Happy Fourth of July!

We had a great fourth of July! The best part of the holiday weekend was that Daddy took off on Friday, so we had a four day weekend together as a family, and it was great!

On Friday we went to Splash Country and had a great day splishing and splashing together. We got there just as the park opened so we had some of the water slides to ourselves for a while, so that was nice. It is so fun to see how brave Addison is getting. I think that she would even go down the big adult slides if we let her, but I love that Splash Country is so family friendly. It is really nice to be able to go down slides with your child and have fun with them.

On Sunday we first celebrated the fourth with an awesome church service! The choir sang some great patriotic songs & a couple sang "Proud to Be An American" they did such a fantastic job, and it brought tears to my eyes. I dressed Addison in the most adorable red, white & blue dress with cute pigtails! She looked really adorable, I wore a navy dress to match her! I love it when our outfits coordinate!

On Sunday evening we were invited over by our friends Aaron & Rachel, where we continued our celebrations with a cookout and some fun games! Rachel had also invited over some of our other friends from Chrysalis. It was so nice to hang out with everyone, and Rachel is always the best hostess! She always goes out of her way to ensure that everyone is happy and comfortable. She had sparklers & sidewalk chalk waiting for Addison and when we had walked down to the fireworks she pulled out lots of glow bracelets & necklaces to keep Addison's busy hands occupied! Thanks Rachel, you're the best!

We enjoyed the fireworks lakeside, it was so nice that Aaron and Rachel live at the lake & we were able to just walk down to the lake to see the fireworks. And we were able to get a bit of a work out in as well when we walked back up to their house & we had to conquer their large hill up their road, but it was nice to work off all of the smores & cupcakes!

Hope that you and your family had a great fourth of July as well!

Memorial Day Weekend Getaway!

This weekend was the most fun & relaxing one that we've had in a long time. Ever since hubby returned from Brazil, I have been patiently waiting for a little getaway with my little family.

On Friday, Addison & I spent the day making special snacks & treats for us to go on our vacation. I just love having special things to eat when we travel, I guess I get it from my mom-- she used to do the same thing when we went on vacation. We made a cheeseball, chocolate chip cookies & home made pimento cheese -- yummy!! I also bought some local strawberries & sliced them up and put some sugar on them for a yummy treat.

Our destination? The usual-- Pigeon Forge, TN, but I didn't care! We arrived on Saturday afternoon and spent the rest of the day swimming in our hotels 2 pools. We had so much fun laughing and splashing with Addison. Later that evening we went and ate dinner at a burger joint up the street, hubs loved it, Addie and I didn't like it so much! She & I both ordered hot dogs, and they looked kinda weird, we also split an order of almost burnt soggy french fries.... so we had a snack when we got back to the room. After dinner we went to The Birkenstock store (one of my favorites) & then Addie spotted some kiddie rides across the street so we let her pick 2 rides to ride. When we got back to the hotel Addie decided that she needed a little swim before bed, the pool stayed open until 2 AM, so we let her swim until 9 :30 or so...HA! Glad she can't tell time yet!

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast in our room & then we were off to Dollywood's Splash Country, we've visited the park several times, but it's getting much more fun to take Addison now that she is getting older. She even went down a couple of the kiddie slides by herself, hubs would walk her up & put her on the slide & I would catch her at the bottom. We also bought season passes to the park, so we will be visiting much more this year! On a normal day to Splash Country, we enter the park around opening time -- 10 am or so, we splash for a few hours, go out to our car and make a picnic (they have picnic tables just outside of the entrance) or even eat in the hatch of my car and then go back in for a few more hours. I added up & we saved about $30 by doing this!

Later on that evening we went out and ate at our favorite restaurant, The Chop House and it was soooo good as usual, and of course Addie wanted to swim again after dinner, so being the good parents that we are, we let her.

On Monday, sadly it was time to go home, but not before some outlet shopping. I bought Addison a few items, including soccer cleats for soccer camp coming up at the end of July. They are black with pink cleats on the bottom -- sooo cute & we bought her a pink soccer ball to match! So adorable! I also got started on my Christmas shopping with a lot of winter items on clearance racks!

We had a great weekend away & can't wait to do it again!

Dance Recital

One of the benefits of having a little girl is dance class. Since September, 2009 Addison and I have traveled to Sylva each evening to Triple Threat Performing Arts Academy to Predance class taught by Miss. Nicole. This has been one of our favorite mommy & daughter activities, Dad has school on Tuesday evenings so dance class helps the evening go by faster.

In December, 2009 the class of 10 3 & 4 year olds started to prepare for their recital piece "The Wheels On The Bus". A few weeks later they were measured for their costumes. And the dance recital was starting to come together.

This past week was filled with extra classes & rehearsals, and the recital was today. I volunteered to be the "stage mom", helping the little ones keep their bows tied, hair fixed & entertained the group while we waited for our turn to go on stage. And finally, it was our turn. The lights turned to a bright yellow to match their adorable costumes, and it was time for the girls to go on stage. But their was a problem....my little one was glued to my leg. I picked her up and explained to her that she was going to dance for all of her friends & relatives that came to see her, and also that if she went on stage that there was a brand new slip - n - slide waiting on her in the car. That was all that it took...she bolted in front of Lydia ( a friend from church) and went out and did her wheels on the bus thing... and she did great! And yes, if you did ask me if it all was worth it... I will proudly tell you yes, yes it was! I was so proud of her on stage, dancing around and having so much fun!

The Wheels on the Bus go round & round...

The babies on the bus go wah wah wah...

The mamas on the bus go shhh shhh shhh

The slip n slide!

Brazil...

As many of you know, recently my husband went on his first mission trip to Brazil. He left on April 9 and returned on the 18th. He first arrived in Manaus, Brazil, flew to Santarem, Brazil...got on a boat and traveled for 7 hours into the Amazon rain forest. Once he reached his destination he ministered to two villages in the rainforest. He & his mission team (of 7 other people) did bible school activities with the children in the morning, went and handed out tracks to the "locals" in the afternoon & ended up the day by showing Christian films (one night it was Facing The Giants, in Portuguese) to the adults.

This post can't do justice to the work that God did while he was in Brazil, one night over 30 youth came forward and made decisions for Christ, and I'm sure that there were many more. "Spunky" says that the best part of the trip was working with the children, many afternoons hubs & some of his buddies could be found playing soccer with teenage boys... and there are many more stories.

For Addie & I, the week was difficult with hubs being gone, but we had a blast at the same time! The hardest part was not being able to communicate with "Spunky" the entire week. On Thursday, I did receive a post card, sent from NYC while hubs was on a layover & to be honest with you, it totally made my day! I took half a week off of work & we spent our days hanging out with the other "missionary widows" as we called ourselves, shopping, cleaning & of course paying visits to the Waynesville Rec Center.

I will leave you a few pictures of the great time that hubs had....
The children of Brazil. My favorite picture from his trip, I think that this little girl is just beautiful and this mother just wanted hubs to have a picture of her little girl because he had such an impact on their lives.
This is the local church.

Happy Easter!

Hope that you and your family had a great Easter like we did!

Easter Eggs

Flowers The Bunny

Meet the newest member of the Goodman family...Flowers The Bunny! Originally, the Easter Bunny was supposed to bring the new furry creature, but we then decided to allow Addison to go and pick out her new bunny. I don't know where she came up with the name, but we like it and think that it is cute!





Flowers will be living in her new hand crafted home located behind the swing set. The new home is complete with a loft bed room, and a hanging water bottle. Flowers seems to enjoy her little home that "Spunky" spray painted green.





Flowers, welcome to the family!