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!

Breakfast with Santa

Our ward had a breakfast with Santa yesterday and it was so fun! Everything was decorated so cute and the food was amazing! We stood in line for a long time to see Santa...in fact we were the last in line. Gavin didn't cry, but seemed a little shell shocked. He did try to pull off his beard too!
To the naughty little boy that kept kicking Gavin...I am pretty sure that Santa is not coming to your house this year! Seriously I was so ticked at this little kid. I don't even know who he belonged to, but I was about ready to kick him back. I guess it was me just being a momma bear protecting my cub! Have you ever done something to a child that is picking on yours? How are you supposed to react to that when the parent of the other child is not around? Probably not kick him back, I guess I will have to work on my reactions! Merry Christmas to everyone!!! Hope you have a fabulous holiday!

5 reasons

My house is a mess:

1. I am too busy blog stalking people to clean.
2. There is another Law and Order:SVU marathon on.
3. I just have to finish one more chapter of my book.
4. Facebook...need I say more?
5. Gavin is making messes as fast as I can clean them up!

My growing boy!

Gavin turned 1 on Thanksgiving!! Holy cow...where did the time go? We had a fun family party that night with presents and cake. He wasn't quite sure what to think of all the attention being on him, but he enjoyed watching all his cousins play and run around. He just wants to be one of the big boys. I lost the usb cord for my camera but here are a couple of pics from the party! Thanks Ang...I love them!

Digging in to his birthday cake!

The cousins in their Christmas jammies...a little early! In April this family will finally get a little girl and who knows what we will do with her!! She will be so spoiled!

Dating

Yep that's right...I titled this post dating. Do you ever feel like you are back in the dating world when you are trying to make new couple friends? This last Friday our little family walked up to a park that is by our home. There was another little family there with a 14 month old boy that Gavin thought was really cool. (He kept trying to poke his eye out so I figure that is a good sign.)
Anyway, Brandon and the other dad hit it off and were having some great sports conversations while the other mom and I were talking about kids, church callings, etc. Then it was time to leave...so we just left! I didn't want to be all awkward and say, "Sooo we should do this again sometime. I had a fun time. Can I call you?" Ya know what I mean!! How often is it that you find a couple that your hubby and you both get along with?!? And when you do what are you supposed to do? Ask for their number? Tell them to meet back here same time next week? Awkward!! So, how do you make new couple friends? And because my almost one year old is so darling I thought I better post a more recent pic of him too! Isn't he so handsome!!!

12 Weeks Ago Today...

12 weeks ago today I looked like this! I am so glad that Gavin is not in my belly anymore and can't believe he is already 12 weeks old!! Where has the time gone?

On November 25, 2009 I checked into the hospital around 6:00 am to be induced. At first things were going great and the doctor was pleased with how quickly I was progressing. After 13 hours of labor I was at an 8, my contractions were becoming irregular and Gavin was posterior and wouldn't turn. The doctor finally decided it would be best to do a C-section. At this point I just wanted to get Gavin here safe and sound and finally meet the little man! So they wheeled me back to the OR. It turned out to be a good thing because when they were doing the C-section my doctor noticed that the tube I had my ectopic pregnancy in hadn't healed very well and needed to be removed. I was glad we found out that way and not by having another ectopic pregnancy!!

At 7:44 pm Gavin was officially born. He weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces (which surprised everyone) and was 21 inches long! I didn't get to see him when he was being cleaned up because they were closing me up, but Brandon went and hung out with him. What an amazing 12 weeks this has been! I didn't know it would be possible to love someone so much!! I love him more and more everyday and can't wait to see what he learns to do next! I love you Gavin!!! Happy 12 weeks!

Better late than never...

Well...it has been over a year since I have posted and now that I am staying at home with Gavin I have lots of time on my hands! I figure this will be a good way to document all of Gavin's latest tricks! We recently went to his 2 month well child check and it was no fun. Gavin is growing pretty good. He weighs 10 lbs. 15 oz. (40 percentile) and 23.3" (75 percentile). He is tall and skinny like his daddy! Unfortunately he also seems to have his dad's bad ears too. Brandon had to get tubes in his ears when he was 14 years old. 14 YEARS!! Poor little Gavin was just screaming like crazy when the doctor was looking in his ears. Apparently there is a lot of fluid in them and lots of excess wax. We get to go back at the end of February to see if there has been any improvement. Fingers crossed! The good news was he was screaming so hard about his ears that he didn't even notice when they gave him his shots! I felt so bad for him and just cried right along with him. His personality has started coming out and I think he is going to be a feisty one. The other day I was feeding him and I started rubbing his feet. He pulled his little feet in and kicked my hand away with a loud grunt. It was pretty funny. He loves his daddy and is always so happy when Bee gets home from work! He also loves Baby Einstein...he is going to be a genius! His latest tricks are grabbing at toys and putting himself to sleep with his thumb! What a cute boy! Well, that's all for now!

Here goes nothing...

Well, everyone else is doing this whole blog thing so I thought we might as well start. Brandon and I have been married for 2 1/2 years and are living in Salt Lake. I am working full time at Sorenson Communications as a HR Assistant. Brandon is working part time at Ensign Engineering and finishing up school at the University of Utah. He will graduate in Civil Engineering in May! Our lives are pretty dull for the most part. We are excited to have family in town for Christmas. My brother and his family are coming from California and Brandon's brother and sister-in-law are coming from Arizona! It will be so much fun to see them and spend time with our families! Unfortunately I am recovering from surgery. :( I was 6 weeks pregnant and on Thursday night we found out the baby was in the fallopian tube. They cut my belly open and removed the baby. Luckily they were able to save my tube! We are sad to have to go through this, especially at this time, but we are very grateful for our family and friends that are helping us through this time! I am grateful to know that Heavenly Father has a plan for our life and things will all work out the way they are supposed to! That is all that is going on with us! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!