today while i was driving a duck and her chicks tried to cross the road in front of me. the mom inched out onto the road, with her chicks close behind, and then scurried back to the curb as i drove by. i watched nervously in my rear view mirror as she attempted to do it again. it's a busy road (yellowstone highway) so i couldn't help but think that something awful was going to happen.

i turned the car around, headed home, grabbed a loaf of bread, and went back to rescue the duck family. however, when i got back to where i had seen them before they were gone. i was kind of sad that they weren't there. but relieved that there weren't any duck remains on the road.

when i told matt my story he wanted to know what exactly i planned on doing with the loaf of bread and the ducks. and, to be honest, i'm not really sure! it seemed like a really good idea at the time.

i may, or may not, have had a day dream about being on the rexburg news...a video clip of chet and i being followed by a family of ducks :)

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i am off to fill out and application for matt to be on WIPE OUT. they are doing a canada edition. and we think it would be hilarious if matt was on it. i know the odds are not in our favor, but you gotta try!

we watched 2 movies this weekend. gran torino and valetines day. it's funny because i thought that matt would like gran torino and i would like valentines day. but turns out i really liked gran torino too. clint eastwood was too funny. i think we started valentines day too late at night to really enjoy it. we were both really sleepy through it. and i was super disappointed with taylor swifts acting skills. guess you can't be good at everything taylor.

there was the craziest storm on friday night. we get some wicked lighting here in rexburg. it's so fun to watch.

for one of matts classes he has to do a group service project. his group is going to help out 'sugar city' (population 1500) by turning a piece of land into a tree nursery. the plan is to plant the trees around the town once they get bigger. but for now, they will just look nice. it's a big job, but it's right up matt's alley. he claims he rocks at digging holes.
we witnessed the biggest water fight i've ever seen. we were sitting in the park on saturday afternoon and we started to see a small group of people, all decked out in blue, gathering with buckets of water balloons. then a red group stated to form on the other side of the park. and then they just kept growing. and growing. it was nuts. there were probably 400 people in the end. they had water balloons, water guns, sling shots for water balloons, pool noodle swords, umbrella shields. it was hilarious. i tried to take pictures, but they really don't do it justice.

after the water fight. we worked on our frisbee skills. we are getting way good.

we ate lunch at the most ridiculous place. it's honestly made from a shed - like one you'd buy at home depot and keep your garden tools in. matt had heard lots about it around campus so we wanted to give it a try. it was tasty. they only have 4 things on their menu. pulled pork sandwich, ribs, drinks, and chips. we got one of each :)

there are competitive intramural teams here at the school. matt thought about playing on a basketball team this season, but didn't know if he would have the time. hopefully he can play another semester. our friend cody plays on a team. he is a 'titan'. and his team was playing in the final game this weekend. so we decided it would be fun to go and watch. we had taken chet to games before, but this game was different because there were commentators, and music, and half time games, and cheerleaders. it was a big deal...for byui! but it was soo loud. we felt so bad for chet's little ears. so we bundled him up real good to try and block out the noise. he looked ridiculous, but it worked!

i am dreading the day when chet is old enough to throw a good temper tantrum in a public place. i always pitty the mom of the nasty kid in the grocery store that is freaking out. unfortunately, i am sure that i will be the mom of that kid one day. bummer.

today i felt like i got a taste of what that feels like. we were on a walk.

as we walked it got hotter and hotter, so i got tricked into walking further and further so that i could enjoy more heat. we walked up to the temple, around campus, down to the park. i sort of lost track of time. and then, all of a sudden, chet decided he was hungry. no, not hungry, i am pretty sure he thought he was on the brink of death due to lack of food. at least, that it what his crying sounded like. it was bad timing because i was still about 20 minutes from home when he realized this. i tried everything to calm him down. i tried bundling him, and unbundling him, and giving him his soother, and talking to him, and singing to him, and playing my ipod next to him, and rocking the stroller, and sitting him up, and laying him down. but nothing worked. he wanted food.

sooo...i just walked. it was a loong 20 minutes. and it was really embarrassing when i had to walk past people. especially moms that were out on a walk with their smiley children. although, i'm assuming they've been there too. happens to the best of us, right?!

i am happy to report that chet did not die from hunger, despite the fact that he thought he was going to. we made it home and dad was there with a bottle ready and waiting.

my goodness!

matt and i were trying to study for a test he has take tomorrow morning, but chet was being a little...noisy. and we were getting frustrated. so we decided to go on a walk. we ended up at G's. and got some ice cream.

now everything seems much better :)now back to studying.

it has been such a nice week so far. i love it. and it doesn't look like the nice weather is stopping any time soon. yay. chet and i go on lots of walks during the day. and when matt comes home from school we can usually trick him into a family walk. we like walking up to the temple.

we spent another afternoon in the park yesterday. i thought that on sunday we had some good people watching. but yesterday we saw the greatest thing. i tried really hard to get close enough to take a good picture, but i was too nervous. you can just imagine though. there were 3 guys doing these medieval fighting games. they were decked out in costumes and had all sorts of weapons. it was very entertaining. you have to admire the fact that they aren't embarrassed to do something they love in public.

matt and i have been keeping track of every time we spend money this month. we are trying to be more responsible with our money now that our only income is my maternity leave pay. we have been meaning to make a budget plan for months now, but this month was the first time we have done something about it. we have a sheet that we write 'where', 'what', and 'how much'. it is funny how many times we fill in the 'what' section with words like treat, snack, or food. we haven't even recorded our spendings for a whole month yet, and we have already figured out where we spend too much money!
darn sweet tooth!

i am actually impressed with our healthy eating since we got our bountiful basket on saturday. i feel a little guilty though because we just can't eat our 'bounty' of fruits and veggies fast enough. it doesn't help that our fridge totally sucks. it is on the lowest setting and stuff at the back of the fridge still gets icy! brutal. we made some guacamole today to use up our avocados. unfortunately we were too late for 2 of them. i would like to warn anyone who thinks about cutting into an avacado that they think might be past ripe. DON'T DO IT. eeeewww.

i have often wondered what tank does while we aren't home. does he get into trouble? does he sleep? does he miss us? well, the other night we came home and tank was sitting in our window sill (like a kitty cat) waiting for us. so i guess that answers my question...he misses us! he is so fun to come home to. it doesn't matter if you have just gone to the mailbox, or you have left him all afternoon, he is soo thrilled when you walk in the door.

chet has been super drooly lately. sometimes i swear he is teething, but then i remember how much his dad drools when he is sleeping and then i figure this is just a case of 'like father, like son'!

today was the perfect sunday.

we made it to church. only 5 minutes late. and we stayed all 3 hours.

it was fathers day...again! we celebrated it last sunday by accident. oh, what a handsome dad matt is!

happy fathers to day all the boys in our family. happy fathers day dad. and larry. and ben. and chris. and mitch. and mark. and geoff. and todd. aaaand grandpa! and, best of all, we had the most delightful picnic in porter park. the park was very busy. we definitely weren't the only ones who thought it would be a good idea to go there. people were doing all sorts of things in the park. you name it, someone was doing it. frisbee, golf, basketball, bocce ball, soccer, longboarding, guitar-ing, biking, making out, reading, sleeping, tennis, playing in the water park, barbecuing. talk about a great place to people watch.

this was chets first picnic. we think he liked it. lots of fun things to look at. we found a nice big tree to lay by. chet layed in the shade. matt and i chose to bask in the sun. i must say that i looooove summer. bring on the sunshine.this is the trees view of chet.

this is chets view of the tree.

we played a 'best of 15' racko tournament. matt won 9-6. racko was the first game we ever bought together. we bought it even before we got married. we have kept a running tally of who has won more games inside the lid of the racko box. matt is destroying me. i think thats why he likes the game so much.my shoes. i agreed to throw away some nasty old shoes that i loved in exchange for these new ones. for some reason i have a hard time throwing away clothes. i always think 'well, i miiiight wear it if...'. and then it just sits in my closet until i clean it out again. matt would kill for me to throw out some of my stuff, like my high school basketball sweatpants from 10th grade! they are super ugly. and have recently acquired some holes. so he might get his way.

matt and i signed up for this thing called bountiful baskets this week. we had heard from a few couples that it was a fun thing to do. so we decided to give it a try.

you can go to their website at http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ to read more about it since i probably won't explain it that well.

a basket costs $15. it is made up of different fruits and vegetables each week. the trick is that you don't have any say in what you get. you just sign up online and then pick it up at a certain location and time. the program is only available in certain states but, if you are ever in one of them, you should give it a try.

we got our basket today. and we are very pleased with all the tasty things in it. there isn't anything super weird that we won't eat. for example, a butt load of...radishes? we just need to make an effort to eat it all before it goes bad. matt and i don't usually eat a ton of produce. we wish we did. we are really good at eating salads and apples but, other then that, we don't buy a lot of produce. i think this will help us to be healthier.

we got a bag of grapes, a bunch of green beans, 1 cantaloupe, 6 peaches, a bag of cherries, 13 plums, 3 avocados, 9 bananas, a bag of baby carrots, 3 bunches of broccoli, a head of romaine lettuce, and 5 tomatoes. as long as we eat it, i think it will be worth the 15 bucks.

here is what we did with our friday...

it was probably the nicest day of the year so far. tank, chet, and i went on a super long walk to take advantage of it. matt was stuck at school. my plan was to get some sun while we were out, and i did. but, unfortunately i got myself a nice farmers tan. i guess i'll take what i can get though.

later in the day we went to the rexburg farmers market. it is held every friday in the summer. it was the cutest thing. i don't think i will ever want to live somewhere with a small town feel, but i do find it adorable. there were so many fun things to look at in the farmers market. (and funny people to look at). matt bought some stinky cheese. and we bought a scone to share. it was massive. in the battle of leavitts vs scone, the scone won.there was a lady at the farmers market selling ties for little boys. they were really cute. i hate her!

i decided matt and i should get a booth and sell crepes. i think we'd do so good. now if only we could get our crepe maker to work... that silly thing has been sitting in its box since we bought it 2 years ago in france.

after the farmers market we went on a hunt for a good movie to rent. i wanted to see valentines day. matt wanted to see gran torino. but after going to 4 red boxes we didn't find either. we ended up getting dear john. now before i talk about dear john, i want to rant about how much i prefer a real movie store to a red box. the pressure i feel when we are trying to pick out a movie and there is a line up behind us really stresses me out. i guess red boxes are good cause they are super cheap and are open 24 hours, but i'm not converted to them yet. i don't have much choice here in rexburg though. i think every movie store has shut down now.

now, on to the movie. dear john. what a sad sad show. sad sad sad sad sad.

i was up most of the night being sad because of it. thanks a lot dear john. i should have known that it would do that to me. when ever i dwell too much on the years that matt was in france i get upset. those were a tough 2 years. very confusing, frustrating, lonely. last night i pulled out our letters. those letters are so fun to read now. i think i was a good letter writer...i feel like i had so much more faith back then. i would never say that i handled those years well, but i think i would do even worse if i had to do it now. i have told matt that i will cut off one of his limbs before i let him go on another mission or get recruited to the army!

i am so happy that chet likes to snuggle.

i was re-organizing chets clothes today and i realized that my baby is growing like a weed. it was a little sad packing away all his itty bitty premie clothes. they are soo tiny. i can't believe those used to be big on him. i had forgotten how small he started out. he has outgrown a lot of his newborn stuff too. he is now sporting his 0-3 month wardrobe. it's bitter-sweet as he gets bigger. i miss his little clothes, but it's fun pulling the tags off of something brand new. i wish i got a whole new wardrobe every couple months like chet does!

chet is 13 weeks old today. and 2 weeks ago, at his check-up, he weighed in at 10lbs 1oz. that means he has more then doubled his birth weight of 4lbs 8oz. our baby book says that he shouldn't double his weight until he is 6 months. hopefully that rule is different for an early baby or else i might have given birth to an ogre.

this is chet next to a premie onezie. it's blurry cause this kid is always wiggling.

i got some sun today! yay. that is my first taste of sun this year.

i used to get wicked good tans in the summer when i was younger. i spent all my time lounging around the pool. it was perfect. then eventually i had to start working. and work totally wrecks summer! but, thanks to chet, this summer i won't be working. thanks buddy! i plan on spending lots of time outside. i can't wait.

we live on pioneer road, right close to this intersection. i think it's funny. mormons..

matt and i have very different taste in movies and tv shows. we do lots of compromising when we are picking shows to watch together. here is some proof.

shows that matt likes to watch:

the office.

that 70's show.

operation repo.

billy the exterminator.

dirty jobs.

mythbusters.

almost anything on the the animal channel.

shows that pam likes to watch:

the hills.

the city.

project runway.

americas next top model.

the bachelor/bachelorette.

any show where someone gets a makeover.

could we be any more opposite?!

thank goodness for the food network. we can usually agree on something like cake boss, man vs food, or diners drive-in's and dives.

a little tank update:

he is so cute. he makes us so happy...most of the time. but sometimes he is just about the nastiest creature you could imagine.

yesterday we accidently left a poppy diaper in a ball on the floor of our front room while we went to a back room with chet. tank discovered the diaper when we weren't around and had a hayday shredding it to pieces. he then came to the back to see us. not knowing what he had done, matt picked tank up and let him lick his face as he carried him to the front room.

sick!

tank got a whole lot of heck from matt when he realized that tanks poopy tongue was all over his face. poor tank. and poor matt!

happy fathers day to matt.

some how i thought fathers day was today.

i was very disappointed when i found out that i was off by a week. how did that happen?! at least i was a week early rather then a week late. right?

matt got to open his gift from chet and tank today because there was no way he would be able to wait a whole week. he is always so anxious to open gifts. i picture him being the type of kid who peeked at his christmas gifts before the big day. i am the complete opposite. two years ago we went to vegas just before christmas. we packed all wrong for that trip. for some reason we thought it was going to be super hot. we packed tshirts, shorts, and bathing suits. turns out vegas isn't hot in december. infact it is stinking cold. it snowed while we were there! it was beyond depressing. anyways, while we were there matt found a jacket that he really liked so we bought it and we agreed it would could count it as a christmas gift. which, to me, meant he would have to wait until christmas to wear it. he was so bugged that i wouldn't let him wear the jacket. poor guy had to continue walking around in freezing weather with no jacket. he still is irritated that i did that!

(sorry about that matt.)

.

we played frisbee today. i am awful at fribee. i have no aim when i'm throwing it. and i'm so afraid of hurting my finger when i catch it. i am embarrased of how girlie i look when i'm catching a super fast one. we only have two sporty things...a frisbee and a basketball. so i think i will have lots of time to practice. but, even if i do stink, i still had a lot of fun. it's always fun to get out and do something other then watch movies. matt might beg to differ. he says he could watch movies all day. i, on the other hand, really struggle sitting through one movie. if i don't have a movie treat to entertain me i'm doomed! we got together with our (only) friends, dave and ash, for another non-movie activity tonight. we played an intense game of sorry. i don't think i will ever get sick of sorry.

chet is the 30th member of the leavitt family so his grandpa leavitt made him a special gift. it is the cutest thing. yesterday was its debut!

thanks grandpa!

we had a pizza party picnic with dave and ash on thursday night. while we were eating, chets stroller got blown away...with chet inside. thank goodness dave was there, or who knows what would have happened!

just a few randoms:

matt is sick.

chet is sick.

i am not sick.

and i plan on staying that way.
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there is this spot on the right side of chets head that got shaved when he was in the NICU. i was sooo upset when i saw that the nurses had shaved part his fuzzy little head. sounds ridiculous, i know. but at the time, it was a big deal. and to be honest, if he had to get a spot shaved on his head today i think i would be just as sad. everyday after they shaved that spot i made sure to let the nurse who was watching him know that she was not allowed to touch him with a razor without asking me, or else...

well, that spot is still bald. his hair has grown longer everywhere else. but not there. UGH!

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now that the rain has stopped, i have been able to go on more splendid walks. yesterday i went with ashley and summer. it was fun to have a baby with us who actually enjoyed the walk. summer was so smiley. chet usually sleeps through our walks! two days ago i walked up to the temple. there is the prettiest view of rexburg from up there.

(rexburg temple photo courtesy of matt leavitt).

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matt got his midterm grades back this week. he is a straight A student. what a stud.

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matt and i think that the only reason we find this next thing entertaining is because we reeeally like chet. but we decided to post it anyways, incase there are some other big chet fans out there. look out world, we have a rising youtube sensation on our hands! it was inspired by a dancing bear on youtube.

dancing bear... (disclaimer. not a super wholesome song).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UeCRY1wciA

dancing chet...

http://www.youtube.com/?v=JT47Kah6nNY

yesterday matt and i went to the ticket office on campus to buy tickets to this thing called guitars unplugged. it's one of the bigger shows on campus. students audition for it. it can be any type of song, as long as it uses a guitar. i have fond memories of guitars unplugged that i have gone to in the past. so i'm excited to go on saturday. we could have bought the tickets online but we wanted to make sure that we would be able to take chet with us. it turned out that the play we were going to take chet to this weekend did not allow babies. so, matt had to go solo. (he had to go for a class). we asked the old lady working at the ticket office desk if we would be able to take chet with us to guitars unplugged and she says, "well i guess, if you feel like you should take your baby to something like that". something like what? it was awkward when we then asked her for 2 tickets. she thinks i'm a bad mom! but i think chet is going to love it :). we take chet everywhere and he has survived so far. babies are tough.

here are some more pictures.

chet wearing 'real' clothes.

we do have other places to sit, but we prefer to all sit in one chair. it's more cozy that way.

this was matts idea.

dear summer.

where are you? i miss you terribly.

i can't wait for your arrival. please hurry.

love pam.

the forecast said it was supposed to be 84 today. but it is rainy, windy, and only 66. i am so sad. i am craving warm weather. i haven't felt really hot since october when matt and i went to my parents place in mesa. that is much too long. when i see people enjoying warm weather on tv i am so jealous and summer-sick.

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i have been meaning to post these pictures of chet for so long. it has been almost 2 months since we had them done. so he has changed a lot. matt and i looove looking at these pictures. we think chet is the sweetest boy. (i don't know how to change the song in the background. sorry!)

matt is taking a humanities class right now. it's required. i'm not sure he would have signed up for it otherwise. although, i do think he has enjoyed it so far. in it, he will 'examine american art, architecture, music, literature, and film'. tonight we are actually going to a play, up on campus, for this class. i'm anxious to see how chet will handle it. i plan on spending the entire day leading up to the play making sure chet will be fed right before the play so that he will sleep right through it. wish me luck! chet might have other plans...

anywho, the reason i brought up this class is because of the assignment matt was working on last night. his teacher told the class that they each needed to take 3 photos. 1 portrait, 1 landscape, and 1 using an egg. i tagged along while he went in search of a good landscape photo. we found out that rexburg is indeed in the heart of potato farm land! the portrait photo is of me...shocking. and the egg picture is my favorite. he left the house with a carton of eggs, a sharpie, and a camera. and he came home with this:

his teacher will be grading the portrait and landscape photos. but his class gets to vote on the 3 best egg pictures. i would vote for his picture if i was in his class. it made me laugh!

there is this wicked little dairy shop right across the street from our complex. it's called G's. and when i say it's right across from us i really mean it. it's dangerously easy to get to. and they sell the tastiest ice cream. not only is it de-lish, but it's also such a great deal. we make our way over there weekly! i am pretty boring with ice cream treats. once i find one that i like at a store i always get the same thing. for example, if i go to marble slab i get birthday cake ice cream with cookie dough. mcdonalds? an oreo mcflurry with caramel mixed in. dairy queen? a cookie dough blizzard. and so on. can you tell i like ice cream treats?!

at G's i always get cookie monster.

last night we had a craving for a treat so we headed over to G's. but rather then getting our usual double scoop (that lasts us 2 nights), we got down to business and each took home a half gallon! oh my!

here are some pictures from our weekend at home.

the shaughnessy side.

the leavitt side. (minus 2).

the 3 newest leavitt babies. chet, hayden, and rachel.

chet chillin' with his great granparents.

the best picture of the weekend. roxy and tank are reunited!

i would just like to say one thing about my last post. the picture i posted of my pregnantbelly was not to show how it didn't get super big. i was lucky in that way though. i guess that was one perk of going into preterm labour...i missed out on the last 6 weeks of pregnancy which, i hear, is when you can really pack on some pounds!

pamela and matthew sitting in a tree. k-i-s-s-i-n-g.

3 years ago matt today asked me to marry him.

i said...yes!

we had one crazy weekend. it was super busy, but very fun. it was so nice to go home and see our family and friends. we got treated like we had been away for much longer then we have been. it was nice! we had lots of fun showing off chet. he got tons of love. i felt like a terrible mother because i hardly saw him this weekend. everyone else wanted to hold him and feed him and change him. i had it easy.

we blessed chet this weekend. that was one of the reasons we wanted to get home. we wanted to bless him with family around. and it turned out that there was a ton of family around. it was perfect. a shout out to the clarkes for making the trip up from lethbridge! what a nice surprise.

my grandma is in a hospice right now. she just got moved there. she was just recently diagnosed with cancer and it has progressed awfully fast. we got to take chet up to see her and get some pictures with her. she liked it. i am happy that we got to do that.

i need to get the pictures from this weekend from my mom so i can post some. until then, these will have to do. the first one is my favorite. tank loves to nap with chet. the other two show some of the exciting things that chet does at this point in his life!

i just heard the exciting news today that my mom will be getting her braces off on august 29. yay! she has had a long haul. two years of treatment and one crazy surgery. i can hardly wait to see how gorgeous her pearly whites are going to be without all that metal. let the countdown begin!