreaming about since we started house hunting. In all the houses we looked at, Kyle mentioned mounting the tv above the fireplace. Now, after almost 1.5 years in our house, we have now mounted the tv! It also necessitated a little furniture rearranging (fine with me!) and lots of time from his brother and time crawling up in the attic.

 Couch has been moved, Levi's toys have a new home and yes, the tv above the fireplace

 our lovely ladder bookshelf (our first, ever DIY project!) finally in the home we wanted for it since we bought the house. this was previously the spot for the tv

I know I already showed the tv but this one had Levi standing up, so I had to post it

(guess I was wrong that not all things have to do with Levi, my bad!)

Until next time!

june 9th, really? ...

I apparently haven't posted a blog since the 9th of June. There is absolutely no way I can succinctly update you on the happenings of the last 4 months. So, here is my attempt - pictures with captions. We have a lot coming up - Levi's first Thanksgiving, first birthday, SECOND Christmas! Hopefully we'll do better in the future.

Enjoy this photographic update :)

 working hard on crawling... July

 6 months old!

Father's Day - family cookie jar 

 The boys on Father's Day

Levi's first roadtrip - trying out the new stroller at the Flight 93 Memorial in PA 

 Hershey!

 Independence Hall in Philadelphia

first time in the ocean, Virginia Beach 

tired! 

 Washington D.C. and he is all conked out...

 7 months old!

 Great Grandma Hazard in Michigan

first pair of shoes :) 

 super baby Skyping!

and soccer season begins, go Arabians! 

8 months old! 

 halftime at a soccer game

 quite the gymnast

9 months old! 

super, duper sick... this necessitated a trip to the hospital for IV fluids 

feeling MUCH better, the day after the trip to the hospital 

AU homecoming 

photo booth fun at homecoming

10 months old! 

first trip to a pumpkin patch 

first Halloween as Carl from Up 

on the move! 

 Zoo Boo at the Indianapolis Zoo

visiting Grandpa Don at the hospital on Halloween

Ok, 29 pictures later... here's hoping we are more on top of things over the next few months!

Happy November 5th :)