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!

Announcing my Candidancy for Woman of the Year

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I had some epically successful days last week.

I managed to keep four children, under the age of 7, alive for almost 5 hours. I was lucky enough to be able to watch my niece and nephews for my sister-in-law Kari while she Christmas shopped. I was the most awesome Aunt of all times. I fed them a ridiculous amount of macaroni and cheese and didn't make them clean up a thing. I'm pretty sure that I put the Duggard family to shame single-handed.

Granted, my house looked a little worse for wear...

...but who can even notice a mess of any magnitude with that cute jelly covered face around?

As if it was not a sufficient accomplishment in my super-de-duperness...I also completed ALL of my laundry!

But not at the expense of doing Abby and Brinley's make up. I made sure I sent Brinley home looking like a total trollop.

I also made sugar free, reduced fat pumpkin cupcakes. Because I am lite, fluffy and delicious and had to have snacks to match.

The dishes were not as much of a success as my laundry. Neither was my picture taking. I, once again, completely missed some major events (i.e. thanksgiving, family christmas party, christmas decorating, family events). I never get the big stuff. When you are the party, it is hard to excuse yourself to take pictures.

In a final note of victory, I won a 5K race against Wes Griffeth, my arch nemesis. It was a fairly resound beating. He blamed his loss on a breakfast sandwich he had eaten earlier in the evening. Considering I whipped the pants off him, that must of been SOME sandwich (sorry Lindsay! But how do I not record my triumph?). And lest this picture be misleading, the race did not take place in my family room.

Hope your Thanksgiving weekend was as stellar as mine!

Like a red headed step child

So I know it is hard to tell from my poor self portrait, but I am now partially red headed. My father is a red head, and thanks to him I've got freckles but have never had a firey mane to call my own...so all of the curse and none of the glory! I decided to phase into my red headedness slowly with some red highlights. I think it is altering my personality a bit. I feel like a cross between Katniss from Hunger Games and an Asian teenager playing Dance Dance Revolution.
...Maybe I'll take up Irish dancing...

Emma and Abby Take Springs Preserve

For all the time Emma and Abby have spent together, I have so few pictures of them together. So today, when I took them both to Springs Preserve (thank you for loaning me your lovely lady, Becky!), I thought I would bring the camera along.




I have no idea why this picture is sideways, but I am too tuckered out from the fun to fix it now!