The Dyess Family

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T23:19:00.000-06:00

We had a great Halloween this year. LOTS of fun & LOTS of candy! :)

Gibson the Fireman

Brody the Ghost

You may remember Gibson the Ghost.

Happy Halloween from the Dyess Family!

10 months old....

2010-08-14T14:44:00.001-05:00

Here's the monthly comparison between my two babies. Kinda weird that they were (are) both sick at 10 months old. Gibson doesn't look as sick but he was in the middle of doing breathing treatments for his asthma. He had to be 'talked' into it by playing with the tubing first. Poor Brody has a terrible summer cold that is also in his eyes. He wakes up in the morning with his eyes all matted up. I HATE having sick babies. Maybe we're getting all of our sickness over with before fall/winter gets here. Hey....I can hope, right? :)

Cousins.....

2010-08-13T22:58:00.001-05:00

So a few months ago we had some professional pictures made of the kids. It was the first pics we had of all 4 of my parents grandkids. 4 children under the age of 4. I was completely exhausted after this shoot. But, Tara Swain did an awesome job & we were really pleased that they turned out so great! (click on the link to see more pics from the shoot.)

The group shots were very challenging! :)

I LOVE this picture of B!!

My beautiful niece, Alexis

This picture captures Payden perfectly!! :)

Cousins, who are more like brothers!

I couldn't decide between these next two pics of G!

He did SUCH a great job being a model for a few minutes.

I love this pic because G & B are making the same face.

I LOVE these 4 kiddos!!

The Cool Duseum!

2010-04-15T22:01:00.000-05:00

Shoot! This is a post I started working on weeks ago & completely forgot about it. Some of the info is no longer current. Like Brody just starting to eat cereal. We are WAY past the just cereal stage & well on our way to eating several jars of baby food a day. I know it doesn't surprise you a bit that the kid LOVES to eat. LOL So here's my belated post on our fun Sunday trip to Dallas. Oh well! Better late than never!

Brody has started eating cereal from a spoon. He does pretty good with it. Mostly he just sucks the spoon. Oh well. I don't think missing a meal is going to hurt this kid. :)

Can you please get the camera out of my face?

Why are you shoving this stuff in my face??

Poor B almost has too much junk in his trunk for his bumbo chair. His butt gets stuck in the chair when I try to get him out. (Current info: B has stretched his fat some with a few inches in length so he no longer gets stuck in his bumbo chair.)

A couple of weekends ago, we took the boys to the Museum of Nature & Science in Dallas. Gibson had so much fun. For weeks after our visit, Gibson kept saying he wanted to go back to the "cool duseum". I guess he was impressed! On the other hand, Brody wasn't impressed. He basically slept or ate. What a life?!?

They have a place where you can dig for dinosaur bones. Very cool!

There was also a fire station with a fire truck & bunker gear for the kids to wear. This was BY FAR Gibson's favorite part. You would think G would get tired of the whole fire truck/ambulance fasination. But he doesn't. He kept begging to go back to the fire truck to play.

They had a periscope. (I was very impressed with this.)

Brody enjoying the farm portion of the museum.

Gibson riding his big green tri-tractor.

Gibson also got to milk a cow! As you can see he wasn't into it too much.

There was a spider web that you could crawl on. Gibson was a big fat cheater & just crawled under it.

Brody still just chilling in his car seat. This was right before he puked all over me so that I could walk through the rest of the museum with spit up on my shirt & pants from my shoulder to my knee. The kid is super talented when it comes to spitting up.
Current info: Thank God B isn't spitting up near as much now as he was then. :-)

Making some giant bubbles with Dad

There you have it! We had lots of fun & look forward to taking B when he's big enough.

Firefighter/Paramedic Gibson & Happy Brody!!

2010-03-15T23:12:00.000-06:00

I wish you could hear the laugh that goes with this smile!!

A few weeks ago, we took Gibson to the Children's museum in Dallas. His favorite part was getting to dress like a firefighter/paramedic. He talked about it for DAYS! He's still begging for his very own firefighter/paramedic gear.

More pics soon!

Bruiser Brody!

2010-02-18T18:14:00.002-06:00

I started this post on Brody's 4 month birthday & I'm finishing it up 4 days later because RSV decided to invade our little man. He's doing really well considering. He's wheezing quite a bit but in a pretty good mood.

Bruiser Brody is 4 months old today. It is CRAZY to me that he is already 4 months. I'm going to ramble here for a few minutes about him. You can skip all this info. It's mainly for his baby book that I might start when he's 18. hehe :) Brody is quite the ham. He has the best smile & laugh. It just melts your heart everytime. He's still sleeping through the night. Praise the Lord! :) He eats well which is proven by the fact that he weighs 17 lbs 13 oz. He's 25 1/2 " long & his big water head measures 45 cm. He has no interest in rolling anywhere at this point. I can't blame him. If I was that small & weighed that much, I wouldn't go anywhere either. :) He has started ending up in a completely opposite position than what I put him to bed with. So I guess he's figuring out some way to move. He drinks about 5 bottles a day. Brody like to sit in the bumbo chair. He wants to see what's going on in the world. He LOVES his brother. He just laughs & laughs at Gibson. Although, to G's credit, he's a pretty funny kid. :) B is my snuggle baby. Gibson was one of those kids that just wanted his space when he was tired. Just lay him down & let him be. Which was nice once he was older. But I definitely missed having a lovey baby that wanted me to hold him & snuggle with him. B is my more snuggley (if that's a word) baby. He sleeps best when he's laying on your chest. He would rather you hold him & love on him. He has the same hair style as his brother. The flat mo-hawk. All his hair is in the center on the top of his head. B has less hair than G done but's it's the same style. Brody has discovered his tongue. He sticks it out & tries to figure out exactly what it is. Brody is sitting in my lap & he's licking me right now so I better wrap it up.
Here are a few pics of our chunky monkey.

Ignore the drool running down his body. He was tired of sitting up so I laid him down but forgot to wipe the drool off.

There! That's better. No drool. ;) (i forgot to mention that when I took him to the doctor on Wednesday that he weighed 18 lbs 6 oz. Geez!)

How you doing?

This picture REALLY makes me laugh!

The picture above looks reminded me of this. Pretty funny!

Poor Gibson was deprived of playing in the snow because he was sick. He was going to work with me because Jason was on duty for the entire 48 hours the snow was on the ground. So we built a snowman at work. Don't laugh. I don't like being cold & I am not a professional snowman builder.

I mentioned in another post that I've got to get used to at least one of the boys not looking at the camera when I need them to. They were experts in that field here. Oh well!
Brotherly love!

See what I mean? Gibson finally looks & Brody looks like a ghost. Ugh!

Gibson starts t-ball in a few weeks. Should make for a busy & exciting spring!

Bringing Chubby Back!!

2010-02-13T16:28:00.003-06:00

Brody was our model at work the other day. He was modeling a shirt that is PERFECT for him. I need to post some pics of him in just his diaper so you can see the rolls in all their glory. For now, you get to see
Brody bringing chubby back!

Get in my belly!!!
(Aren't we terrible for doing this?) hehe

Snow Night!!

2010-02-11T20:19:00.001-06:00

I can't remember the last time that it snowed this much. It's crazy. We checked earlier this afternoon at work and we had 6 inches sitting on our trucks. And what's even better is that it is good snow. You know...the good snowball fight & snowman making snow. Gibson is beyond thrilled that it has snowed this much. He has been wanting to play in it all day long but I haven't let him because he has been sick. He has croup (supposedly). I'm not entirely convinced because the kid doesn't act sick at all. He definitely has a cough & it sounded croupy on Monday morning but by mid-morning Monday, his cough was dry & less barky. He hasn't ran any fever (that I've caught) & he's still eating really well. He does act tired quite a bit but I'm not convinced that it's because of croup. Anyways, all that just to say that I finally let him play in the snow for a few minutes when we got home from work. It THRILLED his little soul! Can't you tell?

Brody, on the other hand, was not as excited. I really wanted pictures of him in his first big snow. Jason is at work today & all day tomorrow so I had to do the snow picture thing by myself. So, I stuck him in his bumbo chair & threw him out in the snow where he could have cared less about the snow. He just kept giving me the same expression. He did finally look at a car that was driving down the road but the rest of the 25 pictures are the exact same 'What in the world are you doing' expression. Oh well. At least I have proof of him in his first big snow.

Here's the best picture of the two of them. Why is that if I get a good picture of Brody, Gibson is making some goofy face. And if I get a good picture of Gibson, then Brody has his hand over his mouth. Oh well. I guess I better get used to it.

I hope Gibson is feeling much better tomorrow so he can play in the snow & build the snowman he's been begging for. I love all this pretty snow but I'm not gonna love it so much when it's all melted & the yard is even more flooded than it was. Maybe it'll dry out sometime in August. :) Have a great Friday!!

Two Chunky Monkeys

2010-01-18T21:43:00.004-06:00

We had to take Brody to the doctor yesterday. He has bronchitis & an ear infection. I hate that we are already dealing with ear infections. I hope he doesn't have problems like Gibson did. Anyway, yesterday at the doc, Brody weighed in at a whopping 16 lbs 1 oz. I couldn't believe it! He's such a big boy. The doctor said we may have a linebacker to feed. :) So, after our doctor visit, I started to think about Gibson & what he weighed when he was Brody's age. I dug out the paperwork (because I have yet to finish his baby book) & Gibson weighed 14 lbs 15 oz at 4 months old. Brody is only 3 months old & weighs 16 lbs 1 oz. I wasn't expecting that much of a difference. I remember Gibson always being a big baby too. I guess he was...just not as big as Brody.

Here's a little photo comparison. Both of my boys are 3 months old in these pics.

Gibson

Brody

My two favorite chunky monkeys!!

Triple B....Big Boy Brody!!

2010-01-16T22:26:00.003-06:00

Here's our little big man! Brody is 3 months old now & quite the heavyweight. :) He weighs about 15 lbs. That's not official because we won't go back to the doc until his 4 months check-up. He's quite the ham. He loves to play pat-a-cake. He likes to eat (a lot) but doesn't like to burp. :( He has acid reflux which is SO sad. I hate it when he hurts. He's sleeping through the night now. (Insert choirs singing HALLELUJAH!!!!) He naps from about 9pm or so until his last bottle at 11pm & then will sleep until 7am or so. I cannot put into words how much this thrills me. :) I hope I can cut out that last bottle pretty soon so I can start getting in bed at a decent hour. We have a pretty good routine down now. He goes to work with me if Jason is working. If Jason is off, then he keeps B at home. He naps pretty good most days. Overall, he's a pretty good baby. He's not big into lying on his belly for belly time. Neither was Gibson. Brody could already use a haircut. He has hairs around his ears that when pulled straight go below his ear lobe. Don't worry...there's no haircut in sight for B at this point. I'm hoping I get to wait until that magical one year old mark. However, G had his first haircut at 7 months so I'm not crossing my fingers B will make it to a year old without looking like a hippie. :) Brody loves his big brother. He thinks G is hilarious. Gibson has started playing with B more. For a while, G ignored B unless he was crying loud enough that G couldn't hear his cartoons. Now, Gibson will talk to B about his day & he likes to give him hugs & kisses before bedtime. Ok....enough of my rambling for now. I may eventually come back & add more info here for B's baby book. But for now, I'm done. Enjoy a few pics of Bruiser Brody!

Merry Christmas!!

2010-01-03T13:23:00.007-06:00

Christmas was lots of fun this year! Gibson had a blast & told us that "this Christmas was the best Christmas ever".

During the night Christmas eve, Gibson joined Jason & I in bed. Oh wait, Brody was already in bed with us. So it got pretty crowded real quick. :)

Gibson in bed Christmas morning! Gibson wanted an airplane & a spiderman for Christmas. Pretty easy list, huh? This is his reaction to seeing the airplane.

and now Spiderman!

This was Brody's reaction to Christmas at our house. Pretty good since he didn't open a single present.

Santa also brought a Spiderman costume. Gibson was thrilled! He put it on immediately & barely took it off the rest of the day.

Playing with the stocking stuffers!

One last pose before we go down to Nannie & PaPaw's for Christmas. Here he has on his Spiderman outfit under his Christmas pajamas. (& it was a fight to get him to put on the pj's.)

At Nannie & Papaw's house, Gibson wanted to make sure Payden didn't get a jump on any of the toys. So he tackled poor Payden.

Gibson got lots of fun things at Nannie & Papaw's. Can you tell he was a little excited?

A very cool Cars alarm clock!

Payden ripping open one of his presents!

Santa brought a Hungry, Hungry Hippos game with the strict instructions that it MUST stay at Nannie & Papaw's house for the sake of my ears. :) The boys decided to play a very competitive game.

I'm not sure who won but it was very intense.

This picture made me laugh because Josh looks like Paul Bunyan compared to the rest of them.

Brody enjoyed Christmas at Nannie & Papaw's too. Just in a little different way.

The day after Christmas, we went to Gran's house to celebrate with Jason's family. Gibson got 40 cars from his Nana & Poppy. Thanks so much! We didn't have any of those at our house. (said with VERY sarcastic tone).

Gibson also got some Spiderman & Transformers pajamas. Very exciting!!

He also took home this snazzy robot dump truck. It responds to voice commands & dances. Gibson thinks it's hilarious.

Brody had a good time at Gran's too. He wasn't a tad bit spoiled while we were there.

Brody's favorite thing from Christmas this year was the discovery of our ceiling fan. He just laughs & talks to the fans all the time.

The tree is down & decorations are put up. I better start saving now for next year's Christmas. I'll have a 5 year old & a 14 month old strutting through my house. Where will I put all the toys?!?

Happy Halloween (on Christmas)! :-)

2009-12-25T01:10:00.005-06:00

Quick Halloween post! :)

Gibson was a cowboy this year. Six shooters, spurs & cowboy hat. He was SO excited!

Little man was only a couple of weeks old so he dressed up as a skeleton. (Thanks to a $3 onesie from Walmart.) You can't see his costume here but this was about as excited as he got this halloween.
Next year will be LOTS of fun!!

Brody's Birthday!

2009-12-25T00:35:00.003-06:00

I'm finally getting around to Brody's birthday blog. :)

This is him VERY fresh! Are you kidding me??? I was not expecting a big baby. I was actually figuring he would be smaller than Gibson who was 7 lbs 6 oz. Oh well. That's what I get for thinking. :)

Gibson meeting his baby brother for the first time!

Proud Daddy pic!

My baby boy!!

Gibson getting to hold Brody for the first time. Lots of lovin'!

And.....he's done! He saw Brody, got to hold him & give him kisses. Now, he just wants to eat. He's still like that today. Doesn't really pay attention to him unless Brody is crying loud enough to interupt his cartoons.

Finally....a little room to stretch out!!

All cleaned up after his first bath. Handsome boy!!

Meet the Dyess family! All FOUR of us!

Brody's 3D sonogram pics!

2009-09-12T13:46:00.003-05:00

Ok...I'm a terrible blogger. I really just need to get my priorities in line and stop being extremely lazy & blog every once in a blue moon. Although, honestly, I wouldn't expect that anytime soon since little Brody will be here in a month or so and I'll have even less time to contribute to the blog. I guess every once in a blue moon is better than nothing, right? :)

I thought I would add Brody's pics from his 3D sonogram. He was not the most cooperative but he did pretty good. Gibson went with us to the appointment and I probably won't make that same mistake again. He asked 452 questions and wanted to push every button on the sonogram machine. I guess I shouldn't expect anything different from a 4 year old. :)

Here's little man looking just like big brother. Gibson was all lips & cheeks when we did his 3d sonogram too. Brody was running out of room several weeks ago so I can only imagine how crowded the little guy is now.

The doctor let Gibson push the button to take this picture. Brody was re-positioning when Gibson pushed the button so Brody's hand is blurry and it looks like his foot instead of his hand.

Brody was probably pretty aggravated with us. All he wanted to do was sleep and we kept pushing on him to get a decent picture. Oh well! I guess he might as well get used to being tortured by big brother.

All of my pics of Gibson are still on my camera. I need to put them on the computer so I can post a few. He's getting so big. He is super excited to be a big brother. Although, I'm probably a little more excited for him to be a big brother. He's such a protector. I'm sure he'll take great care of Brody. Probably a little too good! :)

Sono Pics....

2009-05-28T20:09:00.002-05:00

Here's the latest pics! I'll be 20 weeks on Tuesday. Halfway there but not exactly looking forward to the hot months of summer. Should have probably thought that thru a little better! :)

He's definitely a little boy. The doc said if this one comes out a little girl, it fell off in there somewhere. :)

He was all curled up in a ball. As usual not cooperating very well. Gibson was the same way!

This is another pic of his boy parts.He wasn't real shy about showing those to us!

I have lots of Gibson pics to post. I'll try and get to that after Gibson goes to bed. However, if I'm being honest, it will probably be the weekend. Have a great Friday!

Gibson's First Baseball Game!

2009-04-07T21:35:00.006-05:00

This is going to be a very abbreviated post because I'm falling asleep as I type. I'm still so far behind on posting pics. I haven't posted any pics from G's first baseball practice but I couldn't resist putting a few pics on here of Gibson's first baseball game! He did so great! He paid attention much better than I thought he was going to. Don't get me wrong....there were brief moments of playing in the dirt but overall he did really well. Gibson had SO much fun and to top it off, he got a snow cone after the game!

Before the game, Gibson was getting ready for the game @ home!

In the dugout....

Hitting a home run......ok....maybe not quite a home run but it did go into the field. Ignore the ball by the first base line. It's the extra ball that they use.Good game!

Gibson enjoying his snow cone with Kindle!

Baby Pics!!!

2009-03-28T15:41:00.004-06:00

As usual, I'm SO behind on my posting. I have tons to post but so very little time to do it. Oh well. It will get done when it gets done. I'm not stressing! :) I thought I would post our latest sonogram pics of the baby. At least in these pics you can tell it's a baby. The first sonogram was basically just a dot...I was only 6 weeks along at that point. So here it is. I hate calling it "it". I'll be really glad when we know what it is. The doc said we MIGHT be able to tell what 'it' is next time. I'm REALLY not holding my breath on that one because I'll only be about 15 weeks. I'm kinda expecting to find out towards the end of May or June. I tend to have very uncooperative babies. :) Anyways, everything is fine. Nothing to report except I'm gaining a ton of weight because I'm hungry ALL the time. Oh well. That's part of what pregnancy is right? :) I'll try and post some more pics tomorrow.

Not Thursday Night....

2009-02-28T21:16:00.002-06:00

So it's not Thursday night but Saturday is pretty close, right? I actually don't have too much to update. We went to the doctor on Thursday and left knowing about as much as when we went in. I'm definitly pregnant and due around October 20th. It is about 2 mm big, I mean small. ;) We did a sonogram and could see it's little heart beating. That's about it! Not too exciting huh? Next month will be a little more interesting. At least you'll be able to tell it's a baby. :)

Smiling Park Pictures!!

2009-02-23T22:37:00.005-06:00

Jason, Gibson & I went to the park on my day off last week. It was a pretty day and the park was basically empty because school was still going on. Gibson had the run of the park which was fine with him. Here are a couple of pics from our park adventure. I still have Valentine's Day school party pictures to post & the rest of our park adventure.

Just a swingin'

Smiling while sliding!
I'll try and give you the doctor update on Thursday night. Have a great week!

Big News!!!

2009-02-20T16:50:00.003-06:00

I give up! I've tried rotating this video for a really long time and I still can't figure it out. So just turn your head sideways and enjoy!!

In case you didn't understand him, he said "I'm going to be a big brother!" We are expecting another bundle of joy in the fall. I go to the doctor next week so we will know more then. I'll keep you posted. And I also have some pics to post. Yeah!

I'll fix it for you Mom!!

2009-01-27T19:28:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago, my poor top loader washer died. *wipes tear* It actually wasn't that old so it was pretty irritating that it died already but that is beside the point. So, we forked out the money for a new fancy front loader washer & dryer. Our logic was if this washer lasted 10 years or so then that's ten years of wahing larger loads with less water. Saving me time & money. Sounds like a good reason to spend a ton of money, right? (Getting the dryer is actually a whole different story because my old one still worked. Jason thought we might as well get a new dryer as well because if the old washer died, then the old dryer was probably taking it's last breath as well.) Anyways, the new washer hasn't really seemed like it worked right from day one. I kept telling myself I just wasn't used to the new washer's noises and that it was going to sound way different than my old washer because it was way different. All was going fairly well until last night. I went into the laundry room only to step in a pool of water. My brand new washer was leaking. NOT GOOD!!!

So, this morning when Jason got home from work, I was telling him about all the issues with the washer. Gibson was standing there and immediately started asking his usual 2 million questions. "Mom, what happened?" "Mom, what is that for?" "Mom, why is that there?" and so on and so on. I told him that the washer had leaked and it was broke. Here is how the rest of the conversation went.

G: Mom, are you sad that your washer weaking (leaking)?

Me: Yes Bubba. I'm sad that it is leaking.

G: Awwww. That's ok Mom. I'll fix it for you.

Precious!!

Christmas Pics!!!

2009-01-24T19:52:00.007-06:00

So I just realized that I hadn't posted any actual pics from Christmas. I start digging through the piles of pics to find the Christmas pics and I discover that I didn't take a single picture of Christmas morning at our house!! How bad of a mom am I? I'm not even sure what I was thinking. I don't specifically remember taking pictures but you would think that I would have. We had the video camera set up and recording. I had my hands empty to take pictures and yet there are no pictures. I'm a little irritated at myself. So now I'll step down off my soap box and just let you see the pics.

Christmas at my mom & dad's house...G playing with his new sleeping bag.

Tearing into some presents....
G got a fancy race car helmet with a steering wheel. Right up his alley!

Of course, the big hit was all the tow trucks he got for Christmas. I don't remember if I've mentioned that before but G is OBSESSED with tow trucks. He got a BIG tow truck from Santa and Nannie & Papaw got him 'Mater ' that he is playing with in this pic.

Jason & I gave G a bicycle for Christmas....complete with helmet and elbow pads. He rode it down to Nannie & Papaw's house. He did pretty good. Jason ended up pushing quite a bit. But almost a month later, he rides it all over the place and we hardly have to push him at all. I'm ready for warmer (not hot) weather so we will be able to ride some more.

The day after Christmas, we headed to Gran's house in Hughes Springs to celebrate Christmas with Jason's family. I'm not sure whose bat this is but G borrowed it.

Here Cousin Haley is giving G flying lessons. :)

A Cousin Dog Pile!!!!
Here's Nana posing with Avery, Braden, Gibson & Haley. I think they were pretty good posing for the silly face picture.

Sadly, that is it for Christmas pictures. *wipes tear* I still can't believe I didn't take any pics on Christmas morning with Santa. Oh well, I'll make a note to do better next year. I'm caught up on pics now. Yeah for me!!!!! Maybe now I'll stay caught up. (I doubt it!) :)

(Please excuse any typos and grammar mishaps. My fingers and this computer and not jiving tonight.)

All the Raindrops....

2009-01-22T20:15:00.005-06:00

Here is the other video. I'm totally guilty of purposely making him sing so that I could get the full effect of the medicine on video. PLEASE tune out my singing in the background. Jason is the singer in the family not me. :) I thought G did pretty good considering he was on the 'good stuff'. My favorite part of this video is G putting his hands in front of his face and looking thru his fingers. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to pass a field sobriety test. Oh well, he had a designated driver so all was good. I hope you all have had a great week. Have an even better weekend!

Surgery Pics and Holes in the Nose Video!

2009-01-20T19:01:00.009-06:00

One of these days I'm quite sure things will slow down so I can be a better blogger. :) Wishful thinking huh? I'm finally getting around to posting pics from G's surgery. I didn't take too many pictures. I was too busy videoing the blackmail video. :) I'll try and get one of those to post at the end of this post. I don't have a lot of luck with videos though so don't hold your breath.

We had to be at the hospital at 6 am for G's surgery at 8:45am. So for a little over 2 hours we just sat and tried to keep G entertained. What fun! Thank God I thought to bring a few toys. (Although in all honesty, I was very naive and thought he would be playing with the toys AFTER the surgery.) Here's G sporting some the hospital's stylish pj's.

He liked laying in the hospital bed BEFORE the surgery. After the surgery, he was not a fan of the bed at all.

G got a little of the 'good stuff' before the surgery. It made him pretty 'drunk' so to speak. And what kind of mom would I be if I didn't video it for blackmail? Apparently, the meds he got was kinda like the pain meds I got when I was in labor with G. It made my nose itch like CRAZY!! He eventually discovered his nose and then decided to pick it for a while. Kinda gross I know. But it is way more funny than it is gross. :) So enjoy! I'll try and post the other videos later if this one works.

Gibson did great during the surgery. The doctor got the tubes in and the adenoids out with no problem. After the surgery is a different story. He didn't react very well to the anesthesia. He started waking up and started fighting with the nurses at the same time. When Jason & I walked into recovery, there were 2 nurses trying to hold him and keep him from kicking them and pulling his iv out. He got some more good meds to help calm him down before we could leave recovery. After he calmed WAY down, we went to a post-op room where he got to eat a couple of Popsicles. He wasn't thrilled about having to eat or drink. He just wanted the iv out. The nurse told him she would take the iv out as soon as he ate a Popsicle and drank his juice. I don't think she was counting on G keeping track of EXACTLY when he finished his Popsicle and juice. As soon as he was done, he started pulling on the iv to get it out. He slept for another hour or so at the hospital and then we got to go home. Where he slept for another 3 or 4 hours. After his little cat nap, he was ready to go. Same old G.....wanting to play with his tow truck & race car. It was like nothing had happened. After a couple of weeks of REALLY bad breath, G got the doctor report yesterday that everything looked good. So, hopefully, we are set for the next year or so on tubes.

That's all I got for now. Eventually I'll get caught up on posting. Have a great rest of the week!

He's such a trooper!!

2009-01-05T16:49:00.002-06:00

All done! The surgery went great! G had tubes put in both ears and his adenoids removed. The doc said he drained tons of crap out of his ears & his nose. Hopefully this will help keep him healthy. I'll post more later! I've got pics and videos but they will have to wait until G goes to bed in a little while. Thanks for all your prayers!

Port-a-potty

2009-01-04T21:03:00.005-06:00

I'll let you fill in the blanks on this one.

Does a bear, I mean Gibson, ____ in the woods?

(I know I'm terrible. But it was too good not to go there.) We were driving between Hughes Springs & Marietta last week and Gibson decided he had to go to potty. (and not #1.) So.....the only thing between Hughes Springs & Marietta is a REALLY curvy road and lots of woods. So, Gibson popped a squat. :) I couldn't resist and I took a picture from a distance so not to interrupt. I know one day he will hate me for taking this picture but oh well. That's just part of the mother job, right?

I've still have tons of pictures to post. I'll try and get caught up in the next week or so. My washer broke so I've been trucking our laundry down to Mom's to wash and back to our house to dry. Anyways, G's surgery is tomorrow. Please keep us in your prayers! I'll try and update tomorrow afternoon about the surgery. Have a great Monday!!

I've been good!

2008-12-29T18:09:00.004-06:00

I was so busy trying to get Gibson to take a picture with Santa that I missed Gibson actually telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas. I picked up in the middle of the conversaion. Santa asked Gibson if he had been a good boy this year. Gibson was quick to answer!

Santa sings Rudolph!

2008-12-28T21:16:00.004-06:00

This is at the EMS Christmas party. Santa was awesome!!! Gibson LOVES this song....he knows most of the words but was so in awe of Santa, he only sang the "Ho! Ho! Ho!" part.

Santa trades sleigh for ambulance!

2008-12-28T20:25:00.010-06:00

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We had a great Christmas. Gibson got a tow truck (which is ALL he has asked for for months) and a trampoline from Santa. Jason & I got him a bike and a few other things. All in all, as usual, Gibson racked up and now it's up to me to try to figure out how to fit it all in our house.

With all the Christmas festvities, I've gotten VERY behind on posting pictures. This post is from Jason's work Christmas party. We basically all bring a dish of food and Jason's boss supplies the turkey, ham and a few veggies. I should have took a picture of all the food we had this year. We could have fed a large army with all the leftovers we had. Needless to say, all the shifts ate very well with all the leftovers we had.

Santa squeezes in time every year to come to the part. (Just for the record....this Santa is as close to the real Santa as you can get. The pictures don't do him justice at all. I'll try and post a video so you can get a little better idea. He's an amazing Santa.) Every year he arrives at the Christmas party in an ambulance. (I know....kinda corny.....but the kids love it.) This is the first year Gibson has been beyond excited to see Santa. I know this first picture is very blurry but he was running at the time. I think you can see the excitement on his face through the blur. :)

Santa makes his entrance and Gibson goes right up to him to give him hugs.

Gibson is answering the 'Have you been good?' question with a very enthusiastic 'Yes!'.

Waiting patiently for his turn to see Santa
I tried & tried to get a good picture of Gibson & Santa. Santa was very cooperative......Gibson not so much.

Another one....

Last one....

After taking present requests, Santa passes out presents that he brought....

The kids all had to wait and open them after every kid had a present.....Gibson had a hard time waiting

Trying to start a little early....

Finally! Tear in!

Wow!!!!

A race car!!!!

Playing with his new race car!

After the Christmas party, we all went downtown to ride around Bywaters Park. Roger, one of Jason's fellow workers, gives rides around the park for free in his buggy pulled by a GIANT horse. :) Roger was brave enough to let Gibson drive by himself. I was not brave enough to get out of the buggy to take a picture but I wish I would have.
Here's Gibson petting Ruth, the GIANT horse....

I'm skipping a couple of events to show you our Christmas eve pictures. Jason was on duty Christmas eve so Gibson & I were left to get everything ready for Santa. Here Gibson is with the milk and cookies we set out for Santa.

Gibson wanted to write Santa a note. I helped but Gibson signed his name.

Posing in front of the Christmas tree before he goes to bed.

That's it for now....my brain is tired and my back is killing me! Just in case I don't get the next post done before the new year, let me go ahead and wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

Can I offer you something to drink?

2008-12-19T00:23:00.002-06:00

Tonight we decorated the Christmas tree down at Mom & Dad's house. (A little late I know....but they have been remodeling so the last few weeks have been crazy.) When we got home, Gibson wanted orange juice to drink. I open the fridge to find the following:

Orange Juice....

Milk.....

Egg Nog (for Jason! Yuck!).......

Leftover spaghetti for tomorrows lunch........

Dog?!?!?!

No....we did not eat at a Thai or Chinese restaurant. (I know that's really gross. I've been hanging out with Jason for too long.) It's Gibson's dog that he sleeps with. Technically, he has 4 dogs. He has had them since he was very little. I rotate dogs and keep them washed. When he is ready to go to sleep, he holds the satin side of the dog on his face and rolls his head from side to side until he falls asleep. Anyways, I'm not sure how dog got in the fridge but Gibson thought it was pretty funny that dog was in the fridge with his orange juice. :)

Gotta get to bed....it's 12:31 in the morning and I had a late night last night too. I need sleep! Have a great Friday!

Picture tag!

2008-12-18T00:11:00.008-06:00

I'm a long time lurker of Suzanne over at Steece's Pieces. She has a very inspiring story. If you haven't read it, check it out. Make sure you have a few days (lol) and a box of tissues.

So I decided to play along.
The object of the picture tag is to:
1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer
2) Select the 4th picture in the folder
3) Explain the picture
4) Tag 4 people to do the same
NO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc!)

Here's mine!

G was only about 10 days old here. *wipes tear* It cracks me up because he is ALL paci. :)

The Tree, The Program, The Parade & The Lights!

2008-12-17T22:32:00.009-06:00

Guess what????? My snazzy new computer is here! Merry Christmas to J & S! Yeah!!! I'm so excited! I need to be doing at least a million different things right now....folding laundry, wrapping gifts, fixing goodie bags but I can't tear myself away. I didn't realize how bad off my other computer was. So here's a snazzy new (very quick) post from my snazzy new computer! :)I'll post more details and better pics later!

We put our new bargin $25 PRE-LIT Christmas tree up and got it decorated! It's quite a bit smaller than our other tree but I'm okay with that because we don't have tons of room AND we don't have to string the lights on! :) So after we got the tree up, I talked Gibson into taking a few pictures. We've been working on staying still when you get your picture taken. (Stop laughing! He's got to learn sometime.) Here's Gibson being as very still as he can be! LOL

Gibson's daycare had their Christmas program a couple of weeks ago. Gibson was a wise man. He didn't have any lines. Just had to stand there and look cute. :) Jason videoed while I took pictures. I'll have to investigate to see if this snazzy new computer will work with our video camera DVD's. This picture is actually from after the program. I've pushed up the headband that was holding his 'hat' on because as you can tell from the next picture, it sat a little low on his head. :)

Singing his songs! He did such a good job. I was very impressed! You can see Payden in this picture too. He was a cow.

I went down the hallway the other night to check on Gibson. He was being a little too quiet. I found him like this. He was being a reindeer and the booster seat is Santa's sleigh! I'd say he is quite ready for Christmas!

A few weeks ago, Meme (Aunt Kimberly) & Aunt Jessie took Gibson and Payden to the Christmas parade. They were joined by Maddie and Gibson's friend, Kindle. Apparently, the parade was a hit!

Jason was able to stop by for a few minutes and watch the parade with Gibson.

This picture is so out of order....but this is G up close & personal!

J & G relaxing....

We visited a Christmas light display here in town a few nights ago. Once again, these pictures are out of order. This is actually us leaving. G loves to hang upside down.

Another pic of J & G

Gibson's in the manger taking his picture with the cow....

Pointing out Baby Jesus, Joseph & Mary...

Telling G about the reindeer including Rudolph. I didn't notice Rudolph's nose glowing that night but apparently it was. (Also, FYI, Gibson LOVES to sing Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. I'll try and get it on video and post it.)

FINALLY!!! I can get a video to work!

G's rendition of Jesus Loves Me!
Enjoy!

More to come later!!

Quick Update....

2008-12-14T22:51:00.002-06:00

I know I still haven't posted pics from the last time. My excuse is my poor computer is dying a slow and painful death. :) We've got a new computer on the way and it should be here sometime this week. I'm so excited because I'm SO frustrated with this stupid computer. Anyways, the quick update part is that Gibson's surgery has been moved to January 5th. It made all kinds of financial sense as far as the deductible on Gibson's insurance. I'll explain more later. As for now, I can't wait for my new computer so that I can post all the pics from the last couple of weeks. Have a great week!

Yuck!

2008-12-04T18:00:00.002-06:00

We're back from the ENT doctor. Gibson's ears are full of fluid. They aren't infected at this point but they are full. Yuck! So here's the deal! Gibson is getting tubes in his ears and getting his adenoids removed. Part of me is relieved. The tubes should help with the chronic ear infections and help improve his speech. Removing his adenoids should help with his breathing. The other part of me is scared to death because he will have to be put under anaesthea to have the adenoids removed. I'm not thrilled about him being intubated and put under anaesthea but I'm trying to look at the bigger picture. He would be well a lot more often and feel much better! I know that it is a simple surgery and I really like and trust the doctor. Surgery is scheduled for December 29th. The doctor said he should be back to normal by the next day and ready to play with all his new Christmas toys. :) Please keep us in your prayers!

ps-I'll have pictures to post this weekend of Gibson's Christmas play.

In Sickness and Health...and birthday parties & leaves!

2008-11-30T11:40:00.013-06:00

A quick picture update...

A few weeks ago, Gibson complained of a headache. I wasn't sure what to think about a 3 year old having a headache. Kinda weird huh? He would hold his head and cry. Nothing would console him. There were brief moments when the Motrin was kicked in and working good that he was his normal playful self. But if the meds weren't working full blast, he was hurting. He didn't have any other complaints and no fever so I was a little freaked out. So we took him to the doctor and as it turns out, it was strep throat and another ear infection! I had no idea a headache was a symptom of strep! Bless his heart! He hadn't complained at all with his throat hurting and wasn't running fever which I thought were the main 2 symptoms of strep. Leave it to our kid to have the oddball symptoms! So ten days on antibiotics and he's good to go! We went back to the doctor this past week for a check-up on his ear infection. There was still some fluid so we are going to the ENT doctor on Thursday this week. I'll let you know what he says later this week!

So for 2 days, the nap pad in the living room was Gibson's home.
And he watched entirely too much tv. I guess that's at least one benefit of being sick. :) Once he was feeling better, Gibson decided to ride off into the sunset on his sturdy horse!

After we were mended from strep, Gibson had cousin Hannah's birthday party to attend. It was at one of the gyms here in town. I just knew Gibson would have so much fun with the foam pit and the trampolines. He wasn't as thrilled about it as what I thought he was going to be. He would only jump into the pit off of the blue pad that was supposed to be for crawling out. He let us throw him in a couple of times. All in all, he wasn't very excited about the foam pit. :(

He did like the trampolines! He's always been a jumper!

I guess one of his favorite parts was this wheel thingy. Jason was on duty but was able to come by to visit. So Jason pushed him in this wheel and Gibson thought it was tons of fun! Sorry the pic is so blurry but you can still see how much fun he was having!

Jumping on the trampoline!

Back in the wheel thingy

After all the jumping and playing, Gibson was starving. He basically inhaled his cake! This is the first time he's EVER ate an entire piece of birthday cake!

Last weekend was the Tinsel & Tiding's craft show. We took Gibson thinking we were going to see Santa. Last year they had Santa and you could sit in his lap and have your picture taken for $5. So, off we went this year, with $13 dollars in my pocket for any snacks we might need to but to get Gibson through the show. Nannie gave Gibson $5 to see Santa. So, Santa was there but they had a professional photographer there to take the pictures and the minimum picture package you had to purchase was $20. So, Jason & I had got to explain to a 3 year old why he couldn't see Santa because we didn't have enough money! I was so frustrated! I was mad at myself for not grabbing any more money or at least the checkbook. Oh well! Lesson learned! (Don't worry! Gibson will get to see Santa at Jason's work Christmas party this week. Santa shows up riding in an ambulance so to Gibson that's the best of both worlds!)

The Tinsel & Tiding's show did have a bounce house that the kids could jump in for FREE! (I wondered if they felt a little guilty for charging $20 for a picture with Santa.) Anyways, Gibson had a blast except for it was FREEZING COLD outside. So once he started jumping, he decided real quick he needed to take a potty break! :)

With our check-up this past week, Gibson's doctor decided that Gibson probably needed to do a few days of breathing treatments to help get rid of this cough that will not go away. Just wanted to stop any asthma problems before they got too bad. He such a big boy and sits there with his big boy medicine the whole time.

Thanksgiving Day 2008!

Nannie & Papaw spent their Thanksgiving morning raking & burning leaves. They got one side of the yard done but ran out of time on the other side of the yard. So we took advantage of the leaves and snapped pictures of the boys!

Here's Payden!

Uncle Josh is throwing leaves on them here!

Gibson showing Meme the leaves! And trying not to break it! :)

Payden getting buried in the leaves! Bless his heart! He had leaves in EVERY nook and cranny of his body! They wiped him down from head to toe! I'm guessing they'll find a few more leaves in his cast on Tuesday when he gets a new cast put on! :)

G: "It's raining leaves!"

More raining! :)

Gibson was tired of the raining leaves and was letting it be known! Payden thought Gibson was pretty funny!

I'm sure there are other moms out there just like me. I HATE having my picture taken. But now I wish that I would just get over it because I can't find very many pictures of Gibson and myself. So as a very early new year's resolution, I want to make sure I get more pictures of Gibson & I together. We'll see how well I do. :)

Gibson insisted that he cover up his legs with the leaves before he would take any pictures!

Finally!

We have a busy week this week! Christmas parties & plays, doctor appointments, and lots of other things! I'll make sure my camera battery is charged! ;)

A Quick Update & Monsters!

2008-11-20T20:20:00.004-06:00

I have 3 different videos that show off Gibson's talents. :) I've tried uploading these videos a million times but haven't had any luck yet. It's probably my stupid computer that is sick so it only works right every once in a while. I seriously need a new one but, once again, I'm so cheap and hate to part with that much money for what seems like a luxury. Know what I mean? Anyways, if this doesn't work tonight then I'll take my portable hard drive, that has the video & pics on it, to work and see if it works there.

There's not much going on here. Gibson is getting bigger everyday. He's such a big boy. We are shopping for 'really big boy' beds (aka-a twin bed). He sleeps in his toddler bed (that was his crib) but he's so rough on it, I'm afraid he's going to break the poor crib. So, we are relunctantly shopping for a bigger bed. I'm not thrilled about it but I'll deal with it. Gibson is doing well in school. He loves both KK and AH. I'm so glad he is able to do both. I can definitely see the benefits! He can already spell his entire name and Momma & Daddy. AND he can write his name! He's such a smart boy! He amazes me EVERYDAY!

Here's the conversation I just heard while sitting here blogging:

Gibson: Dad! I'm scared!

Jason: What are you scared of?

G: Uhhh (trying to think of something)....monsters!

J: What? Monsters?!? We don't have monsters in our house!

G: Yeh....I not scared. Dad you not scared. Mom not scared too.

J: Tell those monsters to get out of here.

G: Get out of here monsters!

J: Did they leave?

G: Yep. They left in their truck.

J: What?

G: They left in their monster truck!

Halloween!

2008-11-05T22:07:00.011-06:00

If it's not one thing, it's another! Our stupid internet has been broke for almost a week now. But, after talking with the Pakistan Technical Support on several different occasions and FINALLY getting someone who speaks english to come out to the house, they determined our stupid modem was broke. And, of course, the 3 MONTH warranty (does anyone else think that is STUPID?) had expired. So, here again I fork out $62 for a new modem. It irritates me but I choke up the money because I love having internet at home. Ok....so I'll step down from my soap box now. :)

It was "I" week a couple of weeks ago at KK's house. They dressed up as indians and this is what was left of Gibson's indian face when I picked him up.

So this year, we ordered Gibson's halloween costume online and decided he was going to be a 'disco man'. We found this glasses and Gibson thought they were pretty funny.

Here's is Gibson's 'disco man' impersonation. We axed this costume once we got it tried on him. It's about 4" too short and my mom says he looked more like Elton John than a disco man. I'm a fan of some of Elton John's music but not so much his fashion sense.

On Tuesday night before Halloween, the three of us are at Walmart trying to find Gibson something to wear to his parties at school and to Trick or Treat. We found a pirate costume that was a small youth (size 6-8). So, with a little help from Loretta, we trimed it up and it turned out pretty cute. Gibson had his school party on Thursday. They had a small festival and then a class party. As usual, Gibson had a lot of fun! Friday morning, KK had a party at her house. Gibson really racked up at this party. He had a bag full of candy and treats. Gibson had a good Halloween this year. Gibson got WAY too much candy but I managed to get most of it put up before he dug in to far. Jason was able to get cover from work for a few hours this year so he could go with us. We took Gibson to trick or treat at the church Trunk or Treat where he was scared of anyone with a mask on. (My poor nephew broke his leg at Trunk or Treat. Needless to say, his halloween wasn't so great. The doctor put a bent cast on his leg Monday. It's there for at least 4 weeks and then he'll get another cast that will be straight so he can start walking again.) After Trunk or Treat, we stopped at a few more places before Jason had to go back to work. Once Jason was back at work, Gibson and I headed to the circle track to watch Josh race. During intermission, the drivers pulled their cars onto the track so that the kids could trick or treat there as well. Gibson and I got through about 8 cars and then his bag broke because it was so full of candy. I decided we had enough. (I know most of you aren't interested in any of this. It's all info for his keepsake book.) And just in case you were wondering where all the pics are of these exciting adventures, my stupid battery died about 2 minutes into trick or treating at the church. So no pics! :(

At KK's house before the halloween party

Here's Payden at school on Thursday (before the broke leg)

Before Halloween, Nannie & Papaw went to Branson for a vacation. The whole time they were gone Gibson made sure everyone knew that in four day Nannie & Papaw were coming home with a surprise for him. So he was THRILLED to get this little contraption. We call it the sword (probably not the techinal term for it). It lights up and he LOVES it!

Gibson was kind enough to pose for me a few weeks ago while we played in the front yard. I couldn't pick my favorite so there is a million of them. Sorry!

Love this one!

Gibson says his eyes are broke in this picture because he only has one.

I like this one even though he has a chocolate ice cream mustache. :)

I've got some more pics and a few videos but I'm falling asleep as I type so I'll post those later!

Back from the Doctor

2008-10-19T14:01:00.009-05:00

I'm so excited! My camera is back from the Geek Squad doctor. Yeah!!!!! I have just a few pics and a video! I was going thru withdrawals without my camera so I've gone a little overboard. :)

Hope you enjoy!

Gibson had a great day yesterday. Payden came over to play with him. Gibson got a haircut and then went to McDonald's. After McDonald's, we all went to the park to play where he played for a hour or so. Afterwards, we came home to attempt a nap but he refused! So, Payden & Gibson played the entire afternoon. Until about 5pm when he could go no longer! He was a little more chipper this morning!
What a great smile!

Here Gibson is singing a song he learned at daycare. They have a program coming up in December and this is one of the songs they will perform. It's called "What-a-le-a-cha" or something like that. You probably won't be able to understand everything he sings but it's cute anyway! :)

Pay no attention to the piles of laundry and the mess in the living room. It is your imagination....I do not have a messy house. :)

That's it for now! There will be LOTS more pics to come....I have to play catch up. ;)

Hurricane Ike, Fishing & the Air Show!

2008-09-28T11:11:00.011-05:00

Once again I'm not sure where to start! :) The last few weeks have been extremely crazy! Jason was deployed to south Texas to help evacuate people before Hurricane Ike hit. He ended up being gone for an entire week. On top of Jason being gone, I worked 60 hours that week so that didn't help eliminate any craziness.

Here are a few pics from his adventure with Ike. :)

This is in San Antonio before Ike ever hit. Everyone was getting their deployment orders to see where they were going to evacuate. Jason said there were probably at least 500 ambulances there and charter buses too.

On their way to Port Arthur (or Port Lavaca). I'm not sure which because Jason isn't here to tell me which one. :)
Not ALWAYS.... :)
So here's the rundown on Jason & Russell's not-so-excellent Hurricane Ike adventure....first Jason was in San Antonio getting orders...then he went to Beeville where they were getting more specifics on their orders. Here they got the pleasure of sleeping in the back of the ambulance until they were woke up in the middle of the night...then off to Port Lavaca to help evacuate a hospital. But by the time they got there, everyone was evacuated from the hospital. So they waited for more orders on where to go. So the hospital let them spend a couple of nights in the empty rooms. Jason said it felt like a 4 star hotel compared to the back of the ambulance!...then to Houston to help evacuate some more people. No wait....Houston decided not to evacuate so never mind....back to San Antonio to ride out the hurricane....now off to Beaumont to help with search & rescue. But it ended up being more sitting & waiting....Finally off to Port Arthur where they finally got to transport ONE patient back to Beaumont where there was a hospital that was still up and working. On the way back to Port Arthur, a motorcycle that was 2 cars in front of the ambulance lost control & wrecked. The man was in serious condition and Jason & Russell transported him back to the ER at Beaumont. (No word on his condition....this is one of the things that irritates me about EMS....you hardly ever find out what happens after you drop them at the ER.) Anways, I told Jason that that may have been the only reason why he spent the entire week down there was to save that guys life! (Jason wasn't so convinced.) Finally, a relief crew came to work so Jason could come home! We were so excited to have him home. He's never been away from me or Gibson for that long of time. I have a whole new respect for soldiers and their families.

Back to pictures....here is Target's new swimming pool....oh wait....that's a parking lot...

To close for me....
A huge mess!

All I can say here is.....NO WAY! I don't' do bridges and this one ranks right up at the top of the NO WAY am I crossing that one!

OK....what you really came here for....Gibson!

Gibson practicing his casting in the front yard!

Jason helping just a bit....
I'm not sure how this got in the middle of the fishing pictures. Oh well! Gibson sporting his daddy's helmet.
Back to fishing.....

We 'borrowed' a friends pond (by the way....Jason calls it a pool but it's a pond to me) to go fishing. We were going to fish for perch with some bread as bait.

Here's little man with dad's supervision!

After quite a while.....we finally caught one. But not a perch! A bass! It helps that we switched bait thanks to our friend Browning. We found that the fish like pink maggots better than bread. Who knew? :0
Jason reeled it in most of the way but Gibson decided to help towards the end.
Gibson wouldn't take his eyes off of the fish!
I tried to get a picture of Gibson touching the fish but my timing was off and I just got a picture of me touching the fish.
Here's one of the perch....
Our final count....4! Two bass & two perch!
Jason, uhh I mean Gibson, did such a good job fishing!
Honestly, this is how Gibson spent most of his fishing experience....making me a nervous wreck!
He finally got bored with the fishing and decided to play on the swing set that was there.
Up the ladder....

Cheese!
Down the slide....

Ok...I thought there were a few pictures of him swinging right here. But they're gone. Use your imagination!

Saturday....Jason & Gibson went to the airport for an air show
(while I worked....sniff....sniff...wipe tear....).
Gibson LOVES airplanes! I've decided he'll probably be an air traffic controller because he can spot an airplane a million miles away!

I wasn't there but I know this isn't an airplane. My best guess is a fire truck since he's fascinated with those too.
That's it....for a while. When Jason got back from the airshow yesterday, we discovered that somehow my camera had broke. (Thank God we bought the insurance.) So now we have to find time to go back to Best Buy to get another camera. It'll probably be the weekend before we get a chance to do that. So I'll have to play catch up on pictures when I get a working camera. :)

Oh...one more thing...Gibson had his day care school pictures on Friday. You can look at them at http://www.collages.net/. Type in 'gibson' as the user name & 23369 as the password. You can't purchase them off this site but you can view them. Just in case you wanted to see them.

Have a great week!

Where do I start?

2008-09-07T23:53:00.012-05:00

I know. I know. Please do not adjust your monitor. I AM posting a new blog WITH pictures. Things have been so crazy the last couple of weeks. Gibson has started back to school and work is so busy. I really don't know how some people have time to blog several times a week. I'm in awe. :)

Anyways, here's our very abbreviated update...

After our 'dental disaster', we bought Gibson a spinning Diego toothbrush to help him get used to the sounds of a dentist office. It's not working out great BUT we're still trying it. Gibson is such a big boy and usually wants to brush his teeth by himself. He does a pretty good job but we have to convince him to let us help him most of the time.

See....all clean!

I'm sure those of you that have children or are around children have seen or at least heard of Ni Hao Kai-Lan. We have one episode recorded on the dvr because Gibson liked the "dragon dance" they did. Here he is performing his version.

Crouching down like a dragon

Wiggle like a dragon
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil!

Here comes TROUBLE! KatKat was kind enough to take some pictures of the kiddos while they were at day care.

Payden came over to the house to play with Gibson one day and decided to lay it down on the drums.

Cheese!

The boys like to watch cartoons on my computer after they get out of daycare.

Being such a good boy!
Gibson wanted to help PaPaw fix the race car. It may look like he is going to hit him in the head with it but actually he was a big help I'm sure.
After a long afternoon of working on the race car and then watching the races, Gibson had gone as far as he could go. He fell asleep in the Modified A Feature race. It's not my favorite class to watch either. :)
A week or so ago, Payden had his John Deer 2 year old birthday party. Gibson was DYING to get into the cake. You can barely see Jason in this picture but he's giving Gibson a stern talking to about staying out of the cake.
High Five!

Little helper Gibson attempting to deliver presents to the birthday boy.
After a short swim, he was COLD!
Brrrrrrrrrr! He may get hypothermia! (Which by the way, he can say.)
What a pose!
Up close & personal!
After the party, the kiddos set the balloons free!
Bye Balloons!
Of course, Gibson spotted the airplane!
Gibson had a busy day on the first day of school. It started at 8 am with his speech school (which by the way is at our local elementary school and I had to enroll him just like if he would've started kindergarten. It didn't feel right filling out forms right now when he is 3 that would still be in his file when he is a senior in high school). After speech school, he went to his preschool and had a blast! He basically ran into class and had no problem with us leaving him. After preschool, he was able to go to daycare to tell KatKat all about his busy day.
I know this is really blurry but is was raining and I was running! (Go Forrest! Go!)

In his classroom
One day last week, the daycare took a trip up the street to the donut shop. They crossed the parking lot at the shop so I snuck around to take pictures.

Payden & Gibson enjoying the races
OK...so there you have it. A very quick update to our busy lives. There's lots of funny stories I need to blog about but my contacts are not co-operating. :)

Have a blessed week!

Gibson's Prayer

2008-08-21T23:42:00.002-05:00

So I won't forget...

Every night before we go to bed Gibson gets to choose 3 books to read. One of the books has a part where the teddy bear is saying his prayers before he goes to bed. So, Gibson always says his prayers at this part of the book just like the teddy bear. Normally, his prayer goes something like this: "Dear God, Thank you for Mommy & Daddy. Amen." Tonight, his prayer went like this: "Dear God, Thank you for Mommy, Daddy & the ambulance. Amen."

He just melted my heart! :)

I'll try to post pics tomorrow night. I left me camera at work today.

Dental Disaster!

2008-08-13T12:59:00.011-05:00

Typical me! I forgot my camera! So I don't have a single picture of Gibson's first trip to the dentist. But that's not entirely a bad thing.

Jason & I have really been building up this whole 'tooth doctor' visit. For a week now, we've told Gibson how the tooth doctor was going to make sure his teeth were pretty. Gibson was so excited. He did so well in the waiting room. He was so patient and never once got in trouble. But once he walked into the examination room and was told to sit in the chair, it was all over. He wasn't going for it at all. Jason sat down with him and held him. That didn't help that much either. The dental hygienist explained her tools and what she was going to do with them. He let her look in his mouth with the mirror and wasn't a problem. But there was NO way he was letting her clean his teeth.

In Gibson's defense, I really hadn't prepared him for teeth cleaning. Mainly because I wasn't expecting it. When I called to make the appointment, I just told them that it was his first visit and we wanted to make sure he didn't have any dental problems. So they fixed me up with an appointment. I didn't even ask which of the Dr. Spencer's we were going to see because it didn't make any difference to me. I felt great with Gibson seeing either one because they are both great with kids and really great dentists. I never thought to ask what they were going to be doing because I assumed (i know what assuming gets me and yet I did it anyway) it was just going to be an examination.

So Gibson refused to get his teeth cleaned but at least he let them look at his teeth to make sure he didn't have any major dental problems. So he got a sticker and a prize and we left. We got outside and I guess Gibson was disappointed that that was all there was to the tooth doctor visit. So he threw a fit to go back in to the tooth doctor. This tantrum lasted almost 10 minutes before we took him to daycare. As soon as he was in daycare and out of Mom & Dad's sight, he was fine. AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! That is SOOOOO frustrating! I don't understand why kids always act better for other people than they do their parents. I'm quite sure I was never like that as a child.

Just when I think I've almost got this kid figured out, he pulls a stunt like this. So we're going to try the cleaning again in 6 months or so. We even went to Walmart and bought a cheap spinning Diego toothbrush so maybe that will help for the next visit. Start praying for us (and the dentists) now!

Sorry I don't have any pictures. I'll try and load some in later. I gotta go mow the yard. :)

The Tooth Doctor!

2008-08-13T00:27:00.002-05:00

Here's something to look forward to....Gibson Goes to the Dentist. (sounds like a children's book huh?) Gibson has his first dentist appointment tomorrow. We've been talking to him for the last week or so about going to the tooth doctor so we can make sure all his teeth feel good and aren't sick. He says that the tooth doctor is going to make sure his teeth are "happy".

Pray for us.....and Dr. Spencer (whichever one we see because I forgot to ask which Dr. Spencer we would be seeing.) Actually....scratch that......Pray for us and Dr. Spencer(s) entire office. :)

I'll have pictures tomorrow.

A Miracle, The Race Track & Mr. Potato Head

2008-08-07T18:50:00.008-05:00

So I've been a blog slacker. Gibson was sick for almost 2 weeks and I'm trying to spend less time on the computer and more time working on my house. I've got to start getting things organized around here. School is starting soon and then things will be REALLY busy and I won't have time to work on the house like I need to. In a way I'm looking forward to school starting back. We've got more of a routine when school is going. But, on the other hand, I really enjoy spending more time with Gibson during the summer.

I managed to talk Gibson into playing in the sprinkler a week or so ago. I think he only did it because Daisy was playing in the water too.

Having a blast in the water
This has been a summer of birthdays! Which means lots of birthday parties! These next few pics are from the most recent party which thankfully was a swimming party. It was 105 degrees that day so I was VERY thankful for the water! :) Normally, Gibson is not a fan of the water. But I think with all the other kids around, he once again gave into the peer pressure and had a good time. He even swam by himself which meant I didn't have to stay in the water the entire time.
You probably won't believe me...but a miracle occurred at this party. Gibson swam away and into the deep end of the pool....
he crawled up the ladder....
out of the pool....

and up the ladder on the slide.

Once he was there, he had a little stage fright. But with a little coaxing, he slid down and into the water. He repeated this process several times and even went under water!

I told you....a miracle happened.

The same Saturday of the birthday party, Gibson & I went to the circle track to watch my brother race. Gibson loves to watch the race cars and does a really good job of watching the races (as long as he has a snack and something to drink).

It was a little dusty that night so Gibson had to wear his sunglasses to keep the dirt out of his eyes.

He was seriously concentrating on the race cars.

Here's Gibson with Uncle Josh (he's the blur on the track). Josh led the race for about half the race until his transmission messed up. You kinda have to have one of those to race or so I've been told.

Sunday, Gibson played in his playroom the entire time I was cleaning the kitchen. Which was, once again, a miracle. Excuse his attire but the air conditioner wasn't working too well that day and he was in his skimpies to keep cool. ;)

Earlier this week, Gibson brought me his Mr. Potato Head that he built. He wanted me to take his picture with Mr. Potato Head. I obliged his wish. :) Be sure to pay close attention to Mr. Potato Head's features....

Have a great week!

Birthday Party Fun!

2008-07-26T15:27:00.001-05:00

As promised....Gibson's 3rd birthday party pics. These aren't the best pics of Gibson but you get the idea of how much fun he had. I still need to get the pics from Mom & Jess. So I've got more to come. Enjoy!

Don't want to forget....

2008-07-23T00:45:00.003-05:00

I'm 'borrowing' the idea for this post off someone else's blog I stalk. :) hehe! She posts cute little things her kids say so she won't forget them. What a great idea! I usually print out my blog every few months so I can add it to Gibson's box of keepsakes. So, here goes...

I was tucking Gibson in bed tonite telling him what a big helper he had been to me the last couple of days. I was sick all day Monday and he took such good care of me. We went to Walmart tonite and he helped me push the buggy all through the store while I shopped and not once did he misbehave. So, I was thanking him for being such a big boy. The conversation went something like this:

S: Thank you for being momma's big helper!

G: Yea (he needed to say Yes Ma'am but we are working on that)

S: Gibson, you are such a big boy!

G: Momma, you are a big boy too!

*grin*

Slip-n-Slide & Balloons

2008-07-20T22:42:00.004-05:00

I know. I know. These aren't birthday party pics. I'm still playing around with this new program. So basically this post is just me finding a few pics I like and playing around.

Here's Gibson playing on his slip-n-slide today. He wasn't as thrilled about this slip-n-slide as he was the one he played with at his friend's birthday party. I think he was caving in to peer pressure the other day. We're going to have to have a talk about that. :) Gibson got a scooter for his birthday from his friend Maddie. We went to the church parking lot a week or so ago and let him ride. He had so much fun. (And look....we were thinking child safety with the helmet.)

Nannie & Papaw got Gibson a small bounce house for his birthday. Here's Gibson peeking thru the hole trying to get my camera. He's not as thrilled about the bounce house as we thought he was going to be. I'm hoping it grows on him.
This picture is from the first slip-n-slide experience at Gibson's friend's birthday party. Can you tell he was having a blast?
Last night, we went to Hugo to watch the hot air balloons they have come in every year. Although, it wasn't exactly what I expected. It was pretty neat to see them in person. It's something you don't see everyday. So here's Gibson posing with one of his favorite balloons (mainly it was his favorite because it was the only one up at that point)...the yellow & blue balloon.
One of these days I'll read the directions to my camera & figure out how to take pictures the right way. I've got all kinds of cool settings on the thing but haven't a clue how to do them.

When it got dark enough, they had a balloon glow. That was pretty cool too. This picture doesn't do it justice really but it's all I got.

I'll try to steal the pics from Gibson's birthday party soon. (My camera's battery died as the party was starting so I relied on Mom, Jess & Kimberly to take the pics. I have steal the pics from their cameras.) So that's it for now. Have a good week!

Last one...for today!

2008-07-19T15:04:00.002-05:00

My name is Sheridie. S-H-E-R-I-D-I-E. I'm an addict....to these collages! I'm having so much fun! Such cheap entertainment too. But this is the last one (for today)....I've HAVE to go wash dishes and do laundry.

This one is family pics. Some of these are quite dated which means that I seriously need to take more pictures of Gibson with certain camera avoiding relatives. (hint! hint!)

(top row...Me & Gibson (he was about 4 months old); Nannie & Gibson (9 mos old); MeMe, Payden & Gibson (last week).....middle row.....Nana & Gibson (almost 6 mos old); Papaw & Gibson (almost 7 mos); Jason & Gibson (a little over 2).....bottom row.....Uncle Josh & Gibson (almost 15 mos) (sorry it cut off josh's head & i can't figure out how to fix it. just pretend it's there.); Family picture (fall 2005); Aunt Jessie & Gibson (a little over 2 mos)

Just messing around...

2008-07-19T14:44:00.002-05:00

Look!!!! Snazzy huh? A BIG thanks to Rachel for pointing me in the right direction with the photo organization/editing program! It is GREAT! I've been playing with it for hours now! I'm not getting anything done in the house but I'm making really cute collages that I can post on here! This is the first one I just threw together. There's not any rhyme or reason to why pictures are there. I just liked them so I added them. I'm so impulsive! ;) Enjoy!

Zoo Trip

2008-07-18T09:48:00.011-05:00

As promised, here are ton of pictures from the last couple of months. I've only updated a couple of different events in this post. There are still a lot more to go! Can you tell I'm really enjoying my new camera? :)

(on a different subject, do any of you other bloggers know of a quick way to upload pictures? I can only upload five at a time and I just keep thinking there has to be a faster way that I just don't know about. if there is, can you pass along any info to help this really inpatient person along? taking forever to upload pics is the number one reason i don't blog anymore than i do. i'm the most impatient person sometimes. thanks in advance for your help.)

So, we usually visit Jason at work on his shift days. Even if it is just for a quick hello and goodbye, Gibson always wants to see the ambulance! He usually wants to turn on the lights and every once in a while, Jason will accommodate his request. :)

Here's my professional baseball player! Gibson was playing baseball with Nana and hit the ball a good 20 feet or so! We've got the next Josh Hamilton in the making!
This is Gibson's version of a 'silly face'. What a silly boy!
So, Gibson has never been a water baby! He can't stand to get his head wet. He even hates washing his hair in the bathtub. But we've really been working on getting him more comfortable with the water. These next few pictures are from one of his first days in the water this summer. He did really good! He wore his floaties and floated by himself a couple of times. He's gotten much better since this pic. Now he'll swim all the way across the pool with his floaties on. I'm hoping that by the end of the summer, he'll go under water. We'll keep working on it!
On this particular night, Jessica, Kimberly, Payden, Tammy & Maddie had been swimming right before we got there. Well, when Gibson got in the pool and Maddie couldn't get back in, this is the reaction we got from Maddie! She was devastated! Bless her heart!

Here's Gibson & Daddy having fun in the 'mimming pool'.
Finally, Gibson swam all be himself for just a few minutes! What a big boy!
I mentioned in my last post that we took a huge family trip to the Tyler zoo. One of the first animals we came to was the otters. And we got there just in time to see the otters perform. Gibson decided to get comfortable for the otter viewing!
The otter looks like a log but he decided to say hi to Gibson!
After our otter viewing, we found the white tiger exhibit. Next to the air-conditioned penguin exhibit, this was my favorite! The tigers were HUGE! I know we are all pretty morbid people because one of the first things we thought about was the people that get mauled by these animals. How anyone could survive is beyond me? This picture isn't the best for a couple of reasons. One....Gibson turned his head to look at the other tiger that isn't in the picture about the time I took the pic. Two.....apparently the tiger needed to go to the bathroom about the time I decided to take the pic. Tigers are not modest at all!

Ok...so you can barely see this one either. But it was pretty amazing to see such a huge animal up close.
This is kinda hard to see too but the white tiger jumped in the water to play and cool off! I thought it was pretty cool!
Payden checking out the fish that are in the 'watee'!
Gibson looking at the cheetahs!

This is our first attempt at a group shot. Oh well! We can try again later! I don't know why Blogger decided to turn this picture sideways. But here's Gibson checking out the penguins. (This was my favorite exhibit even though it stunk REALLY bad. I got over the smell really fast when I realized it was air-conditioned.)
I think Gibson drank about 3 bottles of water and/or Gatorade while we walked thru the zoo! All those liquids and no accident! I was so proud of him!
Cool man!
Gibson was sure that Papaw & Dad needed help pushing Maddie's stroller so he decided to help!
Dad, Gibson & Nana checking out some animal with horns. :)

Payden doing his serious pose by the giraffes!
Look Daddy! Giraffes!
I thought the giraffes were beautiful!
Payden enjoyed the zoo as well but he was getting pretty tired towards the end!
Look Mom! Elephants!

I asked the elephant to pose in this picture and look how well he listened. These elephants are trained really well. Oh and Gibson really was having fun. You just can't tell it from these pictures.
Gibson decided to call the elephant with his elephant impersonation.
Another attempt at a group picture of the kiddos.....as usual, at least one of them aren't looking!
Father & Son taking a break and watching the elephants
See Mom! My feet aren't that big! (At least not as big as an elephant's foot.)

OK....so I took a picture of the bathroom so that I could remember to mention that Gibson wore his big boy underwear the entire day without a single accident! What a big boy!
One extremely hot & tired little boy!
Nice goat!
Payden thought Gibson petting the goats was pretty funny!
No! Stop Payden! That's the wrong end! :)

After petting the goats, Gibson was excited to wash his hands with the monkey again!
After our zoo adventure, we had a picnic! Payden decided that he was going to try and escape about the time I decided to take a picture.
The kids decided it was more fun for them to pretend like they were an exhibit in the zoo.
After a long & hot day, Gibson fell asleep less than 20 minutes out of Tyler!

Next post.....Gibson's birthday party!

Rated F for FUN!

2008-07-06T18:03:00.003-05:00

Wow!!! We've had so much going on since my last post. I don't have time to upload all the pictures today! So here's a short preview (that's rated F for fun....hehe)....

We had a huge family outing to the zoo in Tyler. Here's our attempt at a picture. :)

Gibson has done SO much better swimming. (As long as he has on his body suit & floaties he's fine. Jason says we look like REALLY overprotective parents with him decked out like this but this is the only way he is comfortable in the water right now.)Gibson turned 3! I'll have to dedicate an entire post to his pirate party later! Aarrrhhhh!

" Look Mom! A silly face! "
Patriotic at the 4th of July paradeThat's it for now! LOTS more to come later!

In the little pool...

2008-06-24T12:43:00.002-05:00

These two pics are on my computer at work off Mom's camera. Kimberly took them a few weeks ago when Gibson & Payden were playing in the pool at Mom & Dad's. I thought they were pretty cute and wanted to share!

Jason's showing Gibson how to get a drink....I think! :) Payden thinks it's pretty funny!
We went to the zoo this past weekend. I'll post pics soon!

I forgot....

2008-06-14T13:49:00.002-05:00

I forgot to mention to notice Gibson's new haircut! He did SOOO good! He never moved and never even cried. This is such a HUGE improvement from just a couple of months ago when we were basically having to sit on him to hold him down for a haircut. And just for the record, the fact that we had to hold him down at any point is all Jason' fault. I'll have to finish that story later....Gibson's needs help in the bathroom! :)

Jam Session

2008-06-14T13:11:00.004-05:00

I know you are absolutely shocked! Yes...it is another post and just a couple of days after the last post! Call the Guinness Book of World Records Now! :)

There hasn't been a whole lot happening! Just work and home! We're real exciting people! :)

Gibson came to work after school the other day and enjoyed a bag of Cheetos.

Want one?

Here's Payden speeding down the hall at work. I barely got the picture taken.
We spent the evening outside the other night and Gibson and Jason had a good time talking to the cows in the pasture next door.
" Can you see them?"

Today, Payden came over to play while Kimberly worked. Jason was playing "Old McDonald had a Farm" on the guitar and the boys were dancing! They've got some serious rhythm.
Guitar 101
Here's the jam session they had

Payden finally got so tired he just had to take a break

Rock N Roll!!!!

Just a cute picture of such a cute boy!

Hungry boy!
Caught stuffing it all in!!

That's it! Not very exciting I know...we're on our way to listen to Jason play a gig and pick up Nana (Jason's Mom). Gibson is very excited to see Nana. Have a great weekend!

We're Back!!!!

2008-06-08T21:58:00.005-05:00

Wow....I'm not even sure where to begin. I guess I'll start with my excuse for not blogging in the last 2 months. I mentioned it in my last picture-less blog...my camera broke. We took Gibson to the Wiggles playground in Frisco a month or 6 weeks ago. He had a blast! And I fell twice and luckily only broke my camera. They have mats at the end of the slides that protect the kids from the hard floor. Except the place didn't know that 'Miss Grace' was bringing her son to play and that I would fall flat on my back TWICE. And sadly, it took both falls to break the camera. So, it comes down to this....

Gibson playing at the Wiggles playground....$7.00

My broken camera.....-$300.00

Wishing that we had my gracefullness on camera so we could send in the video to win money on American's Funniest Videos.....priceless :)

Tomorrow is our 7th anniversary. Married for 7 years...together almost 9. Dang...I'm getting old! :) We spent the weekend living the life of luxury at the Westin Stonebriar in Frisco. We shopped (bought birthday presents for the summer, some clothes, a few caps AND a digital camera. YEAH!!), caught a movie (Baby Mama-which was pretty funny but kind of predictable. And by the way, going to the movies in Frisco was quite an expense.) and enjoyed relaxing at the hotel in the hot tub and by the pool. It was a MUCH needed break but I missed my baby very much. He was in good hands the entire weekend. We're very lucky to have family so close to help take care of Gibson for us.

While we were gone, Gibson attended his friend Aubrie's birthday party. He talked about it for days before he went. And now will talk about it for days afterwards. She had a cowgirl/cowboy theme party. The kids were able to ride horses and everything. Gibson had such a good time!!! All he can talk about it riding the horses at Aubrie's birthday party! I was very happy to hear he had such a good time. The last time he rode horses he was in my care and I managed to let him fall off the horse. (That's a whole different story I'll detail in another blog.) SO this time, there were no falls! Just lots of fun! Mom was kind enough to take pictures. I'll have to steal them from her camera! I'll try to post them later!

Now to the current pictures from my NEW digital camera...

(sorry about the underwear pictures....we were getting ready for a bath)

Gibson posing....

Gibson spelling his name....What a big boy!

Cheesing it up for camera (I think he has missed having his pictures taken) :)

OH...one more VERY important thing that has happened since my last post. Gibson is almost potty-trained. This has been quite a progress and it's quite a long story. BUT we're almost there.

OK....that's it for now. I'm going to bed! I'm so excited to have a camera back so that I can update y'all more often. Thanks for sticking thru such a long blog! Have a GREAT week!

Doctor visits

2008-04-09T20:25:00.003-05:00

Long time no blog. Things have been especially busy lately at work and I haven't had time to blog. And on top of that, I broke my camera. I need to send it to a camera doctor to see if it is fixable. :( Me breaking it is actually a pretty funny story but EXTREMELY aggravating as well. I have a few pics on the memory card that I'll try to post pretty soon. That takes me blogging at work which is kinda tricky since work is so busy. Anyways, we're all still here and doing fine. Gibson started speech therapy on Thursday last week. We worked on pronouncing the beginning and the end sounds of words and asking questions. He did really well considering his attention span is about a half a second. We have another session tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully it goes even better. Gibson went to the doctor today to get an ear check-up. Once again, he has an ear infection. We go back in 3 weeks to check and make sure it's cleared up. If not, we'll discuss tubes. I'm about at my wits end with ear infections and my gut says his speech will improve with tubes. I kinda feel bad for wanting him to get the tubes but I'm just ready for Gibson to be well! I guess that's it for now. I promise I'll try and post pictures soon. Oh...I just had a thought. My video camera takes pictures, crappy pictures but pictures none the less. But I still can't connect it to my computer. Oh, there's always something to put a kink in things. :) Have a great week!

Saturday Night Racing & Easter

2008-03-24T22:30:00.006-06:00

Holy Cow! Over 150 pics in the last 3 days. I don't know where to start. This will be a very short but sweet update. I'll have to post later with more details.

Getting ready for the races....Gibson's in Uncle Josh's race car

Jason,Gibson and I went to the races Saturday night to watch Uncle Josh race. Gisbon just sits in his little race car chair and watches the races like a big boy. At least for a little while until Donkey has to entertain him with smarties. :) (that's what is in his mouth in this picture.)

Thanks Donkey! We love you!

We had Easter egg hunts galore over the weekend. Here are just a few pics.

Here he is taking inventory of his eggs. He counted all the way to 20 and then started over again with 1. :) I think he wanted to make sure he had a total on his eggs in case Payden-"the egg thief "-attacked. Gibson wasn't too keen on sharing with cousin Payden. We're still working on the sharing bit. :)

Family Pic (ignore my foot) :)

That's all for now. I've got tons more pics but I have to go to bed. Baseball season beckons bright and early tomorrow morning. :( I'll try and update over the weekend. Have a great week!

Kiss it!

2008-03-14T13:54:00.002-06:00

So, in the last few weeks, when Gibson falls down and "hurts" himself, he always asks me to kiss "it"; whatever it may be. It's usually his head, sometimes his leg and last week it was his bottom. :) Anyways, I was on the phone this morning and Gibson slipped off his step stool and hit his shin. He interupted my phone call to tell me to kiss it. I didn't kiss it fast enough so he rolled up his pant leg and kissed it himself. :)

No pictures today. Gibson had his easter party at school but I forgot to take my camera. I borrowed Mom's camera but you have to be more intelligent than the camera to operate it. Apparntly, I am not. I did manage to get a few pictures though. :) I'll try and post them over the weekend. Also, a quick update, Gibson had a meeting this past week with the speech therapist. He is having trouble pronouncing some of his words correctly. The speech therapist will work with him 3 times a month until he turns 3 at which point he'll attend a speech therapy class at the local public school. Other than the speech, Gibson exceeded the "normal" in all of the other developmental categories. We were very relieved that his speech problem was just that and we could take action to correct it before it got worse. That's it for now! I hope you all have a very safe and happy spring break!

Catching Up....Ambulances, Snow and a few other things

2008-03-04T22:06:00.004-06:00

I'm still not sure how time goes by so fast and I manage not to keep my blog updated. Anyways, let me try to catch you up.

We went to Jason's work a couple of weeks ago to visit. Gibson is absolutely fascinated with ambulances. He always wants to see the lights. I'm not posting it but I have a picture of Gibson actually opening the door to the ambulance like he's fixing to jump in and take a call.

Somewhat disappointing to his dad, Gibson also likes fire trucks (just not as much as ambulances). You would think by his reaction that this is the first time for him to see an ambulance or a fire truck. What you may not know is that he sees one or the other (sometimes both) every 3rd day when Jason works.
Here we are snuggled up on the coach not feeling very good. We caught the "yuck" that was going around. Thank God we haven't caught the flu (yet...knock on wood). Poor little cousin Payden has had it twice in 3 weeks. :(
Once Gibson was feeling better, the acoustic part of Post Oak Savannah came over for a short practice. Gibson sat in and picked with the best of them.
He knows exactly how to hold the pick (and how to drop them inside the guitar).
Usually in the mornings, I give Gibson his breakfast and then I'm sort of "in and out" of the kitchen while I get ready and Gibson eats. One morning, he decided to watch TV and eat his breakfast in the living room. This is how I found him.
Then on Sunday, when it was 70 degrees outside, Gibson followed me out to the truck to get something. Like the outfit? That shirt is WAY too small for him (size 18 months) but he INSISTED on wearing it. And the shoes are Jason's. I can already tell he's going to be one of those guys who'll go check the mail in his underwear. I haven't a clue where he gets his fashion sense.
So Sunday, it's 70 degrees and sunny. Monday morning, we've got almost 4 inches of snow on the ground and it's in the 20's. Texas weather...you gotta love it. So Gibson got all bundled up to go play in the snow for the very first time before we had to be at school. His very first step into the snow.
"What is this stuff Mom?"

He took off walking thru the snow like no body's business. (BTW, I'm such a hick.) Anyways, he loved it and thought it was so funny.
"What did you say this stuff is supposed to do?"

Before we went outside, I was putting on my shoes and Gibson says to Jason & I "Let's build a snowman." It was so weird. We hadn't discussed building a snowman at all. But Jason wanted to build Gibson one so here's a picture of Jason's 2 minute snowman. Pretty sad looking, huh?
Just a few pics of Gibson in the snow.

Giving my big boy kisses!

Years ago....

2008-02-22T22:58:00.005-06:00

I have some new pictures to post but haven't downloaded them to the computer yet.

So I thought I'd reminisce for a minute. :)

Here's Gibson 1 year ago. Quite handsome after a haircut. :)

This picture absolutely cracks me up! I'm not entirely sure how he is even breathing. :) Anyways, this one is Gibson 2 years ago. HILARIOUS!

And finally here's Gibson 3 years ago. :) I thought this would be such a cute little post. Remembering years before. But now I just wish I was that size right now. I just remembered that those pants I'm wearing in the picture are the same pants I wore throughout my pregnancy. I doubt I could even wear them now. This started out as a good idea but now....not so much. OK....now I'm depressed.

I think I'll go walk on the treadmill. :)

(Current pictures of Gibson coming soon! I promise!)

Gibson...Live!

2008-02-08T23:07:00.000-06:00

This is going to be short. I'm so tired that I can't even think straight. I don't have much to report. We're still battling the potty training monster. He has his good days where we pee-pee in the potty and we get a m&m. But then there are those days where he could care less about the whole thing. We'll get there. Once again, I'm learning patience. :) Other than that, things are good.

Gibson decided to show off his musical talents this evening by performing his rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". That's only the last 20 seconds or so of the video. I don't have any idea what song he is jamming to at the beginning. But notice how he closes his eyes when he really starts jamming. That's definitely a Dyess family trait he got from his Daddy and his GUM (Great Uncle Marty).

This is what I found when I came home from work on Tuesday. Gibson sleeping in the middle of the floor wearing my hooded sweatshirt. After school on Tuesday, he was sooo tired. As usual, he refused to take a nap and by about 5:00pm that afternoon, he had gone as long as he could go. So he slept in the middle of the living room floor. :)Last Picture of Gibson practicing!!

That's it. Short & Sweet! I'll try more tomorrow maybe when I'm more awake. :)

Have a great weekend!

My Love

2008-01-31T22:26:00.000-06:00

Just to warn you....I don't have any pictures tonight. There are a few on the camera but I'd have to hunt down the camera, the cord, wait for the pictures to upload and then decide which ones I want. That sounded like too much work for me tonite. I'm a little under the weather so I'm being extremely lazy. But I'm waiting for Jason to finish re-stringing his guitar so I have time to kill.

SOOOO, here's this weeks Thursday's Thirteen!

Thirteen Things I Love About Being Gibson's Mom!

Hearing Little G say "I love you"....the ones that are unsolicited are the best but I take what I can get.
Hearing Gibson laugh....sometimes he will laugh until he gets the hiccups!
Gibson hugs....his hugs are so sincere (most of the time).
Pats on the back...there are times when Gibson will just walk up to me and pat me on the back. As if to say "I'm here Mom and I love you!".
This one is kind of selfish...I love that Gibson is such a good sleeper and has been since about 3 months. God works in mysterious ways!
I love it when I catch him talking to himself or playing by himself. It's funny to see and hear how his mind sees things.
He is SO smart! He can spell his name (first and last) all by himself. He can pick out the letters of his name and tell you what each letter is. He can count to twenty. He can say his ABC's (you can't always understand all the letters but you get the idea anyways.) He knows most of his colors. I could go on and on.....
I love his little birth mark....I have one very similar. It reminds me that he is part me since he looks SOOO much like his daddy.
I love it when he is so proud of himself....His little smile just beams and brightens up the whole room.
The way he pronounces some of his words just makes me smile! He'll say "hell-OOOOOO" or "I pell down".
His love of outdoors....I seriously think he would stay outside all day every day if I would let him. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow.....you get the point!
When he gets in trouble, he sits in the corner and can't get up until he apologizes. His "I srreee momma" and hug is priceless!
His animal impresonations...the kid can make all kinds of animal impresonations. My favorites are elephant, monkey, duck, rooster and horse! He always closes his eyes when he pretends to me a rooster or horse!

Obviously, these aren't the only things I love about being Gibson's mom. But these are the first 13 I thought of. (keep in mind I'm taking cold medication which makes me drowsy. so you'll just have to excuse any of the above if it doesn't make sense.)

Have a great weekend!!!

Thursday's Thirteen

2008-01-25T19:49:00.000-06:00

Pretend I posted this yesterday! I saved it but forgot to hit the publish button!

Oopps!

I stole Donkey's idea! :)

13 Things I like About Cold Weather

1. HOT CHOCOLATE
2. Cold weather makes me tired which means I go to bed earlier which means MORE SLEEP!!!

3. I love snuggling under the blankets
4. Wearing layers and layers of clothes
5. Excuse to STAY in the house
6. People walk faster
7. Seeing little kids bundled up in big jackets and caps

8. Chicken & Dumplings (had these tonite for supper...YUMMY!)
9. Did I mention hot chocolate!!!!!
10. Electric Blankets
11. Flannel sheets
12. The smell of wood burning in a fireplace

13. Excuse to take even longer hot showers!

Little G

2008-01-24T19:43:00.000-06:00

So my little jog down memory lane last night made me want to look through pictures of when Gibson was a baby. I thought I'd share a few with y'all so you could laugh with me.

Here's a pacifier (and under it is Gibson). This picture makes us laugh!

Here's Gibson looking like such a little man!
For his first Halloween, Gibson was a firefighter. Jason was working at the Hugo Fire Dept. at that point so we had pictures took in front of the fire truck. Gibson's face cracks me up in this picture. Can you tell he was sick of having his picture taken?

(ps-notice the soot on his face. hehe)

OK....Jason and I seriously laughed our butts off when we scrolled through and found this picture. Look at how "fat" he was. I told Jason I'm pretty sure his waist probably measures smaller right now at 2 1/2 than it did in this picture.

This picture cracked us up too. Jason said it looked like he needed help trying to breathe. (In reality, he was just fine. He was too fat to sit up like he was supposed to.)Here's my little man after his first haircut (at only 9 months old). He did soooo good sitting for his first haircut. Little did we know that this haircut would be the easy one. Now we have to hold him down in the chair to get his haircut. :)
That's it for now. My hand is cramping up from scrolling through all the pictures.

Thanks for jogging down memory lane with me! Have a great weekend!

My Little Guitar Man!

2008-01-23T22:08:00.000-06:00

I have one new picture!!! That's not too bad! While I was hunting for my one new picture in the folder of HUNDREDS of pictures that desperately need to be organized, I came across this old picture. Gibson was only a couple of weeks old in this picture. Some days it seems like this picture was taken forever ago and then there are days where it seems just like yesterday. Today is one of those days where it feels like yesterday. I miss my little buddy. For the past two and a half years, I've spent at least a couple of days a week with him. Now that I'm working full-time again, I miss my days with him. He's growing up way too fast! OK....I'm veering onto memory lane and that's a REALLY long road!

Anyways, notice what a natural he was at only a couple of weeks!

Today.....he carries his guitar around and plays it just like Dad. He's quite the musician!

I need to video Gibson singing and get those posted! I'll put that on my "Things to Do List".

Da Plane! Da Plane!

2008-01-15T22:50:00.000-06:00

It's been a while and sadly I don't have very many new pictures! They're actually from right after Christmas! But I have a REALLY good excuse! We've been moving....at work! After 19 years, we finally moved to a new building! It's great! But EXTREMELY stressful! I'll be very happy when things have settled down and when I can actually find what I'm looking for in my office. By the way, you can check out some new pictures of the building here. :)

Anyways, here's a family picture from Gran's house the day after Christmas!

(I stole it from my mother-in-law.) Thanks Lisa! :)

Here's Gibson sporting his Elmo & snowman pajamas and his Bass Pro Shop cap!

Such great fashion sense!

(This is off the subject...but I seriously need a photo editing program to take out all of the goofs in my pics! You'll just have to excuse Lisa's foot in the next picture! Sorry!)

When Lisa (aka Nana) was down at Christmas, she helped Gibson to "fly" on his airplane! He, of course, had a 'high" time! :)
I wish you could hear the laugh that goes with this picture! :)
He almost ate the camera once he came down from the sky!
His little airplane is another one of those great "investments"! Such great entertainment for a reasonable price!
I'll do my best to take some more recent pictures! No promises! We're still moving some stuff at the shop. It's going to be a crazy weekend with me working all weekend and Jason working and playing gigs. I'll try and keep you posted!

Christmas!!!!!!

2007-12-31T16:01:00.000-06:00

OK....so out of 234 pictures, I narrowed them down to around 30. That's pretty good huh? We had a great Christmas! We were very blessed this year! We spent Christmas with both sides of the family so we had a pretty busy holiday. But it's all worth it!

Here's a quick non-Christmas picture. Gibson likes to try on Jason's clothes and thinks it is funny.

We took Gibson to see the Christmas lights at Crazy House. We've drove thru there a thousand times but this time he got to sit in the front seat and see all the lights. Big thrill!
Here he's pointing at the choo-choo train.
Posing in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve!

(notice his pajamas say "trouble is my middle name". how appropriate!)

On Christmas morning, Gibson got a four-wheeler front from Santa. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of his reaction because I was videoing with the video camera. :( Oh well! He was excited! Of course, he called it a "Tractor" but he loves it!

Checking out his new Elmo shoes!
A new stethoscope just like Daddy!
Playing his new keyboard!
Here's the four-wheeler Santa brought him. It's a little bit bigger than his other four wheeler so he wasn't sure about it at first. He eventually got used to it.
Having a ball!
Expert driver!
Nannie and PaPaw gave Gibson a bouncy horse. That was right up his alley since he is an expert bouncer!
SOOO excited to bounce!
Payden got a wagon from Nannie & Papaw!
Gibson loved it too! We're glad that Payden was nice enough to share.
Everybody took their turn pulling the wagon!
Here it is MeMe's (Aunt Kimberly's) turn!
Payden was having a ball!
Holding on for dear life!
Cousin Haley drove Gibson around in the trailer part of his new four-wheeler. I think he liked being pulled around more than he liked driving it.
At Gran's house, he found a pair of goggles in the toy box.
He looks ready to go sky-diving!

What a present!
Here is Gibson and Elmo riding back to Paris on Christmas Day! They were both exhausted! It's just a little harder to tell that Elmo is tired! :)
Jason & I bought Gibson a Mr. Potato Head for Christmas! He was showing off his work to me! Notice poor Mr. Potato Heads ears! :)
Finally, the other day, I had finished washing dishes and walked into the living room where Gibson had been watching the Backyardigans. Here's what I found! What a goofball!

We're looking forward to another year of blessings in our family and yours!

Happy New Year!!!!

Guitar Pics, Med Story, Christmas Party and Bywaters Park

2007-12-22T21:37:00.000-06:00

Wow! It really doesn't seem that long since my last blog. I'm not sure how time slips by so quickly. Anyways, I'll give you a quick update of the last couple of weeks.

By the way, the next few pictures contain a strategically placed guitar (though not staged) and some partial nudity. Beware!

Jason was playing his guitar when Gibson got out of the bathtub one night.

Gibson decided to join in on the pickin' and grinnin'.

Watching Daddy play!
I think he's playing a "C"! :)
Gibson's Self-Portrait
I found him checking his "email".
I've got mail!

OK...I'll take a pause from the pics for just a minute to give you the short version of our weekend of terror. On Sunday last week, while I was busy in the house, Gibson found my purse which had my prescription diet pills in them. He managed to open the child-proof lid and eat some of the pills. We aren't sure how many he ate. We're estimating somewhere between 1 and 5. Jason called the ER and spoke to a nurse who said that if we brought him in they would monitor his heart and give him charcoal. We decided we could do that at home. So, we gave him charcoal and monitored his heart rate. We also called poison control and was instructed to do the same thing. But, by that evening, it was clear that the meds had taken a strong hold on his little body. We decided to go to the ER. After 3 or so hours in the ER, we made it home. The next several hours (at least 6 hours or so) were full of Gibson throwing himself into whatever he could. He would run full blast into the wall of the room at the ER and then fall back and hit his head on the floor. This continued through-out the night until he finally fell asleep about 3am. He slept for about 1 1/2 hours and then woke up starting all over again. This continued through Monday and by that night he had slept for about 5 hours since he woke up on Sunday morning at 8am. Tuesday morning, he woke up VERY irritated and continued throwing fits. I called his doctor and made an appointment. The doctor basically said to wait it out. I should mention that throughout our visits to the ER and Gibson's doctor, never once did they draw blood to make sure that the meds were actually the problem. And what was even more scary about the whole incident was that when you looked into Gibson's eyes, you couldn't see anything. It was like he had checked out for a couple of days. He hadn't smiled or laughed since before Sunday morning when he first ingested the meds. It was heartbreaking to say the very least. Jason worked on Tuesday but left work early to come home and help me deal with Gibson as we considered driving to Dallas to Children's Hospital. Gibson took a long 4 1/2 hour nap on Tuesday afternoon and woke up in a much better mood. By late Tuesday evening, he was close to being back to normal. Wednesday was an even better day and by that afternoon, Gibson was back to being his old happy self. It was a VERY stressful couple of days both on Gibson and us. We are SOOOOO thankful Gibson is back to being Gibson!

With all that said, back to pictures!

Thursday was Gibson's Christmas party at school. He was excited to be back to school since he wasn't at school on Tuesday. Here he is drinking his juice and eating his snacks!
Got a mouthful!
He looks up-to-something in this picture!
All the kids in the class exchanged gifts (books...Gibson's favorite) and Gibson got a book about Christmas! He was very interested in seeing Santa and the snowmen in the book!
Right here, Mom!

One of my favorite memories about Christmas time when my siblings and I were kids was going to Bywaters Park. We got to see the gingerbread house, Santa's sleigh and reindeer, the snowmen and their frozen pond where you could pretend to skate and of course, Santa Claus. This is definitely a tradition that I want Gibson to cherish when he is all grown up. So Friday night, we loaded up and went to Bywaters Park. We all had soooo much fun!

Sorry this picture is kind of dark. It was the first one I took when we got there and it took me a minute to realize I needed to be closer to Gibson.
Once again, my professional photography skills at their best!

Checking out Santa's sleigh and his reindeer!
The gingerbread house!
(I can remember actually getting to go into the house when we were kids!
That was always so much fun!)

We were walking around the park and saw where someone was giving horse-drawn carriage rides. Best of all, the rides were free and a guy that works with Jason was running the whole thing! Gibson sat up front with Roger and helped drive the carriage! He was such a big boy!

(I didn't really get any good pics of the carriage ride. I was at an awkward angle.)

Here you can see Gibson, part of Roger and if you try real hard the horse's tail.

Jason, Roger & Gibson (and the horse) Getting off the carriage ride!
Petting the horse! Posing by the snowman!
This is Santa's house! Gibson didn't want to go in at all. Jason finally just carried him in. I just knew he was fixing to completely freak out. But he never shed a tear! I was soo relieved.
He was definitely keeping an eye on Santa at all times! Gibson eventually sat on Santa's knee for just a second (so there's no picture) but he didn't cry which is a big improvement! :)
Posing with Rudolph and the choo-choo train!
Posing with Santa and the choo-choo train! Being so good to pose for yet ANOTHER picture in front of the snow-couple.
By the end of the night, Gibson was all about striking a pose in front of something!
Even the Christmas trees!
Gibson enjoying a piggy-back ride back to the car!
After we visited Bywaters, we drove around and enjoyed looking at some Christmas lights! (another tradition from when i was a kid).

Well, I think you're updated now! I promise I'll post Christmas pictures as soon as I can.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Parade, Woodbelly Concert and a Sunday afternoon

2007-12-03T23:00:00.000-06:00

Friday night, Gibson refused to go to bed. It was going on 10:30 and the kid was still in his room singing and playing with his dog. So I finally convinced him to go to sleep because when he woke up in the morning we would go see the ambulances, police cars and fire trucks at the parade. That did it! The kid fell asleep and I didn't hear a peep from him all night.

So Saturday we went to the Christmas parade. He had such a good time! Of course, he LOVED the ambulances, police cars & fire trucks. But the parade exceeded his expectations when it had TRACTORS & MARCHING BANDS! He was in heaven!

(Mom was nice enough to take pictures for me and she'll tell you she's not very good at taking pics. So just ignore the Lexus in the picture. It certainly isn't ours and had I realized it was a Lexus I wouldn't have propped my big butt on it throughout the parade. Thanks Mom for taking pics!)

Here we are enjoying the parade!

Gibson watching the band and the ambulance!
Fire Trucks!
Checking everything out!

Gibson jumped up & down the entire time the first band marched by us. So when the second band went by us, Mom decided to video. Except she didn't know (and I didn't realize) she was videoing sideways! Sorry! Just tilt your head a little! You'll also notice the poor quality of the video. Sorry again! Mom was trying not to get ran over my the band but still keep Gibson in the video. Then my old band director stopped to say hi and got in the video. Videoing at a parade is difficult to say the least. :) You can see Gibson marching with the band and waving goodbye to the band.

On Saturday night, Jason, Gibson and I went downtown to watch Cas Haley and his band, Woodbelly, play. You may know him from America's Got Talent but we've known him and his talent for years. Jason played in a band with him for a while. Jason has always said that Cas would make it big one day! Also, Cas's brother-in-law is the bass player for Post Oak Savannah! We're super proud of Cas!

Gibson enjoyed listening to the reggae music! He danced and ran around (until he got hungry)!

I did have to fight him to keep his jacket on. It wasn't too cool unless the wind was blowing and then it was down right chilly. (Look close...you can see Cas on stage!)
Sunday was a beautiful day! Windy but beautiful! Gibson and I took advantage of the weather and played outside while Jason was stuck in the attic (aka the hell pit of darkness) installing the phone lines for the Internet. I hate it when Jason is stuck doing house stuff instead of spending time with us! With his work schedule, I like to eat up as much family time as possible!

Gibson liked running through the leaves! (I should have raked some up in a pile but like I said it was windy and that would've been pointless.)

(Once again, please ignore the back door where my ignorant weenie dog has scratched off the paint. That's the East Texas Redneck coming out in us (or at least the house). We'll get it repainted one of these days. It's at the bottom of the honey-do list.)

Next, we played with sidewalk chalk on the back porch.

Gibson usually swings on his swing set while I pick up around the yard. (Our German Shepard is like having another kid to pick up after.) Apparently, Gibson caught on to me cleaning up the yard and decided to help pick up the sticks on the ground.

He cleaned them up by throwing them over the fence! (I haven't the slightest idea where he got that from. For the record, over the fence is nothing but a pasture where the cows roam. I wouldn't throw sticks in someone else's yard.)

He has to make sure the sticks make it all the way over!
Here's Duke protecting Gibson as he climbs up the ladder!
Getting ready to slide!

(Notice the new satellite on the house.....we're high tech now! We have a DVR!!!!)

And finally, Gibson has officially moved to a big boy chair. We bought him a booster seat and I put up the high chair. Just another step to Gibson becoming a big boy.

(Wait....let me wipe a tear. Although I'm not going to miss it being in my way in the kitchen.)

I can't believe how big he is! He's growing up WAY too fast! Sometimes I'll look at him sitting at the table like a big boy and he looks like he's five years old. That scares me to death. His independence means we're doing our job but it makes me want to cry. I know...I know.....that's parenthood!

He really likes sitting in a chair like Momma & Daddy! Here he is enjoying a bowl of spaghetti!

That's it for now! I've gotten much better at posting! I'll go ahead and warn you that the posts may slow down in the next month or two. First of all, I have yet to buy a single Christmas present. (yikes!) Second, work is going to be really crazy since we'll be moving hopefully towards the end of the month. I'll do my best to keep you updated. But no promises! :)

The Grinch and Trimming the Tree

2007-11-30T22:10:00.000-06:00

We are in the Christmas spirit here at the Dyess household.

Gibson was completely enthralled with "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas".

Gibson was such a big helper when we decorated the Christmas tree.
Trying to find a good spot.
Found it!
I think he did such a good job! And they're all so evenly distributed. :)
I think we ended up with probably 10 or so ornaments on one branch. He was soooo proud!

The finished product....at least finished in Gibson's eyes. He lost interest at this point!
Up close and personal
Sporting the Santa hat only moments before Daisy found it on the ground and ate the fuzzy ball off the end of it! Dang dog!
Gibson is moving to a big boy chair at the table! It makes me sad to put the high chair up. He's growing up too fast! His booster seat came with a step stool which is only about 3" off the ground. So he's made a game of jumping off of it. You'd think he was jumping off a cliff! He has a blast!
Ready.....Set.....
GO!!!!
Stumming on the git-fiddle (aka guitar).
I'M NOT LISTENING!!!!!
This is the kind of mood the kid was in today! Just one of those day where he figured out how to push every button I had. I'm glad these kind of days are few and far between.

I caught him admiring the Christmas tree! He likes to point out all the snowmen and Santa's. (and there are a bunch!) Usually keeps him busy for a few minutes.
(Oh and can you see the ball-less Santa hat in the corner of the pic?)
:)