Happy Birthday Ainzlee!

It is SO had to believe that it's already been one whole year since my little monkey was born! This year has FLOWN by. She has grown SO much!

We had a little birthday party for her on Saturday. Unfortunately, none of our extended family was able to make it, but we were happy to have a few friends stop by to show their support.

The pretty birthday girl she only let me keep the flower in her hair long enough for ONE picture!


She really had fun opening her gifts. The paper was the best part!


I made this little duck for her:

I made her a dress too, but I don't have any pictures of that yet.

Here's the "cake" that I made. Not super fancy, but it was easy!

She had LOTS of fun eating the cake




We invited the missionaries to join us. They are always up for a free meal, and we enjoy having them around.
Drinking BEER
(don't worry! It's ROOT beer!)


Our good friends Pam and Bill Houghton came too


Gran and Papa sent her this pretty dress. She wore it to church today.


Robbie couldn't come to the party, but his mom dropped off this cute puppy for her. It's tail wags. It's really cute!


Me and my cute kiddos


Happy birthday little girl! We love you!

January 15, 2009

Life Sketch of John & Catherine Good(e) of Galion, Ohio

For anyone reading who may not know this about me, I really enjoy Family History. I love putting together the pieces of information like a big puzzle of someone's life.
I've been working on the Goode family for about 2 1/2 years now and I thought I should put everything that I had found about them together in one place.
These are my husband's great-great-great-grandparents.

Life Sketch of John & Catherine Good(e)
John was born in about 1827 in Ireland. He emigrated from Ireland to the United States some time before 1855. He could have been on the Ship Kingston that arrived in New York 18 sep 1849. (I’m not sure if that is him or not).
Catherine was born in about 1835. Most sources state that she was born in New York, but there is a small chance that she was born in Ireland as well. I am unsure of what her maiden name was as I have found it listed differently in different places. On one of her children’s death certificates it says “Haley”, another says “Fitzgerald”. On two of her children’s baptism records it says “Fitzpatrick”. This will need more research.
John and Catherine were married before 1856 and lived in Greenburgh, Manchester, New York. John was working as a gardener. They moved to Galion, Crawford, Ohio between 1860 and 1863. John worked for many years on the railroad.
In 1900, John was living with his daughter, Catherine, and her husband. He died 4 October, 1904 of “Old Age” in Galion, Ohio.
Catherine died 28 Aug 1892 in Galion, Ohio and was buried in Mt. Calvary Cemetery.
Children:

1. Elizabeth Good – born about 1856 in New York, died 12 Aug 1890 in Galion, Ohio; buried at Mt. Calvary Cemetery.
   • Burial record says “Lizzie Good” – probably never married
2. Thomas Good – born about 1858 in New York
3. John Good – born about 1860 in New York
4. Daniel George Goode – born 11 September 1863 in Galion, Ohio; died 25 Mar 1917 in Alliance, Stark, Ohio
   
   • Married Katherine Barbara Auer
   • Father of Blanche Beatrice Goode
5. William Good – born 10 January 1867 in Galion, Ohio; died 23 May 1886 in Galion, Ohio; buried in Mt. Calvary Cemetery.
6. Catherine Good – born 9 January 1869 in Galion, Ohio; died 21 January 1949 in Galion, Ohio; buried 24 January 1949 in Fairview Cemetery, Galion, Ohio.
• Married to Albert Moiser
• Never had children
7. Michael Good – born 1 November 1870 in Galion, Ohio; died 13 November 1930 in Alliance, Ohio
• Served in the US Navy
• Never Married
8. James Good – born about 1873 in Galion, Ohio; died 12 November 1908 in Galion, Ohio

Scoures:

1. Ship manifests – castlegarden.org
2. 1860 US Census – Greenburgh, Manchester, New York page 387
3. 1870 US Census – Galion, Crawford, Ohio, page 25
4. 1880 US Census – Galion, Crawford, Ohio, page 44
5. 1900 US Census – Galion Ward 4, District 15, Crawford, Ohio – sheet 12A
6. 1900 US Census – Alliance, Lexington, Stark, Ohio – Sheet 14A
7. Ohio, Diocese of Toledo, Catholic Parish Records 1796-2004 – Crawford, Galion, St Joseph, 1854 – 1873 Baptisms, First Communions
8. Ohio, Diocese of Toledo, Catholic Parish Records 1796-2004 – Crawford, Galion, St Joseph and St Patrick 1885-1954 Deaths
9. Ohio Deaths 1908-1953
10. U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938

Why I Blog

I think that every blogger has his/her own reasons for blogging. I thought that I should state - for the record - exactly why I am doing this.

Why I Blog:

1. I blog because I want to keep an account of my family's life. My children are growing up before my eyes, and I don't want to forget a moment of it
   However, it is not possible for me to blog about EVERY little thing that happens in my life, or the life of my children. I try to keep up, but I do get behind sometimes. Things may get left out.


2. I blog because I have lots of pictures of MY children that I want to have at least somewhat organized and displayed in some fashion. I've resigned myself to the fact that I may NEVER catch up on scrap booking, so this is one way to display family photos.
   I do NOT blog to display pictures of other people's children. If they want their kids displayed, they can put them on their own blog.


3. I blog because I enjoy sharing my family's news with our family and friends.
   I do NOT blog with any particular reader or groups of readers in mind.
   I do NOT blog to make anyone else happy (or sad, or angry, or whatever).


4. I blog because I LIKE it. I like to write about things that happen to me and how I feel about them. I like to get feedback about those things from people that happen to read it. It is healing to write about life's events - good and bad.
   I do NOT blog because I think my life is more interesting than anyone else's.


5. I blog because I like to share things I've learned about or things I'd like to buy (like fun Etsy stuff).
   I do NOT blog because I want to show off to anyone.


6. I blog because I see it as a tool to promote my business. I like to pretend that at least someone who reads it cares about the new things that I make and would like to know about them.
   Yes, I'm trying to run a business here!

The bottom line is, this is MY blog. I have my OWN reasons for using it. I'm not going to change it for anyone else. I'm going to post what I want to post. I'm not going to apologize for anything I have or have not posted here, or anything I may or may not post in the future. If you don't like what you see here - DON'T LOOK.

That is all.
~~Alayna

Playing Catchup - the end of 2009

The last few months have been something of a blur. I got a little bit overwhelmed with all the holiday excitement and an abundance of orders. Both of which are a very good thing, but blogging got put on the WAY back burner.
So, here's a little bit of catchup - what a way to start the new year!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my family in St. George



We took a trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express



My sweet kindergartner sang at school


We made some Christmas Cookies



I made us some matching Christmas pajamas


We had our traditional Christmas Eve - with the kids acting out the nativity scene



(video is pretty dark.... but you get the idea)


Christmas Morning fun






We took a LONG trip to Idaho to visit family



And then, my camera died a painful death, so no more pictures. I may have to go to *gasp* film for a while until I can get a replacement.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I hope to be a better blogger this year. We'll see if that happens.

The Winners!

I had a lot of fun making these personalized ZadyMinis for the winners of my little giveaway. Thank you very much for entering and letting me have a chance to play with my new machine. And to all the lucky kiddos who get these - I hope you love them!

I'm still offering FREE personalization on any Zadyball order through the end of November!

My new toy

I have recently purchased a new toy for myself. This is something that I've wanted to have for a VERY long time. I am feeling very blessed to be able to have this!

This is my brand new embroidery machine! This will make it possible for me to do things with my Zadyballs that I never would have been able to do without it! I've spent the last week or so figuring it all out and having lots of fun doing it!



One of the first projects that I did with it was for one of the shops that carry Zadyballs. They are having a special Christmas tree and asked each of the vendors to supply ornaments in their "style". So, here's what I did. The pictures aren't great, and I'm still learning the ins and outs of the machine, but I think they turned out pretty well.






Now, I'm converting most of my Zadyball designs over to the embroidery machine so that I can make them faster and better! I'm also offering free personalization on any Zadyball (except for clearance).

I would like to start getting some pictures of personalized Zadyballs so that I can have them to display. So, to get started, I'm going to give a FREE, personalized ZadyMini to a few winners. To enter, please post a comment here stating who you would like to give a ZadyMini too, and I will randomly select winners at 10PM on Saturday. (This would make a fantastic Christmas gift!)

Veterans Day

We had a surprisingly fun Veterans Day this year. Unfortunately, my husband, the veteran in our household had to work, but Zander had the day off school, so I wanted to do something fun with the kids. I found out that there was a big celebration going on at Veteran's park in Tolleson - just a few miles from us. We decided to check it out.
I was really glad that we went. The kids love playing at that park, and they had so many fun activities for the day. There was a little patriotic ceremony which included the national anthem, a saxaphone solo, a few speeches (Zander told me they were boring), an F-15 flyover, a 21 gun salute, and Taps.
Here is the color gaurd:


Then, they had free lunch (hamburgers and hot dogs, water and chips), a couple of bounce houses, a fire truck, kid's crafts, relay races, and music. It was really well organized, not very crowded, and lots of fun!