Winding Down

This school year is quickly coming to an end! I only teach for two more days this week and Ryan has four more days . . . then it is SUMMER! I will be teaching part-time a bit this summer but that is small compared to all day, every day. We are really looking forward to more time together as a family this summer.

Last week Ryan finished up all the back drop and stage art for Smith Elem. School's musical production of '101 Dalmatians'. It got rave reviews and many were impressed. Aren't the pictures great! Ryan and his art club kids worked very hard on the stage design for the better part of three weeks! Ryan ended up getting a special recognition/award at his school called the "Fred Factor". It is given to people who go above and beyond doing great service and excelling at their job! Way to go Ryan. (He doesn't know I am telling all this!) He absolutely deserved it but he was very surprised and humbled when he got the award. I am very pleased with all he has accomplished this year being a new art teacher at a new school in a new state. Yay Ryan!

Miss B will spend her last week with her babysitter this week. Miss B loves Liz (the babysitter) and will miss her this summer but we are so happy to have Bethany all to ourselves (esp. before the new baby sister arrives). We have lots to do and many projects to complete before baby #2 makes her appearance.

Here are a few pics of Miss B from this week.

'Cause She Is Cute

My neighbor watched Miss B for us a few weeks back and she just sent me these pictures she took . . . I wanted to share them 'cause she is just so cute, wild hair and all. Miss B likes to climb in and out of her "baby" car seat when she gets the chance. She was really hamming it up that day.

We LOVE this kid.

This Sums It Up

Miss B is now 18 months old!

Here are a few pictures from this past week. After another double ear infection last week the poor baby had to get antibiotic shots because the oral anti-b's weren't working. The next step is getting tubes in her ears if it happens again. She is now feeling much better and doing great!

Miss B is talking and chattering all the time and these pictures just about sum up her fun, cute personality. I love the pic of her eating breakfast with her finger up her nose , a piece of cereal on her forehead and her wild bed head. We keep praying for more hair!! She is climbing all over, is in to everything and is curious, very curious about all that goes on around her. We are both looking forward to school getting out and being able to spend more time with our sweet girl!

For Sure

We are having another GIRL! Miss B gets a baby sister after all! We are really excited!

Happy Mother's Day

This is why it is all worth it . . . I just love this kid!

We want to wish all the wonderful mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day! We love you all!

Much Love,

The Leavitt's

Toddler Entertainment 101

If you are ever stuck without an idea as to how to entertain Miss B, just go outside and start mowing the lawn.

The entire time Ryan was out in the backyard the morning Miss B was glued to the window, watching, banging and yelling out "DaDa!" every time he came close to the windows. She stayed this way for the better part of an hour until Daddy came back inside. Too funny!

Playing at the Park

Last Tuesday the Dyer gals came over after school and we all headed to the park. Mama Leslie was visiting and helping out the Dyer's all week last week so she was here too!

Miss B was determined to be a big girl just like her cousins and wanted to do everything by herself. She didn't want any help sliding on the slide. It was so funny to watch her huff and puff to get her goal accomplished.

Yes, It's True!

Yes, I am pregnant AGAIN! I guess that I have never made an official announcement on here. Sorry for all those who were left in the dark. I put a baby tracker to the right of this post if you want to keep up. I am nearly half way there already! YAY! Baby will be here sometime by the end of September.

My first trimester and part of the second were very hard on me and now I am feeling a bit better. We find out for sure what baby is in two week (although early tests say it's another girl!)

So now you know! Thanks to all those who've already sent their congrats and well wishes.

:-) Ryan, Lori, Miss B and Baby #2

I PASSED!

After much stress and studying (since January) I am finally able to rest easy! I took my Texas EC-4 exam for teaching certification last week and got my scores today . . . and they were happy scores! Yay for me! Hopefully this will help in my job search this spring for a new job for next school year. Just wanted to share all my happiness and excitement!

:-)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We hope that this day was filled with love and the spirit of Christ as we remember his sacrifice, atonement and Resurrection.

We had a great time this weekend with lots of fun family events! Today we celebrated Easter here in our home with Mama Judy, Mama Leslie, Grand Pappy, all the Dyer gang and us! It was so fun. We had to have an inside egg hunt today due to inclement weather, but last night we had an egg hunt over at the Dyer's and the girls and Miss B had a blast! Miss B really was able to enjoy all the festivities this year.

Easter Sunday at home

Mmm . . . my first taste of chocolate bunny ears!

Saturday evening Egg Hunt at the Dyer's

Our cutie pie bunny girl.

Mostly Miss B just liked to shake the eggs and hear what was inside.

Miss B and all the Dyer cousins! She adores them!

Updates - Finally!

Our Little Sweetie Pie

I am back from my blogging vacation. The truth is I just didn't have the time or motivation to post often. I've had other things to occupy my time lately that are just more important. But now I am back on the blogging train! You can rest easy now! :-)

All I can say is I am SO HAPPY that winter is almost over. I am not going to lie, the past three months have been a hard adjustment for me and our little family. Aside from work and church, I have been completely happy to just be in my house cave. My job is super easy but working is hard. Does that make any sense? Anyways, we are figuring out what works and what doesn't for us since I have gone back to working full-time. We've all had a few bouts with the sickies and hope those germs are behind us now. Taking care of a sick husband, sick child and sick self over the past two months on and off again is exhausting! So hip hip hooray for SPRING - almost!

Bethany is 15 and a half months old now. Wow! Bethany's big news is that she is a walking girl now(since early Feb)! She is ALL OVER the place rarely sitting down for long. She has her wobbles and bobbles but is getting faster and more agile each day. She climbs and is in to everything. Miss B loves to throw fits and tantrums now too! How fun for mommy and daddy. She is forming opinions on things left and right - which is a good thing I guess. Miss B is talking more and more & calls the book 'Moo, Blah, LaLaLa' her LaLaLa book. It is so cute. She makes animal sounds now all the time and sings (in her little way) Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Our Miss B is just so much fun! At church each Sunday she has decided that sacrament meeting is her social time, going from one family to another saying hi and walking in between the aisles. I will look behind us and some man or woman from church has her on their lap playing with her. Too funny. She has also turned into a serious cuddle baby, which none of us mind one bit!! Ahhh - life is good in Bethany's world and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

We had to find Miss B another babysitter about two weeks ago and things are working out for now. We hope that we can just get to summer when we'll be home with her all day! How much longer?

Our family is looking forward to a much need break and time off from work for SPRING BREAK! We are taking a short trip with Mama Leslie and Grand Pappy to Nauvoo, Carthage, Independence and Liberty to do a small church history tour. Ryan has never been before and we are all really excited to go!

Life is good! Stay tuned for updates more often from now on. I think.

:-)

Happy Birthday Ryan Dear!

Happy Birthday to one fine young man! Turning 35 yrs. old is only the beginning!

In celebration of Ryan's Birthday today, I borrowed a friend's idea and came up with some fun words to describe my wonderful husband on his very special day . . .

FantasticDad, SuperDuperHusband, GuitarRockinMan, Ultra-AmazingArtist, WiiPlayingFool, SpiritualAnchor, Air-BrushHobbiest, ItalianFoodLover, TerrificSon (andSonInLaw), FunLovingBrother, Mac&CheeseEater, BEST HUSBAND AND FATHER THIS GAL COULD EVER ASK FOR!

I Love You Ryan - You Are My Everything!

Daddy and Bethany out to dinner for the birthday celebration this evening!

Bethany wants to wish her Daddy a wonderful and happy birthday too! She loves you more than you'll ever know!

January Wrap Up

It is hard to believe that it has already been a month since this new year started. We have been busy, busy. Starting back to work full-time has been quite the adjustment for me and the gang! At least I don't have a stressful or time-consuming job. Thank goodness!

Here are some fun shots of Miss B from this January. She has finally started to take a few steps on her own! Walking won't be too far off! She is funny and silly and we are enjoying all of it.

Oh how we can't wait for winter to be over. We really hope that Phil the groundhog doesn't see his shadow next week! Spring, where are you? Please come soon!

Allergies, Ear Infections, Rashes and More . . .

Poor Miss B! After what we thought was just the beginning of a cold a few weeks back then turned into a double ear infection, high fever and then some funky rash! The first antibiotic wasn't working so they switched her to a more powerful drug. For more than two weeks Miss B has suffered with all this junk but is NOW finally feeling oh so much better! We have been blessed that she is now 14 months old and this was her first real sickness.

Suffering from severe allergies since moving to TX last August, Ryan FINALLY went to see an Allergy specialist (thanks J&J for the recommendation!) He is pretty much allergic to all things green, flowery and plant-like - in all seasons! Ryan came home from the Dr. and told me he was allergic to TEXAS and we would have to move. Ha.Ha. Not going to happen. Instead he will just get allergy shots for the next year to help cure him of all this junk!

We are looking so forward to February and all it will bring!

To, From and Everywhere Inbetween

A Very Happy Belated (very late) New Year to All!

Well, so far this new year has been BUSY! After enjoying family & spending over 35 hours in the car traveling to Colorado for Christmas and then to Vidor for New Year's, we are very happy to stay put for a while right here at home in McKinney! Here are some updates on the family:

Ryan

Ryan enjoyed the New Year's festivities at my parent's home. We had front yard fireworks in the driveway and Ryan got to blow stuff up. Pure satisfaction! He is still hard at work teaching art to 800 students a week at his elementary school. He has some art shows coming up in the month of February and is preparing for that. He is also looking forward to his birthday in February!! Ryan has been using his creativity and it shows in our study with all his paints and art supplies all over. He recently got back into doing air-brush painting. It is fun to see him so happy and excited over it!

Miss B

Bethany is GREAT! She has gone over into "toddler-hood" and is loving it. She talks more and gestures for what she wants or doesn't want. On top of that she has started to throw "mini-tantrums" and I call them that because I know it only gets worse as she moves towards 2 yrs.

She has learned to climb our stairs and for all those who were worried - we FINALLY got our downstairs baby gate put up. This doesn't keep Miss B from finding other mischief to get herself into. Miss also loves to move around all our furniture, especially our chairs. She pushes them all over the kitchen and downstairs with ease. I know it is only a matter of time before she learns to move the chairs and climb onto them. Pray that she doesn't learn this for at least another 10 years!

This past week she has suffered with a heavy case of allergies. I took her to the doctor but nothing can really be done for her. Poor baby has her eyes and nose running all day! I told one of my sister's that Bethany is "whinny with extra whinny on top" the past few days. We enjoy her so much and hope to have many visits this year in 2009 from family and friends so they can enjoy her too!

Lori

Me, well all I can say is whew! Our current circumstances have put me back to working full-time. I started working just about a week and a half before Christmas break and now I am full on working at a great little preschool called Applecreek Private Preschool in Frisco www.applecreekpreschool.com. A gal from my sister Angie's ward actually owns the school and there are a lot of LDS women who work there. I am co-teaching with another girl in the Pre-K classroom 5 days a week. It is a great fit for now but I am preparing to possibly start teaching again in public school SPED next school yr. I am studying now for an exam to get two more endorsements (EC-4 and ESL) put onto my TX teaching license so I can be more marketable. Wish me luck and pray for me!

After our ward split, in December I got called into the Young Women's presidency for Frisco 4th. I am serving as secretary and have already learned that this calling is A LOT of responsibility. We only have 6 girls right now in Young Women but I am sure we'll get more as the year goes on! Ryan and I chaperoned the Youth Stake Dance last weekend. It was too funny. Teenagers crack me up. Good times.

With all this came the blessing of finding a wonderful babysitter for Miss B. I put out an email and had a gal from my ward and in my neighborhood take the job of watching Miss B in her home. It is only about 2 minutes from our house and fits into our budget. It was definitely an answer to many prayers! Miss B seems happy to be there and has a playmate to keep her busy each day while mommy and daddy are both at work.

Life sure is busy but it is a GOOD life and we are so happy and blessed. We know that this year will bring more changes, ups and downs, trials and many many blessings of happiness as well! We look forward to keeping in touch with friends and family through blogs, phone calls, emails and visits! Our home and hearts are always open.

The new baby gate . . . no more stair climbing.

Poor Miss B looking miserable from allergies all week and maybe saying " Mom, why did you make me wear this pink tu-tu?" If you are wanting one I found them at Target in the $1 spot. They have pink and purple!

Just being a cutie pie on New Year's Day!

Check back often and don't forget to leave comments! They are so much fun to read and one day I hope to show them all to Bethany!!

Whew!

This year has already been super busy! Hang in there . . . updates on the Leavitt's are coming soon! Most likely this weekend . . . maybe even tonight!