the move in

It's been a while since we've updated and a big reason for that is that we have been in the process of moving!!! Remember a few months back when we posted about how we incredibly sold our house in 4 days...we'll since then we found, closed and have moved into our new home!

Here's grey helping load things up.



We've been in our house for almost 2 weeks now and its starting to feel like home. At first we kinda felt like visitors in a new place. But as we started to unpack and get our own stuff in place, it quickly turned into home. :) We are very excited and blessed to have found such a perfect place for our family.

within A few days we had a swing up for Grey and he has been obsessed ever since. snow or sun, this kid loves to swing!!!




Grey has adjusted well to the new place. Here he is doing what he does...playing and stuff.



So things are going well at the Gibbs house (the new one) and we are all very excited for spring!
oh yeah, i had a birthday thrown in there too...29, here's to the last year of my twenties!!!

Grey and the Birthday boy.

love to all,

Andy, Leigh, Grey

revision free

The other day Leigh asked me what the date was (we both lose track of days amongst the chaos of our lives right now) and I glanced at my phone and said it was the 5th of March. She say's "wow it's been a year since Grey had his shunt surgery."

I responded by thinking the same thing...Wow it's been a year already. A year with no revisions, complications, or emergency visits to the doctor. Oh, make no mistake there were plenty of those "Do you think it's his shunt" moments sprinkled throughout the year, but thankfully it never was. I pray every day his shunt will keep working like it is.

I'm not much for taking stock in statistics, especially after Grey was that 1 baby out of 1,000 that is born with spina bifida. Nope, Grey's not a stat or a percentage. Anyway, I do remember our neurosurgeon say something like 50% of kids with shunts need a revisions the first year.

Thata Boy GREY!!!

Here's to many, many more revision-free years!

This is Grey looking and being smart. :)

love to all,

Andy

Dear (Jet's) Nina,

Thank you VERY much!! :)




Love,
Grey

Grey's (and Leigh's) TV debut

I can't believe it's taken us this long to post this on here (oh wait I remember.. life has been crazy lately!) But for those of you that haven't seen this already Leigh and Grey were featured in a local news story about the Conductive Learning Center. Leigh's mentioned the CLC before and it's a wonderful place that is doing amazing things for a lot of great kids!

Check out the g-man as he makes his tv debut. And yes thats his buddy Carson and his mom Emily also making an appearance!!

www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=118886

more Gibbs family updates soon :)

love,

Andy

Birthday Weekend part 2

So after the first Big Party we did it all over again the next day. This time it was at my folks house (Thanks for hosting Mom and Dad) :) and Grey had a blast!

Here he is before the festivities even begin. It's like he knows that there's cake behind him.


I think he caught on when we started singing...


and then it was on. He knew what we was getting into!








hahaha look at his hands.



Aunty Em made Grey some really cool hand puppets. As you can see Grey liked them so much...he had to eat them, naturally. :)





love,

The Gibbs'

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

All tuckered out.

Some days I'm able to shoot home from work and have lunch with leigh and Grey. We'll today was one of those days, and when I came in the door it was unusually quiet. Most of the time Grey is in his hi-chair yelping and pounding cheerios by the fist full, but today was different. I walked in the living room and there near the wall was Grey asleep on the floor. Apparently Leigh had set him down to play and then proceeded to do something in the other room and when she came back he was out cold, asleep on the floor!

Obviously we had to take pictures.





love Andy, Leigh, & Grey

SOO BIG!!!

Here's Grey showin off a few "dance moves" and telling us just how big he is!

funny guy. :)

twenty ten

2009 came and went, faster than I could even imagine. Years never flew by this fast before did they? If only time went this fast when I was in middle school. The new year always makes me think/re-evalute how things have gone in my life and where I see some changes being made. I wouldn't call them resolutions, because then they'd never happen, Resolutions have a funny way of being great for about 5-7 days and then fade the minute life gets busy. So, I don't call them that anymore. I've grown a lot this year and am hoping this continues into twenty ten, but the key to this growth was that some major life changing stuff took place that shifted my outlook on just about everything in my life. The real question is how do I keep that focus and drive when things start to get "comfortable" in life? No, I don't want life to karate chop me in the gut this year, but often those are the times we rise to the occasion and take life by the horns. So here's to an amazing 2010! Don't blink, it'll be gone that fast and Grey will be enrolled at college. :)

Another Great thing about the New Year is looking back at what happen last year. The Gibbs family had some big moments last year and Greyson told us he wanted to highlight them month by month as he remembered. So Here he is...


If some of you didn't catch all that, here's an interpretation of what he said

1. January
This was the month that Greyson was supposed to be born. January 29, that was the day we had in our head for months, tht was gonna be his birthday...Until a few days earlier when LEigh had the amnio in which we found out his lungs weren't quite ready. So we "lived it up" for two extra weeks!!!

2. February
Can't really think of anything this month. :) hehehe
February 12 the little Gibblet officially gets a name, Greyson Neal Gibbs, born at 7:48 AM weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz, he took hold of my heart instantly and hasn't let go!
Our proudest moment!!! Grey has surgery to close the opening in his back at around 4pm, by 8pm we get to see him again. Tough little guy.

3. March
It's determined that Grey indeed will need a shunt. Something we thought we could somehow avoid. March 5 was the day. To be honest it was much harder than his closure surgery. At this point he was home with us for over a week and we were getting to know him. It was heart-wrenching to hand our 3-week old baby over to the doctor to have brain surgery. tough day. But Grey came through brilliantly and has had no shunt issues to date. WE pray everyday this will continue.


4. April
Grey gets fitted for his first pair of AFO's. These were to specifically to help straighten the curve in his feet. Quite possible the tiniest, cutest things ever. Today, his physical therapists often comment on how straight his feet are now.

5. May
Grey has his dedication at church. A very important and meaningful day for Leigh and I. It was shared with our friends and family. Also, it was Leigh's first Mother Day! Grey and I did our best to make it special :)

6. June
My first Father's Day! Grey painted me a picture and we spent the day on the water. Grey goes swimming with his new lifejacket.

7. July
Greyson has to continually endure his parents impromptu photoshoots! At the park, in the pool, inside, outside, everywhere. He's a good sport.

8. August
Family vacation at Lake Mitchell. Greyson does it all, tubing, seadoing, surfing, fishing, everything we did, he did. He also starts to eat real baby food, and loved it!

9. September
Emotions hit us both as we recall that day in September when we found out about Greyson's Spina Bifida. We've come a LONG way since then, But more importantly so has Grey.


10. October
Grey turns into the cutest, most ferocious fire-breathing dragon ever!!

11. November
Thanksgiving Day! So many things to be thankful for.

12. December
This is what Christmas is all about!


what a year! Thanks for being a huge part of it!!!

love Andy, Leigh, & Greyson