Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!

It's been a great evening with the girls. They have been looking forward to Daddy's birthday for 2 days now. I took them shopping so they could pick out a gift for Daddy all by themselves (we just went to Target but, they didn't care). They had a great time going up and down the isles trying to find the perfect thing. Sydney had finally decided on getting him 2 toy horses! She just knew that Daddy would think these were perfect. Samantha got hime 2 small Zebras because they reminded her of the Safari that we went to not long ago.

We went to Blue Fish for dinner and the girls really enjoyed watching the chef cook the food right in front of us...especially when he was tossing the egg in the air and flipping the shrimp tails into his hat! :)

We had just made plans to wrap up dinner and go for ice cream somewhere and they were stalling abit bringing us our check....only to suprise us with fried ice cream for a special birthday desert. Sydney had fun eating her ice cream with her chop sticks!

We love you Neal and thanks for being the best Dad, husband and best friend! hugs and kisses!

A mommy daughter night

It's nice being able to just be with one kid at a time....it doesn't happen very often but, when it does life seems so much easier. Tonight was one of those nights. Neal had Samantha while Sydney and I went to get our hair cut (mine colored). We actually both just got a little trim to clean things up a bit. I have decided that we are going to grow out our hair to be able to donate atleast 10" to "Locks of Love". I've been thinking about it for quite a while now and really think this is something great that we have a way to help a little girls potentially terrible situation be a little bit better by her getting a wig of real hair. I'm inspired by many to do this but, mainly in memory of my Mom (for those of you who may not know we lost her to breast cancer nearly 8 1/2 years ago now). Also to honor some very very special people in my life who have beat breast cancer and are living healthy: Kelly, Aunt Karen, Derreta and Susie. The medical world has gained so much knowledge today and is helping with early detection to beat cancer. I truely believe that one day they will find a total cure and way to beat this horrible thing! As difficult as it was loosing my Mom and going through that year that she was fighting it has enabled me to help support those I know who've had it and won the fight in a much stronger way. I am so proud of them and their families for all that they endured with such positive attitudes and a winning spirit - they are truely my inspiration! So, I have about 4 more months to grow out my hair...they day we get to cut it off we'll be sure to dedicate the blog to you! :)

Well, that got abit deep for so late at night...Sydney and I did have a great time tonight together and I really cherish all the great times that we have together and the many more "nights at the salon" we have in our future....gotta love it!

Is it a full moon....

I think it must be a full moon tonight (I've not even looked outside to know if this is true or not) but, the girls have been all messed up tonight. I too would love to be able to always paint this picture of two perfect adorable little girls that are just always so loving towards their parents and each other....but let's get back to reality! From the moment we drove in the driveway they were whiny and wouldn't stop pestering each other. Nothing drives me crazy faster than when they whine for no reason at all - and they know it! So, when they weren't whining they were running around crazy like till one of them either fell or ran into the corner of a table or something which then lead into utter pain and major tears! I think that all I've said tonight is slow down, stop whining, watch out, don't pull your sister, stop hitting maggie (yes, even maggie got into the action tonight).
So, needless to say I got both of the girls to bed early tonight which asleep by 9:30 is a major accomplishment! So, I'm going to take advantage of them already sleeping by going to bed early tonight myself....work is really busy right now and keeps me running all day! So, if any of you have any suggestions as to how to get kids to stop whining I'm all ears!

I thought I'd share a picture of Dad & Janet's beautiful flowers that they've had this summer - something to help calm things down from this totally crazy day....helps us all remember to take a minute and stop to smell the roses....

Just a quick swim......

The girls decided almost too late tonight that they wanted to go for a swim with Daddy! So, it was a quick one. When it's a school night we need to get in some swim time/play time, dinner and a bath time goes pretty fast when that all has to be (or really should be) done by 9:00! Sydney is our night owl though...she often stays up till 10:00 and then they have to be up no later than 6:15. Which means mommy has to be up before 5:15 to be done and ready for them on time. We are typically out of the house by 6:45 - 6:50 inorder for me to get to work on time.
Sydney has started to become quite the little story teller. It's funny the things she will put together in her story and if you pay attention you can learn alot. She talks about different things from her day and acts them out - could be very helpful as she gets older - note to self!! She starts talking about our neighbors cat Merci who likes to hide under Mimi & Papa's bed when the girls come over to see her....wonder why! :)
Enjoy the swimming clips - oh the large thing floating in the pool...actually the piece of the slide - Neal was trying to see if he could fill it with water to be an "island" in our pool - not sure that it's going to work. We'll see. Samantha has a special message to her grandparents....enjoy!

There's nothing like the summer time....

You just gotta love a lazy Sunday in the summer!!! After church this morning the girls and Neal came striaght home and went to take a nap! Since we ate a kolachi (sp?) on our way to church no one was really hungry yet. Aunt Jill and I went to Cost Co for our weekly trip for fruit - they have the best selection! Then it was off to the backyard pool to try and stay cool - it was over 100 today...not exactly sure how much over it was but, the pool sure felt great. After swiming with the girls, dinner and bath time we took the girls to our favorite ice cream spot....Braums! Wish Grandma and Grandpa could have been with us too! It was a great surprise for the girls - we even took them in their pj's so we could just go home relax. I got Sydney a new puzzle (she's mastered the one's we already have) so this one is of the United States....well didn't take her long to figure this one out too...but, she likes it. We are learning where we live, where all our grandparents live and ofcourse she asked me to show her where Cinderella lives too! So sweet. Now it's time to get ready for another crazy week ahead.....hoping to go to bed early!

TYPO....

okay - it was 1:00 am when I typed my last entry.....we went and listened to Bryan Adams....ops! :)

High School Dream comes true......finally!!!!

Our Saturday started out like most of our saturdays....roll-up pancakes with aunt Jill coming over to hang out for a while. The girls play with all their toys that they don't really get to during the week because we are always running around so much, we hang out in the pool, do laundry, clean the house just like the rest of you I'm sure! Well, tonight was something really fun for me....especially since it's something I wanted to do more than yes.....more than 20 years ago! I got to so see Brian Adams live in concert tonight! It was such a great time! We initally just had lawn seats and then got to move up to "actual" seats with a perfect view! He sounds exactly the same! I felt as if time had stood still and I was back in Grand Rapids hanging out in the Hardee's parking lot with all my girlfriends in the middle of the summer!!! So, tonight happend just in time to get me ready to head back home for my yes again....20 year class reunion! I really am looking forward to going home and seeing my friends again! Hope you enjoy the short video clip from the concert....I had to reduce it pretty small so you probably won't get to see it clear but.....you can hear him! Thanks Neal for taking me and thanks to Mathew and Gina for watching the girls!!!! (We owe you a night of kid sitting!).

The out-takes of the Gibbs Girls singing....part 2

Well, many of you emailed me with comments about the girls singing "Amazing Grace" that I felt it only fair to add the additional "out-takes" that also happened that same night! I promise you that these are not edited or altered in any way - nor were they rehearsed by the girls. I don't know about you but, these had me in tears!

We are all looking forward to a fun weekend of just hanging out in our pool and relaxing - Mommy is hoping to get to sleep in for even just a short while! We'll see what happens....I kept the girls up really late in hopes that they will sleep in tomorrow morning.

Finally - Amazing Grace!!!

Sorry for the technical difficulty - I wasn't able to upload the video but, here it is! To view just click on the "arrow" button under the image and it should play....watch your sound if you are at work viewing this! :)
The girls have been having lots of fun the past few days at school...Sydney got to take a field trip to a children's theater and today they are going to play dress up and have a runway fashion show.....I just love her teacher for being so creative! Samantha gets to do so many different crafts that she just loves.

Some of the girls most favorite things are to play dress up, hang out in their "house", have tea parties and sing! Well, we did all of that tonight! Many times at night while they fall asleep I'll sing to them. One of my favorite songs to put them to sleep to is Amazing Grace. Mainly because I can remember my Mom and Grandma Johnson singing that song all the time. Well, since the girls have such a love of music they have learned it and sing it all the time! I've taught them 3 verses. So, I caught one verse tonight...it's pretty cute! This was really my highlight for the evening - knowing that they are going to grow up knowing and learning the Grace of God! I can only pray that God continue to give me the grace (and patients) that I need in raising His two little girls! Hope you enjoy this as much as I do each time I hear them sing! I'm sure there will be a duet at RCN one day soon! :)

The 8th Wonder of "Plano TX"

We were witness to the 8th Wonder of Plano TX today in our very back yard! Yes friends and family....we can offically get 2 vehicles into our garage! If you don't live in TX then it may not seem like a very big deal. In fact you might be thinking right now well, that is just crazy! In Texas we don't have basements to store all that "stuff" that gets collected over the years....especially when you have kids! Neal has been working away at the garage over the past few weeks and today he finally achieved superior status of the garage! He was so proud he went to get our neighbors to check it out....which turned out being another backyard hangout time....was so fun. All the kids that had just gotten their bath were running around some with out shoes and ofcourse getting dirty all over again - but hey...that's what summer is about right! :) Somehow the umbrellas came out and then they all had them.....it was pretty fun!
The kids got to swim today which is always a good time! Well, tomorrow is the start of another long week....fun fun....

Saturday.....no work, no school....play day!

If you ask the girls what Saturday means they will start jumping around screaming "no school, no work...play day" over and over again. Well, today didn't exactly work out that way for me. I had to go into the office for a few hours this morning. After family breakfast that is! I atleast got done what I had set out to complete so, I felt good about that. It will definately make Monday seem abit less stressful. After working I hit the Allen outlet mall to check out a sale scoop that my friend Annette told me about...thanks! Children's Place has an additional 50% off their clearance prices right now! It was a great time to get a few basic shorts & tanks for the girls for next summer - the tanks cost about $2.00! Cheaper than a gallon of gas - how about that! Anything cheaper than a gallon of gas is a deal these days! :) The girls still got lots of play time packed into their day! They got to play with our neighbors Ashley & Austin in their yard...they have a great jungle gym that they love to play on! It has a pretty cool fort. Mimi Dottie and Papa Larry went to their farm for the evening so we get to feed their animals for them - the girls love it! They have 2 dogs, 2 birds, 1 cat and a fish! a mini zoo as they will call it! The girls love Mercy their cat the best. The past few times that we've gone over to see her she's been hiding so well the girls weren't able to even see her. Well, not the case tonight! Not only did they see her they got to hold her, pet her and play with her. I took a video of them playing with Mercy but, the file was too big to download...I'll get this figured out one of these days! Now I've got nearly everyone in bed and I'm not far behind.....didn't get to do my laundry today so that isn't going to make tomorrow evening much fun....but I did manage to squeeze in a pedicure this afternoon that was well worth it!

Dinner with Aunt Jill

What a busy day today! Sydney had a field trip at school today going to the public library for a tour and story time. They are also talking about sports and the olympics this week at school. Her teacher had the girls bring in cheerleader outfits and boys sports jerseys etc...yes, looks like the role defining starts even as young as the age of 4! Thanks to Karley (Sydney's friend) for letting her borrow her outfit...even if it does say FSU on it! (Sorry to all my family in Nebraska - I had no choice..hahaha). After work we all went over to Aunt Jill's house for dinner. The girls had a good time playing in the play room and I helped Jill hang some pictures to help her new house feel abit more like "home". I was glad to help. Neal was busy on the bbq! Samantha's big news of the day is that she's learned how to hold a pencil the correct way! She was drawing with Sydney after bath time and was doing so great! All the way home the girls were watching for "luna" (the moon) it is nearly full tonight - they kept saying that luna was chasing us all the way home. They were cracking each other up by seeing who could find her first!
sorry no pictures tonight!

swimming with friends....

What a great day we had! The girls were both pretty happy when Mommy picked them up from school, we played dress up for a while when we got home and then got to go swimming and our neighbors joined us! It's always more fun to swim with friends! Sydney is really getting good at swimming across the pool - her video here isn't showing the best job but, she's loves it which is more important. We had a few summers where she wouldn't leave the steps. Samantha is having a hard time right now not being able to go down the slide and get her hair wet. She had her tubes in her ears and adenoids out last Thursday - we have to wait till this weekend till she can get her ears wet again. Not much fun for her when she loves to go down our slide. I did get her to talk abit....although she was more interested in seeing the video for herself. Work is pretty crazy for me right now - often I feel like I can't even think straight so, being able to come home and hang out with the girls is something I really look forward to and need every day. God has truely blessed our family and Neal is starting a new job on Monday with a public accounting firm in Downtown Dallas. He is going to be the controller for the firm reporting to the Sr. Partner - we are very excited about his new opportunity!

Going to see Spots

It has become a daily routine for the girls to ask to go across the street to Mimi Dottie & Papa Larry's house to check on "Spots" to be sure he's okay. Who is Spots you ask....our neighbor's new turtle. He's in their front flower bed and they've had him for about 2 weeks now. The girls love to go over bring him some fruit, check that he's okay and tell him good night. We've also started taking the girls for a mini bike ride around the block to get them some more practice....we need more practice before I think they can make it without help from us! :) We'll get there! We couldn't swim tonight - it looks like rain. We hear the thunder all around us and knowing Texas weather it will probably miss our house! Typical! After going for our bike ride and seeing Spots Sydney decided it was time for some "Royal Olympics" in the front yard! She got this game idea from Cinderella when she came to Sydney's birthday party. We had a fun time tonight....now the real fun begins - trying to get the girls settled down and ready for bed! Now that should be an olympic sport!

Our blog "debut"

Welcome to the Gibbs Adventures - hopefully this will be a better way of me keeping everyone in the loop of all the fun things the girls are doing! :)
After a long day at school (usually from 7:15 am - 5:15 pm) the girls can't wait to get home and go swimming in our pool! Three years of swimming lessons is finally paying off with Sydney - she really is having fun! Compared to the past 2 summers where she just played on the steps and wouldn't go much farther. Samantha is following her big sister and just loves jumping in and going down the slide! I'll take pictures of them swimming tomorrow - I need to get used to the blogging thing and pictures make it much more interesting!

Unusual weekend....

This weekend wasn't like our normal run around busy weekends - did we ever enjoy it! Yes, Neal did some work on his truck but other than that we got to spend lots of time with the girls and hang out at our pool.
After bath time we had fun playing with a new game Sydney got for her birthady (Thanks Sloan!). The girls love playing it...not really by the rules but, they make up their own and play pretty well together so that works for me!

First time blogger

Today started out like many of our saturday's do - wake up early (kids were up by 6:30) and start to make pancakes! We make Grandma Johnson's sweedish pancakes - or roll up pancakes as the girls like to call them. Aunt Jill came over too - which we all enjoy! After cleanning up we usually have so many things to do that we are running aroudn crazy - not today! And I love it! I got to hang a few pictures that I've wanted to do for a long time, the girls have stayed in their pj's and played so nice together! Now they are down for a nap.....Neal is out working on his truck so...the house is super quiet! wow, I didn't know it could get like this while the sun is out!

We do have a birthday party later this afternoon in the heat...that should be a good time! Will have to come home and get in the pool to cool off!