TWO

Levi, you are two today. TWO. I can't believe it. Time with you has gone by so quickly... and I want it to slow down a little so I can keep you under our roof longer. You are growing up to be such a sweet, tender, funny, happy, CURIOUS, and determined little man. You have an amazing spirit of adventure, and you love your brother like crazy. You're not discouraged by the word no (we're working on that)... and you're not intimidated by anyone... even kids that are much MUCH taller than you. But I'm not going to lie... I like that about you. And I think that one day you will be unstoppable at whatever you set your mind to. We just pray that whatever you decide to put your energy towards that it will be for Jesus. We are so proud of you... and can't believe that we get to be your mommy and daddy.

Here you are last year:

Here you are this year (we made you a pizza, since it's your favorite):

Love you dude. Our family wouldn't be the same without your spunky, cheerful, silly self. 

Two sweet boys

lucky me :)

Our mornings

Sometimes it's hard for Mommy to get out of bed the morning... but then I remember we get to do this :)

And I'm usually greeted with such a cheerful "Hi guys!" that I would much rather be watching cartoons and snuggling than be in bed. I will miss these mornings when you decide you're too old for snuggles and cartoons.

What's my name?

You finally named me. You have known who to point to for a while when people say "where's Mommy?"... but you finally gave me a name. It's "Mom-o" and I couldn't be more tickled. Hearing you yell that from your crib when you're ready to get up, or when you're doing something that you want me to see or be a part of makes me melt. I hope that this name sticks, becasue I like being your Mom-o.

Comedic timing

This morning you were a little bit fussy after daddy got you up. Usually you're happy to get up and hang out in your crib for about an hour playing with toys and talking to yourself, but today you were not content to do that... at all. Which is fine, since I know it's not the normal.

So I went in to get you figuring that you were just really hungry and brought you downstairs and started getting you your breakfast. But you weren't happy to be downstairs and started being naughty to prove that. Daddy put you in your chair and I handed you a bagel (your favorite), then you folded your hands and looked at me to pray. My prayer went something like this:

"Dear Jesus, thank you for our food, our family, and for a beautiful day. Please help us to all have good attitudes today and for Noah to take a wonderful nap. Amen."

Then I looked at you and said, "I sure hope that Jesus answers my prayer about us having good attitudes..." and took a sip of my coffee, and you VERY seriously leaned forward toward me and said, "No."

Your dad, who was standing behind me, shoved his head into the pantry (so as not to show you he was laughing) and started shaking all over... which meant he was laughing pretty hard. I almost spit coffee out all over the table because I started laughing, and when you noticed how hard we were laughing you started laughing.

Not one of our better parenting moments. We're trying to figure out how to be more effective next time...

Old McDonald had an I-YA... ei ei oh.

Lately, you have been super into making all kinds of sounds. Animal sounds, car sounds, so many. I had to document this, because we've never been able to capture it on our camera. The second you see a camera you turn into this little ham and will never do what we're trying to get you to do... you turn into a little comedian instead. So here are your current animal sounds (we're working on trying to correct some of them...)

Bear & Lion: RAAA!!

Sheep & Goat: Baa

Dog: voof voof (your absolute favorite animal ever)

Cat: I-YA (not sure why...)

Goldfish (out of one of your books): BAAA

Cow: MM MMM

Car: BVVVV

We're ready for you to start talking dude. Any day now. We can't wait to hear what your little mind is thinking!

Our trip to the mountians

This weekend we were lucky to get away with our friends the Stewarts. We rented a cabin down in Tennessee and stayed for a couple nights. It was a lot of fun, and I hope that we can do it again as all you boys get older. Here are some pics from our trip...

The crew

This is a hike we went on to Laurel Falls. You were amazing and wanted to 

walk most of it...and it was a long hike for someone your size - 2.6 miles!

This picture doesn't do the falls justice at all. It was beautiful and 

much bigger than the trickle that's showing in this picture.

All you boys

The weather could not have been more perfect- 

being outside was so much fun, we're ready for spring!