One More Month!

I wanted to take more pictures of my pregnant self with this pregnancy, but it really didn't happen. After looking at this picture, I can see why...you gotta love the chunky cheeks! Here I am at 35 1/2 weeks...only 4 weeks to go! I am dialated to a 1, but I think that is normal, but it is still exciting to hear. I have been feeling pretty good. I have been able to sleep better at night and am getting more and more excited each day!

Winter Walk

I didn't think I'd ever say that 25 degrees is a nice day, but this morning it was so nice, Gavin and I took the dogs for a little walk. Gavin had fun pulling little Belle. She is such a good dog, she just followed him wherever he took her.

A Whole Lot Of Nothing...

Nothing too exciting has gone on around here. I have been doing a lot of organizing and getting baby suff out. Only 6 weeks to go!! Gavin is doing funny things everyday, here are a couple of funny things I got on the camera...

After doing laundry one day I found Gavin trying to put all the dogs in the laundry basket. He then climbed in after he got them all in.
Casey kept putting Gavin in this little container and would make him "fly" all around the house in it. A little later, I found Gavin just sitting in it (watching the TV). He was probably waiting for his dad to make him "fly" again.

Wish Us Luck!

I had no plans to potty train Gavin anytime soon. But the other day, he kept taking off his pants and diaper, so I put him on the toilet, and he went potty. So I thought we'd keep trying this out. He is pretty funny when he is done going. If Casey is home, he'll run to Casey excited, because he knows Daddy will give him candy if he goes. He's doing pretty good, but part of his problem is that he can't tell me he needs to go, so I taught him the sign for "toilet", so that eventually when he does need to go, he can sign it. Now, he just uses the sign to get out of doing things, like going down for naps or cleaning up his toys. This may totally flop, but wish us luck!

Our Late Christmas Present

Our downstairs has always been a little cold in the wintertime, and so when we put the tile and hardwood floors, it just made it worse. I have always wanted a fireplace to go downstairs for the warmth, and the look, so when I found out about the electric fireplaces they have that are cheaper, and easy to install (you just plug it in), we started looking into getting one. I found a lot that I liked, but we had to keep it a certain highth because of the TV it was to go under (to hide all the ugly cords). I finally found one I liked...based off of the picture.....
Looks great, right? Oh, but I forgot to measure it...and it was WAY too small...it sure doesn't look like the above picture.

So, we sent it back and I ordered another one. It was suppose to be here a week before Christmas. We got the mantle, but the fireplace didn't show. After MANY phone calls, they finally got it shipped out and we got it this week. It has made such a difference in keeping our downstairs warm and I love the look.

On Daddy's Watch....

I came home from work yesterday, and found Gavin's beautiful artwork on the bathroom wall, bathroom door, toilet seat, doggy carrier, window and window sill. The kid won't color in his coloring book, but goes to town on the wall. Thank goodness for Magic Erasers!

He is "helping" us clean up the marks.

The Little Engineer

We call Gavin our little Engineer because he is so interested in fixing things. Braxton has a jeep that most kids want to sit in and drive. Not Gavin. He'd rather pop the hood and "fix" the inside. Yesterday, Casey was helping his dad install another satellite with Dish Network, Gavin was right there in the middle helping them with his little toy screwdriver. He is going to be just like his Dad and Grandpa

Big Helper

Gavin has this obsession for this little "puppy"...we don't exactly know what it is, but it kind of looks like it could be a dog, so we started calling it his puppy. Anyway, on New Years Day, we were at Casey's parent's house, and little Roxi was sad, so Gavin gave her his puppy, and it made her so happy. I was so impressed with my big boy, because he LOVES that puppy, and I thought it was sweet he gave it to her...only for a few seconds, but it was sweet anyway. He is going to be such a great big brother!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! 2008 was a good year, and I am excited for what 2009 will be like. We rang in the new year at Doug and Autumn's. We had fun playing games and eating. Gavin had so much fun playing with Braxton and Brielle, he probably had no idea it was WAY past his bedtime. I hope you all have a wonderful new year!

Check out how fat I am!

Gavin and Brielle ringing in the new year.

Smith Family

Mat Pledger, Kristine and Andrew Davis

Jess and Jared Larson

Logan and Camille

St. George

We took a quick trip to St. George. We really didn't do much, but it was fun just to hang out with my family. We stayed in a penthouse, which was so nice! There were 12 of us and we never felt crowded it was so big. They had a hot tub out on the patio...too bad I couldn't enjoy it. I thought Gavin would have fun it it, but he didn't want in AT ALL. Instead he wanted to play in the big jetted tub. Gavin loved spending time with his cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. I did get to go shopping at the outlet stores, which is the main reason why I wanted to go there...so it ended up being a great trip! I didn't get many pictures, but here are the few I took...

Gavin spent most of the time playing with the trains...he would have someone set up the track and then go "vroom vroom" with a car on it.

Eating Grandpa Bill's breakfast

One evening, the kids were off playing, and it was quiet for a while, so I went to check on them. I found the bathroom where Gavin's bed was set up. I don't know how Gavin got in the bed, but he was having so much fun playing in it with Braxton. They were playing house, and Kylie was the mom, Gavin was the dad and Braxton was the baby.
One night I put Gavin to bed. He went down really well, and I thought he went right to sleep. Abut a half an hour later, Braxton and Kylie came running in and said "Gavin got out of bed and is opening the door!" I went to check on him, and this is what I found:
I guess he figured out how to open the door, and thought that was way more fun then to go to bed.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a great Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas. It was fun to start new traditions and continue other traditions. It made me really think about my family and friends and I see how blessed I am to be surrounded by so many giving and thoughtful people.

DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS:
Here is Gavin with his advent calendar. Every morning right after breakfast he would point to the fridge and say "more"....meaning, "I want chocolate!" Each little window we would open each day and he would get a chocolate. Only one more day to go...

CHRISTMAS EVE:

We started this tradition last year, where on Christmas Eve, we would sit in our PJ's all day and watch Christmas movies, then enjoy a big Christmas Eve dinner. We watched Chipmunks (Gavin's favorite), Micky Mouse's Christmas Carol, Home Alone 2, The Grinch, and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. We then had a nice dinner of roast...yum! That evening we went to my parent's to have dessert and to do our gift exchange. We also read in Luke 2 and the little grandkids acted out the Christmas story. Gavin was a little shepherd, Damon was a wiseman, Braxton was Joseph and Kylie was Mary. They did a great job.

CHRISTMAS DAY!

Gavin had a lot of fun opening his presents and going through his stocking. He was so much fun to watch. He would rip open each present and with each one give an enthusiastic "Wow!".

Playing with his new toy...he loved playing with these at his cousin's, Andee and Nick, so I had to get him his own set.Yes, even the dogs got a present.

My mom and dad came around to each of our homes in the morning to deliver gifts and have breakfast. Here is Gavin opening his present from them. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

He loves his vacuum from Grandma and Grandpa

Showing off his new presents...

Later we went to Casey's parent's and had lunch and a gift exchange there. Gavin got this quilt and blanket for his big boy bed. It is so cute! It has his favorite thing on it...dogs.

Casey got a dart board from James and Charity. He was so excited to get it and has been wanting one for a while. He and his brothers had fun playing a few games. Casey was the champion.

Decorating the Gingerbread House

Gavin had a lot of fun helping me decorate the gingerbread house. He knew exactly what to do, and got pretty messy while doing it, but he had a lot of fun!

The side of the house I decorated....

The side of the house Gavin decorated....