Elijah is 1 years old !!!

I can't believe how much my little man has grown. I still can't believe he is also 1 years old. Boy, time sure flies. We were on our way up to Payson Utah on Friday the 17th. Since it was Elijah's birthday we stopped in Page at Walmart for a few things. Dan bought cupcakes and a candle so we can sing Happy Birthday. We stopped in Big Water (pass Lake Powell). We all sang Happy Birthday and took a few pics. 

Although we were on a trip and we made a point to celebrate a family members birthday, my kids will always remember this. Here is a few pics of our little celebration.

Elijah on our trip. He was just a good boy the whole trip.

Dan and the birthday boy. I just love the back ground.

Dan, the kids, and the beauty of mother nature.

Elijah wanted to head dive in the cupcake but being on a trip we decided to use a cupcake model named Lea.

I wanted to post pics of Elijah's first year but all my loder pics are on the family computer. I am using a laptop and I haven't transfer my pics to a hard drive. When I do I will post more pics.

Layne Parsons

Well another sad news. Layne was my mom's boyfriend for about 17+ years. He passed April 11. He will be also be missed by my family. The kids really enjoyed being with Layne. He was their gpa.

We had a memorial service for him up on a mountain. He loved the outdoors. It was nice and simple. His sister Tanya came from New Mexico. She looked so much like Layne.

Charles Grant Carlisle

I stole this handsome picture of my grandpa from my cousin Ashley's blog. Sorry Ashley, I didn't have a picture of him. He passed away today. He was 86 yrs old. He will be missed. I was able to go up to Utah this weekend to visit with him in the hospital. I am so proud of him and I am honored to be part of his family. I will truly miss him but I know that I will see him again. I learned a lot about him while visiting him. He truly was a great man. 

My Grandpa Carlisle

I am kind of feeling a little sad this week. I think its because I had to deal with some tough issues that I wasn't prepared for. For one is that my Gpa is not doing really well health wise. he turned 86 on Easter Sunday. He has lived a full life filled with family, love and a lot of happiness. He has an infection that is making him worse. I really don't know how much we will be with us.
He has had a tough few years that I am so impressed that he is still with us.
My gpa lives in Payson Utah. He has always lived there, in the same house. Because I live in Arizona, I wasn't around him as much as all my other cousins. But he always made me feel just as loved. It was like miles didn't keep him from loving me any less. It just meant that our time together was special and remember able. I loved him telling me about the war and how he fell in love with my grandma.
I remember when my dad got remarried my older brother and I stayed with him and my gma. He had this scooter that we would ride. He let my brother go around the block because he was older. Me on the other hand had to drive it up and down the driveway. What fun huh!!! But I got smart and decided to ride around his house. He had told me "Sis, you better not do that to many times or you will hurt your grandma's grass." So of coarse I stop just long enough to go in the house for a breather and than back out I rode. I could see him on the back porch sitting there and watching me. He didn't say a word and just laughed with me.
He and my grandma came to my wedding. He than again said "Sis I love you and I am proud of you." I love the way he said "Sis". It was with a little whistle. He always wore this brown overall that I just loved. He smelt like cherries because he worked in the cherry orchard.
He loved my grandma so much. He helped her with dishes. He was very easy to please. He always made a great fire.
I know I will see my gpa again. I know he will be reunited with his parents and will be waiting for his eternal companion.
Gpa, I love you.

My Masana

The day before Easter my mom and I went out for the last minute Easter shopping. We stopped at Denny's for breakfast and started talking about our Goodman Family Reunion that is coming up at the end of May. My mom asked me what are some of the memories I had of my Masana. I had to think hard. I was young the last time I saw her. I think I was 14. I don't remember a lot of my childhood so I had to think hard. Hear are some of the memories I had of my Masana.
I should let you know that Masana means Grandma in Navajo.Her name was Jane Goodman. My Masana lived in Monument Valley but passed away in Chinle Arizona 1993. Monument Valley is in Utah. Right by the Arizona/Utah border. She live in a round cement house with no rooms. She didn't have electricity or running water when I was little. She lived right next to a mesa. The mesa's name was Douglas Mesa. You know that famous Monument Valley picture that is everywhere from history books to magazines. She lived a ways away behind that actual rock.
Since she didn't have running water in her house, she would take a bath in a silver basin on one of the bottom level of the mesa right next to her water tank. I remember helping her wash her hair and how it felt like real coarse, almost like horse hair. She didn't have a lot because she was going bald so we had to be gentle and careful when we wash it. She would tell me stories while I helped her. She also had a chicken coupe that had chickens. I also think she had bunnies by them to.
I also remember she had a shade house ( i don't know how to spell it in Navajo)which was made out of tree branches and logs. She had beds in there for her and my cousin Selena to sleep in during the summer nights. I would lay next to her while she would sing Navajo lullaby's to me. She was always rubbing my legs down with Mentholatum telling me that this medicine would help my legs from hurting when I was growing. So the smell of Mentholatum reminds me of her hands.
She had a sheep corral and I would help her and my cousin heard the sheep back in the corral and she would always tell me to keep a close eye on the ram because I was to stay far away from him. I always listen but one day I cousin wasn't watching and it ram right into her breaking her collar bone.
She had a few cars next to a big tree in the front of her house. Those cars were full of junk but my cousins, brother, and I would move stuff around to pretend we were driving. I would think of where my Grandpa may be sitting or maybe just laying down it. He died when I was a baby. But that was the one place I would try to remember him.My masana would yell at us for playing in there because there might be snakes in them.
Oh she made the very best fry bread. I would watch her peel potatoes, fry them in her pan on the wood stove. Than she would make the fry bread. Now, because she loved me the most (what I thought then) she always made me a small fry bread at the end. Nobody was to touch it because it was for her Janalea. Instead of sitting around the table, she would put the pan and pile of fry bread on a blanket on the floor. We than would use our fry bread as utensils and "DIG" in. My masana was always playing cards. She taught me to play solitaire. She moved gracefully.I loved her so much.
Because she didn't have a lot of hair, when she brushed her hair gently, she would than gather up all the hair off the brush and stick it back in her bun with the rest of her hair, so her bun looked fuller. She also said that it was also to keep the bad spirits from grabbing her hair and putting a curse on her. She was very into the Navajo culture. She spoke English but so always spoke Navajo to us all.
These are just some of the memories I have of my masana.

New used laptop

Dan didn't need his laptop anymore for work so he gave it to me. Yippy!!!! So now I can be watching my kids and blogging. Life is good.

Asthma and C-Sections

I was just reading my Parent magazine for April and came across this little article. I thought I would just share it in case you don't get the magazine. It says babies who are born by cesarean are 80% more likely to develop asthma by age 8 than those born vaginally. It goes on to say that researchers believe that babies born vaginally are exposed to microorganisms in the birth canal that help prime the immune system. Who knew??
I have a child right now that has asthma and she was not born by cesarean.We can thank you father for that one.Its amazing what researchers find huh.

Baby Chicken

Last week when I dropped Nathaniel off at preschool another boy brought a live baby chicken for show and tell.It was so cute and Nathaniel got to hold it. Here is a picture of him holding the chick. To me that chick was a reminder of how much I love Spring.

Homemade Easter Baskets

This is what I have been doing for the past month and a half. I don't think it would have taken me this long to do these but because of all the sickness and surgery and other unmentionables, it has taken me a but longer. I still have one more basket to make. I am making another round basket that will also say Happy Easter. I know that is only 4 baskets and I have 5 kids but Elijah is only going to be almost one before Easter. I can still get away with not making him one this year. I will make him one later on so all the kids can have a matching one for next year.

My Cricut Machine

My wonderful husband surprised with with the new Cricut Expression. He bought it off the Home Shopping Network and it was a little cheaper than the actual website, infomercial, or even Walmart. It came with 4 cartridges and a cutting mat,spatula, and 2 packs of ink cartridges. I am not really into scrap booking or any other creative hobbies. I mainly do my canvas projects that have a pattern. I also sew a little and I cross stitch.
When I saw this Cricut on the infomerical with Chayanne we both just fell in love with it. I kept telling Dan to watch the infomerical and we looked on the website. I told him for my birthday (not until May) I would like to have this. We have a few months to save (this was in March). Well he bought it for me early and I just love it. So now I am getting antsy about making cards, quilts, Vinyl letterings. You name it I want to learn to do it.
I have made a few cards but that is it. I get a little nervous. On the other hand, Lea and Chayanne just love it. They are always asking to use it. I am sure they will be teaching me soon. Its not hard to use its just have to be creative. And the 4 cartridges have, don't have what I want to do. I am happy to know that I can get more cartridges Walmart and now at Target.

No Meat Please

I made meatloaf last night for dinner. Lea for some reason always refuses to eat any thing with hamburger meat. I don't know why, I really have to fight with her to eat it. The rule in our house is, you have to have to eat a little of everything on the table before you are done. And there is absolutely no snacking right after dinner. If you are still hungry you better get more of what is on the table. I am sure everyone has a similar rule at the dinner table. Well in order to get Lea to eat her meat loaf last night she wanted to put cheese on it to hide the taste. Well it looked gross but she ate it without a fit. here is a picture of her meatloaf before and after the cheese. I swear she is the most silliest kid in my family when is comes to any type of meat. She'll eat hamburger but it has to have cheese on it.