A Visit From Grammy Karen!

Last month my mom came out for a week long visit :).  It was nice having her here.  Two days after she arrived Garrett left for a weeks TDY so I was very thankful to have her help kill the time.

We started off by having Gavin's little 1st birthday celebration.

As per tradition, Grammy bought Gavin his first pair of official walking shoes from Stride Rite.  He did not love them so much.

Every time we would put them on him he would just freeze up, unable to put one foot in front of the other, and cry huge irrational crocodile tears.  It was ridiculous.  Finally, I had a brilliant idea.  Bribery.  There is always a time and place for bribing your kids and this was it.  I had been waiting for just the right time to introduce Gavin to the Goldfish Cracker.  As soon as he got a little taste, he found his motivation.  Kayla thought it was just the best thing EVER to plop a little fish in Gavin's mouth with every few steps he'd take.  Don't judge people!  It was a funny sight, but you do what you gotta do to nudge your kiddos out of their mental barriers ;)  Anyways, after about a week, Gavin overcame his little shoe phobia and is walking all over the place now.

The day before Garrett left the weather was beautiful.  The first time really since Christmas that we were able to comfortably play outside.  Kayla practiced riding her big girl bike she got from Santa and Gavin just enjoyed the fresh air.

My mom's birthday is also in January so we had a little celebration for that too....of course we had to put a candle on for Kayla and Gavin as well so they could all blow them out :)

Other than a little shopping trip, we pretty much just hung around the house and enjoyed each others company.

At this age it seems to be nearly impossible to take a descent planned picture of the kids.  Kayla is full on into the goofy fake smile stage and Gavin looks everywhere BUT at the camera.  These were a couple of our best shots:

(I know mom, you're going to kill me for putting one up of you all natural) but this is seriously the only one we got with Kayla and a real smile.