old mcdonald's.

"can we get some fries at old mcdonald's?"

chet thinks that the fast food chain 'mcdonald's' is actually called 'old mcdonald's'.

and matt and i love it.

easy mistake.

it's like how he calls a pylon a 'pinecone' because he mixes the words 'pylon' and 'cone' together.

both make us smile.

but the mcdonald's misunderstanding is definitely our favorite.

we will never correct that one!

we've got ourselves a bike rider!

if you can't tell, i'm a little excited that chet learned how to ride his bike this week.

actually, i'm a lot excited.

i feel like learning how to ride a bike is a special milestone in a kids' life.. and chet did it!

plus, he is still only 3.

and i think a 3-year-old riding a bike without training wheels is pretty nifty.

we got chet a 'big boy bike' for christmas.

well, technically, santa did.

chet was thrilled when he opened it up.

but we headed up to calgary before he could give it a try.

and then, when we got back home, chet was kind of nervous to try.

we would ask him every couple days if he wanted to learn how to ride his new bike and he would always respond with 'maybe tomorrow'.

he is totally like me when it comes to things like this - if you make a big deal out of it, he pulls away - so we never pressured him.

we just kept offering to teach him. we knew he would eventually decide he was ready.

and, on thursday morning when i asked, he was ready!

so i wasted no time.. i hurried the boys down to one of the courtyard areas in our complex, set holden up with some toys, and got chet up on his bike.

here goes nothing!

we never even took the training wheels out of the packaging when we put his bike together because we wanted to see if the whole 'balance bike method' of learning how to ride your bike really works.

chet had mastered the balance bike almost a year ago.

he could get the bike moving, pick up his feet, and glide for long periods of time.

so we knew he had no issues with balancing.
it was just the pedaling that he needed to figure out.

i really had no idea how to teach a kid how to ride a bike.

how would i?

i was basically just going off of what i had seen in movies/TV/youtube clips.

and most of those clips usually ended up with the kid careening down a hill into a bush...

so i wasn't feeling super confident with my teaching skills!

although, i never let chet know that.

i told him i had been riding bikes for longer then he had been alive, so he was in really good hands.

i held on to the handlebars and helped chet go slowly back and forth in the courtyard.

each lap he got a little bit better and a little bit more excited.

i slowly started let go of the handlebars for a second here and there.

and by the end of our first practice session (which was about an hour and a half, including lots of drink/snack breaks) chet could ride for about 10 seconds on his own.

the next morning he was pumped to get out and try again.

and that was the day he officially could ride on his own.

crazy, right?

our 3 year old can ride a bike!

he was so excited to show his dad when he got home that night.

we are super proud of him.

and you can tell he thinks he is pretty special too.

now we need to get holden on chet's old balance bike.

maybe, if we work hard enough, holden can learn how to ride a two-wheeler when he is 2!

haha or not.

i posted this little video on facebook.

but this video is better.

side note:

chet has had the shirt he is wearing in that picture for over a year.

it is reversible.

one side says 'hanging out with dad' and the other says 'just chillin with mom'.

he has never chosen to wear the mom side until the day i took this picture.

it was pretty exciting for me.

until halfway through the day when chet said, 'i need to put my shirt on the right way before dad comes home.'

oh.. ok.

why our dog is fat.

we got a lot of comments on tank's weight when we were up in calgary at christmas.

our family could hardly believe how much he had grown since last year.

it is true. he is a little on the overweight side.

and by 'a little', i mean he is double his originally estimated 3.5 lb weight.
it's pretty easy to figure out the reason for tank's recent influx in weight though..

holden!

holden is incredibly generous to that dog of ours.

sometimes holden gives tank so many treats, that tank actually grows tired of getting them.

yesterday, i found holden pouring tank a bowlful of milk bones. so proud of himself!

a little hike.

a couple weekends ago, we went on a family hike.

chet walked the whole time.. so that tells you how [not] intense this hike was.

we walked for about an hour in one direction, stopped for some snacks, fed a squirrel, and headed back to the start.

it was fun.

until chet's legs got tired.

then it wasn't fun.

then it was miserable.

but we survived.

even chet's legs!

my handsome hikers:

talking.

yesterday, chet and i had a funny conversation.

it started when he asked me if holden could be his boyfriend.

to which i replied, 'probably not'.
and he said, 'why?'

then i had to explain myself.

i honestly don't even know where he heard the word 'boyfriend' from.

must have been a movie?

either way, for the first time, i had to explain to chet what a boyfriend is. which was hard!

'umm.. it's someone that you really like. and you go on dates with them. and hold their hands...'

and then i had to explain that your brother can't be your boyfriend.

'why?'

and then i had to explain that ideally chet would be a boyfriend.. not have one.

'why?'

ugh. such a sensitive topic these days.

not because i'm stressed about pleasing those who don't have the same beliefs as me. just because i want chet to understand that what we believe isn't always what other people believe. but we know what we believe.

and just as i'm wishing i had've agreed to chet and holden being boyfriends, rather then doing all this explaining, chet stops and thinks. real hard.

"... well, can holden be my wingman?"

haha. yes. he can.

but honestly, child, where do you hear these words?

holden has finally decided to start talking.

i wasn't necessarily worried, because he totally understands everything we say to him.

but i was really wondering when he would start responding!

in the past couple weeks he has started saying:

hi.

bye.

mom.

da [dad].

mine.

no.

uh oh.

ow.

nana [banana].

dog.

ball.

nothing spectacular! but it sure is fun to see him learning.

the slide.

chet has always been a nice brother to holden.

sharing has definitely been a struggle. but, despite that, it is obvious that he loves holden.

ever since we got back from our christmas trip though, chet has turned into an exceptional brother.

and i. love. it.

we went to the park today and chet decided he was going to teach holden how to go down the slide all on his own.

there are 2 slides side-by-side that the boys sat down at the top of.

and chet proceeded to give holden instruction on how to slide down, he showed him that it wasn't scary to do, he offered to hold his hand, and he gave him all kinds of encouragement.

"you are going to do super good, ho-den!"

i sat at the bottom of the slides and watched this continue for a good 20 minutes.

so impressed with how kind my sometimes-unbearably-stubborn little 3 year old was being.

chet was so patient. and so excited to watch holden succeed.

then it happened [kind of]... holden accidentally slipped down the slide!

and chet was thrilled!

he rushed down the slide after his brother. clapping and cheering. haha.

"woohoo! you did it, ho-den!"

and holden was equally as thrilled with himself. giggling and bouncing up and down with those chubby thighs of his.

my heart literally melted.

it was so perfect, watching 2 little people have such big love.

i pray every day that they will always be buddies.

puzzles.

matt and i learned something about ourselves over christmas break. something kind of embarrassing.

we are puzzle addicts.

we could not have puzzles in our home.

no good would come of it.

my dad has always done puzzles at christmas time.

it's been a tradition for as long as i can honestly remember.

and i have always pitched in here and there.

i often got to be the person to put the last piece in the puzzle.

not because i was really good at puzzles, but because my dad would leave the very last piece for me. and i liked that.

but this year was different.

matt and i were addicted to working on the christmas puzzles.

we could hardly walk past the puzzle table without stopping and trying a few pieces...

and a 'few pieces' was never really just a few.

things got out of hand real fast.

so, it can be concluded, that matt and i would be terrible human beings if we took up puzzle-doing as a hobby.

nothing productive would get done. and our kids would certainly be neglected.

but at least we recognize our weakness, right?

the adult party.

after spending countless years defending my native tongue from all the rude americans who say canadians sound funny, i am reluctantly admitting that they were right.

canadians do sound kind of funny.

not all of them. and not all the time. but there definitely is a canadian drawl that my ears have been immune to, until as of late.

this christmas was the first time we had stepped foot in canada in a whole year.

so perhaps it was the amount of time we have spent away, or the fact that we are now further south then idaho, but we definitely noticed it.
especially in some of our family members!

and we loved it.

for 10 days we didn't have to be self conscious of how we talked.

what a treat :)

aside from the accents, we also noticed one other canadian stereotype to be true.
a more desirable stereotype.

canadians really are polite.

it was especially obvious when driving. [and i'm sure that has something to do with the fact that we live in LA now] but we never heard anyone honk at another driver during the entire 10 days we were in calgary.

here, we are lucky if we don't hear a horn on our 10 minute drive to church.
[actually, matt was the one who layed on the horn on our way to church this week! if you can't beat em, join em. right?]

our first big family gathering up in calgary was the leavitt family adult christmas party.
every year there is one gathering where no kids are allowed.
and it is always such a fun night.
there is always lots of food [like every leavitt gathering], funny games, and lots of catching up.
the most important part of the night is the annual competition for tina.
i don't know all the details about tina's past but, as far as i know, she is an incredibly tacky tree topper angel that matt's sister, sara, was given as a christmas gift from one of her students when she used to be a teacher.
tina wears a lovely pink gown and stands about 12 inches tall.
every christmas, all the couples in the family compete to see who "wins" tina for the year.
the winning couple "gets" to take tina home with them and display her in their home until the following christmas.
it's important that she be displayed in a prominent place - where house guests are sure to see her.
it is a true honor!
[not really..]
when your year with tina is up, you are in charge of putting together some kind of competition for the rest of the family to compete in to see who gets her next. 
everyone is always very creative with their games. and, this year, rebecca did not disappoint with her creativity.
we played a series of 'minute to win it' type games.
every time a couple won a game they were removed from the competition until the 2 loser-ist couples were left.
i wish i had pictures of that night, but i was too stressed about winning a game so we didn't get stuck with tina!

the next night, matt and i got to go the hunger games movie.
and it was more then i had ever hoped!

these pictures have nothing to do with what i just wrote.
but i don't have any pictures about what i wrote, and i don't have much to write about these pictures.
so i thought it worked.

so. much. snow.

it's only december!

i love how holden is the only one who actually looks sincerly happy.

i'm not sure what is up with holden and i, but i know matt wasn't happy because we were taking pictures when we were late for church.

christmas eve + day.

we always go to matt's parents house for christmas eve and my parents house for christmas day.
it's simple, and it works.

this year, christmas eve had a total of 39 guests. 20 kids. 18 adults. and tank.

every year we have a family talent show, we act out the nativity, rudolph brings all the kids christmas PJs, the cousins do their gift exchange, we sing some carols, we talk about the true meaning of christmas, we eat food, do lots of visiting, and we head home exhausted!

the talent show was as cute as always.

i think nic and jenny stole the show this year. jenny's recorder playing was outstanding.

but i was pleased with our family's performance too.

we sang 'up on the house top' as a family, and chet showed off his 'lobsters'.

a few months ago, chet became intrigued with lobsters.

it all started when he got a t-shirt with a lobster picture on it.

then we started watching little lobster movies on youtube.

and then we visited the lobsters at the grocery store.

[who needs a zoo when the grocery store can be so fascinating?]

and now he likes to pretend his hands are little lobsters.

it's silly.

and sometimes really awkward!

he uses his lobsters when he doesn't know what to say to strangers. but the strangers don't know what the lobsters are, so i have to try to explain what he is doing, and it always sounds lamer then i plan..

he also blames his lobsters for stealing toys from his brother and making messes.

they are very handy.
[yep, our kid is a weirdo]

in the talent show, chet showed off all the neat tricks his lobsters can do [dance, wrestle, perch on peoples' shoulders] and he felt pretty special doing it.

chet has the nicest cousins. ever.

they made such a fuss over his silly talent.

it was fun for matt and i to watch.

we love that all the cousins include our boys, as if they were always around.

sweetest kids i know.

the nativity this year wasn't super successful.

there were just way too many kids!

it was definitely entertaining, but it didn't do the best job of depicting the sacred story of the savior's birth.

mary, joseph, and donkey waddled into the room right on schedule.. but then all the other characters just followed right behind them.

and within about 20 seconds we had all 20 cousins piled around the baby jesus.
to avoid the stress of re-starting, we just called it good and moved on to the next activity.

it was priceless.

chet chose to be a sheep for the nativity.

not a shepherd.. a sheep!

and, even though he didn't get to show off his excellent sheep impression, he did look darling sporting his grandma's fuzzy coat.

christmas eve is always a special night, even if it a little on the crazy side!

on christmas morning, our boys slept in until 9 - like always.
none of that waking up at the crack of dawn nonsense.

holden was too young to understand what was going on again this year - he just sat and ate his cinnamon bun while most of the gift opening went down.
but chet sure liked opening presents.

he offered to open up every one's present for them.

such a kind boy, huh?

although chet loved the presents, we aren't sold he really cares much about santa.
whenever we talked about santa, i felt like i was kind of forcing this story that he wasn't buying. 

he told us on a few occasions that he wasn't real.

and he definitely didn't believe in that elf on the shelf.

the first day we put him out chet asked, "why did you put the elf there?"

we told him the elf was magic and he flew there from santa's workshop.

to which chet replied, "i know you put him there."

... that wasn't really worth arguing with.

christmas is enough about lying to your children, without throwing in the elf story.

maybe we will try again next year.

and if next year doesn't work, i suppose we will call it our 3rd strike. and elfy will be out.

before we had kids i thought it would be smart for matt and i to ixnay the whole santa story.
and, although i'm not implementing that plan, i do still agree it would be smart.
involving santa just takes away from the time you focus on christ.
and he steals all the credit for your good present ideas.
am i not right?!

but, magical santa stories or not, the boys got spoiled and felt special.
and that was a lot of fun to watch, as their parents.
even though we expected, and planned for, extra luggage on the way back, we didn't plan for enough.
we had to add an additional piece of luggage on the return flight for all our new fun goodies.

we spent the rest of christmas day trying out new toys, working on puzzles, and playing cards.

my grandpa spent most of the day with us. chet and him are a cute pair.
thanks to chet's great-grandpa, he now likes to say "would you like a knuckle sandwich?"

[i am really disappointed in my terrible picture-taking efforts this christmas.
like, really, our boys were ridiculously good looking on christmas eve.. why no family photo?!]

gathering together for the talent show.

our performance.

how special is this? so many fun cousins.

this is a terrible picture of the 4 youngest cousins. 4 cousins - 3 months.

even though it's a bad picture, you can tell they are a dang cute bunch.

christmas morning.

pre-christmas.

we all know santa is magical, and jolly, and a tad bit over-weight.

but did you know he is also very accommodating?

indeed, he is.

this year, santa was very accommodating to our family.

we would be up in calgary for christmas and, although we knew we would have to take some gifts up.. and back, we didn't want to do that with anything too heavy.

so..

santa brought chet and holden their big heavy gifts the very night before we left.

on friday december 20. at about 6:30pm.

what a thoughtful, well-timed, sneaky guy that saint nick is.

thanks santa, we owe ya.

our confusing explanations of why santa visited us twice [once when we were walking the dog - not sleeping], how he got into our home without a chimney, how he knew what we wanted without us telling him, etc. may very well have ruined chet's testimony of santa.

it was all very shady!

but hopefully he forgets by the time christmas rolls around again.

or not..

it would make life so much easier without all the santa tales.

amazon thought it would be funny to deliver chet's bike in an unnecessarily enormous cardboard box.

apparently they didn't know we would need to hide that from our 2 kids in our 900 square foot apartment.

luckily, chet was pretty naive to it all.

i took the bike out of the box, let the kids play in said box [the whole shoulda-just-given-them-the-box thing was proven to be true, yet again!] and covered up the bike with some blankets for a couple days.

we are lucky that our boys aren't snoopy yet!

and here are a few more pre-christmas pictures:

someone dropped off a box of see's chocolates at matt's work and matt was sent home with them.

but we think see's candy is pretty gross so the poor box looked like this in the end..

chet found this stick while we were on a walk [in front of a jewish temple, nonetheless] and asked if we could turn it into a christmas tree.

so we did.

holden's hair.

holden didn't think me playing with his hair was nearly as fun as i did.

luckily, i think i had enough fun for both of us :)

here are a couple more pics of holden.

so handsome, right?!