Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, Mom!

My mom came up right after Levi was born and stayed for two and a half weeks. She cooked, cleaned, occupied Clayton and helped me get as much rest as I could...Thanks, Mom, for all of your help! We love you!!!

Brothers...

Clayton is slowly adjusting to having Levi around. He tries to be very loving and as gentle as a two-year old boy can be. He's told me that Levi is his friend and that he is happy Levi is home. It's so precious...I hope the feelings last.

If the baby is doing it, so must the older brother.
(This goes for the play gym, bassinet, and being held, too.)
After seeing Levi asleep in his bouncy seat, Clayton got his and laid down exactly like Levi - as you can see.

Cyle asked Clayton if he was going to teach Levi all of his tricks. Clayton immediately started demonstrating his tongue trick.
All in all, Clayton is adapting really well. He has his moments, but he really is trying to be a helpful, loving brother.

Welcome Baby Levi!

Not even 24 hours old

The Huck Family

Levi at 1 week

Cyle, Clayton and Levi

We welcomed Levi Anthony into the world on August 13! I can't believe he's already 3 weeks old. The time has really flown by. It seems we've had him forever.

He's a very content, quiet baby who really does sleep. He very rarely cries, but is a grunter!
He's such a joy - we are truly blessed!

Recent Cakes

These are some cakes I've done in the past month. They've kept me busy, that's for sure.

This was a farewell cake for a good friend here in Ottawa. It's a yellow cake covered in chocolate fondant. The fondant tastes like a Tootsie Roll. Yum!

These are the puppy cupcakes I did for Clayton's birthday party. I found directions in a Family Circle magazine. Clayton helped bake the cupcakes and has definitely helped eat them!

This cake was ordered for a birthday. It's red velvet and iced with red velvet icing, which was a little difficult, but worth it for the taste.

A chocolate cake covered in chocolate fondant.
A farewell cake for one of the ladies in Cyle's office.

Happy Birthday

Finally! At last! Clayton's birthday was here! As I was getting him up on Saturday morning, I asked, "Guess what today is?" He started shouting "Puppy Party! Puppy Party! Puppy Party!" and was jumping up and down. The excitement continued until his "real" birthday (as he called it) came to an end Sunday evening. His party went well. He had a lot of fun playing with his friends and even more fun eating a pupcake. Instead of doing one cake, I made puppy cupcakes. They were fairly simple and very fast to do. He'd seen them on the counter Friday and had to wait almost 24 hours before he could actually put his fingers on one. Since Saturday at 1:00 he's managed to eat 5...at least the icing off the top.

Equally as exciting as the cupcakes were the presents. A big thank you to Uncle Garrett and Uncle Cameron for a new fishing pole!! Cyle has drilled out the handle and filled it with spray foam...hopefully this one will never get dropped overboard, but if it does, maybe now it will float. Since Clayton has a new pole (and a new tackle box full of "wormies" from Mom and Dad) we had to go fishing this afternoon.

And what is a birthday without candles? Clayton was so enthused about blowing them out that we've put them in 1) a cupcake, 2) pancakes, 3) a hot dog, and 4) just held them, sang "Happy Birthday" and let him blow them out.

Apart from all of the birthday excitement, we've had a very busy week. Monday was a Canadian holiday and Cyle took Tuesday off, too. So we had him home 2 days this week. Clayton loves it when Daddy is home. He tells us, "Happy Daddy home!"
On Thursday we went to the Museum of Science and Technology. While most of the exhibits were much too old for Clayton, he did really enjoy the curvy mirrors. We also got to watch a group of summer camp kids shoot water rockets. Clayton thought those were very, very cool and kept asking to see them again and again.

He also had his 2 year old well baby exam this week. He hasn't ever gotten his State Dept. medical clearance, so we had a really thorough visit complete with a TB test and a blood sample. He was really brave while they took his blood. He sat perfectly still and his tears were completely distracted away by a "special" band-aid. It was yellow to match his "bulldozer tractor machine." I'm so thankful to have such a healthy little boy that we only have to put him through something like a blood test every once in a great while.

The weather has been really crazy, but amazingly nice. We've gotten rain nearly everyday and sun nearly everyday and the temperature is rarely above 80. I must say, it has been great. We've not gotten a lot of swimming in, but that's okay with me.

On Tuesday, the electric company came to trim trees. I heard their truck pull into the driveway and said, "Cyle, someone's here." Clayton started jumping and said, "Baby Levi! Baby Levi!" He can't wait for his baby brother to arrive and keeps telling us, "Baby Levi, coming soon!" He sounds just like a movie preview. Hopefully Baby Levi will be coming soon. Until then, have a great August!

Campfires to Dinosaurs

Well, I wasn't going to update this until August, but we've been so busy I've got lots to add.
Cyle's been wanting to take Clayton camping. It's not really worked out for us to go anywhere, so last weekend they were going to camp in our woods. But they were calling for thunderstorms, so we settled for a campfire and a hot dog and marshmallow roast. Clayton thought it was very cool to put a hot dog on a stick and even better when we did "icing" marshmallows. He didn't really care if they were roasted or not. And the best part was - we all got to sleep in our soft, comfortable beds as the thunderstorm raged on.


One day last week, I had to run downtown for some errands and wanted to give Clayton a break from the car so we stopped in at the Children's Museum. Ottawa has a FABULOUS children's museum inside the Museum of Civilization. We spent the entire morning outside in their Adventure World where Clayton got to play games from around the world, dig in a giant sandbox with" 'chines" (machines) and he even got to build a boat and float it in a small river. He had a blast and was pretty much asleep before we got out of the parking garage.

This week we traveled to Morrisburg, Ontario (about an hour away) with some friends to visit Prehistoric World. Two brothers (sculptors) have created over 50 life-sized dinosaurs that are in the woods along a walking trail.
Clayton ran from dinosaur to dinosaur and at each one would say, "Dine-saur!" like it was the first one we had seen. They were really well done. The size was definitely amazing. We had a picnic lunch around a sand pit where the kids could dig up dinosaur bones. It was such a fun day. Thanks, Laura, for taking us!
Have a great last week of July!

Fishing, Mowing, and a New Bed

Since Cyle's return home, Clayton has wanted to do everything just like Daddy. Over the past two weeks he has become obsessed with fishing. He wakes up in the morning and asks to go. He plays outside (occasionally inside) for hours with his little Scooby Doo fishing pole. Cyle's put a weight and a lure minus the hook on it and Clayton will cast and reel it in over and over. Last weekend he got to go for his first boat ride. Thankfully he's more interested in just casting and reeling than actually catching anything. Especially since when we're home and he's "fishing" it's just in an old ice cream bucket. Every once in a while he'll pull out the lure and say, "Yeah! Fishy!" as if he's actually caught something. I've got to give it to Cyle. He gave up a perfect fishing day on Saturday to spend it fishing with Clayton ALL morning.

While my mom was visiting, she mowed our lawn. (Truly, she's a saint. We have 3 acres of land and a push mower.) Clayton, of course, had to be in the middle of it. So while we were in Wal-Mart one afternoon, Mom spotted a play mower and couldn't pass it up. Now that Daddy is home and he mows, Clayton must also mow our yard. But first he has to fill it up with gas.


Clayton has also mastered the art of climbing out of his crib. Really, he did it quite gracefully and very well. But did we decide to convert his crib into a toddler bed. I just wasn't sure of how graceful he'd be at 2 a.m. Clayton loves his new bed because it's a "big boy" bed and anything that is "big" is definitely the best. He does a pretty good job sleeping in it. He's just not so great at staying in it.


The summer seems to just be flying by. I can't believe we're half way through July. I've been keeping busy with Clayton, our flower beds and I've been doing some baking. It's gotten warmer so I've got to have a good reason to get my oven/kitchen hot. I've been trying to make casseroles and easy to freeze suppers for after the baby's born. Cyle's been practicing traditional archery with a recurve bow and has set up a shooting range in our back yard. He's also been taking care of our garden. We've not had a lot of sun this summer, but it still seems to be doing well. Hopefully Clayton will find picking produce as fun as mowing!
Have a great month!