A Day in the World of Jordan

Here's a few events from the last few days that Jordan wanted to tell the blogging world all about:

• After 2 long weeks of obviously needing to eat baby food but not wanting to let the villainous spoon win, Jordan finally compromised with me on the baby food front: he will eat as long as it is not rice cereal. How odd, after two kids who ate rice cereal exclusively for about a month before I introduced any other foods! Jordan wouldn't touch the stuff but gets nervous if I can't get the sweet potatoes in his mouth fast enough! So I will call this a great success for Jordan, one that has its downsides, and its perks. Perk: The sweet potatoes are actually going in. Downside: The sweet potatoes eventually come out (point being, they are orange....and I am assuming Jordan's clothes and diapers will match that on a daily basis).

• Jordan has a new favorite toy-his feet. I am betting any mom will tell you this is so much fun to watch-I get a kick out of watching Jordan very deliberately snag a toe in midair and delight in the realization that this "toy" is somehow attached to his body. Even funnier to see him try to get that "toy" into his mouth. Fun Stuff!

• The other night I asked Jared to hold Jordan while I took out a load of clean laundry. While I was thus employed, Jared tried to multi task by helping JD get into pajamas. That didn't work so Jared just added Jordan to the pile of clean clothes (although the clothes he is wearing very obviously do not belong in the clean pile).


• I personally think this last little video is hilarious. This is kind of what our home is like on a daily basis-loud. :) Jared is trying to record a very slap-happy Jordan who was cracking up at everything I was doing. In the background you can hear JD yelling "cheese" over and over because he thinks Jared is trying to take a picture of him. Then there's me trying to get Jordan to laugh and trying to shush the kids. And then to top it off you hear the microwave beep amidst all the other noise. If you listen closely, you'll hear Jordan cracking up a storm. And just so everyone knows, my hand was on the back of his head-otherwise it might appear as if his head was being manhandled a little bit!
  
  

Classic Moment

Rachel: Karianna preschool starts very soon!
Karianna: What does very soon mean?
Rachel: It means you get to go to preschool in a little bit.
Karianna: What does a little bit mean?
Rachel: It means in about 4 weeks.
Karianna: What is 4 weeks?
Rachel: It means about 30 days.
Karianna: What does 30 days look like?
Rachel: Too many for you to count on your fingers and toes.
Karianna: Oh.

Plain Old Silliness!

A few silly moments that bring a smile to my face...

Up For a Drink?
JD is working on saying the "s" sound; sometimes the "j" sound translates to a "g" as well. So whenever he asks for apple juice, he ends up asking for "Apple Goop". So our family no longer drinks apple juice-just apple goop. Sounds yummy. I crack up everytime I hear it or say it (because yes, I too have joined the JD bandwagon).

Portrait of a Husband
Rachel: Karianna who are you going to marry?
Karianna: Mama, I am not going to marry anyone, a boy is going to marry me!
Rachel: (chuckle, chuckle) Well, what does your husband look like? Is he short or tall?
Karianna: Short like this (she holds up her pointer finger and thumb about an inch apart).
Rachel: What color of hair does he have?
Karianna: Black.
Jared: Is he a returned missionary?
Karianna: Yes, like Jakie.
Jared: Is he a worthy priesthood holder?
Karianna: Yes, he can do blessings and baptize me (hopefully she'll already be baptized).
Rachel: Where are you going to get married?
Karianna: In the temple in Show Low.
Rachel: Do you mean in Snowflake?
Karianna: Yes, I mean in Snowflake.
Rachel: How old are you going to be when you get married?
Karianna: When I am 3 years old (Yikes, she's got a month!).

Needing a Nap
Since I've been pretty stressed out lately, Jared very kindly let me go to the pool by myself yesterdy while he watched the kiddos. This is like, a major treat for me! After swimming in the lap lane and reading for a while (I tend to walk around in the pool while reading a book), I decided to head to a jacuzzi, which is just the coolest luxury in the world, and one that I miss when I am pregnant. Anyhow, I was relaxing in the jacuzzi and out of the corner of my eye saw something floating towards me. It was a baby lizard, and very obviously dead in the hot water. I watched him float by me towards the gutter and right before he was swept in, I said to him without thinking, "That must have been a very painful way to die-sorry". It was only after he disappeared from sight that I realized I was talking to a dead lizard (although talking to a live lizard would not have been much better). I couldn't help cracking up at myself because my instrictive reaction was not to freak out or move away from it, rather my gut directed me to talk to it.
Silliness-I need a nap.

My Kisser of a Kid!

There's a question going around the Senseless Summer Survey (reference all my Tucson friends) that is definitely applicable today: What made you happy today? Well, my answer for today is JD! He is a KISSER! Thankfully that does not apply to girls yet (Jared started kissing girls in kindergarten-I am sure he will not appreciate me divulging this information). Nonetheless, JD is such a loving little guy and not at all afraid to show his emotions which is just great!

After we dropped Karianna off at tumbling this morning, he and I were playing with dinosaurs in the hallway. He took each of the 8 dinosaurs that were in the bag (don't know how so many accumulated) and proceeded to kiss each one of them on the head. Then he had each of the dinosaurs kiss me. And then he had the dinosaurs kiss each other-the mama, dada, baby, rexie, and all the others he has specifically named. And then he looked at another little boy sitting a few yards away and obviously considered having the dinosaurs kiss him. The little boy hid behind his mother-I don't necessarily blame him.

Then when we were reading JD's favorite book, No David, he gave the illustrated David a kiss when we got to the part where David says he's sorry. As if that weren't cute enough, JD decided to play hide and seek: he would run down the hall, hide in the doorway of an open classroom, and then run back to me and Jordan as fast as he could. Once he reached Jordan, he would give him a huge hug and a very vocal kiss- "UMMMMMMMMMMM-MWA!" Try saying that outloud right now-you'll get the drift. He did that about 10 times.

The sweetest part of his kissing rampage came about an hour ago when I put him to bed. He was pretty sad that I wouldn't let him take a paperback book about sharks to bed with him, so he was covering his face with his arms while I sang songs to him. We always name several body parts before we say good night; since he was being sad, I started pointing to his eyes, ears, chin, and nose while naming them myself. When I pointed and labelled his cheeks, he broke his code of silence. He put his palms on both of my cheeks, pulled my face to his, and gave me a kiss. He did that three times. Then we sang the Barney song, and he gave me "a great big hug and a kiss from me to you". It was so sweet, and just made me so happy that I have such a wonderful and loving 2 year old. He sure can try my patience, and it is a miracle that he has not had to visit the hospital yet given his obvious career goals (stunt devil). But these moments remind me of how much I adore my kids and how much I love being a mother!

Time to Get Excited!

Okay, I can't help it, I have to mention somewhere how excited I am for Breaking Dawn to come out! Not sure what I am talking about? It's the fourth book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Seriously, such a good line of books, I am not sure I can remember how many times I have read them. Breaking Dawn comes out on August 2nd-I will be at Walmart at midnight waiting to buy it, and if they aren't putting them on shelves until later, I will be walking over to the Barnes and Noble a few shops down to buy the copy I pre-ordered (kind of like my back up in case the cheaper Walmart copy is not shelfed yet :) ). I am predicting that I will be done reading it by morning :) Here's how much I love these books-they just released a special ediction (whoa, typo, I mean edition, but maybe the phonetic pronunciation of ediction fits better?) of the third book, Eclipse, and it includes the first chapter of Breaking Dawn. So today I took the kids to Barnes since we had an hour or so of down time, and after reading some kid stories to them, I grabbed a special edition and read the first chapter. Couldn't pass up the opportunity (and if I didn't already own that book, I would have bought it). So if you have not read the series yet, you have a little over a week to do so! It will totally be worth your time! If you want more info, jump over to http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ I have tried to avoid this website because I knew it would make me too excited and antsy for the book to come out, but they are doing quotes of the day now, and I can't pass that up! Wahoo!

A Baby's Greatest Trial

Jordan has been learning how to eat rice cereal for about a week now. You might think that sentence odd-how hard could it possibly be to learn how to eat rice cereal??? Well let me tell ya, any baby would give you an earful about that! Some odd obtrusive instrument being unwantingly shoved in your mouth only to force a tasteless substance other than milk on your tongue? I mean, how weird is that? Jordan definitely is having a tough time with this-out of my three kids, he is the one who likes it the least yet needs it the most! It seems that mere minutes after nursing he is wildly looking for more to eat, and usually resorts to his fists! Its a work in progress for sure-at least he seems happy about his progress with rice cereal, which of course ends up everywhere but his mouth.

Babies Galore

This past weekend was a family-packed frenzy-we drove into Mesa Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for various family events as all of my siblings and their respective families were together with Grandma Erickson for Jacob's psuedo homecoming weekend. You can tell it was a busy weekend, as this is how we found JD on each of the drives home! We spent a TON of money in gas (thanks to mom for contributing to the Lautenschlager gasoline funds!). Well worth it though, as I love spending time with my family. On Friday we split the time between hanging out at Grandma's house and swimming-which was totally fun. On Saturday we started off the day taking family pictures at the Mesa Temple-stay tuned for the next post for more visual details! Then we all played basketball at the stake center, kids included (let me tell you, they managed to get on the court so many times, it was ridiculous!) Finally we headed to a triple birthday party at Daniel and Carly's house-Happy late birthday to Jake and happy early birthday to Rob and Steve! It was a blast, especially as they had a pinata, which happens to be on Karianna's birthday list anyway. And to top it off, Carly makes awesome brisket and potato salad! After a late arrival home, we trekked out to Mesa one last time on Sunday for Jacob's homecoming talk in church. He did great. It is so cool for me as a sister to see how much he has grown! Not half a day after his wonderfully spiritual talk did Jacob transform from return missionary to....THE THING!!!! Argh, run for you lives!!!! And the only people who found that funny are those who played Apples to Apples during naptime :) I really wish I had my camara. Because I never took it out during most of our Mesa excursions, and am now regretting it! However, I did manage to get a couple of pics of the babies in the family-the four newest ones, ages 8 months to 3 months, and they are just way cute! Babies galore-wouldn't have it any other way!

Jordan in all his cuteness!

Baby Cheerleaders at the basketball game! From left to right: Jordan at 5 months, Samantha at 3 months and Logan at 3 months (and just about a week older than Sam).

This kid drives me nuts! How does he end up so cute ALL the time!?!?

Baby Amber, though rapidly leaving babyhood at 8 months.

Logan and Jordan sharing toys-hopefully that continues through toddlerhood!

Speechless!

Wow! I have been rendered speechless by my 3 year old smartie pants babysitter! I asked Karianna to sit with Jordan on my bed while I ran downstairs to get his blanket. I was gone about 2 minutes. When I returned, I seriously had no idea what to say: Karianna had taken upon herself to change Jordan's diaper. Without being asked. And although the diaper was slightly askew, it was on the right way!!! Wow! I think I'll say it again-Wow! Karianna just blows me away sometimes! I have to say though, I think she is going to one day regret that she let me discover her diaper changing abilities....

I'm coming to take you away, ha ha hee hee ho ho!

Premise: A few weeks ago when the kids were acting up, Jared jokingly told them if they were not making good choices the stork would come take them away. They didn't really understand the word "stork", so Jared explained it using the movie Dumbo as an example. So while we were running some errands today, JD started getting a little cantankerous and the following comment ensued...

Karianna: JD, if you make bad choices, Dumbo will come take you away.

Arter Pop Anyone?

While reminiscing about a hospital visit when Karianna had her arm x-rayed....

Karianna: They did an x ray on my arm because my arm was not feeling good, and then they gave me a POPSICLE!

Rachel: Yes, they gave you an otter pop.

Karianna: An Ar-ter pop (not sure why she pronounced it that way)

Rachel: Yes.

Karianna: Hey mama, that word starts with an R! It has the /rer/ sound! Arter Pop!

Hey, I'll take it!

Heading to Law School...

Okay, we are not really going to Law School. However, we are embarking on a journey that we have fondly (or not so fondly) nicknamed Jared's version of Law School. Jared is starting to prep for his CFA designation, which in the financial realm is a huge, enormous, gigantic deal and an extremely difficult undertaking. The testing process takes about a year and a half; Jared has to travel out of state for each of three tests; and it costs bucko bucks. Yesterday we got a box of study materials and it was all Jared and I needed to really get serious about his study schedule:

It took me three tries to arrange all those books-each about 400 pages-to get them to fit into one picture frame. And guess what. That's only for the first of three tests. Guess what else. That's just one of TWO boxes for the first of three tests. In case it takes Jared a while to adjust to studying every spare second of the day, I have decided to clear a few shelves on a bookcase in our office and not stack, but display all his study materials. That way when we are tempted to blow off a day of studying, we can just take a peak at that shelf and realize we are way in over our heads and resultantly put the shoulder to the wheel.

On the plus side, the arrival of Jared's inumerable study materials had a silver lining-bubble wrap. Not too many things in the world more fun than bubble wrap, especially when you try and slide down on it.

Being a Problem Solver

During our discussion about Heavenly Father and Jesus...

Rachel: If you make good choices and repent, you can go back and see Heavenly Father and Jesus someday.

Karianna: But Mama, I need to find a plane.

Questions to Which I Already Know the Answer

1. Don't 3 year olds have any common sense? Doesn't it seem that fitting your lip into a hole puncher is a bad idea?

2. Why do I have to tell my kids that we are having hambugers for dinner 4 times and still be pestered with the query, "When are we having hot dogs?"

3. Why does Karianna insist on squeezing Jordan so hard that his eyes nearly pop out of his head? (Okay, so I don't know the answer to that one-anyone want to enlighten me?)

4. What is up with the playdough phenomenon? Anytime we get it out, it inevitablely ends up in miniscule pieces all over the floor (at least I have gotten smart enough to keep playdough outside).

5. Will bright yellow poop wash out of my favorite baby outfit?

6. What is so unbelievablely cool about poking your fingers in bread that is still in the package-before you ever buy it? Talk about moral dilemma-do I buy the pock-marked bread or get a new loaf and hope the culptrit doesn't marr that one too? I am afraid this is a losing battle.

Jared says I could probably write a book that encompasses the many questions that fit into this catagory. What question would you add?

Jake is Home!!!

Wahoo! Jacob is home from Japan! Elder Erickson, now officially set apart as Jacob, has just completed a 2 year mission in Tokyo Japan. It was so much fun to read his emails each week and to see how much he was changing. It is amazing to me the work that missionaries do. Each week Jacob would share with us the lessons he was teaching and the people he was reaching. His testimony was so evidently growing with each passing email and it is amazing for me, as a big sister, to see how much her little brother has grown. Jacob left as my little brother, the oldest of the "little kids" in our family, and has come home a changed man-and change for the better! Granted I have only been able to spend a little bit of time with him thus far, but I can just see the changes in his countenance, and for that reason alone, I wish every young man could have the experience of serving the Lord for two years.

As a token of admiration and love for Jacob, I'd just like to add my testimony to his two years of committment to the Lord and testify that I know Jesus is the Christ. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church and contains the fullness of the gospel. I know President Monson is a living prophet, and I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and truly bore his testimony through his work. I know the Book of Mormon is a true book, a compliment to the Bible, and a testament of Jesus Christ. And I know the people of Japan have truly benefitted from their asosciation with Jacob as he brought a similar testimony to them as a missionary of the Lord. I am so proud of my brother! It is wonderful to have him home and I am so excited to see what the future holds for him!

Here's a few pictures of the airport-we got there about an hour and a half early because we missed the phone call about Jacob's plane being delayed. However,the time went by very quickly: it was spent riding escalators, walking through the parking garage to see airplanes take off, and walking from one end of the terminal to its polar end. And of course, once all 10 cousins convened in the same terminal, the party was on :) It was great fun to see the Hammerquists stroll into the airport-kudos to Mark for surprising Suzie so well, I know she really wanted to be there! Also wonderful to see John and Linda, thanks for coming to support Jake!

JD didn't mind the wait at all-give him real airplanes any day!

Karianna and Makayla trying to grab first sight of Jake!

Everyone who came to greet Jacob (except the Hunts and the Parkers, aka photographers).

Jacob and our family-Jacob got to meet Jordan for the first time and a grown up JD, who was only 2 weeks old when Jake left!

Ghost!!!

Ghosts are real! These are four girls on my sister-in-law's softball team; they took this photo at dinner one of the nights when we were in Show Low and this is what came out! Check it out-they showed the photo while it was still on the camara to some employees in the restaurant, which was named Charlys after Charlie, the old owner who passed away many years ago. The employees said it looked like pictures of Charlie....weird!


http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/aelauty/?action=view&current=l_a59b85f102e80dcb3f37cb6e09a8ec4f1.jpg

Uh Oh, I've discovered videos....

Okay, this could be dangerous. I've figured out how to post videos quite successfully (I'm sure all you pro bloggers out there are like, "Duh!")! Either way, you might be seeing more videos from here on out! Here's two brief ones of Jordan-the first is a good example of his happy state after he's done eating and just being cute. The second is what I would like to call "Hey Mom, I'm ready for steak and potatoes!" Fun stuff!

Karianna is a tapper!

Karianna finished out a round of ballet and tap lessons, and it was really hard to get any good pictures with all the jumping around it entailed! So I tried to shoot a video on my digital camara-lets see if it works! And now that I have uploaded the video, I think it did work-Wahoo!

Worth the Drive!

While in Show Low this weekend, we spent our Sunday morning driving the 25 minutes to Snowflake to see the Snowflake temple. Jared and I drove to the open house while we were engaged, but we both got some sort of food poisoning at a Denny's on the way there. We made it to the temple parking lot, but I was so sick I couldn't get out and hoof it up the hill to the temple. So we turned around and went back home. Ever since then we've wanted to see the temple, and couldn't pass up the opportunity when we were so close to it this weekend! It was well worth the drive-so beautiful as all temples are, and evidence to me of the truthfullness of the gospel and the work that is being done in temples all across the world. Jared went nuts with the camara, and I am glad he did-he took some great shots! For more Show Low pictures, take a look at the post after this :)









Karianna's favorite part of temples is Angel Moroni at the very top!

This is probably the best family picture we have ever taken with our digital camara on the timer-Jared balanced it on a fence rail and I think it turned out great!

Our 75-degree-cool 4th of July!

We were lucky enough to spend this 4th of July in Show Low with Jared's family! Jared's sister Aubrey was playing in a softball tournament over the holiday weekend, so we joined them for the games, firewords, and general fun in the pines. I discovered while watching fireworks that Karianna is a true blue Erickson-about every 2 or 3 minutes, she would ask us, "Is this the grand finale?" You might have to be an Erickson to truly appreciate that! Thanks to the Lautenschlagers for having us, and hooray for Aubrey and her awesome softball skills!

I love heading up to the White Mountain area! The pine trees were so beautiful and the sky was constantly dotted with huge fluffy clouds; we got rain every day, and when the drops started to fall, the temperatures would inevitablely drop several degrees-heaven for a Phoenix dwelling family! The kids learned the art of hiking and rock hopping through a creek and loved hanging out with Jared's family. That is just the best part of family vacations-the bonds that are formed while spending so much time together are priceless. We could be the next family on the VISA or mastercard commercials: car rental-80 bucks; fast food stop on the road-20 bucks; 2 hour traffic delay on a 1 lane highway-a bazillion bucks worth of gasoline; time with the family-priceless. Now I have to figure out who to petition to make my commercial reality :)

Here's some pictures from our trip-I didn't snap too many pictures because when I make that my goal, the kids always get fussy and grumpy. You'll notice that when you see the 4th of July headband picture-I took that picture when my goal WAS to make our trip a great photographic journal. That's when I decided pictures were second to family fun!


The Torture: No one was quite happy wearing the oh-so-fasionable headbands that I thought were too festive to pass up. I was wrong. Karianna is obviously a sad camper. JD is happy becuase he figured out how to take off his headband before I could snap a picture. And Jordan-well, he didn't care too much as long as he could suck on Karianna's fingers. So from here on out-no more forced photo shoots-just random shots of either happy kids or oblivious kids!

Jordan was the only one willing to pose with his headband-this shot made it worth it!

This is the view from our hotel-we were one of the first reservations in a brand new Hampton neslted in the middle of the pines, and it was beautiful!

The accomodations: a wonderfully huge queen bed all for Karianna!

A not so comfortable camping cot for JD-but we made up for it by putting it next to the AC vent! You can see he made himself right at home by christening his space with his beloved toys :)

Playing at the park during Aubrey's softball games-JD is fearless when it comes to climbing at the park! Its a wonder to me that he is still in one piece!

This is why JD's not-so-comfortable cot was the best spot in the room-see the curtains blowing from the nice AC vent???? I almost switched him places in the middle of the night.

Jordan stealing a cat nap on mom and dad's bed.

Karianna succumbing to naptime-which she fought off with the bravery of....someone really brave of whom I can't think of at the moment...Got it, the Brave Little Toaster. That'll work.

Hanging out on the balcony and enjoying the view-we are definitely heading back to this spot!

Swimming Lessons!

Karianna has just finished out her first week of swimming lessons! I am so proud of her, she has not done a ton of non-floatie swimming, and week one of lessons has flown by without any crying, whining, or "I don't want to"s! In addition, each day Karianna has enthusiastically told me what she learned, how much fun it was, and that she wanted to go back the following day. I think that last thing speaks volumes!

Here's a few pictures of swimming-I couldn't get the best of shots because leaving a floatie-less JD alone for very long within a few yards of a pool is never a good idea (especially when today was just blistering hot-we actually had to use the battery operated fan I bring every day but haven't had to use until today).

Swimming on her belly with teacher Sara.

Jumping into 13 feet of water! Sometimes Karianna is brave enough to do it by herself, sometimes she is not-thus she gets dropped in! I am so proud of her though because each time she kicks herself back to the surface, which is just way better than being rescued.

Pulling herself out-another minor thing that she has learned, but has been quite helpful!

Waiting for her turn on the slide!!!!

Just popped out of the slide!

A few of her classmates.

Having fun pool side!

I do not condone this!

Disclaimer: Per my post title, I do not condone the use of the word "crap" and will henceforth refer to it as "cra*"

Yesterday I slammed my ankle against our metal bed frame really hard, twisting it and scratching it pretty good. When it happened, I yelled "CRA*" pretty loud because it just hurt really bad! I banged it right on a bundle of what I can only assume is nerves, tendons, and ligaments-painful! Anyhow, JD came running into my room just as I was massaging my ankle and said, "What happened?" I said, "Mama got an owie on her foot". I showed him the scratch, which he proceeded to very gently touch with his fingers. And then in his little innocent 2 year old voice, he said, "cra*". Oh no! What did I teach my son??? I know this isn't the worst word that a child could pick up, but at that moment I could just imagine him playing in nursery at church and saying it anytime someone fell down; and lets face it, that happens a lot in nursery. I could be responsible for a whole generation of potty mouths!

As if that was not bad enough, when Jared got home later that day, I was telling him about what happened, including JD's reaction. JD must have overheard the conversation because when I was showing Jared my ankle, he rushed over to look at it-he was very concerned, saying, "Mama got owie." And as he peered at my injured ankle, he once again very concernedly uttered the word "cra*". So it is official, I have inadvertantly taught my son an innappropriate word that he now uses without prompting of any sort. In the education world we learn that a child "owns" a new vocabulary word that he or she can independently use across different situationso or environments. So if I hear JD use that word in a situation that does not involve ankles, I'm in trouble. Do you think if I teach him to say and use the term "vicarious works for the dead" everything will just cancel out? One can only hope!