one more thing....

yesterday Levi started reaching for things! ahhhh! so fun :) I had his little baby paper in front oh him and slowly, but deliberately, his little hands reached right up, got it, and put it in his mouth :) He so entertaining every day. I couldn't wait for dean to get home so I could show him Levi's new "trick."

And his current nicknames:

lilttle man friend (this on is sticking around)
man pants
mr. farty butt
sweet cheeks
big boy (cuz he tries to walk and talk like a big boy :))

if he wasn't sleeping right now i would just have to squeeze him!! but i'll wait for another hour or so and let him sleep :)

3 months!!

I can't believe it's already been 3 months! everyone said time would fly by, and it certainly has. but each new phase of levi's life has been so much fun!

He is now giggling all the time! it's so funny to hear him giggle too! he's rolling over from his tummy to his back. he loves to talk to us while he's on his tummy...and he is SUCH a talker! his favorite toys right now seem to be his orange monkey (orange is his favorite color) and his "baby paper." He loves holding onto things and of course EVERYTHING goes into his mouth already :)
daddy has him doing "pull ups" to get his arms strong, hehe. he is sitting up sooooo well! he loves sitting in his bumbo already and he even sits in his high chair while we eat dinner....just like a big boy!! he's going anywhere from 8-11 hours at night, which is great!! now if he would just be a quiet sleeper maybe mommy and daddy could get that much sleep! he's such a grunter!! and for some reason about once a week he gets bad gas that keeps us all up all night long because of his grunting.

i tell him all the time that he's the strongest, smartest, cutest baby in the world :) i'm sure all mommies say the same things to their babies. I'm sure he thinks his mommy is a wierdo because, as most of you know, i am the WORST baby talker ever!! and i get all giddy and excited every time he does even the smallest thing.

we LOOOOVE when he first wakes up. when we hear him stirring in the morning or after a nap, we both get sooo excited and go running into his room! haha! like two little kids at christmas, i tell ya. but he wakes up so stinking happy and cooing and smiling....it just melts our hearts! plus, we love when we unswaddle him to see his little arms fly up....he loves to stretch out after a nap!!

we're guessing he's about 13lbs now?? he's still wearing some of his 0-3 months clothes, but he's also started wearing a lot of his 3-6 months stuff. he has the cutest clothes!! everyone who bought or handed us down items gave us the best stuff! we love dressing him up in his "man pants" :) He has little man jeans, camo pants, and cute little sweat pants! haha! who new little boys clothes could be so much fun!??! we spike his hair up like his daddy's too. what a stud. his grammy made him the BEST little hat and shoe set! I can't wait to post some pictures of him in them.

anyway, that's our little man friend! we love having him around!! stay tuned for updated pics and videos and thanks for sharing in this fun adventure with us!!

tori

all. your. heart.

6am?? seriously God?? I've felt God asking me for quite some time now to get up early to spend time with him. and now recently he's specifically called me to get up at 6am. for those of you who know me....you know i am NOT an early morning person. and really, God, don't you know I have a baby now?? I mean seriously! 6am??? so i've fought it and fought it, like i usually do, and am just now starting to get diligent about getting up. ok, ok, you can't call getting up a couple of days a week DILIGENT! praise God for having mercy on my learning curve. i'm such a work in progress.

but as i was praying last night i kind of had this vision. God was asking me to seek him no matter what. he wants me to show him that i will run after him even in my hardest of times. he wants me to prove that i will chase after him, even when i dont have the will-power to do so. when i'm tired. beat down. exhausted. frustrated. did i mention tired??? so my vision was of me running after God. my hair's a mess from not having showered (pretty typical these days). i've got work papers in my hand, baby on my mind, cell phone on my ear, and coffee in my other hand. i'm tired and frazzled...but i'm running after Him. and as i approach his throne of grace with confidence...i drop it all. with open hands, i let it all go. and i simply come. and he cleanses me. renews me. refreshes me. in his presence i'm completely satisfied. and as i fall to my knees, with hands still raised, you know what i find there? i find Jesus. waiting for me. what a great reason to wake up early. no wonder God gives me the awesome opportunity to start my day with Him. just like God wants the first-fruits of my money, he wants the first-fruits of my day. and i sooooo want to give it to Him.

Jeremiah 29:13
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

all.
your.
heart.

let that be my cry today, Lord.

strongest man in the world!

ok, so i may be the worst baby talker ever!! i just can't help myself. before levi came along i talked to my cats like this, so it was bound to be bad with a baby...right!??

anyway, our strong little man is rolling over these days! only from his belly to his back, not the other way around. he's been doing it since around 10 1/2 weeks. we are sooo proud of him! we have multiple videos of him rolling over, but this is just a little quick one. i love his stunned expression afterwards! ha!

i tell him all the time, in my best baby voice, that he's the strongest man in the world :) sometimes i even call him sampson....although i hope God doesn't require him to have long hair.....hehehe

loving every second with our strong little man-friend,

tori

Levi 11 weeks

Pimp my baby: Levi edition :) This is what happens when Savannah gets ahold of him....sideways hat, baggy pants, and one pant leg rolled up. hehehe

Our big boy likes to sit at the table with us when we eat dinner!! He even gets his own plate of food :) and apparently a knife?? yikes

All smiles!! this is one happy little guy, let me tell ya!

Holding his own bottle!! what a strong man

I enjoy smooshing his little cheeks together...so cute!

Dean looks pretty hot in this get-up

speaking of a strong man....check out this neck strength!

He loves sitting up in his bobby watching tv with daddy :)

Updates schmupdates

ok....i am such a slacker!! things have been hectic around here though. as if having an infant isn't hectic enough???

we have MOVED into our house!! yay! it's going to take a while to get settled in, but we are so thrilled to be living here...close to town! thank you Jesus!!

Levi is growing soooo much! he LOVES tummy time! he gets his head up, looks around, and tries to find me to make eye contact. and when he finds me, I get sooo excited...then he gets excited....and it's just the best thing EVER!! we both laugh and i usually cry because i'm so proud...and i'm kinda a mush when it comes to this kid. and he has already ROLLED OVER! ahhhh! i have no idea at what age babies start doing this, but he gets himself propped up so high when he's on his tummy, and his arms are so strong, that he rolls himself right over! we made him do it over and over the other night when he first did it. poor kid :)

anyway, i'm going to work on getting some video of tummy time! so stay tuned. and YES, i will try to get some pics up of the house too. i've been awful about keeping up with pictures these days! too much going on :)

later gators

tori

laughing levi

Levi has been smiling for weeks now, but we've had the hardest time catching it on camera or video!! so here we are trying, once again, to get him to smile and giggle! oh, and that's dean crunching on some chips in the very begining of the video :)

hope you enjoy our cute little munchkin!

tori

Craft time!

I finally got some time recently to get back into my "crafting!" Yay for nap time! I whipped up a couple of these fun flowers that can be worn on hats, scarves, shirts, headbands, and more!

Can't wait for more nap-time crafting opportunities!

You know you're a new mom when...

* during a mid night diaper change the baby gets pee and spit-up all over your sheets, and you're too tired and lazy to clean it up. soooooo....you go back to bed....in the mess.

* your baby makes noises in the middle of the night and you furiously try burping him, rubbing his belly, and moving his legs to get gas out....just to realize that he's a baby and it's normal for him to make noises in his sleep.

* you're feeding the baby in the morning in the bedroom, and you call your husband to ask if he'll come home from work early. his reply: "it's saturday. i'm in the living room watching tv."

* you wake up in the morning struggling to remember how many days it's been since you've had a shower....1? 2? 3???

* your husband makes a comment about your "mom butt." watch it buddy.

* you get really excited about a doctor's appointment, because now you have an excuse to get all dressed up and get out of the house!

* you realize that your nursing pads also make great bottle openers, coasters, wee wee covers, spit-up cleaners, and much much more.

have more??? feel free to add them to my comment section!!

Nov 20th!

We have a closing date! A couple of weeks ago we locked in our interest rate with the bank, which means we HAVE to finish our house by the 20th of Nov. I'm soooo excited that there is an end in sight! I can't wait to move in! I keep meaning to take more pictures, but with this little munchkin it's been hard. I promise to get some up soon! Dean has done a F*A*B*U*L*O*U*S job with the house! I'm amazed every time I go over there.

This is all I've got for now. More to come soon!

tori

Levi's photo shoot

my fave photographer, and great friend, captured some amaaaaaazing shots of our little family recently! i love love LOVE these pictures! can't wait to do something cool with them in our new house! have i mentioned that i love them!?? she captured levi beautifully!

thanks jaime!

www.alongthewayphotography.com

The faces of Levi

we LOVE all this little guys faces. Here are just a few:

bath face

this is the "uh oh - what's goin on with my wee wee?" face

"oops, i spit up" face

deans favorite - burp face

sleepy car seat face

more burp face (just for dean)

hungry face

fart face (isn't he so cute when he has gas??) :)

these are just a few! we also have milk face, tummy time face, waking up in the morning face, and more!

and we also have a couple of other nicknames i left out of the last post! how could i forget:

mr. wiggles!! I love my mr. wiggles.

Levi's Nicknames

so if you know me, you know i have nicknames for everyone. sometimes weird, sometimes random. i don't know where half of them come from. dean is just as bad. so we have a TON of nicknames for this little guy.

here's a sample:

levy

monkey

milk man

little man

little man friend

turkey

bubba

bubba-roo

buddy

and i'm sure there are more. we also have lots of names for the different faces levi makes :) that post, with pictures, will be coming soon :)

we have been out-n-about a lot lately! levi went to panera bread with us the other day to meet some of the girls that work there. i know, how sad that i know most of the girls that work there. i spend a lot of time at panera, can ya tell??? anyway, they were excited to meet him!

we also had our first trip to church yesterday! levi did great during the worship! of course, once all was quiet and pastor pratt began talking, levi started grunting and groaning. i was afraid he was about to have a massive blowout, so we spent the rest of the service watching it on tv from the coffee bar area.

have i mentioned that this little guy is extremely alert and awake most of the day?? I thought babies were supposed to sleep!!? what the heck?? fortunately he sleeps great at night...often times having 5 hour stretches (hallelujah). but during the day he wants to hang out and party with mommy :) he's very into what's going on around him. he's following things with his eyes soooo well! he stares at his mobiles and take interest in some of his toys. it's so fun watching him grow and develop into a little man friend!! he's now 4 weeks and 4 days as of today.

we love you little turkey!!

tori

Levi's Latest News

This little guy is so much fun! He makes the funniest faces and noises. We are really getting to know what all his noises and sounds mean. He grunts and groans while he sleeps, makes noises that sound like laughing while getting his diaper changed, and makes fake burp sounds to trick me while burping him. His belly button thingy fell off a few days ago so we got to give him his first bath in the sink! AND.....he pooped in the tub! Gross! We had just finished cleaning him up when he suddenly had an explosive poopy. Soooooo we had to start all over.

He also had his very first photo shoot recently with Jaime Cox of Along The Way Photography! Here's a sneak peek of the session!

More pics to come as soon as I get them back! You can also check out more at www.alongthewayphotography.com

Jaime is featuring this picture in her ad in Pinehurst Magazine in the Nov/Dec issue! Be sure to grab a magazine if you live in the Pinehurst area! Levi will be famous!! Well....sort of :)

A glimpse of our Father's love

I was staring at Levi today while he slept, which is why I don't get much done these days, and realized I was getting just a little glimpse at how much God loves us. I mean, I love this little guy sooo much! His eyes, his nose, the creases in his skin, his "victim" face when he gets upset, his tiny fingers and toes....everything is so precious! I love his personality and all the funny faces he makes. so much I love about him. And that's just a teeny tiny little glimpse of how much God loves us. Wow. How overwhelming! This new amazing love I feel for this little person is just a glimpse at how much God loves me???

And I don't want to get through this blog post without bragging on my hubby. He's the best daddy and husband ever! He gets to sleep through most of the night these days, so in the morning, when Levi wakes up (usually around 7ish), he's been taking him out of the bedroom so I can get some rest! He takes one of his blankies, warms it up in the dryer, wraps him up in it and rocks him back to sleep. then once he's good and sleepy, he brings him back in the room, gets ready for work, and leaves us to sleep the morning away. ahhhhhh.....so refreshing. I can't even remember the last time I slept until 10am, but I must say it feels amazing!

We've been getting out of the house some lately, which also feels great! The weather has been perfect for little walks! And once a week we meet Dean in town for lunch and a walk. We even had our first big outting to Walmart! Scarey, I know. I kept him bundled up in his sling so he wouldn't be exposed to too much.

The man in the background thought we were crazy for taking pictures at Walmart and giggling like little kids. We sent this picture to my cousin who absolutely hates Walmart.

I need to get some pictures of our other fun outtings! Pinnacle bought me an awesome jogging stroller last week that I can't wait to use! It was so many cool features! Thanks for that guys! it will get tooooooons of use!

Stay tuned for more updated pics and some of the ups and downs we've been experiencing as new parents! So many fun experiences to look forward too, but also some challenges! I hope to be as real and as transparent as possible when sharing our stories with you. Parenthood has been a fun, amazing experience. But it's not without some struggles too! I'm so grateful to have so many supportive friends and family members who have been through this that I can seek wise counsel from. I'm thankful for the Lord's strength in my weaknesses. And I'm so grateful to be going through this with my best friend in the whole world! Love you Babe! We have an amazing little boy and I love our little family!~

xoxo

tori