Aubrey's pastime

As of lately, Aubrey's pastime seems to be pulling all the books off the shelf. I have to keep a close eye on her because when it gets too quiet, I know she's after the books. She especially loves to get Aaron and Connor's books. She used to take down every single book but after I got on her case a few times, she seems to be restraining herself somewhat. It's funny to watch her "hit and run" when I come calling. I know this is totally nothing compared to what some people go through with kid messes so I guess I just have to be grateful.


On Saturday, I had a few extra kids over so we pulled out some games to play. When I walked out of the room, Aubrey got into the Animal Bingo game and pulled out all the animal chips. She was taking them to the bathroom and sliding them through the crack between the toilet seat and lid. When I came back downstairs, I had a pretty bad feeling when I saw her running to the bathroom with chips in hand. The toilet seat was down and I just knew that they were in there. She had gotten almost all of the animal chips in the toilet. I wish that I would have taken a picture but I took care of the situation rather quickly and then realized that I had some toilets to scrub. By the way, the Animal Bingo game is adorable. The graphics are really wonderful. And there are some fun variations to play. It's by eeBoo games. They have some way cute stuff for kids! I'm going to order a new one from amazon.com.

My little boy

July 2005

August 2008

Hurricane GIBBS

We just enjoyed a trip to Orlando over Labor Day weekend. Mike had a conference down there so we decided to make a family trip out of it. We ventured to one of the water parks this time. The weather at Typhoon Lagoon turned out to be interesting to say the least. Being warm outside wearing swimsuits in a downpour was a first for us. But it was still pretty fun...for a couple hours. The kids still had a great time. One of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing Finding Nemo the musical at Animal Kingdom. Loved it. And this time, I got to ride Expedition Everest. Way fun! Last time we were in Orlando, I was 10 weeks pregnant with Aubrey so I didn't brave the ride. Connor went on it three times. I had to do some major convincing to get him to go on a third time. First, he went on with Dad. Then he went on with his friend, Kate...I think to reassure her and be all tough. And then I wanted to go on it one time with him before the park closed but he had had enough and realized that he didn't like the ride so much. So I did a lot of talking to get him to go once more. And he gave in. I bought him a Yeti crossing pin to add to his pin collection. The safari is always a great ride. I love seeing the animals roam. We saw a baby elephant struggling to step over a big log. It was so cute and funny. It reminded me of the climbing phase that Aubrey is in right now. Toddlers are so curious and busy. Animal Kingdom is definitely one of my favorite places to visit in Orlando. We hit Magical Kingdom on Labor Day with some friends. The highlight of our day at Magical Kingdom had to be the character breakfast. It's just great to see how the kids react to the characters. We had breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and characters. Aubrey was totally excited and kept pointing and yelling at them. She would walk towards them and as soon as they would get a little closer she would run back over to me and grab my leg. She seemed to like Tigger the best. The boys really had a great time. Unfortunately, Aaron wasn't feeling too well while we were at the parks. Florida is an interesting climate in August. Very hot, humid and muggy and then very cold air conditioning. I don't think the frequent changes helped him. So Mike took Aaron and Aubrey back to the hotel early. Connor ended up being my partner in crime. I took him on Space Mountain. Yeah, he didn't like it much. He really screamed on that one. Poor guy...I could tell it scared him. The scary part of the whole trip for me was flying back home alone with the kids with Aubrey on my lap and a layover in Atlanta. Almost lost Aaron, in Atlanta. That freaked me out! But we made it back safe and together and overall, the kids did pretty good. But I'm not going to do that again any time soon.

Can you see Connor hidden in the picture?
Our first day of school was last Thursday. Aaron's cold worsened after we got back home from Orlando so he actually missed his first two days of school. I made him go this week despite the lingering cough. Connor seems to really be enjoying Kindergarten. He has a really funloving teacher. I really wish it was longer though. He even asked me why school was so short. He's made a few buddies and there are always kids calling his name after school lets out. He must be making a good impression.


I'm not quite sure that I'm liking the schedule of having two kids at home in the morning. My first problem is that I don't want Connor to be wasting his morning in front of the tv. Yet, at the same time, I can't exactly be entertaining him myself. So it's been kind of boring for him. I'm going to get him in a social skills group one morning a week and I'll have to figure out a library day and then maybe some playdates. My other problem is that I don't exactly have a good time to run errands because I really don't want to go shopping with two kids in the morning and after I drop off Connor, I've got to come back home to put Aubrey down for her nap. And if I start booking up the mornings for Connor, then I really don't have time to shop. So I'm finding it challenging to keep the fridge stocked. I'm sure I'll get into some sort of groove soon enough.

On to the basement...the last of our remodeling woes. We've been trying to get the framing and fire protection inspections passed off this week. We had no problems with the electrical inspection but until we get the framing signed off, we can't sheetrock. Our contractor is hoping to get the job done by the end of next week. We're being held up by the town on inspections. Dealing with permits and inspectors has got to be the biggest downside to remodeling. Those people are just plain rude...right up there with airport security. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the completion of the basement. It will be so great to have our house back! Pictures to come.

More August Rush cont...

Last weekend, we went our Gibbs Family Reunion in Boise, ID. We had a really great time with Mike's family. Aaron thoroughly enjoyed himself. He loved everything we did and he's been asking to go back to Boise to have some more adventures. Thanks Aunt Sherlyn for the great time!

Here we are out at Cascade lake. We had a little storm break up the fun for a few minutes. We all squeezed under the canopy. It was pretty funny.

Rudy was king of the canoe. He took most of the kids out for a ride and even took Grandma out for a ride.
Aubrey really enjoyed going in the water. She wasn't afraid to make a splash!
Here she is playing in the sand with her cousins, Eliza and Lauren.
We went to the little town rodeo in Cascade. It was our first time ever at the rodeo. It was pretty fun and the kids enjoyed themselves. Aaron loved watching all the riders. And Connor made friends with some of the local kids. :)

Here's the Gibbs family. Wow, we sure have grown! Below are the new additions from last year. Tristan, and Jake were adopted by Ding and Christy and then we had five girls all born within nine months of each other. Autumn, Eliza, Olivia, Aubrey, and Lauren. (Left to right: Jake, Aubrey, Autumn, Lauren, Olivia, Eliza, and Tristan)

August Rush continued...

Mike has been teaching Connor to ride his bike. He's done a really great job and we're almost there! Connor had a really good run a few weeks ago but has been a little nervous about getting back on the bike. He's just a hesitant kid. I'm hoping that he will be ready to get back on when we get back in town. Connor was hilarious when riding the bike. He stopped to do warmups at the end of the street before hopping back on his bike. His lunges were totally cracking me up.

August Rush...

Aaron finished up the extended school year and really had a great time in school. He did great and seemed to really enjoy his additional school time this summer. I think riding the bus helped a lot! Mike and I have been trying to tackle the landscaping in our spare time this month. Mike's been working on taking out some stumps in the back yard and I've been working on making the front yard look somewhat presentable. We're getting there but it takes time. The boys had fun setting little "traps" for the squirrels around one of the stumps. We have the most amazing birds that come around our neighborhood. So I was thinking it would be really neat to fill up the bird feeders out back to attrack some of the birds. The bird feeders hang on these hanging plant rods and I didn't think the squirrels would be able to get to the feeders. I saw a few squirrels attemping to get the seeds but they just slid down the rod. It was pretty funny. But then they figured they could jump over to the feeder before they slid off. So sure enough, they got to the seeds and before we knew it, we had a backyard full of the neighborhood squirrels. So the boys wanted to set up some traps to get catch a squirrel. Poor Hemmie!