Quiet Book Update

I feel like I should post about something, but my camera has died, and of course, I cannot find the power cord ANYWHERE. I just used it in November so I have no idea where it has gotten too. BUT I need to find it so that I can post about the finished quiet books. They are all done. And I made 4 books total, well 2 separate books, doubled. I sent one set of 2 to my sister Melanie for Christmas for her boys. And then I have another set for Gavin. Of course they are not perfect, but I am really proud of my accomplishments. SO hopefully in the next few days I can find this power cord and get my post up. I will also link up all the sites that I used to make the books.

Other than that, Zac has been working a lot due to year end and Gavin and I have been hanging out at home. I swear he learns something new everyday. He is such a smart and rambunctious little boy.

Christmas 2010

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I am so sad. All our decorations and tree are still up, I am just not ready to take them down, althought I will soon. I LOVE Christmas time, it truly is my favorite time of the year. I love the decorations, the music, the food, EVERYTHING! Especially spending time with family, that is the best part. This year we convinced my parents to take the trip to come and stay with us this Christmas. It was our first Christmas tree and first Christmas at home.

It was so nice not to spend the whole time living out of suitcases and worrying about traveling with Gavin. He did pretty well with the presents under the tree and only tried to open two of them. We also left the bottom of the tree free of ornaments so that he wouldn't get to them, which worked out well. Thursday started all the fun and I was able to visit with my best friend from Nursing School, Melanie. Her parents live just north of Denver and she was coming for two days. I am so grateful she took the time to visit with us and meet Gavin. Zac enjoyed meeting your Dad and said that he was cool. :) Hopefully Gavin didn't scare Steven too much. Mel, I love you and miss you and hope that you will move to CO soon so that we can see each other all the time!

A few hours later my family arrived (Mom, Dad, Trevor and Spencer) after a 13 or so hour drive from Nevada. Up to this point we had NO SNOW in Denver, but it seemed to be all over the rest of the world, so driving conditions weren't optimal but they made it safely. On Christmas Eve we did some last minute shopping and then went to Pizza Hut for dinner and drove around Highlands Ranch to see some great Christmas lights. Apparently they do a competition down there and so we saw a few of the participants.

I posted a video on facebook that shows the #1 house and it was truly a sight to see. People were parked up and down the street and many of us got out of the car to watch. It is kind of long, but the last minute is really good. The song is Amazing Grace and is kind of hard to hear. The video also shakes a lot because I was freezing! Sorry about the comment Russ, I hope you take it as a compliment. :)

Then we went home to bed. The next morning Gavin woke up around 6:20 so that's when we started presents. Sorry, the pictures aren't great, as you can see I was sitting behind Gavin most of the time. And I was more interested in the presents than taking pictures.

1: Our tree with all the presents. 2: Gavin ready to open his present from G&G Barrus
3: Enjoying his movies from Amanda, Tiff and Nic. 4: Looking at his books from Aunt Melanie.

Gavin was definitely spoiled this Christmas, with many, many toys I haven't even taken pictures of them all. But, he plays with them all each day and is loving them. We all had a great Christmas this year as well, and are very grateful for our blessings and all we have been given. Family is definitely our greatest blessing and we are so grateful for all those that we get to share our lives with. After presents we went over to Megan (Zac's cousin) and TJ's house for crepes and omelets. The food was great and we enjoyed seeing you guys on Christmas! It is so nice to know that there is family close by. That afternoon we were able to Skype Alex on his mission in Texas. It was great to see how grown up he looks and here his testimony in Spanish. He is such a great missionary and I am so proud of him!

On Monday we went to Lunch with my cousin who lives just North or Denver as well, that we haven't seen in probably 8 years. On Tuesday we ventured out to the Nature and Science Museum, using some free tickets from Megan & TJ (Thanks!). We made it there about three hours before closing thinking that would be plenty of time, but they were VERY busy and it would have been nice to have just a little more time. Gavin and I will definitely be going back. Gavin loved walking around the exhibits and putting his face up to the glass. I was actually surprised how much he enjoyed it. On Wednesday my family left, and I was really sad to see them go, especially because we probably won't see them for 8 months.

I searched for some Elmo pajamas for Gavin before Christmas, but no where had his size. On Thursday I found these at Wal-mart they had one pair of 24 month and all the rest were 4T or 5T, so I figured I better just get them. I do love the footie pajamas that we gave him for Christmas though too (pictured above). This kid is so funny and he gets bigger everyday. He LOVED having my family around and enjoyed playing with everyone. I wish that we could be closer to family so that Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles to see him grow. But I guess that is why we have a blog!

Gavin is such a talker these days and tries to have conversations with us all the time. He can say: Mom, Dad, Jesus, Juice, Truck, Quack, and Fish. He is a pretty smart little boy. He can even walk up to his basketball hoop and push the ball over to make a basket. (We have been meaning to video this for Zac's parents, so I will try to remember the next time).

And Denver was blessed with our first real snow fall on Thursday and I think it snowed constantly for about 24 hours. It wasn't heavy snow fall so we only ended up with 3-5 inches, but it is beautiful to finally have snow on the ground outside our window. Although the sub-zero temps are taking some getting used to, I do NOT know how we survived so many Rexburg winters, we are freezing here!

We had a very quiet New Year's Eve and we were in bed by 10:30 although Gavin kept me up most of the night and Zac ended up on the couch, it has been nice to have some family time together. We look forward to the adventures of the upcoming year! Just to name a few: Amanda receiving her endowments, Tiffany getting married and endowments, Alex coming home from his mission, and the Reid Family Reunion is a cruise in November! Also Zac will turn 26, I will turn 23, Gavin will turn 2 and we will celebrate our 3rd anniversary! I can't wait!

Quick

I have just been reading posts from recent blogs. And for some reason, I just began thinking how incredibly happy I am. Most of the time I feel overwhelmed over various things such as church callings, things I need to get done at home and others. As I have been preparing for the Ward Choir Program over the past weeks, I have done A LOT of crying and stressing feeling like I have no idea what I am doing. I feel like so much is expected of me, in this new ward, but of course Zac reassures me that I am the one who expects so much. Thanks, dear.

I feel like I do not always express that, in the midst of it all, I am TRULY so very HAPPY. I have a wonderful husband who supports me and loves me even when I am crazy. A little boy who brings so much joy into my life and family each day. I just wanted to quickly tell you all that even though I might seem crazy sometimes, I LOVE my family, and I feel so blessed for what I have been given.

Barrus Family Pictures

Thanksgiving and MUCH More

Well, I should start out with the week before Thanksgiving. Amanda, Zac's sister, was able to come and spend a week with us. I meant to get pictures taken while she was here, but didn't get a chance. I think I kept her pretty busy most of the time, but hopefully she was able to have some time to relax, after all it was her vacation. Most of all, I am sure she enjoyed one whole week with Gavin. He took a little bit to warm up to her, but would not nap for the first two days because all he wanted was to play with Aunt Amanda. We were SO happy to have her here with us, and look forward to any other visitors that might want to come spend some time with us in Denver! :)

The day before Thanksgiving we made the trip up to Idaho with Amanda. We chose which can be frustrating for a 10 1/2 hour drive each way but we were hoping to save some money. We left Denver with no snow and 50 degree weather. Entered Wyoming where it was very windy and cold and eventually arrived in Idaho with TONS of snow, horrible driving conditions, and 3 degree weather. We were certainly missing Denver weather wise, but we made it safely to Zac's parents house. Gavin LOVED all of the attention from Grandma, Grandpa, aunts, uncle, and tons of other family. He chased Bo, the family dog, around the house just about every day and Bo HATED it. I am sure he was glad to see Gavin leave, but he was probably the only one. We were able to see G&G Barrus and Uncle Lee and most of his family for Thanksgiving and it was great to see everyone.

On Friday we were lucky enough to have Amanda take Gavin's 1 year photos and our family pictures, and later that night we took Barrus Family pictures. Amanda did an amazing job and they turned out great! I am so happy to finally have some professional family pictures of the three of us. We enjoyed our time relaxing for a week with family, and miss you all already. Luckily we will see some of you in February. :) We even celebrated Gavin's birthday again, he received a Basketball hoop from Grandma and Grandpa Barrus and a super cute beanie from his Aunts. I even made a red velvet cake that looked like Elmo. He still didn't eat tons of it, but he sure LOVED looking at that cake. :)

On Tuesday morning we headed back home to Denver. We made it about 2 1/2 hours and our car broke down just outside Montpelier, Idaho. If you haven't been there, you are not missing much, but it is consider a fairly big town as it is close to the border or Idaho and Wyoming. we ended calling a police car to take us in to town to find help. We had our car towed in and our suspicions confirmer that it was the fuel filter. Sadly they had to order one and we were stuck until Wednesday. The promised us it would be ready by 10am so that we could get back on the road. So we got a hotel room and Gavin enjoyed running back and forth across the room for quite some time. (He has been walking for a month now and he is great at it, and goes wherever he wants). Luckily the car done the next morning and we were on the road by 10:30 and made it home and 6:30. The roads were great on the way home and Gavin was actually pretty good in the car. We are so happy to be home and get ready for the Holidays. I am a little (okay, a LOT) stressed about the ward choir program in a week but after that is over we can just enjoy the Holidays. My family is coming to stay with us and I can't wait to see them.

TONS of pictures, sorry.

I hope everyone is able to take time to serve others and remember our Savior as we have this month of December to remember His birth.

Lindsey Ann Photography

I know this is last minute. But for those of you in Denver, hurry on over to Oopsey Daisy and enter this giveaway. A free photoshoot with L. Ann Photography. I would LOVE so badly to win, but hey, that would be great if one of you won too!

Our BIG 1 Year Old!

I LOVE birthdays! I love that I get to spend one whole day showing a person how much I love them. If I could, I would turn it into a birthday week so that I could celebrate longer, but I don't think that Zac would go for that. Who knows, maybe over the years I can convince him . :) Part of me has really been looking forward to Gavin's birthday, but the other part of me is very sad that he is growing up. But, I must say that I am so proud of the little boy that he is becoming. He is such a loving and happy baby and he brings so much joy into our home. I truly cannot imagine our lives without him.

Gavin is 32 inches tall and weighs 23lbs 10oz. Yeah that is big, but he is actually declining on his growth curve because he doesn't get enough calories. For the first time I have been told that I need to feed him more. Of course I know this, I can see how skinny he is getting, and try so hard to feed him, but this boy just wants to breastfeed all day long. I am pretty sure that my milk is losing its nutritional value which is why he isn't getting enough calories. (sorry, TMI). We have tried 1% milk a few times and he does not like it. We tried whole milk tonight and he did okay so hopefully we can start fattening him up again. :)

He loves to scream and talk all day long, not real words but, he is getting better at mimicking the words we say. He does not sit still through church and Zac only makes it to about 5 minutes of Elder's Quorum each week. He is doing great in the car though. We give him his book and he just sits there staring at the pages while we drive. It really is the cutest thing. He likes to point at everything, especially when he wants to go somewhere. He also likes to bring us things that he wants, like if he wants to watch a certain movie he will bring us the DVD case which means we should turn it on.

Gavin has been walking for almost two weeks now and gets better at it everyday! He is going everywhere and it is so fun, and he is so proud of himself too. He still has just seven teeth, but he always seems like he is teething so who knows. He does take medicine very well now instead of fighting us the whole time, which helps with the teething. He is getting much better at helping when we get him dressed each day and he loves bath time and getting ready for bed. I definitely think that the favorite part of his day is when daddy comes home. These two love to play together and I truly admire what a great dad Zac is, I feel so blessed that I will get to watch him as we raise our children together.

For Gavin's birthday we let him open one of his presents in the morning, well actually Zac opened it, but Gavin enjoyed it once it was open. I also made him a birthday shirt that he LOVES! It has doggies on it and he grabs the shirt whenever he sees it. Then we went to Wendy's for lunch because he loves chicken nuggets and then went to play group where I brought cookies for his birthday. Zac brought home Little Caesars for dinner because Gavin also loves pizza and then we skyped Zac's parents while Gavin opened his presents. I don't think that he understood what was going on, but he definitely enjoyed having so many toys to play with. I think that his birthday turned out great. I really wanted to do a birthday party for him, but I felt like no one would come on Wednesday night and decided that it wasn't worth the stress. The only presents he didn't get are some quiet books that I am working on and hoping to finish before our 10 hour car ride to Idaho in two weeks.

All of his presents before opening them. You can see the shirt that I made in the left corner. I found a fabric at Joann's and then cut out a 1 and then five of the dogs on the fabric and lined them up along the bottom and he loved it!

Daddy helped open his presents this one is from Grandma and Grandpa Barrus. Two great bedtime books. He LOVES them and we read them each night. Thank You!

We also gave him a whole bunch of clothes, more out of need than as gifts, but we picked out this church suit as his gift from Great Grandma and Grandpa Barrus. Thank you!

Grandma and Grandpa Jones gave him this ride-on. He doesn't ride it yet but he is loving pushing it all around the house. He just needs to figure out how to go in reverse when he runs into the wall or corners. Thank You!

Bags with tissue paper seem to work a little better for him to open by himself. This is a play set of kitchen items.

And because he has been in to Elmo so much lately we found a stuffed Elmo. We didn't want to get a Tickle Me Elmo because we wanted him to take it to bed with him. He actually found Elmo on Tuesday morning before we wrapped it and yelled at me when I tried to take it away from him. He finally gave it over to Zac and we had to hide it the rest of the day because he would go into our room to try and find it. He sure loves Elmo, and I am okay with that.

We also gave him a 'learning cube' thing that has a bead toy on top and then activities on each side of the base as well as a shape cube.

Like most kids he did not care for his cake. I actually crumbled it thinking if it was in pieces he might try to pick some of it up. But he touched the frosting and could have cared less about it. So after few minutes we just put him the tub.