Our "little" family Christmas morning!  It was a very calm morning and kind of nice that way without a lot of unwrapping going on, just Lauren!  We definitly missed our older kids though who were all gone with their other parents/families this year, and Emmy who was still asleep!  

I want to publicly thank ALL "10" of my brothers & sisters for their thoughtfulness this Christmas as they played santa for me and Kevin!  I will never forget it... YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!  I was of course super excited and all cry-baby at the same time when I opened and read the cards.  I know it's been a tough year on everyone financially and that was really sweet and I love you guys!  Not just because you give me nice presents either!  I hope you all remember to let us help where we can too, because it's great to get help, but we love to give also!!!!  Keep that in mind when YOU are in a bind... call us!!!!!

Thank You Aunt Tawna...

The pictures kind of say it all!  Princess Pei Pei was VERY happy Christmas morning with her princess garb, stickers (she loves to decorate herself and others!) and her puzzle.  Thank you again for playing Santa this year!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad...

You guys are such a good combination and always seem to balance eachother and compliment eachother!!!  Thank you for always being such a great example of what marriage is and should be and I hope you have a blast whatever the fun plans are for tonight!  We love you!   :)

Merry Christmas.....

Love, 

The Goodwin Family

Christmas Eve Traditions...

Thank goodness for good ole traditions!  Christmas Eve was great and just a dose of what I've been needing!  It hasn't felt quite like Xmas until now.  We got to hang with our gracious hosts, Mom& Dad and Papa K, Jade & Jeff, Tawna & Nathan, Summer & Jaime, Bob & Jen, Frances & John, Stephanie,  Papa & Grandma H, and ALL of the Grace cousins were there and all of our kids and their cousins!  It was a lot of fun, great sandwiches (go DAD) and good conversation as always!  Tawna and Jade were a huge help to Mom, Tawna running 2 different crafts for the kiddos and Jade helping with the sandwich orders, and getting stuff out to people and whatever Dad & Mom needed in the kitchen!  Frances brought her yummy Arrowhead Cheese Dip (I think that's the right name) and it is always soooo yummy!  It was gone fast and licked clean almost! (We should post on Nana's Nook if we can get permision from Frances).  Anyway, I love my family and I am so glad that this tradition has gone through the years with us!!!!  Thanks Mom & Dad!

Quads Finally!

Kevin fixed the kids quads today so they could have a fun day riding in the back!  He is so talented... I don't know how he does it???  He takes things apart and they look like they'll never go back together and somehow it does AND works too!  He had a lot of fun with Daron working on the bikes and then all the kids had fun riding.  I freaked out when I saw Daron riding Lauren in front of him and apparently ruined the fun somewhat when I requested that NO ONE ride doubles unless Kevin wanted to ride Lauren with him!  I just didn't want anyone getting run over for Christmas!

Authentic by Nan...Bo Peep

Lauren has loved to dress up EVERY minute of EVERY day since Halloween and has worn through 2 princess costumes, so we went digging in the basement and turned up a couple of costumes that Nan and Mom made us when we were little and Lauren loooves them!!!  Maddie loves them too and wants the

 Bo Peep all for herself, but I told her they had to share.  Thanks Granny for passing them on as I know how precious they are!!!!  Kevin & love you and appreciate your time & talents way more than we can express gratitude for!  You are an amazing Granny!:)

Belated Birthdays...Part 2

It was Oma's 60th birthday on the 10th of December.  She is such a great mother-in-law and I am so grateful for her in my life!  She is so incredibly calm, patient, creative, and service oriented.  She is always there to help us along the way in this crazy life and such an awesome Mom, wife and Grandmother!  We had a party here at our house and invited all of her side of the family and it was a lot of fun.  We had soup and chili and rolls and such for dinner and then Kristen made a yummy & beautiful cake that just screamed Oma!  It was the perfect cake indeed...

We love you Oma!

Belated Birthdays...Part 1

Happy Birthday to my Dad!!!  His birthday was on the 17th and we did call and wish him a happy day, but I wanted to do a post about all of the reasons I love him!  He is such a great man and has always been a great example to me.  He is such a straight arrow and I admire him for that.  He is never wavering and what true conviction and will power this man has!  I have always thought I was a lot like my Dad in many ways, but I wish it were in these ways!  He is always willing to help out no matter what needs to be done and he works very long hours already during the week, but he helps out anyway.  He takes such great care of my Mom and is a great Dad and Grandpa.  We (all of us and our kids) call him Grumpy, instead of the traditional Grandpa, but it is a term of endearment for sure!  He loves to fly his plane and take the grandkids up with him and dreams of flying the pipeline someday when he retires, combining a little bit of work with something he loves to do.  He is so generous in so many ways and such a hard worker and I hope he knows how much we all love him!!!  I hope that he had a great birthday and that he remembers all year how important he is to me and what a wonderful patriarch of our growing extended family he is!!!  I love you Dad! :)

The Tree Table...

The Poinsettia Table...

The Angel Table...

Black & Gold Table...

The Snowman Table...

Company Party...

Kevins company  party was here at our house on Tuesday night.  We had a week to plan and worked hard, with help from LOTS of family, and got it done!  There were two trips to Mom's to raid the dish closet and basement for the catering stuff, lots of planning, scheduling and phone calls, and lists galore to stay organized, but it was all worth it.  Tawna and Jade even came and ran the kitchen which was awesome!!!  They are definitly 2 chicks that know what to do to keep the party going smoothly.  It must be all of the family wedding and party experience in our pasts!  Anyway, thanks to Mom, Tawna and Jade for all of their help and also Oma who watched Lauren & Emmy from 8am to 12 midnight!  I really don't know what we'd do without family and we are truly blessed in that department!

Here's some pics for you Mom...  each table was a different christmas theme and looked beautiful.  We got so many compliments and had a great evening.

Christmas Decorations...

Thanks to Granny & Jade for helping me get up the garlands this year and helping to wrap my cupboards (a Harmon tradition)!  I love Christmas and how pretty our house looks the month of December!!!

The Things Kids Say...

You know as a Mom there are things you must repeat over & over again, it's inevitable...Well, today Maddie comes running in as I am changing the "screamin demon" (aka: Emmy) and she says very rushed and excitedly, "Mom... I know you're gonna lose your mind, but Lauren just fell and hit her head on the tile"!!! I must say that one a lot huh!!! She even said it with how she perceives my TONE to be, and I 'm amazed she didn't include "friggin' because usually it's "I'm gonna lose my friggin mind"!!!! Good thing the majority of my "regulars" these days don't include cuss words right?????

You all wanted a post right!!!!! Hope everyone is having a great Holiday Season so far. We have been CRAZY hectic and that's really my reason for the blog MIA!!! We just found out we are hosting Kevins office Christmas party for 50 peeps here at our house which adds to the crazy a bit, but it's been fun making arrangments and coordinating, the kids all have book reports, poems recitations, oral reports and MEGA Biography reports (Kaitlin) due this first part of December, which is nuts! Plus all of the usual butt load of daily homework! But I know it's all worth it...it's an awesome school and all of the kids love it (most days!).

Anyway, my house is decorated beautifully thanks to help from Mom and Jade who are lifesavers! I wish I had a camera so I could take pics for all of you, but I will soon. Have a great rest of the week and I'm posting a really simple Peach Cobbler recipe on the Nana blog in the next day or so for anyone interested. I just put it in the oven and it looks and smells so delish!!!!

No Camera!!!

My camera that Summer loaned me won't turn on today and wouldn't work last night at the kids Christmas concert :(... So, I will have to wait for the pictures that my good friend Terri is sending me from what she took last night to post anything!!! Then I will have to beg my in-laws for the use of one of their cameras until I can get a new one from Santa hopefully!!!! So, we are alive and good, but without documentation of our lives for the moment...