Boys Wrestling...Again

Dallin on Uncle Clayton
The match between Dallin and me and Clayton and Caleb.





They had a blast but I think Caleb won!

Boys Who Love Their Bottle

Dallin at Day 8

Gavin- three weeks old

Daddy and His Boys

There's nothing sweeter!

Family Outings

Even though we have a new born, we have been trying to do something fun as a family each week so that Dallin can get out of the house. Gavin is a good sport. He eats wells when we are out and about and sleeps when he is suppose to. We couldn't ask for anything more.

Two weekends ago, our friends gave us some free tickets to the aquarium. It was a little hot outside on the rides, but other than that we enjoyed our outing.

This is Gavin in the Baby Bjorn. This is how he enjoyed the train ride through the shark exhibit.

Dallin's favorite part of the aquarium is the carousel. He could do it all day.

Last week our outing was to the swimming pool. We haven't been swimming as much lately since Gavin came, but we decided to try taking him with us. This is what he did in the stroller for the hour while we swam. What a good baby!!!

Fun at the Circus

Since we didn't plan on when we got a baby, we had lots of summer activities planned that aren't baby friendly. One of those was tickets to the circus. We debated about what to do and finally decided that since Gavin was a super good bottle fed baby, he could be left with Aunt Haley and we could take Dallin on one last family activity with just the three of us. He deserved it. His life has had an upheaval without any time to prepare him for the new adjustments. When we bought tickets, my parents decided they would join us long with any other grandchildren that wanted to go. Dallin's cousin Caleb came along.

Part of the circus was little over Caleb and Dallin's head, but for the most part they sat in amazement at the lights, tricks, and animals.

My favorite part was listening to Dallin going, "me too" as he watched the clowns do all their tricks which included flips, jumps, and lighting themselves on fire. (I have been watching Dallin like a hawk since we got home as he tried out a couple of his new moves. The joy of raising a active boy! Luckily anything to do with fire is hidden far, far away from Dallin.) I think Dallin's decided to be a clown when he grows up.

The elephants were a favorite.

I think this is what the boys looked like the entire time.

Going to the circus was even more fun with Grandma and Grandpa!

Precious

My new sister-in-law Kara is a photography major at BYU. When we joined our family on their vacation, Kara made my day by asking if she could take Gavin's picture. She is amazing! My brothers sure marry well (and they pick girls with similar names.) We use Kari as a doctor and we all love Kara's photography skills. (They have other great qualities too.) Here are some of my favorites.

Big Brother/ Little Brother

I know I just posted about brothers, but I keep catching more cute pictures of the two boys together. I can't help it. I love watching this relationship grow. Our friend passed these shirts on to us. Aren't they cute??? Dallin is so proud of being the big brother.

As we were putting Dallin to bed the other night, he asked if Gavin could sleep with him. It was so sweet.

I found Dallin's froggy blanket next to Gavin this morning. No one is allowed to touch this blanket according to Dallin and yet he decided to share it with Gavin. (Have you noticed that Gavin is always swaddled? He loves being in his cacoon with his paci.)

I can't wait to catch more moments like the above!

Delete

Thank you to all our friends and family who put our button on their blog. We appreciate your support. Feel free to delete our button from your blog...for now. Our two little boys are keeping us busy, so we will wait a year or two before we try adopting again (maybe even three depending on the mischief Gavin and Dallin cause together!)

4th of July

As we were leaving to pick up Gavin, I had a lot of mixed feelings. We would be missing out on our family vacation. My little brother and new sister-in-law were coming into town. Because Kari, other sister-in-law, was 8 months pregnant and my sister Haley had a newborn (although he doesn't look that young in the picture below because he is nice and chunky), my parents rented a lake house about 30 minutes away from our home. On the plus side, Zane had already scheduled vacation time, so he was free to leave without worrying about work. Because the courts let us leave so soon (which again was a miracle), we made it home in time to see Clayton and his wife Kara. We couldn't plan it better even if we actually got to plan our lives.

My family excluding my little sister Lindsey who is on a mission for our church.

Dallin with his best buddies. He sure missed them. He and Caleb couldn't stop hugging each other.

Grandma and Grandpa meeting Gavin

My niece Sam was in heaven...two babies to hold.

We had lots of help with the feedings and Gavin had tons of people to love on him.

We spent Saturday and Sunday at the lake house. On Saturday everyone rode the wave runners. I stayed behind to be with Gavin. Dallin rode for a little then got scared and just played in the lake.

This is Zane and Matt. Matt's whole goal was to throw Zane off.

It worked multiple times.

Bad picture, but this is Zane by himself

On Sunday we enjoyed watching a fireworks show while sitting on the deck and looking across the lake. What wonderful seats!
We are so glad that timing worked out and we were able to introduce Gavin to our family. We have had so many blessings these last couple of weeks.

My Brother

Dallin has been praying for a baby brother or sister for a long time now. There are no complaints from him. He is very excited about his brother and wouldn't trade him for any other.

We had just put Gavin into his car seat in the hospital parking lot. Dallin looked at him and said, "My brother?" then reached over over and grabbed his hand. Just look at his face. He is so excited to have a brother.

Dallin really likes helping with anything to do with Gavin. This is the first time he helped with a feeding. He isn't always interested in feeding Gavin, but every once in awhile he will ask to help.

Isn't this cute?

This picture was taken while Dallin was watching a tv show. He looked over at his dad and asked if he could hold Gavin. He held him for at least 10 minutes which we thought was amazing because Dallin doesn't hold still that long.

This isn't a fantastic picture because my hands got in the way and Gavin is not happy, but Dallin was a great helper bathing Gavin. He had his own rag and tried hard to make Gavin happy.

Dallin likes turning on Gavin's bouncer music and the vibrator. We sometimes even catch him dancing to it. I didn't grab the camera in time, but right before this shot, I caught Dallin just sitting and staring at Gavin. I'm excited to see this relationship progress!

Welcome Home

After driving 16 hours straight, we made it home. We got home around 1 a.m. and realized someone had snuck into our house to decorate. What a nice surprise after a long drive with two kids.

The reason we were able to drive the whole 16 hours home in one day was because Gavin was an angel. He slept the entire time except when he was eating. Actually he was sleeping through most of his feedings too. For the first week of Gavin's life, we got excited when he opened his eyes. It was rare.

Dallin on the other hand was as good as could be expected driving 16 hours. This trip was really hard on him. Not only did we just pick up and leave without planning, we spent a lot of time at the hospital. Most of that time landed during nap times and eating times. Besides the hospital, he was cooped up in a hotel for five days. We tried to find parks and go swimming to entertain him, but there is only so much you can do especially after bringing Gavin home. I am a firm believer that two-year-olds were not meant to be cooped up in cars, in hospital rooms, and in hotel rooms.