Aquarium Field Trip

 Sara's Pre-school took a field trip to the aquarium.  It was awesome!  Seriously.  If the season weren't already half over, I would have bought season tickets for the family right then and there.  We will be getting some in October when the season renews.  Anyway, here are some pictures.  They are out of order, I don't know why.  Oh well.

 This is the penguin pool.  We stayed here for a while.  Jack was especially into these guys!

 This is the one kind of picture I got of Miss Mandy.  I fail.

 This is the closest I could get of a face shot of Jack.  His nose was constantly pressed up against the glass.  This was a fun day for him!

 There are otters.  Three of them.  I LOVE otters!  We got the best show from them.  We went back to them three times.  The first two times they were playing and swimming and just being adorably entertaining. 

 Emma really liked these jelly fish because they had the lights change colors to show the transparency, and at first she thought the jelly fish themselves could change colors. 

 Here are the bums of my girls and their besties.  Emma, Peyton, Sara, and Roklyn.

 This was the shark tank.  They also had a new giant sea turtle.  Very cool!  There were a bunch of little girls that would scream every time a shark would swim by, and Jack would just look at them like they were crazy.

 

The third time we came by the otter exhibit we got to see an additional side of their cuteness as they were all napping.  So sweet.  I love that we got to see them play and rest. 

It was a very fun field trip!  Good idea, Miss Mandy!  All of my kids still talk about it a month later.  We need to take Daddy back there some time soon.

Oldies, but Goodies

 I found some pictures in the archives of Ross's phone that I felt MUST be shared with the world because they made me smile so dang much.   Above, you will see our darling little Jack-Bear enjoying a well deserved candy coma after a trick or treat carnival.  This was the day he discovered that suckers are pretty much the best thing in the whole world.

 The rest of these are all of Ross and I hanging out at the Bountiful Temple before Brittany and Steve's sealing.  I like this guy kind of a lot.

 He is so supportive and sweet to me even when I know I am being crazy.

 He forgives quickly my follies and is so patient with me when I am not as fast to follow his example when he makes his own mistakes.

 He is more loving and tender with our children than I ever anticipated, and each time I see him tickling, snuggling, chasing, reading to, bathing, or all around lovin' on them I fall a little more in love with him.

Basically- I done good!  He's a keeper, and if I ever wonder if we were meant to be, I just look at the GORGEOUS kids our combined genes make.  Something went right here.  I'm so glad.

Sara's Rendition of a Super Hero

 Back in January, Sara was invited to a Super Hero party with one of her friends from Primary and Pre-school.  The invitation told her to come dressed as her favorite super hero.  We don't really do super heroes around here yet, so this is what Sara came up with.  I just thought it was funny and cute that she went to a party full of boys in Spiderman and Superman gear with fairy wings.  I love this little munchkin!

Snow Ice Cream!

 This has been a weird winter.  There has been very little snow.  I don't really like it.  Anyway, this lack of snow has made us really take advantage of the good snowfalls we have had.  When we got a good snow fall on a Monday, it only made sense for us to celebrate by making snow ice cream for FHE.

 It was yummy. :)

You just take snow, some evaporated milk, and some sugar and mix it all together.  Ross and the girls feel it necessary to add chocolate and sprinkles and stuff, but I just like it plain with the milk and the sugar. 

How to Eat an Orange When Mom is Busy Cleaning and Can't be Bothered to Peel One For You, by: Jack

 1. Take all the cloth napkins and table cloths out of the drawer and spread them ALL over the kitchen.
2. While someone is attending to that, climb on the counter and grab an orange from the fruit basket.
3. Eat it like an apple.  Trust me, it works great!
4. Be as cute as humanly possible so Mom doesn't have a snowball's chance in this crazy warm Utah winter to get mad.

*Added bonus if step 4: Mom will probably be too distracted to change you out of your orange juice soaked shirt, and you will get to wear it all day until Daddy comes home and asks why it is all stiff and why you smell like a bottle of Tropicana.*

Story Time

 Their favorite time of day!

Girl's Night In!

Some ladies in our ward planned a fun little "Girl's Night In" for mommies and daughters.  The girls and I left the boys at home and headed out to primp and get our chat on.  It was fun.

  The night started with manicures.  Emma was very specific about what she wanted: pink and purple alternating nails with red hearts on the pink and orange flowers on the purple.

 Then we did curlers in their hair.  When I was taking Sara's curlers out, a song from Beauty and the Beast came up on the Disney Pandora station and Sara said Belle was her favorite princess.  One of the other moms there heard that, so when I finished her hair and she asked if it looked pretty, Summer said, "Oh, Sara- you look just like Belle!"  It made her whole night!

This is Emma and Katie Brown, one of her favorite friends.

 Emma checking out her Rapunzel hair in the mirror.  She was very pleased.

 Emma and April- Katie's sister and mom.  We are so sad they are moving.  We sure love them!

 Missy, Katie, Emma, Sara, and Summer's hair and arm.

 Amara and Jennifer.

 Amara's pretty nails!

 Sara in the curlers.  Why are these all backwards?  Oh well.

 It was a fun little night out with my girls.  They liked having some one on one time with me.  We should do things like this more often.

Emma's Birthday

Emma's 6th Birthday Interview

Here are some fun little facts about my not so little girl:

• Emma is the best little helper EVER.  She loves to help me with whatever I ask, and is so sweet with her younger siblings- most of the time.
• Emma is a great little reader!  She is doing so good and is making me so proud.  At parent teacher conferences we were told that she is the best reader in her class.
• Emma is not as great with math as she is with reading.  That was what were were told by her teacher.  It has gotten a lot better since then as I have been working with her a lot more.
• Emma is pretty.  And she knows it.  Heaven help us when she gets older and realizes what power her tall skinny body, long blonde hair, and gorgeous blue eyes will give her.
• Emma is a snuggler.  She loves to be hugged and snuggled and is very affectionate.
• Emma is a hard worker.  She doesn't always like to tackle hard jobs, but she is always so excited when she gets done and gets to see the fruits of her labors.  
• Emma has excellent vision.  This is probably boring to most of you, but when she was rated with 20-15 vision at her last eye appointment, I was thrilled with the progress she had made since her eye surgery.  Her vision is better than it was before and she regained all the depth perception she had lost due to her condition.  Yayness!
• Emma has kept the tooth fairy hopping!  She has already lost 6 teeth.  I don't remember losing that many so young.  
• Emma has a very tender heart and always notices when people around her are upset or need some extra attention.  She is the kid that sits with the girl all by herself in the corner and gives hugs to kids that are sad.  I love this about her.  I was always so shy as a child and had a hard time making friends.  The friends I did have were the ones like Emma who noticed when someone needed a friend and were willing to step in.  
• Emma asks questions.  All the time.  We try to answer most of them, but sometimes she stumps us, and sometimes she asks them at the most inopportune times.

This girl just makes me so proud!  She is one of my best friends and is so smart!  I love her so very much, and I can see that great things will be coming from her.  I am so lucky to be her mom!

Emma's 6th Birthday

 Yes- she turned 6.  I don't wanna talk about it....

On the day before her birthday, we had all the Goodman cousins and aunts and uncles in Utah come over to celebrate with cake and ice cream and dinner type things.  She decorated the cake herself.  With all the sprinkles we own.

 That is a 6 in the middle, and notice that Jack helped to sample the cake in the bottom right corner to make sure everything was good.  Very nice of him.  Also notice the Halloween sprinkles- I wasn't kidding when I said she used all our sprinkles!

 Gena and Troy gave her some fun stickers, card games, bubbles, and other fun items with Princesses all over them.  She loves it all.  Notice Jack's awesome slippers...

 Melissa and Jim brought her a giant purple ball that isn't shown, but is well- used and adored.

 Jack was shocking Jake with a flashlight.  Jake played along very well. 

 Guess what Jack was in need of at this point. . . . :)  He loves belly tickles!

We had a good time sitting around and chatting while all 11 kids ran around like crazy.  They had so much fun together, and that makes my heart happy.  We love cousins!

On Emma's actual birthday, she was so excited to go to school, get her crown, and pass out her birthday treat.  I didn't let her.  She was sick.  The cold she had been kind of fighting for a few days became full-blown that morning with hacking and wheezing, and there was no way I could send her to school like that.  She was heart broken, but tried to understand.  We told her how fun it would be to get 3 days of birthday fun because of the cousin party, her party that night, and then the birthday girl fun when she went back to school.  That cheered her up a bit, but what really did the trick was letting her pick what she wanted for lunch.  She wanted Old McDonalds.  I deserve a medal or something because I HATE that place, but I took her anyway and got them both a happy meal and didn't complain once (although I did try to change her mind a few dozen times...)

 They wanted pictures with their twin bear toys.

For her second cake, Emma asked for, "Two chocolate cakes on top of each other."  Because I am a glutton for punishment, we scrounged up some more sprinkles and let her decorate her cake again.  She put on a big 'E' (because Emma starts with E, in case you couldn't tell...)

 When she was done with her E, she tried to put a big circle around it, but couldn't complete it because we ran out of sprinkles and had none left at all because of the sprinkle amazingness display on her other cake.  Oh well, it was still very nice and tasted yummy.

We had a fun party the night of her birthday with my family and some friends.  Emma was happy.  See-

 Jack got her hair clips.  He has good taste.

 Grandpa Jones got her a Tinkerbell movie.

 Caulene got Jack a Flynn Rider barbie.  It was nice of her to make him feel included- Jack really appreciated it. . .

 Caulene also got Jack some pink sparkly shoes.  I think she was confused about who we were celebrating, but she has been busy with school lately, so we let it slide. :)

 Ross and I got her some princess accessories (something that we found in our closet that day that was supposed to go under the Christmas tree, but it worked just as well as a birthday gift.)  The minute she opened that, she ran to get on her Rapunzel dress.

 OK, this is cute.  One day, Emma came home from school all excited to tell me about a new book she had read at school.  She was in raptures about how funny it was and how proud her teacher was of her for being able to read it. "Mom, it is about this blue guy named Grover and he is so scared because there is a MONSTER at the end of the book and he keeps trying to make it hard to turn the page, but it doesn't work and then at the end it is so funny!  Mom, can I have that for my birthday?!" 

I was touched by this because The Monster at the End of the Book just happens to have been one of my very favorite cherished books from my childhood, and somehow I just hadn't thought of it in years.  My mom would read it to us all the time, and we thrashed at least 2 copies of it between the 4 of us.  I contacted my mom later that day to send on Emma's request because I had a feeling she would want to be a part of the introduction of that literary love in our house. 

It took some snooping, but she finally found a copy, and Emma was THRILLED when she opened it.  Good work, Grandma!

 Dana got Emma this bunny.  She made the dress for it herself.  Emma named her Blue and she and Jack have had some property issues over her. . .

 Heather made Emma that cute purple purse.  She loves it and has it with her every time we go to the store now.  It is always stocked with some snacks, a book, and chapstick.  She learned that from me! :)

 My friend Emily, who made the trek all the way out here with her husband Chris, got Emma some fun hair flowers.

 Finally, the big present of the day was this play kitchen/laundry center/ restaurant/ grocery store/ doctor's office/ whatever their little minds cook up.  Our last play kitchen had been well loved and destroyed, so it was time for a new one.  Just when we were ready to start looking for another one, the Church ended up having to get rid of all their big toys and needed a new home for this one. 

This was a long post.  Sorry.  I am trying to get all caught up.  I love this little girl, and am so proud of the young lady she is becoming.  She is such a big helper, and has shown maturity beyond her years (interspersed with fits worthy of a child in the terrible twos, of course...), and I couldn't be more grateful for the huge part she has in my life.