The Christmas Tree

So this Christmas we are spending in Arizona and I thought it would be nice to get a live Christmas tree. Gavin is still too young to pull at it so it seemed the perfect year for our first live tree. Jason, however, did not agree. I had to BEG and BEG and BEG for like three days until he finally agreed we could get a live tree as long as I was solely responsible for watering and cleaning up after it. I agreed of course and we bought our first live tree. You can't tell from the pictures but the tree leans slightly back...its endearing though.

When you're short you get creative to get things done.

Our finished LIVE Christmas tree!

This is our nativity and I LOVE it! We got it last Christmas and it is my favorite decoration for the holidays.

A Sad Night for Mommy and Daddy

We've held off this moment as long as we could...but alas the time has come. I couldn't ignore any longer that when we put Gavin to bed in his bassinet in our room his head touched the top while at the same time his feet touched the bottom. Both Jason and I have dreaded the first night we put Gavin to sleep in his crib in his own room because it's one of those monumental moments that means he's growing up! Being the first-time, camera-happy parents that we are we documented the occasion.

Saturday, Dec. 13th was Gavin's last night sleeping in our room!

Sunday Dec. 14th Gavin slept in his big boy crib
in his own room for the first time!

Sad Mommy and Daddy!

Lights, Lights, Lights

The weekend after Thanksgiving we went to see the temple lights with the Niederhausers and their family. They were so beautiful! It was a perfect night, cool but not cold. Have I mentioned lately that I love Arizona? Gavin liked looking at the lights and was good all evening. We had a great time except when we tried to eat at Denny's afterwards. Apparently 20 waters is just too complicated an order! Jason and I ended up leaving before they even took our food order (we had already been there almost an hour)!


December 6th we went to Glendale for their Glendale Gingerbread Nights with the Bittons and the Niederhausers. They decorated their whole downtown area in lights and fun inflatable obstacle courses and slides for the kids. They even had a projector playing How the Grinch Stole Christmas and tons of food. Gavin rode on the train and laughted at Madison as she made funny noises at him. They also had a dance studio performing The Nutcracker. It was just amazing and we had a great time. Again the weather was PERFECT. We had such a good time and on the way home topped off the evening with hot chocolate.

CEREAL!!!

As many of you know (since I've been whining about it for a while), Gavin has not been taking very good naps during the day since he started sleeping 10 to 12 hours at night. I've tried all sorts of combinations of sleep/awake times to try and figure out his new schedule, to no avail. Finally, on December 3rd Jason and I thought that maybe he wasn't sleeping good during the day because he was hungry and needed more than just formula. Thus enters the CEREAL!! (Plus at our 4 month doctor's appointment our pediatrician said we could start feeding Gavin cereal if we wanted. I haven't wanted to give him cereal because I've got the notion stuck in my head, from when my siblings were little, that you don't start cereal until 6 months, but if the kid's starving...you do what you gotta do). On December 3rd, I waited until evening to give Gavin cereal so Jason could be there for the first time. What a hilarious experience. If any of you experienced parents out there had been watching us try to feed him you would have been ROLLING WITH LAUGHTER! I don't know who made the bigger mess, us (trying to figure out how to feed him) or Gavin (trying to figure out how to eat it)! I was surprised that Gavin actually seemed to like it and was such a good boy trying to eat it.

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! Our good friends Josh and Dani came over. Our dinner was PERFECT. Amazingly neither Dani or I had to make the turkey. Dani's boss smokes turkeys every year and he made us one, all we had to do was pick it up...now that's my kind of Thanksgiving! He wouldn't even let us pay for the turkey. None of us had ever had smoked turkey before...it was AWESOME! After dinner we vegged on the couch and watched BONES. It was such a relaxing and fun day. We always have so much fun with the Josh and Dani.

On the Move

Since our trip to Utah, Gavin has been on the move rolling everywhere! You place him in one spot and a few minutes later he's across the room. One day I set Gavin down on his blanket in our living room and went to do some dishes. A few minutes later I start hearing this clunk, clunk, clunk. I go over to Gavin and he has rolled into the entertainment center. The clunking noise was him hitting his head on the entertainment center door as he attempted to keep rolling! Poor little guy!