Goodrich Gardens

In an attempt to brighten up our front porch area, Molly and I planted flowers. I had a few flower pots lying around the house so I thought I'd put them to good use. And yes, Molly helped! She was right in on the action-getting the dirt in the pots and watering the flowers. She still helps me water them everyday! It would be easier without her "help" but it brings her so much joy that I purposely wait for her to wake up from her nap to water them.

Helping Mommy plant... I don't have much experience in this area so I'm somewhat surprised that they haven't all died yet! Here they are all lined up-aren't they pretty?

Grilling Season!

Justin and I love grilling season! For Justin it means MEAT, something I skimp on in my cooking. For me it means no cooking and no mess to clean up! So we see it as a win-win situation. Since we love it so much, I thought I'd highlight Justin's specialty-kabobs. First, he cuts up all the peppers; he uses all colors-red, green, orange, and yellow. If we have mushrooms, he'll use those too. Then he marinades the meat and peppers all day and then threads them on the skewers. After they've been marinading for however long he grills them. Then the best part-we get to eat them! We also love to thread pineapple on the kabobs for a little extra. I do have to say that this is probably one of my favorite meals. If anyone wants to make the trek down to Lindon, we are happy to treat you!

Some other things we love to grill:
1. Asparagus
2. Zucchini
3. Brats
What do you guys like to grill?

One funny story: last Sunday we grilled some steaks that we got from my mom and dad-thanks! I had Justin make a hot dog for Molly because I thought there was no way she'd eat the steak. So we're sitting outside with our delicious steak, baked sweet potatoes (yum!), grilled zucchini, and fruit. Molly wanted some of Daddy's "chicken" so Justin gave her a bite of his steak and she loved it! She kept asking for more chicken so Justin told her it was cow. So then she kept walking from me and back to Justin saying, "More tow!" She surprises me all the time with what she will and will not eat!

Could she get any messier?

I know I've posted about Molly's messy habits before but I couldn't resist posting these pictures! Justin went off to Bonus Night a couple of weeks ago so it was just Molly and me all night-he also took the car so we were stuck at home. So I made Molly's favorite food, spaghetti! She seriously loves it and I think she ate more than I did that night-she asked for more 3 times! She has enjoyed slurping the noodles from a very young age. Guess she picked up on that bad habit from her daddy! She must have been starving because she couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough! Of course, it was right to the tub when she got done. And the floor probably needed mopping too although I probably didn't do it that night!

Gateway

For Erin's birthday, we decided to meet halfway at the Gateway-hey any excuse right? We found some good deals, talked, ate a yummy lunch, talked, let the girls run around at the fountains, did I mention we talked a lot? It was such a great day and even though we had our kids, it was just the break that I needed. When I was driving home I thought to myself, "I haven't had that much fun in a long time!" I guess I'm pretty easy to please. The girls had so much fun running around and watching the water fountain. We told Chloe to go sit by Molly and put her arm around her. I was pretty surprised that she did and that Molly let her! It was so cute, I couldn't believe they stayed there long enough for us to snap a couple of pictures. Molly and Mommy I told Justin later that night that I would feel so bad for Molly if we only had boys from now on. Every girl needs a sister! Thanks for a great day, Erin and Chloe! We love you both!

Goodbye and Hello!

Well, after 4 years of driving Grandma Lue's purple car, we finally sold it. It all happened so fast! We posted it on KSL and craigslist on Monday night at like 9:10. About 5 minutes later, Justin's phone rings and it's someone about the car. They say they have cash and are ready to come over and buy it. Well, we were certainly suprised! Then right after he hung up, his phone rang again-someone calling about the car. Then my phone rang-yep, someone about the car. So we were both on the phone at this point and so far everyone calling says they have cash and they want it right away! To say that we were surprised would be an understatement! Then, while we're both on the phone, Justin's phone starts beeping-yep, you guessed it, another person calling and offering cold, hard cash to come and take the car off of our hands. I am not exaggerating when I say all of this happened within ten minutes of us posting the car online! So we get off the phones, run outside with a duster and the vacuum and start cleaning the car as fast as we could (keep in mind we thought it would take weeks to sell it). To spare you all the details, we did end up selling it the next morning to the highest bidder (which ended up being double what we thought we'd get for it). I guess everyone wants a cheap car with very low mileage on it. I didn't even have time to stand in front of the car for the customary picture...so this will have to do: As much as we (Justin) complained about the purple car, we will never forget it! We "inherited" it in February 2004, about 2 months after we got married. Since it was Grandma's car, it had very little miles on it. It got great gas mileage and we really needed it at the time. Also, for the first 9 months of Molly's life it was the only car that we had. So it's been through lots with us, I guess you could say!

So to all of you that are wondering what we got in place of this beautiful purple car, here's a picture: That's right, we are now the owners of a scooter! It took a little bit of time for Justin to sell me on this, but I now think it's fun! Justin just drives it to work and back and the two best things about it: it costs less than $4 to fill up with gas and it only costs $14/month to insure it! Wahoo!!! Justin is pretty happy with his "upgrade." He always asks me if he needs to run to the store to get milk or something. He just looks for any excuse to ride the scooter. You won't ever see me driving it though. To all of you who know me pretty well, let me just say--Weber County Fair and scooter--and you'll know why I won't ever drive it!

Introducing...

I just wanted to mention that we have a new member of the family. My sister, Ali, and her husband, Jeff, welcomed Gavin Jeffrey Broadbent into their family on May 8th. He was 7 lbs 9 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. We are so happy for them and can't wait to meet little Gavin. He is so cute! Congratulations, Jeff and Ali. We love you! Molly is practicing saying his name-right now it's "Ga-een" but hopefully by July it will be closer to the real thing!

Tag, I'm it!

Okay, so I've been tagged a few times in the last couple of weeks. I didn't forget about it, though, and I'm now going to attempt to answer to all of them in one post!

3 joys: my family, books, the gospel
3 fears: something bad happening to Justin or Molly, my children rejecting the gospel, hobo spiders (we saw plenty in Logan and I never got used to it)
3 goals: cut back on gas consumption by only going somewhere once a week, use up the food in my freezer and pantry before buying more, offering Molly a fruit and/or veggie with every meal
3 current obsessions: blogging, reading is always an obsession, organization (with my clothes, chores, EVERYTHING!)
3 random surprising facts: I've never colored my hair (I'm ready to make the plunge-any ideas?), I've never had braces, I was part of a dance team that went to Australia (we were "cheerleaders" for an Arkansas football team)

4 Places I go over and over: the grocery store, church, my parents, Justin's parents
4 people who email me the most: not very many!!! Karla, Monster Jobsearch, forwards from Justin's mom, our ward's "good news minute"
4 of my favorite foods: Shredded Pork Burritos, Lasagna, Southwest Chicken Salad, anything from Cafe Sabor
4 Places that I'd rather be right now: I talked to my mom on the phone today-they were in Martha's Vineyard so that would be one, Italy, Australia, Hawaii
4 movies I could watch over and over: Italian Job, While You Were Sleeping, Far and Away, Gidget

That wasn't so bad, was it? I can't keep track of who has done this already and who hasn't so I tag anyone who is in need of a post!

Justin goes fishing, Meg heads north

A few weeks ago, Justin left for one of his annual (semi-annual?) fishing trips with his two friends, Rich and Jason. They went somewhere in Southern Utah/Northern Nevada. Such a long drive! I think they had a good time, although they did end up coming home early due to poor fishing (I think Justin is the only one that caught anything and he only caught one fish). Justin didn't have the camera with him but here's a picture from his last fishing adventure (they all look alike anyways): Justin's fishing trips are a great excuse for Molly and I to get away for a few days and stay at my mom and dad's in Plain City. It turned out to be beautiful weather the 3 days we were there so Molly played outside with Chloe quite a bit. On Monday night, the whole family went to Tony's for pizza-yum yum! It was my mom's week to work but luckily for me, Erin lives right next door. So I was able to spend some quality sister-time with her while the girls played. Thanks Erin for hanging out with me!

ABC's, 123's, and Elmo

This is old news to most of you, but Molly knows her ABCs (not the song, but she can recognize all the letters). Lately, she loves to point out all the letters she sees everywhere-on her sippy cup, on billboards, at the grocery store, wherever. I think she likes it so much because Justin and I clap our hands and offer tons of praise that makes her so proud of herself. She doesn't know the ABC song yet but she does enjoy singing it with Justin or me. So I couldn't resist posting this video clip because her voice is so cute. Sorry, I didn't catch the very first part:



She also enjoys counting to 10 with our help:



As with all kids, we have issues sometimes with Molly eating-she has no problems consuming tons of snacks each day, but meals are entirely different. On the day this next video was taken, I had made her two things for lunch (I hardly ever do this, I was extremely frustrated). She didn't eat either but then kept asking for snacks all day! Argh! So I made Navajo Tacos for dinner and made her a yummy scone and drizzled it in honey. I thought for sure she would gobble it right up! But she wouldn't even taste it! If she would have tasted it and then said she didn't like it, I wouldn't have made her eat it. But she wouldn't even try it!!! So this was our trick to get her to eat it:



It worked somewhat because she did end up eating about half of it!

Sorry for the many videos, I just thought they were fun!

Also, just a note for all you moms out there. My mother-in-law found a fun website to help kids learn their ABC's or if they are a little older, to help them with reading. It's called www.starfall.com-Molly loves it so go check it out!

We finally made it!

I've been wanting to go to a Real Salt Lake game since the franchise came to Utah. So when Justin's work offered tickets at a discount price, he snatched up enough for us, Eric, Heidi and Tiana, and Matt and Camille. It was so much fun!

Poor Matt, Molly only wanted to sit on his lap (she has always favored men over women!). When I took her out to change her diaper, she cried and kept saying, "Matt, back!" Still after a couple of weeks, whenever she sees a picture of Matt, she gets really excited. Thanks Matt and Camille for taking care of Molly the whole time! (Don't you just love the lady eating cheetos in the back ground? Apparently she is some big-wig at the credit union!)

We were glad that Molly had so much fun. There was a family sitting in front of us with a little boy that was probably just a few months younger than Molly that screamed to whole time! The mom and dad had to take turns walking him around outside of the stadium. Both Molly and Tiana had so much fun! I guess you could say we were lucky because Real did play the LA Galaxy which means we did get to see David Beckham (he's out there somewhere). The score ended up being 2-2 but Beckham scored both of their goals. When the game was over, tons of screaming girls ran down to the field for a chance to see him. He pulled off his jersey and hands it to one of the girls. Of course, she was screaming like crazy! The whole gang: Justin and Molly in the back; Heidi, Eric, Tiana, Camille and Matt in the front I definitely think we'll make this a family tradition. It was so much fun!