Getting Back to Normal

Seriously, I'm ready for some normalcy.  Since just before we left for Tennessee, we've been so out of routine.  We were only home for four days and I was still not caught up when we had visitors come.  Mitch and Becky came down for a fishing tournament and stayed in a house on Beaver Lake so the week consisted of a lot of going back and forth, spending time with them, Jarrod taking off work to fish with Mitch, and basically going day by day because I never knew if we were going to be here, at the lake house, and what our dinner plans would be.  So...now I get to get back into the swing of things big time because we're back on track.  Visitors are gone, we're not going anywhere, Jarrod's going back to work...  

Here are a few quick photos from the lake house.  It was a nice place for a little getaway.  Wood burning fireplace {gosh, I miss having a wood burning fireplace!}, lake views, lots of board games.  Gavin loved going there (but of course was bored after a couple hours because all his toys weren't there)....  And of course, being out of our own element had our own challenges.  It wasn't baby proofed at all, so that was hard, and one day we weren't planning to be there long and she fell asleep; despite me surrounding her with pillows, she still fell off the bed.  :(  Needless to say, no matter how nice of a getaway it was, it's still so nice to be back to our regular routine.

 

A week ago today...

....was Thanksgiving! So, I'm finally getting around to uploading the pictures and wanted to share with you all what we did.

The day started out a bit rough for me. I'd made the pea salad the night before, knowing I'd have to make Grandma's cole slaw on Thanksgiving morning. Well, I guess because I went to bed with it on my mind, it made me dream about grandma. She was here helping me make the cole slaw. :) It was great to see her in my dreams, but it made me wake up sad, knowing it was our first Thanksgiving without her. Luckily, I had lots of hugs from Jarrod and Gavin to make me feel better.

We made some coffee, enjoyed the parade with Gavin (you should have seen how excited he was to see the Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba floats!), and then got started on the cooking. I made the cole slaw (yummy!) and Jarrod made a new mac and cheese recipe. (Yes...it's really mac and cheese....with lots of bacon and onions on top!)

Then, we headed to John and Erin's. The weather was surprisingly nice! John, Jarrod and another manager, Dan, spent much of the afternoon hanging outside, while Gavin and I played inside with Erin. Gavin was lots of help...he took all their bowls out of the cupboards!

Here you go, Mama!John fried a turkey outside. It was really good! Of course, the beautiful weather turned to rain just as the turkey was finishing up. Oh well....it could have been worse :)

We got the table set, and Gavin kept himself busy playing the drums with the silverware and dishes. He was having a ball! I took a ton of pictures, but most of them turned out blurry.
And, here's the gang around the table. They look thrilled, huh? John's hiding in his hoodie; Jarrod isn't even looking... Boys....

And lastly, just a couple cute pictures ~ a family shot, and one of Gavin and his mama. :)

We ate entirely too much. Gavin, of course, didn't eat much of anything. Oh well...his time will come when he'll realize how much his family loves food! We were exhausted when we got home. I got both my boys in bed by 7:45 (that's what happens when you have to be up at 2am for Black Friday sales at Sam's!) and I spent the evening watching the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends on the couch. A great ending to a great Thanksgiving!

Gavin's (and Mommy's) 1st OSU game

Yes, we've been so busy lately I haven't had time to blog. Sorry...please forgive me. One of the reasons I haven't been on was the big OSU vs. Toledo game this past weekend. Of course, you know Jarrod and I are alumni of UT, so when we heard they were playing our Buckeyes in Cleveland, we jumped. It's a half way point, so on top of seeing so many of our old friends from college, we were able to meet my family there as well.

We stayed with Greg and Cor Friday night and were up SUPER early for tailgating the next morning...like 5am early! We got to the lot at 6, and instead of sleeping in the car like I thought he would, he was wide awake and tailgated with us. We hung out with friends and family until the game started, eating lots of good food and playing cornhole. When Gavin couldn't take it any longer, my mom, Aunt Sandy, and Bri took him for the day, and dad and Tyler went with us to the game.

The game was a total blowout, and considering we were all freezing (our seats were in the shade...) and we all had a 4+ hour drive home, we decided to leave in the 3rd quarter. We hit up Skyline (of course!) for dinner and made the drive back home.

Here are some of the pictures:

Gavin giving his dog a ride in his dump truck. The family shot...notice how dark it was!
Gavin's ready for the game!

The boys all grown up...takes you back to the college days, huh?

Greg, Jason, Jarrod, and Todd

The 3 Gs...Grandma, Grandpa, and Gavin

Another shot...and yes, Jarrod let Gavin hold the beer for the picture :)

Aunt Megan with Gavin

Loved seeing the girls again! Lauren, Angie and me...Thanks for getting the shirts made, Ang!

Love this shot of us! I love you, Jarrod!

Hanging out with Greg and Courtney is always so much fun! We love you guys!

Fun weekend

I love when we have such good weekends! Jarrod worked on Saturday, so Gavin and I just hung out here at the apartment. We went for a walk/jog in the morning before the rain came. I did some laundry and cleaning, and we read a lot of books and played.
When Jarrod got home, we headed to John and Erin's for dinner. They made us a yummy dinner, as usual. Flank steak, tuna steaks, and corn on the cob. I was actually quite surprised that I liked the tuna. Gavin wobbled around their place while Duncan ran circles around him. It was quite cute. We weren't sure how it would go at bedtime, so I kinda thought we would end up leaving, but Jarrod laid down on the bed with Gavin and he went right to sleep, so we were able to spend some time with good friends. We drank some wine...then some coffee and watched a disgusting episode of Dirty Jobs. Yuck! We left around 11, and Gavin did so well. He fell right back to sleep in the car, and again when we got home in his bed. Jarrod and I, however, were wide awake since we'd had coffee. So, it was more Friends for us...this time instead of John and Erin, we were joined by Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe. :) We finally decided to head to bed around 12:30 knowing Gavin would be waking us up in about 6 hours.
Sunday morning we went through winter clothes. Just as I'd feared, most of what we already have for Gavin this winter is no where close to fitting him. His coat Aunt Rosi bought him swallows him. Guess we'll have to do more shopping! We headed to this little family restaurant for breakfast and ran a few errands, then it was a lazy Sunday. Love those days! Naps for all, some Sesame Street with Gavin, a quick walk to enjoy the cool weather and an easy dinner with minimal clean-up. Jarrod and Gavin had bathtime, then it was to bed for the little guy. Jarrod watched some TV while I ironed and we headed to bed. We got a lot done, had some fun family time, and just enjoyed the weather. Love weekends like that!

Meeting Addy

This weekend, we were so thrilled to have Greg, Courtney and Addy come visit. We haven't had a weekend together since before Adelyn was born, so it was our first time meeting the little girl...or should I say big girl??? :) Though she is 8 1/2 months younger than Gavin, she's bigger than him already. Such a cutie! And you should her her babble ~ it must be a girl thing! We had a great time, and are lucky enough to get to see them again next weekend while in Cleveland for Heidi's Tastefully Simple party.

What does she have???

All dressed up for my little girlfriend :)

Flashback Friday

I know it's not much of a "flashback" but this week's pictures are from two weeks ago. These pictures show our final memories in Ohio.

Thursday night, our last night in our house, we ordered Ron's Pizza and ate on the futon (on the floor). Gavin loved the pizza...if you look closely, you can see he's sitting on the box!

Bad angle, thanks to a self-timer
Valinda took this family picture in front of our house. Sadly, I think it's the only time we took a picture in front of our hosue on Carolyn Drive. The greatest neighbor ever! What are we going to do in NY without Valinda???

Gavin's last day with Joyce. He looks so sad in this picture. Jarrod took him to the sitter, which got him all out of routine, and he cried so hard when Jarrod handed him to Miss Joyce. It took some doing, but Jarrod was able to get a picture with her like I asked him to. Now I have one from his first day and one from his last day for his baby book!

This is the moving truck Sam's provided! We could have lived in the truck :)

Before heading out, we had lunch with Jarrod's two bosses from Dayton. Eric and Mitch were always so wonderful to not only him, but to Gavin and me as well. We're going to miss those guys!