Merry Christmas from my little elves!

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It's a wonderful life

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Letters from Isabel

Jason and I went out to dinner last night. When we got home we found a letter and a painting on the table for both of us from Isabel. They were so sweet I thought I'd share:

Mom,
Thank you for all of the food you buy for us. Thank you for being such a good Mom. Thank you for being there for me. I love you so much. I act like a brat sometimes. But I really love you so much. I don't ever want you to leave me. I love you!
Isabel Erickson

Dad,
Thank you for letting me ride horses. Why did you sell Izzy? You sometimes be mean, it is part of your job I guess. Sometimes you be very nice, Bennett never be's nice like you. I love you. I hope you can be my Dad forever.
Love, Isabel Erickson

It was a fun treat to find these letter from Isabel. Maybe I need to work on her insecurities a little. Let her know that Jason and I will never leave her! Goodness I had no idea she was so worried about that.

Lillia's first hair cut

Lillia had her hair cut on Friday. She did so well! I was pleasantly surprised. She just sat there with her chin down holding very still. It only took Michelle (my hair dresser) about five minutes to get it all cut and looking so cute! I guess it helps that I blow dry her hair with the round brush about every other day! She is use to this kind of treatment. She has a cute little A-line cut that shapes her face and hopefully will help her hair be fuller as it grows in. What a doll!

My Big Problem, a story by Bennett Erickson

Once I had a big problem on my hands. And yes, I know you want to find out what the problem is but you will have to wait and see.
I was buying a lot of stuff and it was 1934. I was very, very poor and I had spent all of my money. Once I found out I said “Ooooooooooooooohhh that’s great!” I went to my room and sat on my bed and I thought and thought and thought until I knew what I was going to do. “Aha!” I yelled as I ran out the door and to the library.
I had a great idea, and I just need a little help getting started. I looked up robots. “Ro-songs…..,ro-books….,row, row, row your boat…., ro-bots….., that’s weird row, row, row your boat, I like that song, but back to business. Robots, where is it, aha, here it is.” “How to make Robots,” I said.
Two days later, and five boxes of band aids, making robots is hard on your hands! I was done with five human helping robots, and the sixth one was being tested. “It’s alive!!! It’s alive!!! Or we are having an earthquake….. No, no, no, he is alive!”
The next day I went to the State Fair to sell them. I sold them for $200.00 each. I know, I know $200.00 each isn’t very much for human helping robots, but remember this is 1934. That was a lot of money back then. It is like $1000.00 today.
“Somebody is coming to buy one, or complain about one. Hello Miss, would you be interested in any human helping robots?” I said.
“Yes, I would,” she whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” I asked.
“My husband is right there,” she pointed to her left. “The robot is a gift for his birthday.”She pays for the robot and leaves.
“One down, five to go.” I said. After I sold all 6 of the robots I had $1200.00 and I started to head home.
Once I arrived home I had another problem, it wasn’t that I was so tired from walking home because I didn’t have a car, but it was that the bank was foreclosing on my house!
I paid the bank $200.00, but the bank said that the “Great Depression” had started. Then I fainted.
THE END

Arrow of Light

Bennett is passing all of his milestones to becoming a young man. Last night was another one, his Arrow of Light. For those of you who don't know, the Arrow of Light is the highest honor a cub scout can earn. Bennett has been working on it for almost a year now and has put a lot of work into it. I am really proud of him and all that he has accomplished.

Big Truck?

WARNING: The following video has been rated R due to very strong language. Anyone under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian to view. :) You have been warned.

Seriously what are they teaching this poor kid!! The worst part, was the rest of the day, Robyn and I were following him around asking, "Hey Aidan, What do you have in your garage?" I know we're terrible!! I'm just trying to get Charlie back for doing that to Bennett when he was that age. Okay, so that's not entirely true. It was just so dang funny I couldn't help myself!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Bozeman with my family this year. It was a full house with only one of my siblings missing, Mac and his beautiful wife Kelly. (we missed you two!!) Mac works in retail and there was no way he could get off black Friday! ( I am so glad Jason doesn't do that anymore!) While most of us were gone to Charlie and Candi's to watch the game Robyn stayed behind with the kids to make the turkey and feather decorations so we could all think about things we were grateful for this year. Each one of us had a feather with our name on it across our plate and we were to write something we were thankful for and then put it on the turkey the kids made. Here are a few things that we are Thankful for.

Family

Kids, Candi just found out she is going to have her third baby this summer!! That is # 12 for Grandma and Grandpa!

Health, Mom just finished up with her chemo treatments in October. Hopefully that will be the end to the cancer nightmare!

I have also been migraine free for almost a year now! Before that I was having two-three a week so I am very thankful to have them under control.


My Brother Liberty, to have him living close to me. To have him know my kids and get to share my life with him has been so much fun for me. Seriously, look at how much Lillia loves him!


Jason. A husband and a father who loves and takes cares of us. Who puts us first and who would do anything to make sure we were safe and taken care of.


We really have been blessed this year and have so much to be thankful for. These were just a few that I had pictures to go along with from the day. Other things that people put on their feathers were, my dog, scriptures, the atonement, my toys, fast feet, school, books, vampires (I swear it wasn't me!) west coast offense (back to the bad game, or good depending on who you were cheering for) the priesthood, etc. It really was a wonderful day and so much wonderful food! Happy Thanksgiving!

Traitor (I admit it, I am)

So I guess I am now officially a traitor. You see I grew up in Seattle rooting for the Seattle Seahawks, but I married a Dallas Cowboys fan. Over the years I have slowly become a Cowboys fan, but have always still rooted for the Seahawks when they played the Cowboys. Now that my son is old enough to understand and love football it has been harder for me to stick to my guns about the Seahawks. You see, he is also a Cowboys fan and week after week watching the games with my two guys, well their enthusiasm is infectious. On Thanksgiving the Cowboys played the Seahawks. I was torn! Not only was I going to be watching the game with my two guys, but with most of my brothers as well! (all of which are die hard Seahawk fans) I knew this would be the test to see which team I was more a fan of. I did find myself cheering for the Cowboys from the very first play of the game. Although I don't think anyone would blame me since the Seahawks didn't even show up to play. It was a sad, sad day for Seattle. Bennett had bet Liberty and My Dad on the outcome of the game and now they both owe him a milkshake. I have never seen Bennett talk so much smack. It was really funny! I was a little worried about the game getting a little heated with both teams fans being in close proximity to each other (anyone who knows my brothers knows their tempers well!) but like I said earlier, it wasn't much of a game so I didn't have to worry.

Midnight Movie Madness!

As you all know I am a huge fan of the Twilight series and have been anxiously awaiting the movie to come out as many, many other women alike. I planned a fun girls night out for dinner and the midnight premiere of the movie. We had a lot of fun just getting out, away from the kids and the house and yes, even you men. (sorry honey, you know I love ya) What I had not planned on was how rude and catty, overly tired and romantically starved women can get over seats when waiting to see "their Edward". Not all of us were like this this, in fact it was a very small handful out of thousands that were there, but it was very funny to watch these women fight over seats. At least it was funny to me because I wasn't one of the ones getting yelled at. It really amazed me how emotional people were getting. After all of that, standing in line (the line went around the theater, but luckily ours was the first to be seated so we didn't have to wait long. I felt bad for everyone else that had to stand outside wrapped up in their blankets. It was really cold that night!), fighting for seats, waiting in our seats for hours, the movie starting late because the projector was having problems, the movie wasn't that great. It was okay, I was just disappointed because it was done so cheaply. After all the hype, I was expecting an epic movie. I'm not saying the movie was horrible, and you shouldn't go see it. It was a good movie, it just wasn't as good as the books. So if you go see it, just lower your expectations. I didn't get home until three thirty in the morning and the crazy thing was I could not go to sleep! I was still so wound up. So when the alarm went off at seven to get the kids up for school I wasn't to happy. It was all worth it though and the truth is I would do it again. I had such a great time. Thanks Ladies. I'm looking forward to seeing it again this week with my Mom and My Sister Candi while I'm in Bozeman for Thanksgiving.

This was taken after the movie. 2:30 Can you tell how sleepy we are?!! This is only half of us I'm not sure what happened to the rest of them.

Holy Crap!

Last night (yes, Lillia takes an early evening nap) I went into Lillia's room to get her up from a nap. The moment I entered the room I knew what had happened. The smell was the first give away. It was bad, no it was worse than bad. It was paint peeling off the walls bad, but that was not the worse part. What I saw, that was even worse. There in the middle of it all, and covered in in all, is my sweet little baby girl. Who knew something so sweet and small could make something so nasty and big! Lillia had woken up from her nap and decided it was time for a diaper change, which it was apparently, because the diaper was full. It looked as if (I can't be sure of exactly what went down in that room) she had begun to play with her leftovers when she decided it was time to deliver more leftovers. So she walked to the corner of her crib, not before walking through the other mess and leaving footprints the whole way, and left a pile there and then walked to the opposite corner and left another pile there. After she was good and finished she began to make "mud pies" is the best way I can describe it, and she made mud pies everywhere!! On the blankets, on the bars, on the sheets, on the walls, on her clothes, in her hair and I do believe she was even taste testing her lovely pies as well. OH MY GOODNESS!!! It was disgusting!!! I had not planned on spending my evening sanitizing the crib, but I guess that's what happens when you have children. Things don't always go according to plan.
Jason is out of town this week and has the laptop so you are in luck. I cannot post pictures on this old dinosaur of a computer. So your stomach is safe, at least this time! That is also why I have been slacking on my blog the last two weeks. It's not as much fun to blog without pictures.

Tis the Season

We are getting to that time of year again, you know what I'm talking about, the hustle and bustle of Christmas. I know it's only the first of November, but sometimes we have to think ahead! I know lots of you like to help out this time of year, donating to local food banks or donating gifts to under privileged kids. Well if you are looking for a project this year, my sis-in-law Kelly has the perfect opportunity for you. She is collecting items for the kids in the orphanage in Africa where she spent a month this year. The things the kids need are so basic and inexpensive, to help would be of little or no cost to you, but would mean the world to these beautiful children. She is collecting rain jackets, flip flops and back packs. Now your kids might think these things would be very boring to get for Christmas, but the kids at the Ryvanz-Mia Orphanage have little to nothing and these items would be such a blessing for them. Please take the time to check out her blog page http://kpandochildrensfund.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Question of the Day

What do you get when you have a dancing skeleton:

A cackling witch:

A trigger happy star wars clone trooper:

A tough army man:

And a black widow/black cat?:

(black widow for Halloween party)

(a black cat for trick or treating)

Answer: An Erickson Family Halloween!!

Here's hoping you all have a spooktacular Halloween!!

Boo at the Zoo

Last night we went to boo at the zoo. It's a fun thing that the Idaho falls zoo puts on every year. Local businesses set up booths around the zoo and kids come dressed in their costumes and trick or treat at the booths while getting to see the animals. The zoo is decorated with lights and jack-o-lanterns everywhere. This year Yellow Book had a booth and Jason was working at it last night, so we all went. The kids had a ball, and the weather was actually nice! (doesn't happen very often on Halloween here.) They had a costume contest and Miss Isabel won first prize for the 5-10 age group! YEAH!! Uncle Liberty was one of the judges, but he swears he didn't sway the other judges!

I thought this was pretty funny. The zoo's graveyard:

Will's Halloween carnival

My little skeleton:

Party time:

Will had his preschool Halloween carnival tonight. He was so excited and all day he kept telling me about this birthday party at school tonight. I had to tell him over and over "Will, it's not a birthday party, it's a Halloween party" then he would reply,"Oh yeah, that's what I meant." He had so much fun, they had games and prizes and all kinds of goodies. It was a very fun party and now he can hardly wait for tomorrows! We have a different party or trick or treating thing every night this week. I decided I didn't want to dress up that many times, so tonight I went as Will's Mom. I'd say I did a pretty good job pulling that one off!

More cute treats

I baked most of the day today. I'm not complaining, I love to bake, and to make fun things like this, well that's at the top of my list for a fun day! (Wow, that sounds pathetic!) I started with the skeleton cookies (I posted them earlier) then I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, (my favorite this time of year) and then I made these cup cake pops. I am so happy they turned out so well. I wish I had gotten a better picture of them, (my camera sucks) but you get the idea.

Woo Hoo!!

I filled up my gas tank today and it was under fifty dollars! What a nice shocker that was! I was so surprised I had to take a picture. Hopefully it will keep going down.

Dancing skeletons

In honor of Will's favorite Halloween song, I made these fun skeleton cookies today. I came up with the idea last year and they were a big hit. Last year I made them out of gingerbread, but I really don't like gingerbread. So this year I found a crisp chocolate cookie recipe (thank you Martha Stewart) and they are really tasty, not to mention cute!! Speaking of cute, here is Will singing "dance little skeleton". We really love Halloween around here!

Family Night

Last night for FHE we carved pumpkins. It was a lot of fun, well for a few minutes anyway. The kids were very excited to get started and then when they found out they had to pull all the pumpkin guts out, they were not to happy. I don't understand why they thought it would be different this year. Every year we do this and every year they complain. When I was a kid I loved to clean out my pumpkin! It was the one part I got to do all by myself. Isabel and Bennett were fine with this, but Evan and Will were cry babies! You'd think they had never gotten their hands dirty before. Once we got them all cleaned out and the complaining stopped, we had fun designing and carving the pumpkins. I think they turned out really well! Can you tell which pumpkin belongs to which child?

So did you guess right? The Answers below, Left to right:

Evan, Bennett, Isabel, Will, Lillia