Our Tree Tradition

Every year on the day our Christmas tree is put up we exchange an ornament.  This year the boys were both excited to see their new one.  During a scouting session Garrett had requested the Mickey Mouse train so that is what he got and Gannon got a Mickey Mouse horse one.  I thought Dave had enough sports ornaments so I gave him a picture one with our family and he gave me two interlinked engraved hearts with our birthstones.  This is such a fun tradition and our tree is beautiful. 

An Afternoon with Grandpa and Grandma

Garrett, Gannon, and I headed to Modesto to spend the day with Grandpa and Grandma after Thanksgiving.  I love Santa pictures and feel they are a must every year and since they are never the cutest pictures (a screaming kid or two!) I wanted to head to Bass Pro Shop about 20 minutes north of my dad to take a picture with Santa since they were available for free!  Just as I thought Garrett was not the slightest bit excited to sit and visit with Santa, Gannon on the other hand was just shocked by his screaming brother and just sat there, quiet as can be!

After Bass Pro we headed to Grandpa and Grandma's for a little holiday lunch and nap!  Gannon's nap was not little - almost 3 1/2 hours!  Garrett got lots of attention during this time.  I have learned to take the pack n play for Gannon and then we can visit and get a good nap - the best of both worlds!



Giving Thanks!

This year we are thankful for so much.  Our wonderful family, health, jobs, and the food on our table!  Thanks to my little Rachel Ray knock off sister, Taylor, we had a WONDERFUL thanksgiving meal!  I can remember when Taylor was in high school and she would go home after school and watch Rachel Ray for meal ideas.  She would then call Mom with a shopping list for the evenings meal.  She continues to love to cook and our Thanksgiving meal was a reflection of this! The turkey was seriously one of best I've ever had.  Instead of being stuffed with stuffing Taylor used a whole lemon, onion, and garlic clove all cut in half with some type of fresh herb.  It was SO yummy.  Add that to her gravy and yellow mashed potatoes and it was delicious. 



Thanksgiving Preparation

I am so thankful for our little boys...and that they love to cook and clean!  Garrett loves to help add ingredients and now Gannon loves to stir!  If Gannon see Garrett helping with the cooking he has to tug his chair over to the counter too.  So Thanksgiving morning as I was making the pies and green bean casserole the boys HAD to help!  Garrett was so funny when I dumped the pumpkin mix into the bowl, he said "that looks disgusting Mom!" Oh, thanks Garrett!  I love pumpkin pie so this isn't going to stop me from eating it! 

A Visit with Papa

Papa Gossman was headed down to Los Angeles area for Thanksgiving and stopped by for an overnight visit in Shell Beach on his way down. Even though our visit was short, it is nice to see everyone!  Crazy that we took around 10 pictures before these turned out!  Thank goodness for digital cameras!

Exploration Station

In Grover Beach there is an old fire station that was coverted into a science/exploration place for children. This is a great little place to take the kiddo's when it's raining at the beach!  Aunt Shannon and I took the boys to play for a bit in the afternoon.  Gannon loved the little tractor station and Garrett was all over in love.  Cousin Dante enjoyed the air ball machine.  It's fun to watch them explore each in their own little way. 



Christmas before Thanksgiving

I know we are worse than the retail stores!!! Since we aren't going to see Dave's side of the family at Christmas time this year we decided to talk our gifts down with us when we visited at Thanksgiving.  The boys exchanged gifts with cousin Dante so we could see all the boys enjoy their gifts.  Garrett got a new Barbie set, thanks to Toy Story 3 he really wanted one! Aunt Shannon fulfilled this wish!  Gannon is really into trucks and since Garrett never really went through this stage we don't have many.  Now we do, Garrett and Gannon both got new big trucks from cousin Dante.  Dante was equally as excited about his new airplane. 

Horsing Around

Cousin Karley has been in love with horses for a long time now and she now has her very own!  Dave, Shannon, and Karley took the boys for a visit to ride the horse.  Gannon wasn't too sure about this experience, but Garrett went for a ride after some convincing. 

Monarch Butterflies

The Monarch Butterflies visit Pismo from November through April every year.  We have been when the trees are SO full that all you can see is the butterflies.  This is the first time that I remember taking Garrett and Gannon to visit the butterflies.  My parents were down to visit also so they joined us.  It had rained quiet a bit the night before so some of the butterflies can fallen off the tree onto the walking path.  This is where you find out if you have gentle boys or not....our boys are gentle.  They were very careful to watch where they were walking to be sure not to step on a stuck butterfly.  The man would then take them by their wings and place them back on the safest area for them.  It is amazing to see how many there are.  Gannon could even say butterfly by the time we left.

A Night Out

My parents came down to visit for the first time since Dave and I started dating so Dave's sister Shannon said she would watch the boys for us to go enjoy a nice dinner.  When we went to take them to her house she said, "oh, just leave them over night".  Since we don't get a night out very often you think I would be all over this, I wasn't.  I had to think about it over dinner and then we called after to check on them and said okay!  They boys love Aunt Shannon and Uncle Joe and they are always so FUN for the boys.  They had a great time and so did we.

After a nice dinner with my parents we met up with Juan and Heather who were out celebrating her birthday.  We had a few drinks with them at a wine bar before heading to Bill's, a local bar.  Bill's is a crazy little place, lots of freaks and karaoke!  It was a fun night out without having to rush back to relieve a babysitter, we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves!

 Juan and Dave

Heather dancing!

Cousin's Visit

Dave and I had the week of Thanksgiving off so for the first 5 days we headed down to camp at Pismo Sands and we got to spend lots of time with family!  First stop was breakfast with Gramma Toni and then off to visit Dante.  Dante was in shock with my big boys taking over his toys at first.  Gannon was in heaven because Dante had a few big trucks, which he loves.  Garrett had fun with the farm toys and computer toys.  It was so cute, by the end of the visit Dante was mimicking Garrett's actions!  It's always so fun to watch the boys play.

 Not so sure about this visit!

 Gannon in love this with truck!

Gramma Toni and Dante

Oh Bananas!

Gannon has never been a big fan of fruit, but recently has taken to pears, bananas, mandarin oranges, and has always like applesauce.  We didn't think anything of it and starting giving him fruit.  This particular weekend Gannon had bananas for breakfast, a few slices for dinner on Sunday and Monday night he ate almost a whole banana and they had bananas at school on Monday too.  When I picked him up from school on Tuesday this is what he looke like! Oh my, what happened to my baby's face!?!  I called our pediatrician right away and went straight there!  The first thing she asked was, "what did he eat?"  The only thing different in his diet was the bananas.  Holy cow, NO MORE BANANAS!  After two doses of alergy meds he was fine. 

I told the school no bananas for Gannon!  A week or so later, his poor teacher didn't realize the blueberry muffins were made with bananas until after he ate it.  CONFIRMED...no bananas.  He broke out with a few red bumps on his face, but nothing like this.  Add this to our list of no, no's for Gannon!

A Birthday Party

Gannon's little friend from school, Owen, invited him to his 2nd birthday party and boy was it fun to watch them be crazy boys. Just Gannon and I went so it was fun to watch Gannon play with his best buddy from school.  It's amazing how different boys the same age play vs how Garrett and Gannon play.  These two boys are ALL boy and the energy they had was amazing.  Running the entire time.  Owen was interested in the first two presents which were both trucks and after that the two of them just ran around and played.  They literally ran so fast it was hard to get a good picture!!!

 Owen and his truck

 Gannon and the police car

Gannon waiting patiently to enjoy some cake!

The Things I Said I'd Never Do

Before we had kids there were lots of "things I will never do"! Yeah, well once you have them you realize that some of those "things" aren't so bad.  To list a few, watching Barney, eating in the living room, and watching TV in their rooms.

We all know Garrett was addicted to Barney for a good year and a half!  Eating in the living room on the boys picnic table is fun every once in a while. And....

Well, football season is here and since we only have one TV and Daddy wanted quiet time to watch football I decided to watch a movie with the boys in Garrett's room.  I set up the portable DVD player and we enjoyed our movie.  Daddy couldn't resist a picture!