Swimming with Aunt Britt and Kenna

Aunt Britt (my WONDERFUL sister) bugged us all summer last year to go swimming, but I was too chicken as a new mom and decided I had to follow that "no sunscreen on your kids until they are 6 months old rule". So that sort of held me back. Gav finally had his first trip to a "real" pool yesterday. Brittani's sister-in-law Ashly has a condo with a swimming pool and lets her go whenever. So big thanks to Ashly for the fun day too, even though she couldn't be there! We braved getting Gavin and Kenna all lathered up in sunscreen and hauled them and all of their necessary items to the pool. I wanted to take it really slow with Gavin so it wouldn't freak him out. I really want him to like swimming. He just played in the little shallow part pretty cautiously for awhile and watched the other kids. Then most of the other people were leaving and I made him get in a little more. He seemed a little afraid at first but I have a cool tube that he can sit in and I can hang on it on the other side and that made all the difference! He loved that, and was fascinated by the way his hands moved under the water. He also discovered splashing (though this is not a new thing because he's quite good at it, just ask my bathroom floor) and Britt got a great picture to capture this wonderful quality he has! We put Kenna in the tube and she jibber jabbered about who knows what the whole time and loved it too! Then I took the tube out with Kenna and Gavin snuggled right up to Aunt Britt and gave her loves. He loves her so much and I'm thankful for her as a sister and aunt. Thanks again Britt and Kenna, we love you!!!!

A little picture I like to call "The Esscence of a Splash" and no he is thrilled not crying!

Enjoying the "healthy" banana mommy brought for a snack.

REALLY enjoying the skittles Aunt Britt spoiled him with! Kenna was a much more dainty eater :)

One is enough for now...

I received an email from a friend today (no names will be mentioned at this time) telling me that she was pregnant. She's very excited and I'm excited for her. She does however have a young child already and I got to thinking, well, if she thinks she could handle it, maybe I could too. I don't want to say I was necessarily "jealous" of her being pregnant again, but somehow started to feel that maybe I should want to be again. Just as I am responding to her email, in walks Gavin carrying the toilet brush because I forgot to close the bathroom. Sad thing is, this is not the first time he's done that. I hurry and take that away, wash him in every place that may have touched the brush, sit back down to finish my email and he no sooner finds a knitting hook and starts trying to attack the dog with it. Somehow I finished the email, but felt very differently than I had a few minutes before! I can't even control the one I have! So, you know who you are that is having a baby, and I know you'll eventually read this. To you I say, congrats and may your son never bring you the toilet brush!

Happy Father's Day....again

Lately there is something seriously wrong with Blogger everytime I try and post something. I wrote up this big ol' Father's day thing yesterday and all it saved were 2 pictures and put them behind a previous post. Whatever! So here we go again, now that I have some time!

I just wanted to let Keith know how much we (me and Gavin) love him as a father. He is so wonderful to us. I couldn't ask for a better father to my child. I love how excited Gavin gets to see him. He gets so excited when he hears the front door open at the end of the day and runs right to the stairs to see his daddy. I love how much Keith misses him during the day and always calls to see how he is doing. I love his patience with Gavin, especially when mine is running low! We're so proud of the dad he is and will become. We're thankful for his desire to be a dad, and for the things that he teaches Gavin. We love you, Keith! Happy Father's Day!

It also wouldn't be right to not mention my dad in this post! I'm so thankful for him in my life. He has always worked so hard to provide for us. I love how he just tells it how it is. He's never afraid to let you know what he is thinking (even when he shouldn't!). I'm proud of him and everything he has accomplished and become. I know he loves being a grandpa and wants to be close to his grandkids, the way his dad was with his children. I'm grateful for his love for the gospel. Mostly, I'm just grateful that he is my dad.

Next in line, my step-father, Alan. Although I've only had the last 2 and a half years to get to know him, I can honestly say that I love him. He has so much love and respect for my mom, and I love how happy he makes her. I love that he just jumped right into being part of our family, even though I'm sure it was a daunting task to marry someone with almost 3 grown children. I teased him when I told him we were having a baby that he probably didn't expect to become a grandpa so soon (his kids are younger). I love his love for Gavin, and how he never leaves without his hugs. Thank you for being part of my family, Alan.

And now, I just tried to upload pictures for this post and it says there is an internal error and I can't do it right now!!!!!!!!!!!! I will have to come back and do so, STUPID BLOGGER!

3rd Annual Smith Family Reunion

3 years ago, Keith's family started this tradition of having a family reunion every summer with just his parents and siblings. It's not like we don't all live with a 10 mile radius of eachother, but for some reason, we just don't see everyone that much. There are 6 kids in his family and we are rotating through who plans it each year. Keith being the youngest, we're last, which you can look at as a good thing since we don't have to do it for awhile, but a bad thing because when it's our turn, there won't be anything left to do!

This year was his brother's turn, (which obviously means his wife's turn!). We went up to the Brighton Chalets up Big Cottonwood Canyon and stayed in the biggest one they had. Naturally since there were 30 of us! It seemed spacious enough until it snowed on us most of the time and we were all together all of the time!!!! Not complaining in particular about being with them, one can just imagine what it's like going from my little house of 3 of us, to 30 people, 16 of whom are children. We did find a little break in the snow to go outside for our "Itty Bitty Hunt" and a short walk.

I was worried about how Gavin would do going to bed and down for naps, but he did okay. Obviously he still does better at home in his own crib without other kids screaming around him, but I was proud of him. He loved being with all the kids and I think it helped him realize he doesn't have to be attached to me all the time. He just kept walking around doing his own thing and would come back and check in with me periodically. He's so funny!

The first night we had Hawaiian night and I don't have any pictures of us in our Hawaiian gear. The next was cowboy night, which I do have some pictures of the kids. I'm not a real clever person when it comes to dressing up, nor do I really like to do it. We also had a talent show the 2nd night (also not a big fan of this, but the kids were cute!) where people did everything from singing, elk calling, sharing beef jerky they made, magic tricks, instrument playing, poem reciting, story telling, to telling clever jokes. My sister in law had planned that we should make up a commercial as a family and be ready to share that in between things. This actually turned out pretty funny!

All in all, it was a great time and I am looking forward to next year (because it's still not our turn to plan!!!) We're lucky to have such a great, and BIG family. I don't think any of them even read this blog, but I love them all and think that they are a wonderful family to be married into. Thank you Smith Family!

Happy Father's Day!

Messed up

I posted about a family get together with my mom's family the other day and it placed it back a couple of posts and dated it for sometime in May....not sure what's going on there, but there are lots of pictures of my cute family on there if you're interested!

Green thumb...

This year I am determined to not be the white trash neighbors with the crappy yard. Keith and I really don't have any clue where to start on landscaping, but I thought the least we could do would be to keep our lawn green! He's worked so hard on fixing our sprinklers. The people who lived her before apparently made the sprinkling system out of something (I can't remember what) that is apparently ridiculous to use for a sprinkling system. Anyway, Keith's worked really hard this year to at least make sure the sprinklers reach all areas of the lawn. I'm amazed at how green our lawn can actually look! I planted some stuff in the front flower bed, but I'm not in love with it. I think I will add to it.

This is also the first year my flower pots haven't died in the first week! They aren't anything amazing, but I love all the bright colors. I think Keith gets tired of me saying, "Look how good my flower pots are doing!" everytime we pull up to the house! But he's a good sport, thankfully!


Continuing with more firsts for us this year, our garden looks the best it ever has! I don't think you can really tell from these pictures, but it actually looks like there was a method to our madness this time! We are going to have lots of beans and tomatoes, so looks like I will be busy canning!

Splish, Splash, gettin ready for summer!

For Gavin's birthday we got him a little pool that we can put out in the backyard. He loves taking a bath so we just figured he might love a little swimming pool. We decided to set it up Saturday and let the sun warm it. Gavin was fascinated by it even without the water.

I took him inside and undertook the lengthy process of dressing him in a swimming diaper, swimming suit and sunscreen (which he is not too fond of, by the way). Then back outside we went to catch some rays and splash around. Or so I thought! The water was still incredibly cold, and Gavin enjoyed standing by the pool splashing his hands in it,

but was less than thrilled to be completely submerged in the water! I'm sure this was only due to it being FREEZING, but I really wanted to see him having fun! We'll have to try again on a warmer day with warmer water and I think he'll really like it. He was quite please when daddy rescued him from the icy water!

Dirty Looks

Gavin has a bad habit lately of giving people some pretty rotten looks! Keith thinks that Gavin picked it up from him, but I don't know that this is something to be proud of! It's actually getting a lot better recently because he used to just glare at anyone who even looked at him. It gave me an urge to tell him that his face was going to freeze that way, but of course he wouldn't understand me if I told him that! Amazingly I haven't been able to capture a really nasty one on camera yet (because he would never give his mother a dirty look...yea right!), but I do have one that comes close.

Balloons

Gavin has recently found out about balloons. He can't seem to get enough of them. Everytime we are in a store that has them all I hear is "Ball, ball, ball!" over and over and over! It's cute, and now it's starting to sound more like, "Boon." His absolute favorite toy in the world is a ball and what is better than a ball that can float? He gets one and carries it around with him everywhere he goes. The pictures I have of him with these are obviously after the balloon is a couple days old since it's not really floating anymore, but he doesn't seem to mind!