Tricks and Treats and Everything Sweet

Bri and Josh threw Bailey's second birthday party at the barn on Sunday. It was a costume party so we will not be having a Halloween Party tonight...but I do have pictures of the grands (and girls) to share!

Weston aka Lloyd from Ninjago

Maddux aka Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy

Davin aka Special Ops Leader

Brooke (also the birthday girl on Sunday) aka Vampira

Ellie aka Sweet Witch (she ditched the hat within two seconds of arrival)

Delayne aka Butterfly Princess

Brianne, Kelli and Megan aka Little Red Riding Hood, a Sanderson Sister and Wednesday Addams

Dayton aka Batman

Bailey (the birthday girl) aka Anna

Happy Trick or Treating tonight!

Hope your bag is filled with all of your favorites!

Christmas In July: Goode Family Style

Lots and lots of July birthdays...and we have four more birthdays in the first half of August.

We had a great combo birthday party at Kelli and Matt's week before last.  Each person chose their own dessert.

Matt: Carrot Cake

Bri: Chocolate Pie

Davin: Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Icing

Deborah: Banana Pudding

Derrick: Striped Delight

I decided to just have a bite of all theirs!

Jim teased the other day that we should just have one big party for EVERYONE in July (since half of us are already celebrating in the six weeks from July 1 - August 13.)  Then wait for Christmas to celebrate again. 

Sounds good to me!

What I Did In October

Grandmas Gone Wild 2016

I visited South Padre Island for five days and four nights of making memories with two of my longest and dearest friends.  Not our usual trip but one of us had never visited South Padre before, so it counts!

View from our balcony

At the pool

This is where we spent most of our time!

The Sapphire from the pool

The best place for a morning cuppa is looking out over the water.

CCA Awards

Attended the CCA Awards where one of Jim's fishing buddies won a new boat and trailer for the largest recorded Speckled Trout during the 2016 STAR Tournament.

CCA = Coastal Conservation Association; STAR Tournament =State of Texas Angler's Rodeo

Thad with his plaque.  The boat and trailer were in the parking lot.

Sargent Weekend

Pappaw and Sweet Bailey Rae

Blanket time in the front yard with Bailey and Carter (and Jennifer, too)

This should just say:

"My Happy Place"

Added a little décor to the porch to make it ours.

"The Strategy of Pairing" (as Gretchen Rubin would say)

Took care of my annual check-up and rewarded myself with dinner and a movie (Storks) with the Ham & Rodgers families.  I did not take a single picture, but we had a blast hanging out at the arcade and then we had the WHOLE THEATRE to ourselves.  We could pick out seats and run around during the movie without bothering a soul.  A good thing since this was Dayton's first trip to a movie theater. 

Abundance: Frisco

This year was Conference Year for our ladies retreat and we decided on a trip to Lifeway's Abundance with speakers like: Angela Thomas-Pharr, Curtis Jones, Lisa Harper, and Lysa Terkeurst.  It is a rather new addition to their conferences and was given a thumbs up by all ten of us!  There was a long road trip, shared cheesecake, honest conversations and ice cream surprises to mix with all the laughter.

Fellowship at Field Store Ladies Retreat 2016

My girl and I

Loved our t-shirts this year!

Thanks for the great design, Peyton!

Teaching a much younger woman (and friend) the glories of Snapchat!

I felt so hip!

Vintage Market

Met up with Robin and Stacy for a fun day at the Market. This was my first visit to the one at the Waller County Fairgrounds.  I feel like Goldilocks in that it wasn't too big or too small, it was just right!  Got some great finds but didn't take pics our adventure. We shopped and shopped, then we drove in to Chappell Hill for lunch at Bevers Kitchen. Yum!

My Vintage Market find of the day:

A box springs tree for the seasons

Brooke's 9th Birthday Brunch: Unicorns

A donut cake for our 9 year old granddaughter

Bailey's 1st Birthday Party: Boho

Bailey and her smash cake

Halloween After Party

They all gathered to go trick or treating about 20 minutes from the house.  Afterwards they came out for dinner, a hay ride through the woods, Halloween Bingo, Pumpkin decorating and Hocus Pocus.

From the back: Kelli (Scarecrow), Bri and Bailey (Twin Pin Up Girls), Meagan (Sugar Skull), Dayton (Half Beard Pirate)

Middle Row: Maddux (Storm Trooper), Brooke (Cleopatra), Davin (Storm Trooper)

Front Row: Ellie (Spider Girl), Delayne (Mermaid) and Weston (Captain America)

AND Lots of Razorback Football: For Better or Worse!

Alcorn State - W

Alabama - L

Ole Miss - W

Auburn - L --- with her finger and her thumb in the shape of an L on her forehead!

The older grands built a fort during one of our football gatherings...complete with fire pit!

Happy Independence Day, Y'all!

Photo taken at Santa's Wonderland
December 2015

35 Years and We Are Still Hanging On (To Each Other)

May 30, 1981: Our first day as husband and wife.

The years have brought us joy and tears, happiness and loss, bright days and dark nights.  But by the grace of God, through it all we have had one another!

May 21, 2016: He still rocks my world!

"May the only thing that grows old in our marriage be the two of us!"

15 years to Golden!  Say what???????

Throwback Thursday #5

This week's Throwback goes all the way back to the spring of 2015.  We Goode's love our holidays and one of my favorites is:

Easter 2015

at The Goode Life

 

Our Little Piggies!  Kelli, Ellie, Maddux, Brooke, Matt and Weston

Aren't they just GRAND?!?!
Front row: Ellie, Weston, & Delayne
Back Row: Maddux, Brooke, Dayton & Davin

Our Royal Family (because Poppy nicknamed Meagan 'The Princess' )
Derrick, Delayne, Davin, Meagan & Dayton 

Our A Team:
Josh & Bri

The Goody-Goode's:
Jim, Fonda and Will
Look at all that hair!!!!

 

We had such a wonderful day filled with food, laughter, egg hunts and candy -- lots of candy!  It was a beautiful spring afternoon and though we missed Brian -- it was a blessing to have most of the family together for a (semi) quiet day at the Goode Life.

Throwback Thursday #1

Because there have been so few posts on the blog in the past year, I thought it might be fun to look back on Thursdays to see what has transpired in that time.  Today's Throwback Thursday will be:

Grandchildren Brag Day

Christmas Edition

 



Davin (8), Santa, Dayton(18 months), Meagan and Delayne (3)



Weston (2), Brooke (8), Maddux (6), and Ellie (3)

Bailey (2 months) and Santa

 

If you received a Christmas card from Jim and I you have already seen these.  But I like to keep a record of these things here on the blog as well.  Kelli and family were not able to join us for our annual pictures with Santa at Santa's Texas Wonderland this year.  She did a great job of snapping an impromptu picture of the kids in front of their Christmas tree one night before bed and posted it to Instagram.  I asked her to forward it to me so that I could use in on our card and she readily agreed. 

 

One quick story about the pictures of the rest of the grands.  The whole time we stood in line for pictures (which was a long, long time -- just saying) Delayne could not stop talking about meeting Santa and getting a picture with him.  Imagine our surprise when, upon entering the room with Santa and Mrs. Claus, she backed herself into the nearest corner so tightly that we had to pry her out and Meagan had to hold her to get her as close as you see in that photo.  Then Bailey had her time with Santa and as we turned to leave, we had to nearly drag Delayne out because she was in such deep conversation with Mrs. Claus.  In hindsight, we should have let Bailey go first so that Delayne could see that it wasn't as scary as she believed it to be.

 

There's always next Christmas!

Girl Time

I know it has been a while.  Seven months, actually.  Maybe we will talk about that in the future. 

For now, I am blowing the dust off of my keyboard long enough to share this bit of preciousness with y'all.  This photo was taken on the morning that we were leaving Hot Springs to head back to Texas after a wonderful New Year's holiday with the Goodes.

Ellie, Delayne and Tossie helping Nonna/Aunt Fonda get ready for the day.

You are welcome!!!

Whatever Happened To Thanksgiving?

This has been on my mind for weeks and I just can't keep it to myself any longer.

It all began when I went shopping the third week of October for our annual "Boomaster" trophy to be given to the winner of our employee pumpkin decorating contest.  I walked into Kirklands to find not only all of the Halloween merchandise marked down to clearance prices but also all of the Thanksgiving.  And when I say 'all of' I mean a small shelving unit of Halloween and an even smaller display table with maybe a dozen Thanksgiving items on it.  But, hey, it was just Kirklands, right?

A week later, I began shopping for a 'Little Pumpkins' diaper shower that our women's ministry is hosting for our local pregnancy center this Saturday.  Pumpkins should be easy to find at the end of October and beginning of November, right?

Wrong!

Walmart's Thanksgiving section is anemic...if you can find it.  A few clearance tablecloths and kitchen towels stood at one end of an aisle.  An assortment of placemats and fall candles stood at the other.  Not a dish or a fake pumpkin to be seen!

Target?  Nope!

Michael's netted me a small bag with one fake pumpkin and four strings of felt pumpkin garlands.

Hobby Lobby is probably the best place for Thanksgiving items...but even that selection tends to be a little sparse outside of dishware and garlands.

Even finding fall candy for the candy buffet has been a challenge.  Candy Corn, which was everywhere before Halloween has disappeared.  And if you think anyone actually carries all those cute bags of M&M's in fall colors...you're delirious.  I found two!  TWO!  But if you want the green and red ones for Christmas...I can hook you up!!!

Oh...and HEB was out of turkeys THREE AND A HALF WEEKS before Thanksgiving!

Maybe it's been this way for awhile...the disappearing of Thanksgiving, I mean.  I haven't noticed.

We normally spend Thanksgiving on the deer lease with my Dad's side of the family and I am never responsible for much more than a covered dish.  But this year, we are spending Thanksgiving at home.  Dear friends are traveling across the country to see us before they move to the Philippines where they are retiring.  And last year, with most of our family back here in Houston, I longed to be home with them.

And so it is that I find myself on the great Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt.  I'm pretty sure I will eventually find that turkey...but it sure makes me sad to realize that our whole culture has nearly eliminated a national holiday.  One that's very meaning is to gather with family and simply say 'Thank You, Lord' for our many blessings.

Whatever happened to Thanksgiving?

A Few More Easter Pics

Proof positive that William was at our Easter gathering!

Davin (6 1/2) with Parker showing off the lizard he caught in the backyard.

Brooke (6 1/2) found the most eggs.  That basket was overflowing.

Maddux (5) --  it is so hard to get a picture of this boy looking at you.

Elliot (1 1/2) dragging her princess basket behind her.
I just love this sweet smiling face!

Delayne (1 1/2) -- Miss Attitude looks like she's posing for some Baby Gap ad or something.  It was our first time seeing her in pigtails.

Weston (6 months) and Pappaw -- I love that look on his face.
 Like him and Pappaw are intently deciding on how to do something!

Now, is it just me or aren't they all just 'GRAND'???

Blessed Easter

Our family gathered last Saturday to celebrate our Risen Savior with a big meal and an egg hunt.  And honestly, I took not one photograph...but Brianne did.

So, I'm cheating and taking the photos from her Facebook page.

Derrick, Meagan, Davin and Delayne

Matt, Kelli, Maddux, Brooke, Weston and Elliot

Josh and Brianne

Brian and Deborah

 Not sure why there are no photos of Will...but I promise, he was there!

Danielle, Brady and Parker
Our special guests

Jim and I with the children before the egg hunt

We enjoyed a large Easter dinner followed by the Adult Easter Egg Hunt due to conflicting nap schedules.  Finally, around 4 o'clock we were able to get everyone up and alert at the same time for the Kids Easter Egg Hunt.  Later in the evening we spent a couple of hours playing a nine person game of Liverpool Rummy.  Yeah, that was an exercise in patience!  

I'll post a few more photos tomorrow.  

Hope y'all had a Happy and Blessed Easter!