Happy Anniversary

Today is our anniversary. Happy eight years! We went out to Chico's Pizza Parlor in Moses Lake and then to Home Depot and Lowes. I told Jason that next year we get to go to Craft Warehouse and Michaels. We said happy anniversary to my mom and sisters too because they've been celebrating the day with us for quite a while now.

Uncle Wade's Birthday

My kids know what birthdays are all about. They were so excited to see Uncle Wade open his presents. Ben and Claire are excited to have their birthday in September.

Something to blog about

Well...below this post you will find the very routine blog post that I was going to put up prior to little, sneaky Benjamin giving me something to blog about. I was working on the other post when I heard noises in the bathroom. I knew that one of our little angels was not asleep as they should be, but in fact in the bathroom, running the water, and quite possibly making a mess. I had my money on Benjamin.

I'm sure from the minute that I called Jason's name for him to check things out, Benjamin hid behind the door in the bathroom. For that is where Jason found him hiding because he knew that he had been playing with something he shouldn't have.

He found my bottle of dark red fingernail polish. Your imagination is already working I can tell. We have been so careful to keep everything like this out of his reach, but I got careless really. I left it zipped in a makeup bag under my bathroom sink where he could get to it, and get to it he did. In the bathroom he had been washing out the empty bottle that had once been a full bottle of red polish. So we went hunting for the mess. Where did he dump it out we wondered. We feared to find out.

He decided to graffiti Paul's newly painted white bed, a brand new book, the rug of course, and a little blanket. Sadly, I do not have any pictures of the nail polish on the rug in great, angry, red splotches. We had to work fast and keep the stains wet in order to remove them. I was gingerly patting at the spots as Jason researched red fingernail polish stain removal on the internet. I pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose, suppressing a headache and exasperated tears-red polish on medium blue carpet doesn't look good and is hard to hide. I said a prayer that we could, by some miraculous act, get the stain out and then I worked like my prayer would be answered.

Jason came back in a flash ripping open a new can of shaving cream. He liberally sprayed it over the offending area and we worked it into the carpet. The key was to keep the stains wet, rubbing in circular motions. We wiped away the foam and sprayed again, working our fingers as fast as we could. It was working! We dared to hope that our method would actually take the stain completely out. We used some water as well to keep it moist and easy to work. This is the crime scene below. The pink roped area is where the stains used to be.

If you look at the bed up close, it looks like he wrote the letters O-V-E. All we need to do is add an L at the beginning and it would be a nice little message from Ben. I say the carpet looks pretty good for having just had red scars marring its surface. Way to go Jason and Cindy teamwork!

Surprise Visit

Jason's mom and dad surprised us with a visit this afternoon. They were able to eat dinner with us and stay and visit for just a little bit. We loved having them stop by.

A fun thing we have done in our family is to have the kids draw pictures of Grandpa and Grandma's stories from growing up. It's a sort of family history through the eyes of the kids. It has been so fun to see what they can come up with. Of course, Emma just loves to do it because she loves to draw. I even tried my hand at illustrating one of the stories. Here are a few samples:

My nephew Austin drew this of Grandpa Z and his dad (my brother Corey) getting a load of hay. I just loved the low rider truck look. :)

I did this one of Grandpa and Grandma E blowing up ant hills with fire crackers. They both owned up to that one. :)

This is Emma's take on Grandma E barrel racing at the fair. I think she did a nice arena and horse.

This one Emma drew of Grandpa E throwing porcupines off these big rocks at the top of the hill by their house. It looks like they have their tongues hanging out like they're dead already, or maybe they're smiling.

The pictures we didn't take & the one we did

Today we did a service project for my mom and dad and resealed their house. So we moved everything away from it, swept and sprayed (handy air compressor put to good use) it clean of cob webs, and then sprayed it with the clear, protective stain. I didn't get any pictures of us working because of two reasons - 1. I was working and 2. Lainey was very fussy. So here's a list of the pictures that I would have taken today:

~of the gigantic wasp/hornets nest found up under the eave of the house above the carport. Holy cow! I have never seen one so big before. I may get a picture of it yet on a return visit. We wanted to get the staining done and so didn't try to take it out. That would have meant the end of our work stirring up all those stingers.

~of Jason and/or my nephew using the handy, heavy duty paint sprayer that we were able to borrow from a friend. It made the work go so fast. We could hook the paint sprayer up to the five gallon bucket of stain and use the gun, which had a long hose on it, to spray big portions of the house at a time. We weren't having to stop to refill our smaller spray gun so much.

~of my SIL up on the ladder sweeping the higher portions of the eaves. I tried getting up on that ladder, but didn't like it so much. Those ladders sure move a lot when you're up there.

~of the clever way my SIL cut the watermelon we had with dinner. She cut at an angel from the top down to the right and then rotated the melon to make another similar cut. She did that all the way around cutting off the rind and then had all the juicy melon-y goodness left to so easily cut into cubes. Loved it!

~of Benjamin and his cousin playing so well together with their dump trucks. The last several times Ben has asked if Keaton will be there to play. It's so fun to see that the twins are now getting old enough to really know their cousins by name and enjoy playing with them.

~of the finished house. There are quite a few spots that we probably could have sprayed all day and they still would have needed another coat. There's just so many places where the sprinklers have hit the house for years. Oh well! That's life. It does look a lot better and gave us an excuse to clean and de-cob web the house.

Here's the picture I did take:

I wasn't happy with how it turned out at first. So I dipped into the stain a little more and redid the whole thing. It's a little darker than I thought I wanted, but overall I like the look better.

Happy Pickers

We were so happy to finally be able to pick some vegetables from our garden. The renters before us left it for us. How nice! The kids were especially excited to get their hands in there and do the picking. Even though Paul and Benjamin aren't even looking, I love this picture! Makes me smile.

Shop Hours: Open Round the Clock

The dusty hard worker.

The ever stable TV stand.

Jason has moved on to his next project...a stand for the TV-so we can get it up away from little hands. He is just like a little boy that doesn't want to come in from playing to eat dinner. And once he's taken a few bites, he's back out the door again. One night he went out to look things over at 9:00pm and he didn't come back in until 11:00pm. He's so excited to finally have a place where he can use all of his tools that he loses all track of time. I think if he didn't have to go to work and had an endless budget he'd stay out there all the time. :]

Fried Chicken & First Day

I tried my hand at fried chicken for dinner tonight. Jason commented after having fried chicken at his mom's that he would like to have it at home some time. So we did. Tonight. I've never made fried chicken before and so I called my mom and Jason's mom for their inside secrets. It turned out great and my kids were so excited to eat it. I silently shout for joy when they get so excited over dinner. I do have to admit that I bombed on the gravy. It was bad! Yeah...

As I watched Claire literally tear her drumstick apart, I couldn't help but get the camera and take some photos. I couldn't believe how unafraid she was to strip all the meat and then chew on the bone. Benjamin quickly followed suit.

First Day

Emma had a great first day of school.
I borrowed my friend's idea to have Emma write the grade she's in so we can remember her handwriting.

Emma with her teacher Ms. Titchenal

She found her way around-no problem, and I was the one trying to think of excuses for me to hang around. She was ready to be in school.

She just looked so grown up today.

Walmart Bugs and Meltdowns

These are my Walmart Bugs. I was trying to keep them occupied and avoid any meltdowns as Emma tried on some clothes.

And meltdowns not completely avoided. Poor Ben was having such a hard time because he wanted to get out of the cart. When he was out of the cart, he would run all around and too far away from us. This is where he ended up when we finally did take him out of the cart to go out to the car. Only, then he was sad that we were leaving the store. I'm sure all of you mothers (Vicki, Eyvon, Mom E) that have been through this stage are getting a good chuckle right now. We left Walmart in record time after this little display. :)

In from New York

We had a fun Family Home Evening with our friends John and Becky Edvalson who were visiting from New York. It was so fun to see them after three or four years.

This is John and Becky with their kids Lucy and Levi.


The kids found a Praying Mantis in the yard. We finally put him up in the peach tree where he climbed to safety away from the kids.




It really stuck to Paul and he was doing a crazy dance to get it off. He didn't scream as I thought he would.

"That's my teacher."

And just think of a three year old (next month) saying that.

This is Claire and her new nursery teacher, Lisa Davis (Chad & Chelsea, we love her already). I know that Sister Davis is good at what she does not because others have told me so or because I've met her and felt of her sincerity, but because Claire has really taken to her. We were at Walmart the other day and Claire noticed Sis. Davis when I did not. She said "That's my teacher," with this huge smile on her face. So I went down the aisle and peered around the corner just to see if Claire really knew what she was talking about. Sure enough it was her teacher. After just two Sundays in the new ward Claire recognized her. Since then that's all I hear about. She wants to show her teacher her dress or the picture she's drawn. She wants to show her teacher her pig tails or go to class to play with her. This photo was taken yesterday when Sis. Davis came by to bring Benjamin and Claire their own plate of cookies. I know this isn't a picture from today, but since we went to church today I thought it worked. I am grateful for good teachers.

Masterpiece...I think

Here's an improvised staging of the new table. I think I like it. I like how the staining really defines the edges, but I keep looking at it to see if the overall look has turned out the way I wanted it. It sits like this for now.

This Little Piggy

We were being silly today.

Mistake or Masterpiece?

We sanded and stained the table...

Quesadillas

The very happy eaters
Don't they just pose so well?!

Yesterday we visited Jason's brother Wade and his family for several hours after Grandma's house. They were so kind to feed us poor beggars lunch. :) They whipped out their very handy quesadilla maker (which Wade received from the departing seniors in his Spanish class-he teaches at Selah High School) and proceeded to get all of my kids to eat them, and ravenously at that. They even made a cinnamon and sugar quesadilla that was quite tasty. Paul turned to me after he'd had about four or five triangles and said, "Maybe we can have these at our house some time." What a great idea! So tonight, at Paul's insistence, we had cheese quesadillas Aunt Stephanie style. My kids ate them and loved them a second time. Phew!

My Grandma

We made a trip to see my Grandma today (my dad's mom). It was nice to visit since it's been several years since we were there last. I was excited for my kids to see her again and to show them her doll collection. Ours is a different Grandma/Grandchild relationship with too few visits over the years and awkward re-acquaintences. But as we spent time there today, I felt so much love for her that seemed to span the gaps in our history. I just sat with her on the couch and held her hand as we talked and laughed. Claire was especially loving, coming up to her several times as we talked to offer hugs and smiles. The other kids weren't nervous around her and gave hugs goodbye. Oh how important it is to make memories.

Us with Grandma and all her dolls

Tiny Hands

I love Lainey's hands when she's eating. She curls them up into her chest and just looks so cute.

Blessings from a Home Teacher

With being in a new ward we have new Home Teachers, obviously. I am so thankful for Home Teaching and for faithful men who make their visits. One of our Home Teachers is an orchardist. This is what he brought us tonight. I'm licking my lips as I think about the berries in my fridge. Hold on. I need to go and get another one. ... Ok, I'm back. So not only are we blessed because they made their visit and shared their message, but they are sharing wonderfully delicious fruit with us as well. We've also received cherries and apricots. Yum! Yum! Dad Erickson, what do you think of those blackberries? I think of you every time I see them...and eat them. :)

Lainey's Faces

Macaroni Tower

She was so proud that she could be so helpful. Then we had to put them all back.

A trip to Michaels

I braved the craft store with four of my five children. I got a lot of "Wow, you are brave!" comments as we went up and down the aisles at Michaels. We made it just fine with only a slight melt down at the end from Benjamin because we weren't buying the trains he spotted. It was so much fun to go there with Emma. She was in crafters heaven. She never knew there was a store with so many craft supplies. And of course her excitement made me want to buy more so we'd have plenty of projects to do together.

Emma is making pom-poms out of yarn. I saw an idea while we were at the store to make a scarf out of these cute little puff balls. I didn't want to buy the kit for $20 so I bought my own supplies. Emma was so excited to try these out. In fact she's still awake working on them right now.

A Red Flag

Our mailbox didn't have a flag to indicate when we had mail. Who ever heard of a mailbox with no flag? I don't know how that happens. When Jason saw that it would be $5.00 for just the flag, he decided to make one on his own. Here is our new little red flag. Isn't it cute?!

Best Feature #10

Best Feature #10 is....a pencil sharpener.


This is not just any sharpener. This is an old school manual pencil sharpener. Takes me back to fifth grade every time I use it. Now, what makes this sharpener even better is that it is located in the shop. So Emma and I took our bag of colored pencils out to there today and had a little sharpening party so she could color. Our last electric sharpener was a bomb, so I didn't mind that my arm got tired and my fingers went numb from turning the handle.

Birthday Wishes

Today we were able to celebrate the birthday of my mother-in-law. What a wonderful woman! I have been so blessed to have her as a second mom. She really is quite amazing! She lives in sacrifice, always giving to her children and seeing that their needs are met. She (and Dad E) have welcomed me into their family and made me feel just as loved and included.

I remember Mom helping us when Emma was born. Six weeks after I had Emma I had surgery to have a cyst removed. Mom came that night to be with Emma so Jason and I could go to the hospital. I remember coming home from the hospital worried that Emma would be cranky or fussy. However she was so content with Grandma, asleep on her shoulder. My mom also came to stay for a day or two and I remember sitting propped up in bed with Mom E and Mom Z laughing and telling newlywed stories. It was so much fun!

I remember when Paul was born and I had to be in the hospital with him while he was under the bili lights. It was a stressful time for Jason and I. He was going to school and had Emma to take care of. I was at the hospital with Paul and they couldn't figure out why his jaundice count was so high and not going away. It was scary and I was not handling the emotional roller coaster very well. I remember the night that Jason's parents came for a visit. Mom E brought me a single red rose and sat with me on the hospital bed as I cried. She put her arm around me and just let me lean against her side and sob. It was such a comfort to have her there at that time. She didn't tell me to buck up; she didn't tell me that I was being silly. She just held me and let me cry.

I remember Mom's support when we had the twins. Her stories, advice, and encouragement meant so much because she had had twins herself. I was discharged with Claire on a Friday night and we stayed the night at Mom and Dad's house. Benjamin needed some extra time in the bili bed and so we picked him up the next morning. I remember the look on Mom's face as we said goodbye in the driveway. We had everyone packed in their car seats and we'd exchanged hugs and kisses. I climbed into the Big Red Van and rolled down the window for a few last goodbyes. Dad E stood next to Mom with his arm around her as she cried. She knew what was in store for us and how hard it would be, but she also knew that we could do it. I could sense in that moment the mantle had been passed and she wanted so much to ease our stress and help us succeed. And look at us now mom! Terrorizing you with every visit! :}

How blessed I have been to have drawn the mother-in-law wild card. I am so thankful for who my husband is because of his mom, who my children are because of their grandma, and who I am because of my mother-in-law. Happy Birthday Mom!