Our Luck

Preston spent a large portion of his Saturday detailing the inside of the van. He literally cleaned every nook and cranny. We joked that every time he washed the outside it rained ( a rare thing in Arizona) and we wondered what would happen to the inside now that he scrubbed it...

Well, I will tell you what happened. Less than 48 hours later Tyler, who is almost 4, threw up for the first time in his entire life all over the inside. Seriously I couldn't stop laughing, poor guy was barfing and I was in hysterics. I think the van must be cursed - and we will have to buy a new car...I'm thinking this one would do just fine

Christmas was fantastic...we had a good time this year enjoying Preston's time off work and eating ourselves into a stupor. Here are a few of the events of our Christmas...
1.The Spaghetti Factory. A Golding Family Tradition to eat Spaghetti Factory every year during the Christmas Season.

Notice the cheese caked on Tyler's Face...yummmYeah, he's licking the parmesan cheese off the table...what can I say? He's an animal.

On a side note...Spaghetti Factory is having adult entrees for $2.35 and Kids meals for $1.99 on January 6th...just thought you might like to know.

2. Baking, Eating, Baking and Eating some more.

Santa's Dipped Oreos...I don't know for sure, I mean, I didn't get to talk to him BUT I think he LOVED them!

3. Preston as King Herod...what more can I say? Priceless!

This was his, "no more paparazzi" look

4. Having a sit down with Santa

You can see the panic in his eyes

This is the first year he's sat on Santa's lap without serious amounts of screaming!

Although I know it's not true...when I look at this one I think he and Tyler look like old friends-possiblly discussing the "good ol' days" in elf school.

5. Irony

This picture was taken on Christmas Eve....a Valentines display !!!

6. Presents...
Preston putting a toy together with real tools and Tyler helping with his new tool set.

Ethan's favorite present - Light Bright
Tyler's favorite present - Bud's Ark. We are still trying to convince him that it's "Noah's Ark" but he swears the bearded man's name is Bud...

7. 24

Rented on Netflix...they have taken over our evenings. Go Jack!!

8.The Coolest Aunt EVER!!!
Check out the gift my sister Lindsey bought the boys...she now goes down as the coolest aunt in the history of aunts!

A Karaoke Christmas

Grandma Nori bought us a Karaoke Machine this year and it has been so much fun. Fun for us...the neighbors may not agree. Seriously the best gift ever. We are in love
We're going to have a big Karaoke Party soon...if you live in Arizona you should come...if you don't get some plane tickets - the laughs will be worth it!!


Coming Soon: Ethan and Tyler Rock Out

It's A Girl.........

We adopted the sweetest four year old Lab today. It's nice to not be the only female in the house...about time!

Again with the thoughts...yikes two days in a row this is getting scary. There have been years that I look back on and think, "wow, I was pretty clueless that year." Not now... I have really felt like this has been a "stretching year" for me. I have learned so much these past twelve months...I felt like I was being pulled to become more of myself.
(I like pictures on blogs, they get my attention but as much as I tried I just couldn't put a picture of me all by myself...it was just too weird.)

So, in honor of my 25 years - here are 25 things I have learned this year...

1. I absolutely LOVE broccoli
2. Little Boys are a Lot of Work (wait...I think I may have already known that one)
3. I want to be a nurse
4. Never leave three little boys alone with hundreds of paper plates
5. Never leave three little boys alone with hundreds of plastic cups
6. Never leave three little boys alone with 8 rolls of paper towels
7. Girl friends make me happy
8. Little Boys make me happy
9. Books make me happy (Again...I may have already known that...but I know it more now)
10. To Surrender
11. That I care too much what others think of me
12. I hate hospitals (unless there is Mud Pie involved)
    
13. That I am never alone...there is One constant in my life
14. To listen
15. Pay closer attention at the beach
    
16. I need to trust myself more
17. Garbage men can be reckless drivers
18. I don't hate dogs
19. Diet Coke and Alfredo Sauce are my weakness
20. ...about a little evil called a Chocolate Chimi
21. Some books don't make me happy( I'll let you guess what book I am speaking of)
22. My sister will always be my best friend
23. Mexico and massages totally change lives
24. I am a lot stronger than I thought
    
25. I have so much left to discover...
    

I feel like I haven't posted in a while, but the effort it will take to go track down the camera and download all the fun pics from this last week is well, a bit beyond my capabilities today so...unfortunately today you will have to settle for my words. Yikes - this could be scary. We are super busy with all the regular Christmas stuff and so I feel like the blog has been majorly neglected. If this blog was a child, CPS would have already intervened!

So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately... strange I know, but occasionally it does happen? I was laying in my boys bedroom the one night after they were asleep and I was reminded of the magic of a child's bedroom. Ask me what I ate for lunch three days ago and I wouldn't be able to tell you - but ask me to describe my bedroom at 10 and I could recreate it for you in absolute detail. Why is that? Why is childhood captured so vividly in our minds. I truthfully don't remember the address that I lived at a year ago when we moved to Arizona but I remember every address of every home I lived in as a child (and believe me there were a lot!) I remember my favorite purple jean shorts when I was eight, I remember the smell of my grandma's house, I remember how grandpa's voice echoed through the house when he woke me for school, I can
almost taste Darlene's rolls and Grandma's mashed potatoes. Sometimes those memories catch me off guard -yesterday while driving, the picture of my sister flushing an entire roll of toilet paper came flooding into my mind...
And what concerns me the most about this is that now I am RESPONSIBLE for two humans, two little boys that will grow up and remember every little snip it of their childhood. I am hopeful that the defining memory of their childhood will not be the time mom smashed her finger and lost control of her vocabulary. I hope they remember Sunday mornings, laying in front of the Christmas tree, wrestling with Dad, singing with Mom, laughing with each other - I have so many fond memories with them and I wish I could just package them up and give those boys a glimpse of what I have loved about being their mother...I mostly hope that somewhere in those little minds they have saved a memory of their mom loving them.

Wanna Know What Irritates Me?

I am sure most of you don't...but for the record I want to say that Word Verification is very irritating. They always have you typing in the most illogical set of letters, they are stretched and warped - nearly impossible to decipher. Every time I see one I think of an Elderly 87 year old and think, "Well there ain't NO way she'd be figuring this one out." Let's not kid ourselves I also think of a 25 year old with decent vision and know she's having a hard time figuring it out as well. Many times I go to leave a comment on some lovely blog post, see the word verification and exit right out...
So...someone enlighten me - what are they for and why do you have them on your blogs?

I haven't posted photos in a while so...here is a big post of all things Golding...if you make it through all these you are a champ!

The Advent Calendar.... we're getting there. Let's hope next year it will be complete.

Thank you Kelly! We love this shelf Ms. Kelly O gave us. We now have a place for our stockings!

The boys fried our Turkey...yummmmmm

Waiting for it to be done...

Grandma, Marcie, Ethan, Lucy and Tyler admiring their Gingerbread House.

Thanksgiving Bingo...

We saw 4 rainbows in one day...this is the only picture we captured...Ethan was in heaven!

Todd helping Preston unload our Sissoo tree.

Ben and Preston planting my lemon tree...Ben is seriously one of the coolest friends ever!! He drove an hour to help Preston plant our trees. Seriously.

Here are a few of the yard..I love the grass. We still have a lot to do but it's so much better than a the dirt!The boys and I at the Electric Light Parade.

What is Kiki looking at?

I love this picture...A true Dad - holding both the boys up to see the lights!!

I love CG. By CG I mean Casa Grande. Casa Grande is a wonderful place brimming with wonderful people. Casa Grande translated into English means Big House...correct me if I am wrong but don't we sometimes call prisons "The Big House"
...make of it what you will.

I had a doctors appointment yesterday. I called weeks ago to get the appointment and the soonest they could get me in was one month later...luckily I just needed immunizations and a physical for school...if I would have been sick, well, I may not be here to write this post. The doctors office is named "Sun Life Medical" WOW, that's some sneaky advertising right there. What do you picture when you think "Sun Life." I picture large white rooms filled with sunlight. I envision a kind nurse gently caring for the sick and nursing them back to health. I see smiling faces, I see disinfectant, I see furniture not crawling with every virus since 1966. I think a better, more accurate name for the"Sun Life" office would have been
" Dark Death"
"Cesspool of disease and rudeness"
"Incompetence - R - Us"
"Want to waste some time....Com on In."
The list could go on well, forever. After 2 1/2 hours and an intense amount of insanity, I left there with only half of my immunizations and at least 2, probably more like 3 appointments awaiting me in the future.
This is what I do know for sure;
We will all probably come down with some real nasty illness in the next few days.
You better believe I will bring a can of Lysol next time I step in there.
Apparently medical school isn't as hard to get into as we all thought...
This tetanus shot in my arm could possibly be actual tetanus...my arm no longer is functioning...next up lockjaw!