Abby's Sweet Four Birthday Party!!!!

Yesterday we celebrated Abby's birthday with her friends. We had a princess party complete with a cakewalk to princess music, a princess pinata, and of course presents. We finished the party with pink cupcakes which unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of.

Manning the video and digital camera was a bit difficult. So here are pictures of the kids lined up to take their turn to whack the pinata, but I don't have any pictures of the pinata itself. Typical.

Everyone got a turn, but it only took one go around before all the candy was let loose.

Abby received lots of great presents from all her friends. The goods included a cinderella barbie, princess dolls (can you ever have too many? - Abby would say NO!), coloring books and materials, decorations for her pink tree, princess pjs and slippers, princess puzzles, princess bubble bath, and princess jewelry among other wonderful gifts.

As you can imagaine, it was very princess-y, but in our house, what else would you expect?!? We enjoyed the whole thing and say a big thank you to all who attended and to all others who wished her a happy early birthday.
On a separate note, Abby participated in her first parade last weekend with her dance studio. She rode in the float with some friends and did very well. I had both cameras again, so this was about the only picture I got which was taken before the parade even started. But it's an awesome picture, so no regrets. Abby goes back and forth on if she likes parades due to the loud noises of the police cars, but it didn't seem to bother her this time, so it was a good experience for us all.

Christmas Decorations

So we've spent the last week slowly putting up our Christmas decorations. We bought a lot of lights last year after Christmas when they were on clearance, so I was very excited to be able to use them this year. Some were meant for outside, but we still don't own a ladder, so maybe one of these years, we'll decorate the outside of our house. As for this year, we did our best with the inside with all that we had.

We still have an apartment-size tree so maybe next year, our big purchase will have to be a bigger tree for our bigger house. This year with the extra lights, I stole the idea from my friend Jill to put a nativity with lights on the mantle. I really like it.

Our favorite part of the tree is Dad's choo choo train. Tessa especially loves it, maybe a little too much since she's not really supposed to be touching it.

Our most exciting purchase of this year is the infamous pink tree that if you've talked to Abby she's already told you all about. We've talked about it since last year when she saw it at a store. So this year, every week Abby has looked in the ads for any type of pink tree available. And Dad was nice enough to get one once we saw them in the store.

Combined with the princess lights Grandma Black gave the girls last year, our upstairs landing has officially become the Pink Princess Christmas Spot. Here's what the lights look like in the dark even though it's a little blurry:

And with the extra lights I was able to do the stairwell banister like I've always wanted to. So here's our entryway all lit up for Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Thanksgiving and No More Cast!

Our Thanksgiving was a nice, quiet family event. We enjoyed hosting all of my family (but my mom was still the head chef in my kitchen, thank goodness). We played games, the Wii, and of course took pictures. Here's the latest of the 5 grandkids.

Tyler was sick the whole week poor guy. He was out with some kind of respitory infection/congestion thing for like 10 days. He didn't even get to enjoy much of Thanksgiving dinner. It didn't keep him from playing the typical turkey bowl Thanksgiving morning with our nephew and the rest of the men from our ward though. Luckily he's doing much better now. Abby helped in the kitchen. We made four pies: pumpkin, pecan, cherry, and chocolate. Yummy.Our main event to start December was getting Tessa's cast removed. That happened yesterday. She only cried a little and we got to keep the pink cast for a memory keepsake. She was so cute trying to tell us about her leg through tears--jibbering while pointing at her leg in between the deep sighs that come after a good cry. It was so adorable. She's now relearning how to walk again. She crawled for half the day yesterday and has now decided to attempt walking, but her leg is still a little stiff like she's not quite sure how to bend it. And she still walks on her toes on that leg like she had to with the cast. It's all coming back to her quickly, so it won't be long before she's running around again and doing all her other crazy stunts.

Finally, a little on Abby so you know she's not being neglected. She loves preschool and today they did a project where they had to cut out pictures from magazines that made them think of "me." So here's the final outcome of what Abby thinks of when she thinks of Abby:

From top to bottom, left to right, here's what Abby said when I asked her why she chose each picture:

1. I like swimming
2. She's picking flowers
3. 'A' is for Abby
4. Looking awesome
5. Nail polish because I like to look beautiful
6. I like to eat food

Pretty clever I think, and rather fitting for our Abby. :)

Twilight Movie!!

So I went with 10 of my Twilighter friends to see the new movie Twilight this last weekend. We've been planning this for months and had our tickets bought for weeks, so we were all very excited when November 21st finally came around. We met at lovely Kasia's house for a yummy dinner and for some Edward preparation. We left over an hour early to get to the theater and we still weren't close to the front of the line. Luckily, we were close enough to get decent seats in the theater. Here's a couple shots of our group waiting in line.

And yes, besides the moms accompanying their daughters, we probably were some of the oldest people in line. :) And we didn't feel weird about that at all!!! Overall, I think the ladies in my group loved the movie. My personal opinion was there were scenes that I was little unhappy with, but going into it knowing it wouldn't be as good as the book helped. Overall, the movie to me was awesome and I'll still buy it when it comes out on DVD and I'll go see New Moon when it comes out (which was announced this weekend by Summit Entertainment).

And with Thanksgiving coming up, I finally got around to my annual art project that I do with the girls:

Pumpkin turkeys made with the girls' handprints. They had fun making and coloring them. And Tessa only pulled off the turkey head a couple of times.

I also like to keep one set of hands in their keepsake box and compare the growth from each year. They grow up too fast. Happy Thanksgiving!!

November in Passing

So this month has gone by quickly. It's been full of doctor's appointments and coughing and running noses. So to finally get off the Halloween post, here's an update from the Gibbons:

Tessa's leg is healing properly. She's still in her cast for another week and a half and we found out at her check up appointment that even after they take off the cast (on Dec. 1st!) she'll have to be in a walking boot for who knows how long. So that drama will stretch on a little longer than I had originally hoped. Just think how small that walking boot must be to fit a kid the size of Tessa. :) Her sponge baths in the sink have been interesting as she gets more and more into them, splashing and getting mom very wet. I'll be very happy when she can at least take a normal bath again!

Tessa's wellness checkups are finally back to normal. For those who weren't aware, Tessa's weight was off the charts as in below the chart, so we've spent the last two months now really monitoring her food and trying to feed her lots of good fatty foods to help fatten her up. Besides her normal three meals and snacks, we've had to supplement with Carnation drinks to boost her calorie intake. Luckily she likes the chocolate milk and after her follow up visit, the doctor was happy to announce that Tessa had finally surpassed the 20 pound mark and was back on the growth curve. (And that measurement was before the cast was put on!) So yeah Tessa!!

My doctor appointments have been going well and as planned - waiting in the waiting room longer than I'm actually in with the doctor. I had a second ultrasound because my placenta was low-lying (could mean a c-section if it stays low-lying for the entire pregnancy), but the second ultrasound showed that it had moved so no more stressing about that. And we got a verification that we're definitely having another girl, so there should be no surprises there.

As the winter season slowly arrives, the girls and I have had your typical runny nose and cough that comes with the season, but unfortunately it's not going away. At least it's not the flu I guess, but it still isn't fun. Tessa continues breathing treatments on her nebulizer each night to make sure her cough/cold doesn't affect her breathing or lungs. Luckily she's been fine in that regards, but seeing a little 20-month-old hold her own mask while she breathes in the medicine is so cute, yet sad in a way. The things some kids have to learn for their health.

On a brighter note, the girls and I did spend one weekend in WF with my family because it was my 10-year high school reunion. Crazy I know. Tyler unfortunately had to work, so the girls and I only went to the event where kids were invited. It was fun to see some old friends. I thought I'd regret it if I didn't go when I live so close, but after going and seeing people I recognized but not remembering their names, I decided it's probably something I can miss in the future. The people I remember and want to see are usually the ones I already keep in touch with anyway, so it works out. It was fun to show the girls my old stomping grounds, not to mention the classroom where I saw the name of Mr. Pearson, who's still teaching. He was my History teacher who is one of the two teachers who taught me and all three of my older brothers (my oldest being 7 years older than me.) So if that tells you anything, he's been there forever. But I think that is awesome because even though history is NOT my favorite subject in the least, he was a really good teacher who knows his stuff and loves teaching. So that was cool for me to see.

So that's been our November. I'm sure with the upcoming week of Thanksgiving, there will be plenty more eventful things to post about, so for now we'll just express our thanks early for all of our family and friends who keep us going. Thanks to you all!

Halloween Time

Besides our few days in doctors' offices and a hot pink cast (see next post), we had a fun Halloween week. We had a bride and a monkey this year for all the festivities.

Wednesday night we had our ward trunk or treat which including the parade of costumes and lots of candy of course. On Halloween night, we went trick or treating around the neighborhood. By this point, our monkey was incapacitated, so her trip was in the stroller. At least the cast matched the costume! :)

Abby lasted the whole hour, and in dress shoes no less; and their haul of candy was pretty crazy.
Tessa had a sucker for about the last half of the trip, so that kept her happy; and it didn't stop her from holding her bag out for more candy at each doorstep. Luckily, before the broken leg incident, I was able to get a few pictures of the monkey walking.

This costume, made by a friend for Abby's first Halloween, has been used multiple times. But this year, I was very excited because it was still going to fit Tessa and she'd be able to walk in it. Fortunately, I got some footage of the walking monkey a week or so before Halloween, so all can enjoy even though you didn't get to see it in person. :)

Our Rotten, Terrible, No Good, Horrible Day (or however it goes...)

So you've heard the saying "a picture says a thousand words", so get a load of this:

Can you believe my baby?!? I guess the title is a bit of an overstatement because it's not actually as bad as the picture leads to believe or it could have been a lot worse, however you want to look at it. So here's the scoop:

The girls and I were at the playground yesterday when Abby wanted to go down the twisty tunnel slide, but she didn't want to go by herself, so I went with her and put Tessa on my lap as well. As we went around the first curve, Tessa must have bonked her leg funny because when we got to the bottom, she was crying. I didn't know if it was because she was hurt or because she just didn't like the slide. She was also very tired, so I thought that was part of it. Anyway, so we went home shortly after and she fell asleep on the way so she took a normal nap. But when she woke up she was still really fussy and that was the first time I attempted to have her walk and she wouldn't even put any weight on her right leg.

So I called Tyler, took the girls to his office, and we went to an urgent care place. They did xrays but couldn't see anything that stood out as being broken or dislocated but they referred us to an orthopedic office which we went to this afternoon. They took more xrays at this office, and the doctor saw a small crack in her bone, right below her knee, so they put her in a full leg cast. At least it's hot pink! But she'll have it for 4 weeks, my poor baby. As long as she was off her leg, she was fine, so her cast wasn't the result of any major break or surgery or anything like that, so like I said it could have been a lot worse, but it was still hard for this mommy to go through.

While we were at one of the many waiting rooms this week, Tyler was trying to make me feel better by reminding me that he had a full leg cast when he was about Tessa's age as well, so he's telling everyone that Tessa is just following in her daddy's footsteps.

Like father, like daughter. That's been our last couple days. Hope yours have gone better. :)