5K, Halloween, and one sick puppy

In June, Jamey was the first responding ranger to this accident. He was the first on scene and spent quite a bit of time on CPR on the first victim. He spent a lot of time with the rest of the family during the body recoveries. Fast forward to September. Our niece was being baptized in central Utah, and we were planning to be there to support her. As I was perusing KSL's website to see if there were any events that we would want to go to or anything that we absolutely needed to buy while we were there, I found a story about a 5K race that was being held in memory of Valerie Bradshaw. It was on the same day as the baptism and only about 40 minutes away. All of the proceeds from the race were being donated to the LDS general missionary fund. What better way to spend a Saturday than running to raise money for missionaries and finishing up with a baptism? The run itself was enjoyable. It was a freezing morning, but it was so fun to be there with all the other people who had come to celebrate the life of this awesome woman. The best part of the event was after the run when we were able to meet with the family members of those killed. We didn't think we'd be able to stay because we were cutting it a little bit close on time, but I am so glad we did. We first were able to talk with Matt. Matt is the son and brother of two of the women killed, and the third was his girlfriend. He and Jamey had talked a lot immediately after the accident, but hadn't spoken much after the two bodies were recovered. It was so emotional to see them hug and share that moment. I was so proud of my husband as Matt described to me how helpful Jamey had been to him and his family that day. After we talked to Matt, we were able to meet with Valerie's mother. It was an amazing moment. We were in a long line of people who were saying hello and sharing their condolences with her. Finally, it was Jamey's turn in line. She gave him a quick hug, as she had all of the other people before him. He whispered to her that he was the ranger who had been at the accident. She stepped back to look at him and then grasped him in a tight bear hug. She hugged him for about a minute. Then, she continued to hang on to him as she shared with him how much he had helped their family. I am so grateful that we were able to participate in the event. 

 

Sorry, the pictures uploaded in reverse order. For Halloween this year, Addy decided that she wanted to be Spidergirl. I think she was upset that she was left out of our batman/batwoman last year. Jamey was anti-mask, so we decided to go another route. He dressed up as Peter Parker, which was great because I made him carry the camera. I got to just enjoy trick-or-treating.  

Earlier in the summer, Sig got bit by a black widow. It was aweful. One day we started to notice that his neck was swollen. At first, I just thought it was saggy skin under his neck because he lost a little weight from winter to summer. When we felt it, there was a huge grapefruit-sized mass under his jaw. We took him to the vet and they started him on antibiotics. Almost immediately the swelling started to go down, but the fluid needed to go somewhere and it started to ooze out. It was pretty disgusting. Just when we thought the worst was over, the actually bite wound opened up. The toxin from the spider was eating the flesh. He had a big hole in his neck for a couple of weeks, but eventually he started to heal. It finally healed completely after about two months.

The Liebster Award

I got nominated for an award! Thanks to my college-roomie Chelsea for nominating me. Chelsea and I lived in a house with 4 other awesome ladies. We had a lot of fun in the Pretzel Factory for that year.

The rules for the Liebster award are as follows:

1) Thank the Liebster Blog presenter who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2) Post 11 facts about yourself, answering the 11 questions you were asked and create 11 questions for your nominees.
3) Nominate 11 blogs who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen.
4) Display the Liebster Award logo.
5) No tag backs meaning you can’t just re nominate the person who nominated you.

 

 

1) Who is your biggest celebrity crush? The Rock (I've had a huge crush on him since I was in high school)

2) What is one thing you SWEAR your kids will NEVER do? ooohh this is a hard one, because I know that the minute I say it, she'll do it! I hope that Addy will never talk to me the way that many teens talk to their parents.

3) Name one thing on your Pinterest list or bucket list or otherwise list that you haven't done yet that you really want to? I really want to refinish my kitchen cabinets and countertops, and there are tons of sewing projects that I want to do.

4) What is one thing you did as a kid that you never fessed up to your parents about? I snuck out of the house a lot when I was a teenager.

5) What movie scared the poop out of you when you were a kid/teenager? "Arachnaphobia" and my cousin and I constantly watched it.

6) Where do you find your biggest inspiration/daily motivation? I get my daily motivation from Addy, she makes me want to be the best mom/person that I can be.

7) Who was your first kiss? My first kiss was Tim Baum in 4th grade. The first real kiss was Johnny.

8) Really embarrassing moment while doing your job? I've had several embarrassing moments in my current job.... talking on the wrong radio, having to relay embarrassing information, misspeaking,

9) How do you record your family/ personal memories? I like to blog and take tons of photos.

10) Best vacation you've ever had? The best vacation I've ever taken was probably when we went to Florida this past winter and took Addy to Disneyworld. We visited the beach and spent lots of time with my extended family

11) Favorite books? I love books in general, but I really like historical fiction.

 

The questions for those I tag are:

1: What is the most important decision you've made in life?

2: What is the greatest lesson your parents taught you?

3: Who is your favorite superhero and why?

4: What dog breed best exemplifies your personality?

5: Who is the most pivotal person in your life?

6: What is your favorite tv show?

7: If you could eat only one food for a week, what would it be?

8: How did you meet your spouse/significant other?

9: If you could meet one person from history, who would it be?

10: What fictional character do you most relate with?

11:  What is your best college memory?

 

And here are my tags! Thanks for playing along (don't worry if you don't have 11, just do as many as you can) :-)

http://megynted.blogspot.com/

http://thesturtevantcrew.blogspot.com/

http://michaelandkristiandwill.blogspot.com/

http://theyarbroughclan.blogspot.com/

http://jereeandkyle.blogspot.com/

http://brazellclan.blogspot.com/

http://brazell-lifewiththreeboys.blogspot.com/

Kindergarten

It's hard to believe that this sweet little one is now a kindergartner. She stated school a couple of weeks ago. She was so excited to be able to go to the big school. She loves her teacher and all of the special classes that they get to go to. She is having a great time making new friends.

 We recently went to a mud volleyball party and Addy had a blast!

Summer

We had a pretty low-key summer. Most of the days were spent playing outside and enjoying the beautiful Arizona weather. We also got a pool about halfway through the summer (thanks grama!) We definitely put it to great use. Addy had tons of pool parties with the neighbor kids.

 

We puppy-sat our friends dog for two weeks. Addy and Sig had a blast with another dog around. Jamey and I didn't enjoy it as much as they did. Two dogs is definitely a lot more work than one! Not to mention that Jack was a digger. Jamey didn't enjoy the holes in the backyard!

 In July, I had the opportunity to attend National Park Service Critical Incident Stress Management and Family Liaison training. In short, I will assist with park employees and civilian families when there is a traumatic incident. We have plenty of those around here, so it will be good training to have. I travelled with three other park employees to Glacier National Park in Montana.

On the trip up, we stayed the night in Idaho Falls. I was grateful for the time I had to walk to the temple and enjoy the Spirit on the temple grounds.

 I was pretty excited to travel to Montana. It was great to be in the mountains and trees again, but I really wish the fam would have been able to come with me.

We arrived the day before training started, so we had plenty of time to explore in the park.

 I was a little bit worried because the people who I travelled with were quite a bit older than me, but they were so fun and were really excited to go hiking and exploring with me!

On the first day, we hiked down to Baring Falls. It was definitely worth the fear of encountering a bear (there were tons of signs on the trail).

 The week before school started, Addy and I went to stay with Jamey at Dangling Rope. It was a great little vacation. We enjoyed two full days of boating. We also went to see an Anasazi Archaeological site. It was pretty cool.

I love her!

I love this little girl. I am so grateful to be blessed with her. Sometimes, I take for granted what an awesome kid she is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those parents who think their child can do no wrong. She absolutely tries my patience and she receives her share of timeouts and the occassional spanking. That said, she is a kind, caring, helpful, loving little girl.

Yesterday, I had the bright idea to let her have a friend sleep over. I was trying to give the baby sitter a break and agreed to let one of her girls stay at our house. Big mistake! I can't even count how many times I said "never again" in the last 24-hours. I've never been around a child who is so defiant and just doesn't care. It was a struggle for me to keep my calm and not send her home several times. It was amazing (not the good kind) to see how such an attitude could change the peace and love that is usually felt in our home.

We tried to keep our regular routine with family home evening, story time and family prayer. It was discouraging to experience the out bursts and irreverence that this little girl brought into our home. One blessing that did come from this experience is that is made me think of my own little one and the gratitude that I was blessed with her. It testified to me that Heavenly Father knew my needs and my capabilities and blessed us with the child who would perfectly fit into our family. I am so thankful for this little spirit I have been blessed with, and I love her!

Corey and Lacey are married

Last weekend, we travelled to California for Jamey's brothers wedding. It was a bittersweet time for us. Corey is 7 years younger than Jamey, and I've known him since he was 8. It doesn't seem like he should be old enough to get married. We are so excited that he has found such an amazing girl, and we were glad that we were able to spend the day with them. We left on Friday and drove to LA. The trip took us about 10 hours, and Addy was awesome (especially since her DVD player is broken!). We met at Lacey's parents house that night to hang out. It was great to meet new people and to see Jamey's family. We haven't seen his brother Brady since August of 2009, and it's been about a year since we had seen the rest of the family. It was the first time that all of Jamey's brothers had been in the same place since we got married about 8 years ago.

 The sealing was on Saturday morning at the Los Angeles Temple. It's the second largest temple and it was very cool to see.

 Addy made some new friends. One of Lacey's nieces is also named Addison, and they hit it off right away.

 Addy is super excited to have a new aunt, and can't stop talking about Lacey and how pretty she was.

 After the sealing, we took a quick tour of the visitor center.

 The reception was Saturday night. We were all super tired, but we had a great time. Lacey was awesome to dance will the little girls. Addy thought it was so cool and spent the night dancing around.

 We decided that no wedding is complete without a well-decorated car. Corey decided to bring his parent's car down from Idaho instead of driving his own car, so that limited the things we could do, but we still had fun. We found a 4-foot rabbit at the thrift store which became the star of the show. We nicknamed him the fertility rabbit.

 Finally, after a couple of whirlwind days and very little sleep, we headed home on Sunday. We were ready to get away from the traffic and congestion of LA, but sad to leave family.

Addy is 5!!!

In April, Addy turned 5! It was a huge milestone for her. 5 means so many awesome things. 5 means she gets to go to the school down the street from our house next year. 5 means that she can play all the sports she wants. Most importantly, 5 meant that she thought she was big enough to get her ears pierced! I've been wanting to get them pierced since she was a tiny baby, but Jamey was a little less excited about it. We decided to let Addy choose when or if she got them pierced. On her birthday, we were at the mall and she just told us that she wanted to get them done. She was so brave and didn't cry or even flinch. She just smiled and told the girl who did them thanks and we left.

 

A few days after her actual birthday, we had a small party at our house. We took her to Disneyworld in February, so she was pretty surprised to get a party too! She has been really into "jake and the neverland pirates" lately, so we decided on a pirate party. I didn't take too many pictures, but we played pin the "x" on the treasure map and had a treasure hunt. All of the kids seemed to have a good time.

March/April

In March, Levi came to visit us! He stayed for a few days, and we had a great time. One of the days he was here, we hiked Horseshoe Bend and the Hanging Gardens trail. Jamey also took him to work a couple of days and they spent time on the lake.

 On my birthday, Jamey and Addy surprised me with an improptu party. They picked out a strawberry boston creme cake (it was delicious). Addy made me an awesome card, and Jamey got me a gift card for some pampering. It was totally unexpected.

Florida!

In February, we had the opportunity to take a trip with my family to Florida. We had a ton of fun. We drove to Colorado then flew from Colorado Springs to Orlando. While we were there, we spent a lot of time with my extended family, but we also made time to do some exciting things. We decided to take Addy to Disneyworld to celebrate her 5th birthday. There are quite a few pictures, and they are out of order. Sorry!

 One of Addy's favorite parts of Disneyworld was meeting Tinkerbell and Periwinkle.

 It was the first time that the whole Godfrey family has been together in a long time (we're just missing Kinzie).

 While we were in Jacksonville, we visited the Museum of Science and History. It was really cool. Addy loved the underwater exhibit.

 More than anything, Addy wanted to see Cinderella's Castle. We could have gone home after that, and she'd have been happy.

 

 We also visited Disney's Animal Kingdom. We had a great time seeing all the animals.

 

 We took some time to visit the Orlando Temple. It was beautiful.

One of the last things we did was visit St Augustine beach. It is by far my favorite beach in Florida.

Christmas

For Christmas we went to Colorado to spend time with my family. It was great to be able to see all of my siblings. While we were there, we went to the Pueblo Zoo to see the Electricritters. It is something that we love to do whenever we are there at Christmas.

 Addy had a ton of fun playing with her cousin Dalton who is 9 months older than her. She also had lots of fun with NiNi.

 Addy was spoiled by all of her aunts and uncles. She got way too many presents.

 Addy got to visit Santa at a Christmas party. I was pretty bummed because I did her hair in super cute pigtails, but she took them out right before the party. She was a little apprehensive about santa until she found out that he was giving out barbies.

 On the way to my parents house, we stopped to go sledding at Wolf Creek. It was a blast.

 Addy and her favorite elf, Chad