January Happenings

G'ma & G'pa Madsen mailed us a little Christmas package that had chocolate covered macadamia nuts & little bracelets for the boys with their Hawaiian names on them. 

Gavin 'Kawine' & Liam 'Liama'

They love them & actually keep them on pretty well. The chocolates were gone in about 24 hours. Yum!

The boys both love playing in the dress ups. It's so fun watching them interact & play together. 

Love my Batmans!

Check out the lashes on Liam! So long, full & beautiful. Love my handsome boy in the black bat mask.

Saturdays are my day to sleep in. Doug & Laura took the boys to Home Depot for errands & they were having their 1st Saturday of the month craft. Wahoo for good timing! Gavin was in his element & had a great time painting his bird house. Liam had fun eating all the cookies. When they left & got in the car, Doug realized that Gavin had packed his apron pocket full of cookies! I wonder if he was thinking, "I'll be too busy painting to eat so I'll just take them home." Silly boy!

Like I mentioned, Gavin likes to play in dress ups. He also likes to go into our closet & put on mom & dads clothes sometimes. This is what he came out in one night.

Whad up?! Gansta G iz in da house! Rappin it Elmo style booooyyyyzz!

I seriously love this kid. He is soooo funny & cracks us up all the time.

 This kid is getting very vocal & very LOUD! So when he is done with being in the car, we all know it. Thankfully, a simple rice krispie treat saves the day & keeps him happy for the duration of this car ride. :)

{Mall Activity}
We always look forward to the Wednesday Mall Activity where the kiddos can run around & get crazy while enjoying snacks, face painting, songs & crafts.

 

 Liam & cute Colette kickin back.

 FLASH!

 Gavin is always soooo excited when we get to babysit Solo & Wren sometimes. I love it because they just entertain themselves & have a great time playing together. Look at those handsome faces!

 

Liam LOVES, LOVES, LOVES dessert. Cookies, cake, candy, you name it & he'll eat it with a big ol grin on his face. Haha! Now, if only I could get him to eat his healthy food with such vigor.....

 

 

 Gavin at swimming lessons. He is in his third session & still loving it. He is working on his big arm strokes, turning to his back to take a break & swimming farther distances.

 We took a family night walk to the store & these two were hamming it up as usual. Love Liam face!

Gavin has been back to taking naps in the late afternoon. However, they mostly take place on my bed these days. But I'll take it no matter the location. Having that hour and a half to myself is golden. :)

Liam had his first haircut! There wasn't much to cut, but we had to get rid of the whispy pieces by his ears & right in front. He had a major comb over look going on. No dice. Even though there wasn't much to cut I think it totally changed his look. Liam is getting so big! I'm losing my baby day by day. :(

Doug wanted to get a work out one morning so he turned on some Insanity. The minute it was on the boys were working out right along side him. It was so cute! They got their high knees down pretty good. I guess everyone loves a little Shaun T right?!

I've been wanting to have Gavin start doing some chores around the house & matching socks was the perfect place to begin. He LOVED helping me with the laundry & felt so big & proud of himself. He did do a great job too.

{Beach Day}
We went to the beach with some friends & got to use some new sand toys that we got.

 

 

 This huge sand bank made for a fun spot for the kiddos. They were jumping off, sliding down, climbing...so fun! They Gavin decided to build a 'ramp' for him to go down on with the boogie board. Genius! Who would have thought we would be doing some sledding of our own in Florida in January?!

 

 We had the Trockels over after the beach for a little BBQ. This is what I got when I told them to say 'cheese'. Silly boys!

{Sundays}
We have church at noon now which is nice because we get to be lazy all morning & take our time getting ready. You'd think having all morning to get ready we would be on time, but that is simply not the case. We are ALWAYS late!  *sigh* Well this particular Sunday we were actually all ready on time that I just had to make documentation of it with a picture or two. I sure love these handsome boys of mine!

 

 Staying on topic of Sundays & firsts (ya know the being on time part..) I purchased my first leopard print piece & got the courage to try it out at church. Okay, there aren't many other places for me to get dressed up so it was pretty much my only option. Haha! I felt a little weird bold wearing it, but I got a lot of compliments & have jumped on the band wagon of animal prints. I've always liked them on others, I just never had the courage to wear it myself. As Gavin always puts it, I was being "Brave!".

Being in the primary presidency is great! With the new year we had to make some changes to be more on the organized side so that we don't feel disheveled & all over the place on Sundays. Our ward has a lot of investigators & we are constantly having to place kids in the right classes etc. And being a new presidency we are still learning names, ages, classes ourselves. I had seen chair covers before, but they always look super worn out, lame or too over the top (dang pinterest). But I took on the challenge of making some chair covers for our primary because we knew they would help us & the kids & visitors out a lot! The actual making of the covers was not hard. It just took some measuring, cutting & sewing to put them all together. I used plastic sheet protectors & cut them up so I could sew 3 sides to the cover to create a pocket. That way when we get new teachers or have to combine classes etc all we have to do is print a new sheet & slide it right in. So easy & convenient. I just LOVE how they turned out! 

{Park Playdate}
We love going to the park when it's not too hot out. Liam is starting to really like exploring & climbing & trying to be a big kid. I really don't like the age mixed with parks. He gives me & my heart little panics the entire time. Luckily, he really likes the swings so we spend a good amount of time on those.

We put Hayden & Liam in together & they had fun swinging spider style. Well, Hayden looks like he is enjoying it more, but Liam did have fun too. :)

 Taking a little snack break.

 And stealing Colette's apple. Silly boy!

The boys playing in a box!

{Lunch date}
I have been craving a lunch date at Panera Bread so thankfully Lisa was on board with idea & joined us. :) It was crazy packed & busy, but the kids did great all due to Lisa's iPad & a movie. Love technology these days. Lunch was tasty & just what I needed. I'm so glad to have good friends.

 Tynley & Lisa