What a great weekend

Dave & I got away for a weekend this weekend. We went to a "Weekend to Remember" conference. Gavin spent the weekend with his Nanny & PawPaw and Brandon & Jody. So needless to say he had a "weekend to remember" too!!

I really did miss my little buddy, but it was so good to get away with Dave. Unfortunately we don't have much time away together alone, so this was quite a treat!!

It's a beautiful day today, so we're off to the park to play with friends. . . hope you all have a great day!

Soccer

Well the big news here is Gavin is going to start playing soccer. He's signed up to be on a local "league" here in April and he can't wait!!

This weekend he had to start "practicing"!! Thankfully we had lots of beautiful weather so we had a cookout with the Jones family.

Carson & Parker want to play soccer too!

I'm not sure I'm ready for this!! Boy he's growing up fast!!

From snow to sun

All in the same week we had snow on Sunday and 75 degrees and sunny on Saturday! Wow!!
We visited Virginia Tech and had a picnic at the Duck pond, complete with feeding some ducks!
My two favorite guys. . . man I am so blessed!!

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Gavin and Nanny put candles and started the "Happy Birthday Song" for Uncle Brandon. . . Happy Birthday Uncle Brandon. . . one of Gavin's most favorite people!!

I can't believe my baby brother is 31!! Wow, we're getting old!

And a hug for Aunt Jody of course!!

Another Field Trip

Gavin & his class went to the Transportation Museum and he loved it!!

Here's a couple pictures of his day. . .Wow--that's a big train!!

Gavin & Ms. Vickie--he loves his teachers!!

Snow Days

Well we FINALLY got some snow here!! Of course it didn't come until the first of March!! But Gavin was so excited and we all enjoyed it.

Got to go out and play Mom!!
Gavin & Daddy had a mean snowball fight!

He's smiling here because he got Daddy!!

This snow also came on the day of "Gavin's FIRST black eye". This is the start of it, and it just got dark from here. No huge story with this, just a trip and fall into a table. . .but boy he looked tough!!

What else. . .

Well Disney was our big event for the beginning of 2009. . .but since we've been back we sure have been busy!!

We had a great time with the Jones & Correll family watching the Super Bowl. . .all the boys had lots of fun. . .

We also had lots of fun on our Preschool field trip to the Pet Store. Gavin fell in love with a "snow dog" (as he calls them) but we thankfully left the store without the puppy and too much upset.
Then onto a fun lunch with all his school friends. I'm so blessed to do what I do. . . I enjoy getting to experience all these fun times with my boy.
Let's face it, they grow up so fast, I don't want to miss a minute!!

Finally. . .

I've uploaded some of our Disney photos to share. . .

The trip was truly magical. We are already talking about when we go back!! It's truly a magical place!!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=ysb7px0.5qw6j7y4&x=0&y=-addt0v&localeid=en_US

Enjoy!

Happy New Year!!

As I said in my earlier post we had a great holiday with Daddy at home for 12 days!! It was so much fun spending day after day together. We got so much done around the house (yes, lots of projects were actually finished!) and just had some good quality time together.

We had several different visits with friends also that were lots of fun, including doing Christmas with our friends Carson & Parker. The twins are growing so fast and Gavin just loves them so much. We saw them a couple times over Christmas and spent New Years with them as well! The only problem with all 3 boys being together is it's literally impossible to get the 3 of them in one picture!!

We spent New Years again with several friends at Chuck E. Cheese. It was so much fun and has become the tradition for us and several of our friends. Of course the kids all had a blast. I'll share some pics of our fun with you. Happy New Year!

Christmas Review

Our Family Christmas in review. . . starts with a few traditions. . .

We started our Christmas Eve celebrations with our annual Christmas Eve service at Church, which includes the Lords Supper and the lighting of the Birthday Cake, I love this and this year I snuck a picture of it lit!














When we came home from Mom's house that evening we got Santas cookies & milk ready and went out to put the reindeer food on the grass for the reindeer. Gavin really got into that this year, he wanted to sprinkle it all around so they would be sure to share!


































Christmas morning was wonderful, Santa left Gavin some great gifts, including exactly what he asked for. . . a big firetruck! His three gifts this year were Rescue Heroes, Firetruck and a soccer goal. And of course lots of goodies in his stocking!!


































We then went to have Christmas Breakfast with our family and received lots of more great presents and had a great morning. The day concluded with dinner with extended family.





























We had a very nice Christmas. We, once again, were abundantly blessed with lots of wonderful gifts. I'm so thankful for everyone that thought of us. My family spoiled us once again and I recieved so many nice and wonderful things from my kids at Church and Preschool and so many of our friends. We are so very, very blessed.

Another thing that added to our Christmas this year was that Daddy was off work and home with us for 12 days this year. We had a great and long break and were able to spend lots of time together as a family. We all greatly enjoyed it.

Christmas Baking

Dave, Gavin & I have done some Christmas baking at home the two weekends before Christmas. Of course since I had dough and chocolate on my hands I was unable to catch those memories on camera.

I did have the opportunity Dec 23 when my Aunt Teresa, Mom and I started a new tradition of making holiday Chocolates. We had a great time, but it was hard work!!

This year our project was chocolate christmas tree candy molds on pretzels. Here's the first batch. . . they got prettier as the day went on!!

Dave also got in on the baking action on Christmas Eve. He is "family famous" for his Sausage Balls. Dave always gets asked to make Sausage balls every year, for several homes in our family.

We also made Chocolate chip cookies for Santa. I had already made several other kinds of cookies, but apparently Santa told Gavin he wanted Chocolate Chip!!

Then of course we made our annual Birthday Cake for Jesus. . . the reason for the Season!

True Meaning of Christmas

It's very important to David and I that Gavin know and remember the true meaning of Christmas. I'm very thrilled that he (well, we) are able to go to a Christian Preschool that teaches the true meaning of Christmas. They had Birthday Parties for Jesus last week!

Gavin loves to play with the decorations that we pull out for Christmas. I'm not kidding when I say I don't think his toys have been touched since November!! Not even his horses or rescue heroes!! His favorite is his Nativity Set. This thing has been the BEST purchase we have made. We have such an opportunity to talk with Gavin about the birth of Christ through playing with this and we LOVE to hear him playing with it now independently. He tells the Christmas story over and over.
(Of course the "typical 4 year old" comes out sometimes too. Last week the shepherds were looking for their monster trucks so they could go to the Rodeo)



Seriously though, Gavin knows all about the Nativity and he looks for them everywhere. If we see a house that has lots of decorations he's always quick to put out if they have a "tivity"!!

He was especially thrilled this weekend when Daddy was in a LIVE Nativity!! He was Joseph and Gavin just thought it was so cool!! Before he left that evening he told Dave "Daddy, be sure not to drop baby Jesus!!"

Gavin was very proud of his Daddy!