Monster Tales

A while back Leah reached the age of being scared. Here are her only Monster Stories.
1. One night I was putting Oliver to bed I came out to look for Leah and there she was on the couch cuddled up by Levin. It was raining and thundering and she informed me that the rain was making a monster. After a little cuddling with me she was ready for bed and just fine.
2. While we were on our per diem before coming to Moscow we visited Levin's parents one night in Norfolk. Our hotel room was so big that Levin sister, his mom, and niece, came to sleep with us. Leah was in the room with all of these people when she woke up crying and scared. Grandma comforted her and the next morning she informed me that there had been a green monster in her bed. I am wondering if grandma saved her from teh green monster of if grandma was the green monster in her bed. :)
3. The other night Leah woke up and wandered from her room looking for us. Oliver had woken up too (thanks jet lag) so I wasin with him when Levin found her wandering. She went back to bed, but the next morning informed me that there had been an orange monster and that Daddy put him in the pen. I though that was strange since she has never used the word "pen" before. Then later I went to cook some rice and she asked what was in the pan. Then she got a scared look on her face and said, no that is not rice, there is a monster in the pan! Daddy put the monster in pan! I realized she had meant pan, not pen. I let her see the rice and told her that Daddy had taken the monster out to the dumpster and the garbage man had already come and taken him to the dump. This afternoon she woke up and said that the orange monster was gone because the ice cream truck had taken him away.
I wish so much I could see what this orange monster looked like.

Happy 1st Birthday Oliver!

Since we were flying to Moscow on Oliver's birthday we decided to celebrate his birthday a few days early while we were visiting Levin's parents on their mission in Norfolk, VA. He had just woken up from his nap in time to celebrate.

For some reason my pictures are showing up on blogger a little blurry even though they look fine when I just look at them.

Levin's sister Lucinda and her family of 5 kids came over from Danville to see us too.

Don't ask me why we bought Oliver such a big birthday present, but we managed to get it and everything else in our luggage without having to mail a single thing. Levin is an amazing packer.

Here is Oliver with his cousin Allyson who is a few months older than him. Oliver has all girl cousins around his age and Leah has all boy cousins.

PS. I guess because they are expecting me to be using Russian words, but when I do spell check, every single word gets highlighted. I usually forget to spell check anyway so there will probably be just as many typos as there always is.

Welcome to Moscow

Well, we made it. Here are the only pictures we've taken so far. We went downtown on Saturday, but our temporary housing is pretty far out and surrounded by a lot of other expats so otherwise it kind of feels like we're in America except that I don't have a car and can't go anywhere. We did get an ice cream cone from McDonalds later, but Levin ordered it while I waited outside with the kids. I hear when you order a Big Mac the only difference is you say Beeg Mak. Too bad I don't like Big Macs so I might have to learn a little more Russian.

Left to Right - VERY expensive shoppingm all, St. Basils, and Kremlin.

Leah outside the Balshoi ballet house. She was sad we couldn't go inside and see the ballerinas.

Lake Placid

I just realized this never got posted. Better late than never?

Before you move overseas the government gives you 10 days of per diem. You don't have to use it consecutively so Levin and I used one day while we were visiting JaLayne. We left Leah playing with her cousins and took Oliver with us.

Leah had a blast with this car. Here she is with Evan, but most of the time Jordan (who is in the back in this picture) who is just 6 weeks older than Leah would drive Leah around. Leah would boss him exactly where to go and when to stop and when to get out, when to get back in, and if he didn't follow orders her got a bop on the head. Leah spent some time in her bed for that.

This picture is actually Oliver at Crocodile Lake, not Lake Placid. We didnt' swim in Lake Placid, but did take out a row boat. We also took Oliver swimming. He LOVED it! I was surprised because the water was a tad cold. He has loved swimming ever since. He looks so hot and miserable here, but he was soo happy at Lake Placid. I wish so much we'd had our camera at the pool.

Gone Fishin'

JaLayne and David have a pond down the street from their house and the farmer let's their kids fish in it. We had a fun time, but unfortunately only Isaac caught any fish. Isaac 4, everyone else ZERO. His biggest catch I was the only one that got a picture and it was not good before he went to "give it a drink" and lost it back in the pond. It was catch and release anyway, but this one was released a little too soon.

Crocodile Lake

We went to New York to visit Levin's sister JaLayne over Memorial Day weekend and we went to a lake that I can't remember it's name, but when I was explaining to Leah where we were going I said a lake, like crocodile lake on Dora and after that she always referred to it as Crocodile Lake. The water was quite cold, but Levin worked with Leah and her courage and before too long she was in and having a great time. Oliver and I watched from the sidelines. I got in for a little bit, but it was nice to have the excuse of staying out with Oliver.

Swim Time

Once the weather was warm Leah was right back in her swimming pool. This year she was braver with the slide. She loves it. Sadly,we don't have a yard for it in Moscow and we somehow missed getting the pool packed up so it is left behind with our renters so my guess is we will never see it again.

Handsome Oliver

Oliver is getting so cute I just want to gobble him up.

Leah's Brother From Another Mother

In early May Leah got a new brother. Calvin came to stay with us while his Mom and Dad went to the Yucatan Peninsula and then they came back and Allyson stayed with the kids while I went to Utah to have a party with my three sisters. Calvin was sooo good! It was so fun for them to play together and they got along so well, at least under my watch. I think the honeymoon ended while I was gone, but Leah was sadder to see Calvin go home than she was happier to see me home.
Oliver apparently had forgotten about me and hated me and LOVED Levin. Levin was sick and went straight to bed after I got home and I was traumatized that my formerly clingy boy had forgotten me. It took less than 12 hours and he was back to being my boy who cried every time I left the room.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of my visit to Utah, but I had so much fun and it was a nice vacation from being on Mom duty. Levin got Oliver sleeping through the night which is still mostly working. I should have gone on vacation a long time ago!

Oliver Crawls

One huge event happened in April. Oliver learned to crawl!!! He was a late bloomer, but he did it! He is happier now and so cute when he races over to get something. I think walking is still a ways off, but there is hope for my biceps to get a break one of these days. I'd like to challenge people to an arm wrestle because packing my kids around has got to have given me some advantage right?

George Washington Birth Place

While the Grows were here we also went to George Washington's birth place. It is closer than Mount Vernon and even more importantly it is free!
Does Leah make a beautiful George?

Walking around on the grounds. They have animals, theys how you how to cook in a Colonial kitchen and all kinds of other awesome things.

Grow Visit

In April Levin's sister and family, the Grows, came for a visit. We had a fantastic time. Here is Lucinda being buried in our sand box.

We went to Ft. Washington. Here is Leah with Jordan who is just a couple of months older than her.

And here are most of the cousins. With the 7 Grow children and Oliver's 5, plus our 2, there were quite a few kids around.

And here is Oliver withh is cousin Evan. Oliver misses out being in some pictures sometiems since he's usually in the stroller and we are taking pictures of the action. But we got him in here and Evan didn't even drop him. :)

33!

Levin turned 33 and we discovered an awesome dessert! I made a Reese's peanut butter cheesecake that was hands down the best dessert I've ever eaten and therefore obviously the best I've ever made. Thank goodness we could invite over Oliver, Amber and there kids to share the calories because the cheesecake (just a standard size) had a total calorie count of 12,000. Yes, that's right, not 1200, but 12000. Whoah! But it was soooooo gooooooood!

Where We've Been

It's been a while. Here are some cute pictures of the kids and then I'll start posting about where we've been. Not pictured is that the end of May we packed up our entire house into 5 separate categories, luggage, air shipment, sea shipment, storage, and maybe most importantly TRASH. We are moving to a 1000 sq ft apartment and downsizing is important. Anyway, here we go.

Isn't he just the cutest boy you ever saw??

I saved this picture because all of the kids look, uh, . . . . horrid?? My sister-in-law had a horrible time with morning sickness so we had Ryan over a few times. He looks like he's been smoking pot, Oliver looks like he is confused, and Leah looks like a girl who has been eating pixie sticks all day.

In early April we went to Philadelphia to visit Levin's sister. We went to this awesome place called Moon Bounce and the kids got to play on these fun toys. Calvin is in the far left. Leah was a little too scared which was unfortunate because I thought it was great fun, but felt a little foolish going down without Leah.