i'm not sure if i've already put this picture on my blog, but i love it.

this upcoming weekend is looking great. spending the day with my family on saturday and sunday getting a christmas tree and going to see SANTA!!!!!! i think gavin's excited? every time i say "santa" i say it really excitedly and with a GREAT/hilarious face! i think he's trying to say santa?? it sounds more like, saannn, but i'll take it! this year is going to be so much fun with gavin. he's ALL OVER THE PLACE so he's going to have a blast with our familys and the gifts. we're going to wrap a few more boxes this year and put them under the tree so gavin can unwrap them. i wish he would stay this way forever... like unwrapping rather than whats in the box??

i simply cannot wait to decorate the tree(s) this year. we have a christmas tree in EVERY room, including the garage, and basement.. but minus the bathroom- it's too small! the garage you say? yes! i keep all the beer cans/bottles the boys drink and put them on ribbon and hang them from the tree. last year i did find some empty cigarette cartons and put them on there as well. it's totally for fun, and usually the guys think it's pretty funny as well and add something to it every time they come over. we ended up with a few receipts and a condom on the tree last year!

i just got some new tires on my car, well maybe it was like august, but they still seem new to me, and i am so happy! they are fabulous! i can totally tell the difference in the snow and ice. i'm not so nervous when the roads are bad and i'm driving around with gavin anymore. thanks dan. dan also is getting new tires on his lovely work car tonight. thankfully he doesn't have to pay as near as much for these tires as he did for mine.. and he and the boys will put them on themselves i'm sure. oh, dan finally finished maddys kennel/doggy door tonight. it's so great now that it's winter to have her in the warmth instead of the freezing, frigid temperatures. next up, the bathroom!

AND we're starting potty training next week!!!!!! not sure what to expect.

i can't believe that it's almost december, and soon there will be a new year! so much has happened this year and it has gone by so fast!

i really need to finish updating my blog. i started one night and then never finished. i want to wait until we get our family pictures back (crossing my fingers) to add some new ones to the page.

giving thanks.

so thankful.

i am so thankful for so much in my life.

gavin
dan
our families
maddy, bella, lilly
our home
freedom
safety
dan's wonderful job
love
our faith
kisses
the joy that gavin brings to our hearts
the snow :)
delicious food
pandora
good movies
friends
dan, mine and gavin's health
our heated garage ;)
the holidays
jimmy johns
gossip girl, haha
wine


to go along with how thankful i am is how nervous i am for our family pictures. we tried someone different this time and i'm NERVOUS! gavin wasn't the happiest camper and it was cold outside (40, but with wind).. so we'll see. if not i will just self time our camera and do it ourselves. --also, i found this amazing editing program! i played around with it all day today (after installing it for what seemed to be an hour) and found some really great lighting's, tools, ect.
and with the nerves here comes the amazement. our friends are so great. i am B-L-E-S-S-E-D to have each and every single one of them in my life. through the good, bad and everything in between they are there for myself and dan, no questions asked. and.. justine surprised everyone the night before thanksgiving, it was fabulous seeing her face.
and even though the amazement is great, love from my little boy is even better. my poor gavin is having troubles with his sleep. we think he's having night terrors (which start around 18 months if it is so) and wakes up SCREAMING. i've spent a good 10 hours thursday and friday night combined awake, laying in the spare bedroom with gavin playing with my hair, snuggling with his "muuuma." thankfully he seems to be okay if we leave the door open, a night light on and the hallway light on as well. it might send our electricity bill up, but it's worth those couple hours of sleep. secretly, i kind of miss the cuddles.
from love to relief. although gavin brings so much joy&love to my heart i am not ready to have another darling child. i thought i was, but was mistaken. my baby fever is over... for now. so many people around me are getting pregnant and/or having babies, now i'm just excited for them, not jealous! feels good. i'm sure dan has mixed emotions about this.. he can never keep up with my mixed emotions on this subject.

life is... good.

i'm disgusted.

today i just so happened to turn on the tv at 3:02pm. (i try to keep the tv off in the afternoons and with all this christmas music i've found i usually can do it)... the first thing i hear is this child screaming and his mom saying something along the line of "you don't lie to me"... OKAY, you have my complete attention.

it was dr. phil.

today on his show there was this "mother" who had 6 children (woah), some of which were adopted is what i gathered, anyways... this little 7 year old boy, kristoff, got in some sort of trouble at school and received "three pages??" at school- which is a bad thing from what i got. so the kid came home with these warnings from teachers about how he behaved badly in school and the "mother" FLIPPED. she screamed in his face telling him he was a bad kid, a liar, ect ect. THEN she sat him on the counter in the bathroom and filled his mouth with HOT SAUCE!!!!!????!!?!?!?!? WHHHHHHAT the F! she continued to yell at him while he had the hot sauce in his mouth.

-i've had hot sauce in my mouth once at courntie braatz's house when i was in 7th grade, we thought it was fun??, and i've never done a "dare" again like that.

okay, so after this hot sauce she continued to put this kid in a cold shower? WTF? this kid cried and cried and said sorry upon sorry and the "mother" just kept yelling at him. PLUS this was all videotaped by her 10 year old daughter? why would you let your daughter see this? how traumatic for her and this poor kristoff. so she sent this video into dr phil and asked him for help.

everyone in the dr phil audience was disgusted by this woman and had numerous things to say. i didn't end up watching the entire episode but from what i saw this "mother" needs some serious help.

so okay, i watched this and sat and held gavin and tight as i could for as long as he would let me hold on to him, and bawled! it was so sad! here this kid got adopted by this "mother" hoping for a better life than what he had in russia and this is how she treats him. urgh! totally made me mad!

i thought a lot about how upset i sometimes get with gavin and how i get frustrated, and i'm sure i'll get even more upset/frustrated as he gets older, but i could NEVER, i repeat, NEVER traumatize/hit/hurt my child the way she has done to hers. when i was little i got a "whoopin" aka a smack on the ass and an occasional mouth full of soap, when i called my mom the "b word", but that was it. and i still don't think i could do that to gavin. gavin is going through this stage where he's biting (only me), hitting (only me and the poor dog) and throwing things (at me)... but it's not even when he's upset, it's just like something he's doing. he gets to sit in the time out chair for 1.5 minutes, if i can keep him in it for that long, but that's it. i've read enough books/magazines, heard enough that if you hit your child they are more likely to grow up with a troubled life and will be more likely to hit/hurt others, and that is not what i want for my son. seeing gav upset by getting his finger caught in a cupboard is hard enough, let alone knowing you caused your own child pain, i don't know how she can look at herself in the mirror.

this also makes me think of this video about this little boy that died from his mother and her boyfriend abusing him. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO. how disgusting.

honestly my stomach is turning. here God grants you with this amazing gift of a baby, (wither it's yours or not) and these horrible people hurt and kill their children? uuuuuuuuurgh.

i know he's not yours, or 7, but how could you hurt someone like this? every baby/young child is happy like this at some point.

people are digusting

5.28.2011

it's love..

my dear friend, ashley noble is getting married to the love of her life, joel gaullrap. aren't they just adorable together?

i am well aware that she is marrying her best friend and is going to live... happily.ever.after. i am so happy for her and joel and cannot wait to help them celebrate 5.28.2011. they are so beautiful together!

i have NEVER been so jealous of someone in my entire life. in a good, loving, friendly way. she has the most ROCKIN bod i've ever seen, the most beautiful hair, face, lips, eyes- everything, she's petite with some enormous and gorgeous boobs (i'm not a lesbian, i'm just jealous) and an amazing set of legs... URGH I JUST LOVE HER TO DEATH.

she just posted these engagement pictures online and i honestly just fell in love with joel and ash ALL. OVER. AGAIN. THEY ARE TO DIE, I DIE I DIE I DIE!

by the way thomas byers, from minneapolis/st. paul area took these amazing photos. there were 93 of them but these were some of my favorites.

just wait till the wedding... you know i'll be posting TONS of photos! her dress is exquisite! i'm simply obsessed! ashley, if you're reading this i love you and am SO happy for you!

oh no! it's frankenstein!

happy halloween!

from my little frankenstein!

(look at all that drool and if you look close you and see an orange tootsie roll that his godmama kept feeding him)