Rurka Family Photos

We had pictures taken while we were in Seattle and here are a few of our favorites! 

Looks like Christmas!

For the first time in my life, I have Christmas lights on my house!  Growing up there was always a house that had green and white lights and I've always loved the clean and simple look of the two colors together.  I was determined to do the same for the boys this year so put up lights in our yard.  It was a lot easier than I thought and the boys were ecstatic.  Gavin said, "Lights on my house!  Thank you Mommy!" (or maybe it was 'I love you' - is it bad that I can't remember?).  I will make the house as festive as possible so that the boys to grow up having fond memories of this time of year. 

We took the boys to a local park to look at Christmas lights.  The boys loved it but it was cold.

We stopped by the base children's Christmas party and Gavin told Santa not just once, but twice that he wanted a monster truck, race car, and dinosaur.  Thank goodness I didn't bring a present to give him at the party because it had to be a book.  Gavin would have been very upset with Santa. 

  

Another girl and I held a Christmas party at my house for the women in our Sunday school class.  Great ladies!!!

Gavin and I had a mommy/son date and he took me to Columbia where we ate lunch with our friends, Andrea and Brady, and then went to her house and work.  She's a local newscaster and Gavin practiced his anchorman skills. 

Andrew took me on a mommy/son date later in the afternoon and we went on a fun shopping trip where we strolled the aisles of the commissary and BX.   

My boys

Toddler beds and Thanksgiving

Look who is in a toddler bed!  Andrew was so excited to get rid of the crib rails and be in a bed like Gavin's. 

He is doing exceptionally well and we haven't had any major problems.  However, I do have to go into his room every night because he'll get out of bed after it's lights out and drag everything within reach into bed with him.  I have learned that I need to put everything out of arm's length.  Here is an example of Andrew when I forgot to put his books, shoes, and extra blanket away ...  

The Rurka boys at Cici's for lunch.  Can you tell that the boys love olives and pepperoni pizza?

We headed Gram and Gramps in Savannah for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.  As usual, we had a great time and kept ourselves busy by going to the park and mall.  Here are a few pictures from our trip.

The Oglethorpe Mall has a cute little Christmas train running the food court length of the mall.  Andrew kicked, rolled around on the ground, and screamed, "Train! Train! TRAIN!!!" and was not happy until we put him on one of the cars.  Then when he saw that I wasn't going on the ride with him he freaked out even more so I had to hop on and he calmed down once the train started moving.  Oh the joys of an almost two year old.  Gavin, on the other hand, amazingly, waited very patiently and loved the entire ride.

Gavin wanted me to sit in the bathroom with him so I took the camera and documented the faces of Gavin while going number two.

The boys love going to the playground so we took them there on our last day in Savannah.

 Andrew was put into time out but had fun, nontheless ...

Andrew was scared of walking across one of the big toys because it is a simulated dinosaur's backbone and was wet and had bumps and holes along the entire thing.  Here he is attempting to climb it with me coaxing him on the other side.  You can tell from the pictures how nervous he was at the beginning and then how happy he was to have completed it!

I saw Gavin hanging off of the swing like this, holding completely still.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Pop-pop told me to do that".  Ummmm, really Dad?  This is how you teach Gavin to swing?