Delivery Truck

We got a delivery to our house the other day. The Liam and the Gibbins boys were in love with the big truck. The truck had a lift and was super big! All the boys watched the drivers unload and use the lift. It was wonderful to see all the boys enjoying themselves. 

watching the truck

All smiles! 

Very intense

These boys melt my heart! 

Best Friends

Best Friends.........

Then

Now

This is what best friends look like. I love watching them grow their relationship! Oh boy, how our play dates have changed! 

My Liam

There are so many things that I want to remember about my Liam. He is growing so fast and changing even faster. I am truly amazed.

About my Liam

• Liam still has the nickname Turtle. 
• Chicken nuggets are is favorite and only meat he will eat. 
• loves loves milk
• La la is Lachlan, his best friend
• Bla bla is his blanket 
• loves to tickle people
• pretends to fake sleep when people come
• "to fit" means to small or to big depending on situation
• Poppy is favorite baby. He loves her so!
• will point at anything pink and say "no like girl stuff"
• loves disney Cars and Toy Story
• Any truck with a hook and doors that open = Reef's truck. 
• he is an early riser. 
• His new favorite place is Chuck E Cheese
• NanaDa = Nanna and Da his grandparents
• If you ask him what he learned at school he will always answer "Jesus and firetruck"
• Ask him what he dreamed about  always answers "Jesus"
• Cat cat or Khaki = Aunt Cathy
• He is very much the jumper. He loves to just off everything
• His favorite cookie is chocolate chip
• He loves oreos but won't eat the middle
• He is so weet and gentle. 
• Prays daily before meals 
• Loves Jesus
• He is a great snuggler
• Amu = Uncle Seamus

Thanksgiving 2011

Oh Thanksgiving! We have a love hate relationship. I love to cook and bake but I hate all the dishes. Let me tell you three days of baking and cooking makes for lots of dishes. I cooked and baked a lot this Thanksgiving. I made so much food. I know I should have taken more pictures but I was very busy cooking up a storm. This year I brined the turkey. I had never used this method before. It has always scared me off. However, once I heard Lauren was doing and her turkey turned out beautifully, I just had to try it too! Let me tell you, it was amazing. By far the best turkey I ever made! Here is the menu from Thanksgiving:

Turkey with gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Rolls

Cranberry Sauce

Corn Casserole

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole

Broccoli Rice Casserole - made by Ashley

Now for the desserts

Marble Cheesecake

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cake Balls

This was the first year Liam was able to watch the parade. Last year he was too young and would not sit still for parade. This year he loved it. He called it the balloon parade. His favorite part was Santa coming down at the end! 

This is the only picture of food I have. 

Liam and Chris watching football

Chris taught Liam how to Tebow! I pray that one day Liam will continually show is faith in God through his daily life and actions. 

Chris and the turkey! This was about the 10th picture I took. He was kinda annoyed at my picture taking! 

We are so blessed to have a wonderful family and friends. This was a hard year. After the loss of Pete, we knew the first holiday would be hard. I am so thankful that on this day we remembered the good times and all the wonderful things about Pete! It was a great day. 

Indoor Slide

We have been using an extra piece of wood as a slide. Liam loves it. It doubles as a slide and a race track! Liam loves it! It is requested almost daily. The ramp also can save us from the reappearing dinosaur that Liam says keeps coming. It is a multipurpose ramp!

Going down the ramp! 

Playing! 

Man on the ramp

Running from the "dinosaur"

Playing with trucks

I love this smile! 

Chuck E Cheese

Liam saw a commercial awhile back for Chuck E Cheese. He has been asking to go and play. We finally broke down and took him one afternoon. He thought it was the most fabulous thing ever. He was a little overwhelmed by all the games, that he hardly ate any dinner. It was great to see how much fun he was having. I know that we will be going back there again. Thankfully the food has improved. It was all worth it just to see how much fun Liam had playing!

Liam driving a car. 

Basketball with daddy. Thank goodness the NBA is back! 

More basketball

Football with daddy! All that football watching is paying off! 

A flying game! Liam loved it all! 

Ballons and Pete

Liam was having a hard time understanding that Pete is gone. He asks for him and we always have the same reply, "Pete is with Jesus." One of our friends gave us an idea to release balloons at Pete's grave site so Liam can understand where Pete has gone. We made the trip to HEB and got four balloons for each of us. Liam choose red! He loves the color red. We also decided to write a message for Pete on our balloons.  Liam loved his balloon. We did have a funny moment with Cathy. Cathy wrote this long lovely message on her ballon. It was wonderful. Just then her balloon popped. We couldn't help but laugh because we knew Pete would. It gets better. So I give Cathy my balloon and she writes another message. As we are trying to get Liam to release his balloon, Cathy lets her balloon go so Liam can see how to do it. It gets stuck in a tree. What is not funny about that. We still laugh about it today. It was nice to be able to see Pete and send him a message.

Liam and Chris writing on Liam's balloon

Chris and his balloon

Cathy and her new balloon

Chris and Liam trying to release their balloons

Cathy and her new balloon.....

See that tree on the right..... Her balloon got stuck there!

Our balloons going to see Pete...... Notice the blue dot in the tree on the right. Pete just wanted that balloon to stay close!