Cats and Mice

You know the saying... "While the cats are away the MICE SHALL PLAY!" That is what has been going on around here lately. While Matt and Brynnlie are gone... Gavin and Mommy PLAY!!! It has been SO MUCH FUN having time with just Gavin and I. We read books and The Friend, color, chase each other around the house, go to the park, snuggle, go shopping, and he helps me in the yard or clean up the house and make dinner. It is amazing what this 1 on 1 attention is doing! He seems be on an accelerated learning path. He is telling me all sorts of stories and saying words and sentences that I didn't even realize he knew. I am so absolutely in love with my little boy and I love spending quality time with him!
When we take out the camera and say, "SMILE GAVIN!" this is the face we get. LOL

THIS IS MY FAVORITE PICTURE! He is such a cutie and we LOVE watching him grow as his personality comes out! :)

Brynnlie's 5th Birthday

Brynnlie turned FIVE!!! I still can not believe it. Time flies way too fast! She told me that she wanted a strawberry shortcake birthday. She also said that she wanted her very own steak at sizzler and wanted to go miniature golfing. hahaha
 

I had to sneak in her room the night before and take a picture of her sleeping the last time as a 4 year old.... (crying)


She woke up to a vanity, stool, and mirror and was so excited that she got what she asked for. She can now put "make-up" and jewelry on 26 times a day. :) hahaha


She opened up a present every couple of hours all day so that she could take time to play with each item. She loved it!





Daddy got off work early and took us to Sizzler. Brynnlie loves Sizzler because of the salad bar. There is nothing she won't eat as far as vegetables go. She is the Vegetable Monster at our house. We didn't think she could eat an entire steak all by herself but she definitely did!

Afterward we went miniature golfing and we had a lot of fun! I actually beat Matthew by 2 points!!! (I still have the score card on the fridge to remind him. HAHA) Brynn really thinks she won the whole thing though. She actually did get a hole in one and we all jumped up and down and screamed. :)



 

We invited some family over for strawberry shortcake and Brynn opened a few more presents from her Grandma and Grandpa. She told us it was the best day ever!




We love you so much BrynnieBoo. You are incredibly smart, beautiful, funny, positive, brave, loving, compassionate, patient, and helpful. We can not imagine life without you. You are the light of each of our days. You are the greatest big sister in the world. You amaze your mommy and daddy every. single. day. You are SO VERY SPECIAL!!!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our Sweet Punkin Eater Baby Cakes!

Preschool Graduate

Our baby girl is finished with Preschool! I have to admit that I teared up a bit when I dropped her off for her last day of preschool this morning. Matt and I and Gavin came back to her school an hour later for graduation. She did a really great job with all of the songs, sign language, and stories.

I told her that she needs to stop growing up so fast and she said, "Mom, you knew when you had me, when I was a baby, that I would grow up!" hahaha. We are very proud of her. She is very excited for kindergarten. She and I went on a bike ride to her new school last night so she knows where she will be going in the fall. I can't believe that it's been 5 years since we were blessed with our beautiful daughter.  We love her with all of our hearts.

She is my best little girlfriend and we are very excited for this summer. Here is our list we made up this afternoon of our SUMMER ACTIVITIES.

o   Tumbling

o   Swimming lessons

o   Go on bike rides

o   Have a Tea Party with real food & Dolly, Harriott & Mommy

o   Princess Bubble Baths

o   Bake Cookies together (use sprinkles and icing)

o   Pop a big bowl of popcorn and watch a princess movie

o   Have a picnic

o   Go on a hike

o   Practice reading - Read books with Dolly

o   Pick out fabric and make matching skirts for Brynn & Dolly

o   Go to the library

o   Make Ice Cream Sundaes - Go get Ice cream

o   Write poems together

o   Play games on the computer

o   Start a journal and write in it every day

o   Do puzzles

o   Play a board game

o   Go up the canyon for a fire and smores

o   Complete the preschool-kindergarten workbooks

o   Make real juice popsicles

o   Make jewelry with beads

o   Sleep on the trampoline & watch the stars

o   Paint finger & toenails

o   Paint or Color pictures

o   Build a fort and read books with a flash light inside

o   Put the sprinkler under the tramp & jump

o   Fill pool in back yard and swim/slide

o   Have a friend over

o   Spend a couple of hours with Grandma

o   Go to the swim park

o   Play Hair Dresser with Mommy’s hair

o   Go Camping

o   Color With Side Walk Chalk

o   Go to the lake

Gavin's 2nd Birthday!

Gavin turned 2 today! He woke up to a bedroom full of balloons and Brynnlie and I sang Happy Birthday to him. He got out of bed and we danced around the room kicking the balloons up in the air. He giggled and immediately knew this was going to be a special day. I asked him how old he is and he put both of his pointer fingers up and said "TWO"! He ran into the kitchen and saw his birthday decorations and yelled, "BIRTHDAY!" (sounded more like BIR-DAY!) We took his new 4-wheeler off the table and he jumped on it and pushed all of the buttons and laughed.


We took Brynn to school and he sat in his chair and ate breakfast while I filled and iced his cake. (I made the layers last night and froze them so they'd be easier to ice... and it worked!) I kept singing happy birthday to him and after a few times he started singing happy birthday too. We picked Brynnlie up from school and ate lunch. Daddy came home early and we blew PURPLE bubbles outside (what a fun mess) and drew with his new side walk chalk all over the back porch.

You are a Cheeser Gavin!

This cake would win the Ugliest Cake Contest but it sure tasted Yummy!

Gavin and Daddy took a nap while Brynn went to her friends house to play and I went to get my hair cut. Gavin slept some more while daddy took Brynn to tumbling. After naps and tumbling we ate hamburgers at the park and played on the jungle gym and watched a soccer game. We came home and Gavin finished the dinner he didn't eat at the park. Every time he ate a bite he could get a sticker to stick on his face and arms. He loved that game. After dinner Grandma & Grandpa came over with a couple of aunts and uncles for presents and cake and ice cream. He LOVED his chocolate cake and ate the entire bowl! He played with his new toys while we talked. He got in his jammies and sat on Grandma's lap to read his favorite book "THE BIG RED TUB!" He laughed and laughed at all of her noises and expressions.

We washed his stinky feet and Matt and I took him in his room to go to bed. We said, "I LOVE YOU! and he said, "I WUV U!" We both kissed him on his cheeks at the same time and he smiled. We said a prayer as we held him between us and we thanked our Father in Heaven for this amazing miracle we have been blessed with. We could never have dreamed up this life of ours and how happy and blessed we are with our two beautiful children.

We LOVE YOU FOREVER & ALWAYS GAVIN! Happy 2nd Birthday! :)

Spring Chickens

This year Easter was spent at Grandma & Grandpa's house in the country. We rode 4-wheelers up in the hills, snuggled up and watched "Puss n' Boots", went to church, and had a delicious dinner made by Grandma Kay. It was very relaxing and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Here are a few pics from Easter mrng.

Happy Valentines

We love Valentine's Day around here and we're having so much fun making some crafts to decorate our home, heart shaped sugar cookies, and home-made valentine's for family and friends.

Below are our cards for this year. We cut a hole on either side of Brynn's hand and stuck a lollipop in so that it looks like she is holding out a sucker. They turned out so cute and she can't wait to share them with her class and take a few around to her friends.



(I can't get over Gavin's camera smile! HAHAHA!)


We have such beautiful, healthy, HAPPY babies. We are so grateful for them and love them with ALL OF OUR HEARTS! Our Heavenly Father has blessed us beyond our dreams.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Salt Lake 2011

One of our newest and most cherished holiday traditions is going to Salt Lake together. We love to swim, go to dinner and see all the beautiful lights on Temple Square. And mostly, we enjoy snuggling together and watching a movie and eating treats as we look at the temple outside our hotel window. It's awesome to bond and share these family memories (Brynn talks about it randomly throughout the year.)

Thanksgiving 2011

We spent a couple of days at my parents for Thanksgiving this year.

The guys installed a new basketball hoop.


We played a game of soccer while the kids jumped on the tramp and Grandma took some of the grand kids for rides on the horses. (The 1st pic. is of Brynn doing a flip)





The cousins have so much fun when they're together.



We went back up to Logan and we hit the "November Fest" which kind of bombed this year. We went to Arthur Christmas with all of the cousins. We put up all of our Christmas decorations and had a nice long relaxing weekend. It was a good start to the holidays. :)

Costumes 2011

Brynn's been talking about being Rapunzel for Halloween for months now. She kept talking about how Gavin was going to be "Pascal" and how beautiful and long her hair was going to be. I couldn't find an official Pascal costume so we dressed Gavin up as a frog. He loved it! He thought it was so funny when I showed him how he looked in the mirror and he cried when I took the costume off that night. I thought and thought about how I was going to make Brynn's hair "long and beautiful" for cheap. We found plastic hair at Sally's for $7 and I sewed those extension clips on it so it would clip in her hair. I put it in right when she got home from school so she could enjoy having long hair all day. She was VERY HAPPY with her long hair! She twirled and danced and petted it all day long ;). Here are some pics from the day.

"Rapunzel"



"Pascal"



Kidos loaded in the car to trick-or-treat at Daddy's work. (we're waiting for a guy to fix our garage door because Mommy ran into it that morning AND THEN broke the passenger side mirror off the car not even 20 seconds later... don't ask!)


Brynn & Gavers had lots of fun trick-or-treating. Gavin caught on really quickly and filled his bucket up while simultaneously sucking on several suckers ;). Brynn collected lots of candy but ate only 3-4 pieces. Every year the "Switch Witch" comes to our house. Brynn knows that (when she goes to bed on Halloween night) if she leaves LOTS of candy for the witch then she'll wake up to a PRESENT the next morning. She got a dog this year named "Bumper McBones" and he has a dog house and talks and walks. She couldn't be happier! Gavin got his first pull back car that slams into the walls and a transformer pops out of the top. He says "GO!" and races it down the hallway over and over again. :)

Here they are at Daddy's work.


Happy Halloween!

Loving Fall

This is my absolute favorite time of year! I get so high on the smell of leaves and carved pumpkins. YUM. I love to lay beneath the trees and look through the bright yellow and orange leaves contrasted against the beautiful clear blue sky. These pictures I store in my mind to bring out in several months when there's no color left. I honestly can't get enough of it.

We went to the Pumpkin Walk this past weekend as we do annually. The kids love seeing all the different scenes. Brynnlie's preschool put together a scene so Brynn was really excited to show us the pumpkin she decorated. Matt took us to our favorite Mexican restaurant afterward and we ate delicious chips & salsa, mango & passion fruit lemonade, and yummy burritos (my fave is the shrimp enchiladas ;)). We came home and Matt and I talked about how grateful we are for our little family. We have so much fun together!





There was an awesome pumpkin scene about Adoption so we had to take a picture. :)


We carved our pumpkins for FHE this week and roasted the pumpkin seeds for our treat. Brynn and I carved one pumpkin. She designed it on a piece of paper and I carved it. She named it Furcatsy and Matt named his Jack (so original honey).



We have a small road by our house that is perfect for crunching through the leaves. We go out daily to run up and down it a few times and get our autumn leaves fix (I'm addicted to the smell).




I accidentally recorded this video sideways. I apologize now for the crook you are going to get in your neck watching it ;).


We hope you are enjoying all the fun that comes with this season!