How Did We Ever Live Without It

I'm not sure what we ever did without a play set in our backyard.  We are outside playing almost every night while we wait for daddy to come home from work.  It is a great diversion for the boys and gives me a little bit of a break while they play. 

The above picture is a favorite game.  Both boys climb up the slide.  Gavin likes to slide down head first.  Sometimes the above happens when Dallin slides down while Gavin is climbing up.  Dallin is very careful about stopping himself in time so that he doesn't knock Gavin off and Gavin of course loves it since playing with Dallin is his favorite activity!

The Start of Another Year

Preschool is officially up and running smooth!  Last year I taught with my sister in her home.  We both learned a lot and enjoyed two of us prepping as new teachers.  This year I am on my own teaching in my house a group of boys Dallin's age while my sister continues teaching our students from last year (these kids are a year ahead of Dallin).  I have a great group of four boys (including Dallin) who are full of energy and all get along great.  I was very apprehensive about this year because last year Dallin had a very, very hard time with school.  I was so pleased the first day of school to see Dallin sitting on his carpet and participating in class.  He has been wonderful!  I think a year's maturity, teaching in our own home, a small class, and teaching on his level all really make a difference.  Both of us are loving preschool days!

Gavin is also doing well.  He takes one nap during preschool, enjoys snack time and recess time with the boys, and plays with toys in the "cage."  He loves the attention and gets very excited to see all the friends coming over.

Here's to a great school year!

What I Love About Gavin

I haven't done a post just about Gavin for awhile.  He is such a fun kid and is growing and developing so much that he needed his own post.

What I love about Gavin:
(these are in no particular order)

1.  He is so happy.  Sometimes it is hard to tell when Gavin needs a nap because he is a very happy boy.

2.  I love his kisses.  Gavin puts his open mouth right on my lips for a kiss.  Sometimes I feel a little teeth on my lip and a couple of times a little tongue on my lip (we had a talk after that one :).  Most of the time it is just a full, slobbery open mouth kiss and I love it.  What is special about his kisses is that he if very selective in giving them.  If you ask him for a kiss, he may just look at you like your crazy or he will grant your wish. Most of the time he just looks at me.  Every once in a while though, out of the blue, he will just kiss me.  It is like he is feeling extra love for me at that moment and knew I needed a kiss.  It is special!

3.  I love his hugs.  He will wrap his little arms tightly around my neck and squeeze.  He may have learned this from Dallin who loves to give him hugs which sometimes is really more of a squeeze to Gavin's head.

4.  I love that Gavin plays independently.  While I am in the kitchen cooking and Gavin is playing by himself, I will have to go find him because he will move from room to room finding new adventures.  His favorite room to hide in is Dallin's especially if he gets the toys to himself!

5.  I love how adventurous Gavin is.  It is fun to see him discover new things and climb on everything!  Nothing is too big or too hard for this boy.

6.  I love Gavin's sleeping schedule.  In the past I have complained about Gavin's 5 a.m. wake-ups or his need to have a bottle in the middle of the night.  I still can't really say when he started sleeping through the night because he was never consistent at it.  Now, he sleeps like a champ and if he does wake up, it is because his teeth are bothering him.  He also goes down for naps very easily.

7.  I love how easy it is to make Gavin laugh.  Everything is funny to him.  When we practice standing, Gavin just bends his knees, starts giggling and jumping.  If we let go of him, he will giggle, flop to the floor and crawl away.  (Gavin stands and walks along things, but he isn't walking independently.   Our goal is by 18 months!)  Gavin still will army crawl, but mostly, he crawls on all fours.  He loves it and he especially loves it when Dallin crawls with him.

8.  I love how Gavin dances to any music he hears (this includes music with strong beats or hymns at church!)  He also dances to rhyming books.  He has a great ear and has some moves.   The boy has rhythm!

9.  I love how Gavin loves to read books.  He giggles, touches each page, and many times kisses the characters in the book.  If he is playing independently, he will crawl over to my box of books and look at books by himself.  I love it!

10.  I love how Gavin loves Dallin.  He will follow him anywhere and thinks he is the funniest boy.  He loves to give Dallin hugs/tackle him.  Dallin always looks at me with a smile and says, "Gavin loves me!"  He does love his brother.

 What would we do without this sweet, giggly boy!

Crazy Boys Playing

Boys sure love to climb!

Jared and Kari gave us their swing set when they sold their home so this is what the boys play on now.  Zane had to replace some boards, but the boys love it and it has been great for preschool!

Cousins

Dallin loved playing with his cousins.  He is one of the youngest in Zane's family, so he loved older kids playing with him, seeing their cool toys, and following them around.  Zane and I also loved the older cousins.  They took care of our children for us!  Dallin's twin cousins, Candy and Jade (9 years old?), would take his hand and he would follow them any where.  The boy who is usually running constantly and scares me in the pool with his no fear attitude, was calm and content with these girls.  We went swimming one day, and Dallin was carried around like a baby doll in the pool the whole time.  He apparently forgot he knew how to swim.  I wish we could have brought one of the girls home with us.... We played a game similar to hide and seek in the dark (I can't remember their name for it) and Dallin just held one of the girls hands and loved running around in the dark chasing everyone. 

Playing at the park (this picture is missing half of the cousins.  I failed to get a picture with all of them. :(

 Gavin with his cousin Brooklyn- Brooklyn is two months younger

Stair races-  I can't tell you how much entertainment this was.  They each won one race although in Gavin's defense, there was a tiny piece of grass on the stairs that was a major distractions towards his goal of getting to the top first!

Garrett and Dallin- Garrett had the coolest toys (meaning lots of Cars 2 toys).  He was so sweet to keep playing with Dallin who fixates on playing with cars and only cars non stop.

Toni's kids ( we stayed here two nights)

Nikki's kids (we stayed here the rest of the time since her boys are the closest in age with ours.)

We had a really fun trip.  The boys did really well considering Gavin's illness and no naps and late nights for Dallin.  There were also parts of the trip that are just boring for little boys like helping my little sister Lindsey set up her classroom for her first teaching job.  (They loved seeing Aunt Lindsey, but staying in a classroom for two hours isn't high on either of their lists of fun things to do.)  It was great though to get home and be back in our own beds with a schedule again!