Happy Birthday Gavin!!!!! 3 YEARS OLD!

I can't believe my little baby is now 3 years old...boy how time flies. I think having your birthday right on New Year's Day could potentially be a cool and fun thing, or it could be a flop :) It's a good thing Gavin is only 3 and doesn't mind that his birthday was VERY low key. We were going to go to Disney but it ended up being rainy and windy and kind of cold and so we scratched that. I hung around on the computer ALL DAY and didn't do much. Finally I made his cake (from the adorable HUGE cupcake pan my mom gave me for Christmas), and eventually we went out to eat. It's so sad, we didn't even have gifts, I like to blame it on the excuse that we were out of town and just getting back, etc. So we took him to the store and Matt, Emma, Luke, and I followed him around the toy section to see what he liked. He is hard to buy for because when you ask him what he wants he says "Toys". I swear we played with every toy in Wal-Mart and finally picked out the ones he played with the longest!


Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet, boy! He is such a fun little guy to be with. He is constantly walking up to me and out of the blue he will tell me he loves me. One time he told me and I said thank you and he said "No I REALLY love you!" He melts my heart!!!!!!!

Dinner at Maria Bonitas!

Ok so I have yet to perfect the Huge cupcake pan and make it look cute :) It looks REALLY HUGE sitting in front of little Gavin and at the angle I took the picture, too funny :)

There's talk of potty training...

Right now it's just talk and not much action. Gavin knows how to poop on the toilet, it's just a matter of getting him to do it consistently. And poor kid, right now I am so busy running from here to there that there is no time to stay home and get the job done. So it's just talk, here is our conversation today. While I'm changing his poopy diaper....

Me: "You know next time you could poop in the toilet, and then I wouldn't have to change your diaper"

Gavin: "Ooohhh that's how you do it"

Me: "Yep. Big boys poop in the toilet"

Gavin (thinking I said "good boys"): "Oh good boys poop in the toilet?"

Me: "Yep"

Gavin: "So grandpa poops in the toilet"

Me: "Yep"

Gavin: "Oh and Jesus poops in the toilet"

Me: "Um ya I guess you're right"

Funny conversation! :) It's cool to think that Grandpa and Jesus are the ones he thinks of when he thinks of "good boys" :)

First day of school 2009!

Well here we go! The first day of school was great. Emma loved it and was so excited to just get started. Luke wasn't that nervous because it was his same teacher and pretty much the same class. The only worry was Gavin. He saw the kids with their backpacks and immediately got his out and wore it the WHOLE day! After we dropped off the kids he wanted to know where his class was. I took him to the gym and told him that was his "class". He bought it and went in with his backpack :)

Emma came home from school a little put out that she didn't LEARN anything and had no homework :) I hope she is always this eager to learn!

Daddy's Home!!!!

Today they put in the new bishopric and NO Matt is not bishop! (Thank goodness!) So this morning they cancelled bishopric meeting and so Matt actually got to ride to church with us! As Matt was dressing Gavin he kept saying "Daddy Home!" He couldn't believe Daddy was actually around to help us get ready :) So Matt is able to enjoy a week without a calling! We'll let you know what next week brings!

My cute boys

We had the best Sunday...there was no fighting while getting ready for church, we were on time, and the kids were really good during sacrament! Then we had the missionaries over for dinner! I don't know what we did differently but I have to figure it out so next week can be JUST LIKE IT! Don't the boys look so cute all dressed like twinners :) Emma is not going to be happy that she isn't on the blog...Ooops :)

A House of Monkeys and Pigs

While we were at the park today Luke and Emma learned to go clear across the monkey bars. They were both so proud of themselves. They have tried and tried and never made it all the way across...today as I was watching them I realized they were taking too long to get across and then their little arms would get tired and so when they hurried across they made it! I love life's little accomplishments that give them more confidence :)


Oh and while at the park Gavin learned to snort like a pig :) He thinks he is so funny now :)

(These pictures and videos are not the best quality...they were taken with my phone - I need to remember to take my camera EVERYWHERE! I wish I had a video of the snorting...that will have to come tomorrow)

Ee - I - Ee - I - O

Yee-Haw Unicorn!

Yes his pajamas are VERY wet, Emma just gave him a whole bottle of water to drink :) What a great helper!

Daddy's Helper

So many times Gavin gets tired and ornery and wants me to hold him at the exact same time that I am rushing to get dinner ready. So I just put him in my back pack and that is how I cook dinner. I also vacuum, mop, and do many other things with this monkey on my back :) I thought it would be fun for Matt to see how it feels to have a buddy to accompany you with your chores....so here is Matt's little helper on his back while he mowed the lawn. I felt bad for him and went and took Gavin off when he got to the back yard :)

Gavin is a big boy now!

Gavin has been cracking me up the last couple of days....for example, yesterday morning he woke up pretty early and I went and grabbed him and put him in bed with us. Usually he will just cuddle me and we both fall back asleep. This time I fell asleep and he got out of bed without me noticing and wandered downstairs. So the whole house is asleep and the downstairs is dark, but he goes and sits himself at the kitchen table and starts yelling "Daddy, dadddddy". Matt finally becomes conscious and goes downstairs and flips on the lights and there is Gavin calmly yelling daddy and swinging his feet at the kitchen table! Funny kid.


Today he mastered the art of going up and down the stairs upright (as opposed to the crawling on hands and feet up and scooting backward on the tummy down). I don't know how excited I am about that, it still makes me nervous but he's got to grow up sometime right? :) He was soooooo proud of himself and yelled for Luke and Emma to come watch him. They were so cute and made a big deal about it, which made his face beam even more :)


The other thing that made me laugh was tonight at dinner he tore off a piece of french bread and held it up to his ear and acted like it was a phone and carried on a conversation for a little while :) Also today Emma said his name as she was trying to hand him a balloon, he turned around and as clear as can be said "What, oh, thank you". I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but he sounded so grown up! Also today as he was concentrating on building something with Luke's legos he started singing Outkast's song that says "Hey ya....shake it shake it shake it". We have a karaoke game and that song is on it and so he knows the chorus. It just seemed so funny to have a little baby sitting there singing absent- mindedly as he was working on something :)


Well here are some pictures of his stairs accomplishment...First here he comes down....

And here he goes back up....

Watch for yourself and don't mind my obnoxious cheering :)....down

and up....

Don't ask Matt to do your hair!

I asked Matt to gel the boys hair before we went out to eat and here's what they looked like...

Emma didn't want to miss out on the photo op! :)

Good thing Gavin is a light weight!

We watched my friend's kids while they went to a wedding and stayed over night. The kids had a great time playing together. She has a 3 year old Peter, and Zachary is 2 months or so younger then Gavin. It was so funny because Zachary climbed into one of the bins of toys and then Gavin climbed right in after him and sat on his lap!

Peter had a great time with the kids dress ups. It reminded of the good old days when Luke would wear this Buzz Lightyear costume EVERYWHERE we went. I got some funny looks at Target :)

What an example...

I put Gavin in his high chair tonight and gave him his bottle and a chip and then I turned around to get the rest of his dinner ready for him. When I glanced over at him he had his arms folded and was saying a prayer before eating his little meal! What a good little boy!

Gavin's Little Surgery...

Emma took this picture of Gavin just before he went in...he was trying to say "cheese" :)

Today we took Gavin in to get tubes put in his ears. I was relieved when they told me his operation was going to be at 7:30 a.m. because he was not supposed to eat after midnight the night before. I knew he would be very upset in the morning if he didn't get his bottle and breakfast so I thought it would work great having his surgery first thing. WELL we got there at 7:30 a.m. and waited in the waiting room until 11:30 a.m. We took many walks and saw all the fun things the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital had. But the kids were hungry and antsy. Finally they took us to a room and Gavin put on the cute little hospital gown. It was so cute to see the little open back gown on little Gavers. Then we waited in that room for an hour! Gavin got so tired that he fell asleep when I was rocking him. Finally at 12:30 they came to take him in for his surgery. They gave him some medication to make him tired and happy so that when they took him he didn't make a big scene. He was very mad every time they would take his blood pressure or hook him up to any kind of monitors. But by the time they took him he was kind of loopy and didn't mind. He just kissed me and off he went. The whole surgery took all of 10 minutes. While he was in there I took the kids to grab a bite to eat and by the time we were done they were calling me to come up for him. He woke up hungry and mad. They let me give him a bottle of juice and he downed it! Then when he finished he kept pointing to the empty bottle and crying "mama". They said they didn't want him to have more in case he threw it up. But he was screaming. So they got him a popsicle and he just held it in his hands and cried. When I would try to take it away he would freak out even more. So they finally gave in and gave him another bottle. :) Thank goodness! The kids took a few more minutes at the fun pirate ship the hospital has outside and then we finally got home by 3:00 pm. Both Luke and Emma fell asleep on the way home and I put Gavin down for a nap too and I even got a nap!!!!!! That NEVER happens but we were all so exhausted that we crashed from 3:00 to 5:00 pm!! So the 10 minute surgery took us all day! The doctor said Gavin's ear was brutally infected. It just confirmed to me that we really did need the tubes. Gavin has had consistent fluid and ear infections since November! So the poor baby....hopefully this will take care of everything and he will have clear ears again.

Is this not the cutest thing to see the hospital gown on his little body :)

Medicine is kickin in!

Thank goodness for all the fun things they had around the hospital to keep the kids entertained.

Gavin...17 months old going on 17 years :)

Gavin thinks he owns the place around here. He thinks he is allowed to play with anything and everything! Tonight I walked into the room to see him typing away at Matt's computer! He really looked like he knew what he was doing :)

BUSTED!

He thinks he is so funny!

I walked into the family room to see all three kids in one chair watching t.v. There is another chair exactly like this one right next to it but they all like to be together :) I love the way Gavin is looking up at Emma like he is so funny!