Merry Christmas!!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and we hope you all did, too. Great Grandma invited us to come stay Christmas Eve with her again and we had alot of fun.
Izzy adores her baby-doll and Brooklynn flipped out over her MP3 player that Santa brought. At first, I thought the MP3 player would be good so she could listen to all her music and we wouldn't have to suffer Hannah Montanna getting stuck in our brain...however, my musical little girl now wonders around the house singing her little heart out...with a very BIG voice :) Oh well!

Isabelle and Brooklynn LOVED the "Glow Stations" they got from Grandpa Tom and Grandma Diane. They are especially fun during night time car rides!

And they LOVE the new dollhouse from Grandma Sue-Sue and Grandpa Brad...and I'll admit...I like playing with it, too :)

Holiday Fun

Here are a few things we've been up to this month.

Brooky and I went to a Christmas parade with Aunt Tara and her boys, Michael & Garret. It was very, VERY cold...but we had alot of fun. The kids stayed warm by cuddling, jumping around and cheering so they would get candy thrown their way.

The girls got one big present early this year thanks to our awesome neighbor. They (mostly Brooklynn) wanted pet fish from Santa and when I mentioned it to my neighbor, Cathy, she said she wanted to get rid of her fish and tank and for us to come get it!! It is a nice 10 gallon tank with decorations, all the equipment and even 8 fish! Brooklynn picked out new gravel and we got a few more supplies and...boom...early Christmas. At first Brooklynn was a little worried because she had already sent her letter to Santa requesting fish, but I told her I sent him a another letter explaining the situation and asking him to bring her something else instead. ;~) Brooklynn absolutly LOVES the fish. She reads to them, sings to them and hugs and kisses the tank each night! Too cute!!!

Peek-a-boo!

Well...I wasn't exactly expecting this until later on in the year but apparently I've got a rather impatient little-one who can't wait any longer to come join his/her family. We're 2 months along and my "little bean" is due to join us by July 10th...only 1 week after Izzy turns 3. We are all very excited! I worry about Isabelle, though. She is SUCH a momma's-girl and LOVES to be babied. Then again...I was also worried about Brooklynn and though she went through a little jealousy phase, she really LOVES being a big sister and is sooooo good at it. Of course, I am a little nervous about the usual stuff (am I really ready to do this again?)...but I am also very excited. I love to just sit and hold my little babies and smell them all day! It's like drinking in the essence of Heaven!!

Hey Pumpkin!

It has been years since I have carved a pumpkin instead of just painting one, so I was excited when we decided to have a pumpkin-themed Family Home Evening. After the opening song and prayer, we read a story from the Friend magazine that was about pumpkins (and amazingly enough, everyone sat still and listened intently!!!) then we got goopy carving and cleaning the pumpkins. Brooklynn picked out a Mummy design and a Scary Fire Face design from this book we got at Wally-World. Brooky and I finished our scary face fairly quickly but poor Russ spent like 2 hours on the more intricately-designed mummy face. They both look awesome!!!

The next day we went to the good ol' Pumpkin Patch with Tara Lynn and her boys. The corn maze was even better this year and the homemade, fried, fuit pies were da bomb! Mmmmm! I just love the fall! It's my favorite time of year!!!

Finally!!

Brooklynn finally lost her first tooth...and, in true Brooklynn-form, it was highly dramatic. The tooth decided not to come up directly under the baby tooth and instead came up behind it. This made the baby tooth not want to come loose very much...plus Brooklynn did not like the idea of trying to wiggle it hard every day. Eventually the tooth was almost half way in and we could see that the old tooth wasnt going to budge...so we had a decision to make...either pay the dentist to pull it or we would pull it. Brooklynn said she would rather have us do it instead of the dentist, so Russ helped her hold ice on her tooth and gums for several minutes in between him wiggling and pulling hard. It was traumatic for me as a mother to hear my baby crying and screaming so I had to leave the room. It just killed me! I wanted so bad to run to her and scoop her up in my arms and soothe her but I knew it had to be done. Finally, I heard a "pop" and a scream...and sure enough, they had gotten it out. As soon as Brooklynn saw the tooth, the sobs turned to giddy-laughter and beaming-pride. Her cousin, Michael, was baptised that evening so Brooklynn took her tooth in a little baggy and showed everyone who came.

Two for Taebo!

Ok...remember how I told you that Brooklynn loved to do Taebo? Well, Izzy now loves it too. She asks for it almost every day! I gotta say that I am very happy that they are gaining an appreciation for exercise so early!! I still have a hard time with it. :)

Labor Day Fun

We took the girls to Harrogate Park for their annual Labor Day Fair and Fireworks show and had alot of fun! After we had our fill of yummy Fair-food, the girls got a pony ride and then played on the swings until the fireworks started.

Although I do LOVE fairs, I have to admit that I was acting a little childish this evening in another way. I wasnt feeling very good and didnt feel like walking very far, so I griped at poor Russ several times for parking sooo far away from the entrance instead of finding a closer spot. Plus, we had planned to watch the fireworks by our van so we could leave before the traffic got bad...which meant that we'd have to walk that loooooong distance back to the van in a hurry so we didnt miss any fireworks. Well...we found out what time the fireworks would be starting so after all the fun and food...off we went back to the van. I still felt like griping on the way back, but I bit my tongue. Once we got to our van and laid our blanket down on the grass...I start looking around to see what direction the fireworks would be in, and what do you think I saw several yards out in the field directly in front of our van??? The fireworks!! I think we had the best seat in the house!! Oh well, nothing goes with fair-food like a nice slice of humble-pie. :) Love you Babe!

Farewell, Summer!

I was a slacker and forgot my camera on the actual 1st day of school, so this picture is from the 1st week of
1st Grade. Brooklynn LOVES her teacher and is happy to be back in school...although, homework became really old, really fast. :)


Izzy misses "Brookin" during the day but has still found ways to amuse herself. She loves hanging out in the dryer...which used to be one of my favorite spots when I was her age. I was inspired by Jami and Caymbree and decided to see if Izzy would let me do "piggys" in her hair. Well, she didn't LOVE it at first but when she saw that big-sissy kept her pig-tails in, she decided not to rip them out. She actually kept them in all through church, but as soon as we got home...away they went. Oh well, we'll keep trying.

Moments like these make it all worth while!


We visited the Smokies again this year and celebrated Lorna's birthday while there. Tara Lynn decorated a beautiful cake. Almost too pretty to eat...almost. :)

The river was very, very cold this year and very deep due to all the rain we've had.

Izzy was dangerously-fearless, as usual, while Brooklynn played safely on the shoreline. It is so weird how different they are from each other, and yet, so alike in many ways.

How about this gorgeous lady??!! Isn't she cute??!!

Izzy is 2!!

My sweet Isabelle turned 2 years old on July 3rd! I know it's cliche...but time really does fly!! Maybe it's because she's still so small or because she is still so cuddly and clingy with me...but she still seems like a little baby to me. *sigh* But my babies are indeed growing up! We decided to celebrate her birthday on the 4th since much of the Gibson family would be congregating at Great Grandma's house anyway. It was so much fun! In fact, I don't know what was more fun...watching Brooklynn help Izzy open her gifts...or watching Russ and Uncle Mike act like little kids while playing with fireworks!!! Man...they are a scary duo when explosives are invlolved!! :)

Let me introduce you to "the cheesy grin"...

and to "the stink eye"!

Suprise!

In April, Russ and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, but June 29th marked our 7th anniversary of when we were sealed together in the temple. My sweet in-laws invited us to have dinner with them to celebrate, but when we pulled into the driveway...we saw many cars and trucks that took a moment for us to recognize. The dinner turned out to be a big suprise party for us!! It was so sweet and lots of fun...not to mention yummy!!! My sis-in-law Tara made this gorgeous cake in likeness of the Nashville Temple...isn't she talented?!?! Thank you all for your friendship, support and love. We are truly blessed!!

PS-For more information on temples, please click here or here.

I just had to show you my cute nephews, Garret & Michael.

As you can see, all Michael wants for summer is his 2 front teeth!

Summer fun

We were fortunate to be able to have a special visitor for a week or so. Katie Baxter (aka Sister Baxter) served part of her mission here in LaFollette 3 years ago and was just one of those people who instantly becomes your friend. I truly enjoyed the time I spent with her and Sister Shearer while we were out visiting investigators. This time, we got to spend time together exploring East Tennessee. We...okay...I got us lost one day and we ended up in Pigeon Forge...which was totally fun!! We spent a couple of days in downtown Knoxville where we visited this neat memorial to all the fallen soldiers from E-TN, got virtigo at the top of the Sun Sphere and acted like totally, cheesy tourists on UT campus! :~) She also joined us for a fun-filled day at the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg. Come back anytime, Katie. The girls already miss you!!

Happy Birthday Brooky!

I asked Brooklynn what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday and she said "Cheesecake" so I made a real cheesecake but also made this cheese-cake. It's supposed to be a cheese-wheel with a slice set on top with 2 little mice playing around on it. At home it looked pretty good, but by the time we got to great-grandma's house, the icing started to melt and...well...let's just say that it tasted better than it looks. Oh well! At least I tried. :)

The party was alot of fun, but we did have one minor tragedy...Izzy and Michael where walking around Great-Grandma's house when they happened to pass by a hornet nest. Apparently the hornets were NOT happy about this. Michael ran over to us and allerted us to what was happening...I ran around to the side of the house where, to my horror, I saw my baby screaming in pain and holding her face while hornets swarmed around her! I ran over to her and yanked her off the stairs by her clothing and ran her inside. Let me tell you...it was a major adrenaline rush! Luckily, she was only stung one time on her left cheek. You can see from the picture that her little face and eye began to swell up. Papa drove to Walgreens and got some childrens Benedryl just to be safe. Within the hour she was happy and helping open birthday presents, so all was well! It's so cute to hear her tell the story of what happened. She says "Bee...bzzzzzzzzz...Izzy face...boo-boo...cry".

Kindergarten Graduation

Brooklynn graduated from kindergarten on Tuesday and we were all so proud...

...especially Izzy!

Valley View Elementary. Go Bob Cats!!