Happy Birthday Gavin!

Man, oh man! I cannot believe my tiny little boy is now a toddler! In this past year, this little boy has managed to teach me more about life than I've learned in all the previous years combined. He's managed to steal my heart and wrap me around his little finger. His smile lights up everyone around him. And I'm so glad to call him my son.

Happy birthday, Gavin. I love you more than you'll ever know.

What's Gavin up to?

...the answer to that is....he's everywhere! He's pretty much a mix between a bull in a china shop and an energizer bunny. Time is flying by so fast (mainly because I spend most of my days chasing after a little one) and I cannot believe Gavin will be turning 1 in a week. This little boy just makes me smile. He learns something new everyday and I just watch him in amazement. So, here's a little update.

• He eats everything! He still eats Stage 3 foods with table food mixed in. He's getting to the point where he'd rather eat what we're eating so I've started giving him more grown up food. He loves green beans, broccoli, french toast sticks and macaroni and cheese. And spaghetti. And yogurt. And graham crackers. And I could on and on. Whatever you put in front of him, he eats it!



• He's not quite walking yet but he's trying his hardest! He's taken a few steps here and there but he still crawls mostly. His new favorite past time is running along the couch, reaching over to the coffee table and running around that. He'll do that like 50 times and keep going. He wears me out just watching him.



• He loves dogs! He loves to play with Jack at our house. He'll crawl up to Jack and stick his finger on Jack's nose. Gavin thinks it's funny because Jack always licks his finger when he does that. He also loves to terrorize Candy (my mom's dog) during the day. I say terrorize because he tries to run her over in the walker. Poor Candy.



• He loves bath time. He splashes and makes a mess and has a good ole time. The only thing he doesn't like is getting his hair rinsed out (mainly my fault because I ALWAYS get water in his eyes.....oops). He's usually ok if I sing the itsy bitsy spider to him while rinsing his hair though.



• He DOES NOT like the word no. It hurts his feelings. Most of the time I get this little look though....I think it might be his puppy dog face. It's usually followed by a little mischievious grin and then he goes back to whatever it was he was doing before hearing the awful "n" word.

And, just because he's so darn cute, here are a few pictures from tonight. Gavin and I headed outside to water some plants this evening and I decided to snap a few pictures while I was there.

I'll be playing catch up with this blog over the next few weeks so I'll be posting stuff out of order. Stay tuned!

Happy Easter everyone!

Easter Egg Hunt

This morning, we headed over to our neighbor's house for a neighborhood easter egg hunt! I can't even tell you how much I love our neighborhood. There's only about 10 houses in our neighborhood but we always have neighborhood get togethers. Gavin was just so excited about his first easter egg hunt, can't you tell?

We grabbed his first egg and didn't really know what to do with it.

So, he decided to try and eat it.

He found a total of 3 easter eggs and he seemed pretty proud of himself.

Day 18: Photo Challenge

Day 18: A picture of your biggest insecurity

My recently acquired flabby stomach. Courtesy of Gavin. Now it just rolls over my pants. Just lovely.

Day 17: Photo Challenge

A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.... Yes, that's right folks! A pregnancy test! I was four days late. Lonnie and I went to Target and I figured I would pick one up. We stood on the aisle looking them over and finally just decided on this one. After all, I didn't really think I was pregnant. We got home and Lonnie couldn't take it any longer. He told me to go pee on the stick. So I did. I peed on it and then put it on the counter and walked away. I couldn't stay in the bathroom with it....just waiting. Waiting drives me crazy. Lonnie didn't make it the entire 3 minutes. He had to go check. Waiting makes him crazy too. He goes in and then I hear, "Uhh, Kari....there are two lines but one is really, really faint." I looked at the paper that came with the pregnancy test to see what a faint line meant. Yep, I was pregnant. I still didn't believe it though. So I whipped out my handy dandy "What to Expect When You're Expecting" to see what it said. I found the section about pregnancy tests and read it out loud to Lonnie. He looked like a kid in a candy store. He was just so excited. Poor guy couldn't even watch his Carolina Basketball game that was on the television. He grinned from ear to ear the rest of the night. It was December 22, 2009. The day that changed everything.

Day 14: Photo Challenge

Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without

He's only been in my life for 7 months, but I can't imagine my life without him now. He amazes me every day and I'm so thankful that I've been blessed with him. I won't be able to give him everything he ever wants but I will be able to love him more than he'll ever know.

Day 13: Photo Challenge

photo via Day 13: A picture of a band or artist you love.

Garth Brooks. My all time favorite artist. I've been trying to figure out how I can afford to go to Las Vegas to see one of his live shows, but the tickets are like $250 a piece!

Day 12: Photo Challenge

Day 12: A picture of something you love.

Meet my third love. After Gavin and Lonnie of course! This is my phone, my calculator, my entertainment while pumping at work, my ipod, my email, my internet, my camera, my video camera, my shopping list....and the list goes on and on.....I will never be able to go back to an ordinary phone.

Day 11: Photo Challenge

Day 11: A picture of something you hate.

Laundry. Enough said. At least this little fella makes folding towels a little more enjoyable!

Sunday afternoons

Sunday afternoons are made for walking around the neighborhood and sporting my cool shades :)

Day 9: Photo Challenge

Taken at my graduation...Dec 2009

Day 9: A picture of someone that has gotten you through the most

My mom is probably going to kill me for posting a picture of her. Or call me a bitch. Cause that's what we do :) Either way. But of course she's the one that has gotten me through the most!

Day 8: Photo Challenge

A picture that makes you laugh....

This picture was taken with my phone when Gavin was about 5 weeks old. It was the first time I captured a smile on camera. The spit up coming out of his mouth gives this picture a little extra something, don't you think? I laugh every time I see this. Sorry, it's totally gross, I know.

Day 6: Photo Challenge

photo via

Day 6: A picture of someone you'd like to trade places with for a day Meet Kate Middleton. Getting ready to marry Prince William. A princess wedding...sign me up!

Day 5: Photo Challenge

Taken at Animal Kingdom in 2008

Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory

This was our first real vacation together by ourselves. And we had a blast! We visited all of the Disney parks, Sea World and Universal Studios. We did what we wanted and when we wanted to do it. We laughed, drank free beer at the hotel, rode roller coasters, ate good food and just enjoyed each other's company. The best vacation ever!

Day 4: Photo Challenge

Picture taken with my iphone tonight

Day 4: A photo of your night

My nights always feel so rushed. I get home from work and greet Gavin with some play time while Lonnie gets dinner going. I feed Gavin his dinner and then Lonnie and I eat. Lonnie then washes bottles while I give Gavin a bath. This is when I slow down. Gavin is starting to love bath time. He loves to splash the water and play with his little rubber ducky. I scrub him down and then let him play for a little bit. Then, diaper, pajamas, and bed!

7 months old...a couple days late

I cannot believe this little man is 7 months old already! Well, 7 months and a few days. Here's what he's up to....

• We found a funny word. Every time you say "squeak" you get a belly laugh from him. I don't know why it is so funny to him, but Lonnie and I will say it over and over again just to get a laugh from him.


• He loves peak-a-boo. Again, great big belly laughs when we play this game.


• He scoots on his back around the living room. But he will not play on his belly. I continue to torture him on a daily basis but he usually just gives me a pitiful little cry until I pick him up.


• He thinks our dog is hilarious. Jack will start running around the house and turns his head back and forth to follow him.


• He blows raspberries when you're feeding him. I'm not quite sure who actually needs to wear a bib...me or him.


• He's wearing 6 month clothes and some 6-9 month clothes. He just started wearing Size 3 diapers. They look huge on him but Size 2 diapers were too small.


• He grabs everything and puts it in his mouth. Except teething rings. Those don't go in his mouth. Little stinker.


• He eats everything you put in front of him. He hasn't rejected anything that I've put in his mouth. Hopefully he stays that way.


• He loves to stand. He'll actually stand on his own while grabbing the coffee table for a few seconds. Until he decides to start bouncing.

I think we're going to see a lot of changes with him in the next month and I can't wait!

Day 3: Photo Challenge

I freakin love this show. Its pathetic how many times I've watched each episode. I have all 10 seasons on DVD and I still watch them over and over again. I don't know what is worse. The fact that I can recite just about every episode or that they still make me laugh out loud even when I know what's coming. And because I'm really this pathetic, I don't go on a road trip without at least one season of friends. Our portable DVD player travels with us to keep us entertained on road trips. We hook up the sound through the speakers and "listen" to Friends on our car trips. I told you I was pathetic.

My favorite episodes:

• The one where Rachel tells Ross she's pregnant. His face is priceless! And the fact that he is "indignant as a consumer" because he didn't know condoms weren't 100% safe just cracks me up.


• The one in Barbados where Joey disappears in the hotel room. Rachel can't find Joey because Monica and Chandler have pulled him through the door of their adjoining room. Rachel spins in circles, looks under the bed, behind curtains. And Ross asks her if she knows where Joey is and she says "I really really don't." I laugh out loud. Every time.

Day 2: Photo Challenge

Taken at my baby shower last June

Day 2: A picture of someone you've been the closest with the longest

Ya’ll probably already know Dana over at Hancock Heir. She rocks. She keeps me sane at work. We met at work in 2003. We didn’t immediately click. Mainly because she hung out with the loser who slept at his desk (haha!) But she asked me if I wanted to go out to lunch one day and we’ve been friends ever since.

We’ve had doors slammed in our faces together.

We’ve shared many drunken Friday nights just sitting on my screened in porch until the wee hours of the morning.

We’ve griped and complained to each other over stupid stuff that we know we are being petty about.

We share an office at work.

We usually don’t even have to speak to know what each other is thinking.

We shared my husband for a while. (ha! Not in the weird way you are probably thinking. Dana was just as good at nagging my husband as I was so he coined her as his Wife #2).

We’ve been pregnant together and had our babies on the same day. At the same hospital. And no one was the least bit surprised about this. Except us :)

And we’ve been there for each other every step of the way.

Just visiting....

A couple weekends ago, we headed over to my brother's house for dinner. They have a son, Jacob, that just turned 2 in January.

He showed us that he's going to be a little baseball player. And, Gavin test drove Jacob's little car that he got for Christmas.

Jacob decided it was easier to push than to drive.....

My dad and my brother....like father, like son....beers in hand.

We had fun visiting with everyone and I hope to do it again soon!