christmas with the shoes

Bryan's parents came into town the week after Christmas. So we enjoyed opening presents again, shopping, looking at houses, and playing games. It was good times.

Papa can't get enough of Raelynn

 Inspecting....something...

 Pj's from Auntie Wendy & Uncle Lanson

Curious George game from Grami & Papa

Raelynn's little diva coat from Papa & Grami

He's going to kill me.

This is a glimpse of my day to day life with this man.

He is my very favorite.

Rae loving on her caterpillar

They love their gigantic fire truck puzzle 

from Uncle Jerad & Auntie Jami

Loving on their grandkids

Merry Christmas!

8 months

still weighing in at 18.5 pounds

Here's your latest:

~ You started growling. It the cutest thing. A quiet little “rrrrr” comes out usually followed by a high pitched squeal. It is so funny.

~ You are really starting to jabber and it really is music to my ears. You have the cutest little voice and the cutest little noises. 
~ You are having your very first Christmas today! You just sat in front of the tree jabbering and soaking in the chaos of your brothers. You had no interest in opening your presents, so your brothers took care of that for you. 
~ You are on a very weird sleeping schedule. You take two good naps in the day, but lately, you've decided it's party time at 11 pm at night. Not so good for me, but you are usually all smiles and jabbering away - that makes it a little easier being up so late with you.

You...

would not...

hold still

christmas 2011

Our adorable, little boys got in our faces first thing in the morning and whispered "there is a fire station in the other room, can we play with it?"

Good wake up call. We woke up Raelynn and started our Christmas morning. The boys loved their gifts, and Raelynn enjoyed our company. She sat in front of the tree the entire time just soaking it all in. Such a sweet girl.

Happy 8 months to me!

The chaos of presents

The patience of Elias while Isaiah opens his present

The boys helping Rae open her present (she's unimpressed)

 "what is it?"

 "Oh I like it!"

After opening our gifts, we got ready for the day and headed to First Church to meet my mom. After church, the whole family came over and we had lunch, opened more presents, and played games until the wee hours of the morning. Good times.

twas the night before christmas

Bryan made the boys a dog house out of a bunch of boxes we had left from the move. It was a fun project. The boys want to color it too, so when I get adventurous, I'll let them paint it.

We attended a Christmas Eve service at a church in Boise called The Pursuit. It was such a blessing to be there. It reminded me so much of our home church - Grace Chapel. They ended the service with baptisms, which really touched my heart. I left reminded of what my Savior has done for me and how he changes lives, and it really lifted my soul. It was just what the doctor ordered for missing my church so much! A blessing indeed.

Miss Rae helped us put together the boys' fire station (shh, don't tell them that's what they're getting). There were a whole lot of parts. I know the boys are going to love it! So it was definitely worth the time.

Any project is great with this smile

christmas crafts

Oh the crafts of the year! There was so much I wanted to do this year! With the boys being 3 and 4, they are on their way to being able to understand and digest Jesus so much more. I had this amazing Advent calendar planned out in my head. I'd make it (only have about 10 envelopes sewn), then stuff it with wonderfulness....

By wonderfulness, I mean with daily Bible verses to read with a small lesson teaching about why we need Jesus, why we have the Bible, why Jesus was born, and so on. Then we'd have a daily activity. Sometimes it would be a craft, sometimes it would be a new game, sometimes hot chocolate and a movie, sometimes helping another family out.

Then life happened. I didn't get the calendar done. I didn't get the Bible verses printed out. I was and am pretty bummed about the fact that I couldn't pull it all together. Bryan tells me that I need to give myself a break. After all, we just moved in at the beginning of the month and have had lots of family fun since being here. Really though, how much longer am I going to use that excuse? Oh... A LOT LONGER!

So, to make up for my lack of pulling everything together, we did crafts whenever we could cram them in!

The boys decorated their window with snowflakes & snowmen

 They colored snowflakes

Isaiah was very proud of his (Elias did not want to pose for a picture)

I was very proud of how he wrote his name all by himself

 We made a gingerbread train

 I love Elias' expression here

My boys

 Miss Rae was our biggest fan while we worked

 And the final product complete with silly faces

The boys decorated trees with glitter and paper ornaments

We also made nativity scenes

 This was definitely a favorite...we'll be making this one a tradition

 And oh my goodness. My favorites. 

I will be cherishing these ornaments forever.

erickson christmas

While Ben was in town, we did an early Christmas because they left on the 22nd. We opened presents and then had a yummy Christmas dinner. It was so much fun with all of our kids together. I made my brothers get in a few pictures because I don't have very many. They absolutely hate pictures, but someday they'll thank me for putting them through so much torture.

Welcome to our chaos:

Some of the cutest kiddos in the world

I love Karen's expression here (all the mom's gave that expression a few times)

Grandma with her grandkids

I had to throw this one in.

I couldn't stop laughing.

Eden's "am I in trouble face"

Raelynn attacking the ribbon

Elias being Elias

Isaiah's cheesy grin

And Lily..."Are we done yet?"

Getting ready to put nativity scenes together

Mitch, Ben, Karen, Madison

Love my brothers (not sure why I'm such a midget!)

Aw, I love my family