Oatmeal

This morning I heard the clanking of dishes, followed by little footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Mommy?!! Are the dishes in the dishwasher clean???"

He sounds so grown-up!

"Yes, they're clean!"

"I'm making oatmeal!! I'm mixing it in this bowl!"

The entire contents of the Gerber oatmeal box was poured into a bowl, and our little man was so pleased with himself. What a self-sufficient boy!

Thanksgiving

I figured that since Christmas is only a week away, it's probably about time I posted some pictures from Thanksgiving ;)

Our Thanksgiving day started out eventfully, with James getting a big bump on the head. He was sitting at the top of our stairs, and decided to stick his legs in his shirt and pretend to be an egg. I heard a little voice say, "Look, Mommy, I'm an egg!" and before I could reach him he was rolling down the stairs, head first. I got to the bottom of the stairs as his head smacked right into the tile floor at the bottom. Poor boy! He got a pretty good goose egg on his head and was pretty scared. Jonathan used his one-semester optometry skills to check James' pupil sizes and see if he had a concussion (which he didn't!)

We then headed off to a nearby field where a large group of guys from our ward were playing football. We sat on the grass and visited with some of the wives and kids while the men played. I am so grateful to be in a ward with SO many medical students and residents - I took James over to one of the residents and said, "is my son's head ok???" :)

We had a wonderful day being together and skyping with family. Here are my boys playing Mario Kart with some of the Boster men in Oregon. Thank you, technology!

A shot of James' bump on the head...

This was my first time making the ENTIRE Thanksgiving meal all by myself - and I have to say that it turned out really well!! We cooked a small turkey breast instead of a big turkey, and it was delicious.

And of course, true to Boster tradition, we had a pretty good pie-to-person ratio.

James enjoys some pie with his favorite stuffed animal buddy, Pongo.

We ended the day by watching "White Christmas" - sticking to the Gibbons family Thanksgiving tradition! Let the Christmas season begin!

We are so blessed :)

our James

Did I ever mention how much we love this boy?

He says the greatest prayers lately. Like this one:

...Gateful for Mommy and Daddy and James.
Gateful for the Spirit.
Gateful for the other temples.
Gateful for our temple.
Gateful for all of the globes that other people have.
In the name...........................oh!!!
Gateful for Bapa and Jukie, gateful for Grandy and Nana, gateful for Annie, gateful for Josh, gateful for Bapa. Amen.



Or this one:

...Gateful for Mommy, Daddy, and James.
Gateful for froggies.
Gateful for Mommy Froggie.
Gateful for James Froggie.
Gateful for blankies.
Gateful for Superman shirts.
Gateful for ears.
Gateful for noses.
Gateful for hair.
Gateful for glasses.
Gateful for wasacki puzzles.
Gateful for turnaround pieces.
....Amen.


*We've been doing a Wysocki puzzle over Thanksgiving break. And apparently a turnaround piece is a type of a train track.



One more:

Gateful for Mommy, Daddy and James.
Gateful for our noses.
Gateful for the tv.
Gateful for the food we just ate.
Gateful for the Wii.
Gateful for my squirty things.

And he cracks me up sometimes with the things he says. Like:

A bee messed up my hair!!

Or: Mmmmmmm.....I smell something!....It's food!! Bresgrift, Crips, Marshmallow Mateys!

Bresgrift = breakfast

Crips = Chex

Or because of the fact that he calls our Nativity Set an "Activity Set."



He's a keeper, that's for sure!

My little brother is all grown up...

My little brother Josh got his mission call a couple of weeks ago!
We got to watch him open his call on Skype - thank you, technology! :)

He's going to the Mexico Oaxaca mission.

We are so excited for Uncle Dosh!

James missed the opening of the call...we filled him in the next day and he anxiously got out his globe to find out where Josh is going!

Study Buddies

Sometimes it's nice to have a little study buddy.

Daddy Day

In our house, Sunday is our very favorite day of the week because Daddy does not study!
James just loves having an entire day to play with him.

A couple of Sundays ago, James ran into our room at about six in the morning,
ran to my side of the bed and said, "Mommy...is it Daddy Day?!"

Here are my cute sticky-up morning hair boys hanging out on a Sunday morning,
playing games on Daddy's iPod. This is the life!

While Daddy studies....

On Saturday James and I had a little adventure while Daddy studied the day away for a big physiology test. It was actually a pretty chilly morning, and we were glad we had found our jackets before heading out the door.

We first went to the Japanese Tea Gardens to take family pictures for a cute family in our ward. James loved the cool bridges to walk on and the huge goldfish in the pond!

Then we took a little stroll through Brackenridge Park - we had never been in this park before, just walked by it on our way to the zoo, so we thought we'd check it out. As I pushed James in the stroller, I soon realized we had happened upon some big event which included a 2-mile walk for some cause. As we turned a corner, a lady said to me, "You're doing great!! Only one more mile to go!" Pretty funny. As soon as we passed her we got out of there, not wanting to get stuck in the loop with the other walkers!

We then headed to the zoo!

I just love my little zoo buddy, granola bar face and sticky-ups and all.

We somehow always find something new each time we go to the zoo - this time it was a pond full of huge goldfish, just like the ones at the tea gardens! We got to get up close and personal with these fish. *You ought to see James' impression of a goldfish - he's got that fishy mouth thing down!

FREE

When my Dad was in law school, my Mom used to clip coupons and find awesome deals like crazy. In her letters home to their families, she used to tell them her amazing deals of the week. (In fact, one of my earliest memories is of climbing up on the kitchen table as a very young toddler and proceeding to mess up piles and piles of meticulously clipped and organized coupons....sorry Mom!) Well Mama - here is MY sweet deal of the week! I got ALL of this stuff for FREE!!

Thankful.

In an effort to help us all remember that we have so many things to be thankful for this holiday season, I decided to make a Thanksgiving tree! Because we are so blessed. James reminds us of this every time he says a prayer (which is quite often). He reminds me that not only am I thankful for the big things - like our family, the Spirit, the Gospel, our Savior - but seemingly simple things, like lights and books and trains and cups. And that Daddy could go to 'tometry school. And for the yummy food we ate. And Daddy's eye stuff.

So every day, we take some of our "leaves" and write down a few things we are thankful for. Many things get repeated (James is thankful for Mommy every day - and I don't argue, I just write it down each time!), and sometimes we come up with wonderful new things to write down, like family home evening, James' smile, and pens. And of course the important things are on there too - like grandparents, Aunt Liz (who just got home from her mission!), and our home.

I can't wait to see how full this thing gets by Thanksgiving!

And a little Bing to bring on the holidays... :)

Catch

Playing "ball ball" (as James calls it - he loves to make up names for games) in James' room. What a nice kid.