Birthday and Valentines

Gavin is officially 3 years-old! I can't believe it, but it's ture. And we celebrated in style. Our really good family friend (Ken Bay) is the owner of a great pizza parlor here in Salem (Pietroes). He graciously set us up with a pirate Birthday Package to bring in Gavin's 3rd Birthday. It was amazing!

The entire table had pirate decorations, swords, hats, eye-patches and 100 tokens for every little one. Not to mention, their own pizza, free mini golf, lazer tag, ice cream, balloons, and drinks. It was better than anything I could have done, and the kids loved it!!!

As you can see, the kids weren't the only people who had a good time. My dad, Matt, and Gavin went on this motion, roller coaster ride. It was pretty fun, and I wouldn't be lying when I say my dad went on it 2 more times with other grand kids. He'll say he went with them to make sure they felt safe, but we all know the real reason. :)

We invited family to Gavin's birthday, so of course, Kirk, Melissa and Baby Kalli (Gavin's future wife) came as well. We love our besties. They even cancelled a trip to Seattle to come.

AMAZING FRIENDS.
Ok, this is the hat and eye patch I was telling you about. Gavin really, really wanted to wear it but it kept getting stuck over his other eye. It was pretty funny, but he insisted he wear it.

The happy little brother and Grandma. Im grateful for my parents. While I was getting Gavin all set with his games and toys, prizes, pizza, ice cream, ect.... my Mom and Dad took great care of Ronin. He is such a good baby.

Gavin LOVES superman, if you didn't already know. Superman, Batmn, Iron Man and Green Lantern. But his all time favorite is Superman. So he kept asking for a Superman Cake almost every day up until his birthday. And wouldn't you know it, my oven broke the week before. Thankfully a wonderful friend and neighbor let me use her oven the night before. Thanks Heidi. This cake all came together because of you.

Ronin sporting the pirate hat with Grandpa. Happy, cute dudes if you ask me.

This is so funny. I love this picture. Aaron and Emily drove all the way down from Portland just to come to Gavin's party. Emily fell asleep on the way, so when they arrived she was still tired. Although she has the hat on, has pizza, and is awaiting a fun time of games, she wasn't ready to wake up yet. So cute!

Cousin Ashley on the other hand was ready. Always ready to play and of course, get her picture taken. I think she looks like Jenilyn when she was younger.

Gavin and I. Three years ago I had him. Wow, I feel old and hate the fact that time is only going to go by faster from here on out.

Dada and Ronin. Matt helped out so much. There were times I was making sure everything was being taken care of, and then I'd turn and see Matt handeling the boys so I wouldn't have to worry. Such a studly man. And No, Ronin is not drinking Pepsi, just nibbeling a cup.

Gavin opening up some of his presents. Kirk and Melissa got him that Green lantern mask and he LOVED it. Wouldn't take it off. Even the next day (which was Sunday) I had to bribe him to take it off for church.

Sunday morning, (Feb 12th) Gavin's real birthday, we had pancakes to celebrate. He loved the 3 and kept saying over and over again, "I eat the 3? I eat it?! I will eat the 3!"

The hansome Rudolph boys eating lunch church. We have Sacrament at 12:30 so we eat before we go, which isn't too bad except for they're messing eaters. :)

And Gavin doesn't like to share, unless it's with Superman.

Oh my word, I had to put this on here. It was so cute. Ronin was nakey and so Gavin wanted to be nakey too. I promise we don't let our kids run around naked very often, but it was his birthday so we let him. The first thing he did? Lay down right next to his brother.

That night, we had just a small family celebration, with yes, another cake. Gavin just woke up from his nap in this picture, but was happy when he got his Batman soap and Batman fruit snacks.

Birthday boy and his sword. My sister won this for him at his party playing some game where she won 100 tickets....3x in a row! I told her she was an addict to arcade games, (which she now admits) but Gavin loved the outcome. It lights up and makes sounds which is perfect for him. Sorry the picture is fuzzy, he kept moving.

We had a nice quiet Valentines Day, and when I got hom that evening I had 3 heart-boxes of Chocolate, a big one, a medium one, and wee-small one. 1 from each of my "Valentines."

I love my boys. We just got back from spending the weekend at the coast, which was good...and bad. It had it's great moments, butttt, we've had better. I'll have to update later. Just for the record it's always nice to get away with 3 super cute men who I love the mosest!

I will never tire of that.

Life Is Good

Bring on February. We started the month off making hearts and putting them all over our house and windows. Gavin loved it. He was pretty excited for Valentines Day, until we started talking about his Birthday He's so excited. I can't believe he's going to be 3 already. It's going by too fast!

So Gavin has taken a new interest in playing with Ronin. I think it's because he's starting to get bigger and react more to Gavin. They were "wrestling" and laughing under a "tent" the other night. Having so much fun. They are such good buddies.

This went on for about 30 minutes. It was pretty fun to watch them and giggle to myself, feeling pretty blessed and grateful to be a mom.

Ok, so this next picture. Gavin has a little mind of his own. I have no idea what's going on. He found one of my head bands, put it on, and is studying one of his strawberries. He looks pretty crazy here, but that's him. My crazy lil man.

Ronin and his Dada. I honestly think Ronin may be the happiest baby I have ever met. He only fusses when he's tired. I'll rock him in his blanket for 5 minutes, lay him down in bed even though he's still awake, (but now cozy and cuddled) and he goes right to sleep.


LOVE HIM!

Gavin loves Super hero's. One day he's Batman, the next day, Superman. That night, after his bath, he was Spiderman. It's pretty funny because he gave us all Superhero names. He calls Matt Green Lantern, me Wonder Woman, (finally someone sees me for who I really am) and Ronin, Robin.

My favorite thing to do. I got Gavin up from his nap and he was still really tired. We watched some of the super bowl together, and just cuddled on the couch until he woke up enough to want some cookie dough.

February has started off pretty well. I ran my second race of the year on Saturday. It was FREEZING!!! I've ran in freezing snow, ice, wind, rain, you name it. But this was way worse. Why you ask? Because I was standing around in the freezing cold for 30 mins before we even got started. My body was frozen stiff! All of the other times, I stayed warm inside right up until I had to go out and run. My body was warm to start with. That was not the case on Saturday. I finished better then I thought, (1st overall for all females, all age groups. Don't be impressed, there were only 120 people signed up! :)) but I will never forget not being able to feel my fingers and toes, AT ALL, for the first 2 miles.

2 Races down, 10 to go.