Miss C and her friend Lucas playing at Ms. Leah's!

Caroline and Joel cleaning out a pumpkin at Ms. Leah's!

Happy Halloween and Happy 400th post!

There are so many things that I need to blog (i.e. even some '10 birthdays)! I am usually behind in my blogging and when this happens I tend to forget the important parts of the event or memory! I blog to record our life's moments. I started blogging in 2005, when a teacher friend went to Japan as part of a project. We, my school, conferred with her through the comments as she posted about her trip. This was fun and I like journaling, and if you know me well enough you know my love for journals, books, and paper (mostly anything paper...my bonus room can fully tell you this story). Since 2005 there have been many changes to communicating live...FB is now the main one that everyone uses and is aware of! It's a very different IM! The paper crafts now have become anything made on Photoshop or Printshop! I still love to blog and I tell my stories on this blog! I want C to know how things were and what we did when she was a little girl! This would be like for me, how when I was little, my mom put all of our tons of pictures in albums, etc. for us girls to look at and laugh over for when we got older! There aren't that many captions and so the "story" of the picture isn't fully there although mom can remember the event and what was happening! I do appreciate all of the pictures but like I said I love to journal and so the story that goes with each picture captures the moment!

I have even met a new friend from my blog! She commented and questioned some of the things she found on C's first birthday blog and now we are friends on FB! I call her my CA friend!

I said all of this to say things like how I love the above picture and the story it tells! Yesterday I picked C up from Ms. Leah's earlier than usual! It was a pretty day for outside play and so C wanted to play outside in the sandbox! She talked and played with the sand and all of her sandbox toys the whole time! She even asked me "mommy who bought this for you" meaning the sandbox! I had to tell her that it was hers not mommy's but that mommy gets to play in the sandbox, too! I loved how when it was time to go in and make dinner that she didn't want to but we had to eat and I told her that we would come back outside later! After dinner we baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and ate them on the back porch patio step! It was dark outside and we heard lots of night noises like bugs and birds and cars and sirens! It was the best time for spending with my little girl! A nice weather day/evening with lots of playing outside and baking cookies together and sharing them on the back porch patio step while hearing the noises of the evening! I didn't want the night to come to an end but bath and bed times were calling so we wrapped it up with the promise that we would do it all over again today!

These are the kinds of stories that I like to blog about so that when I'm 100 I could read over the times in my life (whether good or bad; happy or sad) and remember what all has brought me to that point in my life in the first place!

Here's Ms. Leah and some of her sweet babies, Caroline, James, and Lucas! Ms. Leah has been a blessing to our family since day one! I miraculously found her days before school started in August of '09. Our intentions were to put Caroline in a church daycare near my work. We had a spot at this daycare months prior to school starting. Soon after C was born and as it was getting closer to school starting I decided that a daycare situation was not going to be the best for our Caroline. She was just so precious and I could not imgaine her being one of ten in an infant room. I got a referral for Leah from one of her friends who also is a childcare provider, but was at the time filled at the time that I called! I was disappointed because I heard great things about this sitter and I didn't know Leah! But I knew the moment I called Ms. Leah and talked with her for the first time that she was going to be a good fit for C! Ms. Leah is patient, positive, loving, and she has a very special way of making you and your child feel special! She is what Caroline needs while her mommy and daddy are working! We absolutely love Ms. Leah! Caroline absolutely loves Ms. Leah! Caroline defintely gives Ms. Leah the run for her money (we are in the 2.5 to 3 behavior stage, ha)! I know that at the end of the day Ms. Leah's hard work and dedication is helping mold and shape our sweet Caroline!

This little girl loves bags! She loves bags of all sorts from purses to grocery store bags. It's amazing to me how you can buy all these expensive toys for children and they choose the things that are inexpensive or free to play with. Caroline would be fine if she only had bags, detergent caps, and sand as her only toys.

Bag baby!

Go Gamecocks, I'm a singer,

appreciating fire safety, and an

accessory makes this onesie complete.

Now it's daddy's turn!

Since I was off on Monday, Columbus Day, C and I headed down to see "my twins". I hadn't seen them since Labor Day and I just couldn't wait to kiss their little cheecks and squeeze them! They have grown so much and I'm so thankful that they are thriving, growing well, and gaining weight (Nataleigh weighs 14 lbs and some change and Nicholas weighs 12 lbs and some change).

The Little People

C giving Nicholas some kisses!

When the mommy went to get big brother from school, I couldn't help myself, I just had to get these precious babies dressed up in their Halloween onesies from Aunt Rhonda!

If Saturday wasn't exciting enough, on Sunday C's Granny and Granddaddy came for a visit. Granny and C had an absolute blast playing in the sandbox, rolling in the grass, reading books, and playing C's favorite, Ring Around the Rosey (what is a rosey anyways?). I was very sneaky about taking these pictures because I didn't want to intrude on their fun. It was so much fun seeing all their fun, even if it was from far away. C can't wait for another Granny and Granddaddy visit!

This picture is my absolute favorite of these two!

This weekend was fun for many reasons. For one, it was a nice long weekend for me. Parent Teacher conferences were over at noon on Friday and so my extended weekend lasted from noon Friday until 5:30 am Tuesday morning, ha! Needless to say I was pleased with my time off, it was time well spent. I began my weekend my having a lunch date at Grucho's (one of my most favorite dining places) with one of my BFFs, Raven and her sweet 16 month old, Nolan!

On Saturday, The Leviners headed to Rock Hill to see our Kelsey's band compete in the Olde English Festival of Bands. Her band, Boiling Springs High School, came in 1st place as they performed, Twisted! They always outshine in competitions such as these! I love band competitons. I love the fall weather and the music (especially the drumline), ha! I love that its time well spent with family, with my little family, and the fun we always have! This year Big C joined us in the stands and she got a chance to see what we have seen for all these years. That was a treat! Calley, Courtney's BFF and roommate was with us too, she's also a BSHS band alumni! Her boyfriend, Taylor was also performing in the BSHS band. I think I got a pic of him and Kelsey marching near each other..double treat!
I have more posts about this weekend in future posts! For now, I'm just enjoying this post and these pics!

Nolan and Caroline!

Raven and her precious Nolan! This little boy can

always put a smile on his sweet

mommy's face. I am so thankful for that.

The two C's! They are like two peas in a pod. They

bring so much joy to each other's lives. They have a bond

that outlasts most! I love them dearly. They are my heart!

Kelsey (in the middle) and Taylor on the far right!

I am so proud of our Kelsey! I took this pic

from very far away and it looks like Kelsey knew

I was taking it. She always has a smile on her face and is

so photogenic!

The Dukes with Caroline! Oh, how they love her!

Courtney, Caroline, and Calley!

They can be the 3 C's!

I love all things fallish! I enjoy so many of the things that happen in the season of fall. I love that the weather begins to turn chilly. That means it's burning barrel time for Sam and coffee drinking time for me. I love that we get to pull out our cozy lounge pants, toe socks, and blankets. I love that with every new season of fall comes bright and bold colors like oranges and pinks, yellows and browns, and purples and grays! I immensely enjoy fall gatherings like Sunday School socials, Thanksgiving at Sam's aunt Sue and Uncle Jack's and then with my family, Halloween festivities (although we haven't dressed up for Halloween in years we enjoy attending our neighbor's annual halloween party), and recently our newest trip to Sky Top for apple picking, this will also be a fall tradition, (thanks Heather for recommending this place). I also love fall because with it comes new fall styles and trends and many are very quaint especially for the little people! Yes, I love Caroline's fall clothes. C's Aunt Rhonda buys many of her fall and winter clothes (also her spring and summer) but sometimes I can't help myself when I see cute dresses, or shoes, or jackets and sweaters when we are out and about, and she has to have those new clothes in that hue or color scheme! When it was her first fall I remember dressing her up in several of her new outfits one afternoon! It was playing dress up but with a real baby! She could not even sit up (thank goodness for the bumbo). Ha!
So with fall comes fall pictures. My daddy has always said that there is nothing like a good picture. I don't pretend to be a photography. I don't want to be a photographer. I'll leave that memory taker to the experts, the photographers. We have a wonderful photographer, Patty Hallman! I do however enjoy taking lots of pictures of Caroline and fiddling with or dolling up her pictures on photoshop, a gift that I received from my sweet hubby two Christmases ago. Plus also we love making our Christmas cards and birthday invitations on that same program! I do/want to learn the program better but I don't always have the time to sit and play or read books about it or watch you tube videos on the subject! With all that being said, here's some pics that I took of Miss C after church one Sunday. She's getting quite accustomed to me taking her pictures but I have to take a gizillion of her to have at least some that don't have her eyes closed, etc. I do take some of her not posed (they are usually the best), but a lot of the time I post the ones of  her looking and smiling and being cute Miss C! Here's our fun fall photo pics! Love her!

Introducing...

Princess Caroline!

This girl is such a girly girl...

she can't stand for her toenails to not be polished and she loves this tiara! She's defintely a princess in The Leviner household!

When Caroline has a great day at Ms. Leah's, she can choose an activity to do when we get home. They vary from painting, coloring with markers (she can color with crayons anytime), getting in the waterpool (when it was hot out), going to the library, going to mommy's classroom to color (yes I will do anything of her choosing, and this is within reason, ha), and eating at a restaurant of choice (she usually chooses "Old McDonald's" or Chick-fil-a). We are currently working on her biting issue (I think this biting phase that everyone keeps telling me that she's in is about over, PTL). Caroline is an oral person, she has what I call an oral fixation. Everything goes into her mouth and she will bite whatever that is: books, backs of chairs, my work name tag, her friends.. (she is not a hard biter, another PTL moment. She was bit pretty hard more than a few times early on and so our peditrician says that she's not forgotten it (by now I think this has turned into an excuse, ha). My child is not perfect and I am not the kind of mom that pretends she does no wrong, she does, but she's growing and hopefully we are moving on from this stage. I think now she has the terrible 3's at 2.5! She is S-A-S-S-Y! I'm sure when my mom reads this she will laugh because she'll be thinking its pay back for when I was little! I was defintely sassy!

Anyways, recently, Caroline chose to paint as her good day behavior reward and here's our little artist! I watched her as she painted and my belief about her already being OCD with organization is true. At one point she lined up the washable paints side by side with the writing side up. She loved painting and now she wants to do it daily.

She's going to be left handed!

This is mommy's fav!

Showing off her artwork!

It's beautiful, baby!

Today these sweet babies turn 12 weeks old!

I haven't seen them since Labor Day weekend, but they are getting so big and seem to be more alert! I love how wide eyed they are in this picture! They look so cute in their pajama onesies! I'm so thankful that these little ones are apart of our family!

Caroline has always loved to "help" clean and keep our house tidy! She gets that from her daddy! She is going to be well organized, structured, and a planner as an adult, I am quite sure. I am also these last three things but being organized, I have to say, I do the least of but I am trying to get better. I always tell Sam I am organized in my head. I do like to keep our home clean and I do. There is however stuff everywhere! As I was finishing up some cleaning task, I followed Caroline with her vacuum into the laundry room. I thought she was just going to "vacuum" but instead she was putting it away, in its home so to speak. This act was very cute and I could not help but to snicker out loud! She's so adorable! This immediately brought to mind the saying "children do what you do not what you say"!  At least we now have a clean house and it's because Caroline was a big helper on cleaning day!