This was Gavin's first trip to the shell factory. He loved it! He got to 'drive' a race car, sit on a fire truck, see some dinosaurs and lots of other animals. And of course he got to pick out a shell. I am not sure what Gavin and Pa-Pa are looking at, but I thought this picture was pretty funny. It looks like a Forest Gump moment. : )
Going to the pool on our first full day in FL.... Gavin loved the pool, but I didn't take very many pictures. I took mostly video. He really got into jumping and kicking around. I think we might have a little fish on our hands this summer. : )
Gavin wanted Ali to lay in his new tent bed for a picture, but she apparently didn't think that was a good idea. : )
Gavin had his class at the museum this morning. The theme was tractors and trucks, so he loved it. He made a tractor and painted some tractors. Of course, the highlight was playing in a bucket of dirt. After his class his cousin Caleb and their other buddy Brady met us at the museum. It was a little crazy because all 3 seemed to want to go different directions, but I was able to snap a picture of Gavin and Brady at the paint wall.
Gavin just became interested in small doses of TV. He wanted to get his chair as close to the TV as he could. Sometimes it is hard to see Clifford. : ) No worries....he doesn't watch nearly enough TV to hurt his eyes by being this close. ; )
Gavin loves to 'help' me cook, so we made rice krispie treats and he got to measure the marshmallows and the rice krispies. I turned my head for half a second and he had dumped the remainder of the bag in the measuring cup which wasn't quite big enough to accommodate all that was left. He also learned that he loves marshmallows, but doesn't like rice krispie treats at all. I guess we will save ourselves the time next time and just eat the marshmallows. : )
Gavin weighs 4 gallons now! He also milked cows this time, but I didn't get a picture of that.
Loves water play!
He had a great time in the new pizza parlor. He made a pizza with lots of seasoning and worked the cash register. He even drove the delivery truck (which I failed to get a picture of).
It isn't a trip to the museum without driving the tractor. However it wasn't quite as exciting this time since he also drove the combine. 
His teacher had a variety of activities this month and his favorite was scooping bird seed around. Go figure! He did do some of the art projects too, but this was the highlight. He painted a frog and made a duck with LOTS of feathers. : )
Gavin was trying to help Ali go to sleep this morning while I was getting ready. He kept putting her paci back in her mouth when she spit it out and bounced her chair. She actually went to sleep eventually and I was able to get ready without wearing her in the sling! I had to watch him very closely because his bouncing would get a little rough sometimes. : ) You can see in the picture he is demonstrating to Ali how to open her mouth. He would say, "open mouth ali, like dis"......he is too funny.
It took us awhile to get here, but we finally got a good picture of the 2 of them. : )
Here are a couple of the other attempts!
His shirt says, 'Single and Loving It'! He looks like a typical man here lounging back in his chair. Now all he needs is a remote. : )
Gavin wants to hold Ali all the time now. She tolerates it, but usually not for very long and when he decides he is done he just pushes her off. For those of you who don't know...Gavin refers to himself as "my" or "mine", which explains the title.
Gavin is doing a fabulous job of being a big brother! Anytime Ali cries he runs over and tells her, "it's ok Ali". When I put her in the crib he pushes the stool over to keep an eye on her.
Gavin gets bored inside so when it is too cold to go outside I have to get really creative (which isn't always easy for me). He wanted to play out in the snow so we ended up making "snow" inside and this kept him busy for over an hour!
Gavin wasn't too sure about holding Ali at first, but now he asks to hold her. And volunteers to pick her up if we aren't careful. : )
Gavin is learning to be self-sufficient now that he isn't an only child anymore! He got in the pantry and got his nursery water out, took the lid off and started drinking out of the jug.
Gavin has been looking forward to Ali sitting next to him in the car, so he was very excited the first time they got to ride in the car together.
Gavin is very excited about his baby sister. He has been a great big brother so far. He keeps pointing to my stomach and saying "Ali isn't there anymore, Ali over there"! As soon as he wakes up he wants to know where she is and what she is doing and he keeps tabs on her all day to make sure she is doing ok. He loves helping with diaper changes and putting lotion on her. This picture was taken the day she was born. He got to come and meet her as soon as he woke up from his nap.
We figured since our days before Alayna comes are numbered now we should probably take a few pictures. Gavin loves to talk about her and hang out in her room. We just hope he is this excited when she actually gets here! He tells me that she is going to jump out of my tummy. If only it were that easy. : )
"Hi Ali"
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!).
