6 months old

Hard to believe that it's been 6 months since Gavin was born. (Actually 6 months, 3 days)It really has flown by. He is such a wonderful baby. He is so easy going--just goes with the flow, he smiles at everything and everyone, he is so affectionate--he loves to stare at faces and then starts rubbing and touching our face or pulling my hair and trying to put it in his mouth. He is so curious--he follows anything that makes a noise or passes him by, by turning his whole body toward it. He grabs for EVERYTHING and tries to put EVERYTHING into his mouth. He loves to be tickled and has the cutest laugh that goes on and on for minutes and makes us all laugh. He loves to hear himself make all kinds of noises--loves the lllll with his tongue out, the high-pitched aaaahhhhh, and the uuuuuhhhhh. He loves to stick his tongue out and do "raspberries". He has been joining me at the gym and the lady in the nursery has said that he gets jealous when she gives attention to any other baby--he pouts and then starts to cry. He lunges toward things and rolls over when doing "tummy time," but not crawling yet--he's so curious, though he probably would have started crawling a couple of months ago if I actually let him spend more time on the floor and less time in my arms, but when I put him down Jackson loves to hover all around him and smother him with hugs and kisses. Gavin loves his swing and his Exersaucer. He loves to turn all around in the Exersaucer and put all the toys in his mouth. He's been sitting up by himself since just after 5 months so now he's perfected it so that he doesn't fall over and can play with his toys. He loves the Leap Frog letter ball that he can sit up and spin it around and around. He's a thumb-sucker--Jackson wan't--and it amazes me how well he uses his thumb to soothe himself. Yesterday we were playing on a quilt on the floor and I got distracted with Jackson and looked back at Gavin a couple of minutes later and he turned on his side and put his thumb in his mouth to take nap. He weighed in Monday at about 15 pounds and is just under 24 inches long.

Gavin is such a blessing in our lives and we are so happy to have him in our family.

The Tricycle

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Happy Birthday, Matt!!!

Happy Birthday to Matt, the love of my life!!! The big 4-0. I am truly blessed to have Matt in my life. He is an amazing husband, father, and my best friend. I can't imagine my life without Matt and thank God that he blessed me by putting him in my life.



10 best qualities of my Matt

1. Loyal. To friends and family Matt is loyal and devoted.
2. Christian. Growing and learning more and more about God's love by having a personal relationship with Christ, studying the Bible and doing what it says, and being involved in our church.
3. Hard working Since we started dating and especially after having a family there is nothing that Matt won't do to provide for us.
4. Funny. I love that he makes me laugh everyday. I can't even put into words how funny I think he is.
5. Smart. From business to biology he's got it going on.
6. Respectful. Gentleman to the core.
7. Patient. Although he claims that I've worn it thin, he still has more patience than most.
8. Organized. Everything from our checkbook to his sock drawer has to be organized just as he wants it.
9. Great Dad. He loves the boys and loves spending quality time with them.
10. HOT!!! He still gives me butterflies--and is even getting better with age.

40 is the new 30, baby!!! I love you!!!

4 months already???

My sunshine had his 4 month birthday today. Hard to believe that it's been 4 months since Gavin was born. It's even harder to believe that it's almost been a year since we found out that I was pregnant with Gavin. The news was confirmed last year, a month and 2 days after Matt's dad passed away, and the day before Mother's Day. We knew that it was a blessing and although we had concerns about our financial situation, as well as how I was going to go about finishing school, God has provided for us all that we need. I am so excited that Gavin was born after I finished my 2nd to last semester of school and just early enough that I had 3 more weeks than expected with him. :) It's hard to believe that this is the half way point of the time that I will have off with the boys. God has provided us opportunities to make some extra money and although we are far from wealthy, we have been able to live comfortably for the last several months. I started selling AVON a couple of weeks ago after running into a friend at a wedding that I hadn't seen in years. She teaches 3rd grade and sells AVON on the side and I told her that I was interested. It has kept me a little busier than I had been, but I welcome the opportunity to earn some extra money. We celebrated a wonderful Easter weekend before last with my sister's in-laws. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

We had a great time at the zoo today with our friends that we met at storytime and were able to see the Butterfly Exhibit for the first time. It is something extra that they have at the zoo right now. For $1 admission per person you are able to go into this greenhouse that feels like a sauna and look at the butterflies. It was perfect since Jackson had just learned about the life cycle of the butterfly at school. Unfortunately, my battery died but I was able to take a few pictures.



As I said Gavin is 4 months old today and I must say that he is the best baby!!! He's been sleeping through the night since before 3 months, but I hadn't wanted to jinx myself by mentioning it before :) He sleeps from about 8-9 pm at night until about 7-8 am. It's been so nice! I love that he and I have a great groove going on. He just goes with the flow. If there is something wrong, it doesn't take much for me to figure out what it is and get it resolved. (That may also be because now I have experience.) He loves to smile and laugh and hardly ever cries. I sometimes will be driving down the street and have to turn around and look to make sure he's back there. Jackson is really good with him. Jackson could be saying the goofiest thing or not even paying attention to Gavin but holding his hand, but the look on Gavin's face is priceless. He looks at Jackson as if he is the coolest person in the world. (Which, I would have to say, he is one of the coolest people for sure.) Gavin just stares at Jackson and smiles as if he's just going to follow him to the ends of the earth. It makes me laugh out loud right now just thinking about it. I hope that Jackson can be a good example for Gavin, because it's obvious that Gavin thinks his big brother is the greatest. :)


I also wanted to give a shout out to my hubby that I absolutely love like crazy and hope that he knows every day how amazing I think he is. I can't imagine in a million years anyone else that I'd rather spend my whole life with!!!

NeNee's Birthday

Matt's mom, Renee, or as she's known to her 8 grandchildren "NeNee" celebrated her 69th birthday on Friday. So, we went on Saturday to visit her in Georgetown and had so much fun!! I'm so excited that Matt helped her to find a laptop to purchase so that now she can check out our blog and her new Facebook account. :) Matt gave her a tutorial on Sunday. As always, we ate great while we were there, chicken casserole, lasagna, and a yummy eclair/s'mores dessert that Matt had about 8 helpings of in 2 days. Not to mention chicken, mashed potatoes, okra, and corn on the cob from Chester's Chicken. She always gives us all of the leftovers to take home, which is great for us--no grocery shopping this week. :) NeNee had bought some stuff for Jackson to leave at her house for when we come visit and Jackson had fun with that. Chutes and Ladders--my all time favorite, a fun Disney giant activity pad, and 4 puzzles! Plus when Matt went to the store he got Jackson a big red ball to keep there as well and I got my exercise playing with Jackson with that ball outside during their "tutorial". While Matt and Jackson were gone shopping and driving around Sunday morning, Renee and I enjoyed talking for hours while I had FOUR cups of coffee. It sure was nice to relax with good coffee and good conversation. :)

Keeping busy...

First of all, I must admit that once again I was wrong. I was so surprised that Matt G. was in the bottom 3. Although, I was right about Michael the Texan--he went home. I think he was probably happy to get back to his family.
Bye Bye...


We have really enjoyed going to Storytime at the library. It is so convenient to our house--we've actually walked there before--we should probably be doing that more often. We love it. The first half hour is filled with songs and stories and then they do their craft. Jackson is doing a lot better with the crafts and we even made a birdfeeder out of pipe cleaners a couple of weeks ago.

Every week at "Tuesday's Storytime", Ms. Randi brings a parachute and the kids love it. We've made some friends there and it's so much fun for Jackson.





Lately Jackson has taken quite an interest in photography. Gavin and I are his favorite subjects. Here are some of his latest shots...

After preschool on Wednesday, Matt met us at the zoo for a couple of hours after work. But first, we saw an animal in our own backyard. We have an oak tree in the front yard so we often see squirrels snacking on acorns.

We had a great time at the zoo. We didn't have much time to play so we just went straight to the Tot Spot and hung out there. I even used our timer on our camera to take a picture of all of us. (I love the timer--we even set up our camera on a stool and took our Christmas picture in front of our fireplace a couple of years ago.)