updates

After a few requests to see the side by side pictures of Mrs. Palin and myself, what do you think?Any resemblance? I have to admit that I really tried to make myself look like her. My outfit (I didn't have a red blazer so I had to settle for the tan one in the picture. I did consider going over to my in laws and borrowing one of my MIL's!) my hair (I don't have bangs and I'm not very good at ratting my hair into a beehive) but all in all I'd say I got it kinda close. So I'm taking a pole, What do you think, do I look like the woman? Not to try and sway your votes one way or another, but I am still a bit miffed at that guy!

Also on an other note, another update, Most of you probably already know since I'm usually the last to hear about things. (the cost of living in a small town) Stephenie Meyer has started writing another twilight book. Well I should say started and then stopped. She started writing "midnight Sun" which is the first twilight book, but from Edwards point of view. She had given the first couple of chapters to a few people to see what they thought, her publicist, friends, family, and somehow it got leaked to the Internet. She was devastated and decided that she would not finish it. (stupid thieving jerk had to ruin it for the rest of us!) She did decide to go ahead and put the first twelve chapters that she had done on her website. So any of us that knew it was out there would get it from her instead of searching the Internet for it. (the whole explanation is on the website also) I have to say it is amazing!! You get so much more from Edwards point of view, (with the whole reading minds thing) you get to really know the other characters a lot better. I am so sad that I wont get to read the entire story, but we do know how the story ends, so it's not terribly frustrating. I know I'm a little crazy, but the other night I read both twilight and midnight sun together. I'd read a few chapters in one and then read a few chapters in the other, until I was done. It was so good I had to read them all again. (yes, my fifth time! like I said, crazy.) Her web site is http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ Check it out, you will not be disappointed. It is really that good!

I'm losing my mind!

I think I am losing my mind or maybe I just have to much on my plate and things are starting to slip through the cracks. Either way it's not good. Last night I forgot all about pack meeting! It's my job to keep all the leaders on track, make sure their all doing their jobs and that they don't forget anything. I'm suppose to make sure they don't forget anything! (what a joke!) I was cleaning up the kitchen last night and getting the kids ready for bed, when I get a phone call from one of the leaders, asking if I was planning on going to pack meeting. I said "yes, tomorrow." She replies, "no, not tomorrow, tonight." I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I had thought it was Tuesday all day, when in fact, it was Wednesday! I looked at the clock and I was already 15 minutes late! I was supposed to make cookies for refreshments (which I bought all the stuff for earlier that day thinking I would make them in the morning so they would be fresh for pack meeting) and I was suppose to pick up the boy's awards from the scout office. So both of my jobs, I didn't have done. I'm am still horrified at the whole situation! I can't believe that I was so mixed up in my days! I have been in cub scouts for over five years now and never screwed things up like this! Maybe it's a sign that It's time for a change, or maybe I'm really just losing my mind!

Clown Day

Today at Will's preschool is clown day. During the year they have many dress up days. They always have to do with whatever theme and letter they are working on for the week. This week is the letter (can anyone guess, I'll give you a hint, What does clown start with?) C. So yesterday they learned all about China (or at least what a 3-4 year old would understand.) They ate their snacks with chopsticks and talked about the great wall and lots of other things. Today all the kids got to dress like clowns and this morning Will was not thrilled with the idea. He is not much of a morning person. So when I woke him up and started to get out the clown outfit, he was not happy. "I don't want to dress like a clown Mom!" He said over and over. I told him he didn't have dress up if he didn't want to, as I continued to find all the accessories to the outfit and lay them out. He does this most mornings so I knew it was just a matter of time for him to wake up completely and want to dress up. After breakfast he says "O.k. Mom, I will dress like a clown." He looked so dang cute in his rodeo clown costume. (what other kind of clown would a kid in this family be?) When we got to school, the first three boys he saw were not dressed up and I could see Will getting a little tense. Then he saw his teacher, Mrs. Thompson. She was decked out in her clown outfit, (she always dresses up) and he relaxed a little. It wasn't until he walked into the class room and saw other kids decked out with the full clown make up that he was totally o.k.!

Happy 8th Birthday Isabel!!

Isabel turned 8 years old yesterday! I can hardly believe how quickly my "baby girl"(that has been her nick name since she was a newborn) is growing up! As much as I wish that she will stay a baby forever, she continues to grow. For example, for her birthday party this year she wanted to invite a few friends and go to the nail salon to get pedicures and manicures. I thought this was a really fun idea, but told her only two friends. She was thrilled and picked her two very best friends, Courtney and Savannah. (It also happens to be Savannah's b-day also!) After school we headed to the mall to Trendy Nails. The girls were so excited and talked and sang along with her new CD. (Miley Cyrus, a birthday present) This was so funny to me, I tried very hard not to laugh, remembering all to well how I would do the same with my friends at that age. When we got to the salon the girls picked out there nail colors and sat in the big massage chairs for their pedicures. The ladies that were doing their nails were very sweet and laughed and giggled right along with the girls. Each of the girls got little flower details over their painted toe nails.

Isabel! The poor girl is still really small for her age. She couldn't get her nails done and a massage from the chair at the same time because she is to short. Savannah told her, "it is good to be little, because then the boys can carry you around and take care of you." Yes!! They are only eight!

Courtney is the tallest one of the bunch. She had no trouble getting her massage.

Savannah was pretty quiet during her pedicure. She said it was because she was enjoying the massage. This girl is so funny!

The finished product, They looked so pretty!

The next thing was nails. It was pretty much the same, the girls picked out the color and the nail techs got started. The only difference was, Isabel got acrylic nails. She has been asking me for a while now, and I know it's kind of a waste for an eight year old, but it was her birthday and I'm a push over. I have to say they are really beautiful! She can't wait to show Grandma Brown. (since Grandma always has pretty nails) All the girls got flower details on their finger nails as well.

This is Savannah, she is a little camera shy. Every time I'd take a picture, she would look away. She has been one of Isabel's best friends since they were two. Isabel and her witch nails! This was before they cut them down to a normal length. She said for Halloween she wants to go back and get really long ones like this and have them painted black! I'd be scared!

This is Courtney, It was actually her idea for the nail party. She invited Isabel to do this last month for her party. Courtney has been one of Isabel's best friends since they met in pre-school. They later found out they were cousins! (second or third, I'm not really sure!) The Finished product, Oh so pretty!

I had to take a picture of this little shrine in the salon. Now, I'm not trying to mock or make fun of this, I'm just not understanding this whole concept. You cant really see it very well, but they gave it offerings of incense, a cigarette that they lit, a cup of coffee, flowers and candles. Does anyone know what the deal is with this? Interesting....

Before heading home, we stopped for some cold stone ice cream. The best ice cream ever! On the way home the girls were really rocking out to Miley Cyrus (AGAIN) and I had to get it on the camera. It was just to cute to pass up. As soon as I turned on the camera, they mellowed out and as you can see got very camera shy. It was much funnier before the camera was on. They had their spoons from their ice cream and were using them as microphones. Singing their hearts out. Oh well, you still get the picture.

Later that night we took Isabel to dinner. This is something we just started doing last year with the kids. On their birthday they get to pick where they want to eat and we all go and celebrate over dinner. Isabel picked The Olive Garden. She loves this place, her favorite thing is the soup, salad, and bread sticks meal. She has always had adult tastes ever since she was little. Grandma and Grandpa Erickson and uncle Liberty joined us. We ate, talked and laughed as Isabel opened presents and got sung to by the wait staff. It was a lot of fun.

This video is really dark, the restaurant had the lights low. Sorry, I know it's hard to see, but you can still hear the song they sang to Isabel. I wish that you could see her face. She got really red!

We are so lucky to have Isabel for our daughter. I have so many things that I love about this girl. Here are a few things you might not know about Isabel:

- She is really loving and has a tender heart.

- She is a huge help around the house and with her younger siblings. She is their second Mom!

- She is a girlie girl and a tom boy at the same time. She loves to dress up and get her nails done, but is the toughest soccer player on the field. (football, baseball, all of them) She doesn't let anyone push her around.

- She is super smart and loves to learn new things. She loves to read and loves math (she didn't get the math thing from me!)

- She is VERY competitive!! She wants to be the best at every thing she does (most of the time she succeeds)

Happy Birthday Isabel! You will always be my baby girl no matter how old you get. I couldn't have been happier the day I found out I was going to have you or when I found out you were a girl or the day you were born. You have added so much joy to my life and I can never thank you enough for that. I love you honey.

Palin look-a-like?!

A few weeks ago, during church, I noticed a man staring at me from across the room. As I walked closer to him he acted excited and a little nervous then relaxed and walked up to me. He said, "has anyone ever told you, you look exactly like the republican vice president nominee? I had to get closer to make sure you weren't really her!" Now this was before all the hype, before she was on every magazine cover you come across. I had no idea who he was talking about. I smiled, and said, "thanks, I think?" Later that night at home, I got on the computer and looked her up. What the heck!!!! What was that guy thinking? It's probably a good thing I hadn't seen her yet, and new nothing about her, because I might have punched him if I was up to date on my current events! Not that she not a pretty woman, I think she is, but there is no way that I look anything like a 44 year old! The only thing that even resembles her is my glasses, they are some what the same as hers, but come on! Needless to say I was not happy and it is still bugging me.

Journey.....

The kids have been begging me to go and see "Journey to the center of the Earth" since they first started seeing previews for it. I told them that they could see it if they read the book first. So months ago we went to library, checked it out and read it together. (I like to do this with all movies based on books, it gets the kids excited to read.) We had it read before the movie even came out. The problem was, it costs a lot to take two adult and four kids to a movie when it first comes out, but I did make a promise to the kids. Finally last week it came out in the dollar theater, (Hooray for cheap theaters!!) and since the yard was flooded and it was pouring rain outside, today was a perfect movie day. The kids LOVED it!! It was filled with action, and comical scenes that had my kids rolling! Will has been talking about it all night. There were some cheesy parts, but as far as a family movie goes, this one was awesome. A must see if your kids like movies other than cartoons.

Hurricane Joe?

This morning we woke up to the phone ringing. It was our neighbor wondering if Jason was irrigating the pasture, because we had water all the way up to the road. Jason was a little confused, because no, he wasn't irrigating at all. He hangs up the phone and asks me "did Bennett leave the hose running last night?" I told him that I didn't think so and we got up to check. There was no way that this was from the hose! We had up to four feet of water in some places and all the way up the pasture, into the horse corrals, through the barn, out onto the lawn, across our circle driveway, to the middle lawn, and to the front lawn, all the way into the street! It was insane. Apparently what happened is the farm behind our property was irrigating and forgot to shut off the water last night. ("people" being Jason's cousin, Joe!) We have never had the water come up this close to the house, and I am so thankful that it didn't reach the house! What a mess that would have been. Jason spent most of the day out side trying to pump some of the water from the flooded Pasture, yard, barn, to the other side of the pasture.(the side that didn't get flooded) We still have a ton of water outside and most likely will for a few days. We look like we have been hit by a hurricane! We just need the sand bags and we'd be set! The worst part is the water went through were the horses and steers have been "doing their business" before it got to the lawn. So now the lawn is covered with filthy poop water. There is even a foam over the top of the water from all the droppings! YUCK!! I guess the lawn is good and fertilized now.

The crazy thing is you can't even really tell how bad it is from the pictures. We could go out and stand in the pasture and the water would be up to our waist. Now, I don't want to make Joe feel to bad. On his defense, he hasn't irrigated for a long time, and the sub water is up really high this year. That being said, I'm still pretty ticked!

This is going to be a gross clean up when the water finally goes down! What a mess.....

I'm hooked on Twilight!!

As if I haven't been busy enough lately, I started reading the Twilight book by Stephenie Meyer. Oh my goodness!!!!!! They are so good! I had heard about them from various people, but I thought come on, how good could a vampire romance novel be? Well with Jason gone I needed something to fill my nights, so I picked up the first one, Twilight. I started on a wednesday night and finished on thursday morning. That same day I headed back to the book store to pick up New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, the following three books. By Sunday I was finished with the fourth. I seriously could not put these books down. I am completely hooked and cannot wait until the movie comes out in November. If you have not read these books you need to do yourself a favor and go pick them up. I have read them all four times now and if I had not lent them to my friend, I would be reading them again!! They are that good! I am planning a girls night out to go see this movie, so read up and then give me a call!!

Three long days in the kitchen!

Like I said in my last post I get tons of fruit to can every year from Jason's parents. Since I opted on Saturday to get my nails done with Candi instead of doing my fruit, I had to do mine by myself. So Bright and early Monday morning I started with my peaches and finished by nine o'clock that evening with my tomato's. Tuesday I started early again with my pears and finished around five o'clock. Tuesday night my legs and feet hurt so bad from standing for two days straight! But it was well worth it! I ended up doing 100 quarts of fruit and 20 pints of jam for my food storage. Whoo Hoo!! Today I thought I hadn't spent enough time in the kitchen over the last few days, so I baked two peach pies and a pan of chocolate peanut butter bars! Yummy! Tomorrow I will finish off my fruit by making some more jam. It is long and tedious work, but it is so worth all the trouble. The canned fruit is ten times better then the stuff you buy in the stores and it ends up being a lot cheaper. My kids are spoiled and wont even touch the store bought canned fruit and jam and even though I complain about my feet hurting I really do have fun when I'm canning. Maybe I'm just strange....

Fun Weekend!

My brother Charlie, and his very cool wife Candi and their adorable boys came down for a visit this weekend. Every year I buy boxes and boxes of fruit to can, and last year Candi bought some and I taught her how to can. It was a lot of fun to do it together so this year she said she wanted to do it again. John and Coleen (Jason's parents) take orders and go to Utah to pick up the best fruit around. So Saturday, Candi and her family came for a visit and to do our canning at my house since we had the awesome Utah fruit. We spent most of the day on Saturday canning Candi's peaches and instead of doing mine we headed into town to get manicures and pedicures. (believe me we earned it after a long day on our feet. Earlier in the day Jason and Charlie took the kids outside to ride the horses. Jason had Will on the horse with him while he was rounding up the steers. One of the steers took off and Jason went after it and got off the horse to scare the steer in the right direction. Well instead of scaring the steer, he ended up scaring the horse with Will on it! The horse took off running and bucking and poor little Will hung on for dear life. He started slipping and hanging off the side of the saddle, but still hung on tight to the saddle horn with one hand. He eventually fell off and luckily no serious damage was done, just a few scrapes and bruises on his face and arm. Seriously, what a tough kid!! Although I would never want my kids to saddle bronc in a rodeo, Will is well on his way to being the world champ. (at least for his age) Jason and Charlie also took some guy time and went golfing once things settled down. On Sunday before they headed home, we hit Mesa Falls. It is a beautiful water fall with a nice path for a very small hike to the falls. (perfect for the little kids) We normally take the kids to Mesa falls every year, but we usually wait another month for the leaves to change color. Sunday ended up being the perfect weather for an outdoor activity, and it was so much fun to be able to do this with them, so we didn't mind going a little early this year. The leaves have just started changing and it was so pretty. I was able to get a few really cute pics of the kids, Enjoy!

Lillia has hair!!!

O.k., so I know that Lillia has had hair for a long time now, but her hair is now long enough to put in pony tails!! I was so excited when I made this discovery the other day I had to take picture and share them on my blog. What a cutie!

Yellow Book

I figured that since I keep talking about Jason's new job and him being gone all the time, I should let you all know what is going on. Jason has been in real estate for going on two years now. Things were great for a while until the market crashed..... Now things have not been great to say the least. He wanted to find a new job that he could do while still doing the real estate thing on the side. He ended up getting a job with Yellow Book. (the phone directory) So far he seems to like it, but he does travel a lot. He had three weeks of training in California, which was difficult for me. (we had never been a part for more than a few days before this!) He came home for another week and then had to leave again to Rock Springs, Wy. for another week! It has been a little crazy for me and the kids to be without him. (that is one of the reasons I haven't blogged in forever. Jason takes the lap top with him when he travels!!) It is a good company, my Mom and my brother Liberty both work for Yellow Book. They have done really well and worked for them for years. Liberty is actually Jason's boss. (yes it is a little weird, mostly for me) It is a big company and they have great benefits and bonuses. Jason seems to be getting the hang of it and has gotten a few really good sales. Plus he had a few properties close last week!!Hopefully things are looking up!! You might need to call and check on me when he is gone, I mostly do o.k., but this last trip I kinda had a break down!! I need some adult conversation so I don't go crazy! (sorry about the whole erased post thing last week, I had an emotional break down, blogged about it and then got embarrassed and erased it the next day when my head was clear again! I'm o.k. now!)

Back to school

Just a few days after we got home from Bear Lake, the kids started a new school year. It was a little strange not having Jason here to help (he was still in training, in California for 3 weeks!) but we managed ok. The kids were thrilled to get back to school. Bennett started 5th grade and was really excited to learn that his teacher was a guy. He seems to be a really fun teacher and so far Bennett is really liking school. Isabel started second grade and is more than happy to be back. She got out a few of her old workbooks before school started again. She said it was just to "refresh and get ready for school", this was a few weeks before school started and she would work on them every day! She could have the worst teacher in the world and still love school. Evan started kindergarten and the thing he was looking forward to the most was riding the school bus! All these years of watching his older siblings get on and off the bus must have made an impact. Will started his first year of pre-school and even now, weeks after school has started, still gets too excited to sleep the night before school. He sits in his bed thinking about all the fun stuff he will be doing the next day. Too funny! Hopefully the good vibes will continue throughout the year!


I know this is short, I wasn't very quick with the camera!! But you get the idea!

Bear Lake family vacation

Every year the Ericksons get together and have a family vacation. This year Jason and his brother Jake were assigned to plan the trip (So Megan and I planned it!) We decided that Bear Lake would be a fun and close trip. We had a blast! We stayed in condos, (which is so much nicer than a hotel when you have kids!) and spent most of our days playing on the beach, or water skiing, knee boarding, swimming, or riding the water wienie. (Thanks to Trena and Kirk for suppling the boat and other equipment!) We also golfed, toured caves, biked (some of them all the way around the lake, 50 miles!!) and basically played all week. It was really a lot of fun for the most part. I say for the most part because Jason had to be gone to California for almost the entire week. (due to a new job training) He was only able to come on Saturday and then left on Sunday. It was really sad having a family vacation with out him! We still managed to have a great time. We had a few family birthday while we were there as well. Happy birthday to Evan (my big 6 year old!!) and to Jason (yes he was gone for his birthday) and to me!! My birthday is on the 12th and Jason and Evan's birthday's are on the 14th. It was a crazy week jam packed with all kinds of events and activities. Next year I believe that Susan and Eric are planning it, it should be a lot of fun!

Here is a slide show of our many activities, Enjoy!: