Hungry, Hungry Hippo Fun!

Every week on Mondays I try to get the kids to play a game with me before bed time since we do our family night on Fridays. We usually play "Uno", "Sorry", or "Battleship", but this time they wanted to play "Hungry Hungry Hippos".

Jaedyn's usually asleep, but wasn't so we let her get in on the action. I decided to let the kids play while I watched. Jaedyn got right into it and was hitting away at her pink hippo, that was so nice of the boys to let her have the pink one. While trying to figure out how to play the game by watching Jaron and Jantzen, Jaedyn decided she was just going to lift up her hippos mouth and hope the marbles would go in by themselves. When that didn't work, she decided to just grab them with her hand. The boys thought it was so hilarious! They just kept laughing the whole time they were playing.




Jaron and Jantzen had so much fun playing a game with Jaedyn. They said they can't wait until she can play more. They are so cute with her!

Valley of Fire

On April 17th we went to the "Valley of Fire" state park for Jaron's cub scout pack meeting. We have never been there, so we were excited to go.

When we first got there, the boys listened to a presentation of artifacts that have been found there and learned about the people who used to live there. The boys thought it was cool. After they were done we took some pictures and then headed up to a picnic area.




While we were eating lunch we saw a chipmunk trying to find food, so Jantzen threw some Cheetos his way. Eventually he found it and before we knew it, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore were there scrounging for food. Jantzen thought it was cool. Jaron didn't get to see it because he took off to explore the rocks with the rest of the scouts. We also saw a couple lizards running around on the rocks.

After we ate, Jaron got his computer belt loop award. He already had it, but said that's okay, he'll have two.



While the boys played on the rocks, Jaedyn just chilled out in her stroller. She was so good, despite the heat. It was pretty warm that day up there. She had fun just hanging out with mom and dad and when it was nap time, she cuddled with her daddy to go to sleep.



Jaron and Jantzen found some petroglyphs by where we ate lunch. They were pretty cool to see. You have to look closely on the rocks to see them. I didn't get a close enough picture.



After some playing, and a few falling scares from Jantzen (he almost gave me a heart attack), we decided to go for a ride and see the rest of the park. The road we drove on was the same one that the Autobots (Transformers) drove on in the movie. We saw lots of beautiful rock formations that were different colors, it was really cool.

Here I am with Jaron and Jantzen (he was being a stinker and didn't want to get his picture taken) at "Fire Canyon/Silica Dome". I thought it was cool that the rocks were white and red together. Jaron was wondering why the rocks were like that. We found out that the red parts of the rock is from iron that has seeped into it, which changes it's surface to a red color.


I would like to go again when Jaedyn's older and go for some hikes on the trails. It will be fun to explore more areas, but for now we had a good time.

8 Months...

Today our little princess is 8 months old. I can't believe it. She'll be one before I know it. It's going by way too fast, but it has been fun having her in our family. She brings all of us so much joy and laughter, especially her dad and brothers. They adore her soooo much, I love it!

Here are some things about Jaedyn at 8 months...

* She weighs 15 lbs. (yes, she has lost weight since last month)

* She's 27 1/2 in. tall

* Her hair is getting fuller and thicker

* Her eyes are a combination of blue, brown, and green

* She sits up really good now and reaches for things without falling over

* She loves to eat her socks and shoes

* She doesn't like to wear shoes (I will change that)

* I can't paint her toenails yet because she won't stop eating her toes

* She loves to talk with her mouth full of food

* She loves her bath time

* She holds her bottle by herself

* She's starting to give kisses, but very limited

* Her brothers are teaching her how to give "hi 5's"

* She starting to feed herself

* She loves to gnaw on mine and Josh's fingers

* She still has no teeth yet, but is trying to get them

* She loves to rip off her bracelets and try to eat them

* She loves to take off her hair bows

* She loves to jump on the trampoline

* She crinkles her nose when she's happy and excited (it's the cutest thing ever)

* She has started tossing a ball back and forth with Jaron

* She's still the sweetest little girl in the world

We are still loving having a girl in our house. She's just too much fun. We can't wait to see what new things she has developed in the next month.

12 Years!!

Today, Josh and I have been married for 12 years. Here is the story of how we met...

My boyfriend at the time had just left on a mission and a friend that I worked with and her husband thought they needed to set me up with every guy they met. Needless to say, Josh was the only guy I agreed to go out with. Blind dates don't usually work out, but that's how we met on October 18, 1997; 12 1/2 years ago. My first impression of him was, he was too short for me, but I thought he was really cute, so I gave him a chance. We went to dinner with some friends and then went to a haunted house at the local mall. I had told Josh before we went in that I know it's fake, but I still get scared anyway, so I might grab on to him...he said, "That's okay with me". I did end up grabbing his arm and as we walked out of the haunted house, he didn't let my hand go, it was nice. After we left the mall, we went back to our friends' house to watch a movie. It was "The Lady in White". Cheesy, I know, but it's a good movie.

When we left to go home, I felt kind of sad that our date was over. I'd had a really good time and I had the weirdest feeling the whole way home. I'd never felt like that before. Who knew that both Josh and I would know we were going to get married just after one date...we did though. We were pretty much inseparable after that.

We got engaged 6 weeks after we met. Fast, I know, but why wait when you know you're getting married.

Here is our very first picture we had taken together. We had only been dating for a week and I was going to meet Josh's family. It just happened to be on the same day they were doing family pictures. When the photographer said he was done, he told Josh's parents that he had a couple more shots he could take if they wanted them. Of course John said, "Take a picture of these two", referring to me and Josh. It was kind of embarrassing, but I'm glad we did it. Look how young and skinny we were back then...oh, to be young like that again would be nice.


We got married in the Salt Lake City Temple on April 18, 1998. It was kind of funny because we had our wedding date reserved before we were officially engaged and our wedding date fell exactly six months to the day and date of our first date.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our special day...

This picture is when we first came out of the temple after we were married. Don't you just love my slippers? Josh wanted me to wear them so he didn't look short next to me. I didn't mind though, they were very comfortable.


This is one of my very favorites. I'd always wanted to get married in the Salt Lake Temple ever since I was a little girl and went there to be sealed to my parents. Plus, the temple in spring time is soooo beautiful.


The rest of the pictures are from our reception three days after our wedding at Castlebrook in Layton, Utah. It was a beautiful place to have a reception.




It has been twelve years, three kids, for different residences (in two different states), six cars, and a whole lot of fun later that brings us to where we are today. I've had so much fun being married to my best friend in the whole world and am so very grateful for all that he has done for me and our family. He makes so many sacrifices so I can stay home with our children and raise them and is the hardest working man I know. I don't tell him often enough, but "THANK YOU Josh" for all that you do. I love you more and more every day and I look forward to spending eternity with you and the beautiful children you have given me. I LOVE YOU TONS!!! XOXOYYYXOXO!

"Tug-O-Sock"...War

Jaedyn loves her socks, at least playing with them, not wearing them. She's always pulling them off and throwing them anywhere and everywhere.

The other day I caught her chewing on a freshly pulled off sock (she's teething, so she chews on everything). Jaron decided to try and pull it out of her mouth, she didn't like that so she clamped down on it tightly starting a tug-o-sock war.


Jaedyn obviously won that war, the beginning of many I think. After she won, she continued on with her chewing that eventually turned into completely devouring the poor helpless little sock...it never stood a chance.



We all love her fun personality.

"Shark Reef" Field Trip

Last week Jantzen had his third, and final field trip for preschool to the "Shark Reef". I have been here several times before for Jaron's field trips, so I wasn't too excited to go again, but Jantzen was. He doesn't remember coming with Jaron. The whole time he was talking about sea turtles and sharks, but mostly the turtles, that's all he really wanted to see.

Jantzen thought this fish was cool because it was as big as him, but weighed a ton more.


Next, he go to see the piranha's. Last year when we came for Jaron's field trip, his class got to see them go crazy when they got fed, but the tour guide didn't feed them this time. It's too bad they didn't, it's pretty cool to see.


Here's Jantzen in the fish tank tunnel. His favorite creature in here was the Zebra Shark. Before we left, he just had to get a picture of himself with Jaedyn, of course giving her a kiss...he's such a sweet brother. They are just too cute!




After we left the tunnel, we came to the area where the kids could touch some rays. Jantzen wanted nothing to do with that. He starred at them for a minute and then said, "I'm NOT touching them!" It's funny because Jaron had a blast touching the rays and I thought Jantzen would too. He just watched his preschool buddies as they played around. I guess the plus side to him not sticking his hand in the water was I didn't have to worry about sanitizing them.



Here's Jantzen with his friend Conner checking out the jelly fish and the star fish. He thought they were both pretty cool. I thought the star fish on the glass was fun. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Jantzen right in front of it to make it look like it was eating him, but there were so many people there that day and they started crowding around us, so this is the best I could get.



Next up was the big shark tank. The only thing Jantzen was looking for in here were the turtles. While he was looking he got to see some scuba divers in there. They were cleaning the glass on the tank and he thought it was pretty cool that they were swimming with the sharks, I did too. Every time I've been here I've never seen scuba divers. They were waving at all the kids, Jaedyn was looking very intently at them. I think she was trying to figure out what they were.

It was time to leave the big shark tank, but Jantzen hadn't seen a turtle yet, so I stayed back with him to find one. Luckily as we were leaving one came out and swam over his head. He was so happy that he got to see it before we left. I would've been sad if he hadn't been able to.


After the tour, the kids got to go into a class room and learn more about some of the creatures that they have there. They learned mostly about different kinds of turtles. Then they all got to make their own paper plate turtle. Jantzen took his time putting his together and coloring it. He did such a good job and loved every minute of it. It's funny how much he loves turtles.



Here's my attempt at a group shot of the kids before we went home, some of them were being crazy. It was in front of a fish tank that is in the class room, but it opens up so you can see tourists on the other side.


Jantzen had a great time on his field trip to the "Shark Reef". We didn't even get out the door before he asked when he can come back and he's been asking every day since.

Our Easter 2010

This year we had a really good, but busy Easter. Easter morning we were woken up by the kids, they wanted to see if the Easter bunny had come. Lucky them, he did.

The boys were really excited to see what they got this year, Jaedyn had no clue what was going on even though the boys were asking her if she was excited. Jaron got a new Bionicle, another "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" do it yourself book, a baseball set (complete with a tee and home plate), and LOTS of candy. Jantzen got a little Gresh Bionicle (Josh has been teasing him about this for a long time. When Janzten asked for a little green Gresh, Josh would say, "You want a little green dress?" Jantzen would always get frustrated with him), a sticky ball catch thingy, a new "Cars" puzzle, a slinky (so him and Jaron won't fight over Jaron's anymore), a new microphone (the last one got broken at preschool), and TONS of candy. The candy they were the most excited for was the cotton candy.







When Josh sat Jaedyn down by her basket, she didn't know what to think. In her basket she got six new outfits, a pack of binky's, a pair of shoes, three new movies (Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure, Alice in Wonderland, and Sleeping Beauty), and some Gerber treats. Notice the first thing she grabbed for...her shoes, that's my girl! She was very fascinated with her Easter goodies and has been enjoying her new treats. Now I get to make new hair bows to match her new outfits. She's too much fun to dress!




After the kids got their baskets, Josh and I started making our traditional Sunday morning conference breakfast. It was kind of fun that it happened on Easter this year. For breakfast we have German pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and orange julius. The orange julius was extra yummy this time. We started to watch conference as we ate and then enjoyed the rest of conference when we were done. Thank goodness for TIVO, we didn't miss any of the talks. They were really good this time around.

When conference was over we decided to have our annual "Goddard Easter Egg Hunt"...it's nothing fancy, it just sounds like it is. I hid the eggs, 87 to be exact, and then we let Jaron and Jantzen loose to find them. It wasn't that hard, but they had a blast finding them. Josh did get to some of them before the boys did. We sat Jaedyn down on the grass and gave her some eggs to play with so she could be a part of the fun, but the wind was bugging her and so this is the cute face I got from her. I think that's the same face I give Josh when he's irritating me. She did start to play with the eggs and have fun though, despite the windy day.









Here's Josh with his little princess...I love her face in this picture.


After our egg hunt we enjoyed a yummy Easter dinner made mostly by Josh. Then we were able to attend a baptism for a new family in our ward. It was awesome to be able to be a part of this special day for them and what a wonderful day to get baptized.

I am grateful for all the blessings my Heavenly Father has given to me and my family and for the sacrifice that the Savior made so that I can be with my family forever. I look forward to spending eternity with my wonderful family.