King Gavin

Gavin has been officially crowned the king by his cousins! They made him his own special crown and he loves it so much he still wears it! He has such a great time back home for the week.

Santa Was Here!

As suspected...Santa did arrive! He was very happy that Gavin had been a really good boy this year so he brought extra presents. Gavin had a very fun and present-filled holiday. He was a very lucky boy. His favorite gift so far has been his kitchen. He loves that. He loves his power tool workshop as well so they sit side-by-side and he bounces back and forth between them. He also received a trampoline which i'm very excited to get put up. We are going to try to make room for it in the basement walk-out side for the winter. That will be a lot of fun (so long as no adults get on and attempt to jump into the ceiling). The family received a wii and a wii fit pad but we've yet to use it. Hopefully soon we'll get to. We also spent a week back in PA so Gavin was able to get a second visit from Santa at his 'Gungal's' house on top of all his other 'family' gifts. Yesterday when he woke up I asked him what he dreamt about and he said "Santa coming again." ahahahaha...

Christmas Visits!

This weekend we had lots of visitors - my Mom, Dad, niece Sarah, and nephew Jake. We made sure to get outside and play in our knee deep snow. Hard to believe how much snow we had. We could barely get a sled to move in it. The snowdrifts in some places were at least 3 feet deep. But mostly we just pushed our way through a about 14" of snow after our fresh 10" we received. My family liked it since they still have grass showing at their house!

Gavin misses everyone already and they just left!

Busy Days...

Ok... where to start.... Thursday Luca had knee surgery. She is doing well. She has a shaved butt like a lion and has to wear a cone as she eats at her staples (and has successfully chewed 2 of them out already).

Then Friday.. Ryan's work Christmas party was Friday night. We got all dolled up. Had a good time and won the Grand Prize - a wii and wii Fit Pad!! Awesome.

Saturday we got our real tree and decorated that. It turned out to be an all day activity. I haven't a clue how it happened but I ended up with 1300 lights on my tree. It's pretty though -but the fire department might drop in if they happen to drive by. Looks like a small fire in our house. :-)

Gavin also cooked some popcorn on the stove (don't worry... I was right there). He was so proud of it that he took pictures of it.

Lastly... most of you know my fear of spiders. There was one in the house and Gavin and I were home alone. I put my finest parenting skills in gear and I persuaded my son, against his own fear, that he should kill it with a shoe. And he did. Parenting at it's finest. :-)

Slideshow of events at the bottom....

Christmas Cookies

Gavin and I made some Christmas sugar cookies tonight. He had full access to the icing and sprinkles. Some of his cookies give me a toothache just looking at them. But my goodness... aren't they beautiful? :-)

Gumdrop House

We just spent 2 full weeks back home at my parents' house. We did a LOT of different things - train rides, visiting Santa, playland, movies, dinner at the ski resort, etc. etc. etc. I have lots and lots of pictures but this was a nice one. The kids put together a gumdrop house (a/k/a gingerbread house to some). They had a great time and Gavin ate enough icing to give himself a tummy ache.

Santa Claus

Sunday I took Gavin, Sarah and Jake to the mall just to walk around and ride the train. I had no intentions of Gav sitting on Santa's lap as he has been terrified to do so. He has actually asked me not to make him. After we were there a while, Sarah and Jake wanted to go see Santa and somehow managed to talk Gavin into it as well. Amazing. He talked to Santa and told him he wanted cars, trucks, trains and airplanes. He even rubbed his coat and told him it was soft. I have a feeling Santa brings him all he wants!! :-)

My Christmas Tree

Tonight Gavin decorated "his" Christmas Tree. Of course, I put the lights and bows on but he did the rest. It didn't take long as he basically put all the ornaments in one spot on the tree. It's priceless. There are branches that have 5 or more bulbs on them in bunches. :-)

Indoor Waterpark

Sunday Gavin and I spent the day at Splash Universe in Dundee swimming all day. He has so much fun. I had a blast because I had my new camera with me, which is waterproof! It was wonderful. I didn't have to lock my camera in the locker during swimming. I was actually able to not worry about whether it got splashed or fell in the pool. I was able to get tons of Gavin for a change. It was worth every penny. I tried to take a few underwater but we were in the kiddie pool most of the day. That camera got soaked, submerged and splashed the entire 4 hours we were there. It was fabulous. Gavin had such a great time that he would keep coming over to me and hugging me because he was so happy. You can see that is what he does in this video. A slideshow of pics from the day is also at the bottom of my blog.

Ready or Not, Here I Come!

Well one of Gavin's favorite games to play is Hide n' Seek. He gets really into it. Even knows how to cheat a little when it's his turn to count by skipping a few numbers (as you know if you've ever played with him). At first he starts out counting 1 to 10 and then yelling out Ready, Here I come. Eventually, he cuts out the middle numbers and you're lucky to get 1, 2, 3 - 10. He's even gotten extremely creative in hiding. He's at the age where he believes if he can't see you, you can't see him - hence the picture. No... he isn't checking out all the cobwebs under the counter. This IS his hiding place. It was so hard to find him. :-)

Turkey Hands

Gavin and I made turkey crafts. We traced our hands and then decorated the cut-outs with feathers, popsicle sticks and eyes. In case you can't tell who's is who's... Gavin's is the one with 3 eyes. Much better to see you with! :-)

Raking Leaves

Early this week we had great weather. Gavin and I got out and did some leaf raking so he could have a pile to jump in. He was such a great helper. He actually used the small rake and helped me rake leaves for almost a 1/2 hour. Needless to say, I was so sore the next day. He didn't seem phased! How nice to be young!

Amy's 21st Birthday

Saturday, November 1st was my niece, Amy's 21st birthday. Hard to believe she is 21 now. Lu, Mark, Ryan, Dan and myself took Amy to downtown Pittsburgh to the Station Square/South Side area for partying. We started with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Good thing we did because she had food to throw up later that night! She was already hungover from partying at midnight the night before but we managed to get her to drink again. Took some time... but we got her there. We all had a great time. Happy Birthday Amy!

Halloween Party

Yesterday, we went to my sister's annual Halloween Party. We had a blast. We went as the Wizard of Oz theme. Ryan was the scarecrow. Gavin was the Cowardly Lion. I was Dorothy. I have some great pictures. Several i've not posted as they are for adult eyes only! But what a great time. The house was beautifully decorated. I tried to get a bunch of pictures of the decor. There were anywhere from 60-75 people there. Great weather - fall temps and NO rain. We spent the majority of the night indoors but hit the firepit around 2:00 am. The kids were only allowed until 9 pm and then the adult fun began. Thanks to Mark & Lu for another great Halloween.

Making Cookies

Tonight Gavin and I made cookies. Figured we'd do something that sounded more fun to him and make the Peanut Butter Kisses. Gavin enjoyed it. He opened all the kisses, helped pour in most of the ingredients and made sure to put all the kisses in the cookies. As i'm sure you can guess... putting the kisses in the cookies was his "best" part. He actually called it "planting." So we were planting kisses! And... they turned out pretty good for the first time we've ever made them.

Zoo Boo at Binder Park Zoo

Today Gavin and I went to Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek for Zoo Boo. When I pulled up to the parking lot, I realized... I didn't have his costume. I was sick to the stomach. I was going to go to closest store and buy him another one, but he was grumpy from the nap he took on the way there, and didn't want one anyways. But I was sad over it. We still had a great time. They did a great job... some animals were out, they had the carousel going, hayrides, train rides, the petting zoo open, games, and trick or treating. The place was decorated beautifully and minus the costume... we still had a great time. Even though Gavin might have been one of only 5 others not dressed. :-(

Carving my pumpkins

Gavin carved his first pumpkins. He had a great time. Although he preferred just sawing at them in one spot, Ryan helped make them look like Jack-O-Lanterns! We made sure to make a batch of pumpkin seeds as well.

Gavin's Halloween Costume this year is a lion. He LOVES it. He tried it on Saturday and 'roared' around the house all morning.

A Day at Uncle John's Cider Mill

We spent a day at Uncle John's Cider Mill in St. Johns. Weather was beautiful and Gavin had so much fun. There were tons of things to do like horse drawn wagon rides, train rides, music, a play area, inflatables to jump in, a couple carnival rides, fruit throwing... Definitely worth the trip.