jack frost nipping at your nose

it was nippy yesterday, but we just had to get out.

so we went to visit our favorite cows....sadly, there were no cows. if you remember our fall walk post in october you will have images of a beautiful white and black cow standing by this fence. gasp! the cows have been "ehem." on the positive side, no cows came running at us, making brennan scream in fear! it was pretty cute when they used to do that though...boo hoo, i know.
i didn't think it was too cold outside, but after our 20 min stroll little brennan was freezing! how do i know? i'm embarrassed to say there were little whimpers coming from the stroller...and red little fingers, which i quickly covered with a blanket. thank goodness for his fuzzy hat (i LOVE target, btw). however, dad had come home while we were out (we LOVE when dad comes home during our walks) and warmed out little tootsies by the fire.
it was a great afternoon.
happy 9 months little dude.
it's been a thrilling ride!

what you didn't know you had

food storage...

it's amazing how much of it we have when you put it all in one place!

water storage
and crap on it's way to the DI!!!

i feel better already;-)

inked

i learned something new tonight...

putting a pen in a glue gun to get out the last little bit of your glue b/c you don't have any more glue sticks is NOT a good idea.
(my hands are NOT burned, just covered in ink.)
it was a purple inked pen, btw. i think i might need a new glue gun...
need homemade craft ideas?
email me at emilygibson82@yahoo.com

"running"

running is one of my favorite past times. i remember when i hated it though. these pictures are from when i ran a 1/2 marathon in rexburg, idaho (13.1 miles peeps). it was amazing. the farm fields are beautiful in the summer. i clocked so many miles on the black pavement while we lived there, and i changed as a person. for me, running was about doing things i never thought i could do.

i remember the reason i started running. i thought i was fat. gasp! i know, that word almost sounds like a bad word in our culture. seriously, from age 14-25 i spent all of my energy on how to get un-fatted. i even remember buying TDP (teen diet pill) from a seventeen magazine in middle school. i paid $80 in cash and completely forgot about it. about 5 years later i got a check in the mail for $81.50 (or something like that) b/c a court had prosecuted the company for charging for a product and never sending anything. it felt like winning the lottery...and reminded me that i was still "running" that battle.

i can remember not liking my legs. i LOVED my sister's legs. seriously, she still has great legs...but so do i;-) as i look back at old pictures i am amazed that i thought i was "ehem" fat! i have always been a skinny person, but in my mind that was just not the case...until now. did she just say she thought she was skinny!?! how conceited!!!

no really, was anyone else trained to think that way?

thank the good lord above for brennan and sean.

really, thank you God.

for the first time in my life the first thing i think when i wake up is NOT what do i weigh this morning...

it's, "what amazing things will i do today."

now THAT'S living.

p.s. happiness has nothing to do with the number on the scale (in case you are "running")

p.s.s. for more information on happiness email me @ emilygibson82@yahoo.com

better than snow

2 & 6

are pretty grand...

during the day, my good friend beth came up to make me cupcakes...apparently adding 1tbls instead of 1 tsp of baking powder does matter.

nevertheless, our day was full of laughter and fun.

after our cupcake downfall (literally), sean surprised me by whisking me away to a massage while my mom watched brennan. it was OH so relaxing...

(plus, now he doesn't have to give me one...

i see your plot love!)

then sean took our little brood to our favorite thai restaurant (Thai Garden). they thought it was brennan's 1st birthday, even though we told them twice that it was my birthday. anyway, they brought him some coconut ice cream (which i course spoon fed him), with one candle for his 1st birthday...after which they took his picture to put on their wall. he LOVED the coconut ice cream. as you can see, he also liked the bamboo. i thought he looked like huck finn.

my favorite thing on the menu is tom ka tofu. they bring it out in this pot with a flame coming out of the center to keep it warm while you indulge yourself in the sweet coconut soup.

it's

to

die

for.

they have this amazing aquarium and put us right next to so brennan could enjoy the fish...and he really did. look at the massive one on the top. seriously, i'm pretty sure he's out grown the tank. have you ever read the book "fish out of water?"

what a fab day!

thank you everyone for all of the wonderful birthday wishes!

cheers to another year

your wish is my command

it seems as though birthdays are like having a magic jeanie lamp. it's the only day of the year (except when you're 41 weeks pregnant) that you can pull out your "it's my birthday card" without having to say a word. basically the days goes as follows,

"your wish is my command."

for example, on most mornings i might get a groan or a suddle whine from my loving man upon the following requests:

will you rub my neck? will you bring me my robe? will you bring me my breakfast? will you change brennan's "ehem"? etc. but this morning, all things were done without a blink. what a great guy!

now, the snow thing has not been granted yet, but it IS in the forecast for tomorrow (so it might happen today), but...

one wish you can grant me is....

tell me what your favorite post of mine is!

go ahead, i dare you!

birthday bull

do you celebrate your birthday for more than one day?

me too.

i highly recommend riding on a saddle while "lasso-ing" your arm high above your head for added enjoyment...oh, and pretending you're on a bull helps.
has anyone made any progress on my snow?

birthday wishes

birthday wishes arriving JUST in the nick of time!

(and you betcha i have the patience to wait to open them until tomorrow, one of my many talents)

i have one wish left, but i may need some help from some of you...

explanation:

besides the fact that i LOVE the snow, this was always my birthday wish in elementary school, when we lived in utah. i would always wish for snow by my birthday, especially the fresh stuff that would fall over night when i was sleeping. in 5 years it happened once. it was a glorious birthday. i know i'm not tori spelling, but will someone buy me some snow and ship it in if nature won't do it's part?

plllllleeeeeeeeeeeaaaase?!

meet & greet monday!

after a long weekend we're all back at it again, so it must be...

"meet & greet monday!"

it is my pleasure to introduce you to everyone's grandma

(but for realz is yours truly's).

this lady has sass and a sense of humor to knock your socks off.

ladies & gentlemen, friends & family,

"meet & greet"

grandma gigi!

full name: Carol Fern MaComb

nickname: "GiGi" (jee-jee)

age: 82 on dec. 10th

children: 7

best advice you can give: be honest

greatest adventure you've been on: oh my catfish, hmmm, i don't know...about adventures, the trip i liked the most was when your mom and i went to Shanghai. i think Asia is interesting b/c it's a third world country, but yet there's so many things we never see.

favorite hobby: golf

why?: b/c it's outside and it's a challenge, it's not the easiest thing to do to hit that little round ball and make it go where you want it to go...and i like the exercise, i don't ever take a cart, i like to walk.

first thing you do when you wake up: i have to go pee, at my age, you just try to make it to the bathroom on time. also, i wash my face, brush my teeth, so i wake up, and then i read the paper ALL the way through.

favorite singer: frank sinatra b/c he's more my age (he also hit on grandma in vegas, but that's not why she liked his voice) & louis armstrong with his raspy voice "what a wonderful world..."

famous people you've met: frank sinatra, louis armstrong & band members (they used to come to our house, your mom tended one of their kids when they were in town), sofia lauren, count bassie (he was a band leader), benny goodman (band leader), janice joplin (i didn't like her at all), ella fitzgerald, jimmy durantee, no presidents, just lots of stars, probably people you wouldn't even know.

bowling or golfing: i like golfing better, but you bowl in the winter and golf in the summer.

favorite sport to watch on tv: baseball b/c i don't understand football
favorite movie: i always liked all of the alfred hitchcock movies, but the sound of music is my favorite. it was musical, and it was something i could see really happening, escaping out of the clutches of war, them falling in love, very romantic.

crazy memory: i met frank sinatra in las vegas, he came up to our table because al collins was there. al was a DJ who played frank's records. i think what frank like about me was my black hair and blue eyes. he had just broken up with ava gardener, and i think i reminded him of her, but he didn't know i was also sitting there with my husband. he asked me if i'd like to come back stage after the show. i asked if my husband was invited too, and it dropped right there.

memory you have of my mom: she was always beautiful, always so smart, always kept her room really clean, i was just always so proud of her. i always wanted a little girl and then i didn't want any more children, but that was not the case.

oh grandma gigi,

we LOVE you millions!!!

(which is the amount you say grandpa erwin owes you for having all of his babies)

"humidifying"

today, i locked myself in our room with this and a box of "kleenex."

i have never been one to believe that a humidifier could really do any sort of healing tricks, but when i put it in brennan's room two weeks ago his runny nose did stop. i waved it off as luck.

well, last night at 5am i woke up--not to a crying baby (b/c thank goodness we are many months past that phase), but to a head that felt so dry it was going to crack. what did i do? walked my groggy-eyed self into brennan's room, where i plopped myself directly in front of the humidifier for 20 minutes. i just sucked that moist air right in. on returning to my lovely warm bed, hair drenched from the humid air, and nose running, i grabbed a kleenex and well...you know. then it was back to bed. eventually when the sun came up, i sent the boys off to church, brought the humidifier into my room so the midst would fall directly on my stuffed up face, and spent the day "humidifying."

i can honestly say, i feel better...and i think it's because of the humidifier.

thank you mother for loaning us this fabulous piece of equipment.