Baby blessing

After a really fun day spent doing homework (Matt) and working on month-end close for Wal-Mart (Sharon) we got an invitation to go down to Fayetteville with Dave and Cori Graham. The original plan was to make it down to Dickson Street and catch a band that was playing at a local club, until we found out that the band didn't even go on until 10:30 at night. Back when we were all young, single, and dumb that would've been just fine. But given the fact that we usually go to bed at about 8:30, we decided we'd have to find alternative entertainment. Luckily we were parked right next to one of our favorite seafood places down here (The Powerhouse, excellent fried shrimp says Sharon) so that became the new plan. We followed up our extremely exciting night with a dual family weekly shopping trip to Wal-Mart. Watch out, when the Gosneys and the Grahams hit the town, things are going to get crazy.

We had to actually make sure we got to bed at a decent time because we actually made a one day, there and back trip to Oklahoma to participate in the baby blessing of our niece Lucy. Lucy is Will and Lauri's second, and she is one very sweet baby (the sour look on her face in this picture not withstanding.) She is pretty much the exact opposite to her older brother Talmage (we call him TAG, for Talmage Andrew Gosney.) Tag can be a bit, uhm, spirited. But he's also smart as a whip and absolutely adorable. Tag's demonstration of how an empty bag of goldfish can be used as a telescope while being held by Grandma Gosney can be seen below. Clearly he has lots in common with his Uncle Matt. Maybe not the smart and adorable, but at least the orneryness. Evidently Matt wasn't always a joy to be around when he was 2 1/2 either. Anyway, Tag has taken quite a liking to his Uncle Matt and tends to stick like glue whenever we are around. There was quite the emotional goodbye where Tag had to be reassured that we'd be visiting again for Thanksgiving. It's nice to be loved. Photographic evidence of the 2 1/2 year old meltdown can be seen in the last picture. And yes, Matt does not look good in the extreme close-up. But it only seems fair given that Matt made Sharon take a close-up of the new braces.

So we had quite the long day of driving, but it was completely worth it. It was fun to see a lot of family and have lots of kids crawling all over us during church. Actually, that is Sharon's regular experience working in the nursery, but Matt quite enjoyed himself. We're glad to be able to participate in those kinds of events and to live close enough to at least one set of family to visit somewhat regularly. So now we're gearing up for this week, where Sharon goes in for two more teeth to be extracted. The transformation to toothless Arkansas Hillbilly is nearly complete. Matt is thinking of taking up the banjo just so he can better fit in with his wife.

Hope everyone is well!