Our Christmas letter

December 16, 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
Merry Christmas! I’m not sure what happened to that time that is usually between thanksgiving and Christmas, but it has been wild around here. A small flood Thanksgiving weekend threw us into a whirlwind remodel/redecorate, which we’re still finishing up. As always, 2008 was busy for the Leavitt crew.
Chloe is 22 months old and has grown by leaps and bounds! Her favorite things include Dora “DEDO”, Scooby-Doo “doobydoobydoo-are-ooo”, and her Daddy! She has been so fun this year. We are still in awe of how different little girls are!
Cameron is 5 years old now! When people ask him if he’s in Kindergarten he tells them “my mom didn’t want me to be the li’lest kid in the class”. Well, that’s true since his B-day is August 27th. He’s such a fun kid to have around. His favorite things are Webkinz, Webkinz, and did I mention Webkinz? (they are stuffed animals with a code to use on their website to care for them, buy them things, etc). Cameron goes to preschool 2 days a week as part of a mom-share group. He loves it when it’s at our house! He is also days away from losing his first tooth!
Cole is 9 and in the 3rd grade. He played baseball and 2 seasons of flag football this year. Right now he is starring in a Christmas play at Mystique Theater in a part he shares with Chase. It’s fun to watch him ham it up on stage. He has lots of friends he plays with, but also values his quiet time at home. His favorite thing this year was our Disneyland Vacation this fall!
Chase turned 12 this year! He got a suit for his birthday & he looks so grown up in it (although he is definitely the shortest Deacon at church). He attended Camp Hodia for kids with diabetes for the 4th year. He played basketball in the winter and football in the fall. He was fortunate to be a part of undefeated teams in both sports. In football they won the championship game in the Holt Arena (Mini Dome)! He got his first deer this fall too!
Dean continues to work as a pharmaceutical rep for Takeda and as the Scoutmaster in the ward. He attended Scout Camp for the 4th year in a row this summer! Now that Chase is a scout, he figures he might as well keep the job and go with our boys for the next 10 years too! He bought and ran a lawn care company which took a lot of time. We looked forward to the snow for a much-needed break! He loves to hunt and fish and spend time with the kids.
I am enjoying staying home with the kids and working occasionally as a Dental Hygienist. I work as a teacher in Relief Society once a month which is a fun calling! Dean and I have had fun singing in the community choir together. I am enjoying jogging again and am planning to run my first half-marathon in Ogden in the spring. Wish me luck!
We are so grateful for the blessings we have received this year and look forward to all the adventures 2009 has to offer!
Dean, Wende, Chase, Cole, Cameron & Chloe

The Lame blogger

Sorry for being a lame blogger lately. Since Disneyland, everything has seemed so non-eventful! Today is Dean's Birthday. Happy Birthday Dean! We'll get some good photos for thanksgiving & we are having new family pictures taken in the next couple of weeks! Hope you all have a good thanksgiving! Wende

Disneyland Vacation Photos

Our Disneyland Vacation

So we have been home for over a week now & I am just barely blogging about our trip. Everyone keeps asking how it was. Well, it was awesome! We had sooooo much fun! We left on Thursday the 9th, dropped off Chloe at Grandma Amy's, & drove to Salt Lake. We flew from there right into the John Wayne Airport in Orange County. It was a great experience because it is a relatively small airport and the closest to Anaheim. We picked up our rental car & drove straight to Huntington Beach. We were just going to wade since it was cool, but after the boys were soaked to their necks I ran back to the car & retrieved the swimsuits. We had a great time at the ocean!

Friday morning we hit Disneyland full force! We tried all the classic rides together and then split up for a few hours while Dean took Gavin and Cameron to the kiddie rides & I got to do Indiana Jones & some others with Cole & Chase. We met up to watch the parade & fireworks later & we stayed until the park closed at midnight. Our favorite rides in Disneyland were Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, Star Tours and the Big thunder Mountain Railroad.

Saturday we spent the day in California Adventure. Some of our favorites there were Soarin' over California, Tower of Terror, California Screamin', the water ride, and the Brother Bear play area. It was really fun there too. Cameron & Gavin rode the ferris wheel and the carousel while Chase & Cole rode the big rides as many times as they could. We planned on going back to Disneyland when C.A. closed at 10pm, but we decided to head back early and get some sleep.

Sunday we decided to revisit our favorites in both parks and catch the rides we ahdn't seen. As the crowds subsided in the evening, we were able to ride several of our favorites without waiting. It was so fun!

The weather was great when we were there...slightly overcast & cool...perfect fall weather for us Idahoans. The wimpy Californians were wearing jackets most of the time.

Well, this is the first real vacation our family has ever taken. It was a great experience for the kids to practice saving their money & looking forward to something so special. We'll definitely plan another family vacation soon. When Chloe is 42" we'll try to go again so she can go on most of the rides.

SYTYCD

So you think you can Dance

For our anniversary, Dean bought us tickets to the tour Performance of So You Think You Can Dance on Tuesday, Sept 23rd. We drove down to SLC that afternoon & ate dinner with Jeromy & Sam Pharis then went to the show. It was awesome. I was able to get some pretty cool pictures & recorded some of my favorite performances. Did I mention tht SYTYCD is one of my favorite shows? After watching the whole season, you almost feel like you know the performers. The crowd was really into it & they danced for almost 3 full hours. It was so fun. What a great anniversary gift!

It's been so Long!

Holy cow! It's been so long since I sat down to blog! Life is crazy, of course. The kids are getting into the groove of school & fall activities. We are all counting down to our Disneyland vacation in 19 days. I have been shopping for the best possible bargains to make our meager vacation savings stretch as far as possible. I am even in the process of buying park hoppers from some dude in California. I'll let you know if it's not a scam because they are 5 day hoppers for $125 each! We'll use 3 days & then we're selling the other 2 days to a family in Utah to save us and them $$$$. We were able to get tickets from SLC to Orange County for $159 round trip on Delta! It seems like everything is falling into place. Hopefully we will enjoy ourselves as much as we're anticipating it.

I have been busy working with the PTA organizing classroom volunteers and Back to School night. I get to work on t-shirts next. Last week I had to teach preschool 2 days, do back to school night, work one day, and plan & give my relief society lesson. Apparently that's as much stress as I can take because I was a basket case! Somehow I got through it though & this week was pretty much business as usual, except for Dean being gone Sunday-Thursday. Did I mention how much I love my husband? OOOOOOOOOh our house is sooooooomuch better when he's here! Yeah, daddy's Home!

On that awful day last month that our friends' son was diagnosed with Diabetes, his mom had taken some great pix of our kids. Here are some of the best shots!

It was hard to get good pictures of Chloe since she's such as sassy-pants!

Life as usual

This last week has been busy...trying to get everyone used to having a schedule again. I regret that I am one of those terrible moms who does a dance when school finally starts again. I like being back to a normal routine. My favorite time of day is that hour or two in the afternoon before the boys come home & Chloe is taking her nap when Cameron & I can play or read or just veg out. It's awesome! I am doing a preschool group with some other moms, so Cameron will start having somewhere to go twice a week. I only have to teach one week out of six, so it shouldn't be too bad.

We had a pirate birthday party for Cameron on wednesday. He had a few of his friends come over. They decorated swords with stickers (and jewels for the girls), decorated cupcakes, played a pirate game...all the regular stuff. Cam got alot of fun presents. We got him the tiger snake webkin he has been wanting and a Hot Wheels set that does a bunch of stunts. Chase and Cole had fun playing with that too. With his money from Grandma Judy he decided to buy another webkin (a Grey arabian horse), which we hope she'll find more tolerable than the snake! We went to a Chukars game in IF later that night too. We all had a good time.

Chase is knee deep into football season (he's #7 ...2nd smallest guy) & Cole starts Flag football next week. We are all looking forward to our Disneyland vacation October 9-13. We're taking Gavin Crapo with us now because his parents are going to Haiti during that time . Cameron is excited to have a ride buddy & we're glad to be able to help ease their minds that he'll be staying with someone who understands his Diabetes.

Did I mention Chloe went to nursery today?! She went right in & played for a while, but then had a gran mal meltdown. Grandma went in to sing with the nurseryites & she calmed down, but apparently she climbed up & stood on the table while the other kids were trying to enjoy their animal crackers. Who is her mother?! So I guess we've got some social issues to go over with her. She is kinda spoiled rotten, but I'll try. She actually let me do her hair today. It was pretty cute at 11:00....by 1:30 not quite as cute, but we'll give an A for effort. Labor day is tomorrow & we're going to try to go to the fair if the rain holds off. Then we'll be back to life as usual!

Joining the Ranks

Last night we had an interesting experience. We were having dinner at our friends Lindsay & Trevor Crapo's house & their son Gavin (4 1/2 yrs old) wet his pants. Lindsay said that he had been wetting the bed too & had started wetting his pants the last couple weeks. After a few more questions, we decided they ought to check his blood sugar to rule out Diabetes. Dean checked him & the meter read HI, which means over 600 (normal is about 100). We checked him two more times with the same result and sent them to the ER. The monitor at the hospital said he was over 1000! The poor kid has Diabetes:( So all those old memories came rushing back. It has been 11 years this month since Chase was diagnosed. My heart is aching for the Crapos right now. Love you guys!

Crazy Times!

So much has happened since the last post. Chase and Cole started school on Thursday, August 21. That was also Cole's 9th birthday. We had a party for him on Friday night & we went back to Jensen's Grove for a water party. Cole brought nine friends and 8 cousins! It was wild. Here are some pics of the first day of school and the birthday party.

Summer Fun

The boys spent most of their time building sand castles with their buddies the Ballards.

We spent the afternoon yesterday at Jensen's Grove in Blackfoot. It was a beautiful day & the water was nice and high. We're going back next week one last time before school starts.

Cooper

Last night we got to run up to Idaho Falls and meet our new nephew/cousin Cooper Glenn Leavitt. He is sooo cute, sooo sweet & sooo big! He was born 9lb 4 oz & 22 inches long! Cole especially loved holding the baby. I got to make the cute burp rag behind Cole & a matching rag quilt. So fun!

We're Back!

Our vacation in Park City was great! Our suite at the resort was awesome! We stayed in a very fancy cottage full of granite and tile with leather furniture, a hot tub on the deck, and an amazing view! It was definitely the nicest place we've ever stayed. We did some shopping on Friday. Dean golfed and I had a massage and pedicure on Saturday before we hit the outlets. We ended the night with a nice dinner at The Mustang in downtown Park City with all of Dean's coworkers from Idaho & Utah. There was alot of free time for me to read & Dean to nap. It is amazing how laid back life can be when someone else is footing the bill & the kids are at Grandma's. On the way home we stopped at Olympic Village & saw the US national ski jumping team practicing jumping off jumps into a swimming pool. We did an alpine slide and coaster & then went for the "world's longest and fastest zip line". The anticipation was awesome, but the actual ride wasn't nearly the rush I thought it would be. We might have to go for the sky diving like Ryan and Katie one of these days!

The kids had fun at Grandma & Grandpa Leavitt's. They went swimming twice & got spoiled (the usual!) It is good to be home with them. We are so excited to meet our new little nephew Cooper. He was born on Friday- over 9 lbs! You can see pictures of him on Danny & Johanna's Blog. We are hoping to go up there tonight after Chase's football practice.

There are only 10 days left until school starts, so hopefully we can fit some fun activities into what time we have left!

Everyday Stuff

We have been fighting a stomach bug the last couple of weeks. Chloe was sick most of last week and Cameron started with it yesterday. Unfortunately, I am starting to feel a little uneasy myself....just in time! Of course I'm getting sick the day before Dean and I are supposed to go to Park City for a weekend Spa/Golf getaway courtesy of Takeda Pharmaceuticals. SOOOOOO I'm popping the Pepto Bismol & trying to get it out of my system before Friday (tomorrow)morning when we're supposed to leave. Many thanks to Cal & Judy Leavitt who volunteered to take the kids for the weekend. Good luck to Danny & Johanna who are scheduled to have a new baby while we're away! We're excited to meet him when we get back! This is a photo I stole from Angela Nelson's blog (they're going too) of the resort in Park City where we'll be staying.

Roberts Family Reunion 7/08

Chloe's Vocabulary- 17 mos

All of the sudden Chloe is saying so many things. A few weeks ago all she ever said was "shoe"! As of today, here is a list of the things she says: Thank you- "teettoo", Ball- "Baa", Bottle-"Baa--Baa", Blanket "B", Baby- "Beebee", water- "Waa", Jump(off the stairs, on the tramp, etc)-"Dumpy dumpy du", Daddy- "Dedeeeeee", Hot- "Ha", "Uh-Oh", Peek-a-boo- "teetaboo", Doggy-"Doddy", Did I mention "shoe"? and of course, "NO!" When we say bye-bye or night-night she blows kisses too! We love having our little girl!

Here we go!

I have been attempting to get this blog together all summer, but I kept getting frustrated that I couldn't make it exactly how I wanted. Anyway, I finally decided that the design of the blog isn't really the point.....it's just about keeping a log of our memories and activities. So here we go! I can't believe school is going to start again in 18 days! Cole is excited because it starts on his 9th birthday & he has never been able to bring treats to school on his actual birthday. He played baseball and flag football this summer & will play fall flag football too. He's really getting big (much to Chase's dismay...they're almost the same size!) & he's a funny kid.

Chase just got back yesterday from his 4th trip to Camp Hodia. For those who don't know it's a summer camp for kids with Diabetes. He LOVES it! He came home filthy but happy, so a few pairs of ruined socks are OK. He's playing tackle football on the Cowboys again. He'll be 12 on October 3rd & he's excited that we are planning a trip to Disneyland that week. The other kids keep reminding him that it is not for his birthday just because it falls on his birthday. If it makes him happy to think it's for him, that's fine with me.

Cameron has a birthday this month too. He'll be 5 on the 27th. Even though he is really smart and social, we decided to let him do one more year of preschool before he starts kindergarten. He tells everyone "My mom doesn't want me to be the littlest kid in school." It's so cute. He played t-ball this summer too.

Chloe is 17 months old now. The countdown to nursery has begun! She is full of mischief (she climbs like a ninja!) & she is starting to communicate really well too. She gets really mad when we can't figure out what she wants though. Right now I have no idea what she's screaming about!

Dean is as busy as ever. He decided to buy a lawn mowing business, so we are both learning about being employers and small business owners. His employees mow full time M-F & then he mows on Saturdays. It has been working out pretty well, but taxes, workman's comp, etc are all pretty eye-opening!

I have started jogging again & hope to run a 10K this fall. My jogging partner and I are shooting for a half-marathon eventually, but who knows when I'll be ready for that. Mostly I spend my days trying to maintain my sanity while shuttling the kids wherever they need to be. Now I'll keep trying to figure out all the fundamentals of blogging. Any advice would be appreciated.