Blog Moving

For awhile I've toyed with the idea of switching my blog over to a new host. Blogger has been great, but has some frustrating limitaions. So, from now on you can find my blog here at: www.thegoodsbeautifulnoise.wordpress.com

Hopefully in the near future I will have all my old posts on this new site as well.

Thanks! I hope you enjoy the new blog and look. It is so much easier for me to use and looks a bazillion times better than my old site.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year celebrating with friends and family. Here's a few pictures of all our fun.


My family came in very late Christmas Eve (technically Christmas morning for three of them) and basically unloaded there stuff, set out presents, and went straight to bed. We knew if we told Lillian that they were coming she would NEVER go to sleep so she just thought they were coming sometime Christmas Day. She was so surprised to wake up and find everyone downstairs sleeping. So, because they came in so late we made room for everyone on the living room floor.


Every Christmas morning before we open any presents we make sure we take plenty of time to remember why we really celebrate Christmas and give gifts. We read the story aloud and act it out with our little people nativity set as we go. It's always fun trying to come up with the extra animals and people that we need to tell the story. :)


Lily and Grandpa helping Evalyn open a present.


Uncle Nathan with his new "gun."



Both girls had a lot of fun opening their presents and received some pretty cool things. Evalyn loved the box that we were tossing all the wrapping paper in. She looks like a little Christmas present. :)


Anna made the best looking Christmas cookies I've ever seen this year! She made special ones for everyone in our family. Boy were they good!

Uncle Nathan got present options this year. He's into hats right now and I bought him two not knowing which one he'd like best. We had fun passing around one hat so that everyone could "try" it. I think my dad kind of looks like Dick Tracy.


Lily's big present this year was a stage that Will built for her. We had her go upstairs so that Will and my dad could bring it in and set it up in the living room. When Lily came down and saw her surprise she was SO excited. We had given her different present clues to open all morning to help give her hints as to what her big present was.
It was too cold for Will to paint it before Christmas, but thankfully we had those nice warm days so Lily, my dad, and Will spent time painting it purple and green. :) One of these days I will post a "Lily Show" video for you.


Did I tell you about my washer braking on Christmas Eve? Ya, not good. Thankfully my lovely husband and Father were able to fix it by themselves for under $30. It was my Christmas Miracle.

Home Sweet Home

This past week I was at my parents house in Indianapolis. The weekend before my parents had watched both girls for a few days so that I could help Will with a big wedding show and have a little bit of down time. :) It was a very nice four days! Thanks Mom, Dad, and Anna! I then went to Indy last Tuesday and stayed till Sunday. It was fun getting to visit and hang out with my family. I am so glad to be home though!!! Ahhh, my own bed! :) There really is no place like home (especially after an almost really bad accident)! While I was gone I really missed being away from Will and the routine of being in the familiar. So, after about a month of "different" and "abnormal" schedules I'm anxious to reclaim some type of "normal" around the Good house.

I've got lots of pictures to share still from Christmas, Lily's Little Gym Show Day, our trip to Indy, and Will's birthday (yes Will turned 32 last Friday :))

2009 Book List

My whole life I've had a great love and appreciation for books. You can go so many places, meet new people, try new foods, and learn all kinds of other interesting things. One of my favorite things is to snuggle up with a warm blanket, a cup of coffee, and a good book. So, this year I thought I'd be a little intentional in what I read and make my self a list of books I'd like to read sometime during the course of this year. Most of the books on my list are non-fiction books because they are usually the ones I need more discipline to read, but I hope to read plenty of fiction books as well. Here's my list in no particular order:

Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June Oberlander

Passionate Housewives Desperate for God by Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald

Don't Panic Dinner's in the freezer by Susie, Martinez, Vanda, Howell, and Bonnie, Garcia - currently reading - (so far this book is AWESOME!)

The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartin - starting this week sometime

Don't Make Me Count to Three - by Ginger Plowman - currently reading and hoping to make Will read portions of it too. :)

Practicing Hospitality the Joy of Serving Others by Patricia A. Ennis, Lisa Tatlock, and Dorothy

Family Driven Faith: Doing what it takes to raise sons and daughters who walk with God by Voddie T. Baucham Jr. - Will and I both plan to read this on our own time and then make a point to discuss it.

So Much More by the Botkin sisters

Biblical womanhood in the Home: Discovering and living out God's Plan for Our Lives by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Esther: It's tough being a Woman by Beth Moore

Family Integrated Church by J. Mark Fox - Will's going to read this too, hopefully.

Sex God by Rob Bell

Rocking the Rolls: Building a Win-Win Marriage by Robert Lewis and William Hendricks - For Will and I to read together. We already have this book and I'm hoping maybe in February we'll be able to start reading it again.

So, there's my list. What's on you're reading to do list this year? Have you read any great books that I should add to my list? I'm always looking for good book suggestions, especially for fiction books.

2009 thoughts, ramblings, and goals

Well, I'm not really one for New Year’s resolutions for various reasons, but I do strongly believe in taking time to look over the past and set some goals for the future. With out goals it's hard to measure progress, growth, and have direction. My crazy personality really thrives on having goals, it helps me feel (amidst the chaos that is often my life) that I have purpose and direction. Now I'm not talking about far fetched goals like I'm going to loose 30lbs in 2 months, hike the grand canyon, have perfect kids, or come up with the next million dollar invention; I'm talking real practical, simple, completely obtainable goals.

So, as I've mulled over 2008, spent a few moments of introspection, and looked into 2009 here's a few of my big and small goals, in no particular order, for the next year. Now with having two small children my goals are fairly simple and straight forward. No use having goals if you don't realistically think you can meet them and also having some sort of plan to accomplish them. :)

Be more calm/patient/peaceful - This has been something I've been pondering for awhile. This last year I've found myself more easily angered by stupid things and find my first response with frustrations (or crazy 4 year old who can't seem to obey no matter what) most likely anger than anything else. Typically I'm not an angry person and I hate this new character flaw that's developed somewhere a long this past year. So, my hope is that in the coming moments and months I can strive to be more calm and peaceful as I deal with life's daily situations. Much of my anger responses I directly attribute to not doing some of the other goals I have listed below. :) Funny how certain things go hand in hand. I’m often reminded of the passage in James 1:9; “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” So my hope is just that I would be quick to listen and slow to speak and anger especially when it comes to disciplining Lily and eventually Eva lise.

Get connected - We've finally found a great home at 2Rivers Church here in Wentzville and are ready to get more involved. For quite awhile we've been without a community of friends in close proximity and our family is in desperate need of that right now. So, we're excited to get plugged into a small group hopefully sooner than later. I'm also hoping to find a bible study or moms group to join sometime this spring so that the girls and I can both make some new friends and get out of the house.

Find a good baby sitter and make dating my husband a priority - That pretty much sums it up!

Get into the word more - How do you really get to know someone you don't spend time with? The best way to get to know God better is to spend time reading the book He directly gave us. My hope is to be better about being in the word and getting my kids in the word. I firmly believe that there is power in "hiding" God's words in our hearts I hope to be better at that this year.

Let go more - I'm too uptight and I need to let certain things go more often and make room for things that are more important.

Learn how to can - For a couple of years I've toyed with the idea of trying out canning. This past summer I almost did it and then chickened out. There's not that much that I want to can just apple butter, apple sauce, spaghetti sauce, salsa, and maybe peaches. I know that canning some of these things when the ingredients are really cheap would save me money in the long run, plus I just think it would be fun. (Strange; I know) So, I'm hoping to find some one who is a canning expert and ask them to show me how to do it. I'm a visual learner and would feel better doing it myself after watching someone first hand. If anyone out there is a canning expert I'd love to invite myself over for a tutorial.

Be healthier - Now this isn't your typical new year's resolution to loose weight; actually I don't even really want to have that goal this year. For me I've founded the more I focus on the numbers the less I loose and the greater discouragement I find. When I focus more on just be healthy all around I have a tendency to loose a lot more weight. So, my hope is this year that I would strive to be healthier all around. Two of the big things I'm working on is drinking more water (I rarely drink anything during the day which is not good for many reasons) and trying to eat more fruits and vegetables. Since developing my sensitivity to bananas I've had a really hard time getting in the right amount of fruits and vegetables in my diet. Not to mention that with two small kids I'm lucky if I have time to sit or stand to eat anything; which not eating is almost as bad as over eating and eating the wrong things.

I really enjoy reading up on nutritional information and finding new ways to make our meals a little healthier. After all the only reason we really need food is to fuel our bodies and if we fill it with junk it won't run properly. And the older I'm getting the more I'm finding that I need all the "good" fuel I can get. Not to mention that I want my kids to grow up healthy and not be a part of the growing percentage of overweight kids in America.

Pray more - This is pretty straight forward. If I want to know more about God and have an intimate relationship with him I can't limit my conversations to a few minutes a day or less.

Music, music, music - I've always had a deep love and appreciation for music and this last year my ability and time to enjoy music in any form has dramatically plummeted. In high school and college I was constantly listening too or surrounded by music. Now I'm lucky if I listen to one song a day. Yes, sad, so very very sad. This has got to change for so many reasons. I just feel better when music is on and there's a song in my head or on my lips. :)

Well that's it for now at least. Feel free to ask me how I'm doing on my goals throughout the year.

Happy New Year!!

*The format on this post is rather strange because blogger started acting up on me and messed up all my formatting and pretty arranging. So, what I was left with the below and the pictures are all kind of funny. Sorry! Crazy blogger!

The last couple weeks as the new year has loomed on the horizon I've been trying to recall events of the past year. A lot has happened in 2008! This past year has brought lots of blessing, new adventures, tears, endings, beginnings, lots of laughter, hurts, and a whole lot more. It's so amazing to look back over 2008 and see what has happened and how we survived and how we plan to move forward in 2009. Here's a little recap of the Good's 2008: (this is a little longer than I originally intended, but as I began charting this all out last week I was completely amazed at really how much had happened. :) It was really hard to pick the pictures that would accompany this post as well.)

January - We spent most of this month

still adjusting to the arrival of Evalyn. Will turned 31 and we had fun celebrating a new milestone with him. Lily spent a lot of time this month dressing up and playing her computer.

February - This month we had a great time celebrating Valentine's together as a family. We made a family dinner and Lily and I made treats to share with friends and family. It was a lot of fun.

March - This month we took our first trip with both girls to visit my family in Indiana. We had a lot of fun hanging out at their house and letting them get to know their second granddaughter more. We also had a few really nice weather days, so we took advantage and took a family picnic one day. It was great to start being outside again after a long winter. :)

April - This was a little bit of a weird month for us. Sometime either this month or the end of March the church that we'd been working with for a couple years decided to disband. Everything ended on really good terms and we were sad to be leaving something we'd invested so much in, but also really glad to be moving on to something new.
Also, this month I turned 25 which seemed like such a big milestone for me. :) Will threw me a surprise part with some of my dearest friends at the Cheesecake factory. It was so much fun and I was totally surprised.
We also took a trip to visit Will's family in Kouts, Indiana. We had such a good time introducing his family to Evalyn and just hanging out. Whenever we visit we always get such a warm welcome, a ton of fun, and spoiled by Will's. "Good" times!
Ok, so this was a really busy month for us. We also worked on seeding our back yard to grow grass. We had a truck load of dirt delivered that we had to haul from our front yard to our back yard. Lots of long hours went into that project. (Will says- thanks to neighbor Craig for helping us move the dirt!)




May - This was a fun month! We took our first trip to the zoo since Eva had been born. We had so much fun, everyone made it through the day, we took lots of great pics, and Eva loved her new hat. :) This month I also started watching two of my friends little girls a couple days a week. It was fun for Lily to have extra playmates, but probably one of the toughest jobs I've ever done. :)





Summer Fun - By about June this year I finally felt like I was getting a real handle on being a mom of two little girls. We were able to get out a lot more and Eva had passed her fussy stage and was super easy to tote. In June Will and I also celebrated being married 5 fun, exciting, and extremely adventurous years. At the very beginning of July Will started a new job as a Business Analyst at MasterCard Worldwide in O'Fallon. He is doing a phenomenal job in his new position, loves the diversity of his working environment, is constantly being challenged by new responsibilities, and is wowing his superiors. :) Yay Will!! He works so hard for our family. We had a lot of fun this summer playing outside, hanging out with friends, taking dips in the pool, and grilling as much as possible.

September - At the start of this month Lily and I embarked on our journey of home-preschool. We've had so much fun learning together and doing all kinds of fun projects, lessons, crafts, recipes, and activities. On the 16th Lily turned 4 years old. We celebrated this year by having a family party and then by also having a princess party where several of Lily's favorite friends were able to come.

October - This is probably my favorite month of the year. We spent as much time outside as possible enjoying the beautiful weather. We took a trip to the pumpkin patch and had fun celebrating Halloween with our friends and neighbors.

November - Will and I were reminded this month again of all that we have to be thankful. We had fun celebrating Thanksgiving this year in Indianapolis at my Mom and Dad's house with my family and Will's Dad, Sister, and grandparents. It was so much fun to be all together.

December - This month has been filled with so much fun as we celebrated Christmas and also celebrated little Evalyn turning 1. We had a small party for Evalyn and greatly enjoyed watching her devour her first cup cake.

Well, that's been a glimpse into the Good's family 2008. I'm looking forward to what 2009 will bring for our family and pray that we will continue to seek the Lord's best and direction in this New Year.

Happy New Year!

(for great photos of your family or event photography service, visit Will's photography websites)