Piggies

 

 

 

Lindi is known for her wild hair.

When she wakes up it usually look something like this:

 

 Nope, that is not a wig!

Luckily it tames down pretty well.

Her hair is finally long enough to pull into full pig tails.

I think it ages her instantly.

 She is also known for her Miley Cyrus top knots.

 And these half piggies with big tool ribbons might be my favorite!

\

Her hair is pretty fine and silky, but she has lots of it!

With a little curl at the bottom.

I love to run my fingers through it.

Having a girl is so fun!

 

 



Mom Day

 

Lets get real, who calls their mom, mother?

Nobody!

It should be called mom day.

And we should say it like how our kids say it.

By either screaming it at the tops of our lungs,

 or repeatedly over and over again:)

 

Casey was sitting in ward council when they were trying figure out

what the Mothers Day gift should be.

He had heard enough of my complaining over years past about how we don't

want a bookmark.

Or a terracotta pot with forget me not seeds.

 Or pamphlets on how wonderful mothers are.

Duh, of course we know what good moms we are!

All we want is CHOCOLATE!

Or an edible treat we don't have to share.

Ideas were thrown around and I think worried for my wrath

 he decided to volunteer to take care of the Mothers Day treats.

They gave him full reigns... but of course it had to gluten free:)

 

We brainstormed lots of ideas and then I saw an idea on pinterest.

Rice Krispies cut into the shape of a flower on a stick dipped in almond bark.

It was edible, gluten free and had chocolate on it.

 

How hard could that be?

Well, we found out it takes a lot of ingredients to make 120

thick flower shaped rice krispie treats.

 

And we learned it takes 6 hours to make 120 flower shaped rice krispie treats.

This was about 4 hours into it.

He hates pinterest now.



Really, Casey takes the award for sticking with it and making them all.

I was in and out most of the time and really only helped frost and bag them.

 

They did turn out super cute though.

It was a labor of love.

And hopefully it brought a smile to each of their faces.

Next year we will let the High Priests be in charge:)

 

There were some left over so we decided to take them to the single ladies

that live on our street. There are 6 of them! I had a picture but I erased it by

accident, I am so mad!!!

I think it brightened their day and the boys thought it was super fun.

 

I tried to get a picture with the people that made me a mom but we all know

the attention span kids have!

 

And my aunt MaryAnne emailed me this.

What a fun thing to cherish.

I am thankful for all the wonderful women in my life!

The end of the school year

 

Rusty loved his first year of Shinning Star preschool!

I usually get sad when things end that my kids love doing,

and when we have to give up wonderful teachers.

But he gets to go back next year so all is good!

 

Almost every time he would hop in the car after school

he would have an Adolf Hitler stash from smelling the ink

from the stamp on his hand!

 

The clever costumes got me every time, too!

And it was nice having a child excited to pose for a picture instead

of them ripping it off in the car before even getting home:)

 



They got to go to Rock'n R Ranch on a field trip back in April.

Rusty kills me with his social skills.

He is the biggest social bug and loved his preschool buddies.

He did not know one person on the first day of school.

All of his church friends went to a different preschool.

Which was kind of nice for him to branch out and make new friends.

It didn't take long at all for that to happen.

I am really trying to figure out which parent he got that from!!

It was fun to see him interact with all his friends I heard so much about but didn't

have a clue who they were!



His favorite was panning for gold.

He thought he hit the jackpot with those big gold nuggets he found!

He kept them for weeks!

This picture makes me want to stop my typing and go wake him up at 11pm

 and just snuggle him to death!

Such a handsome little devil he is!

 I got to be in charge and plan Lanes last day of school party!

Ms. Gonzales called the week before saying nobody signed up to be the chair

person and wondered if I wouldn't mind doing it.

Not going to lie, it overwhelmed me but now I think I might volunteer every year

to be the chair person.

It was a lot of fun!

We had a Hawaiian theme.

It must have been fresh on my mind.

And that was what the dollar store was full of decoration wise:)

 

We started with talking about things you do in Hawaii at a luau.

So instead of dancing the hula we had a hula hoop contest!

I had 2 hula hoops so Lane and Ms. Gonzales had a throw down.

That classroom got so loud at one point with them all chatting and yelling!

Wowza! It turned out to be the perfect way for them to split off into groups for

the rest of the party.

 



There were 4 rotations.

They got to do the limbo.

 



Eat snacks at the snack table.

I even brought fresh cut up pineapple.

Which I am sure was breaking the rules since all food had to be pre packaged:/



They got to decorate "beach bags" which they put their treats in.

I loved the little black coconuts Lane drew on his bag.

 And the last rotation I never got a picture of but they played a game

of play dough Pictionary.

 

Here they are lining up for the last time as first graders ready to go home.



 I cannot say enough wonderful things about Ms. Gonzales.

She was a perfect teacher for Lane.

I have felt so fortunate that we have gotten such amazing teachers so far.

Makes me nervous for next year.

Like I said before, it is so hard to give up good teachers.

You can see it on her face how much she enjoys teaching and that

she really did love Lane.

I promise Lane loved her too. He just gets embarrassed easily.

 



After tearing down decorations and loaded up the car we of course had to get

a special last day of school treat at the new QT kitchen.

This might be trouble for me...best pretzel and cheese I've ever had!

 And then we got home and I opened up Lanes report card and this picture

fell out of it.

Ms. Gonzales took this on meet the teacher day.

I had completely forgotten.

I am floored at how much looks can change in a year!

Lindi was so tiny!

My face was freaking FAT!

And that was when I felt like I was starting to look descent again.

Such a fun idea.

I love treasures like this.

 



Goodman grandkid photo shoot

 

Before I start this post, I must comment on my sweet husband and his amazing love letter

he PUBLICLY wrote on my blog. When I first saw it I thought there was a mistake! That post

didn't look familiar to me and I couldn't figure out how it got on there!

Then when the shock wore off I finally realized he had snuck on there and had written it!

Just like he said, social media is not his cup of tea so I never expected that in a million years.

Maybe that's why I haven't posted in a while. I love looking at it and reading it every time I

open my blog:) What a keeper I have!!

 

But on to the rest of life.

And life was cray cray for a few weeks I tell ya!

Only this happened a while back and I have yet to document it.

For my mother- in -laws birthday we updated her grandchildren photo in her living room.

There were six, SIX  babies born last year!

Lindi was the first in March and Hank was the last of the group born in February.

 

I had Stephanie try to snap a few of just my kids before the group shot.

Lindi was too busy wanting to explore and play!

The whole gang!

And this was cute.

Twiners with their babers.

 



The Best 10 Years (the other side of the story)

First things first, this is Casey (the lucky man that is so often mentioned in this blog). Don't ask me how I figured out how to do a post, but I'm not sure that this will even post or not because I have no idea what to do. Please work!! I found a couple errors on Shelley's last post so I had her show me how to edit the post so that I could have somewhat of an idea on how to do a new post (sneaky:)). This will be a dull and lame post so you can stop reading now (no pictures, no funny comments, etc). I have actually thought about doing this a few times in the past but always chickened out. Since 10 years is a big milestone, I figured this would be a good time. Even though it was technically a few weeks ago. My main reason for this is to show Shelley how much she really does mean to me and our kids because this is so far out of my comfort zone that she won't believe that this is even me. I feel like I am bearing my testimony in church and am about to say, "I want to publicly thank my Heavenly Father...."  But this time I want to publicly thank 'My Cute Honey Bunny' (that is her name in my phone).  Since you have heard how good and awesome of a husband and father that I am, I figured I better return the favor. 

Ever since I spent my life savings at the State Fair for our first date and threw out my arm to win her that precious teddy bear (that she left under the back seat of my truck), she has never left my mind.  We have had our ups and downs, but I really feel like we have about as good a relationship as anyone can ask for.  She is always doing things that she knows will make me happy.  She knows exactly what to get me for special occasions (birthdays, etc.)- cookies or something close to it, and something else that won't be discussed here. She always puts me before herself. If any ladies are still reading this, I'm sorry to say this but I have got the best there is and there is no doubt about it. She can cook/bake, decorate a house like nobody's business, very creative (the things she comes up with blows my mind), great driver (to never have had a ticket is quite an accomplishment--knock on wood), doesn't have to have full blown gifts on special occasions (we hardly ever do gifts on birthdays, Christmas, etc. and I think that that has played a big part of having such a good relationship for us), is a great writer (anyone that can make me look as good as she does on this blog should be paid good money), plans the best vacations (I hate planning vacations- she planned Hawaii all on her own and it made it that much better for me, and she even packed my bags. Dang I'm spoiled), and of course is the greatest mom our kids could have ever hoped for. They definitely chose her in the preexistence to be their mom even though that meant that I had to be their dad cause there was no way that she was leaving my side.  It is a huge relief/blessing to not have to ever worry that my kids aren't where they are supposed to be when it comes to schooling, recreational activities, and everything else because Shelley is on top of what is best for each of them.  It is amazing to me how loving and how willing she is to help other kids as well. When she is watching other kids she shows them the same love and respect that she shows our kids and that is amazing to me. I wish that I could offer her the same that she offers me, but I don't know how that is even possible. Since Shelley uses this as a way of journal writing, I hope that whatever may come our way in the distant future (hopefully at least 50 years) as we are all destined to leave this mortal existence, I want our children and grandchildren to know that their mother/grandmother (that's weird to say) was such a woman that they will look to her as an example of everything good and a true disciple of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Shelley- Thank you for the best 10+ years that I could ever dream of and ever hope for.  I love you more than you will ever know and can't wait for what the next 10 will bring. I hope you are already planning our 20th:)

6th and 7th day...wrapping the trip up!

 

 Friday we reserved to go beach hopping.

We were told to go check out a part of the island called Kailua.

Kailua is supposedly where all the celebrity's live and where President Obama stays

when he vacations in Hawaii. It also has the beach that is rated on the top 5 list of best

beaches in the world!

We were told to eat at a restaurant called Boots and Kimo because it had the best breakfast

on the island. We left our hotel around 9 and got to Kailua close to 10. When we found Boots and

Kimo we walked up and tried to open the door but it was locked!

There was a note on the door saying they were closed for the day.

We were so bummed!

Luckily we had spotted a crepe place just down the road so we

walked and peeked into the window and it looked legit!  

 

It was more than legit, it was DELICIOUS!

We each ordered a breakfast crepe with eggs, ham and such then

we shared a dessert crepe.

Can you tell we didn't hold back on food on this trip?

 



This coconut syrup, macadamia nut crepe alamode hit the spot.

This restaurant ended up being a yummy find!

We drove just another 10 minutes to find the heavenly beach called Lanikai.

Lanikai beach is sort of hidden. There isn't a public parking lot, its behind a bunch of

really nice beach houses. You park on the neighborhood street then

find a public entrance between all the beach houses.

The little  path from the street to the beach was beautiful and green.



I hopped on top of a rock to get this picture.

It really was so serene. 

 

Casey was a trooper the whole week with hauling that girlie beach bag around!

It was the best $6 HomeGoods find yet!

 

We found a good spot to sit and relax.

This beach is famous for its white, soft sand.

They call it sugar sand.

And also, there are no waves on this beach.

 

It was overcast on this day and it made me mad to be honest.

It sprinkled pretty much off and on the whole day.

I had high hopes the sky would clear up like it did on Wednesday

but it never did. In fact it started to rain pretty hard so we hurried up and

grabbed our things and ran to the car for cover.

 We decided to drive over to the North Shore, again:)

I wanted to go to Waimea Bay because its another one of my favorites and
we hadn't been there yet!

Luckily the rain had stopped once we got there but it was still pretty cloudy.

We made the best of it and laid down our towels.

Waimea Bay has a big rock cliff and is famous for people jumping off of it into the ocean.

I think they are crazy. There were guys doing back flips!

You can see someone jumping off in the picture.

I miss this stuff.

We stayed until we got rained out, again.

By the time we made it back to Waikiki it was dinner time.

We parked our car at the hotel then walked to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

We had talked about how the whole week had eaten every meal at authentic,

non chain places. So it would be alright if we ate there:)

Since it was our last night we had to end in the hot tub at our hotel!

 

Saturday our flight out was at 3:15.

I double, triple even quadruple checked just to make sure!

I wanted to get as much beach time in as possible.

I headed down to the beach at our hotel at 8am, ha!

I just LOVE the beach. Seriously, it's my therapy.

Casey decided to meet me down a little later.

 

It was so relaxing being down right in the early morning.

The sky was so clear and the air so crisp.

I was pretty much the only one on the beach for awhile.

Besides all the morning surfers out in the water.

Around 9:30 is when the people started coming out.

I loved watching all of the Asians. There were plenty around to watch!

Some of them must have been worried they were going to burn their fair skin.

I would see them in the oddest swim wear.

This girl for sure took first place in sun awareness!

 

Casey came down and joined me for our last hours of basking in the

Hawaiian sun. Yes I know, so unattractive but had to document.



We gave ourselves an hour to go back up to the room, shower and pack

all last minute things. We made sure to give extra time that day for everything
so we weren't cutting it close to when our flight left.
We grabbed a bite to eat, returned our car then took the shuttle to the airport. I

went to a kiosk to print out our boarding passes. When I typed in our info it said we

were too late to check in. I thought that was odd, checked our itinerary to see if I punched

in a wrong number. Tried again, same thing. A worker came over and tried to help us but the same

notice popped up again. He took our info to a front desk then came back and said that our flight

actually left at 12:50!! It was 1:10. What the HECK! That's when my heart attack began.

He asked when I booked our flights. In my email it said Sept 15th, almost 8 months back.

He thought it was because of day light savings our flight times were bumped up.

He said they usually notify people if that happens. I had received NO notification.

He told us to go wait in line (a long line) to see what they could do for us.

My heart had never raced so fast before. When we got up front, we told the man what happened

and his facial expressions didn't help calm my worries. He explained about the time change
and that we should have been notified, blahblahblah. Then pretty much told us they
only have 1 flight to Phoenix per day, and it just left 20 minutes ago.
I asked about a flight to LA then thought we could jump on a Southwest flight home.
Nope, same thing and it left at 1 as well.
He could put us up in a hotel and get us on the flight the next day.
Which meant we wouldn't get home until midnight on Sunday.
Most people would say, sweet another day in Hawaii!
For me I was mentally done and ready to see my kids.
Especially Lindi since she is my baby and was so sick earlier in the week.

With no other options I nodded my head.
While our boarding passes were printing I lost it and starting crying!
Casey was trying to console me and I was trying to be quiet about it
and not make a scene but sometimes tears are hard to hold back!
The man said he was going to get our hotel information and to wait right there.
He took awhile coming back. 
I was starting to wonder what was taking so long.
When he did he asked us if we would like to leave for
Phoenix that night instead. Uh, ya!!!!
He said he was able to get us on a flight on US Airways and that it left
that night at 10:15.
Hallelujah!
We later learned that 6 other people missed our flight
and out of them we were the only ones that didn't get the email about
the time change.

Relieved and excited to go home that night we then sat stumped on
what to do for the next 8 hours!
I wasn't about to sit at the airport for that long then sit on an airplane for
another 6 hours.
Spontaneously we hopped back on the shuttle to Thrifty
car rental and rented our car back for the day!
Only this time we were upgraded to this baby:

We decided to drive back to our hotel and hang out by the pool.

In front of us was a bride and groom that seemed to have just

gotten married!

We laid back and busted out our Mauna Loa's.

For dinner we walked to the back of our hotel and ate

at the Shorebird one last time:)

 

When I looked around I saw the same bride and groom right next to

us eating at their reception!

 

We grilled hamburgers this time and sipped on yummy smoothies.

 

 

By the end of dinner we needed to head back to the airport.

Luckily this time our flight hadn't left early.

We bought neck pillows, miraculously found a spare outlet to charge our

phones then boarded our flight.

We were spent.

 It was 1am AZ time when we took off and landed at 7am.

 

We were SO excited to collect our kiddos at my moms.

They had all just woken up and were about to eat breakfast when we walked in.

Lindi didn't really give us a good reaction to seeing us for the first time in a week.

Which is a good, that meant she was happy and didn't miss us too much:)

I am so grateful for everybody who took care of them while we were gone.

My mom said Lindi was sooo sick and just slept for pretty much 3 days.

She loves taking care of babies so I am glad they had that time together!

The boys were spoiled by their aunts and grandmas as well!

And just like that vacation time was over and real life presumed.

 

Mahalo Hawaii for an amazing time!

Hopefully someday we will see each other again!!