Polar Express coming through!

Every Christmas the kindergarten classes at Coral Canyon Elementary get to do a 'Polar Express' train parade. The kids decorate a box to look like either a Christmas present or a train car (whichever they want to do, I guess), come in their pajamas and have a good ol' time choo-choo-ing through each classroom to show off their train. It's really cute. Ian wanted me to go in and make sure that it was happening on that day and that kids were really in their pajamas. Who wouldn't be scared to show up to school being the only one in a bright yellow pajama set? I know I would. Obviously, everyone was in on it too and he had a lot of fun. I couldn't tell by his face, but I know him enough to know he did. Just trust me. For some reason my kids get stone-faced when it comes to getting attention or performing. Who knows.

Homeschooling Blogs

We are having the best time homeschooling. In an effort to solidify lessons, we have started notebooking. It is a creative idea to have children summarize or point out valuable facts through writing and/or art. Taking notebooking a step further....
I have thought a lot about ways in which the children could share their knowledge or simply have a place of their own to share. Rob said "okay" to the idea....so the three oldest kids now have their own blogs.
On my page is a link to their blogs and below is the url. As of now, they haven't posted anything. I'm sure within the next couple of days you'll start to see their writing.

Mikaela: www.reallifeofahomeschoolingteen-kayla.blogspot.com
McKenzie: www.adventuresofahomeschoolingtween.blogspot.com
Matthew: www.crazydayswithacrazyboy.blogspot.com

Mele Kalikimaka

Adam and James have been practicing for the 2nd grade Christmas program for a while and they finally got to show us on Wednesday. They did a fabulous job. They talked about a lot of other country's Christmas traditions, including Hawaii. Mr. Lowe's class got the part of doing the Hawaiian dance. I got a video of it, so go look.
Adam wasn't the most expressive kid in the group except for when he was obviously bored to tears. I thought it was funny so I snapped a picture. James said their cafe-gym-atorium has really bad lighting, so the picture isn't crappy cause of me. So knock it off, you. You know who you are.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Well Mom is not going to post about her own birthday on the blog like she does everyone else, so I guess I will do it.



Mom, we all love you so very much. You are such a great example of love and service and have such a strong testimony of the gospel. I look up to you, and thank my heavenly father every night for sending me to such wonderful parents. I love you!

This past week!

Well, my dear ones, what a whirlwind of a week! December 1 snuck in here without warning and celebrated the birth of our very own Dylan! Eleven years old he is and doing quite well for himself as he is developing his talents. Although the card got mailed it seems that not getting home until after 8 pm from work caused grandma to lose her mind again and didn't find it until tonight when over hearing a man talk about missing his granddaughters birthday! Oh my! how my heart began to beat with the remembrance that I forgot to call one of my grandsons on his birthday! Can that happen?? Unfortunately yes. : ( I love ya Dylan! I hope you know that and I hope you had a grand day.

Thursday was spent in bed, then in the bathroom, in bed, then in the bathroom, etc, etc, etc....... ~yuck~
Thursday night we received the awesome visit of Kelsey, Alexis, Jordan and Caeden! For 2 1/2 days! They are getting picked up Sunday morning. Friday both grandpa and I had to work but the kids were visited by aunt Melissa, Brianna, Eli and Isaac (because momma Sarah was helping at the school). Then on Saturday aunt Sarah, Adam, Ian and Isaac (once again) visited helping to break up the monotony for the kids.
Life would be perfect if that could happen with each family of grandchildren once a month!! I love ya all and hope you are enjoying this time of year when we think more on the birth of our Savior.

Gibson Crew

Tis the season to force my family to smile.
Mom, right click on these pictures and print them for your wall. ;>


These are just cute.... I love taking pictures of the brothers and then the sisters. ;> How stinkin cute my babies are!

What else can I do to help him? :<

No change....My sweet sweet boy. :<

Update: Matt

Okay....so we took Matt to the Children's Hospital in Broomfield. After 3 doctors looking at him, it was determined he had blood in the pupil and needed to be immediately moved to the Children's Hospital in Aurora.
The second hospital established no blood in the pupil and no infection. The eye hemorrage should heal in 2 weeks. Ummm, that is it. There is no explanation for the swelling, light sensitivity, and loss of vision. This morning, he is blurry.
Rob and Brother Ezzell gave him a blessing, so we are just holding onto faith right now.
Please keep Matt in your family prayers.

Matt's Eye

I'm not sure what we're going to do anymore. I think I just need to share this because I'm about to have a breakdown.
I had been horribly sick for over 3 weeks...talked to mom hysterically and she suggested Garlic enemas. Okay... The next morning I literally began to get better. SO, I started thinking about Matt.
Matt's eye from the last pictures never changed in terms of swollen. A month and half or more it was swollen. We thought..."hey, let's try the garlic thing on Matt"
The next day the swelling looked better. Great right??? WELL, Matt had this deep red spot on the side of the white part of his eye.
We took him to the eye doctor who said that he had an eye hemorrhage and not to worry. It will go away in a few days. Also to keep doing what we were doing for his swelling. OKAY
NOW, a few days later....the swelling is back and this is what he looks like. OH...Let's not forget to mention he couldn't see! GRRRRRRRRRRRR


Rob HAD to go to work and doesn't get out til 5. I am icing his eye (with frozen raspberries) ;> and he said that he can now see a bit blurry. I guess we are taking him to the hospital later.
Does anyone else ever wonder if GOD truly knows our breaking point???

Adam did his first 5k!

We went to the Turkey Trot with the intent to only do the 1 miler, but waiting in line somehow changed Adam's mind. He turned to me and said that he wanted to do the 5k instead. This was my chance to barter with him. "If you let me take pictures of you in the race, I will let you do the 5k". (he HATES pictures so much, but he grudgingly obliged)
As you all know, Adam talks and talks all the time. This is him telling me about how he wishes he was Sonic the hedgehog cause that means he can run fast and be done with the race already. haha.
He said to me, (in his huffing and puffing, tired voice) "Mom, when I finish this thing you are going to be so proud of me, huh." It was so cute. He finished it in 49 minutes and we had a lot of fun doing a race together and talking the whole time. We made up a mantra half way through to keep him going. It goes like this, "The sooner we finish, the sooner we drink". This mantra is said in a bouncy cadence. And then it got shorter to, "we finish, we drink". Hey, maybe Adam, me, Dad and Joe should all do a race together. Are there any other runners I am not thinking of? Anyway, that would be awesome.

Edible plants

I just had to show you our cabbage and broccoli plants! They are yummy too! Ü

I am over a week late in getting this news out, but it was such a heart breaking loss that it was hard to talk about. Ok, really, I am lazy and kept putting it off, but it was a hard loss.
The first picture you see is of the kick off, not too bad of a day. The next picture is how the rest of the game was. We got snowed on hard and it made it tough. Both teams did not have much going and would get close and then turn it over. By the end of regulation play, we were tied 0-0. In double overtime, Dylan ran a sweep and got to the goal line, but it was covered in snow! He says the ball got pushed back and by the time the refs got there to check the line, it was ruled no touchdown. The opponent got their turn and power-housed it down the middle until they got in. The game was over, 0-6.
Our team played with heart, sticking to the task even though they were frozen and tired. Dylan is not allowed to wear gloves because he plays QB, so his right hand that he throws with was numb and hurt from carrying the ball and getting hit so often. He stuck to it though and we are proud of him. We'd try to warm him on the sidelines until he had to go out again. It was a tough end to a great season. I just hope next year's coaches work well with the kids like this year's did.

So Dylan had another game this past Saturday. We had med this team earlier in the season and handled them easily. Well, it was not so easy this time. The first half, both teams were not making a whole lot of progress, kind of like the last game I reported on. Then Copper Hills hit a lucky pass to their tight end and he broke down the sidelines for a touchdown. Our boys stopped them on the extra point. We went into the half down 0-6. We were getting close to blocking their punts and close to breaking our own runs, but they just could not hit the passes and break enough blocks to get to the end zone.

The second half started kind of the same as the first, until they were at the 20 yard line getting ready to score. Dylan was quarterback again and ran a "14 draw" which made the opponents think he was going around the end like they had before. Only this time Dylan cut inside and drove through about 4 tackles that did not bring him down, coming out the other side and sprinting for the end zone! It was quite the celebration after almost 3 quarters and no score. This is the first team all year that scored first on us, so we were worried. They called Dylan to carry the ball for the extra point and it was a 7-6 game. They went back and forth for a bit more, but Copper Hills could not hit their tight end for another run.

We started driving again and got down to the 35 or 40 and we had more penalty trouble, so coach called a time out (and went to scold the boys for carelessness I guess). They lined up and ran the next play, getting only a couple yards. Normally they would huddle again and call the next play but our boys lined up and even the refs were caught off guard. We snapped quickly and the reliable combo of Gibson-to-Chepkwurui connected again and it was now a 14-6 game. Our boys still had to hold their offense and make sure the tight end did not get another good run. Unfortunately, they caught our corner coming up to defend the screen and hit the tight end again! Good thing our corner turned on the speed because he caught him and knocked him out of bounds. After that he did not leave him alone and our boys held the run to nothing and the game was over.

There were many good plays by other boys, but you don't know them or care about what they did, so all I did was list Dylan's, though it seems from my writing that Dylan is the only one that does anything. Not true, but its irrelevant for this blog.

They now go up against a team they beat earlier in the season too, only this time I think it will be tougher since they beat their semi-finals team 36-0. Our team needs to bring their A+ game to finish the season on top! I'll let you know how it goes.

The sequence below is his run that he broke for the touchdown. He is the ball carrier in this, #77.

You can't see him in this one but he is right behind the kid running to the right, cutting to go behind him.

A little more than half!

16 of our 27 grandchildren in one place at the same time! WOW! I look forward to the day when all 27+ are in one place. Will it ever happen again?? (I can hope can't I?)

Back row: Jordan Gibson, Treven Trujillo, Tanner Hall, Aidan Trujillo, Kelsey Gibson, Natalie Hall, Alexis Gibson
Front row: Elijah Gibson, Kyrie Trujillo, Emma Hall, Katy Hall, Adam Lowe, Benjamin Gibson, Caeden Gibson, Chase Trujillo, Ian Lowe

Of course we have to get our silly picture in! Aren't they great!

More cousins

Sister Kyrie and younger impressionable cousins.

Some of the older pack leaders and a couple little followers! You are great!

After the baptism

Aidan Michael Trujillo! We are so happy you chose to be baptized into the church of Jesus Christ! We know He is happy with your choice also.

Josh! smile! it really isn't that bad... You should follow the example of your grandma and grandpa Lewis who always cooperates when it is picture time. See!

Trujillo brothers and cousins.... Just think of the mischief they could get into if they weren't such awesomely good boys! Ü

Cool dudes!

Aidan's baptism day

Aidan's baptism day October 10th, 2009. Here he is with mom Emily.

Grandpa Gibson baptized Aidan. Grandma Michelle Stewart spoke on the Holy Ghost and Uncle Joseph Gibson spoke about Baptism.

Rivals

What kind of trouble could these two super heros get into? HaHa! Just you name it!.......

Oh the fun

Our school had a carnival on Halloween day so we went there to have some fun. I actually had to be in charge of the bounce house and James was in charge of the soccer kick off, so we had to go, but the boys had a lot of fun. Since we volunteered our time we got game tickets and food tickets for free." Which means YEAH!" (hey len, what was that quote from? who said it and why? that's your challenge)






Ironman prefers a little face painting before he goes out. It gives him an extra umph in presence.

Red Power Ranger likes to kick back in the bounce house

before he goes out to defeat the evil Zargon...wasn't that his name? This was Halloween night at the Trunk or Treat. I would rather just trick or treat, but Coral Canyon has a high percentage of vacation homes and old fogeys who don't want kids to come to their door. So no one goes around door to door. It's ok, they had fun anyway.

(I like Adam's, "I can't believe that you are making
me flex in front of everyone" face. It's classic)

Batman scans the room to make sure he has successfully embezzled
all the candy that Ironman and Red Power Ranger rightfully collected.