The Annual Gingerbread/Grahm Cracker House Contest

Abbey's, notice the care she took in placing the licorice tape as shingles.

Notice the frosting on her cute face. Amelia really enjoyed making hers all by herself this year.

Marian didn't really help me make hers, she played wiht this at the Manwaring's instead. It is a house so, it counts

And for Ben, he made a whole town. It is in rememberance of the rooftops he hopped in Calistle as a youth.

The winner of the night can be seen in the background. Becky used a hot glue gun to make a princess castle. So we disqualified her. It was spectacular.

Fall 2012

Abbey is growing up so fast!
Our nighbors next door let the girls come play in thier yard work. Good times.

 

Amelia is having the time of her life!

So Quiet...

Daddy taught them a new very valuable skill!

Checkers!

Happy Halloween

We are very lucky to have Emily help us out a couple times a week. She was there for us on Halloween so we took a quick messy family picture to remember this crazy time. (not that things aren't about to get worse)

Abbey and Marian were puppies. They all crawl on the floor and bark 50% of the time already. Halloween just made it official. Then Amelia felt like being original, a ghost. Apparently there is some Gibbs history here. I'll write more when Grammy gets home.

And you can see my baby bump if you look closely. Well, maybe you don't have to look too closely. I was so happy to be out of the house, out of my bed for that matter.

Cilantro!

I've been feeling better since this baby has made me sick.
A story for another day.
So I pretend I'm doing well and clean up my house and ignore my children while I clean up. I guess Marian was feeling hungry and all she found in the refrigerator was cilantro. I couldn't tell the extent of her love for cilantro until I rounded the corner and saw...

Classic Haunches Photo

Can I be angry with this face? If I leave her long enough she will clean up after herself. It's like having a dog.

Oh Baby!

We were excited to find out IF we were having a baby back in July. After 4 days of early testing, we skipped the dollar store tests and went for the $15 digital. It was more clear....

We were also excited to find out if we would be a family of all daughters.
Four girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baby Girl Gibbs
due March 11, 2013

Graduation!

Abbey graduated from Kindergarten. here she is with Miss Cheri.
 We loved Kid's Village. She went there for 3 years and now it's time to say good bye. 

Amelia graduated from Pre-school. She loved it there too. Here she is with Miss Valerie. 

They grow up too fast!

Happy 9th Anniversary

Our anniversary fell on a Sunday this year, and lucky for me Ben fell asleep Saturday night at 8. I snuck out of the house to the balloon store. I stole an idea from Pintrest and got a balloon for every year we've been married . Then I attached a photo of us from each year at the bottom. So when he woke up 12 hours later he was surprised to see balloons all over our room. He was visibly touched. It's hard to get to him that way. I was proud. Although touched, he realized he had missed his chance to get me flowers.

His Sundays are full of meetings and visits and there was nothing he could do. He didn't even have a half hour to write a quick love poem. So at 5pm the Young Men and Young Women of our ward started to stop by with flowers. Amazing delegation skills? They had so much fun bringing me flowers from their yards. One guy didn't have flowers so he brought weeds, roots and dirt still attached. I had like 3 bouquets by the end. And a girl brought us a cake at 9. Cutest ever! I love you, Ben!

hungry?

I waited too long to get to the grocery store. She went for whatever she could get her hungry little hands on. Maybe that should be a new strategy, starve the vegetables into them.

Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival

I'm loving having all girls. Sorry Ben. We get to do the girliest things. Tons of flowers and adorable shops. Loved it. 

Thanksgiving Point!

 Classic, my children running through the garden. Does anyone know how to paint impressionist style. Just take out the building as the focal point back there.

 We rented a golf cart because my mom sprained her ankle. But it is worth the $25. It was a huge park. The hardest part was the anxiety of imagining the girls falling off. I am glad we had lots of adult arms holding the kids.

I have to admit, the more time I spend with my grandma, the more I understand and appreciate her. I actually look forward to hanging out with her. She was such a weirdo when I was growing up. What has changed? I guess me. She has become one of my best friends. She is great, she always has time for me and she has endless patience (almost) for her great grand children. If any of you see her spanking my children while I am not looking, push her over, or just tell her to stop.

Happy Birthday Mom and Amelia! It was so fun. We are so lucky to live by you. 

Reciprocity

This is my dear Marian. I can't help but love you. I've heard it said, a mother loves her baby the first time she holds the child in her arms. Although true, this love I feel now is 1000 times stronger. You  are so much more than a ball of screaming, crying, wiggling cells that I grew inside of me. There are a few ages of my children that I find truly joyful. 18 months -2 years has been one of them.

You can do so much on your own. And you showing love to us is my favorite.
We are so lucky to have you. 

When life gets hard, I want to remember these moments. You love to be held and we love to hold you.

Nice how you just fit on my hip and when you are sleepy you melt onto my shoulder.
There is nothing better than holding your child when she wants to be held and you want to hold her.

My First Chocolate Cake From Scratch

Dear Cathie,
This is what I do when Ben leaves me for the young men of our ward and I have just gotten off the phone with you and I miss you and have no one to keep me from doing bad things.







I let the girls "help" me make this and they stay up way way past bed time and then after we can eat no more cake or drink no more whole milk, we have 3/4 of a HUGE chocolate cake left.

This was so good. So we called our neighbor over to take 1/2 of the cake away. 2 days later we are still having chocolate cake for breakfast and my daughter who didn't speak until 6 weeks ago is saying,"Mommy, I want some chocolate cake! Please. Yummmy!"