Christmas Day

We had a very merry Christmas. Some friends invited the kids and I over for Christmas Eve since Neil had to work. We had so much fun over there. Brendan loved their dogs (the dog loving thing is kind of wearing on me and I am considering it for the future!) Eliza loved the bows!

I got to talk with my family on a conference call. It was nice to hear from everyone at Christmas. We stayed so late at our friend's house that we weren't sure that Santa would be able to make it to our house so I told the kids to sleep in late to be sure to give him time to bring them their gifts. Brendan came into our bed at about 4am but quickly went back to sleep. At about 8 in the morning I found him like this! Shortly thereafter I woke him up because I was so excited to watch them open up their presents. I haven't been this giddy since I can remember!

Eliza had started talking about 8:30 so we woke Brendan up and he wanted to get in Eliza's bed with her. Neil went in and entertained them for a couple of minutes while I got German pancakes in the oven and got the camera. They were ready to come down the hall and open presents! Santa brought Brendan Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and Eliza a baby doll.

When all was said and done, Eliza needed a nap and Brendan wanted to get his hands on Eliza's doll. Maybe next year Santa will get Brendan's gift right. :)

Thank you to everyone who has made our Christmas 2007 so wonderful. We feel so blessed!

Life

I never finished that last post. Oh well, when I get enough time in my life maybe I will go back and fill everything in. We are enjoying the Christmas season. We put up our Christmas decorations and it was so fun to be able to decorate with Brendan's help. He tried to put all of the decorations in the same place on the tree...and everything was just set there instead of hung. So Neil and I went ahead and moved all of the ornaments that were set there and just hung them everywhere except the bottom two branches because Eliza is just about that height when she pulls herself up on the tree...or should I say the tree pulls itself onto Eliza. :) The joys of having a Christmas tree with a baby in the house. The two year old isn't much better as he pulls the ribbon off to one side of the tree. But I guess that balanced Eliza pulling all of the lights off to the other side. Do I need to explain any more?
Just a few updates on the the development of our children: Brendan's new word is "sure." It is so cute when he says it. I don't know if I think the word is cute or that he is being compliant. Eliza has 2 teeth now. Her second tooth is not in the normal place. It is on the top row, right side next to where her top front tooth hopefully comes in one day. It makes for quite the smile!
We are loving life and what it is bringing to our little family. We are so excited for the Holiday season. I love it! Hope to get our family letters out soon. We love you all.

Our Most Recent Trip

We just got back from our Mexican Riviera Cruise aboard the Golden Princess. We had a great time together with the Erickson family, but before we went on the cruise we got to go and visit Grandma and Grandpa Bedke (and aunts and uncles and cousins)in Bakersfield.

When we got there we went and visited Karl and Mary-Anne because we didn't think that we were going to be able to see them otherwise. It was fun to see Blake and Brendan playing so well together. Madison is so cute, too. I think Eliza is jealous of all of her hair...I know that I would be. It will be fun to watch them grow up together, too. Karl and Mary-Anne have such a cute family and we were glad to see the both of them, too. They had really good cookies for us to eat :)

Then we headed up to Bakersfield. We had such a fun time with the boys and Chelsea. On Wednesday we went to the ward trunk-or-treat and that was fun to see so many people. I was also glad that Brendan got to go trick-or-treating somewhere because it was going to be Halloween when we were on our cruise and there ended up not being very many festivities for children there. Neil and I even dressed up! Thanks for making all of those crayon costumes Sarah. They really came through in a fix!

On Thursday we celebrated Brendan's 2nd birthday. It was a few days late, but worth the wait. We now know that Brendan is completely spoiled...but we had a hunch even before his birthday. What was even more fun was that Mary-Anne, Blake, and Madison were able to come up and play at the birthday party. My mom is such a good grandma and loves playing with her grandkids! We love this video of her playing motorboat on the trampoline with Brendan and Blake.
(I guess I will try and post this video later...it isn't showing up right now)
We also tried to get Brendan acustomed to the water a little bit since we would be seeing a lot of it in the coming days. He loved the spa.

Then it was time for the cruise. We met the Erickson family down in Long Beach to board the Golden Princess. This boat was huge! It was so much fun...close quarters with two little ones, but fun with all of the family around us!
These pictures were while we were aboard the ship:

On land...and more from the ship:

I really just wanted to get this post out there for everyone to see the pictures. I will narrate a little more later...and put up more pictures, too from Bakersfield. Love everyone!

after bath time

I don't know why I am so fascinated with bathtime lately, but it has been fun to watch these two get clean!

I got Eliza out of the bath first the other night and put her pajamas on and then went to go get Brendan. Wrapped up in the towel, I laid him down on the floor with his head right between Eliza's legs. She thought this was pretty cool and I don't know what Brendan thought of it. All he knew was that he couldn't get unwrapped from his towel.

They are playing so well together, most of the time. My favorite time to watch them together is right after they wake up in the morning. They are so excited to see one another. Eliza just has the biggest grin on her face. It is so cute. The rest of the time, as long as they are on separate ends of the room and Eliza stays away from Brendan's cars and blanket, they do pretty well. Those seem to be the two things that he is particularly possessive about.

I think they must have been good friends in heaven before they came to our family!

It's almost time to go on another vacation and we are getting pretty excited. Hope to see everyone soon.

splashing, kicking and screaming

I was having a very tired morning and thought that a bath might settle the kids down and allow me to have a break from holding both of them on my lap.

Since when has bathtime been so relaxing?

Having Friends Over

We had such a fun time on Wednesday night. We invited our neighbors and friends over to eat Cafe Rio pork burritos with us. It rained almost all day so we set up tables inside our garage so that we could keep it scheduled this time instead of cancelling it again. We got the recipe from my aunt Melody back in January and finally got around to trying it out. The food was so good!!! Everyone liked it and we were happy about that.

When everyone was arriving Brendan was so happy! He ran up to Jim and Diane when they got here and Jim asked how he was doing. Brendan started to tell him and just kept on talking for about 2 minutes. Jim couldn't even make his way up the driveway because Brendan just kept on talking and talking. Of course no one can understand hardly anything that he says. Every once in a while you will catch someone's name...dad, mom, or Eliza. Sometimes I wonder what it is exactly that I am agreeing to when I answer him.

I'm glad that we were able to provide pretty cheap entertainment that night. Brendan and Eliza are quite the characters. They kept people occupied and entertained because the meat wasn't quite ready on time. But soon enough we got things put together and had a fun time.

We really are so blessed to live in such a good neighborhood and to have such good friends. They really do take such care of us and that is nice because we don't have a lot of family around. They really have become just like our family out here.

Leave it to me to not take any pictures that night. I wanted to, but forgot the camera inside the house. When I finally remembered, Donny and Sheri had already left for Sheri's clogging class and Rick, Jerri, Sophie, Jim, Diane, and Will had gone home, too. I guess we will just have to get together again and soon so that I can get some pictures.

Here are some of the kids though. They are growing up so FAST!

Family Home Evening

We have been trying harder to have Family Home Evening on every Monday night. It can get kind of tough when Neil has to work on a Monday, but we try our best. Sometimes we move it to a different day of the week so that he can be there. We love spending time together as a family. Our kids are the greatest on earth!

This last week we decided to go to the park with the kids. We had a great time and as usual, took our camera with us. We have learned to never leave home without it. And while we were there Brendan started to laugh so much and we just had to capture that laughter on video. It was to my great surprise that we could upload video onto our blog now. So we would like to share Brendan's laughter with everyone. Neil is doing underdogs with him, but he has to say "go" first. (Finally, he is starting to speak...just a little.)

Eliza was really good about the park, too. She loves to swing. She doesn't enjoy her swing at home as much as she loves the swings at the park though. Probably becuase I put her in her swing at home because I need to get something else done and at the park I stay around and play with her.

The mosquitos were getting pretty bad so we couldn't stay for very long but we love family night and hopefully we will keep up with our goal to have family night every week. Brendan and I read in the Children's Friend (August) that President Hinckley had family night with his family when he was a little boy. He said that his family didn't sing very well together--neither does ours--but he loved the lessons he learned by being with his family and obeying the prophet. We know that we will be blessed by having family home evening...we are already enjoying those blessings.

A Visit from Sarah

We were so happy to have Sarah at our house this last week. She sure was a breath of fresh air! It has been a long time since we have been able to visit with each other and do crazy crafty things together. I sure did have a lot of fun with her. The kids warmed up to her really quick and they were able to play and laugh with her. She watched the kids for Neil and I on Thursday night and we were able to go out on a date. It was really nice to just be with my husband and not have to worry about the kids because I knew they were in good hands...

Sarah and I quilted and scrapbooked until late at night almost every night. I am really exhausted now. We rediscovered our childhood by making "soup o' rice" and "pudding pops." We watched some home videos and had a great time.
Sarah has always been able to fall asleep anywhere and anytime. We had been home for about 10 minutes before this picture was taken.

Brendan thought that it was pretty cool that Sarah had an ipod. I think it will still be a few years before we get him one though.

We love to have visitors out here in Indiana. Please come out anytime!

Grandma, Grandpa, Traci, Troy, Chad and a Road Trip

We thoroughly enjoyed having all of the visitors last week. Our house was full of lots of people and lots of fun, too. Grandma, Traci, Troy, and Chad all got here on Sunday, August 19th and then Grandpa joined us on Wednesday of that week. Brendan really bonded with Chad and it was fun to see their excitement with each other.

Early Thursday morning we all got in our cars and headed out on a road trip. Brendan rode in Grandma and Grandpa's car the whole time. Grandma says that he was really good. First we decided to stop at Kirtland, Ohio. Here we were able to visit some of the historical sites for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a picture of Chad and Brendan just in between the saw mill and the ashery which were both owned and run by Newel K. Whitney in Kirtland. Newel K. Whitney also owned the general store. I was really impressed with the Whitneys and their story. They played a huge role in the early years of the Church in Kirtland. They left Kirtland with the Saints when persecution got to be too much. They emigrated to Utah with the Saints and remained faithful throughout their lives despite the hardships that were placed in their paths.
This is a picture of the temple that the early Saints built in Kirtland. It is owned by the Community of Christ Church right now and doesn't operate like the other temples, but oh what a building. It was built in 1833 but the Saints only used it for 3 years before they had to desert it. Persecution would not allow them to stay in Kirtland any longer and they had to move. We then got back in the car and traveled to Palmyra, New York where Joseph Smith was living in 1820 when he went to the grove of trees on his family's property to pray to know which church to join. On Friday we visited all of the Church history sites in Palmyra. We got to walk through that same grove of trees where Joseph Smith received an answer that he should not join any church but that the Lord had a work for him to do. These pictures are taken inside the grove. It is not known exactly where the vision occurred, only that it was within this grove of trees. We also got to visit the Smith farm, the frame home, the Hill Cummorah where the Book of Mormon was buried, the Grandin Press where the first edition of the Book of Mormon was printed, and the Whitmer Farm in Fayette, New York where the Church was organized in 1830. There was such a peaceful feeling at all of the sites and I loved going.

On Saturday morning, on our way home, we decided to stop at Niagra Falls. It was so windy there. I don't think that the kids enjoyed the wind at all. But the falls were a sight to behold! It is just amazing the amount of water that is dumped over the falls and the power at which it runs over the edge.
Brendan sure thought that it was pretty exciting...he fell asleep!
They both slept through the ride on Maid of the Mist where a boat takes you out to see the falls. We got soaked, but good thing we had our ponchos on. The thought just kept on coming to me that we are supposed to keep plastic away from children...but for this ride we wrapped them in it! I'm just glad they didn't suffocate when they fell asleep!
All in all, we had a great time! It was a quick trip but we enjoyed ourselves. Brendan woke up the day after everyone left and went through withdrawls! We need to move closer to family!

smiling all the while

I love that Eliza is such a happy baby. I am reminded of a song that I learned as a young girl that has a line that goes "Make the world a better place by smiling all the while." Whenever I see my kids smiling, it really makes my world a better place.

Daddy has been working a lot lately so we have been trying to go and see him more when he is gone. We appreciate him working so much so that I can stay home with the kids. We know that he works hard and helps a lot of people. Thanks Dad!Last week for Family Home Evening we went bowling. During the summer they have $.99 bowling games so we thought that we would go and check it out. Our neighbors and friends went often during the summer and we thought that we might have seen them there, but we didn't. We will have to go sometime with them though. It was Brendan's first time going bowling and he was really excited at first to be able to watch the ball go all the way down the lane and knock the pins down, but we are sorry to say that he lost interest about half-way through the first game. But we had fun. They have this ramp to help the little kids get the ball all the way down the lane. Brendan really liked pushing the ball down. We invited our friends the Personetts to go with us and they have small children, too. I think that everyone had fun...and for Grandma Bedke's sake we even struck out a few times! (it helped me that we had bumpers for Brendan) :)I'm not sure if Brendan was helping me or I was helping Brendan in this picture... Eliza even had a pretty good time at the bowling alley. She bowled a couple of times with Dad.
Back at home Brendan has been busy teaching piano lessons to Eliza. He makes sure that she practices daily almost. He is getting pretty good, too. It has helped that he can climb up on the piano bench by himself now. He gets up there quite frequently, but he usually has to clear all of his cars off first because the piano bench has become the makeshift parking garage for all of his toy cars.
Eliza is growing up so fast. I think it is because she is always so active...I think that she sees Brendan moving around so much and that has inspired her to do the same. I don't remember Brendan moving around as much as she does. Anyway, here she is showing off all of her strong muscles that she is developing. Way to strike a pose Eliza!We are so excited to have visitors at our house tomorrow. Grandma Erickson, Traci, Troy and Chad are coming and then Grandpa Erickson will join us on Wednesday.

We are excited to share our smiles with them...as I am sure that the kids will smile all the while that they are here.

Our Trip Out West

We survived the trip out west and even decided that it would be okay to get in the car and come back home. The kids actually did pretty good considering that it took us 25 hours to get out there...6 hours to go down to Blanding, UT to the Olson Family Reunion...and then 26 hours to come back home. I got tired of the car, so I can only imagine the way they felt. On the way out there we had the kids on the sides of the seat so we could climb back to be with them if they needed us. About every couple of hours they needed us so one of us would climb back there. It sure was a tight fit between two car seats, but we managed to squeeze our way out. Brendan looks really happy in this picture, huh? It was taken somewhere in the middle of Nebraska. Nebraska has to be one of the not-so-pretty parts of the country...maybe it is just that it took so long to get through it that I don't like it too much.
We made the trip in 2 days. On the first day we traveled until almost 3:00 am EST, but it was only 1:00 am local time in Paxton, NE. We made it just inside the Mountain Time Zone before stopping. If we ever drive again, Paxton was too far. We will stop in Kearny instead. The kids slept okay in the hotel room and we were on the road again at 9:00 am. We were able to pull into Riverton around 7:oo pm and that was nice because it was still light outside and the kids were able to see what we had traveled so far to see. It really was exciting to see that Brendan remembered people. We had been practicing by looking at pictures every day and when he saw people coming towards him, he pointed his finger at them (just like we do at the pictures on the computer) with a look like, "I remember you!" He sure does have a good time with all of his cousins and aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas!
Sara and Brandon got married on July 21st in the Salt Lake temple. It was such a nice day. They both looked beautiful. Sealing room B seems to be a popular one in the Erickson family because everyone has been sealed there...John and Jessica, Neil and I and now Sara and Brandon. That week before the wedding was busy! The part that I enjoyed the most was being able to go to the temple so many times. Brandon went through on Wednesday, Sara on Thursday and then they were sealed on Saturday. The feeling of the temple was amazing. I am so grateful to live on the earth when we have temples. It gave me some time to reflect and ponder on the love that our Heavenly Father has for me. I love the temple.
These boys were so handsome...don't you think so?
Grandma Erickson made this beautiful dress for Eliza. Earlier in the night she had a cute peach ribbon in her hair, but it fell out and we couldn't find it anymore. She sure did love being dressed like a princess though. Her and Uncle John became good friends that night.
After the wedding on Saturday, Jamie, Adam, Kaleb, Lindi, Ryan, and Anna came down from Rexburg on Sunday. It was so fun to see them all and to let the kids get to know each other again. On Monday we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. We watched the movie about Joseph Smith in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The funny thing is that we ran into the Kilians while we were there. They were getting ready to go down to the reunion in Blanding, too and had come early to spend some time in Salt Lake. This is such a small world. Brendan and Ryan gave each other bumps along the reflection pool.
Ryan was so cute to Eliza and let her ride in his cool stroller. He kept on coming up and saying, "Silly Beliza!" I thought that it was so cute. He is so grown up and it was fun to see him again. The boy cousins needed to take a break from the hot sun. Kaleb was so cute. I loved his chubby cheeks. On Tuesday we celebrated the 24th and Neil's, Nicole's and John's (but John wasn't able to come that night) birthdays with a family get together at the park. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Sue were able to come and see us and we were able to spend more time with Neil's extended family. We did fireworks that night and had a really good time. Neil's mom was so good to let us invite everyone over to her house even though she had had all of those people at the wedding reception just a few days earlier. I didn't really give her a lot of time to recuperate before we planned another get together. If nothing else, we helped get rid of some wedding cake!Brendan liked the fireworks!On Wednesday we wanted to get pictures taken with all of the cousins. Trey and Tye met us at JCPenneys and we tried to take pictures. There were a lot of other people trying to take pictures and they really rushed with us and we were not really impressed. But we managed to get a cute picture...I guess it isn't really tough when we all have cute kids.
After taking pictures we started for Blanding, UT. Brendan was really excited about the big swing that he saw when we got to Lynn and Lynette's house. He has a lot of fun on swings...but that wasn't all that there was to have fun with....Brendan had fun with the dirt... the rocks...
the horses... well, I don't know about this horse, the real one...the water...and cousin Ryan...
The four wheeler...
and Grandma and Grandpa...

And Eliza loved getting to meet everyone for the first time...(cousins, aunts, uncles, grandpa Bedke, and so many more people...)

Eliza with Kylie (above) and Alyssa (below)

Eliza loved lying on the floor......and she took really good naps while we were there, too. That must be why we have more pictures of Brendan than of her. :) And Brendan made his way into this picture, too.
Eliza did her showing off though by standing on Daddy's hand and really hammed it up! We had fun taking the cousin's picture...
Who do you think is the oldest one?
We sure are grateful for the legacy that Grandma and Grandpa Olson have set for us. They are good people and we are glad that Brendan and Eliza got to meet them. We love you guys!
And then we started our road trip home. This time Brendan sat in the middle. We didn't have to climb into the back seat at all on our trip home. I still think it is a long way to travel...but at least we had a car and not a covered wagon. :)

When are we going to get home?


We finally made it home...we survived...and miss everyone terribly. We are determined to someday make it so we are closer (distance wise) to our family. We love you all!