18 Months!!

Today my baby turned 18 months old! I thought I would do a little post about all the things Gavin likes these days.


Gavin loves to read books. At naptime and bedtime we let him pick out two books and as soon as we finish them he will say, "One more, pease." Somedays we will just sit in his room and read every book he has. I love this because it is one of the few times he will sit on my lap and let me snuggle him!


Gavin loves animals! He is so gentle with animals that he meets. He loves to pet dogs. He will walk over and let them smell his hand and then he will pet them. He also loves the cats at my parents house. Unfortunately the cats aren't quite as patient with him and that has resulted in a few scratches and tears. He has learned now that you can't sit on the cats though so that is a plus!

Gavin loves to play basketball. The Easter Bunny brought him a b-ball hoop and he can't get enough of it! He is a little too short to make a basket, but he didn't let that stop him. He went right into the bathroom and got his step stool and carried it out to the hoop and now he can play all day long!

Gavin is a very social kid. He approaches every person we see with an enthusiastic, "HI!". He loves to be around other kids and is a big fan of giving hugs. Today while we were waiting at the doctor's office he walked around giving all the kids hugs, which would be adorable if they were all healthy and not complete strangers. One day he will learn boundaries!

He loves to talk and has quite the vocabulary! He says around 75 words that we can understand and makes around 20 animal noises, car noises, airplane noises, etc. He is also a pretty good listener and I am amazed at how much he understands. The other day he wanted to go outside when he woke up so I told him as soon as I finished the dishes we would put his shoes on and go play outside. He went in the other room and played for a few minutes. As soon as he saw me walk into the room he grabbed his shoes and brought them over to me saying, "Shoes, Outside, Pease". He is a pretty smart kid and I am not biased at all!!

He also loves to dance. He has a "routine" that he usually does. He starts with clapping and stomping his feet. Then come the shoulder shrugs. And last but not least come the spins. I will have to post a video of his sweet moves soon!

There are so many other things about Gavin that I could yak on and on about, but I think that is probably enough for now! Oh yeah, did I mention he is pretty much the cutest boy? Well, he is! I sure love you Gavin!!!

Grandpa Jack

Early this morning my Grandpa Jack passed away. Some people may not know their grandparents very well, but I am very close to my grandparents. I grew up living just down the street from them. They took me on so many fun vacations when I was younger. One time they took my cousin Carly and me on a road trip to South Dakota. My grandpa was so good to let me rack up his cell phone bill to call home every night when I got homesick. They went to all my dance and cheer events. Even the ones in Vegas and California. They even came on a cruise that I danced on. When I was in high school I "worked" for my grandpa. Mostly we just ate popcorn, drank Coke and played with his mind puzzle games he always had in the office. I have so many fun memories of fishing with grandpa and going for walks at the cabin. He has always been such a wonderful example to me of how I want to live my life. He was an amazing man and will be missed greatly, but I am so happy for him and can only imagine the happy reunions he is having with loved ones on the other side. I am so grateful for these memories and grateful for my knowledge that I will be with him again one day. I love you Grandpa!!

Snuggle Time!!

This is how we spent nap times last week!! It was perfect and one of the few times my child actually snuggled with me. Love him!

15 Months

Last Friday Gavin turned 15 months old!! Holy cow! Where has the time gone? On Monday I took Gavin to the doctor for his 15 month check-up. He had grown almost 2 inches and has lost .1 lbs. Not good. When we took him in for his 12 month check-up he was just getting over being really sick with a stomach bug so his weight was low then and now he weighs a little less than he did then!!! The doc was slightly concerned but figures he is probably just not getting enough calories. The other thing he was concerned about was that Gavin's body was not absorbing the things it needed to. He asked me many questions about Gavin's poop and now I find myself examining his diaper everytime he poops!! Is it too runny? Is it oily? Oh my goodness...the things us moms do! Anyway, back to the matter at hand. We have to go back to get him weighed in 1 month to see if he has gained. So the doc said to start feeding him more meals per day and supplementing with Pediasure. We were already having a hard enough time getting him to eat 3 meals a day. How in the world am I supposed to get him to eat more?? I also went and bought some Pediasure and he hates it. I have even tried mixing it in with a shake and he won't drink it. So any suggestions or advice you could give would be greatly appreciated! I am a worry wart by nature and am kind of starting to get a little anxious about it!! Where's the Xanax...just kidding, kind of! Oh and for good measure here is a pic of him I took a couple days ago. Doesn't look like a picky eater in this pic and he has awesome hair!!! Such a silly boy!

My Furniture Re-do

When we got married my grandma was getting rid of an end table and offered it to us. As we had hardly any furniture we of course snatched it up thinking that we would replace it with something eventually...it was a little dated! That was almost 5 years ago and we have yet to replace it. I have also fallen in love with it. You see it has doors on it and you can store things inside. It is quite amazing how many toys I can cram in there!! So I decided I couldn't get rid of it and since it was already pretty ugly I figured I would try to refinish it. I am actually pretty pleased with how it turned out! What do you think?

Before:

After:

Tuesday Nights!

Last night we watched this:

while we ate these:


So in 10 years when we are on The Biggest Loser I hope you will all watch and cheer us on!! :)

Gavin's Haircut

So technically this is Gavin's 2nd haircut, but I forgot to put the battery in my camera when he got his 1st one. I know...I am a blonde. He was so good for his Aunt Lori! Thanks!

Getting ready!

Not so sure about this

Awesome mohawk!

The clippers

All done

Enjoying the Journey

When I was in high school I couldn't wait to start dating. When I started dating I couldn't wait to get married. When I got married I couldn't wait to start a family. When I had Gavin I could hardly wait for him to start doing things. Now that Gavin is doing things I can hardly wait for him to continue to learn and maybe develop a little bit more of an attention span. Lately I have been realizing how I am always looking ahead. I feel like that is a good thing sometimes, but occasionally I feel like I need to start doing more things today, especially with Gavin.

I remember the day I brought Gavin home from the hospital. He was asleep so I told Brandon that I was going to go lay down and to wake me when Gavin woke up. Then I would feed him and change his diaper and he would go back to sleep. Then he would wake and I would feed him and change him and on and on. I remember completely coming unglued and feeling like my life was over. I was never going to be able to go anywhere or do anything fun again. How wrong I was! I quickly realized that Gavin was going to grow and change faster than I could ever imagine. Sometimes I feel like I need to do more with Gavin. Turn the TV off and play and explore and have adventures, but for some reason it is hard to do sometimes. This freezing cold weather doesn't help either!!

Last night Brandon had to work late and so I decided that we (Gavin and me) would journey to the mall. I took him to the little play area and the fountains and he loved it!


It was such a simple thing to do and it made such a difference in our day. Then we have days like today where I am considering putting Gavin on KSL Classifieds. He is in rare form today and I am tired. I am trying so hard to enjoy the journey and not miss out on today, but somedays it is really tough. So my question to you is what do you do on days when you are at the end of your rope? How do you enjoy the journey? What do you do to entertain your kid/s in the winter?

A day in the life...

Woke up this morning at 3:30 am
Laid in bed with Gavin across my face, not joking, until 4:30 am
Woke up for good at 7:30
Made the bed...Gavin destroyed the rest of the bedroom in the process
Cleaned up the rest of the bedroom
Went downstairs for breakfast
Swept up about half of breakfast
Turned on a kickboxing DVD
Burned twice as many calories because Gavin insisted I hold him the entire time
Hopped in the car and took some DVD's back to the library
Got home and got ready while Gavin destroyed the bedroom once again
Walked over to play group
Gavin enjoyed hitting the other children and crying when he didn't get the toy he wanted
Left play group early
Had lunch
Swept up half of lunch
Put Gavin down for a nap
Hopped on the computer

It is only 1:16 and I am exhausted!! My "to do" list consists of cleaning 2 bathrooms, folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the destroyed bedroom again and cleaning out my car that looks like I have been living in it. Oh ya and making dinner and entertaining my child when he wakes up. And I thought the job I had before being a mom was hard! This adorable face...



makes it all worth it though!! Wouldn't trade my days for anything!

Gavin's room

When Brandon and I lived in our apartment I always wanted to paint the walls fun colors. We have now lived in our home for 8 1/2 months and we have yet to paint. So on Friday night as we were driving home from a friends place we (and by we I mean me) decided to paint Gavin's room...the next day. What can I say when I get an idea in my head I have to act on it right then. So here are some before and after pics. We thought about painting the whole room the lighter color, but thought it would be too overwhelming in such a small room.
Before

After


I am also thinking about making something similiar to this to hang on one of the walls with pictures of family. Thoughts?

Obviously it would be in colors that would match his room and maybe be smaller.

Funny?

I just hit my funny bone so hard my entire arm feels like it might explode and there is now a small dent in our bathroom wall. Tell me again why it is called the funny bone. I am about to cry instead...not funny at all if you ask me!