This one time last summer...

This week I sat down and started rescuing photos that have been hidden in the depths of my computer for the past year...and so enjoyed looking at all of them and remembering the fun things we have done. Even though I am so so behind and these are so overdue, I am going to try and at least somewhat "catch up" on this blog - mostly through pictures!

Last July (haha), we got to spend a few wonderful hours with my siblings at my parents' house in Utah! We were traveling through on a very quick weekend trip on our way to Jonathan's sister's wedding. We loved seeing all of my siblings, meeting our nephew Ivan (he and Ollie will be great buddies - they are less than four months apart!), meeting my sister's boyfriend, introducing Ollie to those who had not yet met him, and just being all together for the first time in a long time. We definitely missed my parents in Russia!

And what is a trip to Utah without some Cafe Rio?

Adorable cousin buddies

 

Ollie getting acquainted with Uncle Ron

 
James was beyond thrilled to find Jukie's toys in the regular spot.

 

Ella's favorite thing to play with - Russian dolls!

Ollie with his Uncle Josh

 

 

By the time we arrived, what with some mix-ups with our car rental and a wrong turn on the freeway (oops), it was about 11:00 at night. The kiddos were remarkably happy and had a blast.

Sibling pictures!!

 

No worries, James just fell head-first off of the couch.

Ella's face in this one is priceless.

 

Liz and Jonathan were twinners.

 

 
I have several wonderful nieces- and nephews-in-law on Jonathan's side, but Ivan is my first real nephew - so fun! I can't wait for these little guys to be able to play together.

Reading in Bapa's library with Uncle Josh.

Annie and Ollie :)

 

Jonathan and Ivan get acquainted. Ivan wasn't sure what to think...

 
My parents' four adorable grandchildren!

 

A favorite Gibbons summer pastime - lying on the grass in the front yard. These boys are just waiting for Bapa to come home from Siberia and hang out on the grass with them!

 

Aunt Lizzie

Gibbons salad.

Oliver and his Aunt Abby!

Being a doggie.

Jonathan and the boys

We are looking forward to THIS July, when my parents will come home from Russia and we will all be together again! Can't wait!

6:25 a.m.

I don't really need an alarm clock. My children all wake up happy at 6:25 a.m. Nevermind that it is still dark outside (and throughout the house); or that Jonathan and I are sound asleep. Nevermind that James was up 2 hours ago with a fever; or that Ollie went to bed an hour later than usual. Nevermind that their genes handed down from Mommy MUST all say "NOT a morning person!!" in big huge letters. They are UP. (It's like Dr. Seuss says: "Up, up! Great day for up!") I sit in bed sleepily nursing Oliver (who woke up at 6:25 like clockwork) when I hear a sudden scream of joy. Ella is up and out of her new big girl bed. She shrieks and giggles as she galumphs around, pounding the back side of our closet wall. I later discover that James was sitting in bed, cleverly shining his flashlight on the wall and Ella was bounding around chasing after it. I manage to gain a few more quiet minutes in bed by getting Ella a stack of books and a flashlight of her own and tucking her into bed. She beams, all comfy and purple-pajamaed in her big girl bed. Both kids are quiet and content, reading by the soft glow of their flashlights. I return to bed and hear happy babbling and spitting from the crib. My quiet is lovely but short-lived. Soon we have five in our bed. Let another day begin!

big bed.

When James was about the same age as Ella is now, we moved him into a toddler bed. Oh, it was bliss. He went to bed without a fuss. We tucked him in and then had ourselves a little pizza while watching the season opener of "Lost" while he slept. He slept all night long and then woke up when the light streamed through his big window and as I tiptoed into his room with the camera to document the momentous occasion of him becoming a big boy. He was all smiles as I snapped these pictures.

This weekend we moved Ella from her crib into that same toddler bed. She was so excited. She played in it during the day while I rearranged the kids' room. She did cry for awhile at nap time but then did sleep well. She went down at night alright (we did hear some playing going on in there - she and James share a room - but we just close the door and let them do their thing until they fall asleep!). I tell you what, though, it is amazing how life (and particularly your nights) changes when you have three children. Let me illustrate by sharing this email I sent off to my family the morning after her first night in her big bed:

Dear Family,

I think Ella's first night in her toddler bed went rather well, don't you think? And I've been wondering why I always have a headache lately.......

9:00 pm fell asleep playing scrabble
11:00 got up to go to bed
11:30 Ollie was crying. Fed Ollie
1:10 fell asleep
2:28 Ollie crying, fed him
3:00 to 3:30 listened to Ollie happily blowing "raspberries" in bed
3:40 fell asleep
5:37 heard the kids, got up and found Ella out of bed and in the hall, bedroom light turned on, music turned on full blast, James lying in bed. Turn off lights, put Ella back to bed, lock their bedroom door to keep Ella safe.
6:30 James yells that Ella wants to go potty, wakes up me and Ollie. Jonathan goes and takes care of kids, I feed Ollie.
7:00 Everyone is wide awake, but Jonathan and I are in bed pretending that we will be able to fall back asleep. Ollie is in bed with us, smiling, Ella is crying, James is pounding on their door.

Love,
Sleepy Jenny

That's right, there was no tiptoeing in with the camera when the first rays of the sun shined in the window. We are so over that, people. Our kids are always wide awake long before the sun comes up. I didn't even take a picture of her that morning. Instead I was lying in bed with a big fuzzy blanket over my head trying to get in a few extra minutes of sleep and trying to block out the baby and Ella crying and James yelling and pounding on the door. I love my life as a mama, but I don't have to like it at 5 in the morning - haha!

Here is our sweetie girl in her new bed! Pictures taken the day we set it up. Note the tiny pillow with the cars pillowcase that she LOVES and will not do without, and the Cabbage Patch doll that was mine when I was little. (Ella and I discovered a box full of old dolls, including my American Girl dolls, and she was in heaven!)

my favorite weekend of the year

Twice a year, our church has what is called general conference. Instead of attending church, we spend the weekend at home watching a live broadcast of our church leaders in Salt Lake City speaking to us and members throughout the world and sharing spiritual messages and counsel. Conference weekend has always been like a holiday to me, right up there with Christmas and Thanksgiving (really!). We always come together as a family, eat lots of food (including traditional favorites like scones for breakfast, Mama's tacos and Marie Callender's pies), and partake in a great spiritual feast as we listen to our Prophet and the apostles. And the music, oh the music! It is one of my favorite parts. I love hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing, and am so grateful for beautiful music that inspires and helps us feel the Spirit. Conference is a chance to receive encouragement and inspiration, and to ponder on the things we can do in our lives to improve and be better.

I have always loved general conference, and now as a young mother look forward to it even more. The first general conference after my husband and I moved to Texas, so far away from all of our family members, as the broadcast started and the pipe organ started to play I got a little teary-eyed with joy at the opportunity to receive counsel from my Heavenly Father. It felt like coming home!

This weekend was wonderful. We had lots of fun with our little family. We made a giant board game (Candy Land) - haha, we are nerdy - and played hide and seek with our kids! They loved it!

We watched general conference on Jonathan's fun projector and basked in the joy and inspiration. We were so glad to have friends come over and watch with us during a couple of the sessions.

The kids colored and played the "I Spy General Conference" game that I made up as we watched. It helped us to pay attention and listen for different topics that were discussed! We also got points for finding things like certain colors of ties, the organ, and my Aunt Ruth singing in the choir. We racked up enough points to earn ice cream cones!

We fried up some tacos (with my secret family recipe that goes back three generations) and ate with our good friends the Blairs. 

The men went to Priesthood meeting while the mamas watched a chick flick at our house (and the children ran around like crazy, turning off the lights and shining flashlights and screaming and playing with every toy in our playroom - such happy chaos!).

We ate an entire apple pie with our good friends (hot out of the oven with ice cream, yummy!) and then stayed up late playing the Wii. Oh, and all 5 of the children were still awake when they left at around 11:00. Talk about grumpy children in the morning, but what a fun memory :) We are so grateful for wonderful friends to celebrate holidays and conference with :)

Find all of the general conference addresses here!

Life Lately

How do you catch up when you haven't blogged forever? Well, you don't. You just sort of move on :) I have been keeping a private blog just for family with our sort-of-weekly family letters (which we've been writing since the parentals have been in Russia), but I'd love to keep in touch with friends too! So here we go, a long overdue Boster update....

Jonathan has eight(!) more months of optometry school to go. Not that we're counting....

We are getting so excited to be done, but also realizing just how much we're going to miss everyone here when we move! It's pretty much bittersweet when you think about it.

James started KINDERGARTEN (how am I old enough to have a child in school??). He is enjoying it, I am enjoying having a little quiet time of my own during the day if the other two will nap simultaneously. One can dream, at least.

I am sort of becoming a morning person....at least, pretending to do so. Having a child in school will do that to you :) It is going surprisingly well and we enjoy having time together as a family before the boys go off to school. And I am exhausted once we put the kids to bed at 7.

We are feeling super homesick for AUTUMN. I usually walk James to and from school, in the BLAZING heat, with the other kids in the double stroller, uphill both ways (um, sort of for real), and I just really would love a small drop in temperature and a cool breeze. Luckily this week is supposed to be rainy rainy rainy...so in celebration we had chili for dinner! 

Ollie is seriously the best baby in the world. He is so patient and laid-back. And he gives me huge old smiles whenever I am feeling like a grumpy mommy. He LOVES playing games, and we play lots every day. His personal favorites include "This is the way the ladies ride," "Two eye peepers," the "blanket game" where Oliver and Ella lie on the floor and I cover them with a blanket and say, "where are my kids??" and then they kick and giggle as I pull the blanket off, "This Little Piggie," and "Here comes a man a-walkin'." I'll tell you what, it is a party over here.

Jonathan finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of building something out of wood (and I am sure it is just the first of many projects!) and built us a nice bench for our kitchen table. He made up the plans all on his own and did it ALL with just a hand saw so it took forever but it turned out awesome. So we finally have more than 3 chairs at our table. Huzzah.

Wednesdays have become "Blair day" in our family, as we started up a little dinner co-op with our good friends. We take turns cooking dinner and our families eat together (well, mostly the kids pick at their food for about 4 minutes before we let them run off and play, and then we eat and visit and play games). What would we do without our great friends??

It's always amusing the things you say as a parent that you never would have fathomed saying before you had children. Here's one example: "James, we DIDN'T name you Coriantor, so there's no reason to cry!"

We've all been sick this week (mostly just a high fever) - well all except Jonathan, he's usually the one who doesn't get sick, lucky guy! Luckily (?) we have all taken turns very nicely, so there has only been one of us sick at a time! First James, then me, then Ollie, and now finally Ella has succumbed, but is getting better. Ollie sure loved having a cold wet washcloth on his head!

Ella is adorable, as always, and is getting good at talking, singing and jumping. We really enjoy being buddies while big brother is at school (in fact, she often comes up to me and says, "Buddies??"). She loves playing with her baby dolls and has named them all "Ollie." She and her elephant lovey "Da-dat" are inseparable.

Well that just about wraps it up. Here are some cute picture for good measure.