The Woolley's

The ROCKING HORSE!

2012-01-02T21:25:00.002-05:00

I have been saying ever since Christmas day that I would upload pictures of the rocking horse my dad (and mom) made. Life has been a little crazy the last week. So here I am, finally updating my blog! And I gotta say, I LOVE these pictures of the girls on the rocking horse that was hand-made by my dad, with a little finishing touch done by my mom! The rocking horse is AWESOME!! And I gotta say, the girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!! Thanks so much Grandpa and Grandma!!!!!!!!

The girls so love their rocking horse! They are so spoiled to have such awesome grandparents on both side! We love all of you!!

Ericka is FIVE!

2012-01-02T20:58:00.004-05:00

For Ericka's fifth birthday, we took the girls to the YMCA and played in the pool and on the water slide. The girls had such an amazing time! I can't even tell you how exciting and fun it was to go to the Y to celebrate Ericka's Birthday!

The girls in the car on the way to the Y

Ericka with her birthday presents...she's holding the bag Aunt Meg made her and wearing the sling Grandma Neilson made her!

Ericka felt so special on her special day! She loved all the Birthday wishes that were sent our way!

Lil checking out the goods Ericka got!

The horse cake Eric helped me make! It was a huge hit with the girls!!!

The big birthday girl!

Ericka blowing out her candles!

Couldn't get this picture to flip. The girls were all so excited about the candles!

Another shot of the cake!

Little miss Ericka with her cute little sling made by Grandma Neilson! She loves that thing and just loves feeling like a little mommy carrying her babies around in it!
We sure love Ericka and are so glad she is our oldest daughter!!

Christmas Day!

2012-01-02T20:46:00.003-05:00

The girls really enjoyed Christmas this year. It was definitely different for us to not be with Eric's family during the holidays, but it actually ended up being surprisingly enjoyable.

Ericka and Claire showing off the gifts Grandma and Grandpa Neilson gave them.

Claire, Ericka, and Lillian showing off the tree and beautiful rocking horse Grandpa and Grandma made for them!

The sweetest girls!!

Ericka writing "Merry Christmas" on the dry-erase board Santa brought her and her sisters!!

Some fun Pictures

2012-01-02T20:35:00.003-05:00

Here is a picture of Ericka and Claire decorating the Christmas ornaments we made.

We had the girls' best friend Avie come stay the night. They had tons of fun!

Lilly is always cheesing it up...she has the greatest little personality!

This was when our friends were heading home after decorating cookies with us.

Claire, Cora, Connor, Ericka, Lilly, and Avie

Lilly was really into decorating her Christmas ornaments...she's always gotta do what the big sisters are doing!

Decorating Cookies and Gingerbread Houses

2012-01-02T20:15:00.003-05:00

I have been meaning to get these pictures on here before now. Back in the beginning of December, we had the chance to have some friends over to decorate cookies. A few days later, we were able to have some other friends over to decorate gingerbread houses (they were actually made out of graham crackers). The girls LOVE anything that has to do with frosting, sprinkles, and other candies! We had a lot of fun and are glad we could have friends over to make some fun memories!!

Shaving Cream!

2012-01-02T20:03:00.002-05:00

I have had this can of shaving cream in the craft cupboard for months now. I had intentions of making this glue/shaving cream stuff and never got around to it. One evening, while waiting for Eric to get home from school, the girls and I decided to break out the shaving cream. And boy did they have a blast!!

Crafty Stuff

2011-11-26T22:14:00.004-05:00

Lately it feels like I don't have enough time in a day to do much besides keep up with my little girls! I love that they keep me busy, but sometimes it would be nice if I had the amount of energy they do...then I could keep up with them better, and also have the energy to spend more time doing crafts and sewing.
Here are a few pictures of a few of the projects I have managed to complete in the last few months.
I got the squirrel and owl pillow ideas off of Pinterest. I had a lot of fun drawing patterns and coming up with my own twist on the pillows. And of course, if I made one for one of the girls, I had to make one for all of them!

This one is Claire's squirrel pillow

Here is the owl pillow I made for Claire...she LOVES blue, so I used lots of blue.

The two owl pillows I made for Ericka and Claire, and the three squirrel pillows for my three little ladies!

This is a wreath that I had been working on since September. It took me forever to find the time to get it done. I really like the way it turned out now that it is done! But now I need to get a Christmas one made.

My friend Jen gave me some pillow shams she had and told me to make some cute pillows to match my red couch. I had lots of fun coming up different pillows to make. Thanks so much Jen!!

Our red couch with the pretty pillows.

I love being crafty and really love when I can find the time to do so!

Philly at it's Finest!

2011-11-26T20:47:00.007-05:00

Last weekend Eric and I had our friends watch the girls for us while we took a trip in to the city. We really don't live that far from the city, but while we were on the train, I realized how grateful I am that we live as far away as we do. It is nice to live in a place where Eric's commute to school isn't too long.

We had fun in the city, though it did make me realize how insane I think people are for wanting to live right in the city...it's a mad-house! It sure is a different way of life!

This is the old City Hall building where the US supreme court met.

This is supposedly one of the first banks in the United States.

This is a room where the supreme court met. They have it set up to look the way it did when they were meeting.

China-town

This was one of the streets we were walking down. We thought it was so pretty with all the trees hanging over.

This is the old train station.

This is the Korean War Memorial. It was really crazy to see so many names of so many people being remembered for their efforts to protect our freedoms. It is a beautiful memorial.

The old cobblestone streets are really pretty.

We were going to eat at Jim's Steaks, but chose to eat somewhere else because the line was horrendous! Everyone says that in order to get the real "Philly Experience" you have to eat a Philly Cheese Steak from Jim's...I guess next time we go to the city we will have to hit that up.

We enjoyed seeing the old military museum.

I don't know what this building was, but I think it looks awesome, and you can see the old cobblestone street and get the "old time" feel with the horse and buggy in the picture.

Behind me is part of Constitution Hall. We went inside and got to see a room where the supreme court met back in the late 1700's.

This was my first time on the train...it was pretty exciting! Eric says that it gets pretty old riding every day, and the excitement wears off pretty quickly!
Our trip to the city was a lot of fun. I do have to admit, I think I had my fill after just a few hours. We didn't get to see all the things we would have liked to, mostly because we didn't know exactly where we were going. Also because there were lots of lines for things. We saw the Liberty Bell from outside, but didn't wait in line to get up close to it...the line was soooo, so long. We know that is part of going to the city, but we didn't want to waste too much of our time standing in lines because we had to get back to the kids. Next time we go, we hope to have a better idea of where we are going and can make a better use of our time. We also want to know more of the history about the sites.

My Sweets!

2011-11-26T20:17:00.002-05:00

I love my kids! They are so very funny and lively! They keep me so busy and I don't even remember what I did with my time before I had kids. I know people used to say that to me before I had kids and I never understood it. I can say that now I totally understand...you really forget what you did before you had kids! Some days it seems like all I do is try to keep up with the kids and don't get a thing done. I love my girls! Life is GREAT!!!

The girls love to play with play-dough. Lilly doesn't do much with it besides break it up and throw it around. But anything the older girls are doing, she must do...she has to be like them!

Lilly and Ericka love bagels! And they must have cream cheese on them! Lilly mostly licks the cream cheese off, then she will eat the rest of the bagel. She sure has become quite the cheesy girl, she likes to make people laugh!

Ericka and her friend Avie

Lilly loves to put the oven mitt on! And she sure knows how to smile for the camera, that is, when she wants to.

My little poser Ericka

Claire loves her butterfly dress that Grandma Neilson made her! Whenever she chooses what to wear, this is what she picks.

Ericka pretending to make food with her play-dough.

Lilly copying her big sisters.

Like I said, these girls are so cute! And they keep me so busy, but I totally love them!!!

Cookie Decorating

2011-11-26T19:45:00.006-05:00

I'm still trying to get caught up with my blogging. I feel like we have just been doing so much stuff and the kids have been doing lots of stuff, and I just can't keep up with all the updates and posting pictures. So, for this post, I am combining cookie decorating and pictures of Lilly when she had pneumonia.
We got together with Sarah, Easton, and Lucy Leavitt, Jenna, Avie, and Zemmie Riding, and Rachel and Sadie Hansen to decorate cookies for Halloween. While they were at our house Lilly started acting a little fussy. The kids totally had a blast and got loaded up on sugar from all the cookies and frosting!
That evening Lilly got even more fussy, and the next day she was running a high fever and having a rough time. I ended up taking her to the hospital that night and come to find out, she was just starting to get pneumonia. We caught it early and were able to get her on an antibiotic to take care of it. She ended up being fine and got over it.
Life here in PA has been great, but it really feels like since we got here Lilly has sure been sick a lot. That's life with kids though huh?!

Lilly was totally passed out on the couch feeling totally crummy!

She would move around a little, but then just totally fall asleep in crazy positions.

Ericka, Avie, and Easton decorating cookies!

Claire just loved decorating cookies! She would get all excited and start doing this shaking thing with her hands when she was putting on the sprinkles...and let me just say, she LOVES sprinkles!

A random picture of the girls with balls up their shirts...a new thing they started a few weeks ago.

Lilly just had a little bowl of frosting and it kept her busy almost the entire time the other kids decorated cookies...I know, I'm an awesome mom!

Another picture of Lilly passed out on the couch.

Just a random picture of Ericka at Avie's house. Jenna took Ericka for the day so her and Avie could play. While Avie was taking a nap, Jenna and Ericka hung out together and Jenna did a cute hair do for her!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-13T23:17:00.002-05:00

This year I didn't put much time into costumes for the girls. I love doing home-made costumes, but just didn't have the motivation to get it done this year. The girls wanted to be fairy princesses and we had Lilly be a rhino (costume courtesy of my friend Siri). The girls had lots of fun at Avie's party the Saturday before Halloween. And on Halloween I took Ericka and Claire out trick-or-treating to the neighborhood down the street. (Didn't take Lil out because she had pneumonia at the time). The girls had so much fun getting candy from all the people and getting so many compliments on how pretty they looked!

My sweet little rhino!

Little Mischief trying to open the can of Crisco...she loves to open lids with her mouth, or any other way she can figure out how to get things open!

I put makeup on the girls before we headed out trick-or-treating. Right after we got Claire all dolled up, she had a little melt down and smeared hers all over. The drama with sweet little girls!

This is what Claire and Ericka wore to Avie's little Halloween Party...they didn't want to wear their "big" princess dresses.
That wraps up Halloween for you!

Lots of Pictures!

2011-11-13T22:30:00.010-05:00

I have so many pictures I want to share! Our girls sure keep us on our toes...it seems like between the three of them there never seems to be a quiet moment when they are awake! We love our girls!

The girls recently discovered that they just love sitting in the window sills! It is so fun to watch them all play together!

Ericka and Avie love to play together. Just the other day while Lilly and Claire were napping, they went and played and enjoyed the wonderful fall weather!

Lately Lilly sure has turned into quite the little entertainer...she loves to make people laugh!

My sweet little Lil!

On a trip to Briar Bush nature Center with the girls and Sarah, Easton, and Lucy Leavitt, our fun friends!

Lilly LOVED seeing the turtle...she was so excited!

My sweet babes snuggled up together!

Ericka and I do "school" time while the other girls are sleeping...she is doing so well learning to write and do so many things! I can't believe how smart these little children are!

Me and my shiny skin again! Gotta love the natural oils right!

Some friends from our ward out here gave us this awesome teeter-totter (spelling?)!

Claire's 3rd Birthday!

2011-11-13T21:40:00.007-05:00

Claire had a wonderful Birthday! She had a fun little celebration and loved all the attention she got! She was so cute and just lit up every time she opened a gift! She is such a doll and we feel so blessed to have her in our family! She does have a little bit of fire in there and her "cuteness" sometimes plays to her advantage when she is naughty! We were happy to have our wonderful friends Paxon, Jenna, Avie, ad Zemmie Riding over to help celebrate Claire's birthday! (Jenna actually got me on track and was a huge part in pulling everything together...thanks Jenna!)

Claire was a shaggy little thing with her bangs hanging in her eyes...like I said, I needed help getting everything pulled together and didn't have time to even get the girls really cleaned up for the actual party. I guess that's kinda how my life is!

Lilly loved the cupcakes...mostly just the frosting!!

Jenna gave me the idea to do a barn and little animals for Claire's cake! Claire and Ericka are both really into animals lately! They totally LOVE animals!!

Pure joy!

Claire got so many horses for her birthday! She was ecstatic to get so many of her new-found obsession!

Aunt Meg made Claire the cutest little bag with a pad of paper and Book of Mormon in it! Both Ericka and Claire totally love it!

The awesome horse set Aunt Rachel, Uncle Justin, Janie, Reid, Jack, and Lucas gave her.

The lovely lady Jenna!

This is a nasty picture of me...my nasty shiny skin!

All the goods!

The cute cake and cupcakes...the brown ones are supposed to be horses. We didn't really know how to make them look more like horses!

Claire, Ericka, and Avie! These girls just love each other! They love playing together

Zoo Trip

2011-11-13T20:34:00.005-05:00

Back in September we decided to bite the bullet and pay to get a pass to the zoo. It only made sense to get the year pass which only cost about 20 bucks more than it costs for admission and parking for a one time deal. We are really glad we did it and look forward to taking the girls to the zoo a lot! We all had a ball at the zoo. We were there for about three hours and didn't even get to see everything! The zoo is huge and it's pretty AWESOME!!

The girls absolutely LOVED petting and combing the goats...it was their favorite part of the trip!

We had so much fun going to the Philadelphia zoo! We definitely plan on making more trips to the zoo!

Fun Things

2011-09-25T21:32:00.004-04:00

Since arriving here in PA we have had the chance to do some fun stuff. We went to this place called Briar Bush Nature Center/Park. We went on the Saturday over Labor Day weekend, so it was pretty low key. They did have one employee at the center so we were able to go inside and see the few animals they have there. The girls sure got a kick out of seeing the animals though!

Lil and Ericka with the turtles.

They had a rat running around in a ball. The girls were so excited about seeing this! And Lillian kept grabbing the ball and attempting to throw it...we left soon after that!

There were these really cool frogs in this one. There were four albino frogs and one brown one...the girls got so excited when one would poke out from behind rocks under the water.

Lil was pointing to the water in the pond we were sitting by. She would have gone in if we had let her, but we were not about to let that happen!

We love spending time at the playground at the elementary school. It is so nice because we live only about a block from the school, so it is super easy to run over to the playground and let the kids play and run off some energy! When it isn't raining, which it has been quite a bit lately, we go to the park almost every day!

Just playing and cheesing it up for the camera!

The girls love when I let them play out on the front porch. The road in front of our house is pretty busy and tons of people walk by all the time to the college on the corner, so I don't let them out without me going out with them. But they love playing on the little porch swing. We love our little house here!

Lilly seems so grown when she plays on the equipment at the playground. That girl is fearless! She will climb all the way to the top and go down the big slides all by herself! And don't even try to stop her, because she will freak out! She is just a little monkey!!

Little miss Ericka on her bike! She loves riding her bike!

The girlies posing for a picture! The ground at the playground is awesome...it's like this turf stuff. I really like it.

Claire and her ten little monkeys! Ericka, Claire, and Lilly all LOVE olives! You open a can and every last olive will be gone within like five minutes!!

The BEACH

2011-09-25T20:54:00.004-04:00

The Saturday before Eric started school we were able to make a trip out to the beach in New Jersey. We went to a place called Stone Harbor. It was such a beautiful day and we had an amazing time! The girls were so cute playing in the sand and the water! Claire Bear is sure a water dog. Lillian is beyond a water dog, she is obsessed with the water! We had so much fun at the beach!!

I absolutely love this picture of my three little girls! What sweet babes!!!

Ericka is a little bit scared of the water. She had to have a hold of mine or Eric's hand the whole time she was in the water. She is pretty timid about certain things, the water being one.

Lil buried in the sand!

Ericka buried in the sand.

Eric in his whiteness!!! I love this picture despite the blinding white!

The girls are a little happier in this picture.

"Look mom, SAND!"

Lilly ate the sand and threw it around and just loved playing in it!

Eric on the phone with mom and dad bragging that we were at the beach enjoying nice weather! Wish you could all be here to go to the beach with us! Come visit!!

The Trip Out

2011-09-25T20:14:00.004-04:00

I have been meaning to get my blog all caught up before now, but it has just taken a while. We have been so busy since arriving here in Pennsylvania. It isn't that we are doing a whole lot of stuff, we are just living and having a good time!

So, during the drive out here, we had a pretty good time. Granted we were traveling with three kids ages four and under, so we did have our melt down moments and moments of frustration. But overall, the experience was definitely one to remember! It took us about four days of driving to get here. We did have to make quite a few stops to go to the bathroom and move around a bit. We managed to find campgrounds at night where we were able to just set up the tent and camp out. Two of the three nights we stayed in the tent. The last night the police officer convinced Eric to get a hotel. There is a story that goes along with that! We pulled into the tiniest town you could imagine. Here we are in this little town, setting up our tent in the very corner of the city park, and what do you know, the one car that happened to drive by was a cop car! He saw us partly because the truck lights were on in the pitch dark, and too because we weren't really trying to hide. He pulled up next to the truck and got out to talk to us. He didn't like the idea of us camping out despite the fact that it was already like eleven at night and we would have left by six in the morning! He basically said that we needed to move on and find a hotel for the night. So, we load the beyond tired girls into the truck and have to drive another fifteen minutes before we found a hotel that was open. We did find one, and got situated for the night and had a great nights sleep! Eric and I were both pleasantly surprised at how well the girls did during the trip out here!! We are happy we were able to make the trip a pleasant experience!

Setting up camp for the night.

Little Lil just riding along!

The girls look like little orphans with messy hair and dirty faces. Why bother cleaning up when we were in the car pretty much all day for four days!

I love this picture!! The land of the FREE! (for now)

Part of what made the trip so pleasant was the fact that we had the laptop and movies for the girls to watch! I don't know my parents ever traveled so much with five kids and no portable DVD players! We also stopped at parks and played a bit. Driving seems to put the girls to sleep too, so they spent quite a bit of time sleeping. It was fun to see so many beautiful states! We were so floored at all the fields of corn and other crops!! It is so very pretty! I don't think it holds a candle to Alaska, but it truly is beautiful out here! And it was pretty incredible traveling through six states in four days!! What a grand adventure we had during our trek out to our new place of residence for four years!

Playing with Family!

2011-09-02T13:56:00.007-04:00

Before we headed out here to Pennsylvania we spent about a week with Erics family! It was so much fun to have some time together before we made the big move. I feel so blessed to have such amazing in-laws...we love to be together and look forward to having them come out and visit us while we are in PA!

The kids just loved this little car of Kayvri's! They all kept playing in it...and sometimes they would argue/fight about it, but it was fun to have it at Grandma and Grandpas while the kids were there.

We wanted to camp while we were there, but we didn't have a chance to actually go stay the night. We were fortunate enough to get to spend a day outside and "camp" minus the sleeping!

Aunt Alyssa braided all of the girls' hair...they looked so cute all matching! We couldn't get all of the girls to cooperate, but finally got an okay picture of their pretty hair.

Kayvri and Lilly are pretty much the same size, actually Lilly weighs more. What makes it so funny is that Kayvri is almost a year older!
We took the 4-wheelers and the kids had a ball riding around with Daddy, Grandpa, and Grandma!
Eric lounging with his mom! Lilly couldn't stand to let them relax, she kept climbing all over them while they were trying to sleep.
Kayvri looks pretty angry in this picture...she doesn't like me very much, and she especially doesn't like when I take her picture!
Kayle, Alyssa, Teyah, and Ericka. What a good looking group of girls!
My favorite father-in-law! What a guy!!

The girls collected .22 shells off the ground. To them they were treasures!

Lilly doing what she does...climbing, eating, and making mischief!

Ericka, Seyenna, and Naudeya...I just love little Naudeya, she is such a cutie!

I can't say this enough, but that little Parker is the CUTEST baby ever! He is just so, so cute!

What a good looking guy! If you ask me, he looks even better without the big mocho beard, but he rocks the beard pretty well!

While we were in Star Valley we took the girls to the fair in Afton. We saw a little dog show and looked at the animals. Then we got sno-cones to cool off...it was so hot. We didn't stay real long because it was just too hot!

The squirrells playing outside at Grandma and Grandpa Woolley's house. Motoring around in their mini golf cart and Kayvri's little car.

The girls made my cut off capri-legs into hats...what goofy girls! It was so funny to watch them put them on their heads.

On the drive over from Idaho the girls got Ericka's makeup and put it ALL over! They looked so very pretty when we got there!
Our time in Star Valley was so much fun! We really had a great time seeing Erics family and spending time together. We miss them all so much and wish they could be out here in PA with us. Miss you guys!

The Neilson Fun Spot-MACKAY!

2011-08-26T21:17:00.000-04:00

After we spent a few days at my parents house in Kimberly we made it to Mackay for a couple of days. It was so fun to see some of the extended family members! We had tons of fun visiting and playing hard! It was fun to camp out and the girls did so well sleeping in the tent!

Ericka met my cousin Angie's daughter Shaylee. They were so cute playing together.

What sweet angels...don't let this fool you. I bribed them with a treat for the person who posed the best for a picture! And look how enthused Becca was about it (she wanted to kill me or something)

Claire bear and Eve-kins...what cuties!

Poor Ericka got bit on the eye by a mosquito. Her eye got so swollen!

She was scared at first by the fact that she could hardly open her eye when she woke up.

You don't have to bribe this guy to pose...he's just happy to be around! My sweet, sweet Grandpa Vern!!

Janie, Jack, and Ericka. They had a great time playing and camping out with eachother!

Why are we dressed like it's cold? It actually was pretty chilly while we were there. But Lilly is made of steel so she didn't need a coat (I'm an awesome mom).

Rachel and Justin bright and smiley in the morning!

My sweet Aunt Teresa! I love this lady, she is so fun to be around!!

One of the group pictures, minus quite a few people!

Do I need to explain?

Grandma and Ericka

Grandpa and Ericka

Eric was busting jokes while taking our pictures...what a joker!

Can I get a smile? Better luck next time...we couldn't all focus at the same time, Eric was just too distracting!

My sweet niece and nephew! I miss these kids!

Ericka wanted to take a picture...she actually did a pretty good job, a little off center, but pretty good for a four year old! Future photographer right there!

As usual we had an amazing time at Mackay! One last Hoorah before we headed out to Pennsylvania! We had such a fun time and can't wait for the next time we can all get together!

Fun in Kimberly

2011-08-26T20:36:00.001-04:00

Once we got down to Idaho from Alaska, we were able to spend some time with both my family and Eric's family. First we went to my parents house in Kimberly and stayed for a couple of days. It was so nice to get to see Becca and Russell with their kids and also to have Rachel and Meg there with their families. What fun is had with family! It was so much fun to be together as one big family. The only ones missing were Hyrum and his family. They were unable to make it due to the arrival of baby Lincoln! We are excited for their new addition. We wish they could have been there, but hope that we will all be together again soon!

Ericka loved holding baby Zeke! It was so fun to see all the cousins interact!

Daddy and his girls!

Loving playing together!!

We make the discovery that Lil loves corn on the cob. She loved that thing, and would munch on it off and on all evening.

She went for a fun ride in a box. All the kids got to have a turn being pulled in the box. They all LOVED it!

Zeke joined Lilly in the box...he seemed to enjoy it, but you could tell he didn't quite know what to think.

Then found her cob of corn again and kept eating it!

We had so much fun in Idaho with everyone! It was so very fun to watch the kids interact with one another and to get to spend time visiting and having fun together!

Another Post

2011-08-26T19:03:00.001-04:00

When it was time for us to leave Cordova, Eric and I decided to do the drive together. We brought Lilly with us, but left the older two girls with my parents. The drive was awesome! Lilly was such a good sport about the whole thing, granted she was out of her car seat quite a bit. We drove for long periods of time. Mostly we would stop in the evening to get dinner, then continue driving until it was dark, then stop and sleep in the truck. Yep, that's right, we slept in the truck! The drive was sooo beautiful! It was so fun to see all kinds of animals. We saw deer, moose, caribou, buffalo, stone sheep, black bears, and even a cinnamon black bear. There was so much to see! It was a cool experience, not one I want to do again any time soon though. Maybe something to do when all the girls are older and we can take some time and do more fun stuff on the way! We stopped at this place that was supposed to be a really cool mineral sight. It was cool, but not as cool as Eric and I had imagined. It was a little hike to get to where it was, which was a nice chance to stretch our legs.

Not the greatest picture, but I wanted to show you Eric's awesome beard and it's one of the only pictures of all of us on the trip down. And part of the mineral thing is behind us, but you can hardly see it.

Lilly all tuckered out! She didn't love her seat, but was sure a good girl for us.

One of the stone sheep we saw. We saw a group of four on the side of the road. Two moms and two babies. Then on the other side of the road up on the mountain there were two more. Eric was telling me about seeing them on the way up with his mom, and right after he finished telling me, we saw these ones!

Sign post forest in Watson Lake. It was cool to walk around for a couple minutes to see the many places where signs have come from! We found one that said Lake Lillian on it!

Awesome self-portrait done by Eric! You can tell he was super excited about the drive (just joking). He just gets in his "driving mode" and you can't convince him to crack a smile!

We played with diapers to keep Lilly occupied. She loved it! I would pull it over her eyes and she would get so excited when she took it off. Then she would want it back on as a hat...what a silly girl!

What a little goof!

Here's to you Lillian!

During the whole trip Eric actually did all the driving! And believe it or not, the last four times he has done this trip he has always had someone with him, but has never let anyone else drive! Ask me for an explanation and I can't give you one. When I insisted on driving he absolutely would not let me drive and was going to leave me behind because I said if he didn't let me drive I was not going to go...he really was going to leave me! It's weird, I know!

We had a great time driving the long ALCAN highway!

Lots of Pictures

2011-08-26T17:30:00.000-04:00

So I know that back in May I said that I was back, and I meant to be, but the summer was just full of fun and running around! So here are tons of pictures from this summer. We had so much fun living with Grandpa and Grandma Neilson from May until the end of July. While we were there Hyrum and Sami and their kids came to visit. Also, Meg and her boys were able to come up for a visit. We played and enjoyed the wonderful weather in beautiful Cordova. Eric worked as much as he could for Wilson again...he seemed to enjoy running equipment a lot this year. We had a great time with family and friends! Now here are just a few of the pictures!

Grandpa reading a story to Graci, Ericka, Claire, and Ty

Claire enjoying a ride in the swing

Cool glasses girls!

We played at the "Sand Pile" at nine mile a lot! Lilly loved this little chair...and she loved eating her potatoe straws, even after she rolled them in the sand!

Claire loves a good baby back rib!!

Yummy!! Just thinking about those ribs makes me want some right now!! (They were the best ribs I have ever had...my parents both really know how to cook!!)

We celebrated Lillian's first birthday. Meg was there at the time, and was awesome in putting the party together! Thanks sis!!

Just tasting...

forget the tasting. She dove right in and devoured that cupcake! Lilly loves cake!

And Cole loves his ice cream cone! He is such a little ham!!

Couldn't quite get all the kids to pose right, but we had to get a picture of their awesome head pieces!

Lilly didn't keep her princess hat on for long, but it sure was cute!

What a HUNK!! And the little guy is pretty dang cute too! Megs boys just love Eric!

The kids love Grandpa Neilson! As soon as he would get home they would all go crazy with excitement!

Isn't she beautiful? So is the little one!

One of the many trips down the river. We had so much fun going down and playing in the water, fishing, eating lots and lots of hot dogs, and just enjoying beautiful Cordova Alaska!

The girls couldn't wait to get their suits on...they just dove right in with most of their clothes on!

One of our trips to the glacier...not too much activity this time. Doesn't Eric look like a real mountain man with his beard, and that was before it got thick and shaggy!

Lilly LOVES the water!! She would just get right in and not want to get out, even when she was freezing!

Look at that gorgeous girl! It was so fun to hang out with Meg! (Baaah, ha, ha, ha-love you Meg)

Meg and I made tie-die (spelling?) shirts one night, it was so fun!

My little buddy

The kids all geared up to go home after a fun run down the river.

It was such nice weather, but riding in the boat did get a little chilly!

This time the boat was crammed with stuff because Eric and I took the kayak down and we had to bring it back in the motor boat...so Meg was crammed down by the kids' feet.

The spoils from a run down the river! What I would give to have some marinated, grilled red right now!

Best friends (sometimes:))

The girls with Grandma Neilson...they were "hiding" behind the rock.

Lilly doesn't like to sit still for the camera, she just wants to grab it.

I sure miss these two so much!! The best parents in the world!

Love you babe!

We couldn't keep this girl still, she was just motoring all over the place. She loved the big rocks!

Our little family.

The girls wouldn't stay out of the fire ring. They liked pretending like they were making a fire.

The girls all snuggled up! Lilly was being a bit of a pill...I really wanted her zipped up in my moms jacket, but we couldn't make it work.

Eric in his own little paradise! Doesn't he just look so happy!

Another trip to the sand pile. We miss Leslie and Hal and Jay...We had so much fun with them!

The girls loved playing in the sad and water!

Lilly making mischief as usual! She loved this little floaty tube!

Lil in the water again, she loves it!!

Im Back!!

2011-04-20T18:30:00.005-04:00

Just a little update for those of you who keep an eye on my blog. What have we been up to since I last posted? Well, we left Alaska the end of August. We moved to Ucon, Idaho which is in between Rigby and Idaho Falls. It's a tiny little town...and believe it or not, we LOVED it there! The ward was amazing and we loved the little neighborhood where we lived. We made lots of friends and feel that we learned a lot living there. I am speaking in past tense because we are now back in Cordova, Alaska for the summer again! Actually it's just the girls and I here so far. Eric is finishing his semester of school and will head up in two weeks. He is going to be driving up with my dad. We are super excited for the chance to spend another summer with my mom and dad!! The girls are just loving living with Grandpa and Grandma!

A little update on our future plans

Before Eric got laid off from his job in Victor, he knew it was coming. That was when he decided he was going to go back to school. Initially he wanted to be a dentist. The pre-requisites he was/is doing are good for quite a few things in the medical/dental field. He made the decision to apply not only to dental school, but podiatry school as well. And low and behold, he got accepted into podiatry school. He went to an interview and decided that he really wants to be a doctor of podiatric medicine. So, in August the Woolley's are going to be heading out to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for Eric to attend Podiatry school. We are super excited for the opportunity and look forward to the many adventures that are in store. It will be totally new for us. We are excited to explore and see the U.S and church history sights. And we want to extend an invitation to all of our friends and family to come visit us!

And just so you know...we have the internet at my parents house. Like before, it isn't the greatest connection, but it's better than nothing. I plan to update my blog a bit more now!! And next time I will try to upload some pictures. The girls are doing great! They have all gotten so big! We hope you are all well and look forward to seeing what everyone is up to.

The Woolley Clan

2010-08-10T20:07:00.006-04:00

A lot has been going on this summer. Shortly after Lilly was born, she had surgery. While her and I were in Anchorage for that, Eric was here in Cordova with my parents and Ericka and Claire. They were super busy moving from their house by the lake to a different one. My parents just sold their house and had to be out by the first of August.

Trying not to get "bogged" down by the miserable weather has been a little challenging. Whenever it isn't raining, we try to do fun stuff outside. On Saturday my dad took the family down the Eyak River Silver salmon fishing. We have had a fun summer despite some unexpected things happening.

Precious little Lilly!

Dad and two of his girlies!
Ericka with her little sis Lilly...always holding her and being a little mommy!
I love this picture of Eric and Ericka!

This isn't the greatest picture of Lilly's scar, but you at least get the idea of what it looks like. It is really healing up well. You can't even see it when you aren't really looking for it by moving Lilly's head and pulling the skin tight. It blends in with the folds of her skin. It is a pretty big scar, going from midway in the front of her neck almost all the way to the middle of her back. It is probably about four to four and a half inches long. She is getting so chubby that you really can't even see it in the folds of her neck.

Ericka absolutely LOVES her little Lilly! She is such a little mommy and loves holding her all the time!

I can't believe how quickly Lilly is growing! Looking at this particular picture, she seems so big!

Claire got into the cupcakes this morning! Like most kids, her favorite part is the frosting!

All in all, we have really enjoyed our time here in Alaska. We are adjusting to having three kids. Believe me when I tell you, going from one to two kids is a piece of cake compared to going from two to three. This really is going to take some getting used to. The girls are each precious gems, and we just need to remember that when we are pulling our hair out trying to deal with them!

ALASKA

2010-08-10T19:44:00.002-04:00

The girls LOVE to go out on the river boat with Grandpa! We have been able to do a little boating this summer. Actually just last Saturday, Eric, me, and all three of the girls went down the river with my dad and did some Silver Salmon fishing! The girls were pretty good most of the time. We missed Grandma, due to the fact that she was down in Florida with Becca and her little family. For those of you who don't know, Becca had her baby boy last Tuesday. Check her blog out for more about it.

Ericka and Claire all ready to go out on the lake. (Notice the part of cheeseburger in Claire's hand...she held on to that the whole ride, and every once in a while she would take a little nibble. She got so mad when we would try to warm her hands up...she didn't want us to take her burger away.)

Claire loves her jam!

Claire loves to be on daddy's shoulders while he mows the lawn!

4-wheeling with grandpa...a favorite for the girls!!

Halibut Fishing!

2010-08-10T18:42:00.004-04:00

Earlier this summer we were able to get out and do some halibut fishing. We had lots of fun despite the fact that we didn't catch much on the rods. Most of the halibut we caught were on the long-line. We took Ericka and Claire halibut fishing with us once...and believe it or not, they did really well!

I was still pregnant when we went out halibut fishing. And the pictures show that...I am HUGE!

We were glad to be able to get out and do some halibut fishing. We were a little concerned because we went out a few times and didn't get a thing on the long-line or on the rods, but come to find out, we were just a little too early. They hit a little later this year than in the past.

4-Wheeling Fun!

2010-08-10T04:46:00.002-04:00

Before things got too crazy this summer we were able to do some really fun stuff. We went 4-wheeling a couple of times, halibut fishing, knee-boarding and a few other things. I have to say, doing all of these things is a lot more fun when you are not eight or nine months pregnant! Though once you have a new baby, it's not the easiest to get out and do those things. Not that we haven't been able to do fun stuff lately, it just seems that since we had the baby things have been a little hectic. Plus, the weather has been pretty crappy lately anyways!

We splashed through the water a little bit. Ericka just thought it was so funny that the water splashed up on her face and got her hair wet!
Dad got a little daring and decided to take the wheeler into the water...he likes to see how far he and how deep he can go. The guy is a thrill-seeker, what can I say?

It was pretty cold so my dad zipped Claire up in his coat. She wasn't too sure about it at first, but she got used to it. In fact she got so used to it, that she fell asleep like that.

Don't look too close on this one. My mom looks great, but I am a BEAST! I can't believe how freaking huge I was. It just blows my mind how big I get when I am pregnant!

I sure do love 4-wheeling, and it turns out my girls like it just about as much as I do! Thanks for the fun times grandpa and grandma Neilson!!

Alaska Moose Pictures!

2010-08-10T04:31:00.002-04:00

So just a couple weeks before I had Lilly, I woke up at about four in the morning for a trip to the bathroom. Being nine months pregnant does numbers on the bladder...I hate the feeling that you need to go pee all the time, but when you try, nothing comes out. So, I woke up to go the bathroom and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, when I looked out the window, this is what I saw.

I grabbed my camera, which luckily was on the kitchen counter, and started taking pictures. This moose started out at the Caroll's house, and made it's way past our house into the Thomas' yard. Don't ask me what it was doing up in the "neighborhood", it's a pretty weird place for a moose to be. Good thing I was up going to the bathroom...despite how uncomfortable I was those last few weeks!

More Alaska Adventures!

2010-08-10T04:08:00.005-04:00

Eric has been wanting to shoot a bear so badly ever since we got married. He hasn't had the chance to do much bear hunting since we got married until this summer. He and my dad were able to go spend some time looking for a bear, and it paid off. Eric shot his first Alaskan Black Bear! It was so fun to see how excited he was about the whole thing. Way to go Babe!!!

Eric's bear hunting experience has left him feeling a great desire to do a LOT more hunting in Alaska. One day, maybe in like seven or eight years when Eric is a dentist we will do all kinds of hunting up here in Alaska!

More Pictures...Alaska Adventures!

2010-08-10T02:53:00.010-04:00

I am so excited to have a good enough internet connection to be able to post pictures...I have so many to share! Here they are!!

One of the nice days we had here in Cordova, we were able to go out to Strawberry Beach with family and friends. We had such a fun time picnicking, running around, and playing in the water!

The kids just loved wandering around exploring and playing to their hearts content! Claire was so fun to watch...she was just fascinated by the sandy beach!

My gorgeous mother with Ty ( my brother Hyrum's youngest child)

Claire, Mom, and Ty loving the water!!
Playing in the water...I swear my mom is the best grandma, that is besides my mother-in-law Sharon.

What a handsome guy...one of my favorite dudes, my dad!
Another one of my favorite dudes, my brother Hyrum!

Grandpa with Ericka. He was trying to coax her to go into the deeper water...she is pretty hesitant about things, and this was no exception!

Ericka, Claire, Graci, and Grandma. While finding a spot to go pee, I found this cool ball-shaped bouy...the kids really enjoyed playing with it!

Claire just loved the feel of the sand, she was all over in the stuff!
Ericka and Graci building things out of sand.

Give 'em a cup and a couple of things to build with and they are entertained for hours!
Claire loved this blue shovel of Ty and Graci's. She held onto that thing for a long time!

Claire enjoying some yummy yogurt!

Playing in the Eyak Lake. On sunny days, the girls just love going to the lake to play. Although, we haven't had too many sunny days. Ericka was so proud of herself for going so deep into the water!

Claire enjoying one of her favorites, cottage cheese!

The girls riding their bikes!

The girls in the cabin of my dad's bay-liner. They love to play down there. When he was working on the boat they liked to go out there to play in the cabin while he tooled around.

When we first got here back in April, the weather was pretty decent. And in May we enjoyed a couple of really sunny, beautiful weeks. Since then, we haven't had much sunshine, maybe a day here and a day there. We are a little tired of all the rain, but have enjoyed our time in Alaska never-the-less.

Pictures, Pictures!!!

2010-08-09T14:46:00.006-04:00

Here are a bunch of pictures of Lilly before and after her surgery. They are in no particular order. Just thought you might want to see what her tumor looked like and what she went through during her two week stay at the hospital. We are sure grateful to all of the hospital staff for the amazing care they gave Lilly. Our time at the hospital would not have been as bearable if it weren't for the kindness of all the hospital staff. I can't tell you how impressed I was with every one of our nurses and the doctors. We actually kind of even miss them a bit. Though we don't miss being away from the family and actually being in the hospital.

Lilly in the hospital getting IV antibiotics to try to kill the infection in her hygroma.

Lilly sleeping all cozy-like. She likes to sleep with her arms by her face and above her head.
She looks so old in this picture...keep in mind, she is only 3-4 weeks old in these pictures.
They had Lilly hooked to the monitor most of our stay at the hospital. They wanted to be able to make sure her heart rate and breathing and everything was okay while she was getting the antibiotics.

Here are some post-op pictures of Lilly. She was hooked up to so many things. She had a tube down her nose, one down her throat, her wound-vac on her incision, a place for an IV in both arms, a place for an IV in her foot, and on top of that, she was hooked up to the monitors. Due to surgery and everything, she swelled quite a bit. She didn't even look like the same baby. The swelling went down after a few days.

She had surgery on June 20th which was a Sunday. When she came out of surgery that day, she was only in the ICU until tuesday afternoon. The surgery went really well and her body recovered quickly. She was able to be taken off the breathing machine Monday afternoon. She actually got to go back to nursing that night.

Her tumor got to looking pretty nasty before the surgery. The day before they did the surgery, they aspirated the tumor, which means they stuck a needle in and took out a ton of the fluid. This made the tumor shrink to about half the size.

Another pre-op picture. Before she had the surgery, we had been in the hospital for a week while Lilly got IV antibiotics to try to get the infection to go away. The infection wouldn't "die", and that is why they chose to do the surgery so quickly.

Lilly was such a good baby through the whole "hospital adventure" she had. She was poked and prodded so many times and just took it like a champ. Everyone would always make comments about how sweet she was. And she sure is a sweet baby, but it seems that since we have come home she has been a bit more fussy. We love her just the same and are so blessed to have her in our family!!

Another Surprise

2010-07-21T15:14:00.005-04:00

Just a little update for those of you who haven't heard. Lillian developed a serious infection two weeks after she was born. It started on the 8th of July. Lillian seemed to be having a rough day. Every time I would put her down she would start crying and she was nursing a ton throughout the day. We thought maybe she was just having a growth spurt. That night, she started crying and was really fussy and we couldn't get her to stop. At first we thought she was just gassy and uncomfortable, but the crying kept getting worse and worse, escalating to the point that she was inconsolable. This went on all night. My mom was able to finally get her to stop crying by holding her a certain way, but any time you moved her, she would start screaming again. By six or so the next morning, we noticed that her tumor was looking more red than normal. We decided it would be wise to get up to Anchorage. Eric and I rushed out the door with Lillian to make it to the airport for the morning flight. Once we got to Anchorage we were seen by a pysician who works at Providence Hospital (the hospital we went to right after Lillian was born). Dr. Beesly informed us that, sure enough, it was an infection and we were admitted to the hospital for Lillian to receive IV antibiotics. She was on the antibiotics for about a week. They checked her blood daily to see that the antibiotics were helping the infection to go away...they were helping a little, but then we kind of came to a stand-still. This last Saturday, Doctor Jolley (the pediatric surgeon), decided to aspirate her tumor (stick a needle in and remove as much fluid as they could). I was actually in the room when they did this, and let me just say, it was pretty crazy...they got 80 mL's of fluid out, and that wasn't even half of it! And just so you know, they numbed the area where they stuck her, so she didn't feel it. They sent the fluid off for cultures and other tests. Dr. Jolley thought the fluid looked pretty "cloudy", but wanted to see what came of the tests. He was surprised to see that by early the next morning, the cultures had already grown. It was then that Dr. Jolley decided the tumor needed to be removed right away. I was actually awake feeding Lillian on Sunday morning when the nurses (Kathy and Ronda) came in and informed me that they wanted to do surgery that afternoon. I called Eric and my parents to let them know and Eric was able to make arrangements to get here. (However, his flight was delayed four hours and he got here right after Lillian got out of surgery.) Then I called Hyrum and Sami to let them know. Before Lillian went into surgery, Hyrum and Hayden(Hyrum's friend) were able to give her a priesthood blessing. And let me just say, I was so relieved and grateful for the blessing she was given. I felt peace and comfort for the knowledge that all things are in the hands of our Father in Heaven...I knew that my baby was going to be okay. Lillian went into surgery just after 1:00 on Sunday afternoon. The surgery went VERY well and Lillian did great. She has been recovering very quickly and we are so pleased she is doing so well. They were able to take out her breathing tube and the tube in her nose on Monday. And as of this morning, Lillian is tube free of all tubes and cords (besides the wound-vac they have over her incision). She is no longer on a continuous IV. Now she just has to have her IV antibiotics every six hours. She needs the antibiotics for another few days and they also want to keep the wound-vac on until Sunday. It sounds like we will be able to get out of the hospital by Monday. I am so glad things are going so well and really look forward to getting back to Cordova to see my babies!!! My mom and dad have been so AMAZING through all of this...they have been taking great care of Ericka and Claire. Not only that, when they have had to work they have found others to help out. We are so grateful to mom and dad and everyone else who has helped in so many ways!!!
We feel so blessed to have baby Lillian as a part of our family and are so grateful for all of our blessings!!

She's Here

2010-07-05T16:53:00.004-04:00

Lillian Elizabeth Woolley made her debut on the 26th of June! We are so pleased that she is now here and are so grateful for the opportunity to have her as a part of our family!

I had an awesome pregnancy with her. And my labor and delivery were absolutely amazing! I guess third times a charm. Not that the other two were bad or anything. I just couldn't have asked for things to go any better than they were with this last one. I actually ended up giving birth to Lillian at home (or should I say, at my parents home, beings how we are living with them for the summer). I seriously can not tell you how great the experience was. And let me just say that I honestly do not feel like I just had a baby a week ago! I can't tell you how amazing I feel. I have been able to walk and move like normal...I even went for a bike ride on Friday with my mom. I feel AMAZING!!

For starters, we had the nice surprise of Rachel showing up to be here for the birth. Every time I would talk to her on the phone I would tell her how much I wished she could be here for me to have the baby. After all, she was there for the last two, and is an excellent labor coach/doula! I just kept hoping the way would be possible, but with four kids, and lots of other responsibilities, it just didn't seem possible. I guess she and my mom got to thinking that it could work out, and Rachel showed up on Thursday, the 24th of June. And you need to know that I had been having tons of contractions throughout the week, but nothing real consistent. And my due date was Friday. So, I guess she came "hoping" that I would go into labor while she was up here because she only had until Sunday for that to happen. Luckily, my body and the baby were ready.

So Friday, Rachel massaged my feet and ankles a ton...which actually hurt quite a bit. But we did notice that it was the key and got my contractions to be consistent. They lasted all day Friday. They were not really painful ones, but enough that we figured the baby would be coming soon. Friday night, the "real" contractions kicked in. They really picked up around midnight. They were still not unbearable, so we all decided to try to get some rest. Around three, it felt like the contractions were going to kill me. Rachel got up to be with me and my mom headed to the Blue Heron Inn to pick up Page (my midwife). Hard contractions lasted a few hours...and let me tell you what, it hurt! I did get to feeling like I couldn't do it any more...and I thought I could just die. I was so grateful to have Rachel and my mom, as well as an awesome midwife there to help me through. And it was awesome that my dad and Eric were able to be there for the last few hours and for the actual delivery!

Just before Seven O'clock, Lillian Elizabeth Woolley graced us with her presence! When she first came out, we were shocked to see that she had a lump about the size of a baseball on the left side of her neck. It kind of looked like a water balloon. Not knowing what it was, we were scared and worried that it might be something life-threatening. Page let us know that she was pretty sure it was not life-threatening, but that we did need to go to Anchorage to have it looked at. (The hospital here in Cordova is very limited). So, we got cleaned up and packed our bags to leave on the earliest flight to Anchorage. Lillian rode on a plane when she was only six hours old!

The doctors examined Lillian and did a CT scan of her lump. They concluded that the lump is a Systic Hygroma or a Benign Tumor of the lymphatic system. Thankfully, it is not connected to her spinal cord or her throat, and it seems that it doesn't go very deep. Eventually the tumor will need to be surgically removed. The doctors up here in Alaska said they would remove the tumor between six months and a year. Although, we have heard that it may be sooner than that. Once we get moved back down to Idaho, we plan to take Lillian to Primary Childrens to get a second opinion about the tumor and having it removed.

We are so very blessed to have Lillian as a part of our family. We feel honored that our Father in Heaven has allowed us the opportunity to be the parents to Lillian as well as Claire and Ericka! We are so BLESSED!!!

I wish I could post pictures of our new arrival, but the connection is way too slow. Rachel is supposed to be posting the ones she took, but I will need to remind her. I think she only has a few and they are right after Lillian was born. We have taken a ton of pictures and I long to share them...as soon as we have a better connection, I will post tons of pictures!!

Update

2010-04-20T20:40:00.002-04:00

The Woolley family has a fun adventure planned for the summer. We are going to spend the summer in Alaska living with my parents. Eric is going to be working for Eagle, the company he worked for the summer we got married. We are excited for the chance to spend some time in Alaska again. Since we got married we have been fortunate enough to make quite a few "trips" up to Alaska, though those trips were limited to a couple weeks at a time. We are excited for the adventures this summer holds for us...especially the arrival of our new baby girl in June.

The girls and I are already here in Cordova. Eric will finish school the 6th of May, then head up here the 9th after his sisters' wedding reception. He will be driving the Al-Can highway with his dad. They will be arriving here in Cordova on the 13th of May. We are all getting so excited for dad to join us! It has sure been nice having the company of my parents, but there is no replacement for daddy!

As for our house in Victor. We have an offer on it and have a projected closing date of May/June. There is no saying whether it will finalize or not, but things are looking pretty promising so far. Eric is finishing packing everything up and moving it out.

The girls and I are doing well. We have been able to enjoy some nice weather since we got here over a week ago. We love spending time outside and take a lot of walks. Ericka and Claire are loving the attention and chance to be around Grandma and Grandpa Neilson.

The internet connection we have here at my parents' house is not the greatest, so I don't know how often I will be posting. I am hoping that when we have really important stuff to mention, like the arrival of the new baby, I will be able to use the neighbors computer or something.

If I do post it will probably not be with pictures, that is the part that doesn't work...trust me, I tried several times yesterday.

Life is good and we are all doing well! We hope that you can say the same and want you to know that we are missing our friends and family down South.

Wedding Bells

2010-03-18T15:38:00.003-04:00

Congratulations to my sister-in-law Michelle! She and Eric got engaged a few weeks ago. We are super excited for them!!! Congratulations guys!

The happy couple!

My BABES!!

2010-03-18T15:08:00.002-04:00

Here are just a few random pictures of the past couple weeks. With trying to nail down a plan for the summer, showing the house, and keeping up with the kids, we are staying busy! Things with the house are going pretty well. We have had a LOT of interest and are just waiting to see if anything will come of it. Life is great!!!

Aaron, Kayle, and Kayvri came to our house a couple of weekends ago. We had fun just hanging out with them. And let me tell you what, Ericka and Claire just loved the baby!

Ericka and cousin Kayvri

The girls LOVE playing outside. Claire especially loves it. She is very curious and she decided she needed to taste the dirt and rocks, YUM!

You gotta love Claire's face in this one!! What a bunch of babes I have!!!

I love these girls and my hubby!! We have been doing pretty well lately. I do feel pretty irritable at times; blame it on being pregnant. But, all in all, we are happy and healthy. Eric is doing super well in school...he seems to enjoy it for the most part. The girls are happy for the most part. Ericka is just loving her dolly babies lately, which in turn leads to Claire loving them also. I think I am going to have some great helpers when the next baby gets here!!!

Beauty Queens!

2010-02-26T00:18:00.004-05:00

I have to admit that taking pictures has kind of not been something I have been doing a lot lately. But there are things that my girls are doing and do every day, that I want to be sure and remember. Here is a little post just to show how AmAzInGlY BEAUTIFUL my little girls are! I just love them to pieces and laugh just thinking of the crazy things they do and the things they come up with!

Ericka just loves Make-Up! She was so very proud of herself for putting this make-up on all by herself!

Believe it or not, Claire actually made this mess of her face all by herself!

Ericka just thinks that showing off food is pretty funny...I personally think it's kind of gross!
I think Claire likes chocolate almost as much as I do, here is the proof!
You can't tell a whole lot, but here is another picture or Ericka with make-up on. It is a pretty regular thing for her to get into my pretties, and doll herself up!

If these girls don't make you smile, there must be something wrong with you! Seriously, pictures don't do them justice. They sure keep me busy. And I say that in a good and a bad way. Some days I think I want to go crazy because I am so frustrated with them being so "creative" and "CRAZY". Other days, I just lavish in their silliness and how super SWEET they are! Having kids sure brings out the BEST and the WoRsT in us...well, I guess I am speaking for myself, so the best and the worst in me.

My New Love

2010-02-22T19:16:00.004-05:00

I have a confession to make...I am IN LOVE with CHOCOLATE DIPPED STRAWBERRIES!!!!!

And let's just be clear, I make them all the time because I can't get ENOUGH of them!!

I know, I know not the best thing to be eating all the time, but I justify it by the fact that at least there is fruit in it (Ha, ha)!

BABY...

2010-02-16T13:16:00.003-05:00

And Woolley Baby Number Three is a........

GIRL!!!

It is pretty plain to see that there don't seem to be any boy parts there. They are pretty dang sure it's a girl!

A picture of the baby's ear

Profile picture of Baby Girl #3! It was so fun to see her in there during the ultra sound. She kept gulping and you could see her swallowing, I was just taken back by how amazing this is!

It was really fun to have an ultra sound done. I didn't realize how exciting it is. I mean, I have had ultra sounds done before. I just didn't realize how exciting it still is despite being the third baby. It was so awesome to see her in there moving. What a MIRACLE this is! No, we were not "planning" on having another baby so soon. But I truly am grateful for this opportunity. And I am freaked out of my mind, but I take comfort in knowing that my Father in Heaven is mindful of me and knows what I can handle. I may still break down and feel like this is a little out of control, or maybe a lot out of control. But I do know that this baby is meant to come into our lives and be a part of our family!

Baby Ultrasound

2010-02-11T20:17:00.003-05:00

Any guesses on what baby Woolley number three is? For those of you who already know, don't spoil this. But I just want to see what you guys think. Let us know what you think ASAP! I will post again soon and let you know what it is. The baby cooperated really well and things are looking good!

Hello from baby Woolley!

Our Alaska Trip

2010-01-27T20:37:00.006-05:00

The girls and I had the chance to go up to Alaska from January 7th to the 20th. Well, we actually got stuck in Seattle on the way up, so we didn't actually get to Cordova until the 9th. We had so much fun spending time with Grandpa and Grandma Neilson, Aunt Meg and her boys, and Uncle Hyrum and Aunt Sami and their kids. We sure had a house full! Imagine seven kids under the age of 3 in the same house for almost a week! It was a little crazy, but we had a blast in Alaska!!

We took a walk down to the docks and saw some ducks and sea otters! It was sooo cold, but at least it wasn't raining!

Our adventure at the grocery store. The kids loved the small grocery carts and it was sure a good thing there were enough to go around! Ericka, Cooper, and Cayden. (Megs twin boys)

Ericka with Grandpa on the 4-wheeler

Claire had been working on walking, but really got it down while we were in Alaska. Once she started she didn't want to stop...especially while she was outside!

Nice outfit Claire...we kind of just threw something warm on.

Wow, this ones a little scary! Ericka helped Grandma in the kitchen as often as possible! She loved it! She got a little carried away with the flour while making crescent rolls.

Claire loves to stand on the dishwasher at home and anywhere else. What it is that attracts kids to dishwashers?

This is Ericka and Claire's best buddy Erikka Sanderson. We love seeing her whenever we go up to visit. Her family lives on the hill by my mom and dad.

Loving the snow and being outside!

Look at that grin on Claire's face! She loved/loves riding in sleds!

Ericka, Graci, Cayden, and Cooper! Cousins.

Claire and Ty (Hyrum and Sami's son)

Ericka in the kitchen again! She loves to help with the cooking!

Graci and Ericka watching a movie on Aunt Megs laptop.

We had a great time with family and seeing friends while we were up in Alaska.

Snow Day

2009-11-21T18:16:00.004-05:00

Ericka has been waiting with much anticipation, the arrival of some snow! She has been so anxious to take her sled out and play in the snow. Every time we go in the garage and see her sled, she wants to go out and play. But up until today, we haven't had much snow. I kept telling her we needed to wait until the ground was covered with snow in order to pull the sled around. This morning, we woke up to a snow-covered ground, which in turn lead to a very excited Ericka! We all bundled up and headed outside for some fun in the snow! We had a great time!! It was so fun to watch Ericka pull Claire around, and even more fun to watch Eric pull both girls in the sled...they absolutely LOVED it!! Eric is actually smiling...YAY!!!

Daddy helped Ericka put the rope around her waist so she could pull the sled easier.

Claire was so happy to be outside! She just giggled and laughed and had a blast!

Ericka played alone with Eric and I for a few minutes until Claire woke up and we brought her outside.

Sweet sisters!

A Little Story

2009-11-21T17:22:00.007-05:00

I want to share a little story. My darling daughter Ericka has a few things she just LOVES! She seems to go through phases, where she gets hooked on something, like a backpack or a certain book, or cell phones, or a number of other things. She will just love whatever particular thing it is she is "hooked" on, but after a bit of time, she get's over it and moves on to something new. This is not the case with her High School MUSICAL hand bag. Ever since we bought the thing on clearance at Wal-Mart, about two months ago, she has LOVED the thing. She hardly ever lets this bag out of her sight. I mean this literally! She sleeps with her bag EVERY night. It has this little star stuck to it that lights up with movement, it's really cool. But when I am trying to put her to bed, it get's a little old. And the really funny thing is that she also puts a certain handful of items inside that are her PrIzEd posessions. Don't you dare try to touch her bag or open it because she will flip out! I mean that. She will usually share her toys, I mean she struggles sometimes, but generally with a little coaxing, she will give in and share. Oh, but not with this bag. Just to tell you how posessive Ericka is of this bag, I have one more little story to tell.

The other day we were at Rachel's house visiting and playing. Well, Rachel noticed that Ericka had her bag with her, as usual. Wanting to see what Ericka would do, Rachel asked Ericka if she would let her play with her bag. The answer of coarse, was no. With a little coaxing, Rachel actually convinced Ericka to at least start to show her the contents of the bag. The minute Luke headed over to see what was going on, Ericka shoved everything back into the bag and zipped it up and wouldn't let anyone touch it. I know, a little crazy huh? I never imagined that one little purchase could lead to such an immense love and protection of something for my two year old daughter.

Here are a couple of pictures of Ericka with her beloved bag. As I said before, she almost never lets go of it. She was watching a movie and hadn't had a nap. She dozed off, but not without a hold on her dearest posession!

Halloween

2009-11-13T13:07:00.002-05:00

Ericka and Claire had a great Halloween! Ericka was a bit hesitant with the trick-or-treating, but once she caught on to the fact that when you say "Trick-or-treat" people give you candy, she loved it! The girls were good sports and actually wore their costumes the whole time trick or treating. As you can probably tell, they were little flower girls! I made their costumes all by myself! I actually really enjoyed doing it too!

Aren't they the cutest little flowers you've ever seen? So much fun!!

Carving Pumpkins

2009-11-13T12:49:00.002-05:00

I must apologize for taking so long to get pictures of Halloween and pumpkins and other such things posted. I didn't have the memory card for my camera, and we don't have a cable, so the pictures were stuck on the internal memory. That is, until today when we were able to get a new memory card and transfer the pictures.
We had a really fun "Halloween" time. Carving pumpkins was a blast, we all enjoyed ourselves as we had a fun family home evening creating our "masterpieces"!

Nice pumpkins huh? The hardest part was deciding what to carve into the pumpkins. Once we did, Eric put his carving skills to the test. The task was made a lot easier due to the fact that he used his Jig-saw to do the cutting! Good thinking eh!

Landscaping

2009-10-15T13:32:00.003-04:00

The past couple of days Eric has spent a lot of time outside working on the yard. Last week we got some trees from our friend Ben Kearsley. With them, we were able to make the yard look pretty FREAKING AWESOME!!!

The front view

The back/side view

The other side/back view

The view from the front porch

Another picture from the front

Eric has proven himself to be quite the AwEsOmE Landscaper!!! What an amazing husband I have!! Oh yeah, don't mind the really brown looking lawn...it's cold and we haven't fertilized the grass yet. We'll work on that next summer:)

Sprinkler Run

2009-10-15T13:20:00.003-04:00

The camera I used to take these pictures doesn't get used like it used to because we have a different one we like better. So, because I haven't used the "old" camera in a while, I forgot about these pictures. Eric and Ericka took a nice little Sprinkler run back in August. It was so much fun to watch them play in the water...and Ericka had a blast!!

Claire enjoyed watching her sis and daddy run through the water.(her poor chin was irritated)

An Amazing Reunion

2009-10-05T12:53:00.003-04:00

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to Utah. Eric went with the young men for the weekend. As a group they went to the BYU football game and to the mens session of general conference. They had a pretty fun-filled two days. As for me, I had a blast with my sister and some of my long, lost friends. I stayed with Meg, and as usual had a great time with her and Quinn and their boys. Then, on Saturday, I met up with Darcee and Whitney.

So here is the story about me, and Darcee, and Whitney. My family and I lived in Oregon a long time ago...it was back in 1998 I believe. When I moved there, I met the greatest girls, Whitney Hayden and Darcee Perdue. Quickly, we grew to be best friends. And let me just tell you, we had some GREAT times!!After a couple of years of living in Redmond, the unthinkable happened. Mom and Dad announced that we were moving to Alaska. My heart just about broke! So, we moved and I left My dearest friends behind. Well, we kept in touch a little bit, but it became a pretty infrequent thing after several years. Then, when I went to college, we all kind of got back in touch again. And I actually went to one of Darcee's Weber State basketball games over in Pocatello. And remember, when I saw her at her game, it had been like seven years since I had seen her. It was awesome to see her. Okay, moving on. So, since about 2005, I have not seen Darcee, and since 1999 or so, I have not seen Whitney. That was until this weekend, when we had our blessed reunion!!

Darcee and Whitney both live in Provo now. So they see eachother quite a bit. But for me to see the both of them was just AMAZING!! We met up at the Gateway mall and went to eat at California Pizza Kompany (CPK)! We shared some delicious pizza and dessert. But that is not what matters. What matters is that we hung out and talked and laughed until it hurt! It was so, so, so much FUN!! We reminisced of "old times" and talked about where we are now and so much more! I seriously can not tell you how Incredibly AWESOME it was to see these girls!! It was a little surprising to me that after so many years we all still get along so well and have so much fun together!

Whitney and Darcee have both grown up to be the most beautiful women! What amazing girls they are. They are both married now, and Whitney has a little baby girl. We have all changed and grown up, but we are still a lot the same. It was so neat to feel like we just picked up where we left off.

I love these girls and am very glad we were able to have our little reunion. I am glad to know that our friendship has lasted this long. And I don't have a single doubt in my mind that we will all truly be friends forever (as silly as that may sound). I love you Darc and Whit!!!

Darcee, Whitney, me, and baby Avey

Darc, Me, and Whit outside the restaurant

I look like a total dork in this one. I just couldn't stop laughing

Beautiful girls...Darc, Whit and her little babe

Ashley (Whits sis), Darc, Avey and Whit

Pretty Mama Whitney and her baby girl

The Birthday Girl!

2009-10-05T12:38:00.002-04:00

I am a little late in posting these pictures of Claire on her birthday. She seemed to have a lot of fun...it was as if she really knew it was her birthday. She was just so happy, and when you would tell her it was her birthday, she would get all excited and act like she totally knew it! She thought the flame on the candle was pretty cool, but she got really excited about the cake!!!

The AWESOME Birthday Cake!!

2009-10-01T20:40:00.002-04:00

Rachel made the most amazing birthday cake for Claire. It seems like whenever one of my girls is getting ready to have a birthday I get to thinking about what kind of cake to make. Well, through the process, I always approach Rachel to see what she thinks. Before Claire's birthday, of coarse, I asked Rachel what she thought about a rainbow cake. After a couple of days, Rachel had come up with a brilliant idea. I kept thinking that I would help in whatever way possible, but when all was said and done, guess what? Rachel ended up making the cake all by herself. And I am actually quite grateful for this because she seriously is a phenomenal cake maker/decorator! Here is the proof...just in case you didn't believe the crazy story!

Isn't that just the cutest cake you have ever seen?

Thanks so much Rach! Love ya!!!

Rewind...

2009-10-01T17:45:00.012-04:00

Last week was Claire's 1st Birthday. I thought that I would post some pictures of my little babe. While I was looking through all my pictures, I had such a hard time deciding on which pictures to post. There are just so many super cute pictures! The ones I ended up posting are some of my favorites.

Claire is the sweetest baby! We absolutely love her to death and are having so much fun raising her. I can't even begin to explain what a sweet, pleasant baby she is. It seriously feels like the only time she cries, or should I say, "fusses" is when she is hungry/thirsty or tired. And I think that the only reason she even does then is because she doesn't know how else to communicate that she needs something. She is such a happy, sweet baby. And I tell you what, Ericka absolutely loves her to death! Claire puts up with a lot from Ericka. She really tolerates Ericka's "sisterly" love very well. They are so cute together sometimes!! We are so grateful to have two such sweet children in our family. And we are so grateful that Claire is one of them. ( Oh yeah, the dates on the pictures are wrong on this post. I did change the date, so from here on out, they will hopefully be correct)

Claire's last night before she turned 1

The day before Claire turned 1!

September 14, 2009

Family Reunion-Jul-Aug 2009
Enjoying the "Blessed River" at the Family Reunion in MacKay

Claire when she was 9 months old

My sleepy girl...how precious!!

Camping trip with Grandpa and Grandma Woolley-July 2009

Claire and her cute little hat...it actually used to be Ericka's hat.
The little princess when she was about 6 months old

Look at those chubby cheeks!!

She was about 5 months old in this picture.

The little wee Claire when she was 3 months old! Ohh, how the time sure flies!

Claire when she was 2-3 months old
My little baby Claire at 2 months

Oh boy, I love, love, love this picture! She was only about a week old.

The day after we came home from the hospital with our new little girl...oh the memories.

Look at that little baby doll...she was so little!

Claire right after she wa born, well, I guess a couple of hours after.

I honestly can not even explain how fast time goes. I thought it went fast once I got married, and then even faster when we had our first baby. But seriously, it goes faster with each kid you have.You truly want it to slow down, but it seems the more you would like it to, the quicker it flies by. It feels like it has been but a moment. I am so blessed to have the sweet children I have. I love them so very much and am so very, very grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who has allowed me the opportunity to raise some of his precious children. I love my children so very much and feel tremendously blessed to have them in my life! And to my sweet babe Claire, I love you honey!!

Happiness

2009-09-24T12:52:00.005-04:00

I just had a few pictures I really wanted to post.

Ericka loves riding the motor bike. Her new thing is that she wants her own motorbike. We have told her that when she get's older and saves her money, maybe she can get a motorbike. Her new saying is "I save my money, gonna get a motorbike when I get older." It is so very cute how she says it! Hopefully one day her dream of having a motor bike will come true!

The other day I took the girls for a bike ride, we went at a bad time because they were both super tired and ready for naps. This was the result:

Just a few random pictures of the girls. (And again, the date printed on the pictures is wrong. We did get that taken care of yesterday though)
Look at that cute grin! I love this baby so much!!

I have said before that Ericka loves dressing herself. She found this sweater off of a teddy bear, and decided to put it on her head. Also, notice the awesome arm band she stole from cousin Janie's house. She loves that thing!

Posing for the camera!

She sure is cute! I just love her to death!!

Just a few of the random things that happen when we are just hanging out around the house. One of the great reasons I love being able to be a stay-at-home mom is that I get to enjoy the silly, random things my children do.

Labor Day Camping!

2009-09-21T17:02:00.005-04:00

We went camping with Eric's parents for Labor Day Weekend. We had a really fun time.

We gave Claire a cookie, and she absolutely loved it!

Two of Eric's sisters--Kayle and Michelle
Grandpa Lorell, Ericka, and Teyah
Kayle, Aaron, Keiton, Lorell, Sharon, and Michelle...what a fun bunch!!
Eric taking Ericka for a little ride
"Say cheese!!"

Oh how cute. Claire's new favorite place to go to sleep is on Grandpa's lap.

It was so much fun getting to spend the weekend with Eric's family. We went camping over in Star Valley. The place we went was really beautiful and there was a lake just up the road. We had the chance to do a little fishing, we went swimming a couple of times (those who weren't too chicken;), played lots of games, and had a great time visiting and enjoying campfire food and fun! What a great way to spend Labor Day weekend!

Fishing

2009-09-21T16:44:00.004-04:00

We went on a little fishing adventure. Our friends Brooks, Sara, and Tel went with us...we had so much fun. The kids didn't enjoy the fishing as much as the adults did. Oh yeah, and this was back in August because I am still catching up a bit.

Ericka and her buddy Tel

Is that a smile I see on Eric's face...holy cow, that's a first for the camera.
Ericka loved reeling in the fish!!

Concentrating so hard on bringing in the fish.

"Come on Ericka!"

Eric working hard to catch a fish

Brooks and SaraI thought the kids were supposed to be the ones fishing!! (ha,ha)

It's been too long!

2009-09-21T16:02:00.006-04:00

I said a long time ago I was going to do some catch up...well, I finally am. I uploaded the pictures from both of our cameras finally, and there were more from my Neilson Family Reunion I wanted to add. Sorry if you feel like you have already seen them. And I acidentally added one picture twice.

Okay, so Ericka totally looks like a homeless little girl in this picture...I guess she tends to look that way a lot lately. She is into dressing herself AND changing her clothes several times a day. It is a little annoying at times, but it sure is funny to see the combinations she comes up with.

You Silly Goose Ericka!! (She loves saying that)

I swear Eric NEVER smiles for picturesPlaying in the Big Lost River!
This is my absolute favorite picture of my dad!! Aren't these two so cute?!

Becca, Rachel, Eve and Janie

Becca, Eve, and my Mom

My Dad and my Uncle Bud...that is such a great picture of both of them!

Uncle Rodney and Taylor. It was so much fun seeing them!

My dolly, baby Claire...she's just so cute!!

I love this pictures of these girls. The lovely lady with the dark hair is my cousin Scott's wife, Camille...isn't she gorgeous? And then there's Rachel and Luke, Aunt JaNan and Claire, and Becca. Good looking gals!
The Neilson girls...excluding Meg. She wasn't able to make it to the reunion this year.

Ericka and Claire the first night we were in MacKay...snug as a bug in a rug!

A little Catch-Up

2009-08-25T16:59:00.002-04:00

I am playing a little catch up. I posted our anniversary pictures before I posted about things that we did before our hike. I apologize for going out of order. It may not even bother some of you, but believe me, I am a little bugged about it. I am in the process of a little catching up. I still haven't done a post about my Neilson family reunion, but plan to soon. Just bear with me and keep checking up on my blog. There is more to come soon! Sorry.

Fun at Hogle Zoo

2009-08-25T16:29:00.004-04:00

Back in July I took the girls to Utah with me to visit family. We stayed with Meg and her family. It was so much fun to watch Ericka with Cayden and Cooper, her twin cousins. We took a day and went to the Hogle Zoo...a first for Ericka and Claire! It was a lot of fun, and despite the fact that we had four kids under the age of three, it went really well. Although, by the time we were done, the kids had had enough and wanted to be out of the heat. Thanks for the fun time Mom and Meg!

The Hike

2009-08-17T16:57:00.003-04:00

For our 4th wedding anniversary Eric and I decided to hike Table Rock. We had an amazing time!! We actually planned to hike the face, and started to, then we got a little lost. We just walked through the forest, climbing over logs and and rocks and stuff. It was a great day to go hiking, not too hot and a little cool. We were a little disappointed because when we got to the top, it was kind of cloudy and you couldn't get a real good view of the grand. We had a great time just the two of us hiking Table Rock!

The CUTEST Outfits

2009-07-21T14:35:00.004-04:00

Thanks to my sister Becca, my girls now have the cutest outfits ever! Take a peek at these fabulous get-outs! Look how cute...Becca is so flipping crafty.

The purple leggings and shirt with two flowers is Ericka's and the other one is Claire's.

Claire looks a little out of it.

The Girls in Alaska

2009-07-21T00:07:00.002-04:00

This is the second section of the Alaska pictures. I thought I would save the pictures of the girls for the last. We had a blast up in Cordova with Grandpa and Grandma Neilson! Ericka always talks about wanting to go see Grandpa and Grandma in Alaska!!! We got to go fishing, 4-wheeling, to the harbor and walk on the docks, to visit the lake daily, and to just have a great time visiting with my mom and dad! We can't wait to go back!!!

My gorgeous mother with Ericka and Graci.

We went knee-boarding and had potluck food around the fire!

This was our trip down the Eyak River...we had to ensure that Claire would stay afloat...I think she could hold her own without a life jacket, but we needed to be sure.

Ericka was pretty fascinated with the halibut!

Ericka got to take a ride in Jared's Kennedy's Super-cub...we had such an awesome time! We saw a huge black bear, and lots of lakes/ponds, waterfalls, the ocean, and the beautiful town of Cordova!

Ericka said about the waterfalls, "I saw water falling!"
Cousins!! Two super cute girls!

My sweet princess Claire!
Ericka's so silly....showing off for the camera.

Ericka with Aunt Shell

We spent a lot of time down at the lake. There wasn't a day that we didn't walk down the hill from my parents house to throw rocks in the water or to just splash around for a bit.

The 4-wheeling trip where we took the kids with us. I even took Claire in my sling...she did surprisingly well. We had a lot of fun!

Claire just chilling in the stroller! How cute is she??!

Another one for you Becca

2009-07-20T14:48:00.010-04:00

Alaska Trip-June 2009

Here are a bunch of pictures from our Alaska trip. My sister-in-law, Michelle had been home from her mission for a short time, and I asked her to accompany me with my two girls. She was happy to, and we had a great time up in Cordova. Michelle got to stay for a little over a week. And Eric actually surprised us and flew in on the flight that Michelle left on. He got to spend about a week up there too! It was so amazing...we had a great time!!! The weather cooperated, and we enjoyed sunshine almost the whole time we were there!!!
Here are some of the awesome pictures!

Me standing in a waterfall....pretty eh?

My studly bro Hyrum and Ericka. We went for a super fun 4-wheeler ride with the kiddies! And of course, we had to stop for some snacks.

Our fun boat ride down the Eyak River!

Hiking with the Hawkins family, and Jason and Susan....It was so fun!!

Fishing out in Orca Bay...we got skunked that day!

Erikka Sanderson and Jessica Hamberger with Claire

Michelle...she looks like a super-model!!!

My amazing Dad!! What a guy!

Hy and Graci

Eric with a couple of the MANY halibut we caught!

Dad reeling in his big dog! Look at that grin!!

Dad and mom in dad's home-made boat. Look at the little munchkins, Ericka and Graci!

Dad, Eric, and Uncle Bud halibut fishing

Dad and Ericka driving the boat back up the Eyak River

Eric and his mini-me Ericka with a big halibut

Hyrum, Michelle, Brenda and Sami

4-wheeling with Michelle and Chris Sanderson

Michelle on the wheeler

The guys back from fishing....Hyrum, Eric, Uncle Bud, and Dad

My sweet sis-in-law Sami....look at my little bundle, the little orange head sticking out

Me and Michelle out at the Child's Glacier

Chris Sanderson, Michelle, me, and Brenda Rupp...our crazy trip out to the glacier!

We had quite the adventure with the five gallon bucket of oil in the back of the truck.

This One's For You BECS!!

2009-07-20T13:01:00.005-04:00

I am finally taking a little time to do some blogging. It has been FOREVER...as Becca constantly reminds me. So much has been going on the last few months. Sorry to not update and let people in on what we have been up to.
A quick list of things we have been doing:
Yard Work
Yard Work
Yard Work
House Work
Yard Work
There you have it. We will be getting our sod on Thursday!!! HOORAY!! Where does the time go? Sorry for the delay and I hope to be a little bit better about doing a post here and there. If anyone wants more details about our lives, leave a comment, or email me or whatever, and I will try to get back to you promptly.
Enjoy the pictures!

Ericka and her play dough balls...we rolled six out of the eight colors of play dough into tiny little balls. She loved playing with them and that filled many hours in the days for a few weeks. Then they got ruined by water being added to her cooking! Oops.

Look at those rolls....Claire is a tank!!!

Gotta love this girl!

Mom and Dad at the Bar-J Wranglers dinner show. They were down a few weeks ago and we had the chance to get over to Jackson for dinner at the Bar-J Chuckwagon. It was super fun!!

Ericka put the bunny ears on Claire and got a real kick out of it...it made her laugh a lot!

Ericka riding the pony at the carnival the young women in our ward put on. She was super hesitant at first, but after a minute, she loved it and when her turn was up, she didn't want to get off.

Look how big she's getting...it's going by way too fast.

Claire is huge! She is going to pass Ericka up real soon at the rate she is going.

A couple weekends ago, we went up the Gray's River where Eric's family was camping. We took a little drive to Murphy's Lake to do some fishing...Ericka loved it!!

My happy girls taking a bath! Look at that grin on Claire's face!

The Girls

2009-03-02T17:32:00.002-05:00

Just a few pictures we have taken the last few weeks. You can compare Ericka and Claire in some of them. Claire is not much smaller than Ericka. Yesterday we actually compared their bare thighs, and believe it or not, Claire has the same size thighs. Ericka and Claire are quite the opposites, but they are both the cutest!!

This picture cracks me up. Ericka put on some pants, or what she thought were pants. She is quite the independent one now days and likes to dress herself a lot.

Look at that hair. Ericka has kind of funny hair; it isn't real long towards the front, when the rest is getting longer. I always have to put it in little pig tails, or there are a million fly-aways. This is what you get when Ericka pulls out her piggies.

Ericka didn't really want to smile because she was concentrating so hard on going to the bathroom. By the way, she we are in the process of getting her potty-trained.

Ericka loves being a big sister. She Always wants to hold Claire. It is funny because like I said before, Claire is almost as big as her.

Gotta love these girls!!

Baby Claire

2009-02-27T15:24:00.003-05:00

My friend Holly took some great pictures of Claire a couple of weeks ago. She is working on getting them all put onto a CD for me. I am looking forward to getting the rest, and sharing them with all of you!
We recently weighed the girls and discovered some pretty funny results. Ericka, who is two years and two months old weighed in at 23 pounds. Claire, who is five months old, weighed in at 18 and 1/2 pounds, only 4.5 pounds less than her older sister! We love having two, although it does get a little crazy at times. Life is great, and we are truly enjoying every minute of it!!

Ericka's Photo Shoot

2009-01-09T19:34:00.009-05:00

My good friend Holly is very kind and volunteers to watch Ericka for me. A couple of weeks ago I asked, and she readily accepted my favor, and watched Ericka for a few hours. While I was running errands, Holly took some beautiful pictures of Ericka. Now all I need is for Holly to "watch" Claire for me and do another photo shoot. Need I say more?

Sledding

2009-01-06T22:08:00.004-05:00

The Saturday after Ericka's birthday we went sledding with some friends! We had loads of fun, although I must admit that it could have been more "comfortable" had we made it out before the sun was behind the mountains. Our good friends Cody and Jill Patterson and David and Kelli Woolley and their daughter Taylee went with us. Ericka and Taylee even hit the hill a couple of times. Thanks for a great time guys!!

David, Kelli, and Taylee Woolley

Taylee was freezing, but she was still happy and had a fun time.

Jill and Kelli dressed warm for the fun time sledding.

Despite the questionable face Ericka is sporting, she did enjoy going down the hill with me.

Taylee and Ericka were such good sports...they got cold, but still had fun.

Left to right: Taylee, David, Kelli, Sarah, Eric, Ericka, Jill, Cody

I like this picture...the only thing that would make it better is if Claire were in it. We had to keep her in the truck where it was cozy, warm.

2009-01-06T21:41:00.002-05:00

Ericka's birthday was a week ago...I can not even believe my baby is two years old! We didn't have a party this year. My good friend Holly surprised us and brought pizza over. I made a cake and we just hung out. We did sing "Happy Birthday" to Ericka. She liked having the company of Holly's daughter Summer. And she especially liked the cake. She did a lot better this time than she did when she turned one.

Summer and Ericka are pretty good friends, though I must say they tend to either get along really well, or they totally fight while they are together.

Here's Summer giving Ericka a big birthday hug, actually, maybe it's the other way around. Ericka is the one doing the hugging!

Ericka went to town eating the yummy cake!

What a big girl...she sure is independent lately!

She didn't seem to want to blow the candles out. We had to give her a little "help". She got pretty close to the fire, and that's when we had to just put the fire out.

The cake was not so good looking, but it sure tasted good.

The Saturday after her birthday we went sledding. We had a great time with some great friends! Ericka had a fun time, despite the fact that we didn't get out there until the sun was behind the mountains. Next time we will get out earlier in the day so we can stay longer. And if anyone knows of any good places to go sledding let me know...and if you feel like it, you can come along!