MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas! We had a fun Christmas!! It started out at 2:00 a.m. when Ellie woke up and wanted to open presents. We told her to go back to bed and then at 7:00 a.m. we got a phone call that woke us up to tell us to come over to my mom's house so I could talk to Jake.  The kids were all still asleep, so I went over and got to talk to him. It was so fun to hear his voice and hear him try to talk and think of words as he spoke. I guess the Spanish has really taken off!  Then, at about 7:45 a.m. Alan called my cell phone and said he couldn't hold the kids back any longer and that they were ready to see if Santa had brought anything fun!  I think our kids got too spoiled.  All Ethan wanted for Christmas was a Wii, but Alan and I didn't want him to have one in fear that he would become a Nintendo FREAK!! We let Santa know and on Christmas Eve we had a family party that Santa made an appearance to. He broke the news to Ethan that he couldn't have  a Wii, but that he had another fun present in mind for him.  He woke up Christmas morning just waiting to see what exciting surprise Santa had for him.  Santa pulled through once again and made 4 kids very happy!  We had a great morning, and then we traveled to Evanston to be with the Erickson family.  We had a wonderful time there too!! 

India Update

Well, today Alan is in Texas for a training. While he is there he had a meeting with the people over India. He called me at about 6:00 tonight and told me we ARE GOING! We'll be leaving mid-June. I guess we can have a couple of early birthday parties??? because both my girls started to worry about that. I'm a little nervous, but I guess all I really need is my family together. It will be interesting, and needless to say exciting. If anyone knows anything about Bangalore, I'd love to hear. (Except if you have to tell me about terrorist, then I don't really want to hear) :)

Facebook

So, some of my friends told me about facebook so curiousity got the best of me. I now am a member of facebook, and waste all my time searching it for people I know. I'm pretty lame I guess. I should be spending my time cleaning my house. (Sorry Alan) I can't believe how many people are on there.

Blog on the News

So...they had a big thing on the news about blogs. They were saying how people can target your children by the pictures you put on the web and in info that people put on their blogs. So...I have decided that I would try blocking mine from people I don't know. I'm going to block it in a week, so if you check my blog and want to be put on my list of people who can access it, leave me a comment and I will put you on my list.

Baby Pics

OK so that poor 4th child never gets her picture taken. I have many, many, many pictures of Ellie...many, many pictures of Maddie...many pictures of Ethan and we took a few of Annie at the hospital. She in now 4 weeks old so I decided I better pull out the camera or else when she gets older I'll have to tell her we had a house fire and lost her pictures in it or something.

She is such a GREAT baby!! I almost hate to say how great for fear that I might jinx myself. The only thing I can complain about (which isn't really a complaint) is that she is constantly messing her diaper. Everytime I change her we use about 3 diapers because the minute I put the clean one on, she poops.

Lagoon

While I've been home with the baby, Alan has taken advantage of our Season passes to Lagoon. He has taken the kids 2 times since the baby has been born. They love it, and they love the ROLLER COASTERS!! If you were to ask them what there favorite rides are, Ellie would tell you "The Spider", Maddie would tell you "The White Roller Coaster, or The Jet Star", and Ethan who hasn't been able to ride any of the roller coasters this summer because he is 1 inch too short, (until we figure out to let him wear Ellie's Healy shoes, and put a rice krispie treat inside them) would tell you "Wicked". What a bunch of Party Animals!!

Savannah Erickson

Wow! I can't believe she's already 3 weeks old. These past 3 weeks have gone by faster than the last week of my pregnancy! Savannah was born on Sept 29th at 2:30 p.m. weighing in at 7 lb 4 oz and 20.5 inches long. She is such a great baby. I think they come to earth knowing what number order they are in, and she knows she's #4. She is so patient with me as I try to help the other 3, and she doesn't scream too hard while she's being mauled by the others. I think Ethan is the most in love of all of them. He goes to preschool 4 days a week and when he comes home he doesn't leave her side. He always asks "Mom, do you think she needs another kiss?" and when I tell him I think she'd love another kiss, he bends over and smothers her with kisses. Then in his high pitched baby voice he asks her, "How many kisses does one girl need?" I've had to enforce the timer, letting each kid hold her for 5 minutes and then we have to lay her in her crib for at least 1/2 hour, or until she cries whichever comes first.

A light at the end of the tunnel!!

Yeah, I had a Dr. appt the other day and they set an induction date!! Yeah, at least now I know I will have a baby by September 29th. (Unless I get bumped by the hospital). That day after my appointment my cousin had her appt too. I got to tend her twins and it was so fun! They are the cutest little boys. Ethan loved having them over and even got a little jealous. I hope this little girl won't be too rude of an awakening for him.

August 14th E&Y Party

As I was going through my pictures on my camera to post the First Day of School Pictures, I found some others that I had taken while we were in Park City. Alan's work had a company family party and we were able to play on all the fun rides and things in Park City. Ethan loved the roller coaster and Maddie loved the trampoline. The line for the trampoline was about an hour long, and I think she went on it 3 times. Needless to say, that's about all she did there. They also had a face painter that painted all of the kids faces. I think when they first went to get their faces painted they would just get a little picture on their cheek, but by the time they were done, they were actually Spider man, and Cats.

I also found these pictures I took when I was tending Hunter and Wyatt while DJ was at Asthma Camp. They told me they were getting bored so I found them a job to do. Unfortunately this only entertained them for about 5 minutes.

P.S. Does anyone know how to rotate video so that they aren't jumping sideways?

First Day of School

The girls started their first day of school on Monday the 25th. They were so excited!! Ellie is now in the 3rd grade with Mrs. Juescke and Maddie has now entered the 1st grade where she gets to eat lunch and school and have 3 recesses! She has Mrs. Bowhuis and was so excited for school to start that she woke up at 6 a.m. and wanted to start walking over there. Poor Ethan is left as the lone soldier at home with me. I'm pretty boring! He has cried every morning when the girls leave and asks when his first day of school is. Luckily he starts next Tuesday going to Preschool. We have had a few fun moments together though while the girls have been gone. On Monday, he asked me to play a game with him so I told him to go downstairs and pick one out and I would play it with him when the dished were done. He soon came back and said "Guess what game I picked out, but don't guess Lincoln Logs." I guessed Hungry Hippos and he proudly said "Nope it's LINCOLN LOGS!!" About 10 minutes into playing Lincoln Logs our neighbor kids came over and asked him to play and he told them he couldn't because he was playing with his mom. Then he closed the door on them and they rang the door bell again and he impatiently told them "I told you I can't play right now, I'm playing with my MOM!!!" and then he slammed the door. I told him he had to be nice to them, but actually inside it made me feel like I'm a fun mom! He wanted to play with me instead of them! Yeah!

The Last Day of July!?!

I can't believe that this summer is flying by!! We only have 3 weeks left until school starts! I'm not sure whether I should jump for joy or be sad that I'm going to be left at home. Ellie is so excited to go school shopping and Maddie asks almost everyday when she gets to go back to school. (I guess I'm pretty boring) Ethan is just as excited, although Preschool isn't quite as frequent as "Big School". Not only does school start in a little over 3 weeks, that means our baby will be here soon too! WOW! Then that means that Halloween is here and Thanksgiving. Amy will be having her baby and then blink it's Christmas! OK OK I have to stop or it will be summer again before I turn around!

Funny Ethan

So Ethan says some pretty funny things and yesterday we were over at my mom's house and he found some big beetle things on her driveway. He was so excited! (A boy thing I guess) He sat there for at least a half an hour examining them. He ran over to Alan and made him look at them too. Then he was describing them to us. "And look at those huge Hannah Montana's (antenna)" OK Yes he is definitely a boy and Yes he definitely has 2 older sisters.

10 weeks left!!

I'm down to counting the weeks on my hands. Only 10 weeks left of this pregnancy. Unfortunately 10 weeks is still a LONG TIME!! The kids have to still go back to school. I sure can't wait for it to be over. My kids are so excited to see "the baby". Lately they love to have me lay down and put their hands on my tummy and feel it kick. Ethan one day asked where it's cheek was because he wanted to kiss it. They talk to her constantly, Ellie always says "Hello in there!" and Maddie and Ethan always tell her that they love her. I hope they love her just as much after she's born and crying. We went to Wal-mart the other day and Ellie found a blankie that the baby just "has to have!" and Ethan found some binkies. He was so funny because he was so particular over which one she would want. I hope he's right because I couldn't get out of the store without them. I think I would have had to buy the whole baby section if I hadn't made him get in the cart so we could leave.
With India still in limbo we haven't wanted to rearrange the house yet to accommodate this baby so for now we've just cleared out a closet for her clothes. I guess she'll just have to sleep in a cradle in my room for now. If India falls through though, we will move Ellie and Maddie downstairs and give their room to "baby".

Ellie's Baptism

Wow! What a busy past 2 weeks we've had. It started with Maddie's birthday on the 24th. We had her friends over and blew up our waterslide. That is an all day deal in it's self. After the party, the neighborhood kids came over to play on it while it was still up. Needless to say her birthday party didn't just go from 1-3 like it said on the invitation, it finally ended around 7:00 that night when we unplugged the slide.

Then, on the 27th we flew to LA for our anniversary to see wicked (see our other posts).

Then, on July 3rd Ellie had her 8th birthday party at the Lion House. What a fun, special birthday party! All the kids dressed up in their Sunday dresses. At the party, they learned about Brigham Young and toured the Lion House. They also got to eat ribbon sandwiches and Lemonade. We then pulled taffy like the pioneers and played a few pioneer games. At the end of the party, Ellie got to pick a porcelin doll from the shelf to keep.

On the 4th we cleaned our house and got ready for the 5th (Ellie's Baptism). Alan painted our deck and got the yard ready, while the kids and I cleaned the inside of our house. We also had some fun. We went to the movie Wall-e and went to the Holladay City firework show. Our fun neighbors across the street shuffled us all down there in their fun car "The Runt". They had it all decorated with flags and balloons etc.

On the 5th we had Ellie's baptism at 9:30 a.m. Thank you to all of you who traveled to our house to be with her on her special day! She said to me in the dressing room after she had been baptized, "Can you believe how many people are here!...And their all here for ME!!" What a special feeling! After her baptism we all came back to our house and once again blew up the waterslide.

All in all we've had a busy life this past month, but I wouldn't trade the memories for anything.

India

So anyone who has heard, Alan has put his name in with E&Y to move to India for a year and train the Indians in Accounting. We've been waiting to hear whether or not his name would be picked. We still aren't sure when we'd go, but it's looking more and more likely that we will. I'm thinking it's more of a question of when they will send us not if. We could leave as soon as January 2009, or it may not be until July 2009. We'll just have to keep waiting to see. Needless to say, I've been searching the internet to see anything I can find out about India. We'd be located in Bangalore, which is in the Southern tip. The most informing clip I've found so far is a link from You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVL_GcyT7dI I'm not sure if it has made me too excited or not.

I actually am really excited. I think it's going to be a great experience for our family. Our kids were less than thrilled when Alan announced that we might go. Ellie's reaction was to break down into tears and because she did, so did Maddie. Then Alan to try and ease there concerns tried to lookup some pictures on the internet of Bangalore. He found a picture of some kids riding on an elephant and all of the sudden Ellie is fine about moving there. (She is an animal LOVER!!) Then, he found a clip from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where they are all sitting around a table eating and now Ethan is convinced that we are going to have to eat Snake surprise, Big Beetles and Chilled Monkey Brains. I just hope they have Diet Coke :)

Our "WICKED" weekend

Alan and I went to LA this past weekend to see the musical "Wicked" We left our kids at home with Grandma and Grandpa. We had a blast! and I'm sure the kids did too. (Ethan told us to go back because he still wanted to sleep and Grandmas.) While we were there we stayed in The Renaissance Marriott in Hollywood. We didn't realize it when we booked it, but it was right in the middle of everything. If anyone is planning on going, I highly recommend staying there! We didn't get a car, just walked to everything! Kodak Theatre, Mann's Chinese Theatre, and Hollywood Blvd are all right outside the doors to this hotel!

The musical was wonderful! When we got home our kids wanted to know what it was about so Alan started telling it to them and today all they have wanted to do is watch "The Wizard of Oz"

Also while we were there we dicided to take a tour of the Celebrity Homes. We saw where the live and tried a little stocking, ha ha! Of course I forgot to pack our camera so we took some pictures on our phone. I'll have to upload them as soon as I can get them transferred from there.

Ah Haa

OK so I'm not that smart. You just have to click on the add image thingy. Ellie is so excited that she is going to be getting baptized. Yes, I can't believe she is going to be 8 next week!! We went and got her baptism pictures taken the other day and she acted so old. It was so fun to shop with her! She definately had an opinion on the dress that she liked and which ones she didn't. Of course she got my taste, and the one that she loved the best was the most expensive, but you only get baptized once. (Hopefully)

Not sure how to put pics on

Well I tried for awhile and I can't figure out how to put pics on. I'll have to try again later.

Following the Crowd

OK OK so I follow the crowd!! I'm going to try this out and see how it works. I'm not really sure what I'm doing so...here goes a try. I'm just going to put a few pics on for now and I'll have to come back and update later.