Wednesday, November 16, 2005

My latest adventure

Head over to my other blog where I posted some pictures from my latest hike.

10+ miles over the length of the Superstition Mountain Ridgeline.

FANTASTIC hike. Go forth and view.

Family pictures

We got our family pictures taken. We're still waiting for the whole family picture to arrive, but I thought I'd post the other pictures now.




Them's some good looking kids.

Smile!


This is Caleb's school picture.

And yes, he smiles like that when you tell him to smile.

We're working on it.

Climb on in!


Gavin has discovered that he can climb. He gets into/onto anything he can reach. His favorite things to climb into are the dryer and the dish washer. He would try the oven too if we weren't watching.

Strangely enough, it hasn't occured to him to climb out of his crib yet.

Thank goodness for small favors.

Haloween

We had a good Haloween holiday. For handing out candy I got 2 of my neighbors together and we brought my grill around, set up a TV to watch the football game (we tapped into my neighbors cable) and then grilled steaks and watched football while handing out candy. Every dad that came by was visibly impressed/jealous. It was great.

Anyway, here are the pics of the kids.

Caleb was very excited to carve pumpkins. He designed each pumpkin and tried to help in the actual carving. Naturally, I did most of the work.

The final product.

Caleb wanted to be Batman this year (he was Spiderman last year).

Gavin wore Caleb's Pinochio outfit (a gift from his Aunt and Uncle ) - he wasn't too fond of it though. We had about 5, maybe 10 minutes of him in it, and then he started to rip it off.

Overall though, everyone had a great time, and we're still working through the candy Caleb collected.

Cousin's, or twins?


Seriously, take a gander at the similarities in the profile between these two. They may be more than a year appart in age - but they could easily be twins.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Gavin: rat, or boy?


Seriously, what the heck is he trying to do?



Look at all that drool on the screen!

He's actually completely destroyed our screen door. He loves pounding on it and has run into it a few times - the screen has ripped off of the door frame. And the Beaver-boy act isn't new - he does that all the time.

Weird.

Monday, November 14, 2005

All I want for Christmas...


...is my four front teeth!

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Learning to tie....


Caleb has decided that he needs to be able to tie his own shoes. We're still practicing, but this picture is from the Sunday when he came to me and asked me, totally out of the blue, to help him learn to tie his shoes.

Gavin walks....destruction is upon us!


At just past 9 months Gavin decided that he would start walking. By the end of that week he was waling like a champ.

Marci's kind of ticked. She didn't want him walking so soon. And with good reason...he's totally destroyed our house in a very systematic and efficient manner.

1st day of Kindergarden

Well, we finally sent Caleb off to the "Big Boy School" as Caleb refers it. His first day at 1/2 day K. We saw a couple of parents who were crying - however, we were more of the opinion that this was the greatest thing ever.

Caleb got a new Batman backpack just for the occasion.

He insisted on walking even though it was like 110 outside.

After it was over, we couldn't wait to tell mommy how cool it was.

He's still excited every day to go to school. He loves it. He'll learn soon enough...

4th of July

Okay...so...fine, this is a little behind. Oh, well. This will help provide a little context for how quickly Gavin is growing up.

Anyway, we went on Saturday night to watch a fireworks display at a mortuary near our house (yes, a mortuary - don't ask, we don't know - but it's a good party anyway). Here are some shots from that night.

The mortuary sponsors a pretty good party, and they come around just after the sun sets to hand out popsicles to everyone there. This was Gavin's first "cold treat" experience, and needless to say, he was pleased.

Gavin actually had a ball - just watching people and having everyone entertain him.

Just wait till you see the pictures in the next post - you won't believe it.

Gavin really enjoyed the show - he was smiling and having a great time.

Caleb, being the pyro that all young boys are, of course had a marvelous time.

And it was quite the show.



I wish I had brought a tripod for this shot - I couldn't see where I was aiming, but it turned out okay.

So, that was our 4th of July celebration this year. Good times.

Friday, June 24, 2005

A plethora of photos...

Just a few cute photos taken recently - in no particular order:

Gavin eatin on the LoveSac - the only place where he'll stay still long enough to get a few decent sips out of his bottle.

Gavin's first time swimming - he enjoyed it as long as he wasn't getting splashed. In fact he enjoyed it so much....

...that he fell asleep in his float.

Dude will be walking before you know it.

Caleb certainly loves his little brother...

...they play together quite a bit, but Caleb wants Gavin to be big NOW, so that they can wrestle and stuff.

Maybe if Caleb learned to smile....

Grandpa and the boys



Just a little picture from the last time grandpa was in town.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Kentucky Derby

Marci and I have a semi tradition of watching the Kentucky Derby every year. We could care less about horse racing in general, but, it's true what they say, the Kentucky Derby is the most exciting 2 minutes in sports.

This year we had a party and invited some friends over. Since the Derby is all about big, ugly hats for the ladies, the rule was that the women had to wear hats of some sort.

Here were the results:

Gavin got into the act as well:


It was a really fun day. Homemade hamburgers, good conversations and the kids even had their own horse race with stick ponies after the real race was over.

Rock climbing Caleb


We had a stake activity called "Family Fun Day" - basically a small fair type thing at our stake president's farm. They had a small climbing wall there that Caleb REALLY wanted to climb. He did okay - this picture is essentially as high as he got before getting scared.

Marci did it too and got all the way to the top.

Bathing the boy


Gavin really likes having a bath. It's great fun (apparently) to splash around and (again, apparently) chew on the washcloth.

He's just stinkin' cute is all I have to say.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Gavin is fully mobile now.

Indeed, as this sequence of pictures shows, he's not only mobile, but he's bound and determined to get whatever it is he thinks he can reach. He's a very determined young man.







Not quite the "eye-of-the-tiger" yet - but you can definitely see that he has desire in those eyes.

Heaven help us all.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Gavin eats...or tries to anyway...

We took the plunge. Gavin was getting too big to survive on mommy and formula alone, so it was time to give him the messy stuff.

Caleb, after an early, messy stage, has turned into a nearly obsessive compulsive clean eater. I'm not sure what to hope for with Gavin. On the one hand, clean is good, on the other, Caleb freaks out when it's not clean, so...whatever.

Anyway, here is the record of Gavin's first bites.


Like any good child we REALLY want to get our hands on whatever is being waved in front of us.

So, let's solve the problem...


We have a spoon in our hands now - so it's all good.



The biggest problem is that it just won't stay in there. Of course, the fact that he sticks his tongue out isn't helping any, but still...



The trick is to open your mouth. Caleb really enjoys helping feed baby brother - it's oh, so much fun. He really wants to be the one to wield the spoon, but that just ain't gonna happen.



It's all just a little overwhelming the first time - isn't it?

This was a week ago or so and he's doing much better. He is actually opening his mouth now and eating well. His weight has reached a plateau and he's down from his heaviest of just over 20 lbs. to just over 19 lbs. Still a healthy boy by any definition, but not quite as chunky as he has been.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Spring hike with the boys

On Saturday we went on a little hike. That morning I took a friend of mine up to the top of Superstition Mountain (for trip reports on those hikes, look here and here). Anyway, the mountain was just so loveley clothed in her spring flowers, that I had to take Marci and the boys to see it.

It was well worth the double trip.

This was Gavin's first experience with the backpack - but he really didn't seem to mind.


In fact, he really dug sitting back there and having me be his beast of burden (a great deal if you can get it, as long as you get to be the "burden" part).

It was late afternoon, so the sun was out, but the temperature was a perfect 75 degrees. The mountain was, of course, spectacular.


We brought along some friends so Caleb would have someone to hike with his own age, but he had a lot of fun anyway. I just wish, when he posed for the camera, that he would learn how to smile.


The base of the mountain was simply awash in little gold flowers (from the brittle bush in bloom).


Which also provided some majestic views.


With the gorgeous weather, the absolutely crystal clear sky (just look at the blue in some of those photos) it was the perfect day.

We ended up going a total distance of just over 1.5 miles, and even after that, Gavin was still just as fascinated as ever with all the color and the fun of riding in the backpack.


We'll go on another hike in the mountains as things warm up in the desert (82 degrees today - yuck). But Saturday was a great day, and we all had a lot of fun.