GAVIN AND ALLIE.....A BUDDING ROMANCE, OR MAYBE JUST FRIENDS.

Meet Gavin's new best friend, Allie.

Despite the fact that Allie lives over an hour and a half away these two have become the best of play-mates. This dynamic blonde duo is just cuteness overload in my book.

Two peas in a pod.

I believe this will go down in the record books as Gavin's first kiss.

So sweet. They really do love eachother!

Of course us parents all hear wedding bells in the distance.

TRYING OUR HAND AT ICESKATING

So as part of our advent calendar/count down to Christmas ritual we included 'go iceskating' this year on our festive list. And especially with friends in town it seemed the perfect holiday activity. And although it was apparent that neither Gavin or I have a career in iceskating in our future, we still managed to have a great time bumbling about on the ice.

All geared up and ready to go.

Gavin was so excited to go iceskating that day, but I think he was a little surprised at how hard iceskating actually was. That darn ice is just so slippery. He was pretty unstable out there on his iceskates, but he still managed to enjoy himself.

TOE PICK!

We slowly completed several laps around the ice until our poor feet (and my back) couldn't take any more :-) It is a lot of work keeping a four year old from falling on the ice. But Gavin was so focused and determined to iceskate and kept trying and trying till the very end. He never got discouraged or gave up....so proud of him.

Our friends, Paul and Kelly, were in town for the day and joined us in our little iceskating adventure. Kelly is an excellent skater and I think her daughter Alie is a natural like her mom. As you can see, the guys are no where to be found out on the ice. Since Curtis had just healed up from a broken wrist and surgery, he was more than a little hesitant to try iceskating this time round. Wouldn't that be horrible to fall and break your other wrist? So I don't blame him, but he sure missed out on some tippy, slippy fun.

We managed to come off the ice without any falls or spills and our egos still intact, so I think we came out ahead on this one. Iceskating is just so invigorating that despite your aching feet and back you still have a smile plastered across your face. It is undeniably fun.

And so off we went to get a hot chocolate and enjoy the rest of our day with some friends.

HALLOWEEN 2010

Looks like our SWAT team officer is taking a donut break!

The ward Trunk-or-Treat party.

He scored some awesome candy that night.

Gavin got a big kick out of Cleopatra and her Mummy. I think he went back for seconds and maybe even thirds just to watch the Mummy 'rise up' and hand him a treat. Very cool.

Helping Dad hand out/eat our candy from our very unfestive and boring car. We really need to step it up next year I think....at least some cob webs or something.

This year Gavin scored not only one, but two awesome Halloween costumes because we could not agree on which one to buy. We decided that they would both make awesome dress-up clothes for him after the holiday was over and so we walked out of Costco with two costumes. You see, Gavin FELL IN LOVE with the SWAT outfit because it came with all these little trinkets (binoculars, flashlight, walkie-talkie, handcuffs, watch, whistle, club, sunglasses, and an official badge) but both Curtis and I FELL IN LOVE with the fireman outfit because it was SO REAL looking and was very good quality, plus it was just super cute......too good to pass up. So the lucky kid scored both.

Kaila the mermaid hosted a fun little Halloween party at her house and they all had so much fun running around together in their cute costumes. What a pair.

In fact, Gavin had worn his SWAT outfit to so many different parties and events (and just for dress-up around the house) that he finally wanted to wear the fireman costume (that Curtis and I loved so dearly) on Halloween night for trick-or-treating. You can't tell in this picture, but he also is wearing his real fireman t-shirt that he got at the Pacific Palisades Firehouse from a real fireman. He was legit!

And so the trick-or-treating began...

The Santa Monica/Pearl St. area is awesome for trick-or-treating and we had a great time. We hope you all had a great Halloween too!

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Still playing catch-up with all our pictures and posts. Stay tuned for more!

GAVIN TURNS FOUR!!!!

For Gavin's fourth birthday we surprised him with a new kitchen set that he's always wanted. Curtis and I stayed up late, really late, assembling it so that he would find it first thing in the morning when he woke up. Pictured above is my six course breakfast he made me that morning. Such a good little chef!

He was so thrilled with this gift. It still just melts my heart when he goes to his kitchen and cooks something for us and visitors.

Since Gavin's birthday fell on a weekday I got to go to his preschool and help prepare a special birthday snack for the whole class. The kids enjoyed fresh popped popcorn, watermelon and yummy popsicles. I also got to read a book or two for the class and join in their little dance party. It was so much fun and I could tell that Gavin loved having me there!

A bunch of party animals!

It is such a sight to see that many four year olds bouncing around.

Happy Birthday Mr. Gavin.

A BIRTHDAY PARTY IN THE PARK FOR A CERTAIN FOUR YEAR OLD!

Yes, Gavin's birthday is in October.

And yes, it is now February.

I blame it on the computer....it's been uncooperative lately.

We are slowly catching up around here. Stay tuned for more.

Anyways...

Gavin is now our big grown-up four year old and getting bigger every day. He'd never had an actual birthday party with friends before (usually just immediate family) so this year we invited lots of little friends and threw a big party at the park. It was simple, fun, and I think the kids all had a great time. Oh yeah, and it was really, really hot that day.

Like around 100 degrees!

We had pizza, fruit, veggies, caramel apples, and of course cupcakes! Yum!

I tried out some pumpkin cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting for the adults and they were awesome! I will definitely be making these again.

Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey was a must for his first birthday party with friends. Four year olds love this game! Gavin actually did pretty well and almost pinned the tail on the donkey, but someone else beat him......

A two year old little girl (who was there with her big brother) pinned her tail smack dab on the target without any help...even blindfolded! Gavin was a close third I think, but not quite close enough.

The kids decorated their own party hats as they arrived and some of them really got into it. Others, like Gavin, spent most of the time just playing at the playground.

We were lucky to have so many of our wonderful friends from all over come to his party.

Like my good friend Sierra and her two boys Asher and...

Tennyson, sporting our goofy glasses.

Kanan, our old neighbor from Topanga.

And the lovely Natalie and Kimberly, who we know from work.

And of course lots of our new preschool friends came for the event.

Some of their moms here just hanging out.

All-in-all I'd say it was a successful birthday for a very special four year old. I hope we have one just like it every year!

GAVIN'S FIRST TRIP TO MOAB AND SOME BROKEN BONES

Curtis and I have been to Moab over a dozen times, but hadn't been since I was pregnant with Gavin. That meant that our little man had never been to one of our favorite places of all time. It was time to change that. A group of co-workers from VW/Audi were all going out for a long mountain biking/camping weekend and we had to join them. It turned out to be an even more memorable trip than we had expected :-)

The weather was amazing, Arches National Park was as impressive as ever, and our new campground was just beautiful, but it was the trip to the ER that really stood out this trip. Unfortunately, while the girls were hiking in Arches the boys were mountain biking and Curtis had a freak accident on his bike. The x-ray revealved a broken wrist that most likely needed surgery to fix (pins and a plate put in). Poor Curtis.

Luckily, Curtis wasn't hurt any worse than he was (or hadn't fallen off the nearby cliff), but we did immediately worry about him being able to work when we got home (and what his boss might say) and trying to get comfortable while camping and sleeping on a leaky airmattress is nearly impossible with a tender arm. We did have to shift gears with our itinerary for the weekend and the rest of the much anticipated bike rides were obviously cancelled, but we made the most of the trip considering the circumstances and we had some fun along the way. Since Curtis wasn't able to mountain bike for the rest of the trip we spent some extra time all together in Arches and around Moab showing Gavin the sights. Despite the change of plans we still enjoyed ourselves and the company of our friends. And we know that this trip will be unforgettable! Hey, at least we have a story to tell, right?

This was as close as we got to Delicate Arch this time around. Hiking with a broken arm and tired 4 year old, not so good. Maybe next time.

Gavin was completely in his element there in Moab: climbing rocks, running, collecting sticks, playing in the dirt. He would scramble up these gigantic walls of rock and sketchy ledges and pretty much try to climb anything that was in front of him, despite my best efforts to keep him alive. I was in a constant state of cardiac arrest! Man, that kid can climb!

This waterfall was in our campground!

Not only could we hike around the stream during the day, but we could hear the rushing water from our campsite. Who knew there was such a beautiful waterfall there in the desert.

Gavin feeling quite at home on the rocks.

Curtis and his little souveneir!

Just one of the many beautiful sights along the road in Arches.

Uncle Brent and Gavin playing around on some of the arches.

My brother Brent drove down from Orem and met us for this camping trip. It was so fun having him along.

The writing's on the wall

These petroglyphs are all over Moab and you can see them just driving down the street.

A dinosaur footprint fossil.

A very cool thing to show Gavin.

All in all it was a good trip, despite our medical setbacks, and we look forward to bringing Gavin back to this beautiful, almost magical, place again and again. Hopefully next time it will just be the scenery that will make the trip so memorable.

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*** Note to self***

Urban living lesson #1: Do not leave your camping gear and road trip stuff in your car overnight. Someone will break into your secure garage and break your back window and steal that stuff. They don't care if they're taking your son's favorite movies or that you just broke your arm. They'll still steal it. Lesson learned........the hard way.