Happy Birthday Gavin 4/20/09

My sweet little man is 1!!! I am so amazed at how much he has grown over the last year, and a little sad that he is no longer a baby, but very happy to have the baby stage over with.

He is a momma's boy for sure and love's to be right on my hip. He loves to make people laugh and loves any kind of encouragement. He loves to wrestle and slobber all over anyone who will lay on the floor and take it. He has certainly stolen my heart.

Walking around a little, and he is walking more and more every day.

The baseball cake I made for his birthday:

For those of you who know Gavin, you already know that he is such a man, but here is more proof with "The Man Laugh"

Kite's and Curlers

I just wanted to document Hailey's first round of curlers. She is such a cute girl and was so excited to put in the curlers. When we took them out the next morning it was serious Shirley Temple, and of course I didn't take a picture of the finished product.

We had a great time flying kites, and I really wish it looked more like this outside now, because it is snowing at the moment. Hailey and Gavin had a ball, but I actually think that Greg had the most fun reliving his childhood.

She is just growing up SO fast.

Hoppy Easter

Though this first part has nothing to do with Easter, I wanted to share my recent cake decorating skills. I have been having a lot of fun teaching myself how to write with frosting and this is just cake is just like the "Nothing Bunt Cakes"

Now for Easter...

Our annual Easter Egg Hunt with the Andrus'

Hailey has been insistent on having her hair in pig-tails or curled. Nothing else will do, she is such a girl, and it is a crack up.

Easter Dress

Ya, good luck mom on getting a picture with both kids smiling.

Stickers from the Easter Bunny apparently must go on the face first.

Hailey and Gavin got awesome kite's for Easter. Hailey got a Buzz Lightyear kite and Gavin got an Iron Man kite. They LOVE them!

Gavin has been really wanting to walk and today (on Easter) he took a couple steps on his own.

Carribean

Here is a synopsis of our trip, in reverse order, because that is the way the pictures loaded. Enjoy...

Costa Maya, Mexico

Beautiful white sand beaches and our huge cruise ship

El Sinor Gregory

Mock of the Mayan Ruins

Belize

Greg had a fresh Coconut chopped perfectly with a machete.

We took a Jungle Bike tour in Belize. It was so amazing and the trees were beautiful. The locals told us all about how their pharmacy is in their jungle.

These trees hold up everything. We saw some wonderful things here and ate cohunonuts, which are like dry coconuts, and Greg ate a termite.

Isla Rhotan, Honduras

Notice the sunken ship behind us. They have a couple of them, and they were washed up on shore in a hurricane, and then caught on fire, they stripped the boat of everything they could use, and then they left it for a tourist attraction. I guess it worked.

Greg's big guns

They had a very cool beach, so we decided to beach it for the day. We went snorkeling and we both got stung by little Jelly Fish. OUCH!

Cozumel, Mexico

We rented a scooter and road around the island for some adventure.

We found a small church almost in the middle of nowhere, next to some small Mayan ruins.

My favorite spot!!! Carlos and Charlies Beach Restaurant, where you sit on the beach and they serve you yard long diet cokes (well for me) and yummy food. How can you beat chips and salsa in Mexico?

A roasting pirate in 90 degree weather.

We had to take pictures every night of the famous towel animals left on our bed at night.

Formal night

Last but not least, Greg's famous hypnotist show. Greg was known as Garth Brooks for the rest of the cruise. If you know Greg, you will know that he is REALLY hypnotized.

Click HERE to watch the show... enjoy!

Valentine

Greg and I were on the Valentines Dance comity for our stake this year. It was actually a lot of fun, and we got to dress up and dance the night away. The theme was a night in paris, so we had lamp post's and a star lit night (christmas lights). We had carts of pastries and all kinds of fun decorations. Just call us overachievers.

For Valentines, I decided to start a new tradition, where I hang heart around the kids doors, leave treats for them and love notes from mom and dad

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Here is Gavin eating one of his treats.

Ears, Bells, and Haircuts

Well, I need to post something for February right? Though I am convinced we have lost most of our readers to Facebook. We have been extremely busy it seems and looking back, I am not even sure what we have done. We are still breaking records with how many times a family can get sick in one cold/flu season. I have certainly lost count, but at the moment we are all healthy (knock on wood). Because of all the colds we have had, poor little Gavin had 7 ear infections, so he had to get tubes in last week. It was quite an experience going into Primary Children's Surgery unit. Very humbling and it helps you realize how lucky you are to have such healthy children. (even with all the cold's and flu's)

In January we took the kids to the Children's museum for a little fun, since we had been so cooped up in the miserable January weather. Hailey had a ball.

Gavin got his (very much needed) first haircut.

And now he looks like a stud!!!

He is all over the place and a very happy baby (most of the time). His favorite things are laughing with his sister, throwing balls around and eating Cherrios.

Thought you would get a kick out of Greg's Cow Bell at the Children's Museum. I sure did.

New Years 2010

Check out this link and it pretty much sums it up. Happy New Year all!!!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbpvej_new-years-2010_people

I know I am lame, but you will love my video.

Birthday and Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas at our house, and Hailey had a wonderful birthday. We took Hailey to Princess and the Frog and then gave her a princess Tiana, which she loved. Then we began Christmas eve and my mom and Bill's house, where Santa made an appearance and gave Hailey her first present (a Barbie Cruise Ship). We then had Christmas at our house which was wonderful. I even hosted my first Christmas dinner for the West family, and made my first Turkey. I got a new camera for Christmas and it takes great photos and video, so I have been playing around with my ivideo program: