Cinco de Mayo - a bit late, I know

For Cinco de Mayo this year, we invited mi familia for a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta!! Everyone brought some food to share and we enjoyed the food, friends, wearing our sombreros, and oh, we did watch Los Tres Amigos (english with spanish subtitles...next time you watch this, it is hilarious!) My dad came in, saw we had on the movie and went straight over to watch it. We did miss a few family members who couldn't make it, or left early. The only major hiccup of the night was our microwave started to short out and our rice was left uncooked, we salvaged it on the stove (I usually don't cook it on the stove because I always burn the bottom and our rice cooker would have taken to long). From then on our microwave cooked at 50%, but we have a new microwave now, problem solved. We had a blast and the kids loved watching the movie and the adults loved watching it and seeing the translations (especially My little buttercup).
Our menu included: enchiladas and black beans (thanks to my sis);
homemade salsa (thanks to my hubby);
guava, orange, passion fruit juice;
baked chicken taquitos;
cilantro lime rice;
real fruit popsicles (thanks to mom);
and a lime margarita and ice cream smoothie (thanks to costco demostrators).

Easter - and a bit of Memorial Day

On Easter Sunday (even with GC) the kids got new church clothes. They did wear them to church the week before Easter. The Easter bunny made his way to our house leaving the kids: new flipflops, a sandwich container for picnics, a few pieces of candy, cookies, and an egg with a baby chick inside (given by grandma e, the egg is placed in water and over time cracks and reveals a plastic baby chick). We watched confernence and let the kids play during the day and went to F's parents for dinner and met at my parents after to have an easter egg hunt. Since the weather did not permit it to be held outside, my youngest bro had to hide all the eggs in the house. They were everywhere!! You could stand in one spot and find 10+ easily. This was one 2 floors! The kids had a blast finding all of the eggs and stuffed animals. My mom loves doing things for the kids and I would have to say this is one of her favorites. She has got it down to saving the eggs because she has written the grandkids names on them, making sure each child has the same number of eggs. She does a fantastic job.

This year, with the kids being a little older, we tried to focus more of Easter on the real meaning...the resurrection and life of Jesus Christ. We had a fhe about it and hung pictures on the mantel about the last few days of Christ's life, in the center the picture of the resurrected Christ. I am trying hard to help the kids to understand more of the holidays and not just the gifts. We have been reading the scriptures with them (children's scriptures) and they are learning. It helps me to feel I am doing the right thing and teaching them what is right.

This was not on Easter, but just this last Sunday in sacrament meeting. lil' L was looking at the Children's New Testament at the pictures and maps found in the back. He asked his dad, "Is that where Joseph fell out of the window?" That previous week, we had finished reading the Doctrine and Covenants. Both of the kids are listening and this is one of the many examples that confirms what they are learning. I am grateful to have the gospel and teach my children about Christ and the sacrifices He has made on our behalf. We took the time on Memorial Day to visit our grandparent's grave sights with the children. This was a good experience for us to teach a little bit more about the plan of happiness. The kids kept asking, "Is this where they died?" We corrected them telling them it is where they are buried after they died, and how they are now with Heavenly Father and Jesus. We also explained how we are sad to not see them on earth right now, but we will be with them again. Each of the headstones had a picture of the SL Temple, and I thought that was neat to show the children how important the temple is. lil' L was convinced he has been inside (we did take them to a temple open house last year). I love to see the kids learn, but they are growing up too fast.

Easter Camp

For nearly 40 years, a group of families steal away the weekend of Easter to camp, ride atvs and dirt bikes, and spend time in the desert. The number of families has changed over the years, but one family you will find there most years is the Ericksen family. I have attended the Easter camp regularly (about every other year for 6 years).

This year we left home in a snowstorm/near blizzard status to head south. We camped 2 nights and had beautiful weather (no snow!)

Our crew included: our family of 4,

my father-in-law,

my brother-in-law +3 kids,

my sis & bro-in-law +4 kids,

my sis-in-law, husband, +3 kids

and their friends +4 kids

Grand total: 26 people in just our group.

For most of us, this was camping at its greatest (or worst). Tents, bring in all supplies - including port-a-potty. Two families had trailers, but we did the old fashion tent and sleeping bags.

lil'K waking up cuddled in her sleeping bag and blankets.

We were the largest group there. With the combination of teenagers, the 3 atvs from our camp were out riding constantly. Saturday morning, my niece finished up breakfast and said, "I am going to put on a helmet so I can ride the 4 wheeler." She went down put on a helmet and stood there waiting for someone to bring an atv back in. We noticed there was a line of 3-4 kids wearing helmets just waiting for a ride. Apparently, standing with a helmet on is the universal sign for "I want a ride." If the kids were riding, they were climbing the rocks, exploring or playing in the sand.

lil' L and Grandpa ready to ride.

On Friday afternoon, a group of us drove a few miles down the road and went to some Native American petroglyphs. We've seen them before, but we took the Easter camp newcomers to see them. I still think they are amazing.

The kids at the petroglyphs.

Both Thursday and Friday nights, we convened as an entire group to enjoy delicious popcorn cooked over the campfire, as well as s'mores.

Saturday morning, after breakfast and we had cleaned most of the camp up, we had the annual candy hunt. We split the kids into groups. The oldest group got to ride the atvs around to find their clues and treasure, while the younger two groups walked around familiar sights of the camp grounds. After the kids found the candy, we divided and packed to come home. What a great and successful camping trip!

This is our garden....

and this was our spring crop this year....

We spent the majority of our Saturday digging up rocks. As you can see from the tank and chairs, these are not your average small rocks. A portion of the rocks had been used as a border, but about 75 percent of these were buried in the ground, only to be dug up and removed. Did I mention these came from about 1/3 of the garden? 2/3 of the garden is great fertilized, ready-to-go soil filled with worms.

In our garden we are planting:

banana peppers

blackberries

blueberries

cantaloupe

carrots

chili peppers

cilantro

cucumber

green beans

green onions

peach tree

pear tree

peas

pumpkin

snow peas

tomatoes

zucchini

Hopefully we'll get a good crop this year. Definitely a trial run a some of them.

As for the front yard, we have grass and what is supposed to be a flower garden.

This is what it looks like now, but we will be planting here soon and will be taking out grass to make room for the shrubbery and visual appeal.

The Year of the Book

So, I have been completely wrapped up in reading books this year. I guess that is what happens with no internet (until last week) and I also just joined a bookclub with ladies from our new neighborhood. I thought I would share (and keep my own record) the books I have read thus far. I have included links to the books to learn more about it. These books are all different from one another. I love getting lost in books. My list needs more books....what books have you read??

The Senator's Wife

by Sue Miller

domestic fiction (not my favorite)

Nickel and Dimed: on (not) getting by in America

by Barbara Ehrenreich

nonfiction

Jane Austen Ruined My Life

by Beth Patillo

fiction

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

by Alan Bradley

mystery fiction

The Heretic's Daughter

by Kathleen Kent

historical fiction

the one I have just begun this morning

Eat, Pray, Love

by Elizabeth Gilbert

book on deck:

Honolulu

by Alan Brennert

domestic fiction

and waiting on the library

Committed: a skeptic makes peace with marriage

by Elizabeth Gilbert

follow up to Eat, Pray, Love

August & September....Whew!

August and September have been quite a whirlwind. At the end of July we closed on our house, therefore the greatest part of August was spent covered in paint and a wardrobe consisting of "work clothes." We repainted and carpeted the entire house. We replaced our family room light fixtures with can lights and wired for a new television. While all that was going on, we had several guys come bid to do stucco work. Thankfully, it is all done and we moved in the last weekend in August. The first morning in our new house, we were woken up by two kids with the biggest smiles on their faces. They were loving their new rooms (no more stuffing into one bedroom for them).

A huge

THANKS!!

goes out to all who helped us.

We still have some things to do to the house before I post any pictures. In the middle of August, we packed up with my family and headed to East Canyon. My sis-in-law got a cabin for everyone to stay in, which by the way, was incredible. (I'll post more later). We spent our time playing games, and most of all, on the lake. It has been quite a while since I have waterskied like this. Loved it!

Well, onto September....the week we moved in, lil' K started Kindergarten! I still can't believe it. She rides the bus to and from school, which was quite an adjustment. Here is how the first week went.

*First day to school: Fabulous.

*From school: Call from teacher saying she wouldn't get on the bus, please pick her up from school today, which I did.

*Second day to school: (after labor day weekend) Fabulous.

*From school: Get off at wrong bus stop because she and the bus driver didn't know her stop, she got off with a friend from school who gets on at the same stop, but was getting off at a different stop. Friend and her mom walk her, filled with tears, to our bus stop. Thank goodness for good people!

*Third day to school: Anxious about riding bus (b/c of yesterday's incident). Took too long to get her out of the house, miss the bus, I drive her to school.

*From school: Right bus stop, still crying.

Now, she has made more friends on the bus and really likes it. No more tears or anxiety!

She has, in fact, loved school.

For labor day weekend, we made our (nearly) annual pilgrimage to Yellowstone National Park.

This year, my sister and her brood tagged along, which was fun. We hiked a little here and there. We saw Old Faithful a few times, went to Canyon and several geyser basins. This year we went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. The have rescued grizzly bears and wolves. They have an activity in which children ages 5-12 can go into the bears enclosure (without bears) and hide food for the bears. lil' K didn't want to do it, but her older cousins did. One of our big highlights... Sunday night as we were heading to the cars from Old Faithful to head back to town, I checked on lil' K's loose tooth. It was so loose!! We went back to the car and she let me pull it out! I think it is a cool story to lose a tooth in the parking lot at Old Faithful. The tooth fairy did not visit her until we got back home.

We went to the zoo last week as a family, which was not busy when we got there, but was when we left. Our favorite was to see all of the new babies: elephant (my personal favorite), a snow leopard, three tiger cubs (sleeping, didn't get a great view), and a crocodile. We had not been for a few months and had a great time. We love the zoo!

Yesterday, lil' K had a fun run at school as a fundraiser. She was such a trooper! She ran or walked with determination the whole time (20 min!) lil' L would not do anything but sit in the stroller, so I ran a few laps, sat with him, walked another lap with lil' K. Back and forth. They had a dj playing music and keeping everyone up on the time. He mentioned that 14 laps around the track was 1 mile. I kept track of lil' K's laps, I think I counted about 15-16ish. Over a mile. Pretty good for a 5 year old. Everyone who participated got a t-shirt and after the run, they had apples donated by McDonald's and water, not to mention a raffle. lil' K got two prizes, a $5 gift card to Wendy's and a free kid's meal at Applebee's. Looks like dinner is on her! Seriously, we are so proud of how hard she worked on this fun run.

Life is great, it has been busy, but we are finally finding routine.

The Truth Be Told

The other night, as F and I were crammed into a closet, covered in white paint that was supposed to be hitting the wall, I spoke. The words, I confessed at that time, were a truth I had known for a very long time, but not spoken until this time. Those words...I don't like the Dave Matthews Band and never did care too much for them. The reply from F...I don't either. After clarifying his concurrence to my declaration, was astounding. We have a Dave Matthews Band cd, it has accompanied our family on numerous occasions, and is even a part of our itunes. How you say? I don't know. The cd was never mine, I put it on itunes, brought it along, and listened to a few songs all because I was under the impression F liked the band, afterall, he would say "Bring Dave Matthews Band." After asking him why he would say this, his reply was, "I thought you liked them." We both listened to the music thinking we were making the other happy, when inside, we both were not. Needless to say, I have deleted the band from itunes and looking for a new home for the cd, seeing as we are no longer in need of its music....anyone want it? I am just amazed how long this little truth hovered around our heads before it made its it appearance and saved us.