Delightful December

Season’s Greetings from the bloggiest family of the year!

We’ve loved all things festive this month—the sleighs, the lights, the pinecones and holly berries (popcorn for you, apples for me?),

the hats…

We also enjoyed visiting Dear Lizzie in Alpine, the most delightful place, and with a 2 for 1 hot cocoa coupon, how could we go wrong…

We appreciated being visited by jolly ol’ St.Nicholas…

and then getting to have the annual Gramma Sharlene and Grampa Randy Christmas breakfast with all the Goffs, Thornes, and a few bonus Madsens (Gramma Jan, Grampa Paul, and Uncle Jens)…

We’ve loved having so many cousins (and grandparents) in town this Christmas…

and appreciated Uncle Aaron sitting for the (in his words)“hang in there, little bro” shot…

Who knows, perhaps I will post more than 3 times in 2012? Hmm, good news for me—I may actually be able reach that bar…

And now Cael is tired.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

the end.

lifelong learning…

Cael:  “Hey Mom, want me to teach you how to hug a cat?”

  (**that may qualify as my best-ever greeting upon returning home from an intense evening of fabric-cutting, and good news for you—I do believe this generous offer actually extends to all interested parties…)

attempting lemonade…

 

So waaay back last month, we were enjoying every minute of our splish-splashing 14 ft. round pool on the patio in the backyard.  Cooling off, swimming, floating, whirl-pooling--good, good  great, great times!!

Then one day, as I was minutes away from leaving to join my teenage girlies at Girls Camp, Kylie and I heard a giant whooshing water sound.  Horrifically, curiously, and randomly, the floor of the pool gave way and tore apart at the point nearest the window well…

   This is what a basement looks like after a wall of water comes crashing through the window and tidal-waving everything in its wake.  The gravel is from the window well, the shattered glass is from the bent, broken, and thrown across the room double-paned window.  The broken glass slashed the curtains.  All the dvd’s on the shelf were filled with water and mud.  As we shoveled up the pieces of glass, the shovels would fill with water.  The family room , the bedrooms, and storage room were all water-logged.  The pictures don’t quite do it complete justice…

This glass is on the other side of the family room—so amazing how much damage can happen in such a miniscule amount of time…

 Fortunately, these boys were not downstairs at the time, which they so easily could have been.  Nobody was hurt; we’ve cleared out a lot of clutter that we should have cleared out years ago, and new carpet pad plus a new window later (window guy: “I’ve never seen a window frame bend like this!”), we are trying to be back and better than ever, minus one pool.  We have been so humbled by the quick action, hard work, and kindness of our gracious and phenomenal neighbors with shovels, shop-vacs, and helping hands…

On on a cheerier note, if this isn’t the funnest house ever, I don’t know what is—Morgan was slightly enthusiastic to take the tour of the incredibly delightful  UP house…

 The details were absolutely amazing…

 I do love the kitchen appliances very, very much…

 And after months and months (and months)of practice, football games have finally begun and my absolute favorite Grizzly is #70 (pictured with my very favorite dad of a Grizzly)…

School started for the Jr. High set…

and for the elementary set, as well (and no, Cael did not actually wear his sweet soccer uniform on the first day, he just wanted to)…

And what  could be finer than having the whole fam there to cheer on the mighty Grizzlies to victory over Hillcrest?  For Cael it would be cheering while wearing binoculars—good stuff…

summer synopsis, part 1

 One of my all-time favorite things ever EVER was the precious family of birds that nested in the plum tree in our backyard!!  We had no idea how fantastically fascinating it would be to watch the 4 baby birds grow and learn and sadly (for us), fly away.  It was National Geographic in our very own yard-awesome…

This pic is completely dedicated to my Gramma Bev, who always dreamed of having the whole Link clan attend the Manti Pageant.  While the whole clan did not make it,  3 youth-conference attending Goff’s did and it was amazing…

Kendell + sparkler= happy star-spangled combo…

 The fabulous KThoms came to town, so what could be better than a tour of the Conference Center?  We know how to do it up right in the SLC…

 Good news—resourceful Paul saved the day and got the circle pool back into commission!!  New filter and more patches made for hours of crazy, splashy cousin fun with even more super cousins…

Here’s a question: do fedora hats put you in a bad mood?  Little Goff family fun fact—apparently fedoras completely rub my bro-in-law Mike the wrong way (hmm), but Morgan and Aunt Tera were determined to get him to turn that frown upside-down…

Ever since Quilt Market in May, I have been wait, wait, waiting for the lovely new Joel Dewberry fabric line, Heirloom, to come to the shop and… it did!!  The orange blockflower blossom here is my absolute fave, and using it to make an Amy Butler Gumdrop pillow put a smile on Miss Kylie’s face and on Kylie’s mom’s face…

And HOO-RAY—after completing his project over a year ago, Curtis the Eagle Scout had his Court of Honor on Sunday.  And in the words of Elastigirl, “now, it’s official!”

I…am…speed…

So waaayyy back last year, I had some friends that thought it would be a fantastic idea to put a team together to run a ginormous 191-mile race in June.  Doesn’t that sound like fun??  (hmmm…)  I agreed to be an alternate, you know, in the remote chance that some life-ish thing came up for one of the runners.  And guess what??  In the year that happened in between the time that the race was signed up for and the time that the race would actually occur, one of the team members discovered the happy news that she was in the family way and then went on to have the baby before the race even started!  Look how excited I am to be the alternate!?

Sleeping bag-check; pillow-check; strawberry Greek yogurt, trail mix, and protein bars-check; extra plump and cushy blue pad to sleep on-questionable …

Just look at the fire exhibited by team 781!!  I know exactly what you’re thinking—they look like they’d be suuuper fast…

As a special Wasatch Back bonus, a grown man in a diaper over his clothing would spray paint a Ragnar symbol on the body area of your choosing-for free!!  (If you were wondering, spray paint doesn’t exactly “wash off easily” as soon as the running is done and you go back to regular places like work, or church…)

I am smiling because it was so beautiful outside and I am so thankful that running up to Snow Basin Ski Resort was not one of my legs!  Now running downhill 7 miles through the picturesque hamlet of Henefer, Utah, at 1:30 in the morning—that was my leg, and my favorite leg, for real!  And encountering what I thought at first to be a large rock, but upon closer view with help from my headlamp, turned out to be a goat, was priceless!  He didn’t bother me, I didn’t bother him…

  The mid-June view from the window on Day 2-brrr…

I have never been so thrilled to run and more importantly, to stop running!!  17 miles over the course of a day and a half is a lot of running for me.  But then when you get the results that say that your rag-tag team of all-stars placed 18th out of 760 teams in the open co-ed division, wow!!  What can I say?  I mean, I really thought we did good, like the kind of good where everyone tried really hard, we all cheered each other on, no one completely lost it, and there was just a little bit of throwing up-good.  But the computer said we did crazy good --like amazing  superstar turbo athletic speed good!!  Could it really be true?  All of the members of our team didn’t even know each other before we started and yet we were still able to work together so seamlessly—incredible!!   Isn’t everything on the internet true??

Alas, there is no possible way that our team finished in 26 hours and 7 minutes, even though the computer said we did.  Somehow, there was a glitch, a super special computer glitch that makes our team look supreme, especially amazing for a team that was basically trying to finish somewhere above 759th place—not too shabby!

The down side-I don’t think that we can pull off a repeat 18th place speed performance when we do it again next June, but I do think we can top 759th…

**And little life tip, make sure to wear a headlamp when making a quick visit to the honey bucket at midnight…

things I love this week…

 I had been a little nervous to attempt this “jack and jill lunch bag” (fantastic pattern by Heather Bailey), only because I would be using laminated fabrics for both the exterior and the lining (fabulous exterior fabric by my new and dear friend, Amy Butler; interior houndstooth fabric is a Freestyle design) .  I love laminated fabric, but I know it can be a little dicey to work with.  Good news—not bad at all and now I know I definitely need more lamination in my life…

Can my baby really be nearly done with kindergarten??  His teacher, Miss Warner, who is absolutely darling and truly wonderful, put on a delightful class program and art gallery (Cael the artist was quick to point out that the tree is actually out of the way of the tiger—ahhh)…

 I am loving the new design/pattern book “Girl’s World” by the most gracious and kind Jennifer Paganelli—a yellow dress graces the cover, and a yellow dress is what Kylie thought would be the look for her…

 The award for favorite  new weekend dessert would have to go to “Creamy Lemon Bars” compliments of Our Best Bites—if you like lemon and you love bars, these will make all your dreams come true…

And where would I be without my cracker-jack troupe of good sports that braved the late-May downpour to visit the resting places of those we love… 

 And because no good deed goes unpunished, Kendell, Cael, and Paul all got to take a sweet ride on a sweet rig.  **Bonus Kendell fun fact:  “I don’t like texting in the rain!” Hmm…

The 2nd week of May 2011 in pictures…

The week started off super with the best Mother’s Day gift ever—my favorite mom AND my favorite sister came to town and posed in our garage!!  Perhaps sepia tones would make the recycle bin look a little classier…

Kylie and Cael got to go on a little surprise getaway with their fun dad…

Kari, Mom, and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at Dear Lizzie…  I finished up the front of the Mongo Flower Market Bag…

and the back of it, as well.  I am happy with the gathered velvet pockets, and I do think that may be what the world needs now—more gathered velvet pockets…

And as if the pockets weren’t enough, I got to spend some quality time with my new fabulous friend, Amy Butler!  Yep, Jan, Kari, Amy, and me just hanging out…

I didn’t get to chat as much with the delightful Heather Bailey, but we did get to pose for this very natural-looking shot…

And then I got to do something I’ve always (well, for several years anyway) wanted to do—go to International Quilt Market!!  It was in Salt Lake City this year and I love, love, loved it!!  Lunch was muy bueno, the lunching ladies were muy bueno, and getting a glimpse of fabulous new fabric in the amazing booths—priceless.