Gibson's Proud of His Picture!

Yes, I think this picture is cute - but I posted it because Gibson insisted. He drew it and handed it to me and said, "mom, put this on the computer."
This picture shows our house in summertime. The brown things on the side of the house are the open windows, "so the people can have fresh air" and the flowers are sunflowers. I personally like the green grass (I wish I could see some out the window right now!).

The Once-A-Year Suit Fitting

Fortunately, the suit we bought Gibson for the cruise last year still fits (the one and only time he has worn it was the cruise last year!). We did buy a new dress shirt as that was too small. Here's a comparison of how much he's grown in the last year.

A picture of Gibson taken today when he tried on his suit:

The picture taken exactly a year ago when he tried on his suit.

Surprise! Animal Pictures and Gibson's Work

My fat girls looked so cute sitting together on the couch that I had to take a picture!

Gibson went into the office and closed the door, saying that he was making a surprise for us. This paper is what he brought out! What a sweetie! (And they haven't even talked about Valentine's Day at school yet).

More art(?)work

When Gibson brought this paper home from school, I was telling him how proud of him I was! He wrote a whole sentence (The artic fox turns white) and drew a cute picture. Then he pointed out, "Mom, I drew a butt -see! And this is his fart!" I chalked it up to being a boy, but apparently my friend's girl finds farts funny, too. I then looked to Brady who claimed he had nothing to do with it!

Such a Smart Boy!

Last Friday, Gibson and I picked up the first set of "Bob Books" from the library. We came home and as I was putting things away, he took the first book, sat down in the living room and started reading! I just walked in the room and caught him mid-book; I was abolutely amazed! I had thought that I would have to help him more, but he's just taken off. So in the past week, he's read through book 6. Brady and I are so proud of him! Here's a video of his reading one page.

Shoes, shoes and more shoes!

To understand why this information is even post-worthy, you have to know that Brady and I loathe shoe shopping and never buy new shoes. Seriously, we've both needed new shoes now for at least a year. I would be happy wearing crocs all year if the stupid weather cooperated. But we finally got our butts in gear and set out to buy a pair of new shoes last weekend. Well, for having waited so long, we definitely chose the right weekend! Everything was on sale! We got killer deals. I ended up buying 4 pairs and Brady 3! My favorite buy were the $60 hiking boots that I got for $15! I need them for Moab. Shoe shopping is fun when you find these kind of bargains!

Gibson Gets His Groove On!

Tonight Gibson told me that he wants to be in a dance competition when he grows up! "Dancing is hard work, mom. Feel the muscles in my leg!" He was so proud of himself. I'm proud of him - he just LOVES music. He asks for songs by name and artist. When a song is playing, he knows the lyrics and is really good at my "who is this?" game! A man after my own heart.

Be sure and watch this entire video - the move at the end is the best! And then you can see when he notices that I'm filming. I feel fortunate to have gotten at least a minute of video!

Baby Lucas

Here are some adorable pictures of Justin and Alissa's new baby: Lucas. I think he looks like Justin! He was so sweet - just slept in my arms the entire time!

Hallelujah!

Dr. Lindsey is back! My doctor of Chinese medicine returned today from a long vacation overseas. His office opens at 12:00 and I was there at 12:01. However, when I walked in the door, my friend Amy S, was already there and she started chanting, "I beat you, I beat you." We've both been eagerly anticipating his return. Now Gibson's back on his "superman" juice and hopefully we can all stay healthy for our upcoming trip!

More of Gibson's artwork!

Gibson drew this picture of an otter at school this week - it's so cute! He laughs and says that he put "kangaroo" ears on it!
Gibson drew this picture of a school today and was insistent that I put it on the computer! It is hard to see because he drew it with a yellow highligter.

Funny Things Gibson Says

I keep a file of some of the funny things Gibson says. Here is one from today. I will go back and find some old, good ones and post them, too.

January 13, 2009: Gibson has been told that he cannot get out of bed in the morning until his clock has an ‘8’ at the front (8:00). This morning at 7:50, I heard him get out of bed and walk towards his door and then turn back to look at his clock. He said, “Dang it! It is still a 7! It’s been a 7 for like 8 hours now! No, for like a MILLION hours now!” And then there was a little hesitation followed by a “who cares” and he came out of his room!

Silly Animals

So Squeakers hasn't tried to run outside since the weather has turned bad. But yesterday, when I opened the back door to let Sassie out, Squeakers ran out! He is impossible to catch and he always hides under the trailer where you can't reach him, so it's very frustrating when he gets out!

But yesterday, he went down the stairs and his 2 front paws stepped in the snow! He FROZE! I've never seen him do that. He was looking around and you could see he was thinking, "this white stuff is surrounding me - there's no where to go." I was able to pick him up and put him back in the house. I had to take a picture of his 2 perfect paw prints in the snow - they were so cute!
The other day I found Baby Girl in our bedroom like this. She had possession of the favorite catnip mouse (I only have 1 and all 4 cats fight over it) and was using it as a pillow. And she was laying next to the heat vent, which was on, and thus blowing warm air right onto her belly! She is so smart! What a cutie!

Great News!

Both Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode have new music coming out shortly. Depeche Mode has also announced their "Tour of the Universe 2009" (no US dates yet). For more info visit: http://www.depechemode.com/

From the PSB website (http://www.petshopboys.co.uk/):

2009 will see the release of Pet Shop Boys' new studio album, "Yes".

We can now confirm the complete track-listing:
1. Love etc.

2. All over the world

3. Beautiful people

4. Did you see me coming?

5. Vulnerable

6. More than a dream

7. Building a wall

8. King of Rome

9. Pandemonium

10. The way it used to be

11. Legacy
The album has a running time of approximately 48 minutes. Tracks 1, 6 and 10 are Pet Shop Boys/Xenomania co-writes. All other songs are written by Pet Shop Boys (track 2 with a little help from Tchaikovsky). As we have previously reported, the album was produced by Brian Higgins/Xenomania and has a provisional release date of March 23rd.

Thanks to a friend for keeping me up-to-date on these things, as I just don't have as much time as I used to to devote to these issues! (although, NO less interest).

One Down....

You know how you have that list of things that you are going to do one day... well, I finally got around to doing one of them, after 5 years of wanting to do it!

I made a Shadowbox with Gibson's baby items. This outfit is the one that Brady and I bought the day we found out we were having a boy. He's wearing the outfit in his birth picture. I also have his first binky and binky holder. He would never part from either one. (Although when I offered them to him today, he wasn't very interested!).

Brady and I are in disagreement about where the hang this shadowbox - so please take the poll on the right and vote where you think it should go. Thanks!

p.s. if anybody needs a shadowbox - they're 50% off at Michael's this week!

Christmas Lights and Snow

One of the only times that I enjoy snow - it's so pretty when it's deep enough to cover the candle Christmas lights that line the flower beds. The snow looks like it's glowing.

New Killers, Elton John, Neil Tennant song/video

Go to this website (red)wire: http://red.msn.com/
and watch the new video, "Joseph, Better Him Than Me" by The Killers, Elton John and Neil Tennant. It's a great song - 3 wonderful voices together!

Christmas Day

Christmas Morning! (He's wearing his spongebob PJs that the elves left on his bed on Christmas Eve!). Gibson would open one present and want to play with it instead of opening more gifts! I'm sure one present would have sufficed!

Gibson LOVES his new racetrack!

Sassie finally got her new bear! The poor girl knew it was under the tree for weeks! She knows what the "Build-a-Bear" boxes hold now!

Baby Girl playing with her new catnip mouse!Two and Squeakers playing with their new catnip mouse!

We went to Courtney and Daryl's house for Christmas dinner (it was yummy - Courtney cooked a great turkey). We didn't make it to Brady's family on Christmas Day (a first) because of the huge storm across the state. Gibson got a new set of Legos from Grandma and Grandpa England!

Daryl, Courtney and Lukas!

Christen and Courtney in our almost-twinner shirts!

Brady and Christen

The fam!

Brady loves to chew on the babies! Look at Lukas's cute smile!

Christmas Eve

Wow! I REALLY love Sassie. She was giving me this pathetic "I would love to go on a walk, mommy" look, so I caved in. It was her Christmas Eve present - I bundled up and took her around the block. I saw a few neighbors who were quite surprised to see me - they know I don't surface in winter. I don't go out in the freezing temps for anyone: we never made it to see the temple lights because it was too cold!

We made a really cute gingerbread house together. Our neighbor had just brought over this glass candy, which made PERFECT shingles for our roof!

Gibson's pile for Santa: the gingerbread house, his "good chart", cookies and his Christmas letter.

Here are a few videos:

I caught Gibson singing. If he had seen me videotaping him, he would have stopped. Listen closely and you can hear him!

Here's a great video of Gibson being a "ballerina" - I can't believe he let us film him dancing around!

Squeakers got a Christmas Eve Present: a catnip-filled mouse. It was his first experience with catnap and it was funny! We thought he was a spazz before....

Here's Gibson decorating our gingerbread house. Watch his tongue (I wonder who he gets that from?!)

Christmas Festivities!

We had a fun time with some of our closest friends last night. I enjoy celebrating the holidays with such great people! We feel very fortunate to know such nice, giving, fun friends!

Bobbie, Steph and Marie

Matt, Tom and Deric

Steph and Matt AND Rhonda and Matt

Brady and Otto - BFFs!

Matt and Rhonda - the shutterbugs!

Tanya and Rene - beautiful ladies!

I'm trying to figure out who took this picture and why?! Anyone want to confess?

Time for the white elephant gifts!

What did you get, Otto? Looks like Rene's getting a kick out of it!

Brady had to get out the pump....

Tanya and Steph trying out Tanya's white elephant gift!

The ladies - what a beautiful crowd!

I like our new tree ornaments!

Gibson's artwork!

Here are some more examples of Gibson's art work.
He is learning so much at school! He wrote this Christmas list himself! If you look, you can make out "monster truck", "darts", and "airplane"! (We're hoping he settles for a remote-controlled airplane!)

This is Gibson's "thumb-art". I think he got the idea from watching "Bat-Thumb" on TV. He traces his thumb and then turns it into characters. The green one right in the middle on the bottom is "bat thumb" standing in front of his bat mobile. Gibson pointed out every feature on the bat mobile and told me what they do! The red 'thumb' on the right is "vampire thumb" - complete with fangs and wings, as is the green 'vampire thumb' to the left of the red one.

Our festive house!

My New Wallpaper

Enough said.

Annual Family Pictures

So after quite the ordeal this year, we finally got our family Christmas portraits. I'm just happy they are done! We ALWAYS take this picture on Gibson's birthday - but this year Brady had to work and Gibson's fifth disease rash was out of control on his face that day. So we scheduled for another time - we chose a weeknight thinking that it would be a lot less busy than a weekend. Well, Brady almost didn't make it home from work in time. Then, after scrambling to get there and barely making it on time, they didn't even have our appointment down. But, fortunately, they did our portraits anyway!