Heritage Park and 4th of July

We got a pass for Heritage Park this summer and we had a blast. Heritage Park is a great place to take little kids! They have rides, wagon rides, shops to look in, a boat to ride in and of course a "real" choo choo train! Here is Nixon and Austin riding the toddler ferris wheel.

So happy!

Caterpillar ride is one of the favorites. Keshia and I had to take turns riding wih the kids as we both had new babies.

The crew on the train....complete with two sleeping babies!

I miss 4th of July in the states! America really knows how to throw a good party :-) Good thing I have American friends here to throw parties for the special day. My friend Bree is from Utah and is the best party planner I know. I felt lucky to be invited to my first "Bree" party. Nick likes to show kids experiments and here he put dish soap and dry ice and the kids were in heaven.

Bree and I in her backyard.

The family. Notice the sack Austin is holding that was full of treats for the kids (and a bow that Bree made and Austin was determined to wear).

Daddy and Levi

Austin with his Bree bow on.

The Bumbo Seat

The Bumbo seat. What a great invention this was. Here is the L man at 2 1/2 months old sitting in the Bumbo.
This kid is always making me laugh. I am lucky that Austin totally and utterly adores Levi. He is soooo good with him. He gives him toys, puts in his pacifier when he cries and sings him songs. Sometimes my mom will tell Austin that she is going to take Levi home and Austin will almost start crying and say "No! He is my baby brother". Brotherly love :-)

Levi's Baby Shower

Here is the main event! Baby Levi had his baby shower on May 29th 2011 . Since Levi decided to come on the date of my previous baby shower we had to reschedule.....which is funny in many ways. For instance, Melanie made these potted plants as party favors and the sign on them said "When your bulb begins to sprout Levi surely will be out!". Well that was for sure! I dressed Levi in this blue velour outfit and Hans thinks he will hate me for it in the future. I thought it was cute.

I am soooooo blessed to be living near my closest friends and family. They really spoil me (and my family) rotten! It was such a wonderful baby shower.

My sis in law Amanda with baby Levi

Mumsy and I. My mom has helped me out alot with this baby. It has been soooooooo nice! One night she even came over and got up with Levi when he was about a month old so I could get a full nights rest. Man I needed it!

This picture is us to a tee!

This is our tousled hair look. I'm thinking we are looking pretty good :-)

The table set up.

Baby blocks and the potted plant. Thanks to everyone who helped with the shower. It was awesome!

Levi's Blessing Day and kid update

We decided to bless Levi this weekend as Hansis parents were able to come up to Calgary. It was a perfectly beautiful day out which I was so excited about since it has been raining straight for the past 2 weeks! Mark did the food for the special day and of course it was absolutely delicious. Here is the crew in the backyard.
Hansi's parents

Me and mum

Happy new parents

The girlies enjoying the sunshine

Austin found a ladybug and thought it was the greatest thing that had ever happened. Perfect ending to a wonderful day.


Austin update

Loves his baby brother- sometimes a little too much :-)

Talks non stop-where did he get that from??

Is fully potty trained-Horray!!

Has stopped taking naps everyday- so sad :-(

Is very curious about everything

Plays well on his own and is obsessed with cars

Is full of energy!

Some funny things he says: Thats Balicious! (That's delicious)

I splushed the toilet (I flushed the toilet)

Oh yes I do!!! (If asked if we wants to do anything)

Levi update

Is the sweetest baby ever!

Is finally 8 pounds

Some nights sleeps 5 hours

Starting to smile

Still sleeps most of the day

We feel so lucky and blessed to have these sweet and handsome boys to take care of!!!

Easter and Newborn photo shoot

One of my childhood friends Liz, does photography and so I had her take some photos of Levi when he was just 5 days old. I LOVED how the photos turned out and I am just going to post some of my faves. You can check out her blog at pigtailsandsnails.blogspot.com. At this point Levi only weighed 5lbs and 3 oz and was so squishy. Perfect for getting all the shots. I love this one of him in the wagon.
Wrinkly back picture. Love it!

All curled up.

This is how he was in the ultrasound. He always had that hand by his face.

He always lifts his eyebrows while he is sleeping. It is sooooo cute!!

Momma and baby pic

The day before Easter I had my nephews over to color Easter eggs and play in the backyard. I think I might have had more fun coloring the eggs than they did :-)

Amanda and I were very excited about egg decorating

So about 2 weeks before Easter I was telling Austin he had to be a good boy for the Easter Bunny to come and bring him treats. I guess he thought it was like Santa because after I told him that he started saying the Easter Bunny was going to bring him "Mack" (the truck from cars). I could only find a pink Mack truck but he loved it anyway.

Austin LOVED hunting for Easter eggs. He is currently in a phase where he wont smile for the camera so I got this side smile.

Daddy and Austin on the hunt for eggs before church.

So after church we went to my brothers house for a big family Easter meal. They did turkey AND ham and of course my mums homeade buns. It was super yummy and so fun to be with the family. Look how cute these boys are :-) Hope you all had a happy Easter.

Welcome to the World Levi!!!

Welcome to the world Levi William Meyer! Born on April 9th at 5:53pm weighing a meager 5lbs and 10oz and 17.5 inches long. He was born at 36 weeks and 3 days which was a little earlier than expected. I woke up on April 9th expecting to attend my baby shower thrown by my fabulous friends and family but instead found that I was contracting. I decided to ignore it for awhile because I was only 36 weeks along (1 month early) and it was the day of my baby shower of all days!! Anyways I showered and did my make-up but the contractions just got stronger and stronger till I had to head to the hospital. We dropped Austin off at Melanie's house and off we went. Hans drove to the hospital like a maniac and I was sure to be wearing my seatbelt :-) we got to the labor unit at like 11am and I was 3 cm dilated which was totally disappointing to me because I was in sooooooo much pain. I dont know if any of you out there have had back labor but it is awful. I have never been on that much pain in my life! It was even worse than 3 degree burning my foot. Anyways I had to stay in triage for 4 hours in intense pain because there were no rooms for me. It was brutal because they wont let you have an epidural until you are in the room. They gave me morphine, which did nothing but make me dizzy and loopy and they gave me laughing gas. I was saying all sorts of crazy things like "I wasn't born in the 1800s you know!!" and "this is not right!!". I feel like apologizing to those nurses now. I finally got a room when I was 5 cm dilated and I told (yelled at) the nurse to get me an epidural but she told me the anesthesiologist had gone into the OR for a c-section. That is when I lost it and started bawling all over the place. Let's just say I screamed hallelujah when the anesthesiologist came into the room. Notice my face in the above picture. It was instant relief. I think Hans might be scarred for awhile from how much pain he had to see me endure. Then the Dr. came in and broke my water and he came out an hour later in 2 pushes! He was 5lbs and 10oz and such an easy delivery.

All wrapped up after being born. Levi was not breathing very well at first so they had to take him to the NICU the first night. That was very sad for me not to have him in my room.

They had to give him tube feedings the first night because he had such a hard time breathing.

By the next morning he was doing really well so they gave him his first bath.

Then we had all sorts of visitors come. They have a really strict visitor policy at the hospital so only grandparents, siblings of the baby and one support person are allowed to visit. Austin loves his new baby brother and is constantly wanting to hold him and kiss him.

Papa, Austin and baby Levi

Granny Lanny and Levi

Checking out his new brother.

The day after we got home from the hospital a home health nurse came to the house to check on the baby. She did a blood sample to check Levi's bilirubin level and told me she wold call back with the results. Well they were high so she told me we would have to be readmitted to the hospital downtown for phototherapy. I just started crying because I wanted to be home with my little family but I knew it was best for Levi. I stayed with him all night and felt so bad for him laying naked all night under the lights. They let us go home the next day thankfully!

Here is an open eyed picture of Levi. I think he looks like a Meyer. He is such a sweet little guy. So calm and a good sleeper so far. Let's hope that keeps up!!

We love our new little man and our so grateful to have him in our family.

Life Lately

Well this has been a crazy couple of months...again! I would like to blame my lack of blogging skills on being too busy to do so but I we all know I could fit some time in to capture all these memories. We have had alot of changes lately. Hans has started working full time at the office on 130th and is loving it. He is the only dentist there and is really enjoying it. He took a sedation dentistry course in November and has been doing a ton of cases lately. This last week he took the invisiline course and I will officially be his first patient. Horray! I am excited. Our ward was recently split and Hans got called as Young Mens president. He is already super busy with planning YM camp, firesides, activities ect but is loving every minute of it. He loves working with the youth. I am still compassionate service leader and I love that calling! I am getting ready to have this baby in the next couple of weeks so I thought I should probably catch up on my blogging before then. Growing up my mom always had a special Valentines Day luncheon for me and I thought I should carry on the tradition. I invited some of Austin's friends over for pizzas and a special craft. They seemed to like the necklaces best :-) Carter, Austin, Nixon and Preston working on their Valentines Day boxes.

Okay I have to be lame and admit that I planned my own birthday party this year. Hans always does a great job on my birthday but I knew exactly what I wanted to do this year so I took over all the planning (Hans didn't mind). I had a "fry" party. My step-dad seriously makes the best french fries ever! He does special seasonings and sauces and they are to die for. I invited 8 couples over and we ate fries and turkey burgers and played games all night. It was lots of fun.

We borrowed the Larsens's turkey fryer to make all the fries because there was so many people to feed.

My sister Kelley and I went out for our birthdays together and ended up at this really cool hat shop at the mall. Kelley has to teach me how to accessorize because she has style and I.......dont. I really got spoiled this year for my birthday with pedicures, lunches, dinners and massages. Man I am a lucky girl!!

My dad has been living with us while his house is getting renovated and it has been awesome. My step-mom is at their house in Arizona while the whole process goes down and I dont blame her!! It is still snowing here and it is April! It has been great to see Austin and Papa get close and spend so much time together. I can now get Austin to do anything if I say "papa does it" For example:

Me: Austin eat your yogurt

Austin: No!

Me: Papa eats this yogurt

Austin: Yummy! I love Papa yogurt

So my dad was sitting on the couch eating wasabi peanuts (disgusting) and of course Austin wanted to eat them because Papa was. I thought this might not be a good idea since they are SUPER spicy but he was adamant about it so I let him eat one. He LOVED them. I haven't decided if he really did like them or he just liked them because Papa does. Anyway they ate almost the whole can between the two of them.

Austin drinking the peanuts. Silly boy!!