Surprise Visit to L.A.

Last weekend we flew down to L.A. to surprise BeBe and Granddad for their 40th wedding anniversary and for the first night of Hanukkah. Boy were they surprised! They had NO idea that we were coming. We had planned to FaceTime with them to light candles for the first night of Hanukkah and showed up at the front door instead!

Aunt B and Uncle Dean graciously picked us up at the airport, and we stopped by Whole Foods to pick up Hanukkah dinner feast of latkes, chicken and veggies..

We knocked on the door and when my mom asked who it is was, I had no idea what to say, so I just said "Open the door". Some of our favorite BeBe responses were "oh my gosh, you have to be kiding," "I don't believe this" and "oh my gosh, you should not do this". It was a blast!

We all lit candldes together on Levi's first night of Hanukkah. It was so nice to all be together. What a worlwind of a trip but so glad we did it! They'll never forget their 40th anniversary, that's for sure!



Quick picture of us before leaving L.A.



Levi's first night of Hanukkah



Little buddies

Christina and Levi

Half a year old (already)

Levi has discovered he can get his feet into his mouth

• He is 16 pounds, 11 ounces (+) and just over 27 inches long
• He loves to squeal!
• He talks all of the the time. Daycare says he talks all day long. Mostly da-da and ga-ga. We are trying to show him who mommy and daddy are, but we wont be surprised if his first word is doggy
• He has discovered that he can put his pacifier back in his mouth but right now he is more interested in teething on it than sucking on it. We are sure it'll be some time before he's able to find it in the middle of the night and put it back in
• He has such strong legs. He can pull himself up from sitting when he's holding onto us. We are sure it'll be awhile before he can pull up on furniture - thank goodness
• He loves everyone at daycare and everyone loves him too. The kids bring him toys all day long and put his paci in if he's upset...it's so cute! He is by far the youngest but not for long. 2 babies will be joining daycare early next year
• He has slept through the night (the whole night) twice in the last 2 weeks from about 8 to 6 am but its not the norm (unfortunately)

6 month photos!

We just took his 6 month professional photos and we cannot wait to get all of them back. Levi will be the star of our holiday card this year, of course! Here is a preview!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had such a wonderful thanksgiving this year. We are so thankful for all that we've been given this year. Levi is such a blessing and we feel so fortunate to have such a happy, easy going, active, talkative and giggly little guy.

BeBe and Granddad came up from L.A. to spend the weekend with us. They got in Wednesday afternoon and left Monday afternoon, so Levi had 4 full days of fun with them. My mom had been up just a few weeks ago but Dad hadn't seen him in person since September. He has changed so much since he last saw him.

We have cooked almost everything from scratch the last few years and we managed to do the same this year. Levi was passed from family members and friends while my mom and I worked in the kitchen for most of the day. We were thankful to have a total of 8 adults (including us), 2 babies and 3 dogs for our thanksgiving meal. Aunt Jenna came down from the city with her roommate Jen and our friends Kim and Chris and their newborn Maverick joined us. Levi sat at the head of the table and enviously watched us eat our thanksgiving meal. Our small 1040 square foot house was very full and full of thanks!

We cannot wait to think about how far we've come a year from now. Next year Levi will join in on the feast!