Our Little Boy is 2!

Gavin turned 2 years old on the 21st. It’s hard to believe we have had him for that long! The other night Brent and I were talking about how it doesn’t seem like it’s already been 2 years ago that we were bringing him home from the hospital on Thansgiving day. Time has gone by really fast.

On his birthday we went out to Tremonton and had a party with my family. He had so much fun playing with his cousins and opening presents! Then on Sunday we celebrated all of the November birthdays with the Hirschi Family. Brent's grandma Rhea is turning 94 this month! Happy Birthday Grandma Rhea! We love you!

A few fun things about Gavin:

* Right now his favorite food is hot dogs. Whenever I ask him what he wants to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner his answer is always “Hot Dogs”.
* He is doing really well with the potty training. I am trying not to force the issue and we are taking it slow, but he is doing great! I need to work on my patience a little bit though (he likes to sit on the potty for a LONG time!).
* He is attached to this blanket that my Aunt Tammy made that has airplanes all over it and has fuzzy edges. He calls it his “Ma Mine” (How he says airplane).
* He says Choo Choo Train so cute. It sounds like “Doo Doo Mine”. (Check out the video)
* Some of his favorite things to do: read books, play with Play Doh, jump onto the bean bag or a pile of pillows, play with his cousins, run around the house being a goof ball, help me clean.
* He is such a smart kid! I am amazed everyday at all of the things he can do and remember. He knows his colors and most of the alphabet. He can also count to ten. He is learning so many new words each day and he loves to repeat what everyone else says! We have to be careful what we say around him! :) Lately he has been saying two words together, like: "Fruit Snack", "Cheese Toast", "Yellow Duck", etc.

He is such a sweet & fun little boy and we are so blessed that he is a part of our family. Happy Birthday Gavin! We love you!

November Happenings...

I am trying to get caught up from past pictures so here are a few things that have happened recently. First was the birth of Kaytilane Marhea Isom. Welcome to the world little one! She is adorable! Brent's sister Sandy & her husband Pete are the proud parents. Congratulations guys! This is #5 for their family. Way to go! She is named after her mom, her aunt, her grandma & her great grandma! Sandy's middle name is "Kay" and Pete's sister's name is "Laney" so that's where Kaytilane came from. Her middle name, Mahrea, is after her grandma Marcile and her great grandma Rhea. Very creative family we have! Here are some pictures from when we went to see her in the hospital...

I feel a little weird posting about my own birthday, but I had some quality pictures of my family I wanted to put up, so here ya go! I turned 27 on the 9th. I'm on the downhill slide towards 30. Dang! My family had a fun get together at my mom's house where we enjoyed great company, dinner, cake & ice-cream! Thanks to everyone that came and made my birthday so fabulous! I have the funnest most coolest family ever! Oh yeah, the gorgeous Gerber Daisies are from my cute husband! :)

2008 Family Pictures

We went to a beautiful spot by the Logan River Golf Course to take our family pictures this year. The leaves were so pretty. Wendy and I go walking on a trail there and we've often said, "This would be a good place to take pictures." So we finally did!

A few favorites...

And after taking almost all of our family pictures we finally figured out how to get Gavin to smile...
He would throw a rock in the river and then everybody would clap and so he'd clap and smile and laugh. Too bad we didn't figure that out sooner!

Brent & Randi...a.k.a. Peg & Delmar, the Trailer Trash Couple

Oh yeah, here is one more picture from Halloween!
Enjoy!

P.S. Thanks Joell!

Halloween Fun!

I finally got all of the pictures together from Halloween, so now I can post about it! Yipee! Gavin was a Hershey's Kiss this year. He didn't enjoy his costume as much as I had hoped, but he was a good sport. He kept the hat on for us to take some pictures so that's all that matters! We started out the day in Tremonton where we spent time with my family. Then we headed over to Cache Valley where we ate dinner with Brian & Jaimee and their family. Jaimee makes chili in a pumpkin every year and it was delicious! Then we went trick-or-treating and ended at Grandma and Grandpa Hirschi's house to visit. It was a fun day with family and friends!

Politics, Politics...

Here is my random thought of the day. Tonight we were at dinner with the Hirschi family. We got on the subject of politics, which we often do lately (for obvious reasons), and I get so tense when that happens! I don't like conflict. I'm the peacemaker. I like it when everyone is getting along. I know that doesn't always happen though, so I can appreciate the times when we are "discussing" things as learning experiences.

I know that it comes down to one person's opinion against another person's opinion. I just have to say that I am sure glad Tuesday is voting day because this presidential election is sure getting old! I am pretty tired of slander e-mails about Obama & McCain. Whenever I read a bad e-mail about Obama I wonder, “is this just a lie from someone in the McCain camp?” and vice versa. I guess I should research each one to find out but who has time for that? And let’s be honest, I’m not as dedicated to this as my husband is!

I just have to say that Brent does so much reading and research about the government and the candidates that I sort of giggle inside when anybody tries to debate with him. I think that if you do as much research as he does then you are worthy to fight with him about it! The other day Brent said that he is just going to go back to being ignorant about politics because it takes up too much of his time! I am so proud of him though for being informed about what is going on in our country and the world. I wish I had the patience to do the same. But wait, if my husband is doing all of the work that means I don’t need to, right?! Ha ha!

This reminds me…a while ago I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Too bad ignorance isn’t painful.” I got a good laugh. Okay, that’s my spill for the day. And please, comment! I’d love to hear what you have to say on this subject!

The Dominican Republic

After the Disney Cruise we flew to the Dominican Republic for a week. My brother-in-law, Brian, served his mission there and so he planned this part of the trip for us. It was a really beautiful place and neat to see.

A few of the places that we got to see were: The Columbus Memorial Lighthouse, The Dominican Republic Temple, and The Colonial Zone (all located in Santo Domingo). We stayed in Boca Chica & Barahona at all inclusive resorts. We got to snorkel for a while in Barahona and that was fun!

I decided that the next time I go to a Spanish speaking country I want to learn to speak Spanish first! Brian is the only one who spoke Spanish in our group and sometimes that was hard because he was the only one who could communicate with the people there. And with 12 people in our group it would have been nice to have more people know Spanish!

The big story about this part of our trip is what happened the day before we came home. We stopped to eat lunch at a turn-off where there was some shade. It seemed like a great place to have lunch and it had a beautiful view of the ocean. We all enjoyed our food and afterward Brent, his brother Brian, their dad Loran and three of the kids started walking up the road a little bit to check out the view. In-between the main road and the turn-off road there were some trees and bushes and apparently that’s where two robbers had been hiding. One of them had a gun and they both had their faces and heads covered up with shirts. I looked up the road to see them come out after those guys and I couldn’t tell what was going on at first. I heard Brent saying, “That’s it! That’s all I have!” while holding his wallet. Then all of a sudden I see a gun to Brian’s head and I freaked out! I said, “We’re being ROBBED! Everybody get the kids, get in the van and lock the doors!” We were all in COMPLETE SHOCK and we didn’t know what to do. They ended up taking money, Brent’s Treo 680 cell phone, my in-laws digital camera, Brian & Jaimee’s digital camera (which had ALL of their pictures on it from the entire trip – even the cruise).
After the robbers ran off, the next people to drive by on the main road were two Dominican guys on a motorcycle. Brian stopped them and told them what had happened and to go get the police. Some other Dominican people stopped to help us look for the robbers, but they got away and we didn’t see them again. We drove into the next town and filed a report with the police. It was a horrible experience but I am glad to say that nobody got hurt and we are all home safe! Even though they got away with our stuff I am glad that everyone is okay. I have never been so happy to return to the good old USA! We are so blessed to live where we do. I know that sort of thing can happen anywhere, but being so far away from home where not many people speak English made it seem so much worse! Overall we had a good time in the D.R. and I am glad that we went, but I will be okay if we never go back again!

Highlights of Our Trip...

I know, I know, I am REALLY slow at posting about our trip! I posted a lot of the pictures on Facebook and to be honest that took WAY too long and I got burned out! I guess I should've started with the blog.
So the trip began with our flight to Orlando and a fun day at Sea World! We loved going to all of the neat shows they have there. My favorite was the dolphin show, but the "Believe" show with Shamu was really exciting too.

The next part of our trip was the Disney Cruise! Brent and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon and it was good, but this cruise was awesome! I would highly recommend a Disney cruise! I had heard it was the best of the best and I would have to agree. Brent and I decided that cruising is the way to go! Why travel any other way? You pay before you go and everything is included: food, lodging, etc. Then you don't have to pay for transportation anywhere, the cruise ship takes you there! Here are a bunch of pictures from our fun times on the cruise ship!
The ports of call we stopped at were Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel Mexico, and Castaway Cay. In Key West we walked all the way down Duval St to the southernmost part of the US. Then we went to a butterfly conservatory that was really neat and all of the kids enjoyed it.
In Grand Cayman we took a bus tour around the island that took us to a turtle farm and a little place called "Hell". So now we can say we've been to Hell and back! In Cozumel we did a little shopping, got a massage, then decided to take another bus tour. The bus took us to the Mayan ruins and we all stood on the fertility altar. Our tour guide told us if we come back in two years with a baby not to blame her! After that we were off to a beautiful beach area where we ate lunch and swam in the ocean for a while.
Our last stop on the cruise was Castaway Cay which is the island that Disney owns. That was the favorite! We all loved it! We did some snorkeling, played on the beautiful white sandy beach, soaked up some rays and ate a delicious lunch. I think we were all a little sad when we had to board the ship because we liked it there so much! But the cruise ship was awesome so it wasn't all that bad!

We had two days at sea which were really nice to just relax, watch a few movies, swim with the kids, etc. They had so many fun things for the kids and a lot of chances to take pictures with the Disney characters. Gavin really loved Mickey! He was so happy when he got to see him. The last part of our trip was to the Dominican Republic. That post is for another day! Sorry folks, it's late!