New Adventures in the Two Year-Old World

Well, our sweet beautiful little girl is SOOOOOO two. The last several months have been one constant tantrum. She argues about everything, wants everything, gets frustrated about everything, doesn't want anything to do with us and then immediately wants us to "hold you." I could go on and on forever but anyone who has ever had a two year-old knows exactly what I'm talking about. Anyone who has not had a two year-old thinks they know but until you experience over two months of constant tantrums you have no idea. However, the good news is on last Saturday the switch flipped and she has been so sweet and adorable. She is a pleasure to be around, if she wants something and we tell her no she simply says okay and puts it away and it hasn't been embarrassing to take her places. We are in HEAVEN!!!! We are praying it continues.

Cassidy has discovered dirt this summer. I wanted to get some pictures of her playing in the dirt like she does but all she would do was pose. One of them she is posing by holding a dirt clod in her hand. She is so silly.

This was a new and very unexpected turn of events. Last week she got her hands on some scissors and cut her hair. Once on Monday and David took her to get it fixed and the stylist reallty didn't do anything. Partially because Cassidy didn't want anything to do with her. So he was waiting for our friend that normally cuts our hair to get back from a trip and in the meantime she cut her hair again on Friday. The top picture is the side that she cut twice and the second picture is teh good side so you can see what it looked like before she cut it. She looked so aweful and we just had to live with it for a week.

So Julie finally came back from her from her trip and Cassidy got a new and very different hair style. Scroll down to see.

The Side View.

The Front View.

The back. She really didn't leave us any options. The first time she cut her hair it was only about 1/2 inch long on one spot. Julie did such a great job of blending it in that you can't tell unless you know it's there. It is actually really cute. A little boyish. Let's just say she won't be wearing Blue for a while.

I can still put it in two little ponytails on top of her head. This is after a long day of playing so they are a little floppy but it is really cute.

Cassidy wanted to have a say in how she posed and where the pictures were taken so I had to compromise for the posed shots of her hair So, these are her choice of location and pose.

She loves her new swing set.

Well of course I always put the boring stuff at the bottom. David is working on growing our business more. He is going to do some additional advertising soon. Hopefully we are going to grow a little more this year. It has been good to be small so we can figure out how to run a business. It has definately been an experience to learn from. David also made the Dean's List again. He graduates next May with his Bachelors. We can't decide if it is worth getting his masters or not. We'll make that decision when the time comes. Right now we just want to get through the next year.

Same old, same old for Cheri. Working at the hospital, YW president..... Our young men and young women went to Marin's Cove at the beginning of June. David and I went as a "Ma and Pa." That was lots of fun. One week after returning we had girls camp and an opportunity came up that allowed me to go this year. It was tons of fun. Two weeks of camping with teenage girls was not as bad as I expected. I still love them if you can believe it. And we can't wait to go camping as a family. We are going to my moms for the 4th of July this year. That should be fun also.

Talk to you later.

Love,

Cheri

The Only Thing That Stays the Same is Everything Changes

Over the past several weeks I have been struggling with many weights on my shoulders. As Is indicated in the title everything changes and I am not a person who does well with changes. After much excitement about adopting the three girls we found out we were not selected. This was very disappointing. However two superheros came zipping through my house yesterday and I caught a picture of them. They rescued my heart as I watched the most beautiful thing in the workd and that was my husband and daughter playing together. The Lord will expand our family when teh timwe is right and not is not the time the Lord has


















designed for this to happen. We are extremely blessed with many things and I am very greatful for my family and that we have been sealed in teh temple and will be a familty FOREVER. The Lord has a plan for all of us, even the small Gibbons family in Nampa, ID.

I have also struggled with feeling the spirit at church recently. I have many responsibilities at church and it just seems like a time for working not worshiping. However even with 6+ hours of church and 8 poopy diapers in one day I was still able to be touched by one person. I am thankful for such a wonderful gospel doctrine teacher who is lead by the spirit. He gave a great lesson on Sunday and a good part of it was directed toward me weather he know it or not. He talked about getting back to the little things that are important such as reading scriptures and saying prayers. These are two things that I have realized recently that I have been neglecting. I remember to pray when I really need something or when I am desperate but I have forgotten the everyday conversation with the Lord. I have also neglected to put myself in a position to recieve personal revelation on a regular basis. I had a laundry list of excuses that started with a beautiful two year-old. How can you possibly feel the spirit with the caos that comes with having a two year-old. Well, where there's a will there's a way. I am recommiting my self to reading my scriptures daily and praying often. Thanks so much Adam for talking to my spirit on Sunday.




















So back to my theme of everything changes. As many of you have heard in the news CITI (who David works for) is having a lot of financial problems. They laid off a few employees at the site in Idaho and have had to find other ways to cut expenses. The things that made this call center job bearable was the great benefits and this is where they chose to make drastic changes. So the job has become more mundane and less enjoyable. Also with the ecomony like it is the opportunites for advancement have dramatically decreased. Over the years we have talked about having our own business. After all David is going to school for businesss management. So instead of waiting until he is done with school we are stepping up our plans and a new business was born over the last several weeks. Busy Bee Lawn Care. David has been interested in having a lawn care business since he was in High School so here we are. We have our first estimate scheduled for this Tuesday. Everything is progressing very well with the set-up of the businesss and we are finally sleeping better. This feels like a really good decision and we are hoping to get our feet wet this year and maybe if the economy improves next year then we can become completely self employed. Right now we are both keeping our jobs but are both working part-time. This is a picture of the luxurious corner office of Busy Bee Lawn Care.


I hope everything is well with everyone.


Much Love,
Cheri

News Update

This is a picture from Cassidy's birthday. I think it is soooooo cute. She is so funny.


Just a quick note to let everyone know what is happening. We were not selected for the two kids that we were trying to adopt. However, that is just fine because we were having second thoughts about adopting them. Also we recieved a phone call about a week before that the state wants to consider us to adopt a sibling group of three girls, ages 4,5,6. We are very excited about this next opportunity. It will probably be about a month before we know if we get these girls.





It has been such a great experience to adopt so far. We have been very blessed with guidance from the spirit at this time. We are also very greatful for the love and prayers from our many family and friends.





I am also very proud to announce that David made the Dean's List. He is doing so good in school.





Love,


Cheri