Swimming at Gigi’s House

The kids love to swim at Gigi’s house.  We were able to do it a couple of times during our days in Conroe.
Jacob is also a fan, especially with cousins to play with!

That sun was bright!

Jumping!

They enjoyed playing/fighting over/lounging on these floats.

She quickly tired of swimming.  She really loves lawn decorations (she stole one from Joe and Lisa’s yard!) and was quite obsessed with this seahorse.  At least she was entertained!

The girl is 2!

Can you believe this girl is 2 years old already?!?  In my mind, she should stills be a tiny baby.  It’s been quite the journey watching her grow and learn; we are trying to cherish every minute of these early years since she is our last!
In the last 6 months, Poppy has developed quite the personality.  She is opinionated about everything, loves her brothers and her daddy, and is determined to be a big girl long before we are ready!
In her quest to be a big girl, Poppy climbed out of her crib a week after her birthday, and there was no going back!  She is now in a big girl bed.  She’s also REALLY like to potty train and takes her clothes off if we ignore her requests to go potty; I’m just not up for that challenge yet!
Some of her favorite things right now are babies, her little Bible, her stuffed goat, the sandbox, puzzles, and the water table.  She is very domesticated and loves to help with laundry, cooking, and unloading the dishwasher.  Her brothers love this because she will do their jobs!  It is amazing to see this difference between girls and boys when they’ve all been parented the same way.
At her 18 month appointment there was some concern about a speech delay.  She was evaluated and found to be just a month behind in speech but ahead in all other areas.  At 2 now, she certainly has no shortage of words!  She is constantly talking and singing and learns new words everyday.  My favorites are “tickle” (pickle) and “giggles” (goggles).
At her 2 year appointment, she was in the 97th %ile for head circumference (they get that from their mommy), 30th %ile for weight, and 92nd %ile for height.
These are random pictures of the girl from the last 6 months.
She is 18 months here.  She loves purses!

21 months.  Look at how her hair is growing!  It’s a learning curve figuring out what to do with it!  Thankfully Erin is just next door!

I wore heels once, and she claimed them as her own!

She loves to be the mommy and feed her babies.

A little breakfast in the sink.

These koalas are sought after in our house; she was holding on for dear life!

Her first pedicure!  She loved her “pink ones”!

Pockets!

This is her hairdo of choice these days.  “One pony, “ she says.

We love you, Poppy girl, and can’t wait to see what next year brings!  Please stay our baby for just a little longer!

Poppy’s Party

We had Popp'y’s birthday party at Gigi’s house again this year.  It was a special time with family we don’t get to see often enough, and Gigi and Mr. Don were gracious hosts.
Miraculously, we managed a picture with all the great grandchildren, and not a single one of them is crying!

She was a little unsure about being the center of attention; unusual, I know!

But a piece of cake brought all smiles!  What’s not to smile about when you get cake at 9am!


Mr. Jerry had Aunt Paula refurbish this giant horse for the kids.  It was love at first ride!

In fact, it was so loved that we sat on it while opening presents!

She loved all of her gifts, and it was definitely a party full of girly things, so different from other Gibbins gang parties!

A visit to Mr. Jerry's

The kids love to visit Mr. Jerry's house.  He has an endless supply of outside fun stuff to do.  On this visit, we were joined by a litter of barn kittens who don't know they're supposed to live in the barn.  For Poppy it was love at first sight.  She tried to feed them their "yum yums" by hand!

 The black one was the easiest to catch, so he got the most abuse...I mean love.

 Reef caught the gray one on his own.

 I thought she might squish that poor "kitty" to death!

 And we always have to see the horses.

 We rode without a saddle this time.

 Look at this face!

 I don't know what's going on here...

 We attempted a group shot on the porch swing.  They're almost all looking!

We finished off the visit with our usual trip to McDonald's before heading back to Gigi's house to get ready for the party!

Sprayground with Aunt Taylor

Even with a longer trip, we didn't get to spend much time with Aunt Taylor and Jacob.  Luckily, she was able to get a morning off to hang out.  We decided to make the trek (it was farther than I thought) to a local "sprayground".  It looked fabulous online but was CRAZY packed when we arrived. 

The kids didn't love it (too crowded) so we moved to the park.  It was pretty packed too, so we called it a day and headed to Wendy's for lunch.  We are looking forward to our next visit or until she comes here, so we can spend more time together!

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!

I grabbed some bubbles at WalMart, and the kids spent a lot of time on our cabin's porch blowing them.  It was nice that they could wander out, blow a few bubbles, and then come back in.

 Poppy especially loved blowing her bubbles instead of napping like she was supposed to!

 This may have been the highlight of their trip!  The cabin has a big jacuzzi tub.  I told them they'd love it and got much resistance.  When it was finally full enough to turn on the jets, they did love it!  We almost overflowed the tub with all those bubbles!

Candy Cane Park

My grandma loves to take us out to breakfast when we are in town, so we headed to Cracker Barrel (Reef's choice) one morning and then on to the park.

We always love this park, and they've added a third play structure!  Obviously the dragonfly seesaw was loved by all!

Putt Putt and Pools with Grandma

On our first full day in Conroe, Grandma drove over to play putt putt and go to the pool with us.

It's hard to see, but when they saw her, they took off running!

 Except this girl, who was always dragging behind a bit.

 Putt putt was loved by Reef and Jonas, not so much by the other 2.  They loved the first hole and then were done.
This is Reef's first hole in one; he actually got 2 and Jonas got 1!  Their grandpa would've been proud.

 Jonas

 The other 2 hung out on the benches with Grandma when they weren't trying to swim in the water features.

 After a sweaty round of golf, we stopped in the clubhouse for some blueberry muffins.  Lachlan talks about these all.the.time.  He's always asking when we're going to Grandma's for muffins.

 Then we were off to the pool.  This was my first time taking all 4 swimming on my own, and it was nice to have grandma there just in case.

 Lachlan is doing so much better this year.  He's in the deep end by himself!

 She stays pretty close to the stairs or to me.  I wish she had a tiny bit more confidence.

Houston Children's Museum

Our big adventure of the trip to Conroe was a trip to the Children't Museum in Houston.  It's rated number 1 in the nation, and I've been waiting for the kids to be a good age for it.  Gigi always takes a day off to go on these adventures with us and treats us like royalty!  It's a good thing we were both there or we may not have made it out alive!  It was WILD in there, and I'm not sure I'll be needing to go back anytime soon.

Reef and I made this arch; Lachlan couldn't wait to knock it down.

 These guys played well together.  I'm so glad Jacob was able to join us.

 This girl kept me on my toes.  She was shopping in the African village.

 The HEB was a big hit, followed closed by the restaurant area across the hall and the vet's office.

 These are the only ones patient enough to wait a turn at painting.  Aren't they cute?

 We tried to check out the tot area while Reef and Jonas rock climbed, but these guys were too big.  They drove trucks around the roof instead.

Things we didn't get pictures of (because all 5 were headed in different directions):  the water area (it was amazing and we would've been there longer if I planned better), rock climbing, another climbing thing, ice cream at the end...
It was a great day!  I was sure they'd pass out in the car, but everyone (even Poppy) stayed awake during the drive back to Gigi's.  I wish I could say they napped when we got home because I needed one bad, but no such luck.  After a quick snack, they were ready to hit the pool!  Needless to say, it was early to bed that night.