Stop! I'm a policeman!

Today at preschool I taught Gavin and his little friends about safety. They made little police hats and had a badge and then we would pretend to see stop people that were breaking safety rules. For example we would pretend to see someone driving without a seat belt and they would stop them and tell them to put it on. We would stop people for not looking both ways to cross the street, for not wearing a helmet when riding their bike, etc. After the kids all left Gavin wanted to keep stopping imaginary people for violations....so the next one he came up with is he stopped a guy for riding his horse without wearing his cowboy hat! :) ha ha ha he cracks me up!

Trying to be crafty

I am trying to get so much done before this baby comes...slowly I am finishing projects. For example I just ordered my first blog book...I took all the entries from 2008 and made a book and I am dying to get it back and look at it. Now I need to get 2007 and 2009 done. Then the other day the missionaries were over and I was telling them about how much hair Luke had when he was born. I pulled out Luke's HUGE baby book to show them. Well then Emma wanted her book out. So I pulled out her book that is about half the size. Then Gavin wanted to see pictures of himself....OOOOPS! Gavin doesn't have a book at ALL! In fact I don't think I've even printed any pictures of him! So needless to say that night I spent hours looking through all the millions of pictures I have on the computer and I just got about 150 pictures printed so that I can hurry and make him a baby book before the next baby comes!

So tonight I got another project done that I have been wanting to do. I totally copied my little sister...Emma has tons of cute flower hair clips we have been making but they were getting shoved into drawers, on the counter, in our hair basket, etc. So I wanted to make one of those boards that people also use for pictures. Well today Emma and I accomplished our task!!!!! And here is our cute outcome! (Thanks Kim for letting us totally copy you!)

Cub Scout World Conservation Award Project

Today Luke got to participate in his first service project as a Cub Scout. His pack met at a park and got to help with a trail marking and debris clean -up project. So he and Matt headed out this morning at 7:30 a.m. and worked until noon. Luke was very excited to tell me all the details of all the trash they found and all the hard work he put into it. They came upon one pile of debris they named "Mount Trashmore". Matt said it looked like a bum had been living there and collected all kinds of garbage. Luke came home covered in dirt from head to toe and was proud of it :) What a great little Cub Scout!

How long does it take to make 14 cookies?

How long does it take to make 14 cookies from the easy packet of cookie mix that you just add butter and an egg to? It should take what, like 15 minutes? Well not if you use the Easy Bake oven...it takes 7 minutes for each cookie :) Emma was so diligent in her cookie making. She mixed up the mix, she would slide ONE little cookie into her oven, run over and set the timer, wait, get the cookie out, take it to the cooling rack, get the next cookie ready, stick it in, set the timer, etc. So it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes! I was so proud of her patience and diligence! I don't know though...I'm thinking they should probably change the name of the Easy Bake Oven to something more appropriate, like Time Consuming Baking Oven or Easy If You Want Just One Cookie Bake Oven. :)

Penelody the Penelopede

Today Gavin and Emma were outside and caught a centipede....Emma came running in and yelled out for us to come quick because she caught a "penelopede!" Gavin came running in right behind her and was just as excited and exclaimed "Yea we caught a penelody!" I LOVE the things kids say! Like tonight Emma's throat was hurting and she said "I hope I'm not getting strips like Gavin just had." Gavin is just getting over strep throat or strip throat as Emma thought! Too cute!

Emma's new career...

Emma decided to start a school in her room and she has one student who started out to be a straight A student with good behavior...but by day 4 he rebelled and had had enough and has struggled in the behavior area...yes that cute little student is Gavin. I was SOOOOO impressed that the good behavior lasted 3 days, so the 4th day I knew would come. Emma even asked me if I could change the time of Gavin's little preschool that we do with the other moms from the ward so she could teach other students. When I told her we couldn't change the time then she wanted me to let her skip school so she could teach them. :)

Cute little Emma, she had quite the school set up. She had a table with handwriting worksheets she had me print out on the computer. She had a little white board that she was teaching Gavin letters on, she had "centers", she had a whole crate of books to read from and her rocking chair she could sit in to read to him, and she even had "treasure box" like she has in first grade. Once Gavin received 5 tally marks he could choose something from the treasure box. I think in his 3 day educational career he actually got to choose from the treasure box twice! So you can tell he was very into it too. He took it very seriously and was excited to tell Matt all about school when he got home. But day 4 just about killed Emma. She loved the power and attention that Gavin was giving her and when he decided he wanted to play on the computer before it was computer "specials", and refused to listen when she said NO, he broke her heart!

I felt so bad for her. I tried to explain that there is a reason 3 year olds don't go to school everyday. They don't have a very big attention span and about once or twice a week is all they can handle. I told her maybe he was pushed too hard and he snapped. She wasn't having it...she told me I needed to be harder on Gavin and expect more from him. She said if he was old enough to play Club Penguin on the computer, then he was old enough to go to school everyday and do more chores like she and Luke do.

I finally convinced her to let him take a couple of days break and then she can try again. I will let you know how it goes :) he he he

I Love to See the Temple

What a great group of youth we have! We went and did Baptisms for the dead on Wednesday night and I was so proud of each of them for making the time to go. It was so neat to have the Temple President speak to us before hand and the spirit was so strong! He talked about how each them needed to elevate their thoughts while they were there. He talked about how there were so many people who have waited years and years for this opportunity to have a Baptism performed for them and now here are these kids opening that door for them. He complimented each of them for showing reverence and respect for the temple by coming properly dressed and behaving so well. After the girls were done they had to wait for the boys and so they sat in the chapel and sang hymns and they sounded like angels! I am so grateful for each and everyone of the great youth we have!

Labor Day Weekend!!!!

Matt had been traveling so much and Labor Day weekend snuck up on us so we were without plans. And thank goodness we were! Thursday we got a call from Tyler and Anna and they decided to venture our way and spend the weekend with us! What an awesome surprise! So they drove Friday and arrived that night. The kids were on cloud 9 having their cousins around. We were totally excited to see cute little Brayden because he has changed SOOOO much since the last time we were together! He is now walking and has started eating so much better. Tyler and Anna have had struggles with him and the Lord has really blessed them and now he is doing GREAT!

I always want people to have a great time when they come to Florida, and I feel like I have to make sure they know their options of fun things to do. We had planned to go to Gatorland or somewhere fun on Saturday. But the next morning the kids got up bright and early and started playing and didn't want to stop! Before we knew it it was afternoon and they didn't want to go anywhere. I LOVE that they just love being together and don't care where or what we do! Kim drove down and spent some time with us and then drove back that night and we were lucky enough that she left Savannah to sleep over. The next morning we all drove to her house and went to her ward. It was so fun to meet the people in her ward. It's amazing that in such a short time she has already made an impact on people. The ward loves her and her family. We spent a wonderful Sabbath day together. We took a walk and looked at the turtles and just visited. We also decorated cupcakes and celebrated my moms birthday even though she wasn't with us :) Then we headed home.

What a wonderful weekend! Thanks Tyler and Anna for making the trek, we love and miss you!

First Student of the Week!!!!

Luke was the FIRST Student of the Week in Ms. Molina's 3rd grade class! He must have made a good first impression :) Great job Luke!

Gavin's First day of school....

A couple of my friends, who also have kids Gavin's age, and I decided to get our kids together for "preschool" once a week. Today was the first day and it was here at our house. Gavin got a kick out of calling me "teacher" and he LOVED showing Luke and Emma his school work when they got home. He was very proud of himself. The other two kids couldn't come today so it was just Gavin and Cooper.

Look out lizards...Gavin is getting FAST!

Gavin is getting quicker and quicker and he surprised himself today when he caught this little baby lizard! He is ALL BOY!

Apology? You be the judge...

We are still trying to get back into the school schedule and juggle all the extra curricular and do homework and practice piano, etc. So the kids get a little stressed and tired and they fight...so the other day Luke made Emma cry. The kids really want to be able to be "walkers" instead of "car riders" at school. I am fed up with their fighting and told them I can't trust them to be walkers because I can't trust them to get from point A to point B together without killing each other or making each other cry! So after this particular fight I asked Luke to write a 25 word apology letter. He came back with this....

He "misunderstood" and thought I said write "sorry" 25 times. Whatever, choose your battles, that was good enough for me at the moment. Then Emma came downstairs with this little letter...

I will translate...."Sorry, whatever I did. But I want to be a walker so behave today." I don't know why I thought this was so funny...I didn't even ask her for an apology letter so I let this one fly, but she totally cracks me up! :) I'm liking the apology letter idea so I will be sure to post more of these sincere, heart felt, full of love and compassion notes! ha ha ha

Baby Rose in 4D!!!!

Today I had an ultrasound and she did some of the pictures in 4D....It is so cool to see a real baby in there! It's almost torture though because you just want to hold her and kiss her when you see the cute little lips and chubby cheeks. So here she is....I am 30 weeks!

I don't ever remember seeing an ultrasound with the baby's mouth open! This picture made me laugh!

A night out with my Cousins...

One of the joys of living in Florida is that it seems to be a hot spot for people to vacation, come to conventions, stop before a cruise, etc. So we often get to meet people for dinner before, after or during their business here. I LOVE IT! So my cousin Wendy was here for a convention with her daughter Jenny and her granddaughter Taylor. We met up and went to dinner. It was so fun to sit and catch up with them! We ate at the Rainforest Cafe and Emma was proud of herself that she didn't freak out during the fake rainstorm that happens every 20 minutes, or when all the animals around the restaurant start moving. My little girl is growing up :)

Big Mama Toot-si

What is a name that pregnant women, who are feeling huge, don't want to be called....you guessed it

Big Mama Toot-si

And so can you guess what Gavin calls me???? You guessed it again

Big Mama Toot-si

He is such a nut!