Happy 9th Birthday, Joey!

After spending the morning at the Science Center, we all went back to our house for a family dinner and birthday party to celebrate Joey turning 9 years old!Joey got lots of great presents. I think the big hit was this digital camera from Aunt Wendy and Uncle Sean. The look on his face in this photo says it all. He was SO excited!When we'd asked Joey what kind of cake he wanted, he was very specific. He even drew us a picture with a cross-section diagram. He wanted and ice cream cake with chocolate cake with chocolate chip ice cream. And he wanted the icing to look like a map of the world. It was a tall order, but I think he was pleased with the results:We normally don't let Simon have sweets, but since it was a special occasion, we have him a tiny sliver of cake. Simon devoured it, smeared icing all over the place, and eventually not only licked his plate clean, but then tried to eat the plate! Let this next photo be a warning to you: a sugar buzz isn't always pretty.

Trip to the Science Center

A few weeks before Joey's birthday rolled around we sat down and asked him how he wanted to celebrate. A big party with friends? A day at the Zoo? A trip to the movies? He said he just wanted to go to the Science Center. How could we deprive him? So, the morning of Joey's birthday, we headed off to the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center to play! Wendy came along with us, too. The more the merrier! Even Simon had a great time checking out all the fun stuff at the Science Center. His favorite thing, though, was playing at the Gravity Well with Aunt Wendy. The Gravity Well is basically a big circular funnel and you can roll marbles down inside. The marbles, if you roll them the right way, will circle around and around, like they're doing down a drain. Simon wasn't concerned with illustrating any scientific principles. He just liked throwing the marbles down the hole. Wendy was wonderful and patient with him, collecting the marbles for him by the handful.In this photo Joey is playing with a display where there was a giant rotating disc. You could spin smaller discs on top of it. I forget what this exhibit was demonstrating, but I guess it doesn't matter. The important part was that Joey had a blast. (Even if he doesn't look excited in this particular photo!)At one point we realized we hadn't seen Matt for a while. We found him in the main hall, working with these little wooden planks. They had thousands of them in big bins, available for folks to construct various things. Most of the people playing with the blocks were kids. And I guess Matt's just a big kid at heart. He spent almost an hour building his tower!Here's the final product. Quite the feat of engineering, no?

New Year's Day

Happy New Year, everyone! Remember when the year 2010 sounded so far off and futuristic that you thought everyone would get around with jet packs? Sigh! I should have a robot maid by now. Anyway - it's New Year's Day! Normally on New Year's Day we have brunch at Wendy's house. (We call it Elevensies because we eat around 11ish, and we love hobbits.) This year we hosted brunch at our place instead. Everyone came over for a big, delicious meal of quiche, sausages, baked french toast, fruit salad, and an assortment of other goodies. Never a shortage of food around the holidays, as I'm sure you know! Since the family was all together, we also took the opportunity to celebrate Matt's birthday.Matt turned 34! He requested a "rainbow cake" which is a Jell-o poke cake topped with lots of Cool Whip. His mommy used to make it for his birthday every year, and he missed it. I was happy to oblige by making it for him, even though it requires white cake which is decidedly not my favorite.After we ate, we all sat down to play with the Wii. Here are Matt and Joey playing the Toy Story game, as Kristin looks on. The whole family was actually here in the living room, but only the three of them are in the frame. We all had a great time playing not only the Toy Story game, but also lots of the Wii sports. Sean liked the bowling in particular.Kristin grew tired of video games quickly and decided to entertain us with a little fashion show. Don't you love her hat? It's all the rage in Paris.

Day at the Park

After the flurry of Christmas time, I was able to take a few days off work to stay home and play with the kids. It was great being able to spend some extra time with them - and I'm sure my mom (who normally watches the kids during the week) appreciated the break! One thing I learned quickly is that kids need to be kept busy. Sitting around watching movies and napping sounds like heaven to me, but it's Death from Boredom for the kids. And what better way to use up some energy than to run around at the park?

Kristin wasted no time running over to the swings, and was excited to show me her latest trick. Taking a photo of this was entirely her idea:Then the kids found a mini basketball that someone had left on the playground. Simon in particular was excited to play with it. They played catch for a while, and then they ran out to the field and kicked it around like a soccer ball. But mostly it seemed like they just liked running back and forth and laughing. Which, of course, I loved to see.I also loved to see Simon making silly faces at me from the top of the slide. Isn't he a charmer?Simon is generally afraid to go down the slide by himself, unless it's a very short slide and he can easily do down backwards. (Otherwise he's afraid he'll fall on his face.) But he's comfortable when Joey or Kristin go down the slide with him. Joey was so sweet, helping his little brother:After a couple hours, it was time for lunch and a nap. Know how I knew it was nap time?

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day we had the family over to our house for dinner. It's so nice that we have space for everyone! I know it's been over a year since we moved into our house, but my excitement about leaving the apartment behind hasn't faded! Here is a photo of my pretty Christmas dinner table. The flowers for the centerpiece were a gift from my mom's next door neighbors, the Kingstons, who own a flower shop. They also did all the flowers for my and my sisters' weddings.That's right, I had little candy cane hearts at every place setting. I know it's sickeningly sweet. Sue me.
Here we see Matt, Joey and Kristin working on putting together some Legos. Both of the older kids got Lego sets from Santa. Joey got a big pirate ship which took a few hours to complete.
And here's the ship, all finished. I know you can't really see it in this photo, but there's a mermaid for the masthead. There are so many fun little details. Lego has come a long way since I was a kid! (Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth).
Grandma, Kristin and Joey. Kristin wasn't in the mood for picture taking, but I was trying out my new camera.
Here's Simon and his Uncle Sean. I forget what they were laughing about, but it was cute to see them playing together.
Here is a photo of our Christmas tree. It looks a little messy at the bottom, since we had lots of miscellaneous gifts piled underneath. But at least you get the idea.
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! See you in 2010!

Merry Christmas!

Another Christmas is upon us! Happy Holidays to all of you from the LeVine Family!This post is really about Christmas Eve, when we all gathered at my mom's house to open gifts. In our family, we open everything on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is exclusively about Santa and overeating. And remembering our Savior, of course. (Way to take the Christ out of Christmas, Nikol. Sheesh.) Moving along....here's a photo of Matt and his niece! Aren't they a cute pair?
And here's a photo of Tandy and Alicia. Awww, my two "little" sisters.
Here's Kory showing off the gift he got from Tandy. She actually got him a couple of video games, and just wrapped them in the Snuggie box. She's sneaky like that. (My mom was the actual recipient of the Pepto Bismol Snuggie).
Here's Wendy showing off the scarf I made for her. The family all went in on a big gift for her (a Roomba!), but I wanted her to still have something to open. So I made her this red knit scarf. It's kind of hard to see against her red shirt. It's made of knit material - soft, like a t-shirt. And I sewed the fringe myself. I may or may not have sewn the scarf to my pants once while putting on the fringe.
The family also all put in to buy a Wii for Matt's Christmas gift. When he opened the box, he held it over his head and said, "Wiiiiii!" (It was funnier in person than in print, trust me).
It was a wonderful night! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Why I Don't Have Photos of the Three of Them Together

It seems like I have a bunch of pictures of Joey and Kristin together, and of Simon by himself, but very few of the three of them together. So, one day when they were dressed up and looking so nice for church, I thought I'd try to snap a photo or two. Joey and Kristin were in great moods. I love this one of them laughing:So then I tried to take a few pictures of the three of them together. Simon wasn't crazy about the idea, as you can plainly see. But I tried. Of course, since Simon was fussing, Joey and Kristin didn't feel like cooperating, either.
Then the older two thought it was funny that Simon wouldn't sit still, so then they were laughing as Simon tried to squirm off the couch.
So I gave up.