Eva's Beautiful Blessing Day

It was so wonderful to have family here for Eva's blessing. My parents were here, Tyler and Anna, and Kim came up with her kids. (Morgan had to work). THANKS Kim for taking such great pictures!


Eva has been such a GREAT baby that I thought for sure she would be a silent little angel during her blessing...I was WRONG! She was the female version of Luke and cried through the WHOLE blessing. Poor Matt! I was again so impressed with him and his ability to remain cool, calm, and collected and he gave a beautiful blessing. One good thing is that Eva wore herself out during the blessing and slept throught the rest of church! :)

It's so funny because Anna jotted down some of the main points of the blessing and my good friend Beckie did also. As I looked back at Gavin's both Anna and Beckie took notes then too! So yes they are consistently awesome, thoughtful and wonderful friends/sister-in-law. Here are some of the things that were mentioned in the blessing:

• You will be a joy to your family, your brothers and sister
• You will feel the influence of the Holy Ghost
• You will be happy, strong and healthy
• You will know that your parents love you
• You will be able to make correct decisions
• You will have a testimony of Jesus Christ
• You will seek to make decisions that will lead you to the temple
• You will know that you are loved by your Heavenly Father
• You will be a wonderful mother and live a fruitful life
• You will be blessed with all the things Heavenly Father has in store for you.

We were missing the rest of my family and Matt's family. It's times like today that make the miles between us so hard! We love and miss all of you.

A wonderful Thanksgiving

What a wonderful day! It was so fun to have Tyler and Anna and their family here along with my parents. I LOVE seeing all the chairs filled up at the dinner table. We had a great time just hanging out and not having to be anywhere or do anything but enjoy each others company!

Tyler and Anna just got a job promotion and they are moving to Montana! The selfish side of me is so sad that we will not be able to be together as much anymore. It has been so fun to have them just 9 short driving hours away, and we have had so many fun trips together to Hilton Head, Jekyl Island, and even the Keys. I will miss them so much but I am soooo excited for them. This is a well deserved promotion and I am also excited that now they will only be 9 short driving hours away from my mom and dad. So this Thanksgiving definitely meant a lot to me to have them here to share some last memories. It was fun to be able to get on the internet with them and look at their different house options, etc.

It was a sad, sad day when my parents had to leave...many tears were shed! I loved seeing my dad down on the floor playing with the kids. The hardest was to see my mom sitting on the rocking chair holding Eva with tears flowing down her cheeks. :( Eva is going to be so much bigger the next time they see each other.

I am sooooo grateful for family and for a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

A day of firsts...Gator game and a bottle

Our friend Tom Pratt invited Matt to go to the Gator game today and he had enough tickets for Luke and Gavin to go too! The boys were so excited...Matt said that Gavin was totally overwhelmed when they first got there. I guess he really hasn't been in the stands with 90,000 other people all wearing their "Gator shirt". Then he really got into it. Luke was loving life and came home chanting the cheers and doing the gator chomp with his arms. What a fun day for them!

Meanwhile at home Emma, Eva, and I were having a nice quiet day. We went on a 2.5 mile walk, decluttered and cleaned the house a bit and Emma fed Eva her FIRST BOTTLE! It was a success too! She downed the 4 oz. in NO TIME FLAT! No wonder at her 2 week appointment she was already up to 9 lb. 4 oz.!!!!! AND she grew an inch! She LOVES to eat! Emma was sooooo excited to be feeding her the bottle :) What a great day!

Luke's 3rd Grade Family Traditions Project

For Luke's school class they had to do a family traditions project where they told where their ancestors are from, about their family now, they did a family tree, and they had to pick a relative to write about. I LOVE how it turned out ....some may be hard to read to I will also type it out...




He picked his Great Grandpa Rose to write about as his favorite family member and he wrote "My Great Grandpa always has a hat on. He also always has boots on. He is related to me because he's my Great Grandpa. I like him best because he tells me I'm going to work on his farm when I am 12."

"We also ride on a four wheeler. I also love my Great Grandpa because he taught me how to ride a horse by myself. I love him so much."

"My favorite holiday is Easter, because it is close to my b-day. I also enjoy it because on Easter we have ham for our dinner. We do a Easter hunt to, my sister Emma always trips! We also go to church."

Christmas

"F0r Christmas my family eats clam chowder on Christmas. We do oldest youngest to open gifts."

Easter

"For Easter I get ham with my family."

Thanksgiving

"For Thanksgiving I have turkey."

More Christmas...

"We do talk about the true meaning of Christmas."

"Can you believe my ancestors were Scottish? I was born in Florida. My b-day is April 25 2002. Florida has no mountains but lots of hills. It is a jolly place. I am glad we have no snow because it would be cold. The temperature is usually warm because Florida is close to the equator. My mom makes the best ham in the world. I always look forward to my mom's cooking, because she seasons her ham with a lot of spices. I love her food so much. Her food is terrific. Her food is super flavorful. My Great Grandpa is special because he owns a farm and wants me to come when I am twelve. Some of the things we do together are: ride horses, feed horses, go on walks together."

"What do you eat at home? At home I eat waffles for breakfast, super pretzels for lunch, and ribs for dinner.

Scottish foods...black pudding for breakfast, stovies for lunch, fish supper dinner.

Special occasions...turkey for Thanksgiving, Christmas clam chowder, Easter ham."

So apparently Luke likes my cooking :) Gotta love this project :)

A Precious and Priceless Photo Shoot

My dear, talented, wonderful friend Amy Lopez, who's name is often in my posts, gave me a beautiful gift with the arrival of Eva...she gave me a photo shoot. Now I am feeling SO bad that I didn't have this with the rest of my kids because it turned out amazing. They are all going to look back at these pictures and think Eva is my favorite child :) The pictures are precious and priceless...take a look at a few:

Eva's first bath

For Eva's first bath we Skyped (for those not tech savvy...we video conferenced) with Matt's parents so they could be a part of it too! She didn't exactly LOVE it, but there is nothing like the sweet smell of a freshly bathed newborn!