IT'S A GIRL

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and we're having another girl. We are really excited. Since their birthdays are only a month apart this baby will get all of Cassidy's hand-me-downs. She probably won't mind for a few years at least.

The baby is perfectly healthy. She is in the 55-60th percentile for growth so it sounds like this one will be quite a bit larger then Cassidy. The placenta is a little low so we have to have another ultrasound in 3 months to make sure it moves up. Otherwise I will have to have a C-Section. We will be praying very very very hard. I am very anti-knife.

Cassidy went to the ultrasound with us and she didn't really get it when it was on the screen but when she saw the pics the doctor printed she was very excited. We had to make her a copy that should could carry around. She carries them around and says "picture mommy tummy baby." She has been lots of fun about it today. Now that my belly is starting to pooch out a little she is paying more attention to it and if we tell her to talk to the baby she gets really close to my stomach and talks. It is really fun. David is starting to teach Cassidy how to play soccer. I must say she is pretty impressive at dribbling. I will make a video and post is next time.

David is still in school and doing really well. We are wrapping up our mowing season this month. A family in our ward is doing a remodel on their house and they have hired David to do a lot of the work. He pretty much set his hours and works as much as he wants. They have a list of things for him to get done and he just plugs away at it. He also got a job at UPS unloading trucks in the morning. The semi trucks arrive during the night and he unloads them and another crew loads the trucks that make the deliveries during the day. Unfortunately business dropped off and they haven't needed him very much. When deliveries increase for the holidays he will have plenty of work. They also hire temps during the holidays for drivers assistants and he is going to try to do that after the unload. The only issue is getting off by the time school starts on Tuesday and Thursday. He also got a phone call today from a guy in our ward that is working for a bank winterizing foreclosed homes and he has more work then he can handle on his own and was wondering if David can help him out. He will be doing that job as well. He is a little happier now that he is working more and I am so grateful that he is so willing to work for our family. The Lord is once again pouring out his blessings upon us.

I am still working at the hospital and the home health. I really enjoy my jobs. I finally got a calling. I am the temple prep teacher for our ward. I just teach whoever is ready to go to the temple for the 1st time. The bishop said it will probably happen about 4-5 times per year. It is a really sweet gig. I think it is crazy that I went from YW president putting in a minimum of 10 hours per week to a 4-5 times per year calling. I wonder what is going to happen in my life that will make me need so much extra time. I guess it could just be that I am having another baby but I don't think I will need that much time.

I hope all is well with everyone.

Love,
Cheri

The Miracles of our Growing Family

An amazing series of MIRACLES have occurred to allow our family to grow. As many of you know we have had great difficulty having children. Cassidy took a lot of work to get to this earth. Approx 1.5 years ago we tried again to have another baby. After 5 months on medication my body quit reacting to the meds. The next options were to increase the dose on the medication which would most likely increase the side effects. The side effects made me very difficult to live with and sometimes I was afraid I might do something to hurt Cassidy. We decided that was not an option. The next options would be something much more expensive possibly invetro fertilization. At approx $20,000 a pop and no guarantees we decided that was not a realistic option for our family. We have always been very open to adoption and so that was the option we chose.

So began the long journey to adoption. The paperwork took us from June 2008-October 2008. In November 2008 we were approved for adoption. We were now out there for all birth moms to look at and decide if we were the right family for their baby. This includes a lot of waiting and after months of actively participating in the adoption process you are left with no formal way to participate. We began looking into adopting through the state of Idaho. Most of these kids have been removed from their biological parents because of abuse or neglect. We learned that any age they come with issues of all kinds. As crazy as it sounds we made some decisions about what we would be willing to deal with and continues the search for our children. We were especially excited about adopting a sibling group. This felt very right for our family.

We have tried to adopt several children as sibling groups. We have come very close to being selected but have fallen just short. The emotional roller coaster has been very similar to the infertility struggles that we have faced before. We have learned through these trial that the Lord has a much greater plan for us and when it is revealed we will have more blessings then we can handle. This is the case right now in our lives.

At the end of June I began having a symptoms of pregnancy. So David went to the store on the Sabbath and got a pregnancy test and SURPRISE!!!!! YOU'RE PREGNANT!!!!!! We were not trying in any way to get pregnant but we weren't preventing it because we thought it was impossible. As far as we know I have not ovulated without the help of the medication since I was 20 years old. I am now 30. Life is so crazy. God's Blessing are so amazing. I am approx 12 weeks along and the due date is 2/22/10.

I have been feeling really well. I have had very little nausea. I have never been nauseated at work and have never had difficulty doing my job. I have been so blessed this pregnancy. I will work 2-12 hour shifts and feel just great and then the next day I am off I will sleep and sleep and sleep. My main issue is fatigue but again it has never affected me at work.

BLESSINGS,BLESSINGS,BLESSING,BLESSING. Thank you Heavenly Father for knowing what is best for our family.

In other news we are going to New Mexico this weekend to a family reunion with my cousins. We will be gone for 9 days and will be driving for nearly 38 hours and 2532 miles. I think we are crazy. The doctor had many warnings for me to keep my feet up and never ride for more then 2 hours without walking around. Many stops were already scheduled in for Cassidy's sake. We have a portable DVD player and lots of snacks and hopefully she won't hate the car by the time we get home.

David is back in school full-time. This is his last year. YEAH!!! He has full time classes now until the beginning of May with only 2 weeks off at Christmas and one week off for spring break. In March of next year we will start our advertising again and we will hopefully have a booming business.

About one hour after we found out I was pregnant we had a meeting with the bishop and I was released from my role as Young Women's president. I could obviously see the Lord's wisdom but it still made me very sad to leave my girls. I still don't have a calling. Just enjoying going to church with no responsibilities.

Thanks to everyone who kept us in their prayer over the last several months as we tried to adopt. We are still grateful for our experience with adoption. We may try to adopt later. We will just have to follow our inspiration from the Lord and see what God has in store.

Love much,
Cheri

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

Cassidy is 2

Cassidy turned two on January 5th. What an exciting day. David took the day off work and we just enjoyed playing with Cassidy and spending the entire day together as a family. We invited two of our friends over to have pizza, cake and ice cream. She got lots of toys including a kitchen set that was mine when I was a little girl. David had to make some small repairs and paint it but it is lots of fun. She got new dishes and food for her kitchen. She also got a microwave, blender and clothes washer. She loves to play with them.

Two days after her birthday Cassidy and I went to Colorado to visit my dad. We drove down to New Mexico to visit Ronnie and Jessica. It was lots of fun. While I was there we planned the Boatright Cousins reunion. It is going to be lots of fun. We had to come home a week early because we needed to have a meeting with the state adoption people.

We recieved an e-mail just before Christmas about a brother and sister that the state is trying to place in an adoption. We responded that we were interested. Our information was reviewed by the state and we have been selected along with two other families. We all recieved a packet of information about the kids yesterday to help us decide if we are still interested. We still feel like it is right for us to persue this adoption. We are anxious to find out what the next step is. We are especially excited to meet the children. We pray that the Lord will continue to guide us and the state social workers through this process so that these children can be placed in the home that will be best for them to grow up in.

Thanks to everyone who had kept us in their prayers. We will keep everyone updated when we know more and we will definately let everyone know if we get the kids.

May you all be kept safe and find happiness in your lives.

Much love,

The Gibbons