Breakfast Challenge

Every morning Leah and I have a race during breakfast time. I eat my breakfast while checking my email, Facebook, etc. I try to finish before she is done eating breakfast and wants down because once she's down she tugs on my arms shouting UP! Unfortunately, Leah usually wins the race. On a related subject, I love watching Leah eat. She finds such joy in it! In the video below she is eating Cheerios and you might mistake her happy smiles for the fact that they're the yogurt ones. However, she makes the same face when she's eating carrots.

Leah's Word

Leah has one word - ah bote. She says it for everything! She says it when she's happy and laughs herself silly. She says it when she's mad and she cries it and sometimes whispers it softly on her way to sleep. Technically, she can say "up" now when she wants me to pick her up or she wants to go upstairs, etc. Sometimes though she's naughty and says "up" and then when I pick her up sneaks in a bote at the end. I took a video of her crying it, but felt bad posting it. She was saying it a few days ago so I tried to video it but of course she wouldn't say it until right when I hit the stop recording button. SO . . in this video she is prompted by me to say it, but just know she says it at least 100 times a day unprompted.

Women of the Old Testament

I started a book that I really like. My mother-in-law gave it to me for my birthday. Then we did so much travelling I kind of forgot about it, but I started it this week and I really like it. I had a mission companion that loved the Old Testament and I thought she was out of her mind. But then I taught it in Sunday School and I really learned to like it. The one thing I like about it is that it teaches us that life is just plain hard and/or unfair sometimes.
So far, I recommend the book. I took a gamble and got it for my mom for Christmas even though I hadn't read it yet. Hopefully she likes it too.

It's a Boy

This is old news, but maybe for friends not on Facebook it's not. We found out 2 weeks ago that we are having a boy. The bad news, we don't get to use Leah's hand-me-downs. The good news, I get to go shopping!!

I have a problem. We already decided on the name of the baby. I had to agree to the name of our first son before Levin would marry me (or something like that) so we've known for a long time what our boy's name would be. The problem is that I am kind of superstitious and to me calling the baby by his/her name a long time before they are born is like buying your wedding gown before you've been proposed to. However, I still refer to Leah as "baby" sometimes so when I refer to baby boy I don't know what to call him. I guess the solution woul be to stop calling Leah baby. Hmm . .

I'd post a picture of the ultra-sound, but the only picture the doctor printed for us is the one showing the gender and somehow that seems like fetal pornography or something.

Easy to Make My Day

Saturday I gave Leah a bite of no-bake cookie and she made this exact same face. All day long she made this "I'm so pleased face." She also overcame her bathtub anxiety that night and was nice and clean in this picture! After a terrifying New Year's dip in the pool she screamed at the bath tub for over a week but Saturday was back to her normal I-love-to splash self.

These potatoes pictured here may have made me as happy as anything else last week. The potatoes on the right are the potatoes I bought the previous week and about the size of what I normally get. The tennis ball is just for size reference. The potatoes on the left (the normal American size) are the ones I found at a new road side stand I went to. You may not understand my thrill, but potatoes (especially mashed) are my favorite food! And can you imagine peeling enough of those teeny tiny potatoes to make a good batch of mashed potatoes? Believe me, I've done it, but it's not fun. And those tiny ones are really waxy and they don't mash well anyway. I bought 2 kilos and as soon as I got home realized my mistake of not buying more. The next day I went back for another 2 kilos. Those teeny potatoes went straight to the garbage and I made mashed potato casserole - yummy yummy!

PS. I used my KitchenAid to mash the potatoes and it was beautiful. I just love that thing and try to plan my menus around any opportunity to use it. We ordered the "slicer" attachment for it and I am just hoping it arrives soon so I can use it to slice beautiful potatoes for scalloped potatoes.

Leah Learning to Walk

I have been trying to get this to post for days! Our internet has been so frustrating. Anyway, Leah is learning how to walk! The day we recorded this she and I were practicing earlier and when she stood with no hands I impressied said, "ooooooh!" Leah somehow thought that was a fun game. She kept saying "ooooooh" every time she did something impressive to herself. I don't know that I've ever seen her laugh so hard as she did as we said oooh every time she stood without suppoert. So here in this video that is why she stops walking in order to say oooooh for herself - it has replaced clapping for herself. If she hadn't said it she would have walked further - oh well. She's getting pretty good, but still uses crawling as her mode of transport.

Year in Review

I don't know what happened, but somehow we didn't even take any pictures at Christmas. We were always so busy and tired. Christmas was wonderful. Here is the list of our favorite presents.
Leah: The candy in her stocking. She goes nuts for that stuff. But also, she got a little toy that is like a gum ball machine, but with real balls that come rolling out. As ball is one of her "words" that I believe she actually does try to say and knows what she's saying she loves it.
Melissa: My KitchenAid from Levin. I LOVE IT! (I would post a picture, but for some reason none of the pictures I can find online will actually let me save them.)
Levin: Our new house, but not even the actual house as much as he loves the land it is on and the barn.



As the year ends we've reflected on how blessed we've been this year. We have had a little baby living in a crazy country and have been safe and healthy and have been so blessed in many other ways including getting this house, though the process was not always easy, we are very happy with it. We are happy with all our future prospects of the year(s) to come and thank the Lord for all he has done for us this past year.