Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas, even though we couldn't be close to any "real" family. We spent a lot of time with people in our ward. In fact, I haven't had to make a meal for about a week now. Kind of nice.

Here are some pictures of Jeff and Scott playing with Jeff's new scooter/bike that he got from Grandma and Grandpa Goddard. He loves it. As you can see they both had fun trying to figure everything out.

Jeff and Scott are wearing their Christmas PJ's. We got them on Christmas Eve and put them on. It was the gift we got to open before Christmas morning.

This is what I got for Christmas from Scott. We had a rule this year that we had to make our gifts. If you don't know what it is... you are really missing out in life. Actually, I thought it was a calender at first. It really is a Wacky Six game. He spent hours and hours cutting, painting, and repainting when Jeff attacked cards. On Christmas Eve he stayed up until 5 a.m. trying to get it finished.

A Scott and Sadie Goddard Christmas

I think we are a little unconventional. Our Stockings are hung next to our air conditioner.




Our tree is set up in front of our door.


And, unfortunately... I wrapped our gifts today. I have never considered myself a "crafty" person. But holy cow, I can't even wrap a gift without showing off a little of the box underneath. Sorry mom, I tried.

Prayer

I grew up being taught to pray to my Heavenly Father. I did most of the time. As I got older, I did better about saying my prayers every morning and every evening. I thought perhaps, I had become good at prayers, simply because I was saying them at the appropriate times.

I have said prayers in which the words were hardly there, let alone my heart. Sure, I was saying them. Each night and each morning I would kneel, or maybe slump, or if I was really tired lay through each prayer. Saying in words what I thought I should be saying, but having my mind on things far from my love for my Father in Heaven who loved me. Or far from the thoughts of His Son, who came to Earth and gave himself as a sacrifice for my sins.

I admit that I have had times when my prayers were less prayers, but more mere mumblings. But I have had prayers where I was heard. I was heard not because at other times I was being ignored, but because this time I was reallying praying. Sincerely, humbly, pleading for God to direct and comfort me. I have felt the love of God and his concern for me as one of His children at these times.

I was heard because I was giving Him the opportunity to hear me. He was always wanting to listen, but I was never really talking to Him. I still have prayers that aren't really prayers. I hope that as I grow and become more of the person I want to be that I can actually commune with God. This is a lofty goal for me, but I am seeking after it.

Thanks for Hubbies

Yesterday Scott got to stay home and study for one of the classes he is taking. It was great to have him home because when Jeff was asleep I took off to do some shopping. By the time I got home I felt so sick I cried. Thankfully Scott was home to take care of things. I took some Tylenol (one of the few things I can take) and laid down for a bit. I woke up a little while later feeling much better only to realize I had slept for two hours. I was so thankful Scott was home to hold down the fort.

I got sick at Walgreen's, but I wanted to wait to get my pictures. I think the photo guy thought I was really mad because I kept blowing air out (in an attempt to keep from passing out) and laying my head down on my cart. The thing is that Scott and I have had these beautiful frames that we got for our wedding that still had the cheesy pictures they came with. And they were up on the wall for everyone to see... and we have been married for two plus years.

So, these pictures are what I sacrificed for, and I think it was totally worth it. Uh, well I guess if you want to see them you will have to come visit because they won't upload for some reason. All I get is a nice black box. Huh... well you can imagine how cute they were. :)

Ode to the tree

We went and got the first "real" Christmas tree in our marriage. I was so excited to drive home with it as a trophy on our car. It looks kind of small on top of the car, but let me assure you it is no puny Charlie Brown tree. In fact, as we were setting it up I kept saying how much I loved it and that it was so beautiful. Scott said, "If this tree's love language is words of affirmation, it should be one happy tree". But really, I love it. And it smells sooooo good.

Jeff and Scott doing the manly stuff, like setting up the tree

I think Scott likes the tree almost as much as I do. I think he is giving the tree a little hug in this photo.... which leads me to a funny story. Today Scott was talking about getting a potted tree because it was better for the environment. Then he got on the Internet and did some research. He told me that after he had researched things he felt okay about getting a real tree because from what a read it is healthier for then environment to have a real three than a fake plastic tree that will not biodegrade. I promptly started giving him a hard time about him being a tree hugger. He denies it, but says he doesn't like to kill things. Sheesh, some things you just don't learn about someone else until you have been married for a few years. Who knew? A tree hugger. :) All things said, I love the earth... but I also love my tree.

Self Improvement

So, I have decided to spend some time each day on self improvements. For example, when I lay down on the couch, I get my "Carpentry" book off the shelf and read it till I fall asleep. I have read a chapter about wood, and a chapter on lumber. The difference? I think it has something to do with how it is cut. I always drift off and whatever I do learn, I seem to lose during REM sleep or something.

Yesterday I decided to work on my guitar skills which included about five songs I could play parts of. Today, I can place five songs... and I have a new cord to add to my list of 5 cords. If that's not self-improvement, I don't know what is.

The bad side to all this self-improving I have been doing. My fingers are so puffy and red from the guitar strings,that I think I'll have to forgo any improvements today. I'm getting kind of tired, so maybe I will go find my "Carpentry" book.

Crazy Eights

8 things I'm passionate about
1. Marriage
2. Family
3. Religion
4. People
5. Budgeting
6. Goals
7. Reading
8. Improving myself

8 things I want to do before I die
1. Serve missions with Scott
2. See my children find happiness
3. Speak Spanish fluently
4. Write a book
5. Get my masters and PhD
6. Teach at a university
7. Live in a Latin country
8. Retire in Idaho

8 things I say often
1. No Jeff, you'll get hurt
2. Hon (short for honey)
3. Love you
4. What do you want, Jeff?
5. Hey Jeff, Cmeer
6. Daddy's home!!!
7. Uh-oh
8. Hey Sweetheart

8 books I've recently read or currently reading
1. Life of Pi
2. Peacegiver
3. Carpentry (a college textbook)
4. Whirley the Helicopter
5. Princess Diaries
6. The Book of Mormon
7. Midway to Heaven
8. 55 Essentials

8 songs I could listen to over and over
1. You raise me up
2. Oh my Father
3. Come thou Fount
4. Redeemer of Israel
5. Shout for Joy (Primary Song)
6. Somewhere over the rainbow (a guy singing it with a guitar)
7. Secret Prayer (in Spanish)
8. Anything Scott sings


8 things I've learned this past year
1. Raising teenagers is and will be stressful
2. Marriage really is the best thing ever
3. God blesses you even when you may not totally deserve it
4. Being a mother is hard work, but worth it for sure
5. Babysitting is EXPENSIVE on the East coast
6. Talking about the Gospel is fun
7. I don't know enough about the gospel
8. Choosing a good spouse is VERY important

The Delight of Cream Cheese

So, I have always thought that I like bagels and cream cheese. Until yesterday. I didn't have any bagels, and I had a craving for cream cheese. So, I tried it on toast, and I realized, all this time I thought I liked bagels, maybe I just liked the cream cheese. If this is true, I can save some cash because those things cost like $.75 each.

The bottom line is you can't trust your taste buds when you're pregnant. For example, when I was pregnant with Jeff, all I wanted to eat was noodles, cottage cheese, an salt and pepper. Yuck!

So, I guess I will have to wait until June to find out if I really do just like the cream cheese, or if bagels still have a place in my heart.

The Macy's Parade

This is us waiting for the parade. The weather was absolutely beautiful! We didn't even have to use all the blankets I packed.

This is our happy boy, even though he got up at 4:30 a.m. to make it to get our seats.

Here's another happy and sleepy boy.

This is proof that we made it to the parade, and the fact that I am writing this is proof that we made it home too.

We had a crazy day that started at 4:30 a.m. We met up with some friends of ours and headed into the City. We decided to park the cars out of the busy traffic and take a subway downtown. The drivers dropped us all off to hold a spot on the street and took the cars back up to a traffic free area. Once we got our spot, we just sat and waited. We also took lots of food.

There were so many people, I couldn't believe it. A guy who sings with N'Sync... I think... his name was Joey Fachoey or something like that sat across the street from us. He was on the bleachers that are reserved for ticket holders, but you can't buy the tickets. Tricky huh. I guess you have to know someone who knows someone. Anyway, we held our ground against the hordes of parade goers and got to see it up close and personal. One of the balloons (a big cat looking one) almost hit the light post above us. Luckily, the balloon string holders followed their leader guy who did some fancy hand gestures and blew his whistle and saved us.

Jeff loved it and was a gem all day, even though he had to wake up so early. He smiled and played with lots of other parade goers and made some friends. He is a great kid.

It was a fun experience, but all in all, I think you get a better view at home. Plus, you get all the commentary. All the commentary we got was people yelling at the other people to get down in front. Welcome to New York.

Rambling thoughts on children

I was driving through a ritzy neighborhood tonight. It was dark and I could see inside the houses with their big windows. Some had a few lights on and others didn't have any at all. I started to feel sorry for the houses that were quiet with darkness. They seemed so sad to be without voices of family and children calling to each other, playing games, or just getting ready for bed.

In Psalms 127 it says, "children are an heritage of the Lord... Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them"

I love this scripture, but at the same time it seems inadequate to describe the joys that come from being a mother. It doesn't seem to capture the feeling I had this morning when I open my eyes to a big blue-eyed face less than an inch from mine, and the ensuing smile that erupted when he realized I was not asleep anymore.

Or the feeling I got tonight when we had prayer and he folded his chubby little arms across his tummy and bowed his head. Most nights he interrupts the prayer briefly to sneak a kiss from either mom or dad.

I could tell countless stories of all the sweet feelings and experiences that I have had being a mom, but I am just not adequate to perfectly describe how it really feels. I am just so thankful to be a mother and to have my sweet little boy and all the diapers, hand prints, and Cheerio covered carpet that comes with him.

And in the end, maybe the scripture simply says it all. "Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them".

Ice Cream!

You're dramatic and unpredictable, like biting into a scoop of rocky road ice cream. Like rocky road, you can be a little bit nutty (or a little bit marshmallowy) depending on your mood. Your friends never know what they're going to get when they hang out with you – sometimes you're calm and sweet, and sometimes you're enthusiastic and flirty. 8% of the people who took this quiz got the same evaluation.

It looks like I may be a bit unique. Or maybe just crazy enough they can't put a label on me.

Look - A- Like

I just thought these were fun to see. Unfortunately, they are pretty vague about how much the kids look like their parents. I also found that if I used different pictures of Scott and I that I could get a little higher number. As you can see, I spent too much time in front of the computer today.

Scott and Mom and Dad

Brie, Joey, and CJ

David and Bonnie and Gina

Who looks like who?

Surprise!!!

I have been reading this book called "The Essential 55". It is written by Ron Clark, this guy who won some award for being the best teacher in the United States, or something like that. It is a quick read and pretty interesting.

One of the "Essentials" he talks about is surprising someone at least once a month. He uses an example of having a five course meal prepared with flowers on the table and nice music playing in the background in a classroom for the janitor.

This got me thinking about surprises. I think one of the funnest surprises for me was when I was in college and it was my birthday. I had been at my sister's house babysitting her kids and doing my laundry. I got home and my roommates told me I needed to go to the basement. I can't remember the excuse they gave me, but I was completely clueless. As I walked into the basement I was totally confused to notice all these people I knew. Not only that, but they all seemed to be looking at me. It took a while for the light to go on in my head what was happening. We sang, had cake, and all that jazz, but I have to say the initial surprise that others were thinking of me was the best part of the night.

What have been some of your best surprises, and what is your theory of why we (generally) like them? Of course, this is taking into account I am not talking about the surprise of something like, your tire is flat or anything like that. Why do we get all warm an fuzzy with a nice surprise every once in a while?

Hits

I just figured out how to put a hit counter on the blog, and I am pretty excited to see how much it is viewed. It's probably some sort of popularity contest for me. I can see myself asking other people, as casually as I can, "So, how many hits does your blog have? Oh yeah, well as of right now, I've got three!"

I hate to admit it, but I'm pretty competitive. The other night we went over to another family's house to play games. Scott and I were on the same team. We were totally kicking trash and were about to win, but Scott (the diplomatic one) didn't play the winning move. We ended up losing because he wanted to be nice to the people we were playing with. I'll be honest, I was a little mad. I just love to win. Yikes, I hope Jeff turns out more like Scott.

So, long story short. We have a counter now. So tell all your friends to come visit our blog and boost my ego.

Halloween

Where I grew up in rural Idaho, we got about one trick-or-treater a year on average over a 10 year span of time. One year my dad even gave out cough drops, because he didn't have anything else for the lone trick-or-treater. Even if we did get a kid to come to our door, it wasn't until on Halloween night. So you can imagine my surprise when we started getting trick-or-treaters at about 4 p.m. and I still hadn't gone to the store to get candy.

When the first ones came I thought for sure it was my landlord so I answered the door. Sadly I had to tell the posse of trick-or-treaters I didn't have any candy. One of the little girls actually fell on the ground and started crying. I am not sure if it was because she fell on the ground that she started to cry, or if it was because I didn't have sugary substance to drop in her enormous bag. One of the nosey neighbors looked across the yard at me like I had kicked the girl. I wanted to yell something like, "What, you think we should have candy this early in the day." But instead I just picked the girl up and ran back in the house, shut the door as quickly as I could and determinedly decided not to answer the door again.

So I hid back in my living room, avoiding the kitchen at all costs, just in case they could see me thought the window in the door. The next bunch came and knocked on the door, I hunkered down on the living room couch to wait it out. Unfortunately, Jeff loves visitors. He kept yelling. I tried to get him to be quiet, but the kids must have heard him and they started pounding on the door non-stop. So, yet again, I opened the door.

After they left even emptier handed than they came (they gave Jeff some of their candy because they felt bad for him) I grabbed the car keys and sneaked out to the car. This was not going to happen again. I went to the grocery store only to find that most of the candy selection was gone. So, I had to get the cheap stuff. At least it was something.

Once I got home I was prepared and I waited for them to come. I had a huge bowl (okay so it wasn't that big) full of candy ready for the little imps to come pounding on the door. I got one little boy, who just looked at me when I opened the door. He didn't even say "Trick or Treat," he just stared at the candy. I gave him one, and had to fend him off when he tried to dig into my dish of sweets. That was it, it was over. No more for the rest of the night. Word must have gotten out that we were cheap.

So, once Scott got home from work we took Jeff out and loaded up on the good stuff. I'm in heaven today. And Jeff, well, he's just a baby so he gets one candy a day.



He is a pretty cute little Tigger if you ask me.


Some friends went with us and took their little boy too.

Who is he talking to?

I don't know if any of you had an imaginary friend when you were little. I didn't, but I think it would have made things more exciting. I also never talked to my toys like they were real either. I talked for them, but not to them.

The reason I bring all this up is because Jeff has made a new friend in an inanimate object. His new best friend (that he actually talks to) is this little toy vacuum. It talks too... and before you get too weirded out, it is supposed to talk... but the vacuum gets more of a response than I do.

For example: When you stop playing with the vacuum (lets just call him Vince, since he is Jeff's friend and all) he will say one of two things; "Clean you later" or "Bye, bye". Jeff always responds to Vince when he says that with a "Dye" (that's his way of saying "bye"). In fact some times he will predict it and say it seconds ahead of time. I thought it was so cute, and then I decided to try to see if he would respond to me.

Me: Bye Bye Jeff! (In a very enthusiastic, attention-getting tone)

Jeff: Silence - He just stares at me like I some crazy lady he doesn't even know.

Vince the Vacuum: Clean ya later! (In the most cheesy voice imaginable)

Jeff: Immediately responds with a happy, engaging, "Dye"

So, I know I have some stiff competition. I think my son prefers Vince for now, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve... like getting rid of Vince. ;)

All death threats aside, I think that it's pretty cute.

He speaks

Jeffy's Latest looks

Spaghetti for dinner... not the best idea unless bath time is in the evening plans.

Jeff found my mascara. Ironically, he missed his eyelashes.

My favorite pj's on Jeff. He is so fuzzy and huggable.

Just a typical Jeff expression. He always makes me smile. I am a little biased (according to Scott) but I think he is the cutest kid around.

Jeff wears a hat now. He puts it on backwards because the other way it falls in his face. I guess he is just destined to be one of those "cool jocks". :) Hopefully a humble one.

Yeah, I got skills

Today was a big day for me. I learned a new skill that has eluded me since the fourth grade. I don't know what was different about today. Maybe it was that I was spending my morning with two under two, and I knew they wouldn't judge me if I couldn't do it. Maybe it was that it was raining... I just don't know. But whatever the reason. I did it!!!

So yeah, the next time I'm at a party or something and it's starting to get boring, I'm gonna pull out my new talent and keep it real. I'll just grab three eggs out of the fridge and show 'em my juggling moves. I haven't quite tried the eggs yet, but I'm sure they aren't too different from bean bags.

Note: Juggling is actually very good exercise when you are chasing your bean bags all over the place.

Activity Days

Wow, did they ever peg that name right. I am now the activity days leader and we got together for the first time last night. Those girls have an unanticipated amount of energy. They all just talked and talked and I could hardly get a word in edgewise. I think part of it is that most of them only get to see each other on Sundays so this is a great time to be happy and overly excited. It sort of reminds me of late nights at BYU-Idaho with my roommates. Yep, very much the same. The only difference is that we all had our own pint of Ben and Jerry's whereas these girls only had a nice little drinking fountain down the hall.



This little flavor right here is the very best one for any of you who were inspired by my post to go get yourself a pint.

Our house (that we rent)

Here are a bunch of boring pictures of our house. My sister, Kerry, wanted to see it all. So, if you are interested, please enjoy... if not, just skip this post.

"No other success can compensate for failure in the home. "

-David O. McKay

Outside

The Living Room/Dining Room

The Bathroom (sporting new bathroom atire thank to my great Mother-in-law)

The Kitchen (the biggest selling... uh renting point for me)

Our Bedroom (please ignore any piles of laundry)

The Office/Piano demolition room

I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Into the city

Our friends Bret and Jana Mitchell graciously offered to watch Jeff for us so we could have a fun day to celebrate our two-year anniversary. Here are a few photos from the day spent rock climbing in central park, riding on a ferry to Staten Island, and eating dinner.

This is me attmepting a really easy climb, that just about killed me. My arms and shoulders are still killing me.

Scotty, showing off his big guns. He is actually on a hard part of the climb and I made him look at me and smile. Poor guy. He pulle it off, but if he looks a little strained, thats why.

Ah, I just finished dinner and I am much happier. I love food.

Scotty, finishing off what I didn't eat after I got full. He is so great that way, always willing to help out when needed. Also, you can see the fun little place we were at behind him. It was a little street that they had blocked off and put chairs and tables up. All of the resturants just came out to take orders and stuff. It was fun.

The Statue of Liberty on a beautiful grey afternoon so common to the east coast. Just a side note, she is a lot smaller than I thought she was.

On the Ferry. We met lots of people and actually made really good friends with a couple from Belgium. They talked our ears off in impeccable English and we learned a lot about them. It was fun.