Goodman's Garden

Christmas Favorites

2012-01-20T10:12:00.003-07:00

Here are some of our Christmas favorites. (Oh and we let Talmage take most of the pictures for Christmas, so here they are in all their glory. He did pretty well really).
The picture above shows Brynn with her marshmallow gun Talmage gave her. He earned extra money by mowing the front and back lawn and bagged the clippings. He worked really hard, unfortunately for him he did a really good job too, so he has a new chore next summer. Matt and I are sooo excited. ;). Talmage's class put on a Christmas store, they managed it, bought stock, provided the merchandise, employees, and security. (Talmage was security). The marshmallow gun was one of the more popular gifts. Talmage really wanted to get one for him and Brynn, hence the lawn mowing. It has been a lot of fun for them to pelt each other with marshmallows this warm winter.
The vacuum was one of Elly's favorites toys. Unfortunately it was also Miles' favorite toy. The tiger broom and ball popper toy doesn't quite measure up. They also have marked up the price by 100% since Christmas. I can't make myself pay double for it. So, we are giving the kids many opportunities to share and build their relationship. They don't quite see it that way, but they will thank us when they are older, right?

Here is a picture of Talmage in his new pajamas I made for him. If you look closely you can see I have the pattern mismatched on the legs. He hasn't noticed, and who am I to let him know his pants aren't perfect. I even made extra effort to make sure the patterns were the same direction. Obviously too much effort. If he notices I figure I will tell him now he is extra camouflaged with both pattern directions. I also made him a camouflaged bed sheet. He is going to be completely hidden now when he sleeps.

Here are a couple of my other homemade gifts. The quilt is for Elly and Brynn. I haven't quite finished it yet. I need to put a pinwheel border and a few other stripes. I only need to make 21 more pin wheels. With my eye surgery over and mostly healed hopefully I can finish it within the month. When I started it Brynn and Elly were still sharing a large bed, now they have bunk beds. It will one of those share and grow relationships things like the vacuum. At least till I make another quilt for the other one.

I also compiled a book for my dad and brothers. My dad recorded a life history of my grandpa asking him questions. We only have 1 of the 2 tapes, but it ended up being an hour of history. I transcribed it and then compiled this book from its stories and also used some other life histories collected. We also used some recently found old photos that my cousin Keri sent me. The photos really made the book special. I also made one for myself, and it was one of my favorite gifts.

For Matt I bought a peg board and organized his tools. It was more for me than him. I hate it when Matt needs a tool and can't find it. We both know it was because I used it last and didn't put it up. So, now it is nicely organized and I can put them away when I am done using them. I also put together a 4 generation paternal collage. Its nice to have both of our family lines now on the wall. Thanks for your help Janna, Nate, and Heather with that. We are really glad to have it.

It was a great Christmas. We were glad my dad could come over for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We listened to the recording my mom used to listen to as a child of "A Christmas Carole," and of course the book "The Other Wiseman." It was a nice relaxing holiday.

It has stayed pretty quiet as well since then. I got PRK surgery done early in January. It is like LASIK, but takes a little longer recovery. So we have been taking it easy letting my eyes heal. Now though things are doing well and I see better than I did with glasses at least far away. I am still waiting for the up close vision to heal completely. Within a few months I will have my compete vision restored. I still see well up close, but it is still a little blurry too close. I am really glad I had it done. My vision was so poor, it is nice to not have to rely on glasses or contacts.

Diploma Envy

2012-01-14T07:41:00.007-07:00

For Christmas I got Matt his diploma plaqued. Apparently that is not a word. I had his diploma put in a plaque form. He did the same for me when I graduated. It just takes me 7 years later for me to return the favor. :) As I have compared the two I have noticed a few things. First of all, mine is a little smaller than his. I tease Matt about it, but secretly I wish they were the same size, or mine was a little bigger.

Second, mine only says I have a Bachelors of Arts. Matt's goes into detail about what he graduated in, including his emphasis. How cool is that! Mind you, I only graduated in history (all the less ink it would take. Come on BYU). I was majoring in history teaching, but Talmage came a semester too soon. I would have been expected to student teach the semester after he was born, so I just switched it to history.

Of note, I finished two finals the day before Talmage was born. One was a final project that I finished 11:00 at night. I was in full labor two hours later at 1:00 AM and Talmage was born at 4:00 AM. It was a busy few days.

Third, you may notice they obvious absence of Summa Cum Laude on mine. I am not bitter, well at least not too much. It has become an ongoing joke between us now about it. It sounds even better when I mix the words up and talk about "Cumma Sum Laude," and he reminds me the proper word order, unfortunately that happens several times. (It makes me sound smarter, really, when I mix them up). :) He never brags about his GPA, or graduation position. I didn't even know he was Summa Cum Laude till I got his plaque done for him. I am pretty sure if I was Summa Cum Laude I would throw it in his face a lot. Like when we disagree on a crossword answer, I would remind him of my proven great intelligence, and thus prove I was right. So I guess it is good that I didn't get the honor. I might be difficult to live with.

As I was talking about his Summa Cum Laude, Talmage overheard us, and he asked, "So does that mean I have a good chance of being super smart?" I rapidly answered, "If you take after your dad, you have a really good chance of being super smart, but if you take after me, its a guaranteed fact." He wasn't as positive as I was.

In closing, I still wish my diploma was bigger.

Favorites

2012-01-13T16:18:00.002-07:00

This has become my new favorite group. I love listening to Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson. Click here to listen to their song Without You, or here to listen to The Cello Song. They are my two favorites.

Enjoy!

Oh my kids favorite is the Cello Wars, a Parody of Star Wars, click here to watch it. They love the video, and we have found ourselves watching it several times now. They love to quote the end about Chuck Norris and taking cello lessons. (Unfortunately they always quote it wrong, but they are having fun doing it).

Many of you are probably already familiar with them. I now we have enjoyed their work for awhile now.

Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-11T20:35:00.005-07:00

Well, we find ourselves at the end of another year. It has been a year full of ups, downs, and growing experiences. We are glad to have each of you in our lives as we go through our journey of mortality.

This year we took several trips to California. Matt's father finished his courageous battle with ALS at the beginning of January, which brought us home to Yuba City with all of Matt's family. We were saddened by our circumstances, but comforted to be with so much family. We also went to Yosemite for our first official Glenn Goodman family reunion. It was so interesting to see the gorgeous landscape, massive sequoia trees, and raging waterfalls. The force of nature was breathtaking. We loved visiting with family. We are looking forward to our next trip in Moab this upcoming year. For our last trip to California we went for Matt's grandfather's funeral. He lived to be 90 years old. He spent his life serving and building those around him. It seemed to me that he built a great life by doing the simple things and by being obedient. We were really fortunate to know and love Matt's dad and grandfather.

Matt is still working as a computer programmer for Xactware. This year he has put a lot of effort into writing software for the iPad for his company. His experience writing programs for the iPhone came in handy as he took on this large project. He is also still involved in mountain biking, hiking, and climbing. We took a few family bike rides together, and are looking forward to more next year. Matt also took a few trips to Moab this year. I think Moab is rapidly becoming one of our favorite places to recreate.

This year I took on the project to make a quilt. I am hoping to have it done by the end of the year. My mom and I always wanted to take a quilting class together, so I signed up for one in January. It has been slow going to find time with my two preschoolers, but I am making progress. I have also found it therapeutic, and often feel my mother close to me as I am working on it. I also stay busy with my gardening and trees. This year I think we picked over 500 peaches off our tree. They were so good.

Talmage turned 10 this year. He is in fifth grade. He still loves legos and computer games. He is definitely a Goodman. Talmage went fishing with his Grandpa Hendricks for Huck Finn Days in June. They stocked a man made pond with hundreds of 6 inch fish. By the time we got there the pond was saturated with poles. But somehow through my dad's trick line baiting and Talmage's patience he was able to catch the biggest fish in the pond. It was around 2 feet long. It is hard to say who was more excited me, Talmage, or my dad. I am sure I made the most noise. I was like a kid at Christmas screaming as he was reeling the fish in, and my dad was more than happy to show the fish to anyone with a camera. Talmage was a little unsure of holding the fish, so my dad kindly took on that responsibility. Needless to say, it was a great day for everyone. My dad came over and prepared the fish and we ate it together with company for 3 meals. Talmage also earned his Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts this year.

Brynn turned 8 this year. She is in the third grade. Brynn's exciting event this year was getting baptized. We are so proud of her for her decision. Brynn loves art and is often drawing. She loves to help her little brother or sister, and is a big help around the home. She spends a great deal of time playing legos with Talmage. They are two peas in a pod.

Elly Ahna is 3 now. She keeps trying to convince us though that it is her turn for another birthday. She is pretty sure birthdays are more than a once a year thing. Elly and I have been learning about a different letter each week. She loves to count, sing the alphabet, and be my big helper. She usually is the one to set the table, and often gets the silverware in the right spot. It is one of her favorite jobs.

Miles is 18 months now. He seems to have a suicide wish most days. I spend much of my time getting him off anything he can climb on. He especially loved peach and apple harvest so he could keep trying to climb up the ladder. He is our first and so far only child to receive stitches. He had them removed on Halloween. I was sorely tempted to dress him as Frankenstein. He loves his dad, and runs to him at any given chance. I find it really cute because he thinks Matt's name is Mama, so he will be running from me to Matt yelling, "Mama." It really warms a mom's heart. Luckily he still loves to snuggle, and has made his baby time not rush away quite so fast.

We appreciate all you, our friends and family. You have edified our lives in so many ways. We hope this season finds you well and happy. Thank you for the love you have shown us. Merry Christmas! (or in the words of my 3 year old) "Happy Christmas, guys!" That has become one of her favorite lines this month.

Snowflakes

2011-12-08T08:30:00.002-07:00

I made snowflakes with the scouts and my kids yesterday. While searching I found these beautiful snowflakes. They also show some neat homemade paper ornaments. Just click here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I love the lacy snowflakes. I even bought an exact knife to make it. I just haven't yet. :)

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-01T09:26:00.005-07:00

Now that it is December first we are in full swing with some of our traditions. Today we started our advent calendar. I made an advent calendar from a 24 cup muffin tin, craft paper, and magnets. Then we put candy in each cup and a family activity. My kids love this tradition. (Well this is only the second year, but they loved it last year and are really excited for it this year). Here is a list of our activities this year.

1. Make a paper chain to count down to Christmas.

2. Pop gourmet popcorn and watch a Christmas movie.

3. Go to Temple Square and the planetarium.

4. Open Present #1.

5. Read some of Isaiah’s prophesies of the Savior. (Isa. 53)

6. Begin Reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

7. Make Grandma Hendricks’ Christmas cookies.

8. Make homemade snowflakes.

9. Open present # 2

10. Go to the ward Christmas party.

11. Read Christ’s gift exchange with the Nephites 3 Ne 17.

12. Make toffee and deliver it to neighbors.

13. Read a Christmas story.

14. Open present #3

15. Sing favorite Christmas carols.

16. Read about Christ’s miracles in the New Testament.

17. Go to see the lights and nativity down the street.

18. Go to Grandpa’s Christmas concert.

19. Read about the Wiseman following the star. Look at stars in the telescope.

20. Play a family game.

21. Make homemade hot chocolate.

22. Read Samuel the Lamanite’s prophesies of Christ’s birth and death.

23. Read Luke 2.

24. Have a special FHE and open presents #4.

What are some of your holiday activities? I know some of you do an advent calendar as well,

because I stole the idea from you. :) Do you have a favorite activity? Something else my

kids love is hiding the salt dough pickle ornament in the Christmas tree everyday. They all

love to find the pickle and take a turn hiding it. My brother introduced us to this idea a few

years ago.

Do you have a favorite tradition? This is such a fun time of year, I love to hear of everyone's ideas.

Arrow of Light

2011-11-22T13:10:00.005-07:00

Talmage just earned his Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts. We are so proud of him. For those who are unfamiliar with the Cub Scout program the Arrow of Light is the highest award you can earn. It is one of two badges you can wear on your Boy Scout uniform from the Cub Scouts.
He also earned his Religious Knot the other day, which is the other badge you can wear from Cub Scouts. He put a lot of work into both of them. The Religious Knot is earned from completing several requirements in the Faith in God Program. He has been working on that since he was baptized two and a half years ago.

Great Job Talmage! We are so proud of you.

Search for Christ in the Book of Mormon

2011-11-15T21:50:00.002-07:00

When I was on my mission they encouraged us to mark a red check by each reference to Deity, and see for ourselves that the Book of Mormon was a testament of Jesus Christ. It was uncommon to NOT find a page with many red checks. Now I still find myself enjoying to mark each time I see a name or title of my God. I also read a book "Finding Christ in the Book of Mormon" by Susan Easton Black. She wrote down each reference and tallied how many times that name or title was referred to. I enjoyed the book although it has been many years since I read it. She talked about how she came to know better the character of God by studying his titles. A few years ago I was intrigued by this idea and decided to do my own recording and tallying of the different references of Deity in the Book of Mormon.

I chose to study this way to come to know better the character of God as described earlier. But I came away learning something I never expected. Just off hand I decided as I was tallying the different names I would use a different color for each book's record for the references to God in the Book of Mormon. It was just for fun. But what I learned was that each author obviously has their own linguistic style and preferred name for Deity. I came away with a greater testimony knowing this book of scripture had to have many different authors. There was no way it could have only been written by one man. I also discovered there are several linguistic proofs to support its historical time period.
Let me clarify that I don't think things of the Spirit can be proved to someone. A testimony is built by revelation of the Spirit. I am not recording this to try to prove to anyone, but just interesting data I collected that I others might enjoy reading about, and that I wanted recorded.

Here are a few examples.
The very most common references are God and Lord. Lord was Nephi's name of choice. He used it 403 times between the first two books. Almost 200 times more than any other reference. Where as Alma preferred God. He used it 502 times, 300 times more than Lord or any other name. Moroni only used Lord 8 times. He used God 70 and Christ 58. In the book of 3rd Nephi the most common reference was Father. It was used 172 times. But it would be, as half of the book is the record of Christ teaching the Nephites.

The name of Jesus was revealed to Nephi 600 years before Christ was born. But I am not sure how much access to his record his people had. The name of Jesus is used 6 times by Nephi, 3 times by Alma, but only by them until Christ comes in 3rd Nephi where it is used 79 times, and continues to be used often until the end of the Book of Mormon. I think that would be accurate for the historical period. The name of Jesus was probably not well known or at least often used until after his appearance and their familiarity with Him.
Authors also came into a rhythm they liked to use. For example in the book of Helaman, there are four references with the use of Great and something else. They are: Great and Everlasting God, Great and True God, Great and Eternal Head, and Great and True Shepherd. There are other titles that use great throughout the Book of Mormon, but none of them use great and another title in the Book of Helaman, and within just a few chapters of each other.
Many of His names and titles refer to His mercy and love. I was inspired again and again as I was privileged to reread often references to Him. Here are a few that have inspired me: God of Miracles, Lamb of God, The Most High God, Redeemer of the World, Shepherd, Rock, True Vine, Lord Your God, Mighty One of Jacob, Great Mediator of all men, Everlasting God, God of my Salvation, The Prince of Peace, Lord God Omnipotent, Founder of Peace, All wise Creator, Merciful Being, Life and Light of the World, Spirit of Freedom, Light, Husband, Lord that hath mercy on Thee, Messenger of the Covenant, and Comforter to name just a few. There were 167 different names or titles used that I recorded in my study of the Book of Mormon, and a total of 4196 direct references to our God.

Let me wrap up my thoughts by expressing my love for the Book of Mormon. Maybe I heard it best expressed while on my mission teaching a young man who said that, this book, (the Book of Mormon) makes him feel the same way as when he reads the Bible meaning comforted and peace. I know I feel comfort and peace when I study and earnestly read the Book of Mormon. I know it teaches me of Jesus Christ and my Father in Heaven. I know Them better from studying this book, and I am a better person for becoming familiar with its teachings. It has blessed my life greatly.

Fancy Nancy Party

2011-11-05T19:13:00.003-06:00

(Sorry my camera was having some problems with inside light, so my pictures are fuzzy).

Every week, or at least most weeks, Elly and I study one letter of the week. This last week we learned about F. So what better way to learn about F than to have a Fancy Nancy party. Actually I had been planning on having one for awhile as Elly was bored with the older kids being at school, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

During the week, everyday we sing a letter song, read several books about something that starts with that letter, such as frogs, learn a poem, sing a song, and practice writing the letter. During the week we usually do a craft or activity. I follow loosely the program as found on www.letterofweek.com. I have done this program with Talmage and Brynn. It is a fun way for us to spend quality time together reading and learning about the letters. For this reason we have many F activities through our party.

The day started early with me getting the dough ready for cinnamon rolls around 6:00 am. After I got the older kids to school and Matt off to work I started decorating and finishing the FOOD. Fortune smiled on me and Miles fell asleep at 9:00 in the morning. I felt confident I could finish all I needed to now before the party at 11:00. Unfortunately that is when I checked the dough and found it FLAT, as I had FORGOTTEN the yeast. I then woke the baby and made a larger FINANCIAL commitment to the party and bought some cinnamon rolls at the FANCY bakery. After that FIASCO it went much better. At least until half the kids I invited to the party didn't come because of the FLU and one had FORGOT. The numbers were a little sparse, but sometimes less is better.

Here is the FRUIT, FRUIT DIP and breakfast rolls for brunch.

Here we have all the FANCY DECOR. Elly really liked the streamers as did Brynn. The girls kept the theme and set the table for a fancy dinner of Hawaiian haystacks. Brynn did give a manners class for Talmage and Matt. I am not sure they appreciated it as much as she did though. :)

For the rest of the party the girls made FRILLY butterflies, and necklaces for crafts. We then had spa treatment with FRAGRANT LOTION and FINGERNAIL PAINTING. We had a great time, and I think Elly has learned F pretty well while having FUN. Goal accomplished.

Stitches

2011-10-27T08:33:00.002-06:00

My cute little boy fell off Talmage's bed and hit his head against Talmage's open drawers and gashed his head open. He might have been able to skip stitches but that morning about 6 he had woken up. I took him back to my bed hoping to get a few more minutes of sleep. Miles was determined to be up though and wiggled out of bed. He was walking around in my room in the dark and tripped over a pillow and hit the knob of my bed stand giving him a goose egg. Of course that night, he hits the drawer corner right on that prominent goose egg, so the skin is already stretched and won't close nicely.

Miles was our first to get stitches. All in all it wasn't as bad as I feared, at least for me. :) Not nearly as scary as the feared skull fracture we had with him at 6 weeks, the concussion MRI with Brynn, the breathing scares and ER visits we have had with Talmage and Brynn. So all in all not too bad. Miles though was not too pleased to be there. He was so tired for his bed time and crying, he would fall asleep right in the middle of the stitch, then wake up and see this weird man with scary magnifying glasses right in his face and start freaking out again.

We thought he would make a nice Frankenstein for Halloween, although he gets his stitches out early Halloween morning. Oh well

Picnic in the Canyon

2011-10-13T07:51:00.004-06:00

Every year I make a goal to go to the canyon and have a picnic in the Fall. It seems without fail the Fall gets too busy, and I miss out on all the Fall leaves, so I resolve to make it happen the next year. Finally, this year we squeezed in a picnic of hot dogs and smores.

It had rained the day before, so the wood and fire pit were pretty wet. But I was not concerned as I am a master fire starter, just ask my Aunt Mary. I started many a fire while a camp counselor. In fact I may have been a little prideful in my fire starting abilities. At least until I couldn't get it started. I confess I lacked confidence in Matt's ability to start a good fire in a wet pit, if I failed. But gladly I was wrong and Matt got the fire roaring in relatively no time. I am so glad that one of us at least has expert fire starting capacity.

We ended up taking a small hike and threw lots of rocks in the water. We didn't have a lot of time because we went after work and it gets dark sooner. We will have to plan better next year, but I am glad we finally went. It is definitely something I would like to do every year. The colors were amazing, and the kids never complain when they get hot dogs and smores for dinner.

Not Forgotten

2011-10-11T16:29:00.006-06:00

I love the General Conference talk by Spencer Condie in October of 2007. It is titled "Claim the Exceedingly Great and Precious Promises." In it he makes reference to Rachel and Leah. As will be remembered Jacob fell in love with Rachel and worked 7 years for the right to marry Rachel. Her older sister Leah was not married yet, so Rachel's father tricked Jacob and veiled Leah and Jacob married Leah instead. Then he had to work an additional 7 years for Rachel. It is written though that the 14 years seemed but a few days because his love for Rachel was so great. I am going to go directly to Elder Condie's words now as he says it better than I can.

You will recall how Laban beguiled young Jacob into first marrying Leah and then Rachel. “And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren” (Genesis 29:31). And Leah bore Reuben, then Simeon, then Levi, and Judah. Meanwhile, Rachel remained childless (see Genesis 29:32–35).

With ever-increasing envy and mounting desperation, one day Rachel explosively demanded of Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die” (Genesis 30:1). Leah subsequently bore two more sons and a daughter.

I can just relate to that sentiment, or feeling. I may not have ever been barren, but I have suffered through my own trials and felt like, "This needs to be resolved TODAY." Then years pass in teaching me patience, long suffering, and trusting in the Lord and His promises.

Elder Condie continues:

"The Apostle Peter testified that “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering” toward us (2 Peter 3:9). In this age of one-hour dry cleaning and one-minute fast-food franchises, it may at times seem to us as though a loving Heavenly Father has misplaced our precious promises or He has put them on hold or filed them under the wrong name. Such were the feelings of Rachel.

But with the passage of time, we encounter four of the most beautiful words in holy writ: “And God remembered Rachel” (Genesis 30:22). And she was blessed with the birth of Joseph and later the birth of Benjamin. There are millions on earth today who are descendants of Joseph who have embraced the Abrahamic promise that through their efforts “shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal” (Abraham 2:11).

When heaven’s promises sometimes seem afar off, I pray that each of us will embrace these exceeding great and precious promises and never let go. And just as God remembered Rachel, God will remember you. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

I love those words, "And God remembered Rachel." Once during a hard day, I was quoting these words to myself but inserting my own name for Rachel. All of a sudden I had a scripture and thought come to my mind. I thought, "Not only will He remember you, but He has not forgotten you." Then the scripture came to mind

15 For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

Today seemed like a day that I needed to remember that, so I posted it for my therapy.

Biking Jordan River Park Trail

2011-10-10T08:20:00.005-06:00

We took a family bike ride around the Jordan River Park Trail for Labor Day. We had big plans to bike a lot more than we did this summer, but lawn mowing and other things happened. But we did get out once or twice. Here are a few picks from our latest excursion. I think this is when we finished and we're getting ready to load up in the car.
In this photo Elly is holding Miles' hand. Cute as it is, unfortunately it drives Miles nuts. Many a bike ride I spend reminding Elly that Miles likes it better when she doesn't touch him.

The bike trail is under construction after about two and half miles. Where you turn around they have a fun little park. It was one of the kids' highlights of the trip. They always enjoy a climbing wall and monkey bars. (I wonder who they get that from).

Anyways, it was a fun bike ride, and I recommend it. It was not as scenic as the Provo River trail, but not nearly as crowded, and we also missed out on the speed demons that frequent the Provo River Trail. All in all I think this was a better family option with young bike riders.

Sweet Payoffs

2011-10-08T17:33:00.002-06:00

I received the best compliment I have ever received the other day. It came from both Talmage and his current teacher. Let me start by saying I have viewed parent teacher conferences in the past as equaling humility. Let's just say I have had a few doosies in the past, (although they have been much better recently). So, I usually go to parent-teacher conference with some apprehension. I went to visit Talmage's teacher, Mr. Dominguez, and he told me that he asked Talmage where he learned to do math so well, and Talmage told him, his mom had taught him. He then said, I was a great math teacher because Talmage has such a strong foundation in his Math skills. In fact, they just bumped him up to the advanced math class.

Let me give a little background to share, why this has been such a great compliment to me. Talmage's teacher wasn't so amazing last year. He fell behind in math. I spent hours doing multiplication and division with him in the fourth grade. I also wanted to tutor him all summer in math to help him catch up, but I got busy and only put an hour in a day for the last two weeks before school started. I was concerned for him. We continued to do some tutoring after school started, but we cut way back. Now you see why I was so tickled pink to hear. Also, it is always a boost to hear your child appreciate all the efforts you have put in despite the gnashing of teeth, whining, and complaining about what a beast I am. So, after 10 years of hard work in preparing him, and my other kids, to be prepared to enter the real world, it was nice to hear the effort isn't in vain.

Splash Parks

2011-10-07T08:50:00.005-06:00

Splash Parks = FUN!

The month of August we frequented the splash parks often. Here are some photos from a time we visited with Preston, Janna, Jessa, and Bethany while Janna was up visiting Grandpa Brown in the hospital.

Of course no splash park visit is complete without one pee pee dance. I the picture is grainy because I had to zoom in so far. But I still got quite a kick out of it.

We always have a lot of fun running, splashing, drinking the swimming water, and hoping we don't get a parasite, so far we are clean. Anyways, here is a good highlight of our last month of summer.

1st day of school 2011

2011-10-06T11:56:00.004-06:00

I know I am so slow in catching everything up, but for my own records I am trying to get it all blogged. Now that the elephant in the room in recognized I will proceed.

This is our first day of school for 2011-2012. Talmage is in the 5th grade, I know I can hardly believe it myself, and Brynn is in the 3rd grade. Elly didn't want to be left out so she got dressed and grabbed a backpack too for pictures. Frankly I am surprised I have everyone's hair combed. Shocking! We have been trying very hard to wake up early (somewhere between 6-6:30) and be ready by 7:30 to ride our bikes to school. School starts precisely at 8:00. Surprisingly a month and a half in we still usually succeed. Normally, by this point I have resigned to driving them most days to school. I think part of it is, that finally now that Talmage is in 5th grade I am brave enough to let him walk to school by himself, well using the buddy system with his sister. The kids know if they really want to get their sibling in trouble is to tattle on them for not walking or riding close to one another to or from school. It is a Goodman cardinal rule.

Anyhow, the kids are enjoying school and have great teachers this year. It is looking to be a wonderfully enlightening year.

Peaches

2011-10-03T21:10:00.005-06:00

This was my first bumper peach crop year. As seen in the picture, my peach tree was loaded. I picked I think close to 500 peaches. I used half of them to make fruit leather and bottle. I gave away the other half. That was a lot of peaches. But they were sooo good.

As I watched my limbs began to bow over with the weight of the peaches, my mind often reflected on this scripture.

Doctrine and Covenants 81:5

5 Wherefore, be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed unto you; succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.

I am thankful for all of the support I have received in my life to lift up my hands when they have hung down and felt weighted with more than I could handle. I began to greatly appreciate the purpose of the sticks we had to help support our tree, and the sticks in my own life. Thank you to all of you.

Elly's colon is clean!

2011-08-30T23:19:00.004-06:00

Just as an update for those who were concerned, Elly had a colonoscopy today. She had been passing bloody stools for a few months so, I took her to a GI who gave her a colonoscopy. We thought she had a polyp, which is never cancerous at this age. But her colon was clean, with some irritations near her anus which may have been a polyp that had fallen off on its own a little while ago.

She had a hard time waking up after the procedure. She was screaming for several minutes before they got me. But she calmed down after I got there. They wanted her to eat some slushy or snacks. Elly didn't want anything to do with food then. After about 15 minutes she was coaxed into some ice cream, and it seemed as if she was perking up, so we were able to go home. She was still pretty clingy for a few hours until she threw up all the ice cream she had. Then she was a ravenous beast after being on a clear liquid diet for 24 hours, and fasting most of the day today. Right after she threw up, all she wanted was spaghetti.

I tried not to freak out about the whole thing, and stay pretty calm. But it is nerve racking any time you take your child to the hospital I think. By the end of the day I could just feel myself unwind, and I realized I was a lot more stressed than I thought I was.

Anyhow just a quick update for those who wanted to know.

First Hair Cut

2011-08-08T10:15:00.005-06:00

The above pictures show some of his curls. He is with his cute cousin Shayla who is 2 weeks older than him. The below pictures are after he got buzzed.

Matt only requested that I not give him a mullet. So, when I was cutting Miles' hair that is exactly what I did at first. He looked pretty awesome as a red neck, but we finished the job and cut off the curls.

Water fun

2011-08-08T09:50:00.004-06:00

We recently have been able to beat the heat with a lot of water activities. I had a pea sized chunk of my heal removed from a deep imbedded sliver I had, so it has only been recently we have been able to get wet as a family.

Matt's work party this year was at 7 Peaks water park. The kids had a fantastic time, and we haven't caught Cryptospordium yet, (a parasite giving you severe vomiting and diarrhea), like the last time we had Matt's work party there. In fact almost every time I have visited 7 Peaks something bad has happened. The list includes heat exhaustion with vomiting, gash across the head, a slipped disk, and last all members of our family coming down with Cryptospordium. So, it was a pleasant surprise that it turned out to be a wonderful family activity, and I think I will lift my boycott against 7 Peaks next year and frequent it.

We also have broken out the slip-n-slide a few times this summer. I love the slip-n-slide. This time I also got in my suit and joined the kids. Fortunately for you though I took the pictures, so I am not represented. We had a contest to see who could go the furthest on the slide. Talmage and I had the record of a foot past the slide. I goaded Matt and Matt Hyer to take a turn. They both smashed our records and slid a good 6 feet past the slide. Unfortunately for them they also got a grass rash across their chests from sliding on the grass. But they have bragging rights of being the slip-n-slide champions for this year.

I personally love this picture of Talmage's face as he is sliding in the water. He is so funny.
We also have been frequenting the local splash parks that have just been built. We have had such a fun time there.

Attitude

2011-07-02T22:53:00.004-06:00

Good things that came about yesterday:

Every towel we own freshly laundered
Clean and sanitized floors with bleach and steam in the hall, bathroom and kitchen
Brynn's and Talmage's favorite dinner of oven puffed pancakes
We bought a new highly efficient fan
Freshly mowed lawn
Clean bedrooms
Tuckered out babies and ready for an early bedtime

Of course many of those great things came about because while I was mowing the lawn I left the house in the kids' charge. Unfortunately, the toilet overflowed poop water for at least an hour, without them noticing, leaving me with a huge flood of water all over the bathroom, kitchen, and hall, leaking onto the carpet in the entry way in Miles' room. We used every towel we own to clean up the mess. Luckily also Matt has a work buddy who is a carpenter. He came over and lifted the carpet, and taught Matt how to replace the carpet pad, and relay the carpet. Now that it is all cleaned up we are better off than before it happened, but also very tired, thus the oven pancakes for dinner. I guess there always is a silver lining. Sometimes though you have to really look for it.

Yosemite

2011-07-02T21:49:00.005-06:00

We just came home from our big family camp out. We gathered together with the Goodman clan at Yosemite and camped. It was a lot of fun despite Miles coming down with a nasty ear infection the first night. He had a nasty persistent fever, and didn't sleep hardly at all the first night. I spent it in the car listening to Artemis Foul, the CD book we checked out from the library while trying to comfort him. (While I was there, Bill and Allyson, I felt a new sympathy for you when you camped with Rylee. I was wishing that I had relieved you a little more so you didn't have to spend so many nights in your car.) The other nights were better, but he still didn't feel good. When we got home, the doctor told us that it was bulging enough he wouldn't be surprised if the ear drum burst, luckily it didn't and he is much better now.
Here are all the cousins that went camping in Yosemite. These are all but one of the Goodman grandchildren.
Here is a sight of one of the many waterfalls there. I think this one is Bridal Veil Falls. We ran out of time and weren't able to hike this one. Maybe another year. But it looks gorgeous. We did get to hike Yosemite falls though. I loved this hike. It was so beautiful, and had water flowing all around you. It felt almost like air conditioning. Then when you get to the falls, you are sprayed with mist, and the wind is blowing so hard you have to hold onto your hat. It was incredible. Although Miles hated being close to the falls, as you can see.

This was at Glacier Point. This stops provides amazing views of the whole Yosemite Valley. Behind us is the famous Half Dome mountain. I thought this trip was so educational. I learned a great deal about glaciers in addition to the Sequoias. Half Dome is formed they believe by the effects of a glacier coming through the valley a long time ago. The forces of nature are incredible.

Another day we took a hike to the Giant Sequoias. Wow! I have always wanted to see the sequoias and I was not disappointed. I learned also a great deal about these amazing trees. Their bark makes them somewhat fire resistant, so you can see many trees with scorch marks from surviving through different forest fires.
Below is Miles, Elly, and Shayla playing in the bark while waiting for the shuttle to take us back to camp.

This is our family and some cousins in front of one of the roots of a fallen sequoia. Below we are in a tunnel carved out of a tree about the early 1900's. They have a picture of a model T car driving through it. It really is such a neat thing to see.
Talmage and Brynn with some of the Yosemite views in the background.

Last is one of the hardest things to do when camping with family is say goodbye, and gearing up for the eternal car trip home. The kids had such a great time playing with their cousins. It was really fun to get together with everyone and seeing some amazing sights. I hope I get to go again sometime.

Strawberry Days

2011-06-28T11:59:00.003-06:00

Every year Pleasant Grove has Strawberry Days celebration for the entire third week of June. Our family always looks forward to it, part of it is because Brynn's and Miles' birthdays fall during Strawberry Days. There are a lot of activities to participate in, but we only did the carnival and Huck Finn Day.

I unfortunately forgot my camera at Huck Finn Day, but I took this picture after of Talmage's big fish with Grandpa and Parker. It was really crowded at the pond they stocked to catch fish. We got there between 15-30 minutes after it started. I was glad I wasn't any later. There were lines every where. But Talmage, Brynn, and Hailey caught fish. Brynn and Hailey weren't so interested in posing with theirs though.

Talmage caught the biggest fish in the pond. Most of the fish were between 6-12 inches long. Talmage had several strangers come up and ask to take a picture of his fish. It made him and his Grandpa so proud. He also had his picture taken by the photographer for Strawberry Days and they said he may likely be on the flyer for Huck Finn Day on the magazine they send out for Strawberry Days.

Funny enough, I was in charge of casting all the lines out for the kids when Dad had them all baited. I put Miles down for 2 minutes to get a line ready to bait and cast. I looked up and he was a foot or so away from the pond running full speed ahead. I took off running after him, but was too late to catch him before he fell in head first. We had been at the pond for a total of 10 minutes at the most. Needless to say he stayed cool the rest of the morning. :) I held onto him, even between my knees, for the rest of the morning.

It was such a fun morning to fish with Grandpa, Parker, and Hailey. Cousins always make any day better. We also later had a fish fry later that evening. The fish fed our family for 2 whole meals, and was delicious!

We also headed to the carnival. The kids look forward to this every year. Miles spent most of the night in the stroller keeping place in line with me. Next year will be a lot more fun I am sure for him. He did get to be pushed in the swing for an hour while we waited for Brynn to get through the line to go on the ferris wheel. That was the one ride that she did not want to miss, and of course it had the longest line. Poor Talmage had been stung by a bee earlier in the day, so it was kind of miserable for him with a swollen foot while waiting to go home.

Talmage was kind enough to go on a lot of the kiddie rides with Elly. She was really glad to have Talmage around.

Here is Talmage on the giant slide. Below Matt is peeking his head up on the dragon coaster with Elly.

Strawberry Days are always so much fun. I am looking forward to next year already.

Birthdays

2011-06-26T14:39:00.009-06:00

We have lots of birthdays at this time of year. Elly starts it on May 27th. She turned 3. She was so excited, and kept telling us her birthday was coming, and on her birthday she was going to open presents. Here she is opening Grandma Goodman's present. You can see from this picture, your present Janna was highly anticipated, and brought much joy.
Each child gets to choose what kind of cake they want for their birthday. Elly wanted a princess castle cake that she found in one of my cake decorating books. She was so excited for this cake. It is also so easy. I am not the best decorator, but I can do enough to make my kids happy. This is just a double cake with some ice cream cones stuck on top essentially, very doable.

Next is Miles' birthday on June 16th. He just turned one. Here he is running around with one of his presents. He didn't really get the opening part, but loved having a decorated box to carry.

I made a spaghetti and meatballs cake for his birthday as he loves spaghetti. Here is also the famous "look how filthy I can get with my cake" picture. Chocolate is always a favorite for Miles.

I also posted a couple of shots showing what Miles is always doing. He loves to climb and to get into boxes. While I was sewing I found Elly and Miles had climbed onto the bottom shelf in the toy closet. He also loves to dump out the legos and sit in that bucket as well.
Brynn's birthday is next on June 18th. She turned the big 8 and is looking forward to being baptized. She loves penguins right now. She has done some great art work drawing them, and also recently did a large school report on them for her second grade class. She also loves caramel, so she asked for this caramel cake with a penguin topper.
Here are a couple of shots of Brynn at her art show. This is her standing by her chalk art titled "Love Songs." I smeared it a little when I was trying to frame it unfortunately. But I thought she did a great job on it. I thought it was funny because you are suppose to name your art. Brynn wanted to name her picture "Love Songs." I thought she should name it "2 penguins" or something dull like that. I just about suggested it, but I thought it is her art let her name it what she wants. Anyways, her teacher came up and was talking to me, and was so impressed that Brynn came up with this title. She then told me most of her students wouldn't have come up with a name at all and just called it something like "2 penguins", and what a dumb name that was. I wisely kept my mouth shut.It was a really fun 3 weeks with our 3 birthdays. It was a lot of fun.

Spring Break -2- Moab

2011-05-26T09:23:00.006-06:00

For the last part of our spring break we went to Moab for a couple of days. It was a lot of fun. I just have a huge amount of pictures and will comment on a few of them.
Matt took the kids "bouldering" at a famous place for climbers to go and climb boulders. The kids just got to go crazy climbing any rocks they wanted. I think it was one of their favorite things they did. I had to hide part of the time in the car and take care of Miles. I have a hard time though with things like this. I get worried about them hurting themselves, especially Elly for good reasons too. So, if I hid, and hoped Matt was watching them closely then everyone had fun. :)

This was one of our last hikes, landscape arch. We really enjoy hiking as a family. It has been such a fun family activity to see some of these neat views we have been able to see. I am so glad my kids hike with me.
Elly did some hiking, she is almost ready to give up the backpack. Matt is really looking forward to that day. :) Me too, because then Matt gets Miles, and I get to be backpack free!

I love this place! This was at Sand Dune Arch. The kids had so much fun and it had several little crevices like this we liked to explore.

The Sand Dune Arch also had sand dunes, hmm go figure. They were definitely one of the bigger highlights of the trip. You can see the kids had so much fun running, diving, rolling, and whatever else in the sand there.

Here is Matt on top of the arch at Sand Dune Arch.

Miles also had a great time eating sand. We tried to protect him here in the corner, because it was so windy, so we had a lot of sand in the mouth and eyes.
Elly of course biffed it and suffered road rash within the first 10 minutes of arriving in Moab. Here is a picture with her scratched up lip and nose.

In front of Balanced Rock

This is where Miles spent most of the camping trip while we were in the camp.
I added this picture because back at the camp the kids play with this cool block disk things. They build dragons and anything else they can think of. It has been a lifesaver to keep them included in the trailer.

Spring Break -1- Salt Lake

2011-05-26T09:06:00.003-06:00

For Spring break first I took the kids for a day trip to Salt Lake. General Conference had recently happened and the kids were saying they had never been to the conference center. So we spent the day on temple square. We took the tour of the conference center, ate lunch at the Lion House with my dad, and then stopped by the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and Temple Square. It was a great, yet tiring day.
Here the kids are standing next to the Joseph Smith statue. Of interest, this statue is just a few inches shorter than Goliath is recorded to have been. So we had the kids stand next to the statue to compare the size difference.

My dad just happened to have an eye appointment in Salt Lake that same day, so we met up at the Lion House for lunch to enjoy their wonderful rolls. Brynn went on a pioneer tour there a few weeks earlier, and loved the rolls. So the kids were all excited to try the food Brynn liked so much.
One of the kids favorite parts of the day was the Conference Center tour. They loved the art, waterfalls, the walk on the roof, and speaking in the actual conference room. It was really interesting and fun.

Glenn's Funeral

2011-05-26T08:35:00.010-06:00

Matt's father passed away in January from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Although we knew the end was coming, it was unexpectedly fast for us. We were glad that he didn't have to suffer, and was able to pass away peacefully. We have missed him. Matt's uncle took a bunch of pictures I just wanted to post for my own record. I also have some of my own as family gathered together.

At any Goodman gathering, there is going to be cute babies crawling,
some wii being played by the kids and adult Goodman boys,

a collection of princess dresses, and of course a lot of iphone apps being played.

Also a Goodman gathering is all the more fun with a good amount of Connor. He is such a fun boy.

Here is a collection of different members of the Glenn Goodman family. Here is Grandma with all the grandchildren. It was pretty cold when we took the picture. The kids braved it well.

Some of Matt's brothers.

Jonny and Amber's family

Andrea and Nic's family :)

Mother's Day books

2011-05-21T21:06:00.003-06:00

Talmage and Brynn both had the same second grade teacher. She has the kids make this cute little book every Mother's Day. The first part of the sentence is filled in, and the kids fill in the rest and draw a picture with it. I love these books. Here are some of the things my kids have recorded about me.

Talmage's first.

When my mom was in second grade she... broke the tv. (I have often told the kids about the time I moved the TV close to the couch so I could watch it just a few inches away, and it fell off the stand and broke the screen all up. I knew I was in so much trouble because my parents couldn't afford a new TV. We didn't have a lot of money growing up. But my parents didn't say anything to me, just went out and bought a new TV. I think that made a bigger impact and helped me learn better than any discipline would have taught me.

My mom looks pretty when... she has on her wedding dress.

My mom is really good at... catching balls. ( I felt so bad about this one. Shortly before this Mother's Day Talmage and I were playing catch. He didn't know how to catch so well. He was scared of the ball and I got upset and told him the ball wouldn't hurt him and just stay in front of it so he could catch it. Unfortunately, I threw it and it hit him in the face, and it did hurt. Needless to say I felt like mother of the year at that moment). Now it can forever be remembered in my book.

My mother is happiest when... I do something right. (He drew a picture of him catching the ball, driving the knife a little deeper).

My mother gets mad when... I write on the house. (That is a no brainer. Unfortunately on the same night I yelled at him about the ball. I discovered he had written on the foundation of the house with something like permanent marker. It was something that wouldn't come off for several months. Talmage knows because he had to scrub it for several nights).

My favorite thing to do with my mom is... go to Wingers. (He likes the popcorn a lot at the beginning).

I love you Mom because... you love me.

Brynn's next.

When my mom was in second grade she... played t-ball. (My mom coached t-ball for 10 years, and won 6 city championships of those 10 years. I spent a lot of time on the t-ball field).

My mom looks pretty when she... "dance is." (Matt hates to dance, but the kids really like it when I put on some kid music and just bust a move. Apparently I am also very good looking then. Go figure, Matt hadn't noticed how dancing makes me so much more attractive).

My mom is really good at..."takeing care of me."

My mom is happiest when..."I do good on my speeling" (This is my personal favorite).

My mom gets mad when..."I don't get my werk don."

My favorite thing to do with my mom is..."paint." (Brynn recently started taking art lessons. I hate painting. It leaves such a mess. I started telling her when she asked to paint. "No, honey. That is why I pay $30 a month to someone is to keep the mess there." Apparently, I need to repent and start painting at home again).

I love you mom because..."you take rilly good care of me."

So adorable. I put in all the original speeling (spelling) for you because good spelling makes me happy. :) I just thought it was adorable and so fun. Thought I would share it and record it for me to smile at later.

Easter, Mommy me, and Birthday activities

2011-04-26T08:48:00.004-06:00

Matt and I have tried having "dates" with each of our children the first Saturday of the month. Typically we let the child who we have one on one time with pick a free activity and then we go out and treat them to ice cream or something like that. The kids really look forward to their Saturday they get to spend with mom or dad. This last time we did something a little more special and I took Talmage and Brynn for their dates to a place called Color Me Mine. Here you get to pick out a ceramic piece, paint it, and they fire it for you. We are making plates (obviously) for everyone in the family. Talmage's is a black dragon living in a bog, very ten year old boy. Elly is into The Very Hungry Caterpillar so I tried to copy that idea. She also really likes the book "Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?" So I tried also to copy the daisy crown found in that book too.

The next month I took Brynn. She made a flower crown as you see and lots of polka dots. I tried to make a #1 Dad plate for Matt. I had a hard time with the letter cut out and as you see I placed it backwards. Brynn thought that was so funny because she is having a hard time not flipping her letters in school. I have been working with her and getting on her about it. When she saw what I had done, she started laughing and said, "Now, I see where I get it from to flip my letters." It ended up being a really fun night. She was laughing at me all night long for my mistake. It also helped me be more tolerant with her letter flipping as well. :) I was just glad I had used capital letters and didn't spell out, "#1 bad".
Here are the kids on Easter morning in their new Easter digs. I love this tree in the spring. I think the blossoms look so beautiful. I bought this tree 6 years ago I believe for my birthday. It has been the gift that keeps on giving. :)

Talmage just celebrated his 10th birthday. I can't believe he is that old. He wanted to have a really ornate cake, but I just don't have the time, some may argue the talent as well, to make something so difficult. So we agreed on the dinosaur cake again. This time root beer flavored. It actually tasted pretty good with vanilla ice cream. It was a lot like a root beer float. :) All my kids get to blow out the candles after the initial birthday child blows out theirs. I remember doing that as a child. The kids get so excited to blow out candles. Sometimes I get trick candles. Talmage is so funny. He always says something like, "Oh my gosh, Mom, we know you have trick candles" in his exasperated voice. But he loves having them and reblowing them out.

It has been a fun, but busy week. Within a week and a half we came home from vacation, left all the laundry from it on our large couch downstairs for the week. At least it was where company couldn't see my lack of homemaking skills. I have a quilt block due. Talmage had a birthday, a large county report he had to complete in one week, pinewood derby (this Wednesday), piano recital with lots of practicing, and Easter for the whole family. Whew, I was glad when that week was over.

Cinderella gloves

2011-04-16T15:27:00.003-06:00

I have so much to blog about, but no time unfortunately to do it. Here are a few of the highlights I have been up to the last few months.

This is what keeps me busy all day long! He is so mobile. Shortly after Glenn's funeral and watching Shayla getting around, Miles picked up crawling. He army crawled for awhile, but has been a quick full crawl for some time. He is my earliest crawler by a few months. He is now taking 4-5 steps at a time. It won't be long before he forgoes crawling all together and just goes for walking. His sleeping has also been thrown off. He cut the upper 4 teeth all at once, so sleeping at night became a thing of the past. But he is doing better now, only waking up once or so around 4:00. Lastly, he has finally taken to solids. He loves anything with sugar in it. He is is mother's child. :) He also loves throwing cheerios and anything else on his tray on the floor. So I spend not enough time sweeping the floor.

Here is Elly doing a puzzle with her Dad. She is in this new thing of wearing socks on her hands and calling herself, "Cinderella!" in a very loud sing song voice. Apparently wearing the socks causes the transformation for her. Her other favorite is stripping to her diaper and also wearing socks on her hands and she transforms to, "Super Spy!" Not a lot of dull moments with her around. She often will repeat over and over that I need to be more reverent during the prayer while we are praying, which I am being reverent if any of you suspected otherwise. She is a firecracker through and through.

With our tax refund we bought a few toys for the kids. Matt had been swamped with work between a release date, trip to Philadelphia, and a new ipad project. The kids and I were anxious to get them up, so we built them as a surprise for him. Here is Elly and Miles playing on the geodome Talmage, Brynn, Elly and I built. (Miles helped us lose a bolt or two, but had a great time walking around). It is a lot of fun, and I hope it continues to be a favorite toy for the kids.

Of course there is school, extracurricular activities, scouts, tree pruning, fixing cars, quilt class, callings and everything else that you are all swamped with too. Hope to see you more often and report about Spring Break, my quilt, and whatever else I have taken pictures of. I know you can't wait. But at least I will have it reported and recorded for my own memory.

How well do you know your Relief Society history?

2011-02-18T12:53:00.004-07:00

Last year I was in charge of preparing a program for the Relief Society Birthday dinner. We did a spoof of a game show called Two lies and a Truth I believe. I researched the history of some of the past Relief Society general presidents and had sisters in our ward act out the following scripts I gave them. One is the real Relief Society president and the other two are just false impersonators.
It was fascinating to learn more about these women, the organization, and the great things they have done. I thought some of you might find it interesting too, so I am posting it.
I am just starting out with the third president of the Relief Society Organization Zina Young. Can you guess who is the real Zina Young? Is it Contestant 1, 2 or 3?

1. Can you tell us about the silk industry, and was it profitable?

Contestant 1

Why do you have to bring those nasty worms up? They are a terror. I was called to be the only president of the Deseret Silk Association in 1876 and served as such for 50 years. The women of the Territory of Utah complained of not having access to fine material like silk, so Brigham Young suggested we start our own silk industry. We brought in silk worms and Mulberry trees and planted them from Logan to St. George. The silk worms will only eat leaves from the Mulberry trees. At one time we had 5 million silk worms in production here in Utah. It was no small sacrifice for the women to raise silk worms. They would wear the eggs because the worms grew so large there wasn't enough room, or due to the noise the worms would make while eating. Each worm would spin over 2 miles of silken fiber for their cocoons. Unfortunately this endeavor never made any money. After the railroad came in, it was cheaper (and less inconvenient) for the women to buy silk elsewhere.

Contestant 2

This was one of the Relief Society's great achievements in the late 1800's and was very successful until the Great Depression. As was previously stated the worms ate only Mulberry leaves. The trees can't live when it gets below 20 below zero. In the year 1931, we had a terrible cold winter. That year we dipped below 30 below zero, and stayed there for more than a week. It was more than those trees could handle. The state lost most of their trees, and hence the silk worms. Since we were in such an economic downturn, people could not afford to purchase new trees from back East. The industry came to a halt. By the time the economy had turned around, interest had died out with fervor of the war and its success, and as competition in the East could provide the material fairly inexpensively by that time with improved transportation. But when it was most successful the Deseret Silk Association was in great demand. We had made dresses for Susan B. Anthony, Lousia May Alcott, and Amelia Earhart due to their requests.

Contestant 3

The Deseret Silk Association was a dismal failure. Silk worms require a moderate temperature to thrive. We don't have a temperate zone to be able to make silk. I was in charge of the association. We had high hopes we could make it work, but the worms were never very productive due to the weather. We could only get production from the worms in the Spring and Fall. The summers would scorch the worms and the winters would freeze them all. We would continue to lose all of our worms for production. We did get some silk made due to the Fall and Spring, but found it was not enough worth continuing the effort. Around that time as well the Retrenchment Society started to take form for the Young Women, making silk discouraged by our leaders due to its expensive and worldly reputation.

2. How did you come into contact with the Church?

Contestant 1

One day after coming home from school I found a book laying on the windowsill. It was the Book of Mormon. I flipped through it and I felt the Spirit rush through me and instantly knew it was true. I was baptized by Hyrum Smith at the age of 15. After I had been baptized, I felt the gift of tongues fall on me, and received blessings from that gift throughout my life.

Contestant 2

I had grown up in Fayette, New York. I was neighbors and good friends with the Peter Whitmer family. It was there that I was introduced to the restored gospel. I immediately felt the spirit burn within me and knew it was true. I had an interesting experience when I first met the prophet Joseph Smith. I was so nervous to meet the prophet himself that I made quite a blunder. I was helping the women serve dinner. As I brought the special spice pudding to the table to finish the meal, I tripped and dropped the pudding all over the floor. In the prophet's good humor, he made a quick comment to relieve my humiliation, and the moment quickly passed and was forgotten by all those but myself. I was so grateful for his tactful handling of my embarrassment situation.

Contestant 3

I had joined the church in Canada. I was one of John Taylor's congregation when Parley P. Pratt came and preached the gospel in its fullest to us. It took some sacrifice from my family as we were quite wealthy and couldn't find a buyer for our farm. We ended up just walking away and leaving our wealth behind us in Canada and trusting that our family would be taken care of as we gathered with the Saints.

3. What contributions did you give your community in health care?

Contestant 1

I studied obstetrics and served as a midwife in my community. I enjoyed visiting the sick and comforting them. Due to my studies and practice I also found several helpful home remedies. My particular favorite dealt with good sized live toads. I was also instrumental in establishing the Deseret Hospital which was the first LDS hospital. Everyone was admitted and treated even if they could not pay. Unfortunately the hospital failed years later as everyone felt they could not afford to pay, and we were unable to drum up enough donations to support the endeavor. I served as president of its board for 12 years. I also organized a nursing school with courses in obstetrics being taught at the hospital.

Contestant 2

There was always a great deal of illness and need to comfort the sick in those early days. We suffered from malaria in Nauvoo, scurvy in Winter Quarters, and of course exposure while crossing the plains. I had a great opportunity to become friends with a wise medicine man from Paiute tribe after settling in Utah. I had given his daughter some grain and rabbits when they were starving. His family stayed with us for a time and taught me about basic herbs to treat people. I learned to love the aloe and the cat tail plants. I was often called upon to help those ill in my community.

Contestant 3

I was the first woman to graduate with a degree in medicine. After traveling to Utah, I could see the great suffering by the Saints without proper medical attention. My mother was a well known nurse in Canada. I had learned some skills that were helpful from her, but I felt a strong desire to travel back East and receive my degree to continue to better our society in the West. My children were raised, and I sold some valuable heirlooms belonging to our family, sold some hand made trinkets, and did extra laundry to help pay for my tuition and my trip. I also only ate two meals a day to save on money. I skipped lunch everyday while I was a student. I took two years worth of classes and returned home as a certified doctor. Due to my education, I was able to make large improvements in the obstetrics field to improve the infant mortality rate and mother's rate of survival. Much of the improvements came from a midwifery class I taught regularly around general conference time. Women from the local states would flock to my class and implement the skills I taught them.

4. What were some of your experiences in Kirtland, Ohio?

Contestant 1

Kirtland was a special time for anyone who lived there. A time of so much revelation and union with the Saints. Of course also the miraculous experience of the temple dedication. I had the unique privilege as well to hide the mummies Joseph Smith purchased under my bed to keep them safe from the mob for a time.

Contestant 2

While in Kirtland, my family was quite destitute especially after the Kirtland Safety Society (our local bank) failed in 1837. To help provide for my family I began making pastries, rolls, breads, and other goods to sell door to door among the Saints. My goods became very popular, in fact my roll recipe is still used in the Lion House Store.

Contestant 3

My mother was good friends with Emma Smith. I was a teenager at the time we lived in Kirtland. Emma was so busy being the wife of the prophet and mother. I often would come over to help her. One of the common chores I would have was to clean the spit platoons the men used after chewing tobacco at the School of the Prophets and mopping the floor. It was such a nasty job I tried to save her the trouble. Due to this experience I became an adamant follower of the Word of Wisdom my whole life.

Any Guesses who is the right Zina Young? See the comments and I will tell you.
In addition to Zina Young, I also have this game format (if that is what you call it) for Emmeline B. Wells, Belle Spafford, and the current president Julie Beck. If any of you want to use this for your Relief Society program, let me know and I will email the all the information for you. I had a lot of fun researching and compiling it all together, but it took me a lot of work too. The sisters in the ward really liked the activity as well. I still get comments about the silk worm eggs the pioneer Relief Society sister used to wear around their necks. Yuck! But I guess you just do what you have to do. I am sure they didn't look forward to it either.

And a child shall lead them

2011-02-08T12:33:00.003-07:00

Lately Talmage has been trying really hard to be kind. He has been giving in on little quarrels, and doing things at his expense to make his sisters happy. I thought it was from a lesson at church because I noticed it after church one day when he quickly gave his sister the coveted spot in the car and told me, "You are going to notice a difference in me. I am going to be kinder." I was pleased to hear so, but didn't give it a lot of merit because it is hard to implement real change in one's life. At least, I struggle permanently implementing all my good desires. That was a month ago, and I have noticed real change in him. Last night I discovered the cause of his change. I was tucking him bed and listening to him say his prayers prayers. He asked Heavenly Father to help him to be more like his Grandmother Hendricks, that he was trying to be kind, and continue to help him to be so. My mother always made him feel special and went out of her way to be kind. I promised myself that I was going to try to be more like her to make up for my kids' loss when she died. Talmage has done a better job at keeping that resolution than I have. Luckily though my time is not through to continue to try.
I think this has come more home to him with Matt's father recently passing away as well. I wanted to post my great admiration I have for Glenn. He always did what he thought was right, and had the self discipline to really implement it. I tell myself I should eat more vegetables, and cut sweets down, but he actually did them and much more. He was a man of integrity. He was kind and helped my family out in ways that are so dear to me that it is difficult for me to express them. I am thankful for the qualities my husband possess that comes from his father (and his mother too). Mostly I am honored to have the heritage from both of our families that our children inherit, and look forward to the day when I can physically be with them again.

Racquet Ball

2011-02-06T23:12:00.005-07:00

For Christmas this year I got Matt some racquet ball equipment and a promise to get babysitters and go on a date with him once a month to play racquet ball. We just went a few weeks ago, and had a wonderful time. I wasn't much competition for him, but we had a good time because I can laugh heartily at my many less than graceful attempts to hit the ball.

One of our long standing inside jokes is my inability to buy a decent Christmas gift for Matt. It all started our first Christmas together. We were young, newly married, and on a real budget. I remember Matt carried our real Christmas tree we got on sale two blocks home in his hands. We had laid aside a certain amount for each person to spend on Christmas that year. I was under the impression being young and ignorant that the best gifts were clothes. That is what my brothers and I had wanted. I was young and somewhat vain and enjoyed nice clothes. In order to afford them, it would be at the expense of most of my Christmas loot. So naturally I assumed this would be exactly what Matt would want too.

I also looked at what Matt's clothing needs were at the time. He had horrible ties, and a serious lack of black socks. Nothing but the best for my honey, so I bought the fanciest worthless black socks for him for Christmas. That ate up a good percentage of my budget. I also got him some expensive new ties for the Sun Beams to suck on. (We were Sun Beam teachers at the time). I bought a few other clothing things like sweat pants and so forth. His greatest haul that year was a computer mouse my brother got him for his lap top. After that Christmas Matt gave me the talk. He explained to me that Christmas was about wants and not needs, and clothing was definitely a need. He has always splurged and bought nice gifts for me. Usually I just give my permission now for him to buy what new gadget he has wanted. This was the first year, (after 10) I had a decent gift to surprise him. Here is to a whole year of good exercise and laughing heartily with me at my less than graceful attempts to slam the ball back at him. By next December I will be amazing!

Quilt Block

2011-01-23T20:58:00.003-07:00

I used to love to quilt with my mother. One of my big regrets I have with her passing is that we were going to take a quilting class together when she moved to Utah. So when a new quilt shop opened in locally, and they had a beautiful quilt block a month they were offering I bit the bullet and signed up. This was the first block they had me make. I really enjoyed putting it together. (Even if part of it was at 2:00 AM the night before). I am excited to learn new things. One of the best parts too, is that I feel close to my mom while doing it. Here is to the New Year and doing new things.

2011-01-06T08:21:00.004-07:00

Glenn Goodman's Obituary

Sorry I am having problems with it posting, but you can click on Glenn Goodman's obituary above and it will take you to the link.

Goodman Christmas letter 2010

2010-12-18T12:21:00.004-07:00

2010 has been a busy but good year for our family. We hope to find you, our beloved friends and family also doing well. One of the more significant events for our family was the birth of our youngest son, Miles. He was born June 16th at 7lbs and 7 ounces. We were really thankful that Matt's parents could come and help take care of the kids while I was resting at the hospital with new baby, Miles. As for our family, this is what we have been up to.

Matt is still working at Xactware as a programmer, although he earned a promotion this year as senior developer and is also working for a different department. He is enjoying everything about his new situation. Matt still enjoys rock climbing most days for his lunch, mountain bike riding, hiking, and sitting down to a good book when available. He has also become proficient at household repairs, and fixes a running toilet better than anyone I know. You can still find us most evenings sitting down to watch ESPN's Sports Center together, although I am usually asleep pretty quickly, unless they are talking about the Jazz, BYU, or the Lakers losing. Those are both of our favorite sports' highlights.

I have been busy with PTA during the beginning of the year, but have cut back on my responsibilities because I am busy with my two older children, an infant, and an active two year old at home. I really enjoyed a gardening class I took with my dad in February. We learned a great deal about home fruit production. Unfortunately applying the knowledge and actually working in my yard being in my third trimester were not complimentary, so the yard was ignored a great deal this year. We will try again next year. But I was really excited what I learned about pruning and caring for raspberries. This year my dad and I are going to take a cooking class together. He thinks I don't know how to cook with spices and herbs, and he is right. Although my mom would say he doesn't know how to either. :) I am really looking forward to it.

Talmage is 9 now. I can't believe how the years have flown. He is half way to being 18 and graduating from high school. But currently, he is learning all about the state of Utah in fourth grade. He really enjoys karate, playing the piano (especially anything from Beethoven), reading, assembling legos, and any video games. He is his father's son, and has a real knack for anything electronical. He loves to tell us stories and quote Calvin and Hobbs, when I don't hide the comic books. He has become more responsible and helps out a great deal with his younger siblings.

Brynn is 7 now. She is my little mother, and is often helping entertain Elly and Miles. She is in the second grade now. She likes playing the piano, anything artsy, playing with friends, and helping her mom cook. She also is the best bed maker I know, and have often found her sneaking in bedrooms to make beds for them.

Elly is 2 and full of spunk. She loves to go to library class and a music and movement class at the church with me where we sing, dance, march, and read stories together. I think it is the highlight of her week, well that or nursery. She likes to have pretend tea parties with soda for her friends and stuffed animals. She also loves to wear my old apron my mom gave me at her age and help me in the kitchen. We had a fun time learning colors this year. We collected miscellaneous things from outside for the certain color we were learning about that week and glued it on a paper. It was fun to go back to preschool activities. I am really enjoying preschool with my kids.

Miles is 6 months now. He has very big blue eyes like Brynn's. He is largely a mellow baby, but certainly has days when he reminds everyone who is boss, and it is not me. He has recently learned he can get to most places in the room given enough time and by rolling. In another month or two he will gain a lot of speed and be crawling everywhere.

Some of the highlights for the year besides Miles' birth were seeing the ocean for the first time and playing in its bitter cold water, beach combing with Grandpa and Grandma Goodman, hiking in Bryce Canyon, visiting cousins in northern California, and going to Bishop's pumpkin farm there.

We appreciate all the love that has been shown to us this last year and years before. Thank you for the kindness and love you have given and enriching our lives. We wish you a merry Christmas, and hope you have a wonderful year full of love and kind acts.

Love,

Matt, Stacey, Talmage, Brynn, Elly, and Miles.

Fall break trip to California

2010-10-31T20:27:00.003-06:00

We went to California for Fall break a couple of weeks ago. I forgot my camera though, so all of our pictures came from Matt's iphone. So, I am late in posting them. Sorry it is another post of many pictures.
This is Brynn and Elly with their new cousin Shayla. Shayla is 2 weeks older than Miles. She is a doll. The kids loved meeting her and holding her.
During our quick stay we went to the local pumpkin farm. Having been to many pumpkin farms I expected to be much like our local farms. I was mistaken. It is huge! It is like the Idaho state fair almost in size comparison and fun activities to do.
These two shots were while we were waiting for the pig races to occur. They had naspig racing. It was fun to see the piggies squeal around their race track.

(She is always on the go, no matter where we are!)

Elly liked to pick the small pumpkins and tote them around. She was upset when we had to put it back, but we couldn't fit anything else in our car, let alone pumpkins to take back home.
Here's Natalie and Ethan picking out their pumpkin. The kids loved getting together with their cousins to play.
Jonny and Shayla striking a pose. I couldn't believe how many fields of pumpkins they had there. Jonny is also standing by this prevalent weed that had a thorn ball type thing that was got up to the size of a tennis ball with massive thorns.

Anyways, we had a super time visiting family. Thanks to everyone for driving up, feeding us, putting up with us, and putting us up. We had a wonderful time. We will look forward to our next get together when ever that will be.

Halloween memories and treats

2010-10-28T14:36:00.004-06:00

As a child my family would go all out for Halloween, or at least it seemed to me that way. My sister Kara would head up the responsibility to decorate the house. All of us younger kids would pitch in the fun as well. Kara would string a paper ghost up to a fishing line that hung from the second story window to the fence post at the bottom of the yard, with a tow line to pull it back up. We loved to drop the ghost down and try to scare the trick-or-treaters. Some years I remember having dry ice fog and other spooky things (spooky at least as I remember them).

Another fun thing I remember as a child is my parents really enjoying Halloween as well. They loved to get the king size candy bars to give out to the little ghosts and goblins. I think my dad initially insisted on that because he always loved the house on his street that would give out the large candy bars for treats. He wanted to be that house. My mom loved to count the trick-or-treaters. Not surprisingly their house became popular quickly. They often would have between 100-150 treaters.

Unfortunately, I don't do all those fun things I remember as a child, but here are some of the things we do. My kids like to decorate the house as well. I buy them the spider webs and they have at it. This is their latest creation. You may see the large spider in the middle of the web.

I am trying to decide if I should clip it and mend it up the walkway. As it is no one can get to our door, unless you crawl under the web. It might be a hazard on Halloween night. Oh those pumpkins were the ones we grew from our garden. Not too bad considering they were choked with weeds and it stunted their growth until July/August when Matt and I weeded the garden. Weeding is not my forte anyways, but when I have a baby, I just completely ignore that it even exists.

Since we live on a busy street we don't get a lot of trick-or-treaters. Sometimes we get less than 20. My neighbor gives the kids delicious homemade treats. I started doing the same the last few years. The first year I made caramel apples. We usually had about 15 neighborhood kids come. I made 30 to be safe. I also had some candy bars to give away in case it was taboo to get a homemade gift for someone. We had 50 that year. We completely ran out of apples and candy bars. We had to send people away empty handed. :(. Oh well.
This year I am making popcorn balls and homemade ghost suckers. I found a wonderful recipe. Here is the link. I tried the Paula Dean recipe for popcorn balls, but it attempted and almost succeeded in ripping out all the dental work in my mouth. Way too sticky. This one is made with marshmallows and kind of tastes like rice crispie treats with popcorn. Very Yummy!

To end this post I thought I would post a picture of Miles in his bat costume. I think he is so cute in it. We love Halloween. Such a fun time to dress up and make sweet goodies. Can't wait to see all your posts on your own Halloween traditions and kids in costumes.

Miles 4 months

2010-10-25T11:23:00.005-06:00

We just went in for Miles' four month check up, and left with shots for both babies and appointments for shots for Talmage and Brynn later in the day. It is going to be a great day. This year everyone is getting flu shots to help keep Miles safe.
Anyways here are his stats:
He is 26 inches tall which is close to 90%, and weighs close to 16 lbs (15 lbs 14 oz). Which is in the 75% for his age.

Miles squeals and coos a lot. He doesn't laugh a lot, but after much effort, Matt and I can get some good giggles from him. He generally sleeps pretty well, although the last few weeks he has been waking up more. He doesn't usually cry in the night, just squeals loudly with delight till I come in and feed him. If I ignore him he will go back to sleep, but it could be up to an hour of squealing before he drifts off. His hair is beginning to come in, but it is so light it is hard to see, so he is sporting the bald look. We get a lot of comments on his big bright blue eyes, and how much he looks like his big sister Brynn. We are really enjoying his personality in our home. He is a fun fun boy.

It's the best time of the year!

2010-10-13T14:03:00.002-06:00

I just finished making these, and I had to post them to show to someone.

I usually try to make one homemade gift for each of my children at Christmas time. They offered to teach these at Super Saturday, and I thought they would be perfect. Elly is always grabbing Brynn's apron and claiming it, and Brynn's apron's ties are on their last legs anyways. So here is my solution: new aprons all around. I thought they were so cute. I got the Strawberry Shortcake material on clearance as well so Elly's apron ended up costing less than $5 I think. My kids love the reversible aprons too. It is such a fun thing with Brynn to decide which color she wants to have show.

Anyways, here is the finished product.

Family Pictures

2010-10-03T21:02:00.008-06:00

My wonderful sister-in-law Allyson took some family photos for us. After two hours of taking pictures we have one family photo where most of us are looking at the camera. She is a saint for putting up with us. This top photo shows us in all our chaos. Elly missed her nap, so she made things especially interesting. But thanks to Allyson's talent we got some real jewels. Here are a few of them and some showing our family's chaos.

This is Talmage's karate move caught on camera.

I love this photo of Elly being a little imp. She is actually sneaking some smarties. Allyson had brought a large bag of smarties to try to bribe her.

Miles spent a good deal of time being mad as well. He was tired and probably hungry. You can see he is wasting away to nothing.

I really like this photo of Brynn. She is just growing up too fast.

Talmage bored.

I can't believe how big my boy is getting. It doesn't seem that long ago we were reading every dinosaur book we could find. I am so glad I can be mom to my wonderful kids.

This is a classic Elly shot. She is such my firecracker. She keeps Matt and I laughing all the time with her mischievousness.

I love my family. I just feel so lucky to share this life with them.
Thanks Allyson! You are amazing in so many ways.

This and That

2010-09-22T13:26:00.006-06:00

This is a hodge podge of all the things we have been up to the last month or so.

Above we have Miles in his new crib! We moved him from the cradle into the crib in his own room. (Sigh) I mark that as the end of being a brand new newborn. But we are all sleeping better now. He often sleeps through most of the night. He really likes his 5:00 am feeding. But he usually sleeps from 9 to 5 so I am not complaining.
Here Brynn and Elly are modeling my first attempt to make clothing for my kids besides Halloween costumes. I always reasoned before that if I messed up, it didn't matter as it was a costume, and was suppose to look funny. I lacked confidence to try making real clothes, but Brynn was persistent in having a simple skirt. So I looked online and found this simple pattern, had some large left over scraps, and there you go two cute skirts in one afternoon.

Last week or so we were watching Preston while Jessa went to work. We took the kids to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. We had a fun time learning about where our food comes from, looking at all the farm animals, and playing on some of their toys.

Here is a little jail they have for the kids to play in. We had to take a picture here, especially with Preston's dad being a police officer.

They also had pony rides for the kids. Preston and Elly thought the horses looked too big to ride so only Brynn and Talmage went. Although I think in all the years we have gone, since Talmage was Elly's age, this is the first time Talmage willingly wanted to go on the horse.

Bridal Veil Falls Bike Ride

On Labor Day, we went for a family bike ride of sorts to Bridal Veil Falls. We don't have a proper bike trailer for two babies, so I took a nice jaunt in the jogging stroller instead. I tried at first to keep up with the bikers, but I am not in that kind of shape yet. Here are the babies. Miles was still getting broken into the stroller, so we spent some of the time being held by mom as he screamed a lot in the stroller.

Here are our bikers! They were super speedy.

After the bike ride they were exhausted. They took a nap in the stroller while the older kids played in the water from the waterfall.

As you can see from this picture, everyone had the same idea. It was as crowded as I have ever seen it. But we had a lot of fun.

The kids also went bouldering with Dad last Saturday, but Matt forgot to take any pictures. They had a great time, but were tired and ready to leave according to Matt by the end. But the kids reported that the day was "Awesome". So I think they enjoyed themselves.

Miles 2 months

2010-08-26T11:24:00.009-06:00

Miles is a little over 2 months now. We just took him in for his 2 month check up now, so I only needed to take two kids to the doctors with the others back in school. He has really chunked up the last month or so. Here are his stats.

Weight - 13.3 lbs --- just under 75%
Height - 23 1/4 inches --- just above the 50%
Head circumference - 40 cm --- 50%

All my kids really chunk up by 2 months, but Miles I think takes the cake for the most. He has got cute rolls on his chin, bum and legs now. He will stay that way till he really get mobile.

In these two months he has had his share of trauma. Here is his list.

My body stalling at an 8 for two hours during labor. I am sure that didn't feel good.
Being posterior, and having to turn in the birth canal
At two weeks he had his circumcision. The nurse forgot to apply vaseline to the gauze, which then could not be removed, no matter how much water was applied, (a scab had formed over it). Three days and a whole container of vaseline later it finally came off.
Caught a nasty cold at one month, made breathing extremely difficult for several days.
At two months had a skull fracture scare and needed x-rays, luckily they came back negative.

As for the skull fracture scare, it happened on Monday. I was exercising on the wii fit. Miles was next to me on the bouncer chair. One of my older children was playing on the executive style computer chair and somehow caused it to turn it over with the arm rest landing directly over Miles' eye including their 45 lb frame and the weight of the large chair hitting the baby's head. When I had rescued Miles, he had an indentation in his forehead over his eye about a quarter inch deep. So we loaded everyone up and headed to the doctor. She feared a skull fracture and the effects of bleeding on the brain. Next, we then headed to the hospital for X-rays. Luckily everything came back fine. I just had to watch for odd behavior as a sign for a slow bleed on the brain. But those never showed up either; he has been acting completely normal, smiles and all. After about 10 minutes the indentation disappeared and just showed some bruising, and amazingly enough now he only has the slightest bruise. We really felt like he was being watched over and protected. The kids and I knelt and prayed to thank Heavenly Father after the ordeal was finished. Needless to say it was a stressful day for the family, mom especially, and we are thrilled everything is fine. I posted this picture because if you look closely you can barely see the bruise above his eye. I am so amazed that after so much weight landed on him, this is the only mark.

We are so glad he is in our family!

Bryce Canyon

2010-08-15T21:32:00.006-06:00

Sorry this is a long post with mostly pictures. I wish I knew how to condense the pictures down, and then you could just enlarge the ones you want to see, but alas, I do not so this is what you get.
We just took our family camp trip to Bryce Canyon and loved it. We have wanted to go camping as a family for awhile, but with the new baby, it got pushed back till shortly before school started. It was harder to camp with a new baby this year than it was when Elly was little because we also had Elly. She is crazy and always on the go. I think it is hardest to camp with one and two year olds. Luckily we get 4 years in a row between Elly and Miles. Anyways here are some of the photos of Bryce.

The views there are gorgeous. We were lucky enough to camp 2 1/2 days there. We went on three hikes. Here are some of the highlights. You can see the path has some drop offs. We kept Elly in the backpack usually for her safety, our peace of mind, and because the hikes were really strenuous. (At least I thought so). But they are incredibly beautiful.

The have tunnels carved out of the rocks in several places along the hikes in the hoodoos, (name for the pillar structures formed out of the rocks). Here is Brynn in one while hiking in Queen's Garden.
This is at a lunch stop on our last day. We didn't have many photos of Miles, so we captured the moment. (Of course this was after a blowout, being peed on and changing him on a fallen log. Gotta love camping).

This is how Miles spent most of the days while we were hiking, asleep in his baby carrier. I think that was the best investment I made with Elly. I have gotten more use out of that carrier than I ever imagined.
On the first day, after an intense hike of the Navajo Loop, we took the kids to a light hike called Mossy Cave. Here they have a water fall and the kids can soak their feet in safe places along the creek. That was one of the highlights of the trip for them.

Here they are catching water droplets from the Mossy Cave.

One of the prettiest hikes I think I have been on is the Navajo Loop. This is coming back up it along the Wall Street area. Unfortunately my camera is not fancy enough to catch the colors in this lighting, but it is amazing.

We did let Elly out along the rim when it was guarded by rails. You can see her excitement with her new found freedom. (This was also the first night before we had run them down with the hiking and the heat).

This is the only shot we have currently with everyone in the family. The lighting isn't good, and the kids look less than excited, but at least everyone is represented.
Elly glad to be out of the back pack, and her dad is glad too. She got heavier and heavier as the vacation wore on.

By the time the vacation and last hike was over, this is how we felt, exhausted, and dragging our feet back to camp. We ended up heading to the local town to get ice cream to reward the kids for being such good hikers, and they were too. They liked to name the different hoodoos, and rock formations. They are really imaginative with their names. It was a fun way to enjoy the hike to name our surroundings.

One of the highlights as well for the kids was to go to an astronomy program presented by the park rangers. After wards they got to look through a high powered telescope at some of the constellations. We had to leave a little early because Miles was fussy (and it was hard to keep track of Elly in the dark). But we did see several shooting stars and a beautiful night sky covered in more stars than I can remember.
It was such a fun trip, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys scenic backgrounds and isn't afraid of a good hike. What a great way to spend a couple of days.

Highland Splash Park

2010-08-09T10:11:00.004-06:00

Here is Miles all ready for church. Thanks Amber for the cute tie outfits. We have really enjoyed them. You can see his cute rolls coming in. He has really chunked up the last few weeks.

I took the kids to the new Highland splash park. It was such a fun morning. I put Miles in the carrier, and stayed with Elly the whole time to keep her safe. Then let the older kids play in the water as they wanted. It was perfect because the park is small enough I could always see where they were and yet everyone had a wonderful time.
The park stops running water periodically throughout the day to provide and opportunity for the kids to have a potty break. Here they are soaking up the last of the water before it drains.

I love this shot of Elly with her face terrified to lay down even with the water turned off. As soon as I took out the camera several kids in the park came running to say cheese, so I don't know most of these kids in this shot.

Elly got braver and braver as the day went on. First she had to just stick her hand in the water to test out the squirting water. Here is one of those moments.

It was a fun fun day!

One motivation to help potty train a Goodman

2010-07-31T10:19:00.002-06:00

As many of you know we have been battling stomach flu here. Luckily it only hit Matt, Elly and me. The bug had moved from Elly's stomach to her intestines. We were fortunate enough to have 3 blowouts with one nasty mess on the carpet from a blowout. After that experience I thought it would be easier to try sitting on the toilet when she snuck off to do her business. Elly is terrified of the toilet. Finally I bribed her with the iphone and she agreed to sit on the toilet for awhile. I chuckled thinking she is her father's daughter with her love of technology.
This photo is for you Amber. This is Miles at 6 weeks on his diaper pad. I figured I spend most of my day changing diapers. We have gone through 200 in about 4 weeks.

July's theme....sleep deprivation

2010-07-27T15:39:00.002-06:00

It seems in my life that I have reoccurring themes. This month is lack of sleep. As I stated in my earlier post Miles caught a cold, and had some serious congestion. I spent 2 nights up most of the night to help him sit up to breathe easier. Then life got somewhat better, and I just woke up more often with him to feed, comfort and become proficient with the booger snatcher. Now we are almost back to normal with waking up one or two times a night for a feeding.
Matt's company released a product this month. He had mandatory overtime. He was waking up early and staying late to get their product ready. Then on the night they released it, he went into work at 9:00 pm stayed till 2:30 am. Then returned to work by 6:00 am the next day. It took him a few days to catch on his lost sleep then (he got out of mowing the lawn that Saturday).

Last night Elly caught the pukes. She was up from 3:00 am on. Matt got to be her puke bowl catcher, as I was busy with Miles already. But I stayed up anyways from 3-5 worrying about one of my kids and something I had heard the day before. So today has been a little relaxed at our home. I snagged some pictures of my sleeping babies, as they are the main reason we stay up. Miles unfortunately woke up when I sneaked up to take his picture. Elly was so tired she fell into a light sleep laying on the chair. She stayed that way for about 15 minutes before she laid on the tile to rest for a little bit. So funny.

Fourth of July celebrations and other stuff

2010-07-26T07:40:00.007-06:00

I haven't been very good about posting what we have been up to. Miles caught a cold from Elly and Talmage. (I think Elly was sucking on Miles' pacifier unawares to us till after we gave it to Miles). For several days last week I was suffering from acute sleep deprivation. But all is well now, or at least he isn't nearly as congested as before. Here are some pictures from Matt's new iphone showing some things we have been up to.

For the Fifth of July (Matt had Monday off) we went on a picnic up the canyon, and then we went to Cascade Springs. Cascade is one of favorite places. It is so beautiful I think. Unfortunately we didn't get many shots of the scenic background. Elly is now two and is sure she must lead the pack in everything. We spent a lot of our time trying to keep her within eye shot. We have a video you can slightly hear her say no to Matt when he is asking what she is doing. She was adamant she be in front, that didn't always set well with Brynn nor with Mom and Dad because she would run off in all sorts of places. Adjustment with Miles has been harder than when Elly was born. A lot of that is because I have a two year old to look after with the baby. When Elly was born Talmage and Brynn were able to look after themselves somewhat, at least required less intervention than Elly. On a side note update to Elly her new favorite words are "my turn, no, and Elly." Elly means she wants to look at pictures of herself. She keeps us laughing and on our toes.

Talmage and Brynn went on a hike to the 'G' in Pleasant Grove with Matt. They had a great time, at least they said they did. Looking at the video, looks like they were hot and tired.

This is them standing next to the 'G'. It is interesting how they made the 'G' on the mountain. Grandpa Goodman told them that the 'G' stands for Goodman. We all enjoy thinking that now.
For the Fourth of July we got some fireworks to light off at home. Here are the kids waving their sparklers around. Those were one of the big hits. Elly isn't too sure about them. She got a small burn on her hand when she picked up a fire spark. She liked to get one and then run and throw it in the water bucket we had close by. Eventually though she got the hang of it.

We had a fun Fourth of July weekend with our different activities. It is hard to believe we have less than a month left before the kids go back to school.

Lessons I have learned being a mom of Four

2010-07-08T07:58:00.004-06:00

1. Failure is always an option!
Every Wednesday is Mythbusters night for our family. We all love to gather and watch the latest installment of science experiments. One of their catch phrases is "Failure is always and option." As a parent of four, I can't do everything. I couldn't do it before. Somethings I have to let go and fail, like my front flower bed right now. It is more important to get clean clothes for my family, spend quality time with my kids, or to take some me time and read a good book. Since I can't do everything, I try to not kick myself when it is not perfect.

2. When your kids learn to read, it doesn't always make life easier, but definitely more interesting.
I have tried to read what my kids read. A lady I worked with gave some great advice to me to read everything your kids read so you can discuss it with them. I confess I haven't been able to keep up with all the books my kids read, and I also think you can only read so many Diary of a Wimpy kid books. But I have tried to read at least one from each series they are reading. That has been so fun for me and also introduced me to some great books. It also validates to my children that I value and respect what they find interesting.
On the humorous side, I bought Talmage some pajamas the other day. He read the label that said this garment was not flame resistant and to be safely used as pajamas the clothes needed to be snug to keep from catching fire. You know the warning posted. I am sure you have read them. Anyways, Talmage asked why I bought the pj's a size bigger, and then asked if I was trying to kill him because they wouldn't be snug in case of a fire. He then asked if the the pj's were real garments, as in holy temple garments. The rest of the conversation went like this.
Talmage - "What kind of bleach do you have?"
Mom - "I think there is only one kind of bleach."
Talmage - "Is it non chlorine bleach? Because it says not to wash my pj's in chlorine bleach."
Mom - "I am not going to bleach your pj's, but thanks for the heads up."
Talmage - "Also you are not to iron or dry clean these."
Mom - "Don't worry. I am not going to iron or pay for someone to wash your pj's." I only use the iron in extreme need. I am pretty sure I won't be ironing sleep wear soon.

3. Vaseline and 48 hours can work wonders
Miles just had his circumcision. The nurse didn't put vaseline on the gauze, or at least not nearly enough. A few hours later I changed his diaper, and it was stuck good. We gave him a bath and poured glass after glass of water on him for 45 minutes, but it didn't budge. Miles was starting to get cold so we had to take him out. We ended up calling the Dr. and they said to watch it for infection, but it should come off on its own when the skin healed and replaced the scab. (There was some light bleeding). It was causing a lot of stress for Matt and myself. But sure enough 1 large container of vaseline and 48 hours later the gauze finally came off with little pain to Miles.

4. Worse things can happen than being pooped on.
Having a new baby boy, I have been peed and pooped on multiple times a day. As a teenager, it would have been revolting to me. Not that I enjoy it, but definitely worse things could happen, like taking all 4 kids to the store. :)

Miles photo shoot

2010-07-03T11:38:00.004-06:00

Elly couldn't be left out of the photo shoot.

Thanks Allyson! I love these shots. You did a great job.

Miles

2010-06-23T08:43:00.004-06:00

Miles James Goodman was born on June 16 at 10:04 in the morning. Matt finally got his wish to have a baby in the day and not the middle of the night. He was my biggest baby by one whole pound. He weighed 7lbs and 7oz. He has been my easiest labor, delivery, and recovery I think. But his labor and delivery were so easy because of the epidural. I have become a convert, for at least my experiences. Matt also called that Miles would have light colored hair. I didn't believe him as all our children have had a black hair, but sure enough Miles is our lightest colored. We are enjoying it before he loses it. All our children so far have been bald by two months.

Miles has a little bit of curls too in his hair when it is wet. But it comes out when it is combed. We will see when it gets longer if he keeps his wavy hair or if it straight and fine.

This is Miles getting ready to leave the hospital. He is holding his pacifier tight in his mouth. So far he is my only one who will take a pacifier. We wished Talmage would take one as he was so colicky. But to no avail.

We had a busy couple of days after Miles was born. It was Brynn's birthday the day we came home from the hospital. Here is Brynn opening one of her presents. She was so excited for me to come home so she could get into her presents. Bless her heart to wait. That is the ultimate sacrifice for a child. I didn't take a still shot of her cake unfortunately. She wanted a Peek-a-Boo cake. I made the cake before I went into the hospital, so all we had to do was take it out of the freezer.
Here is Miles on his blessing day. We blessed him the day after Brynn's birthday so we could do that before Glenn and Janna left for California. Here he is doing what he does best so far and that is sleep.
The first few days Matt only saw his eyes open a handful of times. He is staying awake more than before, but it is still limited times during the day. We will see how long that lasts, but for now we are enjoying it.

Then Sunday was Father's day. We made smoothies for Glenn and Matt for breakfast (I just delivered a few days before, I couldn't make a huge breakfast). Then we had a nice halibut dinner Matt grilled. It was a nice day, but by the end I was worn out from the last 3 busy days.

Janna and Glenn were wonderful enough to come up and take care of our kids while Matt and I were in the hospital. They made it possible for Matt to come visit me while I was recovering there. They also did a great deal at home for me, so I could rest. I really appreciated them and their service they gave our family. Matt has also been a huge help getting me through this week. We are all so glad Miles is here,

What I have been up to!

2010-06-08T17:10:00.003-06:00

I have been busy with several projects the last few months. I have almost finished them, so I thought I would post a few pictures showing what I have been doing. The top picture is a blanket I just finished for Miles. I am not much of a seamstress, but I do like to make blankets. I made a blanket similar to this for Elly, but I had my mom to help me. I was really intimidated to make this one, but luckily I remembered the tricks my mom used. It has that ultra soft fuzz material on the back. It is difficult to work with because it stretches so much. But I only had to take out one side. Not too bad with my track record.
Spring cleaning/nesting kicked in heavy in May. I organized all my cupboards. This was one of the worst as it has the kids' art supplies. We will see how long they stay organized, but it is nice while it lasts.
My largest project has been painting and decorating Brynn's and soon to be Elly's room too. It took me a while to decide if I liked the paint color, but it grew on me.
I bought the dresser used. It has high quality carpentry. I got it less than the cheap walmart dresser we bought when Matt and I got married. The only problem is it smells of smoke. We have used vinegar and let it sit in the sun. But it still hasn't solved the problem. We will add some cedar planks a little later and see if that helps. Anyone have any great ideas on how to rid furniture of cigarette smoke? I am open to suggestions. I love the dresser, just wished it smelled better.
I wish I could have got a better picture of the curtains, but the light from the window made it weird. We have a few more stickers to put up. (I hate them. They are so tedious, but I think they add a lot to the room). We also want to put up some shelves so Brynn can keep her precious things out of Elly's hands. All in all quite pleased with the girl room we created.
Lastly I took this picture to show yard work. Matt and I have been furiously weeding. I finished mine though at the end of May. After I planted the garden, weeded the flowerbeds, and strawberry patch twice, I told myself I would have to stop come June. It is too hard to stay down that low with delivery being at the most a few weeks away. But finally after 5 years of living in the home with massive weeds everywhere, I think Matt and I have the flower beds at least somewhat tamed with the weed tarp, preen, (round up too) and mulch. We will see. This year though Matt used kill everything for 4 months Round Up on the flower beds, so I can't plant anything. But I couldn't take care of them likely anyways with the new baby. The one large open spot is going to be my grape arbor. Matt is really glad he gets to build that for me too, I am sure.

Well, that is what I have been up to the last few months. Now I have been just resting getting ready for Miles to come.

Perks of helping mom bake

2010-05-30T09:10:00.002-06:00

My girls love to help me in the kitchen. I am sure this is one of the reasons why. It brings back memories of me as a child. I loved to help my mom bake anything too.

Elly's Birthday

2010-05-30T08:42:00.005-06:00

We just celebrated Elly's second birthday on Thursday. The poor girl has to share her season with Pinewood Derby and has had to make some sacrifices. Last year pinewood derby fell on her birthday. It was a crazy time anyways because my mom was so sick with cancer, and we were moving my parents to Utah. Matt went I both went to Idaho Falls at separate times to help pack, move, and take care of my mom during the last half of May last year. So by the time pinewood derby came around for Talmage, Matt had to take a day off or so to finish up Talmage's car. (We also received much help from my brother Bill each year. It is much appreciated). We celebrated Elly's birthday a day late last year. This year she just had to wait till evening to open her presents instead of first thing because I hadn't wrapped them from exhaustion from the pinewood derby the night before. Just one more year of sacrifice from her. On the up note, Talmage again loved the pinewood derby, and he had one of the fastest cars. His won every race but one. He placed fourth overall.
On to the purpose of this post though, Elly's birthday. Elly turned two. She is in love with her stuffed pig she got at Christmas. She carries it most places. So for her birthday I made a pig cake to match her stuffed pig. I am not sure if she caught the resemblance or not. Oh well. Elly also got some jewelry that she loves putting on and off, and placing in her new jewelry box. She has been chasing Talmage and Brynn and trying to have them wear her jewelry as well. Last she got some baby dolls. We are all on the same page in helping her adjust to the upcoming new baby. Which is good. She loves to point out all the baby dolls' body parts. I would rather she practices that on her baby doll than Miles.
The next day I heard Elly talking in her sing songy voice different random things. I went to go check on her and I found this. You can't tell by this photo, but behind her pig she has several more small stuffed animals and her jewelry box. She got them all on the rocker and is reading them some stories. She loves books, and usually doesn't rip them. We hope that continues as we are frequenting the library more often with school being out. She has to check out some books too. She can't be left out of anything.
Now that Elly is two, she is exercising more independence. She has learned the word no, and especially loves to tell Brynn no in the nastiest voice she can muster. We are trying to work on that one. She has been a delight and joy for our family. She is always climbing and extremely active. I think she is her father reincarnated at times. Often I will find her just hanging by counters, chairs, bars, or anything else supporting her weight. It is almost like she is trying to do a pull up. We have a pull up bar she begs to hang from and will just hang supporting her own weight for almost a minute. It never ceases to amaze me. Happy Birthday Elly! Glad you are a part of our family.

A true sign of love

2010-05-12T08:50:00.004-06:00

Matt has many talents and strengths, but he often feels out of his comfort zone in the kitchen. In fact when Matt and I were engaged, Matt had moved into our new apartment and no longer had his built in cook with his adopted Aunt Pat, so his mom encouraged him to eat out a lot during that time. She was worried about his ability to cook for himself. In past years, he has increased his familiarity with the cooking scene. He has gotten quite good at steaks on the BBQ and the cast iron skillet. Also he has learned some basics to hold us over when I am completely incapacitated with morning sickness. (Like how to warm up any premade food for the kids).
Matt is also a stickler for reading and following the directions. I remember when we bought some prefabricated furniture that needed to be assembled when we were first married. Matt immediately broke out the instructions. I just got into the parts and figured only idiots read the directions. After a few futile attempts I ate my humble pie and asked him what he learned from the instructions. I have learned to greatly appreciate this quality over and over again as his work usually stays together, and is much higher quality than I remember mine being. He is always very thorough.
So I shouldn't have been surprised when I saw this on the counter on Mother's day. Matt and the kids woke up early and made a yummy breakfast of toast and fruit smoothie for me. When I went into the kitchen I asked him about why the cookbook was open to scrambled eggs on the counter. Matt told me he was going to make scrambled eggs, but I had made omelets the night before, so he opted against it. I never even knew they had written down a recipe for scrambled eggs. I was honestly touched that he would go so out of his comfort zone just to wish me a happy mother's day. I felt it was a true sign of love and devotion to be so humble. (Then I secretly laughed a little at his trait to follow the directions for everything).
I should also mention in his defense he grilled some delicious steaks for dinner that night. He didn't look at one cookbook either. Thank you honey for the great memory.

An awkward situation

2010-05-07T08:35:00.002-06:00

My mother graduated from BYU in Nutrition Science. She went on to study in Boston, and received equivalent of a Masters Degree while interning at Mass General to become a dietitian. Once her training was completed she moved to Washington DC and worked at the National Institute of Health for several years. She lived at a time when it was uncommon for women to graduate from BYU without being married. Once she told me of attending a dance back East, and a young man there found out my mom's school history and asked her what was the matter with her that she should graduate and not be able to get married. My mother was engaged to my father at the ripe old age of 24. She waited for my father to serve his mission in Scotland and was married at 26. But that is another story.

While in Washington DC she dated several different men. There was one whom she became very serious. As was described to me that their relationship was such, that she was only waiting for him to propose. It seemed to be mutual. Then all of the sudden, he dropped my mom like a hot rock. He no longer contacted her, and left the relationship without explanation. As it happened that his roommate had a connection to my mom's roommate. Through this connection it was discovered that my mom's old romeo dropped her because she had a negative blood type and feared my mother wouldn't be able to bear many if any children. But lest we fear my mom later met my dad and everything worked out.

Skip to another train of thought. My father entered the Navy at age 18. It was here that he gained a testimony of the church. As he traveled around the world on his icebreaker he met members from everywhere. He was touched by the generosity of so many who would notice he was by himself and would invite him to a Sunday family dinner. This started a quality I admire in my father. He is quick to introduce himself to anyone at church, and would often invite them to dinner at our home. (Sometimes with little or no notice for my mother. We would hear the door knock and my dad would say, "Oh, I invited so and so over for dinner. This must be them." She always handled it with grace as our Sunday dinners were always fine, and had plenty of food).

One day at church, when I was about 14 or so, my dad met a man who was visiting our ward in Idaho Falls. He was by himself, as he was checking out the area for his new job transfer, without his family. My dad, of course, introduces himself and invites him to dinner. Much to my mother's dismay it happens to be her old flame, who was discussed earlier. I think my dad was quite pleased to show off my mom, our family, and her cooking prowess. Kind of a nee near nee near nee near thing I guess. Most of us children were at the awkward stage who would easily say something completely inappropriate to embarrass all involved. We were threatened on point of our lives to keep all comments of that nature to ourselves.
Dinner went over well of course. I don't think this man had any clue whose house he had been invited to. It seemed to be a shock to him as I remember when everything clicked. I am sure it must have been awkward for both him and my mom. But I guess you never know what will come around in the future, and common courtesy in your actions will always pay off later.

The Tale of Two Rings

2010-04-23T09:22:00.002-06:00

I am wearing my wedding ring and my Great Grandmother Taggart's wedding ring in this photo. The picture doesn't do it justice. Her's is gold with four silver implants with two flowers (much worn) stamped in the medal. It is done good taste.
I think these rings represent well the massive accumulation of wealth our society has seen in the last hundred years. My Great Grandmother, Valeria Ann Laird Taggart, was married sometime in the 1890's; I was married in the year 2000, so roughly a hundred years difference. I think both the rings also represent well the average middle class rings for their times. My Great Grandfather was a farmer, which didn't accumulate massive wealth, but I think it was the common employment at the time. I would classify them in the middle economic class.

As I was looking at these rings, I felt somewhat gluttonous at all the wealth we take for granted, the same feeling as when I heard about the refugee family who walked into a Smiths and started to cry because they had never seen so much food before in one place. Our rings today often have diamonds in them. Mine as shown has several small diamonds and one larger one. It also hit me while pondering the difference between the monetary value of the two rings of the Nephite pride cycle illustrated in the Book of Mormon. We have just been so abundantly blessed with wealth in this nation, and have been so much so that we don't even realize the greatness of our material wealth. At least to me it comes as a slap in the face at times of all that I have been blessed with and didn't even realize it.

For my memory this week I have a story connected to my Great Grandmother Taggart. If I have recalled the facts wrong, I hope one of my Hatch cousins will set me straight. But this is the story as I remember my mother telling it to me.

Valeria died around 1940 in a car accident, close to the year my mother was born. She has been described to me as being a fun personality who brought joy to others. She is one, many of my relatives look anxiously to meet partly because she died young, and many of her progenitors have not the pleasure of physically meeting her.

My mother told me a story of her wanting to pull a prank on her daughters. The daughters slept in one bedroom together, at least some of them. Valeria put on some overalls and made herself to look like a man. She wanted to climb into their room and give them a good scare. She went around back, climbed over the fence and then went to the girls' window. She got the window open and tried to go through. My Great Grandmother's plans were foiled though because she was carrying a some extra weight and got stuck in the window. She could neither get in nor out. She started to laugh heartily and and the girls immediately recognized their mom's voice and called her on her prank. To me she sounds like a funny woman who can easily laugh at herself, a truly great quality to have.

Easter digs and Talmage's birthday

2010-04-23T08:47:00.007-06:00

Talmage just turned 9 on the 19th. He has been so excited counting down to his birthday. He kept waking up early and asking if it was the 19th yet. Then he would be a little remorse that he didn't sleep in when his birthday was still a few days away.
Here are a few shots of Talmage opening presents. He loves Diary of a Wimpy kid right now. He has almost their complete collection.
Here he is opening Grandpa and Grandma Goodman's presents. He also loves Geronimo Stilton books, so that was a huge success, and the cross sectionals book he has read every night before going to bed. Thank you. My kids always love the books you pick out for them.
Here is Talmage getting a new wii game. He loved playing the Mario game at Uncle Daniel's home the other day. He is pretty proud to have his own game. (His dad is too).
Talmage wanted a clone storm trooper cake for his birthday. I love the picture above. I was trying to hurry and snap a picture of it when Elly climbed on the table and jabbed her finger into the cake to lick the icing.

These are our Easter digs. I had to snag a photo of the kids getting ready for family prayers. Elly loves to crowd right in the middle and copy everything her siblings are doing.
Brynn's allergies have really been acting up, so taking a picture outside was difficult for her by the time we got to the group shot.

My memoir - Packy

2010-04-15T13:51:00.003-06:00

My mother in law gave me a wonderful book for my birthday called "Funny in Farsi". I loved it. I was drawn to it because of Farsi in the title. Farsi is the language spoken in Iran. My mother taught me some words like (pronounced at least this way) horse shid. It is Farsi for orange juice. As kids we always thought that was funny. My mother spent most of her high school years in Iran. She graduated from a Christian school there. My Grandfather started working for the US embassy at this time and was assigned to work in Iran for several years. He spent a few decades traveling the world for his work, teaching people how to be more effective in their agriculture endeavors.

Anyways in this book, the author tells the story of her family's transition from Iranian culture to the American culture. She records many humorous instances and idiosyncrasies of members of her family. It got me thinking that I would like to do the same thing for my posterity. So once a week or so I am going to try to record a memory significant to me for my posterity. If anyone else out there finds them interesting or entertaining as I do, then all the better.

Packy

My dad loves dogs. We have always had a dog as a part of the family as long as I can remember. My mother at first was adamantly against having them in the home, and on the furniture I might add. She would cover the couches with newspapers at night so she could hear the dog if it overstepped her bounds. Eventually though my mother succumbed to their pets' love and affection, and probably the weariness of the endless hassle. One of the last dogs they had, my dad had to compete for a place on my parents' bed. This dog Mokey, loved my mom, and didn't like my dad getting too close to her.

But this story is about one of our dogs named Pack Rat. We had a wonderful golden retriever named Jock. He was about 120-150 lbs, a huge, wonderful loving dog. He would pull us down and then back up the local sledding hill. The smaller kids would ride him like a horse. We have many great memories of this dog. Anyways, he had terrible arthritis and needed to be put down. My parents wanted to soften the blow for us kids so they were looking for a dog to replace Jock.
As I have stated earlier (in Let's go fly a kite post) my dad has a weakness to only have the best of certain things and dogs would qualify in that category. He always had a dream of owning a great field trial or show dog. My dad loved hunting, so having a dog who could retrieve multiple kills as an art form (what qualifies a field trial dog) was very appealing to him. He did some research and discovered the top field trial dog was a golden retriever name Mighty Moe. Mighty Moe also had a niece who was up for sale name Pack Rat, or Packy. My dad really wanted this dog. The only problem was she cost $500 in mid to late 1980's that is not including the airplane ticket to fly her to Idaho from California. This was a big stretch for my family's finances.

In my dad's research he took several of us kids to a field trial match where the great Mighty Moe was to compete. We traveled a few hours to the match and watched him fetch several dummies (small material styrofoam things about the shape of a newspaper) in consecutive order. He was an ugly dog, although it was apparent he was very intelligent. He was small with wiry hair, nothing like Jock our golden retriever at home. This should have been a warning to my dad as to the type of dog he was thinking of purchasing, but my dad was looking through rose colored glasses.
This excursion finalized my father's decision to get Packy. He only had one obstacle left, my mother. She was adamant they not spend $500 on a dog. It was one of the biggest battles I remember my parents having. There was about two weeks where my parents didn't speak to each other. When they did it was a good battle to be heard. (I might add that my mother was usually generally meek and mild, but I think had found that this was one of the only ways to communicate with my father when he had made up his mind on something she felt wrong for our family. I am not sure how well he would have listened if she would have mildly opposed him on decisions he had his heart set upon). One time I remember them having a heated battle in the kitchen. My brother Erin, called me to the piano and told me to sing as loud as I could, not a problem for me. He started to play the hymn "Love at Home," so of course I belted it loudly and tried to sing it sweetly. Every time I think of this I just start laughing, how awkward it must have been to argue with such obnoxious children.

As the two weeks drew on, the strain was apparent to all in the family. I remember being very concerned for my parent's marriage. As I was coming home from running errands with my mother I remember asking her if they were going to get a divorce. She answered, "Why don't you go ask your father." It didn't really comfort me at the time, but I laugh heartily at that retort now. Shortly after that my mother relented to the outrages expenditure in her mind for the dog.

I remember all of us piling into the car to go to the airport to pick up Packy. We were so excited, none so much as my dad. When we got there, and were able to let the dog out of the carrier she traveled in, my dad was horrified by what he saw. His rose colored glasses were removed and reality set in. He thought he was getting this amazing and beautiful dog he could compete and breed. Packy was in fact one of the homeliest dogs I have ever seen. She had this course wiry hair, sharp pointed nose, and lopsided body because her back legs were longer than her front. She couldn't run straight because of the inconsistencies in her height. I will edit what my dad called her, but it was "a Weasel faced, wire haired, sawed off, side *$$ed runt." It was at that moment that my mother had a special place for Packy in her heart, and loved that dog.

We all laugh about it now thinking about my dad's great anticipation and then great disappointment, and of course not to leave out my mothers triumph. Although not spoken I am sure she felt a "I told you so."

Despite the rocky start, Packy was a wonderful pet. As a side note, she was called Pack Rat or Packy for short because she would gather things from the house and lay them neatly in a pile in the yard. One morning my parents found several pairs of their underwear in neat balls on the front yard. She often provided entertainment for us. Also of interest she more than repaid her fee as we bred her a few times and her pups were quickly sold.

Spring Break - the beach and Yuba City

2010-04-11T08:23:00.004-06:00

This year for Spring Break we went to Doran Beach in Bodega Bay and then to Grandpa and Grandma Goodman's in Yuba City. Doran Beach is about 3 hours away from where they live. We loved it. It was the first time our kids had seen the ocean. It was a long drive, but we figured the ocean wasn't getting any closer to us, so we might as well bite the bullet and take the drive. The water was freezing as to be expected in Northern California. But you couldn't tell that to Talmage and Brynn. They loved being out in the water jumping over waves.
This is one of my favorite pictures with Matt taking Elly out on the beach. She hated the water. When she would hear a wave crash she would run to the far side of the beach. I think part of it was how cold the water was. Brrrrr.
The kids also loved making sand castles and toting water to the mote. Elly liked breaking sand castles and digging in the sand.

Here are the long awaited kite pictures. We brought two kites, $1 kite, and my fancy dual control kite. Unfortunately we lost a stick from the $1 kite so we couldn't try to fly that one, and I don't think there was quite enough wind to get the dual control kite up. So while we were trying to fly it, we spent the whole time trying to get it up. Here Glenn is trying to help us get it up. He actually read the instructions. But alas even the instructions weren't enough to get it up.
Even though we never got the kite up, I laughed and laughed. I still believe the kite was well worth its $20. It was an hour of good entertainment. We also dive bombed a few of our neighbors while trying to fly it, in addition to Glenn and the kids. Scarying a few people away to give us a little more space wasn't the worst out come either.

Soaking up a few rays, or rather mom forcing everyone out of the water before hypothermia set in. Unfortunately I forgot sun screen so we all got sun burned. My feet were roasted and then caused some edema to set in, which was dreadfully painful being sunburnt. I spent much of my time after the beach sitting on the couch watching Matt do all the work of taking care of a family. He was wonderful, as were the rest of my extended family. Thank you for your help. After a day or two the pain lessened and so did the edema. We will see though if it is temporary or lasts till the baby comes.

Easter egg dying

2010-04-11T08:13:00.003-06:00

The kids had a great time dying Easter eggs this year, as always. Elly was especially excited about her eggs. Here are just a few shots of them.

Talmage's play

2010-04-11T07:59:00.003-06:00

In Talmage's school the third graders put on the play, Sleeping Beauty. He was greatly intimidated and wanted to make sure he got a part where he didn't have to speak. It was too scary to speak in front of so many people. He was assigned as a guard, who had a small dance and "very cool" spears to carry. He was very pleased with his luck in his part. Here are a few pictures.

This is when the guards are just coming on stage to announce the birth and party of Princess Aurora. I just put this one on to show how far back we were. We came 25 minutes early, 5 minutes after they opened the doors to seat people. We were already 3/4 the way back in the auditorium. Alas we are learning how early we need to arrive to actually see at our children's theatrical and musical performances.
In this bottom one, Talmage is the first guard on the left hand side. The guards are in the middle of their dance now.
Matt and I are glad he had such a great time acting. He did a great job. Who knows, he may become a thespian, although I don't think he liked it enough to want to speak in front of that many people.

Lets go fly a kite!

2010-03-25T08:48:00.011-06:00

I have an obsession with flying kites, not just any kites either, the fancy heavy duty kites. I usually have bought them at Costco for about $10. They are large, beautiful, heavy nylon kites. We have bought a large dragon and dragon fly kite there. The kids are so excited; I am so excited, and Matt humors us, until we see the results. Without fail we go to the park to fly our kites and we are the envy of all of those around us with our fancy intricate kites, until they see ours does not get off the ground. We spend the whole time running with the kite 5 feet above our heads. The kite is beautiful waving in the air. But then we stop running and it crashes to the ground. They are just too heavy for most of our wind capacity here in Utah. Next to us there is a family with their $1.00 kite flying 150 ft off the ground. We try to convince our kids it is much better for us because we get all the exercise running, and that family just stands around flying their kite. (They are not convinced usually, at least Matt isn't). So everyone leaves me, and I am determined to get the kite flying. After many laborious attempts I can be successful 1/3 of the time, but still never able to reach the heights of the $1.00 kite next to me.

I think my love of fine kites comes from my dad. Growing up most of our vacations were camping, and I loved them. But when I was twelve or so we took our first vacation that didn't consist of hosing the yard and collecting 12 dozen worms for fishing. We went to the Oregon beach. My father was an electrician and worked construction. He often had to travel to earn a living for our family. It wasn't until I left home that I realized that in most families the father didn't spend 3-6 months out of the year living somewhere else to work. (As I grew older my appreciation for my mother and father for making this situation work exponentially increased). Anyhow, my father was working in Portland at the time, so my mom took the 4 younger children (Erin and Bill had already left home) in my grandparents 1976 Lincoln Continental and drove us 11 hours. My grandparent's car only had an 8 track for a sound system with two 8 tracks. I can only remember "Tie a Yellow Ribbon round the Old Oak Tree." We listened to it on repeat for about 5 hours of the trip. I still have a fond love for that song.
After we arrived, my dad had rented a beach house, through a connection he had. It was the first time I had ever seen the ocean. All of us children we had a wonderful time enjoying the cold beach. On one of the beaches my father spotted a peddler who was selling kites.
Side note quickly on my dad, he has a weakness for always having to have the best of different things, even if the price is exorbitant, and not very useful.
This peddler had a top of the line kite in his collection. It had at least 3 kites attached piggy back to each other and dual control, so it could do fancy tricks like loop de loops and such. This baby was going for the small small price of $150 in about 1988. Now a little background on my family's finances at the time. We had one brother on a mission and another attending college. We were a middle class family with plenty of food to eat and clean clothes to wear. We always drove junky cars, but they usually ran. Some of the cars I remember the floor board was rusting out in spots and we could see the road as we were driving along. Hence we had to borrow my grandparent's car for the trip. So $150 for some fancy kite was a small fortune. My mother was adamantly against it (she balanced the books). My dad was adamantly for buying the kite. They spent the next two days arguing about whether or not to get this amazing kite. Of course my dad bought it. He is what some may refer to as stubborn, my mom called it bull headed.
We loved that kite, and flew it for the day or two we had left at the beach, and tried to so in Idaho Falls once or twice. I think the kite got used a total less than 5 times. A little expensive for each use, but I do have good memories of it. I also get a fine laugh every time I think of that experience.
So now you know why I love fancy kites. We are planning a trip to the beach ourselves in a few weeks. I had to see if I could find a dual control trick kite. Luckily I did for much less than $150 on Amazon. Matt thought it was a little ridiculous to buy it because we only spend the whole time running up and down with them. He has almost convinced me of the beauty of the $1.00 kite at the grocery store. But I find myself using the same argument my dad did with my mom. "The kids will love it. This one does loop de loops." Matt gives me the be serious look, and then I confess. "Okay, I really am only buying this kite for me, and it is going to be awesome." I am so excited! I will post some pictures of me either convincing my family on how much fun we are having running with the kite, or doing some amazing tricks when we get back.
Thanks dad for the great memory.

equation

2010-03-04T08:18:00.003-07:00

30 hours spent writing a Relief Society program + 15 hours spent understanding and inputting scout information + 2 large school projects + 2 1/2 hour class every week + 1 very messy house +1 teething toddler + several nights lack of sleep + pregnancy hormones +2 head strong children occasionally = 1 very witchy momma

At least that is what I told myself, that I was really a very nice person, but my equation just didn't add up to be a wonderful person that day. It is amazing what a new day brings. Hope your equations equal all to be great days.

Maren, on a side note I really thought that the cellar door opened and all my rats were exposed. :) Thanks for that quote. I have thought of it often.

Some of my favorite quotes

2010-02-22T09:28:00.008-07:00

"The same God that placed that star in a precise orbit millennia before it appeared over Bethlehem in a celebration of the birth of the Babe has given at least equal attention to placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may if we will illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our lives may not only lead others but warm them as well." -- Neal A Maxwell

Thanks Heather for sharing that with me so many years ago when we were roommates. I have kept it in my important papers ever since.

I have been reflecting a great deal on this quote recently, and felt I should share it. It gives me a great deal of comfort when I have a "You're not the mother of the year moment." I realize, though I need to repent, that Heavenly Father knew well in advance of my weaknesses and strengths and will not call me to do something beyond my capacity (at least not without much training or providing a way to accomplish it).
The other quote I especially like on a more humorous side that I quote often to myself when my children remind me that I make many mistakes, which is often, is this. My friend Patti posted it on her Facebook page.

I figure I'm actually doing my kids a favor by being an imperfect parent. That way when they are older, they can blame all of their problems on me instead of having to take responsibility for them.

On a more serious note, thanks to all of you for being a part of my human orbit, you have enriched my life greatly.

Bowling and sting rays

2010-02-08T08:41:00.002-07:00

Talmage just got his wolf badge last month. He wants to get as many arrows now as possible. On Saturdays we have been trying to fulfill the requirements. One of them is to go bowling. So last Saturday we headed to the local bowling alley. The wait was an hour and a half long. So, we were trying to think of another fun family past time we could do and bowl the next week. (Matt and I are not too good at waiting that long with kids especially. It is like a nightmare come true. In fact Elly had fallen off one of the high chairs within 5 minutes of being there. She especially is not fun to have while waiting). So after some deliberation we went to the aquarium. We wanted to go during Christmas, but I was still recovering.
Talmage was disappointed, but lived to see the next day. The Living Sea Aquarium in Sandy, is really amazing if you happen to be in Utah. The kids loved seeing the octopus, jelly fish, lobster, and sharks especially. Their favorite part of the trip was petting the sting rays, horse shoe crabs, star fish, and a few other unique animals. They also have a demo station where you can be shocked by an electrical current equal to an electric eel. Although it stung, I think that was their very favorite part. Two thumbs up for the aquarium. We really enjoyed it.
The next week we finally went bowling, and thank goodness for grandpa who joined us. The kids loved sitting on his lap and entertaining him while they waited for their turns. We got there shortly after opening so we wouldn't have a long wait for an alley. Elly was in seventh heaven when it was her turn to bowl. (She took Grandpa's turn until he came). She was quite upset waiting till her turn came around again. When Grandpa came she took over my turn. Which I am ashamed to say I bowled much better when my 20 month took over for me. She got several spares. I had knocked down 3 or 4 pins in my 3 previous turns. In my defense a pregnant belly doesn't help your bowling score. Brynn bowled the all time high out of everyone with 114. She beat Dad and Grandpa. Talmage did well too also breaking a hundred. It is amazing how much more fun bowling is for kids when you can have those bumpers to save you from gutter balls. Wish they still did them for adults. Sorry I forgot my camera both times. But I just wanted to update on what we have been up to lately.

Holiday activities

2010-01-27T12:34:00.004-07:00

Over the break we played it pretty low key. The kids enjoyed playing with their new toys and games, and Matt and I did a lot of reading and playing games with the kids. It was really relaxing. One day though we went sledding on a dirt hill just by my dad's house. The kids had a fun time although some of the runs were low on snow.
Elly went down a few times with Talmage, but she didn't like it much. She preferred just playing in the snow.

Another day Ben and Holly (Matt's brother and sister-in-law) were nice enough to invite us up to Brigham City for lunch and gingerbread house making. Elly had a wonderful time just eating graham crackers and the candy.
Tabby and Miriam though both had a great time making wonderful houses, with some candy sampling as well.

Talmage and Brynn both made alien gingerbread homes. Brynn loves to follow whatever Talmage is doing, and he is an imaginative 8 year old boy. I also love this shot of Elly with her tongue licking the icing or candy from around her mouth.
We had a fun time and enjoyed catching up with Ben, Holly, and their family. The kids enjoyed eating all the candy and having a craft to do. They also love Aunt Holly's cooking, which I can't blame them as she cooks very well. On our way home we stopped by Idle Isle's candy shop and picked up a small package of my mom's favorite candy. We always savored it as a children growing up. My mom would stop occasionally in Brigham City as a child on their way home from Logan visiting their grandparents and get Idle Isle candy. It has since become a special memory whenever we permit ourselves the luxury.

Much belated Christmas post

2010-01-25T08:21:00.007-07:00

I know it is almost February and it is a little ridiculous to be just posting our Christmas festivities. I have been experiencing a blog lack of motivation recently. I also spent much of November and December in the fetal position on the couch with morning sickness, so I didn't think I had pictures to post. But I found we had taken some, and I am posting them for my own purposes to have recorded for my kids and if I ever print out my blog.

Every year we get a fresh Christmas tree. I justify it by saying it is my Christmas present. The kids get excited to pick it out, and of course decorate it. It brings back great memories I had of picking out a tree when I was a child, and trying to talk my parents into the flocked tree. Here is Talmage and Brynn helping to decorate the tree.

Elly was of course my Tasmanian devil. I have a video of her dismantling the tree, but I couldn't get it to load. But this photo shows her taking off all the candy canes. She later figured out if you cracked them in half then you could get to the candy inside. This blue chair of hers was her best friend as it allowed her to get to most anything in the house. She used it to climb on the stools and hence the counters, get candy canes, and anything else she wanted.
The last couple of weeks of December I was still sick, but made improvements so I could make my goodie plates. I try to do a small new thing each year. This year I experimented with homemade suckers. Here is Elly chomping down on one. It was something fun the kids and I did together.

On Christmas Eve my dad came over and spent the night. Here he is reading the children's version of "The Other Wise Man" to Talmage and Brynn. It is one of our very favorite Christmas stories.
Christmas morning the kids had a good time opening their stockings with Grandpa, opening Bakugons and other goodies. Everyone liked getting smoked nuts in their stockings and chocolate almonds. Unfortunately for me when I did the big DI clean in January I found sucked on nuts all over the kids' rooms. Apparently they like the salt and chocolate, but not the almonds. Good thing. We almost had something healthy digested over the Christmas break.

We had a great holiday season, and I made my final turn over morning sickness during the break. The kids had to readjust to homemade meals with sustenance instead of quick frozen preserve packed dinners. It was a hard sacrifice to give up Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets for pea soup. But somehow I think they will survive the deprived childhood we are giving them.

I own a portable loo!

2010-01-18T13:28:00.003-07:00

Recently I have been feeling an urgency to update our 72 hour kit. It may be because the last I updated it was when Brynn wore diapers. We happen to have a Relief Society activity a few months ago on how to prepare for an earthquake, and some equipment to keep on hand. We have also had 3 minor earthquakes in Utah in the last month. So I took a trip to Emergency Essentials and stacked up on everything we needed. As I stated earlier, we now have a portable loo, so all bathroom needs should be met.
It did break my heart to throw away all the food in the 72 hour kit last rotated 5 years ago. I have hopefully learned my lesson, ROTATION.
Some of the items the Earthquake lady (she dons herself that name) suggested were:

whistles - to keep people from getting lost. I thought this was perfect for kids when we go camping.
shovel - dig your car out of the snow or dirt
axe
solar blankets
medicine
tiny one time cooking units - they were pretty cheap too.

I can't remember everything else, but I used this website to help me stock up on everything I needed to have a fully prepared kit. Here is to hopefully not using anything I have bought and it can just stay in storage on my shelf, but if not, it is a good feeling to know you are prepared.

Funnies

2009-12-23T09:45:00.003-07:00

Talmage came home from school the other day saying he had to leave a movie they were watching at school because it had a lot of blood and guns. I asked him what movie although still not too concerned as Talmage overreacts to most movies. He had to leave to use the bathroom (or escape) several times during UP as it was too intense. He just doesn't like movies. Anyways, he told me they were watching Prancer. Matt looked it up online just of interest. It is rated G. It did say there were some scenes that very young children might find scary. Come to find out the blood came from when Prancer the reindeer hurt his leg when he fell. Matt and I got a good chuckle from hearing it described as violent and bloody. I bet his teacher would have laughed too.

The other day I was in the bathroom combing Brynn's hair. Elly was getting into my makeup drawer and pulling everything out. Brynn noticed my deodorant. She got really excited and told me her cheeks were too red all the time. She found that this product did a wonderful job toning down her redness. She was insisting that she put some on then until I told her its real purpose was to go on stinky armpits to keep them from smelling. Apparently though it has duel purposes as a foundation. :)

This was several months ago, the kids were asking for a pet. Talmage made one stipulation that it must be a pet without teeth. :) My children all seem to be terrified of animals. I should get a pet just to help them adjust, but then I think, why would I purposely add more responsibility and might I add poop to clean up. Then I no longer feel a need to get a pet, just to go to the petting zoo perhaps.

I wanted to write these down before I forgot. Hope they made you smile.

2009 Family News Letter

2009-12-20T16:29:00.002-07:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

The year 2009 has been full of ups, downs, and hard learning experiences, but also one where we have felt the great blessing of family love and friendship. I thank all of you for helping my family through the journey of life and making it an easier road to travel.

Some of our highlights of this year was visiting Zions National Park. I was stunned by its beauty. Unfortunately it rained/snowed most of the time we were there, but we did get to take some hikes before the bad weather set in. The kids enjoyed kicking up as much dirt as possible, running in the waterfall ponds, and playing with their happy meal toys. (Who knew what happiness $5 could bring). During the bad weather we took some beautiful drives and played a lot of puzzles and Connect Four.

We also had a campout with some of Matt's siblings in American Fork Canyon. We camped at Timpooneke campground. Out of the many years camping I have had, I must say this was one of the prettiest camping spots I have ever enjoyed. I never knew you could have such beauty only driving 15 minutes. As children my dad taught us that any good camp spot needed to be at least a several hour drive. :) I thoroughly enjoyed the little hikes off the camp. The kids enjoyed dipping their feet in the water and playing with their cousins. Matt went climbing with several of his siblings. We also learned how nice it is it camp with ones' parents who have everything you forgot in their trailer, but live and learn.

As for Matt this year he went on his annual trip to Moab with his coworkers. They spent the time rock climbing and mountain biking, both of Matt's current passions. He still rock climbs almost everyday at a local rock climbing gym for lunch. Many evenings in the summer, when he doesn't need to mow the lawn, he enjoys going in the local mountains and biking. I went for the first time this year as well. I got in a fight with a bush, tree, rock, and a few other natural features. I always lost. At that time I was thinking we should have rented the bike instead of buy it. He is still working for a local company as a software engineer. He enjoys his work greatly. He also is building his reputation as a mean ping pong player.

I have been very busy with the kids and the garden this year. Our raspberries have finally hit full production 3-4 years after transplanting them from my parent's garden. Each picking required 3 hours when I picked them by myself (when Elly helped me it was longer). We tried to pick them every other day when they are on. Needless to say we got a little burned out. Elly quickly learned the best ones were red and not white, and the easiest way was to get them was to find my bowl and to squish them all. Then she would get the whole bowl. By the way if anyone wants raspberry starts I am sure I could spare a few or a lot. This year we also grew gigantic pumpkins. We have never had success with those before. The kids and I loved them. We had one that was over 75 lbs. I think Matt would have been happy with smaller ones as he had to move them. My most enjoyable harvest though was my peach tree. It is the first year it produced fruit. I think one of the great joys of this life is a fresh picked peach. I think my neighbors enjoyed watching me with my tree as well. I wrapped the tree in a net to keep the birds out, but there were a few holes where they could get in. I would run out there as fast as I could clapping and screaming at them. The net kept the birds from being able to get out though, so I would have to help direct them to the holes. This event repeated itself a few times. I think my neighbors enjoyed it almost as much as when I didn't want to kill the spiders on the house so I would scoop them in a shovel, run like mad to the neighboring field and chuck them. Yeah, next year I am going to spray them all dead.

Talmage is in third grade. He tuned 8 in April and was baptized this year. We are really proud of him. He is involved in Karate, piano, and scouts. He is learning the value of practice, as he has watched himself improve greatly in his extra curricular activities through practicing. He enjoys reading, playing with legos, computer games, and most earth science subjects. He has been a great help with his sisters and taking extra responsibility in the house. We really enjoy having him in our home.

Brynn is in the first grade this year. She is involved in piano and dance, and loves them both. She loves to sing while she practices. I often get comments from her piano teacher's family how much they enjoy it when she is over playing because they get to listen to her little girl voice sing. Let's just say she doesn't have perfect pitch. But being biased, I must agree that it is adorable. She enjoys playing with friends, reading, making arts and crafts. She loves to play "house" with her little sister. Unfortunately Elly doesn't like to be mothered as much as Brynn likes to mother her. She has also been very helpful, and a fun personality to have in the home.

Elly is discovering the new world around her by climbing. She spends her days climbing on the table, chairs, piano - to get to the candy bowl, counter tops - to get to her brother's gingerbread house, Christmas tree - to get the candy canes, and anything else. She also enjoys jumping off any obstacle, and creating obstacles to jump back and forth. She is her father's child, well besides her sugar addiction. She gets that from me. Despite the menace we find her to be at times she is a complete delight and brings much laughter to our home. She is also learning speech. One of her favorite words is Mom yelled at what seems 300 decibels. I am thinking it is about time she learns dad for those 3:00 am morning wake up calls.

One of the most exciting news for us right now is the new addition coming to our family in June of next year. It has been so far a difficult pregnancy, but we are moving on to the second trimester. I have high hopes for it all getting better now until the end. Thanks also to many of you who have lent a helping hand to my family during our survival mode.

By far our hardest trial as a family was the unexpected return of my mother's cancer, her rapid deteriorating health, and passing away. All of these occurred in just over 3 weeks in the month of May. These events also occurred while moving my parents to Utah after almost living 40 years in Idaho Falls. Needless to say it was a crazy and very difficult time. We received such kindnesses from many of you. Thanks especially to my Aunt Val and her family and my Aunt Mary for helping get the house ready to move and meeting the tender needs of my mother. I cannot express my appreciation fully enough. I look at you as angels sent to help us. The months after her passing have been difficult, but we are greatly pleased to have my father living so close to Bill, Erin, and myself. He has spent most of the summer though continuing to get the Idaho Falls house ready to sell/rent. I know many of you gave several hours service in helping him take on that task. I feel very lucky to rub shoulders with you. Thanks again for your service to my family. With the passing of my mother also I can say that my appreciation of the atonement of Christ has taken on a new depth. I have learned many lessons and am still learning them about grieving, death, life, and their purposes. I am appreciative of this season when we celebrate our Savior's birth whose life and sacrifice give meaning to our lives. I look so forward to meeting with my mother again, and I know it is only through His great gift of the atonement that make an eternal family possible. I am so grateful. Thanks so much to all of you who have helped us through this year. We wish you much love, happiness, and joy during this season and through out the year.

Merry Christmas!!

Love,

Matt, Stacey, Talmage, Brynn, and Elly Goodman

Some views on Santa Clause

2009-12-05T07:45:00.003-07:00

I have many fond memories of waiting with great anticipation for Santa to come to our house when I was little and the magic surrounding him. Matt also has many great Christmas memories as well, but Santa Claus wasn't a part of his memories. As is tradition they celebrate Christmas without Santa. Matt and I were a divided as to how to celebrate Christmas in our home. I wasn't ready to give him up and Matt wasn't ready to embrace him. So how did we settle it? Simple. We say nothing about it. We read stories about Santa, and don't discourage the children's belief in Santa. But we also don't do a lot to encourage it either. The gifts under the tree come from us. Some may not all be labeled, and the children may assume they come from Santa, but we never tell them directly this comes from Santa. Although last year we hung up a canopy over Brynn's bed and she is determined the elves hung it up. Here are some of the lessons I have learned from our experience I wanted to share.

1. If you are not specific and teach your children your values, the world will fill the void with what happens to be the world's values.

When the kids go to school Christmas is all about Santa as we know for political purposes. My kids never really talked about Santa in their preschool years because we didn't talk about him much. That changes when they go to school because it is how the school can celebrate Christmas. It impressed me greatly then that if I don't teach my children my values, then the world will be happy to do so for me. For now it doesn't have large consequences because who cares if my children are taught to believe in Santa Clause. But as teenagers it could have serious repercussions if I am not specific about our values and how to live them.

2. Celebrating Christmas this way has helped us focus on Christ.

I may not be able to completely forsake Santa, but I must admit I like having him on the back burner. Not having Santa at the forefront of our celebration has really helped us teach our children and help us remember what this holiday is really celebrating, the birth of our Savior. I also want to iterate that I know many families are very successful teaching what Christmas is about and have great celebrations with Santa. For our own personal family though it has helped us focus on Christ. I know everyone has traditions that help promote the true meaning of Christmas in their home. Here are some of the ones we do here.
a. I had the wonderful opportunity of going to Jerusalem before I was married. Most of my Christmas ornaments are from there depicting scene of the nativity. As we decorate the tree we are able to discuss highlights of His birth.
b. I also obtained a durable olive wood nativity. Every year the kids help me act it out as we set up the pieces as we set it out. Because it is durable the kids (older ones at least) can handle and interact with the significant actors from that memorable night.
c. One tradition from my family was to tell the story of "The Other Wise Man" every Christmas eve. My Grandfather Hatch told it every year to his family. I am honored to keep this tradition and love the lessons being taught of being a true disciple of Christ. I know I always need a reminder and more practice applying them.

I would love to hear any of your traditions to help you remember Christ at this season. Everyone has great ideas to teach and strengthen their families.

3. The older I get the more I learn there is more than one way to skin a cat. Meaning there is not one clear way to raise a family. I can appreciate differences of opinions much more than I could before. The one ingredient necessary to having successful family is love (and I would add faith) and much of it. Then within that family they determine how to create meaningful and lasting memories to perpetuate that love so they can be worthy of an eternal family.

Anyways I just thought I would share a window into our Christmas. Here's hoping you and yours have a wonderful season. Merry Christmas!

Mom's Pumpkin Pie

2009-11-25T16:13:00.004-07:00

Mom's Pumpkin Pie

Dad and I found Mom's old Spice cookbook. It is my mother's oldest cookbook, and tells all about the spice trade, and where the spices were found. She kept it for so long for only one recipe, the pumpkin pie recipe. I printed it on this site instead of the Good Cooks blog for the benefit of the Hendricks who are interested. I thought you would be due to the connection.

1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
--------
3 large eggs
1 small can Libby's pumpkin
1 cup evaporated milk
9-inch unbaked pie crust

Mix together the first 8 ingredients. Beat in eggs. Stir in pumpkin and milk. Pour into a 9-inch unbaked pie shell. Bake in a preheated hot oven at 400 degree for 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool.

Halloween!

2009-11-01T07:10:00.005-07:00

I read my friend Maren's blog about painting pumpkins and thought it was a great idea. I bought some finger paint, (which makes for interesting masterpieces) and some small pumpkins and let them have at it in the backyard. They had a fun time.

Early Halloween morning we carved pumpkins. The kids were very excited. Talmage and Brynn were very proud of themselves for carving the pumpkin completely on their own. (I love those little carve set, it makes carving a lot easier and safer for their hands). Elly enjoyed taking part of the fun too. She liked to eat the pumpkin guts as the kids called it. She did help clean it out some, but mostly as you see she liked to sample the pumpkin.

The kids got to dress up for school on Friday and have a parade and parties. This top shot is Talmage and Brynn before school. Brynn had a costume crisis a week a so before Halloween. Finally we decided on a spider. So this is the creation we came up with. I love polar fleece costumes, so warm and so easy. Although the legs took me a few tries.

Here is Elly as a ladybug raiding the treats for the trick-or-treaters. I was going to make carmel apples, but we just ran out of time and energy. So I opted for the Rice Krispie Treats instead. Elly was quite pleased. I did get one complaint though from the trick-or-treaters for not having the candy apples, there is always next year.

Elly had her first candy bar. I don't know how we will keep her away from her siblings candy stash now. She knows what she is missing. All in all a fun Halloween for everyone.

Matt's work party at Olympic Park in Park City

2009-10-16T15:13:00.004-06:00

Every year Matt has a work party for the whole family. This year they booked the Olympic Park in Park City. Unfortunately we got there a little late due to a traffic jam, so Matt missed out on the bob sled run and the kids missed out on the Alpine slide. But we did get to do some fun things here are a few pictures and videos.
Here is Elly and I at the start of the museum featuring the SLC Olympics.

The kids liked all the photo shoot places there. After the museum the kids went rock climbing a few times and Matt waited in a long line to go down the zip line. We then had dinner and we able to watch an incredible aerial display where the future winter olympians went down ski jumps doing flips and then landed in the pool. It was incredible. The kids favorite was a skiier who lit his boots up with fire crackers first.

Here is a video of Matt at the strong man. It really wasn't a great test of skill. Even I hit the bell I think after the second attempt. They had a kids' as well that Talmage and Brynn both hit the bell after many tries. It was a fun time. We look forward to the summer work parties every year.

Brynn's Dance Recital

2009-10-16T14:36:00.003-06:00

Brynn started dance this last summer from my neighbor's sister. She does a great job working with the girls and make it a fun learning experience. Brynn has been having a fun time and is often showing me new moves she has learned that week. She recently had her end of summer routine. (I have been on a hiatus from blogging recently) Here are a few of her pictures.

Here is a cute little video of her practicing some of the moves with her teacher.