Gavin's Baby Blessing and fun stuff going on...

Well I hope this post doesn't turn into a novel, which it very well could because of our action packed last couple of weeks! First off let me start by saying we are so sorry that you broke your leg Greg! How awful! We are praying for you that you have a fast recovery and are back on the horse again in no time. Julie and Stanton we keep Brigham in our prayers everyday and hope he is doing better.

Well we had a full house last week and now the party is over. My parents came the Wednesday before last, and left last Wednesday. Tyler and Anna and their 2 kids drove from North Carolina Thursday night late and arrived Friday morning. Then Kim and her 2 kids flew in on Friday night from West Virginia. We had such a great time with everyone.

Thursday my parents got to see Emma's first soccer practice. She was so cute out there. She is the only girl on her team, at first she was bugged by that, but her coach is one of the mom's so that helped her out a little. The coach must have told her to put her hands behind her back so she would stop touching the ball with her hands, but then she wouldn't stop keeping them behind her back....she was running around with her hands clasped behind her. I was very proud of her for her first practice for listening so well.

Friday we all went to the Science Center. They got to see the alligators being fed mice, they got to pet a snake, play like they were picking oranges in an orange grove, learn about bugs, and dig for dinosaur bones! It was fun.

Saturday was a run around and get ready for Sunday day. We decided that it would be fun, and a great missionary tool, to have all of our non-member friends come to Gavin's baby blessing. Then we would have them all over after for lunch and have the missionaries there. So Matt invited everyone from work, and I invited about 6 neighbor families to the blessing. So my mom, Anna, Kim and I ran around and did the shopping and preparation of all the food. It was WONDERFUL! We had about 13 people (non-member friends) at church Sunday. It was kind of funny because the Bishop and the 2nd Counselor were out of town so it actually looked like Matt ran the whole church. My friends were teasing Matt calling him Pastor Matt. :) Anyway we had 3 of Matt's co-workers and then one of the ladies brought her husband. Then we had my neighbor next door there with her 2 kids, the neighbors across the street and their 2 sons, and then the lady that I teach dance for and her daughter. After sacrament meeting I asked my friend and her kids if they wanted to stay and before the mom could say no the kids said they wanted to stay for the whole thing. The kids loved it...the 8 year old girl loved singing the songs, and I think Luke's little friend Nicholas liked that he got gum from his teacher! :) Liz seemed to really like it. During Relief Society one of the sisters gave her the Pres. Kimball manual and told her to keep it, and then this week I plan on giving her a Book of Mormon. I talked to her the other day and she was the one that brought up church and started asking a few questions that were different to her. Like why do we fold our arms instead of clasping our hands, she asked about prophets because to her they ended with the New Testament. Anyway it was pretty exciting, the kids said they want to come every week! So we will see if anything comes of it.

Then on Wednesday I registered Luke for Kindergarten! How crazy! I can't believe he is that old! He is very excited to be going to the same school as his buddy Nicholas.

Then it was time for everyone to leave. It was pretty sad to see everyone leave. It was very lonely for the next couple of days, what am I saying...it is still lonely! Especially today because Matt had to leave town today so it is extra lonely now! :) But there is never a dull moment. Gavin won't let me put him down for even 10 seconds! I didn't realize how much of a mommy's boy he is until everyone was here and he would scream and scream while everyone else was holding him and then as soon as he was back in my arms he was as content as could be. He always has to have me in sight. I put him in his bouncy seat while I am in the shower. He is fine because he can see me through the glass, but as soon as the glass starts to fog up and he can't see me then he screams! It's nice to be loved :)

Saturday was a big day...8:15 a.m. was Emma's first game. She kind of woke up on the wrong side of the bed...At first when they gave her the uniform to put on she cried and said to me "people are going to laugh at me and say I look like a boy!" Finally we got it on her but then during the game the boys on her team were very aggressive and she really couldn't even touch the ball. So that put her in a worse mood. Finally while she was waiting for her turn on the side line she and two of the boys were sitting sideways in their chairs and they started playing footsy. (I've attached a picture) That got her in a better mood and soon she was out on the field running and trying. In fact she kicked the ball and was about to kick it in the goal when one of her aggressive teammates came and kicked it in for her. We have convinced her that she was being a team player and that she passed to him and he helped her score a goal!

Then at 8:50 a.m. was Luke's game. Matt is the assistant coach and our friend John Lopez is the coach. Luke is a different kid then he was last year when he played! He was the star of the team!!!! He scored 3 goals! I couldn't believe how aggressive and fast he was! Matt was VERY PROUD! Luke looked like a real athlete out there!

After the exciting games we raced home and put church clothes on and went to the temple for a Primary activity. It was so neat. The Bishop talked to the kids and we walked around the outside of the building and then they even let the kids reverently go inside the lobby of the temple. The kids thought that was the coolest thing ever and they couldn't wait to go home and tell their parents they had actually been inside the temple!

After that we raced to Matt's football game. This was the championship. He won his 1:00 game and so they played again at about 2:30 and they WON! Too bad Matt is out of town because the Faith World church is going to present the trophies at their Tuesday night church services. :)

So that was our exciting week. Oh here are some funny things the kids have said this week:
• I was reading the Book of Mormon reader to Emma and I was reading about King Noah and Abinadi. I pointed to Abinadi and asked Emma who that was and she responded "Mozart". Hmmmm, I guess we need to keep working on the Book of Mormon prophets.
• Luke was in one of his deep thought moments and he said "Since we are the Roses we like Roses (the flowers) right? And so our next door neighbors the Hanus's must like ham". Pretty funny! :)
Well I'm sure I have bored you to tears, but I have to write the memories, it's amazing how fast I forget them.

This week...

Well here is the latest with the Roses down here in sunny Florida....

• Today Matt and I had to speak. Since it is the 165th Birthday of the Relief Society, we had to speak on Women. My topic was Women's Role in the Plan of Salvation. Matt's was Honoring women of Faith. He did such a great job. I am just glad to have it over with. I was a little worried that Gavin would scream his head off the whole time. I think he did just 1/4 of the time. Finally he gave up and fell asleep in Matt's arms. I was very proud of Matt.

• Gavin, Gavin, Gavin. He has turned into quite the mommy's boy! I can't set him down for 2 seconds. He falls asleep in my arms and I think I can set him down and about 2 minutes later he is screaming at me, which if he could talk I know he would be bawling me out in not so nice terms! Luckily he is so fun to hold, and I am just grateful he is good for me and not screaming all day long like one of my other children when he was a baby. (We won't mention any names:) But Gavin is so smiley now and it makes it so fun and worth every minute. He is growing like crazy and is already into his 3-6 month clothes. Oh yesterday was so tender....we had our Stake Relief Society Birthday Brunch. I took Gavin and Matt took Luke and Emma to his football game. So I walk into the brunch and our Stake President, President Pratt, who is also an OBGyn was there. As the brunch started he immediately came over and snatched Gavin out of my arms. I thought Gavin would turn on the tears and that I would have him back in my arms after about 5 minutes. But it turned out that he had him through the whole brunch, even through the speaker!!!!! It was so sweet of him!!!!! I told President Pratt that I didn't think my insurance would cover his services! :)

• Last Sunday Emma was the spotlight child at Primary. She was soooooooooo excited! They have you take home a little paper bag and you have to fill it with 3 things that tell about the child. She put in one of her dance shoes, a puzzle piece (she is the puzzle queen and loves to work on them), and her favorite dolls shoe. She had to carry the bag all through sacrament and wouldn't let me even touch the bag. Then she just sat up there grinning from ear to ear when they spotlighted her! I can't believe how big she is now and that she is a Sunbeam! My little girl is growing up! Her Sunbeam class is full of wild little boys and then there is sweet little Emma (she is actually very sweet and calm at church), and another little girl. So they are the favorites. In fact the first couple of weeks the teacher wanted her to sit on her lap and so now every week she goes and automatically gets on the teachers lap. Today there was a substitute, Emma didn't care, she just went and hopped onto the substitutes lap! :)

• Emma and I had the greatest day together the other day. We had to get the cars oil changed and tires rotated. That doesn't sound like the funnest day, but it turned into a fun one! We knew the car would take about an hour or hour and a half and so I brought the stroller for Gavin, and then Emma has a matching stroller and car seat for her baby that Greg and Wendy gave her. So we dropped off the car and Emma and I went for a long walk.....both with babies in their car seats in their strollers, and we both had our sunglasses on. I have to admit that it was the cutest thing to have her by my side. We walked down a couple of blocks to a nearby store, walked around the store. Stopped for lunch there, then we walked to Lowe's and walked around the garden department. We stopped and sat on every outdoor swing they had on display. Then we walked back 2 hours later and the car was ready! It was nice not to have to be doing something or hurrying somewhere...we just walked. Because there was no hurry to be anywhere I didn't even care when Emma would stop every 5-7 steps to pick the "flowers" (they were actually weeds). What a fun day!

• We are trying to hire a new pest control company and so last week I had about 3 different pest control companies come out and give me quotes. I don't think they have the company Truly Nolen out west....anyway they are this pest control company that has these crazy looking cars that look like mice! They are a yellow Volkswagen bug with giant ears and a huge tail on the bumper. Kind of cheesy, but Luke and Emma thought it was the coolest thing ever! In fact they think we should definitely hire that company. Anyway now Luke is really into bugs. He heard me talking to the guy and telling him that I have spotted 2 silver fish bugs in the house. The guy even had a picture of a silver fish and so Luke got to see what I was talking about. Well after thinking about this silver fish for the last week Luke's wheels were turning and yesterday in the car he asked "Mom, are there gold bugs?" I didn't know what he was talking about and so he said "Well there are silver fish, so are there gold ones too?" I thought it was so cute. All I could come up with was that there were goldfish that are truly fish! :)

• We also had an electrician come out to look around and see why we are always having breakers blow and light bulbs go out...so this one company said it would be $69 to have them come out and then we could pay by the job for whatever was wrong,. I forgot the guy was coming and I had just returned from grocery shopping. It was a crazy moment...Gavin was screaming and wanting to be fed, I was trying to unload groceries, and then just as the guy comes to the door Emma, who was helping me unload groceries, drops a glass bottle of spaghetti sauce and it shatters all over the center of the kitchen floor!!!!! So he comes in and can see things are crazy. So he goes and looks around the house for about 15 minutes and then comes back to me and says "Ok it will be $69 for this visit and then to test everything and see where the problem is it will be $197 and then we will give you a different quote to fix whatever is wrong" I about had a heart attack...I was thinking did I miss something? Why pay $69???? I thought that was to see what was wrong and then I would PAY to FIX things. I called Matt kind of frantic. Matt said that was a bunch of bull and don't pay anything! But it was $69 to have him come out, which made me sick! Matt said he would talk to him, but I knew I could handle it (although it is very uncomfortable to tell someone face to face that they are ridiculous! In my head I am thinking be a real woman and stand up to him!) So I tell him, "sir I think there was a very big miscommunication....I thought the $69 would be for you to look around at the things you would be fixing and not just to have you come and say hi." I told him I didn't feel comfortable hiring them because I could see I would be getting all kinds of quotes that would start adding up....then I told him I didn't even want to pay him the $69. He said "OK we can do 1 of 2 things...I can either leave right now and you don't need to pay me, or.." I stopped him right there and said "Yes please leave". So he starts to leave and Luke is not helping the tension in the air as he is saying, in front of the guy, "Mom don't make him leave, mom that is so mean!" For some reason Luke always gets a little attached to all the service people we have come out to the house, the lawn guy, the bug guy, now the electrician guy! :) Anyway that was a long story but a very proud moment for myself to stand up and save money! :)

Well it is getting late and I am exhausted...we have been trying to do yard work and get the house in shape for all of our guests this week!!!!!! My mom and dad come in on Wednesday, Tyler and Anna and family come in Friday morning early, and then Kim and her 2 girls come in on Friday night! We are going to bless Gavin on Sunday. We thought it would be a cool missionary opportunity to have friends come and so we invited 6 of our neighbors to come to the blessing and Matt invited about 10 work people. Then we are going to have a lunch afterward and the missionaries will be there too! So far I know of 2 neighbor families that will be at church and 2 of Matt's friends from work will be there. It will be fun!