March 2017

The main reason Siena and Aria liked living at Grandma and Grandpa's house was because they could sleep in a queen size bed together.  One night I found them all snuggled together and Aria was perpendicular on the bed.  When we moved into our new house, we put their beds parallel to each other against opposite walls, when they saw that they immediately asked if we could move them next to each other.  So now their beds  are in an L shape with their heads right next to each other.


Before we moved, I wanted to make sure all my kids got their own library card (not that we plan on going over there all the time, but just in case)  The girls were so excited to get their own card and check out their own books all by themselves.


Shane loved living at my parents house so he could snuggle with Gus each night....lol...


I have a lot of pictures of all 3 kids posing next to something in a store we went shopping for the month of March, blinds, drapes, rugs, tables, beds, etc.


The reason I liked living with my parents was because on my half birthday my dad made me my favorite breakfast, hash browns and eggs.  Yum, it makes my mouth water just thinking of it.  I'm so spoiled.  This is the picture I texted to all my siblings so they would all be jealous of me!


Shane's friend, Taj, that he went to India with when we first started dating and has done some business with, had a book written about him called The Orphan Keeper.  Such a good book,and  true story about his life.  So Highland hosted an author Q&A night.  So of course we all had to go to hear about it and see Taj.  Taj just about died when he saw Shane walking up to the event but it was so interesting to hear him answer questions and see his cute wife and kids.


The kids favorite game to play with grandpa.  Grandpa pretends to be asleep and they try to sneak away before he wakes up and gets them.


While living with my parents, the kids learned to play Mario.  They are obsessed with it now and must play every time we go over there.  I'm surprised how good they actually are at it.


The kids love going down to our stream in the backyard and checking it out.  I haven't let them in it yet but it's going to be a fun yard once we get it all completed this summer.


Jaron just might be the cutest leprechaun I ever did see!  I love that he will wear this and let me take his picture, the girls never let me!


An updated picture of the JLO's.  Landon is so tall, Jaron is the shortest.


The kids were so excited that the secret leprechaun knew where we had moved to.  They talk about the leprechaun for weeks leading up to it. It's as exciting as Santa and the Easter bunny is.


I have a few other March pictures that I used in this year's happiness book so I'll save them for that post so I don't repeat myself too much.

February 2017

February wasn't a whole lot better for pictures but here's a few things we did.

I'm not sure what this is but sometimes they just crack up at themselves and want a picture, that's what happened here one morning.


When the Manning's came to look at our house after arriving from Australia they gave us these cute gifts.  They knew I served my mission in Australia and it was so cute and thoughtful of them I thought.


We made valentine cookies and decorated them one day...mostly we just ate them since it was one of the Swig cookie mixes.  Yum.


One last picture in the front of our house.  Even though our yard doesn't look that good this time of year we still had to take one last picture so we could remember what the kids looked like when we moved.



The last bath in our old house...how many baths have I given in that bathtub? Way too many to count but they've always had so much fun in this bath tub over the years.  Lots of yelling, screaming, laughing and splashing.


I shared this on Instagram but when I was pregnant with Jaron I can't even count how many times I ate at Chick Fil A.  I craved their honey roasted BBQ sauce like nothing else.  So I guess it was only appropriate when after he ate his dinner, he asked if he could have another packet of sauce and just eat it plain with his finger.  haha.


What the girls did while I cleaned that entire house one last time before we drove away for the last time.  No toys, no nothing left in the house, so they got to watch a show on my tablet.

Mazatlan

Right in the middle of selling, packing and finding a new house to buy chaos...Shane and I had a trip to Mexico planned.  We booked it last spring when we had some airline credit we had to use.  I told Shane 'I want to go somewhere warm in February when I'm so sick of winter here.'  So we booked a trip to Mazatlan.We had no idea at that time that our life was going to be so crazy.  But we still went and had a great time.  We stayed at this great hotel that had a balcony that opened up onto the ocean.



We actually didn't do a lot while we were there.  We slept in every day, ate our meals overlooking the ocean, went shopping, laid under umbrellas on the beach, took walks on the beach, watched the sunset, and sat in the hot tub each night.






One day we did join a tour of the city by bus. It was fun to see different parts of the town.





I wish I would've gotten a picture of our favorite restaurant we went to 3 times while we were there, Gringo Lingos.  They were right outside our hotel and seriously had the best fajitas.  mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking of them again.

Overall though I accomplished what I went there for, enjoy some warmth and sun and relax.  I'm always amazed how much sleep I can get each night and still feel tired that night after doing nothing but relaxing all day.

My parents were nice enough to watch the kids while we were gone and my mom drove them over to preschool each day back and forth.  They had a great time and did so many fun things.  Each day they had a little field trip, puppy barn, McDonalds, Cabela's, Dollar Store, etc.  So they were well taken care of and probably a little spoiled.

January 2017

The month of January was not a great picture taking month.  These are literally the only pictures I took of my kids the entire month.  Pretty much all my pictures are of things I was selling or houses and neighborhoods we were looking at.

Jaron started Sunbeams.  He was so excited to be in primary and was more than ready.  His teacher, Sister Burton dropped off this candy necklace to him the week before class and the note told him to try and find someone wearing the same necklace and that is how he would know who is teachers were.  We love Sister Burton, she taught the girls in Nursery and CTR 4 and taught Jaron in Sunbeams until we moved.  She even offered to let us move into her house if we didn't find a house in time and she was totally serious, she's so genuinely nice.


Story time at the library...I did take them a few places this month, they weren't totally ignored! :)


The rest of these pictures are just crazy things they did to keep themselves entertained.  They all wanted to try on Aria's glasses one day.






Siena, my little craft lover.  She literally asks me to do a craft every. single. day.  I love that she loves to create things.

December 2016

We decided to start the month off and do the #lighttheworld campaign as a family.  The Church asked us to do service each day during December.  So the first Monday in December I did this nice FHE about being a light, how Jesus shared his light, how we can share our light, showed a cute video, read a little story.  It was all going great until I started talking about how we were going to do service each day...my kids did a 180 and started yelling Noooooo at me.  What??  They were so against this idea.  I tried and nothing else would get through to them....ruined/failed FHE.  The next day my sister Lori sent a Facebook link showing this family in Africa they were raising money for with a family in their ward to send them money so they could get electricity and running water.  The pictures were pretty eye opening.  So the next night we had a FHE re-do with a little lecturing on my part.  That weekend I paid them a dollar for each chore they did around the house and then they donated it to this family. They still weren't totally on board but I think they got the point a little bit.  I made them a tree and they got to color an ornament for their tree each time they did a service.  They were much more into the making cookies for our primary teacher and fun service things like that.  I can't say we consistently did something each day but they got the point because now whenever I ask Jaron to go do something he says 'ok mom, does this count for my service today?'  haha.



We made our trek downtown to see the Temple square lights.  We thought we were going on an ok temperature night but it turned out to be so freezing cold.  We didn't last long but was still a fun night. We took Trax downtown which is always the highlight for the kids.



December 08 was our 10 year anniversary from our first date.  I had no clue this was coming up but Shane walked in from work that day with flowers and told me to make some Mac N Cheese because Jennifer was coming over to babysit and we were going to dinner.  I was so surprised it was fun to just go out to dinner last minute and spend time together.



We made our annual gingerbread house.  This year the kids were old enough they could squeeze the frosting through the tube so it was fun cuz we could just let me have at it and it entertained them for the entire evening.



We also went to the annual Draper candy cane hunt.  Only Jaron got a special 'prize' this time but he was so cute cuz when he could choose any toy on the table, he chose a package of chocolate Santa's because there were 3 of them and he could share them with his sisters.  We stood in line to see Santa as well and had a good time even though it was super cold.



The girls had a fun holiday party at preschool and actually allowed someone to paint on their face. I'm pretty sure this was the first time their face had been painted.



We had a Goold Family FHE the Monday before Christmas when everyone could make it.  We had a nice dinner and then acted out the nativity.  Always a hit with everyone.  It's cute to see how the grand kids are getting older and some are more into it than others.



Jaron graduated from nursery.  His nursery teachers did a cute little program and invited the parents in to talk about each child.  Jaron also got to practice going into Sunbeams and he loved it.  He was very ready for primary and has done a great job participating and not being shy at all.



Grandma Glover came to town which is always a fun time.  The kids love having her stay at our house and Shane and I love all the help she is around the house and letting us go out on some dates. The kids always love for her to read to them and snuggle up to her so she'll scratch their arms and backs.



Christmas Eve we made gingerbread men.  The kids had been begging me all December so Christmas eve was the perfect day for it.  They love the gingerbread men.  We all went over to my parents for dinner.  Only Jennifer and us came so it was quiet but a nice evening.  VaLois also joined us there for dinner and a short program.



Christmas Day was so nice. We started with Santa gifts and opening presents.  The kids all got their flip a zoo stuffed animals they had been asking for all month.  The girls got new bikes and Jaron got a car loader truck and lots of hot wheel cars.  I still think it's cute how excited they get to watch their sibling open the presents they got for each other.  Cutest part of Christmas hands down.  We then had to hurry and get to 9am Sacrament Meeting but made for a nice way to spend Christmas morning. That afternoon we went back to my parents for dinner.  The kids opened their presents and the girls were sooo excited that grandma and grandpa had given them pony surprise.  They were shocked that grandma would know how much they wanted that present.  They were squealing so excited opening it up.






Jaron got sick a few days before Christmas.  He got a really bad sore throat and croup.  He had a super hoarse throat with a fever as well.  Luckily he felt ok on Christmas, not great but ok.



Shad called up one afternoon and invited the girls to go to Airborne with Darienne.  The girls were in heaven.  They had only been to Airborne one other time and they were super little so this was definitely a treat for them.