over the hills we go...

laughing all the way.... what fun it's been to have so much snow here in seattle! just in time for grandpa bob & grandma kaye's arrival. they walked in the door to the excitement of the kids getting dressed in their new snow suits, and before they could even put their bags down they were bundled up and running out the door with the kids :) this was gavin's first time playing in snow. he wasn't sure about it at first, but it didn't take long and he was all grins and begging for "more!" brooke and gavin both really loved sledding and trying to build a snowman. the temperatures are in the teens and low twenties so the snow should stick around for at least a few days. more fun to come... more pictures, too :)

19 months

the stats:  28 1/2 lbs. (75th percentile), 37" (off the charts - although i think they mis-measured by an inch:)

what's new:  gavin is starting to build towers with his blocks now in addition to loving to tear them down. he can do a somersault all by himself. gavin has become quite the show-off. at gym class and at home, he always wants to have everyone's attention. he yells "mommy" or "daddy" until we look his way. he even yells "daddy" during the day when he knows daddy is at work :) he just gets so excited to show off his mad skills that he can't help himself! he's more engaged in play than ever before - when he's quiet, and i expect him to be up to no good, i often find him sitting by himself playing with something very intently. he loves tv a little too much. we have to play the CMA Music Festival on our DVR just about every day at gavin's request. he loves his music, and he LOVES to dance. gavin also has a big sweet tooth. he begs for a sucker just about every day and loves his halloween treats. he loves juice so much more than brooke ever has. he calls all juice "gatorade" (which sounds something like "eye-eye"). gavin also loves all condiments and gets the ketchup and mustard out of the fridge all by himself when he sees me cooking a hot dog :). gavin gets impatient at red lights and yells for me to "go!" i remember so clearly brooke doing the same thing around this age. thanks to his big sister, gavin has learned to expect and ask for stickers or stamps whenever we go to any kind of store, and he loves to show his stamped hands off to everyone. gavin has become my big helper in the kitchen and loves to cook and bake. he gets out the measuring cups and then goes straight to the spice drawer... :) gavin is also learning how to clean up - he will often go into the pantry to get the broom after we are done eating. he even moves the chairs out of the way to sweep! i've also seen him go to the sink and grab the towel to wipe up his spills. gotta start 'em young :) gavin loves babies - real and pretend. he's very sweet to all of his stuffed animals - putting them "night night", giving them kisses, talking to them... today he even asked hippo if he wanted a snack :) gavin loves reading christmas books and knows that santa says "ho ho ho." i can't wait to see his face when we go to see santa this year.

a prince in training

more halloween fun...

woody & jessie

toy story crept into our lives slowly, about 2.5 years ago.  i remember not liking it at first.  i wasn't so sure that i wanted my sweet little girl watching that terrible "sid" and all the mean things he did to his toys. i guess after many, many viewings, i came around. now, the characters feel like an extended part of our family. for christmas last year we bought brooke a talking "woody" doll. i was so excited for her to open that toy on christmas morning. this past spring when we heard toy story 3 was about to be released, i went out and bought toy story 2. it has been on a continuous play loop in our car ever since. brooke and gavin never tire of it. it's amazing. toy story 3 is the first movie that i took brooke to a movie theater to see. when all the toy story 3 characters hit Target, brooke had to have a "jessie" doll to go with her "woody" doll, and ever since then there's been a lot of talk about cowgirls. i think brooke might have said she wanted to be a cowgirl for halloween, and that's when we had the idea that brooke and gavin should go as "jessie" and "woody." that was many months ago, and i can't believe brooke didn't insist on being something else by the time halloween rolled around. i think there was some talk of princesses and mermaids, but i reminded her that she and gavin were going to be the best cowgirl and cowboy around :) and they were...

in early september i started searching online for costumes. all the costume shops were selling cheap one-piece jumpsuits w/ fake boot covers for the shoes, etc. i just couldn't do that. jessie and woody deserve better :) so, i started piecing the costumes together. real cowboy boots, well-made hats and adorable little belts with big cowboy buckles all came from an online country-western store. when they arrived, i knew we were on to something. i found a woody accessory kit online that included the vest, sheriff pin and red bandana. the rest was a bit harder... i bought button-down white shirts for both of them and a yard of cow print fabric. i dyed woody's shirt yellow along with an old t-shirt of mine to use on jessie's shirt. i used a red fabric paint pen and a yardstick to draw the pattern on woody's shirt. then i cut yellow t-shirt fabric out and glued it to jessie's shirt at the top and the cuffs. i used red puffy paint to create the design on jessie's shirt and red yarn for the trim. then i cut and glued the cow print fabric to an old pair of brooke's jeans. kevin helped out by taping red yarn to a band that we fit inside of jessie's cowgirl hat, then i braided it and added a yellow bow. having the woody and jessie dolls here really helped us duplicate their look! the costumes turned out even better than i had hoped.

i think i fell in love once i put the costumes on brooke and gavin.  i couldn't believe how perfect they were. brooke's eyes lit up when she saw her costume. she went right to the hat with the red braid. it was by far her favorite part of the costume. gavin cried for the first 15 minutes of having his boots on, and i thought i was going to have to resort to gym shoes. but he came around and wore them like a champ (despite the fact that they were too big). i couldn't get over how great gavin did in his costume. he never tried to take the hat off or the bandana off. he went right along with it. brooke raced door to door yelling "trick-or-treat" at the top of her lungs with her hat falling off her head and the red braid bouncing along. gavin trailed behind, trying to do his best to keep up. he carried his little pumpkin and put each piece of candy in it. he was excited to get suckers and had to eat one right away. brooke was excited by all the candy but particularly liked the skittles this year. gavin loved the halloween decorations and was not afraid of the spooky music pouring out of houses; however, there was one scary costume that sent him into hysterics until the nice boy took off his spooky mask to show gavin that he was really just a normal boy underneath :) gavin really loved seeing pictures of ghosts and wanted to give them all a kiss :) brooke and gavin both enjoyed handing out candy at our house and seeing all the other kids in their costumes. we all sat outside huddled together for about an hour and a half before we called it a night.

it was without a doubt the best halloween we will ever have. it will be the one we talk about for many years to come.

one and a half

gavin,

you are looking and acting more grown up each and every day. your daddy recently coined the term "get out of my way, i'm growing up" to describe you at this stage. it's perfect. you're expressing your independence in so many ways. you love to get your own water now. the routine goes something like this - select cup, pick up stool and move it to refrigerator, stand up on stool, place cup under spout, push lever, out comes water, hand cup to mommy, get down from stool, hold cup with 2 hands, grin from ear to ear after every drink :) you are constantly moving your stool all around the kitchen to reach things, watch mommy and be in the middle of the action. you want to sit in a "big chair" more than your high chair now. you love using big utensils and are actually very good at it. you insist on doing and having everything your sister does whether it's coloring or having a snack. i love how you look up to her.  brooke loves it, too!  you're saying more words and speaking them more clearly. you shorten "mommay" and "datty" to "mom" and "dad" when you need something or want us to look at something. you say it loudly and with such a sense of urgency, which you must have learned from your sister. it's very cute.  you understand everything we say and are very good at making connections.  you can point correctly to all of the objects in your "first words" book, and you know a lot of animal sounds. you love routines, and you expect certain things - like watching "TT" (Thomas the Train) during breakfast. you prefer to sit on your floor and read bedtime stories now vs. rocking in the chair with mommy. we just got your hair cut for the third time. you keep touching your hair and waiting for me to say, "gavin, did you get your hair cut? you look sooo handsome!" you agree with me every time :)

three words/phrases you utter most often include "help me," "that," and "mine." you are going through a phase where you are very territorial around other children. at Little Gym you will yell "mine" as soon as another kid approaches. i'm working hard to teach you to share, and you cooperate most of the time. you are generally a good listener, and you usually obey your mommy (at least for now!). you are also going through a phase where you love tormenting your sister! for the past several months, brooke has been hitting you, pinching you, kicking you, etc. when she thinks no one is looking. well, you're finally starting to fight back. you push her away when she invades your space, and you chase her around with brooms, plastic golf clubs, etc. the unfortunate thing is that you hit her with them. naturally, she screams which makes the whole thing even more fun for you. i'm also working hard to teach you that we don't hit others and to keep golf clubs and brooms on the ground!

before i had kids, i used to think that parents raised girls to like girly things and raised boys to like boyish things.  i've learned from you and brooke that so much of this is innate. with very little influence from us, you naturally have a love for all things "boy." you love rocks, garbage trucks, diggers, balls, trains, tools, etc. when you see and hear a motorcycle pass by, you appropriately respond with "whoa!" you love to climb and jump and race down big slides. you recently went to a 4 year-old's birthday party with giant inflatables, and you kept up with every one of the big kids. you climbed the highest slide all by yourself and did not hesitate for a second, not even at the top when you had to slide down a very big slide. you are a daredevil, but you are also strong and coordinated so you don't usually get hurt (thankfully!).

you have a wonderful spirit. your smile lights up our world. you are outgoing and easy-going. you adapt to pretty much any situation, and you make yourself at home wherever we are. even though we don't see our family often, you know them, and you love them. we had a wonderful visit with family in Cincinnati in September. you slept in stella's nursery and played with all of her toys. you were so sweet with her - talking in a little baby voice and calling her "baby." you were also very rough at times and grabbed everything out of stella's little hands. it was fun to see you with pierce because the two of you are so close in age. you loved playing and painting pumpkins with jackson and joey, and you even got to meet your new cousin, chase.

you are my sweet boy. i love you so much.

love,

mommy

cupcakes

who doesn't love indulging in a good cupcake every now and then? even better when it's an ordinary wednesday afternoon, and you feel like treating your kids to a cupcake "just because." the fact that i have the freedom to do this in the middle of the day on a wednesday is even better than a good cupcake! way better.... yesterday i took the kids to cupcake royale. it's seattle's original cupcake bakery, and it was our first time there. i loved everything about the place, and i couldn't help but admire their awesome branding.  it's pretty impressive. we had a coupon for "buy 3, get 3 free" so we chose an assortment of cupcakes. brooke chose vanilla with pink icing. i chose carrot cake with cream cheese icing for gavin. he ate almost the entire thing :) brooke usually eats the icing and nothing else, but this time she ate the cake off the bottom and left the top and the icing. the cupcakes are that good! unfortunately, i had come down with brooke's stomach bug and wasn't even well enough to enjoy a cupcake with the kids. not to worry though, the instant the nausea wore off i dug into the cupcakes we had brought home :) the chocolate cupcake with salted caramel icing was out of this world.