"I'm going to work, Mom!"

Kyle frequently plays pretend. Aside from pretending he's a doctor, he loves to pretend he's his daddy. He's a PT who needs to travel back and forth to Chicago on a GG plane. He'll load up his suitcase and get his portfolio book, lunch bag, watch, belt and glasses and be ready to go out the door. It's amazing how many flights go from Midway to Orange County in a day. Once in a while he'll actually go out the door and repeat the whole "good-bye" process we do from our balcony. 

Gavin and I wave and wave and say all the things we normally say with Ru.

Then, he'll come upstairs and give some therapy to Mr. Monkey. Notice the band-aids and mouse timer. He's got Mr. Monkey on some serious exercises. :)

Recently, we found a t-shirt at a garage sale that so closely resembled one of Rudy's work shirts that we had to get it. Here they are the next morning right before Rudy (and Kyle!) left for work. :)

Biddy Tee Ball League

Kyle had his first day of Tee Ball! He was ADORABLE! 

 He listened to his coaches.

 And followed the warm-up directions.

 They went for a run.

 All the while, he kept looking over at me with a beaming face!

 Even Gavie thought this was a sweet deal since he could crawl around and play with balls.

 He even tried to run around the bases a bit, too. :)

 Here's Kyle leaving home,

rounding first,

 and sliding into home to try and beat out this kid!

Then we played at the park. 

So fun!! 

I Spy...

My boys aren't ones to sit and pose so I know if I see something I like I've got about a 10 second window (or less!) to run and get the camera. And then I get one shot. After that, it's like pulling teeth to get the picture I wanted in the first place. I love catching "the moment" and I have to say, it doesn't happen often. So whatever I do get has to be good enough, even if that means its out of focus or less than flattering. :) I was fortunate enough to have the camera nearby to collect the following shots this week:

At 6:34 am (see the alarm clock?), I peeked in the boy's room and saw them both reading their books. :)

The boys love our unmade bed and like to roll around/play hide-in-seek in the covers. There's lots of hugging, giggles and squeals. 

Bath time hugs. Gavin will continue hugging Kyle over and over and over. He truly squeezes and holds tight. Gavie hugs are the best.

Brotherly love.

Rudy had early morning duty and thought he'd see just how long the wipes would entertain Gavin. Answer? After 235 wipes, Gavin was still going strong!

Reading together on Mommy's lap. Finally got a picture of it! :)

Uncle Ryan/GG Visit

It goes without saying that whenever family lets us know they'll be coming to town, we get giddy with excitement! I think having kids has made us miss/cherish family time exponentially. We struggle with when we should tell Kyle that someone's coming though, as waiting can be difficult. This time, we told him early and Kyle had to wait four whole days!!!!!! So, for four whole days we heard, "It's just too long for Uncle Ryan to come!" Eventually, the day came and we got to pick Rudy's younger brother up from the airport. Kyle was overjoyed and couldn't wait to clip out of his car seat and run to his Uncle. :) The poor guy didn't know a moment of peace until he boarded that plane again!! 

Here's a shot of an early morning coffee/juice conversation with Mr. Monkey listening in.

Kyle soaked up any and every spare "Uncle" minute all the way up to his bedtime. Here, Ryan is reading Goodnight, Chicago! :)

Then, GG came!!! Since she's often going from one plane to the next for her job, we like to take her to the ocean as often as we can.

Thank you, Ryan and GG, for all your time and effort to get here. We LOVE having you.

Gavin's Dedication

Gavin was dedicated last Sunday! Yes, it's taken me almost a week to get this post written. ;/ We planned it for the day after his 1st birthday party so that any out-of-state family who wanted/could attend, would be able to knock out a couple of important events with one visit. We threw our outfits together the morning of, and were happy that Gavin could wear one of Kyle's ties. Both boys looked so grown-up and handsome. (Kyle is known at church for the only kid who regularly wears a tie. He loves them and would wear them anywhere and everywhere...and often does! :) Anyhow, both boys did great up on stage. Kyle was adorable and took it very seriously. Gavin...well, I had to keep popping some gold fish in his mouth to keep him from squirming, but it worked. He wouldn't keep his shoes on though! Stinker.

Rudy read 1 Samuel 1:27-28 which says, "I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life, he will be given over to the Lord." 

Quite honestly I was amazed at our Children Director's prayer. He doesn't know our story or desire for our family and yet he prayed very specific things that are exactly what this family needs. Nice. And look at Gavie on the big screen!! My heart could burst. :)

Here's the picture we used, thanks to my friend Cherie. No editing done whatsoever...I love how photogenic he is. That, and the fact that it's easy to get a smile. 

We took some family photos outside. Here, with Uncle Ryan.

Auntie Michelle

Grammie

And 3 with me... I just love his different expressions in each one. So Gavin.

Gavin has started to reach for Kyle to hug him and they hug and hug and hug. I love it! ;)

Love my family. Thank you, God, for my boys.

Gavin's 1st Birthday Party!!

We celebrated Gavin's 1st birthday at that cool bike/wheel-of-any-kind park. It was a great venue for all the kids but especially for the older ones. It's enclosed so everyone is safe and it's got enough roads and paths to keep the kids well-entertained. Even the little kids enjoyed hopping on small cars or push-toys and walking around. We're thankful we know some friends who let us borrow their pass to get in! 

The theme for this year's party was "the Happy Face" for our Mr. Smiley. Not only does this little happy face remind us of Gavin's constant demeanor, but he loves to play with a yellow ball that has a smiley face printed on it, too. After going through over 300 pictures, I've narrowed it down to the following ones I think will give the gist of the party...

 My mom and I worked on those cookies while Rudy created the following watermelon masterpiece!

I really enjoyed the simplicity of this party. We served pizza, salad, watermelon, cookies/cake and water. Badda bing. The tables were sprinkled with some smiley "confetti" I made and some smiley mints I picked up at a party store.

We hung these smiley beach balls from the covering and gave them away as party favors at the end.

Since my original idea of a kind of clothesline month-by-month picture gallery didn't work in the space we had, we decided to clip the pics on each of the larger balls. I used Gav's monthly block pictures to show how much he's grown over the year.

The lower hanging balls quickly became punching bags! (Holden and Kyle)

Also included in the favor realm, and with the hopes that a Frisbee game would be encouraged, we gave out these smiley face Frisbees (larger ones for the older siblings and smaller ones for the babies ;). It's amazing what a Sharpie marker can do for ya!

 

Then, along the road we had a little sign for Gavin.

Gavin wore a smiley-face t-shirt that GG sent just for the occasion! It's just so him.

Ru reused one of the old checkered curtains I had hanging in my upper grade classroom. It turned into a finish line for the Road Rally we had going.

Uncle Ryan flew in from Chicago just for the special weekend! He's such a fun uncle and the boys have enjoyed playing with him.

Kyle and his friend Holden had a blast and totally entertained themselves the entire time! Fantastic, eh?!

Then came time to sing to Gavin and watch him "eat" his smash-cake. (I forgot to get a picture of the larger cake!)

He didn't disappoint! :)

And he even shared some with Daddy.

The family.

Happy Birthday, Gavin. We love you, Mr. Smiley!!!