Leight and Sam (my good friend Leslie's little guy born just a few weeks after LJ)
Ellis "helping" Sam eat yogurt (in her princess dress and tiara, of course)
Enjoying summer!
Ellis in her new leotard for tumbling class
What's up with toddlers smiling all crazy and fake?
LJ enjoying a rock on the front porch
Daddy's Father's Day gift was a bike trailer so we can take the girls on bike rides with us. The only problem is they only like it when it's inside, not attached to the bike, to hang out in it and have snacks and juice. The idea of actually going on a bike ride scares them both to death.Darren and I are learning that home ownership is a lot of work! There's taking the garbage to the street (every week!), mowing (again, every week!) and changing filters in stuff. Gosh, the list just never ends! Gone are the days we just paid rent and everything was done for us. So the projects begin...
Our new pergola, we're told, is just a fancy name for a trellis thingy that goes over your deck. Ours will have lovely vines covering it in a few years as well (that is if we ever get them planted & they don't die like my garden). I'm very proud to say Darren designed and built this himself. We've had a slight issue of having the sun beam in our deck doors from spring to fall to the degree one requires sunglasses inside while eating at the dinner table. This is so well thought out (he said something about basic trigonometry which just makes my head hurt) that the slats provide nearly 100% coverage in our kitchen from the late afternoon sun. It's also given our deck a nice quaint quality.
Stage 1
Stage 2 required lots of balancing on small ledges while hammering really loudmaking me very nervous!
View from inside
Tada...the finished product except for staining (and one happy, relieved wife)!
View from the deck which now includes the fencing our neighbor just installed to the left (and hopefully staining it is on their "to do" list as well, trying not to ask to much, I mean they just saved us around $1,500 fencing in the last side of our yard...just saying it'd look nice if they did so it would match the other 2 sides of our yard). Soon our kids won't be able to run away...
View from inside
Tada...the finished product except for staining (and one happy, relieved wife)!
View from the deck which now includes the fencing our neighbor just installed to the left (and hopefully staining it is on their "to do" list as well, trying not to ask to much, I mean they just saved us around $1,500 fencing in the last side of our yard...just saying it'd look nice if they did so it would match the other 2 sides of our yard). Soon our kids won't be able to run away...
I feel like I've really let down the Gibbons' family blog the last few weeks. Since we got back from Ireland it's been non-stop and although pictures are taken daily, they are all sitting on our camera. On top of that, we seem to have "misplaced" our smaller digital camera (ie called the airline, searched the car, searched the house and can't find it) which had loads of pictures on it.
I fear the worst but Darren remains strangely optimistic. We haven't seen it since we were in Chicago after Ireland trip. Can't imagine how this could have happend--5 suitcases, double stroller, 2 car seats, back packs, hand bag, diaper bag, 4 coats, etc.
Anyway, pictures will be uploaded in the next few days to include Ellis' tumbling class (her 3rd session), our garden (you must understand, I'm very proud of my little patch of clay that contains lots of very confused sprouts), Leighton walking (and boy is she good at it!) and other random things that seem to keep us very busy.
More coming soon...
On Thursday we left Chicago and headed back to Des Moines with 2 very tired kiddos who were sick of traveling and their car seats. On one of our many stops, we went to Wiliamsburg, IA for a bit of Outlet shopping, a picnic lunch and some bull riding.
Ride'em cowboy!
Lovely goodies from Great Nana Gibbons and Aunt Kathleen when we visited them.
Ellis showing off her cookie to Nana Gibbons and telling her all about it.
Leighton loved her fairy cake!
Leighton & Darren with Great Nana Gibbons
Jean and LJ
Ellis with Nana G. having a tea party.
Our good friends, Linda (background) & Richie with Leighton
The 11 Gibbons' Grandchildren
Darren and his siblings--Tony, Darren, Alan, Keith & Amanda
The cousins taking a break from being hard at play--Reece, Alex, Charlie, Darci & Ellis
Nana Gibbons got the girls a lovely birthday cake. Ellis took a real liking to her cousin Josh and sat on his lap for ages.
Ellis is getting really good at blowing out candles by this stage. 
Loading up on the yummy sweets! Ireland has the best marshmallows you've ever tasted!
It all started with a small bottle of bubbles and when mixed with water you get a whole lot of fun in the back garden. Ellis absolutely LOVED her cousins and took to them from the start. She's going to miss them so much!
House full of cousins having a grand ol'time!
Darren & Leighton at birthday party
Nieces Casey & Charlie
Casey & Reece
Fast best friends--Ellis with her cousin Leila
LJ enjoying a sausage
A birthday party for the girls
Mam Jean and Darren
Our beautiful niece Casey We spent Monday & Tuesday (May 11-12) in Chicago before we left for Ireland. It helped break up the long trip car ride to Chicago from Des Moines and 7 1/2 hr flight to Dublin. On Tuesday we went to our good friend Ellen Baker's house to spend time with Leah, Ellen, Tom and girls. Leah was also super wonderful and took us to the airport and kept our car for us while gone and then picked us up! Thank you, Leah! Last week was also Ellen's birthday so we had a little birthday party for her.
Our Girls (Leighton, Ellis, Gracie & Sophie)
Leah & Gracie
Happy 30th Birthday, Ellen!(Leight, Dina, Grace, Leah, Ellen, Sophie, Ellis & Christian)
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