YES - WE ARE SWIMMING IN OCTOBER!!!

Today, I let Gibson play hookie and go swimming instead! The weather was so hot (89 degrees - and always 5 degrees hotter at the pool) and the pool is going to have the bubble put on it in 2 days, so I thought we should get in one more 'outside' pool day. We made the best of it! We stayed at the pool for 3 1/2 hours today and enjoyed every minute of it!


I LOVE sitting at the pool and looking at this view of the mountains. It's not the same in the winter when all you look at is the wall of the bubble.

Red Butte Gardens

On Tuesday, Sept 30, Gibson and I went to Red Butte Gardens with some friends. We are really enjoying the nice weather right now and are trying to do as many things outside as we can before the yucky cold hits.

Alexandra, Avery and Gibson on the swing. Although none of them were looking at the camera, you can see they all have huge smiles on their faces!
After only being at the Gardens for about 15 minutes, it was already "snack time"!
Alexandra, Gibson and Mason. I'm curious to see Rhonda and Steph's pics, since we all took this same picture!
Gibson, Alexandra, Avery and Mason sitting on the large moose statue!
Gibson and Mason walking on the neat rock path in the fish pond.

Gibson and Alexandra feeding the fish (and ducks - those greedy ducks kept stealing the food from the fish!).
All of us enjoying our nice picnic in the shade. We could have sat there all day! Gibson walking through the "snake" in the Children's Garden. The fall colors were beautiful!
Gibson climbed up these rocks BEFORE I saw the "do not climb on the rocks" sign! :)
I love Mason and Gibson's faces in this picture!

What a Big Boy!

On Mondays, it is Brady's turn to take Gibson to school because I work. Brady took this cute picture today of Gibson with his lunch box and backpack! What a big boy!

Along those same lines, yesterday we went to Lagoon and I think it was my most favorite visit there this year. The weather was PERFECT! and it was not crowded at all. The best part is that Gibson is big enough to go on all the BIG rides now. He rode on the Colossus ("loop-de-loop" in his words), Wild Mouse and even the Spider. He said the Spider was his favorite ride. Brady said it had been 2 years since he had been on that ride because we usually just ride the rides that Gibson can go on. It is nice having Gibson tall enough to ride the 'adult' rides now!

Finally - my new computer is here!

As some of you may know, I've been without a computer for several weeks. I was able to use Brady's laptop for e-mail, but haven't been able to download pictures and update my blog, etc. So we finally received my new computer and I've been putting it all together today. So here's a few posts to catch you up on our last few weeks.

Happy Birthday Sassie!

Today was Sassie's 12th birthday! She got her special cake - sweet potato and fish. She rode with us to the pet bakery to get it and she knew what was in the box! But she had to wait for the party to start! Look at her licking her lips!
Mmmmmm! Nothing is better than this cake!
Baby Girl, Lily Lou and Two try to eat some of the crumbs. Squeakers is too little to join us outside just yet.
And of course, Sassie got a new bear for her birthday! What a spoiled girl - and she deserves every bit of it! Sassie, I LOVE YOU, BABY!

May the force be with you

Brady and I are trying to figure out why Gibson was so adamant about being Darth Vader for Halloween this year. We have watched the first 2 episodes of Star Wars recently, but those don't even have Darth Vader in them. Ah well - it's cute!

Announcing the newest member of our family - SQUEAKERS!

Last Wednesday, Gibson and I went to the vet to pick up Sassie's medications. While we were waiting, we played with these really cute kittens they had for adoption. Everytime we are at the vet, we always play with the cute cats that they have for adoption and I never think about getting one of them (come on, I already have 4 animals!). But this particular day, this little guy caught my attention. I still had no intention of taking him home, though. But come Thursday, I still couldn't quit thinking about him. And then Gibson asked if he could get the cute kitten. He was on both of our minds. So, against Brady's wishes, we adopted another cat! At first, I kind of regretted it because I wasn't sure if the other animals were going to be okay. My 2 older cats get really stressed and Two was fighting with him. The only one who seemed to like him was Sassie, and he kept swatting her nose with his claws. Brady and I decided to give it the weekend to see how he did. By Sunday, he was a member of the family. He he taken a nap with Brady and Brady said, "he's adopted us now."Baby Girl and Lily Lou still aren't happy about him, but they are okay; they just avoid him. The kitten and Two are best buds now. And the kitten loves Sassie now, too.

It took me 10 days to come up with a name for him, but today it just hit me. He is such a talker. The cutest thing is does is "yell" for us if he can't see us. If he's alone, he'll let out this loud meow until he hears my voice calling him. Then he races to me and tries to jump up my leg and you can tell he's saying, "there's my mommy!". So since he is such a talker and always squeaking his little meow, I decided to name him Squeakers.

Gibson LOVES having a kitten in the house again.
This picture shows how little he is - smaller than Brady's hat.
Two and Squeakers - my beautiful black kitties!
Two and Squeakers wrestle with each other all day.

Hmmm... one of these doesn't look like a pair of shoes.

I love it - Squeakers already has to imitate his big brother, Two!

When I bought Sassie a build-a-bear, I didn't know I was getting 2 toys in one! Two and Squeakers played in this box all afternoon! (Notice the paw sticking out of the side of the box!)

Be sure and watch this cute video - the end is the best, when Two finally decides to make a move!

Basketball Gibson!

Gibson is playing Junior Jazz this year with his friends Shea and Emmanuel. The first 2 weeks have been practice and he's actually doing pretty well.
Gibson working on his dribbling.
Gibson making a shot (that's his ball, way up at the top of the pic). His friend, Shea, is number 5.
What a fast runner!

Collection!

We never realized how many Chevron Cars Gibson had accumulated until we organized them all one day and laid them all out together. Everytime we go on a roadtrip, he gets to pick out a car. He can tell us where he got every single one of these cars - California, Idaho, Disneyland, Oregon, etc.

Sleepover!

One of Gibson's best friends, Emmanuel, slept over last night. Gibson moves around in his bed so much that I have an extra mattress that I put on his floor for his friends to sleep on. When we put the boys to bed, Emmanuel was on the mattress on the floor. However, when we checked on them later, they were snuggled together in bed! It was so cute!

Gibson's First Day of School!!!

Gibson started preschool today - what a big boy! Since it is so close to our house, we just walked there. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to him before he had joined the circle of chairs and was making new friends. All he told me about his day was that he "had fun". When I asked him what he did, he said, "I don't know". Typical child reply! As long as he had fun, I guess! Last week, he picked out this outfit to wear to his first day of school - he has never cared about what he wears. But he likes this outfit because he says it makes him look like a "teenager" and a "racquetball player". He was VERY adamant that he wear his tennis shoes and not his flip-flops.

Labor Day Retreat

Our wonderful friends, Jim, Marie & Wil, invited us on an impromptu trip to their cabin for Labor Day weekend. We had a wonderful time! The weekend was filled with a lot of relaxing, reading, sitting by the fire, drinking, and eating wonderful food! The cabin was by Soldier Creek Reservoir and we went down there on Sunday and played. The storm that hit us on Sunday night was awesome! It was really neat to be up in the mountains and listen to the rain all night. We had a fabulous time! Watson and Sassie - look at their cute tongues hanging out. They had a lot of fun together.

Gibson found this really cute, fuzzy caterpillar.

Gibson LOVED the "tater-totter" :) and convinced most of us to play on it with him (it was hard on the old people's bottoms).
Marie looks like she's having fun!
Wil and Gibson on the "tater-toter".I love this picture of Gibson!We all hopped in the car to shorten the walk to the reservoir! Since it was a really short ride, we just let the kids and dogs get in the very back of the car - they thought that was awesome!We took old chicken bones to the reservoir and used them as bait to fish for crawdads!One of our crawdad catches! (We threw them back in the water).Family Photo!A family portrait of Jim, Marie and Wil!
Brady and Gibson sitting on the bank - they threw a lot of rocks into the water! I LOVE this picture of me and my baby together!

Farewell to a Favorite

Brady and I's favorite comic strip, For Better or For Worse, ended yesterday, Sun. Aug 31, 2008. The worst part was that we had no idea that it was ending. When we read Friday's strip, at the bottom it read, "This concludes my story... with grateful thanks to everyone who has made this all possible." We were shocked! We both remember reading this comic since we were kids... heck, I remember when April was born! If you would like to read her final strip, here's the link:

http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archives/003336.php

Now it appears that Lynn Johnston will be drawing new "old" adventures mixed with classic cartoons for the past (see story: http://www.fborfw.com/news/003373.php).

Cute Pictures

Our friend, Rhonda, took these cute pictures of Gibson when we were at her house last week. Thanks, Rhonda!