Gavin - 9 months

Yes I realize that it's the week of christmas and in just a few weeks Gavin will be 10 months. I am a procrastinator! Plus I was hoping to get better pictures of my little guy but it's hard taking pictures of a little mover and then there is his brother who thinks he needs to be in every picture.

So here is the best picture I could get of our little guy....



Gavin is quite the mover. He is crawling like a pro. I thought crawling would make him be more of a free spirit but he still crys when I leave the room. Then he just crawls to find me while crying. Such a momma's boy! There have been the few times that Gavin has crawled out of the room and I let him go to see what he'll do. A few mintues later I'll check on him and find him in his room playing with Zack and/or his toys. Of course if Zack's in the room Gavin always ends up crying shortly after. I'm not saying Zack's a bully (but he kind of is) he just hasn't learned how to share yet or how to be gentle with his little brother. Poor Gavin will find a toy and begin playing with it, and no matter what it is Zack will all the sudden have a special interest in it. I know brothers... I just wish he'd leave poor Gavin alone for 2 minutes. Or Gavin will be walking along the couch and Zack will grab him around the neck and body slam him. I know he just wants to play but he's too rough right now. Maybe that's why Gavin is such a big kid, he has to be with a brother like Zack :).

9 month stats:
23 lbs (95 percentile)
and long (can't find the paper with is stats -- also 95 percentile)

This past month we haven't really done too much. My mom took the boys to the Aquarium and Gavin had his first Thanksgiving. But other then that not really much going on.

Gavin has started saying MaMa. It's as clear as day, just not sure if he is saying it for me or just a sound that he makes. But it's just MaMa... not mamamamamama. It's pretty cute and exciting.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had so many things to be thankful for this year.

I am thankful for our family. Not just our little family but our ENTIRE family. We have amazing people in our lives and are so blessed.

I am thankful for our health. We have been very blessed to have two healthy little boys and only mild health problems.

I am thankful for our jobs. Even with the problems that we had at the beginning of the year we are both blessed to have jobs that treat us well and make us feel appreciated.

I am thankful for the gospel. Because without it I don't know were we would be.




This was Gavin's first Thanksgiving. And even though he wasn't quite 9 months we still let him eat pretty much anything that we are eating. I'm actually not sure if there is a age that is okay to do that but Gavin is a great eater so we went with it. He loved to squish the potatoes between his fingers.




For Thanksgiving Bob always plays Football with friends. This year was especially cold with it only being about 8 degrees that morning. I would have said No thank you. But for him it's tradition. I stayed in our warm house finishing up my food assignment. I made a Pretzel Salad... yummy!

This year we went to my Grandma's house then to my dad's house. We had yummy food. I have to say I love Thanksgiving! I love the food. Zack loved that he could just eat the entire day. I don't think I've ever seen him eat that much. He took to Thanksgiving perfectly.

I had to work Black Friday at 8 am. But that didn't stop me from hitting a midnight sale at Walmart. Luckily I got what I wanted. Unfortunetly I stood in line for 2 1/2 hours to buy it. I probably would have done more shopping but I needed sleep.




After work we had Bob's parents over for Thanksgiving. It was my first time cooking pretty much the entire Thanksgiving meal by myself. Luckily my mom is only a phone call away with ALL my questions. I think it all turned out really good. I heard no complaints.

We had a great day (both Thurs and Friday) and it was awesome to be able to spend it with family.

Yackity Zack

The month of November has just flown by! Really is it already December? The boys are both doing great. They are active as ever. Gavin is loving the crawling phase of life, but he couldn't just stop there, he is now pulling himself up onto everything! About a week ago he even tried walking. Thank goodness it didn't take yet. But our daring little guy sure is trying. Zack is having fun with him. It just melts my heart to see them playing in the corner together or watch Gavin follow Zack into their room and they play in there. It's awesome. I gotta say having two boys so close together will hopefully have their perks. I can just imagine all that I can get done once they are older and playing together. Anyone laughing yet? I know they'll play together but I also can see that there will be fights. Zack is very protective of his toys and is always yelling at Gavin to not touch stuff. But I can dream right?




Zack is talking amazingly! One minute he's just piecing together words and the next he's saying full sentences. It's so funny some of the things he says.

Me: Do you need a spanking?
Zack: No, Thank you I'm okay.

When he falls or if he's doing something wrong and I give him "the look" he says I'm okay. Melts my heart! I do have to say I love when he rubs my face and says "Mommy, your so pretty." Already trying to charm me. What a stinker. Also if I'm pretending to be sad he'll say "It's okay Mommy, Daddy will be home soon."

Speaking of Daddy, Zack already knows that Daddy is a rock star when it comes to fixing things. We were at JoAnn's the other day and they have a warehouse ceiling. So you can see wires and stuff. Zack was so concerned that something was broken on the ceiling. But he said "It's okay, Daddy will fix it." I just had to laugh.

Zack has also started learning to play with his toys. It's so fun to watch him in his little world of make believe. He's been putting his toys to sleep for a while. But the other day Zack got into the fridge and got out the bag of bread. I told him to put it back. He said Handy Manny was hungry. I looked over and there was Handy Manny in the high Chair. So I let Zack feed him. Such a cute little boy!



I feel so blessed to have both Zack and Gavin as a part of our family. They are wonderful little boys.

Gavin - 8 Months

Seriously! Has it already been 8 months since Gavin came into our lives?! Next thing you'll know he's going to be 1 years old. How does the time go by so quickly!

Gavin's 7 Month Picture.......................Gavin's 8 Month Picture


Letter to Gavin:

Dear Gavin,
You are a true blessing to our family. It's amazing how much one little person can add to a family. You are a wonderful little guy. You have gotten over your fear of most people. I think the fact that I've started working again has helped you with that. You have such a wonderful smile and you aren't afraid to share it with the world. You love your mom, dad and brother so much. I love when I walk into a room that you are already in and you get so excited to see me. I also love how excited you get when I come to get you out of your crib. Which by the way we've had to lower because you are starting to pull yourself up on the rails and I don't want you to fall out! In the past month (or two) you've gotten two teeth on the bottom of your mouth -- right in the middle. You started getting mobile by commando crawling. And within a few weeks you were 100% mobile. You have entered the crawling phase of life. And you love it! It amazes me how much you get into now. The cat food and water aren't safe from you. You know that you shouldn't get into it but you do it anyways. It's nice that you are mobile because you follow your brother around. I love to look around for you and find you under the table with your brother. It just melts my heart (until I figure out what you two are into). I know that it will be trouble when you get older. Both of you are going to be troublemakers (in a good way). You are a great eater. So far no allergy's or food aversions. You eat the baby food because that's what we give you but you would much rather have solid foods. You love crackers and cereal. I love to hear you laugh. When I'm in another room and I hear you laugh it just makes me smile. When I investigate to find the latest thing that is making you laugh, it doesn't surprise me that Zack has dogpiled on you and you are just loving every minute of his attention. I can only hope that as you get older that love and bond that the two of you have will continue.
Gavin, you are loved by so many people! We are truely blessed to have you in our family. Thank you for choosing us!

Love, Mom and Dad.

In the past month:

Celebrated Great Grandpa's 80th birthday
Mom started at new job at Bed Bath & Beyond
Visited the Pumpkin Patch
Had Gavin's first Halloween

Gavin loves the outside. Now that he crawls we can more then likely find him in the curtains.

If you stand Gavin up and have him grab onto a chair he loves to stand!
Playing with his brother

Halloween

This year was Gavin's first Halloween and Zack's third Halloween. Zack is understanding the concept a little better. Well actually he knows that if he says Trick or Treat someone will give him candy. This year I made both of their costumes. They were both Skeletons. The costumes were fun to make but a lot more involved that I thought it would be. I spent many nights up until 1 or 2am working on costumes. Of course it didn't help that I am the worlds biggest procrastonator. But I did have them done 2 days before Halloween. Amazing right!

The fronts

And the back (taken a day earlier)

I also made my costume. Here is our family Halloween picture. Bob is Axel Rose (he says).

We had a fun Halloween. It started by visiting my Mom and Aunt Jolene about 4:00. Zack Trick or Treated, then we took pictures. We had our Trunk or Treat at 5:30 which ended up being inside the Church because of the rain. (That was interesting). Our luck the weather holds all day long then right when Trunk or Treating is to begin it rains. Luckily we were inside. There were kids coming through the line that were pretty wet. After Trunk or Treat our Ward had a Chili Dinner. We then went to visit Bob's parents at 7:00. Played there for a little bit then headed to my dad's. I feel bad because I told him the day before that we would visit at 4:30 but totally forgot that I told them a time. So we hung out at my dad's house for a little bit then headed home.

Bob, Zack and Gavin Trick or Treating.

All in all it was a pretty good Halloween. Zack and Gavin got a lot of candy and we've had to hide it!
Zack will say to me... Trick or Treat"? When I tell him the candy is gone, he'll find the bowl and say "There it is, I found it". Such a smart kid.

Pumpkin Patch

Last week my family went to the pumpkin patch. My family being My mom, aunt Jolene, Jeantte and Tyler, Deanna, Kelly and Kairi, myself and the two boys. Bob was at a Football game. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunetly we waited a little later in the month to go and wouldn't you know rain was in the forecast. We planned on meeting at 2:00 at the patch. That morning we woke to rain. I was crossing my fingers and toes that it would clear up. Luck was with us and by two it was better weather. So off to the pumpkin patch we all went. It was fun wondering the field. Zack had a blast picking up pumpkins and adding them to our wheelbarrow. He of course doesn't get the concept that we actually have to buy the pumpkins. All he knew was there was a field full of pumpkins and he could get whatever he wanted. So when he wasn't looking I put some of the pumpkins back into the field. He also didn't understand that you couldn't throw pumpkins. Luckily most of the pumpkins were squishy all ready so I didn't feel too bad if he bruised one or two of them. I was able to get some fun pictures of the kids.



These are two of the pumpkins that we ended up going home with (no charge of course). He's such a silly boy!


Gavin of course just wanted to eat the dirt, hay and vines that were in the pumpkin patch.

This is my favorite picture because it's all the cousins. Tyler who is 15, Zack who is 2, Gavin who is 7 months and Kairi who is 3 months.

Just as we were leaving the pumpkin patch it started to rain. By the time we got home it was a downpour. We definitly were there at the right time. The boys has such cute shirts on, it's too bad they were hidden by their jackets. This is one reason I'm not a fan of cold weather. Cute clothes are hidden beneath layers!

Oh What a Fright

I love halloween. I love decorating for it. I love wearing costumes. And this years I am super excited to celebrate it with my two boys. Zack has been practicing trick or treating all month. Not sure he understands the concept but I know once he gets that first bit of candy in his bag he'll be hooked. I started decorating a little late this year... but Zack was a big help. He especially loved his new friend:

I love this pictures because it's so Zack. He is such a ham. He would have played with this guy all day long if it hadn't broke. So all decorations are hands off from now on.

I also love dressing my kids for halloween. It's so exciting to celebrate Gavin's first Halloween!

I'm making the boys costumes this year so we'll see how they turn out. In my mind they are amazing. But not sure what it will end up being. And I'm kind of a matchy matchy type person so the boys will be dressed alike. I'll be dressed along the same theme. And Bob.... well he'll be wearing a mustache (that's all I could get him to agree too