A Look Back at Kindergarten

Abby has completed her first year of school! She actually attended two different schools this year with our move in the middle of the year. The week before she started school, she tried on all her new outfits. This was her outfit for the first day of school complete with her new backpack and lunchbox. She was very excited for school!This is a picture of Abby's school taken while I had to wait in the long line to pick her up after school every day. After about two weeks of this, Abby began riding the bus and it was so much better for all of us.
She kept a brave face on that first day of school, but you can definitely see the nerves in her eyes. I thought the difference between this picture and the first one of her trying on clothes (the week before school) is such a contrast; it's cute.
Here she is in her seat in her classroom.

This was Abby's outfit for 50's day - which was celebrated on her 50th day of Kindergarten.
On Abby's last day before moving and changing schools, we finally got a picture of Abby with her best friend from school, Emma. Here is Abby's class in the library on her last day. I like how Emma's hand is on Abby's leg - so cute. Everyone kept saying they were sad that Abby was leaving.

Especially her teacher, Mrs. Steffen. Abby loved her teacher and Mrs. Steffen loved Abby.

After leaving JKB, Abby wrote a letter to Mrs. Steffen and her class about her new school. Mrs. Steffen had the entire class write letters back to Abby which she loved getting in the mail and reading all the names of her old classmates.

Abby started her new school mid-January, but I didn't get any pictures until about her last week of school. Here she is with her new BFF (as Abby wanted me to type it), Ella, during their Field Day. It rained that day so all the activities had to be held indoors.

They rotated between all four Kindergarten classes for different activities. In the last class they went to, they ate smore's while sitting in the "tent" and singing songs.

Here is Abby with Ms. Vinson, her 2nd Kindergarten teacher for the year. Even though Abby was only there for the last half of the year, she became quickly involved in her class making lots of friends and staying on top of all her learning. She was even among the top 3 readers in her class at the end of the year and was rewarded with a special lunch with the librarian with all the other top readers!

Here are some of Abby's closest friends, Ella and Claire, after their Kindergarten graduation ceremony.

Here is Abby's entire class after the graduation ceremony. We videoed the entire presentation and have watched it multiple times. Abby did a great job singing all the songs.

Sometimes I can't believe Abby is about to start 1st grade, but as we read books each night and as I see how helpful she is around the house, I can't deny the fact that she's growing up! She had a wonderful Kindergarten experience and we are all looking forward to more great school experiences as we continue along.

Congratulations Abby!!

Easter, Mother's Day, A Wedding, and A Birthday....phew

I'm trying to post something at least once a month, so here it is the end of May, and I'm posting again. First, I'll start with some Easter pictures. I thought about making dresses, but then it came down to the week before Easter when I realized I didn't have anything for the girls. Luckily I found some adorable dresses at Sam's Club so I didn't have to pay a fortune to purchase 3 dresses. As soon as Abby got home from school the day we bought the dresses, the girls had to try them on and have a photo shoot. Here are some of our favorite shots:

This was taken on Easter Sunday when Chloe was visiting too. Aren't they adorable little girls?

Next, I was able to get some cute pictures of me and the girls on Mother's Day. They were all very sweet to me that day. They helped Dad make me breakfast and they let me sit around and relax all day while they took care of everything else around the house. I had a breakfast at Abby's school the Friday before Mother's Day as well, so the festivities spread out the entire weekend.

Next, last weekend we celebrated my brother's wedding. John and McKaye were married on Friday, May 20th, and they had a reception on Saturday night. I made 5 matching dresses for all the flower girls (John's nieces) and they turned out really cute. Here are some pictures from ourWeekend Wedding Extravaganza.

We had a babysitter for the kids Friday night during the wedding and dinner, so we enjoyed the adult time with our siblings. Tyler refused to smile just to be mean. :)

Here's the 'true' side of John. He loves to pose, and we had to get a shot of his sweet suspenders.

Here's our side of the family with the newly wedded couple.

We ate at a fancy Italian restaurant and the food was delicious. We had a great time at our table with just the siblings and Matt. We were all laughing and having a great time, I realized we should get out together without the kids more often!

On Saturday, we got to the reception early so we could take pictures with all the family. While waiting our turn, we got a few pictures of just our family. This was the only one where Tessa smiled and it turned out really cute.

Here are the girls in their dresses, with their hair done, and holding their flower girl baskets. Going through my pictures today, I'm just now realizing that I didn't take any pictures of the 5 flower girls together in their dresses I made. Oh well, just imagine two more cuties included in this picture.

I really liked this one of me and Tyler. At least he smiled this time. :)

At different times through the reception, we got some pictures of each of the girls with the bride and groom. I love this one of Tessa because she's staring right at me while John and McKaye are probably looking at the actual photographer.

Here's Aubrey with John during the dancing. They got their groove on together.

Abby was very excited for the dancing. She had plenty of turns to dance with John and McKaye and they were nice enough to let her join them.

She even danced with McKaye's little brother Eli. They were really cute together. He was very sharing of his toys (since the reception was at his house) and he was really cute with Abby.

Finally, I celebrated my 31st birthday this week. I was able to have lunch with Tyler and then order in for the whole family for dinner, so that was fun. For presents, I got a new phone, a new video camera (which I'm super excited about since it's been almost a year exactly since our last one died), a movie, a game, and the specific shoes I asked for. Here's a picture that Abby took of me in my new shoes. It also shows my 19 week pregnant belly which I believe is probably the first time I've ever showed a pregnant picture of me before like my due date.

I had a great Birthday and I have a wonderful family. I am so blessed!!

Marching On...

I can't believe it's the middle of April. I see my blog every time I get on the computer and know I should be updating, but I'm just never on the computer long enough to take the time, so finally after almost 2 months since my last post, I've decided to make the time. Here's the catch up:

1. The first main news that constitutes a blurb on the blog would be our news of expecting baby # 4. I posted my news on Facebook many weeks ago, but realized after finding one of my non-Facebook friends who just found out yesterday, I haven't been very good about keeping everyone informed. So here it is, for record-keeping sake: I am just over 14 weeks pregnant as of now with a due date of October 15th. We are very excited! The girls are excited. Every time Abby says her prayers, she asks to bless the baby in mommy's tummy and to bless it to be a boy. :) We are planning on finding out the gender hopefully close to my birthday the end of next month, but it may not be until the beginning of June depending on my doctor and when she'll let me schedule the ultrasound.

2. Now that Tyler has a job with Saturdays off, I'm looking through pictures and finding that we are doing a lot more things that are fun and entertaining together as a family. We spent the day at the Dallas zoo with my brother and his family.

The girls really liked all the animal statues that they could take their pictures with.

I love this one because I'm partial to monkeys (they're my favorite animal); I just wish I could have gotten Aubrey to stay still and be in it too.

We rode the tram to see all their animals from above. The girls mostly liked it. Aubrey was a lot happier once we gave her a sucker to eat.

3. I also took the girls to a gymnastics center for a day of free play with some friends. The girls loved it! Tessa, I knew, would have an awesome time. She couldn't get enough of all the trampolines. One of the workers even asked if she was in some kind of class because she said she was fearless and was doing things on the trampoline that kids older than her are too scared to do. Gymnastics is the first thing I'd love to put Tessa into if we had the time and money, but for now she just gets to have fun during free play times. She was also really good at the balance beams. Look how high they are off the ground!

Abby did really well on the rope swing.

Aubrey was not a huge fan of the big foam pit.

4. We had an awesome visit with Tyler's sister and family who flew to Texas to visit us and other family during their spring break from school. We got to see our newest nephew who we hadn't seen since Christmas. He was adorable and chubby. The girls kept Tara and Andrew very busy playing games and just listening to them tell stories.

My sister-in-law said, after a friend commented how her baby looks like Tyler a little, that she has seen lots of looks in her baby that reminds her of Tyler. It makes me wonder if we have a baby boy, if he would look similar to this adorable baby...

5. And finally, the main reason I had to do a post soon was to show off our adorable new 4 year old. Tessa turned four on the 24th of March and her birthday festivities lasted for days. She was able to open presents on her birthday from mom and dad, the following day from Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons, and a couple days later at a party with friends. Here's Tessa in her new dress with a matching dress for her dolly.

I love Tessa's smile, and Aubrey's crazy hair.

Tessa is my only child for whom I attempt to make fun birthday cakes (call it something for the middle child). This year I attempted a butterfly. She liked it so I consider it a success.

Another shot of said cake while she blows out her 4 sparkly star candles.

Tessa had a polka-dot themed birthday party with her friends. We played games, had a pinata, and ate yummy cupcakes.

After hearing about friends who are publishing their blogs, it makes me want to be better, because ultimately that is my plan as well. At least with a couple entries a month, this should be a good family journal for the Gibbons Family. We hope you enjoy!

Aubrey's Two!!

I can't believe another birthday has come and gone. My baby is no longer a baby. Aubrey turned 2 a couple weeks ago. The week leading up to her birthday she was sick so she was kind of moody anyway, so anytime we tried to get her excited about her upcoming birthday and parties, she'd just get grumpy and yell no at us a lot. I kept asking her if she was my big girl who's 2 now and she'd respond with, "No! I baby!" Here are a few pictures of her birthday along with some of the things we love about Aubrey:

Some of Aubrey's favorite toys right now include two Jessie dolls from Toy Story which have to be in her bed when she sleeps. Also in her bed during naptime and bedtime? The books that we read to her. She likes having those right next to her while she sleeps. She also loves to have us sing to her. She always specifically asks me to sing "temple" which means I Love to See the Temple and "God" which is I am a Child of God. She says prayers at mealtime by herself and her words are getting clearer and clearer.

We had a tiny party on her actual birthday with just the girls. She had been sick so she doesn't look all that happy in the picture.

Daddy bought a lot of stuff for her to open on her birthday even though she had a party scheduled with all the extended family for the following weekend. She loved the puzzles, books, movies, and clothes she unwrapped. With each present we brought out for her to unwrap she got more and more into the birthday excitement.

Aubrey is a huge fan of Dora the Explorer these days. Besides asking to watch a Toy Story movie all day every day, she now switches back and forth between that and Dora. She says it like "Dooorah" and if we don't acknowledge what she's saying right away, she starts singing for us "Do do do do do Dora" just so we know what she's talking about.

So for some of her presents from family she got lots of Dora-themed toys which she loved - movies, a puzzle, a ball, and a microphone.

Aubrey is still very into baby dolls so she was excited to open new babies from both Grandmas and a stroller/high chair set from her cousins. She pushes those babies around all day unless she's fighting to keep them away from her sisters.

Aubrey still loves to give kisses and makes the perfect pucker to give her kisses out. She's quick to say sorry and pat someone to say she is sorry, but it's always after a random swing, so we're still working on the whole no hitting concept. She can also make the perfect pout. And that face is sure to come out as soon as she thinks she's in trouble or if someone does something to upset her. Luckily, it's so cute we have to laugh whenever we see it and a smile usually follows.

Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons also sent Aubrey a pillow pet. As soon as she pulled it out of the bag, she put it on the ground and sat on it to ride it.

We thought it was the cutest thing. We finally got her to look at the camera for a picture on her ladybug.

While having birthday cake, Aubrey was more interested in trying to grab the candle flames than blow them out. I finally had to help her just so she wouldn't burn herself. She enjoyed eating the pink cake and frosting.

Aubrey has quite an extensive vocabulary these days and is speaking in longer and longer sentences. Although her favorite phrases still include yelling Abby and Tessa at the top of her lungs whenever she's searching for them. This happens quite a lot because the girls really like playing hide and go seek. Aubrey has found many good hiding places and even freaked out her Aunt while babysitting when she couldn't find Aubrey for awhile. She was hiding in the coat closet in the dark being extra quiet. :)

We love our Aubrey and can't imagine our family without her. She has brought such happiness and joy to our home! Happy Birthday Aubrey!!