Thanksgiving: Family

I love my family. I am so blessed to have great relationships with everyone, including brothers/sisters in law. If you weren't there, we sure missed you! I love to spend time with them, and I love that my kids know them well enough to request them by name, pray for them, and ask to go over to their houses. I am so thankful that I have an eternal family, both in my home and with my extended family-truly the greatest blessing I could ever ask for. Special shout out to my Mom for going above and beyond the call of duty to host everyone at her house. Even though we all brought a dish of some sort, I know my Mom put a lot of time and effort into the meal and putting up with a lot of loud grandkids (and one very excited dog). So thank you to Mom-we love you and are so grateful for everything you do!

With that being said, the day ended up being so beautiful that we spread out some blankets outside and watched the cousins all playing together. And guess what? I took pictures :) A lot of them :) Couldn't help it, I think I have cute neices, nephews, children, and brothers (all of which are studs). Oh, and if I didn't get a picture of you, don't worry-I still think you are a stud or a stud-ette, respectively.

He loves me, he loves me not....

Karianna is very sad that she has to share the trampoline with JD.

Jordan got brave enough to crawl out into the grass and didn't seem to mind it at all. His goal? The rocks....as an appetizer...

I love this pic of Samantha!

I LOVE this kiddo!

I know I already said it, but can't resist-I LOVE this kiddo!

I thought this was a cool angle of Logan!

One stud of a brother!

Another stud of a brother!

Has anyone noticed how much the cousins love this trampoline? And has anyone noticed how old and debhilatated the thing is? Doesn't matter apparently-still a crowd pleaser.

JD and Kaitlynn always seem to play so very well together. Its the holiday spirt at its best!

Thanksgiving: The Park

This has to be a true American tradition-football! YEAH!!! Too bad I highly dislike football (and I really wanted to use the word 'hate' but must keep true to my theory that I shouldn't 'hate' anything...). Jared and I drove into Mesa at 8:30 so he could join in the fun-I love that he enjoys hanging with my family, and glad that he had so much fun. Even though it was supposed to rain all day, it was nice enough for me and the kids to play at the park during the man-liness that is football. The slides were too wet to use, unless our aim had been to creat a slip and slide, but everything else was great and the kids had a blast! I personally had a blast with the camara :) JD tried out the tire swing for the first time and was giggling like crazy the whole time! Both kids got brave enough to try what I call the "rainbow ladders", and of course the "bouncy animals" were a hit. My personal favorites are the swing pictures. This is Jordan's first time in a swing on his own and even though he looks bored to pieces, he was very contently singing pretty much the whole time. That's a good sign, right?

Thanksgiving: The Bike Ride

Each Thanksgiving all willing members of my family trek out on the the traditional Erickson Turkey Trot. It began years ago with my Dad running the Mesa Turkey Trot-a 10K with its very own running turkey. If you beat the turkey you won a shirt bearing that very message; Dad got a ton of those shirts over the years! When it got a bit too hard for Dad to keep up the turkey pace, we started doing our own version of the Turkey Trot as a family. As us kids got older, we started to abandon our bikes and attempted to keep pace with dad on foot or on rollarblade. Lots of good memories have come from the Erickson Turkey Trot-where else can you find a dream house, a dollhouse, and a potty house? After Dad passed away, I think we all felt an unspoken need to keep up the tradition, and sure enough, we have kept it up ever since. I personally love this simple way of remembering Dad. This year was unique because we had our first grandkids join the race-literally. Elizabeth ran with me for...oh, 1/32 of a mile. Not bad for a 3 year old! Karianna said she wants to do this every year-it was great to share this tradition with her!

What a Kook!

Karianna cracks me up!

Karianna: Mama, if you decide to wake me up, and if you feel like you just miss me, you can come in my room and visit me, that is fine with me. And if you fall asleep by accident and you wake up in the morning time and if it is already 6:00, then you can come wake me up and I will not be grumpy, I will be excited because it is Thanksgiving tomorrow, and we can't sleep for a long time because we have to go to Grandma's house, and it will be an early morning and the sun will not even be awake yet! And so I cannot sleep for a long time tonite only a little bit, okay mama?

Silly goose! She has told me this same basic monologue about 4 times while we were making cookies tonite. Oh, and by the way, I had an epiphany a few days ago about Karianna. Remember how she was having major anxiety about going to sleep at night? Screaming that she misses me and giving us every other imaginable excuse? Well, she finally told me why she was doing that. It all started with Kung Fu Panda. No joke. There's a scene in it where Master Oogway dies-really beautiful scene honestly. His student, Shifu, is very sad, and as the violin music swells and Oogway is carried up into the sky in a breeze of flower petals, Shifu says, "Master, don't leave me." JD has this line down pat. I didn't think Karianna thought much of it until a few days ago. After that scene had ended, Karianna turned to me with tears in her eyes. She explained to me that she was afraid I was going to leave her like Master Oogway left Shifu. Ah. I understand. What a sensitive and wonderfully loving little girl who is also a kook from time to time. Gotta love 4 year olds and their undying love for their mothers!

Book of the Day

I absolutely love to read-seems I have been lapping up tons of books lately, as if they are an escape from reality. I just finished a great one and couldn't resist recommending it! It's called A Perfect Day by Richard Paul Evans. He is the same author who has written Grace, another of my favorites, and the more well known The Christmas Box. I love this author's style of writing-very true to the way one might speak, candid, and intelligent, particularly in its wording. A Perfect Day is such a good book for this time of the year, really reminded me of the good things I have in my life, like 3 great and wonderful kids, and 1 great and wonderful husband-perhaps 3.9 total things more than I actually deserve! Perfect for a book club, or just a solo read...So if you are in the mood for a good book, this is it! Here's a brief synopsis:

"Robert Harlan has three loves in his life: his wife, his daughter, and his writing. When he is unexpectedly laid off from his job, he writes a novel entitled A Perfect Day. The story becomes a huge success and Robert finds himself swept into a new world, far from his wife and home. In time, Robert loses track of the things he loves most...until he meets a stranger who begins telling him intimate details about his past, his present, and most important, the brevity of his future. Thinking that he has just months to live, Robert begins to discover the truth about himself: who he has become, what he has lost, and what it will take to find love again." -Evans

And while I'm thinking about it, and because I enjoyed this one just as much, here's a little bit about Grace:

"Grace is the story of a young runaway girl and the boy who hides her from a frightening world too large and unfathomable for him to comprehend. It is also about two brothers and the love that binds them together through some difficult times..." -Evans

I know that little description doesn't end too poetically, but it really is beautifully written and a heart-wrencher (in a good way). Both books-must reads!

Up Goes the Tree!

Today the kids and I started adorning the tree with our myriad ornaments, bows, and candy canes! I love our Christmas tree. It is nothing fancy at all-besides a basic red, gold, green color scheme, it is your traditional kids tree; this year we are contemplating adding a popcorn string in order to commemorate the book, "If you take a mouse to the movies". All the same, I just love our tree! One of my favorite things to do during Christmas time is to curl up on a couch with a blanket, a good book, and no lights except the soft twinkle of the Christmas tree. I think it brings back childhood memories and kind of signifies a safe place for me-it'd be nice if the world as a whole was as simple as the quiet moments that I so enjoy around Christmas time.

So with that being said :) Here's some pics of the kiddos going knee deep in tree decor!

Karianna was so into decorating-she put all the ornaments on the tree while I covertly spaced them out a little better.

JD was very attached to this Santa ornament; he spent the entire time dancing it around the TV stand, eventually taking off Santa's boots (ie, breaking them). He still went on the tree!

Jordan was just in love with the balls (which we haven't gotten up on the tree yet). It made me realize the practicality of shatter-proof ornaments.

Karianna trying to stretch up to put the topper on the tree-she was pretty frustrated when she realized the stool wouldn't help! But, she's got the pointed toe worthy of ANTM....Her desparate try to top the tree ended with a broken tree topper!
Sad day-we've had this since our first Christmas together! We'll just have to chalk it up to making new memories together as a family of five!

Like Mother Like Son

I detest applesauce-but I love apples. It's the power of consistency and the sway of taste buds! Do you have a quirk that falls into this realm? I realized today that Jordan defintely does. All Jordan wants to do nowadays is eat real people food, so I have been trying to deplete our stock of baby food. I got to the green bean row today and even though Jordan ate it, you could tell he was not a fan. So here's what Jordan's taste buds have to say today: We love regular green beans, but hate them when they turn into green bean mush. Don't blame ya there kiddo. Too bad Jordan can't have a similar quirk when it comes to eating nonedibles: I love eating miniscule junk off the carpet, but I hate eating miniscule junk off the couch. Nope, not true. Jordan started cruisin' today and demonstrated the fact that he will not discriminate between carpet and couch when he goes to eat a tiny scrap of paper, bead, or lint. I promise, my house really is not a disaster area all the time!

On a different topic, JD and Karianna kept very busy today using bingo markers to paint. If anyone wants a nice, clean way to let their kids paint, these are great! You can find them in any Walmart in the party favors aisle. Karianna took her art pieces and asked me to turn them into planes. She then wrote the names of all her family members and a few cousins on each plane and told me that everyone could fly to Washington together to visit Makayla's grandparents (Makayla is Karianna's cousin, who is indeed heading to Washington tomorrow, just in car). I thought that was very sweet that she was trying to save Suzie and Mark a 17 hour car ride while ensuring that family could be together for the holidays. Sometimes I think our world would be better off if 4 year olds were in charge!

To all the Twi-fans enduring long lines full of die hard vampire fanatics (ie love-struck teenagers and their less than enthusiastic boyfriends), good luck and have fun! And if that sentence sounds a little sarcastic, don't take offense-it just means I wish I was there!!!

Ginger Ale and a Hot Bath

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the cure all remedy for the flu. At least it is for me. I have had what I am guessing to be the flu since 7 last night. I can't remember the last time I was that sick-pretty miserable. Even though I have retired the throw up bowl for the time being, I just hurt-no sleep, throwing up every 10 minutes, and no food in your system really throws you for a loop, not to mention chills and a fever. So I am hypothesizing now that I will probably take 2 more baths before going to bed tonite with my ice cold cup of ginger ale at my side. I don't like being sick! Oh, and major props going Jared's way for giving me a kid-free zone today while I moan and groan in bed.

Joining the Gang

Jordan turned 9 months old last week and to mark the occasion, I let him go outside and play with his siblings! For a 9 monther, that means sitting him in the middle of the patio and watching him crawl around, trying to imitate what his sibilings are doing. For Jordan, that means sitting him down in the middle of the patio and trying to stop him from eating every miniscule thing that he could find. That's what I get for encouraging him to master the pincer grasp weeks ago, I just thought it was limited to the carpet...wrong again!

Can you see the speck of rubble he's trying to snag?

Yummy, rock soup. When he wasn't trying to fill his diaper with rocks the old fashioned way, Jordan made a seriously good attempt at trying to slide with JD and Karianna! He didn't care too much about the bubble situation, but it still made for good pictures! One of the coolest things about having multiple kids is watching what they teach each other-both good and bad. Even at 9 months, Jordan already seems to be learning so much from them-it is honestly so sweet, I am loving it!

Happy Birthday Suzie!

Today is my sister, Suzanne's 28th birthday! Suzie and I are best friends and we have certainly been through some sticky situations! Nothing ever changed with our relationship though, except for the fact that it keeps getting better year after year. It is so wonderful to me to have such a close relationship with family; there are some things only your sisters could understand, and Suzie definitely falls into that catagory for me! We love you Suzie, and hope you had a great great GREAT birthday!

As is the norm nowadays, Karianna wrote Suzie a birthday letter with some pretty awesome copmliments-my favorite was "You are a good driver"! I personally think the best part about the letter (and hopefully Suzie liked it too!) was the picture on the back....She just needed to color the hair red and then it would have been perfect!!! :) Click to read....











And to ice the cake, I scanned in some pictures of Suzie in her younger years-which are seriously cute. Happy Birthday Suzie!

One of my favorite pictures :)
Doesn't this look like an angel face?

Suzie in 2nd grade.

Holy crow, how'd this get in there???? If you must know....me and suz playing wicked stepsisters at an Institute concert...good times (bad costumes).

Screecher in the Night

When Karianna was 2, she went through a stage where she would scream for hours when we put her to bed. We figured very quickly that it was a power struggle for independence, and I credit Jared with an amazing technique that very quickly fixed the problem; very SuperNanny of him (did you know there was a Super-Manny show on last night? Weird.).

It seems that Karianna has relapsed into this stage the last few nights. As soon as we shut her door, she screeches her guts out. Unlike last time, she comes out of her room every other minute with every excuse in the book: I need to go potty; I miss Mommy; Is my underwear the right size? The moon is too bright; I miss Mommy; My tummy hurts; Mommy said good night to me but I forgot to say good night to her; I miss Mommy; There's a storm outside; It's almost morning time, I need to get up; I miss Mommy...catching the drift? Last night she started the routine at 4 AM. At first my heart was breaking, because she seemed honestly anxious and scared of being by herself. I didn't know how strict to get with her. Nearly two hours later, I was past heartbreak and in pure frustration mode. If there was any doubt that she was playing the control card again, it came a few moments ago when we heard her shouting out her newest excuse: "Mommy, I need to go to time out!" Talk about craving attention, even if it is negative attention!

So we keep moving forward with consistency, hoping that's the key to the exit door: consistently giving her plenty of love and attention during the day, consistently giving her a good relaxing bedtime routine, and consistently upholding bedtime rules, as much as it pulls at our heartstrings. Poor kiddo that I love so much!!!

Growing Muscles

Seems like a lot of people are posting about their growing babies, so I will join the fray! There is just something about crawling that gives a baby a cartload of personality. Jordan seems to have blossomed this last month, and its all due to crawling! However, he decided today to once again sprint down the road to manhood: he pulled himself up to standing position. He did it all day. His motivation? An unopened package of sweet potato puffs. Just another thing to add to his Christmas list! I managed to catch it on video too-double points! This is pretty exciting to me because I honestly don't remember Karianna or JD pulling up at all. I'm sure it happened at some point, just have no recollection of it; I'm kind of cheering for 3 kids now as opposed to just the one!

In other news, I was so proud of Karianna and JD today-they actually colored together without arguing for about 8 minutes! That is seriously amazing, as they are just the supreme example of brother and sister (ie, squabbler and squabblee). Great job Karianna and JD!

Finally, I officially figured out the ways to tell if your child is sick. We'll take the case of JD as it occured yesterday:

Hint #1: Your child may be sick if he won't eat any breakfast. In JD's case, this is really all I need to know, however....

Hint #2: Your child may be sick if his pillow is covered in throw up. Nope, no throw up in JD's bed, lets move to #3....

Hint #3: Your child may be sick if you discover crusted over throw up in his hair. Hmm, that yellow stuff in JD's hair looks a little funny....ew, definitely smells like throw up. Maybe I better move back to #2....

Sure enough, 3 hours after waking JD up that morning, I found throw up all over his pillowcase. I have NO idea how I missed that when I got him out of bed-particularly the smell. Sheez louise. Yet another mommy of the year moment. He spent the entire day completely listless, starved, and flushed. Poor kiddo! Thankfully he is back to normal today, though I must admit,I checked his pillowcase pretty carefully when I got him up this morning...

Happy Graduation!

My brother Daniel officially graduated from college today with his batchelors degree-wahoo! That is just really cool and awesome! We really wanted to be at the graduation ceremony but ended up having to cancel becuase I was working. We were seriously sad-particularly Karianna, as she is very intrigued by the whole idea of graduating. So in celebration of Daniel's big day, she wrote him a card. You'll still get it in the mail Dan, but I decided to post it here anyway so all the people who are devoted to my blog will be proud of you too! Karianna picked the paper, so I apologize that it seems to be celebrating Christmas rather than graduation. She also did the spelling and the writing-its the beauty of invented spelling! You might have to click on each picture to actually read it-she did it in pencil. Happy Graduation and congratulations-seriously cool accomplishment!

Another Laugh of the Day

Karianna: Look Mama, I am a BOY princess!

Hint: Check out the shoes.

Laugh for the Day

Rachel: Who wants socks on today?

Karianna: ME!

Jared: I want some socks too!

Karianna: No, you are too big!

Jared: Hey, is that a fat joke?

Karianna: YEA!!

Christmas List

While driving home from errands today, Karianna wrote her Christmas list. It was seriously cute in terms of her spelling. Crown was spelled "crn", Wand was spelled "wnd", Dinosaur was spelled "dinsr" and my favorite, Little People was spelled "Ltl Pbol". I love watching the stages of emergent writing!!!

Okay, off my teacher soapbox. I brought up the whole Christmas list deal because I know exactly what would be on Jordan's Christmas list. See, he was sitting in the family room today happily (or so I thought) engaged in eating some sweet potato puffs. I took some stuff upstairs and when I came back down, Jordan had crawled across the room and was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor chomping on something. Here's what I dug out of his mouth:

So I am figuring I would make him a devout Santa fan if I just filled his stocking with sticky flags and sticker backing....and maybe dimes, hole punches circles, and door stoppers (he likes to flick the latter). As I predicted, I am regretting ever lamenting about Jordan crawling late! I forgot how much trouble they can get into! Good thing crawling is so cute-that makes the human vaccum phenomenon bearable.

Before the True Holiday Rush Hits...

Walmart has unveiled its full line of Christmas items. Anytime we visit Walmart, we walk up and down every aisle so JD can ooh and ah over the huge Santa and snowman blow up-thingies; Karianna prefers the little village items. I almost bought a beautiful new pre-lit Christmas tree. 94.5 is playing Christmas music all day. One of my favorite websites has a countdown until Christmas. I just had to schedule days off to accomodate my Christmas activities. And guess what? I completely don't mind! I love Christmas, and if you wanted to delete a few November weeks out of my schedule, I'd be okay with that. But I do love Thanksgiving too. So in light of trying to recognize the lesser of the two holiday big wigs, I present my Thanksgiving background-a little eccentric, but oh well-Happy THanksgiving! Off I go to decorate my teaching website with thanksgiving smiley characters....