girl's brunch and a playdate!

Mat was kind and made us delicious bagels...nothing beats homemade bagels!



Playing with Ava who is just a few days older than Brie.



Brie is tuckered out and Lucas is entertaining himself!  We didn't get any pictures of the food or the girls, but it was a nice get together!

I'm thankful...

for some pretty basic things like being healthy, having a healthy/beautiful baby, having a healthy husband who worked really hard and made a nice laundry room for me, and for having a wonderful family and friends to be a part of my life! Life is good!

Here are some pics from Thanksgiving dinner out at Mat's parents. All except for the first one are pictures that Mat's mom took.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Lucas giving Brie a wet willy..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_804" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Amie and Brie before dinner"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_805" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Brie before dinner"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_806" align="aligncenter" width="287" caption="Mat and Brie after dinner"][/caption]

Brie pictures...

I love this picture of Brie even though it is blurry.  I love that it shows how big her bottom is due to her cloth diaper and I love that leg warmers have come back around.  What a perfect match for a onesie and a lazy mother!  So EASY to change the diaper, no pants to pull off!  Brie's legs look so tiny in comparison to her round middle!



Ahh, and I love this picture of her sleeping in her winnie the pooh sleep sack pajamas!

Elusive Bloom

Since we've moved here, I have wanted to see Witch Hazel in bloom. It's one of my favorite leaves on a tree around here and it is unique because it blooms in November. I've kept my eyes peeled that last several falls and haven't spotted it in bloom. Lo and behold, I saw it this year at the Botanical Gardens right in town...not out in the woods!



Walking around the UNCA Botanical Garden with Mat, Brie and the Bob.

Brie

“Hi Ava.  Now I am going to eat you.”

**(stolen from an email from Mat's sister, Sara)

One

month old today!  To celebrate Brie's 1 month birthday, went for a lovely morning stroll in our neighborhood.

Yesterday we went to her month doctor's appointment.

Brie's stats

Weight: 9 pounds 6 ounces

Length: 21 3/4 inches

Brie is a long baby but in the 60th percentile for weight.  She's healthy and that is what we care about most!  She's gained over 2 1/2 pounds since her birth.  Yay!

Birthday Hike

We celebrated a beautiful fall day that also happened to be my birthday by going for a hike out at Bent Creek. We all had fun, hard to tell who had the most fun though. Mat's pretty stoked about the stroller...

The Laundry Room

Before...



After...



Really there was more work done before the "before" shot was taken, we just didn't remember to document it.  Now it is exciting times to start putting the rest of the stuff/storage back in the room in an organized manner. And Mat still has trim work to do in the room, but that's small potatoes compared to all the work he's all ready done!

We've all ready used the washer and dryer and it's fantastic!  We love it!  We've started using the cloth diapers and it's a bit of an adjustment, but hopefully, I'll get the hang of it.  Because we got the one size fits all she has a huge bum right now.  She's almost gone up a whole size in pants, just from changing from disposable to cloth diapers!  I'll have to get some pics of her in the diapers posted...

3 and a half decades

Wowsers! When I was little I thought people in their 20s were old! Now I'm ancient because I am definitely past my 20s. But it's been a great life so far. And today, as I type, our washer and dryer are being installed. Very exciting times at the Levine household. Not only for me, but Mat as well, he will finally get his life back. I think he's pretty stoked about that! Once the nice Lowes delivery gentlemen are gone I will go out and take a picture to post of the lovely appliances. I will also show everyone the awesome work that Mat has done in order to change our back porch into a laundry room. It's been a LONG summer project for him!

Brie is 3 weeks today

Brie is 3 weeks old.  She hasn't really changed too much...she still just eats, sleeps and poops.  Mat and I are amazed at how often and how much she eats.  We knew she'd eat and sleep a lot, but she eats even more than we thought!  She does a lot of grunting and noise making even while eating and wonder if she'll continue to do that throughout the duration of her nursing life.  We'll see.





Yesterday, we hiked out to Douglas Falls after releasing my salamander back into the wild.  (Note: we did not plan on being Team Brown, it just happened that we grabbed brown items to wear and different shades of brown at that!)  Brie is in this picture, she just is tucked into the Moby wrap and we didn't want to disturb her.  She's still getting used to hanging out in the Moby wrap and I wouldn't say she loves it quite yet.



I had been using the salamander this summer at my creature feature table and at my evening programs.  I think he was pretty stoked to be back in a stream and his natural habitat.  :-)