Christmas 2013

The final post of the year! We started our Christmas vacation early by letting the girls open one present each Thursday night after Abby opened her birthday presents. Tyler's family sent us home from Thanksgiving with money for Christmas gifts, so the girls opened the gifts we bought for them from Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons which for the younger girls was a doll from the Frozen movie, which they were hoping to get. Abby got her Just Dance Wii game that she had been wishing for as well. That started out the Christmas break with a bang.

 

We spent half of our two week break in Wichita Falls with my family. We had been making our plans ever since the wedding in November, so we knew there were only about two and a half days that we would all be together with everyone's travel and work schedules. Tyler had a short day on the girls' last day of school (which was also a half day) so we decided to head out to Wichita Falls on Friday and drive straight through. The weather had progressively gotten colder and my family had even had some icy, shut-down-the-city-type days the week or so before. We basically drove through rain the entire 9 hour drive, but we made it a little before midnight that Friday night, the 20th. It was cold most of the time we were in Wichita Falls, but actually a lot warmer than it had been and it got colder again the day we drove home, so we were there the perfect week. We had our family gift exchange and also our annual dollar gift exchange which everyone loves. We played lots of games and even got a family picture after church while everyone was still together.

 

Some of the other fun activities we did while we were there included walking through the Fantasy of Lights, which is at the University. It was cold, but the girls love seeing all the displays. Some of the favorites were the Snow White, Cinderella, and new Buzz Lightyear displays, and always the bubble-making robot.

 

I like driving through the neighborhoods to see all the Christmas decorations. This was a favorite that I kind of got a picture of as we drove past it a second time. Many people go all out with the lights and we enjoyed driving around finding the most decorated yards.

 

We decorated some gingerbread houses this year. Here is Abby's that she made with Tyler's help. I worked on a larger one that the little girls were supposed to help me decorate, but by the time I got it put together, Chloe was the only one patient enough to wait and decorate with me. So she made all the detail decisions and got her picture taken by her masterpiece.

 

I like taking pictures whenever the kids are near Grandma or Grandpa. I caught these two pictures at different times, but thought they were cute. Aubrey's always been Grandpa's girl (she's always climbing all over him), but I liked finding this quiet moment with Grandpa and Abby too.

 

 The grandkids had fun eating treats and playing together. Here they are Christmas Eve in their matching pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa.

 

Christmas morning was fun. The girls loved seeing what Santa brought and finding the empty plate of cookies and milk. We spent all morning unwrapping presents and having the girls wanting each new toy opened so they could play with it right away.

 Nevla and I helped the girls make tye-dye shirts one night, but realized it's not really a kid-friendly project, so we did most of the work ourselves. Since we had taken over the table with our mess, the kids got to eat their dinner in front of the tv - once a table cloth was down to protect the carpet at least. The shirts ended up turning out really cute, but I was sad when I realized I didn't get any pictures the day they all wore them.

Another given when we go to Grandma's is the usual trip to Jump for Joy. Aubrey had been talking about this place for weeks and couldn't wait to go. Tyler had the honors of helping Taryn up and down the big slide, which she loved doing over and over.

Chloe, Tessa, and Aubrey just kept running from one bounce house to the next. They loved every minute they were there.

The girls slept each night in the living room on an air mattress all together. We pulled a name each night for that girl to pick the movie they got to watch when falling asleep. Scott and Nevla and Tyler and I would play games late into the night. One night we found their dog, Shyla, asleep at Aubrey's feet on the mattress. She apparently had given up on us going to bed any earlier. It was pretty cute. I had to take a picture so I could show Aubrey and have her believe me when I told her the dog fell asleep next to her in bed. Taryn had her own bed in our room, but each night she tried staying up late with the "older" girls. This was a cute picture when she snuggled up with Tessa even though the flash was a bit too bright.

 

A new activity for this year was going to see some mini ponies at a lady's house who my mom knew. Abby spent the day at her friend Ella's house, so it was all the other grandkids. They took turns riding the ponies, leading the ponies on walks, and riding the other toys and swings they had in their yard. The ponies were so cute and well-behaved to be around so many hyper kids.

 

Even Taryn took a turn on one of their smallest mini ponies. She seemed to like it as long as Tyler didn't stray too far away from her.

 Their other toys included this tractor swing made out of old tires. I kept staring at it wondering how easy it would be to make one because I kept thinking it would be something Tyler's dad could figure out and have fun trying to make. The kids loved riding it and pushing other people in it too.

 

They also had one of those toy rocking horses, which I think Taryn felt a little safer riding than the actual pony.

Everyones favorite activity had to be dressing up the ponies. They had hats, shoes, headbands, bandannas, and then glitter and hair markers and colored sprays for the hair. The kids could not get enough of it. Aubrey loved the white pony, named Coco, and did most of her decorating on her. She really liked having her wear the tiara.

Taryn couldn't get enough of the glitter. Every time I took one away from her, the next time I'd turn around she had found another color and was dumping that on the nearest pony. Luckily they didn't mind and the lady said it all would just wear off or blow off over the next couple days.

 

 We finally put on some sparkly pink shoes on the smallest of the ponies and I had to take a picture with Tessa since she had on her sparkly pink shoes as well.

 

Everyone had so much fun, it may have to become a regular part of our trip whenever we go out there for the holidays.

 

The final art project we had for the kids was some glitter fabric paint, so everyone painted either an apron, bag, or box. Luckily everything was dry by the time we had to drive home because we were a little worried since we had waited until the last night before starting this project. We got one more picture of all the grandkids with their creations.

 

We were there over a week and had a lot of fun being with everyone. We were lucky that none of the kids got sick, which always seems to happen whenever that many kids and people are together under one roof. Four of the adults ended up getting sick while we were there, but none of the kids and neither Tyler or myself, so we considered ourselves very lucky. On the drive home, we kept wondering if one of our little family would end up with the body aches and chills, but we never did - thank goodness. We had a great time and everyone else seemed to as well (when they weren't sick). We love being with family.

 

We spent the last couple days of 2013 at home with just us. It was nice and as we stayed up late watching movies, and playing games waiting around for midnight on New Year's Eve, I realized it was a lot of fun with it being just us. I decided we needed to have at least one holiday like that to just be home and hang out with our own family. On New Year's Eve, Taryn and Aubrey obviously didn't last too long, but Tessa lasted though the games until just after 11. Abby made it all the way to the new year for the first time. She was very proud of herself for doing that.

 

Overall, it was a great 2013 and we hope 2014 will be just as adventurous and amazing!

All About Abby

To finish off 2013, I only have December happenings left. That leaves Abby's birthday and Christmas! To try and keep current year activities in the correct year, while doing a post about Abby's birthday, I'm also going to include her school programs that have occurred since the beginning of the school year. That would include a couple Honor Choir concerts, and her 3rd Grade PTA program. And we'll wind it all up with the birthday girl.

 

So first, Abby's elementary has an Honor Choir that is only for 3rd and 4th graders who would like to be apart of it as long as their grades are kept up. Abby has been looking forward to being apart of the choir since last year when we first heard about it. She loves to sing still, she looks forward to the weekly rehearsals, and she spends a lot of extra time at home practicing whatever songs they are working on. One time she forgot her folder at home which included her choir music and she was so distraught that her teacher emailed me asking to bring it to school for her (I was going to just have her deal with the consequences of leaving it at home) because Abby was so concerned that she would get kicked out of choir if she didn't have it. They do have a three strikes rule, but she wouldn't have had any strikes, but she was so devastated worrying about getting just one. This is how much she loves being in choir and how seriously she takes it.

 

Their first performance was in October and they sang some Halloween songs, which included some interesting song choices. The two I'm referring to are Thriller and Little Shop of Horrors. I thought it was interesting because I'd hear Abby practicing both songs at home, and had to laugh because those are songs from my childhood. We also took some time talking about them (like the Michael Jackson video and the Little Shop of Horrors movie) just so she'd know what she was singing about. I just thought it was funny that 3rd and 4th graders were singing these songs, but they enjoyed it and they performed them well along with all the other numbers.

 

They performed less than two weeks later at a Christmas Fair in downtown El Paso, which happened to be headed by Abby's homeroom teacher. They sang with another elementary choir and performed Christmas songs at this event.

 

Here's Abby with some of her choir friends while they waited to go on stage. She wanted me to include their names, so from left to right they are: Katherine, Abby, Lanie, Devry, and Sergio.

 

This is Abby and two of her classmates, Abbigail and Connor, with their teacher, Mrs. McIntosh, who was running the event like I mentioned. 

 

The final Honor Choir performance was their Christmas program held in the middle of December. I was totally impressed because the performance consisted of two halves. The first was familiar Santa Claus-type songs, while the second half was more spiritual songs about Baby Jesus. Considering this is at a public school, I was happy to hear they were singing those songs as well. And hearing from other Texas friends around the state, it must be a Texas thing that still allows public schools to do that, which we were proud to be a part of.

 

Since this is a post about Abby, I've decided to include this self-portrait of Abby that I saw on the wall in her hallway when I was there for Parent/Teacher conferences. I've enlarged it so you can hopefully see some of the words that she used to describe herself for this project which I thought were awesome. I loved it and had to have a picture of it to remember. Now, in this post, we'll have it forever. In case they are too hard to read, it says: "I am:" a great dancer, exciting, brave, beautiful, smart, talented, cute, a musician, fashionable, sweet, and an awesome daughter. Definitely a keeper.

 

Abby's 9th birthday was on a Thursday this year, the second to last day before the Christmas break.

 

Abby begged for me to take her class donuts on her birthday and since we weren't doing parties this year, I figured we could oblige. Her teacher had a fabric birthday cake for her to hold while her class sang her happy birthday. Every kid was super excited to get a donut. 

 

Without a party, we had planned on just eating out as a family to celebrate her birthday until we found out that her 3rd Grade program was going to be the evening of her birthday. So, we did eat a quick dinner at Texas Roadhouse (Abby's pick) and then rushed over to the school for her concert. Their theme was Beatles songs, so they had tye-dye shirts, peace tattoos, and we decided to braid her hair.

I videoed the performances, so the only picture I got at the school was when they were backstage about to go on. Each class sang a different Beatles song and danced while singing. Abby's class sang Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, and they had a final number with all the classes singing together, All You Need is Love. It was a really fun concert.

 

After running around from donuts, dinner, and the concert, we finally settled at home long enough for Abby to open a few presents. Some of her birthday presents included a karaoke CD, a Snap-It car, and clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons, Monsters University, and a board game among other things from the family.



She had a fun day and was happy to let everyone know it was her birthday and that she was now 9 years old.

Happy Birthday Abby!!

Thanksgiving in Utah

This year our Thanksgiving was with Tyler's family in Utah. We traveled two days and got there Wednesday afternoon. Everyone was at Grandma's house by that night. The kids love going and playing with their cousins, and once we're there they don't stop. The kids are always running around, playing, and just staying busy. Aubrey and Taryn were both fascinated with Lucy and loved playing big sister to her. I thought they were being so cute, so I took a few pictures as they played.

 

 

When large groups of kids sit still long enough for a picture, I try to grab it. I love getting pictures of as many of the cousins together as I can.

 

Taryn was impressing Grandma and Grandpa with all the words and animal noises she says. I caught this picture of Grandpa holding her because she knows how to find anyone's phone in hopes of playing games on it. Unfortunately Grandpa's phone didn't have games, but she sat on his lap for awhile before figuring that out.

 

Taryn and Anson are only like 6 weeks apart. I took a ton of pictures when they found each other on the stairs and ended up sitting together. I couldn't quite get any of both of them looking and smiling at the same time, but here are few that I did get.

 

 

Thanksgiving Day was full of cooking and eating. With our huge family now (16 grandkids) we had to have our Thanksgiving meal around 3 tables. Here are the two kid tables.

We went to the movies on Thanksgiving Day which has been a tradition whenever a good movie is out. We went this year to see Frozen, in 3D. It was awesome and the kids (and adults) loved it. We took up an entire row in the theater and then some on an additional row. I was surprised with that many kids how they all stayed put and enjoyed the entire show, even Taryn and the other younger grandkids.

We took a walk to the school and park near Grandma's house at one point to get the kids out of the house and to get some energy out. I liked taking pictures on this outing, but it didn't last too long since I was one of the first ones to head back with the kids who needed to go to the bathroom.

I did like what pictures I was able to get though.

 

 

The cousins did a gift exchange and they were all super excited to open their present and had a fun time delivering the present they had picked out to the person they were buying for.

 

Aubrey got a huge sticker book. Tessa received a purse with a necklace, and Abby got a Lego Friends kit. They were all happy.

 We drove up the mountain for the Utah families to pick out their Christmas trees. We went for moral support and to let the kids play in the snow. We had to buy new boots and jackets for most of our girls so they could enjoy the cold, snowy Utah weather. They had fun in the snow, although Taryn didn't like it too much. She was fine as long as she was being held, which was kind of a pain for Tyler or me while we trekked through the woods. I took pictures along our hike and at a bridge where we stopped to rest.

 

 

 This was the most snow we saw. There wasn't much at Grandma's house, but there was plenty here on the mountain where the girls could trudge through, make snow angels, and slide down whenever they found little hills. The funniest part of the trip was the size of tree that Tiffany and Justin ended up with. It was huge around the base and tying it up on their van was a feat in itself. Seeing their van drive around with this huge tree on top made everyone giggle.

The adults spent time playing games, relaxing, or cooking and baking. We were also able to go to the temple one night, which I had been looking forward to since we started planning our trip. The kids stayed busy playing and having fun together. It was sad when it was time to head home.

 

The drive to and from Utah was uneventful thankfully with not much snow or bad roads. We did hit a bad patch of fog during our drive home, but it wasn't too bad. We always love being with family even though the drive is long. We always wish we could stay longer. It is always so much fun.