Riley

Some of you may know that my son Riley has been at his dad's for the whole month of July, and I have missed him terribly. I did however get to "clean out" his room while we were moving. If any of you have had a close encounter with a 10 year old boy you will know that is not an easy task. I swear he collects everything under the sun! He is such a dear boy and when I picked him up last night it was all I could do to not hug and kiss him until I felt better. I just wanted to cry because I was so happy to see him. Now tonight I have to put that dear sweet little boy on a plane and won't see him for 18 days. He gets to go and visit Grandpa Dick in Alaska. His great grandpa, uncle and cousin will all be flying into Fairbanks for a cool boys vacation. I am so jealous that Riley gets to go and I have to stay home, but oh well. The airfare alone for our family would kill us as Riley's ticket was around $1100.00. Yeah yikes! Anyways, we are also headed out to a family reunion in Richfield so I will not be posting until Monday but will probably bore you all to tears when I get back! Please keep Riley in your thoughts to have a safe trip flying all alone without his mommy! Ha ha, and don't ever tell him I said that or else!

And the award goes to.......

I am very honored and touched to receive this very special award. My thanks goes out to Mandy for without her I would never received it. I am so new to this blogging stuff but already I am addicted. I love reading other people's blogs too so if you come across any great ones, please pass them on!

Here are the rules that accompanying this award.

1. Post the logo on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who nominated you.

3. Nominate 7 other people for this award and add links to their blog.

4. Leave a message for the people that you nominated!

I nominate the following people:

1. Debra, for being the most awesome procrastinating blogger I know.

2. Mandy, for the encouragement to start and her cute layouts

3. Tara G for her awesome posts!

4. Ramanda for her cool post about her dishtowels catching on fire, mine did the same thing!

5. Janice, for having such cute videos of her girls.

And I ran out of people to nominate. I sure need more blogger friends.....

Finally

Last night Clint, Anika, Heber and I went to the "old" house to clean it and get the very last of our stuff. It was kind of sad to be leaving the house that Heber was born in and also that the kids had so many firsts in. But then I think of our "new" house and all the extra room we have and all the times that we can look forward to. We actually will look forward to our family visiting because we now have the room for them to stay! Yippee! I have found some very interesting and cool things while moving.
1. Some pictures from high school of many friends including Mandy, Debra, Josie and of course the wonderful Brett!
2. Messes like no other in my kids rooms. They have now been scolded severely about their rooms and what they can and cannot do in them.
3. I am a pack rat. Yes I finally admitted it, and I think my husband is astonished. I did throw a lot of shoes away that I thought I might wear one more time though. Now I told him I can buy more shoes! He just laughed at me.

I am sure more funny things will follow along with actual pictures of our new house!

It's all about the memories!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Dad Dick

This one is all about my step dad. His name is Richard but he has always been called Dick. You know how the name thing goes. He has been a part of my life since I was 4 years old. He and my Mom got married when I was 5 up by Paradise Cave. I remember their wedding and that it rained constantly while we were camping up there except for the 20 minutes when they actually got married. That was when the sun came out and shone so bright. I also remember that I got to wear "the coolest" dress that my mom's friend Cheryl made for me.
A few years ago, my step dad and my mom got a divorce. My dad has still been in my life and of course in my kids lives. He has been a part of my life for so long I really don't remember a whole lot without him. About 5 years a go he decided to move to Alaska and we have really been missing him. He comes down about once a year and most of these pictures are from last year's visit. Last year he and Riley made a pact that if he wanted to go visit grandpa he had to raise half of the money for a plane ticket. Well Riley leaves on Thursday and comes back in August! I will miss him so but I know he will have a great time with grandpa!

This picture helps reaffirm his nickname "Fish Dick!"
Some of the gold he has found on his claim in Alaska...Maybe Riley will get this lucky too!
Riley, Grandpa Dick, and Uncle Monte out in the Jones Hole/Browns Park area last summer.

Anika and Grandpa metal detecting at the park here in Vernal...
Dad teaching Riley how to "pan" in our front yard!
Dad up on his claim in Alaska using what I think is the dredge? maybe the sluice? Not sure which piece of equipment it is. Miss you Dad... Can't wait until we can see you again!

Freeze... tag you're it!

Darling Tara G tagged me! Now I am forever frozen in this blogger state... But I don't have 6 people to tag so woe is me...

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up...

1. I love ladybugs. All of my tattoos are of ladybugs and I collect them in every size and shape. I even picked one up in Aruba on our cruise.

2. I collect postcards from everywhere. So if you go somewhere fun or interesting, pick up a postcard for me and I'll add it to my collection.

3. I am an only child and yes this explains my being a spoiled brat!

4. We just bought our first house and I am loving it!

5. I (unlike most married women) LOVE my in-laws. They are some of the most wonderful people I have ever met. They are so kind and caring and you can talk to them about anything without fear of judgement. Even though Clint put them through hell growing up, they still love him and oh my gosh is that awesome! Ha ha

6. When I worked for the Faceless Corporation of America (a.k.a. Wal-Mart) I worked in almost every department there. My favorite was in the cash office though.

I tag Debra,and Ramanda. Everyone else has been tagged already sorry!

The darling Heber

In the midst of the move I realized that my daughter looked pretty cute. Dirty but cute. She just roams all over the road and plays on the swing set and gets filthy dirty. I love this hat on her and in the solo pic I think she looks like she has a bonnet on. She is a total Daddy's girl and is always loving on him. She will walk around with her arms clamped on his leg and just say walk Dad walk. She is too adorable!

The many faces of.....

The many many faces of my girls. Some sad, some crazy, some happy, and some mad, but all are loved with all my heart.

I cannot believe Heber is almost 2 and she is talking so dang much and is so smart. It seems like she picks up a new saying almost every day and no not all of them are good. Now if you tell her to put her shoes on she can and she even understands when you tell her to pick up her toys.
Anika is 7 now and it seems like she was just born yesterday. She starts 2nd grade this year and has had to change schools because of our move. She is very anxious to ride the bus every day and wonders which of her friends will also go to Naples. Boy how I love my girls!

You're driving me... to the movies!

Saturday night we headed to the Roosevelt Drive-In to meet up with our friends from Neola and watch Wall-e and Hancock. Here are all the kids in the back of our Durango, trying to be calm and watch the movie. Didn't work just so you know!

Close up of the little devils, I mean sweet angels..
Amanda and Ryan hanging out waiting for dark! So yeah Wall-e wasn't my favorite but I kinda liked Hancock. I just thought it would be a little different! Not your typical super hero story.

The Duke....

Friday night after mowing the lawn, we decided to let Duke out to get some exercise and loving. Clint is absolutely in love with his dog and I have to admit he is pretty darn adorable. That is as long as he isn't making "messes" on my carpet. Btw Clint or Anika has to clean it up, if I do I will throw up. Not a pretty sight...

Clint and the girls just loving on Duke!

Anika playing keep away from Heber with the dog...


Anika and Duke!

Mr Wonderful getting licked...

Don't friggin take my picture! It looks like I have a horn on the top of my head! OMG it was late at night!

The MOVE

Finally, we are all moved in to the new house! A HUGE thanks goes out to my parents, Amanda, and Ryan for helping us move. It has been a very very long process and we will prob still be unpacking in 2009! Just kidding but really at least until August! It is a very stressful time at our house as we get ready to send Riley off to Alaska and we have a family reunion to travel to this weekend. All of this amidst the boxes! At least we know where the tent and sleeping bags and Riley's luggage are! I wish I knew where the camera cord was so that I could post the pictures I took over the weekend! Ha ha. I'll do another post as soon as I find that darn cord! Until then.......

The Goodman Zoo

This one's for the pets. Well two of them. On July 5th when we were in Richfield Clint told me he had a surprise for me and took me into town and to the pet store to get a kitten. She is soo cute and her name is Sundae because of all her colors we thought she looked like an ice cream sundae. Clint has always loved animals and it has just killed him being in our rental and not having a dog. So when we bought this new house we just had to get a dog. I got on KSL classifieds and looked for an american bulldog. He has always wanted one but there is no way I am gonna pay $1400 for a dog. So we started looking for a lab on there and wow there were some here in town. We called them and went to see the puppies. They were sooo cute we had to get one. Now I am not a huge John Wayne fan but I can stand a few of his movies, so we named the dog, Duke Rooster Cogburn Goodman. Isn't that cute?We thought so... here are a few pix of our pets. More on the turtles later...

Look at that sad face!

Here is Clint's impression of Duke... LMAO!

Duke isn't much bigger than Clint's foot here.

Duke loves to sleep in weird places. Here I found him behind the hose reel and his head propped up on the hose teeth bared. I think he looks like Falcor on The Never Ending Story!

Duke and Sundae weren't friends at first but they are learning to play very well.

Sundae the night we got her!

24th O' July

In the midst of our move we found some old fireworks from last 24th of July that we hadn't lit, so we though we would light them this year. Riley and Clint had sooo much fun lighting them off and poor little Heber was kind of scared. Needless to say I had no real camera at the new house, only my little cell phone camera so no pix of the people just the fireworks. Hope you had a good 24th holiday!

This one scared the crap out of us girls, I think Clint and Riley planned this one to shoot right at us! All of a sudden these little green things just started shooting out everywhere. Heber and Anika started screaming and I bet the new neighbors thought we were wonderful! Welcome to the neighborhood... ha ha.

Surviving Camp Flaming Gorge

We had a family reunion with Carm's (my step-mom) family in early June. My aunt lives in Dutch john so we decided to have it up there this year and that way we could all spend time on the Gorge also. It was a pretty fun filled weekend. Carm rented a condo at Flaming Gorge resort and it had enough room for all of us and the kids so we wouldn't have to drive up and down the mountain every night. We had a blast on Saturday playing on the lake and taking some fun pictures. Here are a few of them...

My stepmom Carmen, My dad, Clint, Heber, Cara,

This is all of us who attended the reunion this year!

The little cousins drying out after swimming in the cold water!

This is the Carter Creek Bridge. When my Dad was in high school they to jump off this bridge for fun but now it is illegal because of how dangerous it is!

Lagoon

Everyone's trips to Lagoon this year made me think of our trip last year and how much our kids have changed since then. I thought I'd share our pic we had taken in Pioneer Village and also just to see if I COULD do a post with a picture! Now you have some things to look forward to as I learn to do this bigger and better!

my new blog...Thanks Mandy

Ok so I have this good friend who is a genius at this sort of thing! Mandy is her name and blogging is her game. She asked me a couple of questions and then ta-da she designed this blog site for me! I am totally in love with it! We are a John Deere family and so the colors are perfect! Hope you like it also, and if you do you could leave a cool comment for her to read!

about the Goodman's

Ok so here goes... After lurking around many of your blogs (didn't it feel like someone was watching you) I have decided to start our own blog. Someday I know my kids will be embarrassed of all the things I post on here but so goes the life right? I met my wonderful husband in October of 2006 and we married in April of 2007. We have 4 kids Riley, Anika, Brashae, and Heber. They are wonderful typical kids. We just bought our FIRST house and are going through all the stresses and joys of home ownership! It is a wonderful feeling and we are looking forward to many many years of "growing old" together. It feels like a zoo around our house at times; we have several fish, two turtles, a cat and a dog. Yeah, like I said a zoo! Hopefully this blog will allow us to keep in touch with friends all across the country.There is more to come I promise!

Thanks to Mandy for giving me the courage to take this plunge and start this blog.