First Snow

So I just looked outside my kitchen window while getting Tay some lunch. What should I see but a light snow coming down. I think we are in for a heck of a winter this year. Maybe there will be snow around long enough that we can take the kids sledding. We will see how long it will take for it to stick.

Been awhile.

So before the kids started school I went ad had their pictures taken. We had some much fun. The lady taken them actually took about 45 pictures because she was having a lot of fun with the kids and I. I was not a picky parent. So above is one of the group shots we took.

This is a sisters shot that I think came out really cute. Our niece fixed all the kids hair really cute. Which the kids loved being spoiled in that way.

I thought of this idea while the photographer was doing some other shots. I thought it would be really cute. Turned out I was write. I love John's face here. Taylor was all for giving brother loves too.

We let each child pick a background they wanted to have an individual picture done. Daisy is my book worm so it did not surprise me that this was the background she wanted. She tried not to smile but I stood just off to the side and tickled her a bit so she did. Daisy is in the 5th grade this year.

I love this picture of my Mar-bear. She is so sweet and loved flowers and butterflies. Marybeth is in the 3rd grade and loving it so far.

John said he wanted a background with fire. Well when he was picking out his background he didn't actually see the fire part of it but thought it was cool afterwards. John is in 1st grade this year.

We had a hard time with Tay's pictures because every time we tried to pose them she would scrunch up her nose and close her eyes. So we took a lot of candid shots of her. Which really didn't turn out too bad. I love this one. Taylor is in Kindergarten this year.

We are all doing really good. We are keeping busy with work and school and keeping up the house.

Oh what a summer

We have had a busy summer this year so far. It is about half over now and we still have some things planned.

For Willie and my ten year anniversary my Mom watched the kids for the weekend and we went camping and fishing. It was so much fun and so relaxing. We loved the alone time for 3 days.

When we got home we set up the tent and let the kids spend the night in it on our front lawn. Something would never even considered it in Arizona. They had so much fun. Taylor we wound up having to bring back inside because she just could not settle down and kept messing with the other kids.

The kids loved watching Mom play her games. They loved having her here in general. They really didn't want her to leave. She took John boy to see the new Transformers movie. He loved that.

The 4th of July weekend we went camping for the Snow Family Reunion. We had so much fun with that too. It rained off and on all weekend. This is a picture Daisy took of Taylor and I roasting marshmallows.

This is a picture of Willie and Aunt Carol making breakfast Saturday morning. We have a few more things planed too.

I feel blessed!

I really feel blessed today. I have a wonderful man who loves me for a husband. For almost 10 years now! I never dreamed that I would have as great of in-laws as I have, but I love them all so much. I have 5 wonderful kids in all. Who are all achieving great things in their life. We have a roof over our heads, and Willie and I both have jobs. Just thought I would share.

Can't believe it has been so long again.

I really do try and write a blog more often. I think about doing it just about everyday. But with four kids a job and a house time seems to slip by. The picture above and below are from March 17th. Taylor's green shirts where all dirty so she just had a green shamrock necklace. But hey it worked.

John has the afternoons with me. He is a good kid and I find him playing in his room a lot. Well this time his room looked like a tornado had hit it. He was just chillin on his mattress that he had pulled off his bed to roll his monster trucks down. He looked really cute had to snap a picture.
This picture is from Taylor's birthday. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of her face. I will have to see if her Grandpa has one. But we told her to smile and hold still (she was having problems holding still long enough to get a picture.) Well she scrunched her eyes shut and wrinkled her nose and finally held still. She was such a character that night.

On the 11th the city had a fun egg hunt at the park that we went too. We took our niece with us because her Mommy had to work. The kids had a lot of fun again this year.
Well for the first time ever I think the kids dyed Easter Eggs. They had fun doing it.
This cute little guy is Cloudy. He/she is the latest addition to our family. The kids named him/her Grey Cloud, but just Cloudy for short. The kids and I are having a lot of fun with Cloudy.

Daisy's cat also had another litter of babies. She had 3 this time. One Grey one and 2 Black ones. They are really cute. They are a couple of days old.

I have been really proud of Willie. Monday will mark 4 weeks with our smoking. He told me it is to soon to be proud of him. I don't agree, I know how hard it has to be to quit. Also he has done really good this time with his temper. He says that there are times where he has to work at it really hard. But none the less he is doing it and I am really proud of him.

With a bit of Sadness

Well, once in a while I look at the kids and think, "They have grown again!" I have thought that lately with Marybeth and Daisy. John has become more of a bean pole. Taylor... I have been noticing that all her 5T clothing is starting to get too tight. It didn't really hit me until yesterday afternoon while passing the baby/toddler section. I am out of that section now all together. I had a bit of sadness over this fact. I don't know why... because I so don't want another kid. I just guess I came to the realization that they are all really growing up. Some times it is hard to think of Tay as almost 5 with all the problems she has.

Well, I just thought I would share that.

Twilight

So I have become a Twilight fan! I did not think at first that I would like the series because I am not a big Vampire fan in the first place. But I had a friend let me borrow the first book. She swore I would love them. And she was right. I loved reading and talking with friends at work about the books. I think Stephanie Meyers did a really good job on these books and I am so addicted now! Just thought I would share.

Our Week

The last week of February had John's birthday in it. My little man turned 6 this year. I can't believe how big all the kids are getting. When he first woke up I gave him a couple things I had found walking around work, one was a Transformer cup. The other was the shirt he is wearing in the picture. He had been asking me for a Batman shirt. So when I found this one on clearance I could not pass it up. After he got home from school Willie took us to a birthday lunch at Wendy's. (That is where John Boy wanted to go.) After we got home Willie gave him the scooter. He was very excited about it.
We went to Grandma's house for dinner. John wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and stars. So Shania (our niece) made this cake for him.
We had to remind Taylor not to blow out the candles. She gets over excited and on Daisy's birthday she blew them out for Daisy. But John seemed to have trouble this year blowing out his own candles. He had to take several big breaths.
John is becoming a big time lego fan. He likes the kits and makes the actual kit a couple of times. Then he takes them apart and makes his own planes and boats. (This past weekend Daisy and John spent a lot of time making there own trucks and boats and playing together. They are the 2 really creative ones. Mary tends to stick with the instructions)
We got John a new Leapster. He had one that we bought him about 3 years ago. But it is getting pretty hammered and sometimes does not work. But it was well worth the money spent. He has learned a lot from it, and he loves to play it. I got him a new game to go with it too. It is a Tomas the Train game... it his helping him work on time as well as other things.
John is a boy of many likes. Being a cowboy is high on his list of likes. Shania got him his first cowboy hat. He was so excited because he has been wanting one really bad. I am going to go get his picture taken on my next pay check. I will post them as soon as I do.
Taylor has just gotten threw another ear infection. It burst again, second time since Christmas. So the doctor is thinking that tubes would be a good idea for her. Because she will not tell me for a long time that her ears hurt so that she does not have to take medicine. So in the picture above you probably see a sweet angle. Don't let her fool you. One day this week John started calling for me from the kitchen. When I went in to see what was going on I saw sparks coming from the microwave. Then I saw flames. I found out that Leapster games can survive being washed in a pair of pants but they do not survive the microwave or being on fire. Not sure what she was thinking when she put it in the microwave... but I am laughing about it now that its been a few days.
My comic relief this weekend was this little cat chasing the big dog in the picture below. Tigger really does not like dogs being in our yard. In fact she even stalks dogs that are on a leash being walked by our yard. I have seen her chase littler dogs out of our yard a lot. But yesterday I saw her chasing this big dog down the street. She doesn't even come up to the dogs knees.
Oh by the way. This is Jaw. He lives around the corner from us. Last summer while we where working in the garden we would pet him threw the fence. His owner actually took one of the kittens we had last summer too. He is just a big puppy. He is a really sweet dog. Who needs to get their own big dog when you have one like this come to visit all the time.

Pics from Feb 8th

Well, my girl is now one year older. Daisy turned nine on the 9th of this month. She had a great birthday. She got pretty much everything she wanted on her list. She is still my little reader. Which I love. She comes out and tells me what is happening in her books all the time.

In school she is doing really good. She is still struggling on some of the math. But we are working together on helping her understand it. She also has been pushing the limits a bit to see how far she can go before she gets in trouble. Well, it was not far. Her teacher is a bit of a softy but Mom is not. I guess she and her friend have not been in the areas that they should be while at school. She is getting so big. I can't believe it some times when I look at her.

Daisy is becoming quit the artist. She loves to draw. She is learning how to shade in pictures and make things look 3d. It is really neat to see her talent grow. Also she has become really interested in Soft Ball. This spring I am thinking about signing her up.
Marybeth is doing great. She is well liked and quit out going. She can do great in school when she wants to. The teacher says she has those days where all her work comes in looking great and then there are those days where she does not apply herself and the papers do come as good. She has done better at her spelling test than I ever did that is for sure.

She is growing up fast too. She struggles a bit with reading. But she reads enough of the story that she knows what is happening. She does like reading so we are working on getting her skills up. She is so sweet and makes me smile a lot. Right now her biggest interest is Horses. She loves horses and is still trying to talk her Dad and I into getting one.
John boy is my cowboy. He is doing great in school. He is ahead of most of the class. He is doing really good in math and he is starting to read. He likes doing both. He loves to draw as well. He is not too bad either. I can already see that Daisy and him will have different styles. Which I fill is a good thing. John is turning 6 on the 25th of this month. He can't wait. But what kid can right. John is all boy. He loves getting dirty and teasing his sisters. Today he told me I needed to get Daisy to turn of her music so that he could concentrate of getting her to let him play with her. I heard Marybeth call him Johnny today and he told her that only his Great Grandma Erickson and Grandpa John could call him that. I thought that was really cute. I could not help but laugh.
Taylor is a little stinker most of the time. She loves getting her own way, and works pretty hard at it. The other day in the middle of the day she decided that she wanted a shower so she went potty in her pants. (Daisy had told me the last time that she did that because she knew I would give her a shower.) So when she asked I told her no. She cried for a bit the next thing I knew she was undressed and had spread pudding from head to toe. I have had my fingers crossed that none of my children would get the curses of being left handed like Willie and I. Well Taylor is a lefty. She is doing a lot better with talking. We can understand what she is saying most of the time now. Actually so can other people that don't spend as much time around her. She is such a sweet spirit when she wants to be.

I love all the kids and I am having tones of fun watching them grow up. I am still working nights at Walmart. I really do enjoy it. There is the drama that is always in the work place. But I still love having a job again and getting that little bit of out time.

Well, I must be off to bed. I will try writing again soon. Maybe post some of John's birthday pics.

Its A New Year!

I want to wish everyone a happy new year. This year is going to be a year of change in our country. It seems like we went into this new year with more unknowns than years past. People around me are talking about being layed off from the oil fields. I thank God everyday that Willie has a job that is secure.

My job is going really good. I like pretty much every one I work with. I love having that outlet out of the house and getting to know people around here. The extra money made Christmas a very relaxing one this year. I was able to get something for everyone that I knew they would like. Willie and I where also able to help a couple families out that we know. Which made us both feel really good about where we are at right now. We totally felt the Christmas spirit this year, and I think the kids benefited from the experience too.

Speaking of Christmas I do have some pictures but have not downloaded them yet. Been busy trying to get the house back in order now that the kids are back in school. We went and spent Christmas eve night and Christmas morning with my Grandparents. Then in the afternoon we went to Willie's sister's house. We had a lot of fun.

Daisy is doing great. She is loving school and doing well. Today she aged me a couple more years. She came home and asked if I had ever did this dance... then she started doing the Macarena! I said yes Daisy I remember when that dance first came out. She was amazed. Every time I turned around she was "practicing it" Could not help but laugh.

Marybeth is doing good. She is more into the social part of school. She is really smart and can do the work if she wants. I have seen her do it actually. But most of the time she chooses not to. Even her teacher says that when she focuses she does great. But that is my girl. I think I was the same way.

John is doing really well in school as well. He is always sounding out words and writing them down. The last time I got him those work books from the store I bought a first grade one because the Kindergarten one just seemed to easy for him. He is reading pretty good for his age as well. I think he has a pretty good memory too. Some times he will come up with these random thoughts that I just can not follow what he is saying. I will have to think about it and I will finally realize where the thought came from. His mind is always going. I got him a small Lego set for Christmas and he put it together and played with it. At one point it broke apart a bit he said oh I need the box. I watch him put this little space ship back together just by looking at the box. I was amazed. Then when he got tired of the one that the box showed he made up several of his own versions.

Taylor is doing lots better. She has been getting a lot of ear infections already this winter. That is a bit of a concern but we are watching them. Now that the school year is about half over, I worry about if she will be ready to go to Kindergarten in the fall. She has made great progress with her speech. I just don't know if it is where it should be. I am trying not to stress about it to much yet we still have a while.

All is well and we are loving life right now. The kids are growing up quicker than I would like. The oldest 2 girls got MP3 players for Christmas so they are always walking around here with them. My kids love their music.

Hope everyone has a great New Year.