Such a BIG BOY!!!

It's no surprise that the past few weeks Gavin has just grown up on me.  He is starting to do things more and more on his own.  Parts of his independence "scares" me, but only because I'm nervous of him doing things too soon, or before he's ready.  The other day we went and ate lunch at Tony's Pizza, which is a small restaurant inside and we ran into a little issue when they placed us in a booth and there was no room to put a high chair on the end of our table. So, once again, I braved a new thing and asked for a booster seat.  I placed Gavin in the booster, moved the table as close to him, and sort of "pinned" him in between so he couldn't move.  He did great.  He never tried to get out and he ate his food off of a plate on the table in front of him.  I was shocked and amazed... once again! 

Growing up, I had a table and chairs that was in my room for me to do homework on, have "tea parties", etc.  Well, my mom brought down my old table and chairs set from the attic for the grandkids to sit and eat at during meals (or play on, etc).  At dinner Thursday night, Neve was sitting at the table eating and Gavin walked up and wanted to sit with her.  I wasn't sure how I felt about this, but figured I would try it out (and I sat really close to the table, just in case).  Once again, he did GREAT!!!  He ate his entire meal, with a fork, drank his milk, and talked to Neve while they ate.  It was PRECIOUS!  

Puddin' Pop

Do you remember a week or two ago when I mentioned in a post that Gavin ate a bowl of applesauce all by himself with a spoon?  Well, I decided to brave that "area" once again, but this time with pudding.  WOW, Gavin LOVED it and did great eating his CHOCOLATE pudding with a spoon.  I was smart enough to strip him down to his diaper so I wouldn't be as paranoid.  It's really fun watching him realize that he's a "big boy", doing things on his own.   

He's even willing to share and feed someone else.

We're making it....

Well, we made it!  We survived our first full week with Brooks being gone!  It was tough, but we managed.  Kimmie was in town last week, which made the week go by really fast.  Our weekend was jam packed, too. 

First, Gavin and I went and had dinner with some friends, the Lutz's,  from our small group who have a baby boy. We enjoyed getting a home cooked meal and Gavin got to play with some new toys.  Saturday morning, Gavin went and played with his friend, Peyton, while her mommy and I went and had brunch, with our friend Jessica. It was nice getting to take a break from being mommy just for a few hours.  Being a "single parent" is hard!  While Gavin napped on Saturday, I spent the entire time working on flowers for cake class out of royal icing and then applied a new uppercase living embellishment to Gavin's toy organizer.  It turned out soooo cute! 

Saturday night, Gavin and I went to our friends, the Carpenter's house for steaks!  Yum, they were delicous.  Susie and Darrell have a three year old named Cade who Gavin adores!!!  They played around all night and then Gavin got to "box" with Darrell.  Brooks is really concerend Gavin isn't getting any "man" time, so he requested that I take Gavin to any of our guy friends so he can do "guy stuff".  Gavin had a blast and was worn out from all the playing.  Look, he even picked up a tough guy look!

Sunday morning, we got to skype with Brooks (see him on the webcam) before going to church.  Gavin knows that when I say let's go see daddy, he runs to the computer and sits in the chair.  Brooks just asked Gavin where his head was and Gavin was showing him.  How cute is that??!?  Oh how we miss Brooks!

After church we went to lunch with friends and had group (bible study)!  It was such a busy day, Gavin only had a short, 30 minute nap, and he fell asleep on his changing table.  I didn't have the heart to wake him, so I left him on there while I folded laundry on the floor of his room (just to make sure he wouldn't roll off the table).  As you can see, he has already outgrown the changing table (that was mine and my brother's changing table growing up by the way). 

I finished Course 2 of my cake class tonight.  It was such a great experience for me.  It really does make a difference in who your instructor is.  Here is my final cake... it includes a basketweave, rope border, color flow designs (the fence and butterfly), and royal icing flowers (the flowers are all hard).  I was really excited to have this cake finished and was amazed at how it turned out!  I'm loving making cakes and learning how to decorate them that I signed up for the next course, which is fondant.  I have a lot of materials and tools to get before next week's class. 

Please keep Brooks in your prayers while he is away.  He is enjoying himself a lot, thankful for the experience, and learning a ton of information! 

Look Who's Talking

Yep, that's right... Gavin is!!  He has just started REALLY talking, using words instead of signs, as well as answering me when I ask him something.  Just in the past 5-7 days he is saying more and more words where you can actually understand him.  It's been so fun to listen to his voice and for him to realize he's actually talking. 

He is saying dadda, mamma, sit down, diaper, bye bye, let's go, yes, no, juice and I don't know.  Just a few minutes ago he and I actually had a real conversation.  I asked him if he wanted me to change his diaper, in which he responded by saying diaper.  I said, yes, do you want mommy to change your diaper?  He answered back by saying yes and then walked straight to his room.  It was awesome.  He knew what I asked and he responded and then went and did it.  Then, I gave him a banana for his snack today and after eating it he walked up to me and said mamma, juice!  I quickly went and got him some juice so he would know that all he has to do is ask me for it.  We are still working on him saying please.  He can say "thank you", but you don't know that's what he's saying, he just has two syllables that come after someone doing something for him. 

Another thing Gavin has started doing, is coming to the computer when I say let's go talk to daddy.  We've been skyping Brooks twice a day so Gavin is now use to seeing Brooks on the computer.  He even knows when the computer rings, it's Brooks calling.  It's precious and nice to watch him so excited to want to see Brooks. 

We're doing good and hanging in here while Brooks is gone.  Kimmie (my mom) is in town for a few days keeping us company.  Since she's been here Gavin has tasted and eaten pieces of a peppermint for the first time, took a trip in his "car" down the street, and learned that pigs can fly (Kimmie placed a toy pig on top of his jack in the box.  He loves when the pig flys!!  It's cute.  My mom is trying to teach Gavin how to say outside, too.  He is really close!

All of this is just showing us how our little boy is growing up more and more everyday! 

Precious Moments

Brooks- these are for you.....
just a few precious moments over the past few days that I wanted to share with you..... be careful... some will make you laugh, cry, feel proud, and stand in awe at how much our little boy is growing up!! 

After you walked through the airport doors, I got back into the car and closed the door.  I turned and looked at Gavin and he lifted his arms in the air and with a confused look and said, "daddy?"

When we drove away from the airport, Gavin sat in the back seat and with the most sweetest, subtle voice I've ever heard he called out "daddy, daddy, daddy" over and over again until he fell asleep.  It was like he knew you left.

This morning, Gavin ate a bowl of apple sauce all by himself... with a SPOON... can you believe it?  I was so proud!  He was proud to... he scooped it... he didn't even try to poke it.

You know how Gavin loves feeling different textures?.?. well, yesterday, Gavin was rubbing my lower leg/ankles (random I know).  He quickly realized they were "rough" and started rubbing them again.  He then switched to my left ankle and rubbed that one.  The look on his face was hysterical... I guess that means it's time for me to shave my legs... HAHAHAHAHA!!

I asked Gavin a question Friday afternoon and he answered me... he nodded his head up and down and said Yes!  Isn't that awesome?!?!  At the same time, he still does a GREAT job of saying no to me by nodding his head side to side. 

He has decided that he prefers bathing in our bathtub and appreciates it when I turn the jets on. 

He helped me do laundry... or better yet, he unfolded an entire load of towels that I had just folded.

Gavin did a few pull ups on Brent and Jessica's P90X bar... babe, you would have been so proud!!

We miss you!  Hope you are enjoying your trip!  We love you and can't wait for you to come home!

A New Favorite

A while back we realized that Gavin LOVES brushing his teeth.  He knows where his toothbrushes are and often brings us his toothpaste and toothbrush and asks us to get it ready for him (by rubbing the toothpaste bottle up against the bristles on his toothbrush).  Well, now, Gavin has discovered that in order to brush your teeth properly, it requires the use of water from the sink.  He use to allow us to wet his toothbrush for him, but he would much rather take care of it himself.  Thus, causing him to start this new routine.
**Don't forget to press pause on the music down below!


Brooks' flies out tomorrow morning to go to China for three weeks on business.  We are really going to miss him!  He has the opportunity to go see a plant over there that is very similar to the one his company is building in Saudi.  Brooks took the day off today to pack and get ready to leave, only problem is, we all started getting sick last night with a stomach bug, so his day of family time was spent a little differently then we all had planned.  We're just praying and believing that he feels better before he gets on a 14 hour plane ride tomorrow.  Keep us in your prayers to get better and please pray for Brooks to have safe travels.

Celebrating Life!

Oh, to be 21 again!  How fun?!?!

Today is Brooks' brother, Brandon's, 21st birthday.  A day that we are all celebrating and rejoicing!  6 years ago, Brandon was told he had Leukemia.  His 21st birthday was a distant thought at the time, but here it is!  He made it!

Happy Birthday Brandon!  Hope this is the best birthday yet!  How amazing that God's plan for your life was to live to experience this day!

January 2004, days before Brandon was diagnosed!

July 2004- visiting camp

October 2004- hanging out with his big brother

May 2007- Graduating from High School

January 2010- making a wish for his 21st birthday!!

Hanging out with his nephew!

Hope you have an awesome birthday Brandon!!  You deserve it!

Cake Class, Cake Tips, & Fondant

I'm still into the cake business and loving it.  I usually try to make a cake at least once a month, just to practice my skills and try new things.  I'm currently taking another cake class, this time at Michaels.  I'm retaking Course 2 so that I can gain experience from a different instructor who has MANY more years of experience compared to my first instructor.  I had class last night and it was a VERY different experience from the last class.  I learned how to make two new icings (royal and color flow) as well as created two new flowers and a leaf.   I'm also planning on taking Course 3 and Course 4 (of Wilton Cake Decorating) in February and March, as long as there are enough people who sign up for the classes.  I want to make sure before we move to Saudi I have as much knowledge as I can on cakes.  I created a binder (look, I used my new cricut to make the title page) and included EVERYTHING I have on cake making, cake decorating, directions for coking cakes in each pan, pictures of cakes I've made, etc. I wanted to feel a little organized.

For Christmas, I got some really, really neat, cool tools for cake decorating.  I got new pans (square shaped, brownie pans, mini cupcake pans, and even a pan that allows you to create numbers and letters using blocks inside the pan-- I can't wait to try that one!)

One of the tools I received was called Bake Even Strips.  They are these silver cloth/aluminum type strips that you wrap around your cake pan and pin them together with special pins and it causes your cake to bake evenly (they are on the cake pans in the pictures).  Have you ever baked a cake that has a dome like shape to it?  I do every time.  It's because cakes bake from the middle and then out, causing the center of your cake to bake faster, thus producing the bump.  Sometimes when I cut the dome top off disaster strikes.  I decided to try the bake even strips and they worked!!! Check out how flat and even this cake looked.   (Don't let the center scare you, I was making a fudge marbled cake, that's chocolate!)

I literally only had to shave off a SMALL, SMALL piece of the top.  The main thing I learned using these bake even strips is that you MUST cook the cake longer than what it calls for.  Since the strips act as an insulator, the cake cooks much slower.  I tested the cake with a toothpick and it was clean so I took it out of the oven.  However, after letting it cool and taking it out of the pan, the outer edge was "sticky" almost  seemed gooey, but not.  This caused an issue when I went to ice the cake.  So, I saw on Cake Boss the other day, that you can put a cake in a freezer for 20 minutes or put it in the refrigerator just to chill it so the outside gets firm, so when you ice it, all the crumbs are stuck to the cake.  WOW!! That was THE best thing ever!  I iced the cake in less than 5 minutes (including the middle layer, outside sides and top.  It was amazing.  I'm never going to ice a non chilled cake again!  HALLELUJAH!!  Try it sometime.

Another baking "tool" I was given as a gift was pre-made fondant.  I really wanted to play with fondant and see how it "works".  So, I made a cake for someone's birthday (I'll post those pics later) and decided to use the fondant.  It was fun to use and REALLY, REALLY easy to shape and mold.  Brooks did not like the taste of the fondant, I didn't think it was that bad, but you definitely use fondant to make the decorating part easier.  I can't wait to make homemade fondant some day (I found a recipe online using marshmallows).

I'll let you know how cake class goes tonight!

New Loves

Over the past few months, I've really been enjoying making various craft projects and have been spending more time on scrapbooking as well.   I went to a Christmas market at a local church and found these cute memo boards made from a picture frame and I got inspired to make one myself.  I loved it so much I made 3!!  I gave them as gifts and kept one for myself.  The bottom right hand corner square is where I place a post it on the outside of the frame to write short notes to take with you.  I took these pictures forgetting that the post it's were not on there and two of them didn't have their dry erase pens attached yet.  When you write on these, you can erase the dry erase marker with windex wipes for easy clean up.

**If you are interested in purchasing one from me (that I will make according to your colors/theme of choice) let me know.  As you can see, there are endless possibilities; one has a flower embellishment, another one I painted the fleur de lis, and the bottom one has glitter paper accented in jewels.  I can add words of your choice (Notes, To Do List, names, initials, etc.  Again, the possibilities are endless.

I also started making door signs for baby gifts, thanks to my sister-in-law, Anna who made one for Gavin when he was born.  My first baby sign (remember the safari, It's a Boy sign) was a learning experience for me, so I just made another one for one of Brooks' cousins whose having a baby and was very excited as to how it turned out.  I currently have two more sitting on my craft table right now.  I'll post those pictures once I give them as gifts.  Those moms read my blog every once in a while.

This sign was a ranch/cowboy/western theme. I didn't know this, but the ribbon is the actual pattern that is on the babies bedding.  How fun is that?

I'm also interested in making and selling baby signs as gifts for baby showers or just because.  These can be hung on the hospital door once the baby has arrived, on the door of the babies nursery, etc.  I can personalize it any way you'd like with the full name or initials; or it's a boy, it's a girl!

Contact me at lperry12382@gmail.com

This past Thursday, my friend Stephanie and I attended a Beginner Scrapbook class at a local scrapbook store.  By no means, are we beginners... check out Gavin's baby book that I scrapbooked.

I wanted to go and see if they would teach ideas for making page layouts, or give special tips for layering items, and/or adding embellishments to pages.  I talked Stephanie into going with me because I didn't want to go by myself.  In the first 10 minutes, we were both thinking we did NOT need to be there.  The instructor was introducing us to paper cutters, adhesives to use, showing what scrapbook paper looks like, etc.  However, once we started making our pages, we were really glad we went.  We were introduced to this AWESOME little gadget called the "X" something that put adhesives on the back of any object that is smaller than one inch.  I'm going to Hobby Lobby first thing Monday morning to get one!  We did learn some new things and how to add ribbon to a page, use brads and buttons to enhance embellishments, and the need for different adhesives products for various embellishments. Here are the two pages I walked away with from the class.  I'm starting a family photo album and think these are going to be use for Valentine pages.

Grandma Jan

Dear Friends and Family!  I wanted to share with you something that is close to our hearts at the moment and am asking for your prayers.  Last week, Brooks' grandmother, who lives in Colorado, Jan Perry, had a massive stroke to the left side of her brain, called an ischemic stroke. It has affected the right side of her body and speech.  After several days, she IS breathing on her own, responds to her husband by rubbing his arm with her left hand, and can move her eyes to see people who walk in the room.  She is not in a coma state, but does sleep a lot.  Doctors have been completing CAT scans daily to check for any internal bleeding or swelling in her brain, which there has been NONE!!  This was VERY unexpected and nothing any of us were "ready" for.   Grandpa Larry has been the one to give us a few scares over the last 2-3 years with his own battle of cancer and multiple surgeries he has endured.  

Please lift up Grandma Jan for healing!  Please pray for Grandpa Larry to have the physical strength to stand by her.  Pray for Brooks' dad, Mr. Geary, and his brother, Larry, Jr  as they make the best decisions they can in the best interest of Grandma and Grandpa.

We hope and pray that your hearts are aware to just how fragile life is!!  Thanks!

Grandma Jan with Gavin last November!  She was so excited to meet him!

Gavin spending Thanksgiving with Grandma Jan and Grandpa Larry in 2008

Gavin was entertaining Grandma Jan (this was last month)

Grandma Jan LOVES Gavin!!!

Perry Playhouse

Now that Christmas is over and we've begun the New Year, our house has finally been put back together somewhat (just don't look in our garage because its filled with the overflow--- even our Christmas tree is still standing out there (it's a real one and the trash people haven't come yet).  Since Gavin was blessed beyond abundance for Christmas, we realized it was necessary to pack up toys that have been out since he was 6 months old, choose some toys that we could give to others in need, and find spaces in the house to store and organize his toys.  Gavin has lots of small toys, tools, random balls, miniature cars, books, etc and they all needed a place to go. So, we went and picked up an organizing system to give all of his toys a home!  Over the last 2 months, I've been transforming out family room into an office/playroom.  We've removed the couch and coffee table and made room for a computer table and "scrapbook" table and now it has room for Gavin's stuff, too!  Everything fits perfectly!

While we were completing this process, we decided to put together a slide that Gavin got from his birthday and a picnic table that he was given for Christmas. He hasn't been able to enjoy these as much since they are in garage and it's been really cold outside.  We're waiting for the weather to get nicer so we can move these outside and give him plenty of play time.  However, we did "surprise" him and set these up and then let him loose into the garage to check out his new toys!  I think he enjoyed them!

**We're still working on teaching him that we sit at the table, not stand on it.

Gavin had the opportunity to play with several "play" kitchens that were other kids gifts and he LOVED them!  He played more with the play kitchens then with his own toys.  Of course, Brooks and I really wanted him to have one of his own so we went out Wednesday night and got the last one at our Target.  Brooks set it up and Gavin has played with it every single day, non stop!  He LOVES it!!!  Needless to say, our house looks like a play house.
**Gavin was soooo surprised when he walked in and saw his kitchen.

Gavin has been growing up every day.  I think I write that in every post when I talk about how much he is changing, but it's true.  Just in the past month, Gavin has started talking more and more.  It's not that you can always tell what he is saying, but sometimes you can.  He has learned to sign please and thank you (he learned that one today).  He loves saying football and I think he surprised himself when he said basketball the other day.  Gavin has decided that he would rather eat with a fork then with his hands... that was a really simple transition.  We've been working with him on "poking" his food, which he would try now and then, but for the most part, he would hold his fork with one hand, and eat with his other hand.  We think he watched some of his cousins (who are age 2 1/2 to 4) eating with forks and now that's what he wants to do.  It's really funny, because he gets mad if we we give him a plate of food with out a fork.  We're really grateful that this was something easy for us to walk into!  Gavin has found a few new loves... like chocolate milk (he was shocked when he tasted it), cartoons (but this is few and far between), and music instruments (he can really jam on a guitar and drums).  Gavin also learned that a fire place is HOT!!!! He had a small mishap with a fire place on Christmas Eve and touched the glass doors and burned the tips of his fingers.  He cried and cried and cried. It broke our hearts to see him in pain and NOTHING that we did seemed to make him feel better.  He eventually wore himself out from crying and fell asleep in my arms.  He did enjoy the two popsicles we gave him for him to eat and hold with his fingers to help sooth the burn.  He got some HUGE blisters that grew into the sizes of peanut butter M&M's (they have more of a round shape to them).

2009 was an amazing year for the Perry family.  We are looking forward to seeing what 2010 has in store for us.