A few scenes from Christmas...

Gavin's gift for us

Gavin and the other children in his class have been working for two weeks on a "special box" to give to their parents.

We received it today ...

...inside was a piece of artwork Gavin did...

...along with his thoughts on the upcoming holiday as told to his teachers...

...cue Mommy and Daddy with tears in their eyes. There are no words other than to say what a special boy we are lucky enough to have.

Visit from Santa

Gavin's friend Claire has an "in" at the North Pole, which meant a visit today from the big guy. She and her parents were nice enough to invite some other friends over for the fun. Gavin decided to keep his distance, but we assured him Santa will come even though he did not have a one-on-one chat about what he hopes to see under the tree on Christmas morning.

Jingle Bells!

Thanksgiving weekend in D.C.

We were in the D.C. area over the weekend visiting with Don's family -- brother Chris and sister-in-law Kathy live in Virginia and we enjoyed taking a trip into the city on Friday to stroll on the national mall (rather than go to the other kind of mall). If you look by the Capitol building, you can see that not only are they decorating the Christmas tree, they are also building the grandstand for the upcoming inauguration on Jan. 20!

Family pictures (more)

We had some family pictures taken last month and here's an additional sneak peek ... some of you will be seeing more of these very soon!

Gavin and Gabe

Orna and Brandon came over tonight with Gabe and Ari... the two G-men had a great time!

Halloween Recap

Halloween was a two-day extravaganza this year, starting with a party on Thursday at Gavin's preschool...

Gavin was up for dancing to songs about pumpkins and haunted houses, but did not wish to wear the top half of his giraffe costume.
So Mommy decided to do that part.
Gavin headed off for his first-time ever trick-or-treating with Daddy and his friend E.J. (dressed as Scooby Doo).

Back home after a successful outing to 20 houses!The haul! Gavin has not eaten any of it, but likes to sort it.
Relaxing after two busy days of celebrating...

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

Why we don't go out to restaurants without getting a sitter

Dimple Kid

We did some family photos this weekend and here's a first look! Many thanks to Karmen Lindner for an amazing job and to Anne and Bill for letting us spend the morning at the barn for a beautiful setting!

A Sneak Peek...

Gavin has a hat... actually more than one

Gavin's favorite book right now is called "Do You Have a Hat?" It's pretty fun to read it with him because it features all kinds of famous people from history and their hats, like Abraham Lincoln and Sally Ride. Gavin is adding all kinds of new names to his vocabulary because of it, including Carmen Miranda, Franciso de Goya and Walt Whitman. It's a very cute book.
Now one of his favorite things to do is try on a bunch of hats at once, as seen here, a collection featuring Mommy's sun hats for Florida and working outside. We hope he'll be this enthusiastic about the concept when it comes time to bundle up for winter!

"Star Wars -- nothing but Star Wars."

Someone in my office shared this with me today and it is too funny not to post. My favorite part is the choreography in the middle section of the performance. It is supposedly from the 1993 Miss Arizona pageant -- she was Miss Douglas. A blogger tracked this woman down, who seemed to have a good sense of humor about it, saying "Obviously I didn't win Miss Arizona and wasn't one of the strongest competitors in the competition."

Pumpkin Patch, the return.

Remember last year's visit to the pumpkin patch? We weren't going to let that happen again so we headed out to Eplegaarden this weekend (just a mile or so from our house) on a beautiful morning to hunt for the perfect pumpkin...

"Over there..."

Not exactly an accurate measurement...

There it is -- our pumpkin!

2 years, 7 months

It's been awhile since I did one of these "age" posts! Gavin is no longer a toddler. He is a walking, talking boy who is quick to express his likes (horses, crackers, his teachers) and his dislikes (putting on sunscreen, vegetables, and sometimes baths). Just today, his new way of answering affirmatively has changed from "Yeah" to "Yeah, OK." Very funny.

Daddy's Shoes (click on photo for slideshow)

Daddy's Shoes

Sarah Palin Disney Trailer

Watch this for a Friday laugh -- I promise more blogging to come this weekend! I know we are overdue on some new pics.

Those summer nights

Whoa! It's been a long time since I blogged ... we have been taking advantage of the lovely evenings to read on the front porch. Gavin is very into reading right now and loves to read the same ones over and over and over and ....

Big night out...

We enjoyed a great evening Saturday night attending the wedding of my longtime friend Jenni to David ... the festivities were held at MMOCA, with the ceremony and party on the rooftop. It was a beautiful spot for the event and we enjoyed getting dressed up and catching up with some old friends (those photos are on Vikki's camera -- Vik, please send 'em my way!).

Waaaaaay behind on blogging

Hey everyone ... apologies for letting the month of July get away without some more posting. It's been a blur lately and seems like before we know it, Labor Day will be here!

I pulled off a 36th birthday surprise for Don -- a surprise pickup soccer game with some friends and teammates. Sorry, no action shots here, just some visual evidence that it was a gorgeous day and a relaxing time for all involved.


Gavin continues to love his new school and we feel so lucky for him to be there with such great teachers and activities -- he really digs the weekly music class! Here he is, rocking out with Daisy and some jingle bells...