Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons

Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons came to visit us. We had an enjoyable conference weekend with them that included some fun adventures. We took a walk to a nearby playground in hopes of seeing some turtles, but the water fountain was on instead. The girls especially enjoyed the slide with Grandma's help.

We also spent a day at the Heard museum (thanks to the Gustaveson's for the suggestion). I don't think it compares to the dinosaur museum in Vernal (where Tyler's parents are from), but Abby enjoyed the different activities they had nonetheless. She was able to use a magnifying glass to look at bones.

There were shells of all shapes and sizes.

Thanks Tessa for showing us your favorite one.

Grandma helped Abby dig for dinosaur bones.

They even had live animals that we were able to see. Abby's most anticipated was the porcupine, but he was sleeping in his house, so she couldn't see him. But we did get to see lemurs, wallabies, capybaras, and other interesting animals.

I think our most exciting adventure with Grandma and Grandpa would have to have been when we picked up Tessa's birthday present. We went to Toys R Us and Grandma and Grandpa purchased a sandbox/picnic table for Tessa's birthday. Here is what it looks like assembled.

You can see behind the girls the size of the box it came in, so when they wheeled that to the front of the store, we had a slight problem. All five of us were in our little Ford Focus. Good thing Tyler's dad is good at solving problems. So we took a detour to Lowe's, picked up some straps and rope, and Tyler's dad strapped the box to roof of our car. I wish I had a picture of that for you. It was pretty funny. We were all pretty much stuck inside the car with the ropes and straps around our windows and mirrors. Tyler's dad had to slide in the half-open door and finish tightening the straps through the window. We're lucky we were able to get out of the car when we got home. But we did and the girls now love their new outside toy.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a wonderful time together!! We miss you already.

A Tribute to Gus Gus

We are not big pet people. If anyone knows our hamster tale, it's a sad one - got out of his cage and we never found him. But anyway, we do have fish. We are pet people when it comes to our fish. They are like part of the family. Here is our fish tank - 60 gallons, thank you Ebay.

So Tyler has really gotten into it. And after moving into our house here, Abby and I named all our fish after minor characters from the princess movies of course. Like Gus Gus, Merryweather, Doc, Rajah, Sebastian, and my personal favorite Lord Farquaad. (But that story's for another time.) Gus Gus, as you can probably see from the picture, is our largest goldfish, hence the name Gus Gus. Here's a close up:

He is one big fish! We have had him since we lived in California, before Abby was even born. He was given to us by our friends, the Bakers, when they moved. And he was our only fish who survived the move from California to their temporary home at Tyler's parents in Utah, and then to our home in Texas. We lost at least 5 fish from those moves. Anyway, so the Baker's came to visit us over Easter weekend, and we were so excited to be able to show Gus Gus to their kids since he used to be their pet. And on Saturday of their visit, their oldest son came in at breakfast and said Gus Gus was sleeping. And sure enough, he was sleeping... for good. We were a little sad and a couple of us commented on how he must have been living long enough just to see the Bakers one last time. I thought it would be a little traumatic for Abby to see Gus Gus be flushed away, but after we "saw him off" Abby said, "He's going to the beach," to which I replied, "that's right, all drains lead to the ocean!" Thank you Finding Nemo for helping us out of that traumatic situation. So here's to you Gus Gus...Enjoy the beach!! We'll miss you.

Tessa is ONE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TESSA!

Today is Tessa's birthday, so we combined our Easter activities with our birthday party. Grandma and Grandpa Black, Paul and Melody and family, and Scott and Nevla were here for our Easter egg hunt and dinner so we had Tessa's birthday party last night. Here's some of what she got:

The best part of a First Birthday is of course the cake eating so here's a progression of pictures of Tessa eating her cake starting with the before picture of the cake which I must thank Kristin for because I would never have had the creative idea or the awesome outcome without her help, so thanks!

Do you think she liked it? :) She must be like her dad - Chocolate lover!

Happy Easter!!

We had a very busy Easter weekend that included lots of visitors and a birthday party so I'll start with Friday. Our friends, the Bakers, came for a visit and we loved entertaining them. The kids had a great time that went into the night where Abby refused to sleep in her own bed.

Luckily, Shayla was a good sport.

EASTER SUNDAY

I finished the girls' Easter dresses for church on Sunday. I was pretty happy with how they turned out even though they weren't super frilly, fancy. But they'll be good summer dresses.

And it helps that the girls are so cute no matter what they're wearing.

EGG HUNT

We had two egg hunts this weekend. Here are the girls finding their eggs. They seemed to have fun. And of course, we all love all that candy!

Early Birthday Present

Tessa's birthday is coming up next week. She received an early birthday present from Grandma Black, who said we could use it now if we wanted to. So after the snow melted away, we got dad to put together our brand new wagon.

Here it is pre-assembly. Abby called it the "boat."

It took a little longer than it probaby should have considering that Abby wanted to "help."

So here is the final product. We've used it a lot already both indoors and out. Thanks Grandma! We're excited for the rest of our upcoming Easter/Birthday festivities.

I Got Tagged...

So I got tagged by Amy.
Now I tag Kristin, Kelsey, and Laura.
Reply to this post when you notice you are tagged and tell me when you complete yours!)

10 YEARS AGO:
I was totally in high school, senior baby, and getting ready for the big day of graduation. And probably worrying about who I'd be going to the school dances with.

5 THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST:
Looking at this weeks ads for coupon-shopping
Calling my friend to see why she keeps missing play group
Finishing Abby and Tessa's Easter dresses
Read my book while Tessa's napping
Get Abby's pants back on her (yes, that's right)

5 SNACKS THAT I ENJOY:
Chips and salsa
Yogurt and granola
Crackers and cheese
Ice Cream
Whatever chocolate treat we have as leftovers

5 PLACES I'VE LIVED:
American Fork, Utah
Diamond Bar, California
Wichita Falls, Texas
Marquette, Michigan
Burley, Idaho

WHAT I WOULD DO IF I SUDDENLY BECAME A BILLIONAIRE:
Pay off all our student loans and let Tyler start his own practice.

5 JOBS I'VE HAD:
Deseret Industries Accounting Clerk
BYU Bands Student Secretary
El Chico's Server
EFY Regional Counselor
Chuck E. Cheese employee (and yes, I did dress up like Chuck E.!!)

5 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME:
I marched in the BYU marching band (with 2 of my brothers one year)
I eat Junior Mints with my popcorn, thanks to my husband-yummy.
I graduated in Information Systems.
I don't really like plain chocolate. I much prefer something to be with it.
I don't have a middle name.

Let it Snow. Let it Snow. Let it Snow

That's right. It snowed in Texas...in March. And it was quite a bit of snow considering it's March and Texas! As soon as we woke up yesterday morning, we looked outside and Abby said, "It's Christmastime!!" After explaining that it's just random early spring weather, we had to go out and play in the snow before we even ate breakfast.

Abby saw the neighbors making snow angels so she had to do it too. She did really well actually. She knew just what to do once I laid her in the snow. She made me do one too. This is Abby's angel and mine is in the top right corner.
We built a "Frosty" as Abby called it, but the snow didn't pack too well, so it was more like a mound of snow than anything else. Abby was a little shocked when I threw a snowball at her, but she thought it was funny when she got to throw one back at me. We had fun and spent a good part of an hour getting cold and enjoying the snow before it all melted away.