Something happened to me today

Comment from Brent, "I was doing something in the kitchen, when someone came in and did something and something happened....."

Merry Christmas

Just pretending

I have just recently talked to an old friend from High School and while I was talking to her about jobs, family, etc I realized something....I'm just pretending to be grownup:)  I fooled you all.  Because really, as I was talking with my friend all I could picture was us hanging out together, and studying and talking about what we wanted to do when we grew up.  

Sunday School Conversations

I was in attendence in Dallin's Sunday School class today. The topic was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. As small children do, the conversation at one point quickly shifted. And as was appropriate for the season, Dallin and a friend of his started talking about Santa Claus. 

Well, Santa's been a topic of conversation at our house lately with Christmas coming along and the bi-monthly feature from Netflix being "The Polar Express." We've explained to the children that Santa was a good man that lived a long time ago and that Mom and Dad play like we're Santa now. We've chosen this bend on the season, to downplay the receiving of gifts, and to hopefully give more of an emphasis on Christ and his birth. 

We don't even have our presents under the tree this year (This is more for our sanity and so that there will be something left for Christmas Day), yet the children still anticipate Christmas Day and gifts they'll receive. Anyways, that's the background to the conversation. 

So Dallin and his friend started talking about Santa Claus. Suddenly Dallin very definitively declared "Santa Claus is dead!" 

Well his little friend didn't tolerate that in the least and retorted, "No he's not. He's alive!" 

Dallin explained, "Not uugh! Santa Claus is dead, Aaron told me so!"

His friend was quite persistent.  Perhaps it was inspired by the topic of the lesson, perhaps it was his desire to fit in. Finally Dallin conceded, "Well, maybe he came back to life! "

They both seemed to be able to agree on that point and so end the dispute. 

Merry Christmas, 

Brent 

Joseph's theme song

If you listen closely you can hear Joseph singing in the background. When he is excited about something he will run around the room singing his theme music.

Emma's baptism

There have been a lot of mileposts along this road of parenthood. First food, first word, first day of school, but this has been by the far one of the most important ones. One of the things that meant a lot to me was family coming. I appreciate those who sacrificed time, and money to come be with us on this day.

As Emma came out of the water and I was able to be there for her to help her dry off and get dressed, I realized how nice that was. For one brief moment it flickered through my mind, that this would be the only time I would be able to experience that, but I brushed it away...I didn't want to be filled with regret. I wanted to enjoy the time I had to be with my daughter as she came up ready to begin something new.

I also thought of how up to this point, I was the one with all the answers for her. She came to me when she had questions. Now, I am beginning the process of turning the gift that was loaned to me back to God, for that is who she must learn to turn to now. I won't always be here, I definitely won't have the answers, but He will. So, I begin my new role with her(as more of a guide and teacher rather than the director:)) as she begins her new role with her Heavenly Father(as she learns to listen to the promptings of the spirit).

I know she is still young, but she is just now beginning to become the person that her Heavenly Father wants her to become and I feel so blessed to be a part of that. I find joy in the fact that she choose to be baptized and wants to work to come to know him and his plan for her more fully.

My afternoon

AHHHHHH..gotto to go, I think someone is about to be killed:)

Darth Vader doesn't like cars?!

Dallin: "hey mom, we're playing star wars"

Me: "ok star wars fans, it's time to go get Emma and Aaron. So let's go get out in the car."

Dallin: "Mom....I'm Darth Vader and Darth Vader does not take the car".

So there you have it, don't try and offer Darth Vader a ride in your car.

Excuse #24

Excuse #24(offered immediately after excuse #23):You took too long to write that blog so now my candy's all gone and I need to get another one now.

Excuse #23 for not saying family prayer

Excuse #23: (no excuse at all... she just disappeared.)

For the record, she says that she went to go get a candy.

Excuse #22 for Not Saying Morning Family Prayer

Excuses #22 for not saying morning family prayer: It's morning until 12 PM.

Excuse #18 for Not Saying Family Prayer

This was a good one...

Excuse #18:
I've got to do my math homework.

Excuse #21 for Not Saying Family Prayer

We've been talking about doing this for several weeks now because it's just become humorous how often Emma comes up with an excuse for not saying family prayer. So we thought we'd actually start tonight.

soooooooooooo.....

Excuse #21 for not saying family prayer:
Ok, you said to go spit out my gum, now is a good time to do that.

Carrot Fruit Snacks?!

Joseph came up to me today and said he wanted some fruit snacks. I said we didn't have any fruit snacks. He asked me again and I gave him the same reply. So then he said he wanted carrot fruit snacks?

Carrot fruit snacks?! So I handed him a bag of mini carrots and he and Dallin happily chomped away on their fruit snacks. If only I could do the same thing with Emma:)

Shopping with Five Children

Perhaps if I were someone else, I'd entitle this post something like "Why I Love Living in Provo, Utah". But I'm not that zealous for or against the fact that I'm raising my family in Provo. This just happens to be where we are at this time in our lives raising our family. But I do have to confess that my experience grocery shopping yesterday could probably have never had happened anywhere else on the planet.

For starters, Macey's (the grocery store, not the department store) recently purchased these wonderful four-seater shopping carts. It's one of those shopping carts that's shaped like a car on the front end for two kids to ride in. Admittedly, Aaron is getting a little too big to ride in one of these, but he and Dallin faired pretty well on the front end. The back end was also a double seater allowing for the two smaller boys, Joseph and Jacob to comfortably sit on top. I think that Macey's must have purchased this shopping cart just for our family, but that leads to the second observation.

The reality is that we are not the only family around here that have enough small children to fully occupy a four-seater shopping cart. Myself feeling fairly well occupied with five children for the present, especially in a grocery store, by some accounts we're still not as big as other families in our neighborhood.

For example, as one of my children was throwing something of tantrum in the produce section of the grocery store, a sweet elderly lady comes up to me and says, "Are these all your children?" I acknowledged that they were, and mentioned how grateful I was for the four-seater shopping cart. She commented on how wonderful it was to have them as young as they were.

She then add that she was a mother of 12 children herself! Seeing me and my five children brought back fond memories for her, and her face was radiantly cheerful as she said so. That did something for me. I won't say that it made my shopping trip any less hectic or stressful. What I saw though was a woman who looked back fondly on those memories that I was now living for myself -- a bit of perspective.

Who would've thought?

So I realized that Jacob's word is actually a word, just spelled different(see previous most on Jacob's vocabulary). The word "meh" is an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring,'

So, Jacaob is just bored, who would've thought:)

He is branching out though, Ah, is now apart of his vocabulary. He says it when he sees the cats. I wonder what that one means?

Happy Birthday Emma

How to speak Jacob

I want that....Maa!
Take me there...MAAA
Lift me up.....Ma
I don't want to sleep...Ma, Ma

So I think we need to work a little bit more on his vocabulary...for right now though, we just pretend we have a little sheep in our house.

Gratitude

I was out shopping with my dad today ( my dad actually really likes to shop:)) It was fun. We talked about a lot of stuff and we really enjoyed being with each other. At one of the stores we stopped by, a lady said she thought it was really neat that we could be slow close. I stopped to think about that...I don't know that I had ever really given it much thought that I have a good relationship with my parents. But as I thought about that, I was very grateful for my parents and Brent's parents. I am grateful for their love and support and I feel that everyday...so thanks! I love you all! Rachel

Oh and Brent thinks we should build our roof out of legos:) I love telling on him:)

A pledge to fight for the family

As probably a lot of you know, Brent and I supported Obama in the elections. I did so, though, with a lot of concerns...specifically concerning moral issues. I won't go into the why's about this whole thing, but it was a difficult disicion for me to say the least.

I am writing this to encourage you to do what I have done. I have expressed my concerns to Obama through e-mail about my belief in the importance and preservation of family. I wrote about how important marriage is to our nation and expressed to him my beliefs about gay marriage and abortion and why I believe the way I do. I would encourage you to do the same. Here is contact information...

EMAILS:
://obama.senate.gov/contact/,
/www.barackobama.com/index.phpMYSPACE PAGEhttp://www.myspace.com/barackobamaLINKEDIN PAGEhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/barackobama

Address
CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS
Obama for America
P.O. Box 8102Chicago, IL 60680

Phone

OFFICESWashington D.C. Office (202) 224-2854 (202) 228-4260 fax (202) 228-1404 TDD Chicago Office (312) 886-3506 (312) 886-3514 fax Toll free: (866) 445-2520 (for IL residents only) Springfield Office (217) 492-5089 (217) 492-5099 fax Marion Office(618) 997-2402 (618) 997-2850 fax Moline Office (309)736-1217 (309)736-1233 fax PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS(866) 675-2008

I told myself that I would only vote for Obama if I worked hard to make sure that my voice was heard concerning issues of family and morals. I would encourage anyone else who reads this to do so also..as well as any local and state leaders that have been elected.

Here's our Gromet.














Aaron as a Ninja.
























Princess Keeha from a book series Emma is reading.

























The Cat Buss from Totoro.


















Happy Hallooween!

Answers Will Be Forthcoming...

Brent was having fun with the macro zoom in our new camera. See if you can guess what these pictures are...

It's dinner time at the Leavitts

Pre-dinner...with a bag of grated cheese on the floor... (Click on the picture to get the full effect.)










This will be funny in a couple of days..right?


One of our favorite things to do at dinner time is tell knock knock jokes so enjoy!:)




This one wasn't dinner, but I thought it fit in with the food theme:)


As you can tell from these pictures, Jacob is learning to get to the top of the table and either sit on top and eat (peanut butter and jelly), or dump it on the floor and eat it (cheese).

Brent also helped the kids carve pumpkins a few nights ago while I was working. Now it is officially Halloween.

The Moon is Made of Cheeeeeeeese

One of Dallin's new favorite movies is Wallace and Grommet

The hole in our backyard Part 2

I finally got some photos for you...and I don't think there is any gold so far in our heap:( But lots of rocks. We've heard it used to be a riverbed here.

Jacob Walking

Just thougtht I'd let you all see my cute one year old who has now been walking for a couple of weeks...I'm not actually sure that's a good thing:)

The world from a child's perspective

These are just some old photos that Dallin took this summer. I am cleaning up my photos, and don't really want to keep them except I thought they offered an interesting perspective from a child's point of view so I thought I'd post them here.

Why do I do this to myself?!!!

Ok, so yesterday I took the kids all to the library...now that part wasn't so bad, for the most part. But...I decided I didn't want to take the car (we've been trying to use it less).

Five kids. No car. Walking. For about 45 min.

That's why this is entitled why do I do this to myself:)

Long story short, I came home 4 1/2 hours later with two crying boys and one really grumpy child who insisted on kicking everyone for the last 15m. of the walk home.

The funny thing is, I probably would choose to do it the same way again. I blame it on my dad:) He's always been an environmentalist and I think it rub off on me a bit. I love the freedom of not having to use the car. I think Brent would make the same choice too...I think we're just odd:) But admitting is half the battle, right:)

On another note, Brent was out panning for gold in our dirt heap...I guess it's just the Leavitt blood coming out in him. I'll keep you posted just in case you want to try and get in our will:)

The Hole in our Back Yard

Well, Rachel has extended rights for me to contribute to the family blog now, so I thought I'd add something.

I've been digging this hole in our back yard since the beginning of the summer. I've wanted to put a root cellar underneath the the new shed I wanted to build in the north corner of the yard so that I could pull down the existing shed on the south side of the yard and use the land for a garden plot (It's the only place in the back yard where the sun shines all day long).

Now five months later, I've only gotten down about 3 or 4 feet deep and not even all the way across. I finally asked for help in Priesthood open exercises at church thinking I could get a few extra bodies to help me on a Saturday morning or something. A neighbor come up to me afterwards and offer to come over with his back hoe and help finish the remainder of the hole.

He came over tonight and made light work of the project in about 3 hours' time. We got about 3/4 of the space cleared out and a huge mound of dirt in our back yard! We'll probably finish the remainder of the hole tomorrow or Saturday. Rachel's very excited as she's set us on time line to get the house expanded and this is the first step in getting there.

Dallins prayer

Dear Heavenly Father..

(Dallin you can't pray and turn around in circles at the same time)

Dear Heavenly Father, please bless that I can play on the computer...

(Dallin you need to kneel)

And bless that I can kneel...

(and close your eyes)

and that I can play on the computer...

(he looks up at me and smiles)

in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Our bilingual child (sort of)

Here's what Aaron wrote to me today...

¡WHOA You or the best!

So, I'm trying to decide if this is Spanglish in writing:). (Notice the beginning punctuation.) Either way, we thought it was cute.

Beautiful messes

Ok this is pictureless, because my cameras batteries are dead, but I had to get this down....

Messes that I clean up in a typical day

1. Banana baby goo from Jacob
2. Joseph took all our library books and dumped them on the floor.
3. Before Aaron made it out the door the legos made it out and beautiful creations, plus some, where crawling across the living room.
4. Both Emma and Aaron threw their night clothes on the floor in the bathroom
5. Don't forget the roll of toilet paper that got tossed in the toilet
6. Joseph likes to help me do dishes (enough said)
7. Dallin is not quite potty changed (again enough said:))
8. Cats like to sleep on my sheets and leave kitty hairs all over
9. Spilled milk times 3
10. The boys thought it would be fun to build a fort....with my couch cusions....and my kitchen chairs.....and decided to have a picnic inside....with crackers and cheese(Brent said that was his idea-he didn't want them in the kitchen?)
11. Emma was busy making everyone You've Been Caught Being Nice notes, and conviently forgot to throw away her cut up papers.

Well, they're all in bed and I remember how much I love them:) They really are beautiful.

Peek a boo

I don't know why it is, but babies playing peeka boo are some of the funniest things to watch...of course I am biased as a mother.

Creativity

Here is what Aaron was working on today after church...he has gotten very good with legos.









We've also rearranged the sleeping areas, again:) The kids are now back in the larger room, but Emma wanted her own space. So we threw up a rope and some blankets to seperate the room. Very makeshift, but Emma loved it:) Hopefully by this time next year, we'll actually have our addition added on with our real rooms:)

Another day's hard work

Ok, yesterday was Jacob's first birthday and as soon as Brent gets the video downloaded, I'll put that on here. Other than that here's some pictures of my day..first off Emma who has become an avid reading..
Now on to the fun stuff! Here is my pile of dishes half way through the day...
And my clothes to fold...on my bed...
in my dryer...
And at the end of the day....

Notice though that the clothes are folded on top of the dryer, and there are new clothes in the dryer...and...the dishes are not the same ones...so another ending to another day with five children who we are blessed to have enough food for and plenty of clothes:) Ta, ta for now. I'm going to sleep:)

Dallin's little quirks

Ok, so Dallin is my child that has to have everything in a particular order, or he can't deal with it. Today, he was playing with puzzles, and absolutely did not want to pick them up. He had to keep them with him, only because he decided that he had to have his puzzles with him. So, he tried to stuff as much as he could here....
He really tried to get as much as he could in his pocket:)


On another quirky note...Jacob is loving little spaces...I don't think he is claustaphobic...

Joseph framed

This is Joseph hanging out in our doorway. He was watching me try and get Brent's picture for his new business website that he is working on. I think it was a little amuzing because I was trying to chase Jacob at the same time.

Jacob's little adventure

After completely emptying the drawer....

Jacob decided to explore a little further.

Home Improvements

Ok, so I finally decided to start a blog about just our family:) We have blogs about other things, (who knew I would become such a blogger:), but not just the goings on in our family. So, this past month we finally laid down our bamboo floor, and I love it. We also got a fan for the living room and painted and tiled the doorway. It was a busy couple of weeks, but after all, we had been living on sub floor for 3 months.Here's our subfloor before the new floor was put in.
Our new fan and you can see our walls here are no longer aqua:)
My beautiful plant that hopefully doesn't get destroyed by little fingers
My window with curtains made by Cathy for us.
We tiled by the door and put bamboo floor in (pretend the toys aren't all over). We still need to put trim in.

I do want to put some posts on of the kids, but my camera's battery ran out...so next time.