What we've been doing

Wow so since Easter was my last post I guess I have some catching up to do so this is what we've been doing since then.

JAHNNA'S BAPTISM

My niece, Jahnna, turned 8 and was able to be baptized. Allie was probably almost as excited as Jahnna was and even figured out that she has to wait 4 more years before she can be baptized herself.

Thank you Jahnna for setting a good example for your cousins.

It was a fun event. Most of my family from California was able to come celebrate with Jahnna so it was fun to see them. Nicki drove out with Tessa and Hudson so it was fun to see them get to play with the cousins. I couldn't believe how much Hudson has grown up. Nicki also brought us some much needed boys clothes which was a huge relief for me and she made the drive a month before she was due with their third baby. Now they have Felicity who has joined their and is very cute. Congrats guys!

CAMPING TRIP

Allie has been a deprived child thinking that going camping meant having a fire in the backyard and roasting marshmallows. We were going to go somewhere and actually go camping, but ended up having a campout in Grandma's backyard. Hey at least we set up tents and slept outside but the benefit of having the house and bathrooms right there was definitely a plus for those of us (me) who have a baby growing inside thinking bladders are supposed to be trampolines. We had BBQ, a campfire with lots of smoke, smores, a night sleeping on a deflated air mattress, and the kids had lots of fun playing outside. I'd say it was pretty close to the real thing and I would definitely recommend backyard camping as a great alternative to actually going somewhere. Someday we will have to do a "real" camping trip though to let her have the full experience.

yes those giant marshmallows are good to eat, but if you try and make a smore with them they become very messy. I had to laugh when I woke up and saw Allan and Allie sleeping. I always tell Allan how much Allie is just like him and look they even sleep with the same arm crossed over in front of them.

4th of JULY

Like last year we decided to travel down to the Wager's house to watch the hot air balloons go up and like last year they got to blow them up but do to the weather they weren't actually able to fly. It was still pretty cool they let you get right up next to them....that is until the wind picks up and starts blowing them all around. Then they tend to try and get everyone away as quick as possible. We also go to go watch the parade that had lots of floats and people from different areas of the military. Allie was so proud to tell everyone that her Uncle John was in the army and he helps keep our country safe. They had talked about the 4th of July being the birthday for our country at church so she was very aware of all the American Flags and people in the military. She is definitely "proud to be an American!"

CARNIVAL TIME

Preston has a rodeo which is apparently a very big deal, "The Famous Preston Nights Rodeo", which includes a parade not once but all 3 nights of the rodeo. The first one is your typical parade but they throw candy to all the people watching, the second night is an all horse parade with not so much candy and the third night is crazy everyone throws candy, passes out coupons, otter pops and even water bottles and chocolate milk. It's a good thing one of the Dads from our ward at church was sitting next to us helping Allie out with her candy collection or she would probably have had only 1 or 2 pieces. She kept watching all the other kids push and shove to grab as much as they could. I could say thank goodness she has manners but really I think it was just to intimidating for her. She got candy though and was happy with that.
I saw in the paper that they had a 'lil bucakroo roundup hosted by the medical center with games and activities for the kids and best of all it was FREE!!! The thing that really caught my eye was that they were doing pony rides with the Rodeo Queens and their horses. I had a dr. appt. that day and not wanting to disappoint Allie if we didn't get to do the pony ride just told her that I had a surprise for her. I thought at least she could do some of the games before we had to leave. Luckily we had time and she loved all of it. She's been dying to ride a horse again so it was fun to see her get to do that.

Allan was also given 2 free tickets to the carnival for unlimited rides. He helped a lady with her car at work by checking her tires and told her she didn't owe him anything for it and when he went back from lunch she had brought him the tickets. Turns out she's someone who helps coordinate all the activities at the fairgrounds. Allan being the trooper he is and me being 8 months pregnant went on the rides with Allie. Of course they had the little kid rides that are typically at a carnival that she enjoyed...

but of course her favorites were the Ferris Wheel (not a little Ferris wheel but a full size one) and one that I think is called the scrambler. She told Allan that it was okay she was right there with him so he didn't need to be worried. I think we have a little adrenaline junkie on our hands which makes me a little worried for when she gets older.

COUNT DOWN TO BABY

It's finally August and baby time is just around the corner. I had been measuring a little big so the dr. had me do another ultrasound at 32 weeks which confirmed that our "little guy" is not going to be so little. All his measurements said he was as big as a baby who was 35 weeks along not 32 and they had put his weight at a little over 5 lbs. already which they then told me means he was the potential of being over 9 lbs if I go the full 40 weeks (august 30th). The dr. said with his size and having had a c-section with Allie she was concerned with doing a vbac and the possibility of complications. So she said if he doesn't come by the 24th on his own then we'll take him out whether he wants to come out or not by c-section. She assured me that there are many people who have multiple c-sections without complications so if we want to have more later on that would still be possible. Meanwhile I've been going crazy with not having a "space" for the baby ready so Allan has worked really hard to turn the basement into a play room so we could have to room where all the toys were for the baby. Allie has been just as anxious to get ready for the baby. We finally went through the boxes of clothes that Jason and Nicki gave us (thank you guys so much you are awesome) and Allie had to look at each one with the "awww mom look at this one it's so cute" needless to say it took a little longer than I had wanted it to. Regardless we finally have his crib set up, clothes sorted by sizes, diapers ready and now we're playing the waiting game to see if he'll come on his own early (wishful thinking....probably) or on the 24th!

Happy Easter!

I think this year Easter= too much candy and not enough sleep but lots and lots of fun. We went to Allan's parents house for the weekend since his sisters and their families were coming up. We dyed Easter eggs on Friday night and then Saturday started with an egg hunt down at the park. We then came back to his parents house where the kids had a ton of fun running around getting dirty. We had another egg hunt at his parent's house and a very yummy dinner. Allan's Uncle Ralph (or Uncle Raf as Allie calls him) came over with more fun surprises for the kids, more candy, an Easter dress and a book. Sunday the Easter Bunny had left some surprises and thankfully the rest of the day has been a little more relaxed. We went to Church came home and have just relaxed. It was a lot of fun getting together with everyone. Allie was fascinated with her newest little cousin who is about 1 1/2 months old. I can see she's getting pretty excited about this whole new idea of having a little brother of her own. She couldn't get enough of holding him and touching him and just looking at him. It made me get a little more excited too!



I also couldn't let Easter go by without reflecting on the love I have for our Savior. I am so thankful for the atonement and the resurrection and the assurance it gives to know that someday my family will be able to live together forever. I know that he suffered and died for each one of us because he loves us so much and I am so thankful for the testimony I have of this.

Baby #2 is a ...!..

I went for my 20 week ultrasound this week. Isn't it crazy how some days it seems like pregnancies last forever and other days you just want it to slow down because you feel like you're not ready. That's where I'm at right now. I just want it to slow down. Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited to have a new addition to our family and can't wait to see and hold our new baby but I'm a little nervous because now it means we are going to need to buy new supplies. Well that is unless we want our son to wear pink and purple. That's right we're having a BOY! Boys are so different than girls. I was kind of hoping it was a girl because then she could have just worn all of Allie's baby clothes. All (I mean ALL) of Allie's clothes are either pink or purple no neutral colors there.

It was pretty funny at my appointment Allie had been so excited to go see more pictures of the baby. The man doing the ultrasound asked if we wanted to know and of course we had to since Allie has been dying to know for sure if it was a girl. She's told everyone who has asked if she wants a brother or a sister that "well daddy wants a boy, but I want a sister". So he asked us if she was going to be disappointed if it was a boy. I told him well this way at least we still have a few months to get her excited about a boy. He started the ultrasound and of course the gender is the last thing they tell you and it was torture for Allie. Each picture that came on the screen she'd ask "is it a girl?". Finally when the moment of truth came he drew arrows pointing to the boy parts and said "well mom and dad do you know what I'm looking at. Unless this falls off.." Allie again wanted to know what it was so all we said was "Daddy wins" and she got the biggest pouty face then went over to the door and just put her face against it and sat there. The guy told us she actually handled it better than other kids he's seen who have thrown a big fit.

She's starting to warm up to the idea. Today we went to walmart and told her she could pick out an outfit to help get her more excited. Well one outfit was soon going to turn into the entire boy's clothing section so hopefully it worked. We had to keep putting things back on the racks and tell her no more for now. The important thing is that the baby looks very healthy. He's either going to be a big baby or I'm a week a head of schedule based on his measurements, but the doctor won't change my due date just yet. She said we'll do another ultrasound at 32 weeks to make sure. So that's about it and like I said we're very excited but a little nervous at the same time.

Allie turns 4 and....

Allie has turned 4 and with it comes moments of great helpfulness and happiness but it has also turned up the drama level. She had been so excited for her birthday and she really wanted a horse party. With her birthday being in January and freezing weather outside with snow, it limited the number of horse related games we could play. So we played freeze dance with balloons, a "rope the horse" game (ring toss), made a craft and had a cake with horses on it. Allie had been so full of "injury" (energy) since about 4:30 in the morning because it was her birthday she was exhausted and finished her party with watching part of a movie with Colby. She had a great time and got some pretty fun presents. She even got a ton of presents in the mail from family and friends in California. She still gets excited when the box man drives past our house. She's one lucky Girl!!



As for the other news. Allie is going to be a big sister. I figured I better start telling people myself since apparently my mom has been doing her part with spreading the word :) (love you mom) I'm a few days shy of 14 weeks and can't wait for the morning sickness to be finished. Hopefully very soon. We will have to keep everyone updated with how everything goes.

Yes we are still alive!

Wow so not having internet has really thrown off this whole blogging thing and keeping everyone updated with what's going on at the Erickson's house. Since the last post we finally moved into our house, took a trip to California, had a very nice Christmas in our very own house, had Amanda and my mom come for a visit, partied hard for new years (or rather hardly partied we could barely stay awake) and the craziest thing is Allie's birthday is today and she turned 4! Who would have thought that in just 2 months so many exciting things could happen.

Shortly after moving all of our stuff from Allan's parent's house into our house Allie and I left for that wonderful car trip to California. We left Allan to continue going to work both at his job and on the house. He finished tiling our shower while we were gone and I love it :) Our car ride to california went great as always Allie was a great little traveler playing in the back seat. We got to stay at my parent's house where Allie ate up all the attention she could get. We had fun seeing and visiting with my family. We go to do lots of fun things and had a great time. Allan flew out to meet us on Thanksgiving so we had to take a trip to walk around the Oakland Temple. Allie loves to see the temple where Allan and I were married. We had Thanksgiving at Jason and Nicki's house and had a lot of fun and lots of yummy food! I am so thankful for my family and for all that they do for us. Love you Guys!!

When it was time to leave and return to Idaho, we had to stop at Cabela's it's Allie's favorite Zoo :) The roads were a little scary the whole way back before we even hit truckee I spun the car around and we hit the center divider luckily no one was hurt and our bumper is the only thing with a crack. We even had our chains on. It's a little scary facing the wrong way on the freeway seeing other cars starting to slide towards you and then realizing how bad it could have been when it's all done. Thankfully our prayers for safety were answered. Allie was oblivious to the whole thing and never even realized there was anything wrong. We ended up having to stay over night and continue the next day. Once we got home Allie was thrilled that it had snowed and she could play in it. Crazy girl gets upset when the snow melts.
Allie has also started going to a little preschool group. There's 6 kids and all the moms take turns each week doing preschool at our house. Allie loves it and wishes it could be everyday.


We got to have Christmas in our house this year. This was the first time we had our own place since the first year Allan and I were married. It was fun decorating and doing all the fun Christmas things with Allie this year. She was so excited for every part. I thought it was the sweetest thing when she wanted to take her money out of her piggy bank to buy Allan a Christmas present. She was so excited to give it to him. She was still scared of Santa. We tried a couple different times and each time it was the same thing bury her head in my shoulder and not make eye contact. Luckily Santa was still very nice and brought her a kitchen that she has been wanting since the beginning of the year.

These are some pictures when Amanda and my mom came. Amanda tried to make a snowman with Allie but either Allie or our dog Turbo would knock it over so they moved to the front yard and now we have to giant snowballs sitting on our lawn that never made it to a standing snowman. Maybe frosty is just taking a nap laying down. My mom had a "sleepover" with Allie in her bed. I'm not sure why Allie is never a wiggle worm when she sleeps with Grandma because I sure can't sleep with her very well. Allie had a blast though and keeps asking when they're coming back for another sleepover.

And like I said Allie has turned 4 now but that will have to be another post with some other crazy news :) STAY TUNED until next time.....