Father's Day

Daddy and his boys on Father's Day.  Eric and Nolen look like twins and Gavin and Cohen do too!

My boys are soooo blessed to have Eric as their Daddy......he really is the best!

Mommy and Cohen had to have a picture too!

Such a cutie!

Cohen and his cousin Cade had on matching outfits on Sunday (sort of) and so we really wanted to get a picture of them together.

Things probably would have went better if Cade's Mommy would have been in the room.  She was helping with dinner and so myself and several of the other cousins were trying our best. 

Love this blue eyed baby boy!

8 Months Old.......

He is in to everything! He LOVES cords....he knows where every single one is in our living room and the minute you put him down that is the first place he goes.  He is still doing his "soldier crawl" but he is very fast.  He has been getting up off his stomach and in to the crawling position....rocks back and forth and then goes back to his belly. 

He is still wearing size 4 diapers and mostly 12-18 month clothes.  He is a big boy.  He is solid and his thighs are as big around as Nolen's.  He loves to clap and say "yay", is pointing and working on waving.  He has 6 teeth (2 on the bottom and 4 on top).  Cohen is a biter....shoulders, fingers and other things that provide him nourishment.  

 The 2 pictures below are to show you that he doesn't smile ALL the time. 
This is his "I'm getting annoyed face".

And this is his "seriously, I'm over this" face.

I am proud to announce that Cohen is sleeping in his own bed!!  It wasn't really my choice.  I kind of got a sign....a very loud, clear sign.  Cohen fell out of our bed.  It scared me so bad and Eric I decided that it was time. 

I took all the bumpers out....am I crazy for doing this?  He is 8 months old.  Someone please tell me that I am not the only crazy person who can't sleep at night for worrying that my child's face is going to get stuck in the bumpers.

He woke up around 2:30 the first few nights and then slept with me until around 5:30.  I nursed him and then put him back in his bed and he slept til around 8:00.  The last 3 nights he has slept from about 10:30 until 6:30....nursed and then went back to sleep until around 8:30!  He did amazing.....I don't know what I was so worried about!

Cohen continues to be such a joy to our family.  The boys refer to him as "precious baby" and "the best baby in the world". 

Nolie the Performer!

Nolen had a performance on his last day of Mother's Day Out.  Next year he will be in the 4 year old class....and then it is Kindergarten!  Lord, help me!!

As you can hear by Eric and I cracking up in the background....we find these videos hilarious!  What is it about kids in a group singing songs that is so funny?  Well....it could be Nolen's yawning, or staring at Eric, or it could be the fact that he does the same move the entire song and then all of a sudden realizes that everyone else is doing something else so then he does that for a while.  This kid is so funny.....and seriously could not be any cuter!!

A 1st Grader? Really?

I am not sure how this happened....but I have a 1st grader.  Gavin says he wishes he could stay in Kindergarten--and I kind of agree with him!  He is growing up too fast!
We LOVED his teacher this year.  She was amazing with Gavin and totally put my our minds at ease.  At their awards ceremony, every one got an award from Ms. Sherrod.  Gavin got "Awesome all the time", which suits him well!  He also got zero tardy's...us Gifford's like to be on time. 
We are so proud of Gavin.  He is such an amazing little boy and so smart.  His vocabulary and way of thinking continue to entertain us.  He uses big words that he doesn't know what they mean and often pronounces them wrong--which is hilarious.  His new phrase is "well, that was awkward" which he often uses totally out of context. 

They don't do a regular field day in Kindergarten here but they did do a few team events. 

They did a balloon toss, which Gavin and his little partner managed to win even though he never caught the balloon!  It just kept bouncing on the ground but never popped.

They did a few others too but tug-of-war was definitely his favorite.  

We are looking forward to a great summer!  We have been staying up later and sleeping later (thank God)!  Gavin has been sleeping until about 9:15 every day and Nolen slept til 8:45 yesterday, which is a miracle!

We have been swimming every day.  We are looking forward to a visit from Nanu, Krista and Ayla in a few weeks and a cruise with Eric's family at the end of the summer!