Halloween 2010

This year's Halloween was caotic to say the least. The day we moved into our new Snowflake house was the day the whole entire neighborhood and ward decided to go trick-or-treating. The primary presidency decided that because we live in such a remote area and it's pretty dark when the sun goes down that they would have every child within a certain boundry area only go house to house on 3 streets. Well guess what.....we were one of the streets and as we were moving beds, furniture, and clothes inside everybody within a square mile was ringing our doorbell asking for candy. Yea, like I could find candy in all of the boxes. Mark and I eventually gave up on the moving and started trick-or-treating, this gaveme enough candy to now pass out at our own house. Call me cheap or efficient, either one works.

Town's Halloween Festival

I understand now why the retail industry sells costumes that are made from materials like Wool, Laytex, or any other type of material that keeps the bodies heat in. I have now experienced a real Fall season, and It's COLD at night. My children use to sweat in the Valley's hot Halloween nights with their costumes on; however, up here we were adding layers to the costumes just so they would stay warm. This was the town's cute little festival they put on so the kids can trick-or-treat indoors and not freeze.

Pumpkin Guts

What does a family do with all of these "Pumpkin Patch pumpkins?"---We carve them. O.k. "We"; actually means my Mom, kids, and husband. I have never loved carving a pumpkin and find no need to ever learn to love it! My mom loves a good knife carving and the kids love to doodle all over them before it's cut into. I have found that my Ella girl will not go near anything slimy or squishy, so you will notice Grandma doing all of her pumpkin gutting. You will also notice that Grandma has haircolor on her hair at the same time that she is carving, because my Mom will never just do 1 thing at a time. Since I'm not the one having to carve any of these pumpkin, here's to multi-tasking with The Grandma.

Pumpkin Patch

Fall is here and it means it's time for the Pumpkin Patch. It's a beautiful time up here during the October month, we actually have a change in weather and for the first time ever this family from the valley gets to enjoy Fall. The leaves change, the days are cool, and you can feel the winter weather slowly approaching. One of the joys about living in a small town is the cute little festivities that go on. One of my kids favorite thing this time of year is the Pumpkin Patch. There are Hay rides, pumpkin sling shots,pumpkin picking, and good homemade fudge. It's such a delight to my kids; that when this time of year comes around, they beg to take everybody that they know too it. So we are off to the pumpkin patch and we always have enough pumpkins to decorate and to bake with in our home.



Papa's little shadow that is always following him.



Princess Ella always wants the biggest pumpkin and don't worry, this time she brought her muscles with her to carry it.



Papa's Girl




We've really gone Redneck now!




Grandpa & Grandma Goodman enjoying the Hayride and the cool weather. My kids love this hayride no matter how many times they've been on it.




Ella & her Grandma Goodman




Dale and Nedra with grandkids #12, #16, and #21

Let the pulling begin

Kimball has had a habit of grinding his teeth at night since he got 2 teeth to rub together. It's AWFUL and will actually wake me up at night. Our sweet Jenny once told me that if we ever go on another vacation together that I will have to pay for Kimball to have his own room, because she NEVER wants to hear that noise again! Because of all of this grinding of the teeth, Kimball has actually grinded a few teeth down to the very gums. As he has gotten older I couldn't wait for the day these tiny little grinded down teeth would start falling out and his adult teeth would come in. Once his adult teeth start coming in, then we can start wearing mouth guards and etc. Well one morning Kimball woke up crying that his mouth hurt and when I took a look I was shocked to see 2 adult teeth had actually popped up behind his tiny baby teeth. His gums were swollen and bleeding so I made a call to the dentist who said "they have to come out" Here is the problem - his baby teeth were grinded down to such tiny dots that every dentist in that office tried and couldn't get a grip on them. As you look at the pictures you will notice that with every try the next dentist would numb Kimball a little bit more until his whole face was numb. By the 3rd round we finally got the 2 tiny teeth out and Kimball was a trooper!

Kimball's Love for Soccer

Kimball has always had a love for soccer. This year was his first year playing for the Snowflake city team. Up here in our small town you can not start playing soccer until you have turned 6. On the first day of practice Kimball's coach was SO IMPRESSED with the level of Kimball's skill that he brought to the field that he sat me down to talk about it. His words were "I've never seen a kid have such a natural ability to play any sport, I explained the rules and how the game is played and your son just went out onto the field and did it. It was amazing". Being the proud Mother that I am, I simply excepted the compliment and headed home. When I told Mark later that evening what the coach had said about Kimball's amazing talent Mark responded "Well, did you tell the coach our kid has been playing soccer since he was 3yrs old" I simply responded "that it didn't come up". Sometimes it's nice to move to a town where nobody knows you. HEE HEE!!



And of course Johnny is always his brothers biggest fan!! Often found stealing the balls or running onto the field.

Can we say Retakes

There is an old episode of the show "Friends" where the characters "Chandler Bing and Monica" are trying to pose for their engagement photo's and no matter what happens or how hard they try, Chandler just CAN NOT take a good picture......every time I watch that episode it reminds me of my Kimball. To this day the only person to actually get a great picture of Kimball is my friend and photographer Megan Klug. She is a professional, a mother, talented, and patient enough to be the only one to snap a great shot of Kimball. With all of that said I would like to show you Kimball's 1st grade picture and introduce you to the new "Chandler Bing".........




Now, you can't denie that there is nothing but Joy and Happiness in that boys soul!!

Ms.Ella's First day of Preschool

I found a cute lady at Ella's dance studio who teaches a preschool in the next town over (It's only 4.5 miles from my house, you've gotta love small towns) She has a great way of teaching and we were so happy that a spot opened up for Ella. It was a countdown everyday on our families calendar to when she was going to start preschool and when that day finally came Ms. Ella was ready and willing. Her teacher keeps a preschool blog and at the end of the day you can see what was done that day in class. www.millennialpreschool.blogspot.com

Big Thanks to her Grandma Bev because our Ella would walk this earth naked if it wasn't for Grandma and the many hours she spends sewing cute outfits for her. Look out world here she comes!

Quad riding

O.k. I know I complain a lot about living in Snowflake however I am not completely blinded by some of the great things of this town. For instance, take the summer months (after the wind stops blowing) the fact that on most days it would only hit 90degrees and then would cool down at night is something I have fallen in love with. If you add quad's to that great summer weather it equals a great day of fun. The kids were in heaven this summer when Papa, "Bob the Builder"-who's real name is Steve Rogers however we only refer to him by his official title "Bob the builder" came up with the quad's and spoiled the kids with rides. Ella loves to go the fastest while honking the horn and scaring the horses. Kimball just loves whatever his Papa is doing, and Johnny just gets a kick out of all of it.

Bowling+Cousin's+Grandma=Good times!!

My cute niece Jillian has wanted to go bowling for a while and my Mom wanted to spend some time with just the older grand kids, so a Saturday's activity was easy to plan. On a side note: I thought it would be a great way for Kimball to realize the Wii games aren't real life and you aren't an expert at all sports.

Root, Root, Root, for the Diamond Backs

Take me out to the Ball game........
Ella's dance studio was invited to dance at the Diamondback's game in August. It was a little bit too crowded and a little bit too hot, but Ella had a great time. Now her entourage on the other hand: consisting of Uncle Matt, Grandpa Goodman, Grandma Bev, Mom, and Brothers were just happy when it was time to watch a game and enjoy the food.
These were the best pictures I could take in a large crowd. Ella is in the back on the right.

Johnny's 1st birthday

A year ago I sitting in the front office at Houston Elementary as big as a whale and having some good contractions, my sweet friend Cyndi Palmer came over and said "What's going on? Are you having this baby?". No, I replied I just think it will pass and her response was "No Way, let's have him now, it's Friday and I have a whole ton of things to do this weekend so let's get this boy out" A few hours later I called Our Jenny and said "Let's go, I need a ride to the hospital" Cyndi met us down there and then it was 3 woman with nothing to do and plenty of time on our hands so what did we do? Headed to the gift shop of course! Here is that picture from a year ago and the current one from his 1 year birthday.


I can't believe it's been a whole year. To my girls....I couldn't have done it with out you!!


Johnny started out happy with the ice cream but burst into tears when the Happy Birthday song was being sung by a crowd of people. Jenny's Birthday hat lead to his frustration and his mom found the whole thing comical and kept snapping photo's

Kimball's 1st day of 1st grade

The country song "Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney has been playing over and over in my head the last few days and for the most part I've been a happy person until this morning. It seems like I blinked and my best friend who pals around with me all day is gone. Kimball started 1st grade today and as happy as he was,it left a little hole in my heart. He's always with me, talking to me, helping me, laughing with me and I lost that this morning when I walked him to his class or I should say when Miss Ella walked him to class. She was persistent in making sure he ate breakfast, had his backpack and knew where to go. Kimball would politely say "yes Ella, I Know" and then move on. We kept our tradition of a McDonald's happy meal on the first day and Mom was really happy when school was out and Kimball hopped into the car with a big grin on his face.