Christmas 2012 to New Years 2013

This year we decided to meet in Kentucky for Christmas.  We both had the week off between Christmas and New Years (which never happens) so off to KY we went.  We had such a relaxing time.  It was great!  We ate well, shopped the sales, went to the movies, spent time with friends, and even had some snow!

My mom loves a decorated table

 A little Christmas Eve shopping at the Zappos Outlet.  Katherine was the winner with the best deals.  Nick was such a good sport because 2+ hours is a long time in one store :)

 Christmas morning is the time to go to the movies.  While everyone else is at home opening gifts we had the theater to ourselves.  I'm still not a fan of the 3D glasses.

 Nick was in charge of passing out the gifts

 Katherine modeling one of her gifts--cute scarf!

 The best ornament on the tree in my opinion

 Perfect ending to a great meal

With the Christmas holiday over, it was on to playing with some friends.  It is no secret how much we love our Louisville basketball (more on that in another post) so we had to all get together to watch the Louisville vs Kentucky basketball game.  We always have so much time getting friends together at my parents-it is just like old times!  And we beat KY to lots to smile about.

Matt and I--he is probably my favorite Louisville fan

THE ladies!  I love these two so much.  Tasha is moving to Missouri this summer and Becca lives in Florida.  Both places are too far away from me in AZ!  I'm thankfully we all call KY home so I can see these two when we are all visiting.

Date night to the temple--and we came out to snow!

 Loving all the white out the back window

 Burrr...it was cold!

 By the time New Year's eve rolled around Nick and I were the only two left in town.  A long tradition in our family is to go out for Chinese food on New Year's Eve, so of course we joined my parents.  It was such a funny night!  My parents both upgraded to the Iphone 5, so it was very comical to see them both playing on their phones at the dinner table.  I leaned over to Nick and said, wow-I feel like I'm the parent and my kids won't put their toys down!!  Who knows, maybe they were texting each other.  Just love those two!

 Happy 2013!

Off the Clock

For obvious reason my co-workers are my second family.  I spend more time with them than anyone else.  And thankfully for me, I love them all.  This year for our AFDC Christmas party we were spoiled royally with a night out to The Keg.  We had a lovely steak dinner and of course enjoy a hilarious gift exchange and a gift from our bosses to pamper ourselves with!  

'Tis the Season!

The AFDC Team

Seriously, these two keep me sane!  Best hygiene team around :)

Such a great gift from the docs!

And, nothing like a good ole' Pinterest craft night with the girls to get you in the holiday spirit!

The OFFICIAL Family Photo

So I'm back to blogging, finally!  I have to keep reminding myself that I will be glad I did this one day!

When we were in KY for Thanksgiving we took a family picture with all of my family.  My mom had a guy from their ward do them who is a nature photographer!  Well, lesson learned--he did not know how to take pictures of people.  Seriously, this is the only decent one and no one likes it.  Not sure, why I need it for memory sake if no one likes it buy none the less here we all are!

Kentucky Thanksgiving

As always my entire family heads to Kentucky for Thanksgiving.  It is the one time each year where my whole family can be together (even if it is only for 24 hours in some cases).  The weather was gorgeous, so much so that while the turkey was baking we were outside playing baseball!  I think that must be a Thanksgiving first!  The little boys couldn't get enough of uncle Nick and they wanted to be sure to sit by him at the table.  It was cute to see. 

We were able to go to a University of Louisville football game while we were in town, but despite it being sunny, there was a definite chill in the air that I was not used to!  It was an exciting game that went in to overtime, but sadly didn't end in our favor. 

We also had a new family picture taken.  I took a few with my camera, and we have gotten a few back from the photographer, but I'm hoping they look better than these!   Such a great Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for and I couldn't think of a better way to spend it than with family.

Nick and Liam playing some Thanksgiving baseball!  I must document that it was 68 degrees and perfect outside!

 Nick and baby Tess taking a break from decorating my parents tree

Cousins-Tess and Henrik

Kevin's family:  Bennett, Rachel, Tess, Kevin, Liam

Kyle's family:  Kyle, Becky, Henrik

Us

I Love UofL

I was a cold but smiling fan

We fired up the pizza oven outdoors for a a delicious meal

Here is a group photo of everyone from the photographer

Our "professional" pic.  It was sure sunny outside, I needed some shades on.

Hopefully more family pics to come.  

Fall time and Friends

We had a busy fall this year spending time with some of our good friends.  I had so much girlfriend time in November and I loved it!!

I went to Time Out for Women in Phoenix this year for the first time with a few of my friends that live in West Phoenix, so I don't get together with them as often as I wish.  We had a great weekend listen to the speakers and the great music.  So much fun, love these ladies.

The same weekend a few of us wanted to help Brooke celebrate her upcoming wedding.  We had such a great time and stayed at a very nice resort in Scottsdale.

Brooke, the bride-to-be and me

Less than a week later we kept the celebration going by hosting a bridal shower for Brooke.

Haha, this picture makes me laugh.  Brooke had a photo booth at her wedding, and we were practicing our poses.  So glad Nick was in town for the occasion.

Our favorite couple the Badger's came to Arizona to play before Thanksgiving so we had such a great time as always.  So excited that they are having a baby in April!

The Ladies

 The Gentlemen

With all the craziness in our lives these days of living apart and bi-coastal, I've gotten to see this guy quite a bit the past two months! I'm going to be in some serious withdrawls once January comes.  Sure do love him and am so grateful for how hard he is working right now.

So much to be thankful for!

Now that we are almost caught up

In pictures here is what the month of October looked like!

I busted this handy machine out to fix a shirt that had gotten a rip in the side.  It may have taken 30 minutes just to thread the machine, but hey 2 hours later I fixed my shirt!  As much as I love my mom for getting me this machine for Christmas a few years ago, she should have also gotten me lessons :)

There have been some AMAZING Arizona sunsets

Nick came to AZ for a visit, and lucky for him we had even more great sunsets!

After much convincing, Nick finally agreed to braces now that invisalign is offered in my office!  Here he is loving the impressions.  He has them in now, and it is amazing how much I cannot even tell he is wearing them.

I've been in a total organizational mode lately.  I've been sorting through boxes of pictures and finally sent them to scanmyphotos.com.  I had bought a groupon awhile back and sent in a 1,000 pictures to be put on a digital cd.

Life is keeping us busy!

Goodrich Girls Gatlinburg Getaway

I'm still playing catch up!  So much so that my mom the other day commented on how no one posted about the Goodrich Girl's Trip on their blog.  Well,  mom...this one's for you!

The annual Goodrich Girls Trip took us to the Smokey Mountains of Gatlinburg, TN the last weekend of September.  We all flew into Knoxville and after some very delayed flights--we all finally were united despite it being 3am!  This year was so fabulous because not only were my Grandma Goodrich's immediate girls (my mom-Terry, my Aunt-Carol, myself, and my sister-Katherine) in attendance, but so were my two sister-in-laws and even my cousin's wife!  Literally, we had all the girls!!  It was so great!  My mom rented an awesome cabin with views from every angle, a hot tub, pool table, tv's we couldn't figure out how to work, and a full wrap around porch that we spent most of our time on.

Day 1: was spent at the Smoky Mtn Aquarium and at the Outlet Mall.  I've been to a few aquariums, but I must say this was the best done of all of them--so if you ever get the chance to go, it's a must.  Pigeon Forge was full of several huge outlet malls.  Needless to say when a group of women are together, no arm twisting is required to shop.

All of us, minus Christa at the aquarium

Mom and I enjoying the exhibits

My cousin's wife, Christa, is quite the photographer.  Love this picture she captured of Katherine.

It was so great having the two babies of the family with us.  They were so happy the entire weekend, except in the car :)

Tess and Henrik

Day 2: was by far the highlight of the trip, one word-Dollywood!  My sister in law, Becky, has always wanted to go to Dollywood.  So when we decided on the location for the trip this year, she couldn't have been more thrilled to go to Dollywood.  At first it took convincing the get everyone to go, but Dolly did not disappoint.  There is so much to do and stuff for all ages.  We saw a bird show, steam engine train rides, outdoor stages all over the park full of live country music, roller coasters, food, shops, museums, movies about the Smoky Moutains and Dolly Parton's life, and somehow all that was a little over $50!  Talk about getting your money's worth.  The day was terrific, minus a little downpour of rain that may or may not have left Grandma soaked.  The babies were so great and we all left talking about how much fun we had.  We ended the night back at the cabin eating fudge and watching old family videos with 8 of us packed into two beds.

Dolly Parton is quite the icon!

Loved this train and all the fall decorations

Tess and Henrik were so excited!

My mom's girls

The "young girls" outside the Dolly Museum

The entire group--loving Dollywood

Seriously, the best gift shop ever!  Katherine passed on this shirt, but Carol didn't :)

Gotta love the blue Christmas tree up all year round and the oversize Dolly night shirt.

Henrik loving some country and still smiling even as the park is closing.

Day 3: was spent still talking about how great Dollywood was!  We decided to go into downtown Gatlinburg and take the aerial tram ride up the mountains for a scenic view.  Had to be sure to hold on to mom, as she has been known to even get sick on a ferris wheel!  We went to lunch at a great place called the Apple Barn (another must stop) and had an impromptu photo shoot of Grandma and her great-grand babies.  It was hard to believe that the three days flew by so quickly.  It was back home for everyone the next day, but not before one last stop at the outlets!

Mom and Me

Grandma Goodrich with Tess and Henrik

Kat and I enjoying the last night of great views

I absolutely love that the ladies of my family do this trip every year.  It is so great to all get together, reconnect, and laugh hysterically at late night games.  Seriously, not quite sure how I have such a great family--but I do and am so thankful for them all.  Time to get planning next year, and hopefully it won't involve any early morning bears (too scared to even write about that one)!