we made it to calgary.

our boys were seriously the best little travelers. [thanks boys!]
it was almost as though they weren't there... like in the good old days when road trips were fun :)

the roads were clear.
we listened to good music.

and the border patrol was easy peasy.

what more could we ask for?
plus, chet was such a funny kid along the way.
a couple good chetty quotes:

[as we are leaving our parking lot in rexburg]
chet: where are we going?
matt: canada!
chet: ...can i stay here?

[eating breakfast at our hotel]
pam: i hate being sick. i want to kill myself.
chet: i'll help you, mom.


if only we didn't arrive to calgary during the coldest week ever!
it. is. cold.

oh my word!
cold weather just makes me so sad.
it drives me nuts when people think that i should like cold weather because i'm canadian.
really?
if anything, i have learned to loathe it more then those dang warm-weather-people can possibly comprehend!

in all honesty, calgary is a great place.
especially because it is home to so many great friends and family :)


we braved the weather to see the nativity pageant at heritage park.
i thought i was going to lose my feet, they were so cold.
but, it's tradition.

and chet thought it was pretty nifty.
he got to pet a donkey and some sheep.
and we even saw llamas!
who knew llamas were part of the nativity?!

umm.. is it really christmas eve tomorrow?
matt and i still haven't got each other anything for christmas!
i'm starting to think it might not happen...

we went to see santa a third time.

we just can't get enough of that guy!

this santa was actually the same one from our first santa visit.

i never would have recognized him, but he remembered chet

so i think that means chet was a little too dramatic last time!

the city was hosting a little christmas get-together at the carousel in porter park tonight.

and i just couldn't turn down free rides on the carousel!

we rode it twice.

matt and i both felt nauseous after the first ride, but chet really wanted to go again.

so we endured a second ride.

it is so pathetic that a carousel made us sick, i know. but it did!

this time we got a family photo with santa.

[santa's pose kills me! could he look any less enthused about taking this picture?!]

first ride: chet didn't want to sit on a horse alone. so matt joined him!

second ride: we convinced chet to sit on his own horse, but only if i held his hand!

holden's first carousel ride.

i can't believe how close christmas is!
i'm not feeling super christmas-y yet.
i am hoping that when we get to calgary the christmas spirit will really sink in.
i think being around family will do the trick.
we will be up in calgary in just 2 sleeps.
we are so excited!


matt has officially finished semester number 7. out of 8.

i can't believe he will begin his very last semester in just a couple weeks. it's nuts!
and i can't believe that in just a few months we'll be taking pictures on matty in a cap and gown.

we are getting so close to entering the real world. scaaary.

his last semester will be a bit of a doozy.

matt will be doing another ASC competition in february. and it requires a lot of preparation.
plus, he was asked to be a TA for one of his professors.
those things are both on top of his regular class load.
...and keeping his little wifey happy.

so he will be busy.

but both of the extra things will look really good on his resume.

and he is getting paid to be a TA.

aaand, while matt is in reno for his competition, i'm going to texas with my mom to see my sister!

so, it's not all bad :)

matt was a smartie pants again this semester.

i think he is getting blessed for being such a good dad/husband.

let me explain:

the president of the university, president clarke, did a Q&A with our ward a few weeks ago.

he graduated at the top of his class at harvard when he got his MA and PhD in economics.
and he did that all while raising 4 young children.

when asked how he maintained balance between school and family, he said that he and his wife agreed that he would wake up early and work hard every day until 5.
and at 5 he would close his books and head home.
he would leave his books, and the stresses of school, behind so that he could focus on his family.

although most of his classmates would study much more then him, his grades did not reflect that.

he believes that was a blessing from heavenly father for having his priorities straight.
matt and i haven't made the same study rules, but matt works really hard to make sure he has time to spend with our family EVERY night.

and i like to think matt gets blessed, like president clarke, for his efforts.
it hasn't been that way from day one but, over the years, matt has really mastered fitting in all his responsibilities.
and the stresses that he has at school never affect the way he acts around the boys and i.
it's impressive. and sooOO appreciated.
i am a lucky girl!

so bring it on, final semester.
[but not until we get good and spoiled over christmas break!]

chet thought santa was scary.

no surprise there!

he was also disappointed that santa didn't give him the toys he asked for, right that very minute.

he left the store saying, 'where's my truck?'

poor kid. he just doesn't understand christmas yet.

all he knows is we keep promising him presents and cousins. but they never come!

chet is seriously so excited for presents this year.

he is always telling us that he 'needs presents'.

tonight i wrapped one of his toys up just so he could open it.

and chet thought it was pretty swell.

christmas morning is going to blow his mind!

holden was just happy to be held.

we thought chet might be more brave if he got to sit next to holden.

but he wasn't.

i was determined for chet to have a better santa experience, though.

so, since we had some time to burn, we decided to try a different santa.

we headed over to good ol' broulims.

and that time we let chet sit beside santa, rather then on him, and things went much better!

some more christmas-y pictures:

we were invited to max's house to make a gingerbread train.

chet spent the whole time scavenging for frosting.

max spent the whole time spilling sprinkles all over the place.

and i spent the whole time being grateful that we weren't doing that at my apartment!

our train fell apart as soon as i tried to move it.

so, even though this picture stinks, it's all we've got to document our masterpiece.

eating frosting. straight from the bag.

i gave chet the picture of the gingerbread man, and just handed him the pieces.

he decided where everything needed to go.

and i was pretty impressed by the final result!

checking out a nativity.

it was so hard for chet to glue these marshmallows on the paper, instead of eat them!

holden did his first roll this week!
(front to back.)
his face was priceless when it happened.

matt is a cute dad..

here are a few more pictures that make me smile :)

[chet said they were 'playing hiding']

[buddies.]

[holden is such a smiley boy.]

[my mom sent us an 'elf on the shelf'. chet doesn't get it.

every time he sees it, chet remembers that the elf has something to do with presents.

and then he informs us that 'he NEEDS presents'.]

[at subway. only in rexburg!]

[little bums in little underwear are just so stinkin' cute.

chet hasn't mastered pulling his up.]

[this is chet sitting on the potty in the back of our ford escape..

with me and our double stroller.

talk about cozy.

oh ya, and it all went down in the very frontest of front parking spots!]

oh, potty training.

you have been quite the adventure.

i think we can finally say that chet is 'potty trained'

.. for the most part.

we still don't have a ton of time from when chet tells us he needs to go and when he goes,

but accidents are very rare these days.

we just have to make sure we are always close to a potty.

(even if that means taking a potty with us!)

it is an exciting step. chet is growing up!

i am certainly NOT claiming to be any sort of potty training expert,

but here are some of my thoughts on the subject:

i read a ton of potty training methods that told me how to do it in ONE DAY.

but those methods are lies. all lies.

i honestly don't believe that any kid could be trained in one day.. unless you waited until they were like 9 to train them.

potty training takes time. and patience.

if you lack patience, things go downhill. (trust me!)

and it can be kinda scary for a kid. it's a major life changer.

when i wasn't sensitive to that fact, chet's feelings were hurt. and he regressed.

---

potty training is gross.

if you think getting rid of diapers makes life less icky, you are oh so wrong.

public bathrooms are the worst.

i am a germ freak in public bathrooms. i don't touch ANYTHING.

if only i could levitate, so i didn't have to touch the floor.

but chet doesn't have that same fear of germs that i do. aaand he is curious.

so i find the whole situation quite stressful, to say the least.

and honestly, where i am supposed to put holden when i'm helping chet?

i just can't bare the thought of putting my car seat on the floor.

---

kids have no shame! and it is hilarious.

---

bribes worked for chet.

every time he does #1 he gets 2 potty treats and a 'cars' sticker.

(it started out as 1 treat, but chet changed it to 2 treats.

matt and i both thought each other had changed it to 2 treats, so chet got away with it!

tricky little boy.)

he collects the stickers on a piece of paper that is right next to his potty. he is proud of it.

for going #2, he gets a lolipop and 2 stickers.

it works like a charm for chet.

i didn't like the idea of him eating him a ton of candy, but he doesn't go potty a ton.

so his treat consumption isn't as bad as i pictured it would be.

and, did i mention, it works? so bring on the bribes!

---

you have to be dedicated.

i tried training chet a couple months ago, but i wasn't 100% dedicated.

the weather was still nice and i wanted to be outside enjoying it.. not inside potty training.

so it didn't work.

matt and i started this attempt over the thanksgiving break when matt had a 5 day weekend.

we could spend 5 whole days focused on chet.

i am so happy matt was willing to be so involved. i'm not sure i could do it alone.

---

if someone asked me the same question 8000 times a day, i would lose my mind.

and probably punch them in the face.

but chet doesn't seem to mind me constantly asking him if he 'needs to go'.

---

we have started out with using pull ups for naps and nights.

and we have managed to trick chet into thinking that he can't go pee in them.

so he doesn't! haha.

i have no idea how to TEACH a kid not to go while they are sleeping.

chet just doesn't.

we make him sit on the potty before we put him in bed.

and we let him out if he tells us he needs to go again, after we put him to bed.

...and then he wakes up dry.

it's the craziest thing. we are lucky.

---

it IS worth it.

but i am already not looking forward to potty training holden!

chet: can i have more chepit please, mom?

pam: yes. but can say 'ketchup'?

chet: chepit!

pam: can you say 'ketch'?

chet: ketch.

pam: now say 'up'.

chet: up.

pam: ketch.

chet: ketch.

pam: up.

chet: up.

pam: ketchup.

chet: chepit!

:(

it's fixed! it's fixed!

not too long after i started a new blog, a few people told me how to keep my old one.

thanks guys... but you were a little late!

no, i really am so excited that i don't need to start over. two blogger accounts is just too much.

soo... i take back that post where i said i was done with this blog.

i'm not done.

i'm back!!

hopefully for ever.

i have re-posted the stuff i put on the other blog on to this one, and i will go from there.

yay!

FYI..

if you have a blog you will get this message one day:

resist the urge to burst into tears.. i would be happy to show you how to fix it!

we made snowman cupcakes.

lots of them.

i like them.

especially the one matt made in the top right corner! haha.

his snowmen always turned out 'special'.

unfortunately, i picked the wrong night to teach chet how to turn on the kitchenaid!

turns out if you switch it to full tilt when there are several cups of powdered sugar sitting in the bottom, it makes a wee bit of a mess.

and by 'wee bit' i mean it was everywhere!

i was so sad when it first happened, but then chet looked at me with the dorkiest smile and i had to just laugh :)

our bishop lives on a big chunk of land just south of idaho falls. and he has a ton of trees on it.

so he invited our ward out there for a tasty dinner and to cut down a christmas tree.

what a cute idea, huh?!

unfortunately, we had bought the lamest tree EVER from walmart the day before we found out about the activity.

not joking, it is the lamest tree!

we planned on getting a real tree but they were all way too big for our little abode.

so we decided to buy a cheap fake one.

but the cheap one we wanted was sold out... so we got a cheap-er one!

[no time to shop around when you are potty training]

oh well, chet just thinks it is awfully special to have a tree in our house.

and matt and i are just hoping that this is our last 'poor student christmas' :)

we have had a blast decorating our nasty little tree.

almost everything on it is homemade. i like it.

we made popcorn strings, paper chains, we painted pinecones, made pompoms, and made these melted-bead ornaments that i found on pinterest.

oh, and the star is cut from a piece of yellow felt, and stuck on with packing tape.

classy!

but, really, who sees the back of your tree? umm.. no one.

the part that i really struggle with is letting chet pile all the ornaments in the same place at the bottom of the tree.

but he puts so much thought into where he carefully places them, so i am dealing with it!

this is going to be a fun christmas season - chet is excited about everything.

he likes listening to matt and i butcher christmas carols.

he is very good at spotting snowmen, reindeer, and baby Jesus.

and he thinks christmas lights are fascinating.

a clump of ornaments, thanks to chet!

 i thought this pinterest idea was cute... and it worked!

i deserved to have a pinterest success... i have had waaay too many fails.

i invited a girl over to make snow globes that i saw on pinterest.

and it was honestly the most horrible craft party ever!

everything just went so wrong.

i had bought jars, miniature trees, and glitter.

but, we quickly found out that the we had glitter didn't sink

(an important trait if it is going to be in water).

so we go to porters to find new glitter. and a lady that worked there spent a ridiculous amount of time testing all sorts of glitters in water.

finally, we found one that sunk.

so we go home and start assembling things.

we glue the trees to the lid of the jar and fill the jar with glitter and water.

then we put on the lid and start shaking.

success!

....oh...no... the green from the tree is leaking into the water.

now we have nasty green colored water. no good.

we try emptying the water several times, hoping that the trees stop leaking. but they never did.

so my friend had the idea to put a little bit of bleach in the water to cancel out the green.

and i fell for it!

so... we put bleach in the water.

the water did stay clear, but slowly our trees started to turn the nasty yellow color that over-bleached hair turns.

oh dear.

and, by this point, i have already "sealed" my jar with super glue, so i couldn't start over.

but it wasn't actually sealed. it was leaky.

so i had a bleach-blonde tree in a snow globe that is leaking bleachy water.

needless to say, it ended up in the trash.

oh, and THEN we realized that the snow globes we were trying to copy didn't even have water in them!

haha really??

if we hadn't had so much fun laughing at each other, it might have been considered a waste of life.

i really wish i took a picture of my snow globe, but i didn't think to at the time.

this is what it was supposed to look like:

and this was the inspiration for our bead ornaments:

oh my word, gymnastics was SO MUCH FUN!

chet has been asking to go back all day!

he isn't the most coordinated - or brave - child. so i wasn't sure what he would think of it all.

but he did so great.

he loved being silly and watching other kids do neat things.

we ran, rolled, jumped, walked on balance beams, swung on bars, dove into foam pits, played with a big parachute, and lots more.

so much fun!

his teacher is really nice and his buddy, miles, is in the class too.

from now on we get to go to gymnastics every monday morning.

what a fun way to start the week :)

[it was almost impossible to get a good picture of chet. he was too busy being goofy!] 

 

alright, i'm going for it..

i'm starting a brand new blog.

it makes me a little sad, but i am trying to think of it as a fresh, new slate.

but only because i tried to pull a sneaky one on google... and failed.

so here we go.

if there is anyone out there who used to watch for updates on my blog through some sort of blog feed, you might want to delete my old blog from your list and add this one instead.

pamleavitttwo.blogspot.com

[very creative, i know!]

we went for a walk/bike ride the other day.

it's funny how your weather standards really drop as winter hits.

this summer i felt the need to wear pants and a cardigan when it dropped into the 70's.

now, i think the 40's are perfect for bike riding!

at least you don't work up a sweat, right?!

ok, i don't actually think 40's are perfect bike riding weather, but they will do.

anything to get us outside.

that is where chet and i like to be.

chet rode his bike for 1.5 miles, plus up and down a hill about 25 times.

and when he got home he was pooped.

in an attempt to burn up some energy inside for the rest of the winter, i signed chet up for a gymnastics class.

his first class is on monday!

i am excited to see what he thinks of it.

but i honestly can't believe i am enrolling my child in a class like that. he's too little!

and i'm too young! ...or at least i think i am.

sometimes i think i could walk in to a high school and stroll through the halls without anyone thinking i didn't belong.

but then i realize i graduated EIGHT years ago. and high school kids surely think i am old.. and lame.

i met a 22 year old the other week and, when she found out i was 26, she said "whoa!".

that wasn't great for my self esteem.

matt and i are also the longest married couple in our ward (besides our 60 year old bishop). brutal!

so i guess that means i am, indeed, old enough to have a kid in an 'extracurricular activity'.

we hope to find him a really great one-piece spandex suit.

and we will pair it with a sweatband. and leg warmers :)

 

chet built this truck ALL BY HIMSELF. i was so impressed.

when he showed it to me he said, 'do you love it, mom?'

haha. i sure do!

he seriously says the cutest things.

he also likes to build towers. tall ones.

sometimes they are so tall that a step ladder is required.

every time we go to storytime at the library, chet is too nervous to sit on the rug with the other kids.

but he did it this week!

...but only on the very corner. and only until a little girl tried to sit beside him!