We're alive!

It may seem as though we dropped off the face of the earth there, round about 6 months ago. Well, we didn't...but we did move and start new jobs, so life is just beginning to settle down for us (in that busy middle-of-the-semester way).

Here are just a few photos from our adventures here in Sioux City.

Two Years Old!

Here's the birthday boy--two years old today:

Easter Egg Hunt

Considering their only usual source of income is earning a dime per extra chore they do (and you can imagine how often they decide to do extra chores...), the Easter egg hunt with Andy's family was quite an economic enterprise for the boys!

Spring Fun

Well, it seems we Gubbins are shifting away from this blog in favor of occasional facebook posts and Moment Garden updates. But this still seems to be a good spot for sharing videos...and so I give you, a spring update:

As a family treat (for doing well enough on our chore chart several weeks in a row), we had a recent family outing to Bounce World! Fun was had by ALL.

Easter is coming!

Happy Easter from us to you!

Our New Dishwasher...s!

It's a work in progress...

Advent Memories

Time for a little more catch-up on the blog, I decided. I guess I'm in the mood to finish and wrap things up--haven't just turned my dissertation in to my committee! I'm not technically done until after my defense, but my it feels good to have the writing done :-)

A few memories from Advent 2011:

Grandma Marilyn helped Theodore play in the snow for the first time!

The boys had a blast helping decorate for Christmas.

Andy and his folks took the boys to their farm to pick out and cut down a Christmas tree. Here they are on the walk up the hill...

...and with the tree (actually top of a tree) they picked!

Simon is in Sunday School this year for the first time, which meant he got to be part of the Christmas program at church. The Beginners (what they call their 3-4 year old class) stand in the front during the finale--here is Simon "singing" Joy to the World with all the kids. (How much singing actually came out of the Beginner's mouths is anyone's guess!) He did great.

Would anyone other than pastor's kids play peek-a-boo under the altar?

Family photo after the Christmas program.

Its hard to catch a close up of Theodore when he's not in motion--I love this one :-)

The boys got some very special gifts from our Nanny just before Christmas, including plush chipmunks--Theodore for Theodore, and Simon for Simon, of course. They have become favorites!

Forced Day Off

Well, after the stomach flu passed through 3/4 of our family, it got to our nanny. So today is a forced day off for me--the inconvenience of falling behind with work aside, not such a bad thing all in all, as I get a little time to just enjoy my boys playing!

5 in 24

Well, you wouldn't know it from this picture taken earlier today (both boys thought it was a good idea to wear winter hats along with their jammies this morning), but little Theodore has the flu or something similar. Since last night around this time, when he threw up for the first time, we have changed his outfit and sheets five times--that's 5 crib sheets in 24 hours, which is definitely a new record for us. (We have also been doing a lit of laundry today!) Thankfully, aside from the actual throwing up and subsequent cleaning up, Theodore seems to be taking it mostly in stride. We are hoping it's just a 24-hour bug!

Birthday Boy Simon

Here he is, four years old today!