Whirlwind of a Week

Happy Thanksgiving and a few days everyone!  Hope you and your family were blessed and took some time to think about the people and things that you are Thankful for.  Brooks and I are thankful for so many things in our lives that we praised GOD all week for blessing us abundantly. 

Since my last post, Brooks, Gavin, and I drove to Arkansas to drop off our dog, Maggie, who has been staying with us a little over 2 years.  She is going to be living with Brooks' mom at her house while we move to Saudi.  No, we're not leaving soon, we just were going to be traveling for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and Brooks will be going to China in January for work so this was just the easiest time for us to take her to her new home.  We know Maggie is loving it up there--- she has LOTS of room to run as well as 2 little Yorkies to spend her days with.  We miss her though and Gavin misses playing with her. 

Once we dropped Maggie off at Mrs. Missies, we drove to Nashville, TN where our good friends, Deeann and Loyd Rieves were getting married.  It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding and ceremony.  The bride was GORGEOUS and every single detail about the wedding was planned to a "T".  Brooks and I enjoyed getting to spend time with all of our camp friends who were there as well.  Several of us have babies, so we all had a chance to meet each other's kids for the first time.  "Grammy" joined us on our trip to help babysit Gavin so we could stay out late with all of our friends who we rarely get to see anymore.  And Uncle Brandon got to come too.  Gavin thoroughly enjoyed walking around the building during the reception and entertained himself by climbing stairs and looking at all the white lights everywhere.  Cristy Knockles (one of my favorite Christain artists... remember Watermark??) was there and sang during the wedding-- wow!! We all were blessed. 

After Nashville, Brooks, Gavin, and I came home, unpacked, washed all of our clothes, and then repacked.  We got on a plane Tuesday morning and headed to Denver, Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with the Perry family.  Gavin did WONDERFUL on the plane ride over there-- we left so early in the morning that our flight wasn't full so he was able to walk/climb/roll all over the empty seat between Brooks and I.  He fell asleep, literally, as the landing gears were coming out and the flight was over. 

While in Colorado, we visited Brooks' high school basketball coach who has 3 young kids.  Gavin LOVED playing in their play room and especially liked their stair case.  We also saw Brooks' grandparents and ate a delicious meal with them, which I scored a new recipe-- thanks Grandma Jan.  We had breakfast with one of Brooks' really good friends from college, who was in our wedding.  He and his wife have 2 PRECIOUS little boys.  Gavin loves playing with kids.  It's really neat to watch him interact. 

Brooks took me to see the movie, New Moon, and was our first official date in a LONG time.  I loved the movie, but loved that he was willing to go with me even more.  I think he enjoyed it, too.  Or maybe he just knew who the characters were from me talking about them so much.  I even got to sport my New Moon t-shirt.  Brooks and I also went on a "date" up to the mountains and went shopping at an outlet mall.  We took Gavin with us and enjoyed just being the 3 of us.  Gavin was shocked with the cold weather, but looked sooooo cute in his HUGE coat.  We tried really hard to keep him bundled up.  Brooks' misses the mountains so much and really liked being up there. 

Thanksgiving day was fun just hanging around eating.  We had our "real" Thanksgiving meal on Friday with a ton of people.  Brooks got to play basketball, which he was in heaven doing and Gavin ran around outside playing.  We learned the hard way that Gavin has some difficulty running down a drive way that was a ramp, and he had a pretty rough fall.  He handled it well, but has a nice little shiner to show off. 

Gavin attended his first football game and was mesmorized by all the fans shouting.  It was the first time in Gavin's whole life that he sat and didn't move for almost an hour.  It was amazing.  It was really cute watching him look at all the people.  After a while, he was over sitting, and found the ramp to the bleachers.  He and "Grandpa" went up and down those for the reaminder of the game. 

Brooks and I were sad to leave Colorado, but we LOVED the time we had to spend there.  Lots of memories were made and I know Grandpa and Grandma were excited and thankful to spend time with Gavin.  Thanks for our Christmas presents.  They were perfect!  So, our flight home wasn't the same as the way up there, but Gavin did well, considering he had a 20 minute cat nap all day.  Once again, he got tired the last 10 minutes before we landed... and he exhausted Brooks out from playing in our laps the entire ride. 

Thankfully, I thought to decorate the house for Christmas before we left so we came home Sunday to a house filled with Christmas decorations.  Last night, we took Gavin to have his picture taken with Santa.  Oooohhh, he was sooo cute.  We didn't know it was bring your pet night, so Gavin got to have some fun watching all the dogs waiting in line.  We even ran into some dogs dressed in LSU sweaters.  Gavin did GREAT for his picture with Santa.  It didn't dawn on us that maybe Gavin would be scared of Santa until we walked up to him.  Brooks brought Gavin over to meet Santa, and of course, Gavin just stared at him with that look, but then he reached his arms up for him.  Gavin smiled REALLY big and looks sweet in the picture.  The best part was, Gavin looked slightly to the side, so his bruise and scratches can't be seen in the picture!! How nice is that!?!

Well, the bell just went off on the crock pot... dinner is ready so I better run.