Leavitt Family: 2007

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Larson Christmas Party

Alex had a grand old time with the Larson family this last weekend. They were all surprised at his latest trick: happy, repetitive, ear-splitting screaming.

He was more interested in the wrapping than in Great-Grandma's present to him--snuggly PJs. But she got Josh and I the Willow Tree Nativity set (which I have coveted greatly). Thank you, thank you, thank you, Grandma!

Baby Alex is very much adored by his cousins. We always had several wanting to hold him at the same time. Here he is with Lia, Courtney, and Jayelle.

And here he is with Daniel and Jordan as well. He was entranced by Jordie's fake goatee. He (Jordan) was Joseph in the Nativity this year.

Alex didn't get to be Baby Jesus because we had a baby who was smaller and thus better suited to the part. :) This is my cousin Christian's 5-week-old baby, Bjorn. Yes, they really did name him Bjorn (Chris went to Holland on his mission. "Bjorn" is Dutch for "bear"). Look at his sweet little furball head!

And our wise men wore sunglasses this year...again. Oh my dear fam. :)

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Minestrone Deliciousness

Whenever the cooler weather rolls around, we have a dilemma at our house. I am a soup person. To me, there is nothing so wonderful to eat as a hot bowl of soup, a hearty piece of toast, and a tall glass of cold milk. Josh is not a soup person. He'd prefer pretty much anything else. For him, the problem is the broth. He likes the "stuff" that goes into soup, but he hates feeling like he has to drink most of his meal. He will not eat tomato soup or any kind of bisques or things like that which have no "stuff" in them at all.

So I've had to be pretty inventive to get my soup in while still pleasing my dear husband. And I'm proud to say I've had quite a few successes this year. This has been accomplished by either a) decreasing the liquid so it seems less "soupy" or, b) making the liquid thicker so it's more like a sauce. I think I may have finally converted him with my latest concoction, a minestrone soup recipe that I came up with to use the rest of some leftover spaghetti sauce. He gave it a 9.7, folks! Wahoo!

Here's the recipe if you'd like to give it a try, but be warned, this soup is rather hearty. If you like your soup soupy, you might want to thin it down with water or a bit more broth. Serve with yummy parmesan breadsticks and you've got an awesome winter meal!

Minestrone Soup

- 1/2 lb. lean sausage
- 3 c. beef broth
- 1 c. spaghetti sauce (I use my mom's homemade sauce, but any kind would work).
- 1/2 t. garlic powder
- 1 small zucchini, sliced into bite-size pieces
- 1 c. raw spinach leaves, shredded
- 1/2 c. whole wheat rotini
- 1/2 can of navy beans, drained and rinsed
- mozzarella cheese, shredded

Cook sausage and combine with broth, sauce, and garlic in a medium-sized pot. Heat to boiling. Add rotini and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add zucchini and spinach and cook an additional 10 minutes. Add beans and warm through. Garnish individual servings with mozzarella cheese. Makes about 4 servings.

Monday, December 10, 2007

O Christmas Tree

I just wanted to put up a picture of our beautiful Christmas tree!

And what post would be complete without a cute picture of Alex? He loves to look at the lights on our tree and also tries to grab and eat the fake foliage. :)

This is our favorite ornament. "It's indescribably beautiful!" Thanks to my sister Leslie for coming up with just the right early Christmas gift..."a major award!" :)

Friday, December 07, 2007

Help! I'm doing research!

So, finals is coming up, and I have a research project for one of my classes.

And you can help! Just use this link to visit my quick survey website. Answer the questions, click submit, and send everything to me. Any questions?

Bueller? … Bueller? … Bueller?

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

People with too much time on their hands

Late evening. Baby's asleep. So we pull out the toothpicks and stale mini mallows, light up the peppermint candle and have a "romantic evening at home."

Ah, love! :)

Sunday, December 02, 2007

And then the other shoe fell…

So, you see the cute winter pictures of our baby down there? Guess what also happened that day.

Nope.

Nope.

Not even close.

I got a flat tire on our car! I came out of a Leading Edge meeting, fired the old bird up, and started driving off campus, but I heard this funny whump-whump-whump sound. So, I pulled off the road into a parking lot (a handicap parking space, unfortunately) and noticed that my front right tire had somehow gone completely flat. :(

But, being the mechanic's son that I am, I whipped out the jack and lug wrench (and inflatable kiddie pool that has been sitting in our trunk since our ward water kickball game in June) and went to work putting our emergency spare on. I even got to be the subject of a picture for a photo scavenger hunt. (Man, I'm a lucky one, aren't I? ;) ) Tire changed and hands sufficiently dirty, I hopped back into my car, fired the old bird up, and started driving off campus.

This time, there was no friendly whump-whump. Instead, I was treated to the lovely serenade of steel screeching on ice-and-snow-covered asphalt. Yup, our emergency spare…had gone flat. So, again, I pulled off the road into a parking lot, hijacked some poor, unsuspecting girl's cell phone, went to my office to use the phone and phone book, and after several phone calls and semi-unsaid curses decided to simply wait the two hours the towing company said it would be before they could get a truck to me before the two hours I would have to wait once I actually got to the tire store. *sigh*

But the day began picking up from there. The tow truck got there within 15–20 minutes instead of two hours, and I barely had time to walk down from Big-O to Blackjack Pizza, order lunch, walk back to Big-O, and eat half of my medium pepperoni pizza before my car was fixed and I was on my way home. And all it cost me was a cool $55.63 (pizza included).

Not bad, eh?

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Let it Snow!

Alex turned five months old today, and also got to see his first snow! He wasn't too impressed by it---but he did think it was funny when his dad started singing The Immigrant Song. "We come from a land of ice and snow..." And now mommy finally feels like it's really Christmastime! Hooray!

Friday, November 16, 2007

I've Had a Birthday, Shout "Hooray!"

Alex gives me birthday kisses. (Or rather, birthday eat-your-face. But it was still sweet.)

I would like to borrow yet another idea from my friend Maren (she's just so full of good ideas!) and tell you all that for my birthday, I want to know who reads our blog. Please leave a comment if you do! (Psst...you don't have to be a blogger to leave comments here, either. So don't let that stop you!)

Monday, November 12, 2007

Funny Mama

Our kid's gonna be a mad scientist someday. He's already got the maniacal laughter down!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Ve Vant to Suck Your Blood!

Alex made the cutest Count Dracula I have ever seen!

We were his victims. You can't really see our awesome vampire teeth in the picture, but rest assured that they were indeed awesome.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

From our little pumpkin

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Finally, the promised video! Alex thinks it's pretty fun to grunt and scream at himself. We think it's pretty fun, too. :) Apologies in advance for the shakiness...it's not the easiest thing to take video while trying to hold a chunky boy with one hand.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Guess who slept through the night last night? 9:30-6:30, folks!

I'm sure it was probably a fluke and he'll be back to his usual tricks tomorrow night. But it sure made us happy when we woke up at 5:00 and realized he hadn't gotten up at all. We celebrated by going back to sleep. :)

Monday, October 22, 2007

Weekend with the Fam

Josh's family and my family live close enough that we get to visit them both whenever we head down to our hometowns. So Alex gets doubly doted upon.

The lady-types just love Alex! (Grandma Larson, cousins Kayla and Aubree). He's not so sure about them.

Laughing with Grandpa Leavitt.

I also have a very cute video of Alex to post, but it keeps not showing up. It will upload and then it looks fine in the preview, but then it won't work in the actual post. Advice, anyone?

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Alex's Idea of a Good Time

Alex was being pretty fussy this evening, and it seemed like nothing I or Josh could do would please him. Finally, in exasperation, I just layed him down on his blanket with a toy in front of him to see if that would keep him entertained, and then I walked away. Suddenly there was silence. Amazed, I turned around to see why my baby had stopped crying at last. This is what I saw.

"YUM!"

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Poor Kid

"Hi, my name is Alex. My mom loves dressing me up in all these stupid 'cute' outfits and taking pictures. That woman shows no mercy! I mean, do the hats really have to have ears on them? Give me a break."

Monday, October 01, 2007

Gettin' Big

Alex is three months today! Here are a bunch of pictures to celebrate his ultimate cuteness.

Dang! How did that kid get so adorable?

Friday, September 14, 2007

The Terror of Leading Edge

So, recently had a messy break-up. After a not-so-bloodless coup (not instigated by me), I am now the senior editor of Leading Edge. It's been tough (and I'm an emotional wreck, by the way), but we'll make it through.

Hopefully . . .