Easter Sunday

On Easter we went to the Goodrich's for dinner. I was so excited to be able to actually go somewhere since I had been cooped up all week with a sick baby. But since none of the other cousins were going to be there, we thought it would be okay to take Molly. We had delicious tri-tip (thanks Gene and April!) and all the other fixin's along with cheesecake for dessert. After dinner we all took a walk around the block.

Molly is Miss Independent-always wanting to do things by herself. She didn't want to hold anyone's hand......unless they were swinging her in the air.After our walk, we just played outside where Molly managed to step and sit in dog poop.
Justin didn't want to get it on his clothes...Molly had it on her pants so she went pant-less until Grandma found a pair of pants that would fit her lying around the house.
Then Molly watched a movie...... while the rest of us played Taboo (the girls won, of course).It was a great way to celebrate Easter.

As the holiday was approaching and now that it's over, there are a couple of thoughts rolling around in my mind. First, I am amazed (and so grateful) all over again that the only person who did not need the Atonement was the very person who wrought the Atonement. I will forever be indebted to my Savior for this extremely unselfish act. I am so grateful, especially, to be able to pass this knowledge on to my family. As I look at Molly each day and think of the things that she has ahead of her, I am so grateful to my Savior for suffering and dying for her. Sometimes the Atonement seems so broad yet I know that He also died for me, Megan Goodrich, along with every single person ever to live, and that because of His suffering He knows exactly how to succor us.
Second, I kept thinking how perfect that Easter falls in the Spring. As I read the accounts in the scriptures of the last days of Christ's life and then His death on Calvary, I thought of the despair and deep sadness that His disciples and followers must have felt. But then I thought of the joy, hope, peace, and tremendous happiness that they must have felt on the third day when He rose. I also feel that peace and joy because of the Resurrection. But don't we also have joy and happiness and hope after the long winter when the sun starts to shine and flowers start popping up? We celebrate the arrival of spring at the same time we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. I just think it is great!

I hope that you all had a great Easter and were able to spend it with those you love!

We love the park!

The last few nights when Justin gets home from work, we have put Molly in the stroller and walked down the hill to the park. Molly likes to go down the slides while Justin and I throw a frisbee. It is so great just to be outside!

Molly can't wait to go! She climbed in the stroller before Justin had even pumped up the tires and put the front wheel on!
Molly likes to climb the stairs, walk over to the slide, and then slide down all by herself. She will do it over and over and over...
Yes, Molly climbed up this all by herself!

Easter egg hunt

Molly was still a little sick last weekend so we decided to stay home and have our own Easter egg hunt. My mom and dad were in town last week taking Grandma to my aunt's so they dropped off the eggs that Molly would have found at their house. Justin hid them (although they were in plain sight) for Molly to find.
She looked a little confused when the egg actually had something in it!Good find Molly!Molly loved her books best!Now when we go outside, Molly immediately says, "eggs" and starts looking for them. I've taken a few empty ones out just so she can look for them and put them in her basket.

I love walk-in closets!

The last week Molly and I did not go anywhere and instead just stayed home and played in her room. This is what Molly's room looks like after and hour or so of playing...Molly likes to pull out all of her books and toys. It's all quite fun to her. And hence, this is why I love walk-in closets because it only takes a couple minutes (and Molly likes to help) to put all the toys in the closet and shut the door. And then this is what her room looks like...Ah, nice and clean, just like I like it. I also love Molly's big walk-in closets because that means that all of her toys fit in her room and they don't have to come crowd the front room!

Bulgogi anyone?

The youth in our ward had a fun "missionary night" on Wednesday night. Members of the ward volunteered to have a companionship over to their houses where they would eat a meal (preferably a meal they ate on their missions), talk about their missions and listen to a discussion the "missionaries" had prepared. So we had Elders Haddock and Mangum over to our house (really they were only 14). Justin made yummy Korean food, bulgogi, and taught them the proper way to eat it. This is Justin making the food. It takes a while so he spread a blanket out on the carpet so he could watch ESPN at the same time! The boys were good sports-Justin made them sit on the floor like they do in Korea which wasn't comfortable for them. He also made them try kimchi which in my opinion is disgusting! After dinner, they gave us a discussion. I was impressed-they did pretty good for only being 14! And then we had root-beer floats and Justin showed them some mission pictures and they asked questions about his mission. They wanted to know if he ate dog (yes) and they wanted to hear what the language sounded like. Then Justin taught them a traditional Korean game-I can't remember what it's called but it reminds me of jacks.Molly didn't want to miss out on the fun. She was right in the middle of the game! It was really fun and I think Justin had a good time talking about his mission. (Erin, take note-this would be a fun activity for your youth!)

Bad Habit?

So I have this really bad habit of keeping clothes for an extremely long time-well, until they don't fit anymore. This is bad because I still fit in clothes from high school! So some are starting to look really ragged and, well, just plain old! I justify keeping them because I only wear them when I know I'm just staying home and not going anywhere. But I finally got rid of a pair of pants that I've had for-ever! They had stretched out over the years so they were soooo saggy and way too big around the waist. I knew the only way to get rid of them was to completely destroy them so I had Justin destroy them so I could never wear them again.
I think that everyone in my family will agree that I got this habit from Mom (remember the red sweatsuit?)!
P.S. I only have a couple of things left from high school, mostly a lot of things from my sophomore and junior year in college...

Future Mia Hamm?

As most of you know, I love soccer. It is, no contest, my favorite sport. I first started playing when I was 5 or 6 and continued playing through high school and played here and there on intramural teams at USU. Naturally, I want Molly to enjoy it too and I have been trying to teach her how to kick a ball since she started walking. Well, she finally did it! I'm excited for her to be old enough to play and I can literally be a "soccer mom!" Here are some pictures of her in action... For those of you who don't know who Mia Hamm is, well, she is probably the best women's soccer player ever. I used to have a huge poster of her in my room when I was probably about 10 or so. Here is a picture of her in action...I think Molly's well on her way. What do you all think?

Priorities

Each day is pretty much the same for me: take care of Molly, make sure the house is clean, make dinner and the other things that wives and moms do. But I have been thinking lately that all of these "normal" days are what actually make up my life. There are many times that at the end of the day I can look back on the day and say, "Did I do anything important?" I know I'm doing important things, like staying home with Molly but am I really teaching her what's most important to me? Am I spending my days at home wisely or am I doing things that aren't productive and aren't making me a better person or better disciple? Then today I was reading in the New Era and came across a few quotes..."Too many goods leaves no room for best" and this one from Elder Ballard: "Our main goal should be to seek 'immortality and eternal life.' With this as our goal, why not eliminate from our lives the things that clamor for and consume our thoughts, feelings, and energies without contributing to our reaching that goal?" So then I started thinking about my goals and dreams. I obviously want my children and family to be happy and I know the only way that is going to happen is through gospel. So then I dug even further and asked myself "What things am I teaching Molly about Jesus and Heavenly Father?" I think that she is too young and won't understand but I am wrong-she knows them better than I do, probably! So I guess I'm just realizing that all of these days that I am just home, not accomplishing much, add up and make up my life and I better be treating my spare time a little better and start filling it with things that will help me and my family reach our main goal: eternal life. I know I fill it with too many things that are inconsequential. So I am now making a new goal to fill my "normal" days with the best things and get rid of things that aren't really important. Any great ideas of how to do this?

Our Sweet Molly

Molly is so much fun. She is learning new words every single day. I love being her mom and feel so blessed to be able to stay home with her. Here are some fun pictures from last weekend.

Molly has lots of hair and it seems to get longer and longer each day! It's usually pretty crazy when she wakes up in the morning!Justin is always doing silly things with Molly. This is a balloon that he put up her shirt. Molly didn't really know what to think about that! At first she thought it was funny and would laugh but then she would try to get it out (with no success) and get really frustrated.Molly has always been such a good girl. She is so mild-mannered and just happy and content most of the time. She started coughing on Saturday so I took her to the doctor yesterday to get it checked out. Turns out that she has a strain of RSV called bronchialitis. Justin and I feel so bad for her. She has a really bad-sounding cough and I can't believe all the gunk coming out of her nose. But, true to her character, she is being such a good and happy girl. All day yesterday when I would get her some food or a drink or something else she needed, she would smile and say, "Thanks, Mommy." We couldn't ask for a sweeter girl.

We were relieved that she slept great last night. Saturday and Sunday were rough nights. She was running a fever and so she ended up sleeping in our bed so I could comfort her when she would cough. But last night she went to bed at 8:30 and slept until 10:00 this morning! We love you Molly!

Happy "Honorable" Birthday...

Justin had his 26th birthday this past Friday, the 14th. Unfortunately for him, I am not as creative as he is and didn't have too much planned. He had to go to work but I did go take him to lunch. Then his mom and dad took us to dinner that night. He has had the whole weekend off, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, though so that has been a nice long break for him. The only thing that he really wanted to do was to go fly-fishing and test out the new pole that he got for Christmas and he did that today. Happy Birthday Justin. I love you!Molly tried to wrap herself up! P.S. The reason I titled the post Happy "Honorable" Birthday is because on Saturday I asked Justin what he wanted to do for his "honorable" birthday instead of his "honorary" birthday!

Afternoon in PC!

Since Plain City is now twice the distance than it used to be, I don't spend very many days up there like I used to. Since Ali was still in town, Molly and I made the trip down on Monday to spend the day. We ate at Pizzaria (Ali's favorite) and then just played all afternoon. Luckily it was nice outside so we spent most of the time in the back yard. This was inside (obviously). Mom has some really cute doll furniture. Molly thought that she'd lay down and take a little rest. She kept pointing up at the ceiling and saying "stars." (Ali put the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling in high school.)Probably Molly's favorite was Chloe's slide. She spent a lot of time on that. She would slide down it, laugh, and look at Ali to make sure she was still watching. Chloe got in on the action too...Molly loved the swing last summer but was a little nervous of it this year. She finally liked it when Grandma pushed her.
Chloe (or Doe-ee as Molly calls her) and Molly having a snack.Mom wanted to take a picture of Ali but she didn't want to stand up there by herself so Bryce decided to get in the picture with her. Ali's belly is already really small but this makes it seem even smaller! It's kind of rainy today so hopefully it the sun will start shining and we can go outside and play some more!

"Yay Da"

Everytime there is a Jazz game on TV, we watch it at our house. Justin recently taught Molly to say "Yeah, Jazz!" (which really comes out as "Yay Da"). Anytime she hears clapping on TV or the radio or anywhere, Molly now says "yeah, Jazz." So last week my dad got tickets for the whole family to go to the Jazz game. We got to sit in my uncle's suite and eat food and watch the game.Molly would sit on the steps and clap and cheer for the Jazz!Molly and Chloe had fun together. They shared their popcorn so well! Chloe would hold the cup and when Molly would want another piece, she would just look at Chloe and Chloe would give her another piece. It was cute to watch...Molly and Chloe also like looking over the edge...
Justin finally had an excuse to wear his John Stockton USA Olympic Jersey that he bought on E-bay!We always have so much fun-thanks for getting the tickets, Dad!