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.