For 2 years Gibson barely said a word... he wouldn't sit still long enough to "read" a book or be read to... he was very behind in many areas but we were working with a therapist and knew that one day he would start to get better. I know there are many children out there on the spectrum who never speak. I have a few friends whose children are in those situations, so I knew it was a possibility that Gibson might never talk. Remembering those hard times make the little things, that many parents take for granted, so special to us.
Gibson has a bedtime routine that is pretty consistent every night. He goes into his room, chooses a book (usually his ABC book), reads it to us, turns off the light on his own, gets into bed, sings us "Jesus Loves Me" and then sings his "ABC's" then tells us "Goodnight" and proceeds to say "Shut the door" before we walk out into the hall. Sometimes he even says "I love you" before we kiss him goodnight. These are moments that I never was fully sure would happen for us. We cherish them every single night and I am so thankful that we were able to capture Gibson reading to us one night a few weeks ago. Its amazing the progress he has made in only a years time!
How cute is that little man? We are so proud of him and the progress he has made in such a short period of time. We had a Parent/Teacher conference with his teacher the other day and she feels that with the progress he has made already that by the time he enters kindergarten he should be able to be in a typical classroom. :) We are SO happy to hear this news!
Once I get around to it I will be posting pictures from Gibson's Valentines Day party at school.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
BIG DEALS!
I bought all of this for only $25!! It was originally $64!!
If you are at all interested in saving some money please check out the website www.couponcloset.net you will fall in love with coupons and how easy it is to save money.
Good luck in all of your future money saving adventures! :)
Friday, January 21, 2011
Spelling our name!
Gibson has impressed us so much in the last year with everything he has learned and how far he has come since November of '09 when he wasnt hardly talking at all. Now he is spelling out his name and knows what he spelled. We are amazed! 
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Save a Penny...
I went to the coupon class at my church tonight with lots of girls from out Sunday School class. I learned a lot more this time around than I did the first time and I am hoping to really dive into the world of couponing now! If you are interested in learning some of the things we learned in class go to www.couponcloset.net
The information is a little overwhelming at first but it is amazing what this lady saves every month and I hope that I can do the same. :) We are making some changes in our house over the next year or so and this will help us out a ton!!
More to come on our money saving ventures!! :)
The information is a little overwhelming at first but it is amazing what this lady saves every month and I hope that I can do the same. :) We are making some changes in our house over the next year or so and this will help us out a ton!!
More to come on our money saving ventures!! :)
Thursday, January 13, 2011
You dont understand...
Gerod and I decided to take the family to Jason's Deli after church on Sunday. On Sunday our Jason's Deli is extremely busy because of the church crowd. When we got to the restaurant there were quite a few people there but it wasn't packed until about 15 min later. We got the boys in high chairs and Gerod got into the long line to place our order. Sitting at the table trying to entertain a tired 1 year old and a 3 year old with a short attention span is, needless to say, VERY difficult!
As I was waiting for Gerod to finish up in the long line I noticed a family with a Mom and Dad around my parents age and their kids (I assume) that were probably close to my age. They sat down after us at a table right next to where we were sitting.
Gibson was getting restless and although he was making very little noise he was being somewhat irritating pushing his high chair backwards and then pulling himself back up to the table. I asked him to stop, quietly, a few times. The entire time he was doing this the Mom from the table next to us kept glaring at Gibson. Once he stopped doing messing with his chair he decided it would be fun to play with the pepper shaker. At one point it slid across the table and fell on the floor right next to the foot of the Mom at the next table. The son picked up the pepper shaker and handed it to me, to which I apologized for Gibson's accident. The Mom again glared at Gibson then turned to her family and said the following: "If you kids ever acted like that out in public I would have taken you outside. You guys never acted like that in public though. Its so irritating when parents don't make their children behave." It took all of my strength not to fly across the table and give that lady a piece of my mind. First of all, no child is a saint and I am quite sure that at some point her children were obnoxious in public. Secondly, Gibson was not being bad... yes he wasn't listening to me very well but I have had many worse situations with him and in my opinion he was being very good.
Situations like this infuriate me because the people that talk badly about my child for one have no right to talk bad about him like that and two they have no idea of the struggles that Gibson is faced with daily. I don't understand why other people out there think they are so much better than others especially when they have no clue of the situation that they are talking badly about.
With that being said I hope that I can ask everyone that reads this blog a big favor... If you see a Mom struggling with her child don't automatically come to a swift judgement about her and her parenting style. You never know what is REALLY going on there. I ask that you maybe give a helping hand or give her an encouraging word, not talk bad about her and her child right in front of her. You never know what something as small as asking if you can help her with something or telling her its okay might go. I know that there have been certain situations where people have done this for me and it has almost brought me to tears of thanks.
Acts of kindness can go a very long way!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I head out to Texas first thing in the morning!
As I was waiting for Gerod to finish up in the long line I noticed a family with a Mom and Dad around my parents age and their kids (I assume) that were probably close to my age. They sat down after us at a table right next to where we were sitting.
Gibson was getting restless and although he was making very little noise he was being somewhat irritating pushing his high chair backwards and then pulling himself back up to the table. I asked him to stop, quietly, a few times. The entire time he was doing this the Mom from the table next to us kept glaring at Gibson. Once he stopped doing messing with his chair he decided it would be fun to play with the pepper shaker. At one point it slid across the table and fell on the floor right next to the foot of the Mom at the next table. The son picked up the pepper shaker and handed it to me, to which I apologized for Gibson's accident. The Mom again glared at Gibson then turned to her family and said the following: "If you kids ever acted like that out in public I would have taken you outside. You guys never acted like that in public though. Its so irritating when parents don't make their children behave." It took all of my strength not to fly across the table and give that lady a piece of my mind. First of all, no child is a saint and I am quite sure that at some point her children were obnoxious in public. Secondly, Gibson was not being bad... yes he wasn't listening to me very well but I have had many worse situations with him and in my opinion he was being very good.
Situations like this infuriate me because the people that talk badly about my child for one have no right to talk bad about him like that and two they have no idea of the struggles that Gibson is faced with daily. I don't understand why other people out there think they are so much better than others especially when they have no clue of the situation that they are talking badly about.
With that being said I hope that I can ask everyone that reads this blog a big favor... If you see a Mom struggling with her child don't automatically come to a swift judgement about her and her parenting style. You never know what is REALLY going on there. I ask that you maybe give a helping hand or give her an encouraging word, not talk bad about her and her child right in front of her. You never know what something as small as asking if you can help her with something or telling her its okay might go. I know that there have been certain situations where people have done this for me and it has almost brought me to tears of thanks.
Acts of kindness can go a very long way!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I head out to Texas first thing in the morning!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Do you really know?
Because my Great Grandmother passed away today I have been thinking a lot about life. I spoke with my Dad on the phone tonight and he read me a story that my Great Grandmother wrote about her life; growing up, getting married, having children, owning successful businesses, and seeing the world change around her. There were so many things in the story that I just didn't know about my Grandmother. I guess I just never thought to ask her about her life. Oh there were the stories that I heard over and over again that I could tell lots of people about but truthfully I learned more about my Grandmother in the short time that I was on the phone tonight than I had learned in the 26+ years that I have been alive.
This makes me wonder how much people really know about their family; where family members are from, when they got married, what major world events did they witness that we only get to read about in the history books? I wonder how many people out there were stunned to find out something about a loved one only after they passed on. I know that for me it is a blessing that my Grandmother was asked to write these things down on paper. Now I can share things about her life with my children and in turn they can share them with their children.
I encourage you as I write this, to sit down with an elder in your family and ask them questions. Ask them about how different it was growing up then as opposed to now. I am sure there are many stories to be told and many stories that we will never hear but I know that we will never learn things about our family and its history unless we listen, truly listen to the people that have been through it all before. I hope that I will take this new found knowledge and speak to my living relatives about what things were like back when they were young. I might even take it upon myself to write some of their stories down so that future generations of my family will know about the history of our family.
One last mention about my Grandmother that I thought was too sweet for words:
My uncle sat down with my Grandmother the other day and prayed with her, they prayed that she would accept Christ as her Savior because she couldn't remember if she ever truly had done that. Then she followed by saying that she was 96 years old and she was entitled to forget things *still witty as ever*. She prayed with my uncle so that she would be assured a place in Heaven alongside her two husbands and two of her children (one of whom was my amazing Grandmother; Barbara Ann). I love the song "I Can Only Imagine" and every time I hear it I think of my late Grandmother Barbara and now I know that when I hear it I will think: I can only imagine what fun my family is having in Heaven and I know that I will rejoice when I can see them again!
God Bless you and your family... please hug and kiss your dear family members because you never really know when they wont be with you any longer.
This makes me wonder how much people really know about their family; where family members are from, when they got married, what major world events did they witness that we only get to read about in the history books? I wonder how many people out there were stunned to find out something about a loved one only after they passed on. I know that for me it is a blessing that my Grandmother was asked to write these things down on paper. Now I can share things about her life with my children and in turn they can share them with their children.
I encourage you as I write this, to sit down with an elder in your family and ask them questions. Ask them about how different it was growing up then as opposed to now. I am sure there are many stories to be told and many stories that we will never hear but I know that we will never learn things about our family and its history unless we listen, truly listen to the people that have been through it all before. I hope that I will take this new found knowledge and speak to my living relatives about what things were like back when they were young. I might even take it upon myself to write some of their stories down so that future generations of my family will know about the history of our family.
One last mention about my Grandmother that I thought was too sweet for words:
My uncle sat down with my Grandmother the other day and prayed with her, they prayed that she would accept Christ as her Savior because she couldn't remember if she ever truly had done that. Then she followed by saying that she was 96 years old and she was entitled to forget things *still witty as ever*. She prayed with my uncle so that she would be assured a place in Heaven alongside her two husbands and two of her children (one of whom was my amazing Grandmother; Barbara Ann). I love the song "I Can Only Imagine" and every time I hear it I think of my late Grandmother Barbara and now I know that when I hear it I will think: I can only imagine what fun my family is having in Heaven and I know that I will rejoice when I can see them again!
Jennie Mae
Christmas 2009
Great Grandmother
Today is a sad day, I got a phone call from my Dad earlier who let me know that my Great Grandmother passed away early this morning. It makes me very sad that she is no longer with us but she lived a great life. She died at the age of 96 and she was spunky up till the very end. Here I am with her on Christmas Day. 
And here is my Dad with her. She was his only living Grandmother left.
I am so glad that we were able to see her one last time before she passed away. She insisted that we bring the boys over for her to see them. The smile on her face was priceless watching the boys play in her room. Gibson even gave her a kiss and told her bye bye.
I am so glad that we were able to see her one last time before she passed away. She insisted that we bring the boys over for her to see them. The smile on her face was priceless watching the boys play in her room. Gibson even gave her a kiss and told her bye bye. I am thankful for her in so many more ways than I can write about. She was an amazing woman and I only hope that I can be like her. I am happy that she went peacefully and that she is doing much better now. She can be with her two late husbands and two of her children up in Heaven. I know that she is rejoicing to be with her family again!
Love you Great Grandma, you will truly be missed!
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