Graduation Day!!!

So on the 22nd of this month my little boy graduated preschool. I was so sad but happy all at the same time. I still can’t believe I have a 4 year old and now he is up and graduated! I should prepare myself though; I will have a few more graduations to get through. Now I am faced with the daunting task of finding another preschool or pre-K to put him in. I had no idea how hard it would be to find a good one that also fits into my schedule. I did find one lady out here by me, and she said she had a little bit of a waiting list. My next obvious question was, "what is the probability that my son would be able to get in." She expresses to me to not get too freaked out but she had a waiting list of 80 people. 80 PEOPLE!! I then replied “oh so you’re saying there’s a chance.” She informed me that some mothers put their children on the list the day they are born, I guess I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was. I guess I will have to put him on the list for Kindergarten now! I am prepared, or at least I plan to be. I have however run across a few private schools but they are in the $600-$800 range (FYI that’s a month). I guess money doesn’t stand a chance against a good education. Wait am I talking about preschool here or Harvard, I will rethink that. So if anyone knows of ANY good schools here in Coolidge/Casa Grande, on MWF let me know. Or any good schools in town during the morning on TTH, please let me know. I am desperate!
Okay now on to Gavin’s graduation day. He had a great graduation and looked adorable in his little cap that had a tassel. Although I must say that the room we were in had this HUGE mirror on one wall, it wasn’t the most pleasant sight to constantly be starring at myself during the program however; can you guess who didn’t mind. That’s right my incredibly vain son discovered the mirror right off the bat. Throughout the performance he kept looking back at himself and I tried in a quiet yet firm way to get his attention. It was quite comical I have to say. His part in the whole program was to repeat the poem “Jack and Jill.” We practice and practice and he got it down pat but, the teacher was helping all the kids so Gavin kept pausing so that she could say the next line. He did great thought and I am so proud of him. It was the cutest sight I have seen!!

Here is the point he discovers the mirror, its classic Gavin!

Gavin's Party

On Saturday we went to Bounce U for Gavin’s 4th birthday party. Everyone had a blast and it was a lot of fun. Bounce U (for those of you who don’t know) is this giant place with all different kinds of inflatable bouncers. It was nice to have a whole room just for our guest. It had a huge slide, obstacle course, a boxing ring, and one where you can strap yourself and an opponent in and try to pull the other one down. Gavin and all his friends enjoyed the slide the best however; I think the adults enjoyed the boxing ring more. Troy and Ed had and all out boxing match, it was apparently very intense because they both came out sweating profusely, YUCK!! I have to say it was pretty entertaining to watch. It seems those boys are VERY competitive (who would have guessed ;)!) FYI that is sarcasm they are the most competitive people I have ever met, almost to the point of arrogance, almost!! After the bouncing portion was over we had pizza, cake, and ice cream. I have to thank my wonderful aunt Liz for making Gavin’s Ninja cake. It is what he wanted so I tried to deliver. Gavin got tons of presents, so much in fact that I now am in the process of organizing and discarding the old toy in the playroom. He got this awesome drum set from my parents, which he loves. Everyone thought I was crazy for allowing him to have one but Gavin loves music so if he wants to be the next Tommy Lee I will let him. Strictly in the drumming sense not the lifestyle (had to clear that one up)! He received tons of other gifts that he loves, thank you so much for all those presents. He won’t need anything for next 2 birthdays!! :) I am also sorry that some of the pictures have dust on them, I need to get my camera cleaned!

Ed and Kingston, this is after the boxing match as you can tell!!!

Papa and Gavin, oh how he loves his papa

My beautiful mother, what a cover girl!Troy and Ed boxing, again I need to clean my leans SORRY!!Family and Friends watching Gavin opening his MANY gifts!!Gavin's best friend and the greatest Auntie Kendra and her goodie bag (Gavin talks about Kendra all the time)Waiting for food, people get angry when they are hungry! Or maybe that was just me?!Gavin trying to stick his finger in the awesome cake Aunt Liz made!What a Ninja cake!Crazy kids on a crazy slideWade and Weston on the slide, who is having more fun?!The adults! Thanks Kristen and Scott for coming even though you don't have kids, you can barrow mine until you get your own:)!Emmy and Anna getting ready to bounce Grandma and Grandpa Ethington Bethany clearly didn't want Troy to take her picture! The people who didn't want to bounce, go figure!
I wanted to post a little clip of Gavin rockin’ out on his drum set. For some reason though the camera didn’t pick up the sound very well, sorry!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAVIN!!!

From this to..................................

.................................THIS!!!!!!!

Warning this is a long post but I want it for my scrapbook, sorry!

Gavin has brought such an extraordinary light into our lives and this Saturday he will turn 4. I have no clue how I ever understood what life was really about before he came along. Two weeks before Gavin was born I made and appointment for May 10th at 5pm. I have to say it was nice to know the exact day and time I would go to the hospital. I was not allowed to eat for nine hours before surgery so that morning my mother, sister, and I all went to Mimis Café to eat. I was nervous but I was still pregnant so eating until I could barley move was not too hard. Being pregnant I could barley move anyways. Then we ran some errands and all I could think about was tonight I am going to have a baby! Eventually the time came and we drove down to Banner Desert Hospital. They started to prep me for the c-section and all of the sudden I started to have contractions. Now I know they weren’t as bad a full blow out labor but still I was in some pain. They hooked me up to a monitor and sure enough I was having contractions. Although they did tell me since I hadn’t had anything to drink in 7 hours and was slightly dehydrated it added to the effect. I got up to walk to the OR and had to sit down about a million times because I swore the pain was so bad. At 5:30pm they took Gavin out and the first thing I said was is he cute?! I was a little delirious at the time but could see this perfect little baby and heard him cry, it was the sweetest sound.Gavin weighted 7lbs 10oz and I thought he was huge. He came out ready do eat and that is what he did for the next 2 hours. It was an experience I will never forget and am so grateful for my little Gavinos!! Oh and for the record the name Gavin did come from Gavin Rossdale I really liked the way it sounded. However I almost named him Staten or Austin. I am glad I vetoed Austin though.

I know that Gavin won’t be able to read this but one day he can read my scrapbook and read this letter to him so this is for you Gavin.
Gavin this Saturday you will turn 4!! Time has gone by so fast and seems to just past quicker and quicker every year. I want you to know how incredibly grateful I am that you are in my life. I can still remember the day you where born, I stuffed my face at Mimi’s Café early that morning so that I would be full until 5pm when I had to go to the hospital to have you. I was so nervous that day and could not sleep at all the night before. You were so strong from the moment you came into this world. The nurse walked over to you to check you grasping reflex, you held onto her fingers so tight that you lifted yourself off the table. Talk about strength!!! I am so happy that life turned out the way it did, and that I was able to be blessed with such and amazing little boy. Thank you so much Gavin, for teaching me humility, true happiness, love, fullfillment, and for allowing me to be your mother. I don’t feel I deserve you but thank you for hanging in there with me. I am forever indebted to be blessed with you, and don't know how I will every be good enough to be your mother. I love you more than words can describe and could write a novel on what you have brought to my life. I will save you the reading but just know how much I love and know that you are such a strong individual and have so much to offer. You are so amazing now I can’t even imagine what you will be like in the future. Slow down and stop growing up so fast! I love you and you are the GREATEST kid in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love your Mommy!!

Weekend with Teeagers!!

I am in this time period right now where I don’t want to post but I am going to drag through it for the sake of my beautiful scrapbook that will come from this blog. I really need one because I am not creative enough to make a really cute scrapbook and get board with it ever time I start. So to keep a long story short I went to Pinetop with my sister in law and her friend last weekend (Jennifer was asked to Pinetop prom.) Being that she is only 17 and tends to be a teenage girl all of the time, my MIL wanted me to take her. Well I did not want to go with two teenagers and myself so I brought my friend along for the ride. It was very interesting to say the least. I love my SIL but have decided I don’t want a teenage girl, or at least I will keep her alienated from most of modern technology. I had no idea how much teenagers these days TEXT!! I hate it, don’t get me wrong I use text messaging for short conversations or when I am in an environment where talking isn’t exactly smiled upon (aka doctors offices and waiting rooms). However I had no clue that cell phones are no longer used to talked, just to text your friends hundreds of times. I swear to you they must have texted at least 2-3 hours of the 4 hour ride home.
So on with my “short” story we got to Pinetop late Friday night and had to turn on the power, water, and gas. I am posting a picture of the water knob to prove to my father it was not as easy as he thinks it is. (Again scrapbook purposes my dad doesn’t read my blog.) It took Tricia and me a little while to open the door where the T-Bar was so we could use it to twist the knob. Then I had to dig through wonderful bugs and use my finger nails just to find the dumb knob. This really wouldn’t have been a problem but I kept telling my dad I couldn’t find the knob and he said “Marci, I can find with my eyes close”. Tricia can tell you it wasn’t as easy as it may look, also it was 9:30pm so the lack of light didn’t really help. Well eventually I found it and we were able to turn the water on.
So on Saturday Tricia and I went out “on the town”, while the girls went on their day date. FYI I really wish I could go to prom again, I forgot how fun it is to get all dressed up, I didn’t really get to enjoy me prom/high school days enough. When they got home from there date Jennifer’s dress wasn’t completely done so thank heavens Tricia can sew because she finished the dress while I did hair and make up. I feel like girls these days tend to go more casual dressing at prom so I wasn’t sure how my Barbie Doll SIL would look in her VERY pink dress. Apparently Pinetop is a different world because we saw a bunch of girls is very interesting dresses. We thought it would be fun to see what all the girls were wearing. It was pretty easy to watch them all too, we just had to sit in front of the movie theaters. That’s right the prom was in the concession part of the movie theaters. However they closed down all the shops along side of the theaters so that the kids could have free food along with the dance. Anyways we saw a neon green dress and a camouflaged dress; it’s the least I could expect.
My short story is dragging on to much so to wrap it up, it was fun. I have learned a lot about what I might have been like as a teenager. Although I have to say I thought I was a lot more mature at that age, may be I wasn’t I probably just thought I was? I was glad I had the chance to spend some time at my cabin. I love that it is always quite and peaceful there. Even thought there where some minor set back all in all it was a great trip. Thanks Tricia for helping me tame the wild ones and sewing Jennifer dress. G T G T!!!!!