I just want some cheese!

So last week my mischevious and ever so independent Daylen thought he would just help himself to some cheese. Doesn't bother to ask because everything is, "my do it!" anyways. I had just put Kate down for her morning nap, and Daylen wanted to watch "King is Born" so I thought sure ok, then I can just run and take a shower real quick, right? Well I get out of the shower and I hear some loud noises downstairs, it sounds like Daylen is getting into the dishwasher, so I hurry and and get dressed and run to the top of the stairs to see what he's doing. I found him with the block of cheese on the end of the couch and in Daylen's hand is one of my VERY SHARP Cutco knives!!!! AAAHHHH!!! I hurry as fast as I can down the stairs trying to calmly get Daylen's attention and ask him to give the knife to mommy. I don't want to yell and scare him into accidentally cutting himself. Thankfully he hands it right over after I very quickly and firmly start telling him he CANNOT touch mommy's knives, they are very sharp and he could hurt himself. Miraculously he didn't cut himself at all. He knew from experience that his spoons just don't work on a block of cheese. He had also seen mommy cutting cheese with this very knife the night before for dinner so he knew this one would work. He found it hiding underneath the bowls in the dishwasher and hey, problem solved right? He was just happy to have some cheese, but he about gave me a heart attack!

Kate just likes to chew on pretty much whatever she can get her cute little hands on. Everyone else is eating dinner, she might as well, too!

i love...

...my kids smiles...

...when Brad is home at night to help me put the kids to bed...

...that those many nights he is not home to help, i still get the help i need from my Heavenly Father...



...seeing Daylen and Kate asleep on their daddy...

...CHRISTMAS!!

Look what I can do!

"that foot looks really tasty! Maybe I'll just....

"Oh yah!"

tradition

It's tradition to set up our Christmas tree and decorations the day after Thanksgiving (if we're in town). Daylen had a lot of fun "helping" set up and decorate the tree. Unfortunately he likes to continue to "help" even though the tree is all up and finished. I feel like a broken record, "Daylen, don't touch the tree. Daylen, don't touch the tree. Daylen stay away from the tree!" After the tree was all set up he had fun just laying underneath is looking up at the lights. Do all kids love that? I remember doing that as a girl too! So cute huh?

I absolutely love having our tree set up and enjoying the twinkling of the lights at night. It makes the atmosphere simply pleasant, and when I can smell the holiday scent burning in my Scentsy candle it just makes it all more sweeter.
Here's a smile for you from my favorite girl!

happy thanksgiving!

I've been a bit lacking in my blogging lately, but hopefully all that will change now that I finally have a camera again!

We had a great Thanksgiving at home this year. It was my first time making dinner at my own house. Brad's sister, Mandy, and I made it by ourselves about 3 years ago, but this time I actually made a BIG turkey. 20lbs! We are still enjoying the benefits of the leftovers. Rachel came over Wednesday and helped me get a few things ready beforehand so I didn't have to make everything the day of. It was really fun making all the food, I love to eat, especially Thanksgiving dinner, so I think the anticipation helped. Our party got smaller the closer it got to Thanksgiving and it ended up just being us and Rachel and Tyler. So we had a LOT of leftovers. They dwindle pretty fast even with our small family.




That's some good lookin' meat! The turkey looks pretty good too, don'tcha think?
Mmmmmm..............

Yummy!!!!!
What a sweet girl! This was the first picture I took trying out my new camera. I love Kate's smiles!

I really do have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season.

I am thankful for:

• My family first and foremost
• My wonderful husband who loves and takes such good care of us
• 2 beautiful children who make me smile and laugh enough to counteract the difficult times
• Both mine and Brad's extended family, we come from the best families, we don't get to see nearly enough
• My testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
• The peace knowledge brings in these uncertain times
• Great friends
• Modern conveniences, appliances (it made cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner so much easier!)
• I am not pregnant so I could enjoy my Thanksgiving dinner this year
• A warm house to protect me from the cold. (Although Rachel might say otherwise during the winter-the part about the "warm" house)
• In Brad's words, "One handed catches by Austin Collie"

I really could say a lot more, but you probably wouldn't want to read it all. I'm just thankful for EVERYTHING I have been blessed with!

Twilight...

I finally went to go see the long awaited "Twilight" last night with Rachel and Tyler. I'm pretty easy to please so overall I loved it. I thought Bella did an amazing job, she really was perfect for the part. Edward was pretty good, I was disappointed when I found out who would be playing the part, I didn't think he was beautiful or muscular enough, I still think this. However, he did grow on me a bit and I've heard from more than 1 person that it's better the second time around so I'm already excited to take Brad to see it. I've also heard they are making the second one, hurray!

who knew vacuuming could be so fun?

If you went from a crummy vacuum that didn't "suck" very well, to this....da da-da dah!





THE FILTER QUEEN MAJESTIC!!

You too would think vacuuming was fun. It's power to "suck" is absolutely amazing. This passed week I have been vacuuming every nook and cranny imaginable in my house, and not just because I was bored out of my mind not able to leave my house with 2 sick kids, or because I wanted to pass the time while my husband was gone for 5 days to Florida. I would have done it anyways because it was FUN! I know I'm strange, but this is an AMAZING vacuum.

family picture time!

Saturday was a beautiful day to take pictures and that is just what we did. Amy Sorensen, a friend in the ward, took our family pictures out on the river trail by our house and I love how they turned out. We took them just in time because ever since then it has been cold, windy, and rainy here. She did a great job of getting some fun shots of the kids. Daylen has been a stinker lately about having his picture taken, he refuses to smile or to even look at the camera. He makes this face where he curls one side of his upper lip, I haven't got it on camera yet though. So Amy took some fun candid ones with him playing with the leaves, he was all smiles then. I've posted a few of my favorites.

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year, each holiday gets more fun as Daylen gets older and can appreciate it. He really liked getting candy, I kept having to tell him to put it back in his pumpkin until we got home. He did really well saying "Trick-or-Treat!" between houses, he got all excited and then he was silent after he knocked on the door. As we left each house he said, "Let's go knock on the door!" Kate was content to ride along in the stroller. As much fun as Trick-or-Treating was, the real fun started after we got home. Every time the doorbell rang Daylen ran to the door, opened it and yelled, "Trick-or-Treat!" at the expectant kids in costume. After giving them candy he would say, "Thank you!" and shut the door. Maybe next year we'll just stay home and give out candy since it was so much fun. You can see Daylen running to the door behind Kate and I in one of the pictures below, the doorbell had just rang as we were taking the picture. Daylen sported his wizard costume from last year, it fit him much better this year, and Kate was our cute little puppy. Brad went as a football player and I was a hula girl.










I just had to take a picture of Kate and I after church today in our matching red.

Grandma Goodwin

This post is more for me than for any of you, except maybe my family, but you are welcome to read and enjoy it as well.

My grandma, Nedra June Goodwin, passed away early this morning at the age of 91. These pictures were taken at her 90th birthday party. The top she is surrounded by 9of her 10 grandchildren and the bottom is my family with grandma. My Grandma Goodwin was the epitomy of the word "grandma," I have so many fond memories of her growing up. We always lived about an hour away from her and every Saturday since I can remember we went to "grandma's house." She always had a stocked candy dish and cookie jar. When we were really young we just went a played all day. She had a huge yard and a pasture, a climbing tree, a little smurf (sp?) to ride, chalk for hopscotch, a clothes line that doubled as a volleyball net, a tetherball pole...she had coloring books, paper for drawing, and a manila envelope for myself and each of my sisters to keep our drawings in. She kept all of our drawings, of course she was not one for throwing anything away. She saved all of her arisol hair spray lids and kept them in potato sacks for us to use as building blocks, we LOVED grandma's blocks. She had barbies and "little people" and games my dad played when he was a boy. We played a lot of cards, perfecting our speed at games like nerts and speed. As brothers-in-law and husbands have joined the family none of them can compete with the speed of my sisters and I. It also nurtured a competitive spirit in each of us.

As we got older, my dad put us to work. My grandpa passed away when I was 7, so we went to mow her lawn every week and wash our car of course. When the Fall came we spent hours raking up all of her huge leaves from her 4 very large Maple trees. Grandma was always very generous in our payment for our work. It made up for not being paid for doing the same things at our house. Every once in a awhile we would wash grandma's car, (when she still drove, and even then it was to the grocery store once a week and church) grandma's car always had lemon drops in it and we would help ourselves to one as we dusted off the insides, I don't want to know how old they were. Sometimes we would take our earnings and walk down the street to the 7-Eleven and buy a slurpy.

After a hard day of work and play we would eat dinner. Grandma had special silverware for the kids with Disney characters on the end. Jamie had a Bull Winkle plate, mine was Cinderella, and I can't remember what Rachel's was, by the time
Lori and Kara were old enough we had grown out of our plates. Before going home grandma got each of us our brown lunch sack and the box of crayons and we would decorate our sack. Then she would take us to the back bedroom and give us our treats to take home, always a candybar, a 5 pc of gum, and life savors. Then we would go home and to it all again the next Saturday. My grandma also saved all of her change from her grocery shopping trips and on special Saturdays she would bust it out and divide it amongst my sisters and I, we LOVED this! We usually got about $5 worth each.

I love my Grandma Goodwin so much and I know she is in a much better place now. As much as I miss her I'm glad she doesn't have to suffer the pains of old age and the dementia of her mind. I look forward to the day I can see her again!

pumpkin patch

Tonight for FHE we went to Southridge Farms in Santaquin for a "hay ride" to go pick out our pumpkins. I thought it would be some sort of horse drawn carriage, but it was really a tractor pulling a huge wagon. Oh well, it was still fun. Daylen had a great time running around to all the pumpkins despite the COLD! Kate was the only one all bundled up, I wasn't expecting it to be quite as cold as it was, but we still had a good time. And even though we were freezing by the time we got back, we had to have some of their famous ice cream while we were there, yum! Brad borrowed a camera from work so we could take some pictures.

This first one is kinda blurry, the wagon wasn't so smooth.

double jogging stroller!

I finally got a double jogging stroller and this is what it looks like! I took it out for the first time this morning after bundling up the kids real good, and I felt so light and free! It's soooo nice not having to carry Kate in the sling, she's 4 months old now and is getting heavy! Ok so not that heavy, but after carrying her around in that thing for awhile it starts to hurt. I even did a little jogging, just a little because 1)I am in no way a runner/jogger and 2)it's been awile since I've jogged for any distance.

We also just got back from a trip to Colorado Springs to visit Brad's brother and his family. They blessed their 4th child yesterday at church so we went to be there for that. It was a beautiful drive and we had a great time, but I have no pictures yet. Our camera is busted for real this time so I have to wait for Brad's brother to send us a CD of the pictures before I will post about the trip. I'm hoping it won't take too long.