Logan's Baseball Time

Logan if finally about to start baseball for his school on Monday. He is playing for the Anthem Preparatory School in Pheinex. He will have to play schools in Scottsdale, Glendale and Chandler. He is very excited. We will post pics when he starts.

Digital Scrapbooking

My wonderful wife, who is currently suffering from severe allergies and vertigo, has been looking for a hobby/activity to do. As you can see from the title of this post, I think she has found something that she likes.

A few years ago, Tory was very much into regular paper scrapbooking (if thats what you call it). As more kids came along, less time was taken out to keep up with the pictures. Now with everything going to digital pictures it is almost harder to paper scrapbook since you have to specifically go out and print the pictures you want.

Below are a couple samples of the stuff Tory has started with. In the first one the pictures are a little bit older but the ones of Brayden are from this summer. These are free trials of software so the functionality is a little limited until we figure out which software is the best.

Enjoy and let us know what you think.

Lots of Love,

~~~~~~TEAM GILBERT~~~~~~

First Week of school Done :)

We have completed our first week of school. BTW We have 4 kids in school 1 not. The 4 in school are all in the same school grades 1,2,4 and 6. We are very fortunate to only have one dropoff and one pick-up. Well I guess that is until they all start sports in a few weeks. So far we have had only 2 sick children ...batting 500 is not too bad...right???

Now a little about Brayden. He loves stickers. There is a sheet of Mickey Mouse stickers in the car that he screams to play with every time we go somewhere. We give him the stickers if for nothing else just to shush him up...and he proceeds to paste the stickers all over himself. As you can see from the picture below, he roamed around to find one of his brothers shoes and his last remaining sticker stuck on his head. He is definitely a cutie-pie!

Here is a better shot of the super-star stick on Bray-Bray's face. Also the ever present Ya-Ya (Pacifier)

OK...Now onto a topic that we have been dealing with for about a year.

A couple of years ago we got 2 labs, 1 silver and 1 charcoal. Andrew became very attached to Juneau (silver) and there is no doubt that Juneau is HIS dog!!! That dog would kill for him and/or die for him. Mans best friend is boys best friend also.

OK you are probably wondering what the problem is...Well...As you can see from the picture below... Andrew is on the couch with Juneau. They're not just hanging out or watching TV...this is bed time...on the couch...everyday...I can truly say that Andrew has NOT slept on the couch about 10 nights in the last year (unless we were out of town). He has the choice of 3 different beds that he can sleep in, of which one of them he could still sleep with his dog.

Does anyone else think that the boy should go sleep in a bed???

I guess it's not that big of a deal, but it's not just about a oily coated dog sleeping on the couch. Andrew is probably dirtier than the dog. He could easily have......... strike that, does have the nickname "Pig-Pen" (and the dust cloud really does follow him around).

He loves to be dirty and he doesn't care.

OH look, here is the 2 of them on the couch after school. Go figure On a lighter note below is a little video of Brayden playing at the playcenter at the mall. This week Brayden has been a little couped up and really needed to get some energy out. He has been waking up a few times per night and then getting up early in the morning. So we decided to take him out for a day at the mall to vent some energy. He started out a little shy and tired but ended up loving it.

Enjoy the video!

~~~~~~TEAM GILBERT~~~~~~

Sick in the first week of school???

Ok...I thought that its less likely to get sick when it's hot outside. I know that it doesn't have to be cold to get sick but the "sick germs" are less likely when it is hot out. Well anyway...last week Brayden came down with a fever without any other symptoms. Today, Tyler was out of school because he had a mystery fever and we took him to the doctors. They said it was some sort of virus in his throat. After the kids came home from school today Grace said she didn't feel good and that the teacher made her "stand in the sun too much". Well Gracie thats called a fever. I think that Tory is coming down with it now too.

EVIL VIRUS GO AWAY!!!

So on a germ free note...Grace has been accepted into a Chinese Immersion class for first grade. For this year her class is taught in Chinese 50% of the day. Because of this Tory and I have chosen to learn chinese as well. We bought the Rosetta Stone Chinese level 1 kit to start learning. We are also going to do the kit with Grace as well so she can learn more Chinese faster. We will keep you up to date on our progress. Wish us luck!!!

Chinese symbol for Good Luck

Back in the Saddle

Well it has been quite some time since the last update. It is no longer just Jeff and Tor + 4. (We were trying to get a show but I guess you have to have at least 8 to get on TV). Many years have past and Brayden has come (almost 21 Months ago now) and we still cruisin along.

There is really too much to cover since so much has happened in the last 3 years. So what I am going to do is give you a little update on where we are now and give you some cute pics to look at.

The kids started school this last monday. We have 4 of the munchkins in the same school now. Grace - 1st grade, Tyler - 2nd grade, Andrew - 4th grade and Logan 6th grade. As I said before, Brayden will be 21 months on September 1. They are all getting soooooo big.

As for activities, Grace is going to start playing soccer (this will be her first sport), Tyler and Andrew are going to play Football and Logan is trying out for the swim team. Brayden is continueing to work on his"I am going to send my parents to the looney bin" act. He practices everyday.

Brayden finally got his 2nd haircut of his life today. Hey...Tyler is 7 and he has only had 7 haircuts. It is financially prudent to reduce the total number of haircuts.

Well here are some pictures for everyone to enjoy and we will try to keep up with blogging so you all can enjoy more.

~~~~~~TEAM GILBERT~~~~~~

PS - please comment so I know who is out there watching and reading.

Brayden

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Logan Fishing

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Andrew on the Bay

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Tyler Chillin

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Gracie at the Beach
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Brayden in the sand

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Gracie been here for ONE year!!!

On the 18th of October one year ago, I came back to the US with Grace for the very first time. This was the first time she met her mommy and her brothers. Many thing have happened over the last year. When we first got her she could not run and sometimes had some trouble with walking. Now she is running, jumping, hopping, riding a bike and much much more. She will say just about anything and even attempt to sing. (Key word ATTEMPT)

More recently she has started in Gymnastics. She is doing very well with that as long as she gets to take the class with Tyler. Her and Tyler have become very very close. Many times the two of them are inseperable, almost like twins. Kindof like a love/hate thing. Andrew and Logan do a very good job of looking after her. The TEAM is doing well! Here are a couple of recent pics of her for everyone to look at.

Team Gilbert

PS Someone lost there 2 front teeth!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we decided to go to the pumpkin patch. After much time spent deliberating over which pumkin patch to go to, we decided to pick the one with the most stuff for the least amount of money. With a family of 6, admittance fees can add up quickly.

The kids all had alot of fun petting the animals, playing in the corn box(kinda like a sand box but corn), hiking through the pumpkins and going through the corn field maze. The favorite thing for all of them was the animals. Out of the entire adventure there was only one casualty and that was Grace getting bitten by the miniature horse on her leg. I guess he was hungry. The bite really wasn't bad, it didn't leave a mark.

Here are some pictures of the event to share with everyone.

Thank You,
TEAM GILBERT