Happy New Year!

This is my last post of 2009 and I would like to take a look back at a few thing that happened in our year of 2009!

- In February on 09' Gavin became potty trained! This was huge for us and him! If you would have asked me in December of 08', when he turned 2, when he would be potty trianed I would have guessed Fall of 09! Gavin was 26 months when he was fully potty trained. Now that I look back he was a pretty easy kid to potty train, not that I have any other experience potty training other kids, but I was thinking it was going to be more of a challenge!-In March of 09' we took a Snowboarding trip to Utah! It was a wonderful time and we can't wait to do it again in the future! -On April 19th of 09' David and I celebrated our first year of Marriage! What a wonderful year it was and I can't wait to celebrate many many more!

-In May of 09' we sold the condo and bought our first house together! After the condo being up for sale for almost 2 years (off and on) it was so nice to finally have a home together and call it our own!

- The summer of 09' was spent with family and friends! We spent our summer camping, boating, and doing stuff around our new home. It was the fastest summer ever!

-In September of 09' my Parents celebrated 25 years of Marriage! David, myself, Matt and Ash gave them a surpise 25 wedding anniversary party! So Fun!

-In November of 09' David and I won a trip to Nashville to the CMA's! It was such a good time and a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to the CMA's!

-In December of 09' our little guy turned 3 years old! Wow, is all I can say!

2009 was a great year for us! I can only imagine what 2010 has in store for us!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! Here's to 2010!

Gavin's Gifts

Besides Santa presents, Gavin got some really awesome gifts for Christmas this year from our families! I wanted to share a few of them with you!
Many of you may know that the only thing Gavin asked for this year was; A Shooting Star! Dave and I have no idea where this came from but whenever he sat on santas lap or someone asked him what he wanted for Christmas all he said was; a shooting star! Bless his little heart, he dreams big :) He has wonderful Aunts and Uncles that came through for him! Aunt Ashley and Uncle Matt got Gavin some shooting stars that you put on your ceiling and Aunt Kristin and Uncle Chris got Gavin his own star in the sky! Thanks Guys!My Mom and Dad got Gavin this 3 pc. computer kit! He absolutely loves it. Everytime he wants to use it he tells us he needs to 'work'. I wonder where he gets that from ;) It plugs right in to any computer too!Grammy and Papa got Gavin a TRAMPOLINE!He must love it :) Now we need to figure out a place to put it!My Mom and Dad got Gavin a kids moped! Don't worry, the thing only goes max 2mph!Grammy and Papa got the boys matching wheelbarrows! It is so stinkin cute! Gavin will love using it in his jungle in the backyard! I think it's funny how Gavin has his own wheelbarrow before Daddy does :)Auntie Kristin and Uncle Chris got Gavin his own guitar! It also has his name on it! He plays it all the time, I think we need to tune it up a bit! His favorite song to 'play' on it is; Chicken Fried! Who would have guessed, haha!Aunt Ashley and Uncle Matt got Gavin his first Basketball Hoop! This thing is a lot bigger then I though it was going to be! I goes pretty high too! Gavin and Daddy play Basketball everynight!My Mom and Dad got Gavin these snow blockes! They work so good and Daddy and Gavin have already used them a couple times!Gavin got this Leap Frog Scribble & Write from my mom and dad! I LOVE this thing, and so does Gavin! I would recommend this for ANYONE with a toddler who is learning how to write their alphabet, shapes, etc! Gavin has been using it for the past 4 days and I can already see a difference. He likes to tell us he is doing his homework when he uses it :)Those are just a few of the wonderful things Gavin got for Christmas! Most of the other stuff was clothes, games, and he got a ton of matchbox and hotwheels stuff! I think the majority of his Christmas was Matchbox/Hotwheels! What a spoiled little guy ;) He loves everything he got and thank you to everyone for his Christmas presents!

Our Christmases

How is it that Christmas, and the busiest time of the year, is over and I can't seem to find time to sit and even check my e-mail!? Oh yeah, we have a 3 year old that has gotten way too much from family, friends, and Santa this past christmas and we have been putting together toys, tracks, and everything in between for the past 4 days! We had a wonderful Christmas with both of our families! I am not going to put all of our Christmas Pictures on here because there are just way too many! But I will put a few from each of our Family Christmas's.

We had my families Chrsitmases on Thursday, Chrsitmas Eve. We opened presents as a family earlier in the afternoon. We all got way too much stuff. My mom doesn't seem to understand the concept of 'nothing'. We also had a visit from Santa Claus at my parents house! He came and handed out special presents to each of us! It was a wonderful surprise to Gavin and he enjoyed every minute of it! After presents we all headed over to my Matt & Ashley's home for an Open House Christmas Eve Party that they were having for both sides of our family! It was perfect for us because we got to see everyone we loved on Christmas and didn't have to travel from house to house!

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Christmas Morning Gavin slept in until 8:30am! I was shocked! When he woke up he went straight to the Christmas Tree. He took one look at it and then looked at Dave and myself and said, "Santa was here. He left some stuff for me." It was so nonchalant too! We then opened all of the Santa presents one by one! Dave videotaped and I took pictures. It was the perfect Christmas Morning. All of Gavin's reactions to every gift he opened were like this one below! It was precious!----------

Christmas Day we spent at Mom and Dad VV's. We all wore comfy clothes and relaxed all day! There was also a visit from Santa there :) Except it was papa who played santa! haha. This Santa Suit cracks me up!Kristin brought stuff for the kids to make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers! The kids had fun doing it and so did the adults! Here is Gavin's;

It was a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

It's here! Christmas is here!

I am praying that we don't get stranded anywhere! We have Winter Storm Warnings in effect here until Christmas Day! I really want to be home for Christmas Morning in our own home, so I'm really hoping the weather will allow us to do so, but if not... I will be prepared and I will be putting out Santa Gifts tonight before we leave. If we come home on Christmas morning Gavin will know that Santa still came to his house on Christmas Eve!

We are wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Here is our Christmas Card from this year;

Busy

Busy Busy Busy, that is what we have been! And...we will continue to be busy until Christmas is over! I love this time of year so much, but at the same time I am happy for Christmas to be over!

This past week we have been finishing up Christmas Shopping, Working late hours, making Christmas candy, making PW's Cinnamon Rolls, watching Christmas movies, wrapping presents, etc...you know the normal week before christmas ' stuff '.

I mentioned I made The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls! They are so so good! I made them on Wednesday afternoon! I also found the recipe for Cinnabon's Icing, and made that to go on top of them. David wasn't fond of the frosting/icing that the Pioneer Woman's called for so we decided on Cinnabons! YUM! I now have 5 pans of frozen cinnamon rolls for a later date!Yes, we ate two pans already!

Yesterday we had Christmas with David's side of the family in the Chicago area! It was very nice to see everyone and spend the whole day with them!

We finally have ALL of our Christmas shopping done! We will be heading to Neenah on Wednesday evening. Christmas Eve Day we will have my families Christmas and then Christmas Eve Night my Mom's side and Dad's side of the families will all be getting together and spending Christmas Eve at my Sister and Matt's house! Christmas Day we are spending at Mom and Dad VV's with Kristin, Chris and the kids (In pj's, right?)! It will be a very busy week, but we are looking forward to it very much!

Krissy's Wedding Weekend!

This past weekend was my Cousin's Wedding! It was such a beautiful and fun weekend all around! We had a great time visiting with family and friends! Here are pictures of our weekend and the wedding; Click on the pictures to enlarge them!

Cousins and Sisters! This was at the Rehersal Dinner on Friday.Before getting our hair done!Krissy, getting her makeup done! They airbrushed it on, it was so cool!All done with hair!! the FrontThe Back!Rev. Sue! Krissy's Mom (My godmother) and Grandma Judy!Going to the Chapel!The Bridesmaid Dresses!The Bride!Krissy and Joe got married in this quaint little Country Chapel, it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! It was small, only 80 people, and simply perfect!The wedding party!Going to the Reception!Matt, Ashley, Myself, and David!Their centerpieces were cakes for the tables and they had ornaments with their names on them for the favors!My Mom and Dad!Their first dance!David and Myself with the Bride and Groom!Dancing! I could not get David off the dance floor all night! He was having so much fun!Doing the cupid shuffle!My Dad and I!