Krazy Kunz's

Christmas a Little Late!

2012-01-20T09:21:00.000-08:00

Well our Christmas was wonderful, we spent a lot of time with family and friends. A great way to celebrate! We started our festivities Christmas Eve morning with a brunch and presents at Greg's parents. We then hit my cousin's house that night to celebrate with my side of the family. Christmas morning was our house with presents and brunch. The rest of the day we hosted an open house. We decided last year that we want our kids to be able to enjoy their presents and hang out on Christmas Day, instead of driving around to different relatives homes. A great way to celebrate. Here is our Christmas Eve in pictures....

Christmas Eve Morning:

This was her activity all morning...

One of Sloan's favorite gifts, she didn't open one gift after seeing this!

Christmas Eve Night

All of the cousins (minus Sloan who was sleeping), big smiles and of course some Tebowing!

I will do our Christmas Day in another post. I love that I am getting into blogging again, only to be have serious issues with the pictures I am downloading. It is so weird, has taken me two weeks to figure out that if I have pictures that need to be rotated I can't just fix it on my picture software and bam it is fine on the blog. No, I have to rotate them a 180 degrees the OPPOSITE WAY, and then they will be vertical on the blog. Weird! Oh well, I finally figured it out and no it wasn't a full 2 weeks, it was about 2 hours - I just started this blog a few weeks ago! Oh well!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

Our cute munchkins....more to come on our "photo shoot"

Happy belated New Year to you and yours! I know I can hand out a ton of excuses on my lack of blogging lately and my promises to do our summer in pictures....but I am a slacker. AND, I got a new camera from Santa and know how to download and take pictures/video with this thing. I am not a techie, but have some serious issues with cameras that are not dummy proof. So I got a new one and low and behold- I already got our Christmas and NYE downloaded! Yipee! And while I was looking for the cord to download, found all the cords for our old camera. So hopefully can download some of the pics of this summer. That is one of my resolutions, besides, get fit, not spend so much, have patience, the norms, but blog once a week. And get up to date on the kids baby books. But don't hold your breath!

The family

Uncle Jim wrangling the newbie

So I will begin my new year of blogging with how we spent our New Years. We had family fly in on the 30th, hosted a party that night and packed up and headed to Steamboat on the 31st. It was very fun. Granted the majority of us were in bed by 10 or 11 that night. Oh well! Big news though, Gavin went skiing for the first time! What a way to start off the new year! He had excellent balance, and said he liked it, but after a few too many tumbles he was done. Which was fine, I was just glad he did it! Thanks muchos to Aunt Jill and Uncle Jim- they were his teachers. As as Gavin said, "Uncle Jim is a good teacher." Here are some pics:

Gavin and Daddy about to hit the slopes

We then hit a different slope for some sledding. Gavin was brave and went down by himself, it was great! He would fly down and then haul his tube back up! Sloan got into it too, but pretty much preferred tossing the football down the hill. She is easy to please.

My next post will hopefully be Christmas and how good Santa was to us all! Hope you had a wonderful holiday and a great start to the New Year!

A Very Scary Halloween!

2011-11-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

Well I guess it could be considered a very scary Halloween seeing as how we all had the flu the weekend before! But alas, we rallied and made it for some Halloween fun! Here is our Halloween in pics....

Our Spooky Witch and Very Scary Vampire, on our way to Gavin's school Friday afternoon to partake in the festivities! This is really hours before the flu hit our home, in a very bad way!

Here is our Cute Piggy and Sick Vampire Halloween night heading over to the neighbors to get on our float for trick or treating!

I unfortunately still cannot get the pictures downloaded off of our new camera. Nor can I get the camera to work. I swear, I am about to smash it! I have been saying I am going to be better about blogging and then try and figure out how to download/get it to work, get frustrated and walk away. Hence NO Blogs for a very long time! And not a lot of pics lately. The bottom picture is the only one we have of Halloween night, taken from my cell. The top pics are from Jerry. I am a bad Mommy! Because look at how stinking cute they look that night. Even though Greg, Gavin and I all were still in the end of the flu. Sloan got it Friday night, gave it to EVERYONE she came in contact with- so sorry about that! Then Greg, Gavin and I all got hit with it Sunday. Granted it was at different hours of the day. But still did not make for a fun weekend/week. Gavin was still throwing up this past Friday. Ugh! He missed all of school last week. That has never happened! We both are ready for him to go back. Can you say Cabin Fever???

On to better things, I am trying to download some pics off my phone to give a recap of our summer. yes, it is almost Thanksgiving and I still have not done much about our fabulous summer! From camping, to a lot of mountain time (Breckenridge 2X), Steamboat, Estes, Glenwood, Vegas (and swimming with Vince Neil), etc. Fingers crossed that I will get my S#%T together and quit procrastinating about stuff. Maybe that should be my Thanksgiving Resolution. Hopefully I will get the camera working by then, we are heading to Nebraska this year. Or this weekend- Greg and I will be heading to San Diego (well Greg will already be there) for a little getaway. Wish me luck on fixing the camera!

A Taste of Colorado??

2011-09-07T09:39:00.001-07:00

Huh. A Taste of Colorado? I think it was just a taste of 10 different chain restaurants. We ventured down there Monday morning to hit the Lego tents (That is my son's new love- LEGOS! He and his Daddy have built castles, boats, trucks, space ships, airplanes, star wars thingies, etc. It is getting ridiculous how many tables we have with legos on them). Anyway, I was so disappointed in the actual food booths. They had the same ones on every street, in the same order. What happened to the variety and local restaurants? It was disappointing to say the least. Oh well, the kids had a good time!

I am making it my mission to do more posts. Our summer has been so full with so much and I want to document it! I did get a new camera, but still have no idea how to download, I am sure it is easy- but I just haven't done it. Slacker. I know. But I will try and do blogs on our fun trips, Gavin's fun trips with the Grandparents, hikes, Vegas, etc. etc. Too much fun!

Sloan's First Birthday!

2011-07-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am back, unsure of how long though. I did get a new camera, so hopefully will be better at taking pictures and blogging!

Sloan turns 1 on Tuesday....so this past weekend we celebrated all weekend. My sister came over on Saturday to give Sloan her gift and of course cupcakes (because she flew out to Boston Sunday)! Sloan's first taste of some yummy sugar! She loved it. Completely dug right in and was sharing it with everyone. Then on Sunday we had a small party for her with the grandparents only. We learned with Gavin that he was too shy to enjoy his cake and let loose on his first birthday. So we decided since my sister was out of town to just do a small party. I am glad we decided to do that, she did not nap and had a late night the night before. So was very tired! I will do a longer post with pictures from that day and also her actual birthday (tomorrow). Greg is taking the day off and we are going to Estes Park! We haven't been back there since she was 11 days old. Should be fun! Here are some pics of her day- she decided to just dig in face first and loved her gift from us - a new kitchen!

Taking a Break

2011-06-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

So for the summer I will be taking a break with blogging. First off my camera is broken, so my pictures are all on my phone and I think it is a pain to email it to myself, download to my computer, etc. I am not that technically savvy. Plus our summer has been so crazy and busy that I would rather spend my days sleeping in(Gavin woke up today at 8:45 and Sloan at 7:30- score!), going to the pool and playing with the kids. Sloan will be one soon and is definitely our drama queen and keeps me on my toes. Gavin is growing into such a boy and has taken the summer off from school, so we are trying to keep him busy and entertained. Lucky that is not hard to do!

So be patient, I will hopefully resume soon, but in the meantime- ENJOY!

My Baby....

2011-05-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

Girl is now full on walking! Yikes! She just turned 10 months and must feel like she is missing out on life or something. She is amazing with her stability and balance. Yesterday she just stood in the grass for 3 minutes. Just hanging out. We were counting her steps and the last we counted was 20. Now we don't bother, she just motors. Unless she is feeling like she is too slow, then she drops and crawls. It is very cute. Now if she would only get some hair.

The pictures are from the wedding we went to in Nebraska. Both kids did great and were so cute. The pic of Sloan sitting down was her mad that her Daddy went into the house. She is such a Daddy's Girl!

Mexcio Part 2

2011-05-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

Forgive me for no getting this out sooner. We were home from Mexico for less than 1 week and set off again for Nebraska for a wedding. We were gone for 5 days, got home and Greg the next day for 3 days for work. We are all finally back together and the house is put back in order. Yea! We will be back to normal for a week before Greg leaves again. Sheesh!

On our trip to Mexico we took a trip over to Isla Mujeres for the day. It was such a great day, but ended up being a very long day. We got to go to a wonderful place park that had snorkeling, zip lining, open bar, infinity pool and great walking trail along the cliffs. It was perfect getaway from the resort for awhile. Jason did some snorkeling while both boys zip-lined. I love the fact my husband did a spread eagle for his pose! Lovely.

It was a great time, with our lovely weather now, I would go back in a heart beat! There will be no blog about Nebraska, I did not take one picture, whoops! On the up side though, I got Lasik yesterday and this is my first post sans glasses! Yea! I can't believe I haven't worn them in a full day, my face feels naked. But I love to be able to see...

Mexico Part 1

2011-05-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

Our last dinner of the trip!

Well Greg and I survived Mexico! It was a fun time, but I was very much ready to get home. Besides missing my kids so very much, I got a lovely case of Montezumas Revenge on our second day there. Super fun! But here is our trip in pictures. I will break this up into two blogs because one day we went to Isla Mujeres and we took over half of our pictures on that trip.

The boys doing shots at our pool off our room- that was an ugly evening that my husband barely remembers!

Our main pool

Having cocktails before dinner

My husband the last night. It was not a great day to fly the next day!

April thus far...

2011-04-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

I am trying to get my act together. One more blog in the month of April. I remember fondly when I would do a few a week, or at least one a week. Now I am lucky to get 2 a month. Oh well! Who knew that having 2 kiddos would keep me so busy!

We started our April with some beautiful weather. That I why I love Colorado so, the day of our hike was 80, while the next day was 40! The pictures are from our first hike of the year. Gavin did wonderful and Sloan did ok. I only say that because while applying sunscreen, she rubbed her eyes and got some in them. Poor thing. She was a trooper though! Never cried a bit, just had that one eye tearing the whole time. She absolutely loved being in the back pack though. She just sat up there soaking it all in and then fell asleep about 1/2 way into the hike. We did 3 miles and Gavin had a ball, even Crash came along. We had to cross over a stream several times and he thought that was so cool. I can't wait to do more.

Greg and I are off to Mexico this Saturday with some friends. It will be our first long trip away from the kids. I am a little nervous for sure. I know they will be good, or at least I hope so. Both Gparents are watching them. So hopefully they behave! Hopefully I can fix my camera before we leave so we can get some pictures! Happy Easter!

March Madness

2011-04-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting around to our crazy March! Just a few highlights. St. Patricks Day Parade! We had so much fun, of course I didn't take any of the kids pictures on our actual camera, just our cell phones. Whoops! We all were decked out though and the kids did great!

March also brought my sister's 40th birthday. We had a lot of fun. There was some craziness sure, maybe some dancing, drinking, puking in the stairwell, falling on the dance floor and possibly some butt cake. Here are some highlights:

It wouldn't be proper to end on this note (the birthday girl barely standing wearing some randoms band hat. Seriously who actually wears that to a bar???) Anyway, here are some pictures of the morning after. Taylor (Bubba) is a classy guy! I still don't know how I ended up being the responsible one that night! Sheesh!

Happy April! Hopefully more to come!

Neglecting

2011-04-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

I know, I am neglecting my blog right now. I just looked at it and realized I only did one blog in the month of March. I really don't know where the time has gone. Oh wait, yes I do! I have been a single Mom off and on for the past 6 weeks with Greg's company being bought (which happened today- Yea!). He is in St. Louis right now. I don't even know if I spelled that right. Oh well. I have been slammed with planning vacations and parties, my sister's 40th last weekend and several coming up. Lets see, we go to Mexico at the end of this month, we host 2 parties in May and head to Nebraska for 5 days, 2 parties in June, a trip to Breckenridge with friends for 5 days, another big party in July for Sloan's first and probably an August one. Who knows with us! We still haven't even talked about his companies party. I have been trying to find the time to get a cavity filled for over a month now and schedule Lasik. Plus a bunch of house stuff (painting inside and out) and hitting the gym at least 4 times a week. I sometimes feel like I would get more done if I went back to work. The kids are crazy right now, Sloan is now pulling herself up onto things and walking. EEEK! She is still stinking cute and so much fun. Definitely the happiest baby I have ever seen. Gavin is big and getting bigger. And also a tad bit more sassy. He told me yesterday when we left the house to turn off the TV (we leave the radio on through the TV for the dogs when we are gone) because it is wasteful. True, but really? He is too cute. This morning Sloan was up at 4:40 am. Yea! And went back to bed at 6. Of course Gavin got up at 6:10. So I put a movie on and we crawled under the blankets on the couch and watched some Scooby Doo. I was dozing and I noticed he was searching for my hand and when he found it, held it. Seriously brings a tear to my eye. He is getting to be such a little man, but still a Mommy's boy when need be. I will download pictures today, I have a ton! I forgot we even hit 2 St. Patty's parades with all of us decked out in green. Plus random pics around the house and Jen's 40th. Some very classy pics in that group!

Picture Time!

2011-03-06T07:40:00.000-08:00

We finally did it, got the kids pictures taken. We are slackers I know! We decided to wait until July for our family portrait. I wanted to do outside pictures with the kids for winter, but we have no snow and the ugly brown of the trees and grass just isn't very pretty! So alas, we will wait until summer for Sloan's first birthday and do some pictures in the beautiful Colorado outdoors!

Here are some of the keepers!

I am hoping one day soon Sloan will get some hair! My bald little girl!

Sheesh

2011-03-01T18:32:00.000-08:00

I know, I am slacking on blogging right now. It has been a hectic week, as was last week. My little girl decided to start crawling on Thursday and on Friday I found her STANDING IN HER CRIB. Greg promptly moved her mattress down so I wouldn't have a heart attack. She is just growing so quickly. I can't believe it. I have not even got the camera out for the past 2 or 3 weeks. But will post some new pics this weekend or next week. We are finally getting the kids pictures taken! FINALLY!

Addictions and Teeth

2011-02-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

Where to start??? It has been a very busy February. I can't believe it is already the middle of the month! The kids are growing leaps and bounds and I am not real happy with it. Sloan is so big that I am just waiting for her to leave for college. Seriously! Where is my baby???

Last week we went to the Doctor for Gavin's 3 year old and Sloan's 6 month check ups. Back to back, shots included. It was also our anniversary. Oh the joy. Gavin's check up went great. He is 90% in weight and 95% for height. I think he gets his height from me..... He only got the flu shot and took it like a champ. Sloan on the other hand had 5 shots and I cried longer than she did. I am such a pansy. Her weight was 25-50% while her height was 75%. I am once again positive that she got her height also from me!

Sloan is growing so much and now has 2 teeth in. She has also started taking showers, which she absolutely loves! I can hear her laughing in the kitchen when she is in the shower. It is too cute! As you can see from the pictures, she loves loves loves it! She is a great baby and is definitely the apple of her brothers eye. He adores her so much and hates when she naps. He would prefer she be up all the time with him to play. They are very cute together and am so glad that Gavin loves her so much.

Our little boy definitely moved from the "terrible twos" to the "freakin awful threes". I didn't think it was possible, but alas he has gotten worse. It is so much fun. The only thing he loves right now, besides Sloan, is his Leapster. He is addicted to it. It is almost as bad as the TV. He could play it for hours if I let him. It is amazing how fast he picked up how to play it. A little scary!

Have a Happy Valentines Day to all! Pictures from Sloan's first shower and a day at the park with Grammy, Marvin and Mommy.

Round Two of Gavin's Birthday!

2011-02-03T14:13:00.000-08:00

Gavin's birthday party was fantastic. We had a good turn out and all of the smaller kids came in costume. It was very cute! Here is our day in pictures (I love the pictures of the Grandparents with Sloan!):

Here is the big gift! He loved it! Cousin Pyper hopped right on the back wanting to go for a ride. It was very cute. Gavin was ecstatic!

Overall it was a great day, we have officially taken the bike out for a ride. I will post pics of those next week, along with Sloan's first shower (which she loveeeeed) and her first tooth has finally come in! Yea!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAVIN!

2011-01-27T13:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my little boy turned 3! It was such an exciting day! But his celebration started on Tuesday with Spiderman cupcakes and singing. Greg, Sloan and I got to hang out and sing with the kids. I think the cupcakes were a hit!

We started off his actual birthday going to Monkey Bizness with his cousins and Grammy. The kids all had a great time, I don't think I saw them much the entire time. They were running around like crazy monkeys.

We then headed to Red Robin for lunch and once again some Spiderman cupcakes.

That afternoon we all took a much needed nap and played until we met Daddy at Gunther Toody's. That is our tradition, going to dinner at GT's just as a family. It ended up being a wonderful day and Gavin had such a fun time. I can't believe my little boy is 3! Now we need to get ready for Saturday and his big party. We have a VERY SPECIAL GIFT that will be unveiled that day. I will post it next week! Don't want to spoil the surprise!

Happy Birthday to My Little Girl!

2011-01-19T12:31:00.001-08:00

Today Sloan turns 6 months. We have had a lot of milestones......oh wait, do we? Not really. This girl....is a little stubborn. Cute, but stubborn. She started getting teeth in months ago. Have they popped in yet? Nope, they are still just sitting there, waiting, waiting, waiting. Has she started crawling yet? Nope, but she gets around, on her back. Everyone that sees her move thinks she is going to break her neck or hurt herself. She does this back bend thing using her head. And once again she has been doing this for about 3 or so months. Super fun when you lose your child in the house and she is only 3 months! And eating? What is that? If it does not come our of a bottle she has nothing to do with it. Yesterday I tried a banana in a funky binky type of thing- she sucked on it (it has mesh netting) for about 1 minute and that was it. Please note the below video. We try a few times a week to get her to eat and this is what happens..... Did I mention she is the devil child! She sounds like the girl from The Exorcist! Oh well Happy Birthday Sloan Lillian!

Turn your volume up high to hear her do her devil imitation.

My son is....

2011-01-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

Self Potrait

hilarious. Seriously he is the cutest thing on the face of the earth. Well next to his sissy and the dogs.... and my hubby. Anyway, back to the story. Tonight is movie night and I told my son to get his new sleeping bag that Santa brought for him. He of course associated that with his new "tree tent" that Santa also brought him. He informed us, in the middle of dinner, that he was going to go downstairs and get his tent. Greg said, "Gavin please don't, Daddy will get it, it is heavy." My cute little son's retort was, "I can get it, I have strong arms."

Where does he get this stuff? This afternoon he was outside on his new bike and was whizzing around the street in it. When he and Greg came in, he was telling me all about it and how "he is the fastest in the neighborhood."

He is pretty funny and has some great comments. And his mind is like a steel trap, he remembers everything. Today he told me that, "Jackson is in Boulder Mommy." That is his cousin and yes, he does live in Boulder. I doubt he even knows where he lives......

PS He is almost back to normal, I would say about 90%. Still has the smokers cough in the morning and a bit of drainage in the nose. Yummy!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T20:12:00.000-08:00

From our house to yours, hope it was a fantastic end to 2010 and here is to a wonderful 2011!

I will do a post later how we rang in the new year. I just had to add this picture, because seriously, is SHE NOT THE CUTEST PRESENT EVER????

This is the picture of....

2010-12-28T14:16:00.000-08:00

PURE JOY! My son asked every Santa we saw for a bike, and alas! He got it! Happy Happy Joy Joy!

But lets back up a bit, our Christmas vacation began with us going for a ride on the Georgetown Express. It was a ton of fun, if not a little chilly. Santa and Mrs. Clause came for a visit and the kids were the bell of our train car. Well mostly Sloan, she was decked out and smiled at everyone who would look her way. Gavin was getting round two of the flu, but more on that later.

Our Christmas was great, we hosted Xmas Eve with my family and Greg's. It was a full house and I think everyone had a great time. I never saw much of the kids, so I am thinking they had a blast in the basement. Our Christmas morning was great, Gavin was a late sleeper and I finally had to wake him up! He was very excited to see his NEW BIKE, tent, sleeping bag, etc. He really liked everything, it was just a little overwhelming. He would open something and then want to play with it, instead of continuing on and finish unwrapping everything. Sloan seemed to enjoy the day also, I think she was most content with the tissue paper. We all had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did too!

Now onto our shit storm that has once again hit our house. ONCE AGAIN I SAY, SERIOUSLY???? Gavin has had an ongoing cough/cold/flu/exploding poop/puking/puking in Daddy's hands. Now he has walking pneumonia/constipation/a fever and to top it off pink eye! We found this out while at the doctor today, once again. This is our 5th trip to the doctor office since the week after Thanksgiving. 5th freaking time. Will this child never get well?

So we are hoping for a very Happy New Year, along with a healthy one! Merry Belated Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family!

Baby It's Cold Outside

2010-12-17T08:04:00.000-08:00

Sloan and Gavin looking super happy. Sloan really does not like attempting to eat "food".

It is starting to snow as I write this. FINALLY! Maybe we will actually get a white Christmas. I am not holding my breath though!

My lack of having my crap together this year has made me a slacker with my cards. So if you are wondering if I forgot you this year, no. I just finally finished my cards on Wednesday night and then forgot them in the car yesterday. So I am hoping to get out today and get them sent. Who knows though, I may forget them again. And yes, it is some pictures of the kids and dogs. Crash's pic is a little fuzzy, but that is because we put him in soft focus- he is the oldest. He needs it!

Here are one of the only the 4 pictures I took in Steamboat at Thanksgiving. We had a great time!

Here are some other pictures of the kids meeting Santa and Mrs. Clause. I can't believe how well they did. Sloan just won them over and poor Gavin, we did this in the midst of his flu/cold week with a raging fever. But he did better than he did last year.

I will try and do a post next week of our lovely tree(s), hopefully some snow on the ground, some pictures of the house, and our exciting train ride on Saturday in Georgetown. There will be a special guest to surprise the kids!

Bah Humbug

2010-12-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

That is somewhat how I am feeling right now. I have a boy that WILL NOT GET BETTER. We took him to the doctor today for the THIRD TIME since Sunday morning and still....NOTHING. He may have MONO? What, what is that? And can we know for sure if that is what he has? Or does he have Strep? Because we have now taken 2 cultures and it came back negative, but wait, he may still have it. AGGHHH! Let me tell you the JOY, JOY I SAY, that my son is right now. Not only is he sleeping about 2 hours a night and then moaning and groaning for the next 6 while withering in pain, but he has not eaten anything but Popsicles for over 2 days. He now has it down pat that if he starts feeling like he is going to throw up he runs to the toilet. It is great, after he power barfed on our bed Sunday and then did the same on our couch the next day. Or he carries around his "pot" that he spits in. NO MORE! I want a well kid, because he is miserable and in turn is turning me into a shrew. Stir crazy is my middle name right now. Poor Sloan got her shots on Monday so hasn't been her peach of a self lately either. I need normalcy.

On that note, we have had our beautiful tree up since Saturday. SATURDAY. We have now just finally decorated it, on Wednesday. I have yet to even think of Xmas cards. I don't even know if I will get them out. I hope I will, but I really don't want to take Gavin to Santa looking like hell warmed over and spewing chunks. Yes, I just resorted to being 12.

Sloan, Sloan, Sloan, our little devil. She seriously sounds like it. She completely makes these crazy devilish noises while motoring all over or when you change her. It is actually very funny. She is very vocal and chatty. Today Greg worked from home, and at one point we looked at each other and asked, "who was that?" We thought Sloan had spoken an actual word. She kind of did, but not intentionally. She is very cute and very advanced. I am not ready for her moving all over the house and teeth yet. Oh well.

A few very cute quotes from my son this week:

While we were fighting over what to watch on TV (yes, when he is sick and feverish that is all we do), he said "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and I said, "No, I am sick of Mickey." He just looked at me and said, "Well Mommy you aren't the one sick." Seriously I got upstaged by a 2 year old.

When Sloan was crying, he said to her, "Sissy don't cry, Mommy will always love you and take care of you." He is the nicest little boy to his sissy goo goo. I literally started crying.

Tonight, while decorating the tree, Gavin was coughing. I reminded him to cover his mouth, "so we all won't get sick." He responded with his favorite word, "WHY?" I said, "well because if Mommy and Daddy were sick, who would take care of you?" His little witty response was, "my doctor."

The kid has a great memory and very quick on the come backs.

There won't be any pictures until I figure out my computer. I had a virus and Jerry took it over to correct the problem and since I have had it back, my camera won't download to my pictures. I am sure it is operator error, but having a sick kid I haven't had much time to figure it out. I am actually doing this after they are in bed. Then we will be off to bed, getting about 5 hours of sleep for the past 5 nights does not a body good.

HUGE NEWS BEFORE I SIGN OFF. My hubby got great news from his job, that not only will he be keeping his director title, but he is getting more responsibility, more people and moving up two levels in the company from where he is now. YEA! We celebrated last night with a couple of glasses of champagne, in the midst of holding Gavin's hair while he was puking. FUN TIMES I TELL YOU!

Whoops

2010-11-19T18:47:00.000-08:00

There will not be a post this week and maybe not for awhile. I let my son take the camera into a pile of leaves a few weeks ago. Greg and Gavin were raking and jumping into the piles. Anyway I can't get my camera to work. So???? I may be asking Santa for a new one!

Plus it has been a little chaotic around here. Gavin is catching a cold and so am I. Greg got his "MANHOOD" taken today and is loving frozen pees, while I am being nurse maid. Sloan....well she is not so adorable lately. Her sleeping is out the FREAKING DOOR! She is up constantly through the night. I don't know if it is the cold she is getting or the 4 TEETH she is getting at the moment. It is fun. FUN FUN FUN I TELL YOU. This week alone, I think my total nightly average of sleep is 5 hours. And that is on a good night. Ugh. Today is her 4 month birthday and still NO HAIR!

At Last

2010-11-10T10:31:00.001-08:00

Ok, finally Halloween! It was a busy week for us that is for sure! But here is our 'Ween in pictures:
The Friday before Halloween, Gavin had a party at his school. It was very fun and we realized that the girls out number the boys about 3-1 in his class. No wonder he only talks about 1 other boy! He does talk quite a bit about some of the girls though, it is very cute.

The carving, I love the pose of Gavin annoyed. He is so my child! We had a fun time and he actually got more into it, especially the drawing on the pumpkins (can you see all the black marker residue?) and the stabbing of the pumpkins. It worried me for a minute, but it may just be a way for him to get his frustration out on being a 2 year old and having parents that have hardly any patience lately. Who knows.....

On Halloween day it was a nice day so we were all outside playing, Sloan of course in her Halloween onesie and Gavin in his scary shirt! Too cute!

That night we got our outfits on and headed over to a neighbors for some chili and drinks. We then piled onto the trailer to do some trick or treating. Gavin had a ball! He loved getting off and on the float and going up to the neighbors and saying "TRICK OR TREAT!" He was usually always the last one to get up there. It was so fun and it turned out to be such a nice night!

I also threw in some random pictures of our week. I decided to go to Target a few days after and buy some of the costumes 50-70% off. I thought, even if the kids don't want to be it next year, they would be good for dress up. I think Elvis looks dashing as a cowboy!

SCARY BONES!

On another note, my little missy has 3 teeth coming in. AT THE SAME TIME! sheesh.

Halloween

2010-11-03T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic to tide you over until I get the time to do a BIG BLOG on our super duper fun Halloween, complete with Pumpkin carving, Party at Gavin's school, slaying some vermin, a lot of witches, hay ride and of course passing around a flask!

Never fear, our wonderful Spiderman will save the day of his baby Ladybug!

Seriously adorable, but WHEN IS SLOAN GOING TO GET HAIR! And we are still not sure of why Gavin picked Spidy to be his costume, he has never seen, watched, read anything about him. Oh well, he is still wearing it around the house....

Sloan is now rolling over onto her tummy (she started this last week) while sleeping and holding her own bottle. I had a break down when I realized she is not going to be my baby for FOREVER!

Greg and I are off tomorrow to the Ameristar to win BIG and celebrate Linda's bday. Wish us luck!

I am trying....

2010-10-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

Our beautiful trees and Papa's motorcycle. Love, Love, Love Fall!

Bellow is my only burning bush that burned.

I am trying to not let Sloan have the younger child syndrome. You know the one, no pictures of them, no videos, no baby book (I still haven't bought one for her- not for lack of trying though!) etc. I noticed that I have not taken a lot of pics of her lately. So I am trying to make more of an effort of just her. I mean, she is adorable and photogenic. It is just me being a slacker.

So here are some pictures of my baby girl, who just turned 3 months old! I can't believe she is getting so big. Still being wonderful, sleeping like a champ. I did have a rough day last Friday with both her and Gavin. One of those days that both kids were just out of whack and could not be consoled. I think I cracked open a bottle of wine about 2. It was THAT KIND OF DAY. We were supposed to go have dinner for Tony's birthday that night and Greg ended up leaving with Sloan as soon as we got there. She was crying that hard. Gavin and I stayed & partook in the fiesta and I drank a few margaritas (Marv & Mom drove us home). Good times!

I think we figured out she may be getting a tooth in. Not fun. She has been a drooling fool and not her perfect little self. Don't get me wrong, she is still sleeping wonderfully, it is the rest of the 12 hour day that she has some little "melt downs". It is definitely a new side. With Gavin we did not deal with this so early. Teeth, rolling over (she did a half roll today with the help of Daddy), hating the bouncy, hating the swing (since one week old); she has taken a liking to the saucer. I don't think Gavin was in it for another month. Great, next thing I know she will be getting boobies and starting her period. S#*T! Having a girl may very well put me and Greg into the loony bin.

Oh well, at least she is adorable! As is our pumpkins Gavin and I decorated! We had a blast and I am still trying to get glue glitter out of our clothes. We will actually carve them on Friday. Friday will be a big day for us, with a play date with a little girl in his class in the morning, heading to his school for trick or treating that afternoon in his costume and then carving that night. Busy Busy! Sunday will once again have us out on a hay ride trick or treating with our neighborhood friends. Look for pics of my handsome boy being Spiderman and my little Ladybug!

Please note, NOT ONE PIC OF GAVIN! It was hard, but alas, I am trying! I had to throw this pic of Elvis in, him licking his nose - gross, but funny. Just don't ask me about his gas today, DAMN NEAR KILLED US! Something seriously crawled up his bum and died. True story.

A Whole Lot of Stuff!

2010-10-20T08:37:00.001-07:00

Ok, where to begin..... I love fall, I love October for 2 things, Halloween and my birthday! Oh, I guess three things- the leaves turning on the trees. One of the things I wanted for my birthday was to take a drive and see the aspens. So we bundled up Sloan, left Gavin with the Kunz's and headed out, here are some pics of that drive....

As you can tell, I took them all from inside the car, either through the window or out of the sun roof. Yes, that is how we do it!

We also did some celebrating for both my Mom and I at a bbq Mom and Marv hosted. Some pics of the kids, being kids. I love, love, love, the fact that they are all cracking each other up. Gavin loves his cousins so much and is so lucky to have them close by!

Last weekend we ventured out to Anderson Farm, always a good time (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?). Sloan slept 2 out of 3 hours being there. Gavin had a great time, with the grandparents and his cousins. It was very crazy and crowded, but overall a fun day. Sloan looked adorable as my little ladybug.

Here are some randomness from our days at home. All of us on the floor playing together. I love the fact that Crash is not only protecting Sloan, but also the puzzle pieces (note his foot on it). Love these type of days.

I will snap some photos of our adorable pumpkins that we finally decorated on Sunday. Along with our gorgeous trees, they just finally turned this week! They look awesome, Gavin and I go out every day and look at them.

I know, I know

2010-10-13T07:44:00.000-07:00

I have been slack about updating. It has been a fun, yet crazy few weeks. And to be honest, I really have forgotten to take any pictures the past few weeks and to update. I will try to do a lengthy post about my birthday month thus far, driving in the mountains to look at colors, roofers, dogs, my adorable kids, Pumpkin Farms, and much more.

My.....

2010-09-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Baby girl has now slept through the night 3 nights in a row! Today I was thinking I had to wake her up, BECAUSE IT WAS 8:00AM and we needed to feed her, get ready and take Gavin to school. And yes, I do say, MY BABY. I am the sleeper in this family, not Greg. She is definitely taking after me... I am a lucky Mommy.

Home Alone

2010-09-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

That has been my weekend- Home Alone. But not really! Last night the kids and I headed over to my sister's house for movie night and that is the movie we watched. Gavin actually got some popcorn for the first time too. A big night indeed!

Sloan....my Little Miss. She slept through the night last night. And not just what some people consider sleeping all night- 6 hours. Nope, my girl slept 9 HOURS! She woke up at 6ish, ate, played for about 45 minutes and went back to sleep. She is conked out in front of me on the table while I write this. She is so darn cute, smiling, cooing, just overall being a peach. The first three pictures I took this morning- her smiling and Gavin with his memorabilia on...more of that to come.

Our weekend alone has been very well, out of the three nights, the kids have been with me 2 of those. Of course both those nights Gavin has ended up in bed with me. Nothing like getting kicked in the face or head butted at 3 in the morning! Such a joy. You would think with a king sized bed it wouldn't be bad. Alas, it is, it is like sleeping with an octopus that is wearing boots.

Gavin had a special treat yesterday with Grandma and Papa, they went to Thomas the Train. Very exciting for a 2 year old! I think overall he had a great day. Lucky boy.

I am ready for Greg to be home and I think so is Gavin. It is possible we get on each others nerves????

Crazy Week

2010-09-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

I always have every intention of having a good/mellow week and it always ends up where I feel like I am running around with my head cut off! Which is just like this week, I actually started this blog on MONDAY! And am finally finishing it today- THURSDAY. So yes, once again, the week somehow just sailed by!

Two Sundays ago we had a sick little boy, why? Unsure. He had a fever, was lethargic and really didn't want to do anything. He actually fell asleep at breakfast and did not eat any of his Chocolate Chip Pancakes (before we knew how sick he was). The next morning he woke up and said he felt fine. Which was good, it was Grandparents Day at School. So off he went with Grammy, Grandma and Papa. There were 5 grandparents in his class that day and 3 belonged to Gavin- what a lucky boy! He had a great time and I think so did all the Grandparents!

But of course as soon as he got home he was clammy again and said he didn't feel good. He never had a fever again, but that night in his throes of thrashing around and moaning I tried to give him some medicine. It didn't go well. He puked all over me, himself and his bed. GROSS! First time I have been really thrown up on by him. He has spit up as a baby, but puke? Never. We both immediately took a shower and he crawled in bed with us. He didn't make it to school the next day. We actually never left the house!

By Wednesday he was back to normal, which was good. Daddy had taken he day off to hang out with him and Sloan while I went to the Spa! Yea for me! We then met my Mom, Marv, sister and her kids down at the Rockies game. It was fun, just a little overwhelming with an 8 week old and a 2 year old. I think I watched a total of 1 inning.

The rest of our week was pretty mellow and nice, our weekend was even better. On Saturday we met my Dad over at Carl's Farm for their fall festival and Gavin had a ball. (Once again I forgot the camera!) He rode ponies, a train, petted various animals and got to hang out with his cousins. Overall a great morning! We then headed over the Kunz's to help stack a little wood. Gavin got his very first sliver that we had to do surgery on, even though he was wearing gloves.

Sunday we had a leisurely morning and then decided to go to Heritage Square. Now I have lived in Colorado my whole life and I have been there now a total of 3 times. The first time for a wedding when I was like 22 and the past 2 times with Greg. I never knew there were rides and stuff and no, I have never ridden the Alpine Slide. What I have realized is how dated and yucky that place is. (Yep, I said it. Yucky. It definitely needs a huge revamp.) I wouldn 't allow Gavin to ride on anything. Greg did take him up the chair lift (which I was freaked out about!) and down the slide. Gavin of course loved it and talked all about the "big slide." And once again forgot the camera. I am not getting best Mom award this week!

Our week thus far has been good, Little Miss had her 2 month check up yesterday and all went great. Between the nurse and Doctor, we heard about 5 times how "perfect" she is. I hit her weight on the head with 11'8". She is growing like a weed and "perfectly proportioned". She of course had a 3 shots, but took them like a champ. All day she slept, except for the 30 minutes that she screamed while my Mom was at our house! Heck, she even slept better in the night than normal. I actually woke her up at 2:45 to make her eat, I think she would have slept through the night, but her Daddy was worried......

Speaking of her Daddy, he is leaving us starting today until Sunday for a golf trip with the guys. Of course my Mom is also out of town this weekend also. We will see how being a "single parent" is this weekend! Gavin is already saying that, "he is going too." My poor boy is such a Daddy's boy that it may prove to be a very "interesting" weekend. Wish me luck!

Late

2010-09-16T15:14:00.001-07:00

I just liked this pic, Elvis looks like he belongs on the throne!

Of course I am almost a full week behind on blogging. I just can't keep up it feels like. So I am going to try and blog about last week and then do this week. Two separate ones. Lets see if I can do it in this span of an hour that I have (not gonna happen- it is now 10:10 pm, Thursday night and I am just finally finishing this blog!).

Gavin cruising around on his bike, with HIS SAFETY GLASSES ON! SAFETY FIRST!

Last Wednesday we had 2 of Greg's all time best friends over for dinner (friends of mine also) and their adorable little girl. Mia is 18 months and Gavin was truly smitten. They played all night long together and at the end of the night THEY...DID....THIS........

CUTEST THING EVER! In 30 years when they get married, these pictures will so be part of their wedding slide! They had so much fun and did not want to get out. Can't blame them! It is always fun taking a bath with someone else! Ha!

Friday was another busy day for us. It began with us going over to where my Dad (Grandpa) was working and Gavin helping him work! Might sound very boring, but 1. Gavin is a boy and 2. Gavin loves all trucks, tractors, etc. He absolutely loved driving around the Loader. How cool is that! Such a boy.

Sloan in the car snoozing while Gavin was driving around!

Our Friday afternoon was spent going to the BHS Homecoming parade. Not quite like the ones we used to have when I was there, but the kids loved it and got plenty of candy.

And once again, during the parade, this is what Sloan did. My little sleeper!

Ok, I am done, I just added this picture because I like it and it is breathtaking (thanks Jerry!). Alli, I got the pics of the kids up first! :)

Our Weekend Fun

2010-09-09T15:20:00.000-07:00

This blog was started last week, and it is all about our Labor Day Weekend. I am just a slacker and have not kept up on my blogging!

Daddy and Sloan on the blow up mattress where we all watched a movie Sunday night.

I love love love 3 day weekends! They always start out with us thinking we are going to have a relaxing, mellow weekend and of course it ends up differently. Oh well! We did get to spend some time with family and good friends. And of course each other! Gavin finally got to fly his new kite that we bought a few weeks ago. Granted it only lasted about an hour, luckily I didn't spend a lot on it! He had a great time with it and did very well flying it himself.

Greg and I also had our first night alone since before Sloan was born. The Kunz's were kind enough to take both kids over night Saturday night for us! Our big night of whooping it up with some friends, ended with us in bed by 9 and asleep by 10. We are crazy I tell you! While we were catching up on sleep, Gavin and Papa camped outside! They had a great time and even got to watch a movie in the tent. Gavin is very lucky! Sloan of course was a dream for Grandma and slept very well- typical!

Our Monday was spent with our immediate families hanging out and bbq'ing. We had a good time, but by the end of the day I think we were all exhausted from our busy weekend.

Overall a wonderful weekend and a busy week to follow. Look for a new blog this week about Gavin's new girlfriend & the fun they had! And our busy Friday that consisted of driving a loader and the BHS Homecoming Parade! Good times....

First Road Trip

2010-08-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

Little Miss looking adorable

We did our first road trip with Sloan this past weekend, to Steamboat Springs. Oddly enough that was Gavin's first road trip also and they were both the same age, right around 6 weeks. Sloan did great on the trip, luckily my Mom and Marv went and took the motor home so Gavin rode with them. It was nice and mellow, Little Miss slept the whole way- both ways!

She is not happy about something!

We have a lovely long weekend, leaving on Thursday and coming home Sunday. We spent Thursday and Friday nights with my Aunt and Uncle hanging out. On Saturday we headed out of town to a ranch for a girlfriends wedding. It was beautiful and the weather cleared up just in time for them to have the ceremony outside.

Greg told Heather he would pay her $10 to finish off the pitcher of Margaritas. She did it! Unsure if Greg ever did pay her....

Of course I took the camera and only took a few pictures. The ladies and Gavin went for a long walk along the Yampa River Friday and I gave the camera to Gavin to snap some photos. The top one is the one I took, the rest are from him.

We then hit the "hot springs" that is adjacent to the River, Gavin had a great time frolicking in the water.

Overall a great weekend, but glad to be home in my own bed. And the house is finally put back together! All the laundry is done and put away!

Helmets, Falling, Cleaning, Tomatoes & Birthdays

2010-08-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

This past week has been very action packed! So please ignore the sporadic blog this week. I am in the midst of trying to pack for a weekend up in Steamboat. I forget HOW MUCH CRAP a newborn needs. Seriously we may need a U-Haul. So for those that think my house is never a mess, here is a pic to prove otherwise.

Gavin is still in love with his helmets- Greg actually busted out his old Motor cross gear and let Gavin try on everything. Not just his helmet, gloves, etc, but also the boots, jersey, pants. My son is obsessed and will probably become a motor cross boy sooner than later. I can't believe I actually just wrote that! But he looks so cute!

On Friday my Aunt Jill and cousin Taylor jumped out of an airplane. WHY? Well it was on my Aunt's bucket list! So I packed up the kids and headed out to watch them with some other family. I got some pics of them prepping, loading onto the plane and that is it. Of course once they were jumping Little Miss decided she needed to eat, so I have no pictures of the actual jump. Gavin was very amazed with the whole thing, very entranced with all of the planes taking off right in front of us. When he was talking about them jumping, he said they were "falling with balloons". It was very cute.

This past Saturday was Frankie and Jackson's 4th birthday. I am a bad Aunt and took only one picture, my daughter with my father. Sleeping. I am actually not that bad, I did make Spider Man cupcakes for Jackson, complete with hand drawn spider webs. And for Frankie I made Princess cupcakes. I completely forgot to take pictures of them! They were not only fun to look at, but very yummy! Gavin asks me everyday if he can have another Spider Man cupcake.

Tomatoes....I really don't like them. Unless they are mashed up in a salsa or a sauce. Greg does not like them either. Yet, we are growing them. Long story short, my sister made me take a few plants. Greg and I put them in my frog and bunny pots with about 2 inches of soil. I did not have high expectations for these poor things- hello I have never even watered them. Yet we are getting tomatoes from them! Gavin and I picked these yesterday. Not bad for the plants that were not wanted!

Little Miss, Greg and I are still fighting a cold. I don't think Gavin had a cold until he was over 1 for the first time! So it has been interesting! She is doing great otherwise. And one last thing, our fridge....ON THE FRITZ AGAIN! The never ending saga of our stinking fridge.

Life and things

2010-08-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

We have somewhat settled into being a family of 6 (and yes, we count the dogs). Our routine is getting there, but it always seems that if one child sleeps like a rockstar the other is up all night or vice verse. Last night was actually one of our best nights yet, Little Miss only woke up once and so did my Monkey Pants. It was very nice and much needed as our past two nights have been a little rough. The joys of parenthood!

Sloan has definitely rounded out our family very well. She is so adorable and her big brother still dotes and loves on her. Even Elvis is taking some notice of her. Which brings me to the lost love between Elvis and Gavin. A few nights ago during dinner, Greg and I had a long talk with Gavin about his attitude toward Elvis. This is what we have found out, he does not like Elvis because Elvis is "Mommy's dog". And Crash is his dog. Hmm, I would say is this because of the baby? Is he lashing out at me through Elvis? But no, he has been mean to him for the last year pretty much! He then told us, "I want to sit by Elvis." With me replying, "Why? You don't like him." His response was, "But I like me." Makes no sense, but was hilarious when he told us this.

Tomorrow Gavin begins school (again). He is moving up to the older classroom - it will be interesting. He is so in awe (I would say love, but he better not love any other woman besides his Mama right now!) of his teacher that this transition will be very hard for him. I am hoping that he takes to his new teachers like he did Miss Stacy. He had just gotten to the point that he doesn't cry anymore when we drop him off. We will see how this turns out! I will keep you posted!

Sloan Lillian Kunz

2010-08-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

Finally a blog about our beautiful new bundle of joy. Sloan Lillian.....

She was born Monday, July 19th at 12:38 pm, weighing in at 7' 11" and 20 1/2 inches long. We had a scheduled C-section and all I have to say is, BEST THING EVER. We went in, did some things and had a baby! Yea. The recovery was so much better and easier on me. Sloan came out looking like a doll, with very chunky cheeks.

She is a dream, sleeps well, poops A LOT! Eats ok, we had some issues the first week with her having a bad case of diarrhea that led to her going on formula for a few days and a fun trip to the ER. She is much better now and we will find out in a few hours how much she weighs, we are thinking well over 8 pounds. She had dropped down to 7'4" but by her turning a week she was back to birth weight plus an ounce. She is still on formula plus my milk, but will only take the bottle. So much different than Gavin, but it is nice for the family to help feed her. I just miss the bonding of breast feeding.

Big brother Gavin absolutely loves her, wants to kiss her a lot, and of course hold her. Last week when he was getting ready to go to school he told me he didn't want to go, "because he would miss his baby." I literally started crying. He is very sweet to her, to us, not so much. He is still in his terrible 2's and has thrown more tantrums in the past 2 weeks than ever before. But happy to say he adores his sissy. That is all I really care about, that he is nice to her and isn't resentful and mean to her.

Our first two weeks with her have been action packed! Not just her trip to the Er, but we have gone out for dinner with her twice now (three times after tonight, we are meeting some friends for Sushi! Yum!), been to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, the park, swim lessons twice, and this past weekend we went up to Estes for a bit and went for a small hike around Bear Lake. More of a walk really and for lunch in town. Of course I brought the camera to document this and went to take a picture only to find out that the battery was dead. Oh well! She did amazing every time.

I have realized that Gavin is more work than she is! She is definitely sleeping better than her big brother~seriously that kid is up ALL THE TIME in the night. He doesn't want to sleep with us, he wants Daddy to sleep with him. It is a joy.

Some cute comments from my son lately: When Sloan was crying and my Mom was holding her, "Don't cry baby, Grammy will take care of you." Made both my Mom and I cry! Since I am pumping, he is fascinated with it and I have caught him a few times trying to "pump his boobies". Or he will bust in on my while I am pumping and ask, "do you have milk yet Mommy?" Greg will be appalled I put this on here, but oh well! At least I am not posting the pics of him actually pumping! I do love all the pics of him with his helmet and/or goggles on. He wears his helmet constantly. As you can see, even to go to the bathroom. He is a nut job!

On another note, I just made my very first batch of zucchini bread, and then realized we have no butter. Still yummy though! We are on day 8 of no fridge and are out of everything! Luckily Gavin is camping with my Mom and Marv right now. You have no idea how much you rely on appliances until one is on the fritz. Thanks again to all the well wishers! We appreciate it!

Craziness

2010-07-28T16:40:00.001-07:00

A pic of our little girl, Sloan Lillian- more to come

I know I am supposed to be doing a blog on our beautiful new bundle of joy, BUT.... of course there is some craziness going on. Every time I try to sit down and start a blog about her something comes up. To sum it up, we had an ER visit already for her on Sunday for dehydration. Poor thing had some serious diarrhea for a few days, alas all is ok and she is now an ounce past her original birth weight! And then of course we are feeling better and not stressed on Monday and wham, our fridge goes out that night. LOVELY. To sum it up, it sucks to not have a fridge with kids, especially when I have to pump and store my milk because Sloan was still on formula. Agh! We are still living out of coolers as of today. On the bright side, I am going to be doing some serious fridge cleaning when it gets fixed! And then the last thing happened yesterday, Gavin is more upset about this than anything else. Elvis once again popped Gavin's brand new pool. We had gotten it out Monday and used it one time. That freaking dog. Anyone want a bulldog?

Tick Tock

2010-07-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

We are now down to 5 days before D Day. I had my very first Braxton Hicks contractions last night. I was a little freaked out, had no idea what was going on. Most don't know, but with Gavin I never felt any contractions. He never wanted to come out! So yes, last night at about 2 am I was contemplating waking Greg and taking me to the hospital. Luckily I didn't, would be jumping the gun a bit! Come on baby!

Undies,Swimming Lessons & Randomness

2010-07-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

We are trying to get Gavin fully potty trained. Last weekend we did underwear all weekend and he did very well. No accidents. He even poops in the potty, but will go a little bit, have to show us, dump it and repeat. About 3 times every time he goes. It is disgusting. I know, TMI. Oh well, but at least this explains a few of the pictures, I just let him pick out some new underwear and before we could even put them away he did this with them (please excuse the boogie in one of the pics and no they have not been worn yet.):

We also started swim lessons on Saturday. It went great, Gavin loves the water and did wonderful. He is still considered too little to not have a parent in the class and was by far the biggest kid, unsure if he was the oldest though. Was it really informative? Not really, we do more with him by ourselves in pools, but like Greg said, for 4 classes we are only paying $11. So can't complain. The only time he got upset was when we had to get out, the lessons are only 30 minutes long. Not long enough for our little guppy!

Now onto some randomness. My son's infatuation with Taylor Swift. It is getting to be a problem. I thought it was cute when he would hear her song and go dance around and then inform me she was his "girlfriend". First off, how does he even know what a girlfriend is? And two, she is a little old for him. Today though, was a little too much. We were driving home from Target and I went to call Greg. My car has blue tooth, so it automatically shuts off the radio when the phone starts ringing. YOU WOULD HAVE THOUGHT I THREW AWAY HIS DOGGY. He starts yelling from the back seat, "TURN IT BACK, MY SONG, MY SONG." It was of course a Taylor Swift song. I hung up and we listened to it and he was not happy when it ended. His infatuation may be getting worse. Lady Gaga is a close second, but Taylor is the reigning girlfriend right now. Great, I won't even bring up his love of his teacher Miss Stacy. How when you ask about school, her name always is first thing out of his mouth. It is ridiculous.

The Last Day

2010-07-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, finally, 3 weeks later, I am finally done with our trip to Nebraska and the Black Hills! Yea!

Our last day there was spent riding the train from Hill City (where we were staying) to Keystone and back. It was an old Steam Engine and Gavin was very in awe of the conductor and his yelling "All Aboard" at the appropriate times. We had a good time and saw some wildlife and beautiful scenery. When I was looking for a place to stay, I had no idea of the good areas, convenient, etc. to stay for our trip. I found a wonderful place I liked in Cussler Park but when I finally got around to booking found out they were booked. Once we were up there, I was glad that we did not get into the area, I learned that staying in a National Park, it cost daily to get in along with another "lodging fee". So I finally came across this place in Hill City and we struck gold. It was off the beaten path, quaint, clean and they had a ton of horses and 4-wheelers so that kept Gavin occupied. Plus with all the towns we went into, by far Hill City was my favorite. I would definitely go back to the same place! Here are some pics of our cute cabin and our view.

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th! I of course forgot to take any pictures! We did not see any fireworks with our lovely weather. Oh well!

Black Hills Day 2 and a Rant/Apology from Moi

2010-07-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

We will start off with my rant and apology. I have re-read my last few blogs and they are less than stellar, a little redundant and riddled with errors. So I apologize, I think lack of sleep and overall bitchiness is taking me over. Lately it is a good night if I get 5 - 5 1/2 hours of sleep and an hour nap. I AM A SLEEPER. This is killing me! Plus the baby has dropped- I never knew what that meant before, Gavin never dropped. So I had no idea the pain, OH THE PAIN. Like a bowling ball is sitting on my pelvis and at any minute my insides are going to shatter. That walking hurts, sitting hurts, EVERYTHING HURTS. It is almost easier to sleep on the couch, I don't need help to get on it like I do our bed. My bruiser son is looking a mess right now. He has a huge fat lip now and we finally got to look inside his mouth last night. It wasn't pretty, Greg was worried he may need stitches. Poor Monkey! Wow, just reading that I am once again all over the board. Oh well. 2 1/2 more weeks!
******************************************

Onto Day 2 of our trip! We decided to hit Mt. Rushmore first thing in the morning. It was a very cool morning, which was perfect for our plan of hiking to the "spot" for a better look. We even had the backpack all set for Gavin to ride in when he got tired. Unfortunately once we got there we were told the hiking trail was closed until noon (we got there about 9). The same with the next day, which was a bummer. Gavin really liked it overall, he was fascinated with the "men's faces".

After that we drove into Cussler National Park and on the Needles Highway. Which was very cool, there were several one lane tunnels that were fun to drive in. It was beautiful and we ended up at Sylvan Lake. We all needed to stretch our legs, so we walked around it and enjoyed the scenery. Gavin loved seeing all the fisherman/woman. He is very into fishing after that little stop.

Our day ended with us going back to the cabin, taking a snooze and then heading into Keystone for dinner. We sat outside (which we figured out on day 1 would keep Gavin occupied looking at all the motorcycles, etc.) at the Ruby House, which is an old whorehouse. It was a nice evening and we topped it off with buying fudge and ice cream before heading home.

The Walking Wounded

2010-07-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Before I finish my blogs about our trip I needed to throw in some pics of my little boy who looks like he could be a UFC fighter lately. Besides all the cuts, bruises, ginormous mosquito bites that look like a 3rd eye all over his body; he also cut himself with his long nails over his eye and today gave himself a nice fat lip by falling out of the bed and landing on his face. I had to take a pic of it, I felt so bad when he came stumbling down the stairs at 5:30 this morning crying and bleeding. My poor son.

A few weeks ago Mom and I ventured to the Zoo with all the kids, we had a great time and I of course snapped some pics of Gavin with his cousins.

Gavin and Jack checking out the bears who were hanging out in the trees

Grammy and all her grandkids

Gavin all tuckered out on the way home, of course still holding his sucker

Black Hills Day 1

2010-06-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

We decided to pack a TON into our very first day in South Dakota. We hit Bear Country (Gavin and I's favorite thing), Reptile Garden, drove to Deadwood, onto Sturgis, back to Deadwood and ate dinner. Finally home. It was a packed day, but I think the best overall.

Gavin and I loved loved loved Bear Country, he got to sit up front with us and drive through the park. We saw so many cool animals, but by far the bears were our fave. There were so many and they would just walk right up to the car, walk in front of the car, follow us, etc. Gavin really liked the brown bears. I liked the baby bears, they were normally running around, but by the time we got to them they were all sleeping. Very cute.

Reptile Garden was probably my least favorite thing to do. The name says it all, Reptile. I am not a fan and I swear they had the biggest snakes/pythons I have ever seen, or tried not to see. Makes me shudder just thinking about it now. But Greg and Gavin liked it. We did see the biggest crocodile (Maniac) and turtles I have ever seen. Those were kinda cool.

Our trip to Sturgis was uneventful, it was actually pretty blah. We were obviously there 6 weeks too early. Deadwood was cool, we did get stuck in a flash flood on our way to the car, it was a little crazy for about 10 minutes. I did blow a whooping $10 on a slot machine.

Overall our first day was wonderful! More to come!

The Reception Part 2

2010-06-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

I love this photo, Gavin was fascinated with all the feathers and boas!

Here are some more of our favorite pics from the reception, and then I promise to get to our vacation in the Black Hills.

We finally got a picture of the Kelly/Kunz 4 generations! Granted Gavin was not really into it, he wanted to take his own photos!

On another note, Saturday morning while eating breakfast when I told my little monkey that his "special treat" was gone, that he ate it all. His response to me was "that is bullsh!t". I almost fell out of my chair. That is my boy. I am really proud, lets hope that he doesn't say it at school! He is no longer allowed to hang out with his Papa. We all agree that this is something he would say. :)

The Reception

2010-06-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

Self-potrait

From Gavin's point of view. I think he ended up taking about 200 pictures in the span of an hour or so. At one point we looked to the edge of the dance floor and there was my little man standing next to his Papa, who is the king of photos, snapping pics together as the bride and groom took their first dance together. Adorable!

Crazy cousin Kurtis

Aunt Kris (the mother of the groom)

Aunt Jenny and Tom from across the table

Daddy

Cute cousin Krystal - Gavin has a little crush, their was A LOT of pics of her!

Big Papa (probably my favorite picture he took)

A candid of Daddy

The bride and groom's first dance

The Wedding

2010-06-16T14:20:00.001-07:00

Greg's cousin got married almost 2 weeks ago in lovely Nebraska. Greg was the Best Man and Gavin was a very dashing Ring Bearer. It brought a tear to my eye, because I too was a Ring Bearer for my Mom and Dad's wedding. Yes, I know it should be a boy, but my sister was older and meaner and was adamant she was the ONLY flower girl. Anyway, he did wonderful! Was bribed a little with the promise of a Dum Dum (sucker) that Daddy had in his pocket. And the tux, ADORABLE! The wedding was beautiful and a good time was had by all. Here are some pics of it:

The Wedding Party

Gavin with the handsome groom- Lane

Daddy and Gavin looking dashing in their tuxes.

The lovely bride Dani at the bar they stopped on the way to the reception- this is the way to start off your wedding night! Yea baby!

The guys on the party bus!

I will post some pictures of the reception later this week, my son took about 200 pics at the reception. It was too cute to see him and his Papa side by side snapping pics. I have to admit some of the pics turned out adorable, a lot of personal snapshots, but very cute!

My Little Boy

2010-06-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

Ahhh. My little boy started pre-school today. Well lets be honest, he was supposed to start June 1st before we left for our vacation. That didn't happen, both he and I had a meltdown or in my case, a PANIC ATTACK. But being on vacation with him for 8 days straight helped me let him go today. He had a hard time, but overall it went very well. Here are some pics from his big day.

Here are some pics from our first water day out at our house. We had a few pools and a new sprinkler toy that was cute to watch, but Gavin really wasn't into it. Oh well. I am sure as the weather heats up he will use it more!

I also wanted to post these few pics, my son has never been one to fall asleep anywhere but in bed or in his car seat. He is not the type of child that will fall asleep on the couch (unless he is sick), playing or being held. He was sick a few weeks ago and he began falling asleep on us! I loved it, he probably hadn't fallen asleep in my arms for over 2 years! How he remained asleep while his sister was kicking him for 30 minutes straight is beyond me! Poor kid. The bottom picture was with my Mom while we were eating dinner. He must have been tired to fall asleep with us talking and laughing.

I promise to blog our trip this week!

I'mmmmm Back!

2010-06-11T07:11:00.001-07:00

We just returned late yesterday evening from our little family vacation to Nebraska for a wedding and then onto South Dakota for some real family time with just the three of us. I will blog next week the beautiful wedding of Greg's cousin that he was the best man in and our little guy was the ring bearer. They both did great. Along with our time in the Black Hills and how packed each day was. Some highlights; Bear Country, riding the train and seeing all the gorgeous sights. Some lows; Gavin still being sick, Reptile Gardens (for me anyway- I can't stand them!) and long drives in the car with a very pregnant person (me) and a very whiny boy (Gavin). More to come.....

Sick & Tired

2010-05-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Gavin & Daddy in their Superman shirts a few days before the "sickness" hit our home.

That is how my whole house has felt for almost a week. Gavin came down with a cold/fever last Thursday and has progressively gotten worse. Our whole weekend was spent in the house trying to placate him, make him comfortable, wipe his nose, listen to him cry and hold him. Greg and I both felt like we got nothing done this weekend, and we didn't! We had all these plans to work on the nursery, do flowers outside, see family, etc. Everything was put on the back burner and I did get out of the house for a few hours on Saturday to get my hair done. That is it. I am officially going a little crazy. We did get out yesterday to the doctor where we were told not only does he have a cold, but double ear infections. Lovely. Did I mention that he has been getting up about 4 am now? Well I should say his sleeping has gotten better. The first few nights he was up every couple hours crying and coughing his poor little heart out. The past few nights he has been back in his bed and this morning did not come down until 4:45am. So every day it is getting better! Yea. Just what a 7 month prego woman wants, to get about 6 hours of sleep a night- on a good night! I have been super fun lately, let me tell you! Greg is living off of coffee, energy drinks and soda, while I have my one soda a day. I actually told Gavin about 6:30 this morning we were going to Starbucks and getting a Chai Tea and a muffin and then realized my car is torn apart from him power barfing in the back seat yesterday. I really don't like driving the truck, so I ended up with my soda this morning and making muffins. Motherhood. Gavin's appetite has gone down considerably, it is a good day if I can get him to eat anything. This picture was from Friday night, his Popsicle dinner. He ate about a 1/3 of it. Oh well.

On another note, I am trying to branch out on my cooking a little more, especially with it being summer, Greg loves to grill. I wanted to try out a recipe from my Cooking Light magazine and finally got an hour on Sunday to whip it up, and try it out. Greg and I actually got about 30 minutes to eat it before we had to be on snot duty. It was great, a Peach and Red Pepper salsa over Halibut. It was really good, but a little too spicy. It asked for one habanero pepper and I put in two, oh well. We both really liked it though. I think tomorrow night we are going to try out General Tao's Chicken from one of his Gluten Free cookbooks (if I can get out of the house and get to the grocery store). I will let you know how it goes, I am not a huge fan of chicken, so Greg will be helping out a lot on this one!

The root of all EVIL is....

2010-05-10T11:02:00.001-07:00

....Doughnuts. Oh yea, I said it. Doughnuts are the bane of my existence. If you don't believe me, well, they landed me in the ER on Saturday. Yep, they are getting the blame. Let me back track a bit......

Every time we go to the grocery store, we HAVE TO go through the bakery and pass by all those delectable looking doughnuts, muffins, scones, etc. to get to the free cookies for Gavin. I always tell Greg, "they look SO STINKING GOOD", but I never break down and get any. I know that after I eat one I will feel like crap. My Mom calls them "gut bombs" for a reason! So I always just walk on by.

My son. My cute little monkey is in his new bed now. He just doesn't know that when it is still dark out he has to stay in bed. So Friday morning, he came bouncing into our room at 4:50 am, ready to rock and roll. When Greg left for work at 5:30 - I told him, I deserve a doughnut for being up so early. So off we went (a few hours later), to Krispy Kreme to get a couple of doughnuts. Gavin has never had one (that I know of) so he was very excited. We each ate one on the drive home (hello, we had been up for 2 1/2 hours by then)! Gavin devoured his and so did I. But once we got home, I started feeling ill. I broke down and tried to eat some lunch hours later and that didn't help. Greg and I went out for dinner that night and things just got worse. We watched a movie once we were home and I couldn't get comfy, honestly I was pretty whiny. I finally told Greg, "I wish I would just throw up, I know I would feel better." If only I had known then! About 1 am I woke up, and got violently ill. It was not pretty. But I did feel better!

I never did sleep well that night, so I tried to nap about 9. I laid down and it felt like I was wearing a corset 10 times too small. My ribs were aching, it then moved into my chest and back. I couldn't breathe and was freaking out and crying like a baby (thank goodness Gavin wasn't there, I try to be strong when he is around :) ). After a quick call to the doctor- they sent me to the ER, making sure I did not have a blood clot. After an EKG, blood work, a lot of sitting around and a cat scan (why is it that the iodine they pump into you makes you feel like your tongue is too big for your mouth and that you need to tinkle?) I was sent home. They think I either bruised a rib or pulled a muscle in my quest to purge the doughnut. Well they really didn't say it was the doughnuts fault, I didn't really tell them the whole story. But yes, I blame it on the doughnut!

This past weekend wasn't spent just in the ER, Sunday was Mother's Day! I had the best one yet. I was awoken by my monkey coming into the bedroom saying, "Good morning Mama, Happy Mother's Day." It was too cute. We then headed to Flatirons to have Brunch with the Kunz's. After that, we went to a park in Boulder for a picnic with my Mom, Marv, sis and her family. The kids had fun playing and the adults soaked up the sun. I was a ding dong and didn't put sunscreen on certain areas of my body. So I have some funky burns on my chest, arms and legs. Where I actually put sunscreen is nice and brown. Oh well. The rest of the day was spent vegging out at home with the boys, Greg grilled and we spent some more time outside. It was perfect. A great way to end a somewhat less than ideal weekend. I of course forgot the camera yesterday- so no pics!

My Thursday

2010-04-30T14:53:00.000-07:00

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

This is pictures from our day yesterday....... I began taking pictures at 8:15 am. Please note the 2 family members that are still sleeping. Lazy bones.

I love my monkeys hair in the above photos, he looks so much like me! And yes, he is eating Chocolate Cheerios. He gets them once a week...lucky boy!

I then attempted to get him to sleep in his new bed for a nap- it didn't work out so well. He looks very comfy, but completely thought it was fun time. Oh well, he can share a crib with his baby sister when she gets here.

POOP

2010-04-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

This is the culprit

How is that for a headliner? My son just went poop in the potty for the first time. I can't believe I am that mother, you know the one that tells every little thing her brilliant child does. Well I think the only reason I am informing everyone of this, is because the toilet is now clogged. Daddy will be coming home to a nice surprise.......Welcome home from Vegas Daddy, now please unclog the toilet!

Not much to say

2010-04-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well, actually I do have a lot to say, but not in the mood to do a long blog. Yes, I am in that type of mood. It is raining again, with a little spurt of snow for awhile, and I am going a little stir crazy. My son seems to be doing fine, it is just me. It is noon and I have cleaned the whole kitchen, 2 bathrooms, swiffered the whole house, dusted, watered the plants, made soup, and threw in a couple loads of laundry.

Greg is leaving for Vegas in the morning, so I guess I want a clean house for myself this weekend. Did I mention that I just ate part of a Snickers Blizzard for lunch? About my 3rd or 4th bite I realized it wasn't Heath and was very disappointed (my husband ordered the Snickers). That is pretty much it for today. Oh yea, one more b!tch from me, because of our weather this past month, my 5 lovely Lilac bushes did not bloom. I am supper annoyed with that- they are the one and only thing I wanted in our yard when we landscaped and this is the 2nd year in a row they have not bloomed. Phooey. Ok, I am done.

Spring has Sprung!

2010-04-08T07:39:00.001-07:00

Spring is officially here, with of course us waking up to a few inches of snow from a spring storm yesterday. It was melted before the day was over! That is why I love Colorado.

We had a wonderful Easter, Greg and I hosted for the first time ever. It was a wonderful time and we had a special treat for the kids, besides the Easter bunny hiding tons of eggs outside! We had some good friends come with their train for the kids. It was pretty much the hit of the whole day and of course the neighbors kids loved it also. Kids came running out to get a ride on it. Greg and I both agreed that it was by far our favorite Easter ever! Gavin still talks about Pat and his train. Here are some pictures of our whole day. Gavin absolutely loved hunting for eggs (I can't believe I am going to admit this, but I am typing this in between hiding eggs for Gavin in the house, he can't get enough of it)! He especially loved the candy loaded in them!

Finding his football egg, I think he is already eating a Jelly Bean at 7 in the morning!

His loot, he was upset there wasn't more eggs to find, I had to remind him the Easter Bunny hid about 60 outside!

Finding his Easter Basket in the bathtub with new PJs and shoes!

The kids making a break for it out of the house- the hunt began!

Gavin finding a few in the tree!

Frankie, Jack and Pyper's loot, they all did great!

The Infamous Train!

I love the fact the kids always rode in the back! The train got quite a workout that day, by the end kids were waiting in line to get a ride. We even had one couple drive by and stop and ask if their little boy- another Gavin, could go for a ride.

Gavin driving the train, he absolutely loved it!

A huge thank you to Pat and Nita for bringing the train, the kids still rave about it.

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

What is up with the WEATHER?

2010-03-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is what we had last week.....8 or so inches in a few hours. Granted we loved it, now everything is coming in such a lovely green! But really, here was part of our week- last week....

Gavin was even dressed appropriately with all of Daddy's snow stuff on.....And now, today we are going to be up to 78! What snow? All of that snow is melted and we have done nothing but play outside lately. Which is great, we have had a little guest the past few days, our neighbor Blake. He is Gavin's official driver, they cruise around between our houses and then of course stop and get under the truck and "fix things" with their tools. It is very cute.

Of course Gavin and Greg had to take a ride in this fun thing. Gavin loved it! I think Greg loved it a little too much.......... We have officially enrolled Gavin in Preschool beginning July 1st. We, ok me, are really looking forward to this! We would like it to start a little earlier, but he has to be 2 1/2 and potty trained. They are letting him in a month early as it is, so he can be somewhat acclimated to it before the baby comes. Greg and I were very impressed with the school and can't wait for him to start. My little boy is growing up! Yikes!

Happy St. Patty's Day to YOU!

2010-03-17T13:31:00.001-07:00

Looking cool today in his new shades!

What a beautiful St. Patrick's Day in Denver! Gavin and I just returned from the Zoo. It was beyond crowded! I guess everyone had the same thought I did, nice weather = Zoo time. We stayed about 2 1/2 hours and were ready to hit the road. We saw pretty much every animal we could except the Lions and Tigers. For some reason we skipped right over those. Oh well.

Gavin's cool fro'

Our St. Patty's day started on Saturday actually. With me bullying Greg into going downtown for the parade. The very first time Greg and I have ever gone to it. Yes, I even lived downtown for awhile and yet, never once made the parade! It was once again a beautiful day and Gavin had a ton of fun. He actually got to have his very first sucker. Special day indeed! We stayed almost 2 hours and it may have been half over- it is a very long parade. Gavin was very fascinated with all the motorcycles (of course) and old cars. He got a little afraid of the red headed leprechauns and the giant clown looking thing (see pics). I don't blame him, I am not a fan of clowns either. I got a little afraid of the steer that were in the line-up with no real way to keep them in line. Those cowboys must be really good. We are definitely putting this on our yearly calender- next year we are just going to make others go with us & come decked out in green.

Greg's birthday was great. He got every thing he wanted..........food wise! Steak, taters and asparagus with chocolate covered strawberries for desert. Gavin had his first one that night and you can tell by the pictures that it was VERY MESSY. Overall I think it was a good birthday for him and he is now finally my age! Yea!

Hope everyone has a safe and fun St. Patty's day & got out to enjoy the weather. One more day of nice before the snow comes in!

Sledding, Snotty Noses & Sleepless Nights

2010-03-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

That pretty much sums up our past week and a half. It has been a JOY. A JOY I TELL YOU.

Gavin sleeping on the floor next to Crash, after rolling off the couch and remaining asleep. This was one of his worst days being sick! Crash of course wanted to take care of him, while I laughed that he slept through falling off the couch. I am a mean Mom.

The sledding post was supposed to be done last week, as we went to Steamboat 2 weekends ago, but I had a sick boy up there and then part of last week. We thought he was on the road to recovery.....then both Greg and I got sick. Now he is back to coughing and constant nose running. I don't know who has it worse, me or him. I have officially gone through ALL the Kleenex boxes in our house. We just got back from Target, I think I bought 12 boxes along with some more medicine. It is a joy. I sound like I have cotton swabs up my nose!

Daddy and Gavin on the last trip up the hill sledding. One of them looks happy...

Back to Steamboat- we had a blast. Well I did. Gavin got sick the Friday we left so we had a rough night and really no naps the entire time up there. So he was very much a Daddy's boy. He liked the sledding- not as much as everyone else, but really how excited can one person get when they are sick and have a fever? Here are some pics of our festivities:

Greg & Gavin, I love that Gavin's eyes are closed! But he is smiling!
Marv & Frankie wrecking at the bottom- too much fun!Gavin with Daddy's glasses on- it was bright and beautiful out!Jen rolling off her sled, she was hauling.Making snow angles, or is Jen's case, snow devils.....Auntie Jill and Jack flying down the mountain.

The very end of the day for us, what a gorgeous Steamboat day!

We had a wonderful trip, the parties for Aunt Jill were great, she is the last Hogoboom girl to retire, so what else are they to do? Well head to Arizona with a bunch of friends and whoop it up. Yes, My Mom and her sisters are now Snow Birds, enjoying the 80 degree weather while we woke to snow on the ground! I of course forgot to take pics of the party Saturday night, but all I have to say is I have never seen more people over the age of 50 do Keg stands. And as the pregnant one, I am a good witness, plus I was the one putting the nozzle in every one's mouth. The retiree did 2. 'Nuff said.

Today is my Hubby's 35th birthday- so a big Happy Day to you Honey! Gavin and I have been busy, between blowing our noses, to make you some birthday goodies! Don't worry I won't let him help with the chocolate covered strawberries!

IT IS A.....

2010-03-10T07:53:00.000-08:00

GIRL! If you can't tell by my new blog setup! We found out yesterday, well 90% sure, that we are having a girl! Very exciting, now I don't have to pressure Greg into having a 3rd. I am heading out of the house right now to buy some girl things!

Finally....

2010-03-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

After 4 years of living in our house and over 4 years of complaining about Greg's bedroom set, I finally got my wish and GOT A NEW ONE! Yea! It is lovely and to be honest- Greg picked it out. I was so surprised. His taste has changed so much since we have been together.... For the better of course! The bed is a little large, so tall that I am seriously tempted to get a step stool for my side to get up into bed. Poor Gavin had just mastered getting on our old bed and then we go and get a taller one! Oh well. Here are some pics of my lovely new furniture:

Our next adventure is to get new bedding. That is a whole work in itself. I will blog later this week about our trip to Steamboat this past weekend. But for now I have a super sick kid on my hands. He is actually right now sitting on my lap while I type with one hand.....

As I write this...

2010-02-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

My little monkey in Mommy's boots and Daddy's hat.

I am watching my son jam out to Lady Gaga's Poker Face. It is hilarious. He can't quite sing his ABC's or Itsy Bitsy Spider, but put on Lady Gaga and he can sing along to Poker Face or Bad Romance. Plus he has mad skills in the dancing department, from me of course. His Daddy can't bust anything except maybe a hip. He even has his own moves to Poker Face, I need to record it one of these days because it always makes me laugh whenever he starts dancing and singing.

My son the wanna be biker. He is fascinated with all hats and helmets right now.
Greg seems to think Gavin will be going for a ride on Daddy's motorcycle this summer....
Over my DEAD BODY!

All is going well, I am feeling a ton better, except the pregnancy headaches. I forgot how stinking awful those things are. And it seems Tylenol isn't working this go round. Oh well. Greg has been a little stressed with work lately (as usual), but we got the wonderful news last week that they were giving out bonuses- after they decided no raises this year. So I am finally getting my very belated Xmas present- NEW BEDROOM FURNITURE! Yea. We are also shopping for Gavin, but can't seem to find anything either of us likes. Do we do bunk beds? If no, then for sure a trundle bed.... Decisions decisions. He has yet to even attempt to get out of his crib, but we would like his new room up and running by April. It will be a big adjustment, not only moving beds, but also rooms. But hopefully it will be a room he loves and we will let him do some of his own decorating. He has pretty good taste! He dressed himself this morning and everything matched but his socks. I even let him pick out the flowers for our dining room table today at the store. He wanted purple and green instead of the yellow and green. Good choices!

Hormonal Much?

2010-02-16T11:49:00.000-08:00

Bed Head in his favorite pjs, seriously Santa still???

That is how I feel right now. I cry about 4 times a day. Seriously, I am banned from watching pretty much anything on the TV, even the Olympics make me cry! The person that gets me to cry ALL THE TIME though, is my cute little monkey. Last week Greg and Gavin were wrestling on the floor and I was laying on the couch not feeling very well and rubbing my tummy. And my sweet little boy came over and kissed my belly, kept his lips on it and said, "hi baby". It was the cutest thing, Greg and I were both stunned. I am getting teary eyed writing that. I am such a sap! It is annoying!

Hiding from me, or is it something else?

This is the same boy though, when asked if he would rather have a new baby boy or girl, his response is "a dog". Greg about had a heart attack the first time he said it. I have been saying all along if it is another boy I am entitled to get a girl dog (because we have decided 2 kids is enough). I am tired of being outnumbered! And maybe I could dress up this new dog in pink frilly things! Can you just picture a baby Bulldog or Shepard in a pink tutu!

Pimpin' ain't easy!

Last week Greg and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. Yes, 3 years, that is ALL! Seems much longer! We got away this past weekend for the night, which was fun but I missed all the boys. Maybe now that I am pregnant I am a homebody! Who knew. I have attached some pics of Gavin's gift for Valentine's day. Well not his actual gift, just the box that his and Daddy's gifts came in.

Finally- Gavin's 2nd Birthday!

2010-02-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, my son is officially 2! Nothing like doing a belated blog to celebrate!

We started his celebration the Saturday before with a small party for him. We have learned that he just does not do well in crowds. Even at our house, if there are people there that he sees sometimes or regularly, he still gets clingy and won't leave our side (or the grandparents). So we decided to do just immediate family and boy, DID HE HAVE A GREAT TIME. Two things happened that night. 1. We have never seen him eat so much sugar in one sitting (I am blaming his Auntie Jen for that). 2. We have never seen him get so crazy and wild (of course after eating that sugar). He seriously was running around and screaming for about 45 minutes straight. Once that stopped then we had a dance off in the kitchen with his cousins, Mommy, Grammy and Auntie Jen. We were all busting a move, complete with Jackson break dancing. It was too much fun.

He had a wonderful time, was comfortable and played like crazy. The perfect party for a little boy! No clingy, cranky boy here.

Hi actual birthday fell last Tuesday with him sleeping in and eating a huge breakfast. Grammy came over and we went to Lil Monkey Bizness for him to play and run around. Once again, he rarely left our side. He was a little overwhelmed with all the madness. (Which brings me to a NY resolution- to get him more acclimated to other kids and crowds. We are going to Xtreme Gymnastics on Monday for Mommy's day out & have started more play dates with our neighbor kids.) That evening we went to Gunther Toody's for dinner (as we did on his 1st birthday). He of course had a birthday sundae after dinner.

On Friday we had his 2 year old check up at the doctor. Always a joy. We were informed he has had a huge growth spurt in the last 3 months. His height and weight went straight up instead of on the normal incline. The doctor said, "um, he has gained A LOT of weight in the past 3 months." 6 pounds. Doesn't seem like a lot, unless you are a 2 year old! He is on the right track for being a "terrible" 2. About 30 times a day I am asked, "Where Daddy go? Why Daddy at work?" He is definitely chatty and obstinate! The joy of being 2!

A quickie

2010-01-28T10:47:00.000-08:00

A teaser from his party!

I am in the process of doing a BIG BIRTHDAY BLOG for my now 2 year old. But am having issues finding the time to get it done. I know, lame excuse.

But I had to do a quick blog to tell you 2 very funny things my child has done lately. The first, just happened about 2 minutes ago. As I was in the laundry room, he followed me in and I realized that he was face down in the dogs bowl attempting to drink out of it. It was cute, but gross.

The second happened a few night ago, we were finishing up dinner and he was done, playing in the kitchen. He has a fascination with all the peanut butter jars, syrups, honey, etc. Pretty much all the plastic we have that he can reach. He brings them into the kitchen, stacks them, hides them, etc. He was being awfully quiet and I peeked my head around the doorway and found him sitting on the floor amidst all his jars, with the lid off of his peanut butter, hand in the jar, eating it straight off of his fingers. GROSS! Such his Dad. But very cute.

Part 2 of a Very Belated Xmas!

2010-01-20T07:27:00.000-08:00

Greg & Jerry (Papa) in their Xmas jammies from Gavin- Greg asked me to "please not put this pic up." Sorry honey!

We decided to venture to Nebraska for Christmas this year. Gavin is still not up on the whole "Christmas thing", so we figured this would be the only year we would go back. After this I would like Gavin & new baby bean to wake up in their own bed and begin our own Christmas traditions.

Opening Santa gifts on Christmas morning.

When we decided to drive back we did not have a clue that we would be going into a blizzard! But alas, when we did find out, we left a day early and thought it wouldn't be too bad. Were we wrong! The drive started out with my lovely son having a breakdown that lasted about 30 minutes or so; in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. He was so hysterical he ended up throwing up all over himself. Lovely. We didn't have anywhere to pull off for about 15 minutes, so the car smelled just peachy. Did I mention I am pregnant? And that smells are super great right now? I think I told Greg at one point we were turning around (we were about 3 hours into the drive), little did we know, we really should have. The rest of the drive went ok, until about the last 3 or so hours. The snow was coming in and there was accidents everywhere. Our normal 7 1/2 hour drive turned into almost 9. All I have to say, is thank god we had brand new tires and our truck, we would have never made it in my car!

At Big Papa's Christmas day, because our dinner for the day was cancelled, we threw together a quicky dinner (no stores were open) and decided to stay in our pjs all day.

The snow, the snow, the snow, it never stopped. And with the blowing snow, it was such a lovely blizzard. This lovely snow broke a 61 year old record for most snow on Christmas. Being from Colorado, we are lucky, it snows for a good day or 2, then we head outside in the sunshine and play. Not so for the Nebraskans. We never once got to play in the lovely snow. Poor Gavin. And to complete this lovely weather, most all of our "to dos" were cancelled. Overall, we did have a good time, Greg tied one on pretty well one night with his cousins, aunts and uncles. I even managed to stay up until 2 am that night!

Our drive back was worse than the drive to. We found out the day before we were to leave that I-80 was closed and had been closed since Christmas Eve. They finally opened it up the night before we left, and it was not in great shape. At one point we were down to one lane because they didn't remove enough snow. I have added some pics of that 9 + hour drive home. We saw about 8 accidents in about a mile span. FUN TIMES!

I just noticed while looking through my photos to upload, I have have only about 15 pictures from our trip. And they all are either Gavin or our drive. I realized that when we go somewhere with Jerry, I leave it up to him to take all the pictures. So I apologize to the Kelly's, I don't even have a pic of Big Papa! Sheesh I am a slacker.

Big News

2010-01-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

My little boy went potty in the Frog Potty chair 3 times on Saturday! He is getting so big.

In other news, Greg and I went and saw Avatar on Saturday. WONDERFUL. My very first time seeing a 3-D movie....ever! It was great!

Merry Belated Christmas, Part1

2010-01-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

I will be breaking up our very long Christmas blog. I think we started celebrating the weekend before Christmas and ended the Tuesday after. That is a longggggg time to keep playing Santa!

We hosted my family and had a great time. Gavin made out like a bandit (as did we) and some of his very favorite items are from that day. Lets be honest, same with me. I don't think I have taken off my new Ugg slippers since that day- super comfy and warm. Unsure but with this pregnancy, I am ALWAYS FREEZING. Last night I made Greg get out an electric heater and turn it on high and wrap me in it. This was on top of my fleece socks, sweats and sweatshirt. I also had the fireplace going. I sleep with my face under the covers because my nose is like an iceberg. I thought pregnant women were always hot??

Anyway, here is our Xmas in pictures:

Gavin getting his new personalized suitcase. He loves this thing! Will continuously take things out and put them back in, then drag it around. Pretty cute.

Jack and Pyper with their new water bottles. I think Pyper's is very fitting, little Miss Drama Queen!

Gavin having some help with his new table and chairs. This is my personal favorite gift, he loves to sit at the table and color. Or put all the chairs in line and put his stuffed animals on them.

All the kids tuckered out after opening gifts.

We then let Gavin open our big gift from us a couple of days later. This is what I get for letting Daddy do some shopping without me! Matching F-150s. Gavin loves this thing, it just is poopy that it is so cold out to let him drive around in it.

As you can see, Gavin loves cruising around our neighborhood. Hopefully next week we can spend some more time outside!

Slacking in 2010!

2010-01-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am slacking, but I have an excuse. I am tired and cranky! Ha. My husband just went back to work today after being off for like 16 days or something crazy like that. I will blog our wonderful Xmas in Nebraska (with pics of course), complete with a blizzard, a drive to and from, from HELL. Our very low key NYE party we hosted and of course how this pregnancy is literally kicking my booty! My list of resolutions and of course my hubby's also (I may be writing them for him...). Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Frosty...

2009-12-15T10:55:00.001-08:00

The redneck snowman.....

We decided to spend the day outside on Saturday. For once we got above 20 and my son is 95% back to normal. So after a few weeks of cabin fever we ventured outside to build ourselves a snowman and do some sledding. We have some crazy/funky faces for our pumpkins at Halloween time, so I pulled those out and used them on our snowman. We named him Billy Bob and I think Gavin was a little scared of him. I kept asking him to stand next to him so I could take a picture of them together and he wouldn't do it. OH well! Overall he had a great time and I am glad that the weather is a little nicer now!

Sunday was our annual baking Christmas cookies day with my family. It is always a good time, until we realized we nixed out the only cookies Greg could eat. He was not a happy camper when he realized this, but oh well! I told him I would make him his very own batch. And that is asking a lot from me, since they are Peanut Butter balls and I don't like peanut butter! As always, the kids had a wonderful time decorating (yea right!) the cookies and I snapped some pics of them and of course the winners in the contest we have every year. (We pick one of every kids, then go around the room and vote.) This year, the big winner was Pyper, she got a $1. That is how we get them to decorate, BRIBE THEM!

(The winning cookie is the bottom left side Santa- Beautiful! It was a struggle from keeping some of the younger kids from eating every cookie they decorated!)

(This is my son, doing god knows what, while the rest of the kids were decorating.)

Unsure if I will post again before the holiday, we are celebrating Christmas this entire weekend with my side of the family. This will be the first year IN MY LIFE, that I will be leaving Colorado for Xmas. We will be heading to Nebraska next Wed. for 5 days! Should be a good time. Just a little hard for me....

Have a wonderful Holiday!

Tis The Season...

2009-12-08T14:27:00.001-08:00

For colds, fevers, runny noses, cranky babies and even crankier (is that a word?) hubby's. FINALLY, the boys are feeling better. Last week was a blur. TOTAL BLUR FOR ME. I wasn't well, we had a sick boy in bed with us for 6 nights straight and my husband that sounded like an elephant every time he blew his nose. We found out Greg had an intense Sinus Infection and Gavin had Croup along with a lovely ear infection. Always a joy to have a munchkin with a 103 temp that wants nothing to do but lay on you and be miserable. My very own hot box. They are all finally on the mend with each having a little bit of a cough still.

Since they were better, we decorated the house and the tree this weekend. Well I should say trees, we have 3. I am very adamant that we have a real tree for our main tree, but decided to scale back this year because we will not be here for Xmas, so got a 10 footer. Yes, that is scaling back for us I guess! Greg had to bring in our big ladder to do some of the lights and star at the top. He set it up and immediately my son climbed his way to the very top. He just wanted to sit up there! Scared me to death! The boy has no fear! He also took a liking to the Santa hat we have and wore it the whole day, along with the dogs jingle bells. He was pretty comical! I am so glad he is feeling better.

Finally the finished project, he only broke one ornament and of course it was the one we gave him last year for Christmas! Little stinker. As always, he is on another ladder, this time, not one so high! Now onto Christmas cards and wrapping presents. I wonder if he will leave them alone?!

Shocker

2009-12-04T11:11:00.000-08:00

There will be no blog this week, because I have a houseful of sickies. Seriously it is a joy. Hoping this weekend will be better, we are decorating the house and our trees. My boys better shape up, or else.....

Giving Thanks

2009-11-25T07:36:00.001-08:00

The past 8 months have been a hard time for us. In that short time we have found out Greg had Celiac disease, I had an appendicitis, I suffered a miscarriage and we have lost several family members and a father figure for Greg. In that short time we have attended 5 funerals. It began with my uncle dying in March and ended with my cousin Roger losing his three year battle with brain cancer a few weeks ago. We also lost 2 family members to the same strain of leukemia, one who was in her 70's and one who just turned 40.

With everything that has happened in the past several months, it makes me realize what is important in our lives. So this year I will be giving thanks to our health, our wonderful families and our beautiful, but sometimes bratty, son. My heart goes out to my families that have lost someone this past year. They will be in our hearts and thoughts this upcoming holidays.

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

Halloween-a little belated....

2009-11-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

(Gavin in Mommy's boots)
Before we get to Halloween, last week we had a snow storm that pretty much locked us in for 2 days. It was great and Gavin LOVED putting on his boots this year. He actually still tries to grab them and make us put them on him. The only problem is, he doesn't get how you put them on and curls up his toes so it is a STRUGGLE for us. Here are some pics of our little monkey enjoying it. Of course I also added in some pics of the dogs enjoying it too.

Here are some wonderful pics of our lovely pumpkins this year (please note the little pumpkin, it makes a cameo later on):Friday night we adults rang in Halloween at a party at my sister's. We had absolutely no fun, and were asleep by 8. Ha. We actually had a blast and ended up having a slumber party with a bunch of family at the Alexander casa. I think we finally went to bed about 2:30 am. I don't remember the last time I have stayed up that late!!! This first picture is hilarious, because I was in charge of doing my sister's makeup and while putting on false eyelashes- I GLUED HER EYE SHUT. HILARIOUS. Please also note my wonderful spooky appetizers I made for the party! The puking pumpkin and spider web bean dip. Yummy!

Halloween day was beautiful and Gavin had a wonderful time Trick or Treating. We did our neighborhood hay ride again and all of the kids had such a good time. Gavin was usually the last one to get to the door (out of about 15) and he was the 2nd to the youngest. So he got a lot of raves about what a cute little "monkey" he was.

New Design

2009-11-03T14:29:00.000-08:00

I finally broke down and did a new border, etc. I will hopefully change it every month to fit the season, holiday or my MOOD. Ha ha! I will post all the Halloween fun we had this week. Here is a teaser of my Little Monkey....

Finally

2009-10-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do a more in depth post, but I have realized that my son HATES when I am on the computer and throws a fit or tries to sabotage anything I am working on. So I am trying to do this while he sleeps (thankfully) in between dusting and making spooky mini cupcakes for the Halloween party we are going to tonight.

Gavin has had a ball outside (before the blizzard came) and we have spent a lot of time playing in the leaves!

The following pictures are from our annual Pumpkin carving/decorating with Mom, Marv, Jen and the kids. We had a great time and the pumpkins turned out great.

As you can see we had a ball, Greg and I actually carved our pumpkins last night, look next week for pics of that and of course our wonderful snow fall and HALLOWEEN! We are all looking forward to it! Have a SPOOKY Halloween!

Once again...

2009-10-27T07:05:00.001-07:00

I am a slacker. But here is a pic to hold you over until I write a full post this week. I PROMISE.

October is here!

2009-10-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year, the weather gets a bit cooler and the leaves look beautiful in their orange and red hues. LOVE IT. Plus it is my birthday month. Nuff said! I finally just finished decorating the house and Gavin and I just had lunch on pumpkin plates and witch napkins. Fun!

We are a bit busy right now, I am leaving for Chicago in the morning with my Mom, sister, aunts and cousins for our annual girls trips. I am looking forward to it, but more importantly to see the family and celebrate the birthdays we have. Seven of us are going and 4 of us have birthdays within 10 days of each other!

Which brings me to my Mom, she just celebrated her 60th on Sunday. This is the only shot I got that day, all the grand kids eating. Whoopee! A huge Happy Birthday to her!

We had a great weekend, our nieces and nephew had a slumber party on Saturday and we were busy! We started off at Anderson Farms, picking some pumpkins, going on pony rides, running around, etc. We all had a blast and agreed that the hay ride was the best part. All the kids took a nap, so I think it was a hit!

A beautiful fall day! Enjoy!

Well how did your week go?

2009-09-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

Lets see, my week started with me having my appendix removed bright and early Monday morning. Yea. Really, it was a joy. I do have to say though, I figured out what it was in about 30 minutes, with the last 25 of it bent over the counter googling "how do you know when you have an appendicitis?" or "what the f#$% is this pain in my right side?"

But lets back track, Sunday we had a lovely day that ended with us making breakfast for dinner. I encouraged Greg to make some Gluten Free waffles with our eggs and potatoes. I am not a waffle/pancake person so I had just a little bit of it- not bad just needed a lot of syrup. So about an hour later I just had a wave of pain come over me and not really let up. I honestly thought I was allergic to Gluten Free WAFFLES! Seriously, I did. After another 30 minutes it just was on one side and I was literally rolling around on the bed in agony. Greg came in and was like, "so what, you have a tummy ache or something, maybe you should try and poop." I then kindly asked him to go google appendix and where it is located. He just stood there, while I am withering in pain. I think I screamed a not very nice word and told him I needed to know now, not in an hour. When we figured it out, I said, "Greg call your Mom, have her get over here to watch Gavin." Once again he just kinda looked at me and then proceeded to call and CHIT CHAT for a few minutes and then ask her if she could come over. I think my husband thought I was full of shit until I started yelling and waving my arms around. Because man, that got him jumping.

After getting to the ER, explaining about 30 times what the problem was, I had the Doc tell me, he was just POSITIVE it was kidney stones. I just sat there and told him, well, that would be GREAT, because hopefully then I would not have to have surgery (maybe) and even if I did, it is an outpatient procedure. I have had kidney stones and I kept telling the doctor, well, it just does not feel the same way. But, hey, what do I know? Finally after 2 hours of being there, a new doctor came in to tell me, "yes, you have an appendicitis." I think my first question was, "well, if it hasn't burst, then just give me some pills and send me on my way." Santa Claus (seriously he looked just like him and had the jolly laugh) said, "well, that isn't going to happen, you are having surgery tonight or in the morning. HO ho ho to you." Well not that last part, but who knows, I was on drugs by then.

So long story short, they cut me open Monday morning and we were hoping to get out of there that afternoon/evening. We realized, oh maybe Tuesday afternoon when I WAS STILL THERE that maybe we pushed it a little too much. Because they just won't let you out if you are puking up everything. I did just love all the different nurses who would tell us one thing one minute and something way off the mark the next. Where they finally told me I needed to be breathing into this lung checker thingy and then just left it, didn't tell me how to check, what to do, how to measure. So that thing sat there for a full day and I still wasn't blowing what I should have been when I finally persuaded them that I was leaving. I REALLY LOVED that none of them could tell me why I was opened up on my left side when my appendix is on the right. One nurse actually went and checked a book to see where my appendix is, she wouldn't take my word for it. And she thought the doctor might have taken out the wrong one. Just wait on that a moment. It will come to you..........

So I am free, back at home, since Wednesday late afternoon. Yes, home sweet home. Oh wait, I forgot I live with the child that does not want to sleep anymore. Because everyone wants to be up for 2 hours in the middle of the night. Right? And naps? What are those? I want to be awake all day just to terrorize my parents at 6 - because you can't lay me down then... I swear, maybe I faked this whole thing just to have a few days of quiet in a bustling hospital that thinks people have 2 appendixes and love to wake you up every 2 hours to remind me that my oxygen was low. I will say, I got the most attention on my last day there by a nurse in training. Granted she came in about 10 minutes after another nurse left to recheck all my vitals, she then proceeded to do a VERY THOROUGH exam. Hello, she lifted UP MY BOOBS to listen to my lungs. Then took off my socks to check my circulation and a few other things. She did more than any of the docs and nurses put together. She was the best though- I must have been "her" patient for the day, because when I needed something she got it, it was like having a doting grandma with you. Yet she was about my age, Chinese and English is not her first language. She was the one that tried to rat me out to the doctor about the breathing tube, but I forgive her. And for her feeling me up. It goes with the territory.

And yes, this was at "Death Valley" I think we have definitely ruled out having another child there.

Cousins...

2009-09-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to Gavin and his wonderful cousins, Pyper, Frankie and Jackson. My sister has 3 adorable kids that we get to see a lot! This summer we had all 3 stay the night a few times, and then each one had a night over to do what they wanted. It was a ton of fun and Gavin loves playing with them. Here is our summer in pics......

Pyper's 5th Birthday -May 31st

(The boys were outnumbered here, it was a princess/tea party, but lovely nonetheless.)

Slumber Parties at our House!

(We did a lot of pool time and of course snuggling in my bed with my boas! And yes, we are naked in the backyard, that is how we roll.)

Trip to the Zoo!

(They loved holding hands, it was too cute!)

Frankie and Jack's 3rd Birthday- Aug. 21st!

(Their party was held at a farm, which all the kids loved, a lot of animals!)

(We also had a dinner at the Alexander's for them. We danced, Jack sang on a rock, they tried on the new chef hat and of course Gavin doled out some smooches!)

Slacking...

2009-09-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

I know I have been a huge slacker with regards to posting about Gavin the past few weeks. Sorry! Here is a pic just to tide you over and I promise to write a more in depth one soon. (Like how my son slept through the Hazel Miller concert in Lake Dillon Saturday night)!

Confirmed

2009-09-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

After months of tests, Doctor appointments, a Colonoscopy, an upper GI, a Cat Scan, meeting with a Hematologist, etc, etc. Greg has finally been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. So yes, that means our whole world is being thrown into a loop. On one hand, we are very lucky that this is THE ONLY THING wrong, but then on the other hand....... Well, we are definitely a carb family, so to learn that you cannot eat any more gluten. It is somewhat of a shock.

Greg & I met with one of the 3 docs he has been seeing yesterday just to get confirmation and some insight into this. Not that helpful, I read more on websites, but Greg was still in denial until the doctor sat him down and said, "yes, that is what you have." We then headed over to the bookstore to pick up some cookbooks, etc on this disease. We are putting my cooking skills to the test!

Luckily we live next to the BIGGEST LIQUOR STORE IN AMERICA, and they just happen to have a few varieties of Gluten Free beer. One is made by Anheuser Busch, so they will no longer be going out of business because Greg can't drink! :) He had a few of them yesterday and said they were ok. I actually tasted them and for me I thought they were fine, but I don't really like beer to begin with.

I ventured to Whole Foods today to get some food, staples, pretty much anything I could find that is Gluten Free. I was impressed with their variety and have to say, the cookies and chips aren't half bad. We will be trying pizza this weekend, so hopefully it won't taste like crap! :)

Thanks to all the calls, concerns about this. It has been a crazy couple of months, but we are glad that we have finally figured it out!

I will publish a Gavin post later this week!

Favorite things

2009-08-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of Gavin's favorite things:

Food: Raviolis, with a PGJ as close 2nd

Fruit: Kiwi

Veggie: Peas (which is odd because Greg & I did not like them as kids)

Snack: Graham Crackers

Toy: Play-doh

Pastime: Reading books

Book: Barnyard Dance

Song: Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas, he loves to dance and sing to it!

Show: Sports & That 70's Show (he likes the music to it, doesn't really watch it, sheesh, I am not that bad of a parent!)

Commercial: The Dell commercial that has the "Lolly pop" song on it, he loves to dance to it

Outfit: Nothing- he loves being naked

Outside Activity: Mowing

Word: No & Momma

Sport: Golf (he loves his clubs and is finally getting the hang of hitting the balls)

On another note, a few VERY IMPORTANT WORDS in the past few days: Grandma, Jenny and Gavin. So cute!

New words

2009-08-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

I decided that I would do a list of Gavin's new words. Before I get to that, we will discuss his attitude. He is definitely over his cold, but the crankiness is still there. But more importantly, his sleep schedule is back to normal! Yea! Back to long naps and sleeping until 7 or later! Did I mention though that his pissy attitude is still running strong? Because it is. And it is super duper fun. Let me tell you. Luckily though all he really wanted this weekend was Greg, so I could get away with ignoring it. Yes, that is how I am.

The weekend was otherwise good, I went to bed at 7 on Friday night, which was wonderful! I don't know the last time I slept 12 hours! Saturday we walked in the AIDS walk, which is always fun and colorful. Saturday night was spent playing bags, bbqing and playing cribbage with Mom and Marv. A nice and mellow weekend, which was very nice. Gavin spent some time with Grandma and Papa at the park on Sunday, as noted by the above photos. Which brings me to our latest gift from the Kunz's. A web cam, because they don't see him enough! :) Greg was a little skeptical about it, didn't know if Gavin would be very into it. They set it up yesterday and he absolutely loves it. And I can take photos and video from it also. See below, this is yesterdays lunch. Yes, I take a lot of pics of him while eating, I don't know why.

New words this past week, and I hate to admit, I should have been writing down his words, because I have no idea how many he has said, if I had to guess probably about 150-200. Like his first word was circle, but yet, have not heard him say it again. So on to his new words, just THIS PAST WEEK:

I love the smell of Play-doh!

Bubbles, boom boom (his new fave song is Boom Boom Pow), cars, bum bum, cow, balloon, crap, peepee, truck, red ball, blue, shit, juice, baby and probably a few more, I can't remember. I do have to say, besides his saying Momma, I love when he says please (peas) and thank you (dank you). And he uses them in the right context! Love it!

I had to add in some photos of the dogs, these were just too cute to not put up. Elvis with a ball and Crash speaking. He looks ferocious! Look later this week to Gavin's favorite things!

My son...

2009-08-11T14:04:00.001-07:00

IS SICK! Yes, that is right, my little munchkin is sick. He has had a fever since Sunday night, a runny nose, poop out the wazoo, literally, and cranky. Is that really a symptom? Anyway, it has been a rough few days, but I think he is finally coming out of it. No fever for 6 hours now, but the CRANKINESS IS STILL THERE. He just threw a huge fit, boogers flowing, tears gushing and it took me 30 minutes to realize what he wanted. For me to take his temperature and then to give him Tylenol. He did not take it well when I wouldn't give him any, he tried opening it himself and take his own temperature. Which is very cute, it is a fancy shmancy head one, where you take it from the middle of your forehead and move it along the brow. He has it down pat, but he is not taking it well that he gets no more "medicine." So, no pic, unless you wanted to see him with his snotty nose, funky hair and bad breath! Will blog later this week when he gets better and I start snapping some pics.

PS My son said his first cuss word today....CRAP. It is not as bad as he hears from Papa - but my fault! On our quick trip to Target this morning for some drugs and matchbox cars- I was strapping him into his car seat when a gust came up and took our cart straight into a minivan. I muttered crap and the little munchkin said it right back to me. All I have to say is, if that is the worst that comes out of his mouth, I will be F#$%ING proud! Ha!

Thinking....

2009-08-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here thinking of what to write. Do I start off with how stinking adorable my son is, while he sits next to me playing so quietly with his Play-doh. How he stacks the tubs, or how he takes out a color, gives it to me and assumes I will make balls for him to put into his tupperware. How besides going outside this is his new favorite thing. He can spend an hour sitting at the table playing and when you put it away he cries and throws a fit. Or how when playing with Daddy, Greg got upset because, GOD FORBID, A TODDLER COMBINES TWO OF THE COLORS. I had to have a little talk with Greg after that, and remind him. THIS IS GAVIN'S TOYS, NOT YOURS. He can do with it what he wants..... Sheesh.

Or maybe I will talk about the lovely weekend I had with my hubby and baby. That started on Friday with my heading to the Zoo with Grandma and Aunt Jenny. How Gavin could finally see all the animals and say goodbye to them as we walked by. How he loved to run around and didn't even get frightened of the Peacock as it strutted in front of him. He was wonderful and we had such a good day. And how we made it back to the Zoo yesterday with his cousins, Uncle Tony and Grammy. How he loved holding hands with the big kids and once again would not eat a single spoonful of ice cream.

Or should I talk about our "watch dogs" and how I am trading them in for a chihuahua or something a little more barky. Heather was in town and was staying the night with us Saturday night. We left the front door open a light on and told her to just head on in when she got here. Well, she came in the house, into our bedroom and did a flying leap right into our bed WITHOUT EITHER DOG BARKING OR GETTING UP. Seriously, what kind of watch dogs do we have? RIDICULOUS.

We spent all of Sunday in the pools, playing and sleeping. We had a lot of family time, not just with us, but with the Grandparents also. It was a nice and mellow weekend and those are few and far between. It was the kind of weekend that you want to never end. How on Sunday I woke up at 7:20am and Greg said, "honey don't go back to bed, come and sit with me and relax." And I did, while my son and Auntie Heather slept until 8.

My son trying to drink like a dog off the patio floor after Elvis knocked over Grandma's Margarita.

He slept VERY WELL that night!

Or should I talk about how every time a motorcycle drives by, Gavin will stop and stare, point and say "Papa". He thinks every person on a motorcycle is Papa Jerry. Or if he sees one in a parking lot we have to stop and check it out.

Are these not THE cutest footie pjs ever? I can't wait for winter!

Or should I bring up that I mowed our leech field for THE FIRST TIME EVER on Saturday? Granted we have a rider now and I had Gavin on my lap the entire time. It was so fun, seriously, it was. It was our poop field, so I wasn't worried how I needed to make the lines straight, or look out for the sprinkler heads. Just don't ask Greg about the ONE ROCK I drove over WITH THE BRAND NEW BLADES. Oh the horror.

Or maybe talk about the gorgeous sunsets we have been seeing out of our backyard. I love my life.

CENSORED.....

2009-08-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

If you have a weak stomach or would rather not see nudity, please advert your eyes now. Especially if you happen to work with my husband!

This is how we spent our Sunday. Gavin naked and Greg........well................

PS Are those not the cutest sets of buns EVER???

PPS My husband is GOING TO KILL ME

Finally the 4th!

2009-07-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is so belated, but alas, here it is!

Our trip to Nebraska was great, we had a good time with all the Kelly family. Our trip out there was pretty good. Gavin did good, he watched Madagascar, well not really. He would only pay attention to it when the music came on, then he would start dancing in his seat. It was pretty comical.

The actual 4th was a chilly day, Greg, Papa and Gavin were the only ones to actually get into the pool. Gavin was very fascinated with the playhouse in the back and spent the most of his day in there. It was a fun day filled with A LOT of fireworks at the end. It was a long day, but luckily Gavin had taken a 3 1/2 hour nap before the party. So he got to stay up and enjoy it all!

The following day was beautiful and hot so we went back over to Danny & Sue's so we could actually do some swimming. Gavin had a ball and we were so glad to get to spend so much time with everyone! We appreciate all the hospitality and miss everyone!

A day in the life....

2009-07-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

......of my little monkey.

being adorable....

playing outside....

sitting down and taking a break....

eating a very messy lunch....

annoying Elvis, once again....

playing in the dogs water....

realizing he just got busted for playing in the dogs water....

As the post shows Gavin is keeping me on my toes. This child may need to go into acting with his great facial expressions! I will blog about Nebraska and the 4th hopefully this weekend. I know it will be a long one and am needing a few special pics from Papa before I buckle down and write it.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday filled with family and fun, we sure did!

Summer Time.....

2009-07-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

I really can't believe it is already July 1st! I feel like I have all these wonderful things, plans I want to do and time is just slipping through my fingers. Where does it go??? Our June just seemed to fly by with hosting 2 huge parties, having several small gatherings, going to bbqs, etc. I am looking forward to July, no hosting just a bit of traveling. We are heading to Nebraska tomorrow for some fun filled Fourth of July festivities. Always a good time with the Kelly family.

Gavin is wonderful, getting a full set of teeth and loving playing outside. He also has started finger painting, which he loves, and he is very good at it. His temperament is still wonderful and his new thing is giving kisses. He is so stinking cute when he does it. Puckers up those cute little lips and makes the smacking sound.

When people tell me that Gavin looks like me or looks like Greg, my response is always, "really I don't see it, I can't see us in him. He just looks like Gavin." Until I saw the picture above, I looked at it and thought, that is me! When I was his age, my Mom would cut my hair, so I always had super short hair and was called a boy ALL THE TIME. This is really the first picture that I have seen, that shouts to me, HE IS MY CHILD!!! I loved his facial expression on the bottom pic, even though it is a bit blurry!

Have a wonderful and safe 4th to all!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T15:35:00.001-07:00

First off a huge Happy Father's Day to my husband! A wonderful Daddy!

Here are some pics of our day. Greg and Gavin laying on the floor watching golf, Nascar, the Rockies (pretty much any sport that is on, Greg is flipping to). They were of course, playing blocks also:

Greg and Gavin on Daddy's new Father's Day gift. We couldn't have got it at a better time, since our old mower just went to grass heaven:

I think Greg's day has been good, he started the morning with a ride to Estes with his Dad on their motorcycles. I don't know the last time Greg went on a ride, a year or 2! We met them up at Johnson's Corner for breakfast and then came home for a much needed nap. I am sick as a dog, so feel bad that Greg has just had to sit around and watch sports ALL DAY LONG! :)

A Happy Father's Day to all!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

2009-06-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

Well ok, maybe not snow, just HAIL! Oh the joy of living in Colorado. Our funky weather..... Sunday we had some serious hail, rain and of course the lovely thunder, lightening and tornado watch. We were in the thick of things. Here are some pics of our lovely "snow" that pelted the crap out of our trees, my beautiful flowers, our roof, etc.

Gavin and I were taking a shower, when all of the sudden, he looked up at the ceiling and started pointing up and laughing. Greg came in then and said, "WE HAVE GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL COMING DOWN." Then ran out again. A few minutes later he came in to to get Gavin and I hopped out and saw it, I honestly didn't think they were that big. They were. I hopped back in to finish showering and Greg came back in and said, "Um, honey, maybe you should get out now, we are in a tornado warning." I quickly got out, got dressed and then proceeded to go outside and snap pictures of all our "snow".

Sunday was also Papa's (Jerry) birthday, so after "the eye of the storm" passed us, we had the Kunz's and Horkin's over for dinner. Jerry made a lot of snow balls for Gavin to play with and throw to Crash. It was very comical to see him outside in his sandals and shorts among the snowballs. He had a ball and so did the birthday boy.

We are getting some more rain now as I type. Greg is beyond sick of this weather, with the mess it has made of our yard and our basement doing a little flooding. They say that this is the last of the storms for some time. 9 days straight of this! I do not live in Washington! On another note though, everything looks very green!

My Little Man

2009-06-03T20:25:00.001-07:00

First off I will do my Top 10 Favorite things about Gavin and then give a rundown of him in the past few weeks!

10. He is a fantastic SLEEPER! Seriously that kid loves to sleep like his Momma!

9. His love of vacuuming, he is definitely taking after us with regards to his cleanliness.

8. He loves to have his back tickled. I love those moments when he puts his arms out to me and snuggles into my shoulder while pulling his shirt up so I will tickle him. He is pretty independent and doesn't really love on me a lot, so this makes up for it.

7. His smell.

6. He is so stinking smart! And NO I am not biased!

5. His sense of adventure- he has no fear. He could play outside all day in rain or shine if you allowed him. What? A big rock? Well then he needs to climb it.

4. His smile. He makes me putty in his hands as soon as he smiles at me. ALL the ladies love him, he is by far the biggest flirt of a child I have ever seen!

3. His love of the dogs, they are his play toys and they worship him.

2. His laugh! It is infectious and a deep rumble. It is like hearing your favorite sound all day long, because he is always laughing. He is such a happy baby.

1. He is so stinking adorable and the BEST BABY EVER. Seriously, he is, slept through the night at 3 months, sleeps 11-12 hours a night now. Takes great naps, eats like a champ. And eats EVERYTHING! Also has yet to have a breakdown or a poop in public. YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT! And teething? What is that? He has too many to count now and I have yet to see him have a fever or be "cranky" about it. He is the loveliest boy ever and I am such a lucky Mommy to have him. I love him with all my heart!

*************************************************************

So I just got a little teary eyed writing that. He is seriously the best kid and the easiest. It is amazing how lucky we have been with him. He is still growing like a weed, it seems everything is in his reach right now. He has added new words to his vocab and loves to talk now. Still in love with my bracelets and will wear them constantly around the house, to the store, out for dinner. It is his new love. along with puzzles. He will sit and do one right after another for 20, 30 minutes. And he is fast- will do one in a minute, but loves to rotate them and do them all and then repeat. He is such a Kelly!

Greg and I's trip to Vegas was in one word, awesome! We had such a wonderful time, seriously the best time either one of us has had there. We spent time with family, Sossy, some serious pool time, good food, Peepshow (which was FANTASTIC), quality time together and of course some gambling. We won some, but lost more overall. Gavin had a great time with Grammy, Marv and the Kunz's. I am sure he was starved, beaten and locked in a closet most of the time. Well the starving part may be true! Grammy forgot to put Ketchup on his eggs, THE HORROR!

This week has been pretty crazy for us, we are hosting my Mom's retirement party on Saturday, so have been doing a lot of cleaning, shopping, cleaning, pulling weeds, cleaning..... You get the drift. We love doing this though and are happy to do it for my Mom after her 30+ years at good ole B.H.S!

Top 10....

2009-06-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Favorite things about my HUSBAND!

10. He is freakishly neat.

9. Since he is so neat, he does not think that I am a crazy neat freak.

8. He has never ONCE asked me to mow the lawn.

7. He loves to tickle my back and play with my hair. Well, maybe not love, maybe more conned into it.

6. He has a somewhat funny sense of humor....

5. Telling him a secret is like talking to your shrink, he will never say a word to anyone and will give you solid advice if you want it.

4. He absolutely LOV...well ok, TOLERATES our dogs.

3. He is incredibly romantic and thoughtful and still leaves me notes every morning.

2. He is the most amazing father and our son absolutely worships him. I couldn't have asked for a better father for Gavin.

1. He is the most loving man EVER. I am so lucky to have him as my husband and partner in life. We have known each other over 25 years and I still look forward to finding out new things about him

Another Top 5...

2009-05-20T14:45:00.001-07:00

Favorite things about CRASH!

5. He is the prettiest dog I have ever seen.

4. He howls in syn with me and now Gavin.

3. He will let me lay my head on his tummy and love on him (Greg about had a heart attack the first time I did this, Crash has never allowed anyone to do this).

2. He looks ferocious but is actually our "lovey" dog and so gentle.

1. He will lick Gavin clean from head to toe and has been the best big brother/watch dog for him since the day we brought him home.

Top 5....

2009-05-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

....Favorite things about ELVIS

5. His gas makes it easy to blame any "fluffs" on him (even when he is not in the room).

4. He likes to sit on a chair in the back yard and enjoy the scenery with me.

3. He lets me put bunny ears, hats, etc. on him and poses accordingly.

2. His idea of a big day is going for a walk around the yard and then snoring the remainder of the day, sometimes cuddled up with me.

1. He lets Gavin do pretty much anything he wants to him, ride him like a pony, decorate his tail with toys, play with his tags and give him smooches. He is pretty much Gavin's play thing.

How can you not love this face????

Guilty Pleasures

2009-05-18T07:10:00.000-07:00

Top Ten Guilty Pleasures:

10. Chips & queso from Illegal Pete's
9. Britney Spears new CD (I can't believe I am admitting this!)
8. Vampire movies
7. Margaritas in the sun
6. Warm cookies straight out of the oven
5. Rock of Love (All 3, + spin offs)
4. A good massage, so good that I wake myself up because I was snoring and there is drool on the pillow.
3. The smell of my son when he gets out of the shower.
2. Gossip (I love reading Perezhilton.com)
1. A day of napping and snuggling with my boys in the rain.

I started thinking about doing this last night while I was trying to sleep. Every day I will do a top 5 or 10 for all the boys (or men) in my home.......
***Update*** My husband just said he read this and not one thing was about him. I said, "well, I am doing your own personal top 10things I love ABOUT YOU and only you."

My personal cleaner

2009-05-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

We have realized the past few times at my sister's house that Gavin needs his very own vacuum. Yes, a vacuum. He has always been a bit fascinated with the one at home, but they have a "child" one that is just his size. Every time we are over there, he does nothing but play with that thing. "Oh, a party is going on around me and all my cousins are here? Too bad, I am too busy vacuuming the house to bother!" On Mother's Day we had dinner with the Kunz's at a favorite Mexican restaurant and Gavin decided to help the staff, by using their push vacuum to clean up a mess. My child would rather clean then eat I guess! Greg decided to vacuum a few nights ago and Gavin threw a humongous fit- he wanted to do it. Ours is a little too big for him to do it, so I finally got him his own yesterday. Of course he loves it and it has become a new favorite.

A few new things with regards to Gavin, his new words are Hot and Hi Daddy. It is weird that he rarely will speak in front of others, only Greg and I. No matter what we try! He is also loving all his new wonderful toys for outside. His new thing is doing his eyes, nose, mouth, etc. And of course showing his belly, or as I refer to it, his "Buddha belly". The pictures below are of course of him and my cupboards. That child will not stay out of them. He loves to remove EVERYTHING from the inside, throw it all over the floor and sit in the cupboards. Very comical.

Mother's Day was wonderful this year. My baby cousin Taylor graduated from CU on Friday, so we had a bunch of family in town for the celebration. Friday and Saturday were spent whooping it up in Boulder and hosting a party at our house. Sunday we were supposed to go to Evergreen, hang out, go for a long walk around the lake up there. We woke up that morning to poopy weather and exhaustion. Greg made a big breakfast, then we all took a nap for a few hours. We were pretty wiped out. But a great day overall.

Greg and I will be heading to Las Vegas next weekend for a small getaway without the bean. We are both looking forward to it, but it has somewhat creaped up on us! Gavin will be staying a few days with my Mom and a few with Greg's parents. I am sure he will not be spoiled at all. The above pic, I had to put in so people know we do actually have 2 dogs. They are both very handsome and I can't believe I got a pic with Crash looking at me! Below is my son being the climber he is and standing on his toy box. I think he is trying to break out the window and get outside.

A very Happy Memorial Day to all!