**Spring Cleaning or Baby Nesting??**

Either way, many changes...

It all started in February when MJ was home all the time. (Before the job...) I decided that I wanted to paint the main color of our house. So, after seeing what my BFF Mic had painted on some of her walls, I got the same paint. We painted the front room and hallways in the shade of October harvest. And, we changed the furniture and wall hangings up a bit. It was a refreshing change...

Then I decided that the girls needed new bedding. So, we purchased bedding that can be reversed and changed. (According to the package it can have 384 different looks...or something.) We painted their room the colors of a watermelon. :) Green on top and pink on bottom. I have accented things in their room with blue like the bedding and orange and every color in between.

I remodeled a lamp from DI (actually I started painting it orange and failed so MJ took over and painted it so amazingly great!) Then I took an old lamp shade I had and covered it with ribbons. (Inspiration for this project from my friend Rhonda!)

I loved the design of the curtains they had up with the old room, so I found matching fabric and copied the old curtains. (Design by my mom who is a creative genius!!) Sorry, the photo isn't so great. But you kind of get the idea!

After their room, I moved on to my room. With help from my friend Lisa, I decided to paint it a blue gray color and do stripes on the main wall. It was a fun project!! I convinced MJ that we also needed new bedding to complete the look and I was able to sew a lot of pillows and also a valance that is quite lovely if I do say so myself. :)

And, with the addition of a new baby and a 3 year old boy who is not the greatest sleeper, we decided to move Aidan to the middle room and give Baby Dirt (story of name to follow...) A's old room. So, he also got some new stuff. Thanks to MJ's mom Judy, we have an AMAZING bedspread that she made to match the curtains and car theme that I loved. Seriously. Isn't it great?? The curtains were too long so I had to cut those and hem them and I made the pillows on his bed to match. (I can't get enough of sewing and painting I guess!) MJ helped me make the name board to add something to his room for decoration. :) We just need a little table to go next to his bed and cover the cords. They lead to the computer that we had to store in the closet because we are just running out of bedroom space around this joint! :)

Now, on to the last untouched room in our house...Baby Dirt's...I will be working on that in the next couple of weeks and will post the final outcome. I have the bedding and am so excited for the vision of it all. I bet you can't wait either! :)

Side note: With the moving of bedrooms, the remaking of rooms, I have cleaned every closet in

our house. I still need to work on the kitchen, and when MJ has spring break, we are clearing out our crawl space. I am having a yard sale and there is a lot that is going!! Whew. I can't decide if spring is in my blood or just nesting. Either way, it's madness around here. (According to my hardworking assistant Mikey!)

The story of Baby Dirt: When my kids found out we were having another baby they didn't think it was true. We must tease a little too much around here. They were excited when they realized it was true and after seeing the ultrasound pics. :) (Great parenting huh?) Anyway, at Christmas when we were at my parent's house, my mom asked Aidan what we were going to name our new baby and he said Dirt. It stuck and that is how we refer to our baby. Sometimes to be funny we call him Joe Dirt and other times Mud. Just kidding. We just refer to everything about him as baby Dirt. If it had been a girl it would be the same way. At least boys like dirt more. :)

Here is a little mischief our baby A has been up to lately. He loves to color... :)

But he has been saying some of the funniest things: "This is gonna be GREAT!" "Thanks Mom, you're the BEST!" I will say, "Aidan, you are such a good boy." Aidan then says, "Yeah, I am." Or "I know, I am." "I love Mom, and Dad and Girls." "My favorite color is pink." "I am a girl!" Some things will come back to haunt him I hope! :) :)

The girls are busy lately with dance. It is ending in a few short weeks so we have had a few performances lately. I will post pics of their recital that is coming up soon.

Brinlee was able to celebrate her June birthday in March so we sent these treats to share with her class. They were bookworms and it was perfect cuz it was National Reading week. She loved being the star of her class for a whole week!

Cambree is loving 3rd grade and has a great teacher. I help in her class every Tuesday and it has been fun getting to know the kids in her class. She is a good student and kind to everyone which I really admire about her.

And that is the finale! Thanks for reading or at least looking at my long post. But it really has been awhile. Tomorrow we are headed to Utah for Spring Break!!

EXCITING NEWS!!!!

This past week we have had some exciting things happen in our family. Sorry no pics...just a quick post to record the happy times! The first thing is that Mike got a job teaching! He is endorsed to teach either Biology (which he really prefers) or can be a Business teacher and teach Economics/Business classes, etc. The job he has now is an Econ teacher and a computer teacher. He works about 10 miles away so it is great! He was thrown right in without a lot of guidance and it has been interesting but so good! We are so grateful for employment!!

The other exciting news is that in July we will be having a wonderful addition to our family. A new baby. On Friday the girls and I were able to go to the ultrasound together and see that we are having another baby BOY!! We are so thrilled and can hardly wait!!

My New Year's Resolution Success

...and a new tradition...

This year I made a New Year's Resolution and I am still sticking to it! You will love what it is: My resolution this year was to make my kids in charge of the dinner dishes. They each have a week and I of course supervise, but they do it every night and they don't complain!! Why I didn't start this earlier you ask? Well, I did...But it was kind of a hassle and I gave up. They are older now so it seems to be easier. Also, it has two benefits: The first being that dishes are being done by someone besides me and the second is that it becomes a great time for catching up with my girls. They sure can chat it up! Does Aidan have a part in the dish doing you might ask. Well, his new job is to help me unload the dishwasher and to sort the silverware into the drawer. He is actually quite good and very willing! (For now!) So, life here is progressing in the right direction. It only took me many years to figure out the dishes part of parenting! :)

This Valentine's we adopted a new tradition in our family. The kids each have a new pillowcase for Valentine's and starting on the 1st of February, they recieve notes and the occasional treat in the pocket on the front. It has been a great way to express love for each other and also it is so exciting to see what was left in the pocket. They check it everyday after school and so far have not been disappointed!

**Aidan's B-Day Post**

(Several Days later...)

Okay so it is like 11 days later, but who's counting right? (We celebrated his birthday on the actual day so that is what is important!)

This year for Aidan's birthday, we celebrated it with my parents and sister Em at my Grandparents. They live in Star Valley so we met there on Aidan's bday. My grandma's birthday was 3 days earlier so we celebrated her special day at the same time. It was a fun night and I am glad we went!

This is Aidan's new pose for pics. Not sure why he thinks a monster face is the way to go, but whatever. What a fun 3 year old...


Aidan loves Curious George so for his birthday he was determined that he would have a George cake. I didn't feel ambitious enough to make one so we ordered it instead and loved the results! Aidan picked the picture and was so excited that George was holding a banana!

Here is a picture with a nice smiling Aidan and my Grandma! Her last name is Erickson but my kids have always called my grandparents Eriskins.

It was a fun day for our little fella. He missed the Primary deadline by 2 weeks so he is the largest child in the nursery. He doesn't care though. He makes us laugh everyday and is spoiled rotten to the core. Mike has been home a lot lately so Aidan gets the undivided attention of his parents and struggles when the girls get home. He loves to wrestle and play. He loves watching TV and playing the computer. He is always saying something hilarious. He taught himself numbers and letters and is pretty smart and knows it! We love our Aidan and can't wait to see what the next year brings!!



In other news:

Just look at what our front yard looks like!! Makes you cringe doesn't it? Think about how long that pile is going to take to melt! I am relocating to a warm sunny place.

**A Summary of our Lives Lately**

As always I am a little behind on the ol' blog. Whatcha gonna do? So, here is a quick rundown of what we have been up to.
Here are the kids in their Christmas getup that my mom and sister got my kids. They always find the best things and we LOVE it!!

Our little library does the most amazing family nights that are always so fun. This year they were able to get Curious George to come for a visit and we couldn't miss because that monkey is Aidan's absolute most favorite thing on the planet right now.


The school did their annual Christmas program and it was wonderful as always. The girls love participating in it and they learn so much. This was Cam's last year in it.
>

We went to Utah for Christmas this year to spend with my family. On Christmas Eve we went to my aunt and uncle's house for delicious dinner and some really fun festivities. We played chimes in groups (Oh Come All Ye Faithful) we frosted sugar cookies, we read a neat Christmas story and we went to "Pond Town". (A really pretty pond and park close to where they live.)

Emily and I at the Pond with lights shaped like Christmas trees that are out in the water.
The kids hats are courtesy of my dad. He always makes them every year to give to the kids in his class for a Christmas present. They love them and so do my kid!!

The cousins! Not pictured: MJ and my cousin Justin. (They were there...Not sure why they didn't get in the pic!!)

We had a really good Christmas morning! Old Santa found his way to my parent's house and managed to leave the kids everything they wanted. It was an exciting morning.

My girls think that nightgowns are the best things ever! (So does their Grandma Lori!) So, this year, Grandma found matching nightgowns with the girls and they were thrilled.

This is a picture of my parent's grandkids. Aidan thought holding baby Crew was the best thing since sliced bread. He wanted to do it himself! He did a pretty good job of it too!
Over the vacation we were able to take the kids ice skating and sledding. They loved it! One day while we were at my parents it snowed over 2 feet and I thought we would have to stay until spring... (I think my parents prayed extra hard that we could go home!! HAHA!)




I think I am pretty much caught up. It has been a busy couple of months. I am ready for things to slow down a little. As a side note: MJ finished his student teaching the middle of December and is now on a job hunt--as always. He really enjoyed teaching jr high kids. So, that is a good thing. If any of you hear of a teaching job, let us know!!

**Our Halloween 2010**

I don't know how much more neglect my dear old blog can put up with. I hardly snap pictures anymore and then to have to sit down and put them on the blog. Well, that is almost asking too much! Who has the time?!?!
Here is our Halloween summary...You know cuz Thanksgiving is right around the corner...

On October 19, 2010 my brother Andy and his wife Kristin had their first baby. Crew Jacob. He is a darling little fella that we were excited to see. So, we planned on a trip down to see them and planned on spending Halloween weekend with my family. We did see the baby and I didn't even take one picture of my kids with him. How lame is that!?!? (I am having issues...) Anyway, CONGRATS to Andy and Kristin! We are excited for you and we really thought your baby was PERFECT!!!

The Costumes:

Brinlee with her homemade Rapunzel wig. It was a large pain. She wasn't sure about the make-up and so it wasn't my favorite costume of all time. Oh well.


Aidan borrowed this little costume from our neighbors and I was thrilled with it. Very warm and very cute. He actually won 3rd place in a costume contest. (Granted it was being judged by firemen so it may have been a biased judgement!)

Cambree was a cave-woman! We tied a dog bone in her hair so she was pretty nervous about trick or treating if there were dogs around. It POURED rain the whole time we were out and I mean POURED!! So, needless to say there were no dog threats!

Our pumpkins after the super fun carving we did for FHE!

It was a fun year carving with the kids this year. Cambree did her's all on her own and Brin did a pretty good job herself. Aidan just was happy to be there destroying and digging out guts!!

Two Birthdays and a Spud Harvest

Okay, so I am a bad blogger. I guess if I were getting paid to do it, I would be more diligent! :)

Two and a half weeks ago, we celebrated Cambree's 9th Birthday. Yes, you read that right. She is 9! This year she had very specific things in mind that she wanted to have for her birthday. She wanted the following gifts:

Sqwinkies (The latest fad in small toys...)
A sewing machine
New earphones for her MP3
...She was not disappointed.

She wanted the following done on her special day:

A crown styled in her hair
Pumpkin pancakes
Fun flower cupcakes for her class.
...It was all a wish come true! :)


Here are the pics from her big day:

Her cake:
Her cupcakes to share with her class:

Her crown hair:

Her nails after a manicure at the Paul Mitchell Hair Academy on her big day!

Ten days after Cam's birthday is MJ's birthday. This year we had no idea what to get him and he wasn't much help with that either... So, with the idea from my friend Rhonda, the kids and I made him a candy gram. They thought it was so fun and they also got a part of the present. :)
Right now the kids are in "Spud Harvest". MJ is driving truck for the Ashton's hauling potatoes from field to spud pit. We have been out for a week already and have one more to go... Last week while the kids were out of school, I was able to accomplish quite a bit with my BFF Mic. I canned chicken and potatoes and made freezer jam. It has just been non-stop fun. HA HA! But a successful week nonetheless... I wish the break wasn't quite so long, but what can you do? This next week Brin will get her cast off so we are on the big countdown and I am looking forward to a big celebration!!