The latest with.....

CAIDEN

My big Second Grader!  What a little stud he is :)  I can't believe he's gonna be EIGHT in just a couple of weeks! Who sped time up all of sudden???  Anyway, I love this kid.  It's never hard to get a smile out of him.  Except the morning of this picture, he wasn't too happy that I made him wear a collared shirt (not his favorite).  He only has two and naturally, he wanted to wear the other one, but it happened to be the shirt he wore in last years school pictures (yeah, it still fits).  "Who CARES!" he says.  Um.....ME.  I use these school pictures as covers for their scrapbooks.  We can't have the cover of him on last years scrapbook and the cover of him in this years scrapbook wearing the SAME SHIRT!  I mean COME ON!

Funny story - A few days ago I picked him up from school and he said to me as he got in the car, "Mom, I wish I was at Knolls Vista."  "Why??" I ask (thinking something bad has happened).  "The girls here drive me NUTS!  They're always bugging me and talking to me.  They're so annoying!"  I then had to explain to him that no matter where he's at he will have to deal with annoying people....forever....for the rest of his life. He stared at me with big eyes.  AND I explained to him that when you're as good looking as you are, girls are just gonna want to talk to you.  And then he rolled his big eyes.  Haha.

We also just finished up Fall Soccer (insert happy dance).  He had days where he loved it and he had days where it was a struggle to get him to go to practice.  The games he loved.  He definitely got in the action a bit more this season, but still remains a bit timid.  He did his very best though, and I was a super proud mama.  His favorite position to play was defense, and was pretty good at it.  Least favorite - goalie, for sure.  He played it a few times and if the other team scored on him even just once, it just crushed him.

The very last game of the season, we showed up only to find that the other team didn't show.  So his coach decided to have them scrimmage each other.  Not only were they super tired (having no breaks) but I was surprised to see how much more aggressive the boys were with each other!  I think just taking away that pressure and probably knowing each other so well, they just let loose a bit.  It was the best I've ever seen Caiden and the other boys play!

and here's his biggest fan....

PAIGE

This little girl is growing up right before my eyes.  And literally GROW-ing.  She's up to Caiden's nose now.  How did this girl get all the height and her brothers not so much??  She also is loving school and slowly learning to read.  (We will get there, right?) She still remains to be a bit on the shy side - at school, that is.  At home, good gracious she is loud!  And is so very, very funny!  She constantly cracks me up.

This Fall I signed Paige up for gymnastics and she LOVED it!  She was so excited to go each week and would get ready hours before it was time to leave.  And you get to wear a sparkly new leotard with a matching hair pretty?!?!?!  Pure excitement, I tell you.

This is her first time doing it and once we were there I discovered that she couldn't....really...do a somersault....at all.  It was a bit hysterical.  In fact, when she was just running around, one image (or person actually) came to my mind.  PHOEBE BUFFET.  Yes, Phobe from Friends running through Central Park.  (Here is a video if you're not familiar.  And if you're not familiar shame on you!  Friends was the best show ever!)

Now do NOT think for one minute that I am making fun of my sweet little Paigey.  If you remember correctly, Phoebe ran like that because it was just too boring to run the other way.  She was the one having the most fun.  And let me tell you, Paige has the MOST fun there.  She is smiling from ear to ear the WHOLE time.  I LOVE her and I LOVE her many Phoebe ways.  Another Phoebe-like trait that I love is whenever she stumbles (whether slightly or full-on crashes on her head) she exclaims "I'm Okaaaaay!!!"  Oh, it kills me!  (I honestly have thoughts of changing her middle name to Phoebe.  Seriously.)

So this is her trying to do a somersault the first day.....

But she improved drastically and could successfully perform several somersaults in a row in fabulous form.  See video below.  That's my girl :)  I really wanted to keep her in gymnastics, but it ain't exactly cheap.  Maybe next spring....

PRESTON

What's new with Preston?  Well, he's still cute.  He's a little over nine months now and about 18 pounds.  Poor little guy is following his big brother's growth trend (who happens to be following my growth trend.  Sorry guys).  Anyway, this little guy is so dang precious.  I hold him and I feel such pure happiness.  He should be crawling by now but it's not happening.  He HATES tummy time and the instant he's on his tummy he flips over.  Fast.  But yet, he loves to stand.  So I think he just might skip crawling altogether and start walking.  Hopefully not yet.  I'm not quite ready for him to be mobile.

He's a happy little thing too.  I am so blessed to have had happy babies. 

You may be wondering what the little red spots are on his cheeks.  My poor Preston has suffered from excema since about 3 months old.  At first it was from head-to-toe and the worst cradle cap you've ever seen.  Poor guy was miserable!  Luckily, after seeing a dermatologist, we got several medicines that cleared it up everywhere....except his poor little cheeks.  Teething like crazy and constantly putting things in and out of his mouth doesn't help.  The only day it was clear was the day I took him in for his pictures at Walmart, which is the reason I took him in for pictures.  I thought a miracle occurred when he woke up with clear cheeks!  But it was back the next day, and has been there ever since.  I do hope it heals soon.  

But either way, we just love him so much.  Caiden and Paige love him and it is the greatest thing to watch them play with him and make him laugh.  He thinks they're pretty great too.

Oh and the latest with ME and CASEY????  Not a whole lot.  We just work our little tails off updating this home.  It's coming along though.  Maybe some "after" pictures soon?  Maybe????

Lego-MANIAC!

 This post is specifically for Caiden.  He has been begging and begging and begging me to make a scrapbook FULL of pictures of his Lego creations only....but it hasn't exactly happened.  So just in case it never does (which is likely) here is proof of his mad skills.....

Now, I can not recall the exact function and purpose of every little creation and every little lego guy, but trust me when I say that EVERYTHING included on each creation has a reason for being there.  A very long and detailed purpose which I heard ALL about as I was taking the pictures and later while I was cleaning, and making dinner, and changing a diaper, and on and on and on and on for the rest of our lives.  But.....I gotta say, I love it!

Good job Caiden!  You are so enthusiastic and talented and creative and detailed and focused - now let's try to apply all of this towards your homework :)

Oh so cute!

About a month ago, I took Preston in to get his pictures taken and they turned out SO flippin' cute!  Just look at this face......

Isn't it delicious?!  I love it.  I love him.  I just want to take a bite out of those adorable little cheeks.  (In a very loving way, of course).  We've decided he is a perfect half-and-half mix of Caiden and Paige as a baby.  And since Caiden is pretty darn cute and Paige is pretty darn cute, I think that makes him doubly cute.  Yes.  Yes, it does.

Then he was doing so well, that I took my chances and threw in Caiden and Paige....and Voila!  It turned out great too.  How did I get so lucky to have such adorable kids?

In other news...Papa Gubler is a celebrity!  See for yourself..... He was featured in the local Basin Business Journal. Just what do local CEO's do in their spare time??  SURF!  A big fat article was written about him and his mad skills.  Caiden and Paige are quite impressed.  Way to go Papa!

Operation DE-GRANDMA-FY has BEGUN!

Okay, so we've been in this house nearly one year (holy moly is that right????)  I'm suddenly embarassed now that I haven't started on this process sooner.....

Anyway, a sweet little old lady and her hubby were the only occupants this home had ever seen.  So while incredibly clean and well-maintained, the color scheme is a bit.....how should I put it?....DREADFUL!  Her two favorite colors were teal and peach, which I like to call Ugly and Uglier, and they are EVERYWHERE throughout the house.  Especially the teal.  The lighting fixtures are literally sponge-painted TEAL for crying out loud, not to mention the walls are a horrifying peachy pink color.  Then the carpet ranges in colors blue, pink, and green.  Oh yeah, and there's carpet in the bathrooms.  Bathrooms!!  I mean, who does this???  Only old people!

SO....now that school is back in session and I have a bit more time on my hands I am planning to do some serious Extreme Home Makeover this winter.  It's going to be fabulous!!  HGTV just might want to hire me when I'm done.  First things first, the FRONT DOOR.  Yep.  It's teal too.  

The Hideous "BEFORE"....  

And now the Stunning "AFTER".  I love it!!  Don't you love it?????

Next up, we are painting the outside of the house.  Nothing wrong with the color there (well except the trim.  It's teal too. Ugh.)  But the siding in some spots needs touch ups, so that's next on the list before winter comes.  By the way, if there's anyone out there just dying to work a paintbrush, come on over!  You are very welcome here!

Then, when that's done, and the weather starts to get cold and I go into hibernate mode, the inside of the house will be getting some serious attention.  I can not WAIT!  

(Is anyone still reading this post?)

Why you want to leeeeeave me????

Anyone know what movie that's from?  Well, it pretty much sums up how I felt this first day of school.  Two children in elementary school, one in kindergarten, one in second grade.  Both so excited.....to leave me.  Tear :(

Okay, maybe they were excited for school itself.  First....Caiden. 

What a little stud.  This year he was a bit less excited and bit more nervous than usual as he is at a new school this year and knows very few kids.  Two to be exact.  But Caiden is a happy-go-lucky kid.  He makes friends in less than a second.  When I picked him up and asked how it was he said "Best.First.Day.Ever." (haha!) Then he told me about a kid he played with at recess.  What's his name?  "Uh....I don't know.  But he had on a Transformer shirt."  Well, that explains it.  "And guess what? There's a kid who's SMALLER than me in my class!"  Sweet!

And then Paige.....

Honestly, I think she was most excited to wear her new school clothes and shoes and use her new backpack and get her hair done "reeeeeeally curly!"  The day before there were a couple of times I truly thought she was going to spontaneously combust from PURE excitement.  She kept asking me if it was time to go to bed yet.  Then the morning of, she was so excited to get dressed and have me braid and curl her hair.  Then on the way to school, I looked back at both of them as we made the last turn and said "are you getting excited?" and Paige exclaimed "I love my HAIR!".  I about crashed and died laughing.

Once in the classroom, the nerves set in a bit.  But not too much.  She was off playing and scoping things out and paid no attention to me leaving.  My little girl is in kindergarten. 

Later when I picked her up, she was all smiles from ear to ear.  Then she opened her backpack....."but....I didn't even get any homework?"  Oh, the disappointment. 

So it's just me and Preston now.  Everyone left us.  Real cool.



Trip to Grandma's

After stopping in Utah to spend time with my sister and her new baby, we then headed over to spend time at my parents home in Pagosa Springs.  Casey flew in too.  We had a grand ole time.  Babysitters a-plenty (grandma + 3 nieces) we actually got to get away for a bit and hit some golf balls.  Now, my last (and only) golfing experience was when Casey and I were dating and we spent the weekend in Salt Lake with my sister and her husband.  Let's just say somehow I managed to get SMACKED in the head by a golf ball.  Did I mention this was just minature golfing?  I'm seriously talented.

I can happily report that I did not get hit in the head this time, but as you can see the talent continues.  Look closely at the second picture.  I've clearly swung....and yet the ball remains on the ground.  Talent.  That confirms what I've always known....I'm just not good at sports that involve balls.  (And you may take that however you'd like :)

Moving on....we mostly just chilled and took it easy all week.  I read an entire book while I was there, The Help.  (So GREAT!!)  I can't say I've been reading much lately.  Too much housework.  Dang housework. 

 One day we did take the kids down to the river for a bit...

Preston wasn't so sure about the ice cold water :)  Oh, I should mention that he decided to cut the top FOUR teeth during the week we were here.  I mean really, what baby gets 4 teeth at one time???  Poor thing.  That makes him just 6 1/2  months old with 6 teeth.  Fun times.

Welcome Miss Scarlett!

My newest little niece, Scarlett Jovi Shaw, arrived on July 15, 2011 (promptly on her due date) and we were SO HAPPY and excited to meet her!  Everything went perfect with her labor and delivery (so perfect that I still feel a bit jealous over it :) So a couple of weeks later I drove down with the kids to soak her up a bit.....

 (I'm not sure what's going on with Paige's hair here....)

Weighing only 6lbs (something-tiny ounces ?) she is definitely the smallest baby I think I've ever held. I'm used to my giant 8 1/2 pound Gubler babies.  Preston seemed like a TANK next to her (of course, he is 6 months old at this point, but still).  But oh, how precious she is!   Look for yourself....

And STYLISH too!  I mean, have you ever seen a baby ride in such STYLE????  She is one lucky little girl!  

 I can't wait for her and Preston to be running around getting into all sorts of mischief, haha! Speaking of which, I was able to spend the week there with just Preston as my mom graciously took Caiden and Paige back to her house.  I tried to spend some time teaching him to sit up....but he wasn't cooperating so much...

....but we did manage to learn one very important skill....holding his own bottle!  I literally gain an extra 2 hours of time by him reaching this simple milestone.  Love.It.

Love these babies!

Silverwood Theme Park

The summer seemed to start so late for me as the kids didn't get out of school until the17th of June and the temperatures never seemed to get out of the low 80's.  As I mentioned before, we spent ALOT of time out in the yard.  Those "after" pictures I promised...um...it might have to wait a bit. 

But we did manage to have lots of fun over the summer.  Because that's what we do.  We have fun.  Fun is good for the soul. 

Of course we spent time at the pool, as usual.  But not as much because of the cool weather.  It's no fun to be at the pool when you're cold.  It's not natural and it's not right.  Do I have pictures? No. Why? I could never remember to bring the camera.  Ah well.

BUT we did decide to spend one very fun day at Silverwood Theme Park with our good friends, the Wiseman family.  Most of the kids got free passes from their teachers during the school year for meeting their reading goals, so a cheap trip it was :) 

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE roller coasters?  AND water slides?  Seriously, I may have been the most excited one there. 

We spent the morning in the amusement park riding rides.  Caiden rode Tremors along with the rest of the Wiseman boys (not exactly knowing what they were in store for).  I sat out with Paige.  She nearly had a heart attack on a mild boat ride prior to this, so I figured she might not like Tremors so much.  But the rest of the boys made it through with no tears....possibly because they were too stunned to cry, ha.  I was quite impressed.  Could we get them to ride any other roller coasters?  Not so much.  But they had fun on the rest of the kid rides.....dumbo, helicopters, bumperboats....

I wish I had a picture of the most insane ride I've EVER been on.  The After Shock.  CA-RAZY!!!!  First of all it's one of those rides where your feet dangle and you're hooked to the track from above.  It starts by pulling you backwards up into the air 170 feet so your staring at the concrete and praying the simple harness that holds you in doesn't decide to malfunction.  Then....it suddenly drops you and you are going 500 mph (or something like 65 mph, but it FEELS like 500) all over the place, upside down, spinning and twirling, screaming and praying and then you are shot up into the air and it STOPS....170 feet high and this time your staring straight into the sky wondering what in the HELLS BELLS you're doing on this insane ride and THEN....it drops you again and you do it all over again....backwards, ending up in the original starting position 170 feet in the air staring at the concrete below. Yup.  By the time I was done, I was crying (I didn't even remember starting but apparently I did because I had tears rolling down my face) and all my muscles were instantly sore from being so tense and wrapping my arms around the harness so tight, holding on for DEAR LIFE.  Loved it.  So much fun.  Totally doing it again.

 Then we headed over to the the water park, Boulder Beach.  But unfortunately it was not the warmest day, and then add wind to that.  Kinda disappointing.  We stood in line for one water slide, Avalanche Mountain, (Caiden was so scared for some reason, and Paige was not at all - Just when I think I can predict their behavior they change it all up on me :)  As we stood there with teeth chattering and bodies shivering hoping that the water down the water slide was heated - maybe? - we decided maybe it was a bit too cold for the water park.  Poo.  I do so love the water slides.  But the kids had SO much fun in the wave pool and such - despite the cold. 

Here's Paige and Adam.  I really hope they get married some day.

Fun, fun day.  I think maybe we'll do it again...:)

A little eavesdropping.....

 A couple days ago in the playroom....(Caiden playing legos, Paige playing Barbies)

Paige: "Caiden, which dress should she wear? The blue or pink one?"
Caiden: (annoyed) "Paige!! I'm not a girl!!"..........(mumbles) "the blue one."
Paige: "Oh. Yeah. I like the blue too.  And which SHOES should she wear?  Um...there's dark blue or light blue.  Which one?"
Caiden: "PAIGE!!!  I'm not A GIRL!!......the light blue".

 Then last night.....

Paige:  "Mom, what time is it?"
Me: "8:30"
Paige: "Is it time for bed?"
Me: "Yes".
Paige: (runs down the hall) "CAIDEN! We have to go to bed now!"
Caiden:  (through gritted teeth)  "Paige!  I told you not to ask mom if it's time for bed! She always says "Yes!"
Paige: "But why? I'm tired.  I love going to bed."

Then, later they are in bed:

Paige: "Dad! Open the door a little!  I can't see my BLANKETS!"
Casey: (opens the door)
Paige: "Thanks!......MORON!!!!!" (dies laughing)
Casey:  "What?!  What did you say?"
Caiden:  "She called you a MORON!" (dies laughing)

Sweet baby boy....

My little baby boy is six months old now.  At his last checkup he weighed in at 15lbs 10oz and 26 inches long.  So while he appears to be the chunky monkey that he is, he's actually slowed down quite a bit in his growth.  The doctor even said I was welcome to add a little more to his diet, but I hardly think this kid is starving.  I mean have you seen his thunder thighs? Or better yet his cute squishy cheeks?  He's just following the trend of the Gubler babies - born huge, get fatter by the second for the first couple of months, then slowly taper down until they pretty much quit growing all together.  (Poor Caiden is still the smallest kid in his whole class - but by far the smartest and the cutest.  How 'bout those stats, thank you.)

Anyway, here's a few pics of little Preston.  This is from a while back, but one of my favorites.  I walked into the office to find him holding a knife while sporting a sideways hat.  Hmmm....wonder who decorated him this time.  Either way, it's the cutest little hoodlum I've ever seen.

As I mentioned he's started on solid foods, and oh my.  He's never refused one single bite.  He's yet to meet a vegetable that he doesn't like.  Love it.  Just like his big brother, who will eat any and everything. 

We're also working on sitting up.  And it's coming along.  As long as he has someone to observe and entertain him, he'll stay in a sitting position.  But as soon as he's alone (or bored) backwards he goes, right over the boppy.

Please excuse the excess drool there.  He's proving to be a bit like his big sister and got his first 2 teeth at just 4 1/2 months old.  And right now (at 6 months) he happens to be cutting 2 more plus his 2 front teeth are sitting just below the surface.  So I'm thinking the drool is gonna be with us for a while. 

Have I mentioned how much I love to squeeze this kid?  Well I do.  And so does his daddy, and his brother, and his sister.  He's quite the irresistible guy.