No Fear

Gavin has become quite the dare devil as of late, or maybe he just hasn't quite grasped the full concept of how gravity works (although he sure likes to test it out with his food at dinner time).  The other morning I was watching Gavin play with a kitchen chair as he tried endlessly to figure out how to pull himself up on top of it.  I could tell he was getting no where and went back to our room to do some cleaning while he kept himself entertained in the kitchen.  Next thing I know I hear this, "THUD! THUD! THUD!" coming from the kitchen.  I came back out to find Gavin standing up on the chair, rocking it violently back and forth.  He's shouting with joy, clearly not aware of the precarious situation, and mad as heck when I take him off the chair.  Now he's a pro at climbing up onto the chairs and I don't think there's a way to baby-proof kitchen chairs.

Gavin's other new achievement is going down slides head first!  I really need to get a video of it one of these days.  It just started the other day when I took Gavin to the park so Jared could figure out where the leak in our ceiling was coming from (story for another day) without Gavin getting in the way.  Usually he'll take his time at the top of the slide and I have to help pull him a bit to get him going, but this time he was climbing up the steps, and before I could get around to the bottom of the slide he had plunged down head first.  I was worried he would face plant at the bottom, but he slid right off onto his hands and knees, and was crawling back around to do it again.  He is now also an expert at climbing up the slides as well, and thinks its just as much fun as going down them.  Gavin also loves the bars at the park. There kinda like monkey bars at about my waist level that kids climb across rather than swing across.  I guess Gavin wanted to try them out as well.  He'll lunge out for the first bar, assuming you'll be right behind to help him along.  He's actually pretty good at pulling himself along with his arms, but has a hard time keeping his legs and body from falling through.

I'm starting to think it's probably a good thing Gavin hasn't started walking yet, or who knows what other stunts he'd be trying out!

Nana’s Visit to Utah

Back in May my mom was back in North America for a visit.  Isaac, my sister’s little boy was born May 19th, so Nana came to meet her new grandson in Texas, then came up to Utah for a visit with us.  It was a busy week full of fun, and of course my mom took a bazillion pictures!  Here’s a “few” pictures of our cute Gavin from Nana’s visit.

Nana came with new books for Gavin, which they enjoyed reading together This is a cool book of BIG machines that folds out

 

We kept busy going for walks and playing at the park

         

    There’s this cool water park just north of our place.  Gavin wasn’t so fond of all the splashing things, but loved crawling and splashing around in the water   

Having fun at home 

 

Gavin’s First Hair Cut

About a week after Gavin’s first Birthday we finally gave in and decided it was about time for him to get his first hair cut.  We held off a few more days until my mom arrived in Provo for a visit, so that she could be here for it.

BEFORE Pictures: Look at all that hair! 

We took Gavin up to a place in Lehi called Cookie Cutters, which specializes in children’s hair cuts.  It was a fun place and Gavin loved it!   He got to sit in a cool blue car and honk the horn, and watch his favourite show, The Backyardigans.  The lady that cut his hair was awesome, blowing bubbles and playing with him while she cut!  (Be prepared for lots of pictures…they’re all so cute it was too hard to pick just a few)

Gavin LOVED the bubbles and kept trying to eat them

A little unsure about all of this

 

Probably my favourite! He’s just too cute

I’m surprised he wasn’t bothered by the razor

What a hansom little guy

I love his new hair cut, but it makes me a little sad to realize how big Gavin is and how fast he seems to be growing up.  Okay, so I know he’s only one but his first year seems to have flown by.

Summer Fun

Despite how tiring working seven nights in a row can get sometimes, I sure do love having the next seven days off.  It’s the perfect schedule to be able to go on lots of road trips and have visitors during the weeks I have off; and we’ve definitely taken advantage of every single one of my weeks off this summer!

The busyness began my last week off in May, when Jared’s family came up for his graduation and to celebrate Easter.  Then my next week off we headed down to California for our friend’s sealing in the La Jolla Temple.  It is such a beautiful temple!  We dropped Gavin off at Grandma and Grandpa’s in Vegas on our way to San Diego, which I thought would be harder than it was.  It was our first time away from Gavin for more than a day, but being able to sleep in until 10am made me wish our trip was longer than just a few days.  While we spent time at the beach and with friends in California, Gavin had a great vacation of his own with family in Vegas!  We were in San Diego over Mother’s Day, but I still got a Mother’s Day gift from Gavin in the morning, and we also chatted with him on Skype.

   The La Jolla, California Temple

Mother’s Day Surprise (Jared’s so sweet)

Video call with Gavin – we’ve Skyped with friends and family before, but this was the first time we were on the other end which seemed to confuse Gavin.  He kept looking for us behind the computer monitor!

It was then back to Provo and back for another week of work…but my next week off we were back down to Vegas for Janea’s award ceremony.  She’s valedictorian, and received by far the most awards.  We’re proud of her and know she worked hard for and earned every award and scholarship she got.  We’re excited for her to be up in Provo when she starts BYU this fall!

Graduate 2011

The next week I had off we stayed home in Provo, and celebrated Gavin’s First Birthday!  (There’s some photo’s at the bottom of this post).  I then had one more week on of work before my mom came to Provo for a visit!  She was here for a week and we had such a great time with her.  After my mom left I worked eleven nights in a row (exhausting!), but it allowed me to take eleven days off for us to take a road trip up to Canada!  Before heading to Canada we took a short three day trip to Beaver, Utah for the 4th of July.  After returning home from Canada and working another week, my sister Allison came for a visit with her two girls and new baby boy!

And that brings me up to date with all our activities!  I start back to work tomorrow night, but the summer is still not over and we’ve still got more planned!  I’ll post about Mom’s visit, Beaver, Canada, and Allison’s visit soon.