Fall and Thanksgiving

Well, here is the proof that it is fall at the Gibbons. On this particular day of raking we gathered 22 bags of leaves. The discouraging thing is that the trees had enough leaves left of them to produce all the shade in the picture. I don't think we had even lost half of them by the time we did our first raking. Our neighbors hate our trees but I love them. The bad thing is that the neighbors that get the most leaves in their yard don't get any of our shade or the shade comes early in the morning when they don't really need it.

Cassidy didn't like the snow last year and this year she doesn't like the leaves. After many attempts to get her to change her mind for a fun picture in the leaves we just resorted to throwing her in the pile while she was crying. She would then crawl out as fast as possible. So her hair is still flying when this picture was taken.

We put up our Christmas Decorations a few days before thanksgiving this year since we would be hosting some family for the weekend. Cassidy was not interesting in helping with decorating which was fine with me because she would probably break most of the stuff. However. She loves the train that goes around the tree. This is a picture of what we do almost everyday. Lay on the floor and watch the train. You can see my new haircut in the picture. My hair is really easy when it is cut like this.


Shea, Erin and Calvin (David's brother, wife and son) came for Thanksgiving. We really had a great time. We went out to David's aunt Teresa's for Thanksgiving day. That was really fun as usual.

Cassidy loves Calvin. She is very in to any baby and was just thrilled that Calvin was staying at our house. Calvin also really liked the train, so the two of them would lie there for long periods of time and watch the train. Cassidy would talk up a storm and point at the train. I'm sure she was teaching Calvin everything she
knows about trains. Speaking of Cassidy she is definitely behaving like a two year-old. Most of the time they are

pretty half hearted. She is testing all the limits. Time-out seems to be working well for her at this stage. Most of the time she stands in the corner and cries (which is also half-hearted). She thinks she might get out sooner for being remorseful. Her two favorite words are "mine" and "owie. I don't know how to spell the second word. She is still tons of fun and really keeps us moving. Another new thing is when she goes down for her nap or bedtime

she takes off her socks, pants and diaper. So now she has to wear one piece PJ's with a safety pin at the top to hold the zipper in place or a pair of overalls. It's very annoying to have to change her clothes before every nap.

This picture was taken when Calvin was here and we had our walker out for him. Cassidy thought it was a very fun toy and she got stuck in it butt first. We thought she looked like she was floating the Boise River in an inner tube. She is also smiling in this

picture which she never does for pictures. She is usually too concerned about getting it over with so she can look at the picture I just took.

This is a picture of Cassidy and Calvin. Cassidy thought it was really cool to hold Calvin. She was also a very big helper. She was always getting his Binky for him and putting it in his mouth. She also liked to take the diapers to the trash for Erin. I think she would really like a sibling. That reminds me. As of November

18th we are officially approved to adopt through LDS Family Services. It was very exciting to get our official letter. Please keep us in mind if you know of anyone who may be considering adoption.

This is the adorable Calvin in a Santa hat. I probably won't write again before Christmas so I hope everyone has a safe and happy Holidays.

Much Love,

Cheri

My summer posting

Well, I haven't written on our blog for 5 months so I guess it's time. We have had a crazy summer. With both of us working our lives seem so much more complicated. David also helped coach his sister Ashley's softball team this summer. That took a lot more time then we every imagined and David didn't get to go to all the games and practices. He has always wanted to coach a sport (esp soccer) and now we know he can't do that until he's done with school.

The pics are a little old but our camera is misplaced and it has all of our pictures from the whole summer on it. The first two are from when we were working on our house in March and the last one was Cassidy eating spaghetti in the front yard in April.

Cassidy is growing up so fast. She is 20 months and tons of fun. She is also dabbling in the 2 year-old behavior (not so fun). It's very interesting to try to get into their mind and understand why they are behaving the way they are and what they are trying to accomplish. If we remember to take the time and think about these things then we get a pretty good idea of how we should react. She is understanding time-out now. She cries and it's so sad but it has been effective. At every stage since she was about 9 months I keep thinking that she can't get any busier and then I wake up one day and she's busier. She definitely keeps us running. She is in a copy cat stage right now. David and I will be having a conversation and one of us will sneeze and from the other room we will here her try to sneeze. One day we were playing out in the yard and I heard her coughing behind the house. She likes to play with the dog food and water so I thought she probably tasted the dog food. I went back there and her face was all wet and the ground around the dog's water dish was wet. It took me a minute and then I realized that she was drinking from the dog's water bowl. I was laughing so hard. I had my cell phone so I told her to take another drink and I got a picture. It was almost the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. She is such a blessing to have in our life.

David is back in school this week. He really like NNU. He is in a program that is designed for working family students. So usually they don't overwhelm you with too much busy work. His classes are 5 weeks each and the semester is split into 3 sessions. The 1st 5 weeks he only has one class and it's a theology class. He really loves it and is enjoying learning about another religion. So far they have been very respectful of other religions in the class, however one of the books he had to read specifically stated that mormons are a cult. That was a little uncomfortable. David's job at Citibank is going really well. He really likes the company but doesn't like being on the phones all day. They have many opportunities for advancement. They have a manager in training program that he is hoping to get into within the next year. The plan is that he can get some manager experience before he gets his degree so that he has the experience to go with the education. Citibank has been really good about working with his school schedule. He is also working 4/10's. So he has 3 days a week off. This has really improved our family time. David is still in the elders quorum presidency. He is really having fun with that. They plan an activity every month. Sometimes it's for the whole family some times just the guys. October is his month to plan the activity and he is planning a husband/wife activity. He is planning a Halloween Costume Dance. This is so unlike him. He never wants to dress up for Halloween and he hates to dance in public. I'm so excited. David has a facebook account and he thinks it is so awesome so if you have facebook as well they look him up and become his friend.

I am really starting to enjoy my job at St. Luke's. Some nights it's really hard to say good bye to my family but when Cassidy is having a 2 year-old day I'm really glad to go to work. I am working on the Telemetry floor (a cardiac unit). I have always had a lot of interest in the heart so this is totally my passion when it comes to nursing. I am only working part-time (2 nights per week). I also have a small job that is 3 days per month doing foot care at assisted living facilities. We only work 9-12 hours a month but I really love the people I work with and the patients are so fun. I am still the Young Women's President in my ward. It has been 1 1/2 years, I am finally getting everything figured out. I have really good girls for the most part and we haven't had too many big problems to deal with. I am really enjoying being a mother this last year. The first few months with Cassidy were a difficult time but now that we are past that and beginning to forget the difficulties I am loving motherhood. I also really love this age.

Speaking of being a mother. As many of you know having a family does not come easy for us. So we have decided to adopt. We are completing our paperwork this month and will be ready soon. There are many different ways to adopt. We have applied through LDS Family Services and we are also looking into the states adoption program. Through LDS Family Services we submit a profile and pictures for birth parents to look over. The birth parents then get to select who will adopt their baby. Through the state the children are removed from a home for some reason and if the biological parents are not able to get their children back then they are adopted. In this case the state picks the adoptive parents. The state frequently has sibling groups and I think we are willing to take a sibling group of up to 2 kids with the oldest only around 2 years old. We are asking for everyone to keep us in mind. If you know anyone who is considering placing their child for adoption we ask that you contact us and we will be happy to send them a copy of our profile or they can find us through LDS Family Services. We are really looking forward to expanding our family. It's time to grow.

Well, I think this is plenty long enough. Hope all is well with everyone. Have a great fall.

Love,

Cheri

The Job

Just a quick update. David got his job. He will start May 5th.

Many reasons to rejoice

I can't seem to take the extra time to put pictures on so I'm just going to write and hopefully I will be able to get pics on soon.

Lots of changes have happened lately. David quit his job at the end of February because there were several things happening that we thought were illegal or unethical. We couldn't have him working there anymore. It was really getting to our conscience. As a result we have been unemployed since the end of February. I thought it would be a piece of cake for me to get a job so I applied at the hospital that is in Nampa and I interviewed and never heard back. Then I applied to the two hospitals in Boise and in Meridian. I heard back from St. Al's (were I used to work) and they are on a hiring freeze. Then the Meridian hospital called and I interviewed. I finally heard back and I should be starting in 2 weeks. They offered me a part-time nights position. It will probably be better so I don't have to have Cassidy with a babysitter very often. I think the market is flooded with new graduate nurses trying to get jobs that it has made it more difficult.

Also David had an interview on Wednesday with Citibank call center. He thinks it went really well and hopefully we will hear back from them this week.

It has been a huge blessing to have all this family time together. We went to Tennessee to visit David's brother Scott. We had an absolute blast. When we came back we just sat around and played for a week. Then we decided to use our savings and time to finish the work that needs to be done on our house. We are almost done. There is no way we could have done this if David was working and going to school.

One of the most amazing things happened today. We were preparing to install a new picture window in our front room. David was in and out of the gate in the front yard with tools and supplies. He needed to go to Home Depot for some wood before the crew of friends came to help us with the install. Cassidy and I were staying home while David ran to the store. Cassidy was outside in the yard playing all morning and likes to follow David around (usually carrying one of his tools.) I was inside sweeping the floor around the window. Something told me to check the gate. I hesitated. Then the thought came again. At that same moment I heard David close the door to the truck. I looked out the window and the gate to the driveway was open. I don't remember running down the stairs or halfway across the lawn. Cassidy was just starting to walk behind the truck. All of a sudden David stopped. he has only moved about 6 inches. He later told me that the Holy Ghost told him to look for Cassidy. The truck stopped about 2 inches from her head and she was right behind the rear passenger side wheel. Writing this brings me to tears again. I thought I was going to watch my worst nightmare come true.

All was well and we all just hugged in the front yard. We are so grateful for the Holy Ghost. Thanks to the Holy Ghost, today the worst tragedy in our world was avoided. We are just overflowing with appreciation to the Lord this day. We will be getting spring gate closure devices so the gates will close automatically.

So many blessings, jobs, home, everyone is alive.

I got a cold at the beginning of the week and lost my voice of Wednesday evening. I still don't have a voice. David is totally loving it. He pretends that he can't hear me, and has been calling me tiny, mickey mouse, etc.

Well, if I skip the pics then I will do this more often. It's just very difficult for me to do.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Love,
Cheri

I'm 1 year old

Cassidy is one year old now. We had a small birthday party for her. He cake was shaped like a purse(because she loves to carry her moms purse around), we had lasagna (one of her favs). She mad a bigger mess with the lasagna then the cake. She didn't like the frosting on her hands so she kept trying to shake it off. It was lots of fun. As we celebrate one year with our munchkin we are reminded of how blessed we are.








Cassidy loves to play with dad, he is the coolest! Some notes about the things she enjoys. She likes to dance, when we are pounding hamburger in the pan she will even dance to that beat. She is always carrying a book around. At about 1/2 of our meals she eats as much as mom. We can't understand why she doesn't weigh more. She really likes to play with electronic, it's difficult to keep her away from the computer and cell phone.



The wheels in her head are really starting to turn. She is trying to figure out how things work. She tries to put one toy inside of the other and she opens and closes doors constantly. You can just see her thinking when she is playing. It is really fun to watch.



We just went to the doctor today and she weighs 19lbs, 1oz and is 28 inches tall.


We have truely been blessed with our family. Cassidy has brought life into our home like we never could have imagined. We are greatful everyday for the blessings god has given us.



Love, The Gibbons