Happy 7 Years

Today is our 7th Anniversary!  Wahooooo!!!  It has been a great 7 years full of so many ups and a few downs.  I am so happy and grateful to be married to the love of my life and am excited for everything to come.  We celebrated by taking a few hours and going to Tepanyaki for dinner.  I have been wanting to go for years and it was really yummy!  Happy Anniversary!

Gavin-4 Months

Our little man is 4 months old already!  He is so happy and we just adore him.  We had his 4 month check up on December 31, 2012.  Weighed in at 16 lb 12 oz, 83rd percentile, 26 and 3/4 inches long, 95th percentile and head circumference of 43.7, 84th percentile!  He is doing great, but does have lots of rashy spots.  When I took him in a few days earlier, they said he has eczema and that I need to put cortizone 10 and lotion on it each morning and night.  I also switched to using Dreft laundry detergent and no dryer sheets.  He has some seriously sensitive skin.  The rash did go away but they said it would probably be there during winters for awhile.  Here is a 4 month picture of Gavin.  He seems to have his arms up like this a lot right now.

Here are some things Gavin has been doing this month.

• Gavin LOVES Ellie.  He has always loved her and she is so good with him.  He is now following Ellie around with his eyes and will laugh and laugh for her.  He always smiles when he sees her too.  I hope there relationship stays good as they get older.  It is so cute.  I love this picture because they were both content for quite awhile just hanging out with each other watching cartoons.  December 4, 2012

• Gavin still hates tummy time.  He usually cries for most of the time he is on his tummy.  December 4, 2012

• He is sometimes okay on his tummy and when he is, he does really well at holding his head up.  December 7, 2012

• Gavin drools like crazy.  I blame Patrick because he always wondered why kids drool so much.  Everyone always thinks he is getting teeth and makes sure to tell us that.  He still has no teeth and no red bumps....etc.  But I usually have a bib on him because if not his shirts are drenched.  December 7, 2012

• He has started to find his voice more and more and loves to jabber, especially in the car.  It is so cute to hear his little voice.  This sounds dumb, but he already sounds like a little boy.  I never really thought of Ellie's voice sounding like a girl when she was a baby, but now I realize it did so much.  Gavin just sounds like a boy:)
• Gavin loves to be on his side.  He sleeps on his side and will roll to his side whenever we put him down.  On December 21, 2012 he rolled from his back to his tummy.  He also can amazingly move around.  We find him in the bottom of the crib all the time.  This picture is from the 29th,

• He loves being held up in the air above you.  He will laugh and smile like crazy.  Over Christmas Patrick had him laughing so hard one night.  He woke up and didn't want to sleep and was just super giggly. 
• I had to include this picture because of love his hair.  Gavin still has very red hair and I think it is going to stay like that.  It may bleach a bit in summer.  It is so handsome and we get so many comments from people everywhere we go on how pretty his hair color is.  This is after a bath and he looks like Einstein:)  December 27, 2012

• We have a jumparoo and tried it out with Gavin.  He wasn't so sure about it but I think will end up loving it.  He likes to be up and looking around.  Ellie sure thought it was fun to have him in there and wanted to swing him all over...December 29, 2012

I am just smitten by this little man and am so glad he is in our family.  He is such a cutie and brings so much joy to us.  Can't wait to see his little personality keep coming.

Homeade Ice Cream out of Snow!

I saw a really cool pin on Pinterest about making snow into ice cream.  So...I of course had to give it a try.  How fun for little kids to make there own ice cream out of something that they all love!  Ellie was very excited to help mix and make her ice cream!

 While we had a lot of fun making the ice cream, I was a bit disappointed in the taste. Elle ate a bit, but after a few bites it really isn't that great:(  But, it was super fun to make, and we will probably try it again next year!

Christmas Card 2012

Merry Christmas!  Hope everyone had a great day!

Merry Christmas 2012!

We had a wonderful Christmas and I just have to say that having little kids during Christmastime is so awesome!  The spirit is so strong and the excitement is great!  We were able to have a Christmas here at home with my parents on December 21, 2012

Ellie helped pass out all the presents.  She was a really good and helped Gavin open his presents too;)

My mom surprised me with an awesome straight iron so I can try to curl my hair more often

We got my mom a new printer that scans so she can do more of her genealogy

And my dad some nice shirts

Patrick got a new Xbox game from my parents

I just love how happy Gavin is in this picture.  We got him the jumparoo and he was excited to be able to be up and looking at everyone without being held

Ellie with all her presents.  The Lorax, Doc McStuffins with Lamby, a dr kit and the spinning thing you sit on and turn

Gavin with his gifts.  He was more interested in sucking on everything then seeing what he actually got...Jammies, Jumparoo, a toy truck, and a poppin dino

We then headed up to Layton to spend some days with Patrick's family.

December 24, 2012: All the boys watching cartoons in the morning

 We had the annual family get together for Christmas Eve.  It's always so great with yummy food and a program.

It even started to snow and Ellie got to get all decked out and make a snow angel.

Christmas Day!

Santa came and left his footprints all over the carpet.  Ellie was super excited!

 He brought presents

 And ate his milk and cookies

 When all of the presents were being handed out Gavin was getting a little lost.

 We found him.

 Last year Ellie loved all the bows.  This year we had to convince her to let us take a picture with just one bow.  She is so cute!

Here is Gavin in my stocking that Grandma Cassity made.  We have a picture of Ellie in her stocking and needed to get Gavin too.  He was not happy at all about being shoved in the sock...

 Gavin and all his loot:Clothes,bibs, balls, plate and bowl, soft blocks, books, a blow up panda bear you can punch, a picture book with the alphabet and church themes, car books, cow and football rattles and a truck.

 Ellie with all hers: Princess castle and 7 princesses, bath toys, toothbrush holder with cup, candy land, barbie Cinderella, alphabet church book, look and find books, clothes, princess squinkies, candy, books and oranges.

  We had a great Christmas and enjoyed spending all the time together.  So glad we have family so close and can see them a lot.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Crafts and Fun

I love Christmas and always have!  I really love all of the traditions that people do and ways to make it fun and bring the spirit.  I remember growing up we always did fun things, whether it was making yummy food, shopping, going to see Christmas lights or doing the 12 days of Christmas, it was always really great.  I decided this year that I needed to just have some little crafts to help Ellie get excited and to keep her from getting bored(since we didn't want to take Gavin out in the cold too much)  We found lots of ideas on Pinterest and went to work.  It was fun to be able to watch her create and see the fun ideas she has!  I love her so much!

November 25, 2012-Gumdrop Snowflakes This one was a little harder for her.  The toothpicks kept breaking, but she still had fun

November 30, 2012-Marshmallow Snowman She was so careful to put each marshmallow on the lines and loved painting with them.  She may have eaten a few also:)

 

 December 1, 2012-Live Nativity

We went to a really cool live nativity this year in Alpine.  It was so much fun and I think it helped Ellie to see how it would have been.  We took a hayride to the place.

  They had real animals which Ellie loved seeing.

 They had a marketplace where they showed things that would have been going on in that time period. 

 They even had guards that would come and talk to you.  They came and asked about our baby boy and Ellie was a little scared.

The wise men told all about there gifts.  Ellie listed so good!

We wore Gavin out.

Then you could walk in and see baby Jesus.  It was so peaceful and had a really special feeling. 

 Christmas Calendars 

We made our Christmas Calendars for FHE.

19th Here is Ellie getting her candy for the day-She loved it!

December 4, 2012-Gingerbread Cookies

I loved doing this as a kid and had fun being able to see Ellie decorate. 

These two make me laugh so much!  Same facial expressions all the time!

Love having Grandma play with us!

 

Gavin had a good time too:)

She especially loved the sprinkles and really enjoyed licking all the frosting off:)

 

Soooo Goooooood!

 December 10, 2012-Elf Mail

We had an Elf that brought a present to Ellie each night, so in the morning she would run downstairs to the little mailbox to see what he left.  It was so much fun to see her get so excited.  I didn't take any pictures:(  but he brought tons of fun things.  Princess shoes, snow globe, chapstick, candy, pens, snowman plates, a cool snap bracelet, hair clips, and these water paintings.

 Santa Countdown-We had this hanging on the fridge with a little baggie that had cotton balls and a glue stick.  It was fun to be able to put a piece of Santa's beard on each morning.  We will probably keep this one going each year too.

December 11, 2012-Letters to Santa

I love how focused she was.

Whenever I asked Ellie what she wanted she would just say presents and toys.  She is pretty easy going still and will be happy with anything:)  I love this age

Fun Snowman Lunch with bananas and pretzels.  She ate them all!

 December 14, 2012-Layton City Lights and Santa

 We have been to look at the city lights for a couple years and this year decided it would be fun to take a hay ride through.  It was FREEZING!  I think it would have been fun, but it was really, really cold and raining!  We still had a good time.

 Thanks Uncle D and Uncle Eric for braving the storm with us.

 Grandma and Grandpa took Gavin with them in the car so he would be nice and cozy.  Then they played at home:)

We stopped and got some dinner and Santa was there.

December 17, 2012-Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees

Once again she loved licking the frosting and sprinkles:)

 

Nativity Family Home Evening Scavenger Hunt-I saw an idea of reading the nativity scene and doing a little scavenger hunt for each item.  Ellie really enjoyed this and it helped to learn what each person did and represented.  I think this will become a tradition

December 22, 2012-Candy Cane Fruit and Snowman Donuts

 

 We have had such a great month!  I love my cute family!