Countdown Continues

I just realized I didn't post the past two days... things have been a little crazy here. Gavin and I both woke up on Wednesday sick and we've had a few rough days. We're still getting things together for the party and have a majority of it done. Today, I'm tackling the job of icing and decorating the 5 cakes I'm making for the party. Family has already started coming in town. My mom came in Wednesday, Brooks' mom arrived yesterday, and our dads will be coming in today. It should be a VERY fun day!

We woke Gavin up this morning and sang Happy Birthday to him. He had a huge smile on his face. We also gave him a small present to help celebrate his actual birthday-- it was a Chatting Elmo. He LOVES it. You just hold and shake Elmo and he talks, laughs, and sings. It's precious. We can't wait for the party tomorrow. Our house is turning into a zoo with all the monkey decorations going up. Gavin loves them though!

Stay tuned for pictures of the party!!

Countdown to Gavin's Birthday: It's today!
Countdown to Gavin's Birthday Party: 1 day

Gavin's ready for his Birthday

YEA!!! I did it!! I successfully posted a video!

I mentioned yesterday that Brooks and I have been getting ready for Gavin's Birthday Party and now it's Gavin's turn. He is SUPER EXCITED about his first birthday. We've been practicing the "Happy Birthday Song" to get Gavin in the spirit and lastnight he decided to join us!

**You'll have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause the music so you can hear him!

Isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen!?!?

Countdown to Gavin's Birthday: 3 days

Countdown to Gavin's Birthday Party: 4 days

Party Planning

This Friday, Gavin will be one years old!! Can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital! Wow, time has gone by so fast!

Brooks and I have been very busy working on Gavin's party the past few weeks and are excited to have all of our family coming in town as well as having our friends come over to celebrate with us. I went today and bought all the food, drinks, & last minute party supplies (candles, icing colors, balloons, etc) for the party. Also, I'm making Gavin's Birthday Cakes so I've put myself on a strict schedule of what I need to accomplish each day in order to be prepared for Saturday.

While planning Gavin's party, there were two things I knew for sure: the theme was going to be monkeys and his invitations were going to have pictures of Gavin from every month of his life leading up to him turning one. Two years ago, one of my friends had an invitation made that showed pictures of her little boy from every month of his life and I was obsessed with the idea! I loved it! What a great way to celebrate your child's first birthday! Ever since getting that invitation, I've always said I was going to do that for Gavin's first birthday. So, in June, I started searching websites and stores to find the perfect invitation. I finally found it at And Everything Nice. The girl I worked with was AMAZING!! She got these invitations made in like 2 days because she was going on vacation. We sent me proofs, we made changes, she sent me more proofs, and did an AWESOME job making it look just the way I wanted it too! She even added the little monkey onto the invitation for me! Which made my day! So check her out-- she does EVERYTHING- Christmas cards, birth announcements, and much more! I told her I had a personal blog and she sent me Gavin's invitation in a file so that I could post it on here-- she even thought to change the personal information, in case someone we didn't know comes across my blog-- then they won't have our information. (I'm sure it was also to make sure I didn't have any more invitations printed on my own.) Needless to say, they turned out perfect and we couldn't be happier!!

Countdown to Gavin's Birthday (August 28, 2009):4 days
Countdown to Gavin's Birthday Party: 5 days

Newsletter

WHOA! This week has been a week of changes for me. For the most part, I've been doing really well, but every once in a while, I feel the need to be sad. You see, teachers went back to school this week and I'm not there. I knew this time was coming, but I think I put it on the back burner since June that I wasn't ready for it. I'm thankful that I have been so busy working on Gavin's Birthday Party Decorations, making a few arts and craft projects, and playing with Gavin that I haven't had much down time. On Tuesday, my friend Stephanie and I went to lunch and that helped a tremendous amount--- thanks Steph!!! (I know we didn't go to lunch for that reason, but it helped distract me!).

I also know that being home with Gavin, taking care of this house, and having the flexibility to come and go as I please (to visit family and friends) is what I'm suppose to be doing right now. I'm loving having this freedom and I know that these feelings of "what I'm missing out on" will go away. I got the best advice a while back while talking to a good friend about my transition and she said for me to look at what I was going to gain, not what I would be missing out on. That has been huge!! It helps me look at things from a different perspective. The coolest thing, is that Gavin is learning so much right now and trying new things and I'm LOVING watching him grasp concepts (ex: peek-a-boo, putting a ball in the cup & taking it out, chase, etc). I'm appreciating him growing up (but can NOT believe he's going to be 1 years old next week).

So, I write all that because this morning in my email account I received an email that said, "Saudi Wives Newsletter", WHOA-- hold up-- wait a minute..... I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR THIS! I'm a Saudi Wife! I'm a SAUDI wife! Don't get me wrong, I'm so thankful I received this newsletter and all the important information that goes with it, but it's just another step in the direction of MORE change... CHANGE that's to come. ** I've decided that I'm a lot like my dad when it comes to, the less change... the better.... we both would rather change not ever happen because we like the way things are. However, as my mom and Brooks have always reminded me, change is good!

The newsletter did give lots of information about events going on at the compound, reminders for ways of living, contact information, and even dates for the next kids play group!! Woo Hoo! I think that excited me the most! The email also included a slide show presentation on Ramadan in order for us to be well equipped with the understanding of this celebration for Muslims and to know what life is like during this time. We were also told that they are going to start holding informative meetings for just the wives to get together to learn more about the way of living, life on a compound, learning what's allowed for us as American women in their country, ways to dress, etc. Most importantly, to give us opportunities to express our feelings of this type of move, have the chance to talk to women who have been living there, and allow us to form relationships with the women who we will be living with and who will essentially become "like family" while we all live overseas together. I'm really excited about getting to know all of these women!

Now, that I've come to terms with this move is actually happening and that I'm a SAUDI wife... I'm going to go start my day!

Saturday Morning Puff Balls

Brooks and I decided to create our own Saturday morning tradition, which we look forward to every week (unless we are out of town or have something planned early in the morning) where we make Puff Balls. These are a DELICIOUS mix between a donut and a pancake (I think). Since we love this recipe so much I thought I'd share it with all of you! It's really easy to make and is something different other than having biscuits, pancakes, waffles, or even a bowl of cereal.
This recipe is for half the batch (which can make up to 32 puff balls). You can double it if you are serving a large crowd!

You need:
Peanut Oil (to fry the batter in)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup sifted flour
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
Syrup
Powdered Sugar (optional)

Directions:
- Heat peanut oil in a fry daddy
- Mix the first 4 ingredients together, then add the egg and milk
- Using a spoon, drop a little more than a tsp worth of batter into the peanut oil
- Cook until lightly golden brown (puff balls will rise to the top of the oil when done- we usually let them keep cooking a minute more or so)
- Dip puff balls in powdered sugar (my favorite) or syrup and ENJOY!

Here is Gavin enjoying his 3rd Puff Ball of the morning!

Since I didn't get to post anything this week I thought I'd show you a fun picture of Gavin and I. He wanted to help me get ready for dinner one night and sat in my lap the entire time I put my make up on. He is at a fun age right now and learning a lot. He has started clapping and saying WHOA!! It's the cutest thing! If I could ever get my videos to upload to our blog I could show you him doing all these new things!

Disclaimer: Brooks' first reaction to Gavin helping me put my make up on was not the best, but we realized it made for a great photo op!

Week of Fun!

This week was a blast for Gavin and I. He is finally back to his normal self (between a double ear infection and dealing with some abandonment issues from Brooks and I leaving him for our vacation to Belize). Gavin had two rough weeks just being moody, inconsolable, and a little grumpy, which is VERY unusual for him. We worked through it and now he is back to being his happy self.

This past week also brought on a new change-- it was our first full week together-- he is no longer going to the babysitters, which I have mixed emotions about, but I knew it meant that I needed to prepared with lots of things for him to do, so he wouldn't get bored. We did everything--- we swam at our friends pool, we swung on the swing daddy hung for us on the back porch, we did some shopping for his birthday party coming up in a few weeks, we made an art decoration, and we even had another no Worries Wednesday (where Gavin got to eat a bowl of spaghetti all by himself).

Here are a few pics from our week! I'm thinking this little guy is as happy as can be!

Playing in his room with his new monkey chest!
Now that I'm home and not working, I've realized I have time for my hobbies: scrapbooking and cake decorating so I've really started spending some serious time on these. A few months ago, I ordered this cute, cute saying from a friend of mine who has a business with Uppercase Living, it's embellishments and word creations that you can stick onto your walls or on other decorating ideas (coasters, wooden boards, picture frames, etc etc. The possibilities are endless). Let me know if you are interested and I can give you my friends website info. Since I have time to work on my creations and since we're having Gavin's party at our house, I wanted to get some of my projects done so I can put them out for others to see. This particular project required me to paint Gavin's hand, which I musty say, he did a very good job. He loved squeezing his hand and rubbing his fingers together once I put the paint on it and was sad when I wiped all the paint off. He kept touching his fingers like he was looking for the paint.

Here's Gavin helping me get the paint brush ready- luckily I hadn't put any paint on the brush yet.

Voila!! Here is his hand print-- the saying says, "Here is my hand on this very day, Remember me now as I grow and play". I decided not to put Gavin's hand print in the center of this, hoping and planning that when we have more kids, their hand prints will go on the board as well. My goal is to put their hand prints close to their first birthday. Eventually, I will label the hand prints so we can know whose is whose.

Here is another of Gavin's favorite things-- he LOVES the dishwasher. We've never let him play with it until this week, I'm not sure why, I just wasn't ready for him to be messy with the dirty or clean dishes. But, anytime this is opened, he goes right to it. He especially likes the little contraption that holds the detergent- he has learned how to open and close it. Don't worry, we made sure to remove all the knives and sharp objects before letting him play in it!

Next week, we have another project to work on that I'll post later once it's finished. We're also busy planning Gavin's birthday party. It's going to have a monkey theme-- and I must admit, I'm going a little crazy on it, but it's his first birthday!! I have decided to make EVERYTHING: the food, the cake, the decorations, the party favor bags... I mean EVERYTHING! It's fun because it keeps me busy and is giving me something to do! I'm starting to realize school is starting soon and I won't be returning so I'm doing my best to keep my mind on other things!

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!