Kindergarten Research Project

First of all...WHAT?!?! Research Projects for kindergartners?!?! I don't ever remember research/ science projects until about Fourth Grade. Well anyway, Parker had to to do a research project on a person, state, animal or plant. He of course wanted to do an animal, but I was looking for more of a challenge. So I asked him what states he had visited and hoped he would remember California so that we could maybe do a project on that. Not only did he remember California, but he also remembered going to Auntie M's State (Pennsylvania) and Hawaii. I had forgotten that he went to Hawaii with us when he was about 2 1/2 years old. So I decided that we would do the research project on Hawaii. So we sat and talked about all the things he remembered about it- pineapple fields (natural resources), volcanoes (geography), submarines / aircraft carriers (HOLY CRAP- I FORGOT ALL ABOUT ALL THE HISTORY INVOLVED), the cool dancers (Polynesian Cultural Center- culture) and the turtles/fish and on and on and on. Yeah we kind of showed off a little. What can you do about it- really?

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but it looked awesome!
So Moral of the Story: 6 year olds CAN do awesome research projects!

Sophie's 2nd Birthday

Well...it's official. We have now officially entered "The (ehhh-hemm) Terrific Twos"!!! Something as cute as her couldn't be call terrible now- right?!?! We she sure enjoyed her special day, and she knew she was the STAR of the show! She does this funny fake laugh when she's showing off, it's the cutest thing ever! Here's how her birthday weekend went:

DAY 1- Family Birthday Party!
Sophie had THE best birthday EVER!!!


She was happy to see “Gammma-der”, this was just kind of a bad picture :/

Opening lots of presents at her party


DAY 2- at the Zoo with friends
“Why are there LARGE animals walking up to me…WAAAAHHHHHHH!”


Sophie in the saddle


Parker in the saddle


Sophie and Jaedyn keeping their distance


What a bunch of turkeys


Singing Elmo


Opening presents at the zoo


Getting HOT and tired

They CRASHED 10 seconds after leaving the zoo!


Doesn’t she look so pretty in this picture? Her face looks like she’s 10yrs old!

Superbowl Sunday

We had a Superbowl party at our place and everyone was all geared up and decked out. We couldn't find anything small enough for Sophie, so we used one of Parker's shirts and fitted it into a dress. It turned out sooooooo cute! And although the Cardinals didn't win, we still love them.

Parker's all fired up!!!

Sophie and Me.

Our little Cardinals Cheerleaders (Jaedyn and Sophie)

Dear Tooth Fairy...

Awwwwww...my little Parker lost his first tooth tonight. He was so nervous and so scared, but also SOOOOOOOO excited. It's been loose for weeks and it was dangling by a thread so daddy said "NO MORE"! We gave it one quick yank and it was out!

Serious Style Issues

I know her daddy dresses her in the morning, but I think she is starting to pick up some of Kevin's poor fashion choices. Haha!!!

(and yes she accessorized all herself)

Did you just spell Ice Skating???

Well that awful day has arrived, that day every parent dreads so much. It is the day when you can no longer spell out words in front of your child!!! Some friends of ours invited us ice skating the other day, and unfortunately we already had plans. So I said to Kevin, "We got invited to go I-C-E-S-K-A-T-I-N-G but I had to say no because we already have plans". Parker looks up at me and says, "Did you just spell Ice Skating? I want to go ice skating!!!" I was caught so off guard, that I wasn't even sure how to respond to him. I just smiled and said "too bad"!

I guess I need to pick up a second language or something!

Merry Christmas! Love- The Giffords

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving 2008

Kevin's little sister Millie was our designated photographer for the day! You know she did a good job because somehow you can't see any of the mud ALL OVER the children in any of the pictures! Haha- ;-)

Sophie LOVES jumping on the trampoline!


Kids literally digging in the mud


Sophie reflecting



Kevin, his brother Clayton, and Sophie


This is Elisia's neighbor "Toby the Bull"! He was sweet.




Fascinated by Toby


*YOU CAN DEFINITELY SEE MUD IN THIS ONE!!!


~All in all it was a great Thanksgiving ~
(even if there were no sweet potatoes- JUST KIDDING LEILA!!!)

SOOOOOO FUNNY (and clever)!!!

So my sister Maren sent this to me and it was so funny I just had to post it. It takes a minute to get going, but hang in there. You'll be glad you did!

Santa Knows All.

We had a toy catalog out the other day and I asked Parker what his favorite toy was so that I ccould make sure that Santa knew. His response, "Oh Mom...I already whispered it out loud so he already knows!" Hmmm... I guess I'll have to decipher the catalog on my own!

Trick or Treating

Well this was Sophie's first official Trick-or-Treating experience, and let's just say she took right to it. She was the cutest little witch-ling and Parker was the scariest Darth Vader. His helmet even did the Darth voice- pretty awesome. So I thought Sophie would be one of those bashful little kids who might mot want to go walk up to a complete stranger and ask for candy. BUT we rang the first dorbell, she dropped my had , walked right up to the door, smiled and batted her beautiful eyes, snatched a big handful of candy and turned and walked away. On her way to the next house she would finally remember to say "Tee-Tyooou"! Parker was awesome at showing her thr ropes too, he always waited for her at the door and ALWAYS remembered to say Thank You. What was really funny was Sophie would not put her newly aqquired candy in her bucket until she got a new piece. We gat home with MANY melted cany bars! It was quite a funny night.

***NOTE- in almost EVERY picture Sophie has some sort of candy in her hand!!! And yes that's chocolate dripping down her face in some of the pictures.

Parker posing as Darth Vader

Our Littlest Witch-ling

Waiting for the Door to Open

"What do you mean noone's home? I demand CANDY NOW!" -Sophie"Thank You- Don't mind if I do"- Sophie

"Do you think I could just be carried from house to house

while I sit and eat this chocolate?"- Sophie

Look Out GQ- Here comes Parker!

I just had to laugh when I opened up Parker's Kindergarten pictures. He looks like he's modeling or something. SOOOOOOO CUTE! (he must have had recess prior to pictures cuz' his hairs all messy). Look out Little Ladies!

Schnepf Farms

We went to Schenpf Farm this weekend and it was FABULOUS!!! The weather was perfect and in fact it was quite frigid when night rolled around. Sophie loved the pumpkins. She also loved watching the roller coaster. She would throw her little hands up and scream at the top of her throat EVERY time the roller coaster went down the big drop. It was so cute. Parker loved riding the little go carts and RIDING the roller coaster. What a day!

Hole in the Rock and Phx Zoo

With the weather being as gorgeous as it has been, we had to get out yesterday and enjoy the wonderful AZ fall! So I thought it would be fun to go on a hike that my dad took us on when we were little girls...Hole in the Rock at Papago Park in Tempe. So we loaded up the kids I made sure to take the hiking child backpack for Sophie and we took off. Well when we pulled up to the mountain, it looked more like a hill (case an point that everything seems bigger to a child)! So Kevin tried not to laugh at my idea of a day hiking and we traipsed up the stairs to the top on the mountain (hill). Sophie probably could have walked but we put her on the shoulders and she loved every minute of it. So we ate our lunch right there in the "hole" . It was gorgeous.

Then we ran over to the zoo to give Sophie her first real zoo experience. She has been very in to animals lately so we knew she would love it. She didn't care too much for the giraffe, lions, tiger, or zebras, BUT oh how she loved the gazelles. She just kept walking right back to them, pointing them out to every new person that approached. It was very cute. Parker was worn out by this point so we didn't stay to long. But all in all it was a fabulous day!










Kevin has the pics from the hike on his phone, so I'll have to add those later!

Breathing Tanks

Oh my gosh, I am laughing so hard right now! We'll just say that Parker had another epiphany at dinner tonight. We were watching tv and an "Advair" commercial came on. Of course it had a diagram of how asthma works and how Advair can fix it (much like the diagram below).Well next thing we know, Parker flips up his shirt points to his chest and says, "I know what these are. These are the caps to our breathing tanks!!!" I just about blew my food out across the table, but Kevin responded..."No, those are nipples."