Aunt Lindsey's Wedding

I wasn't the best at taking pictures throughout the whole extravaganza. It is hard to carry Gavin and take pictures at the same time. The wedding though was wonderful and we are so glad that Derrick is now part of our family.

Derrick's family provided a luncheon before the temple. Here the boys are ready to eat their spaghetti and stay clean at the same time!

We loved having Clayton and Kara come visit

Gavin causing havoc to the table because dinner wasn't coming fast enough. He sure looks cute as he causes havoc.

A cute couple

Derrick playing the cello for Lindsey- very romantic

The bride and groom with the nieces and nephews. It was a little on the warm side!

Lindsey with her sisters

Trying to get a quick family picture

I failed to get pictures at the reception which looked beautiful. I need to give a shout out to my mom who had a crazy summer with planning girl's camp, a youth conference trip to Nauvoo, and a daughter's wedding. She did an amazing job handling it all!

Congrats Lindsey and Derrick!

Swimming Lessons

Dallin started taking swimming lessons this summer. I'm so glad we went with the teacher we did. We chose private lessons for him which cost a little more, but they were totally worth it. Dallin was able to focus so much better and got more out of each lesson. Miss Gail was wonderful with him too. She was tough on him and knew just how to motivate him. We are very pleased with his accomplishments.

Swimming was also wonderful for Dallin because he excelled at it. He thrived under the positive attention he was getting. Dallin had two lessons a week for four weeks and then we would practice at the pool around three times a week with us. Zane and I didn't have to fight him to practice with us (sometimes he needed a little persuasion to roll on his back) and he was always excited to go swimming. After his first lesson, he enjoyed swimming so much he refused to wear his floaties again. He told us they can go in the garbage now.

Miss Gail teaches her students to roll on their back to breath. Dallin didn't always like doing this because he would swallow a lot of water at first, but he definitely understands that if he can't breath in the water for any reason, he needs to roll over and float. Today his shark was floating on his back in order to "breath."

This video was after 6 lessons.

Dallin has now had seven lessons, and today at the pool he swam across the width by himself while I watching nearby with Gavin. He also jumped off the diving board, rolled over to breath, then swam on his stomach to the side while I was a few feet away with Gavin. Next time we are at the pool with Zane, I will get a video of this. Besides safety, this was my main goal for him with swimming lessons. Gavin likes to try to crawl out of his floaty into the water, so I have to watch him like a hawk. If Dallin can swim to the side by himself, then I feel a lot safer going to the pool while Zane is at work. We are so proud of how hard Dallin worked this summer and how much he learned!

Opinionated

He looks so sweet and angelic. Ever since he turned one though, Gavin has had an opinion. It is not hard to translate what he is trying to say.

"Ahhhhh" (very loud scream): Don't take my toy away from me.
"Ahhhhh": Put me down. I don't want to do whatever you want me to do. I want to play with toys.
"Ahhhhh": Put me down. I would like to crawl...(under benches at church, into the refrigerator, in the garage, wherever I want to go.)
"Ahhhhh": I want to play with the DVD player (or anything else he isn't suppose to touch.)

If I move Gavin to another room to get him from under my feet while I'm cooking, he will immediately crawl back unless something else distracts him. This is the same if I remove him from the same room as Dallin if Dallin wants to play with a toy that Gavin will destroy or if he has a friend over and Gavin is getting in the way. If Dallin is playing with a friend, nothing will distract Gavin. He wants to be in the same room as the big boys and play with them.

What we have really struggled with is switching over to sippy cups. Gavin had no problem switching to whole milk, but he wanted nothing to do with a sippy cup. He has never liked them. I first switched out the afternoon bottle with a sippy cup. When I did that, Gavin decided he no longer wanted anything to drink in the afternoon. (He won't drink any liquid from a sippy cup.)

My next step was to keep trying different kinds of sippy cups during the day with different kinds of liquid. No luck.

With Dallin we went cold turkey so that he had plenty of time off of bottles since we thought we were adopting another baby when Dallin was 14 months. Dallin did fine. He likes to eat. Gavin though doesn't like to eat. If he doesn't get enough milk/food during the day (because he refuses to eat or drink), he wakes up screaming at 3 or 4 a.m. and nothing will calm him down (not even paci) until he gets that bottle. He has done really well lately not waking up (he was waking up 1 or 2 times a week), that we didn't want to ruin this because we went cold turkey or dropped another feeding.

We finally decided we had to brave waking up at night and switched out the morning bottle since that is when he is hungriest. When I walked in his room in the morning, he would take one look at the sippy cup and start screaming. At night when he saw his bottle, he would go crazy with happiness. After three mornings of no morning bottle, Zane came in to see what all the screaming was about, picked up Gavin, tucked one arm behind his back and held the other one down, and stuck the sippy cup in Gavin's screaming mouth. Gavin finally gave in and drank.

This sippy cup was the winner. The cup was full and he downed it in one of his fastest feedings. I think he was missing the milk.

He is now off of bottles and doing fine. He still doesn't drink sippy cups while sitting in his high chair (meaning he gets very little liquid during the day), but he will drink a full cup morning and night while we rock him in the rocking chair. I don't mind though because I love cuddling with him.

Gavin is still sweet and angelic, but he is definitely letting everyone know what he wants and he does it in a very loud way!

Playing at the Beach

I may have gone over board on pictures but between Dallin running in and out of the water and Gavin arming crawling on the beach, I couldn't help but catch the moments!

Dallin's favorite- mud

Gavin thought crawling in the sand was awesome!

And eating it wasn't so bad either

I think this was Gavin's best day ever! He was allowed to roam free and get as dirty as he wanted.

Ready to take on the waves

Who cares about the salt and brown water. There are waves to be jumped.

Conqueror!

Swinging with dad

And loving it too

Army crawling together- Gavin loves it when Dallin gets on the ground with him

Spending time with dad is awesome!

Within five minutes of being in the car, Dallin looked like this.

Gavin looked like this the whole way home. While we were out jumping waves, he fell asleep on my shoulder. I guess he liked the rocking of the waves. He stayed asleep as I walked back up to the beach and we both napped under the umbrella.

We had a great day at the beach and enjoyed Zane's time off of work. It sure is hard the first day back. I think Dallin went in the garage four times throughout the day Monday thinking Zane was home. The first time was at 10 a.m. It was a long Monday. The boys sure love their dad.

Staying Cool

We haven't hit the fountains as much this year simply because they wouldn't be any fun for Gavin since he doesn't walk. We went as a family during the evening, and at first Zane and I took turns swinging him through the water. We didn't bother putting a swim suit on him because we assumed he wouldn't be crawling around. Gavin's stubborn though and apparently has tough elbows and knees because what he really wanted was to be able to crawl around, cement and all. Gavin figured it out how to play in the fountains pretty fast, with help from Dallin of course.

Dallin showing Gavin what to do

Dallin trying to steer Gavin to the fountains behind them.

Trying to catch one

Where did it go?

Both boys patiently waiting

Finally catching one
Loving it

Notice how long Gavin's hair is and the super long eye lashes clumped together

Simple pleasures.

Looks Can be Deceiving!

Two brothers just hanging out together

Actually, I'm not sure how I caught the above picture because it lasted a second. This is what really happens when they are together:


Gavin jumps on Dallin and a wrestling match ensues in a chair.

Sometimes it goes too far and needs a referee

Some hugs are too tight

But as soon as the referee interferes, it begins all over again.

Two brothers who just can't get enough of each other.

(And Dallin, you better watch out. In a few years Gavin won't be so little.)

Children's Museum

I've done plenty of posts about the children's museum, but Gavin was so cute playing in the dirt (cut up tires), I had to get more pictures.

I think there is a tire in his mouth in this pictures. That is the down side to letting him play. He is into eating everything.

Dallin with his new love, dinosaurs.