Marie and I were reviewing who has who for Christmas. It's tricky when you can't remember who you had last year!! We finally figured it out, though--
This year :

Scott's Family gives to Gerald's Family
Craig's Family gives to P. Clint
Rebecca's Family gives to Marie's Family
Gerald's Family gives to Jon
P. Clint gives to Scott's Family
Marie's Family gives to Craig's Family
Jon gives to Rebecca's Family

We also need to organize at least one Skype call, too. Especially since now I have high speed internet!!

Love you all- Hope your Holiday's are great!!

F

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LEAVES ARE

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Yes its fall again in Michigan and its just a beautiful time of year. With all the variety of maples in various colors of red, orange, and yellow and the many other trees native to Michigan its just fun to see all the changes around us. Whats not fun is knowing winter is just around the corner. I have decided each year to take pictures of my kids playing in their Grandma Diana's yard she has a huge maple tree to climb and have fun with. We had to take pictures quick this year; my mom's neighbor was using his leave blower to get all the leaves in one pile to pick up for her. He was nice enough to take a break so I could get some fun pictures. I hope you enjoy!!!!!

Hey everyone I hope you enjoyed your Halloween this year. For Halloween this year I got on Familyfun.com and had the boys look at homemade costumes for deciding what they wanted to be this year. Matthew decided he wants to do the Alien Encounter for Halloween. That Alien head you see behind Matthew's back is a paper mache' head. What a pain it was to make and your looking at the second head; the first one broke on me so I spent a lot of days working on this head for him to make the perfect Alien. I told him next year he has to pick a easier costume like Blake's.

Blake's costume was so much easier to make, and he loved being able to have a green face. He cried when I took the paint off his face at night. He was happy he got to paint his face 2 times green. I think he makes a very scary Dr. Frankstiens Monster don't you?

This thing wiggling inside me actually has a face..A cute one at that!

We had an ultrasound on Tuesday and we have a cute little one inside. These photos don't do a lot of justice... but here is the profile and and one with an arm in there. And if you are wondering.....we did NOT find out the sex of the baby so you will all be surprised with us. Everything looks good. With all the kicking it will have very large muscles when it is born.

Back to School

Matthew waiting for Blake's bus to get home from school; Blake coming off the bus.

Blake's first day of school.

Blake started all day Kindergarten this year, it was exciting for him. He has the same teacher Matthew had for Kindergarten (which Matthew was excited for Blake to get). He is doing good and I am excited for him to learn lots of new things.

Matthew started Middle School this year Yikes!!!! Matthew was very prepared for his first day. His school had a transition day where we learned rules, got his schedule and his locker number and combination. On his way to the transition Matthew said, "Mom I am excited but, I am so nervous I want to puke too." I told him I am very nervous too and want to puke for him. The transition went well and he soon master the art of opening his own locker. Soon he was getting very excited. His first day of school went well and he was very excited for it, he saw lots of friends that went to Haggerty Elementary and of course being Matthew and making friends easy he said he made lots of new friends. I hope I have being teaching him well the gospel because these are the tough years of learning to stand up for what you believe. We study the Book of Mormon together this summer and I also study with the boys in the new Missionary Handbook its great learning tool. We had some really great gospel discussions this summer.

Now that both boys are in school all day I have lots of time on my hands. I plan on getting lots of projects done, I have lots of painting to do in the house. Matthew decided he wanted his bedroom to have a change so I have been busy helping him with that. I also wrote two children's books this summer and am going to work hard to get them published. Hopefully they will get in print and maybe I can read them to Blake's class someday. That would be really cool.

Reunion Cleanup

I've been thinking about posting ever since the reunion. Boy how life gets busy and in the way of doing things that we feel are important! I really enjoyed seeing all of you and had a lot of fun!!
Still, I didn't feel satisfied with how I handled a couple of things.

I realized that as soon as a film festival was suggested, that to also do the Olympics would probably be too much to try to fit into a night. Still I prepared it thinking it would be a fun way to involve everyone. I put in the Love Language quiz especially to help us get to know each other better. Kind of like Jon said, I feel like I don't know you as well as I'd like to. Due to several factors, I never followed up with that activity. I'd like to remedy that now.

If you didn't know my Love Language - it is primarily Words of Affirmation. Verbal or written expressions of appreciation mean a lot to me. Likewise verbal (or written) criticism is taken very much to heart. Sometimes I'm not as good as I'd like to be at learning and recovering from such criticism and so I miss opportunities to really connect with people. I'm sorry for those missed opportunities - especially the ones I missed while we were all together.

To make up for it a little, I'd like to invite you to share your love languages as you comment or add posts. If you don't remember or didn't take the quiz and would like to, it's at : http://www.fivelovelanguages.com/30sec.html#love

Love Ya!
Rebecca

News Flash

I am eating a blow pop right now.

I haven't had one of these in years. Not since we would ride our bikes to Snyders drug store in E.P.

Happy Birthday Dad!

I posted a video tribute to you on my blog: http://www.clintrogersonline.com/blog/2008/06/09/a-tribute-to-my-dad/

This is from the ride Spaceship earth at Epcot. They updated the ride to include the ability to see what you are going to look like in the future. They let you pick a few things for example do you like liesure or work or home the best, and then builds a little world for you. It was way fun. Then you can email your picture home, heres the kicker for free. I didnt think anything at disney would ever be free, but here it is!!!


Ashlyn and her cousin Cassie
Josh and Rylan
Uncle Craig and Jayden

Favorite Memories from Florida

I miss being with everyone already! Eliah woke up sad this morning that everyone was gone, and I knew exactly how she felt.

In memory of how much fun we had, I created a list of a few of the funny memories and quotes that I could remember. Do you have any you would like to add?

10 "I have a secret. Let me whisper in your ear. Knock knock - Who's there? - Why did the banana go to the doctor? - Because he wanted to go to the doctor." (Jayden)

9 Funny kid moments:

• “My name is Jenny!” and “When I go on a mission, I want to live with you.” (Eliah)
• “Mom, did you know that Sparta and Athens are city-states, like Washington DC is a city state.” (Jeremiah)
• “My teacher limited the amount of questions that I can ask in class.” (Matthew)
  
• Brayton’s book – and his collecting of invalid fastpass cards.
• “Then Brayton heard the most terrifying sound…” “meep meep” (During the telling of the story "Why Brayton was afraid of Loch-ness turtle")
  
• Eliah was kindly brushing my leg hair, which it badly needed as I hadn't done it for years - then later she was brushing my Gerald’s chest hair too!
• Blake cuddling up and telling me “I love you.” And my reply “I love you too.” Me telling Eliah “I love you.” And her reply “I love juice.”
• Craig finding Alexander hiding in the closet, stuffing his mouth full of pez.
• T.J. seeing Gerald driving in front of us, “Dad, that is a dirty car, huh?” “Yep T.J.” “Need a wash, huh dad?” Also – him being excited any time he saw a race car.
• Not this trip, but still a great memory – (Playing balderdash – reading about a certain date: “This was the day when the biggest earthquake in California’s history happened in Texas.” (Shaelyn)

  

8 “But mom, can I please do my homework?” (“Homework Goody Rogers.” aka Jeremiah)

7 Immediately following Ashlyn’s genii dance performance, Jayden gave another kind of a show by making a naked streak across the room to get his swim suit on, according to his mom’s promise.

6 Josh’s love of mermaids – and so after the choreographed Little Mermaid dance number by Cassie and Ashlyn – he got a little too excited and decided to jump in with all his clothes on and two phones in his pocket.

5 “Please make an illegal u-turn as soon as possible." (Magellan - the auto navigation system)

4 “Angi, you know what you said about cows earlier? Did you mean it?” (Clint)

3 “Scott is kind of like the underdog because no one ever expects him to win.” "That's the nice thing about being you, Scott." "Yeah - it is easy to exceed people's expectations"

2 “I didn't know you were on a first-name basis with Billy Satan.” (Craig to Jon)

1 Putting at the end of every sentence, “...if you know what I mean!”

Then I love the comment dad made when I asked him how he was enjoying the trip. He talked about having all kids gather - and just hearing them laughing and playing: "I just thought, this is heaven."

What do you think? Do you have any you would like to add?

Photo Mania

Roasting hot dogs in the rain.

Ok! a little racey but too cute and there is nothing like roasting hot dogs in the buff in the rain. And she is so cute.
Catching minnows with butterfly nets.

Coloring easter eggs...safely.
Jeremiah reading "The Mightly Ghangis Khan" to his class.

Fun at the park.

Trip to the temple.

Photo taken by Eliah. She is quite the photographer. We need to get her her own camera.

Eliah entered these in the fair and the flower one got an honorable mention and the one of Serena and I won 1st place. She also made chocolate chip cookies which won 2nd place.
Jeremiah took this at Sea World and we entered it into the fair and it won an award. I can't remember which place but he won 3 first places and a couple of honorable mentions. I think he won a 2nd place but he doesn't believe me. He made molasses sugar cookies which won 1st place!!

Other than disney options

I was asked to post this list so here it is.—Jana

Ideas for What to do in Florida (besides Disney)

Blue Man Group www.universalorlando.com/bmg_overview.html
Cirque du Soliel www.disneyworld.com/cirque
Kennedy Space Center www.kennedyspacecenter.com
Green Meadows Farm www.greenmeadowsfarm.com
Sea World www.seaworld.com
Discovery Cove www.discoverycove.com (Swim in aquarium or with dolphins, includes a 7 day pass to Sea World)
Mini golfing
Bowling
Old Town- (pay per ride sort of deal, have one bungee jumping-free falling sort of ride)
Inflatable slide parks
Holy Land Experience www.holyland-orlando.com
Gatorland www.gatorland.com
Medieval Times www.medievaltimes.com
Fossil digging in Lakeland (FREE)
Universal City Walk- restaurants, carnival games, street performers, free boat ride
Downtown Disney- restaurants, Lego land (with building zone), performers some nights and days.
Ripleys Believe it or Not
Wonderworks (ages 5-12) www.wonderworksonline.com
Titanic Experience
Lots of things to do on International Drive
Walk around downtown Celebration (Disney owned city, restaurants, shops)


Beaches- Atlantic side (Body boarding, surfing, some skim boarding, sand castles)
Ponce Inlet-(our favorite) Light house and sea turtle conservatory
Cocoa Beach- Ron Jon’s Surf shop
Daytona Beach
Banana River
(We have a surf board, body boards, and a skim board for your ocean needs)

Beaches- Gulf Side (Clearer water, snorkeling, better shelling, tiny waves, skim boarding, aggressive seagulls)
Clearwater- pier 66
Lots of areas of Beach….

Outdoors
See Manatees at Blue Springs (winter time)
Canoeing/kayaking –Fort Maitland Park (Go with Greg?- www.adventuresinflorida.com)
Air boat rides
Deseret Ranch- Tour of Ranch and we can line up to go Hog Huntin’ (FREE)
Tortoise Mueseum- Oviedo
Merrit Island Wildlife Refuge (By Kennedy Space Center)
Leu Gardens (Free entrance Monday mornings until noon) www.leugardens.org
Mead Gardens
Letterboxing (like Geocaching but without the technology)
Catching minnows at Lake Mills
Central Winds playground/park
Strawberry picking (Dec-May)



Orlando Science Center www.osc.org
Orlando Museum of Art www.omart.org
Movies in the Park- Winter Park
Central Florida Zoo www.centralfloridazoo.org
Pool Hopping at the resorts
Biking and Walking trails
LDS Temple
Make home movies with the Rogers
Library Storytimes
Visit Brewsters- Gerald’s favorite Ice Cream shop ever!


LDS Church in Kissimmee
2016 N. John Young Parkway
Kissimmee, FL 34741

Pleasant Hills ward 11:00 am
Kissimmee Ward 2:00 pm


Oviedo Ward will meet at 1:00pm for the year 2008

What do Mormons believe?

Hi everyone,

After Priesthood Session of General Conference, I thought of posting this new blog entry:
What do Mormons believe?

You'll have to let me know what you think of it, and if I can make any improvements to it.

Love ya.

Let's play a game...

At least one of the following people is a child of one of someone
who I have known for some years...

Who is that friend or who are the people in this photo?

Family Call Wrap Up

So to summarize the call from tonight, for those of you there, and not there is this...

Starting Mon we will all go to the park in the morning together, so what we want to do there, and go home for lunch, either all together or on our own, whatever we decide. Then that afternoon each family will do what they want, either Disney, the beach, the petting zoo Gerald talked about, the temple, or anything else you want to do.

Sunday sometime we will have a special viewing of the Rogers Family Film Festival where each family prior to coming will make their own version of some fairy tale or Disney Movie, less than 10 minutes long. Clint please make one and send it on, make sure Grandma is in there somewhere. Also if Becky wants to we can do the Olypics she was talking about.

Gerald wanted to do something special Sat night, so we need to know if you are planning on going to Disney that night or not. Please also post your times for arrival. Michelle if you want to go to Disney Sat night you can give me a list of things to get from the store for you so you dont have to take time to do that, we will probably go earlier that day. Or anyone else, can give us their list as well if they wont make it in time for shopping.

As for food we will only have one big meal together, which will probably be Sun night, so if everyone wants to pick a part of the meal to provide that would be great. Any suggestions on what the main course should be would be great, or whoever picks that part of the meal can decide. Im thinking we will need a dessert, drinks, bread, main course, salad and side. Any volunteers? Gerald was wanting to have some healthy breakfasts, and we will need lots of snacks, drinks, and sandwich stuff for disney and lunch. I think everyone should get what they like, and if theres extras we can all just share, like we did at the beach, unless we want to split it up, but because we all have very different eating habits, and likes, this will probably be easiest.

Other than that if anyone has any questions or concerns please feel free to voice them here. It looks like the parks open at 9 everyday and close somewhere between 7-11 depeinding on the park and the night. See ya all soon.

Disney fun!

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone is excited as me that May is getting closer; I am looking forward to the trip. I have a few questions probaly Marie could answer but, we all should. Are we going to have our big meal at lunch time and each of us take a turn again like we did in Texas? I figure that if were going to relax a couple of hours at lunch time we could have our big meal than and just have sandwiches at night that we bring with us. Does that sound good to everyone? How did you guys work seeing the Disney Parks last time time you went ? My mom says the best way is a Park Hopper pass but, I have know idea. I haven't bought my park tickets yet but will be buying them in advance because I have a Disney Visa so I have $208 bucks I can get off my tickets, which I will be taking advantage of finally. ( I finally have a reason for this credit card)
Anyway if doing the meals the way I suggested sounds good let me know than we can just decide which day were taking. I figure me, Marie, Jana, Becky, and Monica can take one day Monday through Friday. Sunday we can all help together on a meal. Saturday the day we fly in we could just buy our food get pizza or something quick, easy and cheap. I don't think your parents should have to cook because they are paying for the house. Does that sound good? We can all just pitch in again on buying breakfast food and lunch food. Last time we had more than enough food. Just let me know how this sounds and when is everyone getting in to Florida.

Disney Fun

We think we've figured out a little of what we want to do. We are going to drive down from Connecticut. We'll start Friday night and stop at Cory's sister's house in Virginia. We'll stay there until after church (or at least after Sacrament) before heading the rest of the way to Orlando. So we'll probably make it in late Sunday. We are planning on buying a five day park pass - without the park hopper option. We decided we didn't want to pay the extra $135 ($45 per ticket) just to be able to go to more than one park each day. We hope to join every body for at least the evening portion, but hope that for at least two days we might all be able to go to the same park for both parts of the day. ( I liked Marie's idea of coming home for lunch and relaxing and having naps as necessary.) I also hope that at least one evening during the week we'll be able to have some family time to try those Olympic games that I enjoyed on New Years' Eve and mentioned on Skype. I hope we can also schedule a family picture sometime. If others are interested in switching off to allow others to go to the temple - we'd be in for that too.

The only draw back to our plan for driving is that we'll need to head out again on Saturday. I'm not sure how quickly. But I hope that is enough details from us to help others plan.

Disney World Planning

Hey everyone, we are coming up closer on the big trip to Disney World. I was hoping to get some feedback on how everyone else invisions their trip to be. Things like are we all gooing to go to the same park everyday or all do our own thing? is anyone going to any of the water parks? Are we doing other things besides Disney? When are you planning on getting there and leaving? Whose getting cars, who need what from the house like strollers and porta cribs, and any other pertinent information. I dont think anyone is going to get overly excited about planning, but I just thought we would all have more fun if we understand everyone elses expectations for the trip so we know what to plan for. Do people already have tickets, plane, or park or otherwise, and Craig do you still know how to get good parking passes? Instead of leaving your response as a comment, leave a full post of what you ant to do while we are there. I tend to get a little excited about big trips so sorry if Im palanning early, but hey thats just me!

Just something little...

Hi there. Dad wanted me to post this.

http://education.byu.edu/news/2007_features/etrd_award.html

It is not as exciting as Scott and Michelle's news, but it is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Well, I hope you are ready for this. . .

Let me start off my goals by sharing a scripture;

Luke 2:52 "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."

In this scripture we learn how to lead a balanced lifestyle. Jesus grew in four areas of his life.
Wisdom=learning and studying from the best books
Stature=physical well being
Favour with God= spirituality
Favour with man= his network

My goals reflect these four areas as well. And I learned from a couple of great sources that you should always write your goals in the present tense as if you have already accomplished them so here you go . .

1. I am temple worthy! This of course is my spiritual goal. Since the time I wrote the letter to all of you last year my life has definitly been improving in this area. Unfortunetly, at this time I'm still not taking the sacrament, and I still don't have a current temple recommend, but I am getting a lot closer. In this area I could use some prayers of support. I am convinced that the prayers of my family members is the reason for my success on my mission. I could use some of that strength now. If any of you can think of any other way of helping I am open for suggestions.

2. I have a meaningful relationship with every member of my family! Apart from Serena, I think I have some work to do in this area! So what I am asking for here is for your help in achieving my goals, a willingness to share your goals with me, and to help me better understand what we each need to have a meaningful relationship. To me, a meaningful relationship is one that builds you up, making you a better person for having that relationship, and one that draws you closer to the Lord. We are a very sarcastic family for the most part. That sarcasm keeps us guarded. It doesn't allow us to grow together as much as we could if we were more sincere in our relationships. In fact, even if we don't admit it, it tears us down and pulls us farther away from the Lord. As hard as this may be, maybe could we try not to never put one another down? To be more sincere in our relationships with one another, and maybe every once in a while even share our feelings? I want my brothers and sisters to be the ones I come to when I have a problem. I want are family to be a "safe zone." Where we can share anything with one another with out any fear of being judged, or made fun of or disliked. Wouldn't that be awesome?

3. I am financially free! (I figured my physical apperance is already so amazing, I could change this area to financially large in stature.) As all of you know Dad and I have started a new business. We could really use your help. Part of this company envolves network marketing.
If there were meetings availible where each of you live, I would ask you to go. I honestly think you could all benefit from these meetings. Unfortunetly, there are no meetings in Conneticut, or Michigan. So I have specific things for you each to do. Marie, I want you and Josh and even Josh's dad if he is availible to go to the meeting in Houston. Joey's dad is down there and he is involved, so i'll give him a call and have him invite you to the next meeting. Becky, I would love for you to invite Cory's dad to come with Dad and I to a meeting here in town. Craig, I would love to invite you to nruniversity.com and there is a link for "local briefings." There you can find the time and location of the meetings close to you. Please make time to go to that meeting, and go! It would mean a lot to me. Scott, I hope that next sunday on the family calls we can take time to talk about the company. Clint, I would love for you to come to a local meeting with and Dad and me. And Gerald you've already been, but it might be beneficial to go again to see what is new, and how the company has grown. Now the reason I ask all of you to do this is not so that you will sighn up, that would be awesome, but not exactly what I am looking for. I hope that each of you will be able to think of other people that you would feel comfrotable having me or Dad contact. I want to leverage your network. I know each of you know hundreds of people that I don't know, and my bet is there are quite a few that qould be interested in what we have to offer.

4. I am a doctor! In this area like the first, I will need your prayers. Pray that I get a 4.0 this semester!

I appriciate your help. Please share your goals with me, lets all do better at building a meaningful relationship through prayer, service, sincerity, and kindness. Thank you all for your examples!!!!

Christmas Joy

"Happy 10 year Anniversary Honey"(Ya gotta love this guy)

Our house a glow (even though you can't really tell in this photo.) We are off to visit the neighbors.

Jeremiah dressed up as "Rudolf" was we went visiting.




Serena likes to pretend that she isn't tired and doesn't need naps but we found out otherwise. Her favorite quote as of late is "I not tired".

Jeremiah using his favorite "under $10 video game" that he got from Eliah.

We Love you!