Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch for Abby's preschool field trip this week. It was fun, but rather windy, so everyone got quite cold. Tessa had a hard time being as small as she is, but by the end when we found some sun, she got a little happier. Here's our adventure: Here's Abby feeding a Texas Longhorn. She wouldn't do it without Daddy's help. Tessa had no problem doing it herself, although her hand got really gooey from the bull slober.

Here's the family on the hayride.

Here's the preschool on the hayride. Can you tell it's windy and cold from their faces?

There were lots of picture spots around the area. Abby found this tractor for her picture.

Here's another photo spot that we used even though Tessa was not happy.

Of course, as we headed out to the car to leave, it was warmer in the sun, so Tessa decided she could have a good time after all. I even got her to smile for the camera after she found a pumpkin to sit on.We each got to pick a pumpkin, so here's Abby finding her "perfect" one.We carved our pumpkins the same night, and here's the one I carved. It's my rendition of Tessa complete with curls and four teeth. It looks like her right? :)

Abby's Recipe

So I heard about this from my friend Amy and saw a post on her blog too, so here's the idea:

Have your child dictate to you his or her favorite recipe that you make together in the kitchen. Then add the actual recipe. See the cute results. Here's Abby's version of her favorite recipe - Banana Bread!

Banana Bread

1. Mix sugar and butter until it looks like popcorn.
2. Crack 2 eggs and pull them apart. Stir eggs with finger and pour into bowl. Mix more.
3. Peel 3 brown bananas and put on a plate. Smash them with a fork. Add milk and mash it with the fork.
4. Add bananas to all ingredients and mix it.
5. Stir flour, salt, and bake soda, and put it with the other ingredients.
6. Pour it in the oven and then we eat it!

Banana Bread

1 cup sugar
2/3 cup margarine
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
3 mashed bananas
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cream sugar and margarine, then add eggs, slightly beaten.
2. Mix milk and mashed bananas and then add to egg mixture.
3. Stir together remaining ingredients and add to banana mixture.
4. Split into two pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 60 minutes.
(Note: You can add chocolate chips to the pan before baking if you have a coco-holic husband like I do.)

Finally, as Abby says, "Then Eat It!"

Girls, Girls, and More Girls

So I've had a lot of saved pictures that I think are just so cute, but didn't know when or how to add them to the blog. So here is my answer - a blog of all the cute things the girls in our house do. Enjoy!

Here's our little Tessa fairy .

We always have fairies running around this house... About once or twice a month we have to have a nail-painting evening. Too bad we couldn't get daddy to join us. :(
Here's Tessa after one of her first experiences with a blue M&M. Mmmm, looks yummy.
Abby on her first day of pre-school. ("She's all grown up" the mom says through tears.)

Abby with some other girls at our Melissa Chapel groundbreaking. She loves her vile of dirt. :)Abby showing us her "attitude" after Chloe's blessing at church.
Tessa practicing her "big sister" moves with cousin Chloe. She didn't want to stop holding her. It was so cute! And now, some of my favorite recent pictures. Abby and Tessa have really been playing well together, so I had to get some shots to prove it.
They'll both be great big sisters!
And there's always time for dancing even if at a restaurant as was the case in this picture.

And riding with Elmo at the mall.So here's the story for the next two pictures. I had to make a phone call for Dad's business, so I locked myself in my room so I wouldn't be disturbed. After I was finished and came out, and mind you it was only like a 5 or 10 minute phone call, this is what I found:

Some cake sneakers. Looks like they enjoyed it at least. Better than some things that could have been found I'm sure.

And finally if you're not bored from this post yet, here are some short videos we've taken in the past couple months. The first is of the girls dancing and the second is of Abby boxing her dad on the Wii. There's never a dull moment here! :)

View From an Abby

So Abby got a hold of the camera this weekend and took lots of pictures. Some weren't that bad, at least from an artists' point of view (meaning they love the abstract right?) So here's what we got...

Sister Tessa (a perfect picture of Tessa's 4 teeth, if only it were a little more centered...)

Uncle Scott...nice Abby's idea of art - a pile of shoes
Daddy in the middle of a nap
Uncle John with Chloe

Cousin Matt who was trying to sleep
Mom - this was her first picture on the cameraAunt Nevla
Nevla's friend, StephanieThe newspaper, with a little Abby finger
Troy Aikman and Joe Buck (don't ask me, Abby took the pictures remember) Cousin Chloe
Dora and BootsGrandma Black
And here's a self-portrait. The cameragirl caught in the act.

Well done Abby. You have a bright and rewarding future ahead of you!

The results are in....

So I was planning on changing my blog background to all BLUE after our ultrasound this week, but as you can see, it's still pretty in PINK. So that means....we're having another girl!!! We were a little surprised (I was ready to see "something" on that ultrasound), but we're very excited that we're going to have another healthy baby girl. Abby has been announcing for us that she's having another baby sister. The ultrasound technician even gave Abby her very own ultrasound picture which Abby shows to everyone. It's really cute. We have no ideas on names for girls, so that will take some time. But at least we don't have to fork over any more money on a new wardrobe. We're definitely ready in this house for another girl. So, in case you hadn't heard yet, that's our latest news.

Welcome to the family Baby Girl Gibbons #3!! :)

Gibbons Eye Care is Now Open!!

We are proud to announce that we made it through our first day of our new business! Our only issue consisted of our new printer/fax/copier messing up in the middle of the day so we couldn't print anything or make copies, but since we just purchased it last week, we took it back and got a new one after the day was done.

The girls were in the office with me and they did pretty well considering the lack of space and toys.

We got a delivery of a plant from my parents congratulating Tyler on his first day, which was very sweet, but we had no where to put it. (The space is really small). But we appreciated it nonetheless. We found a spot for it near the front desk, but it was low enough for the girls to reach the leaves, so we'll see how it holds up with time.

All in all, it was a successful day and I'm looking forward to our bright and rewarding future!

For anyone interested, here is our office phone number: 972-548-2633. And if you call in the next couple weeks, you'll very much likely get the most popular optometric receptionist out there....ME!!! :) If you have any other questions regarding our business, you can email us at gibbonseyecare@att.net. Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for all your warm wishes and support. We appreciate it all!

Gibbons' Family Reunion - Survivor Style

So we had an awesome time vacationing in Utah and Idaho over Labor Day weekend. Tyler's family does a reunion each Labor Day and this year we spent the weekend outside of Yellowstone camping and having fun. The theme was Survivor so each Gibbons family had a different color bandana--which helped finding the right family when little ones would run off (like Tessa!) And we made family flags. Tyler's dad did the artistic work for our family flag, "The Gibbons Bunch." It also says, "We're Grape!" :)We had competitions that tested the different families physically and mentally. It was a lot of fun. One of the mental competitions included drinking a shake containing random ingredients and Tyler participated for our family. His "shake" consisted of Oreo cookies, peanut butter, V8 juice, and Tobasco sauce. His was probably the least gross of all the combinations, but he was the only smart one who didn't drink. The reward of cookies was not worth the drinking of that. Nasty!


This next picture was the result of the physical competition - putting clothespins on your body until you couldn't take it anymore. Some of the littler kids didn't like this game too much.

The bubbles were a huge hit with all the kids. And I love these pictures because it shows a lot of 2nd cousins playing together with all the different colored bandanas.

We spent one day in Yellowstone National Park and saw lots of cool animals including bison, wolves, a bald eagle, and lots of elk. Some the elk we saw had babies with them and they were letting people get pretty close for pictures. Here's one with us in the foreground.

We also were able to enjoy Old Faithful, twice. Abby was a little nervous at first and even covered her ears while waiting for the geyser to go off because she thought it would be loud, but she really enjoyed it once it started.

Isn't this the cutest picture you've ever seen?

One of our last stops included the Gibbon Falls. Of course, we had to stop here. It was beautiful, but hard to get a picture of someone with the falls in the background. Here's our attempt. You can only see a small portion of the falls, but they're actually way larger.

We were able to spend a few extra days before and after Labor day weekend seeing our immediate families. We spent two days in Vernal with Tyler's parents where Abby loved checking grandpa's chicken coop for eggs and grandma's garden for vegetables.

We were able to spend a day in Provo with my brother John touring BYU again (man seeing current college students makes us feel old-they just look so young!) and getting my annual fix of Cafe Rio.

Finally, I have to finish with a few cute pictures of our Tessa. She is always our entertainment. Here she is on our airplane trip in her favorite spot - on the floor under Abby's seat.

In our cabin, Grandma had a drawer in the kitchen full of candy called Granny's cupboard so all the kids were always going in there to find a treat, even after Grandma hid the drawer. This didn't keep Tessa out. She decided to make her own treat drawer--the Tessa treat drawer.

The kids also loved taking a ride on Great Grandma Gibbons' scooter. Here's Tessa getting a ride with Grandpa. It didn't take her long to find out how to honk the horn and she just kept doing it over and over and over...

And finally, how can you have a trip with kids without someone having a messy ice cream face? Tessa really liked the soft serve chocolate ice cream cone she got after walking around Old Faithful.

So, that's our trip in a long nutshell. And besides the minor injuries of a busted lip and bloody nose by Tessa who tripped on a door jam, and a smashed thumbnail in the car door by me, we had a fun week spending time with the entire Gibbons' family. These kind of trips always go by way too quickly, but the time we spent together will never be forgotten.