Visit with Kristy and Meeting Luke

One of my lifelong friends Lauren Bergoon and I left our kiddos with family and set off to Memphis to meet sweet Luke, Kristy and Rich's new bundle of joy. Kristy, Lauren and I were best friends in highshool and it was so fun to reunite and have a little girl time.
Here are some pictures of sweet Luke(6 wks). He is SO handsome! We had the best time and laughed alot....






Every mom needs a break. I missed Iris terribly, but I used the time away to reboot!

Iris had SO much fun having a whole week with her grandparents, but was so excited to be back in her own crib and now LOVES all her own toys again.

I had a surprise waiting on her when we got home. I made her her own play kitchen from an old TV stand I bought at Goodwill for 7$ :) I painted it Lime Green and used a dog bowl as her sink. I painted on the eyes for the Stove and gave her little knobs to turn. I used some fabric I already had and made a curtain so she could keep all her little dishes and vegetables on the shelves below. She absolutely loves it. I honestly haven't seen her play with something so long. Here are a few pics of it....


Until next time~

I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes from a Poet named William Cowper...

"His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour; The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower"

walking, talking and summertime

Summer is full of time in the water- it's much too hot in Birmingham to be outside without it!

Mommy and Iris in her floatie

Iris and her friend Story playing in the baby pool

Iris at the shoe store, getting fitted for her first big girl shoes!

So Iris officially walking now. Well....almost running for that matter! She took her first steps about 3 weeks ago and hasn't looked back since.

Iris and her best buddy Patton
playing chase with Patton and his tire, her new favorite game

She has always been our little talker, from the oooOO's and Ahhh's of infancy to the dada's and mama's and now she has a small vocabulary which she likes to insert between her CONSTANT jabbering. She can say Momma or Mommy, Dada and Dee, Hi, Hey, ball, bear, tree, none( for nose), eyes, and no no no(which she is mostly saying to Patton while shaking her finger at him ;)

This is a picture from Fathers Day with Iris and "Dee" at the Splash Pad, soaking wet!

Grandma Laurie came up for a surprise visit and we just loved getting to go to the pool with her.

Iris loves her grandma and her Pap.
She also loved getting to see her Poppa when he came up for her birthday party!

This has been quite the amazing year for the Gibson clan. God has showed his faithfulness to us again and again. When we stray , when we are lackadaisical about His word, when we struggle with that same sin that "easily entangles us".....He is there. He is always still there. Waiting on us. Loving us. Wanting us to be sanctified- to be made like Him. Michael and I have recently been going through a trying time as a family with quite a few big decisions having to be made and also a difficult time for Michael with his company. I will spare the minute details (they are all in Gods hands)...but I will share that He is never been more real to us than now. Our marriage has never been stronger and more centered around Him than it is now. PRAISE HIM. I saw this quote on a blog that I read today, and it spoke volumes to me, because it is so what we are experiencing now in our life.

“In affliction, God makes himself known to his people. In the Word we hear of God, but in affliction we see him. Prosperity is the nurse of atheism….In prosperity we pray and hardly take notice of the answers. But in affliction we can press God for the return of our prayers. God is never worse than his word. Affliction is a furnace to try the faith of God’s people and to see God’s faithfulness in his promises.”

–Thomas Case

Hope to blog soon about our upcoming trips to the beach! I think Iris will love it- (I know I will ;)

Until next time~

ONE year with Iris

THE JOURNEY TO ONE...
IRIS EVANGELINE GIBSON

NEWBORN

ONE MONTH


TWO MONTHS


THREE MONTHS


FOUR MONTHS


FIVE MONTHS


SIX MONTHS


SEVEN MONTHS


EIGHT MONTHS



NINE MONTHS

TEN MONTHS


ELEVEN MONTHS

I'M ONE YEARS OLD!
.
What an amazing, exhausting, joy-filled year this has been. Iris turned our worlds upside down last May, and they have never been the same since. We live for her smiles. Her giggles. Her mamma's and Dee's(daddy). She is our strong willed little thing for sure. Im hoping the Lord can help me to channel that will and teach her to use it for His kingdom one day. She has alot of personality and I know will be teaching Michael and I many things for years to come.
Thank you Lord for Iris in our lives. What a blessing. What a joy.
We don't deserve her, but are so grateful you decided we should be stewards of such a great gift!
What a mighty God we serve.
Our prayer for her always is for her to come to know and love this same God that we do. To trust him with her life, as her only hope for salvation. We pray daily for her heart, that it would be transformed by His grace, through faith in Him alone.

Thank you to our AMAZING families, we couldn't have made it through our first year as parents without your encouragement and love. We owe you everything!

Hope you enjoyed the pics of Iris over the last 12 months!

HOW IS IT FEBRUARY?! I feel like the days and weeks are just flying!
SO many things to report since the new year~Iris started crawling on her 8 month birthday while we were in Texas visiting family. She just took off one day and has never looked back. On her 9th month birthday, she figured out how to pull up to stand on her own. Now she is beginning to scoot around the furniture slowly, but she still can't figure out how to get down, once she is standing! haha. That will come soon I'm sure. I have "child proofed" the house as much as possible, but she still finds every thing possible to get into that she isn't supposed to!! The child leaves a trail behind her. Toys are EVERYWHERE. Books are torn apart (to mommies dismay). NO food can be left on the ground or she WILL eat it...that and anything else on the ground goes immediately in the mouth. She has learned to "patty-cake"- clap her hands together. She knows how to wave and also how to do the "indian-noise" with her hands on her mouth. She also gives sweet "nose sugar" :) Everything is happening so fast- she is turning into such a big girl.
Iris also got her first 2 teeth, and enjoys showing them off with her new "scrunch face" smile!




In other news...
I got one of the greatest Christmas presents from Michael's parents. A bedroom makeover!!! I have been brainstorming and this is what I have come up with for my "Inspiration" ! The walls will be gray and the bedding we chose is a duvet from Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Since I obviously couldn't afford the Jonathan Adler chair on my inspiration board, I found an awesome orange velvet retro chair at a consignment store in Mobile. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! I am so pumped about getting started. I will post before and after pics when we are done :)

the holidays...

It starts with Thanksgiving and ends with New Years.....we all know it as "the holidays". This year ours began by jumping in the tahoe with Michael's mom and dad and making the treck to Gatlinburg, TN. His mom's family, from Columbus, has made a very fun tradition of getting together every 2 years for Thanksgiving. We drive up from Alabama and they drive down from Ohio. We had SUCH fun this year, and we were especially excited about seeing everyone because they hadn't met Iris yet.Michael's cousin Jason and his wife, Pepper, have a 15th month old boy Kellar. So we all spent much of our time watching them interact, which was really funny at times! When we told Kellar to give Iris a hug or kiss, he would lean his head in, and they would gently head but-so sweet! Another way he tried to show affection was by sitting in her lap! Pretty funny! She thought he was so entertaining, and watched him wherever he went. Here are a few shots from the trip!
The matching outfits are little t-shirts I appliqued for them so they could take pictures together ;)

Kellar sitting in Iris' lap :)

sweet lovin'

We really had a great time- and are sad we don't get to see all of Michael's extended family more often. We are looking forward to his brother Jarrod's wedding in March so that we can see them all again.
Update on Iris:
Her 7th month has been really good so far. Still no teeth- so I am expecting teething any day now. She has started to eat 3 meals (of baby food) a day starting this week. She has been eating 2 for about a month now. I think she will be crawling very soon. Here is a picture of her up on her hands and knees.

She will rock back and forth and move her legs forward, but hasn't quite figured out what to do with her hands. She is close! and mom is NOT ready!!! : ) But it's so fun to watch her figure things out and progress. At her 6th month appointment she was almost 18 lbs, so I am sure she is beyond that now. She is a "thick" child... and getting heavier every day. She has really good sleeping habits right now and I am counting my blessings, as I know every week it's something new. She sleeps from about 7:30-8:30 to 6:30-7:00 and takes 3 naps a day still.

She can now play on her own with her toys and sometimes just likes to be left alone- which is strange but nice that I can get some things done while she is awake now. She ate her first finger food today- Gerber graduates banana puffs and LOVED them. She thought she was so grown up ;) We are still working on the sippy cup- but overall she is getting alot better. She actually gets water out of it like...maybe 20% of the time ;)


So back to the holidays...I just love December for so many reasons. One small reason is that every day when I go to the mailbox I get excited to see what Christmas cards we have got in the mail. I have always loved getting cards, and now I love it even more because so many of my friends have children and I put the pictures up on the fridge for the next year. Speaking of cards- I finally got all of ours addressed and will have them in the mail tomorrow!! Our first family Christmas cards with Iris! So fun! I used pictures from our family photoshoot that Amy Pate took. Check her out online- she did a wonderful job! www.amypphotography.com.Here one from the shoot, but ALL were so good! I have them all on my facebook page. facebook.com/bngibsonWe are looking forward to going home for Christmas. We will be in Mobile for about 5 days, then are coming home for a day to repack and fly to San Antonio to be with my Grandmother for New Year's. It will be Iris' first flight- pray for us!! I am a little nervous, but hope that it will be much better than I expect!

On a different note- I really enjoyed reading this article the other day on what to tell your kids about Santa. Pastor Mark Driscoll does a good job of articulating what he does with his own children regarding Santa/St. Nick. It is worth a read, especially if you are struggling with what traditions you will start with your own family.
http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/mark_driscoll/2010/12/what_we_tell_our_kids_about_santa.html

Hope to write more after the "holidays" are over! I know I will have much to share!

I hope that during this season the Lord will bring you the TRUE joy of the season- the joy of His salvation. I pray He will remind you that you are bought with a price and your sin, if you believe on Him, is washed whiter than snow. Jesus was born to die. We may celebrate his birth this time of the year, but let's not forget that He came to earth for one purpose, to die for the sins of the unrighteous. You and Me. May His presence dwell in your heart this Christmas.

I will leave you with one of my favorite scripture's about the birth of our Savior.

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:21