Little Levi-6 weeks old!

It's hard to believe, but Levi turned 6 weeks old yesterday! To celebrate, he slept for 8 and a half hours straight last night! I hope he wants to celebrate again tonight! I decided to take some pictures of him yesterday:

I liked this one. As you can see, Levi is smiling in the background there...probably because he's got some distance between himself and his dangerous sister:

Here are some smiles:

I tried hard to get a picture of the two of them together-this was the best I could do.

And my favorite:

Potty Time

I decided to get Addie a potty seat the other day, just so she can start getting used to it, and to see what happens. She is normally pretty regular, so I think we'll be able to get her on it at the right times every now and then, and then cheer for her a lot when she is successful (she loves being cheered for). So far, she has been on the potty seat 3 times and has peed while on it once. We'll see how it goes from here. I'm definitely not trying to potty train her yet, but have heard that as kids get older, sometimes they have a fear of the potty, so I'm hoping by getting her on it early, we will avoid that. We'll see what happens. Here is a little video I took of her on the potty yesterday. As you can see, she enjoys sitting on the potty and doesn't want to get off.

The bangs

I decided right before we had Levi that it was time for Addie to grow out her bangs. Daddy has never been a big fan of the bangs, and it was never easy to cut them (to say the least). So, here is how it is going:

The first thing I do when Addie wakes up in the morning is put her clips in her hair to allow her to see. Otherwise, she has to tilt her head up to try to see under her bangs. It's actually pretty funny. Anyways, the last time her bangs were cut was in the beginning of July. They are not yet long enough to do anything with them other than clip them back, but that means I am constantly re-putting clips in Addie's hair since she is so active all the time (or pulls them out). I don't know how long this process is going to take, or if there are other options of things to do with her hair-this was one of the things I was never excited about dealing with with girls-having to do their hair. Of course mine has lots of it. Anyways, if anyone has ideas of what to do with her hair, that would be great (Sarah, maybe? I know you have dealt with this recently). So far, we put clips in both sides or I put her hair in pigtails, then pull the bangs to one side and clip them the best I can.

Mountain State Fair

The Mountain State Fair is going on just down the road from us right now and we heard it was a big deal. Apparently, people travel fairly far to come to the fair, so I figured it was worth the 7-minute drive and $7 to go check it out with the kids yesterday. I'm definitely glad I did! We stayed away from the carnival and spent our time checking out all the cool animals. Addie was a huge fan of the farm animals, but she had no desire to get close to the big ones, or to touch any of them (especially at the petting zoo-where the animals are not in any way scared of humans). Unfortunately, most of the pictures I got were of Addie's back since she was always looking at the animals, and doesn't cooperate for the camera too well. But, hopefully you can get a little glimpse of our time at the fair.

Here Addie is pointing to the hens:

I never knew pigs could be this huge. Bob said maybe it was because the pig was pregnant, but by the looks of things, that pig already had her piglets...maybe she's still got her babyweight.

The ducklings seemed to be Addie's favorite. Maybe that is because she was actually bigger than them and they weren't scary at all.

We stumbled upon a dog show, which was right up Addie's alley as she loves dogs, but can't get to close to them because she is allergic. These dogs were all rescued and had been trained to do tricks. It was fun to watch:

Addie looked so old to me sitting on the bleachers watching a show:

After an afternoon at the fair, everyone needed a bath. This was the first time we bathed the kids together:

And then they snuggled up with Daddy and got ready for bed:

The fair must have even wore Levi out...he went for 5 and a half hours from one feeding to the next, then another 4 hours after that! It was a good night for us!

Uncle Corey and Aunt Deborah

Uncle Corey and Aunt Deborah came down to meet Levi and hang out with Addie (and their parents, I guess-we all know they really came to see the kids) last weekend. We had a good time with them and are glad they were able to come for a couple days. They have a sweet camera and are great photographers and were generous enough to take (and share) lots of pictures of the kids. So, I am going to share some of our favorites.

On Sunday, we decided to go to church for the first time since having Levi. We left a little late, but were glad we were able to go. I think this Sunday we'll try making it for both services-we'll see how it goes. It is definitely harder to get 2 kids ready to get out the door in the morning than 1...seemingly more than twice as hard, though!

Addie loves to show off her belly button anytime she is able...this dress made it very easy for her to do:

Levi seems to be growing up so fast. He was 4 weeks old yesterday. Here he is snuggled up with Aunt Deborah:

He really likes to sleep while being held...I guess just like most babies:

We went to a few different waterfalls since the weather was so nice out. Levi wasn't too impressed:

Deborah with her hands full:

Addie is definitely getting too big to be carried this way...we are going to have to start shopping for a backpack to carry her in and let her little brother be carried this way:

Uncle Corey was very helpful and carried Levi for most of the hiking:

This is probably our best family picture of 4 so far. It is really hard to get Addie to be still and to look at the camera. Normally, even attempting to get her to smile for the camera is pointless.

Riding with Daddy:

Walking back to the car:

Sleeping Levi:

Daddy and Addie love to kiss...the Angove way (on the lips). We'll see if Levi likes that as much as they do:

Our happy 17-month-old:

Levi is not yet smiling in response to people, but he smiles quite a bit in his sleep. We have never had the camera out when he has done this in the past, but Corey and Deborah were able to catch some smiles:

Another smile:

I was on my own with the kids during the day for the first time this week. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but I think we had a really good week. It was tiring, and there was definitely at least one kid crying a lot of times, but we all survived. Most days, Addie and Levi napped at least for a little while at the same time, so that was nice. Hopefully we can keep that up. Addie seems to be teething, so she had a hard time going to bed some nights, but hopefully she'll pop some more teeth through soon (she still only has the bottom 2). At the rate she is getting teeth, we are fairly confident that at some point, Levi will have more teeth than her. We'll see.

Lots of visitors

We have had quite a few visitors over the past few weeks. Dottie (Bob's mom) came to help out 2 weeks ago. She was a huge help and Addie especially loved having her here. I'm sure Levi enjoyed her also. Here she is reading to the 2 kiddos:
We took Addie to the park one day. She was a little leary of the "ducks." I wonder why:

After Dottie left, Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Emily, and Austin (Addie and Levi's cousin) came for a few hours. We wished they could have stayed longer, but are glad they were able to come for a little bit anyways:

The cousins together:

Kissing cousins (that is the Angove coming out in each of them)!

And here is our growing boy. Levi is doing well. He still sleeps quite a bit, but not for real long stretches at night yet. On a good night, he will got for between 4 and 5 hours from the beginning on one feeding to the beginning of the next feeding (once). But other than that, he is on a 3-hour schedule. As far as we know, he is doing well and is healthy. He has been a little beat up by his sister, but is hanging in there.

Next, Nana (my mom) came for a week. She also was helpful, and Addie of course enjoyed spending time with her as well. We took a trip to the park with Nana also.

Nana and Addie feeding the ducks (except Addie mostly ate the bread instead of throwing it to the ducks...I guess she figured if they thought it was so good, she would like it as well!):

Pointing to the pretty ducks:

Poppi came for a night as well:
Nana brought Addie 2 new chairs for her table:

Here is the little guy again:

Reading books with Mommy:

As you may have noticed, Levi has got some very spiky hair. It seems to be untamable. Even after a bath, we try to comb it down, but it pops right back up. Apparently, middle school girls really like spiky hair on boys, though-who knew?