Gavin's shirt says, "Daddy's Helper", but he was actually mommy's helper. He loves to help me cook, so I let him assist with some of the food for New Year's Eve.
We had friends come over and spend New Year's Eve with us. Gavin had fun playing with Alessia and we had a great time after we got the kids to bed. : )
We went to Jason's brother's house for christmas with the Deverman's. Gavin and Caleb had a lot of fun playing together, which was the first time Caleb actually wanted to play with Gavin. Unfortunately, since it had been such a long day the evening was cut short so we could get everyone to bed. Gavin got a soccer ball and clearly thought it was a basketball! We will have to work on soccer after it warms up outside.
It is possible that Gavin has had way too many ear infections. He got a flashlight for christmas and wanted to check everyone's ears with it!
Santa came!
Gavin loved his new bike, but had zero interest in trying to pedal it. He thought it was much more fun for someone to push him around. Everyone got a turn pushing him around the house! After a few days we finally made the bike disappear until summer. He asked where it went, but then soon forgot about it. : )
He loves his new tent, but always wants mom or dad to go in the tent with him. It just isn't quite big enough for that!
We hosted the Christmas Eve celebration. Gavin was able to have a gift exchange with 9 of his second cousins. They all had a lot of fun playing together and getting geared up for Santa to come. In all of the chaos we didn't get very many pictures, so unfortunately this was the best one. It isn't easy to get 9 small children together for a picture! The look on Gavin's face really says it all......way over stimulated! He couldn't even focus on opening the gift by himself. : )
We celebrated christmas with the Bratcher's a few days early so we didn't all have to run all over on christmas day. The kids thought it was awesome to celebrate early! Gavin and Libby are just having a good time watching Mia open her presents.
Gavin looked like such a big boy sitting at his table like this drawing. This was after he had spent his last day at daycare with the older kids (with the bad weather they only had a few kids and had them all together). I have a feeling he saw one of the other kids sitting like this. : )
We decided to test out our new camera and take a few pictures in front of the christmas tree. Gavin did great, but Abbey failed to cooperate.
We helped Gavin's cousin, Mia, celebrate her birthday at an indoor pool party. Gavin had a blast and got to stay up way past his bedtime!
After waiting in line to see Santa (with much excitement)..... Gavin decided when it was his turn to sit on Santa's lap and get his picture taken that he was having no part of it, so we walked away without even a high five for Santa. However, the train (which didn't have a line at all) was a huge hit. He rode the train twice and we had to pry him away from it and he talked about riding the train the rest of the day. I guess this year Gavin's gifts will be delivered by train....who needs Santa.
Gavin stayed home from school because he was sick. He wouldn't eat his breakfast so I gave him a bowl of cheerios and water. Apparently that is all he needed to make him feel better (and of course Dad's shoes!).
Gavin made this hat at school and wore it during their Thanksgiving Feast. He wanted to wear it all evening until he took it off, jumped on it and destroyed it.
Gavin got all of these tractors for his birthday and he loves playing with them! He is not partial to Cat though, he loves his John Deere tractor too.
Gavin was not leaving without a picture on the fire truck!
I am looking at the camera and sort of smiling, but Dad save me!!!!! (notice he is reaching his arm out)
Why is everyone singing? Can't I just eat my cake?
I need a fork.
Gavin was not thrilled about the whole singing Happy Birthday tradition. He just wanted to eat his cake. I took the candle off and gave him the cupcake and he asked for a fork. That's my boy! 
Gavin loved his Elmo cake and Elmo party. I gave him a choice between a baseball theme and a dump truck theme while we were standing in the aisle at Hobby Lobby and he looked around me and saw Elmo and started yelling Elmo, needless to say, Elmo it was! I am not a huge character fan so this was a tough one for me. After finishing the cake Friday night we still had 23 cupcakes to decorate so even Jason helped with those (since my hand was about to fall off from making all of those little stars on his face!).
Gavin had so many birthday gifts he didn't know where to begin playing! He got a tunnel, a workbench, a basketball hoop, lots of tractors and books and puzzles and playdough and golf clubs and his very own sweeper. Wow! That will keep us busy for awhile. : )
Now what do I do with this? Throw it in this big hole?
I made it!!!!! 
Gavin's class at the museum this month was Barney's Birthday Bash. He had a blast singing happy birthday, playing with balloons and playing with the giant parachute. (Even though he has no clue who Barney is. We don't believe in giant purple dinosaurs at our house!) And it wouldn't be a day at the museum without driving the big tractor. : ) 
This little boy (in the background) wanted Gavin to come and help him at the "grain elevator", so we played with him for quite awhile, but then he started getting too bossy and we moved along to play with trains. Gavin would stay here all day long with so many things to do!
Gavin was determined to get the ball to float in the air coming out of the tube. He probably spent a good 10 minutes pushing the button for the air and getting the ball to actually stay above the tube. As you can see from the look on his face he was extremely excited after he got it to work! It is good to know we finally have an interest besides driving!
I have no idea how I actually got him to sit down and pose for this picture. Most of our pictures turn out blurry because he is running around so much.
We took him trick or treating in grandma and grandpa's neighborhood a little bit, but he mostly wanted to hand out candy to the other kids. He was anxiously awaiting the first trick or treaters!
"Wait! Have more!" He wanted to give the trick or treaters more candy when they would start to walk away. He was very generous with the candy!
