and more…

Joleen, Sue, and Brian

Mallory, Tracy, Allison, Ashlyn, Celeste, Sue, and Joleen

  Our Family after the run.       Our family plus cousins and Joyana.   Todd, Rob, and Brian                       Me working on the room décor.  Joyana and me being goofy with Suzi’s camera!      Adria Logan, Riley, Hayden, and Madi

              Adria and Mallory

   Playing dress up at Grandma Suzi’s

Me and Celeste after we vowed to start being runners… sometime in the future….

 

In the Airport waiting for our flight with cousins, Gwen enjoying the view.

Tori telling the cat how much she missed her while we were gone…. the cat silently wishing we were still gone!

  Andy…. not sure what he’s doing….       Joyana, Jeff, and Dane

Dane and Gwen became best buddies this visit. They’re going to have a hard time when they realize they are cousins, and won’t be getting married!

 Game night….

 

Lots of fun! Thanks Grandpa Gibney for creating such a wonderful opportunity for our family!

Cousin Retreat Continued

I didn’t get a chance to finish my previous post because Blogger was giving me trouble, so I decided to download Microsoft Writer and I’m now giving it a go…..

So, back to the Barn Sour. At the bottom of the last post I had pictures of Gwen in her brand new (new to us from a consignment shop) cheerleading uniform. Todd’s nickname for her is cheerleader since she wasn’t able to run with Dad and the Girls in the Pat Tillman, she became the cheerleader. So, of course, when Grandma Suzi and I found it for $4 a few days before the run we knew we had better pick it up! We weren’t sure if she was going to be able to participate or not, but turns out she got to participate and cheer….

Under the picture of Lilli is a picture of Todd’s sister Joyana and her son Dane and then a picture of her daughter, Amber.

This is Molly, Todd’s cousin’s wife. She is 20 weeks pregnant and is at the finish line for the 5K. She ran the whole way! AMAZING!

Everybody lined up and gave “five” to everyone as they crossed the finish line. It was so much fun!

And then we had a handstand contest…..

 

The main project of the weekend was a room makeover for an organization called S.N.A.P.S.

From their website:

Welcome to SNAPS, Inc.

Special Needs Adoption and Permanency Services, Inc. (SNAPS) provides photolisting and support services to children within the foster care systems in Idaho and Oregon. Every year, over 60 of the children referred to waiting child programs are placed with permanent families: a 75 percent permanency rate. Our vision is to see that outcome reach every youth who wants to be nurtured within a committed family.

As a listing exchange and family advocacy charity, we want to help caring families find ways of serving our children. Please take the time to check out our programs and read about becoming a resource for a child; as an adoptive parent, a guardian, a foster parent, a mentor, a donor, a sponsor. It is concerned citizens who keep these programs functioning for children.

From their website about our weekend with them:

The Gibney Family Foundation (TGFF) Loft Makeover

June 24-25, 2011 - Over 40 members of the Gibney Family Foundation gathered in Boise for a service retreat to benefit SNAPS, Inc. and it's youth programs. Their makeover mission: to create an inviting loft space within the newly relocated SNAPS office. The loft will be used by mentor/mentee pairs in the Youth Empowered to Succeed (YES) Mentor Program, which serves teenaged youth living in foster care.

TGFF adults, youth and children applied vinyl lettering to form inspirational wall decor, created multi-dimensional backing for portraits, painted a magnetic chalkboard for captioned snapshots of mentor activities, installed a study counter for the computer lab, blinds, and shelving in a storage area, and repurposed a credenza as a TV and storage stand. Grant funding from TGFF will fund the beautiful leather furnishings and makeover supplies used to create this colorful loft as well as the study and entertainment elements incorporated in its design.

THANK YOU GIBNEY FAMILY! Our mentor pairs will LOVE the new space! It will provide a vibrant space for friendships to flourish in the coming years.

All of this design planning and furniture gathering had been done before we went up there by Todd’s mom, Suzi, and then we got to go to work and make their vision come to life. It was one of my favorite service projects that we have been able to do because every age group was able to get involved. Lilli went nuts about helping to make the pom-poms with the older girls! She loved it!

This is Lilli with cousins Mallory and Natalie

Todd’s sister Adria, brother Andy (holding Avery) and his wife, Lisa.

Here we have Uncle Gib putting up blinds with Madi and Celeste (I think) putting up lettering.

Joyana dreamed up this beautiful idea of creating black upholstered “frames” that would have velcro on them, enabling them to change the pictures frequently. I ‘m not describing it very well, but it was genius and looked amazing!

Traci and Adria

Allison and Ashlyn

Tracy and Lisa

 

There is so much more to blog about and so many more fun pictures… and now that I have Microsoft Writer, I think I might actually do it!

cousin retreat

Our family is so blessed to be able to participate in TGFF. What is that you ask? It stands for The Gibney Family Foundation.

It was started by Todd's Grandpa Gibney. We have the opportunity to make grants and donations to different non-profit organizations that serve the blind community. It is such a wonderful thing to be involved in.

One very exciting thing about this foundation is that it provides the opportunity for all of the Gibney's (Todd's mother's side) to get together once a year to be more educated, have board meetings, and get involved with local organizations. So, it is a super productive, service-packed, life lesson enducing, educational family reunion for what is now the 2nd and 3rd generation of TGFF. Every year Todd and I come home motivated and uplifted by the experiences we get to share with sibblings, cousins, parents, etc. It is humbling to be able to take a small part in something so big and meaningful.

One of the local (Idaho) events we participated in this year was the Barn Sour Run. The Meridian Barn Sour Run is a fundraiser for the Care Enough to Share program which awards scholarships to low-income Meridian residents. Todd ran his first 10k (was the longest distance available) and this is the longest distance he has ever ran... so far. He is training for a half marathon that he will be running in Vermont this September with his cousins.

I ran the 1 mile fun run with Gwen, Lilli, and Heidi. Lilli and Heidi ran the whole way- We were super proud of them! And I ran 1/4 mile with Gwen on my shoulders- which should double the

distance that I can claim to have run, I think!

It is so fun to have all my little princesses and it is getting even more fun seeing them start to be little ballerinas!!!!
Lilli loves dance and would take a million classes if I would let her (more like, "if I had the money")!!!!

I'm just excited to have my girls being interested and excited about music and dancing. We're having so much fun!

Here she is with Dad and Papa.

And here is Gram!

All the big girls!

Me and my girl!

recital

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

trying something....

late night blogging

Wow, it has been a while.

I'm just up late. Having feelings. Lots of feelings. and this is way late night blogging is not a good idea. It just turns into a mush of stuff with no real point or meaning....

I've been blog hopping. Checking up on some of my favorite people. Most of these people I'm not in regular contact with....

I have a lot of anxiety tonight- girls' camp is coming up really soon, todd's family retreat/vacation, some confrontational things i have to deal with tomorrow at Lilli's dance studio, feeling a little grouchy with my sweet, mostly undeserving hubby...

So, I decide to just wander around online until I fell asleep. I started at lds.org. I was thinking that I would read some uplifting things that might bring me some peace and help my heart settle down a little bit, but my mind was racing, and heart beating so much- I was having a hard time paying attention. I keep trying to think of any loose ends or things that I need to take care that could be causing me this stress, but I think I have done all that I can do tonight....

Well, I decided to check facebook and look at blogs. I happen to have looked at some blogs of friends who have some serious---- ummm.... hardships? not quite the right word. One family- they are such good people and they have a son who has had SERIOUS health issues and he seems to be doing so well and is just starting to walk... They seem like they are doing such a good job with everything. Of course they love him, he's their son, but they just seem like they are amazing and such good parents.... Another friend just found out she is pregnant (FINALLY) after a lot of struggle and sacrifice and medical "stuff".... she has also lost several friends in the last few years...

I don't know what I'm saying exactly.

I feel humbled. I feel blessed. I feel happy for my friends.

I'm grateful for the blessings of the temple. I know that it is the Lord's house. I feel a peace and clarity there that cannot be duplicated anywhere on this earth.

I love my children. They bring me so much joy. I know that our Heavenly Father has sent us here in these wonderful family units. It makes so much sense to me. What is a family, if not divine?

lazy blog alert

Here is some fun stuff that we were up to and a really cute photo shoot of Tori...

check it out


Thank you Steph for having your camera and posting the photos!!!

SCORE

HEIDI SCORED HER FIRST GOAL!!!!!!!