We're back...for a bit

Well, we've taken a bit of a holiday, both from the blog and from our regular responsibilities. We've been on a couple of really short flights (one with Brennan Manning and both with Ellia's poo flying freely), visited with Christina's family in Baton Rouge (Noni, Granddaddy, Uncle Clint, and Aunt Hilary), more family in Conroe (Granmama, Buck, Uncle Andy, Aunt Patsy, Brian, and Emily), and then to a wonderful wedding of two wonderful friends (Erin and Jeff) where we were able to reunite with many good friends. Lots of traveling with great friends (Anna Beth and Keith) ended a great first leg of the holidays. Next, off to visit my family in Snyder for the New Year. But first, here are some pictures from our travels.

People tell us we look alike. I don't really see it, but I take it as a compliment.

Finally some extended time with Uncle Clint

Ellia only chews on people she likes...and, boy, did she love Aunt Hilary!

Noni and Granddaddy took good care of us in their new place in Baton Rouge.

Ellia, hamming it up

One of her favorite places to roost is atop Granddaddy's shoulder.

Uncle Ryan looked after Ellia during most of the time Mom and Dad had their own responsibilities at the wedding. He had a little fun with the leftover Christmas manger at the church. "Baby Jesuita," according to Ellia's doting uncle.

We got elfed

Check this out. The Gibson family at our best. (If you have dial-up, this will probably take a while. Otherwise, it shouldn't take too long. Thanks, Kyle W., for passing this on.)

Christmas on 5th Street

Ellia and Mom with the camels

Ellia has such a sweet tooth

In case you couldn't tell, that's not real snow. But even with the fake stuff, Ellia's still unsure.

Ellia's first visit to "the Big Man."

Winter

Thansgiving travels

This picture was actually taken outside as it was snowing on Thanksgiving Day. That's a happy Thanksgiving.

Ellia with her Papa

Ellia with her Aunt Carolyn

Laughing with Papa

Ellia nesting on Papa Neil

Ellia and Nana

Hiccups

Christina and Ellia are in Maui right now, finishing up a long stretch of time away from home. Chris finished teaching a retreat for Rise, the young adult ministry of Hope Chapel Maui, this past weekend. I was able to join her there to help out with Ellia and enjoy Maui with them. We had a great time. Chris is such a gifted teacher. God is doing great things with these 'young people' in Maui (many of whom are older than us), and God certainly used Chris as a prophetic voice that opened up Jeremiah 2 and its implications into our identity, security, and satisfaction being found in God alone. I wish I had recorded her talks to share with you. Alas. But I'm sure she'll have more opportunities to share this same message again.

Anyway, we're apart once again (hopefully for the last time for a long time), so I needed to share this video from a few weeks ago that has both of my girls' beautiful voices. Pray for safe travel on Thursday night/Friday morning as they return home. And pray for me as I finish up papers and prepare for their arrival.

Cooler weather

We are really enjoying the beginnings of fall around Waco. Ellia has seen temperatures this past week she's never experienced before. As I was walking her the other day to meet her mom who was coming home from her bearobics class, I tried to explain to Ellia why the leaves were changing colors. Seemingly mundane things like seasons are not easy things to explain. I found myself getting more and more convoluted in my explanation to her. I'm excited for the opportunity to answer the 'why' questions toddlers inevitably have. I'm just glad I have another year or two before they start. I really need to learn to communicate more simply. I think we probably don't truly understand things until we're able to communicate them to babies. Ellia is a great student; she's a better teacher.

Louisiana pics, pt 3

Here are the third and final set of pictures from our time in Louisiana. We have tons more, but they would just get repetitive. Enjoy. More to come...

Louisiana pics, pt 2

Here are a series of pictures from our time by one of the ponds at the May home. Mommy's taking the pictures while Noni's making Ellia laugh.

Louisiana pics

Ellia got to visit Noni and Grandaddy at their new place in Baton Rouge. We got some absolutely incredible pictures from our time there. We'll be putting those pictures up over the coming weeks. So enjoy this first batch. Again, if you would like a good quality version of any of these pictures, let me know in the comments section which one (e.g. first one, fourth one, etc.)

ExerSaucer

We were finally able to assemble Uncle Ryan's gift for Ellia: the ExerSaucer. You can watch her getting smarter.

We were also able to take a lot of really good, high-quality pictures of the girl this past weekend. Unfortunately, the picture feature of Blogger is not working right now, so we'll have to put them up later. But stay tuned...you will soon see some incredible pictures on here.

Another attempt at moving pictures

A word about our videos: Ellia is a smart cookie. For whatever reason, she knows the moment a camera (anywhere in the world, mind you) is turned on. As soon as a camera is turned on, she is turned off. That's why, for instance, in the previous video, I sound like a blabbering moron. She reduces me to goos and coos because, literally a half-second before, she was gleefully screaming and laughing and cooing like a baby (not a grown human) should do. This video is not much better. Near the end, there's a taste of her normal voice. But more than anything, Mom and Dad are just trying to coax her out of her camera-shyness. So with that said, here's your video.

And here's a picture taken just before the video.

Happy girl...

And don't miss the video at the bottom of this post.