Fair

 

Story of my life, I am once again playing catch up on this stinking blog! How am I ever going to manage it when the next baby comes? Hats off to those that stay on top of it! But I am loving some of the new changes blogger has installed like the fact that I can actually see my pictures now, no more guessing which one is which! And now they download relatively fast so maybe I will start doing this more! Downside I hate the new templates when trying to make my blog all cute. I actually locked myself out of my blog for a while because I erased the top bar, so I couldn't log in, I couldn't update posts, I couldn't do nothing! I finally found a way in through my moms and fixed it. So now to catch up.

 

At the beginning of Oct, AZ had their state fair. We had never been and decided that since it was $1 entrance on opening day before 5 or whatever we would head on over and check it out. I am realizing that I used to love fairs, not so much anymore, probably because the frugal side of me comes out and I now understand why parents dread them, they are money suckers! But the kids enjoyed it and that's all that matters.

 

First stop was "The Barn". The kids loved looking at all the animals and the petting area. Kenz wasn't afraid of the rabbits at all, but she has no idea what the word "soft" means, those poor bunnies!

 

 

 

She even tried to feed the goats, but they were a bit aggressive and she didn't stand a chance. Even Axton lost his cup of food the second they walked through the door to this same goat. He snatch it right out of his hand before he even knew what was happening.

 

The highlight for me was the kangaroo and joey. I had never seen one up close.

 

They had a reptile guy come and do shows, which we enjoyed. I was amazed at how long it lasted. I thought it would be a 10-15 minute thing, but it was closer to an hour. He does birthday parties too, so we might just splurge and have him come one year. He had all sorts of snakes, lizards, etc. Some of them cost upwards of $60,000! Now that is love.

 

After the animals Axton wanted to ride a few rides. Maybe the reason I don't like fairs anymore is because the last few times we have gone I haven't been able to ride anything, thanks to being a pregosaur. Maybe when the kdi are older I'll get to ride all the rides with them while Greg and his weak stomach sit and pig out, or play carnival games. But for now Greg gets to do the honors and first up was the giant slide. Which they kept going on so Axton only got to do one other ride. 

 

The airplanes.

 

Greg played carnival games, which to me are a complete waste of money but he enjoys them. I got the worst parent award because we forgot to strap Kenzington in the stroller and so needless to say she decided that night would be a good time to try to climb out. She ended up head diving onto the concrete, and ended up with a nice goose egg and scratches. She is definitely tough though and was over it in a few minutes. Needless to say she gets strapped in all the time now!

 

The one thing that is still true to my growing up, and maybe redneckness, is that I couldn't miss the chance to watch the cars race! They were doing the figure 8 race which I had never seen before and I enjoyed it, probably more than anyone else. Axton got bored after a while so we left about half way through, darn children. I didn't take any pics because I was enjoying it too much, and eating all of our fried food gloriousness.

 

 

Ok maybe I do still enjoy the fair, just have to expect it to cost a ton and plan for it next time, and not be pregnant. 

UNREAL Candy

The latest campaign I have been doing through bzzagent.com is a free trial of UNREAL Candy.



To see their website you can visit them here.

The basics of their products are:
No artificials
No hydrogenateds
No corn syrups
No preservatives
No GMOs

So far they have "knock off" candy bars of Snickers, Milky Way, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Plain M&Ms, and Peanut M&Ms.

If you are looking for a "healthier" kind of candy bar this might be right up your alley. So far my family has tried the Snickers, Reeses, and peanut M&M versions. My husband didn't like any of them, my 5 year old loved all of them, and I was somewhere in the middle. I definitely felt like they were lacking some sweetness, and the chocolate had a funky aftertaste in my opinion. The peanut m&m ones were lacking the sweet & salty aspect, they just seemed bland. The snickers version was my favorite, and I couldn't stand the Reeses version, one bite was all I could handle. They just didn't hit the spot for me, although I didn't think they were terrible (for the most part). To me I'd rather buy the real deal (which is cheaper than these ones and more ready accessable). I don't expect candy bars to be healthy for me, I want them to taste delicious since they are a rare treat! But I can see why health nuts would prefer these. And as a mother it is tempting to buy these instead so I can feel like my kids are getting a "healthier" treat.

But don't take my opinion for it, try it yourself and let me know what you think. I have B1G1 coupons if anyone is interested. I found them easily at CVS and Walgreens.

Axton turned 5!

Look at me being on top of things! Well at least if my computer cooperates!

Yesterday was Axton's b-day. I thought I had bought everything we needed to decorate the house and his cake on Saturday. Alas I was sadly mistaken! So the house wasn't decorated when he woke up like I had planned but he seemed to not even notice. We went to the store and bought what I was missing. Then he helped me mix the cake right before preschool and while he was off I got busy.

He came home to find his closet all decorated, and he has asked if we can keep it up forever! They are so easy to please at this age.

Since his big present this year was going to Disneyland we avoided a "friend" party for one more year! So we decided to have cousins who live here come over for cake. He requested a dinosaur one, and when he saw a picture of one with a hat his had to have one too.

Why do kids always enjoy licking off the bottom of the candles!

Apparently they couldn't wait to dig in!

Finally getting to enjoy what they had come for!

Axton was so excited to open his presents and his cousins were more than happy to help out with that! Thanks Aunt Ashley and Uncle Brad for the awesome "Cars" assortment of goodies!

Aunt Kim and Uncle Josh got him craft stuff. Finally a place for his markers, crayons, pencils, papers, etc, to be contained all in one place! He begged to sleep with it, but I knew he would be too tempted to open it up and start cutting and gluing things!

And although I think my mom was having serious doubts about the present we picked out from her, I must say I think it was his favorite! He got a fishing pole, complete with lures and hooks! He is already asking when we are going camping again (since he thinks you have to camp to fish). We'll be in trouble when he discovers he can fish next to his cousins house!

Since we took him to Disneyland for his major present, we got him two movies, and this awesome helicopter!

I bought it a year ago after he played with a friends, but we decided to hold onto it until he was either old enough, or until we were out of ideas/didn't want to spend money, etc! So after a spendy trip I decided now was the time! He has been flying it almost none stop and has almost perfected it. We were nervous at first because he kept crashing it, but Dad is going to be surprised when he gets home at how good Axton has become. He can land it softly, and make it go different directions with minimal crashing. He even managed to land it on the couch successfully.

Overall I think he had a great 5th birthday and I enjoyed it because all I really had to do was clean my house and bake a cake. Next year could be interesting when we finally do a "friends" party. He kept saying all day that, "this is the best birthday ever!" Oh please stay so easy!

HAIR!

While we were at Disneyland I kept seeing babies with their hair up in side pony tails and I kept think, "Kenzington's is that long!" So I finally bought the elastic bands and comb and decided to try it out today. It was almost a success.

She didn't like me doing it and so I have to find some way to distract her. She just might have to have a treat every morning while I do it! Plus her hair is still really thin and spotty up front, but at least I know I can start messing with it. Time to make more bows!

Of course Axton couldn't be left out, so here is his new hair do as of last night!

He has school pics today so I decided it was the perfect time to cut it. Unfortunately I cut it a little too short to spike it, so hopefully a little gel will make it look like its at least combed. I think I am finally getting the hang of cutting his hair and blending it. This one only took about 10 mins, and I only screwed up the very back because he kept wiggling. Maybe perfection will come in a year when he can sit still. He always complains he is itchy, so maybe I'll remember next time to wrap a towel around him!

Now if only my hair would grow out again!

Well after a second ultrasound, it is officially another girl! I am warming up to the idea, but I will admit I really thought it was a boy. So much for my instincts! It will be nice for Kenz to have a sister so close in age, not mention 6 of the 10 girls on the Leavitt side will be less than 2 years apart in age! I am getting excited, and she will be here before we know it. Now to pick a name.

I was scheduled to find out what we are having next Monday, but we found out we might be out of town for a funeral (more to come on that later) so I rescheduled it. Greg leaves next week for a few days for work, and then we have a few days and then we take off for 10 days on a family vacation so I figured the easiest time to do it was this week, or not for about 3 weeks (and of course I'm too impatient to wait that long!). So we went to the doctor and here is our little bundle.

The baby was going to town with it's thumb, it better not get too attached because that is not allowed in this house!

I suppose the important part is that it looks healthy! Of course it was super active at the beginning while she was measuring things and then when it came time to see what it was it wouldn't move anymore. It tucked it's legs together in the fetal position and would barely budge. So one minute she would say it "MIGHT" be a girl and then the next she would say, "Well that looks like something there". So the verdict is that she refused to committ to either answer and its still basically 50/50 and since she couldn't see a few important things I get to go back in 2 or 4 weeks, when we can find the time. Ughhhh.... I just wanted to know!

I won't lie we were all a bit disappointed when she said it MIGHT be a girl. Axton about threw a fit insisting that its a boy. Even today when I asked him if he would still love it if its a girl he said, "Yes, but don't worry when it comes out its going to be a boy!" Love his faith, have to say I was thinking the same thing! So until the next ultrasound we are trying to wrap our minds around the fact that it might be a girl and that 3 more girls could be joining the Leavitt clan within a 5 week window. Guess I better get used to that fact that we might have 1 boy and a bunch of girls in this household (SCARY)!

Party Time

My baby has turned 1. Where has the time gone? This last year has gone by so fast and having her as an addition to the family has been such an easy transition. So this post is in honor of the birthday girl!

On her actual birthday which was Saturday we didn't do anything very exciting. Axton had his last t-ball game so we went to that. Then home for naps, and just lounged around and cleaned the house for her "birthday party" on Sunday.

Sunday we treated it more like her birthday. We had french toast for breakfast, blew up balloons for them to play with, hung the birthday sign, etc. Went to church and then afterwards it was time to get ready for all the family to come over. For dinner we had roast, potatoes, carrots, homemade rolls, salad, and of course birthday cake!

I couldn't decide what kind of cake to make for her so I finally settled on this care bear cake that I am pretty sure was used for me as a little girl. It turned out alright.

She loved being song too even if it was all off tune (thank you Leavitts)! But she had no idea what to do with the candle.

Have I mentioned that she is a very picky eater! She touched the frosting but didn't dare eat it until Greg finally forced some frosting into her mouth and she decided it didn't taste too bad.

Even then it still took her some time to really decide to go after it, but once she did she devoured it like it was going out of style. For once there was nothing left but crumbes and none of it was on the floor!

Also like a typical one year old she had no real interest in presents. She opened her first one by pulling out one tissue paper, putting it back in, and then walking away!

The next present she opened she kind of got the hang of it until she realized it was a toy. Once she spotted it she didn't want to open anymore presents, she just wanted to play with it.

Her last few presents were then opened up with the help of cousins! She really didn't care she just wanted the toys.

Needless to say today Axton is enjoying her toys more than she is, poor girl. Its rough having an older sibling take everything away from you!

She also went to the doctor today and got her least favorite present.... 4 shots. She did wonderfully for two, but the other two made her cry, luckily only for about a minute. She's a champ. She weighs a whole 19 lbs 1 oz and is in the 17%, her height is in the 95%, and her little head is in the 30%.

A few random fun facts I want to remember is:

1. She is a monkey. She can climb almost any obstacle in her way. She climbs the couch, our bed, chairs, etc. I predict she will be climbing out of her crib by the time the baby comes.
2. She, like Axton, has an evil laugh!
3. She loves to be chased and loves peak-a-boo more than any other baby I know.
4. If I sing to her she'll stop crying almost instantly.
5. She is a ridiculously picky eater! She'll eat tons of food if she likes it, but if she doesn't... over the high chair it goes. She'll make up her mind just by looking at it. You can't force her to try things either, unless it is like pure sugar. Even then she thrashes around and throws a fit.
6. She DOES NOT like men. Even her uncles that she is around she prefers it if they don't touch her. The second a man pays attention to her she starts to get all nervous and if they come near her or try to touch her she completely flips! She also has an age preference, any guy under about 20 is fine, but over that brings on her fits. On the flip side she'll go to just about any woman that is willing to pay attention to her.
7. Despite her lack of liking men, she LOVES her daddy. If he walks by without acknowledging her she lets him know! She follows him everywhere, loves to cuddle with him, and just be with him. Although she does have her days when only momma will do and even dad makes her flip out!
8. She loves her brother, she loves to be around him even when he is dragging her around the house. She loves the attention he gives her and he can make her laugh the most.
9. She loves exploring every nook and cranny of any place. She loves to open cabinets and climb inside if she can. She also loves emptying them. SHe loves the outdoors and all of it's hidden surprises.
10. She loves her warm water. She loves baths and showers, but would rather go exploring than sit in a pool.

Kenzington we love you and are so glad you came to our family, even if you did take your sweet ole time!