Best in Show

I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the girls tonight?! I did get a picture of my mom and I. Yes, that's my mom as Fred again. Will got called in this morning by AAA staffing and so he took it. I was a little disappointed, but the extra cash is always nice, too. So my mom and dad agreed to come up at the last minute to help me with all the kids since I don't really know anyone and they would have been so disappointed if they couldn't go.

me and my mom as Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble

The Fall Harvest Festival for our ward was so fun! They served pumpkin stew. I know it sounds weird, but it was actually very savory. It was a beef stew with chunks of fresh pumpkin in it. I am going to look the recipe up online. It was so good! The gal that was in charge got up to announce the awards for best costumes and she said that she didn't know the real name, but the best family costume award goes to the "Flintstone" family!! They gave us this cute award and $25 gift certificate to Papa Murphy's Pizza!

On our way to the church beforehand, I let the girls trick-or-treat at a few houses on our street. I took some video from the car. Notice what happens at the 3rd house. I crack up every single time I watch it!!! LOL

BABY'S 1st BOO-OO!!

Dr. Appt

I had my 6 week postpartum appointment today. I took Roxelle with me and since it's Halloween I put Asia's little baby piggy costume on her. It was a hit! That tiny curly tail and pig hood looked so cute!!

Trunk or Treat

We drove down to the Woodburn 1st Ward trunk or treat. It was really fun! Since I don't have a sewing machine or the time to make costumes, or the funds to go out and buy any, we recycled our Flintstone costumes from last year. I hand made one extra (tacked black shapes on a purple-ish pink-ish one piece GAP outfit) for Roxelle who went as Dino. Since Will had to work Grandma stood in as Fred, but he's off tomorrow for our ward Fall Harvest Festival.

Mariah as Wilma Flintstone

Brinlee as Betty Rubble

Asia as Pebbles Flintstone

Tatum as Bamm-Bamm Rubble

"Bamm-Bamm" & Hannah Jones as Piglet

Roxelle as Dino Flintstone

6 weeks old

how u cook rice?

So I majorly burned the rice last night.....UGH! We don't have a rice cooker. We had to leave our nice 10 cup one in HI . I looked up the directions in one of my cookbooks to find out the exact rice to water ratio. I don't know what I did, but I put it on and Will and I were watching a video in the next room. Within about 10 mins, it started to smell like something was on fire. When I checked it the rice looked fine (through the glass lid on the pan), but there was boiled over water on the burner. Well, when the timer went off and I opened the lid, a mix of smoke and steam came pouring out. The bottom of the rice was complete charcoal. We could have BBQ'd on it. It stunk SO BAD! I opened some windows and the sliding door to clear out the smell and had Mariah close all the doors upstairs so it wouldn't permeate up there. Well this morning, I opened our bedroom door to come down stairs and the smell about knocked me out! So after Ri and Brin were off to school, we bundled up, turned off the heat and opened up the entire house. It took almost 2 hours to clear out the smell. It actually wasn't as freezing as I thought it'd be.

BOY crazy

Brinlee came home from school today and said that Trevor (TJ) Narvasa, the neighbor boy in her class at school and at church just broke up with his friend and they are not friends anymore. I asked her if the friend was a girl or a boy and she said "a boy" (in a tone like, DUH!). I think we have a boy-crazy girl. She has been talking about TJ non-stop. It's always "TJ this" and "TJ that" and "TJ and his sister Becca ride our bus." Becca is in Kindergarten. She wants to hurry and get ready in the morning so that they can walk with TJ and Becca (and Wendy. She walks with them every day). They all do get along really well. Mariah likes to be the boss, of course. It's nice they can play outside on days that it's not raining.

St. John's Ward

Today was our first Sunday in our new ward. We are in the St. John's Ward of the Vancouver West Stake. It was so crazy that we saw 3 or 4 people that we knew from the Meadows Ward that we lived in before we moved to HI. Jill Taylor is in the Salmon Creek ward which meets just after us. We saw Lynn Ann, who was the nursery leader in Meadows. She was just visiting with another family that is in our new ward. We also saw the Bigelows, who had just moved into Meadows Ward right before we moved out and they are friends with Monte and Dotty Walsh. We met the Tong family and they lived in Meadows Ward before we moved in there, so they know a lot of the same people we do. Bro. Tong is in our new ward bishopric. It was so wild to see all these familiar faces. We really don't live that far from where we used to live, but it seems a world away! Also, my neighbor, Wendy, that introduced herself earlier in the week is a member. I was wondering if she might be. =D

The ward is pretty big. We got there right as the meeting was starting and had to sit in the overflow. Bishop Mansius told Will that there are over 700 people on the ward roster. That's like UT or something! LOL

Neighborhood

I really like our new neighborhood. It is just off a really busy road (SR 500), but it has such a cozy feel to it. We don't have anybody directly in front of or behind us. In fact, we are backed up to a cute little old house that sits on about 3 acres. Our driveway, which is off an easement road faces another 2-3 acre field belonging the house on the other side of it. Our "flag" lot is one of just 3 on our easment, so it feels very private. The neighbors right next door are super nice. They have one daughter that is Brinlee's age, but she is homeschooled. The mom is pregnant with their 2nd girl. One of my neighbor's that lives up on the main street and down a bit came by today and introduced herself as I was leaving to go to the grocery store. Her name is Wendy and her son, Trevor, is in Brinlee's class at school. There were about 6 or 7 little neighbor kids that were over playing in the field in front of our driveway. The girls are in heaven with so many kids their age!

The BIG MOVE!

Most of you already know, but for those of you that don't....we are now first time home owners!!!! We could not be more excited to be in a home that we can call our very own. We are in Vancouver in the St. Johns area (off of 42nd Ave). I will be sending out an email with the change of address. Also, I need to get new addresses from those of you that have moved since last Christmas so that I can update my Christmas card list.

The girls love their new school and teachers. They are at Truman Elementary School. I don't have alot of time right now as I am just at my moms for a visit. We don't have a computer yet, or a tv, or beds, or much of anything for that matter yet! LOL!! Anyone in Vanc. area that is giving any decent furniture away is welcome to throw it our way! I should be back online by next week. Stay tuned......

Tatum

Tatum is starting to get comfortable here. This morning while I was feeding Roxelle, she was standing near me asking me all kinds of questions in her little way. She gets this really serious look on her face and when she's "thinking" she shifts her eyeballs all the way to the corners of her eyes. This is how it went. (btw, she calls both Grandma's by their last names only for some reason)

Tatum: Jones? House?

Kristy: No this is our house.

T: Oh. Jones? (and points to the floor)

K: No, she lives at Grandma's house.

T: Oh. Bunch?

K: Yep, Grandma has a bench.

T: Oh. Sit?

K: No, she's not at home right now.

T: Oh. A-owplane?

K: Yes, Grandma went on an airplane. (she went to visit Ross and them).

T: Oh. Waynen? House?

K: Yeah, she went to Braden's house.

T: Oh.

She makes me laugh. When I think about how she talks (like now) it makes me smile! =>

New House. New School. 1st Day...aGaiN?

We spent the night in our new digs for the first time last night, even though we closed on Friday, the 17th. Will had to work Fri, Sat and Sun and I didn't really want to go to our new ward by myself on the first Sunday, so we stayed at Grandma's for the weekend. After Sunday dinner, Chelsea drove mom's van with the last of our stuff and followed us up here.

Watching a video

Roxelle slept all night for the first time last night!!! I fed her at 10 and put her down and she slept clear through until 7 am!!! She loves her new house. (Probably because we left the heat on and she finally got a warm night sleep for once in her little life ~ Grandma's house is always FREEZING!! Sorry, Mom and Dad, but it's true! LOL).

Roxelle in her make-shift bed

This morning the girls got ready for their 2nd 1st day of school. They were excited and nervous. Brinlee kept chattering on about how funny it would be if her new 1st grade class had a substitute teacher and the substitute turned out to be Ms. Weigel (her Lincoln Elementary teacher). She really misses her already! I dropped them off and got a picture of each of them with their new teachers, both of whom seemed really nice.

It's interesting how this morning when I dropped them off, I got all misty-eyed on the way home and this isn't even their "real" first day. I was thinking about how this is the school they will remember and this is the school where each of them will go. I've never had such a feeling of "permanence" before. It feels really good.

Everyone eating breakfast

Mariah with Ms. Choate ~ and~ Brinlee with Mrs. Little

1 month old

A whole month has gone by already, yet it seems as though she's been a part of our family for much longer than just 4 weeks. She is such a blessing to us. We are loving having a new baby in the house!

Roxelle Rianna

Hospital Video

I finally uploaded and put together the video clips from the hospital. These were filmed about 30 minutes after she was born.

She is doing really well. She only wakes once in the night to eat now. I feed her at 10, then again at 3 and then not till 7. Will is so good to trade off and feed her in the night a lot. She is not nursing yet, so I pump and she gets a bottle. She'll be 4 weeks on Wednesday. She is such a joy to have in the house. She gets loved to death by all her sisters and everyone here.

Tatum seems to have adjusted well. She was clingy to me at first, but now she is content to be mommy's big helper. "Wah-sell" (Roxelle) is her personal baby doll, so she thinks. I caught her trying to pick Roxelle up off the floor the other day. YIKES!!

Asia's 4!

Happy Birthday Asia!!!

Today is Asia's birthday. I felt really bad because I hadn't planned anything in advance since I wasn't sure exactly where we'd be. So I called 2 little girls in our ward this morning to see if they would like to come this afternoon and share some cupcakes with Asia. And Jolene brought her little girl, Faith, over. We had cupcakes and snacks and they played together for about an hour. Asia had no idea that it wasn't a "real" party. She had a blast!

Btw, she insisted that the shirt she is wearing is a dress. I could NOT convince her that it's a long shirt and she refused to put pants on. So I decided not to argue with her on her birthday. I did insist that she wear some shorts under it, though. UGH! GIRLS!!!!

Asia and Tatum

I keep forgetting that I took Asia and Tatum for their 4 and 2 year old pictures just a few days before I gave birth. Asia did really well. She posed the way the photographer asked and got her shots in just one or two takes. Tatum, on the other hand, made that poor girl work for her money! She would NOT smile, or sit still, or stay in the pose. I think it's been typical for all 4 of the girls to have a hard time at the 2 year pictures. Still, Kiddie Kandids always does a great job!

Asia Faith Erickson

Tatum 'Anelalani Erickson

First smiles

I know they say babies don't really smile, that it's just gas, but Roxelle is such a smiley little thing. Even some of the pics on the day she was born, she looks like she's smiling. Her little lips just turn up at the corners, I guess.

2 weeks old

Yesterday, in the early morning hours, I was changing Roxelle and her tummy cord had finally fallen off. I think that it one of the worst things to deal with on a brand new baby. That things is so icky and gross and gnarly looking. *SHUDDER* I am always counting down the minutes till it falls off. Brinlee and Tatum each had to have theirs cauterized because it fell off too early and was all weepy and oozing. YUCK!!!

On another note, she LOVES her bath! As soon as she hears water running, she calms down immediately. She has taken to her schedule pretty well. There have been a few bumps, but there always is. She wakes at 1 and 4 to eat and mostly always goes straight back down. Here in the next few days, I think she'll be ready to eliminate the 1 am feeding and we'll be able to get a good 6 hours in. *SIGH*