CHRISTMAS AT THE OUR HOME

It is hard to believe that Christmas is tomorrow.  I feel like it came so quickly this year.  This is our favorite holiday and I love all of the festivities that come with it.  It has been so nice being home with Gavin baking, decorating, and doing fun things.

Here are a couple of our decorations:

He is hanging his new Cars ornament

New ornaments for 2010:

I can't even begin to imagine how many times we watched CARS this year.  This was definitely a big part of 2010!

Toy Story is a new favorite movie in our home.  He really loves Buzz and Woody!  

Sorry this picture is so blurry

Our new family ornament

Christmas Fun:

Made a reindeer with Gavin's footprint

Made snowmen out of marshmallows.  He would not let me help him color the face.  He even told me what he was drawing (eyes, nose . . . )

 We have been driving to a nearby street about every other night to look at all of the lights and decorations.  Gavin thinks he is our tour guide and he narrates what is in each yard.  He loves it!

We also decorated holiday cookies with Taylor, Megan (their babysitter), and Liam.  I will post pictures from that later.

Our Christmas Card

Hope everyone is ready for Christmas.  Happy Holidays:)

PICTURES WITH COUSINS

Last weekend, Gavin got to take pictures with both of his cousins.  Amy and I got together and tried to create a Christmas cookie party for Gavin and Taylor.  It was a lot of work to get it all set up, but they loved it!  The only reason they are both sitting at the same time and looking so happy is because they have a table full of sweets in front of them:)

We met with Kristin and Dylan and the boys got to run around and play.  They were acting silly the whole time and making each other laugh a lot.  It sure is difficult to get 2 two year olds to cooperate at the same time.  When one stands, the other one sits!

TIS THE SEASON

Getting ready for Christmas this year has been so much fun!  Gavin is so into all the lights on the houses and loves the Christmas tree.  I don't think he has any idea about the concept of presents, but he loves the tree.  He really wanted to help put the ornaments on the tree and now he likes to rearrange them often (especially Buzz and Woody).

We finished decorating one night after he went to bed and when he got up then next morning, we had all of the lights on and he was amazed.  He kept saying, "Oh my josh, look at the lights!"  It was like he had no idea where they all came from.  It was pretty cute.

Nate got this remote that controls 3 outlets in the house.  He linked one to the tree, one to the lights on the mantle, and the other one to the entry table lights.  Every time we get home, Gavin comes in and counts, "one, two, three, on!" and the lights go on, one at a time.  I thinks he believes the lights are magical and can hear him.  Oh, the simple things. . .

GINGERBREAD CHOO CHOO

Last weekend, my mom called and said she had gotten Gavin a gingerbread train and Taylor a gingerbread house to build.  We got them dressed in their Santa jammies and headed over.  He was pretty excited to have Santa on his jammies!  When we got there, they were a lot more interested in the M&Ms from Gramma, but once they were gone, they started to decorate. 

I was very surprised at how much Gavin was decorating his train.  He was really concentrating . . . 

A little bit of help from Gramma

And the finished product . . . 

He knows he cannot carry it around or touch it.  It's on the counter and he has been telling us everyday, "I made this choo choo!"  He is proud of his work.

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

We went to the Mission Inn to see the Festival of Lights tonight and it was just as chaotic and crazy as I remembered.  The parking was impossible and there were so many people, but we figured we only do it once a year, so why not??  Gavin was way more into the lights and Christmas trees and Santa this time, so it was more exciting than the past.  We weren't there for very long, but we did a lot of stuff...

Santa's Little Helper (He was really excited for this Santa shirt)

Started by watching the lighting ceremony and fireworks show

Met Santa's reindeer

Stopped to take some cousin pictures (I love this one)

They were holding hands and trying to walk through the crowd like they knew where they were going

Waited in line FOREVER to get some Casey's Cupcakes

choices...choices...

They were looking through the window on the outside, watching all of the people get their cupcakes

and stopped to say "Hello" to the Riverside fire fighters.  I couldn't believe he sat in the truck by himself.  He was so excited and didn't want to leave it.  So Cute!

We had a lot of fun tonight.  I am looking forward to going back during the week sometime soon so we can enjoy all of the festivities without such a big crowd!  I love the holiday season.

2 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS

He was beyond excited to eat this candy cane, but he couldn't figure it out.  It was really awkward for him and it turned into a big mess!