Princess Abigail Turns 5

I know I'm the kind of blogger who does Christmas and Birthdays, but really, what else is there? ;) Oh that Brandon has opened his own firm? Yes, there is that. That we managed to participate in an epic 24th of July parade which involved figuring out how to get an inflatable pool full of water on a flatbed trailer from my house to the stake center without losing all of its contents? Well, yes, that was a true miracle. That Abby shot her first bow and arrow and it was a powder pink cross bow? That we went on vacation to Mt. Hood? That I entered a P90x challenge with my friend Max, one in which he is sure to lose and be forced to humiliate himself by doing Yoga in front of his close friends and family? That Brandon dressed up like a civil war solider in shorts for reasons that aren't exactly clear to me? Well, I guess I've missed a few tidbits in the last two months, but I'm going to get Abby's birthday! In no particular order (because I've yet to figure out how to use blogger's photos so that I get them in chronological order) I present to you Abigail at 5.

Hello Princesses! Welcome to my house. This is Abby's friend birthday party (minus one friend, Lexi, who came late). It was Princess themed. For posterity's sake, from left to right...Lacey Treese, (who is my new favorite kid! I loved when she told me that her vacation to Tillamook, Oregon "smelled like cow farts"), Abigail "The Birthday Girl" Leavitt, Natalie Hodge, Emma Chatwin, Madelyn Price, Madeline "The Salsa Dancer of Toddler-hood" Smith, Meghan Christensen, Abbie Thompson, Daisy Thompson and Hailey Larson. Phew! 11 Princesses a tired queen makes.

So you may wonder what Abby is like at 5...well, let me tell you

• She is convinced that she doesn't need to go to dance classes any more. She told me on Tuesday that she already knows all the dance moves there are and that real dancing "comes from the heart."
• She is easily the best behaved child in her classes. Her preschool teacher actually teared up thinking about losing her. Yep, she's that golden.
• She still cries every night when her dad gets her ready for bed.
• She sleeps with every stuffed animal she owns in bed with her.
• She is frequently timid but gloriously thrilled with herself in moments of bravery.
• She's a picky eater. As a baby she ate grapefruit and sauerkraut, I thought she would have eaten just about anything...I was wrong.
• She organizes all of her barbies in her doll house at least once a day.
• To her, the more accessories she has on, the better she looks.
• She screams bloody murder when there is a tangle in her hair.
• Her favorite colors are "rainbow," her favorite restaurant is Sweet Tomatoes, and she likes to sing Give Said the Little Stream every night before bed.
• She is an exceptional sharer.
• She embarrasses easily.
• She still laughs exactly like she did when she was a baby.

This is Abby one year ago. How you've grown! But how your sense of fashion has stayed exactly the same :)

We had a few parties...first, the party with cousins...

The aforementioned friends party...which I haven't recovered from yet. My kitchen island is covered in hot pink frosting (which has fantastic staining powers, what the HECK is in that stuff?) and my couch is absolutely covered in glitter from all the ball gowns that sat on it.

Pre-destruction. I don't think it will look like this again for at least a week.

My favorite party? The one in Washington State! Woot! I love the Northwest. It is my happy place. It was so weird this time. I went home and crazy fell in love with my little tiny town I'm from (well, tiny next to the cities I've been in for the last decade). Everything was beautiful, fragrant, and charming. I wished I could have spent the whole summer there and I think so does Abigail. Thank you family for a wonderful visit! (I'm serious about the whole summer thing...what do you think? My suitcase, your living room, next July?)

Happy, Happy Birthday, Abigail Dear. You have NO idea how many people love you, nor how well they love you, nor how lovable you are. They don't get better than you and I am one seriously lucky mom...

...but you've got to work on having cleaner friends.

Pre School Graduation

Tragedy! My camera is on the fritz and I missed so many good quality graduation photos.This post is largely for Grandma Patsy so my apologies to her, and the fact I am unable to provide her with pictures of the lovely gift she gave Abby (which she loves and is her new faithful companion) or pictures of Abby's darling friends...but here is what I do have...

This is the official graduation. She snatched that certificate lickity-split and sat right back down. I was lucky to even get a photo of any quality- it was that fast. Shy? Or just anxious to go sit back down next to her boyfriend Tyler...hmm...

Her solo...she's bakin' a cake, she's cookin' a t-bone steak...

On the way there...I know she isn't in a car seat, but I promised we were parked.

So proud of you Abigail! Love you! Hope you grow up to find boyfriends who don't pinch you, pull your hair and lick your face.

Male Dancers and Tea Parties

I really do regret that I don't blog more. Largely because I can't remember what happened in the 4 weeks since I blogged...but I'm pretty sure it was my life along with my family's and I didn't write it down. Alas. Alack. Alas and Alack. Well, at least I've got this week semi-ready to be documented.

The above picture was from a super fun tea party that the Leavitt ladies had for a pseudo baby shower for my sister-in-law who is uber pregnant with her 4th. It is a tiny little restaurant inside of an antique store. We ate scones and crust-less sandwiches off dainty china. The girls got boas, skirts, and chocolate cake. They kept doing a little cheer that went, "GIRL COUSINS ROCK!" and then they booty bump each other. I really, really want them to stop growing.

Abby got her hair cut and I think by this picture you can tell how she felt about it at first. I had a massive giggle fit in kind of a guilty/anxious way. I had flashbacks of the awful bowl haircut I had when I was a kid (sorry mom and donna, but it really was awful)and that I had carried on the cycle of abuse with my daughter. But it is really a lot cuter than this photo shows. You can see in the tea party picture that she is wearing it curly most of the time and she's gotten lots of compliments. In fact, she's gotten so many in the last few days that she enters a room with her hands on her hips, poses, and waits for the praise. I think she's warmed to it.

Have I mentioned that I love being primary president? Taking the oldest class of girls and boys to the temple is one of the moments that solidifies my love of the calling. These are fabulous, wonderful kids...unparalleled by any other primary kids. Granted, a car packed full of 10 year old boys pushed my willingness to magnify to the brink...but I did get quite an education from it. I now know 5 new Chuck Norris jokes, what a Texas wedgie is and that the only thing you'll find in a clean nose is fingerprints. Thank you boys. I don't know how I made it to adulthood without such pearls.

I've been doing Bikram yoga. You know the crazy yoga where you willingly go into a 105-115 degree room with 60% humidity for 90 minutes? You know the yoga that makes a room smell like booty and make you wish for death? So far, I can't get over the smell and the panic...but they promised me when I went in that it was "the first day of the rest of my life." I'll let you know.

Brandon started his new job and loves it. I mean loves it. I've never seen him this happy. And no, he is not working as a dancer in a nude male dance show (even though he totally could- he is a smokin' hot piece of man pie), but he is suing one! In serious legal hilarity, one of the dancers was shakin' his groove thing, slipped off the stage, and kicked a patron in the face. Seriously sexy, no? I can't help but get the chuckles. The best part? Brandon gets to go check the fellas out in person to see where the incident happened and to ask some questions. He's been saving his single dollar bills for the event (just kidding). I can't really make this blog into a family journal at this point, can I?

Other notables? I have a new nephew- Logan Chad Leavitt. We finished our front yard, we loved the feeling of satisfaction for about 20 minutes, and then it turned into a deep dissatisfaction with our back yard. I'm coming for you next!

Oh and Abby wrote me her first note all by herself! It says:
Jamie and Brandon. No dog or cat. Have 1 little girl. Have a cute back yard (punctuation added).

Cracks me up. She heard me fuming over the back yard so I believe that she wrote me this note to remind me of all I do have in my life and to "Get what I get and don't throw a fit." And what else do I need besides Brandon and 1 little girl?

The Leavitt Week in Review

It has been a while since I posted, but if I'm ever going to get enough posts to make a blog book, I need to get crackin'. It seems I always want to wait for an event- but we are, sadly, uneventful. So here is a glimpse of our week.
-We started off the week with a little love letter from our home owner's association letting us know that our front yard was a dark hole of weeds that was bringing down property values. Granted, we had killed the tree in our front yard so thoroughly that it would have gone up in flames on a hot day. So, our option was either to embrace it and put the civic up on cinder blocks in the drive way or to do the yard. We start tomorrow.
- We had lots of play dates and welcomed a new friend to our house that we haven't had before- Marcella Huntsman and she was a delight.
- Friday night we hit up ward temple night with our good friends Max and Brityn. I am pretty sure that is the last time they will sit by me in the temple. I just had the chats. Something about being in primary has atrophied my ability to pay attention. I can give an honorable mention to my husband Brandon for gallantry. I was muchin' on some gum that I got tired of about 15 minutes before the session started. It felt a little juvenile to go looking for a trash can in the temple and I couldn't bring myself to swallow it (what side of the 7-year-to-digest-gum debate are you on?). He took the gum from my mouth into his little paw and found a trash can for me.
- I got my braces off. I look dynamite.
- Abby had her last jazz dance class and she loved it.

We had Chef Neil and his wife over. Neil made us a red wine chocolate sauce braised short rib and a Parmesan risotto. I have excellent taste in friends.

We put lights on the front of our house and Brandon got to use a blower. Pretty much the highlight of his week. From this picture it looks like he is blowing our completely dirt front yard (prepped for the new hotness that is coming), but he's actually cleaning off the walk. Are you impressed by my tidy garage? It's not because I'm tidy. It's because we don't own anything.

Our friend Wes came to help us hang my pictures in between our new sconces that we put in last week. Even though he put me in a headlock and I'm pretty sure called me names in spanish :), I appreciated the help. Brandon and Wes did a great job.

We couldn't make it a week without playing with cousins. This is Parker and Abby in my bed preparing to watch "Barbie Diaries." That is a testimony to how much Parker loves Abby. They spent the rest of the afternoon pretending he was Todd and she was Barbie and they asked each other to the dance over and over.

Oh! We also poured a larger, square-er concrete slab. (It was rounded before). We also poured a new walkway in the front. It's large enough for bike riding, which is wonderful. Our backyard has been near useless, but we're starting to chip away at it.

We may have a new patio, but we still have cigarette butt filled rocks. But that didn't stop us from getting out the fire pit and lighting up the BBQ. We had a little Sunday dinner of hotdogs, smores, chips, etc with our lovely friends. The weather was perfect and the kids were great. The best part? They spent at least 30 minutes emptying the cooler of ice and spitting it at each other. Sorry I didn't get a better picture Linds!

So that's how we live. Of course there are callings, and jobs, and family, etc., but this is a pretty good overview of our standard week. On to next week! Where I might be getting a new job...details to come...

Pictures of Abby Working on her Scrap Book for Grandma Patsy

Thanks for the great package of scrap book activities, mom! Abby has REALLY enjoyed them! Love you! Happy Valentine's Day!

Leavitt Family Home Updates

Welcome to Head Quarters of The Leavitt Family Christmas 2010. This is our first Christmas in our own house. I began decorating last week with some serious gusto...but considering I've only purchased decorations for a 2 bedroom apartment before, (and given the fact I have a horrible habit of hating everything from the year before), I was a little low on the decor. I think we made due (we better have, because I'm out of due-making funds!)


I used a lot of frames I had laying around and filled them with fabric and sepia toned pictures of us celebrating Christmas in years past. Cheap but Chic!...I hope :)

Had to throw in my chalk Santa. I'm the world's worst artist and this is at least recognizable. My children and grand children will never believe I drew this. Look at my four year old's Christmas painting below...at least my genetic contribution hasn't handicapped her.


Reason for the Season, baby!


Still making those quilted ornaments Donna. Proud? Takes like 8 minutes per ornament, but totally complied with this year's cheap but chic requirement.


And for those of you asking about how the great flood/gas station bathroom turned out...


Here's is the before...


Got to have the candle to create the faux Christmas tree smell

Sunny skies and cinder block fences. Merry Christmas, Vegas! And now, for the grandparents of this beautiful little slice of Christmas cake...




From our partially furnished and still in construction home to yours...Merry Christmas!