Happy 5th Birthday Gavin!

Happy Birthday Gavin!

I just can’t believe that I now have a 5 year old and that he will be starting kindergarten this fall! He is such a sweetheart and has really grown up this past year. He’s always telling me how beautiful I look and giving me hugs. He has such a sensitive side. Although he has his moments where he has meltdowns or doesn’t want to behave for the most part he is a really good kid and so sweet with Wyatt. Wyatt of course wants to do anything and everything that Gavin is doing so he does a great job trying to include Wyatt or helping to make him feel better if he can’t do something that Gavin is.  He still loves to build and always creates amazing masterpieces with his magnatiles or legos and has become quite the artist as well.

 He had quite the special day today to celebrate his birthday. Ryan took the day off to spend with him and they had special time playing with his legos this morning and then they visited the Wildlife expo in the mall and spent a few hours at the Incredible Pizza Place. The original plan was to go to the science center but apparently it’s not open on Mondays during the winter but he had a lot of fun at the other places. Although he loved his special time I think he missed Wyatt because he asked Ryan to pick up Wyatt a little early from school so he could spend some time playing with him too.

 We ate his requested meal of choice tonight for dinner – Peanut butter and jelly and then we sang happy birthday and celebrated with a cupcake and opened presents. I think it’s been a little hard on Wyatt having to wait for his birthday and seeing Gavin get to do all this fun stuff and open presents so he was sweet to let Wyatt open one of his presents.  He then gave Wyatt a huge thank you huge after opening the present that he helped pick out and even let Wyatt wear one of his new jammy shirts because he wanted to be just like his brother. So sweet that he helped Wyatt feel so special on his day :).

And here are Gavin's answers to the 20 questions we ask every year:

What is your favorite color? Green

What is your favorite toy?  Pirate sword (happened to be the toy he was playing with at the moment)

What is your favorite fruit?  Bananas

What is your favorite tv show? Sonic the Hedgehog
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich
What is your favorite outfit? Ninjago shirt
What is your favorite game? Mario
What is your favorite snack? Cheez-It's
What is your favorite animal? Cheetah
What is your favorite song?  "Animal" by Neon Trees
What is your favorite book?  Ninjago vs. Pirate book
Who is your best friend?  Charlie from school
What is your favorite cereal? Fruit Loops
What is your favorite drink? Orange Juice
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Go to the pool and run through sprinkler
What is your favorite holiday? Easter
What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Superman blanket
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Fruit Loops
What do you want for your birthday dinner? PB & J
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Ninja

Christmas Week

It’s been a whirlwind of a week but an amazing time with family and friends.  We started out Christmas Eve with another amazing service at Hope and the boys did such a great job for it being an hour and a half service.  We ended up going to the 3 o’clock service and got there a little late due to traffic and a slight melt down from Wyatt after he woke up from his nap so we had to sit downstairs in the gym and watch the service on the screens but it was still a great time.  Wyatt was funny because it started with a bunch of music and then Pastor Mike came out to speak and he said is this a commercial lol. 

After church we headed down to Osceola and spent the night with my parents.  I don’t think there was much sleep all around but that was to be expected.  That morning we got up and opened presents and had breakfast and then we headed back home to see if Santa stopped by our house.  The boys were so excited and loved all their presents.  After an attempt at naptime which neither Gavin or Wyatt took we headed over to Keith and Jan’s to celebrate Christmas with them.

Thursday night we celebrated Christmas at my Grandparents house and got to see all my aunts and uncles and cousins on my Mom’s side.  Then all the fun wedding festivities began.  We had the rehearsal on Friday and rehearsal dinner at Rubes.  The food was amazing and Gavin and Avrie did really well at the rehearsal and afterwards.  Anyone that knows them knows they usually get a little wild when around each other so I think we were all a little nervous about the big day.  I promised Gavin that if he listened really well and did a good job we could go see a movie and he could pick out whatever snack he wanted hoping that would be enough to entice him to behave and not get too wild J. 

Jess and Scot’s wedding day couldn’t have been more perfect.  It was almost 50 degrees in December which is crazy.  I was so proud of Gavin because he and Avrie did such a great job walking down the aisle especially after such a long day leading up to the event.  Gavin was pretty funny because as soon as he got to the front by me the first thing he said was Mom did I earn that movie lol.  The ceremony was amazing and very moving.  The music was beautiful and walking out to a room full of candlelight was so beautiful and just very warming.  I can’t wait to see the pictures and was so proud to be part of Jess’s special day. 

Since all of my dad’s brothers and sisters were in town we met at my aunt’s house on Sunday for some delicious food and I brought Lincoln so they could all meet him.  It was a great time getting to see all our family and friends.  Kind of a blur of a week but so much fun and great memories.

Lincoln - 4 months

My little boy is growing up so fast although he’s still a little peanut compared to the other two at this age and I just love it J.  We had his four month checkup this week and everything looks great.  He was 14.9 lbs and 25 inches long which was 50ish percentile.  Below are some of his likes and dislikes at this age.

Likes:

-Looking in the mirror.  He just giggles and giggles when you hold him in front of a mirror and he can look at you and himself

-sucking on his hands/fingers.

-His brothers.  They are usually pretty crazy running around yelling and screaming and he is just engrossed in anything they are doing if they are near him

-playing on the floor.  He’s showing more interest in toys and starting to grab things.  He’s also getting close to rolling over and will roll to his side

-Music.  Will calm down pretty quickly if he’s upset and we play music or he smiles and giggles if you sing him songs.

Dislikes:

-His car seat.  He cries almost every time he’s in it and in the car.  The only hope is that he will fall asleep during the drive. 

-Gas.  This poor little guy is still having issues with gas.  It got better for a while and then within the last two weeks was really bad again and we are not sure why.  It affects his sleeping at night which is no fun for him or mom.

-Sleeping. Unfortunately we haven’t been the greatest sleeper lately.  I think this is mostly due to the gas issue but he was doing so well for a while going 3-4 hours and now is waking up almost every hour.  I’m really hoping we can get past this issue soon.

-Has a love/hate relationship with his swaddle.  He won’t fall asleep very well without it and wakes up quicker if he doesn’t have it but at the same time wants to bust out so he can stretch.  We will probably be working on transitioning him out of this over the next month.

Other than when he has gas or is in his car seat he is such a happy and content little guy.  We just love him to pieces and can’t wait to see what new changes we’ll see over the next month.

Christmas program and Santa

The boys had their Christmas program on Thursday and both did such a good job.  It was so fun to see the kids get all dressed up and on stage to sing their songs.  Wyatt was pretty funny at one point and got up front and started dancing after watching two other kids do it.  I think both boys enjoyed the program and there was lots of yummy food and snacks afterwards.

So we attempted to go visit Santa today with the boys and the place was really great because they handed out cards to tell you when to get into line the only problem was that we got there around 10 and they were already up to the 1pm wait time and there was no way we could hang out for 3 hours in the store with Lincoln.  Luckily the boys didn’t seem to mind at all.  They had a blast looking at all the animals and then we visited Santa’s area and they wrote letters to Santa letting him know what they wanted.  Gavin wanted a watch and Wyatt wanted some costumes.  

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  So nice to be able to spend some extra time with family and I loved having an extra-long weekend.  My sister hosted thanksgiving at her house this year and then Ryan’s parents picked up the older boys Friday morning and headed up to Minneapolis to celebrate the Springer family Christmas.  Sounds like they were good and both Gavin and Wyatt had a blast playing with their MN cousins.  It was so nice to have a little downtime at home so Ryan and I could get some much needed cleaning done and get out all our Christmas decorations.  We even got to sneak away and see a movie which was amazing.  The boys came home Saturday afternoon and we headed out on Sunday to get our Christmas tree.  It was a pretty quick trip since Lincoln was getting fussy but the weather was great and Gavin did the honors of selecting the family Christmas tree.  Both boys were great helpers with decorating the tree and I think it turned out beautiful.  Ryan and I weren’t quite ready for the holiday weekend to be over but at least Christmas will be here before you know it.  We also had a great time last week at the Capital tree lighting.  The boys loved getting to see the capital again and of course all the Christmas cookies.  Afterwards we got to head over to Terrace Hill.  It was my first time being there so it was cool to get to tour the place and thankfully the boys were pretty well behaved.