Birthday Weekend part 1

Wow it's been a busy week and I've been meaning to get some photos up from Grey's 1st Birthday Extravaganza a lot sooner...but no luck. Got some time, got some photos, time to share.

Last friday started with a good old fashion Birthday Pancake breakfast. I was wielding the batter and did my best at attempting to make a "1" pancake for Grey. Seems easy enough, results were mixed. I thought it turned out reasonable.


The important thing was that Grey enjoyed them :)


Sadly i had to go to work and couldn't spend the whole day with my birthday boy. But mommy did, and they had a good time. Here are a few pics of grey hanging out during the day. Note the wild hair...he's crazy!




That evening the 3 of us went out to eat at our favorite local mexican restaurant (the L) and had a wonderful time together as a family. Grey loves bean burritos :) So Grey's actual birthday was pretty lo-key...only to intensify the next 2 days! That's right Grey had two big events planned that weekend. The first was at Grandma and Grandpa Neal's house and things got started off right when Grey got a 4-wheeler!!!

Here he is all decked out in the proper birthday attire.


The event was wonderful. So many friends and family came to celebrate and share this big moment with us. It was a big year and each and everyone of you played and even Bigger role in our family's life. We thank you all very much for loving and showing support for Grey throughout the last year!

and then there was cake.

Grey wasn't exactly sure about the whole cake thing. Here he is when we first gave it to him. Not exactly wild about it.



but it only took a few tastes and he was hooked!





He had a blast and we had a blast. It was really a lot of fun. Turns out a big exciting party and a belly full of birthday cake leads to a great nap for the little guy. Leigh and I also needed a nap...to get ready to do it all over again the next day! exhausting!

love Andy, Leigh, Grey

GREY'S ONE!!!!

And a year ago today...I became a father.

I imagine most fathers-to-be have a feeling of "oh my goodness, how am i supposed to be dad" right before it actual happens. We'll I was no different. But I had a little dash of "How am I supposed to be dad...of a baby with "special needs" all mixed in. So perhaps an elevated height of anxiety on my part was present.

As I think back now, and play back how the day went I could almost lay it out for you all without missing a single detail. It's that vivid in my head. I mean, it's not everyday you become a dad for the first time and it's not everyday you know your son has a giant hole in his back and needs surgery on the day he's born. So yeah, not an easy thing to forget :) So without touching on every single detail I'll hit up the one's that are top on my list.

First, I had to wear goofy scrubs and had a serious issue getting my face mask on, I was all flustered and had a hard time tying it up around my head. I remember as I stood outside the operating room where Leigh was, and thinking my heart was gonna exploded out of my chest...I had never been so anxious/nervous in all my life.

then they called me in... things went fast at that point. I felt calm, surprisingly calm, I remember repeating Isaiah 41:10 to my self while holding Leigh's hand. A few minutes went by...and then I remember the doctor asking if I wanted to see the baby's face. I stood up and peeked over the blue divider and saw Grey for the first time... it was amazing!! Sure I could only see his head, but then he stared to make some noise and cry softly. I sat back down. Minutes later he was out and I remember seeing his back and thinking, "wow I thought is was going to be way more gruesome than this." You see we have a tendency to let our imaginations get the best of us when the unknown presents itself. That's what happened to me. I thought our baby was going to be a mangled up little mess when we was born. Turns out he was shockingly cute. Leigh and I were both very surprised at how cute he was minutes after being born. (sure we are biased) :) After only a few minutes with him he was taken to the NICU, and I remember breathing so much easier. Yes, he still had a long day ahead of him, but I finally was able to meet him!!! Worry melted away. I wasn't in denial or anything, I knew he had spina bifida, heck i had about 50 pictures of the lesion on his back that proved it, but there was a sense of "I can do this, we can do this. I'm a dad, I'll be a good dad."


And so I have a years worth of experience on my Dad resume, and have to say it's the most rewarding job i've ever had!

Happy Birthday Grey, I can't even say how much I love you without crying. (Oh yeah, when you become a Dad, it doesn't matter how tough or hardcore you are, you become an emotional mess)

:)


love,

Andy

Happy Birthday, Grey!

One year ago I became a mother.


This past year has been filled to the brim with many different emotions. Joy, happiness, fear, doubt, but most of all it has been filled with LOVE! I knew that I would love my baby, but I had no idea HOW MUCH until he was here. Until I saw that sweet face, until I touched his chubby hands and cheeks. I love this boy like no other, my heart could just burst. I love how Grey can find every little fuzz/string on the carpet and goes after it until it he gets it, how he can play with a ribbon of his blanket for 20 minutes,how he laughs EVERY single time we walk up or down the stairs. I love his sweet sounds that Andy and I just know mean "I love you," how he tricks us into thinking he is giving us a big hug when really he is just after the back of our hair. I love how he looks for me after I've been gone, how his little fingers start to wiggle when he is excited. I love how he looks at things out of the corner of his eye, how he will talk to himself every morning until I go in there to get him. I love how he smells. I love his pudgy little hands. I love his determination. I just love Grey, my sir. Happy Birthday to my sweet sweet boy.

Grey Get's A Stander

Just last week Grey's stander arrived and so far he's loved every time he's been in it...We'll except the first time... when he just continually screamed at Gabe, (the orthopedic guy) while we has being strapped in. We'll today Grey's used to it and actually seems to enjoy it. The stander is used to help Grey bear weight on his legs and yeah know, stand upright.(obviously) but it is also great for him to be upright so he can develop cognitively. You see, kids his age are up all the time, standing, walking, etc. Grey can't do that yet, and so he see's the world from his "perched army crawl position" most of the time. Getting him upright changes his view, helps him see and learn things differently. So at the moment he "stands" for 20 minutes at a time a couple times a day. So far he's been very happy, so we'll see how long that lasts.

here's a few more pics of him in it.







don't even remind us...

Grey turns 1 on friday!!

are you kidding me? I can't even believe a years gone by already.

Much more on that later. :)

love to all.

The Gibbs'

bubble boy

For a while now Grey's been making bubbles with his mouth and just recently I got on the ground with my camera and took some video. I love it.



oh yeah and he's almost one. :)


love andy

movin on.

So it's been exactly 5 years since I decided to venture into home ownership. Leigh and I looked and looked, went through horrible house after even more horrible house. Until we discovered a two-story brick that I fell in love with. Leigh on the other hand was having a hard time seeing it's potential, it may have been the late 70's floral wallpaper in EVERY room that was blinding her :) But anyway we quickly made this house our own, and today if someone would walk in, I'mm pretty sure they'd all say, "yeah this feels just like Leigh and Andy."

So where is this going...

We'll the "purpose" of this house was never to be here forever, in fact we always kinda said we'd stay for 5 or 6 years. And so the last couple months Leigh and I have been chatting more seriously about moving on. And then all of sudden two weeks ago we decided to pull the trigger and list our house with a Realtor. Admittedly the decision to actually go through with it was made over lunch, and the next day it was listed. There's a lot reasons why we think this is the right decision and pretty much all of the reasons involve the g-man. School district, a backyard,(or yard for that matter) not living in the ghetto, having grey's room on the main floor, among many other things. So the time was "right" according to us.

Speaking of timing...

How many times in your life have things not gone according to your timing? Pretty much always right? That's hard for everyone, trying to understand God's timing as events occur in your life. It always seems like God's timing is never on track with ours. It's like his timing is on a delay or something.

Well, except for this...

So we listed our house on Friday, January 15... We got a call the next day saying a couple wanted to see it on Sunday. Cool, we thought. They go through the house on Sunday, that night we hear they want to go thru it again on Monday. At this point we're like "Wow, they seem really interested, could we actually sell this now?" So Monday evening we are told that the couple has narrowed it down to 2 homes (one of them is ours) and want to make an offer on Tuesday evening. I always wonder about stuff like that...is there really another home, it always seems like there's always "another" house. I don't know, anyway, we kinda just go about our day tuesday not really thinking about it too much, as to not get our hopes up, but then we get a call that night and we get word that we in deed get an offer!!!! But wait, how much did they lowball us on it? I mean for sure we'll have to counter offer with something higher. BUT WAIT, WHAT? A FULL PRICE OFFER!!!! Seriously? say what? Who does this? Is this real? DID we just sell our house in 4 days, before they even dug the hole to put the for sale sign up?

We did.

Wow, talk about God's timing being quicker than ours. We thought we were just gonna test the water, yeah know, probably get some attention for the house around Spring. Never did we think we'd have our house sold and have a closing date set for February 19!!! yep that'ss right, we gotta be out come the end of February. Sure there' s things that could still come up and we might not sell it, but so far things are going well. The inspection went great earlier this week, next is the appraiser. So clearly we are really excited about this home selling experience (and guess who else is? our realtor...easiest commission she'll ever make :) haha!

so the search begins...we gotta find a house!!!

oh yeah and Greyson's almost one!


Love to all,

Andy, Leigh, Grey

new banner

I just had to update the banner image with a new photo of Greyson hinting at how old he will be VERY SOON!!!
Hard to believe it's almost been a year.
Okay just had to post the banner image... stay tuned for a very great blog post to follow!!
:)

Andy