Levi turns 1

 Happy Birthday to Levi!  Making it to this point was kind of a big deal for our family, and so fun and exciting to think about Levi's first year, as well as the year ahead of all of us.  Anyway, we had a great day for Levi.  After breakfast, it was present time!

Give this boy a ball and he's happy!  Even wrapped he wanted it--a boy's sixth sense, I guess!

He had a really great "helper" to assist in the unwrapping process...She may or may not have thrown a fit at one point when we told her she couldn't just open all of them without asking.

 Since a lot of Levi's naps are either on my back in the carrier, or disturbed because we have to go somewhere, I thought a good birthday present for him would be sleep.  So, we didn't bother his first nap, until it was almost noon and we wanted to play outside.  Poor guy--can't even sleep his whole duration on his birthday.  (I think I projected the 'perfect' present idea onto him...)  Anyway, we figured that going somewhere was overrated because my kids just want to be outside--it's actually Levi's favorite place, so we just had a little picnic, and enjoyed the fabulous February weather. And took some pics of our cute little redhead (yes, we're embracing it!):

 How could I not cherish this little face!  It's no wonder where he gets his scrunchy smiley face, but his sweet heart definitely comes from his dad.  A little bit about Levi:

--more commonly known as "Doodle" or "Doods" or "Budsie"

--Obsessed with balls

--says "Ba" for ball, "MaMaMa--to infinity" for Mom, "Mo" for More, and "Ga", which I'm pretty sure is for Claire

--Good eater and sleeper, but will throw and rant if there's not food that he likes

--crawls and pulls to standing, but with a head in the 99th percentile, he's not close to walking

--tender, sweet, and cuddly

--has lots of tricks and loves to show them off during meals

After naps and dinner, we had the Farrells over for my healthy whole wheat, no sugar fruit and vegetable cake.  I know, nerd mom alert.  Anyways, he loved it--3 pieces, and no guilt :) 

Once he got a lick of the frosting, there was no going back

We love our kids!

Happy Birthday Doods!  We love you!

To wrap up 2013

So it's been a while since I posted.  I used to think that I could post more but didn't want to overload people, and now I look at regular posters in amazement wondering how they do it all.  Here's a summary of our very fun/busy past few months.  

 MBASA Halloween Party 2013.  Hooray for reusing costumes!  I'll have to get creative again next year.

In November we took a weekend trip to St. George for Grandma Hobbs' (Nathan's Grandma) 90th Birthday Party.  It was so fun to be with her and all the extended family, and to get a Swig.  That was life changing for Nathan. (Levi is really much cuter without his pacifier, but we had to keep it in to avoid him digesting the beautiful red rocks.)

 On November 19th, Claire turned 3.  Wow.  It was a great birthday because we got to spread it out over a few days, and spend it with great family and friends.  

It was celebrated with princess/fairy costumes, and a trip to the water park despite the 40 degree weather outside.  Truly an awesome birthday.

 Thanksgiving at Brandon's house with the cousins.  Played pin the gobbler on Tina the Turkey.  I got called as the Primary chorister in my ward, so I have lots of these types of activities lying around now...

I feel directly blessed that we had an amazingly beautiful November.  Honestly, we had picnics, outdoor activities, and were able to fully enjoy the fall festivals which are abundant in Utah Valley.  Then December came and it fell to the single digits.  But, we still had tons of winter/Christmas fun.  Claire loves the snow, Levi does not.  So we try to go out while Levi is napping.  I tried to make a snowman, and was about 1/18 successful as I wanted to be.  Hm. Also I had to put the bathroom chair picture in--honestly one of the best inventions ever.  I often have to put Levi on the ground in bathrooms in order to help Claire, and it makes me cringe to my bones everytime.  I'm so grateful that some bathrooms have these little chairs for babies.  I think he's ready for the chair lifts. haha

 Then we embraced the Christmas activites, which are in abundance in Utah, I loved it.  Live nativity, festival of trees, Christmas lights all over, reindeer at Thanksgiving Point, etc., we had so much fun.

 Christmas Lights at Temple Square 

And now here we are with a 3-yr-old who either turns her head when the camera comes out or makes a weird face, and a cute crawling, still clingy 10 month old.  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Autumntime

On September 20th, we piled up in the car, and as I turned onto the street, I saw snow on the mountains.
Me: "Oh no!  Snow!"
C: "It's ok mommy, just drive that way (pointing away from the mountain)!  Don't go to the snow!"
That day was a little frightening, as I thought winter was upon us.  Thankfully, since then we've had a beautiful autumn, full of falling colored leaves, pumpkin patches, and happiness.  Since I know that very soon we won't be able to go outside on a daily basis, I've taken the motto of 'eat lunch outside everyday'. Catchy, right?  haha.  So we've had picnics almost everyday--whether they've been up the scenic canyon, or on our front porch.  It's been fun capitalizing on the beauty of the area and finding fun places to go.

Anyways, I've learned that one of the best things about Utah is that there is so much fun stuff for families to do here, especially in the autumn.  I swear that there's a fall festival or activity almost everyday somewhere if you're willing to drive.  For example, who know that there were Halloween Cruises on the Provo River?  That was new to us, but so much fun last night!  So here are a few of the things we've been up to:

 Up Provo Canyon to see the colors

 Our first time cutting pumpkins from the vine at Jakers' Pumpkin Patch

Bumper Boats Lehi Trafalga (Claire is an adrenaline junkie--she went on the frog hopper--the one that goes way up then jolts you up and down as you come down--like 25 times.)

 Gardner Village to find all of the Witches!

 This was Claire's favorite witch--the hula hooper.  It's mechanical so it looks like it's really hooping :)

 Corn Belly's--our first time ever going there.  And where did we spend the majority of our time?  The Princess stage where you could dress up and dance to princess songs.  

 Preschool--"I" Day, so we did insects and ice cream.  Above, they're searching for plastic insects in a bucket of wheat.  They could have done this for hours, seriously.

 We made fireflies that glow--thus why they're hanging out in the dark bathroom (oh, and that we have potty parties during preschool since they're both potty trained!)

 Throwing leaves and singing "Autumntime"

 And here we are at Halloween Week.  We're having so much fun!

Happy Fall!

First Utah Post

And here we are--Utah!  I honestly never thought we'd ever come back here to live, but if there's one constant in life it's change, right? Our move up here made a total of 7 for our little family in our 5.5 years of marriage.  And it's not over yet!  But, after a lot of adjusting, crying, self pity, and then a conversation with some friends last night, I decided to just be grateful.  I'm so grateful for my life.  I'm so grateful that I had the amazing experience to live in downtown SF and be able to walk to the MoMA and live on the 11th floor of a high rise.  I'm so grateful for our time in Menlo Park and the wonderful friends we have there, the beauty, the weather, etc.  Most people who come to this earth don't get to live in paradise, so I'm so so grateful that I got the opportunity to.  Last night we were talking with some friends who have lived in Utah ever since they've been at college, and that they are excited for a new adventure, which hopefully business school will lead them to.  It made me reflect on all of the wonderful places I've been in that time and the wonderful people/experiences I've had and I realized what a fun life we've had, and that this is just another awesome step on that adventure.  And who knows what the next step will be--Cincinnati, Texas, Charlotte, Seattle, ...?  And yes, I've told Nathan that when we do move again in 2 years, I will cry again, so just be ready.

 So Nate started his MBA program at BYU and is really enjoying it so far.  He's of course a networking superstar and has been so focused on figuring out his internship for the summer and where would be the best place for him and us after this.  I'm so grateful that he is willing to take this stress upon him.  After another spreadsheet session looking at pros/cons of different places to live, my head started hurting.  For me, it was a brief 20 minutes or so, but this is what he thinks about all day long.  We don't know where we're going yet, but we're trying to weigh everything and hopefully we'll find something good!

 Probably the best part of the program for me has been the spouse association, which has so many planned activities, exercise programs, girls' nights, and just an overall support group as we go through the MBA program.  One of these activities was raspberry picking in Mapleton.  It was so awesome. We had a great time, and the couple who run it do it as kind of a retirement project (aka, not for profit), so they were quick to say, "Please eat as many as you want!"  That was really good to have cleared up because there was a lot of the ^ above going on :)

 The raspberry bushes were massive--like 5 feet tall.  We had a great time and are slowly getting to know more people in the program, moms with kids Claire's age, and hopefully it will just keep getting better.

My friend Morgan and I also started a little co-op preschool for Claire and her little boy Grant.  It's been so fun.  Here they are sorting M&M's on " M Day".  This has also been such a blessing!

And, as I see the leaves starting to turn on the mountain, I'm reminded of all that I need to do before the snow comes!  We've done lots of fun activities so far, but there's so much more to do.  So, thus begin the Utah chronicles from our family.  If you're ever here, we have an empty basement just waiting for you to stay--so come!  

Lake Tahoe 2013

George Family Vacation 2013

They just get better and better!  The house was gorgeous (indoor swimming pool!), we become better chefs each year (shout out to Jenn's roasted veggies, baked ziti, homemade ice cream, etc), and of course the fact that our numbers are up to 21 and counting is awesome.  In case you haven't been, Lake Tahoe is absolutely gorgeous.  I hadn't been in a few years and had forgotten just how turquoise blue the water is there! It's comparable to Hawaii, minus the tropical fish.  But in some places you can see all the way to the bottom of the lake, since the water is so clear and beautiful.  I now have more respect for the "Keep Tahoe Blue" stickers.  Anyways, thanks to my Dad for taking all of us, my mom for being such an awesome grandma,  and for Tag and Kat for all their awesome planning and expertise, we had fun-filled days and such a great trip.  Here are some highlights:

Hike to Angora Lake for swimming, kayaking, etc.

The girls were troopers in the backpacks.  Ruby is a year younger than Claire, but they get along surprisingly well and so adorably.

This girl loves water like nobody's business.  She doesn't care that the water is 65 degrees--she jumps right in!

Kayaking in Angora.  One of the few activities Jenn could participate in, since she's expecting!

I wasn't sure how Claire would take to the Kayak, but I've learned this summer that Claire is an adrenaline junkie.  Not like a kayak really sends you into fight-or-flight mode, but it can be a little scary for a 2-yr-old I think. Anyway, she loved it.

Different day at Lake Tahoe beach.  Perfect for kids to dig, swim, build, etc.  Cute Jenn and Ruby.

I think cousin peer pressure is the best thing ever.  Claire, who hasn't sat on her strider for more than 30 seconds, really started getting a hang of it this summer since her cousins all do it.  It was so great to see!  

Mynah (the best ever!), Kat, and a bunch of the kids.

Ice Cream night!

July so far

And now we're halfway into July and fully enjoying summer.  We moved from Menlo and are spending the summer with our parents in SoCal until we move up to Utah in August.  We still don't have a place to live yet (stressed yet?), but are really enjoying Nathan having time off and being with family and friends.  

 Doodle is doing great and has loved having his own room to sleep (and we do too, as this was imperative to him sleeping fabulously).

 Loving Mynah's house with the cousins.  Nothing better than rolling out of bed and playing in the sandbox in your pajamas.  Quite the life Claire has :)

 Sisters!  So fun being able to see them more this summer.  They're the best.

 And we swim almost everyday.  The puddle jumper has become the best purchase of 2013.  The Minnie shoes continue to reign as the best purchase ever.

 Awesome swimming/cousin/grandma time.  Reese and Claire are the exact same age and are adorable together!

We're all loving this fun time!