The Life Inside a Goodchild

See See See

2009-06-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

I am here! Just a few updates on our part. We really have not been doing much. School is out and the girls are antsy at all times. There is never a moment when I don't hear, "Can I go to_______'s house?", "Can we go swimming?", "I am bored."

In return you will also hear me saying, "If you are bored I can find plenty for you to do." That will usually shut them up immediately.

So a few things we have done over the last couple of weeks.

We went down to the lakefront and walked about 3 miles. The girls were tired after it all but I got some great pictures of them down by the Art Museum downtown.

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THen this last weeek we went to A Big Cat rescue thing that travels around. We were able to get our pictures taken with a Lynx, Coatimundi and a Wallaby. They had tigers, a panther and a snake there as well. At first we were told that we could pet the tigers but we got there and were informed that the tigers were not bottle fed anymore and you could not pet them. Bummer that would have been so cool!

We have also been to the zoo a couple of times. We like to try and go every other week or so. It seems to never get boring. We learn something new everytime.

We are planning on going to my parents for the 4th. Would love to get some fishing in and get some great pictures of the girls with their fishes.

Until then......

WOW

2009-05-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

Wow it has been a while since I have been on here. A lot has been going on. But let's just keep it at that and move on.

The girls are almost done with school, YAY! Wait maybe not yay. That means more fighting over things and hearing "Mom I'm bored." Over and over and over. (I am sure there will be a post in the future about an episode of boredom. :)

Ashlynn is doing great in school. She is getting prepared for the annual talent show. Her and 3 of her friends are going to jump rope. I amnot sure if they are going to have some sort of routine or what but I hope that I am invited to watch.

Brooklyn has done well in school. She has made many new friends and is looking forward to going all day next year.

Kaylin is well Kaylin. She thinks that she is going to school like tomorrow and cannot wait. We even bought her a new backpack already. (Well I can't disagree with buying a new backpack when they are on sale for $3.99)

I got a part time job at a resort in a local town. It is very small and caters to more of the upper class. I like the atomosphere. Randy and I switch from working every other weekend. That gives him a break from working so much too.

I am hoping to get the garden started soon. I was hoping to get it started this afternoon but now it is raining. We have a busy weekend ahead of us. I have to work Thursday thru Saturday and then Sunday is mom's birthday. We are taking her to a Ladies Luncheon sponsored by my preschool group, MOPS. It will be me, mom, Gwen and my girls. Dad and Randy are taking the boys for the day. I don't know what they will be up to.

I hope to continue this with more updates sooner than later. Until then.....luvs and hugs.

Now for Miss Brooklyn....Happy Birthday!

2009-01-24T17:04:00.000-08:00

Today was Miss Princess Brooklyn's birthday! She turned 5.

(Picture is color due to Ashlynn and her friend decided to paint Brooklyn and Kaylins face with makeup!)

We had her little girl friends from school over and had a Princess party. Now I must be nuts to think that I wanted to have lots of little 4 and 5 year olds running around the house. And yes I am a little nuts. But it turned out really good.

I made cupcake cones and had the girls decorate them.

Here is one decorated:

I also attempted to make my first decorated cake. It is definately not the best at all but it did its job and there is not a crumb left to it! (If you can't tell it is a castle) lol

But hey compared to the cakes I made last week this was far better than that!

Here is the princess with her cake!

They made princess crowns to wear:

And opened presents and had lots of princess fun!

Today is the Day!

2009-01-15T13:00:00.000-08:00

The day that I have two little girls that are the same age! Kaylin turns 4 and Brooklyn will be 5 in 9 days on the 24th! My Irish Twins!

I found a picture that Kaylin drew last year of the family so I made her draw one today. Look at the difference! She has come a long way! She now knows how to spell and write her name and is learning more and more each day from her sisters. She is such a silly little girl!

Last Year:

This year:

Ashlynn and Brooklyn had school called off for today because of the Wind Chill Warning... -12 with -32 wind chill! YAY! haha

So we spent the day making cookies and the girls got to play on the Wii. We made a really big cookie for her for later to put her candles in. She loved that it was so big!
Kaylin:

Brooklyn:

Ashlynn:

Cookie Batter:

Cookies ready for the oven:

Cookies ready to eat!

On Saturday we are having family and friends over for both of their birthdays. The theme, per Kaylin, is Spiderman. She can't get enough of her Spidey!

Then next Saturday, on Brooklyn's birthday she is having a princess party with her friends from school. She is so excited!

Some Randoms....

2009-01-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

So first I love playing with my new Nikon D40! I still am having a hard time understanding everything but I know it will take time. The most frustrating thing for me is the fact that Kaylin can not keep her eyes open for life of her! This how it goes..

Then this is a half attempt:

Then she decided maybe I should hold my eyes open...or in this case one closed:

Finally we got a picture but it turned out really blurry. Oh well, try try again!

Here is Brooklyn's attempt a little better than Kaylin's but not quite there.

Ashlynn is another story she refuses to look at me.

And let's not forget Jax...he is 7 1/2 months now. And still a pain in the rear.

So last night was a full moon I tried out my camera thinking I could get a good picture of the moon in the glittering snow. It was late at night and quite hard to get. This is the result...

See the streak that is the moon. Nice huh?

The 6th of January

2009-01-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Ok it is the 6th of January and I have not set my Resolutions out there for the world to see yet. That is because I have not started them! lol

So here are my resolutions:

1. Lose weight--like 50 pounds
2. Less computer time
3. Play more games with the kids
4. have more craft time with the kids.
5. Scrap at least 200 pages...I did 153 this last year it is attainable.
6. Less screaming more cuddling.
7. Get the dog trained and listening better. he is still a puppy but I have to be more stern and consistent with him.
8. Use the dishwasher less
9. Stick to a $450 grocery budget or less a month
10. Stay out of unnecessary stores.

So that is my list. I am writing so that I can be held accountable. If you see or hear me doing anything of these things against my resolutions I expect a call to set me straight!

Graham Cracker Gingerbread House

2008-12-28T21:46:00.000-08:00

It may be a little late but we did a gingerbread house tonight. I should say that we bought a Ginger bread kit and it turned into a complete train wreck!

So I got the idea off of Mommysavers to use Graham Crackers, frosting and Miscellaneous candies and it worked like a charm!

Brooklyn with hers:

Ashlynn and hers:

Kaylin and hers:

Here is mine:

Brooklyn also decided to make hers with a Mickey Mouse head.

I also got to play with my camera a little bit. I love how clear and crisp the pictures are!

See, what kind of camera makes a kid look like this............

Or makes your eyes go like this..........

She really is quite normal........

Be A Lolli--POP STAR

2008-12-27T14:44:00.000-08:00

I meant to post this last week but my scanner was not working till now.

Every day when we pick up Ashlynn from school I bribe Brooklyn and Kaylin with some sort of treat to make them stay in there car seats while we wait for her to get out. Well the other day I had Dum Dum suckers. And I was giving them to "B" and "K" and looked at the flavor and I saw Ash. I uncrinkled it a little more to see what the rest of it said and lo and behold the flavor of the Dum Dum was**Ashlynn Coconut**
First off I find this weird since I hardly ever look at the flavors we always just say "you get what you get and you won't have a fit". Second, when I do look at the flavors they don't ever have names as flavors..... Third what are the chances that I get a Dum Dum that has the name of my daughter on it, much less the exact same spelling!
So when Ashlynn got in the car I gave it to her and she was like why does this have my name on it??? We were laughing so hard. Now we call her Ashlynn the coconut!
So in doing some investigating I come upon the Dum Dum website where you can enter to win your child's name on a Dum Dum pop.

Here is the proof that she had a Dum Dum named after her!

Click on the title of this post to go to the website to win a chance for your child to be a Lolli POP STAR!!

Christmas 2008

2008-12-26T15:50:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2008 is now gone and past. We have many memories to share with friends and family now. Especially since Randy got me a NEW Nikon D40 SLR camera!!!!!!!! I am so excited to play with this! Not only that but they had a sale going on (of course it was the holidays) and the entire package included another lens, The book SLR cameras for Dummies, a free leather photo book from snapfish and a Photo Printer from Epson! Awesome! I have played with the camera little already but have to figure out how to get the pictures on here and see what I have.

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-SLR/25420/D40.html

Ashlynn got a Ipod Shuffle. Exactly what she wanted! I think it is permantly attatched to her ears!

Brooklyn got a bunch of princess things and Kaylin got of course her Spiderman things. They all got some great new Wii games..... Shaun White Snowboarding, Family Game Night (ok that one was for me) <>, High School Musical Sing it and a few others. We had a wonderful visit with my parents. All in all a great holiday.

Hopefully I will be here soon to get some pictures on here taken with my new toy! :)

I Did It! I Really Did It!

2008-12-12T19:55:00.000-08:00

I am officially a Tupperware Consultant. You can find and order some great products by going to www.my2.tupperware.com/sonjagoodchild I am excited to bring all kinds of exciting new deals and ways to save money using these fantastic products! Have questions please feel free to ask. If you are looking at booking a party you can email me at sonjagoodchild@my2.tupperware.com

Thanks!

Santa on the Square

2008-12-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

We went to go see Santa at the village Christmas Tree lighting tonight. All of the girls made ornaments in their classes (except Kaylin and then Brooklyns teacher gaver her one) to hang on the tree.
For the first time non of the girls cried! YAY!!! It was so cold that I hardly got any pictures because my hands were FREEZING! The village has a tradition every year that Santa rides the trolley into town and then takes a Fire Truck down to the village square. Then they give free pictures with him and Mrs Claus. It is neat to see the kids and I have been doing it since I was a little girl. We have missed the last several years so this was a real treat for them.

Here they are with Mr and Mrs Claus:

And here they are with one of Santa's Helpers. Who actually happens to be Ashlynn's friend from school.

It was fun but way too cold!

Happy Turkey Day!

2008-11-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Turkey Day and safe travels to all!

I will leave you with a few pictures that were taken in September by my sister Gwen. I absolutely love her photography and think she does a PHENOM job!

The 3 girls:

All of us:
(including Randy!)

Black and White

In Color:

Not sure which one I like better.

Here is Randy and I in September at a wedding in Ohio. One of the rare pictures that we have of us together.

Christmas Already?!?!?!?!?

2008-11-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

Ok I just have to get this off my chest. I cannot believe that I heard Christmas music on the local radio station YESTERDAY! Yes at 3pm CST our local radio station begain to play Christmas music 24/7. On Halloween. Before Thanksgiving. This is just wrong. I think I need to complain.

Thanks for the vent I feel better now.....................

First Day of School....A Month Late

2008-10-06T07:31:00.000-07:00

Wow it has been a while since I have posted but I wanted to get this posted about that first day of school! Tomorrow maybe I will post about our weekend! We had a great one.

This year was Brooklyn's first year of school. She started 4K (Junior Kindergarten). I have a hard time calling it Jr kindergarten because to me it is Preschool. But that is what it is here. She was oh so excited to go and had to dress in her very best of course!

Here I am sending her off n her very first school adventure:

And at table time. That is how they start off every morning.

Ashlynn's first day was 3 days before Brooklyn's and this years theme seems to be Black and Pink and Hannah Montana....Can you tell???

She is enjoying school and has tons of friends. For a 3rd grader she sure does get double booked with sleepovers and parties.....What is going to happen when she is 16? Uh oh.

Last but not least is Kaylin. She is kind of upset that her sisters are at school but she has fun being with mommy. Plus she has a boyfriend, Jonathon, and they even had their first kiss in the backseat of my van....oops. :)

Aren't they cute???

PLEASE Vote!

2008-08-26T05:57:00.001-07:00

My sister Gwen entered a photo contest in the local area. And out of the almost 800 pictures hers landed in the top 30!

Check out the "I scream for Ice Cream"

If you could please vote for hers. You do have to register and confirm your email in order to vote. She would very much appreciate it!

Click on the title to this post to like to the website!

http://jsonline.upickem.net/engine/Votes.aspx?contestid=2497

Thanks everyone! Hope to talk to you soon!

Sonja

Wow Life Can Really Get in The Way!

2008-08-21T05:35:00.000-07:00

It has been so crazy busy around here lately. School is starting in 2 1/2 weeks, I watch the boys 3 days a week and end of the summer birthday parties and BBQ's are still rolling in!
The dog is doing well and growing like crazy! He has few accidents and his puppy nips are getting fewer and fewer.
We decided we were going to go to Ohio to meet up with some of Randy's family from Texas in September. Well plans are still in place but we forgot about the dog! What a difference it is to have a dog that you have to find sitters for. We can only go somewhere for like 2-3 hours at a time. So we were going to board him for the weekend but our neighbor graciously volunteered to take him. They have 2 dogs and 3 cats of their own and absolutely LOVE animals. So I said what the heck at least he knows them and the dogs and I know that he will be well taken care of.

Next news. The good ol' 1998 Dodge Caravan took a big ol' CRAPPER! It had been making some noises for about a week but me well being me still drove it. Tuesday morning I went outside and there was a huge puddle under it. Then I went to the back and the back right tire was flat! What the heck. Randy went to the dealership after work and worked out a deal. We have to trade in his car in order to get 2 cars. Of course they are used, which is fine by me. So we now have a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan (with Stow n Go Seats!) and a 2004 Saturn Ion. The price was right and we can't complain.

I am so looking forward to the weekend. We have on birthday party for my friend Camey's daughter on Sunday but Saturday we get to hang around the house and chill for a bit.

Meet Jax!

2008-07-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

We have been looking for a Puggle puppy for a while now and finally found some. It was throught the Animal Rescue but we had to drive 2 hours to get him! Not only that but the mom is a Puggle and don't even know what the father is. THey think a Border Collie! So I had ever intention of getting one of the ones that looks like the mom and almost every other Puggle that we have seen. (Light brown hair, big face, black nose area) But this is who we brought home.......Introducing Jax!

We have changed the name a couple of times but I am pretty sure that this is the final! Ashlynn has been an awesome helper with him. Brooklyn is still a little skittish but she is doing well. She will play and be around him. Kaylin on the other hand is not doing well. She will pet him only when you are holding her. It is really driving me crazy! I am sure that she will get used to him but for now I can't help but think it will never change.

Well tomorrow the girls start VBS (Vacation Bible School) at the church. I still am hesitant on letting Kaylin go because can easily be distracted and not tell anyone that she has to go potty and then have an accident. Especially when she is having fun. We will see how it turns out. I may have to stay in the hall the first day. At least Brooklyn will be in her class.

I am sure there will be more updates on Jax soon. It has been fun so far but definately a lot of work!

Garden Update

2008-07-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

SO after much pressure from an unknown person (Hi Sam!) I took some pictures of my garden. I have been meaning to do this anyway. So she gave me just the right push to do it! Check out her blog....she has a baby watermelon! www.samantharae2008.blogspot.com

H

Last week I decided to finally get some tomato cages. Want to hear the funny thing? I was watching the 3 boys that day and decided to take all 5 kids to Steins to get the cages. Yes 5 kids 4 and under! (Ashlynn was at my parents house) I must be crazy! But we did and we survived. So I was putting the cages on and trying to not break any branches off in the mean time. Notice I said trying. Well wouldn't you know it. I broke 2 branches off and of course the only 2 branches that have tomatoes on them! I was so mad I was almost crying. One branch even had 5 little tomatoes coming in. UGH But in the meantime I did find 3 pea pods and they were oh so good!

So I went out this morning to take some pictures and found 2 more peapods.
The girls shared them and LOVED them! yay!

Then I found a few more tomatoes. Thank goodness I was starting to sweat that I had broken all the ones that we would have!

And then the cucumbers are coming in too. I have 4 little ones I see and then there are about 5 flowers on the one AND only plant that I have!

I jsut really love gardening and now I know things that I need to do different for next year. For example I planted Scallion onions and the seeds are so small that I planted like 10 in one spot. Well they are not doing well at all. I was at my parents last weekend and they planted their garden later then me and my dad already has nice size onions! They were so good too! So that will be different next year. And the peas and cucumbers I will be buying some sort of fencing so that they can climb it.

As for this last weekend we had a lot of fun hanging out with some friends at our house. Rhonda and Dennis (Randy's mom and step dad) came over and grilled for us. It was fun and the kids were able to play in the sprinklers and run around. We definately have to do that again.

Until next time.....

Weekend Adventures (Minus the pictures)

2008-07-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

I don't have the pictures uploaded yet. Once I do I will get them on here. We had a great weekend! We headed up to my parents place on Thursday afternoon. Got there around 9pm after driving thru another severe storm. Friday was spent in the yard and feeding the birds.
Saturday was my aunt and uncles 50th anniversary. After having the head lice for the last 2 weeks we decided to not go. Instead we spent the day at Lake Arbutus and then went to the Karner Blue Butterfly Festival. The girls had fun at the lake and skipped stones and played in the sand. At the festival we ate and listened to some music.
Sunday was spent cemetary hopping. My cousin Paula was up so we spent the day driving to cemetaries adn looking at our ancestors graves. It was very interesting seeing the dates and names of them all. Sunday night we had a bon fire, roasted marshmallows and looked at the stars.

The whole weekend was nice and relaxing we saw many deer in the fields next to my parents and the Amish were out busy selling their produce and building some new houses.

The ride home was nice. We had to go to the store and get new pillows and stuff. So when Randy got home that is what we did.

Today starts a new week. I have the boys today and the rest of the week. Should be busy, busy busy!

4th Of July...Let Freedom Ring

2008-07-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

Well we were looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend with my parents. Things sometimes don't go as planned. Since I watch 3 boys during the week I don't have much time to be able to get up by them. So the plan was for us to leave Thursday early afternoon and come back on Sunday. A few more days which would make it worth it for the gas to drive there.
Well Tuesday night I was giving the girls a bath and shampooing and conditioning Ashlynns hair. I found it the most dreadful cursed bug EVER. LICE.

So now we are home trying to treat this dreadful god awful thing! It is so annoying! Nothing seems to be working. I do not wish this on anyone!
I took the girls to the carnival today. We didn't go on rides as I didn't want to transfer anything to anybody else and we all wore hats. We walked there since it was such a beautiful day. I let them get cotton candy and slushies. They have been so cooped up the last three days and they are getting so sick of me looking in their hair that it was the least that I could do.

So let Freedom Ring as we think about what this holiday means to us. Freedom to walk down the street, freedom of speech, freedom do as we want.

Let's remember those that have fought for our freedom and those that still are.

Happy Independance Day!!

Some New Layouts and Life in General

2008-06-28T16:14:00.001-07:00

So we have been just floating around now that summer is here. Ashlynn is in a Science Summer School program, Brooklyn is in Gymnastics and Kaylin is in Soccer. Now Brooklyn and Ashlynnn like their activities and well Kaylin yeah she is not liking soccer. I mean she loves soccer but she hates it that that coach is not paying attention to her all of the time so refuses to play. ahhhh She is such a stinker!

I am going to be busy this week as I am starting to watch 3 little boys part-full time during the week. THey are 4 almost 3 and almost 2! I will have my hands full that is for sure. But I already have the daily schedules planned and activities to keep them busy. Next weeks theme is Transportation and we will be focusing on vehicles and methods of transportation.

I have also been busy doing some layouts and cards. Here are few of the things I have been doing.

Can You Help A Fellow Scrapbooker?

2008-06-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

Help this fellow scrapbooker win the wedding of her dreams! It is such a sweet story. I just keep voting and voting. I hope that they win!

Click on my title to follow the link to the page and VOTE NOW!

http://photocontest.freedom.com/cbs12/dream-wedding/profile.php?itemid=65

My First Veggie!

2008-06-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

I was touring the garden as I usually do everyday. (I mean c'mon is not that big!) and I found this cute little green pepper:

I was so excited! Ashlynn was not home as she was at her friends house. The Green Pepper plants are her babies since she is the only one that likes them. So I took pictures. When she came home I told her to go check on her plants and she comes back and is like they are fine. WHAT??? I told her to look all over the plant and pick up the leaves. So we went out there and she finds the pepper and is like "yeah, so" What a little booger! She didn't care that there was a pepper. So much for mommas joy for the 1st veggie! Anyway, I was still really excited even if she wasn't. My tomatoes are climbing over the cement rounds and are doing well. I am only getting one cucumber plant so far out of the 13 I planted. Hopefully tjhey will be showing up soon!

Some New Cards

2008-06-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

Now I am not much of a card maker so here is my shot at making some. I was RAK'd (Random Act of Kindness) some awesome Bella images from some awesome ladies online! Here are a few that I did.

This one is an image RAK too. I love the little birdie!

Holy Moly I was Living In A Nightmare!

2008-06-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

OMG! Let's just say that I am lucky to be alive! Yesterday around 2pm I ran to Walmart which is about 6 miles in the next town over. Well on my way back I knew it was going to storm by the look of the sky but I had NO idea what it really was going to do!
I got on the freeway and 1 mile into it it started pouring. So I was driving about 40 MPH while everyone was whizzing by. All of a sudden the rains were so hard that it was a complete whiteout and the clouds and rain were swirling around us. The car in front of me stopped and spun out as I went around it to avoid it. I got back over in front of it as to avoid anyone running into me. It was so surreal. The girls were in the back saying things like" Wow look at the clouds swirling around!" I was just like BE Quiet! I was so freaking out. I was able to make it off the ramp and headed home to see on the way all of these trees down and streets flooded.
I got home and went right to my neighbors house to see what happened there because we had branches everywhere. She said that it got really windy and raining and hailing.
So almost as soon as we got home the power went out. Then storm after storm came rolling thru, it was just a really bizarre day.
So I kept contact with my cell phone with dh and my sister was watching the news for me. I also had my dh's wireless pager to find out what was going on.
So the reason why I am glad to be alive......[url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25126341/]Two Semis Blown Over On I-43 Near Mukwonago - News - MSNBC.com[/url] I was about 1 mile from this being me. ONE MILE! That is how strong the winds were! It has just been crazy around here. I packed up all of the big meat items and milk and went to my sisters. Dh got into town and went right to the Fire Station to standby for the 1,001 calls for wires and trees down.
So anyway, sorry that this was so long but I was shaking considerably. Thanks for listening if you made it this far!