Play Group

Gavin and I have made some great new friends here in Jacksonville.  Every Friday we get together with the Little Acorns for a play date. It is great since they are all in the same situation as we are in.  The play group is an extension of the Oak Leaf club.  The Oak Leaf club is the family support group for the military physicians.

Friday the play group met at the local fire station for a tour.  Gavin LOVED the trucks.

Wearing his Fire Hat

The whole Gang

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving seems so long ago even though it was just last week.

We had no family to spend it with but God has given us some amazing new friends to celebrate with.

 Jason works with an amazing group of Interns/residents, and most of them are in the same boat as us.  We celebrated with 4 other lovely families, the Hray's, the Pierson's, the soon to been Dr. and Mrs. Gossert, and the Daab's, who graciously opened their home to all of us.  The food was delicious and the fellowship was just what we all needed. For a few of us it was a our first Thanksgiving without family, that didn't stop us from having a great time.

Gavin had a great time playing, although I am pretty sure the only thing he ate for dinner was peanut butter fudge.  :)

Many pictures were taken that day, just not by me, I only have a few to share hopefully I can get copies of the others

Here are the only ones I have.
Me and G rolling out our dough for the desserts

The ladies: (Form left to right) Beth, Cristy, Laura, Me, and Bonnie

It was  a great time. 

November Update

November came and went in the blink of an eye.  It is all a blur.  I will try to remember some of the highlights.
We spent one weekend in Orlando visiting Derek, Jason's brother.  While we were there we stopped by Animal Kingdom for the Safari ride to see some animals up close.

After Animal Kingdom we headed over to Epcot for some delicious food (no wine :)  

And the best part of the trip.  DATE NIGHT!  Jason and I actually got to go on a date courtesy of Derek, who watched Gavin for us.  The last date night we had was in July.  We were long over due. We did nothing fancy just dinner and dessert but it was great to just talk and be alone together.

Once we got back home I finally put Gavin's play set back together.  He received it last year as a Christmas gift from Jason's mom and dad.  We took it down when we put the TN house on the market.  Now that we are finally settled and completely unpacked I was able to put it back up. Gavin loves it and plays on it everyday.  It makes my days much easier.

Update on Gavin:

He is FINALLY talking-ish.  He is speaking some words very clearly,and is now making an effort to repeat words that he hears.  He tries so hard to tell me stories but I still only understand about a tenth of what he is saying.   

• The words he has learned (or now speaks clearly)  this month: Bubbles, up, down, off, on, out, max, bye, turtle, dog, peanut butter, bath, spoon, water, juice, cheese, cereal, more and birdy
• He knows all is body parts. 
• He is still learning animals and their sounds, there are just so many.
• He is now starting to dress and undress himself with limited help. 
• He does a great job picking up after himself. 
• Food:  He is still very picky except with cereal, he will eat any cereal 
• Still getting the hang manners, he says "please" or "thank you" not both, it is a work in progress.  

Gavin is very independent gets out food when he is hungry, puts his clothes in the hamper, wants to do it all by himself.