Christmas Part III

We finally made it to Christmas with Ray's side of the family. My Aunt Shirley wasn't able to join us as planned but everyone else made it - including Ray's step-grandma Shirley. These are pictures of two of the favorite gifts.

Parker got a digger, which he loves! It was attached to the box with screws - ugh!

Chloe had been disappointed because Santa didn't bring the candy jewelry maker. She told us that it was OK that he didn't bring it because she got so many other nice things. When she opened this, you can see how excited she was. Santa must have known that Grandma & Grandpa had already bought it for her.

Christmas Part II

We were supposed to go to Ray's parents house for lunch on Christmas day. As you can see, we didn't get out of the house. The snow was hip deep at the bottom of our driveway. Even with 4wd, it would have been tough. We were able to get out this morning and a snowplow just came by a few minutes ago so we should be back to semi-normal by tomorrow. It was a beautiful white Christmas! I hope wherever you are, your Christmas was beautiful too!

Christmas Part I

Christmas morning at the Gibson house.

Santa brought fishing poles...

Chloe got her pink ice skates...

Santa brought Parker some of his own lip gloss because he's so fond of his sister's...

Auntie Erin and Uncle Tim scored big with these little cars. They are by far his favorite...

No room at the Church

Christmas is always really busy at our church. Ray got off of work early so we decided to try the 4:30 mass. After circling the neighborhood for several minutes in the blizzard conditions, we parked on the street and trekked through knee-deep snow to get into the building. Alas, there was no room. The sanctuary, gym and cafeteria were full.

I decided to take advantage of the fact that my kids were dressed up but neither was very interested in posing for me. In fact, Parker was pretty sour about it. I did catch one smile from him though.

Crazy Parker

This toy is a plastic putter from a $5 golf set. It looks a lot like a hockey stick so Parker runs around hitting things with it.

This is one of Parker's goofy habits. He collects things in his bed at naptime. Here he is, out cold with some of his favorites. He will be transitioning to his big bed soon.

Feuding Kids

It's a little hard to tell but the kids were both jockeying for room on my lap and were about ready to break out in a full-fledged shoving match, which is becoming more common lately.

Snowman

I worked on Saturday the 12th at OTC's employee sale. While I was gone, Ray and the kids played in the snow and made this snowman.

Note Parker's hockey stick. He carries that thing everywhere.

New Jammies

Parker got these jammies for his birthday from great aunt Shirley and he loves them. He wanted me to take his picture in his "doggies". You can't really see the doggie as he was squeezing him when I snapped.

Black Friday

Who needs shopping on Black Friday? Not me. I avoid it like the plague. Besides, it was beautiful outside and we took full advantage of the park, which we had all to ourselves.

Parker preferred to make his sand angel face down rather than face up.

Parker was determined to climb up the ladder like "sissy" did.

Chloe's sand angel.

My Pretty.

So Handsome!

I don't mean to sound conceited. I can't help it! I love these kids SOOOOO much!

Chloe's First Skate

Chloe started ice skating lessons yesterday. It's going to take some time to learn but she loves it already.

Punkin Patch

Fortunately for our kids, we did have a good experience with pumpkins this year. We enjoyed a trip to Vala's Pumpkin Patch last Sunday, along with the rest of Nebrakska - it was packed.

The kids experienced their first haunted house. It was pretty tame but they were scared. Parker did not like it AT ALL! Chloe held on to me pretty tight but she did OK. I do not like haunted houses but I will let her make up her own mind about it.

Parker's favorite part was the hay rack ride. He just stared at the tractor the whole time. He didn't want to get off to go get his pumpkin - he wanted to stay with the tractor. Chloe's favorite thing was the pony ride. Oh, who am I kidding - her favorite was the caramel apple! Ray and me? Well, we just enjoyed a wonderful day with our kiddos and getting to see them experience a bunch of new things.

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Our Little Man is Two!

Parker's birthday party was so much fun this past weekend. We really enjoyed seeing dear friends and family and the kids had a ball. Each present that was opened, Parker got more and more excited. I have to say he truly loves everything he received.

This picture says it all. He took his truck (tuck) and tractor (kacker) to bed with him - he didn't want them out of reach. The only thing he wasn't super excited about was the present from mom & dad - a raincoat and umbrella. He loves Chloe's so we thought he would like his own, more boyish version. Maybe he'll warm up to it.

Speaking of presents, I can't help but feel that he is such an amazing gift. I know it's cliche but I really doubted that I could ever love another person like I loved my baby girl, but then he came along. There is no doubt, we were incomplete before we had him. He has brought so much love to our family - along with trucks and tractors, bugs and dirt.

My mind wanders sometimes, about what he might grow up to be. If I had to guess now, I'd say farmer or construction worker! He freaks out at the sight of anything that digs, pulls or plows.

He has been talking a lot more the last couple of weeks and I heard him sing his first song this weekend. It's a song about fire trucks that he learned at school. That moment was a really strange dichotomy - I felt so proud of him for what he has learned at school, yet heartache that he spends so much time there.

As always, I do the best I can and pray that we are raising them well. I have two of the most amazing kids, I sometimes just wonder how I got so lucky. I hope that some day they can say the same thing about Ray and me.

The Pumpkin Incident

I was having a crappy day yesterday. I was at HyVee over lunch and I thought - I'll buy my kids some pumpkins. We can decorate them tonight and that will make me feel better. I had gotten these cool monster decorating kits from work and I knew the kids would love them. Here is the finished project: Parker's is the one with green measels, Chloe's is purple and mine is the one-eyed blue guy. Ray went to a hockey game so we decorated his for him.

Parker really had a ball. He even let me take his binky for a while. Too bad he didn't let me wipe off his face after dinner :)

Why did I title this post "The Pumpkin Incident" you may be asking yourself? Note the swollen face on my beautiful little girl.

I brought the pumpkins in and set them in the kitchen on the floor while I looked at the mail. We had gotten a book from the book of the month club and Chloe was so excited to read it. I opened it, handed it to her and she turned to hurry into the living room to read it. Enter the pumpkin.

She didn't see them sitting there, tripped on the first one and went face first into the second. Ray thought the stem went through her lip for sure. It was very scary. Lots of blood and crying. The bad cuts were only on the inside of her mouth (from a tooth) so after consulting with the nurse line, we gave her some ibuprofen, ice and lots of love. She may look really sad but she got to eat ice cream for dinner!

She wanted to see these pictures after I took them. When she saw them she got upset and said that she didn't want Hannah Montana to see her face all swollen. I am taking her to see Miley Cyrus next week but I was confused and thought it was today. Her face should be all better by the time the concert rolls around. It will be her first by the way and I have suite tickets! We're hoping Emmy and Aunt Rebecca will be able to join us!

on the Farm last weekend...

In the event that you did not know, we joined a CSA and our farm is called Black Sheep Farm. One requirement of the farm is that its members spend some time on the farm helping do things that need to be done.

Last Saturday, I took the kids to the farm. The turkeys were excited to see us. All it took was someone to say something and one of them would gobble. Once one gobbled, they all gobbled. It was a little too loud for Parker.

We picked apart two buckets of Garlic Heads, so that the farm can plant them in the spring.! Hmmm, i think we could be farmers.

Super Funny Story

Ray told me this story today via Google chat and I was crying at my desk.

He took the kids to school today and dropped Chloe off first. He then headed to Parker's room. When they got there, Chloe's teacher was on the phone. She said that Chloe wanted her dad to come back to her room so she could tell him something.

He got Parker settled and then went back to Chloe's room. She told him that she noticed as he left her room that his shirt (a polo) was inside out. She noticed it when he left her room because she could see the Gap tag on his back.

This was at least an hour and a half after he put the shirt on. None of us, including our cleaning lady noticed! As soon as he told me the story, I knew what shirt he had on. I was too tired last night to turn it right-side in before I hung it up so I just put it on the hangar as it was.

Men, let that be a lesson to you. Always straighten out your clothes before putting them in the laundry!

Beautiful Day for the Zoo!

These pictures are from two weeks ago. I love, love, love the Skyfari at our zoo. It's the best way to see both ends of the zoo! After the zoo, we went to Zestos and ate a super-fried lunch. Everything was deep fried!

Almost done with the bathroom

What started out as a well-intentioned and seemingly simple home improvment project has now dragged out to at least week 5. After finishing the floor (except for that missing trim in the back ground, I have no idea why it's not on yet), we decided to redo the tile on the bathtub. It will look much better when we're done, we just really want to be done.

As you can see I also decided to paint since all the trim and the toilet was out. Ray calls it "scope creep". We're really happy with the floor though. Once we're done with our tub, I think we'll do our entry way. But that will be awhile. Greg needs the tile saw!