Hail storm in Fresno

We had hail in Fresno!  I have a video that I would like to share from the hailstorm.  My kids got so excited about it that they wanted to run out and play in the hail.  So we all went out and I pulled out the camera.  This video is Mahala running excitedly out into the storm.  She was holding Daddy's hand and when he decided to stop, she kept going.....guess what happens???

Happy birthday Dad!

I am two days late with this post, but I wanted to do it anyway. My dad's birthday just passed and I wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday! I love you bunches, Dad!!!! Hope your day was blessed and extra special! Lots of hugs and kisses from all of us to you!!!

Making Christmas cookies to send to GA

Granny asked Colten to send some of his very special sugar cookies to her and Papa for Christmas. So we made some cookies a little early so that they would have them in time for Christmas.

Here is a cute little video of the kids decorating these very special cookies. Before you see the decorating, you get to see Anastacia's first taste of a sugar cookie. Daddy snuck this to her while I was busy taking photos of Colten and Mahala decorating. When I looked up and saw what he was doing, I could not believe my eyes. So I switched the camera to video and caught a little snippet of her reaction. And then I caught her reaction to Daddy taking the cookie back when he realized it might not be such a good idea to give a 6 month old a sugar cookie!!!

I know the video was long and then it abruptly ends (my memory card ran out of space), but I really wanted Granny to see how hard these kids worked and how important it was to them that everyone have a special cookie. Love ya'll and miss you!!!

New skills

Anastacia has learned a new skill! She is now freely rolling around on the floor. This new mobility is really neat, but makes me think about how I really need to childproof everything! I have already moved the guinea pig from the living room to the kid's room and i know there are other things I need to move.

This video is the first time she rolled across the living room. She is so proud of herself and so are all of us. Enjoy the video!!!! You get to experience this with us.

Colten and Santa

Well look what we have! Thanx to Ms. Brandy, we have a picture of Colten and Santa. I am so glad she brought her camera to Christmas Tree Lane!! Thank you Brandy for being so thoughtful. If you want to see more pictures of Colten at Christmas Tree Lane, Brandy has posted some on her blog page. I didn't take my camera out, so I only have what Brandy took.

So here's my baby boy:

Motormouth

This is such a cute video! Anastacia was a little wired at this moment - we had Abigail and Ethan over and of course, Daddy was home. Anastacia always gets a little crazy when Daddy is around. Anyway, hope ya'll enjoy this:




It was so cute - you could hear the girls in the background and then here comes Ethan with the little vacuum cleaner. He was cleaning my house for me. Now I wish I had taken a picture of him with that little vacuum - he walks around our apartment with it and "cleans" everything. He is the cutest little thing. Next time he is over I am going to get a picture of him working and post it.

Santa baby!!!

Look at my baby girl! This is her first Christmas and I am so excited that Santa decided to visit Celebration Church this God Encounter!! (Saved us having to wait in line at the mall!)

These two pics were taken by Cortnee - or at least with Cortnee's camera. Thank you Cortnee!!!

Here is my sweet baby girl in her first photo w/ Santa:

This picture is extra special cause Mahala has not had a picture made with Santa since her first Christmas. She had a fear of the jolly old man with the facial hair! So I am very excited that she did this!!!

Unfortunately Santa was too pooped to go see the big kids. Colten was sad, but he understood. We are so blessed to have such an amazing group of people ministering to our children!! Huge shout out to all of the KIC volunteers who make it their business to make every God Encounter even better than the last for our kids!!! You guys absolutely ROCK!!!!!

Happy Birthday Tara!

My sister-in-law Tara is celebrating her birthday today and I just wanted to wish her a wonderful, joyous birthday! Tara is such a blessing to our family and we miss her tremendously.

My heart aches to be able to celebrate this birthday with you, Tara. We've come a long way in a very short time and I would love to be able to be there and enjoy this day with you. This is such a hard post for me cause I feel like we have missed out on so much and I want to have the chance to catch up on some lost time. I want to be there to watch you and Stan unwrapping your presents and blowing out your candles and listening to everyone being silly and laughing so hard they cry. You would love the stupid jokes that Colten and Mahala come up with and you would adore Anastacia's laugh. I'm sure all the kids (mine and yours) would be right there to help you unwrap presents and open all of your cards. It would be a circus, I'm certain, but it would be so much fun.

Okay, now I'm just making myself cry, so even though there is much more I would like to say I'll leave it at that. But I do hope you have a wonderful birthday and I pray that we will get to see all of you soon. We love you and miss you so much!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow bloggers and to all of our friends and family who stop by to view our blog. We love you all so much and miss you more than you can imagine. We will be spending Thanksgiving with our wonderful friends Brandy, Nick, Abigail and Ethan and a few of their family members. We are so blessed to have them here to spend Thanksgiving with. But we miss our family so much and just wanted to let them know that even though we can't be there - we are thinking of them.
We are remembering the last Thanksgiving we spent there (last year) and praying that it won't be long before we can visit again. We sure do miss all of that wonderful southern Thanksgiving food - Aunt Jeanette's fresh creamed corn; Granny McNeal's dumplings, cornbread, dressing, etc; Aunt Teresa's baked cheesy apples; Mama's good 'ol mac-n-cheese, baked ham, sweet potato crunch and all that good stuff. And all of the yummy desserts that Tara and Kay-Kay cook along with the rest of the family (soooooo much food - it's almost sinful). If I listed it all here, it would take way too long, those are just some of my favorites! Oh, man, I'm making myself hungry.


Here are a few pictures from last Thanksgiving when we were there.





Colten giving Bethany a little book from us:

Aunt Tara and Mahala making mini pecan pies:

Mr. Bobby and Mahala picking up pecans:

Granny, Aunt Jeanette and the kids up a tree:

Daddy and Bubba picking up pecans:

Precious memories.....we love you all and miss you so much. Have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving and eat some dumplings for me.

Happy Birthday Stan!!!

The Gibbs Crew just wanted to send out a big Happy Birthday to Uncle Stan! We made a little scrapbook page in honor of his birthday - Shawn and I had a blast making it. Just wanted to let him know that we love and miss Uncle Stan. He has taught my little ones so much about loving nature and learning as much as possible about the world around them. I remember just before we left, he pulled Colten close and told him to turn over as many rocks as possible. Uncle Stan has always been there to teach them about God's creation and we are so thankful to have him in our lives. We only wish we could be closer to experience it more often.

Uncle Stan - Head-head and Ma-hoo-hoo love you and wish you Happy Birthday. Anastacia will grow to love you just as much as they do and God will take care of all the details.

Another cute video.....

Here is another little video for the grandparents. If you watch closely in the beginning, you will see Anastacia do the sign for milk. Then when she raises her hands in the air, that is the sign for all done. And when she is moving her hand, she isn't actually saying bye bye, she was just experimenting with her hand - that's what I was telling you about on the last blog. She's been doing that a lot lately.

Six months old

Anastacia turned six months old on November 21!!! I cannot believe she is already halfway to a year old!! It seems like just yesterday that I had her. Well, maybe not yesterday, but only like a month or so ago. Here is a little page I made in honor of her half-birthday:

Okay, so her latest measurements are 27 1/2 inches long and 18 lbs. She has started pushing up on all fours and rocking a little. She still has no desire to sit up, so I wouldn't be surprised if she started crawling before she sits. Who knows?? Still not teeth, although one is bulging through the gum, but it's been that way for a while. It's getting whiter, so I know it's moving, but I have no idea when it will come! She is learning a lot of new sounds and she has said "Wuv you" several times. She says "Da" and "Bu" but I don't think she knows what they are yet. I think she is just experimenting with a lot of sounds. She has discovered her hand lately and it is the funniest thing! She will stare at it and turn it back and forth over and over again. I want to get it on video b/c it is so cute. Not happened yet, but I'll keep trying. She is very alert and aware of her surroundings and everyone keeps telling me she is big for her age and acts much older than her age. I don't know the difference b/c she acts just like the other two did at this age and everyone said the same thing about them.

I do know she is bigger than most kids her size cause I see them at church and in the stores. I cannot believe how much bigger she is than other kids her size!! She looks like she's a year old instead of six months! She is very healthy and happy all the time. And she loves her family. She has gotten more attached to Mahala and she smiles so big when she sees either one of her siblings. I think she gets most excited about her Daddy, though. (Unless she is hungry then I'm the only one who makes her happy - but that's only cause I'm the milk factory) She is getting to be much more vocal than she was. Pastor Randy was preaching the other morning and it was his closing. He got a little quiet and Anastacia got so loud that I had to take her out. Everyone turned and looked at us and I said sorry and took her out the doors!

Lott Baby

I am really getting into this digital scrapbooking thing now that I have figured out how. I wanted to do a page in honor of my sister-in-law's new baby. The little girl on the right is the big sister (Bethany) and she is holding a picture of the ultrasound. Tara said that she hugged it, rubbed it on her face and said "oooh, baby soft." I thought that was so precious and just wanted to share it with everyone. How I wish we could be there when this baby comes into the world!

*For those of you who don't know, you can click on the page and enlarge it to see it better*

Where ya'll is????

Where is everyone?? Ok, I know it's getting to be the busy season, but I thought we all agreed to keep up this blog thing? Just kidding, I know it's been a crazy time. I'm just as guilty. I just wanted everyone to know I miss them. I love all of you and I hope everything is going well. For all of us who are separated from family ~ I know how hard this time of year can be. Our family is so close and we miss everyone so much. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the most difficult cause that's when we spent loads of time doing stuff....going to the Christmas tree farm to cut down a tree, putting up Christmas decorations, discussing who was gonna cook what for Thanksgiving and Christmas, eating so much food it's sinful and sitting around laughing and talking about Christmases past, drinking coffee and eating yummy desserts!!! We miss our family so much it hurts!!! I just have to remember that God has a plan and He can restore all of this lost time. I know that God is working out all of the details and everything that we are giving up will be restored back to us in even greater portions!! I have to keep reminding myself of that.....I know that we have an eternity to spend together and that time will be so blessed. I love all of you!!!!! :*)

Learning to sew

Nope, not me!! Colten is learning to sew. When his Granny and Papa were here about 5 months ago, his Granny taught him how to sew a button on and he has been "sew" interested ever since!!! So we have been working on a few projects and had some material left over. He decided he wanted to make his stuffed animal a blanket and a pillow.
Here is a picture of him "sleeping" with his new creation and it's owner:

Gerry Giraffe and his new bedding:


This is gonna be one of those things we keep forever and pass down to his kids. The first two things he ever sewed completely on his own!!!

He was determined to do it completely on his own (I don't know where he gets his strong will from??LOL!!!), so I let him have it. Not too bad for a first time.

This post brought back so many memories for me. When I was about his age, my grandma showed me a couple of stitches and I spent hours hand sewing clothes for my barbie dolls. I remember sitting in the middle of the floor with scraps of cloth around me and a needle and thread in my hand. I wish I had kept some of that stuff, it would have been interesting to compare. I know my stuff looked very similar to this!!!!

Still here

Sorry to be away so long everyone!! We have been battling some junk, but the devil gets no glory!!! God is the Great Physician and this family is healed!!!!

I have pictures and stuff that need to be posted, but I really do have to catch up on some zzzz's, so I will have to get back to that. Just wanted to let you know that I am still here!!! Keep our family in your prayers, cause the devil is a liar!!!

God is so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you all!!!!!

Thumbs up to Nana

This post is for Nana. When Nana was still living in California, she and Colten planted some gladiola bulbs. When they finally started growing a little, the gardeners mowed them all down by mistake. So this time, when we saw the little sprouts coming through, we decided to mark them with stones. They have been growing for a couple of months now and we wanted Nana to see how much they have grown. Here's to you and your green thumb, Nana!!!

Mr. Crocodile

Mahala came home from church once and she had learned a new song. I thought it was so cute and I wanted to share it with everyone:

Missing everyone

This is Mahala's shout out to all of the family! We love you all and miss you bunches!!

Wuv you!

This video is long (like 5 1/2 mins), but so worth it! I posted this for Granny and Papa cause Granny wanted to see her little grandbaby. If you listen closely at the end, you will hear Anastacia say her first sentence!!! (I hope you can make it out cause Mahala was in the background talking on the phone with Granny during the video.) I am so glad I got it on video!!! Otherwise noone would believe me. Actually, I hope ya'll will believe me cause it is so hard to hear Anastacia's voice over Mahala's voice. Just put your ear to the speaker very close after I tell her to say bye-bye to Granny and Papa....

Honor

Man, it has gotten busy the past few days. So many good things going on. John Bevere came to Celebration Sunday night and it was so good. I am still chewing on it. He spoke about honor. Honoring authorities, honoring our pastors, honoring our parents, our children and even each other. In just the few hours he was there he revealed so much that I cannot even absorb it all. Praise God we were blessed with the curriculum "Honor's Reward" which is a 12 week curriculum based on what he was preaching Sunday night. It takes what he talked about and breaks it down into bite size bits so that we can absorb all of it. I am so excited about this curriculum b/c God has already revealed some areas to me that I need to work on. I know that there is so much more that needs to be brought to the light, so I can't wait to get started on it. We are gonna go through the entire thing as a family - we have already watched the first week's video and will be going through the first chapter of the book tonight. Then we have a devotional to read and some questions to answer later in the week. I know that this will be a life-changing experience and one that has been a long time coming. I pray that God will make our hearts good soil so that this can be planted and root deep within us. I pray that it will produce a harvest that is 30, 60 and 100-fold. I pray that we will receive it and apply it to our lives and I cannot wait to see what God does as a result!!!

Congrats!!!

Well, I fell of the face of blogland for a day and look what happened!!! Bethany won!!!! And Cortnee won!! Congrats Bethany and Cort, I am so proud for you both - I know how much you both love presents (not to mention winning, LOL). You guys are awesome!!!!


I haven't had time to comment on all of the amazing posts you guys did, but I will. Love you both and I hope you will KEEP up the wonderful blogging. I love getting to know everyone better through their posts and comments.

Healing from God

This lady's name is Mari Espanoza and she was at my Word Works Table back in April of this past year. She had cancer when she was at my table and she was going through all of the chemo and stuff. But she always kept a wonderful attitude and a knowledge that God was gonna bring her through all of the junk. God is so good!!!! He healed her of cancer and she is now healthy, vibrant and she is getting a head full of beautiful hair. I am so blessed to know her, but even more blessed by a God Who would do such amazing miracles for normal, everyday people like me and you. Here is a video of her testimony that you have to watch. I saw her again tonight at church and was struck by how amazing God is. If He will do it for her, He will do it for YOU!!!


Mari Espinoza Testimony from My Celebration Church on Vimeo.

Shawn is so gonna get me for this, but it's such a cute video I couldn't resist. He hates for people to see him NOT being totally serious. He is so quiet around others that noone realizes he can be fun. And of course Colten is never quiet so I'm sure noone will be surprised by the part he plays. I don't know where he gets that big mouth and all that drama from, LOL!!! ;>)

My baby girl is growing!

Look what Anastacia is doing now....she is pushing up and rocking back and forth!!! I can't believe it, she is getting so big already! I wish I could have caught it on video, but it caught me by surprise, so I couldn't get the camera adjusted quickly enough. Soooo, I just snapped some photos. At least I got that much!!! I'm so proud of my baby girl!! (This was just before she went to bed tonight)

Welcome to Blogland!!!

I just wanted to give a big shout out to my friend Brandy, who fiNally got a blog!!!!! Woo-hoo, welcome to blogland Brandy!!! I love ya girl and I am so glad that you will be sharing in our adventures. We will get to know each other even better through our crazy little posts. Everyone out there has already learned a lot more about me: like that I am a little more competitive than even I realized!!! (and Bethany is still kicking my tail!! - go Bethany!!!) ;.)

Anyway, I really am glad that you have joined us and I hope you enjoy it as much as we all do. We have all come up with a rule - you must post at least once a week, LOL. No REALLY!!!!

New 'Do

I finally did it! My friend Brandy blessed me with a gift certificate to get my hair cut for my birthday (which was 3 months ago) and I finally went and got my hair cut!!!! I am such a procrastinator. Anyway, I absolutely love it and I just wanted to share the news with everyone. Thank you soooooo much Brandy for a wonderful birthday present!!!!

Look at those lips!!!

OMG!! Look at what I found! We were in the grocery store last night and I spotted these at the checkout line. I loved these when I was growing up - do you remember them, the ones you play with and then you can chew them up like gum and spit them out when you are done. The kids loved them. It's the first time they have ever seen any. So we are walking out of the grocery store and the kids are looking at everyone who passes with these giant red lips. Everyone just kinda looked away, but I bet they were wondering?????

Word Works

We had Word Works again last night and it was awesome, as usual. I am working on training up a couple of new table leaders and they are gonna be awesome!! They are so full of the Word of God - I am excited to see what all God has in store for them!


Our Bible study this week was on Bathsheba. It's funny because I never looked at the story of David and Bathsheba from the perspective of Bathsheba. I think most people would agree that we all concentrate on David's side of the story. But our Bible study required us to think a little more deeply about Bathsheba's motives and to examine our own motives in life. It really made me think about how my state of mind can affect the decisions I make. I mean, think about Bathsheba. If her husband had been at home, available to her and making her feel like a wonderful wife and woman, she might have made a different decision. Or if she had been focused on God instead of feeling sorry for herself because her noble man was out fighting the king's battle. But instead, she was probably feeling vulnerable and insecure about herself. So when King David called for her, she jumped at the chance to feel loved. (This is all my interpretation, some people saw her as the victim). Regardless, it made me think about how when I am not keeping my eyes focused on God, it is so much easier to fall into sin. Just like David, if he had been out on the battlefield, where he was supposed to be, instead of bored out of his mind in his castle - he wouldn't have called for her in the first place. Then this whole situation could have been avoided, the baby wouldn't have died and there wouldn't have been curses on David's house. Thank God that He is so merciful and forgives us when we make stupid decisions. Once David's sin was revealed and he repented, God was able to use him. Ultimately, God uses David and Bathsheba because Jesus is one of their descendants.

It really made me think about how we need to be so careful to remain focused on God. The times I fall into sin are the times when I have let my eye stray to my circumstances instead of God. Instead of looking at how huge my God is, I am focused on how scary the storm is. If I will just continue reading the Word, meditating on it and speaking it out, all the while praying to God and maintaining that relationship, I won't be as likely to fall. But every time I get sidetracked, satan is right there to steal, kill and destroy anything he can get his hands on. It is so important to be led by the Holy Spirit and allow our footsteps to be ordered by God. There is NO storm that is too big for Him to calm. And there is nothing more peaceful than abiding in Him in the midst of the storms of life.

Homemade Potato Soup

I just made one of the best potato soups I have ever tasted!! I got it off of RecipeZaar, this is the first recipe I have ever gotten from this website and I am very pleased. I copied and pasted it onto my page exactly as it appeared on the website. Here it is:

Easy, Creamy Potato Soup Recipe #15165
Easy and very creamy soup with taste! Great served with grilled cheese sandwiches. Will satisfy even the meat lovers in your family.
by Karen From Colorado
30 min 10 min prep

SERVES 6 -8

5-6 large potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size pieces
1/2-1 lb bacon
1/4-1/2 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels or whole kernel corn, drained
1 medium onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup butter (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste
Fry bacon until crisp (see recipe #242966 for homemade bacon bit tips). Remove to paper towels to drain. Reserve bacon grease.
Meanwhile, boil potatoes in a large dutch oven in water; do not add salt! Drain.
Pour reserved bacon grease into empty dutch oven; saute onion and garlic in reserved bacon grease until onion is lightly browned.
Add flour to the sauted onion mixture, stirring to evenly brown; add cream and stir constantly until mixture thickens; add chicken broth and stir until bubbly.
Stir potatoes, corn and crumbled bacon into the soup; add butter, salt and pepper to taste. (you may not need salt. Bacon is very salty) Simmer until butter is melted and stirred into soup.
Add milk at little at a time if soup is too thick for your tastes.

© 2008 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com/

This soup was so creamy, different from others I have made in the past. And it was just a really heartwarming soup for the cool weather. I did a few things differently, simply b/c I was trying to use the stuff I had in my own kitchen without going to the store. I did not use bacon at all, so to saute the onions I had to use shortening and butter. I also didn't have garlic, so I used garlic powder. I used creamed corn instead of kernel b/c that's what I had. The last thing I did differently is that I added a five cheese blend b/c my family loves cheese. I think that this made a big difference in the flavor, so if your family likes cheese I would suggest going with it! I think that this soup could be made into a spicy southwestern style soup and be really delicious (minus the bacon, of course). I can't wait to try it with bacon, but even if we don't like the bacon, I will definitely be doing this soup again. I might try some mexicorn next time and maybe some spicy cheddar cheese.

More funny faces....

Ok, the last post got me to thinking, some of my favorite pictures are of my family doing silly faces. So I thought I would share some silly faces with everyone. Come to think of it, I would love to see some silly faces from all of you bloggers out there!!!! Don't be embarassed, it's all in good fun!!!
Some of these are recent and some are older. This first one is not too long ago when we were outside playing in the mud.

This was also pretty recent, just me and Mahala goofing off.

This one was about 2 years ago, when we first moved to California. We were in the parking lot at Target and it was raining. I think we were in the car waiting for Shawn to come out and I was bored, so I started taking pictures. Then Shawn came out and he took this one of me. I took the next one after of him. He's gonna kill me for posting it!

These two were taken about 3 years ago at Thanksgiving in GA. It was the year before we moved to California, so Mahala was right before 2 years old. These were some good memories. We were at Granny McNeal's house stuffing ourselves full of the best Thanksgiving food ever!!!!! Boy, I miss those days!!

This was Colten being all tough with his Transformer sunglasses that his Granny bought him.

This was another Thanksgiving picture. This is Colten and our cousin, Kay-Kay, whom we miss dearly!!!! Love you Kay-Kay!!!!!

This picture is old, but oh so cute. This is Mahala's first bite ever of chocolate. She was barely a year old and she thought it was so good. She's always made some silly faces, I have tons more of her - she rarely takes a serious picture.

Wow, I enjoyed doing this post. Looking back through all of my pictures, brought back some memories. Made me long for our family back in Georgia. We love all of you and miss you so much!!!!!

Funny face

I told Brandy that I would post this on my blog. She took it at the Pumpkin Patch and she said "You have to post this on your blog!" So I said I would, then I forgot about it. She gave me the CD of the pictures this past weekend and reminded me that I had a picture to put on my blog. So here is my goofy self. I am not sure why I made this face, but I think it had something to do with her husband Nick teasing me about taking so many pictures. So I made a face at him and Brandy told me to do it again so she could get a picture. So laugh away at my stupid face, it's ok, I can take it!

Homemade Clay

We did a really neat project today that I have never done before. We made homemade clay dough. It's kinda like playdough, but different. I found the recipe online and it is used to make Christmas ornaments, so it dries kind of lightweight, instead of heavy like playdough. You can add food coloring to it to make different colors, or you could add pudding or jello or kool-aid if you want it to be good tasting (for those who have little ones, this might be a good idea). Anyway, we didn't color the dough b/c we plan on painting it when it is completely dry. We like a variety of colors, so we wanted to be able to decorate it ourselves. The kids liked the way it felt. You could use cookie cutters to cut it out, then punch a hole in the top for the string and 'voila' you have extra special ornaments!!! Here is the recipe if you are interested:

2 cups baking soda
1 cup cornstarch
1 1/4 cups water

Mix the ingredients together in a medium pan and cook over medium heat until the mixture resembles soft mashed potatoes. Remove from heat and cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes or until you can hold it. You can play with it and then seal in an airtight container, or make ornaments and leave overnight to dry.

We actually put it in the oven for a while on 250 to speed up the drying process, but the bottom was still not dry, so we will have to let them dry overnight anyway. After we paint I may post pictures of the finished products at a later date.

Mahala's cooking

Mahala wanted to help me cook supper the other night. So I let her go to it! We were making meatloaf, so I let her crack the eggs and crush the crackers. I had already done the onions and seasonings, so all that was left was the mixing.


The first touch she said was slimy, so she was a little hesitant at first:


But then she dug in!!!

She was so proud of herself.

I even let her put it in the oven all by herself!

Mahala was so excited that she had cooked supper. She told Daddy that she had done it all by herself!!! These kids are really getting into the cooking thing, I am amazed. Mahala is the perfect little homemaker! Before long, they will be running the household, LOL!