Mariah

I finally took Mariah to get her pictures done professionally in her baptism dress. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Kiddie Kandids?!

Pioneers in the Pacific

The "Mormon" Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. Subsequently, it has been a day that we have celebrated every year since. This year, our ward decided to celebrate the "Pioneers in the Pacific".

Tricia Christiansen, who has also lived in Hawai'i for several years, was in charge of the activity. I could tell that a lot of work was put in to make it a success. We all grew up in the Woodburn Ward together with the Ing family, who is originally from O'ahu. Keola Ing now lives with his wife and kids in the Woodburn 1st Ward, which we are currently attending. He was able to help out a lot with the traditional aspect of the activity.

On Friday night, Keola and several people prepared a pig to be cooked in the Imu pit that had been dug earlier in the week. After the pig was in and cooking, Tricia had prepared a program with several speakers to talk about the first LDS missionaries that were sent to the islands in the 1850's.

Keola (in the black shirt and sunglasses) and the gang

Grandpa Jones in the Hawaiian print shirt, Asia and Will

Imu Pit

Keola throwing wet burlap cloth on the pit

Asia fell asleep, poor girl!

Brinlee and Tatum waiting for the program to start.

On Saturday, we started at noon with lunch. The Kalua Pork was absolutely amazing! There was lots of local kine food to eat and it made me miss the islands that much more. Tricia had asked me to help at the Poi ball making station. We helped the primary kids make little poi balls and then Mariah and Brinlee demonstrated how to use them. It was a lot of work, but the kids had so much fun!

The girls were also asked to do the entertainment. They danced the few hula numbers they had learned in their 7 months of hula lessons. Asia started running a fever on Friday night and didn't feel well enough to perform. Brinlee was supposed to go first with Tahitian and then change into her pa'u for the final number, but she was so nervous that Mariah did her Maori number with the poi balls first. Then Brinlee was supposed to do their Tahitian number, but she got up there and cried and wouldn't do it. So we decided to just go ahead with Ua Mau (I know it's a Christmas song, but that's all they know! LOL!) to see if that would help her warm up. That is why they didn't change into their "Hawaiian" costumes, there was no time! Then Brinlee did her Tahitian number and did a really nice job. I was really proud of them for getting through their nerves. It wasn't a perfect performance, but I was happy that they were able to use their hula costumes again!

Oldies

I had a lot of fun going through my old box of photos to find ones that would coordinate with some of those annoying 100's posts. Here are couple that I found and LOVE!

This is my parents vacationing in Vegas in 1969.

This is my mom when she was about to give birth to me.
Nov. or Dec. 1976

#1

When I was 18, I won a blind date on Z100's "Desperate and Dateless".

I was listening to the radio on a Thursday or Friday evening and heard that the guy on Desperate and Dateless would get to take the girl he chose to the Boyz II Men concert. So I called and told them I was 23. I think the guy was 27. The concert was that weekend and my parents were out of town. The guy ended up choosing me! I was so stoked. I met the guy at some cafe in Portland near the concert venue and we walked together. He was some country hick kind of guy with the starts of a mullet going on and wearing a western button up shirt and wranglers (to an R&B concert??). Don't get me wrong, I love a hot guy in a nice pair of wranglers, but you gotta know where to draw the line. This guy wasn't "ugly" per say, but I just remember he wasn't very tall (only a little taller than me 5'4). I had a blast at the concert, screaming my guts out. He just kind of sat there. LOL We had pretty good seats. I think there were just a couple rows back on the 1st set off the floor. It was the first concert I had ever been to and it was AWESOME!

Souvenier Photo we had taken.

the 100's

They are all finally done! If you want to view the entire list, click HERE. You will have to scroll down the page about 1/2 way. I have also added pictures throughout the entire list to coincide with some of the tidbits.

I had a lot of fun doing this....it got a little monotonous in the end, but I had fun revisiting some memories that I don't otherwise think about. Now my kids can look back and laugh at what a crazy mom they have!

31 Weeks

I am exactly 31 weeks today. Will took these pictures of me this past Sunday. I don't know if it's that I don't see myself in the mirror as that big, or if I am in denial, but looking at these pics of myself I don 't wonder anymore why people ask me if I'm sure I'm not having twins! ha ha ha

Willard R. Erickson, Jr., RN

FINALLY!!!! Will just found out that he passed the NCLEX! He took the test on Friday and just went online and there were the results!

He was a little nervous because it's a 265 question test and the computer shut off after he'd answered just 75 questions. That either meant that he'd answered enough correctly that he didn't need to continue, or the other way around, that he'd answered too many incorrectly and it wouldn't let him continue. We've been on pins and needles for the last 2 days!

Coincidentally, he also got the job that interviewed for this past Tues. It's working for Providence Milwaukie Hospital. It's located near SE Portland.

We would still really like to live in Vancouver. We will work out the details in these next couple of weeks to come.

YAY!! NO MORE SCHOOL!

Brinlee

Brinlee lost her 2nd tooth today! Last week she lost her first one and I am so spacey these days that I forgot to take a picture. The 2 permanent teeth are already broken through and poking up a quarter of the way, even before the baby ones fell out. She got 2 dollars from the tooth fairy! $1 for each. She was so excited that the morning after the 1st one fell out, Grandma Jones took her straight to the Dollar Tree to spend it. Grandmas.......

My little Firecrackers!

We had a busy week with the holiday and 2 birthdays, plus Adam and Megan in town. On the 2nd was Bradens 2nd birthday and on the 3rd was Ellie's 1st birthday. They tried to celebrate together, but Ellie was not a happy camper. It turned out ok though. She doesn't really know the diff anyway.

The night of the 3rd we all went to the St. Paul Rodeo and watched a HUGE fireworks show after. The rodeo was AWESOME! The thing that was not so fun was the stadium benches on my fat prego tushy...GRR! Mariah and Brinlee were totally into watching the Rodeo Queen and her court. Awwww....after my own heart =D!

On the 4th we were all tired from getting home at 11:30 after the rodeo, but some got up to be at the church morning run at 7 am. Then there was the flag raising at 8 at the church and then breakfast in the city park with parks and rec at 8:30. We left straight from the breakfast to go back to St. Paul for the parade. The kids were so excited! After the parade we were planning to let them ride a few rides each until we realized they were having a special of 1 ticket rides (as opposed to 4 tickets per ride). They ended up getting to ride 7 or 8 rides each. I even snuck on to the ferris wheel by holding Tatum and my purse in front of my belly. The guy wasn't really paying attention anyway. That evening we went out to some old family friends', the Nelson's, for a huge picnic BBQ. They accuired a license this year to legally let off the really big fireworks. Our kids were being so cranky and ornery that we took them home at 8:30 and put them to bed. They got to see a really big show the night before, after the rodeo anyway.