Christmas Eve Dinner & Christmas Breakfast

I am still trying to figure out what exactly we will be doing as our Christmas Eve tradition at our home.  We do a service project all morning and early afternoon, but when we finish that I have kind of been in a quandary of what to do.  This year I put a lamb roast in the crock pot, researched how to make English mint sauce (for those of you who may not know...English mint sauce is NOT English mint jelly.) and made potatoes how Dad Gibson likes them, added some Rhodes rolls and peas along with a gravy made from the meat marinade and that is what he had for dinner.  Kurt and Dad Gibson were in Heaven!  Dad Gibson was especially pleased, which made me happy.  So this may be our new Christmas Eve meal...a new tradition has begun!

I am also trying to figure out a Christmas morning treat...last year I tried a breakfast casserole, but I was not impressed.  This year I made Cinnamon Roll Bread with whipped cinnamon butter.  It was pretty darn tasty!  We'll see if it is a keeper when next year comes around!

Christmas Stockings!

A dear friend of mine, Pam gave my Mom hats that her Aunt had knitted to give to all of her grandkids.  When I saw the hats I immediately thought of Christmas stockings.  Growing up we all had our own hand knitted Christmas Stockings.  I LOVED them!  They had our names on them and were white, green and red.  I have wanted some for my own family, but the only place I have seen some kind of like the ones from my childhood were on Etsy and they were VERY Expensive!  I asked Pam if she thought her Aunt Emma could knit our family some Christmas stockings, she said she was sure she could.  Pam said it turned out to be a great project for her Aunt.  She enjoyed making them for us.  Well, Pam brought the finished product over today.  They look WONDERFUL!!!! I am SOOOOO excited to have stockings for my kids.  Now Santa will have a place to put an orange for Christmas morning!

Neighbor Gifts

Last year when we first moved in to our subdivision I was excited to live in a place where I thought we would pass out little neighbor gifts, but instead we were given an invitation to an adult only party to donate money for a needy family; in the invite it said that this is the new tradition for our subdivision in lieu of neighborhood gifts. It was all fine and dandy, but I kinda missed the little gifts. This year I asked about the get-together and was told it would be just before Christmas. Well, it turns out the ball was kind of dropped and everyone decided to do little gifts. Great! But I was not prepared! So I spent the last few days trying to put something together. I ended up making a little plate of cookies with some candies and giving a roll of Bounty paper towels with this saying... This season may the "absorbing" spirit of Christ "blot" out your problems, "soak up" your sorrows, and "wipe" away your difficulties and may the new year bring you "bounteous" blessings all the year through! I told John I thought I could almost get away with just giving out the paper towels. He adamantly disagreed and told me I shouldn't offend anyone with just paper towels they may think I think they need to clean their house. I laughed and laughed! When I read him the little note on the paper towels his comment was, I sure hope they read the note. I then explained my favorite neighbor gift so far was a roll of toilet with a paper with a cute poem. He smiled and still thought I needed to make sure and give the plate of cookies.

AHHHH!

When Griffin gets excited or wants your attention he will let out a short squeal. It is adorable! It's fun to see him get excited and want to share his enthusiasm for life! May we all find a way to let out a little enthusiasm for life!

NCAA National Track & Cross Country Coach's Hall of Fame

Dad was inducted to the NCAA National Track & Cross Country Coach's Hall of Fame. The induction was held in San Antonio, Texas. That is the first time I had ever been outside an airport in Texas, it was a lot greener than I expected it to be. We stayed in a really nice hotel, it was a JW Marriott Resort. Morgan, Elynn's daughter referred to it as the castle. Kurt and I flew in with Mom and Dad and then met up with everyone else. We went down to the River Walk, drove around San Antonio, played outside in the swimming pool and went down the water slides (Yes, it was December 16th!) and we saw the Alamo. It isn't as big as I thought it would be... and it's in the MIDDLE of town. I pictured it out in the middle of nowhere, like in the movie Davy Crockett. Nope it was right smack in the middle of town on Crockett avenue. I also had fun spending time with my siblings.

The evening was delightful. We saw the Pentathlon World Record Holder, Ashton Eaton, and the first female in NCAA history to capture national titles in the 100m and 400m hurdles in the same championship, Queen Harrison, win the Bowerman Award (track & field's equivalent of the Heisman). We were entertained by John Anderson, ESPN and Wipe Out host, who was the Master of Ceremonies. But the highlight was seeing Dad being inducted. He gave a GREAT entertaining speech. He began his speech by paying tribute to Mom. After acknowledging the significant role she played in all of his accomplishments he said, "When I got married I was determined that I would be the captain of my ship. And I am. Little did I know that I married an admiral." The next day as were were walking through the airport a coach said, "Hi Coach! and his wife said, "Hi Admiral!" Dad BEAMED!
(Pictures to come)

Griffin's Heart

I took Griffin in for his 9 month check-up today. At his 6 month check-up the Dr. heard a slight heart murmur, but told us not to worry and she would give us an update at his 9 month visit. Well, today she told us she is referring Griff to a cardiologist for an echo cardiogram she wants us to get it done at Primary Children's Hospital. I will feel better once we talk with the cardiologist and find out what it is and what needs to be done to keep our happy little guy healthy! Our appointment is on January 14th.

Enjoying Food

I just think these are cute pictures so I want to put them on my blog! It's fun being a mom! I sure love my boys!

AJ's prayer

We say prayers every night with AJ, I have often asked him if he wants to say it and he says no. He will sometimes repeat what we say but he hasn't wanted to say it himself. Yesterday when I asked him he said he wanted to say it himself. It was one of those treasured mommy moments! I especially loved it when he said thank you for his Christmas Lights.

Pictures with Santa

Our first pictures this year were taken up at WSU's bookstore. Santa was dressed up in a hip Santa suit. The next pictures were taken at my preschool. AJ was SOOOOOOOO excited Santa was at HIS house! Griffin was just trying to figure out what was going on!

20 Years Ago Today

Twenty years ago today Chris and I went into the MTC to go on our missions! I asked Chris and his family and Mom and Dad to come over for dinner. I had fun setting the table and trying to make it kinda special. It is also Cooper's birthday today the big 6! And it was 5 years ago today that I first heard of a guy named Kurt. It was at Cooper's 1st birthday party that Joyce told me she gave my number to someone at work. I guess Dec. 12th holds a lot of special memories for me!

Family PIctures

Kurt's friend from work Roy likes to take pictures and so Kurt asked him to take our pictures for our Christmas Card. Here is the winner!

We went to the ward Christmas Party and as part of the activity each table was assigned part of the twelve days of Christmas, the only ones sitting at our table were us, we were assigned 10 Lords a leaping. So when it came to our part I threw Griffin up and caught him and Kurt threw AJ up and caught him. We had several comments that ours was the best... I think the kids smiles and giggles won everyone's hearts!

Thanksgiving in Seattle

Our niece Erika was married the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Portland followed by a reception in Seattle that same day so we decided to go on a ROAD TRIP! We loaded up the car and the small trailer and hit the road, only to be stopped just out side of Burley Idaho with TERRIBLE road conditions. We decided to stay the night to be safe. The next day we were stopped on the freeway for over an hour because of weather related crashes. We stopped in LaGrande Oregon to change windshield wipers and were told to wait until morning to go over the Blue Mts. so we stayed in the Super 8 in LaGrande.

We arrived in Seattle about 5:00 Wednesday evening. A big thanks to Zech's family for setting us up in some GREAT rooms while we were up there for the wedding.

We first went to Astrid's. AJ walked in the house and said, "Hello doggie, hello lion." I did a double take and noticed the second dog was quite fluffy, in AJ's mind he looked like a lion. AJ continued to refer to the dog as a lion the whole trip.

Thursday morning was spent at Astrid's and then over to a church to have the big ol' feast with Bianca and family. It was a wonderful meal! Just what Thanksgiving should be! Thanks to them for doing all of the cooking!

Friday morning we went to the Seattle temple for Erika to take her endowments out. It was nice to be in the temple with family. We then drove down to Portland and stayed the night so we were ready for the morning wedding. Erika looked beautiful and both she and Zech looked happy! AJ had a great time playing with his Lightning McQueen car he had found in the luggage that morning. After the wedding we waited a while out in the cold for them to come out for pictures, by the time we got pictures taken, the boys were ready to go get warm. We then drove back to Seattle. That night we were able to visit with Astrid's children and the reception.

On the way home we stayed in LaGrande again, but this time with Doug and Patty. It was fun to see the addition they had done on their house, it was gorgeous!

All in all it was a great trip!

AJ in October and November

The other day AJ hit his head as he was laying down to get his diaper changed. I consoled him and told him to lay down so we could get his diaper done. He looked at me and said, "Mom, I crying first!" I waited a minute and asked if he was ready and he smiled and said, "YEP!"

We went out to eat with Grandma and Grandpa Hislop, to entertain AJ we pulled out a few toys out of the diaper bag. He was playing with Scooby Doo and to be honest we weren't paying much attention until we heard, "Here's Scooby Doo's penis." He just matter of factly turned over Scooby Doo and was pointing to where his penis should be. We all busted up!

We have a clock that chimes and AJ loves to hear it. He thinks it is talking to him. When he wakes up in the morning he says, "Good Morning Clock" When it chimes 8 O'clock he knows it is time for bed. He often says, "No, no clock me don't want it! Me don't want to go to bed!"

We had to fill out a favorite things list for Nursery, this is what he came up with...

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Food: Yogurt

Favorite Animal: Cow

Favorite TV Show: Handy Manny

Thing he is the best at... throwing, hitting, kicking and shooting balls!

Favorite thing to wear: Shirts with cars and trucks on them and his Lightening McQueen PJ's

Favorite Song: Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

Favorite thing about nursery: Playing with the truck

Our Boys

Griffin is getting old enough that he and AJ will play together a little bit. I once remember my sister-in-law Teresa saying one of her favorite sounds was that of her children laughing. I SO AGREE! Both Kurt and I LOVE to hear them laugh. I thought having little babies was fun, but I am so enjoying as they are getting older and can interact more! Although I admit I walked through the baby department today and a tear came to my eye thinking my children are almost out of this stage. Griffin is already wearing 12 month size clothes! We sure love our boys!

Trick or Treat!

We had a lot of fun this year! AJ picked out his own costume and had a great time practicing his roar! He didn't like wearing the mane though. I told him he had to wear the hat to get candy. He ran to his room and came back with a baseball cap and said, NO pointing to the lion mane and smiled and said, "This hat!" and put on his baseball cap. I had to give him points for trying, but in the end I convinced him he would only get candy if he wore his mane so he did!

Griffin was a giraffe this year. I loved the idea of him being a giraffe because babies basically have no necks... I thought it was funny!

Kurt and I even got into the spirit of things. At the scout party Kurt went as Goofy, but on the 30th he went as a soldier(he had just come home from reserves).

Halloween Treats

It was AJ's turn to bring snack for Kindermusik class, so I decided to have a little fun! I made witches hats out of cookies and Hershey Kisses and broomsticks out of a pretzel rod, cheese stick and then tied it off with red licorice. They were a hit! AJ could have cared less about what they looked like, he just wanted the cheese and chocolate!

4 Wheeler

Kurt bought me a four wheeler!  We have had a lot of fun with it so far.  I have taken the kids around our subdivision, AJ says "Faster Mommy Faster!"Kurt and I went with our neighbor Duane up Ben Lomond Peak!  I am sure we will have many adventures to come!

I Can CAN!

I decided since I am now a stay at home mom, I better do a few "homemakie" things.  So I decided to can a few things.  I canned salsa and beets.  I also made freezer jam from peaches and strawberries.  I was pretty proud of my self for my first attempt!  AJ thought the papers from the freezer jars made great hats!

Ready or Not Here They Come!

Well, it's ready! We were up until after 2:00AM, but we are ready for the open house! What do you think? I am excited, I think the children and parents will be excited when they come in and see the room or at least I hope they will be!

Griffin is an Official Gibson!

Today we were able to take Griffin to court at 10:00am and have his adoption finalized. It was a special court time because the Honorable Mark R. DeCaria was our judge. I was fortunate enough to be able to work as a nanny for Mark several years ago when his girls were young. He made some very nice comments about me during the proceedings. Our attorney Travis Marker, whom I used to babysit started out by asking us if we both agreed to these divorce proceedings. We told him NO, when he realized his mistake he turned beet red! He said he obviously does a lot more divorces than adoptions. Other than that the court time went off without a hitch. We are now officially a family of four!