We are still alive!

Here is the photographic evidence.



Oh yeah, and Merry Christmas and stuff. I might even blog about the forthcoming holiday if I can tear myself away from Pinterest for more than two seconds. :)

Happy November!

To celebrate the beginning of November, here are some of the Leavitt family happenings from October! :)

We had our annual Larson family weekend, and took a trip to the pumpkin patch with cousins. Here's my boys with their great smiles for the camera.
Here's a better one of Nathan. Alex is hopeless, he just likes to ignore me or be very cheesy when we're taking pictures. :)

We went up Hobble Creek canyon with some donuts to enjoy the beautiful leaves (and the delicious sugar).

We had a fun costume party with some of my friends from LD Singers and their families. Can you tell who we are supposed to be?

Here is our festive Halloween pizza.

The boys were Superman and a dragon for Halloween. We got those ginormous pumpkins from Grandpa Leavitt and had a ball carving them, though Alex didn't want to touch the "yucky pumpkin guts."

Alex and his trick-or-treating loot!

October was a blast for us! I absolutely love autumn and Halloween, and I'm excited for the rest of the fun that this time of year brings!

Alex turns 4!

He's big. Waaaaah!! (Apparently Mom's the one that needs to grow up). :)

Alex had a fabulous birthday with a trip to the water park, pizza for dinner, a yummy strawberry cake, a visit from G&G Larson and cousin Lyndi, fun presents, and a viewing of Cars 2 at the theater. I wasn't brave/dumb enough to give him a friends party yet, so we had a great day together as a family. We sure love this boy!

Adventures

Well, the last few months have been pretty busy as we get settled in to our new home. But we are loving [almost] every minute of it. :) Alex loves living in a quiet neighborhood with lots of other little kids instead of on a busy street where I'm afraid to let him go outside, and he has the suntan to prove it!

We are loving Springville and had fun with the recent Art City Days festival. Alex thought the carnival was the bees' knees. I thought it was a dirty, crowded, overpriced mess, but they had funnel cakes and that's all that really matters. :)



One thing that has been occupying a lot of my time is our yard. The people who lived here before us were very into gardening, and so we inherited a lot of wonderful plants and a big garden patch. However, that means you actually have to take care of it all. Huh. Coming here with absolutely zero gardening experience has made that interesting, but we're learning as we go.

I planted some seeds and small starts in the veggie patch, and then we had that big rainy spell right after so I didn't bother watering them, figuring they were getting enough from the rainfall. Wrong! Thus, much of what I planted has died off, but other things are coming along alright and we're keeping our fingers crossed hoping that some of them might actually produce. Hopefully in another month or so we will have at least a few tomatoes, zucchini, onions, bell peppers, green beans, and corn. Enough that I don't have to feel like a total gardening idiot anyway. :) I'm also looking into square foot gardening next year to cut back on the weeding, since it seems as if that's all I'm ever doing!

We also have a large raspberry patch and a strawberry patch that are coming along nicely. We've already harvested a few tiny strawberries, and man, were they sweet! There were tulips and buttercups out front in the spring (what on earth do I do with those empty patches now? Anyone? Anyone?), and we have some lovely lilacs and roses. Even though they were very little effort on my part, I'm still pretty proud of them. Here are some of the beauties that have blossomed this last week.




Okay, gardening spiel over. And here are a couple more pictures of the little men who make my life wonderful, or as Alex calls them, "Army Guy and Super Hero Man!"

"Yay! We're moving!"

Much of the craziness in the past few months has stemmed from the fact that we were house hunting and then getting all of the paperwork and whatnot through for...


our new house! Ta-da! This picture is from the online listing because I realized I don't have a decent shot of the entire front in my own photos.

Our closing date is currently set for April 8th, and then we will be moving in that weekend. The house is in Springville, so we won't be going too far, but I think it will be a nice change. We are really excited about the move as well as dreading getting it all done. Wish us luck! We would also welcome help in the form of box-lifting, furniture-hauling, apartment-cleaning, and kid-watching. :)

Here are a few more photos for anyone interested. Especially since I'm sure it will be a while until I can get pictures up of the house with all of our stuff moved in.


View from the front yard. Hooray for beautiful mountains!


Entry way/front room. Just to the left of this picture is...


this! It's a split-level home, so there are stairs going up to the bedrooms, and stairs going down to the family room.


View from kitchen into dining area (these are both on the main level).


We were lucky enough to get a brand new stove, microwave, and dishwasher! (This house was a government repo, and they replaced the appliances to make the home easier to sell. They also replaced all of the carpet and gave it a fresh coat of paint! Wahoo!)


Alex dancing around in the master bedroom. We are pretty excited to be able to fit more than our bed and a narrow path to walk around it.


View of our backyard from the master. To the right of this picture is a large garden patch that we will definitely put to good use! And the small white shed and swing set are ours. The swing set needs some repairs before it can be used, but Alex is so happy to have, as he says, "mine very own slide!"


Here he is being a gangsta in one of our bathrooms.


Part of the large storage space under the stairs and the main level.


Laundry and utility room. Not finished, but functional. :)


Downstairs bedroom, which for now will function as an office/craft room/guest room. (There are three bedrooms upstairs. I just didn't have a decent picture of the boys' rooms).


My three handsome men in the back part of the family room.


The aforementioned garden patch.


Rose bushes along the back of the house.


I think this face pretty much sums up our feelings. :)

Our Handsome Irish Boys

We woke up this morning to discover leprechauns had taken over our house. They danced silly jigs, ate all of my chocolate cupcakes, and participated in general shenaniganery. I caught one and demanded it give me gold, but it insisted that it only had a piggy bank full of pennies, kissed my cheek, and ran away again.



Then we all sat down together to watch "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" so the leprechauns could admire King Brian at work. We're looking forward to corned beef and cabbage for dinner--my first attempt, so let's hope I have the luck of the Irish and it turns out delicious!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Leavitts and our little mischief makers!

The Nater Bug Turns One!

We love this little smiling (and sometimes screaming) blue-eyed man so much! Here's his first year in pictures.

Day one with Mom, Orem Community Hospital


First week at home, sleepy little boy.


One month old, sinking into the Boppy. :)


Two months old, trip to Arizona


Three months old, those big blues really start to shine


Four months old, we love that smile


Five months old, Independence Day in Richfield


Six months old, silly little giggles


Seven months old, eating blueberries


Eight months old, drinking blood :)


Nine months old, with big brother


Ten months old, with Daddy


Eleven months old, melting my heart


One year old, enjoying his cake

Happy Birthday, Nathan Derek!