Playdate with Grandma Kay

Molly had so much fun a couple of weeks ago when Grandma came. Grandma wanted to come visit Molly and just play, so that is exactly what we did. Molly especially had fun at the park with Grandma...Thanks Mom, we both had a great day!

While I'm on the subject of my mom, I just want to mention that she is such a wonderful person. The last four or five years (actually it's been a lot longer than that), she has taken almost sole responsibility for her mom, who passed away last week. This has been a heavy burden to carry some days but she has always been so positive about all the time and efforts she spent making sure my Grandma had food, had her bills paid, and made it to all her appointments. Mom, you are a great example to all those around you and I feel so blessed to call you my mom. Hopefully, I can be just like you! We all love you so much...

Too cold?

Okay, I'll admit it was probably too cold to go swimming but Justin couldn't wait! Last week when the temperature got up to high 70s/low 80s, we happened to be walking around Target just killing time. Well we saw this swimming pool and we knew that Molly would love it because it had a slide. So we bought it for her. I was thinking we would just wait until it got a little warmer, but Justin had a different idea-he started blowing it up as soon as we got home! Then he filled it with warm bath water (it took quite a few trips!) and put Molly in. Well, she loved it. She kept going down the slide and just laughing. She also loved the giraffe. Daddy's are definitely more fun because if it was Mommy's choice, we would have waited. We will have lots of fun in this pool all summer! (Of course, the next day, it was so cold and rainy and really windy. Molly and I were inside and I thought "I better go make sure the pool hasn't blown away"-I had put Justin's bike rack in it so it wouldn't blow away-well, sure enough, the slide was still there but the pool was gone! I was so upset so I put Molly in the care and we drove around the neighborhood until I found it. After much searching, I finally found it across the street from the subdivision we live in, clear on the side of someone's house, behind their garbage cans!)

Molly's braids

Yay, I finally fit Molly's hair in braids. It took some concentration but Molly was such a good girl and sat so still for me. Her hair is probably not quite thick enough yet-it wasn't very tight-but I thought it was fun for a change! Here is the view from the back......and the front... And this picture has nothing to do with her braids, I just thought it was cute. She picked up the hat, put it on, and said "Cheese, Mama!" Such a silly girl!

My BFF

Last week, my best friend from high school was in town and took Molly and I to lunch. It was so fun to catch up. Karla has the cutest little girl, Jane, and it was so fun to see her and how she's grown. Sadly, we haven't kept in the best contact and I've only seen Jane one other time (she's only one month younger than Molly). But it was great to see her! Thanks, Karla, if you're reading this!

I wanted to take a picture of the 4 of us, but Molly got 4 teeth that week (ouch) and wasn't being the happiest camper. So an old picture of the two of us will have to suffice. This was taken in December 2000 after our first semester at WSU and USU... After serving in YW's for 4 years, I realized what an impact friends have on us when we are teenagers. It is really important to have good friends and I am grateful that I had such good friends-Karla especially! She was and is a great example to me! We were pretty inseparable the summer after we graduated. We probably spent almost everyday together. She came on my family vacation and I went on hers! So thanks, Karla, for being a great friend. Even though we don't see each other enough, you're still one of my "Best Friends Forever!"

March Madness

This is a little late but I wanted to document one family tradition. Both Justin and I love March Madness. Here are the top three things I love about it...
1. Justin and I always fill out our brackets the night before the tournament starts. Justin analyzes his picks for days or even weeks before we fill them out. I, on the other hand, take about 5 minutes. My strategy seems to be to pick the teams that I have heard of or choose the higher seed. We always hang them on the fridge so Justin can keep track of who is winning with a red Sharpie marker.
2. We love the upsets! We will usually cheer for the underdog even if they are not our pick. It is so exciting!
3. Of course..."One Shining Moment!" I usually don't sit down and watch all the games like Justin but after the whole thing is over, they play the highlights from the whole tournament along to the cheesy song "One Shining Moment." I never miss it!

Here are this year's brackets. Mine is on the left and Justin's is on the right. As you can see, I have more red X's so I lost, as usual. I think I've only beat Justin once!

General Conference

It's sort of an unspoken tradition to all gather at the Goodrich home in Sandy for the Sunday sessions of General Conference. Justin's mom always makes sticky buns in the morning-no one wants to miss out on those! Then we just hang out and try to listen to conference...

This is Eric and Camille trying to change Tiana's "Baby Alive" diaper. It made quite the mess!Molly and Mommy Tiana loved taking pictures with my camera. She took a picture of everyone there! She'd take a picture and then say something like, "Oh, cute." or if it wasn't so good she'd say, "Oh, that's not very good, let's try again." Just like a grown-up; it was pretty cute. Molly was up at 5:00 that morning so she was pretty tired. After Eric scared her, she went and laid down on Daddy's shoulder and fell asleep! Molly thinks this game is pretty funny-it always makes her laugh! Between sessions we played kickball outside. Molly was pretty funny-every time she would kick the ball, she'd strike this pose: Tiana had so much fun! She was always on the kicking team-she had so much fun running the bases and the rest of us had fun just watching her! Heidi and Molly were our cheerleaders Everyone looks a little tired, but it was a great day! Of course, Conference was wonderful as usual. I always look forward to the Ensign to come out so I can read the talks again. It's hard to choose a favorite talk but I did love Elder Hales' testimony of Christ. It was so powerful and I felt touched by the Spirit when he bore his testimony. How blessed we are to have a living prophet!

Discovery Gateway

We had a great day at Discovery Gateway. There was so many things to see! Molly could hardly contain her excitement. She ran from place to place just taking it all in. It was so fun to watch her explore and try new things. Thanks Mom for treating us! We had a wonderful day!

Always good for a laugh...

I love to hear babies laugh. It always puts me in a good mood. Here are a couple funny ones of Molly. In the first one listen for her to say "Daddy, funny." Hope they bring a smile to your face!

My Handyman Husband

I just wanted a chance to brag about my husband. He is so creative-I don't mean in a cutesy, crafty way, but creative in solving practical problems. Anytime something around the house needs fixing or something, leave it to him and he'll come up with a solution for sure! And a lot of times his solutions blow my mind-they are not something I would ever think of in a million years. For example, last week the car ran out of gas (not my fault). Anyways, we got the gas can filled up but the nozzle wasn't long enough. Justin comes inside and he knew exactly what he was looking for. He ended up using the cover of a hardback book as a funnel. Pretty ingenious, right?He does things like this all the time!

While I'm on the subject of bragging about Justin, I thought I'd post some pictures of the things he has built. Our apartment is not huge, but Justin has built something in every single room. He has become quite talented at it.

First of all, my piano. This piano sat in someone's basement for 50 years. When they were moving, they decided they didn't want to move the piano-so we got it! It was really beat up and didn't even have any wood on the front at all. You could also tell that it had been painted over and over the original stain. So Justin and his friend (thanks Steve!) sanded it down, made a wood piece to cover the front and then stained it. They also built the bench from scratch since it didn't come with one! It is the most sturdy piano bench I have ever sat on! The front has gotten a little beat up from a couple of moves but once we're more permanent, he'll fix it.Next, our bedroom. First of all, he finished the dresser. This is the same dresser he had in his room growing up. It was really banged up and had water marks all over it and no handles. So he sanded it down and re-stained it and found new handles. It looks like new! No one would ever guess that he's had it for a long time! After he finished the dresser, he made the bed frame to match. This was a huge project but I love it! I think he did a great job! (This picture doesn't do it justice because you can't see it all). He even made it so it comes apart which makes it really easy to move.And last, Molly's room. Justin made this super cute bookshelf. It's such a perfect size because it will fit pretty much anywhere. We also found these baskets and then Justin built the dresser to fit them. Everyone who sees it thinks we got it at Pottery Barn! I am always a little wary when he gets a new idea for a project because I'm not sure how it will turn out. But he always has a "vision" of what he wants it to look like and it always turns out great. He's also made me many frames that I love!

Get Well Soon!

We love you Grandma Lue!

Can you believe this?!!!

This was taken only a couple of hours ago. Mother Nature sure is playing tricks on us!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

Justin says that I should rename this blog and call it "Molly's Blog." I'll be the first to admit that most of my posts are about Molly. So sorry if it bores all of you out there but it will probably stay that way for a while because she's just too cute! So here goes another post that stars...Molly! She is now 18 months and I wanted a record of some of the stuff she has been up to. Mostly for me because it's so easy to forget-they grow so fast! Here are some of the fun things Molly is doing and learning:
1. Molly likes to play in the fridge. She'll stand in it and say "Bye-bye Molly" and then shut the door on herself.
2. Molly loves it when Daddy comes home from work. She'll pull her little chair over to the window, stand on it and watch for Daddy. When Justin pulls in, she runs to the front door. It's pretty sweet.
3. Molly has become extremely proficient at drinking out of a cup and always asks for "Mama's wawa" meaning she wants her water in a cup like mine.
4. She'll only eat waffles for breakfast which means she is a sticky mess every morning!
5. Molly is learning new words everyday! I started to keep track a couple of weeks ago but have given up lately because she knows so many. She has also starting putting together 2 or 3 words which is always really cute. She'll go around the house pointing at things and saying "Mama's shoes" or "Molly's neigh" (her rocking horse). It's pretty cute! Molly is also learning her letters really fast.
6. Nursery is going well. She missed church a couple times due to being sick but last week she made it the whole time. They said she did really well except for the last 15 minutes or so and that she wasn't too bad so that's encouraging.
7. We've been trying to work out some kinks in her sleeping habits. Molly has always been a really good sleeper it's just getting her to sleep that we have problems with. I have always had to rock her to sleep and then lay her down. Mostly this wasn't too bad but it did get frustrating sometimes when it took forever. Also, only I could do it-not Justin. The last few weeks, though, she has started to fall asleep on her own in her crib as long as I stay in the room. And she even let Justin put her to bed once! This is a huge improvement for us. On the downside, her naps have kind of disappeared. We found that if she took a nap in the day, she never got tired at night and would stay up until 10:30 or 11:00! So with some experimenting, I think it's going to work with just a short nap (I wake her up after only an hour).
8. At her doctor's appointment, she weighed 21 lbs 2 oz. We were happy that she had passed the 20 pound mark! She is consistent though-still in the 2nd percentile. (I think she's been there since 4 months.)

Well, I think that's about it. Sorry for going on and on and on...here are some pictures since we have plenty!

Late-Night Snack

This is so bad!!! A few nights ago, Molly was having a hard time getting to sleep. It was probably about 10:30 and Molly was still awake, and as happy as can be. Well, around this time at night if I'm not going to bed, I get the munchies. We don't usually have snacks and a lot of junk around the house but Justin had bought some cheese dip for chips for one of our birthdays or something and it had never been eaten. It sounded sooooo good right then so I let myself indulge. Well, Molly wanted to indulge too. She had already spilled water or something all over her jammies so she was naked anyways- and it's a good thing when you see how messy she was!Pretty gross! I guess she was hungry!

My New Motto!

I loved this from President Monson's talk in the Ensign. He quotes a friend of his:

"Now I spend more time with my family. I use crystal glasses every day. I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket if I feel like it. The words 'someday' and 'one day' are fading from my vocabulary. Now I take the time to call my relatives and closest friends. I've called old friends to make peace over past quarrels. I tell my family members how much I love them. I try not to delay or postpone anything that could bring laughter and joy into our lives. And each morning, I say to myself that this could be a special day. Each day, each hour, each minute is special."