favorite memories....

Funny the things you remember from when you were a kid. I'm sure if you sit and think about some of the earliest memories that you have all they would do is make you smile and I bet the involve family! I know that mine do! You know growing up in Fremont Nebraska had some great advantages for my sister and I while growing up. We were so close to grandparents on both sides of our family, aunts, uncles and cousins too! My parents did all that they could to try and get ahead in life and often times when I was real little my dad worked at Hormel and then evenings when he wasn't there (and lots of times weekends too) he and my Mom had their own little business going - they had a lawn service, painted houses and cleaned a few of the banks in town. I can remember going to the bank with them sometimes and it was my "job" to get the waist baskets under the desk and dump them into the big trash can...also another big job I had was to watch out for the vaccuum cord so it didn't get stuck somewhere and mom or dad have to stop. Sometimes when they would have a night job my sister and I would get to go to Grandma Johnson's house. Now, my Grandma and Grandpa lived in what I thought (becuase keep in mind I was under 5 yrs. old) was one of the biggest houses I'd ever been in - it was an old farm house...it was white and had a small porch on the back and a very squeeky screen door. The kitchen and bathroom floors were tile - and very cold might I add. One of my favorite memories of being at Grandmas's house (and there are many might I add) was when she would make a tent for Jill and I in her kitchen by putting a big sheet or blanket over the kitchen table! She would give us the baby marshmellows (the rainbow colored ones) in these small orange tupperware cups for a treat! She would come under there with us and play and read stories to us! There's nothing like being in a tent with Grandma! So, as you can see by the pictures the tradition goes on....only today it was in Samantha's room in her bed before church! Sydney and Samantha were having just as much fun playing together as Jill and I did when we were probably the same ages! There are so many days that I wish I could just bottle up these memories and keep them forever for them (and neal and I too)...I guess this is the best way I can find. So, take a minute - yes, I know we are all really busy but, try to remember your earliest memories and enjoy! Have a blessed day!

Yeah, their home!!!

Yeah - Samantha and Mommy are very happy....Sydney and Daddy are home from Amarillo! They had a good time but, they are happy to be back too! It was so cute to see how excited the girls were to see eachother! Samantha and I had a great time today going to the mall for a little girl time! We got a quick visit from Uncle Brian today too. He's in town for a school board convention - here he is reading the girls a story this afternoon. The visit was short but, it was great to see him.

Note to Rebecca....the handbag you like of mine (it's an a.n.a brand) is in the stores at JCPenney now and it's on sale this weekend Collin Creek has the best assortment as Frisco is nearly sold out. :)

Things just aren't the same tonight...

Things just aren't the same tonight at our house....Neal's grandpa passed away yesterday so, he left this afternoon to go to Amarillo for the service...taking Sydney with him. It was his idea and I love the fact that he wanted to spend some extra daddy time with her! She will help keep him entertained while driving (till she falls asleep ofcourse) and enjoy her special time with Daddy. Meanwhile - Samantha and I have our own Mommy/Daughter time of our own. I picked her up from school and after leaving her room she looks up at me and says "We go get Sydney Gibbs now?" It was the sweetest thing! Until ofcourse I told her that she'd already left for Amarillo with Daddy....tears came streaming down her face! She wanted anyone but me...Mommy was instantly "chopped liver"! Thanks!
That did quickly pass however once I gave her a snack in the car for the ride home. She chose an apple over a box of raisins....and loved it! We had fun playing with playdough, colors and bath time. I read her a book and she was ready for bed....it was a long day for her at school today. It was her first day in her new class - I think she's enjoying being with more girls! There are now 5 girls in her class instead of only 2 in her last class! I hoping that will help with lots of things for her!
As far as her collar bone goes - she's doing awesome! If you didn't see the brace on her arm (which half the time isn't really on anyway) you'd never know that anything was "wrong" with her! She climbs herself into the suburban and into her car seat herself! amazing! Do keep her in your prayers though please - as she is starting to feel better (quite quickly may I add) I need to be sure that she doesn't get "over confident" and re-injure herself.
Neal and I both appreciate your prayers!
So, tomorrow I think Samantha and I are going to Aunt Jill's for dinner and then will find something fun to do on saturday morning to wait for Sydney and Daddy to return home! Night!

Balloon Festival...and fireworks!

We had a great time tonight at the Plano balloon festival. We've gone now for 3 years in a row with kids and friends and always have a good time. This one was abit more stressful than others due to my panics with Samantha. I was very worried that she was going to fall and hurt herself again or worse than she already is. She did get bumped a few times but, is doing okay. Actually now is great - she sleeping! It didn't take long to fall asleep tonight for either one of the girls! We ate corndogs and hung out with friends - it was great weather to be outside too! This year we were joined with the Beall's, Aunt Jill & The Goodwin family - we really missed the Wilson Klan this year!!! The girls favorite balloon is a toss up between the panda bear and the green dragon! We all loved the fire works (thanks Kevin and Lori for staying with us too!) :)

Fun times on Saturdays.....

Saturdays here always start out the same way and we love it that way! Wake up around 7:00 and get started on the bacon and roll up pancakes! However, today we were out of flour...not exactly sure how that happend - oh well. So, I was going to sneak out of the house to get some and run home quick...not so much! It ended up with Samantha wearing a princess crown and dress up shoes bringing her new Snow White doll from Aunt Jill (thank you - she loves it) and Sydney wearing her dress up shoes. Yes, both girls ended up going along...so, nearly 30 min. later we arrive home and start our cooking! They helped me mix up the batter and we had a great time. It's now nap time and I hope it's a long one....we are going to the balloon festival tonight and will stay for the fireworks - Samantha has been talking about the fireworks for nearly 2 days now! She LOVES them! Have a great Saturday!

Update on Samantha

Today was a tiring but pretty good day. I was able to get Samantha into an orthopedic dr. this morning (thanks to Pam & Lisa for their recommendation!) The Dr. was great. After reviewing her X-rays things look like they are all lined up and should heal good. I took Sydney to school today and talked with both the director and Samamtha's teacher about what happend yesterday. I now understand that Samantha was pushed by a boy in her class and she fell into a bookshelf. She didn't have any signs while at school I guess that she had anything broken. She did however tell her teacher that her neck hurt. There were no signs of swelling or a bruise. I am really disappointed in the school that I wasn't told of the incident of her being pushed prior to us leaving yesterday - still not happy but, there's not much I can do at this point. I've asked that they take a look at the classes and arrange the boys to not have all the more "aggressive" ones all in one class. We'll see - I'm going to keep asking. If nothing else maybe I'll see if Samantha can move. We have 4 - 6 weeks of her wearing a brace on her arm and trying to keep her from running aruond and being too active. Thanks for all your prayers. Thought you might enjoy a little video of her from tonight.....love ya!

Sam's BIG Boo-Boo

Today was a pretty normal day...both Neal and I went to work and the girls went to school. Since it's wednesday the girls and I typically go to pick up dinner somewhere and then off to church to eat dinner with our friends and then the girls go to their class for the new Veggie Tales class they've started...the girls love it! Tonight when I was getting the girls into the truck after school Samantha cried when I picked her up....not just that whiny cry like I don't want to get into my seat but, a real it hurts cry. After carefully getting her into her seat she stopped crying. Well, she cried again getting her out of the car seat at church....strange right! Well, after about 20 min. of being at church and talking about it with both Lori and Annette (who have both been around Samantha enough to know that she wasn't acting normal) we decided to ask our friend Vance (a dr. who attends our chruch) to see if he'd take a quick look at her. After ruling out broken arm and dislocated shoulder we decided I should take her in for X-rays. Took her to Acute Kids (in Plano at Parker & the Tollway) and have them check her out. They were all awesome! So, for any parents who would ever need after hours care I would highly recommend them! After the dr. checking her out and getting X-rays of her neck/shoulder we saw the problem....a broken collar bone! Yes, it's broken! I'm not sure how exactly it happend YET....but, I can honestly tell you it didn't wasn't broken when she went to school - she didn't cry when I got her dressed or in / out of the car this morning. So, I will be having a conversation with the school director and her teacher tomorrow morning. Now I have to get her into see a pediatric orthopedic Dr. tomorrow for a follow up...hopefully can get an apt quickly. She has to wear a little pink sling for about 4 weeks or so...hopefully it will be all healed by Halloween! Don't want to wear a sling and wear a butterfly fairy costume to trick or treat! :) Probably won't be doing the bounce house at church though at Fall Fest. That should be fun to keep her out of! NOT! We'll cross that bridge when we get there....for now please just keep her in your prayers that this heals normally and quickly. I'm not blaming the school for it happening - these things happen to kids, I'm just wondering why no one saw anything to report....we'll see.

Thanks for your prayers!

Story time with Samantha

Story time at our house is always lots of fun but, when the girls "read" to us it's even better to me! I love to hear how they read the stories that we've read to them probably a hundred times! Both of the girls love story time so much that they actually sleep with books too! I can't tell you the number of times that I try to wiggle the book from under their faces so they will be more comfortable. I guess the days of studying via "osmosis" have already begun! :) I took a video but, it's not down loading correctly tonight....will try again tomorrow. Sorry!!!
Tonight was Sydney's first night at gymnastics! She really enjoyed it! She liked jumping on the trampoline the best. She was showing us what she learned already by jumping on our bed. I wasn't able to get any good pictures because I was kinda far away...maybe next time. We are going to try it for a month and see how it goes. The most difficult thing tonight about gymnastics wasn't for Sydney at all....it was trying to explain to Samantha that she wasn't able to join too. I hated that part.

Where do the days go???

Sydney is now in the mode of asking me multiple times a day what day it is, will it be "saturday" tomorrow? and the questions go on and on...It made me start to wonder just where do the days go these days??? I remember so many times being told that time sure flies - when I was younger and in school I thought 3:00 would never get here so I could be done with yet another day of school. Now that I've had a number (yes, that number is larger than I'd like) of days working I think that 5:00 will never get here! I have to say that my favorite times of the day are between 6:00 am & 7:15am and then again after 5:00pm! Those are the times that I get to be with the girls. I try not to think of the number of hours in the day that I am not with them and that they are at school with their teachers and new friends that they've made. I know that they really enjoy it at school and are learning way more than I could and or would be able to teach them if I were to stay at home with them. I guess this is the schedule that just seems to work (for now anyway) for my family. So, as far as those disappearing days.....I just try to hang on to the ones that I get and cherish the memories as much as I can. It's been a really stressful week at work this week and I had to work quite a bit at home after the girls went to sleep. There were times this week that I just wanted to hang it up but, because my girls are so sweet and Neal has helped out doing things around the house...yes, he even unloaded and loaded the dishwasher (thanks babe!), it made things go abit more smooth. Thanks for listening and try to enjoy the weekend! I have jury duty on monday....we'll see how that day goes.

HAPPY GRANDPARENTS DAY!!!

There's really not much more to say other than that....we love you all our grandparents!!!

Love,
Neal, Jodi, Sydney & Samantha

hangin' with the neighbors

It's been a busy Saturday - again! After our roll up pancakes all the girls (including Aunt Jill) went to do a little shopping! Then nap time for the girls means power clean up around the house for Mommy. The off to a birthday party for our friend Sloan...loved the magic show! (Shout out to Sloan...Happy 5th Birthday)! Then home quick to swim with our neighbors and have a bbq. The weather was so nice tonight that the kids got to go swimming before and after dinner! They had so much fun swimming in the dark (we had the lights on though - no danger swimming). So, enjoy a few pictures of one of the last swims of the summer I'm sure. We are actually hoping we can swim all through September - we'll see! We all had a really good time though! Thanks Gina and Mathew for letting the kids stay up abit late!

Gibbs Adventures lead to Sea World.....

Wow - not exactly where to begin to recap this past weekend. We left on Friday for San Antonio, TX - the plan was for 2 days at Sea World with the girls & Aunt Jill. Mission accomplished! We had such a great time! Upon arriving at our hotel we dumped off our stuff and headed back out for some bbq for dinner. It had been a pretty long drive - the girls were great but we were all beat and went straight to bed once we got back to the hotel. Believe it or not - we all slept in till nearly 8:30 a.m. the next morning! Amazing! So, after a great breakfast we were off to a day filled excursion at Sea World. I mapped out our day by the show times and who to see first. Happy to say we got to see all the animal shows that we intended on, saw the dophin cove, the aquarium to see the sharks (Sam's personal favorite) and the girls even got on a few of the rides at Shamu harbor. Back to the hotel for dinner and some somores by the fire pit! While eating (shrimp from the shrimp boil - we got the last order and we are sure it was enough to feed about 6 people) a guy came up to ask us where we got the shrimp - I recognized him from one of the shows at Sea World....so, we offered to have him and his friend (also works at Sea World)have some and we got talking. Chuck (our new friend) is one of the head animal trainers and was so interesting to talk to. They left after about an hour...we headed out to the fire pit only to see Chuck return to hang out with his "new" friends. The girls LOVED making and eating the somores! Chuck invited us to come back to the "viva" show at 3:00 and then he'd take us behind the "scenes" to see the beluga whales and dolphins after the show. It was so amazing! We all (even the girls) got to touch and feed the belgua whales. on Sunday morning we also arrived at the park right as it opened....yes 9:00 and went straight to dophin cove to feed them....we all got to touch the dophins too! We rode some of the rides and then went to the water park area at Sea World for a few hours - so fun! Sydney, Neal and Jill got to do afew more rides since they were taller than Sam....that was abit difficult for Samantha to understand - all in due time sweetie! So, after all was said and done when you ask the girls what their favorite part of the vacation was they both say Shamu and touching Martha - the Beluga whale (Big thanks to Chuck for doing so much for us)!
Now back at home - house clean (AMEN!!), laundry nearly all done, dishwasher loaded we are all ready for a good night sleep for a very busy week ahead! It's good to be home even though we all love being on vacation.

This was a great learning in getting us prepared for our big vacation next spring to Disney World...we found out that the girls can function (quite well may we add) with only a short 20 min. nap in the stroller! yeah!

Sorry for so many pictures - couldn't pick just a few! Enjoy!