Gavin, Gage, and Kyla

Oh my word! How adorable is this?! Gavin's good little buddy, Kyla, LOVES Gavin's baby brother. She'd been asking to hold him recently, and this might have been the first time of several lately in which she and Gavin shared the job. (Gavin always becomes conveniently more interested in his little brother when someone else wants to hold him, but it's precious any way you cut it. And I will add that he did ask to hold Gage on our bed yesterday when it was just us at home, so this is progress.) This picture was taken at our house, and I told them to each kiss one of Gage's cheeks. Kyla always says to her mommy, my good friend, Amanda, "Isn't he cute?" She'll make a wonderful big sister someday.

Dad and Gage

Daddy and Gage are checking out the fan in the living room. Is that precious or what? The other thing that you might check out, as it were, is the facial hair that Brent was sporting for a little while recently: the "fromunda," as in the hair from under his lip. Wow! That's all I can really say about that.

Gavin and Gage

It's amazing how much bigger Gavin looks to us now when we have Gage to compare him to.

Gavin is learning how to be gentle with his baby brother and he's become quite adept at saying things that start with, "When Gage gets bigger..." My own prayer, as each of them grows, is that they would become the best of friends.

Cleaning the bike...

It seems like, lately, this has been one of Brent's favorite pastimes with all of the wet 'n dry weather we've been having: cleaning the bike. Gavin likes to come out and "help" Daddy and ride his own little bike outside too. We love that bike--the Strider--and think that it will be a great alternative to training wheels. He's so good at coasting on it now, and I can't believe I'm actually saying this but I think that I could even see him participating in the little kid versions of Brent's bike races this summer. I remember looking at those tikes on their pedal-less bikes last summer and wondering if I could imagine Gavin being among them....and now, I dare say, I can even imagine him winning! He flies on that little bike these days.

Playing in the snow...

Gavin loves to play in the snow, and I love to watch! Daddy and Gavin have spent lots of winter days in our front yard shoveling, sledding and building snowmen together.

Observe the carrot nose and the rock eyes on the snow mound in our front yard.

The most adorable thing recently was watching Brent pull Gavin in the sled in this little circuit in our front yard, ending in this trip down the tiny hill, formerly the snow mound with the carrot nose. Gavin got the biggest kick out of it!

When he's warm enough with all of his snow gear on he could stay outside for hours!

Daddy even took a few turns going down the "hill" with Gavin pulling him. So cute!

Dirksens' visit...

My aunt and uncle and two cousins just visited a little while ago and got to meet Gage. Here is my cousin, Sierra, holding him at my mom's house.

Papa Jim (step-dad) loves Baby Gage! He's always saying how precious he is.

Here is my Uncle Ron reading "Hop on Pop" to Gavin. How adorable is that?!

It was funny how Gavin insisted on standing up to listen to the stories.

Here is our new family of four. I think that we're getting the hang of it better these days, but it's a lot of hard work. Gage is still sleeping and eating well, and Gavin seems to be enjoying his baby brother more and more.

Reading with Uncle Mike...

Here are some pictures of Gavin reading with Uncle Mike, Brent's half-brother, recently. Yes, they were taken from around the corner, so you just have to trust us that it was pretty cute. Gavin enjoyed his time with his Uncle Mike.