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!

More Oregon Pictures

Our friends in Oregon, Rob and Monica, sent me some of the pictures they took on our trip. Here's a few more pictures from Oregon for you to enjoy!

Rielly and Gibson on the shore of the ocean.
One of their neighbors at the lake, Troy, has this VERY fast waverunner. He was bound and determined to dump me! But I held on too tight. The only way he was able to dump me off....
... was to completely tip the entire thing over! So he went down, too! Boy, that was a fun ride!

Floater Gibson!This is me, taking a nice, LEISURELY, SLOW waverunner ride! No tipping here!Another picture of our bat (in the orange net on the floor)! This is Kim, our wonderful bat catcher!

Silly Kitties!

Two had a vet appointment today (check-up), so I got the cat carrier out last night. Within 2 seconds, Two was inside of it, content as could be. Then Lily comes up and wants her turn. So as soon as Two came out, Lily got in. Then Two sat next to the carrier, waiting for Lily to get out so he could have a turn. They were so funny! Usually get I get the carrier out, Lily and Baby Girl quickly hide (they know what the carrier means), so I was surprised to see Lily voluntarily get inside!

Carrot and Zucchini Bread

I made this for our playgroup today (to try and get rid of some of our zucchinis) and the kids actually really liked it. So if you need to get rid of some zucchini and are trying to get your kids to eat vegetables, give this recipe a try!

Carrot and Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten slightly
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup grated carrots
1 3/4 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Preheat the oven to 365. Grease and flour an 8"x3" loaf pan, set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs and oil; mix well. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Gently stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Fold the carrots, zucchini and raisins into the above mixture. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan and bake for about 55 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

What a Fun Morning!

Gibson and I had such a fun morning today. We had a playgroup at our house and we all had such a great time! Gibson had all of his best friends over: Emmanual, Isabel, Nicholas, Addison, Justine, Brynne, Alexandra, Avery, Mason, Sophia, John Luke and Callie. I got to hang out with all of my best friends, too: Rhonda, Stephanie, Bobbie, Amy S., Tanya and Amy A.
Boys turn to jump on the trampoline!
Girls turn to jump on the trampoline!
Addison, Isabel and Justine. I can't believe Callie isn't in the swing, since that's pretty much where she was the entire time!Ah - there's Callie in the swing! With Avery and Brynne.

Justine and Nicholas in the club house! It was nice to see this used again - Gibson is kind of tired of it and hasn't played on it much this summer.
Amy S., Rhonda, Amy A., Bobbie and Tanya! - CHEESE!
Steph and Christen (since we didn't get to be in the other picture!).