He Loves Me!!

Quote by Gavin:

"I love you from the earth to the sun, back to Keely's house, to our house, then to Jesus and back to our house"

Now that's love!

Another Converstation

I know I've been doing a lot of posts lately about conversations I've had with Gavin, but this boy cracks me up and I want to document this stuff. First a little back ground - For a while now Gavin has been coming in our room early in the morning an crawling in bed to sleep with us. We've let this go for quite a while because he was usually coming in at about 5:00am so he was only sleeping with us for a couple hours. Plus we jump at any chance to cuddle him, since he hardly lets us anymore :-( But lately he's been coming in earlier and earlier, so we decided it was time to break him of the habit. We told him from now on if he comes in our room during the night he has to sleep in a bed on the floor. Last night after we put him to bed he came down stairs with a toy in his hands and this was our conversations:

Gavin: "Here mom, you keep this down here with you until you go to bed and then take it to your room with you."
Me : "ok"
Gavin: " Where are you going to put it."
Me: "I'll put it on my nightstand."
Gavin: "Ok, when I come in your room tonight make me a bed on the floor and then give it back to me so I can look at it while I sleep."

I just looked at him like what the heck are you talking about? And he said, "What mom, I can sleep with one eye closed and one eye open." Steve and I just cracked up laughing. The things this boy come up with!!

P.S. If anyone has input on getting him to stay in his room let me know.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

I share both a name and a birthday with my grandpa.When my parents found out my due date was so close to my grandpa's birthday they decided that would be the day. Well, they were right and I was born on April 18th and named Arah Debra Shumway after my grandpa Arah DeVar Shumway. Not many girls can say they were named after their Grandpa. I'm proud to share his name and his birthday. Happy 88th birthday Grandpa! I love you!!

Something To Remember Me By!

On Monday I had to go to the Doctor so I told Gavin I was taking him to hang out with Grandma while I was at the Doctor. He loves spending time with Grandma A. so I was surprised when he started to look a little upset. I asked him what was wrong and he just started to ask me questions like, How long will you be gone? Why are you going to the doctor? Are you sick? So given my last post I'm thinking there must be something on this boys mind. As we we're getting ready to leave he asks, "Can I take something to remember you by?" I was a little caught of guard by this question and asked what he would want to take. He pointed to a family picture of us on our end table and said, "Maybe this?" Now how could I say no to that? He held that picture in his lap and looked at it almost the whole 1 1/2 hr. drive. Oh my sweet boy!!

Where's The Love??

Today I was a little later than usual picking Gavin up from school. I'm suppose to pick him up between 3:00 and 3:15 and I got there right at 3:00, but the line of cars was so long that they didn't actually bring him to my car until 3:09. I usually try to get there a little early so I'm one of the first in line and he's one of the first kids picked up. Well, when he got in the car this was our conversation.

Me: "Hey buddy, how was your day?"
Gavin: "I almost cried TWICE because I didn't think you were coming to get me."
Me: "I'm sorry! I know I was a little late, but no matter what I will always come and get you."
Gavin: "But momma, what if you drop me of at school and then go home and die!"
Me: "I'm not going to die Gavin! But don't worry if anything ever happens to me, daddy or uncle Mike will come get you."
Gavin: "Oh! okay."

Now before you go saying, "Oh, how sad!" just know this conversation was not at all about his concern for me. No, no, no! As soon as it was explained to him that no matter what he would alway be picked up (even if his poor mom died) he was completely satisfied. Come on now! Where's the love?? But I must say he redeemed himself tonight when he asked me to show him how many finger he needed to be, to be "All Grown Up". I showed him eighteen using both his fingers and mine and we had this conversation.

Me: "Are you trying to grow up too fast?"
Gavin: "No mommy, I just want to see how many."
Me: "You'll probably be 18 when you leave me :-("
Gavin: "I'll miss you!" (Hugs)
Me: "I'll miss you too!!!"
Gavin: " Don't worry mom, I'll come see you all the time when I'm at college."

Now you have it! I've got it in writing and can hold him to it when he really is grown up :-( I just can't believe how fast it's all going. I know I say this all the time, but it really doesn't seem like that long ago that he was just a chubby little baby and now his talking about college. How do I make this all slow down???

Cousins

Gavin's Aunt Julee, Uncle Zeb and cousin Ayden came to stay with us this weekend. He always gets so excited when they come. He loves playing with little Ayden. On Friday we went to the park and they had lots of fun. This was Ayden's first time at a park and he loved it.




On Sunday Aunt Laura and the kids came over to play with Gavin and Ayden. It was so cute to watch Ayden with Jared. He quickly found the other boy of the bunch and decided he was the one he wanted to hang out with. He kept giving Jared hugs a kisses and then he would grab his hand and lead him around the room. I tried to get a picture of both, but my battery died :-( Jared was so good with him and just followed where ever he wanted him to go.

Ayden Seriously wouldn't take his eyes off Jared

Gavin and Analisa had to make their own fun since

they weren't allowed in Ayden and Jareds little club :-)

Gavin loves spending time with his cousins and always sad to see them go. It really is amazing how well the all play together being so different in ages. We are truly blessed to have such great family.

He Finally Caved!!

Gavin and I have been begging Steve to let us get a puppy forever. Any who know Steve know he's NOT a dog lover. So for us to talk him into letting us get a puppy would be quite the feat. Well Gavin has been pretty convincing. Here are a few of the things he has said:

"I have enough love in my heart for you, mom and a puppy."

"Maybe if we take Dad to the pet store and he's sees all the cute puppies he'll want one too."

"We could get a puppy and keep it a Uncle Mike's house."

Well I guess Gavin was able to tug enough at his heart strings that he finally gave in. Gavin named his new puppy Ayven. I'm guessing in tribute to his cousin Ayden.

Poor Gavin! He's never going to get a real puppy:-(

~4 Things Tag~

4 Jobs I've Had:
~Loan officer
~Marketing Trainer
~AR Manager
~Waitress

4 TV Shows I Watch:
~Grey's Anatomy
~Lost
~The Office
~American Idol

4 Places I've Been:
~Hawaii
~Vancouver, Canada
~Puerto Vierta (Spelling??)
~Alaska

4 People Who Email Me:
~Lisa
~My mom
~Courtney
~Emily M.

4 Of My Favorite Foods:
~Fruit
~Almost any kind of bread or pastry
~Everything dairy
~Mexican

4 Places I Would Rather Be:
~Hawaii
~The Spa
~Somewhere warm
~New York

4 Friends I Tag:
~Julee
~Tabitha
~Jessica
~Laraine

4 Things I Look Forward To In 2008:
~Australia HOPEFULLY!
~Selling our Townhome HOPEFULLY!!
~California
~Camping

Roughin It Indoors!?

We had an indoor camp out last night in the basement. We set up a tent and filled it with mattresses, blankets and pillows. I'm telling you this is the way to camp. It was so much fun! We stayed up late, watched Ratatouille and ate lots of junk food. Don't worry mom, we had a healthy dinner first ;-) I love spending time with my boys! Now we're ready for the real thing. Come on warm weather!

This was a great day!

It was actually a great weekend, but on the way home from Grandma and Grandpa's house Saturday Gavin said, "This was a great day!"

We started our Easter celebrations on Saturday at Grandma and Grandpa Atwood's house for and Easter egg hunt.

This is Steve's cute Grandma Atwood. She's so sweet and we love her so much!!

Sunday morning Gavin woke up bright and early to find where the Easter Bunny hid his basket

A bunch of Steve family came to see us Sunday morning before church. We don't get together with his family very often so it was great to have them. Wish they could come more often.

This is Steve with his mom, dad, grandma, and 5 of his brothers and sisters. He has one more brother and sister who weren't able to be there.

My beautiful niece Karissa

Off to Church. Not sure why Gavin is holding up four fingers. Maybe he wants you to know how old he is.

After church my brother Mike and Sister Laura and ker kids came over for another egg hunt

I'm so thankful for Easter and the time we get to share with family. I'm thankful for may Savior and the Sacrifice He made for me. I had the opportunity to teach in Relief Society this Easter Sunday and wanted to share a quote I read in my lesson. I love this quote!

Well my dear sisters, the gospel is the good news that can free us from guilt. We know that Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It’s our faith that He experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don’t think of the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don’t experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means that He knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer-how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows how it felt to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced Napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism. Let me go further. There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that He does not know and recognize. On a profound level, He understands the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you through pregnancy. He understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion. His last recorded words to His disciples were, “And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20) He understands your mother pain when your five year old leaves for Kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth grader, when your daughter calls to say the new baby has Downs Syndrome. He knows your mother rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year old. He knows the pain you live when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children are visitors, when you hear your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He’s been there. He’s been lower that all that. He’s not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don’t need a Savior. He came to save His people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He is not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and in our grief. You know that people who live above a certain latitude experience very long winter nights can become depressed and even suicidal because something in our bodies require whole spectrum light for a certain number of hours a day. Our spiritual requirement for light is just as desperate and as deep as our physical need for light. Jesus is the light of the world. We know that this world is a dark place sometimes, but we need not walk in darkness. The people who sit in darkness can see a great light, and the people who walk in darkness can have a bright companion. We need Him and He is ready to come to us if we will open the door and let Him in.

Sister Chieko N Okazaki

General Relief Society Presidency