The trampoline

After much debate, we decided to get the kids a trampoline for Christmas.  After talking to Gigi and Mr. Don and my dad (Mr. Jerry), they all decided to chip in and generously ended up paying for almost all of it!!!

We showed it to the boys on Christmas eve afternoon since Troy didn't want to put it together in the dark.

They weren't sure what to think at first but quickly recovered from their shock and begged to jump.

 They had to wait until Christmas to bounce since it was raining.  They LOVE it!  Especially when Troy gets in there too.

I can definitely see lots of hours spent out there. 
As long as they follow the rules, I don't even have to be out there.  These are the rules:
1. No tattling.
2. Keep your hands to yourself.
3.  Always say sorry.
4.  If the zipper is open, no one is jumping.

Thanks again, Gigi, Mr. Don, and Mr. Jerry!!!

Christmas 2011

The Gibbins family had a great Christmas at home this year.  It was just us, and that was nice.

On Christmas eve, we did all the required actions to make sure Santa and his reindeer stopped by.

We threw out the reindeer food...

 Set out the traditional lamingtons...

 And the milk.

 Took a picture under the stockings...See that white stuff on the floor?  Yeah, Jonas spilled the lamingtons on the floor!

 Here are the stockings, all stuffed with goodies..

 And the tree, packed with gifts underneath.

Yep, Santa enjoyed those lamingtons and milk.

 I was so excited to see their faces on Christmas morning!  We..I mean Santa...tried really hard to get the things they asked for.  Well, except for that last minute race track that Reef wanted...

 Arctic batman was on the top of Jonas's list.  He's been talking about seeing it in his stocking.

 This picture doesn't do it justice, but his face was priceless!  He yelled out, "There's my arctic batman!!!"

 Lachlan wanted dinosaurs from Santa.

 Reef with all his stocking stuff.  He didn't get the race track but was pretty happy with the Optimus Prime transformer that Santa picked out instead.

 Our special Christmas morning donuts.  Not so healthy but still well-loved by all.

 Poppy joined in on the festivities after breakfast.  She loved her pink stocking.

 On to the presents under the tree.  Gigi got each child a stuffed animal and book.

 Aunta Paula got the boys' each a game and Poppy a stuff animal.  She loves chewing on the ears!  And the boys are loving playing their new games.

Oma and Opa also sent gifts, but Troy only got photos of those on his phone.  They are each enjoying their tranformers (except Mommy, who can't figure them out!), dinosaur, and "jumping bean house". 
Thank you all for the great gifts!

Holiday Baking

I really really wanted to bake some treats for all our neighbors this year.  We got it done just in time, on Christmas Eve!  Reef picked out the baking project, but all the boys really enjoyed making them together.  Poppy was napping.

Jonas was really into the whole process, especially rolling the dough in sprinkles.  He made sure all the balls were fully covered.

 The finished project.  I must say, this is one of the few times when my project turned out just like the pictures online!

We all braved the cold and drizzle to deliver them to 8 of our neighbors.  The big boys were a little shy, but Lachlan did great handing over a bag of goodies and saying, "Merry Christmas".  Definitely looking forward to making this a yearly tradition!

Gingerbread Christmas Trees

I didn't have the time or energy for full blown gingerbread houses this year, so we went with gingerbread Christmas trees.

The boys loved it, especially sampling the decorations.

 The finished products.

Cruise 2011

We were so blessed this year to go on another cruise with some co-workers of Troy's and his boss!  We were definitely nervous about leaving Poppy for 5 days since she's only 6 months but knew we couldn't pass up this much needed break. 

The kids did great.  The boys stayed at our house with the Chapmans and loved having Mason and Logan to teach them new tricks on the Wii and new computer games too.  Poppy spent her time with Ms. Theresa and also had a fun day with Ms. Georgia too.  They say that she quickly discovered her love for the bottle and was perfect the whole time we were gone. 

Our cruise left from Ft. Lauderdale and sailed to Cozumel, Mexico and back.  We were on the Liberty of the Seas again this year.  A lot of it looked familiar but it's also been nicely updated in places.

 This is the kids' pool area.  We didn't have to spend any time there, though, because we were kid free!

 On the first day, they had a big parade showcasing the Dreamworks characters.  We took lots of pictures to show the kids.  Kung Fu Panda is a current favorite.

The first night, Troy and I watched a movie in the onboard movie theater.  So fun!

 The first day was a sea day.  I was worried it would be too cold to lay out and read, but it quickly warmed up.  We didn't sleep as late as we thought we would, so I went to water aerobics and then spent most of the day laying out.  This is a view from my chair.

 Enjoying my magazine.

 They added a new cupcake shop to the ship, and I signed up for a cupcake decorating class.

 Troy really wanted to see the Tulum Mayan ruins, so we signed up for that excusion.  After a rough ferry ride and hour-long bus ride, we finally made it.  The views were beautiful!

 We enjoyed touring the site and learning the history.  Then we headed back towards the bus for a quick stop to pump in a jewelry store before heading to the beach.

 View from my beach chair.  Now, this is what I'm talking about!

 Troy enjoyed some body surfing while I worked on my sunburn.

 One of the best parts of a cruise vacation...the towel animals of course! 

Now, that I'm looking back, we didn't take nearly enough pictures!  But we did have a great time.  It was so fabulous to eat, sleep, and do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.  The food was fantastic, and I loved being off my dairy free diet.  We counteracted the extra food by taking the stairs.  The shows were also wonderful; we saw a comedian (not so great), an iceskating show, an aerial cirque du soleil-type show, and a musical.  We also rock climbed.  And napped.  And read.  And slept.

It was a great 5 days, but we were so ready to get home to the kids!  Thanks for a great time, Lloyd; we can't wait until next time! ;)

All things Christmas

Ugh!  I'm so behind! 

So, after Thanksgiving, we jumped into Christmas decorating and preparations.  It was fun to get all the stuff out since we didn't decorate last year. 

We've had these light up Santa hats for a long time.  Obviously, they're still a fave.

All the kids were excited to get out the Little People nativity set.  I love that it's "new" every year. 

On the 4th, we headed to our church for pancakes with Santa.  The kids LOVE this event.  Look at this pancake, and you'll see why:

What's not to love about a pancake covered in candy?!

And it's always great to enjoy them with your best friend!  Jonas's BFF, Rylan, was there too.

 The best we could get with Santa.  I was just happy that I didn't have to be in the pic this year.

 After breakfast with Santa, we decorated the tree.  Jonas especially loved finding "his" ornaments- anything he's made in the past or that had his picture on it.  He's also beenfound frequently re-decorating the lower branches in the last few weeks.

 Poppy checked it out from below.  She said it looked good from down there.

I loved seeing how excited they all were to decorate for Christmas.  They also enjoyed hanging up the stockings and picking a pink one out for Poppy.  At Reef's request, we picked up some reindeer antlers and nose for the van.  There are no pictures of that, though, because we lost an antler on the road one day when the window was opened.  Oops!

Intense

It's an intense game of Mario when you don't notice that you've lost your pants!