Eva's 4 month check up

I can't believe my little baby is growing sooooo fast. She now weighs 12 lbs. and is 24" long. She is starting to use her hands and she has the impressive skill of putting her whole fist in her mouth. It makes me gag just watching :) AND I heard her giggle. I ran for the camera and tried to get her to do it again but when I came back she wouldn't make a peep. I guess she is camera shy :)

Happy Valentines Day 2011

Matt was so sweat and sent me flowers and around the vase it had a cute little necklace with a red heart. Ahhh! That night we went to eat at one of those Brazilian Steak houses where they keep coming around with different cuts of meat every few minutes. Talk about good food! Happy Valentines Day!

New "Bee"ginnings

Tonight we had a wonderful New Beginnings. We have 8 girls that will be turning 12 this year and joining us in YW. All but 1 were able to come tonight as we explained the YW program to them. We went with the bee theme and had fun decorations including this awesome balloon arch that was our "beehive" in our little skit. It was fun because the skit incorporated the prospective beehives and got them involved. We gave them little bee antennae to wear and it started out with them coming out of the beehive and they notice these other bees that are different. So they go and ask the bees what makes them different and the bees, which were our Beehive Presidency, take them from flower to flower showing them what makes them unique. It was cute to see their little antennae bouncing around as they went. Each flower was one of the values. So we had about 2 girls for each flower talk about the value. The girls that were flowers had made the cutest flower headbands out of felt. Then we ended with this cute song that Keriann (one of my cute Laurels) wrote. (It goes to Called To Serve)

Called to serve as bees in the young womens
Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth
Collecting honey we use our knowledge wisely
Letting our light so shine...
Choice and accountability,
as we strengthen family
Good works and integrity,
as we show humility
Virtue, Temple worthy,
as we keep our standards high...
Being an example is our, priority when
Called to serve as bees.

I am so grateful for awesome leaders that all contribute so that a night like this is not overwhelming, and I am grateful for a wonderful group of girls that I can count on to be there, do their part, bring their refreshments, and be virtuous and lovely girls that are keeping their standards! What a great night!

Be My Valentine

I usually don't encourage my kids to have "relationships" before they are 18 years of age, but little Suzie and Gavin together makes my heart melt. Both Gavin and Suzie say they are going to marry each other. They are truly the BEST of friends and are constantly thinking of each other. They love to play together and they get along so well. So last Thursday when Suzie's mom picked her up from school she saw that the kids made valentines and all the little kids were giving their cards to their moms. So Jessica asked Suzie if the cute little Valentine with her picture was for her. Suzie replied No that it was for Gavin. Sure enough today when we walked into the church she marched right up to Gavin and gave him this cute little valentine! CUTE CUTE CUTE! Luke and Emma helped Gavin with a very decorated and stickered up Valentine tonight so that tomorrow he won't disappoint his girlfriend.

A sad sad day at the Rose Household

Yes it was a sad day here because our beloved Steelers lost the Superbowl. :( I think Luke took it the hardest. He was actually crying at the end of the game and carrying on like someone had died! And then didn't want to go to school the next day. I think the reason he didn't want to go to school was because he had been talking so much trash leading up to the game and so he was embarrassed :) He was heartbroken and I think it actually made Matt a little proud that his son was showing such allegiance to his beloved Steelers :)

Daddy's little Princess!

I don't think there is anything cuter than a little girl dressed in pink in her daddy's arms.

My first Missionary Nephew...

I can't believe that my nephew Danny is old enough to go on his mission. It seems like just yesterday that we drove to California to see Scott and Becky and their new baby boy Danny. Man how time flies. I can't think of another young man more prepared then Danny for his mission. What a great example to my kids. Danny had the opportunity to go to a semester of school before he left and he was able to share the gospel with a girl up there and he got to baptize her! What an amazing experience! You would think it wouldn't be too hard for me to say goodbye to him since I only see him once or twice a year anyway, but as I called him to say goodbye I got really choked up! Luke did too. When I pointed out that we only see him once a year anyway he said "I am going to miss seeing him those 2 times!".

Here is what my brother Scott wrote about their experience when they dropped him off...

Well . . . we dropped off Danny yesterday at the MTC . . . which was kind of hard . . . wow . . . am I really this old ? It went pretty well. We got up there around 11:30, went in the parking lot across the street to take pictures (as they don't let you pull in to do that), luckily a jogger was going by and offered to take one for us. We then loaded back up and went out to eat lunch. Danny didn't want to do a sit down place, so we got Jimmy John's. We then made a quick stop at Shopko to try and buy a fingernail clipper set and suitcase tags, and then said our long hug and kiss goodbye's in the parking lot of Shopko. We then loaded up and headed for the MTC. As soon as we pulled in to the main entrance, we were signaled over to the line up of cars along the whole front curb of the MTC. There were probably 40 parking pull outs or pull overs - end to end, and we took our place there. As soon as we parked two missionaries with "Host" badges greeted us and invited us all to get out. We popped the trunk, pulled out his bags, and they encouraged us all to give him one more hug. Then one elder said - hey give your mom one more hug - she looks like she needs another one. So he did, and then off he went. Little Karissa took it the hardest - probably crying the hardest for a while, followed by Dallen. But don't let me kid you all, we all had some tears to shed. We ended up going over to the Carl Bloch exhibit, and then headed back to St. George. We got home around 7:30 pm, and then about 8:00 pm Danny's good friend (and the leading candidate amongst all the family members of our choice to be his future #1 woman) came by with a package that she helped Danny put together for our family. It contained a personal card for each member of our family from Danny, a candy bar that matched a clever phrase that each card contained, with a picture of Danny and each sibbling - with him and just them. As Karissa started to read her letter, the floodgates opened back up again and here came the tears again. So there you have it . . . that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I was so touched at the thoughtful thing that he did for each member of his family! I tried to subtly drop the hint to Luke to do something similar when he leaves in 10 years :) I hope he remembers :)

Danny is going to the Washington D.C. mission, French speaking. I think this is so neat because my dad went to Washington D.C.! I look forward to hearing all about Danny's adventures!