Blog Hop Reminder

Just a quick reminder that Wednesday is the first of the month and time again for our crafty blog hop! The theme for this month was Boxes, Bags, Tags...Oh My! I'm looking for creative ways to package Christmas gifts. Please let me know if you are participating so I can get everyone's blog addresses! Can't wait to get some new ideas!!!

Thanksgiving Blessings

I know that I am a day late, but better late than never! It was just too busy yesterday to sit here and post! I am so thankful for my family. A husband that works his tail off so I can stay home and take care of our kids. What a blessing! I've seen all of their first steps and I get to do the room mother thing...no greater gift that he could give our family! I'm thankful for five gorgeous, healthy kids who give me a reason to get up every morning. My sun rises and sets in these angels. All I have ever wanted to be from the time I was a child was to be a mom! I hear others complain about their kids, but I honestly enjoy spending time with them. They are awesome! I'm grateful for mine and Gary's extended families. There truly is no greater blessing than family and we love getting together with our parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews. We know that if we ever needed anything, all we have to do is ask! I'm thankful for the home that I have. I always joke that I will die in this house because I hate moving. Really, I just want to die in this house because it's so perfect for us. Aside from being a bathroom or two short! LOL! Seriously, I love everything about our house: the big lawn, the clothesline, the cabin, the creek that runs behind it, the windows in the dining room, the huge laundry/craft room that is always a disaster! I especially love living in such a small town. My kids can play outside and I don't worry that they will be kidnapped or anything. I know every single kid in the school and all of their parents. Way cool! I'm also blessed to have so many friends. I know that we don't get to see everyone as much as we would like, but I know they are there for us and we are there for them, no matter what! It's so awesome knowing there are so many friends out there who have your back! I am thankful to live in America. Sometimes I really worry about where our country is headed, but I still believe it's better here than most anywhere else. Who wants to live in North Korea or Iraq? There are so many opportunities here and I appreciate being here. Lastly, I am so thankful for God. Without his grace and mercy, where would I be? I am thankful for the forgiveness He freely gives and for His son dying on the cross to save little old pitiful me! His gift was the ultimate sacrifice and I am so thankful for it!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Red Ribbon Week continued

So...day 2 of our Red Ribbon Week festivities was "Drugs turn you inside out". The kids all wore their clothes inside out to school and I took little bags of pretzels with the phrase on it. Sorry, but I didn't take any pictures of that! I also was at the school at 7:30 am and the kids brought pictures of things they could do instead of drugs and we glued them on some big posterboards and hung them in the hallway. On Wednesday, we had "Drug Free Rocks!" day. The kids came to school dressed as rock stars (there is my little rocker above!) and I passed out pop rock candy with the slogan on it. We also gave the kids sheets of paper for them to make a poster on. They could draw a picture of something they could do instead of drugs, a picture of what you look like on drugs, generally anything anti-drug. We had some really cool posters, but in the end Kadan won for the little kids and Hadley won for the older kids. They each got a giant candy bar. The last day was our Halloween party so we combined the two themes and had "Say BOO to drugs" day. They got to dress up in their costumes and we took them trick or treating to local businesses. They loved bring outdoors and I think it was way better than playing games cooped up in the lunchroom. When we got back to the school, they each got bags of candy with our slogan on it and everyone that had participated in the fun all week got an anti-drug water bottle. We had an awesome week and I hope the kids had a good time!

Red Ribbon Week

I have been helping the Albion PTO this year and our carnival was scheduled for the same week as Red Ribbon Week. There aren't many of us in the PTO and the other lady was taking on the school raffle, so I volunteered to take over Red Ribbon Week (Drug Awareness Week). On Monday, the kids were asked to wear red to school and sign drug-free pledges.

Then I went in and blew up balloons and tied the pledges to each of the balloons. We scheduled the send off for 3:30 since it's right before school gets out. We gathered in the hallway and then we went outside. We counted down and the kids released their balloons.

They were so excited to watch their balloons fly so high. The wind was blowing really hard that day and they took off like crazy! We watched and watched until we couldn't see any balloons anymore. A few days later, one of the boys said he found his own balloon on a fence post by one of the fields his dad owns. Pretty cool! If I do Red Ribbon Week again next year, this is a MUST activity!

Just Dance Part 2 (noone is safe!) ha ha

Because I am feeling somewhat evil today and because I think they were so great, the guys get one more picture for the whole internet world to see! David, Gary, Jason, and Keven were good sports! They deserve an extra 15 minutes of fame for their dance!!!

My nephew, Taylor wanted to play SO BADLY! His older brother, Christopher, absolutely did not want to play and Taylor really didn't want to do it without him. He begged and pleaded and Chris still refused. Finally, Taylor gave up and danced with the girls. He had so much fun that all of a sudden he didn't care if he was the only boy dancing! After a bit, Chris wanted in on the fun, too, so he and Treven danced with Taylor. By the end of the night, I think we had more than one boy addicted to it!


One last shot of our family night. This is Natalie, Lindsay, Mikayla, and Braquel dancing. I have to say how grateful I am for my family. We don't get together as much as we did when the kids were little because it seems like we all have kids running in so many different directions, but we have so much fun when we do see each other. I especially appreciate my sister-in-law, Robin who takes the time out of her busy schedule to drive two hours each way to come and participate with us. We love having all of the kids together and it's so great to see the boys. If it wasn't for selflessness, we would hardly ever get to see them. Love you guys! Anyway, I really appreciate all of my family for being so awesome! I don't know what I would do without all of you!

Just Dance

After the straw maze and dinner, we all crowded into the living room and played Just Dance 2...wow! It was so much fun! For those that don't know what the game is, you play it through the wii. There are tons of songs to choose from and you basically just do what the guy on the screen is doing. It keeps track of points for how well you do what the icon is doing and then it ranks the players. It is such a kick! This is Stephanie, Sally, and my mom dancing to Proud Mary. Robin is also there, but my living room is so small that we were too tight to get everyone in the picture!

Believe it or not, but even the guys got in on the dancing. David, Jason, Gary, and Keven all did a number. I was so busy laughing I thought I would wet my pants! Anybody that knows Gary and I very well, knows that we DON'T dance-EVER! It was really neat that he would get out there and do it, though. The girls have bugged him since we got Just Dance 1 to try it and he never would. Amazing what the peer pressure will do!

Here are the professionals of the game! Ivy, Lindsay, Mikayla, and Chelsey! They are so fun to watch because they can all keep up with the dancer dude on the screen and they look like they are in sync. It's not just a mass of arms and legs when they dance! Notice Ellie in the picture? She crowded in and danced almost every song! She's quite the little dancer with that wild hair! Stay posted and I'll get some more Just Dance pictures soon!

Gibbons Harvest Party part 2

More fun at the straw maze! Mikayla and Brad started out with us, but I think we were too slow for them! Mikayla's friend, Lindsay, and her family own and operate the straw maze...which we highly recommend! It was so much fun and since we had such a large age span for the kids, it worked out really well for everyone!

Since Jason and Sally were late, we went through the maze once and then again when they got there. Sam was so excited so Dave and I decided to hide in the maze and try to scare him! I think we ended up scaring ourselves more than him! He thought it was pretty funny!

There were lots of holes in the straw. At first I thought it was animals burrowing in the straw bales to stay warm. Then I decided it was from the workers peeking through to see who was coming. I'm thinking they might even use the holes to reach through and GRAB people! I was glad we went to the non-haunted version because I can't imagine walking through the maze in the dark and not knowing when someone was going to jump out and grab me!

Gibbons Harvest Party

On the 23rd of October, we had a family get together. It's been a really long time since we've had one (I think it was Easter) so I decided it was time. We met at the straw maze at the bottom of the Albion grade to start. We had so much fun! It was kind of trying to rain and it was chilly, but once you got inside of the straw, it really wasn't too bad. This is the entire crew after we got through the maze. Christopher and Taylor and Treven were maze geniuses-they had to come in and rescue a few of us!

Here we are as we are starting inside. You would think that it would be easy to find your way out, but when you're inside, you can't see anything but straw. You get really disoriented and it's hard to tell where you have already been!

These are two of my nieces, Natalie and Whitney. We had already gone through the maze when they got there, so we went again. I'll post some more of the straw maze pictures tomorrow! And coming up, Just Dance 2 pictures...you're gonna love them!

Fall Treats

Our school carnival was last week and each of the kids are asked to bring some kind of homemade treat or cake for the cake walk. I made three pans of these spiderweb brownies to take. I was pleasantly surprised when they were some of the first treats chosen!

The night before the carnival, the PTO president called and asked me if I had planned on making cinnamon rolls. I really hadn't planned on it since I work on Wednesdays and the carnival was on Thursday. We were a little concerned that we wouldn't have enough for the dinner, so I whipped out a batch Thursday morning. Honestly, I have NEVER made cinnamon rolls before, but they turned out super yummy! I will definately be doing this again-only for us and not the school!

Watch out, Bad Boys!

Is it just me or are the cops supposed to be after the bad guys...not themselves? This kids is just too funny!


Check out the intensity on Treven's face...he really makes me laugh. Mikayla has a great big purple bike that Treven insisted he ride while we trick or treated. It was ten times too big for him and it had two flat tires. He pouted and cried until we finally told him he could ride it until it got dark. We followed him in the car and laughed the whole way. He looked like one of the old delivery guys with his hat and bike. About halfway through the night, the chain on that poor old bike broke right in half and he had to walk it the rest of the way home. Valuable trick or treat time wasted!

Bat-a-rina

Ellie loves to dance so the bat-a-rina costume was a perfect choice for her. She looked so stinkin' cute! The only problem we had was her bat wings were too big and the only way they had to attach them was a tiny piece of velcro. We tried pinning them, but it didn't work too well. I should have tried the costume on her before that night and stitched the wings right onto her shirt!

Blog Hop- House and Home

Sorry this post is so late today; normally I like to post first thing in the morning. Anyway, our theme for October was "House and Home" and crafts could consist of anything that related to our theme. I made a basket to welcome a new neighbor. I also made a card to stick in the basket.


The basket included various treats: homemade cinnamon rolls, packets of hot cocoa, a bag full of marshmallows, a seasonal dishtowel, and a pumpkin spice candle.

Check out the link to Forever Lois, she made a really cute project for this month's blog! You will love it! The theme for December 1st is : BOXES,BAGS,TAGS...OH MY! Show us the creative ways you wrap your gifts, fun gift ideas, etc!

Blog Hop Coming Soon!

I intended to run into town first thing this morning so I could download the pictures of my blog hop project and get them posted. However, Mikayla went to basketball try-outs this morning and nearly passed out. She got dizzy and disoriented and now has a screaming headache. The ocach thinks it was low blood sugar combined with a sudden increase in pysical activity. I'm concerned it may have something to do with lingering effects of her concussion last January. So to be safe, I went and picked her up. She is sleeping now so I will go to town when she wakes up. I don't want to leave her alone just in case she feels like passing out again. I will be home as quick as I can and get the blog hop pictures up and going. Thanks for being patient!