12 Months

I so enjoy doing these month overviews that I don't want it to end at 12 months! I may have to keep the countdown going until he's 2!

Gavin looks like it's totally normal that his Dad just stuffed him in a vase.

"Umm, guys, how am I supposed to get out of here?"

He learned to ride on my shoulders this month!

We keep him away from Dakota's dog food ALL THE TIME...until a couple of weeks ago. We just let him get into it to see what would happen. He went crazy, throwing it around the bowl everywhere. And Dakota is such a neat dog that she kept eating the food around the bowl that he kept throwing out to pick up. And oh yes, he tasted some--and spit it back out.
I don't know what this boy would do without his dog.

Hangin' out with Libby and Lucy--of course looking at Dakota through the front door.

This boy LOVES to help me do the laundry. He loves to climb in the laundry basket and take all the clothes out and hide in it. He also loves messing up all my piles when I'm folding! And putting all the clothes on his head. He's so funny.

It has been really fun for me to see Gavin figure things out. He now knows how to look under things to look for toys that rolled under. Under the fridge, couch, table, you name it.

Gavin isn't walking yet, but he is oh so close! He is constantly standing without holding on to anything, but if you try to get him to walk to you, forget it. He's got the crawling thing down pat and he's stickin' to it. He walked like a pro behind this toy at Lucy's party:


12 month stats from the doctor:
Weight: 23 lb 8 oz (75%)--I can't believe it is not more! I think maybe he's lengthening out.
Height: 28 in. (50%)
Head: of course still off the charts!

Birthday Boy

I'll first state the obvious that I can't believe my little boy is ONE!!! Everyone always told me time would fly by--well, they were right!

We started off Gavin's birthday weekend with a trip to Chattanooga to have a family party at Ryan's parents' house on Saturday.
We can't wait for Spring to get here to play outside!
He got some great musical toys for our little music maestro.
Check out these guns, ladies.
This boy loves his food.

I haven't let Gavin have any sugary things until now. The sweetest thing he has had (that I know of!) is a graham cracker. So, needless to say...
He LOVED his cake.


For Gavin's friends birthday party in Knoxville, we did The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme (based on Eric Carle's book).

These were the invitations that I made:

Aunt Amanda made the cake. Doesn't it look amazing??

We had balloons in the shape of caterpillars:
In the background, I had an Eric Carle DVD playing, but I think everybody was having too much fun to watch! If you've never read the book, here's The Very Hungry Caterpillar part of the video. It's so cute!


We had a caterpillar time line of Gavin's pictures from birth through 12 months (you can blow the picture up to see the picture more closely hopefully):
I chose this theme because in the book, the caterpillar eats and eats and eats and eats and gets fat...just like the Gavster!! (Check out the 7th picture in the time line if you forgot how fat this boy got!) So all the food at the party was from the book:
Please remember that I'm a kindergarten teacher at heart and I haven't been able to teach for a whole year now--so it kind of exploded into his party! So I made place cards to go along with each food item--one for each page of the book:
I have to teach for a second...the book is actually wrong and butterflies come out of a chrysalis, not a cocoon, but I decided to write it just like the book. :)

Gavin got so many great new toys for us to play with. Thanks everybody!
He is one blessed little boy!

And onto the cake...
Aunt Amanda let him eat the entire head of the caterpillar. And I'm so glad it was red icing! Gavin definitely continued with his messy eating habits. This is the one day where you want them to be messy, and he certainly did not disappoint!

No amount of paper towels could contain this mess. Bath time!
He looks so proud of himself!
It turned the water pink!

Here's a video for my family that didn't get to be there to see Gavin tearing into the cake.
This is a long video so just watch what you want!


Happy Birthday, Gavin! We love you so much!

Snowshoe

5 couples got to go to Snowshoe, West Virginia last weekend--without our kiddos! Thanks for planning the trip, Lon!

Honday Odyssey + snow + steep hill=stuck in the snow bank
We had to get towed and have Matt pick us up in his 4 Runner. The van stayed parked at the bottom of the hill the rest of the weekend!

Skiing was fantastic and soooo cold. We were covered from head to toe.

We got to ski in snow almost every day! Fresh powder is perfect for skiing!
(this is Claire on the left and me on the right)

Waiting in the long lines at the lift

Sharon, Claire, and me
Can you tell we're a little cold?


Matt and Shannon

This is the tip top of Silvercreek and they just closed the lift for night skiing. We waited for everybody to go down so we would have that slope to ourselves!
Here's the crew:
Kyle (Lon's brother) and his wife Brooke, Sharon & Lon, me & Ryan, and Shannon
Matt, Mike & Claire were sitting this run out.

What a fun way to spend Valentine's Day!


For our Valentine's Day dinner, Shannon thought of everything! She brought chargers, tablecloths, and candlesticks! Here's Ryan the waiter:
The girls playing Speed Scrabble

As we were leaving Sunday, Kyle found the biggest icicle I've ever seen!

And remember how the van was parked at the bottom of the hill because it couldn't make it up? We had to cram 10 people in 2 cars with luggage to leave:

This is the blizzard that we drove home in:
It was a little frightening to say the least! Here's a video to show the snow we drove through: