Happy Halloween

Gavin is still fighting his 2nd molars, along with a little cough. So I don't want to say it's nice that he has a cough, but it gives David and I the chance to teach Gavin to cover his mouth with his ' inner elbow/arm' (not hands) when he coughs. He has never really had a cough, so it gives us the opportunity! We are fighting it away though!

This week Gavin has gotten 3 Halloween cards in the Mail. The week before a special holiday or event my mom likes to send one card a day. He likes to get mail, ALOT! The first video below is of Gavin opening some of the cards!! Tonight we went to Mom and Dad VV's house for Halloween, and to 'trick-or-treat'. We had a good time, so did Gavin. He got lots of goodies, and the cutest books ever! They are WONDERFUL books to read right before bedtime. He loved them when David and I read them to him tonight, Thanks Mom and Dad VV! The 2nd video is of Gavin in his costume opening his halloween bag from Grammy and Papa. I think he makes a pretty cute Donald Duck :) HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Gavin's version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

So yesturday we stayed home all day in our pj's. Gavin is getting his two year molars in. He has had a bad runny nose, and diarrhea for the past two days, poor kid. He kept singing twinkle twinkle little star yesturday and the only time I could catch him singing it was in the kitchen. I know it is not the smartest thing for him to be whipping around a kitchen towel like that, but it was cute and I had to capture it.

Amish Country

This past weekend we took a trip to go and visit Grandma and Grandpa Vander Velde in Indiana. It was a very nice and relaxing weekend! As some of you may know I am fascinated with the Amish. I think their lifestyle is remarkable. Something I could never do, but they are so accustomed to doing. I'm mesmerized with all their talents and culture. There are quite a bit of Amish communities in Indiana, so on Saturday they took us to Shipshewana, IN. It reminded me alot of Door County, WI. But just with the Amish culture. It was a lot of fun and we got to see a lot of neat things. We also went on a horse and buggy ride. Our driver was an Amish man who had 5 children, he was quite the talker too. I asked him how long it would take him to get from his home to work which was 13 miles and he said, 1 hour and a half on horse and buggy. I couldn't believe it!

Needless to say we had a wonderful weekend. I can't wait to go back in the spring or summer time and go again.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend in Indiana.

Cold Weather :(

A picture of Mom and Dad VV's Orange mum bush.
I don't want Snow! I am not ready for snow this year. With what we had last year, I am not looking forward to it at all this winter, especially because people are saying this winter is going to be worse than last winter! And...snow is in the forecast for Sunday :(

Last week Gavin and I went out and got his winter coat for this year. Along with winter hats and mittens. He isn't too happy about the hats this year so far. Im hoping he will learn that it is to his advantage to wear a hat!

Yesturday we went to Just Brewin with Shawna and the kids. It was a perfect day for that! After that we took the kids to the Fireman's park in Sun Prairie. It is very similar to the Wooden park in Monona, but better I think. It has a better little kids area and more to do! It was a little chilly yesturday, so I think that was the last day we will be able to go to the park, until Spring that is!! I packed up all of Gavin's Summer clothes/clothes that doesn't fit him anymore, and put them in space bags the other day. We have probably 15 space bags full of all Gavin's clothes from newborn-now. Talk about a lot of clothes because you can fit a TON in space bags!!

Today is cold and cloudy. We are just laying around today. Everyone needs a day like this once in awhile! Laundry, cleaning, and baking sounds good to me, along with cleaning out my closet and putting away all the clothes that I dont wear anymore too, Seems like so much to do! I better get started!

Have a good day.

Our Weekend Update

We had a really good weekend. Friday we had our usual relaxing night. Saturday I decided to go to Farm and Fleet (Fleet Farm for Appleton people) bright and early because TOYLAND opened. Gavin was looking at the catelog the night before and David and him made a wish list. It was a big one!! I am very glad I went, I got alot of Christmas shopping done, AND Magic 98 was there, a local radio station in Madison, and they had this computer game going on for people in line waiting for the doors to open. You got to pick between three boxes and if you picked the lucky box you won something, Well...I picked the lucky box and I got a prize!! It is so funny because I won something that I was going to purchase the night before, and I am so happy I didn't. I won 4 SESAME STREET LIVE TICKETS!!! I am so glad I didn't purchase them the night before. We are really looking forward to that.

Saturday Afternoon we had a work outing at Treinen Farm. It is north of Madison in Lodi. They have the largest Corn Maze in Wisconsin, along with hayrides, pumpkin patch, a pumpkin slingshot, farm animals, and yummy food. It was alot of fun. We went with Shawna, TJ, and Reilly. The boys had fun and so did the adults :) After the event we went back to Shawna and TJ's for Pizza and socializing! We had a really good day and Gavin slept so long last night. I could tell he played very hard Yesturday!

Today we went to Mom and Dad VV's house for a bit and then took a trip to Sam's club, then home to relax and watched the Packers beat the Colts! David made yummy Fajitas for dinner, and then it was time for Sunday Night Shows!! Today seemed to fly by!! Hopefully this week flys by too :)

Here are some pictures of this past week and weekend.

Gavin and I made Halloween Magnets this past week.

Gavin running through the Corn Maze

David, Shawna, TJ, and myself in the Corn Maze.

Halloween Cookies

Yesturday we went over to the Jobke's for Reilly's 2nd Birthday! Reilly loved the birthday present's Gavin picked out for him, all by himself, mostly :) The kids decorated Halloween cookies and played all afternoon. I thought the pictures turned out neat of the two of them decorating the cookies.

Our Fall Sunday

So we didn't have the most relaxing weekend we thought we would have. But it was still nice. Friday was very relaxing, we did NOTHING! Which is always nice! Saturday we woke up and intended to go to Merrimac to go on the ferry and hang out, but we just kept driving and decided to go to Mom and Dad Hack's Cottage for the night. It was the last weekend. They were closing it up for the winter so we dicided to go and hang out with everyone! Matt and Ashley were up there too, so it was alot of fun :) Today we hung out at Mom and Dad VV's house. It was so nice outside! We all unleashed the inner child in ourselves and played in the leaves! Gavin really enjoyed that! Something we can add to his list that he has never done before! Until today that is :) Thanks Mom and Dad VV :)

Here are some pictures of the Day.

Low Key Weekend.

So this is the last low key weekend we have for a long time. Besides this weekend we have something going on every weekend until Thanksgiving it seems like. Maybe even Christmas!! So we are just going to have a relxing weekend this weekend. Next weekend we have a work outing where we are going to a corn maze, so that should be fun. Then we are taking a weekend and going to Visit Grandma and Grandpa Vander Velde in Indiana! I am very excited for this. I have never been there and it will be alot of fun. Then comes Halloween Weekend! I am still pretty nervous that Gavin will not want to put his costume on. I even just asked him if he still wanted to be Donald Duck for Halloween and his answer was; NO. So...We'll see.

We're off to run some errands! Have a great weekend everyone!

Comparison

Gavin at Eplegaarden 2007Gavin at Eplegaarden 2008Wow, it's hard to believe that was only one year ago! It seems like longer. Gavin has grown up so much. In the 2007 Eplegaarder pictures he was walking, and this year he was running!

Gavin's Fall Decorations

So we don't have alot of Fall Decorations and I don't want to buy any right now because I have no place to store them after we are done using them, so today Gavin made his own Fall Project. I thought I would share it. It turned out cute. He even colored with Markers for the first time today. I have been really hesitant on him using markers, but he did a good job and I watched him like a hawk!! Now messes!! Anyways... here is the pictures of his Project. We hung the leaves on his bedroom door.
I also wanted to share that as of last Thursday Gavin has not had a nuk!!! He bites his nuks and it broke in half on Thursday and we told him no more. He asks for it during naps and bedtime, but we just explain to him that it broke and we have no more. Hopefully we will continue to have NO MORE NUKS!

Our Weekend Update

We had a very nice long weekend. It is going to be one of our last long weekends. David is going to go back to 5-8 hour days instead of 4-10 hour days for the fall/winter. So we made the most of this weekend :)

Friday we went to Milwaukee for the day. We shopped around for awhile and then had lunch at our FAVORITE restaurant, Maggiano's!!! We then took Gavin to the Childrens Museum's in Milwaukee. We all had a really good day. Saturday we went to Eplegaarden to pick apples for the Afternoon. This is our third year doing this and we always seems to pick a great day to go, it was beautiful, we even got some sun!! Mom and Dad VV came, along with Kristin and the Kids. It was alot of fun and we have lots of Apples to make yummy treats! Today I went to lunch with 4 of my girlfriends who were in town. Then David, Gavin and I went to Sam's Club for some stuff. Gavin slept the entire way to Sam's and the entire time we were in the store. It was great, although he did miss alot of yummy samples!

Now we are just relaxing and getting ready to watch our sunday shows!

Have a good Monday!

Terrible Two's

So I think we have offically hit the Terrible Two's with Gavin. Today was not a good day. Gavin was in the time out numerous times! He is never like that, and rarely does he get put in a time out. But he has been pretty naughty lately, Talking back alot, and being VERY sassy. That is something David and I will not tollerate in this household or ANYWHERE! I asked myself today if he really knew what he was doing, and he for sure does. He really knows the meaning of NO now and uses it when he shouldn't. It has also been hard lately because Gavin is a Daddy's Boy and when he wants his Daddy you'll know it. I for sure thought we were going to have a few 'breathing spells' with Gavin today, but it never happened thank goodness!


Hopefully tomorrow is a better day! David and I both need to start being more serious with Gavin, and follow through with everything we say. He is a smart boy and knows what he can and can't get away with. I was not looking forward to these days, hopefully they will come and go quickly!


On a better note..Yesturday we had a wonderful day. Gavin took his nap in the morning and then we went to the Wisconsin Dells outlet mall with Shawna, Reilly and the girls! It was alot of fun and we were very successful with our purchases :) They have a 'promotion' going on where if you donate $1 to breast cancer foundation you get an EXTRA 25% off of the sale or clearance price! We took advantage of that :) I got one thing for myself, but other than that I got some winter clothes for Gavin and a New Halloween Costume! He was going to be Franklin the Turtle, but it is a little too big on him still, so he picked out Donald Duck at the Disney Store!! It was between Donald and Goofy, and I'm glad he picked Donald. It is so cute and the nose quacks :) he has not tried it on yet, I know it will fit him, but im just hoping he will want to put it on to go trick-or-treating! After our shopping trip we met David grocery shopping and for a quick bite to eat! We had two showings yesturday so we did not get home until 7pm last night! Long Day! We have not heard how the showings went, but we'll just wait and see :)
Here is a video of Gavin and Reilly in their strollers!