"Oooh-klahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plains..."

We left on Gavin's 8 month "birthday" to head to Oklahoma to visit Uncle Deryl and Aunt Donna. Joe and I had bought tickets for the Big 12 football championship in Dallas, Texas and when I asked Aunt Donna if we could stay, she suggested we pack up the whole crew and we all come on down! It was a great idea--we all had so much fun just relaxing, laughing, and having a great time together.
Joe doesn't understand why I felt the need to take this picture, but I thought it was pretty rare (I mean, right?) it's a tumbleweed that was blowing around and got caught on our antenna!
Last stop in Kansas after stopping for some lunch!

Welcome to Oklahoma!

Sydney snuggling with Aunt Bailey

With the new tutu and puppy she received!

The next morning Joe and I took off for the Lone Star State!
The stadium was quite possibly THE most difficult place to find, EVER. But it was worth it---it was very impressive!

Welcome to Texas!

in our sights...but how do we find our parking lot?!
the view from the top of our section

Saving the best for last--our sweet boy that turned 8 months old on the day we left!

Happy 1st Thanksgiving Gavin!

We went to Delphos for Thanksgiving this year where my grandma hosted it at her house. It was fun seeing family and seeing the kids play with their cousins (well Sydney mostly played, Gavin mostly laid and rolled!)

Gavin playing with Papa Rod

Great Grandma Dodo rocking "Baby Sydney"

Gavin and his cousin Piper playing around!

Sydney and cousin Addison eating "ice cream cones" made by Aunt Rhonda

Happy 1st Thanksgiving Gavin!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." a month too late!

oops! We decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving this year (sorry Mr. Turkey!). We just couldn't help ourselves! (I say "we"....I mean ME!) I was so excited to get Sydney's help with decorating because I knew she would be more interested in it this year than last. We got up and thanks to Daddy who had already brought our decorations out, we were able to get right to work! First we decorated the tree and then Syd's tree in her room. She was more excited about it than anything else I think!

We used the Barbie ornaments that my mom had bought for me for 17 years (I think?)

Syd's "stamp" of approval: Two thumbs up!

We ended our day with some hot chocolate with marshmallows!

It was such a fun day...next year, I'll an extra little helper. Oh boy! :)

Sydney's Thanksgiving feast at preschool

The week before Thanksgiving Sydney's preschool had a Thanksgiving feast. They made Indian costumes (fully equipped with a papoose for the girls and a bow and arrow for the boys!) and Pilgrim costumes (which hardly anyone wanted according to their teacher because the Indians had much cooler "accessories.") They sang songs and then they had a feast with a guest! It was so sweet and so much fun to see her with her "classmates"! She was so proud and so excited to have us there!

trip to Manhattan!

We went to Manhattan to return Joe's dad's 4-wheeler but also to visit since we hadn't seen them in awhile. It was nice to relax and play and catch up with family!

Gavin snuggling with Grandma Helget

Playing with Aunt Ginny

One of the few pictures we got of Sydney--she was too busy bossing her cousin Alex around!

our little artiste!

Sydney has really been in to drawing and coloring lately. So on our way to Manhattan to pass some time Joe gave her a pen and a note pad. She started drawing family members and only after I realized how great she was doing did I then take some pictures!
Here is Maggie, complete with ears, a tongue and four legs! (we said "how many legs does Maggie have?" and she gave her four!)
And here is her cousin Alex (it's upside down to you of course!)

I was beaming! It was so exciting!!!

Duck....

duck...

duck....

GOOSE!

Sydney came home one day wanting to play this game. It started out with me, Syd, and Gavin participating. After putting Gavin to bed she recruited her dad...and a few "friends" to join in the fun! It was so much fun to watch!

7 and a half months later...

Gavin's room finally has something on the walls! It took me at least 6 months to order the prints and another month to get my husband to hang them up. It was no simple task--he had grids made and measurements calculated to the nearest 1/8 of an inch. It was ridiculous. But that's how his brilliant engineer mind words I suppose and I am grateful for it because the end result is wonderful! I got the letters (actually JOE made his first ever Michael's run for me for the letters--what a guy!), I painted them, he hung them.

Homework time!

Our wonderful daycare provider, Miss Amanda, also teaches preschool and Sydney tags along. We have not officially enrolled her but she loves to participate in the preschool lessons and activities. On this day we were supposed to find a yellow, red, or orange leaf to return to school and we knew just the tree to pick from! We have (well, had) this tree with the most beautiful golden yellow leaves, so we went right to work!

Finding the perfect leaf....

and keeping it safe in the stroller....with the hunting jeep...

Movie Night!

One night after Gavin went to bed we decided to have a movie night! Just Daddy, Mommy, and Sydney. We rented the movie "Toy Story 3", popped some popcorn, got in to our pajamas, grabbed some blankets and settled in!
Movie night wouldn't be complete without Penguino :)

Sydney, our little "cheerleader"

Hopefully she does this on Saturday, cheering the Huskers on to victory!

Hey....what you lookin' at?

What's going on back there?....
huh?...