Signs of things to come...

Today was pretty crazy (I know you are thinking and what day's of the Gibbs aren't crazy right!??)! Well, with the threat of an ice storm and Plano schools being let out early I wasn't sure if I was going to have to leave early to get the girls from their school - I didn't. Whew - I did leave around 4:45 though just to get a jump start on the drive home. Which by the way was fine. Now however I hear the freezing rain hit the windows and sky light on our house. I'm sure tomorrow will at the least be a late start. My Dad called tonight just to be sure everyone made it home safe with the threat of ice....so sweet! He wanted to talk to the girls who were in full "play" mode which is a tough thing to crack to have a conversation...but he did it. They were playing under Samantha's bed. Who knows what they exactly play under there but, they love it! It's like a huge fort! Samantha did most of the talking and proceeded to tell both Grandpa & Grandma a story about "Barbie and the Diamond Castle". She quickly told them that she doesn't have the castle, only the horse and carriage. The story went on and on and grandma & grandpa loved it! Trying to catch each word that was being said (often not exactly right into the phone ofcourse). They were all having a great time so I thought I'd share a picture of what they looked like laughing and chatting on the phone under the bed. I'm sure there will be many more nights ahead of long conversations - not always under the bed I'm sure. Enjoy!

Let phase 2 begin....

Well, let no dust settle under your feet at our house....it must just keep flying in the air! haha! Well, just as we were wrapping up our 1st phase completing 1 of 2 closets we've now offically moved out of our bedroom. While we can still sleep in there (atleast for a few more nights) everything else - including the sink is now gone! All of our bedroom furniture is now in our dining room which once housed all of Neal's clothes! Now the start of scraping the ceiling should probably start tomorrow night. I think I've finally selected a color for my bedroom - it's called secluded garden....and is a shade of blue/teal - hard to describe for now. Will send picture when we paint. We're off again....have a good week.

Phase 1 is completed!

Yes, we have phase 1 of our bedroom remodel completed! The closet!!!! I am so excited - I know this may sound crazy but, this is the first walk in closet that I've ever had!!! It's not huge but, so much more than what we've had in our house till now! I found clothes and shoes that I'd forgotten that I had! So fun! We have 1 more closet to "organize" with new elfa shelving, re-texture walls & ceilings, paint, put new wood flooring down & install a new vanity - not much right! hahaha So, we will be in the remodel mode for a few more months - but it's going to be worth it!

It was abit chilly tonight so, the girls and I went to the mall to hang out with some friends! It was too cold outside today to go to the park...bummer!

I have a boyfriend????!!! WHAT!!!

Every night while eating dinner we talk about our day and events that happend. For the girls it's mainly who they played with, what they ate for snack, if they watched a movie today or not at school and what they want to play after dinner. Tonight was abit different for me when talking with Samantha. Tonight she told me "I have a boyfriend"! His name is Keil and he is a very sweet little boy that may I add has the runniest nose of anyone in her class! ugh! However - he really does watch out for her when playing, picks her up when she falls, gets her toy back if someone takes it from her etc....his Mom is teaching him the right way to treat a little girl. I pray all the time for the boys that my girls are going to meet, befriend, date and one day marry that they(the boys/guys/men) respect them, treat them as girls and young ladies should be treated and that they believe in God, have strong morals and strong family values.
On a day when our country is forever changed may God be with all of us and may the changes that lay ahead be those that truely will be for all. May we all be protected from the evils of this world and stay close to our friends, families and most of all God.
May God Bless America.

Making progress

No one (that I know of anyway) has ever enjoyed going through a remodel of their home....me included! It's not exactly easy having your clothes on rolling racks in the dining room, food from your pantry on your kitchen counters, dust absolutely everywhere you turn and the feeling that nothing has a "place" to be put away for weeks on end. Well, this weekend we made great progress on our house (THANK YOU Neal!). Neal took on the project of re-working our pantry area himself...including re-texturing the walls & ceilings, painting putting down new tile and finally installing a (might I say) fabulous "Elfa" shelving from the container store to help get us organized in atleast one part of our home! Not only was I able to get everything off of my kitchen counter this weekend but, I also cleared out a cabinet as well - right now I have 1 completely empty cabinet in my kitchen just waiting to be filled and organized! WOW! We are about a week away from being able to get shelving into our closet which will then in turn get the clothes out of the dining room! Only to lead to the next step of scraping the ceilings, painting and then installing new wood flooring....not to mention putting in a new vanity and re-working the remaining closet with cool elfa shelving as well. So, I'm sure we are about 4 - 6 weeks away from actually being "done" but, it's going to be so worth it! I can't wait!

Proud parent day!!

Those of you who know me (or just read my blog) know that I LOVE my girls and spending time with them is one of my most favorite things to do in life! Every Tuesday Sydney gets her homework and we try to get it done right away so she has the rest of the evening to do what she would like to do - play with Samantha. Well, this week there was a note from her teacher in her homework folder....a list of words for a spelling test that would happen on Friday! At first I thought "What??? a spelling test - she's only 4 1/2"!! So, the practing began that night! We would quiz in the car, the bath, before bed or just hanging out! I told her if she got all her spelling words right we could all go out for dinner on Friday night and she could pick! Now, some of you are thinking she would pick McDonald's or maybe Chickfil'a.....nope! She picked Pei Wei! Yeah - that is her favorite place to go and will pick that place every time! So, I made sure I got to the school before Sydney's teacher left to get her report on the test....you guessed it, she got them all right! She was so excited to tell me and I was so happy that she saw at a young age that if you practice you can do it! I thought I'd show you all her test!

Samantha is doing great in school as well! She's recently learned the months of the year - she gets up to October and wants to start back at April again! Here is a picture that she colored this week at school - she was told to only color the things that are blue. I asked her why she didn't color the duck and her reply was; "mommy, ducks are yellow"!! So cute! It was a very proud parent moment today with each of the girls! Glad to see the money we spend on this school isn't just for the to play all the time! :)

It's been a busy day....

Our remodel is coming along nicely....today Neal installed the wood flooring in the new closet and put the new tile in the shower area! whew! I'm trying to pick a new color to paint our room - so far I don't like my first selection....we'll see where we end up. Tomorrow will be round two! ugh! The lighting between Home Depot and our room is so totally different you never know what you are going to get till it dries! It's been a long day for all of us - while Neal was busy working on the floors I swear I did about 10 loads of laundry, tried to keep the girls entertained and went through Samantha's closet! I think it's time to have a children's clothing sale! Till tomorrow.....night!

Making progress

Well, to keep you in the loop of our craziness....our house is getting more and more dusty! I can't even try to keep up so - we are all sneezing abit more than normal. But, it will all be worth it soon. We now have all walls up and just waiting for the tape/mud to dry. Then the door will go in. Tomorrow Neal is going to put the flooring down in the closet which will be great! He's also working on getting the new tile in the shower area. I was busy today after work looking at new sink/vanities (how exciting right - I would have rather gone to Zara!). I took advantage of having a few hours off work early w/out the girls to really go fast. I think there are more options for us (in our budget) at Lowes - so, we'll be going back there tomorrow. I placed the order for the balance of the wood flooring that we need for our bed room - won't be in for 3 weeks though - big bummer! More to follow.......stay tuned!

We also got to join our neighbors (Mimi Dottie & Papa Larry) for dinner to help celebrate Papa's birthday. We are so lucky to have such great neighbors that really think of us as family! Have a great weekend.

Second sign of being a big girl

Today was a big day for Samantha - while getting ready for school she asked me to put a braid in her hair! For those of you who know her well understand that is a big request for me to try and fill. But, happy to say I did it and she was so excited! She is growing up so fast and I'm really not ready.....guess I'd better just hold on and try to make the most out of everything.

Here we go again.....

Well, after not really doing much to the inside of the house for nearly 2 years it's time we get started again. This time it's our bedroom! We ripped up our carpet back in October in anticipation of putting hardwood floors down like the rest of the house. The flooring is now on order and should be here in a few weeks. Yesterday we started the demolition of Neal's sink and closet - yes his clothes are now in our dining room on 2 rolling racks! We are going to enclose the entire area to be one "large" closet (or large for us). One of the biggest draw backs of our house is the lack of storage! Yesterday I spent nearly 2 hours at The Container Store working on a closet design for the Elfa shelving. I'm hoping we can stick with what we've got drawn up so far - it would be so great! Next girls night out can be at my house....in my closet! hahaha just kidding. It will be nice to finally see what we have instead of just grab whatever is the closest and easiest to get out. I'll keep you posted on our progress....the picture here is actually of my side for the sink (didn't get a picture of Neal's before it was torn out) but, his looked the same as mine. We are also going to put in a double vanity on my side which will be better than having to share one sink while trying to get ready for work....that wouldn't work well I'm guessing.

I'm a Big Kid now....

Well, Samantha is offically a Big Girl now! She is now sleeping in a big girl bed and loves it! It wasn't something we'd been shopping for right now, it just all kinda fell into place. You've got to love http://www.craigslist.com/ ! In one day we purchased this furniture for Samantha and sold all of our baby furniture! Amazing! She's adjusting really pretty well which is nice - better than I am adjusting to loosing my baby! I'm really not ready for her to grow up on me yet! She loves being a big girl like Sydney though. I'm not totally done getting things organized and decorated for her but, it's a start....yes there's some of my "junk" on her dresser - we started to re-model our bedroom which you'll see shortly! I guess they have to start to grow up sometime. love ya Samantha!!!

Happy New Year!!!

I can't think of a much better way to ring in the new year than with close friends and family! We had quite the gathering at our house maxing out at 9 kids(8 of which were girls) and 9 adults....it was so fun! We all ate way too much pizza and had fun making our ice cream sundaes! I think the sprinkles were the big hit with the kids. As I spent some time reflecting on 2008 realizing all that happend I feel very blessed that God has taken such good care of my family in these difficult times. We are not alone in going through a job lay off like many others in our country - God is faithful though and helped Neal find a great job and he's doing really well too. My prayers are with those who are still looking for positions and that they will find something soon and that they will be taken care of. We are so blessed to have such close friends here and Aunt Jill living here is such fun! The girls love their sleep overs at Aunt Jill's house the best I think. As I look forward to 2009 I pray for peace especially as our country prepares for a major change in the White House - I want nothing more than for our country to gain back the strenght and confidence that we once had but, more than anything I pray that more people in our country would come to know Christ as their personal savior. God is who can bring healing to our country and state that we are in today. Continue to pray for those in "control".
May God be with you in all the years ahead! Thanks for being such a special part of our lives.