Visitors

It has been a fun month. We have had visits from my parents, Boyd's sister Sherilyn and Boyd's Mom. Gavin was particularly excited for their visits.

The best part is the quality bonding time that the boys had to spend with their grandparents who love them so much. Being so far away from family, our boys have to form bonds quickly. Often when we visit family over holidays it is hard to form those bonds because there is usually so much going on, so many people, and long lists of to do's. That is why we cherish the time that the boys can have with Grandma and Grandpa, and Grandma Miggy when they come to visit. I watched as they grew so much closer in a few short days. It makes Boyd and I so happy. We know how important it is for the Gavin and Eli to feel their grandparents love.

Here are some highlights from their visits!



My parents visit so fun. IT was hard to see them go, because the kids won't see them until they return from their mission or not until we go visit them. We visited Montauk, the eastern end of Long Island. We took a beach walk to see seals, we visited a lighthouse, and we flew a kite. It was a perfect day. WE also visited the zoo while we were here.








We had a great time with Sherilyn. Hopefully, she got to see all she wanted and we hope she heads our way for school next year. We also went to an indoor waterpark with the boys!



Grandma Miggy was able to be here for Boyd's birthday. Boyd's and his mom's birthday gift were tickets to South Pacific on Broadway. We visited the botanical gardens and did the Brooklyn Bridge. I loved watching her and Gavin on the Carousel. I think we tired her out!

Get is right MOM!

Gavin corrected me. It is with a "d." It is "Da-Ha Woo-hoo, Here we go!"
Thanks to Boyd we have a video of it!

Yeah Yeah! Woo hoo--here we go!

I have failed to blog about an essential part in Gavin's life and the whole families as well. His scooter. Santa delivered one for Gavin at Christmas. Gavin's good friends both had one and recommended this particular brand. I wasn't sure how he would take to it. He didn't seem particularly interested in his friend's scooter. I worried that he would be a bit scared of it since he is a very cautious boy.

I was so wrong! He took to the scooter right away and had no fears. He was surprisingly really coordinated and was not scared at all. He would even crouch down so that he could go faster.

It is now his primary form of transportation. He rarely rides in the stroller anymore. We walk everywhere and he rides his scooter along side us. Well, he usually is ahead of us and that has been a bit of a struggle to get him to stay with us.

Now when he gets on it he yells, Yeah, Yeah, Woo-hoo! Her we go!

We love it!

the scooter Gang

Here is a picture of him and Lucas in action! They have a great time riding together!

Random

I am going to just put a bunch of random pictures together in this post. I have wanted to do an individual post for each of them, but it just didn't happened.. so here are some pictures from the last couple of months....

I turned 31! It was a great day! My friends through me a fabulous lunch! I had a party with the family and Boyd took me to Tao for dinner..

Monica got us tickets to the Westminster Dog show from her brother Mike. This was our 2nd year. It is an interesting place. The kids were able to sit through 30 minutes. But, there favorite part is the area where they prep the dogs. Eli especially loved petting the dogs. Monica, then took us all out to lunch!Boyd went to San Diego for work and had an extra couple of hours at the end of his week and what did he do? He went boogie boarding with my cousin Brad! I was so jealous! He also got to see Katie and the kids!

Gavin at Dinosaur park! Sometimes we just have to go to the park, even if it is below freezing!

Eli continues to bring many messes to our life!

Gavin has pretty much won the battle on naps. He doesn't take them any more. He still needs them and sometimes he can't fight it...

Good-bye Mr. Monster

I

I can't remember exactly when Mr. Monster entered our life. I am pretty sure it came after Gavin's 3rd birthday. He was fighting his nap, but I knew he still needed it, so I was fighting back. In one of my attempts to keep him in his bed, I told him I was going to tell him a monster story. He immediately stopped crying and was ready for his monster story. I began by saying, "Once upon a time there was a big SCARY monster." I realized as I was telling him this that I he might get scared, so I added "WAIT a minute, he's not a scary monster; He's a nice monster and he is friend's with a little boy named Gavin." "AND they liked to go adventures." I followed with some made up adventure that involved him and Mr. Monster.

I didn't realize that he would ask for a monster story before every nap and bedtime. I could make it longer or shorter depending on how much time we had. His adventures took us to the moon where they encountered a new friend named Billabong, to Africa, to central park, to the store, to the zoo, and many more places.

After a while Gavin started adding to the stories, so that he was practically telling the story himself.

I am not sure when he stopped asking for monster stories, but I realized this week that it has been a while. It made me a little sad, so today I asked Gavin if he wanted a Monster story. I was happy to see his eyes light up. I am pretty sure that Mr. Monster will occasionally reappear, but for now it is good-bye.

(I am not sure the monster pictured above is what we both pictured in our minds, but he looks pretty friendly)

Snow Fun

We've had a couple of snow days this winter and I failed to post pics of all the fun we had in the snow. The first pics are from January when we had snow day on MLK Day, so Boyd was home and we were able to have a great day of sledding and hot chocolate with the whole family and friends!



It snowed again this week and I attempted to take the boys out in the snow to build a snowman, but Frosty didn't quite make it. The snow was to dry to make into balls, so we improvised and made one like this. It made Gavin happy and that's what counts!

Some things should never go green

Valentine's Day has never been my favorite holiday. When I was single, I hated it because I had no one to share it with. When I was dating, I hated it because I never knew what to get the other person and it was awkward for me because if he was a new boyfriend, you didn't want to do too much, but you wanted to do something. When you were in a serious relationship, you had to choose wisely or it might mean too much or too little. Now that I married I get bugged that flowers and chocolates double in price, and it just seems silly to celebrate love when I should be celebrating it all year, right?

I had a change of heart this year. Boyd was gone the whole week prior to Valentine's day, so I had all week to think about how much I missed him and how much he does to help around the house and with the kids. So, I decided that I wanted to celebrate Valentines Day with the whole family and make Saturday a special day. It isn't such a bad thing to take a day to celebrate the people you love and you don't have to spend tons of money to do it. So, I made valentines with the kids on Friday night. I cut out about 100 hearts and scattered them all around the house. On Saturday morning when he returned I made raspberry stuffed french toast w/ raspberry coulis and a whipped cream heart on top. We also had bacon on the side. We had a red tablecloth with hearts all over and homemade valentines on each of the plates. IT was fun and I am glad I was able to do that for the 3 boys I love.

That night Boyd and I were able to go out because we had a babysitting swap all set up! We went out to a nice restaurant for my birthday earlier this month and we didn't want to spend a lot of money, so we decided to go to the Shake Shack. They just opened a place on the upper west side recently and it is one of the best places to get fresh hamburgers and fries!

The Museum of Natural History is close by to the Shake Shack and I thought we should try out their new ice skating rink since it was so close. It is actually not a real ice on the rink. Here is how it is described on their website..
"It is made of artificial ice, or a synthetic surface that allows ice skating blades to glide smoothly. The use of a synthetic skating surface has environmental benefits; natural ice requires a significant amount of electricity for refrigeration, and the synthetic surface is made of 100% recyclable and non-toxic materials."

We should have noticed all the warning signs. Their was practically no one on the rink when we got there, but their was a huge line waiting for the next session. The lady who sold us our tickets told us that the ice is not real. WE waited in line for our skates (They had us wait in line away from the rink). We put on our skates and made our way out to "ice" We attempted to make our first glide. NO LUCK. You can't glide. There is no grip. It is like trying to walk on plastic with ice skates. IT WAS HORRIBLE. We stayed for 10 minutes and got a pictures. I have to say that we laughed so hard. I expected cameras to come out and say "you're on candid camera." Everyone looked silly. We decided the $10 we paid at least gave us a good laugh.

We'll stick with the real ice next time, even if it isn't so green!