Black Friday

As always, the excitment of Black Friday hit the Gilberts. I hit up Toys R Us at the midnight opening for one toy! I wasn't sure it was going to be worth it when I showed up at the store and the line was wrapped around the parking lot! It was crazy but I know Reese will love the little doll stroller. She loves to push things! Afterwards, I headed home for 3 hours of sleep only to wake up at 4am to go to more stores. Trevor and Reese also tagged along. In the end it was a great success! I got everything I wanted, saved $140 total, and saw many other friends out facing the madness of the biggest shopping day of the year! After 3 hours, Reese crashed on our drive home so we all ended up napping for the rest of the morning! I love Black Friday!

Holiday Card Freebie

My good friend, Meggan, told me about free holiday cards that I thought I should share:

You can get a 5x7 or 4x8 set of 50 cards printed for...FREE! 50 picture Holiday cards for free with no shipping! Awesome deal! Here is the link:http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135382

Just start making your card and add the promo code to your check out. You won't have to enter your credit card info or anything. Just make sure you do it before Nov 30th! Have fun!

A day at the Park

Yesterday was beautiful...which required us to get outside and enjoy the gorgeous weather before winter comes.

Finally...

I just want to apologize for this post being SOO long! I have a lot to update on so here is what we have been up to in reverse:

Reese in her cute dress on Sunday Nov. 1st! She just looked adorable!

Our trick or treating group for Halloween:
Reese with her friend, Addy, on Halloween:

Reese learning to pick out treats at Trunk or Treat:

Trevor's brothers passed through town while drive across the country. It was fun to see them for a day and for Matt to finally meet Reese, who surprisingly warmed up to them VERY quickly!

Reese so excited in an Ice Cream truck at the Mall with Uncle Tanner.

Mario and his warp tunnel at a Halloween party!!

Cute Reese:

In Sept. my brother and mom drove to St. Louis while my other brother flew in. We were given 4 tickets to a Cardinals game the night Kris flew in. Half way through the game, Mom and I left to pick Kris up at the airport then drove back to the game. Luckily it was after the 7th inning so they let us all back in...5 adults with only 4 tickets! :) But it was fun for everyone to see a great Cardinals game! Here are my brothers, Reese, me and Trevor at the game:

Can you really live in St. Louis and not go to the top of the Arch? I wasn't going to go up but my brother bought me a ticket and convinced me to do it. I complained in the beginning but would do it again...it really wasn't that bad! Here is Mark, me and Mom on our way to the top of the arch. Sorry the picture is so dark:

Here is Kris, Mark, and Mom waiting for our ride back down the arch:

MUDFEST!!! This is the reason my brothers and mom came to St. Louis. My brother, Mark, towed his large truck the whole way from PA to MO (15 hours) just for Mudfest and it was worth every hour! We had a blast driving around in the mud! Here is Kris, me, Reese, Trevor and Mark in front of Mark's truck...also the truck I drove for part of high school!

Me getting ready to drive through some mud!

A monster truck going through a HUGE mud pit and didn't make it through!

Reese loving Mudfest as well!!

We also took a quick trip to PA to check out some practices. Here is Reese on her first ATV ride with Uncle Mark:

Reese "Driving" in Maryland!

Reese and Daddy playing in the water fountain at Daddy's school:

Reese turned 1 on Sept 3rd!!! I can't believe she is so big already!! She actually just turned 14 months! Man, I really am behind on my blogging!

Well, there you go. That is what we have been up to for the past 2 months. Sorry it took me forever to get caught up! We have been having fun and staying VERY busy!

Too busy to blog?

Ok, I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. Well sorry to say, you aren't getting much out of this post either! I'm just letting you know that things have been crazy busy this Fall, and I just haven't had any spare time. Here's hoping I get a moment in the future to give some updates on the Gilberts...

A Tiring Day at Church

Before Church:
At the end of Church:

The Green Seats

Tuesday night our friends invited us to a Cardinals game. That in itself was great but look at the view from our seats:
You can't get any better than that! We were 4 rows back in the Green Seats which for those that don't know, is right behind the home plate! They were amazing seats!!!! Plus, you get to go to a buffet before the game....a NICE buffet and THEN they serve you food and drinks throughout the game!! It was the life and we enjoyed every min of the game! Here is Reese clapping for her Cardinals!

The family rocking our Cardinal wear...even Reese had a Pink Cardinals shirt on!

Look how close we are!!!

Our seats were right beside the door to the field, so when the game was over, we had to wait until the home plate umpire left the field. As he was passing Trevor who was on the end row and holding Reese, the Ump handed Trevor a baseball and pointed to Reese as if the ball was for her!! So here is Reese with the game winning ball:

Reese was so good throughout the game. She basicly just sat in our laps as we fed her all the food that was being served to us!! Ahh what the life she has! Thanks for a great evening, Bob and Jill!!!

To Reese...

We have loved having you apart of our family for the past year. You are a blessing and a joy in our lives. We love you dearly and wish you the happiest 1st birthday!

Happy Birthday, Reese!

Love, Mom and Dad

Family Photos

We had some family pictures taken for Reese's One Year mark. I think they are just fabulous and thought I would share. The talent behind the camera is Christie Halverson and she is AMAZING! I just LOVE them!!

Click Here for all the other pictures.

Gilbert Update

I've been slacking lately on my blogging so I thought it was time for an update. This summer has been very busy. Since this is our last summer in the Midwest, we are trying to make the most of it and seeing all the sites that we can in the short weekends that we have.

We took a trip to Nauvoo, IL to see the sites and watch the pageant. We went 2 summers ago but didn't see everything so we had to go for a second time. I can't complain...I love going up there!

I was so impressed at how they made the wagons back then! It was sooo much work!
Reese playing in the rocks:

We went to a Cardinal's game where Trevor caught a home run ball during batting practice and was so excited:
Reese and I watching the game:
We've made it to the pool a few times this summer. Reese LOVES the water!
We had a Girls Night out one evening to wish two of our Friends good luck as their husbands have graduated and are moving on to bigger and better things! Of course, you can't really get much better than cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory!
A beautiful day at the park:

This past weekend we took a trip to the other side of Missouri to visit some family and we also got to see Independence, MO which I had never been to. The Reflections of Christ series was on display and was simply beautiful:
I also had to get my picture taken with this crazy looking temple:

The 3 cousins, Piper (14 mo), Gavin (10 mo), & Reese (12 mo):
And of course the HIGHLIGHT of our trip was that we ate in David Cook's hometown...ok, I'm totally kidding! That was NOT the highlight of the weekend. I thought this sign was the craziest thing!

We went to another Cardinal's game with some friends who got us all tickets for $4 each!! Do you believe that?! It was a fun evening out and most likely our last Cardinals game here in St. Louis. :(

The Fam:

Cup of Tea

My Mom forwarded me this message the other day, and I could NOT stop laughing! It is just a forward, not actually me! :) Enjoy...

"One day my mother was out and dad was in charge of me. I was maybe 2.5 years old. Someone had given me a little tea set as a gift, and it was one of my favorite toys."

"Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought him a little cup of 'tea', which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praises for such yummy tea, my mommy came home."

"My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!' My Mom waited and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy, and she watches him drink it up."

"Then she says, (as only a mother would know...) 'Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?'"

Sheryl Crow Concert

Because of the All Star festivities here in St. Louis, Sheryl Crow performed a free Charity Concert under the Arch last night. We thought it would be cool to take Reese for an evening out. We arrived at the Arch a little early, but got great seats directly under the Arch. We enjoyed the extra time playing outside, eating our dinner, and watching all the strange people that were there! :)

Us in the heat and humidity of the Midwest!!

Reese at her 1st Concert.

Sheryl Crow

Reese also learned to wave at the concert...here she is waving to Sheryl! HA!

A day for hair

Yesterday morning Reese woke up with some crazy bed head...She also learned a favorite new trick of unrolling all the toilet paper!
But then we fixed her hair all cute into her first pony tail...I can't believe it is long enough for a ponytail!!

Here is a side view to see the cute tiny ponytail!

I think she might be officially walking...

Chicago!!!

I don't even know where to start...Friday morning Trevor, Reese and I began our trip to Chicago! It was a short 5 hour drive that Reese did wonderfully! We went straight to northern Chicago where we met up with my dear friend and old roommate, Holly!

Holly and I with all our kids!

We caught up with each other and enjoyed some Chicago style pizza together. Then off to downtown. We checked in and headed straight to the park where Chicago had their fireworks display...for some odd reason they do them on the 3rd of July every year. It was pretty cool though since they shoot them off in the lake! We had fun and Reese actually enjoyed the fireworks! I really thought she would be afraid of them.

Us at the Fireworks by Lake Michigan.

Saturday, the 4th of July, was filled with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, shopping, having lunch at the Taste of Chicago (SOOO GOOD!!!), an afternoon snack at a very much missed Jamba Juice, site seeing, running to the hotel in the pouring rain, dinner at Harry Carry's, and a night swim in the pool with more fireworks going off (too bad all the huge buildings were blocking the majority of the fireworks!).

Trevor enjoying some delicious ribs by the famous Buckingham Fountain

On Sunday we enjoyed some more site seeing, the beach at the Lake (Reese really liked the sand and wanted to pick up all the little rocks!), ridiculous parking fees, a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, and more Dunkin Donuts. (Just so you know...I LOVE Donuts so when I'm close to Dunkin Donuts, I kind of go crazy with them. The only bad thing is that Chicago doesn't make Vanilla Cream Filled Donuts?! Are they nuts?? That is the best kind!) Even without the cream filled donuts, we had a great time in Chicago! Thanks for all the great memories!!

Trevor, Reese and I in front of Wrigley Field.

To see all the pictures from our trip Click Here.