Merry Christmas

This past week was a whirlwind! It went by so fast! Our Christmas started off on Thursday. Ryan suprised me by getting tickets to see White Christmas at the Fox! It was so fun and I loved it! Then on Friday night we hosted the Starbucks Christmas party. We had a good time and a lot to eat! On Saturday we decided that we had better start our Christmas shopping! We were a little behind with moving and the birthday party and all that. We didn't have too many things to get, so it wasn't too bad. Then on Sunday Ryan and his three brothers went to the Lions vs. Bears game downtown. They had club tickets and got to eat at one of the restaurants inside of Ford Field. That evening we celebrated Christmas with Ryan's enitre family. There is alwasy TONS of Food and TONS of presents. Ryan's mom loves to shop so we all get a big pile of gifts to open. We alwasy have fun with Ryan's family. Everyone seems to get pretty rowdy! We woke up on Christmas morning and Gavin was thrilled to have more gifts to open! I am not even sure he cares what is inside, just unwrapping them is enough fun! After opening Gavin's gifts we went to Starbucks for breakfast and our daily coffee fix! We hung out there for a little while and saw some of the regulars. Then we headed up North to spend the afternoon with my family. We spent most of the day there and got home around 5:00. We hung out for awhile and put some things away, but then we were all in bed by 9:00! We were so tired! I hope that you all had a very merry Christmas! Here are some of the pictures in random order.

Gavin and Grandma opening a present - The movie Cars

Ripping into a gift (notice Gavin's super cute outfit from his Grandma)

This is the back of the sweatshirt! I thougth it was so cute so I had to get a picture!

At my paretns house ( we look so tired!)

Gavin and his Grandpa - "Mack" is what G calls him

Opening gifts at our house Christmas morning.

Family portrait in front of my mom's tree!

Are you kidding me mom? not another picture!

Elmo - Mania

Gavin's Party was a hit. Elmo was everywhere! He had a good time and got lots of Elmo stuff. Here are some pictures of our big day!

The Cake!

We made cupcakes too with Red frosting, mini marshmellows for the eyes, an orange jelly bean for the nose and used black icing for the mouth! They were cute, but somehow I didn't get a picture of them!

Gavin loves to brush his teeth. Grandma Mack got him an electric Elmo toothbrush!

I made this giant ELmo so all the kids could get their pictures taken with him! It was fun to make and super cheap and easy!

The Roumayah's got Gavin this Elmo giggle chair. He LOVES it. He sits in to watch his Elmo videos! It's too cute!

Cake boy! I can't beleive he didn't throw up after all the junk he ate!

This was one the cake table! I did a photo shoot with Gavin and Elmo awhile back. If you look closely, you can see the cupcakes on the corner of the picture!

The party favors went over well. I got these plastic Elmo cups from Party America for 86 cents each. Then I made each kid a coloring book by printing pages off of the Sesame Street website. The cover of the coloring book is a picture of Gavin and a poem that read,

" Thank you for sharing in Gavin's big day,

You made is so special in your own little way.

I hope you had fun as Gavin turned 2!

And alwasy remember, "Elmo Loves You!"

Then I stuffed the cups with a small box of crayons, candy, a bracelet and nail polish for the girls and a bouncy ball and a plastic bug for the boys!

The party was fun and I am suprisingly not sick of Elmo! I had so much fun creating this party for Gavin. It is so fun giving your child something that they love, even if it is just one day full of Elmo! I have more pictures to come!

Gavin's Two Year Pictures

It was hard to get Gavin's pictures taken this time. He was not cooperative at all. Not too mention the lady taking the pictures had a flu bug, so she wasn't too helpful. But, we did get some really cute ones, but they had to have the foot ball in them. Nothing wrong with that though, it pictures Gavin perfectly. He always has either a ball or a truck in hand these days!

This one Gavin is wearing his "Mack Truck" hat that Grandma and Grandpa Mack bought him. Just a side note, Gavin actually calls my dad "Mack". It is so cute, I love it!

This one is my favorite picture. He looks like a natural quarterback, like he's about ready to launch the ball 50 yards or something.

Yet another picture with the football!

Okay, I am aware that this is the cheesiest picture EVER, but I love it. It is a classic school picture. I think it is so funny!

Just a quick note to let anyone who cares know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I have been w/o internet for two weeks now. I finally had it hooked up yesterday and hope to be on more often. Gavin turns 2 on thursday and has his big party on Saturday - pictures will follow shortly after, I hope.

House Pictures

THis is Gavin's play room before

And here it is now, well, it isn't finished yet. We are still waiting on paint, but that is all thats left.

Here are the before pictures of the kitchen again.

And here is the after!

Crazy Busy

We have been crazy busy here the last few weeks. We are getting everything packed up and moving day is drawing closer. I hope to move Thanksgiving weekend. After that, I hope to get some new pictures up of the almost finished product. THe house isn't quite done yet, but it is livable. We have one working bathroom and after Tuesday, we will have a working Kitchen! The carpet goes in tomorrow and the hardwood floors have already been redone and stained. All thats really left to do is just putting up some shelving in the closets and odds and ends like that! I am super excited!

Some more good news, we got a second car yesterday. Pastor Dan actually GAVE us his old car! We have really been praying about a second car so this we definately an amazing thing for us. Now i guess I have to go grocery shopping by myself. Everything has been a family affiar, even short trips to the store, for so long and almost dont want to go alnoe now! I have a feeling that Ryan will still come with us though!

Another exciting event. Well, it may not seem too exciting to most of you all, but I was PUMPED! I finally got something that has been on my wish list for a long time. The Brother P Touch 2600 label maker!


I have been organizing and labeling everything in sight! I detailed the inside of the van this weekend and then I cleaned out the glove compartment and labeled everything! Ryan was suprised. He was so funny, he said that he was suprised that I didnt label even the steering wheel. I am such a dork, but I just love to organize!

Gavin's leg is finally all healed up. He is running around as usual. You know when you get sick and then when you start to feel better you think, I will never take my health for granted again. I think that even at two years old (well, almost two) Gavin feels the same way. Its like he knows that it is a priviledge to be feeling better! Anyway, he is back to the same old tricks, jumping off the beds and couches and all that.

Okay, last thing. I am wondering what all you mom's with toddlers out there did when it was time to take your baby out of the crib and get them a bed. When is a good time? How old were they? Did you have any trouble doing it? Was the transition smoothe? I am not sure that I am ready to put Gavin in a bed yet. He is probably more than ready, but he gets up really early and I dont want him getting up and coming in my room! I guess I could put up a gate. I dont know, maybe i am just not ready to give up my baby! Yes, I am THAT mom. I will be bawling my eyes out when he goes to school, I will hate every girlfriend that he ever has, I will feel like I've died on his wedding day. I am THAT mom. I can't help it. I am having trouble letting go! Okay, snap me out of this, moms. What do I need to do?

No Cast

Well, we went to the orthopedic dr. yesterday morning. He took a look at Gavin and at Gavin's x rays and apparently found something that no one else could see. He found a small fracture in Gavin's knee. But he said that because babies heal so fast, Gavin has already started to heal, so he did not put a cast on his leg. Dr. Zeni said that if we would have come to him earlier in the week he would have put a cast on him. So I am so glad that we had to jump through hoops with our insurance and getting referrals and all that junk. It seemed like a pain at frist, but now I see the good that came out of it. It would have been aweful if Gavin was in a cast! Dr. Zeni also got Gavin to take a few steps. They were painful, but we are moving in the right direction. If Gavin continues to walk and show progress we just have to go back in two weeks for a final check up. If he seems to get worse or doesnt start walking more, we will have to go back sooner. On Thursday night I prayed that Gavin would be healed over night so that we wouldn't have to get a cast. Well, he woke up Friday morning happier than he has been in a week and he took several steps at the Dr.'s office! God is so good, ALL THE TIME! I know its easy to say that when good things happen, but God is good even when it seems that things are not going well. Thanks to those of you who said a prayer for us!

Gavin Update

Well, after two negative X rays, they can't find anything wrong with our little guy. He still can't muster up the strength to walk though. He just wont do it. He will stand up and try and take a step and sometimes he can take one, but then his leg starts shaking and he starts crying. It is a pretty sad sight. I did get him to take quite a few steps with my help today, but a few min. after that he was very irritable. Poor little guy. I know he would much rather be running around in the snow (thats right, I did say snow). Our dr. called today and seems to be pretty concerned that he still wont walk so we are scheduled to see an orthopedic specialist tomorrow at 9:30. I kind of hope that they just say, okay lady, you kid is just a big wimp and he is taking advantage of this injury. My biggest fear is that they will cast it. That would be horrible for us. But anyway, we will see. I am praying for some overnight healing tonight. I hope that gavin jumps up tomorrow and starts running and jumping again! We'll keep you posted.

The Damage

 

The Story

Gavin has recently learned how to jump. He jumps off the couch, trys to jump off of our bed and he even will just run and try and jump. He falls a lot, but never gets hurt. Well, yesterday was a different story. We were getting ready to go to church and Gavin was really hyper. He was running around our room and decided to run and try and jump. It didn't work out so well. Well, actually, he did get some air, for one of the first times, but his landing was lacking. He came down on one leg and something happened (we don't quite know what) and he fell down and started screaming like he was dying. So, Ryan scooped him up and said, "let's go". I was crying too and trying to remember to get everything I was supossed to get. We put G in the car and flip on the trusty dvd player and he was fine. He stopped crying and was just watching Nemo and talking to us. So, we figured, what a faker, lets just go to church. Well, every Sunday we go to Starbucks for lattes and Panera Bread for bagels. When we get to Starbucks Gavin usually runs around the terrorizes the place. Well, yesterday, he would not even let RYan put him down. HE just wanted him to hold him. When Ryan did try and put him down, it was not a pretty sight. Gavins leg started shaking and he couldnt put any weight on his leg. He didnt cry though . . . Then we went over to Panera Bread for our Asiago Cheese Bagels and Gavin did the same thing. We wouldnt even get down to TRY and walk. If you know Gavin, that is very out of character, he is always moving, never walking, alwasy running at full speed. So, we decided to take him in to urgent care just to be sure. We were there two hours and had x rays done. THey didn't find a break or fracture, but they sent his x rays to a specialist. The Specialist didnt see anything but he said that because of Gavin's age, he has so many growth plateletts in his leg that if one of them was fractured, it wouldnt show up on the x ray. So, we have to take Gavin to an orthopedic specialist to have him checked out there. He is doing suprisingly well. His leg is in a splint, so we can't move around very well, but he is figuring out how to get around a little bit. He slept okay, but we had to take off the splint so he could sleep. Everytime he rolled over or hit his leg somehow he would let out a little wimper. It was pretty sad. He is hanging tough though! We are so proud of our little guy! We let him eat popcorn and watch Monsters Inc. last night. He probably thought it was his birthday or something!
Please keep our little guy in your prayers as we make some appointments today!

More House Pictures

Here are some more before and after pictures of the house. The first picture is of our stove. It is not hooked up yet, but there it is. It is actually sitting in the living room right now. Its a good thing we are not living here yet, this would be driving me crazy if we were!





This is the Kitchen, after Ryan ripped out all of the cabinets. Pretty sick if you ask me.

Here is the same wall, just ripped down and ready to be redrywalled.

Below is the kitchen before we even touched it.

We haven't done much to the outside of the house yet. But we did put up cedar shingles on the peek. It looks really good. It will look even better when we get new siding!

So this is what it did look like

And this is what it looks like now!

Before and After

Okay, well the house is coming along. Our move in date is November 30. Here are some pictures of the befores and after. There are more to come soon.

Well, I guess I didn't get a picture of the before of the upstairs bathroom. This picture is more like the during. The before wasn't that great anyway, so you are not missing much. Actually it was pretty discusting. Anyway, here is what it looked like after Ryan ripped everything out of it!

Here the bathroom is slowly being put back together. Kyle and Phil helped Ryan put up the drywall.

This is the finished product, well, almost finished. I still have to put up some decor and the shower curtain, but this is it! Here is a list of everythign that Ryan did to the bathroom

Gutted EVERYTHING, redrywalled, redid the faulty plumbing, rebuilt the subfloor, redrywalled every wall, insulated the wall we had our friend Tom tile the shower, Ryan had to move the electrical outlets, layed the tile floor, put in the cabinet, new toilet, new light fixture and I'm sure I missed some things, but baisically, we have a whole new bathroom!

Okay here is a before picture of part of the bungalow/our bedroom. It really might not look that much different. I didn't get a picture with the nasty carpet, ryan tore that out quickly, it was sick.

Here is the after, minus the new carpet, we are waiting until the last min. to get that put in so it doesnt get messed up with the rest of the remodeling. Anyway, the list of things Ryan did to this room includes, ripped out carpet, all new trim and baseboards, lots of wall repair, paint and carpet is coming!

Well, those are two of the rooms that are done, I will post some more later. Things are moving quickly and we are getting so excited to move in! I can't wait! We'll keep you posted on the progress.

High Tech Baby

Gavin loves to sit on the counter next to me when I am working/playing on the computer. He especially loves sitting up there when I am talking to Anne on the webcam! He loves seeing her and talking to her, and of course playing peek a boo with her. It is so cute. The first picture is of Gavin kissing Anne through the cam. He is so funny. One time she was eating a cereal bar and Gavin really wanted a bite and actually thought he could get one. It was hysterical. We were cracking up at him. He was opening his mouth and trying to get close to the screen to take a bite out of it.

Pucker up Annie!

Whatcha doin' mamma?

Cheeeeeese!

Pumpkin Time

Gavin and I scooped out all the gook from our pumpkin and separated and cleaned the seeds. Then we salted those suckers and popped 'em in the oven. When Gavin woke up from his nap, we had a great snack! I love pumpkin seeds, and Gavin liked them too. I think that he liked getting all gooey the best, though!