Easton, Brady, and Jaylee

Pinewood Derby

2012-01-24T07:24:00.001-08:00

Our ward had an elder's quorum family pinewood derby. We had no intention of going and then one morning Easton said, "Did you know that there is going to be a race car race and the primary kids are invited; even me!" Well, how are we going to say no to that? We did not want to spend much time or money on a car, so a few hours before the activity we made this one. It is an old pinewood derby car of Riley's that we sanded down. We taped a can of corn on top to give it more weight. Then we let Easton and Brady color it. It didn't turn out too bad.

Our car was definitely not the fastest but it did win an award for "Best Use of Materials."

Our Kids

2012-01-24T06:56:00.000-08:00

Easton enjoys posing for pictures.

Silly Brothers

While shopping at the fabric store last week, the boys found some superhero fabric that they wanted. They looked so cute picking out their own fabric that I just had to get it for them. When we got home I made them some pajama pants.

Jaylee and her Backpack

Sweet, Loyal, Noisy Chewy

Jaylee woke up too early and crashed at her desk. She needs to sleep in a little better!

Jessica Turns 30

2012-01-24T06:02:00.000-08:00

I am now 30 years old! I celebrated for an entire weekend. On Friday night I had a girl's only "Just Dance" party. Sara made me the cake and Shayla decorated. It was a spur of the moment thing but it turned into a real party.

On Saturday my parents took me and my family out to dinner. Afterwards we came back to our house for cheesecake (by Riley) and presents.

On Sunday, Riley made me a fancy dinner. We tried to use the opportunity to teach the boys about good manners. It actually worked, but only for that night!

The boys were worn out from my busy weekend! At least they didn't ask why I get a whole weekend of birthday festivities and they only get one day!

Jaylee's First Haircut

2012-01-19T08:25:00.000-08:00

Don't worry I am planning to let Jaylee's hair grow! However, since Melanie was already trimming the boys' hair I thought it would be good to have her trim and even out Jaylee's hair a bit. Jaylee is so used to having her hair fixed that she just sat and didn't make a sound the whole time. She probably enjoyed it (I don't think I am quite that gentle when I fix her hair).

Happy New Year

2012-01-19T08:17:00.001-08:00

We spent New Years Eve with Riley's family. On the way to their house we stopped at the store to purchase candy bars for the traditional Candy Bar Game. Every year since Riley was a little boy his grandma has sent him money to purchase the candy bars for this game. It was fun to see my kids start picking out the candy bars. It is a tradition that I want to keep going in our little family.

Since we weren't together on Christmas we opened gifts on New Year's Eve. Of course, my kids were excited about that.

Nana and Papa led the grandkids in a New Year's parade. It was pretty adorable!

2nd Snowfall of the Winter

2012-01-19T08:10:00.000-08:00

Sadly, we have not had much snow this winter (though it is snowing pretty good while I write this). This was only the second big snowfall we have had, but it was wet enough that the kids were able to build a snowman. Riley helped them and they did a respectable job. However, in true boy fashion Brady began destroying the snowman shortly after we took the pictures! Poor Jaylee was sad to see her snowman be destroyed... darn brothers.

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2012-01-19T08:01:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I found a cute pattern for making dinosaur, turtle, and caterpillar blankets. I decided that I wanted to make them for each of my nieces and nephews' birthdays this year. I have made two so far and I am really happy with how they have been turning out. Hopefully I don't get tired of making them, or else the kids with birthdays at the end of the year will be bummed out!

My kids are always dressing up like superheros. Does anyone elso notice that Jaylee is always looking at her brothers to see what they are doing?

New Hairstyle Alert: Double French Braids.

Christmas Day 2012

2012-01-17T10:23:00.001-08:00

Easton and the rest of the kids were excited to see that Santa came.

For some reason our boys love flashlights, and enjoyed finding some in their stockings.

Jaylee got a Cabbage Patch Kid from Grandma and a Barbie from us. It is weird shopping for girl toys.

As expected Jaylee, Grandpa, and Lyra looked cute in their matching Christmas clothes. It was totally worth the time I put into it. I was really glad Jaylee and I were feeling better and were able to go to church. Though we didn't get any pictures, the rest of Christmas Day was fun. After church we went and sang Christmas carols at a nursing home with the other members of my parents ward, and my mom made a turkey dinner for us when we got home.

Christmas Eve 2012

2012-01-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve ended up being kind of eventful for our family (if you consider half of your family puking eventful). We spent the day at my parents with Joe and Jared's family. I did not feel well most of the day and threw up twice. I decided I would tough it out so I didn't miss any of the festivities. That plan was working well until Jaylee decided to start throwing up when the family was all gathered and ready to say the dinner prayer! Aside from that, we had a good day.

Joey brought along his little dirt bike and Grandpa built him a jumping ramp! It was pretty entertaining.

In keeping with tradition, Santa stopped by for a visit and brought everyone presents. Easton noticed that Santa's boots looked just like Grandpa's boots. He is getting a little too old to be fooled, I guess. Luckily, he kept it a secret from the little kids and still believes in the "real" Santa.

The above pictures were our attempt to get a picture of all of the cousins together. It went about as well as could be expected!

Brady was sweet and gave Grandma a hug to thank her for his new dinosaur.

When we got back to our house we exchanged our family gifts while I laid on the couch. When the boys finally went to bed, I fell asleep on the couch, and Riley set up all of the Santa stuff. He did a great job, even though he got stuck doing it all by himself.

Jaylee's First Day of Nursery

2011-12-22T07:22:00.001-08:00

Jaylee is now 18 months and has started nursery at church. She has cried the last few times we dropped her off, but eventually calms down and does alright. I would say it is hard to drop her off while she is crying, but she has been so awful during sacrament lately, that by nursery time we can't wait to get rid of her!

Here Comes Santa Clause

2011-12-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

We went to the fire department Christmas party with my parents; and Santa came. Brady was really impressed!

Easton was star struck and couldn't decide what present he wanted to ask Santa for.

Brady had no problem talking to Santa.

Jaylee didn't do quite as well!

Getting Ready for Christmas

2011-12-22T06:54:00.000-08:00

We always know Christmas is coming when I get out my candy thermometer!

The kids had a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa, and made these cute apple Santa's.

Jaylee's cousin Lyra is coming for Christmas. Since I was already making Jaylee a Christmas dress for church I thought it would be cute to make Lyra a matching one! They will look pretty cute at church together.

I even made them a poinsettia bow!

Grandpa wanted in on the action as well! So I made him a matching tie. Hopefully we will get some good pictures of him!

Brady's preschool class performed some Christmas songs for the parents. This picture is of them singing "O Christmas Tree."

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-12-22T06:32:00.000-08:00

We went over to a friends house the other night and the kids had fun. So much fun that they all crashed on the way home!

Mmmmm... Chipotle

We had Hawaiian themed Christmas party at church, so Riley and the boys dressed up for the occasion.

Jaylee has started playing with My Little Ponies. My mom was able to find a few of my old ponies for her to have. It is interesting to see how they have changed in the last twenty years. The yellow pony is a 2011 and the blue pony was mine when I was 5 years old. I think I prefer the older ponies.

You can't tell very well from this picture, but I saw a Bald Eagle about two miles from my house the other day. We drove back and forth for about 10 minutes watching it. It was really cool to see it that close to our home.

Jaylee enjoyed a playdate with her cousin Dax this week.

1st Snow of 2011

2011-12-22T06:21:00.001-08:00

We had our first big snow a few weeks ago. The kids were really excited to go out and play in it. It took longer to get them all bundled up than they actually stayed outside, but it was worth it!

Christmas Pajamas

2011-12-06T09:43:00.001-08:00

Every year Riley's parents get all of their grandkids matching Christmas pajamas. This year was no exception. Nana and Papa had all of the grandkids over for a pizza, pajama, and movie party. There are now 9 grandkids on the Gibb side of the family (my parents are only slightly ahead with 10 grandkids).

11 Years

2011-12-06T09:37:00.000-08:00

Riley and I just had our 11 year anniversary. We celebrated by having a fancy dinner, prepared and served by Riley's brother, Tyler. Tyler enjoys cooking and he made some delicious food. We shared the evening with Curtis and Shayla who also share our anniversary date. It was such a good, relaxing evening, and I hope we can do it again next year!

Thanksgiving - 2011

2011-12-06T09:31:00.000-08:00

We had a good Thanksgiving. The boys started out the day, by playing flag football with some friends from church. Easton and Brady were really excited that Riley invited them along.

We had a delicious dinner with a very full kid's table.

I even made Jaylee a "gobble, gobble" dress.

Then the next day the kids and I put up our Christmas decorations. We are now ready for the next big holiday!

Cousin Time

2011-12-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

My kids were very excited to have their cousins in town for Thanksgiving week. They got plenty of much needed cousing playing time!

Jaylee and Dax are starting to learn that playing dress-up is fun.

Ruby hosted a tea party. Easton is the black spiderman. He couldn't figure out how he was supposed to eat and drink with his mask on!

Ruby and Stella even came over to our house for a sleepover! They did great and we will, for sure, do it again.

And, of course, the grown-up boys played football together while they were waiting on Thanksgiving dinner to get ready.

Tough Mudder - 2011

2011-12-06T09:14:00.001-08:00

Riley, his dad, brother, brother-in-laws, and friends competed in the Tough Mudder a few weeks ago. The Tough Mudder is a 10 - 12 mile running race with obstacles. Riley said that there were about 20 obstacles, but the biggest obstacle was the extreme cold. It was only about 35 degrees outside and he was getting in and out of cold water and crawling through mud. Everyone completed the race and there were no significant injuries. Everyone said that they had fun, but would probably not do it again... so whatever that means!

This is Riley getting ready to leave in the morning...

... and this is Riley coming back home when it was over. He headed straight for a hot shower, and I headed straight to the laundry room! He did good and never complained about being sore afterwards!

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-12-06T09:06:00.001-08:00

This is me with my friend Marcy. We have started running together, and it has been a lot of fun. Marcy has run several half-marathons and a few marathons, so she has been a good running coach for me. We are planning to run a half-marathon in the spring.

This is my newest sewing creation. I had this pattern for awhile and was finally able to make it. Riley picked out the fabric and helped with the design. I think this is one of my favorite dresses yet!

Village Nursery School - Thanksgiving Festivities

2011-12-06T08:51:00.000-08:00

I spent a lot of time at the kids' pre-school the week before thanksgiving. Easton had a "concert," I helped in Easton's class party, and Brady's class had a "feast" that they invited parents too. I am slowly transitioning from a mom of little kids, to a mom of big kids with lots of activities! We stay pretty busy!

I know this picture isn't great, but Easton is on the left hand side of the stage. His program was in the evening and all of our family who live in the area was able to come. He had lots of fans. Easton looked cute, but only sang along to about half of the songs (which is actually better than we were expecting). It was fun to see him up on stage, though!

Easton's class had a fun party. They did crafts, read stories, and had a "feast." As you can see, Jaylee thought that she should be in the middle of all of it. It was great to see Easton in his class, and watch him interact with his friends.

As soon as I finished up in Easton's class, I walked next door to Brady's party. They sang a few songs for the parents and then ate some snacks. Brady is actually a good performer and knew the words to all of the songs.

2011 School Pictures

2011-11-17T06:28:00.000-08:00

These are the boy's school pictures. They actually did pretty good this year. I don't usually buy any though, because they just aren't ever worth all of the money. However, it is still fun to see the pictures that they take all on their own!

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-11-17T05:58:00.000-08:00

Easton has been talking about the pilgrims and indians at school, to get ready for Thanksgiving. Earlier this week he made an indian head dress. Brady wanted one as well so we made one for him. They had fun running around wearing them.

We babysat my mom's dog a for a few days. Jaylee thought that he would make a good horse for her doll!

It's not much, but I was finally able to put a little braid in Jaylee's hair. Impressive, huh?

I am attempting to run in the mornings, but it is so dark that I have to wear a headlight. It works pretty well, but I still stay pretty close to our house!

Riley has been deer hunting lately and Easton is convinced that he will also be shooting a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. He drew this picture earlier this week. It is of a hunter shooting a turkey, complete with a gun and a bullet hole through the turkey!

Superhero Family

We do not have many nice days left before winter, so if we have good weather we like to try to take the kids to the park.

Do you see the deer in this picture? Riley has been out hunting a few times without much luck. This past Sunday he looked out our back window to see a buck walking back and forth across our yard! He was still unlucky though, because I was gone and his gun was in the car that I took with me! I hope his luck changes because we need some meat in our freezer!

Jaylee got her first bloody nose this week and she was pretty sad about it. She needs to learn that she shouldn't try to throw frisbees with her brothers!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-17T05:44:00.001-08:00

We had a fun Halloween. On the Friday before Halloween we went to a trunk-or-treat at church, and on Halloween we went trick-or-treating with cousins.

The boys had fun playing with all of the kids at the trunk-or-treat, but we could hardly believe that they are big enough to just go off and play with their friends. It is bittersweet to see them becoming more independent. I was glad to see that they stuck together and looked out for each other, though.

Jaylee the Skunk

She is treated like a princess all year, so we don't see a need to dress her in frilly and girlie outfits on Halloween. She wears stuff like that everyday, anyway.

Jaylee, Easton, Emmie, Brady, and Johnny

I wanted to get a picture of me with all of my little trick-or-treaters!

The kids were excited when it was finally time to head out!

When we got done they all wanted to dump out their bags and see what they got. I think they all enjoyed it this year, and Jaylee even seemed to start understanding it. We were also glad that we were able to trick-or-treat with Jared's family for the second year in a row!

Happy 3rd Birthday Brady

2011-11-17T05:31:00.000-08:00

Brady turned 3 years old on Halloween! He celebrated by having pizza for dinner and the whole family over for a birthday party. Brady loves birthdays, so it was fun to have a party for him!

Superman Cake

All Brady wanted to do for his party was to play "birthday games," so I came up with a few ideas. In this picture all of the kids are lined up and ready to race and be the first one to pop a balloon on the other side of the room. It was pretty funny!

Brady got kind of shy when everyone started singing to him, but he loved it.

Opening Presents

Brady took Halloween cupcakes to school to celebrate his birthday. He thought they were pretty cool!

VNS Costume Parade

2011-10-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

The boys had a costume parade at school yesterday. They got superhero costumes from Nana and Papa for their birthdays. They were both so excited to show them off at school. At the costume parade the kids walked around the room and sang songs with their class. My boys were lucky because they got to have Mom, Jaylee, Grandma, Nana, and Aunt Melanie all there to watch them!

There goes Brady!

Brady got a huge smile on his face when he recognized all of us cheering for him. He was pretty cute!

This is Brady's class singing.

Easton was one of two Batmans in his class, but I think he thought that was pretty cool. He was really excited to be Batman. He has been talking about it for a month!

Easton is the first Batman in this picture.

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-10-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

Last week my mom had to get stitches. She was in the barn helping my kids get some toys out of the horse stall and sliced her finger on the door. It is dangerous being a grandma.

Jaylee likes going shopping with mom and grandma.

Pigtails and Pink Flats

We are often amazed with the things that Easton draws. On this day he proved that he was our 'Little Engineer.' Without knowing what he was doing he made an "exploded view drawing" of an Ironman mask. He drew the mask and then drew all of the parts that are needed to make the mask. We were pretty impressed by it. He is such a smart boy!

Riley got bit by a spider a few Saturdays ago. Within a few days his neck was super swollen, red, and oozing. He had to head to urgent care where they gave him a shot and prescribed two antibiotics! It was pretty gross, but is finally starting to look better.

Jaylee and Cousin Dax

The kids really enjoy going to the park, but mostly to ride on the swings.

Easton and his new cousin, Rockwell. Easton was so excited to meet Rockwell, so Riley took him to the hospital to see him. He sure loves babies!

Happy 5th Birthday Easton

2011-10-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

The Birthday Boy

Easton took race car, rockets, and airplane sugar cookies to school. He was excited to be the 'birthday snack' person!

Brothers

Easton wanted Crepes for his party food. He made a good choice. Everyone enjoyed them!

Batman Cake

Wow, five candles! He is getting so big.

Easton was excited to start opening presents.

It is so much fun getting new books and toys. The boys were busy playing all afternoon and all evening!

VNS Leaf Walk

2011-10-27T06:56:00.000-07:00

Brady's pre-school class had a 'Leaf Walk' last week. The parents were invited to come, so Jaylee and I went along. They went for a walk in the park beside the school, and had to look for different colored leaves and different shaped pinecones. It was fun to see Brady interacting with his classmates!

Brady and his class waiting to head outside...

Brady liked picking up his leaves and putting them in his bag. When they went back to their classroom they took their things out of their bags and looked at them with a magnifying glass. At the end of the day he brought his bag of 'treasures' home to show Riley.

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-10-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

Sad, but still cute!

She is like having my own personal doll to dress up every day.

My Family (even the dog)

...off to school!

My new nephew Rockwell.

Sometimes Jaylee gets herself into predicaments!

A few weeks ago, my dad took Easton on a school field trip. It was so fun to send them off on their little adventure. I love having our parents close by!

Headed to Church

2011-10-04T05:54:00.001-07:00

I have such a good-looking family heading into church! I really like them!

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-10-04T05:46:00.000-07:00

Brady is a cool kid.

We went to the West Point Fish Fry with my parents and while we were there the lifeline helicopter flew in and landed. The kids were able to check it out. It was pretty cool.

Brady got to sit in the captain's seat.

Riley took a man from our church down to Cincinnati for a Reds vs. Cubs game. I think he enjoyed being able to go to a major league game before the end of the year. One of his good friends was even able to meet him down there.

Such cute pigtails waiting to meet me at the door!

Gibb Weekend

2011-10-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

Tyler and Emily and family came for a visita few weekends ago. We enjoyed visiting with them and letting the cousins play together. It was a fun weekend!

On Saturday, most of the kids went to see a movie with Nana at the theatre. They all sat through the movie really well, and Nana bought everyone the popcorn snack pack!

While we were at the movie, the boys went paintballing. This is Tyler and Tim after Riley shot them numerous times!

On Saturday we evening we went and hiked around Prophet's Rock. Prophet's Rock is a large cavelike rock that was used in Indian battles. Brady is our daredevil and climbed up high into the cave.

Uncle Brandon with Dax and Brady.

Easton's First Horse Show

2011-10-04T04:55:00.000-07:00

Easton took my mom's grandkid horse, Silver, to a horse show a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun and Easton was a good cowboy! He entered a halter class and a lead line class.

This is Easton leading Silver up to the show ring. Silver is the perfect size for him!

Little Cowboy

This is Easton talking to the judge in the halter class. He got first place! (He was the only one in the class, though.)

Easton took Silver in the halter class all by himself! They looked so tiny in that huge arena. The judge helped Easton walk Silver out of the arena when it was over. Silver is sweet, but she does know that she is stronger than a four year old!

All of the kids wanted to help get Silver ready for the lead line class. She is a good horse to put up with all of these kids. She just stands still and lets them do whatever they want to her!

Ready to Ride

In a lead line class, the child rides the horse while an adult leads the horse around. I let Grandma have this job.

Here they come!

Waiting for the judge to come and talk to them...
Easton got a blue ribbon in this class, too!

This is Easton showing off his ribbons and a cup that he won.

It was a fun day!

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-10-04T04:42:00.001-07:00

Waking up from naps is hard to do!

A real ponytail! Jaylee is very good about getting her hair fixed. I think it is because she has had bows on her head since she was just a few hours old. She also knows that I am going to fix her hair whether she wants me to or not. Sometimes I feel bad though, because if I do pull or hurt her head she just puts her hands over her face and whimpers until I am done!

My dad picked Easton up from school the other day, and he came home with a huge bag of Snickers! Thanks?

Jaylee has started playing "mommy." It is so cute. She gets either her dolls or stuffed animals and wants them wrapped up. Once I hand them back to her she hugs them and rocks them back an forth. Having a little girl has made me realize that women really are born to be nurturers and mothers!

Riley was picking tomatoes a few weeks ago and kept losing the ones her picked. He finally turned around to see what was going on and this is what he saw!

A Trip to Joe's House

2011-09-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, we (along with my parents) took a trip up to visit my brother Joe and his family. We had a blast! While we were there we went to the fair, let the cousins play, and spent a lot of time on the lake. We went swimming, tubing, and water skiing.

Easton and Brady competed in a pedal car race at the fair. It was really fun and the cars were really cool. Easton won two heats and got second in the championship race. It was fun to see him be a little competitive!

Brady's legs weren't quite long enough to reach the pedals, so Riley had to help him quite a bit. He was still really excited that he did it.

The boys were really excited that they won medals!

We arrived at my brother's house the first night with enough time to take an evening boat ride. It was pretty relaxing, and Joe was a good captain.

The next day we were able to enjoy the water. This picture is of Easton and I going tubing. Easton enjoyed it, but Brady was a little scared and only went once.

Pretty cute baby...

Easton liked splashing around on this little beach near Joe's house. Easton has been wanting to go to a beach all summer. This isn't quite the beach that you would find next to an ocean, but it was close enough!

This is Riley skiing. Neither of us have really been skiing before, so we spent the whole weekend just trying to get up (I never made it). On our last day, Riley watched the kids while I went out on the boat and he came later to try again. Once he got there we headed out into the middle of the lake and the boat ran out of gas (maybe Joe wasn't such a good captain after all)! Joe was pretty embarrassed, but luckily we found another boat that offered to tow us to the dock near the gas station. It was pretty funny! Once we finally had a full gas tank we headed back out to the large lake for Riley to try skiing again. As soon as we started heading out, we saw huge black clouds rolling in. Joe checked his weather radar and a level 4 thunderstorm was about twenty minutes away! We decided to have Riley try a few more times to get up on his skis before we had to head in. Riley tried a few times with no real luck, meanwhile it had started sprinkling. The next thing we saw was lightning in the distance and the water was eerily calm. Joe said, "he's got one more shot and then we have to get him out of the water." Well, Riley made it up on that try and Joe took off toward the dock with Riley skiing behind. By this point the sky was dark, it was raining a little more, and there was lots of lightning about a mile away. Riley didn't fall and made it all the way to the dock! It started pouring down rain while we were loading the boat onto the trailer, but I was just happy that Riley didn't get electrocuted while he was in the water! This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hm83FKsheQ is a link so see Riley skiing. The whole thing was pretty funny, and we were glad that we went up to Joe's to visit.

Even More Stuff I've Grown

2011-09-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

Riley and I spent an evening making pickles with all of our cucumbers. We made around 2 dozen jars of dill pickles!

Some of our sunflowers are finally ready to harvest. I have never harvested sunflowers before so I had to look up how to do it. This is Easton holding our biggest sunflower. As you can see it is huge and heavy!

First we had to get out each individual seed and let them soak in a saltwater solution all night. After that I had to let them dry out and roast them in the oven for 30 minutes.

This was the end result, roasted sunflower seeds! They did taste pretty good. It was actually a lot of tedious work, so it is probably just cheaper and better to buy them from the store. I still have lots of sunflowers in the garden that need harvested if anyone wants some. (I was really missing my sister-in-law, Emily, while I was sorting through the good and bad seeds and leftover flower particles. Emily enjoys sorting through stuff like that!)

Well, we grew sweet corn in our garden and some of it wasn't too bad. However, these are the only two ears that we had to show for it, because the damn raccoons (or some other pest) ate them all! They literally husked them, ate them, and left the empty cobs on the stalk in one night! Chewy is not a very good guard dog I guess.

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-09-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

The other day I walked into the bathroom and found this... a pair of underwear sitting in the toilet. Nobody in this house seems to know how they got there, and the boys were blaming Jaylee for it. Jaylee could have done it, but I think the boys are starting to get a little too comfortable blaming things on her. Also, since no one knew how they got there, I was the one who had to reach down and take them out!

Papa has started telling the boys to, "Look over there!" and then smacking them on the head when they look away. Of course the boys think it is hilarious, and have started playing the "joke" on each other. This picture of Brady is what happened the other day when they thought that they were playing papa's "joke" with each other. Somehow I get to be the one to deal with the tears, thanks Tim!

Tired Baby

Papa and Brady playing iPad together.

Riley was watching the boys for the day and texted me this picture. Apparently, Brady refused to wear anything but his underwear all morning. He said that he couldn't get dressed because he was "Wrestle Man!" It was lunch time before Riley was able to get him dressed.

Brady has lots of energy and fearlessness. This is him climbing up our house! As you can see, the lack of clothing is also becoming a thing with Brady. It actually kind of suits his personality, though! I need to ask my mom if my brother used to run around in just shorts, because I always think he looks like Jared when he is dressed like this.

Back to School

2011-09-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

The boys headed back to school this week! They are both still in pre-school. Easton is in the pre-kindergarten class and Brady is in his first year of pre-school. Both boys were excited for their first day and ran right into their classrooms!

A tractor driving down the road distracted them from taking their back to school pictures.

Showing off their backpacks...

Heading into school...

It was so weird having just one kid! Jaylee and I made the best of it by going to story time at the library and running. I just hope she starts talking soon, it was too quiet!

The Watermelon Mystery

2011-08-08T18:31:00.001-07:00

We have a small watermelon patch in our garden. We have several growing and one day I decided to cut one open and see how it was doing. It was starting to get ripe, but they still have a long way to go. I have been worried because most of the watermelons seem to be staying about the size of a softball and not getting any bigger.

Well, today I went out to the garden and saw this huge, ripe watermelon. It looked like it doubled in size overnight. I ran inside and told Riley he had to come check it out. I was pretty excited that my watermelons were starting to grow better. Riley came out and was impressed, but then said, "I don't know how that can even be possible." Then we both looked closer at the watermelon and realized that it was not attached to any of the vines. We did some thinking and made a few phone calls and found out that my dad was playing a joke on us! He bought a watermelon after he left church yesterday and then snuck over to our house when we were not home. He strategically placed it in our garden so we would think one of ours had grown! We got a good laugh about it! I only wish that I could have seen my dad sneaking around carrying that big watermelon! I don't think we will ever forget this watermelon mystery.

I had to have my watermelon in my daily harvesting photo, since technically we did get it out of our garden. It tasted really good with dinner. I just hope the rest of my watermelons can get that big!

Veggies, Veggies, and More Veggies

2011-08-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

We have been having lots of fun finding things to do with all of the vegetables that we have been growing. We were very proud of our dinner last night. It was all food that we provided for ourselves. We had venison steaks that Riley shot, roasted vegetables that all came out of our garden, and sweet corn that we were able to pick out of a friend's field for free! The Country Gibb's can survive... (Thank you Hank William's Jr.)

Riley made a yummy salsa a few weeks ago. Next year we want to try canning it.

We have been freezing most of the vegetables that we don't use right away. The green beans in this picture actually came from the store. My green beans did not grow this year, but we found fresh green beans on sale. We bought a few pounds and froze them.

Happy Birthday Riley

2011-08-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

Riley turned 33 last week. He celebrated by having a cook out with his parents and sisters and another dinner with just us. He had carrot cake (carrots from our garden of course...) and the boys decorated it. They made green and red light sabers on it. Easton has been really into Star Wars lately.

More Stuff I've Grown

2011-08-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

a day's harvest

another day's harvest

yet another day's harvest

(The green beans in the bag are from the store. We didn't have any luck with green beans this year.)

and another day's harvest

I am pretty proud of my garden. Can you tell? The majority of the pictures on my camera right now are of vegetables!

These are my best carrots yet. I have been surprised at how well my carrots have done. They have not gotten very big (the biggest one so far is the one in the middle and it was about 8 inches long), but I have had plenty of them. We have put them in stir-fry and in with roasted vegetables. Anytime I need a carrot, I just head out to the garden and dig some up!

I love growing sunflowers! Most of them are starting to get seeds so hopefully I can do something with them. I mostly just love watching sunflowers grow, so that is why I planted them.

We dug up the potatoes this week. They didn't do as well as I had hoped, and some sort of animal ate several of them. We cooked some last night and they tasted great. (Nothing like a dirty baby in a wheelbarrow, right?)

I also dug up my onions. They did good and we should have enough to last us until next year, if I get them properly stored. I am just learning how to store and preserve things as we go along.

This year's garden has mostly been done by trial and error!

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-08-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

Jaylee and Chewy

Easton found this bug crawling on my Marigolds.

When we went to the fair this year, Easton really wanted to ride on the Ferris Wheel. Riley went with him on the ride and Easton said that he liked it. He was very brave!

Easton and Jaylee being robbers.

Brady and Daddy taking a walk.

Jaylee and Daddy

Storing Up for Winter

2011-08-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

I have been looking for free or cheap sweet corn that I can freeze for winter. Well, I found some! There is a member of Riley's parent's church ward that is doing his PhD on corn here at Purdue. When he was finished with his research on his sweet corn field he let people come pick some for free! I was so excited about this. We loaded up the kids and went and picked 20 dozen ears of corn!

I was surprised when we got home and saw just how much we picked.

Riley was my cornhusker...

and corn cutter!

After about 3 hours of blanching and cutting corn off of the cob, we ended up with 31 bags of corn for the freezer (not to mention the hour of picking and two hours of cornhusking)! It feels really good to know that we have all of that saved up for when we need it.

Jaylee and her Fluffy Dress

2011-08-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

Jennifer bought Jaylee this fluffy skirt when I was pregnant with her. It is so cute and I have been wanting to try it on her, but it is a 2t, so it has been too big. Jaylee's Nana just got her a new shirt and it matched the skirt perfectly so I thought she should start wearing them. Jaylee was super cute in her fluffy dress, though I had to take it off of her to fit her in her carseat!

Gibb Family Pictures - Summer 2011

2011-07-17T18:55:00.001-07:00

Cute Family

Riley and Jessica

Gibb Kids

Aren't they sweet?

Easton - 4 years

Brady - 2 years

Jaylee - 1 year

Gibb Family Pictures -- Bloopers

2011-07-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

Jaylee has my scowl perfected... and why is Easton laying his head on my lap?

Poor Jaylee

Ohhh... Easton

I have to give Brady credit, he really was trying hard to be good in the pictures.

...still looks pretty

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-07-14T17:05:00.001-07:00

It is 89 cent ICEE time at Speedway again!

Jaylee's First Pigtails

The kids and their cousins Will and Talon at the Cars 2 movie. Easton has been looking forward to this movie for months!

This is what happens when you have little kids. A few weeks ago I tripped over a toy in my house. This is what my knee looked like 12 hours later. We decided to go to the emergency room when it became to painful to put weight on. The ER doctor did an X-ray (which showed no broken bones), gave me a knee brace, and sent me to an orthopaedic surgeon.

This picture was taken about 48 hours after I fell in the orthopaedic surgeon's office. He thought that my knee felt stable, but still wanted me to get an MRI. I had an MRI a week later which showed that I have a large hematoma on my knee but no torn ligaments. It has been almost three weeks and I am doing a lot better. I still don't have 100% range of motion in my knee, but I am not in very much pain and I can pretty much walk without a limp. It was a rough couple of weeks!

Jennifer Comes to Visit

2011-07-13T18:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Indiana and the humidity Jennifer! My sister and two of her kids came to visit for two and a half weeks this month. It is always so much fun to see her and laugh with her. While she and her boys were here we went swimming, went camping, Joe's family came down for a visit, celebrated Jaylee's birthday, let all of the cousins play together, and just had a great time.

Somehow I was left swimming alone with six little kids. These kids had so much fun together!

I am not sure what we are laughing at, but Jennifer looks guilty.

My Brothers. I am proud...

Mom, Jennifer, and I took a couple days to go camping together. We used to do this a lot before I started having kids, so it was nice to take this break together. We enjoyed riding the horses and sitting outside in the warm weather.

The horses are ready to go trail riding.

Jennifer and I waded through creeks and poison ivy to collect these Geodes. We brought them home for the boys to crack open.

My dad and Riley were left home to watch all five kids. One night they were brave and took them all out to a Chinese buffet to eat. All of the kids were in one piece when we got back so I think Dad and Riley were successful!

It is hard to believe how much mischief little boys can get into. One day they came walking around the house carrying this huge branch! We have no idea how they got it off of the tree!

The Kid Table

One night we had Talon over to our house for a sleepover. The boys ate popcorn, watched a movie, and slept on a blow-up mattress in the playroom together.

This is what little boys do for fun...

...and this is what girls do for fun.

Stuff I've Grown

2011-07-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

Carrots - We have so many growing in the garden that I have started picking and using them even at this size. They are doing great so far so I am anxious to see how big they get.

Cilantro

Daylily

A friend of mine has a co-worker who breeds Daylilies. When we built our flower beds I called him and just had him bring me a bunch of different kinds. It has been really fun to watch them bloom and see what they look like.

We planted these Daylilies at our home in Cincinnati. I wanted to bring a piece of that house with me when we moved so we dug these up and planted them here. I was really excited that they survived the move and being split apart. They have grown really well here. This picture is of the first bloom of the summer, which is always one of my favorite days each year!

Happy 1st Birthday Jaylee!!!

2011-07-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

It is so hard to believe that Jaylee is one year old! This year has flown by. We are so blessed that Jaylee has joined our family. She has everyone in this house wrapped around her little finger! Her smile lights up the room and can make anyone else smile as well! What a great little girl.

My Little Pony Cake

Checking out her cake...

Jaylee thought it was pretty funny when everyone started singing to her. She just looked around and laughed.

Jaylee enjoyed her cake. She tore into it more than her brothers did with their first birthday cakes.

She kept eating and eating and I finally decided that she would get sick if I didn't take it away. This picture is of what happened when I took it away from her. She was really upset with me!

Jaylee had lots of presents...

...and lots of help opening them!

Aunt Jennifer gave Jaylee this little saddle. My grandpa gave this saddle to Jennifer when she was two years old. It was very sweet that Jennifer wanted to pass this saddle down to Jaylee. I am sure Jaylee will cherish it.

trying on pink cowboy boots

I made Jaylee this dress for her birthday. It is a little big on her, but still looks cute.

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-07-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa got a grandkid pony! He name is Silver and she is a sweet little horse. The boys and Jaylee really enjoy riding her.

Brady

When we came to my parents house the other day we noticed that Dad was wearing his Christmas T-shirt that Rodger made for everyone a few years ago. It was pretty funny and I think he is the only one that I have seen wear the shirt in public!

We really enjoy the wide open sky where we live. It is always fun to be able to watch the storms coming from a mile away!

Gibb Reunion 2011

2011-06-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a Gibb Family Reunion. It was Riley's parents and all of his brother's and sister's and their families.

The main part of the reunion was a camping trip. We drove a few hours up to Potato Creek State Park. It was a great park. We were only there for about 24 hours but we packed a lot of activities in. We took the kids fishing, and they all caught a fish! We went on a boat ride, hiked, cooked hot dogs and s'mores over the fire, tried some dutch oven cooking, slept in tents, and of course spent a lot of time talking and laughing.

The rest of the time that everyone was in town was spent hanging out and playing at Nana and Papa's house. We had a baby blessing for Elsie, a Cornhole tournament, a birthday party for Grey and Jaylee, a boys golf outing, a girls jewelry outing, moved Shayla and Curtis, a Japanese dinner (by Tyler of course), a cook-out, and lots of other good food. We were busy and the kids had so much fun. I wish we could play all summer!

Of course, you are wondering where all of the pictures are... Well, with that big of a group and being busy with kids we just kept forgetting to get out our camera. It sat in my purse the whole time! Kalie made a great video of the week's adventures so I've decided to post that video instead of pictures. Enjoy!

Chicago Trip

2011-06-06T04:12:00.000-07:00

Riley and I have been wanting to go to the temple, so we made a family trip out of it. Shayla and Curtis came with us and we traded off babysitting so we could go to the temple with our spouses. It worked out really well and we had a lot of fun.

The boys showing off the hotel pool.

We have never stayed in a hotel with the boys (at least not that they can remember), so they were really excited about the whole place. In this picture they are eating dinner on the bed and watching cartoons.

Riley and the kids swimming.

Easton loves swimming. We are excited to spend lots of time swimming this summer.

Jaylee and Aunt Shayla.

Shayla and my sister Jennifer seem to be in competition to become Jaylee's favorite Aunt. We will see how it goes!

On our way out of town we took the kids to the Chicago Field Museum.

Me and the boys in front of Sue the T-Rex.

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-06-06T03:53:00.000-07:00

Cute Kids

Easton took this picture of his best friend. Puppy has been a permanent attachment to Easton since he first picked him up around 9 months old.

This is my latest sewing creation. It will be a present for Jaylee's birthday. It ended up being a little big, so she may have to wait a few months to wear it.

Father / Son Campout

2011-06-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

Riley and the boys went to their first father and sons campout a few weeks ago. The boys had a lot of fun and said that they wanted to go again. They came home really dirty and covered in bug bites, so I know that they had a good time!

eating s'mores

This is Easton being Spiderman on a playset.

Brady

Last Day of School

2011-06-05T05:24:00.000-07:00

Easton just finished his first year of pre-school. We are proud parents! We are planning to just relax and play all summer. Next year Brady will also be in pre-school, so Jaylee and I are going to be bored a few mornings a week!

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-05-12T04:30:00.000-07:00

It is finally summer!

headed to a rodeo

boys

This is one of Easton's many drawings. It is a picture of papa riding his horse in a rodeo.

Jaylee Baby

Happy Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

Brady 2 1/2 years old, Easton 4 1/2 years old, Jaylee 11 months old, and Jessica 29 years old

Asparagus

2011-05-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

we are already eating vegetables from our garden! Asparagus is a perennial, so whomever lived here before must have planted it. We are sure glad that they did because we have been able to take advantage of it. Easton even loves eating it!

We have learned that asparagus grows really fast once it pops out of the ground. We haven't checked on them in a few days and when we did we found a two foot long asparagus! There were several more that were really long too. Hopefully that monster tastes good!

King of the Mountain

2011-05-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

My parents have been doing some renovations to their house and my boys have been having fun climbing up this big pile of dirt!

Happy Easter from the Gibb Kids

2011-04-25T06:49:00.001-07:00

Who is the sweetest of them all?

We had a great Easter. We celebrated by waking up early to see what surprises the Easter Bunny brought, wearing matching clothes to church, and having dinner and an easter egg hunt with family.

Getting ready to go see if the Easter Bunny came...

The boys were getting really good at finding easter eggs.

Jaylee even found a few!

Showing off their Easter goodies...

All dressed up and ready for church!

Jonny, Emmie, Easton, Brady, and Jaylee

The kids are excited and ready to go find easter eggs!

Easton and Emmie were the fastest.

My three kids checking out all of the eggs they found.

Grandpa was looking on and sneaking candy when they weren't looking!

Matching Easter Clothes

2011-04-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

Having a daughter has made me creative. I decided that I wanted to make Jaylee an Easter dress. I spent several evenings at my mom's house working on this project. I also wanted the boys to have matching ties, so my mom made those for them. I was really excited about how everything turned out. Since the kids looked so cute, we had Aunt Shayla come over and take photos of them. As you can tell from the picture above Jaylee was a little grumpy, but we still managed to get some cute pictures!

Jaylee thought is was pretty funny to stand up by holding her brother's hands.

Prettiest Girl in the World

Brady

Easton

The boys always look so cute when they play nicely together.

They also look pretty cute when they fight!

Exploring

Chewy is a Unique Dog

2011-04-24T18:01:00.001-07:00

Chewy is not allowed to sit on our couches. So instead of sitting on our couch he chose to sit on Easton's blanket, which was on top of Easton's pillow pet, which was on top of the couch. I would like to believe that he is smart and knew that he was not supposed to be on the couch so he sat there instead. However, I believe he just thought the stuffed animals would be softer than the couch itself!

Cincinnati Friends

2011-04-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

Easton and Owen

We had a fun surprise last friday. My good friend Dawn was going to be in the area and was able to stop by and see us. Dawn and I met when our boys were 6 months old. We became regular walking buddies. It was not often that a week went by that we did not get together with the kids for at least a few hours. We each went through a lot of life changes and struggles together. She ended up moving just a few months after we did, so we know that we were meant to become friends for those 3 or 4 years that we lived near each other!

Purdue Football

2011-04-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, the Purdue football team had a scrimmage game. Riley and Brady went and had fun. Riley said that Brady really enjoyed watching the game and seeing the players. I thought they looked cute in their matching Purdue outfits.

Brady at the Game

The Family

2011-04-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

We took advantage of the nice weather and attempted an impromptu family photo shoot on Sunday. It turned out like most photo shoots, Riley and I looking at the camera while trying to keep the kids at least in the picture!

The Gibb Family

Brady

The Gibb Girls

Brother Love

2011-04-07T05:36:00.000-07:00

While doing dishes the other day, the kids were playing nicely in the playroom. Pretty soon I heard a shuffling sound. When I turned around this is what I saw coming through my kitchen! I am not sure how they got her in there, but she was loving the ride and being a part of her brother's activities.

Easton just loves his baby sister.

I believe that one of the best sounds in the world is a baby laughing. Fortunately Jaylee has older brothers because they are always the ones that make her laugh. In this video Jaylee is playing 'sword fight' with Easton. She thought it was hilarious!

Baseball Dress

2011-04-07T04:52:00.000-07:00

I have started sewing! I started by making Jaylee an Easter dress. (I am waiting until Easter to post pictures of that dress.) My mom helped me through the Easter dress and when I was done I wanted to try something else. This little baseball dress was my first creation that I sewed together all by myself. I am really happy with how it turned out. I know there are too many pictures in this blog post, but she just looked so cute in all of them!

Jaylee's Hair

2011-04-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

Jaylee has been working on growing her hair. I am excited to start doing ponytails and braids, but I think she still has a long way to go! For now, she can just keep using her big bows and flowers.

Cousins

2011-04-06T17:47:00.001-07:00

Easton and Ruby

Ruby and her sisters came to visit this weekend and my boys had so much fun playing with them! They played all weekend long.

Jaylee and Dax

I wanted to get a picture of these two together. I quickly realized that there was no way that we were going to get both of them looking at the camera at the same time. I decided to post two pictures, so between the two both babies are looking at the camera at some point!

3rd Annual Heroes 5k Run / Walk

2011-04-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I ran my first 5K race since before I got pregnant with Jaylee. There were only about 150 people there, but I was the 3rd place female! I ran it in 28:31 which was way better than I expected. I have been taking it really slow as I get back into running so that I will not get injured and that I will enjoy running. My plan must be working because I felt great and really enjoyed the race.

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-04-06T17:10:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a family pizza party. It was complete with dinner and games. In this picture the kids are proudly showing off the ribbons I made them for winning the games.

Jaylee loves bath time and is starting to get sad when I make her get out!

Jaylee celebrated the opening day of baseball by proudly wearing her Cubs hat. Opening Day is like a holiday in this house. It started when Riley and I were newly dating and he said to me, "Guess what? It's one week until Opening Day!" and I said, "What's that?" I have learned a lot in 10 years!

Easton's First Church Talk

2011-03-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Easton gave his first talk in Primary. He did such a good job and we were so proud! The picture above is the talk that Riley put together for him. The talk was typed out with pictures to help Easton remember what to say. (Years and years ago my brother-in-law Rodger did this for Brandon's first talk and I remembered what a good idea it was.) He practiced every night during the week so that he could be ready. Easton spoke clearly into the microphone and said his talk well. When he forgot what to say Riley would point to the right picture on his paper and he was able to remember what to say next. We are just so proud of him and can't believe how big he is getting!

After church we asked Easton to re-do his talk so that we could videotape it. By this point Easton had the whole thing memorized and was able to do it without his paper. I hope you enjoy it!

...and she's off!

2011-03-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Jaylee has begun crawling! Right now she can do 5 or 6 good steps on all fours and then she usually goes down to her belly and scoots the rest of the way. It is scary to think that we now have three kids that won't stay were we put them. Life is going to be changing again!

1st Sign of Spring

2011-03-25T16:34:00.001-07:00

This is the first sign of spring at our house: dirty boys! We had great weather last weekend and spent a lot of time outside. When I saw them outside playing in the dirt I thought, "Spring is finally here!" I love dirty boys because it means they are having fun, being friends, playing out in the fresh air, and learning to work. I am not sure why they insisted on taking their shirts off, though!

showing off their muscles

remember this picture?

2011-03-25T16:21:00.001-07:00

Do you remember this picture? If not, you can check back to a blog post I made in February 2010.

The dress I have saved all these years finally fits! It is also how I imagined this picture would look when I first found out we were having a girl. A beautiful and sweet baby with two brothers picking on her!

I really wanted to get a good picture with all three of them together. This is the best we got, but they really are good kids. Riley and I are lucky!

Dancing!!

2011-03-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

Easton enjoyed showing off some of his dance moves at Nana and Papa's house last week.

Papa and Jaylee Dancing

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-03-05T15:55:00.001-08:00

We pulled one of our old baby toys out of storage for Jaylee, and everyone thought it was fun! It was so cute to see all three of our children playing together. It ultimately ended up with Jaylee falling down and the boys wrestling each other, but it was nice while it lasted!

Riley and I had our first emergency room trip this week. Jaylee woke up in the night and was having a lot of trouble breathing. It ended up being Croup. She got a breathing treatment and a steroid in the hospital. She seems to be fine now, but it was definitely a scary evening!

Jaylee's hair seems to have begun growing. I was able to get a bow clipped in her hair for the first time today. I was actually pretty suprised at how well it stayed in. She was looking pretty cute and didn't even try to take it out.

Cousin Emmie had a birthday party today. The kids enjoyed playing games and eating cake and ice cream.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-03-05T15:43:00.000-08:00

On Valentine's day we had a family dinner and heart cake for dessert. Easton even gave me a beautiful rose!

Jaylee opening her present...

The boys checking out their presents...

Brady the Golfer

2011-02-13T04:38:00.000-08:00

We have a big unfinished basement. It has been a great place for the kids to run and play this winter. Brady loves hitting his golf balls. He could literally do this all day!

Being a Little Sister

2011-02-12T16:05:00.000-08:00

Jaylee is going to be a tough girl. With two big brothers, she gets put through a lot. The boys thought it would be hilarious to carry her around. She was laughing too, but we had to put a stop to it pretty quick. They kept almost dumping her out!

Playing with brothers makes Jaylee tired.

I can't really blame the boys for this one. Riley was supposed to be watching her. I heard him leave the room to do something else. I asked Riley what Jaylee was doing and he said, 'just playing with her basket of toys.' When I came around the corner this is what I saw! I think she did this to herself, but I don't know how long she sat like that.

Easton enjoyed pushing Jaylee around while they were playing in the basement.

Easton

2011-02-12T15:50:00.000-08:00

Easton looked so cute before school last Friday! I decided that he needed a photo shoot. Since, Jaylee is usually the only one that gets photo shoots, he was pretty excited. He figured out all of the poses on his own!

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-02-12T15:31:00.001-08:00

"Puppy" By: Easton

Easton is turning into a good artist. He drew this while we were playing Pictionary the other night.

Brady loves his little sister. He always wants to play with her and give her hugs. Brady can be a little rough though, so I am not sure if Jaylee sees it as love yet.

Easton gave me a beautiful flower the other day and told me that he loved me. It was one of the sweetest moments I have had as a mother.

The boys do fight a lot, but every once in a while I will catch them playing together. I love to see them working together and being friends.

Purdue Wrestling Meet

2011-02-12T14:46:00.000-08:00

Riley and his parents took the boys to a wrestling meet at Purdue. They were excited about it and have been having daily wrestling matches ever since!

Easton

Papa, Easton, Brady, and Dax

Jaylee - 7 months

2011-01-19T17:30:00.001-08:00

Here are a few pictures of Jaylee looking pretty in pink!

Happy Birthday Jessica!!

2011-01-19T17:08:00.001-08:00

I had my 29th birthday last week. We celebrated in the usual way of dinner, presents, and cake. It was also nice to have my parents and Riley's parents close so that we could celebrate with them as well.

Prima Ballerina

2011-01-19T16:15:00.000-08:00

A good friend of ours in Cincinnati gave me this outfit at my baby shower. Jaylee is finally big enough to wear it. She was being so happy and cute that I just had to take some pictures. I think she felt very pretty!

Random Shots from the Past Few Weeks

2011-01-19T15:29:00.001-08:00

Brady and Jaylee enjoy hanging out while Easton is at school.

Jaylee and Mom

I know this is a crazy picture (Riley said that it was the best we were going to get from the three of them and turned the camera off...), but I was trying to show the many injuries we have had over the last few weeks. First, Easton ran into a wall at Nana and Papa's house and split his head open. Luckily, Nana and Papa have a friend who is a plastic surgeon. We called him for advice and he said to bring Easton on over to his office. He fixed Easton up and has been following up with us ever since. Dr. Baldwin has been great! Second, one of Chewy's front teeth fell out. When heading to bed one night we saw Chewy sleeping with a tooth laying beside him! He already has gnarly Shih-tzu teeth, but this just seals the deal. We are not sure how it happened, but I think it has something to do with the two pound frozen deer roast that Riley threw outside for him to eat. The roast was too freezer burned for us to eat and Riley thought Chewy would like a treat! Finally, Brady was carrying a bowl inside the house and slipped on the steps. When he fell the bowl shattered and he sliced open his finger. It was pretty deep and bleeding a lot. Riley was teaching, so I called my dad to come over and help me decide if he needed stitches. We were able to get the bleeding stopped and just bandaged it up. Hopefully everyone heals up well and quits having accidents!

Jaylee holding Mom's hand.

Christmas Vacation Fun

2011-01-19T14:41:00.001-08:00

We did lots of activities while the whole Gibb family was together. One day we headed over to the gym at the church and had a kickball game and played knock out.

We also had an 'Adult Formal Dinner' on New Year's Eve. Everyone got dressed up and Tyler made Prime Rib and Risotto for dinner.

This picture can also serve as our 10 year anniversary picture, since I never made a blog post about that!

We also went bowling!

Christmas Day

2010-12-27T04:52:00.000-08:00

Easton was excited to open all of his presents!

Brady is opening up a present.

Cousin Dax gave Jaylee a hat that she could attach all of her hair bows too. He must know just what she likes.

Riley's parents got a new kid picnic table and it needed set up for Christmas dinner. Riley and the Rocket Scientist got to work!

Brandon is a good uncle. He helps with the babies and plays with the older kids.

Jaylee found a tiara in Nana's dress up clothes. It suits her well...

Christmas Morning

2010-12-27T04:23:00.001-08:00

The boys were excited to see if Santa came! Jaylee didn't know what was going on.

Jaylee is checking out her presents.

The boys checking out their presents.

Easton has been wanting a pillow pet since this summer. Santa was the only one that would get it for him.

This is our first year since having kids that we were able to have Christmas morning in our own house. It was so nice to have some time with just our family.

Brady didn't waste any time getting into his candy. We had to take his stocking away or he would have just kept eating chocolate.

Easton dressed up as Buzz Lightyear.

Christmas Eve - Evening

2010-12-26T12:58:00.001-08:00

This picture is of Nana and Papa with all of the grandkids in their Christmas pajamas.

There are four boy cousins. I have supplied half of them!

Gibb Girls

This is a picture of us playing 'The Candy Bar Game.' This is a favorite Christmas game of ours, even though Brady opened his candy before he was supposed to and Easton ended up crying over a pack of gum...

Christmas Eve - Nativity

2010-12-26T12:38:00.000-08:00

A Christmas tradition at the Gibb house is to act out the Nativity story. This year we had enough grandkids to fill most of the roles. Jaylee was the Star of the show, of course.

Easton was Joseph

Joseph and Mary looking for a place to stay.

Since Melanie and Brandon don't have kids yet, they got to be the animals in the stable.

The Cast

From left to right: Dax (Shepherd), Brandon (Sheep), Jaylee (Star), Brady (Wise Man), Melanie (Donkey), Grey (Baby Jesus), Easton (Joseph), Ruby (Mary), and Stella (Angel).

Christmas Eve - Morning

2010-12-26T12:02:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve morning we went over to my parents for breakfast, so Riley could put together my parent's surprise for the boys. My mom likes making breakfast, so we all got a good meal!

My dad has always had a tradition of cleaning the barn really good on Christmas Eve. Now that we have moved back to Indiana we are able to make this a Christmas tradition for our family as well. As you can probably tell from the pictures Brady did the most work of anyone!

After the barn was clean, we got out the 4-wheeler and went sledding. Easton is getting old enough that he really enjoyed it. He also thought that this was how Santa's reindeer pulled his sleigh.

My parent's got the boys bunk beds for Christmas. They were really excited and Easton climbed right up to his bunk! They have slept in them two nights so far and they seem to like them. It is hard to believe that they are big enough to be sleeping in bunk beds, though!

This is a picture of Jaylee opening up her first Christmas present.

The boys took their first nap in their new beds on Christmas Eve.

Nana and Papa's House

2010-12-26T11:53:00.000-08:00

The kids spent some time at Nana and Papa's house this week.

Easton and Brady built a snowman...

and a snow duck!

Jaylee has been having fun playing with Grey, her cousin.

Day With Grandma

2010-12-26T11:42:00.000-08:00

My mom and I took the kids out for an afternoon getaway. First we ate at Pizza King, which the boys always love, and then we went to a model train museum.

Both boys enjoyed looking at the trains, but Brady was especially interested. He watched the trains intently and didn't want to leave.

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-19T16:24:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning we had a heavy fog, and when it lifted the trees were left with a layer of icy crystals. It was absolutely gorgeous. Everything was sparkly and I had to check it out. So, Brady and I grabbed the camera and headed out. I am loving winter this year. I must have forgotten how beautiful it is after 6 years of living in a city and being surrounded by buildings.

Can you see the bird's nest in the tree?

The Clothesline

Easton did not want to get cold, so he stayed inside and watched through the windows.

Jaylee - 6 months

2010-12-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

Our sweet chubby girl is now 6 months old. At her 6 month check-up Jaylee weighed in at 16lbs 12ozs and is 26 inches long. Some of her favorite things right now are: sitting up by herself, playing with toys, watching her brothers run, her mom, pretty dresses, singing when she wakes up in the morning, and of course big hair bows.