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.....

Pilsbury Prize Pack Winner!

Congratulations to #10, Ann Wager! Thanks to all who left comments. If you'd still like to try the Pilsbury pie crust, be sure to print a coupon from the link in my previous post.

Apple Pie with Pillsbury refrigerated Pie Crust

If only baking an apple pie were as easy as this
(According to Allie this was all we needed to do)

With the pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts it's pretty close.

I was really excited when I found out I was going to get to do a review for these pie crusts especially when the prize pack showed up with all of these items.

(Pillsbury provided me with the products seen above, information, and giveaway through MyBlogSpark)

I thought I might add that I haven't made a pie since my foods class in high school mainly because I could never get the hang of making the crust taste right or have it be the right consistency. So needless to say it's been awhile since I made a pie and these crusts made it so easy. I might just have to make another one.

If you too would like to receive a prize pack from Pillsbury leave me a comment telling me what your favorite type of pie is and leave a second comment for a second entry telling me your favorite way to eat an apple. I will use random.org to select the winner so be sure to leave your comment by Sunday November 7th.

You can visit Pillsbury.com/pie to download a printable coupon for $0.50 off a package of Pillsbury Pie Crusts today!

Pillsbury gave the following information for those who are newbies to pie baking I used the perfect apple pie recipe and it sure tasted good.
Pillsbury Pie Crusts are an easy base for your favorite warm apple treats. Simply unroll into a pie plate, fill with your favorite variety of sliced apples and filling, and bake! From orchard to oven, Pillsbury Pie Crusts make apple pie baking simple with delicious results.
Here are a few delicious recipes to help inspire your readers to create delicious, homemade apple pies!
Perfect Apple Pie is the model of a classic dessert - a beautiful double-crust creation with sugary cinnamon, nutmeg and a splash of lemon juice. So easy to make, this recipe is great for beginner pie bakers looking for impressive results.
Festive Apple-berry Pie is the perfect blend of sweet and tart, with a gorgeous color palette of golden apples and dark red cranberries. Use frozen cranberries to make this dish even more quick and easy!
Topsy-Turvy Apple Pie combines two classics - apple and pecan. Invert the plate to reveal a gorgeous pecan topping. This is a dessert that both apple and pecan pie fans will "flip over".
Easy Apple Pie Foldover is a great solution for keeping the kids happy; a simple mixture of apples and brown sugar folded inside a golden brown baked Pillsbury pie crust. With four servings, it´s a modestly sized apple treat that is kid-friendly to make, and eat.
Cinnamon-Apple Pie with Caramel-Pecan Sauce truly harvests all of autumn´s bounty in a clever presentation. Ready in just under an hour - each slice is topped off with a luscious blend of butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, pecans, whipping cream and vanilla for a saucy treat.
For even more delicious pie ideas throughout the year visit Pillsbury.com/pie for fun and easy recipes to satisfy every season.

Sleeping Beauty and Cake Balls for the Firemen

Ok so many of you know that Allie really wanted to be a princess again for Halloween and for a while I kept saying okay you can be a princess but you're going to use the yellow dress from last year again if that's what you want to be. That was fine for awhile until we went to Walmart and she saw a pink southern belle costume and decided that she wanted to be a pink princess not a yellow princess. So what did I do... Yes Amanda I caved. Allan and I saw this dress on sale (less than the pink costume at walmart) in Sunday ads and agreed that she could be a pink princess. We told her that if she was good and went to bed I would take her to the store in the morning to get a surprise. She was so excited to finally have her pink dress. These were the best pictures I could get because trying to take a picture of her these days is not very easy. I'm not sure though which she was more excited about trick-or-treating or the fact that I put makeup on her.

MMMM CAKE BALLS!!! I made Allan some cake balls for his birthday and took them to his work the next day one of the guys there called him over and asked him what it would take to make some cake balls for their Firefighter Halloween Party. I said I would make them if they would buy the ingredients. They tried to pay me for my time but really how can you take money from volunteer firefighters. The only problem with cakeballs is that they are really good and I really wanted to eat them myself. I did save a few since there ended up being way more than what they said they needed.

stay tuned...

I get to do a review for pilsbury refrigerated pie crusts but I have to make an apple pie with it first before I can post anything but there should be a really good giveaway package when I do so keep watching so you can enter.

My little helper

I unloaded the dishwasher and started to get ready to load it and Allie said "here mom I can do it I'm a good helper". So she "loaded" the dishwasher for me :) I think I'm pretty lucky!