This year we were really excited to celebrate Gavin’s 1st Halloween! A couple months ago we started looking for a costume and thought about dressing Gavin as an Ewok, Yoda, or Chewbacca. But, once we saw the Darth Vader costume we knew it was the one. The first one we purchased was too small so we ended up getting a size 1-2T for our tall boy. Isn’t he just the cutest Darth Vader ever?!
After getting Gavin all dressed up, and after taking a few pictures, we headed out to go trick-or-treating with our neighbors and their little guy.
Of course, Mommy and Daddy had to dress up as well.
As a part of the Halloween festivities we also carved a few pumpkins. We wanted to do the Yo Gabba Gabba theme since it’s Gavin’s favorite show!
And, Chanin made some roasted pumpkin seeds. Yuuummmmm…
Grandma was in town (from Idaho) to celebrate Halloween with us this year. We’ll post some more pictures later of Gavin with Grandma!
Our little dude was born shortly after Halloween last year so this year will be his first time celebrating the spooktacular day. We already have the costume ready and the trick-or-treat plans have been made (and will include Grandma from Idaho!). So, of course, we took Gavin to the pumpkin patch for the 1st Annual Carr Family Pumpkin Picking Parade (yeah, I just made that up, so what?!).
After some Internet research we decided to head to Mother Nature’s Farm in Gilbert, AZ.
When we first arrived we picked mommy and daddy pumpkins.
Gavin had a lot of fun playing in the pumpkin patch and really loved the hay! So much that he started to eat it.
At the farm Gavin got to pick a little pumpkin and decorate it. We turned into competitive parents and tried to find all of the best stickers for our little pumpkin head.
After elbowing all of the other parents out of the way we strolled around to look at the animals and took a little hayride.
We had loads of fun at the pumpking patch and are looking forward to carving them up and roasting some pumpkin seeds. YUUUMMM…..
Here’s the slideshow with many more pics of the little guy.
This year baby Gavin celebrated his first Christmas! He pretty much slept through the festivities but we think he was excited when he saw all of his presents. So excited he peed his diaper (or maybe that was just from the formula)!
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We had a lot of fun with the little guy and we’re looking forward to when he’s a little older and gets excited about a visit from Santa.
This past Saturday was a big day for little Gavin. It was his first time meeting Santa!
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We braved the frigid Arizona weather (OK, it was probably in the 40’s) and went to a local Santa location. Luckily, there is a very kind and generous family in Maricopa that allows Santa to set up shop for the local kids to visit. They don’t charge for photos and only ask for donations which benefit other Maricopa citizens.
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Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…..the pictures!
OK, so we’re a little late but better late than never!
*** Happy Thanksgiving! ***
Chanin’s parents were in town and her Mom cooked up a mean turkey dinner. If they hadn’t come to visit we probably would’ve had Thanksgiving dinner at McDonalds. So anyway we had:
Roasted Turkey
Yams with Marshmallows on Top.
Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
Green bean Casserole
Cornbread Stuffing
Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Pie
Chanin and I helped out with the green bean casserole, stuffing, and cranberry sauce but Chanin’s mom did the rest. It was a lot of work and we’re very thankful we were able to have a nice Thanksgiving with our new addition and some of our family members. I wanted to give Gavin a turkey leg to suck on but decided against it.
This past Mother’s Day we took a little trip to Idaho to visit with the family. It was really nice to see all of the bros, our sis-in-law Rebecca, niece and nephew, my Mom and Mark, and the grandparents. We spent some time hanging out and Chanin finally got to see a little bit of Idaho.
Unfortunately, shortly after we arrived Chanin developed a really bad toothache! Luckily, we were able to find an emergency dentist and she got a partial root canal done (the rest to finish later). To make a long story short she now has an empty spot where that tooth was, but feels much better now.
Even though Chanin wasn’t feeling great we still had a good time and had a nice BBQ on Mother’s Day. Also, my Mom surprised Chanin with an early birthday party including a birthday cake and some gifts. That made Chanin a happy camper.
Below is a little slideshow of some of the pictures. The funny looking guys are my bros (I’m the handsome one).
If you’ve been reading the site you may already know that we’ve been contemplating which type of Christmas tree to buy. Real or Fake. We thought about it and eventually decided to go with a fake tree because we were just too worried about a real tree drying out and burning our house down. We spent a few hours this past weekend traveling around to some local stores to see what they had in stock. We had also looked online but the sticker shock was too much for us. Artificial trees can get really expensive so we were pretty surprised.
If you’re looking for an artificial tree we’d suggest looking at Michael’s (craft store) and Lowe’s since that’s where we had the best luck. We also looked at a few other stores including a pool store (Paddock Pools) but decided we weren’t ready to spend $600+ on a fake tree!!! Our tree from Lowe’s wasn’t exactly cheap but it looks real and nice and full.
Setting up the tree was pretty easy and it was nice to have a clean floor when I was done (no more pine needles!). We spent this evening decorating the tree and we’re really happy with how it turned out. The biggest downside is that it just doesn’t smell like a Christmas tree. We bought some special spray, which helps, but nothing can really replace that real tree smell. A few pictures are attached below and you can click them to enlarge them. This pictures don’t really do the tree justice but you get the idea.
First of all, we’re talkin’ about Christmas trees here, not the “assets” of Baywatch stars. Since Christmas is around the corner and we’ve been thinking about what type of Christmas tree to get this year. In the past we always had natural (“real”) trees and last year we even went to a tree lot where you pick the one you want and they cut it down for you. The problem we have with real trees is that they dry out so quickly. And now that we live in a really dry climate we’re worried that our house might burn down if we get a real tree. So, we’ve been looking at the artificial (“fake”) trees online and have found that they’re really REALLY expensive. Like $500 expensive. Sure, we could buy one at a local retailer but to us they just don’t look “real” enough.
What do you think?
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