Longing for days gone by...

We had an amazing summer. Our summer was spent in Utah with family and boy was it nice. Now that we are back in Omaha, back in school and the weather is cooling off I am longing for those long summer days.

Here is a snapshot of our summer...

We started off the summer with Gavin's first haircut. It was long overdue. I finally got over the fact that my baby couldn't be that big yet because the mullet comments were starting to bug me.

 As you can see Gavin did not think getting a haircut was fun. Not even his toothbrush could console him. 

Fun at the playground with Dad. 

Danny and I enjoyed a nice little hike together. The sunset was beautiful.

June brought lot's of fun including a Garrett family trip to Bear Lake.

 We hiked back to Bloomington Lake. It was breathtaking. Gavin did great in the hiking backpack. 

We of course got some good time on the lake as well and Gavin was amazing. We were so proud of him. 

July brought the heat and some fun times. 

 These only stayed on because Dad was holding his hands down but you gotta admit he looks pretty stylin. We were supporting Nana Garrett in her first 5K!! She did awesome! 

This little pool was awesome for Gavin but didn't do much for cooling down mom and dad. 

We had a fantastic summer and are so grateful we were blessed with an opportunity to be in Utah with family for a few months. Maybe now that I have re-capped I can come to terms with the fact that winter is coming. 

Homemade Bread & Giggles

Just a little post on what we've been up to lately...

I made homemade bread for the first time! With a wooden spoon 

(someday I will have a fancy mixer). In an hour! 

Yep, and hour! Check out the easy peasy recipe here. 

The homemade bread in all it glory right out of the oven. 

Ummm! It made two loves this size.

We have also been busy making Gavin laugh. I just crack up 

laughing at his face at the end of the video. Watch for it. 

That's all.

One Year!

Holy hannah! Our baby is a year old! I really can't believe it. A lot of times I try to pretend that he is still my little baby but I am quickly brought back to reality when  in order for him to sleep on my chest he has to have his legs wrapped around my waist and be sitting on my lap. Although he may be bigger I am still cherishing every moment that I can hold him while he sleeps.

Anyway...as much as I would love to pretend that he is the little tiny baby I brought home from the hospital one year ago, this is not true. We have vibrant, happy, busy and highly entertaining one year old.

The birthday festivities were small but we got to have my mom and aunt Makell here which made the day even more special! Here are a few pics and videos from our celebration.

We filled Gavin's room with balloons the night before. He had a lot of fun

waking up to a big surprise and playing with them that morning. 

 This was the clean birthday boy before we stripped him down to 

his diaper for his first taste of birthday cake!

 Here he is with his cake!

Some of the remains of the cake. Of course it had to be chocolate (hello he has got to be on the chocolate lovers train with his mom!) However, he didn't get much taste of the cake as you will see in the below video.

(Oh and just a warning we do sing in this video and let's

 just say I definitely should not try out for American Idol.)

We love our little guy and the wonderful  year that we have had with him so far. Here's to many more! 

11 Months

I would like to dedicate this month as the month of mobility. Gavin learned all about the joy of moving and being able to get himself to new places.

Gavin started to crawl for real (not army crawling) a couple weeks into February. I was right in my prediction that it wouldn’t be too much longer before he got the whole crawling thing figured out. One day I was sitting in a chair and Gav was across the room and I told him to come over to me and out of nowhere he did 6 or 7 crawls on his hands and knees! I was so excited!

Not too long after that Gav also mastered going from his tummy to a sitting position and it doesn’t stop there. Towards the end of February Gav pulled himself up to the couch for the first time! The moment was priceless. I was lying on the couch where he pulled himself up and we both had a look of pure excitement on our faces and maybe a hint of surprise. It was really cute.

Here is where Gav has been MOVING to...

 ...the sliding glass door...

 ...the fridge...

 ...the dishwasher...

 ...his little basketball hoop (with a little help from dad)...

...and his crib! We even have a video of the first time we 

walked in to see him standing up and waiting for us. Check it out below.

Teething

Ahh...teething. I am not a very big fan and I don't think our little man is either. No matter, I think both of us want him to have teeth (baby G just doesn't know it yet) so...I think we are going to have to endure. 

Teething biscuits are a new best friend for both mom and baby. 

This video cracks me up. It seems like baby G learns new "tricks" every day!

10 Months

I am sad and ashamed that the last time I posted was when baby G was 6 months old. Wow. Time flies when you are having fun!

I won't try and recap all that has happened in the past 4 months but I will get you up to speed on what the little guy is doing these days.

First and foremost I think he get cuter every day...wouldn't you agree?

Some of the other likes, dislikes and happenings are:

• The army better watch out because this guy has the army crawl down pat! (see video below for an excellent example)
• He loves anything paper. Mail, newspapers, books. Seems like someone is taking after his father. 
• We introduce new foods all the time and 90% of the time he doesn't like them but on occasion he will like something such as pieces of bread, crackers and of course Gerber cookies! 
• Baby G now sits on his own in the grocery cart and loves it!
• Books, peek-a-boo, dancing and air tosses are some of his favorite past times. 
• Baths are still the highlight of the day. He is so well behaved and I thoroughly enjoy it every night because I am sure it won't last forever. 
• We (and I mean WE) worked VERY hard on the two teeth that have taken up residence in baby G's mouth and we are glad that he has taken a break from growing any new ones. 
• Last but not least this kid loves using his hands. Clapping, waving them around or using them to pick things up. He is really getting good at his find motor skills. 

This little guy brings so much joy into our lives it is hard to remember what life was like without him. Check out some of the latest videos of this cutie pie! 

(This one is kind of long and I get annoying so you 

can just watch the first part to see the army crawl)

I just love that his dad thought this was funny to 

put his socks up to his thighs!

6 Months

 I can't believe this little guy (who isn't as little anymore) is half a year old! Wow!

Baby g just gets more and more fun each and every day. He continues to learn, grow and discover how to use this body of his.

As you can see below two of his new favorite positions are standing and pushing himself up on his arms. He does what I would consider the baby worm. He gets up on his knees but his face is in the ground, then he gets up on his arms but he legs are flat. It is quite hilarious to watch. He has it mastered to where he can actually use it as a way of moving. I think crawling isn't too far around the corner.

We have worked our way through most of the vegetables and have now started giving fruits. This baby is just like his dad, not picky at all. He will eat anything we give him. I pray this continues to be the case later on down the road.

Other joys I get from this now 6 month old...

Giggling when tickled

Smiling when he sees me for the first time in the morning

Watching him play with the water during bath time

Giving Eskimo kisses

Here is a video of one of baby g's moves. Check out how high he can get his bum in the air as well as his leg. He also is getting pretty coordinated with his hands. Coordinated enough to get just about everything to his mouth. 

(Please excuse the fact that he was a little unhappy, I promise I am a good mom) 

Still Spitting...

The spitting continues with baby g...I am hoping that magically on his 6 month b-day he just stops but I am kind of thinking that probably isn't going to happen. Check out what we encountered earlier this week. It was like a waterfall of spit up. 

It got all over the floor and the rocking chair. It even got on the wall! Ha!

Just another day in the life...gotta love it.

Are you smarter than an 8yr old?

No. I most definitely am not.

I have been called to teach the 7-8 year old Primary kids. It has been fun. It has been hard and it has definitely been entertaining.

Now comes the embarrassing/funny story...

I am in class and to start off as an attention activity I set up a game of hang man. The word they are trying to guess is "Prayer" to introduce our lesson. The kids have got four of the six letters and all of the sudden one of the little boys raises his hand and says "I know what it is!" I tell him to wait until his turn and soon we circle back around to him. I ask him what he thinks it is. He says "Prayer!" I commend him for guessing the word and get ready to move on. He then tells me "I just read your book."

Ha! I had my lesson manual wide open on the table. Duh! Most of these kids can read and this little 8 year old was no dummy and had totally just out smarted me.

It is true, I am definitely not smarter than an 8 year old but I DO learn from my mistakes. I now know his trick and believe me my lesson manual was closed the next week!

5 months

Baby g turned 5 months old on the 5th of this month. Craziness. I know. I think the kid does something new every couple of days. It keeps things very interesting and I love spending my days with him.

Here are a few things that happened in month five:

- sleeping through the night (wahoo!)

- first time rolling from back to belly

- his mouth has become his third hand

- really loving baths

- getting better at sitting in the Bumbo

- loving the falling sensation (this obviously done

VERY carefully so as to not freak mom out)

- playing with moms hair (it kinda melts my heart every time!)

This is the falling sensation love and the hand love I was talking about...

Rollie Pollie Ollie

The Gavster is a rolling pro, at least from his back to his tummy. I really can't keep him on his back now. It is so much fun watching this boy grow!!

Check out his skills...

Dorthy, we're definitely not in Utah anymore...

You don't EVER see this in Utah grocery stores...

...yes that is a full blown isle, actually make that the width of two isles combined completely dedicated to alcohol.

4 months

Baby g had his 4 month checkup with his new pediatrician (both mom and dad really liked her). This baby boy is healthy and growing!

Here are the stats:

Weight: 12 lbs 11 oz

Height: 24 3/4 in

We are currently working to get baby g to sleep from 10:30 until 7:00 without a feeding and we are going on three nights that he hasn't gotten a 3:00 am feeding but has yet to NOT wake up. It is a work in progress.

We have also started feeding baby g baby food! The doc recommended that we start with veggies, then fruits then cereal. [Interesting side note: by starting babies on rice cereal we have created a carb loving society. We want to have a vegetable loving society, hence the recommendation to start with veggies. Interesting, no?] Anywho...baby g has added carrots to his diet and on only his second day he was eating them up!

Check out this video of baby g 's first taste of baby food.

In other news, we are still working on the roll over. Gave successfully has rolled from stomach to back three times now. He hasn't quite mastered the back to tummy nor do I think he realizes he has control over these movements. We'll get there though. The kid is crazy strong.

Baby g continues to use his vocal chords and I personally thinks sometimes his singing sounds a lot like a Disney mermaid but that may just be me. Check out his great communication skills in the video below.

Catching Up

This picture cracked me up. I think I feel a little like this sometimes (minus the dog and the cat) which is why I am a little behind on posting but I am all ready to blast you all with a bunch of new posts.

So...

just disregard the fact that I may be posting things that should have been posted oh like a month ago.

Haircut

In order to save ourselves a bit of money D requested that try and cut his hair. The emphasis should be on the "try" there. I figured I could watch a few YouTube videos and give it a go. Worst case scenario D would have to go have someone fix it.

I went, I cut and I think I sort of conquered. I don't think it looks too bad...

I don't think I should make hair stylist my next profession but it is possible I could at least get good enough to continue to cut D and someday baby g's hair.

New State. New Blog

So...I figured that with all the new things we would be encountering with our move to Omaha I thought I would start a new blog. This blog is going to be the place where I journal and share my journey of making our new house a home. I am no interior decorator and I am going to be working on a tight budget but I think it is going to be fun and I hope to learn a few things along the way.

If you're interested in joining me for this journey check out my new blog My Design Dreams at mydesigndreams-ml.blogspot.com.

Apt. #4

We made it!!

Our trek to Omaha went fairly smoothly minus the 30 minute crying bouts that occurred from baby g while stuck on the freeway in one lane construction. Yeah not fun.

By the time I arrived in Omaha I was exhausted. Thankfully the moment I was so nervous about (walking into our never before seen apartment for the first time) went exceptionally well.

It was just as it was pictured and I was SO grateful.

We have now been here for 7 days and I have quickly determined my likes and dislikes about our new place.

It seems the footage we added was taken away from what we had in our previous appliances. We have a small washer and dryer, fridge and dishwasher but they all do their jobs and do them pretty well so I can't complain too much. I am not a huge fan of the blinds (they're kind of cheap). I don't love the cabinets, they're kind of a white pinky purple color (will post pictures later). I also am not a fan of the fact that the bathroom has no drawers just one big cupboard and under the sink storage.

On the other hand... I LOVE how tall our ceilings are. We are on the bottom floor and I don't even feel like we are. It is fabulous! I love that we have quite a bit more space, meaning square footage. Crazy what a few more feet can do. I have a laundry ROOM and it is incredible. It is a clean freaks dream. We also have tons of storage which pretty much rocks my world. Our closet in the master bedroom is huge in comparison to what we had and I couldn't be happier. Overall I am really digging the new place.

Soon to come...the full blown tour!

Bath Time

Baby g has come a long way.
From screaming. . .


. . . to this. Totally loving his nightly bath. I think it actually might be soothing to him now.

3 Months

Our little guy is three months and of course I can't believe he is already that old. He is getting so big!

We don't have another Dr. appointment until he is four months but doing the little scale trick I would say he is close to twelve pounds! I would also guess that he has probably grown another inch in length.

This kid just gets to be more fun every day. His smile completely warms and melts my heart. There is nothing like having his big blue eyes meet mine and then break out in a huge grin. It seriously is the best!

I sure love our little guy! Happy three month b-day baby g!

Two Month Stats

Gavin is two months! I can't believe how quickly he is growing.

We had his two month check up today and it went well except for the shots. . . Mom really hated that so I can't imagine how it felt. The only good thing about it is that I have an excuse to cuddle and love my little guy extra!

Here are the two month stats:

Weight: 10.3 lb 18%
Length: 24in 86% (this boy is tall)
Head: 38.5cm 19%