Halloween!

Our ward didn't have a trunk or treat this year so Tim took the girls around the neighborhood and then we went to a neighborhood where a family that we knew the first time we lived in Tucson was having a dance party in their cul de sac.  It was pretty fun.  I think now that my kids know more people it will be more fun for them next year.

Here's McKenna.  If this costume looks familiar it's because it is.  She wore it last year and wanted to be Jessie again this year.  I couldn't complain - way easy for me.

 Olivia wanted to be Smurfette.  I kept putting her off trying to convince her to be something that we already had. No go.  So the day of the school fall festival I through together this little number.  Not bad for 1 1/2 of work.  She loved it and that's all that matters.

 Don't ask!  This girl wanted to be a gangster.  I got fed up with the saggy pants and made her pull them up so the gangster look didn't go very far.

 Maya, the Pirate.  Another hand me down costume.  The advantage of having all girls!



McKenna's Blog debut!

McKenna LOVES to sing.  I can't express how much she loves to sing.  The older she gets, the more songs she learns, the more she sings.  One day she was singing this song (back in October) and I was loving how she was saying "sun shine".  I need to record her singing more since she seems to enjoy it so much.

Al's Birthday - #14! Seriously!?

So, I didn't realize I have been so behind on this blog.  My parents and Tim's parents came down for Tim's new calling at church and it happened to be the day before Alexa's birthday.  Since everyone had to get back home we decided to celebrate Al's birthday a day early. 

Here's the crowd waiting to open presents.

Grandpa Gibb.  Does this look like the face of someone ready to party?

Abuela, Grumps, and Maya

Livie & Maya gave Alexa her favorite gift.

This girl LOVES her nutella.

My sweet sister sent me these incredible honey wheat pretzels that we used to buy at Aldi.  Alexa wanted some of my pretzels and I wanted some of her nutella and so of course we came up with a great plan. 

 YUMMY!

 The Birthday Girl!

 She got new basketball clothes.  Her shirt says These Guns are Loaded.  Her dad thought that would be perfect for her.

As you can tell from these photos Alexa is growing to be such a fun sweet young lady.  She makes us laugh and we are so proud of her.  She makes good choices and chooses good friends.  She is a great example to her little sisters.  Love her!

The NEW Tim

For the past 14 or 15 years Tim has had a goatee.  Last month he recieved a new calling at church and for him to serve in that calling he had to shave.  It was quite a big deal in our house since the girls don't really know what he looks like without it.  So we of course we had to take this opportunity to document the experience.

Before

 After

All the girls had a hard time looking at him and McKenna was a little afraid for a while but it didn't take long to warm back up to him.  I had a hard time looking at him without laughing - not because he looked funny, I just think he looks like a little boy now.

Temporary Housing in AZ

Tim's company was great to us during this move.  They thought that since we had such a "large" family that we would need a bigger place than just an apartment.  We of course, agreed.  They not only found a house for us but it was a HUGE house in a high falutin gated golf comunity.  It was a little more than 4000 sq. ft. A little overkill but we decided to make the best of it.  I finally remembered to take some pictures just before we left to move to our little rental.  It was a hectic week.  The movers brought our stuff on a Friday and then Tim had to leave for the week to go out of town and I had to take care of getting the last few things from the temp. house, clean it up before we had to be out of the there, continue to get our house unpacked and get the kids back and forth to school along with making sure homework was getting done.  The week prior I had strained my back and neck somehow and was in so much pain.  It was not the best time but definitely memorable and worth recording.  The girls again had to step up and help me out.  Luckily we found out that a guy in our ward is a chiropractor and with in a few weeks I was 100 times better.  It just couldn't have happened at a worse time. 

The following are the pictures of our temp. house.

The entry 

 Looking from the entry into the dining room.  The living room was on the left and the family room and kitchen on the right.

 Family room and kitchen

 Living room

 Master Bedroom

(This pic. doesn't do the size of this room justice.  Let's just say a few running races occured from that window to the doorway where I stood to take the picture.)

 Bathroom

 Shower.  I think we figured it was 6 ft. x 6 ft.

 Office

 Looking from the bedroom down the hall at the entry.  Continued down the hall beyond the entry is the 1/2 bath and then to the right is the hallway to the other bedrooms. 

It was fun staying in such a large place but nothing is the same when you don't have your own things.  Even though we are living in a much smaller house, we love having our own things back.

Little "Big" Girl

McKenna was being so funny today and luckily Olivia grabbed the camera at the very end. 

After thinking about her I thought of a few things that she has recently said/done that I thought I should record.

1.  After church she came home and ran into her bedroom, put a dress up (princess) dress on over her church clothes and some high heel dress up shoes.  She had another high heel shoe in her hand and came running into the kitchen where we were.  I asked her what she was doing thinking she would say something like, "I'm a princess" or "I'm a pretty girl."  Nope.  She holds the shoe up, strikes a pose and shouts, "I'm a NINJA."  and proceeds to swing the shoe around like she's fighting someone.  I don't know where she has even ever heard of a ninja.  Here's the video Livie recorded:

2.  The other day we were sitting playing a game and she reached over and patted my shoulder and said, "Good job, Mom, good job."  She's only 4 but sometimes she acts like she's 14.

3.  On our way to church today her favorite primary song came on.  She sang her little heart out.  After I said, "McKenna, that's your favorite song, huh."  She replied, "Yeah, and you know what other song makes me happy?  'I'm trying to be like Jesus."  Talk about melt my heart.

I remembered that I had these two little videos of her dancing and singing and thought I'd post them.  She definitely keeps things fun around here.

Mt. Lemmon

A few weeks after school started it was still HOT!  We decided to take a day trip up to Mt. Lemmon and go for a little hike.  It was so nice.  The weather was PERFECT.  It's so nice to have a place to go that's not to far away where we can cool off.

In the car, McKenna started her singing which she does pretty much everytime she is in the car.  She makes up the words but the tune is always the same.  It's more of a cheer than a song.

 On our way up the mountain we found a spot that a lot of people were stopping at and got out and walked around.  We enjoyed it so much that we decided to eat our lunch here. 

 Tim and the girls.

 The one thing I LOVE about AZ is the sky.  Look at that blue and those puffy clouds.  Beautiful.

 Livie and the rockstar!

 Maya being Maya.

 We found this trail to hike and it was so pretty.  We decided not to bring the camera because it started raining.  So this is the only pic.  It rained on us but it was so refreshing and we loved it.

Can't wait for another trip back.  Hopefully we'll go camping next time.

First Day of School

August 8, 2011 the girls started school.  It's a charter school and they get to wear uniforms.  I also love that all the girls go to the same school this year.  Next year won't be the same.  Alexa will be off to high school but for now we are enjoying it.The girls are thriving in school.  They are all doing so well and I think enjoying it.  With a new move and new school sometimes you have some set backs.  We have very little drama about it considering all the girls in the house. 

 Livie - 5th grade

 Maya - 3rd grade

 Alexa - 8th grade

 McKenna - 4 years.  She reminds us on a daily basis that next year she will be going to kindergarten.

Our first visitors!

A few weeks after moving in to our temp. housing my brother, Dave and his family came to visit from Prescott.  We always enjoy their visits.  The boys are so sweet and good to the girls.  They tease them just enough to get a little taste of what having brothers would be like.  We spent a day "touring" in Tucson.  We went to the San Xavier mission.  I thought it would be a good place to go since it would be indoors and it was the middle of the summer in Tucson.  Unfortunately there was no A/C.  We survived though.  It was pretty interesting.

 Here the kids are inside the church.  It had so many pictures and paintings and statues.  Very impressive and VERY different than our church buildings.

 Then we went over to Colossal Cave in Vail, AZ.  That was nice and cool inside.  Here's part of the crew waiting to go in.

 McKenna and Landon making faces.

 Inside the cave.  Are those kids cute or what!

 Here's me waiting impatiently for Tim to take our picture.  The girls look cute though.

It was so fun having them come.  We can't wait for the next visit.

July 2011 - Still on the Move!

After Disneyland and a day of relaxing we took off to Prescott, AZ to visit Grandma and Grandpa Gibb and our Gibb cousin's (David & Roberta's family.)

The girls were pretty tired after so many days of fun and travel.  I had to get this picture of McKenna and Alexa. 

 Carson.  I thought I had some other pictures of all of us but I guess not.  I get so involved with everyone that I forget to take pictures.

 And sometimes when I DO remember to take pictures I get resistance from my subjects.

After a few days in Prescott.  Tim and I took off to get settled in Prescott.  Tim had to get back to work and I spent the time getting settled in our temporary housing.  The girls stayed and played in Prescott.  They had a great time.  It was wierd to be home by myself while Tim was at work.  I felt guilty having so much free time.  But after months of being a single mom and trying to sell our house, I realized I needed to be enjoying the quiet.  Little did I know that right away I'd be back to being alone with the girls.  Since we have lived here, Tim has been traveling almost every other week if not every week.  More to come!

Thursday - DISNEYLAND!

On Thursday we got up and went to Disneyland wih the cousins, Caleb, Noah, Aunt Kristine, Uncle Stew, Kirra, Malia, Julia, and Liam.  Kristine is a professional when it comes to Disneyland.  I think she might have her own parking space there, she frequents the happiest place on earth so much.  She made the trip so easy since she knows all the ins and outs of the place.  It was a perfect day.  The weather was perfect and the lines weren't long at all. 

 Here's McKenna driving.  Autopia is one of our favorites.

 And it's not a trip to Disneyland if you don't go on It's a Small World. 

 Contrary to McKenna's face, she loved this ride and sang It's a Small World the whole way through.

 Caleb and Olivia on Dumbo.  I love that these kids hadn't seen each other in a long time but yet got along so great.

 Maya (in the back) and Kristine and Julia

 Malia and Maya

 When McKenna saw Jesse, she had to get a picture.  Toy Story is her favorite.  She was Jesse for Halloween and so Jesse has a special place in McKenna's heart.  Here are all the cute cousins.  I am sure Caleb and Noah were THRILLED to take this picture.

 Tea cups!

Turned out to be such a perfect day.  The kids were great and had such a good time together.  No melt downs and no one pouting about what ride they wanted to go on.  They all got along so well.  Couldn't have asked for a better day at Disneyland.