Gavin is 11 Months

Gavin turned 11 months old on Tuesday! We can't believe he is about to turn one! Brooks and I have been very busy planning Gavin's first birthday party... Gavin, has been very busy...

Trying to walk: Learning how to give kisses: Helping put away dishes (or in this case, taking them out of the cabinets):
and, has learned how to flush toilets (it's his new FAVORITE thing):
Gavin got to go to the doctors office twice this week. Once, for a double ear infection and the other time was due to an allergic reaction he had to the antibiotic for his ear infection. Gavin broke out in a rash that covered his body within hours. Thankfully, the rash was not itchy. Other than his ear infection, he has been doing awesome! He weighs 22 1/2 lbs and is 30 in long.

Gavin is eating more and more "normal" food these days and I think he prefers that to his baby food- that or he would much rather feed himself then have us feed him. He likes to walk around as long as we are holding his hands, but he sits down the moment we let go. He will stand for longer periods of time while we're not holding on to him. I think he is surprised that he can stand by himself. His facial expressions have become very entertaining and he makes certain sounds with each expression. He has learned how to sign "out" (when he wants out of his high chair) and is working on signing"more" (when he wants more food). He understands the sign "eat" and "all done" but hasn't started signing them himself. My mom got him a bouncy ball and some toys for the refrigerator, which have become his FAVORITES! The magnetic toys that stick to the fridge have been a life saver especially for all the time I've been spending in the kitchen baking cakes. There are a few cabinets we chose not to baby proof and Gavin LOVES, LOVES, LOVES getting into them. He pulls out anything that he can hold with one hand and then throws it, of course. Throwing has become his new hobby-- he throws his toys, spoons, bottles, diapers, pacifiers, food, cheerios, puffs, sippy cups, books, clothes, etc. If it gets in his hands... look out, because it will be flying through the air.

We are loving this stage of his life-- he is active, shows his personality, has an opinion, is fun, and even loving!

Moody Gardens

This weekend we had our good friends, Bill and Malia, come visit us from Arkansas. We spent Saturday afternoon at Moody Gardens in Galveston. We went and saw a Dinosaur Exhibit and went to The Aquarium. Gavin LOVED all the animals and was soooo amazed with watching them move around. I think he especially liked the peguins-- they kept swimming up to the glass window where Gavin was pounding on it because he wanted to touch them. It was a VERY fun afternoon.

Graduation

I graduated from my Wilton's Cake Class for Course #1. I received a certificate and everything! I thoroughly enjoyed taking this class and learned A LOT! Here are some cakes I've made in the last week... Yes, I said week! The instructor says the only way you can get better is to practice! I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY love making/decorating cakes now. I'm working really hard on getting my icing smooth and making sure I use the same pressure for each design. My next task: practicing Gavin's birthday cake. It may be a little challenging so I've decided to make one a week to make sure I can do it.

Here is a cookie cake I made from a recipe I found on a friend's blog. It's called Copy Cat Cookie Cake. My suggestion is: don't change a thing from the recipe. I did, and it did not turn out the way it was suppose to. So, I just covered up the cookie part with my new decorating skills.

We had some camp friends come over this weekend and I baked them a cake. It was delicious. It was also the first cake of mine that I actually tried and ate a piece of.

I then made a cake for our small group from church. Like I said, practice is key, so I needed an excuse to try out different borders and colors.

Here is my graduation cake. We had to master the Wilton Rose by making a bouquet of them! I went with pink and purple since they are my favorite colors!! Brooks did not believe me that I made those flowers. We learned how to make sweet peas (the pink design on the border) as well as leaves, bows, and ribbons. I must say I was quite proud and excited the way it all turned out!

Stay tuned.... Gavin and I are about to leave for a play group.. When we come back, my next post will be all about him with photos and new developments!

Scuba Diving

Here are some pictures of us scuba diving underwater. Our friends, Micah and Stephanie, have an underwater camera so we were able to get pics for ourselves.

This is me, yes, doing a toe touch. I couldn't resist. I also did multiple front and back flips. It was too easy and made the dive fun when we weren't seeing much marine life. Also, Brooks was diving underneath me at the time, which those are his bubbles coming up.

One of our favorite dives was where we got to swim with sharks. Don't worry, they weren't dangerous sharks. They just wanted to eat! Our dive masters brought chum in that plastic container and hung it from a rope while we all swam around them and watched. Eventually, our dive masters started catching some of the sharks and we got to hold and pet them. Their skin is really rough (almost like sand paper). It was so neat to feel them swim by us, lurking back and forth.

Brooks at the bottom of the Ocean, in between the coral. It was very important that we not touch the coral so we wouldn't risk killing it. I'm thinking Brooks was concentrating, making sure he didn't accidentally hit any of it.

This is Brooks and I at The Blue Hole. We dove 130ft down, the farthest depth we're certified to go to. It was VERY, VERY dark down there and not a lot to see except the walls of the cave that use to be there. This was Brooks' FAVORITE dive of all, and it was my scariest dive. I was glad we were only down there for 8 minutes. On our way up, we saw several bull sharks and one other kind of BIG shark. They were swimming over us, which was really neat, but also, made me feel like we were in a Jaws movie. We're so glad we did this dive to say that we've dived at The Blue Hole.
The four of us posing for a picture underwater. It only took 3 tries to get a shot without any of us breathing and having our bubbles coming out.

We had an AWESOME time scuba diving and loved it! We can't wait to go again. It was by far one of the neatest experience ever.

UnBelizable

Here are some pictures from our trip to Belize. I'll put another post with underwater pics of us scuba diving. We had a blast in Belize and enjoyed the vacation. We went with our really good friends, The Sperling's.
This is Brooks and I at one of our favorite restaurants, The Lazy Croc. It was a neat, outdoors restaurant, that looked like something from the movie Water Boy. The owners were from Florida and since we were the only people there that night (everyone else knew a massive storm was coming, which we got caught in and had to run 3-4 miles to the nearest hut (on the water by the way)). It made for a VERY memorable night.

This was right before our last dive on day 4. Yes, Steph and I wore matching tops. We saw sting rays and sea turtles on this dive. They were amazing.

This is the golf cart we rented to tour the island.

Brooks and I on a speed bump in the road. It was a giant rope.

The New Cake Boss!

Have I told you that I started taking a cake decorating class? Well, I did, 3 weeks ago, at Hobby Lobby. I signed up for a Wilton Decorating Class so I could attempt to make Gavin's 1st Birthday Cake. Plus, I figured, once we moved, it might be a good idea for me to have a few extra hobbies to keep myself busy and entertained with.

One of my FAVORITE memories growing up was watching my mom make, bake, and decorate some AWESOME, AMAZING cakes. The best part of her making those cakes would be when she would level her cake and then mix some of the excess cake with her homemade Butter Cream Icing and we would be allowed to snack on it! Yummy- it was delicious. Of course, I learned how to make the famous Butter cream Icing and it brings back MANY memories from when I was a kid!
***Side Note: A few weeks ago Brooks was helping me make some of that icing, which I doubled the recipe. Well, let's just say my $30.00 mixer did not appreciate all the Crisco and powdered sugar, so it took us multiple rounds just to make 3 cups of icing. So, for yesterdays icing making I borrowed a state of the art Kitchen Aid mixer from a friend and it took us 10 minutes to make 6 cups-- we were in shock! It was one of the those things I explained to Brooks that when you pay a "little" more the quality is much better! He agreed too!

Last night we had Lesson #3 from the Wilton Cake Decorating Class for Course #1 and I learned how to make various shapes- the shells (which the instructor was very complimentary of how well mine turned out (check out the bottom rim of the cake)). I also learned how to make star flowers (these are the green icing on top of the cake- but please note, half way through I realized one of my stems was not coming out & part of my icing tip was blocked with paper). We were taught how to make swirl flowers (not shown on the cake) as well as large dots (the pink dots on the top layer of the cake). We practiced making clowns, which I made on my practice board, but didn't have a clown head topper, so I chose to complete a Wilton Rose (I made 3 of them on top of the cake.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed last nights cake class and was so proud to come home with a decorated cake. My classmates really liked my color choices and wanted to know how I made my pink icing (my secret: it was red coloring, I just stopped coloring before the icing turned red).

Voila! The Cake Boss has nothing on me!
Brooks and I are so proud of this cake, we haven't even taken a bite out of it. We don't want to ruin it! I'm sure by the end of the day that will change.

PS: Gavin is playing on the floor beside me and just found his shadow. It is waving to it and patting it. Every time he moves, his shadow moves, and he follows it. It's the cutes thing!

Yummy in my Tummy!

I made spaghetti for dinner the other night and gave Gavin a few bites of mine and he really liked it. So, today, for his lunch, I made him a small bowl of spaghetti to eat instead of a jar of baby meat. I decided that I didn't care if he got dirty or made a big mess (we didn't have anywhere to be or anything to do) so I took off his clothes and put a bib on him and gave him the bowl of spaghetti! He loved it!

After that, I figured since he was already a mess and was going to need a bath, I took him outside and gave him a Popsicle. He loves these and has learned that if he bites down on it, he gets a bigger piece. (Don't worry, they are sugar free).

I don't think Gavin would object to Mommy having more carefree days more often!

Belize

We are still in Belize right now, it's Friday morning, and we are getting things ready to leave: packing, returning our rented golf cart, taking last minute pictures, and grabbing a quick bite to eat at one of our favorite local stores.

We have had an amazing time this week. Our vacation was packed with lots of activities. We came to Belize last week with some friends of ours, Micah and Stephanie, who convinced Brooks and I to get certified to scuba dive so we could accompany them on some dives. So, we did, and we dove 5 days on this trip. There were some awesome sights to see underwater and we had the chance to swim with or see sharks, seaturtles, stingrays, lobsters (the size of my head), and much, much more. Here is a picture of Brooks and I underwater on the last day- he wanted me to take my regulator out to smile but I was too scared. I must say as nervous as I was to scuba dive, I was very sad to take our last dive, thinking it would be a while before we could do this again. There is something so peaceful when you're underwater, looking at God's creations!

I have to run now, the laptops battery is dying and I need to go pack. Once we get home and settled I'll put more pictures up of our trip.

oops..

I just learned the hard way that it isn't a good idea to make my coffee and Gavin's bottle at the same time. I just poured creamer into his bottle and formula into my coffee cup. Then, I stirred his bottle with my spoon, and used his air fuser pump thing that goes in his bottle to stir my coffee. To add to that, once I realized I had done all of this, I started over with both his bottle and my coffee, only to pour splenda in his bottle. Wow-- this should be an interesting day.

Gavin and I are going to a birthday party today where he gets to play water games and then I'm off to cake decorating class! I had my first class Monday night and learned how to make homemade icing as well as different consistency's of the icing. I also have to bring a cake already made and iced to class today, with multiple cups of icing-- Brooks and I had a blast in the kitchen last night. I'm excited because my lesson today is a private lesson (it's a makeup class since I'm going to be in Belize next Monday) and we have to bring in a character shaped cake, which the whole reason I'm taking this class is so that I can make Gavin's 1st Birthday Cake.... and my idea for his cake just so happens to be from a character pan of a monkey. I figured the only way to learn is to practice!!!

King of the World

Last weekend we drove to Arkansas to visit Brooks family. It was a blast. We did a ton of stuff in a matter of just a few days. Let me start by sharing our traveling experiences. The last time we drove to Arkansas with Gavin, he was only 3 months old and still in the sleeping all the time phase so he wasn't bothered by riding in a car seat for 8 hours. However, now that he is 10 months and very active, Brooks and I were very curious to see how he would manage with having to be strapped into a car seat for so long. Gavin did great!! He is always so aware and inquistive about things as is, so it was no surprise that he only slept for 20 minutes because he was very busy looking out the window and watching things pass by-- not to mention our dog Maggie was in the back seat with him and he loves watching her. We stopped a few times for gas and potty breaks (changing his diaper, etc) and sadly to say... everyplace we went to gas station, grocery store, and even fast food place did NOT have a changing station in their bathrooms. how GROSS!! I had to change Gavin on the floor of the bathrooms b/c our car was so jam packed, there was no place to lay him down (even on the floor of the car). I was mortified and felt like the worse mom ever. But, that was our only hiccups on the way there. On our way home, believe it or not, we stopped at 3 different places and those 3 places did not have changing stations either-- this time though, I made sure to leave room to change him in the car. We stopped at Burger King to grab a quick bite to eat and Brooks found one of their crowns and put it on Gavin's head-- he wore it the entire time! He just thought that was the best thing ever-- that or he didn't realize it was on his head. Either way, it made for some very cute photos!!! I have to run-- the air conditioning guys are here... our air conditioner is messing up, AGAIN. I'll write later and post more pics of our trip soon. I tried downloading a video all night and it keeps telling me there is an error!
Oh yea, we stopped for dinner at a Chili's in Texarkana, TX and left Maggie in the car while we ate. Did you know it is a felony to leave an animal in a vehicle that is turned off, with no windows rolled down (yea, we didn't think about doing that for her). We came out of the restaurant and were welcomed by a police officer who received a phone call about animal abuse. He mentioned that he could arrest us because we committed a felony, but decided against it since we had our child with us and were traveling (we simply stated we weren't from around there and were unaware of this law). It was very interesting!

Yes, I'm Here!

Hi everyone! Once again, may I write, long time no post?!?! It has been a while since I've had a chance to sit down at the computer and write and even right now, I don't have much time. I visited a friend of mines blog yesterday morning and noticed that it said my last update was more than 2 weeks ago so I wanted to change my "status".

I have a list of topics to blog about with pictures and (cross your fingers) videos to go along with the post-- I just haven't found the time to download everything. But, I'm here to say, it is on my list of things to do, when I find the time to do it!

Hope all is well! We have been blessed beyond words the past few weeks and hope you have been too!

Happy 4th of July!!