Happy First Gotcha Day!

Can you believe it's been a year already?! On December 11th, we celebrated Noelle's first Gotcha Day! Ryan, Amy, Lilly, and Nate Gibbons came over to celebrate with us as it was Lilly's first Gotcha Day as well. The Gibbons have been another blessing from the Lord to our family. We had the priviledge of traveling with them to China and receiving our baby girls together. Noelle and Lilly are 7 days a part and are from the same city.

We dressed the girls in their Chinese clothes. As Noelle would say "Nese" clothes. We ate Chinese food for dinner, of course. We then let Maddie and Nate perform as this is what they like to do when we get together and then we all enjoyed some Gotcha Day cake.

It was a great time to reflect on the last year and think about how blessed we have been to have Noelle with us. We can not imagine not having her part of our family, she has been a true gift from the Lord. We love her SO much that words can not explain. We think she's pretty fond of us too! =)

Catch Up!

We have not been so good about updating our blog...but with the New Year right around the corner maybe we can turn over a new leaf.
We are all doing well. I will post some pictures and get everyone caught up in the next few post. I think we left off at the end of October.

Maddie went with her class on a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. As well as she attended a fall carnival, which collected pajamas for children in foster care. She loved taking pajamas for the foster children and she had a great time getting her face painted and her hair painted pink. The weather was great through out the fall so Daddy and the girls were able to go to the park quite frequently.




We also attended our Church Fall Festival. The girls had a blast! Although it was VERY cold. Maddie dressed up like a fairy princess and Noelle was the cutest kitty cat you have ever seen. She acted very funny dressed as a kitty she became very serious, we could not even get her to smile and she was very upset when she had to take the kitty cat costume off. It was priceless. Oh how I wish we knew what she was thinking.

Maddie was able to go out on the football field again and this time dance with the Faith Lionettes. She loved it....being able to dance in front of an audience is a dream come true for her. I think we have a performer on our hands. One of the Lionette dancers, Laura, became quite fond of Maddie and Maddie thinks the world of her.

I guess that brings us to December. Maddie was in several Christmas performances. She was a Star in her school Christmas program. She also performed her worship dance that she has been working on for several months during the school chapel. She also performed at her Ballet, Tap, and Jazz class recital to Christmastime in Texas. She did great in all her performances we were so proud! As I mentioned she is quite the performer and LOVES an audience. I'm not sure where she got that trait as I would soon die then be front and center of a large audience. I think she gets it from her Dad, who loves to do public speaking! I don't get it =)

Noelle, although too young to have school/dance performances has been a huge "star" and performer at home. She does everything her big sister does. It's so cute to watch, she tries to dance, sing, and mimic everything Maddie does. She is delight and an even bigger ham than her sister!

Friday Night Lights

Friday night Maddie got to participate in a half-time cheerleading performance along with the "big cheerleaders" from School.
She had gone to a cheer camp last Saturday which was a fundraiser for the cheerleading squad and then got to perform at half-time this week. She adores the big cheerleaders and had an amazing time. She was SO excited! We were so proud!

Daddy and Girls go to Bass Pro Shop

There is nothing that says "country dad" like a trip to the Bass Pro shop! All I am missing is my straw hat and black tooth!

Latest family Pic

Happy 5th Birthday Maddie!

Maddie,

It does not seem imaginable that you turned 5 yesterday. Everyone told us the time would go fast, but you never understand until it happens to you. You are starting a very important chapter in your life tomorrow. You will be attending Kindergarten at a great local Christian school. Daddy has been praying for five years that you would be able to attend a Christian school and his prayers were answered. You were officially accepted into the school last week. We decided at the last minute to go ahead and put you in big girl school for Kindergarten instead of waiting until 1st grade. You are so very excited to be going to big girl school. You met your teacher Mrs. Munson last Friday and she is so very sweet. You also attended a princess party that one of the Moms had for all the girls that will be going to Kindergarten. You were a little shy with the girls which surprised Mommy because I would not use the word shy to describe you. However, I know you all will become fast friends once school starts. You have been at Crème de la Crème since you were 9 months old, so it is hard to leave some of your very best friends that you have been with since you were 9 months old, but Mommy tells you everyday that we will still see them.

You had two birthday parties this year to celebrate your birthday. The first one was as Sweet and Sassy with your school friends. We shared a birthday party with a good friend from school, Alex Chavera. There were about 10 girl friends from school that came. You girls all dressed up in fancy dresses, they fixed your hair really pretty, put make up on you and painted your fingernails. After that they put you on a model runway stage and taught you some fun dances. The last thing they did was call you out one by one and let you walk down the runway like a model. You looked absolutely beautiful in your Cinderella dress with your makeup and hair all done. The second birthday party was with your family and some close family friends. We rented a big water slide and a cotton candy machine. Everyone had a great time! You have been SO blessed by your family and friends.

You have been quite busy this last year. You attended Pre-K at Crème and have been involved in some sports activities-tennis, gymnastics, cheerleading, soccer, and swimming. You learned to swim this year in just a couple of weeks. It was so much fun to watch you accomplish swimming. You were so proud, it was sweet! You also participated in two Pep-Rally’s, you were an amazing cheerleader!

By far the biggest event in your life this year has been the addition of your baby sister Noelle. Being you were an only child for 4 years Mommy and Daddy thought you would have a hard time having a new sister…were we ever wrong! You LOVE having a sister! I can not even explain how sweet you are to Noelle. She pushes you away, has bitten you, cries, pulls things out of your hand, takes up a lot of Mommy and Daddy’s attention, but you still are so sweet to her and talk so nicely to her. One morning you were hugging Noelle and I heard you say,” Noelle, I love you so much, I would die for you”. It was so sweet. You call her your little friend. You will see her in the morning and say,”Hi Noelle…how’s my little friend?” Anytime she gets hurt in your company you cry thinking you may be the reason she got hurt. Noelle is SO blessed to have such a sweet sister like you. Mommy and Daddy are SO proud of how you are with your sister.

You still LOVE markers and coloring. I bet you have over a thousand markers and you have everyone accounted for. You also still love make up. You tell people you are a make up artist, it’s really cute! I do have to admit you really are good at putting make up on except for the one blob of blush you put in the middle of everyone’s forehead.

Mommy and Daddy are so grateful to God for giving us such a beautiful sweet daughter. We love every minute we get to spend with you! You are a complete joy to be around…a little loud but a complete joy! =) I think you are pretty fond of us as well. Poppy gave you some money and you put the money on both mine and Daddy’s nightstand and you told me it was because you liked us a lot and you were going to keep giving us a lot of money because we were the sweetest Mom and Dad in the world. You are absolutely precious! We love you very much and can’t wait to see what this year has in store for your precious little life.

Love,

Mommy

Wheee!

Ricky Bobby's Backyard Paradise

This is livin!

Summertime, Summertime!

Its been a great (but hot!) Summer here in Texas. We have been spending a lot of free time with family. The kids have enjoyed playing with their cousins. We were introduced to our newest nephew Camden (on Brian's side) recently which was great(picture of the kids with the little blondie baby).
Maddie just finished a cheerleading camp complete with a Pep Rally and all. She loved it! She also is taking swimming lessons and has learned to swim this summer. We are so proud of her. She starts Kindergarten September 1st (can't believe it). Her and Noelle are getting along great- she is a very sweet big sister and we imagine she will be a wonderful mommy herself one day.
Noelle is learning like crazy, she gets into everything, is taking her diaper off, and is oh so much fun! She has a really sweet personality and is very affectionate, she loves to hug and kiss. We won't talk about her temper, but I will tell you we are very scared! =) She mimics everything we say and do and follows Maddie around everywhere! She just moved from an infant class at her daycare to the "Toddler Club" where she will start having different classes (music, art, phonics, math), she will sleep on a mat, and sit at a table for lunch/snacks. Fun times.

July 4th 2006

Thank you Lord for this country, for our freedom, the protections we have, and all the blessings. Please bring revival to this land. Maddie and her cousin Jase had a great time at the Red, White, and Blue festival at Grammy and Poppy's church.


This 4th of July has a richer meaning this year since it is Noelle's first 4th of July. Thank you Lord that you sent our sweet daughter Noelle to us, who is now a citizen of this great country. We took both girls to see some fireworks at the Southlake Town Center and they had a great time. Noelle was pointing and saying, "WOW". It was too cute! We love our sweet girls so much!

Something "card-worthy"

Ok, so I got the great card from Maddie for Father's day like I mentioned in the last post. You know a day like Father's Day puts on a little extra pressure. I mean when people write tome's about what a great Dad you are you kind of want to live up to it. You may want to even do a few things "extra" around that time of year... you know.. something "card-worthy".

Tonight I succumbed to the subconscious pressure and gave a puppet show complete with original songs, took funny pictures, gave a pony ride, and sang and danced to penguin rap music. Father of the year? I'm in. I may not have made the Star-Telegram but I made the card.

Hello Aunt Lisa, this is Noelle!

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Ok, Mommy was talking to Aunt Lisa and all of us were pestering her. The kids and I feel every conversation should be a group conversation. In fact we only believe in using speakerphone around here, mom hasn't caught up with this revelation yet but we are working on her.
Well, mom finally had it and left the room to go speak on the cordless in the living room and dad was hanging out with the kids in the bedroom. Well, "baby bird" as we sometimes call Noelle just had to hear what was going on with the phone conversation so she kept lunging for the handset by the bed and she got to it a couple of times before I could stop her. She literally put it to her ear and was trying to hear the conversation. After I thought about it for a second I realized this was cute and I asked Maddie to hurry and go get the camera and snapped these pics.
Maddie is so cute, at church they made some Father's Day cards and they asked Maddie what she would want to say to her Daddy on Father's day. She had them write "Daddy, Thanks for taking me to the park. I love you! Love, Maddie". This was so sweet I cried and made a really big deal about it and then carried her all the way to the car. She liked this reaction- a lot! So, when she got home she proceeded to make me 2 new Father's Day cards and she kept looking at my eyes to see if I would cry. She is so freakin' cute and hilarious!